Kick Out The Stone by Apostle Johnson Suleman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

John 11:38-40

Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said, "Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?"

Lazarus means "whom God helps," yet he still came from Bethany, a place whose very name carries the sense of affliction. A God-given identity and a genuinely difficult background can exist in the same life at the same time. Gentleness is not the same as weakness; excessive passivity in the face of real opposition leaves a person trapped rather than protected. Jesus deliberately delayed two days before responding to news of Lazarus's death, not out of neglect, but so that what was coming would be seen clearly as God's doing and nothing less.

What a Stone Represents

Psalm 91:12

They shall bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. A stone is anything that has become a barrier to lost momentum, a slowing-down of what should already be moving. Whatever specifically has been the barrier keeping a situation stuck deserves to be named and addressed directly, not treated as a vague, general obstacle.

What a Grave Represents

A grave devours destiny and stays silent while doing it. It does not respect position, education, beauty, or age; it simply swallows whatever is placed inside it. Scripture's pattern at the resurrection was that the stone had to be removed before anything else happened, the angel rolled it away and sat on it. For a grave to release what it is holding, the stone covering it has to be dealt with first. Walking in the light of God is what exposes and displaces whatever has been operating in secret, quiet decline; 2 Corinthians 4:6 describes the same God who commanded light to shine out of darkness now shining that light into the human heart.

Visit Your Foundation

Psalm 11:3

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Refusing to ask hard questions about where a problem actually originated is itself part of what allows that problem to continue into the next generation. A pattern that was never investigated in one generation is far more likely to repeat in the next.

The Mystery of the Head

2 Kings 4:18-20

The child, grown, went out to his father among the reapers and said, "My head, my head." He was carried to his mother and died on her knees at noon.

1. The Head Is the Seat of Authority

   Ephesians 1:22

   God put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church.

2. The Head Controls the Whole Body

   Colossians 2:19

   Holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together, grows with the increase that is from God. Whatever governs the head, finance, family direction, ministry, destiny, governs the rest of the body's condition; a sick head produces a suffering body.

3. The Head Is the Place of Vision

   Proverbs 4:25

   Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. The eyes, ears, mouth, and mind are all located in the head, which is why an attack aimed at derailing a destiny is so often aimed specifically at clarity of vision and direction rather than at any single circumstance.

An enemy is rarely concerned with where a person has already come from; the real concern is always where they are still going. Whatever specifically threatens speed, vision, or provision along that path is worth naming and confronting directly rather than absorbing passively.