Latest / #Faith4TodayPodcast / Light for Sight - #Faith4TodayPodcast, Ep 37

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Light for Sight - #Faith4TodayPodcast, Ep 37 · #Faith4TodayPodcast

• 0:00
  That again, healing comes from the Lord.
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  In Matthew 6, excuse me, in Mark 16, Jesus sends out his
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  disciples and says, go lay hands on the sick and they'll recover.
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  In Luke and in Matthew, Jesus sent out the 72 two by two, and
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  he tells them, I'm giving you authority to trample over the
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  works of the enemy, to overcome those things, to cast out demons
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  and to heal the sick. Jesus sends them out.
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  Jesus gives them authority to heal, and today I believe as
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  followers of Jesus, Jesus gives us the same authority and access
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  to his Spirit and power through the Holy Spirit and the gifts
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  that the Spirit would bring about to bring about goodness
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  and encouragement in someone's life.
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  Whatever is needed in the moment, the Holy Spirit can
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  supply a gift to help people experience the love of God and
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  move closer to union with God. podcast.
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  We've got another just great episode for you here, episode
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  37, Light for Sight on the Faith for Today podcast.
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  My name is Matthew. I'm your host and I'm really
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  glad that you are joining today. Whether you're watching on
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  YouTube, you're watching on Spotify, you're just listening
• 1:22
  in the audio version on pod audio, Apple podcast, or even on
• 1:26
  Spotify where you kind of get both versions.
• 1:29
  Listen, I'm, I'm glad you're here.
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  We really want to help you not just be inspired by the truth of
• 1:34
  God's word, but integrate those truths into your life on
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  Thursdays. So we don't want just a Sunday
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  faith man. We want to have that loyalty all
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  week long, loving Jesus and staying faithful to him.
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  And so our hope is that the Faith for Today podcast is a
• 1:50
  great resource to help you do just that.
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  So if you haven't, man, would you subscribe?
• 1:56
  Would you share these episodes with your friends on social
• 1:59
  media via text message? And if you post on social, we'd
• 2:02
  love to hear what God is speaking to you.
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  Tag me on social media all always Matthew Hunt, KS or our
• 2:11
  church faith church chaos on all the different socials.
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  Man, we'd love to hear what you are doing.
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  You can even use the hashtag faith, the number 4 today
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  podcast. And man, we'd love to just hear
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  and get a peek into how this is helpful for for you.
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  All right, let's jump into today's episode as we look at
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  the recap from John Chapter 9. This is where we were were this
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  past Sunday in John 9. It's where Jesus heals a man who
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  had been born blind, and he shows us what it means to truly
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  see. Jesus is the light of the world,
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  the one who not only opens physical eyes but restores
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  spiritual sight. Healing, whether physical,
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  spiritual always points to God's glory.
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  Not just our comfort, God's not after just our comfort.
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  In fact, he's at he will comfort us, but he doesn't promise us
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  comfort. So sometimes we wrestle with
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  this hard truth that suffering exists and not all suffering is
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  because of personal sin and not all healing looks the same.
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  But in every case, Jesus after something deeper than just
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  fixing symptoms. He wants our hearts, He wants
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  our trust. Jesus wants our worship.
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  Wholeness comes when an encounter with Jesus meets our
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  obedience. Those two things combine just
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  like the man who was healed in the story only after he went and
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  he washed following Jesus instructions.
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  Spiritual blindness runs so much deeper than I think we realize.
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  And like Anton syndrome where someone is blind but denies
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  their blindness, we can stumble through life making excuses and
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  blaming others all while refusing to see our own.
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  Our own pride, our own arrogance, our own insecurities.
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  We miss our own brokenness, pride, unbelief, greed, past
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  wounds, all can cloud out our vision and keep us from noticing
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  God's glory at work in US and around us in other people.
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  Just like the Pharisees missed God's glory at work because of
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  their own spiritual blindness, we can miss God's work in his
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  glory at work in other other people's lives.
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  Jesus came, though, to remove those scales, to give us eyes to
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  see beyond victimhood, beyond shame, beyond since power.
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  And he recreates us and reforms us.
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  He opens our eyes step by step as we walk with Him.
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  And the good news is this Jesus sees you just like you saw the
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  man blind from birth. Jesus pursues us, comes after
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  us, even when we've been pushed aside, and especially when we
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  find ourselves to be feeling discouraged when our eyes are
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  open to the right response. When our eyes are open, the
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  right response is our worship. We can't yet see clearly.
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  The right response is worship. When everything feels like it's
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  coming against you, the right response is worship.
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  Because worship is our warfare. It removes worry and it helps us
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  fix our eyes on the light of the world, letting the light of
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  Christ into our hearts, souls, and spirits.
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  It's what makes us whole. If you missed the message, I
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  would encourage you to go back and watch it or listen to it.
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  You can find it on our website, faithchurchks.org or on our
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  YouTube channel as as well. Let's get into a little bit of
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  bonus content now. The first thing I want to say is
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  that spiritual blindness is a real, a real thing.
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  In Ephesians chapter one, verse 18, 18 and 19, Paul is praying
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  and he says this. I pray that the eyes of your
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  heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of
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  his calling, what is the wealth of His glorious inheritance in
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  the Saints and verse 19 says, and what is the immeasurable
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  greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the
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  mighty work of his of his strength.
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  I don't think Paul would pray that we would have eyes of our
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  heart enlightened. In other words, that our hearts
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  or the the inner eyes our our spiritual eyesight would have
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  light coming in if Jesus wasn't the light of the world or the
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  light for sight that illuminates that to us.
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  We, we walk through some scriptures in the message about
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  in first John, where, or excuse me, in John chapter 1, where
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  John writes exclusively about Jesus being the light of the
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  world, how he came into the world that, that some people
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  love darkness more than they love the light.
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  And but this light was the light of all mankind and he came to
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  shine this light for us. And so I think it's important to
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  recognize that spiritual blindness is a very real thing.
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  We, we use the illustration of, of, of Anton syndrome, right?
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  Like this idea that people are in deep denial that their
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  eyesight is going bad, like that they're not seeing clearly.
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  And so I think many times we think we can see God and we can
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  see what God is doing or we see as God sees.
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  But I think a lot of times we miss it, right.
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  We talked about judging other people or where I mentioned in
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  the message about how like, man, we, we have a problem with
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  abuses of power And we look at the world around us and we're
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  like, man, that person is, is so awful.
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  Or the president is overreaching with his power and, and we get
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  upset about power. We get really frustrated at it,
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  but at the same time we, we're blind to the reality that we
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  love control. We love controlling outcomes.
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  We want to be persuasive and we want people to, to, to do what
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  we say. We miss the, we miss our own
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  blindness. We, we've lost sight of the
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  specks and, and logs and planks in our own eyes around these
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  things. And I think for many people, we,
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  we easily write them off and we miss the fact that there is
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  redemptive potential in every person that Jesus came, he
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  redeemed and, and wants to buy us back and, and we can be
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  accounted as righteous in him. But, but there's not a single
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  life that God cannot transform. Like God's power can transform
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  anyones heart. And I think a lot of times the
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  longer you're in church, the longer you're, you're in
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  religion and, and, and, and, and around those things, I think
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  it's really easy to start missing God at work and other
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  people because we just notice their sin, we notice their
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  weakness. We know we notice their
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  shortcomings. We get frustrated at that.
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  And, and I think we, we never need to grow tired of, of people
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  growing in the Lord and God redeeming.
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  I don't ever want to be surprised that God works in
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  someone's life because I believe that God can and will redeem
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  anyone who is repentant in him. And So what, whether that is the
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  the most heathen person in your school or on your campus that
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  you're like, there ain't no way God's going to heal or change
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  their life. He can and he does.
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  And I think we need to be careful to not be so spiritually
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  blind that we miss what God is doing in someone else's life.
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  And I think we are often blind spiritually to our own motives.
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  We're blind spiritually to our own failures and shortcomings.
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  We're forget to play on words, but we are blind to our blind
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  spots, like we don't see what we don't see in US.
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  And that's why we need the word of God.
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  The word of God is like a scripture says, it's like a
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  mirror, right? Reflecting at us to help us
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  accurately see ourselves, help us accurately see our sins, help
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  us accurately see Jesus, help us accurately see where we've
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  grown, where we've changed what God is doing, where we can
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  accurately see the blemishes in our character.
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  Like this is what God does and what is word, Word doesn't.
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  I think spiritual blindness is a real thing and we need to
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  continually ask God to open our spiritual eyes to enlighten us,
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  to allow the light in for our hearts and lives so that we're
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  not living in darkness to a degree that we get so used to
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  the darkness that we think it's the light.
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  I also think it's interesting that like like some of these
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  lights in my office and even in, in, in the, where I'm filming
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  right now, they have different dials to them or, or levels to
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  the dimness or brightness. And so like the lights behind me
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  are, are, are kind of dim at like a 3040%.
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  Well, they're not full power. I think it's possible for us to
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  have some light in, but only having it at like 3040%
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  capacity. We want to let the full light of
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  Jesus into our hearts, into every area, nook and cranny of
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  our soul, every part of our story, every part of our
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  character, every part of our habits, our rituals, our
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  rhythms. I think we need to let Jesus in
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  the light of Jesus into all of those areas and let the full
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  brightness come into our into our lives.
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  I found it interesting that in this this setting where we
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  talked about Jesus as the light of the world and opening our
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  eyes and he was revealing himself to the blind man at the
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  end of the story. Like hey, I am he.
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  I love some of the stories in Scripture, especially in the New
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  Testament around Jesus, when people's eyes are opened to
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  recognize or realize or they have revelation that Jesus is
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  the Son of God. Like those aha moments that come
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  for them. One of the one of my favorite
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  aha moments in the Scriptures is when Jesus is on the road to
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  Emmaus with two of his followers.
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  People who had followed probably not among the 12, but maybe
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  within the 70 or the 120 that followed Jesus, that the larger
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  kind of group that always kind of traveled where Jesus
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  traveled. And this is it found in in the
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  Gospel of Luke. And at the end, Jesus had just
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  been crucified and raised from the dead.
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  And these disciples were on the road to Emmaus, going back to
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  the Assumption is their hometown, perhaps, and kind of
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  going back because, I mean, Jesus isn't here anymore.
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  So like, now what are we going to do?
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  Let's go back to our way of living, go back to some things
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  that we wanted to do. I mean, we'd followed him.
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  It's been a good run. Like, I don't know all of all of
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  what they were. And so Jesus comes walking up
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  and they don't recognize him. They don't realize that it's
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  Jesus. Their eyes are working, but
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  their eyesight isn't working and they don't recognize Jesus
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  walking with them. And Jesus says, hey, what's the
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  matter? You guys seem a little down and
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  dejected. And the conversation goes, Sir,
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  are you the only one in Israel who has no idea what's just
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  happened? In other words, like, bro, even
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  hiding on the rock, did you not see the headlines in the news?
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  This Jesus guy that we loved and followed and believed he was the
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  Messiah, died, was crucified, buried.
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  It's over. Like we, we had our hopes up and
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  now we have no hope. We were, we were really excited
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  and now we're really discouraged.
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  And Jesus begins to walk them through the scriptures and talks
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  about like he didn't even remember that he said this about
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  himself and began to reveal the truth about Jesus about himself
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  to them on the road to Emmaus. And their eyes still weren't
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  they had intellectual understanding.
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  They were beginning to experience and, and see, OK,
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  Jesus said he's going to do these things and he did those
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  things. And so, well, OK, maybe he still
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  is the Messiah. Yeah.
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  And so they were, they were coming to a point, but their
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  eyes were opened when he took bread, broke it with them.
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  And in that moment, their eyes were open.
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  They realized, Oh my gosh, this is Jesus.
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  And then Jesus disappears, which was a whole nother like,
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  miraculous thing. That's pretty wild about the
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  story. But I love the fact that it was
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  in the moment that the bread was broken that their eyes realized
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  who was walking and teaching them along the road, who they
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  were in conversation with. I think something happens when
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  we experience brokenness in our lives, that our eyes are open to
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  see Jesus in a way that we've never seen him before.
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  I joked during communion saying Jesus is a tooker, Jesus takes
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  bread, but Jesus took bread. But Peter tells us that Jesus
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  also took our infirmities. Isaiah tells us that he took our
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  diseases, that that Jesus took the things that are ailing us,
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  the things that have made us broken.
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  Jesus took the things on the cross that we couldn't take and
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  carry to God ourselves. Jesus is a tooker.
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  Now that's not an original phrase for me.
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  Somebody I love and deeply admire throughout my life has
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  used that phrase on different occasions.
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  And it's, it's one of the ones that just always took has has
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  taken root in my mind And I always, I just tend to remember
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  it. But this idea that Jesus is a
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  tooker that he took the bread just like he took our sin, he
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  took our sickness and he took our disease and he took the,
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  our, the things that that that alienate us from God.
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  He took all of those things from us.
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  And one of the things that he does with bread is he takes
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  bread, he blesses it and he he breaks it.
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  And I think that there is an element that is we relate well
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  to these followers on the road to Emmaus where often our eyes
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  are unable to see what God is doing and often unable to see
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  God at work in situations that seem really glim really
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  desperate even really moments where we just feel man almost
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  alienated, failed, shame, guilt, separation.
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  We just, we feel overwhelmed that in that moment of our
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  brokenness, we get a revelation of Jesus in some of our most
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  deep suffering elements. In our grief, even I think we
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  get a glimpse of God's goodness and an element of who he is that
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  that you wouldn't see any other way.
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  That there's a perspective that comes to us that our eyes are
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  open to see a certain perspective that we wouldn't
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  have seen before if we weren't in the situation that we're in.
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  If, if our if our comfort hadn't been removed, we wouldn't look
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  to Jesus as our our comforter. If, if, if this prayer that we
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  had been praying was answered the way we wanted it to be
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  answered in the time we wanted it to be answered, we wouldn't
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  know what patience and perseverance and faithfulness
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  look like. I just think that it's in
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  moments of brokenness because of the brokenness in our world that
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  we experience that impacts us, the sin done around us that
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  impacts us, sin done to us that deeply impacts us, we wouldn't
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  get a glimpse of God's perspective.
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  I'm not saying God initiates that evil in our lives.
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  I don't believe that he's the author or the the instigator of
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  problematic evil in our lives. But I do believe that in the
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  moments where they are problematic, where we are being
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  broken, when we are being discouraged, when we are
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  failure, failing at something, when we are uncomfortable
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  because the comforts of our life are are being eradicated from
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  our midst. And and things that we were
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  relying on, we're not able to rely on anymore.
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  So now we're having to learn to rely on him instead.
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  All of these things happen in our lives, I think because we
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  have one perspective and God wants to show us a different
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  perspective. Or God can show us a different
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  perspective. Just like at this cup, you would
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  see this is a really cool cup. It's clean, it's got one no
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  markings on it. But when I turn the cup around,
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  you see, Oh no, there is a marking on it.
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  And this episode is not sponsored by Hydra Flask, but
• 18:27
  Hydra Flask. If you're watching and you want
• 18:29
  to sponsor this episode in this podcast, please feel free to
• 18:32
  reach out to us at online. We'd be happy to take your
• 18:35
  sponsorship. But in all seriousness, right
• 18:38
  here, here we are different perspectives and there are
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  elements and moments in our life seasons, situations that we can
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  find ourselves in where we feel broken.
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  And it's in our brokenness we get a glimpse of God's glory
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  that we would never see if we weren't in that moment in that
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  situation. That's one of the ways God turns
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  everything that Satan meant for evil.
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  That's how he turns it around for our good.
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  When we talk about sin and sickness and is it God's will to
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  heal or not heal? As we kind of get into this
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  realm, I think it's it's important to hear part of God's
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  desire is that we would have health.
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  Like it's in God's nature to bring healing.
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  At the same time, He wants our hearts more than He wants us
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  healed. He knows He's going to heal us
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  if He has our hearts, because if He has our hearts eternally we
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  are with Him and we're going to experience the resurrection of
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  things. And so restoration and health
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  will be ours eventually. He knows He's going to do that
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  at some point, but He wants our hearts more than He wants our
• 19:56
  healing in this moment. And when we talk about the will
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  of God, I think it's really important to recognize even
• 20:03
  though healing is a part of God's desire for our life, God
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  doesn't always get what God wants in our life.
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  I use the example of Scripture that says it.
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  God doesn't desire anyone to perish.
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  But once all to come to repentance.
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  But we know not everyone will come to repentance.
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  I think this is where some scholars and theologians will
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  talk about the difference between the perfect will of God
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  and the permissive will of God, as if there are different
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  elements or stages or not levels, but a, a variation of
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  the will of God. That sometimes the Bible talks
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  about the perfect will of God, just saying the will of God.
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  And there's this understanding that there is a permissive will
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  of God where things that God doesn't actually want to happen
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  still happens. So let me give you some example.
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  The perfect will of God, Jesus is coming back.
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  It doesn't matter what you do, what I choose.
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  There is coming a day when Jesus will return, period, full stop.
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  And when he comes back, he's going to renew all things,
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  restore all things, evict evil and Satan forever.
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  And those who have rebelled and rejected him, rebelled against
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  him and rejected him, ultimately they will face that judgement
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  like that is God's perfect will. It is not without execution.
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  In other words, it's guaranteed need to happen now.
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  But there is a God's permissive will like He wants you to choose
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  correctly, but he permissively allows us to choose what we
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  desire, what we will choose. So permissive will Jesus wants
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  you to choose correctly. He wants you to tell the truth,
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  but permissively He's going to allow you to tell a lie if you
• 21:56
  want. It's not going to help you.
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  It's going to be damaging. It's going to break down some of
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  the relationship of the person that you're lying to.
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  But Jesus, that God in His sovereignty is big enough to
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  know my perfect will is going to happen, and I'm willing to allow
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  the permissive will to exist as well.
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  Simultaneously, 2 truths, 2 hands to carry, 2 truths of
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  understanding and the tension of those things still exist.
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  I think it's important we cannot over emphasize our part in the
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  reality of our life. Like let's talk about healing.
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  You can't under emphasize the fact that you're that that
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  cancer comes, Lung cancer comes because you do dumb things to
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  your lungs. You're smoking cigarettes,
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  you're those are unhealthy. There are unhealthy things that
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  you do. You can't get upset at God that
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  your liver is failing because you've trashed your liver with
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  copious amounts of alcohol. Like that's not, we can't
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  overemphasize our part on this, nor can we underestimate it.
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  So, so it's not that like we control everything in our lives.
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  We absolutely have agency in our life.
• 23:08
  So we can't overemphasize it and we can't underestimate it.
• 23:12
  In other words, like it's not that you get to control
• 23:14
  everything that God does. That's not true because you're
• 23:17
  not God. Nor do we underestimate or
• 23:21
  undervalue the reality that that we have a lot of agency in what
• 23:26
  we experience. We have a lot of agency to
• 23:29
  experience what's happening in ourselves, within our bodies,
• 23:32
  within our lives. And so I think we we need to
• 23:35
  have an understanding of the perfect will and permissive
• 23:38
  will, not overemphasizing apart and not underestimating apart.
• 23:43
  And in other words, we don't get to blame God's perfect will for
• 23:46
  everything that we don't like in our in our life.
• 23:50
  Sometimes cars just breakdown. It's not God's perfect will for
• 23:55
  our life. And it's not even something we
• 23:56
  chose. It's just the reality of things
• 23:59
  that breakdown, right? There's some things that don't
• 24:02
  last eternally forever. Like we, we have this reality.
• 24:06
  I think it's important for us to hold that space and to hold the
• 24:11
  tension of these truths together.
• 24:15
  Another element that I wanted to bring up was the fact that God,
• 24:20
  that Jesus in the story of the man being who was born blind,
• 24:25
  who received his side at the very beginning, the disciples
• 24:27
  were looking back trying to like Retro actively figure out who's
• 24:31
  to blame. Is it his sin or was it his
• 24:34
  parents who sinned that made this guy born blind?
• 24:38
  Like, let's look back and let's find blame.
• 24:40
  And we all like to play the blame game.
• 24:42
  We all like to find people to blame for things that go wrong
• 24:46
  in the earth. Let's find someone to blame for
• 24:49
  X. Let's find someone to blame at
• 24:51
  work for this happening. And and it's not that there is
• 24:54
  an agency or responsibility people and then you take that's
• 24:58
  not the point. When Jesus looked at this man
• 25:01
  who was born blind, he told his disciples, listen, you're
• 25:04
  missing the point. You're looking back when you
• 25:06
  should be looking forward. You're looking back to figure
• 25:10
  out where God's punishment is. You ought to be looking forward,
• 25:13
  seeking his mercy, whether he sinned or didn't and sin, it
• 25:17
  doesn't matter. We still want God's mercy, God's
• 25:20
  glory to be revealed. I think that a lot of this comes
• 25:25
  back to our mentality of viewing God and approaching God.
• 25:29
  In Romans 12, chapter 1, it says in view of God's mercy, present
• 25:35
  yourself as a living sacrifice to the Lord.
• 25:39
  And that phrase this week has kind of just echoed in my soul.
• 25:42
  In view of God's mercy, as you look around in your life, as you
• 25:50
  look around in culture, are you looking for God's mercy to show
• 25:56
  up, or are you looking for blame to be given?
• 25:59
  Are you looking for God to bring punishment, or are you looking
• 26:02
  for God's mercy? Scripture says in view of God's
• 26:07
  mercy, present yourself as a living sacrifice.
• 26:11
  In other words, the lands that we put on to view a
• 26:18
  relationship, to view a situation, to view a sickness,
• 26:24
  the lens we put on to view our culture, our neighbors, our
• 26:28
  church, our the religious system, a church environment in
• 26:32
  general. The the the way in which we view
• 26:35
  the lenses we put the prescription lenses we are using
• 26:39
  often are filtered through our shame and our shortcomings, not
• 26:45
  God's mercy. We are looking through the lens
• 26:48
  of depravity rather than God's ability to deliver us from evil.
• 26:56
  We are not looking in view of God's mercy, we're looking in
• 27:01
  view of failure. And that's what they decide.
• 27:04
  They were looking back at fail for failure rather than looking
• 27:08
  forward for mercy. And we are often reluctant to
• 27:13
  resume healthy patterns of living in our own life.
• 27:17
  We are reluctant to resume practices of our faith because
• 27:21
  we see our failure more than we see God's mercy.
• 27:24
  Can I give you an illustration? I can't tell you the number of
• 27:27
  times people feel so guilty and full of shame because they
• 27:33
  haven't been engaged in spiritual practices like prayer
• 27:38
  or spiritual practice like church attendance and engaging
• 27:41
  in the family of God. And, and the longer they go
• 27:45
  without attending, the longer they go without praying, the
• 27:48
  longer they go without getting into the word, the longer they
• 27:51
  go without, you name it, the more reluctant we are to restart
• 27:56
  it. Why?
• 27:57
  Because we're viewing that in view of our we're inability.
• 28:03
  We're viewing that in in light of our own shortcoming.
• 28:08
  We're viewing that in line of our own shame instead of viewing
• 28:14
  it in light of God's mercy. I really want you to know, like
• 28:21
  if you're listening to this or you have friends who haven't
• 28:24
  been attending church or haven't opened the Bible and they're way
• 28:27
  behind on the Bible recap or don't keep more shame on them
• 28:32
  and let them know. Listen, you're viewing your
• 28:35
  reluctance to start attending again, your reluctance to send a
• 28:39
  text message, your reluctance to get it open the Word today
• 28:42
  instead of yes, even though you didn't do it yesterday.
• 28:44
  Your reluctance to do that is because you're viewing it in
• 28:48
  light of your shame and not in light of God's mercy.
• 28:52
  God's mercy is available. It's new every morning.
• 28:55
  The reason we don't confess our sin is we're viewing it based on
• 28:59
  our shame more than we're viewing it based on the power of
• 29:03
  God to forgive. So what's the lens you're
• 29:06
  looking at? Stop looking back.
• 29:09
  Start looking forward with God's mercy.
• 29:13
  Don't look back in shame to find blame, but look forward in view
• 29:17
  of God's mercy. Are there things that you might
• 29:19
  need to take responsibility for? Probably.
• 29:21
  So acknowledge those. Own those.
• 29:23
  Be like you. Don't be like, yeah, we've just
• 29:25
  been busy. And so we haven't been to church
• 29:27
  or haven't opened the Bible. No, no, no.
• 29:28
  I've been lazy. I haven't really wanted to go.
• 29:31
  One week turned into three weeks turned into a month.
• 29:34
  Like it just hasn't been a priority in my life.
• 29:36
  Own it. Live in the light.
• 29:38
  Confess it. Be honest.
• 29:39
  Quit living. There's no shame in that because
• 29:43
  that's where mercy shows up. That's great.
• 29:46
  Be honest. I would much rather people just
• 29:48
  say, hey pastor, I haven't been to church because I don't
• 29:50
  prioritize church. I get that.
• 29:52
  Thanks for the honesty. I would say, do you want to see
• 29:55
  some change in your life? Do something different, maybe
• 29:57
  prioritize it. And when you do watch God show
• 29:59
  up, like look at it in view of God's mercy.
• 30:02
  There's no shame, there's no hiding, there's no beguilement.
• 30:05
  There's no, there's no living in our shortcomings.
• 30:08
  That's just how the enemy keeps us separated from God, rather
• 30:12
  than coming in to the throne of grace to find mercy or grace and
• 30:17
  help when we need it. And the moment you need grace or
• 30:20
  you need mercy is when you're failing or struggling or falling
• 30:23
  behind, or you feel like you get a shortcoming.
• 30:26
  In view of God's mercy today, present yourself as a living
• 30:31
  sacrifice to Him. I I think it's so important that
• 30:36
  we pay attention to what we are viewing.
• 30:39
  Are we viewing shame or are we viewing God's mercy?
• 30:43
  Is the lens that we're is a prescription of how we're seeing
• 30:47
  people, how we're seeing circumstance, how we're seeing
• 30:50
  ourselves? Is it is it prescription of
• 30:53
  shame or is it a prescription of God's mercy?
• 30:57
  Are we looking back or are we looking forward?
• 30:59
  I think we need to view in God's mercy.
• 31:03
  There are a few components to this healing that I thought were
• 31:06
  interesting. Things like dirt, elements like
• 31:10
  spit and the command to go and wash.
• 31:13
  I found these things really, really interesting.
• 31:16
  In fact, I kind of noted them and paid, made a couple notes
• 31:19
  and then I went and there's a book that I've been reading that
• 31:24
  just released. I've quoted it a few times over
• 31:27
  the last few weeks and and the author does just a brilliant job
• 31:31
  of helping us to see some things in the Scripture, some parallels
• 31:37
  between New Testament and Old Testament, some some deeper
• 31:41
  hidden things in the illustrative purposes of these
• 31:46
  miracles that Jesus is doing. And I love the fact that number
• 31:50
  one, Jesus used dirt to bring physical healing.
• 31:54
  Why? Because the one who made us from
• 31:57
  dirt can recreate us using the same substance.
• 32:02
  I think it's good that it represented dirt.
• 32:04
  Why? Scripture says this was the 6th
• 32:07
  sign that Jesus did. Now it's the 6th sign that John
• 32:11
  lists. I don't know that it's actually
• 32:13
  only the 6th miracle that Jesus did, but in John's writing, he's
• 32:17
  illustrating this one as the 6th one that Jesus did.
• 32:23
  I think the point of John highlighting that is 6 in Hebrew
• 32:28
  literature is a number for humanity, humanity, brokenness,
• 32:33
  sinful humanity. Which is why personal opinion in
• 32:39
  Revelation when the Bible talks about the mark of the beast is
• 32:41
  666. It's the trifecta of humanism.
• 32:46
  It's representative that we are marked by a humanistic way of
• 32:50
  living, that our trust is in a human system rather than in the
• 32:54
  Holy Spirit marking us and our trust being in Him.
• 32:59
  And so here we have the 6th, 6th, the 6th sign being
• 33:03
  humanity, brokenness, sinful humanity must be cleansed and
• 33:08
  redeemed like that's what we know in scripture.
• 33:10
  And so Jesus goes to the dirt in the 6th miracle that John list
• 33:17
  goes to the dirt where humanity was formed.
• 33:21
  To dust we were taken and to dust we will return.
• 33:26
  And it's important to realize that we were crafted out of the
• 33:31
  dirt to be image bearers of Jesus, to to to be bare, to bear
• 33:38
  in the light of Christ, to have the reflection of Christ.
• 33:42
  That there are things in our life that are broken or don't
• 33:47
  look or reflect like Christ. And we need those healed so that
• 33:55
  others can see Jesus the Father, the Spirit in and through US.
• 34:03
  I found the dirt really interesting.
• 34:05
  I found that that Jesus you spit because spit forms out of your
• 34:10
  mouth. Scripture says in Genesis that
• 34:12
  from the mouth of God, he breathed in man who he'd formed
• 34:16
  out of the dust, the breath of life.
• 34:18
  And then man became a living being.
• 34:21
  The spit, the breath of God, is known throughout Scripture as
• 34:25
  the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that we receive
• 34:28
  fills our mouth, fills our hearts, fills our beings, fills
• 34:32
  our souls, and he animates us in a way to live and move and find
• 34:36
  our very being in union with God.
• 34:40
  And so here he is taking the dirt, using the spit again to
• 34:46
  fill and bring about something powerful.
• 34:49
  Now I mentioned a minute ago that we were made in the image
• 34:53
  of God, that we are imagers of God.
• 34:55
  Now a few years ago I found it really interesting and kind of
• 34:59
  went on a tangent and study on some things to discover that the
• 35:03
  word image and the word idol are are the same Hebrew word in the
• 35:09
  Old Testament. So when God talks about images
• 35:12
  and talks about idols, it's the same Hebrew word and context
• 35:17
  then really, really matters. Why is that important?
• 35:21
  Well, because idols there, there was this ritual that was used in
• 35:26
  the ancient period of time, especially in Pagan religions, a
• 35:31
  ritual that was used to turn an image into a living statue or a
• 35:36
  living idol, at least in the eyes of the ancient nations
• 35:38
  surrounding Israel. This is a direct quote out of
• 35:43
  God is on Your Side by Joshua Ryan Butler.
• 35:45
  This is the book that I've been reading that I found really
• 35:47
  fascinating, really helpful. It literally released two weeks
• 35:52
  after we started our collection in John and the whole book
• 35:55
  journeys through the Gospel of John.
• 35:57
  It was such a cool timing and I've been loving reading this
• 36:00
  book. So if you're a reader or enjoy
• 36:03
  books, God is on your side by Joshua Ryan Butler.
• 36:06
  Fantastic. He he says this about the
• 36:08
  ceremony, though he says as they would wash the image.
• 36:12
  Then one scholar observes, they believe that this right quote,
• 36:16
  UN quote activated the images senses or the idle senses and
• 36:20
  caused the human senses like smell, taste, seeing and hearing
• 36:24
  to become enlivened so that the image or idol became both human
• 36:29
  like and a representation of the divine, the false God that they
• 36:34
  were worshipping. Other words there was this this
• 36:37
  practice this ritual where they would take a a physical idol
• 36:42
  that they thought was representative or they wanted it
• 36:45
  to be an imager of a false God. And they would take this image
• 36:50
  and they would try to turn it into a living statue by kind of
• 36:55
  doing a cleansing ceremony. That often had to do with
• 36:59
  putting sacrifices or things up on the on the mouth kind of like
• 37:03
  a they would take fire and put it in their mouth and that that
• 37:06
  mouth would then 'cause it to be purified and enlivened like
• 37:10
  that. This was the ritual that they
• 37:12
  would use in ancient times and ancient ceremonies.
• 37:17
  Now I find that interesting because just because think about
• 37:21
  the parallels of and this is again the backdrop that God is
• 37:25
  writing that the Old Testament is being constructed on.
• 37:28
  So when he's talking about you were made in the image of God,
• 37:31
  shaped and crafted to look and reflect him, but you need the
• 37:34
  very breath of the Spirit to fill your nostrils, to fill your
• 37:37
  mouth, to fill you with good things so that then you are
• 37:40
  becoming animated to represent the life of God.
• 37:43
  What is the Holy Spirit doing the day upon the cost He comes
• 37:45
  and he fills us so that we as imagers of God become
• 37:48
  representatives of God living and moving and finding our
• 37:51
  being. It's one of the reasons God said
• 37:53
  you don't have any other idols. You are the representation of
• 37:58
  me. You don't need other
• 38:00
  representation of me, you just need me.
• 38:03
  And I think this is a powerful thing that.
• 38:04
  So here's Jesus kind of throwing back, kind of using some
• 38:09
  elements of the dust in the spit to kind of help.
• 38:13
  And everyone who was familiar with the ancient times in
• 38:16
  Jesus's day would have been alerted to kind of what Jesus
• 38:19
  symbolically was doing in a more redemptive, holy way, kind of
• 38:25
  kind of as a wink, wink, if you will.
• 38:28
  And then the third thing that I found was really interesting was
• 38:30
  this washing. Jesus told him to go and wash,
• 38:33
  wash in a pool of Siloam, which means sent.
• 38:37
  Why is that important? Because Jesus was sent to open
• 38:42
  the blind eyes. And just as Jesus was sent into
• 38:46
  the world, he sends us as his disciples out into the world to
• 38:51
  be ambassadors for him. In fact, we are sent as his
• 38:55
  disciples after we've been washed and marked by water
• 39:00
  baptism. When we are washed in the pool
• 39:03
  of the water of Christ, when we are baptized into Him, baptized
• 39:07
  into Christ, he sends us now out as clean representatives, as
• 39:12
  ambassadors of Him. Just as Jesus was sent.
• 39:16
  We are sent, and we get to behold his glory and his
• 39:20
  goodness. Washing in the pool for the man
• 39:24
  was an act of obedience. Entering the waters of baptism
• 39:29
  to be washed in repentance, hear me, is the first act of
• 39:35
  obedience when we have had our eyes open to Jesus as Lord.
• 39:40
  When we have surrendered to Jesus as Lord, our first
• 39:44
  physical act of obedience is to get into the waters of baptism
• 39:50
  for remission and removal and repentance of our sin, to be
• 39:55
  cleansed. And we can then live on mission
• 39:59
  sent, filled with the Spirit as ambassadors of God and watching
• 40:04
  that occur. And I believe that a big, big
• 40:06
  mark in our lives in water baptism is that it begins a
• 40:10
  healing process of full restoration of God in our souls
• 40:15
  and our spirits. It's part of what God does.
• 40:17
  This man was healed after he washed.
• 40:20
  And I think for us, after we have been washed, there is a
• 40:23
  sanctification process. There is a.
• 40:26
  Healing process. There is a a formation process
• 40:29
  that happens in our lives that brings about the wholeness of
• 40:33
  God. He doesn't just leave us the
• 40:35
  same. He changes and transforms us
• 40:37
  into His image as we go with Him, as we walk with Him, as we
• 40:43
  walk in obedience ongoingly to Him, as our faith is an ongoing
• 40:49
  embodied allegiance to Jesus. We are healed and made.
• 40:52
  We are healed and made whole. I also love in the scripture
• 40:57
  that Jesus saw the man in verse one it says as he was passing by
• 41:02
  Jesus saw a man born blind from birth.
• 41:05
  At the end of the passage it says that Jesus heard that they
• 41:08
  had thrown the man out and when he found when Jesus found the
• 41:12
  man he asked him, do you believe in the Son of man?
• 41:15
  I love that that Jesus was passing by and saw him and then
• 41:21
  went and chased him down and found him later.
• 41:24
  This is similar language that I think Jesus and and or John at
• 41:29
  least, is using intentionally to link us back to the time when
• 41:35
  God told Moses, I'm going to pass by you with my with my
• 41:40
  goodness. I think this is the response
• 41:43
  that God gave to Job in the Old Testament, when God gave Job his
• 41:48
  presence as a response to the questions of his soul.
• 41:53
  Here the disciples were questioning, why is this man
• 41:56
  blind? And Jesus says, watch the glory
• 41:59
  and the goodness of God show up in this man's life as a response
• 42:03
  to the hurting, to the brokenness, to the moment that
• 42:07
  he's feeling. See.
• 42:07
  Because when we find ourselves in places of suffering, in
• 42:11
  places of grief, in discomfort, where we need healing and
• 42:14
  wholeness because of something in our life, God's first and
• 42:20
  greatest response is not necessarily to remove the
• 42:23
  affliction, to not remove the suffering, but to be present
• 42:27
  with us in the fire. To be present with us in the
• 42:30
  moment, To not just skip over us, but to pass by with His
• 42:37
  goodness and be present with us. Jesus does see us.
• 42:40
  Jesus does pursue us. Jesus is close and is present
• 42:45
  with us in our pain, in our suffering, in our ailments and
• 42:48
  our frailty. He is closer than close.
• 42:52
  And I love that Jesus goes and finds him a second time.
• 42:55
  That that Jesus doesn't stop pursuing us.
• 42:57
  Just because we get saved, just because we experience surrender
• 43:02
  to him, doesn't mean Jesus leaves us and abandons us.
• 43:05
  No, no, He continues to open our eyes.
• 43:07
  He continues to pursue us. He continues to show us His
• 43:10
  goodness. He continues to bless us with
• 43:12
  his presence, especially, especially when we counter him
• 43:18
  and we respond in in worship. Jesus is after our wholeness and
• 43:26
  sometimes that means He's going to bring healing to our physical
• 43:29
  bodies. Sometimes that means He's going
• 43:32
  to adjust our thinking so that we aren't looking in shame, but
• 43:36
  rather in view of His mercy. We start to live we, we, we, we
• 43:40
  live into his mercy even though we feel broken.
• 43:42
  We leave into his mercy instead of living with our shame like
• 43:47
  these are things that he does. Healing is something that Jesus
• 43:50
  does, spirit, soul and body. Healing is a spirit, soul and
• 43:54
  body reality. In fact, one of the dominant
• 43:57
  words used in the New Testament in the Greek that is translated
• 44:01
  as healed or healing is a a a Greek word that means to make
• 44:07
  whole the wholeness of God. It's like more of a Shalom
• 44:10
  element of God. First, Peter 224 says by his
• 44:14
  stripes we were healed by the stripes of Jesus.
• 44:17
  He makes us whole that spirit, soul and body reality.
• 44:21
  Third, John one and two says, beloved, I wish above all things
• 44:24
  that you would prosper and be in health as your soul prospers
• 44:28
  that were health and prosper are linked to bring about an
• 44:32
  understanding of complete wholeness.
• 44:35
  Healing is God making us whole Spirit, God making us whole in
• 44:42
  our soul, God making us whole even in our physical body.
• 44:46
  Healing is what God is doing and what God is needing to do for
• 44:51
  His glory. Sometimes that means your foot
• 44:55
  stays in pain but your heart becomes happy.
• 44:58
  Sometimes that means your heart is so happy and fixed on Him
• 45:04
  that He releases healing into your foot.
• 45:06
  It it, it's whatever is needed in the moment for God's glory to
• 45:10
  be seen. That's what he does.
• 45:13
  For Job, it was in the middle of his suffering.
• 45:16
  God responded with His presence and after Job had this change of
• 45:20
  heart and realized that God was closer to close and he repented
• 45:23
  and was like, I don't know what I've been talking about.
• 45:25
  God, I've been blaming you for stuff that I shouldn't be
• 45:27
  blaming you for. I repent.
• 45:29
  You are God. I am not God.
• 45:31
  God restores everything that he had lost after that, like God
• 45:36
  does whatever is necessary to bring God glory.
• 45:41
  That's not vindictive, that's not evil, it's not malicious,
• 45:44
  That's not his character, it's his goodness at play in US.
• 45:49
  Sometimes we feel like we're just spinning round and round
• 45:51
  and round and round and round and round, but God is going to
• 45:53
  settle us and we might end up looking and feeling dizzy, but
• 45:57
  it's going to help us to see something we've never seen
• 46:00
  before, to gain a perspective on Him that we've never seen
• 46:03
  before. Healing, I said in the message,
• 46:05
  is not a recipe nor a formula where we get to control or have
• 46:11
  guaranteed outcomes. The only guaranteed outcome we
• 46:15
  have is that God is good and His wholeness will come to us and in
• 46:20
  the end of all things we will be restored and fully healed in
• 46:24
  every in every way and while we perform.
• 46:28
  Or we would prefer formulas with guaranteed outcomes over
• 46:32
  faithful perseverance regardless of circumstance.
• 46:36
  God is after faithful perseverance regardless of
• 46:38
  circumstance. First, and I think we need to be
• 46:41
  honest that we are addicted to control.
• 46:44
  We are, but we are asked not to control, but rather Scripture
• 46:49
  commands us to cultivate a loyalty to Jesus in all things.
• 46:54
  And God will always remove things that are in our way of
• 46:59
  being clothed, that His love. Whatever is in the way of us
• 47:03
  being clothed and experiencing His love, He's willing to
• 47:06
  remove. And sometimes that means he
• 47:07
  removes good things, and sometimes that removes means he
• 47:11
  removes ailments and suffering. Sometimes that means he removes
• 47:15
  relationships. God will remove anything from
• 47:19
  our life that is in the way of us being clothed in his love.
• 47:24
  So if your pride is in the way, you can bet he's going to try
• 47:28
  and move that. If your love for money and
• 47:31
  comfort of materialism is in the way, you can bet He wants to
• 47:37
  remove any obstacle from you experiencing His love, not you
• 47:41
  loving him. Although that's part of it.
• 47:44
  Many times we can't experience His love because we are so
• 47:48
  consumed with the things of our world, with our own comforts,
• 47:51
  with our own preferences, with our own lives.
• 47:54
  And in those moments when things are being removed, just know
• 47:58
  that God wants to take that and move.
• 48:01
  And I do believe the the enemy comes in to steal, kill and
• 48:03
  destroy. We're going to talk about that
• 48:04
  next week. And he comes in like a thief.
• 48:07
  He comes in to wreck and wreak havoc in our lives.
• 48:10
  And in those moments, we have an opportunity to experience the
• 48:12
  goodness of God like never before.
• 48:14
  God doesn't 'cause it, but God will absolutely respond in the
• 48:18
  middle of it. And I love that about God.
• 48:22
  Last thing I want to say is that again, healing comes from the
• 48:27
  Lord in Matthew 6. Excuse me, In Mark 16, Jesus
• 48:32
  sends out his disciples and says, go lay hands on the sick
• 48:36
  and they'll recover. In Luke and in Matthew, Jesus
• 48:39
  sent out the 72 two by two, and he tells them, I'm giving you
• 48:43
  authority to trample over the works of the enemy, to overcome
• 48:46
  those things, to cast out demons and to heal the sick.
• 48:50
  Jesus sends them out. Jesus gives them authority to
• 48:54
  heal and today I believe as followers of Jesus, Jesus gives
• 49:00
  us the same authority and access to his spirit and power through
• 49:04
  the Holy Spirit and the gifts that the Spirit would bring
• 49:07
  about to bring about goodness and encouragement in someone's
• 49:10
  life. Whatever is needed in the
• 49:11
  moment, the Holy Spirit can supply a gift to help people
• 49:16
  experience the love of God and move closer to union with God.
• 49:22
  I love David Campbell. He's a a teacher, a Bible
• 49:26
  teacher, and an author. And he says this as it relates
• 49:31
  to healing. And this is where we'll wrap up
• 49:34
  our kind of bonus content. This is what David Campbell,
• 49:39
  author and Bible teacher says. He says from the beginning to
• 49:42
  the end, the Bible teaches that God is both able and willing to
• 49:46
  work supernaturally in the lives of His people.
• 49:49
  Miraculous or supernatural healing is a legitimate part of
• 49:54
  God's activity. This does not exclude proper
• 49:57
  consultation with doctors, nor does it overlook our
• 50:01
  responsibility to treat our bodies as temples of the Holy
• 50:04
  Spirit and thus keep healthy in the thus keeping ourselves
• 50:09
  healthy in the process. Nevertheless, there are times
• 50:13
  when we must and should call out to the Lord for help no doctor
• 50:19
  can give. Healing is a significant part of
• 50:23
  our inheritance as Christians. It has often been misunderstood.
• 50:27
  It has often been discarded. Where the Church has lost touch
• 50:31
  with the desire for God to even heal.
• 50:33
  It has been abused by unscrupulous individuals praying
• 50:37
  upon the sick for financial or ministry gain.
• 50:40
  It is hard to uphold in a Western society where on the one
• 50:43
  hand we have an abundance of medical help and on the other
• 50:47
  hand our belief system, even in the church, has become heavily
• 50:51
  influenced by the humanistic rationalism of our age, which
• 50:55
  denies the reality of the supernatural.
• 50:58
  Yet healing is important to God. It was very important to Jesus,
• 51:04
  who spent a good deal of his time to engage in it.
• 51:07
  It should be important to us. It is all the more vital,
• 51:11
  therefore, for us to establish an understanding of healing
• 51:15
  which is completely scriptural and upon which we can have
• 51:19
  confidence and begin to move out in faith toward wholeness.
• 51:26
  I love that, and I think it summarizes so much of what we
• 51:30
  need to understand about healing and fixes our framework in a
• 51:36
  really healthy way around knowing that God can heal and
• 51:40
  it's still part of His nature to heal you and heal me.
• 51:44
  All right, let's get to a few questions and response today.
• 51:50
  Here's the first one. Why doesn't healing occur?
• 51:55
  Well, let's just start with an easy question, shall we?
• 51:58
  Why doesn't healing occur? First, let me say I, I said in
• 52:03
  the message, we often ask, Is it God's will to heal?
• 52:06
  And a lot of times we find ourselves wrestling with that.
• 52:09
  And what we really are asking is, is it God's will to always
• 52:12
  heal right away or in every scenario or in the way that we
• 52:15
  want him to or there's, it's a loaded question with a lot of
• 52:19
  kind of layers to it. And so I, I don't often find it
• 52:22
  a helpful thing. In fact, my response was, is it
• 52:24
  God's will to heal? Well, the better response is,
• 52:26
  it's God's will for your heart to be His.
• 52:29
  It's God's will for his glory to be seen.
• 52:32
  It's God's will for you to encounter his love.
• 52:35
  How we encounter His love, how our hearts are turned in
• 52:39
  affection to Him, How God gets the glory.
• 52:42
  That's His domain, not ours. And while I do believe healing
• 52:47
  can and does reveal God's glory, does express His love and is
• 52:53
  part of His nature and character, and as we heard from
• 52:57
  David Campbell, reminding us that it's part of our
• 53:00
  inheritance in the New Covenant that we would find wholeness and
• 53:04
  healing in our lives. All of that is very, very true.
• 53:09
  And yet there are times people don't experience a physical
• 53:14
  healing or full recovery from ailments and issues and
• 53:17
  diseases. And so the question we ask is
• 53:20
  why. And again, I I, I don't
• 53:23
  necessarily believe why is a good question.
• 53:25
  I think what we really want is God to be close to us rather
• 53:30
  than all of our why questions answered.
• 53:33
  And I'm not even sure in heaven we're going to get an answer to
• 53:35
  why we might we could, but we're not owed that response by God.
• 53:41
  However, in my pastoral experience and in my scriptural
• 53:48
  formed perspective, why don't people experience healing?
• 53:53
  I think there are a variety of potential reasons why healing
• 53:58
  may not manifest in someones life.
• 54:01
  This is not an exhaustive list. This is not a list that I'm
• 54:04
  sharing with you to like point fingers, blame, and make someone
• 54:08
  feel really bad about the fact that they haven't experienced
• 54:12
  healing or to like somehow be a trump card in an argument.
• 54:15
  Please don't take these words and weaponize them against
• 54:18
  someone else. I'm just trying to give you a
• 54:20
  pastoral perspective and a scripturally formed opinion
• 54:26
  around this idea, trying to help us grapple with sickness and
• 54:31
  illness and suffering and what God has said and what God wants
• 54:35
  us to do and why God wants us to pray the way He wants us to
• 54:39
  pray. So let me give you some some
• 54:40
  thoughts. Number one, God wants to show
• 54:43
  His glory in other ways. So if healing hasn't manifested,
• 54:48
  it's because God wants to show his glory in other ways.
• 54:53
  I think natural laws bring natural consequences even when
• 54:57
  we repent. So you might be praying for God
• 55:03
  to heal your broken arm, but you were the one who jumped off and
• 55:09
  out of the tree. Natural consequences from
• 55:12
  natural laws. We walk those things out
• 55:15
  oftentimes even though we're like Lord.
• 55:17
  I know in my heart I knew that was the wrong decision, but I
• 55:19
  still made the decision anyways. You know, help me to follow you
• 55:23
  better next time, right? And I'm using a trivial example
• 55:26
  because I'm, I'm not trying to keep guilt or shame on anyone,
• 55:30
  but that's a natural, natural consequence.
• 55:33
  I think part of the reason sometimes healing doesn't occur
• 55:37
  is because we are still in a fallen and broken world.
• 55:40
  I think sometimes you don't experience healing because we
• 55:43
  are living with unbelief, or we have a stronghold, a mental
• 55:50
  stronghold formed by a lie that we have made a covenant or we've
• 55:55
  made an agreement with a lie. And until we break that lie,
• 55:59
  that stronghold is broken. And we choose to walk in belief
• 56:03
  in what is true by God rather than what our opinion is.
• 56:08
  Well, then I think sometimes we hinder our ability to receive
• 56:11
  from God because everything in the Kingdom of God operates
• 56:14
  through trust, through faith, through belief in Him and
• 56:18
  unbelief is the opposite of those things.
• 56:22
  Another reason I think can be demonic activity that hasn't
• 56:25
  been addressed. Now you're praying for symptoms,
• 56:28
  but the root behind the system is a is a spiritual thing.
• 56:32
  And if you're not dealing and, and casting out the enemy,
• 56:37
  resisting him, taking authority over Satan and his hench men,
• 56:41
  well, until you address that route, it's still going to
• 56:45
  produce those that, that that result.
• 56:49
  I think sometimes our bodies aren't healed.
• 56:53
  We, we keep having migraines because there's a trauma or
• 56:57
  something unhealthy that hasn't been addressed.
• 57:01
  And until we deal with the trauma, until we deal with the
• 57:04
  anguish, until we acknowledge our grief, it shows up
• 57:09
  physically in our bodies in ailments and sickness and broken
• 57:13
  down immune systems. I think that's a natural
• 57:15
  response that our body has when we haven't dealt with those
• 57:18
  things. So I think when we deal with
• 57:20
  those traumas, when we deal with the grief or the pain something
• 57:24
  internally, I think then then there's a positive echo effect
• 57:29
  of our bodies being being healed.
• 57:33
  We have to deal with, we can't just deal with symptoms.
• 57:37
  We need to deal with root causes of things.
• 57:39
  And sometimes that's demonic, sometimes that's trauma, some
• 57:42
  some wounds that haven't been healed, sometimes that's
• 57:45
  unconfessed sins, sometimes that's we have to deal with the
• 57:49
  root. John Wimber said it like this.
• 57:51
  It's more important to know what type of person needs healing
• 57:55
  than to know what kind of healing is required.
• 57:58
  In other words, we're praying for people, not for issues.
• 58:02
  And so as we pray for people, we need to know what's going on in
• 58:06
  that person's life so that we can help them encounter the love
• 58:10
  of God with wisdom and with our targeted prayers.
• 58:14
  Another reason I think sometimes healing doesn't manifest is
• 58:18
  because we ask with wrong motives is when we pray, we're
• 58:22
  praying again, we're praying for people, not conditions, because
• 58:26
  we have compassion on people. So if you're praying for people
• 58:29
  because you, you want to have like another notch in your
• 58:33
  healing belt rather than you actually just love people,
• 58:37
  you're praying with the wrong motive.
• 58:38
  And God doesn't answer those prayers very often.
• 58:41
  In fact, scripture tells us that he doesn't answer those prayers
• 58:44
  because we're asking with wrong motives.
• 58:46
  So when we're praying, if we're praying for the wrong motive,
• 58:50
  God, God, God deals with that. I think when we pray for people
• 58:55
  who need healing, people should leave feeling loved more than
• 58:59
  they leave feeling healed. I think the love of God is
• 59:03
  preeminent in in our moment of praying for people who need
• 59:07
  healing or need anything from God.
• 59:10
  People always should walk away from our praying for them
• 59:14
  feeling more loved, not more shameful, more loved, not any
• 59:17
  other thing. It's the love of God that we
• 59:19
  need to see in our lives. I think sometimes we don't find
• 59:25
  healing because we are unwilling to participate practically.
• 59:29
  The man never went and washed in the pool.
• 59:32
  He would have never experienced the healing, like the mud would
• 59:36
  have stayed on his eyes until he removed it like, but he went and
• 59:40
  he washed and he was healed. I think sometimes we don't
• 59:43
  experience healing or the wholeness of God simply because
• 59:47
  we are unwilling to participate practically.
• 59:50
  You're not going to sign up for the therapy.
• 59:52
  You're unwilling to start walking every day.
• 59:54
  You're you're too addicted to fried food and so your
• 59:58
  cholesterol is going to stay right where it's at.
• 1:00:01
  You love eating sugar and you keep physically feeling the
• 1:00:05
  impact of the sugar. And so until we're willing to
• 1:00:10
  participate practically, why would God miraculously override
• 1:00:14
  what our will is continually deciding to do?
• 1:00:19
  I think sometimes we don't experience healing.
• 1:00:21
  This is really simple, but we never ask God.
• 1:00:25
  We've complained, we've gone to doctors, we've we've told people
• 1:00:28
  about it, but we've never asked God.
• 1:00:30
  God, would you heal this? God, would you touch my ailment,
• 1:00:34
  my body in this way? We've just never asked God.
• 1:00:38
  I think sometimes we've never been willing to ask others for
• 1:00:41
  prayer and get them to annoy us with oil.
• 1:00:45
  I think sometimes timing is an issue.
• 1:00:47
  I think sometimes an unbeliever is insincere in their desire for
• 1:00:51
  healing. I think sometimes our bodies are
• 1:00:54
  old and and sometimes people are ready to move on to the the next
• 1:01:00
  stage of life. In other words, they're ready to
• 1:01:02
  go be with Jesus. It's not that they aren't
• 1:01:06
  wanting to be healed, it's just that they want to be healed in
• 1:01:09
  the presence of Jesus and their bodies are old and aging and
• 1:01:11
  that's where they want to go. I, I've sat with many Saints who
• 1:01:14
  are advanced in years dealing with ailments and physicality
• 1:01:18
  and, and I say, would you want me to pray that that God would
• 1:01:20
  heal it? No, just pray that I get to go
• 1:01:21
  home soon because they want to be with Jesus.
• 1:01:24
  What a beautiful thing and he's again, emotional trauma and
• 1:01:28
  grief go unaddressed, unhealthy habits.
• 1:01:31
  We haven't changed and we, I think sometimes we pray, but we
• 1:01:36
  don't persevere in prayer. In other words, we are not
• 1:01:41
  persistent to pray. We just pray one time and then
• 1:01:46
  get frustrated that we have like, I think there's a
• 1:01:50
  persistence to prayer that sometimes God is after and
• 1:01:54
  wanting to see because there's a desperation and a hunger that I
• 1:01:57
  think moves the heart of God and God goes where he's wanted.
• 1:02:04
  God, God fills those who hunger and thirst.
• 1:02:07
  And I, I think sometimes we're just not hungry and thirsty for
• 1:02:09
  it. We just want a quick fix.
• 1:02:12
  We don't want God. And I think God understands
• 1:02:14
  those things. And then finally Jesus said it
• 1:02:18
  like this. Some things only happen, some
• 1:02:22
  miracles only occur through prayer and fasting.
• 1:02:26
  And I think that's where often the person perseverance comes
• 1:02:29
  in. We are not personally praying
• 1:02:31
  and fasting, allowing ourselves to be pure and empowered by his
• 1:02:36
  Spirit in a way that we are dependent fully on Him.
• 1:02:39
  Rather than our metrics, rather than the types of prayers that
• 1:02:42
  we pray, rather than our charisma, rather than our
• 1:02:44
  persuasiveness, rather than our wisdom, rather than our
• 1:02:46
  giftings. We are, we are, we need to
• 1:02:49
  depend on him. His power comes in a life that
• 1:02:54
  is purified, A vessel purified through prayer and fasting.
• 1:02:58
  And so those are some reasons why I see biblically and in my
• 1:03:05
  pastoral experience that have hindered people from
• 1:03:08
  experiencing healing. Again, this is not an exhaustive
• 1:03:12
  list and this is absolutely not meant to bring shame or
• 1:03:16
  condemnation nearly awareness and maybe a point of prayer for
• 1:03:20
  you to ask God, God, are any of those things true in me that I'm
• 1:03:24
  not that that's keeping me from experiencing your love and
• 1:03:28
  you're healing in in an area. I I think that it's it's a valid
• 1:03:32
  thing to ask and examine and please, please, please, we do
• 1:03:37
  not take this list to weaponize it against someone who hasn't
• 1:03:43
  been healed, who hasn't experienced healing.
• 1:03:45
  Weaponizing these truths is unhelpful.
• 1:03:48
  It's harmful, it's divisive and dare I say it's the way a demon
• 1:03:53
  would act. It's demonic in that way.
• 1:03:55
  So act in love towards one another in these, in this
• 1:04:00
  subject that is deeply personal to so many of us.
• 1:04:06
  Next question, Why don't you pray if it's your will, Lord,
• 1:04:10
  when praying for healing, as you said in the message, doesn't
• 1:04:13
  James tell us to pray if it's your will?
• 1:04:17
  Great question. No, I don't pray when I'm
• 1:04:21
  praying for people to be healed, I do not pray.
• 1:04:23
  Lord, if it's your will to heal them, please heal them.
• 1:04:26
  I don't pray. In that vein, when I pray, I
• 1:04:31
  will often pray, Lord, would you show them your love?
• 1:04:35
  Would your glory manifest? Would you show them what steps
• 1:04:39
  to take? And Lord, would you touch their
• 1:04:42
  body with your power? We trust in You.
• 1:04:46
  I'm not trusting in an outcome, and I'm not even trusting in my
• 1:04:49
  prayer. I'm trusting in the Lord.
• 1:04:51
  And so I pray in that manner. Now biblically, why don't I do
• 1:04:57
  it? Well, here's what, let's go to
• 1:04:58
  James and let's see what James actually says.
• 1:05:00
  Because James doesn't tell us to pray according to his will.
• 1:05:02
  That's not what James teaches at all.
• 1:05:05
  In fact, James 4 says this verse 13 Come now, you who say today
• 1:05:10
  or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a
• 1:05:13
  year there and then do business and make a profit.
• 1:05:15
  Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your
• 1:05:18
  life will be for you're like a vapor that appears for a little
• 1:05:21
  while and then vanishes. Instead you should say, he
• 1:05:26
  doesn't say pray. He said you should say, well, if
• 1:05:29
  the Lord wills, we will live and do this or we will do that.
• 1:05:33
  But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting
• 1:05:40
  is evil. What is James saying?
• 1:05:43
  James isn't telling you how to pray for healing.
• 1:05:45
  He's telling you don't be arrogant with the decision
• 1:05:48
  making in your life. In other words, don't make
• 1:05:51
  statements of intentions around your plans and your design for
• 1:05:56
  your life that isn't submitted to Jesus, submitted to the Lord
• 1:06:01
  as the If the Lord is the Lord of your life, then everything
• 1:06:04
  you do ought to be. Well, this is what I'd like to
• 1:06:06
  do if the Lord would allow me to do this.
• 1:06:08
  If the Lord wills me to do this man, I'm I want to do what the
• 1:06:11
  Lord wills and what the Lord will allow me to do.
• 1:06:15
  So in saying this, James is teaching us to guard against
• 1:06:21
  arrogance in our agency. Again, perfect will, permissive
• 1:06:27
  will. We want to guard against
• 1:06:30
  arrogance, assumptiveness in the agency that we have in making
• 1:06:35
  decisions for our life. And James is teaching us how to
• 1:06:38
  live with humility rather than to speak with hubris.
• 1:06:43
  He's teaching us how to live submitted to God, not with an
• 1:06:50
  overinflated view of our sovereignty, lower S
• 1:06:54
  sovereignty. In other words, James is
• 1:06:56
  teaching us to right size the sovereignty and agency we have
• 1:07:01
  in making decisions for our life.
• 1:07:03
  Why? Because in the permissive will,
• 1:07:05
  it's good to recognize guys like we have agency and we have
• 1:07:08
  choice. We, I said it earlier, we don't
• 1:07:10
  need to overemphasize our choice, nor do we need to
• 1:07:14
  underestimate the power of our choosing.
• 1:07:18
  That's what James for is telling us has nothing to do with
• 1:07:20
  prayer. In fact, when James teaches us
• 1:07:23
  to pray, he teaches us different.
• 1:07:24
  In James chapter 5, James chapter 5, verse 13, he says
• 1:07:30
  this, Is anyone among you suffering?
• 1:07:32
  He should pray. Is anyone cheerful?
• 1:07:34
  He should sing praises. Is anyone among you sick?
• 1:07:37
  He should call for the elders of the church and they are to pray
• 1:07:40
  over him. Anoint him with oil in the name
• 1:07:43
  of our Lord, the prayer of faith.
• 1:07:46
  The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord
• 1:07:52
  will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he can
• 1:07:55
  be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins one
• 1:07:57
  to another and pray for one another so that you may be
• 1:08:03
  healed. Then he goes on to say the
• 1:08:05
  prayer of a righteous person is powerful in itself and
• 1:08:08
  effective. And he uses Elijah, who's a
• 1:08:10
  normal man who prayed in faith, believed in God.
• 1:08:13
  He didn't pray. Lord, if it's your will, he just
• 1:08:15
  said, Lord, stop the rain. Lord open the heavens and let
• 1:08:20
  rain fall out like he was really, really clear in his
• 1:08:25
  petition of God, of his request of God, not Lord.
• 1:08:30
  Well, if it's your will to allow me to ask, no, no, we get to
• 1:08:32
  come boldly to the throne of grace.
• 1:08:34
  We are the we are sons and daughters of God.
• 1:08:37
  We are heirs and join heirs with Christ.
• 1:08:39
  And so when we pray, we don't have to wishy wash.
• 1:08:42
  We're asking our Father in heaven who already knows what we
• 1:08:45
  need before we ask. But nonetheless we ask, we
• 1:08:49
  submit the request to God. So I think we pray in faith when
• 1:08:53
  we pray for healing of sick according to James, not pray
• 1:08:56
  well, Lord, if it's your will. Praying in faith means that
• 1:09:00
  we're praying trusting with our loyalty in Jesus.
• 1:09:06
  We're not praying for outcomes. We're praying trusting in Jesus.
• 1:09:10
  We're praying giving our loyalty to Jesus, not to outcomes, not
• 1:09:15
  to things. We're praying giving our loyalty
• 1:09:17
  to Jesus that His glory and His love would be evidenced in our
• 1:09:21
  lives. That's what we're praying.
• 1:09:23
  So praying in faith is praying in agreement with the work and
• 1:09:26
  the person of Jesus. Praying in faith is about being
• 1:09:29
  delivered from the work of the enemy.
• 1:09:31
  Pray anointing with OA that the prayer of faith might save them.
• 1:09:36
  To deliver them is the is that word.
• 1:09:38
  Save is the Greek word sozo, which means to deliver.
• 1:09:41
  Deliver you from what? Deliver you from the work of the
• 1:09:44
  enemy, deliver you from the sin that you're experiencing,
• 1:09:48
  deliver you from the sickness that is bound you, deliver you
• 1:09:52
  from the brokenness that you need to be made whole.
• 1:09:56
  Praying in faith is about being loyal to Jesus who loves to pour
• 1:10:01
  out his goodness in a variety of ways.
• 1:10:04
  So the prayer of faith is, is a, is a prayer of confession.
• 1:10:09
  It's a prayer of, of honesty before God.
• 1:10:11
  It's a prayer of bringing your request to God.
• 1:10:13
  It's a prayer of agreement where two people are gathered in
• 1:10:17
  agreement in the name of Jesus. It's the prayer of unity.
• 1:10:20
  It's a prayer that says, God, our trust is in you to show your
• 1:10:24
  love and your goodness in the way that is needed most.
• 1:10:29
  And that's what we pray and how we pray.
• 1:10:31
  So no, I don't pray if it's your will, because praying, Lord, if
• 1:10:35
  it's your will isn't biblical. Well, pastor, what about when it
• 1:10:39
  says your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth?
• 1:10:41
  Yeah, absolutely. That prayer is God.
• 1:10:44
  Would you have your way in the earth?
• 1:10:46
  It's a prayer that says, God, would you let heaven be
• 1:10:49
  experienced on the earth? What is heaven experiencing?
• 1:10:52
  The love of God and the glory of God, the wholeness of God.
• 1:10:56
  That's what we pray to experience.
• 1:10:58
  That's what we pray in, in our hearts and in our minds.
• 1:11:02
  Listen, the one prayer God will always answer is the prayer that
• 1:11:08
  says God. Would you remove anything out of
• 1:11:11
  the way? Would you move the mountainous
• 1:11:14
  things in the way that are keeping me from seeing you
• 1:11:17
  clearly and from being in union with you?
• 1:11:21
  That's what Jesus was talking about when he says you can get
• 1:11:24
  the mountain out of the way. Those mountains are the
• 1:11:26
  mountains that are obstructing us from encountering God in his
• 1:11:29
  presence, in his love and His goodness.
• 1:11:31
  So God, would you remove anything out of the way that's
• 1:11:34
  keeping me from experiencing your goodness and love?
• 1:11:37
  That's a prayer God always answers.
• 1:11:40
  It's a prayer of faith, not a prayer of wishy washy.
• 1:11:44
  Well, if it is your will, no, no, it's a prayer of faith, a
• 1:11:48
  prayer of loyalty, trusting in Jesus.
• 1:11:52
  Last question, how can I tell if I'm more concerned with my
• 1:11:55
  comfort or with God revealing His glory through me?
• 1:11:59
  How do I know whether to keep praying for healing or just to
• 1:12:02
  trust God in for comfort in the midst of suffering?
• 1:12:07
  Such a helpful question guys, let me say it this way.
• 1:12:13
  One way to tell what you need to do, where you need to lean is by
• 1:12:21
  by recognizing has got to answer your prayer for healing yet.
• 1:12:24
  If God hasn't answered your prayer for healing yet, then we
• 1:12:27
  trust God that you're getting glory some way.
• 1:12:30
  We trust that God, you're bringing comfort to me in the
• 1:12:32
  middle of this pain and that it's a great moment.
• 1:12:37
  Lord, you haven't healed me yet. Is there anything in my heart
• 1:12:42
  that has keeping me from experiencing your love?
• 1:12:45
  Are there strongholds? Are there demonic activity?
• 1:12:48
  It's a great moment. So if God hasn't answered the
• 1:12:50
  prayer yet, doesn't mean he's not going to answer.
• 1:12:52
  It just means there's other things of his goodness and his
• 1:12:56
  glory that he wants us to experience in the meantime.
• 1:13:01
  I think when our minds and our motives come in alignment with
• 1:13:04
  God, we experience God in a fresh way.
• 1:13:06
  So when our motives and our, our mindset are in alignment with
• 1:13:11
  the, the, the truth of God, truth of his word, I think
• 1:13:16
  that's when we encounter the love of God, the perspective of
• 1:13:20
  God in a very fresh, in a very fresh way.
• 1:13:22
  In second service, I use the illustration of something God
• 1:13:26
  had done in my heart. There were some motives.
• 1:13:28
  In fact, I had been for over 2 months, maybe 3 months, I've had
• 1:13:34
  kind of a crippling or a real severe case of carpal tunnel in
• 1:13:38
  my right hand. Lots of, lots of different
• 1:13:42
  things that I've been doing practically to try to help heal
• 1:13:45
  that help recover from that. But basically it was so severe.
• 1:13:50
  I, I, I was living with about anywhere from 10 to like 30%
• 1:13:56
  feeling in my hand. That's all I had 10 to 30%
• 1:13:58
  feeling. It was constantly tingling,
• 1:14:00
  constantly in pain. The nerves were overactive.
• 1:14:04
  It was just really uncomfortable.
• 1:14:07
  It hindered a lot of my day-to-day activity, and it
• 1:14:09
  definitely hurt my golf game. I was not happy about that
• 1:14:13
  either. But over the course of those two
• 1:14:17
  months, just Lord, would you heal my hand?
• 1:14:20
  Lord, I trust that you can heal my hand.
• 1:14:21
  Lord, would you do this? And it was taking a lot of time
• 1:14:24
  and nothing was really happening.
• 1:14:26
  I'd have good days, and I have really bad days.
• 1:14:29
  But two weeks ago, the Lord woke me up in the middle.
• 1:14:33
  I had woke well, I I was awake in the middle of the night and
• 1:14:37
  the Lord took that opportunity to speak to me.
• 1:14:39
  Whether he woke me up or it was an I don't, I don't know, but
• 1:14:42
  this was what I felt like the Holy Spirit whispered to my
• 1:14:45
  heart that night when I woke up. He said, if if I let healing
• 1:14:50
  flow through your hand to other people, but I never heal your
• 1:14:54
  hand. Are you in And it was a gut
• 1:15:02
  check. It was a motive check.
• 1:15:04
  It was do my thoughts about God's ability and power and my
• 1:15:07
  motives and asking God for something.
• 1:15:09
  Do those really align? See, see, part of the motive
• 1:15:13
  was, do I trust God for others even if I don't see it in
• 1:15:16
  myself? Part of the motive check was do
• 1:15:19
  I trust God to give His love to other people in healing?
• 1:15:26
  But I don't experience His love in that way and I experienced it
• 1:15:29
  in other ways. Am I OK with that?
• 1:15:32
  See what you don't know is that for 2-3 years now I have sensed
• 1:15:41
  that God wants to trust us to steward as a church gifts of
• 1:15:48
  healing among the body. It's part of just a desire and a
• 1:15:52
  sense that I have. When is he going to do it?
• 1:15:54
  How is he going to do it? I don't know.
• 1:15:56
  My, my job isn't to force those things or to make this.
• 1:15:58
  It's just this. Lord, I believe that you want
• 1:16:02
  people to walk in healing and wholeness.
• 1:16:04
  Would you? I, I, I feel like you want to
• 1:16:07
  trust this with. So for, for a couple years I
• 1:16:09
  have just placed that before the Lord.
• 1:16:11
  It's been an honest prayer. Lord, would you keep moving?
• 1:16:14
  Part of why we partner to help people find wholeness in their
• 1:16:18
  souls, I mean healing through therapy, Christian therapy, is
• 1:16:23
  because I believe that's part of how God wants to bring wholeness
• 1:16:27
  into our midst. I, I'm just committed to those
• 1:16:31
  things. I believe that's one of the ways
• 1:16:32
  God shows us love and makes us whole.
• 1:16:36
  You're getting a bit of an inside peek into my heart and
• 1:16:38
  mind as a pastor. I, I realized that today.
• 1:16:41
  And so if you're watching and you're not a part of our church,
• 1:16:44
  I, I hope you'll give some understanding.
• 1:16:46
  Those who know me who are part of our church, you're, you're
• 1:16:49
  getting a glimpse into, into my heart some things that I've been
• 1:16:51
  praying for a couple years now. So when the Lord asked me that
• 1:16:55
  question, it was, it seemed like out of the blue, but it was
• 1:16:59
  linked to a long period of time of asking God to work in our in
• 1:17:04
  our house. And I said on Sunday that from
• 1:17:11
  that moment over the next two weeks, last two weeks, my hand
• 1:17:15
  has progressively improved greatly.
• 1:17:18
  I, I now have probably 99%, I, I have a little bit of tingling,
• 1:17:23
  but right now today, even as this recording, like I believe
• 1:17:26
  God has healed my hands Now I've, I've participated in the
• 1:17:31
  healing, I've done a lot of things to medically and
• 1:17:35
  practically bring healing and restoration to that.
• 1:17:38
  I haven't changed those things in the last two weeks.
• 1:17:40
  It's been 3 months of doing the same thing, being really
• 1:17:43
  consistent with those things. So I believe that's God.
• 1:17:48
  God heals, Jesus heals, He heals medically, He heals
• 1:17:52
  miraculously, He heals progressively, He heals
• 1:17:56
  eventually in eternity, right? Like God heals in lots of
• 1:18:01
  different ways and methods. He's been healing, but I believe
• 1:18:04
  part of the healing in my hand has come because my heart and my
• 1:18:10
  motives as it relates to seeing other people be healed passed
• 1:18:14
  up. A heart check with God that
• 1:18:17
  there's an element. I want people to experience the
• 1:18:19
  love of God, and if people experience the love of God in a
• 1:18:22
  way I don't experience it, I refuse to be jealous or bitter
• 1:18:26
  about that. I'm going to celebrate with them
• 1:18:30
  even in the midst of my own struggle and my own pain as a
• 1:18:33
  pastor, I have those things and other people are being blessed
• 1:18:37
  by God and I'm not being blessed by God and I'm not going to
• 1:18:40
  gripe and complain. I'm actually celebrating that
• 1:18:42
  people are experiencing the love and the goodness of God.
• 1:18:46
  That's a motive check. And, and when, when our hearts,
• 1:18:49
  our minds, our motives, when all those things align with God, I
• 1:18:52
  think God begins to move in new, in new and fresh ways.
• 1:18:56
  And until you experience healing and until, and as your heart is
• 1:19:01
  coming in alignment with his heart and in your, your belief
• 1:19:04
  is coming in alignment with the Scripture and the truth of
• 1:19:06
  belief and and perseverance is developed and all the things
• 1:19:09
  that God wants to do to to develop and shape and form us.
• 1:19:12
  We can pray in the meantime, prayers.
• 1:19:14
  What do I mean? I mean we could pray.
• 1:19:16
  Lord, I trust for your healing. I'm asking you to pour out your
• 1:19:20
  love and your goodness to us. I believe in your power to work
• 1:19:24
  in US. My life is yours and in the
• 1:19:26
  meantime, Lord, until I see the fullness of your healing in my
• 1:19:32
  life and in my body, and I am made whole.
• 1:19:34
  Would you teach me in the meantime to be content and be
• 1:19:38
  fulfilled in you and not in my circumstances?
• 1:19:44
  I think we can pray in the meantime, prayers.
• 1:19:45
  Here's what I know, friends. God loves you.
• 1:19:49
  God wants His goodness to shine on you.
• 1:19:51
  God will use every opportunity to turn the situations and to
• 1:19:57
  turn your perspective around so you can see the reality of who
• 1:20:01
  He is and what He is, how He's created you and what He's made
• 1:20:03
  you. I believe that God can heal,
• 1:20:07
  does heal and will heal and I believe wholeness is the name of
• 1:20:11
  the game and wholeness is spirit, soul and body.
• 1:20:14
  And God is after our wholeness. He's after our whole heart and
• 1:20:19
  God is after getting glory in US and through us that reflect his
• 1:20:25
  love to the world around us. I hope this has been helpful.
• 1:20:30
  Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening friends.
• 1:20:33
  I hope this is this helps you have some faith for today.
• 1:20:37
  Until next week, please know friends, you are loved by God