SPEAKER_00: Our scripture reading this morning for the sermon comes from Mark chapter 1, verses 35 to 45.
SPEAKER_00: We are in this new sermon series in the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: And we follow Jesus' journey through his earthly ministry of some three years.
SPEAKER_00: Reading from God's Holy Word.
SPEAKER_00: And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, Everyone's looking for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.
SPEAKER_00: And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling, said to him, If you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, I will be clean.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once.
SPEAKER_00: He said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priests, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.
SPEAKER_00: But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, infallible, and errant word.
SPEAKER_00: May we pray to the God who gave us this word.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the word that you speak.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your powerful word to create, to heal, to cleanse, to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: May we experience the power, your power by your spirit as we listen to your word.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're looking at the rhythm of a gospel life.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there is a rhythm to a gospel life?
SPEAKER_00: It was in the life of Jesus, and there is something for us to learn as well as we look at this gospel.
SPEAKER_00: As we've seen, there's really two primary questions, at least as I think of them, as we study the gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: The first question is: who is this one who calls us?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I ask that question all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of conversations with people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I mean the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not the figment of your imagination, not the myth, the man.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the real Jesus of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_00: I find that many people today in our increasingly biblically illiterate society don't know the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants you to know him as he really is.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean, secondly, to follow him?
SPEAKER_00: This is what this gospel is about.
SPEAKER_00: My prayer is that as we go through this sermon series, that you and I will both read the gospel of Mark with fresh eyes.
SPEAKER_00: That's always a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: I've been reading the Bible since I could read.
SPEAKER_00: I've read a lot of Bible.
SPEAKER_00: How I love it when the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to new understanding in this season of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
SPEAKER_00: And he can do that for you.
SPEAKER_00: He can open your eyes to the things that you thought you knew that you didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And to understand and to see Jesus in a way that you did not see him before.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We are called to be followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in Luke 6, verse 40, that a disciple, when fully trained, will be like his teacher.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that recently over the last two years since we came into this building, this focus on discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a follower?
SPEAKER_00: Then you will study what he taught.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will grow as you learn, and you will be transformed in your heart as you do.
SPEAKER_00: So what was his rhythm?
SPEAKER_00: What are we to learn after Jesus' pattern, the rhythm of his life, his ministry?
SPEAKER_00: We see it perfectly laid out here once again in the text before us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Engage and withdraw.
SPEAKER_00: Minister and step back.
SPEAKER_00: Rest.
SPEAKER_00: Be refreshed.
SPEAKER_00: Be renewed.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 1, verse 29 to 34, that Pastor Nathan preached on last week.
SPEAKER_00: It says, That evening at sundown, they brought to Jesus in Capernaum all who were sick or grieved, oppressed by demons, and the whole city was gathered together at his door.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just read right past that.
SPEAKER_00: Get that picture in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: The whole town of Capernaum, once they hear that Jesus of Nazareth is there and he has this kind of power, he healed Simon's mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: He had healed before.
SPEAKER_00: The word is spreading.
SPEAKER_00: This man has power like no one else.
SPEAKER_00: He has an authority when he teaches like no one else.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do they do?
SPEAKER_00: Naturally.
SPEAKER_00: If you were in Capernaum at that time and you heard these stories, what would you do?
SPEAKER_00: If you were sick, if you had an ailment, if you had a significant problem, you would have found yourself at that door also.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, would you just touch me?
SPEAKER_00: Because when you touch people, people are healed.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it might have been.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, this divine being in a human body, needed a lot of rest after that day.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very busy day of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what a very full, busy day of ministry looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you don't think of it perhaps as ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You just know what a very full day is.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what it's like to be exhausted at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He was in a human body.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't Superman.
SPEAKER_00: He got tired.
SPEAKER_00: He needed rest.
SPEAKER_00: I suspect he fell asleep quickly that night.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew he was going to get up early the next morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because he needed to be alone with his father.
SPEAKER_00: To obey the laws of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: He needed rest.
SPEAKER_00: And he needed to be in solitude with his father.
SPEAKER_00: And so do we, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: If we go and go without Sabbaths in our weeks, things break down.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us know that better than others.
SPEAKER_00: Things have a way of breaking down when you just go and go and go and you don't stop.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a closer look at the rhythm of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, after a very full, fruitful day of ministry, Jesus needs time alone.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: Mark tells us he got up very early in the morning while it was still dark.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting word that Mark uses.
SPEAKER_00: He went into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: We've already been looking at the wilderness motif so far in this sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word that we saw earlier when he went out into the rugged desert.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he probably didn't go that far out into the rugged desert, but I find it interesting that he used the same word.
SPEAKER_00: This wilderness theme runs throughout the gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: While it was still dark, he went into this desolate place.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: What did it say?
SPEAKER_00: So he could pray.
SPEAKER_00: So he could have his spirit refreshed, renewed by his father in meeting with his father alone.
SPEAKER_00: The wilderness is a place that Jesus knew very well.
SPEAKER_00: We said it before, we'll say it again in the sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understands your wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He understands your desolate place in life.
SPEAKER_00: He understands where you feel like you are in barren space.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what it's like when you feel like you're thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: He experienced it far more than you will ever experience it.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his desert.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about this this week and how radically different this whole experience was.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing he knew from eternity was what?
SPEAKER_00: Heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing he knew from eternity was paradise.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he chose to live his life on this earth, a ministry and his public ministry in the most desolate places.
SPEAKER_00: This theme of Mark, a distinctive wilderness theology, could not have been more different from the paradise he knew.
SPEAKER_00: A secluded place, a place to get away, a solitary place, to be alone with God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understood the need to get away, to be alone with his Father.
SPEAKER_00: Do we?
SPEAKER_00: If we do, we will practice this.
SPEAKER_00: If we do know this, we will be disciplined, yes, to put this in our daily schedule.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just being disciplined, it's being desperate.
SPEAKER_00: It's being desperate to know I need this time alone with my Father.
SPEAKER_00: For the same reasons Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of befuddles us, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if anybody could sleep in and skip his devotions, it was Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You would think.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently not.
SPEAKER_00: What did he need from his father?
SPEAKER_00: The same thing that you need from your father.
SPEAKER_00: He needed his daily assignments for the day.
SPEAKER_00: How do you get your assignments for your day?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get your assignments for your week?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that it should be any different than how Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: We meet with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We say, Father, this is your day.
SPEAKER_00: This is not my day.
SPEAKER_00: What are your assignments for me this day?
SPEAKER_00: The people that I'm going to meet with, I'm going to talk with, the meetings I'm going to be a part of, the meetings I'm going to lead, the interactions I'm going to have with co-workers, family, strangers.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we start our day, friends.
SPEAKER_00: It's how Jesus started his day.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you're going to find, just like Jesus did, somebody's ready to interrupt you.
SPEAKER_00: Who was it?
SPEAKER_00: Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Where did Mark get this gospel from?
SPEAKER_00: Primarily, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's telling on himself.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was humbled by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: Peter takes a few with him.
SPEAKER_00: They're not named.
SPEAKER_00: It could have been James and John.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter gets up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Peter wakes up, you know, he yawns, he stretches, maybe he gets his breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what he did that morning.
SPEAKER_00: But then he starts looking around.
SPEAKER_00: Well, where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus has been staying in his house.
SPEAKER_00: Where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: It seems as though what Peter's thinking is, Jesus, yesterday was a fantastic day.
SPEAKER_00: We got a lot done, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: It just seems like Peter's thinking, well, we've got work to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Is that how you start your day?
SPEAKER_00: We've got work to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how Jesus started his days.
SPEAKER_00: Peter finds him finally.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's looking for you.
SPEAKER_00: As if, Jesus, what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, is this, are you really, is this the best use of your time?
SPEAKER_00: When you're out in a secluded, solitary place, recharging your batteries, having intimate conversation with your Father in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Is this really the best use of your time?
SPEAKER_00: Peter, this is my work.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, how do you think I get my work done?
SPEAKER_00: Let that question reverberate in your mind this week.
SPEAKER_00: How do we get the real work done in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: My time with my father is not wasted time.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I get my directions for my day.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I get my strength for my day.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I get my fellowship with my father.
SPEAKER_00: Like the way Henry Nowen put it in an article that he wrote on solitude.
SPEAKER_00: Solitude is being with God and God alone.
SPEAKER_00: Is there any space for that in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountaintop?
SPEAKER_00: It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the one who calls you the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: To pray is to listen to the one who calls you my beloved daughter, my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being.
SPEAKER_00: That voice to resound in your innermost person.
SPEAKER_00: There are many other voices speaking loudly today, and we all know it.
SPEAKER_00: Prove that you're the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Prove that you're worth something.
SPEAKER_00: Prove that you have any contribution to make in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Do something relevant.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure you make a name for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: At least some people will then love you.
SPEAKER_00: At least then some people will love you if you get out and get things done in life.
SPEAKER_00: Then some people will say, You're wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: You're great.
SPEAKER_00: The voices in this world are strong.
SPEAKER_00: These were the voices that Jesus heard as well after he heard, You are my beloved.
SPEAKER_00: Prove yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the temptation of the desert was about.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never felt the need to prove himself because he knew who he was.
SPEAKER_00: He was the beloved Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: That was his identity.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, your identity is not in what you get done this week.
SPEAKER_00: Your identity is not how well you perform at your office this week or school.
SPEAKER_00: That's not your identity.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we forget that.
SPEAKER_00: Now it says if you keep that in mind, you can deal with an enormous amount of success without it going to your head.
SPEAKER_00: As well as an enormous amount of failure without losing your identity.
SPEAKER_00: Because your identity is that you are the beloved of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Does that resonate?
SPEAKER_00: How hard we work.
SPEAKER_00: How hard we try to prove to others that we're worthwhile.
SPEAKER_00: That we should be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: That we should be loved.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for you.
SPEAKER_00: You meet with your Father in the heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Let him speak his words.
SPEAKER_00: This is my beloved son.
SPEAKER_00: This is my beloved daughter with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's calling us to do.
SPEAKER_00: As now and says, in solitude alone we get rid of our scaffolding.
SPEAKER_00: John Ortberg put it like this: being hurried and rushed around in my life, in my schedule, is not only a disordered schedule, it really is more than that, a disordered heart.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's right.
SPEAKER_00: When my heart is all torn in pieces, when I'm looking to prove who I am, I'm not at peace.
SPEAKER_00: You're not at peace.
SPEAKER_00: And we miss what the Father is offering us that day.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus meets with the Father, and now he says to Peter and to the others that were there, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I got my orders.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Jesus said, I do nothing apart from the Father?
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was far more dependent on his father than you and I are.
SPEAKER_00: That should speak to our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Okay, I'm ready now.
SPEAKER_00: I know my assignment today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go, gentlemen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go do the work that he's called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came.
SPEAKER_00: And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: This is benevolent power on display.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to see, what happens next, verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: And they're walking along, and suddenly a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling before him in total abject humility, a leper, and this leper has already crossed all the lines, all the boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus tells us in the Old Testament that if you were a leper and there was nothing worse than being full of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Luke tells us in his gospel that this man was full of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: It was eating away his skin.
SPEAKER_00: It was eating away his nerves.
SPEAKER_00: He was losing sensitivity to pain.
SPEAKER_00: He was supposed to stay far away.
SPEAKER_00: If you were a leper that day, stay far away from everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: You had to wear a covering over your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It was a very contagious disease.
SPEAKER_00: And you were supposed to, when you saw anybody coming near you, you were supposed to cry out, unclean, unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get near me.
SPEAKER_00: You were isolated.
SPEAKER_00: You no longer had a family.
SPEAKER_00: You lost your family.
SPEAKER_00: You were losing your health.
SPEAKER_00: You lost, you you became isolated.
SPEAKER_00: You became marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: It was your life was over.
SPEAKER_00: This man breaks those barriers.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes running up to Jesus and then he kneels down, imploring him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus, if you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: There's power in that truth.
SPEAKER_00: This leper.
SPEAKER_00: What is the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: What does Mark tell us?
SPEAKER_00: What did Peter see?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus moved with pity, stretched out his hand and touched him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get the disease.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody touched a leper but Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He stretched out his hand and he touched him and he said to him, I will be clean.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.
SPEAKER_00: In an instant, this man was cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that in the New Testament accounts, there's only two accounts of a hep of a leper being healed.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say healed, it says cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: Two times in the Old Testament a leper was cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: Two times in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't happen very often, at least not reported in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Why does it always say they were cleansed?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we we know that leprosy in some ways was a symbol of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Full of sin.
SPEAKER_00: What does a sinner need?
SPEAKER_00: Even more than healing, what does the sinner need?
SPEAKER_00: Cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: We are the lepers, are we not?
SPEAKER_00: Born in sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are the lepers, the moral, spiritual lepers, and we are full of sin.
SPEAKER_00: What we need most of all in our life is for the cleansing of Jesus Christ, to offer his cleansing, his healing power in that way.
SPEAKER_00: It says Jesus moved with pity, touched him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's pretty hard to miss the pity in someone's eyes if they're compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: This was the attribute of Jesus that is most frequently commented on in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the things that is said about Jesus, what he was like, who he was, he was full of compassion, is said more than any other attribute.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't pass over people.
SPEAKER_00: When he was with them, he was with them.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw them, he saw into them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, again, you see that I think when you're around somebody who's compassionate, don't you see it in their eyes?
SPEAKER_00: Their eyes are not hard.
SPEAKER_00: Their eyes are not harsh.
SPEAKER_00: When you look into their eyes, somebody who's full of pity, they're not looking at their watch.
SPEAKER_00: They're willing to be inconvenienced.
SPEAKER_00: They're willing to stop their day because there's a need in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: They see that need and they respond to that need.
SPEAKER_00: That comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This leper must have heard of the healing power of Jesus, and he experienced his compassion and his pity, communicated through his voice, through his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I like the way Paul Miller said, Jesus gave God a face.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God the Father doesn't have a body, you know that.
SPEAKER_00: God the Father does not have a body.
SPEAKER_00: But we see God's face in Jesus like no one else, like nowhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus brought it all, the fullness of God to earth to touch people that no one else wants to touch.
SPEAKER_00: Very interesting prayer that this leper prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, if you will, I know that you can.
SPEAKER_00: Where did he get this kind of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that kind of faith?
SPEAKER_00: A little sneak preview.
SPEAKER_00: In a few months we get down to Mark chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: There's a father with a very sick, demonic child.
SPEAKER_00: And this father comes begging to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But do you know what he said to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, if you will, I know you can.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you can, will you?
SPEAKER_00: Now which way do you think he wants us to pray?
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to pray like the leper.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I know you can.
SPEAKER_00: You have all power.
SPEAKER_00: You are sovereign over everything.
SPEAKER_00: Is it your will?
SPEAKER_00: Father, if it's your will, please heal me, forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: Change me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus touched the untouchable then, and he's still touching the untouchables today.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's anything in your life that you feel like is off limits to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: There might be.
SPEAKER_00: Person said to me, Pastor, I've never said this to anyone in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I have to tell someone.
SPEAKER_00: I have to tell someone.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a place for that.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Jesus ultimately is the only high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Have you had that experience of really opening up and trusting somebody else with what's weighing deeply on you?
SPEAKER_00: I've done that.
SPEAKER_00: I have found at times it feels like a hundred-pound weight has been lifted off my shoulders when I have stepped out in honesty and transparency to just let somebody else know.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray for me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what that looks like?
SPEAKER_00: It can be powerful, but nothing as powerful as coming to the one who created you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the parts of you that feel untouchable.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the parts of you that have been scarred.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the parts of you that feel nothing but shame.
SPEAKER_00: And he has nothing but pity.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I know what happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I hate it as much as you hate it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me heal it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me heal you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me touch you.
SPEAKER_00: The touch of Jesus Christ is as powerful today as it was on that day with that leper.
SPEAKER_00: Have you experienced his healing touch in your life?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: How did this leper know so much to approach Jesus in this way with such confidence?
SPEAKER_00: Surely he heard Jesus teach with authority.
SPEAKER_00: Did he see the compassion on his face?
SPEAKER_00: I think he probably did.
SPEAKER_00: Did he know the promise of God?
SPEAKER_00: I think he did.
SPEAKER_00: He believed.
SPEAKER_00: And you can believe this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you feel like is off limits.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is in your doubts and your struggles, whatever you feel like is off limits, that you can't tell anybody else, you can't tell Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he will listen and he will hear.
SPEAKER_00: What did the leper say to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that you will never receive the healing touch of Jesus until you acknowledge that yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever acknowledged him?
SPEAKER_00: Unclean.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a skin condition that's devastating my body.
SPEAKER_00: It's a soul condition that's keeping me out of fellowship with you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's separating me from you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever said to Jesus, heal, touch my uncleanness.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do with that.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to come.
SPEAKER_00: And you have to acknowledge that.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be honest with him.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do with you, with me.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus interrupts his ministry of miracles to go elsewhere to proclaim the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: His purpose is not here on earth to heal as many people as possible, but to confront us all with the demand that we all have to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this person that calls us?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to follow him?
SPEAKER_00: Surrender your life to him?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to acknowledge his lordship over my life?
SPEAKER_00: That's what every worship service is about.
SPEAKER_00: We're here this morning to say, Jesus, would you please reveal yourself to us?
SPEAKER_00: But frankly, it's not just to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, would you reveal yourself to me?
SPEAKER_00: Would you?
SPEAKER_00: He knows how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: The elders have heard so many testimonies even recently.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been touched recently.
SPEAKER_00: You said unclean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has said, clean, cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: I came.
SPEAKER_00: I came to bring healing to your body.
SPEAKER_00: I came to bring healing to your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Be cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: Has that been your confession?
SPEAKER_00: Believing that Jesus can make me clean, the foulest of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we say this in spiritual leadership class, and we say it in other contexts.
SPEAKER_00: But do you see yourself as the biggest sinner in your family?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see yourself as the biggest sinner?
SPEAKER_00: I find that many people have come to this church over the years just like look at me like I'm crazy when I say that.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that you sin more than other people, but do you see yourself as the chief sinner?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you more focused on other people's sins?
SPEAKER_00: God will bless you richly, and the people around you will find you far more helpful if you see yourself as the chief sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus won't use that against you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will use that in an amazing way to transform you.
SPEAKER_00: You will be more helpful to the people around you.
SPEAKER_00: I promise.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, if you want to be great in my kingdom, you have to be least among everyone.
SPEAKER_00: This is his invitation to us.
SPEAKER_00: Usually when something clean touches something unclean, it becomes unclean as well.
SPEAKER_00: But here it just went in the opposite direction, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00: As the cleanness of Jesus cleansed the unclean leper.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to say in closing, it just took one touch.
SPEAKER_00: It took one touch by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that man was cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: He got back his health, he got back his family, he got back his life.
SPEAKER_00: One touch.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that's all that different from what we have to experience in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of us are just waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Today Jesus would say, come, confess your uncleanliness.
SPEAKER_00: Confess your leprosy of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And watch what I can do in bringing you healing.
SPEAKER_00: Watch what I do with one touch, with one word.
SPEAKER_00: I can pronounce you whole.
SPEAKER_00: I can announce pronounce you clean.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what it would be like to live the rest of your life believing that?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: You'd be different.
SPEAKER_00: And that would be good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm different when I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
SPEAKER_00: Pass me not, O gentle Savior.
SPEAKER_00: While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
SPEAKER_00: Kneeling in deep contrition, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry.
SPEAKER_00: While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, this is our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Please do not pass us by.
SPEAKER_00: Do not pass me by.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I need.
SPEAKER_00: You know what my friends need.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that you are just as powerful today as you were then.
SPEAKER_00: You know the parts of us that need your healing touch.
SPEAKER_00: You know the parts of us that are locked up.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, so many times we don't know why we're so locked up, but you do.
SPEAKER_00: Free us.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Heal us.
SPEAKER_00: Receive us for your sake because you are merciful and you are full of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: We come.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand and respond to this, God.