SPEAKER_00: The sermon text this morning is from Mark chapter 7, verses 31 to 37, as we continue in our Gospel of Mark sermon series.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here last week, you're going to see a close connection in this theme that Mark brings out in his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Then he, that is Jesus, returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, to the region of the Decopolis.
SPEAKER_00: And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
SPEAKER_00: And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting, touched his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephha, that is, be opened.
SPEAKER_00: And his ears were opened, and his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus charged them to tell no one.
SPEAKER_00: But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
SPEAKER_00: And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well.
SPEAKER_00: He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Please pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Heal many, physically and spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: May your son continue his ministry in our presence this morning by healing many.
SPEAKER_00: Be it physical or spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be open to what your son wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: By your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am getting better.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the connection between last week's sermon Pastor Josh preached.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you what I was noticing last Sunday when I sat and listened.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a lot of tears in this room.
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of emotion as Pastor Josh preached about what is it like to be a mother in need who has a severe need in her child and begs Jesus to heal.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you can relate to that.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is to plead for your child or to plead for your spouse or to plead for your parents or to plead for your friends, believing that Jesus can heal.
SPEAKER_00: A mother begging Jesus, we saw last week, and no, she was not put off by Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_00: I came to give bread to my people first.
SPEAKER_00: And if she's as she said, well, if I'm a dog, please give me some crumbs that fall from the children's table.
SPEAKER_00: Give me those crumbs.
SPEAKER_00: I need crumbs.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been a place in your place in your life or you're there now where you need a crumb?
SPEAKER_00: You're battling discouragement.
SPEAKER_00: You're battling against hope.
SPEAKER_00: And you just need a crumb.
SPEAKER_00: You ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're there this way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows how to feed his people.
SPEAKER_00: I was taken back to the words of one of my mentors, Jack Miller, his devotional about this.
SPEAKER_00: This Canaanite woman received one tiny word from Jesus, which gave her an opening into the promise.
SPEAKER_00: In that crumb, she found great spiritual power.
SPEAKER_00: How is it then that we Christians have a whole bakery filled with bread that we ignore?
SPEAKER_00: The promises have come and been fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty that Jesus offers us.
SPEAKER_00: Why then do we come up short of that life with no ability to do what he wants us to do at times?
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves leaving a worship service hungry.
SPEAKER_00: As hungry as when we came in.
SPEAKER_00: How do we explain that?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus not here?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus not offering us food?
SPEAKER_00: And not just crumbs.
SPEAKER_00: I love the way that Jack put it.
SPEAKER_00: We come to a whole bakery.
SPEAKER_00: If you leave today, hungry, as hungry as you came, I don't know why you didn't eat.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is here.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows how to feed you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows how to feed me.
SPEAKER_00: But we first of all have to acknowledge our hunger.
SPEAKER_00: That's hard to do.
SPEAKER_00: What's lacking, what this woman had that we often lack was a deep need that she knew that nobody else could meet except Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Her need is what drove her shameless persistence.
SPEAKER_00: Like her, you must be a real peace person, coming to a real God with real needs.
SPEAKER_00: Expecting real answers and real transformation.
SPEAKER_00: You don't hold back until you see those answers.
SPEAKER_00: You persist praying until you receive the crumbs that Jesus wants to give you.
SPEAKER_00: That encouraged me this week.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it might be good for you to hear that too.
SPEAKER_00: This Gentile woman last week, you know what she was?
SPEAKER_00: She was a female Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: You remember when Jacob wrestled with the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will not let go in this wrestling match with the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will not let go until I secure the blessing that I need.
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to pray like that?
SPEAKER_00: What does it look like to believe in the gospel promises that lead us to pray like that?
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon, who learned how to pray much from George Bueller.
SPEAKER_00: Josh quoted George Mueller last week.
SPEAKER_00: These are the books that your leaders have been feeding on for years and years.
SPEAKER_00: It has a lot to do with where this church is right now today.
SPEAKER_00: Your leaders have been sitting down and eating and feeding at these tables of these promises from people like George Mueller, Charles Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: Most of all, most of all, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I meant to bring the book up with me.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot it's in my office, but I'll tell you the power of prayer is that's your summer reading, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The power of prayer by George, excuse me, by Charles Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that he said, I've read that so many times.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that caught my eye the first time I read it, Spurgeon said, I have a license to beg.
SPEAKER_00: What would that look like in your life if you really believed that?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I have a license to beg of God Almighty Himself.
SPEAKER_00: I have been given that license from the Lord Jesus Christ to pray like Christ, to pray in Christ, to pray through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What would your life look like if you actually believed that your God is so good?
SPEAKER_00: He is so faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He is so merciful that he gives you the license and says, use it.
SPEAKER_00: Come in my son's name, but you come for the things that keep you up at night.
SPEAKER_00: You come with the things that distract you and make you anxious in the day.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon said, I have a license to beg.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus goes even deeper into Gentile territory today.
SPEAKER_00: You know where he is right now?
SPEAKER_00: He's in present-day Lebanon in the stories last week and today.
SPEAKER_00: He's in Lebanon.
SPEAKER_00: These are Gentile lands.
SPEAKER_00: These are pagan lands where they did not believe in God, our God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was not afraid to go there.
SPEAKER_00: It seems that he took about a 120-mile hike.
SPEAKER_00: That's a long hike.
SPEAKER_00: To be with people that nobody else wanted to be with.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: He went way out of his way, and last week, we leave offering last week, and he wants to go return back to Galilee, but instead of going this way, kind of a direct route, he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Who does that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he did it for the exercise.
SPEAKER_00: I think he did it because his heart had compassion for people who needed compassion.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think he did it.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to see briefly a prophecy fulfilled, divine power displayed, and praise poured out.
SPEAKER_00: A prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Nate read for us this morning from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Mark alone records this miracle.
SPEAKER_00: You know, many of the stories that we've been seeing in the Bible through the series of Mark are recorded also in Matthew or Luke.
SPEAKER_00: This one alone, Mark records.
SPEAKER_00: Mark getting much of his material, of course, from Peter, an eyewitness.
SPEAKER_00: What prophecy was fulfilled?
SPEAKER_00: There's no, this is an easy one.
SPEAKER_00: This is a layup.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 35.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: You might keep your bullet and your Bible open to that as well.
SPEAKER_00: The healing of this deaf, mute man is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: Looking forward centuries later to the coming Messiah, Jesus comes to this man, and we're going to get into the details of the miracle a little bit later.
SPEAKER_00: The tongue of this man who could not speak clearly links our story to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: In the Septuagint, and you know what the Septuagint was?
SPEAKER_00: That was the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the same word in Mark 7 is used in Isaiah 35.
SPEAKER_00: When Mark quotes the Old Testament to his Roman audience, I love the way commentator James Edwards puts it, these are load-bearing beams.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't really know your Bible, you're going to miss that.
SPEAKER_00: These are load-bearing beams when Jesus takes the prophecies of the Old Testament and he applies them directly in his context and his day as the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 35 basically is the final chapter in the book of Isaiah of God's judgment on Israel and the nations around them.
SPEAKER_00: This word, this Greek word, mogalalas, it signifies the eschatological arrival of the day of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When Isaiah wrote those words over seven centuries before Jesus came, he uses this word that will only be repeated again in the New Testament time when Jesus comes to this man who can't really speak and can't hear.
SPEAKER_00: And he applies it to him.
SPEAKER_00: When the wastelands of Lebanon will receive the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: As we stay current with the news around the world in the Middle East, wasteland seems an apt description of what's going on in that part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: As missiles fly and hit their targets, as buildings are devastated, as the lands are ravaged.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's kind of been like that for a long time in that part of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says the day's coming when there will be peace, there will be shalom even there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Because I came, I am bringing in and building my new kingdom even now, and one day everybody is going to see it.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's going to see it and say, What happened?
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us in Isaiah chapter 35, deserts become gardens.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: By the power of God, deserts can become gardens.
SPEAKER_00: And it's happening all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's happening all over the world.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells us how.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes, deserts will become gardens.
SPEAKER_00: The burning sand, Isaiah 35, the burning sand will become a pool.
SPEAKER_00: You could just stop right there, couldn't you?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever walked on burning sand?
SPEAKER_00: Very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: You can't continue to walk on burning sand, it'll burn your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking about today, and by the way, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: More about that later.
SPEAKER_00: What would it be like for in our lives for the burning sand to become like a pool to soothe, to take away the burning, to bring healing.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to say so much more of Isaiah chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: My bulletin's all marked up.
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot of yellow, I got a lot of red.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many promises in Isaiah chapter 35.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
SPEAKER_00: They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.
SPEAKER_00: He will come and save you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came the first time not to bring judgment, but to bear judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came the first time to walk the burning sand himself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came the first time to enter our wastelands.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came the first time to enter our deserts.
SPEAKER_00: He literally spent much of his time in the desert himself.
SPEAKER_00: He came to bear the judgment of God the Father Himself, so that he could bring us into gardens.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
SPEAKER_00: Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the connection that Jesus is making from Isaiah 35 in Mark 7.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying to this man, you're the man I'm starting with to bring life, to bring a garden into a man whose life has been a desert.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how hard it was for that man.
SPEAKER_00: The word itself means to speak with great difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that he couldn't say anything, but he could hardly be understood because his speech had such impediment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, You're the man.
SPEAKER_00: I came for you.
SPEAKER_00: And many others.
SPEAKER_00: And then later on in Isaiah 35, we're still there, right?
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 35, verse 8, and a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: The unclean shall not pass over it.
SPEAKER_00: It shall belong to those who walk on the way.
SPEAKER_00: Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have read that verse and probably been troubled by that verse.
SPEAKER_00: There's a time in my life where I was.
SPEAKER_00: How can I walk on that?
SPEAKER_00: Can I walk on that highway?
SPEAKER_00: You ever had those thoughts?
SPEAKER_00: You ever raise those questions?
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about you.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the highway to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not how good you are, it's not how bad you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's not how well you think you're doing or how poorly you think you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't Jesus say in the New Testament on the night before his death to his disciples, I am the way, the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody comes to the Father but by me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I am the way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the highway that God gave you to walk on, to bring you into the garden.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is your highway.
SPEAKER_00: Because his record is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the sadness and the pain that we bring to ourselves when we forget that and we think that, no, I have to do this.
SPEAKER_00: I have to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what's on either side of that highway?
SPEAKER_00: Swamps.
SPEAKER_00: There are swamps on either side of that highway.
SPEAKER_00: And when we think, if you think that this is about your moral record, if you think this is about how strong your devotional life is, if you think this is about how well you think you're serving in the church, if you think it's about these things, you're going to be in the swamps.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to find yourself vacillating back and forth in your life between pride when you think you're doing well and despair when you know you're not.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is that Jesus is the way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the highway.
SPEAKER_00: And you keep your eyes on Jesus, and you won't fall into the swamps.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he's telling us in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, and the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.
SPEAKER_00: Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.
SPEAKER_00: The ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
SPEAKER_00: The mute tongue will shout for joy.
SPEAKER_00: These physical healings will authenticate Jesus' identity as the promised Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: These are his credentials.
SPEAKER_00: These are the credentials of Jesus every time.
SPEAKER_00: Is it smacking us in the face like week after week as we go through the Gospel of Mark?
SPEAKER_00: If it's not, you're asleep.
SPEAKER_00: It's right in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has power that no one else has.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can heal like no one can heal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can forgive like no one can forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is God.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just a miracle worker.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't just a good man, a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: He was God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why he had such power.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we see these mind blowing healings and transformations.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Commentator James Edwards says the only categories adequate for Mark to describe the person and the work of Jesus are ultimately the categories of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we see divine power displayed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus takes this man aside and he puts his fingers into the man's ears.
SPEAKER_00: A man who could not hear.
SPEAKER_00: Could he ever hear?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't hear anything.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus puts his fingers in the man's ears and then he spits.
SPEAKER_00: Probably on his own fingers, Jesus' own fingers.
SPEAKER_00: And then he puts the saliva on the man's tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And then he looks up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And then what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He sighs.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he sigh?
SPEAKER_00: How do we explain the sigh of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is he bored?
SPEAKER_00: Is he mad at the guy?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a sigh of disgust, like sometimes our sighs might be?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a sigh of frustration?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a sigh of, oh, do you guys not get it?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This was a sigh of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is grieving over this man's condition.
SPEAKER_00: He understands this man's suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And he sympathizes with his suffering, which is what Christians are called to do as well.
SPEAKER_00: But I think he also understands the suffering required of him to relieve our sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: I say, I think Jesus sees the cross looming, looming in the future.
SPEAKER_00: In order to alleviate this man of his suffering, Jesus knows full well I will have to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: I can't just wave my hand.
SPEAKER_00: I have to offer my body to a real cross, to a real death, so that real life can be imparted to people in suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other religion like Christianity, where we see the heart of God on display like this.
SPEAKER_00: We see the compassion of Jesus up front and close.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other religion like Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus spoke.
SPEAKER_00: His ears were opened, his tongue was released.
SPEAKER_00: This man who could hardly talk.
SPEAKER_00: The text says he spoke with great difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: In the original language, this was more vivid and concrete.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means literally.
SPEAKER_00: The chains of his tongue was broken.
SPEAKER_00: A chain or a fetter that binds a prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is saying with this language, this man has been a prisoner all of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's been a prisoner in his physical suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He's been a prisoner in his spiritual suffering.
SPEAKER_00: This man has been a prisoner all of his life, and I'm going to speak because my word has power.
SPEAKER_00: I spoke the world into existence.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, to the work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speak, and this man's life is going to be changed forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is still speaking.
SPEAKER_00: He's not speaking at this point the world into existence, but he's speaking life and healing into existence in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: What's that word mean?
SPEAKER_00: The chain was broken.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to break the chains that bind us, whether it be our tongues, our ears, or our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus not only gives us new bodies, one day he will.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: If you can't hear, if the word of God is not coming alive in your heart by the Spirit of God, you can't hear spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: And things are going to continue to bounce off of you.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to wonder why all these other people seem to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Why do they have something that you don't have and you don't get it?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to do something about that.
SPEAKER_00: In the first place he starts is with your ears.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can actually hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the word of God speaks to my heart and it softens my heart and it enlightens my mind to understand.
SPEAKER_00: So I want the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have the physician in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Could you even say today, would you dare say today, Jesus, would you please open my ears to hear what I've not been hearing?
SPEAKER_00: Would you dare pray that?
SPEAKER_00: It takes courage.
SPEAKER_00: It takes faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul said to the Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and deep conviction.
SPEAKER_00: May that be said about Alexandria Presbyterian Church.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel came to us not simply with words, but with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction.
SPEAKER_00: If your heart cannot be cut by God's sword, God's word, you have a very hard heart.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus wants to do something about that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to soften your heart so you can hear God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can love God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So that you can be transformed by God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, as we close, we also see praise being poured out.
SPEAKER_00: Back to Isaiah chapter 35, verse 6, the mute tongue will shout for joy.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's ransomed will enter Zion singing.
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about that this week.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think anybody's going to heaven who didn't sing well on earth?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Makes you wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think if on earth you can't really sing from your heart and praise to God, do you think you're going to be in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't save people.
SPEAKER_00: Just to hear them grumble or complain.
SPEAKER_00: Or be stoned, statues, and worship.
SPEAKER_00: When his grace touches you, you open up.
SPEAKER_00: When his truth reaches your heart, you soften up.
SPEAKER_00: And your lips open up.
SPEAKER_00: And you start to praise in a different way.
SPEAKER_00: We witness this here every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I've said it before, I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: I love the way that the architect designed this sanctuary for the acoustics.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just happen because of the acoustics.
SPEAKER_00: It happens because people's hearts are being transformed by the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about the interviews we had this week.
SPEAKER_00: The elders sat down and new members are going to receive next week.
SPEAKER_00: I think, I think of the tears that we witnessed this past week.
SPEAKER_00: I think of, I think of people who have walked with Jesus Christ for many years, who testify that it's only been in recent days that the joy of the Lord has come into their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That they, as one person put it, one lady put it, I love the way that you always are talking at this church is talking about a God who delights in us, a God who loves us deeply.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just telling us the rules.
SPEAKER_00: Until recently.
SPEAKER_00: And what do they say?
SPEAKER_00: That's quite a report.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to listen to me very carefully because you might not have missed this.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: What did God say when he made this world?
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's better than good.
SPEAKER_00: It's perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Until we messed it up.
SPEAKER_00: What did Jesus say on the cross?
SPEAKER_00: It is finished.
SPEAKER_00: It's good.
SPEAKER_00: The work that I've done on the cross for you is good.
SPEAKER_00: It's sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: It's efficient.
SPEAKER_00: Here's where we get stuck.
SPEAKER_00: We Christians, all right?
SPEAKER_00: What about we could say about God's providence in our life?
SPEAKER_00: Can we say tonight?
SPEAKER_00: Can you say right now?
SPEAKER_00: God does all things well.
SPEAKER_00: We can choke on that one, can't we?
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest.
SPEAKER_00: Why I'm really struggling with this chapter in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really struggling with what's going on in the details and the circumstances of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: It's confusing, and I'm questioning God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Does he really do all things well?
SPEAKER_00: Then please explain this chapter in my story.
SPEAKER_00: And I certainly acknowledge that it can be confusing, it can be hard, and it can lead us to lament.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, all of those things.
SPEAKER_00: But hear me.
SPEAKER_00: His providence in your life is done well.
SPEAKER_00: All things well.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I understand if you need to lament, lament.
SPEAKER_00: But he still does all things well.
SPEAKER_00: He'll hold your broken heart.
SPEAKER_00: He does all things well.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to close in a few minutes with a hymn that many of us know, O for a thousand tongues to sing.
SPEAKER_00: You know it was written by Charles Wesley.
SPEAKER_00: This was written 11 years after his conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Dramatic conversion after years and years thinking he was a Christian, but he wasn't a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's still true of a lot of people today.
SPEAKER_00: We've received many members into this church.
SPEAKER_00: The elders have examined many people who thought they were Christians that realized that they weren't Christians.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have we heard that story, Brian?
SPEAKER_00: And then they meet the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That was Charles Wesley.
SPEAKER_00: He was a missionary before he became a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: He went from England to the Carolinas and he wasn't a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: He knew more Bible than you'll ever know.
SPEAKER_00: He went to more prayer meetings than many of us will ever go to.
SPEAKER_00: You can have all of that and miss this.
SPEAKER_00: And he caught it.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit gave him a new heart at Aldersgate Chapel.
SPEAKER_00: And 11 years later, this is what happened.
SPEAKER_00: A Moravian leader named Peter Bowler was talking about the joy he had in Jesus, and he said, Oh, Brother Wesley, the Lord has done so much for my life.
SPEAKER_00: If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Jesus Christ with every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: And Wesley wrote a new hymn.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, for a thousand tongues.
SPEAKER_00: He breaks the power of canceled sin.
SPEAKER_00: He sets the prisoner free.
SPEAKER_00: His blood can make the foulest clean.
SPEAKER_00: His blood availed for me.
SPEAKER_00: Hear him, ye deaf.
SPEAKER_00: His praise, ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ.
SPEAKER_00: Ye blind, behold your Savior come and leap, ye lame, for joy.
SPEAKER_00: You may not be able to write a song like that, but you can sing a song like that if Jesus isn't working in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I saw it this week in vacation Bible school.
SPEAKER_00: I saw it.
SPEAKER_00: May these children never lose their joy.
SPEAKER_00: May these joy children never lose their praise.
SPEAKER_00: May it be contagious to some of us adults.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get all stiff.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get all, you know, in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just live in your head.
SPEAKER_00: You have a heart, too, that Jesus wants to touch.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to heal.
SPEAKER_00: So we sing out the praises of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Are there chains that need to be broken in your life today?
SPEAKER_00: Pride, unbelief, lust, an unforgiving heart.
SPEAKER_00: Going through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: We have one who knows what to do with us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to him right now.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come.
SPEAKER_00: We come as beggars.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus, we have a license to beg.
SPEAKER_00: So, Jesus, please, would you do it again?
SPEAKER_00: What you've done countless times, not only with this man.
SPEAKER_00: You've done this countless times.
SPEAKER_00: Would you loosen our tongues?
SPEAKER_00: Would you unstop our ears spiritually?
SPEAKER_00: Would you give us a soft heart to believe this gospel?
SPEAKER_00: The good news.
SPEAKER_00: May our lips pour out praise from our hearts to you alone, Master, Savior, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.