SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Chase after Jesus Church.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to give you, starting today, if you've never prayed it before, Lord, I want to sanctify dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: I'm content in you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm content with who you are.
SPEAKER_01: I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you more.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want more.
SPEAKER_01: I want more.
SPEAKER_01: I want visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I want to see healing.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want to see you use me in a mighty way to lead people to crime.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I want to note your word.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Matthew 9.
SPEAKER_01: We, you know, I'm so I'm so excited about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus is like the coolest guy.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and I signed up to follow Jesus a long time ago because I got fascinated with this adventure of following Him and loving Him and knowing Him and experiencing Him in my life.
SPEAKER_01: And it was so different than the religion I grew up in.
SPEAKER_01: It was so different than the church background that I had.
SPEAKER_01: I was, I was, I was actually angry for a while that no one had presented to me an authentic, intimate, growing, powerful, passionate relationship with God that I could have versus just coming to church, sitting in a pew, and going through kind of this rote memory kind of service that we went through, and I didn't get anything out of it.
SPEAKER_01: But then I got born again.
SPEAKER_01: And I got fascinated with the with the man Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The glorious man, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Say the glorious man, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The glorious man, Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I was fascinated with who he was and what he did.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at Matthew 9.
SPEAKER_01: We we covered this last week.
SPEAKER_01: And for you that are guests with us, we go chapter by chapter and verse by verse through the Bible, and we are in the book of Matthew, and we're fought, we're on this road with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And look at Matthew 9, 15.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, starting at 16.
SPEAKER_01: No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse.
SPEAKER_01: Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined, but they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.
SPEAKER_01: Now I shared at the end of the service last week, and I just want to start here, that we have tended, and I think there's total validity to do this, to relate this to the church as a whole and movements of God.
SPEAKER_01: When God pours out new wine on the church at large, you'll see services change.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see churches actually alter.
SPEAKER_01: Like right now, you have a band up front.
SPEAKER_01: And 25 years ago in most churches, you would have had a hymnal, you know, and then it went to overhead projector, and now we have video, and it's all kinds of cool stuff we do now.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just changed with the times because the wine skin has changed with the new move of the spirit in the wine.
SPEAKER_01: But don't get mixed up with structure taking the place of the essence of what it's all about.
SPEAKER_01: Because it really doesn't, the structure really doesn't matter as much as the essence of the new wine being poured out.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I wanted to say to start today is that this happens in our own lives.
SPEAKER_01: This needs to happen in your own life.
SPEAKER_01: That you, by becoming, and I want you to jot this down, sanctified dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Write down sanctified or holy dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, Paul says that he was content in all circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: He was content with being abased, and he was content in abounding.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so put contentment over here, but then there's this other aspect of seeking first the kingdom of God that we're commanded to do.
SPEAKER_01: And we're all through scripture, we're commanded to seek God while he may be found, right?
SPEAKER_01: So there's a constant seeking our whole life, even as we're content with what God and who God is in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And the story we're about to follow here is a set of circumstances in Matthew 9 where Jesus runs into sanctified, dissatisfied people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gravitates toward people who are not satisfied with the status quo.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're staying satisfied with the status quo, you're not gonna experience any miracles in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're not.
SPEAKER_01: Just not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may experience it through other people who have a holy dissatisfaction and you're hanging out with them and you rejoice with them, but if you personally want to experience a mighty move of God in your heart, you've got to ask God, God, make me desire more.
SPEAKER_01: I want more.
SPEAKER_01: I am not going to settle.
SPEAKER_01: So that new wine, when you start praying that, listen now.
SPEAKER_01: If you want new wine, you've got to have a new wineskin.
SPEAKER_01: And the new wineskin, as I'm defining it here, is rituals in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You have to change the rituals in your life and set yourself up for God to speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you never open God's word and you come to church on Sunday morning and you say to the Lord, Lord, I want a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, God, I need you to heal me, and yet you just keep doing that, and yet nothing changes in your interaction with God's word, which is where faith comes from.
SPEAKER_01: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, it's just not because you're not following the rituals of God.
SPEAKER_01: God gives us rituals.
SPEAKER_01: Another word is habits, powerful habits in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we seek God, sometimes you've got to change those habits in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So, like Liz and I, we've we've fasted and prayed every Monday for 30 plus years.
SPEAKER_01: We just pray for our family.
SPEAKER_01: We fast and pray every Monday.
SPEAKER_01: That's a ritual we developed in a time of need many, many years ago, three decades ago, that we still follow because that sets us up to receive new wine.
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: So you guys, we all know this to be true.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in athletics, if you want to be a great pitcher, you gotta pitch.
SPEAKER_01: And you get a pitching coach.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a great hitter, you go to the batting cages.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be a great football player, you run sprints.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've got to you can't get to new wine without new rituals and new habits in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So what we're looking at here, it's like amazing.
SPEAKER_01: One story after another, and and Matthew, remember, he his name was Levi.
SPEAKER_01: He was Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Religious.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody was gonna name their kid Levi, who probably didn't come out of a Jewish, religious, pretty religiously orthodox home, and he had rebelled and become a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about him last week.
SPEAKER_01: But he's writing this book.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what's fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: This religious guy named Levi, who becomes Matthew, who was a tax collector, is the guy who writes this book 99 references to the Old Testament in the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So he became one who had re who had rejected his religious faith, his Jewish faith, to become a tax collector and a friend of the Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Gets saved by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He gets born again, and then the Holy Spirit speaks to him to write a chronology of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He does, and he gives us 99, more than any of the other gospels, 99 references to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: That says to me, he changed, he got the new wine, he changed the rituals in his life, and he became maybe the greatest student outside of the Apostle Paul of all the other apostles.
SPEAKER_01: So don't limit what God can do in your life today and tomorrow because of what he's done in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Or not done in the past because you weren't available to be transformed by him.
SPEAKER_01: And so Matthew, who had become a wealthy guy probably, he was a tax collector.
SPEAKER_01: He changed the rituals of his life.
SPEAKER_01: God changed him.
SPEAKER_01: He writes the book of Matthew, 99 references of scripture here.
SPEAKER_01: This guy became a student of the word, the very word that he had rejected before Christ came into his life.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room are scholars.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, some of you in this room have the head of a scholar.
SPEAKER_01: And if you match the head of a scholar with the heart of a disciple, you'll be mightily used by God.
SPEAKER_01: We have kids down below this floor right now in children's ministry that have hearts and heads on fire for God.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting fired up, and we have this great responsibility to nurture that and to pave that way with new wine and new wineskins, even as they're so young.
SPEAKER_01: That's exciting.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at what happens.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus comes back to Capernaum, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: While he spoke all these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is Jarius.
SPEAKER_01: So in Luke, this is Jarius.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, he's a synagogue official.
SPEAKER_01: Now, jot this down.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget this.
SPEAKER_01: If your religion can't work in everyday life, all it is is a theory.
SPEAKER_01: All it is, listen, is superstition.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of superstitious Christians out there.
SPEAKER_01: They're living in this superstitious world.
SPEAKER_01: They got saved when they were six or whatever, and they're no different than anybody else.
SPEAKER_01: And when real problems come, they act just like everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: They have no faith, they have no anointing, and they have no power.
SPEAKER_01: This guy, Jarius, is, if we compare this to Luke and to Mark, is a religious man.
SPEAKER_01: He is an official of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody knows Jarius.
SPEAKER_01: His daughter is dead, he doesn't know what to do, his Jewish religion doesn't do him any good, but he knows about Jesus and he comes after him.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus responds to holy dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: God always responds to sanctified dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: And Jarius has been watching Jesus come through town, probably watching him even heal in his synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: And he knows the answer to the death of his beautiful, precious daughter is Jesus laying hands on her.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, suddenly, that's a that's a marking term.
SPEAKER_01: Mark uses it suddenly a lot, but here Matthew wants us to get this idea of suddenly a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years came from behind and touched the hem of his garment.
SPEAKER_01: So get the picture.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, he's sitting down, probably.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's even teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jarius comes, tells him his daughter's dead.
SPEAKER_01: He gets up.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: He follows Jarius.
SPEAKER_01: He follows Jarius, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus follows people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about following Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: But if we come to him, he comes to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus follows him.
SPEAKER_01: A crowd begins to develop, and what a contrast in just these three verses.
SPEAKER_01: So here you have probably a wealthy ruler, very religious, synagogue official, man.
SPEAKER_01: Now you have a woman who we know from Luke has given all of her finances, everything that she has, to see doctors and not been healed.
SPEAKER_01: So she's poor and she's unclean.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just think this is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So Jarius is probably the synagogue official, I mean, he could have been, who said you're unclean, because she had internal bleeding.
SPEAKER_01: And we know from Leviticus 15 that makes her unclean.
SPEAKER_01: So she's unclean.
SPEAKER_01: So she can't touch anyone.
SPEAKER_01: She's like a leper on a different category, but she's like a leper.
SPEAKER_01: She's unclean.
SPEAKER_01: Jarius may have been the one who said, You're unclean.
SPEAKER_01: You can't come to the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: You can't hang out with people.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be touched by her.
SPEAKER_01: And then she works her way through the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: This big crowd's going, hey, Jesus is gonna heal Jarius' daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: She's dead, man.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go check it out.
SPEAKER_01: So this big crowd begins, and they're all pressing in.
SPEAKER_01: Luke says that everybody was pressing in.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Luke, it says, he felt power come from inside of him out to her when she touches the hem of his garment.
SPEAKER_01: Think about Jarius.
SPEAKER_01: So Jarius is going along, he's right there.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, it's the unclean lady.
SPEAKER_01: And then she touches him.
SPEAKER_01: She's not supposed to touch anything.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus responds to her, and everybody else is touching him too.
SPEAKER_01: But he responds to her.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it was a touch of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Touch of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Church.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be a church where we have touches of faith when we come up here for prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I want our ministry team to believe that when they lay hands on you, they have faith to believe healing could come.
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't heal, God heals, so we don't, everybody that comes up here doesn't get healed.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people do.
SPEAKER_01: But a lot of people don't.
SPEAKER_01: That's not our responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Our responsibility is not to get people healed.
SPEAKER_01: Our responsibility is to give God the opportunity through our faith to do what he wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God's not ready to heal you because you still have unforgiveness in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_01: And the healing is releasing forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And then you're going to get physically healed.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_01: So the irony is not lost here.
SPEAKER_01: Jarius and an unclean woman, all maybe within 10 yards of each other.
SPEAKER_01: He is abhorring that.
SPEAKER_01: He's a religious man.
SPEAKER_01: Ah! Her, not anybody but her.
SPEAKER_01: But look what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: And he always says this to you.
SPEAKER_01: You come to him in faith, Jesus says this to you.
SPEAKER_01: For she said to herself, if only I may touch his garment, I shall be made well.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus turned around.
SPEAKER_01: And when he saw her, he said, Be of good cheer, daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith, your faith, your dis your wholly dissatisfacted faith, your your sanctified dissatisfaction for where you're at.
SPEAKER_01: That faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_01: And the woman was made well that very hour.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa! So the bleeding stopped.
SPEAKER_01: Not, listen, not because Jesus laid hands on her, but because she laid hands on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Go after Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Chase after Jesus, church.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to give you, starting today, if you've never prayed it before, Lord, I want to sanctify dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: I'm content in you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm content with who you are.
SPEAKER_01: I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I bless you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But God, I want more.
SPEAKER_01: I want more.
SPEAKER_01: I want visions and dreams.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I want to see healings.
SPEAKER_01: God, I want to see you use me in a mighty way to lead people to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Oh God, I want to know your word.
SPEAKER_01: I want to love your word.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be able to give the word to my kids.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know much, but God, would you show me how to teach and raise up my kids to be holy, wholehearted, winsome, powerful, devoted disciples of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Show me how, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Guide me, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because we get tired, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: We get tired, we get weary, we feel like our prayers aren't being answered, and there's an answer to that coming up.
SPEAKER_01: But in this crowd, let me just say this: this is a crowd of people that are all pressing in on Jesus, and nobody is touching Jesus by faith except one woman.
SPEAKER_01: One woman has that faith.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, guys, that's the way it is in Christianity, too.
SPEAKER_01: Most Christians do not want more of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They just want fire insurance.
SPEAKER_01: They just want to make sure they're not going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: So I did my little prayer thing.
SPEAKER_01: And then they do like everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying that that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, better than going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say that.
SPEAKER_01: It is better than going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Go to heaven, great.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to get heaven down here before I go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way I know to do that is to be wholly dissatisfied.
SPEAKER_01: To have a sanctified dissatisfaction in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Say, God, stir it up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Paul said to Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Stir up the gift that's in you.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of you are gifted in unique and special ways with natural talents, acquired skills, and spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Acquired skills, natural talents, and spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: It's not all spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_01: It's also natural talents and it's also acquired skills.
SPEAKER_01: And so get educated, get smart, man.
SPEAKER_01: Go to school.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like you're called to be an electrician, then start apprenticing.
SPEAKER_01: Become a journeyman electrician.
SPEAKER_01: If you're called to be a mechanic, hang around with the best mechanics.
SPEAKER_01: If you're called to be a lawyer, go to law school.
SPEAKER_01: If you're called to be a pastor, get trained, get equipped.
SPEAKER_01: David was noticed for his skill before he was noted for his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And a man who becomes skilled in what he does will stand before kings, Proverbs says.
SPEAKER_01: And so and so this dissatisfaction for more pronounces itself upon a ruler and a woman.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, now listen to this story.
SPEAKER_01: This is really it really gets murky now.
SPEAKER_01: And he sees flute players and the noisy crowd wailing.
SPEAKER_01: These are professional wailers.
SPEAKER_01: They are.
SPEAKER_01: In the Middle East at that time, you paid people to mourn at your funeral.
SPEAKER_01: They've already started it.
SPEAKER_01: They've already got flute players.
SPEAKER_01: They got a band.
SPEAKER_01: They got a band that's in there mourning.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful who you hang out with.
SPEAKER_01: There are people on this earth right now that are professional mourners.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you hang out with them.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you start to have faith, oh, that's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I tried that.
SPEAKER_01: I used to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I when I pray nothing happened.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe you're doing that.
SPEAKER_01: You're tithing?
SPEAKER_01: You're giving 10% of your money away to the Lord's work, to the church.
SPEAKER_01: Are you crazy?
SPEAKER_01: Are you nuts?
SPEAKER_01: They're professional mourners.
SPEAKER_01: Run as fast as you can from professional mourners.
SPEAKER_01: They will pull you down.
SPEAKER_01: It's really a bummer when it's your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is a bummer, I have to admit.
SPEAKER_01: That's definitely not my case.
SPEAKER_01: I get, I'm the per compared to my wife, I'm a professional mourner.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's got way more faith than me.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not saying divorce your husband or your wife.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, let your faith, I mean, very clear in scripture that our faith can actually win over our spouse and they'll be saved through you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the people you hang out with that are professional mourners.
SPEAKER_01: They just, when you get it, when you come up to them, they're like Hoover, they're like a Hoover or an auric vacuum.
SPEAKER_01: And you when you get really close to them, they take that vacuum thing and they hook it up to your heart and they just suck out all your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Get away from them, man.
SPEAKER_01: They're called joy suckers.
SPEAKER_01: There's joy suckers.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a joy sucker, repent today.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a time for prayer up here.
SPEAKER_01: You need all the joy suckers in the room.
SPEAKER_01: There's a few of you.
SPEAKER_01: I've met you.
SPEAKER_01: Um you need to come and be delivered of the demon of joy sucking.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't like that.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're trying to grow, man.
SPEAKER_01: And you're not gonna have any friends.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna have any friends.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, you're a joysucker.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm instructing everybody that's a member of this church, run away from joysuckers unless you're married to them, and then change them by praying blessings on them until they get converted.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: All right, raise your hand if you tend to, okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'm raising my hand.
SPEAKER_01: Tend to be a kind of you kind of on the spectrum, you kind of are over on the joysucker side.
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: All right, there's some honest people in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Repent.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God is come, kingdom of heaven is here.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: He says she's not dead, she's sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: So I say to you, joysuckers out there, you're not dead, you're sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: God can wake you up today.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! Wake you up.
SPEAKER_01: All the joysuckers in this room, Lord, wake them up.
SPEAKER_01: Wake them up.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody say, wake up.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: I like that response.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: But when the crowd was put outside, verse 25, because Jesus doesn't like joysuckers either.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't, man.
SPEAKER_01: He went in and he took her by the hand and the girl arose.
SPEAKER_01: And the report of this went out into all the land.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at this story in Luke, he casts them all out, he gets them out of there, he takes people of faith with him and raise her up.
SPEAKER_01: Hang out with people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you hang out too often with joysuckers, you'll become a joysucker yourself.
SPEAKER_01: If you hang out with people who instill and empower faith in you because of their testimony and because of their present tense testimony with God, you'll start to grow.
SPEAKER_01: You are the average of the four people you hang out with the most.
SPEAKER_01: So hang out.
SPEAKER_01: We only have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, and about 75 to 85 years on this earth.
SPEAKER_01: Why not make every day really count by hanging out with people that when you get finished being with them, you're like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have that kind of faith, but I want that kind of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of gets you a little bit, a little bit sanctified, dissatisfied with your life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of people I want to hang out with anyway.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, saying, Son of David, have mercy on us.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I'm able to do this?
SPEAKER_01: They said, Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Then he touched their eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He said, According to your faith, let it be done to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, listen.
SPEAKER_01: We got Jarius, whose daughter is dead, and he's got this sanctified dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Then you have a woman who's struggled, giving all her money to physicians, taking pill after pill and potion after potion, and she can't get better, and she's got sanctified dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: Now you got two blind guys who evidently have been blind maybe a pretty long time because they can get around.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed how people who are blind learn to get around when they've been blind a long time, kind of know where things are.
SPEAKER_01: So they I think they've been blind a long time, maybe been born blind.
SPEAKER_01: And then you got all these people that are healthy.
SPEAKER_01: This is the irony of the whole thing to me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's all these people, they're pretty healthy, they've got families, they're in Capernaum, they probably attend the synagogue and all that, and they're professional mourners.
SPEAKER_01: And then you got two blind guys who can't even see, and they want Jesus, and they get healed.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Hang out with people who have a present tense testimony, not a past tense testimony.
SPEAKER_01: I love to hear the testimonies of when people get saved.
SPEAKER_01: Don't I never get tired of that.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: But I want a present-tense testimony.
SPEAKER_01: I want God doing stuff today.
SPEAKER_01: I want God doing stuff this week.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to ask that God do something this week in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_01: God, use me at my job.
SPEAKER_01: God, use me powerfully in my family.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm gonna change some rituals in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna change some things up, and I'm gonna get up early.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna spend some time with you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start exercising spiritually and physically.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get myself ready, and then I'm expecting a miracle this week.
SPEAKER_01: I'm expecting you to do something.
SPEAKER_01: It will rock your world, even if nothing happens this week.
SPEAKER_01: Something will probably happen the next week.
SPEAKER_01: Because as God moves in our lives and gives us that sanctified dissatisfaction in our heart, your faith is gonna grow.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith is gonna grow.
SPEAKER_01: So these two guys, listen to this, these two guys get healed.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you three things.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought of this.
SPEAKER_01: Three things about faith here.
SPEAKER_01: Just jot these down.
SPEAKER_01: Three things about faith.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he says here, um, according to your faith, let it be done to you.
SPEAKER_01: According to your faith.
SPEAKER_01: So what does he mean?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think he means.
SPEAKER_01: He means that there's something of a correlation with a proportion of our trust in and obedience in God that blesses us.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here in your faith, then kind of your blessings will be here.
SPEAKER_01: But as it starts to grow, that gets transformed.
SPEAKER_01: So here's three things.
SPEAKER_01: One, everybody has a measure of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 12, 3 says that everyone has a measure of faith.
SPEAKER_01: So don't say to me or to anyone, I don't have any faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may not have any faith about something, that's because your measure of faith isn't there yet.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be bummed out about it.
SPEAKER_01: Just start growing it.
SPEAKER_01: So, secondly, build on your measure of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, everyone can build their faith up with wherever they start.
SPEAKER_01: And it's true, some start here and some start there.
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen it?
SPEAKER_01: See, this is why, this is why discipling kids is so important in this church.
SPEAKER_01: It's because what we're trying to do with these, with these six-year-olds and these four-year-olds, and these eight-year-olds is I, and I like it when they're not my kids.
SPEAKER_01: I get, you know, I'm with my kids all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I do.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know their tendencies.
SPEAKER_01: There's something special about when, because when I was before, when I was in seminary, I I was, every second week, Liz and I volunteered in the children's ministry at the Anaheim Vineyard.
SPEAKER_01: So we'd be down there.
SPEAKER_01: And I love being with these little kids.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who's, I don't know their last names, I don't know who they are, but I could see the sparkle in the eyes of some of these kids that they had faith.
SPEAKER_01: There was something great happening in them, and I wanted to get a hold of them the little bit of time I had before the world got a hold of them.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know the world wants to destroy the faith of your kids?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know the world wants to destroy your faith?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that the news wants to destroy your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Guess who the professional mourners are right now?
SPEAKER_01: They're called TV anchors.
SPEAKER_01: They're called cable news anchors on the news.
SPEAKER_01: They mean you know a professional mourner.
SPEAKER_01: They get so happy about all the bad things happening because it's bringing viewership up.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I remember that um when we first started um Mountain Springs, there was a paper that was trying to get off the ground called, I don't know if y'all remember it, called the Positive B.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was called the bunch of articles on me.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, because they were looking for positive articles, they wanted positive stuff, and it went defunct, it went under because people buy newspapers for negative news.
SPEAKER_01: Quit buying the paper if that's what you're fascinated by.
SPEAKER_01: It'll just destroy your faith.
SPEAKER_01: So, so what happens here is you get these guys, these two guys, have faith, and then thirdly, let me say, okay, third, third thing.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing is this.
SPEAKER_01: So, first, you have a measure of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Second, you can build up your faith mainly through God's word, through the promises of God, but then thirdly, you will get more faith as you trust God more.
SPEAKER_01: So, if I say to you, you just told me that you struggle with alcohol, you get drunk a lot, and Friday and Saturday nights are your worst times, and but you want to get set free from alcohol, you want to get set free.
SPEAKER_01: Then I would say to you, okay, why?
SPEAKER_01: And then jot it down.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's a prayer that you can start to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a group that you should get involved in with present tense testimonies of blood-stained allies that you can hang out with, and I promise you, if you'll do those things over the next several months, God's gonna transform you.
SPEAKER_01: He will.
SPEAKER_01: So you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: So it's a measure of faith, you build up your faith, but then the next level is you changing your wine skin to let the new wine in by new rituals in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to figure out something better to do on Friday night.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just say, I'm not gonna get drunk, I'm not gonna get drunk, I'm not gonna, I'm not an alcoholic, I'm not an alcoholic, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: No, you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic, but you are beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You are a wholehearted disciple of Jesus now.
SPEAKER_01: Live it.
SPEAKER_01: So Friday night, go to a prayer meeting, get involved in a small group.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you hear what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: So you start going after stuff, positive stuff, not commiserating over the negative.
SPEAKER_01: Because then it makes you think more about it.
SPEAKER_01: Not good, bad.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: They went out, behold, they brought him as a man, mute and demon-possessed.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke, and the multitudes marveled, saying, Never seen anything like this in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Pharisees said, he cast out demons by the ruler of the demons.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, guys, religion always tries to stop a mighty move of God.
SPEAKER_01: Religion will always try to stop a mighty move of God.
SPEAKER_01: If and when, and I think it's when, God really begins to move in this church, and hundreds are getting saved.
SPEAKER_01: Watch the religious freak out.
SPEAKER_01: Because it won't be, it won't be the way you think it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: Like people walk up, I want to get baptized, and they're like perfect and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And the next Sunday they're like wearing a coat and tie or something, you know?
SPEAKER_01: They come down.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, have a nice church, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Get people baptized.
SPEAKER_01: No, people get baptized because they're screwed up.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: After you get baptized, you're still screwed up.
SPEAKER_01: It takes time to disciple sin out of people's lives, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Did it take time in your life?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, I love the testimonies of boom, boom, 180, change, transform.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how that happens.
SPEAKER_01: But most of the time it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time you have to get discipled.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus said, go and make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Not converts.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested in converts, I'm interested in disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now you got to get converted first, but conversion has to lead to discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus went about all the cities and all the villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
SPEAKER_01: But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to his disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labors are few.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, he lives it, he does it, he shows us what matters to him.
SPEAKER_01: It really does matter to you physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: He cares about all that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, just think about it, the Savior could have come and never healed anybody, but just preached the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But but rather, he was a leader, he was a savior of word and deed.
SPEAKER_01: And we're supposed to be people of word and deed.
SPEAKER_01: We're to heal the sick, we're to feed the hungry, we're to reach out to those in need, we're to we're to we're to care for those people that God puts in our lives with love and compassion because that's what Jesus saw.
SPEAKER_01: He had a compassion, he had a heart for those around him.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what's so cool is that Jesus loves those most who are full of a passion, of a need, and an understanding they can't do it without him.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctified dissatisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
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SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.