SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles with you, would you turn with me to Mark chapter 7?
SPEAKER_00: We're going through the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the title?
SPEAKER_00: Messy Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have some messes in your life?
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have them, then you're not really living.
SPEAKER_00: You should be having some messes.
SPEAKER_00: Life is messy.
SPEAKER_00: Relationships are messy because people are messy.
SPEAKER_00: And it was no different in the time of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we've been marching through this messy gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: And you may recall from the last few weeks that it seems like every time Jesus does a miracle, the Pharisees show up.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Pharisees show up, they've got an issue with everything Jesus does because, folks, listen, religion is antithetical to the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: The power of God does not work through religion.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the greatest strategies of the enemy in church history.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk about this in Windstorm.
SPEAKER_00: Every time there's a great move of God, there is a counter move of the church against it.
SPEAKER_00: I had the privilege years ago of being a part of the vineyard movement in Anaheim, California.
SPEAKER_00: And through sovereign work of God, I became the assistant to the pioneer and the apostolic leader of the vineyard, John Wimber.
SPEAKER_00: And to see the letters that I got that I had to answer for him from evangelical leaders, just crucifying the guy, just full of lies and innuendos was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, guys, when you sign up to be a worshiper and a warrior, when you sign up to follow Christ and be a wholehearted disciple, you will have counterattacks from the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Just count on it.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't want that, then just stay safe in the little religious box of doing everything that everybody says, and don't step out of that.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you do, the devil's gonna nail you.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to attack you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we follow up here in Mark chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is doing signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is healing the sick.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is doing supernatural stuff left and right.
SPEAKER_00: And we pick it up because religion's right around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 7, 24.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we left it last week.
SPEAKER_00: From there he arose and he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
SPEAKER_00: And he entered a house and he wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one of the things we see.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in his work is now gathering, some scholars believe somewhere around 50,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever Jesus preaches, somewhere between 30 and 50,000 people are following him and listening to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he does not want to be known.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's trying to stay hidden.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to be known too quickly.
SPEAKER_00: He's fighting the popularity that's pressing in on him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_00: This is really important.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be sports or whether it be religion, be careful with what people say about you.
SPEAKER_00: Our heads can get so big, so quick, you can't even get through a doorway, and you haven't even done anything.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has significantly done stuff, and he's trying to stay hidden.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with popularity.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with reading your own headlines.
SPEAKER_00: I would say this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't receive too much of the applause of men, listen, but don't receive too much of the criticism of men either.
SPEAKER_00: There's an element of truth in both, and there's an element of a lie in both.
SPEAKER_00: And so be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is hiding out, but he goes to Tyre and Sedon, which is there on the coast.
SPEAKER_00: It's the northern coast up from Israel along the Mediterranean.
SPEAKER_00: For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing like our family being attacked by the enemy to get our heart's attention.
SPEAKER_00: She's not a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: She's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: And she came and she fell at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: The woman was a Greek, so she's not a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: She's a Syrophonician by birth.
SPEAKER_00: And she kept asking him, by the way, Matthew says she was begging him, she was crying out to him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: She's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: She's of a different religious background, different cultural background, different language background, different values background.
SPEAKER_00: The trip that Jesus is taking to the Syrophoenician area of Tyre and Sidon is 50 miles out of his way.
SPEAKER_00: And she's crying out for her daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are doing that tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are crying out for your sons and your daughters.
SPEAKER_00: No time is it probably more difficult than at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Because the in-laws are coming.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's ever a thing that burns in our hearts, it's for those that are disenfranchised from Christ right now in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you have cried out for a husband.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you tonight are crying out for a husband that's a prodigal, that has chosen to leave his family, ditch the family, and who knows what's happening in his life right now.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you men are crying out for your wives because of things that are happening in their life.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us have sons and daughters that are prodigal that are that are on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the battle we have, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: There's this battle of guilt on the one hand for maybe we looking back with regret over mistakes that we've made and wishing we had done those differently.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, there's a tendency toward blame for what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: This mother comes and she cries out to Jesus, possibly feeling guilty, possibly feeling the conviction, because remember, she's Syrophoenician.
SPEAKER_00: They worshiped Ashtar and Baal.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you say Baal.
SPEAKER_00: Baal and Ashtar.
SPEAKER_00: So she had probably taken her daughter to idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: She had taken them to idols, and possibly that's where she got demonized.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But she's watching her daughter writhing on the bed.
SPEAKER_00: She's watching her daughter empowered by demons, possibly losing her mind, losing her faculties.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't believe that her mother's not concerned about looking back that what was created in her daughter's life was her fault.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us have done that.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, I've got older children now.
SPEAKER_00: We've made a ton of mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask Anna.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Ask Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: Ask Deborah.
SPEAKER_00: We are, I am not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And she is not the Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Definitely not the Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've blown it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Liz and I talk about it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: On some things we were too strict.
SPEAKER_00: On some things we were too lineant.
SPEAKER_00: Some things we had we didn't have good enough boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: Other things we had too much boundaries, right?
SPEAKER_00: So you can just you can sit here and you can beat yourself up till the cows come home.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can do what this woman did.
SPEAKER_00: And she cries out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And and she is a picture to me of the language of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing more powerful than a mother crying out for her daughter or son to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Or a husband.
SPEAKER_00: A wayward husband crying out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Take it to Jesus church.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understands the language of crying out.
SPEAKER_00: There are things in our life that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
SPEAKER_00: There are people, circumstances that are going to oppose you, and it shocks you.
SPEAKER_00: It comes out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: You never expected it.
SPEAKER_00: And in the process of that, you begin to feel guilty.
SPEAKER_00: Some of it's conviction of the Holy Spirit, some of it's not.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know the difference?
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the difference sometimes between demons and their voices and God's convicting power, but you cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: You cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Even with fasting and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus' response is probably less than what maybe we would get from Counseling 101.
SPEAKER_00: But uh Jesus said to her, let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Jews in the Hebrew language do not have curse words like we do.
SPEAKER_00: We Americans invented cursing in some ways.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we could blame it on the English.
SPEAKER_00: They at least sound more sophisticated than us when they cuss.
SPEAKER_00: But um but this is about as close as you can get.
SPEAKER_00: The way the Jews curse is using words like dog, dog head, pig, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00: But you gotta understand, this actually this Hebrew word that's being used here means puppy.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is actually being kind of nice.
SPEAKER_00: You're he's calling her like a little puppy.
SPEAKER_00: And she answered and said to him, Yes, Lord, even the little dogs or the puppies under the table eat from the children's crumbs.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to her, For this saying, go your way, the demon has gone out of your daughter.
SPEAKER_00: She understands that she's nothing.
SPEAKER_00: She understands that she's a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: She understands that she's a dog.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't call her a dog, he calls her a puppy.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, what's the difference?
SPEAKER_00: Big difference.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that you don't have a right religiously and legally to be asking anything of me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like Jesus is putting her off to challenge her heart.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that about God?
SPEAKER_00: God sometimes puts you off to challenge your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes God doesn't answer our prayer to make us more passionate and eager and zealous and bold to go after the answer to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Be zealous for the things of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to him.
SPEAKER_00: And she acknowledges that.
SPEAKER_00: That a crumb from, here's what she's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, a crumb for you from you is worth anything else in this earth.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna beg at your table that I might even, I'd rather have the crumbs of the kingdom than the feast of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Wow, you get it.
SPEAKER_00: Thus, he just says the word, and the healing comes.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30.
SPEAKER_00: And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out and her daughter lying on the bed.
SPEAKER_00: For the first time, maybe in years, she sees her daughter lying peacefully in her bed.
SPEAKER_00: Men and women, if you have a prodigal tonight, if you're going through a marriage struggle, if you're going through issues where it seems impossible, cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God heart to heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Fast and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Knock, seek, ask.
SPEAKER_00: Keep crying out.
SPEAKER_00: And don't listen to people who tell you otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: And there'll be a lot of detractors.
SPEAKER_00: And it's always people who've never cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's always for people who have not cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Why are you doing that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: And there's always practical advice.
SPEAKER_00: The most practical advice is cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: The most practical advice, kingdom speaking, is to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what's going to happen: as we enter into these latter days, and as the power of demons increases, as the power of the enemy increases across the globe, God is going to increase our power in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He is.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that during windstorm.
SPEAKER_00: During windstorm, what we're going to do is we're going to have teaching and then we're going to go into worship each night and we're going to lace it with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to have a mic up here, or maybe we'll even have two mics up here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we can do that or how many mics we got, but we'll maybe have two mics up here.
SPEAKER_00: And as we're worshiping, as you feel led in your spirit to come up and pray, then the worship will come down and you'll just go into prayer about something on your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to agree with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what God does is that he speaks to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And when he speaks to our hearts, men and women, I'm telling you, you've got to cry out to God right then.
SPEAKER_00: Not a day later, not when everything's perfect, not when the house is quiet.
SPEAKER_00: At our house, it's never quiet.
SPEAKER_00: House is never.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I do, that's why I do prayer walks.
SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, literally, I mean, I love the I love the outdoors.
SPEAKER_00: I think outdoors are great.
SPEAKER_00: I love to see if pikes peek, and that's really cool.
SPEAKER_00: I love living in Colorado.
SPEAKER_00: But part of it is I can just focus better because I'm not looking at all the things that are broken in the house and um and kids running around.
SPEAKER_00: And so and so, whatever it works for, I mean, when you hear from the Lord about something, I would challenge you, go to God.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: God is allowing those circumstances in your life so that you will, because he's changing you, and he's transforming you in the process of answering.
SPEAKER_00: You thought it was all about the answer prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: It's about you.
SPEAKER_00: Because he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: He's making you a worshiper and a warrior.
SPEAKER_00: So she finds her child lying on the bed.
SPEAKER_00: This woman is our model.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, you know, don't turn there, but just make a note of it.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 21, when Paul is coming back to Jerusalem, he actually stops over in Tyre in his ship, and it says, He found disciples there.
SPEAKER_00: This is years later.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that that mother and that daughter greeted Paul years later because they were believers.
SPEAKER_00: Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just stop there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, he went, Jesus went 50 miles, so round trip a hundred miles out of his way to heal one daughter of a Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, that's crossing borders.
SPEAKER_00: He went out of Israel to Tyre and Sidon to heal one demonized daughter who's not even a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He will cross borders for you.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever there's someone crying out to God, God always shows up.
SPEAKER_00: And he will go out of his way to show up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care where you're at, I don't care what your ethnic background is, I don't care what you've done on Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's with you, he loves you, and he is in hot pursuit of you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you go after him, you get his attention.
SPEAKER_00: Something gets, I mean, when we go through the Gospel of Mark, look, that'd be an interesting study.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever does it, I'll give you a cappuccino or something.
SPEAKER_00: But do a study, someone here who's this way, analytical this way, do a study.
SPEAKER_00: Who gets Jesus' attention in Mark?
SPEAKER_00: I bet we'll find that it's the most zealous, it's the most bold, it's the most passionate, it has nothing to do with their behavior, it has nothing to do with their ethnicity, it has nothing to do with their religion, it has nothing to do with how perfect their life is.
SPEAKER_00: Who gets his attention?
SPEAKER_00: Because the most perfect people he seems to have a real problem with in here.
SPEAKER_00: And they're about to show up, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: They always come hovering around.
SPEAKER_00: So listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Departing from the region of Tyre and Sedan, he came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Guess?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody remember what happened in Decapolis a few chapters ago?
SPEAKER_00: Which would probably be a few weeks ago chronologically.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody remember?
SPEAKER_00: Demonic man of the Gatherings.
SPEAKER_00: So he cast out a demon with the Gatterings, and you remember what happened?
SPEAKER_00: They said, get out of here to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: Right after he cast out the demon on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they said, get out of here.
SPEAKER_00: But do you remember what Jesus said to that guy?
SPEAKER_00: He said to everybody else, don't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_00: He says to him, Go tell everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what's happened?
SPEAKER_00: It's a new day.
SPEAKER_00: He did it.
SPEAKER_00: Historically, when we did our tour of Israel, when we came to Decapolis in that area, which is a tin city region of Gentile cities in that area, our guide told us that history, Christian history and church history tells us that guy who had been who the demons were cast out of, that all the pigs went into the pigs, you know, and they went into the sea.
SPEAKER_00: That guy became one of the leading evangelists in that area, and they believe that it's through him that whole area was evangelized.
SPEAKER_00: So he comes back to Decapolis and listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Then they brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged him to put his hands on him.
SPEAKER_00: Different day, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Different day.
SPEAKER_00: They begged him to leave before.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're begging him to come.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God does in a family if we let him in.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the first one who gets saved is always crucified.
SPEAKER_00: They just are.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are the first in your family to get truly, I'm not talking about going to church and church, I mean, you say kind of radically saved.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Lots of you.
SPEAKER_00: You got crucified, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you got nailed because you're you're taking this religious stuff too seriously.
SPEAKER_00: It's fine to just go to church, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Even the devil goes to church.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he knows all, I mean, the devil's in church.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to church.
SPEAKER_00: In most cases, there's not much happening in the church that's really a hindrance to what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: But when a life gets changed, and a life gets radically changed, and addictions get broken, and we start telling the truth, and we start loving people, and we start making a difference and serving, oh man, all hell breaks loose.
SPEAKER_00: But then you've got this breakthrough period, and then people start kind of observing what's going on, and people start getting saved.
SPEAKER_00: People start coming to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up, don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Keep going against the tide.
SPEAKER_00: Hang with believers, but go against the tide with your family.
SPEAKER_00: Because that guy went back.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's I mean, can you imagine?
SPEAKER_00: Like, Are you the guy that was always like nude up in the tombs and stuff?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm that guy.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
SPEAKER_00: You got clothes on and stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're kind of styling now.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, let me tell you what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: And he had a pretty good audience, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so the whole region starts to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: So they bring this guy, he's deaf, and he's got an impediment.
SPEAKER_00: So my sense is that he was deaf.
SPEAKER_00: And so because he was deaf, he can't speak very well.
SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of interesting what they beg him to do.
SPEAKER_00: They beg Jesus to put his hands on him.
SPEAKER_00: Because they see Jesus, where he's going most of the time, he's laying hands on sick people and they get healed.
SPEAKER_00: And he lays hands on people and they get set free from the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not going to do that here.
SPEAKER_00: Don't box Jesus in with how he wants to work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's really weird what he does.
SPEAKER_00: And I would actually not recommend that you use this on ministry team at the altar.
SPEAKER_00: He took him aside from the multitude.
SPEAKER_00: So note that.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Jesus shows such dignity to this man.
SPEAKER_00: He pulls him away.
SPEAKER_00: Here's this crowd.
SPEAKER_00: They, I mean, they're probably dragging this guy along who's deaf.
SPEAKER_00: And then he just, I think he must have just, with compassion, he sort of stops.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, maybe he put his arm around him.
SPEAKER_00: But he pulls him away from the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when we have ministry time up here each week.
SPEAKER_00: Want that, even though there's a lot of people around, I want it to be a private time with you and the person who's praying with you so you can share your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we care, that's what we train our guys to do up here is to show dignity.
SPEAKER_00: We're not here for counseling, but we're here to dignify the humanness of each one of us that are creating the image of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus shows that here.
SPEAKER_00: He pulls him aside.
SPEAKER_00: But what he does next is like so weird.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not done because we got more to read here.
SPEAKER_00: He does another weird thing tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And he put his fingers in his ears.
SPEAKER_00: And he spat and he touched his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if you read that sort of just as it is.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like he just spit in the guy's face or something.
SPEAKER_00: I think what he did is he put his fingers in his ears.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he spat on his finger and he laid it on his tongue.
SPEAKER_00: No Ebola experts hanging out that day, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00: Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and he said to him, Epithah, that is, be open.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: The guy's looking at him, I don't know if he can read lips or not.
SPEAKER_00: He puts his finger in his ears.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say he spat on his finger, and then he lays it on his tongue, and then he says something that the guy can't hear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understands the language of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to surmise that this man has never heard Jesus speak because he can't hear.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say that it wasn't even up to him to come because, as the scriptures say, that they brought to him a man who is deaf.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus understands the language of his heart and he wants to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And men and women, Jesus understands the language of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what you need.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what this guy needed.
SPEAKER_00: And the Aramaic term that he uses is be opened.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.
SPEAKER_00: This is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: This is really a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Then he commanded them that they should tell no one.
SPEAKER_00: But the more he commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.
SPEAKER_00: And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well.
SPEAKER_00: He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's what's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It takes a child about three years to speak.
SPEAKER_00: So just by osmosis, a child learning and observing and seeing people speak in their native tongue, it takes about three years for them to begin to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He immediately can speak plainly.
SPEAKER_00: This is a supernatural creation miracle by which, and this is what a miracle is.
SPEAKER_00: A miracle is speed, is most of the time speeding up a natural healing.
SPEAKER_00: It is speeding up a natural healing.
SPEAKER_00: So he puts his finger, whatever's missing in his eardrums, whatever's missing in his hearing, Jesus speeds it up, but not just that.
SPEAKER_00: He then spits on his hand, lays it on his tongue, and he speeds up what should be a three-year process for him to be able to speak, and he can speak plainly.
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a Jesus you want to follow?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a Jesus you want to beg for miracle from?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a Jesus you want to cry out to?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine a marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Where there's adultery, where there is physical, emotional, maybe sexual abuse.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mess.
SPEAKER_00: Who else but Jesus can come into a situation like that, speed up a healing and a miracle where God almost overnight can change things.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus can do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's who we serve, that's who we worship, that's who we follow, and it works and it happens all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And he is the one who came at Christmas, and he's the one who came and became a man and showed us perfect manhood.
SPEAKER_00: That's good news.
SPEAKER_00: Fires me up.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I signed up, gang.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, I have compassion on the multitudes, because they have now continued with me for three days and have nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And if I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come from afar.
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is gonna be healing the multitudes 201.
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, just last week he did that.
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna do it again, except this time he's gonna do it for Gentile believers, because this isn't that decapolis area, this is in the tin city area of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: So before it said it was 5,000 men, which you believe to be about 20,000 people if you count women and children.
SPEAKER_00: So he has compassion, he's about to do it again.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but this is pathetic.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's gotta be at lit, it's it's less than a week.
SPEAKER_00: He fed 20,000 with nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Here's his mighty disciples.
SPEAKER_00: They answered him, How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: He asked them again, well, how many loaves do you have?
SPEAKER_00: They said, seven.
SPEAKER_00: So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and you know he's gotta he's just gotta be going like this.
SPEAKER_00: He's just gotta be going like this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's he's fully human.
SPEAKER_00: He's fully God, but he's fully human.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, I wonder if he just kind of looked up and went, again.
SPEAKER_00: Again?
unknown: Really?
unknown: You're gonna be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: And so he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: He took the seven loaves and gave thanks.
SPEAKER_00: He broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before them, and they set them before the multitude.
SPEAKER_00: So this gent, so the disciples have seen this before.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles have never seen this.
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever done a miracle like this in Gentile land, in the Decapolis area, the ten cities.
SPEAKER_00: They've never seen this.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples have seen this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I wonder if they're going, he's doing it again.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so he takes the loaves, and every time he blesses them, they multiply.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes the loaves, and every time he blesses them, they multiply, and they multiply.
SPEAKER_00: And he's thanking the Lord, and every time he thanks the Lord, they multiply.
SPEAKER_00: Church, every time we thank God, something multiplies.
SPEAKER_00: Something multiplies when you have an attitude of gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus just keeps thanking the Lord, they multiply.
SPEAKER_00: And it's only 4,000 this time.
SPEAKER_00: According to the numbers here, he's talking about total this time, before it was just men, 4,000.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fifth of what it was before, and they won't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this to ladies, all you ladies.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, all you ladies, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: A good meal, a good meal satisfies a multitude of sins with your man.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's why on the first one he says there were there were 5,000 men.
SPEAKER_00: This is 4,000 total.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, men, not to let you off the hook, a good conversation satisfies a multitude of sins with your wife.
SPEAKER_00: So start talking a little bit, please, just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7, they also had a few small fish, and having blessed them, he said to set them also before them.
SPEAKER_00: So they ate and were filled.
SPEAKER_00: They took up seven, now this is important, large baskets of leftover fragments.
SPEAKER_00: These are Gentile baskets, not Jewish baskets.
SPEAKER_00: Jewish baskets, little, gentile baskets, big.
SPEAKER_00: And he sent them away, immediately got into the boat with his disciples, and they came to the region of Dalmutha.
SPEAKER_00: So, probably 20,000 before, it's 4,000 this time, seven left over.
SPEAKER_00: And just the idea of what a gentile basket was like, if you remember in Acts chapter 9, where Paul has just gotten saved, and he is in trouble immediately with the Jews, and they drop him over the wall in a basket.
SPEAKER_00: So a gentile basket is massive.
SPEAKER_00: Probably some would say about the size of a bushel.
SPEAKER_00: If you come out of a farming or ranching background, you know what a bushel is.
SPEAKER_00: But they pick up seven baskets.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think is significant.
SPEAKER_00: How many churches in Revelation?
SPEAKER_00: Seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's something here that is a hidden prophetic word in the last days of the seven churches in Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Pharisees came out and began to dispute with him.
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
SPEAKER_00: This has been a really good day.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's had a really good day.
SPEAKER_00: Casting out a demon, not even showing up, and the demon leaves this girl.
SPEAKER_00: He heals this guy who can't speak, and he's also deaf.
SPEAKER_00: He now feeds 4,000 people, and just a few days before that, it was around 20,000.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees show up.
SPEAKER_00: Religion is always creeping behind the miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees came and began to dispute with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Testing him.
SPEAKER_00: But he sighed deeply in his spirit, and he said, Why does this generation seek a sign?
SPEAKER_00: Assuredly I say to you, no sign shall be given to this generation.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine this?
SPEAKER_00: Healing, demon cast out, thousands fed, healing, demons cast out, thousands fed, show me a sign.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do that, do we?
SPEAKER_00: All the faithfulness of the Lord in our lives, and we still want to sign.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so past that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm walking in the spirit moment by moment.
SPEAKER_00: Practicing the presence of God, reading Brother Lawrence daily.
SPEAKER_00: Just finding God and dishwashing.
SPEAKER_00: Bunch of liars.
SPEAKER_00: We're all like that.
SPEAKER_00: We're just like these guys.
SPEAKER_00: We can relate to these guys.
SPEAKER_00: We're all the same.
SPEAKER_00: What God has done in the past, and then we want to sign too, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Well, is God really here?
SPEAKER_00: How many times we blamed God for something that's happened in our life when we look back over all these miracles of the past and we forget, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of this spiritual amnesia.
SPEAKER_00: And he left them and getting into the boat again, departed to the other side.
SPEAKER_00: Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Then he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
SPEAKER_00: Church, this is really important.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I believe he means.
SPEAKER_00: The leaven of the Pharisees is that judgmental religious spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We forget where we've come from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you first got saved?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything's like, whoa! And everything was so cool and so exciting.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter what church you went to, just as long as there was a cross up front and you just went and you did, and yeah, these people are kind of weird, but yeah, Jesus, and you know, and if you read a liturgy, then you read it and you're, ah, well, it's and you're just full of love and everything.
SPEAKER_00: And then as the years go by, you become discerning.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got discernment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't go to that church because they believe this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know about that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, all this new believers around you're like, you know, and we're just snuffing out their fire because we forget where we've come from.
SPEAKER_00: We're all struggling Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: We are.
SPEAKER_00: Right, Robin?
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about that today.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Robin and I were talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: And Robin made this great comment.
SPEAKER_00: She said, you know, I just think, you know, people say negative things about all the denominations in the church.
SPEAKER_00: I just think it's cool.
SPEAKER_00: Because think of all the different variegated ways people can worship God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're into bells and smells, you can go Orthodox.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're like, if you dig Mary and stuff, be Catholic.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you if you're really into baptism and dunking them, be a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: If you're like more into the sprinkling thing, you can be a Presbyterian.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not into all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we are what we are at the road because I have convictions about the way we do things at the road, but I'm not gonna nail everybody if it's not perfectly my way.
SPEAKER_00: God's bigger than me.
SPEAKER_00: And all of you already know that.
SPEAKER_00: I just need to say that so I convince myself.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so he's saying, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what he's talking about is in the bowl, when the leaven, because there was leavened bread and there was unleavened bread.
SPEAKER_00: And what he's speaking of is the vestiges of the leaven that's left over in the bowl that when you're trying to do unleavened bread, it would rise because it has a little bit of the leaven in it.
SPEAKER_00: And so you guys, you're gonna struggle with the leaven of religion because we all come out of that background.
SPEAKER_00: But he also says, beware of the leaven of Herod.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about politics.
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing in politics.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with your politics.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you have convictions about politics?
SPEAKER_00: I do too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an American citizen, I have a political persuasion on things.
SPEAKER_00: But beware of becoming judgmental that way to the detriment of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And they reasoned among themselves.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they really get it here.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's because we didn't, we don't have any bread.
SPEAKER_00: Idiots.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, Why do you reason because you have no bread?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not yet perceive nor understand?
SPEAKER_00: Is your heart still hardened?
SPEAKER_00: Having eyes, do you not see?
SPEAKER_00: Having ears, do you not hear?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not remember?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: When I broke the five loaves to the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?
SPEAKER_00: They said, 12.
SPEAKER_00: Now, those are little Jewish baskets, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?
SPEAKER_00: Seven big Gentile baskets.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, How is it that you do not understand?
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I had to read the whole thing because that's where we all live.
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be retaught, redescipled, rebuilt, redeveloped all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so, church, remember what the Lord has said to you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he said, You're my son and my daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he said what you think is not, I call forth as if it is.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he said, For by grace you're saved through faith, not of yourself, it's a gift of God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he said, It's not your works that makes you righteous, it's his blood.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you.
SPEAKER_00: So tonight, cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember where you've come from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to be something that you're not.
SPEAKER_00: Humble yourself before him and watch what he'll do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand.