SPEAKER_00: Everybody got there, Luke 13.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 13.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna just read uh verses 10 through 17 to start off with.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 10 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years.
SPEAKER_00: She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.
SPEAKER_00: Then he put his hands on her and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
SPEAKER_00: Indignant, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, There are six days for work.
SPEAKER_00: So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord answered him, You hypocrites, doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?
SPEAKER_00: Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom uh Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day?
SPEAKER_00: For what bound her?
SPEAKER_00: When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray one more time.
SPEAKER_00: God, we just submit ourselves before you and your word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would speak to us through the text, through Luke 13 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We all came in with our different stories, and God, there's things we're holding on to you, some tighter than others.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, there's attitudes in our hearts, um, there are uh internal wrestling that goes on, there's there's worry, there's sometimes conflict, and God, we just we need mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We are a people that truly need mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for letting us be here, and we pray that you would speak to us by your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a woman on the Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's here's what here's how far we've gotten in the book of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be the last um conflict that we encounter on the Sabbath in the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: So we've seen a lot of these.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has has butted heads over and over again with various religious leaders because of what he's doing in the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: He has managed to tick off a bunch of different synagogue rulers and leaders because of what he does on the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it's his teaching, oftentimes it's his healing, another times it was that, hey, your disciples don't clean their hands or they don't do the ceremonial washing in a particular way.
SPEAKER_00: And here we come across this woman who is bent over.
SPEAKER_00: How long has she been bent over?
SPEAKER_00: 18 years.
SPEAKER_00: What a miserable state.
SPEAKER_00: So we would say that this is a chronic illness.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can relate to that, but think about the last 18 years of your life, last 15 years of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a situation or a thing that has been the case for the last 18 years?
SPEAKER_00: She has had this issue for 18 long years.
SPEAKER_00: It's isn't it fascinating?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you kind of your ears perk up in the way that Luke describes this?
SPEAKER_00: That she was bent over or that she had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years, and then Jesus, down in verse 16, says that this woman whom Satan has kept bound for 18 years long, so this is like a demonic act.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, sometimes physical ailments and illness relate directly to Satan's attacks.
SPEAKER_00: So, right as we're going through this, um, one of the observations that we can make as the reader of the text is that not all, but some ailments and illnesses come from a satanic possession or a satanic attack.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything.
SPEAKER_00: So the the problem is when we get imbalanced, when we become imbalanced in an understanding of Satan's works.
SPEAKER_00: Not everything is from the devil, but this one was.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what this means for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you are suffering in your life, if you're going through something, you need to be open to the fact that the suffering in your life is an ongoing satanic attack.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You need to be open to the fact that what's going on in your life may be an ongoing satanic attack.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: That means that you can address it medically, you can address it in a holistic way, but you ought to also address it spiritually, right?
SPEAKER_00: You ought to be bringing that issue, whatever it is, you ought to be bringing it before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this was the case with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, who did ministry all over southern Europe, he was the great missionary to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He traveled through what we now know as southern Turkey, a mountainous region, and it's it's um it's estimated or it's guessed that Paul contracted a malaria that infects the eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And that from his first missionary journey on, he had uh issues with his eyesight, uh, maybe a continual runniness and a puffiness from this uh malaria that he contracted.
SPEAKER_00: That's hypothetical, but it's thought to be the case, especially when you read through uh the end of Galatians, you see that he talks about how he's struggling with his eyesight.
SPEAKER_00: He signs the letter, he says, with big letters.
SPEAKER_00: He has to write with a very big font because his eyesight is affected.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells the church in Corinth that he prayed for God to take away this, what he calls a thorn in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He also calls it a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him.
SPEAKER_00: He has been praying that God would take this away from him, and God's response to him was no.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna take it away for you.
SPEAKER_00: He God was allowing that issue to highlight his physical weakness.
SPEAKER_00: God said, My strength is going to be made perfect in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: So God allowed Satan to continue to buffet Paul, his apostle, God's apostle, throughout the rest of his life, and did not answer this prayer of Paul's because God wanted his strength in Paul to be demonstrated.
SPEAKER_00: It is very important for you and I to understand that you and I will possibly face a chronic issue in our life, maybe an ongoing um ailment of some sort, so that we in our life will turn to God and God will strengthen us, but it doesn't go away.
SPEAKER_00: I know you didn't come to church to hear that, and that seems like a bum deal.
SPEAKER_00: The great hope is that that is the reality in this body, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's something that only we experience while we're in this body, and this body is precious.
SPEAKER_00: God loves your body that he has.
SPEAKER_00: You can't accomplish the mission of God without the body that you have.
SPEAKER_00: But remember, we are people that are on mission and God determines how the mission plays out.
SPEAKER_00: So that highlighted weakness in our life may be a part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: It was a part of God's plan in this woman's life.
SPEAKER_00: He allowed Satan to have this woman literally hunched over for 18 years and suffer this.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says to her, Woman, you're set free.
SPEAKER_00: You're totally set free, right?
SPEAKER_00: And immediately she's healed, she's strengthened, and she praises God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does the leader of the synagogue do?
SPEAKER_00: The guy who oversees this Jewish school, basically, this Jewish worship center.
SPEAKER_00: It says that he is indignant, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is upset that Jesus would heal this woman.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't address Jesus directly.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: He says, look, people, there are six days when you can work.
SPEAKER_00: So come, don't come on the Sabbath to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that on these other six days, essentially.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that doesn't seem to rub Jesus the right way, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not happy with that, and his language is pretty sharp.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You hypocrites, doesn't each of you on a Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water.
SPEAKER_00: So he's using basic logic.
SPEAKER_00: He's using basic logic to just say, look, you need to understand, look at just look at your own life.
SPEAKER_00: You take care of your animals, but you're not okay with me taking care of this woman.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second basic principle, just kind of the golden nugget laying right here on the surface.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people, in their foolishness, and I'm just as foolish as the next guy, can make a law that is illogical, make a structure that prioritizes an animal over a human, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or gets priorities out of whack.
SPEAKER_00: We see that sometimes within culture, we see that sometimes within society, that people will t will come along and they will make a um rule that uh does not keep in perspective the value of humanity in relationship to humans.
SPEAKER_00: What else do we see here?
SPEAKER_00: We see the power of Jesus to heal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is able to heal you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you came this morning with an ailment.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're under the attack of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: You faced Satan's attack in some way or another.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the good news Jesus can heal you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can protect you.
SPEAKER_00: He is your defense.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to lead you in victory.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus rebukes, he points out the hypocrisy of this religious leader, and he gets two different responses.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd is really happy with him, and the other group is humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus tells a parable, two parables on its heels in verses 18 through 20 to kind of expand upon this theme.
SPEAKER_00: So look, picking up in verse 18, look at it there.
SPEAKER_00: It says, What is the kingdom of God like?
SPEAKER_00: What shall I compare it to?
SPEAKER_00: It's like a mustard seed which a man took, planted in his garden, it grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.
SPEAKER_00: And again, he said, What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?
SPEAKER_00: It is like yeast that a woman took, mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is now moving from the healing to the correcting of this hypocrisy into a further teaching on the reign of God.
SPEAKER_00: You guys who've been with us, you know one of the recurring themes for Luke is that Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God into the world.
SPEAKER_00: When we see a volcano erupt, what that is, is that's an underground movement that comes to the surface and erupts.
SPEAKER_00: Some people have skin diseases that on particular occasions, what's that skin disease that happens after you have chickenpox?
SPEAKER_00: Shingles, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you have shingles when you get chickenpox, but then at a certain time it erupts, right, later on in life.
SPEAKER_00: Gross analogy, right?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: the kingdom of God is like that, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's coming on the scene and it has been anticipated for years, and it's now erupting with the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's breaking through without regard for religious institutions, without regard for culture or society.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming in and saying, I'm bringing in a new kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm heralding a new kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's like a tree that is planted or a seed, a mustard seed that is planted that grows up and becomes a tree, which is not how a normal, that is not a normal growth for a mustard seed.
SPEAKER_00: A mustard bush really kind of grows up, but doesn't typically have birds nesting in it.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is taking a common phenomenon and then talking about unusual growth.
SPEAKER_00: And then he talks about this massive batch of dough that you're taking and you're putting basically soured dough or the yeast or the leaven into the batch, about 60 pounds of dough, and it becomes all completely permeated with the yeast.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the idea that the kingdom of God is on the move.
SPEAKER_00: It is organic and alive.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is on the move.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to be the one pushing God's kingdom forward.
SPEAKER_00: On the back of your bulletin, we have the five by five, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's our ongoing desire to live as missionaries in our everyday lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: We do five things in those people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: But the underlying principle of the five by five is that God is always on the move around us.
SPEAKER_00: He's at work in people's lives, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just like dough is permeated with the yeast over time, the kingdom of God is permeating people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: We just participate in it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You don't wear the burden.
SPEAKER_00: I don't wear the burden.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the church planter, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the name they give me.
SPEAKER_00: It's starting a new church here.
SPEAKER_00: But the burden doesn't rest on my shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is moving forward in Fells Point, Upper Fells Point, in Perkins' homes.
SPEAKER_00: God is at work, right?
SPEAKER_00: He is advancing.
SPEAKER_00: And we participate with God in that work as we pray, as we share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But we're just like just joining a stream that is already running.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got to appreciate these pictures that Jesus is bringing out here.
SPEAKER_00: He says these the kingdom of God is like organic growth.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if it were literally alive.
SPEAKER_00: What is yeast, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's little bacteria that's eating and and and um burping, eating and burping, eating and burping, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's what those little air pockets are there.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're never gonna want to eat again, right?
SPEAKER_00: I've we've talked about skin diseases and yeast.
SPEAKER_00: This is a terrible sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's what just kind of comes through my head.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're moving from small to immense in these parables, right?
SPEAKER_00: Very small.
SPEAKER_00: And and and our effort, look at even look at us here.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this small group that's gathered here in Fells Point.
SPEAKER_00: We are small, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're a small church.
SPEAKER_00: The message of the gospel is simple, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's simple that you believe in Jesus and He rescues you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple message.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it starts small, but yet it can take over the world, right?
SPEAKER_00: It can permeate the world, it can radically change people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: It can take people from addiction, from sin, from ruin, and it can completely transform a person's life.
SPEAKER_00: I spent a little bit of time with um Teen Challenge, which is over in Highland Town, and uh talking with the guy who runs Teen Challenge this week.
SPEAKER_00: And just look at these, it's a one-year program, guys who are addicted, they go in and just looking at these guys, they're simple, but when I walked in, they're happening to be doing their Bible study time.
SPEAKER_00: And as I was talking to the new manager over there, Alex, he's telling me about just the success rate of Teen Challenge with these guys that are just struggling with addiction, and how just the simple emphasis upon work and scripture, how this this group, this teen challenge, not just the one in Baltimore, but 1,400 teen challenges around the country, how they've had an incredible success rate in people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: That men and women have been set free from addiction because God is at work in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is saying, I want to teach you about the kingdom, the reign of God, that it's like a seed that germinates and grows to be big, and it's like leaven that grows.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's go to the next section, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: 22 through 30 is a section to itself.
SPEAKER_00: 22 through 30 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Someone asked him, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
SPEAKER_00: Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, Sir, open the door for us.
SPEAKER_00: But he will answer, I do not know you or where you came from.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will say, We ate and we drank with you, and you taught in our streets, but he will reply, I do not know you or where you came from.
SPEAKER_00: Away from me, all you evil doers.
SPEAKER_00: There will be weeping there, and there will be gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_00: When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out.
SPEAKER_00: People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the good news, saints.
SPEAKER_00: God has a party.
SPEAKER_00: God has a party, a huge banquet feast that he's inviting you and I to.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus talks about this feast because some people come to him and they say, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: This word salvation, it means to be made whole or to be restored.
SPEAKER_00: It's used over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: We use this word to be saved, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's almost made its way into pop culture.
SPEAKER_00: People talk about, hey, are you saved?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that the word comes out of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: It's literally meaning that the fabric of humanity has been damaged by sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a fabric that has holes in it, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's ravaged by sin.
SPEAKER_00: You're not born a perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that you and I are born into sin, into a world that has been damaged by sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came into the world to die on the cross to provide wholeness, to rescue you and I from our sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's the work that Jesus brings in.
SPEAKER_00: And these people are asking Jesus if only a few will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, the door is narrow, the gate is narrow.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He says, He doesn't come out and say, yeah, there's only a few that are going to be saved, but he says, it's not like the doors are wide open.
SPEAKER_00: There is a process.
SPEAKER_00: There is one way, it says in John.
SPEAKER_00: There's one way to be saved, and that is through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot follow any other God.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot earn your way into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: There is one way that God has laid out for salvation to be taking place, and that's through his son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And there's only one way to receive Jesus Christ, and that's through a humble heart, believing in him, right?
SPEAKER_00: Having humility and faith.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says the way is narrow, and there are going to be those who come and they're knocking and they're saying, Hey, we ate with you.
SPEAKER_00: We ate with you.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus says, or or the Lord says, get away from me, I do not know you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that the premise here is relationship?
SPEAKER_00: The ravage of sin in our life, the damage that sin has caused in our life.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to fix that, but it happens relationally.
SPEAKER_00: You are not fixed, I am not fixed by the damage of sin without a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: God says to them, I do not know you, right?
SPEAKER_00: You are workers of evil.
SPEAKER_00: You are evildoers.
SPEAKER_00: And they go on into judgment, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a scary thing, but Jesus is telling it how it is.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, There is one way for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There is one way for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You need to receive, you need to enter.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus in John 10 says, I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way.
SPEAKER_00: I am the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I am the life.
SPEAKER_00: Look, if you're here this morning with us and you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, you've never turned your life over to him, that's the first step.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to bring you in.
SPEAKER_00: To his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to say, come and be a part of the party.
SPEAKER_00: Enter in.
SPEAKER_00: Be in a relationship with me.
SPEAKER_00: I will heal you.
SPEAKER_00: He will heal you.
SPEAKER_00: He will be your defense from Satan's attacks.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to begin to repair you from all the damage that sin has caused in your life, in my life.
SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: But he answers, he does respond to this question, and he gives a beautiful response through this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and look at that.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to keep going because of this, for the sake of time.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 31, he says this at that time some of the Pharisees came to Jesus and they said to him, Leave this place and go somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Herod wants to kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And he replied, Go tell that fox, I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: I will reach my goal.
SPEAKER_00: In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day, for surely no prophet can die outside of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go to verse 34 in just a second.
SPEAKER_00: But but here's the thing, and here's the important thing as Bible students for us to understand is that the messianic aspect of who Jesus is, that Jesus is the Messiah, is coming through in the text here.
SPEAKER_00: Messiah is kind of the it is the fulfillment of Judaism and the prophet's message is all anticipating the Messiah, right?
SPEAKER_00: So when we say the Christ or the Messiah, this is what Israel is anticipating.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they're waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is coming along and he is stating here that he's got to keep going.
SPEAKER_00: And that he's a prophet who's going to ultimately die in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: All through the text that we're looking at here, we don't have time to go back and forth through all the cross references, but Jesus is capping off his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're in the we're winding down his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: I know it feels like we're in the middle of Luke, but these last ten chapters that we're going to look at is in a very condensed period of time.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is nearing the time of the cross, and he's already told the disciples that look, the whole aspect of being betrayed and being given up to men and being crucified and being raised on the third day, he's already warned his disciples that this is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming and saying, I am the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: So even the threats of Herod at this point are not going to deter Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is openly now basically saying that Herod is a fox.
SPEAKER_00: Not foxy.
SPEAKER_00: He's a fox.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a compliment at all, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is not what you'd want to have said of you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is talking as if he knows he's going to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And then he closes with this Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.
SPEAKER_00: How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
SPEAKER_00: Look, your house is left to you desolate.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the chapter here closes off.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was there was no chapter delineation here when Luke wrote this.
SPEAKER_00: But we close out this section or the thought here from Luke with this statement where Jesus, in other passages, Jesus says this overlooking Jerusalem, looking out over the city, we see that Jesus just has such a heart for these people.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much rebuke in here that Jesus is giving to the Jews because the Jews were told that you are going to have the Messiah come to you.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the Jews are systematically rejecting Jesus over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And here Jesus is just stating look, I'm like this brooding hen that just wants to protect her little chicks.
SPEAKER_00: And yet you would not let me take on that role towards you.
SPEAKER_00: So the text here, it speaks to us, and it and here's what it ultimately says, right?
SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: When you walked in that door this morning, you came in a person loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly what your story is.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that he knows the hairs of your head, where there are many or there are fewer and fewer as the year goes, as years goes on.
SPEAKER_00: He knows every one of them, right?
SPEAKER_00: He knows them.
SPEAKER_00: He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your story.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to care for your life.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to care for you, right?
SPEAKER_00: You may look at this and he goes, well, what about why did he allow this woman to be, you know, bound by Satan for 18 years to be hunched over?
SPEAKER_00: What's up with that?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of care is that?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing: God cares for you, and he wants you to align your life with him, and the care of God is going to be demonstrated on your life.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you are healed of your 18-year infirmity or not, the promise of God's comfort is real.
SPEAKER_00: Whether God rescues you ultimately from the thing you have prayed and asked God to rescue you from over and over again, or he doesn't, you need to know, you need to know that God's care for you is real and will be demonstrated in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews, if you read through the Old Testament, what's the story of the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: They screw up and rebel and God rescues them, right?
SPEAKER_00: God loves to demonstrate his power through the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He loves to demonstrate his power through the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for a time, he is not focused on Israel, although the time of the Gentiles is winding down because Israel's been put back in the land.
SPEAKER_00: But this is, we're living right now in what we call the church age.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't given up on Israel because God's covenant to Israel is an everlasting covenant, it says in Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah says, look, if you can count the stars, if you can count the universe, if you can measure that, then that's the end of my covenant with Israel, right?
SPEAKER_00: Using figurative language to say that God's covenant with Israel is never going to end.
SPEAKER_00: So as a church, we do not believe that the church has replaced Israel, but we believe that we're living in an age where God's care is being displayed through the church.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we're gathered together.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to show you, God wants to show you his care.
SPEAKER_00: You are, you are think about this for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: How this week, how this week is God going to demonstrate his power to the people around you that don't know him yet?
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways that he does that is by rescuing you.
SPEAKER_00: He lets you go through stuff, that's hard, so that he can rescue you, so that the people around you that need to know Jesus get to see you get rescued.
SPEAKER_00: You are a living.
SPEAKER_00: When he talks about you're a light or your salt, what that means is that God wants to demonstrate his power through your life so that his mission is accomplished through you.
SPEAKER_00: So don't whine, don't complain about what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Recognize you're a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: The mission of God is being accomplished through your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a setup, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's what they say, like in a thriller.
SPEAKER_00: It's a setup, it's a trap, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not a trap, it's a plot line.
SPEAKER_00: It's a plot line.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember when back when you were in high school and you had to write a story and they talked about what a good plotline is?
SPEAKER_00: A good plotline isn't exist without a conflict.
SPEAKER_00: God is fine with putting into the plot line of your life a conflict so that he can rescue you.
SPEAKER_00: Over again, over again, all through the Psalms, what does David say?
SPEAKER_00: You are my salvation, right?
SPEAKER_00: When God praises the God of salvation, what is he praising?
SPEAKER_00: He's praising the God who rescues people.
SPEAKER_00: So the church, we talk about salvation all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be saved from damnation, from hell, from sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, amen, right?
SPEAKER_00: We want that.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that God is in the business of rescuing you.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between that and like health and wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Like, God's not in the business of making you healthy, wealthy, and wise so that you can just, you know, spend that on your own carnal desires.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not God's business.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not how the mission works.
SPEAKER_00: But the way the mission does work is that God demonstrates his power in ways that are pleasurable and exciting, and you and I are like, yeah, go God, thank you for rescuing me.
SPEAKER_00: That's so exciting, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is a Christian life of victory.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says we're we're gonna finish with this, right?
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter um 1, I think is where it's at.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about how you smell, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've already talked about diseases, we've already talked about yeast and bacteria that burps, so we might as well talk about how you smell as well, right?
SPEAKER_00: The end of chapter 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: You always wanted to know how does God say that you smell?
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse uh 17.
SPEAKER_00: You guys there's 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: We'll start with verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: To the one we'll go up to verse 14, but thanks be to God who always well, this is the thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is verse 14, and then we get into how you smell.
SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma, the smell of the knowledge of Him everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_00: To the one, we're the aroma that brings death, and to the other, we're the aroma that brings life, and to those who uh and who is equal to this task, or who is sufficient for these things.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot right there, but but these are the two things I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, Jesus leads us in his triumphal procession, right?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the victor, and the life that we live is a life of victory.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to put on display his victory through your life.
SPEAKER_00: And then he jumps metaphors, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's mixing his metaphors here, we would say, and he says that you are, in that victorious life, you are the aroma of life to those that are being saved.
SPEAKER_00: You smell alive to the people that are being saved, who are experiencing God's salvation wherever they're at in that spectrum.
SPEAKER_00: And to the rebels, to the people that are rejecting and in rebellion to God, you smell like death.
SPEAKER_00: You smell like a putrefying piece of something.
SPEAKER_00: I work in the I work in the compassion center.
SPEAKER_00: It's wearing off on me.
SPEAKER_00: As Don likes to say, as Don likes to so uh so wonderfully say, it's Broadway.
SPEAKER_00: Broadway brings in an interesting crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Look, your life, as God works in your life, it develops this fragrance, a fragrance of either life or death.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: That's really important.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know life can be discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: You may have come in, you may have felt uh discouraged.
SPEAKER_00: There may be different things that you just feel like it doesn't have a place, I don't understand it, I don't know how this fits into the mission of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, as I do my mission, or you know, what what what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Why did it why am I being held back in this way?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen, understand that you are the vessel that God wants to demonstrate his victory through.
SPEAKER_00: He lets you be weak.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you go through 2 Corinthians, he lets you be a clay pot that can get knocked over.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the clay pots in my backyard one's got got cracks in it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We use them as like a doorstop when they don't got plants in it, they get knocked over.
SPEAKER_00: And and and what Paul says is you're the clay pot, and and and that's who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You're just the clay pot.
SPEAKER_00: What is amazing and what's special is the excellency of power that's in the clay pot, right?
SPEAKER_00: God lets you, he on purpose makes you an earthen vessel.
SPEAKER_00: He on purpose lets you be a clay pot so that his excellent power can shine out of you and out of me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: This week I felt my earthenness.
SPEAKER_00: Did you feel like a clay pot at some points this week?
SPEAKER_00: I know I did.
SPEAKER_00: Either with in relationships or with my health or in different settings.
SPEAKER_00: I definitely felt the earthen vesselness.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God wants to take that.
SPEAKER_00: That's the context for his story.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we beat the dead horse here enough.
SPEAKER_00: You get the message.
SPEAKER_00: You get the point, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's stand.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand, we'll pray.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's recommit ourselves to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say, God, God, we want to give ourselves to you today.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we want it, we want to, we want to offer ourselves to you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we want to let you in our workplace, in our relationships with the people around us, we want to, we want to just let you do your work in us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God, we submit ourselves to you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to say that Jesus, we want you to be the king.
SPEAKER_00: I know that in our hearts we oftentimes want your kingdom, we want justice, we want provision, we want health, we want wholeness, we want your rescue, but we need to want you as the king first.
SPEAKER_00: So we surrender to you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we throw up our white flag and we say, You win.
SPEAKER_00: We want your winning to overflow in our life.
SPEAKER_00: You we want you to be the victor.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to lead us as your captives in your triumphant procession.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we are a people that in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of satanic attack, we're a people with hope.
SPEAKER_00: We're a people with hope.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you, would you this week, Lord, would you demonstrate your power and your victory in our life?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, if there are those that have prayed for 18 years regarding something, Lord, I pray that whatever your your victory looks like in that setting, that you would do it, Lord, flow through us with the excellency of power.
SPEAKER_00: Put on display your glory through our lives and draw people to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.