SPEAKER_02: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Back to call you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember when it was when was I here?
SPEAKER_00: Last year?
SPEAKER_00: Sometime last year.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be back.
SPEAKER_00: Back in Houston, back at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's just a blessing to see some familiar faces.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles this morning, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel of Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: As you're doing that, let me just say a couple of words by way of introduction about what we're going to be talking about this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There is, as you know, a great controversy all across the body of Christ over the subject of healing.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people on every spot of the spectrum.
SPEAKER_00: There are some on this end who say that healing was only for the first century.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't do that thing anymore, maybe with a rare exception.
SPEAKER_00: Then there are people at the opposite end of the spectrum who say that God heals all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Just need to ask.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we want to see the biblical truth that neither one of those is actually the case, that healing is according to God's sovereign will and his goodness and his compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you a quick illustration of how this took place in my life for the very first time.
SPEAKER_00: I was 11 years old.
SPEAKER_00: My family had just moved to Midland, Texas, and I don't remember what night of the week it was, but I found myself lying on my bed, absolutely in the most excruciating pain I've ever felt, with a headache.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what a migraine was at the time, but I'm assuming that's what I had.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember feeling so distressed, it was so painful that I couldn't even cry out to my parents to bring me some medicine.
SPEAKER_00: So I did what typical 11-year-old boys do.
SPEAKER_00: I said, God, I'm going to count to three.
SPEAKER_00: I was 11.
SPEAKER_00: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even have the strength to speak the words.
SPEAKER_00: It just inaudibly in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Because I knew that God could hear me, He knows my thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: I said, one, two, and when I said three, the headache and the pain instantly and completely disappeared.
SPEAKER_00: It almost frightened me.
SPEAKER_00: I actually was afraid to move because I thought if I move, it'll come back.
SPEAKER_00: But it didn't.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about a gradual diminishing of pain when you take some medicine for headache.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about instantaneous, complete, irreversible freedom from all discomfort.
SPEAKER_00: It was actually quite euphoric at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't quite explain it.
SPEAKER_00: But that moment, so many years ago when I was 11, has indelibly imprinted on my heart that our God hears our prayers, even when we don't speak them aloud.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the thoughts of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: He's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: He's there.
SPEAKER_00: He really is there.
SPEAKER_00: And he has the power to do what oftentimes no one else on earth can.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, I want to read Matthew chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 8, verses 1 through 4.
SPEAKER_00: You can follow along or listen.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that when Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will be clean.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately his leprosy was cleansed, and Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I ask you right now, as we open your word and we open our hearts and our minds to hear it and believe it, that you would draw near through the power of your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see who Jesus really is.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I know that every story of healing in the Gospels is a window into the heart of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: So let us perceive who he is and the kind of individual that he is, the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I pray Psalm 119, verse 18, that you would open our eyes that we might behold wondrous things in your word.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As you know, all of us read the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because we want to know who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gospels give us that description.
SPEAKER_00: They identify him.
SPEAKER_00: You can read John chapter 1, where it opens by saying that he in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: Then he tells us in verse 14 of that chapter that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can turn to Matthew chapter 1 and read about the genealogy of Jesus, how he's a descendant of Abraham through the line of David, the Messiah of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning, I don't really want to talk about the identity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about his character.
SPEAKER_00: What is he like?
SPEAKER_00: What makes him tick?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of person is he?
SPEAKER_00: Is he the sort of person that I can not only believe in, but a person to whom I can entrust my life?
SPEAKER_00: If I come to him, will I like him?
SPEAKER_00: Will he like me?
SPEAKER_00: Will he laugh at me, ridicule and mock me?
SPEAKER_00: Will he reject me?
SPEAKER_00: Will he make me feel ashamed and ugly?
SPEAKER_00: Will I embarrass him?
SPEAKER_00: Those are questions that all of us have.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, in this one little short episode, I want you to see into the very heart of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to get a grasp not only about who he is, but what he is like.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't have confidence in the goodness of Christ, you will rarely come to him in prayer to ask for anything, be it healing or any other need in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in order to get into the heart of Jesus, I need to talk about a subject that is not very pleasant.
SPEAKER_00: I need to talk about leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Because we read here that a leper came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't like to talk about that subject.
SPEAKER_00: This is a for dinner conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy was the most hated and vile disease in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: I've read a little bit about its physical symptoms.
SPEAKER_00: It begins with a discoloration of a patch of skin that begins to spread throughout the whole body.
SPEAKER_00: Spongy tumors dwell up, swell up in all directions.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to just a horrible disfigurement.
SPEAKER_00: The skin around the eyes and the ears begins to bunch up with deep furrows between them.
SPEAKER_00: The tissue between the bones of the hands and the feet deteriorate, leaving gaps between your digits and your toes.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it is reported that oftentimes lepers experience just the falling off of a toe or a finger without even knowing that it has happened.
SPEAKER_00: Eyebrows and eyelashes disappear.
SPEAKER_00: It often attacks the larynx, leaving a rasping, grating sound.
SPEAKER_00: And evidently the odor of a leper was unmistakable in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: There's a strange cruelty to this disease.
SPEAKER_00: As horrible as it is and the effects on the body, it also serves as an anesthetic.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it dulls and desensitizes the pain cells.
SPEAKER_00: Man by the name of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Paul Brand spent most of his adult life working with lepers in India.
SPEAKER_00: He dealt with at least a thousand cases of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: He reports one incident where he saw a man stick his hand into a fire to retrieve a potato he had dropped, totally unaware that his hand was on fire.
SPEAKER_00: He had no feelings or sensation.
SPEAKER_00: Another had worked all day gripping a shovel, not knowing that a nail was protruding through his hand.
SPEAKER_00: He had no feeling.
SPEAKER_00: One man went blind because of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't so much the disease, it was the fact that each day he would wash his face with a hot washcloth.
SPEAKER_00: But neither his hands nor his face were sensitive enough to temperature to know that he was doing it with scalding hot water, and he eventually went blind.
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy was unlike every other disease in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: Its physical symptoms were horrible, were terrible to look at, but even more terrible was the spiritual and the social impact of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy defiled a person, it rendered him or her ceremonially unclean.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting when you read throughout the book of Leviticus that there are over 60 different ways in which you can become ceremonially defiled and cut off from the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy is second only to touching a dead body in terms of the way it defiled someone.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you would, to how Moses describes this in Leviticus chapter 13, verses 45 and 46.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his lip and cry out, unclean, unclean.
SPEAKER_00: Try to imagine the humiliation.
SPEAKER_00: If any time you came around another person or a crowd, you had to announce your presence by declaring yourself unclean.
SPEAKER_00: He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease, he is unclean.
SPEAKER_00: He shall live alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason why that is so distressing is because of that 46th verse.
SPEAKER_00: A leper had to leave the camp.
SPEAKER_00: He had to go outside the community, outside the walls of the city.
SPEAKER_00: But the people of Israel knew that God intended for men and women to live in society.
SPEAKER_00: To be compelled to live outside meant that you were cut off from every other human being.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, it meant that you were cut off from the covenant, cut off from the divine presence, cut off from all the blessings that God had promised, cut off from the sacrificial atonement of a lamb.
SPEAKER_00: One Jewish rabbi in the days of our Lord wrote that he would not even eat an egg that had been purchased on a street where a leper had passed.
SPEAKER_00: Leprosy was unlike anything else.
SPEAKER_00: It was worse than paralysis, blindness, deafness, because of what it spiritually signified.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how one commentator has put it.
SPEAKER_00: He nailed it when he said, Sin separates us from God and from one another.
SPEAKER_00: So does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin slowly rots away human life.
SPEAKER_00: So does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is at first not easy to diagnose.
SPEAKER_00: It works silently and secretly.
SPEAKER_00: So too does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin disfigures and distorts.
SPEAKER_00: So does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin paralyzes and removes feeling and sensitivity.
SPEAKER_00: So too does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin leads us into loneliness and isolation.
SPEAKER_00: It separates us from people.
SPEAKER_00: So too does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Sin ultimately causes death.
SPEAKER_00: So too does leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not to suggest for a moment that somebody who had this disease was for that reason less worthy than others.
SPEAKER_00: Not the point at all.
SPEAKER_00: Still created in the image of God, still of value.
SPEAKER_00: It was the disease itself, not the person whom it afflicted, that symbolized the damaging effects of sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting, by the way, when you read the Gospels, the way in which Jesus ministered to lepers.
SPEAKER_00: Every disease that he faced, whether it is paralysis or deafness or muteness or any other disease, it said that he healed them.
SPEAKER_00: But when it came to leprosy, it says that he cleansed them.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Matthew chapter 10, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: He tells his disciples, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one exception to this in the entire New Testament, and that's in Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But the person in that case was a Samaritan, not a Jew.
SPEAKER_00: The point is that leprosy symbolized spiritual defilement.
SPEAKER_00: It disfigured not just the body, but it was a sign of the disfiguring of the soul and the spirit by sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now you may be asking at this point, all right, Sam, that's all very important to know, I'm sure, but what does it have to do with me today?
SPEAKER_00: How does that apply?
SPEAKER_00: The point simply is this, folks: the leper in his or her physical condition is a symbol or representation of you and me in our spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_00: We are all spiritual lepers in need of cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this man who came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice several things about him.
SPEAKER_00: We're told, first of all, of his courage.
SPEAKER_00: Notice it says that he came to him, and you might just read over that and not give it a second thought, but that is absolutely stunning.
SPEAKER_00: Lepers were accustomed to running away from crowds, not running to them.
SPEAKER_00: This man was required by law and tradition to stand aloof, apart from non-lepers.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he knew that if he drew close to these people, that he risked being stoned to death.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice what it says about Jesus coming down from the mountain in verse 1?
SPEAKER_00: It says that great crowds followed him.
SPEAKER_00: Probably a crowd at least as big as this congregation, maybe more.
SPEAKER_00: And when they saw this leper coming, shouting, unclean, unclean, they would have parted like the waters of the Red Sea to get away from him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even throwing stones as they departed.
SPEAKER_00: Why was this man so bold?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is unprecedented.
SPEAKER_00: You'd simply, as a leper, did not draw near to a crowd of people.
SPEAKER_00: How did he find the courage to do that?
SPEAKER_00: I have to believe that he had seen or at least heard something about Jesus that gave him this boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he sensed a tenderness in Jesus that he didn't have in anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: He saw that this was a compassionate man, unlike the Pharisees, a man who had concern for him.
SPEAKER_00: There's an old hymn, I don't know if you all ever sing it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Called No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other friend so kind as he.
SPEAKER_00: No one else could take the sin and darkness from me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how he cared for me.
SPEAKER_00: If that leper would have known that particular hymn, he would have been singing it, I assure you.
SPEAKER_00: But he knew somehow, maybe he had seen Jesus minister from afar.
SPEAKER_00: He had heard stories from others.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that Jesus wasn't afraid of him, and he wasn't repulsed by him, and he wasn't ashamed of him.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the second thing about this man.
SPEAKER_00: Two things are mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: It says that he came to him and knelt down and called out, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in this particular time period, the word Lord didn't always mean that you were declaring somebody to be God.
SPEAKER_00: It was common courtesy.
SPEAKER_00: It's very similar to our use of the word sir or man.
SPEAKER_00: But given the fact that he knelt down, and the word here is the typical New Testament word for worship, he knelt down and called him Lord, indicates that this was more than merely public courtesy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the expression of humble worship.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the third thing about him.
SPEAKER_00: Not only courageous, not only reverent, but submissive.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his words.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
SPEAKER_00: I find it interesting that Jesus didn't rebuke him for that.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say, What do you mean if I will?
SPEAKER_00: Where's your faith, old young man?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't rebuke him, he doesn't challenge him.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is modest and respectful.
SPEAKER_00: It is bold, but it always bows before the sovereign pleasure of God.
SPEAKER_00: So this leper doesn't presume to know whether Jesus will cleanse him, but he knows that he can.
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, as I said, there are all kinds of differing views on healing today.
SPEAKER_00: I fear that sometimes when people say heal to God, they spell it H-E-E-L, as if God is somehow like a household pet that can be domesticated at our command.
SPEAKER_00: He is not our slave.
SPEAKER_00: We must never think by the use of some formula or the presence of enough faith that he must respond.
SPEAKER_00: But notice forth his confidence.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, if you will, I know you can.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt in the mind of this leper about whether God had the power.
SPEAKER_00: He was perfectly confident in the ability of Jesus to cleanse him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is a very common thing in the new in the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: You can go over to Matthew chapter 9, verse 28, where Jesus encounters two blind men.
SPEAKER_00: And he asked them, What do you want me to do for you?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Lord, we want you to heal us, give us our sight.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asked them, Do you believe that I am able to do this?
SPEAKER_00: They said, Well, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Be it done unto you according to your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's important, whenever we pray, that we at least inwardly, if not outwardly, say, Lord, I know you can do this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a question of your power.
SPEAKER_00: I submit to your will, but your power is not the issue.
SPEAKER_00: You are omnipotent.
SPEAKER_00: You can do all things.
SPEAKER_00: Look at our Lord's response.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, one other thing I want to point out about our Lord's response here.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice the opening words of verse 1?
SPEAKER_00: Don't overlook these.
SPEAKER_00: When he came down from the mountain, what mountain?
SPEAKER_00: The mount on which he has just delivered the most famous sermon in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5, 6, and 7 contains the sermon on the mount.
SPEAKER_00: And we're told in the last two verses of Matthew 7 that when Jesus finished these sayings, when he finished the sermon, the crowds were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes.
SPEAKER_00: This must have been, if I can put it this way, a real heady moment for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's being applauded.
SPEAKER_00: People are saying, this is astonishing.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know where you get this insight into the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And it's as he is coming down from that mountain, instead of telling his disciples to, you know, form a protective shield against the crowds, I need security guards to usher me out of here as fast as you can.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is approached by a leper of all people.
SPEAKER_00: It just goes to show you that our Lord was of an entirely different character from most that we see today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew the traditions in the law in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he was required to stay at least six feet away from this leper.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I just want you to know social distancing didn't start in the 21st century.
SPEAKER_00: It existed in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: It was tradition and law.
SPEAKER_00: If a leper came near you, you had to stand at least six feet away.
SPEAKER_00: I hated social distancing.
SPEAKER_00: I was the worst rebel on the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I'd walk into a restaurant, I'd see these footprints painted on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to stand there, and six feet in front of me, there's another person doing the same.
SPEAKER_00: And I would invariably walk up right behind them just so they could feel my presence.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I communicated anything to them like COVID, but I hated social distancing.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we reopened as a church, we had to remove every other pew in the auditorium so that people could feel safe.
SPEAKER_00: And we told people you need to sit with your family members and apart from others.
SPEAKER_00: What a horrible experience that was.
SPEAKER_00: Well, people in the ancient world had to stay at least six feet away from a leper.
SPEAKER_00: If you were downwind from a leper, you had to stay at least 150 feet away.
SPEAKER_00: I mention all this because you need to understand.
SPEAKER_00: In that day and time, no one, literally unequivocally, no one ever touched a leper.
SPEAKER_00: No one except Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He did what no one would ever have dared to do.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus didn't need to touch this guy.
SPEAKER_00: He could have healed him from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in the Old Testament how uh Elisha healed Naaman of leprosy by telling him to go wash in the river Jordan seven times.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the very next verses of Matthew 8, beginning with verse 5, we read the story of a centurion who came to him, telling him, says, My servant is paralyzed at home.
SPEAKER_00: Just say the word and he'll be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I'll come to him.
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not worthy to have you come into my house.
SPEAKER_00: And we're told that the servant was healed at that very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't need to go see him.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't need to go lay a hand on him.
SPEAKER_00: But here he did.
SPEAKER_00: He touched a leper.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mark's gospel helps us.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter one, Mark records this same event, and he says that Jesus, moved by compassion, touched him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saw this man and he was heartbroken.
SPEAKER_00: He was devastated.
SPEAKER_00: He felt this man's anguish.
SPEAKER_00: He hurt for him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he even wept for him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what motivated our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't see all of you when you came into church this morning when you walked into this building, but I can pretty much guess what you did.
SPEAKER_00: You saw somebody you knew and you went up and gave them a good side hug, or you patted them on the back, or you shook their hand.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I hated that in COVID.
SPEAKER_00: We couldn't even shake hands.
SPEAKER_00: We had to fist bump.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But what is it about human nature?
SPEAKER_00: We love physical contact with the people we know and love.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be embraced, we want to touch.
SPEAKER_00: When my daughters were very young, living in Oklahoma, as there was last night, I was just told by my wife powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes.
SPEAKER_00: And when my girls would cry.
SPEAKER_00: Out in the middle of the night because they heard the thunder and they saw the lightning.
SPEAKER_00: I would go to their door, and I can assure you folks, I didn't hold up a sign that says, All right, now be quiet, everything is safe and secure.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't shout to them from outside in the hall.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted me to come in and take them in my arms and hold them and remind them through that physical contact that they were safe.
SPEAKER_00: Here is a man who desperately yearned to be touched.
SPEAKER_00: Luke tells us in his gospel in chapter 5 that this man was full of leprosy, indicating that he had had this condition for years, probably during his entire adult life, maybe even as a child.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: That means that this man had gone years, perhaps decades, without ever feeling the slightest human touch.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine lying up in your bed at night, never able to make any kind of contact with another human being?
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord, having preached this incredible world-famous sermon, is not thinking about anything else.
SPEAKER_00: He sees a man who is desperately in need and he touches him.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, the entire gospel is wrapped up in this touch.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I am this leper.
SPEAKER_00: You are this leper.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritually, we have been disfigured by sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are unclean in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, there's only one reason.
SPEAKER_00: It's because he drew near to you.
SPEAKER_00: And in the manner of speaking, he touched you and cleansed you of your guilt and your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the result.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: I just wish I could see it.
SPEAKER_00: Those spongy offensive tumors just suddenly disappearing, all scars gone, and this man's skin was like that of a newborn baby.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that Jesus didn't want him to go and to tell anyone.
SPEAKER_00: He says, just go and report to the priest.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mark tells us because he describes what happened after Jesus cleansed this man.
SPEAKER_00: We're told that he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town but was out in desolate places.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can't blame this guy for loudly shouting to everybody, Y'all remember me?
SPEAKER_00: I was the leper.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm healed, I'm cleansed.
SPEAKER_00: But of course, it had a bad effect on the ministry of Jesus because there were so many crowds he had to withdraw into a desolate place.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus also probably didn't want people to think that he was some somehow a wonderworker, a circus sideshow.
SPEAKER_00: But in any case, this man loudly proclaimed that he had been cleansed and healed.
SPEAKER_00: I think I know this man.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, looking forward to seeing him in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I think I know him because I am he.
SPEAKER_00: You are he.
SPEAKER_00: We are this man, we are the spiritual lepers disfigured by sin.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just ask you a question.
SPEAKER_00: After Jesus' death and resurrection, he exalted to the right hand of the Father, where he now sits with the majesty on high.
SPEAKER_00: As he was being raised up, we read about it in Acts chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Did he kind of just divest himself of compassion?
SPEAKER_00: Did he push delete on his heart and thought, well, compassion was only for the first century?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be mean-spirited and stingy now that I'm in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus somehow lose his power because he's now at the right hand of the Father?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He's just as compassionate as he was toward that leper, just as able and powerful to heal and to cleanse and to save as he was in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just quickly give you a couple examples of this to kind of bolster your faith, because the whole point, as I said earlier, was each healing is a window into the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand the one to whom you come in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I hear so often about people who think that Jesus is stern, stingy, and unconcerned about them.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't understand what kind of person he is.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, he's the Son of God, but he's probably mean-spirited, selfish, just like everybody else I know.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is the kind of individual who will touch what nobody else would have dared to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a couple of examples.
SPEAKER_00: There's a man in our church who's a pediatrician, a very skilled physician, very well known in the community.
SPEAKER_00: His wife was pregnant, and at 20 weeks they went in for an ultrasound and discovered that this baby suffered from multi-cystic dysplastic kidney.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there were cysts that had overtaken the kidneys, one in particular.
SPEAKER_00: And the doctor said there's no cure for this, and if this continues, it's in all likelihood that the child will lose that one kidney.
SPEAKER_00: Two women prayed for this young-to-be mother on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: She went back for another ultrasound a few weeks later.
SPEAKER_00: No cyst appeared.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's interesting to hear the testimony of the father, this doctor.
SPEAKER_00: He said this, and I quote, there is no good medical explanation for this.
SPEAKER_00: As a pediatrician and an internist, as someone who takes pride in evidence-based medicine, as someone who considers himself a logical, reasonable man, there is no medical explanation for this.
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to God.
SPEAKER_00: We had another lady in our church, just to hear of what she suffered from, it's like you're reading from a medical textbook: out-of-control immune system, asthma, food and seasonal allergies, thyroid problems, adrenal gland dysfunction, eczema, joint pain, depression, mental fog, breathing problems.
SPEAKER_00: She was miserable and suffered like this for years.
SPEAKER_00: We held a conference in Oklahoma City in 2017 called Convergence, and we prayed for the sick at that conference, and she came forward for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I had in my mind I was like that woman who had that issue of blood for 12 years, and I was just crawling through the crowd hoping to touch the hem of his garment.
SPEAKER_00: She was instantly and irreversibly healed.
SPEAKER_00: My sister is four years older than I am, lived as I did in a smoke-filled house.
SPEAKER_00: Our father, wonderful man, Christian man, now with the Lord, but he smoked incessantly from the age of 11 years old.
SPEAKER_00: And if it wasn't a cigarette, it's a cigar.
SPEAKER_00: Not a cigar, it's a pipe.
SPEAKER_00: And if he hadn't had any of that, he'd lean over to somebody else who's smoking and try to bring the smoke over to himself.
SPEAKER_00: We tried to get him to stop, but he believed the lies of the uh of commercials in those days that smoking was actually good for you.
SPEAKER_00: But we lived in a constant fog of smoke.
SPEAKER_00: My mother lived to be 100.
SPEAKER_00: My dad died when he was 62 because of it.
SPEAKER_00: My mother lived to be 100, never had the slightest symptom of secondhand smoke.
SPEAKER_00: Neither have I.
SPEAKER_00: But my sister for years has coughed incessantly.
SPEAKER_00: It happens usually about a six or eight-month period of the year.
SPEAKER_00: She had had surgery, she'd had steroid shots, she's had every medication known to man.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing worked.
SPEAKER_00: A little over two years ago, she finally came to the elders of my church and we prayed for her.
SPEAKER_00: And to this day, she has not coughed once, completely and totally healed.
SPEAKER_00: Give you one more story and then I'll close.
SPEAKER_00: About three years ago, um, it was a Sunday morning, and there's a little girl in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Her name is Luca.
SPEAKER_00: She was about three or four years old at the time.
SPEAKER_00: Her mother's name was Jen.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly, at the end of the service, Luca said to her mom, Mommy, my tummy really, really hurts.
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, it just started.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what this is.
SPEAKER_00: It says way down deep in my tummy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jen, probably sensing that perhaps the Lord was indicating something through her daughter, came up to the platform and told me this.
SPEAKER_00: And I gave her the microphone.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Is there anybody here who's suffering severely from lower stomach, lower abdominal pain?
SPEAKER_00: And I waited a moment and looked around.
SPEAKER_00: No hands were raised until mine went up.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when I confessed to them that I'd been suffering from diverticulitis for a couple of years, excruciatingly painful.
SPEAKER_00: They prayed for me.
SPEAKER_00: I was instantly healed and have not had a recurrence of it in the last three years.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is compassionate and Jesus is omnipotent, He's powerful, He can do all things.
SPEAKER_00: Whether He will or not is something we cannot presume upon, but we trust in His heart.
SPEAKER_00: We know that His heart is for us to build up and to strengthen and to bless rather than to curse and to tear down.
SPEAKER_00: So let me close, if I may, this morning for just by praying for those of you who may have held Jesus at arm's length for fear that maybe he isn't as good as we have been told.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for some reason he finds you to be an embarrassment.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he considers you to be too dirty, too unclean.
SPEAKER_00: I can assure you that's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: If we learn anything from this story and the symbolism of leprosy, it is that no one is beyond the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: No one is too sinful to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: No one is too disfigured to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come to you now in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that you would have mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, there are so many right now in this congregation who are suffering in so many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: From whatever affliction, some have chronic pain, they barely were able to make it here today.
SPEAKER_00: Others perhaps just recently received a terminal diagnosis.
SPEAKER_00: Others suffer from some affliction that they find embarrassing that they try to hide.
SPEAKER_00: But you see all things, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I'm asking you now for the sake of Jesus, for the glory and the praise of his name, that through your Holy Spirit you would touch them, that you would bring healing to their body.
SPEAKER_00: But most important of all, Lord, there are some here today, undoubtedly, who do not know you in a saving way.
SPEAKER_00: And sin has disfigured and defiled their soul and their spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They need to feel the saving touch of a gracious, compassionate Savior.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I ask you right now, according to your great mercy and your kindness, that you would touch them, whether physically or spiritually or both, to the praise and the glory of your son, in whose name we ask it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach God's word and then give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: So Clyde's gonna just play for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: If you're wondering if you're visiting today, you're like, does your church believe?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we believe that God still heals uh spiritually and he still heals physically.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And we believe that God is uh uh compassionate, gracious, uh, patient.
SPEAKER_01: He's not mad at you today.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe just in this moment you could just linger and just ask the Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me today?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you just need courage to ask the Lord to heal you instead of treating all your ailments.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you just ask?
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you I know you can, will you?
SPEAKER_01: If you will.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment right now and just be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we find great joy in that reality that you care for us.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just off in a distance, watching greenas on our behavior and performance.
SPEAKER_01: You're a very intimate God.
SPEAKER_01: You're firmly acquainted with everything having anything to do with us.
SPEAKER_01: The maladies, the fears, the insecurities, the uncertainty, the physical ailment, and the dire need.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask you to come and act in keeping with your name and your nature in this room, even now, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Even now, Father.
SPEAKER_01: Heal people.
SPEAKER_01: Physically, emotionally, spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Think that your identity and your character are not at odds with each other, that you are as gracious and loving as your nature dictates you to be.
SPEAKER_01: Let that inform and affect the way we relate to you, what we ask you for.
SPEAKER_01: You're not the God that stands out in the hall and holds the sign.
SPEAKER_01: You come and take your children in your arms and say, I'm right here.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be afraid because I'm with you.
SPEAKER_01: We ask you for healing in Jesus' name when all God's people said.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're always welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: Your questions are always welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have any today, like I said, we'll be available.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Sam, would you make yourself available down front?
SPEAKER_01: Sam would love to pray with you or just to meet you or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You may want to speak a word to him about what this morning meant to you, all right?
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guests, all we ask of you today is you can just text welcome to that number on the screen behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'd love to have a record of your visit, help you in your spiritual journey.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have different things going on in the life of our church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we make you aware of that every week by uh uh through our video announcements.
SPEAKER_01: So let's direct your attention to the screens, let's see what God has coming up for our church.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_02: When you walked in the room today, you may or may not have noticed that the lights were on, the screens were working, the speakers were playing sound, and if you're watching this online, cameras were in use so you can see it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm privileged to lead a team of church members just like you who help make our production ministry possible.
SPEAKER_02: We have volunteers from all ages, stages, and seasons of life.
SPEAKER_02: There's students, retirees, and everyone in between, each doing their part to serve.
SPEAKER_02: During today's service, there are camera operators, sound techs, screen techs, lighting techs, and more making our service happen.
SPEAKER_02: We would love for you to join us as we help our church.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be a techie person or professional.
SPEAKER_02: We're looking for people who want to serve and show up ready to learn.
SPEAKER_02: Take the next step and be a part of our team so we can help people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: To get involved, email me at Clyde at Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or you want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to include our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you would stand to your feet and hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: In your father's name and nature, there is healing for whatever ails you, whatever malady comes against you, whatever you've learned to live with, he can heal.
SPEAKER_01: And so ask him, he's your dad.
SPEAKER_01: And do so in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.