Witness Pt 6, Demonstrating the Gospel Through Signs and Wonders

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

So good to be here.

Yeah, we have loved this fellowship for uh decades.

Believe it or not, I go all the way back to knowing James Rile that was in the history when this building was built.

So we we just honor and bless your fellowship, and uh it was really it's really been a delight to worship with you today.

And uh forgive me if I've got a little bit of throat code, I've got a little scratch in my throat, but uh I'm excited for what we're gonna do today.

So um, how many know that Jesus is perfect theology?

Yeah, perfect theology, yeah.

So when Jesus came, he said in his Sermon on the Mount, he said, I came to fulfill the law.

And what he did with that is he actually fulfilled all of the types, he fulfilled the requirements of the law by living righteously and uh all of the different things, the prophecies of the Messiah, he filled all of that.

And where the Old Testament said, If you obey me, I'll bless you, he actually says, Because of my obedience and you're in me, you will be blessed.

And so it's a whole different covenant.

He fulfilled that.

When he came in the Gospels, uh, when we read the account of Jesus, you'll see that he heals the sick, he casts out demons, he cleanses the lepers.

And our question today is, is that still valid today, or some of those gifts ceased with um, you know, the closing of the canon of the scripture, or does Jesus still do miracles today?

I mean, that's part of the question I have for you, is what does that look like?

And so, uh, and then the whole Bible really is about Jesus.

The epistles that follow the book of Acts talk about what Jesus continued to do as the kingdom went forth, and then the epistles talk about the theology of Jesus, and then the book of Revelation is sort of the end game.

Jesus wins in the end, it's about his establishment of his kingdom again on the earth.

And so excited to share a little bit about the kingdom.

I'm going to use kingdom language with my witness because our witness is not just salvation, like eternal life in Jesus, but it's also the dynamic rule and reign of Christ that he's actually broken into history, and that the very power of God that the kingdom has, if God is given a full right to reign and to rule, is actually available today.

So I want to read you a text at the beginning out of Matthew 4.

I'll be in the Gospels, just bouncing around a little bit.

Um in Matthew 4, um, starting verse 23, um, this is kind of a summary message of what um Jesus sort of said.

It at the all the gospels start with, like, okay, this is what Jesus was about.

In Luke, it's in his hometown, and Mark, it's kind of quick stories.

Here it says this in 423.

And Jesus went about all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease, or excuse me, sickness, and all kinds of disease amongst the people.

Then his fame went through all Syria, and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them.

And great multitudes followed him from Galilee and Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

Let me read sort of the opening one in Mark.

That's sort of a summary of Jesus' ministry.

So he healed people with uh conditions that you normally did not expect to get healed.

Uh he cast out demons, etc.

Here we in Mark, it's one of my favorite stories.

What would it look like if Jesus showed up in church?

Uh Jesus walks into a synagogue.

Um it says here in Mark chapter uh one, verse 21.

Then they at this point, he'd called four disciples.

He'd called them to be with him, and he was beginning his public ministry.

He went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and he taught.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught as one having authority, not the scribes.

That's part of the difference when Jesus enters a room, he speaks with heaven's authority, and it's not just theology, and it's not just head knowledge and insight, but it actually carries authority on the very words that he's speaking.

And so he carried authority.

There was a certain man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit.

And he cried out saying, Let us alone, what do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?

Did you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

It's interesting, the demonic presence that's around us actually knows when Jesus walks into a room.

And by the way, you and I are mobile carriers of Jesus.

If you will, the Ark of the Covenant.

And when Jesus showed up, say in the Ghidara region, demoniac ran, knowing they could get set free.

And so when we walk into our Starbucks or our safe ways or what have you, we can actually broker Jesus.

And while the people of this earth may not know that Jesus is the desire of the nations they need, a demonic presence will recognize Jesus.

That's what's interesting about this.

But Jesus said going on in the story, rebuked him, said, Be quiet and come out.

And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.

Then they were all amazed, so they questioned amongst themselves, saying, What is this?

What new doctrine?

For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him, and immediately his fame spread throughout all the region of Galilee.

Notice, by the way, in both the texts I've read that the fame spreads in Galilee or Syria or all of Israel because of the miracles and the authority in which Jesus is operating in.

We're actually seeing this when God moves in power, people notice.

And for those of us, I'm looking at the age of some of us that have been around a while, I was converted through apologetics, C.S.

Lewis and various theologies of how to accept the Lord.

But today, our younger generations, they need the raw power of God demonstrated.

They're crying out for that.

If you look at some of the dystopian movies that we see out there, whether it's Hunger Games or Divergent or Mace Runner, you're seeing young people that say something's wrong with the world, something is needed, and they're rising up in identity.

That's what those stories are about.

What's their identity?

And they actually do things because they know that the demonstration of genuine authority is what the world needs.

And so our people are not just won by words, but they're won by the deeds of the kingdom.

It's something I just want to say.

And we're training our kids in this, by the way, I'll tell you a couple stories in a minute.

But let me go back to Matthew, and I just kind of want to unpack some of these scriptures for you to see what it looks like.

I'll be in Matthew 8.

So after Jesus announced in Matthew 24 who he is, he actually begins in chapter 25, 6, and 7.

He gives a sermon about the ethics of the kingdom.

So then I'm going to drop to, by the way, the pattern in Scripture is message sign or wonder or miracle to demonstrate the message.

Message sign, message sign.

He never just did a message without demonstrating the validity of the message.

And we're going to attempt to do that with you today.

So he's given the Sermon on the Mount, then we come to chapter 8.

And chapter 8, verse 1 reads this way.

Great multitudes followed him, and behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Jesus put out his hand and touched him.

By the way, that was illegal in Jesus' day to touch a leper.

And that is actually the heart is when we are called to witness.

First of all, Jesus is always willing.

And secondly, he reaches into the outcast and the broken of society, be it a woman in adultery or a leper or whatever the circumstance, and he's not afraid to touch them because that's what they need is a touch from heaven.

So he touches this hymn and says, I am willing, be cleansed.

Immediately the leprosy was cleansed.

And Jesus said to him, See that you tell no one, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

So what you see in the close of this is this that when Jesus did a miracle, it was for a testimony to demonstrate the kingdom's here.

So go to the priests, do the offering that's required by the Old Testament for your cleansing, but then testify the Lord Himself healed you.

And so part of what we do when we do things is we always testify about Jesus.

We let them know that's Jesus that touched you.

And what it does is it awakens hunger.

And that's part of my goal today is that hunger is awakened in you.

So in fact, I'm going to pray into that for just a moment.

So, Jesus, would you awaken hunger in us?

Lord, we are tired of playing nerf church.

We actually need the sword of the Lord, the sword of the Spirit.

We need the raw power of God to come through our words, through our life, through our children, so that the kingdom is demonstrated not just with mere words, but with the power of God.

So, Lord, I ask that you'd awaken hunger, that there'd actually be revelatory insight from the Holy Spirit as we read these scriptures.

And Lord, I thank you for what you want to do today in that, in Jesus' name.

The next story, Jesus heals a centurion.

He enters Capernaum, and a centurion comes pleading with him, Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed and is dreadfully tormented.

And Jesus said, I will come and heal him.

By the way, that's what's interesting is most people think you need to have hands laid on you for healing.

But this guy says, No, listen to this.

Lord, I'm not worthy you should come under my roof, but only speak the word and my servant will be healed.

By the way, we're seeing cell phone healings.

Zoom call healings.

I was on a Zoom call where someone in Switzerland said, I've got a word that somebody with, we had about 10 or 15 of us on the call.

Somebody's shoulders hurt.

The person was in the Cayman Islands.

And they said, Well, that's my shoulder.

And then someone from Louisiana prayed, and the shoulder was healed from a word of knowledge in Switzerland in the Cayman Islands.

And I'm like, Jesus, that was amazing.

But only speak the word, my servant will be healed, for I'm also a man under authority.

Notice the authority issue.

If you carry the authority of Jesus, it's him that will do the works.

Jesus said at the Great Commission, all authority in heaven and earth has been granted to me.

Therefore, go in my name, teaching, baptizing the nations, right?

The peoples of the earth, teaching them to do everything I've taught you to do, which was what?

Heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and pronounce the kingdom of heaven has arrived.

Respond to the gospel and come to know Jesus.

It's not just a message, it's a kingdom reign that we're inviting people into.

So he says, just speak the word.

I'm a man under authority, and I have soldiers.

I could say to this soldier, go, and he goes, and this soldier come and he comes.

Do this and he does it.

When Jesus heard this, he marveled at those who followed and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I've not found such a great faith, not even amongst Israel.

And I say to you, many will come and be from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into darkness, and that's because they weren't believing.

They will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus said to the servant, Go your way, as you have believed, so let it be done for you.

And his servant was healed at that very hour.

One more text.

Then Jesus came into Peter's house, saw his wife's mother lying sick with fever, he touched her hand, and the fever left, and she rose and served him.

When evening had come, they brought to them many who were demon possessed, and cast out the spirits with the word, and he healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet.

He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

He's quoting there out of Isaiah 53, Zayah 52, verse 13 through Isaiah 53 is talking about what Jesus did on the cross for humanity.

He's basically saying healing is in the atonement.

By my stripes on the cross, I have purchased healing for mankind.

The word healing is sozo.

Some of you may know that ministry and your inner healing works.

But it means if you look in the New Testament, there are places where that sozo is used for spiritual salvation.

It's used for the healing of somebody that's sick, right here.

It's also used for when demons are cast out.

They were sozoed.

And it's used for the healing of the heart when the Lord deals with heart structures that are broken.

We actually see that the salvation message is more comprehensive than just eternal life.

It's the sick can be healed, the dead are going to be raised, the brokenhearted will be healed, those that are captives will be set free, and those that have demonic affliction and torment will be delivered.

So he's announcing this is the author, Matthew, by the Holy Spirit, says, Okay, we have a leper cleansed.

By the way, that was one of the signs that the Messiah would do, was he would heal blind eyes from birth, deaf ears from birth, the cleansing of leprosy.

It's in Isaiah 35.

It speaks of the signs of what the Messiah would do, that only the Jews of the day said only God could do that.

And so, and here he's got a centurion, so he's actually offending them by the fact that an outsider is getting healed through faith.

Where the sons of the kingdom don't recognize Jesus is the Son of God and they're going to be cast out.

What's interesting about that is the Lord is actually looking for those that are hungry.

And notice the first guy did not have faith.

He just said, Lord, if you're willing, I'm not sure if you are, but if you are, you could heal me.

There's a measure of faith.

But what's happening is in one of the texts, I think it's Mark's version of that text, it says, And Jesus was moved with compassion and reached out and touched him.

About 20 to 25% of the miracles is actually the heart of the Father, Jesus' compassion versus the faith of the recipient.

Why that's good news for us is I can be in the streets and I could be ministering to somebody and they don't have faith that God is real or that God wants to touch them or heal them.

But I do know that if I'm moving in the compassion of the Lord, that's one of the reasons people get healed.

So I can take the pressure off rather than saying, if I had enough faith, this would happen.

I can just know it's the Father's heart to heal the broken.

That makes a really big difference.

Okay, I'll read a couple more stories.

By the way, after that, he gives a message.

So he just did three signs.

Cleansed a leper, heals a centurion, heals Peter's mother-in-law, and then heals a bunch of people at sunset.

Boy, that's quite a day.

If you've seen the chosen, it's kind of fun.

They kind of walk through this day.

Then he gives a message on the cost of discipleship.

Follow me, do what I do.

Lay down, take up your cross, be willing to do what I do.

Then he gives three more signs.

And I'll just kind of recount these for the sake of time here.

He gets in a boat, and there's suddenly a great tempest on the sea so that it's covered with waves, and he falls asleep.

That's interesting.

Um, he's about to go over to the Ghadara region where there are going to be some demonic demoniacs that will confront him.

They're regional principalities in that region that have sent a life-threatening storm to sink Jesus.

But Jesus is asleep in the boat because he's anchored in heaven and there's no storms in heaven, third heaven.

And he actually recognizes when he says, Come on, boys, we're going to the other side.

They'll make it because he spoke the word of the Lord.

And then the disciples wake him, Lord, we're perishing, don't you care?

He says, You who are fearful, little faith, he rose and rebuked.

There's the sign that it's demonic opposition.

He rebukes the wind.

He arose and rebuked it in the sea, and there was a great calm.

And they marveled, who can this be?

So the sign is to point to who is Jesus.

Next story: two demon demoniacs approach.

Now, the other accounts of this in the other gospels have one.

Probably it's one that talks.

They're in the Gesarene's region.

And they cry out, What do we have to do?

And if you know the story, they're cast, the demons are cast into the pigs.

And the men are then dressed in their right mind and sit before Jesus.

They want to go with Jesus, and they say, No, but be a witness.

Go tell everyone in your towns and villages what I've done for them.

Which they did, which is interesting in Mark's account of this text.

Jesus goes back about a year later, and 4,000 get the bread multiplied outside Israel because of the testimony of these two men.

So their testimony actually released hearts to be ripe, so that when Jesus came, thousands showed up, and 4,000 of them are actually get bread multiplied.

Was not just for Israel, it was for the nations.

Then he heals a paralytic in chapter 9.

And what happens here, verse 4, Jesus what he speaks out, says, Son, be of good cheer.

Your sins are forgiven.

By the way, I should start in verse 1.

He got into a boat, crossed back over, came to his own city.

Then, behold, they brought him a paralytic lying on a bed.

When Jesus saw their faith, whose faith?

The faith of the four that brought Jesus, the man to Jesus.

He said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.

I love the fact that Jesus ministers what's most important, which is forgiveness of sin, before he heals him.

I also notice it's the faith of the friends that healed him, not the paralytic's faith.

That's kind of fun.

And the Pharisees, but then at once some of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your heart?

For which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or say, Arise and walk, but that you might know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.

Then he said to the paralytic, Arise, take up your bed and go to your house.

And he arose and departed and went to his house.

Now when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men.

And then you're going to see more teaching, signs, teaching, signs, teaching.

And then as it closes, verse 35 of nine, Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease amongst the people.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them.

Because they were scattered, weary and scattered like sheep with no shepherd, he said to the disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest, send out laborers into the harvest.

He called twelve disciples.

He gave them power.

Other texts say power.

Actually, that in Greek is authority.

But others say both exusia, which is the Greek word, oh, that's authority, and dunymus, which is power, over unclean spirits to cast them out, to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

It names them and he sends them out, says, Do not go to the lost sheep of the house, go to the lost sheep of Israel.

As you go, preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, freely receive, freely give.

Let me stop there.

I think you see the pattern of miracles.

And it's interesting, I would just say this.

The miracles actually are what awakens hearts.

When you look at, say, the Gospel of John, I'll just recount this quickly.

I'm going to give Scott and Christy Joy a moment.

We're going to share a couple testimonies.

We won't be done with the message, but we're going to teach you, and then we're going to demonstrate through a testimony.

Then we're going to teach you again, and then we're going to minister it.

Because that is the process.

But in Luke chapter John chapter 1, it's just very interesting what we see here is John the Baptist witnesses to the light that's Jesus.

John 1 · chapter mention

And talks about the word becoming flesh, etc., behold the Lamb of God, etc., the first disciples.

Then Nathaniel's there.

Philip brings Nathanael and says, Come and see, we've met the Messiah.

And he's skeptical.

Nathanael says, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

By the way, he doesn't realize the word Nazareth is, it's actually an offshoot of Bethlehem.

I've been in Israel.

And Nazareth is based on the word Netzer.

This is why Jesus was called a Netzerene.

Netzer is the shoot of an olive branch, which is spoken of in Isaiah 11, 11, verse 1.

Or Isaiah 11:1, which is, out of Jesse the root, the Netzer, the branch, will produce a fruitful vine and the Spirit of the Lord, and it talks about the sevenfold spirit.

Isaiah 11:1

He thinks, as a human does, nothing could good can come out of that.

Because it was despised because it had a lot of Gentiles in the city.

And so Jesus saw Nathaniel and said, Behold, an Israelite in whom there's no deceit.

In other words, he says, You're honest.

And Jesus answered him, for Philip called you, I saw you under a fig tree.

And Nathaniel answers and goes, and he said to him, Rabbi, you're the son of God, you're the king of Israel.

Like, seriously, he got a word of knowledge.

I saw you sitting under a tree.

And that word of knowledge awakened in him.

God saw me, God is real.

You must be the Messiah I'm looking for.

By the way, the lost that are skeptical, when God moves in power like that, they're awakened to Jesus.

Water to wine.

And it says at the clothes of water to wine.

And his disciples put their faith in them based on the sign.

Chapter 4.

There's more messages.

He cleanses the temple at the Passover.

Um, and he says, What sign do you do these things?

Jesus answered, Destroy this temple.

But before he was speaking of the temple of his body, and it says, His disciples remembered and believed the scripture which was spoken to him, and many believed during the feast when they saw the signs which Jesus did.

It just goes on.

The woman at the well, she gets told by Jesus, You have had five husbands.

The man you're with today is not your husband.

And she says, I see that you're a prophet.

And then he starts speaking, and before long he actually reveals he's the Messiah.

And she believes, and she goes and tells her village, and many believe, and then she brings the village back in a Samaritan village, get saved because of the signs.

So let's give you a couple of testimonies.

Um, Scott, how do you come up first?

We'll use this mic.

Let me tell you a couple of our youth.

We actually do this with our kids, we train them to prophesy, to get words of knowledge, to pray for the sick, um, to do this stuff, as we call it.

And um it happens.

So once a month on Sunday, it's the second Sunday of the month, the kids give me a list of words of knowledge.

We read them during worship, and the people go back, and then we get the testimony cards of who got healed during that time.

Why we do that is we want our youth to know that they carry noji in your Holy Spirit, as you said, and they can do this.

So one of our youth is at Starbucks, and he hears this message from us.

He's like, Wow.

And he says, Lord, I want to know if this really works.

And the Lord, he's he's doing the you know, he's got the earphones on, he's like the guy who's ordering a chai latte double shot.

And he says, Oh, and the Lord just drops in his spirit, bless his left knee.

So he goes, All right, he says, Chai, Chai Latte double shot.

Oh, by the way, bless that left knee.

Two cars later, he comes up to the thing, his eyes are wide, he looks at this young man and says, What did you say over my knee?

I've had constant pain in my knee, and you spoke something, and the pain has completely left my knee.

He says, Oh, well, that was Jesus.

Um, Jesus knows you by name, and Jesus healed your knee.

Here's your here's your chai latte.

Have a great day.

Off the guy goes.

Same young man, the a woman comes up, and I just want to say it's not only power, it's the things that you're doing, that those little bucket balls back there, it's almost full.

We want to see that full next time we come.

That's gonna be amazing.

Um a woman comes up and orders, and he feels the compassion of the Lord.

And he kind of reaches out with a cup and just says, I'm not sure why I'm saying this, but I just want you to know that this day is important to you, and it's a day of blessing.

And he hands her the cup and she's just kind of and off she goes.

She comes back 10 or 15 minutes later, her mascaras run down her face.

She's been sitting in the car, she cuts her way to the line, walks up right up to this young man, and says, I need to tell you something.

Today is the anniversary of my son's death.

He died in a car accident at age 17.

And today I was asking God, God, do you know me in my pain?

And I just need a sign from you that you see me and that you know me.

And you gave me this word of blessing on my son's anniversary.

She's crying.

The young man starts crying, grabs her hand, they start praying.

Everyone in line is watching.

People, you know, all the worists, everybody's watching this moment, they pray, and she walks through a heart healing because God knew that that day mattered to her.

This is the power of God, and it reaches into circumstances and it touches hearts.

Scott, why don't you share with us about McDonald's?

We want to give like real examples, right?

Okay.

Yeah, Peter asked me to share this testimony.

It made me think of it when uh pastor was sharing about their breakfast.

But um just just telling on myself, I I have been an ordained minister for some time and already gone through school and everything, and I was getting ready to prepare a sermon out of Acts chapter 8, which is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip and a variety of things that are going on there.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And I was reading that, and the Holy Spirit fell on me in my office, and I just started weeping.

I said, Lord, I can't preach about this stuff anymore if I don't see it.

I can't do this.

I cannot just talk about it.

There's got to be a demonstration of this.

And I I shut my Bible, I just wept there in my office and was expecting God to do something right there in the office, and really nothing happened.

So I moved on to my next um fleshly idea, which was I hadn't had lunch, so I'm gonna go to lunch.

So I did.

I went out to my car, went to McDonald's, and walked into McDonald's and walked up to the counter and noticed the gentleman behind the counter was kind of didn't just didn't look happy.

And I asked him, Are you are you okay?

And he says, Well, last night I was I was at the gym with my friends.

We were playing basketball and we had this collision and my I bruised my rib and I can hardly breathe.

It hurt so bad.

And and something I had never done up to that point, or at least not regular, I said, Well, would it be okay if I prayed with you?

And and I expected him to say no, or expected him to say, Well, I'm busy working.

He says, Well, I'm gonna be on break in a moment.

Sure, I'll come find you.

So I went over and sat down, waited for him to come over, hoping in a sense that he wouldn't come over because I really wasn't set up for this, didn't know what to do.

I mean, and and he came up and we prayed, and the young man's rib gets healed like instantaneously.

I mean, he felt heat in his chest and his pain was gone, and he was all excited about it.

And we were we were talking actually quite loud in that place, and um and then he had to go back and return to his job.

So I was sitting there going, Wow, that was really cool, Lord.

And while I'm doing that, this lady walks over who had been watching and asked me, What happened?

And I said, Well, why don't you ask that gentleman what happened to him?

So she went and talked to him, she came back and she goes, Can you do that again?

And I said, Well, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that.

She says, Well, my husband over here has a heart issue, and he had a one of those machines for oxygen.

And um, she asked me to pray for him, so I went over and prayed for the man that was standing over there, and um nothing happened on the surface initially, and and I just oh I asked, How would you know if anything happened?

He says, Well, if I turn this machine off in 10 minutes, I'll start turning blue.

I said, Oh, okay.

Well, would you be willing to just turn it off and see, you know, if God did anything?

And he and he reaches down and he turns it off.

So I went back to my seat there, and I was starting to eat and so forth.

And then the the young kid came back again, and we were having a little bit more of a conversation.

And after about 10 minutes, this lady walked up to me, and this time her husband was standing with her, and he was totally fine, didn't have his machine on, and it had been almost 20 minutes, so God healed his heart issue right there at McDonald's.

Now, both of those, I know that was a good day.

This has never happened to me before, okay?

I'm just telling you, I'm a pastor, and this has never happened to me.

And I'm thinking, God, this is really awesome.

You answered my prayer.

I want to see this.

And while we're celebrating these two testimonies, I've noticed another lady watching us, and the Holy Spirit says, Go and talk to her.

So I went over and talked to her, and and she asked what was going on, and I shared, well, why don't I have them?

So I had the other two people that come over that got healed, uh, share their testimony with them.

And we're sitting there talking about how good God is and celebrating that.

And I'm noticing there's a young lady sitting with the person that had invited me over, and um turns out this was the daughter of the lady that invited me over, and she was not a believer, and we had an opportunity to share the gospel with her, and as a result of those testimonies, she got saved.

And and so all of a sudden, everything changed for me.

It's like, you know, this piece of it's not just a message, it's actually a reality that God wants to do.

And and God just since that day, it's like, all right, Lord, game on.

Like I could literally talk for hours on the testimonies of things like this, but the reality is what Peter's talking about.

It's like, you know, it came a point where I had to see it.

And so I just want to challenge it.

Who wants to see this on a regular basis that hasn't seen it?

All right, we're we're gonna minister into that in a bit.

I don't want to get ahead of us.

Thank you, Scott.

Why don't you turn it off?

Christian, you know, I'm gonna have you do it afterwards.

Or you want to just give us 30 seconds what God did for your wrists and how amazing this was.

A minute, could not too long, because I want to I want to give them some more stuff.

Yeah, I uh recently we went on a trip to Bethel and we went to uh the prophetic conference, and um the in the morning in the session, we went through this whole act of forgiveness.

Like it was really beautiful.

That afternoon, I'm sitting in my seat.

Now, I've had an injury where I broke my arm in a million pieces in 2002.

And that afternoon, or that morning, I went through the forgiveness moment of the person who actually caused it.

And I and had that whole thing.

That afternoon, we're in this session, and they start calling out metal in uh broken or previously broken arms, legs, wherever, just metal.

And so anyway, um, I used to only be able to bend my wrist this far.

And so she was like, start bending your wrist back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

And suddenly I'm like, oh my goodness, like I'm I'm bending it all the way.

And so I was getting all this movement.

I was like, Yeah, you know, and so excited.

So I sit down as I'm sitting there, I'm feeling my arm, and it's still really hot.

And the people in front of us are turned around, and I start feeling my arm, and it was full of metal.

Like you could feel these big bumpy clamps all down my arm, and it would hurt.

Um, that disappeared completely.

So the metal in my arm disappeared just as I was sitting there, and the Lord reminded me, remember who you forgave this morning?

And I went, Oh, you're so good.

I wasn't looking for that to happen.

It just didn't just let me.

Yeah, you can see my big scar here.

We're we're just gonna expect that Jesus is gonna take those scars away, right?

Thank you.

That's awesome.

Okay, we're not quite done.

Two more scriptures.

1 Corinthians chapter um two.

This is Paul's theology now.

So we're talking the theologian, like the the one that's gonna unpack all of this that most of us have had our teaching from.

We're out of the gospels at the moment.

Listen to this, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1.

2 Corinthians 2:1

I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of the wisdom of men, which is in the context right prior to this, declaring to you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything amongst you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words, no PowerPoint, or human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the capital S spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

Let's go back to Romans 15, which is a couple pages back, at least in my non-phone Bible.

This is Paul's theology of true preaching.

Romans 15, starting in verse 13.

Brothers, I could have written to you more boldly on some points, but because of the grace given to me by God that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ, by the way, grace is more than unmerited favor, it's the operative power of God on our behalf.

Grace biblically is the same word as gift, caris, spiritual gift, gift of the Spirit, and it says that I might be a minister of grace, offering the Gentiles acceptable sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

It goes on to say, For I dare not speak of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed.

Notice that, word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient in mighty signs and wonders by the power of God, so that from Jerusalem around about to Lyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

This is Paul.

This is his theology of the demonstration of the gospel.

And we know from Paul in Acts, like I mean, he was raised from the dead in chapter 14 of Acts.

He preached, he healed people, somebody got blind, and then you know, just different things happened as Paul moved in signs and wonders and power.

What's good news about this is in Matthew 10 and Luke 9, Jesus commissioned 12 for the 12 tribes of Israel and said, I'm sending you out with my power and authority.

And they go out and they see the sick healed, and they comment back saying, Well, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

This is incredible.

Then in Luke 10, he sends out 70, because 70 is the number of nations in the book of Genesis, in chapter 11, when the nations are scattered, to indicate it's not just for Israel, but it's for the nations of the earth.

And the 70 come back glorifying God because they have seen the signs and wonders and power.

Actually, they're the ones that say even Satan's subject to us in your name.

Then at the close of the Great Commission, he says, All authority has been given to me, therefore go in my name.

In the upper room in John 20, he says, Look, as the Father sent me, I now send you, and he breathes on them the Holy Spirit.

And then he says, Tarry in Jerusalem, and the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the earth.

And so they're commissioned to wait for the empowering presence.

And then Acts 2 comes, and the Spirit comes like fire.

They start speaking in a different language they did not know, and the nations of the earth hear them in their language, glorifying God, and they say, What is this?

And as he gives a message, three thousand are saved.

The message backed up the sign of the speaking in foreign languages, the tongues of their nations.

And then it goes on to say that the church gathered daily in the temple courts, and the apostles saw mighty signs and wonders through their hands, and the Lord was adding to their numbers daily.

So here's the deal God wants to add to you daily people that are being saved, and it comes through mighty signs and wonders.

Now, just to highlight for those of you that might be more dispensationalist or um cessationist in your thinking, like, didn't this die out?

Let me go to 1 Corinthians 1 7.

I'll just give you a quickie answer.

Um this is Paul writing in Corinth, which is our book about spiritual gifts.

And he says here, um see if I can pick it up.

Where is it?

Um I'll start in five.

I think, uh, verse 4.

I thank my God concerning you for the grace that was given to you by Jesus Christ, that you were enriched in every way in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge.

He's speaking actually of tongues and knowledge of gifts, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed to you, so that you do not come short in any gift.

We're talking spiritual gifts, eagerly awaiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm to you to the end.

So, in other words, until Christ returns, they Paula's prayer is, I pray that you'll be no short of any gifts.

Now I'll go to 1 Corinthians 13, which is your classic place, where those that feel like, well, this all ceased with the closing of the canon of Scripture, by the way, here's their language on it, if you read their books.

Well, the law of the Lord is perfect, Psalm 19 and one uh Psalm 119, and when the canon of the scripture was closed, the perfect came.

But listen to the context, not only of 1 Corinthians 1.7, but what it says right in the immediate context in 1 Corinthians 13.

Um, well I'll go further back.

But where there are prophecies, they will fail.

Where there are tongues, they will cease.

Where there's knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But then when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away with.

The question is, what is the perfect that's to come?

Verse 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

His argument is, I need this now, but when the perfect comes, I won't need it.

So what's the perfect?

For now, verse 12, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I'm known in part, but then I shall be fully known.

When do we see somebody face to face?

When Jesus returns, and we become like him when we see him face to face.

So, in context, until we see Jesus face to face, all of these gifts are actually available to us today.

That's interesting.

So theologically, all of you can operate in the spiritual gifts because Christ hasn't returned unless I missed it.