Mark Estes 8.30.26

Good morning, NORTH PALM.

Praise the Lord. God bless you. What an

incredible honor it is that uh we this

opportunity to be together. Uh I love

you and this is the highlight of my life

just to be connected with you as family.

Um

wow, what an incredible day we've had so

far. Amen. worship was the bomb.

I will feast on this. I I like to take

this worship and use that in in my time

uh each week. And so I listen through

this week's worship set each day. And uh

it's just a refreshing thing, so

empowering. Now, I'd like to ask you if

you would open your Bibles to Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. I got a lot I want to share

with you. This is the message that I

really feel like God has for all of

North Palm at this time, this season.

And I and I want to talk to you about

the introduction to the kingdom. We're

going to look at two passages of

scripture. And really, they're they're

bookends. Uh Matthew 4:23 and then

Matthew 4:23

Matthew 9:35.

Matthew 9:35

Let's begin with Matthew 4:23.

Matthew 4:23

And Jesus went about all Galilee,

teaching in their synagogues, preaching

the gospel of the kingdom, and healing

all kinds of sicknesses

and all kinds of disease among the

people. Take a moment. Lift your hands

with me. Come on, everybody. Lift your

hands. Everybody pray this prayer with

me out loud. Holy Spirit,

>> open my ears

>> that I can hear. what you have to say.

Open my heart. Make it receptive. I give

you permission to move deep in my life.

>> To form my heart

>> to form my character. Jesus, have your

way

>> in me

>> today.

>> Amen.

>> Praise the Lord. What a what a wonderful

wonderful opportunity the Lord's given

us. Now.

All right. Now

Jesus.

This is really

just weird.

There we go. Sometimes you just have to

cast the devil out of the electronics.

Now, to give you a little background,

Jesus had just called his disciples,

Peter and his brother Andrew, James and

John, the sons of Zebedee. And um and

now he's giving us Matthew's giving us

an overview of Jesus ministry and and

his ministry touches the entire region

of Galilee. And so, Matthew's not

describing a single day. This is not

just like something that happened in a

day. what he's doing is painting a

panoramic snapshot, a picture of the way

that Jesus does ministry, the way he did

literally everything. And so this

picture is repeated again verbatim in

Matthew 9:35.

Matthew 9:35

In Matthew 9:35,

Matthew 9:35

it says that Jesus went about all the

cities and villages teaching in look at

the teaching in their synagogues

and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

And now look at what he says in ver in

verse 35 of chapter 9, healing every

sickness and every disease among the

people. Wow. Now, now what falls between

these two summaries, the beginning and

the end, you have the the sermon on the

mount. Uh, blessed are the poor, blessed

are the me. Matthew chapter 5, chapter

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

6, chapter 7. Incredible. And then in in

chapter u 8 and n, you have a series of

miracles where Jesus cleanses the leper.

He heals the centurion servant. He even

heals Peter's mother-in-law. Well, now

there's a real deep message in that. Uh

I've got the best mother-in-law in the

world, just for the record. But anyway,

um let me get out of that hole. He he

cast out demons in this passage. He

healed the Bible says many more. He

calmed the storm. I mean, even the wind

and the waves have to obey him. And then

there are two demon-possessed men that

he heals, that he delivers from demons.

He causes a paralytic man to be able to

walk again. He raises a dead girl up out

of the grave. He heals the woman with

the issue of blood. He also heals two

blind men. He heals the centurion's

servant. He heals a man who was mute. I

mean, it's incredible. And so Matthew is

showing us a pattern of how Jesus lived

ministry.

And so to further set the scene, Jesus

had just been tempted in the wilderness

in Matthew 4:E 1-1. He went through that

wilderness temptation. Each time, what

did he do? He said, "This is what the

Lord says. Thus says the Lord, it is

written." He came against the temptation

of Satan with the word of God. And then

he withdraws to Galilee. John is

arrested. He's taken to prison. And

Jesus begins to preach the message of

the kingdom. He says, "Repent for the

kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew

Matthew 4:17

chapter 4 verse 17. And now he's

widening his scope. He's he's not just

in Capernaum, but now he's going

throughout the entire region of Galilee.

And so the pattern that we see in this

is is really simple yet profound. He

Jesus is focused on three things and and

these aren't random things. There is a

unified ministry portrait that's being

given. And and I you've got to get this

because this is what the kingdom is all

about. This is what North Palm is all

about. Jesus went about teaching,

preaching, and healing. So teaching

addresses the mind. It is the

impartation of knowledge. If you want to

change, you first have to change your

mind. The the very essence of the word

repent is change the way you think.

>> So teaching has to do with the mind.

Preaching addresses the will because

what is preaching? Preaching is a

proclamation that demands a response.

Preaching is a little bit more

confrontational than teaching.

>> Just saying. And then healing addresses

the body. And so you see Jesus ministers

to the whole person. Holistic medicine

didn't come from from Eastern religions.

It came from Jesus. Jesus heals body,

soul, and spirit.

>> And then the word says

that um nobody's excluded. You know,

in in Matthew 4:23, as we kind of break

Matthew 4:23

this down, the Bible says he went about

all Galilee. all Galilee. The word went

about that's translated there literally

means to lead around or to go about. And

so Jesus is doing itinerate ministry.

He's doing mobile ministry. This is not

the the pastor, the good shepherd that's

that's just taking care of the flock. He

is on a mission. And that mission

required him to travel. And so Jesus was

at this time was doing the work of an

evangelist.

You know Jesus is the perfect five-fold.

He is the apostle of apostles, the

prophet of all prophets, the evangelist

of evangelists, the pastor, the shepherd

of all pastors, and the teacher of all

teachers. And so he's doing the work of

an evangelist, but he's doing it in all

of Galilee. Now that's emphasizing the

scope of his ministry. And you need to

see this. There is no region of Galilee,

no city in Galilee, no village in

Galilee, no people group in Galilee, no

national origin or ethnicity that is

excluded.

And Galilee was a large populated region

that had both Jews and Gentiles that

comprised the population. In Matthew

Matthew 4:15

4:15, it is referred to as Galilee of

the Gentiles. And so you need to get

this. It this is important to

understand. Jesus doesn't leave anyone

out.

>> He doesn't leave anyone out. He's making

his ministry about reaching the people

that society has marginalized.

M

>> and there are some of you folk here

today and some of you watching online

this morning that you feel like you have

been marginalized

that you've been forgotten

that God somehow does not

has not will not visit you.

But here's the truth.

God has not, God will not, and God

cannot leave you out.

>> TODAY IS YOUR DAY OF SALVATION. IT IS

YOUR DAY OF VISITATION. IT IS YOUR DAY

OF ENCOUNTER. AND THIS MORNING, GOD

WANTS TO ENCOUNTER YOU.

>> He's here TO CONFRONT YOUR NEED. HE'S

HERE TO RESTORE YOUR BROKENNESS. HE'S

HERE TO BRING YOU YOUR FREEDOM. HE'S

HERE TO completely liberate you FROM

EVERY POWER OF DARKNESS THAT BRINGS

BONDAGE to you, to your body, to your

soul, to your spirit.

>> Amen, pastor.

>> Now, he was teaching. This is

interesting. He was teaching in their

synagogues.

>> That's right.

Oh my. Come on, man. The the word that's

that's translated uh teaching is is

literally a systematic instruction. So,

here you have the God of creation, the

lily of the valley, the bright morning

star, the fairest of 10,000. Here you

have the rock of all ages. You have

Emmanuel. You have you have the the wise

counselor. You have the God of gods, the

king of kings. You have the Lord of

lords giving systematic instruction in

their synagogue.

And the synagogue was the place that you

would go

for the reading of the scripture and the

explanation of the scripture. And so

Jesus is operating within their

religious structure.

And so Matthew says that Jesus was

teaching in their

synagogues.

He was teaching in the synagogues that

belong to the Jewish establishment.

They weren't his synagogues.

They were their synagogues.

You see,

ownership

is the key.

The owner controls what happens.

Oh, you you you not picking up what I'm

laying down.

The owner controls who's in charge.

The owner determines the terms. He

dictates the terms of operation.

How we do business.

The owner is the decision maker.

So Jesus didn't say, "I will build

Mark's church."

Jesus didn't say, "I'm going to build

Peter's church or Tim's church or

Angela's church."

Jesus didn't say he was going to build

your church.

Jesus said he was going to build his

church. And he said it plainly in

Matthew chapter 16

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

verse number 18. I say to you that you

are Peter and on this rock I will build

my church and the gates of Hades shall

not prevail against it. And so Matthew

is anticipating a conflict that's going

to take place on who really owns the

church.

And so he's preaching in the church in

the synagogue there, not the law of

Moses. Although Jesus is the fulfillment

of the law, he's not violating the law.

He is preaching the gospel of the

kingdom.

The kingdom.

So the word translated preaching means

to herald. It's like the king sends out

a an an announcer on the street corner

and he publicly announces in a very loud

way what the message is from the king.

That's preaching and that's different

from teaching. Preaching is a

proclamation with urgency.

That's my excuse for sometimes

I get accused sometimes of yelling when

I preach.

I have tried my best to com to calm it

down.

It's hard. You know, it's it is really

really hard. And some I know some folk

just can't take it because they've been

around the quiet so long. And I'm not

hating on them. I I love good teaching.

There's nothing wrong with that. But the

content of the message that Jesus is

preaching is the gospel of the kingdom.

And so you need to understand it's not

the gospel of the kingdom tomorrow, not

in the distant future. It's the gospel

of the kingdom today.

It it's breaking in now. That's the same

message that John preached in Matthew

chapter chapter 3 verse number two. John

preached that uh repent for the kingdom

of heaven is at hand. And that's the

message that Jesus started preaching in

Matthew chapter 4 verse 17. From that

Matthew 4:17

time Jesus began to preach and to say

repent, change your mind, change the way

you think because because the kingdom of

heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven

is near. And and this is good news. This

is really good news. I love how the NASB

translates uh Matthew 4:23 where it says

Matthew 4:23

he heals every kind of disease and every

kind of sickness among the people. And

then the ESV says that he healed every

same verse Matthew 4:23 every disease

Matthew 4:23

and every affliction among the people.

Every disease healing every disease

healing every sickness. And that word

healing means to heal. To restore to

health. The devil has robbed them of

their health, but Jesus came to restore

health back to them. And so, Matthew

uses two distinct words to communicate

this. The word that's translated disease

literally means chronic or serious

illness.

Oh, come on now.

>> Chronic or serious illness. Heart

disease has to bow to Jesus.

>> Diabetes has to bow to Jesus.

>> Respiratory, chronic respiratory

diseases, tuberculosis

have to bow to Jesus.

>> DO YOU NOT GET THIS? CICKLE CELL anemia

has to bow to Jesus. LEUKEMIA HAS TO BOW

to Jesus. Every form of cancer HAS TO

BOW TO JESUS. EVERY NEUROLOGICAL

DISORDER HAS TO BOW TO JESUS. EVERY

MENTAL DISORDER HAS TO BOW to Jesus.

Every sickness, EVERY DISEASE HAS TO BOW

TO JESUS.

>> I wish somebody would praise the Lord

today.

>> Sickness, the word sickness means

weakness, infirmity, ailment. So look at

this. There's nothing excluded. There's

nothing too big. There is nothing too

small. He heals cancer. He heals the

common cold.

>> It's a lie that says there's no cure for

the common cold. The co the cure is

Jesus. The name above all the name we

spoke about, sang about today is the

cure of cancer is the cure of the common

cold.

Mark chapter 9 verse number one he said

Mark 9 · chapter mention

to them assuredly I say to you there are

some standing here who will not taste

death till they see the kingdom of God

present in power. Oh praise God. So he

wasn't talking about something in the

distant future. Now why is all this

important? Well it's important because

what Jesus did is exactly what we're

supposed to do.

Matthew doesn't present teaching,

preaching, and healing in separate

departments.

They flowed together. It was in one

sentence. It was one ministry. It was

one person teaching, preaching, and

healing. You can't remove healing from

the gospel without distorting the

picture that Matthew paints.

When Jesus gave the kingdom

announcement, it came with a

demonstration

of the power of the kingdom. The kingdom

is not just spoken. It is seen. YOU CAN

SEE WHEN THE KINGDOM COMES BECAUSE

PEOPLE are healed, demons are cast out,

sickness has to go, every infirmity has

to bow when the kingdom is present.

And so Paul said in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 2:4

chapter 2 verse 4, "My speech and my

preaching were not with persuasive words

of human wisdom, but in demonstration of

the spirit and of power, that your faith

should not be in the wisdom of men, but

in the power of God."

>> This is important because healing is a

mark of the kingdom.

In the Old Testament, the the Lord

prophesied in Isaiah 35:E5

that the eyes of the blind shall be

open, the ears of the deaf. This is what

Messiah was going to do. This is the

power, the anointing that was going to

flow through Messiah. He said, "Then the

lame will leap like a deer. The tongue

of the dumb sing. The water shall burst

forth in the wilderness and streams in

the desert." And then flip over to

Isaiah 61:1.

Isaiah 61:1

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

Who? He's on Jesus Messiah. The spirit

of the Lord God is upon me because the

Lord has anointed me to preach good

tidings to the poor. He has sent me to

heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim

liberty to the captives, the opening of

the prison to those who are bound, to

proclaim the acceptable year of the

Lord, the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, to console

those who mourn in Zion, TO GIVE THEM

THE beauty for ashes, THE JOY, THE OIL

OF JOY for mourning, the garment of

praise for the spirit of heaviness, that

they may be called trees of

righteousness, the planting of the Lord

that he may be glorified.

>> So Jesus healing ministry was evidence

that the kingdom

has arrived. And when John the Baptist

was imprisoned and he was going through

that dark hour, he sent messengers to

Jesus to ask him, "Are you the one that

we that we're we've been watching for?

Are you the coming one?" And how did

Jesus answer him? He said, "Go tell John

what you see." The blind are able to see

again. The lame are walking. The lepers

are being cleansed. Demons are being

cast out. The dead are being raised. So

healing isn't a sideh show.

HEALING IS NOT SOMETHING TO BECOME such

a spectacle that the healing grabs all

the attention. The healing is a sign of

the kingdom. AND THE KINGDOM IS the rule

of the king. And the kingdom the king

reigns over sickness. The king reigns

over disease.

>> So the church without the supernatural

manifestation

of the Holy Spirit with healing and with

deliverance, if you don't have healing

and deliverance, signs and wonders and

miracles, all you have

is a social club.

Why is this important?

This is important because of the

compassion of Christ.

The phrase every disease, every

sickness, it leaves no condition outside

of God's compassionate reach.

God doesn't sort people like we do

>> into categories.

He doesn't say, "Oh, yes, you deserve.

You are deserving.

Oh, you you you right in every way. You

yes, you can receive your healing. Oh,

now now I'm sorry, but you just not good

enough. You going to have to try a

little bit harder as if your effort has

anything to do with it."

>> We categorize people. We marginalize

them. We put them as deserving or as

undeserving. But Jesus does not sort

people into categories.

He heals all. All white, black, red,

yellow. He heals all. Doesn't matter

your language. It doesn't matter if

you're fat or if you're skinny. It

doesn't matter where you come from. It

doesn't matter who your mama is or what

your daddy had. It does not matter.

Jesus heals all. And and that is

consistent with the portrait that

Matthew is drawing in Matthew chap 1.

Matthew chapter 1 verse 23 where he said

Matthew 1:23

a virgin shall be with child and bear a

son and they shall call his name

Emmanuel which is translated God with

us.

So there's no them. Us and them. Uh-uh.

It's God with us. all of us. And so

Jesus,

you got to get this. Jesus entered human

brokenness. He didn't avoid it. We avoid

brokenness.

>> We get around folk that they got

something going on and and we're a

little intimidated.

>> I know I this I'm talking about other

people. I'm not talking about you.

But in Matthew chapter 8 verse 17,

Matthew 8:17

that it might be fulfilled which was

spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,

"He himself took our infirmities and

bore our sicknesses."

This is important

because it gives the pattern of

ministry.

In Matthew chapter 9

Matthew 9:35

verse 35 through the end of the chapter

it says then he went about all the

cities and villages. This is the bookend

verse teaching in their synagogues

preaching the gospel of the kingdom and

healing every sickness and every disease

among the people. And when he saw the

multitudes,

he was moved with compassion for them

because they were weary and scattered

like sheep having no shepherd. And he

said to his disciples, "The harvest

truly is plentiful, but the laborers are

few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the

harvest that he would send out laborers

into his harvest." You get that? His

church, his harvest.

And so the pattern that Jesus models is

real simple. teaching,

preaching the gospel of the kingdom and

healing

every sickness and every disease. And

and that becomes the mission that Jesus

literally delegates to his disciples in

Matthew 10 verse one. He called his 12

to him and he gave them power

over unclean spirits and to cast out all

kinds of diseases.

The same power that he operated in he

imparted to his 12. And then in Matthew

10 7 and 8 he said as you go preach. All

right. Two important words in that. You

say, "You

>> go."

>> Look at the person next to you.

>> Look him in the eye and say, "You

>> go."

>> YOU NEED TO GO.

>> WHY ARE YOU WAITING?

>> WHY ARE YOU INTIMIDATED? Why do you go

to work and ALL OF A SUDDEN THE DEVIL

SHUTS YOUR MOUTH UP? Come on.

>> WHY YOU GOT IN THAT GET OUT IN THE

COMMUNITY AND YOU'RE MEETING NEIGHBORS

AND YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT

JESUS?

>> You can talk about the Cowboys

up up not being hat. You can talk about

the Chiefs.

You can talk about sports. You can talk

about Clemson. You can talk about

Carolina. You can talk about anything

you want to except Jesus because people

get tonguetied when it comes to Jesus.

AND IT'S TIME TO CAST THAT DUMB SPIRIT

OUT AND FOR YOU TO BEGIN TO TALK ABOUT

the goodness AND THE GLORY AND THE POWER

OF THE LORD THAT SAVED YOU, THAT HEALED

YOU, THAT DELIVERED YOU, THAT SET YOU

FREE, THAT LIFTED YOU UP OUT OF THE

MIRE, OUT OF THE CLAY, THAT SET YOUR

FEET UPON A ROCK, THAT GAVE YOU A REASON

TO LIVE, A REASON TO HOPE, THAT GAVE YOU

A CALLING, THAT GAVE YOU A MINISTRY,

Somebody say, "Praise the Lord."

>> Hallelujah.

>> I want to leave you with one last

scripture. It's 1 Corinthians chapter

4:20.

For the kingdom of God is not in word,

but in power.

>> So here it is.

The first step

is knowing Jesus.

You got to know Jesus.

>> You can't avoid Jesus. He He's been

chasing you all your life.

You You've been running from him. You've

been making excuses. You've tried to

come to church and play religion. You

You've tried to pacify your conscience.

But Jesus don't want a part of you. He

doesn't want a category of you, a

department of you. He wants all of you.

He wants everything about you. He wants

your home. He wants your marriage. He

wants your children. He wants everything

about you. And then when you give it all

to him, he increases what he what comes

back to you. It's pressed down. It's

good measure. It's shaken together. It's

running over. God is a God of abundance.

He God's not a popper. He if you give it

to him, he will multiply what you have.

>> So,

can I challenge you? I I I challenged

the folks at Monk's Corner last week

with this. And I feel like Holy Spirit

wants to challenge you with this. It's

time for you to cross the chicken line.

>> You know how how little boys will draw a

line and say, "I double dog dare you

cross it." You know, they're going to

cross the chicken line.

What's holding you back?

Make a stand. Accept Jesus. Let him come

in your life. Let him take your mess.

Let him take your brokenness.

Let him

put you back together.