Sermon

Breaking Free From The Lie of Being Ruined

Sunday Message Podcast

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

  2. We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

  3. And in this series, hope and healing have been arising.

  4. Where are you grateful that God has given us a serious I am, I'm

  5. very grateful. Are you grateful?

  6. Pastor Kim's grateful. And healing has been happening.

  7. But as you know, when you dive into the corners of mental

  8. health, it's like there's a sheet of wood on the ground and

  9. it's been there for years. And you finally lift up the

  10. sheet of wood. What's under there?

  11. A bunch of creepy crawly things. And that's what's happening here

  12. at Illuminate Church. And it's a good thing.

  13. It's better to reveal it and deal with it than to leave it

  14. there, growing in its power. So we've seen demonic activity

  15. in the church in the last couple weeks and we expected it.

  16. We've seen deliverances and we've seen attacks.

  17. We've seen strange things that don't normally happen here that

  18. are happening and we knew it was coming.

  19. So what we're going to do today is make a stand against the

  20. demonic in Jesus name. Today is deliverance day.

  21. Amen. Believe it.

  22. Let me just say a warm welcome to anyone who's here for the

  23. first time. If you're brand new, we say

  24. hello to you. I'm going to tell you that you

  25. can make one decision that will change the rest of your life.

  26. And it's this simple. At the end of service, stop by

  27. connect central. If you stop by connect Central,

  28. they can connect you to the heart and the message of the

  29. church and what to do next. And suddenly you will find as

  30. many, many, many, many, many people before you have found I

  31. just needed to do one thing. Go to connect central, get

  32. connected. Go to lifestyle one, lifestyle 2

  33. and a things just changed, as you hear me say in the lifestyle

  34. one video over and over. The trajectory of your life will

  35. be absolutely changed if you make that one decision.

  36. So please go. If you're brand new or if you've

  37. been here for years and just been stubborn, I mean, not able

  38. to go, whoops, Please go. We are in a series called Weeds

  39. in My Garden. We're in week 4.

  40. This is a series about being honest about mental health.

  41. If we're honest, we haven't been honest about mental health.

  42. In week one, we learned that in order to live out the second

  43. greatest commandment, we needed to love well by destigmatizing

  44. the issues surrounding mental health and making it easy for

  45. people to understand. It's OK to admit that you're not

  46. OK to create a hospital where the doctor, his name is Jesus,

  47. can come and do his work. Jesus said out of his own mouth.

  48. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all

  49. your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

  50. And then he said the second is to love your neighbor as

  51. yourself, right behind it. When we fail to love people

  52. well, when we fail to help people through mental health

  53. issues, one of four things happens, maybe all of them.

  54. Number one, it impacts our relationship with God.

  55. If we don't help people, it impacts our relationship with

  56. other people. And on the flip side, it impacts

  57. their relationship with God and it impacts their relationship

  58. with people. What do I mean?

  59. Well, if we don't love people well and deal with mental

  60. health, then we're saying to God, we don't love what you love

  61. because you love people and you came to heal people, but we're

  62. too busy or too bothered or that's too creepy or too hard,

  63. so we're not going to deal with it.

  64. It impacts our relationship with God.

  65. Beyond that, it also impacts our relationship with them.

  66. Like what are you talking about? Well, it's going to be harder

  67. for people to come to us and be honest with us if we don't help

  68. people who are in the this sort of battle.

  69. And what they end up doing is we condition them.

  70. We train them to not be candid with us.

  71. We train them to give us roses and hide the weeds in their

  72. garden because we're not a safe space for them to come and be

  73. honest because they're like, oh, that's too hard, too weird.

  74. You're creepy. You've had this issue.

  75. Go deal with it some other way. Not by me.

  76. This is the message we can give. And it what happens is we leave

  77. them isolated, we leave them vulnerable, we leave them as

  78. sheep without a shepherd. The very help they need, we

  79. drive them away. Them being all of us, by the

  80. way, it can impact also their relationship with God.

  81. Why? Because they're going to judge

  82. God by our actions. Did you hear me?

  83. They will judge God by our actions.

  84. We are both the hands and feet of Jesus.

  85. We are the expression of God to the hurting world, and when we

  86. handle poorly the glorious mission that has been given to

  87. us, it changes how people see God.

  88. This culminates in them having a hard time in relationships with

  89. others as well. Because if Christians can't be

  90. trusted, if God can't be trusted, then who can?

  91. Nowhere is safe. No one is safe.

  92. I retreat all the more. Again, isolation, vulnerability,

  93. loneliness, sheep without a shepherd.

  94. That's not the kind of Church of the kind of people that we want

  95. to be, we want to love. Well, as I said in week 1, I

  96. want to recapture the idea of what mental health is so that

  97. we're all on the same page. And here at Illuminate Church,

  98. we're using incredibly broad strokes to define mental health.

  99. When most people typically think of mental health, you usually

  100. doesn't always happen, but you usually go to clinical

  101. diagnosis, meaning somebody has OCD or schizophrenia or clinical

  102. depression or clinical anxiety and that's mental health.

  103. And I'm not that to be clear, in this series, we are dealing with

  104. those clinical diagnosed issues as well as we're handling mental

  105. health in any sort of capacity as it relates to the

  106. overwhelming emotions that come to us because of life loss,

  107. wounds, worry, unhealed wounds, crushing stress, perpetuated

  108. brokenness. It causes us to suffer mentally.

  109. We're not operating as God intended us to operate.

  110. Mental health issues, I said in week one, are comprised of

  111. multiple components all relating to each other.

  112. One impacts the other. There's situational issues.

  113. Everyone say situational. Yeah, what's going on in you and

  114. around you, actions you were doing, actions of others.

  115. There's physiological issues, say physiological.

  116. Yes, the brain wiring. You can literally rewrite how

  117. your brain is wired. There's chemical malfunction,

  118. something not operating just right with your pituitary gland

  119. and all the ways the amygdala and the way that the brain

  120. works. There's clinical issues that I

  121. just mentioned. There's also spiritual issues,

  122. say spiritual, and this is what we've been drilling down on the

  123. last two weeks. There is an enemy who is against

  124. you. And here's what I want to

  125. stress. In the end, when we're talking

  126. about spiritual issues, everything is spiritual.

  127. Though there may be situational issues, clinical, medical,

  128. physiological issues going on, everything is spiritual.

  129. But when we list out all of these components and say they

  130. relate together, what we're trying to do is help everyone

  131. understand, though everything is spiritual, everything is not

  132. exclusively spiritual. Meaning that the you may need

  133. clinical medical help and there's no shame in that, but

  134. you also may need situational help.

  135. Lord, deliver me from this brokenness.

  136. And then I return to the brokenness by the way that I act

  137. or the people that I continue to share life with.

  138. And guys like I want to deliver you, but you keep running back

  139. to prison. So I want to show you how this

  140. all works together. Pastor Kim shared so brilliantly

  141. last week. So honestly, I'm so grateful

  142. that you did that, Pastor Kim. There's so much help that came

  143. from that. And he shared his testimony, as

  144. he called it a message testimony or a mess that became a

  145. testimony, whichever one works. And what he said is that his

  146. situation as a young boy caused him to physiologically change.

  147. If you weren't here, by the way, go back and listen to last

  148. week's message. Profoundly beautiful.

  149. The physiological change from because his brain got hardwired

  150. to believe that he could not ever let his defenses down.

  151. He was always switched on guard. Did you hear what he said last

  152. week? To relax was dangerous to him.

  153. Dangerous. If I let down my defenses, I may

  154. get hurt. Not only that, but his

  155. Physiology change. He said in his nifty 50s, he's

  156. got started to react to the amount of strain and unhealth

  157. mentally that he was experiencing.

  158. But eventually, praise be the Lord, he went and sought

  159. biblical Christian counseling and Jesus met him in that and

  160. gave him freedom from this Hallelujah, Amen.

  161. And it all, you see how all of it works together.

  162. The situation with the physical, the spiritual, all of it is kind

  163. of combined together. And I just don't want to pause

  164. here and say this as well. Pastor Kim and Heather this

  165. Saturday leave on a six week sabbatical.

  166. Yep. Come on, sabbaticals that are

  167. Illuminate Church are a rest for ministry for our pastoral staff.

  168. And it happens once every seven years.

  169. Only once every seven years do you get the rest.

  170. That's not the truth, but it's an extended rest for ministry.

  171. And I'm so excited for the two of you to get away and to do

  172. this. And we're going to miss you

  173. while you're traveling. They're traveling here and there

  174. and whatever. You might see him occasionally,

  175. but leave him alone, he said. Amen.

  176. But nothing wrong is happening, nothing bad if you don't see

  177. Pastor Kim that is. Some people have always hopping

  178. to Kim. He's doing great.

  179. He and Heather are great. Amen.

  180. All right, well, here's the main issue of this series.

  181. I think it's becoming clearer as we go into this series.

  182. The devil is trying to steal, kill and destroy us via our

  183. mental health issues, using the cloudiness and the unhealth

  184. mentally to steal, kill, and destroy.

  185. This verse should sound familiar because we've been quoting it

  186. almost every week. John chapter 8, don't turn

    John 8 chapter mention

  187. there. If you want to turn somewhere,

  188. turn to Mark chapter 2. If you need a Bible, raise your

    Mark 2 chapter mention

  189. hand and we'll bring one to you. Mark chapter 2, We're going to

    Mark 2 chapter mention

  190. be there in just a moment. But in John chapter 8, Jesus is

    John 8 chapter mention

  191. speaking about the devil. He says you belong to your

  192. father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's

  193. desires. I'm going to take out all the

  194. pronouns and just use the devil's name.

  195. The devil was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to

  196. the truth, for there is no truth in the devil.

  197. When the devil lies, the devil speaks the devil's native

  198. language, for the devil is a liar and the father of lies.

  199. This is who he is. We're coming to you.

  200. We see hands. We're coming with Bibles in Week

  201. 2 that I share that there are three main lies that the enemy

  202. speaks to us to diminish our mental health and these three

  203. main lies if believe long enough eventually lead to for some

  204. suicide, which we're going to address in two weeks, week 6.

  205. I hope that you are here so we can address this very it's so

  206. essential that we address this topic in the church suicide

  207. that's in two weeks. But in week one we said that the

  208. first slide that Satan tells us that we are meaningless or we

  209. are without worth worthless because of battles we face, the

  210. feelings we feel, our value, our meaning and our significance

  211. have been reduced. It's been diminished and for

  212. some extinguished completely. But the truth is it's the God

  213. himself that made you, which means that God himself knows

  214. you, which means that God has personally and significantly

  215. created you. And in this way, we have

  216. relationship with them. We are known by him.

  217. We're not meaningless, we're not random, we're not insignificant.

  218. Last week, Pastor Kim talked about the lie that the devil

  219. tells us, which is you're not lovable.

  220. Who would love you? You.

  221. Through his story, he was telling us the truth, which is

  222. there's nothing you can do to unearn the love of God, and

  223. there's nothing you can do to earn the love of God, Love of

  224. God. The Lord's love is irrevocable.

  225. Think about that word. The love, the Lord's love is

  226. unconditional. Think about that word.

  227. This week I want to talk to you about the third lie that Satan

  228. tries to whisper to us, and it's not great, but see if you've

  229. heard it before. You are ruined.

  230. You're ruined. It's too late.

  231. There's no coming back from this.

  232. I think of the lady in the Phillies jersey at the Marlins

  233. game. Maybe you've seen this on social

  234. media. Home run gets hit, ladies there.

  235. It hits near her feet, then it rolls down and in baseball

  236. rules, it's fair game. Whoever gets the ball gets the

  237. ball. Well, this other dude, dad grabs

  238. the ball, takes it to his birthday boy son gives it to

  239. him. They hugged like this is

  240. amazing. And then Phillies lady comes

  241. over and like rings them mine, mine, mine.

  242. And the guys like, listen here, you take it clearly you need it.

  243. Well, she's all over the Internet and basically there's

  244. no coming back from this for her.

  245. She's been fired from her job. She's ruined.

  246. Now I think, what if all of my mistakes were on social media?

  247. What if my mental health was posted on social media and

  248. everyone decided let's cancel him?

  249. There's no coming back from that, Ingram.

  250. This is what the enemy tells us. There's no coming back for you.

  251. The lie of the fact that we are ruined comes in the various

  252. forms of mental health that I've been sharing with you.

  253. Let me just go through them. It could show up in the

  254. physiological as you come to grips with the facts, the

  255. reality that you were put together physically different.

  256. Your brain is wired different. Your chemicals pump into your

  257. body different. Your physical struggles have

  258. ruined you. This is what the devil says.

  259. You will never be able to be the person God created to be.

  260. You'll never be able to live your lifeout the way that God

  261. intended it. The way that other people get to

  262. live it is different for you. It could show up also.

  263. This lie. You are ruined in the clinical

  264. as you deal with the weight of a diagnosis, the life you were

  265. hoping to have, the dream life you've been just chasing slips

  266. through your fingers. That's what Satan does.

  267. He tries to get you to believe that your diagnosis is bigger

  268. than your choices. Hopelessness.

  269. You have no choice. This is the end.

  270. And he also gets you to believe that your diagnosis is bigger

  271. than your God. And worse than that, he tries to

  272. get you to take ownership of the diagnosis so that your diagnosis

  273. is your identity. When we're going through a

  274. battle like this, we'll say stuff like my depression, I used

  275. to say, my anxiety, my OCD, whatever.

  276. Think about what that means. Like my wallet, my car, my

  277. pants, whatever. You are not your wallet and you

  278. are not your diagnosis. You may have a diagnosis, but

  279. the diagnosis doesn't have you in Jesus name.

  280. But if you believe the lie that you're ruined, then you are your

  281. diagnosis. Go ahead.

  282. Yeah, it can also show up in the situational in two ways.

  283. The first way is when you begin to reveal your actions to

  284. others, because our actions are tied to our mental health.

  285. Some of our mental health issues are the result of our own hands.

  286. You've done something so long under the cover of darkness, but

  287. now it's coming to light and the devil will tell you that people

  288. are going to look at you differently.

  289. They're going to judge you. The mask is being removed and

  290. now they're going to see you for who you really are.

  291. You're ruined. Then there's also the actions of

  292. others, which come with an incredible pain and damage.

  293. And the longer that people damage you, the more you think

  294. you are damaged. Meaning if you think so lowly of

  295. me that you're willing to treat me this way, I must be a lowly

  296. person. Because I know you don't treat

  297. poorly that which you value. You treat your vehicle better

  298. than you treat your spouse, and that says something to your

  299. spouse. I just made-up an example, not

  300. pointing fingers, by the way. All of this is the devil's

  301. playground, because the devil wants to come into you and

  302. remove all the light. He wants to remove all the help,

  303. all the hope. He pushes in.

  304. He double s down. He says to you would be better

  305. off for you, and it'd be better off for the people around you if

  306. you weren't here anymore. No one's ever going to allow you

  307. to get over this. There is no coming back.

  308. You are ruined. You were going to have a great

  309. life, but now too late. Now just in the listing of the

  310. physiological, the clinical, in the situational, look how much

  311. ground Satan has taken, and we haven't even talked about the

  312. spiritual. Satan begins to tell you that

  313. God couldn't love you. Satan begins to tell you're too

  314. far gone, you're too messed up, you are ruined.

  315. And as a result, we come to some conclusions.

  316. Three of them. Number one, we come to this

  317. conclusion that God isn't big enough for my problem.

  318. Meaning my problem is too big for God, He can't handle it.

  319. Or on the flip side, we say my problem is too small for God,

  320. He's too big and important for little me.

  321. Or thirdly, we come to the conclusion of well, I've been in

  322. church this whole time and I still have these problems.

  323. I guess church doesn't work or I'm not doing church right.

  324. Something's wrong with me. I don't have enough faith.

  325. I'm not praying right? So I'm not putting the pieces

  326. together, pulling this the the slot machine of God, So

  327. something pops out, right? This is the spirit behind

  328. deconstruction. If you've heard this term in the

  329. church, people leaving the faith, deconstructing what God

  330. had built to them because they've come to the conclusion

  331. it doesn't work. It's not real.

  332. It must not be real deconstructionism.

  333. The hardest part of all of this is that the very part of your

  334. body that is being attacked is also the very same part of the

  335. body that is making all the decisions about what to do going

  336. forward. How can I make healthy decisions

  337. if my mind is unhealthy? Think about that.

  338. If the devil has 1 foot on the gas, 1 foot on the brake and 1

  339. foot on one hand on the wheel, I still have to get in the car and

  340. go places. Just when I go those places, I

  341. always end up somewhere unhealthy, lonely, ruined,

  342. hopeless. So this is the lie you are

  343. ruined. What is the truth?

  344. If you're here today and want help and hope, then what I'm

  345. about to share is critical as we walk this path forward with

  346. Jesus towards mental health. 5 truths to combat the lie that

  347. you are ruined. Truth number one.

  348. Are you ready to say yes? God is not surprised by our

  349. struggles. What?

  350. I was asleep. I didn't know that Tim had done

  351. that. What?

  352. Right? No.

  353. He knows our situations. He's not afraid of our

  354. brokenness. He's not allergic to our pain.

  355. He's not allergic to our misery. When Jesus came to the earth, he

  356. came to help and to heal. If you read to the Gospels,

  357. you're going to see over and over again how much time Jesus

  358. took to minister to people in pain.

  359. All sorts of pain. Physiological pain, situational

  360. pain, clinical pain, spiritual pain.

  361. I mean, he healed a woman caught in adultery, healed the demon

  362. possessed man, He healed the man on the mat, He healed the woman

  363. with the flow of blood. And these are just a few of many

  364. times that Jesus says I've come to handle the problem.

  365. Luke chapter 4, we've looked at a few times in this series and

    Luke 4 chapter mention

  366. it's important to remember because it essentially shows us

  367. the reason Jesus came. He said in verse 16 of Luke

    Luke 4 chapter mention

  368. chapter 4, he went to Nazareth, Jesus, where he'd been brought

  369. up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was

  370. his custom. Note this, Jesus went to church

  371. every week. This is custom.

  372. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was

  373. handed him. Unrolling it, he found the place

  374. where it is written. The Spirit of the sovereign Lord

  375. is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good

  376. news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim

  377. freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,

  378. to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's

  379. favor. Then you roll with a scroll,

  380. give it back to the tenants, sat down and says everyone in the

  381. room had their eyes fastened on Jesus.

  382. And then he began by saying to them, to them, today the

  383. Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, meaning Jesus is saying

  384. that time that you have been waiting for as you've awaited

  385. the one who would come to heal, that time has arrived.

  386. The time is now. I am Him, I am here.

  387. Amen. Which means very, very simply,

  388. He's not surprised by our struggle.

  389. He came because he knew we were struggling.

  390. That's what he just said. I came to set the oppressed

  391. free, set the prisoners free. I knew you were struggling.

  392. That's why I showed up. Truth #2 God is not surprised by

  393. our sin. From a spiritual perspective,

  394. God knew that we were all ruined.

  395. That's why I sent Jesus. Romans chapter 3 says it

    Romans 3 chapter mention

  396. plainly. For we all have sinned and

  397. fallen short of the glory of God.

  398. Raise your hand if you're included in the all.

  399. If you're not raising your hand, you're a Sinner.

  400. Sorry. From a spiritual perspective,

  401. think about this. Some of us are tall, some of us

  402. are not. Some of us are thin, some of us

  403. are not. Some of us can Dunkin

  404. basketball, Some of us can crochet.

  405. Some of us can paint, some of us can't.

  406. If you look around, God has made us so different in so many

  407. wonderful ways, A kaleidoscope of His glory, so different.

  408. But there is one way that we are not different at all, that every

  409. single person in this room, every single person you see when

  410. you walk outside, drive the roads, walk around Disney, you

  411. can look around, say, hey, we all have this in common.

  412. We are all ruined by sin, every single human being ruined by

  413. sin. But God in his mercy stepped

  414. into that space to deliver us from evil to the sacrifice of

  415. his Son Jesus. Jesus, it turns out, came down

  416. to deal with lots of needs, but he came down to deal with our

  417. greatest need, our biggest need. And Mark, chapter 2, if you have

    Mark 2 chapter mention

  418. the Bible open there, it's one of the my favorite Bible

  419. stories. If you've never heard this story

  420. before, I feel like I'm showing you Disney for the first time

  421. was like, what? Wow, amazing, right?

  422. And so Jesus returns to his hometown, which isn't Nazareth.

  423. That's where he was raised. But he lived most of his life in

  424. the town of Capernaum, right on the Sea of Galilee, tiny little

  425. village that he lived in. And he goes to his home and it

  426. says that like the whole world seems to show up.

  427. It's not true, but so many people show up that the house is

  428. completely filled. People are standing all around

  429. the house trying to get in to see Jesus.

  430. Don't you know that every church should be filled to the brim

  431. every single Sunday because Jesus is there?

  432. Don't you know that this church should be filled with the brim

  433. every single Sunday because Jesus, he's here.

  434. There's some people in town who have a friend who's paralyzed.

  435. Hope you have friends like this. They say, hey, friend, hope and

  436. healing is here. We're going to take you to

  437. Jesus. And if you learn anything about

  438. God, I'm not sure what to do when you run into somebody who's

  439. hurting, just take him to Jesus, right?

  440. So they get this guy on a mat and they begin to carry him to

  441. the house, like we're going to see Jesus.

  442. And then they get to the house and so many people are there

  443. like they can't even get in the house and they're like deuces.

  444. They peace out and they take them home, drop them down.

  445. Be like, sorry, that 'd be a terrible story.

  446. It wouldn't even be in the Bible.

  447. No, these friends are like, OK, Plan B up to the roof, like

  448. Santa, sorry. Now think about the

  449. determination of these people to get to Jesus and like we have

  450. trouble out in the parking lot because I can't find a spot and

  451. I got to park over there and they're like, all right, we're

  452. going to dig a hole in the roof and lower homeboy down.

  453. That's the Huber word, homeboy. Now the precision is amazing

  454. because they're on top of the roof and they dig a hole big

  455. enough for a man and they lower him down right in front of

  456. Jesus. Imagine if they're like, oh,

  457. estadad El bano de bano UN bano the bathroom, like whoops, no,

  458. over here, down he goes right in front of Jesus.

  459. Look in your scriptures, verse 5, when Jesus saw their faith,

  460. he said to the paralyzed man, I heal your body.

  461. Is that what it says? It Doesn't it make sense though?

  462. He's on a mat, he can't use his arms and legs.

  463. He's in front of Jesus, Jesus healing body.

  464. And Jesus says, Son, your sins are forgiven.

  465. What? Now Some teachers of law were

  466. sitting there thinking to themselves, no, they didn't

  467. speak. They thought, why does this

  468. fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming.

  469. Who can forgive sins but God alone.

  470. Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this is what they

  471. were thinking in their hearts. Imagine that when you hang out

  472. with Jesus, he's thinking what you're thinking.

  473. And he said to them, why are you thinking these things?

  474. And he asked him a question that I want to ask you.

  475. Don't answer out loud, just ponder it.

  476. Which is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins are

  477. forgiven, Or to say get up, take your mat and walk.

  478. Don't answer out loud. But which is easier to say?

  479. Isn't it easier to say the one that won't have any physical

  480. proof? Like I can't prove it y'all just

  481. trust me. And isn't it harder to say the

  482. one that requires demands physical evidence here and now?

  483. Verse 10. But I want you to know that what

  484. the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

  485. I don't know that I read that right.

  486. But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on

  487. earth to forgive sins. In other words, Jesus saying,

  488. oh, you don't think I can forgive?

  489. Would you believe that I can forgive if I could heal this

  490. man? And you're like, uh huh.

  491. So he said to the man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and

  492. go home. He got up, took his mat and

  493. walked out in full view of them all.

  494. This amazed everyone and they praise God saying we have never

  495. seen anything like this. They lower the man in front of

  496. Jesus and Jesus heart immediately goes to the sin, not

  497. to the physical body. Because we must imagine Jesus is

  498. thinking, what good is it to make a man walk if he's walking

  499. straight to hell? What good?

  500. So let me deal with the actual problem, the greatest need,

  501. which is the sin. Mark chapter 2, verse 17.

    Mark 2:17

  502. Look just a few verses down. On hearing this, Jesus said to

  503. them, is it not the healthy who need a doctor?

  504. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

  505. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

  506. In other words, there is nothing that is too big for God.

  507. If He handled the biggest issue of all of humanity for all of

  508. time, certainly He can handle any other issue.

  509. He came on purpose to save you from what?

  510. Attempts to ruin us in Jesus name.

  511. Truth #3 Nothing is too small for God.

  512. Say when have you believe that God is only good for the big

  513. things but not the small things? Don't busy him only call when

  514. things get really out of hand. In light of all that is

  515. happening in the world. Middle East, rumors of wars,

  516. China, all of this. Do you think he's got time for

  517. you? It's just a flesh wound.

  518. Minimize it. It's nothing.

  519. I need to confess to you something.

  520. I am not a handyman. Anyone else want to confess this

  521. handywoman? Any.

  522. I'm. Yep.

  523. I once noticed in our shower that the line of caulk that's

  524. down at the bottom, that kind of keeps the water in and from when

  525. you know what I'm talking about, the bead of caulk that goes all

  526. around everywhere. Yeah, I noticed it was like, not

  527. good to look dried out. And some of it was not the right

  528. color anymore. And I like, I need to fix this.

  529. Certainly I can do this small little bitty, insignificant

  530. house thing. And so I got the right tools to

  531. dig out and the, the white caulk, they're going to zoom

  532. here all around, you know, And four hours later, I'm literally

  533. covered head to toe and white cock.

  534. It's on my arms, it's in my face, it's in my hair, it's on

  535. my knees, it's on my feet. And the lines looked like

  536. they've been drawn by a kindergarten hyped up on 6 bags

  537. of Skittles. And I just sat down and turned

  538. out of the shower and wept. No, I didn't do that, but I felt

  539. like doing it. Here's the point, why didn't I

  540. just call the professional? But it's so much easier.

  541. But it's just small job. I should be able to handle the

  542. small thing, don't need to call a professional.

  543. So I did. I call a professional, they come

  544. over, 30 minutes later, they're done.

  545. It looks amazing. And I look at them and say how

  546. much do I hate you? Jealous.

  547. The point again, why didn't I just call the professional?

  548. It's not too small a job for them.

  549. Luke chapter 12 verse 6 says are not 5 sparrows sold for 2

    Luke 12:6

  550. pennies, yet not one of them is forgotten by God.

  551. Tiny little Sparrow, he knows about it.

  552. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are numbered, all of them.

  553. Don't be afraid. You're worth more than many

  554. sparrows. I don't know if you ever cleaned

  555. out a drain at your house and you pull it up and there's a

  556. bunch of hairs there. I think to myself, God knows all

  557. of these. He knows every single one.

  558. He named this one Betty, that one Mabel, He's got them all.

  559. He's aware. Yep.

  560. This is the way my brain works. I want you to know that when you

  561. pray, you're praying to a God who sees, to a God who knows

  562. every intimate detail. Nothing escapes his notice, and

  563. he cares about everything that you're going through, whether

  564. it's big or small. The problem is we don't tend to

  565. go to God until the small things become the big things.

  566. Now, to be clear, the big things aren't hard for God, but they're

  567. hard for us. Why?

  568. Inertia, Momentum. The ship has sailed, it has

  569. gotten heavier, and it is speeding up.

  570. Think about turning a tiny boat and think about turning Icon of

  571. the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, going fast to

  572. the sea, weighted down. And what happens to us as we

  573. begin to believe like, wow, you're right, I'm too far down.

  574. This is too hard to turn around. The healing that it would take

  575. requires too much. I can't go back.

  576. I just going to set sail on this course and there's going to be

  577. no change for me. Not true.

  578. Better to deal with something early and often.

  579. By the way, This is why we are a kids ministry.

  580. This is why we are a youth ministry and a young adult

  581. ministry. The Bible says if you train up a

  582. child in the way that they should go when they are old,

  583. they will not depart from it. Why not help them learn the love

  584. and ethics of Jesus at an early age so they don't have the

  585. inertia of the enemy to have to overcome later in life?

  586. Amen. Truth #4 God has the power to

  587. restore that which is broken and ruined.

  588. He does this in one of three ways.

  589. Listen to me carefully everyone. Take a big breath.

  590. Sometimes. God restores and heals.

  591. Today in the here and now we pray and medically, mentally

  592. there is relief and healing. I have seen it, I am part of it.

  593. I have been healed of anxiety in Jesus name but moves me to the

  594. second part. It didn't happen today, it

  595. happened someday. Meaning I began praying for my

  596. healing at the beginning and it didn't happen from Sunday to

  597. Monday, it happened from 2016 to 2020 ish.

  598. I don't even know. It took time, it took process.

  599. There are things that I needed to walk through.

  600. There are things that I needed to learn.

  601. There are things that I needed to let go.

  602. A foundation that the Lord wanted to build under me that

  603. couldn't have happened the same way if you just been taken away

  604. from me. That resistance, that waiting to

  605. be healed, built something in me that the enemy cannot steal.

  606. So sometimes the healing happens today.

  607. Sometimes the healing happens someday and sometimes the

  608. healing happens one day and that one day is the 2nd coming of

  609. Jesus Christ where he says behold I will make all things

  610. new. This is a frustrating teaching

  611. because everyone desires the two day healing.

  612. Who would want to wait for someday or the one day God?

  613. Give me the 2 day healing. But as I've just shared with

  614. myself and I've seen happen time and time again, people who are

  615. walking through the struggle, waiting on their healing,

  616. processing, walking through healing, making right

  617. relationships, walking towards their healing.

  618. They turn their struggle into a story.

  619. They turn what's called a tragedy into a testimony.

  620. While other people might have a shallow understanding of the

  621. power of God, these people have learned to depend on the living

  622. God with their every breath. As they're waiting the healing,

  623. they might say something like, even in my worry, I will trust.

  624. Even in my anxiety, I choose to follow.

  625. Even in my depression, I will still give him glory.

  626. Even to my pain, I will raise my hands and praise.

  627. I think of Joe when he said, Though you slay me, yet will I

  628. trust in you. Though he slay me yet will I

  629. trust in him today, someday, one day the healing is coming in

  630. Jesus name. Which brings me to the close and

  631. the last. Truth is an invitation.

  632. Truth #5 God delivers from evil. I told you at the beginning,

  633. today is deliverance day. What does that mean?

  634. I want to speak to something that has been sensationalized in

  635. the church to the extent that we turn a blind eye to and like I

  636. don't want to deal with that. It's too kooky, spooky or weird.

  637. But Jesus dealt with this. And if Jesus dealt with it, the

  638. church should be dealing with it.

  639. Amen. Do you really believe that?

  640. Say Amen. When we hear the word demon,

  641. we're not sure what to think. We think of horror movies,

  642. Halloween Horror Nights. Certainly demons are attending

  643. there. So if you attend that, you're

  644. going to party with demons. Just letting you know, don't

  645. mean that as judgment, just mean that as a shepherd.

  646. Here's what the Bible tells us about demons.

  647. Ephesians chapter 6. You've heard me say this before,

    Ephesians 6 chapter mention

  648. that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood each other we

  649. get, we wrestle against the rulers, the authorities, the

  650. powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness raps, RAPS that exist

  651. in the dark realm. It's a reality that we must be

  652. aware of. Be alert and sober minded.

  653. Your enemy seeks to devour you for lunch and this is what the

  654. enemy looks like. Unseen spirits, rulers,

  655. authorities, power, they exist. You see their evidence every

  656. time you open your social media feed, every time you turn on the

  657. news, you see the evidence of demonic activity.

  658. Luke chapter 4 that I just read, Jesus says I've come to set the

    Luke 4 chapter mention

  659. prisoners free. The oppressed Free from what?

  660. Demonic activity, Mark chapter 16, Jesus says I'm giving you

    Mark 16 chapter mention

  661. power to cast out demons multiple times in the book of

  662. Matthew, multiple times in the book of Mark, one time in Luke

    Luke 13 chapter mention

  663. chapter 13, Jesus is casting out demons.

  664. The body of Christ should be doing what Jesus did when he was

  665. in his body and he cast out demons.

  666. We're going to cast out demons today and I don't want you to be

  667. fearful. Demons are under the authority

  668. of Jesus. Let me read to you.

  669. So just in case you're not sure of that.

  670. Let me read to you a few scriptures.

  671. Ephesians chapter one, verse 19. Let me give us some light here.

  672. And his incomparably great power for us to believe.

  673. That power is the same as the mighty strength that Jesus

  674. exerted when he said that God exerted when he raised Christ

  675. from the dead and seated him at the right hand.

  676. In the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power

  677. and dominion, far above, and every name that is invoked, not

  678. only in the present age, but also in the one to come.

  679. And God placed all things, even demons, under his feet, and

  680. appointed him to be the head over everything for the church,

  681. which is His body, the fullness of him who fills everything in

  682. every way. First John chapter 4, verse 3.

    1 John 4:3

  683. But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from

  684. God. This is the Spirit of the

  685. Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is

  686. already in the world. You do.

  687. Children are from God and you have overcome them because the

  688. one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the

  689. world. What I'm going to do today is

  690. just Prairie in the authority of Jesus.

  691. This is the way you can think of it.

  692. Jesus we just read in Ephesians has authority over everything.

  693. And when Jesus speaks in Luke chapter 4 saying I'm going to

    Luke 4 chapter mention

  694. free you from everything, he says I'm doing this in the power

  695. of the Spirit. The Spirit has anointed me to go

  696. and set people free. So you have Jesus and the

  697. Spirit. Jesus is the badge, the Spirit

  698. is the gun. Jesus is the authority, the

  699. Spirit is the power, and so we're going to pray in Jesus

  700. name for the Spirit to come and work and to remove every demonic

  701. activity that is on any person in this room, any possession or

  702. any oppression. Possession is of the unbeliever,

  703. oppression is of the believer. If you can understand that the

  704. devil cannot possess you if you belong to Jesus because you are

  705. territorially bought by the blood of Jesus, your body is a

  706. temple to him. The oppression comes when the

  707. devil tries to convince you that you don't belong to Jesus.

  708. He says you've been set free from this prison, but the

  709. devil's like, no, no, no, you're still in the prison.

  710. Shove, shove, shove, though you're not there.

  711. So we want to speak freedom today and pray.

  712. Let's do this. Would you all stand with me?

  713. I'm going to ask our prayer ministers to come forward, our

  714. pastors, our elders. Some of them will be up in the

  715. mezzanine. And what I'm going to do is do

  716. what Jesus did. He prayed in his authority to

  717. rebuke and to cast out every demon.

  718. And while we do this, it doesn't have to happen, but sometimes it

  719. happens that a demon will manifest.

  720. Don't be shocked or alarmed. Know that Jesus is dealing with

  721. this and setting somebody free because that's what He came to

  722. do Amen. As we deal with this, your job

  723. is agreement. I agree that the authority of

  724. Jesus and the power of the Spirit is setting people free,

  725. is setting me free. Receive it into your heart and

  726. into your spirit. If you just bow your heads and

  727. close your eyes in the name of Jesus, we say demons come out.

  728. We say that Jesus is here to deal with you.

  729. Father God. It is by your authority that we

  730. proceed to deliver all those here that have gathered by the

  731. power of the Lord Jesus Christ to every demon in the room.

  732. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His authority, I

  733. join with everyone here in commanding you to leave now.

  734. You have no right to be here. You are trespassing upon God's

  735. property. Get away now.

  736. Father, we pray that you will empower this rebuke that we have

  737. just issued in Jesus name. We acknowledge that some of our

  738. behaviors may have been empowered by demons and evil

  739. spirits. If it is Lord, we declare, I

  740. want nothing to do with it. If you agree with it, say I

  741. agree. Lord Jesus, we confess that you

  742. triumph over these demons and evil spirits by the power of

  743. your cross that purchase forgiveness for all of our sins

  744. by your death, burial, and resurrection that provided my

  745. new life in Christ. If you agree, say I agree,

  746. demon, in the name of Jesus and the authority of Jesus, I

  747. command you to get away from me now.

  748. If you agree, say I agree. Lord Jesus Christ, I ask that

  749. you send these demons and evil spirits away from me now.

  750. If you agree, say Amen. Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you

  751. for hearing our prayers and answering our prayers.

  752. Please, by your grace and mercy, reveal anything in my life that

  753. might give demons and evil spirits opportunity within me,

  754. and please fill me anew with Your Holy Spirit so that I will

  755. be empowered to live out your life and joyful obedience to You

  756. and freedom from sin and harassment.

  757. In Jesus name we command general generational curses to go.

  758. In Jesus name we command the demon of poverty, the

  759. impoverished spirit, to go. In Jesus name we command the

  760. orphan spirit to be vanquished from this house.

  761. In Jesus name the spirit of abuse must go, The spirit of

  762. addiction must go. The spirit of pornography must

  763. go, The spirit of alcohol must go, the spirit mammon over money

  764. must go. In Jesus name, the spirit of

  765. pride, ego, the spirit of vanity, driven out by the power

  766. of Jesus, the spirit of infirmity, we cast it out in

  767. Jesus name. Bring your healing and your

  768. power because of who you are. And we thank you for your good

  769. work. Before I say Amen, would you

  770. just look up here? The altar is open.

  771. If God is stirring something in you, let him finish the work.

  772. Everything else can wait. Come forward, be prayed for.

  773. Our whole group is up here ready for you.

  774. Jesus knew you were struggling, so he came to earth and He's

  775. empowered people to pray with you for deliverance.

  776. Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your

  777. heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with

  778. us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate

  779. dot church. Have a great week.