Be Healed | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Amen.

Amen.

And amen.

Thank you so much, uh, Pastor Nate, for encouraging us and giving us some instructions.

Man, I'm so so glad to see so many smiling faces and a household of faith.

Man, I've I've missed you guys.

It seems like it's been forever.

I've realized that we were all just gathering last week, but it's been a very busy week for Megan and I.

So it seems like we've been away.

We went to a family member's funeral and traveling and being around some family.

So it's just good to be back where we can encourage one another and strengthen one another.

So I pray that that everybody that's with us today that you're feeling encouraged, you're feeling inspired, and even feeling an atmosphere of God wanting to stir and do some things amongst us.

I love how worship sets the atmosphere for what I believe God ultimately wants to do.

Today we're going to be sharing from the Gospel of Mark, chapter five.

And while you're turning there, I want to share a couple of um brief updates with you and give you some context and all those good things.

But but as we talk about um next week, we're gonna have an amazing opportunity for those who want to be connected to our next gen ministry.

Um, that's dealing with uh kids and and that's that's youth, and even some things with our young adults, all that.

We've we've hired an amazing next gen pastor that has incredible vision.

So next week, we're gonna be having some time where we're gonna be um creating some space for you to connect and learn some more about that.

But but in addition to that, I also want to encourage you that next week, man, do everything you can do to either be here with us or to chime in online because we're also gonna be having some amazing updates that we want to share as it relates to our church, as it relates to our gatherings, as it relates to the way that we serve our families.

It's a meeting and it's a moment that I've been waiting for since this pandemic has started.

Um so you don't want to miss it.

I'll uh that's the best I'm gonna give you.

No more teasers, no more spoilers, but but you don't want to miss next week because we're gonna be unpacking um what this next season looks like for us here at Celebration Church in Orlando.

If you have your Bibles and you've turned to the Gospel of Mark, chapter number five, um I want to give us some context as to kind of how we've arrived to where we are.

You know, we've been in this series called Pursue over the past couple of weeks, and ultimately our our number one takeaway, our number one thought has been our pursuit determines our experience.

That we don't have to work for the things of God.

That's thanks be to God for grace and what God has made available to us.

We don't have to work for it, but we do have to pursue it, and by pursuing it, that means putting ourselves in a position to receive it.

And over the past couple of weeks, we've been unpacking some key and crucial areas that we need to make sure that we pursue or seek or chase down, as the word pursue is defined.

It's positioning ourselves to receive what it is that God has for us.

It's built out of Matthew 6.33.

Seek first, pursue, chase down, put yourself in position, the things of God and everything else will be added unto you.

We've talked a little bit about community.

How if we want to experience God-fearing and God-loving community, we have to pursue it.

If we talked a little bit about relationships, if we want to have healthy, strong relationships, we have to position ourselves, we have to pursue it.

Purpose, calling, these wonderful ideas.

So if you missed any of the series, I want to encourage you to go back and check it out because I do think that that each thought kind of builds on the previous.

But now we find ourselves in the Gospel of Mark.

And Mark is quite honestly growing to be one of my favorite of the Gospels because I love that Mark is all about the action.

He he kind of takes this focus when he's telling the life and the ministry of Jesus that he feels that his assignment is to talk about how Jesus served the community through miracles and signs and wonders.

So you'll notice with the Gospel of Mark that he skips past, he skips past baby Jesus.

Nobody does that.

He's like, man, y'all like baby Jesus is cool, but let's just get into healing Jesus.

He skips past all that.

He just wants to jump right into the action.

And what you'll find almost from the beginning, it's almost like when you watch a movie and like from the first scene, like it pops off, and then a whole movie, it's like an adrenaline ride.

That's how the Gospel of Mark reads.

Just trying to help y'all to visualize what Mark is thinking.

He's like, man, let's just get to it.

Let me show you who Jesus is.

Let me show you what he did in the community.

I'll let Luke tell you about when he was a baby in a manger.

That's that's for Luke and them.

But for me, I want to show y'all what Jesus was doing in the community.

So Mark, he immediately jumps out and gets into the action, the healing, and the grace that was on the life of Jesus.

As we find ourselves in the gospel of Mark, chapter number four, we begin to see the very thing that Pastor Nate was just talking about.

That incredible miracle of where there's a storm that comes in and Jesus gets up and he and he quiets the waves.

He speaks to the storm and it all kind of silences itself.

I've read different um scholars where they say that he silenced it almost like a parent would do a baby, just shh, it's gonna be okay.

He he silenced the storm, and so people were amazed at the power that he emanated.

From that very moment, he then says, Let's go, let's go to the other side, let's continue on our journey.

When he gets over on the other side, we find ourselves in the Gospel of Mark, chapter number five.

And when we get there, we're introduced to this man that the scriptures refer to him as being demon-possessed.

That means that his mind, his will, and his emotions were completely under the authority of the adversary of our soul.

He was demon-possessed, they would, they would chain him up, they would do everything they could do to contain him because the outward expression appeared as if he was crazy.

If this he was a lunatic, that he had lost his mind, they would chain him up and it would try to force him to live in these areas, isolated from the community.

When Jesus comes upon shore, the man breaks free from the chains, he he throws himself at the feet of Jesus.

And if you read that that narrative in its entirety, we see this exchange where where Jesus is speaking to the man, but he's also speaking to the demonic influence in his life, and he ultimately brings the man to a place of total healing.

That story ultimately concludes at verse number 15, and I want to highlight that because I think it does connect to what God wants us to share today.

This man who has been oppressed, this man who has been under the control of demonic influence, verse 15 says this that they came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed sitting there dressed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

That they were used to seeing this man afflicted, they were used to seeing this man chained up, they were used to seeing this man doing some really weird stuff, but now they saw this man sitting, healed, dressed in his right mind, and they were afraid.

It's a very common theme that when people have an encounter with Jesus, they're they're fearful of what it means.

When people have these encounters with Jesus, they're fearful because now it may mean that they can't define that man by the terms that they used to define him.

It's fearful when we have encounters with Jesus because sometimes it may require us to function a little bit differently.

When this was the expectation on my life, when people understood that I was known from my affliction, when people understand and know you as an alcoholic, they kind of give you that expectation and there's the liberty to function as such.

But when we have an encounter with God and He says, I'm calling you to be more, I'm calling you out of some things, it can be a little uncomfortable because now you have to learn a new pattern of living your life.

This says that they were fearful of him.

Sometimes it's easy to try to function within our dysfunction, but God has so much more for us.

The Bible says that they that they told Jesus, Man, can you can you just leave?

Like we we'd rather you not even stay here.

See, people won't always celebrate your freedom when they benefit from your bondage.

Because the man was bound, and there was a lot of work that went into keeping him bound, and and there was some there was a herds of pigs there, and there was work there.

But the moment that Jesus showed up and brought healing to the man, he literally cleansed the land of the of the unholy work that was taking place there.

The people were upset because now you're starting to mess with my livelihood a little bit, Jesus.

Don't be surprised that when God shows up in your life and you begin to see some movements and some areas where you're moving forward that everybody won't celebrate for for you because they benefited from when you were broken and dysfunctional.

We now find ourselves as Jesus went back on the other side at verse number 21.

And we're gonna read a few passages, so buckle up.

Um, but I want to read this in its entirety because I don't want us to miss any of the language that is shared here.

Starting at verse number 21, it says, And when Jesus crossed again on the other side by the boat, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by sea.

One of the synagogue leaders, Yarus, came and said to Jesus and fell on his knees and begged him earnestly, My daughter is dying.

Come and lay your hands on her so that she may get well and live.

So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against him.

And now there was a woman who was suffering bleeding for twelve years.

She had endured much by many doctors.

She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all.

On the contrary, she became much worse.

Having heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes.

For she said, If I just touch his clothes, I'll be made well.

I want to pause there and say that I love what it says in the King James translation.

That's the translation I was brought up in.

And maybe you've heard it in different songs, but I want to say it for the sake of the old school people that are in the house.

They said, If I can just touch a hem of his garment, it wasn't that I can just touch his clothing, but if I can just touch the hem of his garment, that meant it was going to require her to lower herself to get in a position to touch a certain aspect of his garment.

Jesus was a priest, and the hem of his garments would have been an element of blue, which represents heaven.

I wish I could break down what these symmetry things mean, but ultimately wish you understood.

If I can just touch heaven, I know that I'll be made whole.

I believe that's a word for somebody in here today.

If I can just get a hold, if I can just lift my hands up and get into the presence of God, I know that I'll be made whole.

If I can just touch heaven, if I can just reach out and grab a hold of God, I know that I'll be made whole.

And I believe at verse 29 is ultimately what we all want to be able to say.

It says, instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Immediately Jesus realized that power had gone from out of him.

He turned around and said to the crowd, Who touched my clothes?

His disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

But he was looking around to see who had done this.

The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

Daughter, he said to her, Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house, that's Yaris that we had heard about earlier, and said, Your daughter's dead.

Remember, they said, Come and help my daughter, she is dying, she's not well.

Jesus gets interrupted by this moment, and while Jesus is dealing with the celebration of this woman who had been afflicted for 12 years, an update was provided, and it says, Your daughter's dead.

Why bother the teacher anymore?

You prayed about it, that prayer didn't get answered.

You didn't get the job, it didn't work out.

Don't bother the teacher anymore, don't engage Jesus anymore.

How familiar does that sound?

Moments when we try our best to seek after God and we're looking for breakthroughs and looking for revelation, and we don't get the outcome that we feel that we should have, there are always voices saying, Don't bother with that anymore.

You've you've given the way that Pastor Nay says you should give and you haven't seen it come back, don't bother with that anymore.

You've come to church looking for community and you still haven't found your community yet.

Why bother with it anymore?

It's so easy how when we don't get what we're expecting to get, how the voices are quick to tell us, don't bother with it anymore.

That's not even part of what I wanted to preach about, but I believe God is stirring us in this place right now.

But when Jesus overheard what they were saying, he's told the synagogue leader, Don't be afraid, only believe.

He did not let anyone accompanying him, except for Peter, James, and John, James's brother, and they came to the leader's house and they saw the commotion, people weeping and wailing out loud.

And he went and he said to them, Why are you making such commotion and weeping?

This child is not dead but asleep.

They laughed at him and they they he put them all outside.

He took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and he entered into the place where the child was, because there's certain places that only faith, people of faith, can gain access to.

Jesus was able to make a distinction.

If you're not believing with me, then you can't be in this room with me.

He understood that we need to separate ourselves a little bit if we're going to really grab a hold of what God has for us.

And then in verse 21, it says this, and then Jesus took the child by hand and said to her, Teletha coam, which is translated, Little girl, I say to you, get up.

Immediately the girl got up and began to walk.

She was twelve years old, as they were utterly astounded.

Last verse.

They gave strict orders that no one should know about this miracle, and they told he told them to give her something to eat.

See, these passages are are loaded with so much content and revelation that we could spend a week just talking about each one in its own instance, but in typical Keith fashion, we're gonna hit on all of them in the next 18 minutes and three seconds, because I believe there's some things that we can highlight from this that can be an encouragement for us.

What if I were to tell you that that God wants you to be healed?

What if I were to tell you that God's desire is for you to be whole?

We're gonna unpack what that means in a way that I think can be really transformative for us.

Join me in prayer.

Lord, we thank you so much for these opportunities for us to gather together and we're encouraged and we're inspired and reminded that your word declares that it's for this reason you came to seek and save those who were lost.

It's for this reason you came to preach the gospel and to bring healing and restoration to your people.

Your desire is not for us merely to survive, but your calling is for us to thrive.

So, Lord, my prayer, I pray that you give us a moment of freedom, God, and an opportunity to recognize what it is you want to do in our lives.

So, God, I pray for open eyes that we can see the areas that you want us to be free in.

Open ears that we can hear the truth of your word that that combats the lies of the adversary, God, and open hearts to receive the impossible God, things that we just never thought would be possible, that we can receive it.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

And amen.

I want to get a sense of who's in the room.

I like to do these impromptu surveys just so I can kind of know who I'm talking to.

But do I do I have anybody in the room that that loves a good old road trip?

You just love getting into the car and going on a good road trip.

I see a decent percentage of us, um, a decent percentage of us, even if you're watching us online, you can go ahead and put it in the chat.

I I I I'll tell you this.

I like the idea of a road trip.

I do.

I like the idea of it.

I like the idea of preparing for the road trip.

I like the idea of putting together a playlist for the road trip.

I love, I love all of that.

But I realize something very real about myself, and this is a moment of confession.

I realize about three hours into the road trip, I often find myself saying, Why didn't I just fly?

Like I get to a point where about three hours in, after all the excitement wears off, after all the all the ideas wear off, you get to a point where you're like, this was a terrible idea.

We could have flown on a really inexpensive airline at this point and would have already been there by now.

That's that's exactly the way that I'm wired.

And it's not, and it's not without just cause, at least in my opinion, it's not.

You see, I I remember I was I was scarred by one particular road trip that took place, I would say, roughly 15, 16 years ago.

That's right.

I've been holding on to this for 16 years.

This is why I'm preaching on getting healed right now.

Because about 16 years ago, I remember when my family and I we decided to take a road trip to go back and visit um our family up north in Delaware.

At the time we were living in Jacksonville, Florida, so the road trip would take about 12 hours if I was driving, 14 hours if Megan was driving.

We could see a difference in the way that we like to move around in our family, but I understood the journey we were on.

But I remember this one time it was around Christmas time, and as we were driving up, and I was prepared to stay up into the Delaware area for about two hours.

I mean for two weeks, my my mom had said to me, she said, Hey, make sure you look at the you look at the weather before you leave because we're expecting a lot of snow.

Now, I was raised in the Northeast.

I'm not soft.

I know how to handle, I know how to handle snow.

I was like, mom, you don't gotta give me no warning.

You forget where I'm from.

I know how to navigate these streets in the snow.

You don't gotta give me no warning whatsoever.

So I didn't pay attention to the forecast, I didn't pay attention to none of that stuff.

I knew how to get to where I was gonna go to.

I even know how to drive with a stick shift, even in the middle of the snow with one hand while eating ice cream, your boy got some skills.

So I was I'm I'm about that life, but but this particular instance, what typically happens when there's an expectation of a storm, they go ahead and get their roads ready for the storm.

They go ahead and start putting a little bit of salt down in anticipation that the storm is gonna happen.

Well, apparently they they got their wires crossed, they weren't prepared for the storm, and as we were driving on a road, it seemed as if the heavens opened and every ounce of snow that existed in the world all fell at one time.

And in my in my 35 plus years, at least at that time, I had never seen it's snow that instantly that hard in my entire life.

And of course, like you know, I'm trying to be cool, I got the whole family with me, and you try not to transmit fear, but I'm like terrified.

I've never seen anything like this in my life.

And we get to this point where the you there's literally no visibility.

We're we're sliding all over the place, and and and I'm trying my best to discern what's what's the best thing to do.

Should I just should I just stop?

Should we should we pull over?

What what what should we do?

Well, as it would have it, that that choice was removed from me as we slid off the road and crashed into a guardrail.

Ever ever so gently.

It wasn't extreme, it wasn't dramatic, just uh just slid off the road.

You ever like that's the ones that scare me the most.

This is like the the ones where you're trying to stop and the car's not stopping and you just keep on going and keep on going and keep on going.

Like it was that.

It was like in slow motion, but we we slid up against the guilty and there we were, neatly tucked on the guiles, cars all over the place.

So we're sitting there and and I'm and I'm and I'm I'm faced with this decision.

Do I do I turn the car off?

But but thank God we had just filled up, so we literally just left the car running.

People were running out of gas all around us.

It was like a scene from The Walking Dead.

Cars are scattered everywhere, people just wandering the streets.

You you didn't know what was gonna happen.

It felt like the apocalypse, guys.

I'm trying to help you to understand the condition that I had to walk through.

This was my peril for my family.

A good Samaritan had had seen us, and he was like, okay, like the roads are shut down, we have to wait for the snow to stop, we're gonna have to plow the roads, all that stuff, but but at least you don't have to be here on the side of the road.

So I'm gonna come and help you to get unstuck.

He comes up and he begins to push, and anyone that's that's from the northeast, anyone that's been in any area where there's a little bit of snow on the ground, you know that there's this rhythm that you have when you're stuck.

You have to like push it forward and let it rock back.

Push it forward.

There's like this rocking motion, then eventually you get over the hurdle and you get free.

So we're working this rhythm, we're pushing forward and rocking back, hoping that I was gonna get free.

At the time, Megan's inside the car, she's telling us to stop.

I didn't quite understand why, but the reason was is because the way that our door was situated on the guardrail, I wasn't aware that we were literally almost ripping the door off as we were pushing it forward and rocking it back.

So while this man was trying to help me, it was actually making it a whole lot worse.

Tow trucks eventually ended up coming, and I remember when I saw the other side of my car.

Now, if you guys know anything about me, I like to try to make sure that my car is in good shape.

Like I try to make sure that it's clean, I try to make sure that it smells good.

I there's a there's a there's a rhythm, I feel like there's an anointing on my life that it makes me feel a little bit more sanctified when my everything is in order.

So this idea that this whole right side of my car was now crumpled up and it could have been avoided.

What it should have been a small little scratch, but because I we had too many people trying to help and and we weren't ready to get freed up just yet, it completely damaged the side of the car.

So when I saw that, I was beside myself.

I I couldn't function, I couldn't even enjoy the two-week vacation that we had.

And all I obsessed about is when we get back, I'm getting it fixed.

When we get back, I'm getting it fixed.

When we get back, I'm getting it fixed.

I began to get quotes and I was ready to do it.

We get back home, and just when I'm about to get fixed, the alternator goes.

So the money that I had saved up to get the side of the car fixed, I now had to reallocate it because logic tells me what good is it if the car looks good if you can't drive it.

Just just using this is me, this is my Dave Ramsey flow, just trying to manage my free sources in a smart way.

So I go ahead and I and I go ahead and get it in the shop to get that fixed.

Well, then something else comes up and I have to delay it a little bit more.

So what would have gotten fixed in two weeks got turned into a month.

That didn't turn into six weeks, that turned into two months.

And then before long, when at one point used to just upset me to even look at it, I got very uncomfortable with it.

I got to a point where I was like, well, if you if you kind of look at it this way and kind of wink your eye, you don't even know that that den is there, actually.

I I began to position it so you never could see that side of the damage.

So when I parked in, when I parked in parking lots, I only parked it so I only had to see the good side.

When I would pick my kids up from school, I would position it where you only could see the good side.

You would not even know that the other side was damaged because of the way that I would always try to hide the other side from the visibility of the people that was around us.

I got really good at only showing the other side.

I even got to a point where I was able to keep it clean.

I would wash it and I would strategically wash around the opening in the little gap in the window there to make sure that the contest never got.

I got real good at keeping it clean, but not making sure you saw the other side.

I was masterful at it.

But then there was this one moment where I completely forgot about the other side.

I I made the mistake of going to a car wash because I used to wash it by hand because I was aware that on the other side there's this opening in the door that could cause the water to get inside, but but I forgot about it.

So I went to the car wash, they had one of those specials.

You know, when you go and get gas and it's like, you want a car wash?

You're like, no, but it's Wednesday and they're only gonna charge you two dollars.

Like, yeah, well, of course I add that on there.

So I did it.

I go into the car wash, and as I'm sitting there, lean back, listening to some music, and let's just say, for the sake of this audience, it was it was gospel.

Um, I'm I'm leaning back, I got my got my gospel music playing, and then I look over to the right and I just see this gush of water flushing in completely.

Forgot all about that the door was hanging off and that it was vulnerable to the outside elements because I got so good at hiding the damage on the other side that I didn't now realize that what was happening outside now began to affect what was happening on the inside.

I think it's hard to not look at the parallels at times of how life can come upon us in such a way where we have destination, we have vision, we have direction, we know exactly where we want to go, we know where we need to be, we can look at the forecast, but then things happen, the storms come completely unexpected, we lose control and we find ourselves crashing up against things that we never thought we would be crashing up against.

It's interesting how it happened so quickly.

As I mentioned, my my family and I just came back from burying my uncle.

He's a little bit older, but but not that old.

And I remember still looking at the text thread of when my mom texted me and said, Hey, your uncle's um not feeling that well, he's gonna go to the hospital.

To, hey, your uncle's not feeling that well, can you pray for him?

To, I think he's gonna be coming back home.

To, hey, your uncle just died.

It's amazing.

This is all in a matter of a couple of days of how quickly things can just come upon you when you didn't expect it.

For some of us, it looks a little bit different.

For some of us, it could be, man, 2020 is gonna be the best year ever.

I'm gonna finish my degree.

I finally got the job that I wanted.

I'm finally walking in a career path.

I'm finally gonna be able to pay off all my debt.

I'm finally gonna get in the place where I know what my life is going to look like, and then out of nowhere, the storm comes upon us, and we find ourselves crashing up against a thing, and we're now we feel stuck.

And many times in our effort to try to get out of it, it it makes it worse instead of better.

And if we're not careful, what can happen is we get really good at highlighting the other side.

We never we never deal with the brokenness because we learn how to function with just looking at things from the other side.

We we never really deal with the problems because we get really good at compartmentalizing things.

You see, when we compartmentalize, that means to divide into sections.

And we're really good at dividing things into sections as a culture, aren't we?

We know how to present the things that are good and never really dealing with the things that are not so good.

We learn how to function within our dysfunction.

It wouldn't take me long if I were to look at every single one of us in this room and begin to ask us, hey, show me your cell phone.

At some point, you're gonna find that person who has a shattered cell phone screen.

And they've learned how to navigate life looking through a broken lens, and you get to a point where you can look past it and you don't even see it anymore.

And it's not until you show your phone to somebody else, they're like, Man, like I can't see the picture because of the cracks on the face.

You almost forget that the brokenness is there because we're so good at learning how to navigate through our dysfunction and functioning with things that God never intends us to do.

We're really good at navigating around things and looking past our brokenness, but but what if I were to tell you that God never intended for us to live in compartmentalized lives where only a portion of us was whole, but the other part was segmented and broken?

It's possible for us to be content with the condition of our lives in such a way that we stop pursuing the things that God has for us and we can end up living fractured, fragmented lives.

But what if I were to tell you that God wants you to be whole?

See, scripture tells us a story about this man with a withered hand in scripture, Mark chapter number three.

And the reason why that's so significant is because this man is in the temple.

Let's translate that.

That man is in the church, but he has a withered hand.

That means that his hand was was was dried up.

That meant that his that his hand could not extend itself fully.

And back in those days, to be broken in the church, to be broken in the community, it might have disqualified you.

So this man knew how to function and thrive and live in the community of faith while the whole time having a withered hand that no one else knew about.

But when Jesus came on the scene, he saw the man and he said, Stretch out your hand.

Stretch out the part of you that's withered away, stretch out that part of you that's broken, stretch out that part of you that you compartmentalized and never wanted to deal with.

Stretch out your hand so I can deal with that part of you, because I don't want you to live a life where you have a mask on any further.

I want you to be completely whole.

I want you to be completely healed.

This is what scripture is talking about when it talks about being made whole.

This is what scripture is talking about when it talks about peace.

That word shalom, nothing missing, nothing lost, nothing broken.

The will of God for our lives is for us not to live where we're functioning by showing off the good side of things and completely ignoring the other side of things because it's inevitable.

The thing that we ignore will begin to find itself working its way into other areas of our lives.

The Gospel of John, chapter 10, gives us a glimpse of what God's will is for our life.

John 10 · chapter mention

Looking at verse 10, and I quote this passage often, but I want to read it in the Passion Translation.

I love the language that it says here, and it says this it says a thief only has one thing in mind, he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy.

But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect, life in its fullness until you overflow.

See, the idea that God has for us is for us not to live with partial freedom, because partial freedom is still bondage.

What God wants is for us to live a life where we've been pardoned from our sins and from our brokenness of the past, and we can walk in complete wholeness.

You know the difference between a person who spent time in jail and and a person who's been pardoned versus a person who's escaped out of prison?

The person who's escaped, they're constantly looking over their shoulders, wondering when it's gonna catch up with them.

The person who's been pardoned walks out with their head held high, knowing that they've been set free.

I believe that as a community of faith, there are moments where we we function like like escaped criminals.

We're not fully free.

We're often wondering when things are gonna catch up to us, when is when is the thing that we've been ignoring gonna come upon us?

But God says that whom the Son is set free is free indeed.

He doesn't want you to live a life where you're looking over your shoulder, but we have to deal with the brokenness that may have been hindering us the entire time.

See, this entire segment of scripture shows you the power of God and his desire for us to truly be made well, for us truly to be made whole.

And throughout the entire passage, we see that whenever Jesus does battle with the powers of evil, he does so so that he can bring life and it demonstrates his true power.

But here's the thing that whole idea of being healed, that whole idea of being whole, it's a process.

See, we see in this passage that there's moments where things happen immediately.

But all of us know that there are times when things don't happen immediately.

There are times when it seems as if things are a process and we have to manage our faith and our expectations.

You see, one of the renderings for the word healed in in the Greek is a word therapezo.

And you know what that word therapezo is connected to?

Therapy.

And you know what therapy means?

The process of being made well.

This is literate throughout the course of scripture.

So there are times when it says and they were made well or they were healed, it means that they entered into a process of how they were being made well.

I want to encourage some of us in here right now that maybe, that maybe you've prayed a prayer and you haven't seen the breakthrough just yet.

Just know that you're entering into the process of being made well.

But the way that we can actually see the process come to its fulfillment is by us sticking to it and understanding that we have to continue to position ourselves to experience what God has for us.

I have three simple points that I want to share with us that I believe in an effort for us to pursue wholeness, for us to pursue what it looks like to be healed, that if we can keep this at the front of our minds, it's gonna help us to anchor our faith in such a way that we're gonna see the results that we're believing God for.

Here's the first thing I want you to write down.

Be humble.

Just be humble.

Let me let me break this down for us.

To be humble means having and showing modest estimate of one's own importance.

In all three instances, we see this place where the broken people, they were very well aware of their broken condition and they were willing to pursue Jesus.

That's that's a very powerful thought.

Well, there was this awareness that no matter where I've achieved and no matter what success I have in my life, there's this moment where they understood that they were in need of Jesus.

They surrendered themselves, this idea of submission, this idea of understanding that no matter how good my life is right now, there's still a deficit as to what God will really want me to have in my life.

It's so hard to get free if you don't know that you're in bondage.

It's so hard to get free if you don't admit that you need to be set free.

Humility is one of the prime ingredients for us to really experience wholeness, which then means this.

I think that pride is the main ingredient that stunts our growth.

Pride is self-exaltation.

I'm good.

I don't need to go to prayer.

I'm good.

I don't need to get connected to community.

Man, I'm good.

I don't need to, I don't need to get connected.

I'm good.

It's getting to a place where we feel like on our own terms and on our own strength, we're good.

We we don't we don't need Jesus.

But I believe that that can be the thing that stunts our growth.

Hebrews chapter 6, or excuse me, chapter 11, verse number 6, it says, Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws him must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

That passage beautifully illustrates that when we come to God, we have to recognize that we need him.

See, this thing about Yaris is that he was a synagogue leader.

He had incredible influence in his community.

And him actually going to Jesus could have been detrimental to his career, it could have messed up his social status.

But the Bible says that he got to a place where he was desperate enough that even in spite of how the people around him may have reacted, that he knew I need Jesus.

That even in spite of my status, I need Jesus.

That no matter what my bank account says, I still need Jesus.

That no matter how things look on one side of things, I need Jesus.

I believe that that's the place that God wants to bring us to an awareness of.

Is that no matter how things may look on one side, on the other side, he wants us to have so much more, but it requires us to get to a place of humility and we say, I need Jesus.

No matter how good things are looking, I need Jesus.

No matter how many followers I have on social media, I still need Jesus.

No matter what my bank account looks like, I need Jesus, that place of humility where we understand that in spite of whatever is working out in our lives, there's still another side that God wants us to be whole in.

And if we don't acknowledge that, it's so hard to truly walk into freedom.

The other thing that I want us to understand, and in regards to being humble, the next thought is for us to be persistent.

We have to be people who are persistent.

To be persistent means to continue firmly in spite of opposition.

It means to endure, to have perseverance, to have grit, to push through it.

See, see, scripture tells us in Mark chapter number five that crowds played a crucial part.

In fact, all of Mark's gospel, he always talks about how there's always a crowd.

Mark likes to build tension with this awareness that there is a crowd.

See, there was a crowd that would come and chain the man up and tell him that he was unfit for a community.

There was a crowd that said, Jesus, we we don't want you here anymore.

There was a crowd that said to Yaris, Your daughter's dead, and there was a crowd, a very, a very judgmental, critical crowd for the woman with the issue of blood.

You see, scripture tells us that because of her condition, she would have been defined as being unclean.

Think about that for a moment.

She had this condition for 12 years, and she would have categorically been defined as unclean.

Here's the consequence of being labeled as unclean.

People can't be around you, you can't be in community.

People can't touch you, you can't touch them.

Twelve years in isolation.

Many believe that her condition started when she met puberty.

So, what many scholars believe is that she's had this condition for more than half her life.

More than half her life being removed from society, more than half her life being removed from segments of the community.

She would have been marked, she would have been known.

She would have been known that if she were to venture out to be amongst people, they would have separated themselves because they would have known her by her condition.

She's unclean.

You can only be in certain proximity to me because of your uncleanness.

This is the condition that this woman finds herself in.

But the Bible says she heard about Jesus.

But you're unclean.

You're not supposed to be here.

I understand that.

But she heard about Jesus.

She was not going to allow the crowd to keep her from getting her breakthrough.

She was not going to allow the voices of other people tell her that she didn't have a right to be in the very environment that was going to be made, that's going to help her to be made whole.

She heard about Jesus and it compelled her to pursue him.

I think that so many times we have crowds of people that are doing everything they can do to keep us from having an encounter with God.

Sometimes it's religious folks that are standing in the way and telling you why the mistakes you've made of your past somehow disqualify you for the calling for the future.

Sometimes it could be our own thoughts that try to remind us of the things that we've done that makes us feel as if we're inadequate.

But the Bible says that she heard about Jesus.

And I'm not sure what you may have heard about Jesus.

Maybe someone presented a version of Jesus to you that doesn't quite match up with the Jesus in the Bible.

Maybe somebody presented a version of Jesus to you that says that he's condemning, that he's all he wants to do is sit back and be critical of you.

The truth of the matter is, Jesus saved most of his critical statements for the religious people, telling them to get out the way because there's some folks that can benefit from being in my presence.

The Bible says that she heard about Jesus and she pursued, she persevered, she pushed through the crowd, that even when she was pushing through, that people are looking at her, that people are saying that you shouldn't be in here, but she heard about Jesus.

There's something about her knowing that if I can just get in proximity to Jesus, I know that I'll be made whole.

There's some thoughts that may be speaking to my mind.

There may be some people that are pushing against me.

There may be some things telling me that I shouldn't be here.

But she heard that Jesus was a healer.

She heard that Jesus brings restoration.

She heard that Jesus brings forgiveness.

She heard that Jesus wants to move her life forward.

She heard that where she was at was not good enough and that Jesus could do something about it.

And so she said, I'm going to push through the crowd.

I'm going to persevere through the disappointment.

I'm going to push past the judgment.

I'm going to push past the criticism because she heard about Jesus.

I don't know what you heard about Jesus, but Jesus is a healer.

I don't know what you heard about Jesus, but Jesus wants to touch you where you are.

I don't know what you heard about Jesus, but Jesus is a redeemer.

That Jesus is a restorer.

Maybe you've heard a different version of Jesus.

I implore you to measure that with the gospels, and I promise you, you will find a Jesus that is sitting there waiting for you with open arms.

The Bible says that she heard about Jesus, and because of what she heard, she decided to persevere through it all.

I want to encourage somebody in here right now that maybe you've heard no.

Maybe you've had some setbacks, maybe you've had some struggles, maybe you've dealt with some disappointments.

Maybe you've had some areas of your life where you've had to take a detour.

And then it's in those moments that we begin to lose hope.

It's in those moments that we begin to believe that this is the best it's ever going to get.

But I want to encourage you to persevere, to push through it.

I've seen people who have launched businesses that weren't successful on their first try.

Well, guess what?

You're in good company.

The Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.

That means that we may experience some setbacks, we may experience some struggles, but when I look at people that I admire, people that I respect, I see that there's this consistent ingredient of perseverance.

When I look at someone like Dr.

Martin Luther King, who was told that you should never give speeches because you're not good at giving speeches.

Imagine that.

When they told him, just be content with the world the way that it is, but he persevered through it.

When I look at someone like Michael Jordan, which many would categorically define as being the best player ever, maybe not Jakari, but some people will say that Michael Jordan was the best player ever.

But watch this.

He was kicked off of his team in 10th grade and said, Man, you need to find another career.

And now I got his shoes on right now.

I think about people like Bill Gates, whose first business wasn't successful.

I think about Walt Disney, who was fired from his job because he lacked imagination.

And now we're all living in a city where we can see the benefits of his imagination.

What I'm saying is there are times that someone may tell you no, but you don't stand on that.

If God told you yes, you keep pushing through it and you keep understanding that what God has called for me to do, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to persevere.

I'm going to push on because I know what God says about my family.

I know what God says about my situation.

I know what God says about my kids, and I'm going to persevere and I'm going to push through because I heard about Jesus.

Don't accept no when God has given you a yes.

My third and final point is that we want to be faith-filled.

See, when we're talking about truly getting healed, when we're talking about being whole, we have to be humble.

We have to be persistent, but we have to be faith-filled.

Because watch this.

Whatever you are full of is what you were led by.

If you were full of yourself, you are led in your flesh.

If you are full of fear, you're led by your fear.

If you're full of doubt, you're gonna be led by doubt.

If you're full of cynicism, you're led by cynicism.

Whatever you're full of is what you are led by.

But I believe this.

I believe that when we find ourselves being full of the word of God, it allows us to metabolize faith and we can speak the language of faith even when we're facing opposition.

See, speaking the language of faith is not blind optimism, it's believing God in spite of it.

See, one of the key ingredients is that we have to speak the word of God.

And I know for some of us are saying, okay, so so how do I become faith-filled?

What does that look like for me practically in my life?

I think it's two things we can look from these women.

The first thing is this when you recognize that you're facing opposition, when you understand that you're facing challenges, you have to speak the language of faith.

You have to speak the word of God, you have to speak with declaration.

The Bible says that for the woman with the issue of blood, she said, if I can touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole.

She was speaking by faith.

She was aware that she had gone to a bunch of different people over the past 12 years and she didn't get any better.

In fact, the Bible says she got worse, but she understood that there was a great physician that was in the vicinity that was able to heal and restore her.

So what she began to do, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, there is no theological precedence for touching someone's clothes and being made whole, but she made up in her own mind because I know that Jesus is a healer, and I know that if I can just get in proximity to him, then I'll be made whole.

Sometimes you just gotta declare the word of God over your life.

I know what my situation says, but the word of God also says that she shall not die, but they shall live.

So I'm gonna touch the hem of his garment.

It's understanding I'm gonna speak the language of faith.

Such an important thing for me and my community when I'm around folks.

Give me the facts, give me the information.

But where's your faith?

Speak the language of faith.

I want to know the things that we're believing God for, not the things that we can't do.

Speak, speak the language of faith.

But then the other ingredient that helps us to speak the language of faith is listening to the word of God.

See, when when Jesus got finished healing Jairus' daughter or healing this woman with the issue of blood, another crowd came to him and said, Hey, listen, your daughter's dead.

Just let it go.

And Jesus turns to the man and says, Man, miss me with all that.

Just listen to what I'm saying.

That's the Keith translation.

He was presented with information that should have allowed him to adjust his trajectory.

But Jesus spoke to him and said, Just listen to what I'm saying.

Listen to me.

I think sometimes we we we forget who we're supposed to be listening to.

We give weight to the words of the world instead of listening to what God is saying over our lives.

You want to know how you can become faith-filled as you one, declare God's word over your life, but then secondly, you listen to God's word.

Because when you begin to listen to God's word, you begin to recognize the places where the world that you're living in doesn't reconcile with the things that God has says, and it becomes that moment of whose report am I going to believe?

Am I going to go by what God says or am I going to go by what the world says?

And what God wants us to do as a community of faith is be the type of people that I'm going to listen to God.

As for me and my house, we're going to position ourselves where we orient ourselves around what God says, not what the world says.

The world standard can never understand what God is trying to help us to do and grab a hold of.

See, the thing about being made whole is you want to speak the language of faith over your life.

I don't know what opposition you're facing, I don't know what challenges you're facing.

This is not a magical theory that you'll you'll do this incantation and all of a sudden things are going to change.

What I'm saying is you speak the language of faith, you listen to the word of God and watch how it builds you up.

And then you'll even begin to recognize that even if that door closed, because I'm I'm engaging the word of God, that God will direct you to what he's been saying yes to the entire time.

That's the beautiful thing about when we're in the kingdom.

There is no wrong answers.

Paul says, whether I'm here or not, I win.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

But if I'm still here, I got work to do.

But if I'm gone, I'm in the presence of God.

I love the fact that as a believer, there is no wrong answer.

If I'm healed here, then praise God.

If I'm healed when I'm on the other side, praise God.

There is no wrong answer because either way I'm getting healed.

That's the beautiful thing about being the people of faith.

I want to close with this.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

It says this it says, Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit Soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see this passage, it highlights this triune nature of man.

Maybe that's a fairly unfamiliar term or topic with you, and there's entire books and things written on it, but I want to give you the extreme condensed version.

Paul highlights something that scripture leads us through and helping us understand the different context in which we function.

Paul says your spirit, your soul, and your body.

And there's these distinctions that are there.

Your spirit is the thing that God says when you confess Christ.

Your soul is a place where your mind, your will, emotion, that's your personality.

And your body is obviously what we live in.

This is the triune nature of man.

And Paul makes this statement that may your spirit, your soul, and your body be whole.

That means that the will of God has never been let me save your spirit, but never touch on your soul or your body.

Paul's prayer was that we can be whole, meaning that my spirit is strong, my soul, my mind, my will, my emotions are strong, but my body is strong as well.

It lets you see here that God's desire for his people is for us to be healed, is for us to be made whole.

Interestingly enough, when we look at this passage in Matthew or Mark chapter 5, we see all of these things broken down.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

It says for the man that was demon-possessed, that we was found sitting in his right mind.

That's dealing with the soul.

The woman with the issue of blood, the Bible says that she was healed.

That's a demonstration of God healing the body.

Yarus' daughter was brought back to life.

That's God restoring the spirit.

That is an illustration of God's love and his will for you.

Is that he wants your mind whole, he wants your spirit saved, he wants your body healed.

And it may express itself in different ways, and we may have to enter into a process of restoration and what that could possibly be.

But understand, God never intended for us to live lives where we're only showing the good side of things and being content with the broken side of things.

Because it's impossible.

At some point, if I don't deal with that other side, it's going to leak through and begin to impact the other stuff.

God wants you to be whole, He wants you to prosper and to be in good health.

Another thing that I find so fascinating about this text is that all of them have a version of uncleanness attached to them.

We see that this man who was who was possessed, that he was he was confined into this area of death, he would have been can can defined as being unclean.

For this woman with the issue, she would have been categorically defined as unclean, and then Yarus's daughter, she was dead in that culture.

By nature of that, she is unclean.

Which then means this: no matter how unclean you think you are, no matter what mistakes you think that you have made, there is not a level of uncleanliness that you have that God is not willing to step into it and allow you to be made whole, to free you from shame, to free you from condemnation, to free you from any level of brokenness.

That is the God that we have the privilege of serving.

And as I look around this room, I'm confident as I talk about our minds, our bodies, our spirits.

There's aspects of that that speak to all of us because there's some of us in here right now that we need a physical healing in our body.

God, I need a healing.

There's something that I'm believing for.

There's people in my community that I'm believing for.

There's others of us with our soul, our mind, our will, our emotions.

God, I need my mind to be made whole, my heart to be made whole.

God, can you can you heal me of this unforgiveness?

Can you heal me of this depression, this fear, this anxiety?

Lord, I can you can you heal me of that?

But then spiritually, Lord, I'm I'm away from you right now.

I have not even surrendered my life to you to make you my Lord and Savior, and my spirit is not alive.

In a community like this, I recognize that all of us are in one of those categories, something that we're believing God for.

And what I want to do is I want to simply create space to pray for us, to believe God is going to do something incredible amongst us, that that the that the healing process will begin right now.

So with every head bowed and with every eye closed, I want to pose a couple of questions.

This is for those of us who are joining us online as well.

But if you're in here with us right now and you would say, Keith, I'm I'm believing God for physical healing.

There's there's a part where I I want to see healing for a loved one, healing for myself.

I just I need to experience a touch from God where we can experience healing.

On the count of three, I just want you to boldly lift your hand up.

No one's looking around.

This is a sacred moment between you and God, but I really want to pray for you right now that you're believing God for a physical healing on account of three.

One, two, three.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna pray in just a moment and believing God's gonna meet you exactly where you are.

Second question.

Maybe you're in here right now, and and you know, man, I I I want God to heal my heart.

I want God to to heal some some unforgiveness, some bitterness, maybe depression, anxiety.

I I know those moments are private, but but in the temple, I don't want you to live with the withered hand.

But Jesus is saying, Stretch out your hand.

Are you willing to show me the other side so I can begin to to heal and deal with it?

If that's you, I just I just want emotional healing.

Whatever that may look like for you, I want you to boldly and confidently on a count of three, lift your hands up so we can begin to pray.

One, two, three, hands up.

Amen.

Amen.

Nobody looking around, but hands up are literally everywhere.

You can go ahead and put those hands down.

And and here's my third and final question.

Maybe you're in here with us right now and you know that that you're away from God, that spiritual side of you, that you have not made Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life, that that spirit side of you is withered away, that it's not alive yet.

Or if it was, you're away from God in such a way that you know that your spirit is not thriving the way that God had intended you to do it.

This is the moment in our service where we say, Do you want to commit or recommit your life to Christ?

We want to create a space and opportunity for you to do that.

All of this is leading to this moment.

So if that's you, and you know that today is the day of salvation as scripture calls it, the day when you understand, where you're willing to humble yourself and recognize that, yeah, I'm good in some other areas, but I still don't have Jesus, which means that I don't have anything.

If that's you, and you want to you want to reorient yourself to make Jesus your Lord and Savior, on account of three, I just want you to boldly lift your hands up.

We're gonna pray with you, we're gonna celebrate with you, but more importantly, you're gonna have an encounter with God.

So on the count of three, to commit or recommit your life to Christ.

I want you to boldly lift your hands up.

One, two, three.

My God.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you, amen.

See those hands over there, amen.

These moments are always sobering.

It allows us to know that God is still sending and reaching his people.

Church, can we celebrate with everybody in here that is saying yes to Jesus, maybe for the first time?

Come on, church, let's stand on our feet and let's really celebrate what we believe God is doing.

Let's really let's not stop clapping yet.

Let's continue to celebrate what we believe God is doing.

So, so many people have decided to say yes to Jesus.

I know we're just a few minutes over, but I believe that God is doing something in here.

And what I want to do now is I want to I want to lead us to a moment of prayer and and worship.

We have so many people in here that say, Yes, I want to surrender my life to Jesus.

That's the that's that spirit coming alive.

There's so many in here, so many in here that said, I want to be healed emotionally.

There's there's so there's so many hands in here, we want to pray for that, but we also had some folks in here that said, I'm believing God for physical healing, maybe for you or for a family member.

I'm believing that the power and the grace of God is here for that as well, for us to enter that process of being made whole.

In just a few moments, Pastor Nate's gonna come up and he's gonna give you some next steps and some instructions.

And the beautiful thing about being part of a church family like ours is that we have so many resources that we want to be made available to you.

People that want to be healed of things emotionally and physically.

We we have resources that we want to that we want to put into your hands that's gonna help you on this journey.

But let's pray this prayer, helping along those who are praying for the first time, that we're gonna go into another time of prayer and worship, and let's just see what God's gonna do in here.

But but repeat after me, all of us as one happy family, helping along those who are praying this prayer, possibly for the first time.

Say this with me, Lord Jesus.

I repent of my sins, I believe that you are Lord.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps.

Help me to be made whole.

In Jesus' name.

Now, for the rest of us, I want us to lift our hands up as a sign of surrender.

That first thing we talked about, humility, surrendering it unto God, and we're gonna pray and believe that God is gonna begin to move amongst us right now, and that his power and his presence is going to begin to stir in such a tangible, quantifiable way.

Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, the name that is above every name, God.

We don't pray in our own strength, we don't pray in our own theory or in our own power, God, but we declare the name of Jesus.

Lord, we just explored your word where we've seen how you care for your people and how you bring restoration and healing to those who are dealing with physical sickness.

So, Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, for those who are in need of healing, God, that you begin to move and enter them into that process of being made well.

I'm praying for those who were struggling with cancer, for those who have HIV, God, for those who have anxiety and stress, God.

I'm praying for even those who have COVID, God.

I'm praying in the name of Jesus against diabetes, God, against hypertension, Father, against any heart issues, Father.

We're believing, Father, that if we can just touch the hem of your garment, God, posturing ourselves in a way with an expectation that we know that you are ready to heal.

That is what we're believing and praying for right now in the name of Jesus, Lord.

I pray your precious blood over your people that we can no longer think of ourselves through the lens of our own failures and mistakes, but you see us through the lens of the finished work of Christ.

So I plead the blood over your people, God.

I pray in the name of Jesus for every one of us dealing with emotional issues, anxiety, stress, Father, fear, the things that this season has brought upon us, God, that is not a reflection of what it means to be whole, what it means to be well, Father.

I'm praying, God, by the power of your word, in the name of Jesus, God, that you bring healing and restoration.

We come against anxiety, we come against depression, we come against fear, we come against suicidal thoughts.

In the name of Jesus, I command that they are made well, that they are healed, that they will not carry that bandage anymore, Father, that they're gonna walk in total and complete freedom, that is alive from the pits of hell.

And we come against you, Satan, in the name of Jesus.

We command life, we command healing, we command restoration to our minds, our bodies, our souls, our spirits.

So, Father, we walk in freedom, we walk in wholeness, we confess faith, we believe and walk by faith with a declaration of knowing that he who would start a work in us is able to complete it.

Give us the ability to persevere, allow us to speak your word over situations that are contrary to it, allow us to anchor ourselves in your truth, allow us to humble ourselves and recognize the areas that we need help.

We're declaring healing over your community, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen, amen, and amen.

Come on, church, let's worship our Lord one more time.

Thanks again for listening.

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