He is Good | Jesus' Way Of Restoration | Mark 3:1-6 | Coleton Segars

We are back in our series.

We finished up our vision series last week and back in our series on Mark.

And we're in Mark chapter 3.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

This is the just an image of the story that we'll be looking at today, the man with the shriveled hand.

And the series is titled He is Good, and we titled it that way because Mark titles his gospel.

This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

And so he spends 16 chapters trying to show us why he is good.

It's the one gospel that focuses primarily on Jesus and what he does the most.

Some gospels talk about or spend time focused on what he says the most.

This one is literally what he does the most.

It focuses on that just to try and point out that he is good.

And so I'm going to read Mark 3, starting in verse 1.

If you have a Bible, you can go there.

If not, it will be on the screen.

But Mark 3, verses 1 through 6.

Mark 3:1–6

Mark writes, Another time Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there.

Some of them who were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus.

So they watched him closely to see if he would heal that man on the Sabbath.

Jesus said to the man with a shriveled hand, Stand up in front of everyone.

Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath?

To do good or to do evil?

To save life or to kill?

But they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn stubborn hearts.

And he said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

And he stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

And the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians on how they might kill Jesus.

Let's say this together, this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

January 26th, 2020.

January 26th, 2020.

That was when in my own life I realized I'd kind of already just had enough.

I realized that I was battling an issue in my life that I I couldn't fix on my own.

I was losing things in my life that I cared about.

And I just realized that I needed some help.

And so I pulled out my phone and clicked onto Amazon and bought some rogueine.

I just couldn't handle what I was losing.

And it obviously didn't work, y'all.

It did not work.

I did about six months rogueing.

You guys thought I was gonna say something real bad, right?

Like y'all, y'all were like, what's he about to confess up here?

Rogane, folks.

Trying to restore the hair I once had, the few the former glory.

But I'm a bald man, and that's okay.

I've made my peace with it.

You need to.

Hey, there are dozens of us.

Restoration.

Restoration is what we're talking about today.

People try all kinds of things to bring about restoration in their lives, just a handful.

Some people want new clothes and a new look to bring about restoration.

Some people get a new fitness plan to try and restore their bodies.

Some people try and get a new spouse to restore something.

Some people get new cars, uh, new additions to their bodies.

Uh, they try and make themselves look younger.

Some people try new medication.

Now in our culture, you can try a new sexual identity, uh, new jobs, um, in order to, in some form or fashion, bring some type of holistic healing or wholeness or restoration into our lives.

And primarily the way that we choose to bring restoration to our lives is something outward in, something out there that we don't have.

If I just had a little more money, I could buy that thing that would restore something that I'm lacking.

Um, the issue with that is it primarily doesn't bring restoration.

Normally you practice those things for a while, like I did with the rogue for like a month, and I was like, one, this is way too hard.

And I asked Rainy, do you see any difference?

And she was kind of like, uh-huh.

No.

See no difference.

I was losing hair.

It did the opposite for me.

But a way of restoration, Jesus in this story, offers a way of restoration that works from the inside out.

He doesn't operate from the outside in, he actually works from the inside out.

The issue is there's two ways that he goes about bringing restoration into our lives that I think genuinely is painful.

And it's hard to call him a good, good friend or God a good, good father when he does things in this way, because the way that he wants to actually restore, and he genuinely does, want to bring restoration into our lives, just the way that he wants to do it gets a little dirty.

Um, it feels a little painful.

Um so there's this space in this story where as I was even preparing and talking about it in the pre-service prayer, just going, I'm honestly just a little nervous about some of these things, not because I think it's untrue, it's just because I think it might hit a little hard.

And I genuinely want you to know that he loves you deeply and he's willing to do a hard thing for you and a thing that's even painful to you, willing to risk the relationship that you might have him speak into your life and say things and you don't like what he says and leave, he's willing to love you enough to risk that you might do that because he genuinely does want to bring restoration into your lives.

It's just the way that he has to go about it is challenging.

And so we're gonna look at two ways that he seeks not just not to restore the shriveled man's hand, he does that by his word, but two ways that he seeks to bring restoration into the lives of the Pharisees that they push off at every time he tries it, and then how he seeks to restore the uh the shriveled man's hand, and then what that means for us.

So the first, Jesus wants to bring restoration into our lives by pointing out the hidden sin in our hearts in order to lead us to confession.

In order to lead us to confession.

He wants to point out the hidden sin in our hearts in order to lead us to confession.

Up to this point, if you have if you remember the series as we went, Mark II, the Pharisees get more and more bold towards Jesus.

They've been asking him questions, they've been asking his disciples questions, they've been looking at him and suggesting that the disciples are doing something wrong, and then they're going, I think you're doing something wrong.

And here it flips, and Jesus actually pursues them.

They're saying nothing, they're waiting to accuse, but Jesus actually flips it and he goes at them.

And the reason he's going at them is trying to point out, he wants to bring restoration into their lives, and he wants to point out what's going on in their lives.

And so Mark tells us, next slide here, Mark tells us that there's a man with a shriveled hand there.

And many commentators believe that he wasn't just there, that the Pharisees had planted him there like an implant, like something to like Jesus will heal anybody.

Stick a man with a shriveled hand there, and let's then we'll have something to accuse him.

And so they're bringing someone into the fold in order to find a way to accuse Jesus.

And what they don't know, and what the entire synagogue or the whole church there doesn't know, that Jesus knows what they're up against.

He knows what they want to do.

He knows what's hidden in there, he knows that they're trying to accuse him.

Nobody else knows that at all, but there's one person in there that actually does know that.

And Jesus tells this man, because he wants to let them know that he knows, he tells this man, stand up in front, come out of the background where they stuck you, and come to the front.

And I want you, I want them to know that I know what you're trying to do.

I want to expose the hidden sin in their life.

They're using this man as a pawn in their power struggle between them and Jesus.

And so he says to the man, stand up in front of everyone, come forward.

I want to expose this.

David Goodzik says this.

He says, Jesus could have healed this man the next day.

He could have waited.

He could have done it in private, but he chose to do it at this time and in this place.

And in this, we can see that Jesus deliberately chooses and uses this occasion to provoke a response.

He knows the secret evil that they're planning and he wants to bring it to light, but it's not to shame them.

Ultimately, it's just to get something out that's in there because there's actually something dead in there that he wants to get out.

And I think that's what he wants to do, not just for them, but he wants to do that for us.

In Mark 7, he talks about this space.

We'll get to it in a little bit, but he says that there's sin and stuff in our hearts that pollutes us.

Um and so in Mark 7, he says, it is from within a person's heart that evil thoughts come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All of those things, all these evils come from inside.

And so the reason that he wants to expose anything and bring it up into the light and to bring it up in front of people is not to go like, ha, I got you.

It's not that.

He's genuinely going, there's something in there that's polluting your heart, and it's going to do damage into your soul and into your life.

And it's actively doing that right now.

You're using a man with a shriveled hand, you feel no compassion for him.

You don't love him at all.

You have this hatred for me, and so you're using somebody who's deformed and has an illness.

You're using that, and you have no compassion.

This thing that's in you isn't healthy for you.

It's not doing good things in you.

And what Jesus knows is that the only real way to bring about restoration is to get those things, not to allow them to stay in there, but to get those things out of us, to call them out, to bring them up into our lives and to show them to us so that we ultimately confess, yeah, those things are wrong.

I shouldn't be doing those things.

My dad and I uh wanted to restore my um F-150 that I he bought it in '89, brand new, and then he gave it to me in high school, and I drove it through high school, and it was awesome.

And uh and I was awesome for driving it.

Um but I in college I went away and came up here, and I didn't know that an 89 Ford was gonna make it.

It's like 300,000 miles on it, it's really old.

So I left it there, got a new car, and it just really he was thinking about selling it the entire time and never sold it.

So it just sat in the backyard, like under pine trees, just getting you know corroded and all the different things that are wrong with it and rained on and all that stuff.

And uh so we wanted to restore it and bring some restoration, bless you.

We wanted to bring some restoration to it.

And uh so he gave it ultimately to my sister and to her new husband because he wanted to work on it and do some stuff on it.

And the only thing he said is like, look, he goes, just just don't crank it.

He's like, I'll get it towed to your house, just don't crank it.

There's stuff in the engine.

Like the gasoline is probably watered down, there's probably water everywhere in there.

Just don't crank it.

There's stuff internally that if you crank it, and then what it will do is it will send it through the engine, and then you'll it'll actually be worse off than it is.

And so they're in their 20s and don't listen.

Um, and so maybe, you know, uh, maybe that's everybody.

Um but they they like filled the tires up, they got new tires for it, they cleaned the outside of it.

The cab of the truck was single cab, stick shift, i6.

Let's go.

It's the best truck.

And uh clean that out because there was like mice like living in the seats, and so they like got that.

There were wires chewed up under the thing, and so they they replaced some of those things, but they never dealt with the internal stuff.

Never like they filled it up with gas, but they didn't actually remove the things that were in there, and then they cranked it up and they couldn't believe it, like it cranked.

This is amazing, and so it cranked, and my dad wasn't there because he would have lost his mind and told them, Don't do that.

But they cranked it and it ran for 10 seconds, 10 seconds, and all of that stuff that was in there, all the just the gross stuff that's in there that the cars don't run on, went everywhere into the engine, and now it won't crank at all.

And that was what my dad was saying.

It was like, there's you if you're actually going to restore it, you can make it look pretty on the outside, but you have to do something internally.

Something has to take place in there, otherwise, this thing is not going to function well.

There's something dead in there that's gonna kill this truck, and that's what they ultimately did.

And so now it's still sitting in their yard under pine trees in Georgia, getting worse and worse and worse.

Cleaned up the outside, but it's no good to restore the outside without first restoring the inside.

And so, what Jesus is trying to do here is he is taking something that they're hiding.

They think they have a secret, and he's just bringing that secret up and he's bringing it out in order to actually deal with it because he genuinely does want to even bring restoration into the lives of these people that are actually trying to accuse him of something.

And again, I think he wants to do that for us.

He wants to point out our hidden sin, the hidden stuff in our hearts.

Sometimes I think he points this out by placing people in our lives that love us and are honest enough with us to be that honest and to say, hey, I think there's something going on in your heart and in your life that I think you should deal with.

But most of the time, I think he does this through trials and just difficulties in our lives.

C.

S.

Lewis says that he does it uh primarily through aggravation.

The way the Lord wants to bring up the hidden stuff in our hearts is just by making life hard for us.

He says, Um, surely what a man does when he's taken off his guard is the best evidence of what sort of man he is.

Surely what pops out before the man has time to put it in and put it on a disguise and disguise its truth.

Um excuse me, Lord, let me start that again.

Reading is harder.

Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth.

If there are rats in the cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.

But the suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding.

In the same way, the suddenness of the aggravation does not make me an ill-tempered man.

It only shows me what an ill-tempered man that I actually am.

And I think he's so good with illustrations and things like that.

They're so true.

Because I think you could say this in a hundred different ways.

Like difficult people in my life that God places in my life doesn't make me impatient.

It just reveals the impatience that I actually have, and maybe the hatred for difficult people.

Like it just reveals that in my life.

They're not forcing me to be something, they're just revealing what's actually in there.

Stress doesn't make us mean, it just reveals that there's anger and meanness inside of us.

Hard times don't make me lose faith in God.

It just goes to show that I don't have as much faith as I thought that I did.

Being wronged doesn't make you hold grudges, it just reveals that you struggle with the sin of unforgiveness.

A hard life doesn't make you bitter, it just reveals that bitterness actually does live in your heart.

And being overwhelmed with life or whatever doesn't make you numb out, drink, smoke, watch porn, shop, binge, eat.

It just reveals that those are the unhealthy things that live in your heart that you trust in to help you cope.

It doesn't make you do any of that stuff.

But what it does do is when those things come out, and it's like, I don't know why I'm doing this, and it's like, because it's in there.

And so Jesus forces us into this space where those things can be pressurized out of us or at least pressured to the top.

The issue with the Pharisees is they don't want to see it, they don't want to do anything about it.

And so he stands them up right in front of them and they don't do anything about it.

Solomon says that the way that gold and silver are refined by the fire, the Lord tries to purify and cleanse your heart through tests and trials.

And again, I just think this is what he's trying to do for us.

And so the goal in all of that, when he does that, it's a kindness, it's not a cruelty.

He's not trying to shame you and show you all the junk in your life and like, you see this, you really need me.

Like it's not like that, it's like you do really need me, but I'm genuinely trying to do something in your life and in your heart.

I want to get this stuff out.

King David in Psalm 32 talks about what happens in his life when um he holds on to his sin.

And he, yeah, I think we have the quote.

Oh, yeah, there it is, right there.

He says, When I kept silent about my sin, it's like my bones wasted away.

There's this stuff in our lives that's polluting our hearts, our joy, our peace, our fulfillment, everything.

And he's saying, when I kept silent about it, when I when I just left it in there, my bones wasted away from groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand, God was heavy on me.

My strength was sapped as in the summer heat.

But then he says, But finally, finally, go to the next slide.

Oh, excuse me.

Okay, I'll just read it from here.

And he says, Then I acknowledge my sin to you.

Then I acknowledge my sin to you and did not cover my iniquity.

And what you said was, I will conf I'll he says, I'll confess my transgression to the Lord.

And it says, and then the Lord forgave the guilt of my sin.

So he doesn't bring those things out in order to condemn us, to shame us.

He actually is like, I'm ready to forgive you.

I want to forgive the guilt of your sin.

I want you to confess it, I want to be done with it.

But I do bring it out so that you actually have to deal with it.

And if you refuse to hold to deal with it, to confess it.

If you refuse, all these things are happening in your life, it's difficult, and these things are popping up, and people are saying these things, and you're seeing this stuff in your life, but you refuse to deal with it.

All it's gonna do is stay in there because I'm the only one that can actually remove the dross from your heart.

I'm the only one that can actually purify it.

This is why John says that we should confess our sins.

We should confess our sins because he is faithful and just.

He will remove the guilt of our sin, he will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

And it's this idea of like, let's get it out.

You confessed it, now it's out in the light, it's out in the public, and now I'll cleanse you of that unrighteousness.

And as you confess it, you're ultimately killing it because you're bringing it out into the light.

This is why James says, confess your sins one to another.

Bring your stuff, the hidden things, bring it out into the light.

And when you do that, it brings healing because you have death in here, in your heart, but if you bring it out, you're able to actually do something with it and it brings about healing.

And so, this is what one of the ways that Jesus wants to bring restoration into our lives.

It has nothing to do from the outside in, has nothing to do with a new look, a new vibe, a new whatever.

He's like, there's, I want to, I want to go into your heart, and I want to draw out those things, not to condemn you, but to set you free from these things.

And so there are trials and there are things that we deal with.

And so to me, the question becomes what is he pointing out in you as you walk about your normal life?

What would the people in your life who know you the best?

What would they be saying?

Like, hey, you know, this is something that you might want to just consider.

What would they say if you asked them the question, hey, what do you think Jesus wants to get out of me?

What is that thing?

Because I think in those spaces that would be the space where he is actively not seeking to condemn you or to shame you, but he's actually trying to help you and bring about something healing.

That's the first way.

He wants to point out hidden things in our hearts to lead us to confession so that we can have healing.

The second way that he does this is that he seeks to lead us to restoration by pointing out just where we're wrong in order to lead us to repentance.

Pointing out where we're wrong.

We all love being told we're wrong, right?

That's fun.

It's like, that's great.

Thanks.

We don't have trouble with that.

I did a wedding the other day, and I said uh to the guy, I was like, hey, you're supposed to love um your new bride the way that Christ loved the church, laying down his life for her.

I was like, and you might be thinking, well, that just means take a bullet for her.

I was like, but I know plenty of men who are willing to take bullets from their from the for their wives, but not willing to say that they made a mistake to their wives.

Like they're willing to die instead of going, yeah, that was my bad.

That's a real issue in someone's heart.

Like, would you rather take a bullet or just say you're sorry?

The bullet, please.

Like, okay.

It's a weird thing.

But like, there's this space here where like Jesus is like, hey, I want to bring restoration.

Here's how I'm gonna do that.

I'm gonna correct you.

I'm gonna do it in a way that's kind and helpful, but I'm gonna point out you're wrong here, you're wrong there, you're wrong here, you're wrong there.

Jesus does this to them.

He says, he asks them, which is lawful, Pharisees, you guys who follow the law, which is lawful on the Sabbath?

To do good or to do evil?

To save a life or to kill?

And then they remain silent.

Because they know he just told us we're wrong and he's right, and they know it, but instead of responding with repentance and going, Oh my gosh, you're right, we were wrong.

I'm so sorry.

We should do something different.

They didn't do that, they just remained silent.

But what he's doing here is he is taking the law and he's using what's said about the law in Deuteronomy.

Moses said about the law in Deuteronomy 30, 15, it says, I place before you this law, I place before you life and death, prosperity and destruction.

And so what Jesus is doing is taking that description of the law and he's using it as a question to the Pharisees and saying, Hey, what is the law for?

Is it supposed to bring death or is it supposed to bring life?

And they're they know this passage, they would have memorized all of Deuteronomy.

Is it supposed to lead to prosperity or is it supposed to lead to destruction?

And so what he's saying, he's like, consider what you know about the law, which one is right, and then which one are you actually practicing?

And he's proving them wrong on that thing because the way that they're following the law is actually leading to this man's destruction, not this man's prosperity.

It's not leading to greater life in this man's life with his shriveled hand, the way that they're doing it.

It's actually leading to greater a lengthening of his trials, a lengthening of his suffering and stuff like that.

And so Jesus is just saying, you who understand the law, you're practicing it wrong, you're doing it wrong.

The Sabbath itself was supposed to be a way of healing for people, a way of restoration.

The Lord gave the Sabbath to people to like, this will refresh you, this will bring about restoration in your life, this will bring about ultimately healing, rest will bring about healing into your life.

And Jesus is going, the Sabbath was given for healing, and so to heal on the Sabbath is actually in line with the purpose for why this day was actually given to us.

And that's what he's trying to point out to them, and that's what he does point out, and the reason they're silent is because they know he just told us we're wrong, and we just realized, yeah, he's right, we're wrong.

He's trying to show them those things.

And again, I think consistently in our lives, Jesus wants to point out, not in a mean way, not in a nagging way, uh, because I know that we have people that want to correct us and you know they sit in the front seat while we're driving and like break, there's brake lights, there's brake, like not that.

Like he doesn't want to do that.

He actually wants to be someone in our lives that points out the things in our heart where we're deceived, where we don't understand, where we're making bad decisions, he wants to point out those things because they're actually doing damage to us.

Again, number of ways that he probably does this.

People in our lives is a huge one.

Rainey said that earlier.

We need other people in our lives to actually point out things to us, to help shape us and to form us, and to go, hey, you talk to me that way, that's hurtful.

That's wrong.

You don't want to be hurtful, I don't think, and therefore that's wrong.

People in our lives can do that.

Many times he does it through the scriptures and just helping us understand like, hey, you chose a way of living, you chose a way of life, but this is the true way to life.

And so you need to practice the scriptures and do these things.

But one of the most significant things.

Ways and I think that Jesus, in my experience, has kindly pointed out where I've been wrong.

And I think the way that I see it in the church the most, just in the history of me being a pastor, is Jesus allows all of us and me to experience the detrimental consequences of our bad decisions.

And so there's this space where it's like you could have saved me from that a little bit, and you chose to allow me to make that decision because we have free will and we can choose that.

And so he doesn't save us from the detrimental consequences of those decisions.

He's not punishing us.

Just like you made a decision and it was wrong and it was sinful, and either you knew it was sinful or you didn't.

And sometimes he allows us to experience the detrimental consequences of that thing so that we'd go, Oh my goodness, this was so wrong.

I shouldn't have done this.

Whatever decision this was, I'll never do that again.

You see this in the prodigal son story.

If you know this story in Luke 15, where the son asks the father for all of that, give me my half of the inheritance, and then he runs out and spends it on prostitutes and luxury and wild living and all the rest of it.

And then he a famine comes on the land and a drought, and he loses all of his money and he's gone, and then he's sitting there poor, you know, slaving himself out, wanting to eat pig slop, that whole thing.

That's how life went for him.

And what it says, it doesn't say anybody ever showed up to him and was like, hey, you need to repent.

Hey, you did something wrong.

Hey, I don't know if you know, but like your decisions have led you here.

Nobody says anything to him.

It's just the detrimental consequences of his decisions that ultimately lead him to, as the scriptures say, come to his senses.

He says, it says he finally came to his senses and was like, I don't think I'm living well.

Like, I don't think this is going great.

I should go home.

Like, even people who live at my father's house have it and our hired servants have it better than I currently do.

And so he allows him to experience, the father does, allows him to experience the detrimental consequences of his decisions so that it would ultimately lead him to coming home.

And the father's not angry at him.

If you remember the story, the father is waiting for him to come home.

There's something in there where the Lord does want to correct us, where he actually wants us to experience you did this, you chose this, and because you chose this, you have chosen to experience this.

And I'm gonna allow you, as much as it might pain him, to allow us to experience the detrimental consequences, I'm gonna allow you to do that so that you ultimately will turn from this thing and not practice this, not do this anymore.

For me, the most I don't know if it's the most substantial one, but I was a pastor in Wisconsin, and some of y'all know this story, but pastor in Wisconsin and felt like um they just didn't appreciate what they had.

Like, I have so much talent, like y'all don't even know.

Like it's just, and they don't give me enough opportunities to preach, and I hung the moon, and like, you know, I'm just the best.

And I genuinely I didn't say all that because that would be um sinful, so I just felt it in my heart.

Um not better.

Um and so basically I was like, I started looking for jobs, things would happen, and other people got promotions and all this stuff, and I was like, you know, doing this thing, and like I'm crushing this, this is all my stuff, all ego, all sinful, all gross.

And so I started looking for a job, and I found this church in New York City, and I was like, I'm gonna go to New York.

And uh I was in Appleton, Wisconsin.

I was like, I'm gonna go from Appleton, Wisconsin to the big Apple.

Let's go.

And uh thought I was so cool.

I was like 28, I was so stupid.

Um but I wanted to make that decision because I wanted to feel important.

I wanted people to think that I was important.

I wanted them to realize, look what you lost.

Like I got this job in New York, you lost this.

You could have had me staying at this church.

And uh tons of red flags at the church in New York, tons of them that we should have responded to and been like, never mind, we can't do this.

But I was sucked into this thing.

I had to prove to these people that I mattered and I was important, and this church in New York thought I was important, and you guys don't.

So I had to prove to them.

So all the red flags, we just blew right by them.

Just like not gonna worry about those things, it'll be fine.

Made Rainey quit her job that she loved, sold our house, sold all of our cars, sold basically everything we had, and moved to New York City to go and do this thing.

And it was a week, five days, probably five days in of living there, when I walked home and I was like, I made the biggest mistake in my life.

This is a tragic, tragic mistake, and we can't go back.

She quit her job, we sold everything.

There's no way I can go back on this thing.

It was horrible.

I got depressed while we were there because of how awful it was.

And you know what didn't ever help me feeling important that because I lived in New York.

It didn't do anything for me.

I thought it would like sail me on into glory, and it did absolutely nothing for me.

And I remember sitting there, like, Lord, why did you allow this to happen?

And I just felt him go, like, man, I told you, I told you this was a bad decision by so many different things.

I told you.

And so you're going to live in this bad decision for a bit and experience this because what I want to point out in you is that you have an ego problem.

And if you keep making decisions this way, you're gonna ruin your family, you're gonna ruin the lives of people around you, and it's gonna make you miserable.

You chose to do something out of ego, and look what it's destroying in your life.

And he allowed me to walk through that.

And he has redeemed it since, and I'm here now, and hopefully I try not to make decisions out of ego anymore.

I still struggle with sin in that way.

But there's a space in there where what he was actually trying to do, it sounds cruel, but it was actually really kind.

I need I'm a different pastor, I'm a different husband, I'm a different father than because I went through this thing and was like, there's something broken in me that I have to deal with.

Something's got to be fixed here.

And I think for us, he wants to do that.

He wants to allow us to experience some hardships based on decisions that we made that he absolutely can redeem and use for our good and his glory in the future.

But there are certain decisions that we make where he's like, I want to point out that you were wrong just by allowing you to struggle in the midst of that decision.

I've seen this happen with people in their anger.

They drive their family, they drive their friends away, they drive people away because of how they treat them.

And the issue is if we're like the Pharisees and we just choose to remain silent when that thing, all the bad stuff's happening, and Jesus is calling us to response.

You see that this isn't going well.

You made this decision, you thought it would lead to fulfillment, you see that it's actually leading to destruction, and we're presented with this opportunity to turn from that thing and don't do that anymore.

And the Pharisees remain silent, and if we do that too, we wind up in this spot where that's destruction that we're feeling.

We just stay in that and we just run that decision and we run that play again and again and again and again and again, and we consistently experience destruction again and again and again and again because we never make the change.

We're just silent to the words of God saying, Would you please turn from this?

Again, I think I've seen this with people's anger.

They lose people around them.

It's an opportunity for them to go, like, I think my anger is driving people away.

And that opportunity is completely no, it's not me, it's them.

It's not me, it's them.

It's their fault.

They just can't handle it.

This is just who I am.

It's like who you are is lonely.

Nobody wants to spend time with you.

You're so angry.

Unforgiveness in a person.

They're holding on to unforgiveness, and it's making them miserable.

You're more miserable than the person that you're actually not forgiving.

They don't think about you.

You think about them every day.

How's it going?

And the Lord is going, do you see what this is doing?

Bitterness is raging in you, and it's not helping you.

It's not making you more kind to those people.

It's actually killing you.

And he's allowing you to experience the misery that comes from that, not to make you feel bad and like because I want you to feel bad over your sin, but because I want you to feel the pain of this so that it leads you to go, I need to do something else.

I need to do something different.

There's what a gift that pain is that we know that when something is hurting us, we know to remove our hand.

Any one time was leaving the door, uh, she was leaving out, and I was holding the door for her, and the door shut on my finger.

My finger is still, uh, that was like a year ago, and my finger still is struggling to come back together.

But the pain of that, if I didn't feel that pain, I should be like sitting there with my finger in the door while it's shut, and everybody's like, hey man, your finger's falling off and bleeding out the frame.

Like there's something really wrong.

Like I would have lost the whole thing.

And actually, there's there's like an illness that happens where people are born with this ability to not feel pain.

And it's not helpful.

Most people die, have that thing die by 25 because they lose legs and limbs and kill themselves on accident.

They don't even know.

And I think that happens here.

I think there's this space where it's like the pain point of your bad decision is supposed to lead you to repent.

And he's allowing you to feel it so that you turn from it.

I've seen people do this in the way they spend their money.

It's going terribly for them in how they're spending their money.

And then they're mad at God for not coming through with more money.

And God's like, if I give you more money, you'll just do the same things with the money I give you.

Like, I can't give you more.

More is actually what led to this.

You need to deal with less.

You need something less.

You need the pain of that and what that's dealing, uh doing to you need to lead you to turn from these decisions.

I've seen this happen with people who overfocus, good Lord, on politics and the government.

Every conversation is about Trump or Kamala or whatever, whoever in the past and whoever in the future.

And it's like, I don't want to have lunch with that person ever.

And I'm like, why does no one want to talk to me?

It's like, because all you talk about are politics.

It's terrible.

No one wants to talk about anything that much, especially that.

And it's like, well, I'm just informed.

Like, no, you're just sinful, and you got a problem that you need to repent of.

This is bad.

It's this is an idol to you.

I've seen it happen with people going from one relationship to another, to another, to another, and it's their fault and their fault and their fault and their fault.

And it's like maybe there's something else there.

Maybe the pain point is trying to actually show something to you.

And I want to be clear.

I don't think that all pain that you experience is because of your sin.

I don't think that.

Um, but I do think that I have conversations with people that primarily, when they're experiencing pain from their decisions, they see themselves as Job from the Bible.

Like I'm just suffering like righteously.

God has just put ordained suffering into my life.

And I think there are Jobs in the world that experience I'm dealing with something difficult that God is just calling me into a season of suffering, and that's what you're dealing with.

But I know more prodigal sons' stories than I do Job stories.

Most of the time, people are prodigals making terrible decisions, it's going really bad for them, and then they're going, like, I'm just suffering for the Lord.

It's like, nope, you're suffering because of your sin.

You're actually experiencing the consequences that come from your sin.

So I do believe that there's a space where suffering does just happen.

But I think when we call it suffering or a season of suffering, when really you're doing a season of sinning and you're experiencing that thing, I think it actually is something that the Lord is going, I do want to help you.

The way that I'm helping you is allowing you to experience the pain of these decisions, these consequences that you're dealing with.

So, what conflict is happening in your life?

Is it possible that that experience and the detrimental consequences that you're actually walking through is not God's ordained suffering in your life, but actually just the consequences of bad decisions that you're making.

And he in his kindness is going, Can I point out that you're wrong here?

Not to shame you, not to say, like, I'm right, you were wrong, not to prove your parents right, or to like not that.

But could we just show you that you're wrong here so that you could throw that out and put it aside and not walk through that again?

I think there's a space in there where we could consider what is going wrong in our world, what detrimental consequences are we experiencing?

And is it possible that he's pointing that out in order to get us to turn?

Peter says that when we repent, he says, repent and turn to God so that times of refreshing may come.

He is not trying to get you to repent to crush you.

He's trying to get you to repent so that restoration could be thrown into your story and into your life.

To get me to stop making egotistical decisions that put my family in jeopardy over something so stupid as if I'm important enough.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever done in my whole life.

Maybe not, but I got more coming.

But I still, I just can't believe that I it was so stupid.

And he helped me see that.

And I think for us, he helps us see some of the things that are the dumbest things that we could do.

And sometimes we're just deceived and we're blind to them.

And clearly the Pharisees are, but it's worse than that.

They have a hardened heart.

They see that they're wrong.

It's going badly.

They see that they're wrong.

And they have that they harden their heart towards it.

They just remain silent.

And Jesus is angry at them and sad at them at the same time.

He's like, I'm just, I don't want you to experience pain.

I didn't create you to suffer.

That's not why I did this.

But if you refuse to listen to logic and to reason, you're just gonna continue to roll this thing out and you'll lose relationship after relationship.

You'll lose all these things and you'll experience death and destruction, death and destruction, not just in your life but in the lives of those around you.

And he's like, please, don't be so hard-hearted.

Don't figure out that you're wrong and go, like, oh yeah, I see that I'm wrong, but I'm gonna double down and just keep going after it.

And that's what he's saying.

Repent so that times of refreshing may come.

All right, last one.

Lastly, Jesus wants to bring restoration into your life.

This one's the good one.

I like this one.

The other two are hard.

By giving us his word so that we can put it into our lives.

He wants to give us his word and we can put it into our lives.

That's what he does for this man.

Jesus says to the man, stretch out your hand.

And it says, as he stretched it out, his hand was completely restored.

The command that he gives this man is very important.

He doesn't say be healed.

Be healed.

That would be one thing.

Because he does that at different spaces.

What he says, he's like, I want you to, I'm gonna tell you to do something, and then I want you to do it.

I want you to take my word and put it into practice.

And so he says, Stretch out your hand.

And to this man, it's like, I can't stretch out my hand.

That's what he, I mean, he's probably thought that, like, I you just asked me to do something I can't do.

But even as he tried to do it, as he put his word, put Jesus' word into his life and even tried to do it, he experienced the restoration of his hand.

And what he's going to show, what he's seeking to show us in that is like his word is alive and has power.

And when we take it from a book of the Bible and we take it from just something that we know, when we actually practice it into our lives, we experience the life that actually lives inside the scriptures themselves.

We experience restoration that comes from God's word.

And so there's this space where he's like, Yes, I do want you to confess your sin because there's life in there.

You should do that and you'll experience life.

I want you to repent and put my word into practice and repent because there's life in there and you'll experience life from that.

And I also want you to do the other random stuff that I say in the scriptures, like forgive people, like love one another, like love your enemies, like pray for those who persecute.

I want you to put these things into your life so that you experience greater and greater life, because in my word is life.

There's life in those things.

They're living and they're active and they have power for you to do things in you that you just can't do for yourself.

And that's clearly true here.

Uh one of the commentators said this, he says, at the word of the Lord, he made the effort, and in making it, the cure was effected.

In making the effort.

And so for you, if you have a space in your life where you're like, I don't even know, I maybe you don't believe it.

Maybe you're like, I don't think that practicing God's word, knowing it is one thing, I read my Bible, I'm putting it into my life that way.

And it's like, that's great, you should do that.

But you should actively in spaces in your life, you should seek to walk it out.

But even if you're like, I don't even know, I I don't even know if that'll work, I would just encourage you to try it as an experiment.

Not to test the Lord, but to put a put a promise into practice and just use it as an experiment.

This man just tried to stick his hand out.

He's like, I don't even know if this is possible, but he tried to stick his hand out and he experienced life.

And so for us, just try to do some of these things and see what happens.

Because he gives us his word for this reason so that we can actually experience restoration in our lives.

So, this is what Jesus wants to do.

He is dedicated, dedicated to our restoration, more so than we are, more so than Rogan can do.

He can do more.

But the way that he does it, he just does it differently, and it's harder sometimes.

He digs into our hearts and he puts us through things that shove stuff to the forefront.

Stuff we've worked hard to keep down.

Things we've worked really difficult to like to like shove these things and like I don't want anybody to see this, I never want this to come out.

I'm gonna deal with this in the dark in my own time.

And he's like, no, no, no, let's bring that to the public.

I'm gonna bring that out.

And so he does it and he exposes this thing, but it's again not to shame us, it's all in order to actually lead us to this space where our confession can kill it and he can deal with it.

And then he kindly shows us where we're wrong in order to lead us to repentance so that times of refreshing can come, and then he gives us his word so that we can put it into our lives and experience the life that comes from it.

And so a couple of final questions for us.

One, just point by point, what is he pointing out, bringing to the surface that's hidden in you?

And one of the things we were praying for uh just in the pre-service was like, I just wanted the spirit to do a work in your hearts that I just can't do.

One of the challenging things about preaching a text like this to people that I've known for a little over a year is like, I don't know what's actually going on in your lives to the to the to the way that I want to know at some point.

And so I can't directly apply and go, you, this is what's happened in your life, and maybe that would be too shameful and too scary, and you never come back.

So I don't want to do that anyways.

And so it's better for the Spirit to do it in your heart and in your life, to actually go, like, this is the thing.

And so, is there a space where he is pointing out or seeking to bring to the surface something that's hidden in you?

What comes out when you watch the news?

What comes to the surface when you look at your finances?

What comes to your mind when you think about your future?

What comes to your mind when you think about your spouse?

Where do your thoughts go when you're alone?

What do you do when you think that no one is looking?

Where is he convicting you now?

And normally it's like this is just this teeny little David said it in Psalm 32, your hand was heavy, it was pressing on me.

It's pressing on something.

And it's not crushing, but it's enough pressure to be like, hey man, what you doing?

Like, it's just enough to go, what is that?

And he wants to press something in you so that you find this space in your heart and your soul to go, like, I think he's wanting me to deal with this.

And he's like, Yeah, I want to deal with that.

I want to purify your heart.

I want to take the pollution out of there and do something else instead.

So, what is he pointing out, bringing to the surface to say to new?

Where is he pointing out where you're wrong in order to lead you to repentance?

What isn't going well?

Where are you experiencing conflict?

Where are you?

I just like, this isn't.

I I thought I was gonna make this decision.

I thought I was gonna parent my kids this way, and it would be great.

I gotta be honest, not going great.

Like, okay, maybe that's just because everybody has rebellious kids.

God is a father, all of them are rebellious.

And so, and he's perfect at it.

He's a good, good father.

Like, he's great at it and has rebellious kids, so maybe that's just true, but maybe there's something there that you can look at.

And I just think there's a space where you can look at some of the things where it's like, what's not going well?

And is it a space where he's going, This decision that you're making is something not to just double down on, but it's something to repent of, to turn from.

Just turn to me and say this was wrong.

Just admit that this was wrong.

And we need to go back and do something else.

It's possible, it's available, and he allows us to experience the pain of that so that we can change course.

And it's always available to us to repent.

And then where is your is your life shriveled, like the man's shriveled hand?

Because if God's word can actually bring about restoration, is there a space in your life where your joy is shriveled, where your love for your spouse is shriveled, where there's something there?

And it's like, where is there a space where you could put his word into practice?

Like my joy, my peace, my my I tell you, my my fear and my anxiety or my lack of faith, or there's just a space in my life that I'm not experiencing life.

Where is there?

That happening in your life.

He is not trying to be cruel.

I think he's genuinely trying to bring restoration to you.

He just does it in a way where it's like, that feels a little heavier.

There's a promise in this text.

That even though Jesus will say things to you and point out things to you that are hard, that are difficult, he will call you to practice his word in ways that's like, that is impossible.

I don't even know if I can do that.

There's there's spaces like that where you well, he will be right, you'll know he's right, and you want him to be wrong.

And you're like, I don't know that I can take a step in this.

And there's a promise in the scriptures that you know that like he's never asking you to do something that's just for his benefit and not for your benefit.

You know that he always has your good at heart and in mind because Jesus knows when I heal this man's hand, it will solidify and secure the fact that they were gonna put nails in mine on the cross as soon as he does it.

And so he's grieved, and that word grieved is the same word they use as when he's in the garden.

He's experiencing the exact same emotions because he knows I'm angry that they're gonna continue to experience the pain and destruction of their own bad decisions.

But I also know I'm going to heal this man, and when I heal him, I'm securing my own death.

And so if he's willing to restore you at the cost of his own life, you know that whatever he's calling you into or pointing out in you, he's not doing that to hurt you.

He's actually going, I am willing to restore you at the cost of being destroyed.

And so for us, when it says that, like as soon as as soon as it happened, the Pharisees align with people with political people they hate in order to figure out how they can kill Jesus.

That's exactly what happens to him.

And he lives the rest of this journey through Mark under the shadow of this cross that's coming for him at some point.

And it was all because I am so willing to restore you that I'm willing to give my life in order to do it.

And so, for you, if he's ever pointing anything out, driving anything out, calling you to confess, calling you to repent, telling you, please put my word in your life, he's not doing it to harm you, he's doing it to ultimately save you.

And he was willing to give his life to do that.

And so for us, we can trust him that he's actually trying to do something good for us because if he's willing to restore us at his own destruction, then we know that whatever he's asking us to do is for our good and not to harm us.

Let me pray.

Father, um thank you that you actually care enough, uh, just that truth that you were willing to many times uh risk people walking away from you when you ask them hard things.

You love us enough to say the hard things, knowing that it might break your heart when they go, Well, I'm not doing that, and I'm not doing that with you.

And so, Lord, you have experienced many times your heart being broken, trying to be honest with people, trying to help them and watching them walk away from you because your words were just too hard and they stung too deep.

But God, thank you that you love us that way.

Thank you that you're willing to give your life so that we could be restored.

God, I pray that you would do that in our hearts, Spirit, that you would move among us and in us to point out these things, these impurities in our hearts that you don't look at and scoff at, you don't look at and get angry with us.

You look at those things and go, I want to help.

I want to get those things out.

Would you help us to see where you're pointing out our wrongs so that we can actually find freedom and restoration?

Would you do that for us in Jesus' name?

Amen.

We're gonna take communion, and uh, if you help set up communion, please come and serve on that side.

Uh, communion is, again, just a reminder every single week.

We celebrate it.

It is a celebration and it is a reminder.

Your sin causes death.

Your sin causes death.

The reason Jesus wants to reid you of it is because to leave you with it is to experience death over and over.

And your sin causes death.

And it Jesus chose to say, like, hey, instead of it giving you death, I will, it will take my death.

And so he just swapped places with us so that we can experience life.

And so I don't know where you're at with Jesus, I don't know what your experience is with Jesus, but I just want you to know about Jesus that what he wants for you is life, and he was willing to take the death so that you could actually experience life.

And so this is a moment where we get to celebrate.

It was his body that was broken and it should have been ours.

It was his blood that was spilled and it should have been ours.

But he's like, I'm not having it.

I'm not having that.

My friends, my people, I am a savior.

They're not going to experience this thing if I have anything to say about it.

And he had a lot to say about it, and he gave his life in order to do it.

And so let's celebrate this love, this good, good father love that he loves us with.

And if you're wondering, does he have my good in mind?

Should I turn from my sin?

Should I confess this thing?

He was willing to die so that you could actually experience the freedom that comes from being set free from your sin.

Yes, you should follow him in that thing.

He's not calling you into a space of death, he's calling you into a space of life.

And so allow us to be that space and take some time in your seats just to consider what is he asking of you here?

What is he pointing out in your life?

And then come and let's celebrate together.