The Lamb Came Near

Apologize for the uncomfortability in this moment, but it's in uncomfortable moments that we discover the end of us in the beginning of Him.

It's in uncomfortable moments that that that we the reason why we're uncomfortable is because we we find the limitations of who we are and what we can do and what we can provide and what we resource.

When we find the end of ourselves, we can accept one or two things is that I can keep trying my best, but I'll never find a solution.

Or if I really find the end of myself, I'll find the beginning of who he is and what he can do.

And some of you this morning are feeling that stretch and feeling that pull when you're at that crossroads.

Can I tell you this morning, turn towards who he is?

You don't have to understand God to trust God, but in trusting him, you will understand him more and more as it goes by.

Some of you are facing impossible situations.

I get that, and I understand that.

I'm not downplaying your situation.

I'm just trying to shift your attention and your eyes to who God is.

I'm trying to shift your attention and to your eyes, who God is.

So this morning, God, whatever's distracting our minds, whatever's captivating our attention, whatever is holding our heart right now, God, would you would you turn our eyes?

Teach us to turn our eyes to the hills in which our help comes from.

That God, we look to you, our giver, our maker, our provider, our heavenly Father, the one who holds the power and authority in his voice and in his hand.

We trust you with every situation, with every person, with every marriage, with our physical health, our mental health, our spiritual health, our emotional health.

God, everything that would cause us this morning, dismay, anxiety, worry, financial stress, death, any of it, God, we lay it right now at your feet.

God, you have a plan and a purpose for this morning, and your word wants to speak clearly.

So eliminate the distractions, God.

We've got to hear from you.

And by saying in Jesus' name this morning, you guys can be seated.

You guys can be seated.

Past couple weeks, the past couple weeks, uh, we've been we've been moving through this idea of looking through the lens of the Lamb.

That scripture, we talked about it some more in Sunday school this morning, that our Sunday morning class is that that if you notice when Jesus speaks or when the the apostles and the disciples speak, oftentimes they're referencing Old Testament.

That and so that it leads us to it's got to lead us to a couple conclusions that the idea of the entire word of God was centered around Jesus.

That in the beginning, all the way to amen at the end, is focused on the central character of Christ and not just who he is, but who he wants to be in our lives and his plan and in his purpose.

And so the prophets of old, the the law, all of it that came before him, all pointed towards him.

And so if we read scripture, the objective and the goal of scripture should be to read through the lens of the Lamb.

What is this saying about Christ?

What is this saying about his purpose for our lives?

And we we we've talked about it.

We've we we've we've gone from covenant here and as an individual, and when that flows in the right direction into our marriages, and when that flows right into our children, and from our children, healthy leaders and healthy disciple makers, and when that flows, we get into we develop healthy church culture, and from there, there can only be one thing that that that happens in our spiritual development is we move beyond these walls, we move beyond the physical building of the church into the community.

And so here's here here's here's where we talked about in this this these ideas, the this idea of outreach is that the first the first thing we talked about was being blessed to bless that God told Abraham, He said, I'll bless you and you will be a blessing.

God blesses us to pour it out on other people because God's blessing was never designed to terminate with the person who was receiving the blessing.

Our blessings were never meant for us to hold on to forever, but they're to turn around and to give to someone else.

And last week we talked about seeking the city because God told his people living in Babylon, living in exile, they weren't in their home.

He said, seek the peace of the city, seek the shalom of the city, the well-being of the city.

We we that our well-being becomes intertwined with the well-being of your neighbors.

That we have to make room at the table.

We talked about that last week.

But as we move forward in this idea, there's one question.

Is having room for people is one thing.

But here's the question that we're getting to.

Are we getting willing?

Are we willing, uh, are we willing to get close enough to actually know them?

It's not just about making room at our table.

We need to.

There's there's gotta, we've got to open up seats, and if we've got to declutter things and we've got to, we've got to make some things more efficient, and we've got to do, we've got it, we've we've got it, we've got to do that, that's fine.

We'll expand the table.

But here's the thing if we expand the table and invite the people to the table, are we still getting will, are we still uh willing to get close enough to actually get to know them?

Are we are we willing to get close enough to know them?

And even deeper than that, what does it look like when God gets close to us?

John, we're gonna go to the book of John 1 and 14, and we quote the first part of this all the time.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God.

And here's John's opening all the way down to 14.

And here he says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Everybody say, Dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So John doesn't tell us here that God loved humanity, God showed us what the byproduct of his love was, it moved towards us.

He didn't just tell us that he loved humanity.

It should John in his writing showed us what his love produced.

It moved towards us.

The word became flesh, he dwelt among us.

That way that same word dwelt right there is the same word that's used for tabernacle.

He tabernacled amongst us.

He tabernacled among us.

And from Eden to the tabernacle, um to the tabernacle to the temple, scripture reveals that this there's this is the remarkable desire of God of God, is that he desires to dwell with his people.

I don't know what who who has told you what about God before, but God desires to be with his people.

God desires to dwell among his people.

That was the point of creation, is that we were supposed to be in royal priesthood with him, that we were supposed to commune with him.

Look what uh look what it says in the garden is that he would walk with him in the cool of the garden daily.

God's intention with us was to have daily relationship with us, that we would serve and share in this with him.

And so here's the idea.

We have been telling the church to go, but the gospel first begins with God coming to us.

We we we've been talking about this idea of going, but we first have to realize where the idea of going originates from, and that's God coming to us.

And so the word became flesh.

Jesus didn't come close enough just to merely observe humanity, he entered into our human experience.

The God of all the universe stepped off of his throne.

No need to sleep, no need to eat, no need to worry about anything.

And he robed himself in flesh, this human experience that we go through.

He knew what hunger felt like, he knew what weariness felt like, he know, he knows what grief feels like, what rejection feels like, what temptation feels like, what betrayal feels like, and my goodness, does he know what physical suffering feels like.

Hebrews 4 and 15 says this for we for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the that and then this ESV says it so much better, it says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.

We do not have a high priest that is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Second uh for uh Colossians 2 and 9, he dwell all the fullness of the bodhead of the Godhead bodily.

In him was all the fullness of his deity in flesh.

2 Corinthians 5 and 19 says this that that that it that is in Christ God was reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses among them, and entrusting us to the message of reconciliation.

Notice what Scripture tells us time and time again is that God came near.

It's not just a Christmas message, it's the message of the gospel, it's the message of who we are, it's the DNA of everything that happens here, is that God made his way into close proximity to us?

And sometimes we don't realize that.

We'll tell the story of Christmas, we'll tell the story of the manger, we'll we'll talk about it, but does it become a true revelation to us?

As simple as three words are that God came near.

God came near.

And perhaps that tells us something about reaching people.

We can know statistics from a distance, we can know the demographics from a distance.

And we can know that the city of Zachary and the surrounding areas has needs from a distance, but eventually, eventually, mission requires proximity.

Eventually, mission requires some proximity.

And this is where I think we've misunderstood our holiness sometimes.

And I know I'm I'm getting that, and everybody's whoa, where are you going with this?

Hear me, hear me clearly this morning.

Biblical sin absolutely separates us from sin, uh sorry, biblical holiness absolutely separates us from sin.

Biblical holiness absolutely separates us from sin.

But let me make a clarification statement with this.

But biblical holiness is not primarily social quarantine.

Did you catch that?

Biblical holiness separates us from sin, but it is not social quarantine.

Leviticus 20 and 26 tells us this that ye shall be holy to me.

Everybody say to me.

For I am the Lord, for I for though uh for for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine.

Notice what he says in here.

There's your destination that you should be mine.

Holiness isn't just talking about a physical destination and a social quarantine.

We're separated unto someone first, and it's him.

We're his.

That's the primary purpose of holiness is being separated unto him.

We are separated from sin because we are separated to him.

We are not separated unto isolation because look at the model Jesus taught.

Look at the model Jesus taught.

A leper touches ordinary people in the in context of the law, they become unclean.

That's why lepers would have to walk around crying, unclean, unclean, unclean.

Because if a person came in close enough proximity to them and touched them, they were then deemed unclean.

But what happened when Jesus went and he healed the leper?

Did he just speak to the leper?

No.

Notice in scripture, he touches the leper and the leper becomes clean.

A woman with an issue of blood touches Jesus, but even though she touching somebody else would make them unclean, it didn't make Jesus unclean.

She became whole.

Jesus takes a dead girl by the hand, and this is this is where he was going anyway.

He was on his way to Jarius' house to go make to go to go to go heal his daughter.

And the woman, the woman with the issue of blood interrupts him on the way, touches him on the way.

In the same day, in the same day, two things that would have made Jesus unclean.

Watch what happens.

When he when he he didn't just say, speak to the dead girl and tell her to come to life.

He touches her hand, and that would have made him unclean.

Touching a dead thing would have made him unclean.

But death does not overcome him.

Life overcomes death.

And no, he did not destroy the law.

Remember what he says in Matthew 5 and 17 think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill the law.

Here's the thing: the law was holy.

The law could identify the condition, but the law was pointing us towards what humanity ultimately needed.

The law could only identify the condition, but the lamb came to fulfill what was necessary to change the condition.

You hear me this morning?

Too oftentimes we've stuck with such a legalistic view that we've identified conditions and we've been so afraid to touch them.

But watch what Jesus does with that idea.

He turns it on his head because why?

The Lamb came to fulfill what the law could not.

The law could only diagnose, only the lamb could heal.

The law could only point to what was unclean, only the lamb could make it clean.

The law could only say what was dead and what was unclean and what wasn't good and what wasn't right and that.

But the lamb came along and said, I can turn death around.

I can turn sickness around.

I can turn uncleanliness into cleanliness.

I can turn your filthiness and your and your rags that are unto unrighteous, and I can turn it to my righteousness.

The Lamb didn't come to abolish what the law said.

He didn't come to get do away what the prophet said.

He didn't come to do away what Moses said, but he was what was needed.

Every lamb that was given yearly would roll back the sins of the people.

But there was there was still necessary every year that a priest would go into the holies of holies and offer that sacrifice.

But Jesus said, No.

There has to have to be the one.

And he came and again he endured everything we endured, and yet sinless, he offered himself life freely.

He said, No man takes what I give freely.

Notice what the man, notice what Jesus does this entire time.

So go to the go to the story of the woman with issue of blood.

How many years did she have that issue of blood?

Twelve years.

She had heard reports about this Jesus.

She heard the rumors about Jesus.

And she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

She came with a premeditated motive.

I don't care how big this crowd gets.

I don't care what's going on in here.

I've heard about this Jesus and I'm going to experience for myself.

Everybody say, for myself.

Let me pause for a moment, just give you a little land-yap.

You have to make, you have to make a decision at some point in your life if you're going to see if this Jesus thing is real for yourself.

You can sit idly by and you can watch people, you can see miracles, signs, and wonders happen.

But only when you get into the motion where, God, I want to experience you for myself, will you firsthand begin to experience those miracles, signs, and wonders?

Again, God knocks at the door and he waits.

And he was not, he's been knocking at that woman's door for a long time.

She finally decided 12 years of suffering was enough.

She was bankrupted by all she had spent at doctors.

She she was she was socially ostracized because she was unclean.

She could not come around people, and so she had to pretty much disguise herself amongst the crowd.

She was probably cloaked, covered, so nobody recognized who she was.

I don't know if she the Bible doesn't say if she was crawling on her hands.

However, she worked through the crowd, she was not supposed to be amongst the crowd because everybody in that crowd would have been unclean.

And she made her way to Jesus, who was on his way to Jarius's house.

And it says in verse 29, and immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her as she was healed of her disease.

And what does Jesus do with this?

What does Jesus do with this?

He stops everything that he's doing.

And he said, Virtue flows from me.

What do you mean, Jesus?

You've been teaching him to do it.

There's lots of people in this crowd touching.

Like well, you you guys got to understand that when Jesus went from town to town, the the masses followed.

There was no, there was no there was no phones, there was no social media, there's no Instagram, that there was no live feed of Jesus.

You could watch from the comfort of your home.

If you wanted to hear Jesus, you had to go out there.

And there were people that are following you.

And so the side would tell him, Who what do you mean somebody touched you?

What do you mean somebody bumped in?

Jesus, people have been bumping in you all day.

He said, No, this one was different.

Somebody touched me with intent and purpose because virtue flowed from me.

And so Jesus stops everything that he's doing because again, he's on the way to Jarius' daughter.

And he then after that he tell he he tells her, uh, she tells him all the truth.

And Jesus says this in Mark 34.

He says, daughter, your faith has made you whole.

Go in peace and be whole of your plague.

He doesn't call her a bleeding woman, he doesn't call her an unclean woman, he doesn't call her a problem and an issue for interrupting where he was going or what he was doing.

He says, daughter.

He says, daughter.

She didn't just receive healing, which she did, but you got to realize what else Jesus did.

Jesus publicly restored her.

Tell you when I was studying last night, I was in tears over this.

We talk so much about healing in the body.

But God is in the business of restoration.

He is not a God who heals, he is a God who heals and restores and reconciles.

And so many times we we we pray for the healing of our bodies and the healing of our mind.

But God wants to do the full miracle as He wants to reconcile you, reconcile you to Himself, reconcile you to the others around you, reconcile you back to the world.

Why?

Because the miracle doesn't need to stay with you.

The blessing doesn't need to stay with you, the blessing has to go back out.

He calls her daughter.

And so what is unclean touches Jesus and becomes clean.

And that reveals something about how God sees people.

Remember what Psalms 147 and 4 says is that he tells us the number of stars and he calls them by name.

God spoke in every one of the stars into existence.

You can look at the night sky and count until you fall asleep, and you'll still never count the stars.

You wake up the next day and keep going and going.

God already knows the number.

But how big is our God that he knows the number and still calls them by name?

He doesn't call them star one and star two.

Now imagine how much more God loves you that he gave his life for you.

God knows what you're going through.

But he still calls you son and he still calls you daughter.

He's already got the miracle worked out, but he's not just interested in healing your body and healing your mind.

He's interested in restoring you.

All that's been lost because of what you've been suffering, all that you've been going through, and the suffering and the time you've missed out at church and your family, and you've missed out at work, and you've missed out at all these things, and everything in your world around you has suffered because of this.

He's not just in the business of healing you, he's in the business of restoring you.

If he knows the stars by number yet calls them by name, how much more does he love you?

How much more does he love you?

Mission sees the soul without turning the person into a project.

And church, listen to me clearly, we cannot reach the community until this community starts getting names.

I cannot reach the people of this city until I know their name.

I can know the population, I can know the statistics, I can know the demographics, I can know what trends point to, but until I get a person, and I know names, everything is for not.

We cannot love a category.

We have to get close enough to meet the person.

But before we talk about how we see them, can we take a moment?

Can we talk about and let me ask you this how do you believe that God sees you I know in this series, in this this idea and this talk, I hate calling it a series.

I just every time that I go to God and in prayer, this is just like a it's it's like a continuing conversation.

We pick up right where we left off.

And so I've been asking, I know we I've been asking a lot of introspective questions.

It's because God is, I think, wanting to mind some things out of us first before he sent us out there.

So my question to you this morning is how how do you believe that God sees you?

And some of you wince at the idea of that because you don't want to orate out loud what you really think God thinks about you.

Because maybe we turn people into projects because somewhere inside we still feel like we're God's project.

Maybe we still treat people like projects because that's the perspective and the view that we think that God has of us.

Don't look around at your neighbors right now.

Just just just just hear the hear the hear the Lord speak to you this morning.

Maybe you think when God looks at you, he sees your failure, that he sees your divorce, that he sees your addiction, he sees your childhood, he sees your rejection, he sees that thing that somebody did to you that you feel makes you unclean and you can't wash away.

He sees the thing that you did that you wish you could clean and you wish you could wash away and the memories that flow through your mind.

He sees the season you wish that you could erase from your past.

But remember this the woman with the issue of blood.

He didn't call her by her issue, he called her by her true identity, his daughter.

Can I tell you this morning?

Jesus does not deny what happened to you.

He just refuses to let what happened to you become the total definition of who you are.

And this is why our experience matters.

2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4.

Blessed be God, the God of the Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in affliction in affliction with the comfort that we were first ourselves comforted by God.

There's a flow to this.

God comforts me, and the comfort I receive becomes something that which I can give comfort to somebody else.

Again, we are first blessed to be to be a blessing.

But here comes the idea that we we love that concept and idea, we love that for our neighbor, we love that for our family members, we love that for the people that we serve with.

But if we're true and we're honest this morning, do we really accept that from God ourselves?

God many times is trying to comfort, trying to heal, trying to work in your own lives.

But we go down the list of what disqualifies us.

I'm not good enough, God.

You know what I've done, you know who I've been.

I know that your blood covers sin and covers those things, but does it really cover mine?

I believe it does it for my neighbor, I believe it does for Mom or dad or aunt or uncle or grandma or grandpa or my friend at school.

But when I get by myself and I'm wrestling through my prayer time and I'm wrestling with my thoughts alone in the dark, oftentimes I'm stuck at the point.

I'm just your project, God.

Hear me this morning.

Sometimes the bridge to another person's world is the part of the story that you wish you never had to live.

Sometimes the very thing that will build the bridge to knowing someone's name and knowing someone's story is embracing the part of the story of your life that you don't you want to erase from your history.

If we truly believe that God works out all things, everybody say all things for the good of those that love Him, then even the ugly parts that we are trying to erase from our highlight reels of our life.

God is saying, if you trust me, I will use that.

I'll use you at your lowest point.

I'll use you when you were on the brink of suicide.

I'll use you when you had already swallowed the pills.

I'll use you because even though you you you you you you you you you have all those experiences, you've done all those things, I can use you in spite of that.

You're not just my project, you're my son, you're my daughter.

I gave my life for you.

I didn't just give my life for the world as a whole.

I am both the collective savior of the world, but he's a personal savior.

But we have to catch this this morning.

But before your wound can become a bridge, before that testimony can become the bridge and you can reach somebody with it, that wound has to heal.

I know that sounds very very elementary.

That sounds like, well, duh, it has to heal.

But I wonder many times are we calling are we calling healed what God is still calling wounded?

Are we walking into situations in our lives and in our world and we still have the bandages on of what's happening?

And we're trying to witness people, and we're trying to reach people, and they see our bandages, and they see the blood oozing out of it.

And we talk about a God who can heal and free and deliver.

Yet we're they the people are hearing our words, but looking at uh looking at the fruit of our spirit and they see the wounds.

And I wonder sometimes if we're the most damaging to our own witness, because we're telling people that God heals, yet we won't accept the true healing for ourselves.

And I'm not, I trust me, I've I have Stephen could tell you the timestamp on the email this morning for all of this.

I was up all night, not because I delayed getting ready, but because when God started speaking, I could not sleep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I wonder how many times have we bored false witness to who he is?

Because we've tried to testify of God's love and his goodness and mercy and grace.

And the person looking back at us is saying, But your spirit doesn't match what's coming out of your mouth.

You call God a healer, but you're still bleeding from that part of your life.

You call God a healer, but that wound looks infected.

You call God a healer.

And I wonder sometimes that people, they that we know that people are looking for what's good and real and true, and they're looking for a solution to their problems and to their issues.

We see it by statistics and drug addiction, we see it by statistics and alcoholism and pornography use and all these other things.

People are trying things, but I wonder is that we're walking to people with open wounds that we're calling that saying God is healed.

We're saying that God can heal you, and they're confused.

Notice, notice what happens.

This thing has we have to heal.

John 10, 17 through 18 says this uh that for the for this reason, everybody say this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it up again.

No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

This charge have I received from my father.

No man takes it.

The Lamb came near, and eventually he came near enough that humanity wounded him.

And this takes us all the way back to talking about blessed to bless.

Remember, remember Bible?

Bible says we will ascend the incarnation of Christ, God descended.

Bible says that we'll make a name for ourselves.

The incarnation of Jesus says this that God gave us his name.

And then watch what God calls us to do.

Remember, we talked about the altar.

He tells Abraham to build an altar.

Why?

Because Isaac asked this.

He says, Dad, where's the lamb?

And ultimately God provided what humanity needed, and that was a foretelling of what would happen.

The lamb came close enough to our brokenness that our brokenness left marks on him.

Look how close proximity that God came to us.

The lamb came close enough to our brokenness, to our sin, to our trauma, to our issues, to our dysfunction that it broke him.

No, he did not sin, but it left marks on him.

And here's where we have to be careful.

I will not glorify suffering.

I'm not telling anybody in this room to remain in your abusive situation.

I'm not telling you that being mistreated makes you spiritual.

Sacrifice and absence of boundaries are not the same thing.

Hear me clearly, but neither can we imagine love without vulnerability.

Jesus bore scars.

In the tomb, he had every chance to wipe them away.

But ask this to yourself: what would make us think faithful love would always leave us untouched?

What would make us think faithful love would always leave us untouched if the sinless lamb entered into a broken world and did not leave it without wounds?

We should not assume that loving broken people will always leave us untouched.

Sometimes people will disappoint you.

Sometimes disciples still leave.

Sometimes somebody's gonna misunderstand you.

Sometimes somebody you help will turn around and wound you.

Jesus knows this.

He lived it, he experienced it.

But what happened?

He came near anyway.

He came near anyway, and on the cross, given the choice, there were legions of angels on standby.

At any given word and moment, he could have ended the suffering and ended humanity.

But he came in, he came the choice.

I've already come this far and I've already come this close.

I've got the wounds, and they're so close to me.

I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna go through with it.

Sometimes I think what has happened is that we've become so afraid of reaching people because we know what the possibility of reaching people will cost us.

It's happened before, and unfortunately, it's gonna happen again.

But what can you expect broken people that don't know how to help themselves?

And hurting people hurt people.

It's one of the most baseline phrases that you'll hear in counseling, but it is so true.

Hurting people hurt people.

And it started with Jesus.

He came to heal hurting people, he came to heal broken people, he came to set the captive free, he came to raise the dead, and he came to do all of these things if the people who were hurting hurt him.

Where do you and I think that in this journey, as Christians and as believers, and as God is pushing us into uncomfortability and conviction to go reach the world, that there will not be sometimes in the process that we will receive some ones?

Again, I'm not glorifying suffering.

I'm not telling you out and go get absolutely trashed and hurt and destroyed while you're reaching people.

Obviously, we set boundaries and we will establish that.

But the concept and the idea is this are we stopping from reaching people because we're afraid of the consequences.

Hear me this morning.

There is a difference between a wound and a scar.

A wound is open, a wound bleeds, a wound needs treatment, a wound needs protection.

Sometimes a wound needs distance from who caused it.

I don't know who that's for this morning, but hear me this morning.

Sometime a wound needs distance from what caused it.

Sometimes it needs prayer, sometimes it needs counseling, sometimes it needs an honest conversation, sometimes it needs accountability, and sometimes it needs time.

God does not ask us to turn an open wound into a sermon before it has had time to heal.

God has not asked you to turn the open wounds in your life into a sermon before you've had time to heal.

Oftentimes what happens when you go out in wounds and you try to patch yourself up to go tell the story is you get even more hurt in the process.

God is not interested in that.

God is interested in healing you completely and restoring you.

He is He is a God of healing and restoration.

I know everybody said it, but I'll say it again.

God is a God of healing and restoration, and he is in the business of healing and restoring you before he sends you to the mission field.

It is okay to sometimes say, I'm broken, I'm wounded, and I'm hurting.

We go to God for forgiveness, but we go to his people for healing.

That's scripture.

I didn't make that up.

Go look it up.

We go to God for forgiveness, but we go to people for healing, his people for healing.

Why?

This is a hospital for the broken.

And yes, we know the people out there are lost and broken, but sometimes if we're true and we're honest with ourselves, we are broken and we still need this hospital just as much as they need this hospital.

So let me tell you this morning: if you ever approach me or you ever approach a ministry leader and you are saying you're tired, you're wounded, you're weary, you're working, our schedules are interrupted.

Why?

Because Jesus interrupted his schedule for the woman with the issue of blood.

We will interrupt our schedule for you.

Why?

Because you cannot be sent unless you are first healed.

We cannot send you to a wounded world for you to bleed all over them.

It is not your blood that heals people, it is not your blood that forgives people, it is not your blood that redeems people, it is his.

His blood's been shed.

You may be wounded, but God is not asking you to bleed for his mission and his sake.

He's asking you to be healed so he can send you with scars.

What is a scar?

A scar is what's left behind from the wound.

A scar is when it's bound together and it's put back together.

It may not be pretty, it may not be beautiful, but it means the wound is over.

And hear me this morning.

I'm not going to glorify trauma.

I'm not going to tell, I'm not here to tell you this morning that God hurts you so you could help somebody.

That's a lie from the pit of hell.

No, but there are things that happen because people have sinned.

There are things that that that happened that God never called good.

And but redemption means evil does not get the privilege of writing the ending.

Redemption from God Himself does not mean that evil gets to write the ending.

He is both the author and the finisher of our faith.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

He was here before the clock started ticking, and he'll be here well after it.

Hear me this morning.

A wound bleeds, but a scar stays.

Something happens here and it isn't bleeding anymore.

Here's John 20, 26 and 27.

And after eight days, after eight days again, uh where he was with inside with his disciples, and Thomas was with him.

And it's a shame that we sit here and call him doubting Thomas so much, but this is such a reflection of who we are to Jesus.

So first off, Jesus doesn't use the door.

He walks through the wall without being like the Kool-Aid man.

He just disappears in the room and says, Peace be with you.

I don't know about you, but that probably freaked me out a little bit.

And then he said to Thomas, He said, Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it on my side.

Do not disbelieve.

But believe.

Notice what he says.

He tells him here's the proof.

It's me.

He doesn't just use his words.

He leaves the scars on his resurrected body.

Victorious.

Death defeated.

But he still shows Thomas the marks.

Resurrection did not require Jesus to pretend that Good Friday never happened.

Your healing and your restoration does not require to you to forget about the event that happened.

To forget about your transgression.

To forget about what was done to you.

Healing does not require to you pretend it never happened.

That's not healing.

That's a lie from the pits of hell.

You'll build a false reality.

We're not supposed to bear false witness.

You know that means you're not supposed to bear false witness to yourself either.

You may not lie to other people, but sometimes the best liar we are is to ourselves.

Do you know that that's one of the defining features of humans?

We're homo sap what is it uh homo homosapian?

We're the thinking man.

Like we can think about thought.

Have you thought about that for?

It's called metacognition.

You can think about your thought patterns and your thought processes.

It's not just that we can speak or that we can we can conquer land and build guns and all this stuff.

Is that we as humanity, we can think about our thought processes.

And you know what that means?

We can lie to ourselves so much that we convince ourselves that a lie is truth.

Do you know how scary that is?

Because if the enemy can sow enough about God's sow enough lies about God's redemptive power and your healing process and you being wounded, you can believe that is true because you've told yourself and you've recited that lie long enough in the mirror.

And I'm here to slap that lie in the face this morning.

That is straight from the pits of hell.

God wants you to be healed and he intends you be healed, and it will happen this morning.

God is going to turn your wounds into scars, and your scars will then become the bridge that you're going to reach broken people with.

But you will not reach broken people until those wounds are closed up.

And some of you have come here on Sunday morning, and the reason why you may not stay long enough around for altar call, or you may not stay long enough around people and want to go to people's houses and do what we talked about and sharing dinners and sharing meals because you're afraid that eventually, in close enough proximity to the people around you who you call your church family, will see how broken you really are.

We'll see how wounded you are.

You're afraid that if you come and sit at my table, that you'll bleed on my table because your wounds are still bleeding.

That's okay.

Come to my table.

That's what God called me to do.

Come sit at my table, and maybe what we share at the table can help you close up those wounds.

Let this church family be a part of the process of those who close your wounds.

Let this church family help sew you up, help treat the infection, help everything that you've been going through.

Because why?

Because if you look at us, we bear scars.

We spare scars of the people that hurt us outside of the church, but also inside of the church.

And let me just get on a tangent this morning.

I am sick and tired of this culture of church hurt.

I'm not saying that that churches don't hurt people.

Pastors get it wrong, leaders get it wrong, people get it wrong.

Why?

Because we're all robed in flesh.

But what does the enemy do?

He likes to take the the ever so slightest of turns of God's truth and turn it into that.

And that so what he's told us is convinced us of, and this culture is convinced us, is if I go to church, I'm gonna get hurt.

Yeah, you are, but you get hurt when you walked out your door, you get hurt when you go to school, you get hurt in every part of life.

But this is the only place where you can find both hurt and the healing for the hurt.

This is the only place that you can go and you can find redemption, and your wounds can be closed up and you can be treated.

I'm not discounting your hurt this morning.

I could sit down with you and I could tell you stories of people who have hurt me in the church, and I would put you into tears, and you would question why I'm here standing here today, because I realized it wasn't God who hurt me, it was people's dumb choices, and as the great will says, people gone people.

But you know what?

The counter for that God is gonna God if he's warned about his own name, then God is gonna God, and so people are gonna hurt you.

It's okay.

I'm not justifying it.

Is it right?

No, is sin right?

No.

Is the choices that people made against you right?

Absolutely not, but there is a God who is willing to bear every one of your wounds, and he already has, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And he says, I have overcome them all, and because I have overcome them, so can you.

So if you walked in this morning and you're bearing a lot of church hurt, I love you, and I'm sorry that it's happened, but we're not a perfect people.

We're gonna love the fire out of you.

I'm gonna make some mistakes, I'm gonna say something dumb along the way, I'm gonna put my foot in my mouth, but I will promise you this I will love you like you are my own brother and sister.

Why?

Because if I can't do it here, what makes me think that we can do it on Streets of Glory?

I feel the Spirit of God in you this morning.

Wounds, the Friday wounds of Christ said he's dead, but the Sunday scars said he died, but he's standing here.

Resurrection doesn't make the Friday unreal, it just makes the Friday unable to have the final word.

Some of you have been living on the final word of your situations, some of you have been living on the final word of what's happened to you or maybe what you've done.

Can I tell you the voice of God is here this morning saying it is not over and it is not finished if you let me have the pen?

Some of you have been very genuinely hurt in church, and again, I'm not going to justify it.

We all make mistakes.

But here, I'm not asking you to pretend it didn't happen.

Jesus rose with scars.

I'm not asking you to say it didn't happen.

I'm not asking you to justify it.

I'm not here to make excuses for it.

What I'm here to say is you can either stay down of the pit or you can get up with your scars.

And Jesus chose to get out of the grave with his scars.

And I don't know about you, but the life and life more abundantly that he speaks of is not a life in a tomb and a life in a grave.

I'm asking whether the womb gets to the side the rest of your story.

I'm here for the person this morning that is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

I'm here for the person this morning that's sick and tired of going from band-aid solution to band-aid solution, from going to counselor to counselor, from going to medication to medication to medication.

And hear me this morning.

Counseling is good.

I have been to counseling.

I regularly go just to just to talk things out.

And I've I've I've been on medication before there's a time and a season for that, but that is not God's ultimate goal for your life.

He is the great counselor, he is the great physician, he is the one that will do it.

And what Christian counselors do and what these doctors are supposed to be working in together with cohesion with God's plan is it is not the goal and the will of God for you to always be on that.

Because are you letting your wound get the rest of your story?

The enemy will gladly use a real wound to produce a false conclusion.

Somebody hurt me.

And this is truth that way that we've we've we've lied, we've told ourselves so much because someone hurt me.

No one can be trusted.

We take one situation and we apply an ultimatum to it.

A leader failed me.

That's it.

I'm never going to church again.

Christian community wounded me.

Therefore, I will heal alone.

I don't need to go to church.

I can be the church, I can watch church at home, but scripture calls us this.

It calls us a body, it calls us a family, it calls us a flock, it calls us a building fitly framed together.

It calls us a bride.

And you can acknowledge that a church wounded you with concluding that Christ designed you to heal alone.

Sometimes leaving an unhealthy environment is wisdom, but it is not first call and first decision.

Sometimes boundaries are necessary, but a boundary can protect healing.

A wall can prevent a relationship.

Wisdom knows the difference.

A boundary can protect your healing.

A wall can prevent relationship.

Wisdom knows the difference.

And perhaps one of our problems is things we've called stars are actually still wounds because wounds bleed when touched.

A wounded leader still bleeds on people.

A wounded member still bleeds on people.

A wounded spouse bleeds on the other spouse.

A wounded parent can bleed on their child.

A wounded church can bleed on its community.

Not because everybody is inherently evil, just sometimes we're wounded and we bleed.

And here's the thing maybe God isn't exposing us to shame us, but maybe the Lamb came near because he wants to heal your wounds.

Ephesians 5, 25 through 27, he says this husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, and he gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having, having, having, having cleansed her by the washing with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in his splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Notice this he loves her, he washes her, he sanctifies her, and he prepares her.

Hear me this morning.

The beauty of the bride isn't that there was nobody in her world that ever wounded her.

The beauty is that the lamb has never stopped washing, he's never stopped healing, and he's never stopped sanctifying, and he's never stopped preparing his bride.

A scarred church is still a beautiful bride.

Do you hear me this morning?

A scarred church.

Is still a beautiful bride in his eyes.

And so whatever you've walked through this morning, whatever you're suffering with, whatever you're going through, the wound that God will close up in heal will not turn his eye of affection from you.

I don't know what you've done.

I'm not saying quite frankly, I don't care.

But in the grand light of eternity, God still loves you.

And so I love you.

This church loves you.

But we love you so much that we don't we don't want to leave you in your brokenness.

God doesn't want to leave you in your brokenness.

We're here.

And many of us this morning, we've come in with weights, we've come in with wounds.

And right now you're you're some of us are getting a little antsy because we're probably getting close to some wounds.

But remember, a scarred church is still a beautiful bride.

And maybe this, a scarred church, is uniquely equipped to show that a wounded world what resurrection actually looks like.

Not a bleeding church pretending that she's healed, but a healed church with scars.

You know what that says?

That says that we know what rejection feels like.

We know what growth grief feels like.

We know what addiction feels like.

We know what dysfunction feels like.

We know what failure feels like, but we also know what Jesus can do.

And this is where Jesus says something absolutely incredible to a man that wants to heal.

And when and this is Mark 18 through 19 when he came to the ship.

He'd been possessed with demons that then begged that they might be with him.

And he did not permit him, but said to him, Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has mercy on you.

The demoniac came to Jesus because he was possessed.

He had some problems and issues.

He was cutting himself.

Scripture gives just a growth, just as a grotesque picture.

And instantaneously Jesus heals him.

And he says, Can I go with you?

I want to follow you.

Sometimes following doesn't look like just like that.

Sometimes following is being sent.

The man wants to leave, and I understand why everybody remembers who he is.

Can you imagine going back into the towns and the gatherings?

Oh my god, that's the demoniac.

That's the guy who would scream out obscenities.

That's the guy who would cut himself.

That's the guy who would run around naked.

That's the guy who was possessed by devils.

They remember the tombs, they remember the screaming, they remember the chains that they tried to bind him with, and he broke them.

They remember the self-destruction.

They remember the fear that they felt when he was around.

Maybe going somewhere nobody knows your story sounds easier, but this is what Jesus says.

He says, go home.

The place that remembers the chains is uniquely positioned to recognize the freedom in your life.

Some of you are so afraid to go back into your community even after God has healed your wounds, because they're afraid of who you're afraid of who they're gonna call you.

They know you, they know who you are in the past.

It may have been the people that you partied with, it may have the people that you've been snorting lines with.

It may have been the people that the very same people that gave you those wounds.

It may it's the people that will know who you did and know all the all the things from your highlight reel.

And rather than dwell in the demoniac, just come follow me, I'll give you a new fresh start somewhere, and you could be a witness there, and you could be a great prophet and a great preacher, and you can you can tell all the people he says go home.

Why?

Because sometimes the proof of the healing right here amongst the people that you hurt and the people that hurt you is a greater testimony than going somewhere else.

Some of us are so afraid to go back into our community because we're afraid what they they're gonna think of us.

Maybe you've spent years wishing, wishing that nobody knew, but Jesus says, go home, not as a man in chains, but go home as evidence that chains can break.

Not because your past didn't happen, but go home because the past does not get the final word.

Hear me clearly, you do not need a microphone, you do not need a title, you don't need to become a pastor, you don't need to become a foreign missionary, you don't need the platform, you you need a name, one person, one neighbor, one family member, one coworker, one friend who remembers who used to be, and then just tell them how great things that the Lord God has done for you.

That's the mission.

Your history does not disqualify your witness, redeemed experience can give you your witness context.

Your history does not disqualify your witness.

Redeemed experience can give you context to your witness, and here it is again.

Sometimes the sometimes the bridge into another person's world is the part of the story that you wish you never had to live.

I would not make this about something more than what it is.

Stand across all across this house.

This is gonna be a really uncomfortable altar call, so buckle up this morning.

Remember this?

The same voice that speaks conviction to your life, and that is talking to you right now.

This is the same voice that speaks over you with love.

God loves you too much to leave you wounded.

God loves you too much to leave you where you're at.

And so, therefore, as this bride, we must reflect that.

There might be some things in this room that we've been calling scars that are still wounds, and here's what I'm not here's what I'm asking this morning.

I want to be clear.

Let me let me tell you what I'm not asking.

I'm not asking who hurts you.

I'm not asking you to name them publicly.

I'm not asking you to relive any of that.

Here's what I'm asking you.

What happened to you that is still deciding what you allowed it to become?

What has happened to you that you are still letting it decide who you become?

Maybe that wound is telling you that you'll never trust again.

Maybe that wound this morning is telling you you'll never belong again.

Maybe that wound is telling you you'll never love like that again.

Maybe that wound is telling you you'll never serve again.

It's telling you you'll never lead again.

Maybe it's telling you'll never get close again to God or to people.

Maybe you'll never let anybody know about the real you again.

But can I tell you this?

The Lamb came near.

I'm not asking you to pretend it didn't happen, but I'm asking you to look at Jesus.

Jesus rose with scars.

Jesus had the opportunity to get rid of them and he kept them.

I'm asking you today whether the wound gets the rest of your story.

Is the wound gonna get the rest of your story this morning?

Can we just stop here for a minute?

Every head bowed, every eye closed.

I'm asking you to honor that this morning.

Even if you're not gonna pray, would you please bow your head and close your eyes at least?

But for those of us this morning that are done letting our wounds have our story, would you lift your hands this morning right where you're at?

I want to pray together.

I want to pray together as a body first.

I want to pray together as a body first.

Again, I don't need you to name the person, I don't need you to name the incident, God already knows.

Jesus, here we are this morning.

And to everybody else, I maybe look clothed on the outside, but what I've really done is just cover up wounds that are still bleeding.

And I've always been scared to get in moments like this because I know if I come to you, people might see my wounds.

And even more so, God, you might see my wounds.

I know that you're the God of the universe, but I've been trying to hide them for so long.

And here's my prayer this morning.

Jesus, I don't want to hide what's still bleeding.

I don't want to hide what's still bleeding.

I don't I I uh God, here's what I ask.

Would you come near to my wound?

I'm tired of being defensive.

I'm tired of being standoffish.

I'm tired of turning healing away.

I'm tired of, I'm tired, I'm tired of I'm tired of compensating for healing by by keeping busy and consistently serving, but serving while I'm wounded.

I'm tired of masking the wounds, I'm tired of changing out the dressings, I'm tired of applying temporary ointments, I'm tired of constantly, constantly, constantly looking over my shoulder, both physically and spiritually, wondering what people are gonna think about me.

God, I'm tired.

And you offer rest, you offer peace, you offer shalom.

So here I am, God.

Here's me, here's the wounds you already know about.

But here's me giving you permission to take off the blood soaked bandages, to begin to dress the wounds, begin to bind them up, to begin to heal them.

There is a bomb in Gilead that still heals, there is a blood that still redeems, there is a blood that still washes away my sin.

There is still a blood that heals my body and it frees my mind and it sets in liberty those who have been captive and those who have been bruised.

And so, God, wherever the wounds are this morning, whether they're on our physical bodies, God, they're in our spirits, they're in our minds, and they're in our emotions.

Would you shine your light on it and break through the lies?

Because the light came and the darkness could comprehend it not.

I don't want to lie to myself anymore, God, therefore lie to you.

I am wounded, and I know you're a healing God.

So, God, I'm tired of turning your hand away.

I'm tired of turning restoration away, I'm tired of turning reconciliation away.

You were wounded for my transgressions, you were crushed for my iniquities.

I recognize this morning your blood and your life.

It's enough.

I'm not your project, I'm your son, I'm your daughter.

You died for me, you died for my salvation, you died for my healing.

I'm done turning it away, God.

Again, we still with your eyes closed this morning.

God's healing some wounds right now, and he's gonna continue to heal them.

And for some of us, some of us have been healed from our wounds.

But God wants to redeem your scars this morning.

You've been trying to mask them and you've been trying to cover them up, but can I tell you a scarred bride in his eyes is still a beautiful bride.

You're still worth it.

You're still worth it to him.

He's not gonna kick you off to the curb.

There's not somebody better.

You are the apple of his eye.

He has affection is set upon you.

Jesus, this morning, don't just merely remove my pain, redeem what I've lived through.

I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't want the idea of thank God it happened, but thank God it didn't win.

Thank God that disease didn't kill me.

Thank God that that that that that situation didn't take me out.

Thank God that that trauma and that abuse did not have the final word.

Thank God that the childhood that I suffered through did not make me into the adult that I am today, the father, the mother that I am today.

Thank God that you closed up my wounds, that I'm not gonna bleed all over my children and I'm gonna pass down generations of trauma and abuse.

Thank God that you stepped into my story, that you closed my wounds.

Hear me this morning.

I'm not I'm not asking you to get over it.

The scar doesn't deny the wound, it just announces the wound didn't win, and he gives comfort because someday, someday, the comfort you carry to see will will carry comfort to somebody else.

So, God open our eyes to how this works, God open our eyes to the progression of this morning.

For some of you, God has healed your wounds, and you know that he's healed your scars.

But the next part of this scares the life out of you because he's not telling you to go to a foreign mission field.

I'm not saying God's not calling anybody in this house to be a missionary, but God's telling you go back home.

Go to the people that you were hurt with, go to the places that hurt you.

There's somebody there that knows your name.

I wonder what happened in the Gatherens because the demoniac went back and bore witness to who Jesus was.

There's somebody who knows your name and they know yours, and they don't need to become your project.

They need to encounter the Jesus who came near to you, who didn't make you a project but made you a name.

Mission sees a soul without turning that person into a project.

And for God, God this morning he's not asking you to cross an ocean.

Maybe he's saying go across the street.

He's saying go to work, go to your neighborhood, go to your family, go sit across the table, go learn their name, and then tell them this how great the things the Lord hath done for thee.

I'm trying to be careful this morning because I don't want you to confuse my words with God's conviction.

God is speaking to some of you right now, and God's conviction is his love towards you.

I don't know who you are this morning.

I understand if you have to go, please give on uh give on your way out and make sure that you make sure that you stay checked into all that we're doing here.

But for those of you this morning that are tired of living tired, and you you desperately want to feel the call of God in your life, and it is keeping you awake at night.

But every time that you go to take this step in faith to do, all you see yourself in the mirror, and you see the wounds, you see the scars, and you see what's happened.

God says, I'm here.

He says, I love you.

He says, I refuse to leave you like this.

I'm telling you this morning, though though the waters are stirred and the waters are troubled, I'm not excusing the trauma that has happened in your life, I'm not excusing what people did to you, I'm not excusing what you did.

We're separated unto God because we are a people for him, but God does not want you to run from him because you have wounds and scars.

A scarred bride is still a beautiful bride.

So this morning, if you need special prayer, if you'd like for somebody to pray with you, or maybe you just feel like you need to have a moment with you, Jesus, and the altar, and you saw you, you, you, you tear soak and you sun soak the carpet up here.

I don't care.

You do whatever you have to do to get your healing this morning.

You wrestle with God like Jacob did until he blesses you.

You wrestle with it until it's done.

If we stay up here for hours, I don't care.

I will stay and I will pray with you.

This matters.

This matters not just because we've got to reach the people out here, but maybe, just maybe, the word that God's been giving us about build a house because I intend to fill it, wasn't just about systems, wasn't just about getting efficient in what we do as a church.

It was about digging through the muck and the mire that we hold inside of ourselves.

But if it was about closing up some wounds and this being an example, being a 21st century example of the first day apostolic church, a place of broken and scarred people that empty each daily the church was added.

Why?

Come heal it, my table.

Just for a minute, let's turn this into a house of prayer.

I understand if you've got to go, if you've got to work, if you've got lunch waiting on you, that for those who don't, can we just step into the uncomfortability for a moment?

If you need help praying, ask someone around here.

But he's gonna leave the music on.

I'm done.

I can't add any more to what God said.

I've got to leave you with God's word and let God's word speak to you.

I love you so much, AC.

I am here for you.

I'm not just your pastor.

I'm here with you, I'm here for you.

And servant leadership is the model that Jesus gave.

So if my town needs to help you in your wound, you have me, you have my family, you have our home.

We love you.

And I know time will have to prove that.

But let time prove it.