Followers | Luke 4:31-44

Hey everyone, welcome to the Downtown Community Church Podcast.

We're so glad you decided to listen in today.

This week, Pastor Ben Kempfer continued our series Followers with a message from Luke 4.

In this passage, Jesus displays his authority through his teaching, healing, and power over evil.

Throughout the message, Pastor Ben wrestles with the difficult question of how do we trust a God who has the power to help but doesn't always respond in the way or within the timing we hope he will.

When prayers appear unanswered or circumstances remain unchanged, it can be difficult to understand what God is doing.

But this passage reminds us that our trust is not built only on what we see happening in the present.

We can trust what God is doing because of what he has already done.

His faithfulness in the past gives us confidence in his character, even when we cannot yet see or understand his plan.

In trusting the Lord, we offer everything to his hands.

Trusting God shapes how we love him, how we help others grow in their faith, and how we care for the people he has placed around us.

Ultimately, helping us to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors.

Even in seasons of uncertainty, we can continue following Jesus and faithfully living out his mission.

One practical way we learn to trust him is through generosity.

Tithes and offerings help support the work of the church, but generosity extends beyond financial giving.

We can also offer our time, talents, and energy to serve others and strengthen the body of Christ, knowing that God is going to use that for his kingdom.

If you are looking for an opportunity to serve or take your next step toward a deeper community, visit downtowncommunitychurch.com to learn more and get connected.

You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay updated on everything happening at DCC.

Thank you for listening today.

Whatever you may be walking through, we pray this message reminds you that God's character is trustworthy, his past faithfulness is certain, and his work is not finished.

Now let's hear today's message from Pastor Ben Kempfer.

Please remain standing for the reading.

God's word.

And he came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath.

And they were amazed at his teaching, for his message was with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, Let us alone.

What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be quiet and come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm.

And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another, saying, What is this message?

For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.

And the report about him was spreading into every locality in the surrounding district.

Then he got up and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home.

Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to help her, and standing over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her, and she immediately got up and waited on them.

While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and laying hands on each one of them, he was healing them.

Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, You are the Son of God, but rebuking them he would not allow them to speak, because they knew him to be the Christ.

When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place, and the crowds were searching for him, and came to him and tried to keep him from going away from them.

But he said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.

So he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

You may be seated, and kids, you are dismissed to the kids' hallway.

All right, kiddos.

You guys love you.

My fellas.

What up, boys.

Hey, can we all give it up for Ada from Hickory, North Carolina?

My favorite things about our church.

All right, so um, my name is Ben.

I have the honor of serving as a lead pastor.

Before we get um really jumping in today's sermon, uh, I do have something I want to, you're gonna hear a lot about this next weekend, especially.

It's kind of the real big uh kind of like launch of it, but I wanted to kind of give you a preview of what you're gonna be hearing about, especially if this is kind of like your home church, um, just so you know what's going on.

We know that God has given our church um an ability to uh one reach local populations and groups, but also um bring in a lot of folks who are in kind of the college age and area and stage of life.

And one of the things that we have um for a long time seen and known and acknowledged, there's a lot of people who come through who love what's happening here, who love the ministry that happens, um, especially as it what we're trying to create is a church where we are really intentional about reaching the local population, and what it looks like to live out discipleship in an everyday life and inviting college students into the broader sense of church, of what does that look like?

Because most of us, you know, it's difficult to know.

What does it look like to live forward and towards that as you grow up and kind of become an adult?

We're launching what's called the DCC College Collective, or the DCC Collective for short.

It's a network and a collective of people who are former uh students, alumni, um parents, friends, uh, mostly from far off.

If you're here and this is your home church, you could this is be kind of above and beyond giving.

But basically, what it is is we've realized that God has given us the ability to have a tremendous impact on the Great Commission through the next generation.

And we feel a responsibility with that.

And so this is a group of people, um, both to fuel from their prayers and from their finances a ministry, a college ministry specific on our campuses in Tallahassee.

And ideally, not only that, but here's one of the things that we run into.

We have so many students, so many of you who follow Jesus passionately with your life, and some of you are gonna go on and you're gonna be missionaries somewhere.

And then we sit down and have a conversation where you say, Hey, I'm going to do this incredible work.

Can you guys help?

And I'd say, we don't even really have college staff that we can pay.

We can give you two paper clips and five bucks, you know, at best.

And so part of what this collective is gonna do is a percentage is actually gonna go to people who are doing foreign missions or doing mission work, specifically who have come through the college ministry at DCC.

And so, college collective, you're gonna hear a lot more about it next week.

Um, all I want you to know right now is if you have questions, um, in the lobby, next to the um kind of the photo area, there's a QR code that you can scan.

You're gonna hear a ton more about it next week.

And so I just want to give you a little heads up and a little preview of that.

Sound good?

All right, three people said yes.

So that was clear with a couple of you.

Sweet.

All right, let's pray uh that God would just kind of meet us here.

Jesus, we ask and invite you uh into this place, into this moment.

You don't need our invitation, you are already here.

We just really actually ask and pray that you would help our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears to be attentive to you.

No matter where we walked into the room and what we walked into the room with, and our background and our context.

Some of us, life is difficult, some of this life is great, some of this life is is overwhelming, and some of us, for the first time, it feels like we can breathe again.

For some of us who walked in and we've been faithfully following and serving you for a long time.

For some of us, we're just figuring out what this life is like of following you, Jesus.

And for some of us, man, we're just got questions, skeptical, unsure about this whole Jesus Church God Bible thing.

But Jesus, when you were on the planet and people saw you and they experienced you, everything changed.

So would you do that here with us?

Would you do that in our midst and in our time together here?

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So today's uh talk, I'm gonna start off at a at a fairly kind of um personal point because when we read a text like we read today, if you ever read a text like this where Jesus just starts to work, he just starts to move.

He he goes to one place and he in Capernaum and he heals and he does a ton of amazing things and so much so that everybody starts to bring their people to Jesus for him to be healed.

And I don't know where and how that hits you, but if you have been in a season of life where you have been praying for God to move, that can be incredibly frustrating.

If you've been in a season of life where you've said, God, would you work, God would you do, God would you heal, God would you restore, God would you redeem, God would you would you move in a way because God, I need you.

And I don't remember when this was for us, but as we've kind of gone back and traced it, about four years ago, we started noticing consistently something was off with Lindsay's health.

It wasn't anything that was catastrophic, it was it was small things, but it was consent, consistent and continuous, and it seemed to grow.

It would be a headache that was for a day that would turn into a week that it sometimes would turn into a month.

It was almost debilitating exhaustion.

And then came the nausea.

And so we would go to doctors and talk, have conversations, and they'd send us for tests, and we would go to see, okay, what's happening, what's going on, let's check this thing.

And if you've ever been down a medical path like this, and you go, and it's over and over, you go to a different test and another test, another test, and they say, Well, the good news is we can't find anything wrong.

And you just can't help but think, well, then why do I feel so bad?

Last year around VBS was when it really, really, really started to kick up to the point where pretty much from last VBS to this VBS, I don't think that there was not a continuous, just independently about 14 days in the entire calendar year where she didn't at some point in the day have at least a nausea that created dry heating, if not more.

And for a mom who's a therapist, whose husband's a pastor, two small kids.

And we do what everybody does.

We do what you do.

We pray.

We talk to doctors, we pray, we talk to doctors.

In fact, we don't just pray, we bring her, bring her to a prayer night.

Oil, heal, anoint.

God, would you do?

God, would you work?

God would you?

In fact, some of you have been awesome.

Some of you, every Sunday when I come and you say, Hey, how's Lindsay?

Or so often as you know, you grab me for a second, how's she doing?

What's happening?

What's going on?

And and we've been through a process, you know, where I'm praying and saying, God, I don't have time.

God, you know, I've got a company, a church, two small kids.

I just don't have time for a sick wife.

Who doesn't have the energy and the capacity.

And you go through and you get to the end, and you find out, you know, what we found out is a connective tissue, issue, which just basically means that as we continue to grow, there's some capacity we can give back, but there's not a cure.

It's a condition that you continually manage.

And I can't help but sometimes think, even if it's even if theologically I'm too complex to know this is true, I have this question, and I'm sure you've had it too.

It's a simple question.

It's what do you do with a God?

What do you do with a God who can help but doesn't?

What do you do when you pray over and over?

God, God, I know you can heal this sickness.

God, I know you can heal this marriage.

God, I know you can provide meaningful employment because right now I don't know how I'm gonna put food on the table for my children.

God, I know you can heal my parents' marriage.

God, I know you can help me to get into this major or this program or this career.

God, I know that you can help.

And really, beneath this question, it's actually a deeper question.

It's how can you trust?

How do you know you can trust a God who can help, has the power to help, the authority to help, but then doesn't.

And again, if you've ever read verses like this, it can make it more difficult.

Because Luke almost goes out of his way.

In fact, not almost, he actually does go out of his way to show us the authority of Jesus.

This is, read these verses with me, chapter 4, verse 31.

Now, Jesus, by the way, has just come from Nazareth.

Beginning of his ministry, especially his ministry towards Galilee.

And as he's going to this new place called Capernaum, he's just come from his hometown of Nazareth.

Nazareth, where he showed up and everybody said, Jesus, we heard of all the miracles you did everywhere else.

Would you do that here?

He basically says, No.

No, no.

And then he goes to Capernaum, where he does the exact opposite.

He went to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on the Sabbath.

They were astonished at his teaching.

And this is interesting.

This is different for Jesus, for his word possessed authority.

This is an interesting concept right here.

And I want to pause because he says his word possessed authority.

Again, Luca's going to go out of his way to say, hey, in case you were wondering, does Jesus have the ability?

Does Jesus have the capacity?

Does Jesus have the authority?

The answer is absolutely.

In fact, the way that he describes this, and you kind of get lost because when we think about somebody talking with authority, what we think is somebody who speaks authoritatively, right?

That maybe Jesus got up and he was like, instead of, this is his normal voice, but his authority voice was like, on behalf of God, you know, I'm Jesus, so what I'm saying.

What he's saying, if you can conceptualize this, is there in the audience, they're like, we have never heard anybody talk this, not because he says it authoritatively, and not because the truth that he's saying is authoritative.

It's as if his words themselves, reality had to listen to.

Shaping, folding, creating, interfacing, interacting with reality.

In fact, the very next verse, instead of verses, he's going to begin to explain what that looked like.

And in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice.

Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus said?

Actually, it says ha, because that kind of sounds sarcastic.

The actual thing is like, ah, like it's kind of like a little bit like a terrified, like he's kind of like, whoa, this is Jesus.

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

Now, pause.

In the temple while this is happening.

So Jesus, Sabbath, temple, he just talked, he preached, everybody said, Whoa, that was different.

We've never heard words like that.

Like we've heard words, but not those kind of words.

And all of a sudden, this demon-possessed person steps up, like, Billy's got a demon, that's crazy, right?

And so this guy who's next to him starts standing up and saying, Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

We know that you're the Holy One of God.

You know what's interesting?

The demon has a better Christology than anybody else in the temple.

No one knows that he's the son of God at this point.

They would have rejected him as soon as he said that last time.

But this demon sees exactly who he is.

He says, I know that you're the holy one, I know that you're the Son of God.

But Jesus rebuked him.

In other words, he had control, he had the authority, he had the power and the ability.

He rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

And they were all amazed and said to one another, What is this word?

And the reason I think they thought that is because they saw such power, they saw such authority, they saw, now, I have authority over my children, okay?

I can tell them to put on their shoes.

50% chance that happens by the second time I've asked them to do that, right?

Like I have authority that I can enforce consequences.

But when Jesus would speak, there was no option.

There was no delay, there was no wait, there was no, I don't know.

When Jesus says, demon, come out, it happens.

And they look around and say, What is this word?

I mean, he just speaks, and evil has to obey.

What is this word?

For with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits.

I mean, we've we've seen this stuff, but how?

And they come out.

And so naturally, verse 37 reports about him.

They started to go on everywhere.

Everyone hears about what's happening as as you know, temple gets out.

Verse 38, and he arose, he left the synagogue and entered to Simon's house.

This is Simon, by the way, who's Peter.

Simon, now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf.

This is interesting because Simon, Peter, had a mother-in-law, which means he had a wife.

Some of us didn't know that Peter was married.

Peter was married.

So Peter goes, you know, Jesus goes to Peter's house.

Somehow they connected.

We don't really know exactly how that happened, but goes to this house, mother-in-law is there.

They say she's sick.

And in fact, it's interesting, Luke, Luke, by the way, who wrote this whole story, Luke, wrote this whole account.

Because there was a hundreds and hundreds of things and ideas and stories of Jesus' life, miracles that he's done, teaching that he's given.

So Luke writes to his buddy Theophilus to give an orderly account, but Luke is a historian, the doctor.

And in fact, if you read these words specifically, she was ill with a high fever.

Those are very medical words in the Greek community because Luke was a doctor.

So they appealed to Jesus.

He stood over her.

And so before he rebuked the demon, now he rebukes a fever.

Like Jesus, I've had a little bit of like a sinus thing happening for the last two to three weeks.

I would love it if you could just rebuke my sinus infection.

That would be fantastic, you know?

If you could rebuke a bad night's sleep, that would be wonderful.

I'd love for you to rebuke that as well.

He said over, rebuke the fever, and it left her.

And immediately she rose and began to serve.

So when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick were of various diseases.

They brought them to him.

They laid him, he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

Right, rightly so, right?

Because you hear Jesus in time.

Jesus, come on.

I mean, come on.

The guy, the God, the Messiah, he's got the power, he's got the authority.

Demons and sickness, listen to him.

You know what's really, really beautiful and fascinating?

Part of what Luke is doing is reconstructing what is the ministry of Jesus.

That he is restoring and reconciling and reversing the curse.

The curse that happened in Genesis when God said, Surely if you eat of this, you will die.

Die being there is both a spiritual death and separation between us and God, as well as a physical death, decay.

Everything that we know, everybody that we know will eventually die.

And he's taking this physical brokenness and spiritual brokenness, and basically Luke is saying, I want you to know that God has the authority over everything.

He rebukes it, happens immediately.

Fever happens immediately.

Sick, you know, people who are all walking up, happens immediately.

Demon in the temple happens immediately.

He has the authority, which again is in some ways encouraging, and in some ways can be infuriating.

And in some ways, wildly confusing.

Because you prayed.

Because I got a presentation at work.

God, I'm running late and I really need a green light because I've got a test, and God, I really need a parking spot.

And then he answered that prayer.

And then you prayed, God, would you heal this?

Cancer.

God, would you heal my marriage?

And he did.

And you think, well, I know you have the power, and I know you have the authority, and I know you love me, and you know I love you.

And all these people are bringing all these people, and he's laid his hands on all of them, and they're healed.

And the demons came out.

Many crying, you are the son of God, but he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Christ.

And when it was day, he departed, went into a desolate place.

And the people sought him and came to him and would have kept him from leaving them.

This part to me, this part to me is really fascinating.

Because this is the part where we actually find out what's happening at the heart of Capernaum.

And one of the things I want us to see is what's happening at the heart of Capernaum.

It was the same thing that was happening in the heart of Nazareth.

You see, they all see Jesus.

They all see Jesus and they say, This is amazing, right?

The message of Nazareth was really.

Simple.

The message of Nazareth was simple.

It was this idea: you have done that everywhere else.

What you did there, do it here.

Jesus, we've seen you work, we've seen your power, we've seen how you've done that everywhere else.

What you've done there, please do it here.

Capernaum was the same, but the opposite.

Jesus, don't go anywhere.

Keep doing it here.

Nazareth, Jesus, we heard of how you heal brokenness.

We've heard of how you heal brokenness.

Would you do that here?

We heard of how you cast out demons.

Would you do that here?

Capernaum, we've seen what you've done, we've seen how you've used it, we've seen how you've helped our brokenness.

Would you do that here?

And continually asking, would you do that?

Would you do that?

Would you do that?

Because we don't want you to leave Jesus.

And the problem is, is this turns God into somewhat of a cosmic vending machine.

Because both, both had the same core message.

Both wanted the king to use his authority to serve their kingdom.

Both wanted the king to use his authority to make their kingdom better, more whole, more definitive, more clear.

Or what they would do if they were king.

And then it's true, this is our prayer.

We pray for spiritual brokenness a lot.

We pray for physical brokenness a lot.

And we pray, God, would you do it?

Would you do it?

Would you work?

Would you move?

And for some of us, that's just it's just selfish because we just want our kingdom.

But for some of us, it's not, it doesn't feel selfish.

It feels like it's godly.

It feels like, God, would you redeem, would you restore, would you renew, rejuvenate, would you work in this?

And here's what you think.

If I were God, I would.

If I were God, I would.

And then he doesn't.

And we don't mean to turn God into a cosmic vending machine.

If I say the right prayers, do the right things, pray enough, fast enough, do enough.

But the reality is, is we have this tendency to see God and to functionally not understand what?

Functionally not understand why.

And more than anything else, how do we trust a God?

How do we trust a God that you don't know?

Whether he's going to do things that feel helpful or do things that sometimes feel hurtful, maybe you would hesitate to say that, but I don't know.

At the minimum, they feel like, God, are you even there?

Do you even care?

And at the end of this, Jesus says something.

Jesus says something to them.

He says, The people sought after him, came to him.

They would have kept him from leaving.

But he said, I must preach the good news.

I must preach the good news of the kingdom to the other towns as well.

For I was sent for this purpose.

And as he says that, he begins to open up a category.

And this is the category that I want to introduce us to, and I want to give us the actual answer to the question.

But it's that Jesus, Jesus' power, Jesus' power, you have to know this.

Jesus' power always, always goes with his purpose.

Jesus' power always serves his purpose.

His authority always serves his purpose.

His means, and he said, okay, I want to stay here.

I wish I could stay here, but I've been called to more.

There's a purpose for which God has sent me.

Because you've got to see this.

Even though he could look at Capernaum, people could from Nazareth could look at Capernaum and say, Jesus, you did all of that there.

You didn't do anything here.

But you know what?

The next morning somebody was going to wake up in Capernaum sick.

The next morning, somebody's servant was going to Capernaum was going to be needing healed because they broke their arm or broken their leg.

Somebody's mother-in-law, somebody's father, somebody's spouse, somebody's child, somebody's parent, somebody was going to be on the precipice of death if not dying.

And Jesus was leaving, and they say, Why don't you stay?

Which is for us the collective question.

How is it that we can trust a God?

How is it that we can trust the King's authority?

But if you've ever asked that question, what he begins to point to, and we're going to look at this in Luke, is that his authority is never based on what he can do for us.

It was never.

He says there's a purpose.

There's a purpose.

And I know it would be easy to fix the temporal brokenness, but the ultimate purpose of why I'm here is to existentially solve the brokenness in humanity.

If you ever wondered how can I trust God, here's the answer.

We trust the King's authority, not because of what he can do for us, not because of what he could, but because of what he did with his authority when he had every reason to use his authority against us.

It's not how he can bless me.

Now, although sometimes man we pray and sometimes he does and sometimes he moves and sometimes he works.

But you have to see this.

The ultimate reason why we say, okay, God, I can trust you.

I can trust you when I don't get it.

I can trust you when I don't see it.

I can trust you when I don't know, is because this world is not my world, this kingdom is not my kingdom, this home is not my home.

My home is with God in heaven, and I'm in this temporal, already not yet space.

But the reality is sometimes he does, sometimes he answers, sometimes he works, sometimes he doesn't.

He's God.

He can do whatever he wants.

But here's what I do know.

He had every reason to see me, every reason in my rebellion against him because of his holiness and my sinfulness, in his authority.

I mean, he's God.

I just want you to think about who we're talking about for a second.

I talked about this in our community group.

This is I've just this thought's been rattling through my head.

Sometimes you're like, God, why, God, how, you know.

I don't have a picture of him, but um, we've got a but a three-month-old puppy named Rory.

He's a cavalier, King Charles Spaniel, he's the cutest little three-pound dog, gets into freaking everything right now, but sweet as the day is long.

And every being we know, like I know every everything has its own limitations and its own capacity.

Can you imagine trying to explain AI to a King Charles Cavalier?

Like, literally, they don't have the words.

They don't have a brain width, they don't have the bandwidth, they don't have the capacity.

They just don't.

And frankly, we know this of every being up to humanity.

But we think that we're different because we're the smartest ones that we know.

Isn't it possible that the gap in the chasm between us and God is infinitely larger than my dog and AI?

Which means not that we don't ever hear answer to prayer.

It just means there is a God that is so big, that is so holy, that is so unfathomable, that we do not know why and where and what and how and all of these things.

But what we do know, what we do know, is that he was sent for a purpose.

And it was a purpose that ultimately he would even have to submit to.

Because Luke, later in chapter 22, records a prayer as he's praying in the garden, the garden of Gethsemane, the night before he dies, and he says, Father, Father, I am not looking forward to the cross.

If there's any way, any way that you can take this cup from me, please do it.

But God, not my will, not my kingdom, not what I want, not my comfort, but yours be done.

And you want to know what the king of the universe does with his authority?

Luke chapter 23, verse 32.

Luke 23:32

Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

And Jesus said, Jesus said, Jesus, Son of God, holy one of God, Jesus, perfection, Jesus, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

With criminals on his right and his left.

Being hung on a Roman cross.

All power, all authority.

And you know what he doesn't say?

You know what, boys?

I'm tired of this cross.

Let's roll.

Y'all get down, we're about to go do something, and I'm gonna show everybody that I'm God.

He said, Father.

Forgive them.

They have no clue.

They have no clue the magnitude of what they're doing right now.

This is not the most emotionally satisfying answer in the world.

I understand that.

But in time, every time I've I've come to actually find that it's so true.

But it's also the most comforting thing I've found.

How do we trust a God who can help but doesn't?

We realize that the basis of our trust in God is not what he can do, but what he has done.

The basis of our trust in God is not what he can do, but what he has done.

I was talking to a woman.

I was talking to a lady after the service who was talking about some things that were going on.

And she was talking about prayer.

And she was talking about something she was praying for for her daughter.

And it was so funny because she was saying, you know, I just pray and I pray and I pray.

And I say, God, sometimes I'm in, I'm in, I'm crying so much that I'm praying for this thing.

She was like, but whether he says yes or no, I don't know.

I'm not God.

Like she just had such this like lightheartedness about it.

But it was this, as I've gotten to know her over time, you you kind of see inside what's happening is there's this convincingness that God, if you, the God of the universe, the God of all creation, God of heaven and earth, if you would die for me, I can trust you.

And what used to be one of my, I don't know, I thought this was kind of like a party trick that Jesus did.

There's one, if you're looking at the three versions, the three narratives of healing, there's one that doesn't really fit.

The temple narrative, all the people were coming, and it's like, what about Peter's mother-in-law?

I used to think it was kind of a party trick because I was like, oh, probably what's happened is Jesus is like, man, I don't really feel like getting a sandwich right now, so let's just heal his mom so she can make us some dinner.

I don't think that's what actually happens.

I was reading this, and I this is this is one of the things that I just thought, God, this this makes so much sense.

I almost feel like Peter just lodges this in as I don't know that Peter, or I'm sorry, not Peter, Luke.

I don't know that Luke was like writing like Easter eggs into like his gospel narrative.

But I just love this because it says Cedar Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever.

They appealed to him on her behalf, and he stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her so much so that she immediately rose and began to serve him.

Can I tell you what the real thing that I've seen in the people of God who understand this?

It's the people who have said, God, I don't know why you do what you do, but if you would die for me, I'll spend my life serving you.

God, I don't know why you do what you do.

But if you died for me, I will spend my life serving you.

And let me just tell you one thing if that's difficult.

If that's difficult, I understand.

And if you're here and you don't know Jesus and you're like, I don't even know if I could ever do that, I would also say I understand.

But let me just say this church, that is faith.

Just being honest.

For too long, there's been a bastardization of the idea of faith.

And I use that word intentionally strongly, and the reason I say that is because we've put faith as just a belief in God.

Can we see this?

The demons believed.

That does that set us apart?

No.

It could make us demonic.

Do I think you are?

I don't.

Could.

I hope not.

The demons believed.

It was the it was the trust.

It was the trust that that God, I don't know why, I don't fully understand, I don't fully comprehend, but I know that if you would die for me, I am going to trust what you say.

I don't know how it's gonna turn out with my marriage, but Jesus, I'm gonna trust you.

I don't know how it's gonna turn out with the sickness, but Jesus, I'm gonna trust you.

I don't know how it's gonna turn out with a major, but I'm gonna trust you.

I don't know how it's gonna turn out with my friends, but I'm gonna trust you, right?

This is the idea of faith.

It's an active trust of not just awareness, not just belief, but saying, Jesus, I will put myself at risk so that I can follow you when it doesn't make sense to me.

Because if I only follow him when it makes sense to me, I'm not following him.

I'm following myself and doing what I already agree with.

We don't do in trust because of what he can do for us, it's because of what he has done for us.

And it's the unwavering belief that if he did that for us, there's nothing good that he would withhold.

And though trying to understand all the things of what God and why God does what he does, well, it's a little bit like trying to explain AI to a three-month-old cavalier, King Charles Spaniel.

But he didn't leave us alone, he left us with a Roman cross, an empty tomb.

And then at Pentecost, his spirit comes down.

And that spirit is living inside of each and every one of us as a deposit, a down payment, guarantee, not a hope and hope, not a faith and faith, not a belief and a belief.

Guarantee.

What is to come?

The hope of glory.

We don't trust God because of what he can do for us.

We trust God because of what he has done for us.

And if he has done what we believe he has done, which he has, then what we know to be true is we can trust him with every single area that is difficult to.

And that doesn't make it easy, but that does mean trust is possible.

Church, I'm praying for you.

I don't know what's going on in your life.

I don't know what area you need to trust.

Maybe it's an area where you need God to come through.

Maybe it's just an area that you've been trusting yourself and you need to surrender.

But know that the reason that we do these things is not because of what God could do for us now.

Although God does sometimes do.

And we do go, we do ask, we do pray, and he told us to.

We said, man, keep coming, keep asking, keep being like that pesky, annoying widow who wouldn't stop asking the judge, and the judge finally said yes.

But no, no, that when he decides to say no, it's not because he's not there, it's not because he's not good.

And if you ever wondered, we trust him because of what he's done, not because of what he could.

We pray for you.

Jesus, would you give us the ability in this moment as we sing this last song to know that you have the ultimate power, the ultimate authority.

You rebuke the demons, you rebuke the fevers, you rebuke the brokenness of our spiritual, and you rebuke the brokenness of our physical, you rebuke the the spirit, the brokenness of our personal, of our emotional, of our social, of our Jesus, you rebuke and you heal and you reverse the curse of all those things.

And sometimes, God, we pray and we ask, why don't you do that more often?

We wish we could see it more often.

For some of us, we've seen it so often that it's weird when you don't.

But for every single one of us, Jesus, we pray that you, the God who commands darkness, we trust you.

Not because of what you can do for us, but because of what you already have done for us.

When you died on the cross, forgiving our sins, reconciling us to you, we know we can trust you.

So Jesus, we surrender.

Areas that we haven't trusted you.