October 27, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
All right, so we’re going to be in Mark, chapter 10. I’m going to read three. There are three stories. This is a seminary word I learned. It’s called pericope. Those are those little sections in your Bible where it has. you’ve got the chapters and you’ve got the verses, but then you have those little subheadings. None of that was in the original Bible. None of the chapters, none of the verse numbers, and certainly none of those headings. But. But those little headings, those little sections in seminary, they were called pericopes. So there’s your word.
All right, so I’m going to read three pericopes, and they’re going to seem like they don’t tie together. But in fact, all three of them are making the same point. They’re all tying together, and they’re in Mark 10:32 through the end of the chapter.
32 They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. 33 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. 34 They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.” 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” 36 “What is your request?” he asked. 37 They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” 39 “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. 40 But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” 41 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 42 So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. 47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.” So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road. (Mark 10:52, NLT)
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14, ESV)
Amen.
All three of these pericopes have to do with worldview and faith and the kind of Messiah that Jesus is. If you want to understand the Gospel of Mark, very simple. There’s a very simple structure to the Gospel of Mark.
We have it broken down into 16 chapters, and it actually works out perfectly. This is good for you math guys out there, Scott. The first eight chapters, the first half of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is teaching his disciples that he is the Messiah.
He’s not teaching the Jews that he is the Messiah for a very good reason, but he’s teaching his disciples that he is the Messiah. And right at the beginning of chapter nine, Jesus begins to ask his disciples, who is it that people say that I am?
And they say, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah. Then he looks at them and goes, you know, whenever Jesus asks you a question, it’s a setup. It’s a setup, all right?
And, you know, he’s not just searching for a little conversation and information, like, what’s your favorite color? All right, who do people say that I am? Oh, John the Baptist. Oh, Elijah.
And then Jesus goes, all right, here’s the jaws of the trap shut. He goes, who do you say that I am? Oh, this just got real. But Peter.
Peter, who likes to talk first, sometimes it gets him in trouble. In fact, a few short verses later, it gets him in trouble. Other times, though, it’s spot on. Says, I’ll tell you who you are. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16, NLT)
And Jesus says, that’s right. Everything I’ve done up to this point, the Father has been using to reveal to you that that’s exactly who I am. Great. But then immediately after, he begins with this thing that he begins to teach them.
And the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem and suffer and die. And he just says it plainly, time and time again. Here, he says it as plain as can be. I’m going to go to Jerusalem. I’m going to be betrayed by the leaders, by the religious leaders. They’re going to spit on me, they’re going to flog me, they’re going to whip me, they’re going to kill me, and I’m going to rise from the dead.
And they don’t get it. Why is it that they don’t get it?
Well, we could say, well, Jesus often talked metaphorically, which is true. He talked in parables and riddles, which is true. But this is plain. This is not a parable. This is not a riddle. This is being very straightforward, very plain. They don’t get it, and they don’t get it because of their worldview. Worldview is something that is very powerful, that we all grow up with. We all grow up with a picture of how the world is and how it operates.
And 99% of us just assume that the worldview we grow up with is the right one. And it takes being in another culture to begin to have our worldview called into question. And we begin to think, oh, well, what is the right worldview? I mean, if you want to know, talk to Ats, because Ats has two worldviews, all right? He’s got a Japanese worldview and an American worldview. And he’ll tell you that there’s differences, right? There’s differences in how people in Japan view the world and how people in America view the world.
It gets even more. I mean, you can go to the south, all right? And there’s a different worldview. If any of you have been in the south, there’s a different worldview, all right?
In fact, you can get married, and when you marry into another family, there’s a different worldview. your wife has assumptions about how the world works, and you have assumptions about how the world works. And within two weeks of your marriage, you realize, I married a crazy person. They don’t see how the world works.
And that’s the art of marriage, is you just start to dance between these two worldviews. And so if you’re a wise person, you’ll call your worldview into question, you’ll explore other worldviews, and you’ll try to discern what’s the best worldview. Tragically, most people just live with whatever worldview was handed down to them. And trust me, none of our worldviews are going to be perfect. None of our opinions when we get to heaven. None of us is going to get to heaven with perfect theology. Perfect worldview.
Isn’t it great that that’s not the entrance requirement to heaven? The devil probably has a more accurate worldview than you do. So it’s a personal trust in Jesus, our Savior. And when we get to heaven, we’re all going to get our worldview corrected. You more than me. But nonetheless, I’m humble enough that no, I mean, opinions are an interesting thing, right? Do you believe your opinions are true? Well, of course. That’s why they’re my opinions. If I didn’t believe they were true, I wouldn’t believe them.
But then on the other hand, we have to be humble enough to admit, even though I believe all my opinions are true, I also believe that they’re probably not. And that’s the way we need to approach life.
The disciples had a worldview. This all gets back. This gets back to the Bible here. The disciples had a worldview, especially concerning the Christ, the Messiah. And there’s two strands of messianic prophecies that run through the Old Testament.
One is of a conquering king who is going to be victorious and set up a kingdom of righteousness and peace that’s going to flow from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
The other is of a suffering servant who’s going to be unjustly persecuted on behalf of the world.
Now, the Jews have been persecuted for some 400 years or longer than that by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. They had been, with very short periods of time over hundreds of years, a free people.
They have always been this small land surrounded by enemies, not like today, but back occupied by enemies, subservient to enemies, and having a different worldview, a Greek worldview, a Roman worldview thrust upon them.
And so which one of those pictures of the Messiah do you think is going to be prominent amongst oppressed people? A king. So here’s the disciples just grew up with this worldview that there’s going to come a king like David.
Well, what did David do? He kicked butt. Saul has killed his thousands, David, his ten thousands. The Philistines were afraid of him.
The Amalekites were afraid of him. The Hittites were afraid of him. All the ites were afraid of him. And he expanded Israel’s boundaries. And it was their glory day.
The Messiah is going to come and bring back our glory day. That’s why when Jesus fed 5,000, they wanted to make him king. An army travels on its stomach. The best thing to have, really.
The Romans will surround Jerusalem, which they ultimately did in 70 AD, and they’ll starve us. They’ll starve us out. It’s called siege warfare. That’s how warfare was fought back then. Ha ha.
We got a guy who could take five loaves and two fish and feed 5,000 people. Camp all you want, Romans, our king can make food. Or if we’re sieging another city, we need to have a chain of food. And we may have to sit out there five, six months before we starve them out.
We have to have a supply line to feed an army. We don’t need no supply line. We just need a boy, catch a few fish, feed a whole army. We want to make Jesus king. That’s their Messiah. That’s their Messiah.
And so Jesus confronts the first half of the Gospel of Mark. I’m the Messiah. Good, you’ve got it.
Second half of the Gospel of Mark. I’m not the Messiah you think I am. I’m going to defeat your enemies, but it’s not going to be the Romans. It’s going to be sin, Satan, and death.
And in fact, I’m not only going to be your Messiah, I’m going to be the Romans. Messiah. Messiah. I’m going to be the hope of the world.
I’m a bigger Messiah than you think I am, but I’m going to do it entirely different. I’m going to go to Jerusalem and die, not ascend to the throne. I’m going to rise and ascend to the throne. It’s bigger, but it’s not what you think. And their worldview is so set as good little Jewish boys. They don’t get it. He tells them plainly several times, they don’t get it. Not until the resurrection do they get the epiphany. Their eyes are opened. It’s like, oh, oh, oh.
We’re a part of something much bigger than winning an election. We’re a part of something much bigger than kicking out the Romans. We’re kicking out the devil, we’re kicking out death. We’re redeeming the whole universe with King Jesus. And he’s brought us into the ground floor of that plan. But they don’t get it until they see the resurrected Jesus. And then, boy, do they get it. They change the world. Two thousand years later, we’re in some Norwegian village in the Pacific Northwest. Yumping Yimini. We’re in Poulsbo. And here’s what we believe.
Yump in Yemeni, Jesus rose from the dead. Jabet. It made it to Poulsbo. It made it to Norway. It made it here because he is the Messiah.
How do we know? I mean, the very next pericope. James and John, right? They’re operating from that old worldview. Hey, we want you to do a. They’re not talking about in heaven. They’re not talking about when you come to your throne in heaven. Can we sit on your right and your left?
You’re going to Jerusalem. When you become king in Jerusalem, can James be Secretary of Defense, and can I be Secretary of State? Can we be knights of the roundtable? King Arthur? Can we be? We’ve been faithful. We’re early. Peter and Andrew, they were early, but we’re just as early as Peter and Andrew. And Andrew, all he does is bring people to you. And all Peter does is put his foot in his mouth. We’re the real ones. I mean, our dad’s son. We’re sons of thunder.
Matthew even has their mother coming and asking Jesus. I won’t go there. All right? So they’re operating from that worldview. And Jesus tells them, you don’t get it. You don’t get it. I’m not going to be the conquering king. That’s not what it’s going to look like at first. That’s the second coming.
The first coming. I’m going to exemplify the suffering servant. He says this notice, it says, one wants to sit on his right and one wants to sit on his left. And then he says, are you able to have this baptism?
Well, what’s the baptism? It’s the cross. It’s very interesting that on the cross we have what? One on his right and one on his left.
38 Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. (Matthew 27:38, NLT)
Are you able to be like those thieves on the cross? That’s leadership in my kingdom. That’s greatness in my kingdom. To die even for your enemies. I remember one time I was reading through the Gospels and I was reading some great books and great books of heroes in the faith. And I believe in signs and wonders. And miracles. I’ve seen signs and wonders and miracles.
I believe in the power of God. You know, I just. I’m all in, man. I’m all in. Cast out devils, raise the dead, heal the sick. I’m all in.
I’m reading all this stuff and man, I just, I’m filled. And I think it’s a godly feeling. I’m filled with this desire, Lord, I just want to see your kingdom come. I want to be an instrument of your kingdom come.
And I just cried out to God as I’m reading the Scriptures. And this is a good prayer. You ought to cry it out to God.
And I cried it out to God, full of sincerity, Lord, I want to be like Jesus. And then this picture flashes into my head immediately, and it’s this: a man on a cross.
And if you’re not going to give me credit for being good, you can at least give me credit for honesty. Before I could edit it, these words came out of my mouth in my prayer to God. No, not that Jesus. Not that Jesus.
And then the Lord said, you know, those two, they go hand in hand. You don’t get one without the other.
Paul says that if you want to know, you share in the suffering of the cross. You get the power of the resurrection.
And so Jesus is showing his disciples, it’s not what you think. It’s not what you think. My baptism is a baptism of suffering.
The other disciples don’t get it. They get indignant. They start to argue. I get to be on his right. And they’re like, they’re like three year olds, right? It’s not fair. I’ve never heard a three year old say it’s not fair.
Mom, you gave me more ice cream than my brother, right? That’s never the fight. And that’s how the world operates. It’s not fair. We want the power. We want our worldview to prevail. And we’re coming upon election time and it’s not fair. Oh, that other group, they steal elections. It’s not fair. We don’t get our person in there. Listen, you ought to vote and you ought to vote your values. You ought to vote your heart.
You ought to vote what you believe aligns up with the Bible and what aligns up with Christian values for the good of the country you live in.
And if Christians would just vote, we would get, man. I mean, 51% of evangelical Christians vote. If 100% voted, that would be. That would shape the nation, you know, your values would win, my values would win.
So I’m telling you right now to vote. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. I’m not going to tell you what to vote for. you’re smart, you’re prayerful.
Do your business, read your ballots, study up on the issues, and vote. All right, man. Washington makes it easy. They just give it to you. Just fill it out, send it in. Oh, but I bet they cheat. Who knows? I don’t know if they. But if they do, so what? That’s the secondary gain.
People, when you say Jesus is Lord, you’ve already defied both political parties because they both want to be Lord. The state wants your allegiance, and Jesus says that’s a secondary allegiance.
And Christians throughout history have often done better when they’ve been on the oppressed side of things. I mean, they changed the most powerful kingdom on the earth in the Mediterranean world from the inside out by being fed to lions. They just loved people. They just wore people down, loving them for 300 years. And finally, the Romans, you know, it’s like, oh, they got it. So, dear ones, whatever we do, we race to the bottom. We race to serve. We don’t race to the top. Jesus comes to lay down his life, all right?
He is at the right hand of God. He says, I’m the Son of Man. That comes directly from Daniel 7:13-14, where Daniel has a vision of one like the Son of Man ascending before the Ancient of Days and giving a throne next to the Ancient of Days and giving a kingdom on earth that will never end.
13 As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed. (Daniel7:13-14, NLT)
That’s who this is. He’s the King of all the Earth. Can you imagine that? The Romans think that they’re the most powerful thing in the world. Pontius Pilate says, don’t you realize I have authority over you?
And Jesus says, ah, come on, man. You got nothing but what was given to you. Do you think all the legions in Rome could stand up to one legion of angels that are right at?
You know, on the cross, when people were taunting him, he could have called out lightning bolts from his hand to vaporize them. Oh, you saved others. Why not save yourself? Shut you up, didn’t I? But he didn’t. Instead, he drank the dregs of all the brokenness of humanity.
All your sin and mine to the point of death, so that it was crucified with him. And then God vindicated him on the third day through the Resurrection.
That vindication is going on to this day as his kingdom is spreading without. Is it spreading? It hadn’t stopped for 2,000 years, and it’s not going to stop.
So he lays down his life and he’s a ransom. He pays a ransom so that sin, Satan, and death no longer have hold on us. That’s the worldview of the Messiah.
Now, earlier in the Gospel of Mark, in chapter eight, Jesus heals a blind man. And right before he heals a blind man, he’s teaching his disciples a similar picture. He’s talking to them like you must be like a child and the whole thing. And they don’t get it.
And so there’s a point to Mark’s placing these two miracles of the healing of the blind men after the disciples don’t get it. What he’s telling us is my disciples are blind, but the good news is they’re going to see.
My disciples are blind, but they’re going to see. And that’s what the Gospel is telling us. I am the Messiah. They don’t understand what kind of Messiah I’m going to be. But when I raise from the dead, they’re going to get it. And baby, when that happens, it is on. And history has changed directions.
All the world now, 2,000 years later, as I said, Western civilization is built upon a crucified carpenter from the Roman Empire and a converted Pharisee.
The greatest civilizations the world has ever known have been built upon this man’s work on the cross. And it’s ongoing. It hasn’t stopped. you’re a part of it. your kids are going to be a part of it and are a part of it, and they’re kids. And until he returns, of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.
Now, Bartimaeus, he comes to the Messiah. Remember, the disciples come to Jesus and say, this is what we want you to do for us. And Jesus says, no, I can’t do that.
Well, I can do that, but can you drink? Can you have this baptism? Can you do this? I can’t do that one for you. That’s exactly what he says. The Father who sits on my right and my left, that’s up to the Father. Can’t do that for you.
But blind Bartimaeus comes, and I love this exchange. Bartimaeus, Jesus of Nazareth this year, I’ve heard about him. I’ve heard about him. I’d like to see. Maybe he’s a person who had gone blind. He’d already seen before, he’d never seen, but he gets indignant about it.
Jesus, Son of David, Messiah. That’s what Son of David means. Jesus, Messiah, Son of David, have mercy on me.
And the people in Jericho, they want to impress Jesus. And Bartimaeus is a beggar and he’s blind and he’s dirty and he’s stinky. They want the best people in town up front. They want the good-looking people in town. They want to impress Jesus with how cool Jericho is.
Shut up. Shut up. Stay back there. Shut up. And Bartimaeus, because he has the gift of faith, doesn’t take shut up for an answer.
Faith doesn’t take shut up for an answer. There is way too much passive Christianity out there. There’s way too much, you know. Well, if God wants to give me those gifts, he can. In his way and in his time. No. How about this?
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of David, I want what you have. Jesus, Son of David, I want my life to make a difference. Jesus, Son of David, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says, earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Be passionate about spiritual gifts.
14 Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1, NLT)
Don’t just be this passive kind of, well, whatever God wants to do, he can do. Yeah, whatever God wants to do, he can do. But you know what? Jesus continually teaches about this thing about persistent prayer, going after something.
There’s something about that that exemplifies faith. And that’s what Jesus tells Bartimaeus. He says, you, faith has healed you. You wouldn’t shut up when people told you to shut up. And I love it.
He comes to Jesus and he says, well, what do you want me to do for you?
James and John, we want you to do this for us. Nope, not going to do that. You don’t get it. You don’t see. What do you want me to do for you? I just want to see, man. Okay, okay. your faith has healed you. You can see.
Listen, these pericopes tell us exactly what it means to follow Jesus. Worldview change, repent. You got it wrong. You think wrong and you behave wrong. We all think wrong and we behave wrong. Our cultures think wrong and they behave wrong. We all still buy into the power game.
We all still buy into. I want to be on the top of the heap. I want to be number one.
You want to have a good marriage? You want to have a good marriage? Here’s how to have a good marriage. Marry somebody else who shares your worldview. And here’s your worldview. I’m going to make sure that that person is the most loved person on the face of the planet and they know it. And you marry somebody who says, nope, I’m going to marry that person and make that person feel like.
And you got two people racing to the bottom to out-love one another, happily ever after, baby. But you got two whiny, self-indulgent people saying, well, he’s not meeting my needs, and she’s not meeting my needs, and I’m just not happy, and I’m just not satisfied. Call the ambulance. Go love that person.
People come to me, it’s like, how do I make my marriage better? Easy. That’s the easiest thing you could say to me. They want me to say, well, you need to bring your spouse in so I can fix them.
But that’s not what I say. How can my marriage be better? Go home and be a better spouse. your marriage will get instantly better. Then they never come back for a second appointment. I don’t get it. You know what? When you’re counseling for free, you’re not motivated for the second appointment. If you’re charging 80 bucks an hour, you can wait for them to figure it out. But if it’s free, I’ll just tell them right out. Here’s what to do. All right? And I say this when I preach so nobody comes and bothers me.
I know what he’s going to say. I’m not going to go talk to him. I’m going to talk to a counselor who tells me I’m a poor victim.
All right, dear ones, repentance. Change your perspective, change your world, and don’t get stuck in it. All right, we all repented when we came to Christ. We all admitted, I’m a sinner, I’m wrong, I need saving. But then we hang around church for three years, and we begin to know where to find everything in the Bible but the minor prophets. And we learn the language.
We learn how to pray. If you grew up evangelical, you learned how to pray. And here’s how you pray. Whatever you do, you use the word just as often as you can in your prayer. Lord, I just want you to be with us. And I just want you to come and meet our needs. you’re just so good to us, God. We just love you so much. I mean, it’s funny to track. It kind of takes me out of my. When I’m praying with people because I’m counting the justs, you know?
So I don’t know how that became a part of our religious language, but it is deeply ingrained in our prayer language, which is fine. If you pray that way, your prayers will get answered. you’re just as good as everybody else.
So just don’t stop praying that way, all right? Just keep it up. Because. Because God just wants to listen to you, and he’s just so good.
But if you’re a Pentecostal, you don’t use the word just unless you don’t know it. And it’s in your prayer language, you know, maybe Ashakonta de matadi.
We just love you, God, and we just want you to hear us. I don’t know. But you know, and then you go to a Pentecostal church and you learn that language and you learn how to pray in tongues. You know, how to pray over.
You know, I was amazed. I grew up, I came to the Lord, and I see evangelicals, everybody take their turn in the prayer circle. Then I went to some Pentecostals, and they were just all trying to pile onto each other. They were all just at the same time. Hallelujah. Thank you, man.
It’s just going all over the place. And then somebody would pray in tongues, and then they would use God. Only God. Three letters. Okay. One syllable. No. Now, if you’re Pentecostal, three syllables. Hallelujah. Praise his name.
I got a foot in both worlds. I can pray either way. I can just pray. God, you’re just so great. Hallelujah. Praise his holy name. But I’ll tell you what, however you pray, pray persistent. Just go after it. Hallelujah. Praise his glory name.
You changed your worldview. You got involved in a church, you learned the language. You’ve been there three years, and then for the next 40 years, your worldview never changes, and you never grow. You get the hardening of the categories as you get older.
I’ll tell you what, you ought to have a major theological shift about every 10 years. Unless you’re absolutely sure you’re absolutely right. You ought to just kind of God, you ought to let the Bible. Instead of reading the Bible for confirmation, read the Bible to be shocked, read the Bible to be shaken. You ought to listen to people who are different than you.
One of the biggest problems in our culture is everybody simply listens to their own echo chamber.
There was a girl in a church, a woman in a church, and I was recommending a book. And the book. She said, I would never read that book. I said, why? She says, I’ve heard there’s things in there that I just completely disagree with. Why would I read a book that I disagree with? It won’t edify me. And I thought, why wouldn’t you read a book that you would disagree with?
That’s the only kind of book that can edify you. And I don’t mean open yourself up to deception and just say, oh, okay, I guess I’ve got to change my opinion about this because this author said that. No, but my goodness, have the humility to admit my worldview might not be 100% accurate.
My interpretation of the Scripture might not be 100% accurate. There might need some adjusting that takes place. And have humility to repent and then have faith. And faith is not just trying to stir up this language of name it and claim it.
Faith is this persistence that just will not quit. It will not quit because I know this story is true. Even amidst the mystery, I know this story is true.
Even when I bury a loved one, I know God still heals. Even when this prayer didn’t get answered. And these three, I was praying for three things a month ago and all three, boom, boom, boom, got immediately answered.
And you know what I thought? I thought what you thought, when that happens to you. Oh, I got this wired. Now I know how to get answered prayer.
It’s like when I used to golf. you’d play a great hole and shoot a par and you think, oh, I know how to golf now. And then you’d hit the next hole and you’d throw your clubs and lose your salvation. It’s a horrible game.
I got three prayers answered. Oh, I got this, I got this wired. And there are other prayers. I’ve prayed for 40 years. I don’t understand the mystery. I don’t understand the mystery why one person gets healed and another person dies.
It happened at one time at church, right before my eyes. Two ladies, a young girl and an older woman, came in, and they both had those collars, those horseshoe collars around their necks. One, actually it was a girl, had fallen off a horse and hurt her neck. I forget how the other lady hurt her neck.
Immediately when I saw that, anger rose up in me. I thought, why am I angry? I’m not angry at them. Well, I was angry at the devil for hurting God’s daughters.
And so I called both ladies forward and I said, church, we’re going to pray for these ladies. And we began to pray for those ladies in the Name of Jesus, that their necks would be loosed and they would be set free from their pain. And within about 30 seconds the girl, the 16 year old girl was doing this and she was crying. She goes, oh my gosh, my gosh, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this. And she completely healed. The 40 year old feeling any Better? No. Any better? No.
Let’s keep going. Any better? No. We prayed, and she didn’t get any immediate results. Now, a lot of people will immediately rush to answers to that. Oh, well, the 16-year-old had faith, and the 40-year-old didn’t. Yeah. Just run that by the 40-year-old. See how that makes her feel? It’s like. And I looked at the church, and I said, okay, you got a choice.
You can be offended because God didn’t do what you expected him to do and heal them both, or you can be incredibly grateful because 10 minutes ago there were two sore necks and now there’s only one. And we know that God’s alive and we’ll keep praying for our other sister. There’s a mystery to that that I don’t get. Anybody who says they get it, I think their answer is probably over simplistic. But here’s what I know. When I see that one, that makes me not want to quit.
For the other, when I see a Julie, that makes me want to go after cancer. Every time I see it now, it’s like, well, what if they die? What if they don’t?
That’s the normal outcome. They die. What if they don’t? What if we get another testimony like that? What if we got a testimony like that once a year? That’d be awesome.
Our yearly cancer miracle at the firehouse church. And then what if it became twice a year? What if it started happening once a month?
What if word got out that that’s the place where people got faith for cancer, and people started to come, and we’d start praying, and hundreds get healed, and then somebody would die? We go, oh, well, what do we do? Live with the mystery and don’t quit.
People, we got to have answers. We got to be humble enough to admit, I can’t wrap God up in a little box and theologize everything.
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Faith, faith, faith. That doesn’t quit.
If you’ve read the Bible, one thing you’ll come to the conclusion is God is not near the hurry that we are. Hey, I’m going to send you a Messiah. Great. How long? A thousand years or so before the prophets start talking about it. A thousand years ago, that would have been in the 1100s. All right? Nobody even sniffed America in the 1100s, 1,000 years ago.
And Israel kept saying, we want a Messiah. The tragedy is when he came, their unrepentant worldview couldn’t see him. And so have a soft heart.
Be ready to repent and be persistent to believe the King has come. And dear ones, if you have put your simple, childlike faith in him, childlike faith, childlike trust him, then he’s laid hold of you and this story ends well in this world.
Don’t quit. Don’t quit. There’s a finish line out there. Run the race to that finish line. Just run the race to that finish line. And it is well.
The Lord bless you tonight with repentance and faith.
Lord, make my worldview malleable. Lord, make my worldview open to your revelation from your Scripture and from your spirit. I don’t want to miss what you’re doing because it doesn’t look like what I expected. I don’t want to miss the next revival because it didn’t look like the revival I experienced in the 70s. Give me a soft heart and fresh eyes to see what you’re up to. And then give me, Lord, this incredible gift of faith that refuses to quit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. Amen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
