Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Almighty God, you welcome you. Hey there.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: If you're new to Restored Church, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. You're listening to a portion of our Sunday worship gathering. We believe the church is not an event, but a family you belong to. So we would love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please Visit our website, www.restoredtemecula.church and click on Contact. With all that said, we, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Wonderful.
Gosh, man. I just shout out to our restored LA peeps in the house. Give them some love.
Yeah, I was singing to Jesus and just like thinking about how good he's been to me, despite how undeserving I am. And just having some really beautiful moments of praising him this morning. And I think I say this often, but I don't give a rip. I'm gonna say it again.
I just am so thankful to Jesus for our church. Guys. Like, you guys are incredible.
You guys remind me of Jesus so often. So one of my favorite things to do. I'll let you peel back, peel, peel back the curtain of my heart a little bit for a second. I wasn't playing on this. It's not my notes. But one of my favorite things in the world. And I'm not being hyperbolic. I'm not being. I'm not exaggerating. One of my favorite things in the world is to stand over here and I'll just. Sometimes God will do this for me. He'll be like. He'll be like.
Like, he'll tell me to stop singing to him. Which sounds kind of weird. Cause I'm, like, praising him, right? But he'll tell me to stop for a second and he'll just be like. And this is what he says to me. He goes, listen.
And every time he does it to me, it wrecks me because I'm like, I get to hear you praise him.
And I don't know what it is about that specifically, but it just does something to my soul. I just want to tell you I love you and I'm so thankful to be part of this community and this church. Honor you. Bless you. All right, enough sappy stuff. Grab your Bible. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 17 this morning. I'm just going to jump right in.
We're going to. We are in a series called the King and His Kingdom. We're going through Matthew and we are trying to explore and learn as much as we can about What? The King Jesus, the King of the universe, the creator of all things. And his kingdom is like when I say the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Those phrases are used interchangeably in the scriptures, right? The kingdom of God is God's rule.
The kingdom of heaven is God's reign. What does it look like when God gets His way? You've heard me say this 82 times now at this point, We've been going through this series for a long time, but hear me, I don't ever want us to lose sight of the reality that we get to participate in a kingdom. Every moment of your life, there is someone who is calling the shots. Every moment of your life. And we have the choice because of God's grace and his love of what kingdom we're going to participate in. If you're anything like me, you might struggle to do things your way. Things that you think are the best, whatever. That's my rule and my reign. Things. Sometimes I'd say maybe 1 to 2% of the time it works out okay. The rest of the time it doesn't work out so hot.
But there's something about the lordship of Jesus that causes the human being to flourish. And that's because he made us.
He knows exactly how we ought to operate, right? And so we've been talking about this for many, many, many, many, many weeks now. What does it look like when God gets His way? We want to learn as much as we can because there's implications for how we're going to live. Now, today, Today's passage, Matthew 17, we're gonna be in verse 14, we're gonna go 14 through 20.
And before I jump into the passage, what I wanna do is I wanna pray for us, invite God's spirit to teach us.
And I wanna encourage you this morning.
Maybe it's been a busy week, maybe it's been a hectic morning. Maybe there's a lot on your plate. If that's you, I'm gonna pray just in just a moment, just that you'd be able to slow down enough, open your heart, your mind, your ears enough not to just hear from me, but to genuinely hear from your maker. Because I think he wants to bless you this morning through his word. Okay, let's pray together.
Holy Spirit, thank you for corporate prayer.
Thank you that we get to know you personally and that you. Obviously, you know us, but I thank you that we get to pray together, we get to engage with you together.
And it's my desire that we would be a people, a community that doesn't treat prayer like a light switch that we turn on and turn off at various times, but that we would treat prayer as an ongoing abiding life with you always in connection, always engaging. That's how you made us to operate. And so would you help us with that. And, and right now we come to you corporately, together in prayer, asking with one heart that you would teach us, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal Jesus to us in more profound ways. Help us to see your glory, God.
We want you to mold us, we want you to guide us. We want you to shape us. We believe that you're good, we believe that you're true. Help our unbelief.
And more than anything, Lord, we invite you to rule and reign in our hearts and our minds.
We love you, we thank you. Help me to bless and serve these incredible people.
I love you, Jesus. You're so good to me. It's in your name that I pray. Amen.
Okay, so we're gonna start here in verse 14. Wanna bring you up to speed. It's like right now we're jumping in the middle of the movie, if you will, the context of this passage, right? If you remember from last week, Jesus and three disciples go on a mountain. Do you remember those three disciples? If you do, shout out their names.
Peter, James and John. Peter, James and John, okay? So Jesus, he chooses these three disciples. They're going up on this mountain. They experience God revealing his glory in a profound way, a life altering way, a way that marked those men for the rest of their life. The transfiguration of Jesus. Right? Right now they're coming down from the mountain, all right, they're coming down from the mountain and they're making their way down. And there's this crowd of people that are waiting, alright, you can anticipate they're waiting for Jesus. That's where we pick up. Here in verse 14 says this when they reach the crowd. So Jesus, three disciples are coming down the mountain. When they reach the crowd, a man approached and knelt down before him.
Lord, he said, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly.
He often falls into the fire and often into the water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't heal him. If you have a pen, underline that. They couldn't heal him.
Verse 17.
Jesus replied, you unbelieving and perverse generation. How long will I be with you?
How long must I put up with you?
Bring him here to me.
Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him. And from that moment, the Boy was healed. Verse 19. Then the disciples approached Jesus privately and said, why couldn't we drive it out?
Because of your little faith, he told them, for truly, I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, move from here to there and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.
Okay, that's our passage. There's so much here. What I want to do is I want to start by focusing our attention into one character in the story, the dad. All right, picture this dad, right? His son is clearly suffering from these seizures terribly, it says.
And we know from this passage and other parallel passages of this that this is demonically involved, right? They're demonic. And we know that because of the self harm aspect.
Falling into the fire, falling into the water, right? The demons are trying to take this poor boy out.
And so the dad, he's desperate as any parent would be. This dad is desperate to have relief for his son, healing for his son, deliverance for his son.
And so what does he do? He brings, he hears about Jesus, right?
This healer, this teacher, this man who might maybe be the Messiah. And so he tries to get his son to Jesus, but he ends up, okay, there's these representatives of Jesus, surely they can help. So he brings his son to Jesus disciples and it says they can't heal him.
We read these stories and I think if you're anything like me, it's so easy to just kind of gloss through them without actually almost entering. What would that feel like? What would that be like? What would the context imagine? Like the letdown there 2,000 years ago, traveling was difficult.
So this dad, he's gotta get his son who's suffering, he's gotta get him, just get him to Jesus representatives, his disciples, that alone. So he surely he's going through effort, he hears about Jesus, he wants to track Jesus down. I don't know about. There wasn't like a find my app where hey, Jesus is like a food truck that you're trying to locate, you know, like that's not what's happening. He's gotta find Jesus, he's gotta get his son there. It's difficult. And then after all of that, finally, yes, Jesus representatives, they're surely going to be able to help. This, this is Jesus crew.
And no, they can't.
You ever been let down by Jesus disciples?
So the disciples, they neither healed the boy nor, nor cast out the demon responsible for his suffering.
This is noteworthy. And the reason this is noteworthy is because if you've been tracking with this, maybe this is sparking something. Earlier in Matthew, in chapter 10, Jesus, he commissions these same disciples to do the very thing that they failed to do here in chapter 10, verse 8. This is what Jesus commissions them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, and drive out demons. And yet, after Jesus commissioning them, training them, teaching them, empowering them, they fail to do it.
And what the dad does in response, it's really important.
Again, put yourself in his shoes. Even though Jesus representatives fail, this dad still pursues Jesus.
I like to quote William Barclay in these Matthew sermons because I think his stuff on Matthew is brilliant. This is what he says.
We cannot but be moved by the faith of the boy's father.
Even though the disciples had been given power to cast out devils, demons, here was a case in which they had very obviously and publicly failed.
And yet, in spite of the failure of the disciples, listen to this. The Father never doubted the power of Jesus.
It is as if he said, only let me get at Jesus himself and my problems will be solved and my need will be met.
There is something very poignant about that and there's something which is very universal and very modern. Listen to this. There are many who feel that the church, Christians, the professed disciples of Jesus in their own day and generation, has failed and is powerless to deal with the ills of the human situation. And yet at the back of their minds, there's this feeling, if we could only get beyond his human followers, if we could only get behind the facade of church order and the failure of the Church, if we could only get at Jesus himself and we would receive the things we need, it is at once our condemnation and our challenge that even now, though many have lost their faith in the Church, they have never lost a wistful faith in Jesus Christ. End quote.
If you're taking notes, my first point for you is don't allow the failures of Christians to keep you from Christ.
Don't allow the failures of Christians to keep you from Christ.
Listen, I know I'm biased. You guys are incredible.
The Christians that make up this church. You guys are amazing people. Gifted, sacrificial, kind, thoughtful, faithful.
You guys are incredible. Listen, the church of Jesus, spread out all over the world, is bearing wonderful fruit, man, like spectacular things. The body of Christ is doing remarkable things all over the earth. Wonderful kingdom, fruit. As wonderful as the Church is, hear me. It will inevitably let you down because the Church is made up of imperfect people, isn't it?
Because the church is made up of people like me and people like you.
If you've been hurt by the church like other Christians, if you've been hurt by, like, a leader or a pastor, shoot. If you've been hurt by me, please don't allow the failure of Christians to keep you from Christ.
It's interesting.
Since God started this church eight years ago in my house, there's been this, like, steady stream of people, not everybody, but a steady stream of people who have, like, kind of come to us with, like, very real scars from the church.
And I know most of your stories in the room, and many of you, your stories, they involve very real, very deep pain at the hands of other Christians.
And I just.
I just want to take a moment and just say, like, I'm so, like, proud of you.
Not from a position of, like, I'm higher, but genuinely as, like, a brother in Christ going, gosh, I'm so. For many of you in the room, that's your story. Like, I'm so proud of you because you remind me of this boy's dad.
Even though Jesus representatives failed in some way, it didn't stop you from pursuing Jesus.
It's beautiful.
In our day and age, guys, there's a trend that we're seeing happening across, at least across the country, where people will experience hurt at the hands of Christians and. And then they'll deconstruct their faith.
I was hurt by Christians, so therefore, the lordship of Jesus is not for me.
And it's tragic.
And I just look around the room. Many of your stories where you've experienced, like, hurt and you're still pursuing Jesus. It's beautiful. It's evidence of God's spirit in you. It's amazing. And I just wanted to say I'm proud of you as someone, as a fellow Christian, who's hurt people. Like, it's beautiful. Because, guys, it's inevitable other Christians are gonna let you down, okay? And you will let down other Christians. Cause all of us are in process, right? We're being transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus. That's the work of God's spirit in God's people through the rest of your life, from one degree of glory to another. The Word says a degree is that much. It's a slow process, but it's a process that God is passionate about and he's committed to in your life, all right? It's inevitable. Other Christians will let you down, and you will let down other Christians. Hopefully not on purpose, okay?
Every disciple is in process, even the disciples that are closest to Jesus.
Now, that being said, I want you to know, it's okay to be bothered by the failures of the church.
All right? As long as you don't get all arrogant about it and be like, yeah, those Christians.
No, we together. Like, it's okay to be bothered by the failures of the church. Guess what?
Jesus is bothered by it, too. Look at how he responds. In verse 17, Jesus replied, Hold on. When we read this, this makes me uncomfortable.
Jesus replied, you unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? This is the one that gets me. How long must I put up with you?
Bring him to me. Oh, it just. Oh, it stings.
How would you describe Jesus disposition? Here, Talk to me.
Bingo. Frustrated.
It's obvious. He's clearly frustrated here. And you might, like, try to find some maybe liberal theologian who's trying to, like, water it down. Yeah, but, like, he's still. He's frustrated.
Why?
Here's the answer. The disciples and the crowd are, quote, unbelieving and perverse.
We know that he's addressing both because he says he refers to the generation.
He's talking about that whole crew. Now, they're unique, right? The disciples are operating in ways that the crowd aren't operating, and the crowd's operating in ways that the disciples aren't operating. But either way, he. He's saying to all of them that they are unbelieving and perverse.
Now, let's talk about those two words for just a second. Unbelieving.
In other words, you don't believe me.
You don't trust me.
I'm speaking things to you. I'm displaying things to you. I'm modeling things to you. I'm giving you instructions. I'm giving you guidance.
And you don't believe me. You don't trust me. So that's the unbelieving parts. Now, the word perverse.
Your mind's probably going somewhere. That word perverse, in Greek, it's the word diastrepho.
Craig Keener talking about that word, he says this quote, the term perverse, diastrefo, indicates not mere ignorance, but a willful turning away from the right path.
So he's saying it's not. Not knowing what the right path is. It's. I know that's the right path. I'm going this way.
He continues, it reflects a refusal to obey God rather than simple misunderstanding. End quote.
So essentially, what d', estrefo, perverse, what it means is it means a refusal to obey.
Okay, so Jesus is saying to the disciples and to the crowd, he's saying, you don't trust God.
And you don't obey God, and he's frustrated by it.
Do you realize what that means?
My second point for you. God is emotionally engaged.
God is emotionally engaged.
Get this.
God feels things.
He feels things.
I mean, it's all over the Bible, guys. Can I just give you a few examples here?
Will you guys throw up? Genesis, chapter 5, verses 5 and 6.
It's obvious with Jesus, you know, because he's the image of the invisible God. So part of his purpose was to reveal what God is like to us so we can look at the life of Jesus and go, okay, that's obvious. Like, there's emotion happening there all over the place. But let's go, like, let's do some work here in the Old Testament, because I want you to see that nothing's changed.
Yeah. Genesis 5, verses 5 and 6.
When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth. And he was deeply grieved.
In Ephesians. I didn't give you guys this verse. In Ephesians 4:30, Paul says, Don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
And then multiple times throughout the Gospels, you see Jesus literally weeping.
So we have a triune God, right? Father, Son, Spirit.
And my point is this, guys. God feels grief because God is emotionally engaged.
Exodus, chapter 20, verses 1 to 6.
Then God spoke all these words. I am. He's speaking to his people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, right? God delivers his people. Verse 3. Do not have other gods beside me. Idols. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them and do not serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a what?
A jealous God, bringing the consequences of the Father's iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. God feels jealousy because God is emotionally engaged. Twelve chapters later, in Exodus, Exodus 32, 7, 10.
So God is. He has made this covenant.
This covenant love with these people, right? And then they. They. You'll see. Verse 7. The Lord spoke to Moses. Go down at once. He's up on the mountain, right? God's given him the ten Commandments. Go down. Go down at once.
I love God's. Language here to Moses. For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly.
This is the Lord speaking to Moses, verse 8.
They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them. They have made for themselves an image of a calf.
They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord also said to Moses, I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff necked people.
Now leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you Moses into a great nation.
God feels anger because God's emotionally engaged.
Let me give you one more Hosea, chapter 11, verse 8. This is the NLT.
This is God speaking through his prophet.
Oh, how can I give you up, Israel, the people of God, how can I let you go?
How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim? Listen to this.
My heart is torn within me and my compassion overflows.
So even to people who reject him, resist him, God feels compassion, guys. All throughout the Bible, the triune God, Father, Son, Spirit feels emotion because God is emotionally engaged.
That's what's happening here. In our passage in Matthew, Jesus is feeling frustrated.
Friends, how we live affects how God feels.
Think about that for just a second.
How we live affects how he feels.
Some of you are like, I don't like where this sermon's going.
I'm just reporting the news.
Yesterday my family and I were in San Diego and we were visiting with some of the friends from the churches in San Diego.
Many of you guys know Danny and Monique Cimlott, incredible people. They're some of our closest friends. Danny and Monique, they, they lead restored church in South Bay San Diego.
And Danny and Mo are on sabbatical. So they're like, man, they're getting rest. They're like recharging for ministry. It's beautiful. I'm so like, it was so good to see them, but the reason we went down was to see them. But also their youngest son Josiah was in a play and he got one of the, like one of the cooler roles in this play. He was in Finding Nemo and dude, he's like a, he's a cool kid. He absolutely killed it. Like he did so good.
He was crush the turtle and he just did such a good. He like, this is being recorded.
He really stood out. All the kids were cute. He really stood out. He did a really good job. As fun as it was to watch, Josiah do his thing.
It was equally fun for me to watch his mom and dad watch him do his thing.
And I could see the, like, healthy pride. Like, the pleasure, maybe, but like the pleasure and like the tears in their eyes watching their son do his thing, you know?
Because what a child does, it affects how a parent feels. They weren't, like, manufacturing the watery eyes. They were genuinely caught up in watching their son do something brave.
It takes courage to stand up in front of people.
It takes courage to do those kinds of things. And he did it. And he did it well as a young boy. And you're, like, watching them watch him. It was. What a child does affects how a parent feels.
I remember a few years ago, Millie played softball. She loves baseball. She's actually got a pretty good arm. And I remember. I'll never forget it. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I was gonna say this.
I'll never forget her first at bat.
A lot of you parents, your kids play sports. You know what I'm talking about. When you're like, I didn't expect it. She steps into the batter's box, and I'm like, why do I have anxiety?
Why do I have butterflies in my stomach right now? Like, it's not even me, it's her, and she's digging in, and I'm just like, oh, my God, what's gonna happen? I'm caught up in the moment. I'm like, why? Because what a child does affect how a parent feels.
If you're not a parent in the room, guess what? You had a parent and what you did affected how they felt.
It's very real.
Parents in the room.
Have you ever been frustrated with your kid?
None of you. That's what I figured. Okay, my next point. No, I'm kidding.
My next point. Don't lie in church.
No, you've been frustrated with your kid 100%. You have. If you say you haven't, you're lying.
Why?
Because what a child does or doesn't do affects how a parent feels.
Listen to me. When a child does something brave, when a child acts generously, when a child forgives, when a child lies, when a child talks back, when a child says, thank you and they really do mean it. Like, when a child reminds you as the parent of the gospel of Jesus, when a child shares the gospel with a friend, like, all of it affects how a parent feels.
Why? Because parents are emotionally engaged.
Friend, do you believe that God is emotionally engaged in your life?
According to the Bible, God says he is.
My question for you do you believe him?
Like, do you realize how you live affects how God feels?
I just confess to you, so many times in my life, I think I've treated God like he's some divine robot.
No, he's not a divine robot. He's emotionally engaged.
And we see it all through the scriptures.
God's a father, right?
Jesus is a bridegroom.
Find me a groom who doesn't care about his wife. Like the Holy Spirit is our helper. The Word says, of course God is emotionally engaged.
And in our passage here, Jesus is frustrated with the disciples and with the crowd for a reason.
N.T. wright, brilliant scholar commenting on this passage, says this quote we hear in this lament, the frustration of love.
Jesus has come to bring healing and life, yet he is faced again and again. Listen to this. With the refusal or inability of people to trust him.
It is the pain of a lover whose love is not returned.
End quote.
God feels frustration because the people he loves don't trust him.
They don't believe him. And because they don't believe him, get this. They don't obey him.
I'm gonna say that again. Because they don't believe him. They don't obey him.
You guys know this. But I'm gonna say it again in case.
Yeah, Believing God is different than believing in God.
Those are two very different things.
Believing God is different than believing in God. If you read the book of James, James addresses this. He goes, even the demons believe in God.
Like, they acknowledge that God exists. They acknowledge that he's real.
So when the Bible speaks of belief, it's much deeper than just acknowledging that something's real.
Believing in God is very different than believing him.
One involves trust, one involves yielding. Because you trust biblical faith. The faith that Jesus is referencing in this passage is about believing God and trusting what he says. And hear me acting accordingly.
If you don't believe him, you won't obey him.
That's what Jesus is getting at. So after being confronted with the reality that the people don't obey him because they don't trust him, Jesus is frustrated. And then what does he do?
Does he call down fire from heaven? Just nuke those unbelieving, perverse people?
No.
Does he blow them off?
Done with you?
Does he give up on them?
How about this one? Does he just leave?
I'm tired of this.
No. What does he do?
Two things.
He heals the boy and casts the demon out of him.
And he patiently and graciously continues to teach his disciples.
Why?
My final point for you, because God's chief Emotion towards people is love.
God's chief emotion towards people is love.
Is it the only emotion he feels? No, but it is the chief emotion. It is the supreme, it is the pinnacle.
I think you guys would agree with me. Jesus has every right to give up on these people.
Like they don't trust him, they don't obey him.
And yet, despite feeling frustrated, he never withholds his love.
Isn't that beautiful, guys? There's nobody like Jesus.
Even though I disobey him, even though I resist his leadership in my life sometimes, he never withholds his love because his chief emotion towards people is love.
Think about your life.
Think about how flawless your life is.
Pretty flawless, right?
Maybe there's some stuff. Maybe you've blown it a few times, right?
Maybe there's some really big times that you've blown it.
Do you understand what this is showing us here in this passage?
God's chief emotion towards people is love.
There's nobody like Jesus.
Despite all of the resistance, all of the disobedience.
I mean, picture Jesus like you parents in the room.
The attempt to guide, the attempt to instruct, the intent to help in watching self destruction happen. And not just self destruction, but like you're not believing me. You're not trusting what I'm trying to tell you and you're disobeying me and it's not going well for you.
And despite all that, he still acts in love. He does not withhold his love.
Listen to me. You will not find one example in the Bible where God is not acting in love, friend.
You will not find one. Even when he's angry, he's acting in love. Even when he's frustrated, he's acting in love. Or when he's grieving, he's acting in love. Listen to me. Even his wrath, even his wrath, it's on behalf of those he loves. That's why he's executing wrath. Because somebody he loved was mistreated, sinned against, harmed.
He's always acting in love. God's chief emotion toward people is love. You know who was convinced of this? The Apostle Paul. One of the most famous verses in all of the Bible. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8:38. You've heard this probably a hundred times. Let it sink in your heart.
For I am persuaded. Everybody say persuaded.
Not like I'm considering. Not like maybe it's true. Not like I doubt this. I am persuaded. I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth Nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No, Nothing.
In other words, his chief emotion towards you always, is love. Do you hear me?
Why do you doubt it?
Why are there times when you're not persuaded?
Because you're just like me.
There's an enemy who wants to deceive you.
He wants to use your circumstances to deceive you that God's chief emotion towards you is not love.
And he wants to use other weak people around you, even Christians.
He wants to deceive them so that the ripple effects of that is them letting you down, which affects your circumstances, which then affects your trust of him.
It's war on your soul.
God's chief. Listen to me. His chief emotion towards you, not just people, you, is love.
Here's my big question for us this morning.
Do you believe him?
When God looks at you, what's his chief emotion? You think, is it anger?
Is it disappointment?
Is it frustration?
Or is it love?
Please hear me. If you think it's anything other than love, I say this with respect. You don't believe him, but you can.
You see, you have the faculties to believe the truth.
And Jesus said something about the truth. Do you remember what he said?
Bingo.
It will set you free. Free from what?
From captivity.
Set you free from believing the lies that are holding you down and holding you back and keeping you from Jesus, the lover of your soul.
See, Satan knows if you don't believe Jesus, you won't obey Jesus.
But if you do believe Jesus, we'll get there in a second.
So God's emotionally engaged. Why? Because he loves you, man.
If he didn't love you, he wouldn't be emotionally engaged.
If Jesus didn't love, radically love that crowd and those disciples, so much so that he would open his veins, he wouldn't be frustrated.
But his frustration is not even close to his chief emotion towards them. How do we know? Because of his behavior, because of what he did.
He's emotionally engaged because he loves you. His chief emotion towards you has been and always will be love. Do you believe him, man? I want us to believe him.
It would change everything.
All right, I want to call the band up. I'll close with this. We still have. I. I'm gonna cut some stuff from a message, but I gotta address one more thing before I get out of here.
So the passage concludes with Jesus saying something to these disciples that is. I mean, it's just stunning. It's spectacular. He says, essentially, I'm gonna paraphrase he says, if you have faith even the size of a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you.
In other words, if you trust me and obey me, nothing I tell you to do.
Like cast a demon out of a boy, heal him from seizures, love your enemies, forgive those who wrong you, start a business, raise children, put your spouse's needs before your own. Nothing I tell you to do. Like, those things will be impossible if you trust me and obey me. Nothing I tell you to do will be impossible for you.
That's wild.
That's wild.
Do you believe him?
Do you believe him? Or is there an area in your life that feels impossible right now?
Can you just be honest for just a second? You don't gotta shout it out or anything, but let Jesus do his work in you.
Let him mold you.
Listen to me, men, let him strengthen you.
Women, let him empower you.
Young people, let him inspire you. He wants to do it. He's all about it. He's in the business of doing stuff like this.
He's serious about it. He's passionate about it. Do you believe him? Or is there an area where it feels impossible? Cause listen, Jesus, there's a promise here. If you trust me and you obey me, nothing I tell you to do, not even if I tell you to move a mountain, nothing will be impossible for you. It's not like an arbitrary. Like, hey, whatever you feel like you want to do. That's not what Jesus is saying here.
This whole passage is about trusting and obeying and that when you do that, there are no limits. Jesus is capable of anything. Nothing will be impossible for you. If you trust and obey God. Nothing he tells you to do will be impossible. That means nothing.
Contrast that with me for just a second.
If you trust me and you obey me, nothing I tell you to do will be impossible for you.
A couple weeks ago, Ebony preached out of John 15, where Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing.
And here he goes, trusting me and obeying me, and nothing will be impossible for you.
Okay, so maybe you're here this morning.
Maybe you're here and if you're honest, you're still kind of.
Some of those scars at the hands of other Christians are still.
They're not fully healed.
Maybe you're here and if you're honest, you felt like, man, I kind of have allowed the failures of Christians to keep me from Christ.
If that's you, can I just encourage you, Come to Jesus.
Don't let the failures of other Christians keep you from Christ.
Jesus wants you. He loves you. He'll never stop loving you. There's no other person in all existence.
No one comes close to Jesus. Every other person will let you down because they're imperfect. Just like you. Just like me.
Come to Jesus if that's you.
Maybe you're here. And if you're honest, you do struggle.
You struggle to believe that God's chief emotion towards you is love.
You know what you've done?
You know how you haven't measured up?
You know how maybe you've let people down?
How could. How could God's chief emotion towards me be love?
Do you want to. Do you want to know why Paul was so convinced of it?
Because of the cross.
If you ever are.
Listen. If there's ever anybody in the room who struggles to believe that God's chief emotion towards you is love, I'm right there with you.
Sometimes it's harder to believe than others. But do you know what the remedy for that is?
Fix your eyes on the cross of Jesus Christ.
Where he bled and he died for you.
Wasn't an accident.
Scriptures say Jesus goes, no one takes my life from me. I willingly lay it down for you.
For you, for me.
You can be sure today.
You can be convinced. You can be persuaded today that nothing will separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. How? The cross of Jesus Christ.
Will you stand with me? If you're able to. If you're on the prayer team this morning, would you make your way to the front, please?
Who's got their Bible with them? A paper Bible?
I need someone. I need somebody with a willingness to, like, loud, open to the most famous passage in the Bible, John 3:16.
And I want you to read it loud. Who's it gonna be?
I see a hand. I see a Kylo. I love you. Your wife loves you, too. She volunteered you. All right. Hey, listen to me. You guys have heard this. You know this verse. You've probably memorized this verse.
For those that don't know your name in the room, give him your name.
It was a prophetic moment. Yeah. All right, guys, listen to Kyler. He's going to read this loud, strong. Read it. John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Beautiful.
That's worth clapping about.
Thank you, Kelly.
Kyla, I think you should read it too.
Strong and proud, brother.
When he reads this, are you. What translation, Ian?
Perfect. I'm so glad it's that one. A little bit different, but when it says the world you have to understand that that means you too.
Let him have it, Kyla.
For God so loved the world in this way.
He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Did you catch that?
For God loves the world in this way so that everyone who what?
Believes. Yes, believes.
Believes him.
Trusts him.
I'm about to pray over this room right now that there wouldn't be a person in this room who does not, who isn't convinced that God's chief emotion towards you, even in your filth, even on your best day, is it doesn't oscillate that God's chief emotion towards you is love.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I just pray right now by the power of your spirit that you would remove the veil in people's hearts and minds that the deceptive lies that your chief emotion towards them is disappointment. I say no more. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke your enemy, Satan himself, who wants to deceive your children.
God, the truth of your cross is that you love the world in this way. You demonstrated your love through self sacrifice. That when we trust that that is true, we will be delivered from those lies and we will experience eternal life. Life that doesn't perish, life that doesn't expire. Life the way you designed for it to be. And so I just pray, I pray against the lie that your chief emotion is disappointment.
I pray right now against the lie that your chief emotion towards your children is anger, frustration.
Your chief emotion towards us is love.
And so, Lord, I pray that you would deliver us like you delivered this boy.
Deliver us the way that you delivered this boy 2,000 years ago.
What you say is true.
We confess that right now in our heart, every heart, God, what you say is true.
Not what I say, not what other people say. We can echo your truth, but what you say is true.
Spirit of God, I ask for your help.
That you would help us to believe you and to obey you.
Let us be people who express our gratitude and our devotion to you for what you've done, for what you are doing in us through obedience.
Let us treat obeying you and trusting you as opportunities to bring you pleasure.
Because you feel it.
You're emotionally engaged.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jesus.
We love you and we bless you.
It's in your holy and beautiful name that we pray together.
Amen.
Okay, so for the next 20 minutes, I want to give you an opportunity to respond, Your opportunity to respond. Fill the room with gratitude and praise.
Not just praise that Stays in your head, not just thoughts of praise. Thoughts of praise are great. Do that.
I want to encourage you. I want to challenge you. Fill this room with songs of praise.
Sing your praises to him. Not because you think you have a good voice, not because you want to impress somebody next to you.
Do it because he desires it and it brings him pleasure. And guess what? He feels that pleasure when you sing to him.
Fill the room with praise. If for whatever reason, you need prayer, for any reason, the things I talked about today, right, you've been hurt by the church. You need to be delivered from that. You need to be healed from that. God wants to. He wants to cleanse you. He wants to heal you. He wants you to feel a fresh. He wants you to get to the spot where you are excited to pray for the people that hurt you the most, the people that cause the deepest scars.
He wants to bless you in that space. If that's you, come forward for prayer. If you're still after. After all this, you're still going like, this sounds awesome. This sounds so good.
But I'm just really struggling to believe that God's chief emotion towards me of love, Come receive prayer. Let God minister to you. Not just my prayers, okay? Let these trained, wonderful, trusted men and women. They'd love to pray for you. Any other reason you want to receive prayer? When I walk that way, you can come forward anytime. Fill the room with praise. Come forward for prayer. Let's respond to God's goodness, his mercy, his love, his grace together, okay? Corporately love you guys very much. Enjoy him.
