"Beautifully Afflicted" - Rich Wilkerson Jr. | Awakening TV

sometimes people they never get to the other side in life not because they haven't been called not because they haven't been graced but simply because they never learn how to get power over their tongue there's a lot of messages there however tonight I've got good news for you that's not really my message the news I have 59 is that we serve a savior we serve a God who's so good who's so amazing that even when we don't have the right words to say better way to say it even when we have nothing to say at all so often this God still constantly and continually shows up in intervenes on our behalf my one goal tonight is to impress you so much by who Jesus is that you walk out here going wow he's better than I even thought he was we serve a savior that even when you don't have the right words to say even when you get tongue-tied still shows up in intervenes on your behalf Luke chapter Luke chapter seven is is turning out to be one of my favorite chapters really in the New Testament and there's four stories in Luke chapter seven the first story is a story about a guy and it's known as the store of the faith of a Centurion the third story is the story about John the Baptist in prison the fourth story is the story of the one with the alabaster box but tonight we're gonna look at one story the second story and it's really the story known as the widow at name and let's just try to get some context tonight about what this story's about here's how the story goes the Bible says that Jesus and his crew his posse his clique ain't nobody fresher than Jesus's click okay they're leaving this place of a great miracle and you can imagine how excited they are I mean it's like week two a conference I mean they just got out of a great conference they're pumped up they're full of excitement they're full of joy they're full of wonder they're probably laughing with each other they're doing their thing and the Bible says that they start heading towards the city known as nain nain they start to enter name but as they're entering into the city there's another crowd that's exiting the city and this other crowd looks a whole lot different than the Jesus crowd this this other crowd is a crowd that's known as a funeral procession it's full of mourners it's full of people that are crying and that are weeping and you can see these two crowds as they begin to collide I mean there's major contrast happening here Jesus is posse Jesus is crowd is pumped up but this crowd over here is full of heartache and heartbreak and they had this this collision take place I mean is this not a picture of humanity and a picture of life I'm is like tonight there's people in this room I can sense it right now that you are like at the best place you've ever been at you are on the mountaintop the zenith of the pinnacle you are happy life is good but what you failed to remember is that there's someone right behind you tonight that's literally in the lowest point they've ever been it's in this room I mean somebody in here like like like like you just fell in love like I don't feel like falling in love like oh shoot like I like you so much no shut up I like you more no shut up I like you more hang up the phone no you hang up the phone okay hang up 1 3 ready 1 2 3 you're still there yeah I'm still there I love you but then like you forget that there's someone like 2 seats down that just had their heart broken into a million little pieces I mean somebody in here it looks like a new baby was just born into the family and there's nothing like a new baby to give a brand new genesis or a brand new start a new beginning excitement life Wow a brand new baby but then we forget that somebody and you probably just buried their dad last week I mean this is life we never really know what's going on it's interesting this town that they're entering nain nain the word simply means this it means beautiful pasture but then it also has another word attached to it and the word is this afflicted literally beautifully afflicted I don't know but I can't get a better definition of humanity than those two words that we are beautifully afflicted I mean the Bible says that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works yet so often we know that we do everything on the outside to make things look good but on the inside we're hurting we're scared we're full of fear we're full of anxiety we're full of worry and some of us tonight you get this you're going rich if I could explain how I feel I would say I feel afflicted we are beautifully afflicted and this is the town that Jesus is entering Jesus and his crew they're entering the city while the mourners and the funeral they're heading towards the cemetery and a collision takes place but I love this because I read this story and this is so cool I mean I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus is showing up right now I mean like 15 minutes earlier I mean he would have missed him 15 minutes later he would have missed him but Jesus shows up right on time this ain't a coincidence this is what you call a savior set up hey Jordan boys here and I want to invite you to awaken new conference 2014 what amazed to see what God is done with this conference over the past eight years any more excited than ever to host the way can you to begin April 24th of the places and May 1st and 3rd in four different locations bring it through out awaken Wilson North Carolina hi Annie Florida or Albuquerque New Mexico this year we're going next level every waking with once we've got Carl Lentz for Hillsong New York City speaking along with Robert with you John Gray Jaydon Chavez and we live as kings before have we do John Gray will be back along with Chad Beach Jason Lane Aaron Gillespie this messes with me please notice this woman never even makes a request for Jesus to come and help her I mean she never even says hey Jesus look at me hey Jesus you see how bad I've got it right now hey Jesus do you see this pain that I'm in right now hey Jesus my only son he's dead do you care she doesn't even make a word she's got nothing I love conferences and I love church but sometimes we lie to ourselves in church sometimes we fake it to make it don't we sometimes we come in and we shout and we jump and we make a lot of noise but if you could be honest you would say man I feel like I'm afflicted I don't even have the words to say have you ever been in a place before where you didn't even have the words to worship have you ever been in a place before where you couldn't even get your hands up have you ever been in a place before when you tried to pray the words didn't even come out of your mouth have you ever been in a place before where you weren't even wondering you weren't even thinking that Jesus could actually change your situation around I'm preaching to someone tonight this woman she never makes a request now friends hear me I come from a strong background of faith and I believe in faith and you know the Bible says this that it's impossible to please God without faith Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 now faith is being sure of what we hope for certain of what we do not see I'm totally all about it seek and you'll find a skin and it will be given to you knocking the door will be open but this woman she doesn't have the strength she never gets the words out and what it shows me is that we serve a God we serve a Savior we serve a Jesus whose love for us outweighs our faith in Him this is beautiful man here she is she doesn't even see Jesus I mean her head is down and she's weeping and she's crying she doesn't even see Jesus but Jesus sees her she doesn't even get a cry out she doesn't even get her hands up but we see Jesus come to her why because of his compassion for her meaning Jesus cares more than you care jesus loves more than you love Jesus believes more than you believe why can't you just receive this tonight that he is literally acquainted with your tears and he's accustomed to your pain he's familiar with all of your fears and he's the God who comes to you comes to her not because of her shout not because of her great faith but simply because of his great love his pictures amazing literally she's got her head down Jesus comes over oh jesus comes over and he touches the stretcher this is big Bible says we touched the stretcher that the crowd they stopped you say why did they stop they stopped because they were shocked shocked why would they be shocked because anybody knows just a little bit about the law understands that a rabbi who Jesus was a teacher of the word they were not allowed to touch something dead because if they touch something dead that would make them unclean but when Jesus touches the stretcher he's actually shouting something to you with his body language please understand that most communication eighty-five percent of it is done through body language sometimes when Jesus wants to communicate with you he doesn't say anything at all but rather he touches a stretcher and when he touches the stretcher what he's showing is this he's showing us that he's the God who comes to us I came for your dirty areas I came for your mess I came for the areas that you want to keep from everybody that you've been hiding that you've been keeping concealed this is Jesus the God who comes and touches our dead areas touches the dead area beautiful various he's touching the dead area and he's declaring to you and I this is the gospel I did not come to make bad people good I came to make dead people alive yes sir yes sir yes sir how can a dead man shout how can a dead man give all free how can a dead man fast he can he's dead but this is Jesus the God who stepped out of divinity walked amongst humanity to come to the dark dead areas of our lives and to say I've come to you not because of your goodness not because of your potential I've come to you because of my compassion for you hear me Jesus did not need you Jesus wanted you he wanted me he wanted me what do you mean he wanted you he didn't need you he wanted you you're here tonight like like like like he didn't need you to be here he wanted you here you've got stuff going on and you've got chaos and you've got crisis and your parents just split up and you're trying to figure out how to raise your little brother your little sister somebody abused you somebody said something wrong to you somehow you're going does anybody see me does anybody hear me we see this Jesus he's trying to show us in just a few verses yes I see you and yes I'm the God who comes to you he preaches through his body language the greatest message he ever preached was the message of the one on the cross where he was the Lamb that was silent who went to the slaughter and he stretched him wide and they hung him high and as he was tortured on a cross he was preaching the best message he could have ever preached I'm the God who came not because I needed you but because I wanted you I want to have a collision with you psalmist words never made more sense did they I waited patiently for the Lord turned to me and he heard my cry he lifted me out of that slimy pit out of the mud and out of the mire and he put my feet on a solid rock he put a new song of praise in my mouth recording awakening live with David Chavez in the awakening worship in just this that should make you know you have anybody in this place a bolita that's great and he's greatly to be praised but I want to give a great God a great work show if our God was small we could give him a small brains but he's not small he's big he's the everlasting God they cannot be contained in the palm of his hand and because of that we deserve to give him the greatest plays we've got this and also God God is a holy God to the ride every leader every teenager every middle schooler every college age student every parent that snuck in I want you to lift up both hands is hot I want you to forget about you right on your left because this moment is not about you it's your neighbor it's not about any other person it's not about about the Spanish it's not about a conference but it's about Jesus so right now we follow the scripture Jesus that says see our eyes on Jesus the author and the finisher about fair we fix our eyes on you and we give you the praise we give you the worst shall we do the artery Laurie there belongs to nobody else but you have you alone to you and to you alone to you you this is the picture I mean here it is Jesus he's entering the city and as he's entering perfectly on time there's this other crowd that's exiting and a collision takes place quickly we discover some things about this funeral procession we find out that it's a widow it's a widow who's lost her one and only son I mean just for a moment just take a moment and let's just try to jump into this story a widow I mean this woman she's got good reason to cry I mean this woman has had a pretty tough life up into this point please understand that in this time period to be a widow that would have been enough I mean that would have been hard enough a widow and she lost her husband her soulmate her confidant her friend not not only that he would have been her sole provider and her sole protector I mean he would have been everything in her world I mean her husband and to think that she lost him yet this woman she had she had this little glimmer of hope this little light at the end of the tunnel for she had a son her one and only son she understand that in this time period a son a child this was this was everything this was your legacy this was your future this was your 401 K this was this was your savings plan this was everything wrapped up into this child man I lost my husband life has gotten hard but praise God I have a little bit of hope I've got a son he'll take us through he'll get us to the other side but what do you do when your plans die what are you doing that little bit of hope is taken away for we find out that this one and only son that he's dead that he's dead this woman she's crying I mean she's got a reason to cry she's got a reason to have her heart be a little bit broken I mean this was her son now he's dead and I think sometimes in life we put so much into our plans we put so much weight into our strategies and we put so much weight into where am I going to be at in two years in three years in six years and seven years and friend there's no problem making plans and setting plans plans are great but understand all it takes is one call from the doctor and you can find out that those plans had come crumbling down faster than you could have ever made them all it takes is a car accident to realize wow those plans those came down pretty quick all it takes is one kind of economic crumble for you to go whoa wait a minute was my plans and my trust really all that I had to hear me tonight we don't put our trust in a plan we put our trust in a man his name is Jesus Christ he's the chief Cornerstone he's the author and the finisher and the perfecter of our faith plans will fail you Jesus won't this woman she's she's weeping she's crying but what I love is this picture that we see what she doesn't know is that her only son is fixing to meet God's only Son one's dead but destined to live the others alive but he's destined to die and there's a collision that's happening quickly we see that Jesus looks and he turns over and he says woman he says don't cry I love this I love this these two words show us so much about the nature and the characteristics of Jesus Christ he looks at her and says don't cry just those two words right there tell us a whole lot about Jesus it tells us that we serve a God who actually cares about our feelings maybe you walked in here tonight and you don't think that Jesus sees you you don't think that Jesus hears you you don't think that your problems are big enough to get his attention friend hear me tonight we serve a Savior who looks at us and he says don't cry he sees you tonight and his heart goes out to you one version says this the Bible in the King James Version says says that he had compassion on her I like that word compassion compassion means this it means a deep sense of sorrow followed by a deep desire to alleviate the suffering whoa that'll preach so you see most of us if we're honest we live in the realm of sympathy you know sympathy right like you're you're going through your channel at night and you're watching TV and all of a sudden something sad comes on with a bunch of kids in Africa and they don't have enough food you know that is sad and you kind of shed a tear and oh you feel something but before you know you've already changed a channel you're back to the Kardashians it's called sympathy but the difference between sympathy and compassion is one word it's called action see when Jesus sees her and he says don't cry o understand there's a whole lot of weight attached to those two little words you and I when we say don't cry it's just kind of our knee-jerk reaction there's not much we can really do to reverse it to change it to make it to be different but when Jesus says don't cry it's because he's fixing to take the impossible and turn it in to the possible he's the God who says we'd be made into her for the night but joy comes in the morning light later the midnight hour we serve a God who can turn it around

Channel: AWAKENING Church

Views: 26,580

Rating: 4.9183674 out of 5

Keywords: Rich Wilkerson Jr, Beautifullly Afflicted, Awakening TV, The Lost Are Found, Awakening Live, Awakening Live with Jabin Chavez, Jabin Chavez, Awakening Band, Awakening Worship, Awakening Conference, Awakening Conference 2013

Id: YTGcJ5vqV60

Length: 28min 15sec (1695 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 07 2014