Lisa Harper // STUBBORN HOPE // CONF 2021

[Music] i have so many stories to tell i don't really know where to go but i'm going to go where i think the lord has called us to go tonight and that's in mark's gospel so if you brought your bible open it to the middle and then head to the right and you'll hit mark i love the gospel of mark i love every book in the bible um those of y'all who are new to new life or maybe new to church in general maybe the girl you're dating played you and told you you were going to a club tonight um i want to just right from the beginning tell you this is not a rule book this is not a collection of benign morality tales this is not punitive this at its core is a divine love story i believe it from cover to cover we live in a culture that loves to cut and paste scripture loves to throw memes on social media and there's nothing wrong with that it's just usually they take god's word out of context if anybody has ever told you that this is a rule book if anybody i don't care who it was maybe it was a well-intentioned grandparent use this book to shame you they have used it for purposes that god did not intend it to be used for this is a book about the love of god there are parameters in scripture that are for our good but all too often we think of scripture as this just kind of a book of rules we imagine god to be this angry unibrow god with a 50 pound bible just waiting to smack us over the head and that's not who he is even in the old testament y'all he's not angry in the old testament and happy jesus with hair extensions in the new testament that's not who god is genesis 1 26-27 makes it clear isabel that our god is in us he's a trinitarian god god the father god the son god the holy spirit holy spirit didn't just come on the scene at pentecost he's been there from the very beginning jesus isn't just the red letters in the new testament he's been there since the very beginning we are loved by a god who is a triune perfect holy god but we tend to equate holiness with rigidity and that is not biblically defensible he is perfectly holy and he's just unbelievably accessible so compassionate you see that over and over again in the gospel of mark i'm terrible with titles but if we were going to have a title tonight it would be stubborn love or it would be expect a miracle i kind of like expect a miracle better but we'll just see where we land when god takes us through this book before we dive into mark chapter 10 that's where we're going to be i want to tell you a couple of things about mark that you probably already know because i know your teaching here is stellar mark is the second gospel we've got four gospels that's the beginning of the new testament the word gospel comes from the greek word yuan jellion it's where we get the word evangelism an evangelist from it means the good news and most of us because mark is listed second assume mark was written second but that's not the case the gospel of mark is the very first literary compilation of the earthly life and ministry of jesus christ very first compilation very first written material that tells us about the earthly ministry of jesus christ anybody remember who wrote mark young talk back i'm not your pastor so talk back it's gonna be super informal women if you're wearing spanx run to the restroom and just peel those puppies off we want you to be free tonight somebody over here said john mark who said john mark thank you brother and thank you for saying john mark people always forget that he was john mark before he was mark the gospel according to mark he was a southern boy so he had two names then he went to college and said just call me mark um so john mark wrote the gospel according to mark it wasn't a trick question however for those four books to be considered a gospel a yuan jelly on it had to be an eyewitness account that means the author had to be there during the earthly ministry of jesus christ and john mark wasn't one of the original 12 and so there's a narrative voice in mark in other words as john mark is typing on his ipad somebody else is walking back and forth and where did y'all take me keenan blue brennan blue blue bottle coffee that was awesome coffee so so just imagine john mark sitting there in blue bottle okay the blue cool coffee place and he's typing the gospel but somebody else is walking back and forth going and then it was incredible there was this leper and then jesus said yes i'm willing somebody's telling him the stories who saw the stories do you remember who the narrative voices of mark's gospel peter peter is the narrative voice now even if you don't go to church if you're a christian you go to church just on christmas and easter you know that peter is the benedict arnold of the bible he threw jesus under the bus at jesus most critical point of need when jesus said can you just stay awake a little while i'm going to the garden the cross is going to be after that and peter not only fell asleep he vehemently and vulgarly denied that he even knew the christ he was afraid that he would get killed too he threw in a few expletives to convince the crowd that he wasn't a disciple been walking with jesus for three years one of the three closest to jesus peter and james and john he was one of jesus bffs they probably had matching tats and just panicked everybody over 50. have y'all ever heard people tell you you can't have tattoos because it's in the bible okay this is a total rabbit trail and parents don't get mad at me then i'm telling them it's not in the bible but in the bible in leviticus where it says don't have tattoos they were actually talking about the greek pantheon because the israelites were tatting themselves with images of little g gods and god said uh-uh don't mark yourself with egyptian gods and goddesses i am the one true god had nothing to do with body art i had everything to do with worship so anyway i am not tatted because nobody wants to see it morph on somebody older but don't let somebody club you overhead with the bible and say the bible says you can have tattoos no it doesn't they don't know their bibles so anyway sorry pastor steve so anyway i don't mean to mess up all your older saints had y'all stand honored you and then i'm like you're lying it's not in the bible so anyway where was i remember where i was i was on mark i was all excited peter thank you squirrel so so peter is a mess that's why he's one of my favorites because he didn't have it all together he he he fumbled the ball on the first yard line and what's so stunning is jesus doesn't kick him off the team he names him team captain because it's never been about our capacity it's always been about his compassion and hear me i'm not trying to say sin is no big deal sin is a huge deal if sin wasn't a big deal the things we do that god counsels us not to do if that wasn't a big deal jesus could have just done detention he wouldn't have had to go to the cross sin separates us from the holiness of god but his grace is greater still and so peter this hot mess of a man god says i'm going to choose you and you're actually going to write the very first you on jelly on the very first gospel account even though you're illiterate i'm going to have somebody else type it for you pete because i trust you even though you've blown it i trust you some of y'all think because of mistakes you've made that you've disqualified yourself for ministry that you've disqualified yourself for leadership you can't even teach kids sunday school y'all it's not biblically defensible perfection is it is a mirage it's overrated god never demands human perfection because jesus has already lived a perfect life before us i love that you've got peter who's the narrative voice in this book and then we don't know that much about john mark because we don't study it but acts 12 12 we're taught that his mama is a leader in the early church which is why john mark when he was still double named john mark probably in junior higher high school was tapped to go on the very first post-resurrection evangelical mission trip do you remember that remember after paul was blinded on the way to costco he was a stinker god blinds him he becomes a believer and then he gets all fired up it's like he came to conference and paul and barnabas were like the gospel beatles they went on the very first post-resurrection mission trip and they took john mark with them this young man just like some of the 14 15 year olds in here tonight it took them on that first mission trip do you remember what happened at the end of that mission trip at the end of the mission trip paul said this is stunning it's not original greek but it's close enough this is amazing people are getting saved people are getting healed god is pouring out his spirit let's continue this mission trip beyond what we had planned beyond what we have on our calendars on our iphones and john mark said i already texted my mama and told her we're coming home i'm sick of five men in one day's end room i don't want to stay on this mission trip anymore tiniest bit of liberty with the with the greek but that's basically the story john mark says i don't want to stay out any longer so when barnabas and paul plan the second mission trip barnabas says you know paul i know john mark kind of got a little soft at the end of the first mission trip but i've been mentoring him at blue bottle coffee and he's really growing in his faith he's really maturing in his faith would you give him another shot this is in acts chapter 15. would you give him another shot can he come on this second mission trip do you remember paul's response fat chance i don't want that baby mama's boy on my second mission trip he messed up the first mission trip y'all that really happened that's in scripture and we're told by by the dr luke who wrote the acts of the apostles that the relationship this powerful kinship between paul and barnabas was broken up forever because of john mark they had such a such a deep disagreement that they broke up he was like the original yoko ono split up the spiritual beatles she's got john mark we're also told in mark chapter 14 verse 52 that he's the one who was outside the garden of gethsemane so he was there close to pete when pete threw jesus under the bus and he got so nervous that he dropped his cloak and ran away y'all remember they didn't have haynes his way in the first century so john mark he betrays jesus as a young man and he does it worse than pete because he does it buck naked now stop and think about that for just a second i'm actually not trying to be funny i want you to think john mark blew it huge mistakes in his back story peter blew it huge mistakes in his back story and he was with jesus y'all 24 7 for three years he saw lazarus get up out of the grave he saw jesus walk on water and he still blew it and our god is so kind he's so compassionate he's so redemptive he's perfectly sovereign and when he chose the two men to write the very first gospel account he didn't choose men who had it all together he chose men who had failed because he said i want you to know how powerful my compassion is it can redeem any mistake that's what some of y'all need to hear tonight some of y'all need to hear it's not over for you he has more for you yes the sin has caused pain and has caused difficulty in your life but that does not get to own you anymore that doesn't fit anymore the abortion is over you will meet that baby in glory some of us have just got to quit circling the same mountain it's time to get on with god's business and we can still do god's business mask or not quarantined or not we have got a job to do sorry i'm preaching before we get to the passage mark chapter 10 verse 46 so beginning of mark's gospel it's all about the compassion of christ over and over and over again i've heard pastor steve preach on this over and over and over again jesus heals he meets people who are needy people who are broken people are sick he heals them over and over and over again they use the word compassion jesus had compassion on them comes from the greek word splognitzo my that's where we get the english word spleen from it means from the guts of god from the bowels of god so when jesus sees the leper in mark chapter 1 he says if you wanted to you could heal me jesus didn't look at this leper with skin sloughing off lost his soft tissue he didn't look at this guy who is just so so incredibly disfigured physically disfigured socially he's separated from the whole community according to ceremonial law he can't he can't be around regular people couldn't be here tonight when he says if you wanted to you could heal me mark chapter 1 verse 40. and it says moved with compassion those three words come from one word in the original text it's splagnet so from the guts of christ so he doesn't see this man who's desperate and think bummer dude needs a good dermatologist that is not our jesus we tend to make jesus like a better man he's not a better man he's god himself god incarnate and his love for us is so much bigger than we can comprehend so the first nine chapters of mark are all about the compassion of christ you read over and over and over again from his guts the compassion of christ he healed he cared and then there's this turn and we're going to be right at the turn it's like jesus goes from ministry ministry ministry ministry and then there's there's this turn and scholars will tell you the second half of mark's gospel is about the passion of the christ they're not talking about an elevated emotional experience they're not saying jesus was caffeinated when they say the passion of the christ the passion of the christ in biblical terms means jesus set his face on the cross he knew exactly what his mission was he's just told us his mission statement even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many he set his face on the cross he says you're worth it to me and he begins to move resolutely toward the cross he knows exactly what he's heading for in jerusalem we're going to come into the story right as he makes that turn are y'all still with me even though i've been spitting in southern okay we're right at the turn mark chapter 10 verse 46 and they came to jericho and as he was leaving jericho with his disciples and a great crowd bartimaeus if you're comfortable writing notes in your bibles and by the way i say this all the time but those of you beautiful saints kind of under i know it's normal in our culture now to not have a brick and mortar bible to just have a bible with an on off switch your iphone or your ipad and i love those i think it's so cool they're light they fit in our purse if your only bible has an on off switch that's like an old man in short shorts that's just sad you you need a brick and mortar bible you don't have to bring it at church you don't have to bring it to conference but i'm telling you as an older sister i'll be 58 in a few weeks there will be seasons in your life when you need to be so close to these promises to remind yourself this is what my god says about me to go back to where you've dated your bible the reason i can't get would have rid of this when i trade bibles every 10 years my daddy wrote this one before he passed away i love god's word if you can't afford you don't have to bring it to conference you don't have to bring it to church but just at least have one on your nightstand if you can't afford a brick and mortar bible see one of the saints here before you leave tonight we will definitely hook you up with a brick and mortar bible so bartimaeus if you're comfortable writing in your bible circle that we'll come back for that later it's a big deal that jesus named him a blind beggar the son of timaeus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to cry out and say jesus son of david have mercy on me and many rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried out all the more son of david have mercy on me verse 40. verse 40. goodness gracious i'm old 49 and jesus stopped and said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he is calling you and throwing off his cloak he sprang up and came to jesus and jesus said to him what do you want me to do for you and the blind man said to him rabbi let me recover my sight and jesus said to him go your way your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way so jesus has turned and he's headed toward jerusalem and the very last pit stop he makes is in this little town called jericho it's like somebody's heading down and they're going to see i don't know a lakers game and they decide i'm going to stop up here in oxnard and we're gonna get some denny's before we head down and see the lakers game and you're like well of course they're just gonna stop here for a bite to eat they're not gonna stay here when they can go see the lakers play right i mean jesus is headed to jerusalem huge city huge city of commerce of trade of power of political position during that time he's headed to jerusalem that's where the temple is that's where they go to worship and he passes through jericho not a big city not an impressive city and it's his last pit stop this is hard to wrap our minds around because this rarely happens in the human context but if you can at least kind of imagine it's your very very last weekend to do something for yourself you know you're headed toward your own murder your own bogus trial you know you're either going to be incarcerated for life or you're going to face capital punishment and it's your very very last weekend off what are you going to do i mean i'm carbo-loading i've tried to do quito i think it's from the devil if it's my last weekend off i'm not going to care about skinny jeans i am going for chips in queso baby i'm going to bathe in the queso i'm just going to get chips in queso i'm getting crispy creams i'm getting a massage not just with one person i have like 12 men rubbing me i'm 58 and single i am going out with a bang baby i'm going out with a bang now stop and think because this is holy and i'm not trying to make light of scripture but jesus is incarnate and he experienced every human emotion in the continuum the author of hebrews says he is an empathetic high priest he knows what we go through he's not a far away god so jesus he's there it's his very last r r he's in jericho pretty small town on his way to the cross a crowd forms because they've heard about jesus now most of them haven't put their trust in him as messiah but they've heard about jesus they've gotten a facebook forward from a friend they've seen a meme they've heard that when he's around paralytics do cartwheels so they all come around to see if this rabbi whom they've been told performs miracles if he's really as impressive as pres as his press release so a crowd forms not necessarily a crowd of faith just a curious crowd you'd think jesus would go you know what i don't really have time for y'all there's a table in the back get a wwjd bracelet i'm going to get a massage i'm going to get a steak but he's already told us my purpose my purpose is to come and serve my purpose is to give myself as a sacrifice for money so he doesn't he doesn't disavow the crowd he stays right there with him and as he's in the crowd there's a there's a blind man and remember in first century jewish culture anybody with an ongoing medical illness is considered ceremonially unclean do you remember in mark's gospel when the disciples themselves come across a blind man do you remember the question they asked jesus who sent the blind dude or his parents because they assumed blindness was associated with sin it was assumed in jewish culture if someone had an ongoing medical illness the woman with the issue of blood the woman who has been over for 18 years that they had sin in their life and so this blind man he's not with us he's not in the crowd he's at the back of the crowd by himself and he obviously doesn't see jesus because he doesn't have sight but he hears everybody talking it's that rabbi it's that rabbi from nazareth it's the one that some people are saying is the christ the anointed one the messiah he hears all that and all of a sudden the blind guy bartimaeus he's one of the few people jesus healed in the gospel whose name is given bartimaeus just cries out son of david have mercy on me why is it significant that he calls jesus son of david it's significant because he knows the prophecies he knows that the prophets have said the messiah is going to come through the lineage of king david it's basically his profession of faith he's saying i actually believe you're the anointed one i don't just think you're a cool rabbi i actually think you're the christ son of david have mercy on me and after he cries out all of the leaders in the crowd make a way for him and somebody goes and grabs him by the hand and leads him through right because they're supposedly faithful people they're having a little parade for a rabbi no they don't make a way for for bartimaeus to get to jesus it says they rebuked him the word there in the original language the new testament is mostly written originally in greek a little bit of aramaic and so that's why you're here sometimes smart people going in the greek but sometimes it's important because it gives you context in this case they don't just go shh which is how it's often preached the word is much stronger there the word is epidemio and that word in the greek means to command with the implication of a threat how many of y'all are parents aunties grandparents y'all have all epitomized when you've got kids in the back seat who are fussing have you ever aimed the rear view mirror so you can get your kids to look at your grandkids and you said if you don't quit fussing i'm going to give you something to fuss about that's epitomic that's to command with the implication of a threat so they don't just say shh bart you're yelling so loud you're embarrassing us you're making jericho look like a big old redneck city he's on his way to jerusalem like quit embarrassing us somebody's going to live stream this that's not the response it's much harsher than that it's much more punitive they say if you don't shut up we're going to shut you up we will cut you brother you keep yelling maybe it wasn't that bad but it's close enough i mean that that's the implication there and y'all what happens next is just stunning let me tell you a story before i tell you what happens next i went to a women's conference when i was 40 years old and i went to a breakout session i thought it was on missions little teeny blonde woman steps up to the front and she says there are 149 million orphans in the world as we know it today and then she quoted a verse from the book of james in the new testament that basically says if you put your hope in jesus christ then it's our responsibility to take care of the poor and the powerless widows and orphans and then little bitty girl i mean she was obviously gluten-free and she just kind of looked out over the rest of us and she was real bossy to be so tiny she just looked at us and she said what are you doing about it and i remember thinking well i didn't know i could do anything about it you know i'm 40. i'm single obviously my husband is lost won't stop to ask for directions um that's not even true y'all i tease and say that but i was just just thick as a brick when i was in my 20s and 30s i was so foolish so scared i knew jesus is my savior i hadn't trust him as my liberator i ran scared all the time um and i was really drawn to abusive men and so god protected me from the men i was most attracted to and the few good godly guys i dated y'all married him and god protected them from me because in my 20s and 30s i was really really broken very very broken and and so as a 40 year old woman god had pulled out the deepest roots of toxicity from my heart and mind but i thought i can't be a mom i mean there's no way i can be a mom she starts talking about adoption says what are you doing about it as a christ follower and i thought i didn't i didn't know i was allowed to do anything about this and when she finished speaking i was under conviction but i just didn't know where to step next you know sometimes pastor will be preaching i mean you're like he has been reading my emails you know it just stirs you but you don't know what to do next it's like i just i need wisdom i need prayer as to how to walk this out and so i asked some girls in my small group at church i said y'all the lord is really stirring my heart over the issue of adoption i don't know if i'm if i'm supposed to adopt a child i don't even know if that's allowed as as a single woman it may be that i'm supposed to give more of my offering money to a ministry that helps with you know kids who are orphans or in foster care or maybe i'm supposed to do a on a mission trip and go help at a third world country orphanage i don't know what i'm supposed to do i just know i'm supposed to do something and there were four girls in my church small group and three of them basically said um we we've got your back we'll pray with you and for you we really know that god will illuminate the way you're supposed to walk and one of them she said lisa if you've got time later on this week i'd like to process this with you further over coffee now this is a rabbit trail has nothing to do with conference so please don't send pastor team or pastor steve emails this is all on me but if if a woman who doesn't smile much and has a quilted bible cover tells you this weekend that she has a word from the lord for you and she needs to see you in private i'm just telling you play dumb and take a friend don't go by yourself with somebody who tells you they have a prophecy for you and they're hateful just don't do it take somebody else with you but i've never been the sharpest tool in the shed and so i went to coffee with this woman in my small group at church and after just a little bit of small talk she said lisa i want to be really really straight with you you know the bible says that the wounds of a friend are better than the kiss of an enemy y'all the bible does say that again do you remember what i said at the very beginning be wary of anybody who says the bible says and then they smack you over the head with it like a club because the bible may say that in one verse you've got to back up and look at the analogy of scripture which means all of it in context when god said the wounds of a friend are better than the kiss of an enemy he meant y'all be straight with each other if you're friends be honest with each other he did not mean that that you just go and gut somebody for the fun of it this girl said the wounds of a friend are better than kiss of an enemy so i want to be really direct with you and tell you that i think you have uh i i think you've just lost the shot at being a mother she said i know that you're praying about adoption but i just want to be the one that tells you that would not be what god would have for you because you have told our small group that you were sexually abused when you were younger and she said i know you've been to a lot of christian counseling but just in case you weren't fixed you might unwittingly transfer some of the trauma you experienced as a child on a child of your own she said so i don't think you should be anybody's mother i know you want to nurture something so my encouragement would be for you to go to the nashville humane society and adopt a dog because you're really good with pets the i was 40 years old i'd already been to seminary the first go-round memorized just enough greek and hebrew to be dangerous i've been walking with jesus for 35 years at that point here's the thing we we do ourselves such a disservice when we characterize the enemy as having horns and a beyonce onesie that is not who he is he's crueler than that he's more strategic than that the way he trips us up is he takes something from our past usually something that's really painful and then he stirs that in with just enough truth that it's plausible and we swallow it and so when she said you don't deserve to be a mom because you were sexually abused man she stepped on my deepest bruise because there was a core of me that believed that i knew the promises and here i was saved but i still at some level thought i was dirty that there's no way a perfect holy god like that could actually bless a woman like me who'd made so many mistakes and so as a 40 year old woman who knew jesus i took the adoption application i'd secretly printed out and i put it in the very back of my file drawer and when i got off work at a church i drove to the nashville humane society and adopted a chocolate lab named sally with bladder control problems and she was a sweet sweet dog she was a little dribbly but she was sweet yeah she was not god's best for me that season do you know seven more years before i was brave enough to go lord if you can use an older woman in stretchy pants to adopt a child that doesn't have a shot i'm open lord y'all i know like i know my name that god ordered my steps to be missy's mom but here's the deal here's the deal listen listen to me some of y'all need to hear this i know he ordered my steps to be missy's mom but you know what i also know i bet there were others now god is a perfect god psalm 84 11 says no good thing does he withhold from him whose walk is upright or her who often stumbles so you're not going to miss it but goodness gracious don't be like me and sit on your hands be like bartimaeus they epitomize him if you don't shut up we're gonna shut you up and you know what he does pete tells us he cries out all the more son of david have mercy on me do you remember the context do you remember the context you remember where jesus is headed do y'all remember where's he headed he's going to the cross he's going to easter he's going to jerusalem he's on his way to fulfill his mission and jesus stops do y'all hear that he's on his way to easter and he stops for a man nobody else will give the time of day nobody else will talk to they've completely ostracized it our creator redeemer puts easter on pause for a man he names that no one else will listen to and he says bring him to me bring bartimaeus to me so compassionate he's so compassionate and then he asked bartimaeus what i believe he's asking all of us tonight he says what do you need what do you need how kind of our king to care about what we need what do you need when y'all go to dallas what do you need you're my kids i love you my favor is on you what do you need that doesn't mean you put a quarter in god's coke machine and you get out a high metabolism that's not what it means it means if you're running hard toward jesus he will make a way for you it means he's for you it means he loves you bartimaeus says jesus i'd love to see my boy around third i lost my sight when he was just a toddler and he's been playing t-ball since then and he's good jesus he backs forth now my boy is good and i've cheered myself hoarse watching him play jesus but i've never seen my boy round third i've never seen him steal home i'd love to watch my boy play jesus i'd love to see my wife smile again you that's how i met her i was in a coffee shop blew something i was working on my dissertation and i heard the bell of the door ring and i just turned around to see who was coming in the shop and there she was and her eyes met and she grinned and her face split open and i was like man stick a fork in me i'm done she was just gorgeous jesus but i haven't seen my wife smiling 11 years since i lost my sight i'd love to see my boy round third and i'd love to see my wife [Music] and jesus heals him and right then and right there pete and mark tell us immediately he recovered his sight but i don't think that's the biggest miracle in the story i don't think the physical healing is the biggest miracle i think it's the spiritual healing because bartimaeus goes from sitting on the roadside sitting on the curb in other words kind of checked out of life maybe you thought he had disqualified himself like the crowd around him he goes from sitting on the curb the end of the story says he followed jesus along the way do you know before the greeks and the romans began calling us christians that means little christ imitators of christ do you know what believers were called right after the death of jesus christ before they began calling us christians followers of the way so there's bartimaeus sitting in the very back basically sitting out on life probably thinking he didn't deserve to be blessed and then he encounters jesus jesus puts easter on pause to engage with this one man everybody's written off and he goes from that posture to following jesus on the way gina bartimaeus is listed in history as one of the few who was right there on golgotha when jesus stretched out his arms and died because he thinks we're worth it genius counted as one of the leaders in the early church he went from being totally checked out to being completely all in because he met jesus and he was undone i believe we're going to have a bunch of barts and a bunch of bardettes this weekend i really believe that some of y'all who have checked out and you may have checked out for really legitimate reasons maybe you've lost your husband or lost your wife or you have a prodigal you have a lump in your breast your boss keeps looking right past you you're worried about next month's bills you may have legitimate human reasons to sit back maybe your life just feels so heavy you don't feel like you can stand up and carry the weight of your own life anymore i believe if you will just look at jesus and you see the son of god pausing everything for you you know because he's infinite you're his favorite but he's infinite so you're his favorite he doesn't max out on you you're his favorite and you're his favorite and you're his favorite and you're his favorite and you're his favorite and you're his favorite and you really are his favorite i believe if if even just a tiny bit a tiny corner of your heart begins to believe at conference that he loves you that he sees you that he would put everything on pause for you i believe we're going to have people charging into their destiny and changing the world as we know it and really incredible waves we've got to remember he cares about you as much as he cares about the world and so we're going to close this sweaty loud night thank you thank you thank you for allowing me to be here it's such a gift to be with you all i can't wait to see what god does over the next 48 hours i really believe we're going to see miracles i believe we're going to see resurrections that some of us didn't have the faith to pray for but i'm going to ask pastor steve and pastor tammy to come up and we're going to do this old school and we're going to do this family style because some of y'all right now the lord is just stirring your heart and your mind and you realize this is my time to move toward jesus this is my time to acknowledge the last year and a half has been rough this is my time to acknowledge you know i've got good theology but i feel like my prayers are hitting the ceiling this is my time to acknowledge i need jesus i mean i came here with my girlfriend i came here with my mom just to get her to hush but i recognize i don't have any peace i've been playing for years but i don't really have peace i need jesus i want to know that the son of god is making eye contact with me going what do you need i love you so much i want to know what you need you matter to me let me ask y'all to stand up and we're going to open the altar for anybody who has a need you have a need in your marriage you have a need in your family you have a need in your spirit you've carried shame like me for so long that instead of crying out all the more you've been sitting back just thinking i don't deserve i don't deserve i don't deserve that is not the gospel and the point is not our deservedness or our lack thereof the point is our god loves us and he delights in us he's not mad at you he loves you you matter to him some of y'all even though you have asked for forgiveness you are still carrying the shame of past choices yeah there are consequences of sin but if you've put your hope in jesus shame is not something we wear as his children some of y'all were abused by your fathers some of you were abused by first husbands some of y'all were raped in college and you have felt dirty for years it's time to walk into the clean list that god has always had for you i want you to come forward come forward if you need healing you need cleansing you need hope you need a gift of faith you feel like your faith is waning come forward there is no shame in that there's actually tremendous grace for those who cry out all the more remember the daddy also in mark's gospel who said i believe but help me in my unbelief one of my favorite theologians dr tim keller says this he says the first step to accessing intimacy with god is not holiness it's helplessness it's recognizing you can't save yourself you can't heal yourself you can't fix your life we all need jesus some of us just have just gotten to the point of desperation of admitting it pastor steve is gonna lead us in in a couple of prayers the most important prayer is for those of y'all who want to have a real relationship with jesus christ and everybody in your family may think you're a christian i mean good night you've given up a perfectly good thursday night when you could be binging on netflix to come to church so your family thinks you're a believer but you know in your heart of hearts i have never actually stepped in to an intimate relationship with jesus i've never actually said i can't make it by myself i'm just trying to earn his affection if you want a real relationship with jesus christ or maybe you gave your heart to jesus when you're a kid you came to vbs when you're a kid you went to a youth camp hume lake and you walked an aisle but something happened along the way and you were so wounded and so disappointed that you've been running ever since and tonight you hear the holy spirit saying it's time to come home it's time to come home to jesus he's your only hope he's your only peace he loves you he's not looking away he is waiting for you with open arms i want you to keep your eyes open because this is family this is family there's no shame here and i'm not one of those who will holler and say that you've got to acknowledge jesus in public because he said if you didn't he wouldn't acknowledge you before his father that's actually taken out of context jesus said that to the apostles not to young believers he let nicodemus come at night so there's no shame about coming forward and making a big to-do this is between you and jesus but these people will have your back these people behind you love you and some of y'all are still sitting there and so as a guest as a guest who has not earned the right to ask you to be honest i'm i'm still going to go there i'm going to ask you if you want to know jesus you've been away from him for a long time cold in your heart or maybe you've never made that step of commitment and said i'm i'm all in i'm ready to give my whole life my whole heart to jesus would you just slip up your right or your left hand act of faith beautiful beautiful thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus i want y'all to keep your hands raised [Music] stunning stunning honesty just stunning the courage stunning the grace i want you to keep your hands raised those of you good-looking brothers in the back will y'all come forward just so pastor steve can see you brothers those of you with your hands raised come up close so pastor steve can see you pastor steve is going to pray what's commonly called a sinner's prayer you know this isn't a magic bullet this is a practical application of a promise in the new testament that says if you confess with your mouth that jesus is who he says he is that he's the son of god he is our only hope to be reconciled into a right relationship with the holy god it says if you confess that with your mouth and you believe that in your heart it says you will be saved it says the holy spirit will take up residence in your mind and heart and you will be transformed and you will have abundant life here that doesn't mean everything will go perfect actually promises that sometimes it'll be hard he says in this world you will have trouble john 14 but take heart because i've overcome the world so pastor steve is going to pray a sinner's prayer for y'all and then pastor tammy the mama of this house tender heart such a nurture pastor tammy is going to pray for those of y'all who are just saying i i need i know jesus but goodness gracious my heart is broken this season i'm worried i'm worried about my marriage i'm worried about my prodigal pastor tammy is gonna is to pray for that but right now would you all extend your hands raise your hand again if you want to know jesus first time you're coming home after a season away and i want y'all to extend your hands toward these amazing brave men and women who are praying right now coming into a real relationship with jesus christ and follow where pastor steve lead you so god repeat after me in the name of jesus i thank you for the holy spirit i thank you for the grace of god and i declare tonight on thursday august 5th jesus christ is my lord and savior i turn for my sin i turn to jesus i embrace him as the only basis for my forgiveness and salvation jesus christ come into my heart i love you and i will serve you all the days of my life in jesus name amen hey i'm steve abraham the pastor of new life oxnard thank you for watching our youtube channel you can join us live every sunday for a new sermon and live worship also be sure to take a minute to subscribe and turn on your post notifications so you don't miss any of our new videos or live streams and please share with a friend if you would like to partner with us in furthering the gospel please click the link below don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching and god bless you

Channel: New Life Oxnard

Views: 50,709

Rating: 4.9083519 out of 5

Keywords: New Life Oxnard, Oxnard, New Life Community Church, LISA HARPER, NEW LIFE CONF, CONF 2021, NEW LIFE CONFERENCE, LISA

Id: N3QkXj0inss

Length: 49min 27sec (2967 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021