Maintaining A Healthy Posture | Mark

hey everyone welcome to the countdown here at lh online my name is tc i'm one of the pastors here at lighthouse church and i'm joined today by another of the pastors at lighthouse church our small groups pastor dave corbin how you doing dave i'm doing great tc i'm i'm super excited to be here thank you for uh having me on well you and i have been on camera a lot we actually used to co-host a thing and so we're very comfortable together and dave one of the things i like to do is i like to share a little bit of behind the scenes sometimes and i like to share nicknames that i give people i'm one of those goofy people i know where this is going i know you do dave because one time when i was preaching a sermon i hung a nickname on you and you had no idea what i was doing i was just messing with you yeah and so i told the whole crowd that in the office you know that you're fantastic so we call you fantastic dave or for short we just call you fanny d yeah which i think is hilarious i'm glad you think it's hilarious yeah yeah and a handful of people started using it you know it's a handful like a whole campus yeah well it kind of faded a little bit you're still in my phone as fanny d and i'm hoping that today is the day that we bring it back up and around because it sounds like sunny d which just makes me happy oh fanny d yeah it's just it's just a great nickname i feel like we should put it on your business cards here at church no all right well you think about it you think about it and we'll we'll see sure well dave you know that i like to do these silly national days here as part of the countdown and do you know dave what today is no i don't you see i'm excited about this one i can see it all over your face yes that the reason is because it's national slurpy day wow man now you're probably wondering dave why didn't i just get slurpees on national slurpy day i had a few questions yeah well there's a story behind that okay so our communications director jenna lovely young woman i asked her if she would bring in slurpees and she very nicely said yes she would and she came in today with iced drinks from wawa and i said okay i'm just curious why we didn't get slurpees and she said but these are slurpees and i said no these are iced drinks from wawa slurpees are from 7-eleven and she reacted with the most shock i've ever seen on a human being's face she had no idea slurpies are a name-brand product from 7-eleven but you know what dave bottoms up on national slurpy day let's drink our almost slurpee it's not bad it's not it's not bad it's no slurpee but it's not bad well nothing else is a slurpee besides a slurpee of course that's true yeah you know what it's the thought that counts or at least that's what they say so dave please feel free to continue enjoying your delicious iced beverage while we're while we're on the countdown in honor of a slurpee um but dave enough with my silliness uh you know what man uh this last week week on friday we had a night of worship at catonsville yeah we did it last summer we got to do it this summer i just love having nights of worship we actually have a couple more coming up in the near future and you you know what you've been on the worship team during kovid you were playing bass a whole lot is that that's not me a point of passion for you right yeah yeah i love uh i love music played in a band for a long time and uh lots of lots of leading worship and stuff like that and it's a it's a real joy to be able to participate in that for sure i wish you had brought your base and you could have like done some cool riffs while i was talking and yeah it would have definitely made me seem cooler but instead when you like something i say just take a drink of your iced drink in in honor of national survey day you almost spit that out i did if that happened that'd be my favorite new episode of all time but dave hey one other thing i wanted to talk with you about today you're obviously the small group's pastor you're very involved in our discipleship process here at lighthouse church that's a passion for you helping people grow closer to jesus another way that we invite people to get closer to jesus and be part of our community is growth track yeah and you've been very involved in growth track you've taught many of the iterations of growth track we've had um would you do us a favor and just chat a little bit about what is growth track why do we invite people to to go through the growth track process with yeah yeah growth track is really it's a great starting place like it's the the best place to start with just trying to figure out maybe you're new to church you're trying to figure out where do i go how do i how can i connect here um maybe you've been around for a long time and you're just trying to find what that next step is it's really just a great place to come learn a little bit more about the church a little bit more about who you are uh help you discover maybe your personality your spiritual gifts and then really try to help taylor and fit where do you find your fit in in the larger piece of lighthouse church and the church at large and then trying to help you find those next steps whether that's a small group maybe it's baptism maybe it's getting plugged into serving on a team uh there's lots of different options that come out of that but it's this great starting place of being able to figure out how can i grow from here um that's so good dave i love how you talked about you know there's different places to go because we understand church is not a conveyor belt it's not like get on do a do b do c everyone does the same thing everyone comes here and you've got your own story you've got your own journey and we're looking to find out how can we help you to engage in what jesus is calling you to do who he made you to be and so i love that with growth track we're we're doing our best to share the story of lighthouse to share the opportunities of how you can get plugged into what god is doing through lighthouse but i think my favorite part is growth track is also an opportunity for us to hear stories yeah about what's happening in the lives of people who are coming or how people got here for instance i got to read a few stories because after week one we say would you would you share with us some of your stories so i've gotten to read some stories and we hear people that are coming in who have come out of addiction or people who really have never been to church before and they show up and they go this place feels like home it feels like a community i'd like to be a part of but i have no idea what's next and we just get to say hey let's walk on that journey with you dave are there any stories that have stood out to you recently yeah yeah there's been several stories i've heard of people who were out of state and they got connected because growth track is on demand you can hop in and do it online at any time they were out of state they checked us out kind of first there and were able to find hey i can get plugged in on the online team or um even some that started out there then they've moved into the area and now they've gotten plugged into small groups i know personally from the small group side we've had people who have gone through growth track didn't have any clue that they were possibly gifted to be able to lead a small group yeah yeah discovered that in the midst of growth track and now are leading small groups and so there's all sorts of uh opportunities in there to discover things that you maybe didn't even know about yourself yeah growth track is not a class like for us it's like a trampoline like jump in and we're looking to spring you into something that's gonna bring you joy that's going to benefit the whole community at lighthouse we love that and so you can jump on our website right now you can check out growth track on demand it's four sessions i think it's like a little under two hours for each of them you're gonna see john you're to see sammy you're going to see myself like there's a lot of great stuff there yeah so please please please jump in we would love to have you do that now we also want to invite you we got something cool coming up this week last week we had the night of worship at catonsville this week we got something else cool happening i don't know about you dave i like a good cookout do you i'll take that as a yes yeah uh you know who who doesn't like a good cook out dave i don't know but we should find them and bring them here yes and convince them otherwise well this friday at 6 00 p.m right here at glen burnie uh lighthouse our celebrate recovery ministry is gonna be having a cookout because they're celebrating four years of the cr ministry at lighthouse there are like we talked about cool stories from growth track there are so many amazing stories through cr we love the recovery community we love what jesus is doing um i don't know if we're gonna have name brand slurpees that cook out or not but maybe you could bring your own if you wanted to stop by wherever they sell ios slurpees yeah yeah bring or an iced drink of some kind i think that would be that would be fine too but we would love it if you're available for you to come on out now dave we're getting ready in just a few minutes to join our sanctuary and and to continue through the book of mark one of the cool things about this series that we've been doing is we have something called a soap journal i think you're familiar with that dave a little bit because i think you helped put that whole thing together what was your heart behind when you were creating that that subject sammy charged you you know kind of put some structure in there what was your heart behind that what do you want to see happen when people engage in yeah the the heart really was no matter where you are in your journey whether maybe you've never picked up the bible and tried to read through a whole book at a time or maybe you've been doing this for years just to provide a little bit of an opportunity just to go hey as we're spending 12 weeks going through this one book of the bible let's read through it together let's chew on it let's take some time with it and let it kind of marinate and simmer a little bit and so the the soap reading plan just lets you take a small chunk of scripture spend some time kind of thinking on it chewing on it observing and then figuring out okay how can i apply this today and then you just spend some time in prayer so it's really just to provide hey here's a real simple structure to help kind of get you going and so that we're all on the same page as we're going through this book together and we can all grow closer to jesus together amen man you know we're gonna get a lot more if we if we dive in than if we just kind of run through and so i love that resource you created so in just a minute we're gonna have an opportunity to hear the next portion of mark that we've been reading talked about before we transition over i just want to make sure you're aware that if you're new to the lighthouse community first of all welcome thank you for joining us we'd love to have you here tell us in the chat if you're watching live right now tell us where you're watching from we'd love to hear about that and if you have questions about lighthouse you can jump onto lh chat which is on our app and on our website down in the bottom right hand corner you can click the little icon you can chat live with the real person you and i both are part of the chat team so you might be talking with us one day there's a whole bunch of other people on the team we would love to answer any questions you have uh about anything about theology about events whatever it is you know about where to buy name-brand slurpees i feel like jenna should jump on lh chat we can help her with that right away but if you have any questions we'd love to chat with you and even if you're not new to lighthouse if you've just got questions or if you need someone to pray with you pray for you online jump onto elliot's chat we would absolutely love to do that but right now we're going to be moving over into our sanctuary we're going to be joining with worship so wherever you're at prepare your heart and let's worship together [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the cross [Applause] [Music] that sets us free [Applause] [Music] by [Music] this would be his portion and our changes [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i give my life [Music] [Applause] him forever [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] man [Music] the world and it couldn't fill me man's empty praise treasures of faith never enough you came along yes you did and put me back together and every desire is now satisfied better than you there's nothing better than you lord there's nothing nothing is better i'm not afraid [Music] friends [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's not a place [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh is better [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you're the again [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] you're the only [Music] me you're the only one you're the only one [Music] [Music] the lord bless you and keep you let is [Music] [Applause] [Music] peace the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon and be gracious to the lord turn his [Music] face [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] shine upon [Music] peace [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] um [Music] yes [Music] baby [Music] their children their children may his favor be upon you and a thousand generations and your family and your children [Music] is [Music] uh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is is is for ah me is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] amen a many many many amen amen i just uh i was waiting in the wings over there and i just felt this spirit tell me uh someone in here someone online he is for you he is for you he is with you in your goings and your comings he is with you he is with you and he is for you amen amen amen well good morning lighthouse church so good to be with you this morning thank you worship team as always our amazing worship team you guys are incredible love you so much um you know it takes a lot of moving parts to make sunday mornings happen around here both in person and online and i just i just want to say thank you to our incredible movement team everything our worship team our production team the ushers the online community the guys in the parking lot you know you pull up you're just trying to get in you're swearing at them and they're smiling at you you know can we give a hand of applause for our movement team they're just absolutely incredible love those guys um we have met yet my name is steve i'm one of the pastors on staff it's my great honor to be with you this morning let me give you a quick shout out before we get going here uh for our men in the house our lh men we have an lh ben's meeting this tuesday night in this campus uh at 6 00 p.m right to 6 p.m right here um we have about 300 men show up right now we'd love to see 400 500 men show up for that um it's been an incredible time we got a couple more studies through the book of james pastor sammy our lead pastor has been leading us through that you want to check that out it is a great time of edification um because if you're a dude right now it is hard to be a man pursuing god and it is really hard it's impossible to do by yourself it's impossible and you got to do with other men beside you so please if you have the ability come on out for that this tuesday night where you find us this weekend uh we are halfway through our summer series in the gospel of mark this is week six that we find ourselves now perhaps if you've been on vacay you've been away for a little bit uh let me catch you up we've been working through this series some six weeks now holistically as a church in fact we've provided some resources for you through this series we've been doing what's called a soap journal as a church soap stands for scripture observe apply pray okay you can check that out on our website or if you're in this room here seat backs in front of you there's a little bookmark you can grab that go through those readings what we've been doing as a church is essentially reading a portion of scripture all week long and then on a sunday we will unpack a certain portion of it we've had various speakers up here throughout the course of this summer it's been great because our lead pastor has been busy penning his next book he's been writing that all summer we're going to go through that here in the fall so it is my honor to bring you uh week six in this installment where we find ourselves is in the gospel of mark chapter seven i'm going to read a large portion of this scripture essentially go through two miracles i'm gonna pray ask the lord to speak and see what we can glean from him this morning amen amen all right so here we go mark 7 starting in verse 24 says this jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of tyre he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it yet he could not keep his present secret in fact as soon as she heard about him a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet the woman was greek born of syria phoenicia she begged jesus to drive the demon out of her first let the children eat all they want he told her for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs lord she replied even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs then he told her for such a reply you may go the demon has left your daughter she went home and found her child lying on the bed and the demon gone then jesus went and left the vicinity of tyre went on through sidon down to the sea of galilee and into the region of the coppolis there some people brought to him a man who was deaf could hardly talk and they begged jesus to place his hand on him after he took him aside away from the crowd jesus put his fingers into the man's ears then he spit and touched the man's tongue he looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him which means be opened at this the man's ears were opened and his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly jesus commanded them not to tell anyone but the more he did so the more they kept talking about it people were overwhelmed with amazement he has done everything well they said he is even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak but god bless the reading of his word gracious and heavenly father we love you oh god we love you but you love us so much more you love us so much lord that you sent your son and jesus you willingly came you didn't have to but you did and lord because of that we can now have communion with our father through the same spirit lord that raised you from the dead dwells in us that we confess you as christ so lord jesus i pray for that whole very same holy spirit this morning would fill me up from the very bottoms of my feet to the top of my head don't let me speak a single word that is not of you it's in your precious name we would pray amen amen okay so as we get into this portion of scripture we got to get we got to get some context here because if you've been with us through the series of mark we've been telling you that mark moves exceptionally fast and we in our western culture reading this some 2000 years later we have to slow down and pick up on some things that would just been naturally known by the reader of the day first and foremost let's talk about the region that jesus now finds himself in he finds himself in what is modern day lebanon and israel this is during the hellenistic era the greco-roman empire era so these people these people that are up in lebanon and syria these are the ancient enemies of israel these people have been duking it out for some time they're not friends okay this is the one region that we know about that's been told us through the gospels this is the one time that we know that this is the one area that jesus has gone to outside of his own country this is the only time he leaves the borders of israel you know that it's interesting john do you know that did you know that yeah he didn't know that well glad to help learned something today john here to help so he goes to this region he's actually been there one other time before john did preach on this a couple weeks ago this is the same region that the man who was possessed by the demon legion was in okay so he's now returned to this region gospel commentators will will opine and and it is well underpinned that the reason he went to this region was essentially to get respite get a little time away he's been very very busy in his own country but now he wants to take his disciples go away sit in the cut a little bit do a little bit of teaching show these guys and train these guys up so that they can know what's going to happen as he will later depart and the reason he needed to depart again is what is believed is because just prior to this in chapter 7 jesus his ministry is growing and those against him namely the pharisees sadducees and the religious of israel are really starting to push back against jesus and they just had a knock down drag out as to what it is that makes a person holy jesus would go on to tell them and it is not what goes into a man that makes a man impure but rather what comes out of a man that makes him impure now this would have been heretical in jesus day because these people the religious authorities of the time are operating underneath what we would call the purity laws these laws were established millennia ago going all the way back to the time of moses and the levitical law in the ways that the people of israel would become pure before god and therefore go into the presence of god very long list of rules we're talking like 600 plus rules everything from the establishment of festivals the establishment of the priesthood the establishment how do you ceremonially wash yourself keep yourself clean what foods you can eat what foods you cannot eat how you handle bodily fluids who you can talk to handling of the dead all these rules now the reason for these rules is they were supposed to act as a visual interpretation of the separation that people have from god and all the things that would need to be done to get into the presence of god the best analogy is ever i've ever heard about the presence of god is it it's likened to the sun see the sun is glorious it's magnificent it gives us warmth it gives us light it gives us life but we can only get so close to it the closer we get to it the more dangerous it becomes it becomes too hot it becomes too pure and it can burn us up same applies here to the presence of god for these men who wanted to get into the presence of god they had to do all these things and they're supposed to be a visual representation of this is how far you are from me the problem was they didn't take it as a visual interpretation but an actual interpretation they said if i do this this this and this i can get into the presence of god and what it ultimately showed is they walked it out in their foul thinking rather than show them the separation they had from god and trying to separate themselves they began to separate themselves from other peoples and then they found themselves prideful and haughty and felt and felt as though they were the insiders and everyone else was the outsiders they thought that they could do it themselves they thought getting into the presence of god that it just it just mattered for rules and regulations if i do all these things i can get into the presence of god works based and if it's works based that means it's all a dependence on self okay now what's going to happen here and what happens throughout the gospel of mark is the holy spirit is going to inspire the penmanship of john mark the the gospel writer here who's taking the eyewitness account of the apostle peter giving the accounts of jesus and showing how jesus in just three years of earthly ministry deconstructed that which took 1600 years to establish that he's going to say there's a different way to have a relationship with god and it is not through rules and regulations no longer is it if you do this you get this no longer is it if i follow this ritual i get this reward see for jesus and what he's going to teach is it's not a matter of procedure it's a matter of posture it's a matter of your of your heart and immediately what john mark is going to do is going to give us two examples how the people of israel that were following these religious rules were following these procedures he's gonna parallel those against and juxtapose those against two stories of people who had a posture and how god moved and we're going to look at these two miracles and how they play out in the posture and i believe the characteristics that we can glean from we're going to get essentially three from this woman and we'll get an additional two from the deaf man so let let's get started first with the woman off the jump we have to realize this about the woman this syrian phoenician woman that is coming to jesus for her miracle that there are at least four obstacles in her way in seeking out her miracle first there's the one we've already discussed there's a matter of her nationality she is a gentile he is a jew so off the break there is a racial barrier there is a racial tension that's happening here secondly she's a woman and he's a man not only is she a woman she's a gentile woman talking to a jewish holy man this is going to be a big deal especially in the context of ancient israel ancient greco-roman times in comparison to our modern western thinking this is a very patriarchal society where men are separated from women only women talk to their husbands they don't associate with men this is a massive barrier as far as it pertains to how the society itself is set up then there is the matter of the barrier of the disciples disciples themselves though it's not unpacked here in mark in the gospel of matthew the 15th chapter that tells this same narrative it says that the disciples actually were telling jesus send this woman away from us we came here to spend time with you we spent time to get away get a little respite get a little pause we're the inner circle she's the outer circle send her away so there's this relational barrier that needs to be transcended and lastly and it's a big one there's the barrier of satan himself you see we know in the story that there is actual demonic activity going on in this little girl that there is an enemy here and he does not want this woman to get to jesus and what we can do in our modern context is oftentimes we can poo-poo the demonic we can think ah there's only the physical realm there's not the spiritual realm no friend there's both and while there's not a demon behind every bush there are bushes and there are demons and they are real and in this narrative we have a a young girl who is under demonic oppression and satan does not want that demon cast out but this is this woman's plight yet despite her plight despite all that she's going on what we're going to see is a posture of the what we should have when we have real trouble when we got real goings-on goings-on you know what i mean not the flare prayer like lord give me that front row seat at the walmart prayer you know what i mean lord lord lord can i can i please get that sale happening this friday no no not that kind of faith we're talking like real deals as sammy says holy feel kind of faith so let's pick up our narrative here it says in fact as soon as she heard about him a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet some translations actually say she flung herself at his feet totally prostrate i mean embarrassing i don't know about what your needs are but i have never groveled before another human being i've only seen it and you know this might be dated at this point but i remember that office episode where dwight is like at michael's feet i mean it's uncomfortable to watch truly but this is what this woman's doing she is throwing herself at this man's feet and in that we see the very first posture of your in our heart how we should go to god with a posture of our heart it should be a heart of desperation it should be a heart that you recognize i'm at the end of my rope i'm at the end of myself there is nothing i can do i am desperate in my past life flying helicopters one of the missions we would go on is search and rescue missions and in the back we would have search and rescue swimmers and as often as you would think we would converse all the time about stories about things they had encountered and things that they had seen and they would all say when you come across a drowning person they all have a look doesn't matter race creed color when they're drowning they have a look and it is a look of absolute desperation where they recognize there's nothing i can do this is about to get this this is going to go real bad real quick and all they want to do is get to that swimmer all they want to do is reach out in desperation for a hope that they can be saved this is this woman's posture desperate she doesn't care what's going on she is laser focused to get to that man it says the woman was greek born in syria phoenicia and she begged jesus to drive the demon out of her this is where we see the second posture of this woman we see this woman she's operating out of pure determination she is determined to get to him that word there begged that's a progressive verb that means you do it over and over and over again over and over and over and over and over again over and over and over and over and over again anyone who's a parent here knows what begging's about mommy mommy mom mom mom mom mama mama i mean we no begging we know begging been doing a lot of flying recently children no begging fly cross country with with a one-year-old they do not care they do not care that you're trying to watch your in-flight movie they want they want and they usually went off that plane and they're going to let everybody know about it begging and begging and begging and begging and begging says this woman she begged jesus to drive the woman out for her daughter and so much so that the disciples say hey dude can you get rid of her can you can we can we get oh what can we get these are jesus's disciples just as an aside be real careful of anyone who's following jesus that's trying to keep you from jesus these men should have known this woman needs deliverance she needs help and she's not going to let disciples or anyone else stop her from getting to his feet so she can beg for that which she desires she knows he's the answer and there ain't nothing that's going to keep her from getting to him she is desperate and she is determined and then jesus is going to turn around and he's going to respond and his response it's curious at first and then as you get into it you're like okay that that's offensive at best that might be downright cruel at worst what he turns around and says to her it says he responds with first let children eat all they want he told her for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs is that a surprising response i'd say yes is that jarring you bet is that challenging absolutely some who preach this text and i and i get it i get it they'll they'll parse out the fact that when jesus is speaking here the greek terms that he's using the greek words that he's using when he says dog he is not saying like a wild animal he's actually using the greek word which means kind of like your pet dog and try to kind of soften it but at the end of the day i can't call my wife a mongrel nor can i call her a mutt that's that's not good either one i can't soften that any husband's in here you'll be like that's not what i meant that's what they don't care right the end of the day he said what he said but it is what he said mean no it's not me because i love what pastor and theologian tim keller says he says if you're offended rather than puzzled you've lost the context you've lost the context of what's happening here so we got to slow down and again look at the context that's happening and let's first look at the context of her response as jesus tells her what he just said what will follow after she's been so desperate and so determined is a posture that can only be described as humility she is completely humble to her his words she is not offended she does not say how dare you there is no tirade now that's completely foreign us in 2021. you get on a flight to pittsburgh you're 45 minutes you lose the aircraft wi-fi you're about to fight somebody you're entitled to that someone calls you a name on social media on 695 disagree god forbid disagree with you who how many of us slow down go can you unpack that i i i'm sure there's a point behind that that's not how we respond but that's how this this woman's gonna respond why because first and foremost you have to understand there's a cultural rule and dynamic that's going on here this woman would almost seemingly expect this again she's a gentile woman interacting with a jewish holy man there's an understanding that there's a separation between these two cultures her experience would tell her any time that she comes into contact with the jewish person that they that jewish person would not want to interact with her at all the fact that he's even holding discord with her talking with her is a step outside the normative people want to talk about jesus being old school he's about as progressive as they come he slows down to break all the rules to talk to this woman and explain some things this woman but there is a decorum that's going on but her experience would tell her and what she's un unfortunately probably experienced throughout this time was a wrong representation of what scripture said you see i said earlier the nation of israel would take god's word and they wouldn't take it as the visual but rather the actual interpretation and as so they would be prideful and haughty and think we're better than you but when god said listen you are a people set apart israel but do know that that's for a purpose then i'm going to send the messiah through you first through israel and then to everyone else this is why the prophet isaiah says this he says it is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of jacob and to bring back the preserved of israel i will make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach the end of the earth see what we tend to concentrate is that word is children's bread fed to the dog but what we have to slow down and look at is that context where he says first first let the children eat see this isn't a matter of denial it's a matter of prioritization that the salvation would first come through the messiah then to the nation of israel and then to all the nations the statement that jesus is making here it's not a method matter of ethnicity it's a matter of sincerity and being tied to the word of god this is not a matter of race this is a matter of theology the woman is being called a dog not because of her nationality but because she's under sin and guess what outside of jesus christ you and i we're all dogs and that's the gospel see the gospel is when you recognize i deserve to be under the table that jesus invites you to the table it's when you recognize wait a minute i'm not supposed to be first i'm supposed to be last that you're invited into the kingdom it's when you recognize that he who was no sin bore all sin so that i a sinner could not be seen as a sinner but as the righteousness of christ it's the upside down kingdom of god that is what he's unpacking for this woman right now and he's telling her listen listen listen the grace is you're under the table right now you're under the table you're not yet a child of god but here's the trap we can fall into there's certainly a trap you know hey i'm going to speak to all my all my ex-catholic brethren in here we fall into this trap we think oh i'm just i'm worthless i i don't deserve it i i'm you're self-deprecating you're self-loathing oh i'm oh i'm a horrible horrible thing you want to know like one of the hardest things in the world to do is compliment a christian try complimenting a christian especially in church it's the most awkward conversation awkward conversation you'll ever have man i heard you up on stage that you man you can you can play that piano you are a good piano i i i don't all glory to god i don't know i just well i just i uh it's not me it's jesus no it's not i've met jesus you're not him you're just a good piano player you want to blow someone's mind in church when someone pays you a compliment say thank you they won't know what to do truly because this this woman gets this because not only does she know who she is she knows who she's talking to and her response shows it it says lord she replied even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs then he told her for such a reply you may go the demon has left your daughter she went home and filed her child lying on the bed and the demon was gone see she she said lord lord lord i know i know it's not about me i know it's all about you and you're so big you're so big i know there's enough grace out there for me too can i can i have my portion of your grace and he said your daughter's well that's faith that's a posture desperation determination humility totally changes the way we relate with god now quickly mark's gonna pivot he's gonna go into our second miracle another he goes from this region to another area of the un holy un worthy gentiles it says this it says then jesus left that vicinity went to tear went through sidon down to the sea of galilee into the region of the copolys region of the ten cities there some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk and they begged jesus to place his hand on him again remember jesus was here already mark chapter five he he was in this region this is where he met the man that was possessed by legion the demon that are many remember that if you remember that narrative he was this man was alleviated of his demon he sat in right mind right stead wanted to be with jesus and he thought okay i'm going to follow jesus and jesus said you can't can't follow me but go tell your people about me obviously he did obviously he did because guess what jesus shows back up and these men know that's the guy that's the guy that saved that guy remember the remember the nut that was like in the graveyard no clothes and chains that's like the mayor of the town now that's the guy listen to me when jesus tells you something it's not always no sometimes it's not now that man that man that was possessed by legion said let me just let me just be with you let me just be with you let me just be with you he said no you gotta go back tell people about me and now he turns around and he did this and now this man is gonna experience a miracle because of that man and i'm gonna go i don't know limb here i believe that that man who was once possessed by legion is now walking with jesus every day of his life in the after sometimes sometimes it's not no it's just not now after this he took him aside away from the crowd and jesus put his fingers into the man's ears then he spit and touched the man's tongue and he looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said effa which means be opened so the question is what the heck's going on here what what was that why why'd you why did jesus do that what i mean he does jesus need to do this i mean this is this is different behavior for jesus just look at our previous story this woman just came and said heal my daughter and he said your daughter's well didn't have to be in her presence didn't have to do it didn't have to be with her didn't have to hold hands pray he just said she's well now you got jesus sticking fingers in here spitting on hands pointing at tongues that's a different modus operandum from the last one and yet this man does it he doesn't understand it but he does it our next posture a posture of obedience doing it when you don't even understand it again look at context slow down here what's happening with this man first and foremost he's deaf and he has a speech impediment of some great kind he's a public spectacle so what does jesus do takes him aside just me and you i don't need to do this in front of my disciples i don't need to do this in front of crowds i'm going to do this with me and you and he puts his hands in his ears and he points to his tongue why because he's communicating with him sign language you can't hear me but i'm gonna point to you about what i'm gonna do to you slows down gets real compassionate with him and boom healed totally different context it does same thing at the end of the day heals him and our story concludes it says that this the man's ears were opened and his tongues were loosened and he began speaking plainly and jesus commanded them not to tell anyone remember jesus is like i'm just trying to get a little bit of rest do me a favor everyone be cool out go take a nap but the more he did so the more they kept talking about it people were overwhelmed with amazement he has done everything well they say he is even makes the death to hear in the mute to speak they can't stop worshiping him so when you go before god you go before god desperate you go before god determined you go before god with humility you go obediently but you go praising you go with a heart full of praise oh look what my god has done for me this is the difference between the old way in the new way the old way was if i do rituals and if i do rules then i'll depend on myself the problem is that fails time and time again you either can't get out the gate you don't cross enough t's you don't dot enough eyes and your left felt totally despondent or perhaps worse than that you run for a season and you do and you do and you do and you do and then you do and then you don't and then you think i'm not worthy i'll never match up and you run from god and he went goes and goes find you and you okay god okay god and then you do and then you do and then you do and then you do and then you don't and then you run from god or worse yet you do and you do and you do and you do and you get more callous you get more hard and you get more judgmental and then you become a whitewashed tomb that you say lord lord we cast out demons in your name and he goes depart from me i don't know who you are we never had a relationship because you thought it depended on you the difference is when you take desperation and you realize i can't do this but i'm determined to get to the one who can and i'm going to get real humble before him and i'm going to do whatever he says no matter if i understand it or not and i'll praise him in the storm no matter what because i'm dependent on god no matter what in that place miracles happen it's in that place [Applause] that deliverance occurs you know i was getting ready for this this week and for so many of you i just got i i thank you personally so many you message me email me text me what's going on with your wife how's she doing what's going on with the fight you know if you don't know my wife nikki's been battling cancer two years two years she's been battling cancer and it is not all bad it's not all mountain high there's a lot of valley low but if there's one thing that i encourage my way and i see it in my wife is i see a dependence on god i see a woman that's desperate for god i see a woman that's at his feet every day doesn't even care who's around she humbles herself before god she does what she's told to do whether she understands it or not she's praising him she goes to bed most nights listening in the scripture even when tears running down her face and it's my hope that that's the place where the miracle will occur it's just we're just setting the posture of our heart posture of her heart but here's the trap team this is why i think mark does this very very strategically i want to i want to say this as a caution is that sometimes we can make the narrative the normative we can read one miracle and think well that's how jesus operates and we can we can put jesus in a box and think if i do this if i do this formulaic thing this is what he's going to do but we just read two accounts of two vastly different people in vastly different circumstances that jesus acted vastly different with he challenged the woman publicly he held the man privately this is why it's so important in the christian life to do life together and to do life in community because your experience is different than my experience how you experience jesus is different than how i experienced jesus it's always love it's always edification it's always becoming more like him but it's just your walk is going to be different than my walk and when you read about the person of jesus like picking up a precious diamond and looking at it from various different angles you can't look at it through one way because if you look at it through one way then jesus does something that's not out of that way you think you interpret him you fall away that's why you have to be in community with brothers and sisters as you're going through life and enduring things that's why it's so important moms and dads get your children back in lh kids get those truths deposited in them early middle school high school students go to lh students see how your your friends and your acquaintances are enduring life what jesus is doing through their life man come to lh men on tuesday come the small group get in community don't happen what happens in here stay in here because god has so much more for you he's the god of miracles he's going to do incredible things that you either get to witness personally or get to see walk out and testimonies walked out that will only build your faith all the more this god we serve is so grand and is so big yet he wants to have a relationship with you but it's not built on rules and regulations it's built in community with him and community with others amen let's pray gracious tell me father thank you so much for your word um jesus thank you that you're so relational that you you're so specific god you're so individualistic you're so in the muck in the mire with us that we can come to you jesus with all of our desires and we can recognize lord we can't do it but you can [Music] that we can beg you and you don't get annoyed about it that we can humble ourselves under you not because you're some kind of draconian evil dictator but because you are the god the alpha and the omega that you tell the mountains where to stand in the oceans you will go no further and we can humble ourselves unto you because what is man but you think of us and lord we can trust you when you call us the things even though we don't understand it and lord when we see you move as you invariably always do we can praise you ultimately so many come to know you confess you as lord and savior amen [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] glory for you [Music] god yours is the king yours is the name of all names [Music] oh [Music] again forever [Music] is yours is what a powerful name [Music] now [Music] yours is the kingdom [Music] you know is is the name of jesus

Channel: Lighthouse Church

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Id: ClN8fjp8aHU

Length: 77min 43sec (4663 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021