Marriage-able | Jefferson Bethke

[Music] so [Music] how's it going how are you guys doing doing good awesome if you have your bibles genesis 1 if you don't know where that is just open to the first page and there you have it we'll be in genesis 1 maybe genesis 2 we'll see how this goes um i just kind of start the clock and get running and we just end when we end that's how i tend to do it we'll see how fun that is i'm excited to be with you guys man it has been a long time since i've been with you guys um i don't know if anyone's been coming to the porch for a long time but i spoke a handful of times like four or five years ago did launch retreat back then and then took a big break from the porch family but it's good to be back i miss you guys you guys are awesome it's good to be back um so again the series dateable i'm just going to jump into it because i am so excited for tonight i'm excited for us to lean in to the scriptures now there's kind of this axiom that i think is we would all resonate with and it's essentially this it's essentially that so many of us and i know this resonates with me and specifically in my mid-20s that life can be going poorly everything around you can be kind of breaking apart or falling apart but if you have a relationship that's relatively healthy or you're doing it the right way it's crazy how everything can feel fine and the flip is true as well right where everything in your life can be going well jobs promotion maybe you know a promotion with money certain things certain whatever but if there's something in a relationship that is breaking you that's difficult or you're making unwise choices that's kind of destroying your soul in your heart then it's crazy how it feels like everything is breaking what i'm saying with that is there's something about god's design for human relationships that is central to who we are and i mean that by the way single dating or not right i mean in the sense of just how we feel about them how we think about them how we enter into them there's something about human relationships that is very close to how god wired us how god designed us and who we are so that's we're going to talk about tonight we're going to talk about what is god's design for human flourishing for human relationships for sexuality and all these different types of things we're going to go all the way back to the beginning and look at what i like to say is the blueprint okay now when i say the word blueprint what do you think of i don't know about you i actually think of jay-z's albums anyone else okay besides that what you probably think of is you know architectural drawings or something of that nature a blueprint tends to be a framework a map a thing that you look at in regards to showing you the design of something before what before you go on and build something right before you go on and do something and so it is with god's design for us with relationships where he has a blueprint if you try to go forward without it have fun building a house without a blueprint see how that goes it doesn't end well it doesn't end well but if we listen to the wisdom of god how he's created and wired us to work then that's what leads us to flourishing so we're going to go back and look at that so again if you have your bibles let's go to genesis chapter one and i'm not going to cover all of the points but i think there's um what i want to do is cover i think some of the more often missed ones and so we'll just start reading and go from there genesis chapter one let's go down to verse 26 for me i might have a tough time reading it too because my two-year-old just ripped this yesterday so yeah i mean the kids just ripping the scriptures like what kind of hatred forgot is that okay um verse 26 then god said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth verse 27 so god created man what in his own image in the image of god he created him male and female he created them and god blesses them and god said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over every living thing that moves on the earth so we're just going to sit there for a second because there's a lot in there but the first one i want to zoom in on is what we saw there what was the word that came up just a couple times in three verses starts with an eye image chapter 1 verses 27 and 28 in the image of god you were created male and female in the image of god he created them now what does that mean i want to sit there for a second because i know i didn't have a ton of church context growing up i didn't start walking lord until 19 but i had enough to kind of feel like maybe i heard some of these ideas and at least to me growing up i always was either taught or just assumed that the image of god in the scriptures was about characteristics of god passed on to us does that make sense kind of like god is loving god is holy god is creative all these different types of things and so that's what it means to be created in the image of god right that's kind of just how i assumed what that phrase meant now at some level that's true but that's not what the text is trying to say that's almost a byproduct definition image of god in the ancient near east which literally again is where this text was written out of and from you have to understand the context was actually not about characteristics but was about vocation vocation job right you have been given a job to do because you are a royal signpost a royal ambassador of creator yahweh are you tracking that god has actually commissioned you and having the image of god in you means you are to be a small divine reflector i mean a reflector of the divine and so whether that's in relationships by the way or whether that's in your job whether that's how you treat money you do it to be a divine reflector in your world in your context in your city is that true are you trying to reflect god's image or are you resisting the image he puts on you that's by the way how you define sin is resisting the image he has put on you do you reflect who he is and how he has created you to be it has to do with your vocation he has given us jobs to do another way to think about it is again i always had this idea that like here's a question what would you say peak spirituality is what would you say peak christianity is most of us if we think of like the high moment it's what it's what maybe sitting in our prayer closet praying for five hours listening to hillsong and maybe maverick city anyone else great music by the way but i might just critique that a little bit and say that's not what it means to be human that's actually what it means to be an angel you ever thought about that so what does it mean to be an angel in scripture any time an angel shows up in scripture what are they doing they're basically kneeling i mean besides the few times they have a human interaction when they're around god what are they doing they're kneeling at his feet worshiping it now is that a part of what it means to be human yes absolutely but does genesis say that's what it means to be human i don't see that anywhere in genesis what do i see you are created as an image bearer of god which means you are a human and human means to work go do the job i have given you so many times we over spiritualize this version of christianity and under spiritualize this version which is god has given you a job that is to properly reflect him in every avenue of your life another way to think about it is being an image-bearer of god and again in relationships it's almost like being a 45 degree angled mirror i know that's a weird way to put it right but any geometry students in here if god is kind of like giving his love his goodness his grace and who he is and his character down on a 45 degree angled mirror where does it go do any geometry students out there 45 degree angle mirror it comes down it goes out right so we are to reflect we are to absorb all that he is all that he um who he is and what he has for us in creation and reflect it out into the world but by the way it's a two-way street what it means to be an image bearer is actually to take all of creation and do what create create order out of uh out of chaos and reflect it back up to him in worship so it's a two-way street if that's what it means to be an image bearer one other fun fact do you know when they've done a lot of um digging and archaeological sites in antiquity and they find like you know uh old statues and ruins of like statues of like old roman emperors like a caesar or a nero or something like that do you know whenever they find those statues that's always thousands of miles away from rome and they've never found one statue in rome of caesar or nero now why is that why would you guess that there's a bunch of caesar statues thousands of miles away in the farthest colony but none in rome why where do you not need a statue of caesar where the real guy lives right are you tracking but where do you need one in the farther outermost points of the colonies to do what by the way why do like why do we have statues out there hey this is who is in charge this is who the authority is this is the king i think that's a really interesting way by the way to think about what it means to be an image bearer or a human in the heaven and earth dimension okay that it specifically says god created the heavens and the earth and that humans were created on earth to be those outermost statues that do what what's our job to live in a way that says what this is who's in charge this is who is in charge are you doing that in your relationships in the way that you're going about dating and the way you're treating her and the way you're treating him are you showing who is in charge yahweh or you by the way because there's only one true king but we all have a choice to show who that is and i'll just go with that one step farther too by the way that's an interesting way to think about sin and hell if you think about it when let when a statue is in the farther farthest outermost points of a colony and let's say you know a new empire takes over that colony and rome is no longer in charge there two things there's two possibilities that would happen to that statue what one the enemy either just tears it down or two because they're not that they don't care about caesar they no longer maintain it and it begins to crumble what a fascinating picture of sin what a fascinating picture of sin that when you stop reflecting god's image and you take on something else in your heart and you give it ultimate allegiance then you begin to crumble your humanness or in a way and the enemy actually wants to attack it and tear you down and i think by the way that's an interesting look at hell hell is nothing more than basically god saying you don't want the image of of my me on you anymore okay and he just takes the entire image off and there's historical precedent by the way for that c.s lewis tim keller some of the early church fathers that's how they would describe it hell is this gnarly place where it's actually god saying you don't want my image on you anymore okay fine what would we be like without the image of god i don't know but i don't want to see it and again so many of us in the choices we're making with our sexuality with our bodies with our hearts with our thoughts and with our minds because we are not showing and being under the authority of god we are crumbling our humanness we are eroding and destroying ourselves by the decisions we're making by not being under the authority and the rain and rule of god that's what it means to be an image bearer another way the last way i'll put it before the next point is when you're an image bearer your life and your body is telling a story your life and your body is telling a story let it be the true one let it be the right one let it be the one of human flourishing and goodness another way to say it is don't let your body say something that your life isn't anyone who's having sex before marriage you're basically just letting your body tell a lie you're basically saying you know i don't want to be with you for life i don't want to join in a covenant i don't want to do all these things but i'm going to let my body say that that's true i'm gonna let my body tell that story when nothing else in my life tells that story god's a cohesive god by the way he's a god of unity where he actually created sexuality to not be this random thing that's arbitrary but actually for it to be a picture that's lining up with everything else that's already happening that we are under a covenant together that we are brought together in joinment right in the scriptures the two will become what one flesh in sexuality in finances in life in emotions whatever it is there is a merging of two people becoming one don't let your body tell a lie point two god seemed to say here and then also in chapter two that he gave them a massive enormous job to do and that they can't do it alone so he actually creates a team he doesn't just create adam and say okay now go do what i just asked you to do he immediately says specifically there but also in genesis 2 around 13 and 14 that you cannot do this alone and so what i have created you to be a team i have created a distinct different individual from you that you can merge together with her and go on mission together god created us in our relationships to be a team when you're dating when you're in that season of looking for someone you want to spend the rest of your life with the best thing you should be asking is does this person make me a better team a better person do they actually take me i don't want to say it in like a um an egotistical way but like does this person make me better does that make sense like do they make me better spiritually emotionally and all these different types of things do they actually do they make me more into the image of god by being being merged with them that's a question you should ask but you know what's funny is the western narratives tend to be the opposite we're not looking for teams we're looking for clones is that not true the western narrative of romance is i just want someone like me so that i don't have to wrestle with any of my crap right if that person looks like me talks like me acts like me and never annoys me well then i don't have to deal with any of my crap isn't the team an opposite the opposite truth what does any sports team do they actually cherish and celebrate what when someone is different than them they actually say i have enormous gaps i cannot play every position so i need someone that can play a different position i need someone that has can fill those gaps i need someone that has a different skill set both man and woman should be talking like that and thinking like that that actually instead of us wanting someone more like us we should want someone that specifically is different so that we can be a more rounded team to go on the mission god has for us god wants to send you on mission and marriage is essentially creating a team for you to accomplish what he has for you do you believe in that and do you trust in that another way to think too is that god so many of us we're only we think uh love is face to face right if only i can find a relationship where we're just face to face and we just stare lovingly into each other's eyes and watch netflix and rom-coms and all these things by the way speaking of rom-coms that's like a dead genre now is that kind of suck those were like amazing back then and they just like started like stopped making them you know yeah what was the one with rebel wilson though where they kind of like spoofed it hilarious you should watch it i can't remember if it's ar though so maybe not anyways okay um tangent but so many of us we think that love or marriage is only about face to face when in reality specifically in genesis it's actually shoulder to shoulder it's not about looking across the aisle for someone to complete you or fulfill you but it's actually shoulder to shoulder who can i go do god's work with who can i actually accomplish the mission with who actually level like who actually levels each other up that's who i want to join myself with and by the way the antithesis is also a helpful diagnostic who makes you worse who just erodes the image of god in you who absolutely just shames you for what you feel like your calling is or who you're created to be or where you want to go or the dreams god's laid on your heart if you're in a dating relationship and you feel like that stuff is getting sunk and oppressed and and kind of like put down you need to break up immediately okay thank you [Laughter] oh you felt that you felt that um i'm glad i'm not alone thank you but it's true it's true or you could say too especially for the ladies this is a really helpful one and i guess you could do it on reverse you could do it both but another helpful diagnostic if you're dating is say um okay if we get married and we have kids that are exactly like that other person so ladies okay if we get married and i have a son and my son turns turns out to be exactly like my husband does that make you cringe or make you excited if that makes you cringe i think you know what you should do but so many of us we stay in these relationships for i have no idea why reasons when we know that person's holding us down we know that person is not activating us in the spirit and allowing us to go on mission together you know they don't make you better you have to ask those hard questions now because can i just say too by the way if you're not asking it now it'll just get 10 times worse than marriage 10 times worse this is the time to ask the hard questions this is the time to make the hard decisions when you are dating and looking for someone to partner with on god's mission point three he then gives them a specific domain and job title in what we just read he says be fruitful and multiply number one and then number two it says he put them in the garden of eden to work it and to keep it what i like to say is we're all gardeners we all are gardeners according to genesis what does it mean to be a gardener in the actual technical definition a gardener is someone who basically takes raw materials and then uses some of the out you know the outside resources as well sun rain et cetera like that they take those raw materials and what do they do with it they do two things they either one make something beautiful right something that's just compelling and powerful like a flower or bed or something like that or what or they make something that is nourishing and feeds you agriculture crops etc the job of a gardener is to make something beautiful or to make something that feeds you now all of us that's a really helpful definition for what it means for again your vocation for your life the question is what is your specific garden what domain has god calls you to whether it's law whether it's medicine whether it's the creative arts whether it's finance i don't know what it is but that is a garden that you can actually worship god in by creating order out of chaos creating something that's beautiful or creating something that nourishes people spiritually emotionally physically whatever it is what is your garden and a helpful question when you're dating is do you have the same garden as the other person you don't have to have the same job as them but there should be a big enough fence where we want to play together in here we want to build together in here we want to create something that god has asked us to do in this boundary realm but if you feel like you're on opposite ends of the spectrum or doing you know totally going pulling opposite ways then that probably might not be a wise decision there's something about god that he calls them to merge and then what does he do and then he says he literally places them that's what it says he places them in the garden of eden to work it in to keep it so he merges them first then he places them in the garden to work to gather we are given gardens to steward and marriage is about being on mission together so ask yourself what that is what that looks like who that is is that person maybe that person you haven't even met that person yet right or whatever it is but god is calling you to be on mission imagine if a team imagine if a sports team just hung out in the locker room all day and just kind of told stories to each other would that be weird right oh man i love you bro i love your bro hey you're awesome you're awesome do you think that'd be weird sooner or later probably actually sooner right why what's a team supposed to do a team supposed to go play the game a team supposed to go win the championship but so many of us that's pretty much what i just described what we actually believe is the ideal of romance and relationships let's just sit in the locker room and just tell each other good things now by the way can i just be clear that that as well as the face to face is the other metaphor for it is necessary but i would consider that the glue and the goodness god has created four relationships for you to go do the bigger thing which is be on mission together now if you go on mission together without the face to face then it's dry it's hard it's difficult and the and without the glue there is usually fracturing so they are meant to go together but a lot of us we are totally fine with just the sitting hanging out and just staring lovingly into each other's eyes when that's more like the locker room where you prep you check out the whiteboard you run up the plays then you go on into the game then you go play the game then you go pursue what god has for you and so that's what we have to think about when we read genesis and think about that that god is giving you a garden to go play the game so what would that be and think about when you think about that too a couple helpful questions you can maybe ask yourself in that is just talk to the person more with asking them dreams hopes visions etc i think so many times i hear dating relationships and you know you'll be like have you asked them what they want to do or where they want to be in 10 years or whether i'm not saying they have to have a perfect answer to that by the way because does anyone else hate that question yeah where are you going to be in five years like i don't know and any answer i said i definitely didn't look like that five years ago now but it is helpful in just like stirring the heart stirring the mind of are they going somewhere a really good word for it is trajectory trajectory are you on a trajectory that this person is on because you should be going the same direction either in maturity level in a spiritual maturity level or in a vocational level but going the same direction on a certain trajectory is deeply deeply important and so that's what we have to ask point four is this then what we see too is that what do we see with jesus that jesus comes in the gospels and beautifully shows us what that we don't have what it takes that we are not good enough that we have failed but what his love is there for us he meets us in this place and he wants to know you another way to think about it is those three points i just named jesus perfectly fulfills have you ever thought about who's the truest image of god jesus he is the actual fulfiller of the image it even says then colossians that he is the image of the invisible god not only as an image of god but he also as the truly human one showed us what it's like that he was the perfect divine reflection he was the perfect divine reflection that comes down and goes out towards us then he doesn't go solo he goes on a team mission with the holy spirit and the father constantly referencing them constantly saying he needs them constantly saying he needs to meet with them and then what and then point number three he then reveals his garden which is what all of us our hearts our minds that our sinful nature the earth that he he is the ultimate maker of order out of chaos in our lives in our marriages and our dating relationships and our finances in all these different types of things that god is for us god is with us and that any place that we failed in being these proper divine reflections he has fulfilled for us by his grace i think about we can fast forward genesis 1 genesis 2 and then genesis 3 what happens in genesis 3. the curse so they're given this big mandate they're given this big mission they're given this big job and they fail they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they say i can do it on my own which so many of us were still living that lie today in relationships in our sexuality i can do it on my own and it's this whisper from satan or the satan figure actually is what it is in hebrew you know by the way total trivia and random known fact but we call him satan but you know that actual figure in scripture has no proper name right it's the serpent or the satan in hebrew which just literally means the accuser satan we call him that and i'm just going to call him that right now just for reference sake he actually doesn't have a true name and there's actually god trying to do a point there by the way what gets names in scripture we literally actually just read it it's a couple verses after genesis 1 28 29 what gets names anything that's created anything that shows order anything that's put in the garden who's the antithesis of order who's the king of chaos the accuser the serpent the satan figure and so it's actually i think god in some way and the writers of the scriptures kind of saying he is so the antithesis of chaos and evil that he doesn't deserve a name he doesn't deserve a name because he only seeks to kill and destroy and steal he only seeks to unravel his job is to breed chaos in our lives in our relationships and he does it almost primarily by whispering in our ear you can do it alone you can do it on your own and you are the king of your own life those are his primary tools and his primary whispers that he constantly is putting into our ear and nowhere does it wreak more havoc than in relationships i don't know about you but i mean i had a like my childhood is is was pretty horrible and i think about like my like no one really walks with the lord in my family right uh my my parents never got married um you know my mom had been to like juvenile hall my dad had been to prison just a really really really pretty rough upbringing and i look back on that and i'm just like yep rings true that satan just breeds chaos and disorder like so many of us is that not our story maybe even you had a healthy family but you never felt known you never felt seen you feel like the pressure was insurmountable you feel like you could never actually perform good enough for your parents to love you or maybe it was severely broken by the world's standards whatever it is so many of us i think it would be clear for us to say that yes objectively we understand sin can erode relationships even if we're not thinking about ours but the ones above us how it's informed us how it's ruined us how it's wounded us that it can hurt us that if that that have we not seen basically it's funny how we just keep making the same mistakes generationally that's what i'm trying to say so many of us have we not seen that when you say that you're the king of your own life or you make your own decisions or you don't listen to god's blueprint you don't step into god's design it does not end well it breeds chaos and disorder and hurt and pain it's the brokenness of this word shalom in the garden that this this order this dance of creation that when you are living within god's design it's like it's like a music it's like rhythmic it's beautiful it's compelling but there's something about sin that breaks the music and just wreaks havoc on our lives and music is a really good metaphor too by the way that music is kind of objective in in the sense of the rhythm meaning it is just a rhythm would just be constant a beat right it would just be going at a certain way um we don't get to make up the music is what i'm trying to say you don't get to make up the music now you can be creative of how you dance in the music right and it might not be good we got some white people in the room so i understand but i mean come on we've all seen that guy at the wedding right where it's like i don't think no no no okay you know who you are you know who you are so when music is playing you cannot make up the music your job is to submit to music and dance within it but you are allowed to be creative within that submission again i think that's a beautiful picture of relationships god's design that they are not rigid god's designed so much in our culture is this it's that it's god is constrictive god is oppressive god is you know rigid now there might be restraint that he calls this to and i would believe it does feel like that and sound like that in our culture and it absolutely does but within that restraint there is freedom just like someone who's enjoying dancing you're not saying it's rigid to not dance on beat you're just saying you look stupid you look ridiculous that's not how you do it it's that simple that's not rigid that's just almost like a law of nature that just music works in a certain way and you can be creative within it and so that's god's design again for relationships and for us one more tangent i just thought of and then i'll close here in a sec is that's actually a big point in our culture right that our culture is highest value specifically with the 35 and under crowd which that would be me and and peers and stuff would be that nothing should inhibit my freedom nothing should inhibit my freedom that's like the highest western ideal and are we not seeing that play out in all these cultural battles right that the highest ideal in the west is that i should be able to do what i want when i want how i want and anything that constricts that is evil or wrong or oppressive or from the patriarchy right don't you guys just love okay never mind i'm not gonna okay just gonna we're gonna move on from that one that word okay but in fact that's not true freedom true freedom always involves restraint at some level a good metaphor would be like skydiving right now when you skydive that's like the epitome of freedom right you're just jumping out of a plane flying through the air it feels super free exhilarating and amazing there's no restraints well kind of is there what's kind of restraining you a parachute now if you wanted to be a little bit more free because that kind of felt like it was getting a little tight you might chafe and you want to take it off what's going to happen to you you're going to die so in that scenario it sounds like restraint actually brings more freedom are you tracking in that scenario it actually sounds like if i submit to the restraints i will actually be able to enjoy this way more same with sex same with relationships same with dating same with marriage then when you understand god's design and when you understand the restraints he has placed in there you will be able to enjoy it way better it's actually god's saying play enjoy eat be fruitful be multiply this is amazing incredible but within this context you go outside of that context and you're just playing against the music god the the thing i want you to hear tonight is he's playing a music are you dancing to it in your relationship are you trying to tune your ear to it every morning what a cool way to think about prayer by the way is it is this is a time to listen to god and almost be a tuning fork to his music his voice his love over me that's what it means to live in a healthy way in that blueprint and i'll end with this so we get to genesis 3 the curse comes and there's this really fascinating thing that shows up of how god responds to the first human sinning that i think we just kind of skip over because we kind of just assume well yeah we've read the rest of the story of course god's loving and kind etc but let's just try back go back a little bit okay so they sin but by the way like did that not seem like they send in five seconds anyone else like it was so quick he said do not eat to the tree and what'd they do five seconds later they ate of the tree now god would have every reason especially with that royal language in genesis that these are the royal ambassadors of yahweh himself maybe at a high level justice weight i don't know just go thanos and snap his finger and they disappear i don't know but he could have he would have been justified in responding that way that's what i'm trying to say but yet if we hadn't read the rest of the scriptures i feel like you would be on the edge of your seat of like what is god going to do in this moment these image bearers these royal priests these divine representatives i mean the representatives of the divine these image bearers they just usurped and kind of went against the king what is he going to do now what does he do he does something very weird what's god's very first response to the first time sin enters into the world what's he do he asks a question that's his first response the very first time sin enters into the world after he just created everything it was beautiful it was amazing and it was awesome and it was incredible the very first thing god does is asks a question too actually but why is that weird god should be never asking questions amen isn't that kind of like against the like is that not really the like if you're god you don't really need to be asking that right unless what unless what god is maybe asking rhetorically or it's actually trying to show us something now what was the question was the very first thing out of god's mouth they sin the curse breaks everything comes into the world and then god comes looking for them in the garden asks a question and the question is what adam where are you adam where are you now again do you think he really needs to know like hey what bush bro i can't find you do you think he's legitimately asking adam send me the gps coordinates right now log into my find my friends app and let me know where you're at no again unless god is rhetorically in that moment setting a precedent that we have to saturate ourselves in and that is god actually calling them back to himself immediately immediately he's actually saying adam where are you where is my son where is my daughter why are you hiding why are you hiding the first response from god is actually to go look from them and then to call them out of hiding that's enormously incredible like his default position to sin that's another way you could put it his default like how his first response to sin in the world is to go looking for them and call them out of it go looking for them and he by the way he calls him by name how beautiful is that he calls you by name when he's calling you out of your sin when he's calling you out of hiding when he's calling you out of your shame when he's calling you out of anything that is unraveling your humanness breeding that chaos breeding that disorder he's calling you out of it tonight maybe tonight masturbation sleeping with your boyfriend or your girlfriend whether it's something that was done to you in the past in an abusive way whatever the shame is whatever the behavior is whatever it is he's calling you out of it tonight you can find healing tonight tonight he says where are you and then they say we were hiding because we were naked and ashamed and then he says a second question which is what who told you you were naked again it's god reiterating the primal voice over the human saying who told you you were naked who told you you weren't good enough who told you you were this this this and this i didn't that wasn't my voice that's a different voice but that's not my voice the very first voice over you cries love goodness image bearer beloved his do you believe that tonight do you believe that god is calling you out of darkness out of sin out of all of these things into goodness he wants to plant you back in the garden equipped by the power of jesus and the holy spirit to go on mission with him and so i'll i'll say this when i think about that moment and thinking about jesus calling of out of sin in our darkness i think of the story of jesus where the the the lady is coming to um like try to get to him right and touches him and what happens to her well two things first of all does jesus how crazy is it that jesus immediately says who just touched me and he's in a crowd of like a bajillion people so it's like well bro isn't everyone kind of right but he says who touched me so it shows you his awareness and his power and then by the way what's it say she had been i think sick and bleeding for 14 years from what i can remember from the story and then what to say upon touching her she is instantly healed instantly healed now you know what's crazy about that story before the new testament darkness or uncleanliness tended to win now here's what i mean by that i don't mean that god wasn't powerful then or god wasn't healing but just even ceremonially according to the torah if something clean came in contact with something unclean in the old testament almost every single time if they were to touch an unclean and a clean person or thing or whatever what would win meaning would both leave clean or both leave unclean both would be made unclean the uncleanliness would kind of like transpose itself right and you know what's crazy about jesus in the new testament it's completely reversed anything that comes in contact with jesus what happens clean instantly instantly healed righteous new beloved good simply by reaching out and touching him and so that's what i want to leave you guys with tonight and that's what i want you to think on and just sit on with this last song that'll be here in a minute is have you first of all reached out and touched him have you reached out and touched him have you been made new because the minute you say yes to jesus and all that unraveling that sin was doing you begin to start re-raveling in new creation that's what it means to walk with jesus is all you're doing is re-raveling yourself i know it's a weird way to put it but you're re-raveling your imageness to be made more in the image of who him and then when we resurrect and are fully glorified that job is perfected and done that job is perfected and done that's what it means to be an image bearer under the submission and authority of jesus so have you reached out and touched him and then if you have have you been placed in that garden do you understand that mission and are you on a trajectory of trying to find a teammate that will take you in the direction god wants you and make you better and be a partner that'll actually go on mission with you and not hold you down let me pray for you guys jesus i just pray for everyone in this room lord thinking just feeling that weight right now of the the diversity of life story in this room whether it's a good family upbringing a bad family upbringing whether it's some serious dark stuff that's been done against us whether it's some stuff that we have done against other people whether there's maybe just even like something stuff we don't feel like was crazy bad or been done against us but we just feel numb we just feel like we have what we should have and what we need but we just feel like we're empty we just feel numb and so lord i just pray a blessing i pray a healing over everyone in this room tonight lord and as this song plays maybe we shout it out as a praise to you but maybe we let it wash over us as well and we just listen and that this song can maybe be a reminder of that primal voice in the garden the first voice that says where are you you can come out of hiding and lord we thank you for the blueprint that the minute we come out of hiding we are touched healed renewed and new and then we have the blueprint we can continue to take steps forward to first of all be on mission ourselves that lord you give us missions as image bearers individually and that we can focus we can point ourselves towards you and if you want to bring someone to the left or to the right to join in on that party then amen let it be so but lord let us be faithful either way in singleness in relationships let us be faithful faithful with our bodies faithful with our thoughts lord let our our bodies our thoughts and our hearts and our minds do exactly what we talked about in the beginning say this is who is in charge this is who is king might we be image bearers and living statues going out where people say oh that's what it looks like that's what divine love and goodness and blessing looks like that's what the king looks like that's what who i'm created to actually be like maybe looks like the one calling me into love and forgiveness so lord we thank you for who you are and what you've done for us naomi pray amen

Channel: The Porch

Views: 8,106

Rating: 4.9111109 out of 5

Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, community, church, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, fort, worth, faith, sermon, dating, truth, bible, advice, biblical, counsel, jonathan pokluda, the porch, watermark community church, young adults, fort worth, david marvin, todd wagner, the bible

Id: F_6PJ-_sVww

Length: 41min 50sec (2510 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 01 2021