Welcome/Visitors
“Physical sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to.”
― Mark Buchanan
“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” (Deuteronomy 4:9)
Prayer
Do you know, or….. really know?
Mark 3:11-12
[11] And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
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Joni Eareckson Tada: For years, I was one of those who insisted, “Handicaps happen to other people, not me.” But all that changed on a hot July afternoon in 1967 when my sister Kathy and I went to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay for a swim. The water was murky, and I didn’t bother to check the depth when I hoisted myself onto a raft anchored offshore. I dove in and instantly felt my head hit something hard — my neck snapped and I felt a strange electric shock. Underwater and dazed, I felt myself floating and unable to surface for air. Thankfully, Kathy noticed my plight and quickly came to the rescue. When she pulled me out of the water, I saw my arm slung over her shoulder, and yet, I couldn’t feel it. I knew then that something awful had happened. Later, at the hospital, I learned I had severed my spinal cord and would be left a quadriplegic for the rest of my life. I was devastated.
Lying in the hospital, I recalled that just months earlier I had asked God to draw me closer to His side. Now, stuck in bed, I wondered if my paralysis was His idea of an answer to that prayer. If this was the way He treated new Christians, how could He ever be trusted with another prayer again? Obviously, God’s ways were far different than mine, and, for a long time, that idea both frightened and depressed me. But where else could I turn? To whom could I go? I remember praying, “God, if I can’t die, then show me how to live.” Many days afterward, I would sit in front of a Bible, holding a mouth-stick between my teeth and flipping the pages, praying that God would help me put together the puzzle pieces of my suffering.
Psalm 79:8 says, “May your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need” (NIV). Basically, I wake up almost every morning in desperate need of Jesus — from those early days when I first got out of the hospital, to over four decades in a wheelchair, it’s still the same. The morning dawns and I realize: “Lord, I don’t have the strength to go on. I have no resources. I can’t ‘do’ another day of quadriplegia, but I can do all things through You who strengthen me. So please give me Your smile for the day; I need You urgently.” This, I have found, is the secret to my joy and contentment. Every morning, my disability — and, most recently, my battle with cancer — forces me to come to the Lord Jesus in empty-handed spiritual poverty. But that’s a good place to be because Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3, NIV).
God wrote the book on suffering and He called it Jesus. This means God understands. He knows. He’s with me. My diving accident really was an answer to that prayer to be drawn closer to Him.
God never intended that we should suffer alone, that we should suffer for nothing. This is why spiritual community is so important to a person who has undergone a catastrophic injury or illness — his family and the church keep him connected to reality, help ascribe positive meaning to his pain, bring him out of social isolation, and point him to the One who holds all the answers in His hand. Without family and the church, a person with a disability is adrift in a sea of hopelessness. We must not let that happen.
At times it has seemed too much to bear. So I went back and reexamined my original views on divine healing to see what more I could learn. What I discovered was that God still reserves the right to heal or not to heal as He sees fit.
And rather than try to frantically escape the pain, I relearned the timeless lesson of allowing my suffering to push me deeper into the arms of Jesus. I like to think of my pain as a sheepdog that keeps snapping at my heels to drive me down the road to Calvary, where, otherwise, I would not be naturally inclined to go.
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Gospel of Mark.
Jesus has come to earth.
Began His ministry.
Healed, preached, rebuked, forgiven
His popularity among the people is growing!
His hatred among the religious elite is also growing!
Mark 3:7-12
A Great Crowd Follows Jesus
[7] Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea [8] and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. [9] And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, [10] for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. [11] And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” [12] And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
- So do we know what it means to follow him?
- Do we know what it means to really know him?
- Do we know what it means to really trust him with our soul?
- We’ve talked about Jesus saying “follow Me”
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- The passage says large crowds came, nothing wrong with that.
- at least they came
- but what did they come for?
- healing is good to get, nothing wrong with it
- but is that all? Only for what they get?
- If you follow, what are you following him for?
- This is saying they just went along with Jesus
- Jesus knows what’s in the heart of man and he knew what they were there for…He told the disciples to have the boat “ready”
- He knows us (I’ll repeat that later)
- Following…Because you love him, or because of what He can do for you? (Using him)
- Following…Because it’s the right thing, or because I fear what might happen without him?
- Following…Because my family does
- Following…Because church is friendly and safe
- Following…Because I don’t want family to think ill of me
- ….Or are we following because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life?
- The passage says large crowds came, nothing wrong with that.
- We can know his name, but not really know Him or obey Him
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- So people are coming just to touch Jesus and the evil spirits are falling down in front of him….can you imagine the scene? Sick people and demoniacs
- Plenty of people know the name of Jesus, but they haven’t taken time to find out who He is.
- People can recognize who he is and still not follow
- see the unclean spirits here….(they know him but have no intention to follow him)
- These are demon possessed people
- Do you think they had good things in mind to confess Him?
- or are they always working against him? (And us?)
Mark 3:11
[11] And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
- Even knowing that he is the path to salvation is not it, Salvation is seeing that he is Lord, confessing, repenting and believing and following him
…….
“There is too wide a gap, for most of us, between what we say and what we mean. Between our words and our thoughts. The first thing the Prophet Isaiah said when he saw the living and exalted God was, “Woe is me, I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah was one of the most godly men who ever walked the earth. But seeing God, he sees also, abrupt and stark and grief-making, his own duplicity. Then God does what only God can do: he sears his lips clean (Isaiah 6:6-7). And herein lies our hope: truly seeing God, we truly see ourselves, in all our woe-begotten duplicity; but crying out to God, we are truly and greatly helped.”
― Mark Buchanan
- Do you know Him, because ……God knows you
- He knows every hair on our head
- He knew us when we were in the womb
- If he cares for the sparrows how much more does he care for you
- He gave us His word to know Him
- He gifted us His Spirit to know Him
- The Spirit helps us in our weakness (helps us to pray) in Romans 8
- The Spirit Guides us
- God knows us and has made a way for us to know Him
John 16:13-14
[13] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. [14] He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
- Do we trust him with our souls?
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- Why wouldn’t he let them “make him known”
- Isn’t that what he’s trying to do?
- Jesus is submitting to the Father’s plan and timing
- we should too
- Our methods or His methods?
- Not just true here, but true in everything
- I mean we trust what we’ve seen as the ending of the stories in the Bible, but do we trust Him with our story?
- Why wouldn’t he let them “make him known”
“I’ve learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse” – Philip Yancey
- So the question is our will or His will?
- “If we knew everything that He knew, we’d do it exactly like Him”
- If we only obey partially, is that obedience?
- if you only work partially is that worth the pay?
- If you only love for what people can give you, is that love?
- Do you want your kids to only kinda do what you said?
- Do you want your doctor to only kinda do what he learned in medical school?
- Do you want your pilot to only kinda do what he learned in flight school?
“Physical sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to.”
― Mark Buchanan
That’s the issue here. People want to be rid of their physical pain and will go to any lengths to get relief.
- People will take medication without knowing the side effects
- People will try a herbal medicine without knowing what it really does (just read it on the internet)
- People will fly to another country for an experimental surgery or procedure
- People will go to faith healers and pay them money (all of it)
- even go to other faiths in hope for relief
- NOTE: It’s not bad to care for your body, it’s a good thing
….but when it comes to our souls we mostly lack the faith and trust in the One who can truly help and heal it.
I guess the question is the definition of what helps our souls, right?
- Are you looking for complete relief from every pain in this life? Not happening here. Fallen humanity, Satan prowling about, living in the flesh, and God working
- Jesus does tell us that we will find rest for our souls in Him
- Confidence that he loves us and cares for us.
- Is this close enough to home for you? Or too general
- I’m not just talking about rest from those things that seem to come and go and we all use cliches “this too shall pass” or “I’m just giving it to the Lord”
- I’m talking about the things that wake you up at night
- The things that you’ve carried for years
- guilt
- unforgiveness
- anger
- pain (traumatic pain)
- loss
- I’m not saying you will forget them all….most of them you can’t and they make us who we are
- But we can find rest in the Lord. We can lay burdens down at his feet.
- Trust that He will handle it and us, now and in the future. Not just “in the sweet by and by” but He’s our sustainer.
- The bible is filled with these difficult stories. It’s not filled with everything going great every day for everyone like some movie or old tv show.
So you can “know” Jesus….or you can really know and trust Him with everything……our souls do not have to be sick. How do I know? I’ve experienced it, myself & Scripture tells it.
For myself
I grew up in a tough situation
I saw and experienced things that you wouldn’t want your kids or grandkids to see or hear
I was lost and selfish
I thought only of myself
I thought and did things that would satisfy my desires
God called me and I responded and He saved me.……
and I still had & have sin and selfishness and old wounds and old habits to rid myself of (through God’s help)
Marcia’s been married to me for 35 years.
She can tell you that it’s not been roses and bon bons all these years, but she’s seen God work in my life and in hers.
We aren’t immune from sin nor selfishness nor failures
But I am aware that God sent his son to save me and help me be conformed to his image. That conformity changes us, and heals our sick souls.
And scripture says…..
Matthew 11:28-30
[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
So my suggestion for you.
Is to come up here and lay it down.
