Does Jesus Still Heal Today?

00:00:02

- Welcome to Crossroads, whoever and wherever you are.

00:00:05

And if you're watching this in real time,

00:00:07

Happy Mother's Day, moms.

00:00:08

Without you, we literally wouldn't exist.

00:00:11

So we're going to use cards, candy, hugs,

00:00:13

brunch, and anything else we can think of

00:00:15

just to say thank you and we love you so much.

00:00:19

Now I've got young kids, five, six and eight,

00:00:21

so my wife is about to be the proud recipient

00:00:23

of a whole bunch of coloring pages and clay pots.

00:00:26

But Happy Mother's Day, we love you.

00:00:29

And no matter who you are, I'm just glad

00:00:31

that you're tuning in today, because I think

00:00:33

you're going to understand more of what it means

00:00:36

to experience God as the true source

00:00:38

of healing and hope in your life.

00:00:40

We're kicking off a series of teachings

00:00:41

called World's Best Hope, and we're going to be hearing

00:00:44

from one of our teaching pastors, Alli Patterson.

00:00:46

But before we get that, we're actually going

00:00:48

to spend some time with music.

00:00:50

We're going to spend some time with worship,

00:00:52

using songs to connect us to God.

00:00:54

In the midst of the chaos and craziness

00:00:56

of our just weekly routines, it's really good

00:00:59

to have a spot to pause and be reminded

00:01:01

about what's true about God,

00:01:03

and about what God says is true about us.

00:01:06

So if you're in front of your TV

00:01:08

or on your commute, whatever it is,

00:01:10

turn this up and use these songs as a way

00:01:12

to connect with God right now.

00:06:54

- It's just five words,

00:06:58

but they're are big five words. Am I right?

00:07:02

I don't know what you come in today asking of Jesus.

00:07:06

Maybe you're not even aware or remembering

00:07:08

what you're asking of Him, but I bet you are.

00:07:10

I bet you're asking something of Him.

00:07:14

The five words, five words that I stand on,

00:07:19

that we stand on as a community:

00:07:23

You are more than able

00:07:26

to do far more, far more than we could imagine.

00:07:32

And so sometimes Eric and I will talk

00:07:35

or one of our worship leaders will talk.

00:07:37

We just -- we'll share a scripture

00:07:39

to ground you in Scripture.

00:07:40

Here's why I'm talking right now.

00:07:43

Because it's not easy to believe these five words

00:07:46

and don't play like it is.

00:07:48

It's not easy to stand in our world

00:07:51

and in our circumstances, the day to day,

00:07:53

and go every moment, "Yes, He's more than able."

00:07:56

It's not easy, but it's worth the risk to say it.

00:08:04

This whole weekend is an invitation for you

00:08:08

to believe those five words.

00:08:11

And why? Because of the words of Jesus.

00:08:16

They're not 2024 words.

00:08:19

They're ancient words by the One I call

00:08:21

King and Lord and Savior.

00:08:24

Matthew 19 Jesus said: with God all things are possible.

00:08:29

And it's worth the risk for me to take Him at His Word.

00:08:32

And that's how I walk every single day.

00:08:34

I've seen some stuff and had some loss

00:08:36

in the last few months

00:08:38

that would challenge those five words.

00:08:39

And I'm telling you, I'm willing to risk it

00:08:41

every time and say, "I take You at Your Word, Jesus.

00:08:44

I will take You at Your Word and say

00:08:46

time and time again 'You are more than able.'"

00:08:50

An invitation.

00:08:52

An invitation for you to say it for the first time,

00:08:58

or maybe to say it again.

00:09:00

Rarely do we have a song that's just

00:09:02

an honest conversation about wrestling

00:09:04

with the words of Jesus.

00:09:06

That's exactly what this one is.

00:09:11

First time, or say it again, but I invite you in

00:09:15

to the conversation with Jesus.

00:19:55

[applause] God, I interpret those claps as a thank you.

00:19:59

As a thank you for this reminder

00:20:04

that the reason we opt into worship moments

00:20:09

and church services is because we want

00:20:13

to be reminded of what You've done for us.

00:20:19

And maybe we didn't know it from the get go,

00:20:22

so we just want to know it for the first time.

00:20:24

So God, I just ask in this space that You would --

00:20:28

That You would bring some gratitude

00:20:30

and some thankfulness out of our hearts

00:20:32

for the fact that You died for us.

00:20:38

You died.

00:20:39

You died for all of our sin and our shame

00:20:42

so that we didn't have to pay that penalty.

00:20:47

God, and for that in my own life,

00:20:49

I just say thank you.

00:20:50

Thank you for being my living hope

00:20:53

and not a dead hope or a past hope,

00:20:55

but a hope that is alive and giving me life right now.

00:21:03

There's nothing I could ever do to deserve it.

00:21:05

But it's not about what I do.

00:21:07

It's about Your love.

00:21:09

Your love is the reason that chains can be broken,

00:21:14

the reason that people and bodies can be healed.

00:21:18

Because of who you are. So thank You, Lord.

00:21:22

Thank You, Jesus for Your saving grace.

00:21:26

And it's for this reason that we sing to You

00:21:29

and we give Your Name praise when we say Amen.

00:21:34

Yeah. Anybody agree with me on that? Come on.

00:21:38

It's His grace that saves each and every one of us.

00:21:41

Yeah. Thanks for singing and worshiping.

00:21:43

I love this space. It's a beautiful space.

00:21:45

Hey, why don't you head back to your seat.

00:21:47

As you do, or if you're already sitting down,

00:21:50

say hey to the person next to you, behind you.

00:21:54

You can have a seat.

00:21:57

- Crossroads started as a church

00:21:58

in the Midwestern United States

00:22:00

and has grown into a movement all over the globe.

00:22:02

This is friends and families on a journey with God together.

00:22:06

Now some of our community meets

00:22:07

in physical buildings like the one you've already seen,

00:22:10

but thousands of people also meet in homes,

00:22:13

dorms, bars, coffee shops, in person and online.

00:22:16

The important thing isn't where we watch the service,

00:22:19

it's that we're connecting with God

00:22:20

and growing with Him and growing with each other.

00:22:23

One of my favorite recent examples of this

00:22:26

is about Susie from Orlando.

00:22:28

Now, Susie helps out translating

00:22:29

some of our content into Spanish,

00:22:31

but recently traveled all the way

00:22:33

to Manchester, England and connected with

00:22:36

the Lancy family that lived there.

00:22:37

Now they are part of our Anywhere family.

00:22:39

Together they got to tour around the city,

00:22:41

connect over great food.

00:22:42

I just love this reminder that the church

00:22:44

is bigger than Sunday morning,

00:22:45

and that your church family

00:22:47

is bigger than you might think.

00:22:49

Now speaking of this, if you want some chances

00:22:52

to make some new friends from all over

00:22:54

and experience a different kind of church,

00:22:56

I would love for you to join us for Anywhere Weekend.

00:22:59

This is the one time of year where we invite

00:23:01

our entire anywhere community,

00:23:03

that is our entire church that doesn't live

00:23:05

close to one of our physical locations

00:23:07

to come to Cincinnati, where our church began

00:23:09

for a weekend of great fun, food,

00:23:11

great people, and just encouragement.

00:23:14

We're going to have Crossroads music.

00:23:15

Some of the same leaders that you see on stage

00:23:18

every week, and so much more.

00:23:19

And it only costs $10 and I don't want you to miss it.

00:23:23

I want you here for this.

00:23:24

If you think this is for somebody else,

00:23:26

no, no, no, no, this is for you.

00:23:28

And hey, we've removed every barrier we can think of.

00:23:31

The food, the drinks, the experiences,

00:23:33

even the swag are all on us.

00:23:35

Head to Crossroads.net/AnywhereWeekend

00:23:38

for all the details and to RSVP.

00:23:41

Now, intuitively, we kind of know

00:23:43

there's this connection between

00:23:44

where our money goes and where our attention goes.

00:23:47

Right? Now around here, we believe that

00:23:50

God calls us to do something intentional

00:23:53

with our money, and we call this tithing.

00:23:54

Tithing means we give the first 10% of what we earn

00:23:58

back to the local church as a sign of trust,

00:24:00

and that it's ultimately God who's in control

00:24:03

and not us.

00:24:04

Now, you don't have to believe that.

00:24:06

But if you have questions around

00:24:07

what we believe about money, or you want to join

00:24:10

the team of faithful people who make

00:24:11

this place work and everything we do possible,

00:24:14

head to Crossroads.net/give.

00:24:17

Now we're going to jump in with our content

00:24:19

as we hear from Alli about

00:24:21

what it means to follow a God who heals.

00:25:03

- Well, hey everybody.

00:25:05

My name is Alli Patterson, and I'm one of

00:25:06

the teaching pastors here at Crossroads.

00:25:08

It's great to be with you in community this weekend.

00:25:11

I will add my voice to the chorus of people

00:25:14

saying Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.

00:25:17

New moms, empty nest moms, spiritual moms.

00:25:19

I'm a mom of four teenagers myself, and so

00:25:23

we're going to do some fun stuff later today.

00:25:25

But ladies, I want you to know I love moms.

00:25:27

Fistbump to all you moms.

00:25:28

But actually, I took an expansion, I'll call it

00:25:32

onto my teaching role here at Crossroads.

00:25:33

And back in January, I agreed to start looking at

00:25:36

some of the ways that we could grow

00:25:38

and activate all of our women.

00:25:40

So love you, moms! Love all you women!

00:25:43

If you want to check out what's going on

00:25:45

that's coming this year, and some more stuff

00:25:47

for you guys that I'm working on,

00:25:49

you can go to Crossroads.net/women.

00:25:51

And I would love to have you on the monthly email

00:25:53

so I can kind of tell you some of

00:25:55

the cool stuff that's coming, and it's all for you.

00:25:58

So, happy Mother's Day, moms.

00:26:00

Ladies, I see you. More coming for you.

00:26:03

And I think you're going to be delighted that

00:26:06

you showed up here as part of our community

00:26:09

this weekend because we are talking hope,

00:26:11

like, hope with a capital H.

00:26:14

We're talking about all kinds of hope,

00:26:16

crazy hope that the gospel brings.

00:26:18

So, let me pray for us as we get started.

00:26:24

Father, thank You for allowing us to

00:26:27

be together today and to focus on You.

00:26:30

I pray that we would walk out of here lighter,

00:26:34

more joyful because of Your message of hope.

00:26:37

In Jesus's name, Amen.

00:26:40

Well, I said that the gospel brings hope.

00:26:43

One of my favorite things about being

00:26:45

a part of Crossroads is that we don't make

00:26:47

any assumptions that you've read the handbook

00:26:50

when you come in, like, you know what I mean?

00:26:52

The religious handbook where you know all the terms

00:26:54

and everybody's on the same page.

00:26:56

And I think that's part of what makes people

00:26:58

feel welcome in this community is that

00:27:00

when we say phrases like the gospel,

00:27:03

well, why don't we just explain that?

00:27:05

Like, let's actually just read it.

00:27:07

If we're going to be doing six weeks on hope

00:27:10

that comes in and through the gospel,

00:27:12

I picked out a spot in the New Testament.

00:27:15

It's articulated multiple different ways here

00:27:17

and there through the New Testament

00:27:19

by a couple of the authors.

00:27:20

But I want to read you one that Paul wrote

00:27:22

in Romans 3, and I picked this one.

00:27:25

I actually did, I went looking for

00:27:27

the most basic language I could find,

00:27:29

and I actually found a translation called

00:27:31

the Easy Reader Version.

00:27:33

So we're about to hear the ERV of Romans 3,

00:27:37

where Paul just kind of hits it straight:

00:27:39

What is the gospel

00:27:41

and why is it connected to hope at all?

00:27:44

So here's what it says in Romans 3 ERV:

00:28:05

There it is. Now he obviously goes on

00:28:08

to say a lot more about those sentences,

00:28:10

but in terms of connecting the gospel with hope,

00:28:13

that's the best Easy Reader Version I could find.

00:28:17

You were born with an unsolvable problem.

00:28:20

All of us have sinned.

00:28:22

And because that's true,

00:28:24

we're instantly disconnected from a life

00:28:28

that experiences all of God's divine greatness,

00:28:31

as the ERV put it.

00:28:33

And so with Jesus,

00:28:35

we actually get welcomed back into that.

00:28:38

Which for me is why the topic of hope

00:28:41

through the gospel is so relevant.

00:28:43

Because through Jesus and through

00:28:45

receiving His forgiveness,

00:28:47

we get welcomed back into a space,

00:28:48

back into a life where all of

00:28:52

His divine greatness is possible.

00:28:55

The gospel makes new life possible.

00:28:59

And today we're talking about a kind of hope

00:29:01

that if you haven't needed it,

00:29:02

you probably will shortly.

00:29:03

It's the hope that the sick can be healed.

00:29:07

The gospel actually gives us the hope

00:29:09

that the sick can be healed.

00:29:12

I just want to say really clearly

00:29:14

Jesus has the power to heal you.

00:29:19

Do you know how many churches will not stand up

00:29:23

and say that loudly and clearly?

00:29:26

Jesus has the power to heal you.

00:29:29

He always has and He always will.

00:29:32

And it just blows my mind how hesitant we are

00:29:37

to articulate these truths about God

00:29:39

because we can't control them.

00:29:41

We can't put them up in a box

00:29:44

and hand them to you just when you need it.

00:29:46

And none of that changes the simple fact

00:29:50

that Jesus can heal you.

00:29:53

Jesus has always been able to heal.

00:29:55

He -- Healing physical sickness was always

00:30:00

a part of His ministry here on earth.

00:30:01

Jesus has always healed physical sickness.

00:30:04

Today, we're going to look at a few instances

00:30:06

in Luke 5 where Jesus heals people.

00:30:09

And at the beginning of Luke 5, we see that

00:30:12

it's actually a staple part of what He was doing

00:30:15

everywhere, all the time.

00:30:18

Listen to what Luke writes in chapter 5, it says:

00:30:36

The power of the Lord was with Jesus

00:30:38

to heal people everywhere.

00:30:42

This is why people came to even hear

00:30:44

what the guy had to say, because people they knew

00:30:47

were coming back home after being around Him

00:30:49

and they were healed of real things.

00:30:52

And Jesus did it all the time, day in, day out,

00:30:55

town after town, person after person.

00:30:58

He didn't ask what their theological convictions

00:31:02

were before He healed. He healed out of kindness.

00:31:05

He healed out of compassion because Jesus

00:31:07

wanted people to experience what you and I

00:31:09

desperately need to experience,

00:31:11

He wanted them to be touched by a God

00:31:13

who understands that when you're sick,

00:31:16

it brings you all the way to the end of yourself.

00:31:19

Nothing else is working, right?

00:31:21

Nothing else even matters.

00:31:22

If your body is failing you,

00:31:24

nothing else is relevant until that is handled.

00:31:27

And He wanted people to understand that

00:31:31

God saw them, and that He could meet them

00:31:33

in that tiny place where they felt totally desperate.

00:31:37

I had an instance that reminded me, you know,

00:31:40

I don't get -- I feel like I don't get sick a lot.

00:31:42

I don't know if any of you feel like that,

00:31:44

but I feel like I'm just not someone

00:31:46

who gets sick a lot.

00:31:47

But every now and then, like, talk about

00:31:50

thinking you're strong and then getting hit

00:31:52

with something that tells you you're not.

00:31:54

You're really not. You're actually not.

00:31:56

And I was coming home from California.

00:31:58

I was out there for a couple of days.

00:32:00

I think it was late last summer,

00:32:01

maybe about six months ago, and I had gotten delayed.

00:32:05

My flight, it was just one of those

00:32:06

terrible travel experiences.

00:32:08

I was delayed a full 24 hours overnight somewhere.

00:32:11

You know, you're in the same underwear

00:32:13

for a day or two and you're, like, "This is awful."

00:32:16

And so I just feel gross when I come home

00:32:20

and I'm feeling terribly.

00:32:22

But by the time my plane actually landed

00:32:24

in Cincinnati, I was thinking,

00:32:27

"Oh my gosh, like, I'm sick.

00:32:29

I'm not just having a hard travel time.

00:32:32

Like, I have gotten sick on this trip

00:32:34

and it's happening."

00:32:36

And so I land in Cincinnati fully aware

00:32:38

I am very, very sick.

00:32:40

And I get in the car, you know,

00:32:42

I make my way through the airport and I come home.

00:32:44

And because of my delay, my family wasn't there.

00:32:46

You know, it was a funny time. They weren't expecting me.

00:32:49

So, all I wanted to do was run the bath

00:32:51

and then get in bed.

00:32:52

And I was barely functioning at this point.

00:32:55

And so, I turned the bath water on.

00:32:58

And in the meantime, a couple of my family members

00:33:02

came home, but I didn't hear them.

00:33:03

And so I have my back turned to the bathroom door

00:33:06

and the water is running

00:33:08

and one of my daughters runs in and goes, "Mom!"

00:33:13

I fell on the floor.

00:33:14

She took the last 1% I had, like, the fright,

00:33:19

like, the sudden -- I just I couldn't handle it.

00:33:22

It was like I short circuited in that moment

00:33:24

and she just wanted to say hi.

00:33:26

And she scared me so badly I literally fell

00:33:30

on the floor and I couldn't stop crying.

00:33:34

She was like, "I don't know what's happening," you know?

00:33:38

She starts backing out of the bathroom

00:33:40

with tears in her eyes, like, "I did something to mom.

00:33:43

You know, something's not okay."

00:33:44

And I couldn't stop crying.

00:33:47

I don't know what happened in that moment,

00:33:50

but whatever that was,

00:33:51

it took the last thing that I had,

00:33:54

the last shred of whatever was holding me together.

00:33:57

And these are the exact moments

00:34:00

that Jesus wanted people to experience

00:34:03

the kindness of God, the compassion of God,

00:34:07

the power of God to touch them in a moment

00:34:10

where everything else is short circuiting,

00:34:13

where nothing is going right.

00:34:15

And He enters in out of kindness,

00:34:18

out of compassion.

00:34:20

Not because they deserved it,

00:34:21

not because they owed him anything as a result of it.

00:34:23

And droves of people had this experience

00:34:27

around Jesus all the time.

00:34:29

Let me ask you a question.

00:34:31

If you're sick or something's wrong with your body,

00:34:33

have you asked Jesus to heal you?

00:34:37

Have you asked Him to heal you?

00:34:39

I can't tell you how many times I've --

00:34:42

Something has happened physically

00:34:44

and I have googled it.

00:34:45

You know you do. Come on, you Google it.

00:34:49

You Google all the symptoms and then you're like,

00:34:51

"Oh, Lord, I got to go to the E.R."

00:34:53

You know, you've googled it, you've WebMD it,

00:34:56

you've self-diagnosed.

00:34:57

All the doctors that you're friends with.

00:34:59

Anybody in our community that's a doctor,

00:35:01

you know you'd be getting texts from your friends,

00:35:03

like, "Is this weird? You know?

00:35:06

Do I need to see somebody about this rash?"

00:35:08

I have a friend who's a pediatrician,

00:35:10

and I'm like, "I know you primarily work on kids,

00:35:13

but what do you think about this?"

00:35:15

You know, we do all the things.

00:35:20

And we forget that there's a God

00:35:23

with total authority over your body,

00:35:25

completely from head to toe,

00:35:28

made it, knows it, understands it.

00:35:33

And we so often we don't even come to Him and ask.

00:35:38

Do you believe that Jesus can heal you?

00:35:40

Do you? Do you ask Him to? Do you think He will?

00:35:43

Or somewhere along the line, did we ditch

00:35:46

this part of our understanding of God?

00:35:48

Did we just leave it on the roadside?

00:35:51

Because why?

00:35:54

There's nothing more clear about

00:35:56

the ministry of Jesus on this earth

00:35:58

than He healed people from physical sickness.

00:36:02

And this weekend, I want to invite you back

00:36:05

into that kind of belief, because I got to tell you,

00:36:08

one of my favorite advantages of being on staff

00:36:11

here is that I get to hear a lot of stories

00:36:13

that you don't hear.

00:36:15

And so I get emails, people I work with get emails,

00:36:18

and we hear these stories, these yeses to healing

00:36:21

around here much more often than you might think.

00:36:25

We hear stroke recovery that wasn't supposed to happen,

00:36:28

reversal of heart damage, cancer scans

00:36:31

that have halved what the doctor's expectations were.

00:36:34

We have shoulder pain,

00:36:36

inflammation that's disappeared.

00:36:38

We've got all kinds of testimony of

00:36:41

authentic healing that takes place in this community.

00:36:45

And if you're a part of this community,

00:36:47

I want to try to build your faith

00:36:48

by telling you that.

00:36:50

I actually got a an email this week

00:36:53

from a woman who said that her small group,

00:36:55

this happened just this week, just emailed me out of the blue.

00:36:58

Her small group, there was a person

00:37:00

in her small group, a woman who was infertile

00:37:03

for years and has never been able to have a child.

00:37:05

And she said that they decided

00:37:07

they would all pray for her

00:37:09

and that she came holding the picture

00:37:11

of the sonogram with a baby in her womb this week.

00:37:14

And she emailed me to tell me that.

00:37:16

It's amazing.

00:37:18

I know that this is sometimes not the first place

00:37:22

that we go for help, but you would be

00:37:25

very hard pressed to convince that group

00:37:27

that Jesus wasn't involved with what's going on there.

00:37:31

And I just want to push you because I know that,

00:37:33

Brian, if you if you've heard Brian lately,

00:37:35

he's been talking a lot about this concept

00:37:37

of faith that gets awakened in such big waves

00:37:41

that it begins to impact whole communities,

00:37:43

whole cultures, whole nations.

00:37:45

And wouldn't it be amazing if we saw

00:37:47

some kind of awakening of faith across the culture

00:37:51

that we live in in our lifetime?

00:37:52

And that would be amazing.

00:37:54

I would love to see that myself.

00:37:56

And I'll tell you where the beginning

00:37:57

of that is going to be.

00:37:58

It's going to be among a people who believe

00:38:01

that Jesus can still do all the things

00:38:04

that we know He always has been doing.

00:38:07

It'll start in a community that's willing to go,

00:38:10

"You know what? I just think Jesus can heal me.

00:38:13

I don't know what you think,

00:38:15

but I just think He can."

00:38:17

The seeds of awakened faith

00:38:20

start with sentences like that.

00:38:22

And as much as I want to awaken that,

00:38:25

like, I want to stir that up in you,

00:38:28

in our community.

00:38:29

As much as I want you to believe, like,

00:38:31

"Okay, Jesus, head to toe, you know my body,

00:38:33

you have authority over it.

00:38:34

And I can ask you to do things in it and through it."

00:38:39

If that's all we said about healing this weekend,

00:38:42

it would be thinking way too small,

00:38:46

way, way too small.

00:38:49

Because Jesus did physically heal pretty often.

00:38:52

But He didn't just physically heal.

00:38:54

Jesus didn't just focus on physical malady.

00:38:58

He didn't just heal physical sickness.

00:39:00

Jesus healed spiritual sickness.

00:39:04

And as a matter of fact,

00:39:05

He used His physical healings to point to it,

00:39:08

to explain it, to articulate it to people.

00:39:11

Like, there's something bigger going on here,

00:39:14

there's something bigger that you can have.

00:39:16

Remember the words of the gospel

00:39:18

from our ERP version, it says all have sinned.

00:39:22

This is the problem that we're born into.

00:39:24

This is the problem that the gospel,

00:39:26

the good news of Jesus, solves for us.

00:39:29

All of us are born into a spiritual environment

00:39:34

where we need healed.

00:39:36

We need some kind of healing to take place

00:39:39

because we have a diagnosis.

00:39:40

And I got to tell you, it's terminal.

00:39:44

And so Jesus used these physical healings

00:39:46

to point at the healing everybody in the crowd needed,

00:39:49

not just the ones who couldn't walk

00:39:52

or couldn't talk or had sickness they needed healed from.

00:39:57

And let's be honest though, when something's wrong

00:39:59

physically with us, we don't --

00:40:01

We don't really care about that right then, do we?

00:40:04

Jesus knows that.

00:40:06

He knows that our here and now, our bodies,

00:40:09

our life and the impact that it has,

00:40:11

He knows that that's our priority. He gets it.

00:40:14

And there was a healing in Luke 5

00:40:16

that puts that on display perfectly.

00:40:20

Here's what Luke 5 says, and I want you to see

00:40:23

how Jesus is thinking beyond the situation at hand.

00:40:26

He's thinking beyond this healing.

00:40:28

Back to Luke 5, it says:

00:40:52

Okay, let's pause the story here.

00:40:53

If you're the guy that just carried

00:40:56

your friend there on a mat,

00:40:57

and then you climbed up on the roof

00:40:59

and dug a hole and lowered him down.

00:41:01

And there he is, he's finally in front of Jesus.

00:41:04

Is that what you expect Jesus to do?

00:41:07

Is that why you brought him?

00:41:09

If Jesus says, "Hey, your sins are forgiven."

00:41:13

Are you like, "Great. Sounds good, Jesus."

00:41:18

No, no. You brought your friend

00:41:20

because he's paralyzed,

00:41:21

the obvious physical problem in front of Jesus.

00:41:25

But He goes right for something bigger.

00:41:28

The first thing out of His mouth He says is,

00:41:30

"Friend, your sins are forgiven."

00:41:33

And Jesus knew they were just like us.

00:41:35

He knew exactly who He was dealing with.

00:41:37

He knew that they came for something else,

00:41:40

and that He was offering a bigger healing

00:41:43

that they didn't even really fully want,

00:41:46

that they certainly didn't make

00:41:48

all that effort to come and get.

00:41:50

They came for what they came for.

00:41:52

And here's what He said:

00:42:17

Jesus says, "I know exactly what you're thinking,

00:42:20

but just so you know, there's something

00:42:23

bigger than what you want.

00:42:25

And just so you know, I'm serious about it

00:42:28

and I can do it, and I can heal you,

00:42:30

not just now, but forevermore, for all of eternity,

00:42:33

in all your condition that you can't fix for yourself.

00:42:36

I'm just going to tell you, 'Take your mat.

00:42:39

Stand up."

00:42:41

He used His physical healing to point at

00:42:43

the one every single person in that crowd needed.

00:42:46

And here's what He said two sentences later.

00:42:55

He makes this metaphor between the sick

00:42:58

and our condition of sin.

00:43:02

Jesus absolutely cared about the people

00:43:04

He was healing, but when He healed them,

00:43:07

He used that as a metaphor, a picture

00:43:09

for what was available to all of us,

00:43:12

this bigger, deeper spiritual diagnosis

00:43:15

that we are born into.

00:43:17

I got an email from our prayer team leader

00:43:20

in our Dayton community.

00:43:22

Shout out to our Dayton community.

00:43:24

She is a doctor and she also leads the prayer team.

00:43:27

And so she said, "Hey, I heard you're going

00:43:29

to teach on healing in a couple of weeks.

00:43:31

And I just wanted to share my perspective

00:43:33

as a doctor and as a prayer team leader."

00:43:35

She said, "I've really come to understand,"

00:43:38

she said, "I have come to think about

00:43:40

the things we come to God to fix in our bodies

00:43:43

as the symptom rather than the disease."

00:43:48

And she said, "I don't know if that's helpful

00:43:50

to you, but in my doctor language, you know,

00:43:52

of course I want to use all my available tools

00:43:54

to help heal people. Right?

00:43:56

And also, spiritually speaking,"

00:43:58

"she said, we tend to focus on those things

00:44:01

when really there's there's something bigger

00:44:04

going on there."

00:44:06

And it exactly points back to the gospel,

00:44:09

as I read in Romans 3, that we are in this life

00:44:13

outside of God's divine greatness,

00:44:16

that we don't have access to a life

00:44:18

where all healing is possible until and unless

00:44:23

we interact with the gospel.

00:44:26

When we receive that bigger healing,

00:44:29

that complete and total reconciliation with God,

00:44:33

it blasts open the doors to this whole new life

00:44:38

where something completely different is ruling over us,

00:44:40

where new possibilities are possible.

00:44:43

And Jesus sees our physical diagnoses,

00:44:47

and also He's most deeply and primarily concerned

00:44:54

with our spiritual one, because the physical one

00:44:56

might limit your life here on earth,

00:44:58

but your spiritual diagnosis

00:45:01

will take your eternity.

00:45:04

And Jesus has the power to heal them both.

00:45:06

And that's simply all He was saying as He --

00:45:09

And it's our fixation on our here and now

00:45:14

that causes us to miss that,

00:45:16

that bigger message that He was constantly

00:45:19

using healing to point to,

00:45:21

that He has authority over both.

00:45:23

But there's one that every single one of us needs,

00:45:26

every single person.

00:45:28

And the power, I think Luke said

00:45:34

at the beginning of this chapter,

00:45:35

Luke said that the power of the Lord

00:45:37

was with Jesus to heal.

00:45:39

What is that power?

00:45:40

Because He uses the same power that's available

00:45:43

to you as a free gift through the gospel,

00:45:45

same power heals physically and spiritually,

00:45:50

and that power is grace.

00:45:51

Jesus heals by the power of grace.

00:45:54

We have stripped this word,

00:45:56

and I hate it because we've made it seem so tame,

00:46:00

so sweet, so grandmotherly.

00:46:02

You know, like, here's your grace. Be blessed.

00:46:07

You know, that's how it feels to me.

00:46:09

Maybe, maybe I'm alone in that.

00:46:10

But it just feels, you know, sweet and soft.

00:46:14

And I want to convince you otherwise

00:46:16

with the final story of healing from Luke 5.

00:46:19

It is Jesus's interaction with a leper,

00:46:22

and the power of grace is on full display in this,

00:46:26

in this instance. Luke 5 says:

00:46:52

Now, the power of grace, of course, that's amazing.

00:46:55

That story on face value is already amazing.

00:46:58

But the power of grace becomes even more evident

00:47:02

when you understand lepers a little bit more

00:47:05

and how the Jewish community treated lepers

00:47:08

was essentially in the law and in practice

00:47:11

of everyday life, basically one step above death.

00:47:16

It was the bottom of the barrel

00:47:18

in terms of physical condition.

00:47:21

They even put them out of town because,

00:47:23

get this, I was fascinated when I learned this.

00:47:25

They didn't want the same wind to touch them

00:47:29

and then touch you.

00:47:32

And so everything about the life of a leper

00:47:35

was out of bounds.

00:47:37

And so not only does this leper

00:47:39

show a lot of courage in coming

00:47:41

to fall at the feet of Jesus,

00:47:43

but Jesus does something crazy

00:47:45

when He reaches out and touches him.

00:47:47

Because the Jewish law required you

00:47:49

to do all of these things,

00:47:51

to essentially become clean again

00:47:54

after you interacted, even accidentally with a leper.

00:47:58

And it was no small feat to become clean again

00:48:01

after an interaction.

00:48:02

But Jesus, a respecter of the Jewish law,

00:48:05

never mentions those at all.

00:48:08

This is not a lone interaction with a leper.

00:48:10

We have multiple instances of Him healing lepers,

00:48:13

and He does the same thing every time,

00:48:15

He reaches out and touches them

00:48:17

and He never makes any mention of these

00:48:20

rules of defilement and cleanliness

00:48:22

and all the things you're supposed to do. Why?

00:48:28

Grace.

00:48:29

The power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal.

00:48:33

That's what Luke said.

00:48:34

The power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal.

00:48:36

And that power, the name of that power is grace.

00:48:39

When Jesus reaches out and touches that leper,

00:48:44

He has the stronger contagion.

00:48:46

He doesn't need to become clean

00:48:48

because Grace is covering that over.

00:48:50

Grace is healing the unhealable.

00:48:52

Grace is the only thing that would have

00:48:57

let Jesus walk away unscathed.

00:49:00

And He never makes mention of any need

00:49:03

to follow any rules around it

00:49:05

because He had the stronger power.

00:49:08

There was no sickness, no disease,

00:49:10

no nothing that was worse than leprosy.

00:49:12

And yet Jesus touched him with the power of grace

00:49:16

and washed His hands of it and walked away.

00:49:18

Friends, the grace of God is power.

00:49:23

The grace of God is power to heal physically.

00:49:25

The grace of God is power to heal emotionally,

00:49:27

relationally, spiritually.

00:49:30

Whatever you are facing, it is healed

00:49:32

by the power of the grace of God.

00:49:34

When you are touched by grace, you are healed,

00:49:37

end of statement. You are healed.

00:49:41

Is there anybody in here that wants

00:49:42

touched with that kind of grace?

00:49:44

I mean, wow.

00:49:47

And grace is what we all need to touch us,

00:49:52

not just for our physical condition,

00:49:54

but for the spiritual condition into which we are born.

00:49:58

That is the power of the hope of the gospel.

00:50:03

And I want you to be able to ask for it today.

00:50:06

Ask Jesus to heal in ways that

00:50:09

maybe you've never asked Him to heal you before,

00:50:11

no matter what way that might be.

00:50:13

But before we do that together, I just want

00:50:16

to acknowledge kind of the elephant in the room

00:50:18

whenever you talk about healing,

00:50:20

because some of us have experienced times

00:50:23

where we have asked God for healing repeatedly

00:50:27

and nothing has happened, or we lost somebody.

00:50:32

And we're carrying it against God.

00:50:35

We're holding a grudge. It gets in there.

00:50:38

It's like a wedge between us and God

00:50:41

when this happens to us, and I get it,

00:50:43

I completely understand this.

00:50:45

And there's one last story about the healing

00:50:49

that Jesus did while He was on this earth.

00:50:52

And John actually records it in chapter 11.

00:50:55

And this is, I believe, a word for those of us

00:50:57

who would put ourselves

00:50:58

somewhere in that category today.

00:51:00

John went out of his way,

00:51:02

on the way into this story, to tell us that

00:51:04

we were dealing with people that Jesus deeply loved.

00:51:07

It was a man named Lazarus and his two sisters,

00:51:10

Mary and Martha, and they lived together.

00:51:13

And John says three times, He loved them.

00:51:15

He loved them. He loved them.

00:51:18

These were beloved friends of Jesus.

00:51:21

And they send for him because Lazarus is sick,

00:51:26

like, deathbed sick.

00:51:27

And they send for Jesus wherever He is at the time.

00:51:30

And this is what happens that we need to make sense of.

00:51:49

What? What kind of love does that?

00:51:57

His beloved friends are sick,

00:51:59

"so," that little word says so much.

00:52:03

So he stayed where He was two more days.

00:52:05

He hears His friends are sick and He stays put.

00:52:11

That emotion that conjures up within us

00:52:13

when we hear something like that,

00:52:15

we're, like, baffled by it.

00:52:16

We don't understand this.

00:52:17

We don't know how God works and we don't like it.

00:52:20

Whatever's going on here, it immediately

00:52:22

hits our radar as not good, not loving, not fair.

00:52:27

And maybe we would sound like Martha's words

00:52:29

when Jesus finally shows up and her brother's

00:52:31

been in the grave for days at this point.

00:52:34

And here's what she says:

00:52:35

Lord, if You had been here,

00:52:37

my brother would not have died.

00:52:38

Maybe she said it like you talk to God.

00:52:40

Lord, what are You doing?

00:52:44

If You had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

00:52:47

Maybe it was even in anger with an edge to her voice.

00:52:50

Because from their perspective, Jesus let them down.

00:52:54

And there's there's people in this community

00:52:56

that would say the same,

00:52:58

that Jesus feels like He's let you down.

00:53:03

And instead of defending Himself in that moment,

00:53:05

instead of launching into a theological explanation

00:53:09

of what was going on,

00:53:10

Jesus did something even more baffling,

00:53:13

even more baffling. He wept. Jesus wept.

00:53:21

He stood with His friends, whom He loved very deeply,

00:53:26

and He just held their pain with them.

00:53:31

He stepped into the space of their pain.

00:53:35

He cried on their shoulder, and they cried on His.

00:53:38

And Jesus wept with them over the pain

00:53:40

and the loss and the death of Lazarus.

00:53:43

And He stood there and took it with them.

00:53:45

The world knows nothing about this kind of love.

00:53:48

The world only knows a love

00:53:50

that is instant gratification,

00:53:52

that comforts you exactly the way you expect it,

00:53:54

in exactly the method that you wanted.

00:53:57

The world knows nothing of a God

00:54:01

who would somehow do things in His own time

00:54:05

and His own way and then when He shows up,

00:54:07

He loves you, and He stands there and weeps with you

00:54:11

over the very obvious loss that you're feeling.

00:54:14

What in the world do we do with that?

00:54:19

Some of us need reminded today that

00:54:22

the status of your physical body

00:54:24

does not equal the status of God's love for you.

00:54:28

When you are unhealed, you are not unheard

00:54:30

and you are not unloved.

00:54:32

When when God has His eyes on you

00:54:35

and you're in pain, He's in pain.

00:54:37

You're crying over a loss, He is crying over a loss.

00:54:41

This is a God who takes up your pain

00:54:43

and who stands with you in your pain.

00:54:46

Because that wasn't the end of the story,

00:54:49

He said to Martha.

00:54:50

And I love this because I believe that's why

00:54:52

He left the story for us.

00:54:55

He says to Martha after this occurs.

00:55:17

Do you believe this?

00:55:19

He stands there with Martha after crying

00:55:21

with her and her sister, and He says,

00:55:24

"I am the resurrection.

00:55:27

I am the life that you need.

00:55:28

I am the life for Lazarus and for you,

00:55:31

not only now, but always and forever,

00:55:34

because I have authority over all of it."

00:55:37

And he walks over to the grave

00:55:38

and He raises Lazarus straight up out of it.

00:55:41

And I think that message is for us,

00:55:43

for us especially who have been asking,

00:55:46

especially who have suffered loss, to say that

00:55:49

you have a God who not only feels that with you,

00:55:51

but who understands the way to life,

00:55:53

He understands what it means to have authority

00:55:56

over so much more than just your days here on Earth.

00:56:01

And yet He will comfort you in those moments

00:56:04

where His love is baffling or delayed,

00:56:08

or seems to have let you down.

00:56:12

And I want you to wrestle with the question of

00:56:15

do you believe this? Do you believe this?

00:56:19

When I was getting ready for this weekend,

00:56:21

I enjoy teaching. I like the whole process of it.

00:56:25

But when I was praying to God about this weekend,

00:56:29

I got the distinct impression that

00:56:32

it was almost like it wasn't this.

00:56:34

It wasn't so conversational.

00:56:35

It was just an idea that I got.

00:56:37

And it was almost like God was saying to me

00:56:40

something like, "Okay, sure, you're going to teach,

00:56:43

but what you're going to offer is faith."

00:56:48

I think that's what God is looking to stir up in us.

00:56:52

That's the question that He leaves Martha with:

00:56:55

Do you believe this?

00:56:57

Do you believe that I am the resurrection,

00:56:58

that I am the life, that I am the healing,

00:57:01

that I am the one that can provide

00:57:03

all of those things physically, spiritually, now, forever?

00:57:07

Friends, the hope of the gospel is that

00:57:09

sickness and death, they have no claim on you.

00:57:12

They have no claim on you now.

00:57:13

They have no claim on you for good.

00:57:15

They have no claim on you.

00:57:16

The question is, do you believe that?

00:57:19

Will you ask Him for it?

00:57:20

Will you live according to that?

00:57:22

Will you live in expectation of that?

00:57:25

Because that is the truth a

00:57:27

nd that's why we come to the one name

00:57:30

who can usher us into that life

00:57:33

that the gospel promises: Jesus.

00:57:36

And I've invited somebody here today.

00:57:39

It's actually my favorite worship leader.

00:57:41

I love our entire Crossroads music team.

00:57:43

Sorry, guys, I've got a favorite.

00:57:47

And I've invited my favorite worship leader

00:57:49

here today to sing a song that

00:57:51

we have sung together many times,

00:57:52

he's led me in this song many times,

00:57:55

and it's one of our favorites.

00:57:57

And I went to him and I said, "Would you please

00:57:59

come sing this over our community this weekend?"

00:58:02

I want you to meet my son, Luke. [applause]

00:58:09

Don't you agree as a parent, one of the best things

00:58:11

is just getting to see the gifts rise up in your kids?

00:58:14

You know, getting to be a part of, like,

00:58:17

watching them come out.

00:58:18

And so Luke leads worship in our home

00:58:21

with our family and honestly started to

00:58:24

just because he can, like, using the gifts

00:58:28

of your kids to be a blessing in your home.

00:58:30

And so, wow, he can sing and he can play things

00:58:33

and that's so cool.

00:58:34

So he started leading us in worship.

00:58:36

And this is one of the songs that we do regularly.

00:58:38

And when I told him about this moment,

00:58:40

I said, "What song comes to mind?"

00:58:42

And this was the one, but why?

00:58:43

Why did you think that?

00:58:45

- So this song is called I Speak Jesus.

00:58:48

And I think this came to mind for me

00:58:50

because it's really just about giving everything

00:58:55

to Jesus and speaking his name over

00:58:58

our mental health issues, our spiritual problems,

00:59:03

and just giving everything in our lives up to Him.

00:59:07

- Great. Well, thanks. Thanks for being here.

00:59:09

And Luke's going to sing you our special song.

01:01:06

- There's only one name. There's only one name.

01:01:10

There's one name that's hope.

01:01:12

There is one name that's healing.

01:01:14

There is one name that is freedom.

01:01:15

There is one name that carries

01:01:17

the power of grace to heal you.

01:01:20

There is one name and it is Jesus.

01:01:23

And in that name is the hope of the gospel.

01:01:26

In that name is the hope of healing.

01:01:28

And over every kind of sickness,

01:01:31

over every kind of sin, both now and forevermore,

01:01:35

it is one name and it is the name of Jesus.

01:01:38

So let me ask you a question: Are you sick?

01:01:41

Are you sick of being sick?

01:01:45

Are you sick physically? Are you sick spiritually?

01:01:47

Are you sick emotionally? Relationally? Whatever?

01:01:49

Jesus has the authority over that.

01:01:52

Jesus has the authority over that.

01:01:54

Jesus has the authority over top of that

01:01:58

with His grace.

01:02:00

And for some of us who are bold enough

01:02:03

to come ask Him for that grace today,

01:02:05

I believe He may just say, "Just so you know,

01:02:09

go ahead, pick up your mat and go home."

01:02:13

I believe that.

01:02:14

I believe that to my very core.

01:02:16

If I didn't believe that,

01:02:18

I would never have agreed to do a message like this.

01:02:20

If I didn't believe that,

01:02:21

I would never stand up here and say that.

01:02:24

I believe that,

01:02:25

and I believe someone's going to email me this week

01:02:28

and tell me what happened to them today.

01:02:29

And I can't wait, I can't wait.

01:02:33

I'm going to give you the opportunity right now,

01:02:35

no matter where you are,

01:02:36

in any of our rooms at Crossroads this weekend,

01:02:39

we have prayer volunteers who are going to come up now

01:02:42

and they're going to get into place.

01:02:44

And I don't want you to freak out because

01:02:45

some of you are like, "I'm not doing that thing.

01:02:47

I'm not going to do it.

01:02:48

I'm not going to come up and ask for the prayer."

01:02:51

I want you to reconsider.

01:02:53

I want you to question do you believe?

01:02:56

Do you believe?

01:02:57

If the answer is yes, come ask for the grace,

01:03:00

the healing that is yours in Jesus.

01:03:02

And if the answer is no, I want you to come anyway.

01:03:05

Because you know what we have stories of

01:03:07

in the Gospels? We have stories of people that

01:03:09

it took everything in them to show up before Jesus,

01:03:12

and they weren't sure who He was

01:03:13

or whether they believed.

01:03:14

And they had an encounter with God,

01:03:16

and they walked away believing because of it.

01:03:20

And so even if you're not sure,

01:03:22

you can come because your God is kind

01:03:25

and He is good and He is compassionate,

01:03:27

even if you're down to the last attempt

01:03:30

that you've got in you.

01:03:32

So these these people are waiting

01:03:34

to help you ask for the healing

01:03:36

that is yours in Jesus Christ.

01:03:39

And I just invite you to come forward

01:03:41

whenever you are ready.

01:03:47

- I don't know what Ali's words sort of sparked in you.

01:03:50

I don't know what the words of that song,

01:03:52

how they resonated with you or what sort of doubts

01:03:54

or questions that they bring up.

01:03:57

But I do know that there's more healing,

01:04:00

there's more power, and there's more life

01:04:03

that Jesus has on offer for us.

01:04:06

Even as I say this, and I think over the last week,

01:04:08

the last seven days, I've had a friend

01:04:10

who experienced healing from cancer

01:04:11

and another friend who saw their cancer come back.

01:04:15

Now, in this moment, we have a chance

01:04:18

to sit back or tap out or say, "I don't know,

01:04:20

so I'm going to check out,"

01:04:21

or we have an opportunity to lean in.

01:04:24

And I want you to lean in.

01:04:26

I want you to lean in in the place

01:04:27

where you need to experience healing,

01:04:30

or the place where a loved one

01:04:31

needs to experience healing.

01:04:33

And we're gonna have an opportunity to lean in

01:04:35

right now as a community.

01:04:37

If you text healing to (855)944-6645,

01:04:42

we're gonna have a chance to pray with you.

01:04:43

And this is not a bot.

01:04:45

This is not an outsourced company.

01:04:47

These are our friends.

01:04:48

These are friends of mine, like Demanuel

01:04:50

and Tierra and Jamie.

01:04:51

These are real people who just want

01:04:53

to pray with you and pray for you,

01:04:55

that you'll experience more of Jesus's hope

01:04:57

and more of Jesus's healing in your life.

01:05:01

Lean in. Pray with us.

01:05:02

We'd love to connect with you, process with you,

01:05:04

and help encourage you on your walk with God.

01:05:06

That's why we do everything that we do around here.

01:05:08

Thanks for watching and we'll see you next week.

Recent Series