Stories of Healing Pt 4

Get beautiful, beautiful, will you call me child, Savior, and you strike down, so blood may fail, the earth be the Lord.

God, I know sometimes that you have us in seasons, God, that are particularly trying, that are particularly difficult, Lord. God, sometimes that you have us in seasons, God, where we deal with a lot of sickness, a lot of death, God, just whatever that season may look like, God, just help us just to continually praise you through it all, God. God, you are worthy to be praised. God, in it all, you are still good.

God, you are still kind. You're still gracious, and you are still merciful, Lord. God. God, in it all, help us just to praise you, no matter the circumstances, God. God, even Job, even Job still praised you, God, even though everything was taken from him. Even though he was afflicted, he still praised you, God. And Lord, in those seasons, I pray that you would help us and give us the strength just to still praise you.

Lord, this morning, I just pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray, God, that you would just move mightily, God, in this place this morning. Move mightily in our hearts, because you are a mighty God, and you do mighty things. Lord, overflow Ryan with your gift of teaching, Lord, and just be with the kids at the other end of the hall, Lord. We love you, God, and we praise you, and we thank you.

And all of God's people said, amen. Would you guys go ahead and take some time and greet one another?

Good morning.

Glad you can be here this morning.

If you would go and start locating your seats, we'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin are all of the weekly events. So take note of those. Something going on just about every day of the week. So take note of those. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, a couple of things to pay attention to. Just a reminder that the college and career group has switched to Friday nights now. So they meet Friday nights at 7 o'clock.

Marriage and family group starts next. Next Sunday evening, the 31st. So take note of that. It starts at 5 o'clock. They do dinner first and then study afterwards. So that's getting ready to start back up. And then there is a women's conference coming up on February the 5th, which is actually a lot closer than it sounds like it is. Which feels like January takes like 27 years to get through.

But this year, January's gone really fast. I'm actually kind of like, son of a gun, where'd that thing go? And so February's coming quick. So ladies, take note of that. All the info to get signed up. It is in your bulletin right there. Those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 23.

Psalm 23. We'll be looking at the New American Standard just so we all sound the same. If you don't have one, there should be one in your row. And as you are turning to Psalm 23, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. There's your little button. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Lewis. And the even verses. Psalm 23.

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil and my cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Father, we do praise you for being our good shepherd. Lord, the one who loves us. The one who restores us. Cares for us.

And Lord, will take us home to be with you someday. And so Lord, knowing that of you. I pray that as we move into this next section of scripture, that we would see you as that compassionate shepherd. Lord, I thank you for who you are and what you want to do in our lives. And so Lord, speak to us now, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew chapter 9. We'll be looking at our last section in our series, Stories of Healing. So Stories of Healing part 4 is the title of the message today. So we'll finish off chapter 9 and move into a new section next week. But as we look at this last section of chapter 9, it really kind of breaks down two ways. I've put two different titles to it. First of all is concluding stories because there's about four more stories of healing that we're going to look at.

And then the last part that we'll look at, the last handful of verses, we'll look at the compassion of Jesus. And so we pick up in verse 18 of chapter 9 and this is what it says. While he was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came. And bowed down before him and said, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.

Jesus got up and began to follow him and so did his disciples. And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. For she was saying to herself, If I only touch his garment, I will get well. But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. At once the woman was made well.

When Jesus came into the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder, he said, Leave, for the girl has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him. But when the crowd had been sent out, he entered and took her by the hand and the girl got up. This news spread throughout all that land. Well, to create a little bit of context for us, let's remember what Jesus was doing when this synagogue official,

came up to talk to him. John's disciples, meaning John the Baptist, his disciples had come to Jesus to ask a question about fasting. They said, Hey, listen, we fast. The Pharisees fast. Why don't your disciples fast? And of course, Jesus responded, first of all, by saying, While the bridegroom is here, there's really no reason for the wedding attendants to be fasting,

but there's going to be plenty of time for that in the future. Now, to mention the fact that John represents an old covenant and I'm ushering in a new covenant, and the new and the old can't be together. One has to disappear. Before the new can come. And so in the midst of that conversation, we're given the idea that while he was having that conversation in verse 18,

while he was saying these things, a synagogue official came and bowed before him and said, My daughter has died. I need you to come and heal her. Now, it's kind of interesting that this synagogue official is the one that shows up, because if you remember correctly, the religious community is starting to be a little more sour towards Jesus at this point in time. The scribes and the Pharisees, they're starting to turn, and we'll see that official turning at the very end of this chapter.

But they're beginning to question this Jesus guy, not because he doesn't do good things, but because he doesn't do it the way they think that he should. And so there's a certain amount of turning against Jesus by the religious community. And yet, this synagogue official, who would have been considered a leader in the religious community, has had something tragic happen in his life. He was at his home with his daughter.

We're not sure what led to it. We're not given the circumstances that led to her death. But she died. And he had heard everything about this Jesus. Sometimes negative, but may I say, probably almost all positive. And he knew that there was power in Jesus. And so he knew he only had one hope, and that was to track Jesus down, see if Jesus could come to his house,

and see if Jesus could perhaps heal his daughter from death. And so that's exactly what he did. So this synagogue official comes and approaches Jesus. But did you take note of the very first thing he did when he showed up? It says, When the synagogue official showed up, that he, bowed down to Jesus. Now, why is that important, you may ask? Well, because there's only one person that's worthy of worship, and that's the Lord.

God is the only one that's to be bowed down and worshipped. Now, there are many in other religions, and I've pointed this out last week, that say, well, Jesus never actually claimed to be God. And yet, when this synagogue official showed up, the first thing he does is he bows down to Jesus. And yet, Jesus at no point in time says, What are you doing, son? Stand up.

You shouldn't bow down to me. No, Jesus receives that worship. Why does Jesus receive that worship? Because he's God. If Jesus was not God, he would have immediately turned and said, No, no, you shouldn't be doing that. You know how I know that? Because every other person in the Bible that begins to receive, that someone bows down to worship, if they are not God, they tell them,

You'd better stand up because I'm not the one you need to bow down to. Not the least of which is the angel in the book of Revelation that's giving John all of the messages. John keeps trying to fall down and worship, and he keeps saying, No, get up. I'm not Jesus. Don't worship me. And so the synagogue official shows up, bows down, and he begins to petition Jesus.

You can imagine the sound in his voice. You can imagine the urgency in the nature of the way he brought this request to Jesus. Last he knew, he left his daughter, and she was dead. And he said, Man, I've got to do something. And so he rushed as quickly as he could to find Jesus. And as he bowed down, undoubtedly tears streaming down his face, a quiver in his voice and an urgency in the way that he presented it said,

You've got to come now because she's dead, and I need you to come. I need you to heal her. If you can come and lay your hand on her, she will live. Now, this is a major amount of faith. Because up to this point in time, Jesus has done some things, but this is really asking for something. And so the amount of faith that is expressed in this synagogue official

who probably had been being told by all of the religious leaders to kind of leave this Jesus guy alone, he just showed up. He said, You're my only hope, and I need you to come and lay your hands on her, and maybe she'll live. And so Jesus does what Jesus always does when someone approaches him in great need. He drops what he's doing, and he goes with him. Notice what it says in verse 19.

So Jesus got up and began to follow, and so did his disciples. I love this because Jesus was what we would call a busy guy, right? He was always doing something. And Jesus was in the middle of what we would call a theological discussion. Now, if you're someone who enjoys theology and enjoys, the depth of the study of God's Word, when you find other people that enjoy it as well,

it's real easy to get lost in conversation with them. And man, quite frankly, when you're in the middle of that conversation, and somebody comes and wants you to get distracted, you're like, Oh, but I found my people, and I'm talking about my things, and I really enjoy doing this. But Jesus wasn't like that because he knew that the depth of his theology was only as good as the service that he came to perform. And so Jesus dropped what he was doing.

He said, Boys, we've got to finish this conversation another time. I've got something to do. So he gets up, and he goes, and his disciples follow with him. Now, paint the picture in your mind of what's happening, okay? Jesus is walking towards this house, perhaps, again, maybe 15, 20 minutes away, a walk across town maybe, and he's following this synagogue official.

Now, the synagogue official is urgent because of what's going on, and so he undoubtedly is walking very fast, perhaps having to fight through crowds of people, but moving at a very good clip. And Jesus, sensing the urgency, is also probably following, at a pretty fast pace, behind him. And he's surrounded by all of his disciples, who weren't really paying that close of attention. All they knew was Jesus said, Hey, it's time to go, and they're like, All right.

And so they're kind of following along, and Jesus is walking fast, so they're walking fast because it seems like the right thing to do. And then this hustle and bustle and hurry to get to minister to the synagogue official's daughter. I want you to take note of what happens because Jesus' ministry to one gets interrupted by another. It says in verse 20, And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage, for 12 years, came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak.

For she was saying to herself, If I only touch his garment, I will get well. Now, if you were with us on Wednesday night, congratulations, you survived Leviticus chapters 14 and 15, as we talked about leprosy and bodily discharges. And as we did so, though, you took note of the fact that in Leviticus chapter 15, there was a particular section that talked about if a woman had a continual flow of blood. And if she did so, which was usually caused by some sort of an issue in her menstruation, probably because of anemia or some other thing like that, she was considered unclean.

And as a matter of fact, because she was considered unclean, she had to separate herself from everybody else because anybody who came in contact with her, or even her clothing, were considered to be unclean. And so, that meant, as far as she was concerned, she was somewhat cut off from society. She was separated. She was cut off from her family. And she was cut off from the worship of the Lord.

And so, let's paint the picture of the situation that this woman was really in. This woman who had this hemorrhage, this flow of blood, this issue with her menstruation, was undoubtedly physically weakened in pain because of the loss of blood that she experienced on a continual basis, remember, for the last 12 years. We were told in other gospel accounts that she had spent all of her money with doctors trying to get them to heal her, and none of them were able to. So, she deals with physical pain, continual weakness, and probably never feels like doing anything.

She is completely broke because she spent all of her money on doctors that weren't able to do anything. And now, she's cut off from society. So, all of the physical touch that you and I have talked about, as we talked about, the leprous person that Jesus healed that didn't know what it was like to embrace anyone any longer, she didn't have that. So, she was emotionally broken.

She was physically broken. She was materially broken. But not only that, remember what she cut off from? The worship of the Lord. So, she's also spiritually broken. She had nothing. As far as the world was concerned, as far as she was concerned, life was hopeless. But she'd been hearing stories about Jesus. She'd been hearing that Jesus was healing people, and she knew that the last thing

that she could do is go talk to him because she was unclean and she had to separate herself out from everybody because they, too, would be considered unclean. But she said, I've got to do something. So, she came up with a plan. And her plan would be this. He won't want anything to do with me because I'm too broken. He won't want anything to do with me because I'm too scarred and I'm too far away.

I'm too unclean for him to want anything to do with me. But maybe, just maybe, if I could sneak up behind him and he doesn't know that I'm coming, I could extend my hand enough that I could grab the train of his robe, that I could grab the bottom of his garment, and maybe if I did that, there's healing power there, and I could be healed. She had one place of hope. Amen.

It was one last-ditch effort, and that's exactly what she did. She showed up that day, and much to her dismay, Jesus was in a hurry. He was in a hurry because someone needed him to do something, and as he was in a hurry, she thought, I've got to just be able to touch the hem of his robe. And so, finally, she got close enough that she could reach down and just grab hold of it.

And as she just touched the hem of that robe, we read in other gospel accounts, immediately she was healed. And again, in other gospel accounts, they go into more detail, and Jesus says, who touched me? And his disciples are like, dude, there's like 700 people around you. Everybody touched you. And he's like, no, it was different. I felt power go out from me.

Who was it? And he turns around, and he sees this woman. And I want you to notice what Jesus says to her, because what Jesus says to her is just so beautiful. He says, daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. Do you know this is the only time in Scripture that Jesus refers to a woman as daughter? First time, only time. Jesus looks at her, and he doesn't just say your faith has made you well.

He first of all addresses her as who she now really is, his daughter. I don't know why that really just struck me. It hit me that that's how he referred to her, because I don't know about you, but sometimes it's hard to think of myself as a son of God. And perhaps if you're a lady here, it's hard for you to think of yourself as a daughter of the king, but that's exactly who you are.

And so what Jesus did is he looked at her and called her exactly what she just became by faith. His daughter. So he says, daughter, your faith has made you well. And immediately, she was cleansed. Now, I want us to understand something. There was nothing magical about the robe that Jesus was wearing. It was the average robe that the Jewish man would wear at that point in time.

As a matter of fact, when it says that she touched the hem of his garments, every good Jewish man had tassels that hung from the bottom of his garment, because it was a reminder of who he was as a Jewish male, and a reminder of the truth of the word of God. And so Jesus says, daughter, take courage. Jesus being that good Jewish man that he was, dressed just like every other orthodox Jewish man at the time, and had a robe just like they did. And so when she grabbed and touched it, there was nothing magical about the robe of Jesus, and we should not now begin the theology of the robe, because there was no magic in the robe.

There was no healing in the robe. The healing was in the one wearing the robe. And the faith was not in the robe. It was in the one wearing the robe. And she just used a contact point of faith, and it was all she could do. And I love that Jesus honored what maybe we would consider to be theological. Theologically incorrect, because theologically speaking, we may look and go, well, there's

nothing magical about the robe. She shouldn't have been able to do that. And yet, because Jesus is so merciful and loving, he overlooked bad theology to take care of an individual who was in need because of their deep faith. It kind of reminds me a little bit of when I came to the Lord, and perhaps when you came to the Lord, because perhaps you were in the same situation as this lady.

It wasn't menstruation bleeding you were dealing with. It probably wasn't even a physical issue you were dealing with. But you know, you knew as far as the rest of the world was concerned, you were unclean. Everything that you did was unclean. Your life expressed the fact that you were unclean. And quite frankly, most people didn't even want anything to do with you, because all

they could see was what was unclean on you. And you felt cut off from people. You felt cut off from society. And undoubtedly, in every way possible, you felt cut off from God. And all you knew was, is that you had heard a little bit of something. You had heard a little bit of something about Jesus. And you didn't understand forgiveness. You didn't understand salvation.

You didn't understand the cross. All you knew was, I need healing. And if all I do is cry out, Lord, save me, just maybe he'll save me. And on that day, you cried out, Lord, save me. And he looked at you and he said, daughter, son, your faith has made you well. You didn't understand all the theology behind it. You didn't have to understand the theology behind it.

Your faith was simply in the one that you'd heard could save you. You remember that day? It was a great day, wasn't it? Maybe you're here this morning, and that day hasn't happened for you yet. Maybe you're here this morning, and you still feel unclean. You still feel like the people around you eventually are going to find out what you've been doing. And when they do, they're not going to want to be around you.

And I just want you to know, all it takes is you crying out to Jesus and saying, Lord, save me. And you know what he'll look at you and say? Son, daughter, your faith has made you well.

It says, at once, the woman was made well. Verse 23, but now it's back to what he originally set out to do. When Jesus came into the official's house, verse 23, and he saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder, he said, leave, for the girl has not died but is asleep. They began laughing at him. Now, as Jesus comes to this synagogue official's house.

There's an interesting scene painted for us, right? It says that there are loud people. I'm going to make sure I read this correctly. It says that there were flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder. Now, I do a lot of funerals. I've never seen a flute player. I feel like I'm missing out on something, the fact that there's no flute players there. But this is what one commentator that I read called synthetic grief.

It was a scene of synthetic grief. You see? They felt it was so important to honor the dead that what they would do is they would hire mourners. There had to be at least one flute player and two mourners to truly honor the memory of those who had gone before. The problem was it was synthetic in nature. It wasn't real. It wasn't real grief that was being expressed.

I told first service, I kind of feel like if this pastor thing doesn't work out for me and somebody wants to hire a professional mourner, I feel like I could be there for them, right? Like, I'm really good at crying. I do it all the time. And so I could just be like, yeah, tell me where I need to be. I will mourn with you. Let's do this thing. But that's what was going on here.

So when Jesus comes in and sees this synthetic grief, he says, get out of here. This girl has not died but is asleep. Now, this has created some issues for several different people that I read. Some of them said, see, when Jesus said she's not died but she's asleep, what they meant was she had slipped into a coma and Jesus now needed to wake her from the coma.

Now, if somebody got jumping up and down arguing with me about this, I would say, no, that is what it means. I'd say, okay, whatever. Jesus brought her out of a coma. But when you take biblical consistency and you find that what oftentimes is referred to in the scriptures as death is called falling asleep, I tend to believe that this girl's actually dead. Not to mention the fact that this synagogue official would have been a decently educated

human being and he would have known how to check for a pulse because they were smart enough to know how to do that at that point in time. I just don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just have to believe that she was really dead. What Jesus was saying is, this is not something that's too much for me. She's not eternally gone. She's simply asleep.

Now, what Jesus is about to do here is miraculous. And we'll talk about the miracle of it in just a second, but I want to bring something up. Because what Jesus is about to do for this young lady is he is about to heal her and bring her back to life. I truly do think that. But we need to understand something. There's a difference between resurrection. Resurrection and resuscitation.

Resurrection is what Jesus did. Jesus was resurrected and he was the first one ever resurrected because when he raised from the dead, he was given a brand new body that would no longer taste death. That's why he's referred to as the first fruits of the resurrection. What's about to take place here and all of the other mentions of people being brought back from the dead in scripture, those are resuscitations.

They are being brought back from the dead. But in their physical body, they will have to die again. Now, it's miraculous, but we need to understand the difference between those two things. So why is Jesus going to do this? Well, Jesus is going to do this because he is about to show physically what he is eventually going to do spiritually and eternally. Because he is about to raise her from the dead.

Well, what is the thing that Jesus is going to defeat at the cross through the resurrection? He is going to defeat death. And as I was teaching this in first service, I thought, I need to make sure we clear something up because Jesus is about to heal this little girl from the dead. And as I have worked with people over the last handful of years that have lost loved ones, a lot of them ask the same question.

Why? Why didn't God heal her? Why didn't God heal him? Why didn't God bring them back from the dead? My answer is always the same. I don't know. I don't know why God chooses to do some things and not do other things. I don't know why. There was probably a lot of people that died that very same day, and yet Jesus went to this synagogue ruler's house in order to raise this girl from the dead.

I can't always answer that question, why? What I do know is, is that for the believer, death is not eternal. You see, when a believer dies, they really do just go to sleep. Because this physical body is laid aside, and they are putting on a brand new body. Not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And as I said before, what Jesus is about to do in a very physical way is simply a picture

of what he's going to do in a very eternal way. Because what I can tell everybody, beyond a shadow of a doubt, with the greatest confidence possible, is that when someone dies in the Lord, they did not really die. One of my favorite lines that Chuck Smith used to say all the time is he said, one of these days, you're going to read in the newspaper that Chuck Smith died. He said, you need to die.

You need to know that's bad reporting. Because I'm more alive than I've ever been. And if you know somebody that's died in the Lord, they did not die. Their physical body's gone. They laid aside their shell, but they are more alive than they've ever been in their entire life. Because when they inhaled for the very first time in heaven, they were more alive than

they could ever be on topside of planet Earth. What Jesus is about to do is going to be the perfect picture of what he's going to defeat. And so he puts everybody out. But notice what happens. It says, he says, leave for the girl has not died, but is asleep. And they began laughing at him. That's how you know it was synthetic grief. Because they immediately went to mocking and laughing at him.

They're like, this moron thinks she's not dead. We're not dumb. We know she's gone. But notice that Jesus continues putting them out. He said, you can laugh your way out the door. But when the crowd had been sent out, he entered. And took her by the hand. And the girl got up. Again, may I say, I'm mildly disappointed in the lack of detail of what actually took

place here. Apparently, he didn't say anything because my red letter Bible has no red letters right there, which means Jesus wasn't talking. All he did is he went in, according to this gospel account in Matthew. He placed his hand on hers. And she was raised from the dead. And then she got up. What a powerful picture, is it not? Grabs her hand. And you can just see.

And she's alive again. Can you imagine how her dad felt? Oh, my gosh. Like, I bet, just danced around the room with her. Dad, stop. This is embarrassing. I don't care. You're alive. And he's just so happy. Can you imagine when she walked out and all the people that laughed at Jesus, they're like, oh, whatever, man. You're an idiot. And she comes walking out.

And she's like, hey. And they're like, whoa. Maybe that guy did it. It says in the news of it, spread throughout the entire land. Well, we're not done yet. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, have mercy on his son of David. When he entered the house, the blind man came up to him. And Jesus said to them, do you believe that I am able to do this?

And they said to him, yes, Lord. They touched their eyes, saying, it shall be done to you according to your faith. And their eyes were opened. Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about this. But they went out. And spread the news about him throughout all the land. Now, this next story is kind of interesting. We're given the idea that he leaves the place where he has just healed this girl.

And his day's not done yet. And as he leaves, again, there's probably an entourage of people, a crowd of people following him. Because by this point in time, there's always a crowd of people following Jesus. Because they want to see what he's going to do next. And as this crowd of people is following him, we're told about two men. And these two men have an issue.

The issue that these two men have that they need healed from is they have blindness. They can't see anything. Now, according to what I studied. There are several different reasons why people became blind at that point in time. Some were born that way. But many had issues that came up throughout their lives. Because of the sun being the way that it is. So bright and in that desert region with no trees.

They were constantly taking in the sunlight. And they didn't have the sweet shades that we have today with the UV blockers. So, their eyes would gain calluses. We would call them cataracts over their eyes that they wouldn't be able to see. Because of the dust in the area. What would happen is dust would blow in people's eyes and perhaps create an infection.

And they would lose their vision. And then, of course, there was also an issue of the fact that they couldn't deal with the bugs quite like we can here. And so, some of them would have bugs laying in their eyes. Can I say? Worst idea I've ever had. Worst idea I've ever heard of. But they would lay eggs in there and end up causing blindness in the eyes. Whatever it was.

Whatever caused it with these men. They had a problem. They couldn't see anything. Okay. So, they very persistently sought Jesus. Now, one of the things it seems to point out in this last little section of chapter 9. I don't know if I just noticed it more or if Matthew takes more time pointing it out. Is the faith of the different ones that were healed at this point in time.

And faith is one of those things that we can say, oh gosh, I have enough faith. But listen. If the amount of faith that this girl had to touch the hem of Jesus' robe and be healed is enough. Then the faith you have is enough. It just simply takes believing that Jesus is. And then he can do what he says he can do. And so, these men showed their faith by being persistent.

Think about how difficult this would have been. First of all, they would have had to track down exactly where Jesus was in this town. They would have had to ask around. They would have had to say, can you tell us, point us in the right direction of Jesus. Because again, they're blind. They can't see the crowd. They can't see where Jesus might be in the midst of them.

So, they have to get pointed in the right direction by somebody else. Very persistently seeking and asking everybody, can you point me towards Jesus? And then once they've arrived in the crowd, you can just imagine. In a crowd of people, I know that visually impaired people. People rely a lot on their hearing. And when they do so, if you're in the midst of a crowd, it's very hard.

Because there's so many different voices that you can hear. And so, what do they do? They start crying out, have mercy on us, son of David. And they just keep crying. And they keep working their way up the crowd. You can just see people going, he's up there a little bit further. And they kind of usher them up a little further. And they keep following. And they keep crying out.

Just hoping that they can stick in the right crowd long enough. To where they can get to where Jesus is. So that he can heal them. And they just keep seeking. And they just keep crying out. And finally, notice what happens. It says in verse 28. And when he entered the house, the blind men came up to him. And Jesus said, do you believe that I'm able to do this?

You see, they followed him up until the house that he was dwelling in. Which by this point in time is probably with Peter. Remember we said a lot of the headquarters that they set up there were within Peter's house. Probably went to Peter's house. And they just kept following him. Crying out the same thing. Have mercy on us, son of David. And finally they come to the house.

And they beat down the door. Until Jesus finally. Let's him in. And what's the first thing that Jesus asks them? Do you believe that I can do this? Now, Jesus hasn't asked anybody else that. I think it's kind of an interesting question that he asks them. He didn't ask the lady with the flow of blood that. He didn't ask the synagogue ruler that. He didn't ask the centurion that.

He didn't ask the demon possessed guy that. He didn't ask the guys covered in leprosy that. He didn't ask any of those people, do you believe that I can do this? So why? At this point in time, does Jesus decide to get all, hey, do you really believe? On these two blind men who seem to clearly believe. Because they chased him across town. Why does he ask that?

Now, I haven't fully been given a great answer on this. But this is the only thing that I've come up with. If you look at the book of Isaiah. You will find that there are certain things that the Messiah is supposed to do. One of the things that the Messiah is supposed to do. Is to open the eyes of the blind. Did you take note of what they were calling out to Jesus as they were seeking him?

They didn't say, have mercy on us, Jesus. What did they say? Have mercy on us, son of David. You say, Ryan, why do I care about that? Because the son of David is prophetically the one who would be the Messiah. And so when Jesus is talking to them. And he hears them over and over again saying. Have mercy on us, son of David. Have mercy on us, son of David. Have mercy on us, son of David.

He asks them a question. Do you believe that I can do this? I don't think, personally, that he was asking. Do you think I'm able to heal you of your blindness? I think what he's asking is. Do you believe that I'm the Messiah? Do you believe that I can do this? And of course, how do they respond? Yeah, we do. I love this. Because these men. Though they cannot see anything physically.

They can see more clearly spiritually than the religious leaders of the day. Because you see, sometimes you have to be blind to see. And that's exactly what happened to these men. They couldn't see a lick of anything. And all they knew is they needed to pursue Jesus. Because he was the one that could heal them. And so though physically speaking they were totally blind.

Spiritually speaking they could see more than most of the people that were around them. And so when Jesus looks at them and says. Do you believe that I can do this? They're like. Yeah. We do. And so he says. So it says. He touched their eyes. Saying. It shall be done to you according to your faith. Now. This is not the first time Jesus is going to. Or not the only time Jesus is going to heal people of blindness.

And he's going to do it always in a little bit of a different way. One time he makes a little clay. Rubs it in their eyes. My favorite one is the one when he spits on them. He spits in their eyes and says. Be clean. I want to be that kind of healer. Right. Like if I ever become. Like God's like. Hey. You've got the gift of healing. I'll be like. Can it be the spitting thing?

Can I just spit on people and have them healed? He'll tell me no. But that's what I'm ultimately going to hope for. So. So Jesus this time does it a little bit different. It says he just. Touches their eyes. And as he touches their eyes. He says. Your faith. Has made you well. Can you imagine what it would have been like. The very first time that they opened their eyes.

Depending on how long they've been blind. Whether it was from birth. Or thereafter. I can't imagine what that would have been like. I've given a lot of thought of what it must be like. To see for the very first time. To live your entire life. Having things described to you. And for the first time go. That's what a tree looks like. That's what grass looks like.

Squirrels really are weird. Right. Llamas really are funny. To be able to see for that very first time. That's what a tree looks like. That's what grass looks like. I bet they didn't close their eyes for three days. I bet they just looked at everything. They were like. Do you know what else I saw today? A rabbit. It was white. And it hopped. I loved it. It was the greatest thing I've ever seen.

Right. Because they're just so excited for what they can take in. But do you know what I also think is really cool? Is what Jesus did physically for them. Is what he often does spiritually for us. And he opens our eyes for the very first time. Because I remember when my eyes began to be open spiritually. And I couldn't put God's word down. Because I was so excited about everything that I read.

I was so excited about everything that I saw. I remember with my brand new spiritual eyes hearing Christmas carols for the very first time. And I was like. Son of a gun. Those are about Jesus. Like I should have known that. Right. Because I grew up in the church. But when you really read them. And you're like. There's a lot of theology in that song. That's amazing.

Because you're just so excited. Because your eyes have just been open to the truth of everything that God is. And everything that he can do. And all of the beautiful things that he has for us in his word. And these guys took everything in. But Jesus tells them something really interesting next. It says. Their eyes were open. It says. Jesus sternly warned them.

See that no one knows about this. Did you notice the descriptive words that were used. About how Jesus warned them. The adverb that was. He said sternly warned them. Jesus wasn't just like. Hey listen. If at all possible. Could you just not say anything to anybody about this. No. He was like. Don't. Don't tell anyone. That this took place. Now you should ask the question right now.

The same one that anybody else asks at this point in time. Why does he tell them don't tell anybody. Their lives were literally just absolutely changed. So why does Jesus look at him and say. Here's the thing. Can you not tell anybody about this. I think that's going to be the best. Why does he tell them that. Well remember. What do these guys know about Jesus.

They basically just said. We believe that you. You are the Messiah. You see. The nation of Israel at this point in time was under Roman occupation. And as the nation of Israel was under Roman occupation. They knew that they were waiting for someone. They knew that they were waiting for a Messiah. And they knew. That all of the prophecies of the Old Testament spoke of a Messiah.

The son of David who would come. And who would rule and reign. And be the best ruler anyone had ever seen. Because he would do so justly. And in righteousness. What they just realized is. He's the Messiah. And he proved it. By restoring sight to the blind. If they go tell everybody that. What does Jesus know. The entire nation of Israel is going to want out of Jesus.

They're going to want him to be their political leader. They're going to want him to lead them in the overthrow of the Roman government. And Jesus is going. That's not why I'm here this time. You see. When Jesus came the first time. He did not come as the conquering king. When he came the first time. He came as the suffering servant. And it was so important that he came as a suffering servant

because if he didn't come as the suffering servant, then when he came as the conquering king, we wouldn't be able to be a part of his kingdom. And so he came as the suffering servant. But now, brothers and sisters, as we look for him now, remember, the king is coming. And he'll come the second time as the conquering king because he came the first time as the suffering servant.

But he says, don't tell anybody. And of course, these guys are like the rest of us. They're like, okay. Verse 31, but they went out and spread the news about him throughout all the land. You can imagine the two of them on their way talking. They're like, first of all, I'm looking at everything I can see right now. I'm taking as much in my eye gates as I possibly can because this is amazing.

Hey, you know that thing where he said about don't tell anybody? Yeah, what about it? Are you going to be able to do that? Sure, we've got willpower. We can do that. Hey, guess what? I can see today. Dude, you're not supposed to tell anybody. Well, I didn't tell them it was Jesus that did it. Oh, man. Oh, well, let's just tell everybody. And so that's what they did.

Because they were excited, and they told everybody about it. It's interesting to read different commentators on this because some commentators are all like, hey, listen, though it was disobedience, it was accidental disobedience, and so, you know, no big deal. Other commentators were like, but they disobeyed a direct order from Jesus. Listen, here's the thing.

I think Jesus was pretty patient with their disobedience. I really do. I think ultimately he would have been like, hey, don't tell anybody, but you know as well as I do. When Jesus does a work in your life, it's really, really hard to keep it to yourself. It's really, really hard to not tell anybody about it. Well, one more story of healing. Verse 32, the healing of the mute.

It says, As they were going out, a mute demon-possessed man was brought to him. And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds were amazed, saying, You know how when you're writing a paper in high school and you need to write like 500 words and you're at words 495, you just hurry up and get the last five words in, even though you could give way more detail, it would just put you over the word limit and you're like, why would I do more than I have to? I feel like that's what Matthew does here.

He's like, I just told you a bunch of detail about all these healings. Oh, and then there was also this guy who was mute and demon-possessed. People brought him, and Jesus, after the demon was cast out, he could talk. And people were like, hey, awesome. No, that was a demon. Right? Like, Matthew, you're killing me here. Give me more detail. So let me tell you the detail I do know.

We'll talk about that for a minute, even though he didn't give me enough. It says, as they were going out. Now, whether this is the exact same day, perhaps leaving the house after healing the blind men, or whether this is another day, we're not real sure. We know that pretty much Jesus was just going about his business, which is important because we'll talk in just a few minutes about the business Jesus was constantly about.

But he was going about his business. While he was going about his business, daily work, teaching and preaching and healing, there was a man who was brought to him. We're told two things about this man. Number one, this man was mute. Number two, this man was demon-possessed. I would say that his greater problem was the second one, and that caused the first problem.

Now, as he was demon-possessed, that meant his life was not his at that point in time. He was under the control of the enemy. He was under the control of a demonic force. And part of being under the control of that demonic force was that he could not speak. Now, there's a good handful of things that would really bum me out. Not being able to speak, that's in my top two, right?

I would have a really hard time if I couldn't speak because, well, it's what I do for a living, for one thing, and I enjoy doing it for another. And I just can't imagine not being able to communicate. Because here's the thing. If I can't talk, I don't communicate, period, right? Like, some people are really smart. They know sign language. I'm not smart enough for that.

I can't figure it out. I've never been able to learn sign language. So I think, okay, well, then I'd have to write down all of my messages. Listen, you can ask my wife. I write like a five-year-old, right? You can't read anything that I write. If I can't speak, I don't ever communicate with a human being again. I can't imagine what that would be like. But that's the situation that this guy is in.

He's completely under the control of the enemy and unable to communicate with anyone. And as he's in this situation, I want you to notice how he ends up in front of Jesus. Did you take note of that? It says that they brought him to Jesus. Now, we don't know who they is. That's a very nondescript word that's used there. But they brought him to Jesus. Now, this is the second instance that we've seen that somebody comes to Jesus only not of their own accord,

not of their own will, not even under their own power. Somebody else does it, which, again, brings up a really good couple of points for us to make. Number one, who are you surrounding yourself with? I know I asked this question two or three weeks ago, but I don't think we can ask this question enough. Who are the people that you're surrounding yourself with?

Are they the people that will take you to Jesus? Or are they the people who will take your problems to the public for everybody to know about instead of actually being able to deal with the issues that you have? I was having a conversation with somebody between the service. And they were talking about, hey, this so-and-so married this guy, and he wasn't a Christian, and now it's a real bummer in their life because of it.

Listen, I tell kids this all the time. The person you choose to spend your life with will affect the kind of person that you are because the people that you surround yourself with, that's who you'll end up becoming like because we all have a tendency to defer to the lowest common denominator. And so what kind of people are you surrounding yourself with? But that brings me to a second point.

What kind of person are you surrounding yourself with? What kind of person are you? Are you the kind of person that takes other people to the feet of Jesus? Are you the kind of person that takes other people into the presence of Jesus with the issues that they have? Because we should be those kind of people. Now, I feel like I can fairly confidently say that by and large as a church,

we're the people that carry others to the feet of Jesus. I've seen it happen this month. In particular, we've had a lot of people that have gotten very sick this month, not only within our fellowship, although most of them have fared pretty well, but some people who I would call attached to people in our fellowship that I've known to you all as the body of Christ. You all fervently prayed for them.

And you know how I know you fervently prayed for them? I knew it two ways. Number one, because you'd ask me all the time how those people are doing. But number two, God healed. Because in those things, I was telling my Bible class this the other day. I said, you know what's really cool? There are three people that I knew of for sure that I was, I think it was a flip of a coin.

Like we were kind of like, I don't know how this whole thing is going to end. And they're home now. And I don't mean home with Jesus. I mean, they're at their house because God healed them. Did he use medicine? Sure, but it's still God that brought the healing.

And so I know that we are those kind of people, but we must continue to be those kinds of people. And so whoever it was, whatever prompted them, they brought this man to the feet of Jesus. But you know what's really cool is that we kind of learned something from this, and that's that God honors the faith of others even if you don't have any faith. This is kind of cool because perhaps you're praying for somebody that's not saved.

You're praying for somebody who's trapped in drug addiction or alcohol addiction or some form of sin in their life, and they need set free from it. And all you know to do is just keep bringing them to Jesus. And you're like, but Lord, they've got no faith. And Jesus is like, that's okay, you do. And I'll honor your faith on their behalf. We've seen it twice now that Jesus honors faith on the behalf of others.

So even though that person may not have the faith, that you think they should have, you have it for them. Because we see that God moves on behalf of others when you have faith. And so they bring this man to Jesus. It says, And after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. That's it. How did Jesus cast a demon out? What did he say? What did the demon say?

Was there anything that took place here? Anyway, Matthew left it blank. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. And this is my addendum. He probably didn't stop talking for three days. I think that guy talked to everybody about everything. He's like, you will never believe the things that have happened to me in the entire time that I was possessed by this demon.

I bet he talked to everybody to death, right? I saw, oh, why not? I saw this meme the other day, and it said, I left my daughter, but ever since she started talking, she hasn't stopped talking. And I remember thinking, like. Because, I told you I like to talk. I like to talk. I like to talk. I like to talk, and I got two kids, and I was like, maybe one of them won't be like me.

Nope, turns out they're both like me. I remember when Violet was born. Sorry, don't look at her, look at me. When Violet was born and she first started talking, I was like, whoa, that's a lot of words. She's got a lot of words. And she just kept talking, and it really, again, hadn't stopped since. When she goes to sleep, and even then, I think she talks in her sleep.

So then when Nora, when we were pregnant with Nora, we were like, Nora probably won't be as talkative as Violet. Usually. We usually get one or the other. Man, were we wrong. She's exactly the same. I was like, son of a gun, two of them. So we'd shove them in the back seat and say, talk to each other. So the mute man, I bet the mute guy went and found the blind guys, and they all talked the entire time.

They're like, we haven't stopped looking at anything. He's like, I haven't stopped talking. Let's hang out. So Jesus performs this amazing miracle of healing, and I love how the crowds respond. They said, nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. The masses are just amazed at the work of Jesus. But listen, haters going to hate. Verse 34, but the Pharisees were saying, he casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.

Now, if this was a TV series, this would be the part where you would hear the bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, right? The dramatic music would play. It would sort of pan to a devious look on a Pharisee's face, and he'd go, he casts out demons by the ruler of the demons. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? The dramatic music would play, and it would kind of fade into the background.

Come to us next time on Matthew, the story of Jesus. Right? That's how it would play out. But of course, Jesus is going to have to deal with these guys at some point in time, because in another reference of Scripture, we see that he says, you're really close to committing the unforgivable sin. And so it's a pretty dangerous place that these guys have ended up, because their heart is getting harder and harder towards the things of Jesus.

And listen, there's a point that needs to be made here. When the truth of who Jesus is, is presented to you, you will do one of two things. You will be amazed and accept it, or you will be hardened and reject it. The longer that you reject the presented truth of Jesus Christ, the harder your heart gets towards the truth of Jesus Christ. Well, now it's time to wrap this thing up.

And as we do so, Matthew gives his summary statement on the compassion. And so it says in verse 35, Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness. Seeing the people, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers. And so as we begin this last little section on the compassion of Jesus, we see, first of all, that little summary statement. All the gospel writers tend to do this. When they finish a major section, they give a little summary statement on the ministry of Jesus. And Matthew gives the same summary statement that he gave in chapter 4, when he lays out the overall mission and work of Jesus.

It says that he did three things. Number one, he went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues. What did he teach them? Well, he taught them the truth. He said, this is what the law really says. And this is what the law really means. This is who God is, and this is what his character and nature looks like. I understand that this is what your religious leaders are telling you.

But what I'm saying is, they're misrepresenting the character and the nature of God and exactly what he intended in the law. He taught them the truth and the true character and nature of God, of what God intended. And they loved it, because he was actually giving out the truth in that authoritative way. Of course, the second thing it says that he did is he proclaimed the gospel.

We would call that preaching. He preached the gospel to them. If you don't know, the word gospel means good news. He told them the good news of the kingdom, and he constantly preached. Listen, here's the good news of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is here, because I have come to deliver people. I've come to set people free. And there's a kingdom that goes well beyond the things that you can see and hear and smell in front of you right now.

There's a greater kingdom that there is to look forward to. And he proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. And then, of course, he did that. The third thing, it says that he healed them of various kinds of diseases. In our 21st century context, we would say he ministered to them. He met their needs. And he spent his time doing that because he cared about people, because he loved people.

But as we see this summary statement of his ministry, we're given a little summary statement of his heart. Notice what it says in verse 36. Seeing the people, he felt compassion. I don't know why. But the Lord sort of. Highlighted that first little phrase for me. Seeing the people. Because I think sometimes we forget that God sees us. One of the great truths that you see throughout scripture is that we're told over and over again that God sees and God hears and God acts.

And that's exactly what Jesus would do when Jesus would show up and he would be teaching the crowd. He wouldn't just look over their heads. He would see the people. And when he saw the people, he saw the things that were really going on with them. You see, he saw the looks on their faces when they were hurt by the things that the world had done to them. He saw the disheartened nature in them when they knew that the law was holding them down because they had a misinterpreted view of the law.

And they viewed God as someone who was angry with them, not someone who absolutely loved them and wanted them to abide in him. He saw the fact that many of them were dealing with the diseases of the world. And because they were dealing with the diseases of the world, they felt held down. They were held down by those things. And may I say to us, as human beings living in the 21st century, he sees us.

He sees all of the things that are going on with us too. And he's well aware of the things taking place in our lives. It says, seeing the people, he felt compassion for them. According to several of the commentaries that I read doing some word studies, it says that, This is the strongest possible Greek word for compassion. In other words, it carries with it the heaviest heart intended for the compassion that Jesus felt for the people.

In other words, when Jesus saw what was going on in the people, he allowed his heart to feel what was going on in the people. He didn't shut himself off to the pain. He allowed himself to take in everything that they were dealing with so that he knew what it was really like. And this is why he felt compassion for them. Because they... They were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

Those words are kind of interesting. The word distressed means weary or exhausted by trouble. Weary or exhausted by trouble. Does that not feel like a really good description for how people feel right now? I think in general as a culture, both in the United States of America and globally speaking, the world is really weary right now. We're exhausted. We're exhausted because we don't know what the next portion of this pandemic or endemic or sickness, whatever it is.

We don't know what the next variant is going to look like. We don't know the effect of it. We don't know the response to it or the reaction to it or any of those kinds of things. And we're weary over that type of stuff. We're weary over the fact that there seems to be a greater divide now than perhaps there ever has been in our nation. Divided over everything.

Whether it's divided over race. Whether it's divided over vaccines. Whether it's divided... Whether it's divided over masks. Whether it's divided over politics. Whether it's divided over you name it. We feel more divided now than ever before. And I think we're all a little exhausted from it. Because there's exhaustion in our culture right now. We're all exhausted with the hate that we see.

Not only from those who are actually hateful, but those who are telling us that they're loving and telling us in a very hateful way that we should stop hating people. We're worn out by all that. And quite frankly, we're just a little bit more than that. We're just a little exhausted from life. But Jesus sees. And he feels compassion. And the reason why we get exhausted is because we can get our eyes on all of those things and off of the creator of the heavens and the earth.

We get our eyes off of Jesus. But he says he felt compassion not only because they were distressed, but also because they were dispirited. The New King James translates this word scattered. The idea is this. Aimlessly. Wandering. Oh, my gosh. Again, if we could paint the culture in a color, it would be aimlessly wandering. I think people are wandering all over the place right now.

I always think it's interesting to hear what people believe. It's just a great question. If you ever come up to someone from the world and you're like, I just want to start a conversation about Jesus, start with this one question. What do you believe? You will be as confused as they are by the time you're finished. Because they will have combined three religions and four television shows by the time you're done.

Oh, and probably two YouTubers are going to be in there as well. Maybe someone from TikTok. They'll combine all those things together and you're like, wow, that's like the most pantheistic thing I've ever heard. Like you're ecumenical, but narrow-minded. You're a pantheist, but you don't believe God exists. Like I'm super lost on where you are right now because they don't know where they are either.

You know why? Because they're aimlessly wandering about. They're like sheep without a shepherd that don't know where to feed, don't know where to drink. And quite frankly. They are just about to walk off of a cliff. And because Jesus saw that, he cared. He felt compassion and he did something about it. And he loved them. He says he felt so much compassion because he saw the state that the nation of Israel was in.

Notice what he says to his disciples. The harvest is plentiful. Verse 37. But the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Now those two verses are going to segue perfectly into the next chapter in which Jesus is going to begin to send his disciples out as workers in the harvest. But you know from that little section on compassion, I think there's three things that we need to take away from it.

Three things, and I'll wrap up with this because these are three things I think that we need to learn. Number one, this heart of compassion. That's the heart Jesus has towards me. That's the heart Jesus has towards you. See, I think sometimes we can have our moments of feeling a little distressed. And dispirited. And we can forget that Jesus sees that. And we can forget that Jesus has that heart of love and that heart of compassion for me.

Because sometimes we can feel like that woman with the issue of blood. And we're like, I'm too unclean to come to Jesus. Even as believers, oh, I failed this week. I'm too unclean to come to Jesus. But he has that same heart of compassion for you. I tell you that because you can never be who God wants you to be until you can rest in who you are in Christ. I don't know about you, but I felt myself lately being resisted.

Really irritated with people in the world. Just the more I see things happen, I can just get frustrated. And I'm like, I can feel like Habakkuk in the Old Testament. And I'm like, okay, God, when's judgment coming? Because clearly we're ready. Bring it any time you're ready. I don't know why you've waited this long. Right? I can feel that way sometimes. And you're laughing because you probably feel that way sometimes.

Right? And I just kind of get frustrated. And I have to remember, Jesus is not ready to judge just yet. You know how I know? We're all still here. That means that Jesus is continuing to show patience to the rest of the world. Why is he continuing to show patience to the rest of the world? Because he will remain until the last of the Gentiles come to know him.

Until the last of who he wants to come into his fold are going to come into his fold. And every day that I think, man, today would be a great day to go home, I have to remind myself, but today would be a great day to see somebody else come to know Jesus. I need to understand that's how he feels about the entire world. Is he's looking at the world right now, and I think the heart of Jesus that's referred to as a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.

I think when he sees the world, he sees us as being distressed, dispirited, like we're weary and wandering aimlessly. And his heart is broken for the world. That brings me to the third point. This is the heart he wants me to have for people. You see, the heart that Jesus wants to instill within each and every one of us is the heart that we begin to look at people and stop seeing them as the enemy

and stop seeing them as people we don't agree with and that commit sins that we don't like and all those kinds of things. We need to begin to see them with that heart of compassion that Jesus sees them with so that we too can be workers in the harvest, so that we too can be those who God would use to teach and to preach and to minister to the people that are around us. But listen, I can never have that kind of heart towards the people that are around me until I first begin to understand the heart that Jesus has, for me. Because we have to understand something.

We love because he first loved us. You see, it's real easy to get legalistic right now and start saying, now this is what you need to do. But here's the problem. I'll fail every single time. If I try to be like, okay, I'm just going to go love the people of the world and I'm going to try really hard to do it today. You know what I'm going to be doing by the end of the day?

Yelling at the people of the world. You know how I know? Because I've seen myself do it. Because I can't ever work up that amount. I can't ever work up that amount of love in me. It can only be produced by the Holy Spirit. As I begin to understand who I am, I understand how Jesus views the world and he begins to work that kind of heart in me. Amen? Let's all stand.

As I shared in an email this week, the year has started off more intense than I thought it was going to and I anticipated it starting off kind of intense. So I was like, wow, there it is. That's worse than I thought it was going to be. But in it all, I have seen God be so intense. So let's keep our eyes on that faithfulness of Jesus. Lord, thank you for today.

Thank you for the word that you have to share with us. I thank you for how it changes our hearts and our souls as your Holy Spirit takes the truth of your word and translates it into our lives. And so Lord, do that this week. Translate the truth of your word into our lives, into the way that we live daily. Lord, help us to rest in you and to be the people that you've called for us to be.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

Is not what you have required You search much deeper within Through the way things appear You're lurking into my heart How much you deserve Every single Through the way things appear For the song in itself Is not Through the way things appear And we follow God and that is our desire, God, just to come back to the heart of worship, God, just to, to simply make it all about you, Lord. God, please forgive us if we've made it about anything else, God. God, our desire is just to simply worship you, worship you in every area of our life, God. Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us as we leave here today and just continue your good work in our hearts, God.

God, we love you. We thank you, God, and we praise you and pray all these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.