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Part 14 of 44
Wisdom and Wonder series, Episode 2
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Father, in full humility, I acknowledge my weakness. I throw myself on the altar of your grace. I thank you for confronting us in your love because we are your children. I ask for strength and help to unpack these eternal truths in your word.
I pray for every man, woman, and child under the sound of my voice—those in overflow, those watching across the screen, those listening on audio—that you would arrest our attention and drive away every distraction. May we lean in to be taught and not to be entertained. Give us revelation and insight and knowledge from these holy scriptures. May we behold Christ in all of his wisdom. May we not be in awe of a man, but may we be more in awe of the Lord Jesus Christ. For some of us, familiarity has choked out wonder. Restore to us wonder over the Savior. Rob us of familiarity. More intimacy with Christ. Less infatuation with men.
This week I was in the gym on Monday. I bumped into one of my gym buddies. He said to me, "Yo, bro, it's good to see you." He told me about a sister who used to be on the bike near the door. He said, "She passed." He went on to tell me how wonderful she was—so kind, so loving, so friendly. He told me she had been his children's teacher and had such an impact on his children. Her name was Shakina.
I said, "Yeah, I know Shakina very well." Shakina is the wife of one of our executive staff members, Mr. Don Smith. She's been part of our 2819 family, and she slipped into eternity during the holidays. She was in a battle against sickness in her body, and now she is in the presence of Jesus. She knows now more than anybody else how real Christ is. She finished her labor. She ran her race and stumbled into the loving arms of her Savior.
Although she was not physically healed in this life, she is completely healed right now.
I thought about how that brother was impacted by Shakina's life. I thought about how his children were impacted by Shakina's life. That even in her absence, her fruit is still speaking in the earth. This is why I've been shouting from this pulpit for years: we need to live well and love well and suffer well. Live in such a way that when you come to that box, people have good things to say about you when you're gone. When you're gone, nobody cares about how much money you had. Ain't nobody asking about no 401k. On a deathbed, the only thing that's going to remain is the atmosphere, the witness you left, the impact you left in the hearts of men and women. How you love people and how you moved in the earth—that is going to reverberate long after you're gone.
I texted Don at home. I said, "Don, I bumped into a brother in the gym who knew your wife, and he was talking about her heart and her character and how loving she was." Don began to tell me how broken he still is at her loss—how he has these bouts where he's good one moment and he's battling deep grief the other moment. He's up and down, trying to find joy in Christ but feeling the pain of the loss of his wife.
The depth of being separated from someone you love when your life was intertwined for 17 years—I can't even imagine my world without Lena right now. Our lives have been so intimately mixed for like two decades.
I said to Don, "You know what? In all of this, the only reason you're suffering this is because of sin." Just imagine if our pristine parents in that garden never touched that forbidden fruit. Just imagine if sin never entered the earth. Imagine if they never rebelled against God Almighty and lived in a permanent state of joy and bliss with God. But because of the sin of our pristine parents, sin entered into the world, death into the world. Now human beings have to feel the separation of people we love.
God never intended for the human heart to feel separation from someone you love by death. It was never his will for us to be at funerals. It was never his will for us to be crying over a box with a loved one missing. He never intended for the human heart to wrestle with pain that deep.
I said to Don, "The only reason you're feeling that right now is because of sin. I feel stuff inside me I wish wasn't in there because of sin. I think about all the people I hurt because of sin. I think about all the people that betrayed me because of sin." This is why I hate sin, Don. I hate sin. I see how it has so deeply damaged the human race.
Everything in me wants to keep encouraging you to stop treating sin like a pet. The only pet sin is—it's a viper waiting to choke the life out of you. It is sin inside of us, inside of you. That is the problem with the human race. It's the source of all of our wars. It's the father that abandons a wife and her children. It's the murderer who plugs somebody in the street. It's the single mother who becomes a junkie and abandons her children. It's the teenagers that curse out their parents and are rebellious.
Every person in here that's ever felt insecure about anything—sin. Ever felt ashamed about something from your past—sin. Ever lost friendships and people you love—sin. Divorce—sin. All of the sufferings of human beings. The reason human beings are suffering is because of sin.
Of all the sin we're affected with, it was very few sins that made Jesus look people in the eyes and say, "You brood of vipers." Or Jesus would look somebody in the eyes and say, "You son of the devil." Imagine our Lord looking into the eyes of sinful men and said, "You brutal vipers." Imagine Jesus saying, "You sons of the devil, how are you going to escape hell that's coming for you?"
What kind of sin would drive Jesus to say that to a person? He didn't say that to the woman caught in adultery. He didn't say that to the rich young ruler. He didn't say that to Zacchaeus. But it was a group of men—Jesus looked them in the eyes and said, "Y'all are a group of snakes." Jesus looked them in the eyes and said, "Y'all are sons of Satan."
What kind of sin was that? One of the ugliest sins amongst the people of God: the sin of religious hypocrisy. It lives in the heart of people who stand in my shoes, those who call themselves pastors and shepherds, those who are responsible for being guardians of truth, those who are responsible for representing God Almighty and teaching people in the ways of God.
Those who stand in this office and shoes who are responsible for teaching the truth—and yet their hearts are full of the sin of religious hypocrisy and self-righteousness and legalism and pride—to the point that y'all are even blinded to the heart of God Almighty. You preach about a man you don't even know. You study the scriptures and you miss the person who's standing right in front of you.
It's ugly when preachers have an incongruency between what you preach and what's in your heart. It's an ugly thing to stand on a platform and declare to other people how they should live and you are far away from that in your heart. It is a disgusting thing to strap the word of God on people's necks and add legalism on top of that.
That's many pastors in America. In the time of Jesus, it was the Pharisees—that religious group who was a political party and a religious party, who some of them sat on the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, who had influence and power, who were responsible for being the teachers of Israel, and their hearts were full of the sin of religious hypocrisy and legalism to the point Jesus later would tell them, "Y'all sons of the devil."
Last week, Jesus had sent out his followers to do ministry. They come back and meet together. I'm sure they're telling the Lord about the things they did, the things they preached, the miracles they did. And as they're talking together, they are walking from one city to the next.
As they walked, they got hungry. In his providence, God would allow them to walk through a grain field. As they're walking through that grain field, they were plucking heads of grain. Then the Pharisees saw them and said to the Lord, "Why are your disciples doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"
I read to you from the Old Testament that it was perfectly lawful to pick grain. But the Pharisees had added a book of like 30 extra laws to the Sabbath. The purpose for the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day of worship—that's why God created it. God created six days and everything in those days. The seventh day he rested, which is Saturday. Jesus rose on a Sunday, the first day of the week. So the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday.
God intended the people would rest and worship. Rest and worship. Rest and be in awe of God. By the days of Jesus, the Pharisees had loaded down the Sabbath with all these extra laws and regulations that made the Sabbath burdensome. The people needed a rest from the Sabbath.
Jesus is confronted. Jesus defends his followers with the word of God. "Have you not read? Have you not read? Have you not read?" He shows us that he is a student of the word of God.
He went on from there and entered their synagogue.
Watch. He went on from there, from where? From the grain field. So we know that Jesus was traveling through that grain field on the way to an undisclosed city. He just got into a full-blown fight with these Pharisees over legalism. The Pharisees probably walked away. And Jesus and his followers leave from that grain field.
Now they're traveling to a city. And it says as they travel to that place, they enter their synagogue. The very Pharisees that just confronted him—now the Lord is inside their synagogue. The men who just confronted him in the grain field—he leaves from that confrontation and the very next place he goes is into their synagogue.
A synagogue in Greek simply means gathering. Over time, it would exclusively be tagged to Jewish gatherings. A synagogue was a meeting place for the Jews. They had a chief minister who was the leader of the synagogue and responsible for the scrolls. They had elders in the synagogue, and the synagogue had four functions:
When Christianity emerges out of Judaism, the Christians would adopt these practices for our gatherings. That's why in our gatherings, there's times of worship, times of the reading of the Bible and exaltation, times of prayer, and times of teaching children. We have today in our Christian Judeo heritage in the way we do church—that emerged out of the culture of the synagogue.
It was his custom to always go to the synagogue. When the Sabbath came, if a synagogue was near, Jesus was always in God's house. He set an example for us to prioritize the gathering of God's people. Sabbath did not pass and Christ was not in a synagogue.
And a man was there with a withered hand. And they, the Pharisees, asked him, "Jesus, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" so that they might accuse him.
When I read this this week in my study time, I burst into tears. I burst into tears crying. One of the things that we have done poorly in our generation is that when we read the scriptures, we read them like these people are fairy tales. We don't think about the historicity of these human beings we're reading about.
These aren't fables. The scriptures are a collection of 66 ancient historical documents, poetry, and psalms. When we read about these people in the scriptures, we're reading about real human beings who lived and died, men and women and children like you and me.
Let me bring you back to the text with a human heart. They are in the gathering of the saints. We're in a room. Christ and his disciples are in the room. The Pharisees who are supposed to be the teachers of the law, the pastors of the people, are in the room.
And they see a man in the congregation who has a deformity. And they try to use a man with a deformity as a prop for an argument. Never mind the man is suffering. Never mind he has a deformity. Never mind he's probably embarrassed because of his deformity. They don't even care about this man. The only thing they care about is using somebody's weakness as a prop for their argument.
The man had a withered hand. The word withered in his original language told us there was no life in his hand. No blood. It's shriveled up. He has a handicap. We don't know his name, but we know he's a Jewish male.
Does he have a family? If he does, how can he work with a withered hand? Some cultural narratives tell us that he injured that hand in a construction accident. If that's the case, that means he could not work. Is he begging for money? Is he fighting to take care of his family? Is he dealing with the embarrassment of having a deformed hand? I'm sure he's walking around with his hand in his cloak. He's no different than many of us in this room who got issues. We try to hide things in our heart. We don't want nobody to make fun of us.
Could you imagine being in a church where a pastor found out about something you were dealing with and instead of caring about how to help you, he used you in a sermon as a prop to argue a cause? Do you know how hurt you would be? Do you know how broken if the pastor talked about your size, your waist, some physical ailment you have on your body? If the pastor used some hurt that happened in your heart, some stuff you were wrestling with, if he used that as a prop to just prove a point without even caring about you as a person, do you know how you would feel in that moment? You would feel dehumanized.
So many of us who stand in this platform—men and women of God who do ministry but don't care about people. This breaks my heart to see people who lead and preach in ministry, and it's only about a platform. It's only about a dollar. It's only about titles and outfits and all this stuff. But you don't give a darn about people.
These Pharisees, these pastors—you're all about your phylacteries. You're all about your robes and your long dresses. You're all about trying to be righteous in the sight of people. You're all about approval and all this stuff. But you don't give a darn about people. I wish I could use another word.
If you're in ministry and don't love people, you should get out of it. The word ministry means minister, which comes from service.
Here it is—this suffering man with a withered hand. Jesus says to them:
And which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
You want to try to trap me with your laws. Let me give you back your laws. Their laws once said you can't help an animal on the Sabbath. But when they realized not helping animals was affecting their money—sheep were part of their economy—they changed their own laws to make sure if a sheep was in trouble or livestock was in trouble, they could help it.
So they're willing to bend their own laws to rescue animals in trouble for their own good but not human beings. You only want to change when it comes to your pockets, but you don't want to change when it comes to the life of a human being. You're only preaching because it's about your pockets. You care more about an animal than the highest thing God ever created on the earth.
How is it some of y'all will fight for animal cruelty and eat veggie burgers, but you don't love human beings? How you going to be a vegan and hate people at the same time? How do you care more about anything tangible more than you care about your brothers and sisters on your row?
Jesus says, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." That is: when you have an opportunity to do good, do good. I'm talking to you now. Look at me. When the spirit of God moves on you to do good, don't put that off to next week. You don't know what's going to happen to that person next week. The Lord is tapping you. Say, "Give them the car." He's tapping you. Says, "Pay their bills this month." He's tapping you. Says, "Bring that single mother groceries."
When you feel the tap of the Lord moving on you to do good, don't put that off. When it is lawful to do good, do good. The best time to do good is in the moment the spirit moves on you to do good.
Jesus is saying, "Man, I want you to show compassion for human beings who are in need." Do you know how ugly it is for people to call themselves Christians and have no compassion for people who are suffering?
I'm talking to y'all now. Forget the Pharisees. Do you know how ugly it is to be posting all the time, "God first," "Woman of God," "Proverbs 31 woman," but you walk past the brother begging for a dollar at the Walmart? You're too good to give him something. You don't want to get touched. He's too dirty for you. He might rub off on your Fendi pants.
You better get us right. We Christians, but we have no compassion. The Lord is trying to teach us that he wants people to be compassionate, to go beyond legalism. Love should be greater than legalism. And compassion is what we move towards with people in need.
Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
There's the title of our text: "Stretch out your hand."
Why did I pick that title? His hand is withered. We don't even know if he can stretch it out. But when the Lord speaks, anything he tells you to do, grace will follow for you to do it. We don't even know if he can move that hand.
The Lord doesn't even touch him. Since it's the Sabbath and he can't work, he doesn't even have to touch him to heal him. The Pharisees won't catch him lifting a finger. Since he's Lord of the Sabbath, he can prove it by not even lifting a finger to work. You won't even trap him to lift a finger to work. Since he's Lord of the Sabbath, he can prove that he's God in the flesh. He says to you with the withered hand, "Man, stretch out your hand."
If I tell you to do something, there's grace behind that for you to do whatever I'm telling you to do. Man, stretch out your hand. Start the ministry. Write the book. Be healed in this area. Forgive that person. Let that go. Get over that. Whatever he tells you to do, stretch out that hand. There's grace to do that.
He proves that he's Lord of the Sabbath. He's the Son of Man. He's Yahweh. He's God in the flesh. He doesn't even have to lift a finger to break the laws of the Sabbath. Since y'all said we can't work on it, he'll talk on it.
Brother, stretch out your hand.
There's grace to do whatever God calls you to do. There's healing in the word that comes from Jesus. Symbolically, when I hear "stretch out your hand," I hear: be compassionate towards others, man. Stretch out love. Stretch out compassion, man. Stretch out mercy. Do what God tells you to do, but also stretch out your hand towards others, man. Stretch towards Jesus for your needs. But then stretch towards others for their needs.
Give away the car. Pay the person's bills. Give the homeless man a dollar. Buy somebody food. When I'm in line, I pay for the food of the person behind me. Man, stretch out your own hand. Receive from the Lord and give away in the name of the Lord. He spoke it. There's grace to do it.
Some of y'all sitting there withered in some place. Withered in your heart, withered in your mind, withered in your feet. Man, stretch out your hand. This is the year, man. Stretch out your hand. Start the YouTube channel. You hear the God. You hear the Lord whispering to you, man. Stretch out your hand.
For some of you, that stretch is a stretch of healing on the backside of forgiveness. It's the stretch of an open door on the backside of obedience. You worry too much. Don't trust in the path that you can't figure out A to Z. Trust in his character. My faith is not in "I got it all figured out." My faith is in the character of the one who said stretch out your hand.
What if the guy with the withered hand would have been like, "But it's been withered for so long. I don't know if I could do it"? Don't argue with me, man. Stretch out your hand. Stretch it out.
And as he stretched out his hand, it was restored healthy like the other one.
But the Pharisees, the sinful, hypocritical, sin-infected, pride-infected, self-righteous-infected, legalism-infected—I'm closing. How do they respond? You would think hearing about somebody's testimony, the pastor would be happy. But because you weren't at the center of it, you can't give God glory. They missed that because you weren't at the center. Because you can't get credit for it, you don't want to give God glory.
So how do they respond to the miracle?
But the Pharisees went out, conspired against him how to destroy him.
This would be the beginning of the downfall of their motives that would eventually put Christ on the cross. It starts here.
And Jesus aware of this, aware of what? That they was trying to kill him. He withdrew from there.
Why did he do that? You got to know sometimes how to avoid unnecessary trouble. But sometimes you got to know how to step into good trouble.
What day did this happen? The Sabbath. Now, watch. It's the Sabbath, right? It's against the legalistic laws, right? All Jesus had to do was wait 12 hours to the next day. He could have healed the man the next day. Then he would have no issues with the Pharisees. He could have waited till the next day and he would have no issues if he healed the man the next day.
But when you know to do good, sometimes you got to have the testicular fortitude, the balls, the courage to step into spaces where somebody got to take a stand for biblical righteousness against legalism and against false doctrine.
If he waited till the next day, the Pharisees would have had glory in their legalistic laws. But the Lord said, "No, I will not wait. I'mma blow up your legalism right now." So he steps into the space of somebody suffering on the Sabbath.
That's the message: sometimes you got to know how to get into good trouble. Sometimes you got to know how to step into a space to make a stand for what is right in the sight of God. We can't always cower from every battle. We can't always be quiet in every moment. Sometimes you got to know how to get in good trouble to stand up, to raise up a standard of righteousness, to cry aloud from the rooftop and spare not.
Jesus could have waited till the next day. No, he steps into this man's suffering. He steps into good trouble like we have to learn to step into other people's suffering. But sometimes we got to know how to step into good trouble. You see it and it aggravates you, man. Say something about it.
Where are the people of God? Where are the men and women that's going to stand for righteousness? Where are the men and women that going to step into difficult spaces? Not waiting till tomorrow. I'm taking a stand for Christ today. I'm taking a stand from this platform today. I'm speaking out against evil today. I'm speaking out against evil in my own heart and the hearts of other pastors. Today I'm stepping into those hard conversations. Today I'm going to be a voice for righteousness. Today I'm going to be a voice for the Lord Jesus Christ. Today I'm going to step into the suffering of people I love.
Jesus aware of this withdrew from there and many followed him and he healed them all. They saw what he did to the man in the withered hand and they followed him. Why? Because when you see what the Lord has done in someone else's life, man, it gives you faith to believe he can do something in your life.
So they saw a man stretch out his hand and they thought to themselves, "Man, I got to get some of that, too." So they followed him.
Matthew writes, "Behold, to fulfill what was spoken by the Prophet Isaiah."
Matthew, who's writing to a Jewish audience, writes his gospel to prove that Christ is the Messiah who the Jews have rejected. So in his gospel, he will keep inserting Old Testament passages to prove to his Jewish audience that Jesus is the Messiah.
Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
How could Jesus be 85% out of order? Come on. How can he be out of order when the Father says, "My soul with him is well pleased"? When was Jesus ever out of order? He lived a perfect life. How could God in the flesh ever be out of order?
More Bible, less infatuation with men. More scriptures, less infatuation with men. It's impossible for Jesus to have been 85% out of order when he lived a perfect life from birth to crucifixion.
I, the Father, will put my Holy Spirit upon him, Christ.
This is a trinitarian verse. The Father speaks about the Son and about the Spirit.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud. That is, he ain't arguing with foolish people. Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. Ain't acting a fool in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break. A reed was little straws on the side of rivers that was very delicate. Meaning the Lord will not hurt people unnecessarily. It's so powerful. A smoldering wick he will not quench. He'll be gentle and kind. Until he brings justice to victory.
And here you are in the verse 700 years before Christ. The Prophet Isaiah wrote about you. He said, "In the name of Christ, the Gentiles will hold." He's talking about you. 700 years before you was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote about you.
Jesus came for who first? The Jew. But what happened? They rejected him. And because the Jew rejected him, what happened? He turns from the Jew and says, "Let the gospel now go to all non-Jewish people." That's you. Black people and white people and Asian people, everyone who's not a Jew—the gospel comes to you because of the rejection of the Jews.
Isaiah prophesies that in his name, the Gentiles will find hope.
Until when? Until the tribulation period comes and then God has raptured the church and then he turns his attention back to the Jewish nation. Daniel prophesies about this. John the Revelator wrote about this. Right now we're living in the time of the Gentiles where God is reconciling a people to himself from all around the world.
Even saving Messianic Jews who are having dreams and visions about him—that in these last days he's gathering men from all nations, tribes, and tongue and putting them aboard the ark of safety. He's going to keep winning the hearts of the Gentiles until he turns his attention back to the Jews in the great tribulation. But for right now, this is the era of grace. And today is the day of salvation.
My prayer for you, those who claim the name of Christ, is that we would love people. We will be compassionate towards people. We will blow up legalism. We will do good when the opportunity comes for us to do good. We will care more about people than our rules and our regulations.
Every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody move. Prayer team is coming to the altar.
I got to speak to someone. Before the foundation of the world, the Lord already chose you to be his. I'm just telling you what's happening right now in your spirit and in your heart. You feel something warming your heart right now. You've been shedding tears as the word has been proclaimed.
You are a sinner and so am I. You have broken God's laws and so have I. The scripture says, if anyone dies in their sin, they're going to be separated from God for all eternity. But the Lord in mercy for you sent his Son, Christ the Savior, who died a sacrificial death in your place.
He said, "If any man would turn away from their sin, place their faith in Christ, he already knew you would say yes to him before you were born." I just want to confirm what he's doing in your heart.
I'm talking to you, sister. He's regenerating you right now. I'm talking to you, brother. He's saving you right now. No magic, no pixie dust, no special prayer is happening apart from me. If you feel God wooing you to himself right now, saying, "My daughter, come. You belong to me. My son, come. You belong to me. I'm saving you right now."
I knew you would be here. I knew you would be listening. I knew you'd be watching. You belong to me. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. You walk out of here a brand new man, a brand new woman. You repent. You turn away from your sin. The Lord is filling you with his Spirit.
I want to pray for you. You feel God working in your heart. He's saving you like he did for me on the bathroom floor. Preacher, pray for me. Seal in my heart what's happening. I'm running to Christ right now, throwing myself at the foot of the cross.
On the count of three, I just want to see who you are. One, the Lord is already calling you. Two, today is the day of salvation. Three, throw your hand up in the air saying, "Preacher, pray for me."
If you got your hand up, yo, slide out of that row. Tell the person next to you, "Get out of my way." I want y'all to come down here. I want to talk to you. Tell the person, "Get out of my way." Y'all celebrate right now what Jesus is doing in the hearts of people who he is bringing to himself.
Come on, run down here. If you're in the overflow room, run over here right now. Come close.
If you're at the altar, please don't look at me. He's catching those tears, my sister. He's catching these tears, my brother. He's catching these tears, my sister. This is your moment. You and Jesus. It has nothing to do with me. Just let him work in your heart. It's regeneration happening. The Lord knew you would be here before the foundation of the world. He predestined this moment for you. He's catching these tears. That's repentance. Don't worry. He feels that. It's okay. He feels all of that.
Cry. That's called repentance. What you feel in your heart is the fire of the Holy Spirit warming your soul right now. That's repentance right there, brother. That's right. Let it out. Real men cry. This happened to me on the floor of a bathroom when I was suicidal. The Lord rescued me in a bathroom.
He's catching those tears, sister. She's broken. That's called repentance. Yes, it's okay. You're his daughter now. You're his daughter now. He knew you would be here. He ordained this moment for you before you were born.
We thank you God for the regenerating power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you Lord that by your sovereign power you are saving and filling and regenerating. No man can do this, God. It's your sovereign work before the foundation of the world. I thank you, God, that these are your new sons and daughters. These are our new brothers and sisters.
May they be filled with your Spirit. May they be alive in the Spirit. Lord, I pray they will love you more than anything else in this life. They will run after you with their whole heart. They will see you like Isaiah did, high and lifted up. I pray today will be the beginning of the rest of their lives. That after today they'll never be the same. Joy comes to them. Peace comes to them. Salvation is theirs.
I thank you, God, for repentance. And you said when one sinner repents, all of heaven rejoices.
