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Matthew 8:14-17, Week 3 of God of Miracles series
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When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
I want to begin by bringing your attention to a familiar ancient proverb: "Speech is silver, but silence is golden." Most of us only know the second half—that silence is golden. But I'd like to extol the value of speech instead.
There are just some instances where you cannot stay silent. There are moments in time where the atmosphere puts a demand on your voice. When it comes to your relationship with God, silence is not always golden. When you are in a moment of crisis, in a moment of need, when your hunger produces in you desperation, when you find yourself in a place you can't get yourself out of, or when you have something wrong that only God can fix—you better learn the art of speaking up and asking God for what you need.
I need Jesus.
And you can't be silent about that. You cannot be silent when you walk in here and things are broken at home. You cannot be silent when you walk in here barely in your right mind. You cannot be silent when you're broke and you need a miracle. You cannot be silent when you got a disease and you need a healing. You better learn how to speak up and ask for what you want.
I need Jesus for my family. I need Jesus for my finances. I need Jesus for my sanity. I need Jesus because I'm a sinner. I need Jesus for my healing. I need Jesus for my emotions. I need Jesus in my friendships. And if Jesus is anywhere near me, prepare to be sick of me. If he's anywhere close, you're going to hear me yell. You're going to hear me scream. You're going to see me jump. You're going to see me run. You're going to hear me holler. Because I don't care about you being disturbed. I care about getting Jesus's attention.
You're acting too cool with what you got going on in your life. You're too silent with how hard the enemy's been fighting you. That's what church is for—to come and see the physician. But don't come to the doctor and act like you're not sick.
You don't know my struggle. And because you don't know my struggle, it's easy for you to try to judge my tone. It's easy for you to judge my volume. But if you only knew that I have something going on that only Jesus can fix, you would be yelling with me, "I need." And your reply would be, "Me, too."
That's the real me-too movement. It is when somebody says "I need Jesus" and you got enough sense to say, "Child, me too."
I don't want you to be in service and miss out on what God desires to do for you because you feel like you got to fake it in front of people around you. Forget the people around you. You mean to tell me you woke up early this morning, picked out your clothes, hopefully ironed them? You got the kids ready. You probably had a little argument because your husband wasn't ready. You went through all of that. You drove all the way here. And you mean to tell me you just gonna sit down and act like everything is peaches and cream?
I got kids that need me to scream. I got family that need me to scream. I got circumstances that need me to scream. I got issues that need me to scream. Even Father's Day is too hard of a day for you to be quiet.
When you look at scripture, you have to understand that we're spoiled in our context. Although we're talking about the miracles of Jesus, they had to have Jesus because there were no doctors. They had to have Jesus because there were no dentists. There was not anybody dedicated to making people well.
This is why when we read about the leper, it's easy to judge the people who made lepers live in colonies. But the only reason they did that was so the disease wouldn't spread—because there were no doctors. So certain things in the Old Testament that told us not to do something were only there because there were no doctors.
Since there was no doctors, they had one thing to do, and that was believe. And for the people who did believe, they received what was available for them. But I'm afraid that in 2023 we stand amongst believers who really don't believe.
You sit next to somebody who just lifted their hands in worship but doesn't believe God can give them a miracle. You sit next to somebody who tithes every time, faithful in their giving, and still doesn't believe that something is for them.
Challenges will test your belief. Issues will shake your faith up. It'll mess with you a little bit when you've been praying for something for years and it still ain't happened. It'll mess with your faith when you keep praying about something and you see no change. It'll mess with your faith when you keep coming to God about the thing over and over and nothing shifts.
But allow me to help you with some faith this morning. Sometimes God will leave that thing in your life because it is that thing in your life that keeps you pursuing him.
Y'all be real in here. If you hit the lottery, would you pursue him the same? If you were all the way good, would you pursue him the same? If you were perfect, would you pursue him the same? No. You only jumping because you're not perfect. You're only lifting your hands because you ain't got it all together. You're only yelling because you're wretched.
I'm wondering if we've got church set aside in this Western perspective where we feel like the gathering is where we come to feel good for the week, rather than including the gathering in our holistic approach to our lives. Where it says this is a non-negotiable—not because it makes me feel good, but because it fills me in order to make it through the week. Because if God does not keep me, I might go off. If God does not keep me, I might lose my mind. If God does not keep me, my boss is in trouble. My children are in trouble. Anybody who's around me—when God is not with me—you might be in trouble.
My mother was a crack addict from the day I can remember. She was addicted to drugs from a very young age and she never got off. I'm 41 years old, and when my mother passed last year, she was still addicted to drugs. But you know one thing this woman did? She didn't go to church, but she didn't give me no option. She did not go to church, but she made sure I woke up every Sunday morning and caught that church van that was coming through the hood.
The Lord showed me something. Even though you were born in that situation, my hand was still always on you. What kind of sense does it make for a mother not to go to church but make sure her kids went to church?
He says, "I know it was messed up, but if you would look back, you could see my hand just every now and then." I had some teachers in school who would just slip me $2 every night. They didn't know I ain't have no food at home, but something told her Brandon needs $2 today. And she didn't know that that was the only meal I was going to get.
I'm trying to tell you, even if you don't come to church and shout because of what you need, come to church and shout because of what he's done. He's been too good for me to be quiet. He's been too good for me to be silent.
In case you didn't know or you are unfamiliar with this local colloquialism—the title of our message today—let me help you understand. On January 1st, 2022, Kim Jenkins set the digital space on fire when she posted her declaration for 2022, saying, "Hey, 2022, prepare to be sick of me. I will not back down. I will not let up."
Our working definition for the saying, "Prepare to be sick of me," is simply this: to serve notice to others to get ready to be overwhelmed by what I'm about to overcome. That means I might need to put a sign on the seat next to me just so you know I'm overcoming some things. Beware, I might yell at any time. It's to serve notice that God is doing a work in my life, and what he's doing in my life is too powerful for me to be silent.
This only makes sense to the people who ain't got no sense. It only makes sense to the people who are not perfect. It only makes sense to the people who've been divorced. It only makes sense to the people who really don't do relationships well. It only makes sense to the people who question if they're good parents. It only makes sense to the people who continuously struggle. It only makes sense to the people who say, "Listen, I'm either in a struggle, coming out of struggle, or on my way to a struggle."
That's the only way this makes sense. Because when that is what your life looks like, you can't help but yell and scream and jump and holler when God comes through for you.
In the Black community, people may say we're too emotional. But I would say to them, you ain't emotional enough. Because it's something about when something is good to us.
Have you ever drank some real good Kool-Aid? Have you ever ate some real good food? There's that first bite that just sends a shock wave through your body and it's like, "My god, who made this?"
And if I'm gonna feel that way about some food, and if I'm going to feel that way about some Kool-Aid, if I'm going to feel that way about a concert, surely I should feel that way when God steps into my life and does the impossible—the thing that nobody else could have done.
You've probably heard that Jesus is omnipresent and he's omniscient. But if you're from the hood like me, I don't know what that word omnipotent means. Let me hip you to what omnipotent means. It is two words: omni and potent. The operative word is potent, which means—take sweet tea for an example, take Kool-Aid for an example, take a dill pickle for an example—it's potent with its flavor. And that means when you taste it, something happens to your taste buds that sends senses through your nerves to your brain to say this is different.
Jesus is omnipotent. That means everything he does sends a shock wave through your system of potency—the potency of his goodness, the potency of his kindness, the potency of his faithfulness.
Matthew records his third account of a very specific miracle. On this journey of miracles following the sermon on the mount, we first witnessed how Jesus healed the leper. Then we witnessed the exchange between Jesus and the centurion—an exchange of faith between Jesus and somebody who supposedly doesn't know him. We talked about surrogate faith because the centurion was approaching Jesus on behalf of his servant. That means what about your friends? Please tell me that you have enough faith for you and them.
Now we find ourselves following Jesus on this healing crusade and he ends up at Peter's house. When Jesus enters Peter's house, he sees his mother-in-law lying in bed sick with a fever. Just like today, back then, fevers were not a big deal. But Jesus thought it was such a big deal that he went out of his way to heal her of just a little fever.
But the reality of it is Jesus knew: what kind of Jesus would I be if I healed everybody else but didn't do something for the people closest to me? So Jesus goes into Peter's house looking for how he could be a blessing. He comes upon Peter's mother. She's sick with a fever.
He touches her. She immediately is whole. And then she gets up and immediately starts to wait on him. She's laying down. He touches her. She gets up and starts serving. She don't wait till it takes hold. She doesn't wait to see if the fever is gone. She doesn't wait to see if what he did really worked. All she knows is he went out of his way to touch her. And the least she can do is respond to his touch.
We cannot come in church and get touched by God and then sit and wait for an opportunity to respond. The moment you come in here, if the worship touches you, you should respond. If the prayer touches you, you should respond. If the word touches you, you should respond.
It's important to pause here and let you know this: if you're ever going to come out of anything, you're always going to have to come out head first. The fever was a condition of the head that then flowed through her body. But what Jesus did was not touch where the origin was. He touches her hand.
I got to asking God questions like, "Why is this significant?" It's significant so that you can understand that Jesus does not have to touch what's wrong. He actually can touch what's right. And the thing that's right can clear up everything that's wrong.
So don't argue with what he touched. Just respond when he touches. When I had a problem with my hand and you touched my hand, it spoke to my head and my head said, "We got to be better." Because the hand just got better.
If you are going to go through anything and come out of it, you're going to have to come out of it head first. But I need you to let you know that Jesus can touch another part of your life that can shift the condition of your head. He can touch any part of your life and it shifts the condition of your head.
I want you to see now how Peter's mother-in-law responds to Jesus's touch. She got up. She immediately began to serve him.
Be careful that you are not the person that gets healed but won't serve. Be careful that you're not the type of person that gets delivered but still won't serve. Be careful that you're not the type of Christian that comes and sits week after week and receives but you never give back.
My question for you is: who raised you? Did mama them not tell you to say thank you? The least you could do is say thank you. And one of the ways you can say thank you is by putting in on this man.
Serving is her way of saying thank you. Just like today, serving is a way to tell God thank you. He's been too good for me to just come and sit. It's time for me to say thank you—not just with my words, but with my actions.
When Jesus was doing all of this, he was doing this at Capernaum, and this had to have been a task because these were all moments where he was sought out. These moments we're reading about are not moments in which Jesus went to the people. It was a moment in which the people came to him.
Prepare to be sick of me because I'm not going to wait until Jesus comes down my road. If I see him anywhere in the building, somebody's going to get trampled. Somebody's going to get moved out the way. Because like the woman with the issue of blood, what I'm going through is that important that I need him to touch me now.
The significance of this means that the people had to have broken protocol. Because this was the Sabbath and they were forbidden to do work on the Sabbath. But people needed what they needed. So even though it was the Sabbath, they still were coming to Jesus.
You could possibly face real stiff penalties when breaking this Pharisaic law. But they put themselves in a position for one reason only: desperation. It's something about desperation that gets all up in you and makes you do things you wouldn't normally do.
When you get desperate enough, you will do the unthinkable. When you get desperate enough, you will become unmovable. When you get desperate enough, your mind will go to a place that throws out all logic.
It's like: I'm not going to be in church knowing that I need a miracle and then leave that to chance. I'm going to do what I can do. It's not like God doesn't see us, but I'm going to make sure he sees me.
I think the reason why we're not a desperate people is because we don't believe. Because if you really believe that God could do what he said he could do, your actions would reflect that.
The Bible says when the evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word, and he healed all the sick. I said all of that about the Sabbath to help you understand possibly the context of the evening.
While people were coming to him, that was just like a few people here and there taking chances. But some people were waiting till the Sabbath was over. In those days, Sabbath was over at sundown. I can just imagine the people in their house like, "Is the sun still out? Yeah, it's still out—waiting. We're just gonna wait." And as soon as the sun went down, somebody said, "I heard he was at Peter's house." Where does Peter stay at? I don't know. But I know a few other people told me that they were going to go to Peter's house. So soon as sundown comes, we gonna follow them and we're just going to go to Peter's house and Jesus going to have to heal all of us.
And so the Bible says that when evening came, many—not one, not came—many were brought to him.
This is crucial. Last week I could have preached about people bringing people, and then this week again we see people bringing people. That must mean that there's something about people bringing people. And the Bible says they were bringing people who were demon-possessed and they were bringing people who were sick and they were bringing all types of people. And Jesus healed them all. He did not just heal who came. He healed who was brought.
So this morning, all I'm doing is taking my big arms and gathering all of y'all up in an attempt to bring you to Jesus. That's what this message is about. This message is about the fact that Jesus heals the many.
One person got healed is cool. But when the Bible said he healed them all, I'm crazy enough to believe that every request I prayed over this week—all these sticky notes I prayed over—I'm just crazy enough to believe that this was me bringing them to the feet of Jesus and he's going to heal who has been brought up to him.
I don't know who was on these sticky notes, but I prayed for you all week. And I refuse for you to leave here without being touched by Jesus because he's here to not just heal one. He healed them all. It's all available for you.
I want to show you something. When you see a cross, I know that it prompts you to go out and buy a piece of jewelry with a cross on it. I know it prompts you to look at the cross and be like, "Ooh, that's cute." I know that it prompts you to even go to Bed Bath and Beyond or Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get a cross and put it on your wall. You got a cross somewhere in your house. You may got a cross on the mantle. There may be two candles on a cross somewhere. The cross is incorporated in your life.
However, I'm not sure that you see the cross. Because the cross was not just some wooden tree. The cross represented his faithfulness. The cross represented his sacrifice. The cross represented healing. The cross was a place of relatability. He only went through what he went through to relate to the people who would look at him to be savior.
The cross represents possibility. And I don't want you to be a believer who allows their belief to fluctuate. Whenever there is a reminder, I want you to always come back to the true meaning of this old rugged cross. This is not just for Easter. This is not just for resurrection Sunday. This is for 365 days of the year to show you he's still healing and he's still saving and he's still delivering and he's still moving and he's still Jesus.
But what they were running to was not a cross. They were running to the actual Jesus who not just was on the cross, but the Jesus who came off.
I can just imagine as the people were coming, here comes Jesus. Can you imagine what it looks like? Can you imagine what it feels like that as the people were coming Jesus was coming?
I want you to sit right where you are and I want you to imagine: they're bringing all of their infirmities. They're bringing all of their circumstances. They're bringing all of their issues. They're bringing every disease. And as they're coming, Jesus comes out the house.
When he comes out the house, healing just arrived. When he comes out the house, healing just got there. When he comes out the house, a blessing just came. When he comes out the house, the possibilities are endless. When he comes out the house, everything that is broken is fixed. When he comes out the house, everything you need is taken care of. When he comes out the house, death comes to life. When he comes out the house, everything that everybody has brought to him comes to light.
And what makes it even more special is because when he's here, then people who didn't even come for him start to come to him and he heals their infirmities and he bears their affliction.
You serve a God who is not dead. You serve a God who is not thinking about healing. You serve a God who is not contemplating healing. You serve a God who wants to heal you. He's looking for disease. He's looking for it. He's looking for it. He's looking for you to bring him everything you got.
And even the demon-possessed who don't know him will come to know him. That at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord.
I want you to understand that there is nothing too hard for God. Even the woman in the wheelchair, there's nothing too hard for God. Even if you haven't walked and you limped in here with crutches and you're stuck, Jesus is still here to heal everything in your life.
What is this all a picture of? It's a picture of the possibility when men and women come together and they believe and they trust and they contend and they fight and they believe. They all believe for one thing. They believe that he is who he says he is. And they believe he can do what he says he can do.
Before you get a miracle, you got to prepare for it. I want to give you a few points. I want you to look at these men and women and I want you to understand that what's available for them is available for you.
Point number one: Prepare your head. Your mind got to be right in order to get a miracle. Your mental capacity has to be stable enough to receive a miracle. Why do you got to prepare your head? Because the moment it doesn't look like he's doing something, you will quit believing. You got to prepare your head and tell your mind that even if it doesn't look like it, I believe there will be a miracle for me.
Number two: Prepare your hands because he desires to put something in your hands. And I'm afraid that he can't get it into your hands because your hands are full of stuff. Maybe you're in here this morning and you came with a handful of baggage. Then my question is: Will you trust him enough to let go of the baggage and open up your hands?
Then you got to prepare your heart. For out of the heart, the issues of life flow. And as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So if you're not saying in your heart you're healed, if you're not saying in your heart you're whole, if you're not saying in your heart it's fixed—sometimes you got to talk to your body. You have to talk to your flesh and let it line up with your spirit. You're not going to always walk out of church and feel something. That's why you got to prepare your heart.
And then lastly, you got to prepare your house because this miracle is bigger than you. Listen, there was never a story or a time in the history of scripture where Jesus came on the scene and everything didn't change. He's not just changing you. He's changing everything connected to you. You've got to prepare your house because I'm a firm believer that while you're trusting and believing God here, he's working back at the home. He's working in areas you can't see. But my question to you this morning is: Do you believe it?
Why must you prepare in these four areas? Because these are the areas God has spoken to me that he's getting ready to touch. He's touching someone's head. He's touching someone's hand. He's touching someone's heart. And then somebody who is going to be lucky enough for him to touch your house.
Just like Peter's mother-in-law and just like the many who were brought to him, they all had one thing in common. They needed Jesus. They needed Jesus.
I'm not talking to the people in the room who don't feel like they need it. I'm only talking to the people who when I said that, something in your spirit leaped and you said, "Me, too. I need Jesus. I need him over here. I need him over there. I need him in my heart. I need him in my space."
And as these people leave, I want you to watch them. And I want you to see yourself. I want you to see yourself moving up and down the aisle. I want you to look at him and I want you to see the picture of possibility. "Yo man, maybe this is for me. Maybe he can do this for me. Maybe he will do this for me." And then I want that maybe to go from a maybe to saying he will. He will.
We got together on a Thursday night to come up with this illustrative sermon—not to wow you, but to hopefully give you a visual aid of what it looks like when Jesus enters a room.
And just in case you don't know, I want to submit to you: Your unfixable situation is why he came. Your messed up situation is why he came. He came to be the impossible. He came to mend the broken heart.
The word says that he's the lifter of your head. So lift up your head all ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord God strong and mighty. Who is this King of glory? The Lord God mighty in battle.
I don't know where you are. I don't know who you are. He's here for you. He's here for you.
If you are in this room and you need him, come get him. Come get your miracle.
If you're in this room and you didn't get up to come to the altar because you felt like the altar was too crowded, I want you to just stand up where you are. I don't want you to miss out on this moment.
Now listen, I am not saying you have to stand up. I'm not saying you have to receive this either. What I am saying is if you know you got something in your life that you really need him to fix, it's time out for coming to church and acting like everything is okay.
At the foot of the cross is where he will bear your infirmities. At the foot of the cross is where he'll take your load off.
Listen, there are a few of you in this room who bear the weight of your family. And it's weird because your weight is not about you. It's about your family. I know this because I feel it all over this room.
So I bear the weight of my family. This is why I send you to prepare your house. When you walk in the room, peace just walked in the room. When you walk in the room, reconciliation just walked in the room. Which means you have to live your life in a way that brings glory to God.
Now hear me: Some of you picked the weight up. It had nothing to do with you. And this is a moment for you to let that weight go. Then there's another half of you. You didn't have a choice. They call you for everything. They look to you for everything. People older than you expect you to fix their problems.
But hear me, this is important. You cannot afford to have a God complex, which means you need to know you are not God. And you cannot try to fix everybody's problems.
I'm going to say something very strong. Some of you, because you picked up the weight, you signed up to fight demons that weren't assigned to you. And the fight that you're under is because of what you're connected to.
I decree and declare right now by the power and the authority of Jesus Christ that every assignment against your life is cancelled. Every assignment against your mind is cancelled. There will not be an assassination on your character.
I come against the spirit of suicide. I come against it right now. I come against the spirit that says that I am not enough. If I come against it now, suicide won't hold you. Low self-esteem won't hold you.
Secondly, listen. Prophetically, you're in this room. You are secretly battling depression. I'm not talking about a little bit. I'm talking about this person who goes home—the blinds are closed. You don't get out the bed like you used to. You don't want to talk to anybody. You literally are putting yourself in a dark place.
Father, right now in the name of Jesus, I break every curse, every yoke of bondage. I break it now off of this man's life and I decree and declare that he will be all that you've called him to be in the mighty name of Jesus. Satan, take your hand off now in Jesus name.
Listen, last thing: If you're somebody who has chronic anxiety—I'm not saying you get anxious every now and again. You live in anxious. Lift your hands.
Now listen. If you want this broken off of your life, I want you to hear the words that I'm about to speak to you. There's something you need to know about this anxiety. Anxiety is really about control. Now, I'm not talking to you as if I don't deal with anxiety, too. I just don't have chronic anxiety. When it's time for me to fly or when I go into certain rooms, there's something that comes over me. And the reality of it is it's all about control.
Here's what you got to learn to do: You have to learn to relinquish control. This is not easy, but this is the part you have to play in it.
The Bible declares, "Be anxious for nothing, but in all things through prayer and supplication, make your requests known to him." That's what you have to continue to do.
Father, right now in the mighty name of Jesus, we are lifting this to you because this is something that only you can do. Right now, I'm praying for the fire of heaven to hit this place like never before, to eradicate anxiety, to push it back, to arrest it right now in the name of Jesus.
And I decree and declare by the power and the authority and the blood of Jesus Christ that right now the curse has been broken over every life, off of every mind, off of every heart. And I decree and declare freedom in this room. Freedom in this room in Jesus name.
Before we leave, I want everybody under the sound of my voice to lift your hands.
Why does he keep saying lift your hands? Because the altar has no magic. My hands have no magic. All of the power is in you as a sign of surrenderance that says, "Lord, I am giving this up to you. I am not walking out of here with it. I'm not going to come back and pick it up at the altar. But when I leave here, I left it here. I left that here. I left it here. And when I walk out of here, I will be free. I'll live free. I'll speak free. I'll act free because I am free."
Now, Father, I pray sweep through this room like never before. Let the power of the Holy Ghost flow through this room like never before. And Jesus, now let your healing virtue flow. Let your healing power flow. Let miracles and signs and wonders be the evidence to the people that you were here in Jesus name.
