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The Resting Place
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The Resting Place
There's An Invitation In The Resistance
What happens when kindness seems to mock you? When prayers go unanswered and God feels distant, we often conclude He's indifferent or we're unworthy. But what if divine resistance isn't rejection but invitation?
In this episode of The Resting Place podcast we explore Mark 7 where we encounter the story of a desperate mother—known in church history as Saint Eusta—whose encounter with Jesus initially seems troubling. When she begs for her daughter's healing, Jesus first ignores her, then appears to insult her. Yet within this tension lies a profound revelation about how God draws out what's true in our hearts.
"He didn't want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn't keep it a secret." This small detail reveals something essential about God's nature—He dwells in mystery yet continually invites us into intimacy. He is unsearchable yet asks us to search Him out. These paradoxes define our divine relationship, bringing us into complete dependence on grace.
The culturally shocking interaction between Jesus and this Gentile woman challenges our understanding of humility and care. Rather than viewing ourselves as "sinners stumbling from failure to failure," we're invited to see ourselves as beloved children being progressively transfigured into Christ's image. This transformation doesn't require perfection—it requires honesty.
Most of us don't share honestly with God because we don't feel safe. We fear judgment, believing if He truly saw our darkness, He would reject us. Yet the opposite is true: "He's not silent because He's unfeeling or uncaring. He's silent because He won't deal with the imposter that stands in front of Him." When we finally open the dark corners of our hearts, saying "There's nothing hidden from you, Abba," transformation accelerates.
How might your prayer life change if you stopped trying to impress God and simply became real with Him? What honest conversation is He waiting to have with you today?
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Hi everyone. I'm Ben and I'm Logan and we're the Robins. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. Anyhow, let's go ahead and get started. We're gonna go today and we're gonna look at Mark, chapter 7, and I have prepared some notes here. Have prepared some notes here.
Speaker 1:We were on the cruise ship in the middle of the ocean and a couple of pastors went with us on the cruise, with our friends, and one of them asked me what the Lord had been speaking to me about. And that's always such a loaded question because, well, what of the thousand things would you like for me to tell you that he's talking to me about? Yeah, do you have a month for me to share with you all the things? But, um, the two things the lord has not stopped highlighting to me and I'm going to continue to teach on these until he lets and until he stops highlighting these things to me are humility and the care of the Lord, and how there's a symbiotic relationship in his humility and his care for us. I think that's a very easy case to make in scripture that there's a symbiotic relationship between the humility of Jesus and the care that he takes for people, one of the things that we have done, especially in the American church. I can speak to that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes people like mention different churches and like how they're almost, almost speak of them in a utopian way because they just don't know anything about those churches. People talk about the East and how it's kind of like utopia, the Eastern Orthodox viewpoint, and it's different and it's less legalistic. Well, there are something like 26 or 40 divisions inside of the Eastern Orthodox Church and there's other things that they just so the church is the church everywhere. The Russian Orthodox and the Greek Orthodox don't get along and the Syriac Orthodox and other it's. It turns into a thing where it gets cut up pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:So while I appreciate um so much of their viewpoint that I have been studying and I'm studying it more, I'm not going to become an Orthodox. I know some of my friends were worried that I was going to go Orthodox because my beard had grown to the point that I had almost become a full-fledged Orthodox priest. I almost had, and if I were going to be a priest that would be the best kind of priest to be really, because there's the whole you don't have to not get married thing. That's obviously a huge plus. I'm married, although I think if I were a Catholic, they'd grandfather me in, but if something happened to my wife I'd just be up a Creek and that's no good for anybody.
Speaker 1:So, um, I'm sorry I'm trying to get pointed and I'm making myself laugh, but the Lord won't stop speaking to me about his care and about humility. And if so, it says the old church used to say that he condescended. I think it's in the King James that he condescended to become like us. So he came low to become like us, and even in the incarnation we can see that Yeshua comes low, he bends low, and there's the old saint that writes he became like us so that we might become like him. Right, and there's an emptying that takes place of his godly attributes while not becoming unlike himself, and he marries God and man perfectly. There's such a humility in that and that's something that I could explore, gosh.
Speaker 1:I could explore that probably the rest of my life, and I've got a friend who's just nerdy enough to explore that with me, and we could have conversations back and forth for the rest of our lives, and probably will, based around those things. I had a conversation with it's Luke Fulcher. So, luke, if you ever mentioned this, you're my nerd friend and he's also way smarter than me. So it's hard for me to keep up on most conversations and I feel like I'm boring him sometimes when I talk because he's so intelligent. Um, so that's always humbling. I don't. If I ever want to feel like I'm not that smart, I just talk to Luke. That's what I do. If I ever feel like I'm getting pretty smart, like I'm doing pretty good, I'm intelligent, I just really have to talk to Luke and I find out real quick like I'm really not all that intelligent. I'm kind of a dummy. Actually I'm going to just put the dunce hat on and sit in the corner for a minute.
Speaker 1:But Luke and I were having a conversation about original sin, inherited guilt and total depravity this week and that's one of those conversations that you probably could parse out and have over a long period of time and I'm working through exactly what my thought process is on original sin, inherited guilt and total depravity. I reject total depravity completely. Almost I can't go there. In fact I can't go there to the point that I don't think Jesus could have been incarnate if total depravity were a true doctrine. I don't think that he could have, especially the way that Calvin writes it out and the way that Calvin writes his doctrine, and I'm actually seeing how that the doctrine of total depravity has intermingled into our thinking and separates us from God and our thinking and makes our relationship more difficult with the Father than it ought to be, the doctrine of total depravity being that we're completely unable to seek God, that we're born into wickedness, that we're damned from our first breath and that children are vipers in diapers, as they say and you can listen to multiple people that I have respect for, like RC Sproul being one of them, who's a great theologian, but he's so wrong on that point that I almost wanted to go through a screen and have a conversation with him with my fists.
Speaker 1:Tell me, lennon's a viper in a diaper. Now, maybe this week she was, because she's going through a leap. This week she was going through a leap and she's a bit grumpyumpy, but she's happy today, so she must be on the other side of it. Um, um, I fed her a bunch of french fries at lunch and she got happy real fast. That's the. That's the. I said you want some fries? And she said fries. She lit up. I said yeah, I'll get you some some fries.
Speaker 1:I know the way to your heart and I actually I think I reject inherited guilt from Adam as well. I don't think I'm inherently guilty of Adam's sin. I think I'm under the penalty of death because of Adam's separation from God, but I don't believe that I'm under the penalty of Adam's sin. That would be unjust. I don't think you can make a biblical argument. Maybe you can, but I think you have to twist some scriptures to make an argument to say that each of us born especially on the other side of the finished work, are born into an inherited guilt from Adam that Yeshua dealt with on the cross. You cannot say that Now, where do I land? Pre? The finished work is going to be something that I'm probably going to have to wrestle through, but I don't believe that I'm born into Adam's guilt because Jesus paid the price to deal with Adam's guilt. So why then would I be born under a penalty that has already been paid for? He forgave the sins of the world, he reconciled all things back to himself. Now either that's true, or that's true with an asterisk, and we have to decide if we're going to allow legalism to place an asterisk on our thinking, and I just reject that completely. So I do not fall in line.
Speaker 1:So if you're ever curious, I do not believe in total depravity. And for all my Calvinist friends who will never listen to this you're wrong, you are you're wrong and you're probably mad most of the time. You should probably not be a Calvinist, so you can be happy. My friend Phil and I were having conversation about how Calvinists are upset all the time. God bless them. I have a bunch of really good friends that are Calvinists and they're good people. They're really good folks. So, total depravity reject. Also, inherited guilt from Adam reject.
Speaker 1:Where does original sin fit with sin nature? And that's kind of where I'm wrestling right now is wrestling and I don't know why. I'm sharing all this with you guys, but I'm wrestling through the doctrine of original sin and sin nature and what are we predisposed to from our birth and those sorts of things. I'm trying to decide where I stand on all of that. So just to give you a theological update from what's going on in my mind this week I know none of you were wondering, but I'd wanted to give you that update just so you would know. Lou is over there. I could probably pick Lou's brain. He could help me a little bit after I get done. So maybe I will. Lou, I'll call you, I'll call you, I'll pick your brain and, huh, I have to find my notes. Yeah, find your notes and I'll call you. This week We'll have a good conversation, all right.
Speaker 1:So the care of Jesus I don't know why I went on that tangent, but the care of Jesus and humility have been the two things that he won't stop highlighting to me, and our working definition of humility dovetailed it right back in, dovetailed it right back in um the care of jesus and the humility and humility are the two things that he's been speaking to me um and won't stop talking to me about. So we're going to continue on the subject of his care, but I want to make some comments concerning humility before I get started, just so we're framing things. Our working definition of humility is agreement with God's perspective of who we are now in the front of this bible. My grandmother has left me some wisdom from Andrew Murray and it says this humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. That's Andrew Murray, so that must be from Andrew Murray's book Humility.
Speaker 1:Andrew Murray lived, I believe, in the 1700s. Yep, humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust. And if you think about our working definition of humility being agreement with God's perspective of who we are, what better disposition to be in to live on trust than to understand that I am the beloved of God? He loves me with the same love that he loves Jesus. He has the same care for me that he has for Jesus. There is no better disposition to be set into to live on trust than to realize I am exactly who he says that I am. I'm loved the way that he says that I'm loved. I'm cared for the way that he says that I'm cared for. And if I'm loved to that degree, then I can take the leap and begin to trust that what he says is true. And even if for a moment it looks like there's contradictions coming against what he has said to me, I can rest assured that if he said it to me then it will come to pass, because the word of the Lord is the only incorruptible seed and he esteems his word even above his own name.
Speaker 1:Psalms one I believe it's 119 teaches us. Psalms 119 teaches us. He esteems his word above his own name. We understand, we sing it. He's got the name above every name At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's seated high above principalities, powers, might and dominion. He's seated in the heavenly realm, high above.
Speaker 1:It says when the nations rage, that God, the father laughs. It says the father in Psalms two. It says why do the nations rage and plot their destruction? The father laughs. Why does the father laugh? Because he has placed his son in his holy hill of Zion. I've already placed a king over the nations and their little plans that they think they're going to get away with this rebellion and they think that the culture is going to go this way. They make their plots and they make their plans. And God laughs because he's already placed his son in kingship over the whole of creation. And if he's placed his son in kingship over the whole of creation, and if he's placed his son in kingship over the whole of creation, then all of creation will eventually bend to his will. It's going to be restored to the way that he has pre-designed for it to be restored. It will be. He uses us to accomplish that, and that's where we get into some issues we. He uses human beings to partner with him in the restoration of all things. But we're learning, we're waking up and we're realizing that we're now ministers of reconciliation, as Paul teaches. We're ministers of the reconciliation of all of creation and all of culture.
Speaker 1:One quote that I do love from John Calvin is that he said this. One quote that I do love from John Calvin is that he said this. He said there isn't a square inch of culture that Jesus doesn't stand over and passionately declare that this is mine. Oh, that's that one. I've remembered that ever since I was in college. There isn't a square inch of culture that Jesus doesn't stand over and passionately declare this, too, is mine. And the father, when he sees the nations raging and plotting their plans, laughs because his son has been set in his holy hill of Zion and his word is esteemed above that. I could, I could listen. If I were in a good word of faith church right now, all the old ladies would be running there. There'd be, there'd be hairpins flying mark seven, dear God, dear God.
Speaker 1:The care of Jesus and the humility of the Lord. So humility being agreement with his perspective of who we are and with the wisdom left from Diana Jordan. Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul to live on trust. I think that perfectly dovetails with our working definition of what humility actually is. So that gives you permission to live in humility while also being bold, and that gives you permission to live inside of humility and it's not coming outside of humility to live a life of boldness and allow yourself not to be downtrodden and allow yourself we conflate false humility with real humility so much that we have a hard time really understanding what humility is.
Speaker 1:Humility really looks like Jesus girding the towel and putting the guy's ear back on. It's not hiding away who I am. He girds the towel, washes everyone's feet, washes his betrayer's feet and then in the garden when the high priest's servant Malchus, his ear gets cut off by Peter. Peter, in a moment of trying to protect his lord, cuts the man's ear off. He was aiming for his head and he's a bad aim. He's not a swordsman. So he misses and clips his ear. He puts his ear back on while allowing himself to be arrested because he understood that his time had come. So you can walk in humility and your identity and there's a symbiotic relationship between humility and our identity.
Speaker 1:And I sometimes think that we get into false humility to the point that we restrict ourselves from being who the Lord has actually made us to be and we feel like we have to cover ourselves up in order to be humble, when what that is is the antithesis of humility. That's actually arrogance, because what we're doing is we're elevating our own thoughts of who we are above what he says of us, and that will restrict your function 100% of the time. 100% of the time it'll restrict your function. So I think his humility played perfectly into his care and we have elevated his power. We've elevated his ability to intervene, especially in evangelical circles. God's powerful, god's got this. He can do this. If God chooses, he'll intervene and he can save me from all of this.
Speaker 1:And we've elevated his power to the point that the first thing we think about God, if I were to talk to people who believe in God so I'm not talking about an atheist, I'm not talking about someone who doesn't believe in God If I were to talk to most Christians in especially evangelical culture, the first thing that would come out of their mouth would either be sovereignty or power. Those would be the first two answers that I would get from most people, because we have elevated his sovereignty and his and, I think, a false understanding of what sovereignty actually is. But sovereignty and power above all of his other attributes, to the point that they almost become secondary to his power, and it plays into the wrathful judge that has all power to save, holds salvation from us because we're totally depraved. So what, then, is the answer? The answer, then, is to elevate his other attributes to the point that they become co-equal with his sovereignty and power, because it becomes very imbalanced and, I think, a false view. Not, I think it becomes very imbalanced and a false view of who God really is. When we elevate his power above his compassion, like to say that he's precisely what the father has to say about himself. If you really believe that to be true and I do, I do believe that to be true then his compassion motivated extending his power 100% of the time.
Speaker 1:They were not separate acts. You can't separate the two. You can't separate his care from his power. You can't separate his care from his power. You can't separate his compassion from his power. Aw Tozer says this everything he is is involved in every act he does. Everything he is is involved in every act that he does. There is no separating different segments of who Yahweh is in each of each. So we like to.
Speaker 1:That's a real moment of judgment. And he cleanses the temple and you know, we, we think about the cleansing of the temple, right, he braids a whip and I, you know, we like to play it up Like he's thinking about this, like I'm going to get them. I've been waiting on this moment and I'm going to clear this thing out. That's not at all what that was. His compassion was motivating that moment. His compassion was motivating the clearing out of the temple.
Speaker 1:Because you cannot separate judgment.
Speaker 1:If you're going to call that judgment, you cannot separate compassion from judgment.
Speaker 1:Even his judgments are bathed in his compassion.
Speaker 1:Even his judgments are bathed in his care. Even his judgments are bathed in his care. And we like to say this when he's especially on the inside of the new covenant, inside of the better covenant that we live in, we like to say this His judgments are aimed at what hinder beloved identity, the Mike Bickle quote all of his judgments are aimed at what hinder love. And Pop heard that and said I think that you could also say, and I think it may be more true to say he judges those things inside of us that hinder beloved identity. So his judgments are never aimed at me. They're aimed at setting me free, and the pain that sometimes accompanies some of the judgment is a witness that I have allowed myself to marry some things that are not true about ourselves. We've allowed them to take root in our interior garden and, if there's pain in pulling them out, we've married our thought process and we've allowed it to become part of our identity, things that are untrue about us. And Yahweh is committed to bringing out what's true in us, and you cannot separate his care from those moments. His care is what's actually motivating those things.
Speaker 1:Compassion is the great motivator of God. So I've been, I've been, you know, examining scripture, I've been reading and I'm watching. I'm watching in the new Testament as my view of. I can't stop seeing his care, I can't stop seeing his compassion and I can't stop seeing his compassion and I can't stop seeing him do unnecessary things. I can't, I can't. He goes out of his way so frequently to do things that don't benefit him in any way. He lived the most inconvenient life that's ever been lived. Jesus did because he's constantly stopping. He's constantly stopping and he's constantly giving. He's constantly stopping and he's constantly flooding interior darkness with his perfect light and bringing people into the kingdom of light without it having any benefit to him personally. And you can examine the gospels, especially examine the gospels and all the time. And Jesus stopped and Jesus pulled aside and Jesus was doing one thing and he ended up doing another thing and he intended to go here but the people were starving, so he broke bread and fed 5,000 of them because they were starving All of the stories and you can see his care wrapped into all of it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to continue on the subject and I have not intended. Lucy, I've got a pen for you here. Yeah, I got you. I had an extra one right there, thank you, I have not intended for this is our fifth gathering in a row talking about the care of the Lord and I have not intended for this subject to be centered around women.
Speaker 1:But we're going to examine another woman today in Scripture. This has been completely by accident, it has not been on purpose, but we're going to examine what we call in our American culture the Syrophoenician woman. I've written a little bit here to get started and I'm going to get into my notes now. So we've got probably 15 minutes left for how much I've prepared notes. So you know 15 minutes and we'll be wrapping this thing up. I'm lying to you guys right now. Jared's like oh my God, yes, okay, I'm going to start today with a question, but before I start with my question, I want to frame everything we're going to talk about today. I want to frame everything with this. I want to keep at the top of our minds that we are framing our thought process and the way that we're understanding these scriptures with these two things in mind One, the whole logic of the incarnation is that the Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us.
Speaker 1:And two, we have been predestined unto a purpose. We are currently being transfigured into the image of Christ, and we call it progressive transfiguration. We remember I taught about it's been probably close to a year ago that I started teaching on progressive transfiguration, and I'm using that language because I can't use the language process anymore, because I feel like that word got perverted and we're progressively being transfigured. That does not, then, mean that we're being taken through a slow, arduous process, although there are some slow aspects to this. It does not mean we're—I can't do the word process. I've got my own wounds around the word process, so progressive transfiguration is the word that I use, so I don't have to say it. The whole logic of the incarnation is that the father, son and spirit wanted to share their life with us. And two the purpose of this is that we would be transfigured into the image of the son, and we are currently being transfigured from one greater level of glory onto another greater level.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things that the orthodox church does so well, as they talk about the glorification of the saints, and they're not afraid to talk about the glorification of the saints. You're being glorified when you're walking, oh gosh, when you're walking through this life, you are not stumbling from one failure to the next. This is one of the things that gets my goat about. The evangelical church is the way that we have taught. This is we are stumbling from one failure to another failure to another, failure to another failure, and we're getting by just by the grace of God. Yes, we are getting by, just by the grace of God. You got that piece right just by the grace of God. Yes, we are getting by, just by the grace of God. You got that piece right. But we are not stumbling from one failure to the next failure.
Speaker 1:You cannot find that in the writings of the New Testament authors, what you find is the Jesus, what you find is the progressive glorification of the saints. So if you fail, there's grace and mercy for your failure. So if you fail, there's grace and mercy for your failure. There's no need to stay in. Remorse is good, godly remorse is a good thing. It leads to repentance.
Speaker 1:But we don't have to then stay there and say I'm just a sinner saved by grace. You are a sinner saved by grace for a moment and after that moment you're now a beloved son and beloved daughter of Almighty Yahweh and you have begun the process of being transfigured constantly and consistently into the image of Jesus. And when we begin to find that we're bumping our heads on a ceiling, it's not that, oh, I'm just totally depraved and totally incapable of being like Jesus at all. No, it's the Father saying hey, there's some things that I'm going to deal with with my perfect light on the inside of you and I'd like to have a conversation with you about this specifically. And we'll bump our heads on that ceiling until we give to the grace of having that conversation with the father and we come into repentance.
Speaker 1:But I am not going from one failure to the next failure to the next failure and barely getting into heaven. No, friends, we're being glorified into the image of Christ, and all of creation and all of culture is waiting for a group of people to realize that you're not a failure, who's barely going to make it. You're being glorified into the image of the Son. That's what's going on. That is an orthodox view of the New Testament process that the believer is brought into. You're being made into the image of Christ, and predestination is a thing we have all been predestined. We have been predestined to be transfigured into the image of Christ. So when we move from one thing to the next thing, to the next thing, you have either the truth that you can believe about yourself or you have a delusion that you can believe about yourself, and one will feed one outcome or the other.
Speaker 1:Because I've noticed some things about people that believe. They're barely making it and we're going from one struggle to the next struggle, one failure to the next failure, and I'm just never going to get it. You know what happens to them. They never get it and they live a life living on the scraps of the gospel. They believe a non-gospel and, by the grace of God. You know faith is the entryway into heaven, but you completely miss the kingdom here on earth, completely miss it that way.
Speaker 1:And is life difficult? Yeah, life is real hard, extremely difficult, and there are things that happen that I cannot explain. I can't explain. I was having that conversation again with my friend Luke last night. There's difficulty and I don't know why. Jesus said storms will come, but he promised us that's one of the things that will come are storms, and I don't understand it and I don't understand suffering and I don't. There's some things and I have some theological thoughts that could probably get me to a place where I mentally ascend, to the place where I can understand okay, well, this is what's going on.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, our experience is an experience of endurance. And why is endurance important to the Lord? I'm having to wrestle through that thought process too. Why is endurance important to Jesus and what does it produce in the life of the believer that is so attractive to him? Because I can look through the lives of all of the New Testament authors, and they all had to have endurance. And I can look through the lives of all of my heroes of church past, and they all had to have endurance. And one of the things about the people that I would consider some of my heroes that are alive today, the Heidi Bakers of the world and that crew and you can throw Damon in there and Bill Johnson and all the others, randy Clark, all of them. They've all had to endure through really difficult things, and I don't understand exactly what, and maybe I'll get there someday, or maybe it'd just be left in mystery, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I find is that, in the middle of difficulty, you can believe one of two things. You can believe I am being transfigured into the image of Christ and there's something about this although he didn't send this to me that is going to produce him in me, or or I'm a totally depraved sinner and I'm getting what I deserve, and I'll just struggle from one moment of being totally depraved to the next moment of being totally depraved. And you're no further along down the road. On the other side of that, guys, we have to begin to come out of that kind of thinking. So we're framing this with the logic of the incarnation that I have tried to keep in front of us for almost two years now. I've tried to keep in front of us for almost two years now, I've tried to keep in front of us and for the next however many years, I'm going to keep that in front of us. The whole logic of the incarnation is that we would share more of the life of the Father Two. We are currently being transfigured into the image of Christ.
Speaker 1:Currently, I don't care if you feel more dry today than you felt ever in your life you are currently being transfigured into the image of Christ. I don't care if you haven't felt his presence in months. I don't. You're currently being transfigured into the image of Christ. That's what's true, and you have the choice to live in delusion or the truth. You get to choose.
Speaker 1:So I want to start today with a question, with a question. What do you do when kindness mocks you? How do you respond when kindness ignores you? How do you respond when kindness mocks you and how do you respond when kindness ignores you? How do you respond when kindness mocks you and how do you respond when kindness ignores you? Because there will come times in our lives where we feel like the father is completely ignoring what we're trying to say to him. I have lived through a year and a half of some things that I've been trying to talk to the father about and he has felt like I've been being completely ignored. Maybe that's too honest. What are you? You're planning a church? Yeah, I feel like there are some things I've been trying to have some serious conversations with him about that he's not been interested in talking with me about at all. And how do you respond? I could tell you the process of how I've been responding, but that will wait for another time.
Speaker 1:Most of our first response would probably be to say well, that's not kindness, it's not kind to ignore someone and kindness wouldn't mock me. So you're saying unanswered prayer? Well, not even just unanswered prayer, lucy. I would say that could be part of it. Unanswered prayer could be part of, I think, the feeling of being ignored or like an absence of, like an absence of presence in our prayer, an absence of presence in our alone time, things like that. We go through those seasons where and maybe you don't, maybe maybe you've elevated to the place where you don't deal with that anymore and you've come into sainthood, um, yeah, yeah, well, and we, we start to learn that his first language is silence. Into sainthood, yeah, well, and we start to learn that his first language is silence, and that is one of the mysteries of prayer that we have to work out, and instant, right now. That's exactly right. Oh, I can raise both hands. I can raise both hands on that one. I think most of our first response, when we would say how would you respond if kindness were to mock you or kindness were to ignore you, would be to say that's just simply not kindness, you're mistaken, that's not kind.
Speaker 1:Kindness doesn't make fun of people and kindness doesn't ignore them when they're asking a pertinent question. Now, I'm not talking about a frivolous, like stupid question. Like we were in ministry school and one of my friends one of my friends walks up to Damon and we didn't get to hang out with him much. He was at a function and he's there and we're like okay, play it cool, don't be that guy. And one of my friends ended up being that guy and I won't say his name, josh Sparks. Um, I won't say I won't say Josh Sparks name about that. Um, um walks up to him and was like hey, damon, I've got a question for you. And he's, he's being nice. He's like yeah, buddy, what's up? And uh, it says to him did Adam have a belly button? And he looks at him and says, oh, I don't know, and walked off Just disgusted. I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 1:Kindness might ignore that, because the response that you might get might be different than that. I'm talking about something that's pertinent to your current situation, or even a crisis, and you feel like you're being ignored. Our response would be to say that's not kind. So if my child were to come to me and they've had something go wrong with either their brother or their sister, or they've got something that has just like either they've gotten hurt or something bad has just happened. Their feelings have been terribly injured by something and they were to come to me and say, dad, can you help me? If I were to ignore them, y'all would say I was not being kind, because kindness would respond in that moment. I feel like that's fair to say, especially if it were something to do with an immediate need that they were having.
Speaker 1:I guess I think of the daily scenario that we are living through right now, asking for God to heal, literally Yep, yep. I agree it's trusting. I agree it's trusting in the face of no evidence. There's an aspect of that that I completely agree with. I completely agree with that thought and, if you'll give me about 12 minutes, we're going to get to that. That's okay. That's okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not correcting you, that's fine, and my thought process is already there and I agree with that. I think you gave the answer by quoting your grandmother's Bible. It's the disposition, humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust and the symbiotic relationship between trust and faith and the transfiguration of the saint. There's, there's such a symbiosis that takes place there. Um, but I think, I really think that our knee-jerk response to something like that is that's not, that's not kind, and like I've even, I've, even, I'll be, I'll be transparent and say I've even had to wrestle through some moments in my relationship with the Lord where I'm like man.
Speaker 1:You say you're kind, but what in the world is this about? This is not kind. In fact, this is the opposite of kindness. This feels a little bit mean and there are some things that we attribute to him that are not him, and there's some things that need to be weeded out there. There's two sides to that coin. But the question remains how do I respond? Let me phrase it this way how do I respond if kindness were to mock me or to ignore me. Well, my first response would be that's not kindness. Kindness wouldn't mock me, let alone ignore me, especially in a moment of need. Kindness is, by nature, kind. Kindness doesn't mock and kindness doesn't ignore, certainly not in a moment of crisis or great need. This is precisely the tension that saint.
Speaker 1:You can call her either eusta or justa, however, I think eusta sounds better. So I'm going to say that um found herself in. We know her as the syrophoenician woman, but church, in church history, she is known as St Eustace, and her daughter, bernice, was, to quote the King James Bible, grievously afflicted by a demon, and we find her story in Matthew 15 and Mark 7, and I want to just look at the Mark 7 narrative. So it's Mark 7 and it's verse 24. It says this Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre.
Speaker 1:He didn't want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn't keep it a secret. Right away, a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter, since she was a Gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia. Jesus told her first I should feed the children of my own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs, she replied. That's true, lord, but even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children's plates. Good answer, he said Now go home, for the demon has left your daughter. And when she arrived she found her little girl lying quietly in her bed and the demon was gone.
Speaker 1:If you look at the matthew 15 I'm just going to look at this very quickly the matthew 15 narrative, it says this then jesus left galilee and went north to a region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him pleading, pleading have mercy on me, o Lord, son of David, for my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely. But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples they had to talk to him. He ignored her to the point that they started to feel bad for her, and we know how compassionate they were. They were trying to call fire down on villages. This woman hounded them to the point that his disciples come to him and say and urge him to send her away. Tell her to go away. They said she's bothering us with all her begging. He ignores her but doesn't send her away. Tell her to go away. They said she's bothering us with all her begging. He ignores her but doesn't send her away. And then, after ignoring her, insults her and that insulting says it's not right for me to take the children's bread and give it to the little dogs under the table. Go away. And she refuses to go away.
Speaker 1:And these seven verses are such an anomaly. Yeshua goes into the region of Tyre Today this would be part of what we call Lebanon. So he goes into the area of Lebanon and a Lebanese woman and Mark, who is not known as an author for flowering things up with details. So Mark's gospel is known as the gospel of action. I don't know if any of you have ever heard that before, but you'd consider Mark's gospel sort of the gospel of action. His narrative takes you from one moment to the next moment without a lot in between. You're not getting many details of his travels. You're seeing him move from the cleansing of the leper to the feeding of the 5,000, to the Mount of Transfiguration. You're moving from one thing to the next, to the next to the next very quickly. There are more miracles recorded in Mark than any of the other gospels. It's a gospel slam-packed with action. So you're moving forward from one thing to the next, one miracle to the next.
Speaker 1:But Mark slips here into this a little bit of detail, into this narrative that I found really interesting and really shows some of the ability of Jesus to hide without being able to hide. He said and I'll just read it he says this he didn't want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn't keep it a secret. He didn't want anybody to know where he was staying, but he couldn't keep it a secret. So much in that little statement. I could probably meditate on that for a year. He didn't want anyone to know where he was staying, but he couldn't keep it a secret. He still lives in a cloud called unknowing and invites us to come in and know him. That's the, it's this anomaly of our relationship with with God. He lives in a cloud called unknowing and he invites us in to know him more. He's unsearchable and he invites us to search him. He's past finding out and he says come and know me more. There's so many paradoxical aspects to our relationship with the Father that leave us in a realm of mystery, completely dependent on grace and completely dependent on Holy Spirit to help us.
Speaker 1:The Gospel of Mark was written by John Mark and many scholars believe he is reflecting on Peter's memoirs. I found that interesting. I found it out when I was studying. The Gospel of Mark was written by John Mark and many scholars believe he is reflecting on Peter's memoirs, with some scholars suggesting he was acting as Peter's scribe, so almost like Peter was recounting his memories to him, while others hold to the idea that Mark wrote what he remembered accurately from Peter's teachings, not necessarily being in chronological order, which would make sense with the way that Mark is kind of laid out. So I will add this just to be transparent. There is not 100% agreement that it was Peter who really wrote this gospel by some modern scholars, but I would say that it's fair to say that the preponderance or the majority of scholars have landed on the idea that this is likely.
Speaker 1:Peter's gospel, written by John Mark, is either recounting Peter's doctrines and his teachings, his stories about Jesus, or he's acting as his scribe, as Peter remembers the encounters that they had, which would make so much sense with Peter's personality type, with this being the gospel of action, you can see Peter's and you can also see Peter's perspective. If you read the gospel of Mark, you can see Peter's perspective sprinkled in through the gospel. So it'll give the way Peter was thinking in a scenario, or it will give Peter's perspective on something in a way that none of the other gospels do. He doesn't go so far as John as to say he's the disciple that Jesus loved more than all of the other disciples, and he doesn't slam dunk on John like John slammed dunks on him by saying he's faster than Peter, although Peter could then reply well, I had more faith in you because I actually went into the empty tomb and you just stayed outside.
Speaker 1:Although you were fast, your speed did not prevail in the end. That's right. I walked on water, you didn't, and even if I sunk a little bit, I still walked on it. You never did. So take that. I got up out of that boat and you were too scared to John. You're still cowering, that's right. That's right. That's right. You didn't have enough faith to walk on water, and I did, and he didn't do that. I would have if I had. I would have, but he wrote his gospel before John did so John had the last word. That's why he got to slam dunk on him. That's Peter. Peter didn't want to start the war of words and John just finished it without anyone ever even starting it. So you can see Peter's perspective in Mark in ways that you don't see his perspective in any of the other gospels.
Speaker 1:And as I was preparing this, I could just imagine Peter recounting this story to John. Mark recounting this story specifically and even the detail he didn't want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn't keep it a secret. That just sounds so much like someone is telling him this story, like someone is recounting the tale, and we're calling it Peter for our purposes and I think it's okay scholarly to do that. I think Peter's recounting this tale and I'm going to just I'm just going to from his perspective, with a little bit of my imagination recount this tale, and I can just imagine Peter telling this story and it would go something a little bit like this I would imagine we were all exhausted and we just wanted to be left alone. I'm tired of watching Jesus heal people. I'm tired of crowd control. I'm tired of having to get people out of the way. I'm exhausted from all the walking and we wanted a little rest. And this one woman I don't know how she did it, but she found us.
Speaker 1:Jesus always had this ability to hide without being able to hide. He hid for three years from the established order but could never hide from a hungry heart. He hid for three years from the established order and prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners he couldn't hide from. He was constantly hiding in plain sight and the established order could never really see him. But to the heart that was open, he was always visible. And I can imagine Peter talking with John Mark and saying you know, if you were even the slightest bit hungry, you could never hide from Jesus. Jesus could never hide from you. If you were the slightest bit hungry, he could never hide from you. I don't know how she found us.
Speaker 1:Anyway, this woman, she finds us and none of us were shocked at this point that someone found us, because it'd been happening for some time. At this point we'd be hiding away and either a crowd would find us and we had no idea how the crowd found us, or someone would find us and then alert everybody in the countryside that we were there. And then all of a sudden we're in a full fledged revival meeting and Jesus is taking time, performing miracles and kissing babies and doing all of the things. And I really just wanted him to tell me more mysteries and explain to me the mysteries of the mysteries of the kingdom. And he's over here healing people and I suppose that was fine, and you know we did that. But this always happened. We were irritated by her. We weren't shocked. I think that would be a. I think that would be a very Peter-like response, being irritated and not shocked that this woman had found him and he did.
Speaker 1:And Jesus did something he never did when this woman found him, he mocked her and he never mocked anyone. It's not good to give the food of the children of the house of Israel's food to the little dogs, or you're not worthy of my ministry. How do you reconcile that with the personhood of Jesus? That statement there? How do you reconcile, guys? He waited at a well, guys, he waited at a well for a Samaritan woman who was so shocked that he waited at this well for her that she said what is a Jewish man doing here talking to me? And this woman comes to him and says my little girl is grievously afflicted by a demon. I need help and no one else can help me. Will you help me?
Speaker 1:First, he ignores her. He'd ignored people before, but he'd never mocked anyone. He mocked her and I didn't realize it then, but I can see it now. He wasn't mocking her at all. He was drawing what was true out of her. See, his response wasn't aimed at injuring her heart. His response was aimed at drawing what was true out of her heart. It's not good to give the bread of the children of Israel's food to the little dogs under the table. You're not even worthy of my ministry. There'll come a time when you can receive the ministry of the gospel, but that time's not now and I don't want to talk to you. Yeah, but even the little dogs get the crumbs.
Speaker 1:Kindness ignored her and then kindness mocked her. Jesus is the manifestation of kindness, guys. Kindness is a person and his name is Jesus. Can you imagine with me that this woman has traveled as far as she has traveled to find a man who's trying to hide, falls down at his feet and looks into the kindest eyes she'd ever seen, and those kind eyes ignore her. And then, when she bothers his disciples to the point that he decides he has to say something to her. Those kind eyes say things that cut to the bone. How do you respond in that moment when who he is is not agreeing with the response that you think you should receive from him, and what he was doing with this woman was inviting her close and drawing what was true out of her heart. What's really true here? What's really going on here? What do you really need? Or what's really going on? And this is the conclusion I've come to, and I don't like this part. This part I don't like at all. I don't like this part. This part I don't like at all. I don't like this part. Resistance will draw what's true out of you in a way that nothing else can.
Speaker 1:There's this incredible passage, there's this incredible verse that is so much fun to preach and it is just miserable to live. It is a trial. It is a personal trial to me, this verse, because I remember getting taught this verse in Bible school and running laps around the room. Yes, I agree with this. I know you can all imagine me being on the track team and running laps around the room. We did that all the time in Bible school and this was one of them that got us fired up.
Speaker 1:And Psalm 105, 19 says this until the word of the Lord came to pass, the word of the Lord tested Joseph. Until the word of the Lord came to pass, the word of the Lord tested Joseph. Not Satan, not Satan, not Satan. The word of the Lord tested Joseph. I did not read that one in the Passion. Yes, say it in the Passion. Yeah, purged his character until it was time for his dreams to come true.
Speaker 1:See, the Lord has this incredible ability to give you these promises and to me I'm carrying so many prophetic promises from the Lord and carrying so many things that are really close to my heart, to the point I don't. I have a hard time sharing the things that are really close to my heart with people. That's maybe a personal hang up and maybe I can work on that and maybe in the days to come I'll get better about that. But I've just kind of learned it's not as important to most people as it is to me. And if I'm going to share the deep things of my heart with you, the really I'll talk to everybody. Guys, I love everybody. But if you want to hear the really deep things of my heart, the things that are like as close to the beating heartbeat of my soul as anything else. There's got to be some. There's got to be some. There's got to be some equity there in that relationship. I've got to understand that you're going to treat that with some care, because I'm not just going to and it sounds bad, but I've just kind of learned that you start sharing things with everybody and what you're doing is you're casting your pearls before swine because they're not going to care at all.
Speaker 1:And the Lord has this incredible ability to give you these promises and then have seemingly no interest in bringing those to pass. While telling you to believe in the word of the Lord, he has this great ability to have someone prophesy the truth of the word of the Lord to you, and you know, by the witness of the Spirit and by the witness of Scripture and by the witness of spiritual authority. That's true, my God. That's the word of the Lord to you, and you know by the witness of the spirit and by the witness of scripture and by the witness of spiritual authority. That's true, my God. That's the word of the Lord to me. And then the Lord shut heaven up over that word for years at the time and be no more interested in speaking with you about that word than the man in the moon. And I'll use this example. We got the word for Iowa five years before we got sent to Iowa. Yeah, we were there seven and a half years, five and a half years before we got sent to Iowa. We got the word of the Lord about Iowa Five and a half years, and I begged God for three years to start talking to me about Iowa, and he would not talk to me about Iowa.
Speaker 1:Instead, he wanted to talk to me about my character. Instead, he wanted to talk to me about the things in my life that were not godly, and I was like that is not fun for me to talk with you about. I would like to not talk about those things. I'd like to talk about the good things. And the Lord said no, no, no, these things are good too, if you'll let me deal with them. And I resisted the grace of the Lord for some time in dealing with some of these until I finally just could not resist the grace of the Lord any longer, and eventually his grace will be irresistible. Eventually it will be, and I don't think he started talking to me really about Iowa until about four and a half years after he gave us the word for Iowa. It probably took four and a half or maybe even five years total before he really started talking to us, when it started to become time for us to make that leap.
Speaker 1:And there are still some aspects of this that I don't have complete clarity, and I've been very honest with you guys about that. I don't have a roadmap for this. We get a compass, not a roadmap, and some of that leaves us grasping in mystery for what this thing will ultimately look like. I have an idea of where this may go, but we don't have full clarity on all of that, and there's a trust factor that's involved there. But I want to reframe this with what I said at the beginning. We're framing all of this through the thought process that the whole logic of the incarnation is that the Father, son and Spirit wanted to share their life with us and that we have been predestined and are currently being progressively transfigured into the image of Christ.
Speaker 1:So what's the end goal? What's the end goal of the word of the Lord coming to pass over my life? Is it the inheritance of the fulfillment of that word, or is the end goal being transfigured into his image. Being transfigured into his image and those things being a benefit that get added to me as I continue the journey of being transfigured into the image of Christ. See, the kingdom works off of inheritance, not earned wages. The kingdom works off of inheritance, not earned wages. And you cannot then earn your way into the fulfillment of the prophetic word. You don't earn your way. You can mature your way, but you can't earn your way. And how, then, do we judge? Someone is in a higher state of maturity? Well, they look more like Jesus. This is our measuring stick. This is our measuring stick for maturity is how much like Christ are they? How much like Christ do they look? And the word of the Lord has this ability to lead you into progressive transfiguration like nothing else will. And this woman gets ignored and then mocked by Jesus. Right, what is he doing? What is he doing? He's drawing what's true out of her.
Speaker 1:And I want to read something from this new book that I've picked up by Anthony Bloom. He's passed away now, but he was an Orthodox priest, and there's some things in this first chapter even that I didn't love, but there are also some things that were mind-blowing. So I love that we can pick up things and not agree with everything, and some things be a huge blessing. And he says this he's talking about it's the book Beginning to Pray, and he's talking about beginning to pray, and the first question that he's dealing with is the absence of God in our prayer life, the absence of God in our prayers, and he's talking about our cold heart being the primary reason that God is absent in our prayers. That we actually we have fervency in prayer when something means something to us. We have fervency in prayer when something is important to us, but we lose fervency when something is less important to us. And that's a revealing. That's revealing to us that our heart is not really hungry for him. Our heart is hungry for the benefit of being close to him, not really him. And he's heart is hungry for the benefit of being close to him, not really him.
Speaker 1:And he's asking the question, and it's a powerful reflection, and he says this there are other ways, too, in which God is absent, and this is so powerful. As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, god can be present and do something with us. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there is nothing left to say, or have we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God. Presence cannot be approached by God. There are other ways, too, in which God is absent. As long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, god can be present and do something with us, and we can see that in the lives of flawed individuals that are willing to be real before the Lord and he does so much in their life and he does so many incredible things in their lives. And there are other people that would appear to have their lives more together, would appear to have things more buttoned up, would appear to be more put together or even more mature right, or even more mature right, and the activity of God is not as evident in their lives. Why is that? I think this is a really good answer right here. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there is nothing left to say. Or have we have become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot the way he said this blew me away cannot be approached by God, the moment we try to become something that we are not, even if the truth is uncomfortable, even if the truth is dirty, even if the truth is a little embarrassing or messy. He doesn't require perfection to draw near to us. He requires what's true to come out of us for him to draw near to us.
Speaker 1:And when the Syrophoenician woman came to him, I heard one commentator. I was looking at some different perspectives on the passage here and I ran into a Catholic or Lutheran, one Lutheran or Catholic, I don't know which, but the gentleman said that this woman invited Jesus to change and I thought that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my whole life. I've heard some dumb things come out of ministers before and you, sir, have said the dumbest thing that I've ever heard a minister say this woman invited Jesus to change and he did what. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And I could go on a tangent, and maybe I will later, if you ask me later, about what I actually think is going on there.
Speaker 1:But Jesus does not require that we be perfectly put together, buttoned up, beautiful, or have all our I's dotted and all our T's crossed. He requires honesty to draw near to us. See, he's near to the broken and we're progressively being transfigured into the image of Christ. But we have to then realize there are things that need to be transfigured for us to be transfigured into the image of Christ. But we have to then realize there are things that need to be transfigured for us to be transfigured into the image of Christ. That requires a great deal of humility and honesty and there's a symbiotic relationship inside of the transfiguration of the believer between honesty and humility. In our relationship with the Lord, we agree with his perspective of who we are and if we are beloved sons and daughters of almighty Yahweh, if he loves me with the same love that he loves Jesus with, if he cares for me with that same deep level of care that he cares for Jesus with, then I am safe to be honest with him.
Speaker 1:And most of the time we don't share honestly what's going on in our lives because we don't feel safe. There's an area of our hearts where perfect love has not yet cast out fear, because fear carries with it the anticipation of judgment. The word says, and we still view him as the wrathful judge that's waiting to drop the hammer on me once and for all. I've been dealing with this for 20 years and surely by this point. He's grown tired of me and the gavel's going to come down on me. If I let him get close to this dark corner of my heart, the gavel's going to come down on me and he's going to cast me out into outer darkness and I'm going to be left completely alone. So I've got to hide, and that's what we end up doing. We end up hiding in our church pews and we end up hiding in our lives and we end up hiding in all of our relationships because we don't feel safe to be honest.
Speaker 1:And he's the one person where you can completely be honest with him and that honesty brings with it the breath of transfiguration. The breath of transfiguration rides on the heels of your honesty. Where I've got this going on in my life and it's dark and it's ugly and I don't like that. It's going on in there and I'd like for you to finally do something with this. And he says I can finally come near to that because you're showing me what's true.
Speaker 1:He's not silent because he's unfeeling or uncaring. He's silent because he won't deal with the imposter that stands in front of him. I won't dignify an imposter. I don't need a buttoned up imposter. I don't need a well put, you're fine. I don't need a well put together imposter. What I need is a broken honesty that I can finally get my hands on and do something with. That's the heart of the Lord for us. That's what transfiguration of the saints really looks like in dirty detail. What does it look like? It looks like me opening the dark corners of my heart to him and saying I'm going to be honest with you about what's going on here, and he says finally, I can do something with it. I've been being quiet to draw what's true out of you all along, because it requires your participation.
Speaker 1:Transfiguration is this beautiful work of grace and cooperation, having a symbiotic relationship with each other, and our only cooperation in this is yielding and honesty, honesty and yielding in turn, honesty and yielding in turn, honesty and yielding in turn. And be honest and yield and yield and be honest and yield and be honest and be honest and yield. And if we can come to the place in our relationship with him where we can say there's nothing hidden from you, abba, I've got no walls in my heart, then he can push the gas on transfiguration and you'd be amazed at the way that he would bring you into a more Christlike life. He wasn't ignoring this woman, he wasn't mocking this woman. He was inviting her close and drawing what was honest out of her.
Speaker 1:You can see this principle in the story of blind Bartimaeus, where blind Bartimaeus cries out and Jesus seemingly ignores him and he won't shut up. There's a crowd of people passing by and he won't shut up, to the point that some of his disciples are like hey, shut up, hey, quit crying out. The master obviously is busy, he's very busy. He doesn't have time for you. You're under God's curse anyway.
Speaker 1:Because at that time we viewed people that were sick as cursed. They were viewed as judgments of God on people, especially the blind. Especially the blind and the leper were viewed as those who were being judged by God. We know that from the man who was born blind and his, his apostle, saying whose sin caused this man to be born blind? Was it his, his own sin or the sin of his parents? And Jesus said it was no one's sin, but that you would see the grace of God work in his life. Oh man, and so blind Bartimaeus, cursed by God, sitting by the side of the road and a cursed man is begging for the son of David to stop and have mercy on him and no one wants to have mercy on a cursed man and Jesus seemingly ignores him. But he cried out, to the point that it says he cried out all the more.
Speaker 1:See, resistance from Jesus is not resistance for the sake of resistance, it's an invitation to draw close, sake of resistance. It's an invitation to draw close because as soon as he says, as soon as it says, he cries out all the more, what happens is he sends his disciples and say bring that man here to me. And it's the most beautiful picture of what words of knowledge look like. In actual, the gifts of the spirit are so mysterious, but we have a beautiful picture of what a word of knowledge looks like, where Jesus highlights someone to his disciples and say bring that man to me. That's all we're doing when we give a word of knowledge or a word of prophecy. Yeshua is highlighting someone to us and saying I want you to bring them close to me. It's the. It's a beautiful picture of how that works. And they bring they. That's so cool. They go to him and say be of good cheer, the master is calling for it. You were just telling him to shut up. What do you mean, be of good cheer. The master is calling for him. That's right Now. We're nice Good Lord, guys, and we. We see this beautiful picture of resistance not being judgment so often we get. So maybe I could say it this way and it would apply more.
Speaker 1:I get so mixed up with resistance, thinking, my God, I don't know if I'm under judgment or what the deal is, I don't know what's going on. And it's a revelation to me that there are still aspects of my heart that need to be transfigured and brought into the truth, that he's a good father and I'm his beloved son. And there are still, there's still some work to do in that transfiguration process. We're still. We're still working into that phase and we're still. We're becoming more Christ-like day by day, but there are days when I need to be more Christ-like. I know that's hard to believe. Talk to my children if you need to know anything about that. Talk to my children if you need to know anything about that.
Speaker 1:And and we see in the story of bartimaeus that this resistance is not resistance or judgment. It's an invitation to draw close, and we can see it here with the saint I'm not even going to call her the syrophoenician woman, because that's calling her by her old identity. She's a saint in many circles of the church and we're going to call her Saint. I'll just say Justa, because that is easier than Eusta, I suppose because I'm a redneck but Saint Justa. I've called her two different names. You call it however you want to Saint Justa, eusta, justa, however you want to flower it up, saint Justa. St Justa comes to him, says my daughter needs something from you. And he ignores her. And that ignoring brought her into a state of persistence that brought her closer to him and as she persisted, what was true came out of her heart. See, when we start and I have not meant to go to get to this place, I don't think, but this is where we're at so, when we start in our journey with the Lord and when we are given something like a prophetic word or something like that, we'll just use that as an example or a promise or something like that.
Speaker 1:Perseverance has a way, or resistance. I'll call it perseverance because that's a positive spin on what resistance is. The perseverance requiring perseverance will draw what's true out of your heart in a way that enthusiasm never will, because you can be enthusiastic and hide. Be enthusiastic and hide all day long and put on a persona and guys, I'm good at that, I'm good at that, I'm good at being enthusiastic and I'm good at being like. All of my good attributes. Here you are, father, bless me, for I have not sinned, and it's funny how that never works. Yes, father, yes, please more, yes, please more. I've never sinned and I'm worthy of this wonderful gift that you have promised me. And please apply that to me and give me grace to carry it. And it does not work. It does not. That has never worked. Obviously I'm being a little facetious, but maybe not, I don't know, maybe that's how I come across and requiring perseverance.
Speaker 1:I heard Alan Hood say this one time in one of the most powerful messages I've ever heard him teach on John 11, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and he said he delayed four days in going to raise Lazarus from the dead. And why did he delay four days? Because he was after one of the most precious fruits to come out of his friends, and that was enduring faith. Faith that endures is precious to the heart of the Father, and endurance brings what's true out of us in a way that nothing else will See. There were two different responses in that moment where Martha comes and says yes, lord, I believe that you're able to raise my brother from the dead. And even now, I believe that whatever you ask of the Father, the Father will give to you. And it did nothing to move his heart. He didn't do anything. In fact, he stopped dead in his tracks. She gives him perfect doctrine my brother's going to be raised again at the end of the age. I believe that will be true. He said resurrection. Looks at her, says your brother's going to rise again. And she says I believe my brother will rise again in the, in the resurrection of the saints at the end of the age. And he says I'm going to raise your brother from the dead. Yes, lord, I believe that you're able to do all things. And even now, I believe that whatever you ask of the Father, the Father will give to you. And he stops dead in his tracks at the response of perfect doctrine and perfect theology. Why? Because there was nothing substantive from her heart coming out of her in that moment. He wasn't looking for perfect, he was looking for what was true.
Speaker 1:Mary, on the other hand, responds very differently and responds with an accusation against him. That's all she does? She responds with an accusation and she weeps. That's all she does. She says, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. In other words, you didn't care enough to save my brother. You didn't care enough to save my brother. You didn't care that he was dying. You waited after you said this wouldn't end in death and he died. I had to. I had to watch him die after you promised he wouldn't. Where were you?
Speaker 1:But there was something in her ability to share her heart. It doesn't say Martha wept with him. It doesn't say Martha wept when she talked to Jesus about her dead brother. It says Mary fell at his feet weeping and said where were you? Because even in the weeping it was telling on her heart that she still held her heart in the tension of I don't know how this is going to come to pass, but you've never lied to me before and I don't think you're starting now. There's something in the weeping that drew what was true out of her and she may not have had the words to say I still believe and didn't have the perfect confession of faith. And this is the perfect example of we can take confession too far. Because she didn't have a good confession and her heart moved Jesus to raise her brother from the dead. She gets, she falls at his feet weeping, says this, and it's so moved him he said where'd you lay him, jesus?
Speaker 1:Man, perseverance draws what's true out of us. Endurance draws what's true out of us and I don't like the fact that that's true, but it is true. I want the things that he's talked to me about. I want them right now. In fact, I want them a year and a half ago, further on down the line. Let me push it back a few months. And, man, there's something about enduring that will draw what's true out of your heart. And that's all he was after with the Syrophoenician woman. Is what's really true here? What's really true here? Lord, even the little dogs get the scraps. Oh, woman. And the passion says oh woman, great is your faith, go your way. Your daughter has been made whole. Oh man, drawing what was true out of her moved the heart of Jesus, the heart of Jesus. So we're teaching about the kindness and the care of Jesus.
Speaker 1:You ever see a map of his journeys? He kind of stayed in the same areas, he didn't venture too far. He's Cana of Galilee and he's going through Galilee and he's going through. He go through Jericho a couple times and go up to Jerusalem and go through these different regions and he'll go back to it. Even says he went back to the place where John the Baptist baptized him. He returned to the place where the spirit fell on him and we see him returning constantly to the same areas and constantly going to the same areas. You ever see how far out of the way this journey was for him. And he had to walk there, man, he had to walk there. Miles he had to put in on tired feet, miles he had to put in on tired feet. And it says that he didn't want anybody to know what house he was in. He didn't want anybody to know what house he was in because he was there for one woman. And the kindness of the Lord draws him out of his normal pattern, the kindness of Jesus draws him out of his normal pattern, finds a home and hides in plain sight for one woman to come find him. And when that one woman comes and find him, he just wants to make sure what's true for you, what's true for you, and when what's true for you comes out of you, you can have whatever you're asking for. I think that's such a key.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I didn't intend to read this. This will be the last one I read and then we'll be done. Next week I might net yeah, next week. I'm used to being every other week. Next week I may teach about the Holy spirit being an extension of the compassion of Jesus. The ministry of the Holy spirit and the life of the believer be an extension of his compassion on us. We'll see.
Speaker 1:In John 14, it says this you can ask for anything in my name and I will do it, so that the son can bring glory to the father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it, so that the son can bring glory to the father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. He goes John 14, 15, and 16. Talking about after his glorification and seating at the right hand of the Father.
Speaker 1:And, guys, I think we get in our own way in our prayer lives by trying to present to him the best picture of ourselves. He doesn't need the best picture of me, he just needs me, and I think there's a key here in this story to unlocking the life of prayer that Yeshua promised us, where you can ask the father anything and he'll do it for you. He doesn't need. Let me say it this way, all it requires. All it requires is faith. All it requires is faith and honesty coming out of your heart to the Father. The ability to be honest with him in prayer changes the dynamics of our prayer life and, I think, some of our inability. Let me reframe it. And point of prayer is a witness that there are still corners of my heart where perfect love needs to chase out fear. The love of the Father is what brings us into transfiguration 100% of the time, nothing else. It doesn't require perfection, it doesn't even require a state of worthiness. It requires what's true in our hearts to come out of our mouth and be presented to Him.