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The Resting Place
We are a community of believers coming together to establish a new wineskin of renewal in the Midwest. Come and join us as we adventure into the unknown, with hands open to following the wind of Holy Spirit, and hearts hungry for community and to experience an outpouring of the love of the Father.
If you are interested in joining us, check out our website at www.therestingplaceia.com. Here you will find out more about who we are as well as our gathering schedule. We hope to connect with you!
The Resting Place
Joy Has a Name
What if everything you believe about God that doesn't align with Jesus needs to be questioned? In this powerful episode we dive deep into the revolutionary truth that Jesus is the complete and perfect revelation of who God truly is.
Drawing from John 1:18 and 1 John 1, we explore how Jesus alone has seen the full splendor of God and reveals the Father's nature to us without distortion. "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son is Himself God and is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us." This profound revelation challenges us to filter every belief we hold about God through what we see demonstrated in Jesus.
This podcast episode boldly confronts a life-changing truth: "God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in Him." This statement fundamentally transforms how we understand suffering, hardship, and pain. If God contains no darkness, then the darkness we experience—depression, anxiety, sickness—cannot originate from Him. "If it's dark, it's not from Him."
The episode takes a fascinating turn exploring the story of the woman with the issue of blood from Mark 5. Why did Jesus, while rushing to help an influential synagogue leader's dying daughter, stop for a socially outcast woman who could only bring scandal to His reputation? Because Jesus always prioritizes the rejected and ensures complete healing—not just physical, but interior restoration as well.
Perhaps most touching is the discussion about God's silence in prayer. Sometimes God seems silent because He refuses to speak to the version of ourselves we present—He wants authentic relationship with the real us. "He doesn't want what you can bring to Him; He wants you." This truth liberates us from performance-based spirituality and invites us into genuine relationship with a Father who is light, life, and love.
Ready to have your understanding of God transformed? Listen now and discover the joy that comes not from circumstances, but from meeting the man whose name is Joy.
Hi everyone. I'm Ben and I'm Logan and we're the Robins. Welcome to the Resting Place Podcast. Let's go to John, chapter 1, verse 18, and then we'll go to 1 John 1, and we'll read either 1-5 or 1-7. And then we're going to talk briefly about St Veronica from Mark 5, and then we'll go home John 1-18, and I'm going to read out of the Passion Translation and then I may also read out of the NLT.
Speaker 1:I've got my grandmother's Bible with me. I've been preaching exclusively. I've been teaching I don't want to say preaching, yeah, I've been teaching exclusively out of this Bible. It's a really cool deal. My grandmother gave it to me when she passed and I got it rebound and I have so much history with this Bible that I just really love getting my hands on it and I get to see my grandmother's writing Wrote a little something right here on this page, Stuff like that. It's encouraging to me, stuff like that's encouraging to me. It ought to be to you if you have that history with the lord.
Speaker 1:So john 1 18 says this john 1 18 from the Passion Translation no one ever before gazed upon the full splendor of God except His uniquely beloved Son, who is cherished by the Father. No one ever before gazed upon the full splendor of God except his uniquely beloved Son, who is cherished by the Father and held close to his heart. The lawgiver, moses, when he asked to see the glory of the Lord, had to be hidden. He said I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock and I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you. The revered lawgiver had seen a portion of the glory of the Lord, but the one who fulfilled the law had seen the glory of the Lord. The law was in part and Jesus was in full. The law revealed part and Jesus fulfilled the law.
Speaker 1:Paul says something very interesting. He says that the former ministry was a ministry of glory. Moses came down from the mountain, having received the Ten Commandments from the Lord, and was glowing to the point that he had to cover his face so that the children of Israel were not afraid of him. And he says if the former ministry had a measure of glory that was passing away, how much more glorious now is the ministry of reconciliation that we have been entrusted with? Is the ministry of reconciliation that we have been entrusted with, how much more glorious is the new covenant ministry that has a glory that is ever increasing. We see in part and we prophesy in part. We see in part and we prophesy in part. We see in part and we prophesy in part.
Speaker 1:And Jesus came, not seeing in part and not prophesying in part, but revealing the nature of the Father precisely as it was. Or is Father precisely as it was? Or is no one ever before gazed upon the full splendor of God except his uniquely beloved Son, who is cherished by the Father and held close to his heart? Now that he has come to us, he has unfolded the full explanation of who God truly is. Let me read it again because it didn't sink in. No one ever before gazed upon the full splendor of God in the beginning was the living expression who was already there. This is john 1 1. And the living expression was with god, yet fully god. They were together face to face in the very beginning. Most of your translations will say in the. The beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. That word with is a very poor translation of that word, pros. The word there for with is the word pros. That word literally means mouth-to-mouth exchanging breath, mouth exchanging breath. So when he says he was face to face in the very beginning. Literally what was happening is the Father's true, exchanging breath with him. He had seen the full glory of the Father and he was the only one qualified to explain the full nature of who the Father really is.
Speaker 1:Our apostle likes to say it this way Jesus is precisely what the Father has to say about himself, and nothing else. Bill Johnson says it this way. It's almost a legal meeting. At this point I just have to quote Baxter Kruger. I've quoted Damon and I've quoted Bill. Now I've just got to find a way to get a Baxter Kruger quote in there and then we'll have a meeting that we can accept. Don't worry, the door's already locked so you can get the brick if you need it. That was okay. That was a little bit funnier than I thought. I love these dry jokes that people are like is he serious or is he not serious? I was kind of serious. I was a little bit serious. It was funny. Bill Johnson likes to say it this way you have a right to question anything you believe about God that you can't find in Jesus.
Speaker 1:You have a right to question anything that you believe about God that you cannot find in the person of Jesus revealed to us in Scripture find in the person of Jesus revealed to us in Scripture. So you're going to have to take, I feel it, man, you're going to have to take and expose your belief system to the person of Yeshua revealed to us inside of the new covenant, and anything that you don't, that you believe about God, that is not found in the person of Jesus. You then have a I'm going to say it this way you don't have a right to question it. You have a responsibility to question it and not only question it. You have a responsibility to adjust your belief system to match that revealed to that hallelujah, to match that which is revealed in the personhood of Jesus. We ask this question all the time and we don't understand it. Why doesn't the church look more like Jesus? Because we value our belief system more than we value the revelation of Jesus. Because we value our belief system more than we value the revelation of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Say that again for the people in the back we value our opinions and our belief systems more than we value the revelation of the person of Yeshua revealed to us in Scripture. Well, brother, how do you know that? Because we still have the right to hate people. Oh, we don't want to hear that we still have the right to hate people inside of our belief systems because they're not right with God and what they're doing is wrong. And we're going to bless God. We're going to get the liberals and we're going to do what we need to do, or the Republicans either way, no matter, you can be liberal and do that too. You're going to have to square that with Jesus finding the tax collector and saying follow me. See, we lose.
Speaker 1:How profound that was when Jesus came to a tax collector and said, son, I want you to come with me. He wasn't just saying I want you to follow me around, he was saying I want you to be part of my household, I want you to come and be part of my home. And this man would have been hated in his culture, not just hated in his culture would have been completely ostracized. What does that mean? Cast out, kicked out. No part of any Jewish, self-respecting Jew, would have anything to do with Matthew, because Matthew had sided with the Romans and had helped them rob the people of Israel. He was a traitor.
Speaker 1:Jesus went and found the most politically controversial person he could, and then he went and found a zealot. What does it mean when it says that he's a zealot? This man was a troublemaker, a rabble-rouser. The old folks would say he's a rabble-rouser. What's that mean? He's raising people in an attempt to rebel against the government and he makes them sit in the same room and gave them both the same call follow me, follow me, matthew, follow me. Yeah, but he doesn't agree with me and I don't agree. Follow me.
Speaker 1:Why doesn't the church look more like Jesus? Because we value our opinions more than we value him. Why doesn't the church look more like you? Why isn't the church more loving like Jesus? Because we still hide places of darkness in our heart from His light, because we still believe the Father is an angry judge waiting to judge our darkness rather than waiting to release His light. Alright, y'all, don't believe me. You will in a second. No one. No, let's do this. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son is Himself God and is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us. You want to know what the Father's like you look at Jesus. You want to know what God is really like and what God really thinks, and you want to know how God responds to things. Look at Jesus.
Speaker 1:Hebrews 1 takes this further. I'm not going to go to Hebrews 1 right now, but Hebrews takes this thought and runs with it and expounds upon how God is exclusively revealed in Jesus, exclusively revealed in Jesus, how God is exclusively revealed in Jesus, how God is exclusively revealed in Jesus, how God is exclusively revealed in Jesus and how much greater Jesus is than everything inside of the created order. So Jesus John begins his gospel with the in the beginning narration and then he begins to tell us of the things of God. And then he gets to 18 and says Jesus is the full explanation of who God really is. And then I want to show you what he said in the first part of his epistle, and that's in 1 John 1.
Speaker 1:At the end of his gospel John says something really interesting. None of the other gospel writers say this. John says this. John says None of the other gospel writers say this. John says this. John says If all the things he did and said were recorded in books, I suppose the earth could not contain the books that would be written about him. If all the things Jesus taught and did were written down in books, the earth could not contain those books.
Speaker 1:And then in his epistle, he shares something really profound. I'm going to start with one, but that's not the primary verse that I'm after here he says this we saw Him with our very own eyes. We gazed upon Him and heard Him speak. Our hands actually touched Him. We saw Him with our very own eyes. We gazed upon him and heard him speak. Our hands actually touched him. The one who was, from the beginning, the living expression of God. This life giver was made visible and we have seen him. We testify this truth the eternal life giver lived face to face with the Father and has now dawned upon us. So watch this, so we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard about this life giver, so that we may share and enjoy this life together, for truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, jesus, the anointed one. We are writing these things to you because we want to release to you our fullness of joy. We're writing these things to you. What things are we writing to you? We're writing the thing that we heard Jesus say because we want to release our joy to you. What joy are you talking about, john? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:You've been hunted, you've been persecuted, you've been boiled alive in oil. You've been exiled to the island of Patmos. All your other brothers in Christ have been chased like dogs. You've been either crucified, killed with spears, pulled apart, stoned, burned alive and treated like the lowest of the low. Peter got crucified upside down and he has the audacity to say there's something inside of me called joy that you need. There's a joy that goes beyond our comprehension and understanding, and it doesn't start with all of your circumstances being perfect. It doesn't start with your parents being perfect. It doesn't start with your mental state always being the best and always having the greatest things around you. It doesn't start with the size of the check that you cash at the end of the week. There's something called joy that the life giver named Jesus is the only one qualified to give you Boiled in oil. And I've got joy on the inside of me that I'm going to write and release to you.
Speaker 1:John's one of those annoying people that is in the hospital with a terminal disease, and you go to encourage him and you leave feeling encouraged. Terminal disease and you go to encourage them and you leave feeling encouraged. Y'all ever been around those people. Their whole life is falling apart. Their health is falling apart. They've got nothing that they can point at that they would say is going right in their life. And you go, I'm gonna, by god, I'm gonna be a good christian brother and I'm gonna go encourage them in the lord. And you get into that room and there's a light of joy coming out of the inside of them and it gets on the inside of you and you leave encouraged because you've been in the presence of one that has wholly surrendered their heart to the life giver named Jesus.
Speaker 1:Your joy has nothing to do with your circumstances. Your joy has nothing to do with your circumstances. Your joy has everything to do with meeting the man named joy. Joy isn't an abstract thing, it's not a state of emotion, it's not a thought process. Joy is a man. Joy is a man and his name is Yeshua the Christ. I'm going to preach Jesus until every depressed soul in this region starts to have to hear the cry of those who have been made joyful by the revelation of Jesus. We're going to see a revolution inside of the Midwest and we're going to see depression driven out of here Because Jesus is going to reveal himself to us. I'm telling you we're going to be a culture of joy, not because our circumstances are perfect, but because we met the man named joy. What do you mean? You're laughing because we met the man named Joy Woo. What do you mean you're laughing? I'm laughing because what's going on in my circumstances has no ability to impact my interior world. Oh man, somebody else needs to hear that.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? You're doing okay in the middle of all this, in the middle of persecution and everything falling apart. I'm doing good because I know the ones that are persecuting me are under such delusion that they've never met this man named Jesus, and they have no ability to understand the decisions that I've made or the joy that I have writing these things. I didn't mean to get excited about that one.
Speaker 1:That just bubbled up out of me. We're writing these things to you because we want to release to you our fullness of joy fullness is a. Greek word that means fullness. That word fullness, that's a Greek word that means the most mature state of, or fullness, as like when they were all in the upper room.
Speaker 1:They all spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and cloven tongues, as the fires rested upon each of them, rested upon all of them. That word all is a Greek word that means all of them. It means everybody. All right, this is what I wanted to get to.
Speaker 2:It means everybody.
Speaker 1:Alright, this is what I wanted to get to.
Speaker 2:This is the life-giving message we heard him share.
Speaker 1:If everything he said and did were written in books.
Speaker 2:I suppose the whole of the earth could not contain the books.
Speaker 1:There isn't enough paper or enough library space in the earth to contain all the things he said and did.
Speaker 2:This is the message we heard.
Speaker 1:He distills the message of one who had taught and healed. Jesus would simultaneously teach, preach and heal. Those are the things he would do. People would gather around him, he would teach to them, he would preach to them and he would heal them, kind of simultaneously. He's doing all these things simultaneously. His illustrated sermons are healing a man born blind rather than doing a human video. Oh, okay. Wrong crowd, wrong crowd, wrong, crowd, wrong crowd. Y'all like your human videos, that's all right. I hate them.
Speaker 2:Give me an illustrated sermon. Okay, we're going to get some music and we're going to get some people that can't halfway dance. And we're going to get them up here and we're going to pretend like the devil's pulling on one side and jesus is pulling on the other, angels are pulling on one side and demons are pulling on the other.
Speaker 2:And then we're going to get the man who's got the biggest beard in the congregation to walk in the back door of the walk in the back door of the of the stage and he's going to be in a white robe and the spotlight's going to stand and the devil's going to go running, and everybody's going to stand. God, Jesus wins, Jesus wins Some of y'all have never been to that church service. I've been to so many of those church services.
Speaker 1:That's what we mean when we say illustrated sermon. And that's what we mean when we say illustrated sermon. That's what we mean when we say illustrated sermon what Jesus meant when he said illustrated sermon was the demoniac of the gatherings, sitting at his feet, fully clothed and in his right mind.
Speaker 2:Jesus when he would give an illustrated sermon.
Speaker 1:What he would do is he'd take a leper and he'd hug him. It says when the leper approached Jesus, he said Master, if you will you can make me whole.
Speaker 2:Jesus says, I will be made whole.
Speaker 1:It says he touched him.
Speaker 1:That word touched is a gross understatement of what Jesus did, it's such a bad translation that it should be stricken from the record in front of the record. The word used there. The Greek word used there means Jesus wrapped himself around this leper until he drove every leprous cell out of his body and he so he came out of that embrace with Jesus with a completely new body, not just a completely new complexion. He had been made completely whole, to the cellular level. Nothing left broken in that man. What's the big?
Speaker 2:deal you ask? Lepers weren't allowed to touch anyone. It would have been years since that man felt the embrace of another human.
Speaker 1:He goes and finds the rabbi that he heard a rumor was healing the sick.
Speaker 2:He goes and finds the rabbi that he heard a rumor was healing the blind.
Speaker 1:He goes and finds the rabbi.
Speaker 2:He heard a rumor that he was making people whole.
Speaker 1:And just maybe, if he's making everybody else whole, he'll find a way to make me whole too. If you will, you can make me whole, and once and for all. Time Jesus shows us what he does with sickness and disease. Jesus said I'm willing be made whole, and then wraps himself around that disease stricken man. What's the big deal? It's just a sickness. You don't understand Disease and sickness, particularly blindness and leprosy in that time were viewed as curses from God. This man wasn't just sick, if he was sick.
Speaker 2:That's bad enough.
Speaker 1:He's living in a leper colony to stop the spread of infectious disease. That's the way that they handle that. But he's not just sick. He's under the curse of God for sins that either he or his parents committed. It's a generational line and they deserve everything that they've gotten. So everyone else in the culture feels justified in treating them the way that they did. And Jesus hugged the man no one else would touch. Jesus hugged the man no one else would touch If everything he did and said were written in a book.
Speaker 2:I suppose the whole of the earth could not contain the book. And this is the message that we're giving to you.
Speaker 1:This is the life-giving message we've heard him share, and it's still ringing in our ears. This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it's still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you God is pure light. He is pure light. You will never even find. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him. This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it's still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you God is pure light.
Speaker 1:You will never find even a trace of darkness in him and I talked a little bit last night about settling for powerless statements of faith and powerless doctrinal statements and powerless eschatological statements. Even if they're true, they carry no power. How do I know they carry no power? Because the church is still dark.
Speaker 2:Turn this thing.
Speaker 1:Throw it against the wall.
Speaker 1:Debbie's like no, don't do that, Don't do that, I'm wild, Debbie, I'm wild. I'm wild Like Martha. Even now, I believe that God will give you whatever you ask. Like Martha, even now, I believe that God will give you whatever you ask. And Jesus is coming to intervene in her situation. And her statement stopped him and she had to go find another who didn't have the statement of faith, who didn't have the doctrinal statement, who didn't have the eschatological statement, who didn't have all the right things to say. But she had a heart that would refuse to release herself from the tension of the promise of God over her life.
Speaker 1:And she said I know that it doesn't look like you said that it would look, but I want to know where you were. That it would look, but I want to know where you were.
Speaker 2:I had a oh man. I'm going to share some things.
Speaker 1:I want to share this, but I'm going to. I had a conversation with my apostle shortly after I was sent here and I was intending to have a conversation with him about. You sent the wrong man. I don't know, sir, if you know this about me, but I am not a theologian. I have never been on staff at a church. I've never led a church before. Sir, you sent the wrong person. Take me back and send someone else. That's really what I wanted to Take me back.
Speaker 1:I'll come back. You send somebody else out here. That's what I wanted to say to him.
Speaker 1:I just said, sir, I feel really unqualified for this because I'm not a theologian. I don't have even an MDiv, no PhD, none of those things. I don't have any of that. So what do I do? And he said very clearly he sent me one text back and he said the earth does not need another theologian. The earth needs power. The earth doesn't need another theologian who can explain to the people things about God that will make them feel a little bit better about why they're so dysfunctional. They need people. The earth needs people who have encountered light to the point that when they walk, into dark situations.
Speaker 2:They open up and let loose the light of God into darkness, and things are transformed, not because of the things that you know or the way that you've been educated. Things are transformed because you met a man named Jesus and you learned that the Father is pure light and there's not even a trace of darkness inside of him and if he's light and I'm of him, then I'm of light man one of the things that we do inside of the church culture is very interesting to me.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we do inside of the church culture is very interesting to me. We expose part of our life to him and allow part of ourselves to be full of light, and then we find explanations inside of doctrines and theology about why my life is not completely transformed by his life and we make ourselves feel better with doctrine and with theology and with statements, and we find these things about the nature of the Father that would allow us to remain in the place that we're in Because we have a wrong understanding of the way that the Father transforms our life.
Speaker 1:How does the Father transform our life? Is it through oh boy?
Speaker 2:I'm going to get in trouble.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get in trouble and that's okay. Does the Father transform our life through punishment? Does the Father transform our life through punishment?
Speaker 2:Is there such a thing as punishment inside of an incumbent?
Speaker 1:Well, it says that he punishes those that he loves and it disciplines those that he loves and brings correction to those that are his. We have a wrong understanding of what that correction is aimed at. That correction is not aimed at me, that correction is aimed at the thing that's hindering love in me and what will happen inside of a wrong thought process is.
Speaker 1:We'll believe that he's aiming his judgments at me and rejecting me because I've sinned so greatly, and what he's actually doing is taking the fury of his love and aiming it at the thing that's hindering you from coming to him freely, and he's going to make sure that that thing gets driven out of your life once and forever and the only way you can stop it is by believing that his love for you is a rejection of you.
Speaker 1:We get these ideas, guys. We get these ideas guys. We get these ideas like well, he can't use me and I don't even know, I just gonna have to. It's gonna have to do my best to live for him and I can't really ever experience him, like the Bible says, because I've done too much and I've gone too far and I'm too far gone and you won't say that out loud, but you'll believe that in your heart. You'll keep that in the darkest place of your heart, the furthest, deepest pit of delusion. You'll keep it right there and let him get so far, but never let him get there, because you're afraid that ultimately he'll reject you.
Speaker 2:I'm going to share one more, and then I'm done One more, one more little point here.
Speaker 1:In Mark 5, 21 through 34, we have a really interesting, interesting. I'm going to tell most of this and not read it so we can go quicker. In mark 5, 21 through 34, it actually goes further, but we have a really interesting story and in the heading in my passion translation it says this Two miracles, healing and resurrection. Two miracles-healing and resurrection. This is the story of Jesus moving through town and being crowded about with people in Jairus, a leader in the synagogue coming to Jesus.
Speaker 2:Now, this is interesting because this would have been at the point that men were trying to decide whether Jesus was of God or not of God.
Speaker 1:And many of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders of the day were citing on the side of the fence that he was not from God. They would go so far later as to make the declaration that anyone that declared that Jesus was the Messiah would be removed from the synagogue. That's why the man who was born blind and parents would not fully back him. After he had been healed by Jesus and the Pharisees brought him in for inspection and interrogation and his parents were like I don't know what happened to him. He's our son.
Speaker 2:I don't know what happened to him. He's a man. Ask him.
Speaker 1:They didn't want anything to do with the controversy surrounding Jesus because by being cast out of the synagogue, they would have been cast out of their culture completely. Their culture revolved around the sacrificial worship system and to be removed would have been akin to a Catholic being excommunicated. Jairus, a leader in the synagogue, means he's an influential man, and by being an influential man, he can do something to help.
Speaker 1:Jesus' ministry. He can maybe get in the ear of the high priest or get in the ear of those that are higher up in the order than him and say, hey, this man named Jesus, I believe he is from God. He can help him a little bit.
Speaker 2:He comes to Jesus and says Master, my daughter is on the verge of death. Would you please come and help?
Speaker 1:her. Jesus agrees to go with him and starts walking that direction. In the middle of walking that direction, he stops dead in his tracks and says who touched me? He stops dead in his tracks and says who touched me? Now, if I'm Jairus, I'm a little bit annoyed by this inquisition on who touched me. I'm a little bit annoyed by Jesus stopping because he's already said hey, my daughter's really sick. She's about to die. I need you to hurry up and come this way with me. You've healed other people. Maybe you can heal her. We need help quickly. And Jesus stopped dead in his tracks and says who touched me? This was a ridiculous statement because the disciples were even confused by it. Saying Lord, everyone surrounding you is touching you. What do you?
Speaker 1:mean who touched me Everyone surrounding you is bumping you, grabbing you, jostling you, trying to get a hold of you, trying to get in front of you.
Speaker 2:They've got the disciples running interference almost like a security team, and someone touches the hem of his garment or they touch his tallit. Jesus stops and says no, I felt power go out from me. Who?
Speaker 1:touched me.
Speaker 2:And this is a story Now.
Speaker 1:In the crowd that day was a woman who had suffered horribly from continual bleeding for 12 years. She had endured a great deal under the care of various doctors, yet in spite of spending all she had on their treatments, she was getting worse instead of better. She spent all her money and she got worse instead of better. Saw all the specialists she could and medicine at that time had no answers for she just got worse. The issue with her being in the crowd that day I actually take issue. I know it's shocking that I had an issue with something that's written surprising. I have issue with this heading here Two miracles healing and resurrection. This would have been better titled Two Miracles of Resurrection.
Speaker 2:Let me explain it.
Speaker 1:This woman spent all she had and only got worse. She would have been completely isolated from everyone else inside of public life. She was not allowed to go anywhere and no one was allowed to get near her, because if they came close to her they would have been declared ceremonially unclean. She was an outcast. She was unclean and her life was over. Unclean and her life was over. It was a scandal that she was even in the crowd because anyone she got close to or accidentally bumped.
Speaker 1:she made them unclean by her touching them, and she was approaching a teacher of the law.
Speaker 2:And by touching a teacher of the law, she made that teacher of the law ceremonially unclean.
Speaker 1:He could not perform the duties Jairus had been asking him to perform because even by her touching him she made him unclean, her life was over. Even lepers had leper colonies, even a leper at that time would have been cast out of the city, but he would have been at least surrounded by those that had the same disease as he did.
Speaker 1:She was totally and completely isolated and alone, had nothing to offer, nothing to give. All she had surrounding her was scandal. There are theologians that would argue that her condition was a result of illicit relationships she had had with other men, that her condition was a result of choices she had made. Not just like a disease had randomly been given to her, not just like she randomly caught it through the air like an airborne virus. She made some choices that resulted in the disease that she had, that resulted in the disease that she had, and she had the unmitigated gall to walk through a crowd, making everyone in that crowd unclean.
Speaker 2:So here's the thing Not only would everyone else have believed she was under the curse of God.
Speaker 1:She would have believed she was under the curse of God. She would have believed she was under the curse of God. I'm cursed because of the decisions I made.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's stop a second. I know none of us have ever thought that way. Us have ever thought that way.
Speaker 1:I know none of us are still dealing in dark corners of our heart with thought process similar to this that I'm under the restriction or curse of heaven because I've made less than perfect decisions and now I'm dealing with the consequences of those decisions and Jesus is going to. Let me deal with what I've gotten. When she heard about Jesus' healing power, she pushed through the crowd and came up from behind him and touched his prayer shawl.
Speaker 2:Jesus' healing power, she pushed through the crowd and came up from behind him and touched his prayer shawl.
Speaker 1:For she kept saying to herself if I could touch even his clothes, I know I will be healed.
Speaker 2:As soon as her hand touched him, her bleeding immediately stopped.
Speaker 1:She knew it, for she could feel her body instantly being healed of her disease. She could feel her body instantly being healed of her disease. Jesus knew at once that someone had touched him, for he felt power that always surged around him had passed through him For someone to be healed. He turned and spoke to the crowd saying who touched my clothes?
Speaker 2:I promise I'm done.
Speaker 1:I'm done yelling at you in just a second. I'm doing good. I hadn't taken all that much time, I'm doing good. The disciples say what do you mean? And Jairus gets angry she's dying. Come help her. She's dying, Come help her and I can help you. Jairus sat in a seat of power that could have vaulted Jesus' ministry and his acceptance inside of the Jewish religious system to the next level, to a dimension that he had never received before a dimension of acceptance inside of the pharisaical order that he had not yet received.
Speaker 2:Up to this point, jairus held the key to Jesus being able to transform the pharisaical order that he had not yet received. Up to this point, jairus held the key to Jesus being able to transform the pharisaical order from the inside out. All he's got to do is go help the man who can help him, and this is what we have started.
Speaker 1:This is what we have become in the church we look for those that can help us and we want to help them. But Jesus always stopped for those that were inconvenient and brought scandal. Why did Jesus stop? He knew she was healed. You ever think about that? He knew she was healed. He felt power that always surged around him, pass through him for someone to be healed. So he stopped and said who touched me? He knew she was healed. Why did he have to stop? Wasn't that the point of it all?
Speaker 2:Wasn't the point of it all to get the bleeding to stop that had stopped your good.
Speaker 1:Go help the man who can help you, Jesus.
Speaker 1:Be a smart businessman and go help the man who can help you Go, get in the seats of power and start to transform this thing from the inside out Rather than going the way of the kingdom and taking the path less traveled and going the narrow way and saying I'm going to stop when it's inconvenient and I'm going to make sure that the one who touched me doesn't just get healed, but I'm going to let all the scandal that surrounds her come on me and I'm going to make sure she knows that it wasn't God that gave her that disease.
Speaker 2:On the cross.
Speaker 1:The Father was in Christ reconciling all of the cosmos to Jesus. That's true, but Jesus' life was a life of reconciliation. The cross was the finishing touch of the reconciliation of the ministry of Jesus. What does that mean? That means his whole goal was to get the children of Israel to stop thinking wrongly about the father and realize he's not giving you these things. He doesn't have any darkness to give you and we want to explain away the darkness.
Speaker 2:We want to find a doctrinal reason for the darkness. We want to explain away the darkness. We want to find a doctrinal reason for the darkness. We want to find a theological reason to consent to the darkness remaining.
Speaker 1:Some people just have a thorn in their flesh, like the Apostle Paul and Jesus came and stopped for a woman that all she could do was hurt him. Couldn't help him in any way, couldn't help the story of him.
Speaker 2:Even healing her would help him, would hurt him. This wasn't something that the religious order of the day would be like my God, he's so powerful. Yes, let's go. He's not going to build a platform of healing this woman. They're going to reject him further for touching this woman and he says I don't care what you can do for me. I're going to reject him further for touching this woman and he says I don't care what you can do for me.
Speaker 2:I'm going to stop and I'm going to make sure the rejected and the low are met in the lowest darkness than we are allowing jesus to invade it.
Speaker 1:I don't want to explain it and I don't want an answer for it, even in the middle of the. What do we do with this disease sticking around longer and this health crisis sticking around longer than we're believing for?
Speaker 1:I don't have a good answer for you. The answer I have for you is if it's dark, it's not from him. If it's dark, it's not from him. If it's dark, it's not from him. If it's dark, it's not from him. If it's dark, it's not from him. He doesn't have darkness to give to you, doesn't have depression to give you.
Speaker 1:Doesn't have PTSD to give to you, doesn't have sickness to give to you, doesn't curse you with sickness, doesn't curse you with depression, doesn't curse you with anxiety, doesn't curse you with sickness, doesn't curse you with depression, doesn't curse you with anxiety, doesn't curse you with these things. He doesn't have it to give. So how could it be from him? Cj, I want you to come. Come on While CJ is coming. Thanks, baby, y'all come on, move this stuff. Thanks, boys, while CJ is coming. I've begun to read a book called Beginning to Pray. I'm beginning to read the book called Beginning. I'm one chapter in and there's a thought inside of the first chapter that I haven't been able to get over, so I haven't read more. Anthony Bloom, who is an Orthodox minister, or was an Orthodoxodox minister.
Speaker 1:He may still be alive. I think he was Russian orthodox, wrote a book on prayer and in the first chapter of his book on prayer. He deals with God's silence. And why God is silent in prayer, and Hebrews teaches us a really interesting concept. Hebrews says he has come speaking the language of the Son. Literally, what he's saying is he'll only speak to us in sonship. He won't relate to you any other way. He won't relate to you any other way and.
Speaker 1:Anthony Bloom in his book Beginning to Pray brings the revelation to my heart, at the very least. Some of the reasons for the silence of God in prayer is he refuses to deal with the imposter and will only deal with the real you. He won't speak to you when you come to him. Oh, come on, he won't speak to you when you come to him in a way that is fake, or less than authentic he wants you.
Speaker 1:Now, some of you've been dealing with silence from God for some time now. I feel it in them. I feel it in them. I feel it in them. Some of y'all. God's been silent for some time, and for you, the answer is he wants you, not what you think about you, he wants you.
Speaker 2:Say that again.
Speaker 1:He wants you, not what you think about you, he wants you. Say that again he wants you, not what you think about you, he wants you.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry there's someone in here tonight. You've been dealing with darkness in your thought patterns.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think of the best way to say this, but I'll do the very best that I can You've been dealing with darkness in your thought process, darkness in your thought patterns, and you can't seem to get out of dysfunctional cycles in your way of being Self-destruct, dysfunctional behavior, self-destruct. Things are getting far enough out of it and they go right back into it because the darkness in your thought process continues to pull you back in and the kindness of Jesus is here tonight To break that cycle once and for all in you.
Speaker 2:I can hear it's like almost I can hear some thoughts in there, so I'm just going to address it. It's almost like you feel like you've got nothing to offer him.
Speaker 1:I don't have anything to offer Jesus. Why would he want anything to do with me? Carry that gift in. Don't want to be in ministry, good, don't be in ministry. Don't be in ministry. Don't be in ministry. We need fewer ministers and more ministers. Oh, we'll get that later. We'll get that later. We need fewer ministers and more people who carry the light of Jesus. I'm not raising up a culture of ministers. I'm raising up a culture of ministers.
Speaker 1:I'm not raising up a culture of ministry-minded people. I'm raising up a culture of people who, when they hear the whisper, to stop at the trailer park and get out and start praying for people to be healed. They take the step and let the ground be brought up underneath them to meet their feet and they get out and start bringing the light of healing to those in a hopeless situation.
Speaker 1:That's where we're headed. Talk about a transformational culture of people. Where's the resting place headed? Where are we headed? We're headed, we're headed, we're headed. We're headed to the place where we're sensitive enough to hear the Spirit say, stop and get out and speak to that person right there.
Speaker 1:And we stop and get out and speak to that person right there and the ground comes up to meet us under our feet and we see Jesus transform lives in the middle of destructive thought processes, destructive self-inflicting pain patterns. We see Jesus meet people in a real way and transform them completely. I don't have anything to offer him.
Speaker 2:I told him that one time More than one time I told him I don't know why I don't have anything to offer you.
Speaker 1:I don't know what you want from me. Got no money. Got no talent, got no gifting.
Speaker 2:I don't know why you want to bother with me.
Speaker 1:I can't even make right decisions. I don't know why you want to bother with me.
Speaker 2:He said I don't want the things you can bring to me.
Speaker 1:I want you, I don't want the things you can bring to me. I want you and you let me decide what to do with you, and you'll only be safe to make that decision when you encounter him in light. You'll only feel safe to make that decision when you encounter him in life. Jairus can help you. Jesus, that whore can only bring scandal. Leave her be. She's healed already anyway. Why he stop?
Speaker 1:because if he left her just being him her interior world would have remained in such a place of brokenness she would have found herself in a worse situation down the road. He made sure in the Orthodox Church she's revered as Saint Veronica. He made sure that woman who would be venerated as a saint later on got all the healing she needed on her interior world so that she could become the light that you found in him.