1 00:00:01,400 --> 00:00:04,160 The morning church Today's scripture reading comes from 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:11,400 Matthew 8 verses one through 4. If you're using the Bible under 3 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:14,760 the seats, this can be found on page 762. 4 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:21,120 When he came down from the mountain, for this is Jesus 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,480 cleanses A leper, when he came down from the mountain, great 6 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:28,480 crowds followed him. And behold, A leper came to him 7 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,040 and knelt down before him, saying, Lord, if you will, you 8 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:36,080 can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out his hand 9 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,040 and touched him, saying, I will be clean. 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:41,760 And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,040 And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but 12 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:48,960 go show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses 13 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,400 commanded before approved to them. 14 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:56,280 This is God's word. What's going on? 15 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:58,520 Port City family and friends. How are we doing? 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:00,440 Good. Well, my name is Tanner. 17 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,480 I'm the lead pastor here. It is a joy to be with you. 18 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,040 And at Port City. We are a teach a man to fish 19 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,800 kind of church, OK. We, we like to give you fish. 20 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:10,600 We also like to teach you how to fish. 21 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:12,480 OK. And when it comes to Bible 22 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,160 reading, we want to teach you how to fish. 23 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:16,080 We want to teach you how to read the word for yourself. 24 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:21,120 So as we dive into a new series in the book of Matthew, we we 25 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,680 got miracles going on. We got some really awesome 26 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,400 stuff. There's the number one rule of 27 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:27,760 Bible reading that we got to remind ourselves of you ready. 28 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,360 The Bible is not primarily about you. 29 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,320 Big facts. It's just true. 30 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,600 The Bible situates us. It situates us. 31 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,000 Our story matters. Your personality matters, but 32 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,240 it's not primarily about you. It's about King Jesus. 33 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:50,840 It's a window into his world. It is not a mirror for your 34 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:53,480 world first. It's a window into the Kingdom 35 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,240 coming among you, to Messiah among us. 36 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,240 And so as we come to the text, we come to find him. 37 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,080 And here's the great irony. If you want to find you, you got 38 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,320 to find Him first. Many people come to the Bible 39 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,440 thinking and asking good questions about how does this 40 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:10,680 apply to me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. 41 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,040 And the problem with that is you actually won't be transformed 42 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,520 from glory to glory because the transformative agent is God, not 43 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,840 you. So we come to the Scriptures to 44 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,000 find Christ, and then from there we find ourselves in him. 45 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,400 And that's where the change happens. 46 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,400 So what I want to do, because I want to pray just for us, we're 47 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:32,640 going to be in Matthew chapters 8:00 and 9:00 for the coming 48 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:34,720 weeks. And just this, this posture of, 49 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,960 of, of seeing Christ and seeing who he is and who Matthew wanted 50 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,440 us to see Jesus Messiah as. OK, so let me pray and then 51 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:43,800 we'll dive into our text for today. 52 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:46,960 Our Father, we, we love you so much. 53 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,520 God, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of 54 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:50,800 Christ. God, we need your word. 55 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,840 God, we need you to open our eyes to see God. 56 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,800 What we can't see apart from you, God, we can, we can read, 57 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,000 we can string together syllables, we can understand 58 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,640 God, but we need you to illuminate our our mind to 59 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:05,480 understand why you have Matthew, write this book this way. 60 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,480 Show us King Jesus, show us ourselves as we see him, may we 61 00:03:09,480 --> 00:03:13,600 be undone and grab hold of him. So God, do these things for your 62 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:15,920 glory and and bless this time for your glory. 63 00:03:15,920 --> 00:03:19,920 We pray in Christ's name, Amen. Well, y'all, we're about to dive 64 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:23,440 into this first healing here. It's going to be awesome. 65 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:25,360 What we're going to see in the coming weeks, y'all, is this 66 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,040 combination with Jesus that he's full of compassion and 67 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,800 authority. You could say God is willing and 68 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:32,760 able. Isn't it good? 69 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:34,520 We got a God who's willing and able. 70 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:36,360 It's good to have a God who's willing. 71 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:38,800 But if you got a God who's willing but not able, that's no 72 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,400 bueno. If you got who is able but not 73 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:44,280 willing, that's no good either. But in the Scriptures, we see a 74 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,720 king who is willing and able to transform people who come to 75 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:49,360 him. Amen. 76 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:52,920 So that's what we're going to see and my hope for us is that 77 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:57,880 as we see him, we walk out with a more profound awareness of our 78 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:02,400 need for Him and how he can and will meet us in our need. 79 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:04,480 Amen. So our three points we're going 80 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,120 to, we're going to dive into some context. 81 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:07,560 First you got to know the context. 82 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,040 Then we're going to look at the story from the perspective of 83 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,480 the leper, from the perspective of Jesus, and then lastly from 84 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,839 the perspective of the priest. If you are ready, let me hear 85 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,880 you say I'm ready. OK, let's talk context. 86 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:22,480 Yeah, I was thinking about how to explain how context works. 87 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:25,280 Anybody remember Finding Nemo? Anybody. 88 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,200 One of the greats. Do you remember how Dory has 89 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:30,960 short term memory loss? You remember that? 90 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,880 OK, so at the end of the movie, Dory now has been hanging out 91 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,920 with with Marlon the whole movie, P Sherman 42, Wally Way, 92 00:04:38,920 --> 00:04:40,760 Sydney, all that, the whole movie. 93 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:43,800 And they get in a little spat, you know, they fight and they 94 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:45,560 separate and Dory is swimming off. 95 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:47,600 She's like, Oh no, I'm supposed to remember something. 96 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,880 And somebody comes up to her. It starts talking about Nemo. 97 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:55,360 And she goes Nemo. That's a nice name, yo. 98 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,520 That is us with the Bible. Many times the author is 99 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:04,000 screaming. There is so much back story. 100 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,600 And we're like a leper. That's kind of cool. 101 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:09,560 And we're just like, we just don't see it. 102 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,440 Now, you do not have to be a Bible scholar. 103 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,600 Let me give you, let me give you just you don't need to have read 104 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,320 this thing 10,000 times, OK? Part of what you need to hear is 105 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,120 every author is doing what I just described. 106 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,720 And there's so much action-packed into, it's kind of 107 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,320 like when you send an e-mail with like 10 hyperlinks, like, 108 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:29,120 hey, as I said on Friday, link, link. 109 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,040 What I need y'all to do is this link, link and check this out 110 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,920 before you say back to me, respectfully put some respect on 111 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,440 my name, Sign so and so and check this article. 112 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:40,400 That's basically what the biblical authors are trying to 113 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:42,880 do. So when we come to the text, 114 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:44,960 there's a lot going on. We're not just jumping into a 115 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,240 story and asking our questions about how that applies to us 116 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:48,720 right away. Does that make sense? 117 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:50,240 It's not that those questions are bad. 118 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:52,920 We just got to wonder what was Matthew doing? 119 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:55,880 So there's like 100 things Matthew's doing by the time we 120 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:57,520 get to chapter 8. I'm gonna give you just three. 121 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,640 OK, Matthew chapter one, verse one says this. 122 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:05,080 This is the genealogy of the book of Jesus Christ, the son of 123 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,920 David, the son of Abraham. The word genealogy in Greek is 124 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:13,280 the same word that the the Septuagint would use for in the 125 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:16,280 beginning, like in the first 3 words of the Bible, Genesis. 126 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:20,200 So what Matthew's communicating is a new beginning equal to the 127 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:22,640 creation of the world is happening in this Jesus Christ, 128 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:24,560 the son of David, the son of Abraham. 129 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,600 Son of David means king, OK, son of Abraham means the one through 130 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,600 whom all nations will be blessed. 131 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:34,840 So from the opening words he's saying this Jesus has continuity 132 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:37,200 all the way back to chapter 1 verse one of Genesis. 133 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:40,600 In the beginning something new is happening under this king for 134 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,200 all nations. Later in chapter 2 you might 135 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:46,800 know the Christmas story where King Herod tries to kill every 136 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:50,200 baby under the age of 2 to get rid of this king he heard about. 137 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:53,080 Y'all remember that? Does that sound like another 138 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,680 biblical figure who they tried to get out of the picture by 139 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,320 killing all of the babies under the age of two in the nation of 140 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:02,440 Egypt back in the book of Exodus? 141 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:06,400 So something new is happening that led to an exodus when that 142 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:08,600 last baby got saved. This baby is going to make it 143 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:10,960 out and a new exodus is going to happen. 144 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:14,640 Then we get to chapter 4 where Jesus goes into the wilderness, 145 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:18,480 not for 40 years as the people of God once did, but for 40 days 146 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,520 fasting, and he stands up to Satan's temptations and doesn't 147 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,280 test God, but he trusts God. And then in chapter 5, he goes 148 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,560 up on a mountain, which to a Jewish mind, they're thinking 149 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,280 Moses, but he doesn't go up on the mountain to get God's law 150 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:33,600 and bring it back down to the people who can't go up on the 151 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,080 mountain with God. He brings all the people with 152 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,400 them, sits down and doesn't ask God what's the law. 153 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,640 He just starts speaking to him. So there is a new Moses, a new 154 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:43,760 David, a new Abraham in our midst. 155 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,280 And he just gave the dopest sermon of all time for three 156 00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,960 chapters that we preached on for many weeks. 157 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:50,320 So you could go back and listen to it. 158 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:53,880 And then we come to today's story. 159 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:56,920 Are you all track with me? So that would be like if we just 160 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:01,000 take all that like Nemo, That's a nice name, y'all. 161 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,600 The the leper. Everything about the way this is 162 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:06,120 constructed matters. You want to know how many 163 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:07,760 miracles there are in chapters 8 and 9? 164 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:13,880 Y'all, There's 10 miracles. OK, to the Jewish mind, 10 is a 165 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:16,680 big deal. 10 commandments, 10 plagues, right? 166 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,200 The 10 plagues were D creation. Creation was unraveling. 167 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:22,920 Now we're going to have ten miracles where Jesus restores 168 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:24,840 things as they were designed to be. 169 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:28,560 And the book of Numbers tells us in chapter 14 that the people of 170 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,600 God tested God, tested Yahweh these 10 times. 171 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,120 They did not trust him. So now we have this Jesus who's 172 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,799 going to do 10 miracles. This is very intentional what 173 00:08:39,799 --> 00:08:42,480 Matthew is doing. So can you see why immediately 174 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,000 asking the question, can this still happen today is a good 175 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:48,480 question, but maybe not all of Matthew's intention. 176 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,520 Are y'all with me? OK, so let's look at this from 177 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,200 the perspective of the leper, OK? 178 00:08:55,240 --> 00:09:00,080 The leper starting in Chapter 7, verse 28, the couple verses 179 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,440 right before our Texas said this. 180 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,800 And when Jesus finished saying these things or these sayings, 181 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:08,160 the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was 182 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,640 teaching them as one who had authority and not as their 183 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,320 scribes. When he came down from the 184 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,480 mountain, great crowds followed him. 185 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:21,800 And behold, A leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, 186 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:26,520 Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. 187 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,120 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will 188 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:34,360 be clean. And immediately his leprosy was 189 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:36,800 cleansed. And Jesus said to him, See that 190 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:39,560 you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest 191 00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:42,640 and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them. 192 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:45,960 OK, three notes about the leper to make. 193 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:47,680 OK, number one is the leper's condition. 194 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:50,920 Number 2 is the leper's posture #3 the leper's plea. 195 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,120 First, the leper's condition. Somebody say leprosy. 196 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,120 If you're looking at your Bible, probably right above the word 197 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,960 leper, it has a little note, maybe a little number one or two 198 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:05,200 or three, and then down low. It's going to tell you that this 199 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,480 word covers a range of skin conditions. 200 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:10,880 Let me tell you why it's trying to tell you that, because where 201 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:14,920 my mind immediately goes is that this is a medicinal medical 202 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:18,440 issue needing healing. I think rotting clothes. 203 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,040 I think a horrible situation. And it's not that that isn't 204 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:25,920 possibly the case, but the biblical understanding of 205 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:28,240 leprosy, that's what you got to get in your mind, was not 206 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,440 primarily that this man needed a doctor. 207 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:35,080 He needed a priest to pronounce him clean, OK. 208 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:39,080 He does not just have a medical issue that needs healing. 209 00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:42,840 Notice he did not say, if you are willing, you can heal me. 210 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:47,960 He said you can make me clean, OK. 211 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,080 In the Bible's understanding of this, the Bible's imagination of 212 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,400 what comes with leprosy goes all the way back to Leviticus 13 and 213 00:10:54,400 --> 00:10:57,080 14. And it was not just early. 214 00:10:57,680 --> 00:11:00,800 God was not just ahead of the curve with medical things of how 215 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,400 to keep his, his camp clean of contaminants. 216 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:06,160 That's not all that was going on. 217 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:11,360 The primary issue was about who's able to be in God's 218 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:14,440 presence. That's the issue with being 219 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,680 unclean. If you are labeled unclean and 220 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:20,440 the priest goes through all the process and you are declared 221 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,920 perpetually unclean, it is a statement that you will never be 222 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,720 in God's presence. It is a label. 223 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:33,800 It is a a presence issue more than it's a contagion issue. 224 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:36,960 Now that doesn't mean where our mind goes couldn't have been the 225 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:39,680 case. It just means what the primary 226 00:11:39,680 --> 00:11:43,760 issue is that he needed a priest and he is unclean. 227 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:45,520 Does that make sense? Y'all with me? 228 00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:49,840 So what comes with being labeled unclean is a layer upon layer 229 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:52,400 upon layer of shame at the temple. 230 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,040 You ain't there. You're not allowed to be in 231 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:57,240 God's holy of holy in His presence. 232 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:00,760 The people of Israel were to be a Kingdom of priests. 233 00:12:00,760 --> 00:12:02,440 That's what the book of Exodus says. 234 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:05,080 The whole point of him bringing them out of Egypt was so they 235 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:07,560 could represent Yahweh's goodness to the rest of the 236 00:12:07,560 --> 00:12:10,600 world. So if you're saying this man 237 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,000 can't be in God's presence, what does that mean about my 238 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,920 identity? If you're in Israel and can't go 239 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,000 in the temple, it's almost like you're not really Israel. 240 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,880 Are you with me? You're not really one of us. 241 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:28,200 This, this man's phone had not rang for a while, no texts, was 242 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,800 not picked on the kickball team for so long that eventually you 243 00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:35,120 stop showing up. Yo, there's a suffering that's 244 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:39,080 deeper than the physical. There's a suffering with the the 245 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:42,240 the pronouncement of unclean that carries with it levels of 246 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:45,240 shame that are hard to put into words. 247 00:12:46,560 --> 00:12:50,000 It's a very exilic lifestyle and it's one of just utter 248 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:55,640 destitution and desperation for this man, which leads us to the 249 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,880 lepers posture. So there's this moment, y'all. 250 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:02,040 One of the things that Leviticus 13 or 14 is very clear about is 251 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:05,440 once you're pronounced unclean, you had to walk around saying 252 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:09,520 unclean, unclean. You had to make others aware of 253 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:12,000 it. So before you saw him, you heard 254 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,920 him. So he came shouting unclean. 255 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,040 Unclean at some level was probably an earshot of the 256 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:20,280 sermon. And he'd heard enough, seen 257 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,280 enough in Messiah to throw himself upon the ground, knelt 258 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,640 down. I bet the whole place just went 259 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:30,200 silent. Hear this man shouting unclean 260 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:34,560 and then he throws himself down and they're all like, what's 261 00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:37,120 Jesus going to do? So remember in the the Old 262 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,720 Testament imagination, if you touch something unclean, you 263 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,240 become unclean again. That doesn't mean you catch a 264 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,160 disease. It just means like if you touch 265 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:47,320 a, a carcass, a dead body, the idea is you're now you're 266 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:49,560 unclean for seven days. You got to remove yourself. 267 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:52,560 It was all to point out the holiness of God and how you 268 00:13:52,560 --> 00:13:54,880 can't just come to him in any kind of presence. 269 00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:58,400 That's how holy God is. And leprosy represented a range 270 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:02,800 of skin conditions where once pronounced unclean, you unclean. 271 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,000 And this man throws himself down. 272 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,720 I mean, just totally kneels down on the ground in front of the 273 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:13,560 crowd, gets in front of Jesus and throws himself on the 274 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:17,240 ground. He throws himself down before he 275 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:19,200 says the word. Isn't it so often the case that 276 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,440 your posture precedes your your words? 277 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:24,480 You know, if you walk up to the Chick-fil-A counter, you're not 278 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:26,720 on the ground, You're not back to him. 279 00:14:26,720 --> 00:14:28,840 You look him right in the face and say, I'll have a number one, 280 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:32,080 please. Number one with Chick-fil-A 281 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:34,320 sauce. You are you are you are 282 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:36,440 presenting yourself, posturing yourself. 283 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,760 Your posture always proceeds your plea and what we see in his 284 00:14:40,760 --> 00:14:44,360 posture has so much to do with the life of faith. 285 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:47,360 And y'all want to say this as we throughout this series, what 286 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,120 we're going to try to do there's things from the individuals 287 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:54,040 throwing themselves at Jesus feet to learn for sure, but 288 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:57,240 y'all, the main thing we learned from them is that faith is not 289 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,400 primarily about you. Y'all check this? 290 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:04,800 We don't. When the leper throws himself 291 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,400 down, we don't applaud the leper. 292 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,720 We wonder what he saw in Jesus to get him to do it. 293 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:15,040 He saw something in the Messiah and he threw himself on the 294 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:16,240 ground. Are you tracking with me? 295 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:18,520 He'd heard enough. He'd seen enough. 296 00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,560 He threw himself down. It's not a a good move that 297 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,560 Jesus like. Oh, gotta gotta it's it's not 298 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:28,600 something he is to be praised for in the sense that he has 299 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:31,160 like a faith gene. You know, God is not a genie. 300 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:33,000 We're like, he did something so outrageous. 301 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:37,560 I have to pay attention. Faith is responding to what you 302 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:41,040 see in the other. Faith is a response to what we 303 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:43,360 see in him. It's about the object of the 304 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:45,440 faith, not the one who possesses the faith. 305 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:49,640 Y'all the the Christian faith is like a bunch of people falling 306 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:54,400 off a Cliff. You falling, you dying, you 307 00:15:54,400 --> 00:15:58,360 going to die. And you hear there's a branch. 308 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:04,640 You grab the branch. Do we praise the grab or do we 309 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:09,520 need to focus on the branch? The branch is worthy to hold 310 00:16:09,520 --> 00:16:12,320 you. The branch is what saves you. 311 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:14,240 We don't go. How did he do it? 312 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:18,600 How did he grab on? It's like, hello, he heard there 313 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:20,480 was a branch. Does that make sense? 314 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:25,120 And So what we, what we emulate is what he saw. 315 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:30,040 We don't look at the leper. And if we do look at him and we 316 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:31,800 get next to him, guess what he's going to do? 317 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,720 He's going to say look at Jesus. We look with the leper many 318 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:37,120 times. And I'm just going to be honest, 319 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:41,160 what I hear in the bloodstream of of American Christian faith 320 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:46,160 experience is that sometimes we put our faith in faith, y'all. 321 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:53,200 We put our faith in Christ, not in our faith, not in our ability 322 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,360 to kneel. Something about the Christ 323 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:58,520 pulled the kneel out of him. Does that make sense? 324 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:02,480 We kneel because we see we are not to be praised for our kneel. 325 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,119 He's to be praised that he's worthy to kneel at. 326 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:08,839 He pulls something out of you. That's the life of faith. 327 00:17:08,839 --> 00:17:12,480 If you want your faith to grow, don't focus on you, focus on the 328 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,520 Christ. If your understanding of the 329 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:19,240 object of your faith grows, your faith will grow as a byproduct 330 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:21,359 of your understanding that it can hold you. 331 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:24,240 Does that make sense? We are a people of the branch. 332 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:27,000 Does that make sense? We are a branch people. 333 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:31,680 The leper was a branch person. He saw something. 334 00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:36,400 We kneel because we see the lesson of the leper is Jesus. 335 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:40,320 You know, like so the the posture is a good picture for 336 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:41,880 us. A man kneeling, humility. 337 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:44,480 I could give you 3 points on humility right now, but y'all, 338 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:49,560 the point is that Jesus is worthy to kneel at that. 339 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:51,840 He saw this man. Does that make sense? 340 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,120 So his posture is throwing himself down. 341 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:04,200 And then comes the plea. The plea, it's probably silent. 342 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:10,360 Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. 343 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:14,880 It's a public declaration of trust. 344 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,720 You know, if at some point there's no plea, there's no 345 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,640 trust. There is a moment where faith 346 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:28,480 looks like do it like asking the branch, like it's not knowing 347 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:30,680 the branch can hold you doesn't get you held. 348 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,000 You know, like there comes a moment where you grab the branch 349 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:37,920 and the kneeling, the pleaing is saying grabbing, right? 350 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:41,440 That this is the life of faith. It's not to be praised for 351 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:43,800 having it. It's praiseworthy that you can 352 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,800 be held, but you got to grab. You got to grab and he throws 353 00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:49,280 himself. There comes a moment when our 354 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:53,160 trust is shown or it's not real. That doesn't mean his words are 355 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,080 magic, right? It just means that he, he has 356 00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,120 seen something in God and he grabs him. 357 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,880 Let's look at this story from the perspective of Jesus. 358 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,480 We're going to look at Jesus's stretch and then Jesus's words. 359 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:15,160 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will 360 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:18,160 be clean. And immediately his leprosy was 361 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:19,760 cleansed. And Jesus said to him, see that 362 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,280 you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest 363 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,200 and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them. 364 00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:29,640 Y'all in Jesus stretch again, just put yourself there. 365 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:33,480 This is a man you won't talk to if you're in that community. 366 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,200 There are people in our city that you see and probably recoil 367 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,080 from a little bit, right? We don't like to admit that 368 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,120 stuff, but there's a sense of discomfort with certain groups 369 00:19:44,120 --> 00:19:45,720 of people, and you got to work through that. 370 00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:47,120 I got to work through that. You feel it. 371 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:48,880 You know it when you feel it, OK? 372 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:53,240 Everyone in that community had that towards this man, and he 373 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,120 just threw himself down before Messiah. 374 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:58,280 I bet some of the mindset is, how dare you? 375 00:20:00,120 --> 00:20:02,360 How dare you taint his reputation? 376 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:04,920 You're putting him at jeopardy. You know, it would have been 377 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,160 like not in our town, you know, like not don't, don't do that. 378 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,960 The Messiah here and I bet they're just like, what's he 379 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:14,240 going to do? He about to make him unclean and 380 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:17,000 just this pause this this panic inwardly. 381 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:22,560 Did he really just do that? And then Jesus stretches out his 382 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,240 hand. Y'all in the stretch again, in 383 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,200 the the Jewish mind, only one person stretches. 384 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:33,840 OK this is a a a phrase that picks up on what Moses and Aaron 385 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:35,760 did 8 times in the book of Exodus. 386 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:38,920 But then it said about Yahweh himself through their 387 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:40,320 stretching. He was stretching. 388 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:45,320 His deliverance of of the Israelites from Egypt was 389 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:48,280 described in Exodus 15. When they get delivered, they 390 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,840 sing the first worship song of the Bibles in Exodus 15, and 391 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,040 they say you have delivered us by stretching out your hand. 392 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,520 The idea is that only one stretches out their hand. 393 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,600 Matthew wrote those words with that imagery in mind. 394 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:07,040 A new exodus is happening right before our eyes, and the path to 395 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:12,400 it is through Jesus directly stretching out his hand and then 396 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,080 touching the man. He touched him. 397 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:17,880 That's so fitting. He could have said be clean. 398 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,200 We see in the rest of Jesus's miracles, his healings, all that 399 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,120 he could do. He could have said clean and 400 00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:25,000 they would have been like whoa, that would have been cool. 401 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:28,440 You've got to understand that everything he does is on 402 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,880 purpose. It says it's he stretched out 403 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:34,680 his hand and touched him saying I will be clean. 404 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,640 The touch and the declaration were synonymous. 405 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:40,720 So he is touching him to cleanse him. 406 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:44,840 Y'all, this is such a good picture of the gospel that 407 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,680 through the touch of Christ we are cleansed. 408 00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:52,120 Y'all, through the touch of the one who is clean, the unclean is 409 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:55,120 made clean, and the clean somehow didn't get uncleansed. 410 00:21:55,520 --> 00:22:00,720 It's this idea that in the Messiah there's a substitution 411 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,240 that occurs. The unclean becomes clean. 412 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:07,160 Y'all, this is the gospel. This is what all of the 413 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:09,640 Scriptures point to. And notice what Jesus doesn't 414 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,640 do. Hey man, I know you're unclean. 415 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,160 You're not. You're not as bad as you think 416 00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:15,320 you are. I love you. 417 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,480 He did not tell him his situation is not as bad as he 418 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,000 thinks it is. Are you with me, yo? 419 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:25,360 The leper's assessment of his situation was very accurate. 420 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,840 He was very aware of how destitute he was. 421 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:33,200 That apart from a miraculous cleansing, I am unclean, yo. 422 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,240 The leper knew where he was at before the Lord. 423 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:38,960 The question is, do you? The leper was aware that apart 424 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:44,760 from intervention, I'm unclean. You apart from God's 425 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,240 intervention, our situation is hopeless. 426 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,720 More hopeless than a leper. Skin condition is hopeless. 427 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,760 Our situation is hopeless. That's what the Bible teaches. 428 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:58,320 We don't just need a little bit of help. 429 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:03,000 This man had tried everything they used to say It's like a 430 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,440 garment of stains, so deeply stained you just can't get it 431 00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:07,720 out. I've even got shirts. 432 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,720 Even in 2025, I know you got a shirt you can't clean. 433 00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:12,920 You got at least one that you hope people don't point out. 434 00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:15,680 I know which shirt I'm thinking of it right now. 435 00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:18,440 I'm thinking I've used the bleach, I've used the stuff, 436 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:19,960 we've used the marker. We've done it. 437 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,240 And this is just grease from eating chicken, which was dumb. 438 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:28,600 I should have changed the shirt. But yo, there is a a filth in 439 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,560 the imagery of the leper that is a parable of our condition. 440 00:23:33,280 --> 00:23:37,800 We can't be made clean apart from Messiah touching us. 441 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:43,480 Y'all, the gospel is the good news that Christ Jesus died in 442 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,880 the place of sinners, was resurrected so that when he 443 00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:53,080 touches us with the healing touch in the gospel, he absorbs 444 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:56,760 our uncleanness. He absorbs that which shames us, 445 00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,400 He absorbs that which keeps his eggs out, He absorbs everything 446 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,600 that puts us on the outs with God. 447 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,040 Y'all, our sin puts us on the outs with God, and it's deeper 448 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,240 than guilt. Yes, Christ died to purchase a 449 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,160 new record for you, but it's deeper than that. 450 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,800 Your exclusion from God is deeper than just the wrongs 451 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:16,840 you've done. You are unclean. 452 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,200 Christ cleanses us. He allows us to come back before 453 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,080 the Father. This is the great exchanges. 454 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:29,520 We go out once in Christ as if we are Him and no longer as the 455 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:31,680 leper. That's the great exchange of the 456 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:36,480 Gospel and in Jesus's words, this declaration he makes over 457 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,240 him, right? He stretches, cleanses. 458 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,840 I will be clean and we'll talk a little bit in a minute about the 459 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,800 priest and that dynamic. But he says go show yourself to 460 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,160 the priest, say nothing to anyone, offer the gift that 461 00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:48,640 Moses commanded for a proof to them. 462 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:50,760 I just imagine that walk to the priest. 463 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,000 I just imagine the leper walking and just what's going through 464 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,280 his mind and we'll talk here in a minute. 465 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,280 He's not going to the priest because he needs it. 466 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,360 The priest needs the leper. The leper don't need the priest 467 00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:02,720 no more. But what's so amazing about that 468 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,480 is the leper on the way there? Y'all, his whole world just 469 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,200 changed. He didn't just get some status 470 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,320 that don't impact his life. Everything changed. 471 00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,440 A whole new world was built through Jesus's word. 472 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:14,200 That's what words do. They build worlds. 473 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,200 And when Jesus cleanses you, it changes your world. 474 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:21,040 It changes his social dynamic. It changes his religious 475 00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:23,400 dynamic. He doesn't need to beg for 476 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,560 anything at the temple no more. He doesn't need to feel 477 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:27,160 excluded. He doesn't even need to go to 478 00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:28,720 the temple. The good news of the gospel is 479 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:30,760 in Christ now. You are the temple, my guy. 480 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,600 We going to find out in a second. 481 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,560 The priest is out of a job. That's what he about to find 482 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,360 out. So the idea is by declaring this 483 00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:42,360 over him, he's on that walk. He's just thinking, wow, my 484 00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:46,400 whole life just changed. The Son of God Messiah just 485 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,920 looked at me and said you're in, you've been out your whole life, 486 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,480 you are in and no one could kick you out. 487 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,360 Nobody. You don't have to say anything 488 00:25:56,360 --> 00:25:58,120 to anybody. A lot of people focus on don't 489 00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:00,640 say anything to anybody in the messianic secret, which I think 490 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,520 is at play a little bit. But I also think part of what 491 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:08,480 he's doing is he's just saying you got nothing to prove you in. 492 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,640 I heard a song this week and it hit me. 493 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:16,000 The door you're knocking on is open and you have been welcomed 494 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,440 in the gate. The way is standing wide, never 495 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,040 to be closed again. There's a place here at the 496 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:23,680 table. Nobody's going to take your 497 00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:26,720 seat, so you can come and go as much as you need. 498 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:30,120 Be yourself and be at peace, y'all. 499 00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:33,920 There's a peace Messiah can give you that nobody else can. 500 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:36,800 When you're kicked out of all other tables, that's the one 501 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:40,080 you've always got to see. That and you can come in freely 502 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:42,840 to the Father, the one who made you in his image. 503 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:45,960 His whole world changed with that word. 504 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,240 Let's talk about the priest. Let's talk about the priest. 505 00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,680 Why did he send him to the priest, y'all? 506 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:59,000 He sent him to the priest for a very simple reason. 507 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:04,800 Because who declares that lepers are clean priests? 508 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,440 A leper has just been cleansed. So go show yourself to the 509 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,600 priest as a proof to them. OK, here's the idea. 510 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:15,480 They're going to hear you or Clint. 511 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,120 Like they've seen this guy. Somebody declared him unclean. 512 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,440 He's been cleansed without them. What he's communicating is your 513 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,440 whole system is now obsolete. Somebody came in that fulfilled 514 00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,520 all of the pictures that everything you've ever done 515 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,800 pointed to the temple, the priesthood, all of it was good. 516 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,400 It was a gift of God. And somebody would step into 517 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,480 those and feel that in such a way that we're in a whole new 518 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:39,960 era. And that's what's happening 519 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:45,000 right now. And what's so cool about that is 520 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,080 that would be a bit of a that would be a bit of a shocker to 521 00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:50,720 the priest if he's really paying attention. 522 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,920 Basically it means Messiah's here, you can go home. 523 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,040 You don't have a job no more you out of a job. 524 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:59,120 And now if he's in love with the system and the job and all that 525 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:01,560 stuff, he's going to be infuriated by Jesus arrival, 526 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,280 which many were, because when you want status quo, Jesus is 527 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:05,840 always going to be an offense to you. 528 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,960 But if you want a whole new world with Christ at the center 529 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,640 revolved around him in the system to, to, to be done 530 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,880 because the Christ has come, he's going to be happy. 531 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:21,040 Here's the idea. He sent the the leper to the 532 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:22,320 priest. Like just imagine it. 533 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,000 Jesus tells the leper to go to the priest. 534 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,040 I think Jesus, after that priest, he's trying to help him. 535 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,720 See, my friend, before I came, you thought you were the priest 536 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,560 and he needed you. Now what I need you to 537 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,280 understand is you need him. OK? 538 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:39,000 The point is he sends the leper to the priest so that the priest 539 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:41,000 can understand. You are now the leper, My 540 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:42,720 friend. You need cleansing. 541 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,120 Who's your priest? Does that make sense? 542 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:49,040 Like the idea is that in Christ the tables have turned. 543 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,760 Y'all. In Christ we don't go to a 544 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:53,240 priest. He is our priest. 545 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:55,960 And in Christ we all are. Like the leper. 546 00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:00,280 We all need cleansing. The leper is your lesson to that 547 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:02,960 priest. He went to work to be a cleanser 548 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,000 and he leaves work thinking I need to be cleansed. 549 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,480 The Messiah's here. Isn't it so fitting in the book 550 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:09,840 of Matthew? Because the first miracles 551 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:11,600 happen in chapter 4 but they're not named. 552 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:13,680 It just says Jesus was healing the crowds, right? 553 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:15,800 This is the first one with the face. 554 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,800 Isn't it so fitting? The first miracle is about 555 00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,080 access to God. Y'all listen to me. 556 00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,200 We got to be real for a second y'all. 557 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,000 Every miracle points to who the Christ is. 558 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,720 They're a sign and they point to something that is coming in its 559 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,080 fullness, but something King Jesus the Messiah brought. 560 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:38,800 There were many in the crowd that day. 561 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:42,200 Maybe the priest himself that went home and missed it. 562 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,920 If you think maybe I'll hit the Lotto and be the one who gets 563 00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:48,400 the healing from Jesus tomorrow, you're missing the point. 564 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:50,520 There were many. Jesus did not heal. 565 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,640 There were towns he would not go into. 566 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,960 There was many layers to the ministry of Jesus. 567 00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:00,600 OK, and the point was not that it's all changing right here now 568 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:03,360 it's just a taste. Every miracle, it's just a taste 569 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,040 of what is to come. Y'all, There is a world coming 570 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,920 where leprosy's gone. There's a world coming where the 571 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,720 whole system, though obsolete now, doesn't even exist no more. 572 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:17,640 And the idea is we don't go home thinking, oh cool, I saw Leopard 573 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,600 get healed today. Nemo, that's a nice name. 574 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,200 The point is, where is the story going? 575 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,440 Who is this Messiah and how much do I need him and how will he 576 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,400 meet me? So I just don't want you to miss 577 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:33,040 that. I don't want you to miss it 578 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,320 thinking he only loved the leper. 579 00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,200 He loved everybody by healing the leper. 580 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:42,080 It was a picture of what they all needed and what He wants to 581 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:46,920 be for them all. All signs point to the need we 582 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,320 have in Christ and His desire to meet it. 583 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:51,640 And there is a day coming y'all where no more miracles are 584 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,920 needed. One of my favorite artists. 585 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:56,640 He says I believe that we gonna win. 586 00:30:57,080 --> 00:30:58,800 What He don't heal now, He gone then. 587 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,600 OK, that's kind of the idea. There is a day coming where all 588 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,280 of this conversation is obsolete in the slice, the peace, the 589 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,800 taste that Christ has given and that still happens in many parts 590 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,960 of our world and many times y'all, the goal is never the end 591 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:15,440 breaking of the Kingdom that happens in that slice. 592 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,960 But to point, if you can get the miracle and miss the Christ, you 593 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,360 missed it. You didn't get a miracle you you 594 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:23,720 got duped. Does that make sense? 595 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:26,880 I don't want you to get duped. You need Christ, that's who you 596 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:32,720 need. So I don't know what you who you 597 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,240 think you are in the story today. 598 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:37,440 You are the leper, that's who you are. 599 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:39,400 That's who I am. That's our need level. 600 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,880 Y'all, there's a story, some of y'all know this in Luke 17 where 601 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,640 Jesus heals 10 lepers. He says y'all start walking 602 00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,960 towards the priest. They all do 10 of them Luke 17 603 00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:53,960 and only one returns to Jesus. 9 kept going. 604 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:55,680 They got what they wanted and kept moving. 605 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,720 Y'all the point of Jesus He he turns to the one which of course 606 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:01,960 is a non Jew right? He says where are the 9? 607 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:07,200 The idea of Jesus touch is to keep bringing you to him. 608 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,800 Does that make sense? The point of salvation is 609 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:15,120 ongoing dependence. He's not saving you so you don't 610 00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,480 need him. He's saving you so you will need 611 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:19,400 Him. He's cleansing you so you'll 612 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,640 keep coming to Him, so your confidence before the Father is 613 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:24,840 full so that you can come to him. 614 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,880 Full of the blood of the Lamb with the Spirit sealing you so 615 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,000 you could come all the way to the throne of grace to find the 616 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:32,880 mercy and help you need in time of need. 617 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,360 That's the point of the gospel. It's not so you could say your 618 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,080 team Jesus or I got this cool thing happened to me one time 619 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,760 with Jesus. The point is so you can walk 620 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,480 with him in dependence, like a branch upon a vine. 621 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,280 The point is to walk with Him all day, every day. 622 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:52,720 He saved you so He could keep filling you, so you could bear 623 00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:59,080 fruit and walk with Him. So what you don't need today, my 624 00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,000 friend, what you don't need is a few hacks. 625 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,280 What you don't need is just a little bit of help. 626 00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:06,920 What you don't need is to be told you're not as bad as you 627 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:09,240 think you are. What you need is a reality 628 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,320 check. That's what we all need, and 629 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,560 that's what Christ gives us. That's what He wants to keep 630 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,240 giving us, and He wants to keep meeting our need. 631 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,280 For some of you, I think today is the day of salvation. 632 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,360 You need to agree with God that you are not well. 633 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:28,040 He wants to set you free, but it always starts with truth and the 634 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:30,600 truth is apart from Him, you are not well. 635 00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,040 You need cleansing, you need healing, you need to be brought 636 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:36,320 in. It takes Messiah's blood for you 637 00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,880 to be well. And for some of you, I just pray 638 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,440 that you would trust Christ that you will put your trust in what 639 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,440 he's done and not and what you do. 640 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:49,280 And then for the what's so cool about this is for those of us 641 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,880 who are in Christ is from the second you are a healed cleansed 642 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:54,920 leper. Guess what you never forget. 643 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,520 I used to be a leper right, like I I was there. 644 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,440 That was me. You just become a healed leper 645 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:06,760 in a community of cleansed lepers who are then showcasing 646 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,199 the Messiah's goodness to the to the priest in our life. 647 00:34:09,199 --> 00:34:12,560 Are you with me like it gives us our identity, our belonging and 648 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,800 our purpose back that we lost sin took it. 649 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,560 We get it back. This is who I am in Christ can't 650 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:19,440 be taken. This is who I belong to and this 651 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:23,800 is the mission I'm on and it's easy to talk about what God has 652 00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:25,800 done when he's really cleansed you. 653 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,639 If you've always had a hard time sharing about Christ, I resonate 654 00:34:29,639 --> 00:34:31,560 with that. There's something in your life 655 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:32,600 ain't hard for you to talk about. 656 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:36,120 I promise. There's something that just just 657 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:41,199 effortless y'all? B&J juice bar smoothies Princess 658 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:44,520 Anne AB over by Norfolk State easy for me to talk about. 659 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:51,360 So easy BAJ juice bar now I would rebrand it with a little 660 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:52,600 more clarity. That's a hard name. 661 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:54,040 I was like what do I type of my thing? 662 00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:57,080 But it's incredible. It is not hard for me to talk 663 00:34:57,080 --> 00:35:00,960 about B&J juice bar and I bless you in Jesus name and you could 664 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,520 go there and here's the idea. Why is it easier for us to do 665 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:06,760 that than to talk about what Christ has done. 666 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,160 If you were that on the outs and you bring that far, brought in 667 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,320 through his blood and given a family to belong to in a mission 668 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,160 to be a part of. You don't have to be an expert 669 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:18,600 to make a big impact for Jesus. That's the good news. 670 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,320 You just got to have a story, but a story that won't help 671 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,680 nobody is when you started going to church, a story that won't 672 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,120 help nobody is you like that guy, he's a good preacher. 673 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,200 Listen to the sermon, tell them what Christ did. 674 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:33,440 Tell them who he is. He is the leopard cleansing 675 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:36,520 Messiah. He is the one who saved me, who 676 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,400 told me who I really AM and brought me out of it and chose 677 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,120 me for who I am. And now he keeps watching me and 678 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,360 I get to walk with him. That's all we got to do. 679 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:49,040 Many y'all know the song? Jesus paid it off. 680 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,600 This is one of my favorite lines in any song ever. 681 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,600 I'm going to read this. We're going to be done Lord. 682 00:35:54,600 --> 00:36:01,560 Now indeed I find thy power, and thine alone can't change the 683 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:08,560 leper spots and melt this heart of stone, because Jesus paid it 684 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:14,240 all to him I owe sin had left a Crimson stain. 685 00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:17,840 He washed it white as snow. Let's pray. 686 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:23,760 Our Father, we love you. God, we're just reminded today 687 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:26,400 of who we once were. Reminded that God, we thought we 688 00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,360 were so cool. We thought we were on top of the 689 00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:29,640 world. We thought we were kings and 690 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,360 Queens and running the show. And then there comes a moment 691 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:34,800 where by your grace, you remind us we're not. 692 00:36:35,040 --> 00:36:37,840 You show us we're not. God, we see our sin for what it 693 00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:39,000 is. We start to hate it. 694 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:42,920 God, I pray even for some of my friends under the sound of my 695 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,360 voice. You would just lovingly show 696 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:49,280 them reality apart from you, God. 697 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,000 But the good news is so much greater than the bad news, which 698 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,320 is that you see us at our worst when we're most unclean. 699 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,400 When others distance themselves from us, You move towards us, 700 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,640 Father, You are the God who does not run away from us. 701 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:03,200 Because somebody needs to hear that today. 702 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:06,640 Somebody has been run away from their entire life and they're a 703 00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,200 mess. God, would you help them to 704 00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:11,600 agree with your assessment about their need for you and your 705 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,120 willingness to meet them in it? God, you are willing. 706 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,680 You are able to save. You are able to cleanse, you are 707 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:19,640 able to change generations of sin and brokenness. 708 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:21,280 God, you're able to restore families. 709 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:24,320 You're able to do things nobody else can do. 710 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,640 And it's by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power of the 711 00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:29,160 cross and the resurrection of God. 712 00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:30,960 We just pray that power over our church. 713 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,800 We pray God that you would God you would set people free from 714 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,720 bondage God and you would show them that you love them and 715 00:37:37,720 --> 00:37:40,400 thank God for your church. God just make it as easy as 716 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,800 talking about NFL or whatever it is the good weather outside. 717 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:47,280 God just make it so easy for us to tell people our story that 718 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:51,680 you, God saved us, that you God reached down when no one else 719 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:54,960 would, That you saw us when we felt unseeable, that you father 720 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:56,760 died. You sent your son to die in our 721 00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,320 place. We love you, we praise you. 722 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:00,880 Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.