Celeste Contreras: Welcome to the Sandals Church podcast. My name is Celeste, and I am part of the team here at Sandals Church. We are so happy to have you join us today as we listen to this message with pastor Will Yee teaching from our gospel of Matthew series. If you've enjoyed our content, consider leaving us a rating to help this podcast reach more people. But for now, let's get into the message.
Pastor Will Yih: Hey, welcome to Sandals Church. I'm so glad you're joining us today. My name is pastor Will. I'm one of the associate pastors here at our Azusa campus. Me and my wife, we've been attending Sandals Church for about ten years now, and this place holds a near and dear place to my heart.
I rededicated my life here about ten years ago, my wife about seven, eight years ago, and I'm so glad to be joining you guys. How many of you guys have been using the Sandals Church app lately? Raise your hands. Woah. Look at you guys being techie.
One of my favorite parts about this app is getting to see prayer requests and getting to send in prayer texts, prayer voice memos. Man, you guys send in some really hard things. There's a lot of hard things going on in your life. I remember getting seeing a prayer request come in, and it was a young man praying for his mom's cancer. And I saw I remember seeing another prayer request, seeing somebody praying over divorce, praying over their anxiety, praying over their depression.
And even recently at our church, I've I've met a lady that is struggling with cancer. I met another man that lost his dad on Father's Day. On Father's Day. Think about the suffering and the pain that he's he's still grieving through. Even this past week at church, I met a I met a an individual who's been struggling with physical illness all her life, and she's been hospitalized.
And this concept of suffering, this idea of suffering is not foreign to us. The thing about suffering is suffering does not care about your religion, it does not care about your ethnicity, your career, the season of life you're in. Suffering applies to all of us. We understand this reality of suffering in our life. You know, as I was prepping this message, I was trying to think of a story that I could really like a suffering point in my life, a pain point in my life that I could share with you guys.
And to be honest, I don't. Because a lot of the suffering that I go through is just first world problems. They're little inconveniences. Let me share with you guys some. Last month, we went to China, me and my wife, we took my one and a half year old daughter to China and she slept for two hours.
Two hours on a fourteen hour plane ride. Can you imagine? I lost my mind. That is suffering for me. We've been dealing with cockroaches in our house.
Oh boy. Tiptoeing around our house, trying to get rid of cockroaches, suffering, pain. My warriors, my Golden State warriors getting kicked out of the NBA playoffs, suffering, suffering and pain. I'm talking to you Lakers fans. Man, when I'm stressed out, when I'm tired, I get a cold sore around my mouth.
Man, that's suffering. That's painful. But even as I say these things, they they are they're not comparable. They're not comparable to some of you guys that are watching online out of campus to your suffering today. And so now the question we begin to ask is, what do you turn to when you're suffering?
Like, take a moment and think back to a season in your life where you were suffering, where you were in pain. What did you turn to? I'll tell you what I turned to. I turned to anger. I turned to isolation.
I turned to control. But if we're being honest, some of us, we turn to so many different things. We turn to drugs, alcohol, work. We look for comfort. We look for all these different things to heal our suffering, to cure our suffering, and it fails us.
When I turn to those things, all those things fail me. So now what what do I turn to? And some of you guys are coming to church with that question. What what do I turn to, pastor Will? Today, the last couple months, we've been in the gospel of Matthew, and we've just wrapped up with pastor Fredo last week on the Sermon on Mount, chapters five to seven.
And today, we're gonna be looking at some scripture that tells us what do we turn to when we suffer. And so Jesus just gets down to the sermon on the mount. Think of it as you just went to a Christian conference, a leadership conference, you're coming off a spiritual high. We just got done talking about lust, worry, money, building your house on rock, and now that is over, and now we are coming down the mountain. So if you have your bibles, go ahead and get it out.
We're gonna turn to Matthew chapter eight. We're gonna be verses one through four. So here's what it says. Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Now pause.
This is not just 10 people. This is not just 20 people. This is hundreds and thousands of people coming down the mountainside. So just have that image in your head of the disciples with Jesus. There's hundreds and thousands of people.
It says, suddenly a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. Lord, the man said, if you are willing, you can heal me. You can make me clean. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing, he said, be healed.
And instantly the leprosy disappeared. Then Jesus said to him, don't tell anybody about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses. For some of us, we don't know what that is.
We're gonna get into that. For those who have been healed of leprosy, this will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed. Church, let's pray together. Father, would you speak to us in this time? As many of us are going through our own our own suffering in this season of life, our own pains, whether that's spiritually, relationally, emotionally.
God, would you reveal to us what do we turn to when we are suffering? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, when I first found out about what leprosy was, I didn't know what it was.
Pastor Will Yih: Like, is it a leopard's disease? Like, is it like a tiger's leopard's disease? Is that a leprechaun's disease? Like, what is it?
Pastor Will Yih: For for some of you guys that don't know what leprosy is, here's what leprosy is. It's a chronic infectious disease that that impacts your entire body. Impacts your entire body. In Jesus' time actually, it's related to our modern world. It's called it's called Hansen's disease.
But in Jesus' time, if you were a leper, you had to stand six feet away from people. Sounds like something we went through in 2020, ain't it? Imagine how physically isolating it was. Imagine how lonely it might have felt. And matter of fact, if the wind was actually blowing in the direction of a leper, you had to stand 150 feet away back.
You couldn't get, you couldn't go nowhere near because you didn't want to be unclean. Now that's not even the worst part. The worst part about being a leper, imagine during COVID, what was the worst part? Yes, probably got the disease, but the worst part was not being around my family and friends. You were robbed socially.
You cannot be around your community, your family, your friends. Matter of fact, the religious leaders at that time, they despise people who had leprosy. And so this leper, this leper was defined by his disease. Nobody called him John. Nobody called him Griffin.
Nobody called him by name. People called the leper by the leper. And so the identity of a leper, that was who he was. Imagine as people, hundreds and thousands of people coming down this mountain. Imagine what people are saying in the crowd, Ew, disgusting, yo, get away from me.
You're gonna make me unclean, back up, don't touch Jesus. Imagine how lonely, how helpless, how isolating this leper might have felt. And maybe that's how you feel today. I can't come to church. I can't come to small group.
I'm a sinner. I've done things in my life. I'm unclean. No no one's gonna accept me. And you might be sitting here thinking, well, pastor Will, I don't have leprosy.
I don't have physical leprosy. Now I use essential oils. I use lotion. I do I exfoliate my skin. Like, I don't have physical leprosy.
Look, church, you may not have physical leprosy, but we all have spiritual leprosy, and it's called sin. You see what the disease did to the leper is exactly what sin does to you and I. It does to us. It isolates us. It casts us out from our family and friends.
It it casts us out from our relationship with God. We all have spiritual leprosy, and it's called sin. So I wanna encourage us as a church, as we read through the scripture, for you to read the next couple of passages as if we are the leper, as if I'm the leper, as if you're the leper. And so now what does the leper turn to? What does the leper turn to?
And when I was in fifth grade, my mom, had a physical condition, and it was called pulmonary hypertension. And it was the night before she was about to go into a procedure that could cost her her life or she could live. And as a fifth grader, man, was terrified. I didn't know if I was gonna lose my mom and what was gonna happen. I remember getting in my dad's Toyota Camry, going to the hospital, going out to the Fifth Floor.
And I wrote a note to the doctor, and I just said, doc, would you please save my mom? Like, my mom. And that night, I went home, and I remember praying my first prayer to Jesus. I knew about Jesus, I knew about God, but I prayed my first prayer and I said these words. I said, Jesus, if you're real, if you if you save my mom, then I'll follow you the rest of my life.
I'll follow you the rest of my life. And in that moment, looking back on it, I felt like fifth grade Will knew that the only thing he could run to, the only thing he can run to in his suffering for his mom was Jesus. It wasn't the world, it wasn't the doctors, it wasn't my dad, it wasn't anything else but running to Jesus. And so many of us, you are in a season of suffering, you are in a season of pain, and you are not running to Jesus, you are running to other things. And so here's our first point is that I must run to Jesus in my suffering.
Look, our affliction is actually God's invitation for us to run to him. Look at what verse two says. It says, suddenly a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. Go ahead and circle and underline that word, knelt. He said, Lord, the man said, if you are willing, you can heal me.
Look at the type of faith that the leper has in Jesus, and make me clean. You know, I want you to notice the leper's posture right here. He's kneeling in all of his embarrassment, in all of his shame, in front of hundreds and thousands of people. He's kneeling and saying, Lord. Imagine the type of humility he has.
Imagine the type of faith that he back then in Jesus' time, if you called somebody Lord, you actually recognized that they have authority over you. The leper recognized that Jesus has authority over my disease. And he not only recognized, but he had faith that Jesus is the only one that can heal him in his disease. If I'm being honest, I treat Jesus like this sometimes. Where I come to church, I come to him in my quiet time, I come to him in my scripture time, I come to small group, and I don't treat him as the only authority in my life.
And we do this. We do this. We come to Jesus, but we don't call him Lord. You treat him we treat him as a consultant rather than a king. You don't believe that he he has actually authority over what you are going through.
You don't believe it. I don't believe it sometimes. When I first got married, we celebrated Chinese New Years in our family. And part of Chinese New Years is you make dumplings. And, at the time, didn't know how to make dumplings.
Don't ask me why. And, and I wanted to I wanted to invite my in laws over. I told my wife, hey, invite your in laws over. They had a little sister over. I want to make some dumplings.
And, I didn't know how to make it, so I had asked my dad. My pops is the chef of all chefs for Chinese cuisine. And so I had said, dad, I don't know how to make I don't know how to make dumplings. Like, I gotta put on for my culture. I gotta put on for my people right now.
You gotta tell me how. I cannot embarrass my my we can't embarrass my in laws. And so, I get on the FaceTime call with my dad, and he's teaching me on FaceTime. I'm like, oh, woah. Wait.
Hold on, man. This is way too complex. Like, this is this is you got a lot of years worth of experience. I got nothing. And so I'm like, this is way too complex.
I'm gonna let me go on Instagram. Let me go on social media. Let me go on YouTube, find a DIY, a little more simpler, like, kinda like like easier way to make dumplings. And so I'm like, boom. Got it.
Like, I know how to make dumplings. So Chinese New Year comes around, and my wife's family's coming over. My wife's over, and I'm like, I'm cooking dumplings. I'm making them. Pressure's on.
Like, pressure's on for my family. Like, I cannot bring dishonor to my family. Come on now. And and so I'm making the dumplings. The part of making dumplings is if you don't know what dumplings is, it's like a little little meat with some vegetables wrapped in dough, you put it in boiling water.
And so I'm boiling it, and I'm looking at the pot, and I'm like, oh, woah. Something's wrong. And fear just come over to my body because I'm looking at the bowl and I'm like, hold on. The meat is supposed to be inside the dough. Like, the meat's supposed like, it should stay inside.
And now it's just a it's a pile of mush, And I'm scooping it out, bringing it to my in laws. And I'm like calling my dad, look, I I bought dishonor in my family. I'm so sorry. I feel like Mulan when she felt that dating test in the Mulan movie. That's how I felt.
But but in that moment, I realized, man, I should have listened to my dad. I should have listened to my dad. Though it was complex, though it was hard, I should have listened to my pops. Why did I go to other things? And we do this.
I do this. We go to other things, but we don't go to Jesus in our suffering. Jesus say, I'm here. Like, come to me. Look at what Matthew twenty eight eighteen says.
At the end of Matthew, it says this, Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus has all authority. And so I wonder church, if we took a glance at our lives and we asked ourselves the question, what what has authority over your life today? Is it politics? There's there's a lot of going on in the news.
Is it that guy you watch on on on podcast? The guy you watch on Instagram? An influencer? Is it is it your fear? Does your fear have authority over you?
The shame? The shame? Are you kind of immersed in your shame and you're not running to Jesus in it? Look. I think the world gives out fake authority.
Authority that will fail us. It won't be good enough. It's not gonna heal us. And so I wonder, church, if we swapped out g so we swapped out the world's authority for Jesus' authority. I wonder if we today started to swap out the authority of worry in my life and started praying.
What if we swapped the authority of shame in my life and we got real when we jumped into a communion group? We jumped into a discipleship and got real. What if we swapped the authority of money for our lives? Amen. For me, I struggle with that.
Forgiving and building up God's church. Maybe for some of us, the first step towards healing today is just running to Jesus as our only authority. Our only authority. But even as I say that, some of you guys still won't run to Jesus. Because some of you guys some of us really, we feel like Jesus won't accept us.
Like, is maybe what the leper might have felt. Like, is Jesus gonna accept me? Is he gonna welcome me? Is he gonna love me? I'm I have every I'm I'm gonna make him unclean.
And maybe that's how you guys feel. Maybe how some of you guys watch online at a campus, you don't wanna come because you're still saying, I'm still unclean. Stand a 150 feet away from me. Imagine how might the leper of mine felt, but in all his embarrassment. When I first got married, my wife and I, we got into a huge argument, and it was probably our worst one.
And I had hurt her pretty bad, and it was completely my fault. Husbands, if it's your fault, just admit it. Take the l. You're done. You're cooked.
And I remember just being in so much shame, so much embarrassment. I was like, I'm a look. I mean, just I'm just gonna stay on the couch. Like, matter of fact, I'm just gonna pack up and go get a hotel down the street. Like, that's how bad I was feeling.
I was like, I can't even be in my wife's presence right now. I can't even share a meal with her. And so I was in my embarrassment and my shame and wallowing around. And my wife was like, hey. It's dinner time.
And she calls me over to the the dining table. And I sit down, come to the dining table, head down, doing the, like, whole pity thing sitting down. And then she had cooked one of my favorite meals that day, and it was a stir fried rice. And she put it in a bowl, and she she scooted it over to me. And I just, in that moment, I just wept.
I just wept. Because in that moment, I felt God's compassion through my wife's compassion. I was expecting condemnation, but instead I received compassion. And so many of us, you're watching online, you're out of campus and you feel like you can't come to Jesus, but Jesus is not gonna condemn you. He has an immense amount of compassion for you church, Immense amount of compassion.
He does not wanna condemn you. He wants to show you compassion. So here is our second point is that Jesus meets my suffering with compassion. With compassion. Look at verse three, Jesus reached out and touched him and said, I am willing, be healed.
And instantly the leprosy disappeared. When I read that, I was like, why did Jesus have to touch him? Like Jesus is the son of man. He's all powerful. He could have stepped 150 feet back and healed him with the word.
Why did he have to touch the leper? And that's it's because I think this because Jesus knew what the leper needed. Imagine your whole life being a leper and not getting hugged. Imagine your love language is physical touch and you never getting a hug. Imagine never getting a fist pump, high five, fist pump, high five.
I got that wrong. Imagine how incredibly physically isolating it was, and Jesus, being moved with compassion, touches the leper. And he doesn't he doesn't become unclean. Jesus is clean. It doesn't make him unclean.
And and some of you out of campus right now or online, you're saying, I'm unclean. I've done things. Jesus is it will never become unclean because you're unclean. He's clean. Look at Mark chapter one.
Mark chapter one captures the same story about the leper, and he starts with this. He starts with moved with compassion. Are you seeing that? Move with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him and said, I am willing.
He said, be healed. Look, Jesus is not scared. He's not scared of your disease. Leprosy. He's not scared of your sin.
He moves towards it. Why? Because he is compassion. Compassion that gets close and personal. Compassion that turns large crowds into neighbors.
Couple months ago, we were at the Azusa campus and we were doing fire relief. And I was on a random Sunday. I was on the patio chopping it up with some church members in between services and a homeless man rolls up. His name was Paul. And Paul comes up to me.
He's like, hey, man. You got any hoodies and shorts? I'm like, yeah, man. I got I got you. We got a bunch back there.
And I come out, give him some shorts and hoodies, then he proceeds to ask me, hey. Do you have some food? I'm like, yeah, man. We're actually cooking burgers today. Like, my man, Ronnie, can get you some.
Like, I'll give you some burgers. And and then he proceeds me to ask he asked me an odd question, and he goes, do you have a bowl of water and a towel that I can bathe myself in? And I go, oh, no. No. No.
You cannot do that here. You you this is not the YMCA. You cannot be here right now. But the good pastor, he was like, look. Okay.
Let me get some let me get some hot water. Let me get some towel. I'm a come back back out. So I give it to him. He proceeds to take off his shorts, take off his socks, and he's bathing himself right outside the auditorium door.
And in my head, I'm thinking, yo, you better leave. Like, you gotta leave, man. Like, I'm not trying to I'm not trying to have our people come out and see you like this. Like, you gotta go. And immediately in that moment, man, I just felt God's conviction saying, Will, you need to have more compassion on this man.
You need to have more compassion on this man. Because I think, man, we we just need more compassion on our world today, church. Amen?
Pastor Will Yih: Yeah. We
Pastor Will Yih: have suffering we have people suffering all around us, family, friends, that needs our compassion, that needs Jesus' compassion for us. And in that moment, I realized that my compassion is only it's limited. It's so limited. But Jesus, Jesus has an unlimited overflowing amount of compassion for you who are suffering. Overflowing amount.
Look what Lamentations three twenty two says. It says, Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed for his compassions, underline this, never fail. Time and time again, as you go throughout Jesus' ministry, as you see him meet people who are suffering, who are in pain, who need a miracle, who need healing, you're gonna see this constant theme that says Jesus is moved by compassion and meets them right where they're at. Compassion in the Hebrew word, it means, the Hebrew word is, it's related to our modern world for womb, Rahim. And it kind of compares it to a mother's tenderness and gentleness towards their womb, towards their child.
How interesting is that? The compassion of God is related to a mother's womb, a mother's gentleness for their child. Last week, daughter for the first time got a 101 fever and she was waking up 01:00, 03:00, wailing, suffering in pain. And my wife doesn't just go, I'm sorry that hurts. Like, here's take some medicine.
You've got this. You, like, figure it out. My wife doesn't do that. You know what she does? She gets down, scoops her up, and gets close and shows my daughter compassion.
And parents, when your when your kids are suffering, that's a whole another ballgame. It's a whole another ballgame. And so Jesus Jesus doesn't feel compassion for the leper. He doesn't just say, oh, leper, I feel compassion for you. Alright.
You're healed. Be gone. Jesus acted on it and healed him. Moved by compassion, Jesus healed, immediately healed the leper. And for some of us today, how this applies to us is Jesus was so moved by your suffering.
Jesus was so moved by our sin that he actually bore our spiritual leprosy on himself on the cross. He burdened himself on it, the cross. And the cross church is the ultimate illustration of Jesus' compassion for us. It's compassion lived out. That's what the cross is.
And so so many of us, I think the healing that we are needing today, the healing that we may be, that you may be needing today is simply just sitting and accepting Jesus' compassion for you. What if we just took a moment and just said, and Jesus has compassion for me and my suffering. Psalms 13, it says this, the Lord is like a father to his children, tender and underline this, compassionate to those who fear him. He's compassionate. He's like a father And he recognizes your suffering.
He recognizes your pain. And he doesn't he doesn't stand back. He moves close to you. He has compassion for you. Even then, I don't think Jesus wants us to stop.
Jesus doesn't want us to stop there. In my life, when I've shown been shown compassion, I've learned that when compassion touches you, obedience follows you. Obedience follows you. And so our third point is, I must follow and live out Jesus' commands. Right after the leper was healed, Jesus gives the leper some commands to follow.
Look at verse four. He says, then Jesus said to him, don't tell anyone about this. This is your first this is the first command given to leper. Now I when I read this, I thought, why why doesn't Jesus wanna tell any why doesn't he want to tell anybody about his his healing? Why is Jesus telling, hey.
Don't tell anybody about this. I remember when the warriors first won in 2015 after forty years, I was out on the streets telling everybody that they won. I was telling all the Lakers fans, all the Cass fans at the time, all LeBron James fans. So why did Jesus tell the leper, hey, don't tell anyone about this? It's because I think Jesus cared more about the about the leper following his word rather than the leper's publicity.
Jesus cared more about, hey, follow my words. Live out my word first before you go out into the world, before you go show yourself. And look at what look at the next sentence in verse four. It says, instead go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.
So the offering required in the law of Moses back in time, you can find this in Leviticus 14. And it's an eight day ritual involving sacrifices, involving offerings. And the purpose of this was so that people that were cleansed of leprosy can find their way back home to their community. They can be reunited with their family, reunited with their friends. And so Jesus is saying here, if you follow and live out my command, you're gonna live your new life.
You're gonna live your new life. Your your old life is gone. If you follow and live out my word for you, my commands for you, you'll live in your new life. You'll live in your new life. And so now now the leper is now being defined by Jesus' words and not his disease.
He's being defined by what Jesus says who he is, what Jesus commands for him rather than his suffering, his sin, and his disease. And so I just wanted to say, if you're watching this and you're still saying, man, I'm defined by my sin. I'm defined by my suffering. Jesus does not say that. Jesus says he you are defined by what I call you, and you are a son and daughter of the most high.
And then look at the last phrase of verse four. It's beautiful. It says this, This will be, underline this, a public testimony that you have been cleansed. Look, when you follow and live out Jesus' words and his commandments for your life, you will naturally be a public testimony to the world, To your family, to your friends, to people who are skeptical of your faith, you will be a public testimony that you are walking in new life now. And sometimes doing this, it's it's uncomfortable.
Imagine a leper maybe going to the the priest and he maybe the leper's gonna maybe the priest is gonna find something on the leper. Like, what if he finds a spot? And so it's hard. It's uncomfortable. It's growing to live and follow Jesus' commands.
But you know what church? Man, it grows us as a disciple. It gives us it forms a deeper well with our relationship with Jesus. And so some of us, man, we just gotta admit that we're still being defined by our suffering. We're still being defined as in our old life.
Instead of being defined by Jesus' commands for my life. And so my heart and prayer for us here at Samuels Church is that now when you ask yourself the question, what do you turn to when you suffer? You can confidently say, man, I turned to Jesus' authority. I turned to his overflowing immense compassion for my life, and now I turned to his commands for my life. I turn to his commands.
And I hope that as you leave here that you can say that confidently. And so practically, I think there's two groups of people here. I think for some of us, you're watching this online, you're out of campus, and you just need to run forward to the altar and receive prayer. And you just need to receive you just need to run to Jesus today in your suffering. You need to run to his authority.
You need to run to his compassion. And you just need to come forward to the prayer team or some a campus pastor and chase and just say, look, I've been I've been running to different things my entire life. I'm ready to run to Jesus now in my suffering. I'm ready. And some of us, we have been healed for ten, twenty years, and you have still not lived out Jesus' commands.
Jesus has an assignment for you. Jesus has an amazing testimony for your life, and you have not chosen to live that out. You have not chosen to follow his command. And so so many of us, we need to just look through scripture, look through our Bible, and start following and living out his commands for our life so that we can walk a new life that Jesus has for us. When we ask ourselves the question, now what what what are we suffering with?
My prayer and hope for us here at Sandals Church is that we would not run from our suffering, but that we would run to Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, would you you meet us in our suffering?
For some of us, we feel we're expecting condemnation. We're expecting to not be healed. God, I pray that you would meet us in our suffering. You would meet us with your compassion. You would meet us with your authority.
And then you would give us the boldness to run to you. And so many of us, God, we've been healed, but we have not followed your command. Help us even when it's scary, even when it's skeptical, even when it's hard for us. God, help us to live out and follow your commands. And God, help us to run to you in our suffering and help us to trust you in it.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: We just wanna take a moment to say thank you for joining us here at Sandals Church online. And for those of you who are committed to the work that God is doing and into our church campus, would you support us by going to sandalschurch.com/support. More importantly, in light of Will's message today, we want to make a special invitation for any one of you who are just walking through a difficult season in life. Perhaps you're suffering and perhaps something in this sermon has stirred you. Would you reach out to us?
Our team wants to come alongside you. We wanna know who you are and what your story is and see how we might support you. You can go and fill out a form. It's sandalschurch.com/help. We would love to know who you are reach out to you.
Grace and peace. We'll see you next weekend.
Morgan Teruel: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have the YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.