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 Fredo Ramos 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 Fredo Ramos: What's it gonna take for you to place your faith in Jesus? That was the question that echoed in the classroom. You see it was Q and A Friday, which was the day of the week where I as the teacher made the decision to pause on the lecturing, thank God for the students, the quizzes and the homework and just have a discussion with them through the form of questions and answers. And it was honestly my favorite day of the week as a teacher, Q and A Friday. And it was real simple.
They got to ask whatever question they wanted, but I had the right, reserve the right as a teacher to use the sermon on what questions I did answer and how I chose to answer them. Because as you might imagine, there was some wild questions asked in that class. And on this particular day, I remember a student kind of said this and said, hey, Ramos, instead of you or us asking you the questions, why don't we flip the script and you ask us the questions? And I kind of looked at them and they, you know, looked at me and said, I'm sure you got questions. I'm like, oh yeah, got questions for y'all.
Based on the way you dress, the way you talk, the music you listen to, I got plenty of questions. But I just asked him this, I said, what would it take for you to place your faith in Jesus? That question was met with silence. And of course one student kind of, pops off. Well miracles.
Why don't we see miracles today the same way we read about them in the bible? And I was like dude amazing question. Unfortunately the bell's about to ring so we gotta go. We're not gonna get to it. But I said imagine this, imagine you're sleeping, it's about 3AM, all of a sudden you wake up, and you look up and it's as if your ceiling is being torn open.
You can see the night sky, and Jesus himself appears to you. Says, hey, it's Jesus. And you're like, hey Jesus. And he's like, are you doing? And you're like, I'm sleeping.
And he's like, no, what are you doing? And then you realize what he's really asking. And he says, I want you to follow me. I am who I said I am. I want you to place your faith in me and I'm going to lead you to everlasting life.
You fall back asleep, you wake up and you're like, that encounter was wild. You start telling your family, start telling your friends, but how long I asked the student before you start questioning what it was that actually happened to you. And then of course you have a few friends that roll around and they're like, well, you know, I've heard your story. I get it. You had this encounter with Jesus, but, but why now?
Why would he come to you now? Why would this miracle happen now? And not all those other times where you actually had a need and he didn't do anything about it. And then how long before that childlike faith grows up enough and becomes a kind of reasonable doubt? I zoomed out of that illustration and I told the student this, the problem isn't so much that we don't see miracles, but the problem is that we don't want to see miracles.
That's the problem we deal with today. Meaning we live in a world, all of us right now live in a world in which is much safer to be skeptical than it is to be sincere. And that kind of cynicism makes it hard to see what God is actually doing in your life. But none of us can escape this. Cynicism at some level is just the air that we breathe.
Open your phone and scroll through it. In thirty seconds, you will be a cynical person. Why? Because we're not a culture quick to believe the best. We're actually a culture trained to expect the worst.
So it's easy for us to it's easier for us to roll our eyes and actually to raise our hopes because we've been formed over time through heartbreak, through headlines, and unfortunately even through the church to be cautious with our faith, not courageous with it. And to guard our joy and to treat anything as beautiful as as kind of suspicious. And over time, even as Christians, have learned and gotten good at trading our amazement for sarcasm and our childlike faith for critique. Where many of you today, Christians, you laugh away your hope. And here is why, because cynicism feels like it's the wiser decision to make because you'll never get hurt.
You'll never be disappointed. But at the end of the day, cynicism is dumb because it's never willing to learn. It's never curious. It always has a reason not to trust, not to take a risk, not to believe. And the truth is, it might protect you from being disappointed, but it will also blind you from actually seeing the work that Jesus is doing in your life right now.
And this is how it plays out for many of us, even those of us who would identify ourselves as disciples of Jesus. You show up to church, but we don't expect God to actually move, we just hope the worship set makes us feel good. We don't expect a healing today. We just expect to manage the pain. We don't expect to actually experience change this week.
We just want to survive the week. And so as we continue to the gospel of Matthew today, we're to encounter a passage where we see miracle after miracle and yet many people miss it. Not because they didn't want to see it. I'm sorry, not because they didn't see it, but because they didn't want to see it. And the surprise of this passage that you'll discover is not so much who got healed, but who didn't.
Who mocked, who criticized, who refused to be curious. Because right now the realness of this passage is the relevancy in your life. That Jesus actually is at work and the danger is you're probably missing it. He's at work in your family. He's at work in your profession, the job that you can't stand.
He's at work in your heart and your story. And you might be missing it right now. Why? Well, a number of reasons. Maybe because your Christian religious routines have just kind of grown a little stale.
You might be missing the work of Jesus right now because you're too proud to admit that you have a need today. Or you might be missing it just simply because of the fact that you're not expecting God to do anything for you today. And you would much rather analyze Jesus than be transformed by him. And so the question that I want all of us to wrestle with today is am I a person who is actually walking by faith or am or am I hiding behind a kind of religious spirit that appears to be spiritual, but in the end is just a guarded person? And I say that actually with a ton of hope today because I believe Jesus wants to set all of us free.
He wants to set all of us free from that kind of religious spirit that is blind to seeing the beautiful work that he is doing. But the ugly truth in this teaching today is that all of us can be very near Jesus and still miss him. If your heart is more formed and shaped by a religious spirit than the Holy Spirit of God. And so I don't know where you're at today, but I would imagine at some level you long to live with a kind of lightness and joy and faith that is actually able to take God at his word. And so I wanna invite you with that said, to stand with me if you're willing and able as we read together from Matthew 19.
There's quite a bit to take in. And if you couldn't tell, I'm in the mood to preach today y'all. So so buckle in. Matthew nine starting at verse 18. Matthew writes this, as Jesus was saying this, the leader of the synagogue came and knelt before him.
My daughter has just died, he said, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her. So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe for she thought if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Jesus turned around and when he saw her, he said, daughter, be encouraged.
Your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus arrived at the officials home, he saw the noisy crowd and heard the funeral music. Get out, he told them. The girl isn't dead.
She's only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him. After the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in, took the girl by the hand and she stood up. The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside. After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him shouting, son of David, have mercy on us.
They went right into the house where he was staying and Jesus asked them, do you believe I can make you see? Yes, Lord, they told them, we do. Then he touched their eyes and said, because of your faith, will happen. Then their eyes were opened and they could see. Jesus sternly warned them, don't tell anyone about this.
But instead they went out and spread his fame all over the region. When they left, the demon possessed man who couldn't speak was brought to Jesus. So Jesus cast out the demon and then the man began to speak. The crowds were amazed. Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel, they exclaimed.
But the Pharisees said, he can cast out demons because he is empowered by the prince of demons. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, we thank you for your word today and as we gather in this moment, we recognize in prayer that you have now gathered with us too. And so we ask that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we might become all that you desire us desire us to be in Christ.
We pray these things in his name. Amen. You could be seated. Some were like, thank God I was standing for a hot minute while you're reading that. Now it's easy as we read through about 20 verses of the gospel to kinda just, you know, think of these as a bunch of miracle moments that are kind of strung together.
But you got to understand from Matthew, the author's point of view, chapters eight and nine is one cohesive section of stories that aren't randomly placed together, but they have an intentional point. And one of the things I think we can conclude from this passage is this, real faith in Jesus will heal your life. That's what we need to see. But what's kind of scary about this passage is not so much the faith that leads to healing, but the kind of rejection that leaves you right where you're at. Matthew's very intentional to capture that Israel, they said, was amazed.
Nothing like this has ever happened. But then notice what the Pharisees said. He has the power to cast out demons. Why? Because he himself is empowered by demons.
That's Matthew nine verse 34. And then back in chapter eight, we read this in Matthew, eight verse 34. It says the entire town, this is after Jesus had cast demons out of two men and threw them into pigs. He says the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone. This is two very intentional moments where yes, Matthew wants to draw together these healing stories to draw out our own faith, but then also wants to caution us that we will not always respond in faith even when you see the miracle.
Why? Because it's not so much that you didn't see it, but that you didn't want to see it. So let's unpack this together starting there in verse 18. It says, as Jesus was saying this, the leader of the synagogue came and knelt before. Now what's going on?
As Jesus was saying this, what's the this in the story? Well, if you were here with us last week, remember that Jesus was given a bit of a strange teaching, to say the least, about old clothes and old wineskin. And then he gives this point about you need new wineskin. And Vivian has brought an incredible word about what it means to be ready to release the old and and be open to the new thing that God wants to do in your life. And Jesus, because he's so brilliant, is teaching this truth, and now, because he's interrupted, is about to demonstrate this truth about what new wine is.
A dead girl's gonna come back to life. The old wine is death, the new wine is resurrection. He's picturing this for us, and it's brilliant, and it's amazing. I love Jesus, because he can be in a weird teaching and be interrupted, and he's totally okay with it. And he's interrupted by, or told, a synagogue ruler who kneels before him.
Now Mark tells the same story in Mark chapter five, and he gives us a few details. Number one, this leader's name was Jairus, and his daughter was 12 years old. And I share this because it's natural for us who are common and used to kind of reading the Bible to just read these as stories far from our own life, far from reality, and almost view them as just characters. But Jairus was a real man, a real historical figure who who had a reputation to uphold in society, but he's kneeling before Jesus. Catch that.
He represents a sect of religious leaders who despise Jesus, but he's still kneeling before him. Why? Because his 12 year old daughter is dead. He gets the news that no parent wants to hear. You're sleeping, you get the phone call, your son or your daughter has died.
This man was a real man. He was a daddy's girl. 12 year old baby girl. For those of you who are parents, you know what this feels like. For those of you who got girls, you know what this feels like.
I'm a girl dad. Yeah. And Ella owns me. That girl owns me. She'll come sit on my lap and she'll just ask, daddy, what you gonna buy me today?
And I said, whatever you want. My wife will look at me like, what what what? And I was like, I can't say no. You know what it's like to have a girl and and it's clear that he loved this girl. Why?
Because he is he's thrown off dignity and he he's got tradition. It doesn't matter. He's kneeling before Jesus. Completely prostrate before him, begging him. And notice what he asked Jesus to do.
A Jewish religious leader asked another rabbi, would you come and touch my dead daughter? Here's why that's a problem, because tradition says a Jewish person cannot touch a corpse. Don't miss that. And so he's throwing off tradition, he's throwing off dignity, why? Because he's got a need.
His need listen now. His need was greater than his pride. Sometimes the only thing that's keeping you from a miracle you need in God is your pride. What's it going to take for you to put your faith in Jesus today? For some of you, it means releasing your pride.
Release your pride. And we're told there in the story, what does Jesus do? He sees his faith, his disciples get up, verse 19, and they followed him. It's one of the rare places where where it says that Jesus followed someone else. But I love because it's almost as if Matthew was saying, notice what humility does to the heart of God.
Humility will follow I'm sorry, God will follow the the humble person. James says, lifts you up. And it says there in verse 20, while they're on their way, notice verse 20, just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe. Verse 21, for she thought, because we're always having a discussion in our head, and oftentimes we're more negative to ourselves than anyone else is.
She thought if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Notice the faith of this woman. Now again, Mark provides some details that Matthew for whatever reason doesn't share. We're told that yes, she had this constant flow of blood for twelve years. She had suffered under many doctors.
She had spent all her money to be well. And none of it worked. Mark even says she got worse, but then she heard the news of this rabbi. She heard the news of Jesus. Now again, to to avoid us kinda just glazing over the story, let's think about what this woman is going through for a second.
Then I'll speak to you ladies first because you are intimately aware of this kind of struggle. And so let's let's give this woman a name. If you're a lady here, let's give her a name. Someone give me your give me a name for Sarah? We'll go with Sarah, not Ashley, that's my wife.
Sarah. This woman's Sarah. Sarah's got a normal life. Sarah maybe has a husband, has friends, has kids. Sarah has parents.
And for whatever reason at the July, guess what? It's that time of the month for Sarah. You ladies know what this is like. Few days go by, a week goes by, you know, that's up to y'all. And then two weeks hit, and she's a little worried.
Her husband's starting to get a little worried, and also the husband, I mean, just be honest, is probably feeling some kind of way because according to tradition, you can't be intimate with your wife during this time. You can't even really see your kids. She can't see her friends. Two weeks turns into a month. Now she's concerned.
She goes to see a doctor. Never seen this before. Gives her some medicine, goes home. Medicine doesn't work. One month turns into two.
Now there's some real conflict and strain in the marriage. Not only can they be together, they don't know what's wrong with her. Two months turns to three months, three months turn to six months. Now think about this, she's deemed unclean by their own law and society. She hasn't been with her kids, her husband, her friends.
She hasn't been able to go to synagogue. She ain't been able to make it to church and there's no online service for her. She has been isolated. The six month mark, she goes back to the doctor, same news, same medicine, nothing works. Six months turns into a year.
One year turns into two. Ladies in here, how many of you would be able to endure this? It is insane to think about. One year turns into two, turns into three, turns into five, and at this point, let me be honest from a man's perspective, the husband's probably gone. Why do I say that?
Well, you remember in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus is teaching about marriage and divorce, he specifically calls out the men of that society. Why? Because in those days, Jewish men were divorcing their wives for whatever reason. Right? They were giving out divorce certificates the way Instagram gives out blue checks.
Any one of y'all can get them. It doesn't matter who you are. You can validate yourself and your excuses. Right? And so it's probably the case, if she was married, the man's dipped.
She's by herself. Five years has turned into ten years, and you know what you start to say at this point for some of you who have dealt with pain and suffering for some time. This is the unfortunate good news that you tragically believe in your heart. It goes like this, my life will always be this way. Ten years turns into twelve, but then for whatever reason, she hears the news of a rabbi.
And this woman who has been in isolation has the audacity and faith to crawl her way, not to be in front of Jesus face to face, but to tell herself if I can just touch his robe, begging. She's gonna jack a miracle for herself, y'all. She's really gonna do this. And it's amazing that that you you would think her uncleanliness would infect Jesus, but the exact opposite happens. Something inside of him infects her for the better.
And we read there in verse 22, Jesus speaking, daughter, be encouraged, your faith has made you well. Now sit with this for a second. Daughter, twelve years in isolation, in a single word Jesus says you got family now. Daughter. And then he commends her, your faith has made you well.
In a moment where she should be condemned by law, he commends her and then encourages her. Be encouraged. Take heart. Be comforted. Your faith has made you well.
This is a beautiful word for many of you today who need a healing from God to understand that God will do his deepest work right in the place of your deepest pain. And the shame in your story is a hole that I believe is dug very deep for the purpose of God's love running much deeper. Reach for your miracle today. He goes on then to care. We're told for the religious daughter.
Imagine Jairus this whole time. He's like, my daughter's dead. He's there watching all this. It's like, we got somewhere to go. So verse 22 continue.
I'm sorry. Verse 23 continues. When Jesus arrived at the official's home, he saw the noisy crowd, heard the funeral music playing. Notice verse 24. Get out, he told them.
There's a funeral scene going on. Why is this happening? Well, in this day and age, it was common practice, though it might sound strange to us, that if someone had died, even if you were poor, you had to hire two pipe players to to help everyone grieve and one wailing woman. Imagine if that was your job. You're the wailing woman.
And so Jesus arrives at this grief ceremony and he says, get out. But before that, notice what he said. She's not dead. She's asleep. And then everyone starts to laugh at him.
Now remember Matthew said, Jairus came because his daughter was dead. So why is Jesus saying he's just asleep? And one of the reasons why I think he's doing this is because listen now, when it comes to miracles, Jesus is not a showman. Meaning he is not motivated to heal you in order to gain influence or a stage. He is motivated by love.
And if you are there for other reasons, he will ask you to leave the room. He will clear you out. And so he clears this place out. But also I think when he says, she's not dead, she's asleep, that's a trigger for you and I as the readers who know the full story of Jesus to read that man and say, because if you believe in Jesus, then you know that he died and rose for you so that even your death will feel like just a nap. The most powerful thing that will break you in your life is death, and according to Jesus, because of your faith in him, it will feel like you just took a nap, And you will wake up into eternity.
Keep in mind, when Jesus is saying something, he is always saying something much deeper at the same time. And he says she's asleep. And he clears the room, grabs his daughter and she woke up. Of course, the story doesn't end there. Matthew keeps his whole miracle train going.
We're told that, the entire report of this miracle spread throughout the countryside. Notice verse 27 after Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him shouting son of David, have mercy on us. This is a beautiful moment where blind people get it and those who see don't. Why? Because in Matthew chapter one, how does Matthew describe Jesus?
As the son of David. His whole point of this gospel is to help Jewish people understand this is the king that you've been waiting for. And ironically enough, it's those without sight that actually know who Jesus is. They see some they they see something that many of us can't see. So much so that they follow Jesus into this house, we're told, and he says, do you believe I can make you see?
That same question I think he's he's asking to many of you today. Do you believe that Jesus can make you see? And more importantly, is your need greater than your pride? So that you're willing to follow Jesus wherever you have to go in order to be able to see again. Where are you at today?
Because they say, yes, we can. And they're healed despite Jesus saying don't tell anyone, they go and tell anyone because of course that's what they're gonna do. And then lastly, we're told that the demoniac comes, is brought before Jesus who can't speak. Jesus heals this person and then we're hit with this surprising story that the religious leaders have the audacity, not of faith, but of rejection. Why?
Not because they didn't see the miracle, but because they didn't want to see it. Now, what are we to make of all of this? Cause I have just said a lot and we're only about halfway done. So buckle in Matthew, I think at a number of levels is doing a few things. First, he's making it very clear that death, disease, and even darkness don't have the power to stop Jesus being at work in your life.
None of those things hold him back from bringing the miracle that you need in your life. Death, disease, darkness, all must take a knee before Jesus. And that is good news for all of us today. And it's good news for the things that you might be need. But here's also another thing that we have to consider.
Oftentimes, biblical stories simultaneously are telling us something about ourselves and also about God. And the thing that I think Matthew wants us to get is that there is a kind of faith that will set you free today from a religious spirit so that you don't walk away like the Pharisees saying, this man is doing something that the devil is empowering him to do. And I think perhaps Matthew is hoping for one more miracle. I said there were five miracles in Matthew chapter eight, there's five miracles in Matthew chapter nine, that's a total of 10 if you can do decent math. But I think Matthew wants an eleventh miracle, and that's the miracle of faith.
Because he asked, he quotes Jesus' question, do you believe that I can do this for you? Do you believe that I can make you see? That's intentionally put there for us, the readers, to be confronted with the same question. Do you believe that Jesus today can make you see? If so, here are a few things that I think need to become clear for us as we become the kind of people who walk by faith.
Firstly, it's this, to walk by faith as disciple, I must confront the disbelief still hiding in my heart today. When you think about it, your doubts, your disbelief, it's not always very loud, it's not even obvious. Sometimes your disbelief is hidden in a breakup that happened when you were 14 because that dude said, well I gotta trust God for my life and so I'm dumping you. That's a crappy way to get a breakup story from. Sometimes your disbelief hides in your disappointments, your hesitations, or even for a lot of you today, your pride, which makes it very possible for you to be near Jesus, to be familiar with his teaching, but to still not confront the disbelief that's deeply seated in your heart.
And this is not a new problem, this is a very old one. Look there at Matthew, sorry, not Matthew, but Mark six. There's a story that says, when the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were amazed. This is a Sunday. People went to church, they went to synagogue.
Who's teaching? Jesus is teaching. That's not a sermon you want to stay at home for. You want to get there for that. It says, they were amazed at what he said and they asked the questions.
Where did this man get these things? They asked. In other words, where did he come from? They go on. What wisdom, I'm sorry, what's this wisdom that has been given to him?
What are these remarkable miracles he's performing? In other words, they're beginning to who taught Jesus? And who's empowering him? And then notice how their questions begin to turn and the disbelief is seen. Isn't this the carpenter?
Like this the boy that cuts wood? Isn't this Mary's son? A little a little t there? Meaning, where's his father? Oh, that's right.
He just kinda miraculously showed up. This is Mary's son. This is the brother of James, Judas, and Simon. Aren't his sisters here with us? In other words, we know this man's family.
We know their credit score. We know their background. This is just this is Jesus of Nazareth. He builds tables and chairs. Right?
It's amazing how they can go from being amazed at what he said to disbelief. That happens to a lot of us too. And you got to be careful because Mark writes this, and they took offense at him. He could not do any miracles there except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. It is incredible how easy you and I in our lives can write off Jesus.
Even after being amazed at him. Because we begin to rationalize disbelief. Because again, why? It's more safe to be skeptical than it is to be sincere in your faith. And the challenge for a lot of us is that Jesus shows up in your life and reveals to you not a God you can fully understand, but he does reveal a God that you can fully trust.
And I say that because in my life right now, I find myself prioritizing understanding God more than just trusting in God. If you had a name, you're say afraid or name a sin, that would be one of my main ones right now. I prioritize understanding him more than just loving and trusting him. And friends, that is a problem. And to walk in faith means that you're going to have to confront those kinds of, places in your heart where disbelief still resides.
Because that religious spirit will see the new thing that God is doing and then write it off and say this possibly can't be from him. While at the same time, if you are sensitive and quiet enough, the Holy Spirit will come to you and say, no. This is God's power. You're just unfamiliar with it and you need to learn it. Notice the words and the caution from Hebrews chapter three.
He writes, see to it, or the author writes, see to it brothers and sisters that none of you has a sinful, what's that phrase? Unbelieving heart that what? That turns away from the living God. Notice what happens. Notice the connection.
An unbelieving heart turns away from the living God. This is pictured in our story. Was it not when the mourners laughed off Jesus' statement when he says the girl is barely asleep. They laugh at him. Why would they laugh at him?
Because they have become so familiar with death. You and I have become so familiar with the way things are that even a miracle becomes something that we can just laugh at. And in some of your lives right now, in order for Jesus to raise what you want him to raise, he's gonna have to clear the room of your disbelief. And so let me just ask, in in what ways are you maybe laughing at the very things that Jesus wants to resurrect in your life? What are you laughing at?
That are the actual things that Jesus is looking at and says, man, I want to bring that back to life. You think it's funny. I think I got a purpose for it. Let me bring it back to life. Secondly, to walk by faith as a disciple, I must listen now, come to Jesus in my desperation.
The dividing line of this story is not so much those who are desperate and not desperate. The dividing line in the story is not so much those who have a need and those who don't have a need. No. No. No.
The dividing line in the story are those who are desperate and those who are aware of their desperation. How many of you right now are aware that you are a desperate person? How many of you? There's a reason why Jesus taught us to pray. Give me my daily bread.
Because he wants us on a regular basis to come to terms with how desperate you actually are in this moment. Whether you feel it or not, you are far more desperate than you can possibly imagine. But unfortunately, because of your accomplishments, your great looks, your amazing family, your amazing decisions, and of course, social media profile, you're convinced otherwise. But the gift of faith is to help set you free so that you can understand and come to terms with how desperate you actually are as a human being right now. You are form far more fragile than you can possibly imagine.
And real faith will begin to open your eyes to see that level of desperation and to realize that this is not a problem for God. He actually loves your neediness. When you feel needy, he loves that. Psalm thirty four eighteen, it says, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and he saves those with a crushed spirit, which means this. When you're desiring to come to God, and you're like, oh man, what do I need?
What do I need? What do I gotta prove? Here's the thing. The only thing you need to go before God is need itself. That's good.
That's it. So acknowledge your need, acknowledge your desperation, and get before God. And this place listen now. This place of desperation becomes the starting point of being a person who's able to receive the miracle that God has for you. Desperation is the birthplace of all miracles.
So get comfortable with your own desperation. Learn to walk in a daily kind of pace of Lord, I need daily bread because this man's desperate. I'm desperate for you. Now, we close, here's what I think remains still the most difficult part of all of this. When you think about it, a healing, a miracle doesn't necessarily fix everything.
It actually disrupts everything. Think about that for a second. Healings don't fix you, they actually disrupt the systems that we have built around our pain. And that for many of us is a problem. I remember my senior year, I'm sorry, the summer before my senior year, foolish 18 year old after a summer league basketball game.
I'm out with my friends. They lived in Moreno Valley and, you know, it's not a ton to do in Moreno Valley, but there was a tree swing up off Pigeon Pass Road. And so in the July, on a hot summer day, we go out to this tree swing. I get on it. Mind you, I'm not strong enough to hold my own weight.
So I run, jump off this tree swing over this dry ravine. I lose my grip and I fall 20 feet in this dry ravine, smashing my entire arm, dislocating my hip, all kinds of stuff. And I had intense reconstructive surgery. You can still see the scar. You can still feel the metal in there.
It's kind of a trip, man. When I show people, get freaked out. There's like metal in my arm still. But the surgeon did an incredible job, but here was the problem. The physical therapy is what showed me the real cost of healing.
Why? Because movement, even though I was healed was very unnatural and stretching was deeply painful. And so the months that followed were not calm and easy. They were very disruptive. And I remember my physical labor saying, Fred, if you want to play basketball again, you have to work through this pain.
You have to allow the restored elbow to be disrupted. Because even though you've been healed, it doesn't necessarily mean you're ready, but it does mean you're capable. And so the healing opened the door, but the disruption is what I had to learn to walk through. And I say that because if you're going to learn to walk by faith as a disciple, you're gonna have to learn to welcome the disruption that healing brings. And I think all of you know this at some level.
Because you know at the end of the day, you're probably more afraid of your healing than you want to admit. Which is why for some of you, you're afraid to make that phone call to a friend and say you're sorry. Some of you are afraid to go to counseling. Some of you are afraid to come up for prayer after church service. Some of you are afraid to go on that retreat to start serving, to join a community group.
Some of you are afraid to begin the healing process of just following Jesus, declaring your need today. Why? Because you know at some level it's going to disrupt the very systems that you love to cope with in your life. And you have got to come to a place where you believe the words of Jesus that the disruption he will bring far outweighs the coping mechanisms you're using right now. But that cynical religious spirit inside all of us will try to convince you in this moment that it's too uncertain to experience this miracle.
More than that, it will take too much time. You see, when I think about my students' question back in the day, I don't think they were concerned that they never saw a miracle, but I think what really bothered them is that it took too long. Miracles take too long. And here's what you've to come to terms with. Miracles are beautiful, but the deepest and fullest kind of miracle and healing always is very slow.
Doctor. Kurt Thompson has this beautiful quote where he says, Everything that God creates in this world that is undeniably beautiful also takes the longest to create. So, for example, a snowflake is beautiful, but it is so fragile. The moment it enters your hand, it melts away. But the Grand Canyon, the beauty of the Grand Canyon, took a long time.
That's durable beauty, with years and years of river running through rock. The deepest work in your life, the miracle that you long to have will probably take the longest amount of time and disruption. And I say that honestly to comfort some of you who are sitting here right now feeling like you've been waiting forever for God to deliver you. And you've convinced yourself that maybe something's wrong with you. The opposite I think is true.
You're fine. The deepest work takes the longest. But I also say this to challenge some of you today with the question of Jesus. Do you actually want to be healed or do you just wanna manage the symptoms? Because those are two different things.
Being healed, fully restored, made in the image of Jesus, living life to the eternal that he has called you to forever, or just learning to manage the symptoms of the lies that you believe about yourself, your body, about your relationships, about your calling. Which one do you want today? Do you wanna manage pain or do you wanna be healed? If you want to be healed, learn to embrace the disruptive process that God is calling you into and come to terms with the reality that the very miracle you have been praying for, you're also probably resisting the way that God is bringing that miracle. And that's what you need to confess today.
And so here we all are, back in the classroom, except we're all students. Jesus, a teacher, takes a deep breath and asks all of you right now, what's it gonna take for you to place your faith in me? What kind of disbelief do you need to confess today? What kind of desperation are you ready to actually declare through worship that you have for God? What what kind of disruption are you willing him or willing for him to to work out in your life?
Let's bring that to him in prayer now. Let's pray. Jesus, we wanna be the kinds of people who don't look away when do a beautiful work in our life. We wanna walk by faith. We wanna see that the healing that you're doing in our own bodies, the healing that you're doing in our relationships, the healing that you are bringing in the world, even as as it gets dark.
And so we we just pause now in prayer. And and we ask that you would help us by the power of your holy spirit to simply say the words, Jesus, heal me today. Heal me today. Heal me of my disbelief. God help me to confess my desperation for you.
And God, would you help me to become the kind of person who can welcome your disruptive work. Make me new, God, even if it costs me comfort. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. For those of you who are watching us online, I want to just take a moment and say thank you for joining us for our service today.
And I want to invite you, to allow us to come alongside as you begin to discover the Jesus who wants to do a miracle in your life. If you find yourself in place of great need, I would love for you to reach out to us. I know that feels like an extra step, but please go to sandalschurch.com/help so that our team, even myself personally, can follow-up with you and tell you more about the ways that we are experiencing the healing power of Jesus in our life and through our church as well. Also, for those of you who are continuing to be just enriched by this kind of teaching or any of the messages here at Sandals Church, and maybe you attend elsewhere or you haven't gone on a giving journey, I want to take a moment right now and call you to a moment of obedience where you say, God, thank you for the work of Sandals Church, and I wanna support your work through this church. To do that, you can go to sandalschurch.com/support.
We love you guys. Grace and peace.
Morgan Teruel: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a 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.