[SPEAKER_00]: We're in, I mean, it says we're in Romans, it's going to say we're in Romans.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are, because we're working our way through this book, but we're now looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they are in two different places.
[SPEAKER_00]: So today's gifts that I want to look at are really in 1 Corinthians 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be confused.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there's a door jam that's going to stay right in Romans chapter 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: But these are located in 1 Corinthians 12,
[SPEAKER_00]: ten to nine to ten, and it's the gift of miracles and the gift of healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I'm building toward in my sermon, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's where I'm building to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to boldly pray for miracles and healings in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pray boldly for healing and miracles in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to hesitate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pray grander than what you alone can accomplish.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the point of prayer, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should pray for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: To move toward the sick with compassion and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: even among us, and to personally take risks that require the supernatural.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need God's help, but we're moving in the right direction, O Lord, help us as we move in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when someone explains what's going on at Redeemer,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want someone to explain it like, well, you know, they've got good leaders, they've got eloquent speakers, they've got clever programming and they've got this beautiful building that's being built and that that would be someone's explanation.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I wanted to be clear to everyone that the success was supernatural.
[SPEAKER_00]: The God just took a bunch of ordinary people and did something very
[SPEAKER_00]: extraordinary, extraordinary, over the timeline wall or the history wall that we have is this verse, if he's in chapter three, verse 20 to 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power that is work within us,
[SPEAKER_00]: to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He puts all men, you know, because Paul's getting excited about what He's praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is why we pray as a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: First Wednesdays of every month, we're saying, Lord, we want more of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We say, Lord, stretch out your hand to save people in this region, in the rockford area.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we're thankful for what you've done, but we're not going to be content until we see a great awakening in this place.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I want us to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't come to our prayer meetings if you want the status quo.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're praying for more.
[SPEAKER_00]: more of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let me explain kind of where spiritual gifts play in the largest story of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, the whole world became subject to corruption.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God could have scrapped a whole project and then said, I forget it, no, he stayed with it and he wanted to bring himself glory by restoring it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through one man, Jesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: And through Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, it broke the curse that was over the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now there is a way for sinners to be reconciled, restored in their relationship with the Creator.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because one day,
[SPEAKER_00]: Judgment will fall upon God's enemies, who reject the terms of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what's the terms of peace?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the terms of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lay down your arms and surrender to Jesus before it's too late because the king is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's gonna put all enemies under his feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: The terms of peace is the gospel that we preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: So spiritual gifts,
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, I've been given to every believer that are like spiritual empowerment to equip every believer to accomplish the mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is the rightful ruler.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right now, so signs and wonders, which include miracles and healing, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Display the kindness and the authority of Christ's reign.
[SPEAKER_00]: The king is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is upon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, but it's coming in full measure, the restoration of all things is drawing near.
[SPEAKER_00]: And churches are to be a warning and a witness to the watching world, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So now let's read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians, chapter 12, turn there, and I'll show you where it's located.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 12 verses 9 and 10, and he's listing out these gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to believers.
[SPEAKER_00]: To another faith, that give the faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healings by the one spirit, to another the working of miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's the passage and those are the gifts that I want to talk about today and here's the first point I want to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miracles and healing announce Christ's kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miracles in healing announce Christ's kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are not random acts of power.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are signs that announce that his kingdom has invaded this world by his life, death, and resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there have been miracles, even in the Old Testament, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a sign that says, you know, things are bad right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things are evil, seems like evil is triumphant, but one day,
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to heal it all, one day he's going to restore it all, and the brief moments where you see miracles, it's to announce Christ's kingdom, because when Christ comes and there is a lot of miracles that take place through Jesus and His disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's coming, what does it mean that the power is a
[SPEAKER_00]: It's speaking that the power of a coming age is dawning upon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ's kingdom, dawning.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: It means that Christ has begun reversing the curse that is upon all of creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when he heals, he is indicating that the curse is being reversed right now, OK?
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the book, the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, remember the white witch, she imposed a winter across all of the land of Narnia.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that everything was cold, everything was barren, everything was lifeless.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this winter symbolizes that the curse of sin has fallen upon creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when the lion named Aslan enters, enters the land, returns the land begins to thaw.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: The flowers begin to bloom, the forest starts to reawake it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Narnia doesn't transform immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thought is the first indication or that evidence that the true king has arrived.
[SPEAKER_00]: And therefore, signs and wonders, healings, miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of that is announcing Christ's kingdom is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ said, it's upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it also says it's future.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're living in between, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning has started.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first sight of thawing is going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're announcing the kingdom and the terms of peace by the gospel one day it's coming in full.
[SPEAKER_00]: And miracles and healings are not merely relief from suffering but signs that Satan's dominion has been broken and the
[SPEAKER_00]: has visitors come to him, John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to say, hey, are you the one, you know, like the Messiah or we deserts for someone else?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus sends the messengers back to John to say, well, he does say, yeah, I'm the guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says it this way, the blind received sight,
[SPEAKER_00]: The lame walk, the leper's cleanse, the deaf here, and the dead raised up and the poor had the good news preached to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus lists miracles that he performed fulfilling Isaiah 35, Isaiah 61, which talks about the restoration of all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming, and I'm fulfilling it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matthew chapter 12 verse 28, when he did an exorcism, Jesus said, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that miracle of exorcism is talking is announcing that the kingdom of God has come upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the miracle of exorcism was an eviction notice.
[SPEAKER_00]: That Satan's reign is coming to an end.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the healing of diseases, which means that Christ is undoing the curse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day it will be complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: The exorcisms that now the collapse of Satan's regime or Satan's kingdom storms obeying Jesus for shadow the end of the creation's curse.
[SPEAKER_00]: miracles and healings announce Christ's kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is come, it will come and fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another thing I want to say, and this is point number two in the outline.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit grants spiritual gifts sovereignly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's up to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 127 that he's in charge of the distribution of the gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're a believer, God has given you a gift, like the gift of help, so the gift of service, maybe it's the gift of prophecy or teaching, or the gift of tongues, like last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: sovereignly given, not everyone has the same gift, but we can ask for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: God sovereignly gives it, but according to 1 Corinthians 14, it's clear that we can ask for some of these gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, would you grant that I would get the gift of teaching, or the gift of exhortation, or the gift of wisdom, or knowledge?
[SPEAKER_00]: We can ask for those gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, how do you know if you have the gift of healing, or the gift of miracles?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's pretty clear, when you pray for healing, or you pray for miracle, they happen more frequently with you than others.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I think it's important to say that even in the first century, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: When first century, when, you know, when healings were going on, not everyone was healed, who prayed for a healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you understand that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody was healed in the first century.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has sovereign over that too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because how can Paul in Acts chapter 19 some miraculous things were happening in the city of Ephesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: That even, interesting, Acts chapter 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even aprons and hanker chips that Paul touched.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, this is crazy stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sent him out to people who were sick.
[SPEAKER_00]: People were getting healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: From just hanker chips that had touched the apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can he be doing that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, then not be able to heal others.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a partner.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a companion on his journey that he would walk to city to city with.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name was Trophamus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says in 2 Timothy 420, that he left Trophamus ill at my leadus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet, Paul was making a B-line somewhere, probably to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this guy got sick and he left him off at my leadus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you get better and I'm gonna keep going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well why didn't you just heal him?
[SPEAKER_00]: because it wasn't just on tap ready to be served.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anytime it was sovereignly given by the Lord, same with Timothy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy was a true child in the faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a companion, but we're told in first Timothy five, 23, that Timothy was kind of a sickly guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had stomach ailments, frequent problems, and why didn't Paul just heal him?
[SPEAKER_00]: or how about Paul's own affliction?
[SPEAKER_00]: When he prayed for his own affliction, the Lord said, nope, I want it to remain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Corinthians 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it wasn't constant, like even in the first century, when cessationists actually let me unpack a word here, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: When we're talking about spiritual gifts, there are certain gifts that seem extraordinary, miraculous, those kind of gifts like healing miracles, tongue-speaking prophecy, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, those
[SPEAKER_00]: cessationists would say they ceased cessation ceased after the first century, because they would say that those sign gifts or miraculous gifts were there to authenticate
[SPEAKER_00]: The New Testament, you know, because books are being written about the life of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, how do we know that these are legitimate books?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, miracles from God, proliferated at that time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And cessationists would say miracles then served its purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And after the first century, they faded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's why they would say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now they're not anti-supernatural, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: They believe that God can still heal.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just don't believe in the gifts of healing, gift of the miraculous, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: But,
[SPEAKER_00]: even in the first century when the cessationists believe gifts of healing and miracles or operational, even in that time of the history, not everyone was healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is sovereign over the outpouring of miracles and healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even in the first century, I will go further.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is sovereign over the outpouring of signs and wonders, healings and miracles even today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I often hear when I talk about continuation of miracles and healing, the pushback is, well, where do you see the gift of healing and the gift of miracles today?
[SPEAKER_00]: And my response is even in the first century.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miracles and healings were not in a steady state.
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't on tap, on demand.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just didn't work that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I heard a pastor tell me that if the gift of healing was present today, a person you walk in a hospital and just empty it out and send everybody home through healing, that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because in the first century, that wasn't happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: There weren't everybody getting healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless you mean Jesus, because Jesus, yeah, every time, every time.
[SPEAKER_00]: but not so with the rest of the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The extraordinary gifts came upon individuals at special seasons in history.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've heard this, like Moses, all of the miracles that happened to get the people of Israel out of Egypt and then Elijah and Elijah and then Christ and his apostles, those who like the three epochs of healing and miracles happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they're special times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why can't we just leave it at that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we have to etch them in stone and say, it's never gonna happen again?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you don't have a scripture that's strong enough to say it's going to end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter two tells me that in the church age, these are going to be happening until Jesus returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: So why can't we just say, sovereignly, God has His moments where He's going to pour it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So why don't we pray for it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we say, not so I can happen again, because you think about if you were living just after Elijah and Elijah, and you said, and you were a cessationist.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there was any cessation of saying, well, it's over, it's all gone, it's done.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, God sovereignly gives it according to His purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can pray and we can ask, why not happen right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not happen in this age?
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of saying that science gifts have ceased in the first century, let's just say that the spirit grants gifts sovereignly.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Sam Storms says, we should not be surprised when it happens infrequent.
[SPEAKER_00]: For if it did happen frequent, we should cease to call it extraordinary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Third point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my outline, the greatest miracle is conversion.
[SPEAKER_00]: The greatest miracle is conversion.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I mean by that is regeneration, that's a theological term for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: New birth, John chapter three.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about conversion when the Holy Spirit gives life to our dead souls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because every other miracle is leading up to that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: John and his gospel, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrote down all of the miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He chose not all the miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said if I included all,
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole library of the world wouldn't contain him, but he says, I've written these so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it's leading to.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the miracles are doing, leading to the greatest miracle of all your salvation, your conversion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So signs, wonders, healings, point and lead us to the greatest miracle, the miracle of conversion.
[SPEAKER_00]: You submitting to King Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the whole point it's leading to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not for us to be like amaze and a wild and wow that guy in those special white boots and you know suspenders, he's really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that can slay a crowd, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's the glory to Jesus Christ in the saving of a sinner is the greatest miracle of all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians chapter two, verses one and two,
[SPEAKER_00]: You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that Satan, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of our flesh and of the mind and were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
[SPEAKER_00]: We begin to be dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot respond to gospel invitations without a miracle, holy spirit, bringing some things to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the sentence of death is upon us because our crimes should be punished in hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're children of rap by nature because it's our fallen condition because of Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're following it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are sinning just like Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, we're enslaved to our desires and passions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who you, we've got a world that thinks they're free.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they can describe the world and describe the describ reality, whatever they want.
[SPEAKER_00]: All they do is become more and more enslaved to their own lust and self worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all they're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not free.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're enslaved.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need, and we need freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why I say the miracle of conversion is the greatest miracle of all.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you let go of sinful pleasures when you can see and feel them and exchange them for something you can't see?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would anybody do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how will anybody be convinced of things unseen when the world is so vivid and exciting?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you get a man named Saul who is persecuting this church to convert to the very thing he's opposing?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the miracle of new birth because all of us have transgressed the law of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And judgment is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we will turn from our wicked ways, our God-ignoring ways, and call out for Jesus to save us, He will, and He will forgive, He'll transform our hearts, our dead hearts, and reconcile us to God the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we pray, we seek forgiveness through Jesus, that we would be made whole by His saving grace, because He's offering it right now to all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is the great miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for Redeemer Church, those who have been redeemed, here's what I want you to pray for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pray boldly for miracles and healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's point number four.
[SPEAKER_00]: church, I want to see you asking, seeking, knocking, petitioning for greater displays of supernatural power by the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that uncomfortable to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: It should not be because don't we need physical healing for people even in this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have marriages that are
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have people in trans by this world that need to have a wake-up call?
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have protocols that need to find their way home?
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have friends that have resisted the gospel for a long time?
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have fear crippling so many of us that hinders us from good gospel work?
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't we have all types of addictions found among us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should we not pray boldly for healing and for miracles?
[SPEAKER_00]: I say yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe we hesitate too much in our prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, why do we do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, probably for some, we don't want to seem ungrateful for what God has already done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe some people hesitate because they fear of becoming obsessed with miracles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I just say that this church, that's not going to be a fear, especially a church that is so, you know, doctorally charged, our danger is asking too little of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They say, John, why would you say that's natural for doctorally charged churches?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, just think about it, we're conservative, and we're guarding the truth that has been given to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are holding fast the faithful word, the faith wants delivered to the saints, yet in doing so in that defensive posture, we can hesitate to press God for more.
[SPEAKER_00]: who wants to give us more when we ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a heavenly father, he loves to give good gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like all those passages are saying, ask me, ask me, ask me, petition, ask, seek knock.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we're going well, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know when some of the disciples,
[SPEAKER_00]: try to fail to perform an exorcism, okay, to try to get a demon out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus steps in and performs that miracle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the disciples go, well, how did you do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, why couldn't we do it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he answers in Mark chapter 9 verse 29, he says, this kind of evil spirit cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Say, disciples, you can't do it on your own.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to ask for power from on high.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, duh, that should be a no-brainer.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they were hesitating to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm big and, okay, we need to press in to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: and asking for power.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Jesus told His disciples that they needed to forgive their brother, even if He sins seven times against them, you know what the response was?
[SPEAKER_00]: Increase our faith, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's too much to ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: Increase our faith to which He responds in Luke chapter 17 verse 6, if you had faith, like a grain of the mustard seed,
[SPEAKER_00]: You could say that it's mulberry bush, be uprooted and planted into the sea, and it would obey you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So translated, Jesus is saying, okay, if you want your faith to be increased, exercise it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Put yourself in a place where you need me, and requesting something that you need me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I say, pray, grander than what you alone can accomplish.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I say it that way because we need to be petitioning God for those impossible things.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should, the impossible prayer should be the target of your prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: The things that you can't do, that's what you should be praying for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it says in Ephesians 3, and I read it, he is able to do more than we can even think or imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, that I can think of and imagine a lot of things and you can too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then be bold enough to pray for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be bold enough to pray for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aren't we talking about, and you say, well, aren't we talking about the gift of miracles and the gift of healings?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, is there anybody among us with the gift of healings or miracles?
[SPEAKER_00]: And my answer is, I don't know, OK?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think the first step is to stop hesitating to pray for greater things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's start there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe if we're praying for healing and miracles, maybe in a few years, we can mark out the people who are gifted in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you call yourself a cessationist or a continuationist, you should be pressing the Lord in prayer for miracles and healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need broken bodies, heal, we need marriages, healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: More people say, more leaders, more churches planted.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should not be content with status quo when our city and our country is so dark and broken, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we hesitate?
[SPEAKER_00]: We should not be hesitating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless, and I think for some, this is probably it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You're saved, you know your future is secure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now I just want to enjoy this world as much as possible and you just get in trans by this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're not aching and longing in your heart for God to come with great power and healing and to manifest himself in a powerful way so that the gospel gets out.
[SPEAKER_00]: That should be the ache in our heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not for another boat or a new car or another house.
[SPEAKER_00]: It should be for sin, brothers and sisters, press in, come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's time to pray boldly for miracles and healings, knowing finally, and this is my last point, bodily resurrection is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sang about it in the nice and creed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bottily resurrection is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he takes those bodies that are hurting and becoming worn out, on ones that are already dead and bring it so I forget.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does that because Jesus died, was raised.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are unified with Christ by faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our bodies will rise.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the promise of Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because every healing in this age, it's temporary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: He grew old and died again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Limbs and legs, that Jesus healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: They grew weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember what I said at the beginning, miracles and healings announced the coming of Christ's kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the kingdoms this world will be subsumed under the kingdom of our God, and He will reign forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a temporary time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: entered in through Adam and spread to all of us, but Jesus defeated sin and death and the devil on the cross taking the punishment for our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The curse is reversed now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resurrection proves it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The winter thought has begun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those who repent and believe who trust in the saving work of Jesus, life has begun.
[SPEAKER_00]: a life that will culminate in physical, physical resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said in John chapter 11, he came to this funeral.
[SPEAKER_00]: His friend Lazarus, already dead, four days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone was sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Martha was the first to meet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, can you imagine this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's sad, everyone's sorrowful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am the resurrection and the life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He believes in me, shall live, even if he dies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Press it into Martha.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Martha said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he starts to move toward the tomb, she goes, whoa, hey, he's been in there a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't let it, he stinks, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's not go there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he doesn't believe that Jesus could do that, but Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sickness and death, one day will be no more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore our bodies will rise.
[SPEAKER_00]: How, because Christ's life is in us who believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 8 11, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: mortal bodies come into life again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Redeemer one day, the age of sickness and death that we're living in will be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: That day is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: but we have work to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a good work.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was exciting work that we could be a part of.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the grandest adventure that you could be on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing greater than this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then to give the terms of peace, the gospel message to this world, and collectively we have that together.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we share a bond, and we get to see his kingdom coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get to see the Lord working in lives, baptisms on a Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty exciting, so here's what I say, let's go out with a bank.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go out with a bang.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this is what we're doing and God wants us on this mission, let's go out with a bang.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray boldly for miracles and healing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's move toward that instead of a way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop hesitating or God wants to answer greater prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be satisfied with status quo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be like there's nothing more of God to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not true at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if you draw near to me, I want to draw near to you because there's more.
[SPEAKER_00]: We worship him and we are trying to keep our hearts lit for him so that when he returns, he finds us doing and we're doing the very thing we enjoy the most serving the king of kings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I can't say it better than the disciples in Acts chapter 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: who say after they see miracles and then they're in a prayer meeting and there's a earthquake.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the power of God just displayed to them and here's what they pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your Holy
[SPEAKER_00]: grant that we be bold in this day and age.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Lord stretch out your hand to these signs and wonders healing and miracles among us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not here?
[SPEAKER_00]: You did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the great awakening back in New England in the 18th century.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not now in this region?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not in rockford?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because everyone doesn't want to live here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like everyone's ashamed to be from rockford.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, and we're like a nobody in a nobody city.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that a perfect set-up for our God?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a perfect set-up for our God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Press the in brothers and sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Press the in.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.