March 1, 2026 - Encountering God in the Face of Jesus Matthew 8

But I I want you to see something here. The kingdom of God, that's what Jesus came to bring. Right? Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Sometimes Matthew will say the kingdom of heaven, but he means kingdom of God. It's just a way of saying kingdom of God. By saying kingdom of heaven, he mean he's saying the kingdom, the God's rule is right here, right now. Yes. We know that when we die, if we're followers of Jesus, our bodies will be healed. We know that our sins will be wiped away. We know all that good stuff is coming, but it is already available to us at least imperfectly. It's inaugurated. The kingdom will not fully be here until Jesus comes again, but the kingdom is here. And things like what I'm talking about, forgiveness and healing are possible right here, right now. [00:35:28] (53 seconds)  #KingdomHereNow

And so here is what I'm trying to say in in all of this today. And I'll start at the end, and I'll go back to the beginning, is that there are things that are purely spiritual. There are things that are purely physical, and there are things that get commingled. We have to make sure that when we're trying to deal with them, we are looking at it in a holistic way. Maybe it's why Jesus, when he did heal that paralytic, they lowered down this paralytic on a mat. Obviously, he's come to be healed. But the first thing Jesus says to him is, son, your your son, your sins are forgiven. Then later, he says, get up, take your mat, go home. But he dealt with his spiritual issue, Then he dealt with his physical. [00:56:20] (67 seconds)  #HolisticHealing

So as I kinda this is my first first lesson I wanna wanna lean into, and that is, is there somebody that that god is laying on your heart that for whatever reason that they're suffering or they're paralyzed, emotionally, they may be ashamed, they may be just despondent, but they're no longer able to kinda muster up the faith to go before Jesus. Is there somebody that maybe Jesus is laying on your heart for you to bring before Jesus? [00:41:22] (39 seconds)  #BringThemToJesus

There are times that unclean spirits, spirits that are not sent by God but are sent from Satan, can harass and even come to the point of having control on someone. Now that we call exorcism or setting them free. This over here we call healing. But there are also times that the two relate. A spirit had crippled her. Jesus said, you are free from your infirmity. We could say it's a spirit of infirmity. I say this to you. To say that there are times that maybe year after year after year, we've been asking Jesus for help on something, and we're thinking it's purely here. If only my wife would change. If only I could stop doing x. If only this other stuff would happen. [00:53:01] (63 seconds)  #FreedomFromSpirits

And I was able to look back into my family of origin, my parents and even my grandparents, and I was able to see behaviors that somehow had been transferred to me in my generation. I'll just tell you right now, I don't know exactly how that happens. I don't know if it happens because, you know, the spirits think they have a right. I I don't know. Or maybe it happens because even as a young person, there's things I observed in my grandparents and things I observed in my parents, one parent in particular, one grandparent in particular. And maybe because observing them, somehow I I somehow thought that was an acceptable way to express myself. But I'm telling you that that kind of a a spiritual power began to control me. And my being bound was not just something I could go to a therapist and say, tell me x y and z. I needed Jesus to break it off of me. [00:55:00] (69 seconds)  #BreakGenerationalStrongholds

We talked about that that last week, and a lot of times we think, okay, that's the way it happens is I I'm I'm coming to Jesus and I'm asking for help. But guess what? I had gotten to the point in my ten years, eleven, twelve years of dealing with psoriasis that I had stopped asking. I had asked so many times that I'm like, this is just silly. Why am I still asking? But somebody named Mark had the faith to ask for me. [00:36:31] (34 seconds)  #FaithOfAFriend

If we were to keep going in Mark's gospel, the very next chapter, we have the story of the paralytic. It's also told in Mark's gospel and in a little more detail in Mark's gospel. But what we have in that story is that Jesus is there in Capernaum. He's teaching. The house is full because people are engaged in his every word. And four guys who are friends of this paralytic, this paralyzed man, they come, but they can't get into the house. So they climb up on the roof. Don't think of it as your, you know, a frame roof. It's a Middle Eastern roof. There's an access to it. But still, they had to clear away some stuff and pull the palm fronds away and and make room, and then they lowered this guy. It's the friends. It's the friends who are doing this, the friends who are initiating this, and they're the ones who are bringing and placing before Jesus this paralytic. [00:40:51] (58 seconds)  #FriendsBringHealing

Satan is looking for your place of infirmity, your place of weakness, and and attaching himself to that. So the big idea is to recognize that there's two parts to this. You're you're a whole being, you're you're spirit and and body. But then, also, I want you to recognize that you may need to ask someone. Maybe you've lost faith, but you need someone that maybe bring you before Jesus. Or maybe you realize there's someone that isn't asking, doesn't have the ability to realize what's going on, but they're being laid on your heart and you need to take the initiative and bring them before Jesus. [00:58:35] (46 seconds)  #IntercedeAndRestore