0:02 Help. God, would you do business with
0:04 this? I'm tired of this anger. I'm ready
0:06 to let it go. I'm tired of this pride. I
0:08 want to humble myself under the mighty
0:11 hand of God so that he can exalt me. I'm
0:13 tired of living in a stale, passionless
0:15 marriage. Lord, take it and do with it
0:17 what you will. Lord, I'm tired of being
0:20 as I was. I want to be as you can make
0:32 [Applause]
0:36 I love you, too.
0:37 And I'm so thrilled to be with you
0:39 because I'm excited. I'm sitting on the
0:42 edge of my seat to see what God wants to
0:45 say to us tonight. I love how he
0:49 prepares one message, but he by his
0:53 spirit divides it up 3,000 ways
0:54 >> so that every person under the sound of
0:57 my voice tonight will hear a word that
1:00 has been handcrafted from heaven for you.
1:01 you.
1:03 >> I believe that. I believe that for
1:06 myself as well.
1:08 So, I'm going to pray for us. But before
1:10 I do, while you are standing, I just
1:12 want to read God's word to you. If you
1:14 actually still, you know, use a Bible
1:19 with paper pages, grab it. Old school
1:21 or your iPhone, your iPad, any manner of
1:24 eye, just feel free to grab that or I
1:25 think they're going to put it up on the
1:27 screen. I want to read God's word to you
1:28 while you were standing because we are
1:32 in a house of God where I know the
1:35 leadership at this church treasures the
1:37 word of God. I pray that if this is not
1:40 your home church, you go to a church
1:43 where the leadership, the congregation
1:45 treasures the word of God, that it is
1:48 God speaking to us, that y'all, every
1:50 single time we open up the scriptures,
1:53 we ought to expect to feel the warm
1:55 breath of God brushing across our cheeks
1:58 as he speaks a present word over our
2:01 lives. It's God talking to us. And every
2:02 now and then, you ought to, even when
2:04 you're by yourself, you ought to make
2:07 yourself stand up.
2:09 >> Because if kings and queens, if
2:10 presidents walked into the room, we
2:12 wouldn't keep our seat. We would stand
2:15 up out of respect. How much more if God
2:17 is going to speak? [Applause]
2:20 [Applause]
2:22 Should we stand in anticipation of what
2:25 he might say to us? So, I'm going to
2:26 read God's word to you. I'm going to
2:30 read one verse from Luke chapter 4.
2:32 And then we're going to hop back to the
2:33 Old Testament where we're going to camp
2:36 out in 2 Kings chapter 5 for the rest of
2:38 the evening. Is that all right?
2:42 >> Luke chapter 4 verse 27
2:46 says this. Jesus is speaking. He says,
2:49 "There were many lepers in Israel in the
2:52 time when Elijah the prophet lived, but
2:56 none of them were cleansed. Only non the
2:59 Syrian." Listen to that again. There
3:00 were a whole lot of people who had issues
3:03 issues
3:07 in Israel in the church in the time of
3:10 Elijah the prophet, but none of them was cleansed.
3:11 cleansed.
3:14 Only non. And he wasn't even in the
3:17 church. He was a Syrian.
3:19 Second Kings chapter 5, I'm going to
3:21 read verse 1 through3. Then I'm going to
3:23 read verse 10 and 14. And then I'll pray
3:27 over us and then you can sit down.
3:30 Verse one says, "Now non, here's the
3:32 guy. He's captain of the king of Aram.
3:34 He's captain, captain of the army of the
3:37 king of Aram. He was a great man with
3:40 his master, highly respected because by
3:42 him, the Lord had given victory to Aram.
3:45 And by the way, Aram is Syria.
3:49 The man was also a very valiant warrior.
3:53 But dog gone it, he was a leper."
3:55 Now the Syrians, the Arameans had gone
3:57 out in bands at one point. They had
3:59 taken captive this little girl from the
4:01 land of Israel and she came back as a
4:04 captive to Syria and she was the maid
4:07 servant. She waited on Non's wife. Verse
4:09 three says, "She said to her mistress
4:12 one day as she watched her lepous master
4:14 walking around the house. I'm sure she
4:16 said to her mistress, you know, I wish
4:19 that my master were with the prophet. I
4:21 know this guy who's in Samaria.
4:24 His name is Elijah. Man, I wish he were
4:26 with him because then he would be cured
4:29 of his leprosy. Verse 10. So Elijah
4:32 sends out a messenger to non when non
4:34 finally goes to see him and he says, "Go
4:37 and wash in the Jordan seven times. Your
4:38 flesh will be restored to you and you
4:42 shall be clean." Verse 14.
4:45 So non after some poking and proddding,
4:48 he goes down. He dips himself seven
4:50 times in the Jordan according to the
4:52 word of the man of God. And his flesh
4:54 was restored like the flesh of a little
4:59 child. And he was made whole.
5:02 Lord Jesus, I thank you for your word. I
5:04 thank you, Father, that it is living and
5:05 that it is active and that it is sharper
5:07 than any two-edged sword. Lord, I pray
5:09 that in these few moments that we will
5:11 spend together over your word, that the
5:13 words of my mouth and the meditation of
5:15 my heart will be acceptable to you.
5:16 Father, I pray that any assignment that
5:18 the enemy may have tonight, either to
5:20 keep me from having clarity of thought
5:23 and clarity of words, Father, or to keep
5:25 ears veiled so that they cannot hear
5:27 what the spirit would say. I pray that
5:29 any assignment would be cancelled in
5:31 Jesus' name and by his blood that has
5:34 been shed on Calvary. Speak, Lord. We
5:37 came for a word tonight. We're glad each
5:39 other is here, but we didn't come to see
5:41 each other. We came to see you. And so,
5:43 Father, we're on the edge of our seat.
5:47 speak. Your daughters are listening
5:49 >> in Jesus name. All God's women said, "Amen."
5:50 "Amen." >> Amen.
5:51 >> Amen.
5:59 Sounds like a herd of buffalo sitting down.
6:10 There's a girl named Rashida. Rashida is
6:12 has been a member of our church for a
6:14 very very long time, but I don't really
6:17 know her as much from church as I do
6:19 from different families that she would
6:22 babysit for. She was a beautiful
6:26 35year-old um woman in her mid30s, a
6:28 beautiful woman, vivaceious in
6:30 personality, engaged as much as she
6:32 could be in church life and single woman
6:34 who had a lot of time on her hands and
6:36 she loved investing that time into young
6:38 people. She enjoyed babysitting. That's
6:40 really where I got to know her. She
6:42 babysat for several members of my
6:44 family. My sister, who has five
6:45 children, would often call on Rashida to
6:48 come over and help with the kids. My
6:50 cousin, who's like another sister to us,
6:52 her name is Winter. Winter has four uh
6:55 little girls and her little girl girls
6:57 often when they were in need of a sitter
6:59 sitter, Winter would call Rashidita and
7:01 ask Rashidita to come over and babysit
7:03 for the f four girls. That's how I got
7:05 to know Rashidita because all of the
7:07 cousins, my kids, my sister's kids, my
7:09 cousins kids, all of them are very close
7:11 to each other. So, we would often
7:13 connect the dots and have playdates. So,
7:15 I would often end up in the same place
7:17 with Rashida, who might be watching one
7:19 of the pockets of the kids as all the
7:21 kids were getting together. It gave us
7:23 an opportunity, Rashidita and I, to
7:24 spend a little time together. Not much,
7:27 but little pockets of time, little
7:29 disjointed pieces of conversation as we
7:31 were rallying kids from one place to the
7:32 other. I got to talk to her and get to
7:34 know her just a little bit. That's when
7:35 I found out a little bit about
7:38 Rashidita's story. I discovered that in
7:40 her 20s and her early 30s, she was on an
7:42 upwardly mobile track in the company
7:44 that she worked for. Very, very
7:47 successful and headed to the pinnacle at
7:48 the company. I mean, she was doing well.
7:50 She was making a lot of money. She had a
7:52 lot of ambition and dreams in terms of
7:55 her um her uh position in this
7:57 particular company. And she was doing
7:59 well. She was excited about it. when she
8:01 began to feel the poking and the
8:05 proddding of the Lord. She wasn't sure
8:08 at first. It just felt like unrest. Just
8:10 she wasn't supposed to be there anymore.
8:11 And it didn't make sense because, you
8:13 know, her paycheck was what her paycheck
8:16 was. And people looked at her with
8:18 approval. They respected her. She had
8:19 already been told that she was on the
8:21 upward track. She knew she was destined
8:23 for great things there, but there was
8:25 unrest. And so, she sought the Lord
8:27 about that unrest. a woman who wants to
8:30 follow God, wants to do what he has
8:31 asked her to do, wants to be in his
8:33 will. And so, she kind of talked to the
8:35 Lord a little bit about that unrest that
8:36 she was feeling, why she didn't feel
8:39 cozy and comfortable here anymore. She
8:40 didn't quite get it, but she just wanted
8:43 to ask God what his will was. and
8:44 through the confirmation that she
8:46 received from the messages taught on
8:48 Sunday at our local church and then her
8:50 own personal Bible study and then wise
8:53 mentors and friends who helped to sort
8:56 of confirm that yeah over time it was
8:57 confirmed that yeah this this seems to
8:59 be the leading of the Lord. The only
9:01 thing was is that she didn't know what
9:02 she was headed to. Has that ever
9:04 happened to you where you kind of feel
9:06 an unrest in one place like the Lord is
9:08 pointing you in a direct in but
9:10 direction but he hasn't g you given you
9:12 specific GPS coordinates you don't know
9:14 where you're going you don't know what
9:16 the end result is going to be but
9:18 Rashidita just felt like well if God is
9:21 leading me elsewhere then where I'm
9:22 going is going to be better than where I
9:27 am now so she just stepped out in faith
9:30 she left her job waiting for God's assignment
9:31 assignment
9:33 which This is why she was babysitting
9:34 when I met her. Because in the inner
9:36 room, she decided to do what she loved.
9:38 Just kind of hang out with pockets of
9:40 kids and relieve some parents to go on
9:42 some dates every now and then. She just
9:44 thought, "I'll do what I love." And she
9:46 was fully invested in the task. By the
9:47 way, she would always come over with a
9:50 casserole of some sort made for the
9:51 family so that mom didn't have to worry
9:53 about it. She always came over with a
9:56 Bible story in tow with all of the
9:58 illustrations necessary to engage the
10:01 kids that she was going to be um that
10:02 she was going to be babysitting. She
10:03 wanted to make sure they knew some
10:05 verses before she left that she would
10:07 put to songs on occasion so that they
10:09 would have it ringing in her head in
10:12 their heads. And so two months went by,
10:14 she enjoyed it. But the two months
10:17 dovetailed into six months. Then the six
10:21 six months dovetailed into a year. still
10:22 she's waiting on God's assignment and
10:25 here she is babysitting
10:26 and then that year became a year and a
10:29 half and about the time I last talked to
10:32 her in this interim in her life um it
10:35 had been about the 2year mark and about
10:37 two years in she still loves the kids
10:39 but she's really trying to figure out
10:42 where God is
10:45 and why his next assignment for her has
10:48 not materialized yet and at this point
10:50 she's a little bit frustrated
10:52 She's a little bit evangelically ticked off
10:54 off
10:57 cuz God's taking his time. Anybody know
10:59 what I'm talking about? She's
11:01 frustrated. And honestly, she said, "I
11:03 feel like I've been cheated because I've
11:06 done what I felt like was obey God. I I
11:07 felt like he pointed me in this
11:09 direction and that I was trusting him to
11:12 take me to the next phase, the next
11:15 step, the next uh portion of my journey.
11:17 But here I am stuck in this little
11:20 interim space and I can't figure out why
11:22 I why I'm here. And she said, I just
11:24 became very authentic with God in
11:26 prayer. I was like, God, are you serious
11:28 right now?
11:29 Lord, I've been babysitting for two
11:32 years. Surely you have something more
11:34 for me. Lord, I I got to be honest with
11:36 you and tell you that I feel cheated. I
11:38 was on the upwardly mobile path. My
11:41 ambitions and dreams, I can see them
11:43 back there, but you've steered me in a
11:44 different direction. and this is not
11:47 making sense. God, I'm frustrated and
11:50 irritated and I feel cheated.
11:52 So, she said, "Lord, I'm going to ask
11:54 you to give me some clarity. I don't
11:55 know what's going on, but I need you to
11:57 either change my circumstances or change
11:59 my heart
12:01 because this doesn't look like the what
12:04 I thought it would."
12:06 She said that just a couple of days
12:08 later, she had another babysitting
12:11 assignment. That babysitting assignment
12:14 that had already been planned was with
12:16 my my cousin Winter and her four girls.
12:18 She walked up to their front door. The
12:20 front door is a wood door, but it has
12:21 glass panels in it. And so you can kind
12:24 of see a blurred glass panel. So you can
12:25 kind of see into the house. And she said
12:26 when she walked up to the door,
12:29 casserole dish in hand. And she rang the
12:31 doorbell, she could already see the four
12:34 little girls racing toward the door,
12:37 smiles on their faces, enthusiastic
12:38 because Miss Rashidita was coming
12:40 tonight. And she said that happened
12:42 almost every time that she came. But on
12:45 this day, she saw those smiles
12:48 differently. That they were eager to be
12:50 in her presence. She saw that that there
12:52 was so much meaning behind the fact that
12:54 these four girls actually wanted to be
12:56 with her that they were expecting and
12:57 anticipating whatever she was going to
12:59 bring through the door. And when the
13:01 door opened, she said they immediately
13:03 burst into one of the songs that she had
13:05 taught them on one previous time when
13:08 she was there. the verses from scripture
13:10 through those songs, spilling out of
13:11 these little girls' mouths as they
13:14 quoted and sung one after the other,
13:16 rehearsing back to her everything she
13:18 had poured into them during the time
13:20 that she had spent with them. And she
13:21 said it was while they were singing and
13:23 giggling and jumping all around her,
13:26 casserole dish still in hand, when she
13:28 first walked through the door, she said
13:29 that the Holy Spirit whispered to her
13:33 and said, "You're not just babysitting.
13:36 You get the privilege to help shape the
13:38 souls of little human beings so that
13:41 these women grow up to be mighty women
13:42 of God. [Applause]
13:43 [Applause]
13:45 She said just about that time as she's
13:47 standing there with the casserole dish
13:49 in hand, uh the mom, Winter, uh had just
13:51 gotten dressed up for the date that she
13:53 was going to have uh with her husband
13:54 and she came racing through the living
13:56 room at the last moment to grab a few
13:58 things before her husband pulled up to
14:00 pick her up and to take her pulled up
14:02 from work to take her out. And she said
14:04 that as Winter raced through the house,
14:06 she saw the casserole dish that was in
14:08 Rashidita's hand. And Rashidita said for
14:10 the first time she actually noticed the
14:13 look of relief on that mom's face that
14:15 she had provided through this little
14:17 casserole dish a bit of solace and peace
14:20 in the life of another woman that she'd
14:22 taken a little bit of the load off of
14:23 her plate. And the Holy Spirit whispered
14:25 to her, "You didn't just bake a casserole.
14:28 casserole.
14:31 You helped to invest in the life of a
14:34 woman that needs to know that I see her
14:37 >> and I've got her back.
14:39 And then she said that when her husband
14:40 walked through the door and the two of
14:43 them kissed their girls and left and
14:45 went out on a date, a date they hadn't
14:47 been on in a very long time, she said
14:50 the Holy Spirit whispered to her and
14:52 said, "You're not just babysitting.
14:55 You're making sure that a marriage stays
14:58 intact and has strength and passion and love."
15:05 She said it was a sweet evening with
15:07 those girls. And then she got back in
15:08 the car to leave when the night was
15:11 over. And she said one final time, the
15:12 Holy Spirit whispered to her and said
15:15 something she will never forget.
15:18 He said, "You have not been cheated.
15:29 Second Kings chapter 5 has a word for
15:31 anybody in the house tonight who feels
15:33 cheated. Because when you signed up for
15:35 this job, it wasn't supposed to be this
15:37 hard. When you walked down the aisle and
15:39 said, "I do." to that guy, it wasn't
15:42 supposed to be this hard. When you first
15:44 gave birth to that baby, you didn't know
15:47 that 10 years, 15 years, 21 years later,
15:49 this would be the drama that you'd be
15:51 going through in your relationship with
15:53 that child. You did not know that you
15:55 would be on this job for this long. It
15:57 wasn't supposed to be your assignment
15:59 over this much of your life. You didn't
16:01 know that you would be walking in this
16:03 season of singleness for this long. You
16:05 didn't know. And you feel cheated
16:08 because you've said yes to God. You've
16:09 obeyed him to the best of your
16:11 abilities, not perfectly, but at least
16:14 perfect purposefully. And you, like
16:16 Rashida, feel like you've been cheated,
16:18 irritated, a little bit frustrated if
16:20 you're to be honest with God because
16:22 you've said yes, but this is not what
16:25 you thought a yes would mean.
16:27 There's encouragement for you in Second
16:29 Kings. Second Kings chapter 5 starts by
16:32 telling us about a captain in the army
16:34 of Syria. He worked closely with the
16:37 king. His name was Non. I love verse one
16:39 of chapter 5 because it's basically a
16:42 resume. In big, bold, bright,
16:46 highlighted letters, we see his resume
16:48 clearly spelled out. There are accolades
16:50 and things he's appreciated for. We
16:52 learn that he is a notable man who has a
16:55 lot of people who admire him. This first
16:57 verse reads like we would like any of
17:00 our resumes to. Just in this one little
17:02 simple verse, verse one of chapter 5, we
17:05 find out that he's successful. He's the
17:07 captain of the army. He leads troops
17:10 into battles and they emerge victorious.
17:12 But not only is he successful, he's also
17:15 well respected because he doesn't just
17:17 lead his subordinates, he's respected by
17:20 them. They honor him. They esteem him.
17:22 They find joy in following his
17:24 leadership. Not only is he successful
17:26 and respected, he's also celebrated.
17:29 Those around him highly regard him. His
17:32 name is known. His level of favor with
17:34 those around him, those under him, and
17:36 those that work side by side with him is
17:39 at full capacity. In fact, he is so
17:41 celebrated and so adored that even the
17:44 king praises him for his work and for
17:47 his worth. Not only is he successful and
17:50 not only is he respected, not only is he
17:52 celebrated, he's also feared because
17:55 enemies and foes, they shake in their
17:57 boots when they hear his name. He's a
17:59 mighty man of valor. The text says he
18:01 knows how to make sure that his
18:04 adversaries are taken down. This man has
18:07 accolades. He has appreciation. He has
18:09 notoriety. He has won the affection of
18:12 all who know him. His biography reads
18:14 like the finest of resumes. But
18:18 downplayed amongst all those accolades,
18:22 there's fine print in the resume.
18:24 Down below all of the bold font that is
18:26 headlining his life, there are five
18:29 little words that changed the trajectory
18:36 of the entire story. But he was a leper.
18:38 Don't let those five little small worlds
18:40 words fool you. Just because they're
18:41 minimal, just because they come at the
18:43 tail end of that verse, just because
18:45 they're like a little tagline that's
18:47 stuck onto this incredibly immaculate
18:49 resume, don't let them seem
18:51 insignificant to you. He is a leper and
18:54 in that age leprosy was a devastating
18:57 diagnosis. There was no cure and it
19:00 would so incapacitate you over time. It
19:03 would incapacitate you causing the nerve
19:05 endings particularly in your extremities
19:08 to become numb so that they could not
19:11 feel pain and damaged again and again
19:14 and again. Fingers and toes would need
19:16 to be amputated or they would become
19:18 dislodged. You would lose your
19:20 extremities. your skin would become uh
19:22 filled with boils and soores and
19:24 eventually the fact that you would have
19:27 leprosy would completely incapacitate
19:31 you and potentially kill you. The thing
19:34 is this leprosy even though it is the
19:36 most distinguishing characteristic
19:38 really of his life it means life or
19:41 death that leprosy is not highlighted.
19:44 It is not bold bolded. It's just tucked
19:46 away and saved for the last little line.
19:49 And yet this leprosy could actually be
19:51 the death of him. He fights it at home
19:53 trying to figure out a way to keep proof
19:55 of it covered so that no one knows. It
19:57 plagues his thoughts during the day
20:00 wondering if if anybody realizes how far
20:03 gone he actually is. He is a leper and
20:06 it's downplayed amongst his accolades
20:09 and amongst all his notoriety. And yet
20:10 it is the thing that could be the death
20:13 of him. And in a groom this size, the
20:15 tragedy is that you and I have learned
20:18 how to highlight and accentuate all of
20:20 our accolades and all of the things we
20:23 want people to see and read and hear
20:25 about us. But in the fine print of our
20:28 lives, non is not the only leper who is
20:33 >> That there are little ailments. There
20:36 are hidden diseases of the heart and of
20:38 our mind emotionally and spiritually and
20:41 they are sucking the lifeblood out of
20:44 us. There is anger that is so festering
20:46 on the inside of you because of what was
20:48 done to you or the betrayal that you
20:50 face that that anger is now creating a
20:52 bitterness that is making you hardened
20:54 and numb so that you can't have any
20:57 healthy relationships in your life any
20:59 longer. There is pride that is keeping
21:01 you from humbling yourself under the
21:03 mighty hand of God. Maybe there is a
21:06 passionless marriage that is inside the
21:08 four walls of your home. Nobody's at
21:10 church knows because you've both learned
21:13 how to put on the smile and to hold
21:15 hands for the two hours that you're in
21:17 church. But when you go home, there's no
21:19 passion. There's no peace. There's no
21:22 intimacy. Or maybe it is fear that is
21:24 crippling you in your heart or a lack of
21:26 peace or financial instability or an
21:30 addiction, a habit of your life that
21:32 that nobody else knows because you've
21:33 learned how to conceal it and cover it
21:36 up when you're outside the four walls of
21:37 your home. But when you're at home,
21:39 there's a lapse in your integrity that
21:41 nobody knows about. The thing about
21:43 leprosy is that you can only hide it for
21:47 so long.
21:48 You can only leave it as the small
21:51 print, the fine print of your life for
21:53 so long because eventually leprosy
22:00 And here's the thing, our social media
22:03 outlets don't talk about our leprosy.
22:06 We don't highlight that cuz you know,
22:08 let Instagram tell it, the meals we
22:10 cook, all of the meals we cook are
22:12 gourmet masterpieces.
22:14 Let Instagram tell it. All the children
22:16 that we have raised, they are splendid
22:19 little angels. Let our social media
22:21 presence tell it. And the houses we live
22:23 in, they're all pristine castles. And
22:25 the man we married, he's a night in
22:26 shining armor. And the business we
22:29 started, it's flourishing in every way.
22:32 And the smile on our glowing, perfectly
22:34 lit faces in our selfies relay a story
22:38 of ease and peace and wellness. But I'm
22:40 afraid y'all that underneath it all,
22:41 there are some lepers in the room tonight.
22:43 tonight.
22:45 That there's an ailment in your heart
22:48 and you've just not let anybody in.
22:50 Nobody knows the thing that you're
22:52 really struggling with. And listen, I
22:54 find it interesting that non even as a
22:59 leper is still working. Okay?
23:01 Not only is he still working captain of
23:03 the army, but he's still working in
23:06 close proximity to the king.
23:09 That means not only that he is a leper,
23:12 but that he is a functional leper.
23:15 And the only thing worse than being a
23:18 leper is being a functional leper.
23:20 You've learned so cleverly how to fool
23:22 the people around you that you're able
23:24 to still function on your 8 toive job.
23:26 You're able to still get yourself out of
23:28 bed and function as a mom to these three
23:30 children or four children or two
23:32 children that you have. You're able to
23:34 still function as the wife to your
23:35 husband. You're able to still hang out
23:37 with your girlfriend, single woman, and
23:39 plaster a smile on, to act like you're
23:41 content in this season of your life.
23:44 You're you've learned how to how to be a
23:46 functional leper so you don't have to
23:48 deal with the real stuff that's going on
23:50 in your heart and in your mind. The
23:52 stuff, y'all, that makes all of the
23:54 tears fall down from our eyes late at
23:56 night when nobody knows that we're
23:57 crying those tears or that we're staying
24:00 up extra minutes, extra hours as we
24:03 wrestle with the leprosy that we know is
24:05 there. The tragedy is that we've not
24:07 only gotten good at fooling everybody
24:09 else, we've begun to fool ourselves into
24:12 thinking we're healthy healthier than we
24:14 actually are.
24:16 But that leprosy, it really is the
24:18 defining thing that could be the death
24:20 of us, just like it could for non. In
24:23 the end, his chapter, his story, his
24:25 name is known, not so much for his
24:27 accolades, not so much for what he's
24:29 appreciated, not so much for the
24:31 successes he's achieved, the diplomas on
24:33 his wall, the people who applaud and
24:36 appreciate him. It's what he does or
24:38 does not do with this leprosy that
24:41 really matters in the end. I remember
24:43 many, many years ago watching an episode
24:45 of ER.
24:47 You remember ER? Anybody in the room old
24:50 enough to remember ER?
24:54 Who does not remember ER? You know what?
25:01 >> Grey's Anatomy. Well, ER started it all.
25:04 ER started all of the medical dramas. It
25:06 was the one that kind of was the the one
25:08 that just kind of thrust that whole
25:11 genre of television shows. And I I
25:13 didn't watch all of ER, honestly, but I
25:14 caught an episode here and there. And
25:15 there's one episode that I will never
25:17 forget. There had been a horrible um
25:19 wreck and there were a lot of people
25:20 involved in the in the wreck. I don't
25:22 believe it was a car wreck. It may have
25:24 been a bus or a train, but there were
25:26 many many people who were very very
25:28 tragically hurt. They all came into the
25:31 ER almost at the same time, one after
25:33 the other needing medical attention. And
25:34 I remember that there was one particular
25:36 young woman who was bloodied and
25:38 bruised. She was unconscious. They were
25:40 trying their best to save her life. She
25:42 was wheeled in on a gurnie from the
25:44 ambulance. Everybody was racing in
25:46 around her. doctors and nurses trying to
25:48 do what they could to tend to her. Right
25:50 beside her was her best friend. The two
25:52 of them had been on a trip together and
25:54 her best friend ran right beside her.
25:56 Her best friend only had one little
25:57 scratch that she was able to show a
26:00 nurse on her shoulder. She could not
26:01 believe that she had gotten out with so
26:04 many people who had been so hurt and so
26:05 damaged. She couldn't believe that this
26:07 is all that had happened to her. And so
26:09 she's running beside her best friend and
26:11 and she's trying to get her tended to.
26:12 And every now and then throughout the
26:15 episode, someone comes over to the to
26:17 the healthy friend and basically says to
26:18 her, "Is there anything we can do for
26:20 you? Can we check on you?" And she says,
26:22 "No, please don't divert any of your
26:24 attention away from my best friend
26:26 because she's going to die if y'all
26:27 don't tend to her and all the other
26:30 people that are here in the ER. Please
26:32 divert your attention to them again."
26:34 Several moments later, someone comes
26:35 back and says, "Can I take a look at
26:37 you?" And she says, "No, don't you see?
26:39 I'm fine. I don't I don't need any help.
26:42 please put all of your energy elsewhere.
26:44 And the episode builds until at the very
26:47 very end, in the last couple moments,
26:49 this friend is standing over the bedside
26:52 of her best friend who has now just come
26:54 out of surgery and is recovering and is
26:56 going to be able to be well. She's
26:59 standing beside her friend. And in a
27:01 moment's notice, this friend who has
27:04 been healthy for the entire day
27:07 collapses to the floor. Her eyes glaze
27:09 over as nurses and doctors run in. They
27:11 check her pulse and they realize they
27:14 cannot find a pulse and her heart has
27:16 stopped beating because the entire time
27:18 she had internal damage that was
27:21 bleeding out. And because she did not
27:24 let anybody attend to her because she
27:27 didn't attend to herself,
27:30 she lost her life.
27:32 Listen, I flew over from Dallas, Texas
27:35 in the cold and the rain and the fog
27:38 because I came to attend to you sisters.
27:40 I came to ask you if you've checked on
27:42 yourself recently. I know you're worried
27:44 about her and him and the people in your
27:46 house and the kids and the folks at
27:48 Sunday school and everybody else who's
27:50 got stuff that they need you to invest
27:52 in them regarding. I came to ask you
27:55 tonight, is there a leprosy that's
27:58 bleeding you out from the inside? Is
28:00 there something that you need to contend
28:02 with? An addiction that you need to deal
28:04 with? Strongholds that need to be
28:06 broken? fear that needs to be stepped
28:08 away from hatred that needs to be
28:10 dissolved. Do you need the healing power
28:14 of Jesus Christ? Tonight is the night to
28:16 deal with yourself
28:20 before time runs out.
28:22 Non was completely successful while
28:25 being completely sick. He was outwardly
28:27 victorious while suffering from the most
28:29 tragic of vices. He was publicly
28:33 applauded while being privately agonized
28:36 over this leprosy. Luke chapter 7, Jesus
28:38 said about the Pharisees, he said, "Woe
28:41 to you. You are clean on the outside,
28:44 but you're full of filth on the inside."
28:46 He said, "You're like whitewashed tombs.
28:48 You look all pristine and whitewashed on
28:50 the outside, but you're still tombs.
28:52 Inside, you're full of dead men's bones."
28:54 bones."
28:56 Today is the day for us to look inward
28:59 and not leave in the fine small print of
29:01 our resumes the thing that really
29:03 matters. Because listen, everything
29:06 hinges on what non will choose to do
29:08 with this leprosy. The remainder of this
29:10 narrative hinges on the outcome of this
29:13 ailment. Either it will consume him and
29:15 be the death of him or it will he will
29:18 bring it out into the open and give it
29:20 to God through the prophet Elijah so
29:22 that it can be a demonstration of the
29:24 power of God in his life. The trajectory
29:26 of this portion of scripture. The part
29:28 that will go down in the annals of
29:31 history is that a man with an unccurable
29:33 disease either gets healed by God or he
29:36 does not. The chapter could end by
29:38 saying there was a man named non who had
29:42 a problem and kept his problem. There
29:45 was a man named non who had an issue, an
29:48 ailment and still in the end had that
29:50 same issue, that same ailment. Or the
29:53 chapter could end as it does in verse 15
30:07 What we know about Na non is based
30:11 solely on what he did with his leprosy.
30:13 Do you understand that for generations
30:15 to come the story will be told about you
30:17 from your daughters and your sons, your
30:20 grandchildren, your great grandchildren.
30:22 And they will talk about yes the things
30:23 you accomplished and the things you
30:26 achieved but the most stunning things
30:28 the most uh important things the most
30:30 memorable things that people who come
30:32 after you whether they are nieces and
30:34 nephews or your own children or just
30:36 people in the Sunday school class young
30:38 people that you're mentoring or folks in
30:40 the youth group of which you serve or
30:42 people on that college campus where
30:44 you're mentoring and touching the lives
30:46 of other people folks who come after us.
30:49 The story they will tell is about the
30:51 fact that they remember when we were
30:54 once lost and now we are found. That we
30:56 were once blind but they watch us be
30:59 able to see. They will take and tell the
31:01 stories about how there were ashes in
31:04 our life and our God made beautiful
31:06 thing out of those messy places. That's
31:09 the story that people will tell. That's
31:10 what leaves the mark. It's what we do
31:13 with our leprosy. It's whether we leave
31:15 it hidden and concealed behind the
31:18 veneers that we so perfectly put up on
31:19 our social media profiles or whether
31:21 we'll just bring it out to the open and
31:23 say, "Here it is. Here's the real deal.
31:26 God, would you do business with this?
31:27 I'm tired of this anger. I'm ready to
31:30 let it go. I'm tired of this pride. I
31:32 want to humble myself under the mighty
31:34 hand of God so that he can exalt me. I'm
31:36 tired of living in a stale, passionless
31:38 marriage. Lord, take it and do with it
31:41 what you will." Lord, I'm tired of being
31:44 as I was. I want to be as you can make
31:54 Y'all, this is this is the story of my life
31:57 life
31:59 on both sides of my family. My
32:01 grandfather on my father's side or his
32:04 dad, my mother's dad, both of them
32:07 changed the trajectory
32:09 of our lives.
32:12 particularly my dad's dad, his father
32:14 was an alcoholic.
32:16 He was not raised, my grandfather was
32:17 not raised in a Christian home. They
32:20 were quite antagonistic to the things of
32:22 God. And my grandfather as a long
32:24 shoreman, as he was raising my father
32:26 and his three siblings, as a long
32:28 shoreman on the shores of Baltimore in
32:30 Maryland, u he made money for his family
32:33 as best he could, hauling in fish every
32:36 day, but on the side he literally made
32:37 liquor in the basement. That's what he
32:39 did. Perpetuating the society of
32:42 addiction in which he lived there in the
32:44 urban center of Baltimore. But that's
32:46 way that's the way he put food on the
32:48 table by selling liquor out of his
32:50 basement. In the meantime, his own
32:52 family was crumbling. My grandfather and
32:54 grandmother's marriage was crumbling.
32:56 And he was doing the best he could, but
32:57 he had to work so hard he couldn't
33:00 really tend to uh the the the family as
33:02 he wanted to tend to his family. So
33:04 everything was crumbling apart until one
33:06 day on the docks on the shores there
33:09 right there uh at the Baltimore Harbor
33:10 there was a man he worked with and who
33:13 told him about a man named Jesus who
33:15 could change his entire life and that
33:17 day kneeling down right there at the
33:19 harbor in Baltimore. My grandfather came
33:22 to know Jesus Christ as Lord. He brought
33:24 all his leprosy out of the open. He told
33:26 the guy about his marriage that looked
33:28 so perfect on the outside with these
33:30 four little cute kids, but really it was
33:32 crumbling from the inside out. He told
33:34 him about his father who had been
33:36 addicted to liquor and how he, my
33:38 grandfather, was well on his way to
33:41 perpetuating that same cycle. He opened
33:44 up and came clean about his leprosy and
33:46 gave his life to Jesus Christ. And he
33:50 went home a different man.
33:54 He came home to 1110 Papa Grove Street,
33:55 the exact same house that he still lives
33:58 in to this day.
34:00 And he came into this home and for the
34:03 next two, three years, every morning at
34:05 3:00 in the morning, he would get up. He
34:07 says before my grandmother would get up
34:09 and give him, this is what he said, give
34:12 him hell for the rest of the day.
34:15 before she started wagging her mouth
34:17 about all the things she wanted him to
34:20 change. Before the day got hectic and
34:21 started started, he said he would come
34:24 downstairs and fall to his knees and he
34:26 would pray to this new God that he
34:27 didn't know well. He would open up his
34:30 the scriptures and he would read the
34:31 scriptures. Oh my gosh, y'all. I just
34:33 called my grandfather yesterday and I
34:34 talked to him on the phone. I said, "To
34:35 daddy," we called him two daddy. I said,
34:37 "To daddy, what are you doing?" He said,
34:40 'Oh, I'm just reading the scriptures.
34:44 You know Jesus is coming soon.
34:46 He's been doing it since he was in his
34:49 early 20s. He's 89 now. Reading the
34:52 scriptures and he prayed.
34:54 He prayed on his knees that the Lord
34:57 would save his family
35:00 until one morning three years in my
35:02 grandmother having given him a hard time
35:05 for three years. One of those early
35:07 mornings, she came and crept down those
35:10 little creaky stairs
35:13 and she knelt beside him
35:15 and she said, "Whatever has happened to
35:18 you to change you from who you were to
35:21 who you are now, I want that kind of
35:23 change in my life."
35:25 And so my grandfather [Applause]
35:27 [Applause]
35:30 led my grandmother to Jesus. And then
35:32 those two sat around the table with
35:34 their four children, one of whom was
35:36 Tony Evans,
35:38 and shared the gospel with their four
35:42 kids, and gave to them the gift that had
35:44 been given to my father, uh, my
35:45 grandfather, right there on the shores
35:47 of Baltimore. The entire family that day
35:50 accepted Jesus Christ as savior. And I'm
35:53 standing before you as one of his many
35:54 dozens of grandchildren and now
35:57 great-grandchildren. And my father, the
35:59 grandfather, the story that we tell of
36:01 him, what we know about him, most of
36:04 what we appreciate about him is not just
36:06 the achievements and the accolades, not
36:07 the things he's accomplished or the
36:11 successes that he has.
36:14 It's that one day
36:16 he met a man named Jesus
36:18 >> and he changed the trajectory of our
36:23 entire lives because he took a stand. [Music]
36:33 They started playing, which means I have
36:41 Listen, if you don't have a legacy like
36:43 I have, if you don't have grandfathers,
36:45 grandmothers that have done that in your
36:47 life, listen, don't get discouraged by
36:49 that. Get excited because you get to be
36:50 the one. [Applause]
36:54 [Applause]
36:56 You get to be the one to change the
36:59 trajectory of your entire life till one
37:01 day your sons and daughters and
37:02 grandchildren and great grandchildren
37:06 tell the story of a woman that came to
37:10 Radiant in 2017 gave her leprosy to God
37:12 and changed the course of their entire
37:15 lives. But y'all, that's not even the
37:18 best part of the story. The best part of
37:20 the story is that in verse three, we
37:23 find out there's a little captive girl.
37:26 A girl who has been displaced from her
37:30 ambitions, her goals, her dreams, the
37:32 comfort of her home. She has been set in
37:34 a place where she feels uncomfortable,
37:36 where she doesn't want to be. It is not
37:39 the plan that she had for her life. And
37:41 in that place, she becomes the
37:43 instrument that God uses to point
37:46 somebody to the one true God. I came to
37:49 tell somebody who feels cheated
37:51 because you're trying to figure out how
37:53 your trajectory in life that you had
37:56 planned this way because the the the the
37:57 career path that you had planned was
38:00 pointed in this direction. How did you
38:02 end up on this job? The marriage that
38:04 you had planned in your mind, how did
38:06 you end up in this sort of a union? The
38:08 the the the relationship with your child
38:10 that you first envisioned, it doesn't
38:13 look anything like that. your financial
38:15 situation. It was supposed to look like
38:18 this, but some way the Lord has allowed
38:20 it to look like this and you feel like
38:23 you've been cheated. I came to tell you
38:25 that most often when we are displaced
38:29 from our dreams to his.
38:32 Often times it looks like captivity.
38:33 Often times it doesn't look like
38:34 anything you planned, you feel
38:36 uncomfortable and you wish you were back
38:40 home. And you may not know until
38:42 centuries later in Luke chapter 4 when
38:45 Jesus is telling the story when Jesus
38:47 wants to make sure Jesus has shown up on
38:49 the scenes and in his own words he wants
38:52 to authenticate his deity and he reaches
38:54 back to a story from the Old Testament
38:55 to make sure all the people in the New
38:58 Testament know that he is who he says he
39:01 is and he has come to do exactly what he
39:03 says to that he's going to do. The
39:05 little captive girl could never have
39:09 known that she was the key to the story.
39:12 And I'm here to tell you that you
39:15 displaced captive girl. You're the key
39:18 to the story. If he has not released you
39:20 from that job, then you stay on that job
39:21 and be the light in the midst of the
39:23 darkness. If you are still in that
39:24 neighborhood and you've been trying to
39:26 move, but you can't find the right place
39:28 anywhere else. And so there you are in
39:30 that apartment, in that home that you
39:31 can't wait to break free from. The
39:33 reason you are still there is because
39:36 there you are going to be the light in
39:38 the midst of the darkness. You are the
39:40 key to the people in your sphere of
39:42 influence, knowing that there is a God
39:44 in Israel. That there is a God who is
39:47 able to perform healing in their lives.
39:48 If the Lord hasn't let you switch
39:50 churches, that means you're not supposed
39:52 to switch churches. You're supposed to
39:55 be planted in the house of God where he
39:58 has put you so that you can be his key
40:00 in the midst of that unity of believers
40:03 that are serving him. Wherever God has
40:05 planted you, he intends for you to be.
40:07 Even if you feel cheated, would you know
40:10 you've not been cheated. You've been chosen.
40:12 chosen.
40:15 You're the one,
40:18 little captive girl. You're the one.
40:20 You've been chosen by God to be exactly
40:23 where you are. University student,
40:26 you're the one.
40:28 High school student,
40:35 You are the one you've been waiting for. [Music]
40:36 [Music]
40:39 Stay where you are, not cheated with
40:43 your chin raised, knowing actually
40:46 I've been chosen.
40:53 that Rashida was driving from Dallas
40:55 Fort Worth to Waco, Texas for a conference.
40:58 conference.
40:59 Nobody really knows exactly what
41:02 happened, but about 3:00 in the morning
41:05 or so, our phone started buzzing
41:07 as we got news that Rashidita was on a
41:10 head in a head-on collision. In the hour
41:12 and 15 minutes it took her to get from
41:15 Dallas to Waco, she was in a head-on
41:17 collision and in an instant,
41:20 she went to see Jesus.
41:27 And when I heard the news,
41:29 the only thing I could think was, I am
41:33 so glad that before she saw him face to
41:37 face, she knew that he had not cheated
41:50 You know, I want to pray for you if you
41:53 were in this room
41:55 and either one of two things describes
41:58 you in this story.
42:00 Either you have leprosy that you have
42:01 not been dealing with. You've been here
42:03 all conference long and you have enjoyed
42:06 yourself, but you know there is a thread
42:08 of sickness. There is an ailment in your
42:10 heart or in your mind or in your
42:13 marriage. In your integrity, there is a
42:15 lapse of integrity. There is something
42:18 that is offkilter and you've gotten so
42:21 good at covering it up.
42:23 But you want to come clean tonight so
42:25 that you can be known not as the woman
42:29 who carried this ailment her whole life,
42:31 but as the woman who handed that ailment
42:33 over to Jesus and watched him do
42:36 something with it, make beautiful things
42:38 out of those ashes.
42:39 I want to pray for you if that's you
42:41 tonight. I'm going to ask you to stand
42:42 in just a moment. But there's another
42:44 group of you that I want to pray for.
42:46 It's any of you who are in the room and
42:48 you feel cheated.
42:50 I mean, you feel cheated. This is not
42:54 what you signed up for.
42:56 I want to pray that the Lord by his
42:59 spirit will help you tonight
43:01 to see things from his perspective when
43:04 you go back to that home, to that job,
43:06 to that neighborhood, to that university
43:09 campus, to go back with his perspective
43:11 on why he has planted you there. so that
43:13 you will know you've not been cheated
43:16 but that you've been chosen. So if you
43:18 fall into either of those categories,
43:19 there's a leprosy that needs healing in
43:21 your life or there's a change of
43:23 perspective that you want to leave here
43:25 with at the end of radiant conference
43:28 this week, would you please stand to
43:30 your feet? It would be my privilege to
43:32 take us all between the throne to the
43:44 So Lord Jesus, I bring those of us
43:46 starting with me who are standing to our
43:48 feet. Father, I pray right now in the
43:50 matchless name of Jesus Christ for
43:52 leprosy that is eating away at us,
43:56 numbing us, desensitizing us, Lord,
43:57 keeping us from living to our full
44:00 potential. Father, I pray right now in
44:02 Jesus name that you would by your
44:05 healing bomb pour out your grace and
44:09 your mercy upon every single heart. I
44:11 pray that marriages would be restored. I
44:14 pray that strongholds would be broken. I
44:16 pray that fear would dissipate. I pray
44:19 that hate would be softened. Lord, I
44:20 pray that hardened hearts would be
44:22 mended. Lord, I pray that brokenness
44:25 would be salvaged. I pray that fissures
44:27 would be restored. I pray that you would
44:30 resuscitate and breathe life back into
44:32 your daughters. Lord, I pray that we
44:34 would never we would no longer cover up
44:36 that which we need to expose to the
44:39 healing power of our great God. And we
44:41 thank you, Father, that you not only
44:43 sympathize with us in your humanity, but
44:45 that you can turn around in your power
44:48 and actually perform a healing miracle
44:51 in our lives. So, I pray for health in
44:53 Jesus' name.
44:56 Health in Jesus' name. I pray for
44:58 restoration, resurrection,
45:03 resuscitation, renewal in Jesus' name.
45:04 And then, Father, I pray for those who
45:06 are discouraged because they feel
45:08 cheated. They're honest with you right
45:10 now. Father, they feel irritated and
45:12 frustrated because life as it is going
45:15 is not how they had it planned. So, I
45:18 pray right now that you would displace
45:20 discouragement off of their lives. Would
45:22 you replace it with a cloak of
45:25 encouragement in Jesus name? Send them
45:27 out of here with a holy contentment,
45:29 Father, remembering that you are who you
45:32 say you are and that you will accomplish
45:34 through their lives exactly what you
45:36 have said that you will accomplish.
45:39 Lord, fit us with your glasses to see
45:41 our situations through your
45:43 perspectives. And we will give you all
45:47 the praise and all the glory and all the
45:50 honor in Jesus name. Everybody agreed
45:52 when they said amen. >> Amen.
45:58 Hey there. Thanks so much for watching.
45:59 I hope that you were blessed, that you
46:01 were encouraged, and that you feel like
46:02 you are strengthened for the journey
46:04 ahead. I invite you to subscribe to our
46:06 channel and also to hit that little bell
46:08 icon. That way, you'll be notified when
46:10 we have content in the future. And
46:12 praying for you that you stay
46:14 encouraged, keep your eyes fixed on
46:16 Jesus, and be encouraged as you live for
46:18 Christ in everything that you do. God
