Good morning, Spring House. It's
a cool day inside the house of the Lord.
And if you're joining us on Livestream, hopefully you're in air
conditioning as well. Well, bless the Lord. God's been
moving this morning and I love that we can always count
on him to move and to speak.
Man, he's always seeming to be up to something really
incredible. And if we will just lean in and pay attention, we get to take
part in it. We don't have to be separate from him, especially because of Jesus.
And so hallelujah, it's good to see you this morning, good to
see your smiling faces before we get rolling this
morning. School time is getting close. It's drawing
close. Which it means, oh yeah, I heard the youth go, oh
yeah, it is happening. And parents say
amen. Yeah, but that means August
is happening. And we're going to resume our midweek gatherings in
August. And so we want you to be a part of our
midweek gathering. And Pastor Barbie is going to be doing a 12 week
series called the Eye of the Needle. And I just want
to encourage you, I want to encourage you if you have the
capacity as you're getting back in rhythm, who loves a good rhythm, you're
getting back, you're getting your family in rhythm
that you would carve out that hour from 6 to 7 on Thursday
night beginning August 7th and come spend time with us, we worship,
there'll be word, it will be rich and you will be blessed. So please make
a part a point rather to come and be a part of this very
special series as we get things back up and running. And of
course we'll be bringing you the information about kids ministry, youth ministry, young adult
ministry as well. But I wanted to go ahead and let people begin to
plot on their calendars to mark this time aside for our, for our
midweek gathering. Okay, well, before we get started
into where we're going to go, I just want to tell you that you're probably
not going to like what I have to say today. And
so, you know, if you came here looking to like me, you're probably not going
to. But Barbie's calendar is open this week and taking appointments between eight and
five. If you have a problem with something I've said or you know, you'd like
to, to discuss it with her, she'd be happy to meet with you.
But aren't you glad at Springhouse Church that we don't just cherry pick portions
of the Word, that we actually believe in, the whole word of God, the
entirety of Scripture. And that means, sometimes it means that
we have to render and examine hard truths in our lives and we actually
have to contend with what hard truth says
as applies to our lives, in our journey. And man, when we turn a blind
eye to those hard truths, we don't look a whole lot like Jesus in those
areas. And I believe that the aim and the goal because of the power
resurrected Jesus Christ is that we look like him. And in order to look
at him, we got like Him. We've got to lean into even some of the
harder parts of scripture and the harder truths of
Scripture. So I'm going to ask you today to not lean out,
to not clock out, but to lean in and ask the
Lord where he might minister to your heart about some of these truths. Would you
look at your neighbor and say, this message is.
Is for me.
Now, if you chose not to look at your spouse, I would like you to
look at your spouse and say, this message is for
me.
There seems to be such power up here because you have no idea what I'm
about to say. We're going to be talking about
a man named naaman today in 2 Kings, chapter
5. And I'm gonna give you guys the highlights of the story
here in just a little bit. I will tell you, we put the sermon
schedule together ahead of time. And you know, of all of the great. There's great
stories all throughout Scripture. Do you agree? And this is also
a great story, but whenever I looked, I was looking about five, six
weeks ago, I was looking ahead and I'm thinking, lord, why in the world
am I teaching on Naaman? I'm gonna change that. And then
I started to walk through the last five or six weeks, some
of you as well. And the Lord said, no, this is, this is,
this was. Aren't you glad that he knows the end from the beginning? Aren't you
glad he just orders our steps and he has ordained today
to be today. So if you'll stand with me, we're gonna read two
scriptures that's gonna lay a foundation for today. And I'd like you to read it
like you believe God can actually do something in your life. Okay? So let's read
together. Here we go. Do nothing out of selfish
ambition or vain, conceived rather in
humility. Value others above yourselves.
Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the
interest of others and your relationships with
one another have the same mindset as Christ
Jesus. We're going to say that one more time. Here we go. In your
relationships with one another, have the Same
mindset as Christ Jesus. Pride
goes before destruction and a haughty spirit
before a fall. Father, I thank you for your truth, all of
it. I pray, Lord, that you would transform our hearts and our minds
today. Let my words fall to the ground and mean nothing but your stick for
all eternity. We love you today. In Jesus name, amen. You may
be seated. You are a part of the greatest stories ever told.
And part of what makes your story so uniquely wonderful
isn't because you are unique and wonderful though you are, it
is that Jesus Christ chooses to do a work in your life. And
those points in your life where he comes in and he causes change
to happen in your heart and in your life and in your actions, those
are the true testimonies and stories of God's goodness.
Those are the stories we want to share. Those are the stories that
are powerful and will cause kingdom advancement and kingdom change.
You are a part of the greatest story ever, ever told. And
today we're talking about a man named Naaman. Now last week, Pastor
Barbee took us up through Elisha, the transfer of power between
Elijah and Elisha. And Elisha is in full force now. He's full
fledged into his ministry. And this story pops up about this
decorated, this really well decorated
military commander named Naaman.
Naaman was a commander of the king's army
and he was powerful, he was successful, and he was
respected even by the king. But just
like so many leaders, he had an issue. How many know that
your leaders have issues? You're looking at one of the biggest issues
probably in the church right now. I have a lot of issues, but leaders have
issues. And he had an issue. His issue was that he had leprosy.
But we're going to find that he had some other issues as well.
Leprosy is a physical disease that isolates and humiliates.
And the Lord uses this young, a young Israelite servant
girl. And she suggests that there is a man
in Samaria that would be able to heal this
leprosy disease that Naaman is carrying.
This little servant girl, ironically.
Do you see how hope comes not from a king or
a warrior, but from a foreign captive girl.
A reminder that the Lord will use the humble.
Naaman brings wealth and a letter from his
king to impress Israel's king. And so his king sends
him to Israel's king. And Naaman brings this wealth in this letter. And the letter
says to the king, we want your God to heal, to
heal Naaman's leprosy. And the king of Israel
says, as he tears his Robes. Who am I that I would be able
to. To heal this man? There's no way I would be able to do this.
There's nothing in me that could do this. And Elisha catches
word that the king has torn his robe, rend his garments, and
has said he couldn't do this. And Elisha says, I know the very God who
can do this. Send Naaman my way. Send Naaman my
way and he'll be healed of this
leprosy. Well, Naaman
mounts his chariots and brings his entire entourage to
Elijah and Elisha. And it was kind of like, here I am.
Let the trumpets blow. Naaman has arrived,
and I'm here to see the man of God. And Elisha does something
so incredible, he sends his messenger out to meet
Naaman to give him the news. Well, this
infuriates Naaman because Naaman is a proud
dude. He is like a valiant warrior. And
you are not going to pawn off your little weak servant
messenger on me to deliver this news. And
so the servant comes and says, the servant from Elisha says, if you'll dip
seven times in the Jordan, then you'll be healed if you'll go in there seven
times. And Naaman is like, that is the dumbest thing I've ever
heard. And so he says,
you know, he says, basically, I'm not gonna do that.
Why can't the man of God come out and touch me? Why
can't he come and introduce. Doesn't he know that there are other
rivers that are cleaner that I could go in? Doesn't he?
And he basically throws a T. He becomes enraged
and marches along. So Naaman
nearly walks away from his miracle. Oh, how
many times are we close to a miracle? But because of our
pride, because of the things that we contend with in our flesh, and
because the pathway. Listen to this. The pathway God has
chosen for us to receive our healing.
Looks dumb, looks stupid, not something we're willing to
do. And there we thwart the miracle blessing
and yet will still go to the Lord and say, heal me, heal me, Heal
me, heal me, heal me, heal me, heal me.
And so God uses Naaman's servants who
run to him and say, now, Naaman,
if the messenger would have come and said for you to do something, valiant
warrior like you would have proudly stood up and done that,
because it would have brought you notoriety. How much more
then if the man of God says, come and dip in the
river seven times, would you not do that? And this
was a defining moment for Naaman, a defining
moment because he's already thrown a tantrum. Everybody knows how he feels
about what's going on. He's already made a spectacle of himself.
But thankfully we have an example of somebody who chooses the path of
humility. And he chooses the path of humility. And he
goes to the river and he dips in seven times. I can imagine what it
must have been like going out that first time after all that spectacle and the
thing he did. He gets in and he walks out and he's looking at his
entourage and he's got to turn around and do it again
and then do it again. I kind of think God may have been shedding
some stuff off of Naaman in those seven times. Going back again and again
and again. Sometimes God will have you go back again and again and again
and again because he's teaching you in that journey. He's teaching you in that
thing to go back. The sixth time and the seventh
time, healing sometimes looks humble, simple,
uncomfortable. Pride almost cost him everything. And he
finally humbles himself and does that, goes into
the river, and his flesh was restored. God
healed his body. But more than that,
and listen, more than that, his heart was
changed.
Guys, there's nothing better than a changed heart.
In the situations that you're in with relationships,
with work, with ministry, with
spouses, family, there is nothing better than a
changed heart. The problem is that we expect God to change theirs and not
ours. But I believe that
God is in the business of changing our heart. And the ripples
of our change affect others and changes
others. Today we're going to deal with this issue of pride. Aren't you
excited? We're going to deal with the issue of pride. Don't look at your neighbor.
We live in a world where pride is often mistaken
for strength. We applaud self, confidence,
assertiveness, and independence. But in God's kingdom,
pride is not power, it's poison. In
God's kingdom, pride is poison. Pride is what
keeps us from God. Pride is what keeps us from one another.
Pride is an attitude that says, I don't need help.
I know better. I deserve better.
Many of you know my youngest daughter, Nora. We were in an airport together as
a whole family a couple years ago in Minneapolis.
It's a big airport. If you've ever flown through Minneapolis, it's a real big airport.
And we're on the airplane and my daughters had just, you know, they were. My
kids are such great travelers.
Yeah, I was waiting. Thanks, Rhonda. So
my kids have their feet hanging out in the aisle. They're laying down they're flailing
the arms. We've been traveling for a minute and people are trying to
walk by, and I am trying to get them off the plane because we've got
to catch our layover. And I'm going through, and they are just
being very extra. I've got great kids, but they're being
extra on this day. Parents, you can. You know what I'm talking about, okay? And
so I am literally saying, get it together right now. Get up, right?
Do this. Stop doing that. Get out of the way. And the flight
attendants are all coming over to our area and
they're saying, we don't mind. We'll carry her off the plane for you.
We will get their bags. We'll call reinforcements in. And I'm saying,
absolutely not. My kids know how to walk. They're gonna
get up and do what I tell them to do right now. And I'm just
having a moment, right? And I'm not gonna let. Everybody's looking at
me. I'm. I'm telling them what I expect. We're gonna do this my
way. And I get so angry that I grab my bag and I walk right
off the plane without my wife and my four kids. I'm a great husband, let
me tell you. And so I get into that lobby area
and I'm waiting there. Just. I'm saying, get off this plane. Let's go.
We've gotta make our layover. And people get off and
there's a big gap and nobody's coming off. And so I step over to the
gate and sure enough, there's a flight attendant carrying Nora, There's a flight
attendant carrying Lucy. They've got bags and they have radio.
Get. They have radioed one of those Jeeps to come and pick us up
at the gate and drive us to our gate. I was so embarrassed.
I was so embarrassed. The spectacle that these girls would put me through. Oh, my
word. So we get on this thing and everybody's watching
us, and our kids are just going, woo. This is the best thing in life.
And I just wanted to spank every one of them. I'm just telling you. I'm
just so upset. The gate was
literally drive time was about seven minutes away. Drive time.
And we pull up and they are about to close the gate.
Had we not gotten on the Jeep, we would have not made our flight.
What would have, it looked like if I refused to allow them to help us
with that Jeep? And God said, pride,
Kevin, pride.
God has put people in your path and in your life to help you on
your journey. God has put
people in your path because here. And, guys, I know this is a hard
truth to hear. You don't know it all.
And you need people in your path who
can tell you you don't know it all. And
they probably have some information that will help you
on your journey, that will help you in your walk.
But here's the thing. We tend to think, yeah, they don't know it all,
but you don't know it all either. We need each other.
And I would argue that to the degree you think you need to
be in that other person's life, they probably need to be in your life that
much more because God puts us together
in that way. This is what Pride says. Pride says, I'll do this my way.
I'll just do this my way. Pride resists correction,
refuses vulnerability, and often pushes people and
even God away. And it's not always loud and
arrogant. Sometimes it's just the quiet voice that
says, I'm going to do this my way. I'm going to do this
my way. Do we have that video? Praise the Lord.
All right, I want you to watch this. It's not going to seem connected, but
it really is. Can you get me in?
At the gate back there, God said, depart from me, and I couldn't.
Couldn't believe it. But. But I know there's been some mistake. That's why I called
you. I was baptized at 5. My. I think my dad's
a pastor. There's been no mistake.
Your file, it doesn't look too good.
What's in there? My sins. No, no, no, no. Those shouldn't be in there. You
forgave those, remember? I mean, that. That makes sense. That's where the mistake is coming
from. If you're basing it off of, I won't make it in there. There's a
lifetime of evidence against me. No, this. This isn't evidence against
you. It's evidence that you were even saved to
begin with.
And there's nothing in here.
Baptized at 5 and lived an
entire life doing whatever you want.
Partying, sex, gossip.
This is the most we've talked your whole
life. I'm supposed to bail you out now, right?
Jesus says that he is the way, the truth and the
life. But so many of us thwart the fact that he's the
way because we do it our whole lives, our own way. And
that's Pride. Pride will separate you from the King
of the Universe, and it will separate you from the people that you're sitting next
to. The People who love you most.
Proverbs 16:18 says this. Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the fall. Pride leads to collapse,
personally and relationally. And, guys, I can't tell you, the
countless ministry people, job people that have had
positions, that have had positions, and they were not supposed to
be out of those positions, but God had to set them down early
because of pride. God had to pull them out of that position. They were not
done running the race. They were not done doing what God had asked them to
do, but God had to set them down because it was either set them down
or let them continue to lead others toward destruction.
Pride. Pride is a booger.
It's a big booger, and if you keep picking at it, eventually it
will come out. Just don't eat it.
Where there is strife, there is pride. But wisdom is found
in those who take advice. Guys, let me tell you the
strife. If you're ever in a situation with strife, the
Word tells us, where there's strife, every evil work abounds.
And where there's strife, there's bound to be pride in the ingredients there.
Because pride leads to destruction. The word also says, God
opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I
pray every single morning when I wake up. Have you? I have a habitual prayer.
Sometimes that I don't even think about, it shoots out of my mouth. And the
very first thing that I say is, oh, Lord, thank you for your grace and
mercy this morning. It just shoots out of my mouth. I don't even think about
it. It's just an automatic thank you for your grace and mercy this morning.
How do I get grace? He gives grace to the
humble. Now, is he just best friends with the
proud? Is he just kind of tolerating the proud? No, it says,
he opposes the proud.
We're talking about the star breather. And why are
we talking about a hard word? Because, guys, sometimes we make the God
of the universe so soft. He is not a plush
teddy bear. He's not a wish machine. He's not
Santa Claus. He is the God of the universe.
He has given everything on the line for your life
because he loves you. Every single thing on the line, including
his life. Came down, lived the life, perfect life, died on the cross,
rose again. And he says, listen, I oppose the proud,
but I give grace. I give grace to
the humble. Anybody need grace? I need grace in my life.
I need grace in my life.
Many of you know we run Lancaster Christian Academy, my wife and I,
and we had a situation several years ago
where we had a tornado coming in the vicinity of the school. It was the
morning time and one of my lead administrators there, I was not there
yet. And she calls me and she's saying, this is a situation. I said,
yes, you need to lock it down and get everybody room in the into place.
So we do drills and all those things. So she's executing everything the way that
she's supposed to. And she knows where the best places in the building
are for safety. So she's giving direction. We have parents in the building because
it's drop off time. And we have one of our staff members, one
of our staff members who looks right at her and says, I'm not going where
you told me to go. And he breaks out of his classroom from his kids
and goes and grabs his own children, his own biological children, and takes
them into another place of the building to keep them safe. Well, things
carry on. Parents are wondering why he's going in the opposite direction. She's trying to
get him to stop, but he won't listen. So he goes and she continues to
take care of the rest of the thing. So later on that
day, I call him into my office and I said, why
did you not stay with your classroom and listen to what
your authority asked you to do? And he said, because I did not trust where
my authority was telling me to take my kids. And I said,
well, where did you take him? And he told me where he took him. And
I said, here's the thing that you don't know. I know every square inch of
this building and the exact place that you were taking them is the weakest place
in the building. And had a tornado come, that
would be the first demolished point. And the way that our elite administrator was taking
the kids was the safest place in the building. And I looked at him and
I said, I need to know if this were to happen again the same way,
I need to know that your decision making would be different. He looked at me
and said, I do the same thing. And I said, well, today will be your
last day day. Unfortunately,
looking on social media and kind of keeping up with this, this man,
divorced two years later, lost his kids years
later having a rough go at it. Pride
is a booger. Pride is destructive.
Pride will lead to destruction.
But here is where the enemy gets in and twists his little fingers is because
when it comes to the issue of pride, we, most of us have this posture
right here. Who me?
Me prideful me? Who me
would I be? Would I be prideful? And I'll tell you Guys, I.
It took me a long time to understand really what pride was, because I
would go, am I prideful? You know, I mean, is it prideful to say you're
not prideful? You know, I mean, so, I mean, I'm like,
lord help me. And so I want to do a litmus test with you right
now. I want, you know, if you're questioning am I prideful. Okay.
Or if I struggle with it in the context of your relationships, I'm
going to give you a litmus test. And if you have said these things or
you thought these things, or you've said this to the people around you,
then congratulations, you have joined the pride club.
You're too sensitive.
Have you ever said you're too sensitive? You always take
things the wrong way.
I don't have time for this right now.
This is just who I am.
You're the one who needs the change, not me.
I already said sorry. What more do you want?
You're making a big deal out of nothing.
I just. I don't see any of the spouses looking at each other right now.
I shouldn't have to explain myself to you.
I refuse to. We refuse
to. I will not.
I'm done.
If you're honest with yourself, we've all struggled with these to some degree,
but pride often comes in a way that will convince us that
we are incapable of dealing with it in the right way.
Naaman needed healing. He needed
healing and he rides in the town pompous
and ready to receive it. But his status, title, and ultimately his pride
governs his initial response. And I want
us to look at his response. Here it says, naaman went away angry and said,
I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on
the name of the Lord, his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure
me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and
Paphor, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the
waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed? So he
turned and went off in rage. And let me tell you something,
this is the moment when he turns and goes off in rage. This is the
moment in that argument, in that conversation, in that moment,
the moment that sucks everything out of the room is when you have the choice
to choose between pride and humility. It's that gut wrenching moment
that you know inside you need to respond a certain way, but something in
your flesh gets ahold of you and you go a different direction. You decide, I'm
gonna step over here and you begin this process of putting
gaps and spaces between you and the other person, you in the
relationship with people who love you the most. The gaps are created because
you are not willing to budge or bend because of something you think they did
or said. But we are
commissioned to have the mind of Christ when it comes to our
relationships. What would it be like if Jesus looked at you and said, no,
you've gone too far. I'm not bending for you.
My death on a cross is not good enough for you because of what you
did. The way we respond
to one another, the way we treat one another. And this is not just spouses.
Spouses is any relationship. Work, relationships, ministry relationships, church
relationships, friendships, spouses, all across the board. We are
to be as like Christ to one another in our responses, which
calls us to a high degree of humility, even
when they're not doing anything proactive about the situation.
Just because you have a position doesn't exempt you from
walking through and having to deal with tough things, including sin.
In fact, if you're used by God many times, those things are eliminated much more
quickly when he gives you a position.
Naaman is insulted that Elisha doesn't come out in person. He says, I thought
surely he'd come out to me. I'm big, bad, ugly.
Why is he sending me his little pawn? He should be coming out
on his own. Oh, that we would not have a haughty spirit
like that, that we would walk in humility.
Naaman had a script in his mind, and he wanted God to
heal him on his own terms.
And might I suggest that some of us have not received relational
healing in this place because we want to do it on our own
terms. Pride says, this should go how
I imagined. I shouldn't have to do that.
I shouldn't have to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have to say I'm sorry again.
I shouldn't have to listen to them. I shouldn't have to communicate the way they
want to communicate. I shouldn't have to do this. It's beneath me.
But might I suggest to you today that healing
follows humility? When
we lean into humility and we decide to put
Christ in the middle, he begins to do a transformative work in
you and in them that is unparalleled and
extraordinary, that is supernatural.
You want to see that person changed? Approach them with humility
and look and see what the Lord does. Look
and see what the Lord does. You have to admit that there's a
problem before you can address the problem. We were
driving down in Seattle in a van. And the tire
light comes on, and Sherry says to me, we better pull over and get off
the exit. The tire's blown. And I look and I say, no, we're
fine. It's just a little. It's just a little air going out. And we keep
going. And all of a sudden, as we're rumbling around, she's like,
what do you think now? You think the tire's blowing?
No, I'm going to keep going.
Pride he puts people in your life
to speak into things you don't see. He puts people
in your life to be your blind spot.
And so there was the servant. And would you notice if you read this story,
you notice the real heroes in the story, not Naaman, not
Elisha. The real heroes are two unnamed servants.
Servant girl at the beginning of the story, and Naaman servant who remind
them about this God who can heal. I
love that the Lord uses the humble and mighty ways.
I wonder whose voice choosing to use in your
life today. It's probably a voice
that's unexpected. It's probably a voice that's small. It might even be a voice
that you don't want to hear from. But it's the voice
God saying, this is the voice I'm using to change your life.
Because here's the thing, you don't get to choose the way God wants to
heal. He's got the better way. You
might not understand it, might not agree with it, it, but there's a reason.
There's something for you to learn, and there's something for them as well.
The servant says a lot. If Elisha had asked you, Naaman, to do
something heroic, you would have said without a doubt.
Why would you not then go into the river
seven times and be healed? And this is where the
rubber hits the road. He's made a spectacle of himself.
He's, I'm the big bad wolf, and all of this. And he
humbles himself in front of his entourage and goes seven times
into the river. And the word tells us that he
was healed. He was healed. And
this is Naaman's response to Elisha. Afterward, he went
back to the holy man, which was Elisha. He and his
entourage stood before him and said, I now know beyond a
shadow of a doubt that there is no God anywhere on the earth other than
the Israel. Can I tell you that when miraculous
supernatural activity happens in your life, it is for none other than
to make God famous. It is for no better reason than appoint
people to Jesus when he moves in your life, when he chooses to
miraculously heal you. It is so that he can receive the
glory. It's so that he can be acknowledged. And this is what happens
in Elijah's life. What do you think? I'm sorry, Naaman's life. What do you think
the greater healing was? That he was healed from leprosy or that his heart was
healed and he knows the real true God. God wants to
heal hearts. He wants to heal relationships.
And he will use physical things to get there. You notice Jesus
ministry, he always started by healing and meeting the physical needs of the people before
he ever did anything spiritual.
And so that was all the setup. Here's what I want us to
take away today. The greatest healing you will ever
receive is not physical. It's relational. The
greatest healing you will ever receive is not physical,
it's relational. Naaman had it all. Status,
respect, victory. But he was broken.
Leprosy wasn't just a disease of the body. It was a condition that made
people socially unclean, relationally distant,
relationally distant. And this just isn't
Naaman's story. This is ours, too. Pride creeps into
our marriages. It creeps into our friendships, our families, our
church relationships. And you can be winning on the outside and dying on the
inside. You can have success, yet be broken
relationally. And some of you today know what that
type of pain and hurt is. The deepest wounds are not always
visible ones. They come from distance. We used to talk
all the time and we don't talk anymore.
They come from silence, betrayal and broken
trust. Pride fuels conflict.
It keeps us distant. It demands that
others change while refusing to self
reflect. I need nine volunteers to meet me on the
stage quickly.
I know we can count. Spring House, let's go. Which y' all will have a
seat in the chairs, but not the orange one.
Cole, I'm going to have you stand at the end.
Griff, have you stand on that side.
Great. Have a seat. Perfect. One more, Come on. All right.
Thank you. Let's give a round of applause for these good looking helpers.
Griff, Cole, come over here and stand in the center. How long have y' all
been friends? Couple
days. How long have y' all been friends? Really?
Five years. Okay. All of us
have relationships. We've got marriages, we've got best
friends, we've got work, relationships, ministry, relationships, all of these
things. But in every relationship are two human
beings. And the human beings that are in that relationship, guess
what? They're broken. Which means it stands to reason that
in every single relationship, no matter how deep and wonderful it is, there's
bound, at some point, conflict. There's bound to be
conflict. How we handle conflict is
everything when it comes to relational healing, to
where we are with the Lord in terms of our relationships. How we handle conflict
is absolutely everything. And so we're going to pretend for a moment
that these two guys have had some type of conflict and it has caused
them to walk away from one another. So I'm going to let you all walk
away from one another and join the other side of this line.
So these two have had a relational conflict. And what conflict does.
Conflict puts distance between us.
Issues come between us. There's a gap, there's a fracture.
And it would be the desire of Jesus Christ for us to heal
the fractures between us. The enemy rejoices when
it looks like this. The enemy rejoices when there is space,
when there is distance. When there's betrayal, he rejoices.
But God is wooing us to be unified. He's wooing us to be together.
He's wooing us to love one another the way he has loved us.
But here's what happens. We get
into this mindset where Griff's like, well, Cole did such and such,
and he needs to apologize for it. And Cole's saying,
griff said and did such and such, and he needs to apologize for
it. And so we're going to say that
Cole is more prideful up here than Griff
in this particular situation.
And Griff wants to see this relationship restored. Cole wants to
see this relationship restored. The difference is, is one of them wants to do it
their way. The other one's willing to give in and abandon their way, to do
it the way the Lord would want them to. And so
Griff is willing strides toward
coal relationally. Now, if it
was Griff's way, he would be like, okay, I'm going to go over here. I'm
going to walk over here. I'm going to do it this way. But that's not
what Cole has laid out. I want you all to take these signs and just
put them around your neck for me.
In their interaction and in their discourse,
Cole, because of the infraction, has laid out
a bunch of things that Griff must do in
order to restore this relationship. In other words,
Cole has provided hoops for Griff to jump
through in order for the relationship to be restored.
Would you guys pick up those hoops and hold them at, like, shin
level? Like, real low there? Okay, Now,
Griff looks at this, and Cole's saying, oh, will you want to be
reconciled Here are the hoops I need you to jump through. And Griff
goes, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life.
I'm not jumping through your hoops. I'm
not about to. You know how silly this looks? Do you know how
absolutely ridiculous this is that you would make me jump through this
to get to you? In other words, Cole, you're not
worth it. In
other words, Cole, I don't love you enough to jump
through the hoops you've placed up. But here's what
Grif doesn't understand. The hoops that are here
aren't necessarily just by happenstance. Cole has
lived a life of insecurity, with
pain, with fear, with identity issues
from past things, past mistakes, doubt and confusion that
has caused him to not easily trust when there's
been a conflict in the relationship. So because
of these things, hoops have been created for anybody to get
close to him. Now, Cole suffers from having being
isolated most of his life, but, man, can I tell you, if there's
just one person who would love Cole enough to decide, it
doesn't matter what kind of hoops you put, I'm going to jump through them because
I see the value. I see the Christ in you. I love you
enough to jump through the hoops. You'll jump through the hoops. Going to jump through
these hoops. And he will get to you, Cole, no matter how ridiculous
it looks, no matter how ugly it is, no matter what it is, he'll jump
through the hoops and the relationship will be restored.
Now, some of you, some of you, not most of us, but some of
you say, you know what? I would jump through hoops. But then you do this.
You jump through the hoops and you grab the person. You're like, look what you
just took me through. Look what you made me do. I can't believe you made
me do this. And guess what? You cause a more of a severing relationship. But
here's the thing. When he jumps through the hoops, what he does at the end
of it. What'd you see? There's a big bear hug. There's a one
directional focus, and it says, listen, I did all of that crap because I see
you and I love you and I want to be in relationship with you.
I don't have the strength to do that, Kev. I don't have the strength to
jump through this hoop. It's ridiculous. Guess what? That's why you need the Holy Spirit.
I don't have to understand why you need me. To jump through these hoops.
What I'm saying is, I love you so much, it doesn't matter. At the
end of the day, I want to be reconciled. What do I need to do
to be reconciled? I want my relationship with you to grow
deeper in the Lord. What do you need me to do? How many more hoops
do you need me to jump through? And here's the crux. Jesus Christ
jumped through every single hoop we put out there, but he added one.
And he said, after all the hoops you did, I'm gonna add one. And the
one I'm adding is death. I love you so much that I'm gonna die
for you, and I'm willing to do so
every single time. And here's the thing. Come back over
here, Cole. When you're in this position over here,
when trust has been established here and
Cole finally sees somebody who's operating like
Jesus Christ, who says, I love you so much that I just went through all
of that, and I don't care about that. We don't even talk about that. I
am sorry. Look, I jumped through all the hoops, and I'm
still saying I am sorry. Forgive me. Because the
issue should not outweigh our relationship.
It's not important enough to take what God has put together
here, and so the
relationship's established. But guess what else happens now?
There's an opportunity because he's. Grif has jumped through
all of this. Guess what? There's an opportunity for
Grif to say, hey, hey, let's talk about the doubt
that's in your life. And Cole listens
because somebody was willing to sacrifice their ego and their pride to
love him enough to now speak truth about all of these
situations. And it works both ways. It
works both ways. Jesus
jumped through our hoops. And I'm asking you, are there things in
your relationships that you have said, I refuse to do it? And you
just are content with your relationship being. I would tell you, if
Jesus Christ was standing right here, he'd look at you and say, that is not
my will. That is not my will.
He has called us to deep relationships.
He's called us to further. And I'm going to ask you this morning, I commission
to you, are there things separating you and your spouse,
your friends, work relationships? Are there things in the
middle issues that you have allowed yourself to stand by and say, well, until
they do such and such, I'm not budging. Maybe the Lord is inviting you
today to begin jumping through the hoops they put out to
show the essence in the love of Jesus Christ. You guys may
be seated. Thank you so much. Would the worship team come out?
The greatest healing you will ever receive
is not physical. The greatest healing
you will receive in life is relational because it is
eternal. It is eternal. Here's what's going on.
Pride says, beneath me. Love says, I'll
do whatever it takes to reach you.
How many would be bold enough to admit this morning that you
haven't given your all in terms of reaching somebody in your life that you
need to reach? I have my hand up first.
If God says he opposes the proud,
if he says he opposes the proud and your hand was
in the air, why would you want the God of the universe to oppose you?
You need grace. I need grace.
So I need to humble myself in the
sight of the Lord. This is how Jesus loved
us. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Three weeks ago, I was speaking on Elijah,
and I was talking about the fire that came down from heaven. And I talked
about the water that he put in the trench because of the faith, the bolstered
faith he had in the Lord. And he took that water and he poured it
on there and poured it on there and poured it on there. In the context
of that message, I shared with you guys some very private
information about my medical journey
and told you that I had a mass on my liver.
And since that time, I've had some tests done. And
there was a point in time where we had read that I had
cancer. But this week, I got
a note from my doctor on Tuesday and said, it is not
cancer. It is benign. There is nothing wrong. That is
good, good news. God
has healed my body, and I praise the sovereign God for
it. On Thursday this
week, on Thursday this week, Sherry and I
had an appointment in my office here at the church with a woman
who two years ago slandered my
name, drug our ministry
through the mud, said all sorts of crazy things about us.
And it was a very hurtful, hurtful season.
And this lady came to meet with us
to say, I want to be reconciled. I am so sorry.
And we apologized, and God created a situation
where our relationship was healed. I want to tell you this
this morning that this week I am more excited
about the relational healing than I am the fact that I don't have
cancer. I am more excited about the relationship in my
life being healed than the fact that he's touched my body. Because here's the truth,
guys. In three years, five years, 10 years, I may have cancer again. I may
have something that happens to my body, my body's going away. But
relationships are eternal. And guys, sometimes
we wait until there's somebody laying in a couch to decide,
I should have let the pride walls fall. And I wish I would
have said. I wish I would have. If I would have done anything to jump
through that hoop that they put there, what was I thinking?
And God's saying, drop the pride now while they're still breathing so I can do
relational work through you, in you, and with you. There
are apologies that need to be made. There are. There's
yardage in relationships that need to be had. Today is a day where, where I
believe that God wants to restore relationships. And we're going to ask, just like
the psalmist says, lord, search my heart. Don't let it be what I
think. But Lord, you identify and put in front of my face. You need to
go, you need to do some business with that person because you're not
resolved. There's stuff down there. There's
nitty gritty stuff. And your pride is stopping you from going any further. And
I've got something huge in your life
relationally with that person. So the choice
is your hard, hard message today because it causes you to actually
have to lay down yourself and surrender your pride and go
to people and do some business, some Holy Spirit business.
But let me tell you, there is nothing greater. There is nothing
greater than being healed relationally. Would you
guys stand with me this morning?
Love says, I'll do whatever it takes. Guys, we.
We know how to shout. We know how to say I love you, I love
you, I love you. I love. We. I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you. That is such a, such a shallow term
now or phrase. Now, the proof is in the pity.
The proof is I love you. Here's my step towards
you. I love you. I'm jumping through this hoop for you. I
don't have to say it because I'm showing you. Jesus didn't
just go to the cross and stand by side and say, I love you, I
love you. Just wanted to let you. He didn't text you I love you. He
got on the cross and he did what he said he was going to do.
And so this morning, the altar space is over. Love says, I'll do
whatever it takes. I'll jump through every hoop. I'll meet you where you are
because. Because that's exactly what Jesus did for you. So as we sing this song,
if you need to ask the Lord to shed off layers of pride in your
life. And I'm going to tell you, your pastor, I'm the first one up here.
I don't have to go far. I'm right here. But if you need to
have layers of pride shed, you come forward. But let me tell you
something. You can pray all day long in the altar space, which is good because
you need to be equipped with the Holy Spirit. But he's going to give you
some direction, and it's going to mean you're going to have to have some. Some
conversations with some people. Be ready for that. And I can't
wait to hear the testimonies of God's faithfulness as he heals relationships all
over this place. Let's worship.