2819 Church - WISDOM & WONDER | Raised. Ransomed. Recovered. | Matthew 20:17-34 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

In the series finale of “WISDOM & WONDER”, Philip Anthony Mitchell delivers a Spirit-led teaching from Matthew 20:17-34. Welcome to the official Youtube channel for 2819 Church. This channel features powerful and life-impacting messages from Philip Anthony Mitchell and guest communicators. As you listen to these sound biblical messages you can expect to be challenged, stirred, matured and inspired in your faith and walk with God. For more information about us visit 2819Church.org.

Let me see. I know that some of y'all think we're doing the most. I know. How y'all going to spend a whole hour in worship? Y'all doing the most. I think he's worthy of that. And because this is our last Sunday of the year for us, we won't come back again until January 5th. I just

want you to remember what it feels like when we're together, worshiping our Savior. So we are doing the most today. It's a day of celebration and praise unto our God. Before we jump into God's Word, not really a proclamation so much, we're going to do something a little different today. Just two quick announcements, and I just want to share this with you. If you're new to our church, at the top of every year, we do what's called a consecration together. It's just seven days, one week in which we turn our plates down. We turn down the noise of society. We hop off of social media. We turn down all the external stimulus to just focus in on the Lord in fasting and in prayer. We spend more time in the word, more time in his presence, and we want to just be with him. And it doesn't have to be to get some clear word or directive for the year. If that's

your goal, that's nothing wrong with that. But the primary goal is that we would just draw near to him as a church together. And in our consecration last year, powerful testimonies of how people's lives was radically changed in such a short period of time. So I just want to let you know that's coming at the top of the year, okay? And then secondly, I am not a money man. I even struggle to raise capital. It's probably one of my weakest areas of pastoral ministry. In 12 years of pastoral ministry, I've never taken special offerings, never do $100 line, $50 line. I don't say I hear the spirit of the Lord saying,

50 people need to bring me $1,000 or later. I don't get into any of that American foolishness. Don't do that here. But we do know it takes resources to move god's work forward and one of the things we instituted last year was what we call a gospel expansion offering in which we start doing this once a year in the month of love february in the last sunday of the year we bring something sacrificial a gift that we sold together as a church. And these gifts, at least for these first two years, we're trying to raise as much capital

as possible that we can invest that into the purchase of our very first facility. I've made it very clear and I've been very transparent that there is pressure on us here and that we cannot remain in this school very long. And we're doing everything we can to raise as much capital as possible to be able to purchase a facility. And we're trying to do this without a bank involved because I believe the people of God, we can do this for ourselves. And so on that Sunday, the final Sunday of the year in February, I'm sorry, will be the opportunity for us to come together sacrificially to sow or to invest towards gospel expansion. And beyond a facility, which that is not the promised land, we use that offering to help fund all of our projects and

initiatives, and we support missionaries who are outside the country right now. And I just want to let you know that so we can be prepared for that. Amen. If you are a guest to 2819, we welcome you. If you're sitting in the overflow and you are a guest, we welcome you. If you're watching me live right now in cities across the nation, around the world, we welcome you. We are at the end of a series called Wisdom and Wonder. We are walking through or have walked through Matthew chapter 12 through 20 together. We're going to finish that series right here today. And then I'm going to share with you a little exhortation after that.

We're going to take communion and we're going to go home. And disclaimer, I did not prepare a sermon for you this morning. Okay. And what we're going to do today is we're going to read God's word and we're going to go home. And if the Holy Spirit gives me insight as we read, I will give you that insight. But I told you there will be days when we'll come together and there will be no preaching because I am not an idol. But that we will sit together and just read these holy scriptures together. And just let the word minister to us as we read it and go home. And for those of you who make me an idol, that you think you can't survive a Sunday without a sermon from me. I just want to remind you that the scripture says the word is alive and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword. And if what I'm telling right

now makes you feel uncomfortable, like how could I come to church and the preacher doesn't have a sermon? Let me just show you something that our Lord did so you don't think I'm a heretic. In Luke, Luke who was a doctor, a physician, and a historian, the only non-Jewish writer of the Scriptures, 40 of them. He records an incident in Luke chapter 4. I want to read it to you so that you see that I want to put Scripture on what I'm doing, okay? In Luke chapter 4 and beginning in verse 16, Luke wrote, And he who was Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

And as was his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. And so we see Jesus had a habit of being in the gathering of the saints or the gathering of the Jewish people. Obviously, we know the Sabbath was Saturday for the Jews. We celebrate the Lord on Sunday. Non-essential. And he stood up to read. He stood up to doessential and he stood up to read he stood up to do what he stood up to do what not to preach he stood up to do what he stood up to just read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.

And this is from Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Two verses he read. And then what did he do after that? And he rolled back up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant. And he sat down, gathering over.

Right? And he gives one exhortation. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. He reads the scriptures. He gives one exhortation, gathering over. So it is not unbiblical to do that. And if we can't just read the scriptures amongst the people of God, then where can we read these scriptures? Amen? Amen. So today I'm going to close out our wisdom and wonder series by just reading to you the last verses in Matthew chapter 20. We'll do Matthew chapter 20, and we'll go from verses 17 to 34.

Eternal God and ever wise Father, we sense and feel your presence right now. We thank you, Lord, for your word that's forever settled in heaven. And we pray, Father, that we would just find contentment and joy in just the holy reading of these scriptures and that it would be enough for us today. Speak to our hearts as we read these sacred texts. Minister what needs to be said, and we'll give you the glory for that in Christ's name. God's people said amen. Amen. And amen.

In Matthew chapter 20 and beginning in verse 17, Matthew, who was an outcast Jew and converted to Christianity, a follower of Christ and eyewitness of his ministry, he wrote these words beginning in verse 17. And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, we know that the Lord has left Capernaum, his home base of operation, and he's headed towards Jerusalem for what will be his last time entering that city. And he took the 12 disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered.

It's a very important word. He's prophesying about his own impending betrayal. He will be delivered over into the chief priests, into the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged. A very strong word. Flogging was a very severe form of punishing someone. They would flog someone with a whip called the cat of nine tails, and that cat of flagaloo would be a pole with leather straps on it, multiple straps. And at the end of those straps would be metal or bone. And whenever you would strike somebody with that whip, it would go into the skin. And when you pull the whip away from the person,

it would rip the flesh off the person. Isaiah, who wrote 700 years before Christ was born, tells us that Christ was so badly beaten when he was flogged that his face and his body was unrecognizable, that they did not recognize his face when he was beaten, that he was so badly beaten, his flesh was torn, and they could not make out the appearance of his face. I just want to remind you that he did that for your sin and for my sin, and that's the price he had to pay for the sins that you and I committed. This is why we should not love sin. And this is why we should hate sin. And this is why when we see it operating in our lives and in the church and in culture, we should be grieved over sin in our own lives. And in the church in America, we should be grieved. And in our nation, we should be grieved when we see sin why because sin its payment came

at a high cost as followers of christ we cannot stare at the brutal whipping of the lord or what he suffered on the cross and then turn away from the cross and just enjoy the pleasures of sin. This is not to say we will not sin or make mistakes, but man, we should not love it with our hearts. That I'm going to keep talking like this until it gets tattooed to your heart, that we will be a people watch, that we learn to hate sin, hate iniquity, hate these things that grieve the heart of God, that when it operates in me, my heart is bruised and broken, that I keep running to him in repentance.

And he will be crucified, and he will be raised on the third day. This is the Lord for the third time prophesying to his followers about his coming death, his burial, and his resurrection. Just a powerful word there, raised, just a reminder of them to have hope beyond the grave. Amen. And I'm just reminded that for all of us whose names have been written in the book of life, we have hope beyond the grave. Nobody has to lie at our funeral. They can speak with us with confidence that that believer whose body lays in a box, they have gone into the presence of the Lord, that one day we would leave this broken body and people would mourn a dead shell.

But we will say, don't cry for us too long for we have left this earthen vessel and we have gone into the presence of God Almighty. And I'm just so thankful that the Lord was raised. We should always see that word and be excited. For if Christ is not raised, we have nothing to believe in at all. There is no Christianity if Christ is not raised, we have nothing to believe in at all. There is no Christianity if Christ is not raised. For he is not the only progenitor of a religion, but he is the only progenitor who's not in a grave. Hallelujah! And then verse 20, then immediately after his declaration, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, this would be the mother of James and John, her name was Salome, came up to him with her sons

and kneeling before him, she asked for something. And he said to her, what do you want from me? Or what do you want? Man, I just find it interesting that this mother, immediately after the Lord is testifying about his death, burial, and resurrection, the first thing she does on the heels of that is come to make a request. And she says to him, say that my two sons of mine are to sit at one at your right hand and one at your left hand in your kingdom. Now, I'm reading this, and when I first read this, I thought to myself, man, this woman just heard that the Lord is about to be brutally executed, and your response to that is a request. It's like you missed the whole point of what he was saying. You're worried about glory for your sons,

and he's talking about suffering. And I just want you to notice in the text, it says she came and she knelt before him with the two sons, which is an act of worship. And then in the presence of worship, the first thing she does is seek his hand, but not his face. And so she enters into worship and then she uses worship as an opportunity to get to her vision board. I mean, we do the same thing, right? And I just feel like something changes in our lives when we don't see the presence of God as only a means of getting stuff from him, but we see the presence of God as the greater means of getting him.

See, and I want to say something to some of y'all, and I know it's going to sound boring, but the greatest thing you could get in prayer is Christ himself. It's going into his presence and sometimes just sitting with him. It's just loving on him. There's times I go into his presence and I'm not pleading with him for something. I'm just sitting there with him. It's just loving on him. There's times I go into his presence and I'm not pleading with him for something. I'm just sitting there with him and I'm just enjoying him and I'm just loving on him and being loved by him. Sometimes I will say crazy things like, Lord, would you just appear to me for just a second while I'm here? I've said that. He may never do that, but I've said that. I said, Lord,

even if I just see your feet, I'll take from the knees down and I'll be satisfied with that. And I'll say, Lord, I just want you to know that I love you. And I just want to be here with you. And I just lean into his presence. And then my prayer time is not boring. And I'm not on a clock. And then my prayer time is not boring. And I'm not on a clock. And I'm not just trying to get through five minutes so I can get out. I'm actually going in there to sit with the person that I love. I want to encourage some of you who struggle to pray because you go in there and you think like, how can I talk to the Lord for 15 minutes or 20 minutes?

Like I'm going to run out of things to say. Just practice his presence. Go in there and put on some worship music or some instrumental worship or sit inside and just sit there and feel his presence. Go in there and put on some worship music or some instrumental worship or sit inside and just sit there and feel his presence. Get visions of him raised and glorified. Get visions of fire in his eyes. Get visions of the fact that he's coming back to get you.

Just learn to sit there in his presence for just a little while. Think about the person you're talking to. Think about where he's seated. Just sit in his presence for a little while and just warm up yourself to him. Every now and then when you go into his presence, get a flashback of where he has brought you from. Like, man, you took me, Lord, from dirt. You took me from the street. You took me when I was a knucklehead. You saved me. Just get a flashback of what he's done for you. Man, when I was a hoe in the street, Lord, you came and got me.

When I was in and out of beds, you came and got me. When I was wiling out in the flesh, you came and got me. And just sit there and just love on him for just a little bit and feel his presence. And then lean into your heart like, Lord, I'm struggling with shame and I'm wrestling with insecurities. And I know I'll be posting things because I want attention, but help me to get delivered from the brokenness of not having my father or not being affirmed by my mother. Lord, I'm angry with this person because the way that they treat me. Lord, I had a tough week this week at my job. And you just start pouring out your heart. We didn't even get to asking him for nothing yet. And you look up and you've been there for an hour.

Watch. And then you turn the secret place into your vice. Does this make sense? You turn the secret place into a vice. So every time your heart is heavy, you keep running back there. A bottle won't be my vice. A blunt won't be my vice. That china white won't be my vice.

That boy won't be my vice. That boy won't be my vice. But when you make the secret place your vice, then when you think about all the hell you keep going through in life, because life is a conveyor belt of challenges. If the secret place becomes your vice, man, you look up one day and all of the hell, you know what it produced in you? Intimacy with Christ. In the shower, in the car at the light, in the cubicle at the job,

while you're walking in the park, when you're driving down the highway, you can turn any place into a secret place. I don't even know why I'm stuck here and I'm supposed to be reading. No, I...preach black man. Just sitting with the Lord, look at me. This is the highest activity any human being will ever engage in in this life. There is no activity you will ever engage in that's more important than just sitting in the presence of the Lord. Come on, help us. My marital problems, my secret place, my insecurities, my secret place. Don't feel

like a good father this week, my secret place. Feeling jealous, my secret place. Wrestling with thoughts in my mind that's unholy, my secret place. Got needs that I can't meet for myself, my secret place. I just keep cozying up next to the Lord that, man, I just enjoy walking into my secret place. I close the door and immediately I feel his presence. And I'm just going to tell, I know you want me to move on. No, don't tell me take my time. See, because I don't have no sermon, so I'm being led by the Spirit. So,

maybe somebody needs this, right? Listen, all the tears that we shed, the pain that we're feeling in this life, I'm telling you, something would happen deep in your heart when you make the secret place your vice. Praise God for friends. Praise God for devotionals. Praise God for all that stuff. But there is something very powerful when you make the secret place your vice, that all of the hell of life, it keeps driving me to that secret place, and that sometimes I don't have to be going through hell to go into my secret place. Sometimes me, Philip Anthony Mitchell, I just want to slip away from Lena and slip away from kids and just sneak away for just a little bit to go sit in God's presence in the secret place. My family, they'll tell me they feel when I'm being agitated or when the pressures of leading a church is too much. And my wife will come to you, honey. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Let him go. Just stand

right here. Bro, you can't run up on us like that, bro. You'll get shot in here. Pray for you. Pray for me. Pray for you. Yes, Lord. Do you know the Lord? Yes, I do. Are you saved? Yes, I am. You belong to Christ. I do. You have a relationship with Christ. I do, yes.

What do you need prayer for? I need prayer for these evil thoughts and these demons that are attacking me. No, no, no. Okay. These demons away from me. Okay. Thank you, Lord. Okay.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Okay, all right. Thank you. Okay. Okay, hallelujah. Let him go. Hold on. I rebuke you, Satan. Rebuke him.

Go ahead. I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, your path for me is amazing. I rebuke you, Satan. Yes, Lord. Touch my, come into my life right now. Lord. Yes, Lord.

Come on, talk to Jesus for yourself. Lord. Yeah, it's okay. Lord, come into my life, Lord. Yes. I love you so much. Yes, yes, yes, yes's okay. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Put my mic back on. Don't take it off. Thank you. Yes.

Yes. Yes. always. Yes. Lord, give me the wisdom and understanding. Yes, yes. Spread your love, Lord. Yes, yes. You're so powerful. Yes, he is powerful. I glorify you for the rest of my life, Lord. Yes, for the rest of your life. Yes, yes.

Eternal God and ever wise Father, we pray for our brother right now. In the mighty name of Jesus, we come against every demonic force that's tormenting this brother's mind. We say you have no authority here. We come against you right now. We say the blood of Jesus is against you. We command every demonic spirit to flee from this man in the name of Jesus. Shut up. You're a liar and a defeated foe father we thank you God Lord he's being delivered even right now in the name of Jesus that every thought that's held them captive we be retaking captive right now under the authority of Jesus Christ we pray peace for his mind and peace for his soul and peace for his

spirit and his life. Jesus, we pray you would work in this brother's life for you are great and mighty. We pray, God, your peace would come upon him, that peace that passeth all understanding. That there is no battle against the enemy in which Jesus is a loser. And we thank you, Lord, for freedom for this man. Break every demonic stronghold in this man's life.

And we thank you, Lord, for peace. In his life right now. Worship. Worship. Worship. Somebody give Jesus praise. Come on. Come here.

Be free. Be free and be at peace. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name I pray. Yes, amen. Be at peace. Be at peace. Be at peace.

Be at peace. So I feel. Soften. Soften. So maybe all of that was for that brother. And for those who wrestle with tormenting thoughts, you're saved. I just want to remind you that greater is he who is in you than he who is in you than he was in the world and that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth that the weapons of our warfare they're not carnal

but they're mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds and I know especially amongst my people, we think strongholds are just things you shout out in the sky. It's bad doctrine. It's thought patterns in our mind. And then he will go on to tell us that we should take captive of those thoughts. We should tear them down. We should make them obedient to Christ and keep replacing them with the thoughts of God's Word. And if you struggle in your mind with thoughts, I don't condemn you. I struggle. I've had a therapist. I've preached and wrestled with depression at the same time. I know what it is to live life and do ministry and have a dark cloud over my

head. I know what it is to be a mountaintop on one minute and then sink into a depression in the next minute. I know that, Philip Anthony Mitchell, personally. So I know what it is to fight between the ears, right? And I know what it is to get pushed to the point of wanting to take my own life. But we got to remember that every thought is not ours. And we got to know that we have an enemy who is a liar. And that same liar that tried to instigate a war in the heart of Jesus

after he had fasted 40 days in that wilderness. It's that same instigator that tries to wage war in our heart and in our minds. And hear me, the struggle is real between the ears, but we got to know how to fight back though. Amen anybody. So worship is a weapon and your secret place is a weapon but my greatest weapon Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Softly. Anybody know what verse I was on? What's that, sister? You sure? You paying attention? All right.

What's your name? Joy. Joy. I prayed that would come over everybody when I got up this morning. I prayed that a spirit of joy would just come upon the whole church. Joy. What verse am I on, Joy? 22. And Jesus answered her, you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? And the cup he's referring to is his suffering. Said, you're asking me for glory, but are you prepared to suffer? You're asking me for platforms, but are you prepared to suffer? You want stages, but are you prepared to suffer? You want my ministry, but are you prepared to suffer? You want stages, but are you prepared to suffer?

You want my ministry, but are you prepared to suffer? You want my platform, but can you really pay the price for that? You want to be famous, but can you handle the heat that comes with that? And you want to be known, but can you handle the heat that comes with that? So he says, man, I'm talking to you about suffering you're asking me about glory can you handle the cup I'm about to drink this is Salome John and James in verse 23 and they said to him we are able and he said to them you will drink my cup but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father. A couple things I just want to throw out there really quickly. Just notice, he said, it's not for me to grant those

two seats for John and James, although the mother asked for that. Just peep the text, the mother is asking something for her children that's not God's will for her children. And we who have children just want to throw that out there. Parents got to be careful to not try to manipulate a path for our children that may not be God's will for them. Here is a mother trying to manipulate a path for her child, her two sons. That's not God's will. And I think we as parents have to be careful of trying to force our children down pathways that we think is best for them that may not be God's will for them. So maybe a greater goal in our parenting is not only to train them up as disciples, but to also try to lead them down the pathways that God prepared for them. That Ephesians 2.10. Like what if college is not in God's will?

What if he's calling them to be a missionary? What if he's calling them to go do something that we don't think is… So we got to be careful not to manipulate a will for our children that's not God's will. So that we don't be unnecessarily disappointed at them if they don't go to the school you want them to go to, where God may be calling them to do something different. He could be mad at me if you, the mother is trying to manipulate a path for two sons

that the Lord said is not his will to do that. So I just think we need to be careful about that. And he said that, you know what, these two boys, they will drink my cup. And we know that they did suffer for the Lord. Acts chapter 12, James, first one of those apostles martyred by King Herod Agrippa in the 40s AD. And then we know John. John, he was boiled in oil and survived and was banished to a prison island called Patmos, about 20 miles off the coast of Ephesus, which is modern-day Turkey. So we know that they did suffer. They did drink a little bit of this cup. And all of us who are followers, we're drinking the same cup right now. We are suffering. We are going through hardships. We are going through hardships.

We are going through trials. And you know what? Let me just say this, and I'm going to read the rest. These last two months have been hell for my wife and I, for things I won't say across the camera. But I found myself loathing and complaining the other day. And my wife came to me and she just encouraged me and I had to repent and wring out my heart from all of my complaining. And I begin to say something crazy in my prayer time. God, you know, thank you for all the hell you're allowing Lena and I to go through. Thank you for the suffering you're allowing us to go through. I'm identifying with you in my suffering. I'm being drawn closer to you in my suffering. And then when I thought about the struggles we have as a ministry and building and stuff with the city, and I'm thinking

about all that, I said to myself, whoa, man, this is light work. I ain't resistant to the point of shedding blood. I said, man, all these trials we've been through, this is this is light and momentary afflictions that is not going to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed and i had to wring out my heart from complaining before the lord well maybe you're doing something in me in my suffering and every time we suffer our prayer is to get out. It's that the Lord do something in me while I'm going through this suffering. I just wanted to confess my own sin. I'm not alone. I'm in a room full of angels who have no sin. Verse 24. And when the ten heard it, they were indignant, and the two brothers. But Jesus called them and said to them,

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be servant. So if we would be great, we would seek to be great servants. If we would be great, we would seek to be great servants. We would seek to be great servants at our jobs, in our businesses, in the ministry. If we really want to be great, I am not great because I have a big Instagram following.

I am great if I make myself a great servant. What I'm doing right now is serving. And so the more we serve, the more we pray for others, the more we go the extra mile. I was talking about that in the last gathering, man. We make ourselves great servants. For those of you who work under employers, man, if you have second mile attitude, you go the extra mile. You're the first one in, the last one out. You make it hard for them to fire you, to get rid of you. You make yourself so valuable because you're a great servant. Man, that second mile service Chick-fil-A didn't create that. Jesus created that. Right? In the first century, they had something called conscription. A Roman soldier can walk up

to a Jew and take off his garb, take off his armor, hand it to a Jew, and said, follow me for one mile. And what the Lord told us, don't only go one mile, but go an extra mile. And when that Roman soldier saw that follower going the extra mile, they would be blown away. Like, what kind of people is this? That's where that second mile service came from, going the extra mile, being great servants of all. And then he said to them, for the son of man did not come to serve, but to be servant, to give his life as a ransom for many.

And as they went out from Jericho, a great crowd followed him and behold, there were two blind men sitting by the road. The writers in another gospel tells us that one of the name of those blind men was Bartimaeus. And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. So they get near to Jesus and they cry out, they pray and they call him son of David, which is a designation for the Messiah. So here are two men that have no physical

sight, but they have more revelation than the people who are alive in that day, who have natural sight. And the crowd rebuked and telling them, be silent, but they cried out all the more, which is powerful to me because it shows that you must be persistent in prayer. Sometimes you could be going through something that's very traumatic, and we don't just pray about it one time or ten times. Man, we keep seeking the Lord to give us strength and grace or mercy or answers. Man, these men were persistent. And stopping, Jesus called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? Which every time I see something like this, like, I'm sorry, it's hard for me to read because I love the scriptures, man. Like, the Lord is asking them, what do you want from me?

Like, he knows what they want. And he still asks them, what do you want from me? It's almost like he's giving them an opportunity to exercise your own faith in this miracle. Like, people who say, why do I have to pray if he already knows what I want? But he wants you to be dependent upon him. He wants you to partner with him in prayer. He wants you to lean in. I mean, he knows what they want. And he still asked them to see, would they have the boldness to still

step in with faith? What do you want from me? And verse 33, they said to him, Lord, let our eyes be open. That's what I pray for everybody. Let our eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity, having mercy, touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight. Dang, I didn't see this in the last gathering. He says they recovered their sight. You can only recover what you already had before. Oh, my. So that means these men probably was not always blind.

I just, I just. You can only recover something that you had in your previous possession. So at one time these men could see. And at some point in time they lost their sight. This reminds me of those times when I feel like I'm having a good season spiritually, and then I stumble into a bad season spiritually, and I feel like I can't see, I can't hear from God. I feel like he's not listening to my prayers and I feel like, man, I'm feeling cold on the inside and like I've lost my sight, but man, I got hope that I can recover. I feel that in my spirit.

I got hope that I can recover. Man, I don't know who this is for. You can recover. You can get back your sight, back your zeal, back your fire, back your sensitivity. I feel that in my spirit. You are not too far gone that you can't get it back your prayer life is cold you can get that back you feel distant from god you can get that intimacy back you feel like he's not hearing your prayers you can get that intimacy back. You feel like he's not hearing your prayers? You can get that back. He is willing and able to step into your circumstance.

Man, I feel this in my spirit. I don't care about my clock. Y'all not going to bully me. I need to get this out of my spirit. Man, there are people here, you have lost things that you think you can't get back. You can get zeal back. You can't get back. You can get zeal back. You can get fire back. You can get intimacy back.

You can get your prayer life back. Let me put my business out there. You can get your ministry back. You can get your confidence back. You could get your holy swagger back. Dang! I know what it is to be on fire one season and cold the next. Watch. And feel self-condemning.

Like, Dad, Lord, man, I ain't been talking to you. I haven't been reading my word. I ain't been faithful on this team. And then you beat yourself up. As if he did not know you would slip into that cold place and as if he doesn't have enough pity to be compassionate and merciful and just the other day I had to remind myself from the Psalms that his love is steadfast And his mercy, it endures. And that he's quick to forgive. And he's slow to anger.

And he's just waiting for you to run back into his arms. Yes, your prayer life feels cold and wooden. Yes, he feels far away. He's as close as a prayer of honesty. Lord, I feel like I have lost fill in the blank. Watch. Help me. Sometimes the best prayer you could play is just help. Just, Lord, have mercy on me.

Son of David, have mercy on me. See? I ain't gonna rush me. I don't care. I feel this because I know what it is. Gosh, man. To be mad at my own self,

the pastor of the church, like, Lord, I feel like I'm in a funk for two months. I feel like I'm off and my rhythm is off and my preaching rhythm is off and my study is off. And I feel like my heart has been filled with all this other things and all this busyness that I can't focus.

And Lord, I feel like I am disappointing you. I'm talking about me. This is me in my prayer time. I feel like I'm disappointing you. I feel like I'm a disappointing son. And to just feel him just wrap me in his arms anyway. Man, I know I'm in trouble with the clock. You know what? Y'all gonna have to just write me up in the meeting next week, I don't care. Look, man, this is me this week feeling like, Lord, I've been a messed up son for two months. I've been off, my study been off, everything been off.

And Lena and I went to the mall all the way in the south, the ghetto joint, South Lake. And we walking through Southlake. And we're walking through Southlake Mall. What day was this? Friday, Thursday, Friday. Walking through Southlake Mall. And we got a meeting coming up at one o'clock

and can't make it to the office, but I'm hungry. Then he said, well, let's go to the food court and just grab something to eat. And we walk into the food court and we go in front of the little Asian joint. And I'm standing there minding my own business. And a brother walked by me and I keep my head on a swivel when I'm in the streets. So I'm like this all the time. I don't put my back to a crowd, back to a wall. I'm from New York, so we keep that head on a swizzle. And I keep my, Lena's standing right there, and I'm right behind her keeping my head on a swizzle. And this dude walked by me, mad close.

Close. And he stops, and he turns around, and he looked, and he cocked diesel too. And he turns, and he looks at me with this, he locks eyes with me. And I lock eyes with him. I mean, I'm little, but I ain't going down without a fight. You know what I'm saying? I ain't, but... I'm going to get a couple off before you take me down. I'm... And he walks up on me and he says, he dabs me up mad hard. He said, he said, keep preaching, man of God. Yes, sir. You know what?

He's squeezing my hand mad tight. He said, my name is Elder so-and-so. And I know people persecuting you. But the Lord says to you, keep preaching that word, man of God. And he's squeezing the mess out of my hand. He said, "'Don't come down off that wall. Don't stop talking. Keep preaching that word, man of God.'"

As he's talking to me, I begin to cry. Tears start falling from my eyes. I told him I got up that morning discouraged, telling the Lord, I know how you feel about yourself, but let me tell you how I feel about you, my son, my daughter, that you are my beloved. And even when you don't feel good about yourself, my love for you has not changed. Even though they persecute you on social media, my assignment for you has not changed. Be faithful, son.

I love you, son. And you're a stranger to just love on me. It's crazy because 15 minutes before that, I bumped into a stranger in the mall who ran up on me and said, I watch you. My mother's gotten saved from watching the church and she's going into open-heart surgery, and we stopped right there in the mall, Lena and I, and prayed for her mother. Her name was Lisa.

In my own pain, I'm encouraging somebody else, and before I get out that mall, in my own pain, God is sending somebody to encourage me. Right? Right? And I'm just gonna, let me just say this and I'm gonna shut this down. For me, I struggle sometimes. Like I understand love in my mind.

Sometimes it doesn't, I gotta make that drop to my heart. It's like we know that. But if you struggle like I have with being self-condemning, sometimes it's hard to just receive I'm a much better giver than I am a receiver and I know the pain of self-loathing and being self-condemning and feel like I'm always messing up and sometimes this is the struggle of

insecurities from not being affirmed and not hearing somebody say well done and you did a good job some mother fell short some father fell short so there's a part of you is crippled right there and before I stray too far away from the text because I'm testifying whatever you've lost spiritually your sight, your vision, your fire, whatever. Lisseth. That's the sister I met last night in the restaurant. It's your husband. Bless you, man of God.

Whatever you've lost, you can get back. And I don't know who this is for, but stop condemning yourself for your stray. Just recognize your stray and cry out like these men. Lord, son of David, have mercy. Just have mercy on me. That's good enough. That is the end of the Wisdom and Wonder series.