The Church of Eleven22 - Do You Need a Miracle? - Fear to Faith - Matthew S3E1

Episode Date: March 22, 2026

Do you need a miracle? In Matthew 8, Jesus meets people in their deepest places of need and demonstrates His authority over sickness, brokenness and darkness. Through these encounters, we see that faith is not about having all the answers— it's about trusting the One who does. No matter what you are facing, Jesus invites you to come to Him with humility, bold faith and full surrender. He is still the Great Physician, the Prince of Peace and the One who makes all things new. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. 📖 Scripture References: Matthew Matthew 8:1-17; 28-34  Isaiah 53 James 5:13–16 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: • Fear to Faith Intro • Do You Need a Miracle? - Fear to Faith - Matthew S3E1 (Full Service) • What Jesus’ Miracles Are Really Pointing To - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin: Matthew S3E1 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here.

Amen and amen and amen. If you got your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 8. I've got to admit, I think the recap videos are better than the sermons. Don't you love Pastor Onee? Me too. You're welcome. He's like the African C.S. Lewis. That's what he is, all right?

Hey, before we dive in, I don't know if you can feel it. Can you feel it? Like the Lord is on the move, man. See, you don't know what's coming. I know what's coming. Wait a scene. Good job. Before we dive in, I just want to honor somebody.

My mom is sitting right over here on the front row, and I want to give honor what honors do. Thank you for being here, Mama. None of us will be here without you. That's a fact. Think about that for a little while, not too much. Matthews chapter 8, we're in a new season, fear to faith. What we're doing is we're aiming towards resurrection Sunday.

and for us Thursday and Saturday and the whole weekend, all right? And what we're going to see over and over and over are miracles, and you're going to see this rustle between fear and faith, because the two cannot coexist. Because whether it's faith, fear will run and hide. Fear is when you think you're in control. Fear is when you put your trust in your circumstances, and faith is when you snatch it back and you put your trust in the sovereign king

over all your circumstances. So we're in the home stretch. I don't typically tell you the titles to sermons, but this one's called Do You Need a Miracle? So you need to ask yourself, do you? Do you need a miracle? Because I've got good news. He's still in the miracle business.

I mean, we're going to sing it at the end. Spoiler alert. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And I have read from the beginning to the very end of this book. I've even checked the maps and everything. And there is no expiration date on the work of the Spirit of God and his people. That what God did, he still does today. And so at the end of the service, if you're brand new here, welcome.

If you ever see this anointing oil on the little table here, buckle up buttercup because we've got to go to war. okay and so in about 45 minutes or so we're going to shift this thing into a healing service that makes you nervous good me too but I am not a faith healer I'm just a Bible believer and we're going to walk through it we're going to do exactly what the book says and we're going to we're going to pray we're going to anoint we're going to ask God to heal and what we're going to see in our text here in Matthew chapter 8 is we are going to see Jesus show up and meet people

right where they are. Not some future version of themselves once they get their act together, but he is going to meet them in their places of utter desperation. That Jesus enters the very places where our brokenness seems beyond repair and demonstrates

that he has authority over it all. With a touch, he cleansed diseases, with a word he heals from a distance, and with a command he drives out the power of darkness. And I got good news. The healing and freedom that we cannot create for ourselves are found in Christ alone. That's what we're going to study. Matthew chapter 8 verse 1, the Bible says this.

And when he came down from the mountain, this is after the sermon on the mountain. The series we just finished. And when he came down for the mountain, a great crowds follow him. And behold a leper, underline leper in your body. Bible. A leper was an outcast. A leper was somebody that had been separated from their people, separated from their community, separated from the synagogue. Back in Levitics is 13, the Bible gives instructions to priests on how to determine if somebody was a leper. It basically, anybody that had any kind of external skin disease, you kind of fell into this category. And they were called unclean.

and what they would have to do is they would have to wear sackcloths with torn cloth and they would actually have to announce themselves when they went into public and they would have to yell unclean, unclean. Imagine this. Now again, this is not a story. This is not a fairy tale.

This dude had a first name. This dude had a mom and dad. And when the mom and dad would see their boy in town, he would have to stand over to the side and announce to everybody, I'm not like you. I'm uninvited. I'm on the outside. Some of you feel like that.

Like you don't have a skin thing. You wish you only had a skin thing because you could go get that fixed. But some of you feel like you're on the outside, like you're divorced, and you wonder if you'll ever be able to share love again. Some of you are single and lonely. And you keep trying to convince yourself like,

Jesus is more than enough, but quite honestly, he didn't feel like it. Some of you are estranged from your kids. There ain't no pain like kid pain, right? Some of you have a prodigal child. Some of you got like legitimate church hurt. I think that words used way too much, but I'm not trying to belittle what you're going through.

And quite honestly, you're not even here. You're watching online because you're just, finally dipping your toe back in. And you feel like you're on the outside. That's how this guy feels. And behold, a leper, came to Jesus and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. First of all, look at the humility.

He kneels before Jesus. But he's simultaneously humble and very, very bold. The rules say you're not supposed to get this close to people, especially a rabbi, a famous rabbi, a miracle working Bible teaching rabbi. And yet he is not going to let the tradition of man nullify the word of God. He gets right up to Jesus. He's been told all of his life he's not welcome. But like I tell us all the time, he's not going to let the labels of this world tell him who he is.

He's going to check with the very son of God. And he goes and he kneels before it. And I love this prayer so much. He says, Lord, here's what he's saying. I'm not in charge, you're in charge. He's poor in spirit. He's saying, I ain't got this. Lord, then he just says, if you will, so many times when we come to God, we don't say thy will be done.

We say my will be done. God, I need you to get in alignment with my will. That's not what he does. He says, because you are Lord, I know you're in charge of all things. And so if you will this, he doesn't even act. for anything, he just makes a statement of faith. He just simply says, you can make me clean. Not hope this works, because you're my last resort.

That's not what he does. He says, I know that you can do this. It's very similar to the prayers of Shatterat Mishak and Abednego before they're thrown into the fiery furnace. If you are going through whatever your fiery furnace is, this is a great big sovereign God and yet making your request way to God, I know that you can do something about this situation. I've seen it before.

I've read it in the book. I know other people have been healed. I know that you can. I believe that you will. You say we have not because we ask not. So I believe that you can and I am believing that you will. And even if you don't answer the prayer the way I wish you would answer my prayer, I will not bow down to this idol.

That's what they pray. And so this man simply says, Lord, thy will be done. You can make me clean. This is, by the way, when you find yourself in need, not if you find yourself in need. This is a great model prayer to come to Jesus. Not with demands, but on your knees, Lord, if you will, I know that you can fix this situation. And Jesus stretches out his hand and touched him.

By the way, rabbis aren't supposed to touch people with leprosy. but you don't get to tell the Lord of the universe who he can and cannot reach out to. Some of you have been told by some church that he wouldn't reach out to you. Well, I'm glad you're not at that church anymore. Because what we're going to see over and over and over here is that this gospel is a movement for all people to discover in deep in a relationship with Jesus. That Jesus was for all people. And Jesus stretches out his hand and he touched them. And in our world, in this world, when dirty touches clean, the clean gets dirty, right?

If you ever walk around the carpet with dirty shoes on and it makes your shoes clean, no, it gets the carpet dirty. But where Jesus rules and rains, when clean touches dirty, the dirty gets clean. That's how this works. Now here's the thing, we talked about it a ton in the John series years and years and years ago, that miracles always have a message. that God is Jesus is never just flexing his raw power because he can. He never just is like, watch this and there's twirls with the stars. He never does that. That a part of what Jesus is doing and what Matthew wants us to see here and all throughout the gospel of Matthew

is that he's not just flexing his raw power, but he's peeling back the curtain so that we can see into the kingdom of heaven. And guess what? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And as he peels the curtain back in the kingdom. of heaven, there are no outsiders. Nobody has to yell unclean because Jesus has made them clean. There is nobody with leprosy in the kingdom of heaven. And so he reaches out his hand and he touches him and he says,

I will be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed and Jesus said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone. And you're like, well, that seems weird. I thought we're supposed to tell everybody about Jesus. is Jesus not into our one more program here? I mean, is that, you know, here's the thing. I learned this, by the way.

Do you all ever read, do you all ever read Gretchen's devotionals when she writes them? If you don't, make a fist, punch yourself in the face because you're dumb, okay? Because they're awesome. They're really, really good. And she asked me to read over them, and she pointed out something that I've never seen before in the Bible, and I read it professionally. I have degrees in it. that when Jesus heals people in Judea, in Israel,

he always tells them, hey, keep this to yourself until I die on the cross and I'm resurrected. But when he heals people outside of there in Gentile land, when here's Gentiles in Gentile land, he tells them, won't you go and tell everybody? And I'm like, hmm, what, first of all, I never know that, so it's good to be disciple by your wife, that's a good idea. And you ask, why, why, why?

Well, I think a part of it could be because the Jewish people understand the sacrificial system and they will never be able to understand Jesus until they see that he is the lamb who was slain for the forgiveness of our sin. He is going to complete what God set up in this atoning sacrificial system. And they will know him as Savior, Messiah. That's what that means. But the Gentiles who don't have an understanding of the sacrificial system, when they see him as more powerful than the darkness than they can understand

that he is Lord of all. And the reality is that Jesus was both Lord and Savior and you can never divorce those things. He's always both Lord and Savior. So he says, see that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.

Now this is pretty awesome. First of all, here's what I want you to see. When Jesus changes your life, when Jesus cleanses you, you are immediately connected to the family of God. So you've got a disconnected guy. He can't go to the temple. He can't go to the synagogue, his entire life. And now the moment Jesus cleanses him, he says, I need you to get connected into the faith family. Because it matters a lot.

Not only that, I think a part of what he's doing here is he's going to make the priest deal with this miracle. that this preacher on the mountain is also a miracle worker and what you're going to do about that. Now here's what's interesting. The gift that Moses commanded is you've got to go all the way back to Leviticus 13. The whole, if you want to go to sleep tonight, read Leviticus 13. It's how to diagnose leprosy.

It is, man. It's about flaking skin and pus. I mean, it's like, what are we doing here? I can't find a memory verse in it, but it's all inspired by God. So 13 is the diagnosis. And then Leviticus chapter 14 is what you do if someone is cleansed of leprosy. How you reinstate them into right fellowship with the body of believers.

And here, I mean, if you want to see the scarlet thread of the gospel on every page of your Bible, you didn't realize the gospel was in Leviticus 14, did you? I mean, it's be honest, you haven't read Leviticus 14. You try to do your Bible in a year plan, crush you some generous. Exodus, nailed it. You get to Leviticus. You're like, I'm going to John, okay? It's better stories.

Okay, I understand. Here's what the priest says to do. Here's the prescription on what to do when somebody with leprosy. And they never say that leprosy is healed. They say that you are cleansed of it. Here's what you do. You take two birds.

The person comes with leprosy. They don't happen anymore. You take two birds, and they're both clean birds, and you sacrifice one of the birds. Okay. And then you take a scarlet thread, literally a scarlet thread. You tie it around the living bird and then you dip it in the blood of the sacrificed one. So a clean animal sheds its blood to cover over the other animals.

Does that sound familiar? And then once you do this, you go to the priest and you bathe. It's like a precursor to baptism. It's like because the blood of Jesus has washed me clean, now I'm going to take a bath. That's what baptism means, man. It means the dip, dump, submerge. And if you've never been baptized as a believer

and you're cleansed by the blood of Jesus, you should bathe, not at your house. I mean, you should do that too, but you should come get baptized. So that you show the whole world, I am dying to my old self. The blood of Jesus has washed away my sin. And when I come out of this water,

I'm going to be resurrected to a new, of life. This is a precursor to what we know is baptism. And then after that, now you are being made right in this fellowship again, and the priest makes the sacrifice of atonement for you. So he sheds the blood of a lamb on your behalf to cover over your sins. Again, this is all pre-Jesus stuff. We don't have to shed the blood of the lamb anymore because Jesus is the lamb who is slain for the forgiveness of our sin. And then after you spread the blood of the lamb, you take some of it, It seems random, and you put blood on your right earlobe, your right thumb, and your right toe. How about that?

Then you do to hokey pokey. That's what it sounds like, right? No, no, no. Then you take oil, anointing oil, and you wash off the blood of your ear, your thumb, and your toe, and then they anoint you. Why? Because what they're saying is now, not only have you been reconciled to God, you've been reconciled back into God's family, and may you hear and heed the word of God, may you put your hands towards the work of God,

and may your feet follow the path of God. Welcome home. That's what they do. So not only are you healed, but you're restored to the people of God and re-consecrated to the Lord. Now remember, Jesus said that he did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it.

And so he tells the priest, all right, you guys deal with this guy. And some of you, you're like, what does this have to do with anything? Some of you need to be healed and reconnected to God and reconnected to his family. And then he keeps going. Jesus is on a little bit of a miracle role here. And now he's going to go for a Gentile. I mean, movement's moved, man.

This movement is for all people. So he's not going to stop with the guy with leprosy. He keeps going, verse 5. And when they hit enter Copernium, that's where Peter lives. a centurion. This is a Roman soldier who was the boss of a bunch of soldiers. By the way, the Jewish people would have hated him.

The reason that he is in Copernium is because of Roman occupation. He is the enemy. He is the oppressor. They hate this guy. But Jesus enters Copernium and a satirian came forward to him appealing to him.

And I'm just telling you, the Jewish people, the crowd is like, whoa, whoa, What are you talking to him for? Why are you talking to those people? But into the kingdom of God there are no those people. You understand? For God so loved the world. No matter what you look like, what you've done,

where you've been, how you were raised, what your current condition is that Jesus is for you. He gave his life for you. To quote my man, jelly roll, Jesus is for everybody, y'all. what he said. And some of you are like, yeah, but you don't know what I've done. All right, Scooter, quite honestly, who the heck do you think you are? There is more grace in Jesus than sin in you. That when the almighty sovereign king of the universe lived a perfect life and went to the cross,

not just for you, but instead of you, what he did when he endured the full wrath of God on the cross is infinitely bigger than whatever it is that you think you've done to disqualify yourself to Jesus. And so a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him. Look what he says. Lord, again, this is a boss. This is a military guy. Lord, my servant, that's like bond servant, is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly. And he said to him, Jesus says to the guy, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Do you see the humility here? This guy's got power, this guy's got money.

This guy has influence, and it ain't helping him here. So, okay, how much power, money, influence, how many likes and checks you have. Jesus has what you need, and this is what this guy understands. And what he doesn't do is he doesn't come rolling up on Jesus going, do you know who I am? He actually comes rolling up on Jesus and says, I know who you are. This is humility. He's saying, I know I'm powerful, but I need your help.

I know I got money, but I need your help. This is why when David stands before Goliath, he said, it's not by sword or spear that the Lord says what the battle belongs to the Lord. He says, Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. Here's what this guy recognizes. Here's what this Gentile military boss recognizes

that Jesus is under the authority of God the Father. By the way, in the scriptures, God always works in and through authority. So, especially you and young cats out there with a vision for your life. Why in the world would you ever expect God to give you any authority if you don't learn to live under the authority

he has placed you under? That's always how God works, and that's how this man works. And he says, this is the guy, the Citerian and I say to one go and he goes and to another come and he comes

and to my servant do this and he does it verse 10 look at this verse real quick and when Jesus heard this he marveled when's the last time you think Jesus was

marveled at your faith like what would you have to do for Jesus to marvel at your faith because from the outside it doesn't look like this guy does anything but pray and ask for something. Well, you're going to have an opportunity at the end of the service to not be controlled by fear,

but to act in faith and to step out and come to Jesus. And the Bible tells us how to do this and to say, Jesus, I need help. And we're going to have people up here to pray for you and anointing you with oil like the Bible says to do. And I'm hoping and praying your ego will not. prevent you from this blessing of Jesus seeing you and marveling at you getting over yourself and humbling yourself and coming down and say, I need some help. So it's truly, I tell you that no one in Israel have I found such faith. You see, faith is acting as if you actually believe that Jesus is who he says he is and he always

keeps his promises. Jesus goes on to say, so now he does this thing for this guy who is outside of the children of God. because Jesus is reminding us, because remember, the reason Matthew writes this thing is that Jesus is the greater Israel. Remember this? We've only talked about it 100 times. That God blesses Abraham, says, I'm going to bless you. That you would be a blessing.

And through you, I'm going to give this promise, and it's going to bless the entire world. But by the time Jesus comes on the scene, Israel has turned inward because that's what people, that's what churches have a tendency to do. Oh, we're blessed. We're chosen just to be blessed. And so Jesus goes on to say, he says, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith, that many will come from the east and from the west. Look at the east. Look at the west. That's us.

Jesus was talking about 1122. Not us only, but we're included in this. I hope you know this. This is 249 people in last weekend services surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You got that? 1,307 people this year have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We've already baptized 301 people this year. We've baptized almost about 13,000 people since we started this year.

Over 20,000 people have signified a first-time decision to surrender their life to the Lordship of Christ through the ministry of 1122 since we started. And you know what we're doing this year? You know what the big thing is to like get everybody? Matthew. Why? Because the power is the gospel of Jesus. It ain't a preacher.

It ain't music. It's not a program. The power is in the word, and this is what we are doing. By the way, we're going to baptize on Easter. If you've never been baptized as a believer, you should go. And the reason I'm telling you is because, I mean, if you want to get baptized in your dress, with one of our shirts over it, fine. But be fine with me.

How about this? You can just show up in your board shorts if you want to at Easter. that's what you're wearing the Easter but like I'm getting baptized sucker that's what you ought to do all right yeah man from the east from the west I love this

he says I tell you many will come from the east and from the west that's all over the world and recline at table with Abraham and Isaac at Jacob in the kingdom of heaven you see Jesus is reminding of the point the promise to Abraham was to be a blessing

to the whole world Jesus is this blessing and he says while the sons of the kingdom, these are the Jewish people that don't humble themselves and surrender to Jesus. I think this would also apply to church people that think, well, I'm just, you know, I got a group on. I'm Baptist, so I'm in. No, no, no, no, no. The line to get into the kingdom of heaven is a single file line.

And if you personally, I don't care who you grandma is, if you personally have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, this is your future. will be thrown into the outer darkness into that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth into the centurion. Jesus says, go, let it be done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed at that very moment. Now, this is a one-off. I don't have time for this. I probably won't do this on Sunday except 7.22 a.m. I will definitely do it for you. But you know what he doesn't tell him? He doesn't say, now here's what you have to do. You got to put your sword down because I'm a pacifist and we don't hurt people. That's not what he does. I do this thing.

My friend Kyle runs a podcast called Undaunted Life. And once a month, we do this segment called Ask a Pastor, and people ask all these questions that I answered. And at the end, he always tries to get me. Not like get me, get me, he's for me, he's my friend, but he asked me like some hard questions. And somebody wrote it in and asked this, if somebody broke into your house and you were in a standoff,

mono-e-mano with guns, would you, because you know you're going to heaven, would you let this person kill you so that they may have the opportunity to hear the gospel and go to heaven? What say you, pastor? And I said, I would shoot that mug into face. Glory to God.

Now, what has happened in the internet, I don't know if you heard of the internet, people have opinions. So this thing's going all over the place now when all these little pastors is like, oh, me God would have done that. Oh, that's not nice. Okay.

That's adorable. The reason I would shoot that intruder in the face is a couple. One is not to protect me necessarily, but to protect my position as a protector of my home. And the Bible says, if you don't take care of your family, you're worse than an unbeliever. Not only that, we live in America, praise God. And in America, guess who has the authority to run this joint? Not those goofballs we vote for, but it's we the people. And in Florida, we have these laws called Stand Your Ground.

And so it is actually, and if you love the First Amendment, you better be into the second because they go together. And so actually, according to Romans 13, I have the authority of the law to shoot that mug in the face. And salvation is the Lord's. He don't need me. If he wants to save the dude, he will save him. And so, and then I get it, I get it. You know, one of the pastors online was like, I just, that makes me uncomfortable. Oh, does it, Scooter?

Imagine how uncomfortable your wife or children are. So you can't, since you won't do your job. Anyway, that's just a one-off, doesn't have anything to do with the sermon, but I said it. Okay. All right, back to miracles. Let's get back to miracles. This is better. Verse 14.

And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. So he said, we're just going to let this one go. No, that's all what he said. I'm kidding. You know, I don't have a lot of mother-in-law jokes because I have hit a jackpot. Gretchen's mama is the best ever. joy nicely. She leads worship at her church,

Long Star forever, the church that Gretchen grew up in, and she is just the absolute best. So thank you, Jesus for joy nicely. All right. Verse 15, he touched her hand. This is the mother-in-law. He touched her hand,

and the fever left her. And she rose, and she began to serve him. Her response to being healed is not to serve herself. Her response is to serve Jesus. When Jesus heals you, you serve. Some of you are going to come up for healing and part of what I need you to wrestle with is why why and some of the

some of you want Jesus to heal you for your own comfort Jesus didn't really in the comfort business I don't know if you know that because how in the world are you going to learn the secret of being content in any situation if all you ever do is ask him to remove you from the uncomfortable situation but the Bible does say that we are to love the Lord our God with our heart soul mind and strength so when I pray for you to be healed it's so so that you can love God with all of your physical body. And I don't want any limitations to that. And so she immediately begins to serve.

And then that evening they brought to Jesus, many who were oppressed by demons. And he cast out the spirits with a word, and he healed all who were sick. Usually about once a year when I talk about the demonic, I'll get an email. He says, you mean to tell me you believe in demons. I do.

I actually think one might be emailing me, but that's a different conversation. I mean, you don't believe in darkness? You don't think there are spiritual forces at work? What do you think it's just poor decision-making? Like, how do you logically explain child exploitation not just around the world out there somewhere, but right here in our own city? You don't think that the demonic is completely.

behind that? Listen, man, if you don't, I'll tell you many times, if you try to fight the devil in the dark, you're going to get your butt kicked. And if you don't know that you're in a fight, ask anybody that's ever been in a fight. If you don't realize you're in a fight, you've got no chance.

You know what a sucker punch is. I know y'all do. You're 1122. A sucker punch is when punches started and you didn't know punches were going to start, and you're the sucker. Every single day, we wake up behind enemy lines and there is a thief, an enemy, and the only thing he wants to do is still kill and destroy.

Let me tell you what this means for you, man. Some of you are just battling with depression, and you just can't explain it. That's the thing about wrestling with dark forces. I mean, the circumstances are pretty decent, and yet you can't turn happy on, or you've got a debilitating fear, and people try to talk you out of it,

and you just can't be talked out of it. Or you're overwhelmed with shame. Where do you think shame comes from? You think God's giving out shame? You hear the whispers of condemnation all the time. Who do you think that is whispering those lies in your head? It's not the Lord because the Bible says, if you're in Christ, therefore now there is no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. Some of you have suicidal thoughts. God is pro-creation. He's for you. He knit you together in your mother's womb. Those voices are not your heavenly father saying hurt you. He's saying, I love you, I gave my son for you, I have a purpose for you, I have a plan for you. Some of you have crippling anxiety.

Some of you live with such deep suspicion about the people that are closest to you that they're going to let you down, that it rules your very thought life and it robs you of all your joy. Some of you have a low-grade frustration with everything and everyone. Some folks walk around with a bitterness, man. It's usually unforgiveness that you've carried around so long that unforgiveness begin to ferment when things ferment. They stink, and you get drunk on it. And you get drunk on the emotions of unforgiveness, and you get those whispers.

Some folks, you struggle with an addiction. And, you know, scientists may be able to talk about chemical pathways that lead, okay, whatever. They're just describing the results of what it is. They cannot tell you the why. I'll tell you the why, because our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities of darkness. If you've ever struggled with an addiction,

if you've ever had a loved one, struggle with an addiction, and they will talk to you, and they'll say, I don't want to do this anymore. But I can't explain it. This other thing begins to, bait me down this road, and I actually know if I continue down this road, it's going to kill me. But somehow in that moment, that voice is the loudest voice in my life. What would you call that?

You could be food, it could be alcohol, some of you're addicted to weed. And I can hear it now. I'm not addicted. Okay, how about stop? Stop. Well, I don't need to stop. How about this? Your pastor loves you and he's asking you.

Just stop. For a month. I know you, you, I mean, now you can do it legal. whatever, okay, so what? Be willing to lay this thing down that you think, that you depend on because you're searching for peace in a place that won't provide it. Pornography, you're addicted to it. So how would you like to be free?

That's what Jesus offers. Sometimes when I talk to people about being a Jesus follower, they're like, man, I just don't know if I'm ready to give up this stuff in my life. Like what? You're not ready to give up sin and shame and fear and controlling. entities of your life. Jesus said, you know what he wants to take from you? He wants to take all of your sin and all of your shame.

He wants to take all of your pain. That's what he wants to take. He wants to take it all to the cross and nail it there and give you freedom and give you life and life abundantly. This is what he offers. And then Jesus roots his, he roots all of this in the Old Testament. Matthew says this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. he took our illness and bore our disease.

This is Isaiah 53. I'll just read you a few verses. It says, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Anybody want peace?

This is where it's found. And with his wounds we are here. all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all the entire passage of Isaiah 53 was written 700 years before jesus ever shows up on the scene on the earth he was pierced for our transgression this is what that says in hebrew right there this is what christ offers now we're going to skip verses 18 to 27 until next week because we're going to stay on this healing that's a miracle we'll talk about that miracle next to next to week but I just kind of wanted to stay on the people miracle thing so we're jumping down

to verse 28 because Jesus is rolling and this might be the best one and when Jesus came to the other side to the country of the Gatarenes by the way this is a tough place this is this is a territory where there were both Jews and Gentiles living and a part of the reason that Jesus goes to tough places is because that's what Jesus does Jesus doesn't show up in the most comfortable places. Jesus goes towards the hard and listen, if you're a follower of Jesus, we should be going where he's going. Honestly, one of the things, some of you need to be healed from is you need to be healed

from comfort because your whole life is too comfortable. And he's calling us to hard places. And so he goes to the other side to the country, the Gatorines, and two demon-possessed men met him coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one would pass by. and here's the thing they are in darkness they live into the tombs and they're lashing out at people

and here's what happened what they got into got into them they began to live in the tombs mark five says that one of them's naked and Jesus comes rolling up and here comes some naked guy

running at him demon possessed and here's the thing man some of you got into some stuff and now it's gotten into you like you reached out to that substance to make yourself feel better and now that substance has you. This is where these men are.

Mark 5 lets us know that people tried to chain these people up and it used to work and now they can't chain them up anymore. In Mark chapter 5 we find out that Jesus speaks to him and says, who are you? And the demon speaks and says we are a legion, we are many. This is what Jesus is facing. verse 29 and behold they the two men they cry out what have you to do with us oh son of god here's something that's striking to me in the new testament in the gospels the demons were always the first to recognize Jesus for who he was and the religious people are always the last because he didn't fit in their box man they had this preconceived notion about what the messiah had to be and that's not

who he was and yet the demons could see past it and see it for who he was for who he was and yet the demons could see past it for who he really is. Listen, listen, please don't miss Jesus. Oh, my gosh. Please don't show up here week after week after week and sing the songs and go to group and do the passion service and do all the things and miss the whole point.

The whole point is Jesus. And they say, have you come here to torment us before their time? They know the end of the story too. They know that they will one day be thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever and ever and ever. Now, I heard of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them.

Now, these were Gentile folks raising pigs. The Jewish people didn't like them because pigs were unclean. But post-resurrection by God, that's gospel meat. Can I get a witness? Part of the way we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus is bacon. I had some this morning to the glory of God. And the demons beg him saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. One commentator said that the demons don't want to be homeless.

And so Jesus goes along with it. And he said to them, go. So they came out and they went into the pigs and behold, the whole herd, Mark tells us it was 2,000 pigs. That's a lot of pigs. And the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drown in the waters. Because that's what demons do.

The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Now, sometimes you're like, well, why does Jesus put demons up in pigs? All right, again, I learned this with one of aggression's devos. I think maybe there's a bunch of Gentile people there and Jesus wants to show them that he is Lord of all and it's one thing to just make a sick man healed you can see that like if you're lame and you can walk if you're blind and now you can see

but you got some crazy how do you know it works well if he takes the demons out of them and puts them in some pigs and then you watch them plummet to their own death then he puts on display that he is in charge Verse 33, and the herdsmen fled and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed man. Well, that's the point. Don't miss the point. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus,

and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. Why? Well, I'm sure the pig farmers are like, hey, you're not good for business. But I'll tell you why. You know what's scarier than two demon-possessed men that live in the caves, that break chains and won't let you pass? the one that's more powerful than them. So Mark 5 lets us know

that when that demoniac is healed, when the people show up, then he is clothed and in his right mind. So back to the title. Do you need a miracle? You know what the connection between all these people that received a miracle was? It wasn't their race.

It wasn't their socioeconomic status. It wasn't their gender. It wasn't their marital status. status. They're all over the map. You know what the commonality between these three are? They were in need. That's it, man. They were in need and they came to Jesus. Let me ask you, do you need a miracle? Do you need to be healed? Maybe some of you are like the leper and like you feel alone. You got broken relationships. You find yourself in an impossible marriage and you need Jesus to do for you. What you have not able to do on your own.

And you need to come and say, Lord, if you will, you can make this thing right. And some of you may have a broken body. Well, I've got really good news, man. That God is the great physician. All healing comes from him. Sometimes it comes through people, like doctors and nurses and medicine. Sometimes it comes through technology and medication. Praise God.

every good and perfect gift is from above and sometimes it comes through prayers and most often is the combination of all of those things so if you've got a broken body you should come and be prayed for some of you're struggling with infertility and it's consuming you and I get it I don't get it we've never experienced it but I hurt for you so bad because it doesn't make any sense to me either

and you should come and beg the author of life to give you life you should come and pray or maybe like the centurion it's not you but there's somebody that you love that's a long way from here and they need a touch of Jesus I got good news man

Jesus can make the long distance call he can do it he didn't even have to show up just by a spoken word that person was healed or maybe you're bound up in chains of addiction or depression fear anxiety and you're like well this

I mean, is this one of those churches? Let me tell you the kind of church this is. We believe what this book says right here. And we're going to do what it says. And again, man, listen, James Chapter 5 just tells us what to do. And I've told you before, man, it's going to tell us to anoint with oil.

And I'm a recovering Baptist, like about half of y'all. And we didn't annoy. We didn't healing services at the Baptist church. You're crazy? That's what the crazy charismatic did. The only thing we anointed was biscuits with gravy, you know. But here's what the brother of Jesus says, James. Is anyone among you suffering, some of your own struggle bus, right?

Financially, spiritually, physically, relationally, he knows. Like he sees you. It is no accident that you're here. He worked out all the details of your life that you would be here in this very moment to hear his invitation. The invitation of Christ is anyone among you suffering. Let him pray. So in just a second, we're going to have a bunch of people down here to pray over you. Then it says, look, like, everybody's, it ain't a bummer for everybody.

Some of you are living the Lego movie right now. I mean, everything is awesome. Praise God, dude. We don't all have to just be miserable because we're believers. No, no, no. Is anyone cheerful? Yeah, let him sing praise. So what we're about to do is an auscape.

We got prayers and praisers. That's what we're going to have. And so there's going to be a bunch of people. Typically when we do this, there's a bunch of people that say, honey, Jesus, cool, you're going to come now and we're going to pray for you. And everybody else in the room is going to sing these praises to the one true God and blanket all the people up here. It's like the whole church family is praising and praying over these people.

joining with the Almighty God, the great physician, to believe together and join together and pray for what we are praying for down here. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Again, that could be financially, relationally. I mean, you know what it is. Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. So here's what we're going to do. I mean, we only got about 15 elders or something. We got like 35,000 people, so the math doesn't work. So the elders have commissioned pastors and ministers and deacons and volunteers and all kinds of people because we believe in what is called the priesthood of the believer. That if you are a believer, then you are in ministry.

You're actually a saint. You're that Catholics? Yeah, if you put your faith in church, Jesus, you're a saint. We didn't have to vote. We're not going to sell a necklace with your face on it. Just according to your tradition, but according to the Bible, that's right. You're a saint.

And so we're going to have a bunch of folks up here to pray and to anoint with oil. We serve a tactile God. And when somebody puts oil on you in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the anointing represented the Spirit of God. Now, technically speaking, if you're a believer, the Spirit of God lives on the inside of you. But as you feel this oil go on your head, then this is just a tactile reminder that God sees you and God hears you. And like Jesus touched people, you are going to be touched by God. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has

committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. We're going to pray for healing. Not everybody necessarily will be cured, but we're going to pray for it. But the promise of Jesus in Isaiah 53 is that by his stripes, we are healed. And so no matter what you're walking through,

as devastating as it may be right now, it's only for a short time as compared to eternity. And so let my friends in the wheelchairs right here, I'm going to pray, man, I'm going to pray. Why not? We'll pray. I know that he can, I believe that he will. And even if he doesn't, you will not put your faith in your physical condition,

because I can promise you this. It ain't going to be but a short time, and me and you're going to be walking the streets of gold together, you know? And the thing you'll be most pumped about won't even be the walking. It will be the one that you get to walk up to that will walk with you in the kingdom of heaven. And we're going to pray like that. And we ain't going to pray some little weak sauce prayers. We're going to make no excuses to God.

Well, you know, I mean, I'm not sure if I'm bothering. None of that jump. We're going to pray like crazy Pentecostal people up here. We're going to use the Queen's English the whole time, but we're going to pray like we actually believe that we serve the God of miracles. That's what we're going to do. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

And then it says the prayer of a righteous person has great power at his working. And you know what it means to be righteous? It means that you have a right standing before God because you put your faith in Jesus, and you have been imputed with His righteousness. And so that's what we're going to do. And so I would invite you to stand up at all of our locations. If you are an anointer, a prayer person,

I want to invite you right now to just make your way down front. And if anyone among you is sick, if anyone among you is suffering. And you might be suffering like the leper because you're disconnected, you feel lonely, you have broken relationships, you feel like an outsider, you got some serious hurt that you're having a hard time getting over, then I would invite you to come. and I tell you what, this takes a while. So you can just, if you don't need me to say go,

if you need to be prayed for, you can just start making your way now. Some of you have a broken body, and you need to be prayed for. Some of you are struggling with infertility. Some of you have what you think is an impossible marriage, but I'm just here to tell you that if Jesus, if God can breathe new life into his dead son, Jesus,

then he can breathe new life into that relationship that you thought was dead. And so if you need prayer, they're just going to say, how can I pray for you? just tell them and they are going to anoint you with the world just like James 5 prescribes to the church today and we are going to pray and everybody in the seats one if it's fear keeping you there perfect love drives out fear and I dare you to have the courage to get in line and come on but if

you're cheerful I'm we're going to sing our lungs out to the one true God because he heals let me pray our good and gracious heavenly Father God we love you more than anything because you first loved us and God I'm just doing what you told us to do in the word and so Jesus I know that you save I know that you redeem I know that you cleanse and God we know we also know that you are the prince of peace and you are the great position so God I pray that repentance happens that sins are confessed that chains are broken that relationships are put back together that marriage is restored that prodigals come home that cancer is cured God we have not because we ask not and God we ask you because we know that you can we believe that you will and God no matter what we will not bow down to our circumstances we pray this in Jesus name amen we're going to sing we're going to bring we're going to pray let's go