The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: It Is Well

Episode Date: November 10, 2019

Because of the resurrection of Jesus we can say: “When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrow like sea billows roll Whatever my lot Thou has taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul.”

Psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. So I'm Steph Horner. I work at the church, a student minister, and Olivia is one of my students. At one point, they were talking about, you know, hey, who are you discipling personally? And I was praying through, okay, Lord, like, who do you have just to put on my heart to just really, like, do life with and disciple in that way, kind of like the Paul and Timothy. Example, and the Lord just kept putting Olivia on my heart more and more. And I started just seeing her heart for things. And the more we hung out, the more I realized, like, man, the Lord is doing some work in her.

And it was just clearly the Lord and bringing us. together. The first time I met Steph was at camp. And so since then, it was like the snowball effect of going to Mandarin, hearing her speak. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to call her. We're going to go get coffee. And the second I sat down with her, she just kind of like unloaded a bunch of information on me and like wisdom. And all of the information and wisdom was from the word. And I remember thinking like, wow, this is kind of new to me. Like everything she's saying is from the Bible. It's not like her opinion. It's anything like that. And the Lord's word is the bridge between both of us. It's what connects us. It's what drives us. It's what teaches us.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gates. If you shot an arrow and it wasn't sharpened, there would be no point to it, literally. And so the arrow has to be sharpened. and I believe that the warrior is the one that does the sharpening,

and the Lord ables her to sharpen me. So if I'm the arrow, I want to be sharp. I want to serve my purpose. And so thankfully, God's given me a warrior to shoot the arrow that's going to sharpen me. At the end of the day, he's the one doing the sharpening, but he's using Steph to do it as well. Amen and amen.

Hey, welcome to the Levit22. Hope you are well. What a great video. I just wish I could get my foot that high, quite honestly. Hey, if you've got your Bibles, we're primarily going to be in Psalm 127, which was read on that video, and then Second King's chapter 4. And as you've heard from the campus pastor, we're like halfway through this two-year journey in this shema. And we've been in it like crazy. And a whole part of what it means for us as a church to say, God, you are the one thing that drives everything.

It's about being one church to reach one more, and especially one more generation. and if you're new about three or four years ago I went to Israel for the very first time and when we got to Israel they take us to a place called Shechem and the way my brain works it just works in Bible verses not because I'm spiritual just because that's what I do for a living and so I can start going through the Rolodex when we get to Sheckham and I'm like all right what happened here oh yeah Joshua chapter 24 the Bible says that Joshua gathers all of Israel to Sheckham and it's in between two hills the hill of blessing and the hill of cursing and Joshua says this very very famous verse He says, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Some of you have that, like, you know, knitted above your bedroom or something like that, okay? It's a very, very famous verse. And what he was doing, he was drawing the line in the sand saying, hey, you got to make a decision. Are you going to worship the false gods of the other countries? Are you going to worship the one true God? And then he says, as for me and my house, we will serve. the Lord. And all of Israel agrees, us too. But I don't know if you know this. A lot of times at church,

people can get all wrapped up and emotional and make a decision that's not really a commitment. And all of Israel says us too. And then if you flip two pages in your Bible, you get to Judges Chapter 2. And the primary phrase in the book of judges is this. And they did what was right in their own eyes. In Judges Chapter 2, right on the heels of Joshua in Shekham making this claim, the Bible says, in that generation, and by the way, the generation, that walked across the Jordan on dry ground, the generation that marched around Jericho and saw the walls come tumbling down,

the generation that saw miracle after miracle after miracle, the generation that took over the promised land. And that generation went to be with their fathers and another generation arose and they neither knew the Lord or the works of His mighty hands. And I sat down on a rock in Shackham and lost it because I began to think, what if? I mean, listen, man, God has blessed us as a church like crazy.

not because of anything we've done. All we do around here is make much of Jesus. Jesus draws men and women unto himself. And we have seen the miraculous. We've seen thousands of people saved, thousands of people baptized, planted hundreds of churches around the world. But we never walked around the walls of Jericho and saw them fall down. And I just was overwhelmed with this thought,

what if, even though God's blessing us like crazy, if we assume the gospel, the next generation will not know the gospel. I just committed on a rock and check. I'm not on my watch. This church will be committed to the one true God and to reach one more generation. Because 1122, what if the thing that God really wants to do isn't even what he's doing right now in us? What if our job is to just get things ready for the disciples on the other side of that wall in our kids' ministry? Because God's going to raise up an army to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Amen? And so that leads us to this three-week series called One More One. more generation. Because we are committed to making disciples of one more generation. And on your way in, you got this thing, this flyer about the McKinsey run. This is a part of what we do to partner with one more generation. McKenzie was a 15-year-old girl that 10 years ago surrendered her life to Christ at 1122 service and four weeks later went to be with Christ. And so she wrote in her Bible, I want to make my faith public. And her parents have spent their life being an answer to that prayer and we at 1122 partner with the mackenzie wilson foundation to plant churches around the world

to help orphanages in Uganda to help under resources kids right here in our community and a part of the way we do that is on november 23rd you need to sign up and go to the run you don't have to run i don't run i will be in running type clothes but if you see me running call the police something that's gone horribly wrong i will pray and then i will briskly walk to the finish line not via the track but like just direct and I will wave at you as you run, okay? But if you don't want to run, don't. But support this thing, okay? Just wear running clothes, you'll get credit like you run even though you don't, all right?

Be a part of this. It's a big part of what we do. And then also your campus pastors pointed out the commitment card. Last week, we all, as a church, came together and made a commitment, a financial commitment to say, this is what it looks like in our family's life to say, God, you're the one thing that drives everything. And so if you didn't get a chance to fill this out last week, and I know some of you didn't, a bunch of you were in mourning last Sunday. Oh, you don't remember?

You were in sackcloth and ashes. It's all right. It's all right. It's not over, man. It's basketball season. You've still got a chance. Okay? So, if you didn't get a chance to make your commitment, a huge part of what is happening in the one initiative is for us to create environments at all of our locations to reach that one more generation.

So if you didn't get a chance to fill that out, do it and drop it in an offering box on your way. you out because again here's what we're rooted in you should know this by now hopefully says here oh israel the lord our god the lord is one and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and these words that i command you today shall be on your heart and the next three weeks we're going to go where the rest of the shemma goes and listen what he says right after that and you shall teach them diligently to your children now who's the you he's talking about here See, this is why Southern is better in English. Because in English, you is a pronoun that refers to another noun, but you and you can be singular or plural.

But in Southern, we have a plural for you, and it's called y'all. You just means like you. Y'all means y'all, and you know what plural for y'all is? All y'all, that's right. Because if I say y'all come here, that just means some of y'all, but if I say all y'all come here, you know who I mean, all y' y'all come here. All y'all, come here. In Hebrew, I'm trying to help you learn Hebrew. In Hebrew, this means all y'all.

That's what it means. The you that it is referring to are not to particular parents with a child. The you that it is referring to is here, oh, Israel. This is very, very important. He's saying all of Israel, in our context, all of the faith family, all of the church shall teach them diligently to all of our children. and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. In other words, one more generation means all of the kids at 1122.

And I mean from like conception to college. All of the kids at 1122 are our responsibility to raise up to be disciples. And as a parent of two, I've got one that's about to be 14 in two weeks. Bless me. all right and I got a little daughter who's 10 going on 21 okay I need your help I mean for real I need your help and praise God that this is the kind of church that does help I want to thank our kids ministry and our student ministry and all of the serve staff at all of the locations that volunteer and pour into the lives of my kids like Reagan Capri has people like boo and Abby and April

and I couldn't do it without them because at some point kids need somebody other than their mom and dad pointing them to Jesus and there are some girls that are pointing my daughter to Jesus and in J.P.'s life he's got dudes like Chandler and Blair and Zach and Evan and here's what's crazy. When Evan was in the eighth grade

I disciplined Evan and now he's grown-ish and he's discipling my eighth grader Listen, man, parenting is a team sport, and we need each other to do this thing together, and I need your help. And as your pastor, I am committed to help you disciple your kids. This church is committed to create the kind of environments where we can partner with you, mom and dad, because you are the primary disciple maker of your kids. I know you've got to coach for everything else, but when it comes to disciplining your kids, it is primarily you, but your whole faith family partners together with you to come.

kind of create the environments whereby your kid can grow up to be a disciple that makes disciples that makes disciples. Now, this series over the next three weeks is not primarily a parenting series. It's a one more generation series. So to help you out, we put some resources on the app that just say family resources. You can go there and it'll give you like devos and prayers and activities for kids and students. I'd love for you to check that out. But the idea is whether you're married or single, whether you've got kids, don't have kids,

if you've got a bunch of kids, if you've got grandkids or grown kids, or whatever it is, that you all, all of us, are responsible for teaching the Shemah what it looks like to love the Lord of your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength to all of the kids. And so Psalm 127 that you heard on the video says it this way. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Now listen, at 1122 right now, we are building lots of houses. How many have you ever heard a church called the Lord's House? You've heard that before, right?

The Lord's House. Now, that is kind of an old covenant way of thinking because God does not live in a house. He does not live in a building. And in the new covenant, when Jesus says it is finished on the cross, then the curtain was torn from the very top to the very bottom, and God actually resides in the people of God. But when the Bible talks about the house, it doesn't just mean like the physical structure. It means the people of that place. Like when Joshua says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

He didn't mean my 1,500 square foot ranch 3, 2 with a half bath. That's not what he was talking about. He meant, as for me and mine, the people that live under my roof, we will serve the Lord. And so currently, at 1122, we're building a bunch of houses, all right? We're doing a little renovation on the San Pablo House of the Lord here, right? All the space we're sitting in is going into this one more generation and we're going to move next door. in about a year and a half we're going to open a new campus in the North Jacks area. We just opened Fleming Island, and by the way, that house is already full,

and so we had to start 722 service at Fleming Island this past Thursday night. Praise God. Praise God. Right now we're looking for land in St. John's County to put a campus there. I'm going to tell you. You're proud of your dirt, man. I'm just going to tell you. Good, gracious.

What's so special about your dirt and pine trees? Anyway, pray through that. We've got over a thousand families just coming from the Nocatee area as a part of 1122. So we're putting a house there. But this matters for us to, unless the Lord builds the house or even the campuses, man, those who build it labor in vain. Listen, we are not building more locations or more facilities as a big facade to our success. That's not how it works at all.

In fact, in fact, we just need facilities too. facilitate ministry. We're not into big fancy buildings. I come to you live from ladies accessories. That's what this used to be. All right? I mean, several of you are behind a pole. You can't even see me unless I move around a little bit. All right? That's not what this thing about. These things, it is just this. Here's the way. In John chapter one, the gospel writer says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Eugene Peterson interpreted it this way. And the word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. That's what we're doing. We're just taking the gospel and trying to move into your neighborhood so that you could love your neighbor by inviting

them to an 1122 service right near you. So the Psalm says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Look at verse two. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. The only problem is, is this is what most of us spend most of our lives doing. Getting up early, working late to build our career and build our name and build what we call success. And then one day, you get all of the material things that you were trying to achieve and you climb to the very top of the ladder and you realize it was, uh-oh, leaning against the wrong wall.

This is called the American Dream, by the way. And I'm pro-America as much as anybody I know, but the American Dream is a nightmare. because it will lead you to futility. And when we do these kind of things, you know, we usually hop on the merry-go-round of normality about middle school. Just work real hard, make good grades so that our transcripts look good in high school, so that when we get out of high school, we can go to a good college so we can get a degree that matters for nothing, so we can go get a master's degree in another meaningless thing,

so then we can go back home, live with her mom for two years, get a job in something that we don't even have a degree in, and then finally go to work with a, you know, dead up to our eyeballs, and then spend our whole life buying a bunch of crap to impress people we don't even know, then we die and we sell it in a hope's closet. The end. That's your life, man. So what he's saying is the point of your life

is not to work hard to make a bunch of money. Now, you do work hard for the glory of God, but the point of your life is not to eat the bread of anxious toil, but then he goes on to say, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. The point of your life is not to go make a bunch of money, The point of your life is to make disciples, starting with these little ones that are running around with your last name.

You see, C.T. Stud says this. It sounds like a wrestler. He's actually the old dead missionary. He said, the light that shines farthest, shines brightest at home. And so in Psalm 27, when God is talking about what the success factor of a house or a city is, it starts here. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward. like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

See, God loves a bow hunter. God loves a bow hunter. It's why a bow hunt, man. I'm just trying to be godly. In fact, pray for me. I'm going to South Dakota this week just to follow the scriptures, all right? And so I wanted to bring my bow out here just to show you how it works, but the insurance wasn't allowed.

I was going to shoot it, but nobody will let me, okay? Everybody's like, ooh, I'm glad I go to a video game. But anyway, if you don't know how a bow works, okay, the arrow, you knock the arrow to the string, and the only way that the bow sends the arrow is through tension. It's through tension. And when you pull that string back, the more you pull, the more tension there is, and it is because of that tension that it propels the arrow in the direction that it ought to go. By the way, how many of you have children or students living in your home right now? Anybody got them?

All right. Okay. Any tension at your house? Holy goodness. man, I was an expert in students. I did student ministry for 15 years. I knew everything about teenagers until I made one. And now it's just this confusing situation.

Aroma, that's confusing. What's that all about? Now, here's the thing. Here's where the tension comes. God gives you this gift of a little human being to grow up in your home, and they want to go this way and you go on. They want to go that way and you go, no. And you were aiming them in a direction.

And all of that tension comes through coaching. and correcting and disciplining. And you can discipline without love. You cannot love without discipline. And you're aiming them in a direction so that they may. And if you're like 18, 19 years old, listen to this part, so that they may go. It does not say like boomerangs in the hand of a warrior.

Oh no, he's coming back. What are you doing here? That's not what it says. It's linear. The Westminster Catechism says this. its chief aim is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. The chief aim, not just for us as parents, but for us as a church with one more generation, is to aim our kids through the gospel of Jesus Christ to understand that their chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

It goes on to say, blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Now, again, listen, I know there's people here that struggle with infertility or you wanted to have a kid and you couldn't or whatever that situation is. And there's sometimes where verses like this can cause some shame and condemnation. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we just established, he's not just talking about like one mom and one dad and one household. He's talking about the nation of Israel. And so again, whether you have kids or don't have kids, then if you are a part of this faith family, we need you in this family.

faith family as a mom and as a dad and as an uncle and as an aunt to help us raise up. I need your help. Help us raise up one more generation. You see, it takes more than a village to raise a child. You don't want the village raising your kids these days. You'll have a village idiot. That is not what you want. You want the church helping you.

And I'm telling you, man, look, I'm 46 years old. So I'm kind of right down the fairway when it comes to age. All right? There's some of you, when I say that I'm 46, you're like, oh, bless him, look how young he is. Praise God, you're my favorite people, all right, whoever you are. And there's a bunch of of him, you're like, dang, he's old. Good luck, all right. And so I've seen a ton change in my life, a ton.

Like, I remember this was a popcorn move. Remember that? You just had to sit there until all the popcorn was done. Y'all don't even know what I'm talking about. That's how it took us forever. Take an hour to cook a potato. Think about that. An hour for a potato.

Right? But let me tell you, when I, and I grew up in Dylan, so we were 10 years behind everybody else, for sure. Did you know Ronald Reagan literally said, if nuclear war happens, I want to be in the upstate of South Carolina, and somebody said, why? And he said, because they're 10 years behind the world on everything, all right. But when I was a kid, all of Dylan helped raise me. Anybody, like, random guy in Walmart could give me a spanking for abusing my brother. straight up I'd have him in the headlock and I'd say this guy boy you better come here I'm like who is this strange man

me and you daddy and rotary together you know what I mean I'd be like are you serious they'd put you in jail for that today maybe rightfully so my dad wouldn't even be offended he'd buy a guy and coke here put a peanut in it appreciate you you wear him out all right so it's different now the crazy thing is when we talk about

one more generation is that the thing that brings the most potential for pleasure and happiness and joy, which is the gift of kids, also has the most potential to bring you the most pain and the most heartache. I've said it a million times. There ain't no pain like kid pain, is there? There ain't no pain like kid pain. And I know when you walked in and you saw one more generation, there was a bunch of people

and you saw these little teenagers sitting on this ledge and youth, for some of you, think, oh, this would be fun, and there's a bunch of you. and immediately pain came to mind. So what do you do, what do you do when it's not going the way you planned? What do you do when it comes to this one more generation that is a gift from God? What do you do when it's full of pain? We're going to go to Second Kings chapter 4 and I want to look at the example of this woman in Second Kings 4 that shows us what our response to pain in this situation could and should be.

Second King's chapter 4, beginning of verse 8, says this. One day Elisha, Elisha was a prophet that took over for Elijah. Very confusing, but that's just how it went. One day Elisha went to Shunum where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. I like her already. So whenever he passed by that way, he would turn in to eat food. there. And she said to her husband,

behold now, I know that this is a holy man of God who is constantly passing our way. So let us make a small room on the roof with walls and put there for him a bed and a table and a chair and a lamp so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there. This woman knows how to

take care of her pastor. Amen? Hint, hint. So if anybody's got a mountain cabin or a beach house or some hunting land, do what the Bible says. No, I'm just kidding. Except about the hunting land. I'm being serious about that. But I do want to say on behalf of me and my house, thank you. The love and respect and honor and prayers that you send towards the Martins, I do not have words to express how grateful we are for how well we

are treated by this church. When I say I love you like crazy, that is not just a little phrase. It is from my heart. And so I'm kind of kidding about that except the hunting land. So she is taking care of Elijah, put him a little like mother-in-law sweet up on top of her place. Verse 11. And one day he came there and he turned into the chamber and he rested there and he said to gahezy his servant by the way if you're with child you're looking for a good biblical name gahezy i think would be a good one we can bring back out he said to gahezy his servant call this shunamite and when he had called her she stood before him and he said to him say now to her see you have taken all this trouble for us what is to be done for you he is just overwhelmed with gratitude and wants to do something to

say thank you to this woman. He says, would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army? In other words, he's saying, I don't know if you realize this. It's true to my woman, but I'm kind of a big deal. And so I am so grateful for what you have done for me. I could speak to you, speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army. I could even speak to God on your behalf. And she answered, I wish you knew Hebrew so you could see how sassy she is.

And she says, quote, I dwell among my own people. that's Hebrew for my husband takes care of me which means I don't need anything from you and this really shows her character and integrity because what she essentially is saying is this I am not looking for a deal from God here I am not trying to treat you nice so that God will owe me something that's not how this thing works at all

I simply in humility and hospitality just want to serve you because that's what God has led me to do and that just is the right thing to do You see, she understands that God owes her nothing. You see, sometimes what gets taught is this heresy from the pit of hell called the prosperity gospel. The truth is, God is a good dad, and he loves to give good gifts to his kids. But the good gift God wants to give is himself. And self will get taught where it says, like, if you do this, then God owes you that.

The chief heresy there is that you are preeminent, that you are before all things, that if I do my part, then God owes me this. And when that happens, then your ultimate God is not God. Your ultimate God is the gift of God that is called idolatry, and God will not fuel your idolatry. What kind of God would give his kid a thing that drives a wedge in between him and his child? The goodness of God is that you get him. And this is what she understands. She says, I dwell among my own people. She's simply saying, I'm happy to serve.

I don't need anything from you. Verse 14. And he said, what then is to be done for her? And Gahazi answered, well, she has no son, and her husband is old. That's hilarious. And he said, call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway, and he said, at this season, about this time next year, you shall embrace the son. He is thinking she will be stoked.

Because this is all she has wanted. She's wanted a son. Just like, look, man, any mama, any female, you begin to get it in your mind, it is a deep, deep thing. And I know that we live in a world with lots of miscarriages and infertility and all of that. And it's hard to describe. It's hard to explain. I obviously have never felt it personally. But when you want a baby and it ain't happening, there's something at the soul level that gets dinged.

And in the first century, it wasn't just to have this little human being. for you to love. It was also to have a son was to have somebody when you were older to take care of you. And so she responds, I think, I think Elijah thinks, man, she's going to be stoked. And she responds this way. And she said, oh no, my Lord. Oh, man of God. Don't you lie to your servant.

You know what she's saying here? She said, don't you get my hopes up. I've been praying for that my whole life. and when my husband got old and I knew it was impossible, I just laid that one on the shelf and I finally got to the point in my life where I am content for my prayers to not be answered.

So don't you get me all, get me all expect it again. You see, I think she may be getting to the place where she's afraid to believe and get her hopes up again. I tell you, man, it's a sad, sad thing when you lose hope. And here's the reality about, hope. Hope leaks. It just does. Because when you pray and you pray and you pray and you pray and for whatever

reason God does not answer your prayer, you begin to think, God, are you even listening? And you know, listen to man, I'm a high sovereignty, God. I know God's in control of all things, but sometimes it sure don't feel like it does it. I mean, you pray and you pray, you're praying for a good thing. You're like, God, where are you? Are you even listening? Why would you not answer this prayer? I've already figured out in my mind how it would work for you. Give me a baby. Give me a baby. I raise them in the church, raise the little disciple. How come like the worst humans on the planet just crank them out by the dozens? Can't even stop.

And we've got a godly man and woman trying to have a kid to raise, in Jesus' name, I don't understand. Or in the Gospels, one time Jesus is going to heal this man's daughter. And on the way, the crowds all get around him. And this lady with the issue of bleeding for 12 years, she fights her way through the crowd, touches the hem of his garment. and the Bible says a crazy thing. Jesus says, I felt power come out from me. Who was that?

Okay, Jesus, so you accidentally healing this lady and you can't even get mine on purpose? Help me understand. So she goes, oh, no, man of God. Don't you lie to me. Don't you get my hopes up, but the woman conceived. And she bore a son about that time the following spring as Elisha had said to her.

Look, man. Just like there's no pain like kid pain, there's no love like kid love, is there? It's just different. All right, it's just different. I don't know how to describe it, but if you're a parent, you don't have to have it described to you, you just know. Remember when Gretz and I first got married, we got puppies? We were like, this is probably about the same. Nope.

It ain't. I love my wife so much. I really do, man. If I get eyeball to eyeball with her and talk to her too much, I'm like, I'll start crying. I can't help it, but there's something just different. I did not know I had this in me until J.P. showed up on the scene. And you've got to admit, it's a one-way love, is it not? Because what do they do for you? Nothing. They do stuff to you. You lose your wife for a while, make it go crazy,

crazy for a while. Well after that, I mean, it's just like, that's going on, ruin your schedule. They never say thank you. They just cry and make a mess and put you in baby jail for years. Remember you used to have friends Hey you want to go to the thing It's 530 It's about I can't You got 16 minutes Can we do it in 16 minutes?

No So you just stuck And yet And yet You experience 1st John Chapter 4 That God is love And that love is an inexhaustible resource

And you can pour all of your love Out on that kid And if you have another one You still got the same amount of love To get that one If you got 11 you got the same amount of love Not the same amount of attention but you've got the same amount of love because love is an inexhaustible resource.

And you take that little thing home from the hospital. And all you have, man, is hopes and dreams and potential and prayers. And it's just different. It's just different. Verse 18, and when the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. And he said to his father, oh, my head, my head. And the father said to his servant. carry him to his mother.

Something has never changed. Boy, quick, whining about your head. Go see your mama. And when he had lifted him and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap until noon, the brightest part of the day. And then he died, the lowest point in her life.

No pain like it, pain. For some of you, it's a prodigal. It's a prodigal. They have run from the Lord and from you, and you cry out to God. I don't understand. I raised them in church, took him to VBS, did the prayers, we did all the stuff, and God, I don't understand. We baptized 420 people this summer in the ocean at our church on one day.

Why couldn't one of them be my baby? For some of you, it's a relationship that has been fractured. You can remember the day when she was six years old sitting on your knees saying no matter what, I love you all the time. Now she won't even return your phone calls. And you're like, I don't understand. No pain like kid pain. for some of you it's a sickness it's a sickness and if your kid it's not just been like sick with the flu but been diagnosed with a thing the reality of the theology of the gospel becomes real in your mind doesn't it

you immediately go i'd take it i'd give it to me give it to me i would take it for god so loved the world that he looked at this world and he saw all the pain he go i'll pay for that i'll die for that and you go who wouldn't any loving father or mother would do that or maybe you lost the child and it's just not supposed to happen. And this thing that was her greatest promise now is the source of her greatest pain, man. You heard me tell you a couple years ago, me and some of my buddies went to a George game and then to a Braves game and we're staying at this Atlanta hotel, and we're all downstairs hanging out and the top of the hotel catches on fire,

like for real, you know, like you hear the alarm and you're like, it's probably nothing. It was something. There's smoke. It was a thing. And my daughters with some other kids. on the 10th floor, and I just, I got to get up there. I got to get up there. And they're evacuating, and everybody's coming down, and I'm going up, and ain't nobody going to stop me. It took me a minute to find the stairwell. People at the place that know where the stairwell was. I drug one of them

little gods, you showed me. I mean, I'm telling you, as I'm humming out the steps, I had flip-flops on, which is terrible, man. My daddy says, the only thing you can do in flip-flops to get your butt kicked. He's right. And he should write some proverbs, isn't he? So, I, I, I, legitimate thought was, do I kick these off so I can go faster or do I need to have them on in case there's like real fire and I got to walk through it? And then I finally find Reagan coming down the steps and I just grabbed her and it still makes me emotional thing about it. And I just said I would walk through fire for you. There's nothing special about me as a dad. I'm just like every mom and dad. There's no love like kid love and there is no pain like

kid pain and this lady has lost it. And so what do you do, man? What do you do when you find yourself in that place of pain? Here's what she does. And she went up and she laid him the boy on the bed of the man of God. And she shut the door behind him and went out. And then she called to her husband and said, send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may quickly go to the man of God

and come back again. And he said, why will you go to him today? It is neither New Moon or Sabbath. Now, they got some serious communication issues in their marriage, but that's not what we're talking about right now. But notice this, in her pain, she runs to the source of hope, the man of God, not away from the source of hope.

She runs to the source of hope, and here's how she replies to her husband. She says, all is well. This is a very difficult phrase in Hebrew to translate. Because when you look at that, you go, I mean, is she delusional? Because it ain't well. her promised son is dead it ain't okay in hebrew it literally means well the king james translates it

this way it shall be well like the circumstances are not okay but i'm still choosing to trust in my sovereign savior the way i'd say it from dylan is it's going to be okay it ain't okay it ain't okay and i don't understand how this thing is going to work out and i don't know why i loving god would allow this to happen to me right now and i don't see how this thing turns out, but I am choosing to believe it's going to be okay. And then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, errs the animal on, and do not slack of the pace for me unless I tell you. And so she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

He don't know what's going on. And when the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gahezy, his servant, look, there's the chumite. Run it wants to meet her and say to her, is all well with you, is all well with your husband, is all well with your child, and she answered here it again. Here it is again. All is well. Or maybe better translated, it shall be well.

But it ain't. What do you do when your circumstances don't make any sense? And yet in your brain you believe in a sovereign loving God. You see, you've ever been there, by the way? Yeah, me too. A bunch of times. When I just don't understand, I can't understand God, what are you doing? what are you doing?

Something that helps me greatly is John chapter 6. We don't have time to fully go through it, so you varsity level folks. When you get home today, read all of John chapter 6. There's like 90 verses. There's a bunch of them, okay? And it starts out with Jesus feeding the 5,000, miracle. Walking on water, miracle. The crowds are booming.

It's like an 1122 service, okay? They're everywhere. And then Jesus steps up in front of the crowds and says, I am the bread of life. And people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The religious people get mad because when he says, I am, he's claiming divinity. When he claims to be the bread of life, they're thinking manna. He says, I come from God and I come to you. They're getting all mad.

And so then he cranks it up a notch. And then he says, I am the bread of life. And unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me. And so people thought, well, I'm out then. I ain't eating nobody and drinking no blood. This is crazy, okay? And then they begin to leave. Now here's the thing.

Jesus could have stopped right then and explained what he meant. He could have been like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold your stuff. Come back, come back, sit down. Have some leftovers from the feeding of the 5,000 miracle that you just experienced. Hold on. What I mean is, I'm not saying you've got to be a cannibal. You don't have to come up here and bite me on the forearm and suck out my blood. No, see, hundreds of years from now, you're going to be at church.

You're going to be sitting in rows. A little tree is going to come down. You'll get this little like Jesus-a piece of cracker thing, try to eat it with your dry mouse, going to stick to your roof. Then you got a little shot glider of welches and you're going to knock it back. That's what I'm talking about, okay? Communion. the Lord's suffer. And he's not actually talking about the elements. What he means is those elements are to

remind us of the gospel, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In other words, what he's saying is, apart from the gospel, you have no part with me. That you can't just follow me as a teacher. I'm either Lord or you have rejected me. That's what he's saying. See, from this side of resurrection, it makes perfect sense. But these people are like, what? And here's the crazy part. He explained. He explained, none of it. He explains none of it. Peter comes up to him and he looks at Peter and he says, Peter, Peter tells him, boss, this teaching is hard and many disciples are leaving. And then he looks at Peter and says, you don't want to leave two, do you? And John 6 tells us that the reason he asked Peter this is because Peter is thinking, I think I'm out. I think this is too hard. I don't understand.

what's happening here, so I think I'm going to take my stuff and I'm going to leave. Peter's answer in John 6 gives me great hope. Peter says, to the question, do you don't want to leave too, do you? Peter says, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? For you're the only one that offers eternal life. In other words, Jesus, I wish you would explain it, but you're not right now. And if I pick up my faith and I pick up my doubts and I pick up my questions and I pick up my circumstances and I turn my back and go to leave you is to go towards something else and I've looked over this entire world and you're the only one that offers eternal life. So I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to pick up

my doubts and I'm going to follow after you. That's what he does. See, when you find yourself in a place of pain, you need to run to the source of hope, not from him. Because here's what I know. I know that God works in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to purpose and some of you go how could you say that i can tell you because of the cross at the cross of jesus christ it looks like everything is out of control you could go jesus god what are you doing how could you die on the cross and little did they know that day he was redeeming the world and so she goes to the man of god and says all is well and when she came to the mountain to the man of god she caught hold of his feet

This is an Old Testament picture of what prayer ought to be. That when we are in pain, when we are in distress, when we are in despair, we run to the man of God and we cling on to his feet. Like the woman with the issue of blood who fought through the crowd and got to the edge of his garment. Isn't it amazing God's invitation to us when it regards prayer? Do you know Jesus teaches on prayer all throughout the Gospels and he uses all of these parables and one of the primary points of the parables about prayer? is persistence. He's like, just ask and ask and keep on asking and knock and knock and keep on knocking. And seek and seek and keep on seeking.

Just ask again and ask again and ask again. I've told you this before, but if I say the words, ask again in my house, it is not a positive thing. It's more like, ask me again. And God says, I know you're hurting and I know you're in pain. And come on. Just bring that thing clean to me persistently. So this is what she does. She catches hold of the feet of the man of God and then Gahezy, the assistant.

He came to push her away, but the man of God said, leave her alone, for she is in bitter distress, and the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me. And then she said, did I ask my Lord for a son? Did I not say, do not deceive me? See how honest her prayer is? God, what are you doing? Why would you give me this promise? Why would you lift me up just to slam me down like this?

Is this really the way this thing is going to go down? And he said to, hey, he type your garment and take my staff. in your hand and go. And if you meet anyone, don't greet him. And if anyone greets you, do not reply and lay my staff on the face of the child. And then the mother of the child said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. She is persistent. She's like, you ain't sending your staff.

I need you on this one. So he arose and followed her. And Gahezy went on ahead and laid a staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore, he returned to meet him and told him the child has not awakened. so that didn't work and then elijah when he came into the house he saw the child lying dead on his bed and so he went in and he shut the door behind the two of them and he prayed to the lord now watch what he does and then he went he went up and he lay on the child putting his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands i'm glad this isn't an old testament because i ain't doing this if i do a hospital visit i ain't laying up on nobody you understand and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm, and then he got up again, and he walked once, back, and forth in the house, and he went up, and he stretched himself upon him, and the child sneezed seven times.

Do you know why the child sneezed seven times? Nobody knows why the child seems. This is how seminaries are created. People make up all the craziest stuff I've ever read in my life about the number of completion and seven. Listen, man. You know why the Bible says the boy sneezes seven times? Because he actually sneezed seven times. Because this is an actual account.

This is not a myth. Like in a galaxy far, far away a long time ago, I'm going to make some stuff up. That's not how it will work. This is what happened. The boy sneezed seven times. And the child opened his eyes, and he summoned gahezy, and he said, called a shoot him, Mike. So he called her.

And when she came to him, he said, pick up your son. She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground. and then she picked up her son and went out. So what do you do when it seems hopeless? What this lady teaches us is you run to the source of hope. You run through Christ, we get to run to the man of God, the God man himself. You see, the way, I hope you've picked up on this here at 1122, the way to study your Bible is it is all about the gospel from the very beginning to the very end,

and Jesus is on every single page of this book. And every prophet in the old covenant is a foreshadowing of the prophet Jesus that would come on our behalf. And what Jesus is, or what Elisha is doing here is a picture of what Jesus does on our behalf. Spiritically speaking, we are dead in our trespasses. And the man of God, Jesus himself, comes into the room with us while we are dead. And he lays his body upon us, eye to eye, mouth to mouth, fingertip to toes. And if you from heaven were trying to get a picture of this dead boy, you couldn't see him

because Elijah the prophet had covered him totally. and if from heaven you were going to judge our sin, if you look down on it, you could not see it because it was fully covered at the cross of Jesus Christ. That God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made, the righteousness of God. And he's covered eye to eye and mouth to mouth. Why?

If you'll remember back in Genesis, when God creates the very first image bearer, he gathers together the dust of the earth and he's not yet a living being until he breathed the breath of life into him. If you will remember in the Gospel of John, when Jesus is resurrected from the grave and the disciples are hiding in the upper room

and Jesus appears to them and remember he starts blowing on them just walks in the room and they're freaking out because he was dead now he's alive and he's in the room and he goes you know what would happen if I'd blow on your face you'd sneeze seven times because you can't get something out of you that's not in you what Elisha is doing is he's breathing the breath of life into this boy and at the cross of Jesus Christ for anyone who believes

Jesus breathes into us the breath of life. That's what's happening in this place. You see, you can trust him. When it doesn't feel like it, when it doesn't look like it, when it seems hopeless, you can trust him. And you may not understand your circumstances, but you can trust your sovereign Savior because he is a good, good father that loves his kids. Paul will say it this way in the book of Romans, what then shall we say about these things? Like our sick kids and our prodigal children and our broken relationships, what shall we

say to these things like when life feels hopeless, if God is for us, then who shall be against us? He who did not withhold his own son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Here's what this woman teaches us. The Shunamite woman teaches us that because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that when we find ourselves in pain and hopeless situations, we can say this, when peace like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. The guy that wrote that hymn is named Horatio Spafford. He got that line, It Is Well, from Second King's Chapter 4, and a woman who had lost her son.

son and ran to the source of hope instead of running from him. In case you don't know the story in 1870s, Serretio Spafford was a rich landowner in Chicago. 1871, the Chicago fires hit and take out most of what he owned. He was a big supporter of an evangelist named D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was like the Billy Graham of that day. In fact, D.L. Moody led a guy out of Christ, let a let a guy to Christ, that led Billy Graham to to Christ. Horatio Spafford was one of his greatest supporters, and when he lost all of this in the Chicago fires,

D.L. Moody said, I'm doing a revival in England. Why don't you and your family come over and spend some time with me? And so, Horatio Spafford got his family together, put him on the boat, and then he got a telegram from Chicago. Then he needed to go back and handle some paperwork because of his loss. And so he sent his wife, Anna, and his four daughters on this ship across the ocean. one weekend across the Atlantic their ship was hit by a fishing vessel out of France it took 12 minutes to sink and of the 380 passengers aboard

266 of them drowned including Horatio and Anna's four daughters a fisherman pulled his wife Anna out of the sea and when she reached the other side she sent a telegram that simply said saved alone, what shall I do? And Horatio Spafford hopped on a boat to head to meet up with his wife. And when they were about a week into the journey, the boat captain came and he woke Horatio up.

He took him out to the front of the ship and says, to the best of my knowledge, I believe this is about the spot where your daughters went to be with the Lord. Four weeks before the journey, all four of his daughters that surrendered their life to Christ. And because of the gospel, with all of the appropriate emotion, Peresio writes these words, When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. He's not saying it's okay. But through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he's choosing the,

believe it's going to be okay. Last week, a guy named Toby Mac, if you're my age, you've been a Christian in a while, Toby Mac was a part of a group called D.C. Talk that when we were teenagers,

they came out with a brand of music that teenagers like us could listen to that exalted Christ and played a significant role in discipling us. This last week, Toby found his 21-year-old son dead in their house.

And because of the gospel, Toby Mac posts this the day after he found his son. He posts this on Instagram. My wife and I would want the world to know this, that we don't follow God because we have some sort of under the table deal with him like we'll follow you if you bless us. We follow God because we love him. It's our honor. And he is the God of the hills and the valleys. And he is beautiful above all things. So what do you do like this woman when what becomes the biggest promise also is a source of greatest pain?

What she teaches us is through the gospel of Jesus Christ, you run to the man of God. Even when you don't understand, even when it doesn't make sense, even when it hurts like crazy, even when it seems hopeless, we know that if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And James, the brother of Jesus, gives us very specific instructions on what to do when we're suffering. suffering and when we're sick. James says this in James chapter 5. Is anyone among you suffering? Well, let him pray.

Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him sing. Is anyone among you sick? The book of proverb says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. Some of you are saying to God internally, don't you lie to me. But you get my hopes up.

I quit praying about that a long time ago. And I'm telling you, I think I'd rather have a sick body than a sick heart. because life without hope is no life at all. Your life will be extinguished when it is hopeless. But in Christ there is always hope. And he says, anybody's suffering, anybody's sick? I know, there's bunches of us would say, yeah, I am.

Then he gives us instruction. 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. 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. The prayer of a righteous person has great power, and it's working.

So the way we're going to close this service is we're just going to do what the book says. I have anointing oil. I am an elder. And I have invited at all of our campuses a whole bunch of elders and pastors and staff and deacons to do exactly what the book says. The prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And you may look at me and these people and be like, are they righteous? Yes. Not because of our right activity, but because of Christ's righteousness on the cross.

And just like this woman runs to the man of God and clings to him, if you're sick and if you're suffering, and it could be a prodigal son, it could be a sick kid, it could be whatever that thing is you, whatever you do, don't compare your suffering to anybody else's. And you bring it, you bring it to the Lord. And you bring it with the same intensity and with the same emotion, that you're dealing with it in in your life. And I promise you, he is a good, good father, and the Bible says you will be healed.

We are going to believe God for healing. We're going to believe God for reconciled relationships and prodigals to come home and diagnosis that were this way to miraculously turn around the other way. And we're going to pray for the miracle of a peace that transcends all understanding and that Christ would guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. And so that's how we're going to close.

If you would stand at all of our locations, and if you are one of my prayers, anointers, would you come forward right now? We're going to line up the front. And remember this. God did not give us a spirit of fear because fear paralyzes. And right now I'm sure the enemy has given you 10,000 reasons why you should sit right where you are. But there's one reason that you should walk down here and confess and say, would you pray for me about this?

And it is just simply faith. For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. I'm going to start praying and you start coming. And then we're all going to join our voices together and sing, it is well. You start coming, I'll start praying. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. And we thank you that our circumstances do not define your love for us. But this is love.

Not that we loved you, but you loved us. And you sent your son as the payment that fully and finally satisfied at the cross. God, we know that you're a good, good father. and we know that we live in a broken world and so god i pray i pray for anyone here suffering would they come forward be prayed for be anointed god i thank you for the picture of this anointing that it represents the covering of the holy spirit in our lives through the blood of jesus christ god i thank you that you weep with those who weep that you mourn with those who mourn but that's not all you do you hear and you answer prayer and god we know that you can heal we believe that

you will and God regardless of your answer to our prayer we will choose to worship you and you alone God through the gospel by a powerful work of the spirit may we be able to say in the deepest places of our hearts even when everything seems out of control that we could say it is well it is well with our soul we prayed in Jesus name amen won't you come