When God Doesn't Do What You Expect || Victory Church [Book of John #27]

Well, good morning, Victory. Come on, how y'all feeling? Y'all excited to be in the house? If you're in the room, if you're joining us online in any of our overflow spaces, welcome to Victory. My name is Curvin. I have the privilege of being the teaching pastor here. And I am thrilled today to jump into a segment of scripture in the book of John that many of us are familiar with. It's the story of a man named Lazarus. Now, whenever we hear Lazarus, most of us immediately, our brains shift to that glorious moment of him coming out of the grave, responding to the healing and resurrecting power of Jesus. But how many of you know, in this journey, before we get to the moment of glory, we will always often have to walk through a story. So that's what we wanna do today. In fact, this story is so rich that we're gonna take the next three weeks to talk about this story and address some different angles and different truths that we wanna pull out of the text. But today, I want us to lean in for the next few moments and look at two characters in this story, the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. And I want us to look at some significant things they had to walk through and process through before seeing the miracle of their brother resurrected to life, amen? So let's just get right to it for the sake of time.

John 11, starting in verse one. It's a big chunk of text, let's jump in. The Bible says that the man named Lazarus was sick but he lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. Now this is the same Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. And her brother Lazarus was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Lord, your dear friend is sick. But when Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus and his sickness will not end in death. No, this happened for the glory of God so that the son of God will receive glory from this. So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Jesus said, I hear you, but I'll see you when I see you. Picking up at verse 17, let's fast forward here. So when Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days. And Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem. And many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. Come on, shout out small groups. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! But Mary stayed in the house. Mary said to Jesus, Lord, and Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if only you had been there, my brother would not have died. Now let's just pause and say this. I know that everyone in this room cannot identify with losing a brother, if you will, but everyone in this room knows what it feels like to have and live out an if only moment. Lord, if only you would have intervened in this marriage, then maybe we would still be together. If only I had not gotten sick, then I would not be dealing with what I'm dealing with. If only you would have saved the business, then I wouldn't be in this financial crisis. Can I tell you something? In this life, it's not always a person that dies. Oftentimes, it's our expectation that dies. Because we show up to the Lord in these moments of great need and despair with an idea of how we think things should go, of what God is supposed to do and how he's supposed to show up and when he's supposed to show up. And that's the tension today that I believe God is desiring us to live and dwell in and to dig into his word and see what he would have us to do.

Because here's the reality. Before we ever get to Lazarus, we need to first take a moment to sit with the sisters and ponder this question. How do people of faith respond when God doesn't show up the way we thought he would? It's a good question. So here's the first thought today. I think it is imperative that we first bring the Lord what we are feeling. Bring him what you feel. Now, understand this. Mary and Martha could not be any different, could not be any more different personality-wise, all right? Mary is a feeler. She's an empath. She is always at the feet of Jesus, whether she's worshiping or weeping, right? In Luke 10, she's the one at his feet, listening to his teaching, while Martha is hustling to get this cornbread off the stove. Mary is the one, like the Bible said in just a few chapters later, that she breaks this expensive jar of oil to ignore. Point Jesus. So whenever Jesus shows up, you better believe Mary is gonna get up and run to meet him. But I want you to read what the text says carefully because the Bible tells us here in verse 20

that when Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house. You see, Mary allowed her feelings to freeze her. And she's not running to Jesus in this moment of grief. She's sitting in home, isolated. She's weeping. And hear me when I tell you, church, it's amazing how grief has a way of robbing us of pursuing the only one who is really able to heal the hurt in our heart in the first place. And there are many people here, even under the sound of my voice, or maybe watching online, that because you experienced a moment of disappointment somewhere along the journey, you have allowed that disappointment to rob you of progressing and moving forward in your walk with God. You've left all hope on the table, and you're sitting in this home, in this house, isolated, and all alone, just like Mary. But can I tell you something? The Lord that we serve will meet us right in the middle of our brokenness because the Bible says here that what happened next is something, I want you to catch this. The Bible says in verse 28 that when Martha came back to Mary, she pulled her aside from the mourners and said, the teacher is here, and he wants to see you. And immediately, she went to him.

So church, if you're here today, and if you're heavy with a broken heart, if there's grief that you're still processing through, and if you have questions that have caused you to doubt the healing power of God, let me just say this to you. The Lord is calling your name. It's not by chance that you're here today. He is calling your name. Come on, look at your neighbor and say, get up. Look at your other neighbor. I don't even, look at your other neighbor. Say, get up! Y'all better be nice. We have guests. Verse 32. So then Mary finally arrives, and when she arrives and when she sees Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. Now hear me, in this moment, Jesus could have responded in a myriad of ways. Marla, do you realize that Jesus could have rebuked her? Jesus could have been disappointed. He could have been frustrated. But how many of you know, he didn't do any of that. You wanna know what else Jesus didn't do in this moment? He didn't push Mary aside to rush to the miracle. He chose to stop and to sit with her in her pain.

The Bible says right here in verse 33, that when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. You see, some of us were taught, maybe not out loud, maybe this was just a philosophy that we adopted and absorbed, but there are many people, Christians especially, who have been taught to believe that if you really love the Lord, like you say you do, and if you really have faith that moves mountains, then why are you sad? Then why are you upset? Why are you angry? Why do you have questions? But friend, I wanna take a moment to rebuke that lie back to the pit of hell from where it came. Because that theology is not found in the text. In this moment, Jesus gives Mary permission to feel. And that same permission is given and provided to you and I today. Because hear me, church, to deny your emotions is to deny one of the God-given attributes that make you a human being, right? See, there's two things you need to know about Jesus and how he views your feelings. Number one, here it is, he sees them. He sees your feelings. I know some of y'all fellas are like, well, I ain't got no feelings, bruh, whatever.

No, no, the Bible says that he is close to the brokenhearted and he rescues those who are crushed in spirit. The Psalm has said that you keep track of all of my sorrows and you have collected all of my tears in your bottle. Listen to me, Jesus would say to his people today that not only do I see your feelings, but watch me, but I also care about them, right? Hebrews tells us that we don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses. You see, the beauty of the incarnation of Christ is that God. God in his sovereignty could have easily said let there be, spun the world into existence, separated himself and left us to our own devices. But the beauty of the incarnation is that the eternal king of all subjected himself to a broken world, to breathe the very breath that he created, to hunger, to thirst, watch me, to also experience grief. So therefore, this is bigger than just empathy. Empathy simply says, hey, I recognize your pain and I feel sorry for you, but we serve a high priest that is empathetic towards us. He chooses to get in the mess with us and to grieve with us, to meet us in our grief. Can I tell you, it is the empathetic compassion of Christ that moves him towards our pain even when we try our hardest to hide it. So hear me today, church, you have permission to feel.

Two and a half years ago, when my mom passed away, y'all, my mom was a strong woman of faith and we prayed and prayed and we believed that God would heal her on this side of eternity. But at the end of the day, I held her hand when she took her last breath and she went on to be with Jesus. And can I just be honest with y'all today? I had a lot of questions. I had a lot of doubt. But Kervin, you're a pastor. I don't care. I'm human just like you. And for weeks after my mom went to be with the Lord, I was in a season where, if I can be honest, I struggled with the idea of laying hands on someone else and believe in God for healing. I wrestled with it. And can I tell you something? In that season, if it were not for the godly community that God had surrounded me with, come on somebody, if it weren't for some great men of God, some great women of God that helped push me and brought me to the feet of the King, I don't know where I'd be today. That's why community and small groups are so important. So hear me, but there are some people that don't have that and they stay in this place of disappointment and frustration and doubt and worry. And they allow these emotions to rob them

of the things that they know to be true and they stay isolated in this house, just like Mary, because they fail to realize that having faith does not mean that you have to stop having feelings. Come on, you can trust God and still cry. You can stand on the promises of God and still wrestle with the questions. This is the tension that we have to live in. The tension is this, hear me, God, help me to feel what I need to feel. Because how many of you know, processing those emotions are a part of your healing. That's why I go to therapy, unapologetic about it. Come on, a little bit of therapy, a little bit of Jesus, baby, we good to go. All I need is Jesus, but a little therapy, it'll help out a little bit. Listen, God, help me to feel what I need to feel while also not losing faith in you. Because in the words of the great theologian, Candace Brewington, listen to this, the same God who will meet you on the mountaintop of faith is the same God that'll comfort you in the valley of frustration, amen. So how do people of faith respond to disappointment? Well, we bring Him our feelings, and then secondly, we believe beyond what we can see. We have to choose to believe beyond what we can see. So Mary, as you can see, she's a feeler. Every time you see her in the Gospels,

she's on her face before the Lord. She's very emotional, right? But Martha, Martha on the other hand, Martha had to be the biggest sister. She had to be, because she's logical. She's the thinker, she's the processor. She's involved in the detail. She has the questions, right, the questions. Mary had the emotion, Martha had the questions. And in the same way, the emotions are okay with God, the questions are okay with God. So when Martha hears that Jesus is on the way, Mary's over here boo-hooing in the corner. Martha said, bet, give me my flip-flops. Put them earrings on, tighten that thing up. The Bible says she ran to meet Him. But guess what, when she met Him, again, if you can feel the emotion in the text, she doesn't feel it. fall out at his feet. There are no tears. She shows up to confront Jesus. If you would have been here, then my brother would still be alive. Listen to me, that's an accusation. This isn't someone that's coming humbled and prostrate before the Lord. No, this is just another hurting soul looking God in the face and asking the same question that every one of us have asked at one point in one time.

God, where were you? But I want you to catch this very important piece. She asked the question, if you would not, if you were here, then my brother would be alive, but I know. You see, sometimes when you're in the middle of a storm, you have to wash your face and you have to look in the mirror and just like David said in the Psalms, rejoice in the Lord, oh my soul, because there will be mornings where you don't have the faith to stand on the promises of God. And Mary, right here, here's what I love about Martha in this moment, hear me. She went from saying that if you only accusing the Lord and in the next breath, she says, but I know that God will give you whatever you ask for. Come on, look at your neighbor and say, but I know and here's what I love about Mary in this moment. You see, Mary is standing face to face with Jesus, looking at a reality that she cannot deny. Her brother is dead. She doesn't minimize the pain. I am so sick and tired of Christians looking at pain like it's something to run away from and grief and sorrow. We try to sprinkle some little Christianese language on it, but can I tell you, there is nothing cool about burying a child. It stinks, but somehow right in the middle of the disappointment, Mary is able to say,

but I know that the Lord will do what only he can do. You see this tension that, I keep saying Mary, please forgive me, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha. This tension in this moment that Martha is wrestling with, there's actually a psychological term for it. It's called cognitive dissonance. And this is the internal tension that we feel whenever we experience something that collides with what we believe. Like I believe God is good, but Lord right now, this doesn't feel good. I believe that God loves me, but Lord, if you love me, why would you allow this to happen? I believe that God can heal, but why did he not come through for me? I mean, come on, is there anyone that has ever lived in that tension before? Come on, are there any saints in this place that would wave your hand and say, I'm living in it right now? We've all been there living in this tension between faith and frustration. And Martha does not deny the pain that she sees. She just refuses to allow what she sees to become all that she believes. That's the difference. That's the difference. Now I'm gonna say some things in the next few minutes that are probably gonna split the room. Maybe not, but I'm gonna say some things

that for some of us in this room, it is gonna challenge your theology. And even before we made it to this moment, me and Pastor Johnson talked this week about, we always talk about the message and nuances, and knowing this message was coming, I said, Pastor, I need you to give me permission to lean in because this topic is lived experience and I need to say some things. And I'm gonna tell you what he said in the way that only Pastor Johnson Booby can say. He said, bro, grab that thing by the throat, drag it in the middle of the room, and let's talk about it. So some of you are gonna walk away with, whoa, what do I do with this? But then there are some, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see, I believe the Lord is gonna give you some revelation that just might change everything. Because here's the reality, church, you and I cannot have a fruitful conversation about healing and overcoming disappointment without first and foremost addressing the sovereignty of God. Okay, we have to talk about it. Okay, so let's lean in. Hope you're taking notes. I have a lot of content here. Listen, base level, God sees what I cannot see. He knows what I cannot know and works

from a perspective I do not have. Come on, I think we need to say that together. Come on, one, two, three. God sees what I cannot see. He knows what I cannot know and works from a perspective I do not have. Now that sounds good, but when you're in the middle of a storm, we ain't trying to hear that. And the reality is that we have a hard time submitting to the sovereignty of God because we live on this earth and in our human experience. We're bound to this thing called time. We cannot see the beginning from the end. Perfect example, we are right now in verse 21 and Martha is going through it right here in real time. But what Martha doesn't realize is in 23 chapters late, 23 verses later, she doesn't realize that her brother is about to get up out of that grave. But we have a privilege of knowing this information. We get to read the story backwards. But for Martha, when she's in this moment, listen, she's got to live this thing forward. And so do you, and so do I. So if you come in this room today, heavy in spirit, heavy and weighed down in your soul, with grief robbing you from knowing the fullness of God, I want to encourage you, friend, don't throw in the towel yet because baby, you don't know what could transpire in your life just three verses later in your story. My God, I've seen cancer healed in three verses later.

I've seen families restored in one chapter later. Generational sin cycles broken, a comma later. Now your story isn't over, friend. But we have to be careful that we don't draw conclusions about God in a season where we don't even have the full understanding of who he is and what he's doing. Does that make sense? When my wife was pregnant with our oldest child, she was seven months pregnant, she talked me into going and buying a mattress because her back hurts. The worst investment we ever made. Because we made a decision based out of a moment of pain and discomfort. I hated that mattress. So again, if we're going through a storm and we accredit what's going on to the character of God, we then draw assumptions and come to conclusions like there's no way God could love me. There's no way that God is for me. Oh, here's a big one, I'm gonna give you guys a sneak peek. Here's a lie that most pastors and church leaders deal with. You ready for it? Here it is, every leader will understand this one. God, I believe that you are good for everyone in this room that I'm preaching to, but Lord, what about me? Friend, hear me. Don't throw in the towel because you just might close the book before you get to the best chapter. You have to believe beyond what you can see.

Amen? Amen? Amen? Amen? Amen? How do we respond? Here's the third thing, and this one is huge here. We also have to trust God with what we don't understand. Okay, so yeah, you may have a verse 44 moment coming right around the corner, but there's some of you that would say, well, pastor, I hear that, but what about when the outcome doesn't seem to change? I prayed in faith for a loved one, and the person still died. So listen to me, church, don't hear what I'm not saying. Did you catch that? Let me say it like this. Here's what I'm not saying. Some of y'all said you caught it, but you didn't catch it. That's all, I'm gonna help you out. No, what I'm not saying, listen. You know, if you just believe hard enough, then everyone is gonna have a verse 44 moment. But friend, that is not the promise found in Scripture. Now, let me be emphatically clear. We believe, and we know, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob That he is a healer We believe and we know that it is his will to heal and guess what we believe

And we know that he is still in the healing business today We believe well, how can you believe that here's how because he is Jehovah Rafa He is the God that heals his people now watch this you may not know this But Abraham is the one that attributed the name Jehovah Jireh to God in a moment of his provision He says you are Jehovah Jireh Gideon is the one that attributed the name Jehovah Shalom Moses was the leader that attributed the name Jehovah Nisi to the father that we serve and love but can I tell you the name of Rafa was not Attributed to God by any man any prophet or any leader in Exodus 1526 we see crystal clear that God himself Declared and decreed with his own voice over himself that I am the Lord your God Who heals his people And since God is not a man that he would lie If you said it we believe it We believe God's a healer We know that it is his will to heal and we believe that he's still healing today But some of us will say still I hear that but I Pray for healing every single weekend, and I'm still fighting these symptoms I'm still struggling listen friendly. I'll be the first to tell you it's complicated to say the least It's challenging to understand where faith and healing and and trust and and in all these things I mean, I mean just think about it for a moment that we have so much truth. We have to juggle in one hand We have the truth that by his stripes. We are healed And how many of you know that will never change and then on the other hand We have to juggle the reality that we live in a broken world That God gave mankind free will Adam screwed it up and guess what you and I are no better And then with the foot We got to juggle the reality that our faith does play a part in healing and I wish I had another arm Because somewhere in this balancing act we also have to remind ourselves

That even outside of our healing and our stuff that God has a plan that is way bigger Come on pastor Johnson you call it of the metanarrative gospel is bigger It's a movement that has crushed insurrections and and outlived kingdoms and dynasties of old kingdom that knows no end and that mystery We were not privy to some of those things In fact Deuteronomy 29 29 Says this it says that the secret things belong to the Lord our God There are some things that the Lord has reserved unto himself and hear me church some of these realities we will never understand Until we're in eternity with him And hear me for everything else that we're walking through Faith healing do I believe do I not why didn't show up? Listen, it's not a formula to be solved Because if God was small enough to fit inside of your intellect in your logic That he wouldn't be big enough to be worthy of worship So hear me Y'all okay Hear me So it's not a puzzle We have to solve It's a tension that we have to live in a Great mystery, but watch me but even within that mysterious tension Come on grace upon grace you and I Don't get to dictate How and when and where God answers? Don't We don't Look at what the Bible says here In verse 23, Jesus says to her. He says your brother to Martha. He will rise again

And Martha said, oh, I know He will rise again at the resurrection of the last day. See that's how I know. She's a big sister. Just know it all Can't tell it nothing But Jesus said to her I am the resurrection I am the life Watch this don't miss this. This is it and the one And who believes in me will live even though they die. You believe in me, you will live even though you die. Come on, I want us to sit with this for a minute because there are many of us who have believed the lie that just because we don't see the fullness of his healing work in our lives right here, right now, we have resolved in our hearts that there's no way Jesus can be the healer that he says he is. And some will say, well, that's a faith issue. I say, it's an eternity issue. Because you may have forgotten that God is not bound to the concept of time that you and I are enslaved to. Come on, his very name is Alpha and Omega. Come on, he sits outside of the context of space and he props his foot upon the construct of time. But you and I, our lives literally revolve around the minutes and the moments. Our lives revolve around seconds and seasons. And we say with our mouths that we live for eternity, but we really live our lives and we build our theology as if this life and this flesh is all there is. But how many of you know there is so much more? Come on, there's layers to this thing.

There's layers. Come on, let's keep digging in. Watch this. In Hebrews, look at what the, I have a lot of scripture because I don't want y'all coming up to this lobby trying to fight me. Hebrews 10, 14, look at what it says. For by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Notice this, it's the same tension. How can I, on one hand, be made perfect forever, locked in, but then yet I'm still being made holy? So this is key to understand when it comes to healing. Watch this, because here's the truth. We are made of three parts. Spirit, soul, and flesh. Your spirit is eternal, and you will, your spirit will live forever, one place or another. The moment that you said yes to Jesus, that moment of salvation, there was a supernatural work of the spirit that breathed life into your spirit. It came alive to God, and in that moment, that's where the Bible is saying that those who have been made perfect, this is where we get the scriptures that say that no one can pluck out of my hand those that I secure. This is where we get scriptures that say that he is faithful to see the completion of the work that he began. Our spirit is eternal and will live in eternal healing

in the presence of God forever. That's your spirit. Now your soul, your soul is what's being made holy. It is a journey, it's a process of surrendering to the Lord, allowing the spirit to change and remove anything in us that's not like him. It's a process called sanctification. You get a gold star. Sanctification. Your spirit is eternal, your souls are a work in progress, but this flesh, these cells, these bones, nowhere in scripture are we told that there is any redemption for our flesh. That's why in Genesis chapter three, after the fall, what did God say to Adam and Eve? From dust you have come, to dust you will return. That's why all the way in a revelation, come on, from cover to cover, that's why in a revelation, when we stand before the Lord on that day of glory, we will be given new bodies. There is no, listen, grace upon grace. And yet we will accuse God of failing us because he secured our forever instead of temporarily extending our right now. Yes. Well, pastor, I hear all that, but it's still not right. It's still not fair. I prayed for my grandfather. I believe that.

God would raise him up here and now, and he's gone. Okay, well, young man, was your grandfather a believer? Yes. Did he walk with Jesus? Yes. Okay. Well, there comes a moment where after we have grieved and wept, we have to get up and wash our face, and we have to go back to the Word of God and be reminded that Paul said that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul also said that to live is Christ, but to die is gain. The psalmist also said that better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. And hear me, I'm not trying to sound insensitive. If you're walking through grief, and if you're processing loss, Lord knows, I would give anything to hug my mom just one more time. I would give anything. But even if my mom could come back to this broken, fallen world, I promise you, she would say no. I promise you. And I'm gonna tell you why I know. Even before she got sick, she said her whole adult life, when I die, I don't want no whooping and hollering. She said, put me in the dirt and go somewhere and sat down. Not sit down, sat down.

She said, I'll see you on the other side. Come on, eternity, eternity. Listen, grace upon grace. The last time I checked the mortality rate for human beings, was a hundred percent. Come on, I'm just trying to free someone up here. Some of you are wrestling right now, but it's okay, Holy Spirit's gonna do what he needs to do in your heart. But hear me, okay, let me prove it. Forget healing, let's not even talk about healing. Look at Lazarus, Jesus raised him from the dead. Where Lazarus at? You seen him? His brother like, he owe me money. No, listen to me. Because eventually, even Lazarus went on to be with the Lord. And guess what? That healing, to be free from this broken world, to be free from sin and sickness. I mean, I'm talking about the tangible manifestation of sin and disease in our body and ourselves, to be free from that forever. That's the best type of healing that we could ever experience. Now, listen, I gotta hurry up y'all, listen. Hebrew says this, and again, I'm going back to the Word. Don't email me. It is appointed for people to die once. And after this, the judgment. So unless Jesus returns first,

which I hope he doesn't, because there's a lot of work to do. If he doesn't return first, listen, friend, every one of us will return to the earth. That's why the Christian hope, it's not that I will never die. The hope we have in Christ is that death does not have the final word. The cross has the final word. The cross. When I held my mama's hands, when she took her last breath, the last few words she said was, son, keep your eyes on eternity. Keep your eyes on eternity. You see, Martha said, oh, I know there's a resurrection coming. She was focused on an event, a moment. It's gonna come. I'm gonna see it. Jesus says, no, no, no, darling, I am the resurrection. And church, that should remind us today that our hope should not be in a desired outcome. Our hope, it has to be in Jesus. Even in the mystery of it all, we have to learn to trust God's heart, even when we don't understand His hand. That's the tension we wrestle with. And hear me, and one could even ask, well, pastor, If it's all up to God anyway, then why even pray?

I mean, again, that's a good question. Why even pray? You want to know why I choose to pray? Because the word of God instructs us to pray. Because Jesus said to lay hands on the sick and they will recover. I don't always see the manifestation of the healing in the moment, but guess what? I'm going to do it because Jesus said to stink and do it. Because I know who he is and I know what he's able to do. And you want to know why else I pray in faith for the sick to be healed? Because I've seen more people healed from a prayer of faith than I've seen from a prayer that nobody prayed. That's why I can lay hands on the sick. You can lay hands on the sick, even with some questions, but still with faith, because the outcome isn't up to you. It's not up to me. We don't have the weight to bear under that. We don't have the strength to bear under that weight. And if I can be real, it was never about the outcome anyway. It was always about Jesus. He is the treasure that our hearts desire. Now to hear me, because some of y'all are going to walk away, oh, well, we don't believe, no, no, no, no, no. In fact, this message isn't even about healing, if I can be honest with you. This is a message helping us to reorient our perspective. Because what is more powerful? A God who's able to heal you right now of a disease,

to give you an extra five or 10 years, two years, two months. And hear me, we thank God for those months. Come on, somebody. We thank God for those months. If you've ever walked through healing, we thank God. We thank God for the month, for the extra day, for the extra moments. We do. But even that is temporary. No, the greatest miracle, even greater than physical healing is that we serve a God who can take a broken, wicked heart that is at enmity with God. And in one act of love, he can turn enemies of God into sons and daughters. The fact that he can heal a wicked heart and bring it to newness of life and give that life purpose and meaning and an eternity in his presence. My friend, I will take that all day over anything that is temporary. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Peace. Listen to me.

It has always been and will always be about Jesus and the blessings and benefits that he pours out along the way. Hey, we'll take it. But at the end of the day, we're after his heart more than we are after his hand. All praise be to Jehovah Rapha, the God who indeed heals his people in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. With every head bowed, every eye closed, like I said, the greatest miracle you'll ever experience is your soul being awakened to the newness of life that Jesus can provide. I wanna count to three and when I do, if you're here in this room or online, if you've never said yes to Jesus, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do just that. Here it is, one. It doesn't matter who you came with. It doesn't matter what you've been taught or what you've believed all these years. All that matters is this moment and how you respond to his mercy and his grace. Here it is, two. He loves you. Sin in your life has separated you from him, but in an instant, you can be transformed

to a son or a daughter. So how will you respond? Here it is. Here it is, you ready? One, two, three. If that's you, just lift your hand. You're saying, I need a savior. I've done it my own way. Come on, if that's you, just lift that hand up high enough so I can see it. I see that hand, I see that hand. In the risers, I see those hands. In the overflow room, online. Now, you can put your hands down and we're gonna lead you in a prayer and everyone in this room is gonna pray this prayer with you. Come on, say, God, you know who I am. I've broken your law and I'll follow you. fallen short, but I believe that my life can change. I believe, Jesus, that you're the son of God. You died for my sin, rose from the grave, and you have a story that you're writing with my life. So come into my heart, forgive my sin, heal my mind, and use me to shine your light for the rest of my life. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Come on, amen and amen. Come on, if you believe it. If you believe it, if you believe it. Now, listen, let me do this.

If you're in this room, and if God has healed you in your body, I want you just to lift your hand right now. Lift your hand. If God has healed you in your body, lift your hand high. Just wave it. And I want everyone to look around this room. Look around this room. Come on, there are more in this room that have experienced this healing than those who have not. So the band is gonna lead us in Rapha one more time. But before they do, if you're in this room, and if you're believing God for healing right now in real time, I want you to get out of your seat. I want you to come to this altar, because I believe that there is an overflow of anointing and resurrecting power that is gonna be poured out. Also, if you're here, and if you need healing, maybe not in your physical body, but in your heart, you need God to heal the brokenness that has come and the bitterness from disappointment. Because God didn't show up, and now you look at him differently. You don't trust him like you used to. Can I tell you, the same God that can heal a broken leg is the same God that can heal a bitter heart. So come on, stand to your feet. Make your way up. And while you do, let me give you a little bit of faith. At our last Victory House recording,

a call went out for people struggling with chronic knee pain. Bernard was on the platform, and there was another brother. And when the call went out, both of them were healed instantaneous. There was a woman who had lost her voice for two weeks. She was writing down her conversations. Pastor Summer laid hands on her and demanded that the enemy would release her vocal cords. Instantaneously, she opened her mouth and began to speak. His name is Jehovah Rapha. There was a man battling with hip dysplasia, a man who came up to the buoys, and all he did, he just walked up and just began stretching. Come on, no words, just stretching. Why? Because he had been touched by the God who heals his people. There was a man who had, I don't even know how to pronounce it, diverca to colitis. I don't know what it is, but he was in the room and had been battling with it for years. And again, the moment that the call went out, healing transpired. And I'm just gonna say to you today, these are just a few testimonies

of the faithfulness of God. But I have enough faith in my life to know that if he did it for them, then baby, he can do it for you. Because he is Jehovah Rapha, the God that heals his people. So with every hand lifted, every hand lifted, we thank you, God, that you are a healer. Heal every heart, heal every cell, heal our minds, change our perspectives, give us an eternity-driven perspective. Lord, we put our hope and our trust in you because we believe you at your word. You are who you say you are. You still open blind eyes. You still raise dead things to life. You still empty our graves. God, we honor you, and we trust you in the mystery, in the known, and the unknown. And if you believe it, and if you receive it, I dare you to open up your mouth in faith and give God a shout of praise in this room. Hallelujah! Thanks for being a part of Victory Church on the Pando app.

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