You're Being Lied To | Ryan Kramer

If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name's Ryan, and I'm the lead pastor here, and we're kicking off a new series today that's called That's Crazy. Can you turn to somebody and say, that's crazy? That is crazy. We're going to be looking at some of the miracles of Jesus, primarily out of Matthew chapter 8 and 9 over the course of the summer, and just beginning to identify the heart of God behind each one of those miracles and what it means for us and how we live our lives and what God wants to do in and through our lives. Let me start off with this. If I hold up a rag like this, what comes to mind? When you kind of see it and you're thinking, what comes to mind? My assumption would be guys in the room, you're going to be like, oh, that's my face cloth. That's what I wash my face with. If you're a lady in the room, you're like, I don't want to be anywhere near that thing. It comes nowhere near the inside of my house. But when we see a rag like this, it's got grease on it. It's got some brake fluid, some oil stuff on it. There were some spiderwebs that were on it at one point. But when we see a rag like this, most of us, our first thought when we see it is not that it needs to be cleaned, it's that it needs to be thrown away, right? It's like, what are you still doing with that rag in your house? If we're honest, there comes a point where something gets so dirty, it gets so disgusting and nasty that we stop believing it's even worth keeping, right? And what's interesting is that that's not just a mindset or a belief that we have about a rag, oftentimes it's a belief or a mindset that we have about other people. And if we want to dig even deeper, it's a belief that we often even have about ourselves. You see, there comes a time where we all wrestle and we all wonder with some questions like, will God forgive me? Will He possibly forgive all of this stuff that is in my rearview mirror that I've done? We wrestle with the question of, can God really use somebody as broken, as messed up, as disgusting,

as nasty, as torn as me? Because the truth is, is that the longer a stain sits, the more permanent it feels, right? The more permanent it feels. And truth be told, there's many of us in this room that you walk in and you're carrying things in your life that you've been dragging around for years, if not decades, regrets and failures and shame of what you've done or who you have hurt, maybe they're addictions that you can't shake. You keep promising that you're going to get past them, but you can't get past them. Or maybe it's a past, like all my brothers at Liberty. Maybe it's a past for you that you wish you could erase, but you can't. And the question that we often ask when we find ourselves in that kind of mindset, the question isn't, is Jesus able to change it? The question is, is He willing to change it? And friend, that's a tension that I want us to lean into today as we look at the first miracle in Matthew chapter 8, the miracle of the man with leprosy. Hey, if you're taking notes today, I've entitled today's message, You've Been Lied To. You've been lied to. If you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8, this morning, and here's what it says. When Jesus came down from the mountainside, this is right after. after the Sermon on the Mount, and one of the things that I hope you are able to connect over this series is that Jesus spends time giving the sermon of what it looks like for us to live as kingdom heirs, what it looks like to be a part of the kingdom of God in our life, and He maps out the Sermon on the Mount prior to these chapters. And then all of a sudden, chapter 8 and 9 and following, Jesus begins to practically live out what He just taught. And so these aren't just miracles, these are lessons. These are practical examples of what it looks like to be kingdom-minded and kingdom-focused. And it says when He comes down off the mountainside, large crowds are following Him. And then verse 2, it says, a man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, notice

this, Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. Jesus reaches out His hand and He touches the man. I am willing, He said. Be clean. And immediately, he was cleansed of his leprosy. You see, we read a story like this, and it's easy to kind of think, like, this is just Jesus doing the Jesus thing, right? A guy's sick, and all of a sudden Jesus heals him, and everybody goes back home, and they're happy. And if we're not careful, we totally read past just how crazy this miracle is. I want to start unpacking what we just read by first taking a closer look at the man's disease. This was a man with leprosy. Now, leprosy in those days was, in their mind, it was highly contagious. There was no cure. It was a disease, which now, by the way, it's called Hansen's disease. But it was a disease that was painful, a disease that was embarrassing. Like it attacked the skin, it attacked the nervous system, it could even cause disfigurement in the bodies. And here's one of the reasons why the people of those days were so terrified of leprosy, of this disease, was because it had an incubation period of three to five years, which meant that it could be doing damage and destroying someone on the inside, and it would take years before they would recognize the impact of that on the outside. For years, they could be contagious and not even know it. And then to add on top of that, there was such a stigma about this disease in that day. Like the Jews looked at leprosy as something that God afflicted people with as punishment for their sin. And so, you have this like disease that is socially just like pushed away and nobody wanted anything with it. You see in Leviticus chapter 13 that there, that whenever somebody had leprosy and they

got close to somebody else, they were required, they were required to yell out, unclean, unclean. Like, could you imagine that for a moment? Like everywhere that you go, where people are present, you're having to yell out, unclean, unclean. Every room that you walk into, when you come in this morning to find a seat, instead of you being able to slip into a seat somewhere, you're walking in and you're like, unclean, unclean. And then you're going to try to find a seat and everybody is starting to move away from you because they want nothing to do with you. When you have leprosy in those days, you don't introduce yourself with your name, you introduce yourself with your condition. And over time, what started to happen was, was it went from a condition to their identity because they were shunned from all community life. They couldn't go to church. They couldn't hold a job. They couldn't even live with their own family. They couldn't stop at the market. They couldn't own property. They couldn't touch anybody. I mean, this disease in those days was a death sentence, physically, socially, economically, spiritually. It was a death sentence. Now the truth is, is that leprosy was never a punishment from God for sin. But leprosy is, in the Bible, a picture of sin. It's a picture of sin because like leprosy, sin starts on the inside. And as it begins to start on the inside in our heart and the way that we desire things and go after things, that it begins to spread further and further into areas of our heart and our life that we never expected it to go. And eventually what happens with sin in our own life is that if we're not careful, it convinces us that what we've done is who we are.

And watch what happens. Watch what happens in verse 2, that this man with leprosy comes and he kneels before Jesus and then don't miss this, he says, Lord, are you willing? He doesn't say, Lord, are you able? He says, Lord, are you willing? You see, the man believes that Jesus can do it. He just doesn't know if Jesus wants to do it. And friend, a lot of us live right there. A lot of us live in that place where we believe that Jesus can forgive sin, we're just not quite sure He wants to forgive ours. We believe that God is able to restore marriages, we're just not quite sure He wants to restore ours. We believe He can take away an addiction and He can get us to a place where we don't experience that or face that anymore, we're just not sure He wants and is willing to do it with ours. And like, like we believe that God can use imperfect people to do extraordinary things for His kingdom, we're just not sure that He's willing to do it for us. You see the leper in this text, he's not, he's not questioning Jesus' power, he's questioning Jesus' willingness. You see, shame, shame has a way of convincing us that we are the exception to grace. Whatever it is that we've done or where we've come from or how many times we've promised we will never do it again and that we keep doing it and, and what shame does is shame comes into our life as a tactic, as a tool of the enemy, right? John 10, 10, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and so we experience the shame and that shame convinces us that God can have grace for everybody else but we are the exception for that grace. Everybody else can be forgiven, everybody else, their marriages can be restored, just not us, and maybe, maybe some of you find yourself in that exact place today, this place where you're not really wondering if God can because you believe that He can, what you're wondering today is, does God want to?

Is He willing? And Jesus does something in this, the story that is, it's so significant but it looks so insignificant, it's so easy to read right, right past it. He says in verse 3, as Matthew writes, that Jesus reaches out His hand and He touches the man. Friend, that's a big deal. That is a big deal because nobody touched lepers. in those days. Nobody wanted anything to do with them and Jesus touched him. Think about this, Jesus didn't have to touch the man in order to heal him. He could've spoke it, he didn't even have to be present to be able to heal him. There's examples in the Bible of Jesus doing miracles in that way, but Jesus chose in this moment with this man to touch him. And here's why I think Jesus did that. I think Jesus wanted to touch him because Jesus wanted to heal the lie that was in his heart before he healed the disease in his body. Because Jesus understood that a healing of a disease while walking out, still holding on to the lie in his heart would bring him back in the circle of shame for the rest of his life. I mean, can you imagine this moment if you're the leper and everybody has shunned you, nobody wants anything to do with you and you've been living that way for years, if not decades in your life

and then all of a sudden, think about it, you have never felt the touch of somebody else in years or decades and all of a sudden, Jesus touches you. Can you imagine what that communicated to this man in this moment? I had to imagine that it's Jesus' way that that man, as he felt the touch of Jesus, he's hearing, you're not too broken. You're not too far gone. You don't have to be defined by your condition, you don't have to be defined by your condition anymore. And friend, it shows us something. It shows us something about the heart of the father that God wants to restore the places that we often want to hide. That the thing that you walked in here with today that nobody knows about and the feelings and the struggles that the enemy keeps pulling back and forth. Every time you make a positive step forward in your life, the enemy brings up the shame of whatever that is in order to get you taking a couple steps back and your whole life looks like one step forward, three steps back, one step forward, three steps back and you wonder, why isn't there power in this God thing? Why doesn't my life ever change? And it's because we're stuck in this endless cycle of shame where the enemy continually brings up time and time again all of our filth and all of the tears and all of the things in our life that we just look at and want to discard and throw away.

And Jesus, he knows that and so he touches him. Friend, God wants to restore the places in your life that you keep trying to hide. And then watch, watch Jesus' response in verse three. He says, I am willing, I am willing. I mean, think about that. This man has spent years being avoided and overlooked and pushed to the margins. And so when this man asks Jesus, are you willing? What he's really asking Jesus is, am I worth your time? Am I worth your effort and am I a lost cause? And Jesus says, I am willing. Friend, this is huge. It's huge. Before Jesus changed the man's condition, he wanted to settle the question in his heart of whether he mattered or not. Listen, maybe Satan today has been full for you. Iengineer me to your life and I'll change it for you. Soon your life is gonna be a happy one. It's the way it's meant to be. And then you study for a job as a man. Whether that's an office, whether that's a bossijke, whether that's a wife, whether that's a parent, Shamed and and messed up and friend if that's you today how he contradicts you. And then you're at the end of the career. Jesus says to you like he said to this man with leprosy. I'm not just able but I am

willing That I am willing Turn to somebody next to you this morning say I don't tell them this say I don't know what you're walking through Come on, turn to somebody God's gonna use some people in this room. You don't even realize it turn to him say I don't know what you're walking through But he is willing He is willing Hear me church he is willing today And then we see in verse 3 And as Jesus reaches out his hand and he touches the man And Jesus says that I'm willing Notice what he says next He says be clean And immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy Now I don't I don't know about you but when I read that this week that that word confused me Have you ever read something in the Bible and there was a word or a phrase that just it just didn't sit right with you like it just seemed off it seemed weird and and That's what happened to me because I I see this word cleanse and I'm like why? Why is it say cleansed and not healed? Now listen in some translations it uses the word healed and that's not wrong Ultimately, the man was healed but when you look at the original language in which Matthew wrote this in there were separate words for cleanse and Heal and Matthew specifically used the word for cleanse Why? Why would he use that specific word

And I want to tell you why this morning Because Jesus wasn't just fixing the man's condition That he was restoring everything that the condition had taken from him The relationships that have been taken from him How the condition took away his family Took away his livelihood took away his dignity his sense of belonging his identity In other words, Jesus didn't just give the man his health back. He gave the man his life back You see Jesus is in the business of restoring people Not just solving problems We get so hyper focused in him Resolving the situation we're in and whatever is is uncomfortable, whatever it is that we don't like because I think if we're honest with ourselves and I This is me too Is that I view life as a follower of Christ as a life that should be without? difficulty not with difficulty Which means that when we experience difficulty We look at what God is allowing in our life and we get frustrated we allow difficulty to pull us away from God not realizing that God uses difficulty and Challenges in our life to bring us closer to God Jesus isn't here just to solve our problems to make life easier. Jesus is in the business of restoring People redeeming what the enemy has done in your life Redeeming the brokenness of your past the mistakes and all of that stuff Redeeming it and using it for your purpose and for your good But the enemy would allow the shame in our life to begin to look at all of that stuff and the messiness of our life as punishment from God where we become pushed out to the margins and We're just happy that when we walked into the church today. We've He didn't get struck by lightning the first step in, right?

And that's not God's heart. See, if we're not careful, we'll celebrate what Jesus did in the leper's life while missing what Jesus wants to do in our life. The reality this morning is that you may not have leprosy, but some of you might be living like you do. Not because you're physically unclean and not because God is punishing you, but because shame has convinced you to keep your distance. Your distance from God, your distance from the people that care the most about you, distance from the purpose that God created you for. Friend, you weren't born perfect and then sent. You were born a sinner and have done what sinners do. There's a big difference. Because if you look at it as I was born perfect and I sinned then shame's voice gets louder and louder because we just, we continually look at ourselves like this but if we realize that we were born sinners. When Jesus was forming you in your mother's womb, he already knew that you were gonna struggle with the things that you're struggling with. He already knew that you were gonna turn your back on him. He already knew all of that stuff and yet he still created you because his deepest desire was not to give you an easy life but to bring you close to him, to wash you clean, to redeem all the brokenness and to help you see that when we live life our way

it always ends up in brokenness and fractured and shattered but when we surrender our life to him and even go deeper than a decision, we begin to align our life with his word that he begins to redeem the brokenness of our past. He takes all the shattered pieces like a mirror that falls on the ground and it's pieces all over the place and you have no idea where pieces go together and it's only through the blood of Jesus and a surrendered life to Jesus that he begins to pull all of these broken pieces and begins to put them back together again. And friend, maybe it's a mistake that you've made. Maybe it's a relationship that has fallen apart or an addiction you just can't shake or a secret that nobody else knows about. And little by little, what started out as something that you did has become something that you believe about yourself. And instead of doing what the leper did and instead of bringing that thing to Jesus, you hide it. You try to manage it. Maybe even try to pretend that it's not there. And shame just keeps whispering, stay away. You're not good enough. You'll never have freedom over that. God can't use somebody as nasty and as broken

and as torn as you. You're a lost cause. Just be happy with where you're at. This is the best it's ever going to get. Friend, hear your pastor this morning, that the longer you believe the lie, the more it's going to cost you. The more it's going to cost you, it's going to cost you your peace, it's going to cost you your purpose, it's going to cost you your relationships. And keep you sitting on the sidelines of the life that God has created you to live. Because shame has an uncanny way of shrinking our world. It makes us think smaller than God thinks, it makes us dream smaller than God dreams, it makes us live smaller than God intended. Not because God can't use us, but because we've stopped believing that He wants to. So if that's you today, what do you do? What do you do with all of these feelings and all of this shame that keeps holding you back? You do what the leopard did. You stop waiting until you get better, you stop trying to clean yourself up before you get closer, you stop believing that you're the exception to His grace, and you bring the thing that you've been hiding to Jesus. Friend, don't miss this. God's goal for your life isn't perfection, it's proximity. Shame gets us believing that it's all about how much we do and how good we are. It's this perfection mentality. God already knows you're not perfect. God's not in the perfection game, He's in the proximity game. And if you really look at it, what is the thing that the enemy tries to do the most? Is to create as much distance as he can. So friend, go with me here for just a second. What if the thing that you've been calling your identity, who you are, you're born this

way, what if that's really just your condition? What if your failure doesn't have to be your future? What if your struggle today, it doesn't have to be your constant story? What if Jesus wants to restore more than you ever thought possible? Because church, something crazy happens. Something crazy happens when we stop hiding. When we stop believing the lie. When we stop giving shame a grip on our life. When we stop keeping our distance and we start moving towards Jesus. Friend, marriages are restored, addictions are broken, purpose is discovered, families are changed, churches begin to come alive again, and communities are transformed. All because we finally believed that Jesus is willing. Here's my challenge to you today. Stop believing the lie. Stop believing the lie of shame. Some of you have spent years agreeing with this lie. Don't you think it's time? Don't you think it's time to stop giving shame the final word in your life? Friend, here's the hard truth, and I'm done. Is that Jesus says that he's willing, and he is. But nothing changed in the man's life until he came close. And I believe for some of you today that that is your next step. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, make sure you subscribe. Also, if something spoke to you in a special way, share it with a friend because you never know how it could transform someone's life. If you're interested in checking out our service times, make sure you go to our website at transformTLH.com. And we hope to see you at TC on a Sunday.

Thanks so much and have a great day.