Three speakers explore Luke 4:38-39, where Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law of a high fever. They argue that God turns suffering into advantage: the fever is rebuked, the woman is instantly restored, and she immediately serves. They claim Christ's power is contagious and pressure refines believers like a diamond.
Chapters
There is an exegetical invitation I want to extend to you, and I pray that you accept. You've been invited once again to fellowship with me in the Gospel of Saint Luke. I'll do my best. Saint Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, again. So this that Sunday we supposed to wear red again. Every year y'all trick me. Second Sunday of February. I think last year I just happened to wear a robe with red on it. She don't tell me that. She just put on clothes. Everybody, everybody want to keep secrets from me. Saint Luke's Gospel. Luke chapter number 4. I should have put on a yellow robe. And verse number 39, the word of God reads: After he left the synagogue, he entered Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him, Jesus, about her. So he stood over word and for the perpetual nature that lies there within. She was sick with a fever. They asked Jesus about it. Jesus came into her house, rebuked the fever. She got up and immediately start to serve them. My voice sounds good for the time it is.
I was—
this morning we want to wrestle from the subject finding favor in the fever. Finding favor in the fever. Aristotle, in his concept of entelechy, it is a philosophy in which Aristotle argues that everything has potential. Everything that we see on Earth and in life has some form of potential.
However, potential alone is not what it needs.
But in life, everything that has potential must also subject itself to the right process. You can put an acorn in the ground, it has potential, but it has to go through a growth process in order to become what it's supposed to be.
And I came to let you know today that in what we have potential in, God also intervenes in processes. Process in life, and that every process that we go through is not pleasant, but when God puts himself in the process, it becomes profitable. And what I'm struggling to tell you this morning is that there are some processes that do not look good. There are some processes that do not feel good. But since you have been birthed with potential, and since you have the grace of God, those processes that are designed to deplete you can actually end up developing you. And God's word for us today is that what was meant to take from you, God will get in the middle, and that which was supposed to take from you will add to you. Maybe that's not your lesson for your future, but maybe somebody has gone through that in your past where you've been through things in life that tried to take from you. It tried to take your joy, it tried to take your peace, it tried to take your happiness, but somehow, some way, God got in the midst of that thing and you left out with more joy, you left with more peace, you left with more happiness.
And somebody in here today who's alive may say, I got more praise now, that now I don't have to have a whole bunch of music All I have to do is have the ability to just think back. When I think back over my life and look how God blessed me over and over and over and over again, and if I wake up in the morning, he's gonna bless me over and over and over again. And now I know too much about him, therefore you can't make me doubt him because I've been through too many battles with him to know that he is a God just like he said he is. Now y'all gonna make me preach hard today because I don't feel like sweating. That should be somebody here today who knows that the devil has tried it in my life, but every time the devil tried it, God got in the midst. Has God got in the midst of your mess? Has God got in the midst of your circumstances? Has God gotten in the midst of your issues and added more to you than what the devil took?
We're here once again in Luke chapter 4. I don't know why Luke in chapter 4 just keeps on bothering me, but since Luke 4 messed with me this week, I'm gonna mess with it for a little while. We see here in Luke chapter 4 Peter's mother-in-law is sick with a fever. They simply call Jesus in. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have this same account, but Luke the physician has a different angle. He says that Jesus simply rebuked the fever. Matthew says he touched her. Mark say touched her and lifted her up. But Luke said that Jesus just spoke and rebuked the spirit of the fever, and the woman got better from the fever. Here's what happened to the text after she got healed. Luke says immediately she got up and got the servant.
And is there anybody in here today, and the reason you're in here is because you some fever in your life, and Jesus spoke to your fever, and now you too blessed to just sit at home. But now, since you've been so blessed, you gotta get up and serve God. You've been too blessed to be full of hell. You're too blessed to be filled with gossip. You're too blessed to be filled with mess. But you want to spend the rest of your life saying, God, for you I live, And for God, I die. I will get on the battlefield for you. I will love the unlovable because you made me better. And if it had not been for the fever, I wouldn't have the intensity that I have today. And I think that in Pilgrimage, there's some people who ain't never had no fever. Because if you had a fever in your life and God touched that thing, wouldn't nobody be able to shut you up? Wouldn't nobody be able to put your hands down? Wouldn't nobody be able to make you you sit down. But when you look at the fever that could have killed you and God let you live through it, you ain't got no choice but to say, hallelujah, Lord, for bringing me out.
Thank you, Lord, for bringing me through.
When people gave up on me, you lifted me up. When people tried to put me down, you elevated me. So I can't wait to get through these doors because I know I've been healed from too much fever.
Can I try to help us this morning? Help us find favor even in the fever. And once I do that, I'm gonna leave you alone. I'm gonna hit up 167. This text teaches us this morning— Lord have mercy— that fever has prompting power. Favor has prompting power. I'm going to argue with you that not only did Peter's mother-in-law come out with more, but Peter also came out with more. It's Peter's mother-in-law who had the fever. Jesus rebuked the fever. Mama-in-law got up, got to serve. This is Luke chapter 4. Now y'all been with me for 5 years now. What comes after 4? 5. Good job, class. We read what happens here in Luke chapter 4. What a strange story happened in Luke chapter 5. Oh, Peter was a struggling fisherman and didn't catch nothing. Jesus borrowed Peter's boat and performed the miracle after preaching. And the Bible says that in Luke chapter 5 which comes after Luke chapter 4, that Luke decided, I want to follow Jesus. Come here, come here, come here, come here. Theologians argue and say that Peter was already following Jesus, but he just was kind of following him halfhearted. He was a part-time disciple, but life happened and God got in the midst. And when God got in the midst, Peter said, I don't see too much now, I gotta follow you with all of my heart.
And is there anybody in the house today who can say to God, you've done too many things for me, can I follow you a little bit better? I may not have it all right, but God, every day I want to get closer to you, just a closer walk with you, Jesus, because you've healed too many diseases, you've paid too many bills, you've forgiven too many sins. How can I get closer to you, Lord?
What a picture of grace. In the text. Because you— I'm— I see your little halo on your head. I don't know if y'all bought that for the Super Bowl or what, but I see them halos on your head, and you have a problem with what Jesus did in the text. You want to know what some time folk would have done? Sometimes it folk would have waited until chapter 5 came before they did what Jesus did in chapter 4. But Jesus didn't wait on Peter to get it all together before he moved in Peter's life. Y'all know what that's called?
That's called the grace of God, where God just moves in your life and he know you're a half-done Christian. He blesses you and know you ain't been in the oven all that long. He knows you still got some development. He knows you still got some habits. He knows you still got some crooked ways, but but he touches your arrogant self and touches you with a finger of love. And he don't wait on you to get it right before he do right by you. Y'all looking at me like I'm lying. Don't make me tell the truth about you. You know what you thinking about doing right now. You know what you did yesterday. You know what you plan on doing today. But he got you up this morning anyway. But he put clothes on your back. You ain't got your shoes on your head, and you want to know why? Because the grace of God was given to you anyway.
He didn't wait on chapter 5 before he did it for him. But God says, here is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna bless you so good that when you look and see that it couldn't have been nobody, but God on my side. I appreciate my doctor, but my doctor gave up on me.
I appreciate the bank, but the bank didn't see the right credit score. But it was God providing for me. It was God healing me. And now, God, I want to do more for you now.
Uh, I think I've told y'all something like this before. Uh, we mean well. We mean well when we say this. We mean well when we say this. And I'm not saying don't say it, but I'm just saying you might want to be careful with it, all right? Because, because we say serving the Lord will pay off after a while, which means that if I serve the Lord today, then God will be good to me later on. That's partially True, serving the Lord will pay off after a while, but can I insult you?
You ain't always served the Lord the way you were supposed to serve the Lord, but he paid off even when you wasn't serving the Lord like you were supposed to serve the Lord.
And I want to argue with you Here's what I want to argue. Oh, help me preach it, Father. That he paid off, therefore now I try to serve him. Man, I use both of my hands and y'all didn't like that.
It ain't that serving the Lord will pay off after a while, but what God did was he paid off and said, now let my paying off before time make you want to serve me. Somebody in here this morning You're trying to give God back pain because he's been too good to you and you just now catching up, trying to halfway act right.
Maybe I'm preaching to myself. He paid off and now I'm trying to serve the Lord. He saved me, now I'm trying to serve the Lord. He forgave me, now I'm trying to serve the Lord.
He healed me. Now I'm trying to serve the Lord, and if he don't do nothing else, I still owe my God.
God pays off. Then says, sir, y'all enjoy the greenery outside. Don't y'all see how them trees blooming and looking good outside? And some of y'all probably done You planted something and it looks good now. You know what? The sun is teaching me a lesson. The sun says, here's what I'm gonna do for the plants. What I'm gonna do, I'm gonna shine on the plants and I'm gonna start the process of photosynthesis. And when I just shine on it, then it will grow. Because if I wait on a plant to grow and then try to shine on it—
talk, Gavin— it will never do what I'm calling it to do. And that's just like God. You know that you ain't deserve to be where you at today. God just shined on you before time, and now you halfway getting things right. He just shined grace on you, and now you're halfway acting right because he started shining on you, and now you're getting the growth.
Yeah, so I ain't gonna wait on you because if I'm waiting on you, because I'm gonna be waiting a long time. But what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna put grace on you and you're gonna one day grow into your grace. This fever had prompting power, but there's also in this text the fever provided a sense of peculiar prestigiousness, a sense of prestigiousness or prestige that was peculiar. Who got healed in the text? Peter's mother-in-law. We don't know what the recipe she was famous for. We don't know what she did in her life. We don't know if she was married. We just know that she had a fever and Jesus healed the fever. We never see her mentioned Again, in the text, in the sacred 66 books, we know nothing else about Peter's mother-in-law except for the fact she was Peter's mother-in-law and she had a fever, and Jesus came and healed the fever. We don't know how much money she got. We don't know her job. We don't know if she served on a mission. We don't know if she was in the choir. We don't know if for the church anniversary she did the welcome. We don't know none of that. All we know, she was sick. Jesus came in her life and turned that thing around.
Who am I talking to today? You ain't got a whole bunch of money, you ain't got a whole bunch of accolades, but you done had some problems. But what people can say about you is that you had a problem, but you met a man named Jesus, and Jesus made that problem a used to be. Has God ever turned you into a used to be? Where you used to have a fever, you used to be sick and sin, but now you met a man named Jesus, and now you can say, I used to be sick, but Jesus healed me. I used to be broke, but God gave to me. I used to be a stone nut, now I'm just kind of a nut because God has got in my life.
And what I'm trying to tell you, don't underappreciate your fever, because that fever that's keeping you up at night now, when God get in that thing, you gonna be known for what God did in your life.
God will give you a new future. He will give you a new resume. He will get in your problems and turn that thing around.
If Peter's mother-in-law would have never gotten sick, we would have never been exposed to her story. Who am I talking to?
The devil is trying to make you feel bad about your story.
He's trying to make you feel bad about your past.
He's trying to make you feel bad about what you going through. But tell the devil, stay tuned for the rest of the story, because God has not given me my last day, but God just keeps on getting me up in the morning. And if God is in the midst of my glory. I will come out on top of this thing. You looking at me right now, but wait until he rebuke my fever. You see me right now, but wait until he get through blessing me. You see me right now, wait until he restores me. Is there anybody who receives that by faith right now? I ain't gonna always have a fever. I'm not gonna always be in this position. But this too shall pass, and God is breaking me out right now. While I'm in here with my hands lifted up, he's out there working on my problems. While I'm in here with a hallelujah, he's turning things around. While you talking about me, he's making my neighbor places of blessing.
And what's your problem today? Will be your prestige tomorrow.
Did y'all hear what I just said?
What's your problem today can turn and be your prestige tomorrow.
And you want to know why?
Because a man named Jesus, man. I got a strange phone call yesterday. Y'all want to know who called me? Carbon. Yeah, same thing I said. Carbon, the chemical element. C-A-R-B-O-N. Carbon. I don't know how carbon got my phone number, but carbon, C-A-R-B-O-N, called my number yesterday. Carbon called me and said Gavin, I'm a little bit sad. I said, why, Carbon? Because Carbon says, well, next Friday coming, and that's what they call Valentine's Day, and everybody for Valentine's Day except for you because you cheap gonna be trying to buy diamonds because they say that diamonds are a girl's best friend. And that offends me because people forget Hey, if it was not for me, there would be no diamonds. But I had to, I had to calm Carmen down.
They say, Carmen, you know why you need to be encouraged?
Because pressure comes into you.
And your reason that people don't know you is because you ain't got no pressure on it. But when I put you through a little bit of pressure, you gonna come out as a diamond. You gonna come out shining. You gonna come out more prestigious. Because when God puts pressure on you, Mr. Carvey, that's when people start appreciating you.
That calmed Carvey down because he said, thank you, Ham.
Preach that to your church tomorrow and let them know that the reason people ain't notable yet is because it ain't been enough pressure. Pressure plus God gonna make the difference in your life. It may be common now, it may be ugly now, but when God allows pressure to come through your life, then all things work together for the good.
I gotta leave you. If y'all got some bets on the game, let me know and I'm gonna tell y'all if God say do that, better not. Before I get down, 167. Don't y'all do that. God teaches us in this text that the fever has a provisional parameter. Now, Jesus, I'm not saying you're not omniscient. You know way more than what I know, Jesus. You rebuke the fever. But I had this a few weeks ago. The fever wasn't my sickness. Yeah, the fever was a symptom. When you have a fever Fever is not really your problem. Fever is a byproduct of your true problem. Translated: if you got a fever, you probably got the flu. If you have a fever, you probably have an infection that causes the fever. So Jesus, why did you rebuke the fever and not necessarily the sickness? Here's what Jesus told me. Jesus says that sometimes even when I just take away the symptom Be thankful that I still spared your life, because she could have been living with something that was not deadly, but when it caused a fever, that's what made it a deadly situation. Translated: God will rebuke things in your life to let you live with stuff that could kill you.
But he speaks in your life to where you're able to keep on ticking anyway.
And what Jesus did, he says, I'm gonna put parameters around that which could kill you, that the devil might give you— inflict you with disease, but I'll make sure that disease ain't deadly. Here's what I came to preach. The woman got up and started serving immediately. Anybody ever been sick with fever? Even when you're better, you don't get better immediately because you was taking some Theraflu. And Theraflu starts working, but it takes time. But Jesus don't need the time that Theraflu need.
All Jesus need to do is speak one time, and that which been going on for a long time can change immediately. Can somebody say by faith, immediately? That once you work one time in my life, God, immediately my life starts changing for the better.
Woman got up immediately, start serving. That's really what Mark gonna say, immediately. But Luke says this here in this text. She— and doctrinally, theologically, people believe— this is somebody's word— that fever was a sign of a curse. Based upon some Old Testament, uh, Levitical laws, that there was times when God would inflict fever on certain people. So translated, it could be possible that this woman was sick with sin. Don't judge Peter's mother-in-law because I see a little bit in you too.
I'm looking at it, I see it.
A sin sickness. And so if she had fever, Jesus says, even though I'm not supposed to have anything to do with you, I'm not gonna heal you and then just make you just sit there.
But what I'm gonna do I'm gonna heal you and then restore you back to a place of service.
Because honestly, y'all know y'all have done the same thing. Who was Peter's mother-in-law serving? Them in the house. Y'all know what y'all said. All right, Peter's mother-in-law. You just getting over that fever. Don't you fix me no greens. Put your mask on and get in the back because we don't want to catch what you got.
Translated: you've been healed, but we still see you for your sickness. Jesus been healed you, but we still see you for your past. Don't come in here serving us because Jesus may be okay with you, but you still gotta prove yourself to us. So don't you serve us right now because you just had a fever.
Well, can I tell you something that's gonna bless you? The devil is a liar, because who the Son set free is free indeed.
So you may not want to let me serve you, but Jesus said, since I'm the one who did the healing, I will accept your service. That's why in 2025, it's time for you to get up immediately and get to serving God, because he heals you in spite of you. He heals you because of you, and you were not dirty enough to— for him to avoid you.
I can see him now. Oh, I don't know, you eat it first. And if Peter—
if Peter eat it first and he don't get sick, then we might be all right. Jesus said, just let her serve because I've already done the healing. So if I'm the one who has the power to forgive, who are you to say that she got to stay in her place of fever?
With your holier-than-thou self. I bid you good night. I've done the best I can do. Most time what she had would have been this dangerous word called contagious. Mills, when people are sick, most time with diseases that cause fever most time that sickness is contagious. CC, which means that if she was contagious and Jesus touched her and Jesus spoke to her, and if Jesus was in the same room with her, then it could have been contagious. But this text has the gospel in because the sickness was not contagious. But since the sickness was not contagious, I want to argue— good night— that even though the sickness was not contagious, but the Savior was contagious.
And what Jesus did I'm gonna come in the same room with you, and I'm not scared of getting sick. But since I am your Savior, you gonna have some precious blood on you. You gonna be washed whiter than snow because you are not too dirty for my touch. You are not too contaminated from my touch. But in you touch me, even though you couldn't inflict me with sickness, I can inflict you with salvation. And is there anybody in here today Hogass proof that Jesus is contagious. Jesus will give you what he got in one Friday on a hill called Calvary. I'm thankful to God that he was a contagious savior, that now I'm washed whiter than snow. I used to be filled with sin, but now I've been washed. I used to be rich, but now I'm clean because my God is contagious. You know what else contagious? Resurrection. Because that's how she was, dead. She was headed to death, but the contagious resurrection power of Jesus Christ rubbed off on her. And that's my word for you today. Let the resurrection rub off on you. Let the resurrection come all over you, that when life tries to throw you down, let's just keep on popping back up.
He's a contagious God, I tell you. He's a contagious Christ. I'm living proof. He came close to me one day and I immediately got saved.
I'm clean now. I don't care if you don't want me to serve with you, but I'm serving my Christ who allows me to get back up and serve him. We offer Jesus to you today.
Hallelujah.
