Christian teaches on Jesus's authority from Matthew 7-9, showing how he taught with power and proved it through miracles. He references A.W. Tozer's warning that Christ's authority is waning in churches, then explores what it means to pray with authority and abide in Christ.
Chapters
What's up, guys? Hey, Raj. Hey.
Sorry I got kicked out. So this has been a different morning. I wasn't able to have you guys come back to music and a countdown and all that.
So we're just waiting for you to sing, Roger.
No, no, I sing in the car alone and in the shower.
Me as well. And also in front of my family, who every once in a while I'll get it like a. An awkward look and be like, oh, that. That sounded decent. Like, cats aren't crying somewhere because they heard that. Oh, okay.
All right.
God is real if he can make my voice sound decent once in a while.
And of course, I sing at church, but, you know, I'm making a joyful noise just like everybody else, so it's. It's. It's drowned out by everybody, so it's good.
Roger, you say you blend with the church, yeah?
Yes, yes, exactly.
I blend.
Yeah.
Well, good morning, everybody, and sorry for the technical difficulties. This zoom meeting is under Riley's account, and he has a strategy day with a new client in Dubai that started at 5am our time. And when I went to log in kind of early, right. Like I try to do Raj always, he's texting me, making sure I get in there and make him co host so he can help me out. When I tried to do that, said I had to end Riley's meeting in order to start this. So in a panic, like most times, I. I just call Roger. Like, roger, what do we do? So we gotta. We gotta straighten out. I. I shared with folks who are on the prayer call. I am disappointed I missed you guys the last couple weeks, and there's really a void in my life when I don't have this opportunity to be with you. And not even necessarily, you know, leading Bible study, just having this time of fellowship with you guys. You're a great source of. Of just encouragement for me. You really are. You really are. And that's why fellowship is so important. Hebrew says not to forsake the assembling of the saints. It's always good to do it in person if you can. And it would be a beautiful thing if all of us who are on these Wednesday morning calls get together at some point. I know Lauren's gonna mention start the church and, you know, I know at least her and Zach will move to Texas, but let's believe. But yeah, I just. I appreciate. Appreciate you guys so much. And. And when you don't have that. That time of fellowship with other believers who are just strong in their relationship with Jesus, Just devoted, faithful believers. You don't, you know, we do our best not to conform to the world, of course, but when all that's around you is just the world and the world is so upside down, it's just like, ugh, you get so discouraged at times. So I thank you guys for, for being such encouragement to me. With that said, I was going through some old notes from just like 2014, 2015 when I, I started like preaching and teaching regularly. I got saved in 2011 and you know, I have a lot of notes from in particular the 2015 and I came across notes on a sermon I preached about authority. And I, I was just kind of blown away at some of the, the notes I had for myself just as far as even I was kind of proud of myself in 2015. I just put notes for myself about the church being involved in politics and the need for it just based on the culture and just based on the way the world was going. And as we know, 10 years later, it's about to be 2026, which is wild. So 11 years later, how much more this is an issue and it's not just the issue. The church needs to get involved in politics and I believe we do because politics are every issue that seems to be debated now in politics is a biblical topic before it's a political topic for certain. But it just really convicted my heart just about the authority of Jesus and what he has authority over.
And.
If it's hard not to look at the church today, the church as a whole, and I know a lot of us have great churches that we are a part of, that we serve that great people, spirit filled church, churches that, that actually teach the Bible. But there's a lot the, the Capital C church corporately is in a pretty bad place right now. It really is. And A.W. tozer, when he passed away in 1963, and just two days after he passed away, there was an essay that was published that he had written and he, he mentioned a couple things and it's always striking to me when you see quotes from, from good, faithful believers of Jesus Christ or devoted followers of Jesus Christ from years ago. I mean, 1963 isn't so, so long ago. To Joe it seems like 1963. That's like, yeah, Joe's like, that's when John wrote Revelation. Right? Yeah, that, yeah, it's not, it's not that far ago, 1963. But when you see issues that were arising in the church in 1963 and they've just kind of been compounded now and it goes back further than that. You could look throughout church history since Jesus walked the earth. And I think a part of just my, my heart for this type of message is also before Thanksgiving, I had just kind of done, and I've done this before, just kind of studying the church throughout the ages, throughout history, and just see the circumstances of the, the church that even brought about the Church of England, that the Pilgrims, the Puritans and separatists, they were fleeing from, and ultimately we know them as the Pilgrims that, that landed on Plymouth Rock. But there's been so much persecution of Christians throughout the years and it still goes on today. Still goes on today. We're very blessed not to have to deal with the persecution that a lot of Christians on earth. Maybe not a lot when you look at like just the numbers or the percentage of Christians that are persecuted, but outside of America, it's a lot. It's a, there's a lot of persecution. And I think all of us, myself included, we, we take for granted the liberties that we have. And you know, if we get into a debate with some, some lunatic that just doesn't want to believe truth and has all these crazy, crazy ideologies, that's not really persecution, right? That, that's not persecution. It frustrates the crap out of us and it makes us want to sometimes shake common sense into people. But I was one of those people who didn't have what I would deem common sense now before I came to the Lord, because the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, it's a spirit of truth. He's the spirit of truth. And ultimately, unless we, we know Jesus knows word and really have that spirit of truth within us is so easy for us to be blinded to what truth is. We're susceptible to believing falsehoods. I had an interaction with somebody yesterday and she kept saying, well, I believe that. And it's like fill in the blank. And I said, the issue is you believe simply what you want to believe. And what you believe has nothing to do with what the actual facts are, what the actual truth is. And everybody has a stance of self righteousness today. Everybody has an opinion, everybody has an outlet to express their opinion. And most people, if somebody has a disagreement with them or don't accept or believe their opinion, then they're a pariah, right? They're immediately an enemy. I love when, if I see a video of, you know, a Christian evangelist who actually engages in conversation because we're not, we're not trying to win a debate when we share Jesus Christ, we're not trying to win a debate. We're trying to win that soul into the kingdom of heaven. And what we see, I mean this whole epidemic that we have of Christians attacking other Christians because a Christian will post something that another Christian doesn't agree with. And no, this is the truth. Right. And that there, there are times where people need to be corrected 1000%. But it's just where's this, this love of Jesus that has penetrated our hearts and has changed us, made us new creations. And, and, and if the, the number one commandment is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and then love our neighbor as ourselves. Our, our neighbor is not the guy next door, not the family next door. Our neighbor is literally anybody other than us. Anybody. If it ain't you, that's your neighbor. That's what Jesus is saying. Love me and love everybody else. And so back to this, this toes there essay that he wrote. And it's called the, the Waning Authority of Christ in the Churches. And again, this was published in 1963. It was published just two days after he died. Not exactly sure when he actually penned it. He was born In I believe 1897, which, I mean even to me, I know, especially Joe, even to Roger, even to you, Lou, 1897 seems like a long, long time ago. Right. But he lived a long life. He was a, a great believer, has a lot of great works. Nobody's. If you haven't read the Pursuit of God, read it. It's, it's, it's spirit filled. It really is. But what, what Tozer says in this article is that it's really Christ. Authority is challenged by the world but is becoming more and more ignored by the church. And what he says is it is a basic doctrine of the New Testament that after his resurrection, the man Jesus was declared by God to be both Lord in Christ and that he was invested by the Father with absolute lordship over the Church, which is his body. All authority is his in heaven and, and in earth. That's Matthew 28, right? In his own proper time he will exert it to the full. But during this period in history he allows this authority to be challenged or ignored. And just now it is being challenged by the world and ignored by the Church. We talked about a few weeks ago, Volition, right? The, the power to choose. God gives us the, the power, the ability to choose to believe what we want to believe. He doesn't force his opinions of truth on anybody. Right at Revelation says that Jesus stands at the door of our heart and knocks. He knocks. He knocks. And I believe sometimes he's banging on the door of our hearts. And. But it's up to us to open that door and receive him. And even when Jesus talks about, tells his disciples to eat my body and drink my blood, which. Wait, what? You say that. That's weird, but really the expression of it is, you're going to consume me to the fullest, right? You're going to consume every part of me. And a lot of us. Maybe we have days, maybe we have moments where, you know, we. We're. We're thinking we're leaving the door wide open. Yep, I've opened the door wide open for Jesus. Just come on in. But little did we realize that when we just kind of compartmentalize Jesus or keep him in a little box that's just a part of our life, we. We think we have this open door to Jesus to just every day just dwell within us. But every time we just place Jesus in a compartment in our life and he's not the center of everything, that that door is just kind of closing, right? It's just closing. And it's unbeknownst to us. Tozer goes on. He says, among the gospel churches, Christ is now, in fact, little more than a beloved symbol. He is lauded and praised in song and prayer, but he is not Lord in any operational sense. Any operational sense. It's like, oh, yeah, because we could all sing songs, right? Every single day. We could sing songs to, to praise him, to worship him, and, and that's beautiful. But sometimes he's just Lord in an operational sense where we have to actually look inwardly. We have to look at our lives and say, okay, is. Is Jesus actually Lord over everything? Over everything. And what has convicted me in the last. I would say the. The last week, I suppose, but in John 15, 7, if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. So we abide in Jesus, right? We. We abide in His Word. And, and. But it's like, is His Word actually abiding in us? If. Are we allowing His Word to abide in us? Because if His Word words abide in us, then we're going to look pretty holy, right? We're going to be pretty obedient Christians if we allow the words of Jesus Christ, the word of God, we allow Scripture to actually abide in our hearts. And. I'm com. I've been convicted this week of just time wasted where. Just sitting there where it's like, I'm just taking a moment of quiet, maybe some physical rest, maybe even just sitting, watching the game, just kind of getting your mind off of stuff, right? And I'm convicted because it's like, oh, man, how many opportunities did I have this week to allow God's word to abide in me? And I just, just let it go by, just let it go by. And I, I, one thing I will always say is I don't think it's an issue. I don't think it's sinful to sit down and watch a football game or to sit down and take some time to yourself, but that at all. But it's hard to actually find that little place of rest or escape, if you will, when you haven't sufficiently been nourished with the word of God, right? I, I can't sit there and enjoy and just kind of relax. If, if I'm not nourished, I, I'll try to do it. And then, but it's just like I'm not, I just feel like I'm drawn further from the Lord. And we know in Hebrews 11 says that but without faith it's impossible to please, to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So I'm like, oh, that word diligently. That's the one that gets me. So I guess I seek Jesus, but do I diligently seek, seek Jesus? Am I diligent with that? I'm diligent in a lot of things that I do. But the most important thing in my life is to diligently seek Jesus. And am I actually diligently seeking him? So Matthew 8 and 9, the some, some verses that we're going to cover today. And if anybody, as always, if anybody has anything to add, by all means, certainly speak up, speak out. I, I love the conversation that we have here. But Matthew 8 and 9 confirms the authority that Jesus declared that he had. He declared that at the end of Matthew, of course, that he has all authority in heaven and on earth, but he actually showed the authority that he had with 10 miracles that he performed in Matthew 8 and 9. Now the sermon on the Mount. Jesus goes up to the mountain with his disciples and preaches the sermon, Matthew 5, 6 and 7. And then at the end of 7 that word authority is even mentioned. Matthew 7:29 says, well, start at 28. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings, so the Sermon on the Mount is concluded that the people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. And then he comes down off this mountain and then he starts performing these miracles, he displays his authority. Leslie.
Oh, sorry. No, you said something about being more sorry. Inviting conversation. And I was just going to add, like you, you were just earlier saying about, you know, there's nothing wrong with watching football, but just inviting, you know, have you spent enough time with the Lord? And I just kind of do that now in general because sometimes, you know, I wouldn't want to miss if God wanted me to pray more, you know, like how sometimes have you ever had that, like the intention to pray and you miss it? And like, hey, remember that friend who told you they were going through a hard time, like now's a good time to pray for them. And so just when I do, when I kind of like, I'm like, oh, I'm going to check out and just, you know, turn my brain off for a bit, you know, again, I think there's nothing wrong with that, but just check with God first.
Yeah, for certain, certain. Like I said, it's not sinful to sit down, watch a game. But for, for any of us who do truly have a relationship with the Lord and we enjoy the relationship we have with Jesus, we enjoy being in his presence and feeling his presence, our, our souls are just going to be unsettled, right? If we are lacking that time with him, they're going to be unsettled. And because, you know, we're, we're new creations, but we're still human beings. We still have this earthly tent that, that we call our bodies, and we still have our flesh that we're up against. And we're still stiff neck people, right? We could look back at the, the people of Israel in the Old Testament, these stubborn, stiff neck peoples, like, oh my goodness, all these miracles. And, and you're just still grumbling, you're complaining, what are you doing? And then you kind of examine yourself, you're like, oh, I get it, I'm a stiff neck human being at times as well, right? So Jesus, he, he displays this authority that he has. And when we make Jesus Lord of our lives, it, it's Lord of our lives, of everything in our lives. And I, I love how he teaches the Sermon on the Mount. And then there's two chapters worth of miracles that he performs that he actually displays this authority that he has. And it starts by, by healing the leper, right? And he has authority over every disease. He does have every authority over every disease. And as we spent some time in prayer prior to starting this Bible study, praying for some. Some people who are in need of prayer because of sickness, because of physical ailments. Again, that. That verse comes to me in John 15, when Jesus says, if my words abide in you, it's like, whatever you ask, it'll be done. So if we're asking for healing and it's not happening, then I'm like, oh, my gosh, Jesus word is not abiding in me. It will be much easier, right, if there was. Because if there was like, an outline list that, you know, one of these Old Testament prophets, one of these disciples could have written down, like, okay, wake up at 6am Start with this verse, and then spend just 20 minutes in quiet time reflecting on the verse, and then take 15 minutes of just worship, right? Cry out to the Lord. Right? Because I bet if any of us actually had that list, we'd be more disciplined to actually perform it. But it's just simply, you know, it's somewhat general. Abide in me. Okay. How do I abide in you? Well, when you think of the word abide, what does it mean? It, like, means to. To dwell, so. Oh, okay. To dwell. Take up residency. To actually abide to. To live there. Like, live in his word. Live with. With intent. Intention and. And purpose of seeking him. Right. David said. I forget what psalm it is. He said. You said to seek your face, and seek your face I will. Right. The same David who said, one thing. I have desired, that will I seek, that I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. David, yes. And we discussed David a few weeks ago as well, where he had some knucklehead moments. Right? He wasn't perfect in his walk by any means, but later on in life, it's like, man, all I desire is to be in the presence of the Lord. That's all I desire. And. And it's not a. A complacent stance when you have that desire. It's like, no, I. I'm going. I'm seeking his face. I'm diligently seeking him. Thor.
Thanks, Christian. Hey, yeah, I. I heard something really cool. Two things. One is, are we living for what Christ paid for? And when I heard that I had examined myself, I mean, I was far from where I am today, thank God. But that stuck with me. Looking at, as you said, what we're doing diligently, it'd be work, family, entertainment, career. And, you know, one of the diligence that I'm performing is being on here. And this isn't for show. This is for him and his glory. But to be able to offer testimony as well, and there's a lot of powerful things that come through testimony, a little bit that we had this morning. Even just being diligent with our story and remembering, for me, it's hard to sometimes remember what God has done for me and the miracles that I've seen through my life. Because I'm a guy, I forget you asked me to do something, I'm going to forget about it. But if I don't diligently, diligently remember and have that time spent with the Lord, saying, hey, what do you want me to share with said person or. Or said time with him, giving him praise for what he's done, That's. That's imperative for me because I do want to operate for him. Not just, hey, God, come on, we're going to do this together. No, I, Lord, you have everything, and I am just your tool. And that's, you know, definitely reframing the word tool for sure. But that's what I want to be, and this is definitely helping. So, again, guys, I appreciate what y' all are doing here on. On this zoom call and Bible study, and. And I'm just grateful to be here.
Amen, brother. Thank you for sharing that. Awesome. Kita.
Yeah, so this is a very personal topic for me, what you're talking about, like, the healing. Anyway, you know, I mean, I was just wondering, what do you do, like, when you pray for healing? I mean, I've been in those situations, right. And you do get healing through sometimes, and, and I'm somebody who really stands on the authority of God, you know, but. But then you pray and then, you know, you don't see the results. Or are you stand on the word of God and, you know, you lay hands and you're like, hey, you know, in the name of Jesus and everything. I mean, you write down all the healing scriptures and you stand on them like Paul said, and then you stand some more. So, like, I just been dealing with, you know, that I had experience with that, like a stubborn kind of, I guess, opposition, if you will. So, I mean, what would you say, like, about that, about healing? And I know you said, what you did say was that we have to abide in God and all that. Right. So, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I'm gonna ask. But yeah, yeah.
When it, when it comes to healing, obviously Jesus doesn't heal everybody, right? Because if every Christian that had the Holy Spirit and the power and authority the Holy Spirit yields, you know, nobody would die, right? We'd just be praying life over everybody. But when I pray for somebody, I want to. And I know there's a lot of, like, powerful intercessors that are a part of these weekly meetings. I want to make sure that if I am calling upon God to heal or really anything, I want to make sure that there, there's nothing that I'm doing that's stopping God from answering that prayer. Where I want to make sure there's no iniquity in my heart, right? If there's iniquity in our hearts, God doesn't hear our prayers. If we pray with the wrong intentions or wrong motives, if we pray something that's not according to his will, those things are just not, those prayers aren't going to be answered. Even as a husband, right? First people first. Peter talks about this. If, if I'm not honoring my wife, my prayers are going to be hindered, right? So it's like, okay, if, and not honoring my wife, that doesn't just mean I'm faithful. It's like, okay, I believe I'm dishonoring my wife. If, you know, if a cute chick walks by or something and I, I, I look right, I think that's dishonorable to my wife. Certain things that I, I, I, that men could look at online, on social media, things like that. Man, I just had a conversation with somebody about this yesterday about pornography, right? A lot of men struggle with lust and deal with lust. So I make sure that there's nothing on my part. And I'm not saying that I walk a, a perfect blameless life by any means, but if there is anything like confess, repent of whatever sins it is, and make sure that there's no barrier that you're creating because you could be the strongest prayer warrior on planet earth. But if you're living a sinful life and an iniquitous life, then it's like, all right, are your prayers actually going to get answered? So it's just trusting God. But when we talk about authority and obviously the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority of God's word, there's authority that we possess because we, we have the spirit of God living within us. And we, I think a lot of, a lot of time, we don't, we don't see it, right? It's like, why are we walking this earth and we're not seeing the same types of signs, miracles and wonders? It seemed to happen all the time. In the days of Jesus. Right. Why are we not seeing this? And I think a lot of it is because we, we treat God as a consultant rather than our sovereign Lord over everything in our lives. And, but I think we need to start declaring more rather than asking. And that's been a more recent breakthrough in my own life. You know, I, I, there's a gentleman I've come to know. It's always good to have somebody who serves as like a spiritual father in your life. Somebody who's, you know, they're probably going to be older than you in age, but just ahead of you in your walk, in their walk, like they've been doing it longer. The struggles they've had are struggles that maybe you haven't even come across yet, but when you do, they're the counsel that could help you through it. So there's a gentleman. I've been spending more time with Brian Schwartz and I've really been more authoritative in my prayers of late, to the point where I mentioned this on the podcast that came out last Friday. He was on the podcast and I mentioned this, that Lucy, she took notice of my prayer life, that it's more, she's like, it's just stronger, it's more, there's more authority in your prayers now. And part of me is like, yeah, awesome. Then I'm like, good Lord, I've been walking with the Lord for 14 years. 14 years for me to have authority in my prayers, what the heck's wrong with me? But we need to declare right and believe and trust. And I think part of our resistance to declare healing is we don't have full faith for that healing. It's like we ask and we are to pray according to God's will. And that's kind of like the precursor to any prayer because we want to pray God's will no matter what it is. If it's not God's will to heal that person in the moment, then heaven forbid, I'm praying against God's will. Now, of course, God knows our hearts and I don't think we should just kind of discern on our own, like, ah, God wants this one to die. Yeah, God doesn't want this one to be healed. I think we should still pray and declare that healing. But I've mentioned it on this call when Riley's good friend Doug and I don't know if Jace is on here, Jace who does our social media stuff with King's Council. He. So it was actually, I guess it would be, yeah, it was actually Riley's Uncle. Right. But they were like, close friends. And so Jace's Riley's nephew, but it is. So Doug, out of the blue, had a stroke, and he was in bad shape. He had a stroke. Riley told me immediately he went to the hospital. He told me and Lucy. We started praying, and. But in the er, he was awake. He was like, okay, you just had a stroke. And I don't know all the details of it, but then he just kind of crashed, and he was in this unconscious state. And Lucy and I went up there, and they asked Lucy and I to go into the room and pray. And Lucy and I, we. We said it to each other when we walked out of there. As soon as we went in there to pray for him, we knew he was going to die. We just knew it, right? And. But there was a piece about it like God was just calling him home. He was a believer. God was calling him home. But it didn't stop us from praying, especially when, like, his. His wife was in the room with us. You know, you don't exactly say, yeah, he's not going to make it and walk out. Like, God confirmed with me. We still prayed for healing, but we were very specific to pray. Pray God's will be done, and we pray for peace. And so I say all that to say, yes, God doesn't heal everybody. And ultimately, we're not going to know. I mean, for Doug, he's in a much better place. I told him. I told Lucy, I said, I know your prayers are powerful. I know you have the ability to pray. Call down heaven, and God moves when you pray. If I am on my deathbed and I'm checked out and it's time for me to go, don't try to change God's mind. Allow me to go to that better place, right? I. I don't want you to. To. To deprive me of heaven. Right? And we always argue about, like. Like, probably most of you who are married, the goal is to die at the same time, holding hands. That would be ideal, of course, but it's like, no, I. I want to die before her, of course, right? Like, but then it's like. Because I couldn't bear life without her, quite frankly. And. But it's like, good Lord, it's not great for her either. It's like, why would I want her not to get to heaven first and get to experience that before I get. Get there? But anyhow, we're. We're not going to know.
She's just way better at setting up a place for you, man. That's why she's got to go first. You know, she's gonna do a better job of setting.
That's right.
She's.
She is. My wife is an epic cook, so part of why Thanksgiving was so great. And she passed those traits down to our daughters, who also cooked awesome dishes. And Raj knows already about the baked macaroni and cheese. If you're white and you haven't had the privilege of eating baked macaroni and cheese from a black woman's hands, then you're missing out on life.
You see, I just did that black church thing.
Come on, let's go. Yeah, it's different. It's different. I thought I knew what macaroni and cheese was, what Mac and cheese was, until I met Lucy. My mother thought she knew what Mac and cheese was. It was my favorite dish from my mother. And then Lucy cooked it for one day, and she was like, I didn't even know something like this existed. It was just remarkable. But anyhow, I don't even know.
White church potluck is just sad.
Yeah. Tell her to share the recipe. Here's the thing, Leslie. With black women, there's no recipes, and it's just whatever is in the house, whatever's in the cupboard, you just start doing it, and every time it tastes like. You could tell it's just a degree difference in taste, but it's just, like, better and better each time. It's remarkable. Yeah, it's just a unique skill that they have. See? Joe, Joey. A buffalo chicken dish. Right. In a black household, that's not a Thanksgiving type dish. Right. We don't do buffalo chicken on Thanksgiving. But anyhow. Golly, where the heck was I? I don't know. I don't know. Anyhow. Yeah, Tozer. Matthew 8. It'll come back to me. Declarative prayer. Yes, declarative prayer. There was something else. Maybe in my mind, I was saying.
You're talking about Brian.
Yes, I was. I was. I. In my mind, I was already segueing to something else, and I don't think I actually verbally said it. So, you guys, probably, unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to you, you're probably not going to know what the heck I was about to get into next. But yeah, the declarative prayer. And I. I truly believe that part of why the. The church and just the state of Christianity looks so weak when. I mean, think about this. The same power that raised Christ from the grave, the same spirit that raised Christ from the grave lives within us, and we feel like we walk outside our door. And we're just like bombarded with darkness and evil and, and upside down ideologies like, oh man, ain't nothing I can do about this. It's like, heck no. Heck no. Even one of us could make such impact that has ramifications for all of eternity. All of eternity. But we need, we'll. We'll start if we know the word, declare the word. We'll, we'll see more results while we pray to be declarative with our prayers that yeah, we're to ask, seek and knock. But God's given us power and authority to also declare and 100, we should be declaring his will. Whatever his will is. And it is ultimately, once we're in heaven, I'm sure everything will make sense to us. Where, okay, this is why I prayed that one time for this person and they, they weren't healed. And another thing we talked about a few weeks back, maybe a couple months back, is just that butterfly effect. Every action has a butterfly effect and we have no idea we may meet a stranger, pray for them one time. Nothing happens on the spot and you have no idea what happens after that prayer. But all those missing pieces, those puzzle pieces, they're all going to connect once we're in heaven and get a greater understanding of why prayers don't get answered. With that said, that was like a 20 minute rabbit hole. With that said, I, I didn't intend on actually reading all through Matthew 8 and 9 just kind of talking through it, but those first four verses, Jesus, he cleanses the leper. And, and even in this, just the, the thought of a leper in Luke, I think it's 17 when Jesus heals the 10 lepers. This isn't that same story here, but leprosy was, you know that, that was a wild disease, right? You weren't just an outcast physically, but, but like spiritually you're unclean. It was very contagious and in layman's terms, and probably Leslie, correct me, but ultimately with this disease you start, um, in my mind, I know it's not actually melting, but you, you, you start to kind of like melt from the inside out. And then like when it, it affects your insides and then outwardly and you start to, to, it's very painful as your, your limbs just start to rot away. And then it gets to the point where you don't even feel them right. You just have no feeling left. And if you've seen pictures, I think when I taught in the past on the 10 lepers, I, I showed a bunch of slides of what leprosy actually looks like. It's gnarly. It's gnarly. But, but Jesus showed and declared his authority over disease. But not just disease. Also, just, just when you were a leper, you're a social outcast. When you had leprosy, when you came within 150ft of somebody, you had to yell out, unclean, unclean. So people would know you're around them, and you had to try to avoid people. So kind of like Covid, I guess, right? They want us to stay indoors and not say anything and say, hey, I, I, I, I, I got the, I got the COVID Right? But when it comes to lepers, I started to mention those 10 lepers that were healed, right? And when we talk about the, the lordship of Jesus in our lives, when Jesus healed 10 lepers in, in Luke.
