Skip to content I Am Willing - Lorenzo Agnes Mar 27 · 37 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Well, I was gonna say good morning, Waters Church, but I'm gonna say hello family. It's lovely to see you wonderful, crazy, exciting,0:11 interesting people again. I think it's been like 3 years. And I love you so much, you have such a great sense of humor because before service, a really odd thing0:23 happened actually, about 10 different people walked up to me and all said the same thing and everyone's like, I wish pastor Tim was as good looking as0:35 you. So when he preached, we had something nice to look at, and I was like, oh man, what a heavy burden to carry. No, I'm just half kidding.0:47 Anyway, it's really nice to, it's an absolute joy to be here. I was just saying to Shane before service, as a preacher, it's0:59 phenomenal when the message that God gives you specifically for a church for that weekend happens to actually bless you more than it does the church and1:10 God whispers to you, this was as much for you as anybody else. So again this morning, like yesterday afternoon, I am being ministered to by the Holy Spirit as much as1:22 you. So I'm gonna ask you, if you won't take the hand of the person next to you please and let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, our savior and Lord, and the sweet almighty power1:34 of your Holy Spirit, I pray now that Lord you will take your word and that you will make it life to our spirits and that you will meet every need in1:46 this place and for everyone who's watching online that you may be glorified in Jesus name, amen. By the way, if you're a teenage boy1:59 and you've wanted to date that certain young lady and I've just gotten you to hold her hand, You owe me, you owe me big time.2:10 Alright, so seriously, Matthew chapter 8 verse 1 to verse 3. When he had come down from the mountain, great2:22 multitudes followed him and behold, a leper came and worshiped him saying, Lord, if you are willing,2:34 you can make me clean. And Jesus put out his hand and touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed. Immediately, his leprosy2:46 was cleansed. Verse 5 to 7. Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him pleading with him saying,2:58 Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.3:11 I wonder this morning if there aren't some of us sitting here today who are either in the situation of the leper or maybe you're more in the situation of3:23 the centurion where it's not you who's sick, but there's somebody in your family or somebody that works with you or for you that you care for that is dreadfully tormented. You3:35 know, in bible times, leprosy sufferers had to leave their homes and families, had to leave their own homes and families and live together with other3:46 leprosy sufferers on the outskirts of town. They'd have to scavenge for food because they couldn't just come into the regular supermarkets like everybody else or markets and buy food. They were3:58 forbidden to have any contact with people who did not have leprosy and they had to ring a bell that they carried with them to warn people that they were4:10 coming and they had to shout, unclean, unclean, unclean. And I wonder if there aren't some folks4:22 sitting here today who are hearing this message who feel emotionally or spiritually, maybe even psychologically, like a leper. You may not4:34 physically have leprosy, but you feel like you're constantly having to ring a bell and warn people that you're coming because either you have removed yourself because you've4:46 believed the devil's lies that you are not worthy and you've removed yourself from society or others have said brutal, horrible, ugly things to you which have caused4:58 you to remove yourself. I mean, this man is cast out from society. He would have been poor because he couldn't work, so there's no career5:09 path. He would have been hungry. It tells us that he would have been scavenging for food. He would have had a dreadfully low self esteem. He would have not been able to make any future5:21 plans including finding someone to love and eventually marry and then eventually start a family. In other words, this man or this woman is existing from day to5:33 day in utter rejection and agony. And my friends, I'm telling you, just not as a pastor, as a human being who's just around5:45 people all the time, there are too many people like that in our world today who physically don't have leprosy but in other ways feel the5:56 same kind of desperation. And yet, for some reason, that day, he's got just enough faith and just6:08 enough courage that when he hears that Jesus has come down off the mountain By the way, it says that there were multitudes following Jesus. So this man who has to ring a6:19 bell shouting unclean somehow finds his way past the crowds or alongside the crowds enough to get close enough to Jesus and I imagine6:31 not with great, you know, confidence, but probably bowing his head, but just loud enough for Jesus to hear, he says, Jesus, Lord,6:44 if you Not, hey, you can, I know you can do, you can heal me if you're willing? He's so broken down, you can make me clean. And honestly, probably to6:55 his utter amazement, shock and surprise, Jesus stops whatever it was that he was going to be doing and wherever he was on a path to and takes a few minutes7:08 and not only speaks to him, touches a leper which was forbidden by law to do because according to the laws of Leviticus, he's dirty, he lives in that, you know,7:19 you don't touch sick people. You stay away from them. So he breaks all of the traditional laws, goes against what the common thinking is, reaches out7:31 and gets intimate and lovingly touches and he says, listen, not only am I willing, be cleansed. And it says immediately and instantly the leper is healed.7:44 So let's look at the centurion. The centurion couldn't be more opposite to the leper, right? He's somebody who's part of the conquering army, a7:56 centurion, century, hundred, gets his name from the fact that he would have had at least 100 soldiers underneath him. This probably was not his first campaign because history tells us that the8:08 soldiers that Rome sent to the Middle East were soldiers who already had fought in different parts of Europe, they were more experienced. He would have had a wonderful tent, he probably would have taken over 1 of the8:19 homes of the locals, He would have brought his family with him. We know that he had servants who served him. In other words, he's opposite to the leper. He's in the city, not on the outskirts.8:31 He has a job, he has a career, he has respect. People know who he is, people fear him, by the way. So he has everything in life but he cannot solve this problem8:43 of his servant who it says was paralyzed and tormented. My father had 3 strokes8:55 in the course of 18 months just before he died and he was paralyzed down 1 side of his body and I had the great privilege just 2 months before he passed of9:07 ministering to him and it was like in the movies, you know, pushing him in the wheelchair out into the sunlight and talking gently and feeding him 1 pea literally at a9:19 time and the pea would fall and pick it up and feeling the presence of God. But I have always just had such a, I don't know if I9:31 can use the word hatred, just such a dislike for paralysis. Because to see this man that raised you not able to do anything, not change himself, not feed himself, not9:43 bathe himself. So when I read this message, I immediately think of my dad and I can empathize a bit with the centurion at the helplessness of the servant that he obviously cared for.9:56 But you know what interests me here is that it says he was paralyzed and tormented as if being paralyzed wasn't enough. And we all know that in10:08 the world we live in today, it might be you or somebody that you care for, we all know at least 1 or 2 people who live a life of a paralysis of10:20 some kind, not physically, but they just can't seem to move on with their life or they're tormented, they're in a really bad relationship they can't seem to get out of, they're in a job that they10:31 hate where they're abused and mistreated and it's a kind of a torment because it's just this sinful world we live in. And so here's a man who I'm sure could10:43 help the soldiers under him because his own reputation and job countered in that, but he cannot help his own servant. He can command his soldiers as he10:55 says to Jesus, you know, I understand authority in the story if you read the full story. Says, Jesus, I'm coming to you. I know you can just speak a word and it will be done because I'm used to authority. I do11:07 that and whatever I say just gets obeyed. There's yes or no. It's just yes, sir. And yet he cannot command this disease. He can't control it. It's out of his control.11:19 And maybe you're like the centurion today where in your life, your kid's life, your cousin's life, somebody that you care for, there's just, you can't control it. You feel11:31 helpless. But he comes to Jesus and it says that he comes to him and listen, this is not a11:43 law and prophets believing Jew like the leper would have been. He was Jewish. He would have been raised in the traditions of Moses according to the law and the prophets. This is an outsider who's conquering the country.11:55 He's come in. He's truly the very definition of a quote unquote worldly person or a secular person. He doesn't know the Jewish traditions and yet, he must have12:07 heard something about Jesus or enough about this man who can do miracles because he also says, Lord, please, I beg you, I have this servant, he's12:19 paralyzed and tormented, please can you heal him? And so we have these 2 men who I think represent all of our society. It's these 212:30 extremes, right, literally living on the outside of town, no hope for the future. On the other end, you've got, no, I've got most of what I need and I'm in the job that I love, etcetera, etcetera. And both12:42 of them can do nothing personally themselves about their own situation. I guarantee you, the centurion would have spent lots of money through his medical aid12:55 of the day, that was a really terrible joke but you know what I mean, he would have gone to whatever was available to the Roman doctors, maybe even to some Jewish doctors. The leper had no such choice because13:07 literally people couldn't touch him. He was just gonna waste away and die amongst other lepers. But at least the centurion would have tried to get some kind of treatment and nothing's working. So 1 is13:19 poor and dying, the other is very well off and healthy, 1 is rejected and alone, the other is respected and honored, 1 is part of God's chosen people and the other is a13:31 foreigner. And friends, all of us, including me, fall somewhere in this mix. We have or we are or 1 day we will.13:43 So they share a common problem, but they also share a common experience with Jesus. On the same day, 113:55 soon after the other, he hears both of their cries, stops what he was busy doing, interferes with his own agenda, so to14:06 speak, and takes the time to fully meet their need. He solves their problem. The thing that blesses me the most is that he interacts with them directly,14:19 face to face. He touches the leper, he speaks to him, he speaks to the centurion, he acts immediately. He doesn't just say, you know what, thanks for letting me know, I'll pray for you, I'll take care of it. Yeah,14:31 you'll be on my prayer list. He deals with it right away. And then he gives each of them a step to take. He says to the leponi, those Can you imagine, in today's14:42 world, like if some of our superstar televangelists healed the leper, especially on TV? Oh, there's money to be made here. Can you imagine?14:55 It'll be all over CNN. Woah, the leopard look is totally clean. Come to my church, if you only give 300 bucks today, you also I15:06 hate that stuff. Here's Jesus. Don't say a word to anybody. Today, it would be like, get my latest book. We're going to make a documentary series.15:19 I'm being cynical because whatever, so I don't have to go there. If you're sitting here, if you came to church cynical thinking, oh, this is another 1 of those places, they just want my money, you're15:31 wrong but I hope that me saying this helps you understand that not everybody plays those games. But Jesus, don't tell a soul, see to15:43 it that you don't tell anybody about this because this is between you and God but do go to the local priest and you go and do what the law and the prophets tell you that when God does15:55 something for you, you go and witness to it. You know, let them see that God has healed you, right, even Jesus, all the emphasis is on the father. And then same with the Roman soldier, he's16:06 like, man, I've never seen such faith in all of Israel. Okay, you know, you can go now, your servant's gonna be healed. And then it tells us that the moment he said that the servant16:18 was healed. So imagine, you're the servant, right, you're in bed at home, you're paralyzed, you're tormented, it's another horrible day that you've woken up to, and16:30 maybe that was you today. He doesn't know that his boss has asked Jesus to do something about his situation. You're just lying16:42 there and suddenly, you feel something happen to your body, you're no longer paralyzed, the torment goes away, and just as you're standing up16:54 bewildered like, what the heck just happened, the boss comes running in, I spoke to Jesus, It's true, you are healed. So can you imagine17:06 the holy pandemonium? Don't you love that phrase? You can use it. You can even do a t shirt if you want. Just credit me or get me a coffee. The holy pandemonium that unfolds in17:18 that whole community. That's how Jesus works with us. That's the truth. That is who this Jesus is.17:29 So let's bring it home. Let's learn from these real stories that are part of mankind's history and God's history among mankind and let's talk about you and me17:41 today. You might be like the leper. Man, if I've learned nothing else in life and I'm in this bucket too, every 1 of us can get really good, really17:52 quickly at putting on a really great show outwardly, but yet internally, our life is falling apart. And there are times in our lives, even when18:04 you've been walking with the Lord for a long time and selfishness and sinfulness can just get ahold of you and you do or say something really stupid18:16 and you can blame the devil and your parents and politicians, which we should do, by the way, but you can do whatever you like. How on earth have we got such lunatics18:28 in our political system? Anyway, wow. Anyway, I'm not going to go there. What the So it's 2018:40 22, people. Have we learned nothing? So you can't blame anybody else. Like, you've just got to own up to the fact that, Lord, I shouldn't have done that. I was18:52 disobedient, etcetera, etcetera. Because you know, friends, the truth is this. However long you've been a Christian, right, it's 1 of the great ironies to me of the Christian faith and the19:04 Christian walk. Like the Apostle Paul, towards the end of his life, right, he says these words. He starts off saying, as a19:16 young apostle when he meets the other apostles, oh, I'm the least of the apostles. This is the guy who wrote most of the New Testament, by the way, who did the missionary trips, who put the church on the19:28 European map and the lower Asian map and the Middle East map. I'm the least of the apostles. A few years later he says, you know, I'm actually the least of all the disciples.19:40 Just before he dies, after he's written his books and done all these things, he says, the truth is, I'm the least of all sinners. I mean, isn't that depressing?19:53 Because when I read that, 1 day I read that, I literally said to my wife, ding any dang, like if Paul said that, I did actually say ding any dang, if Paul said that,20:05 what chance do I stand? Like he was taken up to the seventh heaven, he was beaten, survived shipwrecks, you know, he literally saw Jesus on the road to Damascus and I was20:16 not getting what he was saying. What Paul was getting at was that except for the grace of God, however long you know the Lord. And by the way, what he was also saying is20:28 not only except for the grace of God, I wouldn't be nothing, but he's saying that the longer I walk with God and the closer I get to him and the more I get to know him, the better I understand what20:40 a total sinner I am, but what a total savior he is and the equation. That's why, friends,20:51 listen, any version on any level, right, on any scale of any Christian ever going, well, you know, you're an idiot, like you just21:03 clearly do not understand what's going on because what Paul is saying is this, great news everybody, it is 0 percent me and 100 percent Jesus21:15 and the power of the Holy Spirit and the sooner you live in that reality, the easier life is gonna be for you. You will never be good enough yourself. The leper shows us21:27 that. The centurion shows us that. They both Do you realize that a word from Jesus 1 day, in 1 moment, completely21:39 changed their lives? So the leper goes from outcast, ringing the silly bell, unclean,21:51 how humiliating is that, no future, no partner, none of the things that so called normal people could have. He goes from all of that to22:02 throwing away his bell, he never has to say unclean. Now he can actually say clean, cleaner than you if he wants to. I just thought of that, that is so beautiful. Wow, that's22:14 a t shirt. That'll start some conversations for sure. That's awesome, I love it when I crack myself up. That was really funny. Thank you, Jesus, that's beautiful, that's actually really22:26 profound. That's so Holy Spirit. And suddenly, he can get a job. He can start working, he can get income, he can start building a future. I22:38 mean, him being cleansed wasn't like, oh good, I'm not a leper anymore. Him being cleansed was, I'm a child of God and I have a future now that God22:50 knew, but I could never possibly have imagined myself, and Jesus has just helped me step into that. So I encourage you that if you've come here this morning and you're sitting23:01 here, you're watching and you're thinking, if anybody knew how I really felt and what was really going on in my life and how unclean I am, they23:13 would never come near me. I'm saying to you, today, if you do what the leper did and approach Jesus and ask him for help, in a23:25 moment, not only will Jesus cleanse you, because the Bible says Jesus is the same today as he was yesterday and he will be tomorrow, no different, he's the same savior. He will cleanse you and deliver you23:36 today and heal you and bring you, give you entrance into the future that he has for you. This is not positive speak, this is Christianity.23:48 This is the Lord and Savior that we serve. And so, I was sharing with someone before the service this morning how it's24:00 not that often that when I seek God for a word to preach at a church, that I get from God, this is the word for this weekend for24:12 this church. You know, usually I typically speak on the Holy Spirit or the Kingdom of God or some kind of encouraging word or whatever. But this time, this week, God was24:23 like, tell Waters Church that I am willing to heal anybody who's willing to come to me like the leper and the centurion. I24:35 don't care about their status, their statue, I know their situation inside out. They just need to take the first step, and if they come to me, I will heal them. This is a word24:47 for them this weekend, I will help them. So it says, so you know, I've come this weekend with this certainty and24:59 with this confidence. Jesus, I know that you are going to heal people and I'm telling you at 60, I just turned 60 in December. I know you're25:11 thinking, what, no ways, you couldn't possibly be more than 58. That is also funny. So I spent all of25:23 December in South Africa with my younger sister, younger by 5 years, and then had to go back in February because she had cancer brutally and wasted away25:35 and now she knows the Lord so she's with the Lord. But I've got to tell you, it was incredibly difficult, not only because she's my youngest, you know, if it's an older brother or sister, if it's like your25:47 parents, both my parents left this world way too young, but they're still your parents. Like, you know, they should go before you kind of thing, right? But I25:59 really struggled, you know, watching her waste away and her crying out to God but speaking to me while she was doing it and saying,26:11 you know, God hates me like he's forgotten me. Why is he letting this happen to me? And she's not just asking me as her brother but as a pastor26:23 and she's like, I mean, The scriptures, I read the scriptures about healing. I pray them in the morning, she'd have lists and all I could say is I don't know. I26:35 don't know. I don't have an answer for you. And it's wise instead of because I also didn't want to do the, hey, praise God, you know, be strong. Jesus, you know, it will all be okay.26:46 Don't you hate it with a passion when somebody's in agony and somebody says, oh, don't worry, it'll all be okay. Don't you wanna like You can't beat them, but I'm saying like,27:00 whatever. Because it's so inane and meaningless, right? It's better to be honest. Always be honest, speak the truth in love, the Bible says. Be honest and say, I don't27:11 know why God has chosen you for this test. I said, but what I do know and what I disagree with you on, don't say that he doesn't love27:23 you because he went to the cross for you. His love for you is no different today than it was yesterday and it will be no different to tomorrow but the truth is that we also27:35 live in a fallen world and we are fallen and cancer is part of it and some Christians get it and some don't. We have to be honest and wise enough to say I27:47 don't know. But then that night, when she's sleeping under the influence of heavy drugs, I'm crying in the bedroom next to her saying, Lord, please,28:00 it's just a word from you and all I hear from God is, I will heal her in my way, you have to trust me. You have to trust28:12 me, I am your Lord and savior, not just your savior, you have to trust me. Now, I could say, well praise God, she's in heaven, she's perfectly healed. Which is28:23 true. And I'm sure that today, if she could speak to me, she'd be like, this is definitely the better option. I'm just sad that I wish we28:35 could have had a bit more time together. My point is this, I've been saved 40 years. I love Jesus. He is the center of my life and you know what, I'm28:47 okay with the fact that even after 4 decades, the Lord will allow me to experience things that I don't need to understand and it has not affected my trust in28:59 him because he's the Lord and he knows what he's doing. I've also learned in 40 years that at some point somewhere in the future, I will properly29:11 and much better understand why he has allowed certain tests and trials. The key is to not allow the enemy to use those trials to say, you see, Jesus29:22 doesn't care. Because that is not the truth. And so it tells us that the leper came and worshiped him and that the centurion29:34 came and worshiped him and they both asked him for help. And so imagine for the centurion, the result for him, right, joy at seeing his servant healed. Imagine29:46 that reunion. Incredible. I think what would have been much more powerful than the healing is that the and his household would have gotten29:58 saved because conversations would have happened, and you know how the Holy Spirit works. There would have been somebody in the centurion's life that would have helped him to understand that30:10 Jesus is the anointed 1. And, excuse me, after that, when the centurion would have seen Jesus on the cross being30:21 crucified after being illegally tried, dying, being placed in the tomb and then 3 days later resurrected from the dead, at least30:33 at that point, he would have remembered his servant being saved and would have received Christ as his savior. So for him, it's more than joy, it's eternal salvation.30:44 I believe, I can't prove it, but I believe there's an excellent chance at least that when he went back to Rome, he would have been a missionary. So imagine, from30:56 these 2, for Jesus, simple acts, like this is who Jesus is, lives and destinies are completely altered and changed and I'm here to say to you31:08 today that Jesus is saying to you and to me, I am willing, be cleansed. Ask me, I am31:20 willing, be cleansed. You know, friends, it is a mystery to me. I I wanna say I really mean it, but that's silly. Obviously,31:32 I mean it, but I wanna find a way to express it is a mystery to me. How God is such a gentleman with us31:44 and doesn't force anything on us. That he always comes from a place of permission. Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be31:56 saved? Wouldn't it be so much easier if Jesus just went saved And all of us like, whoops, oh, yeah, awesome, praise God, I'm born again now.32:07 And just America saved. That make life so much easier, right? We don't have to do all the work, the arguments, the debates, trying32:19 to get people to church in every sneaky, I mean, every wonderful way, you know, and trying to be so clever. No. I think proof32:31 that God is God, 1 of the great proofs is that God says, those of you Who of you are parents and have kids that are older than 15? Remember the day32:42 that you realized that you really have no control? They've been thinking that since 11. It's just taken you 4 years to catch up.32:54 Some of us were just sharing last night that sometimes you do everything right and your kids become young adults and they thumb their nose at you and say, I want nothing to do with33:06 this, you know. And you're like crying out to God, you know, like, Lord, come on, you can change their hearts. And God's like, no, just like with you,33:19 they need to love me because they choose to and because they want to. And by the way, let me encourage you parents who have kids who are not yet serving the Lord or maybe have drifted away, God33:31 gave me another word, it was for somebody specifically in the church, I shared it with them last night but this morning as I was praying, preparing for the meeting, the Lord said share it with the church and the word was33:41 this, just like this in my prayer time on Wednesday, God said to me, tell him I am chasing after your son. And I said, now listen to me, God is not saying33:53 I'm working with him, I'm chasing after because listen, as much as you love your kids, I adore my kids. My life's joy is my children and my34:05 pretty much perfect 3 year old grandson who says publicly I'm his favorite. What can I tell you? It's the truth. Love him backwards.34:16 He's on my phone. I look at his face 100 times a day. I wake up to him and go to sleep with him, you know. And you know what? As much as I love them, it's not even34:28 close to the love that God has for them because I didn't make them like God did. So I wanna encourage you, just love your kids. Be their parents.34:40 Don't fight with them. Embrace them. You don't have to agree with all the nonsense that they speak. By the way, when you're 20 or 18 and you34:52 think, why doesn't the world just do what I do? I've got the answer to everything including world wars. We all did that. You're lying if you say that you didn't. It's part of life.35:04 And aren't you glad that you're, at least with some of us, that your parents were patient enough to just listen because they knew the day would come that you'd come a little bit more to your senses, but when that day35:15 comes, you want your kids to be able to say, you've always loved me. You never let me go because God doesn't. So let's close with this.35:27 They come to Jesus, they're asking for something not knowing what his response is going to be And in both cases, I'm sure they were pretty35:39 stunned at how ready and how quickly Jesus responded to their needs. You know, it tells us in the scriptures, there are a number of times in35:51 the gospel where you read that the disciples say to Jesus, you know, they say to each other, have you seen the master? Where is he, where is he, you know? I don't know. And then he comes along like, Lord,36:03 where were you? We've been looking for you. Like, you were gone all night. Where were you? And he rebukes them. I think he's thinking, are you bananas never gonna learn? My36:15 version. Lorenzo's interpretation. Now, Lord says to them, what are you talking about? He says this, you know that I have to be with my father because36:27 he tells me everything that I have to say and do. In other words, Jesus knew that somewhere in that day, he was going to perform these 2 miracles.36:38 And Jesus knew that today, this morning, there are those that when I ask you now to stand with me, we're gonna pray together, there are those you need36:50 healing of some kind. By the way, I think spiritual and emotional healing is way more important than physical healing by far. I wouldn't even put them in the same room37:02 together. And Jesus knows already that he's going to heal and he's going to set free and he's going to encourage. So
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