August 4 - Sent with Hope

OPEN We have been in an interesting teaching series haven’t we?! We’ve been challenging you to believe that we have been SENT by a loving Father to both “Tell” about and “Show” His supernatural kingdom to our cities. We’ve unpacked:

·       That heaven is here.

·       That we are SENT to heal

·       That we are SENT to set people free from the enemies bondage

·       Today, we want to unpack that we are SENT with HOPE.

·       PRAYER

DILEMMA: Hopelessness manifests itself in many different ways… the situation that always seems the most hopeless is when a friend or loved one passes away… I think that’s why Jesus sent the disciples to raise the dead… it was to raise people’s hope…

·       But has anyone here ever done it before?

·       I know I’ve tried with a group of people 3x

·       Now, I actually do it whenever I pass by a casket

Books, Hollywood and TV have played with this idea of resurrection over & over again.

·       Gandalf, Neo, John Snow, Snow White   … even Zombies

The trouble in our real lives: almost NO ONE has ever seen this happen!

And, I think the reason we never see it… because we really don’t try very often

·       And we don’t try because it feels like a Hopeless situation

·       Much like our previous weekends… we should focus on obedience NOT experience

·       Rather than the hopelessness of the situation or what feels like futility of prayer.

·       As Sent Ones, we can NEVER LET HOPLESSNESS BECOME OUR REALITY.

Our key text for this series has been from Matthew 10 (tax collector, note taker).

⁷ Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!

·       Ok Jesus, we’ll go to our friends and talk about the kingdom.

·       We’ve seen you heal… I guess we can try that

·       Raise the dead

·       Cure (cancer) leprosy… sounds tough but we’ll go after it

·       Cast out demons… weird but we know love conquers darkness

·       WAIT WHAT?! – Jesus did you say raise the dead…. You crazy!!

The enemy's ultimate tool is death... because it feels like the ultimate HOPELESS situation… but Jesus is HOPE. Jesus sees no situation that can’t be undone…The message of the Kingdom says…even death can be undone by the power of Jesus

All 4 Gospels & the Book of Acts recount the resurrection of Jesus… our ultimate hope!

·       Jesus’ resurrection is hope for all of us.

·       Jesus even calls himself resurrection and life in Luke 11.

·       Jesus’ resurrection shows us what is possible in a hopeless situation.

·       Not only does it show us His Life…

·       But it shows us our Hope that we will all be raised to life because of his Gospel.

·       And it shows us that we NEVER have to let hopelessness become our reality.

·       Today, we want to talk about how we can bring HOPE into every hopeless situation… even those that are filled with death.

BIBLE… So, we thought that we’d walk through the Bible on this one… and look not just at Jesus’ resurrection, but on all of the other resurrection stories in the Bible… did you know there are actually 8 other stories in the Bible? And 5 of those 8 were done by people other than Jesus?

·       1 Kings 17:17-24 Elijah raises the child of the widow who was taking care of him.

·       2 Kings 4:18-37 Elisha (and Gehazi) raise the son of another woman.

·       2 Kings 13:20-21 A dead man is raised by Elisha’s bones.

·       Luke 7 Jesus raises a young man at his funeral.

·       Luke 8 Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter.

·       Luke 11 Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

·       Acts 9 Peter raises Tabitha

·       Acts 20 Paul raises Eutychus

First, let me tell you that not only are these some of the most amazing and powerful stories in the Bible… but man they are all really, really weird in some spots!

Soooo, why would we want to look at these stories? Because, I think they have a lot to teach us about how to approach hopeless situations… they can help us understand what we do as Sent Ones to our cities.

When Elijah raises the widow’s son…

·       He puts him in his room… lays on him… and complains to God…prays

·       Elijah lays on top of the boy like 3x and complains to God about his death

·       Key Verse: ²² And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 

·       But what can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, God listens.

·       May not be death

o   Finances… Illness… Job…  Child

o   The key is that GOD is listening!

When Elisha raises the boy…

·       Mom - couldn’t have kids - is healed but as a toddler he dies

·       The mom gets mad… Gehazi lays a staff on the boy… Elisha lays on top of the kid (again)… then he walks around the house… the kid sneezes and it’s all good

·       But what can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, God has compassion for the hopeless.

o   Your heart sickness

o   Your grief

o   Your actions

o   GOD CARES about your hopelessness

And then there is this one, lol… When the man is thrown into Elisha’s grave…

·       ²⁰ So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. ²¹ And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

·       Their graves were typically caves… they’re running from bandits… toss their buddy in Elisha’s cave… and he comes out like “what’s up guys?” HUH!!!

·       But what can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situation, God’s resurrection life comes through.

o   The power of God’s Spirit and life can revive a situation even when we are not looking/trying to make it happen.

o   Resurrection life doesn't have to just be physical.

o   We are resurrected when we say yes to Jesus.

o   Hopeless is a state for those without Christ.

When Jesus raises the son at the funeral…

·       In Luke 7, Jesus stops the pall bearers from doing their jobs and interrupts a funeral on the street… He’s at the funeral… imagine the ruckus … says fear seized them all.

·       Vs 14 “Young man, I say to you, arise.”

·       What can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, our words have power.

o   Speak hope not fear

o   Speak life not death

o   Speak resurrection not dismay

·       Interesting this is the 3^rd mom having a son raised and the second widow.

o   God has compassion for the hopeless.

When Jesus raises Jairus’ daughter…

·       This is key because Jairus (religious leader) was so hopeless that he went to Jesus in spite of the fact that his coworkers were trying to kill Jesus.

·       In Luke 8, all the mourners mock Jesus and he kicks them out of the house.

·       Jesus speaks to the girl, takes her by the hand… and gets her a snack.

·       Vs. 53 “And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.”

·       What can we learn?

·        In our most hopeless situations, people will mock our faith.

o   Jesus actually promises this will happen to the disciples in Matthew 10.

o   Don’t let the words of others keep you from your faith / obedience

o   Don’t be a mocker of another’s faith in Hopeless situation.

o   …join in with those who still have hope

When Jesus raise Lazarus…

·       All these stories make me laugh in some ways… this time Jesus waits a few days to head out… Jesus tells them to open the stinky tomb… Jesus simply says, “Come out!”

·       Jesus opens a grave that’s been closed for 4 days.

·       Vs 40 – “see the glory of God” – Jesus wants the crowds to believe in Heaven.

·       What can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, God loves to come through.

o   We have a good Father… we have a family inheritance… Hope is our birthright.

When Peter raises Tabitha…

·       This is the first recording of a disciple doing this

·       In Acts 9, they call Peter and keep the girl in her bedroom till he gets there.

·       Many witnesses saw her dead.

·       Vs 40 ⁴⁰ But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.

·       What can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, do what Jesus did.

o   Notice what he does… he removes those with no faith, prays in the room, talks to her, takes her hand… he did what he saw Jesus do

o   Matthew 10 - heal, kingdom, cast, raise, etc.

When Paul raises Eutychus… In Acts 20, the guy dies during a sermon… no kidding!

·       This is the first recording of a disciple not of the 12 doing this

·       This is the weirdest story ever à Acts 20:7-12

·       Paul preaches too long… the young man gets bored and starts staring out the window… he falls and dies… Paul raises him up and eats with him… then, he KEEPS PREACHING

·       To learn? don’t let death stop you from preaching… don’t preach too long or someone might die… joke people

·       What can we learn?

·       In our most hopeless situations, God’s power flows through us.

o   Every follower of Jesus has power to change a hopeless situation…

o   to change it into a faith building experience.

In our most hopeless situations…

1.     God listens.

2.     God has compassion for the hopeless.

3.     God’s resurrection life comes through.

4.     Our words have power.

5.     People will mock our faith.

6.     God loves to come through

7.     Do what Jesus did.

8.     God’s power flows through us.

I can remember the first time:

·       I prayed for someone who had back pain

·       I prayed for someone who had cancer

·       I prayed for someone who had a short leg

·       Faith is RISK – Faith is believing & trying even without the experience

·       even death can be undone by the power of Jesus

WRAP IT UP

One text that has really helped me understand my hope & push with faith into hopeless situations comes from Romans 8 (NLT)

11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

·       We begin to realize that Nothing is so dead that it can’t be undone.

·       That Jesus can undo death.

·       That Jesus’ Spirit lives in us, so we can undo death.

·       That even if we haven’t experienced a physical resurrection, Keep Trying

·       Even if we haven’t experienced an emotional, financial, relational resurrection…

·       Keep praying AND…

·       Never let hopelessness become your reality.

Let me end with 3 eyewitness accounts from a resurrection in England:

·       Robby Dawkins

·       A few years ago, he had a man die during one of his sermons. His mom (mum) screamed and shouted, “another stroke.” The man (Matt) turned blue and fell to the floor.

·       By the time Robby got to him, he wasn’t moving. Robby rebuked the “Spirit of Death,” put his hand on his chest. After a few minutes, his color returned & eventually he spoke and walked to the back of the room to await an ambulance.

Now, many of us might not call this a resurrection, but there happened to be a Dr sitting right behind him at the event. Here are some of his reflections:

·       Dr Alastair Murdoch BSc MBChB MRCP FRCGP PgC

·       He started going blue and developed labored breathing, but he wasn’t sweaty initially. I helped lift him down to the floor.

·       Matt turned purple

·       He had a “reflex anoxic seizure”

·       Pupils fixed and dilated

·       Agonal breathing (common around death)

·       “He was dead.”

·       Lips purple/black

·       He went from shaking to looking dead very quickly. To look like that with pupils that became fixed and dilated from shaking is extremely unlikely. It could happen with a bleed in his head or a blockage of a cerebral artery or some other catastrophic “stroke”. I called it Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy.

·       To get up, talk and walk about afterwards, wasn’t compatible with a faint and is unlikely after a fit: and certainly not compatible with some massive brain insult!

·       In hospital training I have seen a lot of people have a cardiac arrest, a few people have a brain stem death while I watched, loads of people fainting and a lot of people have fits.

·       If you hadn’t waged war against that spirit of death Matt would be dead.

·       Thank you, Jesus – what a great demo of the power of God, and yes, I fully intend to raise the dead!

I want you to hear one more account of this miracle (show VIDEO)

I don’t want you to miss this:

·       No situation is Hopeless when Jesus gets involved.

·       As believers, we should never let hopelessness become our reality.

·       Rather, we like Elijah, Jesus, Paul… should be faithful in ridiculous situations.

·       We have authority to bring victory out of defeat… to bring hope!

·       Even if we are the only one with faith in the room, the faith of the one can change hopelessness into resurrection life!

Do a little ministry:

·       No Situation is Hopeless when Jesus gets involved (3x)

·       Break off Hopelessness

·       Commission SENT ones to bring hope.