Matthew 4: 23-25

[0:00] I did ask myself the last couple of weeks, what actually is the kingdom of heaven?! The word kingdom means the realm in which a sovereign king rules.

[0:10] ! You see the second part here.! That's what kingdom of heaven is. And so, if you're a follower of Christ, you already are in the first phase of God's kingdom of heaven.

[0:22] Right? The kingdom of heaven doesn't just mean up there, or what we would consider to be up, where it is considered to be. That's not specifically what the kingdom of heaven is.

[0:39] If you're a believer, if you're a follower of Christ, you reside currently in the first phase of the kingdom of heaven because you currently live under Christ's rule and authority, right? Sovereign king.

[0:50] And so you reside, not physically, but spiritually, in that kingdom right now. The kingdom of heaven, though, isn't just the here and now, right? It's also what's in the future.

[1:03] And the Bible tells us that, the scripture tells us that God will someday establish a literal and an eternal kingdom in which he'll bring heaven to earth.

[1:15] The second phase of the kingdom of heaven. I hope that's clear this morning. So, right now we encounter what we would consider the phase of already but not yet.

[1:26] And I'll leave it up to the theologians to phrase it better. George Ladd puts it this way. Fulfillment without consummation. Fulfillment of the kingdom is here, but consummation of the kingdom is not.

[1:40] Many kingdom blessings can be experienced today, and many are reserved for the consummation and the coming of Jesus. And so we looked at the kingdom of heaven.

[1:51] But what is the God? What is this word gospel? What does that mean? This was Christ's message. Let's pick this apart. Gospel, maybe you know this, simply means good news.

[2:03] Turn to your neighbor and say, good news. That was low attendance. Turn to your neighbor and say, good news. Yeah, it was a little better. And it is, right? The gospel is good news, and we're going to see that today.

[2:14] And you're not going to forget what gospel means if you don't know. You're not going to forget it after today. Because we're going to talk about the good news. So what is the good news about the kingdom of heaven?

[2:30] I don't believe that there's really a single answer, a single statement to encompass what the good news is. Because there are a lot of aspects of the kingdom of heaven that are good news. We're going to see this morning that Christ's means of spreading his message, go ahead, Andrew, by proclaiming, teaching, and healing.

[2:50] If you can't see that, it says his means, proclaiming, teaching, and healing. His means of spreading his message. These three things each point to an aspect of the good news that the kingdom of heaven contains.

[3:05] So here we go. This is what we're looking at this morning. Go ahead. My goal for today is these two things.

[3:15] I want us to observe Christ's three means of ministering and see how they each point to the good news of the kingdom of heaven. And then I want us to, I want to ask you to consider how you currently interact with Christ's means of ministering as his disciple, if you are his disciple.

[3:37] So that's our goal. You can write that down. You don't have to. We're going to come back to this. It's very simple. Before we get too far, let's pray. Please bow your heads. God, we're just saying worthy is the lamb that was slain for us, Lord.

[4:00] And this morning, in our minds and in our hearts, please reveal this truth maybe for the first time to somebody here.

[4:12] Or maybe for the millionth time, Lord. I don't know. But please let this truth be more clear than it's ever been. The beauty of your son who brought this message, the gospel of the kingdom through his teaching, preaching, and proclaiming.

[4:33] Lord, please use the word that your spirit has put on my heart this morning. May they be uplifting and of great glory and honor to you.

[4:44] In the name of your beautiful son, we pray. Amen. So if you're not there already, go ahead and turn to that passage in Matthew 4, 23 to 25.

[4:55] Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. It's about two-thirds of the way through your Bible. Our passage tells us, the very first verse there, 23, that Jesus went throughout all of Galilee.

[5:17] He went throughout all of Galilee. And we've talked about Galilee before in the previous weeks, but we're going to talk about it a little bit again here. Where Jesus ministered was Galilee. Now, this was an area of Israel that had a population of about 300,000.

[5:31] And it was spread throughout about 200 villages or towns, right? But there weren't any major cities. And this was the hub of Christ's ministry.

[5:42] The evangelist traveled village to village talking and sharing with those who would hear. With those who would hear. And he had good news to share with the inhabitants of Galilee who were mostly Jewish, but there were also many Gentiles there as well.

[5:58] And so we have to recall this because this is important. Why did Christ choose Galilee, right? If Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of the Jews, why not target Jerusalem, right?

[6:10] This is the center of the Jews' worship and their living, right? That was where their religion was most concentrated. The biggest names, the greatest minds, right?

[6:23] Those with most power and influence that gathered there. And the Jews expected their Messiah, which simply means their deliverer, would bring an end to Roman oppression and usher in a new kingdom.

[6:37] So why not start there? Why not start there? We would have the biggest effect, right? Gather the biggest crowd and that he would march to victory. Jesus is called the light of the world.

[6:52] And he came forth shining into the deepest darkness. And he chose Galilee not just to fulfill prophecy, right? Isaiah chapter 9 in the Old Testament of the Bible mentions that Jesus will minister in Galilee.

[7:06] But he did it not just to fulfill prophecy, but to unveil his agenda. It wasn't political, and it didn't focus on the high and mighty of society, but those who would most see their need for a Savior.

[7:23] And so once he arrived in this darkness, how did his light shine? What did he do? His means, as our text today indicates, were his proclaiming, teaching, and healing.

[7:39] And so we'll look at proclaiming first. Proclaiming. The good news of a kingdom. Proclaiming infers sharing with those who've never heard.

[7:50] Right? And so Christ begins to minister in Galilee to people who, some of which, had never heard the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.

[8:02] Never. In chapter 9 of Isaiah, like we talked about, Galilee is referred to as a land of great darkness. Our world is tainted by people committing great evil.

[8:13] And we hear about it every day in the news, and we encounter it every day with those who we interact. But the truth is that we're all guilty of this, right?

[8:26] I'm guilty of this. The Pope's guilty of this. Billy Graham was guilty of this. There are no exceptions. No person is an exception to this.

[8:37] Romans 3 says, all have sinned. Starting from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And so humanity's continual struggle from the beginning of creation, from the initial sin, leaves us desperately, leaves our world desperately grasping for glimmers of hope to hold on to in a world that seems to be in such a perpetual darkness.

[9:06] And it's the same now that it's always been, right? Nothing has changed. In that sense. And Christ brought this proclamation that was a great hope that brought light into this darkness.

[9:20] This hope was not just for the righteous. It was not just for those with enough church experience. It was not for those who knew enough about spiritual things.

[9:33] Christ came on the scene proclaiming the good news message that there was a kingdom that centered around hope available to all. It's God's kingdom. It's God's kingdom.

[9:45] A kingdom of light. A kingdom of hope. And nothing like Satan's kingdom here on earth. Christ said he had come to reconcile the lost back to God, to bring them back, to repair that relationship according to God's design.

[10:02] And he was the agent of change by which that would occur. God sent hope to the hopeless. He really did. He sent a great light into great darkness.

[10:13] Christ, the Savior of all, revealed himself to ears that had never heard. So a lot of people listen to Christ's message, right? And it's Christ himself giving this message of hope.

[10:28] That's amazing. And so he's sharing this and people start trusting in him. And because the gospel of the kingdom is a message of extraordinary hope and unparalleled hope.

[10:42] And how great that hope looks in front of the backdrop of a world filled with gloom and sadness. He proclaimed the good news that there is a kingdom and he is its king.

[10:55] And there is actually a real reason for hoping in life. A real reason for living. There's a true hope for all mankind in this sin-stained darkness.

[11:09] Because God's plan to redeem through Christ that which sin has destroyed would reunite man and God in his kingdom. So Christ proclaimed.

[11:20] Let's move on to the second means. Christ taught the good news of a present kingdom. The synagogue, we can see here in our text, halfway through verse 23, teaching in their synagogues.

[11:40] Synagogue was the center of Jewish worship, right? And many times a guest speaker of sorts would come, right? And Christ wasn't unfamiliar to this role.

[11:51] He would come and share. He would come and teach. But Christ didn't teach the same message, right? He had something different. And he presented himself as the Messiah the Jews had been anticipating, right?

[12:06] For a long time. And so, it's exciting, right? But, he taught that he wasn't there to accomplish their agenda.

[12:16] And the Jews had waited for centuries for their political and social victor, right? The one who would bring freedom and finally lift the chains and bonds of oppression from the Romans.

[12:30] We've been hearing about that the last several weeks or a couple months in our study of Matthew. This is a big picture of what's going on, what the Jews are waiting for in their Messiah.

[12:41] And so, that was it. He was here. Christ brought the news of a present kingdom to redeem what the Jews had lost and rid themselves of that tyranny.

[12:57] And it was a kingdom that Christ was inaugurating then and there. Yeah! Yeah! Right? But it wasn't what they were thinking it was. It's finally over.

[13:10] It's finally over. This kingdom was one of great change. Yeah! Like they wanted. But it was not governmental change.

[13:22] It was not social change. It was personal change. That's what Christ did. It's the kingdom Christ brought. And so, Jesus Christ didn't come to change the Jews' circumstances.

[13:34] He came to change them. He came presenting the chance to change their hearts. But why did they need this change? The Jewish people focused a lot of time and effort and energy in on to find a letter of the law.

[13:51] Right? And attaining a certain level of righteousness by following what their scripture had taught.

[14:03] And so, in the Sermon on the Mount, which is the next few chapters of Matthew, Jesus comes in saying, Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

[14:18] What? And He said, You must be perfect. You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. What? But how could this be accomplished?

[14:29] Christ shared that he had come to fulfill the law he had come to fulfill the law and that the standards for God's kingdom subjects could only be met through faith and trust in him this is what he's teaching them his message was one of freedom from self and self-centered faith must have been troubling I think for a lot of people so Christ didn't come supplementing what they knew in his teaching by repeating what those before him already said he called them to repentance which means a turning this word means turning from something to something he called them to repentance turning from their self-sufficiency to his all-sufficiency that's what repentance signifies he was the answer God had for his kingdom people to obtain the right standing before God right in present kingdom started now the kingdom was at hand faith was no longer about what they could do but what about what he says in John 14

[15:45] Jesus says I'm the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me he offered a far greater kingdom than they could have ever hoped for a kingdom where Christ could rule as king not in their towns and villages but in their lives Christ taught in summary of the teaching Christ taught the good news of a present kingdom it was finally here, right?

[16:12] and it was one that was far greater than they could have ever imagined being a part of that kingdom was available to all might who might allow God to change their lives through their repentance turning from a burden of trusting self to the freedom of trusting Christ what a great message it is, amen?

[16:31] that is a great message we've talked about proclaiming and teaching Christ also ministered through healing let's look at our text today the end of verse 23 read with me says this here we go healing every disease and every affliction among the people so his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick those afflicted with various diseases and pain those oppressed by demons epileptics paralytics and he healed them so this is really cool the text shows us that Christ healed any type of disease or illness that the people brought to him verse 24 as we read talked about some of these and this isn't a story this is an account right?

[17:38] this actually happened Christ actually did this and these are extraordinary healings that you and I would consider unlikely at best right? but most certainly I mean impossible for these some of these things I mean people who are paralyzed people who have some pretty crippling diseases and Christ performed these routinely right?

[18:05] and not only that but there was also no end to his ability to restore health to those who came to him his healings defied the rules of medicine science and probability which is kind of what our society is based on he also healed a large number of people hundreds thousands right?

[18:27] he became famous word about him spread his healing power to neighboring towns and villages and cities and even country people came from all over right?

[18:38] all over and they brought them they brought them they're sick and they said will you heal? will you heal? and he did and he healed it he didn't stop there wasn't anything he couldn't heal the line wasn't too long he didn't have to take any breaks he just did it and he healed instantly and it's really amazing I was talking to my wife earlier yesterday this is a passage that we could just gloss right over right?

[19:09] like oh yeah of course Christ healed we know he healed people and did that stuff nobody healed people some who had never walked some who had never seen some who had never talked that's not routine so the question we still have this question though what does all this healing have to do with the gospel of the kingdom of heaven right?

[19:36] because we said all of these means of ministering have to point to a certain good news of the kingdom the existed kingdom the present kingdom the eternal kingdom why did Christ choose to heal these people?

[19:51] I think one of the reasons is that his power and authority to do so validated what his preaching and teaching proclaiming and teaching established right?

[20:03] and what was he trying to establish? that he was the messiah and his kingdom was at hand when compared to the other teachers of the law his ministry was one of miraculous power and authority that greatly surpassed those who had come before him no one else had this not even close both in word and deed Christ had this his healing helped bring proof of the inaugurated kingdom kingdom was at hand but that's also not the only reason that he healed Christ healed because he had compassion we see this throughout the gospels in some cases Christ's compassion led him to heal those that were blind those that had leprosy which was a terrible terrible thing those that had never walked those that had serious significant ailments he also as a sign back fed two very large groups of people and so these are examples of his compassion he had compassion on people that empowered and led him to heal and to care he restored the health of some who had been sick their entire lives imagine the celebrations imagine the excitement from some of these people the shock and awe the truth is that

[21:52] Christ cares for the weak and the weary and he still does but wait a second right if Christ had this all this power and authority you know why did he stop with hundreds and thousands why didn't he keep going right why didn't he heal everyone that was anywhere at that time why didn't he snap his fingers and heal the whole world why didn't he heal everyone that would ever live why didn't he prevent all illness and sickness and death and sorrow and sadness for all time he had that power what about his chronic pain her cancer what about my family member that's passed away what about my suffering what about my pain why does God allow death and sickness and sorrow and sadness if he has the ability to fix it like that friends we can't ever allow ourselves to carry on in anger towards

[22:58] God for the things that he doesn't do can't allow ourselves to carry on in anger towards God for the things he doesn't do sorrow sickness death he won't probably experience some of that mankind brought about these things in the garden when we sinned against God I'm not telling you that you earned your pain I'm not telling you you deserve the death of your family member I'm not telling you that you earned that cancer diagnosis or that chronic illness I'm telling you we all stand accountable for our actions as humans we mankind brought about these things collectively when we sinned against

[24:01] God all have sinned Christ's healings give us a glimpse into the heart of creator God who sent his very own precious son that he loved so much to be the agent of healing and restoration and that that begins here it starts here on earth maybe you won't experience it that healing maybe you won't maybe you will but friends God promises that it will be completed someday in his eternal kingdom when he fully restores all things physical mental emotional spiritual that have been ruined from sin God grieves the effects of sin more than we ever could he doesn't want those for us how do we know this well there's no sickness disease or sadness or death in God's eternal kingdom there's no sin there we'll be with our king forevermore in his new heaven and earth anything and everything that has been marred because of sin will be undone being restored back to

[25:42] God's design for life it's his design which envelops his deep love for people excuse me I struggle through this not because I've experienced a lot of these big significant times of suffering but because some of you have some of you are hurting all right our infirmities our suffering pain will not even cast a shadow on the majesty and grandeur of never ending physical and spiritual restoration that God has in store for those who love him this is the truth of God's eternal kingdom and that is good news and so we've seen

[28:23] Christ proclaiming teaching healing in the name of the kingdom and as you might expect what happened right it caught people's attention hopefully it caught our attention this morning thinking about these things and what happened let's look back at our text this is the last few this is the last verse verse 25 great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan right so these crowds came from near and far people heard the news right and they said I gotta go I gotta bring this this loved one or this friend of mine or this person I know and they all brought people to Christ and with their very own eyes imagine this with your own eyes you're seeing Christ heal people like this he points he touches he speaks the one calling himself the Messiah proclaiming the kingdom of heaven they followed him and these great crowds

[29:33] I think many were genuine followers some were ready to trust in Christ and faith right there on the scene or maybe even when they heard about it but others were just in it for the show those who trusted in Christ became his disciples and they joined in on his mission making disciples of all nations for the kingdom of God I want to go back to the slide we saw earlier today's goal so what we did we just observed Christ's means of ministering and how they each point to an aspect of the good news the good news of a kingdom the good news of a present kingdom the good news of an eternal kingdom and so what are we supposed to do about this what are we supposed to do with this short summary of Christ's ministry what do we do with these verses these three little verses that we could just gloss over and probably not even care about another day of the week so my first question goes to those here who have not become disciples of

[30:56] Christ friend you have heard today God's marvelous plan of redemption that means bringing back the relationship between God and man you've heard that today you've heard the proclamation of the kingdom and the hope that lies within maybe even maybe you're here and this is the first time you've ever heard that or maybe this is the hundredth time you've heard it but I'll still ask you will you today trust in Jesus Christ as your true and only hope in life will you trust in him as your only source of access to God as your only means of holiness and righteousness will you repent of your sin and turn turn from yourself and turn to God this morning be forgiven by God for your wrongdoings and become a disciple of the king and part of the kingdom of heaven this morning you can do that no longer live at odds with God how will you respond today to this good news friend there are only two choices you will reject it or you will receive it and I beg of you this morning personally

[32:20] I beg of you to choose Christ today and please speak with me after this service and we can begin that journey together and it's not magical and it's not some secret things you have to say or something weird or elite like that it's a very simple process and it's good to talk that kind of stuff out and you can start that process today here that was my first question my second question goes to those who identify as God's kingdom disciples at some point in your life you responded to Christ's means of ministry but my question is how do you relate to it now what is your response now to Christ proclaiming teaching and healing in your life what do these means of spreading his message mean to you today are they infused in your life as a disciple of Christ so what we're going to do is very simple we're going to look at proclaim teach and heal again in light of how we respond and interact with those three let's have that first light up we're going to look at these in light of personal application here's the first one you guessed it proclaiming centers around hope and so

[33:46] Christian I'm not going to tell you to spread the gospel the good news because you know that you probably may not mean anything to you at this point but I will ask you this why do you spread the gospel or why don't you spread the gospel is the gospel still a message of great hope to you do you still find great joy great comfort in it if you do you're probably proclaiming and sharing that message that you delight in are you not the elders we were talking about this just this Monday at one of our meetings and I think it's so true I firmly believe the degree to which you see your significance in your redemption the degree to which you cling to the hope of the gospel is directly related to the degree to which you will share it's true if you don't share this news could it be because you're not hoping in it maybe it feels inconvenient maybe you don't want to make other people uncomfortable since when did hope make people uncomfortable you don't want to burden people with it your coworkers your family whomever you know we live in a world that's knee deep farther waist deep in grossly misplaced hope in things that guarantee disappointment jobs children social status partners money possessions you know these things

[35:47] I hope you hear my heart in this next piece are you proclaiming a message of hope in one of those instead what is your greatest hope in that is your gospel that is your good news and I think there's two ways we can can go about start start going about this process of reconciling this proclaiming in our lives and the first one I think is pray we need to pray about this maybe I would pray something like this Lord show me the beauty of your gospel show me how good it is to have my hope in you show me your hope that does not disappoint break down my idols Lord how desperately I need this today right now in a world that is vying for my hope and attention for my delight

[36:53] I pray I pray these things and this is a tough battle Lord so help me to be strong in this go to the Lord bring this to the Lord in prayer I think maybe the second thing is to spend some time thinking about the message of hope of a kingdom of heaven I think one critical step is to disconnect from technology or disconnect from people just briefly maybe it's for a little while each day maybe it's for several hours once a week something like that and so pray and then think what does the kingdom mean to me how has Christ transformed my life both now and forever think about how he's given you new life and redeemed you out of sin back to himself he's brought us back to himself and then perhaps out of that place bring the new good news of the gospel of hope to the lost so that was proclaimed the message of hope we can begin to reconcile by looking internally and thinking about these things and how we feel about them and also bringing them to the Lord and praying about them go ahead

[38:11] Andrew the second is teaching how do you approach God's word and the teachings of Christ in scripture I think there are really two ways we can do this as Christians they're right there we can supplement with God's word or God's word can transform us maybe like the Jews you see Christ as the one to help you accomplish your agenda to fulfill your dreams and meet your expectations the Jews were looking to change their circumstance but Christ came to change people not circumstances maybe supplement by thinking I'm good I'll add some teaching on grace to my life I'll be good take what I need it's not grocery shopping grace is meant to drive us to change not complacency right maybe it's more like

[39:22] I'm gonna check out for a while I'm not gonna pay attention to these sermons anymore I'm not gonna get in my Bible and read into scripture and be reading on my own time I'm gonna check out because I'm good and I feel like my sin good balance is right on right now so I can afford to take sabbatical you know I'll pay attention and I'll start reading and I'll listen at church or wherever right when there's something that I hear or catch wind of that I really need and then I'm gonna start focusing and that's not what God's word is designed to do right is the Bible a self-help manual no right it's not just on the shelf until we need to get something from it to add to ourselves so do the teachings of Christ and does God's word do you treat it as supplemental or does it transform and renew your life

[40:30] Christ brought a new message right it was a message of renewal and not repair and God's word offers freedom from self through repentance turning to full trust in Christ for your right standing before God and I was thinking about some of the ways that we struggle in our lives and our sin and in reasons that we don't repent and turn and I think we see a lot of self-worship and idolatry because I'm really not interested in turning from my sin and really gleaning from this book because I have a lot at stake in that and my happiness and my joy and it's really worship of self right what are some symptoms of this having trouble upholding the law right or you're feeling guilt and condemnation in your sin because you just can't or maybe you have trouble with recurrent sin

[41:40] I believe we all fit into that category different sins perhaps self-worship and idolatry right but praise God that the Bible is able to break those bonds break those chains by transforming our focus to Christ's ability and our inability I say amen to that we sang that this morning power in the name of Jesus to break every chain I hope that you believe that so in regards to transforming will you repent of your sin turn from self towards Christ the only one capable of meeting the righteous requirements that God has for his kingdom disciples Christ taught a message of change to the entire system to break down our reliance of self and rebuild us on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ each encounter with the

[42:41] Bible's teaching has potential for that change right God honoring heart change I think that we live lives of most praise to God when we rely on him and delight in him most fully but let's get practical though what does that mean what do we do so teach supplement or transform what can we do about this well I think one of the things is to get with another believer another Christian man or woman depending on if I would encourage men to seek out men and women to seek out women we would in this church encourage that get with another believer who can speak into your life Dave mentioned this but I think it's so good that our eyes right they begin to adjust to the darkness and what is really previously dark when we first start to step into sin we become our eyes become adjusted and it doesn't seem so dark like when you turn off the lights at night initially you can't see but if you wake up in the middle of night you can see well so with a brother or sister who can speak truth into your life maybe you have an area of repentance that you can't see an area you need to repent where you can't see or maybe you've tried repenting and you've tried this and you've tried that you need to learn the path of breaking those bonds and chains through Christ and so please talk to a church leader join a community group these groups aren't designed to bring condemnation upon each other these groups are designed to help us bring freedom to each other through God's word mutual encouragement and so a second thing could be and this is also supposed to serve as an intro sermon on the mount we're going to be doing chapters 5 through 7 the sermon on the mount of Matthew and this is the big discourse of Christ one of his big ones and so as we

[44:42] I would ask that you would receive this text these sermons the next few months up until really July as we look through the literal teachings of Christ in Matthew 5-7 we receive these teachings and we have an opportunity to do this we have an opportunity to put this into practice to receive these teachings the next few months and the last thing is maybe you're ready to teach to have more of a prominent role maybe you have gained a new understanding or a new insight or Christ has changed your heart in relation to you his word and the teachings therein so maybe you're ready to take more of a role in your community group or maybe you're ready to teach in some other capacity it doesn't have to be official it doesn't have to be formal maybe it's with a younger believer in church to begin to disciple and build them up these are some ways that we can change and implement change for teaching of Christ and I will also say that we have an entire table in the back proclaim build and serve pair very nicely with proclaim teach and heal and there's tons of resources and books and stuff in which we can start to begin to do some of these things so the last one is heal and healing we need to look at it individually and as a church and this is the last section here this morning individually do you bring your infirmities to Christ do you trust in his ability to heal physically emotionally or mentally regardless of how deep the scars and suffering are scripture tells us that he's the great physician many that are hurting and suffering long for compassion do you go to the Lord and bask in the compassion and care that he offers in your suffering do you do that do you live with a restored kingdom mindset and does that result in you praising God for what he will do someday because he's compassionate or does that result in blaming him or do you choose to blame him for what he allows to happen now these are hard this isn't easy this isn't like oh I heard this now everything's changed stuff takes time or individually maybe because of your suffering you might have the chance to share the good news of the kingdom with someone that the rest of us might not be able to and that as hard as it is to consider is a gift to be able to reach somebody that I can't reach that he can't reach that she can't reach maybe you're in that spot so will you step out in faith and take that opportunity so individually how about as a church how do we consider and go about practically implementing

[47:40] Christ's ministry of healing well church do we take care of the physical and spiritual needs of those in our church family maybe we neglect the physical because we focus much on the spiritual maybe we neglect the spiritual because we're so good at the physical where do we lack where could we improve maybe you're here this morning and you have gifts that could really build up and encourage the church or surrounding communities that would fit well into this category I would encourage you to use those and bring those forward do we seek people in this room restored in ways that we could maybe play a part in as God's kingdom disciples and do others here in this room feel like we care for them these are questions to ask ourselves the church maybe one of these resonates with you a couple more is there someone in your life that could use encouragement towards a mindset focused on eternal restoration in

[48:49] God's kingdom maybe there is and church do we have a heartbeat of compassion for those in our local area our workplaces or nation or our world so in closing Jesus Christ changed the world by the means that he used to share his message and complete his mission his proclaiming teaching and healing and so let us consider our own relationship with these same things both for the good of the lost our church our own hearts and most importantly the good great glory of our God pray with me please God this morning we have a