Speaker 1: When I'm locked in to a pattern of thinking, a
Speaker 1: way of living, an attitude, when I'm stuck in a
Speaker 1: relationship I can't get into, I can't get on with,
Speaker 1: and I can't get out of, and I'm just stuck,
Speaker 1: then I need to pray. Because with prayer, we can
Speaker 1: recover our vision. And then we can see things we
Speaker 1: never could see before. This morning at 2 a.m., the
Speaker 1: Lord woke me up, and I got up and I
Speaker 1: looked up some scriptures, and God gave me a message
Speaker 1: specifically for you today. And what I want to title this,
Speaker 1: regardless of how much I get through it, is this.
Speaker 1: There is no recovery without prayer. There is no recovery
Speaker 1: without prayer. No lasting recovery for certain. What I want
Speaker 1: to do right now is take you through scriptures and
Speaker 1: give you some examples of what happens when you add
Speaker 1: prayer into the recovery process. and why without prayer in
Speaker 1: the recovery process, it isn't gonna work. Now I don't
Speaker 1: have any notes for this, so you're just gonna have
Speaker 1: to write it down. I'm gonna put the scriptures on
Speaker 1: the screen, and I wanna give you some examples, and
Speaker 1: then draw a point. I'm not gonna preach the whole sermon,
Speaker 1: as I said, I'm not feeling that well, but I
Speaker 1: do want to give this to you, because I felt
Speaker 1: like the Lord gave it to me early this morning.
Speaker 1: So let me give you some examples of why there
Speaker 1: is no recovery without prayer. A first example would be
Speaker 1: back in the Old Testament, and that is when the
Speaker 1: Israelites got impatient with God when they were leaving Egypt,
Speaker 1: and in the 40 years they were waiting to get
Speaker 1: into the Promised Land, and the 40-year delay was their
Speaker 1: own fault. You know, God gave them seven tests to see,
Speaker 1: are you ready to go into the Promised Land? And
Speaker 1: in each of those seven tests, they'd fail, and so
Speaker 1: God would say, okay, another lap around the desert. And
Speaker 1: it took 40 years to get to a place that
Speaker 1: should have just taken them a few weeks or months
Speaker 1: at the most. Sounds like a lot of us. It
Speaker 1: takes us 40 years to get to a place that
Speaker 1: should have just taken us a few months at the most.
Speaker 1: But in one part, the Israelites get impatient because things
Speaker 1: aren't going as fast, and it's their own fault. But
Speaker 1: they got impatient, and they started grumbling, and they started murmuring,
Speaker 1: and they started rebelling against God and against Moses, and
Speaker 1: God had to punish them for it. And they never
Speaker 1: would have recovered. They would have all died in the
Speaker 1: desert if it hadn't been for prayer. Let me give
Speaker 1: you an example. On the screen, Numbers chapter 21 says this.
Speaker 1: Then the people grew impatient on the way. Have you
Speaker 1: ever grown impatient on the way? Lord, it's just taking
Speaker 1: too long. I should be further along now. I should
Speaker 1: be further down the track. I'm this many years old
Speaker 1: and I'm not where I expected to be at this
Speaker 1: stage in my journey. They grew impatient on the way
Speaker 1: and they began to murmur and complain against God and Moses.
Speaker 1: Why'd you leave us here? We hate where we are
Speaker 1: and we hate the food. Had to throw that in there.
Speaker 1: This stinking manna. What are you having for breakfast? Manna oatmeal.
Speaker 1: What's for lunch? Manna toast. What's for dinner? Manna cotti. Manna, manna, manna.
Speaker 1: Come on. Why did you lead us here? Have you
Speaker 1: ever asked God that? Why'd you leave me here, Lord?
Speaker 1: We hate where we are. Well, that's okay. That's okay
Speaker 1: to hate where you are because it makes you want
Speaker 1: to be where you need to be. And we hate food. So,
Speaker 1: God had to punish them. God sent poisonous snakes. Don't
Speaker 1: you just love snakes? Okay, God sent poisonous snakes to
Speaker 1: punish them and many became sick and died from the bites.
Speaker 1: So they're all dying now in the desert because of
Speaker 1: their own complaining and murmuring and rebellion. Then the people confessed,
Speaker 1: we have sinned. And here's the key, pray for us.
Speaker 1: Pray for us. They know the solution to their problem
Speaker 1: is pray for us. So Moses prayed for them. Then
Speaker 1: God told Moses to make a bronze staff and all
Speaker 1: those who'd been bitten who looked in faith to Moses'
Speaker 1: staff They recovered. Okay? Now, there's lots of recoveries in
Speaker 1: the Bible. The Bible tells us many, many examples of
Speaker 1: different kinds of recovery. The Bible tells us, for instance,
Speaker 1: that Joseph recovered from his grief, or from his shock,
Speaker 1: and Judah recovered from his grief, and David recovered from
Speaker 1: all the things that were stolen from him. But this
Speaker 1: is one of the first examples of recovery in the Bible.
Speaker 1: It says, when Moses prayed. Now, here's point number one.
Speaker 1: I want you to write these down. Just six points,
Speaker 1: write these down. With prayer, we can recover from problems
Speaker 1: we caused by our own impatience. That's what that verse teaches.
Speaker 1: With prayer, we can recover from problems that we caused
Speaker 1: by By our own impatience. Most of the problems in
Speaker 1: our culture and in your life and in your relationship
Speaker 1: is from our inability to wait. The biggest problem in
Speaker 1: America is delayed gratification. We don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: I want it and I want it now and I
Speaker 1: want it now even if I can't afford it. So
Speaker 1: we buy things we don't need with money we don't
Speaker 1: have to impress people we don't even like. And I
Speaker 1: want it now even after I put it on credit.
Speaker 1: And people are in debt because they don't know how
Speaker 1: to delay gratification. People get into all kinds of relationships
Speaker 1: because they don't know how to delay gratification. And I
Speaker 1: want sex now, and I want it now, and I
Speaker 1: don't wanna wait. And it causes all kinds of problems.
Speaker 1: Anytime you get in a hurry, anytime you take a shortcut,
Speaker 1: it's usually gonna be a temptation. God is never in
Speaker 1: a hurry. We don't have any example of Jesus running anywhere.
Speaker 1: One time his best friend died. He was a mile
Speaker 1: and a half away and it took him three days
Speaker 1: to get there. Come on. Then he had a bigger plan.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to heal Lazarus. He wanted to raise
Speaker 1: him from the dead. Come on, Lord, you're a mile
Speaker 1: and a half away. And it takes you three days
Speaker 1: to get here? He wasn't in a hurry. God is
Speaker 1: not in a hurry with your growth. So just chill out. Relax.
Speaker 1: But when the Israelites got impatient, got rebellious, they brought
Speaker 1: problems on themselves. They realized the solution was pray for us.
Speaker 1: They prayed. Moses prayed. And it says they recovered. So
Speaker 1: here's the first point. With prayer, we can recover from
Speaker 1: problems we cause ourselves. By our own impatience. Let me
Speaker 1: give you a second example of prayer causing recovery. It's
Speaker 1: with a guy named King Jeroboam. And King Jeroboam did
Speaker 1: not want to hear the bad news. Has that ever
Speaker 1: been true of you? You didn't want to hear the truth?
Speaker 1: The truth about you? The truth about your problems? The
Speaker 1: truth about the problems that you were creating because of
Speaker 1: what you were doing? We don't ever like that kind
Speaker 1: of problem. King Jeroboam did not want to hear the truth.
Speaker 1: And God sent a man of God to him and said,
Speaker 1: here's the truth. And you're not going to like it,
Speaker 1: but here's the truth. And he got so mad, he
Speaker 1: flew into a rage. And he's just emotionally involved. He's
Speaker 1: like frothing at the mouth. And he's so mad because
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to hear the hard truth about himself.
Speaker 1: And in 1 Kings chapter 13, it says this. So
Speaker 1: King Jeroboam stretched out his hand in anger against the
Speaker 1: man of God who had told him the truth. And notice,
Speaker 1: it instantly became what? This guy's emotionally bound up. His
Speaker 1: hand became paralyzed. He couldn't even put it down. He said,
Speaker 1: you dirty, rotten... And his hand's paralyzed. Paralyzed. Can't do
Speaker 1: anything about it. And the king cries out, pray for me. Pray,
Speaker 1: pray for me. So the man of God, the Bible says,
Speaker 1: prayed to the Lord. And here's the second recovery. The
Speaker 1: king recovered the normal use of his hand. Why is
Speaker 1: that story in the Bible? Write this down. Prayer helps
Speaker 1: us recover when we're paralyzed by our emotions. It not
Speaker 1: only helps us recover from problems we cause by our
Speaker 1: own impatience. Prayer helps us recover when we are paralyzed
Speaker 1: by our emotions. Ever been paralyzed by grief? I have.
Speaker 1: Ever been paralyzed by anger? Paralyzed by lust? Paralyzed by fear?
Speaker 1: Paralyzed by guilt? Paralyzed by shame? Prayer helps us recover
Speaker 1: when we're paralyzed by our emotions. He said, pray for me.
Speaker 1: So the man of God prayed the Lord, and the
Speaker 1: king recovered the normal use of his hand. And you
Speaker 1: can recover the normal use of your emotions. There is
Speaker 1: no recovery without prayer. Let me give you a third example.
Speaker 1: There's another king. This king's name, Hezekiah. Hezekiah's a pretty
Speaker 1: good guy. Most of his life, he did the right thing.
Speaker 1: In fact, when he first started, he was a king
Speaker 1: at 25. First thing he did is he cleared out
Speaker 1: all the idols, cleansed the temple, did everything right. He
Speaker 1: was a pretty good guy. But up in years, he
Speaker 1: got a terminal disease, and he's going to die. And
Speaker 1: we pick up the story in 2 Kings chapter 20,
Speaker 1: and it says this, verse 1 to 7. In those days,
Speaker 1: King Hezekiah became ill, and he was at the point
Speaker 1: of death. Now Isaiah, the prophet, went to him and said,
Speaker 1: the Lord says, put your house in order because you're
Speaker 1: gonna die. How'd you like to have a prophet come
Speaker 1: tell you that? Not exactly the power of positive thinking.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine certain TV preachers saying this one, put
Speaker 1: your house in order because you're gonna die. That's not
Speaker 1: exactly a popular phrase. So the Lord said, Told Isaiah, say,
Speaker 1: put your house in order because you're going to die.
Speaker 1: You are not going to recover. Whoa. But, notice the
Speaker 1: rest of the story. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.
Speaker 1: And he what? He prayed. Here's the third example of
Speaker 1: prayer and recovery. And he prayed, pleading to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Here's what he prayed. Remember, Lord... I've walked before you
Speaker 1: faithfully with wholehearted devotion and I've done what's good in
Speaker 1: your eyes. And Hezekiah wept loudly as he prayed. This
Speaker 1: is not so, God, I'd like to live. If you
Speaker 1: get the time, I'd really like to live. No, he
Speaker 1: is beating on heaven's door. He is passionate. He is pleading.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have three minutes of passionate pleading and prayer
Speaker 1: than 30 minutes of preaching and prayer. When you listen
Speaker 1: to a lot of people pray, it's like they're preaching
Speaker 1: to you. He's pleading. And he wept loudly as he prayed.
Speaker 1: Now notice what happens. Then, before Isaiah had even left
Speaker 1: the king's court, God's word came to him again. Go
Speaker 1: back and tell Hezekiah, I've heard your prayer. I've seen
Speaker 1: your tears. You will recover. You will recover. And I
Speaker 1: will heal you. And I'm going to add 15 years
Speaker 1: to your life. Also, he says, I'm going to deliver you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to throw this in for good. I'm going
Speaker 1: to deliver you in this city from Assyria's domination. So Hezekiah,
Speaker 1: read it with me, recovered. That's the power of prayer.
Speaker 1: That's the power of prayer. Now notice one more verse.
Speaker 1: Put this up. In Isaiah 38, Isaiah adds this to
Speaker 1: the story. After Hezekiah's recovery, there's that word, recovery, he
Speaker 1: wrote a prayer of praise. I'm not going to read
Speaker 1: the whole thing, but he says this. You restored my health,
Speaker 1: and I'm fully recovered with a fresh infusion of life.
Speaker 1: I love that in the message. Translation. I'm fully recovered
Speaker 1: with a fresh infusion of life. But, he says, it
Speaker 1: was good for me to go through all those troubles
Speaker 1: because throughout them all, you held tight to my lifeline.
Speaker 1: Anybody want to give a testimony on that one? It
Speaker 1: was good for me to go through all that pain
Speaker 1: because even then, you were holding on to the lifeline.
Speaker 1: You weren't letting me go. You never let go. Notice
Speaker 1: the rest. You never let me tumble over the edge
Speaker 1: into nothing. He said, you didn't let go of me.
Speaker 1: The whole time I was really screwing up. I was
Speaker 1: really messing up. You did not let go of me. But,
Speaker 1: he said, my sins you did let go of. And
Speaker 1: you threw them behind your back. Hallelujah. Now here's The
Speaker 1: third thing I want you to write down. I told
Speaker 1: you that with prayer, we can recover from problems we
Speaker 1: cause by our own impatience. And with prayer, we can
Speaker 1: recover when we're paralyzed by our emotions. This one is,
Speaker 1: with prayer, we can recover even when other people tell
Speaker 1: us it'll never happen. And it wasn't just some stooge
Speaker 1: coming and saying, oh, you're never gonna get well. You're
Speaker 1: never gonna recover. You're never gonna change. How many people
Speaker 1: have told you that? A man of God told this. Hezekiah,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna recover. In fact, God told me you're
Speaker 1: not gonna recover. That's pretty final. Hezekiah goes, I'd like
Speaker 1: a second opinion. God, you told Isaiah, your man, that
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna recover. Come on. You know, I wanna
Speaker 1: serve you. And he pleads and he prays and he
Speaker 1: weeps and he's passionate and he's authentic and he's gutsy
Speaker 1: with God and God says, okay, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: 15 more years. You will recover and not only that,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do all these other things too. Point number three,
Speaker 1: with prayer we can recover even when other people tell
Speaker 1: us it'll never happen. That should encourage some of you.
Speaker 1: Stop listening to what other people say and start praying.
Speaker 1: People say, you can't change? Say, well, you don't know
Speaker 1: the God I know. He specializes in change. Let me
Speaker 1: give you a few more. Fourth example, in the New Testament,
Speaker 1: Jesus is walking down the street one day, and there
Speaker 1: are two blind people sitting on the side of the road,
Speaker 1: two guys, and they hear Jesus is walking by, and
Speaker 1: so they cry out. They want recovery. They want recovery
Speaker 1: of their vision, of their sight. They're blind. And the
Speaker 1: Bible tells us this story in Matthew 20. Two blind
Speaker 1: men were sitting by the roadside when they heard that
Speaker 1: Jesus was passing by. So they cried out. This is
Speaker 1: like Hezekiah. This is passionate prayer. They cried out. They're praying.
Speaker 1: That's what they're doing here. They're praying. When you're talking
Speaker 1: to Jesus, you're praying. They cried out, Lord, have mercy
Speaker 1: on us. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to shut up.
Speaker 1: Be silent, calm down. But they prayed even louder. Lord,
Speaker 1: have mercy on us. Jesus stopped and he said, what
Speaker 1: do you want to give me? What do you want
Speaker 1: me to do for you? I love that. You should
Speaker 1: study how many times Jesus said that. What do you
Speaker 1: want me to do for you? I'm gonna let you
Speaker 1: set the agenda. I'm gonna let you, tell me what
Speaker 1: you want. And then they said, we don't wanna be
Speaker 1: blind anymore. Give us sight. Every line here could be
Speaker 1: a sermon. With deep compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. And immediately,
Speaker 1: they recovered their sight. What did they do after recovery?
Speaker 1: They followed him. That sound like a good pattern, friends?
Speaker 1: Once you've recovered, what do you do? You follow him. Okay?
Speaker 1: All right. Two guys, they cry out. What's the point here?
Speaker 1: Write this down. Point number four. With prayer, we can
Speaker 1: recover our vision and see things we've never seen before.
Speaker 1: That will not happen in your life without prayer. With prayer,
Speaker 1: we can recover our vision, our perspective, our sight. When
Speaker 1: I'm locked in to a habit, her to hang up,
Speaker 1: when I'm locked in to a pattern of thinking, a
Speaker 1: way of living, an attitude, when I'm stuck in a
Speaker 1: relationship I can't get into, I can't get on with,
Speaker 1: and I can't get out of, and I'm just stuck,
Speaker 1: then I need to pray. Because with prayer, we can...
Speaker 1: recover our vision, and then we can see things we
Speaker 1: never could see before. We see things about ourselves. we
Speaker 1: never saw before. We see things about our partner that
Speaker 1: we never saw before. We see things about the world,
Speaker 1: about God, about Satan, about life, about death, about what's
Speaker 1: important in life. We see things we never saw before.
Speaker 1: It only comes through prayer. You're not gonna get this
Speaker 1: in a secular recovery program. You're not gonna get these
Speaker 1: benefits in a secular recovery program. Because in those programs,
Speaker 1: they're not talking about prayer. They're not talking about prayer
Speaker 1: at all. Let me give you another. This one had
Speaker 1: to do with Peter and his massive personal and yet
Speaker 1: very public failure Peter was Mr. Foot and Mouth Disease.
Speaker 1: I like Peter, because he reminds me of myself. He's
Speaker 1: so impulsive, he's so impetuous. You know, it's like, he
Speaker 1: sees the Lord walking on water. I'm coming! And he just,
Speaker 1: he's not even thinking about it. This is dumb. Walking
Speaker 1: on water. He just starts, and he goes, oops, and
Speaker 1: starts to sink. You know? I love Peter. I love Peter.
Speaker 1: Peter's up on the mountaintop with Jesus and the transfiguration
Speaker 1: and the three great leaders in the Old Testament. He goes, hey,
Speaker 1: let's just build tents up here and have a party.
Speaker 1: I might have said that. They come to arrest Jesus.
Speaker 1: Peter pulls out his sword, knocks the guy's ear off.
Speaker 1: He's just, act before you think And at the Lord's Supper,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, one of you's gonna betray me. By the way,
Speaker 1: I was in Ireland on vacation a week ago. Can
Speaker 1: I tell you a good Irish joke? This fits, it fit,
Speaker 1: it really does. I wasn't planning on sharing this, but
Speaker 1: it does fit. There's this Irish priest. You know, the
Speaker 1: Irish really didn't like the English because they dominated them
Speaker 1: for 800 years. And so this Irish priest was always
Speaker 1: preaching the same sermon against the English. The English are bad.
Speaker 1: And his bishop comes and goes, buddy, you gotta preach
Speaker 1: about Jesus. Okay, you gotta share the gospel. You can't
Speaker 1: just preach against the English every week. So he promises,
Speaker 1: next week I'll preach on the Lord's Supper. And he says,
Speaker 1: today I'm going to speak on the Lord's Supper. And
Speaker 1: the Lord said to the disciples, one of you will
Speaker 1: betray me. And the blessed Saint Peter said, is it I, Lord,
Speaker 1: will I betray you? And the Lord said, no, it
Speaker 1: isn't you, Peter. And the blessed Saint Thomas said, well then,
Speaker 1: is it I, Lord? Am I the one who will
Speaker 1: betray you? And the Lord said, no, it isn't you, Tommy.
Speaker 1: And the blessed Saint Matthew said, is it I, Lord?
Speaker 1: Am I the one to betray you? And he said, no,
Speaker 1: it isn't you, Matthew. And then Judas said, well, blimey,
Speaker 1: it must be me, mate. There's always a way. If
Speaker 1: you really want to, there's always a way. So it's
Speaker 1: at this event, and Jesus has just said, one of
Speaker 1: you is gonna betray you, and Peter goes, man, I,
Speaker 1: you know, come on, I'd die for you, Lord. He's Mr. Bluster.
Speaker 1: You know, don't, not me, man. And in Luke 22,
Speaker 1: verse 31 and 32, Predicting Peter's fall, Jesus says this. Simon, Simon,
Speaker 1: Satan has asked to sift you just as wheat is sifted.
Speaker 1: You know, farmers sift the wheat to get the chaff,
Speaker 1: the chaff away from the wheat. Satan has desired to
Speaker 1: sift you just as wheat is sifted. But, Jesus, I
Speaker 1: have prayed for you, Simon, Simon. so that your faith
Speaker 1: may not fail. And when you have recovered, notice, I
Speaker 1: wish this was written out, because it doesn't say if. When.
Speaker 1: When you have recovered. Jesus knew before Peter's fall, he'd recover.
Speaker 1: Jesus knew before your mess ups, you'd recover. And when,
Speaker 1: not if, I've prayed for you. So if I've prayed
Speaker 1: for you, it's not if. You know what Jesus is
Speaker 1: doing for you in heaven right now? He's praying for you.
Speaker 1: He's praying for you. If there was something more important
Speaker 1: for Jesus to be doing, don't you think he'd be
Speaker 1: doing it? That's how important prayer is. It's not like
Speaker 1: the last resort. It's the first choice. And a lot
Speaker 1: of times in prayer we go, well, all we can
Speaker 1: do now is pray. Like that's the last thing. All
Speaker 1: we can do now is pray. And everybody goes, has
Speaker 1: it come to that? Prayer is the first choice, not
Speaker 1: the last resort. Peter, I've prayed for you. I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna mess up. I know you're gonna deny me.
Speaker 1: But when you have recovered, put that back up there,
Speaker 1: it will be your job to strengthen your brothers. I
Speaker 1: commission you in the name of Jesus Christ to go
Speaker 1: commission others and to do it yourself to encourage your
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters. So Peter has this massive public failure,
Speaker 1: but you don't need to worry about it because Jesus
Speaker 1: prayed for him. And so he says, when you recover,
Speaker 1: now your job is to strengthen your brothers. Here's point
Speaker 1: number five. Write this down. With prayer, we can fully
Speaker 1: recover and even use our failures to help others. I
Speaker 1: like that. With prayer we can fully recover. Doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what's happened in your life, we can fully recover and
Speaker 1: even use our failures to help others. All right, now
Speaker 1: let's review. The Israelites teach us that with prayer we
Speaker 1: can recover from problems that we caused by our own impatience.
Speaker 1: And we cause most of our problems by getting in
Speaker 1: a hurry. And Jeroboam teaches us with prayer we can
Speaker 1: recover even when we're paralyzed by our emotions. And Hezekiah
Speaker 1: teaches us with prayer we can recover even when other
Speaker 1: people tell us you're not gonna recover. You're never gonna change.
Speaker 1: And the two blind men who cried out to Jesus
Speaker 1: teach us that when prayer, when we pray we can
Speaker 1: recover our vision and see things we've never seen before.
Speaker 1: Peter teaches us that with prayer we can fully recover
Speaker 1: and even use our failures to help others. That's the plan.
Speaker 1: That's the last step. Now let's look at Job. Nobody
Speaker 1: had to recover more than Job. There is no one
Speaker 1: in this room who had to recover more than Job.
Speaker 1: So he's the greatest testimonian. We should pull him out
Speaker 1: at CR every week. Hi, I'm Job. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you my testimony of recovery. Now Job had three friends.
Speaker 1: And his friends literally, they did some good things, they
Speaker 1: did some bad things. The Bible tells us that when
Speaker 1: Job lost everything, all his family and all of his
Speaker 1: money and all of his health, he lost literally everything
Speaker 1: except his wife and she nagged him. And she came
Speaker 1: and says, look, honey, why don't you just curse God
Speaker 1: and die? Oh, thank you, honey. That's very helpful. Very,
Speaker 1: very supportive. Curse God and die. I'll file that. And
Speaker 1: he loses everything except the wife who says, go ahead
Speaker 1: and die. Thank you, God. But he does have three
Speaker 1: friends and his friends show up and the Bible says
Speaker 1: they sit down with him for a week, they sat
Speaker 1: there and said nothing. That's smart. His friends were real
Speaker 1: friends until they opened their mouths. The deeper the pain,
Speaker 1: the fewer words you use. You need to remember that,
Speaker 1: write that down. The deeper the pain, the fewer words
Speaker 1: you use. If somebody's having a bad hair day, you
Speaker 1: can talk to them for 30 minutes. If they've just
Speaker 1: lost a loved one, or they've gone bankrupt, or something serious,
Speaker 1: show up and shut up. It is the ministry of presence.
Speaker 1: People say, I didn't come because I didn't know what
Speaker 1: to say. Don't say anything. Just be there. They don't
Speaker 1: need your words, they need your skin. When people have
Speaker 1: had a major failure or a major loss, they don't
Speaker 1: need a sermon. They need the ministry of presence. So
Speaker 1: Job's friend did it exquisitely for one week. They just
Speaker 1: sat with him, not saying a word. My youngest son,
Speaker 1: after a lifetime of fighting mental illness, took his life
Speaker 1: four years ago. My small group showed up. They didn't
Speaker 1: try to preach a sermon. They just showed up and
Speaker 1: shut up. They just said, we're going to be here
Speaker 1: with you. That night, they all came over to our house,
Speaker 1: those that were here in town, and said, we're going
Speaker 1: to stay at your house. We're not leaving you alone tonight.
Speaker 1: You're walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Speaker 1: They slept in in the kitchen and on the sofa
Speaker 1: and wherever. They'd just be there. We didn't need a sermon.
Speaker 1: Needed a hug. Needed a hug. Needed presence. But somehow,
Speaker 1: after a while, they started deciding, we've got this thing
Speaker 1: figured out and we're gonna tell Job why he's wrong
Speaker 1: and he needs to repent and it's all of his
Speaker 1: sins that caused all this stuff. And they start giving
Speaker 1: all these reasons and rationales and theologies, a bunch of mumbo-jumbo,
Speaker 1: We get to the end, and in the end, in
Speaker 1: Job 42, it says this, verse seven. After the Lord
Speaker 1: finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, that's one
Speaker 1: of the three friends, I'm angry with you and your
Speaker 1: two friends because you did not speak the truth about
Speaker 1: me the way my servant Job did. Job was talking
Speaker 1: the truth all during this time. Now, sometimes he's railing
Speaker 1: on God. That's called lamenting. That's okay, as long as
Speaker 1: it's true. He says, you didn't speak the truth about
Speaker 1: me the way my friend, servant Job did. He says,
Speaker 1: I'm ticked at you. So I want you to make
Speaker 1: a sacrifice. God says, I want you to make a sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And notice he says, Job will pray for you. Hello? Hello?
Speaker 1: Who's in the crisis? Who's in the tank? Who's lost everything?
Speaker 1: That guy will pray for you. I know he's the
Speaker 1: one that needs recovery, but that guy is gonna pray
Speaker 1: for you. And he says, then I'll answer his prayer
Speaker 1: and not disgrace you the way you deserve. So Job's
Speaker 1: three friends did what the Lord told them to do.
Speaker 1: He'd asked them to make sacrifices and bulls and oxen.
Speaker 1: And the Lord answered Job's prayer. Now notice, then when Job,
Speaker 1: look up here, when Job prayed for his friends, the
Speaker 1: Lord restored Job's health and prosperity and Job recovered. There's
Speaker 1: the word recovered. He recovered twice as much As he
Speaker 1: had had, little stutter there. That's from the reviled substandard perversion.
Speaker 1: It's actually just an error. Twice as much as he
Speaker 1: had had, I mean really a lot. That's not in
Speaker 1: the Greek, but it's on the text there. When Job
Speaker 1: prayed for his friends, the Lord restored Job's health and
Speaker 1: prosperity and Job recovered twice as much as he had
Speaker 1: before his pains. God did not recover Job. Job did
Speaker 1: not experience recovery when he prayed for himself and when
Speaker 1: he prayed for other people, when he prayed for his friends.
Speaker 1: He didn't have recovery when he was praying for himself alone,
Speaker 1: when he was praying for his friends. Here's the sixth point.
Speaker 1: Our recovery is only complete when we pray for the
Speaker 1: recovery of others. Our recovery is only complete when we
Speaker 1: pray for the recovery of others. Do you see how
Speaker 1: close prayer and recovery are combined here? How you cannot
Speaker 1: have true recovery without prayer? I told you that there
Speaker 1: are many types of recovery in the Bible. Genesis 38,
Speaker 1: it says this, Judah recovered from his grief. See up
Speaker 1: here on the screen. Genesis 45 says Joseph recovered from
Speaker 1: his shock. 1 Samuel 30, it says this. David recovered
Speaker 1: all the Amalekites had taken from him, all his family
Speaker 1: and everything valuable to him. What's been taken from you?
Speaker 1: What have you lost in the process? Genesis 14 says this.
Speaker 1: Abraham recovered everything that had been stolen. His nephew Lot
Speaker 1: with his possessions and all the women of his family
Speaker 1: And all the others who'd been taken captive. You know,
Speaker 1: when I'm taken captive, it takes a lot of other
Speaker 1: people captive too. When you get in a mess, it
Speaker 1: creates messes for other people. When you're not free, it
Speaker 1: binds up other people. And all the others who'd been
Speaker 1: taken captive too. So, he recovered it all. Notice, he
Speaker 1: gave a tenth of everything he recovered, a tithe, to Melchizedek.
Speaker 1: Are you tithing? Hmm. Hmm. I'll just leave that one
Speaker 1: right there. Okay? I don't even think I have to
Speaker 1: preach on it, okay? He gave a tenth of everything
Speaker 1: he recovered to Melchizedek, who was God's priest in that situation.
Speaker 1: You know what all these verses that we've looked at
Speaker 1: today say to me? God is a God of recovery.
Speaker 1: And the whole business of Jesus Christ has been a
Speaker 1: search and recovery mission to seek and to save that
Speaker 1: which was lost. Why does Saddleback Church keep growing? My
Speaker 1: favorite size church was actually 300 people. I could know
Speaker 1: every name of every person, every kid, every cat, every dog.
Speaker 1: I knew everybody personally. I loved that phase. But we
Speaker 1: grow because people without Christ go to hell. We grow
Speaker 1: because people need the Lord. And as long as there's
Speaker 1: one person within driving distance who doesn't know Christ will
Speaker 1: reach out And as long as there's one person who
Speaker 1: needs recovery, and that's everybody in your neighborhood, you have
Speaker 1: to keep growing. You have to keep growing. If I
Speaker 1: summed up the whole Bible, it is in this phrase.
Speaker 1: God wants his lost children found. Found. Jesus' first recorded
Speaker 1: sermon is in Luke chapter 4. He'd actually been out
Speaker 1: preaching for a while, but this is his first recorded sermon.
Speaker 1: He goes to hometown. He goes to Nazareth. Hometown boy.
Speaker 1: Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Prophets not
Speaker 1: without honor, save in his own family or country. When
Speaker 1: he goes in and he picks up the scroll, this
Speaker 1: is in Luke chapter 4. But he's actually reading the
Speaker 1: Old Testament and he's reading Isaiah 61. Here's Jesus' first
Speaker 1: recorded sermon. He announces his mission. God's spirit is on me.
Speaker 1: He's chosen me to preach the good news to the poor.
Speaker 1: Does God have favorites? Yes, God loves the poor. There
Speaker 1: were 2,000 verses in the Bible on the poor. God
Speaker 1: says if you help the poor, God will help you.
Speaker 1: God does have favorites. He loves the poor. God says
Speaker 1: he has chosen those who are poor and riches to
Speaker 1: be rich in faith. He's told me to preach good
Speaker 1: news to the poor. Why? Because they're the ones who
Speaker 1: know the most that they're in need. And then number two,
Speaker 1: to announce freedom to those held captive. That sounds like recovery.
Speaker 1: And then to give recovery of sight to the blind.
Speaker 1: That is recovery. and to set the burdened and battered free.
Speaker 1: That's recovery. And to proclaim that this is the time
Speaker 1: of God's favor, God's grace. That's recovery. That's Jesus' first sermon. Friends,
Speaker 1: I have a five-point sermon on recovery. That's his first sermon,
Speaker 1: recorded sermon. Now he's quoting, actually, Isaiah 61 And in Luke,
Speaker 1: doesn't actually give the rest of the passage. Because in
Speaker 1: Luke 61, verses 1 to 4 he mentions the other
Speaker 1: things that aren't mentioned in Luke it said he preached
Speaker 1: good news to the poor he gives freedom to the
Speaker 1: captive he gives recovery of sight to those who can't
Speaker 1: see where they're going and claim that this is the
Speaker 1: year of the Lord's favor that's grace and to set
Speaker 1: the burden and battered free But let me show you
Speaker 1: what else is in 61. Isaiah also says, and he
Speaker 1: sent me to heal the brokenhearted. That's recovery. And to
Speaker 1: comfort all who mourn. That's recovery. And to give beauty
Speaker 1: for ashes and joy for gladness instead of grief. That's recovery.
Speaker 1: That's recovery. And then he says, what about these people
Speaker 1: who have recovered? Here's what he says. They will rebuild
Speaker 1: the ancient ruins. They will restore the devastated places. And
Speaker 1: they will renew the ruined cities. Everybody raise your hand. Say,
Speaker 1: I do. I am commissioning you as a rebuilder a restorer,
Speaker 1: and a renewer in America and around the world. That
Speaker 1: is the commission of the recovered. To rebuild, to restore,
Speaker 1: and to renew. Put your hands down.