Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He leads, and gratefully, we follow together. He is our strength. He is our Savior. He is our healer. And we are in a series right now, 21 Days of Healing. We're focused on Psalm 23. In fact, every day, we encourage you to read Psalm 23 and just keep going deeper in that psalm. There is so much. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly. And during these three weeks, there's three different themes. The first week, and it was last Sunday, we talked about still waters and the emotional restoration that Jesus brings. He is the Prince of Peace and his peace guards our hearts and our minds. Today, we're looking at green pastures. He's our good shepherd. He makes us lie down in green pastures. There's nourishment for the sheep. There's physical restoration. And next week, we'll be talking about the table, relational restoration, and then we'll conclude on the fourth Sunday, walking through entire Psalm 23. This is the text that we're looking at as our eyes are on Jesus together. And every day during these 21 days, we have provided some scripture, devotion, videos, What's been encouraging over last year is how many people in our church family right now are cultivating the habit of getting in the Word daily and praying daily and also at home, not just here. That's why with all the positive feedback, we continue to have more of these devotions. You can access all of them, justchoosehope.com. That's where we placed all of them. And again, make it a time, a special time where you gather together. It could be alone or with loved ones and you seek God and grow and built up in your faith together. So that's available. We are also in our 10th year of beginning the year with fasting. It's intentional. It comes from scripture. Jesus says, when you fast. part of that rhythm as you walk with God. Daniel fasted 21 days, and each person choosing, what is the fast that's gonna help you draw close to God? Fast means cover the mouth. It's more than just the physical benefits. It's hard to fast, amen? 21 days, so there's a giving up in fasting. We are like, I want that thing. It could be social media, it could be desserts, whatever, a meal during the day, but as you fast, you gain, and that's why we are spending extra time in, scripture, prayer, serving. We want to be intentional to really grow in our walk with God. Would you agree that we have a distracting culture? I mean, if there's one challenge we all face every day, it's distractions. Fasting has a way of cutting through the distractions so we can hear clearly from God. And also, there's a closeness with God throughout the Bible. When they fast, there are breakthroughs, there's protection, there's transformation. It's like an acceleration in your spiritual walk. The fire in our souls, it's like putting liquid, fluid, what is it, lighter fluid. That's what I'm looking for. It's like lighter fluid in our walk with God where we push aside some things that distract us so we can abide with Jesus. We're doing that together, encouraging each other during these 21 days. And every day we wanna read Psalm 23. We're gonna start out today by reading Psalm 23 together. It's on the screen. Let's declare God's word and his truth. The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right path for his namesake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your word. And Jesus, thank you that you are wise, that you are gracious and patient. And today we wanna turn from sin, ask your forgiveness. and turn to you our Savior. We pray as we gather, God, through your presence and power, that your peace in our lives would increase. Our bodies, there would be restoration in this place. God, we would break free from the footholds and the strongholds, and we, with our eyes on you together, would love one another, would serve our community, and we'd be faithful. We can't do it on our own strength, so we ask for the power and the feeling of the Holy Spirit today, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We all need restoration. That includes emotional, physical relationships and in our walk with God. Jesus is our good shepherd and he restores our souls. Today's focus is physical restoration and the image in Psalm 23, it's sheep. The Bible says we are like sheep. Without a good shepherd, we go astray. But the good shepherd, he makes us lie down in green pastures where there's nourishment. And we want to receive. Restoration is about receiving. And if you have a view of God that your job is just to perform all the time, actually you receive first, abide first. And then with the strength he gives, the hope he gives, you serve others. It's not white knuckle, it's not self-help, it's receiving from the Savior. Today with physical restoration, let's receive. There were two traps in the Bible. Some people ignored Jesus's power and restoration physically. Others were only interested in the miracles and the physical restoration. Both are a mistake to underestimate the Savior, but also those who just wanted a gift from God but didn't really wanna follow Jesus, Jesus said, no, that's not what it's all about. This is not transactional, this is abiding. Today, we wanna walk with Jesus, and as we do that, he moves in power. Here's three truths with physical restoration from Scripture. God is in both the natural and the supernatural. God restores in both ways, natural and supernatural. With Elijah, for example, in the Bible, we see the supernatural. Literally, God uses Elijah to raise the widow's son from the dead. God also supernaturally multiplies the flour and the oil, and there's provision. We see Elijah calling down fire from heaven, and then in a time of drought, he prays, and the Bible says, our prayers are powerful just like Elijah, and then God brings rain. There's also a parting of the Jordan. There's no question that God works supernaturally to bring restoration through Elijah. What some people look past is that God also works in natural ways. There's a point in Elijah's life after some great victories where he's down. We can all relate to that. He's physically down, he's emotionally down, his walk with God is down, his trust is down, and in all of that, God meets him there. In 1 Kings 19, we read in verse five, Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, get up and eat. He looked around and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals. Who's praising God for fresh bread, right? That's a gift. And a jar of water. He ate and drank and then he lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat for the journey is too much for you. Did you catch that really spiritual gift from God? What did God say? Eat, sleep, and eat, physical restoration. It is connected to our emotional wellbeing, our walk with God, our sense of purpose, just taking care of ourselves with eating well and sleeping well. It sounds kind of simple, but if those things get off track, it can mess with a lot of other things in our lives. God knew the journey for Elijah would be hundreds of miles. There was a journey ahead, so eat, sleep, and eat. Elijah had fears and anxiety. He was afraid of Jezebel who threatened his life. There was unknown mystery. And in fact, Elijah entered into this unhealthy position where he was over-focused on himself. And God, as he eats and sleeps, God is going to remind him that actually, Elijah, the whole weight of the world is not on you. The whole world is not centered around you. I've got thousands of people around that are serving me with all their heart. And even though the national leadership's corrupt and the religious leadership's corrupt, Elijah, trust me, just eat and sleep and eat some more and trust me. Now, what about sleep? I noticed in the Bible when I first read, Jesus took a nap. Jesus took a nap. When the storm and everyone else was worrying, he was a non-anxious presence there in the boat and he was taking a nap. That told me that naps are blessed. Naps are biblical, and I don't need to resist naps. So no guilt and shame if you nap often. Couch, floor, bed, whatever works for you. We don't have to resist a nap. Enjoy your sleep. Sleep is a gift from the Lord. Also, when it comes to our bodies, God does so much while we're sleeping. There's restoring that happens with our brain. There's restoring that happens with our body. Even while we sleep, God is busy at work. Psalm 139 says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are made with intelligent design, benevolent design, and God cares about us. So when you get a bruise, God is already working. There's process in your body. There's things you don't even understand that are working for you because God's providential care. I tore my Achilles tendon two years ago. It was a recovery for a year. I ended up not having surgery. God fully restored my Achilles tendon. I don't even have all the answers to how he does that. But when you get injuries, God is at work and he's restoring and he does that while you sleep. He's doing the heavy lifting with all of that. Well, good food, enjoy it. It's a blessing from the Lord. Having some good sleep. Some of you might even want to invest in a new bed. I mean, you spend a third of your life in bed. You didn't expect the sermon to get practical like that at this point. But you know, when I travel, if I sleep in a junky hotel bed, my back's sore the next day. So you might think through your sleep, what you're eating, those are to be received from the Lord. God works in Elijah's life in the natural and the supernatural. The same is true with Timothy. For Timothy in Acts chapter 14, he saw the miraculous. Paul healed a man crippled from birth. This was in Lystra, Timothy saw this, but also Paul was Timothy's mentor and he gave him very practical advice. In 1 Timothy chapter four, verse eight, here's God's perspective. Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Physical fitness is beneficial, godliness, training in your faith, building up in your faith, that's even more beneficial. With both, be intentional, be proactive. And that physical fitness and training. I remember when I was in my 20s, I took my fitness in some ways for granted, just assuming that I would be healthy for decades. I'd probably have so many years. When you're in your 20s, you just kind of think you're gonna be healthy for the next 80 years, and then you're gonna die at age 100 full of vigor. That was the image I had until what happened, tragic illness in my 20s. And I was fighting for my life for one year, took 10 years to fully recover. It was brutal. And sometimes life will hit you with a storm that you don't see coming. I talked to a family this week, their child made it through cancer at age four. There's a full restoration, but you just don't know. You're not immune just because you're in your 20s. Well, during that time, I realized with a lack of strength, I'm gonna need to listen to the doctors and learn how to take better care of my body. I had one symptom was with my heart, one of many symptoms, but I had atrial flutter, heart murmur. I had a tachycardia, racing heartbeat, 160 beats a minute, sitting still. My heart lost control in that sense. And the doctors told me, you can't ever have caffeine. And so I noted that, all right, I'm gonna do everything I can to help my heart beat correctly. I'm not gonna have caffeine. And then without much strength and energy, just imagine if your energy during the day, let's say when you're really healthy, you have 10 tokens and you're choosing, how do I wanna invest my energy today? I felt like I had a half a token. Okay, so when you have a habit token, you're fighting for every single thing that you can gain. And I stopped, you know, with a lot of sugars, a lot of desserts, a lot of junk food. I just stopped at that point. Why? Because anything I could choose to do with physical restoration around eating to get some more strength and energy, like I'm on board, because I'm grieving everything I can't do. And in that process, there was some habits that started then that really continue today because our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And I'm not doing a fitness workshop right now. This isn't a guilting for how you eat, but it is a truth that our bodies are not our own. We were bought at a price and God wants us to steward our bodies well. And part of that is so we'll have strength and energy to serve people and love people, and that we will be able to glorify God with the strength he gives. It's both out of our hands. We don't know the day when God will call us home. Every day's a gift. Just because you eat well doesn't mean you're gonna be alive tomorrow. Yet at the same time, making good choices, we can make the most of our opportunities. And I started to just learn different things and pay attention. It's like, okay, drink water. a lot of water every day. Okay, that's something I could do. With all these things I couldn't control, that was something I could do, drink water. Vitamin C has great properties. Turmeric, the list goes on. Like I say, we're not gonna do nutrition here today. But I also paid attention to things that were harmful for the body, carcinogenics and things that cause cancer. There's mystery with cancer, of course, but some like burnt toast, I didn't know that. Artificial sweeteners, I had no idea. Some of the fumes and things we smell and smoke and whether there's a handyman project around the house or a handy lady project around the house, like some of those fumes as well. There's a lot of different things that are not good for our bodies. and to be aware of that, taking care of our bodies. That's what is coming back to physical training. You might have, and I know it's like, all right, new year, join a fitness club or something like that. Well, most people don't even use their membership. So it's more than just a resolution. It really is as a desire to be all God's designed us to be, and God is gonna help us along the way. Value your health like God values it. Most of all, your spiritual health and the condition of your soul, but also your body. Value your health because your body is a gift from the Lord. What else? Mark chapter five, verse 26. Again, the natural and the supernatural. In this situation, there's a woman with an issue of blood. She's been bleeding for 12 years and there's no restoration. We read, she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. How many people here have been to doctors at some point and they've told you that's all we can do? Or you've gone to doctors and your situation just keeps getting worse. I was in that position so many times. That's not a slam against doctors. We are so grateful for the physicians here, the physical therapists here, nurses. There's so much serving. God uses all of them as an instrument of healing. What we learn here is that you can go, and there's different technology, procedures, and treatment, and it's a blessing. And sometimes God works through that. He really does. There's also times where the doctors are gonna say, there's nothing else we can do. And there's the natural ways that God heals. There's so many. Then there's also supernatural. And this woman was at a point where the doctors had done everything they could. She knew she could still go to Jesus. And we really wanna do both. We wanna say yes to the natural and the supernatural. She went to Jesus and with one touch from the Lord, the 12 years of suffering were taken away and there was a healing and a breakthrough, physical restoration. That's the power of God on display. It was pointing to who Jesus is and she received that healing. Sometimes with our problems and physical challenges, they will either drive us away from God or drive us to God. And if you've been in a situation where because of an ailment with your body, you've been running away from God, you're frustrated, let today be a day where you return to God with all your heart. And just say, Jesus, come into this area of my life, this part of my body, and come to Him with faith, seeking God. And those problems often turn into testimonies of restoration. Sometimes God says not yet, and we're gonna cover that as well. Sometimes God says not yet. We can come to him in faith, and we're believing, we're trusting him, but he says not yet. It might not be for another year, another five years, or it might not even be this side of heaven, and that's a reality. And sometimes people will unfortunately do a drive-by guilt and say, well, if you only had more faith, you'd be healed right now. Well, actually healing is in Jesus's hands and we need to trust Him with whatever the results are. You might need to throw away some of the noise and voices where they're trying to guilt you and shame you. Listen, I'll say it as clear as I can. You can follow Jesus and not be wealthy. There is all kinds of teaching on the world. If you follow Jesus, you're gonna be so wealthy. That's not coming from the Bible. You might be wealthy, praise God for that. But there's not a guarantee that everyone who follows Jesus has got crazy money. That's not the Bible. And you can love Jesus, trust Jesus, and follow Jesus, and then you don't have a healing this side of heaven. And that happened to the Apostle Paul. And that's a reality too. But he says, my grace is sufficient and I am with you. And even in that weakness, you're gonna glorify me. So I know there's a lot of confusion around healing. There's misunderstanding around healing. We gotta come back to what does scripture say? And what does God say about healing? Here, there's a healing. And we don't have all the answers, but we have clarity with a lot with healing. But there's also a mystery. Here's the mystery. At the end of this message, we have a time, we do this every month, where the elders are up front, and it's a time of prayer for restoration. Now, that comes from James chapter five. The Bible says to do this, have the elders of the church anoint with oil and pray. We've seen God physically restore so many times, and we've seen where doctors don't have an answer. Doctors can't explain, and we can't fully explain it either other than we're saying yes with a simple step of obedience by praying and trusting God, anointing with oil, and then God heals and restores physically. These are dynamics in the natural and the supernatural that come together, it's both with Jesus. Here's the second truth today. God's healing is linked to God's way. What are the other options? We can say no way to God. We can also say my way to God. But what's better than no way God can do it, and God, you've gotta do it my way, is to say God is, what's your way? And we see this throughout scripture, what is God's way? In 2 Kings 5, verse one, there's a man. In fact, he's courageous, he's valiant, but he has leprosy. His name is Naaman. Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him, the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. What did Naaman have? He had respect. He had a lot of victories. He had success. He probably felt like he had a lot of control in life. He was a leader. And with all of that, he also had leprosy. Leprosy was incurable. Leprosy is contagious. When you have a physical ailment, sometimes it'll really affect a lot of parts of your life, and it affects him emotionally, it affects his relationship, it affects his career vocationally, it touches on a lot of different things, and he couldn't heal himself. Now, the Aramaeans, when you think about the relationship between the Israelites and Syria, First, if you go back to a thousand years before Christ, David was the king, and Assyria paid a tribute. But times changed hundreds of years later, and now the Assyrians, they raid. They raid the Israelites. Naaman has someone near him and a young lady. They would take the Israelites captive and this young lady was there. Naaman was talking to the young lady. Notice the young lady didn't carry resentment. She gave Naaman good advice. She said, you need to go to God. You need to go to the prophet. And Naaman listened and went to Elisha. Now let's look at 2 Kings chapter five and see how the story plays out. "'Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "'Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, "'and your flesh will be restored, "'and you will be cleansed.' "'Then Naaman, in his pride,' he wants to do it his way, "'Arnot, Abana, and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, "'better than all the waters of Israel, "'couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?' "'So he turned and went off in a rage. Name and servants went to him and said, my father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he tells you, wash and be cleansed. Aren't you grateful for people in your life that'll redirect you when you keep saying, not God's way, my way. But you've got leprosy, I'm doing it my way. I'm gonna handle this my way. I'm going to the abandon, I'm going to the fire power, I'm gonna do it my way. Why don't you just wash in the Jordan? Okay, okay. So he went down, he dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. He had to drop his pride to receive from God. He had to drop his pride. He wanted to do it my way. Elisha, the prophet, should come out and talk to me personally, because I'm a big man. Well, actually, Elisha's just gonna send a messenger, and you just need to humble yourself. Well, I don't wanna go to those other, I wanna go to those other rivers. I don't wanna go to the Jordan. If you know anything about the Jordan River, it's small, it's dirty, it's muddy. He's looking at that thinking, this is not my river where I'm gonna dip down. Well, actually, this is God's way. This is God's way. Well, fine, I'll dip one time. No, seven times. And with each time, the pride, the pride, the pride just keeps getting destroyed. To receive from God, you've gotta be humble. And it's gotta be God's way. If we say, my way, on my timing, in my terms, the healing doesn't come, the restoration doesn't come in the same way. In the book of Numbers chapter 21, the people had snake bites, poisonous venom, and they were dying. And God said to Moses, put a bronze snake on a pole and hold it up, whoever looks at the snake on a pole will be healed. Whoever doesn't will die. You say, well, that's not rational. That's not logical. That wasn't our plan. That's not what the committee said. No, it's what God said. And whoever looks up at the snake on the pole was healed and whoever refuses to look up, no healing. God's way. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. There's no other name by which we may be saved. No other religious leader died for our sins. No other religious leader is fully God and fully human and overcame the grave and the tomb is empty. Put your trust in Jesus today. He is the way. Let's not get stuck in my way. Let's also not get stuck in no way. There are people that ignored the physical restoration power of Jesus. In Luke chapter six, starting in verse six, we read, on another Sabbath, he went into the synagogue and was teaching. Now that sounds pleasant, but this is full of tension. The religious leaders were there. And also there was a man who was there whose right hand was shriveled. the Pharisees, they're legalistic, self-righteous, and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. They had all their own Sabbath rules that didn't come from Scripture, and they were puffed up in their own minds, they had a lot of knowledge, they didn't know a lot of Scripture, but they were puffed up in their own minds, and they elevated themselves in this position of telling Jesus what you can and can't do. Now in that, I would say they knew scripture, they were moral, they were probably well-intentioned in some ways, but they had massive blind spots. Over some decades in ministry, I've seen so many people that know some scripture, but in other areas, it's like a blind spot. And they're well-intentioned, but they're like religious leaders, and they've got these boxes for Jesus about where he belongs and doesn't, and it's on their terms and their systematic theology, but it's not coming from scripture, and it's not coming from God. There's tension when Jesus tells the man, stretch forth your hand. Because the religious leaders, they don't want any healing on the Sabbath, but Jesus just told them, stretch forth that hand that shriveled. When God moves in power, he'll often ask us to take one simple step of obedience. We can stretch forth that hand and then he'll bring the restoration. When God asks you to do something small, do it in faith and then trust God with the results. Now, Jesus makes it clear that he has all authority. Not them, Jesus has authority. In Luke chapter six, moving on to verse nine and 10, and there's so much more to these stories, that's why we have daily devotions and videos so we can go deeper, but let's look at these verses. Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? Simple questions, simple answers. He looked around at them all. Then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. He did so and his hand was completely restored. Brilliant by Jesus because Jesus actually doesn't do any strenuous labor on the Sabbath. The man stretches forth his hand and the word alone, God's power alone restores the man's hand. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and if you summarize this, Jesus is ultimately saying, I don't agree with the limits that you place on me. He still says that to religious types. I don't agree with the limits that you place on me. And when the man's hand was healed, there were some that rejoiced because it was evidence the miracles point to Jesus is the Messiah. They validate and confirm who he is. And some rejoiced that the Messiah is here and also that the man's hand was healed. And there were others in the room who resented it. They resented the healing and they wanted to kill Jesus. And today, when God moves and restores, there's some who rejoice and some who resent. You know what's an interesting moment in the body of Christ? It's when we see there were so many Jews following Jesus. Jesus was Jewish, those 12 are Jewish, and it appears to be that God is working predominantly with Jewish people, yet shortly after that, what do we see? The Holy Spirit poured out in not just Jews, but Gentiles. Aren't you glad that God loves every person from every nation, tongue, tribe, and culture? That is heaven, and when we unite in friendship, we get a taste of heaven in that way. Well, Peter and Paul were surprised. They didn't see all this happening like that. It wasn't their plan. And in fact, they had a council at Jerusalem to sort through this. What do we do now that God is not only working with the Jews, but he's restoring and saving and healing the Gentiles? And you know what they resolved? Who are we to oppose God? When God is saving and God is restoring, who are we to step in and say, no, God, you can't do that. Jesus, you can't do that. And in this, what do we go? Go for the deepest healing. Where's it gonna be the deepest restoration? When you let go of no way and you let go of my way and you say yes to Jesus, who is the way. Go to the good shepherd. And as we go, here's a third truth today. Offer your body daily to God. That's worship. Offer your entire body, mind, emotions. That's worship. Offer your body daily to God. And then as God restores, tell the story of how Jesus changed your life. Tell your restoration story. Romans 12, verse one, it describes worship. And therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, that's the cause, because of who God is and what he's done, the death and resurrection, the mercy, the grace, this relationship we have with God. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Worship is our response to the goodness and grace of God. Worship is a choice. We're made to worship God. When we worship God, we offer ourselves to God, a living sacrifice. In the Old Testament, they sacrificed animals. This is before Jesus came. Jesus is the Lamb of God. He's the perfect sacrifice, sinless human and God. He died in our place. Animals should never be sacrificed again. Again, that's a cult, that's witchcraft, that's something weird, that's demonic. No, animals are not sacrificed. Again, Jesus was sacrificed, and now we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, which just means it's wholly pleasing to God. This is proper worship to say, here I am, God. What we wanna do instead of that is God, I'll give you this part of my life, but not that part. I'll give you Sunday mornings, but not Friday night. God, I'll give you when everyone's watching, but I won't give you when no one's watching. And we start to compartmentalize our faith. No worship is 24 seven, abide with Jesus. And when you offer yourself to God in that way, you're gonna be blessed. You're gonna experience restoration in your mind and your soul. You're gonna experience the abundant life that Jesus comes to give, because the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Receive, our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Receive the fullness of God's presence in the Holy Spirit. Here in Mark chapter two and verse three, it's a picture. It's a picture of coming to Jesus. And in all of this today, here's the message, go to the good shepherd. Go to the good shepherd today. Don't wait, don't harden your heart. We see it in Mark chapter two, there was a need. Some men, there's four of them. They came, bringing to him, bringing to Jesus a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. They saw the need and the need moved their hearts. Sometimes the need is the call. And it moved their hearts and then moved their feet and moved their hands. and they carried the man to Jesus. They were probably tired, there were obstacles. When you say yes to Jesus, there might be a lot of obstacles. They're tired, they see a big crowd, the house is overflowing, it's not gonna be easy to get to Jesus. But they had faith and they persevered. And they made their way through the crowd. They went to the top of the roof. Houses then had a stairwell on the outside of the house. The roof was made of clay. It was breakable, let's say that, sand. And they broke through It's a demonstration of their hope in the Lord, of their love, of their faith, of their care for their friend. They broke through the roof. Jesus saw this. He didn't rebuke or condemn them. In fact, he affirmed their faith. And then surprisingly, this man who's been paralyzed, Jesus looked at him and said, your sins are forgiven. Why? Because our greatest need is our soul and the forgiveness of sins. We've all sinned against God and need a savior. And this man in God's family now forever, his sins are forgiven. Now the Pharisees, religious leaders, didn't like that. They said, that's blasphemy. It's only blasphemy if Jesus is not the Messiah. But because He is the Savior of the world, it wasn't blasphemy, it was a pardon, and the same pardon they need. And then Jesus, again, confirmed through miracles who He is and told the man to walk. And the four friends are elated. And look at, we have this next verse here that we'll share from the story as well. He got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, we have never seen anything like this. Now, does the story always end that well? No, we know. I prayed so many times for different physical restoration and healing, and God's answer has been, not yet. What do you do in those moments? That's a reality. I think of Nick Vukicic. I also think of Johnny Erickson Tata. Johnny Erickson Tata jumped into a swimming pool thinking it was full of water, but it was empty, didn't see that, and different circumstances there paralyzed her whole life. She prayed so many times for healing, never happened, but her life has inspired countless hundreds of thousands of people. Nick Vukicic will step on a stage. He's got no arms and no legs, but he'll talk about not his physical restoration. He didn't get arms and legs back, but he'll talk about how he's secure in the Lord. And he'll talk about the purpose of his life and his journey. See, when you think about people like Johnny and people like Nick, and if we had the big picture, it's like if Jesus would have healed them, you know, and it would have come suddenly or miraculously and powerfully, they would be restored. They wouldn't have the same story as they have right now and look what God has done in their lives, in their weakness, God's power is so clear. All that to say, put your faith in Jesus, ask, keep asking, but trust Him with the results. And whether God brings it right away or slightly delayed, or it doesn't happen this side of heaven, He's with you. His grace is sufficient. Your story is powerful. It's a good story of the grace of God. of Jesus Christ. Sometimes when people say, share your testimony, we just naturally think, oh, that's when I came to know the Lord. And that's a great testimony. That's a salvation testimony. But we have so many testimonies of how God has restored us emotionally, relationally, physically, So many testimonies, I remember my 20s when my eyesight was failing and I went to the doctor, I had the glasses and there was a time there where I was praying and I sensed that God was gonna heal my eyes. And God did that, I took off the glasses, God restored my vision and I haven't had glasses since then. Now, some family might think maybe I should consider it at night when I'm driving, you know? It's not quite as good as it was. But the point is, God did a work in my life. Physically, he answered prayer. There was no medicine, there was no procedure. God restored my eyesight. And I haven't worn glasses since then or contacts. God does things in our lives and share those stories of restoration. Share those stories of what God is doing in your life. I talked to a man after the first service that had Pretty big deal this week. And he said, I was going through it and my old path would have been, it's all on me, anxiety, worry. He said, but I went to the Lord and God healed me this week physically. So we have choices how we respond. And then when God moves, share your story of restoration. Now in a minute, I'm gonna ask the elders to come forward. We're gonna have a time of prayer, physical restoration. Today, what have we covered? Say yes to Jesus, our good shepherd. Jesus moves in both natural and supernatural ways, practical and powerful, both together. Also, say yes to God's way today. Let go of my way and no way, say yes to God's way. Offer our bodies in worship. Say, God, my body belongs to you. Today is a gift. This body is a gift. We look forward to resurrected bodies, yes, in heaven. But right now, this is the one we have. So we offer it to you and then trust God with the results. Live for Jesus. Tell your story of restoration. Don't be ashamed of the good shepherd. Now elders, if you could come forward and what's gonna happen here, the elders will be up front and anyone can come forward. Now, why would you come forward? If you're here today and you wanna follow Jesus for the first time, we invite you to come forward. So many people are making decisions to follow the Lord. You can just share with an elder, I wanna follow Jesus or baptism. You know, we give this invitation last weekend, three people came up to me and said, I wanna get baptized. One more before nine o'clock today came up to me and said, hey, you know, it didn't get you last week, but I wanna get baptized. You can come forward and then we'll give you information about baptism. You won't be baptized today, but we'll walk with you. If you're here today and you need physical restoration in your body, you know, it moved me when there was a man sitting next to me, brought in his loved one on hospice and brought in his loved one for prayer. You see, I know what it's like. I see crutches. I know what it's like to be in crutches, wheelchairs. Whatever you're going through, let the elders pray. Someone had a procedure coming up. We prayed after first service for this procedure. So come forward for prayer. If you missed last week and you think, oh, that was a week in emotional healing. I missed it. You can come forward. Mental health. peace instead of anxiety, you can come forward. This is an open invitation to come forward. They're just gonna ask you, how can we pray? And they're gonna pray for you. So let's all stand up together and let's devote this time to God. God, as we worship you, Jesus, we thank you how you move in our lives. God, for each one coming forward right now, we thank you. God, thank you that you hear our prayers. Lord, our prayers, they're really cries out to you. With Thanksgiving, we lift up our needs to you today. We need restoration, Jesus. You're our healer. You're our restorer. We give you praise in this place. In Jesus' name, amen.