You Have an Issues – Part 2

that bring us shame or embarrassment. But as we'll learn from Scripture today, God cannot heal what we choose to keep hidden. If you miss part one of this transformative message, you'll find it online at Bold steps.org. But now let's join Mark Jobe for part two titled You Have an Issue.

You hold people out. You excuse. If people get too close, you push them out because you don't want them to see your shriveled hand. You have become an expert of letting people in so far, but then you step away. You know how to maneuver, how to manipulate, how to deflect, how to walk around it. Why? Because you don't want people to see the very thing that you're ashamed of. Some of you today are lonely people because you have an inner, deep sense and feeling that if people really

knew who I was, they would reject me. Some of you have a very difficult time with community. You're comfortable coming to a Sunday morning gathering like this in a crowd, but you're very uncomfortable in a small group. You want to be anonymous. You want people to see what you want them to see, but you really don't want them to see that part of you that you're ashamed of. It works for your self-image. Image. But when you go to bed at night, there's a loneliness of your soul.

There's a hollowness in your spirit. Because when you keep people away, it. Yeah, it protects you. But you were engineered and made. Made by God for community. You know, the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13, whoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces finds mercy. God cannot heal what you choose to conceal. You see, one of the first steps in experience and healing is when we stop concealing. And I believe that Jesus calls this man with a

withered arm forward because he understood. Hey, if I'm going to heal you, you have to bring it to the light. Everybody has to see the withered ness of your hand. I cannot heal that which is hidden. I can only heal that which comes to the light, that which is exposed, that which is brought to the light. That's what I can begin to heal. Why is it so hard? Well, it's hard because it exposes deformity to others. He would be uncomfortable standing before a crowd and having people see why.

Because when there's something that we we've struggled with, there's something that we're very aware of. It becomes bigger in our mind than it is to others. And we feel like our entire being will be judged by that part of us that will be labeled, that the entirety of our persona will be judged. When Jesus said to this withered the man with the withered hand, stand up! He had a choice to make. Do I run? Do I walk out? Do I hide? Do I say no way? He had a moment. A moment where he's wrestling with

his faith. Can I trust this? Jesus? Can I reveal it to him? Will he embarrass me? Will he judge me? Will I walk out with greater shame? But in that moment, he had to wrestle with faith. Can I trust what Jesus says? Can I trust his heart? He was in not in an environment of faith. He was in an environment of judgment. The Pharisees were there with judgment. The Herodians were there with judgment. The Sadducees were there with judgment.

There was an atmosphere of judgment and religiosity that existed in that gathering that they had. But listen, it's the presence of Jesus that overcomes everything else. Oh, man, I'm talking to someone here today because I run into people all the time that say, well, pastor, you don't know

this person hurt me. That person. I think all religious people are hypocritical or whatever you may say, but I'm going to tell you, there's a presence here in this place that's bigger than anyone around you, bigger than your past, bigger than your neighbor, bigger than the one in front of you or behind you. And that's the presence of Jesus, the Christ, the son of the living God, the one who loves, who knows you, who cares about you. That

is the presence. That's why we gather together here in this place is because of the presence of the Almighty Jesus that we gather with. And at that moment in time, this man with the withered hand. He understood. I'm sure that he didn't look to the right the Pharisee, the Sadducees, the Herodians. But he looked at the eyes of Jesus, and he looked at the eyes of Jesus. I think that he felt the compassion of Jesus, the power of Jesus.

He felt the safety of being able to come to this Jesus and say, yeah, I have a withered hand. It tells us that the Pharisees 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. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another. Verse 11 says how they may kill him. You see what you say? Well, pastor, what's the big deal about the Sabbath? Well, the Sabbath

had become a big point of contention. The Sabbath was the day that they met on. And in the Old Testament, God gives rules about the Sabbath. And in essence, the rule was this would be a day that you worship God. You shouldn't work because it's a time of worshiping God. It was the laws of the land. It was what God instituted so that they would set aside a particular time to rest and to worship Jesus. It seems. would poke the bear because seven times he heals on the Sabbath,

almost like he's doing it on purpose just to. Poke the Pharisees. Seven times you have miracles that Jesus did on the Sabbath. It tells us in Matthew that they had just had a discussion about the Sabbath, where the Pharisees were angry at the disciples because they were they were pulling wheat and eating it on the Sabbath. And so Jesus knew that it was a contention. But but here's what I want you to see here. See this God has his laws, but the Pharisees, and this is

in the Torah. This is in the first five books of the New Testament. This is, uh, in the Septuagint, and it's in the Torah, the, the books of the law that are found in the Bible. But the Pharisees had added their own laws on top of the laws of God. For example, the Pharisees, they had added that you can't write, you can't erase, you can't tear on the Sabbath, you couldn't conduct business transactions, you couldn't shop, you couldn't cook, you couldn't bake, you couldn't kindle a fire.

You couldn't do gardening, you couldn't do laundry. You couldn't carry anything more than six feet in a public area. You could not move anything with your hand or even indirectly, like with a broom or a broken bowl of flour in a vase or candles on a table, or raw food, or a rock or a button that had fallen off. You couldn't take it and put it on. Now you can move something with your elbow or with your breath,

but not with your hand. In fact, the Pharisees had gotten so nitty gritty about this that they said, you can. You're not allowed to look in a mirror on the Sabbath. Why? Because their contention was you will look in a mirror. And if you see a gray hair, you'll be tempted to pluck that gray hair. And then you'd fall into the problem of working. I've never had that problem. Unrelatable to me. So you see how nitty gritty, how obsessive,

how controlling, how legalistic, how religious they had become. Hey, you're listening to Bold Steps. I'm Mark Jobe, and we'll continue in just a moment. But if you're listening, maybe you have a bold steps testimony, a prayer request, a Bible question that you'd like to share. We love to hear from our listeners, and we're ready to hear it. And so you can just go to Bold steps.org and leave a comment right there. And we would love to hear what God is doing in your life.

truly appreciate your prayers. Love your program. God bless you and I will always be there listening to you. I thank you.

pray for Miguel with you right now. Father, we pray for Miguel. I don't know what he's doing at this moment, but I know that your Holy Spirit is right there. And so we pray, Lord, that he will come to his senses, that he'll wake up father from the stupor of the confusion or his running from you. We pray God that his heart will be soft, and that he would hear from you, God, that he would turn around, and that his mother one day will be able to

rejoice with exuberance that her son has come back to you. Father. We pray that in Jesus name. Amen.

You have lived under the burden of legalism. And when you live under the burden of religious legalism, you typically end up abandoning Christianity all the way. I'm talking to someone here who grew up under very, very strict rules in some church. And you grew up with those rules. Your hair can be only so long. You can't do this. You can't. Your skirt's got to be here. Your dad's got to say this. You can't say this. You can't say, do this, do that. You can. You can not go

to the movies. You can watch the movies on TV, but not in the movie theater. And all these rules and regulations. You can't put makeup on. You can't do this if you grew up in that kind of setting. There's a lot of people that have abandoned God because you grew up in that setting and you felt like, I can't measure up. Because what happens when you grow up with a lot of rules, you eventually come to the conclusion, I can't keep all those rules, so I

might as well. So God's just angry and mad at me, so I might as well just go the other way. How many of you know what I'm talking about today? Let me tell you. That's not Jesus. There may be some of you that were afraid to even come to church. Someone invited you because you felt like I've been there. I've been judged, accused, looked down on, ostracized. I don't think I want that. I want God, but I don't think I can live with that. I'm going to tell you.

Jesus saw beyond all that. This is about a relationship with God, not about religion and rules placed upon you. This is about an internal transformation of grace, and not about you trying to live up to a standard that you can never live up to. If you could live up to the standard, Jesus would have never come. You would have found salvation on your own. We all need a Savior. We can't live up to that standard and then we live our lives out of gratitude and obedience

to God. Not out of fear of condemnation, but of out of love for the Savior who died for us and gave himself for us. That's Christianity. So the Bible goes on to tell us. Number three. And I close with this. Our issue can only experience a breakthrough when we respond in faith to the Living Word. The Bible says he looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed. You know, Jesus gets angry. The Bible says that he was ticked, that Jesus looked around and he was angry. Frustrated.

He looks around at the people that cared more about the laws than they did about the people, and he's frustrated and angry at them. And the Bible says at the stubbornness of their heart. And so as the man stands there, being judged by others and people looking at him and saying, oh, are you going to do this on the Sabbath? Jesus looks at him. He looks at them. He looks at him and Jesus in a defiant way filled with love and compassion. He says to this man,

stretch out your hand. Now there's something about when God asks us to do something that you've tried to do a thousand times, and it's impossible for you to do, but becomes possible with the touch of God. Forgive that individual, pastor. I've tried, I can't. No, but with the touch of God, you can. Overcome that compulsive behavior, I can't. I'm a slave to it. You've tried on your own, but not with the power of God. Break that destructive pattern in

your life. I've tried it a thousand times. I'm going to live this way till the day I die. No. With the power of God, it's possible. You see, he asked him to do something that he couldn't do in his own power. It required the supernatural touch of God. I love the fact that Jesus got angry. You know, sometimes we should become angry. There's a holy, righteous anger sometimes. Watch out when you get a man of God that are godly, enraged with holy passion. It's dangerous with people

of God. Get a holy passion inside of them and they start pursuing God and walking in God. Watch out when the people of God get a holy passion for the things of God. Today, as I wrap this up, I want you to know that Jesus said, stretch out your hand. And this man, as he looked at what had been his shame, as he looked at what was shriveled, this man did what he had not been able to do in years. Suddenly there was a surge of power that went through him. Suddenly there was something that he

felt happened within the tendons of his hand. Suddenly, that which had been deactivated became activated. Suddenly that which had been curled was able to straighten out. And for the first time he was able to straighten out completely before the Messiah, and that which had not been able to be used suddenly by the power of God, he was able to use. In Genesis chapter 16, Hagar is in the desert and God encounters her. And then she. She calls that place by a name. She calls it a rohi.

Which means the God who sees me. I love that. The God who sees me. She was a broken woman, thrown aside, feeling rejection. But she realized that the God of the universe saw her and cared about her and had a destiny and purpose for her life. And so she says, I call this place the God who sees me. There's someone that needed to hear that message today. You needed to know that the God of the universe sees you,

and maybe you have been hiding in your shame. Or maybe there's withered parts of you that you are trying to cover up. But I want you to know that today, the God that heals, the God that loves you, the God that has a purpose and a plan for your life, he sees you. He knows your name. You are not anonymous. He knows your story and he wants to be a part of that story. And so, father, I pray for

that person that's been hiding in shame. I pray in Jesus name that as they expose their withered portions of their life to you, God, that you would step in and that you would touch them, heal them, restore them. I pray for that person that has lost something over the years, that has let something become so withered that they felt it was unusable. God, I pray that you would step in and use that gift that has been neglected. Use that voice that has been silenced. God use that

calling that had been abandoned. Father, I pray in Jesus name that you would revive it and do it by your power. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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I'm Wayne Shepherd wishing you a wonderful weekend. Make plans to join us Monday when Mark continues our series on being seen with a new message titled Pain Wrapped in Shame. It's coming up Monday right here on Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.