Walking on Water Bible Church

Pastor Mike Holloway: I am Pastor Mike Holloway, the senior pastor of Walking on Water Bible Church, welcoming you to Preaching Without Compromise, a broadcast committed to proclaiming the truth of God's word with clarity and conviction. Our prayer is that each message will strengthen your faith, deepen your understanding of scripture, and challenge you to live out God's word every day. Now open your Bibles and open your hearts as we prepare for the word of God.

Luke chapter 7, verse 11, let's read: "Now it happened the day after that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him and a large crowd." Keep that in mind. Verse 12: "And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a large crowd from the city was with her." So that's two crowds here: one following Christ, one with the mother.

Let's read verse 13: "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep.' Then he came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still, and he said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise.' So he who was dead sat up and began to speak, and he presented him to his mother." Verse 16: "Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God saying, 'A great prophet has risen up among us,' and 'God has visited his people.'"

Our subject today again is: God has the last word, or God's word is the last word on the matter. What God says supersedes what man says. God's word supersedes our opinions. God's word supersedes our feelings. God's word supersedes our traditions. God's word is superior to everything, and we'll be talking today about how God's word is superior over even death.

Today in our lesson, the big idea for this sermon is to communicate how Jesus sympathizes with human brokenness. We all, if we're honest, have been born in a broken world. The world is broken. It's not operating in the way that God originally designed it to work. And God sympathizes through Christ with our brokenness. He reveals the compassion of God, the power of his word, and the arrival of God's kingdom. And that's really a part of the subject of this entire book: the compassion that God had on broken humanity, the power of his word to bring about that healing that we talked about and sung about through the praise team, and the arrival of God's kingdom.

When we fully understand that God is a compassionate God, that there is power in his word, and that the kingdom of God has arrived, at least in an inaugurated way, then we can have more victory than sometimes we have today. Jesus is the King, the Messiah, the one that the prophets talked about. The one that the prophets said was coming. We hit on that this morning when we talked about the protoevangelium, which is the first gospel. The first gospel where God made a promise that though man is broken, I'm going to deliver man. I've got a word for you: when God makes a promise, the promise has to come to pass.

God promised a long time ago that he was going to bring mankind out, and I'm so glad he did. Hallelujah. Jesus, as the Messiah King, he has authority over the very thing that breaks us. The thing that is most difficult for you, Christ has authority over it. The thing that is most troublesome, the thing that is most hurtful, the thing that keeps you up at night, I tell you, you can get some good sleep when you realize that Christ, the Messiah King, has authority over it.

We'll learn and go through those things in today's lesson. This lesson is interesting because remember, we hit on last week where we talked about the power of his word, that he could just say the word and bring about the healing of the Centurion's servant. Jesus was on his way to the Centurion's house. Think about that: Jesus was on his way. The Centurion didn't even think he was worthy enough to come and talk to Jesus. He sent servants, he sent others to go and ask Jesus to come. The Jews played the case for this Centurion, saying, "Hey, this is a good brother."

But I've got a word for everybody in here: the Bible says there is none good. Not one. Now, that might seem shocking because we love us so much. I can tell y'all love y'all because y'all looking good today. I don't know how long some of you were in the mirror. Honey, are you ready? I've lost the sisters. Okay. But we love us. There's nothing wrong with loving yourself to an extent, but recognize that even in all your love for yourself, there is none of us that are good outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So the Centurion didn't come to Jesus, and then he thought about it. He said, "Wait a minute, Jesus don't even have to come to my house. I'm not even worthy that Jesus should come to my house. Just tell Jesus to do like I do because I'm a man in authority." He was a Centurion, meaning he was over at least a minimum of 100 soldiers. "I can tell a soldier what to do, and that soldier got to do it. And then if Christ has authority like I got authority—as a matter of fact, I understand who he is, so in my limited capacity of authority, I'm sure his authority is greater than mine."

"So if I can tell somebody what to do and he has to go and do it, surely Christ can speak a word and that word has to follow his instruction." He told Jesus, "Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." Jesus spoke his word, and the Bible says that that servant was healed in that very hour. When the scripture talks about "in that very hour," it's not talking about 60 minutes. In other words, it means at the same time. At the very moment Christ said it, the healing of his servant took place.

The very moment. Christ doesn't need a rehabilitation program. He don't need—Christ doesn't say, "Listen, I can heal you, but you gotta take these meds first." And there's nothing wrong with medication if you gotta take medication. Back in the day, they were too spiritual for medication; that was zeal without wisdom. Hello. If you got high blood pressure, well, first check your diet. Okay, y'all don't want that one. Then take your medicine. Y'all like, "Just give me the pill, Mike, just give me the pill." But first check your diet, then the pill.

If you got diabetes, if you got an ailment, there's nothing wrong with taking medication because it's God that gave man the wisdom to get the medication. Now, you can't always trust everything the doctor says, but that's a subject for another day. But there's nothing wrong with it. But Christ being God, he doesn't have to write you a prescription. He don't have to stop at CVS across the street, Walgreens, pay a co-pay. Copay is paid. All he has to do is speak his word.

So the Centurion learned a lesson, and now Jesus leaves the Centurion and he approaches a city called Nain with his disciples and a large crowd. And as he's approaching this city of Nain, he sees another crowd coming. Now, I want you to catch this: Jesus was getting ready to enter the city. The crowd that he runs into is getting ready to exit the city. The crowd that was getting ready to exit the city was a funeral procession. A funeral.

And again, one crowd was following Jesus, and the other crowd was following the dead. And there are two types of saints—I told you last week, y'all remember? They are what? Real saints and the fake saints. Turn to your neighbor—no, don't do that. But the question we all have to ask ourselves is, which one am I? Today's lesson, you're either following one of two different crowds. You're following the crowd that brings life, or you're following the crowd that leads to death.

The two crowds in our lesson today: one crowd was following Jesus, they were seeking life, while the other crowd were following the funeral procession, which represents death. One crowd had the truth while the other crowd was going to death. It was customary within Israel that they would bury their dead outside of the city. This is why they were getting ready to exit the city. The dead—they didn't want the dead to contaminate the city. They had rules within their law that you couldn't even touch a dead body because they believed that you would be made unclean or contaminated.

But you got two crowds getting ready to meet. There is a crossroads as it were, where a decision is going to have to be made. I've got a word for somebody today: some of us face that crossroads on a daily basis. Whether I'm going to follow the crowd that leads to life or follow the crowd that leads to death. At the city gate, death was on its way out, carrying its victim, but the Life was on its way in. But when Jesus met the crowd that was leading to death, death's procession could go no further.

I want you to understand Paul wrote in Romans chapter number 6 that the wages of sin is what? Death. Listen, sin never brings about a positive result. Never ever. I know people think it's okay to sin now because we're under grace. No, it's not. Sin is never acceptable. Sometimes we pre-plan our sins. "I'm going to sin this weekend." It's Monday. You're planning your sin and the repentance because "I'm going to Vegas this weekend." And what happens in Vegas... Oh, have mercy, I feel some folks been to Vegas.

What happened in Vegas, they say stays in Vegas, but that ain't true. If my wife go to Vegas, trust me, what happened in Vegas ain't going to stay in Vegas. We're going to have to deal with it. Hello. God is everywhere. He can see you. In the dark, he can see you. He can hear you. I got another word for you: he can even read text messages. You think since I'm texting he can't see these? He ain't got my passcode? No, he can see all of that.

So we have to keep in mind that sin is dangerous. It's never acceptable. Now, can God forgive you of your sins? Absolutely. But God is not obligated—now I got to deal with this point here because the so-called church world has deceived so many people. God is not obligated to forgive you. He's not; he just doesn't have to. Now, he will, but he doesn't have to. There's some prerequisites to his forgiveness. He don't just give it away.

How many of y'all, when you get paid, y'all just go out to the corner and just give—if so, let me know when you get paid, I'll meet you there. We don't do that. How many of you guys took you some money, saved up, got some nice stuff in your home, and people come over and visit and just carry your couch out? No, no, no. There's some criteria here. You can purchase it; I'll sell it to you. Now let me be clear: Christ isn't selling forgiveness. But I do want you to understand there are some criteria to forgiveness.

You must repent. A broken, the Bible says, and a contrite heart, God said I won't turn away. Your heart—listen, oh have mercy. Sometimes we say we repent, but our heart's not broken. Repentance is not just something you say with your lips. Repentance is an inward change of a disposition. You wake up, there's no conviction, there's no sorrow. No, you got to confess your sins to God and say, "God, I'm sorry." Lord have mercy.

Why? And the reason it's serious is because the wages of sin are—they are still death. But the gift of God—all right, I'm going to get to the part y'all like, let me get you back involved in the sermon. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You want to know why it's a gift? Because he doesn't charge you for forgiveness. All he wants is a broken and a contrite heart. All he wants is a person that says, "God, I'm sorry. I'm striving to submit my heart and my mind to you. I want to change my mind."

So you got to get to the place where you submit your heart to God freely, and Christ will freely give you the gift of eternal life. You didn't deserve it. You don't deserve forgiveness. None of us deserve God's forgiveness, but because he's a merciful God, a gracious God, a wonderful God, he'll forgive us. Hello somebody. See, the woman in the crowd who Christ saw had a crisis going on. She had lost her only son. It's important. Remember, in that culture, the more you had, the more wealthy they considered you, the more blessed they considered you.

Because they realized that those children would carry on our family lineage, our family name, establish the family dynasty, build the family culture, and the family would benefit from the benefits of those children. And this was her only son. So therefore, her disposition, her genealogy, and all of that would be cut off. And on top of that, she was already a widow, so her husband was already gone. She was already grieving. She had already lost her husband. The husband is responsible for taking care of his wife.

I'm going to say that one more time: the husband is responsible for taking care of his wife. All right, I hear some "amen," I don't hear enough deep voices. The husband is responsible for taking care of his wife. All right, that's important. Now, let me clarify that too, because the world has misrepresented that too. They really have. They think that the wife could be making six digits and the husband can be making six digits. The husband's six digits got to pay the bills, and the wife's six digits is whatever she wants.

That devil is a liar. That ain't right. "You're the man, though. I'll be at the mall." No, no, no. You don't want to have no kids and you don't want to give no money? No, no, no. I'm about to get like Marvin Sapp: "Close the doors." I see some folk booking for the exit. No, that's not how it's supposed to be. We are one. When my wife and I got married, she was making more money than I was. She had more money in the bank than I had. Hey, glory to—I married up. Hello.

Now, don't get me wrong, I had a job and whatnot. But when we got married, guess what? All that money she had in the bank? It's our money now. All the money I had—am I helping the single folk? I hope so. Y'all see me in counseling. It's our money. We one. We are one. That means all the money pay the bills. I'm losing some folks. But this woman was a widow, so the person who paid the bills was gone. And in their culture, oftentimes women weren't as educated and they did not make as much money.

And therefore, her sustenance was gone. And within that culture, it was the responsibility of the children to take care of their parents. Right? And that's actually good doctrine. You make sure the parents that took care of you when you couldn't take care of yourself, as you get older, you do what you can to take care of, help take care of your parents. And so the situation this woman was in is not only was her husband gone, the person who was responsible for seeing to it that she had what she needed, but her son is now gone.

She didn't depend on welfare. She didn't depend on government aid. Now, I'm not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with those things because there's not when people aren't abusing it. But she was concerned because her way of living was now gone. So not only is she grieving for the loss of her husband, not only is she grieving for the loss of her son, she's grieving because her world has now been turned upside down. Her grief is emotional because it hurts to lose somebody that you care about.

Her grief is relational; these were people who were close to her, not just anybody. Social because it affected her wellbeing, the way she was going to live, and even economically. She is not merely burying someone she loved; she's burying someone that was responsible for her security and her future. Her whole world had collapsed. Anybody ever felt like that? "My world is collapsing." Maybe it was a relationship, maybe it was a job or a financial situation, and you just felt that because this situation is going left, my world is collapsing.

I don't know y'all, I live in the real world where even Christians sometimes can have situations and circumstances where you feel like your world is collapsing. Everything is going wrong, everything is going left. This woman had no more family, she had no husband, she had no financial stability, so her world was certainly collapsing. But here it is, and Luke makes it clear to make a point that the Lord saw her.

This is Pastor Mike Holloway, thanking you for tuning in to Preaching Without Compromise. You can hear more from us at Walking on Water Bible Church at 31133 Haighly Avenue in Westland, Michigan, or you can visit our website at wowbc.org. You can also email me at pastormike@wowbc.org. God bless you and we look forward to hearing from you.