Loose Him!

Welcome to Brevis Talk. The talks you are about to hear will be honest, revealing, and unfiltered. Join us as your host. Pastor Wayne Whiteside lifts the lid of silence and has conversations about mental illness and health in the church. The goal here is simple. It is to help someone along this journey of life who is struggling. It is to tell the truth to the unsuspecting, and it is to lighten the load of a fellow traveler. This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as medical advice or to replace consultation with your physician or mental health professional.

If you are experiencing a medical crisis, call 9 1 1 or go to the nearest Emergency Room. Now, here's your host, pastor Wayne.

Speaker 1 (42s): Welcome back to another Brevis Talk. Today I wanna talk about ministry concerning those who have addictions and have that have mental maladies. I wanna take a story from John chapter 11, and I'll read two verses. It's after the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead and the Bible says, now, when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, and he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.

Jesus said to them, Loose, Him, and let him go. Now, I'm mindful and don't ever want to allegorize scripture with past its limits and see something that's not there. But I do wanna make a point about Lazarus You know, as a lost person, we are dead. We are dead. Like Lazarus was dead. We are spiritually dead. Ephesians two verse one says, and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, and so when we were to lost people without Christ, we were dead.

The walking, dead, living, breathing, but spiritually dead and dead people can't make themselves come alive. Any resurrection of a dead person comes about by an external source. John chapter five, verse 24 says, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him, who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment.

Now listen to this, but has passed from death into life. The greatest miracle is that we were spiritually dead and we came alive. We became living spiritually because of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now, here's the story concerning ministry. Lazarus had been dead for four days. He was alive.

Lazarus had been dead for four days, and after four days, Lazarus was alive. He came back from the dead, but he was bound and he would've remained bound if someone hadn't helped him. The miracle of the new birth is so real, but many are still bound in areas of their lives, and it is our responsibility to help them get out of that which binds them.

You can be saved, but fighting an addiction, you can be saved, but have a mental malady. You can be bound in other areas of your life and nevertheless, you really and truly are a child of God, but you're bound. I see another thing here that the disciples were very reluctant to to get involved in this. They were very pointed in verse 39 of chapter 11 of John's gospel.

They said, there's a stench for he has been dead four days, and I'm sure that was repulsive to them, And, that obviously they were thinking about that And that would've ended the story if Jesus had not proceeded with his actions and his command. Well, when you began to deal with people in the messes and the train wrecks of their lives, so to speak, there's a stench. There is something about ministry sometimes and working with broken humanity that you might say there's a stench, And that might be repulsive to us on one level, but we must listen to the command of Jesus Christ.

We are to teach all nations. We're to disciple and teach all nations baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and we are to unbind with the Lord's help and his strength and favor, those who are held captive. And again, I'll say in closing, be kind. Always be kind.

Speaker 0 (5m 35s): And. that concludes our broadcast today. Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast through Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Plus, check us out at our Facebook page or brevistalk.com and take a look at our blog and remember, be kind. Always be kind.