Jesus Does Not Avoid Our Chaos

[0:00] Speak about yourself. I'll say a few words. Many of you remember James and Abby and the family from last time James was playing the guitar!

[0:11] when Alan was a wee gallivanting. And he served us very well. James and Abby are no strangers to sacrifice and service of the Lord, being missionaries in different countries, having spent years in Turkey and now in Scotland.

[0:30] And so far from home, serving the Lord and waiting for his direction. And so James and Abby are in Calderwood Baptist Church just now and we've become good friends and they're happy and willing to serve in whatever way they can.

[0:49] So James is here opening the word this morning and James and Abby and the family are helping during Holiday Club. But yeah, we just bless you guys and thank you. And let me pray as you open the word.

[1:00] Heavenly Father, would you take your servant and take his words and would you use them for your glory and for our good?

[1:11] In Jesus' name, amen. Well, good morning. It is a privilege to be back. We woke our kids up this morning and reminded them that we were not going to Calderwood, that we were coming here to Bells Hill.

[1:27] And our youngest daughter was absolutely elated. I think Ezra and Levi might have had something to do with that. But it is good to be back.

[1:39] And it was also quite reassuring whenever I walked in and I saw on the screen that the passage that it said I was teaching was the one that I indeed had spent time studying.

[1:50] And so if you have your Bible, I would like to ask you to turn it to Mark chapter five. And we'll be looking at verses 21 through the end of the chapter.

[2:04] And just to kind of catch us up to speed as we arrive at Mark five, beginning in verse 21, it's helpful to remind ourselves where we've been.

[2:17] This account takes place in a larger scope of a book. And what has taken place is there's been a series of three stories that took place in the life of Jesus.

[2:30] And all three of these accounts involve what seems like a hopeless situation. And so the disciples find themselves in grave danger as a great storm threatens to destroy their boat.

[2:46] A man possessed by uncontrollable demons that no one could seem to bind. And in both of these hopeless situations, Mark details the power of Christ.

[3:02] And so we have on display, we have this this Jesus who has the power over nature by simply rebuking the wind and saying to the sea, peace, be still.

[3:15] We see a Jesus who displays his power of of the demonic over the demonic realm by simply commanding the demons to come out of a man.

[3:27] And so as we dive into Mark 21 or Mark five, 21, Mark presents his readers with two hopeless situations involving a suffering woman and a grieving father.

[3:42] And so if I could sum up this text in one way, this is what I came up with. Mark five, 21 through 43 reminds us that Jesus doesn't avoid our chaos.

[3:57] He steps into it with unstoppable power and unexpected kindness. And so I want us to read this passage together and and then we'll we'll pray and then jump in.

[4:10] He says, And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him and he was beside the sea.

[4:22] Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.

[4:33] Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And he went with him and a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.

[4:44] And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better.

[4:55] But rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.

[5:09] And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?

[5:23] And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you and yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

[5:41] And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead.

[5:56] Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe.

[6:06] And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of Jesus. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

[6:20] And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.

[6:38] Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years of age.

[6:51] And they were immediately overcome with amazement, and he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. Let's pray.

[7:03] God, I pray over this time that you would open our hearts to receive your word, that you would give us ears that could hear, that you would give us desires and affections to know you, to follow you, to cast all that we are at your feet, knowing that you are a God who is compassionate and loving.

[7:27] In Jesus' name, amen. So the first thing that we see, we kind of just break this passage up into really kind of three scenes, if you will. And so the first scene that we have is Jairus' public plea.

[7:42] And so Jesus, following the healing of the demon-possessed man, he was begged by the people there to leave. So getting into the boat with his disciples, he departs from the land of the Gerasenes, and he crosses back over into Jewish territory, where it seems that he is almost immediately met by a crowd of people.

[8:06] Mark tells us that one such person that makes his way through the crowds was one of the rulers of the synagogue there, a man by the name of Jairus.

[8:18] As one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus would have been a man of honor. In charge of maintaining the synagogue, Jairus would have been in charge of securing the scrolls for Scripture reading, arranging the Sabbath order of worship by designating the Scripture reading, who was going to read it, who was going to pray, who was going to be teaching the Word.

[8:45] Jairus would have been a man well-known by others in the community. And Jairus likely had the influence to go and sin for Jesus.

[8:57] But on this particular day, he fights through the crowds of people, and he throws himself down at the feet of Jesus and implores Him.

[9:10] And what we see is in an act of desperation, Jairus comes pleading on behalf of his only child, a 12-year-old daughter.

[9:23] In verse 23, Jairus says, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. We don't exactly know what happened to his daughter other than that she has fallen into a critical condition.

[9:39] The Greek word here implies that she is at death's door. Mark doesn't fill us in on what happened. Maybe it was something tragic.

[9:51] Maybe she had some sort of illness. It's likely that Jairus had been an eyewitness to some of Jesus' teaching. And so he decides to go to see Jesus.

[10:04] Many scholars believe that Jesus is now back in the area of Capernaum. And so perhaps Jairus was at the synagogue when Jesus had healed a man with an unclean spirit that we read about in Mark 1.

[10:19] And so the religious leaders of the day were already, if you recall back to that story, they were already beginning to have a disdain for Jesus.

[10:30] They had already began accusing Jesus of blasphemy. And so Jairus' actions here could have posed some sort of threat to his status with the other synagogue leaders.

[10:42] Nonetheless, Jairus, laying aside his status, he cast himself at the feet of this man, Jesus.

[10:54] And can you imagine for just a second, in today's time, Jairus' daughter is at the point where you would want to call in the family so they might see her one last time before she passes.

[11:06] This isn't the time to desert your 12-year-old daughter. But it's in this time that Jairus leaves his daughter, who's at death's door.

[11:21] He lays all his dignity aside, and he implores Jesus to come and just lay a hand on his daughter that she might be healed. It's worth noting that the word translated healed throughout this passage could also be interpreted as saved.

[11:42] If you would just come and lay a hand on her, she would be saved. And so Jesus, he hears this plea from Jairus.

[11:53] And Mark simply tells us in verse 24, And he went with him. Jesus agreed. He made time. Have you ever been somewhere where it was just crammed with people?

[12:11] Where there's not a whole lot of room to move about? I remember such a time just a few years ago. My family was in Istanbul. I don't know if you know much about Istanbul, but Istanbul is roughly 17, 18 million people on top of the tourists that come and tourist about.

[12:36] And it had been a long day. We had done a lot of things. We had rode the ferry. We had done some of the touristy things that you would do there. And it was time to go. We had two kids at the time, Jeremiah and Lena.

[12:50] And it was getting late. And so we decided that we were going to head back to where we were staying. And I remember it felt like forever waiting for the tram to come.

[13:02] And then I remember once we got on, I have a photo somewhere of us being crammed on this tram in Istanbul, Turkey. We were exhausted. We were hot. Our kids, I'm pretty sure the picture I have is our kids crying.

[13:16] They were just miserable. The tram was packed to the point where whenever it stopped at the next station, we thought, no reason to stop.

[13:27] There's no reason to stop because no one can get in. And yet somehow it's like the doors would open and somehow space was made.

[13:39] And so it just kept on getting more crammed. And perhaps this is somewhat how Jairus had felt as he began to move with hasteful intentions with Jesus to get to his daughter before she passes.

[13:54] Mark tells us that the crowds were hemmed in around Jesus. Perhaps fascinated by this conversation that had just taken place between Jesus and Jairus.

[14:09] The crowds perhaps wanted to know what's going to happen. And then we have kind of our second scene beginning in verse 25, 25 and 26.

[14:24] It says, And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

[14:35] The woman that we meet here, while her desperation is not as loud or as vocal as Jairus' it carries the same sense of urgency and desperation.

[14:53] If you were to put up a comparison chart of Jairus and the woman, they're different in almost every way imaginable. Jairus, if you notice, Mark doesn't often give someone's name, but here we know that Jairus, he has a name and he has a position.

[15:13] He's a ruler of a synagogue. He is well respected in the community and comes to Jesus face to face. The woman has none of these.

[15:26] Her name is not given, nor is her name remembered. She has no position. She has no status.

[15:36] She has no clout. She is going to attempt to approach Jesus not face to face, but from behind. This woman, she had spent the last 12 years of her life living in both physical torment as well as shame.

[15:53] The text said that she has suffered much under many physicians and has spent all she had and was no better but worse.

[16:08] Clearly, the woman's prospects are no better than this dying girl's. Here are some of the ways that this woman suffered.

[16:18] She suffered physically. So just imagine, for 12 years, she has sustained chronic blood loss or hemorrhaging. This likely means that she suffered from anemia, which would lead to fatigue and weakness.

[16:34] Furthermore, Mark tells us that she suffered much under many physicians. Perhaps some of the treatment that she had endured over the past 12 years proved to be painful and even harmful as she wasn't getting any better but only growing worse.

[16:52] She suffered financially. This is a day and age where there was no health care system. This woman, she had spent all that she had. And so along with her physical suffering, she was impoverished.

[17:09] She suffered socially. According to the Levitical law, in Leviticus 15, she was considered ceremonially unclean. This means that she could not touch nor be touched by others without making them unclean.

[17:25] This would have prevented contact with her husband if she had one. It would have prevented the opportunity to bear children.

[17:40] She would have been alienated from family and cut off from society. She wouldn't have been invited to gatherings. She also suffered religious exclusion.

[17:53] And so due to her uncleanliness, she would have been barred from temple worship and participation. She wouldn't have been here this morning.

[18:04] For 12 years, she would have been unable to go to the synagogue or to the temple. She would have not been able to attend corporate services or offer sacrifices. She lived in spiritual exile.

[18:16] Not only was she cut off from family, but she was cut off from God and his people. And she suffered emotionally.

[18:28] After 12 years of physically suffering, financially, and living as an outcast, this woman would have carried the burden of shame and loneliness and hopelessness.

[18:39] We are told that this woman, that she had heard reports about Jesus.

[18:50] And so what does she do? She comes up behind him in the crowd in order to simply touch his garment. In some of the other synoptic gospels in Matthew and in Luke, it hints on the idea that it's not that she's just trying to touch his garment.

[19:10] She's trying to just touch the edge. Like if she can just grasp the very fringe of his garment. And Mark doesn't explain to his readers what is in the mind of the woman.

[19:20] And we aren't told exactly what all she had heard about Jesus or even knew about Jesus. Jesus' own disciples were even still wrestling with who Jesus truly was, right?

[19:38] We saw in Mark 4 when Jesus calms the storm, Jesus says to the disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you have no faith? Have you still no faith?

[19:49] And Mark tells us that the disciples were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? So we don't know exactly what this woman had heard, but we know that this woman had heard enough about this Jesus that she emerges from her home.

[20:11] She fights through the crowd to seize an opportunity just to touch the edge of his garment that she might would be healed. Verse 27 says, She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

[20:28] For she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. Up to this point in Mark's gospel, we learn that many who had suffered diseases pushed forward to touch Jesus and that all who touched Jesus were healed.

[20:47] But notice the difference. This woman wasn't coming to Jesus in public. She was attempting to come in such a way that she wouldn't be noticed. That she could just slide through and almost in and out.

[21:02] Jairus and this woman, they have almost nothing in common, but they do have one thing in common. Both are living in desperate circumstances who have no hope apart from Jesus.

[21:19] And both Jairus and the woman, they come to Jesus with a faith that he would be able to meet their needs. Mark tells us that immediately upon this woman touching Jesus' garment, she was miraculously healed.

[21:36] Her recovery was instantaneous. In one brief moment, her 12 years of shame, her 12 years of hurt and frustration are resolved with just a momentary touch of Jesus.

[21:55] But her story is not finished. She doesn't just touch his garment, she's healed and then she gets out of there as quick as she can. Just as she immediately touches Jesus and just as immediately as she is healed and she knows immediately that things have changed, Jesus too knows that something has happened.

[22:21] In verse 30 it says, And Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out of him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? Now to the disciples, this was a preposterous question.

[22:37] This would have been like me on the tram saying, Hey, who just bumped me? Of course, the disciples say, Of course someone touched you, Jesus. Probably more than one person has touched you.

[22:49] Do you not see the crowds? But this is not some casual bump that the disciples perceived Jesus to be asking about. Jesus had felt this act of faith by this woman.

[23:04] It was distinct from the rest. And so looking around, He asked, Who is it that touched me? Notice that Jesus doesn't allow her to keep her faith concealed.

[23:21] He doesn't allow her to keep her faith to herself. Rather, He calls her out so that the faith that she possesses will be revealed. But can you imagine the weight and the magnitude of this question as it comes into the ears of this woman?

[23:41] Here she is, having violated the Jewish purity laws pertaining to her illness. She wasn't even supposed to be out in public. More or less, putting her hands on someone.

[23:56] And so, this initial excitement of her healing perhaps is all of a sudden overshadowed with fear and shame. This woman, she comes to Jesus in fear and in trembling, expecting scorn and public embarrassment.

[24:22] She falls down at the feet of Jesus and tells Him, tells Him the whole truth of what had happened. This is the woman confessing to Jesus that it was her.

[24:38] The unclean woman who had touched Him, confessing that she had spent the last 12 years of her life desperate for healing, that she had spent all of her money and that she had went to every doctor that she knew to find a healing and yet, she had only become worse.

[24:54] confessing to Jesus that she knew that if she could just touch Jesus, she would be healed. She knew that she was unclean.

[25:06] And how does Jesus respond to this woman? In calling her out of her anonymity or her anonymousness, I put both words in, wasn't sure which one worked.

[25:28] But He displays His love and His care for her. He says in verse 34, Daughter, your faith has made you well.

[25:39] Go in peace and be healed of your disease. This is the only recorded time in the Gospels where Jesus calls a woman a daughter.

[25:51] the magnitude of this. This woman expecting to meet shame and embarrassment as she has for the last 12 years.

[26:02] She's met with a loving Savior who displays tenderness and care toward her. After being ostracized for so long, she was no longer an outcast but a daughter.

[26:24] A daughter of the King. And Jesus had healed her but now He restores her identity and He gives her peace.

[26:37] Can you imagine? She's not had peace in 12 years with no seeming end in sight. But notice it's not the fact that she touched Jesus' garment that heals her.

[26:56] Jesus doesn't say because you touched my garment you have been made well. Jesus says it is your faith that made you well.

[27:08] This woman has come in faith to Christ. And it was her faith in Christ that brought about her healing.

[27:26] And then we move into kind of the third scene. Have you ever been in a situation where you were really ready to go but were being held up?

[27:42] And so maybe quite similar to the whole tram or being crammed but maybe a little different. Maybe you were on your way somewhere to an appointment or to see someone but the traffic on the road is really backed up and no matter how quickly you want to be somewhere the cars in front of you are at a standstill.

[28:02] Or maybe your mind my mind whenever I kind of thought through what this might would look like my mind went back to my childhood when no doubt I was with my parents at some point in time and I was really eager to get somewhere and my parents' conversation seemed to go on forever.

[28:22] Maybe we were in a store and we were just about to walk out of the door and then my dad is caught by a friend that they haven't seen in a while and then I'm just stuck standing there at the door probably doing this to see if it opens again and it does but yet we're not going through it and then the conversation lasts forever and then just like that the subject changes and before you know it it's been 20 minutes probably like 2 or 3 but in my mind it's 20 minutes.

[28:58] I wonder what Jairus must have been thinking during this time. Picture an ambulance driver on an emergency call stopping off to make a lengthy phone call while the family of a heart attack victim are forced to wait in the back and you get something of a feel for what it must have been like for Jairus to watch this who touched me discussion.

[29:27] Time has been of the essence for Jairus and his daughter and while this woman has just received salvation and health Jairus' circumstances are no better.

[29:43] Can you imagine? It's hard to rejoice with somebody whenever your world is falling apart. Mark tells us in verse 35 that it is while he was still speaking that some from Jairus' house came with a quite bleak announcement for Jairus.

[30:08] His attempts at having his daughter's health restored has failed. This 12-year-old daughter has died. There's no mention of any kind of Jairus, it's hard for me to tell you this.

[30:27] Jairus' ruler's house, there came from the ruler's house some who said your daughter's dead. Why trouble the teacher anymore?

[30:39] The interruption and subsequent healing of the woman, it came at a great cost. It came at the cost of this daughter's life.

[30:51] And with her death, the report was that there was no longer any reason for Jairus to trouble Jesus any further. Just leave him alone. Let him get on with his own business. But notice Jesus, while he overhears the news that has been made, he essentially ignores what has been said.

[31:11] He doesn't address it. He doesn't respond to this person, this individual directly. Rather, the compassionate gaze that he had just looked at the woman with now turns to Jairus.

[31:24] As he says, do not fear, only believe. Do not fear, only believe. Jairus has a choice.

[31:37] He can believe in the circumstances of the moment, that his life has just been radically flipped upside down, or he can continue in the faith that brought him to Jesus in the first place.

[31:49] Jesus. And so when Jesus tells him to believe, he is giving this command in the present tense, as in, keep on believing.

[32:01] Hold on to your faith. Don't give in to the despair. prayer. And so he tells us in 37, and he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.

[32:19] They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and weeping?

[32:30] The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went into where the child was.

[32:45] So Jesus brings his inner circle of disciples, Peter and James and John, and they continue on the journey to Jairus' house. And whenever they arrive at his house, they arrive at a scene.

[33:01] In first century Judaism, mourners were part of a professional society or a professional guild, and they were required to be present at funerals.

[33:13] One of the most important figures in Jewish history, a man by the name of Rabbi Judah, writing just a century after these events took place, said, even the poorest person in Israel should hire at least two flute players and one wailing woman.

[33:28] it is said that these professional mourners, they would accompany the family all the way from the house to the grave. And as they go along to the grave, they would clap their hands together while making haunting laments.

[33:47] their children. And so there's no wonder when Jesus arrives that they begin laughing at him when he reassures Jairus that your child is not dead but sleeping.

[34:06] This girl was not merely in a comatose state. These mourners could not be deceived into thinking that Jairus' daughter was sleeping in a literal sense.

[34:17] they had been around death enough to know this girl is dead. 41 and 42 it says with only the parents and the inner three Jesus grasped this young girl's hand and by the word of his power he says Talitha Kumi little girl get up or arise.

[34:44] by addressing this girl in her native tongue perhaps it would have been reminiscent of how her mother likely would have awakened her in the morning.

[34:57] Just as the woman with the issue of blood found immediate healing and restoration the spirit of this lifeless girl returns and apparently without any help gets up and begins to walk around.

[35:10] It's not like it was a gradual she was fully restored ready to get up and go. She was hungry. This miracle brought on by our Lord Jesus left those around overcome with amazement the literal translation astonished with great astonishment.

[35:36] Just moments before she was pale and lifeless a corpse and now she is filled with life and health and energy. So what do we do with this passage today?

[35:56] I wrestled much on how to word thoughts and my mind kept going back to these three things. Really two but one is kind of split into two so maybe two and a half.

[36:13] First thing Christ provides hope in a state of helplessness. In both the life of Jairus and the woman we find two people in a state of desperation and hopelessness.

[36:28] Jairus facing the brutal blow of death and the loss of his daughter. The woman suffering for 12 long years with the condition that left her physically broken, socially isolated without any hope.

[36:46] Two people from different walks of life, hopeless situation. Perhaps you can sympathize with something that took place between these two stories.

[37:07] Maybe you can't. Maybe you can say, I've not really experienced anything like what happened with Jairus or what happened with the woman. We may not have ever been faced with these same circumstances, but our sinful state apart from Christ leaves us in an even greater hopelessness than the loss of a loved one or an illness.

[37:33] Separated from God by sin, we face a far greater hopelessness, a spiritual death that no earthly solution can fix or heal.

[37:45] Our sin leaves us condemned before a holy and just God. No amount of effort, morality, or religion can bridge that gap.

[38:01] But God, rich in mercy and love, He did not leave us in our filthy state.

[38:12] He sent His Son, Jesus, to step into our broken world. Jesus humbled Himself, leaving the glory of heaven to walk among us. He lived a sinless life, yet suffered the consequences of sin, betrayal, pain, and death.

[38:29] On the cross, He bore the full weight of our sin and the wrath of God that we deserved. He died in our place so that through His resurrection we might be given new life.

[38:44] Like Jairus and the woman, our only hope is to come to Jesus humbly, urgently, and in faith. To cast our life at the throne of Jesus.

[38:57] If we would turn from our sin into Christ in faith, He will forgive, heal, and restore us. Like the woman in our story, Christ meets us in our desperation and by His grace He gives us peace that we could never earn for ourselves.

[39:16] And so if you are in Christ this morning, Jesus' words, go in peace, are true for you. You can walk in peace. The hope of the gospel is still just as good news today as it was the day that you received it.

[39:36] Jesus looked at the woman and said, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed. this was permanent, the seal that was placed on her.

[39:51] And so it is with you. When Christ claims you as His own, you are His. You can walk in peace knowing that you have been permanently and totally healed from your sin.

[40:06] There's no more condemnation left for those who are in Christ Jesus. in Christ you have a permanent status as a son or a daughter of God.

[40:19] You are no longer outcasts. We don't come to Jesus and Jesus turns and He cringes a little bit at us. We come to Him in all of our filth and Jesus turns around and in compassion He loves us and embraces us.

[40:34] He makes us His son or His daughter. And so if this is true there is no need to carry the burden of your sin any longer. Christ has carried it all for you.

[40:46] So walk in peace. And then secondly it's never too late for Jesus. If you're like me it's easy to become fixated on your current situation.

[41:04] can you imagine the heart of Jairus when he hears the words your daughter is dead. Why trouble the master anymore?

[41:23] His heart would have sunk immediately. Yet Jesus comes to him and says do not fear only believe. Jesus says keep believing.

[41:37] Mark is reminding his audience that Jesus the God who created and sustains the universe is not some distant God but he draws near to us.

[41:49] He is a personal and compassionate God. He didn't show disdain to Jairus when Jairus came to him pleading for the life of his daughter.

[42:00] he didn't turn a blind eye to the woman when she makes her way through the crowd to just touch the fringe of his garment.

[42:14] Christ he turned in compassion and in love. He knew their need and he is the only true God that was able to supply the need or to meet their need.

[42:27] And so then I ask are you at a point in life where you have begun to think why trouble God anymore? Maybe you have prayed earnestly for a friend or a family member to know Christ and yet in their stubbornness they still refuse to listen.

[42:51] And so the thought why speak to them anymore? Why trouble God anymore about this matter? They are never going to repent. They are never going to listen. Or perhaps maybe life just seems one big chaotic mess.

[43:07] Finances haven't gotten any better or easier. Perhaps a child is wayward. Your spouse is sick. Maybe you're struggling with the loss of a loved one and the pain is still there.

[43:25] Jesus, the God of the universe is compassionate and loving and he draws near to you.

[43:37] So take heart. Christ knows your pain and Christ knows your suffering and he is calling you to keep believing, to keep trusting in his good promises, to work all things out for his glory and for your good.

[43:51] God, I thank you that you love us and that you care for us. I thank you that sinners though we are, that when we come to you in full faith, that you receive us, that you remove all of our sin, our guilt, and you give us your righteousness.

[44:23] We can walk in peace. God, I pray that whatever burdens that we might be carrying with us today, that we would throw them at your feet, knowing that you are a God who is compassionate and loving and caring.

[44:40] That you're not some distant God that you have a listening ear. So God, would you remind us of who you are this morning, that you are good and loving, that you are sovereign, that you are in control of all manners of life.

[44:58] Whatever trouble and hardship that we are going through is not new news to you. You are aware. God, would you make us more like you?

[45:10] In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you, amen. Thank you, amen. Thank you, Thank you, amen. Thank you, amen. Thank you, amen. Thank you, amen. Thank you, amen, amen, Thank you.