[0:00] Aren't you glad that Jesus taught in stories? How many of you prefer to learn something by somebody telling a story? Well, it's going to happen either way, so we're going to do it here. Jesus tells a story, and I'm glad that he does.
[0:10] It really helps you not only know what's happening, but to maybe feel some of the emotions that are going on. And this story is filled with that, filled with truth for us to know.
[0:21] It's filled with emotion. My life group would tell you I like big words that I don't understand, that I don't know exactly what I'm saying. I learned a word this week, and it's a needed word, and it's called a juxtaposition.
[0:33] Have you ever seen that word before? It's this. It's the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with a contrasting effect. Every part of this story could be broken up in and of itself and be worthy of a full sermon or a whole series of sermons.
[0:48] The woman with the issue of blood, that's an incredible lesson to see. Jairus, who calls out to Jesus to help his daughter, that's an incredible story. But it seems that great effort was put to interconnect these two stories together into one, that you can't fully tell one of these stories without telling the other story.
[1:08] And so in seeing them connected today, I believe there's something for us to learn that is seen in both of the stories. I've already said if faith may require you to speak up or it may cause you to sit still, both our action or our inaction should demonstrate a complete dependence in God.
[1:25] And we're going to see in Jairus' reflection of him growing in his faith throughout the story and also with this woman with the issue of blood. And I know that I create vision amateur theater up here a lot, but I just have to see this story, all right?
[1:40] So if I could get Gabriel and Jacob and Jonathan. Jonathan, you get to be Jesus today, okay? If you'll stand right here, you could be Peter, James, and... Can I get T. Wayne and man? I meant to ask you earlier if you could come up here.
[1:51] And then so if you guys would come over here, Jacob and Gabriel over here, and this will be Jesus. And so that I don't get confused, I'm going to be Jairus in the story, okay? I'm the guy with the 12-year-old daughter, all right?
[2:04] And I'm hoping not to get confused, all right? I'm going to say that again. So I'm the dad in the story, and this is Jesus. He looks more like Jesus when I first met him, all right? And that's good. And so here's Jonathan or Jesus, all right?
[2:17] We have Jesus here. We have Peter, James, and John. And then we're going to have the woman, if she'll be right over here, man him. And then we're going to need a crowd of people, all right? And so from Lunchbox to Thatcher, you guys know you're always coming up here, right?
[2:29] Every time I do this, they're like, we know we're coming up here. All of you guys come up here. You're going to be the crowd. And so I'm going to tell it to you as if I was Jairus retelling the story. Because you know the rest of his life he tells the story, even though when the story...
[2:43] You guys come up here on stage, all right? All right, and you guys need to get in front of the lady here, the woman, if you guys will stand in this area.
[2:54] All right, she's going to be easy to hide back here, all right? A little man, that's why you're chosen here. And so here's Jesus. And so at the end of the story, when it's told in the book of Mark, it says that the whole world hears of the story.
[3:07] At the end of this story, Jesus tells them not to tell anybody, but faith that's demonstrated is going to be spoken about. The whole world hears of the story, and you know the story. But Jairus, I imagine, as a dad, tells the story every time his family gets together.
[3:21] I mean, just the rest of his life, what Jesus did for his family. So I'm going to become Jairus now. Okay, I'm Jairus, all right? I'm in character. I look very similar than I did before. So Jairus, he knows, I know that there's going to be...
[3:35] Last time Jesus was here, there was healing. And so there's going to be a large crowd. I have to get to him. My daughter is about to die. She is on the doorstep of death.
[3:47] Nobody will be able to heal her except for this man that they call Jesus. So I go that day, I went to Jesus, and I threw myself down at his feet. And I said, Jesus, my daughter is about to die.
[3:59] You have to come with me. You have to help me. I have no other option. So Jesus was coming with me that day. And as we were getting closer to my house, as he was walking by this crowd of people that was gathered, a woman reached through, and she touched the hem of his garment.
[4:17] And as Jesus was walking, he turned around, and he said, who touched me? And he's asking, out of all these people, Jesus wanted to know who it was. I wasn't only surprised, but Peter was surprised.
[4:31] Peter said what I was thinking. Peter said, what do you mean who touched you? With all these people around, a lot of people were touching you. But Jesus said, who was it? And the woman stepped forth, and she told everything.
[4:44] She declared what happened. She came trembling, all right? Nice. She came trembling. And she jumped up and down. No, she didn't. All right. And so she declared what happened.
[4:56] But while that was going on, some people came up to me in the middle of this, and they said, it's too late. Your daughter died.
[5:06] And so my heart was broken. Everybody was rejoicing because this woman had been healed. But my heart was broken because it was too late.
[5:17] But Jesus looked at me and said, believe only. And so me, Peter, James, and John, and Jesus, we went into the house, and nobody else was able to come with us.
[5:28] And we went into the house, and it was there. Jesus took the girl by the hand and said, Talitha Kumi, arise. Damsel, maid, arise.
[5:39] Girl, arise. The name of Justice of Courtney, Talitha, and arose. And she stood up, and he said, get her something to eat, all right? And she is fully alive.
[5:50] Completely she came. And God taught me something incredible through that story. So let's rewind back here for a second, okay? There's two main areas of this story that I want to draw your attention to.
[6:01] There is this faith of a dad crying out to Jesus. Right here, if you'll come over here, Jesus. Try not to tell Jesus what to do too often. All right? And so you have the dad who's crying out to Jesus.
[6:13] But then there's the, over here, the part where he's got to wait. Because Jesus has stopped, and Jesus isn't doing all that he thought Jesus was going to do. Finding out that it's too late that his daughter had died.
[6:25] His faith and the response that he's going to have to all of that. And then Jesus looking at him and said, fear not, but believe. And so there's this moment I want you guys to think about.
[6:36] But then you also have this young lady here who had spent everything that she had and given everything. And she now came, and she shouldn't have been there. She was socially an outcast.
[6:46] But she reached out in faith and grabbed a hold of the end of his garments. And immediately she was healed. And she went from being timid and shy to declaring it.
[6:59] And so I'm grateful that God puts this story and this story together. Because sometimes in my life I want to know, God, am I supposed to be reaching out in faith and getting what you have for me?
[7:09] Or am I supposed to be waiting patiently, trusting in your timing? And the answer to that is I am supposed to live fully dependent on God. And if that requires action, then that's what I do.
[7:23] If it requires waiting, that's what I do. But at no point in the story do I take my eyes off of Jesus. I let his actions determine, am I supposed to be waiting patiently or am I supposed to be acting courageously?
[7:35] Both of them are supposed to be done dependent fully upon the Lord. And I bring you Vision's Amateur Theater Hour. All right. Thank you guys very much. So let's look. Let's jump right in here and first speak about the lady.
[7:48] She has a timid faith that becomes a testifying faith. She came trembling, falling down before him, and she declared. In the story here, she comes out and she falls down before Jesus and she declares all that Jesus had done.
[8:03] She had to overcome so much. She had this obstacle. In Leviticus 15, 19, it tells basically this woman was the same as if somebody had leprosy. She couldn't go to the temple with everybody.
[8:15] If you were around her, if you would have touched her for seven days, you couldn't have went to the temple or any social events. So not only did she have the medical problem, but she was basically an outcast.
[8:27] So that day as she was getting ready, and she didn't think that she was allowed to be in the crowd like everybody else. She wasn't allowed to go to all the other events. But it took her courage to come and do that.
[8:39] And there's the obstacle of the large crowd. It said that was pressing against Jesus. There was no guarantee that she could get to Jesus. She was in a weakened condition, Mark 5, 26, and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.
[8:59] None of the doctors could do anything to help her. And not only did they not help her, but she was in a worse condition than she'd ever been in. So there she comes, knowing she was an outcast, knowing that there's going to be a large crowd and in a weakened position, condition.
[9:17] And then she has to force her way through this aggressive mob of people. And in verse Luke 8, 47, And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling and falling down.
[9:28] She had the difficult task. She was trying to go there and stay hidden, but she was trying to get to Jesus on that day. And then Jesus told her she could not hide, but Jesus didn't want her to.
[9:40] She could not hide, and Jesus didn't want her to. Mark 5, 32, it says, And Jesus looked round about to see who had done this thing. And the woman realized she couldn't be hid.
[9:53] So Jesus knew, it said his virtue, the power went out of him. He knew somebody had touched him and grabbed a hold of his garment with faith. And in that moment, it says that she was healed. Well, Jesus didn't want this woman to be hidden.
[10:06] He could have just kept on going. But he says, who was this? And she came forth trembling and scared, and she falls down. And she declares what God had done.
[10:17] Jesus wanted her faith to be testified of. Jesus loved this woman and wanted to make sure that you knew this. She had been healed instantly. And then he tells her to go in peace, which was to say that this woman did not steal a healing from Jesus.
[10:33] Okay? That Jesus was pleased with her. And he calls her daughter. And he puts her right here on display with everything going on. And he says, I want you to testify, not of the miracle, because in a little bit he does a miracle.
[10:46] And he's not wanting people to tell of the miracles. But testify of your faith. And she told everything. She told them how she had been sick and how she had come to Jesus.
[10:57] She told everything. And her faith was put on display that day. And this woman was not an interruption to his ministry. She was his ministry.
[11:08] He stopped everything. This man, the Jairus, he had influence in the community. He was the leader at the synagogue. You would have thought that he would have helped her. This woman was an outcast.
[11:19] We've talked about it many times, how women did not have the value that they should have had in this society. But Jesus looked at her and told her, go in peace. He called her daughter.
[11:30] He demonstrated to everybody watching that he loved her. So it's not the miracle which Jesus wanted to make public, but her faith. This woman will declare it. And all the people for what cause she had touched him.
[11:42] She told that she believed that Jesus could change her life. And now she was demonstrating complete dependence on God. If it wouldn't have worked, if she wouldn't believe in Jesus, she wouldn't have went through all those steps.
[11:55] But her faith was being seen here. You see, faith believes that God is not reluctant, but willing to help us. This woman believed, if I could just get into the presence of Jesus, if I could just touch the hem of his garments, then God could do something.
[12:12] She believed that God would help her, that Jesus was willing to do that. See, Peter believed like you and I believe. Peter said, Jesus, what do you mean who touched you? Look around.
[12:23] There's thousands of people around here. How can you be interested in this one person? And you and I often think that as well, right? We think there's so many bigger things going on.
[12:34] God has to worry about the guy who's in charge of the synagogue. And God has all these big things going on. And he could never work in my story. He could never care about little old me and my problems.
[12:45] But faith says God's not reluctant to help us. He will make a difference. And that's what that woman is demonstrating here in the story. She could be healed and she reached out by faith.
[12:57] She wasn't supposed to touch Jesus. He could have rebuked her. He could have all kinds of things could have happened. But she had faith that Jesus was loving and powerful and would do something.
[13:10] You know, God's willingness to work in our lives. I love how George Mueller said he did this. His prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of his willingness.
[13:22] We have a God that loves us. Ladies, we have a father who calls you daughter. You have one that stops everything and says, look here at the faith of my daughter who would allow you when the rest of the world would want nothing to do with you.
[13:36] And that would put you outside of the camp. Says it's okay for you to touch my garments. Who would allow another type of woman who had a bad history to come in and wash his feet. Knowing that people would be ridiculing him.
[13:48] He is not ashamed to know you and to be known by you. And so our willingness. I love the story of George Mueller. When he started the orphanage, he gave three reasons.
[13:58] And the first one I want to mention to you is that in establishing the orphan house, that God may be glorified should he be pleased to furnish me with the means. And it's being seen that it's not a vain thing to trust in him.
[14:11] And that thus the faith of his children may be strengthened. And George Mueller said, I want to live a life in such dependency upon God that everybody who's watching me will know that God is great and that God is mighty.
[14:25] Secondarily, he just said, for the spiritual welfare of the fatherless and the motherless children. And the third one was their temporal welfare. Mueller prayed and said, God, would you give me such a life that people would see that I was fully dependent on you.
[14:39] And as a result, they would worship you and they would see that you are great and mighty. George Mueller prayed for the healing of his wife, but he also preached their funeral. The last portion of scripture, which I read to my precious wife, was this.
[14:53] The Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And I said myself with regard to the latter part. No good thing will be withheld from them that walk uprightly.
[15:04] I am myself a poor, worthless sinner, but I've been saved by the blood of Christ. I do not live in sin and I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again.
[15:17] Sick as she is, God will restore her again. But if she was not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God.
[15:28] And all this springs, as I've often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says. What did Jesus tell Jairus that day? He says, just believe only.
[15:41] Fear not and believe. That was the life that Mueller lived. He says, I'm just going to believe God and I'm just going to trust him. You know, it's not a sin to not believe that God is going to do something that he did not explicitly promise to you.
[15:55] It was not a sin to not believe that the Braves were going to win the World Series, okay? Nobody thought they were going to win the World Series in the middle of the summer. And so it was not a sin that I did not have faith that the Braves would win the World Series.
[16:09] But it is a sin to not trust God and reach out for what he has already offered and promised to us. When the promises from the word of God have been given to you, to not believe them and to act upon them are sin.
[16:24] So what are some of those promises we act upon? Philippians 4, 19, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. If you don't believe that he can meet your needs and your acting in fear, then that is sin.
[16:39] Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together for good them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose. That's what Mueller said. He says, I can believe that what God has done in my life is good.
[16:51] And that is a promise that I can grab a hold of and that I can believe and I can trust. So we see this woman's faith in the direction and her dependency. Bible tells us in James that even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone.
[17:08] It took faith for this woman to line up that day on the side of the road. It took faith for her to push through the crowd. It took faith for her, knowing that she was unclean, to reach out and touch this teacher, that Jesus that had been passing through.
[17:24] And he said unto her, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. It was by faith that day that she made it to Jesus. This woman tells us that when we act, we should do so in total dependency upon God to work believing that he is not reluctant, but willing to work in our lives.
[17:43] Doesn't it make you wonder how many other people that day were in need of something from Jesus, but they didn't have the faith to reach out and to trust him and to be totally dependent upon him?
[17:54] So there's this woman in the example of total dependency on Jesus that required action on her behalf. Now we get to Jairus. And here's Jairus in this difficulty of waiting.
[18:05] There could have been a dispute that day. He's at the synagogue. Are you really? His wife could have said, are you really going to go find Jesus? I mean, this man, what do we really know about him? What will the other rabbis speak about you?
[18:17] What will all the society speak about you that you're going to put all your dependency in going to Jesus? It said that when he got to his house with Jesus, there was already mourners that were outside of there.
[18:29] I'm told that people had to hire mourners when somebody died. Even a poor family had to have two flute players. Sixth grade middle school band flute players had to come.
[18:40] All right? Mourners had to come and play the instrument. So by the time that Jesus had come there, people were already mourning the loss of his daughter because they knew that she was dead.
[18:53] And could you imagine what it was like? Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. Could you imagine hearing that? I know that you have some hope right now, Jairus, but let go of it.
[19:07] There is no hope anymore. She is gone. Nothing could happen. So we know that Jesus' delay was good for the woman that he healed. But did you know that his delay was also good for Jairus and his daughter?
[19:21] Because God only does things well. Jesus is telling us the way it does not imply apathy on his behalf. Ultimately, trusting in God means that we accept his timing for all events.
[19:35] He was experiencing great fear. 850. Luke 850. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, Fear not, believe only, and he shall be made whole. Jesus addresses the fear in the man's life and tells him to believe.
[19:49] To keep your eyes upon me. Depend completely upon me. Even though the timing isn't what you thought it was going to be, you can trust and have complete dependence in me.
[20:00] Have you ever been in one of those fearful situations that's a hindrance to your faith? That you should be putting your trust in Jesus, but you're just like Jairus and the fear causes you?
[20:11] I mean, that day when he got over and the mourners were playing the instruments and they were already mourning, I can't imagine that he even heard those. Because the voices in his mind and his thoughts had to be so loud.
[20:22] He had lost his 12-year-old daughter. Thought about having my 12-year-old daughter be in the back and come up here with me. But she didn't want to play that game, all right? But I don't even know that I could have handled even to act out this idea of losing my 12-year-old daughter.
[20:39] And all those emotions are in his heart. All those emotions are in his head just screaming. The mourners and everything is in there. And he has to hold on to complete dependency in Jesus.
[20:51] These fearful situations, that waiting in line and Jesus is passing by, am I going to be able to get to him? That believing that it's too late and that you're without hopeless.
[21:02] Fearful situations do something wonderful in our lives. It brings clarity in our lives. You know, Jairus, he was not the leader of that synagogue that day. What was he?
[21:13] He was a dad. That's all he was. I mean, there was nothing else on his business card. There was nothing else that mattered. He didn't care about the business that had to be done. He didn't care about his reputation.
[21:23] He didn't care what other people would have thought about him. But he was a man that was sprinting to the feet of Jesus and said, You have to help my daughter. Nobody can help her. And if you don't come immediately, Jesus, I'm not going to.
[21:37] That fear that we have in our lives and these situations, it brings real clarity to what's important and to who we are. This fearfulness strips away all of our pride and it lets us prove that the Lord himself is mighty on our behalf.
[21:52] Austin Till, you know this. I'm sure. Probably been on one of your podcasts before. But Hudson Taylor says the great pioneer missionary, he used to say, When God wanted to open inland China to the gospel, he looked around until he found a man weak enough for the task.
[22:07] He found somebody that was just fully dependent upon God. Because that fear, that complete dependency on Jesus that says, I can't go to any other place and get an answer. I can't do anything in myself.
[22:19] It doesn't matter who I am. It doesn't matter what my reputation is. It doesn't matter how much money I have. If Jesus does not help me, I will not be helped. It takes away all the pride in our lives.
[22:30] And this situation reminds us of our limits and drives us to put our trust in Jesus. We already found that there was plots to kill Jesus. Jairus making the decision that day to go to Jesus totally put him against everything in his culture.
[22:45] Jairus wouldn't have risked this favor by coming to Jesus if he didn't have to. But his dying daughter forced him to come and trust in Jesus. So some of you face fearful situations today.
[22:57] Maybe a difficult marriage, a rebellious child, personal health problems, the loss of a job or a financial setback. And whatever your fearful situation, it can be of great benefit if you will let it clarify your priorities.
[23:10] It will strip you of all your pride. If it will drive you to trust in Jesus so that he can be glorified through it. In that fear, you can only believe.
[23:22] That's all you have left. It's a wonderful place to be. So look at some of the lessons that we learned during the delay. So Jesus encouraged Jairus. I just imagine him looking into the eyes of the Messiah when all this is going on inside of his heart.
[23:38] And Jesus looks at him and he encourages Jairus. How wonderful is that? That the creator of the universe of knowing all still dealt with this man who was seeing everything completely wrong.
[23:51] And he looked at him and he said, Fear not, believing only, and she shall be made whole. We know of another dad in Mark 9, 24. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe.
[24:03] Help thou my unbelief. That's what Jesus was doing to that man that day. That man was fighting on the inside. He wanted to believe, but he was just struggling because the sounds outside of the mourners, the fact that they had told him that it was too late, everything told him that it was hopeless except for the words of God.
[24:25] The words of God. Jesus' power in working with others encourages us to trust him. Probably not in that moment, but looking back, he thought, I just saw Jesus do the impossible.
[24:36] The testimonies, Tuesday night we were in here and person after person came up to a microphone and they said, I was in an impossible situation, but Jesus saved me. I was praying for this and God did something.
[24:49] That faith, that testimony, that faith in them ought to encourage you. And when you're going through something in your life and God hasn't given you the answer of it yet, it gives you real clarity about who you are.
[25:02] It gives you real clarity that only he can do it. It also slows you down enough to look around and to hear other people's stories. Sometimes you don't listen to other people's stories because you've never experienced anything like that.
[25:14] And so it just doesn't seem to be that big a deal to you. But in these moments, it slows you down. And then also, Jesus' mighty power over death should encourage us to trust him.
[25:25] It wasn't but a chapter ago that Jesus went by. A widow had lost her son. And he wasn't so... Jesus, everybody's watching. Jesus isn't supposed to touch anything that's associated with the dead.
[25:37] And he goes and he sets his hand upon where the son is, where the young man that had died, the widow's son. And he spoke and brought healing and resurrected that young man, brought him back to life.
[25:52] Jesus' power over death should encourage us in that. And so Jesus has a purpose in the delay. You want the answer immediately. Jairus didn't want the issue. He didn't want that other story connected to his.
[26:03] He wanted this chapter of the Bible to be much shorter. All right? Jairus asked for Jesus to heal his daughter. His daughter was healed. That's how he thought he wanted to go. But this delay did a few things.
[26:14] It highlights the importance of Jesus' teaching. When those people came to him and they said, It's too late. There's no reason to bother the teacher. You can almost just hear the animosity in their voice.
[26:27] Kind of the insult. There's no reason for you to bring this teacher anymore. This teacher, while your daughter was dying, decided that he wanted to give a lesson, an object lesson, on the side of the road here.
[26:40] Jesus is highlighting his teaching. While this young girl is dying, he stops and teaches. He's giving the gospel. He's giving good news to these people. He is helping other people.
[26:52] This story highlights how important the teaching of Jesus is in our lives, and the Word of God in our lives. Jesus made Jairus wait in order to highlight the significance of the woman in the story.
[27:03] This woman probably didn't mean a whole lot to Jairus in a normal day. She had been around town. She wasn't there at the temple. Probably people didn't have a lot of love and respect for this woman, but Jesus did.
[27:15] He would help the daughter of the man who was significant in the community, and he would help the outcast, and he would even call him his daughter. Jesus allowed Jairus' daughter to die so that he could be glorified by raising her from the dead.
[27:29] God was doing something much bigger than Jairus could ever imagine, something that was going to strengthen his faith. This is something as old as mankind is, this impatience.
[27:42] In the Old Testament, it was said like this, Psalm 130, verse 5, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Waiting for the Lord is the opposite of impatience.
[27:55] It's waiting for the Lord. The strength that sustains you in patience is hope. The source of hope is the word of God. In his word do I hope. And what is hope?
[28:06] All hope is is faith in future tense. It's like, God, I have faith in you. Now and in the future, I can have faith in you. When the conditions look like they're going to work, and when they don't look like they're going to work.
[28:20] And if you're tempted to not wait peacefully for God, to let Him give you your next move, if you're tempted to give up on Him or to go ahead without Him, please realize that this moment is of great spiritual warfare.
[28:34] When you want to move ahead and act when He hasn't told you to act, when He tells you to wait, that's spiritual warfare. And you say, God, I am not going to move until you move me, because I'm going to be dependent upon you.
[28:46] I'm not going to find my own way around this. The stories of the Bible, Abraham and so many of them throughout the Bible, were people that weren't living dependent upon God. In moments, they said, God, I'm going to take this on myself, and I'm going to act now, not in dependency upon you, but independently of you.
[29:06] And that's where we come down to, that as our faith grows, that we either wait patiently for the Lord, or we are going to act courageously, knowing that He's already given us a promise that we are to act upon.
[29:18] As Christian comes and plays the piano, I have three questions that I'm going to ask you today. I believe it's a question for every one of you in here. And the first of all is here, it's just like Jairus, some of you need to come to the knowledge of Jesus' power over death.
[29:34] Maybe somebody brought you here today, maybe you're watching online, somebody shared a link with you, but just like Jairus, some of you need to come to the knowledge of Jesus' power over death.
[29:45] It may not be the fear for the loss of your family, but your own death. What will happen to you when you die? And maybe the story of your life has been interrupted enough in this moment for you to ask yourself, do you have faith in Him?
[30:02] What's going to happen to you after you die? Those of you in the room, those that are listening, have you put your faith and trust in Jesus, who has power over death and the grave?
[30:13] And if you don't, you need to run to Him, just like Jairus did, just like this woman did, who reached out in faith, knowing He's not reluctant to help you.
[30:25] Are you a person in here in need of something that only God can provide? See, this woman with the issue of blood had something she needed, Jairus had something she needed, and the answer in here should always be yes.
[30:39] I'm not talking about being discontent, where you're not saying, I need something to be happy, but every one of you ought to have prayer requests that are just audacious. You ought to just have prayer requests that you're just like, this will not happen in this world unless God does it.
[30:54] My family member is not going to be saved unless something happens in their life. This opportunity is not going to happen unless God has done something. But so many of us have not lived like George Mueller that just says, I want to live a life that shows complete dependency upon God, but we have lived a life that is completely self-independent, a life that is completely on its own.
[31:17] What if God was to give you all your prayer requests today? Would it make any real difference in this world? When is the last time that you were desperate in need of something from God? Maybe you live a clean and simple life.
[31:30] You take care, you pay your bills, everything is in order. Could I encourage you? If that's the life you're living, then you need to get around some people that are hurting. You need to get around and make your prayer requests for some other people because Jairus might've been in perfect health that day, but his desperate need was for somebody else.
[31:46] It was for his daughter. So maybe you have your act together and everything is okay, but you ought to have these desires upon your heart where you're crying out to God in full dependence on him because there's people around you that are needy and they're hurting.
[32:00] And one of the most merciful gifts God can give us is a deep keen awareness of our dependence on him for everything. 2 Corinthians 12, 10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distress for Christ's sake.
[32:18] For when I am weak, then I am strong. Being at a place today of complete dependency upon Jesus is a wonderful place to live your life. Never outgrow that.
[32:29] Never try to set your life up where you're not dependent upon him. We should be facing the problems of this world that make us feel weak. It is then in dependence to him that he can show himself strong in our lives.
[32:43] You know, there's challenges of raising our kids in a... There's challenges that our missionaries have in their kids being raised on a third world country in a developing country, but there's also challenges that we face here in a country where everything is so soft.
[32:57] They haven't seen us depend upon God for something. When was the last time you were like this woman or this man in the story where you say, God, I'm just fully dependent upon you. I'm going to wait depending on you or I'm going to act depending upon you.
[33:11] And should I be waiting on Jesus or be pushing myself to the front of the line? That's the two different... The tension that we see here in this story. And the answer is we should be doing whatever requires dependence on God.
[33:24] Act or do not act in total dependence on him. Faith is an active... It's active. It's not passive. Even in our waiting, we fight this battle of impatience.
[33:34] And then lastly, before I pray, what would your week look like if you truly depended on God? Would it look like some courageous action? Or would it look like you would stop worrying and conniving and manipulating and complaining and just sitting patiently and saying, God, it's not in my hands that it's in your hands and I'm going to trust you and I'm going to depend on you and my life is going to look like a life of full dependence on you.
[34:04] And some of you may need to start something. You need to reach out in faith and see what step of faith of what he could do in your life. And so whatever you do or don't do this week, do it in total dependence upon God because he is not reluctant to work in your life.
[34:21] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for these stories, Lord. I thank you how they are connected together. And Lord, I see in myself an unwillingness to move when I know that I should move in faith.
[34:34] I also see in myself an unwillingness to stop fearing and believe. Lord, I know that both of those are just responses of not being dependent upon you. Lord, I don't want to live my life independent of you.
[34:47] I don't want a calendar or a bank account or any dreams or any plans or a family, Lord, that is not dependent upon you. So Lord, I want to place my life fully into your hands, the lead and the guide.
[35:01] With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just ask you in here today, the first thing you need to recognize is his power over death. If you're in here and that's the case, you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus, would you please go to a counseling room?
[35:15] Would you please allow us an opportunity to pray with you? I would love nothing more to let you see how Jesus not only had power over death in this story, but he has power over death in your story as well.
[35:28] If that's your story, would you just raise your hand today? Just like the woman in the story, by faith, she made an action. Would you raise your hand so that I would know that's your story and pray for you? And then Christian in here, are you living dependent upon him?
[35:42] Are there areas in which he is calling you to act that you're not because you have not believed in him to be true to his word? And today you ought to find a place.
[35:53] Maybe the action would be simply to stand up and come to the altar and pray to him, but make some movement today. Leave this place and make that phone call. Talk to that person. Be like the woman who pushed through the crowd and let that faith move you in your trust to him.
[36:09] And some of you are in a season of waiting. And in that season of waiting, you need to be fully dependent upon him. Don't be looking at the answers that are not found in him, but trust in him and him completely.
[36:22] Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with my brothers and sisters right now, Lord, as we come to a time of responding to your word. I pray that in the heart of every believer in here, Lord, that they would say that they want to be fully dependent upon you.
[36:35] And Lord, whatever that looks like in our lives in this season, in this week, Lord, we would be a group of people that live fully dependent upon you. In this Jesus name we pray.