Speaker 1: Mark chapter five, verse twenty one. When Jesus had again
Speaker 1: crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake,
Speaker 1: A large crowd gathered around him while he was by
Speaker 1: the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jyrus came,
Speaker 1: and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.
Speaker 1: He pleaded earnestly with him. My little girl is dying.
Speaker 1: Please come put your hands on her so that she
Speaker 1: will be healed and live. Let's pray. Lord, we come
Speaker 1: to you this morning. We come here just want to
Speaker 1: say you're worthy. God, if you never do another thing
Speaker 1: in our lives. Lord, you're worthy. You're holy, and we
Speaker 1: worship you. And we come together today and we ask
Speaker 1: that you would speak to us. We're gathered here in
Speaker 1: many rooms, in many homes, expecting to hear from you.
Speaker 1: We want to touch from you today. God. Would you
Speaker 1: protect us from any distractions now as we focus our
Speaker 1: minds and our hearts and our attention on you. We
Speaker 1: love you, Lord and Jesus name. I pray Amen, you
Speaker 1: may be seated. Does anyone remember a time when you
Speaker 1: wanted something really bad and someone else got it. I
Speaker 1: remember the Christmas that I was twelve and my neighbor
Speaker 1: Tricia got the thing that I wanted most in the world.
Speaker 1: She got her own telephone line in her bedroom, complete
Speaker 1: with an answering machine. Now I know half of you
Speaker 1: here today don't know even what that would look like,
Speaker 1: but I knew exactly. I can remember exactly what it
Speaker 1: looked like. And it's hard to watch someone else get
Speaker 1: the thing that you want. I wish I could say
Speaker 1: that that was the last time that I felt like
Speaker 1: someone got what I wanted. One time, Stephen and I
Speaker 1: were trying to sell our house during a buyer's market.
Speaker 1: It was two thousand and nine and pretty much no
Speaker 1: one's houses were selling, and so I was really nervous
Speaker 1: about it, and I just prayed constantly, God, would you
Speaker 1: sell our house? But what I did was I was
Speaker 1: praying mature, unselfish prayers, like God, you know exactly who
Speaker 1: needs this house, would you send them this way in
Speaker 1: your perfect timing this weekend. Well months went by, we
Speaker 1: didn't have an offer or a bite or anything. And
Speaker 1: one morning I was at my women's Bible study and
Speaker 1: one of the ladies, a friend of mine, she had
Speaker 1: a prayer request and she said, y'all, we're putting our
Speaker 1: house on the market this weekend and we're going out
Speaker 1: of town and I've got it all stage perfectly, So
Speaker 1: would y'all just pray that it sells this weekend? And
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, well, good luck with that. You
Speaker 1: know my opinion, God doesn't hear prayers about houses. I've
Speaker 1: tried that one. And so we come back to group
Speaker 1: the following week. Guess who had a praise report? Her
Speaker 1: house sold in one weekend and I went home and
Speaker 1: I had some words to say with God. I was like, Lord,
Speaker 1: I am a pastor's wife, and now I do know
Speaker 1: that her house is in a better location than mine,
Speaker 1: But don't I get bonus points for being in the ministry?
Speaker 1: And for that matter, I have been waiting longer than her. God,
Speaker 1: do we even care about the people who need our house.
Speaker 1: It's hard to watch someone else get the very thing
Speaker 1: that you have been asking God for. And that's what
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about today. The title
Speaker 1: of my message is Waiting on My Miracle, and I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about when you are believing
Speaker 1: God for something in your life and it seems like
Speaker 1: God isn't hearing your prayer, or that maybe he's even
Speaker 1: just pressed pause on your situation. And in our scripture,
Speaker 1: we have this father named Gyris, and he has a
Speaker 1: lot bigger problem than his house selling. His little daughter
Speaker 1: is dying. He is a father in desperation and he's
Speaker 1: running out of time. It's funny what a dad will
Speaker 1: do for his kids. I always found that Stephen was
Speaker 1: way more sympathetic to are kids then. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, whenever they would have some kind of injury,
Speaker 1: they'd bump their head or whatever, and they'd come to me.
Speaker 1: I would always downplay it. I feel like, you're fine,
Speaker 1: go play it's all right. Very quickly, my children learn
Speaker 1: who to go to for sympathy, their father, because he
Speaker 1: made up this thing. Every time they would come to him,
Speaker 1: he would say, Oh, you hate your head? Did you
Speaker 1: know I went to head school? Oh you hurt your finger?
Speaker 1: Let me see, did you know I went to finger school?
Speaker 1: Back me up. This man went to paper cut school,
Speaker 1: stub toe school, skin me school. And I used to
Speaker 1: think they really believed him too. And I used to think,
Speaker 1: God help this man if his kids ever really get hurt.
Speaker 1: You know, dads have this tough exterior, but when their
Speaker 1: child is hurting, they want to alleviate their pain. So
Speaker 1: in our story we have Gyros. He's a synagogue leader,
Speaker 1: he's a man of means, and yet his daughter is dying.
Speaker 1: And we can assume that he has tried every doctor,
Speaker 1: that he has tried, every concoction that every neighbor has suggested,
Speaker 1: and nothing is working, and he is running out of time.
Speaker 1: And so he comes in. He finds Jesus and he
Speaker 1: falls at his feet and he begs. He says, please
Speaker 1: come put your hands on her, so that she will
Speaker 1: be healed and lived. And you know what Jesus says
Speaker 1: to him, He says, let's go. It's interesting to me
Speaker 1: how specific Gyros was with his request. He says, please
Speaker 1: come put your hands on her, so that she will
Speaker 1: be healed and live. And as I was preparing this message,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, it's not necessarily a bad thing to
Speaker 1: be specific with God. Philippians four tells us that we
Speaker 1: can present our requests to God. He wants you to
Speaker 1: pray about everything, even the dumb stuff like the houses
Speaker 1: and the little things. He wants you to come to him.
Speaker 1: He wants to have a relationship with you. But I
Speaker 1: think sometimes, at least in my life, I don't know
Speaker 1: about yours. But in my life, I let the list
Speaker 1: my expectation of the how I want God to work
Speaker 1: in my situation and the when I think He needs
Speaker 1: to work in my situation. I let that become front
Speaker 1: and center, and I miss out on the more important part,
Speaker 1: which is that Jesus is with me. Jesus went with Jyris.
Speaker 1: And God is not this magic fairy in the sky
Speaker 1: who waves his wand and grants our wishes. But you
Speaker 1: know what, he is a very present help in times
Speaker 1: of trouble. And if we pray believing that God is
Speaker 1: working all things for our good, we have to realize
Speaker 1: that He is doing so much more than just sitting
Speaker 1: up in heaven deciding if and when he's gonna grant
Speaker 1: our request. Yes, he is healer, but you know what
Speaker 1: else he is. He's the Prince of peace, He's the comforter,
Speaker 1: he's our guide, he's faithful, and he's so much more.
Speaker 1: He is a God who is with us in our
Speaker 1: very darkest hour Verse twenty four. So Jesus went with him.
Speaker 1: A large crowd followed and pressed around him, And a
Speaker 1: woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for
Speaker 1: twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the
Speaker 1: care of many doctors and had spent all she had.
Speaker 1: Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she
Speaker 1: heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the
Speaker 1: crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, if I
Speaker 1: just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately, her
Speaker 1: bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she
Speaker 1: was freed from her suffering. And at once Jesus realized
Speaker 1: that the power had gone out from him, and he
Speaker 1: turned around in the crowd and he asked, who touched
Speaker 1: my clothes? You see all the people crowding against you.
Speaker 1: His disciples answered, and yet you asked who touched me?
Speaker 1: But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
Speaker 1: Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came
Speaker 1: and fell at his feet, and, trembling with fear, told
Speaker 1: him the whole truth. He said to her, daughter, your
Speaker 1: faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed
Speaker 1: from your suffering. Okay, so there are so many things
Speaker 1: happening in this part of the story. And if you
Speaker 1: have never I have to put paws on this and
Speaker 1: just say, if you have never heard Stephen's message on
Speaker 1: this woman where he tells us that this is the
Speaker 1: only person in the entire Bible that Jesus called daughter.
Speaker 1: I just have to say, put that on your to
Speaker 1: do list for this week. Go and find that sermon
Speaker 1: and listen to it. It It is like a shot of
Speaker 1: encouragement straight to your heart. I promise you you got
Speaker 1: to go find it and listen to it. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to really talk about the woman because I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be able to even remotely touch that the
Speaker 1: way that he did. So I'm gonna let you go
Speaker 1: listen to that, and we're gonna focus on Gyros. Where
Speaker 1: is he in this moment and what is he thinking?
Speaker 1: So go with me here. This man is desperate. He's
Speaker 1: found Jesus, He's gotten the attention of the Christ, the
Speaker 1: Son of God, and Jesus is going with him to
Speaker 1: heal his dying daughter and she doesn't have much time left,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, Jesus stops to heal someone else.
Speaker 1: Isn't it funny how there's no line to wait on God,
Speaker 1: Like God doesn't use a take a number system. And
Speaker 1: this can be really frustrating because often it feels like
Speaker 1: God's answering some people's prayers immediately, but mine are going unheard.
Speaker 1: And here we have Gyros and he's making progress. He's
Speaker 1: taking the healer to his daughter, and then Jesus stops,
Speaker 1: and for ten verses, Gyrus isn't even mentioned. Where did
Speaker 1: he go? What is he doing while he's waiting for
Speaker 1: his miracle? The Bible doesn't say. Now, I can tell
Speaker 1: you what I would have done. I would have had
Speaker 1: some words to say with God. I would have said,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Jesus, please, we don't have time. My daughter
Speaker 1: is dying. You said you would put your hands on
Speaker 1: her and heal her and she would live. Even though
Speaker 1: that's what Gyros said, that's not what Jesus said. But sometimes,
Speaker 1: you know, we mix things up, and I would say, please, Jesus,
Speaker 1: we gotta keep moving. You can come back to this woman.
Speaker 1: This isn't fair. It's not fair. In my house, there
Speaker 1: are a couple of phrases that my children are not
Speaker 1: allowed to say. They're forbidden phrases. Off the top of
Speaker 1: my head, there are two. I'm sure there is more.
Speaker 1: The first one is I hate you, not allowed to
Speaker 1: say that. The second one is that's not fair. First
Speaker 1: of all, you're not allowed to say that's not fair,
Speaker 1: because life isn't fair, and the sooner you find that out,
Speaker 1: the better. Second of all, I am trying my absolute
Speaker 1: hardest to do my best for everyone here, So don't
Speaker 1: tell me it's not fair. When we come to God
Speaker 1: with our it's not fair. We have to remember that
Speaker 1: he is our heavenly father, and he is perfect. He's
Speaker 1: not doing his best. He knows what is best for us.
Speaker 1: And if he doesn't answer my pray when I want
Speaker 1: him to in the time that I think that he should,
Speaker 1: I have to trust that he is a good father
Speaker 1: and he is with me, and he will not fail me.
Speaker 1: Let me show you where Gyrus was, because sometimes when
Speaker 1: you read the Bible, you have to look at the
Speaker 1: clues and draw some conclusions. So let me show you
Speaker 1: some of the clues. Look back at verse twenty four.
Speaker 1: It says, so Jesus went with him, A large crowd
Speaker 1: followed and pressed around him. Now skipt of verse thirty.
Speaker 1: At once Jesus realized that the power had gone out
Speaker 1: from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked,
Speaker 1: who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you.
Speaker 1: His disciples answered, and yet you ask who touched me?
Speaker 1: So imagine this situation. This is a legit crowd. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is like Disney World on the fourth of July.
Speaker 1: Have you In some translations it actually uses the describes
Speaker 1: the crowd as crushing. Have you ever been in a
Speaker 1: crushing crowd? It's scary. For my birthday, which was just
Speaker 1: a couple days ago, Stephen took me to see Sir
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney. It was an amazing night nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 1: You know, we just like it. It was amazing, except
Speaker 1: the only problem was we weren't the only people who
Speaker 1: wanted to hear Paul sing. And when I tell you,
Speaker 1: the crowd was crushing. We were shuffling to our seats
Speaker 1: and just people were everywhere. It was like the hold
Speaker 1: your purse kind of crowded. And I turn around to
Speaker 1: say something to Stephen, and there was another man, and
Speaker 1: I panicked for a second, and I had to look
Speaker 1: around and push through and reach back and grab his hand,
Speaker 1: because the only way to get through a crowd like
Speaker 1: that is to stay close. So picture Gyrous moving through
Speaker 1: this pressing, crushing crowd with Jesus. And when you are
Speaker 1: waiting on a miracle. You have two choices. You can
Speaker 1: stay close or you can be carried away. And the
Speaker 1: interesting thing here Gyrus wasn't following Jesus. Mark tells us
Speaker 1: Jesus went with Gyros. And when you're desperate, the number
Speaker 1: one tool that the enemy is going to use in
Speaker 1: your life is he's going to try and get you
Speaker 1: away from Jesus. Jesus is still with you. And the
Speaker 1: easy thing Gyros to do would be to drift away
Speaker 1: from the crowd, to go home. Maybe he could get
Speaker 1: a few last moments to tell his daughter that he
Speaker 1: loves her before she passes. But something in him fought
Speaker 1: to stay close. People were pressing to touch Jesus, and
Speaker 1: Gyros had to fight with everything that was in his
Speaker 1: power to help his daughter, and that meant that his
Speaker 1: only hope was to stay close to the one that
Speaker 1: he had faith in, the one that he believed could
Speaker 1: heal his daughter. How do you stay close to Jesus
Speaker 1: when your mind becomes so crowded with fear and anxiety?
Speaker 1: I know, I know it's like some days to just
Speaker 1: feel like the farthest thing from your mind is Jesus.
Speaker 1: And obviously there's practical things that we can do. I
Speaker 1: know that I'm biased, but I believe that we sit
Speaker 1: under a once in a generation preacher every single week,
Speaker 1: and the things that God speaks through this man, I
Speaker 1: promise you you lean in every single week. It will
Speaker 1: encourage your faith faith faster than anything else. And so
Speaker 1: I know the things that I need to prioritize every
Speaker 1: week in my life. I know what I need to
Speaker 1: be playing in my car and in my home, and
Speaker 1: I know I need to be journaling and fighting to
Speaker 1: keep my mind focused on Jesus. We know what we
Speaker 1: need to do, but do we do it? You have
Speaker 1: to push through the crowd. You have to fight through
Speaker 1: the crowd to stay close to Jesus. You also have
Speaker 1: to make a conscious effort to build your faith on
Speaker 1: other people's answered prayers. Jyrus had another choice when Jesus
Speaker 1: stopped to heal that woman. Choice was he could stay closer.
Speaker 1: He could drift away. The second choice was he could
Speaker 1: get angry and jealous and turn away. He could say, Jesus,
Speaker 1: you're gonna heal her. God, You're gonna do that for them. God,
Speaker 1: I got I've been praying for a baby. You gave
Speaker 1: her one. She doesn't take a care of her dog.
Speaker 1: The other option that he had was to tell himself, well,
Speaker 1: if he can do it for her, then he can
Speaker 1: do it for me. Stephen and I were talking the
Speaker 1: other day about a situation that we went through a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, and it was a really hard season,
Speaker 1: particularly for me. And without going into detail because it
Speaker 1: involves other people, you should just know that I was
Speaker 1: praying and I was pleading with God, and I was
Speaker 1: frustrated that our situation wasn't improving. And I just got
Speaker 1: to tell you, I wasn't handling it that well. And
Speaker 1: I actually used my very own forbidden phrase and I
Speaker 1: told God, this isn't fair. And I would have days
Speaker 1: where I would feel so frustrated because I felt like
Speaker 1: other people were living in the things that I was
Speaker 1: praying for. And I know you've been there before. You
Speaker 1: just wonder, like, God, are you even listening to me?
Speaker 1: And when I look back on that season, the thing
Speaker 1: that I remember the most is I can remember the
Speaker 1: feeling of the presence of God. It's what got me
Speaker 1: through in those times of me staying close and crying
Speaker 1: out to Him and expressing my frustration. I felt his presence.
Speaker 1: And if you've ever experienced what it feels like to
Speaker 1: cling to God during a season like that. It's almost
Speaker 1: impossib to describe, except to say I was trying to
Speaker 1: think it's it's like it's like putting on an oxygen
Speaker 1: mask when you can't breathe. And the situation it lasted
Speaker 1: for about a year, And now that I'm on the
Speaker 1: other side of it, I realize that even though God
Speaker 1: didn't answer my prayers the way I thought he would,
Speaker 1: he did a work in me, and he did work
Speaker 1: in my family that was better than I could have
Speaker 1: ever imagined or even asked for. And sometimes the things
Speaker 1: that God uses the most in our lives to draw
Speaker 1: us closer to Him are the things that we wouldn't choose.
Speaker 1: But what I said to Stephen was looking back, if
Speaker 1: I had known it would be that short, and a
Speaker 1: year is not short, but the place is my mind
Speaker 1: had gone, I just gotta tell you it wasn't. It
Speaker 1: was longer than me. I don't know how long this
Speaker 1: is gonna last. But if I had known he was
Speaker 1: gonna be that short, I wouldn't have been so anxious
Speaker 1: and afraid. And sometimes I just wonder, why doesn't God
Speaker 1: just give us a timeline. Like when I'm on my
Speaker 1: peloton bike. The only thing that keeps me on that
Speaker 1: bike is knowing exactly what time down to the second
Speaker 1: that I have left to be on this bike. And
Speaker 1: every time I literally will tell myself I have twelve
Speaker 1: minutes left. I can do anything for twelve minutes. If
Speaker 1: I were on my phone, twelve minutes would fly by.
Speaker 1: I can do twelve more minutes. But God doesn't tell
Speaker 1: us how long it's gonna last, and he doesn't give
Speaker 1: us any indication if the end is in sight. That's
Speaker 1: why you have to just stay close. I love DoorDash
Speaker 1: because anybody love DoorDash. Wouldn't it be nice if God
Speaker 1: was like DoorDash? Like anytime I'm too busy to cook dinner,
Speaker 1: I just go on this life changing app and I
Speaker 1: decide what my family's gonna eat, And I could pick
Speaker 1: anything from McDonald's to Morton's, depending on how I'm feeling.
Speaker 1: And then the best part is you get to track
Speaker 1: your food. Does anyone else do this? I obsessively check it.
Speaker 1: After I've placed my order, you say, oh, you're preparing
Speaker 1: my order. My door dasher has picked it up, and
Speaker 1: he's headed my way and then the guy's The best
Speaker 1: part is the little map and you can see can
Speaker 1: see the little car. Oh, they just turned it to
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. I'm so hungry this is Wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: awesome if there was a heaven app and you could
Speaker 1: just go on and select the things that you need, Like,
Speaker 1: let's see, I need a new job, and while I'm
Speaker 1: doing this, I might add on that my child behaves
Speaker 1: in school today. And then how amazing would it be
Speaker 1: if you could see your order is being and will
Speaker 1: arrive in approximately thirty seven minutes. Are there any single
Speaker 1: women here today? Every campus? Raise your hand online, let
Speaker 1: yourself be known. Don't be shy. This is a good
Speaker 1: place to find a Christian guy. Wouldn't it be amazing
Speaker 1: if you were asking God for a man and you
Speaker 1: could track his progress, if you could see that God
Speaker 1: has heard your prayer and he's preparing your man. He
Speaker 1: lives in Columbus, but he just got a job transfer
Speaker 1: and he's coming to Charlotte next month and he's gonna
Speaker 1: attend uptown campus, So I better switch my volunteer role
Speaker 1: over there. Wouldn't it be nice? That's not how God works.
Speaker 1: He doesn't give us a timeframe, and imagine Gyros standing there,
Speaker 1: not knowing how long Jesus was going to be stopped.
Speaker 1: What if he stops again. This is a crowd of people.
Speaker 1: They're pressing in. They want to get to Jesus, and
Speaker 1: every second counted for his daughter. Look what happens in
Speaker 1: verse thirty four. He Jesus said to her daughter, your
Speaker 1: faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed
Speaker 1: from your suffering. While Jesus was still speaking, some people
Speaker 1: came from the house of Gyros, the synagogue leader. Your
Speaker 1: daughter is dead. They said, why bother the teacher anymore?
Speaker 1: Overhearing what they said, that's how close he was to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus told him, don't be afraid. Just believe. Now we
Speaker 1: know the end to this story. But pretend that you don't.
Speaker 1: Why did you, Jesus? Why didn't Jesus say, don't worry,
Speaker 1: I'm going to heal your daughter too. He was doing
Speaker 1: a work in Jyrus's heart. God doesn't give us a
Speaker 1: timeline because he's doing something so much bigger. Jesus wasn't
Speaker 1: messing with him when he stopped to speak to the
Speaker 1: woman that he had just healed. He wasn't being passive aggressive.
Speaker 1: He was doing something bigger. There were lots of people watching.
Speaker 1: He had Peter, James and John. He was teaching them,
Speaker 1: He was showing them. And if God gave us everything
Speaker 1: that we asked for, we would become spoiled brats who
Speaker 1: only went to him when we needed something from him
Speaker 1: that we couldn't do on our own. And God is
Speaker 1: so much more concerned about our hearts than he is
Speaker 1: about our situation. One word from Jesus and the the little
Speaker 1: girl could have been healed. He didn't have to go
Speaker 1: to Jyrus's house. In Luke seven, there was a centurion
Speaker 1: whose servant was dying, and he wanted Jesus to heal
Speaker 1: his servant because the servant meant a lot to him,
Speaker 1: But he didn't feel worthy of Jesus to come into
Speaker 1: his home. So the man comes to Jesus and he says, Lord,
Speaker 1: just say the word, and I know that my servant
Speaker 1: will be healed. And Jesus, the Bible says, was amazed
Speaker 1: at the man's faith, and he healed the servant right
Speaker 1: there on the spot. God can do anything, but he's
Speaker 1: doing something bigger in your life. He's working something in
Speaker 1: your heart, and he says to you, don't be afraid,
Speaker 1: just believe, Just hang on, just stay close, don't give up,
Speaker 1: don't walk away. How do we do that? How do
Speaker 1: we not be afraid? This is a scary situation. When
Speaker 1: you don't know if you're Mayria is gonna make it.
Speaker 1: It's scary. Well, you don't know if your teenager is
Speaker 1: gonna make the right choices. It's scary. When you get
Speaker 1: diagnosed with cancer and you don't know if you're gonna
Speaker 1: live or die. That's scary. And when we're faced with
Speaker 1: these situations, we can either focus on our fear, where
Speaker 1: we can focus on the one who is with us.
Speaker 1: Fear will cause you to flee and we can get
Speaker 1: all caught up in all the things that could happen
Speaker 1: if God doesn't come through. Or we could choose to
Speaker 1: stay close and fix our focus on the God that
Speaker 1: we believe in, the God that we serve. Don't be afraid,
Speaker 1: just believe. You gotta look up when your mind gets crowded,
Speaker 1: you gotta look up. The Psalma says in Psalm one,
Speaker 1: it says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills.
Speaker 1: Where does my help come from? My help comes from
Speaker 1: the Lord the maker of heaven and on earth. I
Speaker 1: have placed my faith in a God who is so
Speaker 1: big he created the heavens and the earth. He goes
Speaker 1: before me, he comes behind me, and he is with
Speaker 1: me in the middle of the greatest moment of my fear.
Speaker 1: Don't walk away now, don't lose hope. Now you gotta
Speaker 1: stay close and watch what Jesus does for thirty six
Speaker 1: overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, don't be afraid,
Speaker 1: just believe. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter,
Speaker 1: James and John, the brother of James. I don't have
Speaker 1: time to tell you what he was trying to show
Speaker 1: James and John. You have to go find a sermon
Speaker 1: from Pastor Stephen on that. It's in the Book of Acts.
Speaker 1: But when they came to the home of the synagogue
Speaker 1: of the leader Gyrus, Jesus saw commotion with people crying
Speaker 1: and wailing loudly, and he went in and he said
Speaker 1: to them, why all this commotion and willing The child
Speaker 1: is not dead but asleep. But they laughed at him,
Speaker 1: and he put them all out. He took the child's
Speaker 1: father and mother and the disciples who were with him,
Speaker 1: and he went in where the child was. When you
Speaker 1: are waiting on God for a miracle, you got to
Speaker 1: stay close, you got to look up, and you got
Speaker 1: to watch out. Because who you allow in your life
Speaker 1: will make or break your faith. And even Jesus knew
Speaker 1: that this situation was not for everyone. And I want
Speaker 1: to hear you say I want you to hear me
Speaker 1: say this today. You do need people in your life.
Speaker 1: You're not meant to go through this life alone. But
Speaker 1: they have to be the right people. And here's a
Speaker 1: little pro tip. The people that you will into your
Speaker 1: darkest moments, they need to be people of faith, of course,
Speaker 1: but they also need to be someone who has been
Speaker 1: here before. What's the number one rule of sobriety. Go
Speaker 1: to meetings and find a sponsor who has been in
Speaker 1: your place. So if you get diagnosed with cancer, you
Speaker 1: need to find someone of faith who's also been through chemo.
Speaker 1: If you're dealing with an infidelity in your marriage, find
Speaker 1: a couple who has struggled with that as well and
Speaker 1: come out on the other side, not a couple that
Speaker 1: seemingly has the perfect marriage. Those people are great, but
Speaker 1: they may not be for this situation. If you have
Speaker 1: a child who struggles in school. Find someone who is
Speaker 1: also walking that path, who can pray with you and
Speaker 1: believe with you and empathize with you. I know it's hard,
Speaker 1: you can do it. Stay close, watch out because well
Speaker 1: meaning people who have not been through your situation can
Speaker 1: hinder your faith. And not everything in your life is
Speaker 1: for Facebook. Amen, You're not under look your pastor's wife
Speaker 1: is giving you permission. You are not under any obligation
Speaker 1: to let the world know what you are going through.
Speaker 1: But you do need to find a few people who
Speaker 1: can empathize with you and who can encourage you through
Speaker 1: your situation. I know it's hard to show up to
Speaker 1: your E group because you don't want everybody asking you
Speaker 1: how you're doing, But sometimes that's part of staying close,
Speaker 1: is pushing in and leaning in to the people that
Speaker 1: God has placed in your life, who love you, who
Speaker 1: are praying for you, who've been there before, and they
Speaker 1: want to help you when they want to walk this
Speaker 1: road with you. Let's read the rest of the story.
Speaker 1: So after he put them all out, he took the
Speaker 1: child's father and mother and the disciples who were with them,
Speaker 1: and they went in where the child was. He took
Speaker 1: her by the hand and said to her talitha coomb,
Speaker 1: which means little girl, I say to you, get up. Immediately,
Speaker 1: the little girl stood up and began to walk around.
Speaker 1: She was twelve years old. At this they were astonished.
Speaker 1: He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this,
Speaker 1: and then he told them to give her something to eat.
Speaker 1: Gyros didn't get what he originally asked Jesus for, did he.
Speaker 1: What he asked for was healing. What he got was resurrection.
Speaker 1: I stole that from my husband. It's too powerful not
Speaker 1: to say. One of the greatest things that I'm learning
Speaker 1: about prayer is that I have to hold my lift
Speaker 1: the things I want God to do how I want
Speaker 1: him to do it, when I want him to do it.
Speaker 1: I hold my list with a light grip because sometimes
Speaker 1: God's gonna ask me to let go of my list,
Speaker 1: but hold firm to my faith. May not happen the
Speaker 1: way you thought it would, But my faith is not
Speaker 1: in the list. My faith is in my God, who
Speaker 1: I believe is working all things for my good. My
Speaker 1: faith is in the God who knows the number of
Speaker 1: hairs on my head. My faith is in my perfect Father,
Speaker 1: who knows me better than I know myself. All I
Speaker 1: have to do is stay close to him no matter
Speaker 1: how dark it gets, and remember that he is with me.
Speaker 1: You know that there is no darkness you can experience
Speaker 1: that Jesus has not already felt. Hebrews four tells us,
Speaker 1: look at this, I love this passage of scripture. Therefore,
Speaker 1: since we have a great high priest who has ascended
Speaker 1: into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold
Speaker 1: firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not
Speaker 1: have a high priest who is unable to empathize with
Speaker 1: our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted
Speaker 1: in every way just as we are. Yet he did
Speaker 1: not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace
Speaker 1: with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
Speaker 1: grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus
Speaker 1: experienced every grief and every temptation. He is the true friend,
Speaker 1: the true empathizer, our heavenly Father. He actually went to
Speaker 1: all the schools. He went to betrayal school, he went
Speaker 1: to raise a child with special needs school, he went
Speaker 1: to loneliness school. And you can you can come to him.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you now, you can come to him with confidence,
Speaker 1: and while we wait for him to give us an answer,
Speaker 1: we find so much more. We find grace and we
Speaker 1: find mercy in our time of need. It's in the
Speaker 1: waiting that we get to know him better. We find
Speaker 1: out that he's not just a god who heals, but
Speaker 1: he is a God who is with us in our
Speaker 1: pain and in our confusion, and in our frustration and
Speaker 1: in our disappointment. And he stands by. He never left.
Speaker 1: He's with you. He stands by, ready with the grace
Speaker 1: that you need for each moment. And when I think
Speaker 1: of the darkest seasons in my life, the seasons of
Speaker 1: my life when you wake up in the morning and
Speaker 1: for a brief second, you forget everything that you're going through.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been there? And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: the pain and the realization of what's going on and
Speaker 1: the fear sets in. In those moments, what I remember
Speaker 1: most from those seasons is the tangible presence of God.
Speaker 1: If I didn't stay close to him, I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: gotten out of bed. If I didn't stay close to him,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have made it through the day. I know
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have chosen those situations and those seasons. But
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you today, if you stay close,
Speaker 1: you'll come out stronger on the other side. So if
Speaker 1: you would stand with me, I want to close by
Speaker 1: speaking over you one of my favorite passages of Scriptures,
Speaker 1: a passage that I memorized when I was in high school.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those passages that God just brings
Speaker 1: back to my mind over and over again throughout my life.
Speaker 1: And I want to speak the words of the prophet
Speaker 1: Isaiah over you today, and Isaiah forty says, have you
Speaker 1: not seen? Have you not heard? The Lord, your God,
Speaker 1: everlasting Father, creator of the ends of the earth. He
Speaker 1: will not grow tired or weary, and is understanding no
Speaker 1: man can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and
Speaker 1: he increases the power of the week. Don't read along
Speaker 1: with me, because I might be quoting it a little
Speaker 1: bit different. Even youth grow tired and weary, and young
Speaker 1: men stumble and fall. But those who wait on the
Speaker 1: Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on
Speaker 1: wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary,
Speaker 1: they will walk in not fake. That's you today. So
Speaker 1: all over this room, let's lift our hands and let's
Speaker 1: receive strength from the Lord today. God, I asked today
Speaker 1: before I got up here, that you would just whisper
Speaker 1: to someone's heart that you're here, that you're with us,
Speaker 1: You never left, and all we have to do is
Speaker 1: stay close, turn around, look up, and right now, in
Speaker 1: this moment, Lord, we receive your grace. I thank you
Speaker 1: for your mercy not giving us the things that we deserve,
Speaker 1: for your patience every time that I've ever said it's
Speaker 1: not fair. Thank you God for just staying there with me.
Speaker 1: Would you strengthen this Lord, is we pressing close to you.
Speaker 1: Let us not grow weary, let us not lose hope.
Speaker 1: We cling to the promise that you are doing so
Speaker 1: much more than we could ever ask or imagine. Even
Speaker 1: in the places that we can't see. God, we believe
Speaker 1: now that you are working. We love you. Send Jesus name,
Speaker 1: I pray Amen. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there
Speaker 1: are a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org. Slash give and thanks again for joining
Speaker 1: us on the Elevation Podcast