It’s Not What You Thought

Layer 1: Warm-Up

Welcome anybody in lobby, tent, or for the first time ever today for our 10am experience: our Scarborough Location!

I think a few people ran outta here to come join y’all for some donuts

intro yourself

Today, we’re kicking off a collection of talks that we’ve entitled Waymaker, centered around four miraculous moments in the life of Jesus prior to the cross.

We’re writing this out of response to the prayer cards we’ve seen.

Many of you have written in expressing that you need a miracle in your life. A miracle in your body, in your marriage, in your finances.

Honor our pastor’s attentiveness

If you’re looking for a definition of a “miracle,” here’s how we would define it. If you’re taking notes, write this down, if you’re not taking notes, take notes:

Miracle: a sign from heaven, that causes great wonder on earth. A moment in time where God’s super, enters into our natural.

I want to tell you from the jump that our holy expectation for this series is that God is going to bring about signs, wonders, MIRACLES on your behalf. And that we’re going to be your biggest cheer section when we see those connect cards come in!

We gather today because Hope is alive, healing is possible, and God’s presence is a promise. Come on somebody!

Mark chapter 5, starting in verse 21 is where we’re going to be at today.

If you got it, say “got it”

If you need a minute, say “hiiiiijole”

Mark 5:21–26 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

It’s Not What You Thought

Layer 2: Confirmation Bias

I asked our students this question on Wednesday night: do you remember a time that what you thought got you into a sticky situation?

Layer 3: Funny

*Share about being stopped at a green light in Dallas after the gym*

Layer 4: Ouch

Assumptions can get us into hotter water than questions ever could.

But that’s not just the case with interpersonal situations: that’s true of life in general.

If you’ve faced setbacks, if you’ve faced difficulties, if you find yourself desperate to simply get close enough to Jesus to access any level of His miracle-working power: you’re in good company.

Because every single follower of Jesus on this planet, who has lived or ever will live, will face difficulty in some form or fashion.

But this woman in Mark 5 had options: she could either assume that it was never going to get better, or believe that God’s best was still in front of her.

The difference between the miracle and the mundane is the difference between what you assume and what you believe.

Allow me to step on some toes. If you assume the worst, that it’ll never get better, that you’ll never be healed, that your story will end badly: you’ll probably be right.

If I believe there’s more to life than what I’m facing: I’m living with a mind set on miracles.

Faith is not glossing over what you’re going through.

A mind set on miracles says, “I understand what my eyes see: but I’m more focused on what my spirit senses.”

I don’t deny the pain, but I push forward.

Layer 5: Emotional Surgery

A mind set on miracles understands what this woman understood:

Setbacks aren’t as sabotaging as you thought.

We don’t even learn this woman’s NAME…yet her story has caught our attention. Society had already kicked this woman to the curb. She was a nobody in their eyes. The über religious people of her day would have stuck their noses up at her and believed that God had rejected her, and that she belonged in the absolute worst part of town, as a complete reject.

Sometimes the pains of our life are wounds, sometimes it’s words, and other times they are simply wild circumstances. This sister’s gone through all three.

Yet I find it pretty interesting that here’s this other guy Jairus who’s got all the clout in the world, and he’s convinced Jesus to come and heal his dying daughter, meanwhile Jesus was surrounded by ALL these people, and the biggest no-named outcast is the one that we are focused on in this story. Why?

I would argue that it was because she could not settle for the same old, same old. She knew that something was drawing her to a life unlike the last twelve years.

And here came Jesus. This man who, up until this point had already: calmed a huge storm with just His words, had cast multiple demons out of people, healed people with leprosy and with life-altering injuries, and now this walking miracle worker was right in front of her eyes.

Here’s what this clearly shows us: What you see as a setback, God sees as a setup.

Here we go, look at what happens next in Mark 5:

Mark 5:27–28 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

She had only heard the stories, she had never seen Jesus do anything miraculous with her own eyes. Yet she chose to fight through a crowd of people that no doubt hated her guts, thought she was disgusting and probably fought her along the way as she pushed through.

And she fights through, all to not even TALK to Jesus, but just to be able to TOUCH a piece of His clothing. She knew that:

Your setup will require some stepping up.

See, this woman had heard the stories. She had created an intellectual understanding for herself of who she thought Jesus was. But now it was time to actually make a change in direction based on who she believed that He was.

Repentance isn’t as religious as you thought.

Repentance isn’t some crazy, cuckoo, wacko word. It derives from the Hebrew word shuv, signifying a physical turning back or a change of direction, and the Greek word metanoeo, meaning to have a change of mind or purpose.

Repentance isn’t some crazy, cuckoo, wacko word. It derives from the Hebrew word shuv, signifying a physical turning back or a change of direction, and the Greek word metanoeo, meaning to have a change of mind or purpose.

It’s a total 180 from where my life was, to where God wants my life to go.

Hear me: God has got big plans for you, but He cannot live those plans out FOR YOU! God can't be free FOR you, He can’t be healed FOR you, you’ve gotta put yourself in a place of being AVAILABLE for God to do what you need Him to do!

Let me ask you plainly: If God sends you a miracle, will the miracle know where to find you?

God has miracles, blessings, answered prayers with your name on them

So you best make sure you’re ready to meet your miracle!

Lemme mess with your theology for a second, because some of y’all are thinking, “O ye of little faith: my God is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. He can show up wherever He wants to.”

Yeah He can Dumbledore, but He still wants you to step up. Lemme give you Bible on that bad boy

2 Chronicles 7:14 “IF my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

God over the course of time lays out a very clear partnership with His people: if you will, He will.

If you will humble yourself: He’ll hear you!

If you will pray: He’ll show up!

If you will seek His face: you’ll get His hand!

If you will turn from your sin: He’ll turn around what’s headed toward destruction!

IF YOU WILL, HE WILL!

So why won’t you?

This woman knew that she needed to be healed, and could be healed by just touching Jesus’s clothes, but she couldn’t touch His clothes from the back of the crowd. She had to make a conscious move FORWARD. Because:

Layer 6: Theological Application

You can’t become who you are meant to be by staying where you already are!

See, DESPERATION will take you further with God than DIGNITY ever could.

People are impressed by dignity for dignity’s sake, but we serve a God whose attention is grabbed by desperation: He’s a God who gives grace not to the hustle, but to the HUMBLE. And there’s nothing more humble than saying, “God, I can’t stay the same, I’m desperate for you more than I’m dignified in my own ways.”

If God did a miracle in your life: what would it point people to?

Would it point people to you, or to the one who healed you?

There is no true miracle without a real encounter with Jesus.

For our friend in Mark 5 it was, “She heard about Jesus…and she thought if I can just touch HIM”

She didn’t hear about Jesus and think “If I can just hold some Shakra stones”

She didn’t hear about Jesus and think, “If I can just burn some sage or use some tarot cards”

It didnt matter if she was a Scorpio or a Sagittarius

She didnt need the right energies

If she was holding onto ANY of that…she wouldn’t have been able to grasp what would heal her.

If you’re offended by that: you’re probably bound by it. Because these things are shiny trinkets but terrible gods.

We have a culture bound to trinkets to help us find faulty peace by way of escape.

But we’re trying to access peace that we’re disqualifying ourselves from. We want supernatural peace while rebelling against divine order.

Because let me give you the equation for a miracle: the equation for a miracle is Jesus.

See Jesus + nothing = everything you need, but Jesus + anything else = something that will never satisfy!

I told you earlier we are expectant of miracles. I’m also going to tell you that we are expectant of things that would hinder miracles to be left at the cross & thrown in the trash. Because the very thing you’re finding comfort in, could be the thing compromising you.

And if right now, in this moment, you’re like, “Well…what does this guy know? Who is he to get to say that I can’t have a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of this or that?”

Baby that ain’t me saying it: that’s Bible!

Let me give you a list of times where people trying to add anything to God backfired POINT BEHIND YOU:

Moments Where Anything Added to God = Disaster

Old Testament

Exodus 32

Leviticus 10:1–3

Numbers 16

Numbers 21:4–9; 2 Kings 18:4

Numbers 22–25; Revelation 2:14

Joshua 7

Judges 2:11–15

Judges 6:25–32

1 Samuel 4:3–11

1 Kings 11:4–11

1 Kings 18:17–40

2 Kings 1:1–4, 16–17

2 Kings 17:7–20

2 Kings 23:24–27

Psalm 106:19–23

Jeremiah 44:15–18

Ezekiel 14:1–8

New Testament

Matthew 12:39

Matthew 16:4

Mark 6:5–6

Acts 7:39–41

Acts 12:21–23

Acts 14:11–18

Acts 17:16–31

Romans 1:21–25

1 Corinthians 10:6–14

2 Thessalonians 2:9–12

Revelation 9:20–21

Revelation 13:13–15

Take a picture, it’ll last longer.

Here’s what all of these stories get at: Jesus isn’t after your piety; He wants your proximity. That’s what repentance is: it’s a return to close RELATIONSHIP with the only living, loving God.

Each and every one of these stories showcases a cautionary tale around the equation that Jesus + anything else = disaster

Our God has no rival and no equal

There is none like Him

And therefore, no one and nothing can heal like He can

& as a result of this woman stepping up in faith, and moving into closer proximity with Jesus, here’s what we see happens next.

Mark 5:29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

It was at the very moment that this woman decided to DO something about her situation, that freedom was actually experienced. Jesus always had the power to heal this woman, but yet she wouldn’t be healed by staying where she was at.

Some of us have been waiting on God to move, but He’s watching to see if you’ll move!

Because you can’t become who you need to be by staying where you already are!

Jesus knew something was up:

Mark 5:30–32 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.

In the midst of a crowd: Jesus’ only concern was the fact that someone had gotten close enough to get a taste of His power.

Why? Because proximity is how we encounter His power

If life is only about you: your vision of life is too small. You want to know why we so boldly encourage Growth Track? Because by serving, you become more like the Greatest Servant, and by becoming like the Greatest Servant: you see signs & wonders.

You want to know why we’re so boldly hosting a suicide prevention rally this Wednesday for our middle & high school students? Because this world is telling them that their life is cheap and pointless and that it’s better to die a victim than live a victor, but we serve a God that if you get close enough to Him: you see that He came to give us life & life more abundantly!

You want to know why I’m believing for 200 students from LP to go to Fall Retreat Nov 14th-16th? Because we live in a loud world that needs to be shut up so that they can grow up into the ways of God!

When we get closer TO Him; we become more LIKE Him! We experience His power when we grow close to His presence!

You know it’s funny: you never forget the times when your kid is getting picked on by another kid.

And in 15 years of youth ministry: I’ve always told my kids on trips when we’re around other groups, “hey, if you have a problem: you come find me. And then your problem…is their youth pastor’s problem.”

I’ve had a few young people take me up on that offer over the years. And to be honest, if you think Pastor Russ has got a little bit of lion in him on the stage…don’t test me by messing with one of our kids!

Can I tell you something? When I’m getting beat up, when I’m getting pushed around, I don’t just have a pastor I can go to: I’ve got a loving Father that I have 24/7 access to at any time.

Repentance is me moving away from sin, from the thing that’s beating me up to begin with, and moving towards the only one who can do anything about it: that’s Jesus.

And He is not a god who is far off,

NO no no: He’s a God who is close and can be found when I seek Him.

And in His presence there’s power,

And in His presence there’s peace,

And in His presence there’s hope,

And in His presence there’s healing.

If I get near Him: He’ll be all that I need!

And that’s why we can celebrate this woman: she’s gotten all she needed! Now she’s healed! Completely freed of the thing that had caused her the most pain……or was she?

Because if that was the case, the story wouldn’t need to continue. Yet the story does continue:

Mark 5:32–33 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

Why was she so frightened? Because the thing that needed the most healing was not her body, but her soul.

I would argue that even though there was a large crowd around Jesus, and even though this woman was a complete outcast of society: everyone would have known she was there. A dense crowd would’ve felt her all along the way. Everyone she brushed against technically became unclean.

She was embarrassed & afraid, but was about to learn:

Labels are not as limiting as you thought.

If she was someone who was so hated and judged by her community, then it should have been plenty clear who touched Jesus. Everybody would have known.

The physical pain she had experienced was only the gateway to the emotional pain that she had endured for years. Think about it: taken advantage of by doctors, treated like a lesser being, treated as an outcast by the people that represented God, and even in this moment being looked over by people that were SUPPOSED to represent JESUS! Even THEY couldn’t acknowledge her!

Why does she sneak up behind Jesus? Because she was likely too ashamed to start by approaching Him publicly.

And now, she was sitting before the most authoritative, powerful man to ever live, knowing she had been healed in body, but reliving every traumatic experience she’d had of “godly” people treating her like trash & the labels that had been put on her.

See, the world likes to put a lot of labels on people based on what they can see with the naked eye.

And the funny thing about labels, is that people can carry them on them oftentimes without you even fully knowing.

**labels that say loser, worthless, $%#&, this world would be better without you, fatherless, suicidal, depressed, addicted, alone**

And yet Jesus’ response isn’t focused on any of the labels the world had given her, but rather the life He wanted to speak into her:

Mark 5:34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Here we go: we thought the greatest healing isn’t that her body is no longer bleeding. But the greatest healing is in the fact that Jesus calls her “daughter.”

Jesus knew the greatest pain that this woman had experienced was the pain of not being wanted and accepted. Jesus saw right through all of the physical stuff, and spoke to who what this woman was carrying that no one could see, and He spoke even more to who this woman was in HIS eyes. And from there, He goes on to tell her that every other fear and doubt had been handled. He says GO. IN. PEACE.

Imagine being in this woman’s shoes, and within one breath being shown that you are loved and wanted, and that peace is the path you can now walk on.

It doesn’t matter how the world sees you when you know what Jesus has done for you.

**THESE LABELS ARE OVERWRITTEN BY LOVE…THE BLOOD OF TNE CROSS OF CHRIST** Because of the cross of Jesus Christ - THE STORY’S NOT WHAT THEY THOUGHT!

You are not a loser - you are loved! You are not worthless - you are worthy! This world is better because you are here! Because if you are in Christ: you carry the message of His cross for a world to see!

Layer 7: Full Circle

This is the opportunity that each and every one of us get the chance to experience, when we realize that:

Healing has more hope than you thought. (BAND UP HERE)

In one moment, this woman went from being a disgrace to a daughter. All because Jesus knew she didn’t have a bleeding problem; she had an identity problem.

Jesus knew that if He healed her disease, but didn’t give her dignity: she may be tempted to go find a man to try and fix the deeper stuff.

Because the core question of every woman’s soul is, “Am I lovable, and who will love me?”

So if Jesus doesn’t call her “daughter” - she probly would’ve gone searching for someone that would call her “darling”

Just because you made positive change, doesn’t mean you’re free of dysfunction.

This is why some people can come up for prayer week after week, and stay unchanged. Because you’re getting prayer for deliverance from an ailment while still making dysfunctional decisions.

You want God to fix you, but not change you. And that’s not how God works.

Jesus knew that this woman didn’t just need a momentary fix, but rather freedom from a dysfunctional lifestyle.

Deliverance is a moment, but dysfunction can be for a lifetime without making the right decision.

God forbid that you get a healing, only to not live healthy.

You’re focused on the symptom; God wants to address the source.

Jesus Christ does not want to just fix you; He wants to free you!

Getting fixed should never override staying free.

But we got a God who can do both.

Because if you’ve been tracking this whole time: you might be asking, “What about the dying daughter?”

Mark 5 ain’t done just yet…

Mark 5:35–42 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.

A woman with an issue of bleeding for twelve years, and a 12 year old dead girl brought back to life.

This is no happenstance, my friends. God is trying to get our attention to something so much greater, regardless of whether a chronic illness, or sudden crisis: God sees, God heals, God restores.

And Jairus didn’t have to position or perform to get his miracle even in the midst of an interruption.

See, here’s what our world thinks:

That the only response to someone else getting a miracle, is to be jealous, competitive, complaining, to compare

You wanna know how I know that? Because this past weekend, I took my son to Aquatica to celebrate his birthday…and there were plenty of people that got to experience the miracle of no lines. The Quick Queue people. The people that PAID FOR IT! Some of y’all started growling in your spirit the moment I said that.

But there’s great power in the way that Jairus responds: he doesn’t tell Jesus, “Hey bro, we need to hurry up.” He doesn’t throw shade as the woman getting her healing. He goes a different path, he SUPPORTS her healing, he doesn’t allow labels to define, and he doesn’t put healing in a box. And because of that: HE STILL GOT HIS MIRACLE!

See, Jesus Christ doesn’t work off a Quick Queue. He doesn’t have limited spots available on His love and mercy.

Come on family, we don’t serve a God who’s running out of miracles: He’s got miracles, on miracles, on miracles for you and for me!

What you see as an interruption, is an opportunity to invite God’s miraculous power into your circumstances!

That as I stand in faith, I don’t just get my miracle, but my setback can be a setup for somebody else’s miracle!

Some of you today, you’re wondering why you’re going through what you’re going through: and it’s because God wants to use your trial as a testimony. He wants to take your mess and turn it into a message! How good and gracious is our God, that He wants to write a better story THROUGH us than we could write FOR ourselves!

And friend I’m here to tell you today, that no matter what pain you’ve been through, no matter what you’re dealing with: Jesus sees you in that pain. And He loves you both through it and in spite of it.

But let me ask you this simple question today: are you asking Jesus to heal you of things that you won’t even get fully honest with Him about?

You won’t find healing from what you keep hidden.

There were plenty of other sick people in that kind of crowd in Mark 5, some that probably hadn’t even told their families of what they needed. But only two got their miracle recorded. Why?

Because each of them made the most of the opportunity to:

Go a different way

Let their labels be rewritten

Be healed way better than they’d hoped

Because of their SURRENDER.

God didn’t just bring a sign for a sign’s sake; this woman and Jairus both INITIATED their signs by way of SURRENDER!

You don’t just need a sign for a sign’s sake; you need surrender!

If this woman allowed her shame to dictate her seeking: she would have stayed sick.But instead, she realized that for me to become who I need to be: I can’t stay where I am.

She knew that “If I can just get to JESUS, then I’ll find my healing.”

Altar call:

I want to invite you to a marking moment

I want to invite you to a moment of complete surrender

I want to invite you to a moment where, no matter how close or far you feel to Jesus: you can take some steps to get closer to His heart

Healing from wounds, words and wild circumstances

Whatever space you’re in today, I want to invite you on the count of three to stand with me. Like this woman, it doesn’t matter what the people around you think or perceive: this is an opportunity for your setback, to become a set up, by how you stand up. And our church family is going to rally around you, lay hands on you, stretch hands toward you and stand in faith with you for your miracle.