What are you reaching for?

Last week we wrapped up our series on love, but we also celebrated Pentecost Sunday. And I said something that I had been thinking about but has continued to be on my mind and in my heart.

And this isn’t exactly what I said, I’m going to expand and reframe it a little bit, but the thought was this:

When it comes to healing, or asking God to move in our lives, do we come to church, or even just wake up everyday thinking, “Well, if God wants to heal me, then ok...” or on a Sunday morning, do we think, “Well, if Pastor Rob is preaching on this particular thing then maybe it will happen.” or “If Kelley prophecies in worship that God wants to heal, then I’ll believe for healing.”

OR, are we coming in expectation because we truly believe that God wants to do something already? Do we come in, or wake up, or get ourselves into the frame of mind on a daily basis with an expectation that God WANTS to do something in our lives? So then at that point we partner with what God already wants to do by agreeing and saying, “God I want you to move in my life...”

On a day like last week, especially, when it is Pentecost Sunday, the very day we celebrate that God sent the Holy Spirit to the church, do we come with an expectation that God wants to do the very same thing in THIS day… pour out His Spirit? And although we mark on the Christian calendar just once a year that we focus on Pentecost Sunday - it is not a one time deal. The Holy Spirit is a continually flowing river of living water that is meant to flow into us, and out of us. We are not a bucket to be filled, we are a conduit for a moving river! So we should be continually expecting and experiencing the flow of Holy Spirit in our lives.

The other side of that, and I don’t think anyone does this intentionally, but the problem can be that we walking in on a Sunday morning, or wake up in the morning and say, “Convince me... Convince me you want to do something.”

And so the question that I’ve been going over in my head and heart is simply this:

/ / What are we reaching for?

And so we are going to take some time to get into this series called Reach - Finding God in a Noisy World. Because we can either be reactive, when we see an opportunity because God is moving or doing something, we respond to it. Or we can be proactive, where we walk in faith, believing God already said He wants to, so we’re going to meet Him on the road of doing it!

When we talk about God, especially when we talk about the Holy Spirit, or the gifts of the spirit, or receiving something from God, encountering His love, his presence etc… we often talk in terms of posture and position. Are you posturing yourself to receive from God? Are you open to receiving?

And that is incredibly important. God WANTS to meet us and move in our lives. And we have to be willing and available to receive from Him. We read Romans 5:5 last week, / / For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. The ESV says, …/ / God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So there is definitely a posture of receiving when it comes to God, isn’t there? / / If God is pouring anything, I want to be in the right position to receive - to be filled!

And that is a good thing, but, unknowingly or unwittingly a problem can creep in that it can breed a sense of passivity in our Christianity. If God wants to do it, He will. If God is all powerful, all knowing, all mighty, then he will do what he wants to do and what I do has little to no impact on that. If He wants to heal me, he will. If he wants to bless me, He will. If he wants to change me, transform my life, he will. I’ll just wait for it.

And although this is true, God CAN do whatever he wants, / / there is a line we must walk between passive belief and working our faith.

What do I mean by that?

Ever hear the expression, / / God helps those who help themselves?

I agree with that about as much as I agree with, / / God is in control...

God is in control… almost gives the Christian permission to not take control, or to claim ignorance if things go wrong in their lives, or if bad things happen… But, here’s the thing, God is in control, of HIMSELF. But He does NOT take control of you. He has given us free-will to choose, to follow, to accept His invitation to experience His kingdom.

So, is God in control. Yes, but not in the way that most people use that expression.

The same is true of God helps those who help themselves...

God is God, God is sovereign, God truly is all powerful, all knowing, all mighty God. And as we read last week, Isaiah 55:8-9 says His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are higher than our ways, and that will always be true!

So, there is definitely a reality that God knows more than us, can do more than us, is more capable than us, and there are things in our lives that only God can do, and if we try to do them ourselves we’re going to be frustrated.

Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:20, / / Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

I want that. I truly do. For God to do in me more than I could even ask or think.

So, does God help those who help themselves? or does God just do it all for us and we don’t need to worry about it.

And the answer is..... YES…and NO.

James 2:17 says, / / So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

And that is the connection. / / Faith by itself isn’t enough. It’s not saying faith is all you need, and it’s not saying good works or good deeds is all you need. He’s saying faith by itself, is more than just believing.

/ / Faith + Works = Truly following Jesus

And maybe it’s just semantics, word-play, but I think part of the problem is that we use the word believe, and we don’t truly understand the depth of where that word comes from.

We’ve touched on this recently, but we have to begin to really realize that the word believe is not a passive, or simply cerebral word. Meaning, belief isn’t just about your brain. And it’s not even what we would call the 18” journey, the connection between your mind and your heart. When the bible talks about belief, or faith, it is so much more.

The words in the New Testament, which was written in Greek, that are translate believe, or belief, or faith, or sometimes faithfulness, is one of three words, all from the same root.

/ / Pistis (noun), Pisteos (possessive version of pistis), Pisteuo (verb)

Now, of course, these words do mean to believe, but that’s where I think the issue is. We read a verse like John 3:16, / / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes [pisteuo - verb] in him will not perish but have eternal life.

And the problem can be that we think, oh, well the definition of / / believe is to accept something as being true. To hold something as an opinion, to think or suppose.

Listen to this: I believe in Jesus. I accept the truth that Jesus is real, that he’s the savior of the world and that I need him to set things right with God because I have sinned, meaning I missed the mark, I fell short of God’s standard.

But none of that takes any action, does it?

None of that takes any follow through. It’s all just passive. It’s all cerebral, it’s mental, “I get it, I missed the mark, I’ll always miss the mark - and so God gave Jesus as the sacrifice I couldn’t ever make.”

And there are a tonne of scriptures that show us that our salvation isn’t about our own works or good deeds. And so when we read something like Titus 3:4-7 which says, / / …When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

That right there is a fantastic rundown of the gospel, isn’t it? God revealed his love and kindness toward us by giving Jesus, by washing away all of the ways and times we fell short of His standard, gave us new life, filled us with His spirit, gave us eternal life.

And every scripture we read that says we aren’t saved by good works, or saved by our own righteous deeds, can further the position of passivity when it comes to Christianity. I believe, so I’m good.

Here’s the problem with that. Believe may mean to accept something as being true, but pisteuo is a verb and it means more than just believe. It also means to commit. This is why James is as strong as he is when he writes, / / So also faith [pistis - noun] by itself, if it does not have works, is dead!

Pistis, being the noun that pisteuo, the verb, comes from. Pistis, faith, pisteuo, to have faith, or work that faith, or faith in action!

But, what James, and Paul in the book of Titus are pointing to is that faith, all of these words - pistis, pisteos, pisteuo is MORE than just belief, it is a commitment. In a word study I read this week it said this:

/ / Pistis in most translations is [written] as faith but instead should probably be [written] as vow to faithful relationship as the truer understand of the word in the early church… It is therefore probably best linked to a covenant (think like a wedding vow or a pledging of allegiance) but faithful relationship (or covenant loyalty) could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English world’s vast misunderstand of the word.

Ultimately, what he’s saying is we miss a lot when we simply translate the words used in the bible to I believe.

Titus 3, which I read about not being saved by the righteous things we’ve done actually continues to say in vs 8, / / This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good...

He’s connecting what we believe to how we live.

This is why 1 John 2:3-6 says, / / And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Christianity is not simply a passive belief, it MUST be active.

It is not one or the other, it is both. God is in control of himself, we are meant to also exhibit self-control. God is active, we are meant to be active. God will help us, we are meant to help ourselves.

So, in this series we are going to look at what it means to reach for the things of God.

James 4:7-8 says, / / So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

Some other translations say, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

This is a profound statement. And three steps toward this process of Reaching toward God.

/ / 1. Trust & Obey

Trust, or commit. This is the word faith. Even here in James 4, submit yourselves, or humble yourselves means to be subject to, to obey, to actively follow. 1 John 2, does my life show that I believe in God and love God by actually doing what God says I should be doing?

Remember last week we saw that character is the proof that we are who we say we are, and it’s not because we’ve said it, it’s because our actions prove it to be true!

/ / 2. Deny & Oppose

Resist the devil, resist means to oppose, to stand against. Don’t think of that in the physical sense of fighting the devil, but in the context of what is being said here. If obedience to God is the answer, which means to follow what God says, then he’s not talking about a physical resistance to the devil, but a mental & responsive resistance to what the devil would try to have you do.

Resist what the devil is telling you to do.

Think of how different things would be if Adam & Eve would have done that. You don’t need to kill the snake, although that would’ve worked too, you don’t need to push him away, simply don’t listen to what he’s saying.

Jesus says of the devil in John 8:44, / / He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Which means anything he says we should do, good chance we shouldn’t.

Resist the devil. Now, that might not be the devil outright, but let’s take it one step further. Anything that is contrary to the word of God. Anything that does not line up with the truth of God’s word, to the truth of Jesus Christ, if it opposes that then it is more in line with the way of satan than it is with the way of Jesus and it is not the path to follow.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:13, / / The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

This takes a commitment to the ways of Jesus, a covenant relationship, a narrow focus. That is truly believing. That is truly having faith!

/ / 3. Reach Out

And this is where this series is going to focus. The last part of James 4:7-8 is, / / Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

So, the focus is not going to be simply sitting back and allowing God to move, although as we’ve established this is also good. It is a very good posture to take, to take the time to allow God to move in our lives. But we are going to be focusing over the next few weeks on what it means to be the one who draws near, or reaches out.

Notice it doesn’t say, when God reaches out to you, reach back… It says YOU draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Here is a good way to look at this: / / The life that you will live is going to be the life that you reach out for.

You can focus all day long about how God is good and is in control, and as I said, both of those are true, but my experience, and the experience that I have seen others have is that it is those who pursue that receive.

I’ve talked about this a fair amount, but last year for the first time I was brought into the revelation that I was dealing with something more in my health than just lack of will-power, but that this was a spiritual disease that needed a spiritual response and my eyes were suddenly opened to the world of addiction and recovery.

Now, the first time I heard that was January 19th, the day I unwittingly met with an addiction counselor. A week later I was in my first meeting on January 25th… But here’s the thing, for the next few weeks I was in revelation mode, or passive receiving mode. And that’s not a bad mode to be in. Sometimes when we hear the truth we have to be convinced of the truth, or at least come to a place of truly being able to commit to the truth. To commit to something without truly having through it through would be foolish, wouldn’t it? The same is true here, the same is true for you. And the same is true in what we talk about here. I never want you to just blindly follow. Yes, I believe I am trustworthy, and I will continue to do my best to be so, but I want want we teach here to be a confirmation of what you already believe, or an inspiration for you to pursue God in your own life!

Because this is really a 3 step process for most people in most things.

/ / 1. Hear the truth

2. Believe the truth

3. Apply the Truth

And the time gap between those can be as short or as long as it takes to truly get each of them. And all of that can be defined as faith, can’t it? Romans 10:17 says, / / So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

Before we hear, what is there to believe in? That’s gotta be the first part, right? Hearing the truth, hearing there’s a better way. Hearing maybe we’ve been doing it wrong. And the best part, as we’ve just spent 7 weeks looking at it, is that the truth is mean to be delivered in LOVE, without condemnation. Without shame. Without the burden of punishment.

Like we looked at last week with the woman who was brought before Jesus caught in her sin, he doesn’t condemn her, but he also doesn’t let her off the hook to continue on in the same way - he brings the truth in love, and invites her to follow that truth, HIM!

He says to her, and to all of us who are hearing the truth for the first time, whatever it may be. For me a year ago it was addiction and recovery, for you it may be love in the face of abandonment, or acceptance in the face of insecurity, confidence instead of fear…whatever the truth that God is giving to you, at the same time he’s saying, I am that truth. Just like he says to her, and is saying to us, John 8:12, / / “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

So the invitation is there, and then of course, the last part, apply that. / / Revelation + Application = Transformation, right?

Or let’s put it this way: / / Hearing should lead us to believing, and believing should lead us to committing. It’s all part and parcel to the same journey.

I hear that Jesus sets us free - that’s an opportunity to believe, to have faith. Because I hear that, and maybe I’ve even see evidence of that, I choose to believe that Jesus does in fact set people free. But, that has not caused me to move. That has not pushed me to act. It’s simply become a belief that Jesus does in fact set people free. Do I want that? And if I want that, what is it that I need to do? What am I reaching out for?

I think the most notable or recognizable expression of this in the bible is when it comes to healing. So, I want to look at that this morning:

What does it mean to reach for healing?

/ / The Power of the Ask

Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, he’s teaching about effective prayer, and he says, / / “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus is giving a directive here on how to get things done in the Kingdom of God.

The NLT says, Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.

The ESV simply says, / / “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Ask, Seek, Knock.

So, there is power in the ask, isn’t there? And all three of these words are essentially the same thing - you’re doing something to obtain something. Again, this is what I’m talking about. Christianity isn’t passive. I think a lot of today’s Christians would write that verse, “Sit and you will be taken care of, carry on with your own way and God will love you anyway, IF you read the bible, be careful not to apply that outdated stuff to your life, things have changed now, it’s 2022.” NO!

/ / Are you asking? Are you in prayer, are you committed to the ask, committed to communicating with God your Father.

Are you seeking? digging into scripture for yourself, not just letting others tell you what to believe, but searching out scripture for your own life IN relationship with God. If you’re going to ask for something, do you know if it lines up with the word of God? Are you asking for something outside of God’s character and setting yourself up for disappointment when it doesn’t happen? Our ask must line up with His word!

Are you knocking? When opportunity comes do you present yourself as ready? Are you approaching opportunity because you know that if the door opens you are ready to walk through it?

I did a little study this past week.

In the four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, there are / / 37 recorded miracles of Jesus. I want to break this down for you a bit and show you how important the element of asking is.

Of those 37 recorded miracles:

/ / 9 are the miracles of substance, water to wine, feeding 4000, 5000, walking on water, calming the storms, a coin in a fishes mouth, so many fish being caught it breaks the net....

/ / 3 are resurrections, and two of those resurrections are the result of someone asking Jesus to have mercy and resurrect their loved one. The other is a widow’s son, and I’m going to call that a special circumstance because a widow would have no one to look after her if she had no sons left. She would have no where to go. Jesus brings back her ability to live by bringing back her son.

/ / 6 are Jesus casting out a demon, 4 of which Jesus simply walks up to a demon possessed person and tells the demon to get out without much of a conversation. The other 2 are connected to healings where a parent asks that Jesus heal their child who is oppressed by a demon.

/ / The other 21 are healings, well, that’s including the 2 healings that involved demonic oppression.

So, we’re asking what does it mean to reach out for healing? Well, here’s the really interesting thing. Of those 21 healings:

/ / 15 of them are because someone asked. They either asked directly, or the bible says they begged him or someone was “brought” to Jesus, but they were brought specifically to be healed, which would imply asking in those cases.

/ / 3 of them are Jesus showing extreme compassion in situations of lifelong illness where most likely all hope was lost - ya know when someone has dealt with something for so long they just don’t have faith for healing - they’re just used to dealing with it. These are a woman who had been crippled for 18 years, a man who also had been crippled for 38 years, and a blind man who scripture says was blind “from birth”.

/ / 2 of the healings are on the Sabbath which would have been in direct violation or contradiction to what the Pharisees were teaching. Jesus used these opportunities to teach the pharisees and his disciples that healing isn’t work, it’s just what He does! And the second reason is that I don’t think anyone would ASK Jesus to heal them on the Sabbath because they’ve been taught that healing is work and you’re not allowed to work on the Sabbath, so not only would you be asking someone to break the law by doing it, but you would probably be seen as breaking the law yourself by even asking.

/ / The last healing is in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is arrested, scripture says Peter drew his sword, cut off the ear of the servant to the high priest, and Jesus touches the man and heals him. Let’s call that one special circumstance as well.

Here’s the point.

Outside of special circumstances it’s very safe to say that this shows us Christianity is NOT passive. Following Jesus is NOT a passive religion but a very active pursuit. Jesus did not make it a practice to walk up to people who were not asking for healing and heal them. He was asked....they drew near to Him…and he drew near in return.

James 4:2 says,/ / …You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.

And he continues on to talk about how what we are asking for needs to be in line with God’s heart and purpose, the leading of Jesus. Which is what I said earlier, our asking has to match our seeking - are we asking in line with the will and purposes and character of God?

My point is this. / / The ask is powerful. In fact, it’s necessary. God wants you to ask. Jesus says in Mark 11:24, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”

Don’t just think God will do it. Don’t let the enemy get between you and connecting with God because he’s convinced you that God will do it if HE wants to. YOU have to want it and YOU have to ask for it.

/ / The Power of Persistence

The first step is to understand the power of the ask, the second is to not give up.

If we look at Matthew 7:7 again, Ask, and it will be given to you; the word ask means to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require. This is not an ask once, or gently ask, whisper a request. This is a, “I really need this. I am serious about this.”

In Luke 11 Jesus has just shared with his disciples the Lord’s prayer and it says in vs 5, / / Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friends house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this - though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

And so I tell you [and this is a parallel to Matthew 7], keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

This is how you should pray....he will get up and give you whatever you need, NOT because you are his friend, but because of your shameless persistence...

We don’t need to teach this in KidsConnect because kids already do this, don’t they? And maybe as a parent I’ve missed this. We say that our kids wear us down with their continuous asking, or we say we gave in… or we say I don’t negotiate with terrorists… but Jesus here is saying that’s exactly how you should pray! Don’t stop asking, seeking, knocking!

In Matthew 15 there’s a story of a woman who comes to Jesus. And there’s a lot around the story, she’s not a Jew, she’s a gentile. Jesus has ministered primarily to the Jewish community, he’s even said that’s his primary purpose. But nevertheless this woman comes to Jesus and asks him to heal her daughter who has been possessed by a demon and she’s really suffering from it.

At first Jesus doesn’t even reply, and his disciples get annoyed, so I’m guessing she’s asking repeatedly here. They say to Jesus, “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”

She’s being persistent...

So, Jesus says to her, / / “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep - the people of Israel.”

But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”

Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master’s table.”

Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

I don’t want to get into the whole conversation, why Jesus basically calls her a dog. But there’s more going on here because for some reason she doesn’t seem offended at all. None of that seems to phase this woman - the disciples wanting her to leave, Jesus saying healing isn’t for her. And her response seems unoffended and at the same time unreserved, just like Jesus taught how to pray, persisting, “Even the dogs get to eat the scraps... I’m not leaving until I get what you have!”

And Jesus responds to the persistence. Not the ask. She had asked, but he said no. The disciples wanted her to leave. Jesus responds to her persistence. The ask came, request denied…but then came the persistence, and in the persistence Jesus met the need.

This brings up motive again. Why are we asking? What we read in James 4:2, / / …you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it... But 4:3 says, / / And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong - you want only what will give you pleasure.

This woman knew she wasn’t asking for selfish reasons. Her daughter was sick…tormented… And she was willing to look like a fool for someone else’s sake. Even the story Jesus tells, he says, Imagine that a friend of your shows up and you have no food to offer them....

So, what’s the motive. I’m hungry, give me a snacky snack, or I have a friend who’s just arrived from a long trip, the markets are closed and I can’t be the host I should be… can you help me?

/ / Asking + Persistence + Motive!

/ / The Power of Action

Sometimes there is something that must be done…more than just asking and asking persistently. Sometimes there’s action that must take place.

First of all, we’ve already read earlier, James 2:17, / / So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

So, let’s put this whole thing another way, / / I hear that Jesus heals, I believe that Jesus heals [faith comes by hearing], so I reach out to the One who heals!

Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a woman who was healed by faith put into action. There’s a whole group of people following Jesus to a man’s house who has asked him to come heal his daughter, and...

/ / A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.

This is an absolutely terrible situation for this woman. But this is the moment things begin to change.

/ / She had heard about Jesus…

Faith comes from hearing… She heard that Jesus heals... And that hearing caused her to believe - and I’m going to switch this around a bit...

/ / …she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”

/ / …so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe…

She acts on that belief that if she can just touch Jesus she will be healed.

/ / ...Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.

Jesus feels that healing power has moved through him and he stops…remember, there’s a whole crowd of people pressed up against him, but he says, “who touched my robe?” and his disciples are like, “uhh.... everyone...” But the bible says he kept looking around.

And the woman who was just healed actually thinks she might get in trouble, she’s terrified, and goes to him and tells him what she did. He’s not looking to get anyone into trouble… He’s looking to honor the faith that was exhibited.

Mark 5:34 says that Jesus says to her, / / “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

But let me ask you…was it her faith? Or was it her action?

This was a James 2:17 moment, / / So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough…

James isn’t actually saying that faith isn’t enough. What he’s really saying is that belief without application isn’t enough.

Let’s bring this 2000 years forward. We don’t have Jesus physically here to touch his garment, but this isn’t an encouragement to try and do something you can’t physically do, that would be foolish. If I just ended this with, “So, make sure you touch the hem of Jesus garment… Reach out, just like this woman did, and you will receive your healing.”

That wouldn’t be fair, would it? There is no garment surrounding a Jesus in this room.

But When Jesus says, Your faith has made you well… He’s not lying. See, it’s not about the garment, it is about the faith. And by faith I don’t mean simply believing to be true, Jesus CAN heal, but faith which is brought on by hearing, believing & reaching out. It was the reaching out in her belief that truly showed her faith - the whole package, faith fully embodied, made her whole.

See, when Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” the disciples are bewildered and respond with, “Everyone is touching you...” Ya, but this one was different. Because it was matched with the belief that God will move.

Touching the garment isn’t enough....Believing but sitting back and just hoping Jesus will turn to you on the side of the road wasn’t enough. But belief that Jesus can heal with reaching out...

And this sparked a revival of sorts. This story is also in Matthew 9, and 5 chapters later in Matthew 14:35-36 it says that people actually brought sick people to Jesus just so they could touch the hem of his garment and be healed.

Again, this isn’t about the garment, it isn’t about the physical touch, it’s about the pursuit of belief. Jesus doesn’t even need to be in the room to heal you. Not then. Not now.

There’s this great scene in the first episode of season 2 of The Chosen, Jesus and his disciples have been visiting in the home of a man who is a cripple. And they leave, and the next morning Jesus wakes up and is extremely happy, and the disciples ask, why? He says, I know a certain family who are very happy this morning. And he does this little walking motion with his hand to remind them of the man who couldn’t walk, and the disciple says, “you don’t even have to be there to perform miracles?”

And this isn’t just a scene from a tv show. That particular story might not be scripture, but multiple times in the gospel accounts Jesus heals someone without even being there.

In John 4 a government official comes to Jesus asking that he would come heal his son because he’s about to die. Begging him he says in John 4:49, / / “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.” Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.”

Matthew 8 has a similar encounter. A Roman officer asks Jesus to heal his paralyzed servant. Jesus says he will go, and the Roman officer says, “No, I’m not worthy to have you in my home. And I get authority. If you say it, it’ll happen. You don’t need to show up.”

Jesus tells him he hasn’t seen faith like that in all of Israel, but sends him on his way telling, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.”

Whether it is the man who asked Jesus to come to his house to heal his daughter, or the woman who knew if she could just get to him and touch him, or the officer who didn’t even ask Jesus to come to his house, just to say the word.

All of these situations are the same: they are faith IN ACTION, because / / faith should compel us to action.

See, if the goal of the enemy is to kill, steal and destroy, he doesn’t even need to get you not to believe, he simply needs to get you to not go after what you believe. And I think he’s fooled a lot of people into just sitting back waiting for God to do something when God waiting to be asked.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a church service where God is doing something very special, either healing, or an encounter with His Spirit, or even the minister leading a prayer and the thought that goes through my head, and maybe this has happened to you before, but this thought goes through your mind,

“I’m sure someone needs this more than me...”

Like Jesus only has so much to give and if I take it someone else won’t get it...

“I don’t know if this is me. He’s talking about forgiving mom, but my issue is with my step mom, maybe that’s different...”

“He’s already praying for that person, I should just sit back down. He must have meant them, not me.”

Imagine if the lady with the issue of bleeding saw the crowd and heard the man ask Jesus to come to his house and Jesus says he’ll go, so she thinks, “oh man, I missed my opportunity. He’s going to his place now. Maybe he’ll pass through my town again...”

What about, “It’s fine, I can handle it...”

or, “I’d really like someone to pray with me but I don’t want to bother them...”

I believe there are two things that God wants to do this morning.

/ / 1. Remove the Passivity & Lies

One of the things that I feel like God wants to do in this series is challenge this idea that we should just sit back and wait to see if it happens, because it’s causing us to miss what He has for us. I think the enemy has won more little battles in our lives by convincing us to just be ok with simply believing that God can do something, or is a certain way, and not actually going AFTER what God can do, or who God is.

Believing without asking, or asking and giving up without being persistent, and in the face of required action, not taking it!

/ / 2. Empower the Pursuit

You know, it’s one thing to believe God can heal. It’s another to pursue His healing in our lives.

It’s one thing to believe God can bring us emotional, spiritual, relational freedom, and it’s another thing to begin to pursue His healing in our lives.

I know that God wants to take us into a place in our lives where we reach for what Jesus has accomplished for us on the Cross. Where we pursue His healing. Where we invite His Spirit into our everyday. Where we actively wait on Him, on His love, on His presence. Where we are not content to just simply have a belief about who God is, but that we have an encounter with Him because that belief compels us to act!

I truly believe we will have the kind of church that we pursue, not the kind of church we want.

I believe we will have the kind of life we engage with, not the kind of life we just hope for.

This is the heart of God behind Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Let’s pray this morning.