This morning, today actually is the day of Pentecost and I don't
know how how many of you this resonates, but there are
churches this morning that have a baptism service and that's the
standard practice for them every year on June the 8th or not on
June the 8th on Pentecost Sunday, rather, they celebrate
baptism. That's the day when the Spirit
came down and fill the apostles, the disciples.
They were together in prayer and there was a big sound of rushing
wind, and the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and
it was an exciting and an eventful time.
And Peter preached A sermon. At the end of that day, 3000
people were baptized and received into membership.
Well, they didn't have membership per SE, let's say.
We don't know for sure, but they were then part of the Church of
Jesus Christ. We tonight as well want to
celebrate with baptism. We did not plan it with that in
mind because that's Pentecost that didn't cross our minds when
we picked June the 8th, but just so happens to be.
So I think it's very fitting. So tonight, everyone's welcome
here at 6:00 for a baptism ceremony and members of
Transfer. The sermon this morning is not
geared toward Pentecost. It's a sermon based again out of
the gospel of Mark. We're going through the gospel
of Mark in our, in our sermon series and our title this
morning is we can trust Jesus. We can trust Jesus.
I want to begin with this question this morning.
When does a person grow the most in their relationship, in their
trust relationship with Jesus? Trusting God is a big deal it's
not always easy, and we all know that sometimes trusting is very
hard The disciples of Jesus, they were not that great and
always trusting Jesus and neither are we, so we're in good
company with them. There are circumstances in life
where we just know there's no easy way out of the problem we
face. We we sometimes face issues and
struggles where we have to what we say.
Unless God has a miracle, it's not going to turn out well.
Unless God has something that's out of the ordinary, then things
will be difficult. I want us to envision it like
this. Let's say a person's going
through a hard time. The person does pray for healing
or removal of an obstacle or a challenge in life, Let's say.
Whatever the question may be, here's here's what I want to
ask. Does God have the same objective
in mind and allowing a person to go through suffering as the
believer has in praying for the suffering to be removed?
Does that the same? I think it's a valid question.
In other words, we live in a sin broken world and God allows
people to suffer to reveal His power over sin and his reveal
his glory, but the suffering person prays that God will
remove the suffering, trusting God will do so for his glory.
There's a story in the Bible. Before we get into Mark chapter
4 and five, I want to just draw reference to the story in John
Chapter 9. The first few verses, there's a
story where there's a blind man and the disciples said, hey
master, who sinned? He or his parents that he's born
blind to them. It was not a question had
somebody sinned. The question was who sinned
Jesus? Nobody.
This happened that God's power may be revealed.
That's why it happened. Often times when someone
suffers, as did the blind man in John 9, it may not be because
somebody did wrong. It can be people inflict evil on
people, and so people suffer because of sin, that sense.
But sometimes sin is not the issue.
Sin doesn't happen. We must learn to trust Jesus no
matter what the the reason may be why we're suffering.
Is it just something that happened?
Maybe a person is born a certain way and suffers.
Maybe a person has an accident through no fault of anybody.
Maybe somebody did something bad.
But whatever the the purpose of suffering is, God allows it for
reasons which he does not explain to us.
But this much we can say only when we align our will with
God's will should we expect God to do anything, either remove
the suffering or give us what we need to go through the
suffering. And if we trust God, he will do
one of two things. He will remove the suffering or
He will give us strength to endure the suffering.
But he won't leave us. He won't leave us either way.
We're called to trust Jesus. We're called to trust him.
And we will never fully understand this on this side of
eternity. Let's just face it.
Let's just accept that there is sometimes no answer on this side
of heaven. There is no answer as in chapter
58, verse 55, verse 8 and 9, The pot the prophet writes for.
My thoughts are not your thoughts.
God is writing to the prophet, nor are your ways my ways, says
the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. OK, Lord, explain it to me.
Not a chance. He can't explain some things, he
does some things, but on the big scheme, we will never really
know. We just don't.
This does not mean, however, that we shouldn't pray for
healing or that we should not pray for the removal of the
issues we face. We should, and we do, but
there's a lot more at stake than us wanting a problem removed or
a sick individual healed. The question is, is our desire
for physical healing and removal of problems greater than our
desire for God's glory? Last Sunday we left off in Mark
chapter 4 where Jesus taught the people in parables and he says
to those on the outside I speak only in parables, but to the
disciples on the inside he explained the parables.
So this morning we're continuing in Mark's Gospel and in chapter
4, verse 35, Mark shifts. There's a shift if you read the
gospel, the shift from Jesus talking in parables, Mark's
writing about parables that Jesus told.
Now Mark is writing about miracles that Jesus did.
There's a shift in the story in Mark chapter 4, verse 35 to Mark
chapter 5. Through the chapter, Mark writes
about four different miracles that Jesus did and demonstrated
his power in four different ways.
It's a fascinating story. Unfortunately, our time in in a,
in a Sunday morning is too short to do justice to all four
stories. So I won't do all four stories,
but I'll do a kind of a brief fly over, if you want to call it
that, or brief overview observation of these 4 miracles.
Just a few words about each, each miracle that happened.
So the first miracle was the miracle of the storm at sea.
Jesus had been speaking. He gets in the boat and sails
across the sea and it's night time and it's, it's, well, it's,
it's stormy. It gets very stormy.
And what's he doing? He's in the back of the boat
sleeping on a pillow. And the disciples are fighting
for their lives, trying to not sink.
And they asked him in verse 40, don't you care that we're
perishing? And then Jesus, as Jesus often
does, he does a miracle. He calms the storm and rebukes
his disciples. You have no faith or little
faith. And then the disciples being
scared of drowning, they're not scared of drowning anymore.
And others are scared of him. They fear him.
Who is this guy? They learned a bit about trust
right there. Then there's a second miracle.
Continuing on in chapter 5, the 1st 10 verses, Jesus heals a
demon possessed man. They come to shore and right
away on shore, this, this demon possessed man comes running to
Jesus and falls before him and addresses Jesus, the Son of God.
And Jesus has this conversation with this demon.
What's your name and legion and they know it's coming.
They know what's up. This is going to end badly for
them. And then they beg, don't send us
out of the region and and don't torment us and and so on and let
us go into those pigs that are feeding over there by the
hillside. And Jesus gives them permission.
They go into the pigs. The pigs all run down the steep
bank into the ocean to the sea and they drown.
And that's the end of them. And the these guys who are
hurting, who are shepherding and hurting the pigs or feeding the
pigs there, they run off into the community and tell what
happened. This demon possessed guy, he's
now, he's now healed and pigs are dead and the people come out
and they begin to plead with Jesus to leave them.
The disciples had a first hand witness and eyewitness, the 1st
and eyewitnesses of what Jesus did, He actually healed a demon
possessed man. Then the third miracle's over a
sickness. There's a woman who's had a
blood flow verse 21 to 34 for 12 years and she spent all her
money on doctors and nothing's working.
And it doesn't get better, gets worse.
And she hears Jesus is around and she sneaks into the crowd
and pushes forward and touches his garment and she's healed on
the spot. And she wants to get away.
And Jesus calls her out and he addresses her and she's, she's
totally fine. And she's healed.
And body and soul both. And the final miracles over
death. This young 12 year old girl is
her dad, her father, the synagogue ruler, J Iris.
He's come to Jesus and he wants them to come and come and heal
my daughter, lay hands on her and heal her.
And he wants to. But before he gets there, the
girl dies and Jesus does still go and heal her.
These last two stories, the kind of interwoven, interconnected.
So that's where we want to spend our time with this morning.
So let's look at these two stories and we want to read out
of Mark chapter 5 beginning verse 21 to 43.
Mark 5, verse 21 to 43. Now when Jesus had crossed over
again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to
him, and he was by the sea. And behold, one of the rulers of
the synagogue came, Jairus by name.
And when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and begged him
earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of
death, Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed,
and she will live. So Jesus went with him, and a
great multitude followed him and thronged him.
Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and hadn't
suffered many things from many physicians.
She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather
grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she
came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
For she said, If only I may touch his clothes, I shall be
made well. Immediately the fountain of her
blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed
of the affliction. And Jesus immediately,
immediately, and knowing in Himself that power had gone out
of him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my
clothes? But his disciples said to him,
You see the multitude thronging, thronging you, and you say, Who
touched me? And he looked around to see who
had to see her, who had done this thing.
But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had
happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him
the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter,
Your faith has made you well, Go in peace and be healed of your
affliction. While he was still speaking,
some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, who said,
Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any
further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not
be afraid, only believe. And he permitted no one to
follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
Then he came to the House of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw
a tumult. And those who wept and wailed
loudly when he came in, he said to them, Why make this commotion
and weep? The child's not dead, but it's
but sleeping. Then they ridiculed him.
But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and
mother of the child, and those were with him, and entered where
the child was lying. Then he took the child by the
hand and said her said to her Talitha Kumi, which is
translated, Little girl, I say to you, Arise.
Immediately the girl arose and walked for she was 12 years of
age and they were overcome with great amazement.
But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and
said that something should be given her to eat.
Thus far, the reading of the Scripture.
I want you to keep your Bibles or devices open because we'll
refer back to this as we go along.
It's interesting how Jesus and people's needs somehow always
seem to meet each other and get attracted to each other like
magnets. I don't want to say trouble
found Jesus, but in a way it's like that.
Difficulties always seem to follow Jesus around.
People have people had them struggles and challenges and
they followed him. Where Jesus went, there people
came who had needs, and that's proper.
And that's what we should do too.
There's nothing wrong with it. In fact, that's what we're
supposed to do. The people were doing the right
thing. Now, mind you, of course not
everybody who always came was there for the right reasons.
But the people with needs, they came.
And it's safe to say that for Jesus as a man, his ministry on
earth was not an easy one. It was riddled with problems and
challenges because every time someone had a problem, it became
his problem, his issue to deal with.
And he did. So in this story, Jesus has now
crossed the sea. He's landed on the shore, and
someone comes hurriedly to Jesus.
And this man named Jairus comes and he says to him, hey, master
or rabbi, quickly come, my daughter's the point of death,
please come. And then a little bit later on
the story of the woman, see this, this man, Jairus, he's
even named, he was a man of status, we could say in the
local town, he was maybe the local pastor.
We could say he was the guy who would preach on the Sabbath to
the to the congregation. He was the man people looked up
to, people revered, people respected him.
He was a pillar in society and the culture and the community.
We can say if somebody had a need, let's go talk to pastor to
Rabbi Gyrus. Let's go see what he would say.
Let's go ask him for support, things like that.
But now he was in need of support.
Now he was on the end where he needed someone and he, oh, Jesus
has come. I'm going to go to him.
I'm going to go to him and ask him.
And he does. He faces a situation that he
needs help with. His 12 year old daughter is
almost dying, hanging on to life by a thread.
He needs he needs to come urgently and Jesus, true to his
nature, walks with him. It's not just Jesus and the Iris
who are now walking. There's a throng of people
following. It's like everybody in the
community wants to be close to Jesus.
But the Iris had trust Jesus walking with him, and we can
just imagine the mind he must have had there walking along.
Hopefully we're not too late. Hopefully we make it on time.
Hopefully she's alive when we get home.
We do not know how far they walked.
We do not know what exactly was in his mind.
But we can't imagine if it was my 12 year old child, what would
have gone through my mind. Let's get there, let's get
going. Well, there's an interruption in
the story. Something happens in the story
that's could not have waited. She'd had a full of blood for 12
years. Why not just wait till after the
healing of the dead girl? I mean the almost dead girl.
This woman comes along. She's also heard that she's in
the community. She's had her problem for 12
years, 12 years and she's not even named.
Here's a certain woman, she's not named.
She spent all she had problems still there.
It's gotten worse. In fact, she's there and she has
this idea. If I only touch his garment,
I'll be made. Well, the man, he's a, everybody
knows Gyrus. But this woman, we don't know if
anybody knew her, someone no doubt did, but she's not named
her problems. one-of-a-kind. That's not kind of embarrassing.
If you know what this is referring to, you know what it's
talking about. And this has been with her for a
long time and she was unclean. She was a woman who should not
be out in public. She should be by herself, not
with people. I want to read out of Leviticus
15. I'll have this in the PowerPoint
here. Leviticus 15, verse 25.
This is the law of Moses for a woman who had her issue.
Let's read. If a woman has a discharge of
blood for many days other than at the time of her customary
impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all
the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days
of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean.
Get that? Not only that, every bed on
which she lies, all the days of her discharge shall be to her as
the bed of her impurity, and whatever she sits on shall be
unclean as the uncleanness of her impurity.
Whoever touches those things shall be unclean.
He shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean
till evening. Not just don't touch her.
Don't touch what she touched. Imagine living like that.
Imagine living that for 12 years and you've been here and there
and everywhere, spent all your money and nothing is working.
And then you hear the physician of all physicians, the man who
can heal anything. That man's around.
Would you keep the law and still not touch?
Would you still keep away? No, no, she doesn't do that.
You see, she couldn't go to the marketplace, to the public,
places where people would know her, never mind a synagogue or a
worship service. But she had a lot of trust and a
lot of faith. Her, her faith was stronger than
her fear of disobeying the law. See, sometimes desperate
situations call for desperate measures.
She's been like this for 12 years.
Let's we, we can't even really wrap our brain around this 12
long years of this situation. It's a long time.
Here she is, Jesus coming and Jesus walking, and she joins the
throng. She didn't want to go public.
She didn't want to expose who she was.
She reasoned, if I can only touch him, I'll just touch him.
It'll work. It'll work.
And so women in those days, they basically wore head coverings
like this, this, this veil over their head, this, this, this
large something on their head. You couldn't really see them,
who they were unless you looked in the face.
And she must have just come along.
And maybe if she would look down, we can't say, but imagine
it must have been like that. And she has her head down and
nobody will recognize me. And just just, if I can touch
him, just touch him. She works her way into the crowd
and through the throng and gets close to Jesus.
And sure enough, she gets close enough.
Just touch him. And immediately she's healed.
Just like that, suffering's over.
Now it's time to get out, get right, get a hasty retreat.
Before somebody knows, right, The 12 year old, 12 year ordeal
is done. Having lived with us forever,
the sickness, the stigma, she's healed, no longer unclean, but
not quite so fast. This act on her part was real.
It was true, but also for Jesus. And he noticed something
happened. And then verse 30 to 34, he
turns around and says who touched me?
And the disciples jaws dropping. Master, what are you talking
about? Look at the crowd who touched
me? What are you asking?
Another lesson for them, another jaw-dropping lesson for them.
They're normal men. But I would have asked too.
Hey, what are you talking about? Look, there's, you can't even
walk fast here. But he's not paying attention to
his disciples. He's not asking them.
He's saying, who touched my clothes?
And it says here. He looked around to see her.
Verse 32. He looked around to see her who
had done this thing? And the woman knows it's over.
I'm exposed now everybody will know.
It's just like, could we not do this somewhere private?
It's on, it's on the street in broad daylight where everybody's
walking traffic and Jesus doesn't seem to care.
So how does the woman respond? Not run away?
She doesn't do that. It says.
She comes fearing and trembling, verse 33, knowing what had
happened to her, and verse 3 three and came down, came and
fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
Meanwhile, Gyrus is standing there.
OK, here goes my time for my daughter.
We don't know if he thought that or not, but this was an
interruption. She'd been found out.
She couldn't hide. And fear and trembling, she
comes forward in front of everybody, falls down before
him. She was the unclean woman, had
been for 12 years. Who would believe her?
Well, Jesus obviously, because he says who touched me.
She was afraid. She's broken, but she was
honest. She told him the whole story,
what had happened to her and her and how her faith had been
rewarded. But here she was publicly
exposed. She told him everything and then
she waits. What's he going to say?
He's the rabbi after all. You don't touch my neighbor.
Never mind him. She'd broken the rules.
But notice this word in verse 34.
And I put it here. He said to her daughter, your
faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of
your affliction. Jesus did not say I healed you,
He says. Daughter, let's pause over that
word for just a moment. We don't know even the name of
the woman or anything about her other than this little bit a
certain woman. But we know what Jesus called
her. Daughter doesn't get better than
that, better than her own name. She was safe with Jesus.
She trusted. You see, it doesn't matter where
you're in life when you come to Jesus and faith.
Notice what He wants to call those who come.
He wants to call them son or daughter.
That is sacred. We can only imagine this woman's
trembling shoulders, the fear, her shaking knees when she comes
and how that just drained away before Jesus when he called her
daughter. And not just did he call her
daughter, He says your faith has healed you.
Your faith has made you well. She trusted power had gone from
him to her. She was on the right track.
Not that this act of touching Jesus garment had a magical
power. No, no, no.
But she trusted in Jesus and that was the power that healed
her. He says go in peace, be healed
of your affliction, life change. We don't know how long this
took. I'm assuming that took longer
than just a short little 5 minute reading of the passage.
I think it took quite a bit longer.
And these things do take time. And meanwhile, he was Gyrus,
when we're going to get going with my daughter, we need to get
there because she's sick and she's going to die if we don't
get there soon. Well, this interruption did
'cause just that. And it says in verse 35, but he
was still speaking. Some came from the ruler of the
synagogue's house that your daughter's dead.
Why trouble the teacher any further?
Case over, It's finished, it's done, it's too late.
And Jesus knows this. And he says to the ruler, don't
be afraid, only believe. And then Jesus does something
interesting. He won't allow anybody to
follow. He disperses the throng.
OK, guys, I got something to do. I got something important.
I, I need you to leave. I'm, I'm, I'm going to be busy
for a little bit. We don't know exactly how he did
that, but he does not allow the throng to follow.
It says we're 37. He permitted no one to follow
him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James.
And so now off they go to to Jairus house.
Now, Gyrus, imagine his mind, OK, my daughter's dead.
What are we going to do now? I don't think it registered with
him necessarily that, OK, Jesus could heal that.
Will he heal my dead daughter? And logically speaking, would
have been the time to call off the trip.
You know, I mean, dead people are just dead, right?
And but Jesus doesn't do that. He says only believe, only
believe. And from that point on, just
Jesus, Peter, James and John go there and the crowd can no
longer come. They arrive at the house.
Things are not good we're 38 to come to the House of the ruler
of the synagogue. There's already a crowd there
and there's this loud wailing or this says they wailed loudly.
The crowd has gathered there's a funeral in the process funeral
making it prepare, preparation of the process and the ones
whose job it was to lead the mourning process, they're busy
weeping in mourning loudly. By the way, just in the side
note here, I did did Google and research wailing in mourning a
little bit and that's actually a thing and I knew it was back
then, but it's actually a modern thing too in some countries
still. And actually, I don't know how
true Google is, but there's mourners for hire.
You can actually hire them in some countries.
And so that's what's happening here.
They're called, they do their thing, they do the morning.
And then Jesus says, and get this, he says, why make this
commotion and weep? The child's not dead, but
sleeping. If it was my child in bed lying
dead, I wouldn't like that being said.
And I don't think they did either.
In fact, we know they didn't because when he says the child
is sleeping, it says in verse 40 they ridiculed him.
Everybody knows she's dead. What's your problem?
The professional mourners, they've been to funerals many
times. They knew death.
They'd arrived on, maybe because they were called.
I think they were called, and now Jesus, this Jewish rabbi is
saying this is not a big deal. It's not a big issue.
It was a big deal and they all knew it.
But then he tells them to leave, too.
Not just the crowd left behind on the street, on the road,
wherever they were. Now that he puts this crowd out,
too, all the mourners don't know how many there were, but they
all have to leave too. Get out.
He puts them outside and walks into this room where the dead
girl is. And takes her by the.
Hand and says in Aramaic Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I
say to you arise and then she gets up.
Mark then tells us that Jesus did not want the story to
spread. You see, Jesus was never entered
for the publicity for the attention and notoriety that it
would gain him. He just wanted to help this
couple, this man in this, this gyrus and his wife's and their
little daughter. It does.
Tell us that they were overcome with great amazement, rightly
so. And no doubt everybody would
have wanted to share this, right?
But they're told not to. And just a side note too.
Makes me wonder about those mourners outside.
Knowing for certain he's. Going to come out and nothing's
happened, only to find out, oh, wait a minute, this girl did
rise from the dead. And as far as these these
mourners, I'm not sure. Did they get paid for their
little thing or was it called off and they have to go home?
I don't know, but it's almost a bit like they're proven wrong,
not Jesus is. This story has 2 characters.
This this story about these miracles.
Two people, this well known respected pillar of the
community, the synagogue ruler, the gyrus, this woman who's not
even named just a person living as an as a as a unclean woman.
Yet at the end of both of them walk away with a new experience,
a new knowledge, a new understanding, a new perception
of Jesus and His power. Maybe we need that sometimes.
We need a new understanding, a new perception, a new experience
with Jesus. In each case, they were drawn
closer to Jesus because of what they went through and what they
experienced, and that in that they learned to trust Jesus.
Maybe if Jairus's daughter had not gotten sick, he would have
never got to know Jesus this way.
Maybe if the woman had not had 12 years of experience with her
uncleanness, she would not have gotten to know Jesus this way.
And back to the story of the boat in the sea.
If the storm hadn't come, the disciples may never have learned
that Jesus, oh he actually has power over nature as well.
The story of the demonic. Maybe if the disciples hadn't
witnessed that, they wouldn't have noticed.
Oh Jesus does have total control over the demonic as well.
One thing to note, I've. Read and listened to different
writers and read different writers on this passage and this
thing is pointed out. These miracles were great.
They were awesome, but they were not permanent.
There would be other storms at sea.
Sometimes people drown at sea. There'd be other times when the
forces of darkness would exercise demonic attack and
control still goes on today. Healing a sick person.
Is a great a great thing. But that didn't mean this woman
would never die. She did die later on, we don't
know from what, but she did die. Raising this dead child to life
was a good thing, but she died as well.
Maybe of old age. But she died.
So what's the lesson here? The.
Miracles that Jesus performed, they were not primarily for
making storm seas or sick people well or cast out Satan, although
he's going to do that one day for for real, I mean forever.
Those were miracles he did not because he needed to do them or
even because the people needed them.
There was a greater purpose because.
We know he didn't heal. All sick people.
He didn't heal all the demonic people, he didn't raise all the
people. What was His objective in doing
these miracles? He did them to demonstrate who
God is, who He is, and God's desire for us to be with Him.
That we must learn. Oh yes, there's a need.
For miracles, even today. But there's needs that are.
Much greater. We must realize the Christian
life is not about the miracles. Jesus couldn't does miracles
even today in some places, but it's not about them, it's about
something deeper. Jesus wants to draw us to God,
to him. He wants to call us sons and
daughters. He loves us, He's concerned
about us, He wants us. The apostle John, when he wrote
the letter to 1st John, what we call first John, he says, my
little children, these things I write to you so you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. Not just in our good times does
he stick up for us and advocate for us with the Father even when
we sin. You see, folks, that's family.
We can trust. Him.
In the end, Jesus. Does miracles, and if He does
them, they're for His glory, because he wants people to do
recognize Him. And if he does not do miracles,
the same principle holds true. He sometimes delays for doing
miracles, sometimes not at all. I.
Want to share a little? Story to close there's a woman
she's living today, her name is Johnny Ericsson Tata.
Some of you know her. She's a 75 years old now.
As far as I know, she has a ministry called Johnny and
friends. She was paralyzed in a diving
accident when she was 17 and she became a quadriplegic.
Life has been a very difficult journey for her.
Shortly after accident, of course, they prayed for healing
and miraculous healing, and nothing happened of that nature,
but something far better did. Shortly after her accident.
She became despondent, discouraged and depressed and
wanted to die, but then in her pain and suffering, turned to
Christ and she found New Hope. She's now been living as a
quadriplegic for close to 60 years.
It's not quite that long. She's had many obstacles in
life, not just not just her, her inability to walk, other issues
as well. Not that she didn't pray.
And many didn't pray. They did, but the physical
healing she so desperately wanted didn't come.
But she has joy. And here's what she said.
In one of her videos she has numerous videos out she said
this and I'll quote her. I would not trade a Christ like
character for any amount of walking and I really would
rather be in this wheelchair knowing these as I do.
Than. Being on my feet and knowing
less of him. You see, folks?
It's not about the miracles as much as it is about the purpose
of the miracles. God wants you and I.
To glorify Him, and however He accomplishes that is for Him to
decide and not for me and you. That's up to Him.
We're invited to choose to do what's right, what honors Him.
No matter where we are or what we face, God's desire is for
many people as possible, as many as possible, to turn to Him, to
come to Him, to learn to trust Him, to live for Him and be with
Him in eternity. You see, in this world we will
always face challenges of different kinds, spiritual
storms, spiritual oppression, sickness, disease, and death.
That does not change who Jesus is or what He wants from us.
You see, when we walk with Jesus, we can trust that He will
see us through on the path that He has set out for us, whether
it's a path that's light and delightful as it sometimes can
and is, can be and is, or whether the path is hard and
difficult as it sometimes can be.
If we're on the path with Jesus, we have hope.
You have comfort. We can trust Him.
I will encourage us this morning to learn to trust Jesus.
Some may be here for the first time, some here perhaps to learn
to relearn to trust Him after having walked away for a time
with Jesus, we are secure. He will keep us.
We can trust him. Let us pray.
Thank you, Father. For sending your Son Jesus into
this world to come, to teach, to suffer alongside us.
And to draw us close. To you, Lord, we pray that we'll
be faithful and learn to trust you day by day, in totality and
completely. Lord, may our hearts be in tune
with you. May we learn to lean on you in
all circumstances. Thank you Lord, for the stories
of Scripture, how you let your people, and how you're leading
us. Today we thank in Jesus name,
Amen.