What do you do when your way isn't working?
Maybe some of you you've been trying to navigate things with
your finances, but no matter what you do, there's always more
month than there's money. What do you do when your way
isn't working? No doubt many of you guys are
navigating things at work, and maybe you're dealing with some
pressure occupationally and you've tried all kinds of
things, but you can't seem to get on the other side of the
problem. What do you do when your way
isn't working? I know that as parents,
sometimes you're dealing with stuff with your kids.
Maybe it's behavioral issues or obedience issues or school
issues and you're trying to figure out like how to what
dials do I turn? What levers do I pull?
What switches do I flip to try to turn this thing around?
And no matter what you try, your way isn't working.
I remember back when the boys were little and you were trying
to feed them and they didn't want to be eating what you were
feeding. And they do the.
And so I figured today I would just bless all the young parents
because I found this video and I was like, I don't know if you
should do this, but boy does it look effective.
Check this out. These parents found a genius
hack to make their baby eat his dinner.
As you can see, the mom acts like she wants to feed the dad
in front of their baby, but the dad shakes his head, refusing to
eat it. He acts like he doesn't want her
to feed him. So when the mom has had enough,
look what she does. She slaps him and the dad then
obediently eats the food as the boy watches him in shock.
So when the mom feeds him, he eats it like a good boy without
any complaints. Genius.
Oh, that's good. That that's quick.
That was effective. I want to welcome all of our
different locations, those of you watching online and those of
you who are part of the crossing inside, we're celebrating the 22
baptisms. Love you guys.
I love that the gospel can go absolutely anywhere and make a
difference absolutely everywhere.
Well, we are in a sermon series called Unexpected, and we've
been looking at how Jesus dealt with the worst of the worst in
other people's eyes through the life of Zacchaeus.
And then last week we looked at how Jesus dealt with the best of
the best in other people's eyes through the life of Nicodemus.
Well today we are going to look, in my opinion, at one of the
most beautiful stories in Scripture and how anytime Jesus
is a part of the equation, you are bound to see something
special and unexpected take place.
Mark chapter 5 verse 21 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 Gyrus came and
when he saw Jesus he fell at his feet.
This would have caused quite the scene.
Gyrus was an official in the very religious establishment
that was hostile to the ministry of Jesus.
This very group of people would be the ones who would eventually
plot to kill Jesus. They were seeking to destroy his
ministry. To those close to Jesus, seeing
this prestigious person in front of Jesus on his knees was at the
very least unexpected. This would be not even in range
of what it would be like for a long time Cardinals fan to burn
all of their memorabilia and become a full blown Cubs fan.
Yeah, which, you know, whatever. I I wasn't, I'm just trying to.
OK. I mean, Cardinals are better
most of the time. OK, now the that's at least
let's at least OK, let's let's switch it up.
Let's get out of season. This would be a Packers fan
becoming a full blown Bears fan. Like if you saw this, you'd be
like, what is causing this? What is driving this kind of
behavior? Well, Mark chapter 5 verse 23
tells us he pleaded earnestly with him, him as Jesus.
My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands
on her so that she will be healed and live.
When things are not right with your kids.
Nothing is right. His daughter is dying.
And because his daughter is dying, his political allegiances
get sidelined, his relational network get sidelined.
He, his daughter is dying and he's heard that Jesus can do
something about it. And so he goes and finds Jesus
and gets on his knees and says, will you help me?
When you want something bad enough, anything is on the
table. When your daughter's dying,
you're going, what do I have to do to get this thing fixed?
Many times, many, many times, the path to a relationship with
Jesus crosses the bridge of pain in my years of ministry.
Many times people who come to faith in Jesus as adults do so
because of an unresolved pain point in their life.
Many times a person's first time at church is because there is
something not right. There's an unresolved pain that
has them seeking and looking for answers.
I have never had this experience in any of our lobbies at any of
our locations. When I'm talking to somebody and
I say, how did you come to the crossing?
And I've never gotten this response.
Well, Clayton, my kids were listening too well.
My marriage had way too much sex.
My job was way too fulfilling, my relationships are way too
life giving. And we were just bored one
Sunday and thought, hey, we should try church.
I've never heard that testimony. What I normally hear is
something wasn't right, their way wasn't working, There was
something going on in their life that made them go.
Something needs to change. That is why as the Crossing, we
have thrift stores, counseling centers, marriage retreats,
because we want to be in the corner of our region when our
region is in crisis. That's why as a church, we talk
to you guys about parking far away, about joining us and being
a difference maker. Because we want to meet people
in their pain and their confusion and their frustration.
Because if somebody is coming to church for the first time
because of a pain point, the moment they arrive on our
parking lot, we want to start recognizing that this person
might be struggling, might be in something, and what is the very
best way that we can love them. Because often times people are
coming to faith because of a pain point.
I just finished writing that line when I was writing this
sermon and my phone rang. It was Ben Elephants, one of the
executive pastors here at the crossing.
And he had just finished meeting with a girl who was interviewing
to be a part of one of our summer internships.
And he asked her this question. What brought you to church?
And here is her answer. She said that she was in a dark
season, contemplating suicide, had a plan, and that week a
friend invited her to church. She showed up and the very first
week that she showed up at our church was the very first week
of weeds in my garden and she went to the steps during the
invitation time and just sobbed. Now this young girl has been
baptized and wants to be in ministry.
How awesome is our God? People often times are coming to
Jesus because of a pain point. Mark chapter 5 verse 24.
So Jesus went with him. This is Gyrus.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him.
That's Jesus. And the woman was there who had
been subject to bleeding for 12 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. So Jesus is on His way to
Gyrus's daughter to take care of her.
The crowd is bumped all over him.
He's moving slowly through the crowd and this woman shows up.
There is so much to unpack about this woman because of this
disease. If you were to read in the Old
Testament, specifically in Leviticus, you would find out
that the word that they would use to describe this woman is
unclean. When you have a disease or when
you are dead, you are unclean. And when you are unclean, if you
touch other people, they become unclean.
It also means that you can't be around other people and you
can't go to the temple and worship God because you are
unclean. How long has she been an
untouchable? For?
12 years. She can't worship like everybody
else. She can't be with her family
like everybody else. So she is isolated from friends,
from family, from worship. Not only that, she has been
spending all she has to get better.
And every time she collects enough money to go to the doctor
to get better, she gives the money to the doctor.
The doctor treats her and her situation never improves.
It just keeps getting worse and worse.
She's isolated, she's alone, she's broke, she's sick.
And for 12 years, no family dinner.
For 12 years, no hug. For 12 years, no kiss, 12 years
no touch. She has no one and she has
nothing. Verse 27 When she heard about
Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak
or robe if you want to think of it that way.
Because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be
healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped
and she felt in her body that she was freed from her
suffering. 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 around you or against you?
His disciples answered. And yet you ask, who touched me?
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.
He said to her daughter, Your faith has healed you.
Go in peace and be freed from your suffering in faith.
This woman who had nothing, this woman who had no one reached out
and believed in faith that if she just touched the edge of his
robe, she would be healed. Then Jesus is walking while this
is happening, going to Gyrus's daughter, and all of a sudden he
just feels like, he just feels power go out and he turns to
everybody and he goes, Who touched me?
And his disciples are going Everybody, everybody, everybody
has touched you. You are in the middle of a
crowd. If you go through the different
accounts of the Gospels, they use words like crowded, pressed.
It seems like Jesus is in a mosh pit, moving in the direction of
Gyrus's daughter. And he goes, who touched me?
And they're like, everybody has touched you.
But one of the touches was different than all the others
because someone reached out and touched Jesus in faith.
There's such a good devotion in there for absolutely every
single one of us. You can show up at the exact
same campus as somebody else at the exact same service as
somebody else, sing the exact same songs as somebody else,
listen to the exact same sermon as somebody else, go to the
exact same steps as somebody else, and have a radically
different experience with Jesus. Why?
Because faith is the currency of heaven.
A lot of times we like to put ourselves when we're reading the
Bible as the hero in the story. Like somehow at the end of all
of this, you'll go home and be like, you know what I am?
I'm the woman in faith. You reached out and touched me
and I was healed. And we like to see ourselves as
that person. Do you know who I would be in
the story? The dude who bumped into Jesus
15 times and got nothing. That would be me.
I'd be the guy walking, right? Hey, hey, Jesus bumping into
him. Hey, you see me?
Boom. Bumping here.
You see me boom, I could have got hit 15 times by Jesus and
not a single thing change in my life.
Because proximity is not a substitute for faith and faith
is the currency of heaven. Lots of people bumped into Jesus
that day, but only one woman got healed and it was the one who
reached out in faith. We exercise our faith when we
live a life of obedience. Too many of us, we treat Jesus
like we treat or we treat Jesus or the church kind of like we
treat the gym. And I'm just going to kind of
talk in different categories and you guys know that I'm
speculating here. So some of you, you have the
membership, but no activity. You pay the fat tax, as we call
it, on staff. We just yeah, we got multiple
memberships. Never been there.
They look great. But that's just not us.
We're we're members. OK, How's that working for you?
Right. Then there's other people who
you, they go, they go to the gym so that they can do other
things, right. Because I worked out, I can now
eat what I want, do what I want, drink what I want.
I got a friend who works out all the time.
And I said for as much as you work out, nothing changes.
You know, I'm saving myself an hour.
OK, Because we look the same. All right, so you're you're OK.
So you're going all right, I'm going to go to church so that I
can do what I'm going to do or feel better about what I've
done. But the people who experience
the greatest results in the gym are people who build their life
around becoming healthy. It's not just about going to the
gym. It's about what they eat and
making sure they get enough sleep and making sure they get,
I mean, at this point, I'm really, really speculating.
I'm sure there's a lot of other things that you do if that's
your thing. Because I don't just, you know,
electrolytes and that's it. That's as far as I get.
You're like, we, we know Clayton, just move on.
Now when it comes to church, sometimes we show up for church
and we're like, I'm going to go to church so I feel better about
what I've done or I don't feel as bad about what I'm going to
do. Or you can just treat your
relationship with Jesus transactionally, but never
actually move into an area where you believe that God's way is
the best way. And it's when you start living a
life of faith and obedience that you experience the greatest
results. For too many of us, we like to
separate. I believe, but I don't behave.
And that's not faith. Faith is not just knowing that
God's way is the best faith, but walking in his best way.
Watch what happens. Mark 5 While Jesus was still
speaking, some people came from the House of Gyrus, 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. Faith is the currency of heaven.
He went into the house and said to them, Why all this commotion
and wailing? This child is not dead, but
asleep. He took the child's father and
mother and disciples who are with him, and went into the room
where the child was. He took her by the hand and said
to her to Litha Coombe, Which means, little girl, I say to
you, Get up. And immediately the girl stood
up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old.
Get back into the story for a second and imagine that you are
Gyrus. You are desperately trying to
get Jesus to your daughter. The crowd is pressing around.
It's taking too long. All of a sudden Jesus stops
because somebody has interrupted you getting the Jesus ambulance
to your daughter who's dying. Jesus turns and starts
interacting with this girl. While he's interacting with this
woman, people come up to gyrus and say hey man, don't bother
Jesus anymore. Your daughter who was dying is
now dead. Can you imagine what you would
be feeling if you were him? Jesus turns to him and says,
hey, don't be afraid, just believe.
This woman just reached out in faith and she was healed.
You know what you're going to need right now.
Don't be afraid. Have faith.
You trusted me to heal her when she was sick.
Will you trust me to raise her when she's dead?
Crossing family? Pay attention.
If you can trust Jesus anywhere, you can trust Him everywhere.
If you can trust Him with your salvation, you can trust Him
with absolutely everything else. Absolutely everything else think
about. Think about this.
Your biggest issue is a sin salvation issue.
It is the biggest, most pressing issue over your life and what
you are in faith believing that when it matters the absolute
most, that when you stand before a holy and righteous God with
the hope of eternal life in heaven with Him, you are in
faith believing that Jesus is going to handle that on your
behalf. So can you trust Him with your
marriage? Can you trust Him with your
parenting? Can you trust Him with your
addiction? What area can't you trust him
with? If you have trusted him with the
biggest issue, if you can trust Jesus anywhere, you can trust
him everywhere. He goes up to this family and he
says don't worry about this. She's not dead, she's asleep
now. Jesus knows she's dead.
But with Jesus, death is very temporary.
Like Jesus, you know, he shows up for the at the wedding in, in
John, I think what is it, John, John 34 And he turns the water
into wine. Like Jesus goes to weddings.
He's very pastoral. He also goes to funerals.
The problem is if Jesus shows up at your funeral, it's not a
funeral for very long because the people just keep getting up.
He's like, I guess since I'm here, get get, get up.
Let's let's do this. Now here's what else is just
super cool about Jesus. OK, The Bible says that he
touched the dead girl. Now, if those of you are Bible
people, you know, Jesus could have done all kinds of things
there. He could have just told gyrus,
hey, just go back home, your daughter's alive because he's
done that. He could have stood outside the
house and said, little girl, get up because that's what he did
with Lazarus. Lazarus come forth.
But no, no, no, in this story Jesus does something way, way
different. He goes into the room, takes the
father, takes the mother, takes his disciples, and he touches
the girl. This girl, this dead girl would
have been unclean. Do you know who was?
Probably the guy who didn't let the woman go in to the temple
because she was unclean? The woman with the issue of
blood gyrus. Unclean people don't get to come
in. He was just following the Old
Testament law. He's doing his job.
But Jesus is touched by an unclean woman with the flow of
blood, and he intentionally touches a dead girl, both
unclean. But what happens when Jesus
touches unclean things? Their uncleanness isn't
transferred to him. His cleanness is transferred to
them. When people interact with Jesus,
unclean things become clean, which is why the Bible screams
by his stripes you and I have been healed when we come into
contact with the blood of Jesus Christ.
You and I are made right, made clean before God.
Now watch this story. You can go home and check this
out is recorded in Mark 5, which is what I've been walking you
through. It's in Luke chapter 8, but it
also shows up in Matthew Chapter 9.
Now if you were to, if I'd have done the whole sermon in Matthew
Chapter 9, what I would say right now is now I want you to
Fast forward all the way to Matthew 14, five chapters.
And we find these words in verse 34 and 35.
When they had crossed over, they landed at Ganeseret, and when
the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the
surrounding country people, brought all their sick to him,
and begged Him to let the sick just touch the edge of his
cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Now the woman was healed in Capernaum and Matthew in Matthew
Chapter 9, Jesus in Capernaum in Matthew chapter 14-5, chapters
later, they're in Ganeseret. There's about four miles
difference. So we're talking 5 chapters and
four miles. And I have a question.
Why do you think all those people were begging to be able
to just touch the edge of his cloak?
Where did they get this idea what made all the men, when they
saw Jesus, start going round up the sick?
Hey, if you got somebody that's got a bum leg, get him over
here. You know somebody who's got a
shriveled hand, bring him this way.
You know somebody who's got to work better bring him over.
Whatever you got, you bet Jesus is here.
And all the people showed up and they just said, can we just
touch the edge of your cloak? Where did they get this?
And all the people who reached out in faith and touched the
edge of his cloak were healed. Where did these people get this
idea from? One woman, 5 chapters earlier
and four miles away, while everybody else was bumping into
Jesus, she reached out in faith and she was healed, crossing
family. Hear me.
Your faith inspires others. When you Share your story of
faith, it helps other people to write their story of faith.
This woman was not the only person who was healed because of
her reaching out in faith. It inspired countless others 5
chapters later to do the exact same thing.
I was talking last week. There's others of you probably
have the same story. I was talking to a guy who's got
some names written on his card that he keeps in his wallet.
Where did he get that idea? He got that from Craig Hill
Bing, who prayed over a card for 20 years.
And you might have your own card, your own list of names
that you are praying for. Why?
Because somebody else's story of faith inspired you to believe.
If God can do it in them, he can probably do it in me.
The weird thing about American Christians is whatever we get
delivered from, we want to hide. Why?
OK, I'll be careful here. Some of you have had God do a
mighty work in your life and you don't want anybody to actually
know what you've actually been saved from.
You keep it to yourself because you don't want anybody to know
how bad you've actually been. And granted, you were healed and
you were delivered and you were redeemed and you were made
right, But because you will not be honest about what God has
done in your life, other people are having a hard time trusting
that God could do the exact same thing in their life that He did
in your life. Why?
Because they never knew. They just see the finished
product and they think that they could never be like you in
Christ. Why?
Can you imagine being the dad of a daughter ingenessarat and
desperately wanting your daughter to be changed and
healed and made right? And you never heard the story
about the woman with the flow of blood, but because you heard of
what Jesus did with her, you believe that the same thing
could happen in you. And so when the men started
shouting Jesus is here, you picked up your little girl and
you went running to the edge of Jesus cloak and she reached out
and touched it in faith and she was healed.
What kind of person would you be if you said now little girl,
don't tell anybody what happened.
I don't want anybody to know that you're there was ever
anything wrong with you or would the right and natural response
be to go hey guys, this Jesus guy, he changes everything,
absolutely everything. Listen to me crossing family.
There is not an area of your life that Jesus cannot
repurpose. There is not an area of your
life that Jesus cannot redeem. There is not an issue that you
face that is larger than King Jesus.
There might be some of you right now you are wrestling through
and struggling through your marriage.
I need you to know that the God of the universe is bigger than
that. You can trust God with your
marriage. Faith is the currency of heaven.
Faith is how you and I change our lives with Jesus and change
the world around us. And the Bible talks about faith.
It kind of highlights 2 things. Our faith is not in ourselves.
Our faith is in Jesus, who can do things that nobody else can
do in ways that nobody else can do it.
And then when the Bible talks about faith, it says you don't
need much. You don't need a lot of it.
It says if faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to
that mountain move. Now raise your hand if you've
ever moved a mountain. Yeah, me neither.
So that means I've got less faith than a mustard seed.
Way less. But I'll be honest with you, I
don't necessarily need a mountain moved.
I don't know if I'd be good at rearranging geography, but I
know there are issues that I face, but if I face them with
faith in Jesus, it could change absolutely everything.
Just a little bit of genuine faith placed in the right
direction and the right direction is not you.
The right direction of Jesus could change anything.
There are some of you who you have held back things in your
life for years, for decades, because you do not believe in
faith that God could deliver you, heal you, change things for
you. Honest question, in light of
this woman's story, in light of this dead girl's story, in light
of Gyrus's journey, what do you in faith need to turn over to
Jesus? Today we're moving to a time of
decision. To those of you here and those
of you watching online who do not yet have an intimate
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I just want to kind of
clarify things for you. We lay hold of our salvation
through faith in what Jesus has done.
That's the Bible. It clearly says it is a grace
that God has given to us that we lay hold of through faith.
Now if you were to go back into the Mark, chapter 5, actually in
all of them, when Jesus turns to the woman, he says a woman, your
faith has healed you. But if you were to go to the
original language, the word that they use there is actually
sodzo. Turn to your neighbor and say
sodzo. That word actually means saved
in the original text, not your NIV or your ESV or your NLT or
your kids version, whatever you're reading, the word in the
Greek is saved. He turns to the woman with the
flow of blood and says your faith has saved you.
And at the very end of Mark's gospel, Mark chapter 16, this is
what Jesus says. Whoever believes and is baptized
will be so D so will be saved, will be healed.
And so if you were here today and you've never started an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you can be
healed. You can be saved.
Your biggest problem can be removed.
Your biggest issue can be made right to those who believe faith
and our baptized obedience will experience salvation.
So just a few moments when the people around you stand and sing
and some of them come to the steps to pray.
If you're here today and you need to be saved, you need to
begin an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
You need to be baptized. Don't put it off.
You can walk right over there underneath that screen next to
the baptistry and begin a relationship that changes
everything. To those of you who do have an
intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I just want
to reiterate this to you. If you can trust Jesus anywhere,
you can trust Him everywhere. So is there a sin, a struggle, a
relationship, a trial that you've been handling on your own
for way too long and today in faith that you need to turn it
over to Him? It is normal human behavior to
hold something back. It's just normal human behavior.
We don't want to be overexposed. We don't want to be too
vulnerable. We don't want to be too honest.
And so when it comes to Jesus, we do the same thing.
We go, yeah, I want to be saved. And Jesus, I would love it if
you did that. But then we we section off all
these other pieces of our lives and we keep it from him.
An honest question, how is that working?
It's a struggle that I have. And you know, what I do is I
just do the math. Everything I've turned over to
him is better. Everything I've kept stinks.
And Satan still has the ability to keep me from turning stuff
over. So maybe today crossing family
in faith just like that woman. What could we reach out in faith
to Jesus today and say, Jesus, I don't want this to be a part of
me any longer. I don't want this to be who I am
any longer. I'm inviting you in to make a
difference that only you can make.
Let's find out what happens when we turn it over to him.
Would you stand with me? Heavenly Father, I thank you for
this church. I thank you for the work that
you're doing in our lives. God, I thank you for how patient
you are with us. God, we've been so stubborn, but
you've been so good. And I just ask that you would
watch over each and every single one of us, that you would guide
us and direct us and change us. Use this moment right here to
reshape who we are in you. In your name I pray.
Amen.