Getting the Right Spiritual Zip Code S31e119 Matt9:20

What SPIRITUAL Zip Code do I find you in ?

         Are you trying to move toward  Jesus’ zip code? Do you want proximity to God and His people? His Church? His principles? His teaching? His ways? His wonders?

         To move into Jesus’ zip code is to seek HIS WAYS as well as HIS WONDERS.

         “I need a miracle”. But first, I need the MASTER.

Listen . subscribe. Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/rH_1Nd9Tpe0

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My brothers and sisters. So today we're going to talk about getting the right spiritual zip code. The subtitle is Can You Have Faith That Sneaks Up Behind? Listen to this. This is a story about someone that's healed, but the mechanism of the story is very interesting. This is from Matthew chapter 9. I'm going to the story starts in 20, but I'm going to start in 18 because it sets up the story. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him and saying, My daughter has just died, come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples. We're not going to talk about that today. Here it is, verse 20. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, If I only touch his garment, I will be made well. Jesus turned, and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. So she's been hemorrhaging for twelve years. Now what does this mean? In medical land, that means cancer, cancer, cancer, the first three things in the differential diagnosis. But in Jewish history land, it makes you ceremonially unclean. So it's a medical problem for sure, and it's a hygiene problem for sure, energy draining problem for sure. But it becomes a religious and a social problem. She and her house would be unclean. Contact with others would make them unclean. So she would not be able to participate in the community events, the feasts, the atonement, going to church on Saturday night, none of that stuff. So she would not be able Friday night, uh, not she would not be able to access having her sin dealt with. So one of the big spiritual questions we all ask is, what do you do about your sin? Well, they had a process to sort of help with that. Eventually, Jesus is the answer to that process. But for her was nope, you can't, you can't have access, you can't go with people. So the thing about this, like along with leprosy, is that it separates you from other people. Now, at least the lepers had each other. They said, okay, we're all unclean, we're gonna stick together. Well, for her, she's the only 12-year hemoger that she probably knows. So this separated her from her people and her access to God and the temple and the sacrificial system. So it's a complete disaster for her. It begs the question of who is unclean before God and who can get to be made be clean before God, and Jesus says, I'll take care of it, um, and answers that question. But for her, she's unclean and she's trying to get clean. So how does she get clean? And what she does is either a transgression worthy of punishment, which is to go contaminate Jesus with her uncleanness, it's kind of like a spiritual assault, a medical assault, a spiritual contagion, or it's a great act of faith. Now she's going to force this issue, change the status quo. And it says she goes all in by how she came up behind him. I just love this. Now, you know, do you come up from the front or do you come up from the back? Can you have faith that sneaks up behind? And the answer to the answer is yes today. Will the kingdom, and the king most specifically, come to this contaminated vessel today? And who is it that Jesus heals? Well, pretty much it's the sick. So she's on the right track. Who is it that needs a spiritual doctor? It's the sick. Okay, so the cloak. Is it the cloak that has power? Um, or is my faith just strong enough? The closer I am, the the better. Further down in Matthew, maybe because of this event, people brought all their sick to him. This is Matthew 14, 36, and they begged him to let the sick people just touch the edge of his cloak. And all who touched it were healed. So this method that she either invents or or popularizes here, it actually works. That is, proximity to the power of Jesus, closer is better. I'm voting with my feet, and touch if I can. And even though she gets touched from behind, Jesus catches her in the act and sees her. Now, what's the deal with the tassels and the cloak? And in Numbers 15, 37, the Lord says to Moses, speak to the people of Israel, tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments in their generations, or throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on each tassel in each corner, and it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are acclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do my commandments and be holy to your God. So tassels on the corner of the garments is done by the people of Israel back then, and some even today. They're to see and remember, not follow your own heart, to be holy before the Lord. So then Jesus here. He says, To take heart, if only. So she goes from this land of if only to the reality. And I don't want to minimize this at all. This she then he says to her daughter, and remember when they brought the paralytic, they said, they says to the paralytic, Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven. And eventually then he heals the paralysis as well. So your faith has made your well. Well, what is faith? Remember this. Write this down. Faith is the trusting in the person of God before you see the promises of God happen. So, in conclusion, she is right. Proximity to Jesus is a good place to start. So, do you even show up on Sundays and fellowship and service? Are you got do you have the right spiritual zip code? So I don't know much. I don't know everything, but I know this closer is better, more contact is better. So in the story, it's a great story, happy ending. She becomes undefiled, healed, and strengthened. And is it not faith that does the healing in a sense, even though Jesus says it is? It's the object of the faith. It's the that she has faith in the specific power of Jesus. So as we finish, then what zip code do I find you in? What spiritual zip code are you trying to move towards Jesus' zip code? That is, do you want proximity to God? Do you want proximity to his people, his church, his principles, his teaching, and then later his ways and his wonders? To move into Jesus' zip code is to seek his ways as well as his wonders. So I need a miracle, but first I need the master. I need these life giving actions, but first I need the Lord. Thanks for listening.