As we gather to honor a significant landmark, our 300th episode, I'm filled with gratitude for you, our loyal listeners, whose footsteps have journeyed alongside mine in this quest of faith and healing.
Today's episode centers on the inspiring account of Jairus from Luke 8, a narrative that resonates deeply for those entwined in the arduous struggle for sexual integrity.
Through his story, we find the strength to envision a life untethered from the chains of our battles, and we celebrate the triumph of belief over the shadows of fear. I am humbled to share this episode with you as we peer into the intimate struggles that shape our identity and the courageous steps we can take toward freedom and wholeness.
Want us to talk about a specific topic? Change up the format, or just tell us the podcast rocks! We want your feedback on Becoming Whole. You can leave your feedback here
If you are in the Baltimore Area, Regeneration is happy to invite you to our 2024 Dessert Fundraiser, Spark: One Small Thing Leads to So Much More. This annual gathering is a highlight for so many as we gather for tasty desserts, heartfelt worship, vulnerable and powerful stories, and an opportunity to partner with what Jesus is doing through Regeneration. Click Here for more info or to register.
As we gather to honor a significant landmark, our 300th episode, I'm filled with gratitude for you, our loyal listeners, whose footsteps have journeyed alongside mine in this quest of faith and healing.
Today's episode centers on the inspiring account of Jairus from Luke 8, a narrative that resonates deeply for those entwined in the arduous struggle for sexual integrity.
Through his story, we find the strength to envision a life untethered from the chains of our battles, and we celebrate the triumph of belief over the shadows of fear. I am humbled to share this episode with you as we peer into the intimate struggles that shape our identity and the courageous steps we can take toward freedom and wholeness.
Want us to talk about a specific topic? Change up the format, or just tell us the podcast rocks! We want your feedback on Becoming Whole. You can leave your feedback here
If you are in the Baltimore Area, Regeneration is happy to invite you to our 2024 Dessert Fundraiser, Spark: One Small Thing Leads to So Much More. This annual gathering is a highlight for so many as we gather for tasty desserts, heartfelt worship, vulnerable and powerful stories, and an opportunity to partner with what Jesus is doing through Regeneration. Click Here for more info or to register.
Speaker 1:
Hey everybody, guess what? I have some exciting news. This is our 300th episode. The 300th episode, that's a lot of this a 300th episode, the three, the 300th episode of the Becoming Whole podcast. So, thank you, friends. Thank you so much for listening, thank you for being a part of this podcast community. We're getting a lot of listens, a lot of downloads, and and I'm just honored that you're a part of this journey and and humbled that we've done 300 episodes. I'd spend me.
Speaker 1:
It's been members of my team, kit Elmer recorded for a long time with me and and and after this episode, we're actually going to we're going to take a bit of a break. So this will be the end of a season 300 episode season. We're going to take a little bit of break, retool and then we're going to come back with some new episodes and mix it up, do a little differently than we've been doing it. So I'm excited about what's ahead and just want to give a sincere thank you to you for listening. So, while there's a little break, if you're one of those people who listens every week, invite you to scan back, rewind and listen to some of the older episodes and be refreshed by by those as well. So, but we're not done with this episode yet, we're just getting started. So, jesus, come here. Here's a semi heart. Today. This is a hard journey If you are wrestling with, or you have a loved one who's wrestling with, sexual integrity stuff, unwanted sexual behaviors, doing the things you promised yourself you wouldn't do, maybe even on this journey for a long time, and you you're a long way from where you used to be.
Speaker 1:
But there are these lapses where you go back. Or maybe you're new to the journey and you're like I don't know how I'm ever going to live without this behavior. I hate it and I love it, and it's hard to imagine that I can ever be free, because it's all I've ever known. Maybe whatever you're wrestling with sexually is just, it feels, so embedded into the fabric of your life and who you are that it's hard to imagine ever thinking of yourself as someone who is not defined by your sexual struggle. It's that ingrained into you that that it's just hard to imagine you without that. Well, I want to go with you today to Luke eight and Luke eight. There's several just powerful stories in Luke eight. The physician Luke wrote for us there.
Speaker 1:
But I want to hone in on this one episode where there's a synagogue official named Jairus, who and we don't hear about Jairus anywhere else, but if you do a quick search about synagogue officials in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, they're not usually fans of Jesus. They're usually offended, upset, questioning what he's doing. But Jairus is in a state of desperation. He's in a desperate place. His daughter is 12 year old. Daughter is dying. She's sick, she's not getting better. They know that she's dying and I can only imagine what that means. But there's nothing he can do. And so, in his desperation, maybe even against the counsel of his fellow synagogue officials and other religious leaders, he runs to the only one he knows, the only one he thinks may be able to help. It's this itinerant preacher, not wed to one synagogue guy named Jesus, who has this reputation for healing the sick and restoring those who are dying and dead. And so he runs to Jesus and he says come with me, please. My daughter is dying.
Speaker 1:
And Jesus, with the kind heart that he has, the generosity he has, goes. He begins to go with Jairus and then there's this interruption as they're going, there's a crowd pressing around them, which probably was frustrating to Jairus to begin with. But then Jesus stops and he's asking. He's like wait, someone touched me. And there's some confusion around right around him because we were like well, everybody's touching you, what are you talking about? And Jesus seems to have.
Speaker 1:
I could only imagine that Jairus' head is spinning at this point Like he can hardly even conceive of anything that might be happening, but something's interrupting. And then suddenly there's this, the crowd kind of parts and there's this woman in front of Jesus and Jesus says to her your faith has healed, you, go in peace. And again, I'm not sure all this going on, but there's some interaction that Jesus is having with this other woman and I can imagine that for Jairus at that point he's just kind of maybe even feeling like Jesus is just ignoring him. Because he just heard me say my daughter is dying. Like why do you need, if this woman was healed by touching them in your garment? Like let her be healed, just let her go? Like why do you need to interact with her right now? That's a whole, nother episode. But while Jesus is interacting with this woman, somebody else makes their way through the crowd, somebody who's familiar with Jairus and you just whispers in Jairus is here. Hey, don't bother the teacher anymore. Your daughter died. Come home, she's dead, but you don't need Jesus anymore. And Jesus hears this and he looks at Jairus and he says this and I'm gonna get to the point and how it relates to you and me but he looks at Jairus and he says don't be afraid, only believe, and your daughter will live All right. So here's where I wanna go, with you and me.
Speaker 1:
Whatever it is that you're struggling with, however long it's been going on for you, however hard it is to conceive of another side of this, the other side of this journey, an identity of you that has nothing to do with this, that is, you standing upright and free and whole and known by another name, known by another topic, not this one. It's hard to believe that sometimes, isn't it my struggles, when I think about the sexual sins that I have done and used to be a meshed in? It was always hard to imagine myself as someone who could think of myself as someone besides just this, or at least didn't have this kind of like, lingering in the background, lingering in the shadows of my life, and I'd hear preachers and teachers talk about hey, don't be afraid, just have faith like God can change you, god can heal you, god can do whatever. And I think I often felt about faith or thought about faith as though it was kind of this, like something I needed to generate inside of myself, like that's why I'm not being healed. I need to have faith. Like I must not have enough faith. Why can't I resist temptation? I can't even stay awake with Jesus for an hour, I'm just. The flesh is strong and I give in and I act out sexually again and like my faith is too small and I would try to generate faith, I would try to feel more faith, I would try to believe, I try to believe, I try to believe Almost like I felt, like sometimes like I was on a stationary bike and I just had to pedal fast enough to get faith to a certain level and then the change would happen, or then I would move forward, then it would stop being a stationary bike and I'd start like cruising. But I think I always had a faulty idea of faith and I want to just challenge you, if you're wrestling, to trust that God can change you as much as you want to change, that he can heal you as deeply and as thoroughly as you want to be healed, that he can cleanse every speck of mud off of you that splashed onto you over the years by what other people have done. That the memories won't haunt you, the desires won't tempt you, wherever you are in the journey, as you struggle to have faith in the completeness of what Jesus can do.
Speaker 1:
Notice what Jesus does with Jairus. He does tell him to believe. He says don't be afraid, believe, only believe. But then he doesn't leave it to Jairus alone. Jesus turns and walks towards Jairus' house. Jairo's friend said don't bother the teacher anymore, like he doesn't need to come because your daughter's already dead. Jesus heads towards his daughter, heads towards the house where his daughter lay still and not breathing. Jesus heads that direction.
Speaker 1:
What's the miracle you need? What's the breakthrough you need? What's the end that you're hoping for? I don't know when it will come, I don't know how, but Jesus is headed in the direction of your healing. He is headed in the direction of your wholeness. He is headed in the direction of your resurrection. He is headed in the direction of your new identity. He is headed in the direction of love pouring onto you and through you and out of you.
Speaker 1:
He is headed in the direction of your restoration and wholeness when he says to you don't be afraid, only believe. He doesn't just stand far off and shout it from the clouds, he doesn't just say it and then walk away. He doesn't even just say it and say so. Now, what do you want to do? Where are you going to go now? Are you going to believe or not? It's not the way that Jesus rolls. He says don't be afraid, only believe. And then he heads toward your house.
Speaker 1:
He heads in the direction of the miracle, and Jairus' choice is the same as your choice and my choice when things get tough, when it looks like there's no reason to hope anymore. I've waited, I've wanted. It's been years and years and I keep acting out, or my marriage is in ruins, or I know when I tell her the truth, or when I tell him the truth, it's all going to be over. Our choice, when this road towards sexual integrity, towards wholeness, becomes hard, is not to believe on our own, not to try to get on the bike and ride really hard and muster up faith. Our job is simply to walk behind Jesus as he walks toward the miracle. What is he supposed to believe? What was Jesus asking Jairus to believe?
Speaker 1:
Notice the text doesn't say Jairus, don't be afraid, only believe that your daughter will rise from the dead. He doesn't even say only believe that I can raise your daughter from the dead. He doesn't say any, he doesn't clarify. He says don't be afraid, only believe. And I think the only action that Jairus needed to do was not some kind of mental gymnastics, I think it was just to turn and to follow Jesus where Jesus was leading. That was enough. That was enough because Jesus didn't know how to get to the house, so Jairus needed to go. You know, only believe, it's enough. Just take Jesus with you, follow him where he's leading, because he is moving toward the miracle.
Speaker 1:
Jesus, I say these words and I can think about the places in my life that look like death has already won, it's already over, it's too far gone. I can also look back, lord, at some of the places in my life where I thought that was true and it wasn't For all of us. Lord, would you help us to believe, help us to hear your words and to go with you toward whatever miracle you have next. Lord, help my brothers and sisters listening to go with you toward whatever miracle you have next, and I pray, lord, that you would do immeasurably more than they could ask or imagine Lord, for their sake, I ask it for your glory, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Speaker 1:
Hey, friends, that's a wrap for our 300th episode. Hey, if this podcast has been helpful to you and you'd love to leave a review to help other people find the podcast, please do so. Wherever you listen to podcasts, remember also that we are a crowd-funded ministry and so if you like what you're hearing here and you look forward to next season, want to make a contribution, you can do so at RegenerationMinistriesorg. Slash, donate and, of course, of course of course, now or at any point if you want to find more resources or more help for you on the journey, you can come to RegenerationMinistriesorg to find all that we have to offer. We'd love to walk with you. Bless your brothers and sisters.