SPEAKER_00: We're taking a break from Nehemiah today.
SPEAKER_00: Truthfully, I've really looked forward to Nehemiah chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: It's my favorite chapter in the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And it even contains my favorite verse in my favorite chapter in the whole Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But at Cabo Park, we say all the time that we are living our life as a mission to redeem Birmingham for the glory of God and good of the city.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes there are things that happen in our city that means that we need to talk about them.
SPEAKER_00: Wednesday morning, when I woke up along with many of you, and saw on the news that they had found Camille Cupcate McKinney's body discarded in a dumpster after ten days of her abduction.
SPEAKER_00: I was just filled with a sense by the Holy Spirit that Nehemiah chapter 8 needs to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And that if we want to talk about redeeming Birmingham, then we ought to talk about some of the things that happened in the context of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, there are lots of evil things that happened in our city.
SPEAKER_00: And every one of them, of course, deserves discussion.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something about this one, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was the fact that she was three years old.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was the fact that she was taken from a birthday party.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was the amber alerts that every one of us got on our phones at the exact same time.
SPEAKER_00: Or the amber alert notifications that we saw on the highways.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe for our family it was because our son plays basketball in the neighborhood with some of the people that were directly affected by this?
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it was for other reasons for you?
SPEAKER_00: But I just I just sense that we need to go to God's word today and ask a really basic question: does God care about our pain?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, the way that anyone in this room processes, does God care about our pain, specifically in reference to this poor child and her family?
SPEAKER_00: None of us are feeling the pain at this moment like they are.
SPEAKER_00: But uh there are two people in scripture in Mark chapter five who experience pretty exquisite pain.
SPEAKER_00: And so before we look to God's word, I'm gonna pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Lord, for Camille Cupcake McKinney's life.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Lord, that she's safe with you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for her family and for her loved ones, that you would comfort them.
SPEAKER_00: And that you would attend to us with your Holy Spirit, with your word, so that as we think about Mark chapter five, you would help us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter five, in context, Jesus has calmed a great storm and cast out many demons from a man leaving an entire town astonished.
SPEAKER_00: And now the crowds are following him, not because they believe in him, but because they want to see miracles.
SPEAKER_00: They want to see action.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus teaches us through the particular pain of two individuals in this text, that really faith is the antidote to fear.
SPEAKER_00: And that faith itself is a gift of God, and that we're to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And to say it another way, the way it's worded in your worship guide, since uh fear, faith is an antidote to fear, we must believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we're presented with these two individuals in Mark chapter 5 that really uh exhibit uh two folks that are experiencing pain on a lot of levels.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to do today, just as we ask that question, does God care about our pain?
SPEAKER_00: Through the lens of faith being the antidote to fear and belief in Christ, I want to say three things.
SPEAKER_00: We want to say, what is it that we want, or they wanted in this passage, or we collectively wanted as we thought about this child this past week?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that he wants, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And what is it that we get?
SPEAKER_00: Our story starts by describing for us what we want in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd had gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus, by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.
SPEAKER_00: Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.
SPEAKER_00: And he went with him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus has done a lot of miracles.
SPEAKER_00: I've said he's Mark takes a pain to say, He's he's beside the sea.
SPEAKER_00: What sea?
SPEAKER_00: The sea that he's just calmed, yeah, you know, uh a sea after a storm, the waves lap for hours, but not with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says the word in a great storm, a great tempest is utterly still.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a ripple on the water, it's completely, supernaturally still.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just come from a town where the whole town is beside themselves because he's cast many demons out of this one individual, and the crowds are thronging around Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you like that word that Mark will use later in this text?
SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're they're they're all around him.
SPEAKER_00: They can't wait to see another miracle.
SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're they're they're in desperate need for such such such displays.
SPEAKER_00: And and out of the crowd comes one man named Jairus who personifies the crowd as a whole and their need for a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: And we can just picture the theme, Jairus, he's a ruler in the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: He you can you can hear it, can't you?
SPEAKER_00: Just the cacophony of what the crowd must have been like.
SPEAKER_00: And and out of the crowd, Jairus finally finds Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you can just hear him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, wait! Wait, stop, wait! People are turning around, he's pushing people out of the way, and he's he's he's he's worming his way through the crowd, and he finally gets to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He falls down on his face, which to us we might think that that's normal, but it's not normal for a guy that's a big wig in town.
SPEAKER_00: And he falls down on his face and he says, You've got to come to my house, my daughter's dying.
SPEAKER_00: What does he want?
SPEAKER_00: He wants a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Of course he does.
SPEAKER_00: His daughter's dying.
SPEAKER_00: Of course he wants a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: What did we pray for when we got the amber alert?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, save her.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know where she is, her parents don't know where she is, the authorities don't know where she is, but you do.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, save her, rescue her.
SPEAKER_00: Use any means, bring her in, and day after day after day, for 10 days, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not the only thing that we want.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a miracle, sure, but but also relief.
SPEAKER_00: Relief is described to us as the great crowd followed him in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: They thronged, there's that word, thronged about him.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather worse.
SPEAKER_00: She had heard the reports about Jesus, that's about him healing people, and she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment, for she said, If I could just touch even his garments, I'll be made well.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
SPEAKER_00: We we see this scene, right?
SPEAKER_00: The crowd is is lively.
SPEAKER_00: He's gotten up off the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Okay, which way to your house?
SPEAKER_00: Jairus says, this way, and and the crowd parts and they're and they're headed that way.
SPEAKER_00: And in the crowd is this woman who's given this chronic, says, has this chronic disease.
SPEAKER_00: Notice Mark, Mark is is is careful to mention the details.
SPEAKER_00: The woman who has a discharge of blood for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: What does she want?
SPEAKER_00: She just wants relief.
SPEAKER_00: Relief of her pain.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about, like, put it, put it in this Old Testament context, that that condition meant that she was ceremonially unclean, so she couldn't attend temple worship.
SPEAKER_00: And that condition also meant that she couldn't be around other people because if other people around her, they would she would make them ceremonially unclean.
SPEAKER_00: So not only was she a spiritual outcast, she's a social outcast.
SPEAKER_00: And she's been that way for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: What does she want?
SPEAKER_00: She just wants relief.
SPEAKER_00: She just wants help.
SPEAKER_00: Jairus wants a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: She wants a miracle too, but she just wants relief.
SPEAKER_00: She wants some kind of spiritual relief, some kind of social relief.
SPEAKER_00: She just wants help.
SPEAKER_00: She just thinks if I could just judge him.
SPEAKER_00: And look what happens.
SPEAKER_00: What happens next is we find what Jesus wants.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 30, and Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?
SPEAKER_00: And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pretend.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a fire that happens right here.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody all together rushes out those doors, and we're all trying to get about the same time, and so parents are picking up little kids so that they won't be trampled, and we're all headed out the door, and some guy in the middle says, Who's touching me?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is everyone is touching you.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, who's touching me?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: What's he after?
SPEAKER_00: He's after faith in her.
SPEAKER_00: He wants faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because what she wants is to be able to access his power.
SPEAKER_00: She thinks, if I could just, if I could just get up to him, they're headed that way.
SPEAKER_00: He I won't get his attention.
SPEAKER_00: They're in an emergency, but if I could just make it to him and just grab the tassels of his coat.
SPEAKER_00: She wants a drive-by healing.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't blame her.
SPEAKER_00: She just wants relief.
SPEAKER_00: But what does Jesus want?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to just give her relief.
SPEAKER_00: He wants something more.
SPEAKER_00: He wants faith.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_00: They say what we would say.
SPEAKER_00: You see the crowd pressing around you, and you say, Who touched me?
SPEAKER_00: And he looked around to see who had done it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he knows who's done it.
SPEAKER_00: But when the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second time in this passage somebody's fallen down before him and told him the whole truth.
SPEAKER_00: What does he make her do?
SPEAKER_00: She wants to drive by healing, but he makes her go public.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what that must have been like?
SPEAKER_00: The feeling of insecurity and at the same time of security that I've been healed, but now the whole crowd is quiet and they're looking at me.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual, social outcast, and Jesus says, What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: And she told him the whole truth.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to her daughter, Your touch, no, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_00: What's Jesus after?
SPEAKER_00: He's after faith.
SPEAKER_00: He's not after superstitious drive by healings.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace and be healed of your disease.
SPEAKER_00: But he's not after just faith, he's after faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not faith for faith's sake or faith in outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: He's after faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Remember what's happening?
SPEAKER_00: They're an emergency proceeding to Jairus' house.
SPEAKER_00: Jairus' daughter doesn't have a cold.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't have a sinus infection.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't need antibiotics.
SPEAKER_00: She's not going to get tubes put in.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't need braces.
SPEAKER_00: She's going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has the audacity to appear what it seems to be to commit medical malpractice, the great physician.
SPEAKER_00: To stop and heal this woman with a chronic condition.
SPEAKER_00: Think about how Jairus must have thought.
SPEAKER_00: It would be as if, and I don't know if this is a law, actually or not, or if just a custom, but it would be as if, you know, when you're driving down the road and you hear an ambulance behind you, what are you supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Stop or pull off and make way for the ambulance?
SPEAKER_00: It would be like some guy just refusing to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, when they do pull off to the side, the ambulance driver, instead of zooming past them, decides to pull over and have a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Say you really shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine how gyrus must have felt?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: We're stubborn.
SPEAKER_00: She's had it for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: She just said it.
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get there quick.
SPEAKER_00: She's dying.
SPEAKER_00: We felt the same way, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00: Day after day.
SPEAKER_00: That's what statistics say.
SPEAKER_00: The longer they're gone, the less the chance of finding the child.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not care about our pain?
SPEAKER_00: That's when it happens.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he was still speaking, verse thirty-five, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead.
SPEAKER_00: Why trouble the teacher any further?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I'm coming anyways.
SPEAKER_00: It would be it would be as if the police decided to an FBI decided decided to stop pursuing Camille's kidnappers so that they could catch a gang of graffiti artists.
SPEAKER_00: It seems at the apparent delay and cruelty of the great physician, he's let this little girl die.
SPEAKER_00: What does he want?
SPEAKER_00: He wants faith, not just faith in outcome, not just faith in faith, but faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you come to me, you're gonna have to trust me far more than you could possibly imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Because what do we get when we come to him?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing we get that's clear in this text is peace.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say to the woman?
SPEAKER_00: Daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord of the universe says go in peace, he's not saying, go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Go relax.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about eternal security with God, being made right with God.
SPEAKER_00: So the apparent delay of the great physician, Jesus used the opportunity to save eternally a woman who thought she just needed relief from a condition.
SPEAKER_00: She gets peace.
SPEAKER_00: What does Gyrus get?
SPEAKER_00: He gets belief.
SPEAKER_00: Gyrus doesn't know that Jesus is eternally saving this woman with this condition.
SPEAKER_00: All he knows is that Jesus has got some power.
SPEAKER_00: And if he can just get Jesus to his house while his daughter is still alive, then he'll be powerful enough to heal her.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know?
SPEAKER_00: Don't trouble the teacher anymore.
SPEAKER_00: She's dead.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't make it.
SPEAKER_00: Seems as though the great physician is committing malpractice, and he seems as though he's doing it on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: But what's he really after?
SPEAKER_00: He's really after saying, Jairus.
SPEAKER_00: When you come to me and ask me for something, I'm going to give you something, but I'm going to give you something that far more than what you really think you need.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you something that I think you need.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you belief.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if he looks over the shoulder of those who are giving the news and says, I'm coming anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he actually says.
SPEAKER_00: Do not fear, verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: Only believe.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to that text.
SPEAKER_00: But overhearing what they said about Jairus' daughter being dead, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, don't fear.
SPEAKER_00: Only believe.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: How can he say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because what we ultimately get in just peace, in just belief, we get Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37, he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.
SPEAKER_00: And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
SPEAKER_00: And when he entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?
SPEAKER_00: The child is not dead, but sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: And they laughed at him.
SPEAKER_00: But he put them outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was, and taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talifa Kumi, which means, little girl, I say to you, arise.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years of age.
SPEAKER_00: And they were immediately overcome with amazement.
SPEAKER_00: What he thinks he needs is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: What he thinks he needs is to get there, to get Jesus there just in time, because for Him, Jesus is powerful enough to do what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: If he can just control his power, if he can just do what he asks, then Jesus will accomplish the things that Jairus wants him to.
SPEAKER_00: But for Jesus, healing a sick child or a dead child is no difference.
SPEAKER_00: He's that powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says to the child, you can just picture it, can't you?
SPEAKER_00: Although we're only told a few of them are there.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he kneels down by her bed, he takes her by the hand, and he says, Talipha to me, which means, little girl, I say to you, arise.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't take her by the hand, and he says, I therefore say to you, rise up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: Talipha doesn't mean, I command you.
SPEAKER_00: A common translation of that word is something that I say to my daughters all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I call them honey.
SPEAKER_00: Honey.
SPEAKER_00: Sweetheart.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, kumi doesn't mean stand up, therefore, and carry thy mat, King James Version.
SPEAKER_00: It means it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looks death in the face, the enemy of everyone who's ever walked through the face of the earth, whom no one can conquer, and says, Death is like sleeping when you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Sweetheart, it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Which means in the darkness of the wreckage of Jairus's sin-wrecked misery, Jesus says, What I'm going to give you is something more than you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Because the reason that I'm able to say to this child, honey, wake up, is because I'm going to defeat death on the cross and rise again the third day.
SPEAKER_00: And can't you hear him speaking over Jairus' shoulder to the family of Camille?
SPEAKER_00: I know that you prayed for her to come home.
SPEAKER_00: And I did bring her home.
SPEAKER_00: Just not to you.
SPEAKER_00: She is safe with me.
SPEAKER_00: And one day I will say to her and to you, honey, it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you will know this about us.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you will not.
SPEAKER_00: In April 2011, our house was destroyed by a tornado, and we were subsequently involved in a two-year insurance dispute.
SPEAKER_00: And even after the house was condemned and then demolished, I would still go over and do yard work there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was just some sense of uh I've worked so hard over the years to make it look nice.
SPEAKER_00: And uh even next to this gaping hole, I wanted there to be some sense of beauty.
SPEAKER_00: But one spring day, I as I was headed over there thinking, what am I doing?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I going to cut the grass and trim the azaleas at a house that doesn't even exist?
SPEAKER_00: I turned the corner and I wasn't prepared for what I saw.
SPEAKER_00: The Azalea bushes that used to be in front of our house were absolutely on fire with blooms.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch, every twig, it seemed, had several blooms on them so that they just exploded with color and beauty.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the wreckage, in the midst of the sin, in the midst of the misery of it all, God was saying, I'm making something beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: You are the azalea bushes.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of it, God is making you beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: Does God care about our pain?
SPEAKER_00: Feel the scars through faith in the word on his hands and the side where he was stabbed with a spear and say, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about our pain.
SPEAKER_00: And because of it, we'll believe in him, because he's given us that gift.
SPEAKER_00: And one day, he will come again and say, Dear child, it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, our city, if you're paying attention, is hurting.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of people that have been really profoundly affected by this.
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy if you don't live there to not think about it, because it may not come to your mind.
SPEAKER_00: But if we really believe that our call is to live our life as a mission to redeem our city, then I would urge you to pray for them and pray not only for comfort for them, but pray that God would prevent and prevail over evil in our city.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do that right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: We weep with the family of Camille.
SPEAKER_00: Tossed aside like we might get rid of garbage.
SPEAKER_00: But you were there, and she is with you.
SPEAKER_00: Heal and bind up broken hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Protect this place from evil, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And say to us soon, it's time to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.