It's a joy to be here with y'all this morning.
Um I've been wanting to come and and see what the Lord is doing and and come and be with y'all.
When when Brad and Brian came and and over some uh over dinner, first down in South Florida, and then a lot of a lot of dinners and hang times and said, we we wanna um the Lord's calling us to start a church that that preaches the gospel, that preaches Jesus Christ and Him lived, died, and crucified for sinners without any qualifications.
We're like, okay, well we're you know what we're in, because that's that's what we want to do.
I know it's what y'all want to do, is to help perpetuate churches that are going to talk about Jesus a whole lot.
Um so yeah, it's good to be here.
Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And by the way, this whole posture of uh of churches, and uh so churches is people, right?
So people living lives not with this posture, but with this posture, not with hands tightly clenched, but with uh palms open, ready to receive and ready to give at the same time, that was modeled to us as well.
So we didn't make this thing up.
This has been going on for 2,000 years.
Walter Hinneger over at Westside Press and Chris McDaniel and all those all those guys and gals over at Trinity Anglican modeled that for us as well.
And we know that y'all are gonna do the same thing.
We know that y'all are gonna do the same thing.
Um I'll say this before we jump in.
I don't want opening remarks to take up half the time, but y'all have a great pastor.
Y'all have a wonderful, wonderful pastor.
Um Russ has been and Christy have been dear friends of ours.
We were we were backyard neighbors for a while, and y'all took them away from us, and so I'm kind of mad about that.
Um because we had a blast.
I mean, you know, that was a hey, we got some hot dogs in the market way if y'all want to come over.
Y'all want to come over and hang out and play on the playground.
Um, Russ has been a dear friend, and Russ is smart and he's capable, and he loves Jesus, and he's a good leader because he loves people too.
And so um y'all are blessed.
Y'all are very blessed.
I know you know that, and I'm not playing politics here.
I'm just saying that because Russ is my dear friend and I love him.
And we love Christy and the and the and all the girls as well.
All the girls.
All that's to say.
Thank you for letting me be here.
It's a it's a it's a joy and an honor to be with y'all.
Um I'm gonna preach from Mark chapter 5, verses 21 through 43.
Story of Jarius and his daughter and an old sick woman.
Um, if you have your Bibles, you can turn there.
It's in your bulletin as well.
So follow along with me as we read the gospel passage this morning.
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jarius by name, and seeing him he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.
And he went with him, and a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and she had spent all she had and was no better, but grew worse.
She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
For she said, If I touch, even touch his garments, I will be made well.
And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments?
And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?
And he looked around to see who had done it.
But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, 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 disease.
While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter's dead, why trouble the teacher any longer?
But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe.
And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.
And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead, but sleeping.
And then they laughed at him.
But he put them all outside, and he took the child's father and mother, and those who were with him, and went in there where the child was.
Taking her by the hand, he said, Talitha kumai, which means, little girl, I say to you, arise.
And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years old.
And they were immediately overcome with amazement, and he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Let's pray very briefly.
We'll jump in.
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing to you now, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
So a quick hypothetical question for you all this morning, and it's a very general question, but bear with me.
When's the last time you lost control of the situation?
When is the last time you lost control of the situation?
Whatever the situation may be, when's the last time you lost control of the situation?
I lost control of a situation a couple weeks ago.
It has to do actually with one of the members of your church, one of your elders, actually.
Um Brian Robinson.
It has to do with Brian.
Um actually, Brian was more of a solution uh than than than me losing control.
So I I have this I have this thing with dentists.
And it's nothing against Robinson Brian.
Brian's a dear friend, but I haven't been to the dentist in a long time.
And it's kind of one of those like I don't need to go to the dentist if, you know, if I have a little pain, I'll just take some advidal and it'll go away eventually, and I'll be a man and not worry about it.
Well, I I had I'd been having this problem uh in in one of my back teeth here for a while.
And it would come and go, and it'd flare up and I'd take some advil and no big deal.
A few weeks ago, it got to a point.
Have y'all ever had a bad toothache before?
I'd never had before until this.
It I was it was driving me out of my mind.
It was horrible, horrible, unbearable pain.
Um, it was driving me absolutely nuts.
I had lost, I couldn't control that thing anymore.
No amount, I mean, probably an unsafe amount of advil wasn't doing anything for me.
I lost control of the situation, and I was forced into a situation where I had to look outside of myself for help.
So it was a Thursday night, about 9 o'clock, and I start texting Brian.
I said, Brian, I is can you squeeze me in tomorrow?
Is there any chance you can squeeze me in tomorrow?
I I gotta get some relief from this thing.
And Brian, being Brian, of course, he's like, meet me up, meet get in the car, come up tonight and meet me at the office.
And if you know Brian, that's no surprise to you at all, right?
So Brian, we we get there and Brian takes some x-rays, and he's like, Man, I hate to say this.
You need a root canal.
So I was like, okay.
You know, at this point it was like, if it's gonna take this pain away, whatever, if you gotta pull this sucker out, do it.
Um Brian, again, being Brian Robinson, made some calls the next morning and said, All right, I can get you in with Dr.
Goldstein up here at 9.30 the next day.
So I go up and and by the way, if you you know, if you need a dentist, go to Brian.
If you need a roof now, Dr.
Goldsmith is, or Goldstein is awesome.
I didn't feel anything.
It was, it was, it was wonderful.
Um friends, I had lost control of the situation though.
And I had to, I was, I was, I found myself in a situation where the white flag had to go up, and I my dentist issue was utterly defeated.
So when is the last time you lost control of the situation?
We see three people in our passage this morning, in our gospel passage this morning, with big problems.
They had utterly lost control of the situation.
Three of them.
Three people had.
A very successful, very religious man had lost control of the situation.
A poor, sick, frail old woman had lost control of the situation, and a dead little girl had lost control of the situation as well.
Three people.
All powerless in what confronted them.
Powerless over their bleak situation, even though you know they tried, you know they, I mean, we see it, you know, Jerry has tried, you know, his daughter fought, you know, this old woman that says specifically she tried for years and years.
They tried and tried to gain control and power, and it didn't work.
It didn't work.
For them and for us, these loss of control scenarios, they they breed a lot of questions, don't they?
They breed a lot of questions.
Will God continue to love me if I admit that I can't keep this thing under control?
Will he abandon me if I give up?
Will the people around me who love me and who I love abandon me if I give up?
Or will he always be with me?
Will God, you know, if we get right down to it in this situation in our passage, will God heal my child?
Will God heal me?
And all the things that are in here that nobody knows about.
And friends, it's we it's good news for us when we see how Jesus responded to these people in this passage who had utterly lost control.
It's good news for us when we see how the maker of the stars responded to his creatures who were powerless over so many things and yet whom he loves.
Let's look at the three of them and let's see their situations and let's see how Jesus responded.
First, Jarius.
Who was this guy, Jarius?
Mark says he was a ruler of the synagogue.
Okay, so so what does that mean?
Well, it's uh sort of like Redeemer, sort of like village church.
You know, each each each each synagogue in these times, they had a college of elders, if you will.
And they were presided over by a ruler of the elders who would oversee the services, he would oversee the finances, and he actually possessed the power of excommunication as well.
So Jairus was not a priest, but he was a lay leader, if you will, in the synagogue at the time.
He was, it doesn't say this overtly, but the ruler of the synagogue, this guy was a respected, successful man.
Probably had a great job, and he probably did a good job, and he did well.
He was a pillar of his community.
Okay?
He had a lot of religious power as well.
So this guy had Jerry's had it together.
Jerry's had power.
Jerry's could get stuff done in his life.
Okay?
Until his daughter got sick.
And he couldn't get that done.
He couldn't fix that.
That was a situation that he couldn't fix anymore.
He couldn't control that.
Have you been there before?
Have you been there?
Maybe not with a sick child, but have you been there where maybe a sick loved one or some some health problem rip control from your hands?
I've been there.
You know, when you when you hear words like epilepsy and autism come out of the mouth of your doctor and describing your son, that's a powerless situation.
That's a powerless situation.
Um I like a lot of you, I got really good in my life, and you know, if you say, do you control every situation that you're in, I would say, of course not.
But at the same time, we put ourselves in situations where we can at least pretend like we have control, right?
But then when you actually get in a situation where you're facing something, especially if you're facing a sick child, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The only way to describe that, friends, is it's a death.
It's a death.
Have you died that death before?
You know, when you die that death, there's only one thing you can do.
You could kneel down at the feet of the maker of the stars and say, Come and lay your hands on her, come and lay your hands on him, so that he may be made well and live.
That was where Jarius was.
Control ripped from his fingers.
So, how did Jesus respond to Jarius' plea?
That's the big question for us humans, right?
How did Jesus respond?
They didn't get a lecture for him to double down and and and give it another go.
He responded with love.
And he responded with presence and he responded with action.
Scriptures say, he went with him.
He didn't say, here's a prescription to fix your mess, go do it.
He didn't throw money at the situation.
He went, he went with Jarius in order to heal his daughter.
Love, presence, and action is the way Jesus responds to us losing control.
Love, presence, and action is what he does.
On their way, however, to heal Jarius' daughter, we we come into contact with another person who was utterly powerless.
This is an old woman who was desperately, desperately sick.
Her situation was this.
She suffered from 12 straight years of menstrual bleeding.
And this was not only devastating physically for her, it also left her as a social outcast, as one who was branded unclean and untouchable in her society for that whole time.
12 years of this.
So you can just imagine the physical and the emotional turmoil that she had gone, she had been going through for a long, long time.
This woman lost control years before this.
And not only that, but quack witch doctors had taken all of her money in her desperate attempt to find healing.
So she was ruined, she was powerless in her helpless situation.
Some of you have been there too.
It's a physical illness or emotional wound that won't go away and is wreaking havoc in your life.
Maybe it's bankruptcy too, which is what she experienced.
That's been the death blow for a lot of people over the past five years, right?
I had control.
I was master of minded man, and I had a lot of money, and then it was gone.
You want to talk about a death blow in our culture.
Because if there's anything we fear, we fear losing our money.
And when it's gone, that is a death blow.
She had lost all of it.
Her health, her friends, her family, and her money.
And at that point, there's only one thing you can do.
Out of sheer desperation, yet with great trust, kneel down and touch the pure right garments of her creator.
How did Jesus respond?
Not with scorn and condemnation, which is what we might expect from some leaders.
Not with a get away from me, you unclean woman, which according to the law, he had every right to do.
Instead, he called her daughter.
He called her his daughter.
He called her a beloved one.
He loved her in the midst of her powerlessness, and he healed her.
And then lastly, we're we're introduced to another character in the story that whether we're willing to or not, whether you've been through a family illness or an illness yourself, whether you've declared bankruptcy or not, we can all relate to this next person.
And this is gonna sound strange, but bear with me.
We can all relate to this dead little girl.
So as Jesus was going on his way to heal her, Jarius' daughter died.
She died.
She was dead.
Okay, the morning rituals had begun there at the house.
Jesus was too late in getting there.
But he tells something, he he tells Jarius, her father, something really curious.
He says, after the people, his people had come and said, too late, she died.
After that, Jesus says to Jarius, don't fear, do not fear, only believe.
Do not fear, only believe.
And friends, he's telling that to you and to me in the midst of our powerless situations that we're all in right now this morning.
That's what he's telling to us.
Don't fear, only believe.
He's telling that to you in the midst of your death and my death as well.
Don't be afraid, trust me.
I'm making all things new, he says.
I'm even making dead things new.
That's what I do.
It's my specialty.
That's what Jesus says.
And friends, that's true.
Making dead things come alive is Jesus' specialty.
It's what he does.
So not only can we relate to Jarius in his powerless situation, or to this old woman in her powerless situation, we can relate to his daughter in her powerless situation, as friends, because death is the ultimate powerlessness, is it not?
A dead person can't do anything to heal a situation.
A dead little girl can't do anything to heal her situation.
And it's something that we are all facing today.
I don't mean to be macabre or morbid or anything like that, but we're all dying, friends.
We're all dying.
We're all dying metaphorical deaths, and we're all on our way to dying physical deaths as well.
That's the reality of our situation.
That is the human condition.
We're dying.
It's something we're all facing.
No matter how strong and powerful and in control you feel right now, we are all Jarius' daughter ultimately.
We are all, the Bible says, dead in our trespasses and sins.
And friends, only when we're able to admit that we're dead will we be able to stop balking at the free gift of salvation and resurrection that God is offering to us through his son.
It's only when that white flag of surrender comes up and says, I'm a dead man.
There's nothing I can do anymore.
I've tried it all and it hasn't worked.
That's when we stop balking at grace.
That's when our hands are pried open and we said, Oh, I if it's going to happen, it's going to have to happen from the outside.
So, friends, our faith is not I'm a pretty good person who just needs to get a little bit better.
It's rather I'm a dead man who needs to be raised to new life through a power outside of myself.
That's what Christianity is.
St.
Paul put it this way, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Put it this way: I've been crucified with Christ.
It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
So how does Jesus, how did Jesus respond to his beloved, powerless, out of control, dead children?
How does Jesus respond to that?
I'm going to let this Jesus storybook Bible take it from here.
If you don't have this, get it.
If I'm ever preaching a passage that's in here, it's one of the first things I consult.
Read it to your kids.
Read it for yourself because it's a wonderful, wonderful expression of who Jesus is and what the gospel is.
Just then, Jarius's servants rushed up to Jarius.
It's too late.
They said, Your daughter's dead.
And Jesus turned to Jarius.
It's not too late, just trust me, he said.
At Jarius' house, everyone was crying, but Jesus said, I'm going to go wake her up.
And then everybody laughed at him because they knew she was dead.
Jesus walked into the little girl's bedroom, and there, lying in the corner in the shadows, was the still little figure.
And Jesus sat on the bed and he took her pale hand.
Honey, he said, it's time to get up.
And he reached down into death and he gently brought the little girl back to life.
And the little girl woke up and rubbed her eyes like she'd just had a good night's sleep, and she leapt out of bed.
Jesus threw open the shutters and sunlight flooded the dark room.
Hungry?
Jesus asked, and she nodded.
So he called to her family.
Bring this little girl some breakfast.
Jesus helped and healed many people like this.
He made blind people see, and deaf people hear, and lame people walk.
He was making the sad things come untrue.
He was mending God's broken world.
My friend Jacob Goff, he put it this way.
He said the hardest truth to believe as a Christian is the most essential truth of Christianity.
Jesus makes dead things alive.
The hardest truth to believe as a Christian is the most essential truth of Christianity.
Jesus makes dead things alive.
That's true for you, and that's true for me this morning, right now.
Let's pray.
Lord, we give up.
Or we need a merciful Savior because we're dying over here.
And we are so glad that that's what you are.
You proved it in your scriptures, you prove it at your table week after week.
Lord, and you prove it in our lives.
So, Lord, just like you told Jarius, we know that you're telling us don't be afraid, just believe.
Lord, help us.
Help us in the midst of our losing control, help us in the midst of our losing power, and help us in the hour of our death.
In your name, Jesus, we pray.
Amen.