The Consequences of Faith | Matthew 9:18-34 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptists Church


The Consequences of Faith
Matthew 9:18-34
1. Our faith should inform our choices, v. 18-19
He does three things...
a)he acknowledges- “and knelt before him”
b)he asks- “come and lay your hand on her”
c)he believes- “and she will live”

2. Anyone who doesn’t feel invited is welcomed, v. 20-22

How we develop a negative head space...
a)we all tend to calibrate to our experiences
b)our experiences affect what we think about ourselves
c)what you think about yourself informs how you relate to the world
Malachi 4:2

3. The way we think about death changes, v. 23-26
Matthew 13:53-58

Mental worship...
1. What is the last choice your faith caused you to make?
2. What do you do non-verbally to acknowledge who God is?
3. Does what you say to yourself match what Jesus says about you?
4. How does your faith inform and influence how you think about death?
5. Who in your life really sees you?
6. Do you need to start believing something or stop believing something in order to strengthen
your faith?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Now, I say our faith should inform our choices. Here's my fear cards on the table. I fear that we can we come to our faith because we need forgiveness for our choices, but we don't come to our faith for direction in making choices. Let me say that again. We come to our faith because we need forgiveness for the choices that we made. We do not come to our faith because we're seeking direction in making the choices, okay? There are choices that we make because of what we have faith in. There are choices that we make because of what we have faith in. You you just think about it, okay? If you're a Christian, you should be able to ask yourself, what's the last choice you made because of your faith? I don't think that our it's a matter of bad choices as much as the people and things that we put our faith in. And because you're Christians and you have your faith in different things, you should make different choices. I should make different choices.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Yeah, uh, church, you can be seated. Clyde's just gonna play for a second. Uh, I want us to, before I pray, I want you to pray. And here's who I want you who I want you to pray for, somebody specific. I want you to pray for the people that have failed you. Yeah, you're not gonna get justice from them. They don't understand the degree to which it hurt you. And some of you are still holding on to a little bitterness for the people that failed you that just didn't come through. They said they would, but they didn't. I want you to pray for them right now by name. Just you ain't gotta close your eyes. You can if you want to. But we say, I trust in, I trust in God. I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered. In this life, people are going to fail you. And you can't let that get in you and stick to you and affect the way you relate to God and people. So let's just take a moment right now before we do anything else, and just let's pray for people that failed us. And don't pray at them like God get them. I want you to give them the same mercy that God has given you. Give them the same grace that God has given you, and give them the same forgiveness that God has given you. That's why Ephesians 4 32 says, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you. Because with the measure that you measure, it'll be measured back to you. Father, we don't want to waste our life just just praying for payback. We don't want to be spiteful, vengeful, catty, small people. Lord, you know all the wrongs that we've endured, the people that have failed us. We don't want to waste our life waiting for them to come ask for our forgiveness. We want to just give it to them because you gave it to us. And so, Lord, we sing, we just sang that we trust you, and then we seek you. So, Holy Spirit, say something from the Word today that increases our capacity to trust you. This is our prayer, God. We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen, amen. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. If you're our guest, we're preaching to the gospel of Matthew, and every once in a while, we've been in Matthew for at least a couple weeks now, and I don't know how much longer we'll be in it. Uh, you can keep asking me, how long are we gonna be in Matthew? Uh, but somebody asked me this week, they said, Why do you, it's called expository preaching, where you, because this is the way you nurse the faith of a congregation over the long haul. You have to look at things and think about things you normally wouldn't think about. And here's why we preach expositorily here, because most people read the Bible like they read the menu at Lupe Tortilla. You know there's other things on the menu, you've heard about them, but you get the beef fajitas every time you go. Left to yourself, you'll read the same ten things in the Bible every time you open it up. However, if you go to a church that preaches expositorily, you gotta think about some things. Like today, you're gonna have to think about some things that you by nature wouldn't think about, and some of y'all are gonna talk about me at lunch. And so I forgive you already. I was praying for you when you were praying for the people that failed you. Uh and so get ready. You're like, can you believe he said that? I'll tell you what. Yeah, I didn't say it, it came out of the Bible. I want to talk to you this morning about the consequences of faith. The consequences of faith. Up to this point, uh, I told you Matthew 8 and 9, Jesus has been demonstrating all the things he has authority over. But in this little section right here, like verses 18 to like 27 or 26, uh, what gets demonstrated is this faith that these people have. It is not the authority of Jesus, it's the faith of people, okay? So hold that in your mind as we start reading Matthew chapter 9, verse 18. It says this, while he was saying these things. Now, now when the Bible picks up like that, like why he was saying these things, Jesus, you ever had a day where you just get home and you just you walk in, your shirt's torn, and you got a black eye and you're limping, and your wife's like, What happened? You're an accountant. Uh Ben Affleck came to work today. No, Jesus has days like that, like these things happen back to back to back to back. And it's just like, it's just a day, okay? And so while he was saying these things, he he's still talking about, you know, uh new, not better, okay? He's while he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died. Come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And Jesus rose and followed him and his disciples with his disciples. 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'll be made well. Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith is made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, Go away. For the girl's not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose, and the report of this went through all that district. Now, what do I mean when I say the consequences of our faith? Uh, and let me point to three of them, okay? Number one, our faith should inform our choices. Our faith should inform our choices. This is uh verses 18 and 19. This guy is a ruler of the synagogue. Now, in the gospels, now I say gospels, that's the four first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Uh, and it's four different guys that followed, they were Jesus' disciples, the original twelve, and they all wrote about his life and ministry. This story is also told in Mark chapter 5. Mark gives a lot more detail than Matthew does. Like Mark tells you that this guy's name was Jarius, and it's Jarius' daughter, okay? Now I say our faith should inform our choices. Uh, here's my fear cards on the table. I fear that we can we come to our faith because we need forgiveness for our choices, but we don't come for to our faith for direction in making choices. Let me say that again. We come to our faith because we need forgiveness for the choices that we made. We do not come to our faith because we're seeking direction in making the choices, okay? There are choices that we make because of what we have faith in. There are choices that we make because of what we have faith in. You you you just just think about it, okay? If you're a Christian, you should be able to ask yourself, what's the last choice you made because of your faith? I don't think that our it's a matter of bad choices as much as the people and things that we put our faith in. And because you're Christians and you have your faith in different things, you should make different choices. I should make different choices. Like I tried to explain to somebody in premarital counseling, uh, we're talking about money, and I asked them, I said, by the way, do you tithe now? And will you tithe as a couple? Now, speaking of premarital counseling and weddings, if you're getting married in the summer, don't get married outside, okay? I did a wedding last night at 6 o'clock, outside, humidity radiating up out of the ground. When the service started, I'm shorter today. I used to be 6'1. This morning I woke up, I was 5'10. I was like the witch and wizard of odds. What a world, what a world! And they're just standing there. It was so bad. The groom in the middle of it said, Does anybody have a napkin? I'm like, I bet you didn't find that on Pinterest right there, buddy. Hey, they see buildings and they got air conditioning. Utilize them. Unless you're getting married in November, then be outside to the glory of God. I don't care. But I was in premarital counseling, these people are getting married. I said, Do you tithe to the couple? Uh do you tithe now? Will you tithe? And the guy goes, What do you mean tithe? I said, It's it's it's it's it's what you give to your church. Like he folds his arms, like, I ain't about that. I mean, I think I'm not trying to tell you you gotta be. Okay? Well, I mean, my money, money, mate. And he went on this whole spill about money. And I said, Hey, by the way, tithing is not about money, tithing is about what you have faith in. And he goes, What do you mean? And I said, I tithe because I have more faith in God to manage my money than I have in myself. And he kind of looked at his fiance and goes, Don't look at me. You don't want to ask the question. And so don't get all tightened up. This is not coming to a tithing terminal here. I just think here's the thing: you make the choices you make because of what you have faith in. And you should make that connection. You make the choices you make because what you have faith in. Some of you have faith in people you shouldn't have faith in. That's why they hurt you. Because you had faith in them. There might have been a little check in your spirit that said, get away, get away. She's crazy. You get away. Your mom and dad might have said, honey, I'm concerned about this man. He may have a drinking problem. You're like, oh, but I can change him. You had faith in yourself more than you had faith in God. See, there are choices we make because of what we have faith in. And I'm just saying, as Christians, we should make different choices because we have our faith in God and not in other people or other things, okay? This guy was a ruler. He was a ruler of the synagogue. That means he's in charge of the services. Uh, also, uh, these people weren't big fans of Jesus. However, again, our faith should inform our choices. He realizes that religion and the religious system is not going to help his dead daughter. His daughter's 12 years old. When you read it in Mark 5, Mark tells us how old she is. She's 12 years old. She's a little girl. She's fixed to have her bat mitzvah, her coming of age, coming out party, where she's a young woman. And all of a sudden she's dead. He doesn't go to the synagogue and say, hey guys, when you have a prayer circle, my daughter died. He hotfoots it to Jesus, comes in, and really he displays a deep faith. You say, What do you mean? He does three things, and they're all right there in verse 18 and 19. He acknowledges, he asks, and he believes. Let me say it again. He does three things that demonstrate his faith. He acknowledges. And what do you mean? It says, and knelt before him. What do you do nonverbally to acknowledge who God is? You should have some rituals, some habits in your life that aren't singing or speaking, that are nonverbal, that, that, that you do that demonstrate, that kind of acknowledge, hey, this is who God is to me. Okay? I remember the first time I was in a worship service, and a man standing right next to me just he didn't kneel down. I thought he was doing that. Oh, that's kind of charismatic. Uh he got to his knees and he just laid out prostrate, face down, spread out, like he'd been shot by a sniper. And the whole time worship is going on, he is just sprawled down. And I was kind of singing with my little bunny rabbit hands up, and I was kind of looking down, like, did you drop a contact? Get back up, man. And he was down there, and I got curious, and I was kind of leaning over. He wasn't singing, he was just, and then at the last song, he kind of got up, got back in his chair, wiped his eyes, and he went out loud, mind you. Whoa, that was good. It was a little uncomfortable for me. Now, nowadays it wouldn't bother me at all. I'd been a Christian about 10 minutes back then. I just kind of thought, you don't want me to do that, do you, Jesus? Let's don't get crazy. See, he was just acknowledging. This is, we were look at me. We were singing and saying things that he wanted to say with his body, not just with his voice. You've got to have some things that you do with your body. That your voice can't carry the weight of them. Your body and your posture have to demonstrate them. He acknowledges, secondly, he asks. He says, Come lay your hand on her. Not lay your hands on her, just one hand. Jesus, come lay your hand on her, and then he believes. And he says this, oh, and you know, the doctors have done all they can do because in Mark's telling of this in Mark chapter 5, it the Bible says it's great. It says she spent all she had on doctors, and instead of getting better, she got worse. So he ain't going to the doctors. He doesn't say, Hey, Jesus, uh, hey, uh, he come kneel before him, come lay your hand on her, and it might work. We tried everything else. No, he didn't say it might work. He said, look at he believes, he said, and she will live. Now, what I don't want you to miss is this, okay? Is remember when Jesus talks to Matthew, and then the Bible says Matthew left everything, he got up and followed Jesus. Look at me. This is one of the only times in the New Testament where somebody speaks to Jesus and it's so compelling, Jesus gets up and follows him. You didn't hear what I said. Let's try that. I know it's foggy outside. You walked out, you're like, oh, Asana. Somebody said to me, Did you ride your scooter today? No, I couldn't get to the humidity. I hit a wall, so I had to bring my truck. No, his words don't insult Jesus, they invite Jesus. A lot of people think that by insulting Jesus, you're obligating him to prove himself in your circumstance. And what we see here in all of the New Testament is that Jesus responds to faith, not insults. Look at it again. While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. And Jesus, here's the part Jesus follows him, Jesus doesn't talk, and then the guy follows him like Matthew. And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples. Get this, ladies. Your 12-year-old daughter has just died. She's laying there in her bunk bed, you're crying your eyes out, and all of a sudden your husband opens the door and 13 grown men walk in. You're like, oh my gosh, what? Yes, Jesus and 12 disciples. Why? Because Jesus responds to faith. And this is what happens when I say our faith should inform our choices. He makes the choices that he makes because he has faith in Jesus that he doesn't have in anybody else. And by the way, this 12-year-old girl dead and somebody going to get in Jesus, this is a picture of all humanity from a spiritual perspective because we're all born spiritually dead. Okay? You can do nothing about your spiritual condition because we can make ourselves better, but we cannot make ourselves new. Yes, yes. Last week disrupted a lot of you. I got emails, I got texts. I'm eating my lunch on Sunday, and my phone's blowing up. And somebody asked a great question and said, Hey, I had some of my family with me, and we were on the way home, we were talking, which you should, you should discuss things. You should go to a church that makes you think, it engages your mind. He said, We were kind of wondering, what can we do to make ourselves new? And I wrote back and said, absolutely nothing. Only God, yes, praise God. Only God can make you new. This is why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Listen to all the podcasts you want to listen to, slam your protein shakes, eat your icy eye bowls or however you say the goofy word, all that stuff y'all do, you ain't gonna get new. You're gonna get better, but you're not gonna get new. Why? Because you're like this girl. You're dead and your trespasses in sin. That is the natural state of humanity. A man said to me in counseling recently, he goes, before we get started, now by the way, when men put their hands up like this, something stupid's fixing to come out of their mouth. They might as well say they might as well just open a shirt and it just kind of says, warning, stupid words coming. He's like, hey, hey, bro, before we get going, I just need to tell you that I don't really believe in God, so don't come at me with the whole God peace. And I was just like, oh, I was like Doc Holliday. Say when I just looked at it, I was like, what a friend we have in Jesus. Thank you. But I had to shave and drink coffee to come here. This moron say that. I'm enlightening you, I'm not. And I said, so I just, and now by the way, I I have counseling opportunities. Not many, it's a full week, but I'll work in. Uh so I threw my hands up and said something not stupid back. I said, that's okay. You're not, you're not being into God's thing. You did nothing to not believe in God. You were born that way. It's not like you went to college and got degrees and you're too smart for Jesus. You were born where you are right now, so you've made zero progress since you were born. And all of a sudden his hands went down. And he's like, What do you mean? The natural state of humanity is lost, you're separated from God. Or as the Bible says, you're dead in your trespasses and sins. You're now you're dead, you can't do anything about being dead. So you're trying to take credit for how you were born. You hadn't done anything, man. Sorry. You should say things that make people have a different conversation than the one they came to have. This this girl, 12-year-old girl, dead, in need of Jesus to come and raise her back to life, is the way everybody in the world is born. And if you've never been resurrected, it's because Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive. This is the gospel, and this is why I say to you here's the first principal consequence of faith is that our faith should inform our choices. Jarius' daughter died, he doesn't go to the religion factory, he goes to Jesus. Here's the second thing anyone who doesn't feel invited is welcome. Anyone, here's a principle of faith. Anyone who doesn't feel invited is welcome. It's this woman starting in verse 20. You should ask yourself, does your faith make make other people feel welcome? Does your faith ever make other people feel welcome? Like two songs in, you look down the front row and see that there's empty seats, and you just nudge your spouse and say, Let's go sit there so whoever's coming late can have the seat back here in the back row. It's real practical if your faith makes other people feel welcome. An usher should never have to walk somebody who arrives late down to the front row, but it happens all the time. Because some of y'all come here, and if somebody's sitting in your seat, you're like, hey, that's my seat. I sit there every Sunday. It's not your seat. Wade Burgess owns that seat. Yeah, just ask yourself, does your faith, because here's what happened? You get a church full of people who realize that my faith is supposed to make other people feel welcomed, you can't stop that church. You say, What do you mean? Like this woman here in verse 20. Jesus is on his way, and all of a sudden he gets hijacked by this hemorrhaging woman. Verse 20, and behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 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 turning and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. Instantly, it didn't take time, it didn't take, oh, go home, take this medication three days. Instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house, and we'll get to that in just a minute. Let's just end right there with instantly the woman was made well. Well, a couple things I want to point out. Number one, she had suffered for 12 years. Does that number sound familiar? You got a 12-year-old girl who died, and a woman who is hemorrhaged for 12 years. Well, what do you mean? That means first, second, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth grade, her entire educational career. She is hemorrhaged. Okay, what's the big deal? We'll get to that in a minute. She came up behind him. The ruler kneels in front of him and speaks to Jesus. She comes up behind him and she talks to herself, okay? Now, because she's bleeding, she's considered ceremonially unclean. We don't understand this because it's not a culture, but according to the to the law, uh to the rule book, hey, if you got active bleeding, you can't come to church. Uh here's here's one of the things she could not even cook food for her family because if they touched food that she had cooked, they were considered unclean. Now, some of you women right there, you're like, oh, oh, I think I'm hemorrhaging too. You can't cook for your family? Hold on, Jesus. Wait a minute. No, no. Not only that, but it gets better. Her family, nobody could sit in the chair she sat in. Nobody could touch her. She could not go to worship. She hadn't been to church in 12 years. Can you imagine if you stop tomorrow coming to this church? What people say about you? Can you believe her? I think she's in rehab. By the way, somebody asked me this morning, hey, where's that blake guy with the beard? I said, bear down in prayer. He's in rehab. He's on sabbatical. Do you people not read emails, okay? Yeah. So what's the deal? She comes up behind him. She's bleeding because she's ceremonially unclean. She's been a social outcast for 12 years. She's been in isolation. Now, by the way, she's got some negative headspace going on. Do you know what I mean when I say negative headspace? Mental health-wise, she's jacked up. This is why she relates to the world like she does, okay? You say, how does that happen? I'll give you a three-step process of how people get to a place where they ain't thinking right in their head and they're not acting right in their lives. Here's how we get there. Number one, we all tend to calibrate to our experiences. We all tend to calibrate to our experiences. You say, What do you mean? I'll give you a visual. Look at me. Uh uh like let's just say your family of origin, which is the family you grew up in. This is my family of origin, okay? It was not the healthiest thing, all right? And so, but the message that gets sent to you from your family of origin is hey, the way this works is you just play the role that you play. So if your family of origin is like this, then you are tempted to oh, I gotta give in and fit in, so I I want to I I wanna make this work. So you just calibrate to them. However, when I was about nine years old, I began realizing my family is just not something messed up about this. And it would happen at a family reunion. I had an uncle because my family would never. Speak to stuff. I'm sure your family was like, hey, let's have a family meeting and deal with this like the gospel informs us. My family, I had a drunk uncle. He was a long haul truck driver. He would just do crazy stuff like at the family reunion. He showed up Friday night and then he said, I'll see y'all tomorrow for lunch at the park. The next day, Saturday, we're at the park. My his 18-wheel cab over truck that had a sleeper cab on it. My dad said, Hey, go wake up, Uncle Jimmy. I go knock on the side of the truck, he gets out, some woman gets out with him. And we're walking up to the canopy where all the people are and the food, and all the adults are laughing, like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me, Jimmy? And I'm like, um, something's weird happening. Uh, but this was my dysfunctional family. Uh and and and and my dad goes, Hey Jimmy, who's your friend? And my uncle Jimmy goes, Hey, uh, sugar britches, what's your name again? To make the connection for all you who grew up in perfect families, my uncle brought to the family reunion a woman he picked up the night before at a bar. And my family said nothing about it. They said, Hey, come on in, get a plate. Well, you're welcome. And I was like, Do you know what disassociation is? Look at me. This is nine-year-old Neil is backing up for my family because you people ain't right in the head. You broke in the head, coach. This is messed up. But my family's like, hey, keep your mouth shut. Show respect to adults. That'd be great if I respected y'all. But I don't. And look at me. This is my family. I started kind of getting out of sync with them. By the time I was 11, I just stopped. I done seen it clearly, and I wasn't mad, I wasn't self-righteous, I was not even a Christian. I was very lonely. But I was like, I'm not going to calibrate to this. Look at me. You cannot control what you experience as a little kid. You can control what you calibrate to. Here's the second way you get there. We all tend to calibrate to our experiences, and then secondly, our experiences affect what we think about ourselves. Our experiences affect what we think about ourselves. People come along and they mean, well, Bible counselors, hey, you know that's not true about you. And you you you may not have said this, but you've thought this. Okay, well, if it's not true, then why does it keep happening? Why does every man I ever date treat me the same way? Yes. And if you're not careful, what happens is your experiences affect the way you think about yourself. That's this woman. This is why she's slinking up in the crowd. She's like, hey, I've been told I'm ceremonially unclean. I'm unclean. I'm kind of a dirty, skanky woman. Let me just reach up here and just touch the hem of Jesus' garment and see if this will work. Here's the third way. It's a progression. You calibrate your experiences. Your experiences affect what you think about yourselves, and then what you think about yourself informs how you relate to the world. And this is explains why some of you women are like you are. You're not bad people. You have so much self-loathing inside of you. You would never occupy your space out of your identity and with authority. Because what you think about yourself, this is this woman. She comes up, she touches the fringe of Jesus' garment. That's not like his shirt tail, okay? He was wearing a prayer shawl because he's a Jewish man. It's called a tallit. And it's basically, look at me, it's this white rectangular piece of cloth, and on the corner of it, it has these fringes like tassels that hang down. They're called wings. They had knots or uh they're called zitzitz. Uh so you look at me, you're not looking at me. You got this rectangular white piece of uh fabric on the corners are called wings. I tell you the corners are called wings, and they got these little tassels, and they got this blue thread that's kind of interwet uh woven in them, and they got these little knots. If you see a Jewish person with this thing over their head and they look like they're playing with the knots, they're counting the commandments. They're reminding themselves of the law of God. Okay? This is what's going on. Jesus is a Jewish man. He wasn't a Baptist, you know that, right? He wasn't a Republican either. Oh, I lost some of you there. You watch your mouth, Pastor. Our pastor gone woke. Whatever. Jesus is walking through the crowd. Did I tell you it's a rectangular piece of cloth on the corners, Anthony? Got these little tassels called zitzit. He's wearing a thing called a tallit. These are called zitzit. I just like saying zitzitz. That's the thing this woman reaches out because they remind him of the commands of God. She reaches out and takes a hold of it, okay. The four corners of this prayer shawl were known as wings. Did I tell you that the four corners are wings? Yes, okay. I don't know if I told you that or not. You're like, oh, okay. By now you should be thinking, okay, you're getting on my nerves with the wings thing. You make me want to eat lunch at B dubs. What's with the wings thing? Here's why. Because sometimes you read things in the Bible and you don't know what you're reading. It's like the menu at Lupe Tortilla. You're like, oh, they have chicken. Ah, and a solid. Who put that on the menu at Lufe Tortilla? Yes. Here's why. Because if you're ever reading the last book of the Old Testament, it's called Malachi, and you're ever in chapter four, you read verse two, it says this. But for you who revere my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. The Son of Righteousness, look at his look at it, it's using a creation metaphor to describe the coming of the Messiah. The Son of Righteousness is the coming Messiah. And his wings doesn't refer to these things on his back. His wings refers to the four quarters of a Jewish prayer shawl, which is why this woman reaches out and grabs the wings of Jesus' garment. She needs healing and she believes Jesus has it, so she takes a hold of it. Look at me. You should go to a church for every Sunday. You hear something that you're like, ooh, I gotta take a hold of that. I got to get a hold of that. Now, in Mark's, not Matthew, Matthew condenses it down. He's very efficient. Mark is just a storyteller, he just spins it out, okay? And Mark tells it in his that when the woman touched his garment, Jesus was surrounded by his people, he stopped. And everybody's like, look, and he looked at his disciples, he goes, Who touched me? They're like, hey, bro, newsflash, everyone's touching you, okay? This is like a riot. There's people everywhere. We got we got our arm, we're like a security kind of team, kind of get you through here. And Jesus said, Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Everyone's touching me, but one person accessed my power because I felt power come out from me. You do not have an encounter with Jesus and forget about it. He knew it and she knew it because the Bible says in Mark 5, and the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet. Because she is calibrated to her experiences and she's like, Oh, you're gonna you're gonna shun me like everybody else has. So let me just get down here and just brace for it. That wasn't her experience. Look at verse 22. Jesus turned and seeing her, he said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. Now, this is hard, but I want you to try to do this. Imagine you've been shunned for 12 years. No one talks to you, no one touches you, you're isolated, you're by yourself, you're still in COVID lockdown. You're still wearing the mask, driving your car down the road by yourself. You're so isolated. You believe things that ain't right. Your head is just messed up. You're in a really negative head space. You're like, what's the big deal? In verse 22, Jesus turned, here's the big deal, and seeing her. And seeing her. You say, what do you mean? That's the Greek word, or uh oh. And it has two definitions. One is to see with the eye, and the other is to see with the mind. Jesus sees with his eyes, but he also sees with his mind. Now you say, Well, what do you mean? People that are wired up like this, they make you uncomfortable. Because you think they're checking you out, and they're not. It happened to me in college for the first time. It messed me up. I was in college, and in my college, like this is the cafeteria where all y'all are. And there's a door right here, and you got a little scan your car when you go in. And the door, the line lined up down that glass wall, and then it came across, and then the line was on this glass wall over here. That glass wall was to the cafeteria, this glass wall was to outside. And so that line went this way, and this line went that way. And so people come up the stairs to the student center, and there we were just working our way. And so I'm standing in the line, and way down there, way down there is a girl who's kind of cute. And my friend behind me says, Hey McLean, I think that girl's checking you out. Well, she's got wisdom. I'll give her that. Uh, and so I'm moving forward and she's moving forward. So we're getting closer to each other. Now, I was not even married, I didn't even know my wife existed at the time. I was just gonna have Bible study with this girl, okay? So I just get that on the record. So she's getting closer, I'm getting closer, and I'm kind of like, and she is not just kind of glancing, she is looking at me like this. And smiling, I went, well, hey, I can't put it on stun. I'm glad you appreciate it. And she's getting closer and I'm getting closer, and she's getting closer and I'm getting closer, and eventually she's right there, right across from me. And she has not looked away. You know, that's kind of like people catch you looking, like, oh, hey, uh, anyway, no, sir. She's just smiling and she's looking, and I'm like, well, hey, hey, I'm Neil. And she reached out and took my hand, told me her name, and I said, Hey, I couldn't help but notice you were looking. She goes, I wasn't looking, I was praying. Yeah, yeah. It's all sudden I'm in the I'm in the I'm in the phone booth with a gorilla. And I'm like, and she's just smiling, got my hand, and I said, What are you praying for? She goes, I'm praying for your fractured relationship with your father. Get them cooties off of me. I felt like Doc Holiday again. Well, then again, you might be the Antichrist. And she said, Yeah, I'm praying that the Lord would uh turn the heart of the Father back to the children, heart of children back to the Father. Nice to meet you, Neil. And she just went, Oh, I was like, I don't want to date that crazy woman. Uh no, she saw me with her mind, and she was exactly right, by the way. People that see you with their mind make you uncomfortable. You're like, oh, it makes me uncomfortable. I think he's taking me out. No, they're taking you out. They live it on another level you don't even know exist. You're talking about you're seeing with your eyes. You don't have a saying problem, you have a seeing problem. You say the same thing to everybody and everything, because you don't see into that other dimension. You don't see with your mind. You don't intuit, you don't sense, you don't discern things about people. And so you're just, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But people like that, I also went to another guy, Marvin. Marvin was kind of cuckoo. I worked with Marvin. Marvin said with his mind. Marvin said to me, we were waiters. Marvin said to me, hey man, we're crushing it. The guys in the back are getting bitter. Why don't we put all our cash on the table and let them take what they need? Why don't you stop smoking crack, Marvin? Marvin, and then Marvin did this. This was Marvin's family. Hey, hey, just test the spirit, brother. Just test the spirit. See if the Lord's in it. We got done. I walked in back in the banquet room. Marvin had emptied his cash, his pocket, all about on the table. He said, brother, just do as the Lord leads. I'm like, what are you? A flip? What are you, a dolphin? What's this going on? And I was like, okay. And there you go. And all the other waiters who weren't good at their job, who didn't deserve tips, walked by and picked up my money I'd earned. And Marvin came over to me and Marvin was crying. And Marvin said, Isn't it great? The follow Lord's leading. Fabulous, Marvin. It's fabulous. And he looked at me and he said, Hey, brother. He tapped me on it. He goes, Hey, brother, we can earn this tomorrow. These guys will never earn this. They're not good. See, there's a responsibility to being good, is helping those that aren't good. You sound like the government, Marvin. Hey, brother, let's go. Only Marvin walked away smiling. I got a question for you. Who in your life sees you? Not just with their eyes, but with their mind. You know they see you with their mind because they say crazy stuff to you. They shouldn't know. And when they say it, you're like, yeah, I know you know, but please don't remind me that you know because it makes me uncomfortable. If you don't have anybody in your life like that, look at me. You need to get some more friends. Because you'll have some, you'll have interesting conversations. Yeah. Now, some of y'all, you know, some of y'all thinking right now, whatever happened to the girl. I didn't I never talk to her ever again. When I would see her, I would almost run because she had them crazy eyes. It's either like I love Jesus or I'm gonna kill all y'all as soon as the music stops. But like a moth to the flame, I was drawn to her. I wanted, people were like, hey man, have you met us on and so? I was like, Yeah, yeah. Cook, cockoo. Here's the thing uh Jesus says, see in her. He says, take heart, which means take courage. Daughter, can you imagine? You've been an orphan for 12 years, no one has anything to do with you, and the son of God calls you daughter. And he says, Your faith has made you well. Hear that part. Your faith. Not my power, your faith. Not my authority, your faith. Your faith. Jesus uses his power to make people feel more secure, not less. In one sentence, Jesus restores her physically, spiritually, and socially. I mean, no one had anything to do with her for 12 years. How socially starved would you be? Then the Son of God sees you, not with his eyes, but with his mind. And then he tells you, hey, take courage. You made a lot of bad choices, reaching out and grabbing hold of me, one, one-one. That was a great choice. And then he credits his healing to her faith, not his power. You say, What do you mean he restores her physically, spiritually, and socially? The healing has to be as public as the hemorrhaging. That way everybody knows she's been restored. Again, the healing has to be as public as the hemorrhaging. Some of you have hemorrhaged in public, but people don't know how God has healed you, and so they still treat you like the addict you used to be. You've got to be able to say, I'm not that person anymore. Not to convince them, but to glorify God. Oh, think whatever you want. But that that that has no place in me. Here's the last thing I want you to see. You still with me, by the way? Uh here's the third thing, uh, principle of faith. The way we think about death changes. The way we think about death, verse 23, when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players in the crowd making a commotion. They would, professional mourners, they'd come over and play the flute and people would cry. They're making a commotion. He said, Go away, for the girl's not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. Ask yourself this question, okay? Well does the way you think about death make people laugh? I told my kids since they were about 10 years old, hey, when I die, be sad for as long as you need to, but don't be sad too long and pain alive to live. I want you to roll me down the aisle. I want you to play some, I do not want you to play some cheesy religious song. I want you to play Johnny Cash's version of Rusty Cage. I mean, it starts off slow, and then it goes to that boy, that bass kicks in, open the doors, and I want Clyde Copeland to come on the speaker. All right. And you roll me slow down the aisle so everyone can just feel it. I'm gonna break. And my kids like, yeah, yes, yeah, we know. Rusty Cage, Sound Garden, Johnny Cash's version was better because I made my kids appreciate good music. Don't be listening. I didn't know my you can't even bring Britney Spirits in this house once I listen to her. She can't sing. She's an addict and she's crazy, but she can't sing. Yeah, does the way you think my kids just giggle. Like, yeah, we got it, yeah, we got, we got, okay. Yeah. Does the way you think about death make people laugh? These stories get mislabeled as miraculous healings, but in reality, they're miraculous displays of faith from ordinary people who understood that faith, here's our definition of faith. Faith allows me to participate in the work of God. I get to experience what God's doing when I exercise my faith. I can't stress this enough. The thing that Jesus responds to is faith. It's not anger, it's not pity, it's not sentiment, it's not accusation, it's not promises, it's not manipulation. We saw earlier in the chapter when he saw the faith of these people that brought the paralyzed guy when Jesus saw their faith, someone said, Yeah, yeah, I got a problem with that. I disagree with you. That's okay. That's okay. I'm just reading from the Bible. Here's a question I would ask you. Now, I would say Jesus raises this girl from the dead because of the faith of her father. He heals this woman because of her faith, and he tells her, if Jesus does things because of faith, does he ever not do things because of an absence of faith? If Jesus does things, because he says he does because of faith, does he ever not do things because of an absence of faith? See, it's not that God doesn't have the power or the capacity. Some of you don't have the faith to get your prayers answered. And you're blaming God. You should look in the mirror. You say, What do you mean? Matthew 13, we'll get there. We're in Matthew 9, Matthew 13, we'll get there in about four years. Uh but in Matthew 13, I just said that for y'all, you babies. Uh I see you back there, Jared. Uh Matthew 13, verse 53. And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there. And coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? That sounds like you every Sunday walk into the parking lot, doesn't it? No, no, Ray? Oh, just second. Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not, and then look at me. They can't figure him out, so they want to tear him down. They said, Is not this the carpenter's son? I mean, let's don't get out of our skis. He's just a blue-collar kid here, okay? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? Are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not about honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. See, what the Bible tells us is that Jesus does things because of faith. Look at me. But he also doesn't do things because of an absence of faith. There's a connection between what we believe and our faith. This is why you should go to a church where you're always learning stuff. Because look at me, when you learn, it increases what you believe. When you increase what you believe, it increases your faith. Some of you, your faith has been locked in at the same level because you quit learning a long time ago. You don't learn, you don't increase in belief, you don't increase in belief, you don't increase in faith. You don't have a faith problem, you have a belief problem. Translation, because you believe or don't believe certain things, you cannot have much faith. Like, for example, and I'm not disrespecting you, some of you grew up in a tradition that taught in the perpetual virginity of Mary. You got a problem right here in Matthew 13, because you got either got a flawed Bible, because it says right here, is not his mother called Mary, or not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, and now are not all his sisters with us? If you believe that Mary was a perpetual virgin, where do all these brothers and sisters come from? Either the Bible's flawed or you were taught a tradition that's not a truth. See, you gotta learn. And part of learning is unlearning. By the way, let me say this and we'll be done. You still with me? Don't miss this. We started off saying, hey, this 12-year-old dead girl is a picture of us naturally being born spiritually dead, her being raised up to life is a picture of what death will be like for Christians. You're gonna fall asleep in this final sleep of death, you're gonna wake up one day because, ladies, Jesus is gonna say, Talitha kum. Get up, little girl. And by the way, in Mark's telling of the story, Jesus could tell these people don't believe me, so after he raises her from the dead, he says, Give her something to eat. So guess what's gonna happen? When a Christian dies, when Jesus comes, he's gonna say, Hey, hey, hey, little girl, get up. Let's eat. It's called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Yes. You should be so confident about what happens when you die that other people laugh at you. Like they laughed at Jesus. Like, hey, man, hey, hey, hey, Jethro Toll, put the flute down. We don't need that. Hush, get out of here. Oh, you professor, get out of here. He's not dead, she's asleep. Like, Jesus, you crazy. Get out of here. That's how Pete, look at me, and I'm done. Jesus, put the crowd outside because they won't have faith to believe what's about to happen. Ask yourself this question: do you have faith to believe what's about to happen in your life? I'm not, if you're visiting today, I'm not naming and claiming. I'm old school. I preach from the Bible. I just say what the Bible says. Jesus does what he does because of faith, and he doesn't do some things because of an absence of faith. Let's pray together. We like to teach the Bible, then we give you space to think about it. And so that's what this time is. Some questions come on the screen. You don't have to try to write them all down. You can just take a picture. Talk about them over lunch, talk about them this week. Let's just take a minute and just kind of simmer in these juices before we're dismissed today. Jesus, thank you that the Bible is better than the menu at Lupe Tortilla. It's got so much in it. So much there we've never seen before. And it's not the people's fault. I'm not ragging these people. It's the fault of cowardly preachers that preach for approval instead of understanding. Who people don't have to think and learn stuff and so that what they believe increases, and then their faith increases. So, God, please don't let anybody walk out here today and beat themselves up because their faith is still about as big as it was when they were 14, when they went to youth camp. That just means they gotta they gotta learn some stuff and believe some stuff, and their faith will increase. So we say, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief today, help my unbelief today, Lord. We ask for this in Christ's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

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