Be Careful What You Ask For | Dangerous Prayers, Week 2 | Rob Hall | New North Church

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Transcript

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Hey, welcome to the New North Church podcast. It's great to have you listening in with us. Our vision at our church is to be an authentic community of Jesus followers who love and serve people. So if we can help you in any way at all, just reach out to us. The email address is hello at new north.church. With that, let's go right to this week's message. All right. Hey, good morning, everyone. Great to see all of you. We're going to celebrate baptisms and a little bit very excited about that. Annalyn and James brought 2,500 people to church. Thank you guys so much. So we're going to baptize Kennedy every Sunday for 10 more Sundays. Hey, I want you to think about, if you're a person of prayer, I want you to think about your own prayer life and just want to ask you, um, what have you been asking Jesus to do lately in your life? And even if you're not a person of prayer, like what is it in those quiet moments? You know, what do you think about? What do you wish would happen in your life? You know, for those of us who follow Jesus, maybe you've been praying for, I don't know, something like, hey Lord, would you please heal my body? If you're over 40, can anyone say amen to that? Yep. Yep. Maybe if you're really honest, your prayer life, you're saying, Lord, would you fix my marriage? Would you help my child? Would you take away my depression or anxiety? Or maybe, you know, just you're praying, Lord, would you open a door for me? And see, so often my prayers, your prayers start really strong. And it's usually something like, hey, Jesus, please do something, please do this, and please do it soon. Like, we don't like to wait. I know I don't. And some of these prayers, I would say, feel dangerous to us because it brings us, they bring us face to face with how little control we have in this life. Did you know you have very, very little control? And sometimes what happens while we're praying and waiting, Jesus just seems to move much more slowly than we would like. Is that true for anyone? Yeah, yeah. This group, are you guys awake over? Yeah, I mean, come on. Like Jesus is on his own agenda. And I say that because we're gonna look at a story in the New Testament of the Bible, the gospel of Mark, and we're gonna look at a man named Jairus, and then we're gonna see a we're gonna look at an unnamed woman. This man named Jairus had a 12-year-old daughter who's dying. Like, this is every parent's worst nightmare, right? And so every minute mattered for him because she was close to dying. And so this man comes and he falls at the feet of Jesus and he begs, Jesus, please come, come now, come heal her. And Jesus agrees. But Jesus takes his time, and Jesus stops, and he begins to interact with really a nobody, with this unnamed woman who has been suffering for 12 years. So Jairus' daughter has enjoyed 12 years of life, but this woman has endured 12 years of terrible pain and suffering. One, the daughter, is surrounded by family and friends who are all praying for her. A dad who's going out and find Jesus, but the other appears to be all alone in a crowd. Jairus, make no mistake, he wanted Jesus to kick it in the gear. Jesus, hurry up. But this woman doesn't even want Jesus to notice her. And what we're gonna see is that Jesus refuses to rush past either one of these people. And through both of them, Mark, who wrote this story down for us, is gonna invent gonna show us really the dangerous prayer I want to look at this morning. Now, don't email me. None of them pray these exact words. You're gonna be like, well, Rob, there's not even a prayer in this. But their stories are gonna teach us how to pray this dangerous prayer. And here it is, I'm gonna give it to you at the top. Jesus, give me more than I know to ask for. Jesus, here's what I want. Jesus, here's what I need, but real prayer is Jesus, give me what I more than I know to ask. Give me what I actually really need if I were you. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Mark chapter 5. And in Mark chapter 5, we're gonna see the beginning of this story. Mark chapter 5, verse 21. Listen to the words of God here. This is when Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake. A large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake, and then one of the synagogue leaders, very important note, a man named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and he pleaded earnestly with him. Please come. Just put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. So Jesus went with him. And so what we see right from the beginning is this fearful father who comes to Jesus with just a little bit of faith. Now, previously on the other side of the lake, it was wild. I mean, Jesus cast out a legion of demons into a herd of pigs, freaked everyone out. They're like, Jesus, we don't know who you are, but get out of here. So Jesus leaves, he crosses the uh the lake to the other side, and suddenly there's a large crowd, all excited to see him back again. And then Jairus must have heard that Jesus was back, and so he he he gets his way through the crowd, and and and and and what we these little notes are interesting. Mark tells us that he was a synagogue leader. That means that he was probably an important man in his small village. He was he was a synagogue leader, which meant that he was a faithful Jew who would lead services in the synagogue. But there's this man, and he throws himself down at the feet of a Galilean carpenter and begged him to come heal his dying daughter. As you guys know, desperate times calls for what? Desperate measures. He's like, man, if he could do that for him, why can't he? I want him to do that for my daughter. And he's willing to do anything for his daughter. You know, Jairus, although he was a Jew, clearly had some measure of faith in Jesus. We don't know how much, but he was hopeful that Jesus would come and heal his daughter. So he interrupts the crowds, he interrupts whatever Jesus was saying. Hopefully, praying, God, heal my daughter. I want you to notice, too, that Jesus, if you know the gospel of Mark, often would just heal someone with just a word. He didn't have to leave and go to Jairus' house, he just had to say the word, and this little girl was healed. But he chose not to do that. Instead, he told Jairus, All right, I am gonna come and I'll walk with you. But for some reason, Jesus agrees and follows Jairus home. But what we're gonna see is he's not really interested in Jairus' timetable or agenda. Look what happens next in verse 24 at tail end. It says, A large crowd followed and pressed around him. So think of this mob all pressing around Jesus, trying to touch him, trying to listen to him. And verse 25, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yeah, listen to this. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. And when she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and just touched his cloak. Jewish rabbis would wear this cloak and there would be these hanging, they call them tassels, and most scholars believe that she just touched one of his tassels. And why did she touch it? Because she thought, I would translate that, because she prayed, if I just touch his tassel, I will be healed. Immediately. One of Mark's favorite words, immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt, so she didn't like, you know, check, she felt that her body that was freed from her suffering. So in a moment, she felt something has changed inside of me. Now, the reason why I'm sharing both of these stories together because the author, Mark, deliberately interrupts Jairus's story with this woman's story. And he wants us to read both of these stories because at the same time as one story because they interpret each other. For example, we move from a 12-year-old girl who's about to die to a woman who's had a chronic bleeding condition for 12 years. That's no mistake. And again, that sounds horrific. And back then, it was horrific. It wasn't just painfully awful, but there were social and religious issues that constant bleeding created. So for her, spiritually, her constant bleeding made her religiously unclean. She could not come to worship, she could not participate in anything the Jewish faith celebrated. And to make matters worse, no doctors could help her. She tried. And for 12 years, she tried and went after one after another. Instead, they made her condition worse. She used all of her money. She was destitute. She was probably alone. And again, in a room like this, some of you know exactly what she was going through, don't you? Many people in our church have been dealing with chronic issues, and everything you've done and everything you tried has not only not helped, but it's made you feeling worse. So let me be clear. Like we here believe in a God who heals. He can and he does. Amen. But we also know from experience that God does not always give us the healing we ask for in this life. But in every situation, we can trust that God is working. We can trust that he knows what he's doing, his ways are not our ways. The Bible says his plans are not our plans. Like I wish I could tell you all the reasons why God hasn't healed you, or God hasn't come through for you, or God hasn't answered your prayer. I don't know. Because I'm not God. And I don't know what he's doing in your life. I barely know what he's doing in my life most of the time. But our hope, especially when we're suffering, especially when we're dealing with something chronic, either in our life or in someone that we love, our hope is that one day Jesus will return and he's gonna transform our bodies, and there'll be no more death, and there'll be no more sickness, and there'll be no more disease. Can someone say amen to that? That's our Christian hope. Now, for this woman, she had just enough faith just to sneak up behind Jesus, to touch his robe, hoping, praying that she would get healed. Now, this was a dangerous thing for her to do. Why? Because remember, she was ceremonially unclean. She should not have even been in the crowd. She definitely shouldn't have touched Jesus. But this woman believed that even in this huge crowd, if she could just get close enough and touch Jesus, she would be healed. And so she had a thought that was a prayer that was followed by an act of faith reaching out, and she got healed. But again, I titled my sermon, Be Careful What You Ask For, because she wanted just to slip away after the healing. She wanted, like, you know, uh, you know, to duck and run, to be anonymous. And Jesus wouldn't let her be anonymous. Let's read why. Look with me at verse 30. It says, at once, at once, Jesus realized, isn't this interesting, that power had gone out from him. And he turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? And remember, this is a crowd. So his disciples are like, Man, you see the crowd, crowding, people crowding against you. His disciples answered, and you ask, Who touched me? Like, we're all touching you. We're all around you. What are you talking about? But Jesus kept looking around. And he was looking to see who touched him with faith. And the woman was caught. And knowing what happened to her, she, just like Jairus, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear. Fear. Isn't that interesting? We're gonna see how fear plays in Jairus' life. Told him the whole truth. What does that mean? She told Jesus her whole story. Her whole story. And after hearing her whole story about her 12 years of suffering, about her 12 years of pain, about the fact that she ran out of money, about the fact that she was ostracized from her community, that God had rejected her. Jesus said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. So I want you to notice, and if you're taking notes, write this down. Jesus is never too busy to notice you. He's never preoccupied with running the world not to notice you. Now we look at this and we go, that was such a beautiful and tender moment. We should put that on the Hallmark channel. But in reality, it was terrifying for this woman. Like why? Because she was approached Jesus quietly because she knew that her condition meant she should have no contact with others. And she had no idea how Jesus was going to respond. Would Jesus turn around and shout, unclean, unclean, which was what you were supposed to do if someone touched you unclean? Would he publicly shame her? I don't know. Would he say, hey, woman, give me my power back? Like I didn't, I didn't give you that permission. I mean, I have no idea. I don't know what was going on in her mind. But I do know that Jesus felt that healing power had somehow, somehow left him. This miracle was not accidental. This wasn't some magic trick by Jesus. Jesus knew in this large crowd that someone touched him and someone touched him with faith, believing that they would get healed. And again, Mark wants us to see that Jesus is clearly not in a hurry. So he stops and he asks, Yo, who touched me? And everyone's like, What are you talking? We're all touching you. Like, what is going on here? No, no, no. Someone touched me. And after confessing to the touch, you just kind of picture this sheepish woman coming to Jesus. And there in front of everyone, she tells Jesus about her condition. She tells Jesus about her suffering. The whole entire I mean, let's get in this woman's shoes. How vulnerable must that have been for her? Everyone's listening. But here's the good news. Why would Jesus do this? Not to shame her, because now everyone knows that she was healed. Now everyone would welcome her back into the community and into the faith community. But much more than that, Jesus wanted her to know that God sees her, that God receives her, and that God loves her. He was not gonna let her slip away. And listen to these beautiful words from Jesus. He says, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Jesus calls this woman daughter. What does that mean? That means God is her father. And so, and again, there's a play going, there's a play on words happening here. Jairus is desperate for his daughter. But Jesus stops for a daughter that no one else appears to be looking for or cares about. And so Jesus calls her daughter, reminding her of her worth to God. That God sees her, that God cares for her. And there's a lot been written about, well, what about her faith? She's just some crazy, incredible woman of faith. Like, it's not, that's not even about, it's not even about the measure of her faith. Her faith, she had just enough faith to reach out and touch Jesus. But the power to heal belonged entirely to Jesus. And then he tells her, interesting phrase, he says, daughter, go in peace. That's not just a little cute little peace out or anything like that. No. Jesus' peace means, in Hebrew thinking, means shalom-like wholeness. Not just the absence of pain. She's already been healed, but Jesus says, go and be free from a life of suffering. So Jesus not only healed her, but in a moment he blesses her with not just any peace, but with his peace, with his wholeness. And let me just pause today and say the same can be true for you. All right, so many of us are anxious and depressed and worried, and our fears drive us to places and to people and the things that are so unhealthy for us. But you can be at peace with God today. You can be at peace with others today. You can experience God's peace in the midst of your own suffering and pain. How do I know that? Look at this story. This is a reminder for all of us that you're never alone in the sea of humanity. That God sees you. He sees you in your brokenness. He sees you when no one else sees you. That God hears you when you cry out to him, when you call out to him. And God, just like this woman, just like Gias, wants you and I to come to him in faith and just reach out. But again, when you do, let me warn you be careful what you ask for. This woman wanted healing, but Jesus knew that she needed much more. She needed to hear those words. Daughter. Why? Because she believed that God has despised and rejected her. She believed that no one else cared, that she was all alone. And Jesus says, I see you, I care, and I call you daughter. Now, as amazing as that is, we don't know how long it took, but this took some time. Who was still waiting next to Jesus? Jairus. And I don't know about you, but I'm a dad. If I were there, I would have been like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Jesus. We gotta go. No, no, no. We ain't got time for her. Just bring her along, man. Can you heal her like on the walk? You know? No, no, no, no. We can't stop. I mean, the whole time I would have, I don't know, but I would have decided like, like, like, hey, we gotta go. We've gotta go. And as soon as this woman's story is beautifully unfolding, Jairus's story was ending tragically. Or so he thought. Listen to what happens in verse 35. While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, so it took some time. And then he says, Hey Jairus, I'm so sorry, your daughter is dead. And they said, Hey, don't even bother Jesus any longer. Because it's impossible. It's over. You tried, but Jesus is just late. And overhearing what they said, Jesus told him. Don't be afraid. Just believe. So a woman who's struggling with fear, and now a man who's struggling with fear. And again, let me just highlight for you for taking notes, Jesus is never hurried by our own urgency or our timetable or your plans. He's God. He knows what he's doing. But again, I can't, let's just get in this man's heart and mind and his shoes. Like, I can't imagine what he must have felt this moment. His daughter is dead. It was devastating. It was horrible. And as far as Jairus knew, it was kind of Jesus' fault, if he's honest, because Jesus was taking his sweet time, caring for some woman that no one cared about. And again, before you go, well, he's gonna raise her from the dead. Jairus had no idea about that. Last time I checked, dead people stay dead. And so Jesus, overheard as a messengers, he knows exactly what's going on in Jairus' heart. And he says, Jairus, don't be afraid. Don't let your fears drive you. You had enough faith to come to me. Keep that faith. Keep trusting me. Hey, this is not over yet. And again, Jesus is not in a rush. He loves us, he knows what's best. And again, we don't know what happened, but we know that Jairus said, okay, and they kept walking to the house. Let me stop here and just remind us that delay and even bad news is never evidence that Jesus doesn't care for you. But let me be clear this story doesn't promise us that every bad news you get, every diagnosis that every delay is going to end in a miracle for you. Life doesn't work that way. Instead, our job is to trust Jesus even when circumstances move from bad to impossible. And see, here's what I've learned. As a pastor, what I've learned in my own heart is that delays can either an unanswered prayer and can either really they can either make your faith stronger as you lean in, or what it often does, it actually reveals the state of our faith. And I've seen this happen so many times. I've seen people deal with the same exact issue. And for one person, their faith is strengthened. They lean in, they pray harder, they start to fast, they're trusting God. And that same situation happens to someone else, and everything falls apart in their life. They blame Jesus, they walk away from Him. Why, why, why? Because those delays just expose what's already happening in our hearts. And so they can either deepen our trust, like for Jairus, or they can bring to surface our doubt and our anger and our fears raging to the surface if we're not careful. And so faith, and what we see here is faith is not confidence that the next moment is going to happen as we hope, or that God's gonna answer all of our prayers. That's not faith. Faith is just inner confidence that whatever happens, Jesus will be right there with us through it all. And hey church, even if God doesn't heal you, he's promised us himself through our suffering. He's promised us ultimately our own resurrection one day. And so Jesus, or excuse me, Jairus wanted Jesus to act quickly, and I get it. He wanted Jesus to get to the house and heal his daughter. I get it. But truly what he needed was to confront his fear and his own agenda and choose faith instead. And that's exactly what it does. Look with me at verse 37. It says that he did not, this is interesting, Jesus did not let anyone follow him. So the crowd, you know, Jesus was not an influencer. He did not care. Put away the phones, everyone stay here. Hey, Peter, James, John, y'all just come with me. And when they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw the commotion. People were wailing and crying, right? They were they were they were grieving. And he went in and he said to them, I mean, this is this, I mean, the Bible's funny. This is funny. Why all the commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep. And they all laughed at him, like, who is this crazy man? No, no, no. She's not asleep. She's dead. She's really dead. Go smell her. And listen to what Jesus did, though. He put them all out of the house. Because there's no faith in that room. Get out of the house. And he took the child's father and mother and the disciples, and they went right in where this child was. And look at what he does. He takes her by the hand and said to her, This is Aramaic. Khalitha kum. Which simply means, little girl, I say to you, get up. And immediately, Mark's favorite word, the girl stood up and began to walk around. What's her age? Twelve years old. And I bet they were all completely astonished. And Jesus gave them all strict orders, don't tell anyone about this. Because he cares about our faith. And he told them, give her something to eat. She woke up and said, Oh man, I am hungry. Death is not fun or whatever, I don't know. What's the point? The point is, Jesus is never defeated by death. He's never defeated by death. And so he walks in, the house is mourning. Of course they all laugh because she's not asleep, but in Jesus' mind, she was asleep. Why? Because in the presence of power of God, death is impermanent. So she was just asleep. And I love how just Jesus ignores everyone. Get out of the room. If you don't want to have faith, if you don't want to see a miracle, leave. Right? And he takes the girl by the hand. I would put it like this. When I had my kids were younger, it would be something like, wakey wakey. Or little girl, honey, it's time you get up now. And again, Mark wants us to see not just a miracle. He wants us to see how the words of Jesus alone was enough to raise her from the dead. He could have said that when he first met Girrus. He chose not to. Why? Because what Mark wants us to see is that Jesus has power and authority even over death, even over the impossible. And again, notice this. Jesus was touching someone who in the Jewish faith believed was unclean. No one should have touched her. She was dead. Jesus touched a bleeding or a woman, a bleeding woman, touched Jesus, but her uncleanliness didn't pass to him. Instead, his healing life passed to her. In the same way Jesus touches a dead girl, but death doesn't pass to him. Instead, his life passed to her. In the presence of Jesus, yes, death is still an enemy, but it will no longer have the final word. And if you're a Christian, that is true for you as well. All right, let's step back for a moment. Let's step back. Let's consider all of this. All right? Here's why it's one story. Two people come to Jesus wanting to be healed. One came publicly, the other came secretly. One had status and was somebody. The other was nobody. One wanted Jesus to hurry. The other hoped that Jesus wouldn't even stop for her and notice her. But both fall at his feet. Both were dealing with fear and anxiety, and both discovered Jesus was more powerful and more compassionate than they had ever dared to hope or imagine. Now the woman asked Jesus for healing, and Jesus calls her daughter. Jairus asked Jesus to prevent her daughter's death, and Jesus shows us all that even death needs to answer to the author of life. But let me be clear for us all. This story doesn't promise us that everyone that we know and love who has enough faith will be healed immediately. That's not how it works. How do I know that? Because I know some of you in my own prayer life have prayed faithfully for years and the diagnosis has not changed. Some of you have asked Jesus to save someone you loved and you still presided over their memorial service. See, Christian hope is not that God will remove our pain and our suffering. Our hope is that he meets us in it. Our hope is that suffering and sickness and death will not have the final word, will not be the end of our story. And so Jesus tells Jairus and Jesus tells us today, don't be afraid, just believe. Here's how I think about it. Like, what's the worst thing that can happen to you? You die, right? But if you're a believer, you're immediately brought into the presence of Jesus. Not bad. Now we're all grieved, but you're gonna be happy as can be. And so Jesus tells Jairus, don't be afraid, just believe. He doesn't say, hey, hey, hey, Jairus, pretend this doesn't hurt that bad. Oh, it hurts. He's telling Jairus, hey Jairus, don't let fear tell you that I'm not in control. Don't let fear drive your decisions, Jairus. Keep walking with me, even when you don't understand where I'm taking you. And how do we know this is true? Because Jesus himself would soon face death a few years after this. And no one took his life for him. The scriptures are clear. He willingly gave his life for us. He carried our sin and our shame and died a brutal death on the cross. He was laid in a tomb, and on the third day he was raised from the dead. And because Jesus was raised, everyone who belongs to him one day will rise from the dead too. That is our ultimate hope. Thank you. Just so you guys know, I prayed at another church, or I preached at another church. I had to stop five times because of amens and claps. You guys are failing. I just want you guys to know that. But it's okay. It's okay. Just stay for the 12 o'clock. You could have a repeat. Oh yeah, oh yeah, no, oh yeah. All right, you're making me feel better. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I feel so much better. Anyway, sorry. See, this is why I don't say everything that comes in my head. Anyway, the day so here's the dangerous prayer for us. Here it is. Like, what is it? Like, what do you mean dangerous prayer? What is this series even about? Instead of praying this week, Jesus, give me what I want. What if we pray, Jesus, give me more than I know to ask for? Give me what I truly need. Jesus, meet me in my fear. Jesus, bring me out of hiding. Jesus, teach me what you're doing when I feel like you're delaying. Jesus, hold me when I really can't see what in the world you are doing. And let me just warn us that Jesus often doesn't answer in the way that you expect or want. But here's the good news. He will never overlook you in the crowd. He hears every single cry of your heart. He will not become unclean by touching your brokenness. He will not arrive too late to redeem your story. And even death will never, ever, ever separate you from the love of Christ. So, church, don't be afraid. Keep trusting Jesus. Let's pray together. I want you just in a moment right now just to think about what is the one thing that you've been really struggling with for you or your family? Maybe your daughter is doing fine. But is there someone you care about that's really hurting? Maybe you can bring to him right now your chronic pain or your chronic anxiety. Bring to him right now just that prayer request that just God does not seem to want to answer. Bring it to him. He hears you. So, Father, thank you, God, that you see us in the crowd. Thank you, God, that you're never in a rush. Thank you, God, that you want to give us beyond whatever we can hope and imagine. Thank you, God, that your ways are not our ways, that your plan is not our plans, God. Thank you, because we don't know what's best. We think we do, but we don't. Oh, God. Thank you. Hey, thanks for being with us, and we really pray that God spoke to you through his word today. And we want to stay connected. So don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, and that way you'll be notified the moment we have new content go live. And if you'd like more resources or to donate to our ministry, just simply go to newnorth.church. Thanks again for joining us. God bless you, and we'll see you right here next time.