Passionately Pursue Jesus | Foundations | Pastor Cal Jernigan

Everyone is passionate about something, but are we passionate about the right things?

We are called to passionately pursue Jesus first and foremost in our lives. This pursuit may seem hard at first, but it will transform your life!

Join us this week as Pastor Cal Jernigan shows us how passionately pursing Jesus can make a huge difference in your own journey!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Well, let me begin by just saying that it is absolutely wonderful to have you with us. And there's like three groups I want to welcome. I want to welcome you who are in the room with me, I want to welcome you on any of our campuses. Thank you for being here. And I want to welcome our online community and local and all around the world, and it's just absolutely wonderful to be here and to have you, and I want to say this, and I specifically want to say this to those of you who are watching this online, whether you are local online, or whether you are national or international online, if you are in the neighborhood, if you live anywhere around any of our campuses, I want you to know we want you to come back and more and more people are coming back.

[00:00:36] Every single week, we are setting brand new records in our church, post Corona records, just let's establish that, but it's going up and up and up. And again, I just say we're having a good time. And whenever I'm somewhere and I'm having a good time, I want my friends with me, so I've got to say that. All right.

[00:00:54] Also before we get going, there's two things I want to comment on. I love the fact that I don't know how [00:01:00] many weeks we've been doing this now- months that every, every single service we pray for our country. And if you listen to the prayers we're paying for the pandemic, we're praying for the unity within our country, all kinds of all kinds of division.

[00:01:15] We talked about this with the coming election, you know, the storm's brewing. We deeply need prayer. And I want you to make sure that you understand, we dedicate time in every service that we gather together to make sure that we ask God to bless. And so, don't just see that as just something to do. It's very intentional.

[00:01:33] And the second thing I want to say before I start is, I just, I love our worship, and I'm on the Gilbert campus right now, as I'm saying these words. And we were just incredibly blessed, but I know you also were blessed on the campus you are on. So, wherever you are, would you just make some noise for the worship team and all the hours that they put in?

[00:01:51] Cause they are, they are simply awesome. And I'll tell you what, I know these people, I know them personally and they are the real deal and they love Jesus and [00:02:00] I it's, it's not a show. It's their heart. Okay. So let's get going here. I want to read a passage of scripture that you might be familiar with. But it seems so incredibly timely and so apropos to the world that we're now living in. It's from the kind of the introduction to the book of James.

[00:02:16] And it's in the first chapter, it's in the first couple of verses, but he says this, consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

[00:02:34] Wow. So somehow when it's really messed up, when life is really hard, when we're really pressed and we're, we're put into trials, we're actually supposed to say, thank you. We're actually supposed to see this as a good thing. Now I know this is not a natural disposition. I get this, we want to complain and we want to whine.

[00:02:54] And we want, think about how hard it is, but God says I can do something in your life in times like [00:03:00] this that I can't do any other time. I can shape you. So we're in a series right now that we started last week, that we're going to continue for a few weeks to come. It's called Foundations. Right. And so we're just talking about, well, actually what we're talking about is this simple idea about how to have a faith.

[00:03:14] Okay. So how do you build a faith that endures? Now again, tragically, and this breaks my heart to say this, but it would be disingenuous to not say this. I know that this pandemic and all the kind of the issues that are going on in the country have really spun some people out. I mean, literally spun them out.

[00:03:32] And basically, I know people that just walked away from the faith. They said if there was a God, this could never happen, which is totally contrary to what we just read, but that's the conclusion they've reached, which, which just simply means the faith that they had wasn't substantial enough to endure what we're all going through.

[00:03:51] Now, everyone on the planet is going through this. Okay. But, and in our unique, you know, environment in Arizona, in the United States at this time, there's just [00:04:00] pressure and all the reasons I just said, why we pray every week about it. It's just, it's a tough, tough time. But if faith wasn't made for a time like this, why have faith at all?

[00:04:09] This is like the, this is the glorious moment for your faith to shine, but unfortunately, that doesn't happen. So to say these times are trying, it is an understatement. To say that God can do incredible things in this time is also an understatement. Now I want to remind you of what we talked about last week, just so we can get going.

[00:04:30] Okay. So last week we talked about the idea of not borrowing your faith, but actually owning your faith. We've talked about borrowed faith is faith that was handed over or down to you from someone. It could be handed over from a spouse. It could be handed over from a boyfriend, a girlfriend. It could be handed over from a pastor.

[00:04:44] Borrowed faith is somebody else's faith you just stuck onto your life. It's not really yours. And you know, it's not yours, it's theirs and you're using it and you call it good. Owned faith is that which you have actually questioned, that which you have actually processed, that which you've checked out. [00:05:00] The difference is you engaged to get faith that you own.

[00:05:03] It took some mental work. Because there's just objections that we'll all have when it comes to understanding the call of Jesus on our life. We're going to have objections and you have to work through those for you to have the kind of faith that actually goes deep. And so we're just wrestling with this. All right.

[00:05:21] We want a faith that will serve us well. We want a faith that will last, that will bear through it all. So last week I showed you this verse. Just again by way of review, examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. I didn't say that I didn't make that up. That's scripture. That's God's saying, Hey, you, you, you, over there, you check it.

[00:05:40] Do some work. Think through some stuff. Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that crushed Jesus is in you? Unless of course you fail the test. How are you going to know you fail if you don't test yourself? He says, test yourself. So last week we identified six plausible tests [00:06:00] that we can put ourselves through.

[00:06:01] That we can ask ourselves some hard questions. And again, I don't like tests any more than you like tests, but scripture says test ourselves. So, so we ask the question, the six things that we could question about ourselves, do I passionately pursue Jesus? That would be a test to know whether or not my faith is mine.

[00:06:19] Or it's somebody else's, I'm just living it through, out through them. Do I serve others with my life? Is my life all about me? Or is there room for others? All right. Do I tell others about Jesus or it's just like, Hey, this is, mum's the word I don't want to be identified. I don't want anyone to know. So I'm going to keep it on the down low. Live in community with others.

[00:06:37] Do I live in community with others? Not am I in the commune, but am I an Island unto myself or do I invite other people into my life? And if I have a burden, do I have friends that I can actually call on in the faith who would help carry me through a difficult time? Fifthly, do I give generously or all my resources about me? And sixthly,

[00:06:57] do I worship regularly? Is worship a [00:07:00] priority? All right. So what we're going to do is we're going to take these questions and we're just going to test ourselves through the weeks to come. That's what we're going to do. All right. So we're going to start today with passionately pursue Jesus. But here's what I need you to do.

[00:07:11] Take your Bible out and find Mark chapter five. Take your Bible find Mark chapter five. And I'll just give you a general hint right now. It's in the it's in the last third of your Bible. It will be the second book in what's called the New Testament, which we, we talked a little bit about how to understand all that.

[00:07:28] I'll go a little more into it in a moment. The title for the message today in Mark five is simply passionately pursue Jesus. That's what we're going to talk about. We're going to test ourselves. How passionate am I about this? All right. So while you're finding Mark five, and I hope that you got there. And again, I want to explain something to you about the gospel of Mark in just a minute.

[00:07:48] I'll hold that until I get there. But second book in the new Testament, um, we're going to talk about passion. I want to give you a definition of passion. I just pulled this off [00:08:00] dictionary.com. A strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for something. The object of such fondness or desire. Now there's all kinds of applications of passion, right?

[00:08:13] But a strong or extravagant fondness and enthusiasm and desire for something or the object of that desire. I want to, I want to take you back to the year, 1997. I want to take you to a speech that was given at the executives executives club of Chicago. It was given by the then CEO of Coca Cola. His, his name was Roberto Goizueta.

[00:08:38] And he gave a speech that just rocked the house. All right. And I want to just take a little excerpt of his speech and I'm going to tell you what he said, CEO of Coca Cola. Alright. He said this, "a billion hours ago, human life appeared on earth. A billion minutes ago, Christianity emerged. [00:09:00] A billion seconds ago, the Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan show, a billion Coca-Cola's ago was yesterday morning. And the question we're asking ourselves around Coke is, what must we do to make a billion Coca-Cola's ago be this morning?" Do you understand what he said? Our goal is we've got to sell more Coke, and we've got to figure out how to make this thing.

[00:09:26] And then he, this, he said this quote, "At the end of every day of every year, two things remain unshakeable- our constancy of purpose and our continuous discontent with the immediate present. We've got to find a way to sell more Coke." Now, I don't mind Coke. I'm not, uh, preferred over Pepsi as my personal preference, right.

[00:09:51] Doesn't matter. Um, but I'm not like I don't live my life for Coke. Most of us in any of our rooms, you don't live your life for Coke. Could you [00:10:00] actually give your life though, to the mission of selling more people, more sugared water. Cause the essence of Coke, sugared water. Is it worth living for? Is it worth dying for? Is it worth your life?

[00:10:13] See, that's what passion does, is it connects you with something that you're going to give yourself to, to that thing that you go it is so worthy of me and all I've got. And for Roberto Goizueta, it was Coca-Cola. All right. Now I don't know what it is that you get passionate about, but I can tell you whatever it is you're chasing is probably your passion.

[00:10:37] Now you can put that in any context, you want to put it in, but what you're passionate about, you do pursue. You chase after it. Passion is about intention. It is, it is about effort that you're extending to accomplish something, to take you somewhere. Being passionate is the opposite of being passive.

[00:11:01] [00:11:00] Passionate means I'm going for it. Passive means, "eh." And so you could never say I'm passively pursuing something. It makes no sense. I'm passively. Yeah. You're going to college. Yeah. Yeah. How's it going? Oh, I'm passively pursuing a degree. How long has it taken you? Uh, wow, I'm 59. You don't passively pursue, you passionately pursue.

[00:11:28] And as I'm just telling you, whatever you're pursuing my guess is it's got your passion. Now, all kinds of things can be pursued. Obviously people can pursue with passion, they can pursue things within their family. They can pursue things in their career. You can pursue things about your health. You can pursue things about.

[00:11:45] Well, and like, I was joking with some people at the door walking in this building, you know, one of the things we identify with passion, so is our sports team. There are more Green Bay fans in this room right now. Yeah, there they are. Okay. There they are. [00:12:00] We have all kinds of sports fans. Cause I saw your jerseys as you're walking in.

[00:12:03] All right. We're passionate about sports is often a thing that we're really, really passionate about. And obviously people also also become very passionate about their politics. All right. So all of these things are potential points of passion, but you know what you're probably most passionate about of all? Your hobby, whatever that is.

[00:12:24] That's where people just, their passion just oozes out in their hobbies, whatever your hobbies are. I can't list all the hobbies that people have obviously, but whatever it is, it could be running, hiking, skiing, biking, golfing, fishing- if you're really cool-hunting, you can go garage saling as a passion. That's another form of hunting by the way, just so you know, you're shopping or cooking or doing home decor or binge watching Netflix.

[00:12:49] It can be your passion. It could be anything, but whatever you have passion for, you're sending aside time and you're setting aside a part of your heart. So what is it you're passionate about? [00:13:00] And, and again, I've said this, I need to make sure you see this point. This is crucial. Whatever you are passionate about, you will indeed pursue. If you don't pursue it, you're truly not passionate about it.

[00:13:12] The two have to go together. Let me ask you a question though. Have you ever wanted something that you want it so bad, you're so passionate- I just got to have it, and then, um, like you actually acquired it, attained, it, reached it, you know, accomplished it, whatever. And as soon as you got it, you just had like second thoughts about the pursuit of it.

[00:13:34] And my guess is all of us have done this. We've all gone after something that we thought, man, this would be the difference maker in our life. This would be the it'll set everything apart. It'll change everything. So we go after it with everything we've got, we get it. And then we just like. Why did I, I don't know why I cared so much.

[00:13:51] It's like, I just expected more from it than this. I want to show you a really quick video. I'm going to preface it by it's a horribly made video. All right. [00:14:00] So don't expect any quality in this video wherever you are. We've got it in a form where you'll be able to understand what's actually happening and I'll describe to you what's actually happening. I, in my own personal life, I've never been to a Greyhound race just as a disclaimer. Okay. I don't bet on the dogs, just so you know. All right. But I understand the concept of Greyhound racing as most of us do. But what a lot of people don't understand is a dog is not like a horse.

[00:14:22] A horse has a guy on its back, motivating it to run. It's called the jockey. You don't put a jockey on the back of a Greyhound, so you have to do something to motivate the dogs. Well, what they do is they have a mechanical rabbit. All right. Now, if you've ever seen a rabbit, the rabbit is, is this furry ball of cotton that's attached to a rail that's on the inside of the track.

[00:14:43] So they release the rabbit, the dogs see the rabbit, they're chasing the rabbit, that's their motivation to run. And they run the speed of the rabbit faster than the, the capacity of the dog. So the dogs could never catch up to it, but they chase it. That's the motivation of a Greyhound race. [00:15:00] And you'll go with everything you've got because there's not a chance you're going to catch it.

[00:15:04] But what happens if you actually do? I want to show you what happens. Watch this.

[00:15:21] I'm not sure if you understand what just happened, but the rabbit broke, and it slowed down and the dogs caught the rabbit. And the dogs stopped racing, cause the motivation's over. Once you get the rabbit. They, they never got the rabbit. But can you imagine the conversation between the dogs? They're going, hey, this thing is fake.

[00:15:58] How many years of my [00:16:00] life have I given to catching this? It's fake. And, you know, you also dogs are like going, what now? What am I going to do? Are you going to chase after that once you caught it? Is any of those dogs good for racing anymore? I have no idea, but my guess is probably not. Because once you've been disillusioned with getting what you were chasing, you're like this, there's no point to this whatsoever, but people do it now.

[00:16:25] Here's the problem. Here's the problem. Our hobbies become our passions. Our passions have become our pursuits. And, catch what I'm about to say. And I don't mean to be dark or gloomy, but this is a reality. Most all of our passions die with us at our death. I mean, that'd be like a bummer, but, but our passions have no more life than our existence.

[00:16:49] Once we die, our passions die. Roberto Goizueta, CEO of Coke gave that speech. Two months later, he was dead. [00:17:00] He was dead. I wonder three months later, does he regret giving his life to something that had such a short life in, in, in him? All of our passions are going to die with us when we die. But the question I want to wrestle with is do they have to?

[00:17:18] Could you actually give your life to something that outlives your life that's bigger than your life. That's more than your life. That to me would be a significant thing. So we're going to jump into Mark chapter five. And I want to explain to you two things about Mark that I just, again, bring your Bible, bring your Bible.

[00:17:35] All right. But I told you last week that the new Testament is the first, the Old Testament is the first two thirds of your Bible. The last one third of your Bible is the New Testament. The Old Testament is all about the sacrificial system. You want to understand it hit Leviticus. Knock yourself out. Okay. Cause it'll, it's very detailed.

[00:17:55] All right. Sacrificing animals for the forgiveness of sin. [00:18:00] The New Testament begins with the birth of Christ and goes through the life of Christ. And then what are called the letters that are like the teachings of Jesus as people understood them. And there's a lot more to that. That's really brief, but here, here, it ends with the book of Revelation, which is, this is what you can anticipate. Now, what I need you to understand, as I told you last week is that that didn't come up there. There are four, there are four gospels, Matthew Mark, Luke, and John four guys telling you the story of Jesus. So you begin the New Testament with four biographies, Matthew Mark, Luke, and John.

[00:18:31] Now the, the thing you need to understand is different than my fingers. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Mark. It looks like it's the biggest one, right? Mark. Except it's the littlest one. That's what you need to understand. The gospel of Mark was the first of the gospels written. It's brief, it's the shortest, it's the most concise.

[00:18:51] It moves very quickly. In fact, if you want to do something interesting. See how many times the word immediately is using the gospel of Mark. Mark is just moving. It is like, let's go. Let's go. Let's [00:19:00] go. Just trying to get it out. Okay. So the gospel of Mark just tells you the sketches of the details. Now often what you do is you go to the other gospels and you can fill in some blanks.

[00:19:10] You, you can go. Oh, I see. Okay. All right. And when you put all the gospels together, you get pretty complete story of exactly what event you're reading about. So what we're going to do is we're going to, we're going to read together Mark chapter five, verses 21 to 36. And like we do what I'm going to do is I'm just gonna think of chunk by chunk so we can follow and we can track what's going on and it should make some sense.

[00:19:31] Now in the passage, we're going to read 21 to 36. You're going to meet two people. And you want to key in on these two people they're as different as they can possibly be. One is a man and the other one's going to be a woman. One is very socially elevated has status. The other one is very socially, not elevated has no status exactly the opposite, but they have one huge thing in common.

[00:19:56] They have a passion to pursue Jesus. And I want to show you [00:20:00] what it looks like in the lives of these two people. So let's jump in. We're going to go to Mark chapter five, verses 21 to 36. Uh, excuse me. Uh, no, the 21 to 24. We're going to catch the first of the story. All right. So that is what happens, right?

[00:20:14] This is how it starts when Jesus had again, crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, this is the sea of Galilee, the Lake of Genessaret. It's that. That fresh body water that's central in Israel. It's kind of Northern Israel, but the cross over the boat to the other side of the Lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the Lake.

[00:20:33] So, so they see him coming on a boat and a crowd starts to gather because Jesus is coming. Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him. My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live and live.

[00:20:53] So Jesus went with him. Okay. So here we meet the first of the two. We meet the man named Jairus. [00:21:00] All right. And we discover that he's a synagogue leader. To be a synagogue leader, a high social status. All right. This is a Jewish nation. He's a Jewish leader. I need you to understand that he was waiting for Jesus.

[00:21:12] Literally. He was waiting to see where the boat's going to land. So that he can get there right away. Cause he's got a pressing need he needs Jesus' help with. And so he runs up to Jesus and you saw it. It says he fell at his feet. Now let me explain. He grovelled, he humiliated himself. He humbled himself.

[00:21:33] He literally went down a total act of desperation because he has an urgent issue that he needs Jesus' help with. And what was the issue? He said, my little daughter is dying. His daughter was ill, alright. Now most believe that the daughter was around age 12. All right. Just so you can have it in the back of your mind.

[00:21:54] There's two things you've got to understand. And I don't like saying what I'm about to say, but if you don't understand this, you don't know in the [00:22:00] culture of the day to be a child, carry no status whatsoever. And to be a female carried less status than being a male. So there's a child, who's a female who's dying.

[00:22:13] Now if you're a Jesus and you're going to walk through the, okay, I've got to organize my priorities and get my priorities to the most important, a child who's a female would not be the top of your list of what you're doing. You just didn't have much clout and not worth my time, but I want you to see five words.

[00:22:33] So Jesus went with him. You want to know the heart of Jesus. You want to know what moves the heart of Jesus? Listen to me, church passionate people, passionately pursuing him, gets his attention. So Jesus, the synagogue ruler's important, but his daughter's not. But the passion- that [00:23:00] caught his eye caught his eye.

[00:23:01] So Jesus wouldn't then can you just imagine the relief of Jairus? Like of all these people you're going to come with me? Like, that's the greatest news you're going to have. And can you imagine the urgency, please come, let's go now as fast as they can get through the crowd, he wants to move. He's got stuff to do.

[00:23:19] And you can also imagine, well, there's a, there's a crowd. We learned that there's a crowd. You can imagine the disciples might be walking ahead, step aside, step aside, and people are kind of, you know, kind of making way, but they're kind of following. It's kind of like a golf tournament. You know what I'm saying?

[00:23:35] And they're like clear out clear out. And so they, as soon as Jesus and Jairus walk by and people are pressing back in, you know, trying to get near, all right, it's going on. But I want to show you the next section, which is verses 25 to 29. And we're just working our way down this story, and it says this, a large crowd followed and pressed around him.

[00:23:56] There's your golf crowd. All right. There's the gallery and a [00:24:00] woman was there. Alright, now there's the second character and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

[00:24:14] And when she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. So now we meet the second person. Okay. The first guy was a man named Jairus.

[00:24:39] The second player is a woman named Jane. So this is the text of Jane and Jairus, Jairus, and Jane. And you go, Jane, where did you get Jane? Yeah, her name's Jane. Jane Doe. We don't know her name. So we're going to give her a name. We're gonna call her [00:25:00] Jane Doe. What you got to understand is nobody knows who she is.

[00:25:04] Nobody in the crowd has any idea who this woman is. They they're not like, Hey, Sylvia, stop that. No she's on her own. Uh, most scholars believe she came from Cesarea Philippi, which is in the Golan Heights. If you're familiar with Israel, the base of Mount Herman, it's up there, it's where the Jordan river begins.

[00:25:22] She's now down in Capernaum where Jesus Sea of Galilee, she traveled because she heard that there was a guy in Capernaum who could, who could heal you of things that others couldn't heal you of. And so she comes. And what I need you to understand is, and this is what, this is not intuitive, but I need you to see this, right.

[00:25:41] She has two problems. He has two issues. All right. She has a physical issue and she has a spiritual issue. Now you're not just going to figure this out. So you've got to pay attention so I can explain this to you. All right. Now, the physical issue is easier to understand. She was hemorrhaging blood. Most scholars who have studied this [00:26:00] believe that she probably first started hemorrhaging blood when she started puberty. Which they would assign somewhere around the age of 12. So she's, she's bleeding constantly, probably has had this thing from the time she was 12. We know she's been bleeding for 12 years. That makes her about 24, 25. The average lifespan in that day was about 40 years. So most of her life now she has been most of her adult life, she she's had this issue. Uh, I mean all of our adult life, but a lot, most of her life and told us she's probably 24, 25, she's been suffering with this. All right. And, um, so she's got this problem and, uh, it just happens just don't miss this. It happens to be, uh, the same age as Jairus' daughter is old, uh, which means that when Jairus' daughter was born, it was about the time that this woman probably started this, if she's had it for [00:27:00] 12 years.

[00:27:00] So just connect those dots. Cause they kind of seem interesting. It says that she had sought the help of many doctors. Now they're not anti doctor, we're not anti doctor, but here's the deal. It's usually what we do first. Right? Well, I'm sick. The first thing I got to do, I've got to go to the doctor and I'm not anti doctor.

[00:27:17] Right? But she went to a doctor and then she went to another doctor and she went to every doctor she could go to. And it says that no doctor could heal her. In fact, it says they actually made her case worse. Did you read it? They actually compounded a problem because number one, they didn't heal her. And number two, they took away all of her resources.

[00:27:36] She spent everything she had, she had nothing left. You still got the problem. And maybe something someone told her to do actually made it worse. I don't know. But she's at a point of desperation because she's not getting better. Now that's her physical problem. Now I want to show you what her spiritual problem is.

[00:27:58] And, um, I want you to put your seatbelt [00:28:00] on because I'm going to show you something the Bible says that's just going to shock you cause you, I didn't know, the Bible said that, but  remember that book I was telling you about- Leviticus- and what you do if you've got well, let me show you from the book of Leviticus, when a woman has a discharge of blood, for many days at a time, other than her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has  the discharge. Just as in the days of her period. Did you know, the Bible talks about your period, ladies. Most of us had no idea it was that intimate of a book. It is, and it's very clear when you're on your period, there's this old covenant old covenant. All right.

[00:28:40] There's this time of uncleanness. And so this lady. And she's gonna she's unclean while she's bleeding. Now I want to just take you a little bit further down in the book. A couple of verses later, catch this part. When she has cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days. And after that she will be ceremonially clean.

[00:28:58] What happens when you don't stop [00:29:00] bleeding? You are perpetually unclean. What does it matter if you're perpetually unclean? Two things, you don't go into the temple, which means you have no access to where God is in the old covenant. And people know to stay away from you because if they touch you, they're, they're unclean from you.

[00:29:20] She is like a leper. She has treated this honorably because of this issue of blood that she's had for 12 years. And so she's got a huge issue and she comes up with this idea- if I  could just possibly reach out, just touch the hem of the garment of Jesus. If I could just reach him. I know I could be healed. In fact, did you see what she was saying?

[00:29:44] If I can touch his clothes, I will be healed. If I can touch his clothes, she repeated that. If I could touch his clothes, I could be healed. Who is she talking to? Who she talking to? She has no friends in the crowd. Nobody knows who she is. You just get a [00:30:00] woman just if I can just touch his clothes, if I could just, I could be healed.

[00:30:02] If I can just touch his clothes, I could be, I could, she's talking to herself. Trying to get in. So she goes for it. She touches the garment of Jesus and immediately she was healed. Wow. And immediately catch it. She knew she was healed. She knew she was healed. Let me show what happens next. Chapter five verses 30 and 31. At once, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answer. And yet you ask, who touched me? This is funny. Jesus stops. He's in a crowd and he's got people around him and he just stops what you got to picture people.

[00:30:52] He turns around. He goes, okay, who touched me? And, I think it's Luke tells us it was Peter. [00:31:00] Peter goes, are you, are you crazy? Are you crazy, dude? What do you mean who touched you? Everyone. Everyone. And Jesus knows the difference between an inadvertent touch and an intentional reach. He stops and he's looking around.

[00:31:18] I need you to understand something don't miss this. Jesus is omniscient. It means he turns around and immediately he knows who it was. He's not, I need some information here because I'm clueless. He knows exactly who touched him and he's looking and he says, who touched me? Why does he do this? Because she wants to just be as distant and as an anonymous.

[00:31:42] And she just wants to just do it and then be like, just drift away. And Jesus goes, no, who touched me? And she's going, Oh, my word, Oh, my word. He knows. He knows. And then Jesus just stops [00:32:00] and he's just looking around. And again, I know he, I know he knew, knew, and she's got this moment of crisis, uh, with her faith.

[00:32:08] Do I, do I own it? Do I admit it? Do I? And so she steps forward and she says, um, it was, it was me. And, um, you got to understand, look, look at the, uh, go to 5:32 and 34. But you just kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear told him the whole truth.

[00:32:37] He said to her, how dare you? How dare you touch me? Oh, wait. Now that's, that's another, that's not this story. He says, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. What an incredible moment. You get [00:33:00] the feeling that Jesus wants her, don't miss it, to step out, step up, own it, own it.

[00:33:10] She goes, I did. And she literally is now scared to death. He's going to condemn her. He's going to condemn her and he looks at her. And he says a word that she had probably not ever heard in her life, or it's been a long time. He said, daughter, now you might be wondering what this is about. This is a painting.

[00:33:38] Uh it's uh, I don't have the right term. So, you artists among us, forgive me. I don't know the right. It's a re it's a reprint of, it's not a painting. It's a, this is a mural on a wall in Magdala, Israel, Magdala is on the coast of, so Capernaum is up here north. Magdala is a little bit over on this side, over here.

[00:34:00] [00:33:59] And if you ever heard of Mary Magdalene, Mary from Magdala. So in Magdala, they have, uh, a chapel that is dedicated to Jesus' love for women. And all pure and chase. All right. But his love for women and the difference he made in the lives of women and painted on the wall is this mural. It's massive. It's massive.

[00:34:24] And we were there and my wife goes, I've got to have that. So, um, so we, we, we bought the print and had it framed and it hangs in our house. But this right here is what I want to draw your attention to. And that you just want you to see this hand reaching out. And I want you to see this little touch of light.

[00:34:41] If you can see it. And I know again, wherever you are, it's probably hard, but try your best. It's the woman don't miss it on her knees. Just trying to fight through the crowd, just to reach, just to touch and totally anonymous. People have no idea. She's even there, nobody cares [00:35:00] about her, but she knows who he is.

[00:35:02] If I could just touch and then he stops, he turns around and he says, who touched me? We saw that and she's like, Oh no, he's going to condemn me. I just, what you need to understand. You don't touch a man if you're a woman and he is not your husband. And furthermore, you never touch a rabbi, if you're a woman. You don't touch a rabbi.

[00:35:28] And all he's got to do is point her out, say that woman, and she is condemned. But he didn't do that. He goes daughter, daughter. I don't know if you know this he's a King. Does that make her a princess? A princess? It's okay. This is your faith here. It's healed you. You're well, now go, [00:36:00] go. He healed her. He forgave her, he set her free.

[00:36:05] He gave her life. He gave her a name, gave her- daughter. Wow. Um,

[00:36:17] okay. I gotta finish, I gotta to get done. Last part. So this is what you got to understand. So Jairus is like, uh, hello, my daughter. See what's going on here. My daughter over here, remember, we're like urgently going to see my daughter and Jesus stops. You got to imagine Jairus is like, going come on, we don't have time for this.

[00:36:40] Do you understand what's happening to my daughter? Let's go. We gotta go. And he's in a hurry. And Jesus says, hang on. While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Hey, I'm sorry, man. But your daughter is dead. And can you just imagine the [00:37:00] heart falling out of Jairus' chest?

[00:37:02] Just dropping. Just what? Why bother the teacher anymore? Overhearing what  they said,Jjesus told them. Hey, um, yeah, don't, don't worry about that. Just believe. Okay. Now, I don't have time to keep going, but if you keep going, he's going to go. He's going to raise this girl from the dead. That's what Jesus does.

[00:37:25] He does things like that. And so she's going to be fine, just so you know. Okay. It's time to read it, but I want you to notice something. Two daughters, one who had spent 12 years living, who was 12 years old and was dying. One who had spent 12 years dying and now was living. You want to know what the touch of Jesus will do when you passionately pursue him, it'll change your life.

[00:37:51] He will change your eternity. If you'll but, reach out and try to touch him. [00:38:00] Now, I asked you a little bit earlier and again, I've got a, uh, I've just got, I've got to be done here. So I'm going to do this very quickly. I asked you earlier, what, what does passion mean? Do you know where we get the word passion?

[00:38:13] It comes from the 12th century. You know, the word passion originated in Latin using, uh, they need to come with a term to explain the drive of Jesus to go to the cross that like what would cause somebody and the word passion in the original word, always involved a willingness to suffer for something greater than yourself.

[00:38:41] And if you're familiar with Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, the crucifixion is referred to as the passion, the greatest motivation of Jesus. I just need you to understand this. I want to take you real quickly, Luke 22 I want to take you to the garden of Gethsemane right before he's going to be crucified and being in [00:39:00] anguish, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

[00:39:04] He knows what it means to bleed. He knows what's going to happen to him tomorrow when he's crucified or very quickly at that point a day from then. He knows this. His passion is dripping from his forehead. And then they take him and they, they crucify him and, and they actually, before they crucified him, they mocked him.

[00:39:27] They beat him, they shoved the crown of thorns on his head to get his brow to bleed again. And then they take them out and they, they crucify him. It's, you know, this, they stick him on the cross and nail his hands and his feet. And you know what he has the audacity to say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

[00:39:51] Why, why would he do this? Why would he do this? Are you ready? Don't miss it because [00:40:00] you were worth it to him. You were worth dying for, you were worth dying for, and he had a choice to make, and he said, I'll make that choice. I'll give my life for your life. You were with it. Um, can I point out our problem?

[00:40:24] Our problem is not that just, we are too passionate about unworthy things, but that we are not passionate enough about the one who is truly worthy of our passion. That's our problem. You know how the 12 apostles died? These followers of Jesus. Well, one of them, John died of old age, but you know, everyone else died.

[00:40:46] They were, they were killed for their faith. They were martyred. Hmm. Kind of makes you wonder if it it's the big idea if you haven't caught on [00:41:00] yet. Okay. If it's not worth dying for it, certainly not worth living for. So when we're so passionate about our hobbies that are obviously going to die with us. They're just going to die with you.

[00:41:12] What if you became passionate about something that would live beyond you? Now I don't know how intense your passion is or isn't for Jesus, but I want to remind you of the words of Paul. Philippians 1, for me to live is Christ. To die is gain. If I have to make a choice, you know, I just tough man of I'll live or I'll die.

[00:41:37] I'll go for it, man. It doesn't matter. It's going to be about Jesus and I'm going to serve him with everything I've got. In Philippians 2, he talks about I press forward. I agonize. Philippians 3, I press forward. I strain for Jesus. When's the last time you've agonized? How far would you go? [00:42:00] Would you be one in the crowd who let Jesus just walked by you? I hear He does great things. Or would you have the audacity to literally get down on your knees and go, Jesus, just, I need to touch. I need to touch. Many people let Him walk right on by. I've got three quick challenges and one thing I want to read and we'll be done.

[00:42:19] Challenge number one, why don't you make a decision? You want to get passionate, make a decision and the arrangements to get baptized. We've got lots of people on all of our campuses today getting baptized. It's going to happen. I believe on all of our campuses after the 10:30 service, it might be you, you can maybe jump in on that.

[00:42:36] Um, When you're baptized. You're saying I believe. I identify. I'm in. Yes. That's one thing. How about this one. Second one, how about you read a chapter a day from the book of John. Matthew, Mark, Luke. John. John is the one written latest. I told you that last week, it'll give you insight. A chapter a day, just for 21 days, 21 days forms [00:43:00] a habit.

[00:43:00] I should form a habit of reading the Bible. I could do that. And the next 21 days. Third, why don't you ask somebody how you can pray for them? And then commit to do so for seven days straight. Stick on your refrigerator, stick it on your mirrors, do whatever you have to do on your dashboard of your car, but don't just pray for somebody. Ask them, can I pray for you?

[00:43:18] And what can I pray for you about or just, I know you're, you know, I get emails from people, you know, my dad just died. I know, I know. I want you to know I'll pray for you. Something specific that you can do right now. Here's the deal, three challenges. Jesus gonna walk right by you and you just don't even look up or you can go, I'm going to reach for him.

[00:43:42] So I want to close. I want to read you something it's called the fellowship of the unashamed. Um, I don't know exactly who to attribute this to cause there's some sort of like uncertainty about it. Most people believe this was written by a Rwandan Christian on the night before he was murdered. Now, if you know anything about the [00:44:00] Rwandan, the Hutu and the Tutsis and the genocide.

[00:44:03] But then he penned these words and then he was executed the next day. But let me just close this message with these words. How passionate are you for Jesus? Let me read you his words. I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made.

[00:44:21] I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up slow up or back away or be still. My past is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I am finished and done with low living sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams. Chincy giving and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence prosperity position, promotions plaudits or popularity.

[00:44:46] I now live by presence. Lean by faith. Love by patience live by prayer and labor by power. My pace is set. My gate is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few. My guide is [00:45:00] reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted or delayed.

[00:45:05] I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until he comes.

[00:45:22] And when he does come to get his own, he will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear. That's what passionately pursuing Jesus looks like. It always starts with the humility to reach out and begin a journey. Pursue him. Let's pray. So father, uh, we could all heat up the passion. I'd imagine. I know I can.

[00:45:56] God, I need you to, uh, just fan the [00:46:00] flame in all of us just fan the flame. God, at a time, like we're going through as a country, what an incredible opportunity for you to do an amazing thing within us and what an incredible opportunity for us to do an amazing thing in the world. But without passion, none of it's going to happen.

[00:46:19] If we give the best of our energy to our hobbies, our careers, or whatever we're going to give what's left to you. May we reverse that. Give the best to you. And then what's left the things that won't last. God, there is nothing worth living for more than you. And there is no one worth dying for more than you. Help us to see it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.