PROVEN | Week 3 | Sermon

So six years ago, my family and I moved out here from San Diego and we left what is probably the worst company in the history of the world called San Diego Gas and Electric. K? If you ever have a chance to move there, unfortunately, you will have to deal with them. Right? They have like the lowest ratings in the world, most expensive power in the entire nation. Nobody likes SDG and E, but the nice thing about them is that they do your gas and electric. So when you move, you make one phone call, gas and power is set up for you. So when I move out here, I make the assumption that it works like that everywhere. So I call SRP, I turn our power on and I just assume that our gas is connected to that. We move in and come to find out that Southwest gas is a thing, right? And so we go to turn our hot water on and lo and behold, we have no hot water. And so I call Southwest Gas and I asked him, I said, Hey, just moved in, made the mistake, forgot to call you guys and get this set up. So can we get on your calendar to come have you turn our gas on? And they said, Yep, you can have our next available appointment in five weeks.

I was like, in five weeks, what are we gonna do? You know, it's like 70 degrees at night. We're gonna freeze to death.

We're not worried about freezing, but the hot water thing is not awesome. Know, like literally the way that we were bathing in our house at the time, it was like a survivor game, right? Like my wife would go to our stove because it was electric and she would put a pot of boiling water on. And then when it got hot enough, she would carry it up the stairs, make the turn, go into the master bedroom and pour the boiling water into the bathtub

and do that like 75 times and pray that by the time you get the last bucket of water in there, the first one hasn't gone cold.

Then your kids take a bath and then you have to bathe in their dirty bath water and all of your childhood trauma of sharing the bath water with your siblings is being surfaced again. And it was just terrible. And so I go out and I look and

I'm like, I'm just gonna turn it on myself. And our gas line, literally it had a lock on there and you can't do anything about it. You gotta just wait till Southwest Gas comes and turns it on. So one day I'm leaving my neighborhood and I see the Southwest Gas guy at my neighbor's house. And so I'm like, Oh, praise God. Look at this. I'm just gonna go ask him like, Hey, you're already in the neighborhood. Can you just come over and turn mine on real quick? And the guy was like the rudest person I've ever met in my life. And it was like, There's nothing I can do for you, man. You're hoes, you just gotta wait. So then I was like, all right, well, hypothetically, if somebody were to cut the lock off, like what happens to that

person? And he tells me about some federal crime and I don't know, stop listening. Well, we go through a couple more days and then my wife's dad comes into town. And I remember when my wife, when he asked the question like, hey,

how do we take a bath around here? I'm like, my wife's about to tell me about to share bathwater with my father-in-law. Like it's not happening. Know, like I've officially

drawn a line in the sand. So I go out to my garage and I have these bolt cutters. Why I have bolt cutters? I have no idea. You know, spent a lot of time as a high school pastor, so who knows? But I just chopped the lock off on the Southwest gas thing myself. And I'm like, if I go to prison, I go to prison. It is what it is, but we're getting hot water today. And then the really funny part was is a couple of weeks later, the same Southwest gas guy that was at my neighbor's house was the one that showed up to my house. The only reason I know that is because I saw him on the ring doorbell because there's no way I was gonna stay for that appointment. I made my wife deal with him. Come on somebody. You know what mean? Like, I'm not going to prison today.

And the the reason that I I tell you the story is to prove a point and to illustrate something that that you already know, right? When we get desperate enough, we're willing to do things that we normally

wouldn't otherwise do. It's why we have a saying in our culture that says that desperate times call for desperate measures. And when it comes to our faith journey, I think sometimes we undervalue the potential and the power that desperation

can do to our faith. See, what we're looking at in Matthew nine today is three miracles that have one thing in common. Three separate healings that have one thread of commonality.

And the common thread is that all three of them became incredibly desperate and life began to kind of fall apart for them. They got to the end of themselves. They became willing to try something different. And instead of allowing despair to creep in, they instead leaned into desperation.

That desperation led to action that was met with transformation. Here's what I wanna try to convince you of as we look at Matthew chapter nine together this morning is that I believe that a desperate faith is a transformative faith.

I believe that when you and I get to the point in our lives where we're sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we're ready for something to change, that desperation

can lead to breakthrough if we lean in. Okay, if you're just joining us this morning, we left off last week in Matthew chapter eight, where Jesus took his disciples out into a boat and a massive storm hit the waters.

And Jesus calmed the storm so that he could prove to the disciples that he had power over the sea and over nature.

Well, then they get to the other side of the lake and Matthew nine begins with a story of a guy that the Bible says was lame. And it doesn't just mean he wasn't cool. Like he literally, he couldn't walk. Okay? His friends carry him on a tarp. They carry him on a mat to Jesus and Jesus heals this man. And then Matthew nine continues with Jesus calling

the guy who is writing the gospel account that we're reading Matthew to leave his profession of being a tax collector and to follow him and be a disciple. And the reason that this would have been a big deal is tax collectors were not very well liked people.

Tax collectors were considered the least of these. They were the worst of the worst. They were thieves, they were robbers, and yet Jesus calls Matthew to be his disciple.

And I've always wondered why Jesus needed a tax collector. But now that I'm starting my own church, I'm like, okay, it does make sense that one of us should be able to count, right? If we're gonna do an effective church, one person should be able to handle the money, right? Like Matthew, you deal with the cash, all right? And so he calls Matthew,

the middle of Matthew chapter nine, Matthew throws a party for all of his tax collector friends, all of the bad people that have been pushed to the fringes of society. Matthew throws a party for them. Jesus is just enjoying himself with them. And the religious leaders are upset

that Jesus is enjoying hanging out with people that they've deemed as unworthy and bad people. And so the Pharisees walk into this party and they ask Jesus a question, why don't you fast while we're fasting? Why don't you do the religious activities that we're supposed to do? And so this whole debate happens and is taking place where Jesus is talking about fasting.

And in the middle of that, a different religious leader from a different town comes running into the party,

absolutely desperate for Jesus to intervene in his life because his daughter, some gospel accounts tell us that she was about to die. Matthew remembers it as she has already died and he needs Jesus to show up to heal his little girl. Matthew nine eighteen, here's how the story begins.

It says in verse 18 that as Jesus was saying this, again, talking about fasting, the leader of a synagogue came and knelt before him. He says, My daughter has just died, but you can bring her back to life again if you just come and lay your hand on her.

And I know it's only a couple of verses, but you've gotta see the context of this miracle because it's powerful if we can see it. The leader of a local church, the leader of a local synagogue, a man who was by most theologians account a Pharisee,

a member of the religious elite that put all the rules together for how Jews had to operate their faith. This was a man who just a few days before this moment was a staunch opponent to Jesus. He was probably preaching at his church just a couple days before

telling all the local Jews, there's this con artist amongst us named Jesus, who's claiming to be the Messiah, but we have gotten together and all of us are in agreement. He's a fraud. He's not the Messiah. He's not the savior. He's a con man. And so on Sunday, he's preaching against Jesus.

Again, the other gospel accounts tell us this man's name is Jairus. Jairus is a man of prominence. He's a man of wealth. He's a man of influence and he is a staunch opponent of Jesus. But it's amazing what happens when life begins to fall apart. All of a sudden the theological questions, the differences,

the things that we don't agree with, the things that we don't understand, all of those go to the wayside when Jairus' little girl is either about to die or she's just passed away tragically. And all of a sudden Jairus begins to wonder if maybe what he's heard about Jesus is actually true. And he runs into Jesus

and he throws himself at his feet and just begins to worship him.

And the reason that stories like this are so important for us to see is sometimes it's hard for us to really understand the character and the nature of God. But Jesus is important for us because the Bible tells us that in Jesus, we can see who God is. That in Jesus, the invisible God becomes visible. The untouchable God becomes touchable.

And so when we wonder how will God respond to you and I, when we've had moments that weren't faith filled, but if anything, they were faithless. And we've had days that we weren't proud of. We've made decisions that we wish we could take back.

But the truth is, is all of a sudden life becomes really difficult and we get desperate and we want to cry out to God, but we're afraid that what God's gonna do is He's gonna remember our past.

He's gonna remember what we've done. And He's gonna wanna talk about our faithless moments before He can talk about him doing something for us. Yet in this scene, instead of Jesus receiving Jairus like the enemy that he probably was,

he doesn't see him as an enemy. He doesn't see him as a religious leader that's teaching a different gospel. He sees him as a hurting and broken father that Jesus knows that he can intervene and do something with. It tells us

that in our darkest moments, in our worst days, if we become desperate and we're willing to reach out to Jesus in that desperation, he will always meet us where we are. He's not mad at us.

He's not asking us to figure our life out before we come to him. He's just saying, come as you are. Let me meet you in the middle of your brokenness. Friends, you've gotta see this scene, okay? This is like a Cardinals fan asking a Seahawks fan for help, right? Like these

are sworn enemies. It's like, don't you know the rules here? But this man throws himself at the feet of Jesus and here's how Jesus responds.

Verse 19 says, So Jesus and his disciples got up and went with him. It's one sentence. Matthew doesn't even remember there being a conversation. There wasn't even a debate. There was no dialogue. Jesus just got up and made a decision that he was gonna help this guy. And now in verse 20, the scene kind of changes a second. It says, Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him and she touched the fringe of his robe for she thought, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. And then verse 22 says three of the most powerful words that you'll see in scripture. It says, Jesus turned around.

And when he saw her, he said, daughter be encouraged. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed at that moment.

Jesus gets up immediately with Jairus. He goes with the rest of the disciples to go to Jairus' home to heal his little girl. He doesn't see him as an enemy. He doesn't see him as hostile. He sees him as a broken father that he can do something about. And now a crowd is making their way to Jairus' home. And in the middle of that crowd, coincidentally on the same day, another little girl comes running to Jesus. And the Bible doesn't tell us her name. The Bible doesn't give us a lot of details, but it says that she's been plagued with this issue of blood. She's been struggling with this bleeding condition.

Most theologians believe that what she had was essentially when she had her first menstrual cycle, she just never stopped bleeding for over twelve years. Horrendous disease,

incredibly difficult to live with, would be hard as a diagnosis living in today's culture. But you take this diagnosis, you put her in the first century and what this woman is living is a life of absolute isolation.

You've gotta remember the Jewish law. Leviticus chapter 15 says that Jews can have nothing to do with blood and that husbands aren't even allowed to be in the same room with their wives when they're on their menstruation cycle because it will make them unclean as well. This woman for probably twelve years has never even touched another person because for her to touch a human would make them unclean.

For twelve years, she's been told you are not welcome here because of what you've done, because of what's been done to you, because of what you deal with, you aren't welcome here. You can't come to church. There is no hope for you. Fix your issues first and then come back.

And the part that's amazing is this girl, this moment, this day, she has enough faith that gets Jesus to stop in his tracks and turn around. It makes me ask the question, what is faith that gets the attention of heaven look like?

What would it require for you and I to have the type of faith that would get heaven to look our way, to get Jesus to turn around and see us.

Now, again, for this girl, it's incredibly helpful and it's an amazing moment for Jesus to stop what he's doing to turn around and deal with her. But for Jairus, this would have been really frustrating.

He's like, dude, we've got a mission. We're going to heal my daughter who is either about to die or has just died. We don't have time for this. And this can be one of the frustrating things about following Jesus is it feels like oftentimes his timeline isn't our timeline. His agenda is not our agenda.

And sometimes you and I will get frustrated because it doesn't seem like Jesus is doing what we need him to do

when we need him to do it. We're like, come on Jesus, a little bit faster buddy. Like can we get this thing happening? Like I need a husband yesterday, right? Like I need finances tomorrow. Like not someday, now I need you to show up. And sometimes it can be frustrating because Jesus,

he doesn't always behave in a way that will make sense to us. But it tells me, this story tells me that maybe Jesus is doing something that we don't always understand. And our job isn't to understand every single step of the journey, but to trust that God is moving and working even when we

can't see it. This woman reaches out in a moment, she is healed.

Now, I think this is a part of this story that again, I've read this story a couple times before, but I've never really seen this moment. This girl has been ceremonially unclean. Anytime she's ever tried to go to church, the pastor of the church has told her,

You're not welcome here. Do you know who the pastor of that church potentially was that was telling her she wasn't welcome there? Jairus, the one who's now standing shoulder to shoulder with her seeking healing from the same Jesus she's seeking healing from. This is a picture of the person who's been maligned

standing right next to the person who's potentially been the one that's been doing the maligning, seeking healing from the same Jesus, which tells us it doesn't matter what your issue is this morning.

If you've been the one who's been causing the offense, or if you're just the one who's living in the byproduct of the poor decisions that have been done to you, Either way, the God of the universe will see you if you cry out, he is faithful and he will meet you where you are, regardless of what your circumstances and your issues are. There are none of us that are too far gone.

This is a picture of complete healing and complete restoration for two people who are totally different, but on this day, they've come to the same conclusion. Their conclusion is one that I'm praying that you come to at some point in your faith journey as well.

Today's the day for them where Jesus has moved from being an option in their life to being the only option. See, at some point you and I have to move from Jesus just being another option and we have to make him the only option.

I think potentially the reason that some of us haven't received the breakthroughs and the healing and the transformations that we've been praying for is because honestly, truthfully, I don't know if we're really that desperate.

I think the reality is that for a lot of us, Jesus is just one of a few of the things that we have kind of in our tool belt of things to heal us and to make our life better. But we haven't reoriented our entire life around the realization that Jesus is

sovereign king of the world in whom all things begin and have their origin. And my life only makes sense in the context of understanding who I am in Christ. Then that Jesus isn't just an option. He's the only option.

And see, I don't know exactly how it works, but three different times in Matthew chapter nine, what we see is people who get to the end of themselves that are willing to do something crazy that allow desperation to lead them to action and Jesus meets them there and they find their healing.

Now I wanna read you this exact same story in a different gospel. When you read the gospel of Matthew, you'll see he uses words like suddenly, immediately, quickly, all of a sudden out of nowhere. He's talking about details and he's fast and he's to the point, but he leaves out some of the other details that the other gospel accounts put in there. And some of the other gospel accounts give us these same stories, but with a little bit more color. And I wanna share this same story

with you from the gospel of Mark. Look at how Mark records the same story in verse 24.

It says, Jesus went with him, okay, with Jairus and all the people followed crowding around him. Verse 25 says, A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. Now here's some new information that we learned. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors.

And over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had only gotten worse. Here's what Mark tells us that Matthew left out. This woman for twelve years, hasn't just been sitting passively hoping that the thing goes away.

She has been working as if it all depends on her and praying as if it all depends on God, But she's been doing everything that she can to make this thing go away.

She understands she will never be married. She will never have a family. She will really never have a future. She'll probably never move out of her parents' home. She will never be a full member of society while this issue still plagues her. So she's tried everything, spent every dollar that she had.

She's gone to every single doctor that claimed that they could do something. She's had every rabbi in the house to pray for her. And if you really think about it, again, she's dealing with a very intimate and private medical issue and she's being subjected to first century medical practices.

This woman has been subjected to twelve years of barbarianism, but she's willing to do it because she knows while this is still a part of her reality, this will be forever her story.

And the funny part is, is when you and I read these stories, we have to remember that yes, these are real stories that happened with real people. These stories actually took place, but these stories also are illustrating our story. We might not be the girl that has the issue with blood,

but every single one of us in this room, we all have a plaguing issue. We have something that is in us that we can't solve on our own. It doesn't matter how many doctors you go to. It doesn't matter how many spiritual gurus you go and see. All of us have been born with this thing called sin that's in us. And what happens is over time it doesn't get better, it gets worse. And it doesn't matter how much of this world you try. It doesn't matter how many things you try to put into your soul to fix it. It will not get better over time. It will only get worse. You and I cannot fix ourselves just like this girl could not fix herself.

You need to have an encounter with the one who calls himself the great physician. The one who is Jehovah Jireh, our healer, the one who can step in and make a difference in our circumstances. For this girl, she gets to the end of herself and she goes, I've got to do something else because nothing

is working. Look how the story continues in verse 27. She had heard about Jesus. So she came up behind him through a crowd and touched his robe for she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible

condition.

See what I think happened to her over a period of a few weeks or maybe a few months is it's kinda like that moment that happens on Monday back in high school, like after a crazy weekend, right? Like you go to first period and you hear a rumor about something that happened this weekend. You're like, Oh, that's crazy. Like that's just a rumor, right? Well, then you go to second period and you hear the same story from a different person. And you're like, Wait, what? Maybe this isn't a rumor, but by fourth or fifth period, when you've heard that same story four or five times,

what started as a rumor becomes more of a reality. And I don't know what the tipping point is, but there is a tipping point where it goes from rumor to reality. For this girl,

she over a period of time has heard the stories and she's heard the accounts of the different things that are happening in the surrounding communities and the people that have gotten their sight back and the deaf people who can now hear. And she's starting to wonder, maybe just maybe for her,

maybe Jesus can heal her too. But what she's about to believe again is a dangerous thing. Because what's about to come into her heart is something she hasn't felt in a long time called hope. Because when you've been stuck in the same thing for twelve years, you give up hope. You begin to settle into just this is who I am.

This isn't just something that happened, this is who I am and this will forever be my identity. And one of the most scary things that will rise up in you in moments will be hope. And you will be tempted to believe and have hope again.

But if you put your hope in the wrong thing, you will just set yourself up for more failure. Yet this is the risk this poor girl is taking. She gets hope that maybe

Jesus is who he claims to be. And so she's about to take what I would say is probably the greatest risk of her life. You have to understand that this is a society that is run by religious rule.

It is actually illegal for her as a woman in the middle of a bleeding cycle to go out in public and interact with anybody. It's not just immoral, it's literally illegal.

So she's going to have to hide herself. She's going to have to cover up her identity. She's gonna have to sneak out of her home. She's gonna have to go into the crowd. She's gonna have to figure out a way to make sure she's not discovered.

And in the middle of that crowd, she convinces herself that I know I can't touch Jesus' skin. I can't hold his hand. I can't ask him to pray for me. But maybe if I throw myself at his feet and I just touch the hem of his garment, maybe I can be healed. And see what I see that this girl has, she only has enough faith to believe that she can get in the proximity of Jesus and not touch his hand, not touch his face, but just touch the hem of his garment. What I see is a girl that has pretty feeble faith. You can make an argument that it's pretty weak faith to think that all you can do is touch the hem of his garment, but this is also what the story proves to me that I think we've been seeing over the course of these miracles over these last few weeks is that what God can do is He can do really big miracles with what we consider to be really small and feeble faith.

See, we sometimes will be tempted to discount the little faith that we do have, that leads us into action in moments where we start to feel a little bit of hope again. And I came here this morning to remind somebody, it is not the size of your faith that matters. It is the object of your faith that matters.

The reason that we can hope again, the reason that we can believe despite all the medical diagnosis and all the doctors saying one thing, the reason that we can believe that there are still the miraculous things that can happen is because of the object of our faith.

It's not the amount of faith that we have that determines a breakthrough. It is the fact that our faith is in a man who conquered death. And today he is seated at the right hand of the Father and he is still a miracle working God. And this story proves to me that if you and I can have a little bit of faith, be willing to take a little bit of a risk, get uncomfortable that maybe in that moment that desperation can lead to

transformation. This girl, the Bible says the moment she touches the hem of Jesus's garment that she knows instantly, she can feel that she's been physically healed. Mission accomplished. All of the risk is now worth it because she got what she came looking for. But now phase two of the mission is enacted.

She now has to get out of the same crowd undetected. She has to try to get home and make sure that nobody sees her because again, it's a small community. Everybody knows her. They know she's not supposed to be here And how will they know that she's been healed like she knows?

Now, this is again, the part of the story that kind of takes a twist. Jesus isn't going to allow her to just hide and go back to her life as if nothing has changed. He's going to almost call her out, but there's purpose in it. Look at how the story continues. After she gets healed physically,

Jesus in verse 30 realized that once that healing power had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and he asked, Who touched my robe? And the disciples look at the crowd pressed around him and they said, how can you ask

who touched me? He's like, bro, there's 35 people touching you right now. Like what are you talking about, right? Verse 32, but he kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, she came and she fell on her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.

And he said to her a word that she never in her wildest dreams thought that you would hear in this moment. She would assume what she would hear is unclean. She would hear all types of remarks and things thrown at her but what she hears from the God of the universe is daughter. Daughter, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace, your suffering is over. See Jesus is being touched by hundreds of people, but the faith that this woman touches him with is different. Jesus knows that healing power has gone out from him and what he refuses to allow her to do is to go back to her life and just pretend

like everything has changed. And the question that has to be asked is why? Why wouldn't Jesus, if physical healing, if healing her body was the ultimate goal, why won't God let her just shrink out of the crowd and go back to her life as it was?

Because I think God knows something about healing that you and I don't always understand. See, this is I think the reason that sometimes we don't get the breakthroughs that we want. Because what we wanna do is we want healing in hiding. See, we want the breakthrough

in secret. We wanna come into rooms like this, have a private moment with God and whatever the issue is that's plaguing you today, we want God to fix that. We want him to heal the marriage, break the addiction off, change the finances, get a better job, get kids that behave, get the girlfriend that I've always wanted, the husband that I need, fix whatever my issue is. But then I wanna walk out of this door with very

little vulnerability. I don't wanna show people what I'm struggling with. I don't wanna reveal what I'm dealing with. I just want a private miracle in this moment. And then I wanna go back to my life and have God just fix everything. Yet Jesus in this moment, he calls her out. Why?

Again, think about what this girl dealt with. She's dealing with a very private and intimate thing. How does she ever, even if she does go back to her life as it was, how does she ever go on a date with some boy to prom when his parents know who she is? Does she have to prove to them that she's been physically healed?

She tries to go to church the next week. She knows that she's been healed, but her reputation is still that that's the girl with the issue of blood. So does she have to prove to the pastor, no, no, no, I've been healed. Look, I'll prove it to you. See Jesus realizes to let her go without this moment of exposure,

it's actually allowing her to go back into a life that she doesn't wanna live. It's not really a life of freedom.

And it tells me that maybe the physical healings that we think we want, the superficial things that we think we need, those aren't the real healings that we need. And what Jesus does in this moment by exposing her, by calling her out, by having her worst nightmare come true in the crowd of people,

all of them see her worst and her darkest moment. It's in this moment that Jesus then calls her daughter. He puts his identity on her. He puts his name on her. He says to mess with her is to mess with me. Jesus doesn't just heal her physically, he heals her socially. He heals her culturally.

I would argue he heals her sexually. He heals her to the life that she ultimately wanted but it came on the other side of exposure, not secrecy. This is what it tells me. There's so many stories in the scriptures where Jesus,

healing happens, before breakthrough takes place, there's a moment of exposure. There's a moment of admitting and dealing with the reality of what we struggle with. It tells me friends that if you and I, if we won't reveal it, then maybe he can't heal it.

And sometimes the reason that you and I walk in the doors of church and we walk out the exact same week after week is because the truth is we're unwilling to reveal the things that we're struggling with. You remember the story of the woman at the well?

The woman who was so desperate for Jesus to give her this thing that he said was living water. So desperate for this change. And Jesus says, okay, here's how you get it. Go get your husband and come back.

And she says, I don't have a husband. He says, you're right when you say you don't have a husband because the guy you're living with, he's not your husband. You've had five before this. And he goes there.

He goes to her place of shame. He goes to her place of guilt. He goes to the reason why she's hiding. Why? So that he can deal with it, so that he can heal with it. He can heal it so that when she wakes up tomorrow, the enemy has nothing over her. See, this is the thing that you and I have to begin to understand. It doesn't matter how powerful our

moment is in church with God. If it just stays a moment between us and God, because tomorrow morning, the enemy is gonna remind you of who you really are. You're

gonna wake up tomorrow thinking that you're this new person. He's gonna go, no, no, this is who you really are because it hasn't actually been exposed. It hasn't been dealt with. And imagine just right now in this room with a room full of strangers that right now the thing that you struggle with the most,

the thing that you deal with that would shatter the image that you're trying to present to the world of who you are. Imagine in that moment, in this place, it was just everybody knew. It would feel humiliating. You would want to hide.

Yet I would say what happens in that moment is you now have the opportunity to step into real freedom, not just religion because the thing that had control over you, it no longer has control over you. This woman is ultimately healed. Yet the other hundreds of people who were in the room that were just part of the crowd,

they had access to the same healing power in Jesus, but they left unchanged because they weren't willing to come out of hiding.

They weren't willing to step out of the crowd and feel uncomfortable and to get desperate. Yet this girl in her desperation, she receives transformation.

And the story is so incredible. It's so powerful. You can almost forget, well, like what about Jairus? What about his daughter? This whole thing started with one guy and his daughter. And if you look at the flow of how Matthew writes, Matthew chapter eight and nine, it's all a buildup to the end of this story. It's a buildup of Jesus slowly

creating stronger and bigger miracles, right? It starts with him healing a man with leprosy and then it moves to him calming the storms. And then he heals a person that can't walk. And then he heals a girl with the issue of blood. And all of it is a buildup to the ultimate showdown.

It's the showdown between Jesus and death. And Jesus is going to at the end of the story face

the greatest enemy of all, the one that affects all of us, that every single one of us, we have a one to one ratio of life and death. All of us are going to face death. And the question is, is what can Jesus do with that death? This is how the story wraps up in Matthew nine

twenty three. It says that when Jesus arrived at the officials home back at Jairus' house, he saw the noisy crowd and he heard the funeral music playing. And he said, get out. This girl isn't dead. She's only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him.

And after the crowd was put outside, however, Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand and she stood up. The report of this miracle swept through the entire countryside. This whole story starts with the desperate father coming to ask Jesus to come heal my daughter who's dead. Jesus eventually shows up

and there's a crowd that's there that knows she's already dead. They're playing the funeral music. They've started. The mourners are going and Jesus tells them all to get out of the house because even death doesn't have a chance when Jesus shows up on the scene. And the crowd literally laughs at Jesus.

And that is the reason why you and I stay stuck is because we know that there will be people who laugh. We know that there are people who will think that we're crazy. There are people who will look at us and think that we're nuts because we're willing to take a step of faith. Yet Jesus tells all of them to get out.

And what we think is laughable is easy to the God of the universe. Jesus walks in the room with this little girl. He speaks one statement to her. He takes her by the hand. He walks her out alive. And he tells

this family again in all other three gospel accounts. He tells them, don't tell anybody about what I did here. She wasn't dead. She was just asleep. Why would he do that? If it was me, I would start every stadium with like, this is the dead girl that I brought back to life. Like, I'm awesome. Look at what I did.

But Jesus doesn't do that. Why? Because he knew his culture. He knew that they didn't have just an issue with blood. They have an even bigger issue with death. And if he lets this miracle get out, he would be resurrecting this girl to a life that nobody would wanna live.

Nobody wants to play on the playground with the zombie girl. Nobody wants to marry the girl that was once dead, but is now alive. And Jesus knew his reputation mattered less than this girl's future. His reputation would be fine. And in an instant, Jesus proves his power over sickness, over nature and over death itself.

And it tells me that it doesn't matter what it is that you're struggling with this morning. It doesn't matter what it is that's causing you to feel a deep sense of desperation that the God of the universe who can still do miracles can intervene in your circumstance if you're willing to come to him in your desperation.

If you're willing to allow yourself to look silly, to potentially have a moment where you feel exposed, but you're willing to take a step of faith, I promise you,

watch what Jesus will do with that. I wanna remind you as we go back into a time of worship that you and I, we're not here today to go through some religious activities, right, where we check some boxes, sing some songs, listen to a talking, then go to lunch. That what we're doing right now is we are communing

with the God of the universe. That this is a holy place like a Moses moment where it's like, take your shoes off. You are on holy ground. In this place, God wants to meet you. God wants to meet you in your desperation, and he wants to begin to usher in transformation and change into your circumstances,

but it's gonna require you to take a step of faith. It's gonna require you to get uncomfortable. So I'm gonna ask you right now where you are, just stand to your feet. Everybody all over this room, let's stand to our feet. We're gonna worship together.

The band is gonna lead us in a song that talks about trusting in God. And we're going to right now, over all of our circumstances,

over over all the things that we're dealing with, we are going to proclaim that I trust you. Even if in my heart what I'm feeling is not trust, but it's doubt. I know that God works big miracles with little faith. And so what we're gonna do is we are going to worship together. And then I'm gonna come back out and I'm gonna give some of you an opportunity

to take a step towards Jesus. To have that moment where you reach out from being in the crowd and you touch the hem of the garment and you reach out for your miracle, you reach out for your healing and you watch what God will do with it. So let's worship together.

He will never fail.

Alright. This is the moment for some of you right here. I'm gonna give you a moment to allow desperation to rise up for us to go, man, what would it look like for us to stop just playing church and really actually believe that God wants to intervene in your life and in your circumstances?

So what's gonna happen is our prayer team is gonna come here to the front. And I'm gonna ask you as we go back into the song, if you're here and you go, I'm stepping out of the crowd. I'm not walking out of here without my breakthrough.

I'm gonna ask you to do something uncomfortable, get out of the row, get out of the crowd, and walk down here to the front. And I wanna encourage you, it is not the faith. It is not the the road that made people well. It was their faith. And you and I can step into that same faith this morning.

And I don't know what it is you're dealing with. I don't know where it is that you're feeling desperation, but what I can tell you is God cares and God wants to intervene, but you've gotta get uncomfortable.

And if that's you this morning, just walk down here. Don't let the enemy say, no, not you. Step into this place. Come get your breakthrough. Allow

God to step into your mess and provide a miracle. And I promise you, God will do it. Don't allow him to talk to you out of it. Come down right now and meet the God of the universe and let him do what he does.

If you would, all of you in the back, would you just extend your hands out over all of these people right now? Father, God, we thank you so much for every heart that is here this morning responding to you, bringing their desperation to your feet, falling at your feet, believing that in you, all things are held together.

And that God in you is the miracle working power that we need. And God, I know I don't know every circumstance, but I trust that you do.

And that God, the scriptures say that when we seek you, we find you. When we knock, God, you are faithful to open the door. And so, father, I thank you for every miracle that this moment of faith, this step of obedience will represent. God, we thank you for the addictions that will be left here at the altar.

God, we thank you for the broken marriages that will be restored in this place. We thank you for the the past that will be rewritten, the legacies that will be retold, the families and the generations that their stories will be rewritten because this day is a day where our flag is planted in the ground,

where we came together, we touched the hem of Jesus, and we were healed, and our suffering is no more. Father, I pray that we would walk in the newness of life that is

going

in the midst said, amen and amen. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the we are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.