Faith Over Fear | Mark 5:21-43

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of worship.

We thank you for this impulse you have put in our hearts to declare your greatness, to magnify the glory of your Son.

And now, as we gather around your word, we pray that you would give us not just ears to hear, but the eyes to see the glory of Jesus, that we might be changed by him.

Please bless the preaching of your word and the hearing of it.

And it's in your son's great name that we pray these things.

Amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, good morning.

My name is Jared.

I had a great weekend with the men of your church, and it's a great privilege to be with you this morning, exulting in the word of God.

If you have a copy of God's word with you, please turn to Mark chapter 5, Mark's Gospel, fifth chapter.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

We're going to be looking in verses 21 through 43 in a message that I'm calling When You're Weary in the Waiting.

When you're weary in the waiting.

Mark chapter 5, beginning in verse 21.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Hear the word of the Lord.

When Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the sea.

One of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly, My little daughter is dying.

Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live.

So Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following and pressing against him.

Now woman suffering from bleeding for twelve years had endured much under many doctors.

She had spent everything she had and was not helped at all.

On the contrary, she became worse.

Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing.

For she said, If I just touch his clothes, I'll be made well.

Instantly her flow of blood ceased, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

At once Jesus realized in himself that power had gone out from him.

He turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes?

His disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing against you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

But he was looking around to see who had done this.

The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

Daughter, he said to her, your faith has saved you.

Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader's house and said, Your daughter is dead.

Why bother the teacher anymore?

When Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, Don't be afraid, only believe.

He did not let anyone accompany him except Peter, James, and John, James's brother, and they came to the leader's house, and he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

He went in and said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?

The child is not dead, but asleep.

They laughed at him, but he put them all outside.

He took the child's father, mother, and those who were with him, and entered the place where the child was.

Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha, Kumai, which is translated, Little girl, I say to you, get up.

Immediately the girl got up and began to walk.

She was twelve years old.

At this they were utterly astounded.

Then he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this and told them to give her something to eat.

This is the word of the Lord.

I was sharing with your men this past weekend that I have a particularly allergy.

It's not the kind of allergy where I have to avoid what I eat, but it is an allergy that sometimes affects when I go to eat, and it's the allergy of waiting.

I'm allergic to waiting.

I don't like to wait for um to be seated.

I don't like to wait for the server to come.

I don't like to wait for the food to arrive, and I don't like to wait for the check when I'm done eating.

I don't know about you, maybe you have the same allergy.

I hate to wait.

I hate to wait in lines at the grocery store.

I hate to wait in lines for a restroom.

I hate to wait for stuff to arrive.

Now we have Amazon Prime, things come the next day, and I'm like, when is it gonna be here?

Do you remember when things used to come by covered wagon?

It felt like, you know?

Two, three weeks that you used to have to wait.

Now I wait a day and I get impatient.

I wait, I wait, I wait.

A couple of years ago, I was in the Denver airport, and they have this train that takes you from terminal to terminal, and there's a little clock above while you're waiting for the train, and it tells you, they think helpfully how long you have to wait.

And I remember it said two minutes till the next train, and I watched on my clock and their clock as it went down to zero, and the train did not arrive.

And I thought, we're trying to live in a society here, people.

Who, where's the manager of the airport?

You know, I wanted to speak to someone.

We hate to wait.

I hate to wait.

But waiting is an essential part of life, isn't it?

There are psychologists, whatever those jokers think they know, they they say uh waiting is a is a mark of maturity.

The ability, uh uh, a mark of maturity is the ability to delay gratification.

Maybe you've heard of the Stanford marshmallow experiment.

Anyone heard of this?

Uh more famous is the Stanford Prison Experiment.

This is very similar, except it involves toddlers.

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment.

And this is what they did.

These researchers, they bring these small children into a room, they bring a small child into the room, they put them at a table, and they put a marshmallow on the table in front of them.

And they say, You can eat this marshmallow if you want to.

You're free to eat this marshmallow.

But if you'll wait for the grown-up to come back, you can have two marshmallows.

So you can eat this one if you want, but that's it, just one.

But if you wait for a grown-up to come back, you can actually have two marshmallows.

And they put the marshmallow down and they leave the room and they turn the cameras on.

And these children, they're squirming.

The angst that comes over them, they feel existential dread for the first time in their lives, as they wonder, they fathom how long would it be?

What if I'm in here forever?

What if I die in here of starvation because I did not eat this marshmallow?

I'm not a fool, you know.

And so they're contemplating it.

You can see some kids like they're staring at the marshmallow as if it just might appear in their stomach without them having to do anything, or it might disappear.

One kid, enterprising kid, he found a cup in the room and he covered up the marshmallow so he wouldn't have to see it, right?

If I don't have to see it, then I won't be tempted.

What do you think happened?

Well, the reality was that the results of the study showed that only one third, only one third of the subjects waited until they could receive the second marshmallow.

Two-thirds of the subjects ate that first marshmallow.

We hate to wait.

But waiting is an essential part, not just of life, but of the Christian life.

Waiting is embedded in the hope of Christianity.

Self-control, patience, peace.

These are aspects of the fruit of the Spirit.

Well, the agony of waiting, the sense of pain and turmoil in the midst of a waiting is here in Mark chapter 5, verses 21 through 43.

Mark 5:21–43

There are multiple kinds of waits here.

There are multiple senses of urgency and of even despair.

And what we learn primarily from them is that there is no wait too long for the Lord who is always on time.

And there is no wait too long for the Lord's children who are never truly in danger.

One of the synagogue leaders comes, he's a big uh important man.

He's a VIP.

His name is Jairus.

He's a high muckity muck.

And he comes and he sees Jesus, and it says he falls at his feet.

And he begs him passionately, zealously, earnestly, my little daughter is dying.

Come lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live.

So Jesus goes with him, and there's a large crowd that's going along with them.

And verse 25 says, Now a woman, and there's an interruption there.

Now, there's something that Mark does in his gospel, it's kind of a feature of his gospel.

My pastor likes to call them uh story sandwiches.

And it's basically what Mark does is he takes one story and he puts it up inside another story.

So you begin a story, and then there's a little story, and then you finish the first big story.

So this is a story sandwich in some way.

But it's not an innovation of Mark.

Like he didn't invent this chronology.

This is actually how it happened.

And in fact, both Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel, which tell the same narrative, tell it in the same way.

So we know that this interruption wasn't something that Mark is making up as a kind of a literary feature, but it's actually how the events took place.

But what's distinct about Mark's gospel is that he has the longest version of this story.

And that's distinct because Mark's gospel is not just the shortest gospel, it's the gospel that's most in a hurry.

Mark's gospel has this sense of urgency to it.

He's like at a breakneck pace.

Maybe you've heard that the word immediately occurs over and over and over again in the Gospel of Mark.

The word immediately, it gives just this sense of urgency, of fast-paced movement.

Mark's gospel, which has a breakneck pace.

Mark's gospel, which skips over the birth narratives of Jesus, unlike Matthew and Luke.

Mark's gospel, which jumps right to the action, Mark's gospel, which ends suddenly and dramatically, actually slows down, in this moment at least, to depict this story in its longest account in any of the gospels.

Why do you think that might be?

Well, I think Mark, who's always in a hurry, is slowing down this important event to show how Jesus would often slow down for an important event.

Jesus, who is a master at the ministry of interruption, he's showing us what many pastors have had to learn to experience, what I had to learn by experience.

I was tempted so often when I was pastoring to see interruptions to my agenda as impediments to the ministry.

And I had to learn that the interruptions are the ministry.

This woman had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

Suffering for 12 years.

Do you think she was tired of waiting?

That's a long time.

And she had suffered much under many doctors, the text tells us.

She had spent all that she had, what little she probably had.

She'd used up all of her money, all of her resources.

She'd gone to all the experts, and not only did she not get better, she actually got worse.

We don't know exactly what the discharge of blood was, but we do know a couple of things.

She's been suffering a long time, and nobody could help her.

She's out of resources, of course, but she's also, in a sense, out of hope.

She's helpless.

We also know that in this culture, in particular in the Jewish culture, in the Jewish religion, a discharge of blood made you unclean.

So she's not just suffering, she's untouchable, almost considered like human garbage.

Where would we get this?

Where would the Jewish people get this?

Well, in Leviticus chapter 15, verse 25, we read: If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness, as in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean.

Leviticus 15:25

So this woman was unclean for 12 years.

And she's lived with this pain, whatever the affliction was, with this anguish, but also with shame, with a sense of shame.

Personally, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and even religiously, she's lived with this for over a decade.

All of her money, all of her time given to solving her problem, and they've only made it worse.

I don't know if there's some parallel situation in your own life.

Maybe you've waited a long time for some problem, some concern, maybe even some illness, maybe some affliction to go away.

Or maybe it's more uh relational than that.

Maybe you you you you tend to think that um um because everybody else succeeds and you don't seem to succeed, that you're not as important as they are, that that you'll always be at the bottom of some kind of social system.

Or maybe everybody else has whatever you don't have, or you're beginning to wonder if if waiting even makes any sense, that you'll just always be sort of at the back of the pack, at the bottom of the ladder.

And maybe waiting is beginning to seem pointless or hopeless.

One great encouragement I find is uh, particularly in the Old Testament, a recurring phrase, a question that is sort of an ironic encouragement because it's an echo of the human heart, the recurring question throughout the Old Testament, in particular in the Psalms, how long, O Lord?

How long, O Lord?

It it tells me that the word of God is honoring, willing to honor even that sense of lament, that sense of anguish.

So I don't know what your situation or your grief is, of course, but there's a few things that I do know, particularly from this text.

And the first one is this you are not so hopeless that you'll be forgotten.

You are not so hopeless that you'll be forgotten.

Like maybe you're tempted to think that Jesus only cares about the quote unquote important people.

Maybe theologically you don't think that.

Intellectually, you know that that's incorrect.

But situationally or circumstantially, it sure seems like he only cares about the important people.

If only because everybody else around you maybe only seems to care for the important people.

People who have something to offer.

Jairus was a ruler.

He comes as an important man to an important man and he addresses him directly.

But Jesus makes time for the unclean woman.

Imagine if her 12 years of waiting had culminated with this encounter, only to see Jesus just walk away out of reach.

Or Jesus turn around to rebuke her.

Because she's got to feel almost beyond hope at this point.

And she's likely mustered up every ounce of hope she's got left, just scraping it up from the bottom of her emotional reservoir.

Just to make that reach.

And she discovers that she is not outside the scope of Christ's redemption.

Indeed, nobody is, provided they want it from him.

And we see the same truth over and over again with who Jesus is fraternizing with, who he's prioritizing in his ministry.

People in the margins, people on the outskirts of polite society, people outside the aspects of social decorum, acceptable decorum, people who have nothing to offer him.

That's who he's prioritizing.

They have no social currency, no religious currency.

We see it in the way that he welcomes both women of ill repute and little children with nothing to offer.

Brothers and sisters, when you tug on Jesus' garment, he doesn't sigh or roll his eyes.

He loves to be pestered.

Many who are first will be last, Matthew tells us.

And the last first.

He waited 38 years.

38 years.

While day after day, people are stepping over him to get their dose of magic.

38 years, and when the Lord shows up, John's gospel tells us instantly the man got well.

There are no little people in the kingdom of God.

I wonder if she felt the weight was worth it.

I wonder if you feel like the weight is worth it.

How long have you been waiting?

How long have you been wondering if the Lord cares, if he loves you?

Do you lay awake at night and stare at the ceiling and almost afraid to ask the question?

Are you mad at me, God?

Do you even care about me?

Maybe you feel like you've slipped through the cracks or he's forgotten about you.

Maybe he's got more important things to do.

Well, the God of the universe is omniscient, he knows everything.

He is omnipotent, he has all power, and he's omnipresent, he is everywhere.

You may be at the end of your rope, but that is where most people discover that Jesus is more than enough to sustain them.

I'm here to tell you that you are not so hopeless that you'll be forgotten.

The Lord sees and the Lord knows, and the Lord cares.

Secondly, you are not so weak that you'll be forsaken.

You are not so weak that you'll be forsaken.

Jairus comes, when he sees Jesus, he falls at his feet.

This is interesting because earlier in this chapter, in verse 6, there's a demoniac who does the exact same thing.

Falling down at the feet of Jesus seems to be an essential part of faith.

And Gyrus implores him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.

And what's interesting is to refer to her as my little daughter.

Later we learn she's 12 years old, so she's not so little anymore.

And especially in that culture, like they had no concept of teenager, like we do.

So 12 is like for them almost the verge of adulthood or young womanhood.

But I'm a dad of daughters, and they never stop being your little girls, do they?

So it's a term of endearment.

He's basically saying, I mean, she's 12, but he's basically saying, my baby is gonna die.

Please help my baby.

There's of course a sense of urgency there.

Jairus, as a ruler in the synagogue, he may be at the end of his rope.

We could theorize that based on a couple of things.

So why would Jairus be at the end of his rope?

Well, he's coming to Jesus when his daughter is near death.

He doesn't pick another time when she's just maybe sick and getting worse.

He's coming at the last possible moment.

Why might he do that?

Why might he see Jesus as his last resort?

It could be that Jairus has seen Jesus' interaction with other religious leaders.

I mean, I've seen the way he talks to those folks at the synagogue.

I see him interact with Pharisees every day.

I don't even know if he would give me the time of day.

I see how he treats people in my position.

Maybe he wouldn't be sympathetic to my cause.

Maybe that's not the case, but in any event, for whatever reason, Jairus somehow realizes Jesus is his only hope.

And so he comes and he falls at Jesus' feet and he begs him and he's desperate.

And Jesus goes to help him, but then the interruption.

Having heard about Jesus, verse 27, this woman comes up behind him in the crowd and touches his clothing.

Matthew and Luke's Gospels tell us actually it's the hymn, the tassel, the fringe of his garment.

And she's reasoning in her own mind.

If I can just touch his clothes, his man, he is so powerful.

If I could just touch his clothes, I'll be made well.

And she's right, because as soon as she does it, instantly her flow of blood ceases.

And she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

And at once Jesus realized, verse 30, in himself, that power had gone out from him.

And let's just pause for a second.

That's pretty cool, isn't it?

I mean, it's not the main point of the text, but I see things like that, and I'm like, that's pretty awesome.

And you just walk in, like power goes out of you, you know.

Felt the power come out of me.

And he turned around in the crowd and he said, Who touched my clothes?

And I find that interesting because I want to ask, does Jesus not know?

I mean, he's God incarnate.

He wrote this scene before history began.

He knew what was going to happen that day.

Did he really not?

No.

Maybe it's one of those instances of kind of divine self limitation.

There are things, you know, times where Jesus says the Son does not know the time, you know, only the Father knows the time of the Lord's return, you know, that sort of thing.

Well, how could he not know if he's God?

Well, maybe there's a kind of divine self limitation there.

He chooses.

Is that what this is?

Maybe, but I wonder if it's something else.

I wonder if this is an echo of Genesis chapter 3, verse 9.

Genesis 3:9

The Lord comes walking in the garden after Adam and Eve had fallen.

Where are you?

Did he not know?

He knew exactly where they were and why they were doing what they were doing.

I think it's the same thing here.

Jesus is wanting to provoke a reckoning.

He's wanting to provoke faith in this woman.

The disciples are like, What are you talking about?

Who touched you?

Everyone's touching you.

There's a huge crowd.

They're all pressing in.

Why would you say, Who touched me?

But he's looking around to see who had done this.

And this woman with fear and trembling, and I can just picture her shaking, her bones rattling in her frail body.

And she comes and she falls down before him.

And she tells him the whole truth.

And he looks down at her and says, You wretched, untouchable piece of excrement.

Some of you don't have your Bibles open.

Like there was a time Jesus called a woman a dog, but that is like, you know, I don't I don't remember this.

No, of course he doesn't say that.

It's actually rather notable what he does say.

He says, daughter.

Daughter.

Not even woman.

But daughter.

Your faith has saved you.

Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.

What we have in this story sandwich is two portraits of faith.

Two portraits of faith.

One portrait of faith embedded in the other.

There is some part of this story that indicates that this woman isn't entirely trusting.

That she thought if she showed herself, if she approached Jesus directly, that she would be rejected.

She knows Jesus can heal her.

She doesn't doubt that Jesus can heal her, has the ability to heal her.

She doubts that Jesus would heal her.

She knows how Jewish men regard unclean women.

I know he can heal me, but based on 12 years of being treated like garbage, there's no way he would want to.

So I gotta steal that blessing.

And yet the love that Jesus shows her, even when she's tried to steal that blessing, certainly shows his interest in her.

You are not so weak that you'll be forsaken.

The Bible says, cast all of your cares onto him.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

Two portraits of faith.

Jairus comes fully convinced.

He approaches Jesus directly.

We might call that a strong faith.

You gotta come heal my daughter.

The woman tries stealth.

And when confronted, she is shaking.

She's full of fear and trembling.

And he calls her daughter.

What does this tell us?

Well, it tells us that a weak faith and a strong faith receive the same measure of grace.

A strong faith, a weak faith, both receive the healing.

It tells us you don't need a strong faith to be saved.

Just a true faith.

You don't need a strong faith because we have a strong gospel.

It's not a strong faith that saves, it's a strong Savior.

And Jesus said you could have even a little faith, a mustard seed side, you can have a beat-up, battered, frayed around the edges faith, and you will receive, if it's a true faith, you'll receive all of the riches of the affection of God and the glorious grace of Jesus Christ.

It's not a strong faith that saves a strong Savior.

You are not so weak that you'll be forsaken.

There is time even for you.

And maybe Jairus knows this, I don't know, but I picture him in this moment during this interruption.

He's come to Jesus out of urgency.

And Jesus urgently turns to go with him.

And then there's this interruption.

What's going on in Jairus' mind?

My daughter's about to die.

Is he waiting patiently or impatiently?

It doesn't say, I suspect impatiently.

My daughter's on the verge of death.

This woman will still be here.

You could come back to her.

My daughter's about to die.

But as far as we know, he doesn't say anything.

And then his worst fear comes true.

While he's standing there watching this scene, this interruption, this delay in his healing, they come with the worst news.

What he feared may happen.

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue and said, Your daughter is dead.

Don't bother Jesus anymore.

And when Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, Don't be afraid, only believe.

I wonder what Jairus was thinking that whole time.

He'd issued no objection, but surely he had a growing anxiety.

But Jesus has a word for that.

And it's in fact the most repeated command in all of Scripture.

Did you know that?

The most most repeated, the most common command in all the Bible isn't love God.

That's the most important command.

Or love your neighbor.

The most common command, the most repeated command in all of Scripture is don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

When Christ is involved, the worst case scenario is never as bad as it seems.

In fact, thirdly and finally, you are not so sick that you can't be healed.

You are not so sick that you can't be healed.

He did not let anyone accompany him except Peter, James, and John, James's brother, and they came to the leader's house and he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

Matthew in his gospel tells us that the professional mourners have shown up, flute players and all sorts of things.

And he went in and said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?

The child is not dead, but asleep.

Wait, no, Jesus, didn't you hear the news?

Like the flute players are here.

It's a done deal.

She's gone.

It's too late.

It's too late.

And here is a reminder that we ought not to set our sights so low.

Because despite what the world thinks, there are worse things than dying.

Because Jesus is Lord over life and death, the death of your body is no hindrance to him.

Which is a concept lost even in many of our churches, which have forgotten that the blessed hope is not simply going to some disembodied bliss in heaven when we die, but receiving an imperishable body in the new heavens and the new earth.

And every resurrection in the scriptures is a picture of that moment.

If Christ's work is true, we need to radically reevaluate our conception of death.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And if we are in Christ, there is nothing, nothing He will take from us that He will not give back to us a million fold in the age to come.

For the faithful, this is comforting.

For the worldly, this is foolish.

They laughed at him and he put them all outside.

Again, it's one of those things like, what does that mean?

I love it.

He put them all outside.

I mean, is he like kung fu kicking them, you know?

It's one of those things, like you come across those little things in the Bible, I don't know if they ever stick out to you, right?

Remember they got in the boat and it says immediately they went to the other side.

What does that mean?

Immediately is on the other side.

Like they went quickly, or was it like Jesus, like, you know what, I don't want to sail today, so let's just, and the boat shows up on the other side of the.

I mean, or the time they come to push him off a cliff, do you remember that?

They're gonna they're gonna murder him.

They push him off a cliff and he's like, you know what, this is actually not how it's happening, and walk right through them.

We're not doing this today.

What were they like?

Were they like, oh, okay, you know, and they dropped their rocks and it's like a Jedi mind trick.

This is not the death that you're looking for, you know.

They're like, oh, all right, it's not the death we're looking for.

It's not beyond his ability to do stuff like that.

He puts coins in fish's mouths, you know.

I mean, he's able to do it.

Is he nicely requesting they leave, or is he, you know, get out of here, you know, kicking them out?

There was a time he did that too in the temple, if you remember.

In any event, he gets them all outside, he takes the child's father, mother, and those who are with him, and enters the place where the child was, and he takes the child by the hand and he says to her, Talitha Kumai, which is translated, little girl, I say to you, get up.

Now, this phrase here, this talitha kumai, Jesus is echoing her father, Jairus' affection for her.

Talitha is actually a term of endearment.

Literally, it just means little girl.

But it's actually akin to our sort of the way we use words like sweetie or honey or baby.

It's it's a term of endearment.

So do you see what Jesus is doing here?

The girl has died, but because he is Jesus the Lord, God incarnate in the flesh, sovereign over life and death, the head of all rule and authority, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the sustainer of the universe by the word of his power.

He's treating her like it's time to get up and eat breakfast and get ready for school.

Sweetie, it's time to get up.

And immediately the girl got up and began to walk.

She was 12 years old.

At this, they were utterly astounded.

Well, I should say so.

My wife, Becky, and I, we have two daughters who are living, but we have uh one who passed in between them, our second child.

And I remember um, you know, the first signs that something was seriously wrong.

We were living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time, but we were actually here in the Houston area visiting family.

And looking back in retrospect, I just think what uh an you know great mercy of God actually that He that we would endure this while we were surrounded by her family and my family, actually, um at the same time.

We knew something was seriously wrong, and so we, of course, we ended up at the hospital.

And I remember sitting in this dark room, I guess the ultrasound room or whatever it was, it was very dim while the ultrasound technician was scanning my wife's stomach and whispering to the doctor or the nurse or whoever was nearby, and I could just tell by the somber, hushed tones that there's something wrong.

And of course, we already were afraid, and our fears began to grow.

And the darkness of the room just kind of felt like the dark shadow of what was about to overwhelm us.

And later, of course, the doctor came in and confirmed to us that we had lost our baby.

And immediately it was just a sense of shock and numbness.

This is a very common experience.

I would even assume there are many in this room who have been through it.

I felt numb.

I remember as we sat in the little room waiting to be dismissed.

This nurse came in, this male nurse came in.

And I don't know if he didn't know what the situation was, or he just thought it wasn't that big a deal, but he made some attempt at humor.

He made some joke, and I just remember feeling so mocked by death in that in that moment.

I mean, it it just felt terrible.

And when we didn't respond, he made some remark about you know us being a tough crowd or or something like that, because we didn't appreciate his joke.

Our shock, of course, lasted several days, and then outpouring of emotions and grief, just like a dam breaking.

Happened over a July 4th weekend.

And we decided to name our baby Angel.

Not because, um, if you're wondering, that we think when people die and they go to heaven they become angels, but just because she's our baby in heaven.

So we decided to name her Angel.

And we sort of uh embraced the certain hope that we'll be reunited, you know, reunited.

We'll get to see her when we get to heaven ourselves.

A year later, we were pregnant again, and the pregnancy was very difficult, created a lot of anxiety for us.

Uh the the doctor um uh had my wife, she had to work from home, and and there were just some complications, potentially even life-threatening complications.

And I remember when um uh uh you know uh Becky carried the pregnancy to term and she gave birth, and I remember just the silence that you don't want to hear.

And it was so eerie, and I just and I could see panic on the look of the nurse's face as she took our our baby daughter over to the little bassinet thing.

And um, I just thought, no, Nikki, like this cannot happen again, and this cannot happen this way, and this cannot happen now.

And of course, I'm praying, and I'm just so afraid.

And at the end of this silence, there was this climactic, it was the most beautiful wailing yelp I ever heard in my life.

The best baby cry that I had ever heard.

We named that baby Grace.

She was actually born on July 5th, one year and one day from the passing of our little angel.

Um, she was actually due on July 4th.

And she made us wait one more day.

And Grace, who is now 18 years old, has a timing of her own.

She always goes 100 miles an hour unless it's time to go somewhere.

Then she makes you wait.

But in her mind, she's never late.

And my retrospective fantasies, Jesus comes into that psalmer uh examination room on July 3rd, 2002, and he takes that stupid nurse by the arm and puts him outside.

There will come a day when those who mock the faithful, who jeer at them for both their grief and their hope, will get their comeumpance.

If it seems to take too long, do not doubt that it is coming.

The church will not suffer the derision of the world one second longer than God has planned.

And in a splendid vision of exulting triumph, the Lord will put the jawing and the sneering away.

He's gonna put it all outside.

And he's gonna take his children by the hands and deliver them.

Talitha, kumai, little girl, I say to you, get up.

All of the grief, all of the pain, all of the fear, all of the weight of the entire broken mess of life brought down to the finest point of a hush, in the gentle words, it's time to get up, honey.

Like the wild storm instantly calming, as he says, be still.

Jesus can instantaneously make death stop.

And God is giving me two beautiful daughters.

They are the light and joy of my life.

And I picture angels' smile like her mother's smile, sparkling blue eyes like her mother's blue eyes, a little gentle wisp of a hand.

And this is just in my dreams, in my imagination, I per I think maybe Jesus will grant in my reunion with her just this little fantasy that when my life on earth is no more, whenever that may be, I of course will wake into the wonder of the glorious might of Christ, who is the all-consuming presence of heaven.

But perhaps with angel at my side, waking up to her holding my hand and her saying sweetly in a heavenly tongue, it's time to get up, Daddy.

Maybe your experience of the Christian life is one in which you don't feel fully embraced by Christ.

Maybe you believe he has obligated himself to you.

The reality is, he owes you nothing.

Which means the fact that he loves you is a huge deal.

And that his love is the kind of love that has affection, that he actually likes the you he plans for you to be.

You may not be healed of physical affliction this side of the veil, but if you are in Christ, you will be healed of physical affliction for eternity.

The bleeding woman and Jairus' daughter both had to die again.

They both had to die eventually.

Do you ever think about that?

Everyone Jesus healed, even the people he resurrected, had to go on and die.

A reminder not to set our sights too low, because what really ails us and what will really kill us is the sin that separates us from a holy God.

And the reason Christ has come is not primarily to make sick people better, but to make dead people live.

And the death that is the wages of sin is far worse than the death that is the wages of a broken world.

And yet Christ can heal us from even that.

There is no sin too great for his grace.

His sacrifice on the cross is sufficient for you.

His blood is more than enough for your pardon.

Your greatest disease is your sin, but Christ's cross and resurrection are proof that even you are not so sick that you can't be healed.

One thing we learn from this interruption is that on the way to resurrection, our salvation is part of the story.

We get to be part of the story sandwich.

On his way to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead, Jesus heals the woman and makes her part of the story.

The narrative here is just a little picture of the bigger story.

Jesus is on his way to die and rise again.

And along the way, he is teaching and healing and exercising demons and eating and sleeping and welcoming and worshiping.

He has a plan and he's going to get there at the right time.

But in the meantime, there is time.

And all who desire his touch will get it.

So as we rush headlong toward the second coming of Christ, there's time.

There's time enough for the salvation of all who will trust in him.

He's not slow, he's patient.

Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9 the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

So your healing from disability or illness or just from the ordinary pains of a broken life might not come for a long, long time.

But your healing from sin can come today, this very morning, if you'll come and get it.

And those of you who are redeemed by Christ's blood, and yet you still suffer from some ailment, if you feel forgotten in the waiting, remember he will never leave you or forsake you.

He is coming quickly, and even if you die, yet shall you live.

And those who believe in him will never die.

The love of Christ is so deep, there is more than enough for you if you want it.

Do you want it?

Let me pray for you.

Heavenly Father, we we are acknowledging we can't come to this desire.

We can't want it apart from you putting that inside of our hearts.

And so that's what we ask for.

I pray unabashedly.

If there's any soul in this room who has come in still in the midst of spiritual darkness, that you would speak light into the tomb of their heart.

Have them come forth even this very morning.

Bring them from death to life.

And Father, for every precious saint in this room, all the brothers and sisters, I pray that you would give them endurance in their waiting, hope in their grief, strength in their suffering, joy in their suffering.

Just put your hand under our chin and lift our gaze up to Christ, our hope of glory.

We thank you for Him and the gift that He is.

And it's in His name that we pray these things.

Amen.

Amen.

Each week we take time to respond to God's word.

We believe God's word never goes out and returns empty.

It always bears fruit.

So let's just take some time right now.

The three things that we heard today, you're not so hopeless that you'll be forgotten.

You're not so weak that you'll be forsaken.

You're not so sick that you can't be healed.

Let's just ask the Holy Spirit, what had our name on it today?

Let's take some time and meditate together.

Father, we pray that you would help us not grow weary, but to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Because our labor is not in vain.

We pray all this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said.

Amen.

Amen.

Uh want to make you aware of two things.

First, uh, men, there is a D group meeting, discipleship group meeting taking place in the fellowship hall after the service.

We'd love for you to join us if you're interested.

Uh, the second thing we'd like to make you aware of through our video announcements.

So turn your attention to the screens.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Today is hilarious Sunday, where all money given beyond our weekly budget will go towards paying down the cost of our new sanctuary.

Our request is simple: pray, listen, obey.

The Blood Drive is happening Sunday, October 24th.

To register, head to Grandparkway.org slash events.

Everyone is invited October 26th at 6 30 p.m.

to the hymn singing in the new sanctuary.

This will be an a cappella gathering for us to spend time praising God with some of the great hymns of the faith.

We'd love to see you there.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Let me invite you to stand together.

It's our custom to conclude our service with a blessing.

So Jared's going to come and close us.

May one extend your hands to receive this blessing from Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen.

Go in peace.