Sermon
Dual Desperate Daughters Delivered from Disease and Death - Matthew 9:18-26
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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One of the pastors here, we are going to be reading today from
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Matthew Chapter 9, verses 18 through 26.
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So if you would stand with me one more time, we're going to
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read the Word of God. And at the end you, you will say
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this is the word of the Lord, Amen.
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While he was saying these things to them, behold, A ruler came in
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and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come
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and lay your hand on her, and she will live.
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And Jesus rose and followed him with his disciples.
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And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of
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blood for 12 years came up behind him and touched the
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fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, If I
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only touch his garment, I will be made well.
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Jesus turned seeing her. He said, Take heart, daughter,
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your face has made you well. And instantly the woman was made
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well. And when Jesus came to the
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ruler's house and saw the flute players in the crowd making a
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commotion, he said, go away, for the girl is not dead, but
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sleeping. And they laughed at him.
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But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her
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by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went
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through all that district. This is the word of the Lord,
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Amen. You guys can have a seat.
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We are continuing in our Book of Matthew series where we call it
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our King and his Kingdom. Because as we see in this
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scripture, not just in the gospels but in all of the
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scripture that God is the King of the universe.
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Jesus is that God made flesh who came down to bring about his
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Kingdom on earth and his will to be done.
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We prayed that prayer. He prayed that prayer and he
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taught us that in, in the sermon on the mound in Matthew chapter
Matthew 6 chapter mention
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6. And he is king.
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That means that he has authority.
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He is sovereign over all. And, and that means even over
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sickness and death in, in, in chapters 8 and 9, we've been
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seeing Jesus doing all these different miracles, casting out
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demons, healing people. Today we're going to see that he
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even raised the little girl from the dead.
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And we're, so we're focusing on kind of his authority over his
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creation and created beings and, and his authority to bring about
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his goodness and his mercy and his grace in our lives.
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Now you're going to laugh at this title, but today's title is
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this dual desperate daughters delivered from disease and
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death. Often times preachers try to
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use, you know, kind of the same letter throughout all their
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points to to make it memorable. And I couldn't do that in my
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points, but it really worked with this title.
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There are two women in this story that God delivers and
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heals. It's it's amazing.
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And it's interesting because these two stories have nothing
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to do with each other, by the way.
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These two women don't actually know each other.
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And we have this, this narrative, this story, this is
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real history about when Jesus was walking on the earth 2000
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years ago, how things happened in a moment of time where
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someone confronts him. Gyruss is his name, his daughter
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is sick and he says come heal her.
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And so he's going to to to heal the daughter.
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And on the way, another woman confronts him and she gets
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healed as well. That's called an intercalation,
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by the way, when a story like that where you have two
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different stories kind of joining, but they actually don't
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have anything to do with, they don't have anything to do with
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each other, but yet are making the same point.
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That's one more proof that God the Holy Spirit was working and
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he wrote this down and that these aren't coincidences, but
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there's something supernatural happening when Jesus was walking
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the earth and when God caused these words to be written down
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in this way. So let's get into this.
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I have 5 points I want to look at in these two women's lives
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and how there's these similarities to both of their
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stories in this narrative. And the first one I see is this
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desperation. There's both a story of
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desperation in the Father and in the woman.
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Let's look at the first verse again.
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It says while he was saying these things to them, behold, A
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ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, my daughter has
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died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live you.
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You don't quite necessarily see it, but you can just imagine as
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if when you're reading something, you have to put
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yourself in the place of the, the person that we're reading
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about, right? You've got to kind of get in,
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get in your imagination what it would have been like.
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Now, this guy, he was a, this specific gospel doesn't tell us
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his name, but in Mark's gospel and Luke's gospel, it tells us
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he was a, a ruler of the synagogue, a Jewish place of
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worship. His name was Jairus.
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And this man comes desperate for his daughter, his daughters just
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died. And, and he's, he's been hearing
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about the commotion and, and the things going on, the power of
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Jesus for him. He wouldn't have really been a
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follower of Jesus because he was very high up with the religious
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leaders in Judaism. But what we see here is
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desperation causes him to leave his faith that he grew up with,
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his faith that he was holding on to in order to go to God
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himself, who we believe to be the true faith, the only one who
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actually has the power to raise anybody from the dead anyway.
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Like you see this man's faith come from desperation.
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Now that's often how God works, by the way, we are so prideful
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that we won't actually come to him until we know we need him.
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God uses that he used that in my own life, right?
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I, I struggled with addiction for many years of my life in my
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teenage and my early 20s and, and I grew up Christian and I
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had a heart for the Lord. But when I was off on my, you
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know, prodigal sin moment in that lifestyle, I wasn't really
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thinking about God, nor did I care about him that much.
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He was in the back of my mind, but when I became desperate,
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when I started to realize I my life was spinning out of
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control. I didn't have control over what
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I was doing and even the choices I was making anymore because my
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sin was so heavy. I finally got to a place of many
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would call it rock bottom, where the only place I had to do was
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look up. I dug myself such a hole that
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all I could do was look up. I was desperate for Jesus, and I
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mean you. We can Fast forward and say we
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can. We know that He delivered me.
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Otherwise I wouldn't be standing here today preaching this word
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to you. And I know there's a similar
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story in your own life. If you haven't gotten there yet,
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I pray you do get there. But I pray it doesn't have to be
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that serious or that deep. Maybe you can put down the
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shovel right now and look up instead of digging that hole in
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your sin. But sometimes it's not sin.
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It's it's despair over life circumstances like this guy.
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Maybe someone's sick, maybe you've had someone pass away.
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Maybe there's some medical complications or, or, or
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something that's going on with financial issues in your life or
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your job. And and you've gotten to this
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point of desperation and this guy is a model of what we should
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do. This guy was very high up in his
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in his faith and religion. People look to him for answers,
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but this guy dropped his pride and was even willing to say,
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maybe I don't know everything. Maybe what I've always believed
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my entire life is nothing compared to the truth about who
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Jesus is. Now let's look at the the the
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other woman in this scenario in this story in verse 20.
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And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of
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blood for 12 years came up from behind him and touched the
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fringe of his garment. For she said to herself, if I
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only touch his garment, I will be made.
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Well, this, this is something that's, I mean, traumatic for
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this woman for 12 years. It says that she has had a
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discharge of blood. This would have been really a
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really difficult medical complication for her to deal
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with. So much so back in that day that
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she probably didn't have much of A social status, probably
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couldn't go out and and do the things that a lot of other
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people in her life were doing. This also meant that she
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probably couldn't have children. This meant that she probably was
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outcasted from her, her, her faith community, because in the
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Old Testament, there was there were these laws and rules about,
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about people who suffered from this type of thing, especially
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when blood was involved, that there were certain rituals that
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had to take place in order for her to be restored.
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And so this woman would have been basically alone and, and
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helpless. And actually, Luke 843 in his
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version of the story, adds that there it's said that she had
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spent all her living on physicians and she could not be
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healed by anyone. She had tried everything she
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could to get out of her situation and nothing was
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working. Again, I think that's kind of
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like us, if we're honest, right? When we are desperate, we don't
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always run to Jesus first, right?
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We start looking at everything else.
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ChatGPT, right? How many times do you have a
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question or you're struggling with an issue or medical issue
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and you're like, I'm going to ask Google what he thinks?
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And we don't we don't even call it it anymore because it has
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either a male or a woman voice. It's all, it's become like a
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human friend to us, right? Almost like a higher power.
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You should be, you know, you should be cautious about how
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much you use it and what you think about it.
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I'm not saying I'm against, you know, AI and the Internet, but
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how you use it and what it will start to become possibly an idol
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in your life. Maybe.
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But what else do we do? We run to doctors.
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We run to, to and fro everywhere.
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The new the next new supplement, the next new medication, the
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next new diet. We want to solve a problem,
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right? And we are desperate and many of
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us are are are very have ingenuity or ability to to
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figure things out. But man, if you're a Christian
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here today, shouldn't we be going to Jesus first, Not last
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you ever heard those people say like, oh, we've tried
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everything. Now all we can do now is pray
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right after I've exhausted all the human options, then I'll go
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to God. But the very definition of a
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Christian is someone who follows God.
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God is is is is is who they trust.
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They submit their whole lives to him.
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They believe there's not, it's life isn't just natural, but
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it's there's this supernatural, there's the spiritual element to
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to our lives. Wouldn't we go to the one who
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has all the power and all authority first?
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That's what we see in these two stories.
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There's a desperation to go outside of the norm, go outside
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of the cultural, the natural, the the internal pride of our,
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our education or our background or our experience and go to
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someone who can truly help us and that's Jesus Christ alone.
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So that's the first similarity that I see.
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And I already alluded to the next similarity then is
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uncleanness. Let's go back to these verses
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again. Verse 18.
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While he was saying these things to them, behold, A ruler came in
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and knelt before him, saying, My daughter had just died, but come
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and lay your hand on her, and she will live.
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And then Fast forward to verse 25.
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But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her
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by the hand, and the girl arose. Now in the Old Testament as I
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was talking about, there are these certain laws and one of
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them was when when someone passed away, when someone died
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that automatically made that person like you weren't supposed
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to touch a dead body. Actually Numbers 1911 it says
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whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean 7
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days. This was God's holiness standard
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in the Old Testament so that people would be sanctified for
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worship and coming into the temple.
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There were cleansing rituals and a dead body made it so someone
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was unclean 7 days. So they had to wait from going
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to do certain ordinances and and sacrifices.
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There were some special laws. If you were, you were the
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closest of kin, you could go, you know, bury them and take
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care of that. But you weren't supposed to
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touch a dead body. And here Jesus is being asked to
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go touch a dead body. So there's this uncleanness.
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And then in the next story, again, we have a woman who had
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suffered from a discharge of blood for 12 years, came up
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behind him and touched the fringe of his garment.
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The same thing with this very circumstance that I alluded to.
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That person would also be unclean for seven days.
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And both of these people are going outside of their religious
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beliefs in order to be touched by Jesus.
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A healing touch in hand by Jesus.
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They had to believe that he had the power not only to heal them
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and save them, but to not be tainted with their uncleanness.
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And that's really kind of the point I'm trying to make here
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is, is kind of like earlier, we saw Jesus healed A leper and
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lepers were banished outside of the camp because people were
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afraid of contracting the disease of leprosy.
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Nobody ever touched them. And there were laws about that
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as well. But what we see here is the
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compassion of Jesus on humanity. This is is symbolic.
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It's a real story. But what we need to glean from
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it is that Jesus is willing to come to the outcasts of society,
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the unclean, the sick, the unholy, the ones that are
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unworthy to come to worship. How many times have we heard
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people say, I won't darken the door of a church?
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If I went in there, the whole thing would burn down or I'd be
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struck by lightning because I'm so evil.
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I'm such a Sinner. I've never had a relationship
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with God. Well, I'm sorry to let you know,
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but all of us are on equal ground when it comes to the
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Lord. We're all sinners.
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We're all unclean like this dead body or like this woman.
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We come ceremonially unclean to God.
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If you think about God, God is we, we say it all the time,
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holy. What does that mean?
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It means set apart, sanctified. He is completely other than us,
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set apart from us. He has no sin, completely pure,
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completely perfect. And so anything below him is
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unworthy. Anything, any person that
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doesn't measure up to that standard is unfit to come to
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him. And we as human beings, the
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Bible says, is our unclean. The prophet Isaiah in the Old
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Testament said it this way. We've all become like one who is
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unclean. All our righteous deeds are like
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a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and our
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iniquities like the wind, take us away.
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Interestingly, without getting too weird here, but this story
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of the woman who's had the discharge of blood for for 12
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years, back in the olden days, they, you know, they had to have
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garments and and rags that were, you know, cycled to be cleaned.
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And this is what Isaiah is talking about when it says a
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polluted garment. Literally what he's talking
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about is that same menstrual rag that this woman would have had
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to keep recycling over and over again and cleaning over and over
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again. We all are polluted.
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We all are unclean. Why?
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Because of our sin. Now let me give you a little bit
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of a theological lesson about Christianity.
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It it begins with men and women were created in a good perfect
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relationship with God. They had their free will to make
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decisions and choices and and when they chose in the beginning
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to go against God and break His law and commandment in Genesis
Genesis 3 chapter mention
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chapter 3 from then on. The curse of sin was imputed to
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all human beings. We all have been in inherited
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because by the way Adam and Eve were the only ones like
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supernaturally created by God. Every human being after Adam and
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Eve was made by procreation. So we've inherited their fallen
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DNA. Often times people question why
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did God make a bunch of sinners? No, God made two people and they
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were in in good standing with God and they chose to go their
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own way. They chose to follow false
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teaching from Satan and to to to follow pleasure to follow what
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they saw was a better life than what God had offered, which
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plunged them into sin. God said you will surely die,
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but not only us, but every human being after now we've inherited
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that same thing. The spiritual fall of humanity
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is where all of us are and things are broken and things
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don't work right and we don't last long and disease comes in
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and not only that but evil in our hearts.
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From a very young age. The Bible says I was conceived
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in iniquity. David says that in one of the
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Psalms. That means that at conception we
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inherit the the sin nature that all humans are plagued with.
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And now you don't have to go too far to see it, right?
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If you have kids, you know, like at, at the very youngest of
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ages, you don't have to teach them to be disobedient, do you?
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You don't have to teach them to be mean.
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You don't have to teach them to be selfish.
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They do it naturally. They do it naturally.
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And one of my, my favorite theologians that passed away
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last year, he said, Bodhi Baakum.
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He said it's the grace of God that that children are grown or
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they start off very small because they're evil enough that
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if they were full size, they'd probably try to kill us.
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Isn't that right? I mean, I have a toddler at home
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and he hits US from time to time, you know, and if if he was
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bigger, it would hurt. I know that sounds kind of
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harsh. I'm being, I'm being truthful,
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but I'm trying to make a point here.
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The point is, is that all human beings are following.
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We don't start in some neutral state.
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We are unclean. Therefore this what this also
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means then is not only are we born in this state, but we
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continue to contribute to our sin.
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And if you are honest, you like sin, you and I like sin.
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I'm not just speaking down to you.
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If you're honest, we we like our pleasure, we like our sin.
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We like the thing that God said don't do and we don't like doing
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the thing that God said to do. And we just need to own the fact
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that. And then when we think somehow
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when we do a good thing, like help old lady across the street
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or, you know, give a donation to the, the, the nearest school or,
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or whatever it is, we think somehow that earns us some kind
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of points in some good box somewhere.
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But that that does not compare. And it's actually does, it's not
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even real because every time we do a good deed, it comes from
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some selfish tainted motive. Anyway, even the purest motive
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that we try to do, it's still tainted.
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And that's the point here. That's what we need to see in
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these, these two women. Thirdly, what I see is
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symbolism, and we've already talked a little bit about kind
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of spiritual symbolism, but there's there's something I want
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to zero in on here that maybe you wouldn't have caught in
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Mark's version of it. It says the girl was 12 years of
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age. It said immediately the girl got
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up, began walking for she was 12 years of age.
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And they were immediately overcome with amazement.
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And the girl who had the discharge of blood was 12 years.
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There's 2 numbers here and they're both 12.
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And I know we can't go too far down the rabbit hole of what
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some would call biblical numerology.
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You know, you can get really superstitious with numbers, and
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maybe we do that outside of the Bible, right?
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There was a time in my life where I was really weird about
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the number 7 and I was like, I got to get gas at pump #7 or, or
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whenever I stopped the microwave or it input a number on the
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microwave, it would have the number 7.
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And anybody do weird stuff like that or is that just me?
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Oh, couple people raise their hands and I just say that to
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make fun of myself but and to say that there's weird stuff out
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there. But that's not what I'm talking
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about. I am talking about there are
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numbers in the Bible that you need to pay attention to because
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they are symbolic. Not all numbers, but a lot of
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them. 12 is one of those numbers.
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If you know, there's the 12 tribes of Israel, why 12?
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Why not 11 or 13 or or something like that?
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And then after that there's the 12 disciples.
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Why the 12 disciples? And then in the Book of
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Revelation it has that #144,000. Where do we get that number?
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Well, it comes from the 12 tribes of Israel Times.
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What 10,000 * 10,000? Is that the math?
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I don't know. It's 12,000 * 1012.
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Yes, 12,000 * 12. Sorry, Casey, that's I'm not a
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math guy. We got a lot of engineers in the
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crowd, but I'm trying to make a point That 12, you see it over
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and over again and it's it is kind of like the number 7.
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Now there are some numbers, there's the number 37 and 4012
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and then 1000. Those 5 numbers, you see them
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all throughout the Bible and they're symbolic of something.
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12 is a kind of represents the Kingdom of God.
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If you think about the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples,
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you're going to see them again in in the Book of Revelation as
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well. It's it's symbolic of the
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Kingdom of God. I started out saying that God is
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the king and he's come. Jesus has come to bring his his
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Kingdom. And this is what it looks like
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when his Kingdom comes, mercy and grace, healing of disease,
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things that were wrong being set right.
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That's what God wants us to know, that Jesus has started the
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coming of Jesus 2000 years ago, has started what God's will is
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for the earth, and not just generally for the earth, but for
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humanity, and not just for general humanity, but for God's
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people, the people who come to faith in him and believe in him.
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We are the spiritual Kingdom of God, and therefore we can look
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forward to things like this. They may not happen in this
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life, but in the life to come we know that there will be no more
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mourning, no more crying, no more sickness, no more disease,
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and no more death. That is the Kingdom of God
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ultimately fulfilled. And when Jesus is walking on the
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earth, he's bringing a little bit of the Kingdom with him
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wherever he goes. And now we as the church, since
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Jesus ascended, he sent the Holy Spirit into his church, and all
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of us now are walking the earth. We are trying to expand the
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Kingdom of God because we want all of us to be in the full
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culmination of the Kingdom one day, and that's by faith in
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Jesus and following him. Now there's something
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interesting about this also, this woman who comes up and
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touches the fringe of Jesus's garment, all men in the Jewish
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tradition would have worn kind of a a robe that had tassels on
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it like corners. And those represented also a lot
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of things have symbolism. In Numbers 1537, back in the Old
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Testament when God was speaking to Moses, he said, speak to the
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people of Israel, tell them to make tassels on the corner of
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their garments throughout their generation and to put a cord of
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blue on the tassel of each corner.
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And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the
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commandments of the Lord to do them, not to follow after your
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own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore
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after. Those tassels were a reminder
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that God had said what His will was.
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God had come down and came to save these people.
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In fact, in that very context of the Book of Numbers, God had
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just got done saving the Israelites out of slavery in
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Egypt. And by the way, slavery in Egypt
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is a symbolism of what it is that sin is to us.
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Sin is slavery. We are enslaved to sin, but God
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reaches down, walks among us, and then communicates, leaves us
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with His Word so that we can know how do we find Him and how
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do we follow him. And this woman represents her
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faith by coming and grabbing on to one of those tassels, the
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fringe of his garment symbolizing her faith in God.
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And she'd probably heard about the things that Jesus had been
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doing in her day, in her time in her area.
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And all the other people have been delivered.
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And again, she wasn't supposed to do that, but by faith, she
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came and grabbed the fringe of his garment.
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Another pastor friend of mine recently pointed out something
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that was pretty rich and deep to me.
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And he says in Malachi chapter 4, verse 2, this is the last
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book of the Old Testament. It says, But for you who fear my
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name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its
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wings. You shall go out leaping like
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calves from the stall. And the original word in Hebrew
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for wing, there is skirt, edge or hem, the the same thing in
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the Greek word for the fringe. It's the same word but in Greek
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and in Hebrew, because in Old Testament was written in Hebrew,
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New Testament in Greek, this verse was prophetic.
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We're looking forward to Jesus, the Son of righteousness.
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Some translations make the sun uppercase.
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That's his name, one of his name's Son of righteousness
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rising with healing in his wings.
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And you can imagine for a moment, in a small way, this was
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being fulfilled in this woman as the Sun of Righteousness had
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come upon the people in Israel. And this woman grabs for the hem
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of his garment. There's so much symbolism there.
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It's a beautiful thing. And we know that Jesus is coming
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has has prophetic fulfillment. When Jesus in Luke 4 went to one
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of the synagogue's, it says he opened the scroll and found the
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place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
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me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
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He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives into recovering
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of the sight of the blind, and to set at liberty all those who
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are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
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That was written in the Old Testament of Isaiah.
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And Jesus was trying to get everybody to understand this is
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talking about me and you're missing it.
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But there's a select few people who aren't missing it, which
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leads me to the next point. Adoption.
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It's often not a word talked about, but adoption, there's a
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there's a doctrine of adoption talked about in the Bible.
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What when you become a son or daughter of God by faith, you
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are adopted into the Kingdom of God.
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And here's an interesting point I want to make out of about
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these two women is that they're both daughters.
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Now, if you think about that, it's not that profound because
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all women born had to be a daughter, right?
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So I guess all women are daughters, you know, so that's
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not that profound of a a statement.
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But again, when you look at the scripture, they're both called
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daughter by well, one Jesus calls daughter and there's
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meaning to that. So let's look again at these two
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similarities of these two girls or a girl and a woman being
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daughters that ultimately adopted by God, becoming
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children of God. In Mark's version of the story,
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it tells us a little bit more about what happened when Jesus
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raised her from the dead. It said when he had entered, he
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said to them, why are you making commotion and weeping?
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The child is not dead but sleeping.
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And they laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took
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the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and
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went in where the child was, taking her by the hand.
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He said to her Talitha kumai or kum, which means little girl.
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I say to you, arise now we know that the scripture says that
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Jairus said my daughter. So it is said in there that she
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is someone's daughter. But when Jesus says now these
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words to Lethakum are written in Aramaic.
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Now just a little bit more education for you.
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Most of the Old Testament, Hebrew, New Testament Greek, but
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there are little portions and comments and quote written in
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Aramaic, which was the modern language of the day.
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OK, Those are the only three languages in the Bible.
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OK, but mostly Hebrew, Greek. But in Aramaic, Talitha means
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little lamb, which was also a pet name for children.
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But for Jesus to call her little lamb and him grabbing her by the
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hand and raising her from the dead meant that this girl was
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now Jesus's little lamb. It was now she was a daughter.
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There are all these kind of analogies or illustrations like
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the church is called the flock of God and we are sheep, right?
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Or we're the children of God and he's our father.
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And Jesus is the great shepherd, and the Bible says that he knows
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his sheep, and they know him, and they follow him, and they
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hear his voice. And this she heard Jesus's voice
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from the dead. From the dead he called little
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lamb, and she rose from the dead.
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That is a beautiful thing. That is how it works for you and
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I, by the way, when your name is called, when Jesus comes to you
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and reveals himself to you, he raises you from the dead.
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And what happened today in the baptism was a picture of what
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happened as we read in Romans 6. It says that just like Christ
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was buried and raised, we too are buried and raised with Him.
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Our identity goes from whatever we thought it was, whatever
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identity we made-up or assumed in our life, from our old
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nature, our sinful nature. And when we follow Christ, we
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are buried and die to that nature.
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We no longer cling to that or hold on to that sin, but Jesus
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causes us to raise to new life. He resurrects us all.
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Every believer has already had one resurrection.
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Have you ever heard of that before?
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You have been spiritually raised from the dead.
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The first resurrection, your spirit and your soul was dead.
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The Bible says we're all dead in our transgressions and sins in
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the garden. When he said you shall surely
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die when you take of that fruit, He wasn't just talking about
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physical death but spiritual death.
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We no no longer have a connection to God through the
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spirit anymore, but humans are spiritually dead.
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But God raises us from the dead when he calls us by the Spirit
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and we become adopted again. Let's see what he says about the
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the woman. It says he turned and seeing her
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he said take heart daughter, your faith has made you well and
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instantly the woman was made well.
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Jesus. Here's the thing, why would
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Jesus call her daughter? And this is where we all get
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confused about the Trinity. And #1 He can call her daughter
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because he's God. And so that proves that he's
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God, but he is not God the Father, he's God the Son.
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But here's what I'll tell you. In Isaiah, it says that it's a
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famous Christmas verse. He shall be called wonderful
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counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father,
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Prince of Peace. And you've always wondered like,
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why is he called everlasting Father in that verse?
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Well, that word means Father of eternity If you flip the words
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in the original language, He is the creator of eternity.
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The New Testament tells us that there was not a thing made that
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wasn't made through Jesus Christ the Son.
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He is the father of time. He is the creator of all things.
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Jesus is the creator. So in that aspect, being God,
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being creator, he can come and he can say daughter, another
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adoption, right? You're now in the family.
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He says the same thing, Jesus in another story about a woman who
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we've been bound 18 years by Satan and he calls her a
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daughter of Abraham, again, trying to help them.
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And they did not like that because Abraham was the father
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of their faith and they thought they were the sons of Abraham.
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But Jesus says no, anyone who has faith is in the family, not
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just people who were born with this lineage, but all people who
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come to faith. In fact, John talking about
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Jesus in the 1st chapter says, but to all who did receive him,
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who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
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children of God. Nobody is born a child of God.
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I've already tried to teach you that earlier on that we're all
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born in iniquity and sin. We're all on level ground.
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I'm glad you're at church today because if there was a perfect
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person at church, we wouldn't fit in with that person.
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You know, I think I said this a couple weeks ago, no perfect
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people are allowed here because they don't exist.
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We're all sinners and we've come by the grace of God through
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faith. The Bible says to be adopted by
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God. And here's the the kicker to
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this verse though. And we talk about, well, who's
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responsible and who? Who did what first?
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Did God call me or did I come to this conclusion?
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And it says who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
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flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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By the will of God, we have been adopted from eternity past.
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The Bible even says in in Ephesians 1/5 in love, He
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predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus
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Christ, according to the purpose of his will.
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There's so much to this idea of adoption, but these two ladies
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were adopted by God. Have you been adopted by God?
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You say, preacher, how can I know?
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How can I know that God wants me and has chosen me?
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Well, I don't think there's any coincidences, first of all.
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So secondly, you're here and you're hearing the word of God.
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God is calling you whether you like it or not, whether you got
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drug here or not, God is calling you because this message is for
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you and you specifically. Every ear that hears.
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He's calling on you to believe in the Son of God, the one who
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has all authority and power and brings the Kingdom of grace and
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mercy. And yes, you do have a choice to
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come in faith like the Father came for his daughter.
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Sometimes it takes somebody else's faith to get us here,
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right? Or the desperation of the woman.
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If I could just touch Jesus. Quit trying all the other things
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out there that you've been trying to get yourself healed
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and out of this situation that you are in, in life living in
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shame and guilt or not knowing whether you stand in right
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standing with God. You can know you can be a child
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of God if you believe in his name.
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If you believe in Jesus Christ, you know you are adopted by God,
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which takes me to the last point.
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It's by faith. They both have faith.
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There's faith in this story. As I said, the Father, the
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Father's faith. Now here's what I said.
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You cannot believe for any other person.
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My faith isn't going to save my child ultimately, but it might
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initiate it. It might start it.
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So do you have a family member, friend, neighbor, someone?
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It does. God does use your faith to bring
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about the faith in another person.
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That's how it works. He wants to use us.
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God doesn't need to use us. He's all powerful.
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We see His authority, but for some reason He wants to use us
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in this plan of building the Kingdom.
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He put His spirit into us so that we could be that spark of
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faith in other people. Jairus faith ultimately led to
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his daughter being saved, adopted, delivered and the same
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thing is true then for the woman.
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If I only touch His garment, I will be made well.
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He said take heart daughter, your faith has made you well,
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made well. Now did he just heal her or did
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he save her? We need to understand when Jesus
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heals someone, it's it's symbolic of salvation.
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But even if we look at this Greek word, it says the Greek
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word is sozo, which is often translated to save.
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Other translations would say, and you're this woman was saved
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by her faith. In fact, it's the root word
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where we get, you know, the study of salvation.
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So teriology, so sozo to be healed, to be made well, to be
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saved, It's all it's all synonymous.
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We're sick, we're unclean, we're unwell, we're diseased, we're
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spiritually dead. But God through Jesus Christ
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comes to save us by faith. And Hebrews 11/6 says without
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faith it is impossible to please him.
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For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists
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and rewards those who seek Him. There are those who are already
-
seeking Him, and they are being rewarded by the blessings of
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just knowing who Jesus is. But anything you do, as the
-
prophet Isaiah said, you will not please God with if you think
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you can do more good than you do bad.
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And one day God's going to pull out the scales.
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And every one of us, if we live like that, will be found wanting
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on the scale of bad. The only good that we can come
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to God with is our faith in the one who and only one who was
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good, Jesus Christ. The one who came to this earth,
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ultimately died in our place, the death that we deserved.
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He died on the cross as the ultimate fulfillment of all the
-
sacrifices, to be a sacrifice for us, so that if we look to
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Him and believe on Him, we can be saved.
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And Ephesians says this, it's by grace.
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You've been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing.
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You did nothing to get to that point.
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And you will do nothing when you stand before God.
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You won't have any words to say, But I did this, but I did that.
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No, this is purely a gift. My question to you, would you be
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like these two women today in this story?
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Be desperate enough to know your need because you're unclean to
-
recognize what God's Word does actually say about His Kingdom.
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Would you long to be adopted by Him as He does that work?
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Because we know how adoption works.
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The child really had no choice in being adopted, but it was
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really the parents who do the work.
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And that's, that's our God. He's not waiting for you to do
-
something to make him want to choose you.
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He wants you. And if you can right now believe
-
in Him, you can repent and agree that you're a Sinner by faith.
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Then I implore you to do that today.
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I implore you to do that today. And for the rest of us, let us
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just rejoice in that. These two women represent the
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grace of God to us. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your grace, your kindness to us.
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I thank you for your word. It's so rich.
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It's like a a full meal. We come here starving,
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spiritually starving. All week long we've been gorging
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on every other piece of spiritual, mental, and emotional
-
junk food that's out there. And we have lacked coming to the
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dinner table. We've lacked coming to the
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fountain. But you're a gracious God.
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You forgive us. You love us.
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Thank you for bringing us here today.
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Help all of us here. Follow your will and not ours
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anymore, and receive the grace and love that you display to us
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in your Word. Thank you, Jesus.
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Amen.