The Facts Are Not Final

Hey, shout out to our front of house and media team up top.

I'm sorry, brother, They're incredible. Give them a hand. They get

here. They create an atmosphere so you can experience God every single week in,

week out. It's incredible, guys. I'm so excited to be up

here. I'm so honored that Pastor Steve would ask me just step behind this,

and it is a privilege that the Holy Spirit would highlight his word to

my heart then and ask me to talk to you today. When that being

said, I want to pray for you. They're gonna hop right into the

word Father God, the name of Jesus. What I thank you for every

single person that is in this room. It's not by chance, is not

by some random parents today. The Holy Spirit, you are here, and

you are working, and you are moving, and you are a gentleman.

And so in this moment, Lord, I just asked that Holy Spirit you

knew more than we could ever imagine or dream of. Let every word,

every movement, every step I take on the stage represent you well. Jesus,

your name. We pray Amen. If you will, it's on the

screen. But if you have paperback on you or the good old you version

Bible app it's really cool. You need it. Turn to mark chapter five.

We're gonna be starting in verse twenty one. Starting in verse twenty one,

it says Jesus got into the boat and went back to the other side

of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore.

Than a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jerius, arrived.

When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him.

My little daughter is dying, he said, please come lay your hands

on her, hell her so she can live. And Jesus went with him,

and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the

crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great

deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had

to pay them, but she had gotten know better. In fact, she

only got worse. And she had heard about Jesus. So she came up

behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself,

if I could touch his robe, I would be healed. And immediately

the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been

healed. Of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that the healing power

had gone out from him. So we turned around in the crowd and asked

who touched my robe? His disciple said to him, look, the crowd

is pressing around you. How can you ask who touched me? But he

kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman,

trembling at the realization of what happened to her, came and fell to

her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And

he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go

in peace. Your suffering is over. You can clap. Clap, that's

cool. Clap right now, because right now gonna call him Jerry. What

about Jerry? His daughter's dying. While he was still speaking to her,

verse thirty five messengers arrived from the home of Jerry, the leader of the

synagogue. They told him, your daughter is dead. There's no trouble.

There's no use in troubling to teacher now. But Jesus overheard them and said,

Jerry, don't be afraid, just have faith. Then Jesus stopped the

crowd and wouldn't let anyone go into them except Peter, James, and John.

And when he came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw

much commotion and weeping and wailing, and he went aside and asked, while

all this commotion and weeping, the child isn't dead, but she's only sleeping.

And the crowd laughed at him, but he had made them all leave,

and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the

room where the girl was lying. Hold her Annie said to her, holding

her hand, he said to her, tylo qualm, I probably butchered that,

which means little girl, Get up. And the girl, who was

twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around. They were overwhelmed and

totally amazed, and Jesus gave them strict orders to tell anyone who had happened

what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.

Y'all, I'm gonna get you something to eat today very quickly. We're

gonna break this down. Okay, I'm gonna get you to your favorite.

About eighty five percent of y'all are probably eating at the local non authentic Hispanic

food chain. Yep, gotcha. So if we will can we move back

to verse twenty one, Thank you Jesus for your word. Jesus got back

in his boat again. Point number one. You all ready if you want

to be like Jesus, get a boat, because he used one a lot.

Just kidding. Don't buy a boat. Well, buy a boat,

but make sure you invite your youth pastors out with you. And he went

back to the other side, where a large crowd gathered around him on the

shore. Twenty two and then a leader of the local synagogue. Listen,

Jerry, we're calling pastor Jerry. He's a synagogue leader. You only know

what you know. He knew to call it a fire that guided Moses through

the desert. He knew of the sea being split. That he knew of

the miracles of Elijah and Elijah, he knew of every word that was spoken

by the prophets. And he finds himself here and what he knows just isn't

enough anymore. Twelve year old little girl sick, and he finds himself in

desperation to the point of probably faith. And he saw Jesus, and he

fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him, with my little daughter is

dye and he said, please come lay your hands on her in hill or

so she can live. Listen what Jesus lays his hands on it lives,

okay. And he knew the stories. He's heard the rumors of Jesus.

He's known the ministry, he's heard the teaching, and in this moment he's

saying, Jesus, you don't got to do much. Just just do somethink

I have kids. Now the stuff rings differently, but this is pretty urgent.

Okay, if you can just lay a hand on her, just do

something. Help. And Jesus went with him, simple, you know I

love about Jesus. You know I love about the character of God that we

are so blessed to live under that we don't have to beg for anything from

him. Jesus like stops teaching. He's like, okay, I better move

that back. Camera. Team's gonna get mad at me. I got you.

It's going a walk somewhere around two miles. Did some research. We're

think, you know, that's not much, but when you're Jesus and there's

a crowd, it becomes an issue. It says in other translations into other

books of the Favorite Four that sometimes the crowds were crushing. Jesus went with

him and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman and the

crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. Guys, what happens when

what you think is supposed to happen gets changed by you by what you can't

help. Because here's the reality of it. Her receiving that miracle wasn't bad

for her. Pastor Jerry has like a twelve year old daughter at home and

they're stuck in traffic. When Kenna was born. I'm gonna tell you a

story. My biggest fear of pregnancy as the man, which is a very

small part of it, is the drive to the hospital being urgent, and

then you get stuck at every single red light. Because they can't put hospitals

in rural areas. They put them in the middle of the most well populated

places in cities. And my wife, she had been contracting, but she

was being just tough. She's like, you know, it's just spasms.

I'm like, something don't feel right, and she can. Thank God,

It's like twelve am, and she said, hey, I think we need

to go into the hospital. I said, okay, right, and we

live far from here, about thirty five to forty men. It's on a

good day, and we got to drive to Athens and seriously, there's like

fifteen red lights and it's twelve am, and what was supposed to be a

nightmare of traffic was just really cool because I blew through every single red light

and I did not get one ticket, and it was awesome. Traffic,

It's terrible, and they're stuck in traffic, and all of a sudden,

Jesus feels like, who delayed? What do you do when your a miracle

gets interrupted? What happens when someone else is blessing interferes with your blessing?

They got that promotion, They get what's promised to him now, and I

ain't got it yet, and it hurts. I've been there. It isn't

supposed to be that way for me, and it isn't supposed to be that

way for them. But Jesus said yes to their request, and he hasn't

got to mine yet. In situations where it doesn't look like you're gonna get

to where you need to go very quickly, or you're not gonna get what's

promised, or maybe the need is urgent and you don't see it happening yet,

and you feel stuck. Just like Jerry, just stick close to Jesus,

just hold on. I know the crowd is pressing, I know it's

chaotic. I know it feels frantic. Trust me, I deal with like.

I get frantic very easy. My wife can attest to this. But

just sit back and breathe that I may not have what I want right now,

and it may hurt that I don't have it, and I'm mad at

him. And at least if I'm close to him, I'm in proximity to

tell him I'm mad, to tell him I'm not pleased. So at least

if I'm not getting what I want, I can maintain a relationship with him.

Because a relationship where you're mad at God is still better than not one

at all. Not seeing what you need come to fruition is still better than

changing your theology and says it doesn't exist anymore. God. I didn't see

that healing. I didn't see that miracle, So I'm just gonna shut you

know, the last half of the Bible and forget it. Find a theologian

that made a nice Bible from like the early nineteen hundreds that has it splitnotes

in it, so I can cut out most of the theology that actually didn't

dictate my experience, because the reality of it is your experience. Your experience

with God cannot dictate what the Bible says. It works the other way around.

Imagine if Jerry's like, oh, healing didn't happen to me, resurrection

didn't happen to me. Bah, We're gonna just go on down to verse

thirty because the woman with the issue of blood is not of importance today.

I'm glad she got healed. And Jesus realized at once that the healing power

had gone out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked

who touched my rub And his disciple said to him, look, the crowd

is pressing around you. How can you ask who touched me? Smart Alex.

But he kept on looking around and see who had done it. Then

the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her,

came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she

had done. And then he said to her, daughter, your faith has

made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering's over. What about my

daughter while he was still speaking to your messengers, or ride from the home

of Jerry Gyrus Jerius, however you want to say it the leader of the

synagogue and they told him your daughter's dead, there's no use traveling the teacher.

Now. Well, some people like to say, hey, that's just

the devil in the middle of your miracle. He comes and he just gets

in the way. But the reality of it was, and I hate this

da is, it wasn't the devil, it wasn't Lucifer. It was people

from a system, from a foundation, from a house that Jerry is set

up. Who has a junk drawer at their house, who has multiple don't

lie who has the habit when you have people's coming over that the junk is

either going in that drawer, in that closet, or in that shower.

Don't forget to turn it on. It's not turn it on. But oftentimes

we like to take the hard situations of our life and maybe it's stuff that

we caused. Maybe it's cast that we caused because we haven't put a system

in place to deal with it, or maybe it's a consequences that it's from

our actions. And it's very easy to blame it on the devil instead of

taking responsibility for it, because a lot of the times things are not teachable.

When we don't take responsible for responsibility for it, it's not the devil.

It may just be ignorance, or it could be stupidity. And when

you are not teachable and you're not looking, and you've tucked things away in

the drawer and you've covered it, how can the Lord show his glory through

it? Oh past, Jerry is like the devil did it too, a

boad Go ahead and start the funeral stuff. You're still speaking to our messengers

ride from the home of Jerry, the leader of the synagogue, and they

told him your daughter's dead. There's no troubling the teacher now. But Jesus

overheard. Sorry, I don't want to get ahead of myself yet. And

they weren't. They weren't lying, right, I mean, they weren't trying

to frame Jesus as this guy they didn't want to hear and didn't have any

power. They just didn't know yet. They thought he was just another prophet

or just another teacher, or just another leader. They aren't lying to him,

they're just telling him it's scary. They're just telling him it's rough thirty

six. But Jesus over I heard them and said, Jerry's don't be afraid,

just have faith. Jesus chose listen. I was trying to do some

Greek Hebrew study on this word overheard, and I did find a word compare

cluse us. I probably butchered that, okay, in a term that is

being used here, saying hey, ignore. He chose to ignore the messengers

from Jerry's house and said, don't be afraid, just believe. Jesus knew

the facts, he knew what everyone else was seeing. He saw it to

don't be afraid. Hey, I know it doesn't look good. Don't be

afraid. I know the situation doesn't look how you expected it too. Don't

be afraid. I know what was said is scary, but don't be afraid.

Just believe. And this was a public statement, but to the reality

of it is. When I read this, I came to the realization that

sometimes in our personal life, the things we don't tell people, the things

we don't understand and we don't know how to voice it. Every single one

of us needs a savior in the room that in the middle of the night

says hey, don't be afraid. And if he is more than capable of

he in calm to fear publicly, he can handle it privately too. We're

about to go a little bit deeper. We're in zooming a little bit more.

And he said to her, whoa, whoa, whoa in thirty six.

But Jesus overheard them and said to Darius, don't be afraid, just

have faith. And Jesus stop the crowd verse thirty seven. And wouldn't let

anyone go with him except Peter, James and John the Big Three. Why

is that so important? Because you cannot walk in purpose, You cannot walk

and calling unless the right people are with you. That's why you need to

go to www dot c Stone Dutch church slash groups. And you're like,

man, I don't even know what to do with that. Okay, www

dot c Stone Dutch Church slash engage if you haven't yet, or maybe it's

been a while, or maybe never mind. And he said, don't be

afraid. He did not let anyone go with him except Peter, James and

John, the brother of James. This is why, though you know,

Peter, John and James, because they seen who Jesus was. They seen

what he had done already. They had a little bit more of an idea

of what the way he was about to do than the other ones. H

And when life just beats the mess out of you, sometimes you need people

to look back with say, hey, do you remember when God did this?

Do you remember when you remember when me and my wife had no child?

And it kept messing up, almost like every single time. And he

says, yeah, but now you have to You need people to share in

your victory so they can remind you of them. You need people that will

point you back to the altars you built. Jesus said, all right,

boys, let's get it. Let's go Verse thirty eight. And when he

came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion in weeping

and wailing, and he went inside and asked, why all of this commotion

and weeping. She's only asleep. What are you calling dead? That is

only a sleep in your life? Dreams, relationships, issues, hobbies,

businesses, emotions. The crowd Verse forty laughed at him, but he made

them all leave. The tricky thing with facts is the facts are good.

I think we need facts. We need sometimes we need information. But you

know what we don't need. In twenty twenty, we'd turn the TV on

every single dang day and it said death count one hundred plus, and then

people would get on their phones. Whole County local COVID death count, Barrow

County, middle of nowhere COVID deathcount. Sometimes you have to get rid of

the things that actually scream facts at you. But this thing also developed because

sometimes you gotta understand that it's not just facts. But sometimes people are saying,

hey, just stop, Like Jesus, you're crazy, bro, Who

is this random man walking in this house? There's no heartbeat? I can

imagine these guys are laughing. It's like this idiot saying she's sleeping. I

gotta get it ka and the real it was crazy. Just go home,

bro, Like y'all don't hear the funeral flutes, like playing outside. Y'all,

don't hear the whiling, the tears, the sadness. Just quit already.

But I don't think people in this room have completely quit in different situations

and places of their life. There's a new kind of quit, and I

think it's a lot worse kind of quit. It's called the quiet quit.

Y'all have have y'all ever heard of the quiet quit? You haven't quit your

jobs, but you're but you're still kind of there. You haven't ran out,

you haven't completely not came home to your spouse, but no, you're

just not emotionally there. You haven't completely gave up on your kids, but

you still don't try to have those hard conversations anymore. You're like Dame Pastor's

saying, like, why are you getting on me? You don't have a

teenager yet I had one for three years. I get it. It's hard.

Some of you haven't completely quit on your relationship with Jesus, but the

ten percent of you give it's showing up here at eleven hopefully on Wednesdays too,

and your group, and that's all you have. But when you get

home, you've quit. But can I tell you something today, there's so

much more of Him than you could ever dream of or imagine, and some

of the most dead, most dry, most desolate, empty places of your

life. Maybe you're here today and you don't have the other ninety percent to

the ten percent, but Jesus is about to walk in the room you're just

sleeping. Wake up. There's still life ahead of you. There's still hope

ahead of you. There's still talent in you, there's still gifting in you,

there's still hope for you. All right, let's not start that.

I'm not bringing the band up yet. Save that for a few minutes.

I Jesus wanted the right people in the room because if the funeral flutes were

playing, because they used to have professional grief musicians. I don't know how

to make a flute noise. I'm not gonna embarrass myself like that. But

you know, the sad the minor keys, the a minor to the g

I'm sorry, And it's okay to get laughed at sometimes when you choose to

walk in faith, because they laughed at him. And can I tell you

something that there's a huge sector of the capital see Church of Jesus Christ that

has an issue with this that I hope Cornerstone Tyberdacle doesn't. But God still

honors faith and obedience. Faith moves the heart of God. And guess what,

You're gonna get laughed at sometimes people about you're crazy. We've seen the

facts. Yeah, I know the facts, but you know I've wanted to

do with the facts. Hey, God, this is what's happening I'm mad

about it. I don't understand it, and the dynamic of our relationship.

It's like down here right now. But God, you know the facts too,

and everything he touches comes to life. So here it is. Facts

are cool, but you gotta know who to take them to. Then Jesus

stopped the crowd, and I don't let anyone go with him except Peter James

John. And when they came up to the home of the synagogue leader,

Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and waylink and he went inside and asked,

while of this commotion and weeping, the child isn't dead, She's only sleeping.

And the crowd laughed him. But he made them all leaf grief musicians,

get out of the room. Band if you want to, you can

come on up. Put his three disciples into the room where the girl was

lying and holding her hand. He said, tolitia quam, which means little

girl, get up. It's crazy because Jesus was a prophet. Prophets didn't

touch dead things weren't supposed to. People got thrown out of town for touching

dead things. Reputations got lost over touching dead things. But I have good

news for every single dead thing in your life. Maybe it's a dream,

Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe that's that grandchild that just can't say no to

certain things. Maybe it's a marriage, Maybe it's you. Jesus is not

afraid of touching dead things. He can take the worst, he can take

the most disgusted. He can take them is broken, and when he says

live, it lives. For everyone that's quitting here at some degree, in

some place, you've called it dead when it's only slipping sleeping, you can

still have God's best right now. Faith isn't something you can always see or

feel, but it's something that you have to know. Faith is believing in

things hoped for but not yet seen. Don't quit looking forward, don't quit

seeing that blessing in front of you. Keep going because the facts aren't always

final. There's hope, there's faith, and everything Jesus touches comes to life.

I know this is going to sound weird, but a lot of the

times that I had a teacher, she showed me who Jesus was. I

was the worst teenager in the world. I remember she looked at me.

One time I made a bad lie. They would get her fired. Today

in schools without any question. I think it was pretty gross. But about

twenty sixteen I got a phone call. I said, hey, remember Hayson,

I said, yeah, how is she? H We're praying she passes

peacefully. I said, what what you mean? Praying she passes peacefully?

And it's completely out of the blue, unexpected, I said, man,

and it's just something. Really, I really really believe church, And how

dare you to maybe adopt this one? Pray for the miracle too? You

really don't get it, and then the healing can happen after it. Jesus

touched her, said hey, this if Jesus is standing with you, the

facts that were final, the facts are going to be fact. But you

can move forward and faith doing that God's best is still in your future.

You have God's best right now. Faith isn't something you can always hear or

see or feel, but something you have to know. Don't quit, don't

quiet about what you know. Don't quiet about his goodness, don't quite about

his faithfulness, don't quiet about his grace in your life, don't quite about

his mercy. Because the reality of it is, people need your hope.

Your hope changes situations, Your hope changes life. You're in testimony, your

story of what God did his people faith for what He will do. You

just don't need hope. People need hope, people need help. So if

everyone will just quit and stand up all across the roof, maybe stretch,

get comfortable. You have a sprint to make to the local takoia. And

I think when you read scripture, you have to put yourself in the right

perspective. You have to put yourself in the right personification of who you are

in the story, because sometimes we get that wrong and that's what really,

really, really bad theology happens. But here you may find we may find

multiple characters in this room that are you. Maybe you're jerious, if you

have the need for a team, you can get ready to Walter team.

Or maybe you can be honest here and say, hey, I'm not dead,

I'm only sleeping, but I need to wake up today. You're in

the right place. Or maybe you're hearing you say, Hey, I just

need my big three, I need my boys, I need my sisters.

Maybe you're lonely. This isn't fixed right here in this room necessarily, but

let me tell you where it is. Www dot Stone, Dutch Church slash

groups www dot Dutch church slash engage. So I'm gonna pray and if you

haven't need in your life, maybe you're the daughter, maybe you're jerious.

The Lord's gonna meet you here today and you're gonna experience it fa the God

in the name of Jesus Lord, I thank you for every single person in

this room. Gotta thank you that everything that we've called dead, old,

abused, unused, stuff that we've put in the drunk drawer, it's being

brought to surface tonight. Today, it's being brought back to life. It's

being brought to hope. Faith is being renewed in this room. Joy is

being re established. H wake up right now with Jesus name, pray.

Amen, Let's worship m