"Jesus Can Save Anybody" - Mark 5:18-43

People love radical things. Remember when I was in college, maybe right before

that, there was a Christian book that came out called Radical.

And it wasn't like 80s radical. It was like actual, let's be radical, you know?

And the whole idea of the book was, you know, Jesus was poor and he ran around

and helped people. And so you should be the same.

Ironically, the author of that book now lives in the most affluent neighborhoods

in the world, made a bunch of money and certainly still does some good things.

But I think when we say the word radical, we often think of doing something

radical, of going and being a part of something.

Certainly, every political cycle, you have people come on and they're going

to give you some radical view of what they're going to do to change the world, right?

It's a radical take. It always is. If I get in office, I'm going to do this radical thing.

And if you want this radical thing to happen, I'm your guy.

Maybe it's a sports thing. Lord knows when you watch football and you see it's

like 13 degrees outside and there's guys with no shirts on and painted up.

I think even more so like when you watch soccer, not that I watch a lot of soccer,

but it's funny with soccer, these countries that are playing each other,

they hate it. Like they legitimately hate each other.

There's been like civil wars fought and now the soccer field is an embodiment of those wars.

They have actual fences up because if they combine the crowds,

there would be literal murders at these soccer games, which puts things in perspective.

I think we also are drawn in by things like radical sacrifice right risk your

life Sell everything go and do this thing.

We have radical things that we set our minds to,

There's always as i'm on instagram or whatever else somebody trying to sell

me on a radical new way to make money Right, if you do these things and make

these decisions and go garage selling 52 weeks a year You can be a millionaire

too And it's like you're going to different garage sales, dude.

I don't know what you're finding but that's not me.

I think the church often takes this on too. We want, especially our young people

to be radical followers of Jesus.

We want them to do things and go be about things that we would consider awesome and incredible.

And so we do things like taking them on mission trips to foreign countries.

We go to camps and we go to these places and all of these things are set up

to teach them. This is the kind of radical thing we want you to do.

And I think oftentimes the problem with that, especially in churches,

is we neglect the roots that are needed for them to do those things.

So let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. I can round up 15 kids,

and I can take them down to Mexico, or I can take them to somewhere across the

world, and I can show them what real poverty is.

And I can show them how people live on the other side of the world,

and how it's a good Christian thing for us to come over here,

and to feed them, and to clothe them and to give money to these organizations

that'll do the same thing.

I can show them that and I can even really get them riled up into doing something radical.

The problem is we've been doing that for a long time as churches,

for as long as I can remember, and probably before that.

And that doesn't necessarily equate to faithful Christians, right?

Not every kid that goes to camp, not every kid that goes to a foreign mission

field for a week or two turns into a faithful Christian.

Why is that, right? Because, man, if we're going to show them these things,

these radical causes, don't we want to give them something to live up to?

Well, again, we're neglecting the roots.

We're neglecting what it is that actually brings someone to do those things.

And so these trips and these moments tend to be short-lived and they tend to

have a flash in the pan effect where the kids will come back.

And I'm picking on kids right now. This is true for adults too.

But they'll come back and they'll be on fire for doing whatever it is they were called to do there.

They'll fundraise and they'll talk about it and they'll be about it.

I remember one year at camp, they were having compassion child, you may do one of these.

And all the kids wanted to do one. And of course, me and Kareth were talking

off to the side and we said, now, listen, if our kids sign up to do this,

we need to be okay with doing this for the next 18 years.

Because we know when we get home, these kids are not going to raise $85 a month

and do this. They won't. They will move on.

And sure enough, a month later, we're like, all right, guys,

it's time to raise the money. And they're like, about what?

They're like, remember at camp when this list, all of these lists of people,

remember you signed up to sponsor this girl? And they're like,

I don't remember that at all.

And I was like, yeah, it's probably because you'd slept two hours.

I mean, they had you do that.

But the point here is simple. We have to worry ourselves with the roots.

That is our concern as a church.

How you go and create fruit, whatever fruit you produce, whether that's a foreign

mission field or that's just being a great mom and a great dad,

a great husband, a great wife,

a great person at your job, truthful, honest, forthcoming, like all of those

things are all fruits of faith.

Faith, but the way to do those things is not to say, well, here's what the fruit

should look like. Now go and figure that out.

Many a frustrated person has been in church for a long time and they have been

told, this is what a husband looks like. This is what a wife looks like.

This is how your kids should act.

This is where you should go. This is what you should do. This is how you should

give. This is how you should look.

And they've been told over and over again, this is the fruit you should be producing,

but there's very little time spent on saying, here's how you grow the roots

to produce those fruits.

Because the truth is, that's a lot harder. It is so much harder to walk with

someone for a long period of time and to help them grow their roots deep down into Christ,

into his word, so that they will produce fruit than just to say,

just here's a four-week series on being a better husband.

Here's a three-week series on having a better marriage. Now go and figure it out.

And if you don't figure it out, don't tell us because we don't want to know, right?

We don't want anyone in here to be broken, have problems, right?

We just want you to be fixed and move on.

And this week, we're going to do something a little different.

We're going to cover a lot of ground, but I just want to say, this is all about faith.

This week is all about faith. And real simple, what is faith?

Well, you could have a huge discussion about that. I want to break it down into two main phrases.

Number one, faith is the belief that Jesus can save anybody,

that Jesus can save anybody and is willing to save anybody and,

and that he cares for whom he saves. Jesus is willing to save anybody,

is willing to save anybody, and cares for whom he saves.

So let me just read. I'm going to read quite a bit this morning,

and then we'll be able to go through all of it at the same time.

But I think these stories are capping off what Mark is trying to tell us about Jesus.

So if you remember last week, He healed the man with a demon.

Let's start in verse 18 of chapter 5.

I think it's like page 932 in the Blue Bibles. If you don't have one,

feel free to take one of those home. That'd be great.

But he heals this guy with demons. He casts them out into pigs.

The people from this town come, and this is their response.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had possessed with demons begged

him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him, but he said to him,

go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and

how he has had mercy on you.

And he went away and began to proclaim to the Decapolis, that's about 10 cities

there, how much Jesus had done for him. And everyone marveled.

Verse 21. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat, the other side,

a great crowd gathered about him and he was beside the sea.

Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name.

And seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly,

saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.

Come and lay hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And he went with him.

A great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who

had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians

and had spent all that she had, and she was no better, but rather she grew worse.

She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garments.

For she said, if I touch even his garments, I will be made well.

And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she

was healed of her disease.

And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him,

immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments?

And his disciples said to him, I love these kinds of verses because it just

reminds you that these are real humans.

He said, you see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, who touched me?

Remember, they were just terrified of this guy when he calmed the sea.

And now they're like, are you serious? Come on.

And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had

happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and

be healed of your disease.

While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, your daughter is dead.

Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said,

Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe.

He allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.

They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and Jesus saw a commotion,

people weeping and wailing loudly.

When he had entered, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and weeping?

The child is not dead, but only sleeping.

And they laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child's father

and mother and those who were with him and went in and went in where the child

was taking her by the hand.

He said, Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise.

And immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age.

They were immediately overcome with amazement. and he strictly charged them

that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat.

So again, I want this week to be a bit of an overview and just kind of a broad

picture of what Mark is trying to teach people.

Again, if you were reading this letter in the early church and you were reading

the gospel of Mark, there would be no chapters, there would be no verses.

You would understand these kind of in sections.

We said that chapters three and four dealt with Jesus' authority, right?

And now we're dealing with Jesus' power, his power.

And so he's healed a man with a demon. He gets in a boat, he takes off,

he hits the ground running.

This man named Jarius comes up to him and says, listen, my daughter's dying.

Says he's the leader of the synagogue. This wouldn't have been a Pharisee.

I don't even know that it's fair to call him like a pastor.

This would have been a layman who was in charge of how things ran.

How about that? He was an administrator.

Think of him as an administrator, but he had some status.

Comes up and says, listen, my daughter's dying, and I believe that if you come

and touch her, she'll be healed.

Then on the way, this woman who's been bleeding for 12 years comes up,

touches him, and she's healed, and they have a confrontation.

He goes and heals Jerry's daughter. There's a lot going on here.

There's a lot going on here.

As I've said, I felt like for the past month, though, the point of these stories

is not that we sit here and sift through all of the minor details,

which you can and which I think would be great.

The point of these stories is to put Jesus on display.

It's to put Jesus on display. Mark is trying to paint a clear picture of who Jesus is.

Why is Mark trying to do that? Well, he wants people to believe in Jesus.

He wants people to trust Jesus. He wants you and me to trust Jesus,

to realize that Jesus is who he says he is, that he did what he said he was

going to do, and that he will do what he says he is going to do.

So the first thing here, again, is that Jesus can save anybody. Jesus can save anybody.

So far in these chapters, he's calmed the storm with the disciples.

He's casted out a legion of demons.

He's healed an unclean woman, and he's brought to life a little girl.

Think about these four different people, anybody, right? His disciples, his inner circle.

And you may say, well, of course he's going to calm the storm for his disciples.

They're the inner circle. But then he goes and he meets this man possessed by

demons, and he heals this man.

Okay, so that's two categories of people. But what about this unclean woman?

That's another category of people. What about this little dead girl, right?

There's probably some people that think, well, you may be able to heal some

sick people, but now Jesus is gonna go, listen, I can save anybody.

I am capable of doing whatever I want to do.

Men and women, Gentiles and Jews, inside the circle, outside the circle,

of means like the ruler of the synagogue or poor like this woman, it doesn't matter.

Jesus can save anybody. And it seems that he likes to specialize in lost causes.

Now, I'm sure Jesus did, but we don't have any record of Jesus healing a common cold, right?

For whatever reason, we don't have somebody walking up to Jesus and go,

you know, Jesus, I woke up this morning, I just got the sniffles.

I just, you know, just a little runny nose. If you could just help me out here.

You know, like I woke up, my back's a little tight. You know,

you think you can help me out here, right? It seems that Jesus specializes in lost causes.

And I think one of the reasons that is, and one of the reasons Mark is going

to bring out as we continue in his

gospel is Mark wants everyone to see themselves as a lost cause, right?

He wants everyone that reads this gospel to realize you are a lost cause in

and of yourself, in your own sin.

There is nothing you could do. You are no better than the apostles or the disciples

at this time out in the middle of the ocean.

You're as good as dead, right? You're just like the man possessed by 2,000,

if you want to say it that way, demons, this legion of demons,

this man has in him that Jesus cast on the pigs.

Mark wants you to identify with that person.

He wants you to identify with these lost causes like this woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.

He wants you to go, I don't know her specific pain, but I know what it's like to be a lost cause.

And like this father, and ultimately this little girl. Mark wants us to look

at these and ultimately say, I'm like those people, and there is a Jesus that

can save those kinds of people, that he can save anybody.

So let's just look at a couple of these. Number one, the woman,

she's been constantly bleeding for 12 years, 365 days, nonstop, nonstop.

You can imagine you have a medical condition that you've gone to the doctors

when it first started, and you've tried to get some prescriptions and you've

tried to get them to help you.

And then you realize, well, this isn't working. So maybe you fly to a different

country that has some different treatments that you can't quite get here in

America. And you try that and that doesn't work.

So then you fly to a different country and you get some really kind of off the

wall drugs because man, you are just looking for relief. You'll do anything to get this fixed.

And after you do all of those things and go to all of those doctors and have

all of these surgeries and all these medicines pumped into you.

You've lost all your money. And in fact, your condition hasn't gotten any better.

It's gotten worse. It's gotten worse.

Even worse for this woman, because her disease is a bleeding disease, she's unclean.

According to Leviticus 15 and Leviticus 17, she is not allowed to be touched.

She is not allowed to go to the temple. She is not allowed to be married.

She is not allowed to do any of these things. This woman is not only in her

own life physically an outcast.

She is a religious outcast.

She is literally untouchable. There's a good chance that no one has on purpose

touched this woman for 12 years.

And if they have touched her accidentally, they were met with,

oh my gosh, that's so gross. Now I have to go through the cleansing process.

That's what she, that's what her life has been like.

Think about the people that you think of as untouchable, people you would want

to be caught dead near, the people that if you touch them, even touching them

makes you kind of go, ah, man, I feel gross because I was around you.

That's who this woman was.

And this isn't the law's fault, right? Leviticus 17, speaking about blood laws,

is not trying to make this woman a notcast.

What it's trying to do is draw people's brains to, hey, blood represents death.

When you start losing and blood, death is to follow.

And so that is an unclean thing.

But what is the point here? Jesus can save anybody.

Jesus can save anybody.

You see her faith on display.

She's done all of these things. She's been all of these places.

And you could say, well, she's just desperate. Yeah, she is desperate.

She is desperate. What's the problem with that?

She's desperate. And she looks to Jesus and she has enough faith to at least

say, you know, maybe he can heal me.

One of the things we're going to see in this is this is not about the amount.

And I think that's really important because what you'll hear a lot,

especially on TV and at certain types of churches is if you're not being healed,

if you're not seeing your deliverance, if you're not experiencing the Christian

life the way it should, well, you just don't have enough faith.

You don't have enough faith.

That's not how faith works. Jesus never says anything about the amount ever.

He never says to this woman, hey, you had just enough faith that I could heal you. Just enough.

The point is her faith has an object and that object is Jesus Christ.

And so she fights her way through this crowd. You can imagine as she's fighting

her way through the crowd, there's people looking at her that may know who she

is, kind of going like, I don't really want to get near this person.

And she touches Jesus and he feels power go out from him.

Feels power go out from him. He turns around, he says, hey, who did that?

And of course, again, I love his disciples' response, like, are you serious?

Are you serious? Is that a rhetorical question or just a dumb one?

Because there's no way for us, who touched you? Everyone touched you, man.

Everyone touched you. What an incredible picture of what faith is,

where everyone, you can come and touch Jesus.

Man, we live in East Texas. There's a million ways to come and get your hands on Jesus.

There's every kind of church. There's every kind of worship service.

There's every kind of Bible study. There's every kind of devotional.

There's kids ministries and college ministries and young adult ministries and

singles ministries and married ministries and old person ministries and middle

person ministries and every kind of blonde hair ministry, motorcycle ministry,

whatever you want, you can find one, right?

You can find one. There is, I kid you not, a board game Christian club.

They get together, they play board games. And I'm like, that sounds like fun.

I don't know. Why do I have to be Christian to be good at dominoes though?

Why can't it just be a domino club?

Sometimes I just want to play dominoes. I don't want you to preach at me.

But we have every available opportunity for people to have touch points with Jesus.

And what makes the difference when you touch Jesus is not that you touched him.

It's not that you were around him.

It's not that you saw something happen. It's that you have faith.

Faith is the determining factor. Where does faith come from?

Faith is a gift, right? This woman didn't muster up something in herself.

God has opened her eyes to the fact that Jesus can heal you.

Jesus can save anybody. That's part of what faith is.

And so she pushes her way through the crowd. Her faith, Jesus says clearly,

her faith heals her. Listen, why, again, is this important?

Theology in and of itself does not save anyone.

Listen, theology in and of itself does not save anyone.

And I think, especially in the streams that we tend to run in as a Reformed

church, we tend to think that if we can fix people's theology, they'll get saved.

Right? If I can just introduce them to my stream of theology and get them to

understand all these terms and who to read and who to listen to,

if I can just get them on board with those theological concepts, I can save them, right?

We'll get them saved if they'll get on board with those things, right?

We end up like chefs that can explain every ingredient, but we never really

teach people how to enjoy the food, right?

Man, come in the kitchen. Let let me tell you about this flour we use.

This flour, Luther wrote about it. Incredible flour, right?

The sugar we use, Calvin wrote about this sugar. Let me show you this sugar real quick.

Oh, this pizza crust we're using, it's John Knox's pizza crust,

right? Some of these names, you know, some of them you don't. That's fine. Okay.

Some of you are looking at me like, yeah, that sounds awesome.

John Knox's pizza crust. That should be a restaurant. And some of you are like, who's John Knox?

Full disclosure, you should know who John Knox is, but that's anything here

or over there. All right.

But that's what we end up doing is just showing people these different things.

And we tell them, man, let me

tell you about God's omnipotence and his omniscience and his omnipresence.

Let me tell you about the perpuscuity of God and how he is immutable and sovereign and impeccable.

Let me tell you about his aseity and his eminence. Let me tell you about these things.

And then they go, well, what do I do now? They go, just keep studying,

man. It's going to be great. You're going to be so smart.

And listen, I have no problem with any of those things. If you've been here

very long, you know, we encourage you to study.

We encourage you to read, right? I will give you book after book if you want it.

I will give you whatever resources you want to read and study.

But if we never teach people that the point of all of these things that we study

so that we can take the clearest picture of who Jesus Christ is so that we can

enjoy him, so that we can love him, so that we can see him for who he is,

we have missed the point.

We have missed the point because again, theology saves no one,

but Jesus can save anyone.

Jesus can save anyone at any time, in any situation.

Again, the point of studying all those things is so that when we go to Jesus,

when we think about Jesus, man, we understand him in such a way that he is that

much sweeter and we savor him in ways that other people can't.

We savor Him in ways that we never could before because we know Him.

We know that He can save anyone at any time in any situation.

That this woman, the core of who this woman is, I imagine she had very little

understanding of a lot of theological things.

If you would have sat down and given her a test, she may not have been able to pass it.

But what did she know? She said, I think that guy can save me.

I think that guy can save me. I think he can fix me.

And so it should be with us for our own selves. Do you think that about your own self?

Is there a sin that you have struggled with for years and years and years,

and you've just thrown your hands up and decide, you know, I'm just never going

to get over it. This is just who I am.

This is how I talk. This is how I live. This is just how my eyes work.

This is the attitude I'm going to have forever.

This is the anger problem, the depression, whatever it is. This is just who I'm going to be.

Do you think that way or do you think, man, Jesus can save anybody at any time. He can fix anything.

I'll never grow. I'll never be able to teach or to lead.

I'll never be able to do something big and radical for the Lord,

right? I'm just kind of a lowly person and this is just who I'm going to be

because that's my lot in life.

Listen, that is a faithless way of thinking about Jesus.

Jesus can save anybody. He can do anything.

What about the people that are around us, right? You know, they'll just never

get it. They'll never figure this out. They'll never grow.

I've been around them long enough. I just know them well enough.

That's just who they are. They'll never change.

A quick disclaimer here. I'm not telling you to go be taken advantage of by

people and to keep people in your life who are hurtful to you or your family

because Jesus can save them.

What I am saying is Jesus can save anybody and he doesn't need you.

You don't have to stay in a bad situation for Jesus to save them,

but you should always have hope that Jesus can save anybody. That's my point.

I say that because I've often heard people say, well, you just got to stay and

you just got to put up with it.

You just got to deal with it. that is completely unbiblical and we don't have time to go into that, but,

makes me upset. That's all I'm saying. Jesus can save anybody.

He can save you. He can grow with you. He can do anything in your life.

And again, I think in the theological streams that we run in,

we tend to be okay with things just being bad.

And we'll say, you know, that's, you know, God's sovereign.

And that's just how he works. And if he never heals, if he never does anything, he's the one in control.

And that, and all those are true, true things.

God is sovereign. He can do whatever he wants. And that's precisely why we should

be the most hopeful people in the world.

The people who believe in God's sovereignty over salvation should be the most

hopeful people in the world because we can look at anybody and go, God can save them.

God can save them. How do you know that? Because Jesus can save anybody at any

time, however he wants, whenever he wants. He can do that.

We should pray that way. We should think that way. And I think a lot of times

we don't because we want to guard ourselves against disappointment. But what if he doesn't?

What if I pray for that and he doesn't?

What if I pursue that? What if I go after that and I don't accomplish it?

I don't grow and I don't make it. Here's what I can promise you.

You may not receive what you want out of the situation, but if you do it in

faith and in prayer and in pursuit of Christ, what you will receive is something

far greater, which is himself.

Christ will give you himself.

When he tells Paul, as Paul is praying, God, would you remove this thorn from my flesh?

He doesn't say, Paul, sorry about your luck, dude. I'm sovereign.

Too bad. Too bad.

What does Paul say? He says he didn't remove it, but his power is made perfect

in my weakness. In other words, Paul's saying, he's here.

He's with me. He's walking with me. He's going through this with me.

Jesus can save anybody. Now, real quick, what does that look like?

What does it look like when someone trusts in the Lord? Well,

it says that Jesus looks around trying to figure out who touched him.

And what does it say that she does?

She tells him the whole truth.

In honor of Mother's Day, I'll tell you the thing that my mom hated the most, which was what?

Lying. Oh, she hated it. My problem as a kid was like, listen,

I could tell the truth and I will 100% get in trouble. I will 100% get in trouble.

And if I lie, there's a chance I might not get in trouble. Like I'll get in

more trouble if I get caught, but I won't get in any trouble if I don't.

And I have kids in some of that logic and I get that.

But the reason that we say, tell the whole truth, the reason I think Mark says

that is that is the mark of someone who has faith, who has faith in Christ.

They don't hold back things from Christ.

When I meet with people and I tell them, you know, what you're going through?

How's it going? or they have a specific issue you want to talk about,

it's often very obvious to me when they're hiding something from me, right?

When I say, hey, tell me what's really going on. You know, they'll say,

I'm just, we're having a rough time in our marriage. And I'll go,

okay, man, what, what is happening? What's going on?

They go, ah, you know, I just get upset sometimes.

And you're looking at them like, that's, come on, right? What are you doing?

Ah, we're just arguing a little bit.

No, tell me what's going on. Be honest with me.

Tell me the whole truth. That's what this woman does. When she's face to face

with Jesus, what does she do? She falls on her feet.

She's healed 12 years, untouched. And now she's healed. And what does she do?

She falls at Jesus' feet. She said, listen, I'm the one that touched you as

if she's expecting him to be angry because she's like, I just,

I used you and I'm sorry. I just really needed to be healed.

And what does Jesus say? to her.

He's not angry. He's not upset. He calls her daughter.

He doesn't say woman. He doesn't say, all right, well, listen,

you got your free healing. Now get out of here.

He says, daughter, daughter.

Remember, if she's from a Jewish family, she hasn't been able to be around her

parents for 12 years. She's unclean.

She can see them from a distance, but she cannot come in the house.

She can't be hugged by her mom or her dad.

She can't be hugged by anyone in the family. She can't be in the temple.

She can't receive the love that she so desires. And yet one touch from Jesus,

he doesn't even know really anything about her.

And he looks at her and he says, listen, you have faith.

My father, this is what Jesus is saying.

My father has given you the gift of faith. You've reached out,

you've been healed. And so you know what I can call you? Daughter.

Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed with your disease.

Go in peace and learn more about me. Go in peace and learn the theology.

Learn the theological terms. Learn the theological words. Read the Old Testament.

Learn who it is. But in this moment, all she knows is Jesus can save anybody.

And he saved me. He saved me.

Now, the whole time this is going on, we've got Jairus' daughter here.

This is how this whole thing started.

Jairus comes up to Jesus. He says, hey, my daughter's about to die. Will you come on?

And you got to think that the whole time Jesus is having this conversation with

this woman, Jairus is standing there like, hey, we got to go. We got to go.

She's been bleeding for 12 years, man. She's a lost cause, but my daughter is

still alive. We got a shot.

And all of this transpires when people show up and they say,

listen, she passed away.

There's nothing, don't trouble. This is the word, don't trouble the teacher anymore.

Man, is there anything more satanic than that statement?

Don't trouble the teacher anymore. Satan loves that statement.

He would love for you to think that way about your life.

I'm just not gonna trouble the Lord with this one.

Just can't trouble the Lord with this loneliness. I can't trouble the Lord with

this again, right? I've been praying for this for years.

He's tired of hearing about it. Satan loves nothing more than for you to think

that Christ cares nothing of what you're doing or what you're going through or what's happening.

And he cares nothing, cares nothing about you or your life.

But in this situation, I think the person that came and said this was just being honest.

They probably may have loved Jairus, just said, hey, man, listen,

there's no point in him coming anymore. She passed away.

What does that person not know? So Jesus can save anybody at any time with any condition.

So he says to him, do not fear, only believe.

What he's saying to every single Christian throughout history.

Do not fear, only believe.

Again, we said last week, these are great stories of deliverance,

but there's plenty of stories where people don't get delivered.

For every person that Jesus raises from the dead, there's thousands of people

dying around him that are not raised from the dead.

He doesn't raise every child from the dead.

He doesn't fix every problem. He doesn't heal every single disease.

Again, what's Mark's point? Mark's point is not come to Jesus so all your problems can get fixed.

His point is come to Jesus because he's the only one that can fix your problems.

He's the only one. He is the only one who you can say, and I'm going to say

it a 900 more times, just get used to it.

Jesus can save anybody at any time with any situation.

So they go to the house and there's mourners. At first reading,

you might think, well, that's great that people are sad. This isn't what's going on.

These mourners are hired mourners, right? The richer the family,

the more mourners you could bring in, right?

Even the poorest families, the rabbis would tell them, hey, you need to hire

two flute players. That's at least what you got to do. And we may think that's weird.

I mean, I think it kind of is, right? We don't hire bands for funerals,

but we do hire bands for weddings, right?

And so for them, it was this funeral is taking place and you got to put on a show, man.

You got to show how sad you are. And what better way to do that than to hire

people to come and mourn and wail? And how do you know that these are hired mourners?

Because when Jesus comes in and he says, hey, listen, she's just sleeping.

She's not dead. All these mourners who do this professionally,

all of a sudden the flip, the switch goes off and they go, this guy's an idiot.

This is the, this is the healer. This is the teacher that we've been hearing

about. This guy's an idiot. He doesn't even know when someone's dead.

They laugh at him. And what does Jesus do?

He puts them all outside. This is an incredible picture, a word picture of what

Jesus does for people that have faith and people that don't.

Now, again, I'm not telling you to go muster this up.

I'm saying God has opened these people's eyes to who Jesus is and listened to how Jesus treats them.

The same thing he said to the disciples. Remember, we were talking about him

telling these stories, these parables.

What does Jesus do? He speaks in parables to the crowd, and then he brings his

inner circle in, and he tells them everything.

He tells them about the parables. Why? Because they have faith.

Their eyes have been opened by God. He's drawing them in.

In the same way, these faithless people who are mocking Jesus, what does he do?

Get outside, man. You don't get to see this.

You don't get to see this. Get outside.

And he brings Jairus' mother.

He says, took her by the hand. He says, Talitha, kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise.

Again, what does he call her? Little girl.

He doesn't know who this girl is. He doesn't know anything about her, his family, nothing.

But he is so tender and loving.

Jesus can save anybody. This little girl, Jesus says was asleep.

Only Jesus is allowed to say that to dead people. You realize that?

When I've done a few funerals, I haven't had to do many by God's grace,

but the few funerals I've done, I'm not allowed to look at the casket and go,

hey man, they're just asleep.

Because to me, they're very much dead. Very much. To everyone in the room, they're very much dead.

But when God looks on death, he knows who's sleeping and who's actually dead.

He alone gets to look at someone and say, uh-uh, this isn't final. This is not the end.

This will not be the last time that she takes a breath because Jesus is saying,

listen, I can save anybody at any time. It doesn't matter their condition.

It doesn't matter. Is it the sea and the waves? Is that the issue?

Peace be still. That's all he has to say. And it's over.

You're possessed by demons, thousands of them.

All it takes is Jesus to say, hey, it's time to go, and everything is better immediately.

Have you been struggling with a medical condition for 12 years?

Just touch him in faith, and it's over. He doesn't even say anything.

Are you dead? Are you dead? Do you need life? Jesus can give you life.

This is the picture that Mark is painting over and over and over again.

And Jesus has authority in chapters two and three of four, and he has the power to save anybody.

But here's the part I don't want you to miss.

He is willing to save.

It's one thing to have the power to do something.

It's very different to be willing to do something. Very different.

Each and every one of us in the room has ability. We have power to a certain extent.

Maybe there's financial power that you have that someone else doesn't have.

Maybe there's an ability that you have that someone else doesn't have We were

talking this morning about Alessa and Aaron and their ability to do things that

I cannot do And we were gonna I was gonna give Aaron some lessons on the weekend if he needed them.

It was totally fine Teach him how to hold the guitar.

It'd be sweet We laugh at that because we know right You don't have that ability.

You can't do anything That's the point I may be willing to help Aaron with guitar,

but guess what I have no power to zero right when people talk about music theory

I would assume that's how people feel like when other people talk about Greek and Hebrew.

I have no power to do that. Even if I'm willing, I have no power.

The flip side is true. If I have power, if I have the ability to do something,

but I'm not willing to do it, then it doesn't matter if I have the power to.

Jesus is both. Jesus can save anybody at any time for any reason.

And he is willing to save anybody that the Father draws to him.

He never casts anyone out. This is exactly Jesus' words.

Anyone the Father draws to me, I will never cast out.

They're murderers, Jesus. Doesn't matter. The father draws, I say.

They've been bleeding for 12 years. He's got 2000 demons.

What do you mean? The wind and the waves are about to kill us.

Jesus, they're dead. And he goes, none of that matters to me.

Those are of no consequence.

Jesus, they've been running from you for 30 years. They've got a rap sheet,

the size of the Declaration of Independence, right?

They have murdered and killed. They have lusted. They have nine divorces.

They have gone out and done things that are unspeakable.

And Jesus goes, and so what?

Now, I'm not saying there's not consequences for those things.

I'm not saying there's not worldly things that have to be dealt with.

That's not at all what I'm saying.

If you murder someone, there's prisons for a reason. Okay.

What I am saying is Jesus can save anybody at any time for any reason.

And he is willing to save them.

And last thing, he cares for those whom he saves.

This is for all of us in the room that are Christians. I think that's probably

most of us would say we're Christians, if not all of us.

Have you forgotten that Jesus cares about you?

I think in a lot of ways, this can be a church's fault. If we make such a huge

deal about salvation, which is really none of our business.

Bible's pretty clear. Salvation is of the Lord. It belongs to him.

But we minimize discipleship.

Huge part of discipleship is just reminding each other every single day,

hey, Jesus cares about you.

God loves you. He actually does want to see you grow.

He's actually not upset with you for all of your failures. He loves you like

a good father loves a child.

He wants you to keep walking. And you're like, every time I walk,

I fall. It's like, yeah, that's what learning how to walk looks like.

But good fathers don't push their kids down and laugh at them. Okay.

And as you are trying to walk and as you're trying to get your legs under you,

as you're trying to figure out how to read and to write, as you're trying to

grow up into spiritual adulthood,

the father never looks at you and goes, how despicable, how gross.

Why can't they figure it out?

Why can't they ever get this right? Jesus never does that with his disciples.

Is he hard on them? Is he honest with them? Of course. You know what Jesus never

says to his true disciples? I'm done.

I'm done. I don't want anything to do with you.

Why? Because Jesus cares for those whom he saves. Look at just how he talks

to the people in these stories.

He heals this woman. Again, he calls her daughter, and then he says, go in peace.

She has been waiting to hear that for 12 years. Go in peace.

You're clean. You're healed.

I love the end of this story when he heals Jairus' daughter.

What does he say? hey, would you get her something to eat?

She's been dead for a while. She's probably going to be a little hungry.

What an incredible thing for Jesus to say.

There's this incredible miracle that takes place. Someone was dead and now they

are alive. And what is Jesus's concern?

Hey, she's going to be hungry. Could somebody get her some more?

She's going to need a snack.

That's the beauty of knowing Jesus Christ, is that he can have this incredible

moment where he heals someone of death, and yet he cares so deeply about them

that he's like, I need a snack.

And you need to know that as a Christian. You need to know, number one,

that Jesus can save anybody at any time for any reason.

Number two, that he is willing to save anyone that the Father draws to him,

that we don't get to decide how that works.

And number three, that he cares for those whom he saves, that he cares about you,

that he loves you, that he is not upset with his children when they fail,

that he knew when he adopted you into his family exactly how you would fail,

when you would fail, how much you would fail. And he said, I can save you.

He goes on to say, I'll save you to the uttermost.

In other words, this is a process and I'm with you the whole way.

We will spend eternity marveling at the fact, number one, that Jesus can save

anybody and we'll know that because he saved us.

That Jesus can do anything and we'll know that because he walked with us and

that Jesus cares for those he saves because he will do that for eternity with us.

We will be under his care forever, forever.

So do you believe that? Have you become so theologically minded that you've

forgotten to taste and see that the Lord is good? I am so guilty of that at times.

I go through these seasons in my life where I'm like, you know,

you start reading these big books and you get about halfway through one and

you start kind of thinking to yourself, you know, I'm probably smarter than most people.

Like I bet most people haven't gotten through half this book.

I bet I know a lot of words that a bunch of 36, seven year olds,

I don't know how old they am, 37 year olds.

I bet I know a lot of theological terms that they don't know.

How about I can have conversations about things that they can't figure out?

Inevitably, in those times, what ends up happening to me is I just forget.

The whole point of this is so that you can, like David, taste and see that the

Lord is good, that his steadfast love endures forever,

that he is patient and kind with those he loves, that his kindness brings us

to repentance, that Jesus can save anybody.

Do you believe that about yourself? Do you believe that about the people around

you, that he can do that at any time?

And lastly, that he cares for whom he saves. He cares for you.

Cast your burdens upon Jesus for he cares for you.

Again, this is not a promise. The gospel of Mark does not give us these stories

so that we would walk away from them and go, if I have enough faith, Jesus will heal me.

If I have enough faith, my kids will work out. If I have enough faith,

I'll get the raise. If I have enough faith, I'll have money.

That's not why he's writing this.

Because we'll find out soon in the next couple of weeks that the one who Jesus

called the greatest among men gets his head cut off for having faith, right?

Again, the point is not that everything works out. The point is you worship

a Jesus that can save anybody at any time for any reason.

And he cares for those for whom he saved. Let's pray.

Well, thank you for your word. Thank you for the gospel of Mark.

Thank you that it so clearly gives a picture of who Jesus is,

of what he is capable of doing.

Whether it's the wind and the waves, whether it's demons, whether it's a disease,

or whether it's death itself, you can save anybody. You can save anybody.

Not capable of changing people's lives in the way that we think we are.

God, when we think about being radical Christians, I pray that our mind doesn't

simply go to overseas missions or exuberant giving or incredible service.

I pray that radical Christian to us simply means faithfulness to who you are

and to what you've done, that that looks so different for everyone.

Certainly some people are called to go overseas and be missionaries,

but so many are called to do exactly what you tell the man possessed by demons to do.

No, you stay here and you proclaim the goodness of what Christ has done.

Many times faithfulness looks like what you tell the woman who was bleeding for 12 years.

No, listen, you go in peace and you tell people what God has done for you.

The Jairus' father and mother will forever have the testimony of Jesus Christ

can save anybody. Let me tell you about how I know that. Let me tell you about how I know that.

God, would you not let us forget if we've been Christians for five months,

five years, or 50 years that you care for us, that you care for us.

That you want to see us grow.

It's not just that you can salvifically save everyone, God, but you can do anything in anyone's life.

You can help us grow. You can help us defeat sin. You can help us get over bitterness and anger.

You can help us grow into the leaders that we would desire to be.

You can help us grow into the husbands and fathers that we have been called

to be, the mothers and wives that we've been called to be.

God, that you can raise our kids up to love you, that you can save anybody at

any time for any reason, that you are willing to do that, and that you care for us.

God, I pray that's the truth, that we bury deep down in our hearts,

that we would savor you and love you in such a way that people would ask us

why we love you so much. We would be ready to give a response to that.