When God Interrupts Your Plans (Mark 5) | Pastor Viny Costa

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you for joining us.

To learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at Celebration ORL or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.

Good morning, Celebration Church.

Good morning, you watching online.

My name is Vini.

It is a privilege to share the word of God with you this morning.

As many of you know, Pastor Keith, Pastor Megan, and nine more people from our church are in Zimbabwe right now, preaching the gospel, spreading hope, and they are facing a couple of challenges.

So I would love to encourage you throughout this week, pray for them.

Amen.

Pray for the team.

We believe God will is doing and will do incredible things over there, and they will get back here safe safely, and they will share with us everything God has done.

But as a church, we need to pray for them.

Amen?

Alright, welcome to week five of our rhythms series.

Over the last several weeks, we have been talking about rhythms that shape our lives.

We talked about daily and weekly rhythms, and we call it the first part of the series the inhale part, because before we can give anything away, we need to receive from God first.

Then last week we moved into the second act of the series, the exhale part, and we talked about serving and about building a rhythm into our lives where we do not simply become consumers of the goodness of God, but we demonstrate the love of God to others.

As we engage the Bible this morning, I pray that the Bible engages us as well.

And I pray that the Word of God would challenge us.

And uh, I'm ready to receive everything that God has for us.

Are you?

Yes.

So I'm gonna invite you to open your Bible in Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

We're going to read a couple of verses here and we're going to start on a 21.

Mark chapter 5, 21.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Bible says, when Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while while he was by the lake.

Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.

He pleaded earnestly with him, My little daughter is dying.

Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.

So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

And a woman was there, who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.

She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in a crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.

Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

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

He turned around in a crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes?

You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask, Who touched me?

Passive aggressive.

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.

Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you.

Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.

If you're taking notes this morning, I have titled this message On the Way.

On the Way.

God, thank you so much for your presence here in this place.

Thank you for the privilege we have to be here in your house this morning.

Thank you for friends and family here.

Thank you because we have freedom to worship you.

Thank you because we know you are here and we are ready to receive from you.

So, God, be our teacher, be our master, be the one that will plant in our hearts eternal seeds, be the one that will encourage us and exhort us.

We are ready to receive from you.

So please be with us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I wake up when I absolutely have to wake up.

I leave the house when I absolutely have to leave.

Sometimes I take Serena to school and I go to work.

I answer emails, I have meetings, I leave work, I stop at Publix, I pick somebody up, and then Serena has gymnastics, jujitsu, homework, dinner needs to happen, there is a text I forgot to answer.

There is a bill I need to pay.

There is something at the house that needs my attention.

There is another email from work that somehow became urgent at 7:43 p.m.

I also want to exercise, I want to read the book, I want to watch the show that everybody's talking about, I want to spend time with my wife.

Then I finally sit down and say, I just need five minutes on my phone.

45 minutes later, I'm watching a video of a guy in Ohio pressure washing a driveway.

I don't know the guy, I don't live in Ohio, I don't care about the driveway, but somehow that's my life.

Then I go to bed and it starts all over again.

Then comes Pastor Keith and says, Vinnie, can you preach a message about margin?

And I say, No.

What are you talking about?

Ask somebody else.

No, I can't.

I I don't have authority to talk about this.

I have built my life with almost no margin.

I think most of us would agree that more margin sounds wonderful.

Margin is the space between what's required and what's available.

If you open a book, the margin is the empty space around the words.

If if every inch of that paper were covered with words, it would be probably impossible to read.

Margin is important.

Financially, margin is the space between what you make and what you spend.

Emotionally, margin is the space between what you're carrying and what you are capable of carrying.

In your schedule, margin is the space between what you have planned and the actual capacity of your day.

If I ask for all of us here, would you like to have more time, more margin?

We would say a hundred percent.

We all do.

Listen, I am not saying that the responsibilities we have are bad.

Work is good, family is great, taking care of your house is necessary, being responsible is good, planning is amazing, calendars are good.

The problem is not that we have things to do, the problem is when our lives become so full that there is absolutely no room for anything we did not plan.

Are you guys here with me?

So if I have no margin, I may love God, genuinely want to be used by God, genuinely want to be used by the Holy Spirit, and still have no room in my life to respond when He does something I was not expecting.

And then we say, God, use me.

Jesus, I'm here.

God give me opportunity to love more the people around me.

But sometimes what we really mean is, God, use me according to the calendar I already created.

Now, before we go any further, I want to make something very clear here.

This message is not about becoming less busy.

I am not here to preach about I think you need to be less busy.

I'm going to preach about something else.

I'm not going to stand here and tell you that the solution for your spiritual life is to cancel everything on your calendar, work fewer hours, stop taking your kids to practice, and somehow find three empty hours every afternoon to sit quietly and listen to worship music.

That's impossible.

What I want to talk about today is what happens on the way.

What happens while you're going to work?

What happens while you're thinking you're taking your kids to school?

What happens between one meeting and the next?

What happens when your day is already planned, your destination is already decided, and something you did not expect happens along the way.

If we are honest with each other, we usually don't like interruptions.

Interruption, by definition, is something that happens when I was trying to do something else.

I had a plan, I had somewhere to be, I knew what I was doing next, and then something interrupted me.

Now listen, not every interruption comes from God.

Sometimes an interruption is just an interruption.

Sometimes an interruption is just a distraction.

Sometimes it is something you need to say no to, but sometimes the interruption is exactly where God wants to meet you.

Sometimes the interruption is the person God wants you to notice or the conversation God wants you to have.

Sometimes the interruption is an opportunity to demonstrate the love of God that you never could have put on your calendar.

So I wonder this morning: the question is not simply, do I have enough margin in my schedule?

Maybe the better question is, is there enough margin in my life for God to interrupt my plans?

Because listen, I can have a busy life and still have an available heart.

I can know where I'm going and still pay attention to what God is doing on the way.

This is exactly what's happening here in Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Jesus has somewhere to be, he has a destination, there is plans, there is urgency, there is a little girl who is dying, and a father who is who is desperately, who is desperate, he needs Jesus to get to his house as soon as possible.

Jairus was one of the synagogue leaders.

Jairus had position, he had responsibilities, he was respected in his community, but today none of none of this matters.

Jairus is not approaching Jesus as a leader, he's approaching Jesus as a dead, his 12-year-old daughter is dying.

Jairus cannot fix this.

Put yourself in Gairus's shoes for a moment.

I found Jesus.

He's coming with me.

There is hope.

All we need to do is take Jesus from here to there as soon as possible.

Come on, Jesus.

There is no time for a cup of coffee, there is no time to stop at any drive-thru.

There is no time for conversation, there is no time to meet new people.

Jesus is on the way, and then he gets interrupted.

On the way, he gets interrupted.

There is a crowd around Jesus.

And somewhere inside the crowd, there is another person whose life is falling apart.

Mark doesn't give us her name.

We just know her by her problem.

She has been bleeding for 12 years.

For 12 years, Jairus has watched her his daughter grow up.

For the same 12 years, this woman has watched her health deteriorate.

For 12 years, one house has celebrated birthdays, first words, first steps, memories, growth, life.

For 12 years, his this woman has been dealing with pain, disappointment, isolation, unanswered questions.

So now we have gyrus trying to get Jesus through the crowd as quickly as possible, and we have an unnamed woman trying to get through the same crowd just to touch him.

One needs Jesus to keep moving, the other needs Jesus to stop.

One is saying, Jesus, please hurry.

The other is saying, Jesus, please notice me.

Jesus is right in the middle.

On the way.

Now, if I am gyrus, I would be like, Great news, this is awesome.

Praise God.

Amazing.

We'll celebrate later.

Jesus, we need to go.

Can we go?

We come back here later.

I'll throw a party.

It's fine.

We'll celebrate later.

But we need we need we need to go.

Now think about this.

Technically, Jesus doesn't need to stop.

The miracle has already happened.

The woman touched him.

She received her the her healing.

Jesus could have kept walking towards Jairus' house, but he doesn't.

Jesus stops.

He refuses to allow the urgency of where he's going to make him unavailable to what's happening right now.

I think this is where we need to change the way we think about margin.

When we hear the word margin, we usually think about having more free time.

We think about an empty space on the calendar.

We think maybe if I have fewer meetings, maybe I need another day off, maybe I need a slower week.

And those things, they're all good.

Maybe the majority of us we need that.

But Jesus show us something deeper here.

Jesus is not free right now.

He's not sitting around waiting for something to do.

Jesus has a full schedule and still has an available heart.

That is the kind of margin that some of us need the most.

Are you guys here with me?

I'm not talking about margin in our calendars, I'm talking about margin in our souls.

Because you can have an empty afternoon and still be completely unavailable.

You can have a busy day and still live sensitive to what God is doing around you.

Margin is not about having more space.

Margin is not about having more time.

Margin is all about availability.

Jesus knew where he was going, but he remained available on the way.

Church, there is a difference between having a plan and being controlled by a plan.

There is a difference between having somewhere to be and becoming so consumed with getting there that everything and everyone between here and there becomes an inconvenience.

When you leave at capacity long enough, you can begin to lose your ability to notice what's happening around you.

The disciples see a crowd, Jesus sees a woman.

Jesus sees a daughter.

Listen, availability is different from having free time.

Jesus did not have free time in this story.

There is a crowd around him.

Jairus is waiting for him.

A 12-year-old girl is dying.

There is urgency everywhere.

Jesus is not free, but Jesus is available.

Do you know what we think?

Well, maybe not me.

Maybe it's just me.

This is what I think.

When things slow down, then I'll have time for people.

When this season is over, then I'll be more present with my family.

When work gets a little easier, then I will spend more time with God.

When the kids get older, when this project is finished, when we get through this month, when life becomes a little less crazy, then I'll be available.

But what if life doesn't slow down?

What if there is always another season, another project, another deadline, another problem to solve, another place to be.

If availability depends on eventually having nothing to do, we may spend our entire lives waiting to become available.

Jesus, show us another way.

He's not waiting for life to become quiet before he becomes present.

He's present in the middle of the crowd, he's available in the middle of urgency, and I believe that this is the kind of margin God wants to build inside of us.

Not life with nothing to do, but life with enough space in our soul to be available.

The other day I was playing with Serena.

And I was playing and checking my phone.

Playing and checking my phone.

Every two minutes checking my phone.

And then gently, at some point, that's a that's what she did.

I was checking, she did.

And she said, Dad, be with me.

That's embarrassing.

Having more hours in my day don't don't fix that problem.

It's not about margin, it's about availability.

I don't just want space on my calendar.

I want to be available to my daughter.

I want to be available to my wife.

I want to be available to my God.

I want to be available to my friends and my church.

I don't want to spend my entire life getting somewhere and miss the people God placed around me along the way.

In Luke chapter 10, a man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Along the way, he is attacked by robbers.

They take what he has, beat him, and leave him on the side of the road.

A priest comes down, an apostle, a pastor, comes down the same road, he sees the man, he passes by.

Then a Levite, a worship leader, a gospel artist comes down the road, he sees the man, he passes by.

Then a Samaritan comes, he sees the man.

Same road, same need, but a completely different response.

Because the Samaritan stops.

Saw him.

The difference was not visibility.

The Samaritan allowed what he saw on the way to change what he was going to do next?

Can I ask you two questions?

What are you making yourself available to?

What are you making yourself available to?

My second question is which interruptions have you given permission to interrupt you?

Because we need to talk about this.

Some interruptions come from God, some don't.

Some interruptions come from God, some don't.

I want to make sure we understand this because when we talk about living available to God, I'm not saying that you need to say yes to everything and everyone.

Not every request deserves a yes.

Not every problem is your problem to solve.

Not every door is a door God God is asking you to walk through.

And not every interruption is from God.

Do we agree with that?

Also, if we agree with that, we also need to agree that some interruptions do come from God.

Twenty years ago, I was in Cochabamba, Bolivia, 11:30 p.m.

I was tired.

It was a busy day.

I am walking towards my hotel room for a good night, a needed night, for me to rest and sleep.

11:30, just walking through this outdoors plaza full of benches, praying for not to be killed.

I look around, I see this couple, I want to say passionately arguing, screaming at each other, fighting.

I'm walking around trying my best to ignore all of that, and I feel the Holy Spirit saying, go have a conversation with them.

And I'm locked, and I'm like, you're kidding, right?

You go.

I need to go to my room.

I'm tired.

I need to go have a conversation.

So I approached them and I said, I said, hi.

Because what else am I supposed to say here, right?

I said hi, and then she said, hi, I said, are you guys fighting?

She was she was she sorry, guys.

I God told me to go there, but never told me what to say.

So I was improvising a little bit.

Are you guys fighting?

She said, It's obvious, isn't it?

And then I said, Are you guys married?

The guy told me, our wedding, our wedding day is tomorrow, but I don't know if we're going to get married after this.

And then I told her, Would you guys mind if I stay here with you?

And she said, Absolutely, no, you're not staying here.

And then I said, Well, I insist.

And then I sat down.

Of course, part, it's easy for me to tell you guys the story 20 years after that happened, but in a moment I was freaking out.

And then for the next two hours, I shared a gospel with them.

And I told them about the Bible, and I told them about Jesus.

And I present the gospel, and she asked him to forgive her.

And he asked her to forgive him.

And they asked for my phone number, and the next day they text me a picture of them getting married, super happy.

I was very, very, very, very interested in going to my hotel room.

But God interrupted my plans.

Some interruptions come from God, some don't.

We have given almost unlimited access to our attention.

We have given people, apps, companies, algorithms, work, news, and social media permission to interrupt us at any moment.

But then God puts somebody in front of us and we say, I don't have time for that.

The Holy Spirit puts someone in our hearts and we say, I'll text them later.

Someone needs prayer, but we have somewhere to be.

Sometimes we accept the interruptions that distract us from God much more easily than we accept than the interruptions that may actually be from God.

So margin requires more than space.

Margin requires discernment.

Divine interruptions do not always announce themselves.

Divine interruptions rarely, rarely send a calendar invitation.

Sometimes God's invitations arrive disguised as interruptions.

It may just look like a conversation.

I have a question for you.

Don't you think that we should ask the Holy Spirit more often, hey, are you doing something here right now?

Shouldn't we treat interruptions as a God invitation an invitation from God instead of only being inconveniences?

Have you asked the Holy Spirit, hey, is this a moment that you need me to talk with that couple finally?

Or call my grandma?

Or call my pastor?

Or text a friend.

Or give two dollars to a homeless.

Remember, rhythms we inhale and then we exhale.

We spend time with God and then we leave for others.

We pray, we read the word, we worship, we sabbath, we gather.

But the goal of all of these rhythms is not simply for me to become a healthier, calmer, more organized version of myself.

I spend time with Jesus so naturally I become more like Jesus.

And when you look at Jesus, you see someone who was available to people.

Let's go back to Mark chapter 5 for one moment.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

By the time Jesus stops, the woman has already been healed.

Mark says that she falls at his feet and he tells him the whole truth.

I don't know how long it took her to tell him the whole truth.

If it's me with my broken English, that would take me two two two weeks.

Chill, bro.

I have the whole truth to share with Jesus.

But Jesus, listen.

There is still a dying girl waiting for him.

Jairus is still standing there.

There is still urgency, but for that moment, Jesus gives this woman his attention.

While Jesus is still speaking to this woman, some people arrive from Jairus's house with the news.

He was terrified to hear.

Your daughter is dead.

Why bother bother bother the teacher anymore?

Your daughter is dead.

Imagine gyrus in that moment.

Jesus, we were on the way.

Jesus, you were c you were coming to my house.

If we had just kept moving.

From this woman, Jesus' stopping was a miracle.

For gyrus, Jesus' stopping must have felt like a delay he could not afford.

Jesus looks at Jairus and says, Don't be afraid.

Just believe.

And Jesus continues to his house, takes that 12-year-old girl by the hand, and tells her, Get up.

And she gets up.

Praise God.

The interruption did not cancel the purpose of God.

Jesus made room for the woman without forgetting gyrus.

I believe that one of the reasons God wants us to build healthy rhythms is because He wants us to have enough spiritual and emotional capacity to love the people He puts around us.

And I don't know if you notice or not, love requires attention.

Love requires time.

You cannot love people deeply if people are always interruptions to your plans.

The woman needed Jesus to see her.

And love made room for both.

Praise God.

Some of the most important things God will ever do through you may not happen at your destination.

They may happen on the way.

And maybe part of the learning to live with margin is learning to see our lives through the lenses of eternity.

When our eyes are only focused on right now, everything feels important.

Every task feels urgent.

Every deadline feels like it cannot wait.

But when we remember that this life is temporary, we begin to see things differently.

Things that felt so important begin to lose some of their weight.

And the things that carry eternal value become evident.

Sometimes we don't need more hours in our day.

And let me let me say this again.

I don't believe we need more hours in our day.

I believe we need an eternal perspective that helps us re reorganize and recognize what's actually worth our time.

Vinny, what are you trying to preach?

What I'm trying to preach is that when Pastor Keith told me, Vinny, can you preach about margin?

The very first thing I thought is, ooh, he asked me he's asking me to preach about reorganizing my schedule so I can have more time.

Then I when I spend time with God, I realize that the margin that God is asking is that I recognize that on the way I need to be available.

It's not about canceling meetings, it's about being aware of what God is doing on the way.

Margin is not asking for more hours in my day.

Margin is saying yes to the interruptions God is putting in front of me and saying no to the distractions sometimes I easily say yes to.

Next time you say, I wish I could have 30 hours in my day.

What about keep the 24 you have, but make yourself available on the way?

What about saying no to distractions, a and yes to interruptions?

Because I'm sure somebody right now is doing this with you.

Stop and be with me.

Can you close your eyes so we can pray together?

Thank you for your presence, Jesus.

Thank you for your word.

Jesus, give us wisdom.

Give us wisdom and make us available in the way.

As we drive around, as we go from one meeting to the other, as we do everything we need to do, make ourselves available.

God, we want to say yes to your interruptions.

We want to discern when an interruption comes from you, and we want to engage.

Help us to discern and identify.

God, help us to love people as you did.

On your time, God, you loved Jairus and you loved the woman.

Help us do the same, Jesus.

Help us see this life through an eternal lenses.

Help us prioritize what really matters to you.

Mark chapter 5 is so precious, God.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

We don't want to read it, we don't want to understand it.

We wanted to put it into practice right now.

So make us available, make us aware of your interruptions, and make us love what's important for you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

Follow us on social media using the handle at celebrationorl or visit our website, celebrationorl.org.