Transcription
Mark 5:21: "When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him 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.'"
Let's pray. Lord, we come to you this morning. We just want to say you're worthy, God. If you never do another thing in our lives, Lord, you're worthy, you're holy, and we worship you. We come together today, and we ask that you would speak to us. We're gathered here in many rooms, in many homes, expecting to hear from you. We want a touch from you today, God. Would you protect us from any distractions now as we focus our minds and our hearts and our attention on you? We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Does anyone remember a time when you wanted something really badly and someone else got it? I remember the Christmas I was 12, and my neighbor Tricia got the thing I wanted most in the world. She got her own telephone line in her bedroom, complete with an answering machine. Now, I know half of you here today don't know even what that would look like, but I can remember exactly what it looked like. It's hard to watch someone else get the thing you want.
I wish I could say that was the last time I felt like someone got what I wanted. One time, Steven and I were trying to sell our house during a buyer's market. It was 2009. Pretty much no one's houses were selling, so I was really nervous about it. I just prayed constantly. "God, would you sell our house?" But what I did was I was praying mature, unselfish prayers, like, "God, you know exactly who needs this house. Would you send them this way in your perfect timing this weekend?"
Well, months went by. We didn't have an offer or a bite or anything. One morning, I was at my women's Bible study, and one of the ladies, a friend of mine, had a prayer request. She said, "Y'all, we're putting our house on the market this weekend, and we're going out of town. I have it all staged perfectly. So, would y'all just pray that it sells this weekend?"
I thought to myself, "Well, good luck with that. In my opinion, God doesn't hear prayers about houses. I've tried that one."
So, we come back to group the following week. Guess who had a praise report? Her house sold in one weekend. I went home, and I had some words to say with God. I was like, "Lord, I am a pastor's wife. Now, I do know her house is in a better location than mine, but don't I get bonus points for being in the ministry? And for that matter, I have been waiting longer than her. God, do you even care about the people who need our house?"
It's hard to watch someone else get the very thing you have been asking God for. That's what I want to talk to you about today. The title of my message is Waiting On My Miracle. I want to talk to you about when you are believing God for something in your life, and it seems like God isn't hearing your prayer or that maybe he has even pressed "pause" on your situation.
In our Scripture, we have this father named Jairus. He has a lot bigger problem than his house selling. His little daughter is dying. He is a father in desperation, and he's running out of time.
It's funny what a dad will do for his kids. I always found that Steven was way more sympathetic to our kids than I was. Like, whenever they would have some kind of injury…they'd bump their head, or whatever, and they'd come to me…I would always downplay it. I'd be like, "You're fine. Go play. It's all right." Very quickly, my children learned who to go to for sympathy: their father, because he made up this thing. Every time they would come to him, he would say, "Oh, you hit your head? Did you know I went to head school? Oh, you hurt your finger? Let me see. Did you know I went to finger school?" This man went to paper cut school, stubbed toe school, skinned knee school. They really believed him too. I used to think, "God help this man if his kids ever really get hurt."
Dads have this tough exterior, but when their child is hurting, they want to alleviate their pain.
So, in our story we have Jairus. He's a synagogue leader. He's a man of means, yet his daughter is dying. We can assume he has tried every doctor, that he has tried every concoction every neighbor has suggested. Nothing is working, and he is running out of time, so he comes and finds Jesus. He falls at his feet, and he begs. He says, "Please come put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live."
Do you know what Jesus says to him? He says, "Let's go."
It's interesting to me how specific Jairus was with his request. He says, "Please come put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." As I was preparing this message, I was thinking it's not necessarily a bad thing to be specific with God. Philippians 4 tells us we can present our requests to God. He wants you to pray about everything, even the dumb stuff, like the houses and the little things. He wants you to come to him. He wants to have a relationship with you, but I think sometimes, at least in my life… I don't know about yours, but in my life, I let the list, my expectation of the how I want God to work in my situation and the when I think he needs to work in my situation… I let that become front and center, and I miss out on the more important part, which is that Jesus is with me. Jesus went with Jairus.
God is not this magic fairy in the sky who waves his wand and grants our wishes, but do you know what he is? A very present help in times of trouble. If we pray, believing that God is working all things for our good, we have to realize he is doing so much more than just sitting up in heaven deciding if and when he's going to grant our requests. Yes, he is healer, but do you know what else he is? He's the Prince of Peace. He's the Comforter. He's our guide. He's faithful, and he's so much more. He is a God who is with us in our very darkest hour.
Verse 24: "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 the 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 gone out from him. He turned around in the 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?"' 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.'"
There are so many things happening in this part of the story. If you have never heard Steven's message on this woman, the one where he tells us that this is the only person in the entire Bible whom Jesus called "Daughter," I just have to say, put that on your to-do list for this week. Go and find that sermon and listen to it. It is like a shot of encouragement straight to your heart. I promise you. You have to go find it and listen to it. I'm not going to really talk about the woman, because I'm not going to be able to even remotely touch that the way he did. I'm going to let you go listen to that, and we're going to focus on Jairus. Where is he in this moment, and what is he thinking?
Go with me here. This man is desperate. He has found Jesus. He has gotten the attention of the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus is going with him to heal his dying daughter, and she doesn't have much time left. All of a sudden, Jesus stops to heal someone else.
Isn't it funny how there's no line to wait on God? God doesn't use a "take a number" system. This can be really frustrating, because often it feels like God is answering some people's prayers immediately, but mine are going unheard.
Here we have Jairus, and he's making progress. He's taking the healer to his daughter, and then Jesus stops. For 10 verses, Jairus isn't even mentioned. Where did he go? What is he doing while he's waiting for his miracle? The Bible doesn't say.
Now, I can tell you what I would have done. I would have had some words to say with God. I would have said, "Excuse me, Jesus. Please. We don't have time. My daughter is dying. You said you would put your hands on her and heal her and she would live." Even though that's what Jairus said; that's not what Jesus said, but sometimes we mix things up. I would say, "Please, Jesus, we've got to keep moving. You can come back to this woman. This isn't fair."
"It's not fair." In my house, there are a couple of phrases my children are not allowed to say. They're forbidden phrases. Off the top of my head there are two. I'm sure there are more. The first one is "I hate you." You're not allowed to say that. The second one is "That's not fair." First of all, you're not allowed to say, "That's not fair" because life isn't fair, and the sooner you find that out the better. Second of all, I am trying my absolute hardest to do my best for everyone here, so don't tell me it's not fair.
When we come to God with our "It's not fair," we have to remember he is our heavenly Father, and he is perfect. He's not doing his best. He knows what is best for us. If he doesn't answer my prayer when I want him to in the time that I think he should, I have to trust that he is a good Father, and he is with me, and he will not fail me.
Let me show you where Jairus was. Sometimes when you read the Bible you have to look at the clues and draw some conclusions. So, let me show you some of the clues. Look back at verse 24. It says, "So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him." Now skip to verse 30. "At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the 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?"'"
Imagine this situation. This is a legit crowd. Okay? This is like Disney World on the Fourth of July. In some translations, it actually describes the crowd as crushing. Have you ever been in a crushing crowd? It's scary. For my birthday, which was just a couple of days ago, Steven took me to see Sir Paul McCartney. It was an amazing night. 1972, you know. We just like it. It was amazing. The only problem was we weren't the only people who wanted to hear Paul sing. When I tell you the crowd was crushing… We were shuffling to our seats, and people were everywhere. It was like the "Hold your purse" kind of crowded. I turned around to say something to Steven, and there was another man. I panicked for a second. I had to look around and push through and reach back and grab his hand, because the only way to get through a crowd like that is to stay close.
So, picture Jairus moving through this pressing, crushing crowd with Jesus. When you are waiting on a miracle, you have two choices. You can stay close or you can be carried away. The interesting thing here is Jairus wasn't following Jesus. Mark tells us Jesus went with Jairus. When you're desperate, the number-one tool the Enemy is going to use in your life is he's going to try to get you away from Jesus. Jesus is still with you. The easy thing for Jairus to do would be to drift away from the crowd, to go home. Maybe he could get a few last moments to tell his daughter he loves her before she passes. But something in him fought to stay close. People were pressing to touch Jesus, and Jairus had to fight with everything that was in his power to help his daughter. That meant his only hope was to stay close to the one he had faith in, the one he believed could heal his daughter.
How do you stay close to Jesus when your mind becomes so crowded with fear and anxiety? I know. I know what it's like some days to just feel like the farthest thing from your mind is Jesus. Obviously, there are practical things we can do. I know I'm biased, but I believe we sit under a once-in-a-generation preacher every single week, and the things God speaks through this man… I promise you. If you lean in every single week, it will encourage your faith faster than anything else. So, I know the things I need to prioritize every week in my life. I know what I need to be playing in my car and in my home, and I know I need to be journaling and fighting to keep my mind focused on Jesus. We know what we need to do, but do we do it? You have to push through the crowd. You have to fight through the crowd to stay close to Jesus.
You also have to make a conscious effort to build your faith on other people's answered prayers. Jairus had another choice when Jesus stopped to heal that woman. The first choice was he could stay close or he could drift away. The second choice was he could get angry and jealous and turn away. He could say, "Jesus, you're going to heal her?" "God, you're going to do that for them? God, I've been praying for a baby. You gave her one? She doesn't even take good care of her dog."
The other option he had was to tell himself, "Well, if he can do it for her, then he can do it for me."
Steven and I were talking the other day about a situation we went through a couple of years ago. It was a really hard season, particularly for me. Without going into detail, because it involves other people, you should just know that I was praying, and I was pleading with God, and I was frustrated that our situation wasn't improving. I just have to tell you I wasn't handling it that well. I actually used my very own forbidden phrase. I told God, "This isn't fair." I would have days where I would feel so frustrated, because I felt like other people were living in the things I was praying for. I know you've been there before. You just wonder, "God, are you even listening to me?"
When I look back on that season, the thing I remember the most is I can remember the feeling of the presence of God. It's what got me through. In those times of me staying close and crying out to him and expressing my frustration, I felt his presence. If you've ever experienced what it feels like to cling to God during a season like that… It's almost impossible to describe except to say… I was trying to think. It's like putting on an oxygen mask when you can't breathe.
The situation lasted for about a year. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I realize that even though God didn't answer my prayers the way I thought he would, he did a work in me, and he did a work in my family that was better than I could have ever imagined or even asked for. Sometimes the things God uses the most in our lives to draw us closer to him are the things we wouldn't choose.
What I said to Steven was, "Looking back, if I had known it would be that short…" A year is not short, but the places my mind had gone, I just have to tell you… I didn't know how long this was going to last. But if I had known it was going to be that short, I wouldn't have been so anxious and afraid.
Sometimes I just wonder. Why doesn't God just give us a timeline? Like, when I'm on my Peloton bike, the only thing that keeps me on that bike is knowing exactly what time, down to the second, that I have left to be on this bike. I literally will tell myself, "I have 12 minutes left. I can do anything for 12 minutes. If I were on my phone, 12 minutes would fly by. I can do 12 more minutes." But God doesn't tell us how long it's going to last, and he doesn't give us any indication if the end is in sight. That's why you have to just stay close.
I love DoorDash. Does anybody love DoorDash? Wouldn't it be nice if God was like DoorDash? Anytime I'm too busy to cook dinner, I just go on this life-changing app, and I decide what my family is going to eat. I can pick anything from McDonald's to Morton's, depending on how I'm feeling. The best part is you get to track your food. Does anyone else do this? I obsessively check it after I've placed my order. You say, "Oh, they're preparing my order. My DoorDasher has picked it up, and he's headed my way." Guys, the best part is the little map. You can see the little car. "Oh, they just turned into my neighborhood. I'm so hungry."
Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a heaven app? You could just go on and select the things you need. "Let's see. I need a new job. While I'm doing this, I might add on that my child behaves in school today." Then how amazing would it be if you could see "Your order is being prepared and will arrive in approximately 37 minutes."
Are there any single women here today? Every campus. Raise your hand online. Let yourself be known. Don't be shy. This is a good place to find a Christian guy. Wouldn't it be amazing if you were asking God for a man, and you could track his progress? If you could see that God has heard your prayer, and he is preparing your man. He lives in Columbus, but he just got a job transfer, and he's coming to Charlotte next month. "He's going to attend the Uptown Campus, so I'd better switch my volunteer role over there." Wouldn't it be nice? That's not how God works. He doesn't give us a time frame.
Imagine Jairus standing there, not knowing how long Jesus was going to be stopped. What if he stops again? This is a crowd of people. They're pressing in. They want to get to Jesus. Every second counted for his daughter.
Look at what happens in verse 34. "He [Jesus] said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.' While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. 'Your daughter is dead,' they said. 'Why bother the teacher anymore?' Overhearing what they said…" That's how close he was to Jesus. "…Jesus told him, 'Don't be afraid; just believe.'"
Now, we know the end to this story, but pretend that you don't. Why didn't Jesus say, "Don't worry; I'm going to heal your daughter too"? He was doing a work in Jairus' heart. God doesn't give us a timeline because he's doing something so much bigger. Jesus wasn't messing with him when he stopped to speak to the woman he had just healed. He wasn't being passive-aggressive. He was doing something bigger. There were a lot of people watching. He had Peter, James, and John. He was teaching them. He was showing them.
If God gave us everything we asked for, we would become spoiled brats who only went to him when we needed something from him that we couldn't do on our own. God is so much more concerned about our hearts than he is about our situation. One word from Jesus and the little girl could have been healed. He didn't have to go to Jairus' house. In Luke 7, there was a centurion whose servant was dying, and he wanted Jesus to heal his servant because this servant meant a lot to him, but he didn't feel worthy of Jesus to come into his home. So, the man comes to Jesus, and he says, "Lord, just say the word, and I know my servant will be healed." Jesus, the Bible says, was amazed at the man's faith, and he healed the servant right there on the spot. God can do anything, but he's doing something bigger in your life. He's working something in your heart. He says to you, "Don't be afraid. Just believe. Just hang on. Just stay close. Don't give up. Don't walk away."
How do we do that? How do we not be afraid? This is a scary situation. When you don't know if your marriage is going to make it, it's scary. When you don't know if your teenager is going to make the right choices, it's scary. When you get diagnosed with cancer and you don't know if you're going to live or die, that's scary. When we're faced with these situations, we can either focus on our fear or we can focus on the one who is with us. Fear will cause you to flee. We can get all caught up in all of the things that could happen if God doesn't come through or we could choose to stay close and fix our focus on the God we believe in, the God we serve. Don't be afraid. Just believe. You have to look up. When your mind gets crowded, you have to look up. The psalmist says in Psalm 121, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." I have placed my faith in a God who is so big he created the heavens and the earth. He goes before me, he comes behind me, and he is with me in the middle of the greatest moment of my fear. Don't walk away now. Don't lose hope now. You have to stay close.
Watch what Jesus does. Verse 36: "Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, 'Don't be afraid; just believe.' He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James." I don't have time to tell you what he was trying to show Peter, James, and John. You'll have to go find a sermon from Pastor Steven on that. It's in the book of Acts.
"When they came to the home of the synagogue leader [Jairus], Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.' But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was."
When you are waiting on God for a miracle, you have to stay close, you have to look up, and you have to watch out, because who you allow in your life will make or break your faith. Even Jesus knew this situation was not for everyone. I want you to hear me say this today. You do need people in your life. You're not meant to go through this life alone, but they have to be the right people. Here's a little pro tip. The people you allow into your darkest moments need to be people of faith, of course, but they also need to be someone who has been here before. What's the number one rule of sobriety? Go to meetings and find a sponsor who has been in your place. So, if you get diagnosed with cancer, you need to find someone of faith who has also been through chemo. If you're dealing with an infidelity in your marriage, find a couple that has struggled with that as well and come out on the other side, not a couple that seemingly has the perfect marriage. Those people are great, but they may not be for this situation. If you have a child who struggles in school, find someone who is also walking that path, who can pray with you and believe with you and empathize with you. "I know it's hard. You can do it. Stay close. Watch out." Well-meaning people who have not been through your situation can hinder your faith. Not everything in your life is for Facebook. Amen? Look. Your pastor's wife is giving you permission. You are not under any obligation to let the world know what you're going through, but you do need to find a few people who can empathize with you and encourage you through your situation. I know it's hard to show up to your eGroup, because you don't want everybody asking you how you're doing, but sometimes that's part of staying close: pushing in and leaning in to the people God has placed in your life who love you, who are praying for you, who have been there before, and who want to help you and want to walk this road with you.
Let's read the rest of the story. "After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, 'Talitha koum!' (which means 'Little girl, I say to you, get up!'). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat."
Jairus didn't get what he originally asked Jesus for, did he? What he asked for was healing. What he got was resurrection. (I stole that from my husband. It's too powerful not to say.) One of the greatest things I'm learning about prayer is that I have to hold my list…the things I want God to do, how I want him to do it, when I want him to do it… I hold my list with a light grip, because sometimes God is going to ask me to let go of my list but hold firm to my faith. It may not happen the way I thought it would, but my faith is not in the list. My faith is in my God who I believe is working all things for my good. My faith is in the God who knows the number of hairs on my head. My faith is in my perfect Father who knows me better than I know myself. All I have to do is stay close to him no matter how dark it gets and remember that he is with me.
You know there is no darkness you can experience that Jesus has not already felt. Hebrews 4 tells us… Look at this. I love this passage of Scripture. "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
Jesus experienced every grief and every temptation. He is the true friend, the true empathizer. Our heavenly Father actually went to all of the schools. He went to betrayal school. He went to "raise a child with special needs" school. He went to loneliness school. You can come to him. I'm telling you now, you can come to him with confidence. While we wait for him to give us an answer, we find so much more. We find grace, and we find mercy in our time of need. It's in the waiting that we get to know him better. We find out he's not just a God who heals, but he is a God who is with us in our pain and in our confusion and in our frustration and in our disappointment, and he stands by. He never left. He's with you. He stands by, ready with the grace you need for each moment.
When I think of the darkest seasons in my life, the seasons of life when you wake up in the morning and, for a brief second, forget everything you're going through… Have you ever been there? Then, all of a sudden, the pain and the realization of what's going on and the fear sets in. In those moments… What I remember most from those seasons is the tangible presence of God. If I didn't stay close to him, I wouldn't have gotten out of bed. If I didn't stay close to him, I wouldn't have made it through the day. No, I wouldn't have chosen those situations and those seasons, but I'm here to tell you today, if you stay close, you'll come out stronger on the other side.
So, if you would stand with me, I want to close by speaking over you one of my favorite passages of Scripture. It's a passage I memorized when I was in high school. It's one of those passages God brings back to my mind over and over again throughout my life. I want to speak the words of the prophet Isaiah over you today. Isaiah 40 says, "Have you not seen? Have you not heard? The Lord your God, everlasting Father, Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no man can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." (Don't read along with me, because I might be quoting it a little bit different.) "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint." That's you today. So, all over this room, let's lift our hands, and let's receive strength from the Lord today.
God, I asked today before I got up here that you would just whisper to someone's heart that you're here, that you're with us. You never left. All we have to do is stay close, turn around, look up. Right now in this moment, Lord, we receive your grace. We thank you for your mercy, not giving us the things we deserve, for your patience. Every time I've ever said, "It's not fair," thank you, God, for just staying there with me. Would you strengthen us, Lord, as we press in close to you? Let us not grow weary. Let us not lose hope. We cling to the promise that you are doing so much more than we could ever ask or imagine. Even in the places we can't see, God, we believe now that you are working. We love you. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
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