Stepping Out In Faith Series

July 19, 2009

Morning Worship

Text: Mark 5:21-43

Subject; Part 6 in the Seven Steps to Receiving God’s Miracle

Title: Stepping Out in Faith – The Story of Two Miracles

OK, Here are the facts. We have been going step by step toward receiving a miracle in your life. Everyone needs a miracle. If you are sitting in the pew and somehow have convinced yourself that you don’t need anything from God right now I ask you to search your heart a little deeper and find that need that you never considered before. The first four steps that we have discussed all concern a work of God and your response to that work.

1. Consecrate Yourself – God‘s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ and your acceptance of that work.

2. Stand in the River – Jesus’ promise to baptize believers in the Holy Spirit and your willingness to ask for and receive power.

3. Follow God’s presence. Seek God’s will for your life and then follow the instructions He gives you.

4. Trust God’s word. God has given us His word and it is up to us to believe that this holy book is exactly what it says it is – the Holy Spirit inspired word of God.

Now we move into a little different area. We move from what God has done in order for us to receive to what we must do in order to receive that miracle we are looking for. And it requires faith on our part. We are told that we must step out in faith in order to receive the things that make no sense to us. But we have spent the last five weeks explaining that God intends for you to have more than what you are currently experiencing with Him. He wants you to have a miracle.

Before we go any further I want you to understand what a miracle is. Many people will look at a newborn baby and say that it is a miracle. Well, as callous as it might seem babies are not miracles. Babies are something that God has ordained to happen according to the natural laws that He has set in place. Real miracles are things that happen outside the natural laws that God has established. For instance – God has set the law of gravity into operation. If you stepped off the edge of a roof the natural law of gravity wood go into effect and adverse consequences would follow. However, if you stepped off the edge of a roof and nothing happened – you just floated in mid-air – that would be a miracle. Those are the types of events that God has planned for your life. He wants you to receive what you need so that the only possible explanation would be that God worked a miracle.

I want to look at a comparison of two different people who encountered a miracle from Jesus.

Read Mark 5:21-43

Lord, open my eyes to see and my ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.

I. RECOGNIZING YOUR NEED. I want you to see, first of all, that Jesus’ popularity had increased greatly over the course of His ministry. 21When 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. As we begin the story we see Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers, coming to Jesus with a request. Jairus was not a priest, but a layman who would be in charge of the order of the service in the synagogue. He would have been someone who was held in high esteem by others. He worshiped the One true God. But in his limited understanding of the nature of God, an understanding that would have been tainted by the additions to the scriptures and the traditions of the Pharisees and others, he really didn’t have a grasp on what God wanted to do for him. 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet… It is interesting that this Jew, a ruler of the synagogue, would be coming to the one that the Jewish leaders had already rejected because of his anti-religion activities. But he had a need and he turned to Jesus to have that need met. Next, I want you to look at the story that is inserted in the middle of the story of Jairus. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She 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. Here is a woman who had suffered at the hands of doctors for twelve years. We don’t have any idea what might have caused her problem. All we know is that the doctors drained her finances and put her through painful treatments and it didn’t help. She just got worse. I suppose that she was just ready for it all to come to a merciful end. The Jewish law would, because of her impurity, have her husband divorce her, her friends disown her, her synagogue excommunicate her, and society ostracize her all because of her uncleanness, something that was out of hr control. Then something in her life changed. 27When she heard about Jesus… We don’t know what she heard, but I do know this, faith comes by hearing. My guess would be that she heard about this itinerant preacher going around the countryside casting out demons, confronting the religious leaders, and healing people. Up to this point Jesus had never been an option for her. She had tried in her own efforts to take care of the problem. What is it that keeps people from recognizing their needs? Is it because society has always pushed us toward the idea of individualism? Stand up for yourself. Be a man! Take the bull by the horns. Asking for help is a sign of weakness. A poll sheds light on a paradox of increased religiosity and decreased morality, according to sociologist Robert Bellah. His conclusion: 81 percent of the American people say an individual should arrive at his or her own religious belief independent of any church or synagogue." Thus the key to the paradox is that those who claim to be Christians are arriving at faith on their own terms -- terms that make no demands on behavior. A woman named Sheila, interviewed for Bellah’s Habits of the Heart, embodies this attitude: "I believe in God," she said. "I can’t remember the last time I went to church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It’s ’Sheila-ism.’ Just my own little voice." Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 98 I’ll do it my way. Proverbs 14:12, There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. At what point do we come to our senses and understand that God is waiting for you to ask Him for help. 2 Peter 5:7 says it very plainly, 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.