Thank you, Pastor David. Well, friends, we're continuing our series in the Book of Mark. We're continuing our series in the Book of Mark. And if you've been with us through a chunk of this series, we've mentioned that the Book of Mark. And if you want to turn to where we're going to be headed, we're headed to Mark, Chapter three or. Sorry, sorry. Hold on. I'm going to get you. Mark, Mark, Chapter five. Somebody knew. Come on. There we go. That's reading the bulletin. Mark, chapter five. We're going to be in verse 21. Mark, chapter five, verse 21. And I mentioned kind of through as we talked about this, that the Book of Mark is likely stories that Peter told Mark. So the story goes something like this, that Mark was probably a disciple of the apostle Peter. And Jesus kind of went along with Peter throughout his ministry. Sorry, Peter went along with Jesus throughout his ministry. And then Peter would tell these stories to Mark of his time with Jesus, and Mark compiled them into what we call the Gospel of Mark. And you really feel that in today's story, because it kind of has that lived in feeling and more detail. This story actually appears in all three of what we call the Synoptic Gospels, which is Matthew, Mark and Luke. Which means that sometimes when you're reading the Book of Mark, his precise order is editorial, like, he chose that order under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And we can draw something from that. In this case, these two stories that we're going to read kind of appear together in all the places where they appear. So we can assume that kind of they happened together. And so that's kind of the things we have to know as we get into it. But we'll start in verse 21, and there's a lot to cover. Just kind of hang in. It is a bit of a long story, but Mark 5, verse 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 he will be healed and live. And so Jesus went with him. We don't get a response. We just get Jesus went with him. Now, this Jairus character that we've just met, the text tells us that he is a synagogue ruler, but what exactly is that? A synagogue ruler is somebody who we might hear that we might think oh, this was a religious person, or this was a. Actually, this was kind of more of a. I mean, he was very likely religious, very likely, very, very pious, but he was more of an administrat. He kind of looked after the synagogue building, Right. He kind of supervised worship as people would come and go. He was something like what we would call a trustee in a church. And it might be odd that this person finds himself at the feet of Jesus. After all, the Book of Mark up to this point has talked about how Jesus has been at odds with exactly this type of person. Back in Mark, chapter three, verse six, it says, then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. So the men that Jairus had been around would have not liked Jesus at all. They would have been completely at odds with him. Right. Like, kind of the power structures that Jairus lived in would have seen Jesus as the enemy. But when we look at the. When we look at the situation that Jairus finds himself in, he's been completely cut off at the knees. He says, my little daughter is dying. Later on in the text, we'll find out that she's 12 years old. And so he finds himself in this situation where everything that could matter about him no longer matters. Right? Like, it's something that I find kind of odd about. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, suddenly this thing that is new to us, this thing that is terrible to us, becomes the main thing that's true about us. Right. You know, it's like you can be going along and you could say, well, what do you do? You know, I have this job, or I have these hobbies, or I have this interest. But when you get a medical diagnosis, that's it. That's. That's your whole story for a chunk of time until you're kind of through it, right? Like, you. You can kind of try to live life around it, but it becomes the center point of how you are living. And that's the story of Jairus in this text. And he's heard enough about Jesus that he thinks, well, if anyone can do something, it might be this guy. It might be this person named Jesus. Because I've heard that he's healing sick people. I've heard that he's casting out demons. I've heard that he's doing things. And Jairus throws himself at the feet of Jesus. And Jairus is a man whose pride could have easily kept him away from Jesus. Right? He could have said, well, you know, it's not Worth the social risk. It's not worth. You know, I'm not even sure he'll be able to do it. So, you know, I'm not going to go to this Jesus guy because it might cost me something. And then at the end of the day, he might not even be able to do it. But Jairus is in a position of such desperation that he overcomes all of that and throws himself at the feet of Jesus and says, jesus, can you help? So that's the story of Jairus. And as they're going along, right, Jesus, it just says, Jesus goes with him. And the large. The next text, the next verse, verse 24, a large crowd followed and pressed around him. A woman was there. So we're meeting kind of a new character as we're on our way to Jairus House. A woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and 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 can just touch his clothes, I will be healed. And immediately her bleeding stopped. And she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. See, this woman, in some ways is even easier to imagine for us, right? She had suffered for 12 years. She was hopeless and helpless, and she decides to push her way through the crowd. And again, we have the benefit of the end of the story where we hear that it worked. But can you imagine the position of desperation she finds herself in, that she's just going through her life and it's not like the visit of Jesus was scheduled, right? It's not like when the Pope came to America a couple of years ago. Not comparing the Pope and Jesus, but you know what I'm saying? She would have heard about it. And in the same day, she would have said, you know, oh, Jesus, Jesus is here. Jesus is in town. And again, I've heard about the types of stuff that he does. I've heard about the people that he's helped. But he sees this crowd pressing around him. And she says, you know what? I've tried everything else. Maybe this will work. And she presses through and gets to him, and she gets to him. And the text tells us that it worked, that she was healed, that the issue stopped in 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? And the disciples I love just how again, feels very lived in you see the people crowding against you. His disciples answered, and yet you asked, 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. She's going to him and she's saying, well, let me tell you the whole truth of what happened, that I came up to you, I touched you. She didn't know if she had done something wrong, right? You know, she sees, I touched him, I was healed. Oh, my goodness, this is wonderful. And then the guy who just healed you, the guy who you believe the power came from, turns around and goes, who did that? Right? It had to be a moment of fear for her where she goes, oh, no, is he going to take it back? Is he going to. Am I going to lose this thing that I got? I finally found something that works. Is he going to take it away now that I've found it? So we can imagine the fear of the woman as she chooses to tell the whole truth to Jesus. To say, this is what's been going on with me. I've been suffering for 12 years. I've tried everything. I've gone to every possible doctor. I've spent everything that I have. I'm desperate for a solution. And she tells Jesus that, and she says, you know, I saw the crowd pressing around you. I've heard what you've done in other places. I've heard about who you are. And I thought that if I could just press through the crowd and if I could just touch your robe, I would be healed. And so I did, and I was. And now I know that the issue is made better. So we can imagine her fear as she says this. We can also imagine Jairus in the background, right? Because he went through. He kind of laid down his pride. He goes to Jesus. And as they're going along the way, Jesus stops, right? This had to feel. This has to feel like when you're in a rush and like somebody just, like, stops you for one reason or another, you know what I mean? Obviously with more desperation because he's concerned for the health of his child. But doesn't it seem. And it probably says more about me than it does about the. Of situations, but it seems like the cars in front of you always know when you're in a rush. And maybe it's like one of those situations where you just, like, notice, right? But nobody's ever driven slower in front of you than, like, when you need to go to the bathroom, you Know what I mean? It's just like. It's just like, all right, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, Go. You're shouting paragraphs of the driver's ed manual to them again. I'm from New Jersey, so this is how we operate, right? And then if you, you know, and then if you go to church, they always turn into the church in front of you for some reason, and you're like, oh, okay, they go to my church, you know? No, but, you know, we can imagine, like. And that's just silly situations, right? Imagine Jairus. He goes to this man named Jesus. He lays down his pride. He says, maybe he can help me. I'm gonna risk everything. I'm gonna risk all my social standing. I'm do all that just to get this man to help my daughter. And remember, when he goes to where he said, she's very sick, and. And you need to come. And then as Jesus is going along, you're going, okay, we're going to make it. You know, it should only be this many minutes more until we get to my house. Then you hear Jesus go, who touched me? And you know, the disciple, it says, the disciples said, how could you possibly imagine Jairus being like, what do you mean, who touched you? What do we do? What are we doing here? You know what I mean? Who cares who touched you? I'm about to touch you. I'm about to grab you by the hand and get you out of here. And you can imagine Jairus observing this conversation just kind of bouncing between his feet. And yet we get Jesus response to the woman. Jesus looks at her and says, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. And that phrase he uses, go in peace and be freed from your suffering. This is what a priest would have said in the synagogue when someone was presenting themselves to be declared kind of ceremoniously clean, right? When you were suffering with certain types of illness, you would go to the synagogue of the temple, and you would present yourself before the priests, and they would say, go in peace and be freed from your suffering. And so Jairus, as he's kind of struggling with, you know what? This guy's stepping out of bounds, but I'm going to go to him because I need him. He's seeing Jesus do the very thing that they would have taken issue with, right? He's seeing him kind of take on the role and. And the position of a priest. And he is saying. And he's watching her do that. And he turns and he says, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. So we have Jairus on the outskirts, and he's kind of struggling with what he's looking at. He's struggling because he's frustrated with Jesus. And I'm sure the temptation was constant to be like, man, we just need. We need to get going. We need to get going. And I'm sure Jairus was constantly fighting both his anxiety about his daughter and his pride about the situation. And then we can't miss because, again, these stories kind of interestingly are, you know, a sandwich that kind of interact with each other. Another interesting thing. And I read this in a commentary this week, and I was like, that can't be right. And so I looked it up. It's right. And this is. Jesus turns to this woman, and he says, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. That's the only place in all of the gospels where Jesus calls someone daughter. He turns to this woman, and again, he's been asked to heal Jairus daughter. And he turns to this woman, and he says, daughter, this woman who was full of anxiety, full of fear, full of concern, full of, you know, did I do the right thing? And then when I finally touched him, I finally felt better. He turns around, and maybe he's upset. He says, no, no, no, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. He looks at this woman who is down to her last hope. This woman who I'm sure this had become her whole identity, this struggle that for 12 years, she had looked for answers and she had not received them. He looks at her and he says, you are my daughter. Your faith has healed you. I need you to know that your faith has healed you. Not some superstition about grabbing my robe. Your belief that I could do it has healed you. Go in faith. Go and be freed from your suffering. And then the text goes on. 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? He can do sick. We don't know if he can do dead. And so, you know, just leave him alone. But Jesus overhears it. Overhearing what they said, Jesus told them, don't be afraid. Just believe. Jesus hears that Jairus daughter is dead. He knows maybe what he's going through emotionally and mentally. He knows he can feel the. The anxiety and the tension, right? And the literal translation of what he says in Greek is, stop fearing Keep believing. Stop fearing. Keep believing. Which is. It would be hard for me to hear, right? I mean, I can imagine myself as kind of a dad in that situation. I'd be like, what do you mean, stop? Well, yeah, I'm not afraid anymore because we were in a rush, because I was hoping maybe she wouldn't die. And now I've heard that she died. So, hate to say I'm right, but I was right. You know, I can imagine the feeling that the Father was. That this dad was going through as he's trying to rush Jesus along. And he's just been stopped by this woman who is, you know, who is just this sickly woman. And he says. And he says, your daughter's died. Don't bother to teach her anymore. And Jesus says, no, no, no. Stop fearing. Keep believing. Stop fearing. Keep believing. See, Jairus is still in tension here. And Jesus says, you just need to trust me. And as he's going, he's saying, man, the worst thing has already happened. So I guess, you know, since I've stepped thus far in, right? And Jesus says, keep believing. And so verse 37, he did not let anyone follow him. This is Jesus, except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. So what's happened here is he has this big crowd around him, this big crowd pressing him. He moves on to Jairus household. And in the text, it says that he kind of said, okay, only these. I don't know, it's five or six. These five or six people, right? So these three disciples, Jairus, and, you know, whoever was with Jairus, were all going to go, right? And so he kind of leaves the crowd behind. But then when they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. He went into them. 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. So we don't know exactly why Jesus cuts off the crowd, but we do know that he shows up. And in this time, it was common to. To use professional mourners when somebody in your house would die. And that might sound weird, but the idea behind it was kind of that you would hire these people who would come and they would loudly mourn and wail. And the idea was it kind of gave you. Kind of gave you air cover to mourn appropriately, right? Like, the idea was that kind of the commotion of them crying kind of made you, as the person who felt the loss, more comfortable venting your grief, right? Because. Because if you're not. You know, it's like anything else, right? If you. If you're not kind of the most ostentatious person in a room, you're generally more comfortable being free, right? Like the bravest person is kind of the first person who dances at a wedding, right? Because otherwise it's like, it's just kind of empty dance floor, right? It's a similar idea, right? You pay these professional mourners who allowed those in grief to. To fully express their grief. And Jesus shows up and he says, friends, she's not actually dead. And the people laugh because of course she is. Of course she's dead. What do you mean, Jesus? That's why we're here. And then the next verse, after he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and he went in there where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, talithia koum, which means little girl, I say to you, get up. Immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. All this to say at this. They were completely astonished. And he gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat. And so the girl is risen from the dead by Jesus. And Jesus tells everyone to be quiet about it and to give her something to eat. The reason he tells people to be quiet about it was just the realities of his ministry. Obviously, mourners showed up, people saw this girl walking around. There was no possibility this wasn't going to get out in some sense. But Jesus knew that if it kind of gets around, hey, there's a guy around who's raising dead people that, you know, things are going to get pretty, pretty spicy for him, right? Things are going to get difficult because suddenly he's kind of a threat to the power structures that be or what have you. So that's why Jesus says to keep quiet about it. And then he says, hey, in all this commotion, don't forget to give her something to eat. So like I said, this is a long story. And we kind of get the sandwich of Jairus meets Jesus, the woman, what we call the woman with the issue of blood. And then ultimately Jairus daughter is healed. So what do we do with it? I think first of all, we look at the characters. First of all, we have Jairus. Jairus comes to Jesus and says, I'm desperate. If you can do it, please do it. And I think Jairus temptation is that Jairus had to get out of his own way. His temptation is walking away while he waits on Jesus timing. His temptation is walking away while he waits on Jesus timing. And if I can be honest, I struggle with probably a lot of the same emotions that Jarius probably struggled with. A feeling of man, God, are you going to get around to doing this? Are you going to get around to answering my prayers? Are you going to get around to addressing the things that I care about? And if you've been through a difficult time in your life where you're praying and where you don't feel heard and you don't feel known and you don't feel cared about and you feel very alone, then you could probably see, you could probably easily imagine a lot of Jairus struggles, that he lays down his pride to go to Jesus, right? And he kind of lays himself at Jesus feet, and he says, my daughter is dying. Will you please do something? And as they're going along, Jesus is just getting, you know, kind of held up, and it's taking forever. And then he hears that it didn't go the way that he hoped, that his daughter died. And again, he doesn't know the end of the story in any of this. So we can imagine that he's struggling. We can imagine that he's saying, man, is this going to work out? And if you're. I mean, I think if you're a normal person, you've been through this in your faith at some point, right? Where you have, you know, an illness that you're battling with and you keep going to doctor's appointments, and every time you hear about, you know, some Christian friend or something who says, you know, we prayed and it just worked out. We prayed and we just got the right doctor's appointment. We prayed and, you know, we just got the right test done, you're kind of going, man, it would be cool if that happened over here, you know? And it's like, God, I don't know that that one is what I want to happen, right? Oh, we prayed and they looked and there was no cancer. That'd be neat, right? And I know this might be uncomfortable, but I hope that I'm kind of giving some vent to what's been in our hearts and minds. Sometimes as we follow Jesus, there are times in the midst of our faith where giving up our faith would be easier than continuing to wrestle with, does God see me? Does God care about me? Does God know me? Are my prayers even being answ, or am I leaving a voicemail that's never being checked? Right? And we've Been there in our faith. And we see the journey of Jairus, where kind of we're going, man, I just want to get to the end of this. I just want to get to the part where Jesus moves. I just want to get to the part of my story that I'll get to tell people in a video where I share my testimony or, you know, I just want to get to that part. Why does it have to take so long when it feels like, you know, I think this guy can do it. I think he can. But there doesn't seem to be any urgency. And you can imagine that throughout this story, Jairus is struggling and struggling and struggling. And Jesus looks at him and he says, stop fearing, keep believing. Stop fearing. Keep. Keep believing that in the waiting. Keep believing in the challenges. Keep believing in the difficulties. Keep believing, Keep choosing faith. Keep choosing belief that Jesus is for you and that he is making everything new. Secondly, we have the woman. The woman is saying nothing else has worked. So maybe this. She just had to keep going. I said that Jairus problem was walking away while he waits on Jesus timing. I think her problem is that she probably felt like giving up so many times before she finally ran to Jesus, right? Like, she probably just wanted to call it quits before she finally ran to Jesus. And maybe that's where we find ourselves, right? Like, when we're going through kind of challenging times and we're outside of faith, right? It can feel like, man, I've done everything I can, and nothing seems to be working out. The question that we find in the story of the woman is, have you gone to Jesus yet? Have you bought your story to Jesus? Have you bought your needs and your wants and your pains to Jesus? And have you really. Right. This is a question whether, if you're not a Christian, this is a fairly easy kind of thing to think about if you're not a Christian, yeah. Have you bought your life to Jesus? If you're living outside of faith right now, which only you know, if you are living outside of faith right now, it's probably not working, right? Like, you probably don't have hope and peace and purpose and joy that are found in Jesus. And my question for you is, what stops you from going to Jesus? What stops you from saying, you know what, Jesus, I'll do it your way instead of my way. I'll live the way you would have me live, not the way that I want to live. I'm no longer going to live in rebellion to you. I'm going to give my life to you. But as Christians, we do this too, right? Because we could show up at church, we could pray, we could read our Bible, but there's a small part of our life that we kind of leave in a little closet that we leave in a little corner, and we say, you know what? I'm going to handle that part myself. I'm going to handle that part myself. I don't want to bring that to Jesus. My relationship with my kids, I'm going to leave that over here. I'm not going to surrender that to Jesus. I'm just going to manage that myself. You know, how I deal with this little thing. I'm just going to leave that over here. I'm not going to surrender that with Jesus. The hope and joy of your life is found in surrendering every part of every part of yourself to Jesus. And this is a process that all of us are in, because there are always going to be parts of you that are still, you know, until you see Jesus face to face, there are always going to be parts of you that are still not fully under submission to Jesus. And we live in a process of saying, oh, yes, this too. Yes, this too. This other thing, this other thing, this other thing. And so we have kind of this. We have this story where we have this man who needs to step over his own pride and challenges and wait on Jesus timing. And this woman who has to push through her desperation and this woman who has to push through her desperation needed to hear, you are my daughter. I care about you. Or if you're like this woman and you're a man, you are my son, and I care about you. And the thing is, these miracles are not the end of the story. And we need to hear this. I think if we're maybe on the outside looking in and we feel like God hasn't come through for us, right? We need to. We need to hear that. We need to hear that. These miracles weren't the end of the story for these people either, Right? They create new possibilities for each of these people that call for new faith, Right? Both Jairus and the woman took risk in approaching Jesus. And after both of their miracles, each of them faced a new set of challenges, Right? Like, and I say that because for two people, one, if you're still kind of on the outside looking in, it's easy to feel, I think, kind of a jealousy, if you will, of, like, man, Jesus came through for them. Why won't he come through for me? And, you know, and I think it's helpful for us to remember that it is not the end of the story, that we all have our own version of our struggles. But the other thing that I hear people doing is. And it's kind of an invariable thing of visiting people in the hospital or talking with them after somebody has passed. They always say, well, I know I can't complain because I have it better than some others. Or, I know I can't complain because I know God's been good to me. And that frustrates me sometimes because I want to say to them, that isn't how anything works. Right? That isn't how God works with you. That isn't how we should feel about ourselves. God isn't up there like, well, I already helped you out at some point. Remember? You prayed for that house. You got that house. You should just be happy for the rest of your life. That's not how Jesus is. You see, Jesus looks at this woman he calls her daughter. He cares for Jairus. He gets his daughter up from the dead, right? We need to understand that Jesus walks with us no matter where we are in our journey. That Jesus is not angry with you, that Jesus doesn't hold you like some disappointed father upset that you're just not happier. Because we are promised that our lives will end in the most beautiful of miracles. That one day we will look Jesus face to face and there will be no more death or crying or pain, and the old order of things will pass away. And that we will meet Jesus face to face. And that at that time, we will know fully, even as we are fully known. And we are promised that. And we can look forward to that, that these stories we read in the Bible, these testimonies we hear, are not ultimately destination, as one commentary said. They are destinations, but signposts. That they point to a time where there will be no more suffering or sickness or death or despair. We can be sure of this. But in between, maybe something, you know, in between the before and the then, we walk through a time where we will struggle, where we will have challenges, where we will wonder, Jesus, do you hear my prayers? Where we will wonder, will Jesus actually work out for me? Where we will feel those times of desperation and challenge. And Jesus message to us in the midst of that would be, stop fearing, keep believing. Stop fearing, keep believing and listen. This isn't something that happens once. It's something that happens over and over and over again. Where we go to Jesus and we say, man, Jesus, today it is hard. Today it is hard to believe that you care about me. Today it is hard to believe that you See me and hear me. But Lord, I want to stop fearing. I want to keep believing that in between the now and the time that all will be made new, that the time that everything will be healed, that we can continuously choose to stop fearing and keep believing. And stop fearing and keep believing. I asked Pastor David this week, pretty late in the week, can I add a song that we would close with? And also, I'm pretty sure you've never heard it. And he worked with me, and it's a song sung by a woman. So I also bothered my wife and said, will you please sing this song? And they both said, yes, this song is a song I came across actually by accident. And the song is called I Remind Myself. And it's a song actually written by a woman who was struggling with infertility. And as she was struggling with infertility, she sat down and she wrote this song about living in the waiting. And I feel like it captures what we're trying to say here because we find ourselves as we observe Jairus and this woman, as people who lived in the waiting and pushed through. A man who was about to lose his daughter and was waiting for Jesus to work, and a woman who for 12 years struggled with the same issue and believed that Jesus could heal her. And maybe you find yourself in the waiting today, and I don't know everyone's story. We, you know, I try to talk to as many people as I can, but maybe you find yourself in the waiting, wondering, Jesus, can you do it? Wondering, would Jesus work for me? And wherever you are, I want you to hear the words of scripture, to stop fearing and keep believing, to regularly have that process of silencing your fear and turning up the volume on your belief. And again, it's an everyday thing. It's not, oh, I did it once, and I'm settled. And Jesus would say. Jesus would say to you what he said to Jairus. He would say, stop fearing, keep believing, and walk alongside you through that journey. So let me pray, and then we'll. We'll sing that song together. Lord, we thank youk. We thank youk for your goodness. And you'd grace that yout walk alongside us, that we are not left. We are not left wanting. We are not left struggling. We're not left flailing about. And, Lord, I pray that yout would remind us of those truths. That, Lord, in the challenges, in the mess, in the thick of it, Lord, you hear us and you know us and you care for us. And I pray, Lord, that you'd remind us of that. That you would speak to us in our moments of challenges, and you would say, stop fearing. Continue believing. And we thank you for that truth, and we pray that you would sink it into our hearts and minds. We ask this in your name. Amen.