If you've got a Bible, let's grab it. Luke chapter 8 is where we're going to be today in your New Testament. We are in the middle of a series called Desperate for God to Move, where we are looking both Old and New Testament at people who got desperate for God to move in their lives because of various things.
about being desperate for the presence of God, desperate in the midst of when you're uncertain in your life. We've talked about being desperate for God to move in your family. Even last week, we talked about what do you do when you get off track in your life and how that desperation for God can move you back. to where you need to be with him.
Today, it really does set up tonight what we're going to be doing. But today we're going to talk about being desperate for God when I need healing. Desperate for God when I need healing.
There's perhaps nothing in your life that causes more urgency than a health situation. This doesn't matter if this is something as simple as you ever been sick like and really sick overnight and you're hovering over a trash can or hovering over a toilet. and you're begging God to move right then.
You're like, God, if you heal me, I will go to Africa. I'll be a missionary. I'll be a martyr.
Anything but this, okay? It could be something as silly as that to, you ever been in a doctor's office and received a diagnosis that you cannot begin to fathom and cannot begin to process what they've just told you? And that really is the reality for every one of our lives and every one of our families is that unless the Lord returns, all of us will experience the same thing. we'll experience death and our bodies will get sick and our bodies will die. Why?
Because we live in a broken world with broken bodies. And that really sets up where we're headed today. Because even in Bible times, there was something about illness that drew people to a point of desperation. As you, as you lead up to Luke chapter eight, where we're going to be today, here's what's happened already in the gospel of Luke.
By this point in the story, Jesus is known as a healer. He's cast demons out of people. He's healed lepers and paralytics, he's brought a guy back to life.
Who else can do that? Right? He's healed so many people, and so the moral of the story is this. If you're sick, you need to get yourself to Jesus.
And so Luke chapter 8 describes a scene, and there are two different parallel stories that are taking place within this one scene about two different people, two different families that are desperate for God to move in their journey. The first begins with a guy by the name of Jairus. You remember the name Jairus? Jairus, according to the Bible, was a prominent man, a ruler of the synagogue, and he was desperate for the healing of his daughter.
His daughter was nearing the point of death, was so sick. And so he comes to Jesus, and in his desperation, listen to me, he falls on his face before Jesus. I don't know how many times you may have read that story or heard that story, but my hunch is this, is that we often underestimate the power of this man, this very prominent public man, falling on his face before Jesus in this public setting.
And the Bible here describes As that scene kind of folds into the background, the Bible begins to describe what takes place as all the people around him begin to press in on Jesus. So look down with me, look at verse 42 of chapter 8. It says, as Jesus went, the people pressed around him, and there was a woman, okay? She's the moral of this story. She's the person in this story. She had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed.
I would underline that in your Bible. She could not be healed by anyone. And she came up behind him and, circle this word, she touched the fringe of his garment and immediately, think about that word, immediately her discharge of blood ceased. You get in the picture here?
Jesus is being pressed on by all kinds of people. There's a crowd around Jesus. You ever seen a celebrity like in real life?
I'll never forget Meredith and I were in New York city one time and we were with some friends, but we had kind of departed. They went their way. We went another way just for some shopping or eating or whatever. And, uh, and I can remember in New York city, just like you would imagine it would happen. I see a crowd of people over here and there's like a building on this side and the road with the car right here.
And, and there's a crowd of people. And so I'm like, Hey, I'm from Arkansas, man, what's going on over here? So I run over there to see what in the world is going on. And if I'm not mistaken, My memory serves me correct.
It was Jon Bon Jovi jumping into a car. And he was singing, we're halfway there. He was singing Living on a Prayer on his way. Everybody was just fawning all over him.
He wasn't really singing, but he went in there and it was exactly like you could imagine. People pressed in around him looking to see who is this celebrity, and it was Bon Jovi of all people. Now, in a very vastly different manner, this is kind of like this story.
Jesus is somewhat of a famous person. This is the guy who his name is spreading amongst the people. And now this guy, guy has showed up and people are desperate for some things to happen.
And it is here that we are introduced to this woman who is described by having some health issue related to a discharge of blood for 12 years. We're not told exactly what goes on here or what her health problem is. Many people would suggest this is probably a woman, an issue with her cycle to where this has been a prolonged 12-year battle and health issue that she has faced. Now, if you drill a little bit deeper into the Old Testament context of this whole story here, you've got to remember Old Testament law, where if somebody was bleeding, they were ceremonially unclean. And so she was not able to go to the go to the temple.
And so not only is she in this physical distress, but she is also facing a sense of isolation from other people because she can't go into the temple and be with the other people. And so isn't that like illness? There's a certain sense of isolation. isolation that illness or disease brings about where you think to yourself, man, nobody understands what I'm walking through.
You there today? Or when you're stuck at home and you can't come to church or you can't go to work, you can't do the normal things that you normally would do. And there's this sense of isolation that sets in because of illness.
That's exactly where this woman is. And this was a prolonged situation, like I mentioned, 12 years long. faced a chronic issue in your life, you relate with this woman here in the passage today.
Luke tells us that she had spent her life savings on doctors to no avail. She has found no healing. Can we all agree together that this woman's in a desperate situation?
She's desperate. Desperate for something to happen. Been to all the physicians, and yet she gets desperate enough to believe, man, if I can just, if I can just touch the great physician, then maybe my life...
everything can change. I got to just stop us right here. Is this not great faith on the part of this woman? If I can just get a touch of God, everything can change. You see, there are a lot of people who want to be in the crowd and want to experience the movement of God from a distance or from the fringes.
And there are other people who are desperate for a touch of God in their life. Which one are you? Can I encourage you to be the person who doesn't? want to be content with just being on the fringe, looking at the movement of God, but be the person who reaches out and gets a touch of God in their life.
I want you to take yourself out of knowing the story, especially if you're familiar at Springdale or Pinnacle Hills. If you're familiar with this story, take yourself out of what you know about the story here. And imagine that you are like 20 yards away looking at this situation. Imagine like you are like me looking at Bon Jovi, kind of over people on my tiptoes, trying to just see what's going on and Jesus asked a strange question he says who touched me To which the disciples are like, Jesus, everybody's touching you. What do you mean who is touching you?
And yet Jesus in his divinity, in his godness, knew someone was reaching out for hope and for healing. Skip down to verse 47. Look at it with me. It says this, and when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling. I mean, she is scared to death.
And falling down before him. declared in the presence of all the people why she had there's that word again why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed and he said her daughter your what's the word your what your say allow your your faith has made you well go in peace this woman knows she's been found out by by Jesus Like the guy that they are all longing to see. This is the guy they've heard about. And now he turns around and is like, hey, who touched me? And she's like, oh, snap.
He knows. He felt it. And she falls down before Jesus. Can I pause here for a second?
I think this is just an interesting Bible side note here. You ready for this? In both of these stories in the scene, I find it interesting that the natural response to the authority and person of Jesus by this woman and by the man named Jairus was that they fell down on their face before Jesus. This is always an appropriate response to the person of Jesus.
Isn't this picture like a beautiful mirror of salvation here? That when this woman sees the man who can change everything about her life, who can not only heal her body, but also can heal her soul, and she falls down in surrender before him and he changes everything about her life if you've never had that kind of encounter with Jesus where you have seen who he is that he's come to give his life on the cross for you and then if you will surrender your life to him he'll forgive you and change everything about your life And that can happen in your life today, and I want to encourage you, submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. In her desperate fear, she falls down before Jesus, and she begins to explain, can you imagine the scene of Jesus?
Well, I've had this problem for 12 years. years and I just thought if I could just touch your garment then I could be made well. And Jesus does not shun her.
He does not shame her. But instead, what does he do? He really honors her faith. Daughter, your faith has made you well.
Go in peace. That's the beginning of the story right there. You say, well, Nick, what does this passage teach us about Jesus? I think it teaches us three things about Jesus in the first part of the passage, and then we'll move to the second half of the passage as well. Here's number one.
If you're taking notes, write this down. Jesus is the ultimate example of tenderness, grace, and mercy. He's the ultimate example of tenderness, grace, and mercy. If I were to do a poll in this room today and in the room at Pinnacle Hills, and I'm Maybe even better, if I were to bring you up one by one by one, and I would say, hey, describe who God is. We'd have things all over the map.
Opinions all over the map. People would say, well, I think he's like a puppet master. Just kind of controlling the things of the day.
Some of you would say, well, he's an angry God. He's ready to smite me if I make a mistake. Others would say, well, he feels distant to me.
The Bible here gives us what is the actual representation of God. Like, who Jesus really is, is exemplified by this story. He does not get mad at the woman.
He does not shun the woman for bothering him. For... for having the gall to reach out and touch him.
But instead he honors her faith and speaks to her with such tenderness, mercy, and grace. Jesus shows us who God is. is here by the way Jesus is God Colossians says that Jesus is the exact representation of the Father so when we read about Jesus here and we questionable well what is God really like God is like Jesus because Jesus is God and and I can remember being a child hearing that kind of thing in this church I grew up in this church and I can remember hearing Jesus is God and God is Jesus and in my eight-year-old month I'd be like I have no idea what that means okay What that means is that Jesus is God. And God is Jesus. That's what that means. It means that when you wonder in your mind, what is God like?
Like, what is the Father like? He's like a man who was healing people. And he walked through a crowd of people who were desperate for him in their life.
And one woman who was especially desperate reached out in her hopelessness and just touched the fringe of his garment. And he stopped. And he asked, who touched me?
And when she confessed and fell down before him, he did not shun her, shame her, or be mean to her, but he with tenderness, grace, and mercy said, daughter, your faith has made you well. If you wonder if God loves you, if you wonder if God is aware of what you're walking through, if you wonder if God is a distant God who has no idea what's going on in your life that could not be further from the truth, if you need a picture of who God is, look at. Jesus right here.
It's the ultimate example of tenderness, mercy, and grace. Here's the second thing. Write this down. Here's what this passage lends us to believe, that Jesus wants us to trust him in the midst of health challenges.
So Jesus wants our trust. While we are walking through health challenges of all sorts. Now, in her case, this was a health issue.
For you, it may be something else. Your need may be something vastly different. But Jesus, like I said, was not bothered by her action.
He was not too busy. this interaction, but he stops and he lifts up her action and he lifts up her faith and says, man, it's caused you to be well. So listen to me.
So at least in this story, let me make that clear. At least in this story in Luke 8, there was a connection between her faith and her healing. At least in this story.
You say, Nick, why do you keep emphasizing that? Here's why I said it. Because there is a false doctrine out there.
You see this on TV sometimes, okay? Late at night when you can't sleep and you turn on the religious channel and there's some guy talking. He's usually about to go wrong here, okay?
And often you'll hear a false doctrine that is to believe that every sickness or every disease is a lack of faith. Well, if you really had faith, you wouldn't be dying right now. If you really had faith, you wouldn't be poor either.
And it gets twisted in all these kind of things as all these things are a lack of faith. That is not what the Bible is teaching. here everybody okay with that it's not what Luke chapter 8 is teaching it is teaching however that for this woman Jesus responded to her step of faith And he healed her. So you may be in this room today and maybe you're the person in this room, maybe at Pinnacle Hills, maybe you're watching at home today.
And you're like, Nick, man, this is like a divine thing that I'm here because I've been here. I've got X, Y, Z going on. I just went to the doctor and they just told me this and I'm not sure quite how to process this. You tell me I need to trust Jesus in the midst of my health challenge. What does that look like?
I think to trust Jesus, in the midst of when you're desperate for God to heal your life means two things. That you have a faith statement within your heart that says these two things. Number one, Jesus, I believe you can heal me this side of heaven, okay? I believe you can heal me this side of heaven.
And is this not what we long for most of the time? I mean, really, usually the only times that we want to pray different is maybe an older grandparent who's lived a long, full life. They know Jesus. They're suffering.
They're not in a good place. And we're like, okay, Jesus, like, man, we long for her to go home. We long for him to go home.
But about every other time as we pray in the midst of a health challenge, it's, God, would you heal my mother? Would you heal my son? Would you heal me?
And Lord, I want you to do it this side of heaven, like I believe that you can heal me. I think it's an important thing for every follower of Jesus here at Springdale and Pentecost to believe that God can heal you this side of heaven. I think that's what Luke 8 would tell us.
It's important to believe that you believe that God can heal you. Here's the second thing. And this is like, it's the deep end of the pool.
We're gonna dive into the deep end of the pool tonight and some of these things. It's to say this, Lord, I believe that you can heal me this side of heaven, but I also believe that you will heal me in heaven. Like healing is coming for the believer one way or the other.
Like that's the hope of heaven. That's the confidence of every follower of Jesus. Man, I may be sick. I may be broken.
I may have a disease. And I may be dying. But healing is coming.
This past, about two weeks ago, Meredith's elderly grandma died. She was like the matriarch of the family, her last living grandparent. And here's the hope that that family had at their funeral on Friday. Grandma Polly, isn't that a sweet name? Grandma Polly no longer has dementia.
She is healed. And the same thing is true for those of you who've recently lost loved ones over the last six months, year, couple years, a long time ago, but it still feels like it was yesterday. You know what I'm saying? If your loved one knew Jesus, they are no longer suffering, but they are. healed and this world and this life with all its brokenness and challenges listen to me church it's temporary it's temporary and this is the hope of the gospel here's what i would tell you to believe that i believe that god can heal me this side of heaven and i believe that god will kill me in heaven, I think both require faith.
So let's, let's believe God for either one he chooses. You, you skip down, look at, look at verse 49 and verse 50. So again, this is one scene, but two stories are taking place. It kind of started with Jairus, and then his story faded in the background.
The woman came forward, and that whole thing happened, and now she's fading into the background. We go back to Jairus in verse 49. It says, while Jesus was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Not a great bedside manner, right? Your daughter's dead.
Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear. Only believe, and she will be well.
Now that's quite the statement from Jesus, is it not? Jairus, quit bothering Jesus. Your sweet baby has died.
Your daughter is dead. And Jesus is sitting there, he's listening to the guy who just does Jairus this, and you can just imagine him as a casual bystander being like, do not fear, only believe, and she will be made well. In the midst of devastating news for the Father, Jesus calls this man also to faith.
And this leads us to the third thing. Okay, write this down. Third thing we learn about Jesus in this passage. Jesus can do what no one else can.
Isn't that a good word for our hearts today? And by the way, this goes way beyond healing in your life. This can be true about your family life, your marriage, career, finances, like Jesus can do what nobody else can do.
Let me just clarify because I think sometimes In a passage like this, in a call to faith like this, we can easily get kind of messed up and think wrongly. So let me be clear. To have faith in Jesus to heal doesn't mean you don't go to the doctor.
Or doesn't mean you don't go through surgery or get chemo. Everybody clear on that? Um, sometimes God heals us through people and medicine. Here's what I tell you.
That's still healing, still healing. And so if you're sick or have a disease, here's, here's my encouragement to you. Go to the doctor, use the resources that God has given us here.
Okay. Um, but like I said, this principle that Jesus can do what no one else can. It's true. in every situation in your life some of you are here and you're like nick man i i'm perfectly healthy just went to the doctor like this is this is not for me today it may be one day but it's not for me today well what else is going on in your life that you need jesus to do something that only he can do got a prodigal son or daughter got a marriage that that is on the rocks and nobody else knows if it's on the rocks here at church or carrying a private battle that maybe nobody else understands and nobody else knows Story tells us that Jesus goes to this house and he goes with Jairus and he goes into the house with the parents. And the Bible tells us that he only allows Peter, James, and John, who these were the inner circle, like the three of the 12 whom Jesus was closest to.
And they were the only ones that were allowed to come in the home with this dead daughter. And you can imagine just this dead daughter laying in a bed and everyone here is weeping over this dead girl. To which which Jesus says a bold thing. He says, do not mourn. She's only sleeping.
Now, surely by this point, somebody's checked the pulse. Somebody's checked the breathing. This daughter is dead.
You can imagine being in the house with him and like Peter, James, and John are like, what is he talking about? I mean, she is, she's. white.
I mean, the blood has left. I mean, she's not breathing. And scholars would tell us that when Jesus says she's only sleeping, he's not literally meaning she's not dead. I believe the Bible would even, it's about to say, it would prove that she's dead. But I think what Jesus is saying here is this death is only temporary.
She's dead, but she's about to get up. Everything's about to change. And you get to verse 56. Look at it with me.
Skip down there. And after she was healed, her parents were amazed. Underline her service. that in your Bible.
That's an interesting word here. but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. You know, Jesus does that a few other times in the Gospels, and you may wonder, why does Jesus heal somebody and then say, hey, don't tell anybody?
You ever wonder that reading the Bible? Why does Jesus like wanna hide the miracle? Like whenever we see a miracle, we're like, hey, call up the news station.
We got a miracle. Jesus is like, hey, don't tell anybody. We're not actually really told why Jesus tells us what to do.
tells them not to say anything in this story or others, some scholars would just say it this way, that Jesus just didn't want it out at that time. Or that it just proves that even the ministry of healing or something like feeding the 5,000 or any other miracle that Jesus did, like raising a dead girl back to life, It was just a secondary mission to the main mission. That Jesus is there for the healing of our souls primarily. And he would often do things like healing of our bodies to ultimately deal with the soul.
soul. And so that's perhaps one reason why he doesn't. I told you to underline the word amazed.
Can you imagine the roller coaster that these parents are on right here? A dead child that they are grieving over, who's now alive. Like that's a roller coaster of emotions right here.
And when the Bible says that they were amazed, the word for amazement here in the original language means that they were beside themselves in amazement. Can you imagine them like the parents laying in bed next to one another that night? Just saying things like, did that just happen?
Can you believe what we just saw? I mean, our daughter was dead. Now she's alive.
They were beside themselves in amazement. Let me wrap up. today and I want to just be very, very practical as we wrap up. Okay. Obviously tonight you can see why we're anointing with oil tonight because this, we were headed here today.
By the way, your little booklet we gave you, this is flipped one week. week. So you don't panic.
You didn't do anything wrong. I changed it late because I realized where we were headed and just shifted course. Okay. But if you find yourself today in a health challenge, or maybe say to you this way, if you or someone that you love, somebody you work with, somebody in your family, one of your friends, they're walking through an intense health battle. What am I supposed to do, Nick?
These two things, okay? Number one is this. Trust Jesus for healing, however that happens.
Trust Jesus for healing, however that happens. I say however that happens because I think Jesus does heal in different ways. I think you should pray for immediate healing because I think God can do that. I really do. So like if you're here today and you've got something going on, like if I'm you, I'm praying for immediate healing.
Just like the woman who touched the fringe of his garment. What was the word? Didn't say, and you know, 10 days later, she was healed.
Immediately, she was healed, okay? I think you should pray for that. Also, like I said earlier, I think you should go to the doctor and use the people that God has gifted in medicine.
So maybe obedience for you looks like you leave this place and you schedule an appointment with a doctor. You know, the best doctors I know are people who believe the first thing I say. I said, that really it is God who heals and God uses their skill and their schooling and medicine to bring about healing as well in your life. I also think there's a third scenario.
I think that there are times in your life where you need to reach out as a step of faith and ask for help from the church. You say, Nick, what do you, what do you mean? James chapter five speaks to those who are sick. within the body of believers.
So all of you here at Springdale, those of you at Pinnacle Hills, those who are sick within the church could be disease, sickness, chronic pain, maybe even some sense of mental health stuff and a laundry list of other things. And the New Testament gives us instructions in James chapter 5 where he says, you sick. Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
By the way, let me clarify something. We never tell someone to come to us and let us anoint you with oil. I know all kinds of sick people, all kinds of diseased people. I have a prayer list of people that are sick or walking through cancer right now within our church that I pray for every single day.
Not once have I texted any of them or called them and said, Hey, let us anoint you. you with oil like James chapter 5 says. You say, well Nick, why don't you do that? Because I think order is important in the Bible. And in the Bible, the order is flipped.
We don't call you, you call us. Does that make sense? So the step of faith is not on my behalf.
But it's on your behalf to the church, to the elders, the pastors of the church. Now, by the way, like we do this as the pastoral staff, we do this all throughout the year in smaller settings. People will, you know, call the church.
hey, I'm walking through cancer. I'd like to be anointed with oil. Would y'all do that?
We figure out a time and we anoint people with oil with four or five people in the room. Tonight, we're gonna do that different. And we've not done this probably in two years, I believe.
We don't do this often, but every now and then we do this kind of service where we say, hey, tonight we're going to anoint with oil those who are sick, and we're going to call the sick to faith for healing in their life. And so if you're sick, I want to encourage you to come tonight, okay? Here's the second thing, and I'll be done with this. If you're sick, let it draw you near to Jesus today.
Some of you know Jesus already. You're a Christian in one of these rooms. and here's my plea to you in the middle of your journey.
Let it draw you to Jesus today. Like let it draw you closer than you've ever been before. Allow the presence of God to envelop your life. Allow God to do a fresh work in your life and in your family. For others of you, you may be here at Springdale, you may be at home, you may be at Pinnacle Hills.
And if you're honest with yourself, you say, I've never met Christ personally. then I would say, could it be that God has given you this health challenge to draw you to God in a way that perhaps nothing else in your life could have ever done that? And while the healing of your body is important, and man, we'll pray for you. anoint you tonight. Like we will, we hope that that's true in your life.
Here's what I would tell you. The most important thing that you will ever experience in your life is the healing of your soul. It's the forgiveness of your sins. And if that's never happened before, and I would just say in a room like this.
this and in a room like that at Pinnacle Hills, surely there are some people today who, if you're honest with yourself, you've never trusted Christ. And today is the day. In the midst of a message on the healing power of Jesus, would you allow Jesus to heal your soul for the very first time?
Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me today? Today, if that's you, our staff is making their way to the front of each aisle. And if you're here and you would say, Nick, I know that I need Christ.
Christ, like I know that that's my step. I need a healing of the soul. I need Jesus to forgive me of my sin.
And my encouragement to you right now would be as soon as we open up and sing a final song, just sing part of a final song and we're going to be dismissed. I'm going to invite you just to make your way to the front of each aisle. And I just want you to grab the hand of whatever man or woman you see in front of you. They're on our team.
They're on our staff. And all you need to say is this, I need to give my life to Jesus. and we'll take it from there, and we will lead you to faith in Christ here even this morning. Would you do that? Don't delay.
The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Would you allow Jesus to heal your soul for the very first time? There are others of you here today who maybe you're facing a health challenge, or if I could just even broaden it during this moment, maybe you've got another need today.
Like it's not a disease for you or it's not a chronic pain, but man, there is something that is heavy upon your soul. I just want to point us back to when both of these people came face to face with the authority of Jesus, they got on their face before the Lord. You may wonder, well, Nick, why do we close with a time of invitation every single week?
Why do we call people to come and get on their knees or get on their face before the Lord? Why do we call the Christians to come forward? Because there's just something powerful about getting on your face before God.
And so today, if you're here and you've got a need, would you be just like Jairus? Just like this woman? who, when they came face-to-face with Jesus, they just got on their face.
And we're going to invite you to do that right now, both here at Springdale and at Pinnacle Hills. Lord Jesus, we trust you to do a work that only you can do right now, just like we talked about. I pray that you draw people to faith for the very first time, and I pray that you draw Christians back to faith, back to their face before you. It's in Jesus'name that we pray.
Amen.