Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.
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Thank you and enjoy the message.
Well thank you everyone.
So good to be back.
You know I just want to start by saying thank you to the incredible team that we have here
at HCV.
Yeah, can you give them a hand please?
I may have been gone for three weeks but this place never missed a beat.
I showed up to the backpack giveaway yesterday with no job, no agenda.
I just walked around and no one knew who I even was.
So it was incredible.
I think I only had to answer one pastoral question and I didn't even know how to answer
that.
So that means I must be doing something really good but no seriously like Tracy said thank
you for all those that gave.
Thank you to all those that served.
There was many times yesterday that I just kind of stood in awe.
I'm probably going to cry.
I mean there's nothing like watching a little kid run down the hallway with a football backpack
or a bluey backpack and they're actually excited about going to school.
You know and I thought I always hated school.
These kids love it.
But it's just amazing to see the excitement on their face and they think they show up
just for a backpack and then they're in the back of the campus jumping on moon bounces
and eating hot dogs and it's just never ending.
But let me just encourage you, you are making a difference for God in this community.
And it doesn't need me to be around for any of that to happen because you are the church
and you are doing the stuff.
So thank you so much.
It was good to be away for a few weeks to get refreshed and I'm invigorated and I'm
excited for all that God is going to do in your life this morning.
So last Sunday we kicked off a new series for the month of August called Questions Jesus
Asked.
Rudy addressed the question, who do you say that I am?
And I sat right back there in the back and wonderfully cried three or four times through
the entire talk and I'm just thankful for Rudy's testimony, how God has changed his
life and how he's brought us to this family and that we are all a part of that family.
Amen.
Today I will be addressing Jesus' question, what do you want me to do for you?
What do you want me to do for you?
And Jesus conveniently asked that question twice to two different people in Mark chapter
10.
So a different question I want to pose for everyone as we start our talk this morning.
Do you ever feel like you're swimming upstream in this thing called life?
Do you ever feel like a salmon that is just going against the grain and you just kind
of never feel like you're going to make it?
Or to put it another way, do you ever feel like just getting through a normal day of
life is a challenge?
Like everything is against you and every decision you make just isn't quite right.
And see the issue is for many of us we wake up every morning and after having our cup
of coffee or whatever routine it is that you do, we make a plan as to what our best, most
productive day will look like.
Then about halfway through said day we find ourselves overwhelmed mentally and sometimes
physically because we packed so much into our schedule, appointments, meetings, tasks.
We created a to do list of things we wanted to get done in said day and when we don't
accomplish everything on that list, we feel like the day is wasted.
Now for others of you, maybe you're watching online, you feel kind of empty.
Maybe you're working a job that doesn't bring you purpose or joy.
Maybe you're in a relationship that feels one sided and not life giving.
And it's as if as though there's something more for you in this thing called life, but
there's this current pushing against you that doesn't allow for the joy and the purpose
to be experienced.
And here's the reality for many of us gathered and of course watching online.
We have control issues.
In fact, we're all control freaks.
And I'm not even going to ask you to raise your hand if you're a control freak because
none of you will.
Oh, we're in church.
And Jesus wants me to be humble.
I'm not a control freak, Chris.
Am I right?
We want to control our lives.
We want to be the ones to decide where we go, who we talk to and what this thing called
life is all about.
We want to control every aspect of our lives because when we're in control, we feel powerful.
And friends, I'm one of them.
But the problem in this desire for control is that when we live this way, it begins to
shape how we view God.
See, it impacts our relationship with Jesus because we don't give him and we don't give
the Holy Spirit room to work or move in our lives because we are in control.
But there's an opposite to control and it's called surrender.
And if we learn to daily embrace surrender, that too can impact how we view God.
And like I said earlier, today we'll be looking at Mark chapter 10 and in our text today,
Mark will tell two stories, two accounts, comparing and contrasting the response to
the same question, what do you want me to do for you?
Friends, that's a huge question.
I mean, just imagine for a second that this very morning you woke up a little early.
You actually had a few minutes to yourself.
Maybe you pour yourself a cup of coffee or had a drink of water.
You take a deep breath only to discover and look across the table and realize that Jesus
is joining you for morning breakfast.
It completely changes your routine and he looks directly at you, directly at your heart
and says, what do you want me to do for you?
What would your response be?
How would you answer?
And see, what we're going to discover this morning is that Jesus asks the same question,
uses the same exact words and two very different encounters that produces meaning about how
we should be living our lives.
So let's set the stage for what we're about to read.
Jesus and his disciples, they're walking toward Jerusalem with a large crowd of people following.
This is very near the end of Jesus's earthly ministry.
And as they're walking, Jesus is teaching and reminding the disciples of what is about
to happen to him.
Now unfortunately, they still don't understand the sacrifice that he has to make for humanity.
After three years of sharing life with Jesus, the disciples believe that Jesus is going
to be an earthly king.
Now the crazy thing is Jesus knows what they're thinking.
He knows the thoughts of their hearts.
He not only knows their thoughts, but he knows passion week is coming.
So he continues to teach them about serving others, what it means to be a living sacrifice.
Because after all, remember the disciples, they're going to be the church.
That is how the church would be started.
So he pulls the disciples to the side and he begins to share what is going to happen
to him in the coming days in Jerusalem.
Now for many people, for many of us, when we read the gospel accounts, we begin to think
of the disciples as, are they just not very smart?
Like, it's not that hard guys.
Why can't you get it?
And it's almost as if we judge them.
But here's the reality.
You and me, we identify a lot more with the disciples than we do Jesus.
And you say, well, Chris, how do you know that?
Well, while I was away on vacation, I was taking a walk on the beach.
I had just done my devotionals and I was going through the book of John.
At the end of John, John writes these words, all of the books in the world, think about
all the libraries in the world, cannot contain all of the miracles and the good that Jesus
did while he was here.
And as I was walking on the beach, that thought kind of hit me right in the face like, that's
mind blowing.
Three years, he did more good than all the books of the world can contain.
So who do we identify more with?
The disciples.
Because if we're honest, just like I said in my opener, every day can be a struggle.
So Jesus, he reveals to the disciples his plan for the redemption of the world.
He looks at them, remember he pulled them aside.
He says, I'm going to be taken into custody, beaten down across and be raised on the third
day.
Pretty straightforward, right?
Remember he pulled them aside.
They were in their little huddle.
He's preparing them for what is about to happen.
And this is how two of them respond, which leads us to our first thought.
See the desire for control is nothing more than pride.
The desire for control is worth nothing more than pride, Mark 10, 35.
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, or as some of you know, the sons of thunder,
came to him, teacher.
They said, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
So you have these two brothers that just listened to Jesus say, he was about to lay down his
life for humanity and their first statement out of their mouth is, Hey Jesus, we want
you to do for us whatever we want.
We want you to do whatever we want.
And I don't know if there was a more prideful statement in the entire Bible than these two
guys walking with Jesus saying, Hey, I know you're the Messiah and all, but I have this
list of wants.
Let's talk about them.
And yet here they are as they're walking along.
That is their say, that's what they say to Jesus as he was preparing to suffer and die
for all of humanity.
And listen, we can make fun and judge and call these two out because of the question
that they just asked.
But if we really look at it, at least they were honest.
We need to celebrate their honesty.
We need to celebrate that we can come before God and reveal to him all of our imperfections,
all of our negativity, all of our struggles, because we must remember Jesus's question.
What do you want me to do for you?
And we must realize that James and John, they unfortunately had this genie mentality with
Jesus.
And for many people in today's American church, we have it too.
We give our life to Jesus.
We're promised this abundant life.
We're in the relationship with the God of the universe.
And there are times that we want to leverage that relationship.
And this is simply what James and John are doing.
They were experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity and they were trying to leverage
their relationship with Jesus to benefit themselves.
And I wonder, have you ever tried to do that?
Have you ever come to God in prayer and have this list of ones, hey God, I really need
you to make this happen.
Hey God, I need this breakthrough.
I need this freedom, God.
Then we sprinkle in the needs of others.
Oh yeah, God bless so and so and meet their needs.
And then bang, we're back with what we need.
And unfortunately, as a genie mentality toward God, we're trying to leverage our relationship
with him for our benefit and for our selfish ambitions.
And these two disciples, they wanted to control their destiny.
They were trying to determine what their life would look like.
So what they really desired was not Jesus.
They desired to have control.
And at the very heart of control is what?
It's pride.
And they were looking at Jesus saying, hey, I want you to do whatever we want.
In other words, hey Jesus, I know what is best for our lives.
You are here to give us what we want and what we need.
And dare I say, control is simply a mirage.
And friends, I'm not talking about the famous hotel in Las Vegas that many of you thought
about, okay, the Heathens, right?
I'm talking about a real mirage, right?
An optical illusion caused by an atmospheric condition.
The appearance of water in a desert on a hot road, right?
This is often seen in the cartoons that I grew up with.
Everyone, anyone remember Bugs Bunny?
I grew up watching Bugs Bunny.
And I still remember the scene when he's in the desert and he's trying to survive and
he's tired and he's weak and he looks up and he sees a water with a palm tree.
I'm not sure where the palm tree came from, but there's water.
And he's excited and he starts running for it and he jumps into it only to jump into
sand.
And I still remember him drinking sand.
See, we have to realize control is just a mirage.
And if we continue to try to control our lives, friends, this is what it's going to look like.
Check out this cartoon I found.
Next mirage, five miles.
We become exhausted looking for the next mirage.
And you say, Chris, what's that mean?
Looking for the next thrill.
Looking for the new job, looking for the raise, looking for ambition, looking for that right
relationship and we crawl and we walk and we press on.
And friends, we become exhausted because we want control.
And if you really pause to think about it, we don't control anything.
It doesn't matter if it's your marriage or your money or your kids or your job.
There's no magic formula or right actions that will produce perfection.
How do I know that?
Well, for those of you that have children, okay?
You can read the book, the 10 ways to raise healthy, dependent, excited, God-filled children.
Guess what?
They're not going to listen.
They're going to make bad choices.
They're going to be defiant.
Do you know how I know that?
Because you are.
And if we do it, they're going to do it.
Control is a mirage.
And in Isaiah 55, God reminds us, my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts.
He says, Lord, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine for just as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts
higher than your thoughts.
So James and John, they take their shot, they request that Jesus does what they ask.
And I almost picture Jesus responding with a chuckle.
It's like a laugh, like, okay, what do you want me to do for you?
He asked in verse 36, and they replied, let one of us sit at your right and the other
at your left in your glory.
In other words, Jesus, we know you came to be the Messiah, the ruling victorious King.
And in the disciples' minds, they thought Rome was going to be defeated.
Rome was going to fall and Jesus was going to rule as King of Israel.
That was the picture in their minds.
So James and John, they're saying, hey, I want to sit at your right and your left because
those were the two places of prestige.
And they literally are saying, we want those places.
We want the two places of honor.
We want the power, the money, the influence, and the fame that comes along with following
you because guess what, Jesus, we've given up three years of our lives following you
and we deserve it.
Now I believe James and John also realize they're a part of the inner circle, right?
They're not Andrew.
They're James and John.
They're the sons of thunder.
They think they deserve this.
And not only were they in the inner circle, many scholars believe that these two were
related to Jesus.
They were probably cousins.
So you can almost see James and John.
They're like, man, we're in the inner circle.
You can see their conversation.
We're family.
Peter's got nothing on us.
I mean, they throw him under the bus, forget about Peter, like pushing him out of the way
of prominence.
And they say, no, we want the power.
See, here's the reality, church, if all of us pause and reflect on our lives for a minute,
we can all relate.
But the truth is they're lying to themselves because they're simply pursuing the world.
And then Jesus gently puts them in their place.
And I love how he does it in Mark 10, 38 to 40.
I just lost my microphone.
I'm out of practice.
Sorry.
Trying to sit down to be calm because I'm so excited about coming back and not kick
my microphone off.
I'm so sorry.
Let me put it back on for you.
Sit down again.
I have a lot of excitement when I get back from vacation.
I'm trying to get a little on it.
The truth is that James and John, they are living for themselves.
They're pursuing the world.
And notice Jesus's response.
You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said.
Can you drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with?
And in their ignorance, of course, they were saying, oh, yes, we can.
Jesus said to them, you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism that
I am baptized with, but you sit at my right or left.
It's not for me to grant these places belong to those to whom they have been prepared.
So Jesus looked at them size and says, you don't even know what you're asking.
You don't have all your information correct.
You know, there's dots.
You think you're connecting.
You're not even close.
You are answering and asking questions that you cannot answer.
And when Jesus points to his cup and his baptism, he's talking about his suffering, his death.
I mean, look at Mark 14, 36, just a couple of verses later, Abba father, he said, everything
is possible for you.
Take this cup, this suffering, this death from me.
Yet not that I will, but what you will.
So when he's referencing the cup and the baptism, he's pointing to the suffering and the death
that he would experience.
And he's explaining to the two brothers that you don't get it, but in the future, this
is how you will die.
Both of you will be persecuted, suffer and die.
And we discover in Acts chapter 12, that James is in fact the first disciple that is martyred
for his faith.
And John, of course, is exiled on the Island of Patmos as a prisoner for most of his life
where he would eventually die.
Now here's the crazy thing, friends.
We can't just single out James and John, which leads us to our next stop.
Humanity pursues power and status.
Listen to the other 10 disciples response.
Mark 10, 41.
When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.
In other words, the other 10 were frustrated and mad because James and John asked the question
that they wanted to ask.
They were jealous because James and John actually spoke out loud what they were thinking in
their head.
And this is the human condition.
We're constantly focused on how we can make our lives better, how we can get ahead of
someone else.
And I love how Jesus meets our human condition with patience, gently challenging us with
the true meaning of life.
Listen to Mark 10, 42 to 45.
Jesus called them together and said, you know that those who are regarded as rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them, not
so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants
to be first must be a slave to all.
For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
See Jesus meets their failure with gentle teaching and correction.
Friends that's the mark of a true shepherd, right?
He wants their faith.
He wants their relationship with him to grow, their understanding to develop.
He says, I know the world tells you every day church that it's all about power and prestige
and success and status and worth and fame, but not so with you church.
You're called to be different.
He says the first will be last.
And then he points to himself and he says, even the son of man came not to be served.
In other words, God came into this world not to be served, but to serve and to give his
life for all.
And dare I say it's very important for us to remember Jeremiah 17 nine.
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things.
Desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
Now the cool thing about this story is that Mark quickly contrasts this encounter with
the disciples, this prideful self-focused request with the story of blind Bartimaeus,
which leads us to our next song.
See submission is humility.
Submission is simply humility.
Remember Jesus just challenges disciples to live with humble hearts.
Then in Mark 10 46 to 48 we read, then they reached Jericho and as Jesus and his disciples
left town, a large crowd followed him.
A blind beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting beside the road.
So Jesus and the disciples, they walked through the city of Jericho and on the outskirts of
the city is typically where you would find beggars.
In other words, people who could not enter the marketplace or the temple because of their
condition, their physical condition.
They were unclean people who could not earn a living on their own and they were forced
to live on the outskirts of the city and as travelers came through the city, they would
beg for money.
Now many people don't realize they would actually earn a pretty decent living because in the
Jewish faith, it was a sign of righteousness to give money to the poor, to the beggars
that were in need.
Jericho, of course, is a very wealthy town.
It was on the route to Jerusalem, had excellent climate year round, so many beggars, the outskirts
would have been filled with beggars.
And when Jesus came through Jericho with his disciples, remember there would have been
a buzz and excitement, a large crowd following, word would have gone out.
Jesus is coming.
Jesus coming through town and though Bartimaeus did not see Jesus, he would have heard about
all the miracles, heard about all the good that he was performing.
And let's continue.
When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, Jesus, son
of David, have mercy on me.
Be quiet.
Many of the people yelled at him, but he only shouted louder, son of David, have mercy on
me.
Right?
He finds out Jesus is walking by, so he begins to cry out.
He begins to scream, have mercy on me.
And see, son of David is a Messianic term, so Bartimaeus understands who Jesus is.
And in his desperation, he cries out as loud as he can.
Now everyone around him, imagine the crowd.
I believe even disciples, think about how the disciples interacted with children.
You're looking at him like, shut up.
Don't you know this is Jesus?
He can almost picture it.
The crowd is indignant.
Why are you screaming?
But this man, he needed that mercy.
He needed that grace, that healing, so he cries out.
And you can see it, it's the same heart as the tax collector in Luke 18, Luke 18, 13,
but the tax collector stood in the distance, didn't even lift his eyes to heaven and he
prayed instead.
He beat his chest in sorrow.
God be merciful for me, for I am a sinner.
See contrasting to the disciples, Bartimaeus enters this relationship with Jesus, this
encounter with Jesus with the heart of what?
Submission.
And the crazy thing is he's not even crying out for his sight to be healed.
He doesn't ask to be healed again.
I want you to heal my sight.
He's crying out, have mercy on me.
Friends, that's a heart of submission.
If the very core of control is pride, the very core of submission is humility.
And Bartimaeus, he finds himself at a place of humility modeling for us that Jesus wants
us to have the same attitude toward life.
That friends, when we wake up every morning, we don't have to be self-sufficient.
We don't have to make the best plan, but we can be God sufficient.
And as the man cries out to Jesus, he acknowledges him.
Notice Jesus says, Mark 10, 49 and 51, Jesus heard him.
He stopped and said, tell him to come here.
So they called the blind man, the same man, the same people that are telling him to shut
up.
Now they're like, oh, cheer up.
Come on.
He's calling you.
Jesus, now think about this.
He's on the way to the cross.
He's about to experience the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday.
He has all these important things to do.
Yet when he hears Bartimaeus crying out, what does he do?
He stops and he engages him.
A man that had been ostracized by society for years, but not by Jesus, not in this moment
or ever.
Jesus invites him to lay all of his pain at his feet.
And friends, this is the same invitation Jesus gives to you and me to lay our pain, our heartache,
our suffering, our negativity at his feet because he is God.
You must realize prayer is not a place to be perfect.
It's a place to be honest.
And in our honesty, God moves.
Let's continue.
Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up and came to Jesus.
Now notice here's the question.
What do you want me to do for you?
Jesus asked.
And it's almost as if I just read the same question first to James and John and now to
Bartimaeus and they're completely different.
With James and John, it was like sarcasm.
It's kind of like when you ask your wife if she is okay.
Newsflash, husbands, okay.
Let me clue you in.
And soon to be husbands if you ever date.
If you ask your wife if she is okay and her response is, I am fine.
She's not fine.
So for all of you to think, oh, she's good.
She's never fine.
Jess is good.
She's bad.
She's having a frustrating day, but she's never fine.
To Bartimaeus, he cries out one more time.
My Rabbi, the blind man said, I want to see.
So in his desperation, Bartimaeus lets Jesus into his greatest pain, knowing that Jesus
is the only hope of experiencing healing.
Our final thought before we answer the question, a surrendered heart trusts in God's plan.
And notice what Jesus says to him in Mark 10, 52.
Go for your faith has healed you.
Instantly the man could see and he followed Jesus down the road.
Jesus, he looks at Bartimaeus and he says, your faith has made you well.
Now when this is translated from the Greek, the Greek word used there is sozo and it means
saved, healed and delivered.
And what Jesus is saying to this man is this is a complete healing.
It's not just your sight.
Your faith in Jesus has a healing effect on his entire body, on his outlook of life.
It's a holistic healing that Jesus offers each of us as we won't walk through this thing
called life.
This man received his healing, right?
He could have grabbed his stuff, high five Jesus said, thank you, returned to his family
and friends.
He could have got a job making good money, but what does he choose to do?
He chooses to find.
And see, that's the difference between Bartimaeus and the disciples and how they approached
Jesus.
The disciples, they approached him with a heart of pride, but Bartimaeus approached him with
the heart of what?
Submission.
And what is interesting in both cases, Jesus is working to heal their sight.
Like many people don't see that with Bartimaeus, it's easier to see because Jesus healed his
what?
His physical sight, but the disciples, he is trying to heal the sight in their hearts.
He wants their hearts to be healed, their outlook on life to be healed.
He's trying to get them to see that you're focusing on the wrong things.
Stop putting your hope in the world.
Jesus wants them and us to see that in this world, we're going to be told every single
day that you should pursue fame and prestige.
That's success.
Jesus is saying no.
The key to life is humility and submission.
And when you walk in that, you will experience abundant life.
And in both cases, we see what is inside of them will eventually come out.
The disciples, they are full of what?
Pride and control.
They wanted to tell Jesus what was best.
We see this because eventually it comes out, right?
That 11 of the 12 disciples abandoned Jesus when everything goes wrong.
Only John was present at the crucifixion of Jesus.
The other 11, gone.
But when Bartimaeus receives his sight, all he wants to do is follow.
His only expectation was that Jesus was someone that gave him mercy.
See, he was full of humility.
And I want to challenge you that control always leads to disappointment because we try to
tell God what is best for our lives.
And he looked at us and says, you don't have all the information.
You don't know what tomorrow will bring.
But a surrendered heart leads to a trust that God will trump all the world has to offer.
I love how God calls himself the great I am in the Old Testament.
We read this in Exodus 3, 14.
God replied to Moses, I am who I am.
Remember Moses asked him, what do I tell the people?
What is your name?
Say this to the people of Israel.
I am has sent me to you.
And I believe church that God wants us to begin to refer to God as I am.
And you say why?
Because when God is I am, then we are not.
And life is so much more easier when we allow God to control our lives, when we get out
of the way and daily offer it to him.
Here's my plan, God is it best?
How will you respond?
Because I believe Jesus is asking all of us that simple question.
What do you want me to do for you?
Now Jesus responded the same way to two people that came to him fully submitted in search
of healing.
He said these exact words to two people go for your faith has healed you.
These were the words that he used for Bartimaeus.
Does anybody know the other person that he said those exact words to?
No service didn't know either.
The woman with the issue of blood.
One person knew it.
And 400.
Chris, I'm a God am I failing?
The woman with the issue of blood.
And see, I feel that we can learn a lot from her actions.
Because when God asks us when he's inviting us when he's looking at us this morning and
saying what do you want for me, we can look at her life and pattern our response after
it.
And the first response is this.
Don't be limited by your circumstances church.
A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding.
She had suffered a great deal from many doctors and over the years she had spent everything
she had to pay them.
But she had not gotten any better.
In fact, she had gotten worse.
Don't let your past or society's restrictions define your future.
Remember in those times women were considered unclean for being on their period.
So a woman with such a large medical condition would literally have been ostracized by everyone
within her community, including her family.
They wanted nothing to do with her.
She would have been on the fringes of society.
However, the Bible says that prior to her encounter with Jesus, she had spent her savings
trying to seek out a cure for her ailment to no avail.
See oftentimes it's taught that this woman was poor and forgotten.
This woman wasn't poor.
She was wealthy.
Well to do in fact, because she spent all of her earnings trying to heal her medical
condition.
She is willing to do whatever it took to receive her healing.
And dare I say some of you have to stop living in the past.
You have to forgive someone.
You have to forgive yourself.
You have to choose to move past the restrictions that society says that you are doing wrong.
And the only way to do that is to go against the grain.
Which leads us to our next step.
Be audacious.
Everyone say audacious.
Isn't that a cool word?
Love it.
She had heard about Jesus.
So she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
So she thought to herself, if I can just touch his room, I will be healed.
Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed
of her terrible condition.
See this woman made up her mind that she was going to seek Jesus and claim her healing.
Not by asking him, but by touching the hem of his garment.
And the crazy thing is she was doing this because she knew she was breaking the law.
Just going out in public means that she had to hide and maintain a low profile.
In fact be anonymous because she would have been ostracized.
And as she was going to find him, there was such a large crowd that she had to still crawl
and push and move people out of the way just to get close enough.
And once she did, she touched his garment, she was healed.
Now listen to these two different definitions.
Unorthodox or non-traditional is defined as not conforming to the rules, traditions or
modes of conduct as of doctrine, religion or philosophy.
The status quo is defined as the existing state or condition.
So when people upset the status quo, they're literally going against the normalized patterns
of society.
They're railing against, well this is how it has to be done.
And if the woman with the issue of blood had accepted the restrictions placed upon her,
she wouldn't have received her healing.
If the woman with the issue of blood had allowed her failures from the past attempts, remember
she spent all of her money trying to attain her healing.
She would not have obtained her blessing.
She comes to Jesus failures in awe and she says, I won't be stopped.
You have to be audacious.
She leads us to our next step.
You have to have faith.
Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him.
So he turned around in the crowd and asked, who touched my robe?
Here's the disciples again.
Look at the disciples.
Look at all these people.
What do you mean who touched you?
They still don't get it.
They're still focused on themselves.
But Jesus kept on looking around to see who had done it.
And the frightened woman trembling at the realization of what had happened to her came
and fell on her knees in front of him and told him what she had done.
Notice what he says to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.
There it is.
Go in peace.
Your suffering is over.
Tells the woman that her faith in God healed her.
And that God is moved to action by what?
Our faith.
And the same goes for Bartimaeus.
What did Bartimaeus do?
He screamed out, have mercy on me.
And his faith healed his sight.
Which leads us to our final step, friends.
We learn from the woman at the Yeshua blood that we have to reach out.
She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd, touched his
robe, for she thought to herself, if God just touches his robe, I'll be healed.
And this woman's story can teach us to reach out to Jesus for help with any issue, church.
Doesn't matter what you're facing, your pride, your anger, your divorce, your relationship,
your brokenness, your children, your financial issues, your drug addictions, your pornography
addiction.
God can set you free.
Are you willing to reach out?
Are you willing to be different?
Because the last time I checked, for some of you, if this is your first time here, we
love you, your family.
If you've only been here a couple of weeks, we love you, your family.
I've never met you.
My name's Chris.
I'm a pastor here.
But one thing you're going to quickly learn with me being around is that this church is
not traditional.
And we believe in going after Jesus.
And we believe in reaching out to Jesus.
And we believe it's okay to shout, have mercy on me.
It's okay.
But for some of you, you get caught up in the traditions of the way church should be.
And God says, no, be free.
Reach out and receive your healing.
I mean, listen to Isaiah.
Listen to Isaiah.
For I am about to do something new, church.
I have already begun it.
Do you not see it?
I will make a path through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in a dry wasteland.
There's no impossible.
I believe that you are working now.
Oh, pour it out.