210327 - When Faith Has to Wait - Hart

The speaker begins by reading Hebrews 11:1-2 and discussing the importance of faith. They then talk about the elements of a good story and how the scripture reading in Luke 8 has all those elements. They focus on the story of Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood, highlighting Jairus' frustration and impatience while waiting for Jesus to help his dying daughter. They also address the difficulty of hearing others' testimonies when you have a pressing need that hasn't been resolved. The speaker encourages listeners to trust in God's timing and not compare their situations to others. Hebrews 11, verse 1 and 2. I bet you we could probably say this together, but since I'm going to do verse 2, we ought to look at it all together. Hebrews 11, verse 1 and 2, and I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. May the Lord bled at his blessing and we will enjoy our pastor's words. Thanks for the music again, Ja. Where'd you go? Oh, there. Very good. I love Psalm 23, and it really sounds even better when it's put to music. Well, let's have a word of prayer, and then I'll share a word with you. Father, thank you so much for this beautiful Sabbath day that you've given us. Thank you for the very mild, wonderful weather we've had recently. Thank you for life and health and strength. And also thank you, Lord, for just being there for us. Thank you for faith, and thank you that you bless even little faith. Be with us today, Lord, as we consider once again another story, another experience of our Lord and Savior, that we might be blessed and grow in a closer walk with you, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Want to welcome everybody who is watching via television, who will be watching via television. Welcome to the Laconia Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we would love to have you visit us sometime. A very warm, friendly church, right? And we would give you a very warm welcome as well. So please do come on by. We love visitors and love to love on them. Everybody loves a good story. A good story, not a bad story. A good story. And every good story has certain elements in the story. My daughter is studying English. She wants to be a writer, so she could probably share more detail about what makes up a good story than I could. But there are certain elements in a good story. Usually there is a protagonist, and that would be either the hero or the main character. There's usually the antagonist, which is the evil villain, messing everything up, right? And then there's the character development, different characters in the story. There's the setting of the story, the context in which the story takes place. And then there's conflict and resolution. And those two elements are key to any good story. Conflict and resolution. It's the conflict part that we don't really like too much. We love it in a good story, right? Some of the good movies that exist, there's not a lot, always have conflict in them. But a resolution. And that's what holds us, right? We've all seen a good movie or two in our life, or read a good story or two, and we're just anxiously waiting for the resolution part. Isn't that right? We're drawn in by the conflict. We can relate to it. And we want to see our hero, we want to see our person that we're rooting for, get the situation resolved, right? Emerge from it victorious. That's why we love a good story, because it usually has, a good story has those elements. Our scripture reading tells us that faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. For by it, the elders, those of old who have gone before us, the faithful ones, God's champions, they, through faith, obtained a good testimony. Now what's a good testimony? What is a testimony? It's a story, right? It's a story about yourself, right? So a testimony is a story. Through faith, the elders obtained a good story. And there is a story in the Bible that has most of the elements of a good story. And I want to look at that this morning, and then discuss a little bit about faith. So if you've got your Bibles, whether in paper or digital, turn to Luke chapter 8, because we're going to look at a story this morning that has, in fact, it's got all of the elements in it. Luke chapter 8, and we're going to begin reading in verse 40. Luke chapter 8 and verse 40. By faith, the elders obtained a good story. Luke chapter 8 and verse 40. Oh, I'm way off. Here we are. Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at the feet of Jesus, implored him to come to his house, for he had only one daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him, and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Let's look at things from Jairus' point of view. Your only daughter is dying. Your house really isn't that far away. But you just can't seem to make any headway, because Jesus seems to be putting everybody else first. Jesus is willing to help, because he went to him for help, and he starts on the way to your house, but then he gets distracted. And he's hard to read, because he really does seem like he's putting everyone else first. How would you feel if you were Jairus? How would you feel? Hm? Slighted. Ooh, that's a very appropriate word, right? Maybe slighted. Impatient? Absolutely. Angry? I would think so. Frustrated? Certainly. Absolutely. Probably how some of you may even feel today in your own situation. Because as you impatiently wait for Jesus, you have to endure sometimes the testimony of other people, a good story that other people are sharing. In other words, your legitimate need seems to be put on hold sometimes while everybody else is praising God for what he's doing in their life. Anybody ever experience that? You need something. It's a legitimate need. We're not talking about a want. A legitimate need, and you're praying about it. You're asking God for it. Time is of the essence. And it doesn't come when you want it to come. And in that time period, you are hearing the testimony of other people, of how God is blessing them. Anyone ever been there before? Some of you may be there today. You have a legitimate need. And it's one thing to have to wait for a want. That's not easy when you want something bad enough. But it's a whole different story when you have to wait for a need, a legitimate need, a need such as this, right? And waiting is especially hard when others are praising the Lord for their prayers being answered when it seems like they don't have to wait. Now don't get me wrong. Testimonies are a beautiful thing, right? I love hearing testimonies. A pen of inspiration says we should sometimes have a Sabbath of nothing but testimonies, right? Forget the sermon. Just get everybody up here and share what God is doing in your life. That sound like a good Sabbath? And we're going to do that sometime. Because we should do it, right? Because testimonies are important and they're exciting. And it's exciting to hear what God is doing in each of our lives. But sometimes it's not very exciting when you have a need and it seems like God is putting everybody else first except you. Testimonies are great. But sometimes it's difficult because maybe you feel terribly sick while others have been praising the Lord for good health. Maybe you've been feeling directionless while others are praising God for giving them direction in their life, working things out, paving the way for them. Maybe you feel frustrated because you've been praying for a promotion and it hasn't happened. Or maybe you've been looking for a job and it hasn't happened while others are praising God for swinging the doors wide open and handing them a job on a silver platter, so it would seem, right? Testimonies are awesome, but sometimes they're kind of difficult to hear. And that's probably how Jairus felt. He's listening to the testimony of this lady, right? He's listening to her story, and it is an awesome story indeed. I mean, she just touched Jesus' garment and her circumstances were completely transformed. She's got an awesome story. But from Jairus' point of view, it's probably not the most exciting thing to him at the moment. It's not that he doesn't like good testimonies. It's just that he has a pressing need. He's got a major issue that needs to be resolved, and it needs to be resolved quick. And Jesus seems to be putting everybody else first. His daughter is dying. And to make things even harder to understand for Jairus, perhaps, Jairus went about doing it the right way. Follow me. Jairus went about doing it the right way. Jairus went to Jesus and asked Jesus, can you come to my house? My daughter is dying. She didn't do that. She snuck up on Jesus, right? She snuck up out of nowhere and grabbed his garment, and she gets healed. Jairus is the one who did things properly, cordially, appropriately, right? With good manners. Lord, my daughter is dying. You know, he's holding the very fibers of his being. He's restraining, and he's being polite to Jesus. Can you please come to my house, right? He's done everything the right way. And so why is everybody else getting put first? In our Sabbath school lesson, we didn't really get a chance to cover it, but Steve had mentioned it, the idea that sometimes we think we're doing everything right. Or maybe it's not so much that we think we're doing everything right, but maybe we are doing everything right. We're doing everything by the book, and yet it still seems like sometimes everybody else is the one being blessed and not us, right? I mean, Lord, why not us? We keep the Sabbath, right? We know the 28 fundamental beliefs. We don't believe once saved, always saved. We know the truth about death. We know all this stuff. We're good Adventists. We come together on Sabbath, right? We pray. We join the prayer meeting, most of us. You know, Lord, why don't we, why does it seem like we're not being blessed? Why does it seem like everybody else is being blessed? I shared recently, in California, you drive down in Bakersfield, it's dry as a bone, dry as the hills of Gaboa. Let's just use that term, that already used term. It's dry. Winter's green. When springtime comes, everything turns brown. It's the opposite than here. And when things are brown in California, you're driving along as a pastor, or maybe even as a church member, and you're looking at some of these other churches, and the grass is green, acres and acres of green grass. Well, in California, the only way to have green grass is to have very expensive sprinkler systems. There were months in my previous church where our water bill was $1,400. Yeah, go figure that one out. That's how dry it is, and that's how expensive it can be. And yet, we had eight acres of land, but only about an acre of it had green grass, and most of it was weeds. We were just doing what we could to keep the weeds from turning brown. Right? And so you drive past some of these other churches who don't know the truth, right? And you wonder, Lord, I don't understand. We're your people. We're the remnant people of God. Why aren't we being blessed? Why are we struggling with our finances? Now, I don't want to get into that, because God's system of tithing in this church is the right system. It is. It is a fair system, but it just makes things a little difficult because all of our tithe doesn't stay here, and we don't get to blow it however we want because it's all staying in this particular church, right? So it's a fair system, but it makes things a little bit more difficult. The church becomes dependent upon the free will offerings of the members, and that's how the church's lights stay on. That's how the church's yard stays green. So sometimes, as Christians, we look at other people and we say, Lord, I'm doing everything right. Why don't I feel like you're prioritizing me? And so it's tough. In all fairness, the woman's situation was pretty serious, wasn't it? I mean, 12 years is a long time. None of us could probably comprehend that. That's a long time. But for the fact that it was a long time, 12 years, was another hour really going to be a big deal? Was one more hour really going to be a big deal when somebody's daughter is dying? She could have waited another hour. Or I should say Jesus could have told her to wait another hour, because Jesus knows all things, doesn't he? He knew that she was sneaking up on him. Nothing catches Jesus by surprise, praise the Lord, right? He knew that she was sneaking up. He didn't catch him by surprise. He played the part, you know? But he knew. He allowed it to happen. And that's the conundrum. He could have said, he could have somehow orchestrated events so Jairus' daughter was taken care of first, then her issue was taken care of. And that's how we would have things unfold in our own lives, wouldn't it? In a much neater way, so that we always feel like we're being prioritized by God. And so it was a tough situation. And to make it tougher, Jesus says, daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Well, who needed peace right now? Jairus is the one who needed peace, right? And then the situation goes from bad to miserable, as low and as bad as it can get. Here we go with Jairus' informants coming along, while he was still speaking. In other words, while Jesus was still telling the girl, be at peace, you know? Enjoy your life. You know, you now are on the right track. Enjoy being free of this issue. It's been 12 years. While Jesus was speaking. You know, the Bible is very short with words. We have to remember that things don't really unfold exactly the way the Bible says. Because these things would happen, what would normally take like a week in the Bible, it's written sometimes it could take place in five minutes. So surely Jesus was elaborating more probably to the young lady. I'm so glad you touched my garment. I'm so glad you had the faith. And while Jesus is still speaking, Jairus' informants come along, his buddies or someone from the house, and says, stop troubling the master. Your daughter's dead. Stop troubling Jesus. Your daughter's dead. He's let you down. Stop hanging out with Jesus. He's let you down. Your daughter is dead. Anybody ever come up to you in the midst of your hard time, your difficulty, and not been an encouragement to your faith, but been a discouragement? Why are you a Christian? I mean, you know, God really real? I mean, why do you pray to Jesus all the time? I mean, does Jesus really answer prayers like that? Anybody come up to you in the midst of your difficult situation and not be a support? They think they're being a support, but they're really not. Well, here comes Jairus' friends, buddies, whoever they are. Stop bothering Jesus. He's let you down. Don't trouble him anymore. Just let Jesus go on and do his thing. What a struggle. Can you imagine being Jairus? So frustration, anger, bitterness, disappointment, impatience, all those things intensified a million times over. Your daughter's dead. So now the emotions are really stirring up in Jairus' mind, right? What would you do if you were Jairus? And what do you do when you're in a similar situation like Jairus? How do you handle your faith and your trust in God in a similar situation like Jairus? When everybody else seems to be being put first, his heart must have sank. Overwhelming sadness must have just completely consumed him. Frustration through the roof. Disappointment with Jesus. All these things must have just like crashed on Jairus, all at that statement of his informants, that his daughter was dead. I want to make a suggestion to you this morning, if you're in a situation like Jairus, or if you find yourself in a situation like Jairus, I want to suggest that you continue to listen to the testimony of others. I want to suggest that you don't turn them off because you feel frustrated and just is not what you want to hear at the moment, but I want to encourage you to keep on listening to the testimony of other people, even in the midst of your situation, when you feel like God is not prioritizing you. What do you do when you're in a situation like Jairus? Don't forget who it is that you can't ask for help. Amen? Don't forget who it is that you went to and asked for help. It's Jesus. He's not going to abandon you. And we must sometimes listen to the testimony of others. Let me correct that. We must sometimes endure the testimony of others when we ourselves are still waiting impatiently for a very legitimate need in our life. We must sometimes listen to the testimony of others and realize maybe God has allowed it for a reason to actually help build our faith and not frustrate us more. Right? We must remember who it is that we ask for, ask for the very thing in the first place. Things happen for a reason. And I'm so glad we serve a God who allows things to happen for a reason. So when things don't make sense to us, when it seems like God is putting everybody else first, we can step back and say, you know what? God has promised to never leave me nor forsake me. Amen? We can trust God. And the thing about testimonies is this. Anybody with a good story, anybody with a good story, and every testimony is a good story, right? If you ask anybody with a good story, guess what you're going to find out? That there was an element of conflict in their story too. You're going to find out that they too had a period of struggle in their story. They too had a period of being anxious and maybe frustrated with God, annoyed at the situation, impatient, disappointed, bitter. They too went through these things. They too experienced them. We must forget that the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years, she had to wait 12 years. How many testimonies did she hear during that 12-year period? Right? She too had an element of conflict, a 12-year conflict, right? And so sometimes when people have testimonies, it appears on the outside like things just happen so nice and lock-sync for them, but for us it's so organic and messed up and you can't make the end from the beginning, right? But we must realize that in everybody's story there's an element of conflict. There's elements of tension. And that's normal because that is the journey of faith. Amen? Right? Faith doesn't become faith, or I should say, faith doesn't get stronger without the element of conflict. Our faith would never grow. Anybody who's ever tried to get muscles by lifting weights, you don't just lift a 30-pound weight forever, right? Your muscles don't grow. Like mine. No, I actually used to do that. I used to work out. I used to be bigger. They kind of like deflated. I still work hard, but I'm not in the gym the way I used to be. You don't get bigger muscles by lifting the same level of weight, right? You go from 30 to 35 to 40 to 45. That's if you're curling, right? If you're benching, then you go from, I don't know, 100, 150. Eventually you got to go higher and heavier and heavier and heavier. That's the only way muscles grow. Isn't that right? And that's the only way faith grows. When there's tension, there's got to be an element of tension. It's not that God wants us to be disappointed and go through these crazy rollercoaster of emotions in our lives. It's that the Lord allows things sometimes so that our faith can sometimes ride on the back of others' experience, and it can be challenged so that we stretch and we choose to continue to trust God, even when it seems like there's no reason to continue on trusting anymore. Right? That's how the elders obtained a good story. That's how they obtained a good testimony. All stories have an element, all good stories have an element of conflict. That woman had to endure testimonies for 12 years. She had to hear other people praising God for the things He was doing in their life. Twelve years, that's a long time. It didn't just happen overnight. And that's why everybody was rejoicing. And the Bible tells us how important it is to share our testimony. I will go through a couple of scriptures. Psalm 66, 16, you can write these down. All believers, come here and listen. Let me tell you what God did for me, is what the psalmist exclaims, right? Everybody who can listen, come here, I've got a story to tell. That's what Psalm 66, 16 is saying. Psalm 71, 15, my mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day. For their number is past my knowledge. You know what? We have a story, but there's a million things we don't know yet of what God has done in our life. A million things that God has protected us from. A million things that the Lord has shielded us from. We've got elements of our story, but one day when we're in heaven in that brand new earth that's going to be so great to be in because Jesus is there, He's going to share all the stuff that we just missed. All the times we were driving down the road and something happened just a second later and it was behind us and not in front of us. You know, just a million things. We can think of a lot of testimonies in our life now where our lives were spared or just different things. But when we get to heaven, we're going to find out that there is innumerable things to count. Just like the psalmist says, I can't even count them. I'll tell of your righteous acts and deeds all day long for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God, I will come. I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. The psalmist is declaring, not only will I remember what you've done in my life, I'm going to declare it to all people. I'm going to tell them what you have done in my life. And wasn't that Israel's purpose, right? As the Sabbath school, as was pointed out in Sabbath school, what was God's design for Israel? For them to share with the world the righteous deeds and acts that God had done on their behalf. But they failed to do that and that's why Babylonian captivity happened and everything else. In other words, when God does something for us, we must share it. And when somebody's going through a challenging time, we need to share it sensitively, carefully with them, right? Because it's a sensitive time. But we still must share it. Because sometimes their fate will be dependent upon us sharing our testimony. And when we're going through a hard time, we need to keep our ears open to the testimony of others. It's during painful waiting and conflict that testimonies are born and take shape and are critical to the health of our faith. One of my favorite authors says, we have nothing to fear for the future. We all know the rest of that statement, right? Except we forget what God has done in the past and through his providences, right? Paraphrasing just slightly. But the point is we must remember what God has done. It's so important. Whether what he's done in our life or in the life of others, we have nothing to fear for the future except we forget. And that's why testimonies are so important. That's why stories of what God has done not just in our life but in the life of others is so, so important. You know, when I think of the spirits of Jairus, I also realize sometimes as a church, we can go through a similar experience as well. As a church and more particularly as an Adventist church. Sometimes we feel like the Lord is taking longer than he should. Am I right? As Adventists, don't sometimes we feel like the Lord is taking longer than he should? We know Daniel's prophecy of 2300 days, Daniel 8.14, was ended in 1844. We know that. And we know that gospel has to go to the whole world since then. As far as I'm concerned, technology has pretty much covered most of the world by now. There may be a little pocket here and there. So, you know, when we think about these things, sometimes we feel as Adventists, the Lord is just taking too long. Why is he delaying? Why is he taking his sweet time, you know? What is going on? We're ready. This world is ripe. Is it not? How many of you feel this world is ripe for the Lord to come? Yes, it is. In fact, even Jesus said the harvest is ready. It's right that the laborers are few. So the world is ready. The world is ready for Jesus to come. It can't get much worse. As the saying goes, if the Lord allows this world to continue much longer, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. You've heard that before, right? Because it's getting that bad. It really is. The world is ripe. It is in great need of relief. It really is dead. And Jesus needs to come and straighten stuff up, right? That's how we feel as Adventists sometimes. Why is the Lord taking so long? Where is the promise of his coming? So sometimes even as a church, we can experience the experience of Jairus, but in a corporate church setting, as God's people. But Peter reminds us of something so important when it comes to waiting and the developing of our faith. He tells us in 2 Peter 3, verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. As some count slackness, right? The Lord said he would come, but just because he said he would come doesn't mean he's going to come when we expect him or when we want him. He's not slack concerning his promise. In other words, if he said he's coming, he's coming. Amen to that, right? That's what I'm banking on. Jesus said he is coming, so I'm banking on him coming. Because he said he's coming. Not because I think he's coming, but because the word of God tells us that he said he's coming many times in multiple places. Praise the Lord for that, right? So Peter's reminding us the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count laziness or slackness, right? He's not slow. The Lord didn't forget. But his long suffering, Peter continues, not willing that any should perish. So why has the Lord not come yet? Because there's so many people perishing, right? There's so many people out there that still need to touch the hem of the garment of Christ. There's so many people that need to hear Jesus say to them, go in peace. Your faith has made you whole, right? So many people need to be introduced to Jesus even while we're waiting for him to come to our house. You follow me? It's critical that we remember that the Lord is not slack. He's not delaying because he's indifferent to our needs. He's not delaying his coming because he doesn't care about us anymore of his church. Or his remnant church. He does care. But he's waiting because there's some serious, serious salvation that needs to occur, right? People are lost. Many are in the valley of decision. And unfortunately, even in the church, people are in the valley of decision. So it's not just that the Lord has to come in contact with other people before he comes back to this world, but his own people, some of us, are in the valley of decision, right? Some of us need to have a re-acquaintance with Jesus. Some of us need to reach out in faith and touch his garment again. Some of us have lost our way. Some of us, maybe 12 years, have been drifting in and out of church on Sabbath, but drifting away from God. So many things need to happen. He's not delaying his coming because he's slack or lazy. Jesus is still on his way. It's just that there are some people that need to be saved before he gets to our house. Amen? He knows our conflict. Good thing Jesus, or good thing Jairus, went to Jesus for help. Can you say amen to that? It's a good thing he went to Jesus for help. Because you know what happens when you go to earthly people for help? It may help for a day. It may help for a week. It may even help for a month. Hey, it may even help for a whole year. I'll give him a year. You go to marriage seminars, marriage counseling, worldly marriage seminars and counseling, maybe it'll work for a year. Maybe. Maybe it'll get you going five years. But when our help comes from the world, it never lasts. Because the world can't fix our problems. We can find some good psychology here and there, but only Jesus can fix our problems for good, right? So praise the Lord that Jairus went to Jesus for help and not the world. Because if he had gone to anybody else for help and his buddies came over and said, your daughter's dead, Jairus might as well have just called it a day. I'm done, right? Go home, mourn with my wife, it's all over. But praise the Lord he went to Jesus. Because when Jesus is around, even though your conflict may seem completely, completely unraveled and with no end in sight and completely down the tubes, no point in it anymore, if Jesus is around, guess what? He can turn it around. If Jesus is around, he can turn it around. Amen? So we just have to believe. It's not that Jesus gets distracted by other people, he's on a mission. He hasn't forgotten about our need. Praise God for that. Verse 50, Jesus turns to Jairus right after these individuals say, leave him alone. Jesus turns to Jairus and says, don't be afraid. There are those words again, you're going to hear them a lot in scripture. Don't be afraid. We serve a God who says don't be afraid. Only believe and she will be made well. Should be a little easier for Jairus now because even though he's frustrated with the situation, he just saw a woman be healed merely by touching Jesus' garment, right? That's why Jesus turns to Jairus and says, only believe and she will be made well. In other words, in the midst of your conflict, don't stop believing. Amen? Only believe. He was telling Jairus, stand in the faith you came to me at the first whip. Don't give up. Nothing may make sense, but you stand on that same faith you came to me at the beginning. You're going to be all right. Just believe. The Bible continues and tells us what happened. When Jesus came to the house, he permitted no one to go in except Peter, James and John and the father and mother of the girl. This is where it gets really funny. Not really. Now all wept and mourned for her, but he said, do not weep. She's not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. They made fun of him, knowing that she was dead. But he said, get out. I imagine Jesus saying, get out, right? You know, Jesus is very calm. He's very patient. But sometimes Jesus just rebuked the enemy. Get out, right? I rebuke thee, Satan. Get out. The devil was arguing over Zechariah, right? And Jesus says, get away from me. This is a bran plucked from the fire. Get out. And the reason Jesus says this and a pen of inspiration says that the noise was troubling to his ear. In other words, Jesus was annoyed too, right? Jairus is annoyed. He's a little happier now that they're back at the house and Jesus said, everything's going to be okay. But guess what? Jesus is annoyed too. She says the noise was troubling to his ear. Why? Well, because back then in that culture, if somebody dies, you got all these people in town show up. You don't even know them. You don't know Jack from Jill or whoever else, but they all show up to mourn over the loss of your loved one, right? Who are these people? Why did they show up at their funeral? That was the custom. Everybody shows up and just mourns, right? Like who are you? But that was the custom, right? Everybody's sitting there mourning over Jairus daughter. We didn't ever met in their life. Jesus shows up and said, bring James John and the parents in and everybody's and everybody's looking at him. And Jesus says, she's going to be okay. She's just sleeping. They start laughing at Jesus, right? So question is, were these people really supportive of Jairus situation? Now they weren't right. Use your friends carefully. Choose to surround yourself by people of faith who are going to support your faith when you need it to be supported, right? Not by a bunch of fakers. People who are shallow, right? They say you're your friend, but really when times get tough, they're not your friend. They're there just to make a hoop and holler and a whole bunch of noise, right? And the reason that this is proven by the fact that when Jesus says she's sleeping, all of a sudden they're not concerned about their dead daughter anymore. They start making fun of Jesus. These are fakers, right? They're just there to put on the show. And that's why Jesus says, get out, right? And I'm sure that was music to Jairus here. That's right. Get them out of here. I don't even know them. Anyway, I take liberties with this stuff, but, but that's biblical. These are fakers. These are not real people of faith. Bible says they laughed at them. They didn't care about Jairus daughter anymore as soon as Jesus said something that they didn't agree with. That was their opportunity to have a good time. Surround yourself with people of faith. It's interesting that the Bible mentioned that she was 12 years old. It's interesting because at 12 years old in the Jewish culture and Jewish understanding, that was the age of accountability. In other words, that's when you could stand on your own and say, here's my story. And you would be under obligation to tell the truth because of the all searching, all knowing eye of God, right? You were accountable before God to tell the truth. It's interesting. Little element really has nothing to do. Who cares if he was 12 years old, right? But it was significant in that culture. And so Luke mentioned it because he's a physician who cares about details. He mentioned that she's 12 years old because he's trying to tell us, he's trying to tell us something that we are accountable for the story that we have in our own life, right? We are accountable to God to share our story with the world. And even if the world disagrees and ridicules us, it's okay because you know what? We know the truth. And so does God. So share your story. Her testimony would have had serious implications had she been lying. Anyway, the Bible continues in verse 54, but he put them all outside, took her by the hand and called saying, little girl arise. Then her spirit returned and she arose immediately and he commanded that she be given something to eat. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them to tell no one what happened. What a day of rejoicing that must have been in Jarrah's house. You know, Jesus really cares about the little kids. Kids are always hungry. How many of you kids like to eat a good meal? You're probably getting hungry because we're running late today, right? But Jesus cares. He raises up Jarrah's daughter and the first thing he says, you know, let's not have a, let's have a big marching procession, right? Where everybody can, can look at me and remind everybody that I'm the son of God. And he says, give her something to eat, right? Jesus cares about the little things, what seemed like the little things in life. Make her some food, make her some, her favorite thing, peanut butter and jelly, whatever, right? Make her some food. Jesus cares about our kids, totally cares about them. Make her something to eat. What a day of rejoicing that must have been in Jarrah's house. The truth is as we finish, it really doesn't matter how bad things get. Jesus can fix and will fix it all one day. Amen. There's been times in my marriage where my wife and I have prayed for things and have had to wait. And sometimes that wait was painful. In fact, when we got to California, we had to pray for a whole year for her to get a job. And while everybody else was praising the Lord for good jobs and everything else, it was not easy. We were living on my income. And that was after the, after we had given the wrong figures of what I was going to make as a pastor, right? When the conference told me it was half of what we expected. And a whole year, that was after we had already put the down payment on our house we were going to rent. It was not an easy first couple of years. But within a year, the Lord gave my wife exactly the job that she had prayed for. My wife said, I don't want to work on Sabbath because I'm a pastor's wife. I want to be able to take care of the kids when necessary. I want to be able to, what are some of the other things? Flexible hours. Yeah. Flexible hours. And that's exactly what she got. Exactly. But we had to wait. It was painful waiting, but it strengthened our faith. Once the answer came and now she, it's even better job because she can work from home. But when the answer came, then we could look back and say, you know what? God is faithful. It was not easy, but in the end, even when it seemed hopeless, even when the bills were getting higher and higher and higher and bigger and bigger, right? Even when it seemed hopeless, Jesus was still there, was still there. And in his time, when he answered, it felt like the perfect time. There's something about when Jesus finally does what, careful how I say this. There's something about when Jesus answers the prayer you've been praying. You may feel like you've waited forever, but when the answer comes, you feel like it didn't come a moment too late because Jesus does everything just right. And we learn from these experiences. And so even in the experience of Jairus, having an only daughter who died must've been horrible, but guess what? I bet he didn't care at all. Once she was raised to life and he was cooking up her sandwich on the stove with his wife or whatever the heck you have, right? I'm sure he just didn't care. He probably looked back on that situation and said, no wonder Jesus stopped. That poor woman had an issue of blood for 12 years. Anyway, there's so many things to learn from this. The most important thing is that God wants us to share our story and God wants us to hear the stories of others because in every story, there are critical elements to our experience. There is the hero. That's Jesus, right? There's the antagonist. That's the devil, the fake friends, people who say they're of faith, but they're really not, right? And then there are the characters. There's characters in the story and there's situational settings, the context. All these things make our stories real. And that is why the elders obtained a good testimony through faith. Amen? Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, we choose to believe what we don't see based on how we know God has led us in the past. We choose to believe what we don't see as if it's there because we know that God is faithful. And by it, the elders obtained a good story. So don't get discouraged by the conflict in your life. Every story has conflict, every good story. Nobody sits in front of a movie for two hours if there's no element of conflict. It's boring. Might as well just watch the grass grow, right? Don't get discouraged in the midst of your conflict. God is making and developing an awesome story in your life. You may have to wait a while, as painful as it may be, but guess what? Jesus knows what he is doing. And even we have to wait at the church, but guess what? Jesus knows what he's doing. Are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? That is the question. So many lessons, but ultimately one day when we're in heaven, we're all going to be able to share our awesome story. And we're not going to have to share it or wait for it in the midst of a tragic need. Amen? We can take a hundred years. Dan, you can take a hundred years. I had to wake Dan up. Don't tell him I told you that. No, he wasn't sleeping. You can share your story a hundred years, right? And it's okay, because I'm not going to be waiting for something critical to happen. You can take a hundred years. Amen? We can take as much time as we need to share our story, because we're going to be there for eternity. And we are going to be listening to everybody's story for all eternity. And guess what else? We're going to go to uninhabited worlds. No, that doesn't make any sense. We're going to go to other worlds who are anxious to hear our redemption story. And they're going to sit and wait and listen. Isn't that a great, great, awesome thing to look forward to? Angels are eager to look into our stories, and all the other worlds who have never fallen are anxious to hear how God has worked in our life. And we can share all those details of what seemed to be waiting for eternity, but guess what? We are not going to care one bit, because when we're there, nothing else will matter, because Jesus is there. Lord Jesus. It's hard waiting sometimes, and sometimes our faith feels like it is literally about to crumble. But help us to remember that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're the same Jesus that we invited into our hearts yesterday, or 20 years ago, or 40 years ago. And you've promised that you would never leave us nor forsake us. So please, dear Jesus, help us in the midst of our circumstances. You already know our needs. Just help us to be faithful. Help us to stand in the faith with which we once came to you, not just in our personal circumstances, but even ultimately as a church. And empower us, Lord, also to share our story with the lost and dying world, that they too can touch your garment as we introduce them to you. We thank you, Lord, for these things today, and ask all of these things. In the worthy, precious name of Jesus, all the church said, Amen. Amen. God bless all of you. He is faithful.