In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the brevity and straightforwardness of the Bible in describing significant events, such as the resurrection of a dead girl. The speaker emphasizes the power of Jesus' words and actions, as he simply commands the girl to arise and she is immediately healed. The sermon also highlights the importance of testifying to the transformative work of God in one's life, as seen in the story of the woman who touched Jesus' garment and was healed. The speaker encourages listeners to remember that God's power is still at work today and to share their own experiences of encountering God with others.

Okay, let's open our Bibles tonight to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5, we're continuing to make our way through the Gospel of Mark, and we come to verse 21 this evening in the fifth chapter. And Jesus had gone from the western side of the Sea of Galilee, where he lived and where he spent most of his time, over to the other side, to the eastern side. And we saw that when he arrived there, he was immediately accosted by a demon-possessed man. And we saw in our previous study how the Lord took that man who was really hopeless from a human point of view, and how the Lord took him and delivered him and healed him and blessed him, and how that man longed to go with the Lord and join up and be part of that band of men that were traveling with Jesus. But Jesus instead sent him back home, said, go back and tell your family, go back and tell your friends the great things that God has done for you. And so he went throughout that region known as the region of the Decapolis. He went throughout that region, and as he went he was just really praising the Lord. He was blessing God. He was telling people about the great things that God had done for him. Now as we come to verse 21, Jesus is now crossed back over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where he had his residence and where he carried on most of his ministry. And so it says, and a great multitude gathered to him and he was by the sea. So this was really, you know, just sort of the daily course of events at this time in the ministry of Jesus. Wherever he went he couldn't escape the crowds, multitudes of people, thousands and thousands of people were coming to him from all parts of that land. And they were coming to hear him teach, and they were coming to be touched by him and hopefully healed. And so once again he's surrounded by a great crowd of people, and he's there by the sea, and undoubtedly he is now teaching them again. And in the course of the teaching session, whatever it was he was talking about at this time, we don't know for certain, but as was the case so many times, people would just sort of, you know, burst into the situation. You remember how we saw how he was teaching in that one house, and as he was there giving his message, suddenly the ceiling started to crack and drops would have began to come down onto the crowd sitting in there. And as they looked up, here was a man that was being lowered, and of course he was a man who was in need of healing. And that was the only way they could get him into the house because of the great crowd. And so here's another incident where Jesus is teaching, and suddenly someone interrupts him. Someone burst in to that teaching environment with a great need. And so here we read about a man who is a ruler. Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and he begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. And so here's this man. Now we have to understand, again get sort of a picture of the background here, by this time in the ministry of Jesus, as Mark is recording it, Jesus would have already been sort of an outlaw to the religious leadership. He would have already been marked and labeled as someone who was dangerous. And so the people who were in positions of spiritual leadership, like this man here, Jairus, he would have been probably warned by his superiors not to associate with Jesus, not to have anything to do with him. He probably would have been told by them that Jesus was a dangerous person, and that he was speaking heretically, and so forth. And so here's this man who, really in this desperate situation, he's really ready to just put everything on the line. He's jeopardizing his whole position, his whole, you know, place in life as the ruler that was a significant thing to be a ruler of a synagogue. But yet there's something even more important that's driving him, and that is his love for his child. And he realizes that there's nothing that he can do. He realizes there's nothing anyone else can do, but he knows about Jesus. He's heard about his miracles. He's heard the testimonies, perhaps, of people who had been touched by him. And I would imagine, this is just conjecture on my part, but I would imagine that he probably sat, and as he watched his daughter deteriorate, and as he watched her draw closer and closer to death's door, he probably was torn inside. He probably had, even earlier on, that sense that, I should go to Jesus. I think he could be the one to help, but then he had to consider his position. He had to consider the warnings that he, perhaps, had received from the leadership. He had to consider what this would mean to his reputation. But there came a point where none of that really mattered anymore, because it was his daughter. And she was of more value to him than anything. And so he cast off all of those fears and all of those things that would have maybe kept a person in another situation back from approaching the Lord. And he comes to Jesus, and the amazing thing to me here is that when he comes, he falls down at his feet. And so this guy is just radically humbling himself. He's just casting off all of, you know, his dignity and his pride. And he's coming before Jesus as a helpless person in dire need. You know, so many people are kept back from the Lord, and kept back from heaven, from eternal life, because of one thing, and that is pride. So many people are so concerned about what everybody else thinks of them. And just the thought of, you know, what others might say if they were to walk away from their position, they were to walk away from their lifestyle and start following Jesus. Oh, that's just too much for some people to take. But think about it. How foolish. How foolish it is to worry about what someone else is going to say when eternity is in the balance. It's an utterly foolish thing. Whatever dignity a person might have, they need to drop it quick when it comes to the issue of Jesus Christ and eternal life, because it's not worth holding on to. Or you might save face with your friends. You might still, you know, look cool and get their respect. But what good is that going to do you on the day of judgment? It's not going to matter then at all, because they're not going to be there standing with you, applauding you at that time. They've got their own appointed day of judgment. And so there's a good lesson in here as we see how this man just cast off all of those things, and he comes and he completely humbles himself before Jesus. He cast himself at the feet of Jesus, and he begged him. He begged him earnestly to come. And notice what he says. He says, come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live. So this man, he has faith. He believes that Jesus can do this. He's heard the reports. He's listened to the testimonies. He might have even seen some of the miracles of Jesus. We don't know exactly the background, but he has become convinced that Jesus is the one person that can help his little girl. And so Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. So as was the case always with the Lord, he was perfectly willing to help and anxious to help. And that's really the case today as well. You know, there's never a time when when you would come to the Lord and he would say, you know, I really can't help you. I'm busy. You know, I've got a lot of other things going on. You know, you might you might want to come back later, and perhaps I can give you some time then. He'll never do that. But think about that for a moment. How many people would do that to us? How many people are there in the world that we have no access to whatsoever? We, you know, even if we begged and pleaded, we couldn't get an audience with him. But listen, look at this. This is the Son of God. This is God himself. And as this man comes, and as he pleads with him, Jesus is very willing. He goes with him. And so it is today. As we come to the Lord, as we call out to him, as we beg him and plead with him and ask for his help, he's willing to help us today. He doesn't turn us away. I love what Jesus himself said. He said, whoever comes to me, I will never cast him out. I will never turn him away. There's not a single person that could come to Jesus and have Jesus say, no, I'm sorry. You know, I'm not interested. I can't help you. I don't want to save you. There's not anybody. Doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done. You know, sometimes people think, man, my, my life has been such a disaster. I have been so bad. The Lord, I don't think he'd even want me. I don't think I could come to him. I think he would, he would just say no. But Jesus gave us the promise that he would never turn anyone away. Whoever would come to him, he would never turn them away. And so we see how willingly he goes with this man. So they now head toward the home of this man. Jesus is, is going along with Jairus and notice there's a great multitude and people are thronging him. So the picture is that of a, of a crowd that is just pushing, you know, you've been in those crowds perhaps before where you're just, you know, pushed up against one another. There's not any room hardly to, to even move. That's the kind of scene that we're looking at here. And, and here's this crowd moving down the street. Everybody's cramped up against one another. And now a certain woman, a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. And when she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and she touched his garment. For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. So they're going along in this crowd and everybody's so cramped together, they can barely move. And here's this woman. Now it says that she had an issue of blood for 12 years. This would have been a dreadful state for a woman to be in at that time because of course they didn't have the medical procedures and things that we have today. They didn't have the developments and the advancements. So she would have been physically very, very weakened because of this continual loss of blood. It would have just pretty much sapped the life out of her physically. She would have been emotionally suffering as a result of it because a woman in this condition was deemed unclean in that culture. So she would have, you know, in a sense been ostracized and, and suffered emotionally from it. And even spiritually there was a negative ramification of this condition in that she could not really approach the temple under these circumstances. And so we see a person who was physically, emotionally, and spiritually suffering tremendously because of this condition. And for 12 long years, 12 years and throughout the long years she had sought the physicians. She'd spent every penny she had and she was not any better. She was actually getting worse. But again, she, like Jairus, she knew about Jesus. And so in her mind she came up with a plan. She said, I'm just going to sneak up on him and I'm just going to touch his garment because I know, I believe that if I just touch him that that will result in my healing. Tremendous faith this woman has. And so she does that very thing. She comes up upon him in the crowd and she touches his garment and it says immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. Amazing. Instantly, just the moment she touched him, she knew that the healing had taken place. Now for just a moment, let's pause and look at her as sort of a picture of many others. Here's a woman in a desperate state, in a miserable condition physically, emotionally, spiritually. And notice she has gone to those physicians of the day. She's gone to the places where she thought she might be helped, but she's come away empty. And she's broke now. She spent all of her money. She actually has no other recourse at this point. So she's really in a helpless state, in sort of a hopeless state at this stage because she's tried all of the remedies. She's been to the many, many physicians and she probably had gone through some really bizarre kinds of treatments. She had probably been the victim of a number of experiments and it was a miserable, miserable experience. But at the end of it, she's worse off. And so she's like many today. Many people who are suffering in a variety of ways and they're going from place to place, from thing to thing, and they're thinking that, okay, this is going to solve it for me. This will heal me. This is going to provide the remedy that I'm looking for. But yet, it's not there. And they find that instead of things getting better, things keep getting worse and getting worse. You know, I heard recently about a person who had made a comment to another person in regard to their own condition, sort of their emotional condition, and just their whole perspective on life. They're struggling and having difficulties and they're in counseling presently. They're going in for psychological counseling. And it was an interesting comment that the person made. She said that in 25 years of counseling, she finds that she's worse off now than she was when she started. And that's just so typical of the remedies that the world has to offer. You see, the problem is, the world has no remedy for what the real problem is. The real problem in the life of every single person is the problem of sin. And there's no remedy in the world for sin. There's nothing that the world has to offer that can deal with that problem. And it's not until you come and get that problem dealt with by the only one who can deal with it, Jesus Christ, that you can begin to be restored, that you can be healed. And so she is just really a picture of the masses of people who have gone from thing to thing and place to place in hopes of getting a cure, but it hasn't happened. But notice, the moment she touches Jesus, she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. You know, I've been a Christian now for just about 25 years. And, well, I can't believe it's been that long. Time has gone by so quickly. But I can tell you honestly that I have seen the most amazing transformations of people's lives over the years. And I have seen people with my own eyes, and I've spoken to them and listened to their stories. People who were so messed up through various abuses and things that there really, there just wasn't anything that could help them at that point. And they had gone through the gamut of, you know, the AA and whatever other anonymous thing, depending on their particular vice. And they had gone many times to the shrinks, and they had, you know, consulted with their friends and family and all of the different things. But yet nothing, no remedy. And they just were growing worse and worse. And then, even to their great surprise, they had an encounter with Jesus. And there was an instantaneous transformation. Just like a, just that fast. Now, not meaning, you know, in an instant, their, you know, problems are all over and, you know, they don't have to progress or grow or anything. But a radical change taking place in an instant, altering the course of their life, putting them on a new path, and utterly transforming them. And over the years, the thing that's always really kind of amazed me is to sit sometimes and listen to people. You know, in the position of a pastor, you have a lot of people that will come to you, and they'll come for a variety of reasons. They've got problems in their life, they want to talk about it, they need prayer, or they're looking for direction or whatever. And over the years, I've had people come, and I've known these people a bit perhaps, and I've gotten to know them because they've come to the church, and, you know, they might have been around maybe even for a year or two. But I'd never had any real deep, detailed conversation with them. I just knew them as a Christian and knew they were great people and saw the work of God in their life. And I've had this happen many times where I'd sit there, and in, you know, more of a private kind of a situation, they would open up and start to tell me their story. Start to tell me about their past and where they had come from. And there have been many times when I'd just about fall out of my chair. I couldn't believe it. I just, you know, I had all of these assumptions about this person in my mind, because, again, I met them as a Christian, and, you know, I just saw that wonderful work of God in their life. My assumption was, they'd probably always been like this. But then I start to hear their stories. And I'd find myself at times saying, no way. That's, you couldn't have been that. But it's true. They were. But the power of God is so great that that's what it does. It alters a person's life to the degree that they become unrecognizable as the person they formerly were. I'll never forget, and I've told this story a number of times. I don't know if you've ever been to the beach and in the surf culture and everything. And all of my friends, we all kind of just did the same thing. You know, we partied and did drugs and surfed. And that was pretty much the extent of our lives back in those days. And, and, you know, we were pretty bad guys, just to put it bluntly. And, but in the course of time, some of us began to get saved. And myself and a couple of friends, we got saved first. And then, you know, some time went on. And as time went on, time would progress. A few other people would come along. But there were two guys in particular that were, you know, pretty well known for their, well, how do I put it? Just, you know, basically for their godless lifestyles. We wouldn't have labeled it that, you know, at the time. They were just normal guys. That's what everybody does. But, you know, they were, they were well known in that circle for, you know, all of those kinds of things that would give you notoriety. You know, they dealt drugs and things of that nature. But these two guys, they became Christians. And there was this awesome transformation in their lives. And I'll never forget, a bit later after this had happened and this, you know, radical transformation had occurred, I was talking to another friend. And I was sharing the Lord with him. And he was, you know, listening with interest. And he had, you know, known what had happened to me. We were pretty good friends. And, you know, he recognized that something radical had taken place in my life. And now a few years had passed. And I'd been a Christian for a while. And so as we're talking, suddenly he stops me. He says, hey, what happened to, and he names these two guys, what happened to those guys? And I said this, I said, well, they met the living God. And his response was classic. He looked at me for a minute and he goes, evidently so. And I thought, that was a great response. Evidently so. Their lives were so changed that when I told him what it resulted from, meeting God, he himself bore witness. Yeah, I, okay, I'll accept that. That's how distinct the transformation was. And that's what happened here with this woman in an instant. All the years of trying to find a remedy to the problem, never finding it anywhere, now being completely exhausted and growing worse and worse. In a flash, she touches Jesus and she's healed. Thus is the power of God. That's what God does. And he's still doing it today. And I'm so glad to have had that happen to me. And I'm glad to be able to tell others that it can happen to them. And God help us to remember that. You know, it's always good to remember where we came from. Sometimes it's good to stop and just reflect. And I think sometimes after we've been Christians for a while, we can sort of forget about how great a work God did in our lives. And sometimes it's a good thing to go back and reflect and remember where we were. And it's always, I think, a good thing to share with people when the opportunity arises, what God has done for you. So Jesus now, she senses in her body instantly that she's healed. Jesus, listen to this, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? This is classic right here. But his disciples said to him, you see the multitude thronging you? And you say, who touched my clothes? I mean, they're saying, Lord, give us a break. A lot of people are touching your clothes. I mean, come on, it's crowded in here. But you see, Jesus was talking about something specific. Now, it's not that Jesus didn't know what had happened. Of course, he knew exactly what had happened. He's God. And he had that ability to know those things, his omniscience working there. But he looked around, it says, to see her who had done this thing. Now, remember, he's on his way to the home of Jairus. Jairus has come in desperation because his daughter is on the verge of death. Now, can you imagine Jairus at this point? Jesus is held up. He stops suddenly and he says, who touched me? And Jairus must have been thinking, oh, Lord, please don't worry about who touched you right now. Let's go. I told you, my daughter, she's on the verge of death. But Jesus wants to know who touched him. And so he looks around at the woman who had done this thing. And what Jesus is going to do right now is a twofold thing. He's going to give this woman an opportunity to testify to what has just happened in her life. But in doing so, not only is he going to once again show his power among the people, but he's also, I think, going to greatly encourage Jairus at this moment that his confidence is not in vain, that his hope isn't in vain, because we're going to see as we go on in the story that tragic news will meet them before they ever arrive at the home of Jairus. So Jesus looks around, he sees her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. So she told the whole story. She told the whole story about the issue of blood, the 12 years, the physicians, how she was getting worse, and how she just thought that if she could touch him, she told that whole story. She's basically giving her testimony to the whole crowd. And so he said to her, Daughter, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. Your faith has made you well. It was that belief that Jesus could and would touch her that resulted in that very thing happening. Now, remember, Jairus said, Lord, I know you can heal her. If you come, I know if you come, she will live. But while he was speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? Oh, can you imagine how Jairus must have felt at that moment? How there would have been that sinking of his heart at that instant. But yet all of these things that just occurred no doubt were allowed to occur by God for the very purpose of instilling hope in Jairus in this moment of hopelessness. And so Jesus, verse 36, when he heard the words that were spoken, he said to Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, he said, Do not be afraid, only believe. Don't be afraid. Just believe. Just believe. Remember what I just said to this woman? Your faith has made you whole. Now, incidentally, it'll come out at the end of the story. But incidentally, the woman, remember, suffered for 12 years. The daughter of Jairus happened to be 12 years old. So from the moment that that precious little babe was brought into the home, that woman began to suffer. And now on this day, that woman's suffering is brought to an end. And this little girl seems at this point to have died. But Jesus says, Don't be afraid. Just believe. Now, he then permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. And then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and he saw tumult, those who wept and those who wailed loudly. Now, among the Jewish people, even to this day, when a person dies, there is great lamentation. Even today, among the Jews, whether they're Orthodox or conservative or reformed or, you know, maybe even not religious at all, they have this practice, this tradition that's come down to them of a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep deep, deep and severe mourning when a loved one passes away. And so, now, as this young girl has died, this mourning begins. It's a wailing. There would be these loud wails and sobs. There would be the pulling out of their hair and the ripping of their clothes, all of this being a demonstration of their grief. And I mean, it was the sort of environment that you'd walk into and just all of the grief that would be in the air would just grip you. And it was just, oh, the tragedy of it all. And here's this young girl, 12 years old, on the verge of womanhood. In that culture, at that time, a girl became a woman at about the age of 12. And so here's the classic story of a young life taken suddenly. And we know even to this day how when a young person passes away, that just seems to be so tragic, and people so often are inconsolable as a result of that. But that's the kind of environment that Jesus walked into. He saw a tumult, all of this commotion, all of this activity, and those who wept and wailed loudly. I mean, you'd have to see it for yourself to believe how, you know, just the demonstration of this is really, it's frightening in a sense. When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. Now notice what it says. My translation says, and they ridiculed him. That is a weak word. Really they mocked him, they laughed at him, they scoffed and they began to scorn him. Ridicule is too mild. They were angry that Jesus would even suggest such a thing. And they began to jeer at him and they began to scoff at him. They were scornful toward him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which is translated little girl, I say to you, arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked. She was 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement. But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that someone should give her something to eat. You know, one of the things that the Bible does so often that, you know, on the one hand it really intrigues me, on the other hand it, to me, it supports its divine inspiration is the brevity with which it covers such earth-shaking events. I mean, this is the resurrection of a dead girl and it's just put forth in such a straightforward, no-nonsense, here are the facts manner. It's kind of shocking. It just simply tells us what happened. Jesus walked in and he said, little girl, arise. Took her by the hand and she arose. It does say they were overcome with amazement, great amazement. But sometimes I wish, you know, we could get into that scene ourselves and feel the emotion of the whole thing. But notice something here, verse 41, Talitha Kumi. These are Aramaic words. Now, the New Testament was written in Greek and translated from Greek into English. But notice the Aramaic is not translated and it wasn't translated when the New Testament was written. In other words, although the New Testament was written, Talitha Kumi was written as it is in Aramaic. And, you know, you think about it, Peter, who most Bible scholars believe was sort of the inspiration behind Mark's gospel, Peter was the one who gave the information to Mark and Mark penned it, Peter was there in that room. And obviously what happened is those words of Jesus, Talitha Kumi, impressed him. It left a lasting impression upon his mind so that when the story was retold, they didn't put it into Greek. They put it down just as it was. That was the impression that it left on Peter, just the words, just the beauty of those words and the power in that statement. And Peter just has it pinned just the way he remembers it. I think that's interesting. You know, there are times in all of our lives and in all of our experiences with the Lord where, you know, certain little things God will impress on us. And even though they might be small things in one sense, they stick with us. They remain with us. I can think of things sometimes when I'm, you know, I'm in a rut or I'm downcast or I'm frustrated or something like that, suddenly just some little thing that the Lord might have spoken to me 10, 15 years ago will come and be that encouragement. That same impression that I initially got when God spoke it to me will come back to me and it'll just alleviate, you know, whatever it is that I'm facing at that moment. I love the way the Lord does that, the way the Spirit works in that way. Now, as we look at both of these stories, we see two very desperate people, Jairus and this woman. And we see that in their desperation, they reached out to Jesus. And as we've already mentioned, as they reached out to Him, He was right there to meet them and to do for them what they needed to be done. You know, that Jesus who did that then is alive today and He's still working today. And we need to believe that like they believed it. You know, sometimes someone says, well, you know, I don't really see the Lord working in my life. Well, here's a question. Do you believe that He wants to work in your life? Are you trusting Him to work in your life? Do you have faith? You see, faith is an important part of the equation. And sometimes I think we sort of overlook it. But it's a vitally important part of the equation. I must believe. I must believe that God is good, that God loves me, that God has a plan for my life, that God wants to lead me and guide me and help me and all of those things. I must believe it. You know, in Hebrews, the 11th chapter, the sixth verse, it says this. It says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. For the person who comes to God must believe that He is, number one. And secondly, must believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Now, what does it mean to believe that He is? He that comes to God must believe that He is. Does that mean that we must merely believe that there is a God, that He exists somewhere out there in the universe? Some people think so. Some people say, well, I believe in God. But yet, the God they believe in is a God that's disconnected from life here on earth, disconnected from their life. They believe there's a God, but they don't believe that that God is interested in them, per se. They don't believe that that God is present to speak and to work in their lives personally. You see, that's what's being said there in Hebrews 11. When the author says, he that comes to God must believe that He is, what it means is that we must believe that God is present now, and He's wanting to work in our lives, and He's wanting to work in the lives of other people. That's what pleases God. That's what real faith is. See, faith is believing, God, You're active. You're moving. You're working. You're doing something. You're here right now to minister, to touch, to heal, to save. Lord, You're doing those things. But you see, sometimes our faith is not like that at all. It's sort of, well, you know, yeah, I know there's a God, and yeah, I know He loves me, but I don't know much else. No. We need to know that He is. He is present, and He wants to bless. He wants to work in us. He wants to work His plan through our lives, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Never think that your seeking the Lord is in vain. God said to the people of Israel, who had sort of developed that mentality, they were sort of in a state of mind that was saying, you know, it's kind of useless to seek God. He's not really doing anything anyway. I don't see God working. I mean, come on, I'm praying, and I'm trying to do the right thing, and I'm trying to be the person He wants me to be, but I don't see anything happening. That's kind of the mentality they had. And the Lord rebuked them. He spoke to them, and He said, I did not say to the house of Jacob, seek my face in vain. You see, God was saying, don't get that mentality, that it's a waste of time to seek God, that I'm not working, that I don't want to do something. God said, that's not my plan. And sometimes we fall into that trap of thinking that way, but God has not said to us, seek my face in vain. God has a plan. And He wants to work in our lives. He wants to work through us. He wants to touch people today. He wants to save people. He wants to transform lives. He wants to heal people. He wants to speak to people. He wants to help people out of their problems and the difficulties that they find themselves in. And He wants to use us, His people who know Him, as an instrument to reach out. You see, we're the ones who know Him, so we're the ones who can exercise faith. A very important factor, believing God. Do you tonight believe that God is? Do you believe that God is present? Do you believe that God is concerned? Do you believe that He really does love you? Do you believe that He wants to work out His plan and purpose in your life? Do you believe that He has good things in store for you? If you do, then you will be the recipient of those things. If you don't believe that, I don't know what to tell you. If you don't believe it, you probably won't receive those things that God has because it's faith that He's looking for. And that's what He honored here in these two people. It was their faith. They just believed that Jesus not only could, but that Jesus would work on their behalf. And I think that kind of sums it up. As we close here tonight, that's what it's all about. You know, it's no big act of faith to believe that God can do something for you. If you have any sort of a biblical understanding of God, the logical conclusion is God, of course, can do something for you. He can do anything. But you see, it's an act of faith that says, I believe God will do something. I believe not merely that God can. That's not faith. That's just common sense. That's logic. But I believe God will. I believe God is going to work in this situation. And you know, when we pray for each other, or when we talk to each other, when we encourage each other, we need to do so in faith, just saying, you know, let's pray and let's believe that God is going to hear our prayer and He's going to work this thing out. Or when we speak to people about the Lord, we speak to them confidently, telling them that God is going to work in their lives if they will meet these conditions, whatever the case might be. And so as we look at these stories, I think that's really, among many other things, just the love, the mercy, the compassion of Jesus, the power of God, all of those things. But really, it's a message to encourage us in our faith that we need to trust the Lord, that we need to believe Him, and that He's working today, and that He wants to work. That He's not finished. His work in the world. Sometimes we can look around and see the direction the world's going in and think, oh, it's a hopeless cause. You know, why bother? Let's just give up on it. But by faith we say, no, Lord, I think You want to work. I believe that there are others that You want to bring into the kingdom. I believe, Lord, that You have a plan for my life and You want to do something with me. And by faith I step into that. And that's where I experience that working of God, that power of God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that You are a present help. Lord, that You're not a God who's far off. But Lord, You're very near. And You're near to all those who call upon You. In faith. And we thank You, Lord, that it's just that one simple thing that You look for in our lives. Faith. Trusting You. Believing You. Depending on You. Help us, Lord, like these people that we read about tonight. Help us, Lord, to believe. Not to be unbelieving. Lord, we know from Your Word that when unbelief prevails, You're limited. You're not able to work like You want to when faith is not present. But Lord, You honor faith and You work as Your people trust You. So, Lord, help us tonight to trust You in new ways, in greater ways than we have before. Help us, Lord, to believe that You want to save, that You want to deliver, that You want to heal, that You have a plan, that You want to use us. Lord, increase our faith, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.