You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.
Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now who would say, I would love to have Jesus touch me, but I don't feel His touch. If you're not feeling His touch, reach out to Him and touch Him. He's someone you can reach out to right now. We all need a touch from the Lord, and the Lord is ready to reach out. But too often we're touched and jostled and pummeled by the world around us, and we can't seem to climb out from under the dog pile to feel the touch of the Lord. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us draw inspiration and practical instruction from a pairing of stories in the New Testament when Jesus' touch came to just the right people at just the right time.
Good encouragement is ahead. This is the day, the day when life begins. This is a story of two very different people. One was a man, the other was a woman.
One was unknown, one was relatively famous. What they had in common was they both needed Jesus. Let's look now at Mark chapter five starting in verse 21.
We read these words. Jesus went with them, and all the people followed, crowding around Him. A woman in the crowd who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding and had suffered a great deal from many doctors over the years and spent everything she had to pay him but had gotten no better, but in fact had gotten worse, heard about Jesus. So she came up from behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe, for she thought to herself, if I can touch His robe, I can be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel it in her body, and she had been healed of her terrible condition. Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from Him, and He turned around to the crowd and said, who touched me? And the disciples turned and said, Lord, this crowd is all around You. How can You ask who touched me?
But He kept looking around because He wanted to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done. And Jesus said, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.
Don't you love that story? Who touched me? The disciples basically say, excuse me, Jesus, who didn't touch you. Everybody's touching you. They're grabbing you. They're pulling on you.
They want to be near you. No, but someone touched me in a different way because power went out of Him. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now who would say, I would love to have Jesus touch me, but I don't feel His touch.
Then be like this woman. If you're not feeling His touch, reach out to Him and touch Him. The Bible says draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
He's touchable. He's someone you can reach out to right now. So here's this woman. She's healed and Jesus wants to commend her. She probably thought, oh, no, I'm scared. He's going to be mad at me.
He wasn't mad. He wanted to say, lady, way to go. This was an act of great faith, which you did. Meanwhile, as this beautiful story is unfolding, something tragic now happens. Go back to Mark, chapter 5, verse 35. While He was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, and they told Him, your daughter is dead.
No use in troubling the teacher now. Here's this next verse. Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, don't be afraid.
Just have faith. How devastating that must have been for Jairus to hear those words, your daughter is dead. I've stood in the shoes of Jairus, not losing a daughter, but losing a son. Our son Christopher went to be with the Lord 12 years ago. He died in an automobile accident. I remember distinctly the day I heard the unthinkable news that he was no longer with us.
To see my life changed is an understatement. I bring this up from time to time. Maybe someone would say, Greg, maybe you should stop talking about it. Maybe you need to get over it. Let me just say to you, if you know someone who's lost a loved one, especially a child, never say to them, you need to get over it.
That's an aberration. You see, we know that we'll lose grandparents in time. We know that our parents will die in time. We know even a spouse could potentially die, but we never make plans for our children preceding us to death.
It's out of the natural order. That is not something a parent gets over. Even decades after it happens, they still remember it. It's still painful. But you can get through it, and that's why I bring it up.
Because whenever I bring this topic up, I'm flooded with responses. People write me, they call me, and they ask me for help. Because when you've heard that your child has died, you almost feel as though your life is over and your world has ended, and you don't know how you're going to get through it. And so what I want to say to someone right now, if you've lost a loved one, and especially a child, you can get through this by hanging on to Jesus Christ.
He's your only hope at a time like this. Jairus heard those dreadful words, your daughter is dead. But I love the response of Jesus. He said, don't be afraid, just have faith.
You see, Jairus had to choose which voice he was going to listen to. Are you going to listen to the voice of the man that just said, your daughter is dead? Or are you going to listen to the voice of Jesus who said, don't be afraid, just have faith? And in the same way, we choose every day what voice we're going to listen to. Are we going to listen to the voice of God as He speaks to us through Scripture, through our Christian friends, maybe even through this message?
Or are we going to listen to the voice of the culture? Or even the voice of the devil who would say to you, you're worthless. You'll never amount to anything. You're pathetic. You're a failure. You shouldn't even be alive. Your life isn't even worth living. He's a liar. Don't listen to that voice.
Listen to the voice of God who says, I love you. I have a plan for you. I have a future for you. Trust me. Don't be afraid. You know, Jairus could have beat himself up over this and said, this is my fault.
I should have been more persistent. I think when a child dies, the father may react differently than the mother. The father feels he needed to fix it. You know, dad's fix things, right? You know, when a child wants assurance they go to mom for a hug, but when they need something done, or they need some money or something repaired, dad, can you do this?
We're used to fixing things and it's very frustrating when you can't fix the child who has left you. And so he probably felt horrible about this. But it's amazing to me because we don't see him saying anything like that. We see him trusting the Lord and waiting on the Lord. And it's kind of an amazing thing that Jairus approached Jesus and humbled himself and begged Jesus to help him.
Listen, it's hard for us to understand this. Jesus was not high on the cultural ladder. Jairus was very high on the ladder. He's a spiritual leader of the local synagogue. He was a somebody. Jesus, wasn't he like the son of a carpenter? And wasn't he from Nazareth, not a city with a great reputation? As Nathanael said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Yet this man of prestige and power humbles himself before Jesus because he recognized Jesus was not the son of a carpenter.
He recognized Jesus was the son of God. And Jesus has the ability to heal my daughter. But now he needs something even greater than a healing. He needs a resurrection. And he's waiting on the Lord to do his work. I love what Christ says.
Don't be afraid. Go on believing. There in verse 36.
That can be literally translated, keep on believing. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. You know, sometimes we can't always make it to church, but here's the good news. Church is coming to you.
It's coming to you on your TV screen or on your tablet or your computer or even your phone. We do it every weekend and it's called Harvest at Home. We have worship. We have a message from the word of God. If you want to find out more, just go to Harvest.org and join us this weekend for Harvest at Home. Well, we're in Mark chapter 5 today as Pastor Greg is leading our study of Jesus' healing of Jairus' daughter. And by the way, today is our last opportunity to mention our featured resource. A book called The Women of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream.
Get it by calling 1-800-821-3300. Here's Pastor Greg once again. So now they come to the home of Jairus. What a tragic and depressing scene they come to. They have all these whalers who are moaning and crying and playing musical instruments. This doesn't make sense to us today, but back in this culture, depending on your level of income, when someone died you would bring in literally professional whalers. I don't know where you found them. Maybe you Googled and it was like whalers are us.
I don't know. But these people would come and they would play musical instruments and scream and moan. And so that's the scene Christ comes to. All these people lamenting and crying and the music is playing. And Jesus walks in and here's what happens. Look at Mark chapter 5 verse 38. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. He went inside and he asked, Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn't dead.
She is only sleeping. Don't miss the next verse. And the crowd laughed at him.
Wait. What? Oh they went from mourning to mockery in a nanosecond. Unbelief laughs at God's word, but faith believes for a miracle.
Clearly this environment was not conducive to what Jesus wanted to do. He tells all these people, Get out. Leave the room. They're all upset. Taking their musical instruments.
Guy blowing the flute a couple extra times. Just leave. I don't want any of you here.
Peter, James, John. Come on guys. Come with me. And they go in to see this amazing sight of what Jesus is about to do. Jesus says, The child is not dead.
She's only sleeping. You know death for a Christian is often compared in the Bible to sleeping. By the way that analogy is never used of death for the non-believer. Only of the believer. The Bible talks for the Thessalonians about those that sleep.
Speaking of those that are dead or are in the graves. You know when I was a little kid I hated it when someone would say to me, It's time to take a nap. Oh I hated naps as a kid. Now if my wife says, Greg why don't you go take a nap?
I'm like, Yes. So it's all how you see it. But we don't have to be afraid of sleep or a nap. When even Stephen the first martyr of the church was put to death by stoning.
A violent way to die. The Bible says he fell asleep. So Jesus says she's only sleeping. And then he raises her again. We read here in Mark that he goes to the little girl and he says to her, Little lamb arise. And immediately life comes back into her body and we read that she's walking around.
And I love this detail. Jesus said, Give her something to eat. Isn't that great?
Yeah you're raised from the dead. Probably hungry. Have something to eat.
Give this girl a sandwich. Amazing story. How my heart would have rejoiced if someone would have said to me, Your son has risen from the dead.
But that didn't happen for me. I've never shared this detail publicly. But the fact is after our son died we wanted to go see him. His body. And we were told he was unviewable.
So I never got to see him in any way after he passed into eternity. I was given a plastic bag with the things that he had with him. It had his watch. It had his wedding ring. And it had his wallet. And in his wallet there was a little card for a carousel he would take his daughter Stella on.
And it just was heartbreaking. And I held this watch. And this is a watch I gave to him.
And on the back of the watch I inscribed these words. Jeremiah 29 11. I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope.
And now my son is gone. And I'm reading the scripture on the back of his watch and I'm thinking where's the future and the hope? Well the future and the hope ultimately is in heaven isn't it? It's being with Jesus. And though it was devastating that day and it's still heartbreaking to this day I have that hope still. And Jeremiah 29 11 is still one of my favorite verses because I know I will see my son again. Because death is not the end of the road.
It's just a bend in the road that leads to heaven. Recently I was asked to go see a lady from our church who was dying of cancer. And I remember this lady in particular. She was in her 60s. She would often sit in the front row lifting her hands in praise of the Lord. She was one of the most joyful people I've ever seen. She'd even done a little dance.
She kind of did when she was worshipping the Lord. And now she's in a bed and hospice at home ready to pass into eternity. So I went over to her home and her family was gathered around her and I spoke to her.
She was not conscious but maybe she heard me. And I shared scriptures with her about the hope that was before her as she entered into God's presence. I spoke to her family about the hope that we have in Christ that our loved ones who proceed us to heaven are not just a part of our past.
They're also a part of our future. And we had prayer together. So look sometimes God heals. And it's a glorious thing when he does. And I've seen people healed as we've prayed for them. And we give him the glory. Sometimes God allows the sickness to remain so he can be glorified through it.
Sometimes he does it a little more slowly than you would like him to. And sometimes he just allows our life to follow the natural cycle. The Bible says there's a time to be born and there's a time to die and then we're all going to pass into eternity. The Bible says our life is like a vapor of smoke. It appears for one moment and vanishes away.
A vapor of smoke. Life comes and goes so quickly. The Bible says life is like a story.
It's already been told. But what really matters is the afterlife. The afterlife which goes on forever. The before life. The life we're in now is pretty short in comparison isn't it? We don't know when this life will end.
But what we want to make sure of is that we have a relationship with God. As glorious as it was that this woman was healed of this medical condition. She ultimately died didn't she? As wonderful as it was that the daughter of Jairus was brought back to life.
She died and Jairus died and we all die. And Christ died and rose again from the dead. And because he died and rose again from the dead we don't have to be afraid to die as Christians. That doesn't mean we have a death wish.
It doesn't mean we don't take care of ourselves. But what it does mean is we know that we will go to heaven one day and be with him. And I want to ask you in closing if you were to die today tonight would you go to heaven? You might say well I hope so.
I hope so. I've lived a good life. Tried to be a good person.
Well you know what? It's not about being a good person. Because the reality is you and I and all of us are sinners and we've all broken God's commandments. Heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for forgiven people. And the only way you're going to get to heaven and the only way I'm going to get to heaven is not based on what I've done.
It's based on what he did. And what did he do? Jesus died on the cross in your place. As the apostle Paul said he loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus summed it up this way. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. And whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Christ died so you can live. And you can come into a relationship with him right now. And know with certainty. Not hope. Know that you'll go to heaven when you die.
The Bible says these things we write to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You say ok well I want that. I want Jesus in my life. What do I need to do?
Number one. You need to admit you're a sinner. The Bible says all of sin and falling short of God's glory.
Just own it. Admit it. Don't make excuses for it. Say I know I've sinned and broken God's commandments.
Number two. Recognize Christ died on the cross for your sin. That's why he went to the cross. It wasn't an aberration or an interruption of his beautiful ministry. It was the focus and purpose of his ministry. He came to that little manger in Bethlehem to live a perfect life and then to die a perfect death. Recognize Christ died for you.
Thirdly. You need to repent of your sins. The Bible says God has commanded people everywhere to repent. What does that mean? It means to change your direction. It's a military term.
It means to do an about face. So you turn away from your sin and turn toward God. And then you must receive Christ into your life. You must say, Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sin.
I want to be your child. Jesus says he stands at the door and he knocks. And if we'll hear his voice and open the door, he will come in.
Have you asked Jesus to come into your life yet? One last thing. Do it now. Don't do it tomorrow. Don't do it in a month. Don't do it in 20 years.
Do it now. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. I'm telling you right now you can pray a prayer with me and then as a result of that know that your sin is forgiven and know that you'll go to heaven when you die and start discovering God's amazing plan for you. So if you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want your guilt taken away, I want you to pray with me right now.
That's right. Right now I want you to pray with me. In fact, you could pray this prayer that I'm about to pray out loud after me.
Just pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I know that you are the Savior who died for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and friend. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie with those who are asking Jesus to be their Savior today. If you've just prayed that prayer, first of all we want to welcome you into the family of God, and we want to help you as you begin to live this new life of faith. We want to send you our New Believers Growth Packet.
It's a collection of materials to help you get started in your walk with the Lord. It's free of charge, so ask for the New Believers Growth Packet as you write, A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We're here to take your call anytime, 24-7.
Again, dial 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And then it's a privilege to have Shannon Breen with us today. You may recognize that name. She's an anchor at Fox News and also their chief legal correspondent. She's just released a brand new book called The Women of the Bible Speak.
The subtitle is The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today. And Shannon, you mention in the book that one of your favorite stories is that of Deborah, who appears in Judges 4 and 5. Why is she your favorite?
I love her because she then bucks the message that so many people who are intimidated by the Bible or by religion or by the Christian faith will say, well, women aren't respected. But the truth is Deborah defies every wrong thought about the Bible and about women's role in the Bible because she was the leader of Israel. She was a judge. She was leading at that time. The people had gotten away from the Lord, as all of us do in our lives, and they really needed help. Well, they had Deborah as a judge, so she's settling disputes. She's giving them guidance. And God comes to her and says, I want you to lead Israel.
I want Israel to go in battle against the Canaanites who had been oppressing them. And she goes and gathers their military commander, Barak, and says, hey, God has said we're supposed to go take on these people, get the men together and let's go. And he's sort of like, whoa, whoa, whoa, because the odds were not in their favor by any stretch. But he said, I'll only go if you go with me. And she says, OK, I will go, but you will not get the glory of getting the opposing general, Sisera.
He will be delivered into the hands of a woman because you're making me go with you. And so then that's where we meet Yael later on in the story. So there are two powerful women there who were leaders. Here, Deborah is leading the entire nation of Israel and is called into battle and doesn't question God.
Against all odds, she says, OK, let's go. And I hope I would be more like Deborah. And I just think she's a great example of leadership. Yeah, she really is a bold catalyst for change and such an example for women today. And the book is filled with one example after another, true heroes worth following today.
They're all captured in the new book, The Women of the Bible Speak, by author and news anchor Shannon Bream. We'll send you this new book to thank you for your investment. That helps us continue to bring these daily studies and to help touch lives. Listen to this comment. I've been listening to your podcast since I was quarantined at home, having contracted covid-19.
It was a depressing time for me because I felt fine, but was confined to my home over Christmas. Your studies brought me joy and precious time filling my heart and mind with his truth. I love your sense of humor and that you preach the truth. Well, you know, as you're listening today, countless others are as well. Many who are facing challenging times and your investment in these studies helps us continue to reach out. And with your donation right now in the amount of your choosing, we'll thank you with this new book, The Women of the Bible Speak.
And today is our last opportunity to mention this. So get in touch right away. Ask for it as you write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300.
Or just go online to harvest.org. Well, next time as Pastor Greg continues our studies in the Gospel of Mark, a look at faith, how it's the key to a fulfilling, fruitful walk with the Lord. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make Him known to others, or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.
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