Everyone Needs Jesus | God's Timing Isn't Ours

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free e-books designed to help you grow in your faith. Sometimes God doesn't move as quickly as we want him to move, does he? If we're out of touch with God or just out of touch with his plan, we'll no doubt be out of sync with his timing as well.

Pastor Greg Laurie offers perspective. I think we need to remember that God's delays are not necessarily his denials. So maybe you're praying for one thing, but God wants to do above and beyond that. Listen, God's at work.

He knows what he's doing. Wait on his timing. We live in an instant society. Heat up something in the microwave in seconds, not minutes or hours.

Get a message to someone on the other side of the planet in a split second, not days or weeks. Should it be any wonder then why we assume our prayers shouldn't happen lickety split? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says as it happens, God's clocks run on a different schedule than ours. We'll see our timing is often impetuous.

His timing is always perfect. Let me start with a question. Have you ever been in a situation that seemed absolutely hopeless? We'll compare it to a tumultuous storm and you're out there on your little boat pitching back and forth in the waves and you don't see any way out and suddenly the storm stops and the sun comes out and the birds are singing? Or maybe I'm talking to somebody right now that had life going perfectly in so many ways when all of a sudden you were hit with a severe illness or the death of a loved one and you don't know how you're going to get through what you're going through right now.

Then I think you're going to find some hope in what we're going to look at together here in Mark chapter 5. 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. Starting with this woman. She was in a helpless hopeless situation. She had spent all of her money on doctors to no avail and she could not get rid of this horrible sickness that plagued her that we'll talk about in a moment. The second person in our story was a man who was a ruler of the local synagogue.

He had power and prestige but he needed Jesus too because his beloved daughter was at death's door. So the point of it is everybody needs Jesus. Every man. Every woman. Every old person. Every young person. Every middle-aged person.

Every middle-aged person who thinks they're a young person. Whoever you are. Everyone needs Jesus. He is there for you. Now this story is a part of a trilogy here in Mark chapter 5 about the power of Jesus Christ. In the first movement of the chapter we see that Christ has power over nature as he stops a storm from raging with the words peace be still. Then we see Jesus casting demons out of a man showing that Christ has power over evil. And in this message we're going to see Jesus has power over sickness and death.

The point is he can deliver you from whatever you are facing. And I'm also going to answer the following questions in this message. Number one. Where does sickness come from? Number two. Why does God allow sickness? Number three. Does God still heal today?

And fourth and lastly. Why doesn't God heal everyone? Let's look now at Mark chapter 5 starting in verse 21.

We read these words. Jesus got into the boat again and went to the other side of the lake when a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue whose name was Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus he fell at his feet pleading fervently with him saying my little daughter is dying. Please come and lay your hands on her. Heal her so she can live. Jesus went with him.

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.

We'll stop there. 12 years. Very important time frame. 12 years this woman had been dealing with this horrible illness and 12 years was the age of this little daughter of Jairus. So while this young girl had experienced 12 years of relative happiness as the apple of her daddy's eye I'm sure he doted on her and loved her in so many ways. It's shown by his urgency as he comes to Jesus.

And this sick woman had experienced 12 years of pain, rejection, and tears. Yet on the same afternoon both of their lives were dramatically changed by their encounter with Jesus Christ. Now one of these people is a well-known ruler of the local synagogue and his name is Jairus. His daughter suddenly fell ill and he felt that he needed to go to Jesus. But as he's on his way home with Jesus to help him this woman sort of bursts on the scene.

But as we'll see this interruption became an opportunity. But let's focus a little bit on Jairus and what actually happened. I already said his little girl was 12 years old and suddenly she's sick and he's trying everything he can to get her better and nothing is working. And he hears that Jesus is near. Now I don't know if Jairus believed in Jesus yet. If he had embraced him and put his faith in him.

He obviously was a Jewish spiritual leader. But apparently he believed that Jesus had the power to heal. So he approaches Christ and makes this amazing statement. Come lay your hands on my daughter and I believe she will be healed.

I mean that's a lot of faith. He just felt if Jesus can touch her I know she'll be healed. So Jesus says all right. So they're making their way to the home of Jairus. The crowd is following and all of a sudden just seemingly out of nowhere some woman touches the hymn of Jesus Carmen which is no big deal. But it's that Christ suddenly stops and asks the question who touched me.

Now how easily could Jairus have said hey lady hold on. He's with me. No cuts. Remember when you were in school? Some of you still are and we'd be waiting to eat that horrible food in schools. Is the food any better in schools today? It never was back when I went to school.

Sort of like school food, hospital food, and oxymoron. You know it's not really very good. But boy if someone cut in our line we'd say hey man no cuts. Jairus could have said that to that woman.

What are you doing? He's going home with me right now. But actually Jairus did not do that. Maybe it's because he knew well that's how Jesus rolls.

He always has time for hurting people. Jairus no doubt heard the story of how Jesus healed that demoniac of the Gadarenes and his life had been so transformed. He had heard the story of how they lowered the paralyzed man through the opening in the roof and Jesus touched him and forgave his sin.

So he wasn't going to criticize Jesus. And maybe we could say this was a test for Jairus. Maybe if he had failed this test it would have turned out differently.

I don't know. But if it was a test Jairus certainly passed it with flying colors. But sometimes God doesn't move as quickly as we want Him to move.

Does He? You know God says my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. And God's timing is often different than ours. We want things now. We live in a day of getting instant information. Our phone buzzes or beeps and we get that news feed and we know what's going on as it's happening. We get things quickly.

We get food from Uber Eats and we get here and we get there. Everything happens quickly. And then God says well just wait.

Wait on the Lord and He will renew your strength. And we're thinking ah I don't really want to do that. You know maybe you're a young person and you're single and you're saying Lord when are you going to bring that man or that woman into my life. I want to get married.

I mean I'm 17 years old. I'm tired of waiting. Or maybe you're saying Lord when are you going to open that door of opportunity for me to serve you. Or you might be asking Lord how long are you going to let that person get away with that sin. Or maybe you're saying Lord when are you going to come back and judge this world and return and rule over us again. And sometimes in our impatience we may take things into our own hands.

But not Jairus. He's going to wait. He'll just wait until Jesus does what He's going to do and then Jesus will come with Him to His home and heal His daughter. I think we need to remember that God's delays are not necessarily His denials. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now that's been praying about something and it hasn't happened as quickly as you want it to happen. So you are thinking God is saying no. That may be true.

I won't rule that out. But maybe God is saying wait. God answers prayer in three ways. Yes. No. And wait.

And there's a reason He's having you wait. Remember the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. They were close friends of Jesus. Lazarus died. Jesus showed up there in their hometown of Bethany.

And He said your brother is going to live again. See Mary and Martha were upset that Jesus didn't come to their town sooner when He found out their brother and his friend was sick. But Jesus sort of delayed His arrival if you will. So by the time He hit town not only was Lazarus dead but Jesus even missed the funeral and He promised Mary and Martha your brother will live again. And they said well Lord we know yes and the resurrection on the last day. And Jesus said listen I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Listen they wanted a healing. Jesus wanted a resurrection. So maybe you're praying for one thing but God wants to do above and beyond that. Listen God's at work.

He knows what He's doing. Wait on His timing. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at Harvest.org and on our brand new app Harvest Plus which is available on your mobile tv devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's word. So again join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. And now Pastor Greg continues his message from Mark 5 called Everybody Needs Jesus.

Let's listen. This woman touches the hem of the garment of Jesus. She had this medical condition. We don't even really know what it was but we know that she bled perpetually. Maybe it was some kind of a hemorrhage and no doctor could help her.

And by the way the remedies back in these days could be really strange. So I don't know if she ever had any proper medical attention. But she spent all of her money maybe on quack doctors promising her a remedy or a solution. And she reasons if I can touch Jesus I know I can be healed. Actually we're told in Mark chapter 5 verse 26 she suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and spent all that she had and instead of getting better she only got worse.

And she thought if I can touch the Lord everything will change. That brings me to my first question. Is it presumptuous to think that God heals people today? Let me answer those questions I raised a little bit earlier about healing. One of them was where does sickness come from? Why do we even have to get sick?

Well listen to this. It was never part of God's original plan. We weren't supposed to get sick. We weren't supposed to age. We weren't supposed to die.

It goes back to our first parents Adam and Eve there in the garden. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of that forbidden fruit we would not get sick. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit we would not age.

If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit I would have hair still. So we age and we have illness and ultimately we die. Romans 5 12 says as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. In this way death came to all men because all have sin. But why does God allow sickness?

That's the second question. Why does God allow sickness? Short answer. There's a lot I could say.

Here's a short answer. God allows sickness in our life sometimes to bring us to Him. And I've heard many stories of people that felt they had no need for God. But when they got ill on their deathbed or maybe in a hospital room they asked for spiritual help and of course they found it.

So sometimes it's to get our attention. The psalmist said before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept your word. But listen sometimes God allows sickness and the life of the believer to keep us humble. Take the apostle Paul as an example. He was transformed with the power of God of the Damascus road and put his faith in Jesus while he was on his way to hunt down and put Christians to death. Then God used Paul of course to write a good portion of the Bible in his wonderful epistles. In addition to that he led many people to Christ. He established churches and God even healed people through Paul. And if that wasn't enough Paul had the amazing experience of going to heaven.

Of actually going to glory and getting a glimpse of what was ahead. And then he came back to this earth. This may have happened during one of the attacks against him when he was stoned in particular. And they thought he was dead and he came back to life. That's maybe the moment when Paul went to heaven. And so if you know when you've been to heaven and you've seen heaven and God's used you to write epistles that's pretty heady stuff. So listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12. To keep me from becoming proud I was given a thorn in my flesh a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I asked the Lord to take it away and each time he said my grace is all you need and my power works best in weakness then Paul says so now I boast about my weaknesses so the power of Christ can work through me that is why I take this is crazy this is why I take pleasure in weaknesses in insults and hardships and persecutions and troubles I suffer for Christ for when I am weak then I am strong a thorn in the flesh God allowed a messenger from Satan a demon no doubt to bring hardship into the life of the great apostle to keep him humble another reason God allows sickness is to be glorified through your life as you honor God even when you're struggling with the sickness I think of two people that I've gotten to know that are so impressive to me one is Johnny Erickson Tada I mean she is literally a national treasure this is a lady who was a young girl through a diving accident became a quadriplegic and she's been in a wheelchair now for so many years but I'll tell you God has used Johnny to bring encouragement and hope to people all around the world not just disabled people but all people and in many ways you could say Johnny has turned a disability into an ability a supernatural ability and then I think of a friend of mine named Nick Voyichich uh Nick was born without his limbs and God has used him to help people literally all around the world especially young people who are depressed and dealing with all the challenges they face and and there is Nick before them with all of his problems radiating joy and sharing Jesus and so God can be glorified through your sickness there's reasons he allows it that sometimes we don't understand but this brings us to question number three does God still heal today does God still heal today and I believe the answer is yes does he heal everyone the answer is no does he heal some people the answer is yes but know this God has the ability to heal God has the desire to heal and we need to understand that Isaiah 53 says of Jesus he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows and we considered him stricken by God smitten and afflicted he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought his peace was upon him listen and by his wounds we are healed Peter commenting on that same verse and first Peter 2 24 says Christ bore our sins on the tree and by his wounds you have been healed and the word that Peter uses there for healed is a word that always speaks of physical healing so can God heal the answer is yes so why are some of us still sick are you ready for my super simple answer and maybe because you've not asked God to heal you in the book of James it says you have not because you asked not simple as that you have not because you asked not Jesus said asking it shall be given to you seeking you shall find knocking the door shall be opened and in the original language there's an ascending intensity to those verbs meaning keep asking keep seeking keep knocking keep praying now Paul prayed three times that God would remove his thorn in the flash then the Lord said my grace is sufficient for you but other times the Lord will say yes maybe not after the first time you prayed or the second or the third but maybe at a certain moment he says okay I'm going to heal that's what this woman did she thought if I can touch him I'll be healed and so that is what happened to her Pastor Greg Laurie is helping us consider the great faith of the woman described in Mark chapter five today on a new beginning a study called everybody needs Jesus you know sooner or later we all realize that truth we need the Lord for forgiveness of sin we're sinners in need of a savior Pastor Greg what would you say to the person listening who knows that they need to come to the Lord I would say that God is just a prayer away you know it doesn't take years to become a Christian it doesn't take months frankly it doesn't even take hours it can happen so quickly it just starts with you saying to God I know I'm a sinner I know that you love me I know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and pay for those sins and then to rise again from the dead and I want him to come into my life so here's my question to you have you done that yet because Jesus who did die on that cross and rose again from the dead three days later is alive and standing at the door of your life right now and he's knocking and he's saying if you'll hear my voice and open the door I will come in why don't you just stop whatever it is you're doing and pray this prayer with me say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward I ask all of this in Jesus name amen listen if you just prayed that prayer the Bible promises that God has heard your prayer and has answered that prayer the Bible says that we will confess our sin he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so God bless you you've made the right decision the decision to follow Jesus Christ yeah that's right and as you begin to live this new life we want to send you something to help you get started off right it's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible it's an easy to understand translation plus hundreds and hundreds of study helps especially for those who are new to the faith it'll answer the questions you might have so get in touch for the New Believers Bible we'll be glad to send it your way free of any charge just call 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click know God well our friend best-selling author Lee Strobel is with us today we're so pleased to make available his latest book it's so full of insight all centering on the question is is God real that's the title of the book you know the many believers who have been walking with the Lord for a long time haven't thought about the kind of question that you pose is God real they haven't thought about it for ages yeah help us understand where the person's coming from who sincerely asks if God is real maybe they're a relative maybe they're a friend maybe they're just they're sitting next to them in the seat on the air airline you know I mean how sad would it be if your friend who is far from God is sitting at midnight on a computer asking the computer is God real oh yeah when we're right there and we can share with them and we can you know and it doesn't mean we have to have the answer to every possible question that they might ask sometimes the very best thing we can say in a friend asks a tough question and we don't have the answer instead of making something up don't ever do that uh is to say that's a great question honestly I'm not sure how to answer it but let's find an answer together and then that opens the door to be able to say let's read a book together let's maybe read is God real together and there's discussion questions built into the book that you could then have a discussion with them but don't ever uh fake it if someone asks a question that you don't have the answer to just use that as an opportunity this is a this is an open door to a future conversation they're expressing curiosity and interest and here's the other thing I've often found that the first question that a non-believer asks is not the big one they send up a trial balloon and they say okay I'm having a conversation with this Christian friend and let me ask you this question and they ask a question and they're looking at how do you respond do you shame them do you embarrass them by saying you don't know the answer to that do you how do you respond or do you respond with sincerity as the Bible says with gentleness and respect because it's a trial balloon and then if you give them a sincere answer and and and really help them understand that question now they're going to ask you the real question now they're going to say you know what let me ask you this and that's going to be the one that's what I call the biggest spiritual sticking point that's holding them up in their journey toward God so how we respond is important with sincerity with clarity with um armed with scripture so how we interact with the non-believer is really really important uh how we say what we say is almost as important as what we say so we're to love people we're to love them if we truly love them then we're gonna we're gonna um with all sincerity and with a heart full of hope we can engage with them and the questions that are holding them up in their journey toward God great insights lee you know the objective is not to win the argument it's to win the soul it's to build a bridge not burn the bridge and if you want to win some you need to be winsome loving uh and I think that's so important great insights there and so if you want a tool to help you do that we have one for you it's called is God real a brand new book a best-selling book already I might add by my friend Lee Strobel that will enable you to have those conversations with people and help them come into a relationship with Jesus Christ and we'll send you this book for your gift of any size to help us to continue to teach God's word and proclaim the gospel through this broadcast that we call a new beginning so order your copy of is God real by Lee Strobel you're gonna love it yeah and you can request it by phone just call 1-800-821-3300 we can take your call anytime night or day and we'll be happy to send this new book your way to thank you for partnering with us again dial 1-800-821-3300 or just go online to harvest.org hey everybody I want to encourage you to check out the new harvest plus app it's on roku apple tv and google play among others and you can stream incredible content on all major platforms for free you're going to find live events our evangelistic films like a rush of hope johnny cash the redemption of an american icon steve mcqueen the salvation of an american icon and our newest film fame plus our tv programs our podcast Harvest at Home and a lot more stream it all on any device for free using the new harvest plus app well next time more from pastor greg study and mark chapter five good encouragement about how the lord can touch our lives and meet us at our point of need join us here on a new beginning with pastor and bible teacher greg lord 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