God Deals With the Desperate - Life of Christ Part 28

You know, ever since the Mideast Peace Accord between the PLO and Israel became public information, I've had people talking to me and asking me questions, things like, is this a sign of the end times, Lon, what do you think? Or is Yasser Arafat the Antichrist?

Or is the return of Jesus Christ right around the corner? And I guess people figure because I'm a Jewish believer or because I'm a pastor, because I'm a seminary graduate, because I have a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins, that if they come to me, they'll get an intelligent answer. Well, in response to those questions, I try to give people the most intelligent answer that I have to them. And what I say to people in response is, I don't know. How do I know?

I don't have a clue. And that's the truth. I think it's much too early for us to tell how all of this is going to shake out or who's going to be on first when all of this is over. It's going to be very interesting to see. And yet there is one thing I believe I can say and that you can say with all certainty about these events, and that is that when we saw Yasser Arafat and Yitzchak Rabin stand on that stage in Washington, D.C. and shake hands, that had to be one of the most unexpected turn of events in modern diplomatic history.

Wouldn't you agree? Who could have ever thought that would happen? Now, when I saw those men on the platform, I sat down and watched it. I thought to myself, how did we get to this point?

What is the reason? What is responsible for Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, and Rabin, who was a military man that cracked Arab skulls for decades over in the Middle East? What is responsible for these two guys being on this platform, shaking hands together? And I think the answer can be summed up in one word, and the word is desperation. They were both desperate. Arafat was desperate because the PLO is broke. And after he supported Saddam Hussein, he doesn't have any friends left. And he's losing all of his support within the Palestinian community and Islamic fundamentalists are taking over.

And with the peace talks stalled, he was basically becoming an irrelevant player in the Middle East. And he knew it. And if he knew if he didn't do something quickly, he was going to be completely left out of the picture. He wanted something. He was desperate. Rabin, on the other hand, the prime minister of Israel, noticed this alarming rise in Palestinian fundamentalism. He could see the looming specter of Iran over all of this with their emerging nuclear capability.

And he could see the thing fragmenting and going in directions that would soon be uncontrollable. And he saw time running out and he was desperate for something. And so you put two desperate men who swore they'd never talk to each other, never see each other, never relate to each other. You put two desperate men together and you got a handshake. Friends, you know, Newsweek magazine said, and I quote, With the end of the Cold War, the world changed around them, weakening Arafat and sapping Rabin's sense of security. They both acted out of a desperate sense that time and opportunity were slipping away.

End of quote. Desperation is a strange thing. It can make people do things they would never normally do.

Isn't that interesting? And you know that's true. And the reason I bring all that up is because that's what our passage is all about this morning. It's about desperate people and how Jesus Christ responds to them. And my goal this morning is to challenge your thinking about your relationship with Jesus Christ, to cause you to ask the question, am I really desperate in my relationship with Jesus Christ or am I something else? And does God only deal with desperate people and why?

And what does that mean for my life? And I hope you'll walk out here with a different perspective than you walked in. Let's look at the passage. First, 40 Luke, Chapter eight. Now, when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him. He returned now from the other side of the Sea of Galilee for they were all expecting him. Just then, a man named Jairus came and fell at the feet of Jesus, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about 12, was dying.

When Jesus arrived back on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee, he was greeted by a man named Jairus. And the Bible tells us two very important things about this man, Jairus. First of all, the Bible tells us that he was a very influential man. He was a ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum, the Bible says. Now, the ruler of a synagogue was usually a man of great wealth, a man of great reputation. He was in charge of all the public services of the synagogue.

He was in charge of keeping up the facility as well. He was the one who chose who would pray and who would read the Torah and who would give the sermon in every service. He led the local board of elders that ran that synagogue and made the decisions about what was going to be done. And next to the rabbi, he was the most powerful figure in the town. And this was Jairus, a man of incredible influence.

And the synagogue at Capernaum was the key synagogue in all of northern Israel, one of the major synagogues in the entire country. So this is quite a man of influence. The second thing the Bible tells us about him is that he had a very serious problem. His problem is that his only daughter, a girl of 12, was dying.

The light of his life was about to go out. And if any of you men have a daughter, I think you understand how this man feels. If you have a daughter, you know. Daughters are different. You know the old saying, a son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all of your life. You ever heard that? No, I never heard that. Well, that's a great saying.

Listen to it again. A son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all of her life. And that's great. I'm so glad God gave us a girl. Somebody to take care of me in my old age.

My boys would just salt me away in the nursing home, split the inheritance, and I'd never hear from them again. But my girl is not going to let that happen to me. I know it. Hey, girls are great, man.

Girls are the best. And this man only had one. I don't know how many sons he had, but he only had one girl. And she was very sick and about to die. And I imagine old Jairus had tried everything he could think of, every doctor, every remedy, every potion. And now he was really desperate. In utter desperation, he resorted to Jesus. And look, verse 41 says he fell on his knees at Jesus's feet.

Can you get a picture of this? He probably grabbed Jesus's ankles. He probably had tears coming down his eyes. And the Bible says he pleaded with Jesus, begged Jesus to please come help his daughter.

Man, that's desperation. Well, Jesus agrees to go. Look what happened. Verse 42. And the Bible says as Jesus went on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

They were around him so thick. And as this happens, we meet another desperate person, a woman. And there was a woman who had been subject to bleeding.

This is vaginal bleeding for 12 years. But no one could heal her. As a matter of fact, Mark says in Mark's gospel that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all of the money she had on these doctors. Yet instead of getting better, she got worse. Anybody know a doctor like that?

There's a few like that around. And Mark 5 also says that she said to herself, if I can only get to Jesus and touch the robe, the hem of his robe, I know I'll be healed. And so as Jesus in this huge crowd walked along, she came up, the Bible says behind him, and touched the edge of his garment.

And immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. And when everybody denied it, Peter said, Master, look, get real here. Look, people are all around.

Look at this huge crowd. Everybody's bumping into you and touching you. How are you going to figure out who touched you? And Jesus said, Oh, no, somebody touched me because I know that power has gone out from me. And then when the woman saw that she could not go unnoticed, she came trembling and fell at his feet. And in the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she'd been instantly healed. And then Jesus said to her daughter, Your faith has healed you.

Go in peace. I'll tell you, friends, when I read about this woman, she doesn't impress me as the kind of woman who usually did crazy things. Does she impress you that way? I mean, she just wanted to kind of go on off and leave. She didn't want to admit herself. She didn't want to make a scene. She didn't want to be known. She just wanted to kind of mind her own business. She impresses me as a woman who was probably very reserved and very to herself. But she had just done a pretty crazy thing.

I mean, to get to this crowd and get to Jesus was no easy thing. I'm sure she had to go. Get out the way. Move you. Get out of here. I'm coming through. Get you stepped on my foot. Get out of here. Move.

I'm get. She doesn't impress me as normally being that kind of woman, but that's what you would have had to do to get through this crowd. And she did it. Why would she act so crazy, so out of character? Because what? She was desperate. And as a result, she got healed. Grabbed a hold of Jesus's garment.

Grabbed him personally. You know, I suppose this is probably as good a place as any to stop and make an observation. When I was a boy, we used to have a say. We used to say close, but no cigar. Any of you know that saying? I say it to my kids all the time. They hate it.

I always say close, but no cigar. That's exactly how I would describe this crowd. I would say they were curious about Jesus Christ. They weren't ashamed of him. They weren't embarrassed by him. They weren't turned off by him. They were just kind of checking him out. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that, except that none of the crowd saw Jesus act powerfully on their behalf.

Did they? Because they were close to Jesus, but no cigar. Now, the difference is this woman, she saw Jesus Christ do something great for her.

She saw him do something miraculous for her. And that's because she related to Jesus differently than the rest of the crowd did. They had a nominal association with Jesus. They were acquaintances with Jesus.

They were part of this crowd. But this woman turned her relationship with Jesus Christ into a personal thing. She reached out in believing faith and grabbed a hold of him and made her relationship with him something personal. And friends, that's what makes all the difference in the world in terms of a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you're here, may I say to you, and you've never had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, I don't mean a church encounter, and I don't mean a baptism encounter, and I don't mean a rituals encounter, and I don't mean a sacraments encounter, and I don't mean an intellectual encounter, but I mean a personal encounter with the living risen Messiah of Israel, then if you haven't had that, you just like part of the crowd.

You may be close, but there's no cigar. See, we need to reach out in faith like this woman did and make our relationship with Jesus Christ a personal thing. We need to reach out and say, Jesus, I personally invite you into my life. I personally surrender my life to you. I want you to be personally a part of everything I do and everything I am, and I want to turn this into something that's not a ritual and not a sacrament and not an intellectual enterprise, but is a personal relationship. That's the difference.

And that's what this woman did that the crowd didn't do, and that's why she got what she got from him. If you're here and you've never done that, I hope you're ready to do that. I hope you've checked him out and been a member of the crowd long enough. It's time to make a personal commitment. And I'm going to give you a chance to do that a little later.

We'll come back to that. Let me go on with the story, though. Verse 49. It says, And while Jesus was still speaking, somebody came from the house of Jairus and said, Your daughter is dead. Jairus, she's dead. Don't bother Jesus anymore.

Leave him alone. It's too late. You missed it.

She's dead. Can you imagine the feelings that must have gone through Jairus when he heard that report? Can you imagine anger at the crowd for slowing Jesus down? Anger at this woman who took the miracle that his little girl should have had.

And the Bible doesn't say it, but it wouldn't surprise me if he yelled out and screamed at this woman and screamed at the crowd, You slowed him down. You were the one that cost me all this time. You were the one that took the miracle that should have been my little girl.

My little girl is dead because of you. But I love what Jesus said. Verse 50. Jesus heard the report and said, Jairus, don't be afraid. Just keep on believing and she'll be healed.

Jairus, my power is bigger than any human delay. I said I was coming to heal your daughter, didn't I? And I'm coming to heal your daughter. Now trust me. Do you ever wonder why Jesus let this crowd waylay him and postpone him this long so that the little girl died? You say, well, sure. He didn't know the girl was going to die. No, no.

Wrong. He knew. So why would he let himself be detained this long? You know, Jesus could have just, whenever Jairus met him, could have disappeared, mesmerized in the house and done the thing. I mean, why did he walk down through this crowd and let himself get so detained that the little girl died?

You ever think about that? It was not an accident. Well, I don't think it had a thing to do with what he was going to do for the little girl. He was going to heal the little girl.

It didn't make any difference. He knew that he didn't do this for the little girl's sake. He did this for her daddy's sake. See, this was something for her daddy, something to deepen and mature this man's faith. That's why Jesus let this happen.

He wanted to do a work in daddy. You ever notice, folks, when it comes to great men and women of God, how when they were in certain circumstances, they seemed to see it completely differently than the people around them? Did you ever notice that in the Bible? I mean, take the Israelites at the Red Sea. All they could see is the Red Sea and the chariots of Pharaoh coming from behind. But Moses saw God.

Or how about at the Valley of Elah? All King Saul could see was Goliath. But David, he saw God. Wasn't God there all the time?

Sure, Saul just didn't see him. How about in Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar set up that big statue in a big fiery furnace and said, if you all don't bow down, I'm going to throw you in the furnace? All the people could see was the furnace. But there were three Hebrew kids who could see God. And you remember when Nehemiah came back to build the wall and he gathered everybody outside around the wall? All those people could see was the rubble. But Nehemiah, he saw God. Now, why was that?

I'll tell you. The answer is that God, by not always giving smooth answers to these men's prayers down through the years, God had taught these men how to have a big, stubborn faith. You understand what I'm saying? God had given them adversity. God had not always answered their prayer exactly the way they'd answer it and when they wanted it and how they wanted it and the way they wanted it. God had a lot of curves in their roads.

Read their lives in the Bible. But as a result of all those curves and as a result of them hanging on to God around those curves and as a result of God always being faithful even through the curves, God had taught people like Moses and David and those boys and Nehemiah how to have a stubborn and exalted faith that no amount of curves in the road could shake. And that's what he wanted to teach Jairus. He wanted to teach this man how to have a faith that was deep enough it could take a few curves.

And that's why he threw him a curve ball right here. May I say to you that if you're a Christian here this morning, this is why God has put some curves in your life and in my life. God's trying to mature our faith. God's not mad at us. God hasn't abandoned us. God doesn't hate us. God's trying to mature our faith, trying to cultivate in us a mature, stubborn, exalted trust in him that no amount of curves in the road can shake.

That's what he's out to do. You don't learn that when the road straights your whole life. And so many Christians that I meet spend their whole life concentrating on the curves, resenting the curves that God put in their life. They resent their parents. They resent their upbringing. They resent their boss. They resent their job.

They resent how other people treated them and messed them up. And they go through their whole life resenting and being bitter and angry about this and not realizing that those curves were their friends. God was just using that to try to do something in them that they would be glad for. And folks, may I say to you that as long as God is driving the car, you don't have to worry about the curves. God's car never goes off the road. God never spins out in a curve. And so you just get in the passenger seat, buckle your seat belt and let God drive and I promise you, you'll never go off the road.

Now, you may have some hairpins that you may think you're going off the road, but you won't. God's just trying to get you to trust him deeper. And for Christians, we need to learn to look beyond the curves and look to God. Realize God's bigger than any curve and the curves were just sent to be a blessing to us.

Stop resenting them and hating them and despising them and learn to thank God for them because God's driving, you got nothing to worry about. That's what he was doing in Jairus' life. Well, Jairus' faith grew and it survived. Look, verse 51. It says, And when they arrived at the house, now his daughter's dead, Jesus didn't let anybody go in with him except Peter, John, James and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning and wailing and mourning and Jesus said, Stop wailing.

You're giving me a headache. She's not dead. She's just asleep. And the people laughed at him knowing she was dead. Look, these people knew dead people and live people and they knew she was dead. But Jesus said, No, no, no, you're wrong. And he went in and he took Peter and James and John. And even though all these people had laughed, Jairus went in with him. And I'm sure in Jairus' mind, Jesus' promise looked so unlikely it wasn't even funny.

But you know what? He clung to it. He went in that room with Jesus. He didn't stay outside laughing with the crowd.

No, no. He went in with Jesus. And in response, look what Jesus did.

Verse 54, the Bible says that Jesus took the hand of the little girl and said, My child, get up. And her spirit returned. You say, Well, where had it gone? The Bible says your spirit never dies.

It just leaves your body. Her spirit had gone to be with the Lord as a little girl. And so it came back. And Jesus immediately at once she stood up and Jesus said to them, Give her something to eat. And her parents were astonished. But he ordered them not to tell anybody what had happened. Like they could hide it, right? I mean, a little girl walks out. I mean, what are they going to say? Isn't it interesting what Jesus said?

Give the girl something to eat. I find that really interesting. Is that what you think would have been the first thing he would have said? Doesn't that strike you a little strange? But I thought about it this week and I thought, Now, why in the world would he say something like that?

Why would you do that? Well, I think a lot of it has to do with eating. You know, the two kinds of people in the world when it comes to food, they're the people who eat to live and they're the people who live to eat.

Now, I don't know which one you are. I'll tell you, I'm a live to eat person. I love to eat.

I'll eat any time, any place and just about anything. I won't eat liver. If you ever had me over, don't give me liver.

I hate liver. But other than liver and a few other things, I'll eat just about anything. And I love to eat. In fact, as soon as I get through thinking about eating lunch, I'm thinking about supper. And when I finish supper, I'm thinking about my midnight snack and then it's breakfast. I mean, I only do things in between meals. That's how my internal calendar operates.

Anybody else like that here? My wife, she misses a meal and says she forgot it. She forgot it. Now, I may skip a meal, but I guarantee you, I never forget a meal. I may skip it, but I didn't forget it.

I knew it passed. That's just the way I am. The only time I lose my appetite, you know when it is? When I get sick. If you get sick enough, I don't care how much you love to eat. You don't want to eat. And you're sick. Your appetite goes away.

That's the one redeeming thing about the flu. At least you lose weight. I lay in bed and say, well, at least I'm losing weight. Praise the Lord. I feel terrible, but I'm losing weight. Praise the Lord. That means I can have more ice cream when I get up.

I won't put on any weight. Praise the Lord. And it helps me through. I don't know if that helps you, but a boy helps me through the flu. But anyway, this girl had been sick. In fact, she'd been so sick, she was dead.

That's pretty sick, right? She probably had not eaten for days. And when she came back to life, she did not come back to life still groggy and still feeling bad and still having to lie around for four or five days until she got her strength back and felt like eating.

Do you understand the point? When Jesus brought her back, she was completely healed, completely up, completely healthy, and she was hungry, and she wanted to eat. That tells me this was a 100% certified complete miracle. And when Jesus does it, he does it right. All the way right.

This girl was completely healed, and she didn't need any recovery time. She was hungry. And that's a good sign. And that's the passage for this morning. Great passage, but it leads us to ask a very important question, and that is, so what?

Let's answer that in the few minutes I have left. Did you notice anything strange? Anything strike you strange about Jairus coming to Jesus?

Anything out of the ordinary? You say, well, I don't know. I mean, the man was desperate.

He asked they'd heal the daughter. I mean, you know. Now, wait a minute. Think for a second. Jairus was a member of the religious establishment of Israel.

True? I mean, he was the leader of one of the most prominent synagogues in the whole country. How did the religious establishment of Israel feel about Jesus these days? And, well, I'm not sure.

Well, let's look and see. Turn to the next Gospel, John's Gospel, Chapter 9. If you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 759. 759, John, Chapter 9.

Let me show you how they felt about Jesus. We're going to see the story here of the man born blind. One of the greatest stories in the Bible, one of my very favorite. After Jesus heals this man, the religious leaders call him in and go, tell us all about it. And then when they don't believe him, they call his parents in. And this is where we pick up the story.

Verse 18. The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and that he'd received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. Is this your son they asked? Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it now he can see? Well, his parents answered, we know this is our son and we know he was born blind. But how he can now see and who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him.

He's a big boy. He's of age and he'll speak for himself. Now look at verse 22. And his parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews for already the Jews had decided that anybody. Look at this.

Anybody who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be thrown out of the synagogue. And that's why his parents said, I don't know what he asked me for. Ask him. He's a big boy. He'll tell you some parents, right? Stick by you in a crunch.

Love to have these parents. All right. Well, they call the guy back in again and look at the way it ends. They said to him, tell us once again how this all worked. Will you? And he says to him, why you want to be one of his disciples, too?

Wrong question. Verse 28. Then they hurled insults at him and said, you are this fellow's disciples. We are the disciples of Moses.

We know that God spoke to Moses. But as for this guy, we don't even know where he comes from. Look what this man says. The man answered and said, now, this is a remarkable thing, guys.

This is an incredible thing. You don't know where he comes from. And yet he opened my eyes. We know God doesn't listen to sinners. He listens to godly people who do his will. Nobody's ever heard of a person opening the eyes of a man born blind.

But he did. If this man were not from God, there's no way he could have done this. You guys have been sitting up there in that seminary too long.

You need to get out here in the real world and see the way it operates. What's wrong with you people? To this they replied, you were steeped in sin at birth.

How dare you lecture us? And they threw him out. How was Jesus's stock with the religious establishment these days? Well, let's just say he was not their favorite person.

Is that fair? Now, let's go back to Jairus for a minute. Jairus did not get to be the ruler of one of the most prestigious synagogues in Israel by being a political idiot.

Understand what I'm saying? He knew how the politics worked. He knew where the winds were blowing.

This guy was not an idiot. Did he realize what going to Jesus for help was going to cost him? Did he realize it was going to cost him his leadership of the synagogue? Did he realize it was going to cost him his membership in the synagogue? Did he realize it was going to cost him a lot of his so-called friends who were going to side with their synagogue membership like this guy's parents did? Did he realize it might even cost him his livelihood in that city? Sure he did. He said, well, then why in the world would he do it? Because he was what? He was desperate.

That's why. And you see, when you're desperate, friends, you'll do radical things. The title of my message this morning is God deals with the desperate. And it's not that God won't deal with people who aren't desperate.

God will. It's just that I have found that people usually won't deal with God until they get desperate. And the reason for that is that God's terms that they have to deal with are radical terms. And most people won't deal with these radical terms until they get really desperate. That's true when it comes to salvation, when it comes to accepting Jesus Christ and being born again. God's terms are radical. God demands that we admit we're utterly helpless, that we have about as much chance of earning our way into heaven as a cadaver has and getting up and jumping rope.

That's about where we stand. God demands that we abandon all of our self-help remedies, that we throw away all of our work, our way into heaven ideas, and that we cast ourselves 100 percent on what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross plus nothing. Now, most human beings I know will try anything and everything they can before they will come to the point that they'll turn to Jesus Christ in full surrender, humble themselves, and fully depend on him for salvation.

They'll try anything else they can think of first. And the reason is that God's way radically cuts against our human nature. And the only people who are willing to do it God's way are people who are desperate.

And that's true of us even once we become Christians. You know, even once you become a believer, God's demands remain radical. God demands lordship.

Lordship is a radical demand, folks. What that means is that we accept the Word of God as the authority for our life, and the authority for our life is no longer what we feel like doing anymore. That means that we accept the will of God as the North Star for our life, and we plot our course by it, not by what we dreamed about or what our fantasy was or what we always wanted to go do, but by the will of God. Lordship means that we seek to serve other people in this life, not be served. It means that we see our purpose for existence as being totally different than what we used to see it. Not to have people wait on us and meet our needs and care for us, but to serve other people. This is a radical thing. And it's only Christians who are desperate for the blessing and the honor of God that are willing to live this way. If you're not desperate, you're not going to live this way. If you don't really care about God blessing your life, you're not going to live this way.

It's too radical. In Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus was giving out a bunch of blessed. Blessed are the blessed are the blessed are the blessed are the, you know them. He said for one of them, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

They will be filled. Did you ever notice he didn't say blessed are those who nibble and sip for righteousness? See, nibbling and sipping involve eating and drinking, just like the words hunger and thirst. But nibbling and sipping mean that I'm pretty content the way I am. I'm not really all that hungry. I'm not really all that thirsty. I can take it or leave it. You know, come see, come soft. I get it.

I get it. If I don't, I don't. Jesus didn't use those words. Jesus said hunger. Jesus said thirst.

Those are words of desperation. And a Christian who's content just to nibble and sip in their relationship with Jesus Christ is not going to see God do a whole lot in their life. God is looking for people who are desperate for him to work in their life. People who are desperate enough to discipline their schedule and get up and have quiet time with Jesus Christ every day. People who are desperate enough to seek the face of God in prayer on their knees and not worry what television show they might be missing. God is looking for people who are desperate enough to get into a regular Bible study.

And if they don't get to read the paper that day because they were too busy reading the word of God, they don't worry about missing part of the paper. Jesus is looking for people who are desperate enough to get themselves in a discipleship situation where they want to grow and they want to deepen and they want to learn more. And they're willing to devote themselves and do some homework and give up some other things to enhance their relationship with Christ. Jesus is looking for people who are desperate enough to come to a church like ours and take advantage of growth opportunities that we offer and not just come into one service and then do the 40 yard dash to the automobile.

But to stay around and grow and learn and deepen in their relationship with Christ. Jesus is looking for people who are desperate enough to say no to what their body always wants to do so that God can use their body to honor him instead. God's looking for people who are desperate enough that they're willing to step up and be counted out there in this world for Christ. And they don't care whether people make fun of them or laugh at them or whether people think that they're an idiot.

They don't care. Jesus Christ is looking for people who are desperate enough to put out the extra effort to let their life be used by God and serve other people, be in convenience for other people. And finally, Jesus Christ is looking for people who are desperate enough to get on their knees and pray, Lord, I know that this prayer might cost me a lot, but I don't care. I want you to work in my life and I don't care what the cost is, I'm desperate for you to do that. Work in my life, Lord.

It doesn't matter what it costs me. Is this where you are as a Christian in your walk with God? Or are you nibbling and sipping? I've met so many Christians who were hungry and thirsty once and now they're just nibbling and sipping and they're kind of on autopilot. And when they talk to you about what God did in their life, they'll tell you some great things God did, but if you ask them when, it was always a long time ago. Ask them what God's done in their life lately and they don't have much to say because they went from hungry and thirsting to nibbling and sipping and the world got more attractive to them. They lost that hunger for Christ to work in their life. Maybe that's you. If so, I've got great news for you. The situation is not irreversible.

You can reverse it today if you want to. Jesus Christ is always happy for nibblers and sippers to come back around and get hungry and thirsty. If that's the way you want to be, God will help you be that way. But friend, don't expect God to do a lot in your life if all you want to do is nibble and sip.

He didn't do much in the crowd's life, but he did a lot in Jairus' life and a lot in that woman's life because they were hungry and thirsty. And that's the way God wants you. How is your desperation quotient? How is it?

Good question. Let's bow together in prayer. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I'd like to very quickly ask those of you here who are Christians, if you'd like this morning, this afternoon, to say, Lord, I really kind of have slid in to nibbling and sipping.

I know it. But I need to get back to a hungry and thirsting for you in my life. I want you to make me desperate again to see you work in my life. Lord, help the world pale away and help you become the central focus, the driving force in my life again. If you'd like to do that, there's no looking around. Nobody's eyes are open. I'd like you to raise your hands so I could pray with you.

Lots of hands. Thank you. God bless you. Anybody else now?

Come on. Anybody else? God bless you. Thank you. Anyone else? Just before we pray. Thank you. If you're here and you've never made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as your personal savior and Lord, I'd like to give you a chance to do that this morning. Remember, just pressing around him and being an interesting onlooker doesn't get anything.

You've got to make it personal, just like that woman. If you're here and you've been checking it out long enough and now you're prepared to say, I'm ready to grab a hold of him and make it a personal thing, ready to open my heart and life up and accept him as my personal savior and give him a personal role in my life, then I'd like to pray with you. And if you'll slip your hand up, we'll pray together this morning.

Anybody like to do that? Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Anybody else?

Anyone else? Dear Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for the people who've raised their hands this morning. First of all, I thank you for the Christians who raised their hand saying that they wanted to have more of a desperate relationship with you. Lord, I pray that you would work in their hearts and honor what they've done this morning, whether it be through circumstances or whether it be, Lord, through the Spirit of God working in their heart or whatever. Bring back that desperation to see Jesus being number one to their hearts. And Lord, even though I know it's a little scary to raise your hand at a time like this and pray something like this, I pray that you would reassure them that Jesus Christ will never lead us anywhere, but that we won't thank you that he took us there. And so, Lord, help them with confidence to let you lead. And I want to pray for the folks who raised their hands saying that they wanted to make you a personal part of their life now. Lord, come into their heart as their personal savior today. Forgive their sin and reassure these people that they belong to you now and that they have a personal relationship with you and that you're going to change their life. Thank you, Lord, that they were willing to step out of being part of the crowd and become like this woman. Thank you for bringing us here today, and I pray you would change our life by what we heard here today. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.