Tim Ross: You're doing all right?

Congregation: Yes.

Tim: Before I get started, that video that we just watched was so moving to me, and I want to say something on behalf of everybody in this room. As a Black man growing up in this country, it has not been easy, because as long as are people that don't know Jesus, there will be racism in this world. I hate to break it to you. Racism is a subcategory of the spirit of division. As long as there is sin, there is going to be division. I don't have an issue with people that don't know Jesus being as ignorant as they want to be, but let it not be mentioned in the name of Jesus, in the house of God.

[applause]

We are unified through the blood of Jesus Christ, and we shall be, until we are all in heaven, every tribe, every tongue, every language and every culture, lifting up the name of Jesus. If that's you, give Him a praise right now.

[applause]

That's how we're going to start this weekend. We're not going to make it June 10th, we're going to make it every single day. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are unified by the blood of Jesus. Let's go. All right. Sit down, I got to work. I got to go to work. Get your Bibles. We're at church. I'm about to read some Bible, because it's good. We are in a series called, The Miracles of Jesus. The last two weeks we have been in Matthew and Mark, we are now in Luke. We get to hear from the great physician, the doctor that was so deliberate about the things that he wrote about Jesus.

Starting in the Gospel according to Luke, chapter number 8, I'm picking up from the 40th verse. Now, as a disclaimer, you have to know something about me. When I read the Bible is like a pop-up book. It is very, very vivid to me. This is why I spend so much time trying to act it out because I want you to see what I've seen in my head. Chapter number 8 is just a whole adventure in and of itself. It speaks of the women who had followed Jesus, the parable that Jesus gives about scattering the seed, who His true family is, the parable of the lamp. It's a very, very long chapter.

It continues talking about the disciples going out into the lake, and then thinking that they were going to die, Jesus having to tell them, where is their faith? They get to the other side of the lake, only to be confronted with a naked man full of demons. How about that? Aren't you glad that's not my sermon for today?

[laughter]

Because you're like, "Barely missed it. Thank you, Jesus." We've all been on this journey with the disciples seeing a Rabbi do these miraculous things. After they get back on the boat, they're actually shunned from that territory. Nobody is happy about this man being freed from these demons because all of the demons jumped into some pigs and ran into the lake and drowned themselves. Their produce, their way of life, the way they ate, their main staple of protein was done. They get back on the boat and they're coming back to the other side, and they're probably thinking, "Maybe we get a break now." Nope. Starting at the 40th verse, on the other side of the lake, the crowds welcome Jesus. I'm sure the disciples are like, "Here we go again." Because they had been waiting for Him.

Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with Him to come home with him. His only daughter, who was about 12 years old, was dying. As Jesus went with him, He was surrounded by the crowds. A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of His robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped. "Who touched Me?" Jesus said. Everyone denied it. Peter said, "Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you," but Jesus said, "Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me."

When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of Him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched Him, and that she had been immediately healed. "Daughter," he said to her, "Your faith has made you well. Go in peace." While he was still speaking to her, a messenger arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, he told him, "Your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the teacher now." When Jesus heard what had happened, He said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid, just have faith, and she will be healed."

When they arrived at the house, Jesus wouldn't let anyone go in with Him except, Peter, John, and James, and the little girl's father and mother. The house was filled with people, weeping and wailing, but he said, "Stop the weeping!"

[laughter]

Y'all should be used to me by now. It's the third week. Let's go. "She isn't dead. She's only asleep." The crowd laughed at Him because they all knew she had died. Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, "My child, get up." At that moment, her life returned, and she immediately stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone. There you go, again, Jesus.

[laughter]

Always telling somebody what to do. Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened. It is my assignment to preach from the subject for this third week, in the miracles of Jesus, He can do that, too. He can do that, too. Bow your heads. Let's pray over the word. Shall we? Holy Spirit, prove to us what you can do. Amen.

Congregation: Amen.

Tim: This particular passage of scripture is one of my favorites. If your imagination can't put you in this scene, I'm going to pray for you. Because there is so much here that I have to dive right in. I would love to homiletically and hermeneutically take you all the way back to the beginning of chapter 8, and walk you into verse number 40, but time does not permit me. What I want to do is to highlight the faith of these two people, a man who believes that Jesus can heal his dying daughter, a young girl who was 12 years old, and a woman who, having tried every other means to be cured of her issue of blood, turns her attention to Jesus to see what he could do.

There's something about the reputation of Jesus as we look through the Gospels, and as we've been sharing the last three weeks, that is enormouring to me. Because the more people that hear about Him, the more people are curious about Him. The more people that hear testimonies about what He's done, the more people that want to be around Him to see what He has done. As we enter this particular scene, literally, when the disciples and Jesus come up on the shore, after this troubled time on the lake, there was a crowd waiting for Jesus.

It's one thing to know that someone's coming, it's another thing to have someone anticipate your arrival, and they're all just waiting for Him to come. They don't know what He's going to do, but they just want to be here when He does it. This whole crowd is waiting for Jesus, but this one man actually has a request of Him. I want to slow down right here and talk about the fact that there's a lot of people that want to be around Jesus, but very few people that want to interact with Him. We live in a culture where people like the idea of Jesus, but when it comes to actually having an encounter with Him, they put boundaries around themselves. This man saw all of these people who were around waiting for Jesus, but he had a request. He was an influential man. A man who had the distinct privilege of opening up the synagogue doors for Jewish people to worship and he came up to Jesus and he said, "Will you please come to my house? My daughter is very, very sick. She is dying as we're speaking."

Jesus, as if His itinerary wasn't full enough, as if He didn't just come from the other side of the lake casting out demons from a naked man, as if He had just not done a pop quiz with His disciples telling them, "Why were you afraid of the storm that broke out over the sea?" As soon as He lands, He doesn't get a break. Someone else has a request, and Jesus being the kind man He is says, "I'll come."

Oh, isn't it a blessing that Jesus will take heed to our request? Is anyone else besides me happy that when we request something of Jesus, He hears us? He listens to us. He says, "I will come." They start on this walk. Jairus has beat everybody to the punch. Perhaps there were other people that wanted to ask a request of Jesus. Jairus beats everybody to the punch while they're all enamored looking at him. He goes, "I need some help. Will you come to my house?" He goes, "Yes, I will come to your house." The crowd went with them. It wasn't that He was whisked away privately. The whole crowd is now about to go to Jairus' house. Strangers that don't even know Him are like, "Is this where he going? I guess we're going." I don't have a request, but I just want to see something.

As they start walking in this direction, with all of these people pressed up against Jesus walking towards Jairus' house, there is a woman that is introduced into the narrative that has a compelling story that we only hear the ending of, but I as an empath, am intrigued by the beginning. This is a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. Not 12 minutes, not 12 hours, not 12 days, not 12 months. 12 years. As a Jewish woman in this culture, because of this issue that she could not control, she could not stop, she was deemed ceremonially unclean, which means for 12 years, this woman hasn't been able to go into the temple and worship.

If this was modern-day, she wouldn't be able to come to church for 12 years. Not something of her own doing but something that she cannot control. She cannot stop bleeding. As a man, there's no way that I could literally understand physically what she is going through, but as an empath, I try to put myself in people's shoes. I thought to myself, "Tim, could you imagine if you got a deep cut on your upper thigh and it would never stop bleeding no matter what you've done? Can you imagine how you would have to plan your activities and your day? Around how much the gauze could absorb and how much the things that you put on could hold back the flow of blood from other people seeing? Can you imagine the time limit you would have on your day in and day out every time you walked out the door you knew about four and a half hours later we need to get back in the house or everyone's going to know that I have an issue that I cannot control?"

I want you to feel what this woman has gone through for 12 years. Some women in this room might be going through the same thing. Whether it's fibroids or endometriosis, there's something that is going on on the inside of your body and you cannot control it and it is frustrating and it is literally tearing you apart. You have tried everything. Then after 12 years, you keep hearing about a man. After all the money you've spent on doctors and ointments and creams, you keep hearing about a man. As a last resort, this woman says, "I guess I'll try Jesus."

This blesses me so much, because it would be one thing if this woman had an issue of blood for a couple of weeks and then she heard about Jesus and Jesus was her first option, but Jesus was literally her last resort. He wasn't offended by this, because for many of us, the only way we usually come to Jesus is when we come to the end of ourselves. The only way we literally open up to Jesus is when we've tried everything our way. It would be great if we all opened up and came to Jesus first, but usually, we come to Him last. This woman is about to break rank. Y'all, she's about to go rogue. She is as gangster as the leper was two weeks ago.

[laughter]

She is like, "I know I'm not supposed to be out here in these streets like this right now. I'm weakened by this blood flow that I cannot stop, but He too close now. I know that there's a whole crowd around Him and they are pressing and they are all up against Him pressing. I'm not interested in pressing. I'm interested in touching. As a matter of fact, I don't even need to touch His flesh. I just need to touch something that's touching Him. I believe that if I get close enough to Him, if I can touch something that is touching Him, I believe that this issue I've been having for 12 years will stop." She gets her creep on y'all.

[laughter]

This woman is like, "Oh, I'm going to get Him."

[laughter]

She got close. She didn't reach out and grab Him. She did not yank his leg. She got close enough to the tassels that He was wearing, and just went like this. It was that anticlimactic. I know that we would like it to be so much more bigger. We would like fireworks to be going off. She fell into His arms and He was like, "Huh, what have we here?"

[laughter]

No, it was just. The moment she touched that thing that was touching Him, she knew that she was healed. Because when you've been bleeding for 12 years, you know when it stops. This woman literally did this and she was healed. I want to take my time with this text because I believe that there are some people in here that have been trying to press their way into God's presence. Press their way into the relationship, and perhaps this isn't about pressing. Perhaps it's about touching. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you can discern so much more touching something than you can pressing up against it. You can tell the texture of a thing touching in ways that you cannot tell pressing.

There are some people in this room that have been so enamored with the press that you've gotten away from the touch. I need a touch from God. I need a touch from heaven. I need a touch that lets me know that things can change. She touched Him. And Jesus surrounded by all these people pressing up against Him, could discern the touch. The pressing was moving Him, but the touching stopped Him. [applause]

Can you imagine all the pressures around Him? "Why did He stop? Why did He stop? I don't know why He stopped. He just stopped."

[laughter]

"Peter, James, John, you're good?" "Why did we stop?" He said, "Who touched me?" This seems like a foolish question. Everybody was like, "Who touched you? All these people around you and you're going to ask who touched you?" Peter being Peter was like, "Master, there's a bunch of people knocking up against you, could have been anybody."

Then Jesus makes it clearer, "No. Y'all have been pressing up against me unintentionally. Someone deliberately touched me. They were not just satisfied to be in my proximity. They were not just satisfied to be up against me, someone deliberately touched me." Jesus, I loved this Rabbi. Oh, He's so good. This dude refused to move. The person that touched Him fessed up. He just stood there, "Who touched me? I'm not leaving. Can you imagine Jairus?"

[laughter]

Jairus is like, "Bruh, I called you first. Maybe they'll confess later. Can we go?" He doesn't move. He says, "Who touched me?" The woman who was now healed was like, "Mm."

[laughter]

She could have just slipped off. She could have been like, "I'm done."

[laughter]

He doesn't move. It's a traffic jam. She finally says, "It was me. 12 years ago, I started bleeding and I couldn't stop. I tried all kind of stuff, then I heard about you. I didn't mean to stop you, sir. Mr. Jesus, I just want to touch you. I won't even go and say hi. I just wanted to do that and then I was just going to go. I'm sorry if l messed some stuff up." He goes, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You are good." Can you imagine? Not only did she get a touch, but she also got His words.

[applause]

This woman went home. I can't imagine what that scene was like. "Hey, y'all. I touched Jesus today and then He stopped and called me daughter." While this woman is rejoicing, people at Jairus' house start weeping, because in the time it took Jesus to stop to acknowledge this woman's healing, the woman that walked away with an issue of blood for 12 years, there's now an updated report that a young girl who is 12 years old has died.

Sometimes we have to hold the tension of a celebration and a grieving season at the same time. Sometimes we are holding the reality of two things. That while everything is good, some things are not. One woman goes away happy, and the other one's dead. Somebody rushes from Jairus' house. I don't know how far away they were, but they rushed from Jairus' house and they say, "Listen, I know you came to get Jesus, but I just got to give you an update. Your daughter has died. Let's not bother the Master now."

Jesus overhears this and He says, "No. I'm still coming to the house." I know it doesn't say it in the text, but this is the way I hear it in my mind. "No, I'm not done for the day. I'm not a one-trick pony. I did this over here, and I can do that too." I don't want you to think because you heard a testimony on this side of the room of God's faithfulness that He won't do it on that side of the room. I don't want you to think that what He can do on the front row, He can't do on the last row in that balcony. I want you to understand that what God does for one person, He can do something totally different for you. He is not out of resources. He is not out of miracles. He is not out of supernatural things happening in your life. When God says He's going to do something for you, don't get upset. When you hear somebody else's testimony being fulfilled and what God has done, it's not an indication that He's late to your house. It's an indication that He's still coming.

[applause]

Oh, I feel like preaching. Jesus said, "I'm still coming to your house. Just have faith. Just believe, I'm coming to your house." He said, "Peter, James, John, you all come with me. We're still going to the house." They start walking to the house. When they get to the house, it is a crazy chaotic scene because in that culture in that day, they actually had people assigned to weep and to wail with those that were grieving. This was not a somber scene that Jesus walks into. When He walks into the scene, He hears, "Oh, God. Why, God?" This is not an exaggeration. It's exactly what's going on, and it's not one person. Y'all are annoyed by me. I did that for 15 seconds.

[laughter]

This is a bunch of people. This is the scene Jesus walks into. Jesus walks into the scene and He is like, "Stop crying, she's asleep." Here's how you know these people were crazy. Here's how you know these people were faking. As deeply as they were crying, with this one statement from Jesus, the text says they start laughing.

I'm going to let this marinade real quick. We're going to take our time. I got time. Clock is right there. I got 13 good minutes. Can you imagine showing up to a scene? "Why God? Why you there?" Jesus shows up, "Stop crying. She's asleep." "You are boy, you are. Do you hear this dude right now?"

[laughter]

Okay Holy Spirit, I'm going to say it, but oh, some of y'all have people in your lives. They're not crying for real. Some of us got some people in our lives that are crying because they think it's the right thing to do. If you ever express your faith, they'll start laughing at you in a heartbeat. I know that sounds harsh. Oh, dropping it off. You know what Jesus did? Jesus said, "I need all of you to ago. I don't need you around when I get ready to do what I promised this man I was going to do. Because if your emotions can switch that fast, I don't need you in the room." [applause]

Peter, James, John, Jesus, Jairus, and Mrs. Jairus, walk into the room. He had stopped one woman's blood flow and He was about to start another one.

[applause]

Oh, this thing is juicy, y'all. It's so juicy. Oh, it's so juicy. Jesus goes into the room and He takes her by the hand, and He says, "Little girl," that's NLT, King James, "Talitha cumi. Daughter, damsel, arise." Here's the thing that boggles my mind when we think about the sovereignty of King Jesus. When I read the text and it says that He called her and He spoke to her in a loud voice. I just want you to rest with me in this for a moment. That the King of Glory could look at a dead body and know that she was still alive.

[applause]

The body was dead, but He knew that she was a soul in a body and that her soul, that's why it's so important that we give our lives to Jesus because our souls live forever.

[applause]

She was not dead as in didn't exist anymore. She was just detached from her body and she wouldn't float ——. I don't want to say—— deep, I don't want no theologians coming after me, I'm not saying all that. What I'm saying is, He knew that when He's looking at death, He's only looking at people that are sleeping because when you hold the keys to death, hell and the grave, death is light work to you.

[applause]

He said, "Little girl, get up." Wherever she was, well, He caught her. She came back and she lifted up in that bed. This is such a boss move. I'm sorry, just some of the ways I see Jesus is just gangsta. Jesus reaches over, grabs her by the hand, "Little girl, get up." She got up. This Is such a boss move. He just goes, "Give her something to eat."

[laughter]

I don't know about y'all. I don't like that, but I just think that was just so smooth. Just, "Get her something to eat."

[laughter]

"Little girl hungry? Give her eight-piece nugget from Chick-fil-A. Get her something."

[laughter]

"Get her something." Everyone in the house is astonished. All the people that Jesus had kicked out the house was about to see His glory manifested in this little girl's life, because He can do that, too. I have enjoyed this series so much because in my own life I have seen Jesus do that, too. Just last week, we heard a testimony of someone who had a T4 cancer diagnosis, and was given a grim outlook. The very next appointment they had, they checked once, they checked twice, they checked thrice. King James word.

[laughter]

T4 was T0.

[applause]

Do you know why? He can do that, too.

[applause]

I have heard testimonies from my friends that were trying to get pregnant, who had issues very similar to the woman in this text, told that they could not have any children and two babies later. He can do that, too.

[applause]

I want to end this message by at least infusing some faith into this house. That whatever you believe in God for, do not give up hope because He can do the thing that He promised in His Word if you will just open up your heart and receive that He can do that, too. He doesn't need you to strive, He doesn't need you to press. If you would simply do as Jairus did, and request, He'll come. If you don't think you can open your mouth for a request, I just ask you to touch and He will heal.

[applause]

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? My hope and my prayer is that there was something that was said today that allows you to believe what scripture says, then can still happen now. I believe that there are people in this room that are going to see God's miraculous hand at work in their bodies, in their emotions, in their minds, in their relationships, not for your credit but all for His glory, because He can do that, too. He can heal bodies and He can restore marriages. He can do that, too.

Holy Spirit, I pray right now in Jesus' name that you would take this message and this moment, that you would make it a marker in our lives of how you can speak, how you can heal, how you can set free, how you can deliver, how you can break strongholds, and how by your miraculous powers you can open doors that no man can shut. Thank you for this time and thank you for this reminder that you can do that, too. For your glory, Lord God, take all the people that have requests and all the people that would reach out in touch and do something that gives glory to you. In the matchless name of Jesus we pray, Amen. I love you guys. Bye.