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- Well, a good Monday to you. Here we are entering the last few days of the month of June, this transition week, going from June to July.
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- And, of course, with the end of the month of June, that means a third of the summer months, as we call them anyway, are going to be in the history books.
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- So, I hope your summer is going well, and I hope today has gotten off to a good start, and therefore your week has gotten off to a good start.
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- Well, today we're reading in Luke chapter 8, and the last third of that chapter, and then going on into chapter 9.
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- And that section in Luke 8 is a passage of Jesus healing
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- Jairus' daughter. And every time I read this passage, I tend to think of it in light of, or through the eyes of,
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- Jairus. Think about this. He comes to Jesus, and he communicates with Jesus, My daughter, she's dying, she's on her deathbed, would you come and heal her?
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- And Jesus says, I will, I'll come. And so off they go. And can you imagine the sense of hope and relief or elation, the possibility that Jesus is going to get there in time to heal his daughter?
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- And so off they go, and his heart's racing, he's excited, he's enthusiastic, and for once in recent days, he's got a measure of hope.
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- But then comes this interruption, and you have to look at it through Jairus' eyes to get the significance of the interruption to him.
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- Because we're told, Luke tells us that a woman came up behind Jesus, she had this issue of blood, she touched the hem of his garment, and we're given all those details up front, before anybody else knows what's going on.
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- And so it's like a crowd that's following Jesus, going with Jairus and so forth, and all of a sudden
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- Jesus stops the crowd, stops the procession. And he said, somebody touched me.
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- Who is it that touched me? Now, how might Jairus be responding right now?
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- Well, wait a minute, even the disciples responded this way, didn't they? They said, well,
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- Lord, there's people all around you, anybody could have touched you, anybody could have touched you.
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- Jesus said, no, no, no, no, somebody touched me, and I felt the power go out from me.
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- Jesus knew full well what was going on, but what he wanted to do was bring forth this woman out of the crowd and highlight her faith.
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- Now, here's the thing, as soon as she touched the hem of his garment, she was made well, and the procession could have gone on, and nobody would have been any the wiser, and she would have been healed, and she could have gone on her way, she would have been excited,
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- Jairus' hopes could have continued to be fueled as this crowd makes its way toward his home.
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- But no, Jesus stops everything and everybody, and he pursues this, he's not going to let this woman get away.
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- He says, who is it that touched me? Somebody touched me, I felt the power go out of me, and he looked right at her, and finally she comes forward and she said, it was
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- I, and she goes into this explanation of why she did this, and she came to him and so forth, she's had this issue of blood, she's been to all the doctors, and nobody's been able to do anything for her, but I knew if I could just get to you, and if I could just touch the hem of your garment, then
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- I'd be better, and sure enough, you know, and she's going through all this explanation. Can you see
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- Jairus tapping his toes? Come on, you know, my daughter, she's very, very sick, she's dying.
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- Maybe a little frustration, perhaps, maybe even a little angry with this woman for causing this delay.
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- I mean, I'm sure he was glad she was better, but you know, can we get moving here, can we move on?
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- And then to make it all the more dramatic, someone comes from Jairus' home and says,
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- I've got some bad news for you, but don't trouble the master any further, your daughter has died, your daughter has died.
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- Can you imagine the deflation with that news?
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- We were on our way, we were getting so close, and then this delay, this woman, she caused us to delay.
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- But Jairus never had much opportunity for those thoughts to germinate and to come to fruition.
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- I mean, he might have had some immediate sense of deflation and maybe a little frustration, but before he could get too upset,
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- Jesus said, don't worry, stay with me, be patient, she'll be all right.
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- And off they went. And they went to his house, Jesus went in to where his daughter was lying, now dead, and he raises her back to life.
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- And he exhibits this wonderful expression of compassion.
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- Give her something to eat, it's been a while since she's had some food, give her something to eat. But again, think of the impact on Jairus, what did
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- Jairus learn through all of this? Well, he definitely learned a lesson of faith. He heard
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- Jesus tell the woman who had the issue of blood, he staunched and she was healed, that it was her faith that saved her, her faith made her whole.
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- And Jesus encouraged Jairus, trust me, trust me, she'll be okay.
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- And he learned the power of faith as he continued on with Jesus and went to the home and Jesus restored his daughter to life.
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- But I think he learned some other things as well. One of those lessons, and it's a lesson
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- I think we need to learn, likewise, is that Jesus is never really delayed.
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- Jesus' timing is always right, it's always accurate.
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- He's never delayed, he's never caught off mission. He's always on time, on his time.
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- Now, granted, you and I might get a little frustrated sometimes because the downward spiral continues to go downward.
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- And he hasn't come in time from our perspective, from our point of view, but Jesus is never delayed.
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- His timing is always right when he operates according to his timetable.
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- And we need to trust him to operate on his timetable. We need to trust that timetable and not be so insistent on our own.
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- And what that means is that this little thing that you and I struggle with in our everyday life, we struggle with so much.
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- Patience. Patience. It has to come into play here, doesn't it? My timetable or the
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- Lord's? What is the root of so much of my impatience? Is it not my timetable, what
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- I want, when I want it, the time I want it? Oh, let's learn to trust.
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- Trust in the Lord, trust in his timetable to accomplish his purposes in his way, in his time.
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- The end of this story, Jesus didn't just heal his daughter.
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- He raised her from the dead. The miracle is all the more astounding, all the more significant.
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- Jesus' timetable is always perfect. It's always right. Let's trust it.
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- Father in heaven, may we trust you. May we trust our Savior. We get so impatient at times that you don't act on our timetable when we want you to act.
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- I pray, Father, that you would give us patience and endurance and help us to trust you.
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- To realize you're never delayed. You always work according to your timing.
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- And we will rejoice when we are so patient to trust that timetable.
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- Give us the faith to do so, we pray. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
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- All right, well, get your week off to a great start. And I trust the Lord will bless you, not only today, but throughout this whole week.
