Good morning. We are going to be in Mark chapter five this morning. Verses 21 through 43. The title of the message is Hope for the Hopeless. Hope for the Hopeless. I'm gonna begin reading in verse 21. When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him and so he stayed by the seashore. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, my little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live. And he went off with him and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse. After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. For she thought, if I just touch his garments, I will get well. Immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing in on you and you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. While he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore? But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid any longer, only believe. and he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, he said to them, why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep. They began laughing at him. But putting them all out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and entered the room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kuhn, which translated means little girl, I say to you, get up. Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old, and immediately they were completely astounded. And he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and he said that something should be given her to eat. Father, we thank you for this word. We ask that you help us as we look into it today, that you help us to understand, help us to glean helpful truths, help us to draw near to you and see your glory and your grace, and help us to grow. Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus' name, amen. So Mark chapter five. which is what we're in, has historically been referred to as the chapter of lost causes. And the reason for this is because all three of the interactions that Jesus has in this chapter are with people who, from a human perspective, have no hope. They're lost causes. Actually, though, The theme began back in chapter four when Jesus and the disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee and the mega storm came up. You remember there was a mega, a fierce gale of wind, bigger than anything Peter had ever seen. The biggest of the big. And it was flooding the boat. The boat was sinking and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. It was a lost cause. Peter was a proud man and he and Andrew and James and John were experienced fishermen. If there was any way that they could have gotten that boat through that storm without disturbing Jesus, they would have. How do I know that's true? Because if I've got a storm going on and there's any way I can get through it without disturbing Jesus, I probably would. And you probably would too. That's just the way we are. We tend to be that way. Now, as we walk with the Lord and we learn more and more of our weakness and more and more of his strength, that changes and we grow in grace and we pray more and try less. But that's our nature. And if there's any way they could have got through that storm, they would have. But this boat full of disciples is sinking in the middle of the sea and it was a lost cause. Indeed, Jesus woke up and he dealt with that lost cause just by speaking a word to the storm. When he spoke to the wind and the waves, they were all immediately constrained by the sound of his voice. Jesus is sovereign over every storm. And when he speaks to the storm, it obeys. Then we get to chapter five, and it began with another lost cause a couple of weeks ago. when we were there. Because when the boat landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus immediately was met by a man who was caught up in a different kind of storm. He was completely dominated by a legion of demons. The man couldn't control or help himself. He was constantly being tormented by these unclean spirits. They were causing him to run through the tombs and over the rocks and strip all of his clothes off and gash himself and injure himself. Nobody else could help him either. His friends and family tried to restrain him with shackles and chains. They tried to chain him down to keep him from hurting himself or somebody else. I've actually seen videos of stuff like that. about drugs and stuff where people cannot even be restrained by handcuffs. I've seen people on some of those substances that actually were able to break handcuffs and get out of them, and that's the way this fellow was. He couldn't even be restrained with a shackle or a chain. He was a hopeless case until he met Jesus. Jesus is sovereign even over the unclean spirits. They can't do anything without his permission. And Jesus spoke to the demons and he set the man free. The local citizens were terrified because they knew how hopeless a condition the man had been in before. And this was something that was completely beyond their ability to process and comprehend. So they begged Jesus to leave. And Jesus did leave. He left at their request, but he sent the man home to witness to his friends and neighbors as a living testimony that nothing is impossible with God. And Jesus got in the boat and went back across the sea, and that's where we pick up today in verse 21. When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and so he stayed by the seashore. A large crowd shows up as soon as Jesus gets there. And so he just stays there where he's got plenty of room to speak to them and minister to them and accommodate the whole crowd. And so in verse 22 through 24, we see Jairus. One of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up and on seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly saying, my little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live. And he went off with him, and a large crowd was following him and pressing in on him. Jairus is a synagogue official, or depending on your translation, he's a ruler of the synagogue. He's not a priest, he's not a Levite, he's not a rabbi. He's not a teacher, he's an administrator. And he's a pretty important person in the community. He's kind of like the high school superintendent. He's the one that's over the whole thing. His job is to maintain the synagogue, to keep all the provisions, to keep it up to, you know, to keep it in good order, and to order all of its services. Everybody, whatever happens there goes through him. The synagogue is a public building and he is the public official that is over that thing. Everything that happens there falls under his supervision and in his jurisdiction. So Jairus must be at the point where he's desperate. He's got to be desperate because even though he's an important and prominent person, when he sees Jesus, He falls at his feet. He's at the same place that Peter and Andrew and James and John were at out there in that storm. If he could have hired the right doctor or found the right medicine, if he could have done anything to have saved his daughter, he would have done it. But he couldn't, so he's at this point of absolute and utter despair. And he goes to Jesus and he falls at his feet because Jairus has come to the end of hope. Everything that can be done, given the medical knowledge of the day, has been done. When he tells Jesus, my little daughter is at the point of death, the word translated point is eschatos, or eschatos. It's where we get the word eschatology. And it means the very last, the extreme, the end. So Jairus is not telling Jesus, my daughter's deathly ill. She's in the hospital and she needs healing. That's not what he's saying. He's telling Jesus, my daughter's at the end of hospice care. She's taking her last breaths. She's at the end. And he's asking Jesus to come lay his hands on her so that she will get well and live. Let's think about that. Jairus believes that if Jesus lays hands on his daughter, she will get well and live. Now, the scriptures don't tell us how Jairus came to have this faith. They don't tell us whether he witnessed Jesus perform a miracle or if he just heard about Jesus' miracle from others. He probably witnessed him. He was the ruler of the synagogue. He probably saw some of the miracles that Jesus performed, but for whatever reason, Jairus had faith that even at the very end, and as hopeless as things appeared, that Jesus was able to heal his daughter. So he brought his lost cause to Jesus and laid it at his feet. He put his hope in Jesus and Jesus went with him. There's a huge crowd following along and they're pressing against Jesus. And that brings us to verse 25. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for 12 years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse. After hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak. For she thought, if I just touch his garments, I will get well. Immediately, the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. So Jesus is going home with Jairus to heal his daughter, and suddenly, there's an interruption. And we're introduced to another lost cause, another hopeless case. This woman has a hemorrhage, an issue of blood, if you're reading the King James. She's had this for 12 years. She's had to deal with nonstop bleeding for 12 years. If that's not bad enough to make it even worse, according to the law, she's unclean. She's unclean. Listen to Leviticus chapter 15. I'm gonna read to you verses 25 through 28. In Leviticus 15, 25 through 28, it says, now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge, she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity she is unclean. Any bed on which she lies all the days of her, discharge shall be to her like her bed of menstruation, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean like her uncleanness at that time. Likewise, whoever touches them shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening. When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days, and afterward she shall be clean. Not only did she have the physical misery to deal with for 12 years, but she also held the same legal status as a leper. Now, if you guys remember from when we were talking about Jesus healing the lepers, it was against the law for a leper to touch a person that was clean, somebody who didn't have leprosy. It was against the law for a person who didn't have leprosy to touch a leper. As a matter of fact, you couldn't even come, if you were a leper, you weren't even supposed to come within 50 feet of a non-infected person. And if you got within a certain distance of a person, you were supposed to yell out, unclean, unclean. so they would know that you were contaminated and not come near. That's the law. It was against the law for this woman to touch anybody. It was a violation of the law for anyone to touch her. She couldn't enter a place of worship. She couldn't go in a temple and she couldn't go in a synagogue. And she was violating the law just by being in that crowd that was following Jesus because she was too close to all of them. And she was probably even touching some of them here and there. And to go along with her physical, social, and religious misery, she's completely impoverished. Over the last 12 years, she's gone to many doctors, and she spent every bit of money that she could scrape together, and they haven't been able to help her at all. If anything, their treatments have only made her condition worse. and hearing about Jesus. Verse 27 seems to indicate that the woman hadn't actually seen any of Jesus' miracles. It's likely that she'd only heard about Jesus. She heard the things that he was proclaiming about the kingdom of God, and she heard about the miracles that he'd performed. This is gonna be an important point for us moving forward. You remember what Paul says in Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. She heard about Jesus. We don't know the details of what the woman had heard about Jesus, but we do know that it was enough to cause her to believe that if she could just get close to him and touch his garments, she'd be healed. So she made her way through the crowd to get to him and she touched his cloak and immediately the bleeding stopped and she was well. And she didn't need seven days to pass to know that she was clean. She was clean immediately. Now let's look at verses 30 through 33. Immediately, Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing in on you, and you say, who touched me? And he looked around to see the woman who had done this. But the woman, fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. Now Jesus knew that his power had gone forth and healed the woman. So he stopped and he asked, who touched my garments? And Jesus' action of stopping and his question that's recorded here has caused a lot of confusion. The scripture doesn't really detail it for us, but I'm sure that Jairus was pretty confused. I mean, one minute, Jesus is going with him to save his daughter, who is at the brink of death, and the next minute, he just stops and starts talking to the crowd. The disciples were also immediately confused, because they thought Jesus was talking to them. And they thought he was asking them a question. They thought he was asking them to provide him with the answer to that question, who touched my clothes? So they were confused. In reality, by the means of his question, the Lord was providing them, his disciples, Jairus, and us, with the answer to a question that they didn't even know to ask. See, we pointed this out before and we've looked at it. When Jesus asks a question in the scriptures, it's not because he doesn't know the answer. When Jesus asks a question, it's because we need to know the answer. When Jesus asked who touched him, he wasn't addressing the disciples, he was addressing the woman who touched him. And he was calling her to come forward and tell her story so that we could read about it today. That's how the Lord works. That's why we have the Bible. So she came forward and she came forward afraid and trembling. Why was she afraid? She knew that she was healed. But she's afraid, so she fell down before Jesus and she told him the whole truth. Why was she afraid? She was afraid because she broke the law in order to get to Jesus. And she broke the law in order to be healed when she reached out and touched him. But she's healed now, so what's she afraid of? She's afraid of the response from, quote, good, law-abiding religious people. That's what she's afraid of. Listen to Matthew chapter 12. Verses one through seven. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath. And he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions? How he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone. Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. Jesus stopped and engaged this woman for a lot of different reasons that day. But one of them had to be to publicly make this point that he makes over and over in the scriptures. He desires mercy more than sacrifice. He desires mercy above rule following. And the needs of his people are more important to him than religious box checking. And then in verse 34, he doesn't give her a rebuke. Instead, he said to her daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace and be healed of your affliction. He didn't say, hey, I'm glad you believe in me and all that, but you really shouldn't have broken the law. Or I don't approve of your law breaking, but since you believe in me, you believe the right thing, I'm gonna go ahead and let you slide, leave you healed this time. That's not what he says. No rebuke at all. Jesus just told her daughter, he called her daughter. That's gonna be important too. He said, daughter, your faith has made you well. And that raises the question, faith in what? Was she healed because she had faith that Jesus' garments contained healing properties? You know, there are, unfortunately there are Christian ministers on television who will send you a prayer shawl that they've blessed, or a crystal, or some anointing oil that they've prayed over. They're supposed to have some kind of special properties because they've got a direct line to God. Is that what healed her? That she had faith in something like that? Was she healed because she believed Jesus was a miracle worker and somehow physically touching him is gonna grant her healing? And what gave her the idea that touching his cloak would bring her healing anyway? What gave her that idea? Was there something in particular that she might have been thinking of? Well, I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, there was something that would put that in her mind, and it's in Malachi chapter four, verse two. In Malachi chapter four, verse two, and this is a messianic prophecy of the coming of the Lord. He says, but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. The word translated wings in the prophecy is kanaph, K-A-N-A-P-H, kanaph, which means edge, corner, or flap. And Malachi chapter four is a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, the Lord. Because of what she'd heard about Jesus, the woman believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the truly righteous Lord whose wings would provide protection and healing to those who looked to him. That's the faith that made the woman well. That's why she believed that if she touched his cloak, If she touched the wing, the hem, in some versions that talks about touching the hem, it's not a hem as in like we would have a turned under hem, it just means the edge, the edge of his garment, the wings. The faith was not in the garment. The faith was in who he was. She believed that he was that Messiah. She believed that he was the one who was to come with healing in his wings. That is the faith that she was healed by. And she wasn't healed by her faith. She was healed by Jesus because she believed the truth that he is the Christ, the son of righteousness, the son of the living God. That's what healed her. And that's what faith is. Verse 35. While he was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official saying, your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher anymore? While Jesus is still speaking to the woman, Messengers arrived from Jairus' house to inform him that his daughters died. So there's not any need anymore to bring Jesus to the house. From a human perspective, even the little shred of hope that Jairus had when he came and threw himself down at Jesus' feet is gone. All hope of restoration for the child has been lost. Can you imagine how Jairus must have felt in that moment? He thought he had found hope for his daughter. He knew that Jesus was a healer and a worker of miracles, and he had found Jesus and was bringing him to the girl. It seemed like Providence was smiling on Jairus. He was probably beginning to hope against hope that this was actually gonna work. He was probably hoping against hope that this is gonna turn out okay, if I can just get Jesus there. But then Jesus just stops in the middle of the road and then he has the conversation with the woman who's healed. It might not have taken more than five, 10 minutes, but it might've taken longer. But however long it took, it probably seemed like forever to Jairus. And then just about the time Jesus gets finished with the woman who was healed, bam, there's the messengers. You wasted your time, Jairus, it's over. Your daughter's dead. Don't bother Jesus any longer. I can't even begin to imagine the grief and frustration and maybe even anger that Jairus is experiencing right there in that moment. And in verse 36, it says, but Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid. And the any longer is added. If you're reading the King James, the New King James, it just says, do not be afraid, only believe. And I actually think that's a better rendering because that's the point. Jesus looks at him and says, do not be afraid, only believe. See, Jesus heard the messenger's report while he's still speaking to the woman. And he turned his attention to Jairus. And in my mind, I can kind of picture this scene of utter chaos with this crowd and everything that's going on and the people pressing in. And Jairus is standing there in stunned silence, you know, in the middle of the roar of the crowd. And the Lord makes eye contact with him and says, do not be afraid, only believe. Jesus is telling Jairus, don't listen to what they say. Don't give in to your fear of death and loss, just believe. Put your trust in me. In verse 37, Jesus just takes control of the whole thing and he allowed no one to accompany him except Peter and James and John and the brother of James. So Jesus takes Jairus, Peter, James, and John, and somehow, the five of them manage to get away from the crowd and go to Jairus' house alone. Now, he didn't allow the rest of his disciples to come, and he didn't allow the crowd to come. It's possible that he had the rest of the disciples preach to the crowd or something to keep them occupied, or he could have just taken the ones he wanted to take and just disappeared. because he did that before. He walked right through crowds whenever they wanted to do something to him and it wasn't time. The point is, Jesus was in control of the crowd, just like he's in control of the storm. In verse 38, it says, they came to the house of the synagogue official and he saw commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing. When they get to Jirah's house, they're met by a group of people making a big show of weeping and wailing. They're probably not family members. It was Jewish custom to hire professional mourners upon the death of a family member. These mourners would make a big show of tearing their clothes, weeping, and there would usually be people playing really sorrowful songs with musical instruments. So there's a lot of stuff going on, a lot of noise. And the purpose of it is to signify the great loss that the family was experiencing. And I was kind of picturing that and thinking about it. And there's a side note that I want to bring in here about that custom. That seems to me an awful lot like dead works-based religion. The sacrifices are being made. The boxes are being checked, but the people doing it have no real heart connection to the person that they're mourning. Just like the people making sacrifices and following rules have no real heart connection to the God whom they're supposed to be worshiping in dead religion. So it's really not surprising that Judaism of that day had brought out that custom. So due to the prominence of Jairus' position in the community, though, it's likely that this is a pretty large crowd of mourners. It's likely that the family had hired a pretty large group to do the mourning. So this is a pretty big ruckus going on when they get there. Verses 39 and 40 says, in entering in, He said to them, why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep. They began laughing at him. But putting them all out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions and entered the room where the child was. So when Jesus told the mourners that the girl wasn't dead, only asleep, the mourners began to laugh at him and mock him. They've seen enough dead people. These are professional mourners. They know what a dead person looks like. They knew that the little girl was physically dead. Jesus was not telling the mourners that the girl was only in a coma or a catatonic state where she just seemed dead but really wasn't. That's not what he was saying. He was using sleep as a euphemism for physical death. He used the same terminology speaking about Lazarus in John 11, 11, where he says, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go so that I may awaken him out of sleep. And the disciples thought Jesus was talking about literal sleep. And they took that route. So finally in verse 14, Jesus had to tell them plainly, Lazarus is dead. When Jesus said the child has not died, he wasn't talking about physical death. He was telling them the child has not perished. She's not gone. She's physically dead. She's asleep. But when I'm involved, physical death is not a lost cause. That's the point that he's making. She hasn't perished. Yes, she's physically dead, but she's asleep. She hasn't perished. She's not gone. Jesus was in control of the mourners also. They laughed, and he just put them all out of the house. Then he, his disciples, and the girl's parents went into the room where she was, where the girl was. Verse 41 says, taking the child by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kuhn, which translated means little girl, I say to you, get up, immediately. The girl got up and began to walk, for she was 12 years old, and immediately they were completely astounded. I love immediately in the Gospel of Mark. When Jesus spoke to the storm, immediately the wind ceased. You went from a howling gale to dead calm, not even a whisper of breath. When Jesus spoke to that dead child, immediately she got up, completely well and began to walk. She didn't just rouse. She didn't just, she's not just laying there dead and when Jesus speaks to her, her eyes start to flutter, you know, like you see it on the movies where somebody's coming out of it and you see them start gradually coming to. No, immediately. When Jesus spoke life, immediately she got up and they were immediately astounded. It says, taking the child by the hand. Verse 41 begins with that. Taking the child by the hand. Let me ask you a question. Did Jesus need to take the child by the hand to raise her to life? No. He raised Lazarus simply by command. Lazarus, come forth. He didn't need to touch the dead little girl any more than he needed to touch the leper when he cleansed him. What's the common thing between Jesus touching the leper and touching the girl? Touching them should have defiled Jesus according to the law. You weren't supposed to intentionally touch a leper and if you came in contact with one, you were unclean as well. You weren't supposed to touch a cadaver either. And if you came in contact with one, you were unclean until a certain amount of time had elapsed. Jesus touched the leper. Instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the leper was made clean. Jesus touched the dead child. Instead of Jesus becoming unclean, he raised the dead child to life. Jesus is the living word. who in the beginning spoke all of creation into existence. And on this day, he took that child's hand and spoke, Talitha Kuhn, little girl, I say to you, get up. And there isn't a force in the universe that could have held that child down on a bed. Jesus is sovereign over that storm also. He's sovereign even over death. So you could say, well, That was great when Jesus was physically on earth doing these things. But what does that mean for us now, since He's ascended into heaven? Well, Paul assures us in 1 Corinthians 15, 25, and 26, that Jesus is now reigning over all things. Now. Not sometime in the future, but now. He is now reigning over all things until he has put all of his enemies under his feet, and the last enemy that will be abolished is death. This little girl in Lazarus and in Luke, there's a story about a widow of a place called Nain, and Jesus comes along to cross the funeral procession. She's lost her only son. He's dead. And Jesus takes pity on her and she raises the young man to life. There's three for certain cases in scripture where Jesus raised somebody from the dead. All of these cases, Jesus temporarily brought them back to physical life because they all died again. But they were all just demonstrations that even death is not a lost cause for him. Jesus has abolished death for his people. Though we may die physically, we will never perish because of him. Of course, the girl's parents and the disciples were astounded. This was completely beyond their realm of comprehension. Verse 43. And he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this. And he said that something should be given her to eat. You know, Jesus often told people that he worked a miracle for to keep it for themselves, keep it to themselves. It's kind of interesting. It seems kind of almost paradoxical that he's going around publicly performing miracles, but then he heals somebody, or raises somebody from the dead, or restores somebody's sight, or whatever. He says, now don't tell anybody. Well, he did that because his purpose in this world was not to work as many miracles as he could. That was not his purpose. He could have healed everybody on the planet. That wasn't his purpose. His purpose was not to gain as many followers as he could, and his purpose was not to create a worldly kingdom. He could have done all of those things. And he could have done it any time he wanted. He actually had to actively discourage that from happening by thinning out the crowd on occasion. The crowd got too big, he'd turn around and tell them something like, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He did those sort of things to keep the crowd size down. Because he wasn't looking to gain as big of an earthly following as he could possibly gain. Jesus' purpose was to perform exactly the signs that he intended to perform in order to demonstrate his identity, fulfill the scriptures, teach his disciples how to understand the scriptures, and reconcile his people to God by dying for them, and taking their death upon himself, thereby abolishing it forever. That's the lost cause of all lost causes, isn't it? The soul who sins will die. That's in Ezekiel 18, four. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3, 23. In John 11, 25, and 26, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? See, Jesus is hope. for the hopeless. And there is no such thing as a lost cause for those who put their trust in him. We were talking about one of my favorite stories in Sunday school this morning, thinking about this passage in Mark. Later on, we'll get to it, but Jesus had been up on the mountaintop with Peter, James, and John, and they saw him transfigured and talking to Moses and Elijah. And after it's all over with, and they're coming back down the mountain, and they get back down to where the rest of the disciples are, and there's a crowd of people, and this man has brought his child, because his child is possessed by an evil spirit that causes him to have seizures and fall in the water and fall in the fire. And he says, I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn't cast out the spirit. He says, but if you can do anything, would you please help us? And Jesus said, if? If I can. All things are possible to the one who believes. And the man says what I have to say all the time. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. See, there's no such thing as a lost cause for those who put their trust in him. So Jesus told the parents, don't go telling people about this. Just feed this kid. She's not sick anymore. She's fully restored, and that means she's hungry. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy. We thank you that you are the champion of lost causes and there is no such thing as a lost cause in your economy. You will save your people and you will heal your people and you will restore your people. And you are sovereign over every storm. And you are using every single one of them to teach us about you, mold us into the image of Christ. Lord, we just thank you for this truth, and we ask that you apply it to our hearts today. We thank you for every good thing, in Jesus' name, amen.