Today we're going to be looking in Mark at the impossibilities that God has to have and the divine appointments that he's going to keep so that we might have an opportunity. The impossibilities that God has to have. and the divine important appointments that God will keep to give us an opportunity. So we're gonna start in the fourth chapter of Mark, fourth chapter of Mark. If I have enough time, we're gonna see three, I mean, four appointments that God had in the time period of 24 hours. Jesus has been teaching and he's been teaching all all day long. I've been preaching. I've got a chance to lead the singing here in this last service and I have sung at the one before and we need to remember Clarice Stone in prayer. I understand that she was supposed to be here today. I did not know until I talked to Mary that she has fallen and she has some injury to her body. What an amazing voice Clarice has. Just stand back and sing and the whole room is filled up with something that you just, you keep looking around to keep thinking, where is all of that coming from? And so we need to remember her in prayer because she was gonna sing for us this morning and was not able to be here. So we're gonna see four things if we have enough time. The first thing that we're gonna see is that we're gonna see that Jesus didn't just go out on the wild and stormy seas one night. We don't know exactly how many there were, but the Bible tells us of it happening on two separate occasions. One night he comes walking across the water. This time he is not walking on the water, but he is still Lord God anyway. And so we want to start here. He's been teaching all day long. I've been doing a little bit of teaching today. I don't know if you all know me very well, but in about 30 minutes from now, maybe 25 minutes from now, I'm gonna go, and there's not gonna be a whole lot left of me and then hopefully this evening I'll be able to get back again and I'm thinking about how Jesus was able to do what he did because he taught all day long and the word went out of him with power and the word was falling into lives All of those people, those hundreds of people, those thousands of people that were there whenever he was teaching, all of them into their lives were falling possibilities because that's what happens when the Word goes out. And basically that's what I want to do today. I want to stick with the Word and just let the Word speak today. So you all pray for me that I don't get caught up and have to say too much other than what the Word say. So he's been teaching in that same day when the even was come. Now evening comes whenever the sun is going down. Evening doesn't start it whenever the sun gets halfway past the point in the sky. It's the sun is going down, he's getting ready to go somewhere, and they get into his ship and he says, let us pass over to the other side. They're going to the other side, whether they go the long lengthways of the Sea of Galilee, from north to south, the long ways, or they go the short ways, which is across one, One way to the other, it's about 10 to 11 miles long. The other way, it's about six miles wide. I don't know about you all, they didn't have Evan Rood or Mercury Motors back in those days. and go across the other side. They may have had sails, I'm pretty sure they did, but it wouldn't have been a fast movement going across there. And if they had to, they had to row against the wind. It would have been slower still even then. And so Jesus says to them, let us go to the other side. And when he had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was. And I want us to consider this sinless man. because at the end of the day, he is wasted. And there's one reason why he was wasted, because of his love for those people there. He couldn't stop talking to them as long as they could hear him. And they were hearing him. They had never heard any man speak like he spoke. They said, never has man spoke like this before. Where did he learn these things? And their hearts would burn within them. That's an amazing thing. Whenever my heart begins to burn and I know that Jesus is speaking to me. And so he was there and they took him as he was. And I want you to think about that. What's your day like after you have wasted yourself in a day? What is your body like? What is your person like? Because there have been days whenever I'm wasted. And at the end of the day, I don't want you all to be around me like that because I'm a sinner and I stink. Now my Savior didn't stink, but he was worn out because of his love for us. He never gave just a small portion. He gave everything he had to give as long as people were still willing to receive it. And there were also with him other little ships and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. I remember whenever I was a kid that my mother's family, she has a large family, hi mom. She has a large family, and we had a family reunion at Texhoma. And we went down to this family reunion, and we all got into boats. And I mean, I don't remember if all my aunts and uncles were there, because she has 10 or so brothers and sisters. And the oldest one was 24 years older than her. And I don't know if we were all there but there was a bunch of us there because when we got the clan together there was a bunch of us. And we went out and they hung lanterns over the side and little minnows and bigger fish came to that thing and they tried fishing and of course they had the boats filled up with kids too. Have you all ever tried to fish with a bunch of kids in the boat? Do you think they caught a whole bunch that night? I don't remember us catching too very much, but I remember after a while looking off into the southwest there at Texoma that I began to see clouds and lightning dancing around the clouds and they seemed to be coming our way and we kind of ignored them for a long time until the wind begins to blow and it began to sprinkle and we were a long ways out in the lake and finally about that time they said, we need to head in. And so we start heading in and we're going, going across there trying to get back in time. And we just barely got back before, I mean, the thing hit. We had tents set up all over where that night. All of our tents got blown away into the lake. We woke up the next morning and the tents that were just on this side of us were fine. And their cups and stuff were still out on top of their tables. And over on this side, their tents were fine. But on this side, their cups and things were still on top of their tables. And we thought, how did that happen? The finger of God came through there. there are divine appointments even whenever it appears to be something very powerful and it should not be and it's a divine appointment with God because God is determined to have a divine appointment with his people and so here Jesus is in this the ship is getting full and he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow and they woke him up and he said what are you doing I'm trying to rest here You'll find me out. That's Phil Thompson. That's not him. And they said, Master, don't you care that we're going to die? And he arose and he rebuked the wind and the sea. And he said, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And how much faith does it take? It takes a mustard seed of faith. That's all it ever takes for any particular instance of life is just a mustard seed of faith, just a little bit of faith. And they feared or they were terrified. Now they were terrified because they thought they were going to die, but suddenly this man speaks and the clouds begin to roll back away and the seas get calm. I don't know if the wind was blowing now so that they needed to use the sails or they had to row. And they were looking at this man and said, hurry, get to land. Who is this man that we're with? They were terrified of him. What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? This was the first appointment he had with all those people that were in those boats and with his disciples so that they might know him better. And some of the appointments in life seemed to be very, very stormy, very turbulent. And it's important that we get to know who Jesus is because the song that we sang, you are my all in all is who Jesus is. And they came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him another appointment. The second appointment, there came a man out of the, and it says a man, I want you to know this is a man. Jesus came for men and women, boys and girls. He didn't come for a select few. The world is always looking for a select few. Do you measure up? Are you one of the ones? I don't know. We'll have to figure it out if you are. Wow, marvelous opportunities. No, God comes looking for just a man, just a woman, just a boy, just a girl, because God wants to bless. Whenever he found Abraham, Abraham was nothing on a stick. He was making idols to be worshiped. He was selling those idols to other people and leading them into false worship. And God still came looking for a man and he found Abraham and he spoke to Abraham and Abraham believed. And it's what made the difference. And so he finds this man. with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him." And isn't it amazing how often we want to tame somebody? We try to get them to live like we want them to live. We tell them, you need to stop that. You don't stop that, you're gonna mess things all up. Well, I'll tell you, we all have things that are messed up. We need somebody who doesn't stop us, but somebody who blesses us. And we're so blessed that we can't help but want him to bless us more. And so here comes Jesus and he can bless this man. And always day and night he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. This is not a pretty picture. I often wonder about myself, how pretty of a picture I am. I appreciate the fact that many of y'all come to me and you tell, Brother Phil, you're always so happy. You don't see me all the time. Some of y'all see me in those other times and you say, whoop, what happened to him? Well, somehow the man behind the curtain, don't look at the man behind the curtain. Ignore him. No, somehow you see the real person and Jesus is interested in the man. And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and he worshiped him. Now I want you to know the demons in him and him have almost become one. There are certain influences that we can almost become one with. And the demons in him had almost become one. There were moments whenever he came to himself and he said, who am I? What am I? I can't stand myself. Somebody help me. I don't like myself anymore. But then that power would re-exert itself over him. And he would come under that influence. And he ran and he worshiped Jesus. And today, you don't know it. You may not be aware of it. Some of you are aware of it more than others, but you're feeling the drawing power of heaven calling you, saying, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come unto me and let me pour myself into you and fill up your emptiness. You hear and feel this, and this man felt something about Jesus. The demons did too. They felt something. They said, no, run. And he said, no, I want him. No, run. No, I want him. And he, for a few minutes, was in charge. And he went to him. And he cried with a loud voice. And he said, what have I to do with you? And he said, is there? And I want you to know what he was saying here, because the literal Greek is marvelous. He says, Jesus, do we have anything in common? Do we have anything in common? And yes, we do. That's why Jesus had a divine appointment with this man that day. Because Jesus has a lot in common with us. You may say, I don't have anything in common with anybody. You have something in common with Jesus. He knows you and he loves you. He sees possibility in you. He doesn't look at your circumstances and see the impossibility. He sees possibility whenever he sees you. And so he goes to him and he says, do we have anything in common? And Jesus said, and he went on, he called him by name. How did he know him? Jesus said, because the spirits now know him and the spirits are beginning to re- re-established control by thou Son of the Most High Jesus. I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. Well, who would have told him that he was gonna be tormented by God? Well, it could only be by an evil spirit because God's not interested that any should perish. He's interested that all should come to life. And if I'm bringing you to life, I know that there are some people who feel like that they might just be able to beat the devil out of you. I'm telling you something, the only thing that can happen is for God to love him out of you. And so they were talking here, and he said to him, said to him, torment me not. And he said, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he said to him, what is your name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are many. And of course, you know the rest of the story. Jesus commands him to come out. And they said, no, no, no, no, don't send us to that place away. We've been to the away place. We don't want to go there. Even the demons don't want to go to the place that's away from God. Are you hearing me today because maybe you've never made the choice for Jesus today. They have rebelled and said we don't want Him anymore, but they don't want to go to that away place. Don't send us out of the country into that away place. And so if you don't know him today, he's made an appointment with you today and he's wanting to call you his very own. He's offering himself to you for your life, his life for yours. He'll take your sinful life and he'll fill you up with his perfect joy. if you will allow that to happen because the spirits said, don't send us to the away place. Now there was night of them, the swine, they went into the swine, the swine ran down and drowned themselves because pigs are smarter than we are. I'll say that again, pigs are smarter than we are. and they ran down and drowned themselves because they couldn't stand that. And then the people come out of the town, they see Jesus out there, they see the man who up until this time has been crazy with demon presence, he can't stand it, and he's in his right mind and he's clothed. And they look at him and they look at their pigs floating out there in the water and they say, please, please, please, you may be somebody marvelous, but we don't want you. and they asked him to leave. And whenever he was coming to the ship, verse 18, whenever he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed Jesus, begged Jesus that he might be with him. And Jesus said, no, no, no, no, no. I have a plan for you. You must go home and tell your friends and others how great things God has done for you. Now, I'm sure this man saw Jesus again. But there was something he had to do first. I don't know what it is today that the Master is going to require of me or of you beyond today. I know what it is for me. I have to lay my life down. I have to be willing to give it up. I don't know about that for you today. I do know that we're all required in some way to share Jesus with somebody. But he was required to go back and share Jesus with every person that would allow him to. And I'm sure there were a lot of people that wanted to know that. And so he told him to do that. So this is the second appointment that Jesus had. The next one is going to be whenever he went back onto the other side. This is in 24 hours, Jesus has four appointments, divine appointments with people who are in impossible situations. Jesus is seeing possibilities in their impossible situations. And when Jesus, verse 21, passed to the other side, much people were gathered around him and he was nigh to the sea. And behold, there comes one of the rulers of the synagogue. This is eventually gonna be his fourth appointment. And he says, my daughter is ill and she will die. Please come to my house. In verse 24, Jesus went with him and much people thronged him. Now for the third appointment and a certain woman. Now I want you to know that whenever Jesus said, peace be still, the men that were with him in the ship were terrified. And whenever he went to the man that was in his right mind who had the demons and they saw him in his right mind, the same word is there. They were phobic about Jesus. They were fearful about Jesus. They wanted him to go away. And here we come to a woman who has nothing to fear anymore, because she has nothing left. She has no fears left at all. She has only, in her impossibilities, all she sees is one hope. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of physicians that had spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse. And when she heard of Jesus came in the press behind. Now then I, last night, I almost ran over a couple of guys that were wearing hoodies that they had on black stuff and hoodies. And I mean, I see fairly well, but for that brain and other stuff yesterday, I was driving down the street in the last second. I thought, wow, I didn't hardly see them, but you know, these hoodie things, I don't understand what that's all about. because whenever that reminds me of people that are monks and they wear the stuff up over their head and everything like this well I don't know how she got there to be with all those people but she had to cover herself up and it wasn't her usual covering that she went in with because everybody wore recognized her usual dress I mean she didn't probably have too very many different ones because she was sick And when people saw her coming, they gave her a wide berth. And she gave them a wide berth because she wasn't supposed to be in town. Whenever you were sick, you had to live outside the city walls. Whenever anybody came close to where she was, she was supposed to say, oh, there's something wrong with me. Don't get too close. You may catch it. It's like being a leper. And so she had this blood problem and she said, but she got in the crowd that day. She said, I don't have anything. Because if they found her in the city and she wasn't there, she wasn't telling people that they might catch something from her, they could take her outside and stone her. And she said, I really don't have anything to fear anymore anyway. This is my last chance. And so she came in the press behind him, and she said, if I just touch the hem of his garment, I shall be whole. And of course, you know what happened? She touched him, and he felt something go out of him. He felt power go out of him, and he stopped, and he said, who touched me? And his disciples said, what are you talking about? Everybody wants to touch you. And he said, no, somebody touched me. Somebody didn't just press in on me and managed to bump me around. Somebody reached out to touch me to get something from me. And this was the divine appointment number three. And with Jesus in the house, and we know where two or three are gathered in my name, he's in the house, that he's here for someone to get something from him. So all of us are here for a divine appointment today. And so we see that this happened with her. And then someone comes and tells Jairus, who was the man who has the daughter who's sick, your daughter is dead, verse 35. And while he yet spoke, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, your daughter is dead. Why are you troubling this teacher anymore? And as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said, be not afraid, only believe. Let me say that again. Be not afraid, be not terrified, be not phobic, only believe. So if there's something that's happening in your life somewhere today that has you terrified, what do you and I need to do? We need to believe. How much faith does it take? It takes a mustard seed of faith. Can you have a mustard seed of faith in Jesus today? Maybe you know somebody who's needing to activate their mustard seed of faith, and you need to go and tell them, have you activated your mustard seed of faith in Jesus? I have a mustard seed. You have a mustard seed. We all have a mustard seed. Trust God. And so, They said, he said, be not afraid, be not terrified, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save for Peter, James, and John. And he comes to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and he goes in, and all these people are in there going crazy, and he starts pushing them out the doors. Why? Because a mustard seed of faith is needed by everybody that's present. I want to ask you today, do you have a mustard seed of faith? Would you hold up your mustard seed? Just about everybody. Because in Jesus' hometown, whenever he went home, he could do no mighty works there because of unbelief. Oh God, we want this church to be a church where we believe. Even if we have to cry out and say, help us, help our unbelief, we believe. We have a mustard seed of faith in who you are and in the divine appointments that you have for us today, that you have not forgotten us, that you're gonna be with us. And they laughed him to scorn, but he put them all out. And he went into where the girl was lying down, verse 41, and he took the damsel by the hand And he said unto her, Talitha Kumi, which being interpreted is, damsel, I say to thee, arise. Child, I say to thee, arise. Child, I say to thee, arise. Oh, do you hear those words being spoken? He's talking to me. Child, I say to thee, arise in your circumstances. He's talking to you. He's saying, child, I say to you, arise. Here, let me take you by the hand. I say to you, let's rise up. Let's begin to move into new things, into new areas. This time is impossible in your life, but let's rise. I say to you, arise. And straightway the damsel arose and walked. And she was of the age 12 years. It's amazing that this woman had this issue of blood for 12 years and she was 12 years old. I'm not sure that there's something about that. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. Now then there's a difference between being astonished and being afraid. Those that were there were not terrified. There must have been a seed of faith. began to burn in them and began to work with the presence of God. And he charged them straightly that no man should know it and commanded that something should be given to her to eat. So in the space of 24 hours, Jesus had more than four divine appointments, but four divine appointments that we know of. And we've been here for about an hour. And every one of us have been summoned to this place for a divine appointment with God. We're not here by accident. Some of you can say, well, I do this. I come here all the time. I'm here because this isn't my habit. No, your habit, God's plan, would not have allowed you to be here today except for God's divine appointment with you. He's looking for a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl. Someone that he can be able to begin to move on their lives. It may be terrifying at first to be able to think, does this God really want to have something to do with me? Should I really take the chance? I don't know. And whenever it begins to happen, I don't know if I can stand it or not because maybe it won't happen my way. But we're all here for the divine appointment of being with Jesus. And by his grace, he's called you here to either be born again, he's called you here to be healed, He's called you here to be set free. He's called you here to be able to speak to the very elements of the earth itself on your behalf. Or he's called you here to say, take my hand, rise up, let's go conquer life together. I think that just about covers everybody for one reason or another. Let's all stand and let's sing amazing grace. And as we sing amazing grace, maybe you want to respond to him in one of those ways. And if you need to respond to him, I'll be down here after we've sung amazing grace and had prayer, and I'll be glad to pray with you to do whatever else that you need to do in this day as we offer up amazing grace.