It is good to be back with you all again. Considering myself an honorary member of the College Hill Reformed Presbyterian Church, and I'm honored again to stand in this holy place. Thanks again to Pastor Titus, Pastor Dean, the elders. Many thanks to my preaching coach, Dr. Barry York, honored that he would recommend me to come twice this year to this wonderful church. And my wife and I and my family and those members who have gotten to share in your worship and your love for the Lord have been blessed. And so I'm honored and just blessed to be with another branch of my father's children. Amen? Amen. There is a word from the Lord found in Luke chapter eight. Luke chapter eight. Last week, we heard the story of a woman who had faith in Jesus when all else failed her. This week, we'll hear the story of a man who has to trust in Jesus while staring death dead in the face. Look with me at Luke 8, beginning at verse 40. You find these words. Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, someone touched me. For I perceive that power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus, on hearing, answered him, do not fear, only believe. and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him. knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, child, arise. And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what has happened. The grass withers and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of our God will stand forever. Friends, I'd like to speak to you from the subject, have faith in Jesus to give you life after death. Have faith in Jesus to give you life after death. As I said, Last week, we learned of a woman who, for 12 years, her life was a living hell. For 12 years, she lived a depleted existence because she had an illness, what the text calls a discharge of blood, and she was overwhelmed by the things that she suffered with this sickness until she came in contact with Jesus through faith. And when she, in faith, reached out and touched Jesus, Jesus healed her life. This week, we learn of a man who for 12 years enjoyed life with his young daughter, but now she is on her deathbed. And the circumstances seem bleak, until he comes in contact with Jesus. I don't know about you, but I found in my life that you're either, in one of a couple places, either you're somebody who's just got out of a storm and you're giving God praise for delivering you out of a storm, either you're somebody who's going through a storm and you're seeking God to take you through suffering, trials, and temptations, or you're somebody who's about to go in a storm. But you cannot address the storms of life. You cannot address the trials of life without faith and trust in Jesus. Life is, as Dr. Cleophas LaRue says, an uneven journey. Life's like a seesaw experience. And there are some of us here who have been like this woman for the last 12 years of your life. Life has been excruciating. And Jesus calls to you to come and have faith in him, for he can heal and touch the deepest areas of your life, the most important areas of your life, and give you a new life and a new hope. Yet there are others of us who have had the world on a string sitting on a rainbow, and life has been good. Yet the seesaw will drop. We will find ourselves in need of a Savior who can find us at the lowest place and lift us even when we're standing on death's doorway. You know the story. Jesus meets Jairus after he comes from traveling on a journey doing ministry in another region. Jairus has heard about Jesus' ministry. Maybe he even experienced it. And when he finds out, like the rest of the crowd, that Jesus has come back to his region, he makes his way to where the master is and asks him to come and save his dying daughter. Jesus goes with him, but on their way, he's interrupted by this woman with the issue of blood. And while Jesus is taking care of someone else, Jairus' daughter dies. Somebody from this preacher's house, from this synagogue ruler's house comes and tells him that you no longer need to bother the teacher anymore, for your daughter is dead. The darkness of death attempts to eclipse Jairus' vision of who Jesus is. But Jesus says in verse 50, these words, do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. My friends, whoever brought the message to Jairus did not understand who Jairus had on his side. They thought that Jesus was just a teacher, but Jesus is poised to demonstrate that he is so much more than they had hoped he would be. For he is not just a miracle worker. He is not just a teacher of God's law. He is God in the flesh. He is the very Son of God who can look death in the face and call new life from a daughter who has died. Jesus walks with Jairus. Jesus talks with Jairus while he is in a place of doubt and surrounded by, a place dealing with death and surrounded by doubt and lets him know, Jairus, whatever you do in this experience, even though the stones of life have dropped on you in this moment, keep your faith in me. Keep trusting in me. Do not give up on me even though you're staring death in the face because I am the giver of life. Friends, three things I believe the text teaches us about having faith in Jesus when we are to bring life after death. Number one, we must go to Jesus when our life is falling apart. Number two, we must believe in Jesus when the circumstances of our lives suggest we should doubt him. And thirdly and finally, we must experience the power of Jesus to bring life from the dead. Go to Jesus when life, when your life is falling apart. I don't know, just let me do a crowd check. Has anybody ever had their life falling apart on them? I'm the only one in the room. The text says that Jairus, baby girl, is dying and he goes to Jesus. He finds this great healer that he has heard of. He goes and bows himself, this man of honor in the community, this synagogue ruler, this man who is respected in his community, goes and bows himself at the feet of Jesus and says, I need you to come with me. Because my life is falling apart. I don't know about you if you've ever done it, but when my life starts falling apart, so often I run to the wrong places and the wrong people. I pick up the phone and look for comfort, and the people I call for comfort tell me about their problems. Pick up the phone and try to unload the issues of my life And it seems like I feel heavier after I get off of the phone with one of my closest friends I don't know why I do this concerning the issues of my heart and the problems in my life because when my car has a problem I go to the mechanic because he can fix it and If I had legal problems, I wouldn't call my good friend. I'd call my lawyer because I know he would know what to do in the courtroom. And when I get sick, I don't call for my mom to put a coal rag on my head anymore. I may call for my wife, but I normally call my doctor because he knows what to do when I've got a fever. Brothers and sisters, Jairus goes to Jesus because he believes that if his daughter is dying, Jesus is the one who can handle it. Jesus is the one who can fix it. He is a great healer who can touch his daughter and she can recover on her deathbed because this is a man, at least Jairus knows, that has been sent from God. Who are you running to when your life is falling apart? I've learned that in those moments, often when people should run right to the feet of Jesus, right to the word of God, right to the church of God, to find the healing and peace that can only come from God, we run to all the wrong places. But friends, when your world is falling apart, that's not a time to run away from Jesus. That's the time to run to the feet of the master. Say, God, will you touch me? God, will you heal me? God, will you enter into this mess of life that has come upon me? And will you touch and deliver me, save me as my life is falling apart? Songwriter Walter Hawkins says it this way, in case you have fallen by the wayside of life, dreams and visions shattered, you're all broken inside. You don't have to stay in the shape that you're in for the potter wants to put you back together again. You who are broken, stop by the potter's house. You who need mending, stop by the potter's house. He'll take the fragments of your broken life My friend, for the potter wants to put you back together again. Run to Jesus when your life is falling apart like Jairus, for he is the potter who can deal with your life. When death has entered your experience, because he is the very giver of life. Secondly, I believe that the text teaches us that we must believe in Jesus when the circumstances suggest that we should doubt him. The text says that Jesus is on his way with Jairus to go see his daughter who is dying. And he is interrupted by this woman with an issue of blood. And Jairus gets to see Jesus' power on display for someone who has faith in him. I don't know about you, but I've seen this principle in my own life, that sometimes God will allow you to see someone trusting in Jesus, though their world is falling apart, and who you are connected to, a friend, a family member, maybe someone from this church, and to see how they trust God through the worst trials of their life and how God brings them out on the other side with new faith, new strength, new hope. And He does that sometimes to prepare you for the trials and the tests and the problems in life that you will go through so that you know in advance that Jesus will be with you and can deliver you and can save you from all that life throws at you. Jairus sees what someone who trusts in Jesus in faith can receive when they come in contact with the power of God by trusting in the power of his son. But just as Jesus is pronouncing blessing on this woman with the issue of blood, someone from Jairus' house comes and says, don't bother the teacher. You don't need him anymore, Jairus. Your daughter, is dead. I don't know who he was. I don't know how he was connected to Jairus, but he did not know the one Jairus was traveling with. See, the messenger believed not in the ultimacy of Jesus, but he believed in the ultimacy of death. That if death enters your life's experience, there's no coming back from this one. But he did not know that Jairus was walking with the author of life himself and the one who can call from the dead new life. Text says that Jesus turns again to Jairus and says, only believe, do not fear, and she will be well. Jesus says, if you trust me like this woman who had the issue of blood trusted me, my power is available for you, just as it was available for her. Because the ground is level at the feet of Jesus. That if you will trust Him, no matter what your color, no matter what your creed, no matter where you come from, Jesus will touch your life. So Jairus walks with Jesus, and he takes him to his house, and when they get there, they find a crowd of people, family members. They find this crowd of people, friends. They find this crowd of people, probably from their community, crying and weeping for the loss of this young woman's life. Jesus says to them, stop weeping, because she's only sleeping. And we see on display how fickle human emotion is when we enter into the domain where we must wrestle with the most ultimate questions of our lives. They go from weeping one minute to laughing at Jesus the next minute. Because they also do not believe in the supremacy and the power of Jesus. They believe in the supremacy of the power of death. Friends, I don't know if this will help, but yesterday, as I sat on my couch with my wife and my sons, we were watching videos by the X Games. Anybody know about the X Games? I know nothing about the X Games, because as I was watching this, it was a group of guys in the desert in Australia driving on dirt bikes up up and down cliffs, Titus, and one guy went down this ramp and up into the air, and literally, he did a three, he jumped off the bike in midair, did a 360 turn, and then grabbed the bike and landed perfectly on the ground. In that moment, I learned that that was humanly possible. Before I would have never believed if someone told me that that you can fly a bike in the air turn around and on it do a 360 and land perfectly on the ground But but but I was exposed to a greater reality Once I saw this guy do it on TV not so much for myself, but but humanly possible it someone could do it not not me, but This is what? The crowds lack in their understanding of who Jesus is. They see him maybe as a great teacher in Judaism. They see him as a great first century healer from Galilee, but they do not see him as the son of the living God. They do not believe that there is someone who has power over death. They have only seen the unhinged, the untethered rule of death as life has gone on, just like you and I. But they have never seen how death responds when it comes in contact with the one who created all things in the beginning and who will conclude all things in the end. They never saw how death acted when it got around Jesus. So Jesus tells Jairus before he even gets into this crowd that is doubting Jesus because they believe in the ultimacy of death, you believe in me and all will be well with your daughter. What about you? Can you trust in Jesus when death and doubt hang over your life's journey? Can you trust in Jesus when there seems there is no hope for the problems that you are facing? Maybe your marriage seems dead. Can you trust in Jesus in the midst of that tumultuous marriage? Maybe you are wrestling with addiction today. Can you believe that you cannot beat it, that it has gotten the best of you and there is no coming back? Can you trust in Jesus to raise you up from your addiction? Maybe it's a spiritual issue. Maybe you've wondered, is there really an answer for the question of God? Is there any rhyme or reason to the order that our brother talked about as he gave his testimony? What about the questions of life and eternity? What about life after death? Jesus says to all these circumstances, put your trust in me and you will find that I am one who cannot fail you. I am one who will not fail you. Because we're, in many of our experience, death, has seemed ultimate. Jesus says, believe in me and I will show you that I am greater even than death. This is what I believe our third point teaches us. Number one, you've got to go to Jesus when your life is falling apart. Number two, you've got to believe in Jesus when your circumstances suggest you should doubt him. But number three, if you respond to him in faith and believe in Jesus concerning the most important problems and circumstances of your life, you will find that you will experience the power of Jesus to give life after death. In the text, Jesus says to Jairus, believe and she will be well. He comes into the context where everyone in the experience is doubting because they do not know who Jesus is. But as Jairus seems, at least, as the narrator, Luke, the gospel evangelist tells us, that Jairus is believing and trusting in Jesus. Jesus is leading the whole experience in his life as he should lead the experience in our lives. Jairus trusts and believes in Jesus, and Jesus brings into the house only Jairus and his wife and his three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John. Everyone who did not believe in Jesus is locked out of the experience. Because I believe that it is, brothers and sisters, that there are only some experiences that you can have with God by faith. And so, Jairus, Jesus, and the three disciples walk into the little girl's room. And Jesus grabs her by the hand after he has proclaimed she is not dead. And he calls to her, child, arise, arise. And the little girl gets up from the den. Jesus gives her food. There are only some experiences and some encounters with God that you can have through faith, my friends. I don't know about you, but I believe exposure is important. And when you get exposed to something greater, you realize that the people you grew up around, the people in your family that you are closest with, the people that you love the most may not buy into the same ideas as you because they haven't been exposed to what you've been exposed to. Their level of what is possible for their lives is stunted by what they have experienced. But if you've been exposed to something greater, It often whets your appetite for more, to challenge yourself, to grow and to see what else there is in God's good world. There are some of us, though, who will remain stunted in our life's experience and stunted in our understanding of who God is because we will refuse to trust in God with faith. You see, you have to step out on faith and believe in who God is through Jesus Christ if you will get the full revelation of who you are and who you are in relationship to God. Maybe an illustration will help. was studying, began my studies in seminary, I had an opportunity to go to Kenya. And unless I had faith to get on that plane and fly across from country to country to get to Kenya, I would have never had the experience of going on a safari and seeing the beauty of Africa and its wildlife, but I had to leave Pittsburgh in faith and trust the plane ride and trust my tour guides if I was going to get the experience of seeing the lion up close and personal and seeing the beauty of the African wildlife. There's some of us who will never experience the power of how a volcano can reshape the whole landscape of an area around it when it erupts. But if we have faith and get on that plane again and fly to Washington and see the beauty and the awe of what has happened because of Mount St. Helens eruption, we will get a new glimpse of what is possible in a new experience of life. Jesus takes these people who have trusted and believed in him into the room and he heals this girl who is dead and brings her back to life. And he tells them, don't tell anyone else what's going on in this, what you have experienced, because there are some things that are, there are some experiences of God that one can only have when they respond to Jesus in faith. Jesus raised this little girl physically, but our lives need to be, he raised her physically. And I don't know that this text is tailored to teach us that no one will ever die. We know that that's not this case. I believe this text teaches us that Jesus is a healer and it teaches us that he has power over death, but it points to an even greater resurrection that is to come as you continue to read the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. See, this miracle reminds us that Jesus is the man of God and he is the representative of God, much like Elijah and Elisha were in the Old Testament who raised young children from the dead. This is not the last resurrection that we will encounter that Jesus is involved in. For Jesus came, my friends, and he lived a sinless life. Jesus came and he died an innocent death in place of our lives for our sins. And the Bible tells us that on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death. Proving that he is not just a healer, but he was God in human flesh. Friends, this young lady died and Jesus raised her back to life. But the Bible teaches us Particularly in the New Testament, the Bible tells us that because of our sins and our trespasses against God's will and God's ways, because we have violated God's law in our lives, we are as good as dead to God. But because Jesus came and lived perfectly before God and died innocently for our sins, receiving the punishment and rose victoriously from death, we are now raised to new life in the eyes of God, raised to new relationship with God, if we will have faith that Jesus' death and resurrection from the dead was enough to give us forgiveness from our sins and eternal life with God. It's not only this young lady who has died, but it is us who have been dead in our sins, and Jesus has given brand new life. But this is not the only way. that we receive new life in Christ, and where Christ Jesus raises us from the dead. For the Bible tells us that Christ one day will return, and that all who have believed in him, that he will, and who have died, Christ will call them, and they will rise from the dead also. Because he is the one who conquered death, he is the one who has the power to call new life from the dead. My friends, the only way you can experience reconciliation with God, right relationship with God, your creator, is through faith in Jesus Christ. And the only way you will have literal life after literal death is through faith in Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and our soon coming King. My friends, trust in Jesus, even when you are staring death in the face, for he is the one who has the power to call life from death. The hymn writer said it this way, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, "'just to take him at his word, "'just to rest upon his promise, "'just to know thus saith the Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him, o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. I urge someone today who is far from Him, who has not followed Him, who is dead in relationship to God right now to believe in Jesus, and He will give you life. after death. Amen, God bless you.