through this gospel, and I've enjoyed it. God has laid something on your heart or blessed your heart or your life with the messages. And here out of Luke, and so enjoyed, we're gonna, we have a portion of scripture here in Luke chapter eight. Chapter eight, I wanna read verses 40 through verses 56, if we could. And then I want to preach on acting in faith, acting in faith. And so if you found your place in Luke chapter eight, look with me in verse 40 and it says, and it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him for they were all waiting for him. And behold, there came a man named Jarius, and he was a ruler of the synagogues, and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house. For he had one only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went, the people thronged him, and a woman having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any. came behind him and touched the border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude thronged thee and pressed thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, She came trembling and falling down before him. She declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace. While he yet spake there, cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying to him, thy daughter is dead, trouble not the master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him saying, fear not, believe only and she shall be made whole. And when he had come into the house, he suffered no man to go in save Peter and James and John and the father and the mother of the maiden and all wept and bewailed her. But he said, weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out and took her by the hand and called, saying, made arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway. And he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you this morning. Father, we thank you for the prayers that you have answered this week in our lives. And Father, those that were on our heart and saving the souls that were nearest hell, our Father had come to realize that they needed a Savior. Father, we thank you for that. We thank you for that gift of salvation. Father, I pray that you would be with our message this morning. Be with me, fill me with your Holy Spirit. I pray that you would be with my words and my thoughts, and I pray that you would be with the hearts of your people that are here. I pray that you would suit a blessing, maybe comfort, Father, maybe edification, maybe of growth. And Father, I pray that you would meet that need and the needs that are here. We are a needy people, and Father, I know that you're a God that is able to supply And Father, I ask that you would work in our midst and continue to bless the children in their service this morning. Be with them. Watch over us today. We thank you for the day you've given us. Now be with us in these few moments, Father, as we hear from your word. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Let me say here, as we previously learned, studying the Gospel of Luke, Luke was writing using the information gleaned from eyewitnesses, in that we might see the power of Christ. You've noticed Last week we dealt with the maniac of Gadara and how Christ healed him, the Bible says. And he became a new creature. And we see that his old habits and his old life, the drastic change that took place in that young man's life. And so Luke has recorded this. And I'm reminded of the verse, verse four of chapter one here in Luke, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. And this morning, the word of God, if listening, and hopefully if I do my job correctly, that you will hear from the word of God. and allow it to speak to your heart this morning. The narrative resumes here in chapter eight, Jesus is returning to Capernaum and after healing the maniac of Gadar, as we just mentioned, we see that Jesus responds to people for all walks of life. not just one class of person or one class of people or nation, but he responds here to all different types of people. And we see the woman here was a castaway as the Bible describes her and a man who was a religious leader are both blessed when they act in faith. And so we see, as we look at, look at verse 41, if you would, with me, and we're going to look at a call for help, a call for help. Look at verse 41 again, and it says, and behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus' feet and besought him that he would come into his house. Now, there was a reason why. Look at verse 42, and we'll make our point. for he had, verse 42, for he had one only daughter above 12 years of age and she lay a dying, but as he went, the people thronged him. I want to draw your attention for this call or this plea or this beseeching of Christ. from this man and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And I noticed something here that he, as being a ruler, as being a religious man, there's some things that needed to take place before he fell down at the feet of Jesus and be sought Jesus. Imagine that going on. I think anybody of religious, you kind of think of them as a stuff shirt and like they would never be given to something like that. Wouldn't they already know Christ? Wouldn't they already have the power of God in their life? Well, not so here. We see that this type of man reached out to God, a call for help. He was calling for help in regards to his daughter, his only daughter. He disregarded, number one, his position. And I wanna say, and I'll draw the application quickly to you and I, when you reach out to God, there's gonna be some things that you're going to realize. You might not notice it in the split second when you make the decision to call out to God, but you're going to have to disregard your position. Maybe in this life you have a good job, or maybe even a position, a status, you have a title given. I remember working at the place there, the L&W Warehouse, a building warehouse supply, store, the title that you give you makes you sound great, but then when you look at it, it's like, well, everybody's got a fancy title. It's technical consultant salesperson or technical consultant. They have these fancy, you ever notice these titles that they give? When did this come about? I remember growing up in the 90s, let me see if I can get that right. The 90s, there wasn't really any titles, boss, you know, labor, apprentice. Now it's not that way, man. You have these huge titles that they give you. I think it's to make you feel important. Here, this man in our text, he was a Jewish leader. The Bible records there in verse 41, and he says that Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue. And so we see that he disregards his position. And to come to Christ, there's gonna be some things that you're gonna have to disregard. Not only did he disregard his position, but we see that he disregarded what others thought. This is a big one in our culture because we think, well, if somebody snickers or somebody laughs or somebody begins to whisper and you see them, you think, I bet they're talking about me. We're paranoid. And we begin to think, well, what are people going to say? I don't know if I can walk down this aisle or I don't know if I can kneel at my pew and speak to God or cry out to God because I'm afraid of what somebody might say. By the way, I would probably fall in that category, worried about what maybe somebody might say or not say, but let me say this. When I called on God that night, I wasn't too worried about who was there underneath that tent. I wasn't too worried about what my mom or dad was thinking. I certainly wasn't worried about what the preacher was going to think or what other people might thought if I went forward and knelt down there and called on God. And so we see this man, he was a man, he disregarded his position. He disregarded what others thought. You're gonna have to lay some of that to the side to deal with God, to act in faith. But there was something else here. He dismissed all his pride. Imagine what he'd have to lay down as being ruler of a synagogue and now he's got to come to this man here, Jesus, and he'd have to believe that Jesus could raise his daughter. There were some things already set in motion in place in this man's heart. He was not having trouble laying down his position in his life. He wasn't having problems what people thought about him. He was willing to lay all that to the side to speak to Christ. We see that he was willing to dismiss his pride. You know, before you can reach God, God began to deal with you. These are some of the things that you're going to have to realize that they don't matter. I just need Jesus. I need God in your acting in faith. The question would be, have you ever done that in your life? Has there ever been a point in your life where you've reached out in faith receiving Jesus Christ, not worried about what people think, not worried about what your family might say or your friends might think of you after you tell them that you've accepted Christ or that you're now a Christian? Maybe your job, like, man, if they find out that I'm a Christian, I'm really gonna get it. Might be time for God to go ahead and step out a little bit further, and you begin to pray that God give you a better job, one that pays twice what they're paying you, amen, and blesses you. You say, I don't know if God can do that. God can do that. He's that type of God. Listen, if you reach out or act an acting in faith, God will answer, God will answer. And we see that this is what takes place according to the scripture of what we're reading here, but there's something else. We see this call for help. But there's something else here. We see a reach for help. Look with me in verse 43 and how it changes quite quickly. And it says in a woman in verse 43, having an issue of blood 12 years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed Now we see something here. I want you to notice something as we reach and we look at what this lady, she was reaching for Christ. She was reaching out. The Bible records that she reached out and touched the hem of his garment. And you say, what happened? Well, she was healed. She was healed. And so we see something about her. When I begin to look at these verses, and I wanna use Mark here in a moment, but number one, I realized reading verse 43 that she was sick. Man, she was sick. She acknowledged, she realized that she was sick and that she needed help. And so we see this about her. It says that she had been sick of this issue of blood for 12 years. Imagine dealing with some health, maybe a health issues that was ultimately going to take your life and you've been in that state for 12 years and it wasn't getting better. See, does God care? God cares. We see here that he cared enough to heal her, and we see as she reached out in faith that God was able to take care of her sickness this morning. God is able to take care of your sickness. Now, it might not be the answer that you might want or wish for or hope for, but God still cares, he knows, and he knows what's best. Sometimes that's hard for you and I to grasp. I think some of that hardness of understanding about that is our finite mind that we have. We wanna think that we know more than we really do. God has an infinite mind. He knows the end or the beginning from the end. We don't. We realize it, we accept it by faith, but a lot of what we do, we're people of faith, not by sight. And so a lot of times, mixing the sight and mixing faith is hard. We don't understand, we think it should work out this way, but God says, no, there's a better way. Here, as we read here about this lady, she reached out and God healed her, amen. So he's able to heal the sick, I know that, but there's something else I want to notice about her. As we look at this, she was not only sick, but she was lonely. Listen, there are a lot of people in this great country, as this great country is quickly going down the tube, if you please, but there are a lot of people that are lonely. Listen to me. Loneliness can be a dangerous thing, and God is able to save you from loneliness. He is a friend, the Bible says, that sticketh closer than a brother. He is a God that said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And we see here that she was a lonely person. He said, how do you gather that? Well, she was shut out from the fellowship of religious life because of the issue of blood she had. According to the law, she was unclean. And so you were not to really have anything to do necessarily, especially touch the person, an unclean person. But we noticed that her loneliness, she was lonely. And we see thirdly that she was poor. He said, where do you get that? Do you have medical bills? Have you ever had medical bills? I don't know anybody that was rich, that stayed rich, that had medical bills. And she said she had spent all of her living. If you look, I want to go to, Go to Mark chapter five with me, if you would, and we'll read a little bit more about it, what Mark records. Mark chapter five, if you would, and verse 26. Mark chapter five and verse 26, we're looking at this lady who was willing to act in faith and she reached out for help. We're looking at that she was sick, that she was lonely and that she was poor. Now look at Mark chapter five and verse, look at verse 25. It says here, and a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians. and had spent all that she had and was nothing better but rather grew worse. I'm telling you, she was poor. She had spent all her money on her doctor bills and trying to get an answer to her health problem. You say, what are you drawing from here in Luke? I want to say this. When you reach out for help and when you reach out to God in faith, God can make the sickness better. He can heal the sickness or give you the grace to go through that sickness. Amen? Not only that, God is a friend that we said that sticketh closer than a brother. He is a God that's not gonna leave you. He's not gonna forsake you. Your family possibly could leave you, amen. Your friends possibly may leave you. Your work, who you work for might tell you, well, you don't have your job anymore. You're gonna have to go on down the road and you won't have a job. There'll be a number of things, but I'm saying this morning that in acting in faith, God says, look, I'm that God. And we see as she reached out for help, she got the help that she needed. You might be sick this morning. You might be lonely this morning. You might just be flat broke this morning. And I'm saying God sees, God hears, and God knows. There's something else here I want to draw your attention to as we look at Luke. Go back to Luke, if you would, Luke chapter eight. Look with me in verse 51. Now as this unfolds, and there's two things going on here, I can't help but notice in verse 51, as this begins to work and we go back to Jairus and his daughter who has passed away, or they think she's passed away, but look with me in verse 51. And it says, and when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in save Peter, and James and John. I can't help but notice here, Bible student, a sidebar, that these are the very same men that were on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw the resurrected Lord. They saw Moses and Elijah. And these are the three that God has here, and so that's who he pulls in. And we see here, and the father and the mother of the maiden. So you have the parents here in verse 52, let's read on. It says, and all wept and bewailed her. But he said, weep not. She is not dead, but sleepeth. Now verse 53, and they laughed him to scorn. I can't help but all this is going on at the same day, kind of in the same area. And now you've got people who've just seen the lady that was healed and Christ addressed her. Now he's going to take care of this young lady and we see that they're laughing him to scorn. Now watch, knowing that she was dead, that was their mindset. And so in verse 53, but watch verse 54. And he put them all out and took her by the hand and called saying, maid, arise. and her spirit came again and she arose straightway and he commanded to give her meat." Here I want to say a powerful help. You might be sick, you might be lonely, you might be flat broke. You might be somebody who maybe is willing to disregard your position, disregard what people think, being willing to call out for help. I wanna tell you about this powerful help this morning. I wanna say this, number one, Christ's help that he has, that he gives. Now I'm not speaking of the help that comes from the church. I'm not speaking of the help that comes from friends. I'm not speaking of the help that comes from family, amen. I'm speaking of God in his help and in your need. And I'm saying it's more powerful than sorrow. There was sorrow here. There was a 12-year-old lady, girl, lady and girl, young lady, that was, by all practical purposes, dead. She was laying there, and that's what the people had thought, but Christ had said, no, she does sleepeth, and he had her arise. There was great sorrow there. I'm saying God's help is more powerful than any sorrow you can know as a human. This is the power that we read about here this morning. Secondly, I notice in verse 53 that this power that God has is more powerful than criticism. You say, well, God's not able to work because people simply don't believe they're gonna criticize anything about God, His work, His way, His church, His people, and God's not able to work. God's help is more powerful than any criticism that you or I might experience in our life. This is the power of God and his help. But we have to simply have to be willing to act in faith. This ruler, he called out to God. He besought God. He fell down at his feet. You'll notice both of them did. And we notice sometimes when we begin to look at our lives, our personality, we have the hardest time bending the knee, bowing the knee to our God. I don't quite wanna do that, especially if I got to disregard my position, especially if I'm thinking of what my friends are gonna say or what the other people in the church are gonna say. The first thing I wanna address, look, I wouldn't worry about anybody else here. As scared as you might be, the position you might have, your families and your friends, eternity isn't worth it. It's not worth it, I promise you. You step into eternity making the wrong decision about accepting Christ, you're gonna say, what was I thinking? I was worried about it and I was fearful of my position, I was fearful of my family, I was fearful of my friends. Satan will make you think you've gotta backslide a little bit, you've gotta walk backwards from where you're at. No, you simply need to reach and reach out by faith and accept God, calling on God. We see this lady, this lady with this health, this issue of blood, she touched, she reached out. She knew that she could be healed by Christ, and it was an act of faith. But I want to, again, draw your attention about this help that God has. It is more powerful than any sorrow that we can experience here on earth. It is more powerful than any criticism that you might come across or that you might endure. Christ can still help. And I wanna say thirdly, what I find in verse 55, when he says here, and her spirit came again, and she arose straightway. I wanna say that God's help is more powerful than death. You say, how can that be? Well, because scripture records that Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, and he was buried and he rose again, defeated death. He defeated death and hell. That's why we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Like I've said, and I'll say again, you either step into eternity willing to pay your own sacrifice payment, by the way, that's an eternal payment, because you need eternal blood to get that done. Say, oh. Or you step into eternity having called out to God, having reached out by faith and accepted Jesus Christ, and allow Jesus Christ's blood to be that eternal payment that you need. You say, well, I'm afraid of what my friends are gonna say. You don't have very good friends if you're worried about what they're gonna say. A true friend doesn't matter. A true friend sticketh closer than a brother. A friend's a friend no matter what you're going through. Now, a so-called friend, they might desert you. A friend that you really don't need may be a friend that would be classified, better classified or identified as a taker. That's not really a friend. That's a weight, that can be a problem. I would not be worried about what your friends think. Say, well, you don't understand who I am, the position that I have. Maybe the job you have or what you represent. Imagine being a ruler of a synagogue. and you're falling down at the feet of a Jewish person here, a good teacher, a good master. I'm telling you, this man had great faith. And God said, look, I'll take care of you. He took care of him, his daughter, and he took care of this lady. saying God's help is more powerful than death. God is able to resurrect the dead. Here, we see here, this is rare, I think there's three recorded here. Lazarus would be one of them. He had been dead for four days, the Bible records. Here, Jairus' daughter. And he says in verse 55, and her spirit came again and she arose straightway and he commanded to give her meat. We see here resurrection is a picture of the way Jesus Christ saves lost sinners and raises them from the spiritual death when they call on him by faith. It takes faith. You say, but if I could just see it. I like, what was it, Abraham? I think it was Abraham who said to the rich man in hell, he says, the rich man said, hey, if one rose from the dead, they would believe. And he says, even if one rose from the dead, they're not gonna believe. They have Moses and the prophets, and they don't want nothing to do with that. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Is everybody saved? No. The sin of unbelief is powerful. And if you're hinging your unbelief on because of what you think somebody's going to say about you or what you think you're going to have to crawl back backwards on in your position or where you're at in life because you won't accept Jesus Christ, you need faith. And it just takes a little bit to step out. acting in faith this morning. The Bible says this in John chapter 11 and verse 25, Jesus said under her, I'm the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. I like John 5 in verse 24, the Bible says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. That is the power of the help that comes from God. It's not a little bit, it's not just a little bit, it's eternal, and it's very powerful. It's able to defeat the sorrow that we have. It's able to defeat the criticism or the trials that we have, and it's able to raise the dead. Hopefully you're part of that group, the Bride of Christ, that when God calls us home, you resurrect, amen? Whether you're in a grave at that time or you're presently alive, God's gonna call you home. And if you have accepted Jesus Christ, you're gonna meet him in the air, the Bible says. This morning, has there ever been a point in your life where you've reached out, where you've called on God? So yeah, I needed money, I needed a job, I needed this to go away. I'm speaking of soul salvation. We deal with the most important problem that people have that have never come to Christ. You need Jesus Christ as your Savior. Has there ever been a point, I go to church, I'm a good member, I put my money in the plate. That's not what you're going to be asked in heaven. How much money did you put in a plate? How many times did you attend church? And I'm for all that, but that's not going to get you. It has nothing to do with where you're gonna be at in eternity. Satan will make you think that. Religion will make you think that. Man will make you think that. But God doesn't teach that. And his word says, no, you need to act. You need to be acting in faith and calling out to me. So I have to be in church to call out to God? Absolutely not. I'd say probably maybe half this congregation here has a testimony of not being in church when they received Christ or called out or calling out to God by faith. The question is this morning, have you ever called out to God by faith and asked Jesus Christ simply, Jesus, Will you save me? I'm a sinner. I'm undone. I'm like this ruler here. I'm like this lady here. I've got a problem. I have a great need. I'm saying we have a great Savior this morning. Heavenly Father, we bow before you here as we've listened to Father, your great work and your power. Father, our heart and Our adversary begins to feed into us that you're not powerful enough to help us, that you're not actually the God that can redeem our soul, and I've got to work, and I've got to try, and I've got to do. The Father simply forgetting about the simple act of faith of just calling on you, laying aside pre-positioned thoughts and minds and ways and beliefs. And Father, I pray that if there be one here today, that they would be willing to lay that aside, like we've read here. Father, if there be one sick and undone, not certain, Father, that their faith, they would reach out to you today. Touch that heart, touch that soul that's nearest you. And Father, that needs your soul salvation. I pray that you would be with us this morning in this invitation time. Father, we thank you for what you have done and what you're doing. And Father, we look forward to what you're going to do in our midst. We ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand with our heads bowed.