Miracles | Week 5 | Joshua Paul | Echoes Church

Our youngest, June, who's 10 years old, I remember the day the Lord brought her into our lives, at least most of it. And so here's the story about June's birth. We had a planned delivery, and so we had a time we were gonna go to the hospital at 6AM on May 1. And I'm not naturally a morning person.

I can kinda flip the switch and turn it on when I to, but it's not natural for me. I'm far more a night owl. I say that, and to share this other detail, I don't normally eat breakfast in the morning. Just not for me, an iced coffee or an energy drink, I'm good to go. I'll get lunch later.

So this is 6AM in the morning. We wake up earlier than that to get to the hospital. I believe this is earlier than the Lord is even awake yet, but this is when they told us to show up.

I have not eaten this morning because I would not otherwise eat. So my wife is getting prepped in the Delivery Room. We're getting excited to be welcoming our second little girl together. And as they're checking her vitals, they have to administer an IV. This is typical.

I just don't know if the nurse had done this before or if she was having a rough day. I don't wanna judge her, but it wasn't going so well. She's not not doing too hot, so she ends up blowing a vein, and there's some blood. I immediately don't feel so good.

So I get up, I walk out the room, I go to where there's kind of an area to get a cup of water, and that's the last thing I remember. So I apparently passed out, because then this is where I woke up. I remember taking that exact picture and sending it to my wife. And so

I was immediately met with sympathy, which was awesome. Thank you babe.

She's you know, are you okay? What's going on? What happened? I'm like, apparently I passed out. I don't know. That's what they're telling me. She's like, yeah there was this commotion in the hallway. I don't know what's going on. You didn't come back. Are you okay? I'm like, yeah we're good. Well her tone shifted pretty quickly

when then it was, well the doctors are saying we're gonna get discharged and come back another day to have our baby, and that's not an option, so get your crap together. And so I was like, yes ma'am. So we're talking to the doctors and trying to figure out how can we make this work. Alright, so their

option for us in trying to compromise was I was gonna get wheeled in on a wheelchair to the delivery room. Apparently I was a flight risk if I passed out again. So they wheel me in, we have sweet baby June, and there we are, now a family of four. Okay.

When you have a baby, you stay at the hospital for a couple extra nights. Pretty routine. So we're in our room, settled in, we got our sweet baby June. Throughout the night, the nurses and doctors feel the need to just wake you up every couple hours and check how you're doing. They come in very kindly,

ask, hey, how are you doing? Are you okay? Do you need anything? My wife responds, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for asking. Some of the nurses continue to say, oh, that's good. We're actually checking on your husband. Is he doing okay?

Does he need anything? Didn't go over super well. But for me, I was like, I'm gonna live this up. You know, man, I could use an extra pillow, maybe some jello. I heard ice chips are a thing, can I get some of those too? This is all real. This all really happened, and so I say that to them fast forward a few years. This is my first, instance

with blood. I'm in my thirties now, my wife's like, hey, you need to go to the doctor, just get routine checkup, go to a primary care, get physical, all this stuff. I'm like, cool. She sets it up for me, I show up, do all processes and procedures,

all is well, then they say, hey, you need to come back in a couple days. We need to draw some blood just to run some tests. Sounds good. You need to fast for x amount of time before you do that. Cool, I'm on it. A few days later, I go back to the doctor's office. I remember it was early in the morning, I have not now eaten since the day before, and another lack of sleep.

I tell the lady straight up, hey, this one time I passed out to blood. I don't know if it's a thing, but I'm just not gonna watch. I was like, it's not needles. She's like, yeah, you have a lot of tattoos. I was like, yeah, it's not the needles. I was like, it's something about this one instance, blood.

And so I sit there, you know, she's drawing blood, all all all good. She finishes, I'm like, cool, I feel great. Let's head out. She's like, I just need you to verify your name and your birthday on all the labels. So she hands me the vials of blood that she just took from me, and that's the last thing I remember.

So I now wake up, I'm not gonna lay down, it feels weird, but I'm laying on the ground, my feet are up in the air, and now the doctor that just gave me a physical a few days before is standing there, and I'm thinking, you've seen me in my most vulnerable positions.

So I remember telling this to my wife, and we we go forward to where we're at today. She would say, I have a legitimate issue with blood. Now, I would say there's two common denominators, lack of sleep, not eating. She doesn't think those are very fair options. She says, you have an issue with blood. Why do I share this?

Today we're gonna read a story in the Bible about a woman with an issue of blood. Now her issue and my apparent issue are very different, but I just hope I don't pass out when I tell you this, because it would not be good for me, good story for you guys. Alright?

So Luke eight chapter 43 is what we're gonna read about today. And as we do, I just want us to pray real quick, and we're gonna be talking about this idea of a desperate, disciplined faith. A desperate, disciplined faith. So would you pray with me? Lord, we come before you right now. God, I ask Holy Spirit fill this place.

Lord, may we receive today from you exactly what we need, nothing more, nothing less. May this be our opportunity to be desperate for you, Lord, and then disciplined enough to be moved by you to something greater.

And God, though this may be my vocal cords, Lord, I pray that it's your voice that we all hear, myself included. Have your way in and through us. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen. Amen.

So we're gonna dive right in here. Luke eight forty three. So this is a interruption of a miracle where Jesus is on his way to perform another miracle following two other miracles he just performed.

Chapter eight in the book of Luke is incredible. I encourage you to go and read it all, but we're gonna pick up in this particular story.

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, and though she had spent all of her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. So a couple things stick out to me in this passage,

the first being the length and time in which she had this condition. So twelve years, and what this condition was, because of traditional Jewish Levitical law, she would have been considered ceremonially unclean. What that means is she likely would have lived in total isolation. No community, no friendships,

no relationships. She probably couldn't even be around her family. For twelve years, this was her reality. I say that because

Jesus is already stirring the pot with what he's about to do. This woman, in any other circumstance or scenario, should not have been where she was amongst a large group of people where Jesus was going to perform another miracle. So then you go on to see that it says, she had spent all her living on physicians,

and she could not be healed by anyone. This tells me two things. She spent all that she had, which means she was desperate for something, yet she could not be healed by anyone, which probably means she was also disappointed.

See, another passage says it this way, she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and had spent all that she had, yet instead of growing better, she grew worse. So when we think about the practice of medicine today in the twenty first century, it's incredible what they can do, what they can diagnose,

what they can prescribe, how they can offer healing and restoration physically, mentally, all these different things. Now move back two thousand years to the practice of medicine in the first century. This other translation says, she suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors.

Now I don't believe the doctors were doing something with malintent, but the first century practice of medicine, if we were to describe it and experience now, was probably torturous. So can you imagine, for twelve years, seeking answers for something, or seeking healing for something, being separated from relationship,

isolated from community, and quite frankly, going through a miserable life, yet still having a little bit of hope, a little bit of desperation that led her to be disciplined. That's why the story is so powerful, because this woman did not let twelve years of disappointment harden her heart. She instead harnessed

this desperation, turned it into a disciplined faith, because desperation can do two things.

Desperation can make you bitter, or desperation can make you bold. Our desperation can make you bitter, or desperation can make you bold. The key though is what, or in this case, who are you living for? See, God knows something that we don't, and that's a good thing. We shouldn't know everything.

But even when we can't understand certain things, or we can't comprehend or articulate certain things, doesn't mean we can't trust certain things. That's why scripture also tells us that we walk by faith, not by sight. Now acknowledging the room right now is full of people from varying backgrounds of faith,

probably different religions,

journeys with Jesus. There's people in the room right now that I believe don't even know if they trust who Jesus is or believe that he was a real person, that he was the son of God. That's okay. I'm glad you're here. The point is, this idea of walking by faith and not by sight, I recognize is probably a pretty spiritually heavy concept.

And so I wanna take that reality and let's just make it practical, something we can all understand. General consensus.

The last service, some people rose their hand. I was like, okay, you're smarter than me. I get it. General consensus. We all can't comprehend gravity, the law of gravity at its full extent. We generally agree.

Again, a couple of people rose their hand like they did. I was like, okay, well you can come up here and teach then. I don't know what it is. We can't fully comprehend or articulate the law of gravity. Okay? Yet we still choose to trust it.

I know this because every single one of us this morning when we woke up, none of us tested if our feet were gonna stay on the ground. Not a single one of us woke up this morning and was like,

alright, it's gonna work again. Let's do this. No one did that. We didn't test it, we just trusted it. We knew it's always been working, it always has, and we believe it will continue to work the same way. We may not comprehend or be able to articulate

gravity, but we choose to trust it. And though gravity may ground us physically, the goodness of God grounds us spiritually. That's why we choose to walk by faith and not just by sight.

Luke eight forty four, we're only two verses in. Coming up behind Jesus, she then touched the fringe of his robe and was immediately healed. Immediately, the bleeding stopped. So this woman in this scenario, again, shouldn't have been there. She comes up from behind Jesus, which tells me something.

This is probably a mixture of emotions or feelings. She's probably coming up behind him in humility, but also in fear. Remember, she's ceremonially unclean. She would not have felt worthy enough to approach Jesus face to face. And because of that, we then see how she's healed immediately.

Even though she probably didn't wanna be there or didn't know that she was worthy enough to be there, she activated her faith, came up behind Jesus, and just touched the fringe of his robe, the edge of his garment. It was immediately healed. Now I read that, and I think, man,

how many of us wanna experience that type of healing? Immediate, instantaneous, complete healing in one moment, one act of faith, one touch of Jesus. I know I want to, but sometimes we want the favor of Jesus without even being willing to come to the feet of Jesus first. Sometimes

we want that instant healing. We want the favor of Jesus without actually first just coming to the feet of Jesus. Yet this woman, matched with both desperation and discipline, activated her faith not just to pursue the favor of God, but to come to the feet of who he was. Because we're not passive,

we are active in our faith. Our faith cannot sit on the sidelines. In her case, our faith cannot sit in isolation. It presses through the crowd. It pursues Jesus, and it just touches his presence, his robe, the fringe of who he was, and experiences something outside of our own understanding. See, when we do that,

we choose to activate our faith. The bold step here, instead of being bitter, is that we now risk rejection of the world to receive restoration from Jesus. Our faith will require you at times to risk rejection of the world to receive restoration through Jesus Christ alone. Luke eight forty five.

And Jesus said, who was it that touched me? So when all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. So we see that Jesus asks, who was it that touched me? Now this wasn't because Jesus didn't know. Jesus was God in flesh. He's all knowing, past, present, and future, alpha and omega.

Jesus asked this not because he didn't know, but he wanted to draw attention of the faith of the one woman who did. See, Jesus wasn't offended that this woman was there or that she even touched him, but the crowd around her would have been. See, he is taking something and highlighting it. Why?

Because many people can be around Jesus, but only some boldly reach out to him.

Many people in this story were around Jesus, but only one boldly reached out to him. Many people like you and I can be around the presence of God at church on the weekends, but only some of us will boldly, with a desperate and disciplined faith, actively reach out to Jesus. And I think a lot of us check that box.

We check the box of this just casual contact, this casual encounter. I went to church on Sunday. Check. I'm gonna do whatever I want Monday through Saturday. Some of us, when we come once a month, let's say you check the box every week. I mean, I'm glad you're here,

but you don't need the casual contact of the presence of God. You need a miraculous experience with the presence and power of God. See, we sometimes chase after what Jesus can do for us instead of simply chasing after Jesus himself. We want the touch of his hand, but we don't want the weight of the Lord's voice.

We want to experience His healing power, but we don't wanna submit to live in His holiness. See, we want the free gift of salvation given to us, but we do not want the ongoing sanctification of growing more like Him.

But it's simple. The only thing that we need is Jesus. Peter highlights it perfectly, and I believe he didn't even realize what he was saying, but the Lord did. He says, everyone's touching you. What's this highlight for us? Everyone's touching you. It's the difference between casual contact,

proximity of Jesus, and actual pressing into the presence of Jesus. Luke eight forty six, but Jesus said, someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me. Again, Jesus is not confused here. He's making a point. He's not only recognizing the miracle of healing power, but he's also distinguishing

the woman who came before him in the crowd. See, this did not happen on accident. Many people were around Jesus. They were pressing in on Jesus, but only one deliberately touched him. See, in the Greek, the word here for power, when it's talking about healing power, is the word dunamis. Dunamis. So

that word you then take from the Greek, and you bring it into the English context is where we get the word dynamite. This makes this even more powerful. So we're taking this idea of not just some energy or strength that just fell out of Jesus, we're taking a miraculous and explosive,

life changing healing power activated by faith alone that turned into a divine interaction to be healed completely. See, her touch was different because her heart was different. Think about the many people around Jesus, think about you and I around the presence of God, even in this exact moment in time.

Her touch was different because her heart was different. She didn't just believe, she chose to act on that very belief. See, think if I was her, twelve years of just utter misery, of isolation, of pain. If I was her, I would have heard about Jesus in town, I need to go see that dude.

Put on a robe or a cloak, probably put a hood on, because she's not supposed to be there. Come up behind Jesus, touch him, she probably wanted to just dip. She wanted to get out. That's probably very real. You're not supposed to be there, but you wanna pursue healing. You come in, you touch them, you leave.

But what would have happened if that took place, if the passage stopped right there? The people in that town would have never believed her, because she shouldn't have been there. Because of how much she suffered under the care of many doctors, no one probably would have checked if she actually was healed or not.

And everyone that she was around, if they heard that she went there, received healing, and left, they all would be now considered ceremonially unclean. They would have been furious. So in this story, Jesus has to acknowledge her. He has to acknowledge the healing that took place and the miracle that she just received.

We think of it this way, being around the presence of God isn't the same as pressing in to the presence of God. Yet still too many of us live in the crowd around Jesus, and we're not actively pursuing the person of Jesus. I wanna take this again, one more just example, something practical.

Being around something is different than being near something. Alright. Fire. We know what fire is. If you've gone camping, you've built a fire, if you have a fire pit in your backyard,

you know how to turn on the grill, you've turned the stove on in the kitchen, you lit a candle, whatever it may be, everyone at some capacity understands the concept of fire. You can be in proximity of a fire, but still be cold.

Fire lets off heat. That's the power of it.

You can be in proximity of a fire. My family goes camping. We try to go at least twice a year. We go up to Payson. We move a spot off the grid. We're tent campers. I'm not gonna tell you where it is because it's our spot. We're tent campers because we enjoy it, but we also don't have enough money to buy campers. So we

camp in tents. Anyways, I say this, we build a fire every time. I can be within 10 feet of a pretty good sized fire and still be cold. Why? You have to draw near to it to experience the power of it. You have to draw near to the presence of God to experience the power of the presence of God. Because our attention

is not the same as intention. Our attention of a fire is not the same as an intention to go near the fire to experience its heat, its power. Our attention of being around Jesus is not the same as our intention of pursuing the presence and the person of Jesus. See, Jesus had the attention.

Many people were around him, Peter said it, they're all pressing in on you, but only the intention of one woman, who with desperate, disciplined faith actually stepped in, reached out, and touched Jesus. Luke eight forty seven.

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.

So there's this important contrast of events here. Remember when she, at the start of this passage, she approached Jesus from behind in humility and in fear. She now approaches Jesus before him falling in reverence and in awe,

because the very thing that used to isolate her is now the very thing she will be healed from to reintroduce her back into community, and so she falls before Jesus in reverence and in awe.

Jesus now is not just drawing her out in front of this crowd to shame her, but he wants to rename her. He wants to reintroduce her into community, into faith, into relationship, which we all desperately need. She's no longer unclean. She is healed and made new. And I think what's important about this story,

the impact and power of it, what Jesus can do in public when we're willing to receive excuse me, when we're willing to reveal what's happening in private. So I'll say that again. There's something impactful and powerful that Jesus can do in public when we're just willing to reveal what's happening in private,

because so many of us are stuck hiding in the crowd. We're stuck bleeding in isolation and in silence. See, John Mark Comer says it this way, we either heal together or we don't heal at all, and if we don't reveal it, God can't heal it.

If we don't reveal it, God can't heal it. It's not that he's not capable of, but it requires an activated faith. Some of us right now have been choosing for days, weeks, months, years, in her case, twelve years, of hiding because of something or someone or an instance or circumstances that shamed us.

But that's not what Jesus wants for us. See, some of us are holding on to desperation that turned into bitterness because of something God didn't do for us. Some of us are holding on to judgment of others, because maybe they live a different lifestyle than us, or maybe we don't agree with something with them.

Some of us are holding on to envy. We want something that we don't have, and we think God owes it to us. Some of us are holding on to lust. We're desiring something, or in this case, someone that we shouldn't be. Some of us are holding on to greed.

We want the very next best thing to fill a void that the world will never fill, expecting to achieve a status we will never achieve. But the Lord says, He's all we need. And for us, we have to make a choice, not just to pursue the healing, though I want that for you and I,

but we choose not just to pursue the healing, but we pursue the healer himself, because the presence of God is what we're after. The last verse in the story, Luke eight forty eight, and he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.

So this is the only time recorded in the gospels where Jesus uses the word daughter. Alright, so all throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, 66 books that make the collection of the word of God were often referred to as children of God or heirs with Christ, and I love that for us.

But Jesus in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, this particular story is in three of the four gospels, it's the only time recorded that he uses the word daughter. See, he's making this intimate. He's making it personal. He's now not just healing her body, but he's restoring her identity.

He's calling the very one that everyone disregarded his own now, his own family. He concludes this statement with, go in peace. See, this is a traditional Jewish blessing, shalom. We heard the term shalom, go in peace. But the way he uses this is much more than peace. He's now inviting her into total restoration,

spiritually, physically, and socially, and emotionally. See, our desperation

with discipline can be the doorway to revelation. Think about that, our desperation which can be bitter or bold if we choose to make it bold, our desperation with discipline, with an act of faith can be the doorway to revelation. And some of us are one step,

one act of faith away from the breakthrough that you've been chasing after. Desperation might bring you to the altar, but it's the discipline of our faith that keeps us there. Desperation might bring you to the crowd like this story, but it's only the discipline of one's faith that would actually do something bold.

Desperation might bring you into the room right now to be just in the presence of God, but it's our discipline and our activated faith that then compels us to step into the presence of God. And this is what I want for you, I want you to experience revelation, whatever he has for you. So would you all stand with me?

I believe, I believe wholeheartedly someone in the room right now feels like the woman in this story. That you feel unseen, unnamed, unworthy, maybe because of something you're holding onto that you should not be holding onto. You need to let it go. Choose to take your desperation,

apply it to a disciplined act of faith, and step into the doorway of revelation because the Lord has something here for you today. He's not just here to fix your situation, he's here to restore your soul. That is the miracle we all need to receive.

And if you feel like that's you, here here's my bold ask. We cannot stay hidden in the crowd. Some of us are desperate for breakthrough because of something going on in our life, maybe work or family or relationship. I want you to receive that, but you have to be bold. Some of us

wanna step away from the shame or the sin that we've been carrying for years, and I want that for you, but you have to be bold. Some of us want healing over our sickness, and I want that for you, but you have to be bold. And ultimately, we all should want the restoration,

renewal of our souls, but we have to be bold to receive it. So here's the ask, if that is you and I believe there's someone in the room, this is exactly for you like it is for me. Do not stay hidden

with me. Would you just raise your hand if that's you? You're desperate for God to move in your life in a way that you can't comprehend, you can't understand, you can't explain, but you choose to trust it. Activate it by faith because we walk in faith, not by sight. I see you and the Lord sees you.

And here's my ask as the community of Echoes, keep your hands up with me. We're gonna be bold right now. If there's someone by you with their hands up, would you just maybe put your hand on their back of their shoulder?

Maybe there's someone not right by you. Maybe just reach your hand out to someone near you. We're gonna activate our faith as a community of believers believing the Lord can do something outside of our own understanding that he would do something miraculous. We pray right now, Lord, Holy Spirit come.

Lord, move in this place, move in and through me, move in and through these individuals, and God for the very miracles that they are asking for. I hope they receive them, but Lord, even if they don't in this moment in time,

we ask that this would be a altar of our faith journey, a pivotal moment where we chose to come back to you, Lord. Not for anything we want from you, but only because we want you and you alone, Lord. God, have your way. Would it be in your power and your timing through your will that your

life would be moving here now and we would step out of this place with expectation, desperate disciplined faith to receive a new revelation from you Lord. And we together declare the goodness, the holiness, and the faithfulness of you Lord.

With one voice, the cry of our hearts, God have your way in and through us. Let's lift this up in worship. Give God the praise he delivers. Come on now church.

Amen, church. Come on. We got a reason to sing today. Amen?