James Meehan - What You Need If You Want to See God Move

Watch
Audio
Get involved

Have you ever hoped that God would show up in your life in a big way, but he didn't? Like maybe for you it was when your parents were getting divorced and you were crying out to God night after night that he would fix your family. But here you are now splitting time between two different houses, neither of which actually feels like home. Maybe for you you've got a friend who is suffering from pretty severe anxiety and depression and you have been praying that God would calm their mind, that he would quiet their soul, that he would give them peace. But it just seems like things are going from bad to worse.

Maybe for you, you have been doing this Jesus stuff for a while, but you're starting to question if it's still worth it because like you really thought that if you follow Jesus, he would make your life better, that you would become a light in your school and in your family but it seems like things aren't really getting better and they're mostly just getting harder. If you've ever wanted to see God move in a big way in your life then this message is for you. Because today we're gonna look at a man named Jairus who came to Jesus desperate to see him show up in a really, really significant way. And what we're gonna do is walk through this story, seeing what it is that Jairus did to see God move.

And as we do, what we're gonna look at and what we're gonna see and what's gonna happen over and over and over again are these two truths be reinforced. So if you are taking notes, I want you to write this down. Truth number one is that when you reach out in faith, he will respond with love. When you reach out in faith, Jesus will respond with love. And truth number two is this, that with Jesus a little faith is more than enough. With Jesus, a little faith is more than enough. Starting in Luke 8:40 here's what we read. We see that, "On the other side of the lake the crowds welcomed Jesus because they had been waiting for him. Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue," A leader in his local church, he's a religious man. "He came and he fell at Jesus' feet pleading with him to come home with him because his only daughter who was 12 years old was dying".

If you wanna see God move in your life, the first thing you need to do is exactly what Jairus did. You need to tell him what you need. Tell him what you need. My wife and I and Mandy, we got married over seven years ago and two weeks before we got married, she was diagnosed with a series of complex chronic illnesses that have been affecting her body ever since. To the point where she had to stop working, she stepped away from her job. And it has just been this journey of trying to find healing. And when we first got the diagnosis, we came to Jesus and we told him, we need you to heal her. Because we're going to the doctors, we're doing all the stuff that we can and things still aren't changing so we need you.

What is it that you need Jesus to do in your life? Where are you hoping that he will show up? If you wanna see him move, the first thing you've gotta do is exactly what Jairus did. You gotta tell him what you need. If we keep reading in this passage of scripture, verse 42 tells us that Jesus went with him and they were surrounded by the crowds. In the previous verse, what we saw is Jairus came to Jesus pleading with him to come home with him to save his daughter. And the next thing we read is that Jesus went with him.

So if you wanna see God move, the first thing you've gotta do is tell him what you need. The second thing you've gotta do is follow where he leads. And this right here is so important. Jairus didn't just come to Jesus and say, hey, I need you to heal my daughter, and then sit around waiting for Jesus to do it. He walked with him. He actually went with Jesus on the way to see the miracle take place. And maybe for some of you, it's time to follow Jesus and not just sit around waiting for him to do what you're asking him to do. Because I'm telling you, it is on the way. It is as you are walking with Jesus that you discover the waiting is never wasted because Jesus uses the journey to shape us into who we need to be. And he uses that time to build our faith in tremendous ways.

2,708 days ago was when my wife and I started praying that Jesus would heal her, 2,708 days without missing a day we have prayed the prayer, Jesus heal her body, make her whole, bring total healing to her. We believe that you can. We trust that you will. And until you do, we will follow you wherever you lead. Here's the thing that's so interesting is that when you're willing to yes, tell him what you need and follow where he leads, it's that time. It's that walking with Jesus where your relationship with him grows so much deeper. For us, that journey has been really, really special because as we have been walking with Jesus, waiting for the healing to take place, my wife and I have developed so much more compassion for other people who are suffering.

Like our relationship with each other has been strengthened in really significant ways because we have been exposed to significant suffering. And yes, suffering sucks, but because God is good he uses it to sanctify us, to make us holy, to make us more like Jesus. He is using the struggle to shape us into who we need to be. And he wants to do the same thing for you. So if you wanna see God move in your life, absolutely tell him what you need and walk with him. Follow where he leads because when you do, you're gonna get a front row seat to the ways that he's working in the world. If we continue reading this passage of scripture, we read about Jairus and Jesus walking, the crowd surrounds them.

"And there was a woman in the crowd who had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding and she could find no cure. She searched everywhere. So here she is in this crowd hearing about Jesus. She comes up behind him, she touches the fringe of his robe, and immediately the bleeding stopped. And Jesus asks a question, 'Who touched me?'" Now real quick, here's what I wanna remind you throughout this story. Here's what we're seeing, that when we reach out in faith, Jesus responds with love. And she literally reached out in faith and the love of Jesus met her and stopped the bleeding immediately. And then Jesus asked this question, "Who touched me"?

Peter thinks it's a little bit silly and says, master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you. That means a whole bunch of people in the crowd probably touched you. So what are you asking? But Jesus says, "Someone deliberately touched me for I felt healing power go out from me". Now here's what's really important to acknowledge, this question, this Jesus searching to figure out who it was is not an accusation. It is not an interrogation. It is an invitation for this woman to come face to face with Jesus. Because yes, he wants to bring healing, but more than that, he wants a relationship. He wants her to come out of hiding and see the man who healed her.

So the woman realized that she could not stay hidden. She began to tremble. She fell to her knees in front of him and the whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. The whole crowd, including Jairus and Jesus in verse 48 says this, he says, "Daughter, your faith has made you well, so go in peace". If you wanna see God move in your life, what do you do? The first thing you do is you tell him what you need. The second thing you do is you follow where he leads. And thing number three, you watch how he works, you watch how he works. It's pretty cool to think that Jairus came to Jesus with a question. He came to him asking him to come with him to heal his daughter.

And had Jairus sat around waiting instead of actually walking with Jesus, he never would've witnessed this miracle. He never would've seen the healing come to this woman. Like can you imagine how this built his faith on the way to see his daughter healed? It's like, oh snap. I came to the right person. Or maybe it didn't build his faith. Maybe instead what Jairus did is what so many of us do, where instead of actually celebrating the way that God is working in the lives of others, he was frustrated, he was disappointed, he was maybe even a little bit bitter that Jesus stopped to heal this woman when his daughter is dying.

So often instead of actually watching the way that Jesus is working in the world and celebrating what he's doing in the lives of others in a way that will build our faith, we see what he does for others and we just get upset because we want him to do it for us and we want him to do it right now. So instead of celebrating, instead of our faith being built, we compare and that begins to choke out our faith. And like, let me be very clear. Celebrating the way God is working in someone else's life while you are waiting for him to show up in yours is not easy. Like over the course of the last seven years, my wife, because of this decision to walk with Jesus as we wait, got involved in a number of different health practices, she became a nutritional therapy practitioner.

She's now sharing her story and helping other people navigate their health challenges so that they can get their health back. And we have so many stories we can point to of exactly that happening, of the lessons my wife has learned, being shared with others and them making full recoveries but our recovery still hasn't come. And while other people seem to be making just exponential progress, sometimes for us the progress feels gradual or like it's not happening at all. And there are for sure times where we have been tempted to allow the way God is working in others' lives to make us disappointed, to make us bitter. But we know that that is just gonna choke out our faith.

So instead, we choose to celebrate. We choose to see the work of God in the life of another person as evidence that when we reach out in faith, he will respond with love. And we know that all the faith we need is just a little, because with Jesus a little faith is more than enough. So if you wanna see God move in your life, tell him what you need, follow where he leads, watch how he works. 'Cause you get a front row seat to miracles being done. If we continue reading in this scripture, verse 49, "While he was still speaking to her," while Jesus was speaking to this woman, "A messenger arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. And this messenger told Jairus, your daughter is dead. There's no use troubling the teacher now. But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, do not be afraid, just have faith and she will be healed".

Don't be afraid, just have faith. If you are waiting for God to show up, then chances are pretty good that somebody has told you to just have faith. And chances are pretty good that when they said it, they meant it in a way that was helpful. But it was really hard to hear it that way because you feel like you have faith. Like you feel like you've been trusting God, you feel like you have been waiting for him to do what he said he can do, what you know he can do what you have seen him do. But in the waiting it gets really hard when it seems like the miracle is never coming.

But here's what I need you to understand, is that when Jesus says, just have faith, it is never an empty statement. He is never dismissing your pain because he is the savior king who changed everything. He is the one who just healed this woman. And notice what he said. He said, daughter, your faith has healed you. Was that an accident? Not at all. Because Jesus wanted Jairus to know that he is the God who heals. He is the God, when he speaks, everything changes. Jesus is speaking to Jairus and he is saying, don't be afraid. Just have faith because she will be healed. Because of Jesus death no longer has the final say, he does. Because of Jesus death is not the end it is just an interlude.

So if you're gonna see who God move in your life, what do you do? The first thing you do is you tell him what you need. The second thing you do is you follow where he leads. The third thing you do is you watch how he works. And the fourth thing is you listen to his words. You listen to his words. Because when he speaks, it is always true. When his mouth opens, love always comes out. He is the author and the perfecter of all things. So he knows what is going to happen before it does. And so these words are not empty. As a matter of fact, they are a promise that will be fulfilled.

If we continue reading in this passage of scripture, we see in verse 51 that they arrived at the house. Jairus is still with Jesus. They are still walking to the home. And Jesus, he's not letting anyone go in with him except for Peter, James, John and Jairus and his wife. The house is filled with people weeping and wailing. But Jesus says, "Stop the weeping. She isn't dead, she is only asleep. But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died". If you wanna build your faith, do not listen to the crowd. Listen to Jesus, because Jesus takes her by the hand and he says, in a loud voice, "My child, get up".

And at that moment, her life returned and she immediately stood up. And then Jesus said, hey, she's probably hungry, so let's get her a snack. It's been a pretty long day. If you wanna see God move in your life, then do what Jairus did. Tell him what you need. Follow where he leads. Watch how he works and listen to his words. Because when you reach out in faith, he always responds with love. And with Jesus a little faith is more than enough. So what is he telling you to do? Like what are the words that God is trying to speak to you? I would imagine that it's not too different from what he told Jairus. Don't be afraid, just have faith.

I would imagine it's very similar to what my wife and I feel like God has been telling us as we have been going on this journey toward healing. Don't be afraid, just have faith. And so what we have chosen to do is we've chosen to keep telling him what we need, to keep praying for healing. We have chosen to follow him where he leads, to keep walking with him. We have chosen to watch how he works and celebrate the ways that he is moving in the lives of others. And we have chosen to the best of our ability to listen to his words, to listen to what he says and obey him as well as we can because we trust that he is good, that he is in charge, that he knows what is best for us. And if we will just listen, we can see a little bit more every day how he's working. Because when we reach out in faith, he responds with love.

So what's about to happen as we close out this message is we're gonna move into a time of reflection where you are going to write down the area of your life where you want God to show up. On your message guide there is a line that says this, I want to trust God with blank. And during this time of reflection, fill that in so that you can actually be honest with God about what you need. And then we're gonna worship. We're going to sing with what little faith we have. And the song that we're gonna sing is called A Little Faith. And there's this line in it that I love so much, the line it tells us, imagine the ways that I could see you moving if only I take a simple step of faith.

If you wanna see God move, the best thing you can do is take a step of faith. And for some of you, maybe that step of faith will be choosing to trust Jesus for the first time ever. For others of you, maybe that step of faith will be choosing to tell him honestly what you need. Maybe it's gonna be to start following where he leads, to watch how he works or to listen to his words. Whatever it is, take the step and see him move. Because when you reach out in faith, he will respond with love. And with Jesus a little faith is always more than enough.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your love for us. We thank you so much that even when we don't see it, even while we are waiting, you are always working all things together for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose. And so God, we pray that we would keep our eyes fixed on you, that our ears and our hearts will be open to what you want to tell us and what you want to show us. Let us be a people of faith. How much? Just a little, because with you Jesus, a little is more than enough. And for all these things in your name, amen.