Cuando todo parece perdido | Pr. Sugel Michelén / Iglesia Bíblica del Señor Jesucristo (IBSJ)

[Music]

[Music]

My brothers and sisters, we believers often

struggle with what I

call

selective faith. That is,

we are able to trust

God's promises when we are

facing a problem whose solution

still seems within reach,

but when we face a

distressing situation that, humanly

speaking, seems to have no solution, or that

extends longer than expected, then

our trust in God begins to

waver. And I say this, my brothers and sisters, because I

know myself, and because I have

seen myself more often than I would like to

admit. I have been

there. I have been

in that

situation when we find ourselves in the

midst of an

incurable illness, others perhaps with a

broken marriage, or dealing with a

very rebellious child, or perhaps going through

a serious

financial problem. My brothers and sisters, our God

often uses these kinds of

circumstances to magnify His power and

His grace in an

extraordinary way, as we see in the text we are going to

discuss this morning

in the Gospel of Mark. I ask you to

please turn to verses 21 through 43 in your Bibles.

There are two stories in this passage that

we can divide into three

different scenes. In the first, Mark

presents us with a desperate situation.

Please read with me verses 21

through 24. The word of the Lord says: Oh,

sorry, I have my Bible open to Matthew.

Okay, Mark 21 says, "When Jesus had crossed over

again in the boat to the other side,

a large crowd gathered around him,

so he stayed by the sea. And

one of the synagogue officials

named Jairus came, and when he saw him, he fell at his

feet and begged him earnestly,

saying, 'My little daughter is at the point of

death. I beg you to come and lay your

hands on her so that she may be healed

and live.' And Jesus went with him. And this detail

is important: a large

crowd followed him and pressed around him. Jairus,

the text says, was an official of the

synagogue. The synagogue was that place where

the Jews met and worshipped the

Lord during the Sabbath, during the Day of

Rest, when they were away from the temple

in Jerusalem. Each synagogue had an

official or a group of officials who were the..." Those in

charge of overseeing everything

related to worship. We come

here Sunday morning, everything

is ready. Here's a

microphone. Here's a camera. Everything is

fine. The praise team. There's

someone who has to coordinate all of

this. Well, that's what the

synagogue officials did. They were generally people

chosen by the community because of their

character, because of their religious devotion.

So Jairus was a well-

known man, a very respected man in

the city of Capernaum, which is where

this story takes place. And when he arrives

before Jesus, Mark says that he

prostrates himself before him in a

pleading attitude because his little daughter—I know the

Reina Valera says his daughter, literally his little daughter—

is really on the verge of

death. Later, Mark will

tell us that this girl was 12 years old, and Luke

adds the detail that she was Ira, an

only child. However, in the midst of this

distressing situation, in the midst of this

desperate situation, Jairus believes that

Jesus is able to heal his daughter. Now

remember, brothers, that it was in the

synagogue of Capernaum where the Lord He

healed a demon-possessed man in Mark chapter

1, and according to the Gospels, it was in the

city of Capernaum where Christ performed

most of his miracles. So, most

likely, Jairus had seen the Lord

Jesus Christ do wondrous things in the

city of Capernaum,

and he knew the power of Jesus,

but above all, he knew the compassion of

Jesus. That's why he begs him on his knees

before everyone—don't forget, here

is a large crowd—and Jairus begs him on his

knees before everyone to

heal his daughter. By the way, brothers and sisters,

one of God's purposes in

affliction is to make us aware of

our weakness, to make us aware

of our dependence on him, to

put us on our knees in a

supplicating attitude before the Lord. There is a

very well-known phrase by C.S. Lewis

where he says, "God whispers to us in

our pleasures, speaks to us in our

conscience, but shouts at us in our

pains." Lewis says, "That is his

megaphone to awaken a deaf world."

Now, here we have to use a little

imagination, my brothers and sisters. What

Jairus is doing is very

risky, very risky for a man.

His social standing, his

religious position—but he loved his daughter more

than his reputation. His father's heart wouldn't

allow him to be attentive

to anything other than

his daughter's healing. And I'm

completely sure that

all the parents here

understand me perfectly. Parents are

capable of doing anything for one of

their

children. A few years ago,

one of our daughters, nine years old,

suffered an accident. It was

quite a severe accident because a

golf cart powered by an electric motor

hit her, ran over her, and

the motor became embedded in her

thigh, causing third-

degree burns. And I remember when our little

girl needed treatment. I don't know

if you've ever seen someone being

treated for burns, but it's

very painful. I remember telling

the doctor at that moment, "

Doctor, if you could give me something

that would allow my

daughter's pain to pass into my

body, I would take it

immediately." Parents are capable of

doing anything for

their children, and

Jairus had one last hope in the

person of

Jesus, one last hope in

Jesus knew he didn't have much time

to worry about maintaining the

protocol of someone of his

rank. He was going to do everything in

his power to save

his daughter's life, even if it cost him

his

reputation. But then, brothers and sisters,

something unexpected happens that tests

Jairus's faith: a sick woman gets in

the way. Jesus's advance, which,

remember, was already slow

because the crowd was pressing in on him, and I imagine

Jairus with his heart racing, wishing

that God would part the crowd as he parted

the Red Sea so that Jesus could

advance. And now, suddenly, Jesus has to

stop because of a

sick woman. Look at verses 25 and 26, a

scene I've titled "A

Disturbing Delay." We've already seen a

desperate situation; now let's look at a

disturbing delay. Verse 25: "And a woman who

had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years

and had endured much at the hands of many

physicians and had spent all that she had

without any benefit, but rather had grown

worse." When I heard

Jesus speak, she came to... He came up behind her

in the crowd and touched her cloak.

Brothers, the Lord's Providence

is sometimes so strange, so mysterious.

How old was Jairus's daughter? 12

years old. How long had this woman

been suffering from this illness? 12 years. So,

most likely, in the same year that

this woman became

ill, Jairus's daughter was born, and the

lives of these two people began to

run separately from each other until

suddenly they met in the

person of Jesus.

Amazing!

God had orchestrated

things so that this woman's illness,

which had begun 12 years earlier,

would test Jairus's faith 12 years

later. One has no idea what

God is doing in each

person's life. This woman not only had a

serious health problem, she had a

serious social problem and a serious

religious problem. When a woman

had her period, according to the law of the

Old Testament, she remained

ceremonially unclean for 7 days and could not be

touched by anyone. Ceremonial uncleanness did

not imply anything sinful, but it

prevented the affected person from participating

in worship in the synagogue or In the

sanctuary, going to the market, being with

friends, touching

people, my

sisters, my sisters, I'm speaking to you.

This woman had gone 12 years without being

able to live a

normal life. Besides, I imagine the weakness she must have been

suffering from

because of the flow of blood. This

woman had had to

suffer

shame, she had had to suffer

loneliness, 12 years without receiving a

hug, 12 years without anyone

touching her. And perhaps because people are

cruel, she was also suffering the

incomprehension of

people who thought that perhaps she

was paying for a sin she had

committed. All this, my brothers and sisters, is often

mixed up in afflictions. Job had

enough with what he was suffering

in his body, the loss of his possessions, the

loss of his children, without three

friends coming to insist that he

was like this because he had

sinned. Unfortunately, brothers and sisters,

sometimes when a trial comes, one wishes that they would

come in turns, right? One today,

another

next year. But James says, "Consider it pure

joy when you face trials of many kinds."

And the idea of ​​the text is when

suddenly, at the same time, you find yourselves...

Submerged in various trials, that's what

this woman was going through, and

to make matters worse, she had spent

all her money going from doctor

to doctor to doctor to doctor to

doctor, and they hadn't been able to do

absolutely anything for her.

As time passed, Mark says, her

condition

worsened. This woman had lost all

hope until she learned that Jesus

had returned to

Capernaum. And like Jairus, she

decided to put aside her condition of

impurity. While the two stories have

many points of contact, she decided,

even though she shouldn't, to

blend stealthily into the

crowd until she reached

Jesus because she was convinced that if she

could at least touch his cloak,

she would be

healed (

verse

28), because it said, "If I only touch his

clothes, I will be healed." And when she touched Jesus,

instantly the flow of her blood stopped,

and she felt in her body that she was healed

of her

affliction. My brothers and sisters, as soon as the

woman touched Jesus, she felt the

bleeding stop for the first time in

12 years, something the doctors hadn't been

able to achieve in all that time. Jesus

did it in a second and for free.

What a precious

Savior we have! Now she

knows what she just did was

problematic because of her condition. Besides,

touching a rabbi—Jesus at

that time was considered a

rabbi—even talking to a woman was a

problem, much more so for a woman to touch a

rabbi, especially in that condition. She

knew she was in trouble, so

she tried to go

unnoticed. But here's where

the strange part of the

story begins because Jesus

decides to stop the whole crowd and

suddenly asks, "Who touched me?

Who touched me?" Now don't

forget that they are on their way to

Jairus's house where there is a little girl who is

dying. There is no time to

lose, but instead of

hurrying,

Jesus stops to talk to this

woman. And I imagine

Jairus, at least if it were

me, verse 32-30: "Immediately Jesus, realizing that

power had gone out

from him, turned around in the crowd and said, '

Who touched my clothes?' His

disciples said to him, I imagine

today... What? You

see, the crowd oppresses you,

and you say, "Who

touched me?" But he looked around

to see the woman who had

touched him. Besides, Jesus was

surrounded by a lot of people who

were crowding around him. There's a little

girl about to die—don't forget that—and

he stops to ask, "Who touched her,

my brothers?" That really seems

absolutely absurd,

understandable, but Christ wants everyone to

know what happened to that

woman. He wasn't going to let that

miracle go unnoticed. Verse

33: Then the woman, fearful and

trembling, realizing what had happened to her,

came and prostrated herself again.

What did Jairus do? He came and prostrated himself. This

woman came and prostrated herself before him and

told him the whole truth. And Jesus said to her, "

Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be

freed from your affliction." And there are at

least three important things I

want to highlight here in these two

verses. The first is that the Lord

took the opportunity to instruct

this woman because, remember, she

believed she was going to be healed if... She touched

Jesus' clothes, but Jesus' clothes

had no power to heal

anyone, just as all those

cloths and holy water sold around today have

no

power. It was because of her faith, the

text says, that she was

healed. In fact, brothers and sisters, let me

tell you something strange. Perhaps Javier

has told you this, but the preachers of this

church also have no power. I

hear people say, "Faith moves

mountains." No, faith doesn't move

anything. The one who has power is Jesus, amen. Not

faith that acts in us. Through

faith, these are two very

different things. As one commentator says,

this woman had a weak theology and

a

strong faith, so the Lord took the opportunity to

correct her theology, which was wrong, but at the

same time exalt her faith.

The second thing Jesus does, and this

is precious, brothers and sisters, is to

publicly declare that this woman has been

cleansed of her

ceremonial impurity for the first time in 12 years.

This woman would begin to live a

normal life, she would begin to mingle with

people, she would begin to go to the synagogue, she

would begin to go to the market to talk

with friends, to receive a The embrace was so profound that it

was for her own good that

Jesus didn't allow this miracle to

go

unnoticed. Jesus wanted to proclaim, "

This woman is

clean," but there's something more important here.

In verse 34, there's a play on

words that isn't so common in English,

but the word translated as "to

heal" can also be translated as "to

save." It's the same word. She had

approached Jesus to be healed, but

instead, she had found healing and

salvation. That's why Christ tells her, "

Daughter, now you are a daughter of God.

Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in

peace." In other words, the shalom of God,

as the Jews understood it. "My daughter, the

shalom of God is now upon you.

Now you can begin to

enjoy the peace, the blessing,

the adventure that comes from

being a daughter of God." It's not simply "Go

in peace." No, no, no, this is

much deeper than that for a Jew. It's "Go

in the shalom of God." Christ says, "I have

come that they may have life, and have it to the

full." And what he's

telling her is, "My daughter, now you will be

able to begin to live life." The abundant gift

I came to give, the gift I came to

offer for 12 years, this woman

had carried in her body a

reminder of the corruption we all

have in our souls because of our

sins, but Christ in an instant had

removed not only her affliction but

also her guilt and

shame. What a precious Savior we

have! What a glorious

Savior! Now again, let's imagine

what's happening

here. The apostles are irritated; I imagine

Peter especially.

Jairus

is nervous; his anxiety is increasing

every second. His little girl is in danger of

death. The crowd surrounding Jesus won't

let him move any faster, and now

Christ is talking with this woman. You

know, brothers, what Jesus is

doing here not only seems irrational

but also

irresponsible. Let's suppose for a

moment that suddenly

two cases arrive simultaneously at a hospital emergency room:

a little girl who is

dying and a woman who has a

chronic but not fatal illness,

and the doctor decides to attend to the

woman first. If the little girl dies, the parents

could, with every right, report that

doctor to the

authorities for

medical negligence. Well, what Jesus is doing

here... At first glance, he's being

negligent. He's attending to a case

that isn't serious, not life-threatening, and

neglecting a little girl who is, of

course, dying.

Meanwhile, what Jairus

feared happens: the girl

dies. And that brings us to the third

scene. We've already seen a distressing situation,

a disturbing delay. Let's look now at

Jesus's actions at the

precise moment. Verse 35: While he was

still speaking, some people came from the

synagogue official's house, saying, "Hey,

how sweet!

Your daughter is dead. Why do you keep

bothering the

teacher?" The truth is, some people

have a way with words.

Look, I

imagine those four words, "Your

daughter is

dead," must have been a tear in his

heart. Just a few

minutes before, there was

hope, but now there's nothing that can be

done. Why did this

woman have to get in the way? Couldn't she have

waited a little longer to be healed and

give a chance to a little girl who has a

whole life

ahead of her, at least again? I'm

almost certain I would have thought the

same. But now Jesus wants to help

Jairus put his mind in perspective and...

All of you, and me too, because

this account was inspired by the

Holy Spirit so that for 2,000

years, until Christ returns, we

will be preaching about this text.

And now Jesus says, listen to this:

Jesus, verse 36, hearing what was being

said, said to the synagogue official

four words: “Do not be afraid;

only believe.” Four

terrifying words: “Your

daughter has died.” Four words of

hope, my brothers and sisters, we all

urgently need the Lord to

help us think

appropriately, to think through faith,

because trials produce confusion.

One would like, right, that in the moment of

trial, the first thing that arises is

faith. But you know what usually

happens? That in a trial, when

the moment arrives, the first thing that arises

is

doubt. We don't like to admit it, but it's true.

A man was asked, “Are

you a believer?” and he said, “No,

doubting.” We have a

tendency to doubt. Doubt

arises until we understand

that Jesus is trustworthy. No matter the

circumstance, look, my brother, I don't know what

you are going through, my sister, at

this moment, but whatever it is, if you

are a believer, please don't forget that

Jesus He is trustworthy above your

pain, above your affliction,

above your distressing circumstances.

Jesus is trustworthy. I don't know, at some

point in this story, Jairus came to

think that Jesus hadn't acted as

quickly as the situation warranted. If

only he had hurried a little more,

his daughter would be alive. But the Lord, the

Lord knew there was no reason

to rush things.

Things have to happen according to

God's timetable, not according to the apostles' timetable,

not according to Jairus' timetable, not according to

your timetable, not according to mine. It's

God's timetable, my brothers. Our notion of

time is never adequate when

we have to evaluate

God's actions. You know that every culture

has a particular notion of

time, and that considerably impacts how we

react. We

Dominicans are super

punctual. You invite a Dominican to

a meeting at 8, and they arrive at 9 o'clock sharp. I do

n't know how it is here in El

Salvador; you're more or

less the same. Now imagine for a moment that

a Dominican woman and an

Englishman are getting married. I'm in London... Last year,

I was surprised every time I went to

take a train. It would say it arrives at

9:4, and I'd say, "No way, it's 9:5, round trip,

no!" And I'd try it with the 9:4, and there

the train would arrive! Amazing! Now they're getting

married, right? A

Dominican woman and an Englishman. For him, 5 minutes is already

too

late for the Dominican woman and her family. There's

a kind of flexibility of 6 0 minutes

more or less, a range of elasticity,

then the appointed time

for the wedding arrives, right? Everyone is already

there waiting. In the right wing are

the irritated, annoyed English people looking at their

watches. In the left wing are

the Dominicans talking because,

unfortunately for us, this

is perfectly normal. You see how

each culture handles time

differently? Well,

my

brothers, if the sense of time changes a

lot from one culture to another, when it

comes to

God, the situation becomes very critical

because, brothers, God's work in

time is absolutely incomprehensible

to

us. God calls Abraham and tells him,

chapter 15, chapter 17, "Abraham, I am going to

give you two promises." In chapter 15, he said, "I am going to give you a son." In chapter 17, he said, "I am

going to

give you this land." And in the same chapter 15,

he says the same thing: "When, Lord?" Well, the

son in 25 years and the land

in 400

years.

God's time. Someone said that God's grace

never acts according to our

schedule, and that is so important, brothers,

when we are in the midst of pain and

we begin to ask God, "Lord,

please come, come, Lord, come, act, come, Lord."

A day passes, and the day becomes

a month, and the month becomes a year, and

two years, and four years, and one says, "Lord, what's happening?"

[Music]

I was telling my wife these

days, we've been going through many

afflictions of various

kinds, and at

times, talking

openly, we've said, "Wow, we've

asked the Lord so much, and it seems like

He's not

listening." But you know what? I was telling

my wife, "You know, my love, in the 47

years we've been

Christians, many times we've

asked the Lord in prayer, 'Lord,

sanctify us, Lord, make us like Christ.' And

what if this delay now is nothing more than

God's answer to those

prayers? We don't understand what God is

doing. For Jairus, it was too late.

For Jesus, things were happening

as planned. Jairus, don't be

afraid, don't be afraid, just believe, my

brothers, faith." Faith is the

divine antidote to fear.

I think it was Martin LaJones who said

that faith consists of crushing the

head of the serpent of

doubt with God's promise.

David says in Psalm 56, verse

3, in the On the day I am afraid, notice he's not

saying, "I never have fear, I

have no problem with that, no, no, no, on the

day I am afraid, I trust in you." But now

listen, in God, whose word I praise, in

God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can

man do to me? And probably the

word that David is talking about

here—there are various

opinions about it, of course—but probably what

David is thinking about is the

word that Samuel told him: "You will be king." And

the years go by, and

David is a fugitive; Saul is pursuing him.

And what he's

saying is, "When suddenly fear assails me,

my enemies are surrounding me;

it seems they are going to end my life, but

I will praise your word because you do not

lie, and you said that I will be king." And that is how

David can silence

the voice of fear. The voice of

fear—Christ is telling Jairus, "

Let me do things in my own time," and He is

saying it to you this

morning, and

you will see that in the end,

my time will be infinitely

better than

yours. Remember the story of... Joseph and the

king's cupbearer, the cupbearer and the baker go to

jail. Joseph tells the cupbearer, "They're going to kill you

in three days, but they're going to

put you back in your position." He tells the cupbearer, "

Please, when you get your

position back, remember me." But what

happened? The cupbearer forgot

for two years. One reads the text quickly:

two years, two

years.

Now, what would have happened if the cupbearer hadn't

forgotten

Joseph's request? What would have happened is that Joseph

would have been freed and would have been an

express in Egypt, and that's it.

But two years later, God used a

circumstance—Pharaoh's dream—to

fulfill God's plan. It wasn't

when Joseph asked the cupbearer to

remember him; it was two years later because that

was

God's timing. Now, against all

reasonable possibility, Jairus decides to trust in Jesus,

and I hope, my brother, my sister, that the

Lord uses this message to help you in

that regard because it says in verse

37, "And he did not allow anyone to go with him

except Peter, James, and John, the brother

of James, to the house of the official

of the In the synagogue, Jesus saw the commotion and

those who were weeping with him and

lamenting greatly in the days of the Lord.

In fact, even today in Latin America,

this still happens; there are professional mourners

called professional professional

mourners. In our country, there was a

dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo

Molina, who ruled the country with an

iron fist for 31

years. He was executed in

1961, and the brothers, so that it would be seen

that he was loved by the

people, began to hire mourners. I was told when I was

very little that they were paid

five for screams and ten for fainting

spells—impressive!

Of course, the number of

mourners depended on what the family

could pay, and since Jair's family

was a wealthy family, Matthew says

that there were many people who were weeping. In other words, they

hired mourners; it was quite a commotion, with

many people

crying. Christ arrives (verse 39) and,

entering, said to them, "Why are you making a

commotion?" The truth is that the things of the

Lord are so peculiar, as only

Jesus can do. Why are you making a

commotion? You are crying, the child is not dead

but

asleep, and they mocked him. Notice how in

a

second the crying turned into mockery,

in a

second. But Jairus continued to believe in

Jesus, and we know this because he and his wife

did exactly what Jesus

commanded them. But he, putting them all out,

took with him the father and mother of the

child. That is, they are still not

saying, "Why are we going to the

room?" No, no, no, they are saying, "

Please, think about that, your dead child is

in that room." And Jesus says to him, "Don't

worry, just believe, don't be

afraid. Come with me. Come, let's go. Tell your

wife to let's go together. Let's go into

the room. Your child is asleep; I'm

going to wake her up." Don't worry about

that.

And he went into where the child was, and taking

the child by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha

koum," which translated

means, "Little girl, I say to you,

arise." That story touches me

deeply.

Again, what is happening here, brothers and sisters,

is a

mixture

of power, compassion, tenderness, all at the same

time. And obviously, we have to understand

this passage in light of the law.

Old Testament ceremonial practices, because

touching the body of a

dead girl also made Jesus ceremonially

impure, but if you noticed in the text, Jesus does

n't take that into account and takes the

girl's hand. That detail is

important, and he says, "Talitha," which

is a diminutive for "little girl."

[Music] "

Little girl, get up."

What Jesus is doing

here is very similar to when we

go to one of

our children's rooms and say, "My love, my

love, it's time to go to school, get up."

The word of Jesus is so

powerful that when he speaks, the dead

hear and come back to

life (verse

42). Instantly, the girl got up and

began to walk. She was 12 years old, and at that

moment they were completely

astonished. Then he gave them

strict orders that no one should

find out about this, and he told them to

feed the

girl. Jesus is attentive to all the

details. He knew that most likely

during the illness the girl had

been

without appetite, but now suddenly she is

healed, completely healed, and she has

the energy and appetite of a

teenager again, and the Lord says The

parents, now feed her.

The miracle of restoration had

been

complete. Now, I didn't come here to the

Savior to tell you a story that's

in the Bible. I came to

preach, brothers and sisters, what do we learn from this

story? There are several things we've already

said, but let me say a few more

briefly. Beyond the compassion that

Christ showed to this woman with the issue

of blood and to Jairus's family,

these two miracles function as

a visible representation of the

Gospel. Jesus had to come into

contact with our impurities so that

we could be purified, and He

remained

pure. When the woman with the issue of blood

touched Jesus, instead of making Him

unclean, she was ceremonially purified.

And the same thing happened with Jairus's daughter.

Instead of being defiled by touching his

dead body, the touch of Jesus's hand

brought the girl back to

life. You know, in a certain way, all of

us by nature have the same

problem as this woman and this girl. We

are all unclean;

we are all corrupted because

of our sins, and we

are all dead in our trespasses and

sins when we were unbelievers. And just like

the daughter Deir could not raise

herself, and just as the woman with the issue of

blood could not heal and

purify herself, my friend, if you

are here and you have not yet believed in

Christ, you have not repented of your

sins, there is nothing we can

do for ourselves to solve

those two problems before God. We are

dead, we are

impure. The good news of the gospel is

that the Son of Man became man

to mingle with our impurities

without being contaminated by them, and then

die on a cross as if He had

committed your sin, your sins,

your sins, my

sins, receive the wrath of God.

Christ said to Him, “Father, treat me as

a liar, treat me as an adulterer,

treat

me as a

rapist, treat me as a murderer, treat me

as an

adulterer. Punish me, Lord, so that

they may be

delivered.” That is what happened on the

cross to Him who knew no sin. For

us, God made Him to be sin so that

we might become sin. deeds,

God's justice, God's justice in him, my brother,

yes, this deserves fireworks

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[Music]

If you are a believer, if you

are a believer, God's justice was

credited to your account, that is, God sees you

now as if you had never broken a

dish, with the justice of

Jesus, as if you had lived the life

of

Jesus. When I was going to the airport in Santo

Domingo, a believer from another

church took me and he was telling me, "Well, we have to

persevere because otherwise, one kind of

loses

salvation." And I was telling him, "My brother, my

brother, wait, wait, let me tell you

something: the fact that you are saved

does not depend on you, it depends on Jesus." Let me

ask you a question: there are two

commandments, the most

important commandments: "You shall love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your soul, with all

your mind, and with all your strength," and "Your

neighbor as yourself." If you do that, we

would be losing salvation all

the time. But when God sees us united

to Jesus, hidden in Jesus, he sees us

as people who love him with all

our heart, with all our soul,

with all our mind, and Love your neighbor as

yourself. Obviously, don't let that

lead you to stop loving God

and stop loving your neighbor. On the

contrary, it actually impels us to love out of

gratitude, not to earn

salvation, not to maintain

salvation. Well, in the same way,

we need to embrace Jesus by faith,

like this woman, to be freed from the

power, the shame, the condemnation of

sin. My friend, in what do you place

your hope when your

hour of

death comes? Because if it's not in the person and

work of Jesus, you are deceived.

There is only one God, and there is only one mediator

between God and men, Jesus Christ, the

man. In Acts 4:12, Peter says that there is no

other name under heaven given to

mankind by which we must be saved

except in the name of Jesus. And

Christ himself says, "I am the way, the truth, and

the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There are

n't many mediators; there is only one, and his name is

Jesus. But we also learn from these

two

stories that our God not only knows

what to do in

desperate situations but when to do it.

My brother, my sister, I, I was

telling you at the beginning, I have been there, I

know what... I mean, what's happening,

sir? And that's when you have to

remember, God knows what to

do and when to

do it. Three months ago, my wife had

spinal surgery. She had

four

fractured vertebrae, and after fracturing those

vertebrae, in a fall, one of them

literally exploded. Two weeks later, she fell again

and broke three ribs.

My wife was in a lot of pain.

The surgery was scheduled for a

Thursday, but something happened, and the doctor told us it couldn't be on

Thursday; it would have to be on Saturday.

Brother,

my wife has been in a lot of

pain since December, and it's already

February. Understand

that. No, it's not Thursday; it's Saturday.

Well, wait until Saturday. On Saturday,

the doctor calls and says it can't

be on

Saturday either because the

instrument supply didn't arrive on time. It will be

tomorrow,

tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

We arrived at the hospital—I mean, we were arriving at the hospital. We had been admitted for

a week already,

both of us, and when they were about to take Gloria into the operating

room, the doctor came and said, "I'm

sorry, I can't operate on Gloria

now because I've had an

emergency. A girl, about 12 years old, by

the way, who..." I operated

yesterday, and suddenly she started

bleeding. I have to

take advantage of the fact that the operating room was already

clean because it takes an hour and a half to clean an operating room.

The operating room

is ready, and what we want to do is use

the operating room for the girl, but not for

you. Gloria, my wife, told the doctor, "

God is sovereign, and if He in His

Providence has willed it so,

we wait." They took the girl in, so

Gloria finally went into the operating room at

11:00 a.m.

When Gloria's operation was over,

the doctor called me. You can

imagine. I ran to see what happened,

and one of the doctors said to me, "You know, you're a

friend of mine," he said. "You know what?"

Gloria, without knowing it and without meaning to,

saved that

girl's life because the doctor wasn't supposed to

come to the hospital today; it was yesterday because

yesterday was when Gloria was going to operate on that

girl. So he shouldn't have been in the

hospital today. But when that girl went into the operating

room, she had already lost liters and

liters of blood, she was going into

shock, and she was about to

die. God orchestrated everything to

save her. What

seems like a delay to us, the life He gave that little girl, is nothing

other than the

fulfillment of

God's plan. Jesus wasn't being negligent

with this family; this supposed delay

was part of His love because, in the end, He

gave them much more than

Jairus had asked for. Jairus didn't ask

Jesus to resurrect his daughter; he asked Him to

heal her, and the Lord gave him the

opportunity to see Him raise the

dead.

Wow, strengthen your faith! And

no, my brother, my sister, it's not out of

negligence that He doesn't rush when

we want Him to go

faster; it's out of

love. If we're honest, the reason

we get discouraged—

and I know, I don't want to

rub salt in the wound—but in a

way, it's because of our arrogance.

Because

even though we don't say it with words, the

attitude of our hearts is, "Listen to me, if only God would listen to me,"

as if you and I had a better

plan than His or had more

wisdom. And God, in His love, makes us

wait to help us have a

correct perspective of reality and

give us the opportunity to strengthen

our faith

by using it, because to

strengthen faith, we must... To use faith, and

to use faith, you have to trust when

everything seems to be falling apart.

He won't always give us what we

want, but He will always give us what we

need. God always does what is

best for His glory and for our

good. Lord, take this thorn in my flesh,

Paul says. If only I had better

health, gentlemen, I would found I don't know how many

churches. No, Paul, my

grace is sufficient for you.

Every time I read that text, I remember Paul

because Paul says that once he was on his way

to preach. I don't know when I

started preaching. By the

way, I went more than once

a year. It doesn't

hurt. Paul is on his way to preach, and he

is nervous. The great preacher Paul

is nervous because he knows the

responsibility of preaching the word.

And he says, until he understood the irony

of that text, "My grace is sufficient for you," and he began

to

laugh, my brothers. How big is the

grace of God? The size of God, because

grace is a characteristic of God.

So it's like telling a sardine, "

The Atlantic is enough for you, you need more

water." My grace, my power, is sufficient for you. Let

weakness be perfected. My question to

you now, my brother, my sister, are you

willing to trust Jesus

even when you don't understand what He

is

doing? Are you willing to trust Him

in the fact that He is infinitely

wiser than we are? That in His love He will

always give us what is best, even if it

is

painful? It is by faith that we walk, not by

sight, because it was faith that made the

difference in both

stories. Do not be afraid; only believe.

The other

day, one of the pastors sent us a

poem by Paul Trip

from a book titled *Sunday

Matters*, and listen to part of this

poem: I have a problem with my

sight. It's not that my physical eyes are

failing; my problem is the eyes of my

heart. I often lack clarity of

vision to live with a submissive heart, to

live a life free from complaint, to

live with gratitude, to live with

joy, to live with a

tranquil heart, to live with trust in You, to

live for a glory greater than my own, to

live with eternity in mind, to

live with

unwavering hope, to live with

humble courage, to live a life

shaped by love, to live

willing to forgive, to live With a

generous heart to live afflicted by

my sin, to live committed to

confession and repentance, to

live resting in the righteousness of

Christ, to live a life of faith and not of

fear, to live believing that you have

given me all I need, to live

free from the worship of idols, to

live with a tender and malleable heart,

to truly live. Too

often I let the struggles and

disappointments of life so dominate my

vision, my meditation, my

interpretations that I become

temporarily blind—blind to you, to your

presence, to your promises, to your power, to your

ever-active grace. I let

problems define me, I let

disappointments say who I am, I let

fear overwhelm faith, I let complaints

take the place of praise. I let

my blindness make me wonder, "Where are you?

What are you doing? Do you even

hear my cries? Are your promises

still reliable?" I let my

blindness make me place you in the courtroom

of my tribunal to question your

faithfulness and your love, so that I run again.

With your

people, not only to sing songs of

redemption, not only to hear the

instruction of your word, but so that,

aided by these things, I may open the

eyes of my heart, behold your

beauty once more, have

corrected vision once more, see you

once more in the glory of your splendor,

in the majesty of your grace, and having

beheld your beauty, bow down in

joyful surrender and rise to live

with restored hope and the courage

of

renewed faith. That is why we

come every

Sunday to worship God together with the people

of

God. The

Lord wants to do that work in each of

us this

morning, and my longing and prayer is the same as

Paul's in Romans chapter 15

verse 13: that the God of

hope may fill you with all joy and peace in

believing, so that you may abound in hope by

the power of the Holy Spirit.

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