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27 June 2021 Sunday Message: “Owning Your Life with God”

Call to Worship: Lamentations 3:21-26

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

Invitation. Praises, and Prayer Concerns: Father of Heaven and universe beyond, you are the beginning and end of everything, and come today to humbly thank you, and to ask for your forgiveness for our missing the mark you have set for us in this life you have provided us. Thank you Lord for being the on consistent source of good in this life of ours.

Amen!

Message Reading: Mark 5:21-43

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” ⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Message: “Owning Your Life with God”

       Today I am excited to talk with you about something I am only beginning to understand in my own development as a person in God’s family. I would love to be able to stand up here and proclaim that I am an expert in something, anything that would qualify my being up in front of you today, or any day. Fact is, God apparently has a sense of hummer and has place someone just like you here to give His message today. I say it’s His message, because I am not that good on my own and if I were calling the shots, we would be talking about stuff I knew or at least liked.

       But God draws us to things, events, and people that we would not pursue on our own. Somehow, when I learn to follow the Spirit’s lead, life seems to change for the better (because I am putting real trust and faith in the real source of destiny), unlike when I am driving the car looking for another crash on the turnpike of life.

 And that is what today’s topic is all about, “Owning Your Life with God”. What it means to actually have some ownership in this life of ours, and understanding that all real ownership begins and ends with our Lord who; owns all, because He created all, and He sustains all that there is in this reality we call life. His will be done!

By the way in the title “Owning Your Life with God”, I have with God in bold letters because without our Lord, this discussion is a moot point. Fact is, I don’t own squat, I only get to barrow and use what has been entrusted into my care and how I use that stuff determines a whole lot about what God will entrust more with you, me, us in due time.

So how do we go about owning more of our lives with God, especially when I am only beginning to master the concept of self-control on a good day let alone owning anything? I think some general things we can employ in the beginning of owning it with God are;

• Remembering it’s all God’s to begin with, beginning with you. When we begin to know who God is and what we are not, things become more focused in life.
  • You are the miracle that God is building upon!
  • But He is the miracle maker!
• Handing it over to the Lord’s care each day, because the miracle of the day begins with Him who made it.
  • Recommitting to the Lord each day.
• Not giving up, but realizing the deliverance you have been waiting for is a moment in the passing of time, and time in nothing in eternity.
  • Peter and David’s two great gifts for us are
    • They were real people (screw ups like me), and that’s hope for real people today!
    • They kept on trying, and God used them.
• Being in relationship with the Lord.
  • Remembering that a relationship with God, involves communication, praying, then listening to God.
• Owning your life, means owning the miracles God is sending our way constantly.
  • We receive those blessing through:
    • Waiting for God’s deliverance.

 (Today’s Call to Worship reading)

• Actively pursuing the Lord for help.

(Today’s Message Reading)

       How can I begin to own my life with God, if I won’t own the gifts, tools, and miracles, God is providing me to live my life? This requires me to learn to rely on the Lord for deliverance. We begin to learn how to do this by following the teachings of the one known as the weeping Prophet Jeremiah who we received today’s “Call to Worship” from in Lamentations 3:21-26

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

²⁵ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him;
²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.

       Jeremiah is basically instructing his audience each day hand it over to the Lord, and to look for God’s compassion every morning. From verses 22- 23;

²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

 This is followed by understanding that it all belongs to the Lord and;

²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

When we can learn to put our faith, hope and trust in the Lord, we begin to live our lives in real expectation for the things of eternity, and are not as consumed in the temporal drives of our flesh. Not over night, but with time, practice and commitment, we begin to own with God the long plan of eternity.

But what if I have been waiting for the Lord to intercede for me on something I have been asking for? What if I have been waiting a long time for the Lord and nothing has happened? The next few questions we need to ask is;

• What are we asking for? Is it appropriate? Because God is answering (we just don’t like the answer).
  • Am I asking for the right things?
  • Are we asking for God to be glorified or ourselves? Because if it’s you, you already know the answer.
• Do I really want to own this life with God or have it all to myself? That’s idolatry, and we know what He thinks about that kind of junk thinking.
• When we realize that we are heading in the wrong direction are we just giving up, or are we like Peter and David coming back to God, repenting, and trying again? That’s how ownership begins.

If I am looking for a miracle in my life, am I willing to own the miracle with God? Like owning my life with God, to really understand God’s miracles, we must be willing to own them with Him. This requires:

• Realizing before I even begin, I have received innumerable miracles already, that I have not been paying attention to.
  • Look where we live, where everyone else in the world wants to live. Why?
  • Look around you, there really are people in this ministry that love and care for you.
  • This requires your commitment to look at your world a little bit deeper than perhaps you have before.
• Being proactive in our pursuing the Lord.
  • Which involves more than just asking for stuff, it also involves worship, and learning about our God.

This leads us to today’s message reading from Mark 5:21-43. Unlike a lot of Sunday’s, for time’s sake I am not going to reread the entire passage, but I will quote and reference some of it for you. The overall passage is about two major miracles being performed for two proactive please to the Lord, and a multitude of miracles given the crowd back then and those of us reading today. Miracles just below the radar, requiring our willingness to reflect and think about the greatness that is our Lord.

Beginning with the overview miracle that extends the length of the passage, we have the synagogue leader, named Jairus who has a daughter in critical condition. He needs a miracle and he has proactively searched out the Lord for help. The passage begins with Jairus’ need to save his daughter at verse 22, and ends with God rewarding his faith in coming to God for help, with the bringing of the girl back to life at the end of the passage in verse 42, in the midst of scoffers and mockers.

Jairus was in need and went to the Lord for help. He was so intent on helping his daughter that he was willing to put his trust and his heart where his mind probably never had never comprehended. Faith. And faith is as described in Hebrews 11:1-2:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

It’s what the ancients were commended for and what we must be known for in the here and now! Faith is a gift, a miracle that comes from God, and aids in our owning the miracles of God with God, when we recognize it’s all coming from God.

Sandwiched in the midst of the miracle Jairus and his daughter will live with and in the Lord, is the passage of the woman who had been hemorrhaging blood for twelve years. Mark in verses 25-26 notes that she had been suffering a great deal and under the care of many doctors, she had spent all her money and she was getting worse.

Again, this women like Jairus decided to be proactive, she already had gone to “many doctors and had spent all she had” (which I read as all of her energy, money, and hope). Now at the end of her road so to speak, she placed her last amount of courage in believing in the Lord’s care. Courage, because in her society, a person bleeding was usually restrained from touching and defiling other people. She was brave (and desperate), to seek the Lord out.

Her heart was open to the promptings of God’s spirit, believing (faith again), that if she just touched the cloak of Jesus’, she would be healed. Perhaps she thought that by touching just the cloak she wouldn’t risk defiling the very person that could help her. And, immediately the bleeding stopped. Imagine her fear and worry when Jesus said, who just touched me?

       You can visualize the skepticism of some of the Lord’s disciples, the place is crowded and somehow, He knows He’s been touched? Mark 5 goes on to say;

 ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Yes, the woman came and kneeled before the Lord and said it was me. As scared as she must have been, like so many of us, the woman is at the end of her rope and is now at the crossroads with her Lord. She like Jairus is ready to own the miracle with their Lord, and to begin to have ownership in their lives with God.

Ownership in miracles and ownership in our lives in general, are not some Hollywood story where they lived happily ever after. No, life is about getting up each day and trying, and walking humbly with God. Some days it’s three steps forward and one back, and others it’s two feet back and one forward, but somehow, we get down that path called a faithwalk in and with God. This means in reality that;

• If I was blind and now, I see, I own the miracle by now going out, finding a job, and building a life with God, and helping the blind.
• If I was lame and now, I can walk, it’s time to help others to get around
• If I was a jerk before I was saved, I probably still need to work on being a jerk which might be a lifetime commitment in working on the next miracle.

So, when it all is said and done, “Owning Your Life with God”, is more about owning your attitudes on:

• The kind of person you want to be.
• The kind of walk you want your life to be.
• Thoughts on serving God and other people.
• In short; Acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
• Confirmed by; How hard you decide you want to work towards your goals.

Because in this life, we actually own nothing. At best we get to borrow from God stuff, then own and control our attitudes on a good day. All that other stuff out there, the bling, is merely distraction from the true treasures God gives us, the relationships we take into eternity. Meaning, everything is on loan from God, for us to use and share with the people God places in our lives. And the more we spend wisely on others, the more God equips us to spend, and the more happiness we own with God!

Amen!

Benediction: Psalm 24:1-3 and Numbers 6:24-26

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
² for he founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.

³ Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in his holy place?             

You!

       And now Numbers 6:24-26;

²⁴ “‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
²⁵ the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
²⁶ the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’