Elevation with Steven Furtick - I’m Not What I Thought

Episode Date: August 17, 2020

People don’t always see who you really are. In fact, they’re quick to slap a label on you. In “I’m Not What I Thought,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church reminds us that we’re more than we thought — we’re who God says we are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Well, I want to share a scripture today. You may be seated. I'll tell you what, there's a great energy in this room. I wish you were here. I know Holly thought I was crazy because last night, getting ready to preach, I started. playing all the old elevation worship videos.

I know she must have thought, like, this is kind of weird. You're in there listening to songs that you wrote, kind of weird. But I just needed to see everything like it was. I started crying. I started crying. I'm not a crier, but I don't know. I thought I wasn't a crier. But I guess I'm not what I thought I was.

I was. Let's just call the sermon that. Can we call this sermon, I'm not what I thought. I'm not what I thought. And if you'll join me in the Bible and also share this message with someone who needs to hear it, I'm going to be sharing from Mark Chapter 5. And if you share this message, the Lord will bless you with something better than a stimulus check this week. You will have treasure in heaven. And if you share this message, everybody who shares this message will receive a blessing. Let's make it super vague like that, right? I'm not what I thought. And after you've written that down and now remember, you can misinterpret my messages.

Do not look at your husband and say you're not what I thought because that's not the idea here. But I'm not what I thought. Thank you, Jesus. Mark chapter 5, verse 21, says, when Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, other side of the lake. I was just thinking about Brandon Lake when I read that. A large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Come on, Anna, say, I'm by the lake.

Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jiris, important dude, came in when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, he pleaded earnestly with him. My little daughter is dying. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine that. My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. So Jesus went with him. Now, I want to pause and just deal with that for a moment, because to skip over Jairus does not do the text justice, And yet Jairus is not the assignment for my preaching today. But I want to point out that certain situations will make your position irrelevant. Certain situations will make it not matter that they call you a CEO.

Like when there's no peace in your home, there's no position on your job that can make you feel good about your life. And so that issue that was happening in his home brought him to a low place, even though he occupied a high position. Now remember, a synagogue ruler wasn't just somebody who stood and attended. It was someone who actually had some influence. And yet he finds himself at the feet of this rabbi, this radical teacher, healer. And he wants to know, will you help me with this issue?

Now, I don't want to move to emotionally too fast, but some of us have completely had our positions upended over the course of the last several months. And we find ourselves in a place we never thought we'd be for Jairus. It was at Jesus' feet. And that position of desperation, of course, is not unfamiliar to you unless you're under the age of 12. It just so happens that Jiris' daughter was 12, but Jairus encountered something and you will, if you live a little while, that made his position irrelevant.

He did not announce himself by his title. He demonstrated his desperation by bringing his issue to the only one that he thought had the ability to fix it. I wonder if God has brought you to that place in this season of your life, where the The things you used to try are no longer relieving the trouble anymore. So he came to Jesus, which in itself is a miracle. It's a miracle that he could get to Jesus because Jesus was so popular. Somebody say in the chat, it's a miracle I'm here.

It's a miracle I'm here. It's a miracle I'm here. It's a miracle I'm here. It's a miracle I'm here. It's a miracle I'm here. Oh, that breath was a blessing because it's a miracle I'm here. It's a miracle. I'm here.

It's a miracle. Now, this is the miracle that Mark is highlighting in the text, but yet there is an interruption to the miracle that forms my main point for my sermon today. The reason I stopped to point that out is because sometimes the miracles happen in the middle of the other things that you think are more important. You ever notice this? the miracle happens in the middle. This is like a sandwich approach to Scripture, because Gyrus is asking Jesus to come and do something at his house on the way he gets interrupted,

and now the thing that he gets interrupted by becomes the main point of what Mark writes. Luke wrote it to, Matthew wrote it too. When Luke wrote it, he wrote it differently because he was a doctor. So he gave it from the perspective of a physician. But Mark is is classified in this miracle on the basis of action. And the Bible says that a large crowd followed and pressed around Jesus. And verse 25, a woman was there. Here we go. Here we go.

Here we go. I want to talk to you about this woman. You ask what's her name? I would tell you if Mark told me. I checked Matthew. Maybe Matthew told us. He didn't tell us. I checked Luke.

Luke didn't care to mention her by name either. What we do know is that she had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She is identified by her issue. Doesn't it suck to be identified by your issue? Last week I preached water walking, and I talked about how the first time I ever preached on that text, I was preaching at Monks Corner United Methodist Church. Then I went on as a 16 year. I've been preaching since I was 16.

And I didn't know anything about the Bible, but I was bold. I was boldly, I was a confident idiot. I was a confident idiot. And I would teach these kids on Wednesday night who feed them and then teach them. And one week I was teaching about how God can do anything. And I was teaching about the woman in this text, but I didn't understand the background. And I was 16 years old. And I got there teaching, and I was trying to make it come alive, make it interesting.

I was trying to get vivid. I said, this woman had been subject to bleeding for 12 years, and she comes up to Jesus, and she's bleeding all over the place. Because, you know, I'm 16. I'm stupid. And I'm like, she's bleeding all over the place. And a 13-year-old boy that was there, he raises his hand, and I call on him, and he says, She wasn't bleeding on the outside, Stephen. She was bleeding on the inside. She was hemorrhaging. It was a uterine infection. I'm like, how do you eat? I don't even know about a uterus. You're 13. It was an internal issue, Stephen. You couldn't see where she was bleeding.

You couldn't see where she was bleeding. Nobody sees where you're bleeding. That's a lonely feeling. Nobody sees what dominates and depresses you. They see what you show them, and your feet is clean. They don't see where you're bleeding. That man's voice hadn't even dropped, and he was dropping truth like a theologian. She was bleeding. Couldn't see where she was hurting, couldn't see where she was hemorrhaging. That's a tough place to be. Because if you walk up bleeding from your nose, I got tissues for that. If you walk up with blood on your face, it's going to cause me to stop in my tracks.

She was bleeding in a place no one's. could see. I feel like I need to stop and ask you to think about, where are you bleeding that no one sees? Where are you hurting that no one has really heard about? And even though you generalize those places by saying, just pray for me, I need a financial breakthrough. Really the issue is that you need a financial breakthrough is that you don't even feel like a man anymore because you've lost your ability to provide. And if you can't even provide for your family, what good are you? You are bleeding, not financially. You're bleeding. on the inside. I'm bleeding and no one sees it. And even, ready for this? Even Jesus didn't

see the woman. He sees all things. Not this time he didn't. The Bible says, y'all believe the Bible? Can I read the Bible or you want me to get a doctor, so the places you'll go. Well, Jesus did not see this woman, but he felt her presence. And that's going to be important in how I unpacked this, because it said that a large crowd followed and pressed around him, and a woman was there in the subject bleeding for 12 years. 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. Instead of getting better, she grew worse.

Isn't it crazy how some of the ways you try to feel better make you that much worse? in the end? Have you ever done something to feel better, but you found out it actually made it worse? Have you ever ate something to feel better and you felt better for five minutes? Oh, but about 3 a.m. The devil sent you running to the toilet talking about it felt good. It fixed it for a minute. Now, you've been doing some things that fixed it for a minute. The Bible doesn't say she never felt better, the Bible says she didn't get better. And I wonder if in this time of our life, this time of trouble and transition and trauma and secret bleeding, if some of us are running to places where we are spending our energy and giving our attention

to things that promise to make it better, but end up making it worse. My grandfather didn't have the internet. He was at such a disadvantage. He couldn't just Google. an answer. He had to actually talk to somebody. I have it so much better than him. So much better off, man. I want my kids to have it better than I had it. Sometimes what we think is better is based on a point of reference that has no grounding in reality. So if you think about this, and again, we can take a vote, church vote, church vote, epham, around the world. Everyone who thinks that being able to constantly share and access every opinion that has ever existed in humankind in an instant has made our ability to connect with one another that much better, say I. And yet, y'all ain't saying nothing in the chat.

Just because we have more ways to connect doesn't mean we're better at doing it. And yet, here's the flip, the only reason I'm able to preach this is because of the technology that I'm preaching against. When Luke gets ready to share it, he doesn't say it quite like Mark says it. Mark says she spent all she had, but every doctor that she went to made it worse. Luke is a physician, so he says, nobody could fix this woman. Nobody could fix her. Mark seems to imply that there were some people taking advantage of her. Mark seems to imply that the motives of everyone that she went to weren't so pure and so clean

and so clear. Mark seems to imply that the founders of Facebook and the proprietors of Instagram are not primarily interested in your inspiration, or that the news is not primarily interested in informing us. So now I want to ask you a question. With the news on all week long, are you smarter or dumber on Friday? It's just a question. Answer it how you want to answer it.

And I just wonder, is it making it better? The place you go to, to feel better, is it making it better? That's a question. Before long you start to identify yourself with the information that you receive. And in this woman's case, she was getting worse. to the point that her issue had consumed her so totally that she was only known by her issue. And I love when the text lines up real pretty like this. How many of y'all really love the Bible?

Not just the verse of the day, but you'd like to see that little hidden stuff, those little hospital corner tucks that the Bible does, all right? Look at this. There's one man who is identified by his significance, Jiris, and one woman who is identified by her issue. There's one man who has a position, but he also has a dying daughter. So now his position is upended by what he's dealing with, just like the woman. Now all of a sudden, the woman who is identified by her issue. That's why she's called, in the King James, the woman with the issue of blood. How would you... Every kid in my house has a nickname.

How would you like for your nickname to be, the woman with the issue of blood? How about it, Lucius? That's what I call Abby. I call her Lucius. It's a long story how it got there. It's been through about, it's a whole morphology of how my kids go by their names. He was Graham, and then he was G, and then he was G. And then he was G.T.

And then he was G.T. McSwain. And then he was Swing. And then he was Shiggelish. And then he was Lish. How would you like for your name to be Issues? Her name was Abby, then it was Fafé, then it was Faf, then it was Fuf, then it was Feefe, then it was Feefe, then it was Leish, then it was Loosh, and now she's Loosh. There was a time when she was called, there was a time when this woman had a name, but 12 years

is a long time. And over time she lost her name as she was consumed by her issue. Now you start thinking things like, you know, I'm an addict. Now you start thinking things like, I'm just a grumpy person. Now you start saying things like, it's just in my genetics. But your genetics haven't met Jesus yet. Jesus, Jesus. I'm going to come back to that.

So depression is something I deal with. I'm not depressed. I deal with depression. You understand what I'm saying? Now, just like that is true, it is also true of your achievements. It's like people will identify you with your issues. They will identify you with your position and achievement. Like the man who told me on the Rattle YouTube comments, I know I'm not supposed to look in

those comments. I know I tell y'all not to do it, but do as I say, not as I do. I'm a hypocrite. The man said, he saw me up there. I was singing on Rattle, Brandon, having the time of my life. It was like Metallica, creeping death in reverse. James Hedfield saying, die, die, mean you shall live, live. Best moment of my life man said stay in your lane Steve.

Let the worship leaders lead worship you preach the word first of all worship Worship Y'all better understand where I'm coming from Worship for me is not what happens before the sermon Worship is how I make it through the worst moments of my life and secondly I'm not what you thought I was, bro. Big Daddy 423 in the YouTube comments.

I'm not defined. I'm not defined. You didn't make my lane. Didn't make my lane. So it's weird that we just call her the woman. And we define her by her issue. And we do it to ourselves all the time. You can even define yourself by how you feel in this moment.

And that's dangerous. Let me teach for a moment. Do you define yourself by your emotions? Do you define yourself by your status? Do you define yourself by your lowest point? Do you define yourself by your highest achievement? All of that is dangerous. Because the moment you start believing that you are what you do or you are what you went through,

create something inside. The woman was bleeding on the inside. She was bleeding on the inside. She was bleeding on the inside. There is a bleeding on the inside that happens when your sense of self-worth flows from what you do and what you go through. Somebody say, I'm not what I thought. And in the text, and some of you may be very familiar with this text, the Lord put me on a clear direction since quarantine to only preach scriptures that I preached before. And I don't know when that's going to end because there's a whole lot of good stuff I hadn't preached in 14 and a half years. But until further notice, I'm trying to go deeper in what I thought I knew. So every time it's causing me to stop and see what am I not seeing. This woman who was not seen by any people,

even including Jesus, who she needed a miracle from. Watch what she did. She self-activated. And that's what you did when you went on this stream, by the way, today. You self-activated. You didn't wait for God to encourage you. You said, I'm getting under the spout. This is old school, where the glory comes out. As the deer pants for the streams of water, I'm going to get on a stream today that is going to hydrate my hope. And this woman got in the flow of a miracle because she needed it. She needed it. I need it. I need God. I need God at the level. not only of my conceptual abstraction, but at the level of my feeling, my thought. Now, this is what happened to her. 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. And when she heard about Jesus, when she what? When she... So that's the first thing she did. She heard. She heard. But I want you to notice, she didn't get healed off of what she heard. This word can only do so much by hearing. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the Word of God, but faith without works is dead. So James would say, do not merely listen to the Word and deceive yourselves. Instead, do what you said. Let me take something. It's not going to get better because you took good notes. You can go to every Bible study and get worse and think you satisfied your intellectual quest for God,

but this woman did not get healed because she hurt. That was the first thing. That was the first She heard. I think it's important that we put ourselves in the path of God's word, don't you? To put yourself in the path of the promises of God. To put yourself in the path of words of truth and words of life and words of grace and words of possibility. I think that is so important. Yet she didn't get healed when she heard. She heard about Jesus.

She heard about Jesus. And then after she heard about Jesus, come on study with me, this is about to get so good. This is about to get so good. You're going to call your grandma who thinks the preacher shouldn't wear jeans with holes in them and say, watch him this week. He's got a word for you this week. I don't care what he's wearing this week. This is a good word.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. So what we have so far? She heard, she came, she touched. She heard, she came, she touched. And maybe instead of waiting for a touch from God, you just got to make up your mind. I'm going to touch God myself. I'm going to praise God myself. I'm going to be grateful.

Gratitude is a strategy. I need to feel God, so I'm going to get grateful for a minute because I need to feel it. She heard, she came, she touched, because she thought, if I just said, I just. touch his clothes. You see, verse 28, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. And immediately, 29, her bleeding stopped. And she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. So many questions I have about this text. How did Jesus not see her? How did Jesus not see her? Who did she think she was to sneak up on the Savior of the world when he was on his way to the deathbed of a dying little girl.

Another question, why didn't Jiris grab this lady by the throat and throw her out of the way? I would have done it if it would have been you. I'd throw any of y'all out of the way. I'll put you in a figure four leg lock so Jesus could get to my house and heal my daughter. I'll put you in the, what's it called, the scorpion? Remember Sting? I'd be making up all kinds of moves. Get out of my way.

I got a daughter. that needs a touch. But one question I wanted to ask you, and maybe I'll ask Chris, because it's like one of my best friends in the world. He won't mind me putting on a spot. What stopped the woman's bleeding? And I know. Chris is like, Jesus?

I think it's Jesus, but I think this is a trick question. It is. This is a trick question. All right, Brandon, you're down there at sea coast with a real preacher preaching the word. So what would Josh Serrat say? That the bleeding stopped because for years when I taught this text, I thought that when she touched Jesus, that that action which signified faith caused the flow of the bleeding to stop. What the Bible says immediately, Mark's favorite word to use to transition this gospel, immediately. And in the interconnectedness of all things, the moment that Jesus, Jesus is the moment that Jesus,

Jesus stopped because the woman touched his garment, the edge of his garment, I might point out, Jairus' daughter lost her life. So the gaining of life for the woman cost Jairus' daughter her life. Jesus went on to resurrect the little girl, but Jiris didn't know that. You ever notice how everything's connected? You don't see those connections in real time, only in retrospect, do you see the connection? The connection between the breaking that you experienced and the blessing that God had in mind. The connection between the loneliness that you felt and the intimacy that was developed in that loneliness.

You don't usually see those connections until later. When she made a connection, everybody said, make a connection, make a connection, make a connection. Like a phone hooking up to a Wi-Fi. That's how I imagined it. She accessed his power when she touched his clothes. His cloak. Why did her bleeding stop? I guess you could say it was when she made a connection with Jesus.

But there's another connection that I never made. I always thought that her healing started when she touched his cloak. But I read verse 28, put it on the screen, and I found out that the bleeding stopped because she thought. She heard. She came. She thought. God said to tell you, you can stop it with a thought.

You can stop it with a thought. All caps, I can stop it with a thought. I can stop it with a thought. It's not stronger than me. I can stop it with a thought. I am not my issue. You've been going through what you've been going through so long, you think the issue is you. But you can stop it with a thought.

I mean right now, the darkness that has overwhelmed you. Help me, Holy Spirit. They don't believe me. You can stop it with a thought. Now she did not get healed because she just thought. She got healed when she touched. But she only touched because she thought. It starts with a thought.

When I think of the goodness of Jesus, when I think about the Lord, how He saved me. We used to sing this, Holly, how he raised me, how he filled me, how he healed me, how he reached down and rescued me, how he reached down and rescued me. You can stop it with a thought. You can stop it with a thought. The gates of hell will not prevail. One thought about God. My thoughts are not your thoughts. I can stop it with a thought.

I found out thoughts are optional. Yeah, thoughts are optional. I might have a thought, but I don't have to let the thought have me. B3 organ on that point. Give them 12 seconds to praise God. I don't have to think like this. Live like this, bleed like this, I don't have to die like this. That was kind of weak. Let's try it again. Think of all the ways he made. Think of all the things he did.

Are optional. Can I tell you how I know? If you did everything you thought you'd have a prison ministry from the inside of the prison. My God. Tim is so unsanctified. He'd be imprisoned. if he did everything he thought about since I've been preaching. It's kind of like a split screen to me. It's like probably what the other people thought when the woman was coming up. And what she thought, I almost called the message, hold that thought. I almost called the message, hold that thought. Let's at least put that in the chat.

I mean, even if you're watching this after three and a half years, hold that thought, hold that thought. That thought. I mean, she said, if I touch him, it don't matter what anybody else thinks. Once you get over the fact that other people's opinions, they are not limits, they are merely suggestions. Contrary to what your mom told, you don't have to eat everything on your plate. You don't have to believe everything in your brain. So the thought is optional.

And I imagine that the woman thought, put it back up. Because she thought. That's what got me started on wanting to preach about this woman. It's because just like her bleeding started on the inside, so did her healing. Now, if y'all going to sit over there to my side, you've got to get in on the sermon. Y'all can't sit there like it's a spectator event. Because she thought. But you can't see thoughts. So how does Luke know or Mark know or Matthew know what she thought? By what she did? I'll make a suggestion. And y'all can click over to an Andy Stanley sermon or something if you think I'm preaching heresy here.

But what if she had a thousand other thoughts, and yet the only one that she acted on is the only one that matter? See, I can have a thousand thoughts. I can have a thousand thoughts. But the one that I hold determines where I go. I bet she also thought. Can we talk about what the woman also thought? You've been sick 12 years.

You've been to every doctor. You've been kicked out of every insurance policy. Nobody wants to hire you. You've got preexisting conditions, so nobody wants to be with you. Twelve years. That's long enough to completely give up hope. That's long enough where she would have thought, also thought. How many agree she would have also thought?

Put it on the split screen. Here's the screen of what she did. Here's what she also thought. What's the point? I tried this before. Some of y'all can't even hear a sermon real good because you got inspired last Sunday and you feel like you had an even worse week, so you don't even want to hear it anymore. Yeah, cool, man, whatever.

I bet a part of her, I bet she had the thought, whatever. She heard about Jesus. He's a healer. I bet she thought, whatever. I've seen this show before. What does he want? He just wants my money too. You know, you begin to think things.

You ever think things? Even good things. Even good things can be wrong things. I was talking one of my friends this week who studied the creative process. And I was like, give me a piece of advice on the creative process, because I'm constantly trying to create. I feel like sometimes like I'm just bleeding, hemorrhaging the next sermon, you know? And my friend said, hey, make sure you rest while you're working and let your spirit work on your sermon too. I don't know really how to rest because I identify myself by what I do.

And I tend to associate my worth with my work. Somebody say, I'm not what I thought I was. I always thought I was only as good as my trophy. I was only as good as my achievement. I was only as good. And so here's what I said back to my friend. I said, that's really cool. I said, I love that advice to rest and just let my spirit work on my sermon, let my subconscious

work on my material. I said, that's a great creative tip. I said, he's kind of like when a computer renders. My friend said, yeah, kind of like that, but you're not a computer. What I thought. My friend was trying to get me to see. You got the right idea, but you got the wrong identity. You're not an object.

You're not a machine. I know every parent sometimes just feels like a bending machine, and then an Uber, and then a referee, and then what else you feel like? like parents, parents, parents, what you feel like sometimes. I feel like if I'm not driving them somewhere, cleaning something up, I'm a housekeeper, I'm a short-order shelf, but I'm not clean, Steve. Be a preacher. That's not all I am. Do you feel God on that? That's not all I am. Now, that might be all I've experienced up to this point, but that's not all I am. My genetics just haven't met Jesus yet. That's not all I. I'm not just the woman with the issue of

blood. That's not all I am. I'm not just Jiris, a synagogue leader. I'm also a dad. I need ministry. I need a touch. I need refreshing. I need a flow. I need a prayer answer. Yeah. That's not all I am. I'm not what I thought I was. I'm so much more than I thought I was. How many times have I limited what I could receive because of what I thought I was? Because she thought she touched, and because she touched, the healing stopped. But you know what's really crazy? Instead of getting back on the road to get to Jairus' daughter, the one who was more important, Jesus stopped in verse 30.

And here we see in the scripture the first instance of contact tracing. The Bible says, Jesus, stop. So her bleeding stopped, Jesus stopped. You got 30? And he realized power, power, power, power, power. There's power in a thought. There's power in a thought. She thought, she touched.

Jesus said, I felt that. Now remember, she heard, she came. She thought, she touched. She felt. Feelings follow thoughts. And Jesus stops and goes, whoa, I felt something. And the woman's like, I did too. And it started with a thought.

Feeling start with thoughts. And so next time you wonder when you're in a bad mood or something like that, like, oh my God, why? It was like the weather just changed on the inside. What happened? Do some contact tracing with your thoughts. And some of y'all, this is going to mean you're not going to be texting everybody back this week.

Because I did some contact tracing. I found out every time I text you is trouble for me. Look, in the Bible so up to day, in the Bible so of 2020, look at the Bible. The Bible said, Jesus stopped, and he said, turn around and cross said, who touch my clothes? Now the disciples are annoyed, not just because they don't want to go back through and do the paperwork to find out who had COVID and who was exposed in six feet distance, none of that. But watch what the disciples said, verse 31.

It doesn't say it's Peter, but I bet it was. You see the people crowding against you as disciples answered, and yet you can ask who touched me? Your feelings come so fast, don't they? It's hard to even know where it started. It's like, you want us to trace it all the way back. Jesus, we don't have time to stop and talk about your feelings. Chris's daughter is dying. So we can stop and break it all down if you want to, but it's a lot of people, and it's

a lot of stuff. I was telling Eric the other day, I said, I try to figure out why I'm in a bad mood, but if I tried to trace everything that made me in a bad mood back, I'd never go anywhere. I'd never get out bed. Some day, sunny weather makes me depressed because I think I should be outside enjoying it. Some days rainy weather makes me depressed because it's rainy. I can't trace anything back. It just comes so fast.

Do you know what I'm saying? It's like a lot of people are touching. A lot of things are happening. The world's really crazy right now. He said, no, no, no, no. Who touched me? And he kept looking around, verse 32, to see who had done it. So I know we don't live by our feelings, but sometimes we need to focus on our feeling and see what led to it.

Y'all following me? You're following me? Yes. So Jesus is like, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me, who touch me? Who touch me? He didn't see her because she came up from behind. And the woman, verse 33, who is only used to being a nuisance or an inconvenience. How many of you, give me the camera, write that one, how many of you have ever felt

like you were a nuisance because that's the way other people treated you? Or that's what you thought they thought. How stupid is it to be trapped in what you thought they thought? This is called thought tracing, not contact it, it's thought tracing. Well, I think they thought, they did that because they thought they thought, I thought, the woman thought she was in trouble. And the reason I know she thought she was in trouble when Jesus stopped on the way to Jirus's house, help me do this, Lord.

It's because when she came up, verse 33, the Bible says descriptively, she came back and fell at his feet and trembling with fear. She thought she was in trouble, but she wanted to tell the truth. She heard, she came, she thought, she touched, she felt, she told it was me. I don't mean this in any kind of stereotypical way, but the fact that she was a woman makes me think she didn't give Jesus the plot summary. Because my wife doesn't give me plot summaries or cliff's notes. She told him the whole trip.

what it had been like to bleed on the inside, what it had been like to once have resources. As you spend all your resources, your issue continues to deteriorate your reality. And she told him that, you know, trembling, she told him, I know I wasn't supposed to stop you. I know I caused a big commotion. I know you were on your way to heal. important man's daughter. Jesus stopped and said, who did it? Who did it? It seems petty that he would stop healing somebody to come fuss at somebody. He said, who did it? I wonder why he did it, because when I read his response after she told him the whole truth, it says in verse 34, can you

give me verse 34, that he said to her daughter, your faith has healed you go in peace and be freed from your suffering, but she was already freed from her suffering. Give me verse 29. When she touched him, immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was free from her suffering, she was already free. Why do he call her back? Not to reprimand her? Maybe he called her back to give her a little bit more money or a little bit more details or

maybe to give her a little extra help. So I read that over and over again. Somebody say, I'm not what I thought. You remember how she snuck up and said. If I just touched the hem of his garment, the dirty part, the part that's been dragging through the street with feces and urine and the mud off of the shoes of the feet, who the other important people as they move through the street to do things that she no longer had the resource to do, and that's all she thought she was.

If I touch it, and then I sneak away, and she snuck away like a thief. They couldn't find her. snuck away like she stole something. He said, who did it? Bring her back. Then he told her what she already knew. Why did he call her back? Why did he call her back and let Jiris' daughter die just to tell her what she already knew? And then I realized something. Put verse 34 on the screen. It's not what he told her. It's what he called her. He didn't call her woman with the issue of blood. We call her that. He didn't. There are many times in scripture that Jesus touches people and they're healed. There are very few where someone touches him. And there's only one time in

scripture that Jesus calls somebody. Put it back up. This is the only time Jesus uses that. Why did he stop on the way to heal Gyrus's daughter? Another daughter. So I'm not going to let you sneak away like a beggar. If I let you sneak away right now, the bleeding may stop. but you will live the rest of your life believing something about yourself that isn't true. What would you do if you knew it was true that you were a daughter of God? What would you do? What would it be like if you knew that almighty, omnipotent, all-powerful God had committed his resources to you like weak little Stephen Ferdick has committed his.

his resources to Abby. What would you do? What could knock you off your balance? What could the opinions of others do to you if you knew that I am not what I did? And I am not what I went through. And I am not what I thought I was. And I am not what I suffered. And I am not what I lost.

Jesus said, call her back. I know Jairus has a daughter, but she's a daughter too. I know nobody else sees her, but that's my daughter. Just minister, L.J. Just minister. I need you to receive this word. You don't have to touch the dirty part, the limited part. Come on, I'm not what I thought.

I am not my temptation. I am not my perversion. I am not my discouragement. I am not my last mistake. I am not my pattern. I am not my flesh. I have been crucified with Christ. And if I can touch him, I can have what he has because I am like he is.

I'm a daughter. I'm a son. He called her back so she would know. You're not leaving like a thief. You're not leaving like a beggar. You're leaving like a daughter. Don't you crawl out of here waiting to get caught? She thought she was in trouble.

But Jesus brought her back to tell her the truth. Leading on the inside, she did something on the outside. But God didn't just want to fix what was happening. In her body, she heard about Jesus, and that freed her from her suffering. But when she heard from Jesus, not about Jesus, freed her from her. Shame. Lift your hands in the air right now. I break the power of shame off of your mind.

I break the power of shame off of your past. I break the power of shame off of your body. You're going to feel it in your body right now. That healing is flowing to you. Identity is flowing to you. God said, I stopped everything for the forgotten dog. I got a daughter. I know what you would do for your daughter.

My two boys, they criticize my parenting all the time. They say you treat Abby different. They say you do stuff for her that you won't do for us. They say she doesn't get in trouble for stuff. You used to punish us for stuff that she doesn't get in trouble for. And one day she heard them going on and on about this. She said, guys, it's different. I'm the daughter.

I mean, even if you're a male, I'm not trying to make this about gender, but just say, it's different when you're a daughter. It's different when you know that you belong. I'm not sneaking in to get a healing. I will be made. She thought. She touched. She felt. She told.

And then she knew. You might have come crawling, but you're walking away. So whatever time zone this message finds you in or whatever season of life, you could be gyrus or you could be this daughter. How cool is it that the one that nobody saw coming is the only one he ever called daughter? And I don't know. Maybe you don't feel forgotten. But in case you do, the one who the disciples didn't even think was worth tracking down, the only

one he called. Jairus had a daughter, but she was a daughter too. You belong to him. And when you go troubleshooting your soul, make sure you don't go to the wrong doctors that'll make it worse instead of better. Don't do it. I'm really bad at troubleshooting, but I know if it gets bad enough, I got to take this back to Apple.

can only be diagnosed by the manufacturer. You hear me? Sometimes I need to take it to the genius bar. Some things I need to take to Jesus, some things I need to take to him. I'm not what I thought. You mean I'm not the woman with the issue of blood? When we get to heaven, we'll all have nicknames. And it won't be the woman with the issue of blood.

This woman, I can imagine, because she's bold, will be standing there. at the front of the line in case you feel unworthy, in case you feel like you can't come in, she's going to be like, hey, you might remember me from Mark chapter 5. Oh yeah, woman with the issue of love? Nah, nah, nah, no, the only one he ever called daughter. Now, come on, if you got bold fake, if you got grace spake, not works fake, not what I did. I'm not what. Lord bless your sons and daughters today call them by name I don't know their name you do

God I thank you for Jay I thank you for I thank you for Sherell I thank you for for Betty and for Sharon I thank you for Ebony God I thank you for Peter and for Grace and for Cammy and for Kelly you're calling them by name these are your daughters these are your daughters Julia and Neri and Tamla and Nicole oh they're going so fast look at all those daughters and sons And they're not leaving this sermon today, bleeding on the inside. They're not leaving this sermon today, just bleeding on the inside. Give them a thought to hold on to. I'm accepted. I'm love.

Get that thought. And hold on for dear life. And you will. Come on and take just a second and say, I'm not what I thought. I'm not what I thought. Right there in the chat. I'm not what I thought. Maybe you need to send a message to somebody who underestimated you.

I'm not what you thought. You told me I never amount to anything, but I touched somebody who knows something you don't know. I'm getting this fixed on the inside. I am a child of God. We bless your name, Lord. Thank you for your grace. Our teams are here right now to minister to you. If you have a prayer request, put it in the chat.

In fact, right now, one of our team members is going to lead you in a prayer. prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and be made whole again. Right now, we're praying with you. We're praying with you right now. Well, I want to pray with you personally right now. Would you bow your head? Lord, I thank you so much for your sons and daughters. Your daughters and sons you brought this word to today. And we may not touch physically right now, but we join together in the spirit in this moment. You say in your word that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saying. Right now, if you feel God drawing you to give your life to Jesus Christ, I want you to pray this after me. It's not a magic prayer. The woman wasn't healed by her

superstition. She was healed by her faith, and it's by grace through faith that we are saying. If you want to invite Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of your life right now, I want you to pray this after me out loud if you can, but in your heart, he hears you. Pray this Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. And I I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. And today, I make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died, that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life.

This is my new beginning. I am a child of God. man what an awesome privilege to pray with you today and to minister to you God's word what God says you are not what people say you are not what you thought you were not even what you have been up until this point what God knows you to be I'm telling you I still feel the revelation coming right now even as I give you this little outro but I'm going to close for now we love being your extended church family whether you're a part of our church or whether God just use this ministry in your life today. Thank you for giving, for praying, for sowing into good ground all over the world. It's bearing fruit because of you. And I'm so thankful for you. I'll see you next time. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast.