Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Your Miracle Requires Movement | Miracles | Part 2

Episode Date: March 26, 2023

In Matthew 17, Jesus said if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. But what if we don’t want to move a mountain? What if we just want the pain to stop or the relationship to heal? This message is full of encouragement to help us keep going. Don’t miss it! ABOUT THIS MESSAGEAre you facing something so overwhelming that only a miracle can change it? Do you even believe in miracles? They've happened before and can happen again. Let's experience them together in our new series, Miracles.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appDo you need prayer? Would you like to find out how you can get involved at Life.Church? One of our pastors would love to meet with you. Schedule a video call with a pastor: www.life.church/meetwithusFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #miracles Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you ever wondered what's stopping you from receiving your miracle? I believe today's message is going to give you some answers on how to receive a miracle from God. You know, whenever I go into a public restroom and somebody is doing number two, and you know they're doing number two. some of you don't know what I'm talking about you don't know number one and number two so so number one is pee-poo okay just want to make just want to make sure that's clear to to everybody in all of our locations and online and and somebody comes out the bathroom stall after doing number two and they don't wash their hands that's nasty I don't care what you say

And then they have the audacity just to start touching on stuff. I mean, just, you know, touching on the sink and, you know, touching on the paper towel dispenser and pushing it in and grabbing a paper towel, wiping off their head. I'm thinking, you are nasty. And I'm so grateful for the person who invented the motion sensor paper towels that you can find around the world. You can go in the bathroom now, and I'm grateful for it because there's some nasty people in the world, and they don't wash their hands after number two. I think you should wash your hands after number one.

And then even number two. And you can go into the bathroom now and you can wave your hand, just move, and the soap will come out. You can wave your hand and just move, and the water will come out. You can go to the paper towel dispenser, and you can just move, and the paper towel. will come out. I even like it that some places around the world, you can step into the bathroom. When you step in, it's completely dark, but then when you step in and just move the lights, come on, just from movement. And there are some miracles that can only be activated in your life by movement. And today we're going to talk about this miracle from

Jesus as we continue our series. And I want to speak from this thought. Your miracle requires movement. There's an incredible story in the Bible that shows us how a woman's movement activated her miracle. The story's found in Mark chapter number five and verse number 24. It says, so Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed. And, and pressed around him. Come on with all of our locations online, would everybody shout, pressed. Yeah, y'all want you notice that.

A large crowd pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and has spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloaks. She moved, she pressed through the crowd because she thought, verse 28, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. And this woman was in need of a miracle and she heard about Jesus that he had arrived in the city. And she didn't just say to herself, well, if I'm going to get healed, Jesus will just come my way. She didn't say to herself, well, I'm going to do nothing at all. And if God wants me to receive a miracle, then I'll just receive a miracle. No, no, she moved towards Jesus. She pressed her way through the crowd and she touched Jesus. There are some miracles that will only have.

happen because you moved, because you pressed your way to Jesus. Life Church, there's a blessing in the pressing. Your miracle is on the other side of your movement. And the devil will try to do everything he can to keep you from pressing towards Jesus. But no matter what comes your way in life. You have to keep pressing towards Jesus. You've got to keep moving towards Jesus because there's a blessing in the pressing. You have to, number one, number one, you have to press past pain. This lady had been bleeding for 12 long years. The Bible says over time, she only grew worse. The pain continued to increase.

Pain is no joke. It's no respecter of persons. Pain doesn't care about your social or economic status, your skin color, your country, your career, the neighborhood you live in. It hits everybody. When pain hits, it hurts. And pain paralyzes and stops so many people from pressing forward.

And many of you today, you're facing some serious pain in your life. Some of you today are facing physical pain. You're living with a disease. You're living with a sickness, chronic pain. Maybe it's a family member. who is very sick and pain hits and it hurts. Maybe it's emotional pain and you're grieving a loss. You're dealing with worry and anxiety on the inside. You're facing depression today and pain hits and it hurts. Maybe it's relational pain and your marriage is on the rocks.

And you just don't know what to do. Maybe it's the pain of a divorce or betrayal of a friend or abuse or maybe you're experiencing loneliness and pain hits and it hurts. Maybe it's financial pain and you can't pay all your bills. You can't retire like you were planning on because your portfolio has taken a downturn. Maybe you're just overwhelmed with debt and just stressed over money. Perhaps today you're dealing with career pain and you recently lost your job. Your business cells have been declining.

At work, your boss, your employees, just causing you so much pain on the inside. Pain hits and it hurts. And pain can either paralyse, you or it can propel you forward. And this woman has so much pain in her life, but her pain, she allowed it to propel her forward towards Jesus. She didn't let pain paralyze her. Because she realized this. Her answer was Jesus. And no matter the pain in our life, our answer is always Jesus. No matter the pain, no matter the dilemma, no matter the circumstance, Our answer is always Jesus.

No matter how much pain you're in, you have to press towards Jesus. It was last year in October. I had made several trips about an hour and a half away from my home to go visit my dad in the hospital. He had lost about 30. to 40 pounds. We could not figure out what was wrong with him. The doctors were running lots of tests on him and we just didn't know why. And so I just kept traveling back and forth to see my dad.

And they ran a particular test and I got the results. I'll never forget this day. November the 16th, 2020, I get a phone call. your dad has stage four cancer that day i drove up to the hospital i was the one to tell my dad the news i never forget the look in his face when i said dad you have stage four cancer i talked to the doctors and said how long do you think he'll live and they said well he could live for several months. And on November the 26th, I got a phone call. Your dad is going to die today. If you want to see him, you need to get here. And on November the 26th, my dad died. On December the 3rd, I preached my daddy's funeral with pain and my heart and grieving. And shortly after preaching my dad's

funeral, I got sick in my own body. And I don't get sick very often, but I was sick. And week and I usually work out several times a week. I couldn't even work out. I just, I had no energy and emotionally I was in a bad place. I was sick. I was grieving. I was dealing with depression. I kind of felt hopeless, but I just kept getting up every morning praying. I just kept getting up every morning reading my Bible. I kept giving, I didn't feel like it, but I kept getting up every morning, worshiping Jesus. And I can't tell you the exact day, but I can tell you there was a day in January that I woke up reading my Bible, praying and worshiping Jesus, and something broke on the inside of me. And I got on the other side of the depression and of the sickness. And I just got to feeling

better. And I'm so grateful. I didn't allow my pain to paralyze me. No, I let my pain prepare. me and to keep pushing forward towards Jesus and somebody today you don't let your pain paralyze you let your pain propel you to keep pressing in to Jesus you got to press past pain you've got a pressed past disappointment the Bible says she went to doctor after doctor and could not find any answers to her problem the doctor bills were piling up. Scripture says she spent all her money trying to find a cure, but things only got worse. You talk about extreme disappointment. No one could help her. She's broke. Her health is declining. This is a recipe for hopelessness. This is a recipe to give up. This is a

recipe to quit and to stop moving forward. And your spiritual enemy will try to use disappointment to stop you from pressing towards Jesus. Has disappointment caused you to stop pressing towards Jesus? Maybe it's the disappointment of a child who keeps making horrible decision after horrible decision and it's breaking your heart. Maybe it's the disappointment of you thought that was the person you were going to marry. Mary, this is the one.

And they called off the relationship. And your heart is hurting and dealing with extreme disappointment. Maybe it's the disappointment of you continue to get passed over for the promotion. Maybe it's the disappointment last semester, your grades, you just made horrible. grades in school and you're just disappointed and feel deflated about your grades. Maybe it's the disappointment of prayers that you've prayed and you have not seen the answer and you're disappointed. You might be a little disillusioned because you're still dealing with the sickness. You're still dealing with the struggle and I just want you to understand

something powerful about this lady. This lady in Mark chapter 5 did not allow her disappointment, her dire situation to stop her from pressing towards Jesus. You have to keep pursuing Jesus with all of your heart because your miracle is in your movement. Your miracle is on the other side of pressing towards Jesus. And this lady, she pressed. She pressed. past pain, she pressed past disappointment, and she pressed past religion. You see, something very interesting about this story. The religious law in those days said this woman was unclean because of her bleeding. She could not go out in public. She could not be around her family. She couldn't hang out with her friends. She could not be out in the community, socializing at different

gathering. She was not allowed to be around others. She was an outcast in the community. So there was no way she was allowed that day to press her way through the crowd. She was not allowed to touch Jesus. That was not allowed in that day. But that lady pressed through all the religious rules of the day to touch Jesus. Here's what I've learned about religion. Religion will keep you away from Jesus. where religion will tell you that you've messed up so much that you can't come to church. You've messed up so much, you shouldn't pray to God. You've messed up so much. You shouldn't worship Jesus.

Somebody feels that way today. You feel too nasty, too unclean, too unworthy, too broken to come to Jesus. You feel like your sin is so bad. You've blown it so many times. You've made too many mistakes. so you need to stay away from Jesus. But like this woman, don't allow religion to keep you away from Jesus. You see, religion says, first go clean up.

But Jesus says, come to me messed up. I'm not afraid of your mess. I'm not afraid of your issues. I'm not afraid of your junk. Don't let your mess keep you from pressing towards Jesus. Listen, you can't get a miracle unless you first got a mess. Your mess only means that you're a candidate for a miracle. I remember being in high school.

I was a hot mess. Now, I mean, no, there's a mess. Then there's a hot mess. I was a hot mess in high school. I knew a little bit about church. We went to church sometimes. as a family. And I remember my grandma telling me I'm going to be a preacher when I was a little kid. I'm not going to be no preacher. I'm going to be a baseball player. What are you talking about grandma?

And I started looking in pornography and got addicted to pornography and was having sex and was lying and cheating. I was just out there. And I remember how I felt. Because I knew, about church and I knew about God and so I just you know what I felt I don't want anything to do with that because I feel unworthy I feel I feel so unclean and so dirty so I just wanted to stay away from God and stay away from church just the furthest thing on my mind my my mess just keeping me from Jesus and there was one day after practice I played a lot of sports in high school I was invited to come to the locker room. They said there was going to be a special speaker in the locker room. And I thought, well, I guess I'll come back. I didn't really care about the special

speaker, but I heard they were serving free pizza. Come on, somebody. Have some pizza! And you'll get the coop dog out. So I got in my pickup truck, and some of you don't know what I'm talking about, but there's a few of you that do. I had some bass speakers in the back. Come on somebody. And I based my way up there. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom. And I pulled up to the locker room.

I went in there, too cool for schools, got my pizza, ate my pizza set on that locker. And that day, a man sat in a chair, never stood up. And he shared about Jesus. and he shared about the love of God and the grace of God and the mercy of God. He shared with us at night that God loved us right where we were. And that night as a senior in high school, I didn't care what anybody else thought.

I realize God loves me. I realize God has grace and mercy for me. With all of my junk and all of my issues and all of my sin, I realized that God had a plan for my life. And that night in that locker room, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I want you to know the miracle power of God rescued me that night and he turned my mess into a message.

I'm a miracle today. I'm supposed to be a statistic today. But I'm here today to tell you that religion will say first go clean up. But Jesus says, no, come to me. Messed up and then I'll work in your life. I'll forgive you and I'll clean you up. You got to press past religion. Number four is this. You have to press past people. Press past people. Just look at your neighbor and say, those first three weren't for you, but this one is. Go ahead and tell them you. This one right here. Come on every location. Come on somebody. Throw it in the chat line. This is for you right now. Press past people. The Bible says,

this lady had to press through the crowd to touch Jesus. You know, whenever I read a Bible story like this, I try to put myself in the story. And I can only imagine what she faced as she pressed through the crowd to get to Jesus. In my mind's eye, I can just see people saying to her, isn't that Gertrude? That's Gertrude? She has that problem, you know? She's unclean. Gertrude, don't you touch me?

Gertrude, why are you here? You've been bleeding for 12 years, Gertrude. I can just imagine 12 years she's known about in the societies. There's some folks that know her and they recognize her, but she does not allow people to stop her from pressing through that crowd because she thought if I can just keep pressing and if I can just touch it. Jesus, just touch his clothes. I will be made whole. And some of you need to press past some people to get to Jesus. Some of you need to press past negative influences. You've surrounded yourself

with the wrong people. The crowd you're running with, they're keeping you stuck in addiction and stuck in bad habits and stuck making bad choices. You've got to press past those negative influences. You've got to get some positive people in your life. You've got to get some godly people in your life. And one of the things that I so love about Life Church are all the life groups. Listen, you've got to get in a life group. There are people that want to love you and want to help you. You've got to get surrounded by the right people today, today, today. Get in a life group.

Get online. Find the right group that's for you. And get around some positive people because negative people are hindering you from pressing closer to Jesus. You've got to press past doubters. some of you have doubters in your ear that keep doubting what God wants to do in your life. Some of you have some doubters and they keep telling you, are you kidding me? You're not going to receive a miracle. Are you kidding me?

Your situation won't ever change. Why are you still praying? Why are you still going to church? You're still serving and tithing and worshiping? What's wrong with you? It's not working for you. You need to give up and you have to press past because there's a blessing in the pressing. Your miracle is on the other side of your movement.

Don't you let your doubters rob your faith. You keep believing God. God is able to step in your situation and give you a miracle. You've got to press past doubters. Some of you need. to press past some haters. Anybody got some haters in your life? You know, haters don't want you to get a miracle and they're not just don't want you to get a miracle. They're trying to hurt you, not help you. And you've got to press past your haters to get to Jesus. And I've learned this about haters. They can get so much in our ear. We can start looking at social media and what people are saying about us. and haters can just literally paralyze you from moving towards Jesus. And I want to encourage somebody today, don't you let haters stop you from pressing towards

Jesus? You've got to press past what they're saying and press past what they're writing about you and press past what maybe family members are saying. You've got to press past some people that are throwing hate your way. And you've got to keep pressing towards Jesus. And I think from our own life, the hardest person. person and the thing I have to press past the most is I got to press past myself. You got to press past yourself, Life Church, because when you're waiting on a miracle, you can get weary. When you're waiting on a miracle, you can get tired. You can start to wonder if it's really

worth pressing. It hasn't happened yet. This lady's been waiting 12 years and maybe you're like this lady is you've been waiting for years and nothing has happened and you've got to press past your own emotions and press past yourself my life verse is galatians chapter six and verse number nine do not grow weary in well-doing because in due season in do season in do see so don't grow weary and well doing. Don't stop praying. Don't stop coming to church. Don't stop serving. Don't get out of a life group. No, you stay in that life group. Don't stop tithing. Don't stop worshiping Jesus. Don't grow weary in well doing. Because in due season, at the proper time, you will reap a harvest. but you have to keep pressing towards Jesus.

You've got to keep pressing through the disappointment and pressing through the pain and pressing through the religion and pressing through people. You've got to press and touch Jesus. Just keep pressing your way to Jesus and keep worshiping your way and keep honoring God and keep praying those faith-filled prayers. You've got to keep pressing towards Jesus.

12 long years. Disappointment, pain, religion, and people. But this woman just kept moving. Your miracle is on the other side of your movement. Just pressing. There's a blessing. Heavenly Father, thanks so much for your word today. I thank you for speaking to people and encouraging people's faith today across all the locations online. And I thank you, God, that in the middle of trials and trouble and struggle, difficult times,

that God, people will not stop pressing towards you. you are a miracle worker. You don't always come when we want you to and show up with your miracle, when we want you to, but you do show up and work in our lives. We see it time and time again. So God, I pray, give people the faith and the tenacity, the resolve to keep pressing towards you. In Jesus' name, I pray. and as eyes are still closed and just heads about or cross locations today.

There's some of you you feel like you've messed up too bad to reach out to Jesus. You feel a lot like I felt when I was in high school. You've blown it too much. You've made too many mistakes. There's no way God could love somebody like you and forgive somebody like you. There's no way that you could experience the grace and the kindness of God. Maybe you feel like, you know what, I got to get my act together first. I got to get some things right first and then I'll come to God.

No, no, no, no, no, no. You come to God just like you are and you let him forgive you. You experience his grace, his mercy and his life changing. And right now, right now, every location there's people. today that need to receive the grace of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God. And as I count the three, I just want you just to raise your hand high and surrender your life to Jesus. One, two, three. Just raise it right now at every location. That's it. I see your hand there. See your hand there. See your hand there. See your hand there. So awesome. See your hand. That's awesome. I see.

Wait, so awesome. That's it. I see your hand there. Others, today. So awesome. I'm going to ask every hand that's lifted, even online right now, you just write yes. If that's you, surrender in your life right through online, just write yes. Just write the word yes. You're just saying yes to Jesus right now. And I want everyone that's raised their hand. Then on the chat, you've written yes to pray this prayer with me out loud. Come on just everybody, pray with me out loud right now. Heavenly Father, I turn my life to Jesus. I confess Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for forgiving me.

Thank you for grace and mercy. I will live for you the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray.