Don't Worry; Just Have Faith

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 27th of June, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Family, I think it’s safe to say that faith was a pretty big deal to Jesus as He walked among us.  We can find many instances in our New Testament where He noted a person either for the strength of their faith, or their lack thereof.  The usual target for the latter were His own disciples, whom He often scolded with the words, “O you of little faith”.  And there were others who had no faith, either in Him or in His authority.  These were primarily the Jewish people and their leaders, like the Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes.

Many times, though, Jesus found Himself facing a person of strong faith, one who came to Him even perhaps at great personal sacrifice.  Our scripture reading this morning has a little bit of both.  It tells of two people with great faith, and a number of scoffers who apparently had no faith.  Please listen and follow along to what the Apostle Mark recorded for us in the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 21 through 43, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

21 Once again Jesus got into the boat and crossed Lake Galilee. Then as He stood on the shore, a large crowd gathered around Him. 22 The person in charge of the Jewish meeting place was also there. His name was Jairus, and when he saw Jesus, he went over to Him. He knelt at Jesus' feet 23 and started begging Him for help. He said, “My daughter is about to die! Please come and touch her, so she will get well and live.” 24 Jesus went with Jairus. Many people followed along and kept crowding around.

25 In the crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had gone to many doctors, and they had not done anything except cause her a lot of pain. She had paid them all the money she had. But instead of getting better, she only got worse.

27 The woman had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him in the crowd and barely touched His clothes. 28 She had said to herself, “If I can just touch His clothes, I will get well.” 29 As soon as she touched them, her bleeding stopped, and she knew she was well.

30 At that moment Jesus felt power go out from Him. He turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched My clothes?”

31 His disciples said to Him, “Look at all these people crowding around You! How can You ask who touched You?” 32 But Jesus turned to see her who had touched Him.

33 The woman knew what had happened to her. She came shaking with fear and knelt down in front of Jesus. Then she told Him the whole story.

34 Jesus said to the woman, “You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace! You are healed, and you will no longer be in pain.”

35 While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from Jairus' home and said, “Your daughter has died! Why bother the teacher anymore?”

36 Jesus heard what they said, and He said to Jairus, “Don’t worry. Just have faith!”

37 Jesus did not let anyone go with Him except Peter and the two brothers, James and John. 38 They went home with Jairus and saw the people crying and making a lot of noise. 39 Then Jesus went inside and said to them, “Why are you crying and carrying on like this? The child isn’t dead. She is just asleep.” 40 But the people laughed at Him.

After Jesus had sent them all out of the house, He took the girl’s father and mother and His three disciples and went to where she was. 41-42 He took the twelve-year-old girl by the hand and said, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” The girl got right up and started walking around.

Everyone was greatly surprised. 43 But Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. Then He said, “Give her something to eat.”

--Mark 5:21-43 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for shining Your mercies down on us fresh every morning.  When we accepted Your Son Jesus as our Lord and Master, You sent You Holy Spirit to be our constant Companion, and You gave us the gift of faith.  Thank You, God, for loving us this much.  Please help us make the best use of these wonderful gifts.  Help us reach out to others and show them what true faith is all about.  Help us remain faithful and true to You and Jesus.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and those who so willingly do his bidding.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and our service to Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these extraordinary times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Calm our worries and speak to us of faith and love.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus, your Son, who takes away our burdens.   Amen.

Writer Walter Kelly once noted that, "Worry is faith in the negative, trust in the unpleasant, assurance of disaster, and belief in defeat.  Worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow's opportunities with yesterday's troubles.  A dense fog that covers a seven-city-block area one hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water divided into sixty thousand million drops.  Not much is there but it can cripple an entire city.   When I don't have anything to worry about, I begin to worry about that."

In his book, Eternity Shut in a Span, William R. Marshall told of a woman who for several years had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she was worried about burglars.  One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate.  When he got there, he did find a burglar.  "Good evening," said the man of the house.  "I am pleased to see you.  Come upstairs and meet my wife.  She has been waiting 10 years to meet you."

The woman’s worries finally came to pass.  I wonder if it was worth it for her.

Walter Kelly described worry as belief in defeat, faith in the negative.  It’s good to have faith, but not if that faith is placed in the wrong thing.  When we begin to worry about something, then we are admitting we’ve taken it out of God’s hands and now we don’t know what to do with it.  We just need to stop worrying, kick our faith back into gear, and give it over to God.  Don’t worry; just have faith.

As I mentioned at the start, faith was a very important element of Jesus’ ministry and message.  Whether it was great faith or little or no faith that Jesus saw in a person, He pointed it out to them in front of others, using that person as an example.  Now, in my way of thinking, this merely represents the failure of mankind to recognize what is standing right in front of us.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.  Faith is believing in that which we cannot prove with our senses or any other physical means.  So here was Jesus, healing people all around the area, performing miracles that astonished everyone who saw them.  They could see with their own eyes what should have been the impossible made possible right there in front of them.  And especially His own chosen disciples, who walked with Him every day.  And yet their faith was weak.

Even after feeding over 5000 men with nothing more than a few fish and five loaves of bread, the people still asked Jesus to show them a sign that He was truly sent from God.  What does it take for some folk!?  Thomas had to touch the risen Jesus’ hands and side to believe He had really conquered death.  Jesus said, “Thomas, you believe because you have seen.  Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

That’s where we come in, that’s us Jesus is blessing right there:  we who have not seen, yet believe.  We cannot prove that Jesus is the Son of God, sent by God to save us, but we have faith in Him anyway.  So if we have faith, why should we worry?  Did not Jesus reward those who had faith?  Jairus had faith that Jesus could heal his daughter, and Jesus indeed did just that, even after it was reported she had died from her illness.  He didn’t worry about what the other Jews might think or say, or even about his daughter once Jesus had agreed to go with him, he just had faith.  The woman’s faith in Jesus was so great that she knew if she could just touch His garment she would be healed of her incessant bleeding.  She didn’t worry about what the people might do or if the disciples might stop her.  She was a little taken aback when Jesus asked, “Who touched me?”, but she didn’t really worry too much about it.  She stepped up and admitted it was her.  She had faith that everything would be OK.

We have faith, so why should we worry?  Jesus even told us not to worry.  Listen to what the Apostle Matthew recorded for us as Jesus delivered what we call His Sermon on the Mount.  This comes from chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel account, verses 25 through 33…

25 "I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?

27 "Can worry make you live longer? 28 Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. 29 But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. 30 God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?

31 "Don’t worry and ask yourselves, 'Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?' 32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. 33 But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what He wants. Then the other things will be yours as well."

--Matthew 6:25-33 (CEV)

God loves us much more than the birds or the air or the lilies of the fields.  He sees to their needs; He will see to ours even more.  Is our faith not great enough to believe that?

Rather than worrying about all the troubles of the world, or even of our own little personal world, if we put God first and do what pleases Him, all the rest will take care of itself.  We just need to have faith.  We need to trust in God, trust in His promises, trust in His Son.

So don’t worry.  Just have faith.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for giving us the faith to believe in You and Your Son even if we cannot prove Your existence by means that the non-believers will accept.  Thank You for offering us life eternal in paradise just for maintaining our faith and doing Your will.  And thank You for seeing to our needs, and then providing so much more, so that we might be a blessing to others.  Please help us stay strong in our faith and our service.  Sometimes, Father, the world beats us down so much that we begin to lose strength, begin to even lose hope.  Please, Father, keep us strong.  Renew our spirits.  Revive our faith.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You rewarded those who showed great faith in You and Your authority as the Son of God.  You healed them or their loved ones, made them whole again.  Thank You, Jesus, for also rewarding us, for making us whole in You.  Lord Jesus, we ask You to help us be more pleasing in our heavenly Father’s sight.  Strengthen our will to do what He wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in a world filled with so much hatred and distrust.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.