"Life Before Death "

Scripture: Mark 5:21-43
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: July 2, 2006

Welcome to the Fourth of July Weekend.   It is my hope and desire that you have a terrific weekend celebrating the freedom we all share in this great country.   The Lord has blessed us with such a place where we do have liberties that no other country has experienced since the beginning of time.    While we don't have to agree with everything that happens, this is still the greatest country on the face of the earth for all time.   I am thankful for that and I hope you are too.   I wish for you a great sense of pride as you stand on the history of this great nation this weekend.   I think of all the men and women who have sacrificed so much to make sure that we can enjoy a place where we can speak our minds and live without persecution.

I am proud to be an American.   I am about as red-white-and-blue-blooded as anyone ever has been.   My ancestors came over in the early days of this land.   They were here before this was a nation.   My great-great-great grandfather served with General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

Today you can see one of the headquarters of the Revolutionary War known as Jacob Purdy's House during the Battle of White Plains (1776) and again at (1778).  

One of my relatives, Francis Tearcott, lost his leg in that same war.   He was under no obligation to go back into battle, but after healing from the loss of his leg, he crawled out into another battlefield and gave his other leg for the cause.   With the exception of one of my relatives, hanged for stealing a horse, the Purdy family has been active in this nation, and proud of it for generations.   Every male child in my lineage was, and is, an Eagle Scout who learned to honor and cherish his country.   I am one of five Eagle Scouts in my family.

I have a strong love for this nation.   Every Fourth of July my mother, a Scottish woman, would threaten to hang out a Union Jack flag on our front porch.   Every Fourth of July weekend we Purdy children would argue with our mother until we forced her out into the street to light a firework in celebration of the American Independence.   Not too many years ago we convinced her that she should join the colonies.   She did.   She became an American citizen.   She is now more American than any of her children.   Sometimes the clothing she wears is a bit too patriotic; flags on her shirt with flags on her pants, while wearing a red, white and blue hat.

But what I want to say to you is this: given my love for this country I have a much deeper and greater love for another country.   America is not my permanent home.   I am journeying to a country that is far better than anything America has to offer me or anything I could offer it.   I am, first and foremost, a citizen of an eternal country.   So great is my passion for this place that all else pales in comparison.   While I would never consider giving up my citizenship in this fine country of ours, I wouldn't hesitate to throw it away if it ever gets in the way of my true citizenship in that great coming Kingdom.  

I call you, this morning, to be ready to abandon all things for the sake of the Kingdom of God.   In the Kingdom freedom is not simply a concept or ideal.   There, freedom is a reality.   There are many forms of freedom.   There is an outward freedom we share just because we live in a place that doesn't have a tyrant, war, or even curfews.   We can leave our houses at any time of the day or night and know that we will not be thrown in jail for sharing in this freedom that we have.   There is the freedom to think any way we want.   There is the freedom to do and be just about any type of person we desire to be.

But there is a much deeper form of freedom that I would like to speak about this morning.   It is one that not many share in because it is only offered to those courageous and committed enough to obtain it.    It is for the patriotic...and I believe being patriotic is good.   It inspires us to live for the greater good.   I urge you to grab hold of it.   The choice is yours.  

Jesus came to call us to align ourselves with the new country.   God came down in Jesus to gather for Himself citizens for the City of God.   Leave behind your designations in this life.   Cherish them while you're here, but align yourself with the real citizenship - - the Kingdom of Heaven.  

In our passage, this morning, we come to two people who encountered this Jesus; the Ambassador from above.   Take a look, with me, at these two moments in our passage.   See the Kingdom of God at work.  

The first encounter happens when Jesus is on His way to heal a man's daughter.   As Jesus travels He encounters a woman who desperately needs to find some hope in her life.   She's been dealing with a flow of blood for twelve years.   All the doctors had only added to her suffering and pain.   Some of the treatments, according to first-century medical manuals, of which she, no doubt, experienced, included: various tonics and astringents; carrying the ashes of an ostrich-egg in a linen rag in summer and a cotton rag in winter; carrying a barley corn which had been found in the dung of a white female donkey.   Their treatment had made everything worse.   This was the worldly kingdom's limitations.   The woman was at her wit's end. She heard about Jesus and soon believed that if she could only touch his robe she would be healed.   In other words, she put her faith in the healing presence of Jesus.  

She snuck up on Jesus.   While the crowds pushed and pulled around Jesus, this woman touched him with faith.   Immediately she experienced healing and her bleeding stopped.   At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from Him.   "Who touched my clothes?"   The disciples were amazed.   "Jesus, people are crowding you.   It could have been anyone."   Oh no, disciples.   Lots of people encounter Jesus.   But those who have faith in Him get healed.   The woman cowered beside Jesus because she was afraid.   But then she had the courage to step forward.   "I did it."   Jesus said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

What faith?   Well, for one, because she had a flow of blood she was not supposed to be around people.   She was unclean.   She couldn't worship; couldn't go to friends and certainly couldn't go out in the crowds.   But she was at her wit's end.   She found that she had to break cultural norms just to get to Jesus.   She was even willing to grab hold of Jesus in her unclean state.   She'll find out that it's okay to do such a thing.   In fact, God reaches out to the unclean.   Do you feel unclean?   Reach out and grab Jesus' robe.   How passionate are you to get to Jesus?

"Daughter," He said, "your faith has healed you."   Daughter!?   Hold on a moment...she is a woman, not a child...unless Jesus is really making clear that her healing happened because she was a child.   He always spoke about becoming a child to enter the Kingdom of God.   Now that child is free!   A child in God's Kingdom is a citizen.   Citizens experience freedom.   Tourists do not.   Have you given your allegiance to the eternal city?

The second healing happens when Jesus is greeted by a well-known man.   He, Jairus, is one of the synagogue rulers.   This would be as important as being an elder from the city council seeking out this strange man of Heaven.   I want to remind you that the institutionalized organization of the Temple and her synagogues were very indifferent to Jesus' ministry.   It could have been that as a ruler of a synagogue Jairus may have spoken against Jesus and this new type of itinerant preaching.   Whatever Jairus' posture toward Jesus it was clear in this instance that he was at his wit's end (sound familiar?).   What else matters when your child is near death?   If it is possible that Jesus can heal her, so be it!   Jairus came and fell down at Jesus' feet to plead for her life.  

Did you notice that none of his servants went for Jairus?   Was it a father's love or a father's lost cause?   We will find that his friends and servants will urge him not to bother Jesus.   I wonder if they had the same dislike for this traveling Rabbi!   But Jesus came.   Jesus always comes.   Have you invited Him along?

"Why bother the teacher anymore?" Jairus' servants said.   Jesus ignored their statements and turned to Jairus, "Ignore them.   Don't be afraid; just believe."   What did that mean to Jairus?   What would that mean to you?   The people he knew and trusted said it was over, his daughter was dead.   The world always says "It's over!"   Jesus always says, "Not yet!   You haven't seen what I can do."   Who will you listen to?   Choose the voice you're going to hear from now on this day.

Jesus took Peter, James and John with him.   He left the other disciples to mingle with the crowds.   Imagine the opportunity for Peter, James and John to witness this great miracle!   But imagine the opportunity for the other disciples to mingle with the crowds out in the surrounding areas.   Oh that we would have people out in the crowds.   Can you hear what they would say, "Hey, just wait.   You're going to see something big.   Jesus...we know him...just wait for the report."   That's all they had to do.   That's all we have to do.   Are you challenging people to wait on Jesus?    God still needs people to mingle with the crowds.  

Jesus approached the little girl and said, "Talitha Koum!" (which means, Little girl arise).   Immediately the girl stood up and walked around.   She was twelve years old!   Why is that important for us to know?   Because she wasn't really a girl according to the law.   She was a woman, but Jesus called her a "child".   Why?   Because she was a citizen of Heaven.   All citizens of Heaven are children.   She encountered Jesus and that's all you need to do to pledge allegiance to the new country.  

In just a moment I am going to ask you to become a child and hear the words "Talitha Koum" - - little child arise.   Be healed.   Jesus has the power to raise the dead.   Jesus has the power to give life.   Jesus has the power to give freedom, all types of freedom: freedom from death, freedom for illness, freedom from every weight that holds you down in this world.

Freedom to live life!   Someone once said, "May you live all the days of your life!"   May you live all the days of your life instead of simply existing.   I think most people settle for existing instead of living.   What is it that will make you live?   What is it that will make you free?   What is it that will give you life before you die?

It is Jesus...period; the Ambassador of Heaven.   Let Him break the power of sin and sickness, of bondage and limitations on your life.

Have you come to your wit's end like the woman in our passage or the father of a child?   Have you become a child so you can enter the Kingdom of God?   Is your citizenship, first and foremost, in the Kingdom of God?   It doesn't work any other way around.   There are no American Christians, European Christians, Asian Christians or South American Christians.   There are only those who follow Jesus.   All other nationalities are simply a foreshadowing of what is to come.   All kingdoms of this world will pass away.  

I want to invite you to come forward this morning.   If you need to experience the type of freedom that I've been talking about - total freedom for your body, soul and mind - then come forward.   We have two people who will anoint you with oil as a sign of God's touch upon your life.

If you need a healing come forward.   If you need to be forgiven for something you've done come forward.   If you need power to live, truly live, come forward.   If you've never accepted God's call on you to become a child of the eternal city and show your allegiance to it, first and foremost, come forward.   Whatever it is you need from Jesus, come forward to receive.   Have the courage to grab hold of His robe and receive.   Have the courage to seek Him out with the passion of a father about to lose his child and come forward.  

Make this Fourth of July Weekend one of good choices.   Choose God and live.   Reach out and let God reach back to you.

Amen.