The What If Syndrome

Don't fear what others think of your relationship with God, because if you are honest with how you feel about God, He will help you and be a part of your life.


Scripture: Mark 5:21-32, Mark 5: 17-24, Romans 1

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Nice to be back with you. This is your friend Dr. Cook and I’m delighted and very grateful I may say, for the privilege of sharing the Word of God with you. Some of you, I know set the alarm, so that you’re waking up just about the time yours truly comes on. Often times I think what awful thing to have to wake up to me, but then if there’s some blessing there from the Word of God, maybe is not too bad after all, right?

Well, we’re looking at Mark chapter five and we’ve come through the story of what happened with the maniac who lived in Gadara. Now as they’re going along, they left, you know it small thought here; says, “They began to pray him to depart out of their coasts”, verse 17 and in verse 21 it says, “When Jesus was passed over again by ship, onto the other side of the sea of Galilee”. You invite God out of your life, my dear friend, and He’ll leave. That’s an awesome thought. Be very careful how you resist God because He never will impose His will upon you. You invite Him out, He’ll leave. Romans chapter 1 speaks of that because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to represent a great mind. You read the first chapter of Romans and find out how people who knew there was a God didn’t want to give Him a place in their lives, because that, “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God and neither were thankful”. God’s quarrel with the unsaved is not that they’re unsaved, but that they refused to let Him in, and so it is, if you, if you invite God out, He’ll leave. Jesus did. It’s an awesome thought. Oh, be very careful how you oppose God in your life. Rather say yes to Him in every possible juncture. Say yes to your blessed Lord and yes to His will and yes to His leading and guiding of your life and yes to His presence dwelling within you. Say yes.

Anyway He left went it over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Much people gathered unto Him and behold it says, “There cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue Jairus by name. When he saw Him, he fell his feet and besought Him greatly saying, ‘My little daughter lies at the point of death. I pray Thee come and lay thy hands on her and that she may be healed and she shall live’, and Jesus went with him”. Stop here long enough to say that when you ask the Lord Jesus to take control of the situation, He will. See, the tendency of the human heart, my own included, is to say, “Well if I ask God to help me and nothing happens then what”? Well, this is the surest of unbelief and we all are victims of it. Admit it. How often have you said, “Well I’d like to trust God, but what if it doesn’t work”? What if, the what if syndrome takes over. Unbelief in its most transparent form. What if? Now, let the spirit of God whisper to your own heart. If you, like Jairus, are facing an impossible situation, in his case it was that his little girl was dying, and any of you who have children and grandchildren you know how your heart just breaks when a child is ill, and now this little girl of 12 years is nearing the point of death, and his heart is just breaking for her. Oh, how it hurt. Well some of you are in the same position, aren’t you? You’re up against something that just tears you up. Some burden that you can’t bear, some problem you can’t solve and you think, “Well if I really trust God in this, what if nothing happens”? Now listen, you can always trust your Lord. He says, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of good and not of evil, to give you a desired end. Cast thy burden on the Lord and He shall sustain thee”. He picks up your burden and carries you both. God does it. You can trust Him. He’ll never leave you. The promise is that, “I will never”, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”, so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”. Yes, you can trust your Lord. Jairus did, and Jesus it says, “Went with him”.

Today would you dare to take that difficult situation in your marriage, that situation on the job where things seem to be going from bad to worse? Would you dare to take the condition of your children, some of whom are slipping away from you into sin and worldliness and even crime? Would you dare to take your own physical condition, where you have, you just are afraid that things are getting worse and you wonder if it’ll ever be better? Would you dare to take those needs and many others like them, bring them to the Lord Jesus and say, “Well go with me”? You touch the situation and it’ll be healed. Dare to trust the Lord Jesus Christ to intervene in your situation and He will. I don’t know who needs that but somebody does, that’s for sure, or it wouldn’t be laid upon my heart. Jairus, his heartbreaking for his little 12-year-old dying girl says, “Come touch her, she’ll live”. Say that to the Lord Jesus today, will you beloved? Say it to Him, pray it to Him. Call on Him. Bible says, “Whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. Get down on your knees and mean business with God and call for His help and He won’t fail you. He’ll go with you. Yes He will. Well as they were on their way there was an interruption as you know. It says, “He went with him and as He went much people followed Him and thronged Him”, that is He was in the middle of a crowd, pushing and shoving. If you’ve ever been in that sort of a situation you know that you’re like a, you’re like a leaf on a stream. You just get, you go with the flow, don’t you? He was on His way, but He was being pushed and shoved by the many people all around Him.

In the midst of all this there came this lady who’d been ill for many years, 12 years, and Mark of course with his usual frankness said, “She’d suffered many things. Many physicians spent all that she had and was nothing better, but rather grew worse. Luke of course was a doctor and he uses professional courtesy. It said, “That she could not be helped by any of them”. That’s professional courtesy but Mark, he just lays on the line, said that she wasn’t better but she was worse, she spent all her money in the process, but she said to herself, “If I can only touch even the hem of His garment, I’ll be well”. Her faith was so strong that it impelled her to push her way through that crowd. If you’ve ever been at a parade or some kind of a big gathering where people were just massed, jammed together, you try to get through that crowd. You know it’s a real job. This lady had the strength of desperation, she made her way through the crowd, finally reached out of trembling hand, touched the garment that the Lord Jesus was wearing and immediately she felt in her body, she was healed. Well, he knew what had happened. He looked around and said, “Who did that”? She didn’t say anything and the disciples said, Lord, you’ve got to be kidding. Said “everybody’s touching you, you’re in the middle of a big crowd, what do you mean who touched me?” Oh, He knew and she knew. So she came fearing and trembling and knowing what was done in her came and fell down before Him and told Him all the truth and He said, “Daughter, thy faith has made thee well go in peace be whole of thy plague”. The fear of, there’s a third fear, fear of disclosure. Fear of being exposed, the fear of physical danger, the fear of the changes Christ can bring, the fear of being delivered, the fear of changes Christ can bring, the cost of it in money and in personal relationships, and now the fear of disclosure.

Small thought here; beloved you’re praying has to include all the truth. It isn’t enough to say, “God bless me and help me”. It’s only enough if you’re dealing with bad temper, to say, “Lord I have a murderous temper, please deal with that”. If you got a profligate, prodigal heart and mind say, “Oh, God deal with my thoughts, my imaginations, my desires”. Or if you’re discouraged and down and depressed say, “Oh, God meet my need. I’m discouraged, I’m down, and depressed”. Or if you have a hard job forgiving others some loved one has sinned against you or some friend or coworker, whatever it is, and you’ve got an unforgiving spirit, you have to lay it before the Lord specifically, and say, “Oh, Lord I’ve got hatred in my heart and unforgiveness. Please deal with it”. Told Him all the truth. Would you dare to be specific with God today and tell Him everything? I mean verbalize it. Don’t just sit there on your knees and mumble, but verbalize it, put some thought into telling God all the truth about you, in Jesus’ name come to the heavenly father and tell Him all the truth. You know what will happen? Number one, the effort to think your way through that prayer will do something in your own heart and mind, and number two, the grace of God will start operate in those painful areas of your life and you will be different. I can guarantee it. “She told Him all the truth”. You and I need to do nothing less. Well He said, “Daughter, your faith has made thee well. Go in peace and be well”. The fear of exposure, the fear of disclosure. Are you afraid of that today? Are you afraid to trust the Lord Jesus for people may find out something about you? I have to tell you, people know more about you than you could ever dream. Did you know that?

I’ve recently been on a trip abroad and traveling with the party of seven other people. Every day we were in the bus together, every day we were in different kinds of interviews and all of that, and now and then somebody would make a comment about some trifling small thing that I had said or done, and I was amazed, and I thought to myself, “Do people watch me that closely”? Yes, answer is yes they do. They watch to see when you laugh and at what. They have to see what you exhibit as your desires and your wants, and they watch to see what displeases you and what burns you up. People know a great deal more about you beloved than you think, and the fear of disclosure is a false fear, many a time. Don’t worry about what people think, worry about what Jesus thinks. You tell Him everything in prayer. Lay it right out before Him and I can guarantee you that His pardon and His forgiveness and His blessing will be yours. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”, says John. Tell Him all of it, and find your delight, that your heart is cleansed, your conscience is made clean, and your relationships with people immediately begin to improve. Tell Him it all today.

Dear Father today, help us to be open with Thee and tell it all, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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