Young Life talk

So this is this talk I gave at Young Life tonight and I thought I would post it here since it's turned out to be one of my favorite talks that I have given. I'm posting it pretty much how I said it tonight.

I'm really looking forward to talking with y'all tonight but first I wanted to show you a video I noticed this week!



I think that a lot of times we feel like that kid in the video where we feel like we have to do some thing great to get noticed. Here's another video and I think this is how we see Jesus a lot of times.




I want to shear my favorite thing about Jesus and that's how personal He is and video is the opposite of how he really is. Here at Young Life we like to talk Jesus because he is God with skin on. There was a time he met these two people...

Mark 5:21-24a
21When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24So Jesus went with him.


There's this huge crowd of people around Jesus like he is this VIP and then this big important guy, think big politician, important, comes up to Jesus and tells him that his little girl is dying.
Jesus leaves this big crowd to be with this one man, to be personal with him

Mark 5:24b-25
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.

Huge crowd of people with Jesus, like a rock concert (music geek!), he's like a celebrity, all these people packed in around him. The image I have in my head is a sold out concert. Then there's this woman: who back then, was a total outcast, wasn't allowed to live in the city, was considered “unclean,” no one talked to her. Imagine what that would feel like—alone for twelve years

Mark 5:26-28
26She 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. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."

She spent everything she had to get better, only got worse but she thought if she just TOUCHED his clothes, wouldn't even have to grab or let him feel it at all. Jesus isn't gonna stop and talk to me, because I'm not worth it or his time, but if i just TOUCH his CLOTHES, I'll be healed.

Mark 5:29
29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

As soon as she barely even touched him where he shouldn't even feel it, she was healed.

Mark 5:30-31
30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31"You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "

Jesus realize and he stops, instead of brushing it off, he asks. He was personal and wanted to know who he had healed. His disciples, keep the story interesting, and say what I would be thinking if I was there “uh, Jesus, there are people everywhere. All around you... everyone's touching you. Hellooo??”

Mark 5:32-34
32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Jesus knows he healed someone, keeps asking, I think he knew because Jesus is God with skin on and he wanted to see if she would come forward. Nobody had talked to her in twelve years. She'd been totally isolated for twelve years. The woman realizes she can't go unnoticed and falls at his feet and tells tells him her story—not the readers digest version, it was the nitty gritty and
he stays there with her, he wanted to get to know her personally. She tells him the whole story and he tells her that she is free. Her faith has healed her. These are probably the first kind words that she's heard in 12 years. For 12 years, she had either not been noticed or, when people did notice her, it was to tell her that she was unclean and dirty and not worth it.

The thing is just as Jesus noticed that woman and wanted to know her personally he notices us and wants to know us personally. I'm going to leave you with two questions to think about this week. Could it be that God thinks you're worth noticing? Could it be that no matter how unimportant you think you are, and despite what you've done, God wants to know you personally?