Sermon Note
Pastor Lawrence
Mark 5:25-33
Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.
What can stop God in His track?
Many people touched the Lord but none of them caused Him to stop. It is faith in His power, in His love, that will cause Him to stop in His track.
God loves you and want to provide for you. A good God wants to do good for you. When He does good to you, you will fear and tremble. God is perfect goodness.
When Jesus came, He came to reveal God is a good God. Jesus also came to manifest a name of God. He is our Father.
God has many names in the Old Testament.
What kind of Father is God?
He came to show us exactly what our Father is like.
John 1:18
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
Colossians 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
John 14:8-11
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
The Father is in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Today all we need to do is to look at Jesus if we want to know what is our Father like.
Jesus provided bread and fish to feed 5000 men.
Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Whoever ask find.
Matthew 7:11
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
The love you have for your children is far greater than the love they have for you.
We have a good Father. God is not a God who is far away. God is a God who loves you with an everlasting love.
Romans 8:15-17
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
We are no longer under the law.
The term of endearment – Papa, Abba
God wants us to know Him as our Papa, Abba
Revelation of our Father’s love.
The name Father when you start to know God as your Father, there is such a protection over you.
John 17:11-12
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Whatever fear and challenge in your life, call His name. He will come to save you and deliver you!
Call His name today. Abba ! Abba!
He will be there for you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
John 17:25-26
O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
When we know God as our Father, we will experience the same love
Luke 15:11-12
The Parable of the Lost Son
Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.
The youngest son went to the father and demanded from the father to give him the portion that falls on him.
This is rejecting his father. It is like saying he cannot wait for his father to die to receive his inheritance.
Luke 15:13-14
And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
Luke 15:15-16
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
Luke 15:20
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
The father run to his son. The one he has been longing for. He embraced him and he kissed him. He displayed publicly of his love for him.
We have the father who is elderly man with fully grown adult son, he kissed him in public.
Luke 15:22-24
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
Luke 15:25-27
“Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
The father was dancing. He could not control his joy his son has come home. The son he loved has come home. His dancing was so loud that his older son could hear it.
That is the joy God has over you. God rejoices every sinners who repent. This is our Father.
Abba! Call His name.
Luke 15:28-29
“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.
Look at how gentle the father is with the elder son. He came out and pleaded with him.
The elder son had wrong image of his father.
Luke 15:30-32
But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’ ”
You don’t need to be jealous. You need to know your Father is telling you today, son/daughter, you are always with me, all that I have is yours.
For the son who was jealous, he loves him and restored him.
Luke 15:31
“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21
A Rebellious Son
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
If there is a stubborn and rebellious child, the elders can stone them to death. This was the Old Testament punishment.
In New Testament, the rebellious child was received with the father’s love
Everything has changed because of the cross.
Under law, the rebellious son was stoned to death.
Under grace, the rebellious son is restored and loved and he lives.
There was another Son. The beloved Son. The darling of heaven. The only reason why the rebellious son did not need to die for his sin is because the beloved Son went to the cross to die.
Isaiah 52:14
Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;
Jesus took our place. That is the reason why rebellious son can be restored and blessed.
1 John 2:15-16
Do Not Love the World
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
How can we do it? Do not love the world.
The key is to know the love OF the Father and not the love FOR the Father.
Ephesians 5:1-2
Walk in Love
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
How do we imitate God?
We can imitate God as DEAR CHILDREN.
When we know we are dear to our Abba, we want to be like Him.
We walk in love not by trying but by KNOWING
1 John 3:1
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
He is your Abba. He knows you and He delights in you.
He longs to be where you are.
