Desperate for Jesus: Matthew 9:18-38

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Good day. Dave here. Welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. A big shout out to Madeleine and Charlotte in Claremont, Florida in The United States. They've just joined the club so they can listen to every episode.

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Girls are here. You've been listening to the show at bedtime, and it might even be the first time you've ever actually enjoyed bedtime. I know there are alligators in Florida. If you have any problems with them, let me know. I'll send over some Australian crocodiles to teach them a lesson.

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So great to have you in the club. Now there are so many more episodes you can listen to. Way over on the other side of The United States, we have Blake. Shout out to Blake in Dane Point, California. Blake, I heard you've listened to all the free episodes and can't wait to hear all the rest.

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Blake's just joined the super club so she can hear every episode and bible in your brain and running towards the joy is there for her mom and for any other grown ups around. Blake, I know you're near the beach. So if you have any concerns, I'll see about sending you some Aussie sharks and then maybe some Aussie dolphins to scare away the sharks and then maybe some Aussie surfers to ride the waves with you and the dolphins. What's that? Ah, It turns out I'm not actually allowed to send any animals anywhere, especially ones that might eat the club members.

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Sorry, girls. Anyway, if anyone else wants to join the club and get all these great benefits, head to faithfulgod.net/membership. That's faithfulgod.net/membership. Sign up today. Now on with the show.

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Have you ever been desperate for something? If you're desperate, it means you really, really, really need something. It isn't something you just like to have or you hope to have. You need it. Like when you're walking home from school and there's strong pains, downstairs, And you know you really need the toilet, like, right now, and you're desperate to get home.

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You have to do a kind of strange shuffle sort of crossing your legs really tightly while also trying to use them to walk that last little bit to the toilet that you desperately, desperately need. Well, sometimes you're desperate for water. It's always nice to have water, but on the day that's really, really hot and you forgot to bring a water bottle and you've had to do lots of running and it feels like your tongue's turned to sandpaper, on that day, you desperately, desperately need water. Sometimes it's a person you desperately need. You wake up in the middle of the night.

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You've just had a nightmare. It's dark. You're really scared, and you desperately need that special someone to come and give you a hug, turn the lights on, and let you know everything's okay. There's one person who we all desperately need. It isn't just a want or a nice hope.

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We desperately need him. And in today's episode, we're gonna see just how important he is. Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. At the end of our last episode, we met some people who didn't think they needed Jesus. They didn't understand how desperate they should feel.

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But now a man arrives who knows he desperately needs Jesus. The man is an important man, a man with some power in the local synagogue, which is a bit like a church. As he comes to Jesus, though, he has no power at all to fix his problem. He's desperate for help from the one man who can help, Jesus. In Matthew chapter nine verse 18, the man says to Jesus, my daughter has just died.

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But come and touch her with your hand, and she will live again. What a horrible, sad situation. I can't imagine how sad I would be if one of my daughters died. Death is the end. When someone's sick, you can hope that they'll get better.

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If they're injured, you can hope that they'll heal. But once they've died, that's it. And yet, did you hear what the man asked Jesus? He asked what seems to be impossible. Come and touch her with your hand, and she will live again.

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If the man said that to me, even if he was really desperate, I'd have to sadly tell him there's nothing I can do. In his desperation, though, he's come to exactly the right person, the one man who can help. And so Jesus stands up and goes with him, and his disciples come along as well. As they're going, they meet another desperate person, a woman who's been sick with bleeding for twelve years. Twelve years.

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Can you imagine being sick for twelve years? For most of you listening, that's more than your entire life. This woman must be desperate to get better. And in her desperation, she's come to exactly the right person, the one man who can help. She pushes away through the crowd and touches the end of Jesus' coat.

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In verse 21, Matthew tells us she's thinking, if I can touch his coat, then I'll be healed. Not because Jesus' coat has special powers. She just thinks Jesus is so powerful. Even touching something that's near him will be enough. Jesus, who knows everything, turns and sees her.

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He knows how desperate she is. He also knows that she trusts him to be able to heal her. She believes that he's that powerful and that good. And so kindly, in verse 22, he says to her, be happy, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.

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And immediately, she's better. After twelve years, all of a sudden, because of Jesus, she's instantly cured. She must be so happy. Don't forget, though, there are some people who are incredibly sad. Remember, a girl has just died.

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As Jesus, his disciples, and the dad arrive at the house where the girl died, they see some people there. In those days when someone died, you paid to have people come and play music and even to come and cry at the house. They're like professional sad people. In verse 24, Jesus tells them that they're not needed. He says to them, go away.

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The girl is not dead. She's only asleep. Asleep? Surely the people know the difference between sleep and death. You know the difference, don't you?

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Sleeping people wake up. If you've joined the club and listened to our series on John's gospel, though, you would have heard Jesus speak like this before. He used this language when his friend Lazarus died. Both Lazarus and this girl really have died. The reason Jesus calls it sleep, though, is that he has the power to wake dead people up, to bring them back to life.

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Jesus puts the crowd outside and goes into the girl's room, the dead girl's room. Because he's there, though, she's only sleeping. He takes her hand and straight away, she stands up. She's alive. She was dead, and now she's alive.

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The desperate father was ripe to go to Jesus. He must be so happy. News about what's happened spreads throughout the whole area. As Jesus is leaving the house, two more desperate men start following him. The men are blind.

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That can be hard today, but back then, they didn't have white canes. They didn't have seeing eye dogs. Doctors couldn't do much. These men desperately want help to get better. And in their desperation, they come to exactly the right person, the one man who can help, Jesus.

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They don't call him Jesus, though. They call him son of David. They say in verse 17, show kindness to a son of David. That may seem strange. Jesus' dad is Joseph.

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King David lived a thousand years before this, but God had promised King David that a new king would come from his family, a king who would fix everything in Israel, a king who would create a forever kingdom. And these men believe Jesus is that king. And they're actually right. The problem is a lot of people at that time have the wrong idea about what the king would do when he comes. They think he's coming to start a war with the Romans, kick them out, make Israel a powerful country.

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They don't realize that the kings come to save people, not from the Romans, but from their own sin. So Jesus doesn't want these guys yelling out that he's the king because people will get the wrong idea. So he goes inside a house, and the men follow him. Once they have a bit more privacy, Jesus asks the men in verse 28, do you believe that I can make you see again? And they reply, yes, Lord.

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They trust Jesus that he can deal with their desperate situation. So in verse 29, Jesus says, you believe that I can make you see again, So this will happen. And straight away, they can see again. The desperate men were right to go to Jesus. They must be so happy.

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Jesus doesn't want them going around telling everyone that he's the king, though. He doesn't want people to get the wrong idea about what he's there for. So in verse 30, he warns them really strongly. Don't tell anyone about this. Do you think the happy men listen to that?

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Unfortunately, no. Matthew tells us in verse 31, but the blind men left and spread the news about Jesus all around that area. I wonder if that will cause trouble for Jesus later on. Anyway, as they're leaving, some more desperate people arrive. They bring a man with them who has a demon inside him that stops him from being able to talk.

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They desperately want their friend to be better. And in their desperation, they come to exactly the right person, the one man who can help, Jesus. And straight away, Jesus sends the demons out. Demons have absolutely no power over Jesus. The crowd who are watching are amazed.

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They say in verse 33, we've never seen anything like this in Israel. But the Pharisees, remember them? They're the ones who think they're awesome at obeying God. They've been watching Jesus, and they've come to hate him. They hate that he spends time with and loves sinners.

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They hate that he teaches different things to them. They hate that so many people are following him. And because of all this hate, they get things completely wrong. They think they're on God's side. And since Jesus is so different to them, they think he must be against God.

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But if that's true, how do they explain Jesus defeating God's enemies, the demons? Well, they say in verse 34, the leader of demons is the one that gives him power to force demons out. In other words, they think Jesus is working for Satan, the devil, the great enemy of God. They are completely wrong. They couldn't be more wrong.

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The demons work for Satan. They don't get driven away by him. Also, Satan isn't interested in helping sinners turn back to God. He's also not interested in helping sick people. The pharisees are so wrong.

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They actually desperately need Jesus themselves. They just don't understand their own need. Meanwhile, Jesus travels through all the towns and villages of that area. He heals people's sickness and diseases, and he teaches in their synagogues. He tells people the good news of the kingdom of God, the real kingdom he came to start, not one that kicks out Romans, but one that kicks out sin, where people can turn away from sin, be saved and forgiven by Jesus, and live forever as friends of God.

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As the large crowds come to him, he feels so sorry for them. They're desperate people. They're worried and helpless. Matthew uses some picture language to describe them. He tells us they're like sheep without a shepherd.

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A shepherd's job is to care for the sheep, take them to where there's good food, keep enemies away. The pharisees could have been their shepherds, but they're really bad at it. They haven't led people to God, and so the people are desperate. Jesus uses more picture language. He says in verse 37, there are many people to harvest, but there are only a few workers to help harvest them.

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Harvesting is when a farmer brings in the crop of food that's been growing. All these people have been growing in desperation. They're ready to hear the good news Jesus has to give them, but there's hardly anyone to tell them that good news. Jesus is doing what he can, but he wants more people. In verse 38, he says to his disciples, God owns the harvest.

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Pray to him that he will send more workers to help gather his harvest. Do you know what? If there were lots of desperate people who needed Jesus back then, there are even more now. There are more than 8,000,000,000 people in the world. They have all sorts of ideas about how to be happy and safe.

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Sadly, just like with the pharisees, people keep leading each other in the wrong direction. They're desperate for the truth, but they're looking in all the wrong places. And so we need more people to tell them the truth, People who'll tell others in their own community about Jesus. People who'll travel to different parts of their country to tell others about Jesus. People who'll travel to different parts of the world to tell others about Jesus.

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Do you know there are parts of the world where people haven't even heard Jesus' name? People are lost in sin and desperate for the truth. We need more people to tell them. And so we need to pray. Ask God to send out more workers, more people to share the good news about Jesus with desperate people, to explain how he's the one they desperately need, to show how following him saves their life and gives them life forever.

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Will you pray that? Will you pray that God would send more people to tell others about Jesus? Maybe you can do it at night when you're going to bed. Maybe you can do it every time you tie your shoelaces. Maybe you can do it every time you have breakfast.

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People are desperate for Jesus. Pray that God would send more people to tell them about him. Back in Galilee, Jesus himself is about to send out more workers. He's recruited a team to spread the good news. He's about to teach his team what they need to do.

[00:18:30] - [Speaker 0]
But that's a story for next time. Thanks for listening, everyone. Every week, there are more and more people listening in. Can you help more people know about the show? It would be great if you could share the podcast with friends and family so they can hear wonderful stories of a faithful god as well.

[00:19:02] - [Speaker 0]
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Keep trusting Jesus, everyone. Bye for now.