We’ve all been far and distant from God. What a blessing to know that we serve a God who closed that gap by coming to us. You don’t have to stay far from God. Jesus Christ, made a way for us to have contact and be forever changed.

Hello everyone. My name is pastor roderick Caesar of the third on the lead pastor of Bethel Gospel Tabernacle in Jamaica queens new york. And my prayer is that you would be blessed. You would be encouraged and strengthened by this word. Hope you enjoy God bless. If you have your bibles turn with me to the book of Luke. Chapter eight Verse 40 Luke. Chapter 8: verse 40. Today I’m gonna be preaching a message entitled 321 Contact 321 contact. Now when jesus returned the crowd welcomed him for they were all waiting for him. And there came a man named Gyros who was the ruler of the synagogue and falling at Jesus ft, he implored him to come to his house for he had an only daughter about 12 years of age and she was dying as Jesus went. People pressed on around him And there was a woman who had, who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And jesus said, who was it that touched me? When all denied it. Peter said Master Master the crowds are surrounding you and your and are pressing in on you. But jesus said, someone touched me for I perceive that power has gone out from me and when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling before him declared in the presence of all the people, why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her daughter, Your faith has made you well go in peace. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. But jesus, on hearing this answered him. Do not fear only believe and she will be made well. And when he came to the house he allowed no one to enter with him except peter john and James and the father and mother of the child all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep for she is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him knowing she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying child arise and her spirit returned and she got up at once and he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. Dear Lord, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you for this message. I thank you for those that are watching that have tuned in. I pray Lord that you would bless us as we go through your text today, that you would bless those listening wherever they are in their homes, wherever they find themselves. Father. I pray that you would bless them as they’re listening to your word I know in me as I speak and as I preach and do what only you can do through this message for the for these individuals right now in jesus name we pray. Amen, Amen and Amen. So 321 contact. It’s an old tv show. But what is contact contact is something that we are pretty much prohibited from doing right now with the coronavirus and covid 19 and everything. Everyone is practicing what social distancing. You can’t be closer than six ft with someone else. You’re going outside. You’re wearing a mask. You’re having gloves. Why are you doing these things to eliminate points of contact? You don’t want contact in this day and age right now in april of 2020 contact is not something that we that we uh want right now until everything gets figured out. But what is contact? It’s the act or the state of touching a touch or a meeting. As of two things or two people. It’s being in immediate proximity or association with a contact is an acquaintance, a colleague or relative through whom a person can gain access to information favors or influential people. Contact lenses, right. Are small prescription lenses worn in contact with the eye contact is if you have uh information on, on a company you have a page or a contact that you can call or I have this contact, I have this contact. But contact, what we’re looking at is also close physical proximity where a connection is made. And in this passage of scripture that we just read through. There are various reasons for contact and various methods of contact. There’s a man whose daughter is ill. There’s a woman who herself, she is ill. There’s a man who reaches out and makes contact with Jesus. So Jesus can make contact with someone else and there’s a woman who reaches out and makes contact with Jesus so she can have this contact for herself. Verse 40 says, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him because they were waiting for him. They were waiting for him. And this man named Gyros was a ruler of the synagogue. He had status, but he falls at jesus feet and he implores him to come to his house. Why, why would this ruler of the synagogue? This man with status? This man with power come and fall at the feet of jesus because he has an only daughter, 12 years of age and she was dying. And no doubt Gyros heard of the ability that Jesus had the strength that Jesus had to work miracles and Jesus went. But Gyros was not the only person that wanted contact with Jesus. The people were pressing around and wanted to make contact with Jesus before they made contact with him. They were waiting for his arrival. Before they made contact with jesus. They were waiting for his arrival, they were expecting something expecting to receive something before he even showed up. And so my question for us today is, what are we expecting from the Lord? What are we expecting from the Lord? Do we want him to meet a particular need? Or are we believing him for something in this day and age? Many of us we may be believing God for healing. We may be believe in God that this, this virus and the situation may be lifted and things can get back to somewhat a sense of normalcy. Some of us we just are needing are expecting the arrival. The presence of God in our lives in this situation with the stress perhaps maybe we felt so far from God and we’re expecting God to show up. Some of us perhaps were too focused on the gift and not the giver. We’re not focused enough on God, but only on what God can do in our situation. We’re focused on his hand and not his heart. And so what we realize is everyone has a need. But how close are you and how willing are you uh to get to reach out and do something that uh is difficult for you to get that need met. What are you willing to risk? We see that Jared Gyros was a man of status, but he was in need and he went to bat for someone else who needed his help. He went to his contact to try and get some assistance right? He went to his contact, jesus. He pushed forward to try and get some assistance. He pushes through the crowd and he falls down at the feet of jesus. And just when it seems like Gyros effort, his push his straining through will finally yield great results. Someone else steps into the picture. Someone else jumps into the picture. Someone else touches the hem of Jesus garment just as Jesus is is following viruses moving forward, is is moving on. This woman comes and touches the hem of his garment and stops. But we see the story, it says that for for years, 12 years this woman had a discharge of blood. She was suffering. She spent all of her money on physicians, all of her money to try and be healed. But the tech says she could not be healed by anyone. They all tried. They all did what they could do. They all gave it their best effort, their best shot, but to no result. And so this woman suffered suffered. She came up behind him and touched his garment and the book of Matthew details and says that she thought to herself, If I could only touch his garment, then I’ll be made. Well then I’ll be made whole. If I could only make contact if I could only get closer. What this lets us know is even though we’re in a day and asian in a time where we’re going through social distancing. We’re going through a time where we have to kind of avoid contact with individuals. You can still, in this season, in this time draw near to God, you can still draw close to the throne room of heaven, you can still draw close to the alpha and the omega who’s not afraid to meet you in the middle, who is not afraid to meet you where you are, you can draw near to God because in the midst of this social distance and guess what he’s drawing near to you, when will we ever get this time again to be in solitude? To be in quarantine to be in our home were forced in one of the most uncomfortable positions that we could be in our lives with unlimited uh, time to stay home and not be distracted or to stay home and to be alone with our thoughts and to be home and to to stay alone with the things of our past or to be alone, to stay home and to look forward and plan for the bright future ahead. God is saying involved me in these things. God is perhaps putting his finger on some things in our lives because of this season. Some issues can only be resolved in his presence. Some things you’ve been praying for, you only see breakthrough in the presence of God. And so what does she do? She says, look, I’m coming behind him, I’m pushing behind, I’m pushing to get near jesus because she realizes that what she needs can only be found in the presence of God, clarity can only be found in his presence. Some mindsets can only be broken in his presence. Some habits can only be broken in his presence. Some ideas that will change the trajectory of your life can only be found in the presence of the true and living God. And so she came up behind him and touched the hedge, the hem of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. Immediately, immediately her situation changed. Many of us, we’ve been waiting for our situation to change, but we’re waiting on the wrong people to change it. God is saying, look, come to me, draw near to me immediately, her discharge of blood ceased, and Jesus stops mid walk, mid stride, he stops and he says, who, who was it that touched me when all denied it, peter said, Yo jesus, you’re bugging, There’s so many people here, of course people touched you. Of course, people bumped into you. Of course you’re being touched, Jesus says, No, no pt you you don’t understand someone definitely touched me because I perceived that power has gone out of me. Power has flown out of me. Power has left me. And the woman, no doubt thought she could probably just get her healing and disappear into the crowd, but she touched Jesus with a different resolve than everyone else that bumped into him. And during this season, what we need is a resolve. What we need is an inner commitment. What we need is a dedication to reach out and touch the hem of his garment to reach out and change our situation to reach out and change our marriages, reach out and change our families reach out and change our finances. That’s what we need today, is to have that resolve to reach out and touch heaven so that we can change earth. Someone touched me for I perceive that power has flown out of me has gone out of me. And the woman saw that she was not hidden. She came trembling in fear, falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people that she had been, the one that touched him and how as a result of that she had been immediately healed. And he said to her daughter, your faith has made you well now go in peace. Your faith has made you well now go in peace. Now. The last thing that she was expecting to here was go in peace as a result of her having the issue that she had, she was deemed unclean and as a result of her being unclean in that day and age. What she touched would then also become unclean. Mhm. What she touched would also become unclean, but she didn’t just touch anyone. She didn’t just touch anything she touched, jesus, the son of God, jesus, the one that was ultimately clean. The one that was clean. So she touched the clean one, Jesus the anointed one, jesus. And immediately her unclean leanness left and she became clean, Jesus was supposed to be dirty. But instead he said, no, no, I’m I’m mr clean. I’m making what was unclean now clean and I’m changing her situation around and that’s what he does when we reach out to jesus in the midst of our sin. When we reached out to jesus, in the midst of our shame, when we reach out to jesus, in the midst of our our discomfort in the midst of the storm that we’re in. When we reach out to him, he makes us clean. When we reach out to him, he makes us whole. When we reach out to him, he makes us new. And it’s such a beautiful thing to understand that God is the one that does this to us. He rejuvenates us. He makes us knew he makes us whole and he heals us. He heals us. And at that moment when she got her healing, when she made contact with the true and living God and got her healing, let’s not forget she wasn’t the person that started this story. It was Gyros, the man who wanted healing for his daughter. When she got her healing, he lost what he needed healing for. Now this brings us to this point. We have to have faith. Faith is what hebrews 11 1. The substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen This woman was struggling with this issue for 12 years. This man raised his daughter for 12 years and at the moment her infirmity and her sickness was switched and now she’s healed and whole, This man’s daughter of 12 years leaves the scene and is deceased and while Jesus is still speaking hope into this woman’s life while Jesus is speaking healing into this woman’s life. While jesus is saying, rise up, your faith has made you well, daughter go in peace while those words are still flowing from the mouth of the one that is anointed the mouth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the mouth of jesus, the christ. While those words are still flowing from his lips, someone comes up to Gyros and says, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher anymore. It’s amazing how we can be in a situation when someone else gets healing, someone else gets delivered. Someone else gets free. Someone else gets released from from bondage. Someone else gets the thing, they’ve been praying for, Someone else gets the thing they’ve been hoping for. And then we’re in our season and everything has turned on its head. Life itself. Life as we know it is turned upside down. It’s a difficult thing to endure. But will you have faith in that season, Will you be able to still hold on to who God is in that season? Or in that time will you just let God go, God, you failed me, God, God, this isn’t what I expected. So I’m letting you go, or is that the time when your faith is gonna kick in? Is that the time when you say no, no. It’s in the difficult times that I stand on the word of God, because watch, watch what Jesus says, Jesus says to him, do not fear only believe and she will be Well, those words, those words come from Jesus himself. That’s why you have to know that you have a word from the Lord. You have to know that you have a word from the Lord, a word from God, that you can stand on that, you can rely on that you can depend on when the difficult times come your way. And so he has to Now Gyros has to now walk in faith through tension. He has to walk in faith through difficulty. He has to walk in faith through times of discomfort and times when he doesn’t know which way to go, Jesus says, don’t fear only believe and she will be made. Well, that means with every step he had to step in faith. With every step he had to step in faith. With every step he had to say, look, I I don’t get it, why would my daughter be taken? And I’m still walking to her house with jesus with this miracle worker, I wanted him to heal the sick, but yet he says, everything is going to be well. So in these seasons, in our lives, can we still move forward? Can we still walk forward in faith knowing that God is for us, knowing that we have a word from the Lord? And verse 52 says all were weeping and mourning for her, but Jesus says, do not weep for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him verse 53 knowing that she was dead. So Gyros leads Jesus to the house and all the Mourners are there, they’re weeping their morning, they’re crying for this girl who was deceased. And Jesus shows up with the kingdom perspective, Jesus shows up thinking differently, Jesus shows up speaking light in the midst of darkness and says, don’t don’t cry for her, she she’s not dead, she’s asleep, you’ll see I’m going to wake her up real soon and they’re laughing because they know that she’s dead right in, Jesus takes her by the hand and says, child arrives in another text, I love that, that they all get put out the room, but Jesus says takes her by the hand and says child arrived, they laughed at him knowing she was dead and Jesus says, look, despite your laughter, I’m gonna work anyway, despite your disbelief in the situation, I’m gonna work anyway because this father brought me here this father continued to believe that I could do what I said, I would do. And so now that I’m here, I’m taking this daughter by the hand and I’m saying child arise and her spirit returned and she got up at once and he directed that something should be given her to eat and her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. The amazing thing about this is she could not make contact with Jesus because she was deceased, but Jesus shows up and says, no I’m going to make contact with you, Jesus makes contact with her. She comes into contact with jesus because Jesus comes into contact with her and now she’s made well, he contacts her and now she was brought from death into life. What we see here is that Jesus brings dead things back to life, Jesus brings dead things back to life. Yeah, someone loved her enough to reach out and contact Jesus so that Jesus could reach down and contact her. I said someone loved her enough to reach out and contact Jesus so that jesus could reach out and contact her and in the same way my bible tells me in john chapter three verse 16 that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, Jesus the christ that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life, aren’t you so glad that God loved you enough to send his son into this dark world into this decaying world into this world that wanted nothing to do with him, He sent his son So that Jesus could live so that jesus could give us life so that Jesus could take us by the hand and say, son, I say to you, arise daughter, I say to you arise, Jesus turns bones into armies, Jesus turns uh tombs into uh places where we can rise up again and say, look I’m not going to stay here. But this is now the place where I’ll have life, jesus is the one that does that in the same way for us, Jesus wanted so badly to make contact with us that he did. He wrapped himself in flesh and died. So now we could have the opportunity to make contact with him, make contact with the father. How badly do we want this contact? And this time when we’re separated and this time where we’re looking at at different things coming in our in our minds with the news and were separated by a distance and separated by social distancing. We can still draw near to the father. We can still get close to jesus. We must make contact through faith. We must press on like the woman. With the issue of blood. We must press on like Gyros. We must persist to make contact through faith. We must be committed to our change. We must be believing in the power of jesus christ. And we must be surrendered to the sovereignty of God. What we need to do is do what moses did After he built an altar in Exodus. Chapter 17 verses 15 and 16. He called the name of it. The Lord is my pan. Er and then he said a hand upon the throne of the Lord, a hand upon the throne of the Lord. We need to be committed to having a hand that reaches heaven and changes earth to having a hand that contacts that shoe and living God and changes our situation. God is a good god. God is a great God. He can do anything but failed but we need to dust off the shoulders, dust off the chains, dust off the rust and make contact with him. Make contact with him. How do we do that? Opening up your word, saying a prayer, throwing on some worship, music, Taking responsibility. I will, I will lift up mine eyes to the hills. No matter what your situation is going through, no matter what your situation looks like, it’s up to you. We have to take responsibility and we have to make contact with the Lord. He’s made contact with us. He’s done his part. He’s made away but we have to ask for forgiveness for our sins. We have to be repentant. We have to come back to him in humility. Come back to him with sincerity and make contact with the true and living God. Why not use this time wisely. Why not use this time of social distancing and isolation? To draw near to the throne? To draw near to God. The God that sits high but looks low. The God that looks slow and comes low into our, into our heart and it makes us new. So let us do that today. Let us not forget that we have a God that loves us. A God that wants us to draw near a God that wants us to make contact with him. Amen be encouraged today. God bless you. Hello again, it’s pastor Roderick caesar third here. Thank you so much for watching my prayer. Is that you were blessed. You are encouraged and strengthened by that message. If you would like to be a blessing to the ministry, you can text B. G T. F. I 277977. Again, you can text B G T. F. I 277977. To sow a seed into the ministry and we thank you. Thank you so much for your generosity. Or you can visit our website at B G T. F. I dot us for more information. Thank you so much. Once again, I hope you were blessed. I’m praying for you. We love you here at Bethel God bless