April 17, 2023

Weekly Teaching: "Talitha koum!"

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The words "talitha koum" are unfamiliar to most of us. But my prayer is that its message would be heard deep in the hearts of discouraged pastors and church leaders who feel like they are a failure.

I'll let the teaching itself explain what the phrase means and how it applies. I'll also let it explain why Wendy and I just moved into our RV, and why we plan to live in it for the next six months, traveling around the country. 

Strengthened by your prayers and support, may our message be as "talitha koum" to the people we meet. And may our X242 way of being church be a refreshment to many.

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<TRANSCRIPTION OF ABOVE VIDEO>

A couple days ago, I was reading in the scriptures and I just turned to the next chapter. I read Mark five and it's a familiar story. I've read this so many times, but it jumped out at me with such conviction.  

Today's message is specifically for the pastor or leader of a small church, whether you call it a micro church or whether you just call it a church that's trying, my heart is so heavy and compassionate for what you're going through. Many pastors have been told that until their church reaches a certain size, they're not a good pastor, that they haven't succeeded. So they've put themselves under the care of so many experts that talk about how you have to break the 200 barrier or the 300 barrier. And some of you are still just going, I wish I could hold 80 or 50, and some of you are down to 20 or 30, and you're wondering why you're no good at pastoring. My heart is to encourage and strengthen you. This passage that I'm going to read, I want it to pull you back to a confidence in Jesus that he cares more about your church than you do, and he wants to strengthen you and encourage you with a message that sounds unfamiliar to the business culture era of church growth. 

Here's the passage and then we'll see whether you relate.  

" When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him . Then one of the synagogue leaders named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 

"He pleaded earnestly with him. He said, 'My little daughter is dying. My little daughter is dying, please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.' So Jesus went with him.  

"A large crowd followed and pressed around him, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She 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. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, 'If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.'  

" Immediately, her bleeding stopped. And she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.  

"At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and he asked, 'Who touched my clothes?' And his disciples said, 'You see the people crowding against you? Like, why would you ask, "Who touched me?"'  

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

"While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader, and they said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?' 

"Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, 'Don't be afraid. Just believe.'" Don't be afraid. Just believe. Think that it will happen.  

"He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. 

"He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep!' But they laughed at him."  

They knew it wasn't true, scientifically.  

"After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, 'Talitha koum,' which means, 'Little girl, I say to you, get up.'"  

Little girl. I say to you, get up. Talitha koum.  

"Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old."  

She was apparently born around the same time that the woman had started her hemorrhaging.  

"At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat." 

What jumps out at me when I read that — "Talitha koum; little girl I say to you, get up" — my heart heard Jesus saying to the little church, "Little daughter of mine. Little daughter of mine, you believe you're dead. You're just asleep."  

You believe you're dead. And that it's hopeless. And I believe Jesus wants to take you by the hand and just say, "Talitha koum; little daughter, little girl, I say to you, arise, get up."  

I believe he has compassion for you, but you have to stop believing that your church is dead and start realizing that your church is just asleep. And you have to stop — if I can mix the two, the woman who went to all the experts and suffered greatly at all their methods that were unproductive — please, stop going to those who want to tell you how to raise your church, how to stop the bleeding so that people stop leaving. Stop relying on people telling you how to do this. It's not working. 

Just go to Jesus and touch his clothes. Just crawl to Jesus.  

You feel like your church is dead and Jesus comes and says, "Why all the commotion? Why are you running around so frantically? Why? Why are you wailing? Why all the commotion? Your church isn't dead. It's asleep. Talitha koum. Little girl, I say to you, little church, little tiny church, I say to you: Get up. Arise."  

My heart is to connect with pastors and leaders of small churches. And for some that's gonna be people who have decided to start a micro church in their home or wherever they want to meet. Or people who started a conventional church and they just knew this was gonna be the one. This was gonna take off. This was gonna be that next megachurch. It was gonna be the hit. People were gonna come because you had the contacts, you had the friends. You had people telling you, "You need to do this!" And then when you opened the doors, they didn't come. Or they came for a while, and because you didn't have the right programming, you didn't have a good children's minister, a good youth minister, the music was a little bit subpar. Whatever it was, they decided, you know, God bless you in your efforts, but we're gonna go someplace else where they actually offer this because our kids need this right now. Or they would say, " The music used to be great, but when so-and-so left, the music isn't quite what it used to be. And, you know, for me to stay around a church, really the preaching needs to be pretty spot on. And so, I'm sorry, I just need to leave." And your heart is crushed. Your heart is crushed.  

So I just say, my heart is for the pastor who has tried, and you just feel like you're not measuring up because your little daughter died at 12. Your little daughter died before she could mature. Your little church is just bleeding. People come in and they leave. You just can't keep anybody. My heart is to encourage and strengthen, not to say you can be big, but to say you are enough. You are alive. You can wake up. You can get up and start walking. The bleeding can stop. You don't have to suffer under "how to break the 200 barrier" and " how to really lead." You don't have to suffer under the expectations that unless you have multiple staff that somehow you haven't quite arrived. 

You don't have to suffer under that.  

So what I'm bringing to you is a testimony that when I left all that and started meeting in house churches and micro churches — not with an angst to "do it the right way." I have to keep on saying this because house churches have a bad reputation and it's earned because so many house churches are just malcontents thinking, "We can do it better!" And this isn't what we're doing. We're just saying we can do the essentials and it is enough.  

And so what we've been doing: we gather, we share a meal. A couple nights ago, we shared communion. We open scriptures, we talk it through. We pray together we are church. It is enough.  

My heart is just to encourage and to strengthen and say, yes, like what Paul said in Acts 14:22. He went around strengthening and encouraging the disciples to remain true to the faith, and he said, "We must go through many hardships under the kingdom of God." 

In other words, it's not just gonna be easy. You might have easy times. Of course, you'll experience times where you feel like you are in the favor of God. Right now, I'm feeling like I am in the favor of God, but I know that hard times will also come and hard times have been here. We do have to go through many hard times to enter the kingdom of God. It's what God calls us to, to do the hard work.  

And my heart is to encourage you, to give you courage to do the hard work. Do the hard work. Be strengthened. Be faithful in all things. 

Crawl to Jesus. Fall down before him. Touch the hem of his garment, plead with him, "Please come and raise up my little daughter." 

And he says to you, "Don't be afraid. Just believe. Don't be afraid. Just believe. Just think that it will be done." Just like the woman, she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." And Jesus said to the father of little girl, "Don't be afraid. Just believe. Just think that it will be done. Just believe." 

In a little bit, my wife and I are leaving in this RV, this fifth wheel. We're heading north. We're right now in Sarasota, Florida and we're heading north to connect with people who've reached out to us for encouragement or for instruction about microchurch. And my heart, as I read Mark 5 the other day, I just started to cry. As my wife and I held hands yesterday and we just prayed, I just started to cry.  

My heart is to encourage those who feel overlooked, left out. When all the area pastors are invited to the meeting. You're not even thought about because you just have a little struggling church. My heart is to come to you and encourage you, whether it's a half hour conversation or staying for a few weeks, whatever that looks like. 

My heart is to see what does God want to do in the various places? Where is this Holy Spirit moving in a way to say, "Little girl, talitha koum, little girl, I say to you, get up." I just wanna see what does God want to do in the various places.  

And so that's something that we're getting ready to embark on. I'm gonna continue to teach in this way, but just from a different location — different locations — and I'm excited about it. Consider it our mission trip.  

Right now we're planning to be gone six months. And then we'll come back, treating Sarasota as home base. Your prayers are appreciated. And if you know anyone who is in need of encouragement, anyone who's in the ministry, have them reach out to me. Let's do it by sending an email to [email protected]. 

And let's talk. Let's see whether there's opportunity to get together, pray together, gather some of your friends, gather a few people, whatever it is in your fellowship, and pray about what God wants to do.  

We've set our course north and then west, across the north and then back down working southeast, back to Sarasota. If you think that there's opportunity, please reach out. 

Thank you to everyone who pays attention to these teachings every week. I am truly — it's a weird phrase, but I'm humbled and honored. I'm humbled to be honored that you would take time to listen to what I have to say. I would be doubly honored if you would pray for us in this.  

Pray for opportunity. Pray that everything works well, like we've never RV'd before. We're learning this as we go. Pray for us in these things. Pray for safety of course, but safety's not the most important thing. Pray for fruitful ministry. And of course, pray that Wendy and I are refreshed in the whole experience. It's just gonna be Wendy, me, and the dog, Francis. 

Talitha koum. Talitha koum. Little girl. I say to you, get up, arise. 

Oh my heart.
Amen.