Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Learning to receive Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA June 29, 2003 Main Scripture text: Mark 5:21-43. If we're to be the people God wants us to be, we must learn how to receive from Him. Receiving, as well as giving, is an essential part of the Christian life. Do you feel as though that you routinely -- each and every day -- receive from God everything He wants to give you? Are you are walking fully and completely in the power and provision of God? Mark 5:21-43 gives us the story of two people who knew how to receive from God -- a man with a sick daughter, and a woman who was chronically ill. There are four main hindrances to learning to receive: Pride. Pride pushes us to too much self-sufficiency. Humility is a prerequisite to receiving the things of the Kingdom. In our story, Jairus, a ruler in the synagogue, humbled himself at the feet of Jesus (v. 22). Prejudice. Jairus also had to overcome a prejudicial attitude. Remember, Jesus was not exactly in favor with the Jewish leaders, and yet Jairus -- a synagogue official -- went to Him for help. The Bible is clear that God doesn't like prejudice. If we insist on holding on to it, He often will send His provision through those whom we are prejudiced against (see the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10). Our sense of dignity. This is a type of dignity rooted, not in Christ, but in a sense of self-superiority. The woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5 didn't approach Jesus with a sense of worth and importance that demanded His action. She came with a sense of desperation that begged his intervention. In 2 Kings 5, Naaman's sense of dignity -- combined with his pride and prejudice -- almost kept him from receiving God's cure for a debilitating disease. The Herd. "The Herd" -- a term I've borrowed from the great Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones -- is a way of describing our desire to have the affirmation of our peers. You could call it simply "peer pressure." Sometimes our faith might require us to do things that bring scorn, not affirmation, from others. Sometimes we may have to go against the grain to receive from God. Surely the two persons in our text had gotten to the place where they didn't care what others thought. They cast aside pride and prejudice. They didn't care about maintaining their dignity any longer. Jairus knew his daughter was deathly ill. He needed a miracle. He saw Jesus as his only hope. By going out in public, the woman with an issue of blood subjected herself to public ridicule, scorn and hatred. Under the law, everyone she touched was made "unclean" until evening. But she was desperate. She needed a miracle and she believed Jesus could give it to her. Will you let pride, prejudice, your sense of dignity, or what other might think stand in the way of God wants to give you -- or give others through you? Are you really desperate for God? Supporting texts: Acts 20:35 | Luke 10:25-37 | 2 Kings 5:1-16 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here. (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 030629a: Learning to Receive. © 2003 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us