Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Are you facing what looks to be an impossibility? Keep this in mind. Understand this: God is the God of the impossible. God is the God that makes the impossible look easy, because He is a God that rules the world that we cannot see.

He’s the God that created the world that we cannot see. And that’s a very important aspect of what we go over as we start the rest of this chapter.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from You.

Guest (Male): I have found that joy only comes from You.

Guest (Female): ’Cause all I need is You. All I need is You.

James Kaddis: Where do you turn when you’re desperate and facing what seems impossible? Parents, imagine your child has died and you’re overwhelmed with grief. Today on Light on the Hill, we’ll observe a father’s response in a situation like that and see how Jesus came through for him in a big way.

Jesus has power over death, the devil, and disease. This should deliver hope to our lives, no matter what we’re going through. We’ll be in Mark chapter five. Here’s Pastor James Kaddis.

Kind of an interesting moment I had earlier in the day today. I have to back up a little bit to talk about this because let me just say that as a pastor, I find myself in a position where I do a lot of things very routinely. What may appear to be an anomaly to somebody or what may appear to be met with great difficulty to some people, for me is commonplace. It’s the normal space that I’m often in.

Sometimes that involves getting involved in very uncomfortable situations. Sometimes that involves confrontation that a lot of people aren’t necessarily comfortable with. Sometimes that involves wearing multiple hats. What feels normal and routine to me every single day, to others is earth-shattering in many ways. I think it goes with the ground with what we do.

I think that the same element exists with lots of people in lots of different fields, working in lots of different ways. For example, if you were to sit in a cockpit with an airline pilot who is flying a big jet like a 747 or even an Airbus or something like that, it’s going to feel very ominous for you to be watching everything, to look at the instrumentation, to hear the radio traffic, to make yourself acquainted with the things that are going on.

You’ll hear jet engine noises that you won’t hear inside the deeper portion of the pressurized cabin that might alarm you. You might hear all kinds of alarms going off in the cabin or in the cockpit that would bother you. For an average pilot, they’re literally half asleep, going, "This is seriously no big deal." It’s nothing to them.

I’ve got this input on multiple occasions from people who often talk about this, and that is the issue with the police department. There’s lots of everyday people who have no clue what it looks like out there to be in the midst of a situation where a police officer might walk into on a day-to-day basis. When they go on a ride-along, it is like sensory overload. They have such a difficult time taking in all the sights of the things that they see.

Lots of people have never even seen a gun in some cases. When they see these guys using it day in and day out and do the things that they do, what is routine to them is for everybody else a very intimidating and a very difficult thing. Of course, it’s interesting because what happens with people who experience unusual things on a regular basis to where it almost becomes regular is you become so acclimated to that world that you are not moved by the things that you see in that world, even when other people are moved by it.

That’s especially dangerous as a pastor because what happens is if you’re in the business of ministering to people, caring for people, loving on people, and you’re so used to seeing the darkness that exists within so many people’s lives and the hardships, the peaks and the dips, it can be very easy to not be moved like everybody else is moved.

For example, you could go and you could perform a memorial service, and there could be people in there that are just absolutely heartbroken over the fact that a loved one has died. Or maybe there’s a very emotional set of circumstances happening within the family. Of course, it’s something that I see every day. So when I go to that memorial service, I might appear to be cold and callous because in some context, sometimes I am, because I see it so much.

I think that this is a very common characteristic to have amongst people, depending on what situation in life you might be in. I had one of those moments earlier where I did something that appeared to be relatively routine to me, and so routine that I forgot about it. I got a text message from Erica Kirk. She does this all the time. I don’t even know why she does, she shouldn’t have to ask me, but she sends me a text and she says, "James, do you mind if I put up this video from our last Q&A that we did?"

I said, "No! Why should I mind? By all means, go ahead and put it up. If I didn’t want it to get out, then I wouldn’t say it. Yeah, please go ahead." So she puts up this Q&A question that happened at AmFest. I completely forgot about the moment when it happened. As a matter of fact, my memory was completely jarred when I saw the video. But at the time, it just felt like something that just happens every day, relatively routine.

The question was a heavy question. When I got the question, it did shake me a little bit because of the nature of the difficulty of that question. It was a mother who stood up, who basically said that the reason why we’re here in Arizona is to get a little bit of away time because my husband, who I’ve been married to for a very long time, passed away just a few months ago.

He was a very good husband. We were close. Then she points to her daughter and says, "And she, of course, lost her father. So my daughter has a question for you." The nature of the question was relatively difficult. The nature of the question was not a simple question that the everyday person would just know how to answer on the fly.

But for me, it’s one of these things that just happens routinely. I remember sharing the answer, and I even remember at a moment being very emotional while sharing it because thinking about my own father and thinking about my parents and thinking about all the difficulty that often arises within the heart of somebody that just loses a loved one. Part of that was affecting me a little bit.

It wasn’t until I listened to the question and the answer about an hour or an hour and a half ago that shook me a little bit in understanding just how monumental of a moment it was for the person that was actually listening to the answer that I had provided. I want to stop for a second, not necessarily to talk about the characters that were involved. I wanted to stop by reflecting upon an answer that I often share.

It’s something that I say quite a bit, but it really impacted me specifically for purposes of the Bible study that we’re going through tonight. The answer, basically the question related to heaven and if heaven is real. I believe it was something to that effect. I just listened to it, but I just don’t remember. But the question was something to that effect. My statement to this precious woman was that the spiritual world is far more real than the physical world will ever be.

That’s a very difficult thing for people to understand because reality to us is defined by the things that we experience that involve our sensory mechanisms. So to me, real is something that I can touch. It’s something that I can eat. It’s something that I can drink. It’s the vehicle that I drive. It’s the home that I live in. It’s the relationships with people that I have when I get to hold my daughter or my son and embrace them.

That is defined by most of us as being real when in true reality, what is more real than any of those things and what is always going to be more real than any of those things will ever be are the hidden things that drive it. It’s always going to be the spiritual realm that is more real than the physical. The greatest problems that we have in our society and in our world today will always center around people not understanding that very fact.

When you choose to say you’re going to ignore the spiritual realm, you are also choosing to say that you’re going to completely ignore reality. It means that you’re checking yourself out from the things that matter the most and you will allow the most consequential things to you in the moment to suffer immensely because they are being driven by the world that you’re choosing not to engage in.

I think that’s why Walter Martin—and I think it’s probably one of the greatest quotes I ever heard by anybody about the subject of spiritual warfare—so aptly coined this phrase when he said it. I will always hold fast to it and I will always communicate it in multiple different ways, and that’s this: If you’re a Christian and you refuse to engage in the spiritual realm, you will become the first casualty of it.

The reason why you will become the first casualty of it is because you have been given every tool to understand and be aware of and discern what is reality. You’ve been given every tool to be able to be aware of what’s going on. When you choose to make the things that are more consequential literally inconsequential, you allow yourself to enter into a world that brings for it destruction.

I think about this a lot because there was a point in time in my life where I lived in a world where the most consequential things that could possibly happen were never concerns of mine because there was always somebody else to be able to take care of it. When I was five years old, I didn’t have to worry about the mortgage. Heck, when I was 18 years old, I didn’t have to worry about the mortgage.

There were certain things that were very consequential that I was not a guardian of. So my thought process as a child was always, "It’ll all get taken care of, nothing to worry about." Don’t worry, be happy. Walk away from it. But as you get older, you begin to realize very quickly that those things are the things that more than ever you cannot ignore because they reflect a bigger issue.

Here’s the thing that I want to remind you of concerning the ministry of Christ. The ministry of Christ centered around the understanding, the truth, the truth that cannot be broken—that the world that we cannot see is more real than the world that we can. That the spiritual realm that we oftentimes ignore is the one that requires the most attention.

The things that we are seeing happening right now in the world in which we live, the physical manifestations of the different ideas and culture, the acceptances of philosophies and thought processes, is all a reflection of the things that are happening in the invisible that we’ve been neglecting. Can I give you an example of this?

I just saw a video of some kind of an Episcopal pastor, an absolutely evil man who calls up people that he considers to be clergy in his church, one of which is wearing a dog suit and walking around like a dog with a muzzle on his mouth and a leash around his neck. As he’s crawling up while being handled by another so-called priest, the crowd is actually clapping for it.

I don’t know about you, but if this was even ten years ago, the police would be over there, they would be arresting all of those that were doing it, and they would have them committed under one of the health and safety codes for evaluation because of what was obviously mental illness. But because the people who are supposed to be the most aware of the invisible realm have chosen to ignore it, they have become the greatest receivers of the darkness that comes as a result of that ignorance. They have become the ones that are affected the most by it.

Now this is important to understand because as we’ve gone through Mark so far, we just finished dealing with Jesus talking to, dealing with and exorcising demons out of a man who had given himself to be in a position where he opened up the door for demonic activity to take place in his life. There were some significant consequences that came from the exorcising of those demons.

It was something that was an absolutely significant and monumental circumstance for that man who was in bondage. And yet the people that surrounded that community were angry at Jesus because not only were their profits taken away, but because the way of life that they have become acclimated was disrupted, even though disrupting that way of life was the only thing that was going to save it. Think about that for a second.

So look at what happens as we jump into the rest of this story because it is interesting. I want to also make this other statement, and I think this is perhaps the most important thing that comes out of the thoughts that I’ve been sharing thus far: If you will give yourself to the truth and the understanding and the wisdom that’s tied to the idea that the spiritual realm is more real than the physical, then your ability to trust in God to do what is the impossible in essence, or to accomplish the insurmountable, will always be unblocked. It’ll always be unquestioned. It’ll always be easier for you to be able to do.

If you look at things from the realm of what cannot be seen and you choose to trust God in that realm as you engage in it actively, whatever the rest of the world says is impossible becomes an invitation for the very thing to be done. I think that the overwhelming majority of time when we see people give up the idea that something can be done by God that appears to be impossible to man, it’s only because they choose to not allow themselves to acknowledge or be aware of the spiritual world that drives all of it.

If you understand what exists in the spiritual world, then you won’t have a problem with a phrase like "God spoke the world into existence." If you understand the principles that we’re talking about concerning the spiritual realm, you will never ever have difficulty with the fact that God can take an impossible circumstance and make it look easy.

If you understand the very things that you cannot see and the very things that you oftentimes pay the least attention to, then you will understand without a problem that there are no barriers in the realm that is least consequential. I think this is hard for people to understand, it’s hard for them to compute, because we operate backwards.

We place our emphasis on the things that are tangible, we place our emphasis on the things that can be seen, we place our emphasis on the things that are superficial, we place our emphasis on the things that become the product of the things that we need to pay attention to, and we forget the root causes. We forget looking at the core of the issue. We forget considering the bigger problem.

I heard somebody make a comment from the Federal Aviation Administration that I think is an apropos comment. I think when you think about the mindset that is going on right now with some of the air disasters, some of the mistakes that are being made, there’s one thing that the FAA does more than most agencies on many levels, and that is they spend a lot of time focusing on the attitude of the person who is in essence what they call the pilot in command.

They want to know: Did they have a good night of sleep? They want to know if they are easily corrected. They want to know if they’re looking at their instrumentation, if they’re aware of their surroundings. Are they arrogant? Are they proud? There’s actual terms that they use within the FAA that they make you take tests on—I know, I’ve taken the tests—that actually describe what it looks like when somebody has a condition when they want to show off and why that’s very dangerous when you’re in an airplane or when you’re flying something.

Here’s the thing that nobody wants to admit, and nobody at the FAA will admit it, and nobody in the field will admit it if they’re not walking with God: All of those things come from a time when the Lord was the thing or the person that they were thinking about more than anything. Because all of those issues that they talk about—the intangible issues, the pride, are you a hotshot, do you have this momentum going on where you want to show off—those are spiritual issues.

Do people recognize that? They’re all spiritual issues. If you’re not paying attention to those things, you’re going to make some big mistakes. So, keeping all that in mind, understand this: God is the God of the impossible. God is the God that makes the impossible look easy because He is a God that rules the world that we cannot see.

He’s the God that created the world that we cannot see. And that’s a very important aspect of what we go over as we start the rest of this chapter. Look at this verse 21: "And when Jesus was passed over again by ship to the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea." So it’s interesting, Jesus goes to the other side.

As he goes to the other side earlier, there’s a massive storm. Everybody’s freaking out. Jesus is pretty much asleep. He stands up and everybody loses their mind because when he stands up, what does Jesus do? He literally rebukes the weather. He literally tells the weather to stop and the weather stops.

Then they cruise on across the Galilee, they get to the area of Gad, they run across a guy who’s demon-possessed that nobody can deal with, who’s got thousands of demons inside of him, and the demons beg Jesus for mercy. These guys are probably astonished at everything that they’re looking at.

So all of this is now done. I would bet you that the boat ride back to the other side was probably a lot more comfortable than the boat ride initially. I’d bet you getting on that boat now they’re probably looking forward to something like that happening so they could watch Jesus do what he did again. There’s not a lot of discomfort in the boat ride coming back.

But there’s a crowd of people that are waiting for Jesus. Look at this in verse 22: "And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and he besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live."

Now this is interesting. First of all, there’s a couple things you have to immediately grasp on to that are really critical. First of all, yes, he has a daughter that is nearing death. She’s going to end up dying. But she is a little girl that’s in deep trouble. Jairus is a man of great influence. Think that through for just a second. He’s a leader in the synagogue.

If he’s a leader in the synagogue, then he is greatly numbered amongst the people who have been fighting the Lord from the very beginning. If Jairus were to go to Jesus, fall at his feet, and beg him for mercy for his daughter, he would be regarded by everybody in his neighborhood, all of his peers, as a loser. He would not be respected. He would literally commit social suicide. That’s exactly what would happen.

He would no longer be accepted, he would no longer be valued, he would no longer be respected by any of the men around him. Why? Because Jesus is public enemy number one to this group of people. But watch what happens. You see, he goes to Jesus and he falls down at the feet of Jesus because there’s something very spiritual going on.

Number one, he’s a father that is deeply affected by the idea that his daughter’s about to die. Now, I know we have a lot of fathers in this room, and you certainly understand the emotion that he must be going through because there isn’t a single thing that most of us would not do for our children. And if I have word that my child—God forbid something would happen to my child—there is no level of humility that I could ever not say no to that would keep me from wanting to ask for my daughter’s mercy.

I don’t care what people think of me. If I know that I can solve the problem, I will walk in humility. Why? Because I love her. I’m driven by my love for my children to do those very things. This man was undoubtedly desperate.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from You.

Guest (Male): I have found that joy only comes from You.

Guest (Female): ’Cause all I need is You. All I need is You.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we’re currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James’s teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We’d love it. It’s encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners’ lives, and it’s an opportunity to thank the Lord for what He’s doing. There’s a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com.

We’ve been blessed by the feedback we’ve received thus far regarding Pastor James’s new book, The Last Book. If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, we’d encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the Rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

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Now let’s return to Pastor James as he makes one more observation concerning Jairus.

James Kaddis: Here’s something else you have to keep in mind, and this is the part that’s the bigger issue than all the other issues put together. And that is, in the place of his greatest desperation, he did not go to the traditional areas that a man of his influence would go to. He didn’t go to the greatest of doctors. He didn’t go to the people that could probably do something to alleviate the circumstance.

He didn’t go to the medicine man. He didn’t seek out the community that a lot of people in his situation might. He goes straight to the person that he knows from the depths of his heart can solve the problem, and he doesn’t care if it costs him everything to be able to do it.

That’s a man who my guess is, for the first time in his life, is paying attention to a very ignored aspect of the world in which he lives, and that’s the spiritual. He sees something that is far deeper than the life that he lives, the sociological infrastructure that he’s developed, or anything else that surrounds him. The most important thing to him right now is to save the life of his daughter and he doesn’t care how he does it.

Guest (Male): More from the book of Mark coming up next time on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This listener-supported program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from You.

Guest (Male): I have found that joy only comes from You.

Guest (Female): ’Cause all I need is You. All I need is You.