Desperate times call for desperate Measures
women's history month • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro: Have you ever been pushed to your limit? Have you ever been at your wits end? If you have, then you know what it means to be in a desperate time. Some call this being between a rock and a hard place. Some call it being at the end of your rope. In any case this type of life situation will force you to make a decision that will determine the rest of your future. Chances are when you have reached this point, it’s not because you didn’t try to get out. Usually by this point you have done all that you know to do (elaborate).
1. He gives Power to Powerless People
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As we come into the realm of our story we find people just like this. People who have been so hard pressed by life that they now find themselves in desperate situations. There is a little girl who is dying. She has contracted a terminal illness that will eventually take her life. She’s only twelve. She has her whole life ahead of her but yet and still here she is lying in her bed dying. If you’ve ever come face to face with death then you are familiar with the frightening experience, but for a child can you imagine. Her only option at this point is wait for the inevitable. Thanks be to God that she has a parent who loves her enough to seek God on her behalf (preach, praying for our daughters).
So what does Jesus do? He gives power to the powerless and goes with the man to his daughter.
He healed Peters mother in law from a deadly fever
He healed a man with leprosy (Mark chapter 1)
He healed a paralyzed man and told him to walk 2
He healed a man with a withered hand on the sabbath 3
He was on a boat in a raging storm and he stood out, waved his hand and said 'piece be still” 4
And if he did it for all of these he can do it for me. (preach) So what does Jesus do? He gives power to the powerless and goes with the man to his daughter.
The second person we run into in the story is another sister. Her circumstances are a bit different from the little girl but not too much as she is also suffering from an ailment. This woman has lived in hard times for a least the past 12 years. First of all because she is a woman. Not only is she a woman but she is a bleeding woman. It is important to know a few facts about her to bring her story into HD. Her being a woman in first century Palestine makes her less than a citizen. Women had not rights, they could not even bare witness in court. Her gender made her a cultural outcast. If that were not hard enough she is bleeding. Jews had strict rituals that banned any contact with a person who was bleeding and especially a woman on her cycle. This made her a religious outcast. If that were not bad enough this bleeding woman was poor because she has tried every doctor in town and they have made things worse. And I don't to say anything more about being poor, but this makes here social outcast. She is powerless to her situation. Oh church, but I like this woman! Because she found out what happens when desperate times call for desperate measures. You start looking at all your options. “I can save up some more money and try another doctor, but they have all failed me. I could go into the temple for a little help and blessing but they have all failed me. I could just throw in the towel and bleed because this is how my life is. Or! Or I can try this man who I heard about.
He cast out demons in Capernaum....
He healed Peters mother in law from a deadly fever
He healed a man with leprosy (Mark chapter 1)
He healed a paralyzed man and told him to walk 2
He healed a man with a withered hand on the sabbath 3
He was on a boat in a raging storm and he stood out, waved his hand and said 'piece be still” 4
And if he did it for all of these he can do it for me. (preach) I heard that there is power in his Name and I have heard that other people have touched Him and be healed. 'so if I could just touch the fringe of his garment I will be made well.' Now let me stop here parenthetically to tell you about what Matthew and Luke call the fringe or hem of the garment. (tell about that) So she has so much faith in this man named Jesus that she is willing to get down on the ground, face to the floor and reach out and get this blessing. I wonder if there are any more people like this woman today who is will to get low before Jesus and reach out your hands to him and acknowledge that he has what you need and you are willing to do what you have to do get it. (preach rest of the story.)
2. He uses Inconveniences to Increase our Faith.
· Preach the text from v.35, talk about the problem and waiting.
· Special Order illustration.
Tornado warning test. This is only a test. I was new to Oklahoma and heard the sirens.
3. He hasn’t forgotten about you
· Exegete the text from 36 on
· Preach about faith and what it does. In v.39 Jesus says “Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.” This is good. (Adversative Conjunction)