Sermon Tone Analysis

HELP FOR DESPERATE PEOPLE

HELP FOR DESPERATE PEOPLE

(Christian Standard Bible)

(Christian Standard Bible)

Desperation is all around us.

The simplest definition of desperation is “a state of despair” and despair means “the complete loss or the absence of hope”.

If you have been on the earth of any length of time you’ve probably heard the phrase “Desperate times calls for desperate measures” and that phrase is used to suggest that in adverse circumstances, actions that might have been rejected under normal conditions may become the best choice.

Desperation is all around us.

The simplest definition of desperation is “a state of despair” and despair means “the complete loss or the absence of hope”.

If you have been on the earth of any length of time you’ve probably heard the phrase “Desperate times calls for desperate measures” and that phrase is used to suggest that in adverse circumstances, actions that might have been rejected under normal conditions may become the best choice.

Oftentimes we are quick to judge individuals for making certain decisions that we do not agree with, but the truth is many of us have never been in that situation before, so we don’t know how we would respond.

We frown upon women who dance in the strip club and use their bodies in ways that will be left up to your imagination, but

Oftentimes we are quick to judge individuals for making certain decisions that we do not agree with, but the truth is many of us have never been in that situation before, so we don’t know how we would respond.

We frown upon women who dance in the strip club and use their bodies in ways that will be left up to your imagination, but

What would you do if your son was at home

What would you do if your son was at home

Crying all alone on the bedroom floor, 'cause he's hungry

Crying all alone on the bedroom floor, 'cause he's hungry

And the only way to feed him is ta sleep with a man

And the only way to feed him is ta sleep with a man

For a little bit of money

For a little bit of money

How would you respond if you grew up in poverty and you do not know where your next meal is coming from and the only way that you can assure that you, your mom, and your five siblings will have food on the kitchen table at night is sale drugs on the corner of the neighborhood convenience store because you don’t have a father in the home to provide for you?

How would you respond if you grew up in poverty and you do not know where your next meal is coming from and the only way that you can assure that you, your mom, and your five siblings will have food on the kitchen table at night is sale drugs on the corner of the neighborhood convenience store because you don’t have a father in the home to provide for you?

How would you respond if you grew up in a country that had poor healthcare, poor education, high crime rates, water shortages and government officials that made it a law to persecute you for conforming to a religion contrary to the one they adopted?

How would you respond if you grew up in a country that had poor healthcare, poor education, high crime rates, water shortages and government officials that made it a law to persecute you for conforming to a religion contrary to the one they adopted?

What would you do if your bank account was empty, your car is in the process of being repossessed and your house was on the brink of foreclosure and the only way that you could escape this devastation is to lie on your taxes with the hope of receiving a substantial amount of money to cover all of your worries?

What would you do if your bank account was empty, your car is in the process of being repossessed and your house was on the brink of foreclosure and the only way that you could escape this devastation is to lie on your taxes with the hope of receiving a substantial amount of money to cover all of your worries?

How would you respond if you were left in a state of desperation because life dealt you a bad hand?

Hopefully none of you in here today have been faced with these kinds of situations before, but someone, somewhere around the world is in a situation like this or in a similar situation.

How would you respond if you were left in a state of desperation because life dealt you a bad hand?

Hopefully none of you in here today have been faced with these kinds of situations before, but someone, somewhere around the world is in a situation like this or in a similar situation.

People who are desperate often make decisions that go against their moral standards and societal norms because most of the time all they want to do is survive.

It is human nature for us to do whatever we have to do in order to survive and this was the case for our character in the text this morning.

According to an article in The New York Times, citizens living in China are faced with a dilemma.

The Chinese government is heavily regulated so many pharmaceutical drugs that would be beneficial to help families fight against cancer have not been approved.

Many of the citizens do not have the income to afford the expensive, ineffective treatment offered so they feel forced to break the law to give themselves and their family members a fighting chance.

Law abiding citizens have to illegally and blindly shop for pharmaceutical ingredients online that have not been approved by the government and are forced to concoct their own medicine with not medical background the hope of curing their disease.

If you have never heard of desperate individuals before, you are about to hear of some today.

The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is an interesting chapter to me because the author writes this chapter in such a way to suggests that Jesus performed three miracles in one day.

The first miracle that Jesus performed was casting out possibly thousands of demons from a man and restoring him to his right mind.

The third miracle that Jesus performs in this text is the rising of Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter from the dead.

Then there is the second miracle, the one we are going to discuss today.

Allow me to introduce you to this woman.

People who are desperate often make decisions that go against their moral standards and societal norms because all they want to do is survive.

It is human nature for us to do whatever we have to do in order to survive and this was the case for our character in the text this morning.

Today we are encountering an unnamed woman who is suffering from an issue of blood for twelve, long years.

She didn’t suffer with this issue for twelve seconds, minutes, hours, days nor weeks, but for twelve, long, excruciating years.

Now I don’t know about you, but twelve years is a long time to suffer from anything and this woman constantly suffered the loss of blood for twelve, long years.

Now it gets more interesting when we discover that because she is suffering with this issue, according to Levitical law, she is deemed what they knew as unclean and everyone she came in contact with would too be unclean.

(CSB) says: “When a woman has a discharge, and it consists of blood from her body, she will be unclean because of her menstruation for seven days.

Everyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

Because she is deemed unclean, she is exiled from her family and her community, so naturally she is going to do whatever it takes to get better.

The text says she literally spend every penny that she had on physicians to fix her situation, but nothing could be done about it.

In fact, the text says that she endured much under the care of these physicians and instead of her getting better, she actually grew worse.

I really want you to feel the tension in this text because the bible says that she endured much under the care of these doctors.

Because this woman suffered from an issue of blood for twelve years, word probably got around to the other doctors about her condition and it’s a strong possibly that she was taken advantage of.

It’s a strong possibly that these doctors were telling her something to make her believe that whatever they were doing could possibly make her better.

As a result of these doctors taking advantage of her, she endured psychological, emotional and physical damage and she literally became worse as the years passed by.

Imagine being in a situation where you are constantly losing blood, which means that you are losing strength each day, for twelve long years.

Imagine that you are in a situation where you are literally losing your life because you are losing a lot of blood for twelve, long years.

Imagine that you are left helpless, bankrupt, alienated from your family and friends and confused for twelve, long years.

What would you do?

Being in that type of situation would leave the average person in a state of desperation, meaning that all hope would be loss because literally everything that they could possibly do in order to become better has failed them.

If you have never heard of desperate individuals before, you are about to hear of some today.

The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is an interesting chapter to me because the author writes this chapter in such a way to suggests that Jesus performed three miracles in one day.

The first miracle that Jesus performed was casting out possibly thousands of demons from a man and restoring him to his right mind.

The third miracle that Jesus performs in this text is the rising of Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter from the dead.

Then there is the second miracle, the one we are going to discuss today.

Allow me to introduce you to this woman.

I want to argue one main point this morning and the point is: if you desperately want your issue to change, your faith must be in Jesus and Jesus alone because He has the power to heal any issue.

Today we are encountering an unnamed woman who is suffering from an issue of blood for twelve, long years.

She didn’t suffer with this issue for twelve seconds, minutes, hours, days nor weeks, but for twelve, long, excruciating years.

Now I don’t know about you, but twelve years is a long time to suffer from anything and this woman constantly suffered the loss of blood for twelve, long years.

Now it gets more interesting when we discover that because she is suffering with this issue, according to Levitical law, she is deemed what they knew as unclean and everything and everyone she encountered would be unclean as well.

Because she is deemed unclean, she is forced to be exiled from her family and her community.

Her story gets even more interesting when we discover in the text that she literally spends every penny that she had on physicians to fix her situation, but nothing could be done about it.

In fact, the text says that she endured much under the care of these physicians and instead of her getting better, she grew worse.

(CSB) says: “When a woman has a discharge, and it consists of blood from her body, she will be unclean because of her menstruation for seven days.

Everyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.

Because she is deemed unclean, she is forced to be exiled from her family and her community.

Her story gets even more interesting when we discover in the text that she literally spends every penny that she had on physicians to fix her situation, but nothing could be done about it.

In fact, the text says that she endured much under the care of these physicians and instead of her getting better, she grew worse.

I really want you to feel the tension in this text because the bible says that she endured much under the care of these doctors.

Because this woman suffered from an issue of blood for twelve years, word probably got around to the other doctors about her condition and it’s a strong possibly that she was taken advantage of.

It’s a strong possibly that these doctors were telling her something to make her believe that whatever they were doing could possibly make her better.

Because of these doctors taking advantage of her, she endured psychological, emotional and physical damage and she progressively became worse as the years passed by.

I. TRANSFER YOUR FAITH TO JESUS

Imagine being in a situation where you are constantly losing strength every day for twelve long years.

Imagine that you are living a life where you are getting closer to your grave every day for twelve, long years.

Imagine that you are left helpless, bankrupt, alienated from your family and friends and confused for twelve, long years.

What would you do?

Being in that type of situation would leave the average person in a state of desperation because literally everything that they could possibly do to become better has failed them.

I want to argue one main point this morning and the point is: if you desperately want your issue to change, your faith must be in Jesus because He has the power to heal any issue.

We see evidence that this lady’s faith was transferred to Jesus in verses 27-28.

says: 27 Having heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothing.

28 For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I’ll be made well.”

The first step that desperate people must take if they want to receive help is they must transfer their faith to Jesus.

This woman did everything she knew to do in her power before she heard about Jesus, but when she heard of Jesus, she decided that the only way to go from there was to Him.

What we do as believer’s today is we know about Him already, yet we make Him our last resort.