Sermon Tone Analysis

Fulfillment Is Moving From Victim to Victory \\ Mark 5:25-34

 

            What are your limitations?

What are the handicaps and the hang-ups that haunt you on a daily basis?

Maybe they’re physical.

Most of us have things about our physical bodies that are somewhat less than perfect.

It could be something as severe as a degenerative genetic disease or vain as an unattractive face.

Some of us struggle with emotional and psychological disorders like anger, depression, fear, worry or various forms of neurosis.

Perhaps your weaknesses are in the spiritual arena.

You’re often plagued by doubt.

Or there’s a particularly nasty temptation that you keep yielding to.

I want you to take heart this morning for two reasons.

For one, you are not alone in feeling victimized by your deficiencies and weaknesses.

We, the human race, are broken people and no one is excluded.

They say that misery loves company and, if that’s true, there’s plenty of company.

The bigger reason that I want you to be encourage this morning is that you don’t have to be a victim to your limitations.

God wants you to have victory over them.

He wants you to reach your God-given potential despite your handicaps.

God wants you to have a fulfilled life.

For some his design is to supernaturally bring healing.

For others our heavenly Father wants to actually use our shortcomings to bring something amazing out of our lives.

This morning we’re going to discover how to put ourselves in a place to be used by God despite our limitations.

We’ll do this by looking at some examples from the Bible.

\\ HOW TO HANDLE YOUR HANDICAPS

Let’s begin by examining Mark 5:25-26.

Jesus was on his way to heal the critically ill daughter of a local synagogue leader.

Throngs of people crowded around him, anticipating the spectacle of a miracle.

Within that multitude was a woman with a severe limitation.

“And there was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years.

She had suffered a great deal from many doctors through the years and had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better.

In fact, she was worse.

(NLT)

We’re not exactly sure what was wrong with this woman.

The Bible simply says that she had a flow of blood for 12 years.

It was likely some type of uterine bleeding besides a monthly period.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but in the Jewish culture such a condition posed a severe handicap.

She was considered perpetually ceremonially unclean.

Leviticus 15:25-27 says, “Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood many days, not at the period of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond that period, all the days of her impure discharge she shall continue as though in her menstrual impurity; she is unclean.

Any bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her like her bed at menstruation; and every thing on which she sits shall be unclean, like her uncleanness at that time.

Likewise, whoever touches them shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.”

In practical terms this means she would never be allowed to enter the Temple for worship.

According to the law, sexual intercourse with her would be unclean and forbidden.

Thus, no man would marry her.

Any person who touched her or her clothing or the furniture of her house (if she even had one) would be considered unclean.

In essence, this woman was an outcast.

She would not have been allowed to circulate with normal people.

She’d tried different doctors and medicines, but nothing worked.

The most remarkable thing about this woman is that despite her constant bleeding and social stigma and loss of her income in search of healing, she never gave up.

This leads to our first point..

\\ 1. Don’t allow defects to defeat you.

Your attitude toward your limitations determined whether or not you can launch past it.

Studies reveal that patients who have a positive outlook are more likely to survive or at least survive longer than those who give in to despair.

The same is true with every defect we face we can let them defeat us and give up on life or keep moving ahead in spite of what plagues us.

An invalid was told that she could never escape from her prison of pain and weakness.

“Oh, well,” she replied quickly, “there’s a lot of living to be found within your limitations, if you don’t wear yourself out fighting them.”

“Young lady,” the doctor replied, “I wish I could have you preach to about a hundred of my patients a year.”

The lady was Helen Keller who said, “Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them, but do not let them master you.”

If you ever start defining yourself by your difficulties you’ve been defeated by them.

If you make excuses about what you can’t do certain things because of your challenges you’ve been defeated by them.

Don’t follow the pattern of our culture and label yourself with a disease or dysfunction.

If you do, you’ve been defeated.

Let me offer a word to parents as well.

Please do not label your children.

If you call them shy, slow, stupid, ADD, ADHD, dyslexic, or whatever, you’re aiding and abetting their defeat.

They’ll use their limitation as an excuse for any kind of behavior or for not achieving their potential.

The next point isn’t found in the story, but it must have been true.

How did this woman survive in her unclean state?

How were her daily needs met?

If she couldn’t associate with the general public for fear of contaminating somebody, who provided for her?

She must have had friends looking out for her.

There must have been people in her life who loved her enough to become ceremonially unclean every once in a while to take care of her needs.

She followed a practice that we must use to handle our handicaps too.

\\ 2. Count on your community.

There is no shame in asking for help.

With some limitations community is a necessity.

Let me encourage everyone: surround yourself with community.

It is God’s means for sustaining us through our handicaps and often for healing us of our problem.

One of the best ways you will be able to do it here at Faith very soon is to connect with a small group.

By being a part of a small group you will intentionally involve yourself in the lives of other believers.

Let’s get back to the story.

She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe.

For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed.”

Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel that she had been healed!

Mark 5:27-29 (NLT)

Again we see the tenacity of this woman.

She did not give up.

She had accepted her illness, but she never stopped going after healing.

This leads us to the next point.

If you want to handle your handicaps continue to …

\\ 3. Reach for restoration.

Why did the woman approach Jesus from behind and not just ask him outright for healing?

This woman was an outcast.

Because of her condition, she would not have been allowed to approach Jesus.

To talk to him would be unthinkable.

So she approached him the only way she could – secretly.

And it was enough.

In those days people believed that personal power could be transmitted through clothing, so this woman reached for her best option.

And she was healed.

She could feel in her body that she was healed.

What happens next is a humorous twist to the story.

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”