In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of experiencing a supernatural work from God in our hearts and souls. He encourages the congregation to believe in the possibility of miracles and expresses his desire for God to perform miracles in the building. The preacher then analyzes the story of the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5, highlighting her desperation and faith in touching Jesus to receive her miracle. He emphasizes the need to come to Jesus with our hearts and explains that physical proximity is not necessary for this encounter.

Christianity is not only hopeless without the Holy Ghost, as a great man of God said a long time ago, but the nature of Christianity is supernatural. If the concept and the fact of miracles is lost to Christianity, it's no longer Christianity according to the Bible. In fact, by definition, everything God does is supernatural because God is supernatural. So if we say God is working, God is moving, God is doing, it must be, by definition, supernatural. So to reduce Christianity to a try-harder religion, try to be good and be better, and just tough it out and hope that somehow you make it, is foreign to the Scriptures. And more and more people are going away from Scripture, going away from the plain meaning of Scripture, and saying either that's not what it means or it was for only back then. There is no supernatural intervention of God in our lives today. But I want to assure you that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And not only is this true in areas like physical healing or financial provision, I'm talking about material things now, where we've all seen God come through. How many have had personal experience with the power of God in your own life in one of those areas? Yes, provision, He still does that, and touching our bodies. But of course the most important thing God does is meet our spiritual needs and set the prisoners free as it was prophesied of the Messiah, but those weren't people in prison, those were people, literal prison, those were people in spiritual prisons. And blinded eyes being open is not just physical eyes that Jesus opened, but more importantly spiritual eyes. Because no matter how you're healed, if you're not growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, what would it profit you? Some of the most wicked people in the world have the healthiest bodies and the most money. So that's obviously not where the action is. Those, that's just the crumbs from the table. What God really wants to work in and do his greatest work in is in mi corazon, in my heart, in your heart, your soul. So that we're changed and we live victoriously from the inside out, but it's going to take a supernatural work from God. The name of this message is, Do You Need a Miracle? Do you need a miracle? I've prayed with all my heart that God will perform miracles today in this building before we leave. How many believe it's possible? Say amen. How many believe he wants to? Say amen. All right, but let's analyze a miracle and find out what we can learn because these are the component parts of almost every miracle. Let's look at the Word of God together. A large crowd followed and pressed around him, Jesus, Mark 5. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had been hemorrhaging. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding against you, his disciples answered, and yet you ask, Who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. This is an extraordinary miracle that a couple of the Gospels tell us about. Jesus was on the way actually to help somebody else and this happened along a roadside. This just crowds, milling, handing babies to him, all kinds of chaos going on around him, and then unbeknownst to him, a woman got a healing by touching the hem of his garment. Well the first element that we see that's needed almost always for a miracle is you have to know that you have a problem. You have to know that you're hurting. You have to know that the thing is too big for you. And in our lives there's a lot of denial, which this woman did not have. She had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, 12 years, without stop. She had been bleeding. Now that type of hemorrhaging for a woman beyond her regular menstrual cycle was a very contaminating thing in the Jewish culture. She was cut off from the worship at the temple. She could not have close fellowship with her friends because she was considered unclean. The Talmud, which is the traditional Jewish writings, had some of the most weird superstitions about how to cure such a thing. All of them just fantasy. One of them was to take a burned ostrich egg and wrap it in a linen rag and keep it with you during the summer, and in a cotton rag in the winter, keep it with you, and that would bring, serve as a remedy. It didn't. So this woman's 12 years suffering, you know what the medical profession was like back then, in case you don't, horrible. They did more harm than good because principles of of the body were not known. So here's a woman who acknowledges, I have a problem. And did you know that's the major step right now here in this building that we have to take, that a lot of us won't take. As D.L. Moody once said, if I can only get people to see that they need help, half the battle is won. But if we're in denial, no, I'm okay. I can manage this. Hey, I can manage this. You know, you don't have to get all supernatural on me and all of that. Or I don't have a problem. What problem are you talking about? Everybody's got a little something that doesn't work out. This woman was absolutely convinced and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she had a problem. I wonder how many of us can face that about our lives today. Physical problems are easy to know about. The doctor takes an x-ray, MRI, you got a problem. We acknowledge those. If the money is this high and the bills are this high, we acknowledge that. I got a problem. But how about all the other problems that beset our lives? How about besetting sins? How about the thing that you want to stop doing but you can't stop doing? Have you acknowledged that that's a problem? Are you in a state of denial? Are you trying to block it out? Or that attitude that you have in you toward another person or people? Or that racial prejudice? Or that anger inside of you? Or that resentment and lack of forgiveness to a person who's asked for forgiveness from you but you're not going to let them go? Or that secret, those secret moments that no one knows about with another person or with pornography or with something? You know, the statistics show that all kinds of terrible things have invaded Christendom and people are going to church on Sunday but living with things that are horrible that Jesus wants to set them free. He wants to set the captive free. But how in the world are we going to have that happen unless we acknowledge, you know what? That is a problem. There's something about our pride and our self-righteousness. We don't want to come to the place where we say, you know what? That's just wrong. I have no self-control. I have no self-control. I hardly open the Bible. I talk the talk but I don't walk the walk. You know, in some area that only you and I know about between us and God. It's a problem. Without that, there's gonna be no miracle. You look through the whole Bible, you don't find God coming up and helping people who didn't feel their need. It's just not there. Number two, the woman not only knew she had a need, she was desperate. She was desperate. God meets desperate prayers. Out of desperate situations, miraculous faith is born. Not only do you have to feel your need, there's something about desperation. There's something about just throwing yourself on God where there's no plan B. It's either God or bust. There's something about that that the heart of God responds to. Now the Bible tells us about this woman, interestingly, that for 12 years she had sought help from physicians. She didn't get better. She got worse. And on top of that, she lost all her money. So now she's bleeding for 12 years and she's busted on top of that. How about that? Would that make you desperate? Living 2,000 years ago, lost all your money on fake cures, bogus cures. Now you're still bleeding, cut off from the temple, can't be around friends, and now no money. And the charlatans that are doctors have not helped you. Isn't that a picture a lot of us sometimes in life? We got problems inside. We got things going on in our life. And even when we come to the place of addressing it, the very things that we think will help us make us worse. How many times have I met people who, you know what, there's something wrong inside of them. They're gonna blame it on their wife or their husband. They're gonna blame it on their girlfriend. They're gonna blame it on their parents. They're gonna move to Bayamón, Puerto Rico because that's gonna be the solution for everything or whatever. We're like that, aren't we? Hello, do I get an amen? We're like that. We, instead of going to Jesus, we try every other thing. Complaining, talking to people, and for what? For nada, for nothing. It just gets worse. So we learn two things about this woman to help lead us to a point here where we can reach out. Number one, she knew she had a problem. She was not living in fantasy. She was not living in denial. Oh God, open our eyes, starting with the speaker, and help us to see what's really going on in our lives. Number two, she was desperate. She was desperate. You know, you will ever notice that verse in Jeremiah, I think it's 33 3, you will seek me and you will find me when you seek for me with all of your heart. Why that? Why not just casual prayers? Why not just, hi God, how are you today? I'm good. Can we have a little talk, like, and I'd love if you could help me a little bit today, but if not, you know, well, I'll get along somehow, God. You don't find any prayers like that in the Bible. You find Jacob wrestling with an angel. I will not let you go until you bless me. Hey, I will not let you go. No, I gotta go. Sun's coming up. No, you're not going. How about that? Not until you bless me. There's something about desperation, which only the Holy Spirit can start to produce here in you folks' hearts. Thirdly, we find out as we look at this lady, the most important thing of all is she came to Jesus. She came to Jesus. We don't know anything about her life. We don't know what she believed, what she didn't believe. We don't know what kind of moral person she was. We only know one thing. She heard somehow about Jesus of Nazareth and what he could do and the testimonies of people who had been blessed by him and healed by him and delivered by him. She heard about Jesus and she went to where he was. She didn't stay at home. She didn't have a discussion with herself about pros and cons. She got up and she went to Jesus. If you and I, this today, this day, this Sunday, if we're gonna see God do something wonderful in our lives, we gotta get to Jesus. And Satan will try to block you while I'm speaking. He's gonna try to right now while I'm speaking say, no, that sounds too simple. No, you don't have to go to Jesus. You're smart enough to figure this out yourself. But I'm telling you that when you acknowledge your problem and you and I get desperate and we go to Jesus, something good is gonna happen. I've learned in my life, unfortunately, I've seen so many times in my life when I've had problems and I've gone to everyone but Jesus. How about you? I've talked to people, complained to people, felt sorry for myself, had a pity party. Anyone instead of going to Jesus ever had a pity party? Come on, I mean a real pity party with balloons, the whole thing, a cake. I'm talking about a major thing, not just a little woe is me. I'm talking about something big. Haven't we done that? Called uncle, called an aunt, commiserated with friends, talked to the family. Not gonna change a thing, but we go there first. Got mad at other people instead of saying, oh Jesus, I gotta get to Jesus. Now to get to Jesus for her was, she's in her house and Jesus is over there and she hears some testimony and she just gets up and she walks, what, mile, two mile, five miles? We don't know, but she got to where he was. You've got to get to Jesus. Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to get to Jesus today, but it's not a physical journey. It's something you do with your heart. When Jesus said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Obviously those words don't mean physically come to him, although that's what they did back then. How do you come to Jesus today? How do you and I get to the one who can change our life in an instant? How do we get to the one who just speaks and everything changes in our lives? He hasn't changed, he's the living Christ, but how do you get to him? You get to him with your heart, which humbles itself and says, I am going to the throne of grace, I am going to pray, and I am going to talk to Jesus, and I'm going to ask him to help me in this situation. I have to touch him. I have to have some new interaction with Jesus, because if I do, I know that everything will change in my life. Come on, let's put our hands together and say amen. Come on, let's really say amen to that, to get to Jesus, and all the big guns of Satan will block you like it has in my life. You make up your mind to pray and talk to Jesus, demonic things will come against you like you can't even imagine. Come on, how many have found that when you set your mind to pray, how many have ever tried to pray and just talk to Jesus and suddenly your mind is flooded with a thousand thoughts? Come on, how many have ever had that battle? Wave your hand at me. Have you ever had that battle? Where'd those thoughts all come from like that? I wasn't thinking about those things before, and now I just want to have a little talk with Jesus. Every kind of satanic attack, block, questioning, discouragement, distraction, everything. You know, there's an old saying, Satan doesn't like when we worship together, Satan doesn't like when we study the Bible together, Satan doesn't like when we fellowship together, all of those things he is against. But when someone wants to go to the throne of grace to pray to Jesus, oh my goodness, Satan is more afraid of someone who talks to Jesus and who prays than he is of anything else on this earth. But a person who prays? A person who goes to Jesus? Ooh. Because whatever God can do, prayer can do. Because prayer hooks you up with the almighty power of Jesus Christ, son of the living God. One more amen, come on. Well, he goes to Jesus and what's the final thing? Jewish men in that day wore robes and on the bottom of the robes there were four tassels. And those tassels were reminders, it's a hem connected to the hem of his robe, those four tassels were reminders to the Jewish men of that day that they were in covenant with God, that they were Israelis, that they were the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they lived under the law, they had a special relationship with God. And those tassels, among other things, that was a representation of that fact. And somehow this woman got in her head, and this is where we now have to totally yield to the Holy Spirit, because no two healings and miracles are the same almost in the Bible. Somehow this lady got in her head, she knew she couldn't talk to Jesus about this because it was shameful, you couldn't talk to a man about this, you couldn't in front of a group of people have Jesus, stop Jesus, I need help, what is your problem? She couldn't tell that, she couldn't talk like that, she couldn't publicly discuss this. And don't some of us have problems here, that we dare not speak except to Jesus? Come on, anybody here with me? Aren't there some things possibly going on inside of us or around us and our family? It wouldn't be, it wouldn't be proper to talk about it with anyone but Jesus. So she was double-whammy, she had this problem and she couldn't talk about it. So somehow she got it in her head, just like the Holy Spirit is gonna help somebody here right now, she got it in her head and heart. I can't talk to him, I'm ashamed of what's going on, I'm busted and have no money, I've wasted 12 years of bleeding and charlatan doctors, but somehow if I just come up behind him where he won't notice me and I touch the hem of his garment, if I touch one of those tassels, I will be healed. Where'd she get that? Ah, that's where the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit speaks and creates faith in amazing ways in us. And that's why you can't make someone conform to the way that you receive something from God. So she got this thing in her, if I just touch him, if I just touch him, oh, think of the power of faith, if I just touch him, not talk to him, not have him lay hands on me, no anointing with oil, I don't need any of that, I just need to touch him. And she comes up behind him and all the people are bumping into him and brushing him and, Jesus of Nazareth, pray for my baby, bless my baby, but everybody's bumping into him, it's a melee. And she fights her way through the crowd and she just tugs and touches that tassel. And whammo, the power of God is released into her life. And immediately the bleeding stops, the hemorrhaging stops, and she feels it in her body. She knows, I'm well, I've been healed. Now the amazing part of this story is, I don't think there's any other place I can think of it in the New Testament where Jesus seems so bewildered. I say that reverently. He stops immediately and he says, wait, looks at the crowd, who touched me? And the disciples go, who touched you? There's 500 people thronging to try to get near you and you say, who touched you? But he, no, somebody touched me because I felt virtue, I felt something leave me. Somebody got a blessing, snuck one out from me without even talking to me. Oh come on, do we have an awesome Jesus, an awesome God? Oh come on, let's give him praise. Jesus, I praise you. Singers, come behind me. Who touched me? And the disciples say, what do you mean, who touched you? 400 people touched you. No, somebody touched me. Somebody had faith. Somebody drew something out of me. And the woman realized that she had been found out and she came and she threw herself in front of Jesus and she told him the whole story. I don't know how she whispered it to him. I don't know how she said it. I don't know if she actually said what her problem was. It wasn't something you talked about back then at all. But she said, I touched you and now I'm healed. And notice what he said. Woman, your faith has healed you. I never met you. I never talked to you. I didn't lay hands on you like I do so many people. But you have such extraordinary faith that while I was walking down the road, you just stole a blessing from me. I don't know about you. I want to touch the hem of his garment today. Now notice, all kinds of people were making contact with him, but only one woman touched him. So you could be here in this meeting and all of these good things, but you can go home and never really touch him. You can bump into him. You can feel his presence, but touch him purposely with a focus on just one thing that you have to get. That kind of desperation, that kind of faith. I've sat in all kinds of meetings and felt God's presence, but in terms of really receiving something specific to help me in my area of need, the miracle that I needed, and I know God would... Listen, I don't even take notes anymore. I don't use notes to preach anymore for almost over two years now. And I wanted to preach on something different today, and I actually had a page of notes, and I was analyzing how I could do this because I'm not used to going back to notes. And I'm saying, God, this is biblical and it's such a good truth, and the Lord just last night said, no, put it away. I'll give you what you should tell the people. Tell them if they touch me, if they just touch me. Come on, let's put our hands together. If they just touch me, a miracle will happen in their life. Come on, with God, nothing is too hard. Nothing's impossible. And that's just the beginning of that miracle. And that's the beginning of that miracle. That's just the beginning of a miracle. Close your eyes with me. God answers prayer. The supernatural is nothing for him. No mountain is too high. No door is shut against the prayers of God's people in Jesus' name.