This sermon from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5, focuses on the stories of Jairus' daughter and the woman with the issue of blood, highlighting themes of faith, desperation, and the power of touching Jesus for healing. It emphasizes the importance of reaching out to Jesus in faith, believing in His ability to heal and restore, and the contrast between fear and faith in approaching God for help and miracles.

Let's turn in our Bibles to the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 5. Our scripture reading will begin at verse 21 and will go to the end of the chapter. I'll read the 21st and the odd-numbered verses, and we ask you to read together and join together in reading the even-numbered verses, and let's stand as we read and honor the Word of God. And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, many people gathered unto him, and he was near unto the sea. 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. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood for twelve years, when she had heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his garment. And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And the disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and thou seest who touched me? But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And while he spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain ones that said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master any further? And he suffered no man to follow him, except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleeping. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi, which is being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise. And he charged them straightly, or strictly, that no man should know it, and he commanded that something should be given unto her to eat. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this tremendous lesson of faith, of just putting our trust in you, knowing, Lord, that you are able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think. And Lord, as we look at this picture, this lady reaching out just to touch the hem of your garment, knowing within her heart that if she could just touch you, that's all she needed. Lord, we pray that you will reach out and touch those today that are among us that do need so desperately your touch in their lives. Let us be open now, Lord, to all that you are wanting to do in and for your church as we gather together in your name. Bless your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Tonight we will be studying the Gospel of Mark chapters 4, 5, and 6. And so we encourage you to read them over. Join with us this evening at 7 o'clock as we gather to continue our journey through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And just read it over and be prepared to just journey with us in this exciting journey through the Word. This morning we'd like to draw your attention back to what we were reading there in the 5th chapter, verse 36, how that as soon as Jesus heard the Word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. In this chapter we see how that Jesus incurred the wrath of the Pharisees there in the synagogue of Capernaum because he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day. And they were counseling how they could destroy him to put him to death. And the ruler of the synagogue has a little girl who is 12 years old. She's dying. And think of how he must feel. Here's his little daughter, the joy of his life, 12 years old and at home she is dying. He knows the power of Jesus. He saw it was manifested there on the Sabbath day. And on the one hand, it must have been difficult for him to come to Jesus because of his position of being one of the rulers in the synagogue. But on the other hand, his love for his little daughter was just overwhelming. And he was desperate because of her condition. And it caused him to lay aside every difficulty, every prejudice. And Mark tells us that he was kneeling there at the feet of Jesus and begging Jesus to come to his house. Just lay hands on my little 12-year-old daughter who is dying. At this point, he could care less what the other Pharisees might say or think. His supreme desire was to see his daughter healed. Desperation will often do interesting things for us. It will cause us to step out where we might otherwise be hesitant. To reach out in faith, to touch Jesus, as we might really be sort of reticent to do so. But it's interesting how God often uses different means to bring us to Jesus Christ. Some people are moved by how much Jesus loves them. Paul said, For the love of Christ constrains me. In Jeremiah 31.3, the prophet said that the Lord said to him, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee. Some are motivated to come to Christ through fear. The fear of spending eternity in hell is the thing that motivates them to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Jude wrote, On some, have compassion, making a difference, and others, save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. So there are some, it's just the judgment of hell that sort of, they fear the future apart from the Lord, and that is the thing that motivates them to receive Jesus Christ. And still others, they come like this gyrus out of sheer desperation. You've got a situation that is beyond your capacity to deal with, and you just are desperate, and you come to him out of sheer desperation. You know that there is no one else at this point you can turn to for help. That Jesus is the only answer to the problems that you are facing. In the case of gyrus, his little daughter was dying. Twelve years of age, and the light of his life was now going out. This could put him at odds with the other leaders in the synagogue, but when your little daughter's life is hanging in the balances, you could care less. Your daughter is your primary interest. And God loves you so much, he desires that you will come to him, and he will use whatever means are necessary to draw you to himself. And so we find that Jesus is on his way to the house of gyrus. There are many people that are thronging him, it's said, pushing, shoving in the crowd, trying to get close to Jesus. He was probably thinking in his mind, would you please get out of the way, clear a way for the master to go. Don't shove against him, don't crowd around him. And he's thinking about his little girl at home dying, and knowing that every minute is critical as far as her future is concerned. And yet here are the crowds that are thronging about Jesus, and suddenly Jesus just stops. And he asks, who touched my clothes? And the disciples, they said, Lord, you've got to be kidding. The way this crowd is pushing and shoving, and you ask who touched you? And Jesus knew that virtue had gone out from him, and so we find that this poor woman in the crowd who did touch him steps forward and she confesses her story. She said, 12 years ago, 12 years, I wonder if Jai was thinking, that's just how old my daughter is. 12 years ago, I started hemorrhaging. My life was going out. For 12 years she had been living in this condition, spent all of her money with doctors and so forth. None of them could help her. 12 years ago, began this slow process of hemorrhaging and slowly dying. And she said, I knew that in my mind, if I could just but touch you, I would be healed. And so she confessed how that she had made her way through the crowd, how that she had touched him, and immediately she felt in her body the hemorrhaging stop. And she knew that she was healed, and so she confessed to him the healing that had come by her touching the hem of his garment. She knew that Jesus could heal her. And she set a point of contact for releasing her faith. And I think that there's a certain value in sort of setting a point of contact to release the faith. You know, I think that all of us know that, yes, I believe that the Lord can do it. I mean, after all, he's God, he can do anything. And there's no problem with the belief that the Lord can heal me, the Lord can help me, the Lord can touch me. We have no problem with that. We all believe that. But I think it's important to know and to believe that the Lord is going to touch me now. In other words, a point of contact where I release that faith to accept now what I know that the Lord can do. And this is basically what she had done. There was this point of contact where if I can just but touch, I know that the moment I touch, I'm going to be healed. And thus, as she touched, her faith was released, and she did receive his touch at that moment. The point of contact, releasing faith. God said to Jeremiah, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? But that isn't really our problem. We don't really believe that anything is too hard for him. We know that he can do it, but our problem is we all oftentimes just are sort of ambiguous as far as the Lord doing it. I know he can, but I don't know when, and we're just sort of casual and noncommittal as far as the timing goes. But I think that it's great to set a point where the moment that I can touch him, I know that I'll be healed. So that she made her way through the crowd, and when she got close enough, reached out and grabbed hold of the hem of his garment, and the moment she did, she felt the healing. She was touched, and she knew that she was healed. So Jesus said to her, as she confessed her touch, he said, Daughter, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace and be healed of your plague. And when she said that the problem began 12 years ago, I'm sure that Jairus thought, if after 12 years she's been touched. My little daughter, who is 12 years old, that's when her life began. That's when she brought the joy into the home and into the house, and now she's dying. But here's this woman. For 12 years has been dying, and now with her touch, I'm sure it was just for Jairus' sake, the fact that 12 years and put the things together and gave him confidence that when Jesus gets there and touches my little girl, she'll be healed. It was just about at this time when someone came from the house of Jairus, probably one of his servants, and they said don't trouble the master any further. It's too late. Your little daughter died. And Jesus, turning to Jairus, gave him words of faith and comfort. He said that just believe. Don't worry, just believe. And be not afraid. Only believe. Fear and faith are often mutually exclusive. If I have real faith that the Lord is going to do it, I won't fear. But fear is an indication that I'm lacking faith. They are mutually exclusive. And so it is important, as Jesus said, don't be afraid, just believe. Fear and faith. And so when Jesus came to the house, the mourners had already gathered, and they were wailing over the death of the little girl. In those days, they had professional mourners. You could hire them. When someone in the family died, you wanted the whole neighborhood to know how much you loved the member of that family that had died. And so you'd hire these mourners. They'd come in, professional wailers. They would come in and start wailing, and the whole neighborhood would know that there was a death in the house and that someone you loved very dearly had passed away, and thus these professional wailers had already gathered, and they were wailing as Jesus came in. And he said to them, why all of this wailing and to do? She's not dead, she's just sleeping. And they left him to scorn. They had been paid for wailing, and they were going to wail. And so they wanted the checks, paychecks. And so he put them out of the house and said, get out of here. And he took the parents, Peter and John, in the room with the little girl, and he said to her, little maiden, arise. In the Greek, it's very tender. My little dear, arise. And she stood up, and they fed her, and she was perfectly healed. Some of you today are in need of the touch of the Lord on your life, or the other way around, you need to touch him. And I don't know the condition that you might be going through. I don't know how desperate you are today concerning your situation. But I do know that if you can just by faith touch him today, that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And he is able to touch you today, and you can be whole from whatever situation you might be facing. Back in Chapter 1, we read of this leper who came to Jesus, and he said, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And you remember Jesus answered him, he said, I am willing, be thou clean. But when you think about that, can you ever think of anyone that Jesus was not willing to help, who came to him for that help? If only he is willing, but he is more than just willing, he is wanting, and will do more than you could possibly dream or imagine if you'll just put your trust and faith and hope in him today. Willing and able to do exceeding, abundantly, more than all you could ask or think. He's here today. I don't know what your need is. It may be a physical need that you have. It may be a spiritual need. It may be a materialistic kind of a need. Maybe you're in need of a job, maybe you're in need of finances, whatever. But I know that he is able, and if you can just but touch him, in faith, all that you need will be taken care of, because he loves you that much, and wants to do for you what he did for that lady who just said, I know if I can just but touch him, I'm going to be all right. And I know today that if you can just, in faith, touch him, things are going to be all right. You can go from here with a victory in your heart, knowing that he is going to meet your needs, and that you're going to be whole, completely whole, by his touch and by your touching him. So may God, by his Holy Spirit, minister to you in a very special way, meeting whatever need there might exist in your life at this moment. Turning it over to him, and just putting your faith and your trust in him as Jesus said, be not afraid, only believe. Father, we thank you for the hope that we have in and through Jesus Christ, knowing, Lord, that all we need is just to touch you. And if we can only just touch you, Lord, we'll be whole of all of the conditions or problems that we might be facing. And so, Lord, I pray that this day, the faith of many will be raised to that point of reaching out to just touch you, and knowing, Lord, that as many as do touch you can be made whole from whatever condition they might be plagued with today. And so, Lord, minister in a very powerful way in the next few moments as there are those who are here who are needing, Lord, your help and who will be reaching out to touch you. Knowing, Lord, that as many as will touch you will be made whole of whatever the problem might be in their lives, and they can go from here rejoicing, Lord, in your goodness, in your love, and in your power. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are down here at the front for the purpose of ministering to you today. And so, if there is a need in your life of any sort, he is able. And knowing that he is able, he wants more than able, he's willing. Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. I will be thou made whole. So, he's willing. All you need to do, reach out, touch him. And they are here to help you reaching out to touch the Lord. So we're dismissed. We would encourage you to just come forward and just say, pray for me. I need the touch of God upon my life, and I want to touch him today. And may you just experience that wonderful excitement of God working in your life and working to meet the needs that you have this day. That you can go forth in confidence, in assurance that God loves you, and he's going to take care of the issues that are probably in your mind even now. And you can go free from here in Jesus and in his name and just experience God's power and God's work in your life. The Lord bless thee. And keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee. And be gracious unto thee. And be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee. And give thee peace. God bless you.