Desperate For Jesus

Opening illustration: Healing of a Hindu gentleman [in the Middle-East] who opened his house for prayer and became a Christian at his time of deepest need and crisis.

Introduction: The story of this woman has always fascinated me for nowhere else in the scripture can we find a healing literally stolen from Christ. What we have here is the power of faith, the kind that does not wait for approval. Now, I wonder if there is a place of such faith in our everyday lives today when the norm is an endless petition often with intentions of subduing the heavens into giving in to what we want for ourselves. Others, of course, with courage seek to receive the will of God but nevertheless wait for what God will give. The woman literally grabs it from Christ. She took it without Christ’s permission.

I believe that there really is such a place for that kind of desperation in our lives today. However, most important is the discernment of what it is that we want for ourselves. It is never an act of pride to believe that we shall receive when what we wish for ourselves is what God wills. In fact, it is humility of the heart that makes us believe, knowing that He truly loves us, we need nothing more from Him for whatever we wish for ourselves is already ours for the taking.

What does it take to touch God?

1. Our DESPERATION/NEED(s) [v. 25]:

What does it mean to live desperate for Jesus? That depends on the Jesus you know. Some of us run to Him when things go wrong and move away from Him when life is smooth, but there's a better way to live. Although most can quote, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled,” many have never truly experienced it—very few are truly hungry and thirsty for God.

Here was a woman who was hemorrhaging for twelve years (an overdue long-lasting problem). According to Jewish law (Leviticus 15:25-27), she was declared to be unclean. That means, she was cut off from attending the synagogue and also cut off from all her relationships. She was to be ostracized from being part of Jewish society. We also learn from Biblical historians that the Jewish Talmud describes eleven different cures for this common disease. We can imagine the devastation of being declared unclean for twelve years. That means, she had been living in isolation for a long, long time. She was an outcast.

Many people don’t doubt God’s ability to heal; they doubt His willingness to heal someone as “worthless” as themselves. You know what, God stopped for her to meet her need. Like this woman, you may be in a crowd, insignificant to the world but God knows you. He knows your desperation and He stops for just you. God desires a people who are desperate for Him. You see that God is attracted to our needs. The Bible tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart.

Illustration: (i) You may have seen pictures of children eating out of trash can in poverty-stricken countries. They are skin and bones with their stomachs touching their spine. Its takes a hunger like that to get desperate for God.

(ii) A woman was desperate to run into a burning building. Her babies were left inside. It took 5 heavy guys to contain her. That is the kind of desperation we need for God.

(ii) A young man comes to Archimedes seeking for wisdom. Archimedes takes him to a lake and pushes him down under the water and puts his hand upon his head preventing him to surface. But after much struggle before he drowned, he brings him up. Archimedes asks him what did he desire most when he was down and under. He said he desired to breathe. Then Archimedes told him that when his desire for wisdom is likewise, he shall have it.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 … the more you search and explore the world to meet your desires, the more you distance yourself from God and gradually go in the deep end, sometimes from where there is no return. Get your heart out of the world and focus on Jesus. You will surely find Him.

2. Life CRISIS [v. 26]:

Most of us get desperate only when we have a crisis in life. The word desperate comes from the Latin word desperados’ which means one who has lost all hope. To be desperate without God is to be lost indeed. But to be desperate in God is to find hope restored.

Many people today have similar experiences. That is, many people visit a vast variety of doctors, trying to find a cure. Many people today spend much of their money on doctors and become medically poor. Many people today do not get better but worse. In ancient days with ancient medicine, we cannot even begin to imagine the primitiveness of medical treatment and its consuming costs. This woman had spent all her earnings on medicine and was worse for it.