But I want to try to give you something I hope that'll help you. I find what helps us probably more than anything is something that's personal. Not something that is just to make our head bigger, but something that'll help us get closer. I find oftentimes that religion has a way of creeping into us. We get accustomed to our way of doing things. And sometimes that can almost become religious in nature. It means that whenever we come to church, we kind of fall into that rut. Remember the old preacher used to teach us that a rut is nothing but a big grave with both ends kicked. I'm glad you're here tonight. Nothing but both ends of the grave kicked out, but nonetheless, if you're in that rut, it's a real difficult thing to get out of the rut. Nobody has ever been at a particular time in their life not spiritually stale. I didn't say dead. I don't believe in that. I believe that once you're saved, that you're eternally secure. I believe you're going to heaven whether you want to go or not. Whether you go a good way or a bad way is a whole thing that's entirely up to you. You stay in fellowship with Him, it'll be a better ride for you than if you get out of fellowship with Him. Why? Because we know the Bible says, Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son, and he receiveth, right? But the fact of the matter is, is sometimes we mess up and He's not quick with the rod. Sometimes we mess up and He just lets us lay fallow. He just leaves us. We're kind of expecting Him to get on us, but He doesn't always get on to us. Sometimes the grace that He shows us has more of an effect than the whipping that He gives us sometimes. I'd rather be moved by the grace, but sometimes I appreciate the speed of a whipping. My dad was real big on not letting things run too long, but just long enough to make you miserable. You knew it was coming. and you can never talk him out of it. You know it was coming, it's just a matter of when is it going to come. And I hated the ones where he would get on to you in the morning service and say, I'll tend to you when I get home. Well, he just ruined lunch because he would never do it before lunch. So now you have to sit there during lunch knowing that after lunch, you're going back to your room and assume the position, and you're gonna get your three swats. I learned about assuming a position long before I was a policeman, man. Matter of fact, when they first started teaching me that, I was thinking, where's the belt? Somebody's fixing to get a whipping, you know? I didn't realize that's what you do before you cuff them and stuff them, or pardon me, before you place them gently into the fur-lined, foam rubber-lined back seat of the car to give them a limo ride down to where they're going. But here's what I want you to understand. as a Christian oftentimes, but especially as Bible believers. We tend to put ourself in a position almost being inhuman in the fact that we actually have feelings of infirmity and we actually at times really do get our feelings hurt whether physically or emotionally and even sometimes spiritually. Most times what we could put on the epitaph or the stone over our funeral parlor, I mean over the headstone of our graveside, we could probably just write, how are you doing? Fine. Because most of us lie the majority of the time. How are you doing? Fine. Everything's falling apart. Everything is coming to pieces. You are a soup sandwich on the inside, but on the outside, everything looks like it's okay. We've learned how to put on that face. We actually in the South, we take that as a matter of pride. It's kind of like, how are you? Fine. I don't need no help. No, I got a little bit. See, I didn't get the amen there, but I kind of got the, what we call the excited utterance. I kind of got the mm. Because we're all guilty of that. It's kind of like, yeah, I've kind of done that before. Because we know oftentimes we need help, but we don't want to tell other people because it shows weakness, or we don't want to be a burden to them. You have so many other problems. You're so busy. So many other things are going on. All the excuses we have. The fact of the matter is, the hardest bridge for most of us to cross is the bridge over ourself. The hardest thing that stands between us and getting a relationship that we need to have with Jesus when we need help is admitting, I need some help. I mean, I like the song, I Need Thee Every Hour. Every Hour I Need Thee, that's a good song. That's an old hymn song that we used to sing all the time. That's one of the things, especially on a Wednesday night, we'd sing, I Need Thee Every Hour. Oh, I Need Thee, I Need Thee, I Need Thee Every Hour, Precious Savior, so on and so forth. But here's the problem, I like to sing instead of Hour every minute. But the truth is, when trouble comes, We tend to wait until we run out of all options before we make the right move and that's to say, okay Lord, I've done everything I can do and I guess I'm gonna go ahead and have to come to you. Instead of making it the first option, make it the final option. Could I show you something in Mark chapter number 5? We'll be in a couple of places here tonight. Could you get two places for the sake of where we're going to start tonight? I won't give you a 15 minute dissertation or a sermonette at the beginning. I'm just going to give you a couple of things for you to think about. I'd like for you to leave your finger here in Mark 5 and then find, if you will please, Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews is back toward the back part of your Bible. If you get anywhere over there, just kind of open it up and fake it if you don't, you know, make it. That's okay. Somebody said one time we were looking for the book of Malachi, they found Matthew, and I said, well, you got the M right, so you're doing pretty good. You're close in there. So, anyhow, let me read you this story here. This is a story that everybody is familiar with. I hope to maybe be able to preach it in a way that you haven't maybe heard it before. But I would like for you to get this first of all Mark 5, this is the passage that talks about the demon possessed man and so on and so forth of Gadarene right after the bad storm that took place. And the Lord and them come up there to the island of Gadarene and He heals the demon possessed man there. And then in verse number 21, And when Jesus was passed over again by the ship to the other side, much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jarius by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet. And it besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee, come, lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him, and thronged him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she heard of Jesus, when she had heard of Jesus, came into the press behind him and touched his garment, for she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Thank you. Now turn if you will please to Hebrews 4. And let me set this up for you. I'm positive your pastor's taught you this before, so it's just kind of a rehash of a biblical lesson. You know, there's certain things that are in the Bible that are important for you to understand. Things were different before Jesus came than after He came. In other words, you had a religious system that was set up and it involved a priesthood. And those priesthood were set apart. No one was to approach those priests. Those priests were considered to be holy. They were considered to be the mediator. They were considered to be the go-between. They were the one that you went to in order to get your prayers answered. They were the one you went to offer the sacrifices. And so now you have to understand in the story, you've got to get the history behind this, Because not only was this woman having an issue of blood, she was considered to be impure, unclean, unholy, and she wasn't allowed to touch anybody, let alone a preacher, a priest, someone who was considered to be, as the Bible teaches the Lord, a master of that kind of a thing. She wasn't allowed to even touch a man, even if she hadn't been clean, but doubly so. because of the fact that she was unclean. Why is that important? Because in the story I just read to you, she touches him. So that means her impurity, that means her wickedness, her sickness, her disease, her purity or impurity has now been transferred to the Lord. Let me show you this in the book of Hebrews and maybe it will make some sense to you. Look, if you will, verse 15 of Hebrews 4. The Bible says, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched. How's he touched? With the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need. Preacher, why is that important for the story? Well, in the old days it was about a religion, and today it's about a relationship. the difference of what a touch means. In the old days, the priests were to represent holiness and purity and to be set apart and separated, and sometimes our religious ways have a tendency to do that way. They tend to repel more than they draw. They tend to put up a barrier to make people think, you know, we're independent, fundamental, King James only, Bible believing, dispensationally straight, Baptist, and that means don't touch us. Yet in the Bible, when you start watching the Lord, He comes along knowing that He's there to fulfill the law, but He never is untouchable. He never is unreachable. He never goes where there needs to be help. As a matter of fact, in the story, turn back if you will to Mark 5, the first place He shows up over there, after a storm in the life, He shows up on the island of Gadarene and goes there to help a devil-possessed man that obviously nobody else can help. You say, how do you know? Do you read about the guy? First of all, he's running around the tomb. Second of all, every time they try to control him and he breaks the fetters and chains, he's probably a prison escapee. No man can control him. Which reminds me to say, sometimes they don't come to you, you gotta go to them. Two of these stories in Mark chapter number 5, the Lord is going to a place where somebody needs some help. In the first place, it's the devil possessed man of Gadarene. In the second place, it's Jairus' daughter over there at somebody's house. Along the way, somebody comes to him that needs some help. But here's what you need to see in the story, is that when Jesus comes along, wherever people need help, that's where you find Jesus. So we find in the book of Hebrews, the Lord is touched with us. You say, well He's not here, I can't touch Him. The Bible says, this is going to make you men get upset, the Bible says He's touched with the feelings of your infirmities. Not just the fever of your infirmities. Not just the pain of your infirmities. How those infirmities make you feel. That devil possessed man is over there running around in that place. He's naked as the day he was born. Every time anybody comes around him, they're scared to death of him, petrified. But here's the thing that you find that you may find a little bit strange. The Bible says he's in that place, that cemetery, and he's cutting himself with stones. In Bible study, your preachers taught you this, I'm sure, you have what's called the law of first mention. And then you have the law of further mention. And then you have the law of final mention. What that means is, is that if you see it happen in the beginning, and then it holds true sort of in the middle, and it's the same in the end, you'll generally find that law of first mention runs through as a thread all the way through the Bible. The first mention of someone cutting themselves has to do with a tight picture of your salvation, and it has to do with a cutting of an individual, or shedding of blood, because He looked like that man in the garden there, in the cemetery there, is trying his best to clean himself up, but he doesn't have any hope of cleaning himself up. Therefore, Jesus has to show up. You say, why? Well, because the Bible says his name was Legion. Do you ever wonder why the Lord asked him what his name was? Do you ever think about that? It wasn't like the Lord didn't know him. I mean, if he's God manifest in the flesh, he would know everything. Is that right? I mean, he's omniscient, so he knows everything. You ever wonder to yourself, why is it he would ask the devil possessed man what his name was? It wasn't because, this is an important part of the story, it wasn't because Jesus didn't know him. It was because he wanted to know if the man saw himself as Jesus saw him. Oftentimes, before we come to Jesus, the bridge we have to cross is the one that makes us look at ourself in the mirror and realize we're not what we want everybody else to believe we are. We're what Jesus knows us to be. You know, that's one of the hardest things to do when it gets ready to come to Jesus. You have to admit I got a problem bigger than one I can overcome myself. You know how hard that is for a Southerner, especially a Southern man? You know how it is because we're so full of pride, you know, we're going to fix it ourself and we'll do it ourself. That's why, ma'am, you still have 20 things around the house that have been waiting 20 years to be fixed because he's going to get to it one day kind of thing. That's what happens in our churches a lot of times. A lot of times we're going to get to it one day. We know we have a problem. We know it needs to be fixed. We're going to get to it one day. You know, like the leaking roof of bitterness. that some of us still have. How am I doing so far? See, it's like, well, why did you have to start there? Well, I mean, I figured you already warmed up by now. How about the anger and the wrath and the strife and the emulation? How about the gossip and the slander? See, there's a lot of things there about grieving the Holy Spirit. He doesn't mention smoking and drinking and cussing and dress codes. You know what He mentions? He mentions the sins of the heart. He mentions the things that on the inside we can be messed up, but on the outside we can have on a suit and a tie and have our hair cut just right and be clean shaven, boy. I mean, if somebody looks at us, you know what we think? They think, man, they're doing really good. But some of you right now are sitting here and you are coming to pieces right now on the inside. You're hemorrhaging right now. Your spiritual strength is running out of you just like Samson when he got his hair cut off. You're sitting there to yourself thinking, man, this is the last meeting I'm going to. This is the last time I'm coming to church. These people, I can't stand this church. I can't stand the Bible. I can't stand the preacher. I can't stand this. I'm about done with the whole thing. And you're bleeding out because of a number of problems. But on the outside, You look pretty good, because we've learned how to play the game. Well, you know what happens? He comes there all finished with the devil-possessed man, and Jairus comes up there to him, and when he looks at him, he says to him, tell me where your daughter is. Now, I want you to understand this in the story. When this little girl, Jairus' daughter, was born, that woman started her sickness. Do you understand? You have a middle-aged woman here who's been sick for 12 years. She's more mature, we'll say that at least. And we have a young girl. This girl's been well for 12 years. This girl's been sick for 12 years. This one's middle-aged. That one's just been born. She's only 12 years of age. I'll come back to that and show you the importance of it in a minute. I want you to notice first of all this, I want you to notice in verse number 26 the Bible says this, She had suffered many things and many positions, and when she had spent all, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. She had to realize that she had a problem that she needed help with. She had to understand that I have a problem that is bigger than me and I can't fix it. You know what she had done? She had done in the passage everything she could, including spending her money, seeing everything and everybody, probably went the holistic route. She probably went to see a regular physical doctor. She went to see everybody. She had everything pronounced over or she could have pronounced over. She went to WebMD. She tried everything there was to try and everything, you know, bacon soda with everything and went on a full organic diet and did all kind of stuff like that. You know what the Bible said? It wasn't not that she just was not better, she got worse. You ever had a problem like that? I mean, I have problems, but generally speaking, the problem that I had last year is not the same problem I have this year, but to have the same problem 12 years. I mean, I don't know about you, but the monotony of that thing in and of itself would just wear me out to know that every single day, this woman went to bed every night when she went to bed, every morning when she woke up, she had the same problem that she went to bed with. She never got away from that problem. Now, let me make sure you understand the problem. Her purity is in question because of the type of the problem that it was. That meant it forbid her to be around her children if she had any at all, or to be around her husband if she was married, or to be around her parents. As a matter of fact, they would treat that woman like a leper because they would have to go through a cleansing process if she touched them or if they touched anything she had touched. They were so religious and so big on purity and cleanliness and holiness, they would leave food on her doorstep but they wouldn't dare go in. You understand that her problem has separated her from everything including her money. She is isolated. She is alone. She is by herself. As a matter of fact, so much so, you don't know the woman's name because the only thing big in her life is her problem. She is literally consumed with what she is going through. She is identified by her problem, not by her name. Can I say that to you again? I think it's a pretty good statement there. She's identified by her problem, not by her name. Have you ever known anybody like that? I mean, I've known some people, and you and I have known some people, they're known by their problem, bitterness. Foolishness, arrogance, pride. You know them by their problem. Sometimes though you can see the problem and they don't recognize the problem. The problem we're going to talk about tonight, it doesn't matter if I see it. It matters whether or not you see it. You say, why? I can't fix your problem. But He can fix your problem. But it's hard to admit you got a problem. It's hard to admit that when you're going through a problem, your name no longer matters because all that matters to you is what you're going through that nobody seems to understand. And right now, no matter what it might be, it may be small to somebody else, but it's big to you. And it doesn't matter how small it might be to somebody else. If it's big enough to hurt you, or to destroy you, or to get you out, it's big enough in and of itself. Notice about her problem. I would like to say this about it. It was a personal, private problem. It wasn't something that you would go out into the streets and highways and broadcast even if they knew the physical doctor's diagnosis of an issue of blood and all that it was connected with. The Lord puts this stuff in the Bible because there needs to be a privacy sometimes. There's some things that are personal that involve our purity. Some things that are so messed up that have tainted or dirtied our lives. They're not everybody else's business. And now you find yourself needing the touch of Jesus, but you're thinking, well, I'd like to go, but, you know, what are the people going to say? I mean, if they know me, when you're getting sick enough, it won't make a difference who's in the way. You're going to knock them out of the way. We'll get there in a minute for you to get there. But can I say this to you? It's a personal issue. Now I like that in the Bible because I also mention to you the anonymity of the person in that passage. She is not mentioned by name. Not only because she is identified by her problem, but also the author intentionally leaves her out so that you can then incorporate your name in the passage when you have that kind of a problem and you can be male or female because the issue is the big issue, not the issue of blood. It is causing you to hemorrhage spiritually. Spiritually, you're here in church, and some have been here 10, 15, 20 years, but you're hemorrhaging. And gradually, over a period of time, if you study anemia, what you find out is, is the disease controls the person, the person doesn't control the disease. The person doesn't get up and say, I've got anemia today, but this is what I'm going to do. No, they get up in the morning, they wait and see how they feel. And based on that disease telling them not only what they can do, but I hate this part, what they can't do. You start getting older, you know what happens? The same thing happens with age. You know, in the old days, you could go two or three stories up a ladder with two bundles of roofing shingles on each shoulder and walk up there and dump them off and go back down and run back and forth and run 20 or 30 squares up there that way. Nowadays, they say, preacher, can you hand us those roofing shingles? You got a crane? Preaching a couple of hundred pound sacks of fertilizer back here or some cement back here where we're putting these posts in on the back of the property. Has somebody got a cart or a wheelbarrow or a golf cart or something to put them in and a lift to get them in there? It doesn't matter that you might have used to could do it. You can't do it anymore. One of the hardest things to understand is when age comes and sometimes spiritually, you could whip the devil with one hand tied behind you, but it ain't like that sometimes when you're anemic spiritually. When you're physically sick, true, but when you're anemic spiritually, the Bible says, casting your care upon him for he cares for you. How many of you know where that passage is? I do because I read it this afternoon. Okay, good. So Daniel knows where it is. Go ahead and give me the address. First Peter 5. Now guess what happens? Casting your care upon him for he careth for you. Now watch what's next. And your adversary the devil's roaring lion walketh about. How come I better cast my care on him? Because the devil's coming. You say, it can't be like that. Why do you think He put it in there? You know why? Because the devil's a roaring lion and he waits until you get anemic, until you get weak. Make no mistake about it, the devil, now that you're saved, he has not quit being your enemy and he would love to take you down and put your head over his fireplace. I don't care how invaluable you may think you are because you're now one of the Lord's children. You now all of a sudden have a bounty on your head. And He would love nothing better than to destroy your testimony. And if He can't destroy your testimony, He'd just love to have you sit on your blessed assurance at the house and rot till Jesus comes. So what do you say? Look at that right there. What happened to them? Bled to death? I just bled them out real slow. Just a death by a thousand paper cut. Just little things along the way. Just cutting them up. Let them just keep bleeding and keep bleeding and keep bleeding. And the cares weighed them down. And the burdens weighed them down. And the problems weighed them down. And the pride weighed them down. And they got to the point that they wouldn't even come to the Lord and let Him help them. So what do you do? I just left them there. Just let them hang there. Just let them bleed until they bled out. Some people in churches today are bled out. Could I say this to you? It not only was a personal problem, and not only was a private problem, and a purity problem, but it was a painful problem. I'm just using some peas to get warmed up here just a little bit. You say, why? You know why? Because the Lord's trying to help you to understand that some of the problems we have are very real and they're very hurtful. They're painful. And all pain is not physical. What I used to do years ago, I won't go into a bunch of details, but I dealt with a lot of little kids. We used to say, not in earshot of any of the people, but the homicide guys used to call our guys the walking dead squad. Because what the kids had endured had induced so much pain in their life that it left permanent scarring. And years and years and years of therapy, whether you believe it or not, but unless you've been abused the way they were abused, just accept the fact you may not know all that's involved in that. But the bottom line is, you know what happened? The pain that's associated with that has nothing to do with anything physical. You can't even see it on the outside. There's no scars out there. There's no cut marks, gunshot wounds. There's no places on them where they've been bruised or broken up, at least in the majority of the cases. But man, the emotional damage on the inside. is something they carry with them from now on. Not all pain is on the outside. Most of the pain we have in our churches today is an inward thing. You say, oh, you're waxing psychological. Well, I hate to tell you this, but part of you is a brain. And dealing with that, you don't go to a regular medical doctor for your head because your emotions play a big role in who you are. Do you realize that oftentimes you can control a lot about how you feel by just what you talk about? Look, I'm not Mr. Positive. Y'all have known me for years around here. I'm not the guy that's going to get up here and give you a Norman Vincent Squeal thing, and all that other kind of stuff, and try to see you at the top, and all that other Zig Ziglar foolishness, and give you a marketing thing, and dress a certain way, and wear a power tie, and all that kind of stuff. But I do know this, sometimes in the Bible, if you read about it, the Lord gets very, very angry. God got mad at the nation of Israel for complaining. So much so that Paul writes about it to the Corinthian church. He says, listen, God uses an illustration. Those people over there, because they complained, he dropped them dead in the wilderness after 40 years of wandering. Why? Because God's anger was heated up. He got mad about the people complaining. You know what? It's a strange thing. We're saved individuals, but that part of our old nature didn't go very far. We are some of the gripenest, complaininest people you've ever seen. You know, it's like, OK, we need rain. I didn't mean a hurricane. And then it starts to rain. When's it going to leave? You're flooding me out. I can't even get a stand of corn around here. I mean, how do you expect me to be able to feed the hogs and all that kind of stuff up here? And then it gets dry. Man, it's dry. It's dry. I don't know. How come they can't regulate that thing like a thermostat up there? Right? You know, when we sit down and we get ready to eat and we got so much food and stuff to eat like that, it's kind of like, well, I don't know, it just don't taste like it used to. You want me to show you how much it revolves around you? You say, I'm not really that way, preacher. Okay, you go in to see the doctor at the doctor's office and you're sitting in the waiting room. I have yet to have anybody say, give me the last number. I'll wait until everybody else has checked out of here. No, the second you walk in the door, it's kind of like, my appointment's at 10. How come you ain't called me? It's 10.02. Let's go now. What's the problem here? Well, we got ran up, we had an emergency and all that. You're always having an emergency. I got things to do and places to go and people to see. How's that working out for you? The doctor says, okay, make another appointment. I'll see ya. They never seem to be in a rush. You ever notice that? But here's what happens. When they do get you on time, hey, how you doing, number 3642. Hey, it's good to see you. Okay, well, you're looking pretty good to me and that kind of thing. And here's your script. Then walk out the door. He don't never spend no time with me. Am I telling the truth? In one minute we want him to come over there, but you don't want him spending any time with anybody else because you want him to have your appointment on time. But when he's in there, I'm like, Doc, now you need to slow down because I am the important one here right now. I mean, I'm the test case for things. Here's another good one for you. You walk in a restaurant and the people say to you, you need to wait about five minutes to be seated. Oh. I'm spending money here. Okay, you're going to have to wait five minutes to do so. Just you're going to have to wait. Then you're seated. God help the waitress that waits on somebody that was seated after you. Am I telling the truth? You know why? Because it really is about us. Those little things crop up around us to show us how much it is about us. We don't even realize we got a problem. And then we leave a track and 50 cents on the table. You're going to teach her. Bless God, you're not going to take care of me first. I'll give you your 50 cents. Now I want you to come to church and worship Jesus with us on Sunday. She's thinking, man, your church is probably broke. If you tie the way you tip, we're in good, bad shape. They both start with a T. A lot of people have replaced the T with a P. But that's a whole nother story. Woo, did it get tight right there. She had an issue. Would you agree that her issue separated her from everything and everybody? Now notice what happens. Notice the Bible says this as she comes along. The Bible says that she had suffered many things and when she had heard of Jesus, somebody at least told her that's a whole other message in and of herself. And guess what happened? Do you see it in the passage? When she had heard of Jesus, verse 27, she came where? In the press. She not only had a personal problem, you had a people problem. The press gets more people than anything else. The devil uses the press. I'm not talking about Fox News or CNN or whatever trash you watch, I don't care. You know, you watch the Fair and Balanced, that's because you think it's Fair and Balanced, and you watch the other one and that's the liberal one, and if you watch, you just as well watch Ho Chi Minh walk up the Vietnamese trail, man. They're all on the same side with the same agenda, but the bottom line is, you know, well, they're Christians, you know? Okay, anyway. You know what come times can get in the way? The press of prejudice. The press of prejudice can keep you from getting close to Jesus to getting what you want. You know, like a man's greater than the woman. Or that a white man's better than a black man. or a Mexican man, or a Chinese man, or a Korean man. You get nervous now. You're in the cell. You break out. Don't get your sheets, man. Break out in a sweat, but don't be going after a sheet. You say, well, how dare you think your skin color makes you better than somebody else? Where'd you learn that? You had to be taught that. You weren't born that way. I just will go ahead and alienate you good right now, because some of y'all, all of a sudden, y'all weren't looking, and now you're giving me We don't do it like that around here, boy. Okay, well when you're preaching you can get up and do whatever you want to do. How dare you think you're better than a woman because you're a male. You didn't have any choice in that. I don't care what the people are trying to teach you nowadays. They're trying to tell you when you came in you don't know what you are. Check the plumbing, you'll find out what you are. That's what we do with animals. You don't walk to an animal and, you know, I'm gonna wait till he moves to find out if it's soprano or bass or tenor, and then I'll just, no, no, check the plumbing. That's all you do. You don't let, you know, well, you're an X generation, and we'll let you put a, we're not, I haven't made up my mind yet, and all that other kind of foolishness. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You know what, the prejudice that Republican's better than Democrat, and Democrat's better than Independent, Independent's better than Tea Party, the press of politics. You say, what happened? Man, that stuff gets in a church. You know what? People can't even get to the altar for politics. They're worried, well, if I go down there, you know, they'll think I'm going to change how I'm going to vote in the election. I get wore out with that stuff so bad, man. It just eats me up, man. A guy comes up to me in my church. He says, why don't you know, you know, we won the election. I said, we won the election. Who's we? You and a mouth in your pocket? I didn't know you were on a ballot. What do you mean, we won the election? He said, yep, you know that guy I was voting for, you know, he got in. I'm getting much better at it. I'm a little more calm and much more pastoral, but I'm thinking, you honestly, in your mind, think that your dollar contributed to somebody's campaign, and your vote was the swing vote, and that's what got the guy in office. You're so full of yourself that you honestly believe your vote swayed the entire nation, and you get this guy in there. Or woman, or whoever you vote for, I don't care, don't read nothing into it at all. Sometimes the press of preference will get in the way. How we like it to be. No matter what the Bible says, as the fellow told me in Alabama, sitting at that big table, sitting around there, Preacher, could you come help us work out a couple of things? Well, I can try, we'll see. And so we got done with the chicken dinner, there was a southern thing, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, big old gigantic, big as your head, biscuits, big old cat head biscuits, like that must have been a big cat, man. They look like pancakes, man, they were so big and big fluffy things like that, like an individual cake and that kind of a deal. There wasn't anything green on that table at all except maybe the color of the tablecloth. Everything was just starch, I mean corn with 14 tons of butter in there and I think they did have green beans there but it was laden down with hog fat, I mean all the good stuff, amen? And then a whole table lining desserts. Everything you can imagine with enough sugar in there, man, to give you diabetes just looking at it. It's kind of like what comes out of the pulpits nowadays. You listen to it long enough, you get diabetes listening to it. But at any rate... You're looking at that stuff. So we get done eating there. Now you got to have coffee because you're going into a diabetic coma, man. I mean, you've had so much sugar, man. You are floating high. And it's after the Sunday morning service. And so now they're bringing you coffee. And it's got to be black because if it ain't, man, you're not going to be able to stay awake. And so we're sitting there and they get their stuff. And the preacher said, he said, okay, now Brother Peacock's gonna try to maybe give us a little advice on some business issues here and some things we need to get fixed in the church with the Constitution and bylaws and this and that and the other. And I said to a young man over there, I said, brother, could you hand me my Bible, please? And this old codger sitting across the table from me right over there, he said, you needn't bother with that. And he pulled his suspenders, you know. You needn't bother with that, he said. I said, bother with what, sir? He said, that Bible. This is a business meeting. I said, that's why I need my Bible. And he said, we don't care what that Bible says, we got other problems. I said, well, I look at the preacher, I said, well, if that's the case, I said, there ain't no point in being here. And he said, we don't do it like that around here. And I said, well, how's that working out for you, Pop? I shouldn't have said Pop, but it was so much better than what I was thinking about saying. I had a multiple choice there, and there was only one correct answer. I'm just saying, you know, now I'm not like y'all, I'm just saying, that stuff is in there, and I'm like, Lord, you better give me, and he said, okay, I'll settle for pop. I'm like, okay. But you know what happens? Sometimes preferences get in the way. Sometimes the press of hypocrites in the church That's amazing to me how this woman, when it comes time, she understands, listen, she's fixing to step out, and if she touches anybody, if she gets found out, at the very least, she is going to be sequestered for a very long time for her purity, but there is a good probability if she touches the wrong person because of her condition, they could take her out and stone her. Pretty big deal that she needed to overcome to be able to get to Jesus. When she goes out, trust me when I tell you, it's like living in any town anywhere or being a part of any Baptist church. When she got ready to step out, everybody in that town knew who she was and the problem that she had. Nobody would have been shocked, go, well there's Bobby Sue, I can't believe it. How you been girl? Where you been at? I ain't seen you in so long, you know, you old back-slitting heifer, you. You hussy, where have you been? Man, didn't you hear that preacher's sermon about being in church and what Thomas missed? You didn't hear all that? I mean, why weren't you in church, honey? I mean, we had church Sunday night. Where was you? You know, all that kind of stuff. The press of that godly comparison of what are people going to say. The press of the past. The pain of the past that haunts you. Well, if I step out there, they're going to bring up where I've been. and what I did, and who I was with, and what I lost, and I've been to prison, or I've been here, or I've been there. Now, for you folks that have never been there, thank the Lord, but don't let it go to your head, because it's only by the grace of God you didn't. That's not just said to support Pharisees. It's you're where you are because God protected you, not because you were holy. God just looked out for you. A fellow told me one time, he said, well, Lord ain't never done much for me. I said, you're breathing, ain't you, boy? I mean, if he's going to be a jerk, I'm going to be a jerk. I do that to southerners because it's kind of like, how big you grow, boys? Where are you from? Big enough to have five pounds of trigger squeeze, sonny boy. I may not be able to whoop you, but I can guarantee you I can make you wish you was not around. and you won't ever want to do it again. I ain't got it like I used to have it, but I got enough sense to know. I don't do it fair. Not no more. You get yourself hurt that way. I'm old, man. You could break something real quick. I'm going to pick up something and hit you. God ain't done nothing for me. He ain't done much for me. You're breathing, ain't you, boy? Well, well, well, well, yeah. You control that? You run around with a CPAP on all the time? You got an iron lung going for you all the time? How is it you're breathing? How is it you're standing? How is it you're seeing? How is it you're hearing? How is it you had the brain to get the job you have? How is it you have a car? How is it you have a family? How is it you have a house? What do you mean God ain't done nothing for you lately? You mean He ain't made you a millionaire, didn't let you win at the gambling table or at the horse track or the dog track? He didn't let you win the lottery or something or the one-armed bandits in Vegas? What do you mean God hadn't done anything for you? God's protected you when you didn't even know God was protecting you. Somebody waiting around the corner to knock you in the head. Somebody that would have ran a traffic light and caused you to stop and would have hit you with a bone and wiped you out with nothing but your eyeball. What do you mean God ain't done nothing for you? But boy, when you get ready to move toward the Lord, it kind of has that idea, I reckon what they're going to say, who cares, they don't pay. When it comes time, man, you want to see revival break out in this church or any church, but more likely in your soul, you've got to get to the point when you realize you need Jesus, get out of my way, I am coming to Jesus. Get all that prejudice and preferential and politics and all that other... I'm getting to Jesus. Yeah, but did you know, and did you know, and if you go down there, and we don't like him so much, and if you go down there and don't think you're responding, I ain't responding to him. He's Balaam's ass as far as I'm concerned. I'm responding to the preaching that's coming out of his mouth. I want to get down there and see Jesus. Well, now if you do that, you know, then we need to do so and so forth, and we need to say, which side are you going to sit on, and what you going to be doing? Would you just get out of my way? I'm trying to get to Jesus. I saw an elderly lady. She's getting on up in years now. I was at a meeting. I was preaching. I got done preaching and then I gave an invitation, or I turned it over to the pastor to give an invitation, and I got ready to close in prayer, and I saw this woman coming out, and she's coming down the center alleyway there, and she's an elderly lady. She's up there in her 80s and stuff, and her health's not good, and she's holding on to the thing like this, and another person comes up there, and she shakes him off like this, and she takes a step like that, and I didn't know. I wasn't being smart. I didn't know if she was not in her right mind, or if she was maybe going to the bathroom, or what it was, and she was sittin' about three quarters of the way back, pretty good-sized church, and she put her hand right here, and she get like that, and directly a fella come up there and got her by the other arm like this, and the invitation's goin', and that woman's goin' like this. Goin' like this. And she finally gets down to the front right there, and she tries to get down on her knees, and she just gets right there on the front edge of that pew, and she just sits down like this. And man, tears were running down that old woman's cheeks like water running down a mountain after a spring rain shower. Her heart was broke like a hummingbird's wing, just shattered all to pieces like an egg under a giant seal. And she's just, she's one of them, when she's weeping, she's shaking, she's weeping so bad. You know what she needed help with? She was lonely. She was by herself, living on a fixed income. She used to have a husband and kids and grandkids, she'd outlived everybody. And two and three in the clock in the morning, I sat down with her, I figured I could learn something from her. I didn't realize how bad it was for my mama. My dad's been gone. He died at my age, which I think is pretty young now that I'm that age. She's been by herself for 25 years. Two and three and four o'clock in the morning, the clock ticking off, and you're by yourself. She's lonely. You say, well, what do you tell her about being lonely? I don't know. I never experienced that. I don't know what that's like. I don't know what it's like to have your husband gone, and kids have started their own families, The clock on the wall. Sounds like somebody beating on a wall with a sledgehammer. Three or four o'clock in the morning, quiet, air conditioner shuts down, nothing's moving in there. Scared, you might hear something, a cat runs out throughout the back, a rat runs through the roof or something, a dog begins to bark. You're scared, you're by yourself, especially if you're a woman, but when you're getting old, you're afraid somebody's going to come in there, and you're sitting there, and you lay awake half the night, petrified somebody's going to come in, and you don't have sleep, and you get up the next morning, there ain't enough coffee to make you be awake. You say, what's that like? That woman just broke slap out of the frame. You say, what? Hurting. Painful. Frightened, scared, alone, petrified, by herself. Husband gone, family gone. Man! You say, what is that? That's where people live. That's where people live. That woman get up and go to the bathroom in the condition she's in, if she were to fall down, if she didn't have one of them things, she could lay there a day or two or three and die of dehydration. You don't know. You don't know when you get that age that if you were to fall, you'd break a hip or bust a hip, and you want to be able to call, but you're so used to being able to get over to the thing and get your phone, or be able to get to the shelf and get your phone, or get to the desktop and get to your phone. You say, what was her problem? Lonely and scared, fearful, and in church. And she's down there, you know what she's saying? Jesus, I need some help. I need some help. I got an infirmity. It's private. It's personal. Christians will make fun of me because I'm not bold as a lion anymore. I'm weak as a kitten. I'm scared. I'm frightened. I'm lonely. I'm kind of half bitter because I've been left here by myself. I have nothing. I got nobody. I don't even know if my check's coming in next week. I don't know what to do. Man. And still in church. I have to leave her at the altar. Go to the altar myself, you say, wow, that's where people live. Let's see if we can help the lady, would you like to see if we can do something for her? You know, we have to realize, we have to realize that every now and then we have to recognize we're the problem, we need some help. Notice, secondly, found right there in the passage when the press gets out of the way, you have to recognize that oftentimes the internal problems are what cause external issues. We'll talk about her struggle and her strain and her strife and the trouble and the trial, the tragedy, the tribulation, all that other stuff, but here's the thing. I told the preacher today and a friend of mine, we were sitting just talking, I said, too often we're looking for the direct line. Men are real bad about that, especially in marriages. Women have a tendency to circle the airport until they run out of fuel and then they pull in and they pull in the hanger and until the engines have shut down, they have not yet to tell you what the whole issue is. And if you're stupid enough to jump in while you're still in the air, you're going to be up there a little while longer or she's going to kick you out and you're going to parachute her without a parachute. Men are kind of like, just tell me what you want to do and I'll do it to fix it. And you learn real quick. Sorry baby, tell me what you want me to do. I ain't your mother. I understand that, but just go ahead and play her part right now and just tell me what you want me to do and I'll get it done. I want to talk. That's what we're doing, but do we have to spend all afternoon? Could you just tell me now? No, I wanna know you love me by the amount of time that you talk to me. Oops. Sometimes when it comes to us as Christians, we're more interested in looking at Nathan the prophet and the thou art the man that he says to David. And we miss the entire whole dissertation that Nathan the prophet uses that story. But we're in such a hurry to point fault on everybody else that we miss the whole story. Sometimes when it comes to trouble, one of the things that we don't do is we don't realize there's a backstory. Most of us look at each other and we think you're where you are now that you've always been here. Trust me when I tell you, I've known Brother Jeff for a while, but what you see right now doesn't represent anything about where he came from or what he's been through. You cannot tell by looking at where he's at now. Where everybody is now is not where they've always been. You with me so far? Now watch what happens. She recognizes the problem and then she realizes, you know something? If I don't do something myself to change the situation, it's not ever going to get any better. So she had to realize that first of all, I'm out of options, and you know what I gotta do? I need to go to somebody that can help me because I don't have anything else I can do. This problem is bigger than I can handle, and I'm finally willing to accept the fact it's more than I can do, but if I don't do something for it, nobody can do it for me. You know, one of the hardest things about Christianity is, is that after salvation, which is something He does for us, after that, it's your responsibility to come to Him to get Him to help you with your problems. Nobody can do it for you. And you know what I know? No matter how bad we've tried, we've tried for years to make Christians. Here's what we do. We get an unsaved person, we get them saved. And then we immediately begin formulating them. First, if they're guys, we've got to get a haircut. If they're a woman, we start giving them hair growth pills. Yeah, because you know, you're spiritual, the longer your hair is. Right? I've known some people with some really long hair and they... anyway. And then the next thing you do is we begin to look at the outward appearance. We adjust their dress codes. Oh boy, getting quiet there. You say, why? Because it's what we can see. And it makes us comfortable as long as they conform to the image we think they should be in. We think they're a Christian. No, no. Paul said, work out your salvation with fear and trust. I know I sound like an apostate. Y'all are like, that preacher's done gone. He's gotten old. He's getting soft now. No, I've been at it long enough to know you can't make a Christian. You can't force them into a block. They have to be willing. They have to realize, I'm the one with the problem, I've got to go get some help. If Jesus teaches them, let me tell you this, it'll make a change in their life. If He doesn't teach them, you can't make them change. You can force them into it, you can put them in prison and put them in a jumpsuit, but that doesn't mean that they won't have a repeat or recidivism rate that's off the chain. You say, why? I've learned with Bible believers, even though we think we can make them look right on the outside, that outward conformity does not mean anything as to where they're at on the inside. She had an internal issue. She's hemorrhaging. But if you were to look at her, you would think everything was fine. You know what happens, I've learned, Brother David, sometimes the reason people are so mean and mean-spirited and sometimes arrogant and obnoxious is really because they're bleeding because they got wounded a long time ago. The Lord lets us bleed sometimes for a reason. Because He knows, generally speaking, if your heart's right, sooner or later the wounded lamb is going to wind up in the lap of the Savior. And the wounds are what will drive you closer to Him. Think about your life. The trouble and times you've been in difficulty and storms. You know what you did? You drew up close to Him and you said, Lord, I've got to have some help. I've got to have some help. I've got to have some help. And the troubled times in your life have become some of the best times in your life because it washed away all the other noise and it allowed you to be able to hear what He had to say. Well, guess what happens? The woman comes over there and she's walking in the direction of the Lord and she's moving through the crowd now. And the crowd is all around, I'm almost done. And she said, if I could but touch the hem of His garment, if I could just, I know I'd be whole. That's what it says. You read the account over in Luke. If I could touch, if I could just touch the part that's on the ground, the dirtiest part, the filthiest part, the nastiest part, if I can just touch something that's touching Him, I know I'll be whole. So she gets out there, and if that's the case, she's got to be on her hands and knees. I wish I could paint. I'd paint that picture. I'd have the crowd around her. I'd have her down there. Man, so much dust on that road from so many people and so many wannabes gathered around the Lord and the paparazzi popping pictures and all that other kind of stuff and all the people trying to shove other people out of the way because they wanted their chance to get their selfies with Jesus and all that stuff. Who's going to be first to post on Facebook and all that other kind of stuff? I said it right. Facebook. It's just you keeping ahead of everybody else. You know, get out there and post it first. Anyway, get all that kind of stuff done. I'd have her in there. I'd have her fingers getting stepped on, man. I'd have her getting hurt. I'd have the press. Every time they put their foot on her or shoved her away or kneed her in the side, I'd have one of the things that's hindered you from getting close to Jesus and will probably hinder you tonight. I'd have bitterness hitting her and hatred. I'd have anger and frustration. I'd have frustrated ambition and demon possession. I'd have those things kicking her, stomping her, stepping on her fingers, trying to keep her from going. Stop trying. Stop quitting. Here's the Lord. He's a healthy, young, virile man, and got young apostles around him, and he's walking through the crowd, and the crowd's around there, and she's trying to get there, man, and I guarantee you, most of us would stop, but she's desperate. Most of us wouldn't have put ourselves in that position anyway to be down that low. Am I right? Because of what it would have done to our reputation. But she didn't care. She's at the point where, you know what she says, I gotta have help and if I don't have help, I'm gonna die. I'm at the end of my choices, nothing else I can do. They're stepping on her, they're hurting her. She's bruised and battered a little bit, man. They're going up her nose and all that stuff and having a hard time. She's coughing and choking, doesn't have any water or anything because it's so dusty. And she gets over there and she reaches out there and she touches the Lord. And the Lord stops. And your King James is right when he said he felt virtue, not power. He felt virtue. Leave him. He said, who touched me? And the apostle said, Lord, we've graduated from Bible school, and we've all got degrees and everything, and we can tell you right now, now with all this group of people that are around you here, Lord, I mean, you're saying who touched you, but I mean, Lord, come on, law of averages, all these people are touching you. He said, yeah, but there's one. And this one's different. She's looking for something other than just a photo op. She wants to be more than just a fringer. This woman touched me because she needs something. She needed something only I could provide. And she just had her impurity touch me and I took the impurity upon myself and I gave her in return purity. And she put her sickness on me, and I gave her wholeness in return. And she put her filth and uncleanness on me, and I gave her cleanness back in return. The virtue that went out, the purity, that's where you get the word virgin from. The Lord gave her back and made her pure, made her clean. I think when He made her whole, if she had known a man, I think she was made just like the day she was born. I think what the Bible says was, the Bible says, and immediately, she knew she was made whole. Why is that important? Most people think if it takes 12 years to get in, it'll take 12 years to get out. Nuh-uh. You come to Jesus. Just like that. You bring it to the Lord and say, Lord, this is causing me to hemorrhage. I'm bleeding to death. The Lord said, okay. Here you go. Salvation is just like that. You know, one of the things I've learned, I learn if I go there and bring it to the Lord right off the bat, oftentimes I go up there and I find out that something I thought would take me years to work out, the Lord just says, I'll take care of it. Account settled. You're done. Go away. He turns around to that woman. You've got to get the picture. People think that he's trying to embarrass the woman. No. He's trying to preach to the crowd. He is a master at using personal illustration. He stops. He said, man, I've got me a preaching illustration now. That's how preachers are, they see an illustration of everything. That's why you don't ever want to talk to your preacher on Saturday night, you will be an illustration on Sunday morning. I'm just saying, especially if he's desperate. I mean, it'd be kind of like, now your name will not minister, we'll change your name to protect the innocent, but I'm just saying. Sometimes it's kind of like, how did he know that? You told him last night on the phone. The Lord said, I got to preach an illustration. He stopped, who touched me? The Bible believers jump in there. The Bible graduates say, Lord, you know, I mean, we've been studying this thing. We've been right here with you, Lord. I mean, all these people running up against y'all. He said, mm-mm. There's one in all this crowd that came to me with the right heart, with the right reason, the right motive. Man, if anything moves me, it's to see somebody that I can be touched with the feelings of their infirmity. Somebody here's hurting. And God likes to stop for hurting people. And he immediately said to her, he said, who touched me? And she's like, uh-oh, now I'm fixing to get put on the spot, you understand? She is fixing to be recognized as the one that has just touched him and she was unclean and now has made him unclean. And she is fixing to, it takes a little bit of courage and boldness to be able to have a testimony. Let me tell you what Jesus did for me. Y'all might be taking me out to stone me, but I got news for you. I'm whole now. I've been well now for about three minutes since I touched the hem of his garment. The Lord turns around there, and who touched me? And she said, I did. And he said, what school did you go to? Did you graduate? What church you belong to? What crowd you run with? What people do you know? Lord, I've been by myself. I've been all alone. I've been cooped up in my house. Nobody will have anything to do with me. They don't even call me on the telephone. I'm the butt of every joke here in town and nobody will talk to me. I've got a little path beaten out of the back door there to slip out back every now and then and just kind of look at what's going on, but I've been confined to my house. I've been sick and this and that and the other, and I just figured if you couldn't help me, I just will be shot anyway. You know what the Lord said? Good girl. I'm glad there's somebody in this whole cotton-picking crowd of people that is actually willing to admit they got a problem and they need some help. You know what he is saying without raising his voice? I'm surrounded by a bunch of people who don't think they have a problem. and I met one person in this whole crowd. You know what he's saying way up here in 2019? The same thing he said when that woman reached out and touched him. I'm surrounded by a bunch of people that have a King James Bible in their lap and love the Lord and believe the book and they're acting like they're going through life and they don't have a problem. You say, why? Because none of them come and say, Lord, I need help. Lord, help me. I need help. I'm telling you, Lord, I've got to have help. If you don't help me, I don't know what I'm going to do. You know why the Lord stopped and turned around? It wasn't just to point her out. It was to preach a sermon to say, this woman like Mary should be an example to you. She had the courage. All of y'all knew she had a problem. But y'all were all so involved in her problem, you ignored your own problem. And she had the courage to come out at the risk of ruining her reputation and maybe even costing her life to come to me with her problem. And all you other people around here, and you're close enough to me to touch me, but you're just touching me. You don't really think you need anything. And boy, do you need more than you think you need. You know what the church needs today? It's not just they need Jesus to touch them. We need to be willing to touch Him with our infirmities. You know, in that passage right there, He's not impressed with her purity at all. He's touched by her infirmities. You want to touch God tonight? Bring Him your trouble. Bring Him your trials. Bring Him your tribulation. Bring Him your persecution. You know what her talk was? You know what her testimony was? Lord, it's me. But when you touched me, I was made whole immediately. And the Lord said, pretty good testimony, sister. What would happen if you hadn't come? You say, what happened? Well, later on, he goes down there to Jairus' daughter and he touches Jairus' daughter but that's a resurrection. This is a live person. who's willing to come to Him. You know where we've gotten? And I'll be done. I'm going to turn it over to your pastor here. You know where we've gotten as a church, as we've gotten as a Christian? We're all around Jesus and we've got some really good Bible preaching and we've got the right Bible and stuff. But you know what our problem is? We've ignored our problem. We don't need Jesus anymore. We've got the King James Bible. We've got some of the greatest preachers this side of the Mississippi River. ever, well-educated, smart, know the Bible, don't know how to touch hearts, don't know how to have compassion, don't know how to touch people, don't know how to show people by example, hey, I just want you to know, I'm a preacher, but I still got problems. I'm not perfect, I'm forgiven. That lack of humility, that being saying, boss, your hope the preacher gets right, I sure hope brother so-and-so gets that fixed. I sure hope sister so-and-so... I'll pray for you." And the Lord's like, yeah. You would never think you need to touch me. When was the last time the Lord was touched with you? When was the last time the Lord saw you broke up and said, Lord, I got infirmities? That's what He said. That's what He said in Hebrews. He said, He's impressed with our weakness. How are you going to impress the man that created the universe? How are you going to impress him with strength? You know what he said? He gives us a chance to get in because he is impressed by what we're worst at, the weakest at. So he's like, look, this is me teaching you the test. You can't fail this. All you have to do is admit that you're weak. And admit that you don't have the answers to everything. And admit that you need help, that you're hemorrhaging. All you have to do is admit what's already happening to you. Because man is born under trouble as the sparks fly upward. You're not going to impress me with how much weight you can press and how hard you can press on. If you want to touch God tonight, you bring Him your trouble. And God said, I like that. You say, why? Because He can tell a lot about a person when the person is willing to say, Lord is bigger than I am. Whatever's in my life that's causing me to not have fellowship with you, it's bigger than me and I need some help. Well, you know what happens in the story or testimony as she gets up and goes back to the house and the Lord goes on to Jairus' daughter and raises her from the dead because while He's talking to her, you know what winds up happening? The people come to Him and they say, Lord, she's dead. And the Lord said, who is that? Jairus' daughter. She died while you were here taking care of this one. And the Lord said, okay, good, praise the Lord. I'll be there in a minute. But Lord, she's dead. The Bible said they laughed at him when he showed up. He's like, y'all need to get out. Because sometimes you have to dismiss people to get something done. That's another message. If not, it should be. But watch. He walks in and while they're laughing, they go out in private. He tells that girl, get up. And she walks out and the people are aghast. 12 years without a disease and she died. 12 years with the disease and was about to die. And he helped both of them. Past, present, and future. But the impressive thing about this woman is, I need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee. Lord, I ain't gonna make it. I need You. The Lord said, that's impressive. Gabriel, come here and look at this. Michael, look at that down there. Can you believe that? People... Lord, you're impressed with their weakness? You're impressed with their infirmity? You're impressed with... The Lord's like, that's impressive, man. You know the hardest thing to get man to do is admit he can't do it on his own. Ain't that a blessing? Man, look at that. Reminds me of the woman with the issue. You got an issue tonight? Why don't you bring it to the Lord? Father, I pray you'll bless your Word tonight. I know there are people here with issues. I don't have any doubt in my mind, Lord. I'd ask that you help them to have the courage to come and touch the hem of your garment tonight at this altar. Lord, that you might do something that would encourage them and the other people that are around, that are watching, to help them to understand, Lord, we can't do it on our own. We need You. I pray we'll learn something from a very, very well-known story. that you took time to pen in the Bible and yet leave her name off so we can insert ourselves in the passage and help us tonight, Lord, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.