What to Do When You've Lost Hope [AUDIO SERMON]

last time I was here I was reminded right after the sermon that I didn't state my name and used to preaching where people know who I am so they said brother you know we enjoyed your sermon but we don't know who you are what's your name so for those who do not know me my name is Alan Parr and I am excited and privileged and honored to have the opportunity today to share God's word with you I would like to publicly thank pastor Smith for giving me the opportunity to share what God has put on my heart today with you for those of you who haven't been here the last few weeks we have been in a series here at M&T Bible Church and titled God is and pastor Smith has talked about God is holy and then last week on Father's Day he talked about God is our Father and today I got an easy one I'm going to talk to you about God is able God is able so pastor could have given me something like you know God is omnipotent or something like that or it have been a little bit more difficult but I think I can talk to you this morning about God is able now before we get into the sermon today I have a confession that I need to make to you for the past several weeks or so I have been spending time with another woman and matter of fact I've never met this woman before she doesn't live here I have never actually had a conversation with her but in getting to know her I've been so moved by her story that I wanted to share her story with you today and there are two passages of Scripture that I believe would help us better understand her story this morning and the first is in Leviticus chapter 50 I had to use a little drama alright to get you guys attention I'm talking about somebody in the Word of God I've been spending some time meditating on her story and now that my wife's heart has resumed a normal beating pattern the pastor Smith is this heart has resumed I think we can get into God's Word this morning but I am very moved by her story and I want to share her story with you today Leviticus chapter 15 verses 25 through 27 I call this the read through the Bible in one year we'd out book because many people start the year and they're excited about reading through the Bible they get through Genesis and are excited about those stories get through Exodus they get to Leviticus and the whole plan just crashes the first store if you'll allow me we're going to be reading this morning from the New Living Translation two passages of Scripture Leviticus 15 25 through 27 it says if a woman has a flow of blood for many days that is unrelated to her menstrual period or if the blood continues beyond the normal period she is ceremonially unclean as during her menstrual period the woman will be unclean as long as the discharge continues any bed she lies on and any object she sits on during that time will also be unclean just as during her normal menstrual period if any of you touch these things you will be some ceremonially unclean you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water and you will remain unclean until evening now I want you to flip to the New Testament book of Mark chapter 5 mark chapter 5 verses 25 through 34 once again I believe these two passages of passages of Scripture are essential to better understanding this woman's story mark chapter 5 verses 25 through 30 for a woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding she had suffered a great deal from many doctors and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them but she had gotten no better in fact she had gotten worse she had heard about Jesus so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe for she thought to herself if I can just touch his robe I will be healed immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed from of her terrible condition Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him so he turned around in the crowd and asked who touched my room his disciples said to him look at this crowd pressing around you haven't you asked who touched me but he kept on looking around to see who had done it then the frightened woman trembling at the realization of what had happened to her came and fell at her knees fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done and he said to her daughter your faith has made you well go in peace your suffering is over this morning I want to speak to you on the subject hope for the hurting heart hope for the hurting heart let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you today we give you praise we give you honor and God we know that there are people here that have come with all sorts of difficulties and issues and heartaches so god I pray that you would enable me to preach a message that is clear one that is accurate one that is relevant and one that is interesting god I pray that you take the words in my mouth and you would match them to the individual needs of the hearts of those who are here so that life change can occur for it is in your son's name we pray amen it's been said that a man can live 40 days without food about three days without water about eight minutes without air but only one second without hope someone else said that hope is that little voice that you hear whisper maybe when it seems like the entire world is shouting no finally someone else define hope using an acronym and the words hold on pain ends you see we live in a world filled with people who have lost hope and sadly even in the church we come to church every single Sunday we put on our Sunday best we put on our smile we come here we praise God we worship God people ask us how we're doing we'd say that we're blessed and highly favored that very well may be true but inside we are not feeling that way and oftentimes we will go home and if somebody would have taken x-ray of our heart inside they would see doubt they would see despair they would see discouragement they would see depression they would see a person that is confused about what God is doing in their life and they would see somebody that wonders if things would ever change in their life you see I'm convinced that the trajectory of a person's life is often determined by the measure of hope that they have let me show you how this works some of you may be here and you may be stuck in an addiction and you may be thinking man am I ever going to experience victory over this sin this habit this addiction the moment you lose hope is the moment that you accept that this is the way of life for you and you submit to it and then it becomes something that you do not get victory over because you've lost hope for others of you are here and maybe your marriage has been in a difficult place and moment that you lose hope that things will ever change is the moment that you start heading towards divorce court you see people will settle in relationships that they know are less than what God intended for them to be in because they have lost oh that there is some waters out there that is better for them than the person that they are with and all of this is because they have lost hope so many people have lost hope and you know how you can tell when you lose hope when you no longer begin to pray for things that you want God to change in your life when you no longer begin to care when you no longer begin to anticipate expect God to do something in your life you begin to lose hope but if you've ever felt this morning that your life is bleeding your marriage is bleeding your finances are bleeding your singleness is bleeding and you have lost hope let me encourage you today that there is hope this morning I want to take a look at a woman who was in a very very bad place but before we do so anytime we study a passage of Scripture we want to put that passage in its proper context and so at this point in Jesus ministry Jesus was very very popular okay he everywhere he went there were crowds of people that were following him if he were here today everywhere he went there would be cameras and there would be news reporters and because people had heard that Jesus was a healer and so everywhere he went he got all sorts of attention so look look at the context here in mark chapter five verses 21 to 24 it says Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore so in other words as soon as he got off the boat there was a crowd of people waiting for him imagine it then a leader of this local synagogue whose name was gyrus arrived when he saw Jesus he sell it as pleading fervently with them Jesus my little daughter is dying he said please come and lay your hands on her and heal her so that she can live Jesus went with him and all the people followed crowding around him so if you could imagine in your mind that Jesus is on his way to healing a dying girl who is Luke tells us is 12 years old but his plan gets interrupted because of the faith of a diseased woman you see here is this woman and today we're going to trace her journey from brokenness to belief to her break through her brokenness is in verses 25 through 26 and if there was somebody in the entire Bible that had a reason to lose hope and give up and give in and throw in the towel and believe that nothing would ever change in their life it was this woman you see first of all she had a physical problem says here in verse 25 that she had been bleeding for 12 years so just the time span alone if you can imagine being in constant pain for 12 years ladies imagine what you go through every month and just imagine that consistently every single day of your life for 12 years brothers of uija's here just wave your hand and say thank you Jesus all right praise the Lord but she had a physical problem but not only did she have a physical problem she had an emotional problem the text says that she had suffered a great deal from many doctors so understand that in this day medical science and research were very primitive so it was not uncommon for a doctor to know that your situation was incurable and still offer to take care of you and take all of your money even though they knew they couldn't do anything for you so this woman if you can imagine she went from Doctor to doctor hoping each time that she went to a new doctor that maybe this doctor would be the person that could change my situation maybe if I go to this doctor over here here then maybe I'll be healed can you imagine the emotional disappointment every single time she went to a different doctor and many of you here you're in that same situation you've gone from job interview to job interview thinking that maybe this job interview will be the one that will give me the job that I want only to be disappointed again or maybe you're here and your marriage and you have gone to this counselor and that counselor thinking that this particular counselor may be able to heal our marriage or maybe you're here you're single and you've been to this relationship and that relationship and you've gotten your hopes up each time only to be disappointed this woman had an emotional problem but it gets worse the text says that it would be one thing if her life stayed the same but it says here that but she had not only did she not get better in fact she got worse have you ever been there in your life where you tried to do everything you possibly knew how to do and things were not getting better you tried to be the best Christian that you can be you went to church you fasted even you prayed you're going to Bible study you're you're reading God's Word you're spending time with God and still things are not getting better you try to be the best wife or the best husband that you could be you try to be the best employee you try to be the best father and a mother to your children and no matter how you try things seem to be getting worse she had an emotional problem but not only that she had a financial problem says in verse 26 she had spent everything that she had to pay them she was completely out of money which means she did not have the proper finances to be able to nourish herself to get better so she got weaker and weaker but not only that she had a spiritual problem you see understand that because of her condition she couldn't go to the synagogue she couldn't go to the temple if she were here today she would not be allowed to come in church because everything that she sits on would become unclean and every single person that she touched would also be unclean and so she was banished she had to live in isolation and maybe just maybe she felt if you've ever felt this way that maybe I'm going through this situation because of something that I did in my past have you ever felt like that well God maybe I'm in this situation because you're punishing me for my old sin maybe it's my fault maybe something that I'm doing maybe something I did in the past is finally catching up to me she had a spiritual problem but not only that she had a social problem no one wanted to be around her because she was ceremonially unclean everything she sat on became monthly everything she drank from became unclean if you drank out of the cup you would be unclean and if her uncleanness did not clear up within seven days then seven more days was added to her uncleanness she lived in isolation she had a sexual problem if her husband touched her he would be unclean for seven days you can figure out the rest now why did I go through all of that I went through that to encourage you because some of you are here you're thinking that your situation in your pain is so bad and no one is minimizing what you're going through but it's this woman with all of the problems that I mentioned if she believes somehow that God can change my situation in spite of her brokenness she can find some inner belief to think that maybe things will be different and I believe this morning we can as well the thing that distinguished and changed her trajectory of her entire life was one thing hope she had hope we looked at her brokenness now let's look at her belief in verses 27 to 28 it says here in verse 28 for she thought to herself if only I can touch his robe I will be healed I don't normally do this but somebody say hope all right do you hear what she's saying to herself in spite of all of our problems she's saying you know what maybe just maybe there is for me that something will change if I could just get to Jesus and reach out and touch the hem of His garment maybe just maybe I will be healed now watch this this is so beautiful I want you to get this connection how did she get the hope that she had how was she able to say in the midst of her problems that there is still hope that my situation will change the answer is found in verse 27 it says for she had heard about Jesus as I want you to get this connection this woman had the belief and the hope because someone around her cared enough about her to tell her about Jesus and to tell her what Jesus did in their lives which then created a belief that God could do the same thing in her life you see the problem today in the church is that we do not testify and tell people what Jesus has done for us can you imagine for a second what the body of Christ would be like if every single one of us in here who has a testimony of God changing our lives if we went around and told other people what Jesus did for us this whole world would be turned upside down can you imagine some of you are here and your marriages were on the verge of divorce you were getting ready to throw in the towel but somehow or another God came in stepped in turn that thing around now you're back in love again can you imagine how many other couples who are struggling in their marriages would benefit if we would testify and tell other people about what Jesus can do in their lives could it be that the trajectory of someone else's life is depending on you sharing what Jesus has done for you this whole woman's life was changed because someone told her about Jesus on the flip side who are the people that you were allowed to speak into your life are they people who are testifying about the goodness and the power of God encouraging or are they people who have not experienced anything from God have given up hope and a phone in the town the voices that you allow speaking into your life could also change the trajectory of your life so I want you to make the connection so far this woman had a problem which then someone else told her about Jesus which then created in her and in her belief that says well maybe something will change now watch this this is where many Christians get stuck right here they believe it's a well God maybe you can change my situation but watch this her belief then led her to take an action not just any action a radical action this woman did something she had never done before she had never pressed her way through a crowd seeking to try to touch the hem of Jesus garment can you imagine what this woman had to overcome the fear that she had what if people recognized me as that unclean woman and turned me away what if I make all of these other people unclean by touching them by trying to make my way to Jesus what if I make Jesus unclean and it affects his ministry to minister to other people one of Jesus rejects me what if I try this and it doesn't work what if I get out of bed in spite of all of my pain press through Mike this crowd that touches arm garment and nothing changes but she was able to overcome all of these doubts and her belief led her to take a radical step of faith this is where many of us get stuck a few weeks ago I was home and discouraged because I told you last time I was here that I'm going to be starting my own math tutoring company here in September only problem was that we didn't have a location for the place and so I was down and I was just like man God you know is this what you call me to do what do you want me to do and my lovely wife God has blessed me wonderful wife and and she said well you know what I want you to go to the place where you want to lease office suite and just start knocking on some doors and try to see if anybody is open to leasing subleasing some some of their rooms to use because we couldn't afford the whole thing so we needed to sublease I said well maybe that's not going to work I don't want to do that she said well I want to challenge you to just take a step of faith so I want you to I want you to connect it I had a problem didn't have a place somebody spoke a word of encouragement into me caused me to believe and say well maybe just maybe this may work but then I had to take a step I took a step and I went start knocking on doors people said no we don't have any rooms we're actually looking for more room no and I said see I knew this was going to work I said okay I'm going to try one more knocked on the next door this man said as a matter of fact not only do we have a room available that we can sublease to you he said the way our setup is that we're never even here in the suite at all and so if you purchase one room you'll get access to three for the price of one see don't tell me today what God can't do in your life but if I had never gotten out of bed and I would not have taken the step I would not have seen the breakthrough if I didn't have somebody that encouraged me I wouldn't have had the belief you see this is where we lose it you know why many of us do not take the steps of faith is because we're not desperate enough we're not desperate enough you see we oftentimes confuse desire with desperation you see there's a difference when you desire for your marriage to get better you just kind of go along and hope that things will change over time but whenever you're desperate for it to change you may go and get counseling even if that means that everybody in your world knows that you have problems because you see we want everybody to think we have perfect marriages you see for some singles if you're desperate it may mean that you know what I need to stay single for more than a week and just you know and not go from relationship to relationship at maybe a step of faith a radical step of faith that you need to take and then when you do get into a relationship it may mean making yourself accountable to somebody else so that they can see the foolishness and the craziness in this person before we get so wrapped up in the relationship that we can't see our way clear you see we get desire and desperation confused not be transparent for just a second I say all the time you know what I have a desire to have a better relationship with Jesus Christ but I have to question myself am i desperate for that you see am I really desperate for that because almost desperate for that I would get up every morning at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and make an appointment with God I would go on a 21-day fast I would turn off the NBA Finals and and and take that time instead is easier for me to spend three or four hours watching the Golden State worth but I would take that time and dedicate it to God instead you see are we desperate or do we just simply have a desire well let's move to the third part of this message this is my favorite part we've looked at her brokenness we've looked at her belief and now we're going to look at her breakthrough it's found in verses 29 to 34 the first word and verse 29 says immediately the first thing that I observe about her breakthrough is that this woman reminds us that we serve a God who is able to change our situation quicker than we could ever imagine so in other words while you may be in your situation for a long time it does not take God a long time to change your situation I told you last time that I was here the three years ago I wasn't dating anybody didn't know anyone didn't have any prospects didn't have any children nothing was confused about what God's call was on my life in just three short years later God has blessed me to have a beautiful wife a beautiful daughter now a newfound excitement and clarity about what God's call is on my life you know what you can't tell me what God can't do you can't tell me what God can't do God can change things quicker than we could ever imagine no matter how long you've been in a situation that you've been in but the second thing that I observe about her breakthrough not only was it immediate but it brought her closer to Jesus he I decided to look up the meaning of this word touch when Jesus said who touched me and we often think that you know this woman has gone through the crowd and she maybe just kind of touch the hem of His garment but the actual word in the Greek language actually means to fasten oneself to or to cling to actually the same word that Paul used in first Corinthians where he said it is good for a man not to touch a woman okay so this woman there was something unique about her touch she didn't just graze the hem of His garment she she touched him out of desperation she touched him with a passion she clung to him she fastened herself to him so much so that Jesus said hey who touched me in the disciples said well Jesus what are you talking about everybody's pressing up again just a crowd of people said no no this was different this was different I felt power goes out through me that's different you see she touched him with a sense of desperation and what we see here is that this brought her closer to Jesus could it be that God is using the struggles and the pain in your life to bring you closer to him to get you to seek his face to bring you into a relationship with him to get your attention because maybe he knows that as long as you're in the situation that you're in and things are going fine that you will not seek his face but whenever there is an issue there is a problem there's a struggle there's a strain in your life God is using that situation oftentimes to draw you closer to him so that whatever he gives you your breakthrough he doesn't just give you your breakthrough and you go on your way but there is a relationship that is behind because that's what God is more interested in is a relationship rather than just giving us a breakthrough now the question that we have to ask is is our pain bringing us closer to Jesus or are we allowing it to push us further away the third thing that I see about her breakthrough is that it led to her testimony all right I want you to turn to Luke chapter 8 because Luke gives us a few more details about this woman's story as he normally does then mark does Luke chapter 8 and verse 47 Luke chapter 8 verse 47 I like how the NIV puts it here it says then the woman seeing that she could not go unnoticed came trembling and fell at his feet in the presence of all the people she told why she had touched him that's about her and how she had been instantly healed that's about Jesus do you see what happened she could have I'm sure she would have loved to just get her healing get her breakthrough just touching him of his garment and go home but Jesus they wait wait wait wait wait who touched me and he didn't ask that question because he didn't know who touched her him he knew everything he asked that question because he wanted this woman to surface from the crowd so that she could now share her testimony with everyone else there thus starting a chain reaction of other people being encouraged to hear what Jesus has done Jesus didn't let her off the hook so what are we reminded here we are reminded that when Jesus does something in your life you have just signed yourself up to be somebody that will give a testimony of God's power and God's grace in your life notice the pattern here this woman had a problem and as a result someone came and told her about what Jesus could do that then created a belief in her they said well maybe God can do something in my life but then that belief led her to take a radical act of faith which then led to her having a breakthrough in her life but then after that God said you let's start this thing again I want you to now share with everybody else what I've done in your life so that they can also have believed take a radical act of faith and maybe just maybe experience a breakthrough in their life you see we need to learn how to testify it says that she said why she came to Jesus and how she was healed you see why did you come that's about you you tell people you know what this is what I was going through but then don't stay there too long because then you got to tell them what Jesus had did how he filled you and what he's done in your life the last thing that I see in this text about her breakthrough is that Jesus commended her faith it says here daughter go in peace your faith has made you home now I want to be careful here because I want to make sure that I'm not communicating something that I don't intend because many preachers will use this text and say well you know if you do ABCD and E your breakthrough is going to come I'm not here to tell you what I know God is going to do or not do in your life that's between that's that's up to God but what I do believe in my heart are two things first of all if this woman had lost hope I don't believe that this morning she would have gotten up and she would have pressed her way through the crowd and gotten the healing that she's so desired if she lost hope her whole life was dependent on hope Jesus commended her faith another thing that I see here is that there's some aspect to this text where it says her faith moved the heart of God God responded somehow in here God responded to her faith see their stories all through the Bible where God does this in the Old Testament some man named Hezekiah was dying and they said you know what you need to put your house in order he said he prayed to God you know what would you extend my life and God said you know what because you asked I'm going to give you 20 more years because you asked there's another woman in the Gospels where her daughter was sick and she came to Jesus and she said Jesus can you help my daughter and Jesus said well hey you know what I'm not here to minister to the law to the Gentiles I'm here to minister to the lost sheep of Israel and this woman says well yeah I know but even even dogs can eat the crumbs that fall for the master's table and Jesus to be Noah because of your faith I'm going to do this for you see I'm not saying today if you just trust God anything's going to work out but I will say that faith moves the heart of God so as I close this morning a number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect that Hope has on those who were undergoing hardship they take they took two sets of lab rats they put one set of lab rats in a tub of water they took another set of lab rats and put them in another tub of water and what they realize was that in this tub of water they didn't do anything to the rat and after trying to tread water and stay afloat after one hour those rats just died but in the other tub of water periodically during that same hour they took the rats out put them back in took the rats out put them back in and what they learned was that 24 hours later those same rats were still treading water trying to stay afloat because they believed that maybe just maybe if I stay afloat just a little longer somebody's going to reach in here and take me out of this water and save me I don't know where you are today but some of you may be here you may feel like you're underwater you may feel like your finances are under water you feel like your marriage is under water you feel like your singleness is under water you feel like your whole life is under water you feel like you're bleeding like this woman and I've come here to encourage you today to let you know that you know what if you could just stay afloat a little longer if you could just tread water a little longer God may very well be if you have the hope he may reach in there and pull you up out of that water but all of it comes as a result of the hope in your life hope hold on pain ends let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you so much today god I just praise you because we have a living hope in Jesus Christ God we we know that there are people here Lord that they've given up Lord they may not say it we may not be able to see it on their faces today but when they leave this place with all the fanfare and the praise goes and they go home they're discouraged the depressed they wonder if things will ever change God Lord may this woman's story forever be a testimony of the power of hope and the power of our God that can change things immediately a God that can do exceeding abundantly above all that we could not only ever ask but even imagine God encouraged us today God or for those who are struggling in their marriage Lord encourage them those who are struggling financially those who are struggling physically Lord with a sickness in their bodyguard or a wayward child God encourage them in God I pray with everything in me God that they would not leave here today without hope and God for those of us who you have changed and done a work in our lives let not a day go by God that we do not turn around and share with other people what you've done in our lives God and start a chain reaction in somebody else's life God so that they too can have the belief and they too can take a step of faith and maybe just maybe Lord they can have a breakthrough and then they can share with other people what you've done in their life God we love you do we thank you then your son's name that we pray in your veins amen [Applause] if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of your sins we want you to have that hope today because the reality is this God may or may not change our situation temporally on earth but as Christians we have the hope that in eternity God will make everything right he'll wipe away every tear there'll be no more death no more tears no more sorrow the old things have passed away so if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ we want to give you an opportunity to get to know this God who can give you hope so if you're here today we have some counselors who will be able to lead you into Christ and to tell you more about Christ but if you're here I just want to say a simple prayer for you let's pray God if there's someone here that does not know you in the forgiveness of their sins I pray God that today would be the day that they would submit and give their lives to you so that they would experience the hope that we have gone prick their heart gone by the power of your Holy Spirit and let them know that they cannot do this and live this life without you remind them Lord God show them that they are a sinner in need of yours grace and let them know Lord that you love them in spite of what they have done no matter who they are no matter how far they follow that you love them so much you went to the cross but we love you God did you do it this morning then your son's name that we pray amen

Channel: THE BEAT by Allen Parr

Views: 45,616

Rating: 4.8904943 out of 5

Keywords: when life gets you down, when life hits you, when life hits you hard, when you want to give up, feel like giving up, what to do when you're depressed, i give up on life, giving up on life, motivation ankit pal

Id: S6lavf4Hx08

Length: 40min 47sec (2447 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2017