Who Touched My Garment?

It’s been a minute. I’m excited to be with you guys. Pastor Sanil, good to see you. I know you just prayed for me, but let me just also say a quick word of prayer. Father, I pray that your spirit would show us your scriptures, Lord. Illuminate your scriptures to us, God. I pray that we would approach your word with fear and trembling. That we would see Christ, and Christ glorified. And that we would preach Christ crucified. And we’d see his power. The same power that raised Christ from the dead. Alive in us today. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen, amen.

Hey, I have been given the question. By the way, I love that you guys are digging through questions that Jesus asked. And I love it because if Jesus asked a question, he’s trying to get an answer. And I love the fact that we wanna pay attention to the answers, right? And why he asked the question. So if Jesus asked a question, it must be super important to pay attention to.

And so the portion of scripture and the question that I got, you guys know the question that I got? Y’all probably saw the Instagram reel. What was it? Who touched my garments? Who touched my garments?

Coming from the story of the bleeding woman. She suffered for 12 years. You guys can turn there to Mark chapter five, if you have your Bibles. By the way, this is like the Pentecostal church’s message. This is the portion of scripture that a lot of churches love to preach over and over and over and over again because of the healing and because of the faith that it took from the woman to be healed, right? How many sermons on this have you heard? Quite a bit, yeah?

And so as I was preparing, I was asking the Lord, like God, okay, what can I share? What do you have for this body here in this very moment, in this very season, in this very time, okay? So bear with me. Y’all still here? Everybody good? Yeah, had a long Saturday? All right, here we go.

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, okay? Then came one of the rulers, I’m actually reading from verse 21, by the way. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus, or Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, my daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And Jesus, what did Jesus do? He went with him.

So Jesus, hey, Jesus is on a mission now. Like, Jesus is like, hey, this guy Jairus, Jairus or Jairuses asked me to come to his home to heal his daughter who is on, pretty much on her deathbed, and Jesus is on the way now, okay, to Jairus’ house. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. That translation means, like, they were just pushing and shoving. You got, anybody watch The Chosen? Anybody saw this scene where everybody was just bumping against Jesus and, like, pushing against him? And it says thronging about against him.

The reality is a lot of people were touching Jesus, okay? But even though hundreds of people were touching him, he only noticed one. Verse 25, and there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, if I touch his garment, I will be made well.

And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, stop right there. This interruption was not an inconvenience to Jesus. And I want you to think, this is a reality. When I’m focused on something, like, I like to be focused on it. And I like my 100% attention be on it. And if someone interrupts me, like I get disgruntled, disoriented, and I like slightly get agitated and perturbed and frustrated.

But what is Jesus? How does Jesus respond? And I wanna ask you a question. When your daily routine has a divine interruption, do you see it as an inconvenience or do you pause and slow down and ask the Lord, what are you trying to do here, God? Who is coming here with faith that’s broken in spirit that needs a word? You’re going to encounter, if you’re abiding in Jesus, the Lord is gonna provide divine interruptions in your life. The question is, how do you respond? The question is, is it an inconvenience to your normal routine? The question is, do you pause and slow down and say, Jesus, I wanna know how to love, serve, and care for this person well, so speak to me, Father.

What did Jesus do? And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone from him, did what? Immediately turned about in the crowd. He turned around and he asked, what? Who touched my garments?

All right. I also want you to just pause and think real, just really quick. Listen, I love to teach, but man, it’s really hard not to preach from this portion of scripture. It’s really hard not to pause and be like, man, look at Jesus as an example right here. And how, and a lot of times, I don’t like to look at ourselves in the scripture, but I also want you to know that Jesus does see you. And just because you might see that he’s showing compassion to someone else or on his way to someone else’s miracle or doing something in someone else’s life doesn’t mean he doesn’t see you. I want you to know that. It doesn’t mean he’s forgotten you. He sees you. He knows where you are. He’s on his way. How will you respond?

Now, the question is, who touched my garments? Wait a second. How did Jesus know that there was a woman, there was hundreds of people, hundreds of people, thronging about him, pushing and shoving? How did Jesus know that someone touched him by faith? What does the scripture say? He perceived power, virtue. Some translations say virtue. Power had left him.

And so a lot of the times we focus on the daughter, the woman, the healing of the woman. But tonight I wanna spend a little bit of time, we’re a good chunk of time focusing on the power of Christ. What is that power? How do we carry that power? What is the power of Christ?

So I want you to consider, and I was, man, like wrestling in my mind. I was like, what is an imperfect example or a imperfect shadow of the power of Christ? And I looked up and there was the S-U-N, sun. So let’s consider the sun real quick, the sun that is in our solar system. Y’all ready?

The sun generates energy, here we go, science class. The sun generates energy through nuclear fusion in its core. So something’s happening. Those of you who love science, this is a good moment for you. Something’s happening in the core of the sun. There is nuclear fusion happening. And what that means is there’s hydrogen atoms fusing to form helium, okay? And it’s releasing an immense amount of energy in the process. This energy production is the result of the sun’s extremely high temperature and pressure at its core.

Now, I asked the question, how did Jesus know the power had left him? And I wondered to myself, I was like, man, so does the Holy Spirit just give a certain amount of power and when the woman touched the fringe of Jesus’s garment, did like, imagine like, I don’t even know a video game that could potentially use this as an example, but imagine like, you know, when you’re hurt in a video game and your power level or your life level goes down a little bit, you know what I’m talking about? And I wondered, when the woman touched Jesus, did like, you know, the percentage of his power level go down? Is that the way that the power of Christ works?

And then I realized, no. The only way that he knew is because the woman had drawn and received power by faith. It did not bother the power that was in Christ. It did not like, lower the power level in Christ when the woman touched her. I want you to think about this. If everybody on the earth right now put up solar, what do you call them, solar panels, would that lower the power of the sun somehow? Would it? No. The power of the sun in the solar system would remain exactly the same because the power of the sun isn’t dependent on the people receiving the power.

And so Christ’s power is the same. It is inexhaustible. It is also eternal. Scientists say that our sun will die away billions of years from now, but there is a sun and the power of the sun that is eternal, the power of the S-O-N sun. And we can draw each of us, for all believers willing to receive that power by faith, we can all receive that power and it would still not be exhausted.

There are seasons in our life where we feel less of that power. Seasons in our life where we feel like God is distant and there’s seasons where he’s not speaking. And some describe this as the dark night of the soul, moments where you just feel dry. But I want you to think about this. Where you just feel dry. But I want you to consider this. In different seasons of the year, the earth is tilted and the distance of certain parts of the earth is different from the sun. But those different seasons are important for the vitality of the earth. Do you understand that? Those different seasons are actually important for the earth to naturally go through seasons of dryness, winter, spring, fall, summer. All of these are necessary for the earth to give life and for the earth to be sustained.

And so I want you to consider this too. That in seasons of what you and I might feel God is not present or God is distant, God is there, the sun is there. The power is available. But for sovereign purposes of forming you spiritually, God allows certain seasons in your life to form you, to shape you so that your dependence, so your roots go deep into him. It’s in seasons of dryness that the root goes deep into the soil searching for water. And when those roots go deep into the soil, it makes that plant ever more stronger. Amen?

The sun provides life and healing. We’ll get back to that because it’s gonna be this woman’s story. The sun brings our church’s name. The sun brings restoration, renewal, revival. It is self-sustaining. It is self-sufficient. That sun doesn’t need us. The sun in our solar system doesn’t need us to exist. Even if the earth didn’t exist and people didn’t exist, it would still exist on its own. It doesn’t need us. God is the same. The power of God is the same. Christ, now, when you think about this sun in our solar system, it’s constantly producing radiation. It’s constantly producing some radiation that’s harmful to us. I don’t know all the radiations. You guys, science kids in the room, y’all can name that. There’s radioactive waves that are constantly being produced by the sun. Some of that is harmful, but the power that’s in Christ is not harmful. It is actually healing. Power that comes through Christ does not harm or destroy. It heals. The faith of the woman is what activated the receiving of that power. Consider that. The faith of the woman is what activated the receiving of that power.

Now, I also want you to consider this, that you and I carry this same power. Same power. That we are vessels that are called to carry the exact. You’re probably thinking like, wait a second, no one’s touched me and got healed. I truly believe that God has called each one of us to be carriers of that same power, guys. It’s not just Jesus and Paul and Paul’s handkerchief. It’s us. We are called to be ones who display that same power, vessels of that power.

Now, when we pray, what do we say at the end of our prayers? We pray in Jesus’ name. We’re gonna pause real quick and think about that. Is it the name, the actual name, J-E-S-U-S that has the power? No, because there’s a bunch of Jesuses out there. And not all of them have the power of Christ. It’s not the name J-E-S-U-S. It’s the nature, the glory, and the person behind the name. So when you pray in Jesus’ name, you’re not just praying Jesus, you’re praying in the name of the Messiah, of the person and nature of Jesus.

And so when you pray out of the name of Jesus, that nature has to fill you first. Slow down, what are you saying, Sam? Yeah, so if you were praying for someone who is sick or praying for someone who’s going through something, in order for you to have the nature of Jesus, in order for you to have the compassion of Jesus, that compassion has to fill you first. You gotta love with the agape love of Jesus as you’re praying for someone, and that love has to fill you first. In order for you to pray with the power that Jesus lived and how he lived, that power has to fill you first. We’re vessels.

We’re called to, in the Old Testament, God says, I wanna put my name in the people, that they would be ones through their obedience would display my name, my glory, my nature to all the other nations. And so hold on, are we displaying the name, the image, the glory, the nature of Jesus in our lives? It’s the only way the power is gonna fill you.

So let’s read 2 Timothy 2:19-21. We read this earlier, and you guys were probably thinking like, what does this have to do with anything? Like what does this verse have to do with the story of the bleeding woman? All right, let’s read. But God’s firm foundation stands bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. So the Lord knows those who carry his name, carry his nature, our seal. This is firm foundation. We bear the seal. Let everyone who names the name of the Lord do what? This is important, guys. Let everyone who names the name of the Lord do what? Depart from iniquity.

Jesus resisted temptation, walked away from anger, pride, lust. I mean, Jesus resisted all of these. In the days of his flesh, he cried out with loud cries and supplication to the one who could save him. He resisted it, even to the drawing of blood, like he resisted it. He did this first. He departed, meaning like he turned away from sin and folly and wickedness, and you and I are called to do the same.

Why? Let’s keep reading. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone, that’s you and me, if we cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for what? What are vessels used for? To hold water or liquid or, I don’t know, think of something a vessel could be used, wine in the New Testament, Old Testament. The vessels are used to hold valuable things.

And if you depart from iniquity, cleanse yourself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for what? Honorable use. That means God wants to use each one of you. God wants to use each one of you. Let’s keep reading. And he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house.

Hey, look up real quick. You wanna be useful in the hands of the father? Hey, listen, your salvation isn’t dependent on this. God has saved you already. This isn’t, hey, be holy so that you can be saved. This is, be holy because the master wants to use those who are saved. You tracking, you understand? God wants to use each one of you. Therefore, depart from iniquity. Your salvation isn’t dependent on, that’s a free gift. God didn’t, if it was that way, Moses would have entered Egypt and said, hey, listen, Israel, God wants to deliver you from Pharaoh, but before he can deliver you, you must sign on the dotted line that you’ll obey these 10 commandments. God didn’t do that. God set them free and then gave them the 10 commandments. You understand? And God wants to use them. That’s why he gave them the 10 commandments. The freedom was free. Salvation is a free gift. He saved you by his, for his glory, by his power, for free, not by your works. But he wants you to be an honorable vessel, usable in the hands of the master.

Hey, you don’t waste power on yourself. You give it to others. The sun is constantly, the S-U-N sun is constantly providing life, power, light for the world. I’m talking about the people of the world and the plants and the animals and you name it.

All right. Now let’s talk about the daughter. We spent some time in the power of Christ. Let’s talk about the daughter. She was in a season, 12 years, unclean, cast out from her family because of her disease. But who welcomed her into a family? Jesus.

I want you to consider this, okay? I know the story focuses on the physical healing of the woman, but I want you to consider her brokenness, her spirit was broken, not just because of her physical illness, but because of the place that she had to be outside of the camp. Meaning Jesus was more, was more about mending her spirit than he was about her physical healing. That’s kind of scary. But Jesus is more about healing the broken spirit than he is about healing the physical body.

Hmm, what does that mean? What does that mean for you and me? Are we, are we desperate for a touch from Jesus? Think about it for a second. Are you and I desperate for a touch from Jesus? Is our spirit broken like that woman’s spirit? Or have we fed our souls with other things to numb us from the broken spirit?

I want you to consider this. Some of you in this room are really like actually broken in your spirit and you’re tired, you’re exhausted, you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. There’s a broken spirit within you. There’s a hurting heart in you. But instead of processing that with the Lord, instead of taking that to the Lord, instead of being desperate for a touch from Jesus, you’re trying to be touched by other things. You’re trying to receive from certain addictions that you have, certain things that you go to and run to to numb that broken. It’s still broken, but you’re running to other things so that you don’t have to, you don’t have to see that my spirit is broken.

Like I wanna go to, I wanna go to, you know, relationships. I wanna go to binging Netflix and Hulu and sports, and I wanna go to my friendships, and I wanna go to, you name it, food, the next big thing, position and power, the grind of the American dream, the pursuit of a title, a PhD, which all are good things, but if you’re going to those things, if you’re going to those things to not focus on the fact that your spirit’s broken, something’s off, because if you don’t see that your spirit’s broken, you are not aware of your need for a desperate touch from Jesus.

She was away from all the things that could numb her. You understand that? Like she was outside of the camp. She didn’t have a phone with her to be like, oh, I’m just gonna scroll on. I can still have relationships with my family scrolling on Instagram. I can still hear music and, you know, all these things just on my phone. She didn’t have like a house outside in the wilderness. I don’t know where she lived. She probably lived under a tree, who knows? She didn’t have the conveniences and the comforts that we have.

Some of us are numbing our broken spirit with the conveniences and the comforts of this world, which is keeping us away from a desperate touch of Jesus. We need to stop running to things that’s only a temporary fix and run to the one who is an eternal solution.

She couldn’t be around her family. She couldn’t be around her friends. She even couldn’t be around the priests. Why? Huh? Unclean. And what did those people have? What were those people worried about? That if she entered their spaces, what would happen to them? Huh? They would become unclean, but there’s a specific word that they would be defiled.

Hmm. Let me ask you. Are we worried about being defiled? Take a moment, real quick. Are we creating a safe space, a safe place where people can come and experience the touch of Jesus? Hmm? Or do we keep the bleeding woman outside our doors because we’re worried about being defiled?

Do we keep those who look different than us, those who don’t have cookie-cutter testimonies like us, those who don’t dress like us, those who don’t talk like us, those who probably are tatted all the way, do we keep them outside because we’re scared, we’re afraid that we might be defiled, that our children might be affected, that we might be influenced by the culture of the world?

The power of Jesus is too strong for that. The power of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit is too strong for that. It eliminates anything that could defile this body. Consider that.

Those who are struggling, weak, broken, in grief, don’t look like us, don’t talk like us, don’t live or have the, man, I was raised in a Christian house, and I didn’t know the Lord, and I had this moment that Jesus wrecked me, and I didn’t do any crazy sin, but I still came to know the Lord. Like, I didn’t go out on Friday nights and get drunk and party too hard. I didn’t get addicted to chemical dependence. I didn’t struggle with lust like other people did. I didn’t do all these crazy, obnoxious things like the rest of the world did, and I came to know, I still came to know Jesus. Those are, hey, in our community, that’s a cookie-cutter testimony.

But are we keeping those people outside? Those are the people that need a touch from Jesus. Those are the people that need a desperate touch. We need a desperate touch too. Remember, some of our souls, our spirits are broken, but those people need a desperate touch of Jesus. The power of God is for their restoration.

I have a Tuesday night Bible study, and one of the guys that came here, and I got his permission to share the story, but one of the guys that came to the Tuesday night Bible study, I sat with him and a few other guys over some steak and some solid tacos, which I made, by the way, and we were sharing each other’s testimonies, and he told me this one line that just shook me. Brother is like tatted up, and he goes, man, I used to sell marijuana out in the streets. I went to jail three times. I did some crazy stuff. I thought that that was my life, and that was my community, and I lived that way, and I would come home, and my mom would see me, and I struggled, and one day, Jesus got my life. One day, Jesus got my life.

Things completely, radically changed, and he shared this one line with me. My mom used to say that I would bring home a gun at my side, but now I bring the Bible. I used to have a peace on my side at all times for my protection, but now I have the Bible to protect me. That shook me, guys. It shook me, because it’s not a cookie-cutter testimony like I have. It’s something radically different, and the power of God is for that brother. And so many other brothers and sisters that need that desperate touch.

We’re called to carry that power to the world. Y’all still here? We’re called to carry that power to the world.

Paul says, what does he say in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5? And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom. Listen, you don’t have to be able to form a 45-minute sermon for you to carry the power of Christ. You understand? The power of Christ is in you. He didn’t come with lofty speech and or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in what? Demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And of power.

So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Hey, you and I, we don’t walk with the wisdom of all the doctors that touch the woman, because they walked under the wisdom of the S-O-N. But when I say this, I want you to think about this. Next time you read Ecclesiastes, notice how many times Solomon uses the word under the sun, S-U-N, okay? So he’s learning a natural wisdom under the S-U-N. And in contrast to living under the S-U-N, there is a way to live under the S-O-N. Next time you read Ecclesiastes, consider reading it like that. There is a way to live under the S-O-N. The Son who is Christ.

Paul did not come with wisdom that was under the S-U-N. Paul came with wisdom and the power of the Spirit that was under the S-O-N, the Son, Jesus Christ.

Now for you in the room, what are you ashamed of? Are you ashamed of anything that you feel like this is too messy, too dirty, that Jesus wouldn’t touch? That the power is not enough to heal me from. The power of God is not. I don’t know if the power of Christ can set me free from this addiction. I’ve been praying and praying and praying and living life, and I just don’t know. I just don’t know if I have the faith anymore that the power of Christ can set me free.

Let me tell you tonight. Ask the Lord for a supernatural faith. Just the fringe of His garment. Just the fringe of His garment. It can remove all defilement. Have faith. He can heal you tonight. He can remove that addiction tonight. What are you struggling with? What’s keeping you up at night? What’s causing that broken spirit? He can remove it tonight. All it takes is a step of faith to get through the crowd, not worrying about, man, if I share this to others, man, it’s gonna defile them. I can’t share that. I can’t share that with the brothers because it’s just too, ugh. It’s too much for them to handle. No, no, no. They have the power of Christ. Those three brothers around you, they have the power of Christ, and the power of Christ is too strong for your sin to defile them. Share it. Confess that you may be, huh? Healed. Confess that you may be healed because the power of Christ is strong enough.

Let me pray. Actually, we got a clip. Man, I love The Chosen, so I just wanted to show that clip. Can we watch that? And then the worship team can come forward at the end of that.