R1570 Touching Jesus

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message from Luke Chapter 8. The Encouraging Word. Hard to believe we're wrapping up 2020 and looking ahead to 2021, but oh, the Spirit of God within you, a wonderful book you'll discover details on our website about, you need to have a copy. That's online at tewonline.org. Get your copy today. The Encouraging Word.

Now today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. We're going to be in Luke Chapter 8, and I'm going to begin reading right at the end of verse 42. As Jesus went about, the crowds pressed around him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years.

And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. So she came up behind Jesus, and she touched the hem of Jesus' garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me? And when all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, Someone touched me, because I perceived that the power has gone out from me. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him and declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And Jesus said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.

Who are you today? It's a big crowd, lots of people. Our church is packed out. There are thousands worshiping with us by way of television. Streets are filled. Shopping malls are busy.

There's a game of football on. Jesus is here. We have to ask the question, what did this lady have to do? I think first of all, she had to realize that she had to. She had to realize that she had to.

We can line up all the logical things. She had an illness. She had a physical circumstance that was killing her.

She'd run out of options. She evidently, according to scripture, was doing what normal people do. Jesus didn't fault her with that. He didn't turn to her and say, you know, you should never have gone to see a doctor.

He didn't even chastise her and say, well, why didn't you come to me six years ago? But she had… she had a serious problem, and she had to realize that she had to. This was her rock bottom. She had to get to rock bottom. I don't know, but one way or the other, Jesus loved her so much. I'm not questioning Jesus, but in her life, she went through this for 12 years.

I'd like to question God on this, ask Him why. All I know is that this lady hit rock bottom. You don't have to hit rock bottom to turn to Jesus. But if you don't, you might be looking at 12 years of awful living. God's going to get you to rock bottom. You'll travel a long way down. There'll be many scars in your life.

You'll hurt badly. I have no means to be able to analyze this lady's life. But she had to realize that she had to. She had to deal with the crowd. She had to deal with the crowd. They were there. There were masses of them.

And there were two categories of people in the crowd, which I think are worth noting. There were those who were trying to get to Jesus just like she was. I guess there were some that just heard about Him and wanted to be part of something that they'd heard about. But there were also a group of people around Jesus that really loved Him. They were His disciples. Peter is mentioned by name. And the crowd was preventing one person from getting to Jesus.

He didn't chastise them. But it's even possible that today, up until this point, the very church itself has prevented you from touching Jesus. Another believer has. A disciple of Christ, maybe a pastor. Maybe I said something that you didn't agree with 10 years ago, and it's preventing you from getting to Jesus.

And I love Him. Maybe there's someone in this church that's preventing you from getting to Jesus. They love the Lord. They're one of His disciples.

This crowd, if you do an analysis of the crowd, they were all around Jesus. And they were actually preventing this woman from getting to Jesus. Or so they thought, because she realized that she had to.

So what did she have to do? She had to recognize Jesus. She did. She evidently had heard of Him. She saw Him. She watched Him. And she fixed her eyes on Him. She saw Jesus. She recognized Him as who He is. That's Jesus.

He's the One. It's not the preacher. It's not the disciple guarding Jesus.

It's not the church. It's not the formality or the way they sing over there just upsets me. It's the crowd, you not getting to Jesus. Well, they stand too much. They sit too much.

He shouts too much. He, she, they were all there. She recognized Jesus. All of a sudden, for this lady, this woman, the crowd just didn't seem to stop her, because she recognized Jesus.

And could we just add to this? Back in her day, it wasn't in our day. Back in her day, she was a woman. She was very disrespected. She was at the lower part of the echelon of society. She was not included. She couldn't have a driver's license because they weren't allowed to drive. Besides, she was a woman. She wasn't allowed to get educated because you don't educate women. She was just a girl.

She didn't matter. So it's not just the crowd, it's all these men, this big bunch of bullies out there who looked down on her. This was not just ordinary. And she looked and she saw Jesus. She had to recognize Him. Then she had to come to Him. You can, she could have recognized Jesus for the next six years and not been healed. She had to come to Him.

You can sit in church as long as you want to. Sing about Him, look at Him, praise Him, join the club, give to Him, but never be touched by Him because you don't come to Him. What did she have to do? She had to reach out to Him.

This is an act of engagement. She had to reach out and I can't imagine with all the pushing and all these men around her and everybody trying to stop her and her fighting her way through, so to speak. She had to reach out. She had to touch Him. Just a touch is all of Jesus.

And most of all, she had to humble herself before Him. When Jesus turned and said, who touched me? Like Jesus didn't know.

It's like hello. Like Jesus didn't know who. So why did He ask such a dumb question?

What's the purpose of saying who touched me when He's God? He knows. So why did He ask? Two reasons.

Number one, because she had to humble herself before Him. He's King. He's Lord. Savior of the world. He is the Savior and we cherish that. Forgive the interruption, Dr. Don wants me to remind you we're here for you. Twenty four hours a day, we're connecting at 866-899-9673 and connect you with great resources to launch our new year together.

So much discussion about the Spirit of God within you. That's a brand new leather bound weekly devotional book that's available on our Web site right now at TEWONLINE.ORG. That's TEWONLINE.ORG. A wonderful tool to put our heads and hearts together with a greater intentionality of spending time in God's Word in 2021. Again, details online at TEWONLINE.ORG or call about your copy at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. Now back to the dynamic Bible teaching of Dr. Don Wilton. I read an article this week, hesitate to even mention it, but this particular person was just saying, you know, it's amazing in our world how people go to every kind of length. They'll go to the White House and get decked out and be on time and buy plane tickets. Or they'll go to a ball game or they'll just put on their absolute best, won't miss an appointment. But when it comes to Jesus, people go to a restaurant, not even an issue, 15% tip.

If you don't, you're the scourge of the country, even when the service is bad. But when it comes to Jesus, give Him a few dollars. If I've got it on me. Jesus said, who touched me? Number one, because He knew that to follow the King means she had to humble herself before Him. But He also knew that she had to humble herself before everybody else.

Maybe the one thing that's stopping you from coming to Jesus is called pride. You won't humble yourself, most importantly, before Him. But secondly, you won't humble yourself before others.

You wouldn't be caught dead doing that. Now, you'll humble yourself at a ball game. You'll get up there and wave a pom-pom and you're a man for crying in a bucket. I will too. I've done it. I'm here. Some of you got a picture of me.

You put it on television, you're dead. Nothing wrong with that. But how come we will somehow pride is not an issue when we're with the boys? But when it comes to Jesus, are you kidding me? And He's King? And something so precious happened here. I can't, I just, I've often said to myself I would just love to have been, you know. So I've asked myself the question, well then what do I need to do? What do we need to do if we know this to be true? Let me give you a couple of things. Number one, admit your need.

Get to the point. If yours is an issue of blood, then admit your need. The greatest need we have is to know Jesus as personal Savior.

You will never come to know Christ until you admit that you're a sinner before Him. Not going to happen. Admit your need. Two, consider your options.

You've only got one. And while I absolutely insist you join this church, you know why I insist you join this church? It's not about me, any one of us.

It's because I've been here long enough to know this church tries jolly hard to be about Jesus. But we're also a crowd, by the way. We're a crowd.

We do everything we can to lift up Jesus, but we're a crowd. We get in the way. I get in the way. I want to say I'm sorry to somebody here that maybe 20 years ago I said something that made you storm out and say, well, if that's the case, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it to come out like that. I talk all the time. I've got to ask God, please, Lord, in our world today, please control my mouth. If I say just one sounding wrong thing, somebody out there is going to go ballistic.

Just one. And I've said it. We're a crowd. I want you to be part of the church, but your only option is Jesus. It's not about this church. It's not about a building or a people.

It's about Jesus. Number three, you've got to get in position. I congratulate you who are listening today because this is God's encouraging word. You're in position. Did you know that?

Can I say this very lovingly? You know anybody today? You know anybody today who made a decision not to put themselves in position?

Just made that decision. Maybe the baby cried all night and kept them up. That happens.

Most beautiful sound in the world, right? Life. You've got to get in position. You are in position. She was in position. She was in the right place. I wonder what else she had to do. She made a decision to get in position. She put herself in the right place. Number four, you've got to focus on Jesus. Despite the crowd, you can't avoid the crowd because we are around.

It's all over the place. You've got to focus on Jesus. Next, you've got to actually take steps.

She actually took steps. Can I make a couple of suggestions to you about actually taking steps? You want to touch Jesus?

Here are some steps. Number one, pray. Jesus said, you can ask anything in my name and I'll do it. I'm asking you to fill out prayer requests, hand them in so we can join together, pray.

Number two, fast. I wrote about it to our church people. You can read about it, fast. This next Wednesday, I'm calling our entire congregation to fast on Wednesday.

And I've laid it out there. Maybe it's one meal. Maybe you're just going to skip having breakfast, wait till lunch, use that time to pray. Maybe for 24 hours.

Maybe from sunrise to sunset, but on Wednesday, do something. Just do without food. Fasting means doing without food. When you get those little hunger pangs, turn your thoughts to him. Hunger for the things of God. Watch, he'll fill you.

That's what he does. Prayer walk. This past week, our entire staff prayer walked everywhere, this church. We were all over. I was, do you know that I sat in your seat in the balcony this week?

I just went up there. Forgive me, I didn't actually sit, I stood. I stood there, over there, stood in the middle, stood over there, I stood in the middle here, I walked all the way up here, I walked down here, I stood here. I prayed for the choir. I prayed for you. Touch, touch Jesus. Here's another one. Trust, trust his power. When you touch Jesus, just trust his power. Here's another one. Number seven, receive in faith.

This is such a beautiful picture. She just received what Jesus did. You know, I lost my mother some six weeks ago, and we just got hundreds, overwhelming.

I just can't respond. We got so many cards. The pastor's class in this church just came and ministered and served and people.

We just received. This word receive is just, it's in a spiritual sense. The Bible says as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton, and that power is available to you.

Power to become the son, the daughter of God. I pray you'd open your heart to the closing thoughts coming up next from our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart in Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you've given your life to Jesus Christ, Dr. Don has some free material he wants to put in your hands. So call us right now.

Perhaps you'd rededicate your life moments ago as Dr. Don was praying. Call us and let us put this information in your hands, 866-899. Word is the number.

That's 866-899-9673. Where I mentioned earlier about this wonderful devotional to launch our year together, here's Liz with all the details about this grand book, The Spirit of God Within You. As you reflect upon your life this season, think about your friends and family members outside of Christ, or those who are drifting away from God.

Could this be you? This Christmas, Dr. Wilton wants to encourage you to make a commitment to meet Jesus every day so you can learn more about him and be able to live a life of trust and not fear. With your gift of $30 and support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive The Spirit of God Within You, a beautiful 52-week leather-bound devotional written by 52 trusted pastors and leaders, including Dr. Wilton. You will find blessings upon blessings as you read uplifting Scripture verses, daily devotions and prayers. Plus, you will receive psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, instrumental music CD by gifted pianist and Louisiana College President, Dr. Rick Brewer. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request the new devotional and music CD.

They will make great Christmas gifts of encouragement, too. Thank you for your continued partnership. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you from all of us here at The Encouraging Word. It's been a great day of studying God's word, but there's more to come. As a matter of fact, tomorrow, Dr. Don's message is called The Safeguards of Our Faith. Join us and invite a friend to join you. Listen tomorrow as we open God's Encouraging Word together with Dr. Don Wilton.