For June 3 – cancer awareness Sunday. Mark 5:24-34
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” Mark 5:24b-34 NIV
Based on a sermon by jay mccluskey
It is april 1994 – my dad calls a family meeting……………
Illness can take many things from us
Illness can take up your time
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years Mark 5:25 NIV
Twelve years. Most health issues we deal with on the short run.
A cold lasts a few days.
The flu maybe a week to ten days.
Some injuries may take several months to rehab.
So many folks who deal with cancer are in a grinding marathon
It is there every morning and every evening for days, weeks, months, and years.
Outpatient treatment, In patient treatment, Surgeries, Recovery, etc.
Illness CAN TOUCH YOUR STATUS – how u feel about yourself
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years Mark 5:25 NIV
The woman is religiously unclean and anyone who touched her would be considered unclean.
probably she could not bear children. And thus she lost a lot of the status and respect women had in that society.
Some things should not be… but sometimes cancer brings a stigma.
I lost my hair. My skin is a changing colors
Some cancer patients feel as if folks treat them as if their condition is contagious.
That is because we don’t know what to do or say…….
Illness CAN TOUCH YOUR FINANCES
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. Mark 5:26 NIV
Medical treatments are expensive.
Even if you have good insurance, the out of pocket expenses are formidable.
Cathys hospital bill $35,000
Illness CAN TOUCH YOUR STRENGTH
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. Mark 5:26 NIV
Cancer patients know well that in facing their disease they can get worse before they get better. The affects of chemotherapy and radiation can, at times, seem worse than the disease itself.
Cancer, illness can do a lot of terrible things to us.
But that is all it can do –
There are some things that disease cannot take from us
It cannot take everything
It cannot take the most important things
It cannot touch your faith
When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Mark 5:27-28 NIV
she believed in jesus. She wanted to get close to him
Do you believe in Jesus in such a way that you would press thru to touch him?
Nicodumus came to him at night
Zacchaeus climbed a tree
The blind man hollered from the side of the road
Jesus son of God have mercy on me
Regardless of the outcome, I have to be with jesus
Shadrach, meshack and abendego – I don’t know if god will rescue us or not, but we are not bowing down………
in the face of trauma, the Christian must learn to lean into Christ. Regardless of the outcome. The goal is to draw near to him.
What is the goal of life after all?
To live to be 70, 80 90? 100?
To be healthy your entire life and then die peacefully in your sleep or is the goal of life have to do with our faither?
Easier to live for him when we are well.
Is it? Or do we just focus on boats and cars then?
Some of the most spiritual people I know are facing great struggles in dark valleys
and the greatest moments of my life have largely been when we were up against something difficult. That is when you lean into our father.
It cannot touch love
One of the products of cancer is the love of relationships.
Helping hurting people brings out the best in us.
It shakes up our priorities, reminding us that the greatest things in life are not things at all.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 NIV
It cannot derail eternity
Eventually this lady died of something.
We can cheat death…sometimes…for a season.
man is destined to die once, Hebrews 9:27 NIV
But there is only one way to BEAT death and that is through Jesus.
someone said, “cancer can’t kill me because I’m going to live forever....”
It can follow me some places…but it cannot follow me to heaven.
It cannot get in the way of spiritual peace
In June of 1992 Jim Valvano was diagnosed with bone cancer
On March 3, 1993, shortly before his death, he spoke at the first ESPY Awards, presented by ESPN. While accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award, he announced the creation of The V Foundation for Cancer Research, an organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. He announced that the Foundation's motto would be "Don't Give Up . . . Don't Ever Give Up." During his speech the teleprompter stated that he had 30 seconds left, to which Valvano responded, "They got that screen up there flashing 30 seconds, like I care about that screen. I got tumors all over my body and I'm worried about some guy in the back going 30 seconds." His speech included this statement:
To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.[7]
and he closed by saying, "Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever. I thank you and God bless you all."
One day all of us must face our end.
all of us must face this.
All of us must one day make peace with the aging process
Jesus is the only one that promises peace in this life. Peace that passes understanding.
Whether you are well or whether you are sick, this is the gift of God to you.
Just reach out and touch Jesus
