SERVICES: SATURDAY 6PM | SUNDAY 9AM & 10:45AM. 

We Livestream at www.FaithFellowshipWeb.com/livestream, through the FFC App, and YouTube.

Healing Emotional Hemorrhages

Healing Emotional Hemorrhages

Words of Faith 6-15-18

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2018

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

 

Luke 8:40-48

   Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. [41] Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house [42] because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

   As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. [43] And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. [44] She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

   [45] "Who touched me?" Jesus asked.

   When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."

   [46] But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

   [47] 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 and how she had been instantly healed. [48] Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

 

     It may be that Jesus asked who had touched him not because many in the crowd had touched Him but because many in the crowd were bleeding.

     When we think about the draining of life, there is also what I would call the hemorrhage of the soul. By soul I would especially isolate the emotions and will, and our personalities. There are many who wander among the crowds of seekers who are hemorrhaging emotionally.

       If we look around, we see folks who are needy and empty as they growing more so by the minute. People in the crowd are weak, miserable and estranged. Some are living on an emotional roller coaster of constant drama surrounding them. Some are Christians, saved to be sure, but they live a sort of soap opera of constant emotional turmoil where the daily telling of the story becomes a ravenous quest to fill the emptiness. Their souls are bleeding. They have suffered under the doctors of many ministries and now, though they appear on the outside bright and talented and eager to serve, they are hemorrhaging and weak-- miserable on the inside behind the facade.

       The saddest thing is that such people come to church with enormous unmet emotional needs only to find the church is on the way someplace else. Some will float from church to church seeking to have these deep needs met but the truth is no church is ever able to meet those deep needs.

       Some have an enormous need to be needed but the only answer to that is genuine surrender and servanthood. The church is always unable to meet that need because the church is always about servanthood from the start. A church built around the need to be needed will always be an unhealthy church because it is no longer focused on Jesus. These are the deep emotional hemorrhages and only Jesus can meet these needs.

     In the area of the soul there can be a hemorrhage of the will. People are unable to make a decision and stick to it. Folks are unable to resolve to be faithful and unable to make and keep commitments. This is far beyond dinner reservations at church. There is a significant hemorrhage of integrity and a hemorrhage of morality, a loss of conscience and a complete loss of shame. There is a hemorrhage of convictions as we no longer seem to stand for anything. Divorce is rampant, even in the evangelical church. Grandpa is now living with his new girlfriend and Grandma is headed for Las Vega with her boyfriend. A puzzled generation is growing up watching the hemorrhage.

     There are also those who hemorrhage spiritually. Our spiritual side is that part of us that makes contact with God, but is also capable of making contact with most any spiritual force. Studies show that we live in a time of great spiritual interest and curiosity. Perhaps it is because more and more people have realized that materialism and emotional fixes do not fill the deepest needs of our lives.

     Book after book on the best seller lists is dealing with some form of spirituality but often these are bizarre expressions of faith, conspiracy theories, Native American spiritualism, numerology and astrology. All sorts of occult expressions are now commonplace. We are hemorrhaging spiritually.

     It is easy to sit inside the church and shake our heads. But there is just as much hemorrhaging going on inside the churches across America. The mainlines have been flirting with wicca and other pagan practices for years. The evangelical church has at times become so narrow and legalistic in its desire to be doctrinally correct that it has hemorrhaged the spirit right out the back door and lost any sense of grace. The charismatic movement that roared to life in the 70s has had it share of hemorrhaging while running after a particular experience, bleeding all over itself as it goes in a quest for the ultimate experiential manifestation of God and His grace.

     The newest booming church phenomenon is the so-called mega-church, offering full service club like facilities and an easy non-threatening message complete with slick marketing to compete with Madison Avenue head to head, cutting edge technology and user friendly worship.

     But the new forms of church often come at the price of hemorrhaging Biblical integrity. It is little wonder that churches in general are hemorrhaging people. Even the most successful churches grow quickly but hemorrhage people out the back door while moving from one fad to the next.

     So why can't the Church itself meet the needs of people who are hemorrhaging? Probably because the church was never intended to do that. The church was never intended to enlighten you, meet your needs, thrill you, entertain you or even make you feel good. The church is supposed to make disciples. The truth is that will sometimes be painful.

     Frankly, the church is on the way somewhere else. There is not a clear ministry model for healing the hemorrhages except to be sure that Jesus is in the middle of our crowd. People who hemorrhage get better ONLY when they meet Jesus.

       Frankly that is hard in the church sometimes! We do a lot of church things. We are often a terrific adoring crowd and something of a crush. It can actually be a struggle to get close to Jesus. Heaven forbid that you go to a church and Jesus is not there!

     Sometimes there is a big crowd and a lot of excitement but when you work your way to the center of the crowd there is no one at the middle of the commotion.

       What is the answer? We will tlak more tomorrow. But we can be sure that Jesus is at the center of anything that in genuine and brings healing to the draining wounds of our lives.

 

       Lord Jesus, I want You at the center. I want You to be at the absolute center of everything that I do. Every effort that I make. May it never be about me. In Jesus’ Name.