How far would you go to touch Jesus? In Matthew 9, a desperate woman crawled through crowds despite bleeding for 12 years, while a grieving father defied his religious training to seek a miracle. Their desperate faith led to extraordinary encounters. The truth? You can have as much Jesus as you want, but never more than you pursue. Are you content being a spectator, or are you reaching for the hem of His garment?

Dying Moment Meet Living Faith | Matthew 9_18-26

Jesus traveled through towns and villages teaching, proclaiming the kingdom, and healing diseases, showing compassion for crowds who were 'harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.' He saw people crushed and exhausted under religious burdens rather than experiencing freedom. Jesus shifted metaphors to describe a plentiful harvest with too few workers, emphasizing that God's kingdom transforms sheep into shepherds. The message challenges believers to stop living as harassed sheep and start laboring as apprenticed harvesters, tending the fields God has entrusted to them—whether family, marriage, or workplace—to help others find freedom in Christ.

Harassed and Helpless | Matthew 9_35-38

As we continue in our series where we consider the occurrences of the phrase TAKE HEART, we look to a story in Matthew 9. This passage and the example from a woman's courageous act of faith can teach us how to take heart in the midst of suffering.

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Matthew 9:18-26

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you seen a celebrity in the wild? Did you talk to them?
2. Recount this woman’s life. When you imagine carrying this affliction for 12 years, what comes to your mind? What would have been hard for you?
3. Why was this woman’s act such a risk of faith?
4. Why do you think Jesus made a scene when this healing took place?
5. What has stayed with you from the sermon- either confusing, curious or encouraging?
6. In the sermon, Mark shared that Jesus’ cross should form our view of suffering. What healing do you find in Jesus’ choice to endure the cross?
7. What suffering are you carrying today?
 

Conclude by spending time in prayer, asking for God to help us take heart in the suffering in our world and lives.


TAKE HEART: suffering

Effective gospel ministry begins with the affirmation of the Lord's sovereignty over his harvest and the desperate spiritual condition of those who need to be gathered. Jesus' compassion for the harassed and helpless crowds models the essential motivation for harvest work—not duty, ambition, or guilt, but genuine care for souls who are vulnerable and without proper spiritual leadership. Christ’s claim that "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few" makes plain the primary obstacle to Kingdom advancement: it is not a lack of responsive people but a shortage of faithful, equipped laborers willing to engage in the demanding work of discipleship and ministry. Jesus calls us to cultivate compassionate vision for the spiritually lost and vulnerable, and then to faithfully pray that the Lord would raise up and send out workers—recognizing that we ourselves may be the answer to our own prayers—and to joyfully embrace whatever role the Lord of the harvest assigns us in bringing his abundant harvest into his Kingdom.

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