WHO TOUCHED ME- PART 2 : PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 15TH OCTOBER, 2023.

SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)

TOPIC: WHO TOUCHED ME – PART 2 (THOSE WHO GIVE OF THEMSELVES)

DATE: 15TH OCTOBER 2023

BIBLE TEXT: LUKE 8: 43-47

Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.

Are you ready? Say with me:

I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.

In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.

In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.

The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.

Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!

Last week, I started a 2-Part Message and this is Part 2.

And we took an unusual detour in looking at a familiar Passage of the Scripture and try to learn something a little differently from what we have been learning in that Scripture.

So, I’m doing Part 2 of: “WHO TOUCHED ME”. And my Subtitle is: “THOSE WHO GIVE OF THEMSELVES”.

Last Week, we talked about “Those who take from Us” and this week, we are looking at “Those who give of Themselves”.

In Part 1, we focused on the woman who touched Jesus. We looked at the Attitudes she exercised and yet He commends her Faith that she was a Woman of Faith – A very Bold and Audacious Faith.

But there was an aspect of her Attitude that was wrong – In that she just wanted to take Silently from Jesus without acknowledging the Source of the Blessings.

We may be bold to receive from God but we must always have a Thankful and Grateful Heart towards God.

And not only towards God, but also towards the People that are a Blessing to us.

… There are no Silent Receivers in the House of the Lord!

But in this Part 2, we will be focusing on Jesus – And we will look at “Those who Give of Themselves” and “Those who helped Others”.

And sometimes People who are Generous and “Give Up” themselves are just taken for granted.

You know: You are kind, you are Good, everybody likes you because when they touched you; they received something.

When they come to your house or they have a Conversation with you; they know that their lives will be better.

And sometimes, you can give and give and give until you become very dry.

And so, we are going to learn from Jesus Christ and we are going to look at how He responded to this woman and a couple of other things we are going to learn from the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are going to look at Luke’s Account of the incident – Luke 8: 43-47.

Remember that Last week, we looked at Mark’s Account – DMC NOTES: Mark 5: 25-31.

And the reason why I shifted from Mark to Luke is because there is a detail in Luke’s Account that helps us to grasp the Story from Jesus’ Perspectives a little better.

And it says: Luke 8: 43-47 (NKJV)

43. Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on Physicians and could not be healed by any,

44. Came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.

45. And Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the Multitudes throng and Press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

46. But Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I Perceived Power going out from Me.”

47. Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the Presence of all the People the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately.

So this is a very interesting encounter between Jesus and this woman.

I mean this is the first time that the Bible is directly Personalising the incident of Somebody touching Jesus and receiving the Healing – Most of the times, Jesus will be the one touching People.

But this time, this woman comes and she takes the Intiatives and she takes a Miracle from Jesus.

And she does it without Jesus’ Permission.

And she fully intends to go home without telling anybody what has happened to her but Jesus caught her and then the Story came out.

So when God does something for you, don’t hide it – We must hear what God has done for you. It must be seen, and it must be heard so that others will be inspired by your Faith.

… So, don’t be Selfish in your Breakthrough!

So, let us consider the Statement that Jesus made – I’m just going to just put three (3) of those Statements:

1. Who touched Me?

This is a Question.

2. Somebody touched me?

Jesus said that I know it and the Disciples were saying how can you tell? He said there is Somebody here who has made a Withdrawal from me.

3. I Perceived Power going out of me.

The tense is a Present Tense – Jesus said not only did He Perceived it, at the time when the woman touched Him, He was still Perceiving it.

So it happened at a time and it is still happening because when the Power is gone, then it is gone. And Jesus felt that something had left Him.

So this woman touch wasn’t an Innocent touch, it wasn’t a Simple touch,, it wasn’t even something she could have thought of getting away with because a touch, touches Jesus and something about what she did had an impact on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we are going to use this to just give you an idea of the Person of the Lord Jesus!

Because this Statement reveals an important aspect of Jesus Personality.

You know, many times when we think about Jesus, we think that He has no feelings, He has no thoughts – He is just Big out there, Nothing touches Him and Nothing affects Him.

But Jesus shows us from this Verse some aspects of His Personality.

And there are three (3) aspects of His Personality that I’m going to focus on:

1. Jesus has “Self Awareness” – He knew Himself.

If you are going to be a Blessing to the world, you have to know yourself and you have to have Self Awareness!

And how did Jesus show his Self Awareness – He knew who He was.

Throughout the New Testament, we encountered with Jesus in ways that shows that He has a Clear sense of who He was.

I. He knows both His Divinity and His Humanity – He was a Son of God and then a Son of Man,

II. He knew who He was Spiritually and He knew who He was Naturally.

And that is what we are also to develop – A Key sense of who we are!

III. He knew the Power that He had.

Power is the ability to get things done!

… And Jesus knew the Power that He carries.

Though many times, People have Power and they don’t know that they had Power.

You know, there are a lot of People who carries so much Power and they are not aware of the Power they had.

If for example, you have Somebody who has a very Strong grasp and when they shake your hands, they squeezed your hands. But they didn’t know that they had that Power.

So, what is going to happen is that they are going to end up hurting People without knowing that they are hurting People because they are not aware of the Power they had.

And it is dangerous to have Power and you don’t know that you have it because you are going to mess up People’s lives.

And then, there are some People who don’t have Power and think that they have Power. And they talk about how much Power and Influence they have but it is zero.

Jesus was one of those – He has Power and He knew that He has Power!

And if you are going to be a Person who is really going to be in Charge of your Life, then you must know the Power you have and understand how it works.

Because if you don’t; it is like a woman whose words are Powerful and she begins to exchange her words with her husband and cannot grasp the impact of her words on her husband because the woman can destroy a man with her words.

2. Jesus had Situation Awareness – He was aware of where He was at every Point in Time.

Jesus Ministry took Him to many Places and situations – He went to Wedding Party, Funeral Parties, Religious Services and He met all kinds of People.

But Jesus had Situation Awareness – At every Point in Time, He knew where He was.

Because if you don’t have Situation Awareness, you can go into Places and behave wrongly.

In the midst of the crowd, surrounded by the People, Jesus did not become Part of the crowd Physically.

This tells us that when People are in a Mob/Group; they tend to be very bold – That’s why People like Demonstration.

Because they miss up with the Group and they are Screaming; but when you isolate them; then you find out that they don’t have the Courage because many People take their Strength from the crowd.

Jesus was in the midst of the crowd but He was aware of who He was, He was aware of where He was and He was aware of the situation He is in.

And we must constantly develop not only Self Awareness but also Situational Awareness!

You know, each one of us behave differently based on situations we are in.

For example, if I come to Church and I sit in my chair and Praises are going on; I Praise with you – I lift up my hands and I show that I am Worshipping God.

Because I’m the Pastor of the Church and I knew that in this situation, People are watching me – Is Pastor Worshipping?

If I come to Church on Sunday and I just look at you as Praise and Worship and Prayer going on everytime; then People will think Praise and Worship is not important.

But because I’m aware of the situation I’m in, I have to Praise God because my Praise encourages you to Praise God.

I have to come in early when Praise and Worship is going on to show you it’s importance – It is called Situational Awareness.

Now, whilst I’m there Praising and Worshipping, most of you just do it because I’m noting everything:

• I know the Light; when wrong Light is on.
• I can tell when the Sound has Changed and sometimes I looked back and they understood my body Language.

It is called Situational Awareness!

Now, most of you may be here and not take Note of anything happening in the Service except what you are doing. But I must be aware of the situation.

When I was Young in Primary School, we had a Teacher that we thought was Supernatural because she was there marking our Scripts and she will say: Otabil kept quiet.

Then I will say: How did she knew that Otabil is talking?

That was how Jesus was where He was in the crowd – Just followed the crowd.

He didn’t just follow the crowd, He was aware there was a crowd and He also know that among the crowd there are People and the People are doing things in the crowd.

Now, you can tell the big difference between Jesus and Peter:

Peter says everybody is touching you – In other words, all the touches are the same. All touches are touch.

Jesus said: No, No, No; something is happening here and I am aware of it because at this moment Present Mindset; Somebody has touched me.

But Peter couldn’t feel anything but Jesus could feel it.

Do you have Situations and Awareness?

Do you tell the wrong Story to the wrong crowd?

Maybe you are sitting with People; are you aware of the People who are there?

Are you aware of the People who will carry Stories from this Place to the next Place so that the Story you are telling now fake?

Are you aware that you are broadcasting it to the whole world?

Because many of us has no Situational Awareness – We get into a Place, we just talk freely and later say there are Gossips.

But who gave them the fellas? You are the one!

You have no Situational Awareness – You didn’t know that this Person sitting here, this Story they will Multiply it ten times by the time we leave here.

So when next you sit in your Family Gathering, know everybody and know their Abilities and Disabilities.

Because if you don’t do that and you are a Generous Person like Jesus Christ, who has so much to give; People will take Advantage of you.

3. Jesus has Spiritual Awareness – He was aware of the impact He had on People!

Now, when it comes to Spiritual Awareness, there are People who has Extra Spiritual Senses in a Negative Way.

A cockroach is on a Wall; I rebuke you in the Name of Jesus.

Or they are in a Room and they saw a Wall Gecko; it becomes a Prayer Meeting.

Or they go out and they are buying food and they look at the woman selling the food and they believes other things; they had to have Full Prayer Meeting before they eat.

That is not Spiritual Awareness I’m talking about – That is Extra.

And also there are some People who are on the opposite end who don’t believe in anything Spiritual – They will walk through Life as if there is no Spiritual Dimension to Life.

But there is a real Spiritual Dimension to Life – Things happen that are Spiritual.

Jesus had a balance of both – He understood what was Natural, and He understood what was Spiritual. But He had Spiritual Awareness.

He knew the impact He had on People – He knew that He carry Healing, He knew that He could heal People. But not only that, He knew the impact that People had on Him.

Can you imagine that this woman had impact on Jesus? – She touched Jesus and Jesus felt it.

And Jesus said that I Perceived that Power has gone out of me.

And you must be in a Place then the People are draining you and you can sense it.

When they are constantly draining you, taking Advantage of your Time, taking Advantage of your Money, taking Advantage of your Patience, Love, Generousity and you just let them take Advantage of you; then you don’t know the impact the People are having on you!

There are some People that comes into your Presence and when they touched you, you just feel discouraged.

You just go to visit them at home and by the time you get to your home; you are depressed because every Stories they tell you is a Depressive Story.

But there are some People that makes you Paranoid – They tell you about all kinds of Enemies.

By the time you leave their Presence, you are so Paranoid.

They are not giving to you but they are draining from you!

So in Life, you have to know those that Impact Power to you and those who take Power from you!

And Jesus knew that and He could tell this woman – She is draining me because what is of benefit come out of me.

I. To her (Woman with Issue of Blood), it is Healing; to me (Jesus), something had gone out.

II. For her, it is a Breakthrough; to me, something had gone out.

And there are a lot of you like that – You are Good-Hearted People, you are Generous People; you are Kind and People are just draining you.

And because you have no Self Awareness, no Situational Awareness and Spiritual Awareness; you don’t even know that People are draining you!

Listen to me – When People are draining you, they will drain you until you are Dry.

And then the same People will say: Before, he used to have a lot but now he doesn’t have anything again.

So, what do we learn from this Encounter about Jesus? – That we have to maintain our Internal Power Balance!

Sometimes, you have to call “Time Out”.

Some of you who go for Meetings that everybody is asking you for Money.

You go somewhere and everybody is demanding for your Time because they knew that you are Generous.

At a Point, you start feeling tired, drained and weak and you have Problems to say “No” to People: I want to give but not now; I want to help but not now because I need to Preserve my Internal Power Balance, otherwise I will be so drained that I can’t survive.

Because if you don’t know how to do that, you are going to learn shortly that Time will always fly.

When I became a Pastor at a Young Age, I didn’t understand those things – And one of the People that are really drained are the Pastor.

Because in our Part of the world, the Pastor is not just a Spiritual Leader; he doesn’t only need to come and teach in the Church; he is also a Marriage Counsellor, a Financial Adviser, He is Contractor – He is everything.

Somebody run to a Pastor, very desperate and the Pastor said, what is wrong and he said I chew gum and I swallowed it.

… You swallowed your chewing gum and you come to the Pastor? Why don’t you go to the Hospital?

Because in this Part of the world, when Somebody is sick, they call the Pastor – The Pastor is the First Aid Officer.

In my early days of Pastoring; I used to live in a 3-Bedroom house – I live in one room, another Pastor live in another room and another Pastor live in another room with his wife and children. And the Boy’s Quarters was full of People.

In those days, my wife used to be upset because when there is food in the fridge and she thought that there was food there; next Morning, she goes and People had been led by the Spirit.

And not just filling their Stomach, it was giving my Marriage Problems because my wife is upset that we can’t keep food in the fridge.

At at one Point, you are Ministering to Somebody and at the other Point, it is creating tension for you – You have to know the Balance

So People will come to the house early in the Morning at Night and at a Point; I say: Listen you have to come and see me in the Church Office and book Appointment.

And some People were Upset – Pastor has now become very arrogant – Did Jesus keep Appointments or have Secretary?

You know we don’t know much about Jesus but Jesus keeps Appointments.

Read the Bible, if you want to see Jesus; you will tell Somebody and Somebody will tell Somebody – You don’t just go!

They went through Philip or Andrew – Andrew was the PA (Personal Assistant) of Jesus.

But eventually, People learnt how to come to the Church Office before they see the Pastor.

What am I doing?

Trying to manage my Internal Power Balance.

What you are giving out to People is also draining you

And Jesus is teaching us – What the Woman calls “A Healing”; it costs Him something and so He said that I Perceived Power going out of me.

Listen to me – If Power is going out of you, it is a Good Thing for the one receiving the Power but for you, something is going out of you called Virtues!

Now, a lot of you; Virtues go out of you all the time and Pretty soon; you are tired, you are frustrated and some of you can let External Pressure Collapse your Marriage.

People who demands Money from you; also demands attention from you and begins to put Pressure on your Marriage and before you know it; your Marriage is having Problems or your children are having Problems with you because you have no time for them because everybody can touch you and take something from you.

Jesus said: Don’t allow that to be so!

Don’t take yourself for granted because sometimes we take ourselves for granted – You can do it but you do it at the expense of something

And it doesn’t mean: Don’t help People; but be aware especially if you have “Growing Children” and has a lot of Needs and you are helping People.

And sometimes, the Pressure is so much that you may find out that your own children are deprived, your home is deprived and you are going through Needs.

And if you don’t manage that Power Balance well, you get drained!

It is not for Nothing that Jesus spent a lot of Time alone Praying early in the Morning because People were taking Stuffs from Him and He has to get Himself sorted out with the Father.

Don’t take yourself for granted and don’t allow anyone take you for granted.

Help People, be Kind to People, be Generous to People but don’t allow People to put guilt on you.

Be a Good Person, be a Good friend, be Good Neighbours, be a Good Relative.

Be Good, help People but you have to maintain the Right Balance because if you don’t maintain the Right Balance, People are going to draw so much from you and not even appreciate that you are giving to them!

• You give them something, they think that you could have done better.
• You spend 10 Minutes with them, they said that you should have spent an hour.

And they forgot that in a Day, we only have 24 Hours – 8 Hours for Sleeping and here in Ghana, about 3 Hours spent in Traffic.

So before the Time that you settled down, then you don’t have much time left.

If you have to give Someone 1 Hour out of your Time, it is a lot that you have given away.

Once a while, you can do that but there are times that you find out you have so many things to do and you don’t allow anybody to take you for granted.

Learn to tell People that I have only 15 Minutes and after that, say nice seeing you, we meet again and then move on.

Will everybody be happy?

No, but Pretty soon, everybody will adjust and when they are coming to see you, they rehearse everything in 15 Minutes.

So, for those of us who “Give Up” ourselves all the time, this is how we learnt from Jesus how to manage the Power we have so that we don’t become weak, for the People to take Advantage of us, drained us down to the Ground and sometimes make us just loss everything.

And you don’t need to seek Approval from People to be Kind and Generous!

Don’t try to buy Favour or Approval.

You need to have Self Awareness, and you must be yourself so that you don’t need other People to say that you are a Good Man for you to feel that you are Good!

• You are Good all by yourself.
• You are Kind all by yourself.
• You are a Good Person and you don’t need to Prove it.

So, from the 2-Parts^:

1. We have learnt that those who take Silently – No Acknowledgement.
2. But we also have to learn to manage what we have so that those who take Silently don’t weary us to the Point where we became so dry; that we can’t do any Good again because we didn’t know how to manage the Power that we have.

Thank you so much for staying all through to read.

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