Pastor Keith uses DMX and the biblical story of a bleeding woman to argue that people suffer silently, known only by their pain. Healing starts when you name your wounds and dare to reach for Jesus, who isn't afraid of blood or brokenness. The church should embrace the bleeding, not just the fixed.
Chapters
What do you do when the bleeding won't stop? I need you to hear me with all intensity, and I don't say this— and please forgive me if I— this sermon may cause you to examine yourself. Not trying to trigger anyone. I'm not perfect, so I want to ask that you pray for me. But I do understand this, family. Before we open this text, let me lean into something that's already sitting heavy on my chest. We live in a generation where people look whole on the outside but are hemorrhaging on the inside. This ain't the era of quiet storms. This is the era of quiet suffering. People are drowning in pain, and they're drowning in plain sight, smiling with their mouths while bleeding through their minds. And if we're going to preach the gospel to this generation, we can't preach to their Sunday clothes. Amen. We've got to preach to their Thursday night panic attacks, their payday anxiety, their family trauma, their identity crisis, their silent battles nobody sees. Let me bring it to where you live. One of the most unlikely prophets of pain was a brother from Yonkers by the name of Earl Simmons. Some of you may not know who Earl Simmons is when I mention his stage name, you'll know who he is. He's from Yonkers, New York. His name is Earl Simmons. The world knows him famously as DMX, a man who barked on tracks but bled in his lyrics, a man whose voice shook stadiums but whose trauma shook his soul. Yes. In a generation where Black men were told to be hard, he was honest. Where culture expected armor, he gave transparency. Where the world demanded toughness, he offered truth. And in this song, Slippin', he wrote a line that became a mirror for anybody who has ever felt life closing in on them. To live— listen to the lyrics. He said, to live is to suffer. To survive, that's to find meaning in the suffering. That wasn't just a lyric. That was a lifetime of pain and a lifeline for the kid fighting depression every single day of his life. For the mother fighting anxiety, for the father fighting the weight of failure, for the believer fighting to pray when life won't let them breathe. DMX said what many church folks are too scared to admit. I'm trying to survive while I'm slipping. And whether you grew up on hymns, trap music, R&B, choir Sundays, or revival fire, you know what it is to slip, Pastor Keith. Amen. Slip emotionally, slip spiritually, slip financially, slip mentally, slip into numbness, Amen. Slip into survival mode. But here's the tension. Hear me. Some people slip publicly and others slip silently. And that silent slipping is where this sermon begins, because before we even meet the woman with the issue of blood, we must confront a truth that is choking our generation. Amen. Everybody's bleeding somewhere. So before we open this text, before we exegete this miracle, before we analyze this woman, I need to make an announcement to every survivor in this room and everybody watching me online right now. You cannot heal what you refuse to name. That's right. And you cannot fix what you're afraid to feel. Hear me. If DMX could stand in front of the world and confess his mental health, his suffering that he dealt with, then surely God is giving you permission to stop hiding your pain, your hemorrhaging. Because here's the truth, family: you can survive and still be slipping. You can function and still be falling. You can smile and still be sinking. That's right. And that's why today's message is not for the perfect. Right. It's not for those that are perfect or perfecting perfection, if they want to call it that. Overachievers. No, it's not for them. It's for the bleeding. It's for the bleeding. I need— I need you to listen to me. I need 20 people and a handful of honest saints to say, Lord, I'm bleeding, but I'm still reaching. Because sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is admit you've been leaking life, but you refuse to lose your faith. This woman in Mark chapter 5, a woman only named, only known by her issue. What, what, what a circumstance to be only known in a certain— listen at this. This is what the text says. It says, and a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years. We don't know her name. We don't know her family. We don't know her dreams. We only know her issue. Amen. People didn't see her identity. they saw her condition. To only be known by your issue, how painful is that? I can only imagine what my own mother was going through when she was labeled, that girl, she's not going to be anything, look at her. Just like this woman, only known by her issue. Life will label you By the chapter it caught you in, bleeding was physical. Hers was physical, but yours might not be the same as hers. Some of us, we're smiling but bleeding, serving but bleeding, parenting but bleeding, preaching. bleeding. Her body was hemorrhaging, but your soul might be hemorrhaging too. Yes. She was getting worse not because she didn't try, but because she tried everything. This woman did everything a person could humanly do. She did everything that you could possibly do. I need you to hear me. Amen. People don't bleed for 12 years without mental wounds. She did everything she could do. People say they only love— they only love the attention. No, it's much more than that. Then you have those that say they only love For people to just check on them all the time. You don't know what folk are going through. And hear this: people are nice, but they only love the healed version of me, not the bleeding version of me. I need you to hear me when I say this. Many of us go through these circumstances and storms in life, serving while bleeding, hurting while bleeding, in pain while bleeding. But what do we do when the crowd overlooks you, when family and friends push you away and dismiss you? When those that you call your loved ones turn their back on you? Right. The Bible says that she spent everything she had, but yet she was abused. She got no better. Her situation was not any better. What do you do when folks say that they love you and they turn their back? When the tears just won't stop, when the pain just won't stop, when you can't sleep at night, when everything you love and everyone you love says that you're gonna be okay, when they don't know what's going on internally, hmm, and they see something is wrong, but they said, oh, she's gonna be fine. What do you do? But here's the beauty of this. She finally met someone that didn't mind her touching him. If you know anything about the hemorrhaging, the loss of blood— blood, when it leaves the body, it has an odor because it hits the air. Can people deal with the suffering that you deal with? They like the healed version of you, Minister Ophelia. They love that version. They love the fact that, um, you can give in church, but when your issue comes up, they don't want to deal with that. That's right. They love that. People don't bleed for 12 years and there's nothing wrong with them emotionally. There's nothing wrong with them mentally. There's nothing wrong with them physically. Amen. That's right. That will break you. Can you imagine being home and no family there? Teach, teach. The people that say they love you turn their back on you. And that's some of you that are watching me right now. Maybe you're not hemorrhaging like this woman. Maybe you are hemorrhaging in your finances. Maybe you're wondering, how am I going to be able to take care of my babies when their father walked out on us? When I go to my family and they say, that's all you want from us is money. They don't know that you're going through this hemorrhaging. Ah, just like this woman that had this issue, mental wounds, and people calling you a burden. They only love the healed version, Minister Tracy. Finally, she meets someone who wasn't looking at her issue but concerned about her being made whole. Thank you, Jesus. She touched him and immediately the flow stopped. Oh, I'm— it's much more than that. Yeah, this woman was hemorrhaging blood out of her body, but some of us are hemorrhaging in our emotions. We're asking for help and we get a silent no because of actions You go to the church and the church folk turn their back on you. The people you felt that would give you the most help turn their back on you. Immediately she noticed something. She noticed that when she touched him— notice this— that Jesus looked and said, Immediately, he said, "Who touched me?" Notice that he didn't identify her by her issue. He said, "Who touched me?" He even recognized her humanity. He said, "Who touched me?" Immediately, her identity returned. Immediately. Her trauma met truth immediately. Suffering surrendered to the one that touched her and loves her. Amen. Church, let me say something that might save somebody's life. You serve a God who is not afraid of your blood. He's not intimidated by the smell of your struggle. He's not offended by the odor of your depression. Hear me. He's not repulsed by the memories you're ashamed of. He's not uncomfortable with the wounds you can't hide. He's not disgusted with the part of you you're scared to reveal. People may reject you because of the messiness of your life. People may back up because of the odor. People may distance themselves because your pain is just simply too much. They say you're just too much to deal with. People may walk away because you can't give what they want you to give. But Jesus, Jesus is the God who walks toward blood, not away from it. Amen. He walks toward the hemorrhaging woman. He walks toward the lepers. He walks toward the broken. He walks toward the isolated. He walks toward the ashamed. He walks toward the bleeding. Thank you, Jesus. Because he himself knew that one day on Calvary that he himself would have to hemorrhage. Ah, he would have to bleed. For us, when everybody else stepped back, he stepped up. When everybody else labeled her, he called her daughter. When everybody else avoided her, he allowed her to touch him. When she had no money, she was broke. The Bible says that she spent everything she had and she got no better. When, when folks that say they love you call themselves community, call themselves family, and when they touch you, you get worse, something's wrong with that. And everybody else avoided her. He allowed her to touch him. He healed her when she had no family. He claimed her when she had no strength. He restored her. And here is the weight that will break this room. Jesus is the only one who can handle the version of you that you are scared to show. Amen. Only Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. He doesn't care about the blood, the nervous breakdown, the exhaustion, the diagnosis, the prognosis, the debt, the anxiety. He doesn't care about the trauma. He doesn't care about the isolation. He doesn't care about the mental battle, the nights you wanted to give up, the odor of your old wounds, the fear you can't shake, the mistakes you can't rewind. He doesn't care about any of those things. He only wants you as is. God says, I'm a master technician in broken things. Don't worry about the hair on your head and how it looks. Don't worry about How you're dressed. Don't worry about the money. Don't worry about the finances. I'm not concerned about any of those things. He wants you, the bleeding you, the burdened you, the exhausted you, the ashamed you, the forgotten you, the slipping you, because your blood never scared him. It summoned him. Amen. And just like that woman, if you can reach for him while you bleed, he will heal you while you reach. Yes. If you're in this room and you're bleeding anywhere in your mind, in your heart, in your emotions, your finances, your family, your identity, I want you to come to this altar. You don't have to stop the bleeding to come. You don't have to pretend to be whole to come. You don't have to hide the smell of the wound. You don't have to hide the smell of the emotional breakdown. You don't have to hide the smell of the anxiety. You don't have to hide the smell of the the financial issues that you're dealing with. You don't have to hide the smell of the drinking because of the depression of how you were abused as a child. You don't have to hide the smell. Just come. Amen. Come broken. Come trembling. Even if you got to come tired. Just come. And if you're listening to me this morning online, I need you to hear me. I know that you're hemorrhaging emotionally. You may be even considering suicide. But I need you to hear this word. Yes, maybe the church turned their back on you. Maybe you're upset. Maybe you've experienced hurt in church. There is a Savior that will touch you and call you daughter because he made you. He knows you. He knows the pain. He knows how you were abused and how you were talked about. And how people said mean and evil things because your clothes were tattered. Yes, maybe you didn't have the, the Jordans. Maybe you didn't drive the Cadillac Escalade. Maybe you didn't drive the Tesla, but Jesus doesn't care about any of those things. He just wants you. That's it. That's all he wants. Maybe your family turned their back on you. Maybe your pastor wouldn't even call you back. But Jesus just wants you hemorrhaging and all. Because he is a master technician in broken things. God loves every single one of us. Amen. Every single one of us. And I need you to hear me. Don't you take your life. You have value. God loves you. You said, Pastor, but you don't understand, the church hurt me. I understand that. I understand that this woman was hurt by the church as well. They called her— you know what they called her? They said she was unclean. Now this is a church who does not even recognize the Savior standing in front of them. Jesus, the same church that turned their back on the Savior, the same church that could not hear His voice. I understand that, church. I was once where you were. Young man, hear me. Young lady, hear me. I was once there. Amen. Talked about, lied upon. But I want to say this: if you're looking for a church that's going to love you in spite of your issue, in spite of your drinking, in spite of your mental health, in spite of your finances, in spite of who you are— maybe you are dealing with trauma from an abusive relationship that you just got out of. If you're looking for a church, 514 Grace Church. We don't, we don't judge you. We love you. Even if you're bleeding, even if you're hurting, leaders have abused you, turned their back on you, we love you. We're not a perfect people, but we're in the perfecting process. God wants you to know that there is such a church on this planet. 514 Grace Church, because the grace of God is upon your life and you do matter. And don't you dare give up on Jesus because he has not given up on you. You're precious to him. Your life matters. You have greatness inside of you. And just because of Circumstances and situations that you could not control. This woman couldn't control this. For 12 years she dealt with this issue, but a faithful God said, you can touch me. She said to herself, the Bible says she said, but if I can just touch the hem of his garment. I'm saying this: God wants to heal you right now. Heal those broken broken emotions. Heal the betrayal. Heal those that wronged you, those that talked about you. God wants to heal you right now in the name of Jesus. Reach out to that screen. God wants to save you. He wants to deliver you. He wants you to know that your hemorrhaging does not scare him at all. Amen. God wants you to be whole, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to say this. If you're here for the first time, hear me. We love you with everything that's inside of us. But I would be a terrible pastor if I did not extend altar, open this altar up and extend this invitation to every single person in this room, to extend the invitation to come to Jesus while hemorrhaging, while bleeding, the God that wants to make you whole. If you're here Come to this altar. We want to pray over you. We want to give you an opportunity to meet the Savior that wants to heal you. And I want you to pray this prayer after me. Everyone lift your hands. Father, I come before you. Forgive me for what I've done, God. I believe according to your Word that Jesus died and rose on the 3rd day. I confess every single one of my issues, every single one of my faults. Father, save me. Redeem me. Come into my heart. Take control of my life. Give me a clean heart where I can serve nobody but you. Amen. I want to exchange my strength for your strength. Redeem me, O God. I believe that I'm born again, that I'm saved, and from this day forward, I commit my life to you, Jesus, right now, here in this church. In Jesus' name I pray. And everyone said amen. If you prayed this prayer with me, do me a favor. Email us online. Email our church. Look us up, www.514gracechurch.org. Send us an email. Let us know that you gave your life to Jesus. God wants you and your family saved. Come visit us this holiday season. Thanksgiving is coming. We'd love to fellowship with you. We'd love to meet both you and your family. But do me a favor, if this ministry is making an impact on your life, message us, DM us on Instagram, DM us on TikTok, Facebook. We'd love to conversate with you and to know that this ministry is making a difference in the life of both you and your family. Reach out to us. We love you. My wife and I, Traci, and the leaders of our church, we love you. We want to pray for you. We'd love to pastor you. Both you and your family. God bless you in Jesus' name.
