The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:00:00 good morning everyone today's scripture reading is taken from James chapter 5:13 to20 is anyone among you in trouble let them pray is anyone happy let them sing songs of praise is anyone among you sick let them call the Elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with the oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well the Lord will raise them up if they have sinned they will be forgiven therefore confess your sin to each other and pray for each other so
00:00:32 that you may be healed the prayer of righteous person is powerful and effective Eliah was a human being even as we are he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for tree and a half years again he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the Earth produced its corpse my brothers and sisters if one of you should Wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back remember this whoever turn a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and covered over a multitude of
00:01:05 sin this is the word of the Lord thank you thas good morning church it's a wonderful testimony from one of the heroes of our faith you can see how one young lady in the middle of nowhere doesn't have a PhD don't have anything but she has Faith that's all it takes and so may this encourage us to continue to give to missions uh you know bt76 put missions this work must continue and it must grow we got to have bigger things this year and number two if you think you can make such a difference in children's lives do
00:02:00 you know FBC Sunday school teachers from 60 before pandemic went down to 35 you can make a difference today in our church don't talk about going to join Evelyn and sabba I won't ask you to do that the mosquitoes will kill you but just teach Sunday school here and you can make such a difference stand where you are and the light will shine FBC right these are uh I'm here standing because of the emergency sermon sorry uh uh John could not make it so he's pushed back to uh 29 October next week we have
00:02:43 a guest speaker from the United States Ryan Townson and then William ya will take us through patience all right so let's start with word of prayer father Lord we ask that this morning you speak to us regard something so important to each of Our Lives which is basically healing for we are all in one way another at some time another we are all sick and we need your touch we ask for Jesus sake amen so this is actually the last chapter uh part of the Book of James so I'm you know speeching this first
00:03:20 because of the switch with John uh just to give you some context chapter 5 talks about the Perils of materialism which John will be dealing with and later on patience and suffering which William will be dealing with today we're talking about physical and spiritual healing all right so uh if you start off here is anyone among you suffering let him pray is anyone cheerful let him sing you see the last part of James ends very much like the first part of James because the first part of James Goes counted all joy my
00:03:52 brothers when you feel meet Trials of various kinds right that you know that the testing of Faith produces steadfast starts off with the difficulties in life it ends off with the difficulties in life and it starts off dealing with those difficulties by praying let him ask in faith with no doubting and he ends up here asking us to pray so he's asking us to pray whether we're suffering whether it's emotional mental Financial family or even when you're cheerful with to praise worship because of God's grace in every spectrum of Life
00:04:32 prayer is the solution it is not the last option we always think uh no more money no more opportunity last ditch pray you know that's not how James ask us to approach we are supposed to be praying constantly at all circumstances remember the 10 lepers that came to Jesus he healed them only one came back and that one was truly best when we pray even in times why do we pray where we're supposed to be cheerful in times of Good Times why number one it glorifies God it allows us to see God in action and when you see God in action it
00:05:17 actually deepens your faith not unlike watching Roomba and Evelyn come and share with us when you see what God has done in the last 11 years it actually Glory ifies him and you see him in action it deepens your faith you know some of us have a problem whenever we look at our lives and when we come to pray all you see on your radar screen you know what is your problem it could be a painful toll it could be a financial setback it could be a your boss who gave you a hard time and that looms so large that it clouds out
00:05:56 everything else and and life becomes a ser series of problems you notice series of problems that actually block your happiness and all you have to do is actually see how God works in the good situations your life and that actually deepens your faith you know sang the song is not all the goodness of God all my life you remember the song the words all my life I seen if you don't praise you'll see nothing all you see in your is a series of problems that you had right so it brings peace and contentment
00:06:32 look at Philippians do not be anxious about everything by everything by prayer and supplication give thanks that your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and Minds so we cheerful it guards against Envy because you are thanking God for that good thing that happened to you it defies Satan's lies and it lastly it brings Joy Psalm 126 when the Lord restored the fortune of Zion we were like those who dream then our mouths are filled with laughter
00:07:03 our tongue with shouts of Joy when they said among the Nations the Lord has done great things for them the Lord has done great things for us and we are glad Charles Swindle actually said prayer not only reflects an attitude of genuine faith it also reveals patient endurance as we turn to God to handle life's struggles in his timing according to his promises as such prayer becomes the quintessential Mark of authentic Faith so now he moves on to sickness is anyone among you sick all right we going talk
00:07:37 about healing and restoration and the last part also talks about someone who has gone away from the truth which is basically apostasies we won't be dealing very much with that because I only have a limited period of time so when you're sick you're commanded to pray call for the Elders of the church let them pray over him right and then confess your sin to one another and pray for one another it is a command when you're sick is not optional to pray I often ask people you know you're sick they come to me and say
00:08:16 do you want to put your name on the list to be prayed for oh sh do want actually it's a command when you're sick you're supposed to get the entire church involved in prayer illness is not a personal Pride Private Matter you know why people don't want to tell others that they're sick anybody know why because if you're sick the perception of the public to you is oh you're poor thing last time a big time politician now sick with cancer poor thing and so therefore when you see people your self-esteem is right at the
00:08:51 bottom right so therefore you don't want people to have pity on you and when you do that you're actually cutting your yourself out from the love of God and you're basing your self-esteem on your own physical Prest isn't it right so you you're guarding your reputation that's why you don't I know of people in this church who have got cancer for years and not a single person knows and they struggle alone and I'm asking them why and they say it's private it's private because you don't want people to
00:09:27 perceive you as sick they want to see you as Ying Hong powerful but that's a lie we are all singers and if you actually look very carefully if you don't die in an accident or plane crash you will die of sickness you name which person who will not die of sickness as aside from an accident we will all face that it's a common problem so therefore we need to pray together there are a lot of issues around praying for healing some people think must have special people to pray for them uh like Elders or or or faith healers
00:10:03 you need to use special words wrong word very s because you might get worse you must have enough faith in the outcome some people will declare I have no cancer automatically the cancer go away but actually the cancer is still there so maybe I deserve to be healed if I'm a good boy just like Hezekiah he was sick right and the first thing he said to God you know I've been good all my life you know I'm the only one of the few kings that Institute reform so therefore I deserve to be healed or what about
00:10:31 prayer should be be persistent praying maybe I I must pray every single minute every day or maybe certain kinds of illness can be healed and certain kinds cannot have have you ever seen anybody in ha uh in faith healing where the arm was Chopper a grew back anyone in the entire world none none nobody's hands grows back all right why why is it like that God can't make the hand grow back he made it grow in the first place right so another one that's very difficult to heal is congenital blind blindness you're born
00:11:07 blind very few reports of actual Faith healing for people who are blind so there lot issues around prayer for healing I want to use this time to to deal with this issue uh you know doctors uh they they are very clever they try to study prayer as if it's a medical phenomenon which you can actually uh uh use they they equate it to meditation and the effects of prayer are documented reduces your heart rate your blood pressure reduces stress reduce anxiety boost your immune system reduce stress anxiety enhance self-esteem wow this
00:11:43 better than taking medicine right so that there are effects of prayer there a lady called batina lurman 2021 she was prayed profusely by her church and she was in a ventilator for 117 days or something a huge problem you know uh dying and then on that day just before they would take off the ventilator to send her to the Grave she actually woke up and because her church prayed um there's a study done of uh women who couldn't get pregnant uh in Korea 219 infertile Korean women right triple blind study which means nobody knew
00:12:28 whether they were pray for or not prayed for the prayer groups were in United States Australia and Canada and you found that those were prayed for pregnancy rate 50% versus those who are not prayed for 26% all right so wow prayer Works isn't it all right uh but then again there was another study uh that looked at 1,800 patients divided three groups some prayed for and some not prayed for and do you know if somebody prayed for you the complications of the surgery was much more 59% versus 52 so if you're
00:13:04 having heart surgery don't ask people to pray for you not good if you're looking at pure statistics right please um and you know prayer Works 22 bush babies you know have you seen a bush baby prayed for with wounds and the wounds heal faster when they prayed for wow what does this mean well the aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom but to set a limit on infinite era Galileo actually it shows you you can't study Prayer by medical means because you cannot control God even David all right
00:13:42 2 Samuel 12 and the Lord Afflicted the child that uah's wife bore to David and he became sick David therefore sought God on behalf of the child David fasted went in and lay all night on the ground and the Elders of the house stood with him and raised him from the ground but you would not eat and drink on Seventh day you know the child died right could couldn't help so the issues I want to deal with in this particular uh uh part of James are only three one the link between sickness and health two righteousness and faith in
00:14:17 prayer three medicine and prayer okay let's look at sickness and sin and sin the prayer of faith will will save the one who sick the Lord will raise him up if he has committed he'll be forgiven therefore confess your sin to one another and pray for one another so it's not only uh prayer but also confession of sin there is a link between sin and sickness and our approach to illness is twofold one we overs spiritualize it in those days in Jesus days they overs spiritualize it all tragedy all disease
00:14:50 are direct consequence of sin and so therefore if your sin like job had illness so therefore his friends came and say you must have sinned you overs spiritualize it the other one is the UND spiritualize it which is our modernday problem we deny the link and we think only in terms of genetics germs or DNA damage neither approach is correct when we have sickness all sickness is due to entry of sin into the world that's a fact you could have sickness because of the sin of other people or you could
00:15:25 have personal specific sin if you are binging on alcohol every single day and you wind up with therosis of your liver needing a transplant and nobody wants to give you their liver well you know what your sin was or it also exposes idolatry and sin in a general manner in your life if you look in scripture there was a man who was paralyzed by the beesa pool Jesus went to him and healed him and he said to him see you are well sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you there is a link and then the man in John N was blind he
00:16:03 was born blind and he were speculating whether is he cannot be his sin because he he got it when he was born and could his parents have sined yes possible isn't it but Jesus said to him if it was not this man sin or his parents but that the works of God might be displayed in him which means his healing highlighted the person and message of Jesus Christ something that nobody would have actually predicted or imagin what about the man who was uh uh uh paralyzed and his friends brought him in and Jesus
00:16:36 said uh these words to him he said but that you may know that the son of man has Authority on Earth to forgive sins he said to the paralytic I say to you rise up and pick up your bed and go home so Jesus brings a definite link between sickness and sin hence our need to repent and for many other situations we don't know why the person is sick uh Ecclesiastes as you as you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones of the womb of a woman with a child so you do not know the work of God who makes
00:17:10 everything often times we don't know the exact link but we are supposed to pray for confession number two the bigger issue is righteousness and faith in prayer all right so pray for one another okay now if you look here in these verses therefore confess your sin to one another and pray for one another that you might be healed is a command number two why the basis is the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working that's the reason the third thing Elijah is a man like nature ours
00:17:45 and he prayed fervently that may not rain for 3 years and 6 months it did not rain on Earth and then he prayed again the heaven gave rain and the Earth bore its fruit and this is the example three things okay if you look at the passage now is is he asking us to search for a man like Elijah whether it's Benny hin or John of God we look at this church we're looking for Elijah's here do I see oh Arnold didn't sitting there is that what he's asking us to do he says confess your sin and pray for one another which means it's a corporate
00:18:22 issue we're supposed to pray for one another and because the prayer of righteous person has great power in his working that means it actually works and he says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours now this is very important to look at he's not asking us to look for Elijah he's asking that we are supposed to pray for one another because the prayer of righteousness had great power Elijah as an example is a man with a nature like ours not we are like elij we are like Elijah but Elijah was like us
00:18:52 it's not your way around what is righteousness well righteousness is being rightly related to God I mean you can stand in his presence no matter how holy you are in terms of your behavior nobody stands before God the only person who can stand before God whether it's Elijah or this young lady standing next to him is because two Corinthians 7 5:21 says for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God so we stand before God we rightly aligned to
00:19:27 him why because of Jesus Christ nothing else so therefore who can pray we can pray another issue is ethical righteousness and prayer and here we have the people whom James is writing to they are Christians like us and they prayed but didn't get any answer you desire do not have you murder you covered you cannot obtain you fight and quarrel you do not have because you do not ask you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions you adulterous people do you not know that friendship with the
00:20:04 world is enmity with God here we have people with divided desires they pray in order to seek God's hands and not his face that is what's happening in the church and this ethical righteousness is difficult because Psalms uh uh 661 1819 if I cherish iniquity in my heart the Lord would not have listened but God but truly God has listened he has attended to the voice of my PR so when we pray the ethical righteousness that we should have is that we do not cherish iniquity not praying with double standards and
00:20:38 wanting things for ourselves we're supposed to pray now do you need someone special to pray for you Elijah was a man with a nature like ours this Greek word is only used in another place and it is in what it is used in the book of Acts and here we have Paul's second missionary journey and he was going through a town called listra there the ruins if you ever been to Turkey and he actually healed a man there and the people are so impressed at the healing and you know what they did they grabbed Paul and uh Barnabas and
00:21:22 they said barnabus is zeist Paul is Hermes which means they are gods they started worshiping them and because of that Paul said these words men why are you doing these things we are also men like a nature with you same Greek word homopathic and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God so the emphasis in the passage is that Elijah is not that we should be like Elijah but Elijah is like us and Elijah in Jewish eyes is like that big icon up there all right so James doesn't say for
00:22:04 us to be like Elijah for our prayers to be answered but Elijah was like us and his prayers were answered therefore pray it's not the other way around I often in the past look at this passage oh I must be like Elijah then therefore God will answer my prayer you see what I mean so basically Elijah was like us and if you look at Elijah's life right in the beginning uh uh what Kings 171 and 1817 you'll find that he uh the northern kingdom had only had been in existence for 200 years 19 Kings every single one
00:22:39 of those kings were idolatrous and evil men at least Southern Kingdom 300 years half of them or less than half were good the other half horrible but you live in a place where every single prime minister know every single King is evil and Elijah had the guts to go up to the guy and condemn him in 171 go and read it and tell him there will be a drought How brave how Resolute he had to go up on verse chapter 1817 and challenge all the 450 Priests of Baal what a man on the other hand when Jezebel the wife
00:23:20 whispered something he ran away completely opposite how how do you understand people like that on one hand he stand SS up to the King on the other hand when the queen says something he runs away he understands who's the power behind the throne right the woman say something he quickly run away it's contradictory uh he could rise to the heights of faith and Comm commitment to defeat the the 450 B priests you know they were totally defeated because because Elijah called in fire from heaven and it destroyed
00:23:51 them and he went slew them as well powerful he was like a warrior on the other hand burnt out depression 1 Kings 194 and he could be selfless but he went to visit that Widow of zeret the sun fell down and died and he could actually pray for the son first problem person in the Old Testament can pray for resurrection and he never seen Resurrection in his entire life no history of resurrection and he prayed and that boy was resurrected on the other hand if you look at 1 Kings 19:10 he was full of self-pity
00:24:32 self-pity right and it's actually not Elijah who heals it's actually God 1 King 171 Elijah the the of tshb of tshb in gilad said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel lives beh home before whom I stand that shall neither be due nor rain in these years except by my word so it is God who actually decides on the on the the punishment for Israel not Elijah and then later on after after many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah and the third year says show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the Earth
00:25:05 it is not his own power is actually God who decides and you look at Elijah sign 194b and he asked that he might die saying that is enough now oh Lord take my life away for I am no better than my father's at the end of his career almost at the end of career after defeating the prophets ofal he lies under the tree and he's suicidal he asked God to take his life away you know why he want to take life away because he feels like a failure why does he feel failure because he compare his ministry with his fathers which
00:25:43 means his self-esteem is built on what on pedigree family reputation I did not live up to my father's pedigree so you better kill me you see Elijah is not unlike us look at Jonah Jonah same thing because God didn't punish the people of nve he says therefore now oh Lord please take my life from me it's better for me to die than to live we are like Jonah we are like Elijah but there's the difference in James they say prayer of righteous person has great power in James 1 it says a person must not suppose that he
00:26:20 would receive anything from the Lord that he's if he's double-minded because when you're praying you should not be double minded minded and here if you look at the same word is done in is repeated in James 4 and the context gives us idea what it means by double minded submit yourself therefore to God resist the devil he will free from you flee from you draw near to God He will draw near to you cleanse your hands your Sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded be wretched mourn and weep let your
00:26:49 laughter be turned in the morning and your joy be Gloom humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you so basically there's a contrast you're supposed to draw near to God purify your heart be wretched and mourn and weep humble yourself and compare to asking and prayer to please your own passions where the world motive is actually world leaders so when we pray whatever Elijah Was Elijah was single-minded in his desire to honor and please God when God told him to tell Ahab that in 171 that there will be a a
00:27:28 drought he followed when God told him that the drought will be lifted he followed it is a desire to trust and please God that must be our attitude when we come to God In Prayer but it is not easy Psalm 73 as for me my feet had almost stumbled my my my steps had nearly slipped I was envious of the Arrogant when I saw the prosperity the wicked uh all in vain I've kept my heart clean and washed my hands innocence for all day I've been stricken and rebuked every morning when my soul was embittered I was pricked in the heart I
00:28:04 was brutish and ignorant I was like a beast towards you my flesh and my my my heart May Fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever can you see how the thealist works through his desires all of us when we come to pray we have mixed motives all of us but coming to God and being totally honest honest with him is a process and it's a process when you work in day and out night and when he shows you your selfishness and your covetousness and he Reveals All That to that is what he's interested in all
00:28:39 right so even in Jesus whenever he he he he healed the faith that he looked for was not the belief in his ability as a wonder worker because if he saw that he wouldn't heal you but the belief in his person and his message so modern healers what do they instill faith in often they instill faith in themselves and they ask for offering after that rather than the message of the Gospel so the locus of effective prayer is not us but God you see James says scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to
00:29:21 dwell in us he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble submit yourself before God resist the devil he will flee from you draw near to God He will draw to you you know God is looking at you today and he he's not saying oh Yan so handsome yeah I really yearn for him he's not saying that he says Jen only has got one good thing in his whole life do I well that the second thing and that this holy spirit inside him he's saying he yearns for his spirit and so therefore Yan is precious in the
00:30:02 eyes of God because he has God's spirit and he yed jealously he doesn't want ye then to fall in love with Bal or money or self-esteem or anything else he wants Gan for himself because the holy spirit inside him and so therefore God is looking at every single one of us today and is willing able and wanting to pour out you know what what Grace you know what is Grace unmerited favor you don't deserve the healing you don't deserve the pleasure God brings the only thing of value in your life is the Holy Spirit and he put
00:30:43 that in you and he wants you and the only way you can release that how do you going to release that Grace upon your life resist the devil draw near to God and will draw near to you sometimes you come to prayer and you you're sick and you're thinking God Is So stingy wh why why keep chemotherapy my hair falls off my fingernails fall off and I'm why why why am why why and our our our perspective is that God is a stingy God and that that's a wrong footing and we struggle with that and after all that chemotherapy all that and
00:31:17 finally you see how God brings you through you see how God is beautiful and and I need you to understand all of you who are sick God is standing over you and he saying I'm jealous for the spirit which I put into your hearts and I'm there to pour Grace on you all you have to do the righteousness is drawing near to God single-minded in your Devotion to him prayer is effective not because of Great Men Who pray but because of a great God who in Christ graciously hears his people and this is a picture of uh Johny
00:31:58 Eric and when she was struck with quadri plure she once went to the miracle lady called Katherine kman who was credited with a lot of faith healing and she went for the miracle rallies and never got healed she was totally disappointed uh until she learned you know he couldn't understand and she actually said what good is it if we only trust the Lord when we understand his ways that only guarantees a life full of doubts because you can't understand God and she says oh God I can't live this way if I'm not going to die show me how
00:32:35 to live and that is the part of our Lives When we struggle with illness you need to come to the same position as johonny ericon did if I can't live this way please if I'm not going to die show me how to live how to live a life of devotion dedication and love in God even Jesus Jesus struggled with God's will will at the Garden of Gethsemane father if it is possible let this cup pass from me Jesus struggled with obedience as well and we need to do that now prayer so the issues in prayer for our healing
00:33:13 are sickness and and and sin is related righteousness and faith in prayer lastly the medicine and prayer how does that come in well if you look into the passage you'll find that let them call the Elders let them pray over him anoint inting him with oil in the name of the Lord how come oil comes into it and if you actually look uh there are some problematic teachings this is a study by Alexander paper published and he said there are some problems in the teaching of healing in the Christian church and
00:33:44 one of them is the use of medical intervention is a sign of a lack of faith I'm going to tell you from James it is not true okay uh there's a historical use of olive oil one Rel I or ceremonial acts as a symbol of Consecration and two medicinal use see the medicinal use of oil is provides physical comfort and promotes the healing process all throughout the Old Testament you will see that in ancient Antiquity even today uh Luke 10:34 prodigal uh the man who was Good Samaritan he went to him bound up his
00:34:21 wounds pouring on oil and wine then he set him on his own animal and brought him to in and took care of him why would you pour oil and wine on the wound water use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments unfortunately if uh if you going to ulcer the wine will make it worse so but but Paul didn't know okay okay but in those days maybe you got something else all right so but it is wine is used as medicine all right there's a study even olive oil and cancer 45 studies comprising almost a million subjects the
00:34:56 highest intake of olive oil was ass associated with 31% reduction of any cancer breast gastrointestinal Aero digestive tract and urinary tract as well so go out and rush and buy your olive oil if you can believe Medical Science well there's some data there right now the key to understanding is there are two words used for anoint you all your Bibles use the word anoint uh one is creole and the other one is Al Creo is a ceremonial use that means you come to church and rub some oil in your head and then put the sign AC cross and
00:35:36 bum okay and that comes from anointing of Kings okay uh in fact Jesus name Creo Jesus Christ the anointed one that's the word that James use right but he didn't he used the word aifo which is the common use not ceremonial use when do use Alo well Alo is when you want to massage your leg or the part that hurts instead of putting the Toyo there you go and use olive oil and go and massage isn't it or or you use uh the oil to oil your hinge or to oil your singer machine so you don't translate this we don't
00:36:20 anoint our singer machine do we we don't we oil so what does it mean when the when the elders come you tell them to massage your foot as well as pray for you you bring two things hey by the way when you're coming bring my panad doll isn't it or bring some medical advice so James is very practical he asked you to pray and on the other hand when Elders come ask them to go massage your leg nothing wrong with that I'm sure none of my elders will actually OB right they will get stuck into it right I I note some reluctance there never
00:37:02 mind uh Hezekiah you know when God's going to heal him told him to prepare figs and they form a ptis and a pus is used routinely in ancient days to draw out past and it actually works this one actually works okay so he pass it and he was healed of this particular Legion this is a patient of mine uh uh uh chin Al I always bring him out when I preach uh he's a patient who has a renal cell cancer transitional cell cancer of the kidney 18 years you know that his Pastor pray for him Somebody Pray in church and
00:37:37 then he felt he was healed but he wasn't because the tumor is still there but funny thing about this tumor never spray on have you heard a tumor in 18 years doesn't spread I've never he just arrested but later on he came to me he was mid 80s and he's got bladder cancer and he's got kidney failure so he goes for dialysis for kidney failure he goes to me to treat his blad cancer and God has held this left kidney cancer in their bance how do you figure that out it's a partnership between spiritual
00:38:07 healing and medical healing it works together but all glory goes to God that is what happens all healing is by the power of His grace and Jesus delayed his trip to heal Lazarus because he said did I not tell you if you believe you would see the glory of God purposely four days to make sure that is well and truly dead so the resurrection will bring glory to God and the criticism towards Hezekiah is that Hezekiah did not make a return according to the benefit done to him for his heart was proud every
00:38:45 healing every healing has a purpose if God gives it to you it is for particular desire of God and he did not make return which means his heart was proud because he thought he was healed because he was a good man he was a great king he went to the boast we are all undeserving or whatever God's grace gives us so healing has a purpose look at Jacob Jacob came out of the struggle with God broken opposite you know he was healthy when he went to the river jab and he came out sick you know opposite When you pray
00:39:22 sometimes you get opposite you know you go in healthy you come out limping but the reason why he was br broken and but but blessed is that he understood that his limb made him dependent on God that's why he had that illness when he finished wrestling with God so it's a false dichotomy to say medicine and healing spiritual healing does not uh uh occur together lastly there's a m Ministry of restoration if anyone wanders from truth someone brings him back let him know what whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will
00:39:58 save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sin so I there a whole new topic on uh apostasy we won't deal with that today so lastly when we pray for healing get the church to pray for you you can get the elders but they are not special they're not Elijah in fact they're far from it they don't even wear those robes and median doesn't eat Locust so so so it's the church needs to pray pray for you all right number one confess your sin everybody's got sin even your elders especially let your motive be to love
00:40:39 and to honor him and not to use him and therefore if that's your if that is your motive you won't be deciding with God what outcome you want you will be laying your life your illness at his feet and fourthly get medical help because in the end take this verse back he yearns jealously over the spirit he has made to dwell in us he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble submit yourself therefore to god let's pray father Lord we we come to you as are people
00:41:29 Afflicted with sin and the sin manifests itself in many ways in our lives and we are people who need healing and you are the great healer and you're standing over us yearning for your spirit in US wanting to give us and shower us Grace that we did not deserve we pray that you work within our souls that we be honest that when we come before you in prayer it is not with mixed motives but is with confession of our sin and an Earnest desire to just love and serve you and not to use you and father Lord it is not
00:42:11 how powerfully we pray but what a powerful God you are we just worship and praise you in Jesus name amen church I want to invite you to rise As we sing of his love and his goodness I Love You Lord oh your mercy never fails me at all my days I've been held in your hands from the moment that I wait up until I lay my head oh I will sing of the goodness of God all my life you have been [Music] faithful all my life you have been so so good it's every breath that I am aable I will sing of the goodness of
00:43:41 God I love your voice you have led me through the fire in my darkest night you are close like no other I've known you as a father I've known you as a friend I have lived in the goodness of [Music] God oh my life you have been [Music] saful oh my life you have been so so good with every breath that I am aable oh I will sing of the goodness of God let's sing your goodness your goodness is running after it's running after me your goodness it's running after it's running after me with my life laid down
00:45:04 surrender now I give you everything your goodness is running it's running after me let's see your goodness your goodness it's running after it's running after me your goodness it's running after it's running after me if my life laid down I'm surrender now I give you everything your goodness is running after after it's running after me and all my life you have been [Music] faithful no my life you have been so so good every breath that I am aable oh I will sing of the goodness of God let's sing Church all my life you have been
00:46:23 faithful [Music] and all my life you have been so so good with every breath that I am aable oh I will sing of the goodness of God oh I will sing of the goodness of God who I will sing of the goodness of God what if your blessings comes through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears what if the Thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you are near what if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy and what if Trials of this
00:47:42 life the rain the storms the hardest nights are your Mercies in These Guys these are the words of a song called Blessing by Lord Laura Story let me end with this Laura Story is a co-writer with Chris Tomlin her husband had a brain tumor and she prayed for healing the healing never came and she wrote that song even in this Hall there many of you were struggling and she gave an interview with God TV and it always struck me she said this you can judge God by the circumstances of your life and there are those here in our
00:48:36 midst who are going through so much pain medical relational and you are saying God where are you and that is what she felt and then she paused and she said this I can judge my circumstances by the god I know it's true that he so loved me he died on the cross for me healing can come through a thousand sleepless nights your trials your pain your tears believe me God can use that to heal brothers sisters we come to the most important part of the message and that is prayer we cannot do a sermon on healing if we
00:49:30 do not pray and I want you to take this moment very seriously that we be part not just of a Praying Community but a healing Community do you not believe if each one of you right now as we enter into prayer Pray earnestly those in our midst who are sick the Lord will hear earnestly as Peter told us just just now it is corporate prayer we are now going to pray for one another Lord Jesus we just come before right now as we just heard about healing and sometimes you hear through medicine sometimes you hear
00:50:15 miraculously sometimes we don't get healed for Laura's Story she prayed and prayed the brain tumor came and took a husband band so right now we come to you not because we are righteous or because you are righteous Lord and you took our sins on that tree and with tears we pray for one another I want each one of you right now to pause and think of a name think of someone you know who's hurting the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective not because we are morally righteousness but we have been imputed
00:51:07 the righteousness of god let's take a moment right now I want you to pray a family member a friend someone you know who's hurting who needs healing who's on a point of Despair there's almost 400 people here and each one of us prayers the heavens will open Pray oh church pray let's take a moment now pray Hallelujah Lord [Music] oh Lord hear our hearts we come before you in humility we beseech you hear our praise and receive it let us all be members of a healing Community let us not just pray but
00:52:29 people who do with words and deeds as you depart us now let us be conscious to look out with the eyes of our heart for people our midst are hurting and maybe they just need a hand squeeze they need a hug we need one another we ask your spirit goes through us we pray us as we leave we encourage Sister Evelyn and Roomba who came all the way from Sabah that their work is truly inspiring now receive the benediction may the Lord God who so loved us that he has healed us of our sins and one day when we meet him he
00:53:20 will take away every tear he will heal every affirmity and while we are here on this Earth Lord make each one of us here a blessing to someone else and a sign of a future Glory that awaits all of us and God's people say amen God bless you all the sermon is over as usual please stay back the elders and pastors are here to receive prayers and to talk to you
