THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING - Prayer + Healing

while we're talking about health and wellness today and it's not really because we're on the back end of Thanksgiving this isn't some backhanded way to shame you for the unnecessary amount of pie that you ate over the last few days it's because this is where James goes we're wrapping up this series called this changes everything what the book of James been talking about is when you enter into a relationship with Almighty God that leaves no area of your life untouched you don't get to come part mentalize the omnipotent when you have a relationship with God it impacts everything impacts the way you process pain in your life impacts the way you treat people who are poor it impacts the way you spend your money what you read what you think and then today it's gonna talk about how it impacts your physical health that our bodies are impacted by our spiritual relationship with God now I know as I say that some people that may raise some level of skepticism like what do you mean by that but but let me just say this this is good timing for us to talk about this because the Washington Post just had an article come out last week and they were reporting on an extensive report that just came out in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the title of the article and the Washington Post was this there's something terribly wrong Americans are dying at alarming rates and they were talking about this article from the Journal of the American Medical Association that for the first time in history in America that our mortality rates are going up and life expectancy is going down for three consecutive years among people ages 25 to 64 we're dying earlier and that's that's not the way it's supposed to go in a civilized society and so the title of the article came from dr. wolf who's the director of the center of social society and health of the Virginia Commonwealth University said the fact that these numbers are climbing something's terribly wrong what's happening here and in the increase in mortality is particularly acute among people in their 20s they're going what's going on with that and drug abuse is part of it obesity is part of it heart disease still the leading cause and yet there's a number of factors like that that used to be common in men that are now common in women like liver disease problems from alcoholism and as they're talking about these different issues the professor at Dartmouth Institute Ellen Mira said there's something more fundamental about how we're feeling she said whether its economic whether it's stress whether it's deterioration of family people are feeling worse about themselves and their futures and it's leading them to do things that are self-destructive and not promoting health the way we are navigating life is not leading to human flourishing at a physical level and yet here's the interesting thing that same journal posted an article three years ago a study out of Harvard that interviewed over 74,000 women and this is what they found out of 74,000 women they found that those who attend religious services once a week have a 33% lower all-cause mortality compared with women who never attend a religious service 33 percent better their conclusion was frequent attendance and religious services is associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause cardiovascular and cancer mortality among women there was a study out of the University of Texas that found that people who attend church regularly live seven years longer than their non church-going counterparts so let me tell you we are here to try to save you spiritually every week but we're also here to save you physically there are physical implications to this CNN just had an article last week that we're looking at Blue Zones that is the places in the world where people are living 8 to 10 years longer than everyone else and they centered in on one town in California and saw people who have the highest percentage of people living into their 90's and into their 100's and they're trying to figure out what are they doing is it the weather is that the avocados what is it and what they found was it's the highest concentration of seventh-day adventists and they said these are people who are strict about taking a day of Sabbath rest and to pray and they say you know they have some healthy physical factors they eat a lot of vegetables whatever but that doesn't apply to it all something about spirituality is impacting them physically that they're living long and we need to talk about that and so if you're a little skeptical about it let me tell you something the Bible speaks to this there's something good happening when God touches down in your life and it leaves no part untouched so today we're gonna talk about James this is gonna be fun we're gonna talk about prayer we're talking about healing we're gonna talk about anointing oil church leadership it's gonna be nuts but let me say this Before we jump in I want to bring some clarity to some complex issues but in in the sake of simplicity I don't want to give us oversimplification and to try to give clarity I still want to leave room for mystery because we're talking about some mysterious things okay so with that said let me jump in and really if you were followed on when I read it prayer is really what this main section is about he used the word prayer eight times and eight verses all through it and he begins well and this is typical of the Bible incidentally the Apostle Paul ends almost every letter this way he says pray in all occasions pray in all circumstances James doesn't say all circumstances he starts to highlight different ones and so you see in verse 13 he says is anyone among you suffering and that word sufferings the combination of the word feeling and bad anyone feeling something bad anybody he gives an answer pray that's your marching orders something bad going on in your day you should talk to God about it that's what you're meant to do we are meant to process our experience with the king of kings and it's fascinating you talk to a lot of people that's not where they first go they complain about it whine about it or trying to distract themselves from it James tells you if you're feeling bad prions very generic word for to have a conversation with God you're meant to bring your agony to the Almighty that's how the world works right it's interesting I read about a debate among two ministers once about this very issue and one of them's like we should go to God with everything and the other ones felt like barging into the throne room of the almighty wreaked of presumption he says no you're supposed to pray kind of through intermediaries Saints and the like and as they were debating this issue this guy's hey if you have an issue in America you don't just kick open the door to the Oval Office and talk to the president about it about any little thing and this ministers response was sure you do if the president's your dad and he says God is the king of kings he is mighty and exalted but he's a loving dad and so we get verses like Hebrews 4 that says so let us approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need our 1st Peter 4 says cast your anxiety on him because he cares about you you are meant to take your agony to the Almighty George Mueller who led an incredible orphanage in Bristol was asked once how do you manage all that complexity of these hurting kids with finances are always low how does that not crush you and he said because I rolled 60 cares upon the Lord this morning a lot of our health related issues are stress induced and our coping mechanisms actually are doing damage and yet God's given us a way out and what is it you have a conversation with the king it's interesting when I talk to people about spirituality I have a lot of people when they're growing in their faith they come up to me and they ask me what books should I read and what podcast should I listen to and let me tell you something I think reading books is great I think listening to podcasts is great but spirituality it's not just about information it's about conversation that's point number one point number one is spirituality is not just about getting information its conversation that we're meant to process our life with the King so is anyone suffering pray and he says anyone cheerful and that's the combination of the word feeling and the word good anybody feeling good anybody having a good day and then he says sing praise it's the word select oh it's where we get the word Psalm it's what the Psalms are I'm processing my emotions good or bad with God you feeling good about it let God know about it you're meant to just interact with him are you happy and you know it tell him about it develop a rhythm in your life where you're having an ongoing conversation with the king that's what spirituality is meant to be and it's fascinating in our world today we have an increase of information but we don't have much meditation and it's that meditation that leads to insight and for many of us the quiet moments where prayer used to happen in your car in bed at night is now just filled with distraction and these distractions don't comfort us they actually increase our anxiety and yet we have a remedy here that's ancient and effective bring your life to the King talk to him about your life converse with him it's normal for Donna and I at the end of the day to put all the devices away and spend hours talking like cuz we're married and we talk about everything and yet it's interesting when I do premarital counseling you have to talk to him about how important communication is why because suddenly through the course of life you start to talk less and do more and you just start to be roommates you have to fight for that communion and it's the same with your relationship with God you need to fight for that communion spirituality is not just information it's conversation so develop those muscles in your life I realized for me when I was in my 20s I didn't pray very much it's kind of an embarrassing thing to admit as a Christian leader I don't pray very much and I realized I need to take an active step to do something about it I was a part of a church that you could sign up for a 24 hour prayer watch you could pick an hour of the week that you would pray and I realized for me I was scared enough of my church if I signed up for an hour to pray I would really go for it and so I prayed for I signed up for like 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday and I remember the first time I did it I knelt in my room because I thought kneeling was spiritual when you pray and I prayed for my roommates and I pray for my family and I prayed for the university I was at and I prayed for the city and I prayed for the country and I prayed for the world and all nations for all time and then I looked at the clock and it been like two minutes I was like man and hours a long time and then I fell asleep and felt really bad about that so the next week I was like alright man I'm gonna change this up and I remember reading a verse about praying in your closet I was alright praying your clothes gotta be spiritual so I got in my closet but like a lot of 20 old guys losses piled up with clothes and so I just got in there I was like oh it's like warm in here it fell asleep like immediately which felt really bad so so I decided this may not be spiritual but I got to be moving and then I realized if I just pray in my head it quits becoming prayer it becomes like half a song lyric and I'm not even paying attention to what I'm thinking so I realized the only way I can concentrate is to talk out loud and so if you live by me you probably thought I was nuts there he is again crazy band walking around the neighborhood like and then he says to me you know and I'm just processing with God and what I realized was my prayer life was pretty infantile like I would run out of things to pray for him two hours but when you gave yourself space I realized there are all kinds of things I started processing with God and here's the weird thing before that I always felt a little weird about saying like I love God I know something about I don't know what it was with me I just thought that sounded weak or something but but I I fell in love with God in my 20s and a lot of it was under the stars just talking to him about everything and you're meant to do that I had a friend later in life I saw him when they bought a new house and they were showing me this house and they showed me this room underneath their staircase and I dude isn't this thing awesome I was like yeah it's like a closet all right no there's gonna be our prayer closet that we're gonna trick it out with Bible verses and put and just kind of making a space where anyone can come in and be quiet with the Lord and pray when you buy a new house is that the first thing you think of where am I gonna steal away with God when you think about your week do you go where am I gonna go spirituality is not just information it's conversation so prioritize that and then he gets to a more specific situation he says is anyone among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray for him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith that will will save the one who's sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he's committed sins he will be forgiven so it's interesting this is point number two there's a strong link between the spiritual and the physical there's a strong link between the spiritual and the physical and here's the thing most of us believe this to varying degrees but most of us do there's an article in The Huffington Post which is not a particularly spiritual publication but they wrote an article entitled why people who pray are healthier than those who don't and this is how the article began if you want to achieve maximum health here are a few things you should do exercise regularly eat nutritious and minimally processed foods drop the extra pounds and pray that's right regular prayer has been shown in numerous scientific studies to be an important factor in living longer and staying healthy and most of us believe that University of Rochester did a study a survey in America and found 85% of people pray when they're physically ill that's that's four out of five of us when we're physically ill we pray why because whether we've processed it or not we believe there's some connection with the spiritual in the physical right it's interesting dr. Benson is a cardiovascular specialist at Harvard Medical School and he tried to study this why why is prayer so impactful even on things like heart disease the leading killer of Americans and so he started trying to study and he was like there's a relaxation response that occurs during prayer and meditation there's a physiological state that slows brainwaves increases tranquility peace of mind he says over half of all doctor's visits in the US are prompted by illnesses like depression high blood pressure ulcers and migraines that are caused by elevated levels of stress and anxiety and people who pray have less of both of those things it's interesting at Bowling Green University they did a study where they instructed people who suffered from migraines to spend 20 minutes praying every day and one group they gave spiritual affirmations to pray if your mind wanders just keep repeating God is good got his piece got his love and then they gave other people non spiritual mantras just sit and meditate and say things like grasses green sand - soft things like that those who were actually praying it said had fewer headaches and more tolerance of pain than those who focused on neutral phrases the National Institute of Health found that individuals who pray daily are 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than those without the regular prayer practice isn't that fascinating at Dartmouth they found that patients with strong religious beliefs who underwent heart surgery were three times more likely to recover than those who were less religious the medical community is replete with articles about this there's some connection between the physical and the spiritual do I think it's wrong that they're trying to understand it physiologically no go for it do I think it's surprising that they're a bit confused on the correlation no I do not because we're talking about some sort of mystical thing and yet it's undeniable something about communing with God is good for us releasing stress raising up trust and here in the small Mason City SiC and that word Sikh is the word weak and it's used all through the Bible issues about mental weakness and Romans it's used about a spiritual condition it's in Romans five it's used about a weak conscience is your conscience bothering you in first Corinthians or it confused often about physical sickness which I think is more about this text because of some other issues and so it's talking about that and then says call for the elders of the church and let them pray now here's the interesting thing about that spirituality is not just an individual conversation there's a communal element that true spirituality is always worked out in the context of community and that's what I love about that he's like in your normal rhythm of life you should have a conversation with the king and when you really hit hardship like you're sick you need to invite the community into that it's a team sport spirituality always works itself out in the way of community that's why you go to church by the way let me just say that should you read those books yes should you listen to the podcast yes and you know I talk to a lot of people like my spirituality is a private matter it's just me and God know cuz that books not gonna pray for you and that podcast is not gonna visit you in the hospital there's something about spirituality that's always meant to be worked out in the context community so this is he's sick call up the church let them surround you and pray over you the idea is there's your laid out and so let them physically come over you and pray over you while you're struggling right now he so specifically call the elders so let's get into some conversation about this who are the elders well if you want to be wooden about it and Greek the word elder means comparatively older person okay so in a strict sense it's talking about have some old people pray for you right but if you read all through the Bible it's showing up all through the New Testament that when you see churches planted there's people who are providing oversight and they're called the elders right in the book of Acts when Paul has a dispute over theology with some people he goes to Jerusalem to talk to the Apostles and the elders first Peter and James they're all assuming that the churches they're writing to have elders that are leading the church in Acts chapter 14 Paul says he appointed elders in several churches and in he encouraged the Ephesian elders to Shepherd the flock that's among them it's the word pastor so he told the elders pastor the people so elders were spiritually mature men who led these convert congregations right so elder can mean old person or it can mean and there's a lot of over slights overlap here someone who has sort of an authoritative position of leadership in the church and that's typically an older wiser person right now different Christian traditions have understood this differently some people call the pastor of the church the elder of the church we have an elder that's the pastor some people call the staff that because the word staff isn't in the New Testament so you go okay these are people that we've all appointed and they're providing oversight to the church so maybe staff is elders for other traditions like the one I grew up in it's it's a ring of counselors that aren't necessarily doing all the words of the ministry but they're providing spiritual oversight to the entire community and they're typically older wiser people and let me just tell you briefly at passion we have a board of elders we don't have any here in DC because we're young and it's interesting I heard a pastor asked once how many elders do we have in our church and he says we have as many elders as we have elders he said we don't pick a number the Bible doesn't give you a number the Bible gives you a set of character traits and when you see those character traits you elevate those people and I'm not saying y'all don't have character I'm saying we don't know each other that well this hasn't been that long and Paul told Timothy don't be hasty in the laying on of hands don't rush to give people authority you watch him for a while but here's good news a passion we have a ring of elders we have people that provide oversight and pray for us and help guide us through a lot of tricky positions and they're really an amazing group of people and so we have that and then here in our context we have a staff and we have team leaders and community group leaders that provide a lot of the boots on the ground spiritual oversight of our family here and I'm really proud of our team leaders and community group leaders we have some pretty remarkable people that want to care for you and walk with you through life right now let me answer another weird question this is answering all your questions about healing today here we go some might say well why if you're sick do you call the elders why not call the healers because weren't people healing people in the New Testament weren't there people with the gift of healing well I call the elders why doesn't he say bring in the healers or what other people may say is hey shouldn't we all have the power to heal I remember I have kids come up to me once when I was leading college ministry and they asked me have you healed the sick have you raised the dead yet and I said no I haven't raised the dead person they're like well then you lack faith because if you had enough faith you would have raised a dead person by now all right so how do you respond to this what do you do with this issue well let me just say this if we can jump into first Corinthians Paul is talking to the church he says there's a variety of gifts but the same spirit there's one Holy Spirit but he separates out gifts he says in verse 7 - each is given a manifestation of the spirit for the common good the spirit gives different gifts to build all of a sudden he says for one to one is given through the spirit an utterance of wisdom to another the utterance of knowledge according the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healings by the one spirit to another the working of miracles all are empowered by one in same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills and then he says hey some of you and use this body analogy you can't say well I'm just a hand I'm not an eye so I'm not as cool and other people who say you're just a foot you know nah we don't need you he said no every part of the body has an important role to play and then as he's talking about that he comes round he says and God's appointed in the church first apostles second prophets third teachers then miracles then gifts of healings and then he asked the question are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles do all possess gifts of healings the implication there being no God God has given different gifts to different people so are all of us out here healing people that will know and in the early church there was a different variety of ways this was manifest in different times like in Romans 12 Ephesians 4 there's different gift lists and miracles and healings are not part of that conversation but are some people involved in the healing of other people yes they absolutely are you so clear about that and so what do we do about this well let me give you quickly four thoughts on healing here you write we can neither despise it nor axalta too highly so here's number one is what I'd say is it to be empowered by God to heal somebody else is not an indicator of special connection to God and I've met some people that say like hey God has used me to to pray over someone and they were healed therefore I'm varsity spiritually in your JV and as we launched this church one of our first weeks here a guy came out to me and basically gave me that talk I have spiritual power you don't so I have a special connection to God and you don't my concern is both Jesus and Paul warned us in the last days people will come doing miracles but will lead people astray from the truth so I don't care if you've been a part of something miraculous if it's not combined with truth the truth is what concerns me and when you look in the Bible in the Old Testament Elijah did miracles but Isaiah did not and I think we like Isaiah and the New Testament Jesus and Paul did miracles right John the Baptist did not and so God could use people and use you mightily powerfully but you may not necessarily be used in the act of healing somebody right but if you are it's not for self exaltation astir love that's second thing so when Paul's talking to Corinthians he makes clear God's given us all different gifts and we're meant to use them but some people want to see the more ecstatic gifts because I think it'd be awesome or because it would help grow their faith and Paul says hey if you speak with the tongue of angels and you can do miracles but you don't have love he says you got nothing this is nothing love is our aim and so we're meant to love people that's what that's what delights God when he sees a community that loves each other really well love people who are struggling mentally love people who are struggling physically love people who are struggling spiritually when we love people God delights in that right also it's not the ability to heal it will there's not certain people in the church that just have the power to heal people whenever they want to and this is fascinating I don't think work that way in the New Testament either the New Testament never talks about the gift of healing like so-and-so has the gift of healing or there's some office called the healer right it's interesting in Corinthians every time Paul mentions that he uses two plurals gifts of healings that there's different scenarios different situations different people will God will manifest gifts of healings a variety of different moments will use people powerfully and so some of you may feel that at some time a desire to pray for somebody with a powerful faith that they'd be healed and God's getting answer that but does that mean you suddenly have the power to control it like you know no it didn't work that way for the Apostle Paul that was his experience the Apostle Paul in the New Testament healed a crippled guy in Lystra He healed many people in Ephesus he cast a demon out of a girl in Scylla pie and Eutychus who fell asleep during one of Paul's sermons which is a terrible thing to do fell out of a window and died which you know what hey man and Paul in Acts chapter 20 was so kind Paul ran downstairs grab the guy and brought him back to life which is very kind thing to do for someone fall asleep during your service so Paul did some amazing stuff and had incredible confidence that God would use him to do that but did that mean he had a carte blanche ability to do that no in 2nd Corinthians he said I had a thorn in my flesh and I asked God to take it away and God said no he says sometimes God tells me no when he wrote to the Galatians he said I wouldn't even plan that coming you guys it was an illness that made me have to detour to your city you see when he writes to Timothy in first Timothy he tells Timothy to drink a little wine for your stomach's of favorite verses fraternities but you see Paul doesn't separate the physical and the spiritual is he praying for Timothy of course he is he's like hey Timothy you got all this stress and your stomach's crazy drink a little wine man like just relax and he gives him a physical answer a path for Titus he told the Philippians he got a life-threatening illness I thought he's gonna die he said it was stressing me out and the second Timothy he told Timothy I had to leave trophimus in Meletis because he was sick and so you see Paul didn't always get to heal everybody what because God is sovereign in the affair it's not mechanical I haven't personally been a part of healing a lot of people I have at times I remember having a buddy that was really sick and and I was like man I'll pray for you and then left the room and I was like no I'm praying for you right now and I remember that moment just put my hands on him praying he'd feel better and and he got up I was like hey man up I feel great and I was like well I don't know what all happened with that but I wasn't just like it's my hands I was just like it's God who heals and he likes to use people so should we pray for healing yes it is right to seek it but it's subordinate that's what Paul told the Corinthians he says make love your aim but eagerly desire the spiritual gifts in that great if you make the gifts your aim you'll get real weird and you'll try to manipulate the spiritual world well you're trying to manipulate in a way that can be unhealthy but if you make love your aim I want to know God I want to know him as he is I want to love him I want to love his people well then he says if you got that as your North Star then yes pray for him to use working power pray for him to heal people because God to do that that's what James is talking about here call for the elders anoint them with oil pray over these people and God will heal him now let's talk for a minute about anointing with oil so be like what's the deal with that and how come we don't have any oil around here well what does he think the oil is gonna accomplish some people debate that some people say there's a very practical purpose medicinally because you have places like the story the good samaritan where the guy anointed his wounds with oil and with wine it was a very common medicine oil in the ancient world some people go this is him just saying pray and seek medical help right others say this is a pastoral thing it's kind of an outward physical expression to help stimulate your faith in the same way that Jesus would use like mud or spit when He healed people then you really need mud no but for some reason he was like there's all kind of help you figure out that something's really happened other people think there's more of a religious purpose like sacramental and there's a big history behind the sacrament of it but but that people believe God it's God who heals when he works powerfully through instrumental means like oil or some people think it's symbolic like and the Old Testament you would anoint with oil somebody who was chosen to be king or you would anoint with oil someone who's appointed to be a prophet or a priest and that anointing was symbolic God is putting his hand on you right now for a special task I think this lends more naturally to that the Bible is certainly pro medicine that's interesting that how common the Bible talks about we should take care of ourselves physically but I don't think you need the elders to anoint you with oil I think this is talking about something else I think this is talking about a symbol of I'm doing a physical act to show you that I'm praying over you right but then in verse 15 he says but it's the prayer of faith that will save the one who's sick and the Lord will raise him up so whatever the oil is doing it's not the saving factor it's the prayer and the Lord will raise him up it's the Lord who makes that decision and if he's committed sins he'll be forgiven now here's another place people struggle with this what is it talking about here is it talking about physical healing and I think yes that word for save often talks about physical healing in the Gospels sick persons usually talking about physical sickness raise up is used often in healing stories and the Gospels of God raising people up when they're sick like off their sick beds and the picture of the elders praying over them means a person probably laid out but is there a spiritual element yeah because he says if he sins he'll be forgiven so the James just connects our physical estate and our spiritual estate and if they've sinned they're forgiven so you go what does that mean does that mean if you're sick is because you sinned I've talked to some of you they're like man I'm going through a hard time is God punishing me well the book of Job tells you very clearly you can't draw one for one you can't say well if bad is happening you it's because you sinned the book of Job calls that evil it's not always a one-for-one that way jesus said the same thing when he saw a blind guy his disciples assumed it they're like well Jesus who sent him or his parents somebody sin because he's blind and Jesus said neither it was for this moment that my power may be made known not blind he's like I had this guy hang out blind for a while so y'all can all see I have the power to change lives physically like that was what it was for wasn't even about sin so so you can't draw one for one if you're six cos god punishes you and some of you you would never say that out loud you probably wouldn't check that box on a theological quiz but some of you feel that way some of you have a chronic illness and you say is God mad at me and my answer is probably not and the only reason I say probably not is there's moments like mark two or guys paralyzed and Jesus doesn't come to him saying be not paralyzed he comes to him says your sins forgiven doesn't always have a one-for-one but some of us are bad choices in life are hurting us physically some of us decisions we've made are damaging us 1st Corinthians Paul warns against that and so some of us there is some implications here and yet here's the beautiful thing there's no shame in this text he says if you're struggling invite the community to pray over you we're gonna do that today before we leave just let people pray for you have the humility to come to the community and and we pray God God saves God lifts raised people up and he'll forgive God does that right God loves to move that way dad raises another question you read that verse in you know that sounds like an unconditional promise of healing get the elders and anoint him with oil and he'll be healed and you oh wait a minute what if they're not I've had someone pray over me and they and I wasn't healed I had someone pray over my family member and they died how do you make sense of verse like this and people struggle with how do you make sense of what sounds like an unconditioned promise and some would say well you know what this just applies to the Apostolic age it doesn't apply today but nothing in the verse suggests that or others would say maybe you'll get healed physically or maybe you'll experience the ultimate healing of dying and going to heaven and being with Jesus and let me say dying and going to heaven to be with Jesus is the ultimate healing I don't think that's what this verse is talking about because you don't need the elders to pray and anoint you with oil for that right so what is this talking about other people's look at that it's a prayer of faith and they say if you pray in faith God will heal you so if you're not healed it's your fault you didn't have enough faith I had a professor how that happened - he suffered migraines and he told us the story of writing to a televangelist who promised if you give us a seed of faith manifests through a check we'll pray over you and you'll be healed of your illness and so he wrote a check because he was desperate and in pain to this guy and he still had migraines and so he wrote the guy back it's like I still have migraines did y'all forget to pray for me what and the guy said no we prayed you just must not have enough faith and I think that's a pretty evil thing to say to somebody and so what's going on in this passage how do you make sense of it well here's where you get the answer you don't have to leave the book James because James chapter 5 is underneath James chapter 4 and James chapter 4 says if the Lord wills we will do this for that you see that excuse me he says if the Lord wills we will live or do this or that see all of this happens under the sovereignty of God if the Lord wills we will live he gets to decide if you live and when you die in by implication he may decide you die he may radically save you like he did Peter out of prison or he may stand and applaud you as he welcomes you home like Stephen and he dies a martyr he gets to decide and so we can't come to healing with presumption well I did a B and C I should get D outcome that's not what James advocating if the Lord wills we will live and yet we're not meant to come with presumption but we are meant to come with expectation he's opening a door saying but I want you to come because I am inclined to answer it I want to bless my people I want to raise you up I want to give you life so we don't come to God with presumption but we do come with expectation that there's a real God that can really impact our lives and really make a difference not just emotionally though that's important and not just spiritually though that's vital but also physically we should come to God with the expectation he delights to care for his people he does it's interesting I read a book years ago not a Christian book that's by Ben Sherwood he was a producer at ABC's Good Morning America and then moved to NBC Nightly News graduate of Harvard Rhodes Scholar at Oxford wrote a book about survival and the whole book was about who survives and who doesn't fascinating book some of it fairly intuitive like young healthy men survived plane crashes more than old unhealthy women it's not surprising some of it was surprising like left-handed people die earlier than their right-handed counterparts very interesting over people with negative initials died earlier than people would not negative ones I am left-handed and my initials are BS so according to this guy I'm in real trouble it's a disturbing book for me but there was a chapter on faith and he said in that chapter he says when I started this book I was skeptical the role of faith and survival and he says I didn't want to write about faith not a religious person I don't want to write about it he says because I looked at all these scenarios he said 75 or 80 percent cited a higher power as the reason for their survival he went to the naval survival training Institute and talked to the guy who literally wrote the book how to survive on land and sea he talked to the guy who wrote the book on how to survive and he asked him his boilerplate question what's the key to survival and he says without hesitation he said faith in God he said it's a key factor in all survival scenarios it's a force multiplier believing God will intervene believing God will move and then he begins to recount stories he just couldn't explain talked about Garry McCain and was working on his air conditioning in Woodmont Kentucky someone came running up and said two workers are trapped in a nearby underground cistern so he volunteered to shimmy down this hole and get these guys out and when he started down there was an explosion underground and it lit him on fire Garry was able to climb out and extinguish the flames but all he had on was his leather belt and one boot and sherwoodk writes that he had experienced full-thickness that's what you call third-degree burns on 85% of your body so they put him in a medically induced coma for two and a half months and when he came out of the coma he told the story about a dream he had when he was under a dream was he was walking down a sterile hallway turned past the nurse's station went to some double doors tried to open him and couldn't do it so he went back to his room and when he told that story they all freaked out because they were like your grandpa brought the elders to pray over you and the night they prayed you coded you had a cardiac arrest so they were out of the room he says but your papaw and the elders went the exit door and prayed over it that you would not leave to your heel and they said this guy came into the hospital in a coma he had no idea the layout of the building but he vividly could describe the hallway he walked down the story turn and trying to exit this door and he couldn't so he went back and his recovery happened so fast that he was released a year before the doctors had predicted how do you make sense of that I don't but I'll tell you I come to God without presumption but I come with expectation so look drink your kale smoothie all right take your tumeric shots consume elderberries however you consume them and then pray because we should come with expectation the prayer of the righteous person has great power when it's working then a great line Elijah was a man with a nature like ours Elijah did crazy stuff in the Old Testament but James points out he had he's made of the same stuff as you he wasn't something other than you he just believed God's real and God really intervenes and so he prayed fervently that it might not rain one prayer didn't do it he prayed fervently it may not rain and for three years or six months it didn't rain and they prayed again and it gave heavens gave rain and the earth sports fruit man just like us prayed earnestly and God did something and we're meant to do the same I watched a video several years ago called the bridge it was about the Golden Gate Bridge because it's a destination spot for suicide it's not a very upbeat movie I wouldn't recommend it but it's not like it was a documentary about suicide this man set up cameras for a year watching the bridge and not just to watch people die they would call and try to save people some pretty amazing stories of how they did but then he would interview the people who tried to take their live interview the family interview the friends trying to understand why some people take their life and in this video he's interviewing this guy Kevin Hines kevin was severe manic depressive bipolar knew he had some issues in his life and he couldn't get him straight felt like he was a burden on the community so decided to take his own life and he said when I was riding on that bus to the gate Golden Gate Bridge I just kept praying for someone to stop me but no one on the bus maybe nobody did so he got to the bridge and he jumped off when you jump off that bridge traveling at 240 feet in 4 seconds your body moves it over 75 miles an hour when you hit that water it's like hitting concrete it crushes your bones it sends bone fragments splintering through your body one corner said most corpses are stiffs bored he says people who jump off this bridge their bodies like a sack of rice it just destroys your interior scaffolding people go there because they think it's romantic way to end your life it's actually a horrible way because you're severely injured and then you drown and Kevin jump but he said as soon as I let go that bridge I realized I don't want to die and he said so on my four second trip down I just prayed God will you help me and he hit that water shattered two vertebrae but he realized I'm alive the impact didn't kill me but his legs didn't work they shattered his vertebrae so he was like well this is terrible I survived the drop off this huge bridge and now I'm gonna die by drowning as soon as he thought that he felt a bump on his leg he's like no I'm gonna die by getting eaten by something but what he figured out over time was it was some sea lions that came in over the next couple hours just kept bumping him up and keeping him on the surface until the rescue boat found him took him to the hospital and save his life and he realized God answered my prayer now could God have answered it pre-jump sure but God has his way of working and God saved me and the video ends with a PSA of Kevin standing on that bridge saying hey there was a day I got so low I thought my life was over and God saved me and you see video clips of him just praying over people on the bridge God rescued me for a purpose to comfort to care for people and this is the last point your greatest needs of spiritual not physical and that's where he is my brother Vinny he wanders from the truth someone brings him back let him know whoever brings back a sinner from his wandered will save his soul from death cover a multitude of sins Kevin physically lived that's great but he's gonna physically die someday all of us do anyway what's so amazing at the end of this video is his spiritual life but God saw me when I was hurting God cared for me God forgives me God gives me life and so he ends by saying hey let's pray for one another she might be healed if you've sinned let's confess it and forsake because when you bring someone to the truth you save him from a multitude of sins that's the big issue that's Jesus's big issue that's why he would physically heal and preach the gospel and when they said hey stay in this town and keep healing he said no I must go and preach because the miracles authenticate the message they got your attention but the message is a kingdom is coming because the king is here the message is healing is coming because a healer is here the meskhi of salvation is coming both now and forever because the Savior is here what you need more than physical comfort as you need a personal Christ you need Jesus to step into your story he took on physical suffering he took on death so you and I can have spiritual life and life in the age to come and so my hope for you and we're gonna have a moment here to pray over you let me tell you we want to pray for everything that this passage mingles through physical spiritual emotional issues and that's us and we're meant to pray for one another and so let's do that together but just know this our hope for you more than anything whether God chooses to physically heal you now or not whether you're Lazarus who died the first time and Jesus raised from the dead Lazarus death the second time in Jesus light now that's good you're you got out of the first one you can know but I have life eternal beyond the grave because I know the king and that's our hope for you

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 13,439

Rating: 4.9569893 out of 5

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Id: hbQ1zRBNERA

Length: 45min 50sec (2750 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019