2007-01-28 - Called to Heal - James 5 13-20
Message: Called to Heal Newport Baptist Church
Scr: James 5:13-20 Date: 2007-01-28
Deb’s story – 8 yrs ago – sitting at my desk – found tumours – 28 or 29 yrs old…
· two kids… crying… benign but! Lived with that fear for years!
· Hyperthyroidism – more problems – dr said… hyper-hypo-cancer…
· People began to pray… ultrasound… tumours are gone!
· Miracles happen… to other people right? NOT!
Brianna and her hearing – 7 surgeries! Doctors are another source of healing
One thing is clear today – healing is needed!
· People are living with anxiety and overcome with stress. have hypertension and hypotension; high blood pressure and low pressure.
· We are physically overweight and mentally overworked.
· Heart problems, cancer, back pain, migraines, arthritis…
· Depression, panic attacks, anger, loneliness, failed dreams
· Finances, relationships, problems they go on and on!
James reminds us to make ourselves available to God to be used as agents of restoration for one another, to bring healing and forgiveness to the people of God.
Not offer a pill for the symptoms – Tylenol cold and flu
Offer a cure for wholeness! Physical, Mental, emotional, relational healing!
James offers us the pathway to wholeness, a way of life that responds by bringing all things to God and trusting God in all things.
1. What to bring to God
a. Suffering/Trouble – vs 13a
i. Pray
b. Cheerful/Happy – vs 13b
i. Sing psalms
ii. Songs of praise
c. Sick? – vs 14
i. Call the elders – req humility
ii. Pray over the person
iii. Anoint with oil
1. Symbol for the means God has supplied for health!
2. Doctors, hospitals, medicines, homeopathic treatments
2. What God will do – vs 15
a. Prayer of faith will save the sick/make sick well
i. Sozo – gk – SAVE!
ii. Sins will be forgiven
b. What we must do – vs 16
i. Confess our sins
ii. Pray for each other
3. The question of healing
a. What if God gives healing?
i. Give him the glory – 10 Lepers – Luke 10:10-19
b. What if God withholds healing
i. Give him the glory – Paul’s thorn in the flesh – 2 Cor 12:7-10
1. Paul had healed, even raised from the dead
a. God did not heal him
b. Paul did ask! 3 times!
c. Accepted God’s answer!
ii. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness
1. Clayton Lewis!
We need healing – God’s power is available today.
anyone here today who is hurting - You’re not alone. It’s not just you.
“a great number” of hurting people all around you right now.
people who don’t have it all together, people with scars, people with wounds so deep and some so incredibly sore that it just takes a word or a look to open the scab,
and create fresh hurt on top of hurt
People with sickness and disease as part of their everyday lives.
Jesus sees. He is not oblivious to your pain, to your hurt, to your need, to sickness
When Jesus saw the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5 lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
not a stupid question - A lot of people don’t really want to be healed; they don’t really want to be made whole.
Does that sound crazy? It’s not, because saying “yes” to Jesus’ question "Do you want to get well?" means two things. It means, first of all:
1. Admitting your hurt. - if Jesus were to walk up to us right now and ask, "Do you want to get well?" would say, “Whaddya mean, Lord? I’m fine, really.
Don’t worry about me; go help Geoff, he’s the one with problems.”
But "Do you want to get well?" If you do, it’s gonna mean admitting your hurt. . . to yourself, to God, maybe even to a few trusted friends.
2. Choosing healing over hurt.
Jesus had a question for the man… “Do you want to get well?
When Jesus asked, "Do you want to get well?" it was not a rhetorical question, nor was he being flippant. - William Barclay observes that Invalidism is not [always] unpleasant. Someone else does all the working and worrying.
Ill – my hurt ankle – was served for a week! ;)
some of those people by the Pool of Bethesda may not have chosen healing over hurt, if healing meant losing their income, leaving their friends, or no longer being able to lean on others.
And likewise, some of us actually choose to hold onto our hurts, because we would rather complain, we’re not done seething in anger at those who hurt us, because we know it’ll take WORK to get better, and besides, we rather like the sympathy we get,
or the attention, or the feeling of playing the martyr.
But Jesus asks, "Do you want to get well?"
If you do, then it’s gonna mean admitting your hurt and choosing healing over hurt.
Don’t have time to study the book of Job this morning, but let’s make this perfectly clear… our troubles and sickness are not necessarily the result of sin. Job lost all he had, family, possessions, even his health… even though he was pure and upright…
Sometimes however, sickness can be the result of sin… the list is long of behaviours that cause sickness and even death.
Good news – regardless of the cause, James offers us hope. Verse 15 being the key!
Read verse 15 again.
We come to a time of healing this morning inviting you to come to be healed.
Note – share privately or publicly the need, we will still pray regardless but if you prefer not to share the issue or problem with everyone that’s okay.
Anoint with oil – head and both palms – cross
Head – pray Father’s breath of life fill you
Right hand – pray Jesus the son and saviour who lived and died and rose again would grant peace
Left hand – pray that HS would strengthen and keep you in the light of life
Pray for situation, issue or health concern.
Close with Lord’s prayer