The Power of Healing

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Amen.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we uh we we just like we just said, we praise you for what you've done.

Uh we want to say, we want to add our voice to that of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk who said, Oh Lord, I've heard of your fame and I stand in awe of your deeds.

Renew them in our day.

Lord, we we thank you for what you've done, but we also want to acknowledge that you're not done doing what only you can do.

And we ask you to continue to do that.

And you're not, we're not giving you our permission, we're giving you our understanding that you are a God who still does God-like, God-only things.

And so our prayer today is that you do that in this room.

So awaken in us whatever needs to be awakened and put to sleep, whatever needs to be put to sleep once for all, never to come back.

Lord, we don't want to presume upon you.

We're gonna open up the living, breathing word of God, and it has power to change.

It's gonna go out into this room and it's gonna accomplish every purpose for which you sent it.

And so we trust your word, Lord, and we yield to your spirit and we say, Holy Spirit, come, come in power.

Remind us what you're capable of and what you do, what you're desirous of, and make us desire those same things as well.

This is our prayer, God.

We prayed in Christ's name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You could have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open it up to Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

If you're a guest, we're preaching through the book of Acts.

And then when you preach expositorily through books of the Bible, what happens is that you you get the whole counsel of God's word, and you have to see some things and face some things.

And I'm gonna talk this morning about a topic that you will be asked about.

If you've not been asked about it already, you will be asked about it in this lifetime.

And so it's important that you have a biblical theology that informs your answer.

And here's what I want to talk to you about this morning.

I want to talk to you about the power of healing.

The power of healing.

Uh, Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 32.

We left off with uh uh uh that the church was at peace, uh, that it was flourishing, it was growing in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Things are going well, but right here in Acts chapter 9, verse 32, uh it starts a new section in the book of Acts.

Acts 9:32

It goes all the way to chapter 12, verse 25.

And in this next little section, we're gonna preach through these three or four chapters.

Uh three things happen.

Number one, the focus shifts from Peter to Paul.

Uh number two, the picture changes behind me.

Amen.

Did you notice that?

The picture changed.

I just see if you're paying attention.

Uh so the shift is from Peter to Paul.

Uh, secondly, the shift is from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Uh, from Jerusalem, it's not like the hub, the center.

Uh, you know, hey, God lives in Jerusalem.

No, no, no, God cannot be bound by time and space.

Uh, and so from Jerusalem to Antioch, and here's the third shift: it goes from the outreach to the Jews to the inclusion of the Gentiles.

God begins to the the the promises for you and for those who are far off.

And so you'll see this through the text, but this story we're gonna read, these two stories are gonna read this little section, uh, is kind of the first uh wave of God begins to say, Hey, I'm not just the God of the Jews, I'm the God of all people, okay?

And so I want to start reading Acts chapter 9, verse 32.

Acts 9:32

It says, Now, as Peter uh went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lidda, and he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.

And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed.

And immediately he rose, and all the residents of Lida and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas.

She was full of good works and acts of charity.

And in those days she became ill and died.

And when they had washed her, they laid her in the upper room.

Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay.

And so Peter rose and went with them.

And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room, and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed.

And turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise.

And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up, and he gave her his hand and raised her up.

Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive.

And it became known throughout all of Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

Now, I have people in my extended family who asked me this question and have asked me this question since about three days after I became a Christian.

Hey, uh, why doesn't God like heal people?

Because if God like did something miraculous on TV, I'd believe in him.

Uh and I say, Yeah, I understand.

The Bible talks about blessed are those who don't see and they believe anyway, but we'll get to that some other time.

Uh, but yeah, people always want to on-demand God that's gonna jump up and do something that rescues them from the foolishness of faith.

Uh, but he doesn't operate that way, but there is power in healing.

And I want to point to three things that healing has the power to do.

Number one, it establishes the gospel right here in this passage.

It establishes the gospel.

What do you mean?

The purpose of signs and wonders is to authenticate and illustrate the message of salvation.

Simply put, miracles authenticate God's message and his messengers.

The gospel is moving out to a new group of people out of Jerusalem, and it's moving to Antioch and out from away from the Jews who he came to his own, his own received and not.

And so it turns and God takes it to the Gentiles.

And so He establishes the gospel with the miraculous.

I want you to notice, look in verse 35 and verse 42, how people responded.

Verse 35 says, and this guy gets healed, and it says, and all the residents of Lida and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

Then God raises a woman from the dead, and verse 42 says, and it became known throughout all of Joppa.

And many believed in the Lord, uh, and many believed in the Lord.

And so you see, their response is not, oh yeah, well, that's great and everything.

But if you want me to believe in you, you got to heal me.

And I got my auntie over here, and my cousin, and my daughter, and then God, if you can get us a big family plan of healing, then we're all signed up right now.

We're all in.

No, no, no.

They see the miraculous happen, they see healing happen, and all of a sudden they realize something bigger and better and beyond me is here.

And I believe in this.

And what I want to say to us is we got to get to the point where our experiences are not what fuel our faith, but our faith frames our experiences.

Let me say that again.

You got to get to the point where your experiences don't fuel your faith because then you're living for your experiences, and every bad experience is an invitation to unbelief.

You got to get to the point where your experiences are not what fuel your faith, but your faith is what frames your experiences.

And so the first thing that the power of healing, healing has the power to do, is it establishes the gospel.

Uh, now here's the second thing: it demonstrates the kingdom.

It demonstrates the kingdom.

I want you to notice in verse 34 that Peter isn't asking Jesus to do something, he's believing what Jesus has already said and he's announcing it, okay?

Let me say it again.

Uh uh, he is not asking Jesus in that moment.

Look at verse 34.

He doesn't come along and then say, Hey, Jesus, would you heal this guy, Aeneas?

I didn't know if you knew this or not, but he's been paralyzed for eight years.

Break this man off a crumb.

Do something right here.

Now look at verse 34.

And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed.

Now, by the way, students, evidence that you've been healed as you clean your room, okay?

So your parents have got it right out of the Bible.

So you I don't think you even know Jesus.

Your room's a pig style, okay?

And he just says, Hey, right, hey, you've been paralyzed.

Hey, Jesus Christ, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed.

You say, Well, what do you mean this demonstrates the kingdom?

Now, and before I get to that, let me just say this.

Uh, notice again that he doesn't ask him to believe something, he he's believing something he's already said.

He's not asking Jesus to do something.

He's speaking in a way that conveys, hey, I already believe what Jesus has said, so I bring a measure of authority on my life.

And so when I say something, it's not just Peter talking.

There's an authority that can only come from God.

You should ask yourself this morning, do I have an asking problem or do I have a believing problem?

Do I have an asking problem or do you have a believing problem?

Because a lot of people ask, but deep at your core, you know you don't believe.

You ask because it's like tradition.

Well, I got to check this box and everything.

And let me just say it like this: because when it comes to demonstrating the kingdom, uh that that's kind of uh ethereal.

It's like, ah, like I read this sentence this week.

Uh uh, and tell me if this makes sense to you.

Miracles verify the authentic authenticity of God's revelation and signal the coming of a new eschatological age among God's people known as the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven.

Anybody?

Anybody had a big word in there, eschatological, all that good stuff?

Yes.

Now, I'm not mocking that at all.

I'm just saying, uh yes, now when I when I say that what healing, one of the things healing does is it demonstrates the kingdom, you say, What do you mean?

Uh it's the thing that Jesus came to establish was the kingdom of God.

Jesus did not come to start, he did not come to start a church or a denomination.

He came to set down the kingdom.

If that makes sense, say amen.

Now, if you look in don't turn there, but in Matthew chapter four, you'll see three three things that happen in the in this chapter.

Number one, Jesus is baptized.

Right after that, he's tempted.

That's the second thing.

And then thirdly, he begins his ministry with these words.

Matthew chapter 4, verse 17.

Matthew 4:17

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent, Greek word metanoeo, and it means not react or acting, stop doing bad, start doing good.

It means change how you think.

Rethink how you think, because a reality that's bigger and better than anything you've ever known before is here and it is available to you.

It is at hand.

You can experience it right now.

And so you got to be asking the question when you see down here in the story of this Dorcas lady.

I mean, a guy gets healed who's been paralyzed for eight years.

That's a pretty big deal.

And then to top that, there's a woman that's been dead.

They washed her body, put her in the upper room, and then they said, You know what?

We heard Peter is kind of on a little tour.

They sent for him.

Why do they send for Peter?

Would you be comfortable in this situation if someone sent for you?

I remember being in Mexico years ago on a mission trip, like not down to the border, getting our picture taken with little Mexican kids to make us feel ourselves feel better.

That's not a mission trip, that's conscious sab, okay?

I'm talking, we are four hours into the country.

And they're like, hey, don't make eye contact with some of these people.

We don't know if there was a cartel.

And some girl in our group goes, What's a cartel?

I'm like, You don't want to find out.

Stop talking.

Put a hat on.

But we're down there and we're hanging out with the kids and we're trying to get the older students to come and sit and listen to a Bible study.

And finally a man comes one day and taps you on the shoulder and says, Venga, which means come here.

And I was like, uh, no, hablo o'cause I learned Spanish on the way down to Mexico by putting a word on the end of every English word.

No, oh, no, oh, how oh, to speak oh English Spanish oh, and and he's like, eh, venga, venga.

We walked over the hill through the woods, crossed a river.

I thought, we're going to die.

We're gonna be an animal sacrifice.

Takes us into a little hut where a girl's laying there paralyzed, and he says, in perfect English, raise her up.

You ain't seen the Baptist squirm until you've been in that situation.

Hey, ho, hey, hey, hey, hey hey.

One guy just pushed me to the front and goes, Neil, I think it's got your name on it.

I'm like, dude, you're the guy in charge.

I'm like barely out of college, I'm not even out of college yet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Take the lead.

Take the lead.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I just want to say, why did they send for Peter?

Here's why, okay?

Because, and I'm telling you, that's not to let you off the hook, uh, so you won't beat yourself up.

The apostles were endued.

There's there's an old Puritan word.

Indued means they had this uh quality, they were given a quality or an ability.

Uh, the apostles were endued with an anointing from Jesus.

So if you compare yourself to them, you're always going to come up short.

He said, What do you what do you mean in due?

Why'd they send for Peter?

Uh uh Luke chapter 9, verse 1 and 2 says this.

Luke 9:1

And he, Jesus, called the 12 together.

Peter was one of the 12.

Amen.

He called the 12 together.

See, the Bible's not a bunch of disconnected, random, one-off stories.

It's all one story about one thing.

It's about a king and his kingdom.

He called the 12 together and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to start churches and to heal.

Doesn't say that.

Doesn't say that a guy recently came up to me or called me.

We're on the phone.

He said, Hey, well, I got you on the phone.

I asked you a question.

What do you got against church planting?

I said, I got nothing against church planting, but planting churches is not a repla a replacement for establishing the kingdom of God.

I'm for less churches and more kingdom.

And he said, Well, bro, I mean, everybody now, I don't care what everyone's doing.

People talk about planting churches, they can't even pastor a church.

Give me a break.

Like it makes you edgy because you want to plant 50 churches in the next five years and 98% of them will fail.

That doesn't make you a church planner, it makes you a failure.

It makes you a person whose vocal whose vocabulary exceeds your understanding.

And you sound edgy in the coffee shop, but in the real world, no one listens to you.

Jesus did not come to establish churches, he came to establish the kingdom of God.

He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

Healing is a component of the kingdom when the kingdom comes and his will gets done.

Now, am I against planning churches?

Not at all.

I just don't think it's the central purpose of the church.

I think the kingdom of God is.

I think today when you walk out of here, you and I have the opportunity to set the kingdom down.

Wherever you go, when you do the right thing, when you obey the Holy Spirit's prompting, you are setting the kingdom down and you're saying to people all around you, hey, repent.

Change the way you think, because a reality bigger and better than your little kingdom is here now, and it's available to you.

Now, let me just say you may be thinking, uh, you should be thinking, when you read a passage like this, when I read a passage like this, is it is it just me?

Or do you read something like that and go, okay, this guy got healed, who've been paralyzed for eight years, and this lady was dead, uh and she got raised from why God, why doesn't that happen more nowadays?

Does anybody besides me think that?

Say amen.

Some of y'all are like, well, I don't want to say it too loud.

Uh maybe, yes.

Hey, by the way, the 139th Psalm, it says that before a word is on your tongue, God already knows it.

You you can't convince God what you that you don't really think something you think.

And I'm not saying be disrespectful and demanding.

I am saying that it's easy to read a passage like this and questions flood your mind or cynicism floods your mind.

Uh, and and I want to speak to that, okay?

So, under this banner of hey, healing has the power to establish the kingdom.

Uh, I want to give us five questions uh concerning healing.

Now, the questions, I mean, I I built, I just took the questions uh are from a guy named Andrew Wilson.

You know, who's Andrew Wilson?

Uh he's he's a pastor in London.

I like to read people from other countries uh every once in a while.

So I just have this chicken-fried southern take on the God and the gospel.

He actually pastors a church in London.

Here's why, when it comes to healing, I trust people who have incurable diseases or sick kids.

And that's all I read for this.

I didn't read any healthy people.

I ain't got nothing against healthy people.

I'm a healthy person as far as I know.

Uh but Andrew Wilson has two children that have regressive autism.

Uh and it gets it gets better or worse.

I don't know how you language this, but he pastors a church and in his church he has seen people get physically healed.

And he said, But God hasn't healed my children.

They still both have regressive autism.

And he has five questions concerning healing.

Let me just tick them off here.

Uh, number one, why doesn't God always heal?

Uh, people get told you don't have enough faith because there's sin in your life or whatever.

Uh I would just say it like this: how you answer that question depends on your understanding of the kingdom.

How you answer that question depends on your understanding of the kingdom.

Uh basically, there's there's three views of the kingdom of God and its available availability to us now.

Let me just tick them off.

There's first of all, there's a the kingdom of God is entirely now.

The kingdom of God is entirely now.

This is the prosperity gospel.

Uh, this is uh, and I'm not being disrespectful, this is churches like Bethel out in California.

They say we Bill Johnson says we minister under an open heaven.

In other words, we can have the kingdom of God is right here in fullness right now.

Uh now, now, some people are like, oh, you shouldn't talk about a church.

I'm I don't disrespect other churches.

I disagree with them.

Uh, here's one of my concerns, this will make some of you mad.

Here's my my my concern bordering on my fear is that the people at Bethel that are just, I mean, they're they're kind of out there, they're gonna see more in their error than we do in our orthodoxy.

My mind, Pastor.

What are you saying?

Yes.

My concern for us, we've got everything tight and right, crossed all the T's and dotted on the I's, we never see the miraculous.

And we look at people like that and go, they're kind of cuckoo.

Yeah, there's some things they do, like I don't think gold dust comes down when God shows up.

Because if it did, I'd be the janitors just sweeping it out.

I keep singing.

I have friends that go out there and they say, Oh, yeah, we're in worship service, and people's feelings turn to gold.

You know what I said?

Open your mouth.

Ain't no gold in there.

Well, they turned back.

Okay.

Well, isn't that convenient?

Yeah, so so the first view of the kingdom is that the kingdom of God is entirely now.

This is the prosperity gospel.

The second view of the kingdom is that the kingdom of God is entirely not yet.

This is cessationism.

This is a lot of your Bible churches.

Uh, this is people that have a lot of intellect but not much intimacy.

Cessationist means that uh there's a there's another big word.

I've been alone all week, by the way.

And ladies, if you need me to come clean out your closet, I am available.

If you need me to throw away the excess in your house, I am your man.

Yes, yes, yes.

The man down here is going, amen.

Anybody else stand right now?

Uh man up, men take authority over your home.

I wish you could see some of your women.

You're like, yes, the kingdom of God is entirely not yet.

This is cessationism.

Cessationists.

Uh basically what that big word comes from, they believe that the grace gifts, the mercy gifts ceased with the last apostle.

Or someone will say, well, when the canon was closed.

So it's all we got.

They love information.

That's why I say I'm not disrespecting Bible churches.

There's great Bible churches, but they love information.

You get a lot of information, not much intimacy.

Then there's the third view, and I think this is what the Bible teaches that the kingdom of God is already and not yet.

It is already and it's not yet.

Jesus inaugurated the kingdom when he come, when he came, and he's gonna consummate it when he comes again.

So it is already, but it's not yet.

This is why we don't see everybody get healed.

Because the kingdom of God hasn't come in fullness yet.

If you could have the kingdom of God fully on earth, you wouldn't need heaven.

You have Jesus in heaven waiting for the command from his father to come get his bride, but he never gets a command because his bride's on earth, completely healed, no disease, no nothing.

We got heaven on earth because we minister under an open heaven, and so basically we don't even need Jesus, we just need what Jesus can do.

Heal us and leave us here on earth.

That's why you visit people in the hospital that are dying.

Like I visited a friend of mine, he's right here in Cadia's dying this past week.

Took communion to him.

And you know what he said?

I'm ready.

I'm ready.

He's not gonna set to another presidential election, he's ready.

He's ready, he's not jealous, he's like, I'm ready.

And I'm like, man.

Here's the second question you gotta ask about healing.

Does God always heal us if we just believe he will?

Some of you have been put under the law by people who say you're just not believing.

You need to activate your faith and believe.

I would just say the answer to the question, by the way, is no.

You say, What do you mean?

Does God always heal us if we just believe he will?

The Bible says, the Bible says believe, but you cannot control the outcome of your of your belief.

I would just say, no, he doesn't.

And I would give you a biblical example.

The apostle Paul.

Think about the apostle Paul.

He trusted God.

I mean, just let this in.

He trusted God could heal.

He was even used by God to heal others.

Let that in.

And you say, What do you mean?

Acts chapter 19, verse 11 says this, and God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them.

Acts 19:11

If you could do that for other people, doesn't it stand a reason that you would ask God to do it for you?

And he did.

And yet God did not heal him.

He writes about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 7.

2 Corinthians 12:7

He says, So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.

My powers made perfect in weakness.

And this is Paul's response.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then I am cut I am content with weaknesses, insult, hardships, persecution, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Here's the third question about healing.

We all should answer sooner rather than later.

And it's simply this why not?

Why not?

If I believe and I ask in faith, am I living in sin?

Why does God not heal me or my wife or my husband or my children or my neighbor?

It's real simple.

It goes back to how you view the kingdom.

And I would say it like this the effects, the consequence of Christ's victory over death aren't fully realized yet.

And they will not be fully realized until we get to heaven.

And then we have a new heaven and a new earth here on the earth.

Just remember the kingdom is already and not yet.

Here's the fourth question: How can we see more healing?

How can we see more healing?

What a great question.

What a simple question.

Most of us are like, you know, I don't want to sound like yeah, you should be asking that question.

Uh pray fast, believe, persevere, and understand.

Let me say it again.

Pray fast, believe, persevere, but also understand.

Healing is not a formula, but an opportunity for us to express that our faith is in God regardless of our circumstances.

When we lack understanding, we turn Bible verses into formulas.

Let me say that again.

I'll demonstrate.

When we lack understanding, we turn Bible verses into formulas.

Here's an example.

I hear this all the time, especially at hospitals.

And sometimes people that have read the Bible all walk in and they're like, oh, well, the pastor's here.

The pastor, you know, won't you offer the prayer of faith?

And the Bible says, you know, if you offer the prayer of faith, you know, this person's gonna be uh saved.

And I'm like, uh-oh, okay.

It's James chapter 5, verse 13.

James 5:13

Let me read it in context.

Is anyone among you suffering?

Let him pray.

Is anyone cheerful?

Let him sing praise.

Is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick.

And the Lord will raise him up.

And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Remember, I talked about Mexico?

When the guy's like, hey, venga, venga, bolillo, venga.

I'm like, my name's not Bolillo, my name's Neil.

Then somebody goes, It's a slang term.

You wouldn't get it, white bread.

And I'm like, you guys better stop making fun of me.

So we walked out, and and my friends that I was on the mission tree mission trip with, I never want to go on ever again.

They're all, you know, the kingdom, they're cessationists.

Oh, they got to find a verse in the Bible until they all pulled out James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

And they said, You know, I don't understand.

You know, you it says the prayer of faith.

Will you pray in faith, brother?

I said, Yeah, that's not the problem.

The problem is when it says, and the prayer of faith will save.

You got two things you got to understand in this verse.

Uh, it save is the Greek word sozo, and it refers to salvation, not healing.

And the prayer of faith will bring salvation to the one who is sick.

And the Lord will raise him up, raise him up.

When the guy was standing there going, saying something, pardon my Spanish, something like Yavante say or something.

I was like, whoo, okay, God, your reputation is on the line here.

No, it's not.

Your foolishness is on the line.

Can you lay hands on a paralyzed girl and ask God and believe God to raise her up right now?

By the way, when it raise him up, it's a reference to the resurrection after the person dies.

We had a great little spirited conversation back at our hotel.

And I was like, you guys just hide in the Bible.

I said, here's the thing, Jesus is never gonna rescue us from the foolishness of obedience.

He's gonna expose you to that more and more and more.

And I believe this the more you can embrace that sense of foolishness that comes with obedience, not all the time, but often, the more likely you are you are to see the miraculous.

And one of the guys goes, So you believe in miracles?

Oh, absolutely.

And one guy says, Well, I think my salvation is a miracle.

That's the only miracle I know of.

And I'm like, Oh, help me, Lord.

Uh yeah.

Uh let me let me just say this.

Uh I told you earlier, I just for preparation, I just read people that are sick, theologians that are sick.

One of them is a guy named Tim Shorey.

Tim Shory recently had to step down, he had to resign as a pastor because the stage four cancer has gotten so bad.

Uh, which that's incredible.

Uh, but what blew my mind, he's had a piercing, debilitated headache every day for the past 30 years.

Now, it's that man that writes this.

He says, I live.

Now, you say, should we pray for healing?

Absolutely.

But typically there's two camps that are best captured by this quote.

He says, I live my life and face my cancer, somewhere between seemingly sincere namers and claimers who expect healing every time and seemingly surrendered if the Lord willers, whose prayers affirm God's healing power, but whose caveats and qualifiers make it sound like he's not likely to use it.

God alone knows the heart, but the tone of the former party can sound like presumption masquerading as faith, while the tone of the latter party can sound like doubt masquerading as humility.

Oh Lord, if it's your will.

What about what are you asking God to do?

You see, I think we hide behind that phrase.

And I love that he calls them uh if the Lord willers.

Strike that from your vocabulary and plead with your Father for it to be his will.

Last question of healing is simply this how should we pray?

Very simple.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Back to Tim Shorey one more time.

He said, believing God can and does heal means that I'm believing in something, even though my experiences say otherwise.

Hear that again.

Believing God can and does heal means I'm believing in something even though my experience says otherwise.

This is as it should be.

We should believe whatever the Bible teaches, even when our experiences don't line up.

Scripture is never wrong.

Our interpretations, our experiences, our preferences and perceptions often are.

He's dying as we said here in this room.

He's got kids, 14 grandkids.

This is the essence of faith, beloved.

We all got to confront ourselves with the question: is my faith in God or is my faith in my experiences, in my preferences?

If my experiences don't line up with my expectations, all of a sudden you find yourself in a crisis of faith, or if they don't line up, can you, like Paul, demonstrate your faith in a God who tells you no when you pray?

Here's the last thing that healing has the power to do.

It alters our perspective.

It alters our perspective.

Having survived the resistance, Christianity now begins to spread to the whole world.

And what we read here in these two healing, powerful, miraculous moments where a guy gets up and just after eight years, I just love that that Peter just says to him, Oh, by the way, Christ heals you.

I don't know if anybody's told you that, but Christ heals you.

Rise and make your bed.

This thing's a pig style, bro.

And then right after that, this woman's dead, and they go, Oh, well, you know, Peter's not far from here.

Go get Peter.

Why?

Because he has this endure, he has this anointing from the Lord, and he comes in and he sends all the people out.

It's not a show.

He's not some late-night TV preacher, miracle healer, get a packet of spring water.

Those people are con artists.

Most of them are gonna go to hell.

They're not telling you the truth.

Healing alters our perspective.

They've survived the resistance.

It now begins to spread, Christianity does to the whole world.

This is the initial movement.

This is God begins to say, to to demonstrate his authority and activity among those who are far off, who don't know the words to the songs, who don't know where things in the Bible are, and have a deep sense that something in them is not right.

And God is saying right here, the gospel is for you too.

The Jews of Jesus' day believed they were superior and that God was their God.

And the reality is that the gospel here is going to the Gentiles and the kingdom of God is spreading throughout the whole earth.

And I just want to point to one last thing and I'll be done.

You still with me?

Uh now, by the way, if you're kind of wondering, wait, what where are we on the?

We're not we're not cessationists here.

We believe God, we believe the grace and mercy gift still exists.

We believe God still does a miraculous, God still heals.

We anoint people with oil, we lay hands and we pray on them and we pray over them and we pray in faith, asking God to set the kingdom down.

Yes.

And we've had people that we went to the hospital and said, Hey, I got a tumor.

And they go in, and the guy says, You know what?

It's not there anymore.

Well, glory to God.

We don't try to figure out who was in the room and what did they say.

Let's write a book about that.

Look at me.

Stop trying to figure everything out so you can market it.

You can't market the kingdom.

You can market and manage church planning.

Oh, this is a demographic right here that has a donor base that can support a church.

Let's put one there.

No, let's put let's set the kingdom down.

Less church, more kingdom.

Says the man that pastors a church.

That I love.

Okay.

Somebody recently said, hey, would you be open to considering another field of service?

Like, are you asking me what I think you're asking me?

Only if I can take my people with me.

Well, that's not how it works, Neil.

Then I'm not interested.

Yeah, look at me.

I just weirded some of you out right there, didn't I?

Yeah.

Uh you're enough for me.

I don't want other people.

I want you.

And I want you to be faithful to your church, but I want you to be about the kingdom.

Let's be about what Jesus came to establish.

Let's let it alter our perspective.

Now, by the way, the Jews are like, hey, we got this, you know, hey, this is our thing.

And all of a sudden God's like, no, I'm not a God of the Jews only.

I'm a God of the whole world.

And it kind of winks at us.

And Leo will get into this next week.

Look at verse 43.

After all this is uh is done, it says, and he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.

Now, ladies, that doesn't mean he had 18 appointments at the tanning bed, okay?

He didn't go to Malibu Beach Tanner.

No, no, he was a tanner.

He worked with leather, which means he was around dead animals.

Stay with me, which means he was ceremonially unclean to the Jews.

And Peter, who just healed somebody, stays at his house, and these cats are pulling their beard out.

They're like, oh my gosh, doesn't he know the rules?

Are you kidding me?

No, no, he is ceremonially unclean.

And so the Jews with all their rules consider this anathema.

And yet it is a foreshadowing of what is to come as it goes from I am righteous because of what I do not do.

In the next chapter, you'll see Peter has a dream, and this cheek comes down full of all these unclean animals, things like bacon.

This is why I'm glad this is in the Bible.

And Peter says, Never, Lord, I would never defile myself.

And he says, Hey, it's all clean.

Rise and eat.

You should go somewhere and have bacon for lunch because of that.

Because look at me.

This is what religion does to you.

Religion makes you feel religious because of what you don't do.

The kingdom of God is just the opposite.

The kingdom of God says you're right with God and you're part of his kingdom, and that informs what you actually do.

Do you hear the difference?

Big difference in those two.

Now, oftentimes when it comes to healing, our perspective needs to change as well.

And let me just let me just tread on some tender ground here for a minute.

I have a friend that uh has a son that has an incurable disease.

And every once in a while will talk and I'm like, hey, how is that?

And he said to me years ago, he said, Man, Neil, it took me years to finally realize that God wasn't going to heal my son.

And I think one of the reasons God's not gonna heal my son is because he's using my son to heal me.

And so this is the tender ground part.

I'm gonna be your, I'm gonna I'm gonna just function as your pastor for just a moment.

If you got somebody in your life, in your family, that is you're praying and they're just not being healed, just have the courage to ask, hey God, how are you using this person to heal me?

What in me needs to be healed?

What in me?

Because I I I said to my friend one time, I said, what do you think God's healing in you?

And he said, Oh, just my my way of thinking it says I make a lot of money.

I I can I can be the savior of my family, I can protect us from all harm, all wrong, because I'm very successful.

And I said, Wow, and he goes, There's more, you want to hear it?

I'm not sure.

Is this going in a positive direction or negative?

He goes, I I think I've got it all worked out, and then the Holy Spirit's like, Yeah, I gotta heal you of this.

He said, One of the things I gotta heal you of is your need for control.

I was like, so I think it's great for all of us to ask ourselves today, is there anything in you that God needs to heal?

Because healing has power in the Bible.

Does God still heal?

Absolutely.

We believe that with every fiber of our being, and healing alters our perspective.

It helps to establish, uh, demonstrate the kingdom, and it establishes the gospel.

That's what you see right here in the text, okay?

And and those five questions, we all got to think through that.

Think through that, okay?

Go back and watch the sermon later this week because you're gonna get asked, hey man, you believe in God, right?

Well, I believe in God if He just do something powerful, like heal somebody or raise somebody from the dead.

And you gotta have a kingdom-informed answer.

Otherwise, you're just another stuttering Christian in a world full of people who are screaming questions, and that's a bad combination, beloved.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, we like to just uh tell you what's fixing to happen.

We like to teach the Bible and it's undiluted content to say everything that it says, and then we like to give you an opportunity to engage your mind and think about what you've just heard.

This is that opportunity.

Some questions come up on the screen.

You can just take out a phone, take a picture, something to think about, something to ask yourself.

Let me pray and let's just consider for just a moment.

Holy Spirit, we uh we we love that you're here.

When we gather, your your God, your spirit is here among us, in us who are believers.

Brood over us, Lord.

We're not afraid of healing, we're not afraid of feeling and looking foolish.

We just want to obey you.

We want your kingdom to come and your will to be done in our lives, in the life of our spouses, in the lives of our children, in the life of our church, and in our city.

People don't need another techno-savvy church that's uber creative, they need the kingdom of God to be sit down in close proximity to them, and they get a whiff of the king in the kingdom, and all of a sudden they they get in touch with a deep soul hunger that's been in them forever.

And God, we just want to raise our hand today and say we want to be those people, and we want to be that church that sets your kingdom down and all that comes with it.

We'll take the kingdom and all the trimmings and Lord brood over us by your spirit so we think about these things.

Oh God, uh, that's not a lament of the dissatisfied, that's an invitation from your children to come, Lord, and just bring the kingdom with you.

We got too many church planters in America, not enough kingdom planters.

So I nominate all everybody in this room, men, women, students, children, to be kingdom planters.

Wherever you go, wherever we go, God, we want to set the kingdom down.

We want to plant the kingdom, we want our lives to water and nourish the kingdom.

And this is what causes people to rethink what they've thought their whole life, to repent.

That's the essence of repentance, is changing the way you think, not your behavior.

We're sick of behavior modification.

We need a kingdom transformation that changes how we think.

And Holy Spirit, only you can do that.

Bring that to bear on everyone in this room who needs it.

This is our prayer today, God.

We pray it in Christ's name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say thank you for being here.

Thank you for your time today.

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard, we'll be available down front.

We'd love to answer any questions you have, pray with you, help you process uh uh anything God's stirring up inside of you.

If you would like to, you can text.

Welcome to that number on the screen.

Uh, we won't show up at your house.

It'll just let us know you're here.

We'll ping you back a text and we'll let you kind of inform the process and the path from there.

We do not believe in manipulation or guilt or pressure.

We think you're adults, and so we'll treat you like adults.

If that makes sense, say amen.

Okay.

We have different things going on in life for our church.

We like to make you aware of those and remind you of those.

So here's your reminders for this week.

Check out the screen.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.

Did you know that we have a church app?

You can use it to get involved, register for events, listen to sermons, podcasts, and more.

Find it wherever apps are available for your devices.

Hey Grand Parkway.

It's Chris Brooks, one of your favorite little vagabonds who you guys invite in from time to time.

Uh, I just wanted to say hi, especially to the men out there.

Let's go! That's what my son Simon19, when he gets fired up about a swim meet, shouts, let's go.

I heard you guys got your men's retreat coming up, um, and you are bringing in Sam Storms.

Oh my gosh! You guys are you're making me mad because you're such a good church and you bring in such quality speakers apart from yours truly.

But um, I read one of his books.

There's a couple books that I read that kind of rest on my shelf in peace.

And then there are books that stay close to my desk because they're that I go back to them again and again.

So this is a book that man, I I devoured.

And here's what's in this book.

I must have really loved it because I went back and printed out all the highlights that I made in the entire book.

So, Sam Storms here.

Let's let's just get uh a couple quotes from Sam Storms around spiritual gifts.

How important is it to you that spiritual gifts operate fully?

Mistakes should be expected when you're practicing this.

Obedience must matter more to you than success or your image.

You're welcome! You're listening I I really want to be at this conference with you just to sit beside you and watch your eyes get peeled open and your skull pulled back and your heart injected with adrenaline that you can operate fully under the goodness of God.

Demystifying all that stuff.

You and I both know men's retreats are worth it just to walk in the room with a group full of men, right?

So that you know that you belong here and that you matter and that you have something to offer this church.

So, men at Grand Parkway, let's go.

You got that event coming up?

It's October 20th and 21st.

Hey, prioritize your schedule.

If you have wife and kids at home, already ask them can I go away for a couple days to become a better husband and father and man?

If you don't, you have zero excuses.

Let's go get there.

Sam Storms, I commend him to you, and I believe more power and influence and joy will be released in your church, in your families, and in your communities if you make it a priority to attend this.

And send me, please record it and send it to me.

Love you guys.

We'll see ya.

As mentioned by Chris Brooks, men's weekend is October 20th through the 21st.

It's just a few hours of your time, so sign up today.

Finally, if you didn't get to experience National Night Out, there are still three more opportunities to share the best news ever.

You can volunteer at Nary's Promise next Tuesday, October 17th, run a fun carnival booth at Oyster Creek Elementary on the 27th with a friend, or help someone practice their English at our ESL party on the 31st.

Remember, you just have to choose one.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Well, uh, you may be wondering how the Chris Brooks thing happened.

I was coming back from uh an appointment this week, and he and I were talking on the phone uh about him coming back a couple times in the spring.

I said, Do you like coming to preach?

Oh, are you kidding me?

I love it.

And I can't believe y'all got Sam Storms coming.

And I said, A lot of our men don't know who Sam Storms is.

I said, Would you like to do a little video?

He drives a Jeep, so it's really loud in there.

Uh and I'm like, Chris, I can barely hear you.

He goes, Oh, shut up.

I'll send you something.

Hangs up on me.

30 minutes later, I get that.

Him hitting stuff.

And I'm like, okay, this will do.

Uh yeah.

The only thing I would I would just amend is we're not going away.

We don't go away from the retreat.

It's here, it's right in the old sanctuary.

We're Friday night.

You go home, sleep in your bed, men come back early uh uh Saturday morning.

Uh, we'll have breakfast, uh, which is part of the weekend.

We provide that, and then you'll be done after at lunch, after lunch on Saturday.

So you'll be home for the 2:30 kickoff, okay?

Uh do not miss an opportunity.

And by the way, I don't know if he'll me tell you this, but Sam Sorms is battling prostate cancer.

Uh and he's just still trucking on, still believes in a God who heals.

Uh, and so you will be remiss if you miss this opportunity.

That's all I'm gonna tell you.

We're not gonna beg you.

I'm just telling you, you're gonna you're gonna be remiss if you miss this.

All right?

We'd like to conclude our service with spoken blessings.

So stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hands out.

May you be the mud that Jesus puts in other people's eyes that allows them to be healed and to see.

Depart now and practice this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.