I Need A Miracle: Week 2

We are in the second week of a message series called I Need a Miracle.

Last week we talked about how God can heal us from the past wounds,

in the past trauma, and next week we're going to talk about how

God can heal relationships and heal broken families and pain in our relationships. Today

we're going to be discussing how God heals our bodies, how God can heal

illnesses and heal sickness in our bodies. And I want to say that if

you're here today and you want to receive prayer for healing or prayer for a

miracle, a little bit later, we're gonna have an opportunity where our prayer

teams available. If you want to be anointed with oil and praying for healing,

that's going to be available today as well. I got to tell you

I have a really unique relationship with Community North Hospital here on the North Side.

I have seen God do a lot of miracles at Community North. For

example, over three years ago, my friends Tim and Vanessa were expecting their

baby boy, Isaiah, but there were some complications in the pregnancy. A

few weeks before the due date, Vanessa was rushed to the hospital because of

high blood pressure and pre eclampsia, and they were concerned about Isaiah's well being.

So immediately I drove to Community North. Now, at the time,

there were some protocols that I wasn't allowed to go inside as a visitor,

but that didn't prevent me from praying outside and praying for a miracle. And

so that whole time I walked a big prayer circle around the campus of Community

North praying for a miracle. And Community North is a pretty big campus.

It takes some time, some mileage to walk around that whole campus. Every

day that week I was going to Community North and walking in a prayer circle,

praying for a miracle. And I know, I know many of you

were praying for Tim and Vanessa also. After four days of walking prayer circles

around the campus, it was time for Isaiah to come into the world.

He was born a few weeks before his due date. He was four pounds,

but he was healthy and his mom was healthy, and after about a

three weeks stay in the nicku, he got to go home, and just

a couple months ago we braided his third birthday. Only God can do those

kind of miracles. Now, I found myself back at Community North on another

occasion when my friend Barry suffered a stroke and was rushed to the emergency room,

and I drove to Community North to meet Barry's family and pray with them,

and again I started walking in a prayer circle around the campus, praying

for a miracle. Now, Barry's stroke was very serious. He wasn't communicating

well, he wasn't speaking well, he didn't have a lot of movement in

his body, and they were going to try a procedure or a treatment that

if it went wrong it could have serious effects damage. And so we were

praying. And the next day I went back with my friend Dave and we

walked in a prayer circle, praying for a miracle for Barry. Barry got

excellent treatment, he was released from the hospital. And the greatest part about

the story is Barry's stroke happened on a Sunday, and then four days later

on Thursday, I saw Barry at church for our Thursday Night service, without

any side effects, without any lasting damage, completely healed. Only God does

those kind of miracles. So I've walked prayer circles around Community North Hospital more

times than I can count, and I'm a little bit nervous that the security

department has my picture somewhere, like I'm casing the campus or something. But

I was praying for a miracle. What miracles are you praying for? What

miracle are you praying for? What breakthrough are you praying for? Are you

praying for healing? Someone might be praying for healing in your body, for

a diagnosis you've received, or you're praying against cancer or a terminal illness.

There are some who are praying against chronic pain. You've got an old injury

that keeps flaring up. Or there's chronic insomnia, chronic migrains. There's these

things that you're praying for. What what are you praying for today? The

main point, the big idea of this message is that healing prayer releases more

of the fire love. When we pray for healing, when we pray for

miracles, we're inviting God to bring more of his love into a desperate situation.

I've seen God do miracles supernaturally. I've seen God heal gradually over treatment

and a long journey. And I've also seen God heal through modern medicine like

those examples from Community North. However, God chooses to heal, he always

releases more love. I'll tell you a story about how I've experienced this healing

power in my life. My wife Lauren, for most of her life,

has suffered with chronic symptoms from a childhood concussion post concussion syndrome, and for

example, often she would be unable to focus on things that got close to

her vision. She couldn't converge her eyes. So that means is if something

came about this close to her face, she would start to see double.

She couldn't focus, So if I would like lean in for a kiss,

she would see two of me, and believe me, I know one of

me is enough for one person. If she'd spend a lot of time on

the screen or computers, her right eye especially would get tired and it would

start to twitch and spasm from the computer time. And it got really scary

one day when she lost vision in her right eye for about half an hour,

and we were really concerned. So we saw help from doctor Terry Horner,

who referred us to a neurological optometrist, and the specialists confirmed that Lauren's

eye was okay, like the lens and all that was fine, but the

muscles controlling her eye and her ocular nerve was giving her problems. So the

specialists prescribed a treatment plan of rehab and physical therapy to strengthen those muscles and

to strengthen that nerve. Every week for months, Lauren was doing this therapy.

In twenty two, Laura and I went to a worship conference with about

five hundred other people at another church, and after a long day at this

conference, Lauren's eyes were tired and her right eye was starting to twitch and

have that muscle spasm. The lights on the stage were bothering her, and

that evening, during worship, there was an opportunity where volunteers stood in front

of the audience and they shared words of knowledge that they had received from the

Holy Spirit to telling them to pray for people. And one person said that

she felt led to pray for someone in the crowd who was having trouble with

the right side of their face, particularly muscle spasms around the right eye and

damage to the ocular nerve. And so Lauren, when we heard that,

she looked at me and kind of rolled her eyes and she said, that's

for me. And so she made her way forward and she met that person,

and that person laid her hands on Lauren and prayed for her, and

God healed her. The next week, Lauren went back to her specialist,

and the specialist ran all the tests and confirmed that Lauren's condition was healed only

God. Only God does miracles like that. Not only was Lauren healed physically,

but she received more of God's love and I received more of the Father's

love because healing prayer releases more of the Father's love. Today, we're gonna

look at a few of Jesus's miracles in the Bible in Matthew chapter eight.

But before we turn to that text, I want to share a few helpful

biblical principles for physical healing, because when we talk about divine healing and miracles,

there can be some confusion, there can be some misunderstanding, and even

there might be disappointment because of improper theology. And so I want to make

sure we're standing on good theology today. So a few biblical principles for physical

healing. First, God heals according to his will. When I look at

the Bible, when I look at the Gospels and the life of Jesus,

I see that it is Jesus's will, it's his heart to show more love

it's his heart to bring healing. It's his heart to fix broken things.

He wants to heal. It's his will to heal. What I don't know

is when or how or by what means he will choose to heal. He

heals according to his will. He might heal with medicine, he might heal

miraculously, he might heal gradually through a long journey. And for believers,

we know that God always heals heavenly because there's eternal life in heaven. There's

permanent healing in heaven. Number two, healing is found in God's love,

not in my own goodness. Miracle power is not a reward for being a

good Christian. A lack of faith doesn't mean a lack of miracles. Healing,

miracles and physical healing is not measured out because one person's more deserving than

another. It's all found in God's love. It's not based on my goodness.

It's not based on my background or my resume. Number three, all

physical healing is temporary. Remember Lazarus. Lazarus was a man who died and

they put him in the grave, and then a few days later Jesus came

and raised Lazar from the dead. Quite an impressive miracle. But is Lazarus

still living among us today? No, he passed away. At some point,

he did die. He's in heaven now because all physical healing is temporary,

but spiritual healing healing the soul is an eternal healing. And sometimes the

Lord will use a miracle or a physical healing to get our attention and invite

us into a spiritual healing because a spiritual healing is eternal. Number four,

God gives more grace to endure. God gives more grace to endure the pain,

to endure the suffering. Even if a miracle does not come instantly or

supernaturally, God's presence is still with us. He releases more of his love,

He releases more of his power. He is close to us in our

suffering and in our pain. He gives more endurance, more grace to endure.

Healing, prayer releases more of the Father's love. However, God chooses

to heal. Whenever God chooses, he's always releasing and showing more of his

love. So let's turn to our text. In Matthew chapter eight, we're

going to read about fifteen verses here, and in this passage we're gonna hear

three miracles that Jesus performs, starting here in verse one, when he came

down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and behold, a leper

came to him and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you will,

you can make me clean. Jesus meets you where you are. In

the text, he came down from the mountain. Jesus comes down to your

level. He comes down to our pain, He comes down to our suffering.

He meets you where you are. Out of all the people in the

crowds, Jesus saw this man with leprosy and loved this man. Out of

all of the people in the world, he loves you. Out of all

the people who are suffering, all the people who are praying for a miracle,

God sees you, and he loves you. He meets you where you

are in verse three, and Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him,

saying, I will be clean, And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Do

you need a touch from the Lord today? Jesus saw this man, and

Jesus touched this man, this leper who was rejected, who is an outcast,

who is considered unclean. That didn't stop Jesus from touching him. Nothing

in your life is out of reach from the touch of Jesus. Your condition

is not off limits to the touch of Jesus. Your diagnosis, your prognosis,

is not out of reach for the touch of Jesus. He wants to

touch and wants to release more of his love Immediately he was cleansed. Verse

five. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him,

appealing to him, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering

terribly. And he said to him, I will come and heal him.

But the centurion replied, Lord, I'm not worthy to have you come under

my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.

For I too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me.

And I say to one go and he goes, to another, come

and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does

it. Verse ten. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to

those who followed him, Truly, I tell you, with no one in

Israel have I found such faith. This centurion did not deserve a miracle.

He was unworthy, but that didn't matter to Jesus. This Roman soldier wasn't

even Jewish. He probably came from a pagan background, but that didn't stop

Jesus. No one's background limits them from the healing power of Jesus. Someone's

religious background, their faith background, does not limit what God wants to do.

God wants to show more love. And then our passage ends here in

verse thirteen, to the centurion, Jesus said, go let it be done

for you as you have believed. And the servant healed at that very moment.

And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother in law lying

sick with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her,

and she rose and began to serve him. That evening, they brought to

him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with

a word, and healed all who were sick. In verse seventeen, this

was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses,

he bore our diseases. This last line is a quote from Isaiah chapter

fifty three, and that passage continues on saying he was pierced for our transgressions.

That's when Jesus was crucified. The nails pierced him. He was crushed

for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And

by his wounds, we are healed. By his wounds, we are healed.

This is not a metaphor, this is not hyperbole. Jesus literally suffered.

Jesus physically suffered for our healing. His agony, his torture, his

abuse, his blood paid the price to purchase our healing. There is healing

in his wounds. His wounds are greater than disease. His wounds are greater

than a diagnosis, greater than cancer. His wounds are more powerful than sickness.

His wounds are more greater than death itself. His wounds have power because

they are wounds of love. There's healing in his wounds. Healing prayer releases

more of the Father's loves. And today I want to encourage you to pray

for healing, to pray for miracles, to pray for more of God's love.

If you have a loved one who needs healed, I want to equip

you to pray for them. God may use you to pray for a neighbor

or a classmate or a coworker to show more of his love. And if

you've been waiting and praying and hoping for a long time to I want to

encourage you. Do not give up today. I want to encourage your faith.

Healing prayer releases more of the Father's love. God wants to show more

love. Often when I pray with the sick, often I say, I

have prayed with many people who were not healed miraculously, and I've prayed with

many people who were healed miraculously. So I can't promise a miracle, but

I can promise that God's going to show more of his love. So how

do we pray for physical healing? Number One? Pray boldly. Pray boldly.

Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. We do not

have to convince God to show more of his love. We don't have to

beg God. We do not have to plead with him. He wants to

release more love. God honors bold prayers. Pray boldly. In our text,

in verse three, Jesus healed this man with leprosy boldly. Immediately,

there was no hesitation. Jesus this boldly said be clean, and immediately he

was healed. Pray boldly. I've seen God honor bold prayers. Just this

last summer, I was traveling with a team from our church to Roatan,

Honduras, and we were working with other churches there, and one day we

were going out into the community to pray for healing, to pray for the

sick, and there was one young guy on our team named Caleb, and

Caleb's a twenty something school teacher and football coach, and he had never prayed

for miracles, but he wanted to learn to pray boldly. And in the

community we met an elderly woman named Almah, and Almah suffered from a lot

of pain in her joints and in her body, and she showed us that

she couldn't kneel down, she couldn't bend over. She was had this limited

range of motion, and Caleb volunteered to pray for her. And Caleb put

his hands on her knees and he prayed boldly, and then God healed her.

And we actually have a video of what happened when Caleb prayed. She

did that all day while we were there. Caleb is a twenty somethings,

school teacher, football coach. He does not have a seminary degree. He's

not a faith healer. He's a follower of Jesus who prays boldly. You

can pray boldly prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. In my

past, I used to believe God can heal if he wants to. But

like I don't think he needs me, or requires me, or partners with

me. I just you know, if he wants to, he can do

it. And so I used to pray timid prayers, not bold prayers.

I pray timid prayers, prayers like God, if it's your will to heal

this person. Now many of us pray that way with good intentions. We

want to be humble, we don't want to be presumptuous. But when I

look at the Bible, when I study the life of Jesus in the Gospels,

I see that it is his will to heal, it's his will to

release more love, it's his will to show his goodness, and his goodness

has not changed. He's the same God who died on the crossing Roads from

the dead, and so I know what his will is. And so now

I don't pray those timid prayers. I don't pray God. If it's your

will, I choose to pray, Father, heal according to your will.

I just don't know when, or how, or by what means he wants

to use. Say God, heal according to your will. I leave the

results up to him. I leave the method up to him. But I

trust that his heart is good, and I trust that he loves to show

more of his love to his people. And so I want to encourage you.

Pray boldly. We may not know when or how or by what means,

but pray boldly for healing, boldly for your children. Pray boldly for

your loved ones. Pray boldly for cancer. Pray boldly for a disease.

Pray boldly for broken bones. Pray boldly. Because God honors bold prayers.

Healing prayer releases more of the Father's love. In this text, the centurion

soldier asks Jesus to heal his sick servant. Now, this Roman soldier had

authority over one hundred soldiers, and his authority was given to him by the

Roman Emperor. Now, Rome was more than a thousand miles away from Israel,

and it's likely that the emperor had never visited Israel. But wherever this

Roman soldier was, he carried the authority of the Roman Empire. And look

at our text in verse eight. But the centurion replied, Lord, I

am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the

word and my servant will be healed. Look at verse nine, for I

too am a man under authority, I too am a man under authority.

This Roman soldier sees Jesus and understands that Jesus has authority, and he recognizes

Jesus is also under authority. Jesus operating under the authority of the father who

sent him. Jesus says in the Gospel of John that he can do nothing

apart from the Father. He only does what he sees his father doing.

Jesus operates in the authority. His miracle power is from the authority of the

father who sent him. So when you pray for healing, pray with Jesus's

authority. It's not my authority, it's not your authority, power, it's

not your goodness. It's his authority. And he's given us authority. He's

bestowed us with his authority to pray boldly. I'll tell you about a time

I've seen believers praying with Jesus's authority. Just a few months ago, on

a Thursday night, at our Thursday night church service and the haverstick, a

lady came in a lot of pain. She had a lot of pain in

her joints, her hips, and knees. She had had surgeries, there

were things out of alignment, and she had a lot of difficulty walking,

and she often could not walk without assistance from her husband. It was so

painful. And so after the service, our team gathered around her and we

prayed for her. And one of our team members was listening in prayer and

felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray for scar tissue, And so we

prayed again, and that team member prayed with authority and said, in the

name of Jesus' scar tissue be healed. By the authority of Jesus' scar tissue,

be healed. After we prayed, that lady stood up and then she

began to dance, and her husband exclaimed that he had not seen her move

like that. She felt more of God's love. Believers praying with authority over

that issue. You can pray with authority. You can say pain go away

in Jesus' name. Scar tissue be healed in Jesus' name. You can say,

vertebrae be aligned in Jesus's name, by the power of Jesus, cancer

be gone new soelves regenerate in the name of Jesus. You can pray with

authority. Now some might say, well, well, doesn't this give false

hope. Isn't this like overpromising? What if it's under delivering. I can't

overpromise something that's not mine to give. It all belongs to God. It's

his authority. It's his power, not my own. There's only false hope

if our hope is in something besides Jesus. But our hope is only in

Jesus, because Jesus has the authority. What gives Jesus the authority to heal

his resurrection power. Jesus did the greatest miracle when he rose from the dead

and conquered death, and conquered evil and conquered sin. That's the authority that

we claim. This is not the authority of good karma, it's not the

authority of good vibes in the universe. It's the authority of Jesus's resurrection and

it's certainly not crystals, it's certainly not good vibes. It's the authority of

Jesus. There is power in Jesus. There is healing in Jesus. There's

authority in Jesus because he rose from the dead, So you can pray with

authority. You can pray with his authority. Healing prayer releases more of the

Father's love. Now, there's one misconception that God's healing power depends on my

own goodness, as if I have to show I deserve it or that I'm

worthy, or there's a belief that a lack of miracles means a lack of

faith, or some may say I'm just not holy enough, I'm just not

deserving maybe others, but not me. And it's true, I lack faith

all the time. And it's true I'm not holy and I'm not perfect.

But it is a lie to believe that God's goodness depends on my righteousness.

That's a lie from the enemy. When I'm in a setting like this and

we're praying for more of God's love and praying for those who are sick,

I'll often hear the lies of the enemy whisper to me and those lies sound

like, Andrew, you should have prayed more, Andrew, you should have

been fasting harder. Andrew, you just want a miracle so people will be

impressed with your gifts. And you know, every good lie has a little

bit of truth in it, and there's a little bit of truth in all

of those statements. So thank God that his grace and his power does not

depend on my goodness, does not depend on my worthiness. It's all by

his love. It's all by his grace. And so that's why when you

pray for healing, pray humbly, pray humbly. It's his power, it's

his glory. We read in our text in verse Jesus said to him,

I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I

am not worthy. I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof.

Can you hear the humility in the centurion's voice. I'm not worthy. None

of us is worthy, none of us deserves it, none of us can

earn it. It's all by God's grace, it's all by his mercy.

It's because of his love. And his love has not changed from the day

he spoke to this centurion, more than two thousand years ago. I can't

over promise something that's not mine to give, it's his. So pray humbly,

pray humbly, trusting him with the results. That's why we pray in

faith. Now you might say, well, what type of faith? I

say, whatever faith you've got. Whatever faith you've got, you got big

faith, little faith, doubting faith, insecure faith, scared faith, to

shy faith, nonverbal faith, whatever faith you got, Just pray with what

you got. There is no minimum level of faith required for God to heal.

Jesus responds to the faith that's there. Look at our text in verse

ten. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed

him, Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I

found such faith. Jesus was struck by the Roman soldier's faith. But remember

Jesus was already willing and planning on healing the sick person before the soldier demonstrated

faith. Jesus responds to the faith that's there. What kind of faith does

it take? Whatever faith you got. I remember a long time ago,

there's a young man I was trying to invite to church. His parents went

to church. He had been around faith in church, but as a young

man he had kind of walked away and drifted away, and every time I

tried to invite him, he just made up excuses or he would put me

off. Until one time we were having a conversation and he shared with me

about an old in in his back. He had fallen from a construction site

more than two stories high and hurt or broke his back, and he didn't

receive medical treatment for it, and so he's had this chronic pain in his

back ever since then, even just as a young man, sitting for too

long, driving for too long was painful. He told me that often it

would take him more than an hour to get out of bed and get dressed

in the morning because of that pain. And so I asked him if I

could pray for him, and he agreed, and so I put my hand

on his back and I prayed, and immediately he started to get excited because

he felt God's healing touch in his back. And then he started bending over,

he started twisting and started turning, and he told me these were things

that he could not do before I had prayed for him. And then he

looked at me and said, okay, what time's church on Sunday. This

guy had zero faith until the Lord touched him miraculously. Sometimes the Lord will

use a physical healing or a miracle to invite us into a supernatch spiritual healing.

Because of spiritual healing is if he is an eternal healing, there is

no level of faith required. It's just faith in Jesus. So pray in

faith. God's healing power doesn't depend on your goodness. It doesn't depend on

your level of faith. It's just his grace. Maybe you need to borrow

faith from somebody else and invite them to join you in. But pray with

you. And if you've been praying and you've been waiting for a long time

and nothing's changed, it is not because of a lack of faith. That

is a lie. In the name of Jesus, we rebuke that lie that

tells you you need to have more faith or that you don't have enough faith,

that's a lie. And if you've been waiting and you've been praying for

a long time but you're still waiting, I want to encourage you. If

your spouse is still waiting, if your loved one is still waiting, and

if you've been praying and you just feel like giving up. I want to

encourage you do not give up. Pray through. Pray even on the journey,

even in the treatment, even in the surgery. Pray through. Because

God is with you on the journey. There's more of His love even when

you're going through the dark valley. I spoke to a member from our church

who was diagnosed with cancer, and he was on a long journey of treatment

against this cancer. And this person has been a believer for many decades.

He's even served as a pastor in the past. And I'll never forget what

he said to me when he was going through this long cancer treatment. We

stood right over here in this room, and he said to me, Andrew,

in all my life, I have never felt this close to Jesus,

this man said. I feel his presence and his love like I never have

before. Even in his suffering, even in his pain, even in that

diagnosis, there was more of God's love for him. Tewod Corinthians twelve,

verse seven says I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of

Satan to torment me. Three times. I pleaded with the Lord to take

it away from me, but he said to me, My grace is sufficient

for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. My grace is

sufficient for you. God says to you today, his grace, his love,

his mercy is sufficient for you. There is more grace for you when

you're in the hospital room. There's more grace for you. In the waiting

room. There's more grace for you. In hospice care. There's more grace

for you when you gave it. They give you that anesthesia and you go

into that surgery. There is more grace for you when you go from treatment

after treatment to prescription after prescription. There's more grace for you because in God's

grace, there is power. In God's grace, there's endurance. In God's

grace, there is strength for you to endure the journey. There's more grace

for you. There's more grace for us even in our darkest moments. There's

more of God's love. Healing power releases more of God's love. And remember,

all physical heat is ultimately temporary. This life on earth doesn't last.

Death will come for all of us, but death does not have the final

word. My grandfather was extremely young and extremely healthy for most of his life,

even at eighty two. He was fit. He did exercises every day.

At eighty two years old, he was doing stretches and then he'd get

up on the roof for work in the yard or crawl in the cross space.

I mean, he was fit, and so my family was really surprised

when he was hospitalized with an infection and he just declined rapidly. Even the

doctors were a little puzzled. They told us this is serious, but they

had a treatment plan that was optimistic. But my grandfather was just not wanting

to fight anymore. He was just ready. And I remember the conversation he

and I had just a few days before he passed, and he told me,

Andrew, I'm ready to move, he said, I'm ready for my

change of address. He's ready for heaven. There is hope for eternal life

because of Jesus. Do you share that same confidence for heaven. Do you

know that you know that you know that your eternal life is with Jesus in

heaven. If you do not have that confidence today, I want to encourage

you, and I plead with you, do not leave your seat today without

making a decision to trust Jesus with your life, to give him your soul

today because he wants to do a spiritual healing in you. I want to

invite us to respond to what we've just heard today. I want to invite

you to stand with me. If you would, I'm going to invite our

prayer partner team to come forward, and if you would bow your head and

close your eyes with me. And today, if you're hearing this and you

are not confident in your life after death, if you are not assured that

you will be in heaven, and today you want to trust Jesus with your

life, then I invite you to pray this prayer after me. In your

heart. Say, Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner and I

need your forgiveness. I believe Jesus died for me and rose from the dead

to save me. Today I confess Jesus's Lord of my life, come and

heal me. Amen.