Matthew pt. 21 - Healing Touch

You can ignore that, it's just the podcast.

You can be seated. Thank you.

I want to say first thing, I'm. I'm really pleased that some of

your men went to my church yesterday, the Christian center.

I didn't. I didn't make the event because

you didn't even go to your. I didn't even go.

So confession's good for the soul but not I knew it was going

to be a great event And my wife if you don't know her name is

Trisha. You want to leave her my name

and our youngest son is Anthony. Anthony can you wave?

Anthony, you want to stand up and testify that this morning.

Take that as a no. All right.

It's good to be with you. It's.

I'm excited to be with you because I know what God's doing

here and every time we come here I see growth and and I know, I

know sometimes it looks like numerically it's slow but slow

growth is healthy. You don't overgrow and

overextend and maybe make bad decisions.

And I want to say that you've got a godly pastor and and and

wife. I'm.

I'm extremely proud of him. I have another son at Stafford

who's preaching this morning as well.

He's all right. But as I arrived this morning,

the the team was here. Dylan was here with the team

setting up and there's my grandson's helping.

So God is using them even at an early age, and it just thrills

my heart. But I did the same thing to your

brother when I preached in the Freedom Church.

So I'm going to do the same thing to do.

I'm going to tell a story on you.

As you know John Michael is is a pretty good communicator I

think. And when he was in the third

grade he had a, we had a parent teacher PTA association meeting

and I go in and I'm like, well, how's John Michael doing, you

know, and and his teacher was was Becky Liverman.

And Becky said he's he's doing, he's doing really good.

I said OK. She said the only thing I would

say is he won't stop talking. And I said, well, I will deal

with that When I get home. She goes, no, you can't do that.

I said, Becky, you just told me he's interrupting the class.

She said you can't stop him from talking.

He's got to talk and I'm like, OK, I don't know as a parent how

how you win with that one. But anyway, he turned out.

It turned out just fine. But she was my favorite teacher,

obviously. Obviously if you have your

Bibles This morning turned with me to the book of Matthew and I

understand that's where you all have been for for a few few

weeks, I guess months. OK.

And we're going to begin in Matthew Chapter 8, verse one

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

through 4. And I'll tell you this morning

as we were worshipping, I really sense a strong anointing and and

and I'm, I'm telling you, don't take that for granted.

The anointing is what every church needs.

It's it breaks the yoke. It breaks the bondage.

And I sensed that in Middlesex, in the Middle Peninsula and

certainly in the Northern Neck years ago I ministered there.

There are strongholds and and it's the anointing that breaks

those strongholds. So be excited about what God's

doing. Listen to to the word of God is

being preached and and as as John is endeavoring to do making

disciples, love each other. Take care of each other the way

you're doing and I really believe you're poised for God to

do great things. I'm excited.

I'm excited by what I'm hearing, what I'm seeing.

If you if you're taking notes this morning I've just titled

this healing touch and Matthew 8 verse one.

When he came down from the mountain, the large crowds

followed him and then a leper came and worshipped him, saying,

Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean and I love verse

3. Jesus reached out his hand and

touched him, saying I will be clean and immediately his

leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, See that

you tell no one but go your way. Show yourself to the priest, and

offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to

them. Father, we honor you this

morning. We recognize your leadership,

your anointing. Lord, apart from you, we can do

nothing. But Lord, with you we can run

through a troop. We can leap over a wall.

Father, I ask that you would anoint and touch every person

here this morning to receive what you have in all your

goodness in Jesus name. Amen.

I can't overemphasize the fact that Jesus was willing to touch

the unclean, get a little emotional.

In August of 2017, one of my best friends was dying of bone

cancer. And I I'll tell you, I prayed

for people and they've died. I prayed for healing and he

died. So I'll get that out of the way

first. But I'm a retired police officer

from Hiraico County and he was my field training officer.

So if you know anything about your FTO, he's like, God, when

you're first starting, you know nothing.

He knows everything. And he was born and raised right

here in Middlesex County. His family owned a dock

business, Jesse Docks. They build Piers and stuff like

that. And and Jim was a little fella,

about 6 foot five, 260 lbs. So he was a man's man.

And I've seen him do things to people that I couldn't believe

you could do, but I didn't know you could literally rip somebody

out of a car seat that's buckled in and pulled them through the

window. Not a child, not a car seat, he.

Meant the yes, not a child. I'm talking about the driver.

Let me clarify. One of our friends at his at his

funeral gave the eulogy and he he.

I'll tell this quick story. He said Jim was on the left side

of the car talking to the guy and said you need to unbuckle

and step out of the car. And the guy didn't want to do it

because he knew he was going to jail.

And the other officer went on the other side and said you

really ought to unbuckle. He goes.

Why? He said, because it's going to

hurt a lot less anyway. Went to the hospital at MCV in

Richmond. There he lays in palliative

care. And I was just holding his hand,

touching him, loving on him. And he said, I'm glad you're

here. And he, he told me a year before

he said, if I die, I want you to preach my funeral, which I

didn't want to do. I said, well, you got a pastor,

He said, but he don't know me like you know me.

How do you tell your best friend you're not going to preach your

funeral? Right.

So obviously I did. But what he said to me really

disturbed me about a minister who came to pray with him.

He said he acted like he was afraid to touch me.

And where I'm going with that is we cannot be afraid to pray and

lay hands on people. He said it was like he thought

that my cancer was going to jump on him.

And let me tell you, if God has anointed you to pray and lay

hands on people, he's anointed to keep you from any any harm

effect. So the burning question today

continues. Does God heal?

Is it his will? Who does he heal?

Leprosy looked was looked at in the scriptures as God's

displeasure. You remember Miriam and and

Numbers, Chapter 12. Miriam and and Aaron had

Numbers 12 · chapter mention

murmured against Moses and it infuriated the Lord and he

struck her with leprosy. So if you had leprosy, you were

unclean and you literally had to walk through the street

declaring unclean, unclean, unclean humiliation afflicted.

Follow those that were afflicted with this disease.

Imagine walking through your daily walk and you've got this

disease and you're walking down the street and you see people

cross the street, so they don't have to confront you don't want

to, don't want to be associated with it.

But this is exactly the kind of people Jesus came for.

Amen. At the end of Matthew 7/28/29,

it says it came to pass. When he had ended these sayings,

the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them

as one having authority and not as the scribes.

This is following the what's known as the Sermon on the

Mouth. And they were astonished.

And if you got your Bible and you got a word you're not

familiar with or maybe you think you know what it means,

sometimes it's good to look it up anyway, right?

I looked up the word and it for. And Webster says for

astonishment, great surprise or wonder.

So this is, this is how this man was looking at at at Jesus.

And the crowds were looking at Jesus.

We're going to be, as I say, we're talking about healing.

This morning I have a friend of mine.

He was an evangelist from Virginia Beach.

He's now in heaven. He was in a service one time and

he had gone to the service because they had advertised it

healing service. And he went there and he had

gone to Dallas Theological Seminary and he went there to

take notes about everything they were wrong about regarding the

Bible and healing. And he was sitting about 3 rows

back. He's a pastor and he's writing

down everything the preacher's saying wrong, he said.

Until he turned around and said brother so and so I curse that

Gordon that's hanging on your neck.

He said that thing. I turned around, that thing fell

off and was gone. He just ripped up his notes.

His name was Dallas Clemons and he said something to me I'll

never forget with regarding miracles, he said.

A man with experience with God is never at the mercy of a man

with an argument. So we can argue with the word or

we can agree with the Word. It's up to us.

God gives us that choice. Now we all know people that have

been prayed for that maybe didn't get well.

We all know that. We all know people we pray for

to get saved that didn't get saved.

Am I right? Is that fair?

So I submit this morning, the problem is not with what God's

done. The problem is where we are and

what we're ready to receive. So today I want and I want to

endeavor to promote a spirit of expectation.

And I know you're growing. I can see it numerically,

obviously, but I also know that you let the miraculous start

happening at Salt Church and you're going to be out of this

building pretty quick. You won't.

You won't have enough room when people get healed because God

showed up. God is honored.

He's revered. So we want to follow the pattern

of this, Leper. And the first thing I want to

talk about this Leper be a follower of Jesus.

You're taking notes. This is .1.

It's a normal process for people to follow men who are operating

in the power of God. There's an attraction there.

God obviously cared about the needs of the people.

Psalm one O 7. Now I'm going to go back and

forth because I want you to see healing was part of the Old

Testament and healing is also part of the New Testament.

Psalm One O 719 through 20 says, then they cry unto the Lord in

their trouble, and he saved them from their distresses.

He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their

destruction. So there we have in the Old

Testament, and there's many more scriptures that we're going to

be talking about a few more. Where God wants to heal, He

healed Israel. He kept them in health.

In the 40 years they were in the desert, their clothes didn't

wear out. Now I've got a 12 year old and

it's like every time I look, his pant legs is getting higher and

higher and you know, it's got to buy new new pants or whatever.

So their clothes didn't wear out and they fit.

The shoes didn't wear out. God provides the second thing I

want you to see about this, and this is so key.

I believe be a worshipper of Jesus in verse 2.

The first thing I noticed is Jesus did not rebuke this man

for being a worshipper. The Jews that were around him

probably thought, who is this guy?

Think he is receiving worship so that the you may know the Son of

Man is to receive worship. He's worthy of our worship and I

would encourage you and I and I know it's a little awkward

watching a video and worshiping, but you know what?

Lose yourself. Lose yourself.

Lift your hands. Would have lifted hands.

A sign of. It's a sign of surrender.

Lord. I I give up.

This week I made a mess of this. I give up.

I'm trusting you. I'm leaning on you, Lord.

The word worship here is in the imperfect tense, which means

it's a past action. But this guy was continually

worship. I worship you, Lord.

I worship you, Lord. He's following Jesus.

He's following. I worship you.

I worship you. This man was not going to be

denied. And when you have, when you have

that kind of unction and you know this man is not like any

other man I've ever seen. This man teaches like nobody

I've ever heard. This man has power and

anointing. This is different.

Worship also gets our hearts and our minds off of our problem.

And it gets it on the answer it. When you worship God, you make

him bigger than your problem. When you worship God, you begin

to see things from his perspective instead of your own,

which are very narrowly focused. And there are going to be times

in your life that you're going to need to just understand this

is what I have to do. I've got to I don't care what's

going on. I don't care how I feel.

I'm going to worship God. Years ago I I went to AI

wouldn't call it a conference, but it was just like a meeting.

And we had a guy who's teaching us teaching preachers how to

preach. You know it's like trying to

teach a general how to be a leader, right.

So we all, we all know what we're doing.

We thought, but he said something interesting and I the

only that this is what I took away from that meeting.

He said worship is the anesthesia that prepares us for

the surgery of the Word. Think about that.

Worship is the anesthesia because sometimes the Word can

cut, but worship helps us understand.

This is for my good. It acts as a numbing agent

because what's getting cut away right now needs to leave so

God's best can come. Is he worshiped Jesus?

He said, If thou will, thou can make me clean.

He didn't doubt Jesus could do it.

He doubted if he had doubts about if it's his will.

And he presented that doubt to Jesus, if you will.

And it's just like today. I doubt you could go to any

church in this community and somebody would say God can't

heal. No one would say God can't heal.

They wouldn't dare say that. Well, you just never know what

God's will is. You do if you're reading this,

if you're meditating on the word.

Thirdly this morning, be a believer in Jesus.

This leper had confidence in Jesus.

Words. Hallelujah.

Jesus instructed him to fulfill God's will by fulfilling

Leviticus 14 verses 2 through 7 where there were he was required

Leviticus 14:2–7

to go back in front of the priest.

All for the all for a sacrifice for the he was clean and be

brought back into fellowship. I want to say also this morning

not all sickness is due to sin. John 9/1 through four says.

And as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his

birth and his disciples asked him, saying, Master who did sin,

this man or his parents that he was born blind.

Jesus answered, I love this answer.

Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works

of God should be made manifest in him.

Verse four I must work the works of him that sent me.

While it is day, the night cometh when no man can work.

Now I don't know, but that gets me excited because in John,

John 14:12

chapter 14, verses 12 and 13, Jesus says, I assure you that

whoever believes in me will do the works that I do.

They will do even greater works than these because I am going to

the Father. Hallelujah.

If that don't excite you, your exciter is broke.

Jesus said I came to do the works and then he said notice

the word works. Healing is part of the works of

God. So it's part of the plan of God

for people to be physically healed.

Does God still heal? Big question. 2019, I had

rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder.

Anybody had rotator cuff surgery?

It's fun. I had rotator cuff surgery to

repair torn rotator and and I'm I'm, I'm just sharing this to

talk about healing. Trust me.

I'll go down a rabbit hole and I'll bring you back out and

after after surgery you have to go to physical therapy.

If you've ever been to physical therapy, you know what I'm

talking about. And after about a month of

physical therapy, I still wasn't getting the rotation that I

should be getting the movement. So my doctor says, well, we we

need to do a manipulation on your shoulder.

And I'm like, what's that? He goes, well, I'll put you back

in the hospital, knock you out, and I literally just take your

arm and just move it around until we get the movement that

we feel like we need to get. Well, he did that.

The nerve block did not work. I woke up way too early and I'm

just being honest. I'm in church.

I probably, since I know I said some things I shouldn't have

said. But I was in severe pain and

another month went by, still didn't have it.

He goes, we got to have another manipulation.

So did the second one still, And then he goes, still not getting

the movement. We need to do another surgery.

I said I need a second opinion. Hallelujah.

So I went and had a second opinion done in Richmond and had

a doctor. He said you've got scar tissue,

it's binding your shoulder up. He went in arthroscopically and

cut it out and I had my movement so long story longer back in

2022 and I woke up and this shoulder starts hurting me.

It's like somebody has just stuck a ice pick down in it and

I'm like this is, this is a familiar pain.

And I said to my wife, I cannot go through that again And I

started praying and I had been working out so I had to stop

doing that because that aggravated it.

But I'll tell you, I trusted God and now I can move my arm.

I couldn't even do this. It hurts so bad.

So I know. I know from other people's

testimonies. I know from God healing me that

he still heals. Amen.

Jesus was dealing with scribes and those that read the word,

but they denied the power. Let's don't be that way in in

Matthew 9 and I'm not trying to steal your sermon in a few

weeks, but a man was presented to Jesus who was sick of the

palsy. And Jesus said, son, be a good

cheer your sins, be forgiving now.

Yes, spiritually. What's most important?

That you spend eternity in heaven with Jesus, right?

That is the first thing. Absolutely.

So then the scribes and Pharisees start complaining of

that. He's got to think he is

forgiving sins and I want you, I want you to understand this,

that Jesus ties physical healing in with salvation right here.

He said, is it easier to say son, your sins are forgiven or

to say arise and take your take up your bed and walk into your

own house? He said.

But so that you will know that the Son of man has power to

forgive. Son, get up, take up your bed

and let's go. So now we know that it is God's

will to heal. We know that it is part of

salvation. It's not spiritual healing.

This guy was sick with the palsy.

We've seen people who had palsy. We know what that is.

The challenge we have is to believe.

Amen, Jesus said in Mark 1122 through 26.

Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, that

who serves, say to this mountain, be removed, be thou

cast in the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall

believe everybody say, shall believe, that what he says will

happen, It shall be done unto him.

Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you desire, when

you pray, it's important to pray.

Believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

Now this is a part that sometimes gets forgotten.

And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought

against any. That's a word we don't use a

lot, but ought is basically one commentary I wrote, Read said.

The point is the petty way in which we as sinners assume we

have such a strong relationship with God that we often won't

forgive comparatively minor offenses that have been

committed against us. I've done that.

And you know, I never looked at that as a hindrance to maybe

getting healed. Somebody cut you off on II64.

That will cut you off on 33. Do they stay off I64?

It will test your faith. Romans 10/17.

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And this is an act of faith. It's not something you can hear

one time. It's something you hear and you

hear and you hear. How did you learn to talk when

you were a baby? You were blurting out stuff.

Oh, that's good, that's good. You know, Mom and daddy cheering

you on. And Saints, when you got new

believers, cheer them on, Encourage them in their faith.

They may say things that are absolutely ridiculous and you

may think, are they ever going to grow up?

They will, but we're not going to criticize.

We're going to bless him and say, OK, here's maybe another

way of thinking of this. Here's a way to do that, to

believe for this Isaiah 53, verse 3 through 5, speaking

Isaiah 53:3–5

prophetically of Jesus, he was despised and avoided by others.

A man who suffered who knew sickness well, like someone from

whom people hid their faces. He was despised, and we didn't

think about him. It was certainly our sicknesses

that He carried and our suffering that He bore.

But we thought him afflicted, struck down by God, and

tormented. He was pierced because of our

rebellions and crushed because of our crimes.

He bore the punishment that made us whole.

By his wounds we are healed. Hallelujah.

And then in the New Testament, Peter referring back to Isaiah

in chapter 2, verse 2320 through 24, who when he was reviled,

reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened

not. Can you imagine threatening the

God of the universe? What you what you going to do to

him? He's like, I can squash you like

a bug. He didn't, he didn't even he

didn't revile back. But he committed himself to him

that judges righteously who his own self bear our sins in his

own body on the tree. That we, being dead to sins,

should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.

There's a lot of people that will talk try to talk you out of

healing. There's a lot of ministers that

will try to talk you out of believing for healing.

But if you take healing out of the gospel, you've taken about

1/3 of it out. Because everywhere Jesus went he

was healing people. I heard a long time ago, healing

is the dinner bell that brings sinners in and people start

seeing individuals coming here and getting healed.

It's it's attractive, right? Is this better than being in any

hospital bed? You know, I don't care how fine

of a hospital is. It's not as good as being here.

Amen. John Bevere in his book called

The Awe of God, made a statement I want to read to you.

He says we have been given authority on earth to speak out

of our mouths, to establish God's will in the earth.

We said the Lord's Prayer, right?

Our Father guard in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.

So we're speaking God's will in the earth.

God will not force his way into our least earth.

This is what Bevere said. I'm.

I'm going to start over. We have been given authority on

earth to speak out of our mouths to establish God's will in the

earth. He will not force His way into

our least earth unless we ask for His will to be done.

He gave Adam authority and dominion.

Jesus restored our rights to be able to do that.

Now it's up to us to enforce His will, but He will not supersede

you if you don't ask. While Jesus was here on earth,

he offered prayers and pleadings with loud cries and tears to the

one who could rescue him from death.

And God heard his prayer. Note this because of his deep

reverence for God. Hebrews 5 seven And this

morning, as we are concluding, I want to say this to you.

We're going to be praying for you.

If you got any sickness, any sickness, we're going to ask you

to come up in just a few minutes and we're going to practice the

word of God. Amen.

Because it does you no good to walk out of here going, you

know, that was a decent sermon. Yeah, but we want it.

We want to apply it to our life. We want it to work in our life.

And plus we're commanded in James the 5th chapter, verses 14

through 16. If any of you are sick, they

should call for the elders of the church and the elders should

pray over them. Now as your church grows

numerically, I'm telling you if you get sick you need to call

your pastor and as God establishes elders to assist

him, you need to call the elders.

Don't get mad at your preacher if you're in the hospital and

you nobody ever called him and told him, that's a sidebar.

My dad was a preacher and that would frustrate him so much.

People go to the hospital and get mad because he didn't come

see him. I didn't know.

So let's be reasonable call for the elders of church.

They should pray over them anointing them with oil in the

name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith

will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health and

if they have sinned. Remember earlier we talked about

the connection. You can have anything you ask,

but if you're standing praying, forgive.

There's a there. James is alluding to that as

well. They will be forgiven.

And for this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray

for each other so that you may be healed.

Hallelujah. Bow your heads.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Father, we pray right now that your word has gone forward and

we know apart from you we can do nothing.

But with you, Lord, we have weapons that are not carnal, but

they're mighty through God to the pulling down strongholds,

allowing us to cast down any imagination that would hinder us

from receiving from you. It doesn't matter, Lord, what we

believed before. What matters is what we believe.

And we say now and that we continue to say, and we say,

Lord, you are good. You are a good God.

You are a good God. You're not willing that any

perish you're not in. You're not willing that any be

sick. There's.

Nothing. God cannot.

Do so, Lord, right now we just worship you.

There's nothing. God cannot.

Do we worship you, Lord? Like the leper?

Lord, we worship you. We praise you.

We thank you. Thank you, Lord.

For your word. Your word says You sent your

word and healed their diseases. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and

forget not always benefits. Who forgives our sins and heals

all our diseases, Lord, as the passage in your word says, Lord,

I believe, help my unbelief. Get me beyond myself.

Get me to the place of faith and trust.

Lord, we just thank you, and you hear the earnest please, of your

people. Let us be like Jesus, with loud,

with prayers and loud pleadings, and because of a deep reverence

for you. You hear us, but you're not just

a God who hears. You're a God who acts.