Rick Warren - A Faith That Can Heal Illnesses

Hi everybody, I'm Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, author

of The Purpose Driven Life and teacher of the Daily

Hope broadcast. Welcome back to our series through the book

of James. And we're calling it A Faith That Works

When Life Doesn't, Principles for Living Through a Pandemic. Now

we're coming down to our last couple of studies as

we finish up chapter five of the book of James.

And we're gonna be studying the same passage of scripture

that we did last time, but we're gonna look at

it from a different angle. I told you in our

last time together that the Greek word astaneo, which is

the big word used in this text, is translated in

the Bible as weakness about half the time, and it's

translated as illness or sickness the other half the time.

So it's used both ways. It can mean weakness or

it can mean illness. So in our last time together,

we looked at a faith that can transform your weaknesses.

And if you missed that session, I hope you can

watch it online at either Saddleback.com or PastorRick.com. A faith

that helps us transform our weaknesses. But today, we're gonna

look at what James says about a faith that can

heal illnesses. A faith that can heal illnesses. I wanna

begin by pointing out that physical healing was a major

part of Jesus' ministry. Matthew chapter four, verse 23 tells

us this. Jesus went everywhere teaching, preaching, and healing people.

who had all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. Now, Jesus

was a teacher, he was a preacher, and he was

a healer. He didn't just care about saving souls. He

also cared about educating minds. He was a teacher. And

he also cared about healing bodies. He was a healer.

You would be accurate in saying that one third, one

third of Jesus' ministry was healthcare. That's why Christianity, our faith,

is a preaching, teaching, and healing faith, because Jesus went

everywhere doing those three things. And as Christians, we build schools,

and we build hospitals, not just churches. And here at

Saddleback Church, we follow Jesus' model of preaching, teaching, and healing.

You know, in the past 2,000 years, Christians have started

more schools and started more hospitals than anybody else, by far,

doesn't even come close. In fact, you may not realize this,

it was the church that invented the hospital. It was

during the Antonian plague in the second century in the

Roman Empire. And later they improved that idea. The Christians

went into the city showing hospitality and they started a

new thing called the hospital. And later in the third

century where there was a Cyprian plague, they improved on

that idea of the hospital. So healing is a major

part of our faith. Now, Before we look at what

the Bible says about a faith that can heal illnesses,

I want to quickly point out three mistaken views about

divine healing, okay? Three false views, errors, misconceptions, myths. These

are common errors about healing that simply aren't true, but

you hear them all the time. So as your pastor,

I just want to call attention to them. The fact is,

is that all healing, all healing of any kind comes

from our creator, God. Now, God may use a doctor's hands,

he may use medicine, he may use a miracle, or

he may use something else, but God is always the

source of all healing. He is a healing God. So

let me just give you these first three common errors

or myths about divine healing. Error number one, here it is.

I can buy my healing by giving. I can buy

my healing. I can purchase it by giving. Friends, that

simply isn't true. You can't buy your healing. You can't

bribe God to do a miracle in your life by

giving an offering. You can't bargain with God either. Everything

God does in your life, he does by his own

free grace. We don't deserve anything. We don't earn it.

We don't work for it. And God can't be bought.

You know, it's interesting to me. that about 500 years ago,

there were some Christians who started selling what was then

called indulgences. They sold these things called indulgences. They were

like tickets to heaven in order to fund a church

building project in Rome. And there were some unscrupulous people

started telling the peasants that they could buy their way

into heaven, that they could purchase their salvation. These were

called indulgences. And if you gave an offering, or giving

an offering to the building fund, then you could purchase

your salvation to heaven. That error is what incensed people

and caused the Reformation 500 years ago. Now, today, 500

years later, nobody's trying to sell you tickets to heaven.

Nobody's claiming that you can buy your salvation by giving.

But all you have to do is turn on a

Christian TV channel to find that people are selling indulgences

500 years later, only today they're not for salvation, they're

for healing. And the pitch goes like this, if you

turn on the TV, if you'll just send me a

certain amount of money, I will send you a prayer

cloth or some special oil from the Holy Land or

some holy water or some other little trinket that will

bring physical healing to your life. Of course, it's bogus.

And it's the same principle as an indulgence 500 years ago.

Only it's not about salvation, it's about healing. You can't

buy your healing. But by the way, that's not a

new problem. It happened even in the Bible times. Let

me show you in Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight

verses nine down to about verse 22 gives us an

example of a guy, a magician whose name was Simon.

Let me read you that, Acts chapter eight. There was

a man named Simon who used magic tricks for many

years to pose as a miracle worker. He amazed everybody

and he claimed supernatural powers. He had a large following

and people called him the great power. But when Philip,

that's one of the apostles, preached Jesus in his town,

Simon himself believed and he was later baptized. So this magician,

this con man became a Christian. Then it says later on,

when Simon saw the Holy Spirit healing people through the

prayers and the hands of Jesus' apostles, He offered them,

that's the apostles, he offered them money to buy this power.

But Peter said, you and your money will end up

in hell if you think God's gift can be bought.

Your heart is not right before God. Turn from this

wicked attitude and pray and ask God to forgive you

for trying to use God to make money. Hmm, I

think there's some people who need to pray that last

line today. Ask God to forgive you for trying to

use God to make money. Evidently, pretty quickly, people started

figuring out that they could make money in a religious racket,

but they weren't the real deal. And that's why Paul

says in 2 Corinthians 2, 17, unlike so many others,

we do not peddle the word of God for profit. Okay?

He says, unlike many, we don't peddle the word of

God for profit. You know that I don't take any money.

I've served Saddleback for free now for 40 years as

the pastor. I don't take a salary from our church.

I don't peddle the word of God for profit. On

the contrary, Paul says, in Christ, we speak before God

with sincerity. Now, you may be wondering, these people, Rick,

that are on TV doing this stuff, are they truly believers?

Or are they just fakes and phonies and con men? Well,

I'll tell you what, that's for God to judge. But

here's what Jesus had to say. In Matthew chapter seven,

verse 22, Jesus said, on judgment day, on judgment day,

many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not

prophesy in your name? And did we not drive out

demons in your name? And did we not perform many

miracles in your name? And then I will say to them, no,

I never knew you. And you've never been mine. Go

away from me. Your word was evil. So not everybody

who claims to be doing miracles in the name of

God Jesus said, actually knows God or knows Jesus. So

you need to be careful about that. You can't buy

a miracle. You can't buy a healing. Here's a second

misconception or myth or error about divine healing that you

hear a lot of this day. And here it's this one,

error number two. People will say, it's never God's will

for me to be sick. It's never God's will for

me to be sick. That sounds good. And the people

who teach this sincerely believe that God always wants you

to be well. They believe that illness is never God's

will for your life. And that if you do get sick,

it's because you lack faith or you have sinned. And

these teachers are often called health and wealth gospel teachers.

And if you're sick, they say it's your own fault.

You just need more faith. And if you've gotten ill,

you just didn't have enough faith. And they act like

earth should be perfect like heaven. But there's a big

problem with this second view too. And it's the Bible

teaches the exact opposite. In fact, the Bible teaches us

that problems and pain and suffering, and yes, even illnesses

are a part of God's discipling process for building our Christendom.

character in bringing us to full maturity. You know, God

did not exempt his own son, Jesus, from sorrow or suffering.

Jesus' sorrow had sorrow. Jesus had suffering. Jesus had sickness.

Jesus had pain. Jesus had even torture and death. So

why would God exempt us if he didn't exempt his

own son. Let me show you some scriptures that you

can use when somebody says, well, you just don't have

enough faith, if that's why you're sick, or you've sinned,

that's why you're sick. Let me just show you some verses.

First Peter 4.19 says this. Those who suffer according to

the will of God, according to God's will, should commit

themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good.

That's 1 Peter. Did you notice the phrase, those who

suffer according to God's will? Sometimes you get sick and

it's God's will. Yeah, it's not your fault. It's just

part of living on a broken planet where nothing works right.

People are getting COVID-19 right now. They didn't do anything wrong.

They just got it. Some of the greatest Christian saints

of history lived their entire lives with chronic illness. I mean,

chronic illness. chronic pain, and they were never relieved of it.

And God used that chronic pain in their lives and

that perpetual illness to draw them close to him and

actually make them great saints. You know, last week we

talked about Paul's ailment, which he called a thorn in

my flesh, he called it. Some kind of, we don't

know what it was, some kind of bodily infirmity, a weakness,

an illness. And three times he asked God to take

it away and God didn't. And he said, instead, I'm

gonna leave it and I'm gonna give you the grace

to handle it. You remember that when we started this

book of James, the very first thing he said was this.

Don't be surprised when you have troubles and trials and pain.

Don't be shocked by it. So, of course, it's not

always God's will that you're perfect in health. Things are

going to go wrong in your life. You're going to

have trials and troubles and tribulations. In fact, Jesus said

in John 16, 33, in the world you will be.

have trouble. So there's no way you're going to go

through life free of illness. Let me show you three

things that Paul said in the Bible about this second error,

that it's always God's will for me to be well.

Philippians 1.29, for you have been given not only the

privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of

suffering for him. That's part of the privilege of being

a Christian. Colossians 1.24, Paul says, There are things that

Christ still suffers through his body, the church. And Paul says,

I am accepting in my body my part of these

things that must be suffered. I am accepting in my

body the part of these things that still must be suffered.

He said the church, which is the body of Christ,

still has sufferings. And you're part of the body of Christ,

so there's gonna be sufferings in your body too. 1

Thessalonians 3.3, Paul says, We want no one to be unsettled.

In other words, are blown away by these trials. You

now know quite well that we were destined for them. Whoa,

1 Thessalonians 3, 3. We were destined to actually have

some pain in our lives. You know, all sunshine and

no rain makes a desert as the old saying goes. Now,

there's a third error about divine healing that you need

to know That's not true before we can look at

the text. And here's the third error or myth. Some

Christians who say that miracles ended with the completion of

the Bible, okay? Some well-meaning Christians believe that there are

no more miracles today, that all the miracles you see

in the Bible, that when Jesus was resurrected and he

went back to heaven, they believe that all the miracles

he did to prove he was the son of God

We're no longer necessary, okay? Well, I get your point. Obviously,

Jesus went back to heaven. He proved he was the

son of God through the resurrection. But in order to

believe that view that there are no more miracles happening,

then you have to, number one, ignore a whole lot

of commands that Jesus gave us regarding asking in prayer

for miracles. And two, you have to explain away a

number of promises that Jesus made. And then number three,

you have to explain away the billions of miracles that

have happened in the last 2,000 years. Jesus, his desire

to heal people has not changed one bit. Hebrews 13.8

says this, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today

and forever. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today

and forever. The same preacher, teacher, healer of 2,000 years

ago wants to preach and teach and heal today through

his body today. And who is his body today? You

and me, the body of Christ. Even today, Jesus is

still our teacher. He's still our savior. And he's still

our healer. And he's our redeemer. And with that settled,

those three things, I just wanted to get those out

of the way. We can now look at James chapter five.

And this will go quick, but it's a faith that

can heal illnesses. James chapter five, verses 13 to 18

says this. James 5, starting with verse 13. Are you hurting?

Then you should pray. Are you happy? Then you should

sing songs of praise. Are you sick? Then you should

call the church elders to pray over you and anoint

you with oil in the name of the Lord. And

the prayer that is offered in faith will heal the

sick person and the Lord will raise him up. And

if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven. Therefore, confess your faults

to each other and pray for each other that you

may be healed. The earnest prayer of a believing person

is powerful and effective. For example, Elijah was a human

being just like us. Yet when he prayed earnestly that

no rain would fall, there was no rain for three

and a half years. And then he prayed that it

would rain and it poured down and everything began to

grow again. Now we read that passage last week, but

we're coming back to look at it from the angle

of illnesses, not weaknesses. You know, I really love that

last phrase where it says after Elijah prayed and everything

began to grow again. Friends, that's a verse of hope.

That's a verse of hope that we all need in

this season of the COVID-19 global pandemic. I'm praying for

everything to start growing in your life again. So many

people need healing today. Not just those who are sick physically.

Some of them are sick from the pandemic and others

are sick from other kinds of illnesses. But there's so

many people needing healing today. Not just physical healing, but

economic healing, financial healing. The economy is sick. Our culture

is sick. Our nations are sick. And we need healing

in so many, many areas. That's why this is an

important message today. I want you to notice that in

that passage I just read, James 5, in just six verses,

James mentions prayer seven times. If you're taking notes, go

back and circle the word pray or prayer seven times

in six verses. He didn't want you to miss the point.

Here it is. Healing comes through prayer. Not through healers,

healing comes through prayer. When someone prays for you, there

is the healing there. So what I wanna do in

just the last few minutes is simply ask four questions.

When should I pray for healing? Number two, why aren't

people healed every time we pray? Number three, who can

pray for healing? And finally, how do I pray for

healing for myself and for other people. It's a very

important message. So I would encourage you to take notes

on it. Number one, and you can download it on

the websites. Number one, when should I pray for healing? Well,

in that passage I just read, James mentions four specific

times to pray for healing. And we find these four

circumstances in the four different words and phrases he uses. First,

he says, are you hurting? Remember last week I told

you that Greek word is kakapatheo. Kakapatheo means you're having trouble.

You're having a tough time. You're suffering, hurting. You're hurting.

And then he says, are you sick? That's astaneo, which

means I feel weak or I feel sick or I

feel ill. It could be weakness or illness. Then he

says the sick person. That's the Greek word kama, which

means I'm weary. I'm worn out. I feel like giving up.

I'm tired. I'm drained. That's the word comno. And then

he says, and Elijah prayed and it didn't rain for

three and a half years. And so he prayed for

rain and it sent a gully washer and no rain

for three and a half years. and a half years.

He's talking about a drought, a dry spell. Some of

you right now are going through a dry spell in

your life because of this pandemic. Everything's been shut down

in your life. You're going through a spiritual dry spell

or physical dry spell or an emotional dry spell. Things

have dried up in your life. So based on those

four things he just said in that passage, here's the

answer to the first question. Okay, write this down. When

should I pray for healing? Four things. Anytime I'm hurting, sick, tired,

or empty. That's it. Anytime I'm hurting, I should pray

for healing. Anytime I'm sick, I should pray for healing.

Anytime I'm tired, I should pray for healing. And anytime

I feel empty, I should pray for healing. Now, I

know some of you are thinking, Rick, those four words

describe the totality of my life right now. I'm sick

and tired and empty and hurting. Well, then this is

the time to pray for healing in your life and

have other people pray for healing in your life. Next question,

question number two. Why aren't people healed every time? Well,

the answer is pretty simple. We simply don't know God's will.

God's not gonna give you something against his will. because

God always wants what's best for you. You don't always

know what's best for you. You know, I could pray

for things that really wouldn't be good for me, but

I don't know God's will. And God uses illnesses in

many ways. So when we pray for healing, we're asking

God for healing because all we know is, all we

can see is our side. And God says, just pray

what you ask for, pray what you desire, pray the

desires of your heart. But then we trust God that

if it's not his will because he knows something else,

he's not gonna answer with a yes on that. God

answers every prayer. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes wait, sometimes

you gotta be kidding. We don't have time to list

all the ways that God uses illness and sickness in

our lives. But let me just mention three. Why does

God sometimes allow sickness in my life? Three reasons. Number one,

to get my attention and to redirect me, to get

my attention and redirect me. Sometimes God has to lay

you flat on your back in order to get you

to look up to God. He makes me lie down

in green pastures. Psalm 119 verse 71 says this. It

Psalms 119:71

was good for me to be afflicted. That's sick. It

was good for me to be afflicted so that I

might learn your decrees. Sometimes God uses illness to just

get my attention and head me in a different direction.

Another good verse is Proverbs 20, verse 30. Look at

Proverbs 20:30

this verse. Proverbs 20, verse 30, today's English version. Sometimes

Proverbs 20:30

it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.

Anybody wanna give a testimony on that one? You could

all give a story in your small group on how

sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change

our ways. Now, this first reason is what the Bible

calls a sickness for discipline or a sickness for training.

The old English word is a sickness under chastisement. But

this is sometimes God allows a sickness to redirect us,

get our attention, redirect us. Second reason, sometimes God allows

a sickness to be a testimony for others. Did you

know that? He knows he can trust you. with an illness,

and he knows that you'll be a good example to

other people, particularly unbelievers. Paul says in Philippians chapter one,

verse 12, I want you to know, my dear brothers

and sisters, that what has happened to me has helped

spread the good news. Where is Paul? He's sick and

in prison in Rome when he writes that. He's sick

and in prison, and he's in a lonely, damp, dank, dark, cold,

prison dungeon. And he says, I want you to know

that what's happened has helped spread the good news. I

could spend a whole message on this, but I'll just

say it like this. After walking with God for six decades,

I've been a Christian now 60 years. I have come

to the conclusion that maybe the greatest witness you will

ever have in front of unbelievers and other people who

don't know Jesus yet is your example of the way

you handle pain. I found that to be true in

my own life. That in the moments of pain in

my life, God was using that as a witness to

my neighbors and to the world. Christians aren't exempt from problems.

We have the same ones everybody else does. We just

have our relationship to Christ to strengthen us and comfort

us and encourage us and give us hope and wisdom.

And sometimes God lets you be ill because he can

trust you to be an example of patience and godliness

to others. And the Bible calls this kind of sickness,

a sickness to the glory of God. A sickness unto

the glory of God. Jesus talks about it. When Jesus

went to heal Lazarus, who had died, that was a

deadly illness. Jesus announced, this sickness, this is John 11,

chapter 11, verse four. This sickness will not end in death.

It is an illness. for the glory of God, to

bring glory to the Son of God. Did you know

that there have been illnesses in your life that God

wanted to use to bring glory to himself? Now, if

you're griping and complaining and being bitter the whole time,

there's no glory going to God on that. But when

you respond to pressure and pain in a positive way,

it brings glory to God. So there's a sickness for

discipline and training. There's a sickness for for bringing glory

to God. But sometimes God just allows a sickness, number three,

to take us into eternity, to take us in. This

is called, the Bible calls this a sickness unto death.

And he said about Lazarus, that's not a sickness unto death.

It's the second kind. A sickness unto death, if you

could be healed by every illness just by having enough faith,

then if you had enough faith, you'd never die. And

you'd end up living on this earth forever because anybody

had a lot of faith, would just never, never die.

And that certainly isn't God's will. Hebrews chapter nine, verse

27 says this, God has already appointed a time that

each of us will die. Did you know that? It's

one appointment you're not gonna be late for. God has

already appointed a time that each of us will die

and then our lives will be judged by God. So

one of the reasons God allows illness is sometimes he

wants to take you home, okay? He wants to take

you to heaven Your time on earth is done. And

if you could be healed by everything, then you'd never die.

So what I'm saying is we pray for healing, trusting

for God's will to be done. As Jesus prayed in

the Garden of Gethsemane, Father, if it's possible, and he says,

I know it's possible, take this cup from me. Don't

let me go through this pain. Nevertheless, thy will be done,

not mine. And that's what we do when we pray. God,

it's my desire that you heal me. It's my desire

that you heal my son, my wife, my brother, my sister,

my friend. Nevertheless, thy will be done. 1 John 5,

14 says this. This is the confidence that we have

in approaching God. That if we ask anything according to

his will, underline that, anything according to his will, he

will hear us. All right? So, We've looked at when

we can pray for healing, four different times. We've looked

at what happens, why some people don't get healed, why

every prayer isn't answered with a yes. Number three, who?

Who can pray for healing? Do you have to be

the Pope or pastor or missionary or somebody super holy?

Who could pray for healing? Write this down. Any child

of God can pray for healing. Any child of God

can pray for healing. You can come to your heavenly

father and say, daddy, I'm sick. I need your healing.

This is what James 5 verses 16 and 17 says.

James 5:16

Let me read it again to you. The earnest prayer

of a believing person is powerful and effective. Now let

me stop there. The earnest prayer of a believing person

doesn't say you have to be a super saint. You

just have to be a believing person and you have

to be earnest. The earnest prayer of a believing person

is powerful and effective. For example, he says, Elijah was

a human being just like us. Yet when he prayed earnestly,

and you know the rest of the story, all those

miracles happened. Elijah's life was filled with one miracle after another.

But the most comforting thing about that verse is this,

Elijah was just like us. He's just like you. He's

just like me. He wasn't some super saint. God used

him because he dared to pray for miracles. He dared

to pray for healing. He didn't have to be somebody special.

He said he was just like us. That means he

had the same temptations. He had the same weaknesses. He

had the same sins, same faults. If God only heard

the prayers of perfect people, nobody's prayers would ever be heard.

God hears the prayers of sinners, of failures, of all

of us who are imperfect. You know, earlier in this text,

James says, you can call the elders of your church

to pray for you, and anoint you with oil. And

of course, we do that at Saddleback Church. We do

it all the time. And we've talked about this many times.

But in our church, we've only got about a dozen elders,

and we've got about 30,000 members. So we can't keep

up with everybody. Now, what's he talking about there where

he says, while you pray, anoint with oil? Well, we've

talked about this before. Oil is simply a symbol of

the Holy Spirit. That's all it is. Just like water

and baptism. is a symbol of your death and burial

and resurrection in Christ. Just like water and baptism, oil

and praying for healing. It's just a symbol of your

faith and trust. There is no healing power in any

kind of oil. So don't go writing off for some

kind of special oil. You know, you could use Crisco

or whatever. It's just oil. Just like the water in

a baptistry is just normal water. But it's a symbol

of your faith. That's what matters. A symbol of your trust. Now,

You don't have to be an elder to pray for

other people. There are many, many, many other scriptures in

the New Testament. Talk about praying for each other, praying

for healing for each other. And we even anoint each

other in the name of the Lord. You know, I

talked to our elders last week, knowing that I was

gonna be teaching on this, about planning a drive-through anointing

service during COVID-19. So you look forward to that. I'm

hoping we can do that at every campus. Drive-through anointing service.

So stay tuned. But in the meantime, as your pastor,

I authorize all of you in your small groups to

pray for each other, to pray for healing for each other,

and to anoint each other in the name of the Lord. Why?

Because Jesus said this in John 14, verses 12 to 14.

John 14:12–14

Jesus said, I tell you the truth. Anyone who has

faith in me will do what I've been doing. What

was he doing? He was just, the verse right before that,

he's talking about the miracles that he'd done, all the

miracles he'd done. And he says, then he turns to

his disciples after talking about the miracles, and he says,

I tell you the truth, anybody who has faith in

me will do what I've been doing. He will even

do greater miracles than these because I'm going to the Father.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name.

Here's prayer. I'll do whatever you ask in my name

so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. Wow. Now,

I don't see many of us doing greater works than

Jesus Christ. How in the world are we going to

do greater works than Jesus? Well, I'll tell you how.

Because when Jesus was here in his physical body, he

could only be in one place at one time. So

he could only heal one person here and then one

person there. He couldn't be in China and in Europe

and in Africa at the same time. But now, the

body of Christ is spread all around the world. We

are the body of Christ. And 2.3 billion people can

pray for healing for people at the same time in

every continent and every country and every city and every

state and every province. So that's how we do the

greater works together. Together. We're not limited to one body.

The body of Christ is now spread out all around

the world. Finally, Let's look at real simply, how do

I pray for healing? How do I pray for healing

for myself? And for that matter, how do I pray

for healing for others? Did you know that God wants

to make you to be a healing agent? Yeah, you,

normal you. You don't have to be an elder. God

wants to use you to pray for healing in people's lives.

It's not that complicated. Just three things James teaches us.

Number one, make sure my heart is clean from sin. Okay,

that's the starting point. I can't be holding on to

unconfessed sin and then go out and pray for either

myself or for somebody else at the same time. That's

why in verse 16, he says this, confess your faults

to each other and pray for each other that you

may be healed. Said it last week, I've said it

thousands of times, revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing.

Confess your faults to each other. Clean out your life.

Take out the garbage. Confess your sins. Get them out.

Get rid of them. Now, you're never gonna be perfect.

You've heard me say before, you will never be sinless.

But it is possible to sin less. You're never gonna

be sinless, but you can sin less. And you can

confess and be cleaned out inside, revealing your feeling. Confess

your faults to each other. Pray for each other that

you may be healed. That's step one. Step two, be

specific when I ask. Be specific when I ask. Too

many people are afraid to put God in a box.

And so they won't even ask specifically for healing. They'll say, Lord,

be with this sick person and show them your love

and help them to know you're with them. And that's

all fine and good. But over 20 times in the

New Testament, we are commanded to ask. Ask, seek, knock.

If you ask anything in my name, I'll do it.

And you need to be specific. James says in chapter four,

verse two, you don't have because you don't ask. And

I have been with many, many people that say, pray

for me, I'm sick. And I say, Lord, we just

ask you to be with them and bless them. What's

a blessing? If a blessing hits you in the face,

how would you know that it hit you? I mean,

sometimes a blessing is an illness. If you don't know that,

is that what you're really praying? So be specific. You

don't have, because you don't, and I often say like this, God,

you've told us many times in your word to ask,

and you've told us to pray for healing, so I'm

just obeying you. I'm asking for you to heal this person.

Just heal him, okay? It's up to you. I can't

control it. I don't have any power in me, but

you've told us to ask. I'm asking you to heal him.

I'm doing what you say to do. Keep your promise.

Keep your word. Heal him. Be specific when you ask.

And number three, it's real simple. Ask in faith. Ask

in faith. That's the third thing James says to do.

James chapter one, verse six. When you ask, you must

believe and not doubt. For the double-minded man is unstable

in all of his ways. So if you don't think

God's gonna heal, if you don't believe, don't even ask.

Because you're just wasting your breath. But he says, when

you ask, you must believe and not doubt. Why? Because

God has his promises in his word. I'm trusting God

for his will to be done, but I'm gonna do

what God says to do. And I said, God, you've

told us to pray. You've told us to ask. You've

told us to pray for healing. I'm praying for healing.

I'm asking. Now keep your word. And then you just

leave it up to God. I wanna close right now

by praying for you. But in order for this to

be effective, I would like for you to think of

an area that you need healing in your life. And

so you can be specific about it. Now, I don't

have to know it. God knows it and you know it.

It doesn't matter to me. I don't have to know

it to pray for you. But think about something, an area.

Do you need a relationship that needs to be healed?

Do you have a physical ailment that needs to be healed?

Do you have a mental illness that needs to be healed? Well,

we're gonna ask. We're gonna pray right now. We're going

to trust God in his word. We're gonna leave the

results to him, but we're gonna do what God says

to do. And if he says to do it, then

we have to obey him and do it. So I

want you to think of something in your life where

you need healing, financial healing, or maybe from depression. or

from worry, from anxiety, or maybe you need a job.

Maybe you're out of work. Whatever it is, I want

you to think about that. I'm going to give you

about 10 seconds here to think about it, and then

I'm going to close in prayer. All right, let's bow

our heads. So just think of what you want to

ask God to be healed of. And it won't hurt

for you to share it with your small group and

ask them to heal. I pray for your healing too.

That's powerful. But I'm gonna pray for you and you

pray for you and then you can get other people

to do that too. Lord, I don't know all of

the hundreds, even thousands of issues that are gonna be

brought before you right now. You're not too busy. Your

circuits don't get overloaded. You can handle billions, billions of

requests At the same time. And so as each of

us come to you. In our point of need. Where

we need maybe a healing from bitterness. there are people here, Lord,

who need healing in their bodies, in their organs, in

their muscles, in their backs, in their brains, in their bones,

in their digestive system. There are people who need physical

healing right now. We're just doing what you say. You've

told us to ask. You've told us to believe, you've

told us to trust. So we're asking you to keep

your word right now. And we come to you, not

in doubt, but in confidence that if we ask anything

according to your will, it will be done. We say

like Jesus, Lord, this is what we want. Nevertheless, thy

will be done, not ours. But that's not a lack

of faith. Our faith is in you. We want your

will in our lives. And if that happens to be

this healing, so be it. May we not stand in

the way of the gift you want to give. Lord,

there are people here who've never opened their lives to

Jesus Christ. They've never received healing for all of their sins,

for all of the guilt, the bad things in their lives.

May they right now receive your salvation. If you've never

asked him to do that, say, Jesus Christ, save me.

Forgive all my sins. Accept me into your family. Make

me a new person. I want to be your child.

I want to be in your family. I want to

learn to know you. Just say that. Say, Jesus, I

want to believe in you today and I want to

trust you and I'm asking you to save me. Father,

whatever the needs are as the pastor, a shepherd of

this flock, I'm asking you to hear these prayers. And

I pray that whether the glory comes through us seeing

a miracle or whether the glory comes through us being

a witness of the right attitude, that either way you

will get glory. We pray this in your name. Amen.