May 29th, 2022 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US AT 10 AM TODAY!
Transcription Notes:
Last week we stopped our normal services to respond to the targeted mass shooting in Buffalo NY…and here we are again with another shooting, this time at an elementary school (I’ll be less specific in my language since there are many children present) atrocities like this leave many of us:
saddened or angry,
Some to deep lament and prayer,
Some turn to rage
some are confused that more has not been done to engage these kinds of atrocities,
feeling at a loss for words
Look at the cycles of grief and you are probably somewhere on it
I’m feeling numb because it’s happened again and again
TRULY prayer is a biblical response to moments like these. Please pray:
for the families directly affected
for the responders
For ACTIONABLE CHANGE BUT…
DON’T JUST PRAY…this is a time for activation! I’m not even an aniti-gun person but SOMETHING IS OFF!! As a nation…
“Guns became the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2020, killing more people ages 1 to 19 in the U.S. than vehicle crashes, drug overdoses or cancer.”
We have FAR, FAR more gun-related deaths than any other country in the world
NOT ONLY THAT BUT…
In a national culture that has a disproportionate number of mass shootings compared to other western countries, christians are disproportionately known for being pro-gun!
…for a country built on war, and immersed in a culture that protects the ability to wield military grade weapons…
we need to spend time evaluating our relationship with these things
What we are KNOWN for in the public eye
possibly confronting our own idols and
Deciding how we engage our rights against the toll it takes on our children.
We might disagree on this (come talk to me) but I also think that we need more time to talk, process, lament, be angry, etc than we have the ability to engage on a Sunday Morning. So I want to invite you to come….
Let me read the scripture that we are teaching from:
1 Cor. 12: “4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of HEALING by that one Spirit, 10 to another MIRACULOUS POWERS…”
In case you forgot: SUMMARY!
So far, in this series, we covered:
An overview of the Holy Spirit which gives many gifts but unites us and the gifts through 1 Spirit
Gift of Knowledge/wisdom
Gift of Faith
Gift of Miracles and Healings
Two more weeks left to cover:
Gift of Prophecy and Discernment
Tongues and Interpretation
These last two are probably going to be the most controversial. If you’ve been neutral up to this point, you are likely, NOT neutral at this point.
That’s where we’ve been AND I want you to REMEMBER the “WHAT WHO and HOW”:
The “WHAT?” What are we covering in this series?
the gifts that are supernatural and tend to have the most questions marks around them.
That is not to say the other gifts aren’t as important but just need less explanation.
THE “WHO?” - Who is this for? I believe…
ALL of us CAN manifest ALL of these things BUT NOT everyone DOES…AND
SOME have a GIFT to do them in a special measure!
THE “HOW” - how do we practice these things? Three things:
First, the gifts NEVER contradict scripture
We want to put ourselves in a posture of “seeking to learn more but looking to scripture in order to understand the biblical parameters that are given to guide them.”
Immersed in Love, love LOVE!! Otherwise it’s useless
Second, we are OK with taking RISKS in order to learn know we might make mistakes.
So we want to be HUMBLE in our practice meaning
No “thus saith the Lord”
Though God is perfect we are fallible and can be wrong.
Third, we reject cessationism (that these gifts don’t exist today) but also reject the idea that these gifts are proof of our salvation.
One prayer since we tend to lean toward a modernistic dualism that separates spiritual and natural, which fosters skepticism in these areas, we are asking God to “Raise our expectations for what you might do in our congregation.”
THAT’S THE RECAP! TODAY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HEALINGS & MIRACLES!!
I haven’t witnessed a lot but I have ONE story to tell as we open up:
“It only rains when
it doesn’t matter.”
Maybe you have lots of miraculous stories and maybe you don’t but first I want to start with some definitions…
FIRST, Let’s talk about “HEALINGS”
Definitions:
1. NIV Application Bible
The “GiftS of healings” refer to supernatural cures of physical maladies. The word is plural suggesting either that the gift:
may come and go for various occasions or,
perhaps more likely, that there are different gifts for different kinds of illnesses.
2. Jewish New Testament
Nearly everyone is acquainted with inexplicable healings (doctors more than most people).
Some of these are from God, while others result from the ministry of those who have one or more of the “gifts” of healing.
To complicate matters, there are healings and miracles that are not from God but from other spirits, even from Satan (Verses),
Not as common in USA but “Shamens” and “Spiritualist healings” may actually work but are not from God.
SO, this is:
NOT the way in which doctors are able to learn and apply medical knowledge. This is amazing but not “miraculous” or “supernatural”
The GIFT of HEALING is something…
that ONLY God can do or
a healing that’s impossible if God does not intervene or get involved.
Where do we see it in the bible?
JESUS HEALS A LOT
…healing was one of the chief ministries of Yeshua the Messiah when he walked the earth, and he promised that we who believe in him would do “even greater works” (Yn 14:12).
PAUL and other disciples healed regularly in the New Testament. Let me give one instance from Acts (which ALSO touches on miracles):
Acts 5:12-16 The apostles performed MANY signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s SHADOW might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.
Thats just one example and God was even anointing their SHADOW!
If that’s not crazy enough. Acts 19:11-12 says this: God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even hand- kerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
I don’t get that but the Holy Spirit does what He wants!!
Maybe you’re thinking “I get all that but…where is HEALING NOW?!”
Two things I want to mention:
Movie series: Darren Wilson (Bethelish) with disclaimer!
Finger of God, Furious Love, Father of Lights,
Second: I know I said I don’t have a lot of stories but I have one from someone else…
Buddy Hoffman who was a pastor near Atlanta. You’ve heard me tell stories about him before but during his time as a pastor, he underwent a significant and sudden health issue (this is all in a documentary about him and the church movement that he catalyzed called “Grace: Rooted and Renegade”). He was having an issue and went to the hospital…
His vitals were SO low they believed he should be dead as he was talking to them.
It was something with his heart an aorta valves/heart aneurysm.
He underwent emergency surgery which lasted all day wherein the docs wanted to establish they expectations: “he won’t wake up for 1-2 weeks, maybe a month…and he may not wake up.
During the the surgery or soon into recovery, one interviewees says, “He was clinically was dead for over 40 minutes”
That night, Buddy’s wife snuck in some of the pastors he had discipled to pray over him as he was unconscious and while holding his foot:
“Save his life, heal him”
FOOT TWITCH and making noise. He is moving…is that normal? She flipped out!”
The nurse said, “Can you move your right foot?” and he awakened enough to move his right hand, right foot, left hand, left foot, and the nurse was just like, “This is crazy. This shouldn’t happen for days or weeks.”
The PRAYER was the catalyst!
Jody, his wife goes on to recount: “the next morning he wrote in the nurse’s hand, “REAL.” I (thought) he was saying that what we believe in and what we’ve been doing for 37 years now is real. But SHE didn’t know that and so she did the, “Yeah, it’s real, man. These drugs are great.” Buddy is lying there and he has this incubation tube in there, so he can’t say anything. He goes like, “No, that is wrong,” and he clicks his fingers and he wants her to bring the writing (utensil) back, and so he writes in there, “H-E-A-V-E-N,”...He writes heaven, that heaven is for real…”
This is an incredible story and a miraculous healing occurs if not, perhaps, a resurrection. I am POSITIVE this is not the only story in the room! So, I believe HEALINGS CAN and DO happen today…AND some are given a special gift of healing or endowed WITH THIS gift for temporary moment in order to accomplish something on behalf of God.
WHAT ABOUT “MIRACLES”
Definitions: The working of miracles.
1. NIV Application Bible
“Miraculous powers” include additional kinds of miracles, such as the apostles and other early Christians were enabled to perform, including, most notably, exorcisms.
2. Jewish New Testament
“...the concept here seems to refer to “unusual” miracles, not “usual” ones. Spectacular miracles are reported more frequently in areas where the Gospel is relatively new.
For example, in the 1960’s reports came out of parts of Indonesia reached recently by the Gospel that water had been turned to wine and even that dead people had been raised to life.”
SO, this is:
NOT the casual way in which we throw it around when something out of the ordinary happens saying “it’s a miracle.”
Your team making a comeback and winning!
AND this is NOT a technological advances that make things possible that were once impossible like flight, video chat, self driving cars or anything else that used to exist in Science Fiction!
IT IS, again, only something that God has the ability to accomplish or takes place in an unlikely but timely fashion!
Where is it n the Bible??
JESUS: turned water into wine, fed thousands by multiplying food, controlled nature by calming the sea and storms…
PAUL: Miraculously survived beatings, shipwrecks, and snakebites, responsible for at least one resurrection. Freed from prison by an earthquake
Peter is also supernaturally released from jail
There were “CLUSTERS of MIRACLES” when it says many “signs and wonders” were performed.
TODAY:
“Holy Ghost” Series
I told you about they rain stopping personally
If exorcism or DELIVERANCE falls into this category, then I’ve participated in that.
Recently, a man who could not read the bible was freed from a demon and can now read the bible!!
Maybe you have stories that would tell as well!
So, THREE things I want us to remember to add in the practicing of these gifts:
FIRST, God gives the gift of healings and miracles to show his power, as intervention according to His will, to bring people into salvation, and to love his children.
BUT these gifts are NOT for self-exaltation but for the purpose of LOVING others pointing people towards God!
SECOND, We are right to seek and desire these gifts which include signs and wonders...
BUT we are not entitled to them
AND we should beware the temptation to seek them for our own desire to be wowed, to be at the center of attention, or have an experiences that gives us goose bumps and warm fuzzies.
Shown through the emphasis: “I healed or I did ____” VS “Brenda got healed” OR “God healed so-and-so”
THIRD, false prophets will also display miraculous signs and wonders and will lead people astray, Jesus and Paul both tell us this (verses)!
Matthew 24:24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
LAST THING TODAY, “what if you DON’T get healed and what if you DON’T get the miracle?”
The New Testament does not teach that God will heal every illness, but it does teach that he will supernaturally heal some.
I want to acknowledge that this question is OFTEN tied to a lot of pain, right? Not always but often and this room is full of people who are in different seasons of life.
So you may have prayed earnestly for something and it didn’t happen.
Prayers of healing and a miracle remind you of a significant loss.
Maybe you’re asking out of skepticism or simply “I’ve just never seen one.”
SO, I’m asking you to separate out a Shepherding Response from a Theological position. I’ve heard one theologian mention that theological positions are best when we learn them BEFORE a significant loss, struggle, battle, etc so that you have have strong materials to build a solid foundation because hearing it in the struggle it just feels like a weapon being weilded to hit you over the head with.
It seems that, yes, our FAITH is involved (Jesus COULDN’T do miracles at one point because the town had a lack of faith) but faith is not the ONLY thing to consider.
God has a greater plan being enacted with an endgoal of bringing about His Greatest Glory and bringing the most people to Himself and “his ways are not our ways and thoughts not our thoughts”.
So, Paul healed miraculously AND had an ailment by which he begged God to remove and God said no. Why?
God was using it to do something in Paul.
BUT HE PROMISES to “Heal here or heal in the New Heaven’s and New Earth” where there will be no pain, no tears, no sorrow as God intended when He built the world.
Even our prayers for healing today is a calling forth of that future Kingdom to be present now in someones body.
Now, we opened up by telling you I don’t have a lot of stories and I also want to confess that that’s not okay…It’s relatable which is why we started there and because we maybe
Do need to bolster our faith to see them happen
Do have barriers of natural provisions and so many things we can turn to OTHER THAN GOD
So, I think the lack of stories in the area of healings and miracles is a witness against me and, perhaps many others in here, that we need to pray BIGGER prayers, step out in faith a little MORE, and ask for God to do things that we cannot accomplish without him!!
AND, ultimately, there are people who are supernaturally gifted to perform BOTH healings and miracles and either they are being hindered or their stories aren’t being heard, and they are, as a result, not able to instill faith and encourage us to see this powerful work of God in our lives!
So, encourage us! Tell the stories you’ve seen of healings and miracles!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
“Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.