Oct. 23, 2005

Pentecost 23

Matthew 22:34-46 (NLT)

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. ³⁵One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ³⁶"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

³⁷Jesus replied, " 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

⁴¹Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question: ⁴²"What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?"

They replied, "He is the son of David."

⁴³Jesus responded, "Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, call him Lord? For David said,

⁴⁴'The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit in honor at my right hand

until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.'

⁴⁵Since David called him Lord, how can he be his son at the same time?"

⁴⁶No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Sermon: Revelation about Healing:

Why do we have to study principles and learn how God works in the healing us? Why can’t we just say “help” and God will fix it?

A parable:

Suppose I’ve eaten some spoiled food and I’m suffering from a terrible stomach ache. I go to the doctor. He gives me an antibiotic to take and says it should clear up within a day or two. A week later I come back complaining. Though I’ve taken the medicine, the stomach is worse than ever.

A wise doctor asks, “What are you eating?” I say, “The food in my refrigerator.” Doctor says, “You mean the same food that made you sick to begin with?”

“Yes. What’s the problem? You said the medicine would make it better.”

Of course, we all know that the best medicine in the world won’t make you well if you keep eating poisoned food.

When we talk about inner healing this is what we are talking about. And especially in the area of sexuality and relationships, people will very often say, “If my behavior is so wrong, why doesn’t God just fix it? I’ve asked God to heal me, to fix me, and He didn’t, so there. I am the way I am. This is my reality. God isn’t doing anything about it so why should I?”

Listen, I don’t believe there is such a thing as an unanswered prayer, but I do believe there are prayers for which God’s answer has been repeatedly undone by our own choices.

For many people the prayer for healing is really a prayer for God to help them AVOID any hard work or change that may be called for in their lives. I can certainly testify to that in my own life. There have been healings in my life that took many years longer than they needed to, not because God wasn’t answering, but because I was unwittingly resisting the healing process. I wasn’t ready to face the lies I had bought into, or the decisions I had to make about my behavior. At the time I blamed God. Now, looking back, I see the real problem was me.

At the Shrinemont Conference in May, Jack Sheffield made a statement that I first found hard to accept. He was describing the process of inner healing, the healing of our memories and getting free from the lies that have held us in bondage. He said, “The actual event was not the problem. It is our interpretation of the event that has become the problem.” Let me use a benign analogy. A car accident.

First, I’d like to see a show of hands. How many of us at some time in our lives have been involved in a car accident? ______ Wow! What do we make of this? Well, what it says to me is that accidents happen. I know all of you are careful drivers, yet you still have had accidents. You didn’t see the car coming. You didn’t see the telephone pole when you were backing up. Or out of the clear blue, someone else just hit you.

Truth: Driving in a car can be dangerous. That’s truth. We all know that. Does that paralyze us? No. It’s part of life. Taking a bath can be dangerous. Turning on a light switch can be dangerous. Putting a piece of bread in the toaster can be dangerous. In point of fact, LIFE is inherently dangerous. That doesn’t stop most of us from living it. It just means that we learn to take certain precautions to minimize the danger, and we go on living.

But in some instances it isn’t that easy. Sometimes we experience a hurt, a trauma, and it takes on a different meaning. For example, some people get in a car accident and develop a paralyzing fear of cars. Why? Because their interpretation of the event, the accident, took a different direction. It said, “Cars ALWAYS get in accidents, and the next one could be fatal. You must never get in a car again or you will die.” That is a lie.

“Perception is reality”- How many times we’ve heard that statement. True? Well, for many people that saying has become a prison. They are trapped in seriously flawed behavior because they believe that their perception of life, relationships, and indeed, their perception of God IS ULTIMATE REALITY, when in fact it is only their perception of reality.

But consider this. For hundreds of years people believed the earth was flat. Why? Because that was their perception. It looked flat from where they were standing, therefore, ALL the world must be flat. Did that make it true? Did the world only become round very recently when our perception of it changed? I don’t think so.

In the Bible, in the Psalms, David refers to the world as an “orb”, a round ball. How did David know that? Revelation? Gift of knowledge? That’s why we call this book the Word of God, because it contains truth, REALITY, that does not depend on our perception.

Many of us are stuck in a similar pattern when it comes to dealing with our inner life. We have gotten into some unhealthy things, and we cry out to God to help us. But then we return to the old ways. Instead of allowing God to work in us His way, we demand that God do it our way, and it doesn’t work.

Are we willing to receive the healing that we need on God’s terms, according to His good purpose? That’s why we need to study and learn all we can about God’s way of healing. It doesn’t come to us by instinct. His way is the CROSS.

St. Paul called the cross the wisdom and power of God, but he said the world sees it as foolishness. How true. I would never have seen it. I would never have figured out that this was the way you save a lost world, and bring healing to the sick, hope to the broken hearted, freedom to the prisoners, but that’s the formula God used. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Isaiah saw it coming 400 years before Jesus was born. “By His wounds we are healed.” This is God’s way.

John Wimber is probably more responsible than anyone else in the last few generations for bringing the message of healing back into the church. Early in his ministry John was troubled by many things, as we all are. He prayed and prayed, “O God, help me!” Then one day God spoke to him. The still small voice said, “John, just how much help do you want, seeing that apart from Me you can do nothing?”

That was when he finally started to understand the key to the whole healing ministry. Jesus had said it. “Abide in me, and I in you.”