God, Can You Heal Me? | God, Can You Help Me?

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Join us as Gabe Kolstad brings us a message about our Lord who heals. 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:17

Wow, what a way to start a week, right? Thank you for being here. That was so exciting. I love when we do baptism weekends and our student group comes in and does the mosh pit up front here. Um and it's like, and then if I was standing in the back just a few minutes ago, it is utter chaos in the back, right after that. And it's the best thing ever. I love every second of it. I love what God is doing through the lives of those who were just baptized. Can we give them a hand? Those who were just baptized. Good job. We're so proud of you. Wow. To watch God work in this way is really remarkable. And uh today we're wrapping up a message, a series called God Can You Help Me. Everybody's been asking me all weekend what this shirt means, so let me just tell you. Um, this shirt says 9941, and I just got back from the men's trek. Any other men's trekkies in here? A couple of us are here. We just got back from a uh a trip where we kind of went out into the wilderness, and um basically it was just a lot of grunting. That's basically what happened. Uh, guys, a bunch of guys out in the wilderness grunting. No, we uh it was a wonderful time, and um we we got to just hang together, we got to learn together and um be challenged together. And the theme was 9941, Jesus left the 99 for the one. And it was just a great time. Uh it happens every summer, so if you're a guy you like that kind of stuff, watch for next year, and we we can't wait to do that with you. But today, we're wrapping up the series, God Can You Help Me? It's been on the names of God, that's been the series the last four weeks. And uh I want to talk today specifically about a question uh that I think you might have. But you know, uh assuming God exists, okay? Assuming God exists, then I believe most people want to know two things. I think they want to know, is God great? Like able? Does he have power? Does he really have the power to change things? Because you might be thinking, like, I sometimes think, if I had the power to change things, I'd probably change a few things. And and so you sometimes that's confusing, isn't it? You look around and you're like, oh, is God great? And then I think the the second thing most people want to know is is God good? Like if he's powerful, is he also loving? Because if God were to be only great and not good, that'd be super scary, wouldn't it? And on the other hand, if God were to be only good and not great, that'd be super sad, wouldn't it? A God who is only powerful and not loving, or a God who's only loving and not capable. Thankfully, we have neither. We have a God who is great and who is good, and we've been exploring that through a series on the names of God called God, Can You Help Me? Because not only can He, but He wants to. And that's the beauty of it all. He he He can help and He wants to. And so we're inviting that in in this series. So like, God, okay, then help. Then help. We're coming to you asking for help. And today we're gonna do that once again, as we wrap up our series, there's gonna be an opportunity. I'm just gonna give you a fair warning, there's gonna be an opportunity to ask for prayer. For maybe something in your life that you just wish could change. And just want you to know that's coming here at the end of this message in just a few minutes, and and start thinking about what would that look like for you if God was to do something new? We're specifically talking today on the question, God, can you heal me? God, can you heal me? Question that a lot of people have, because a lot of us have things we wish we could be healed of. And that's a variety of, you know, it could be a physical thing. I know lots of people who wish they could be healed of something physical. But I probably know just as many people or more who wish they could be healed of something emotional. Maybe, maybe something relational. I know a lot of people, in fact, it's been happening all weekend, who are praying for financial healing. You know, there's so many ways, right? Spiritual healing. There's so many ways that we experience something called brokenness, which is what that's all about, is if God's gonna heal, it's because we have this, we have something broken that needs to be healed. And the question that we're asking and exploring today is, God, can you help me? Um I have had the privilege of actually observing a lot of healing things. I've I've seen God's supernatural healing power at work. I've watched it. I've watched it with my own my own body. I've been, this might sound weird, I promise I'm not crazy. Um I have personally been healed. I'm pointing back here because I I had a major, major back problem. And the doctors basically told me there's nothing they could do, I was gonna become paralyzed. And then on November 18th, 2015, at exactly 12 a.m., something smacked me right in the back. And for the first time in months, I could move. And it was and I've never experienced the same pain. It was it was amazing. You might be going, hmm, lucky you. Because I've been asking and I've been seeking and I've been knocking, and it seems like God wants to help everybody except me. And today we're gonna we're just gonna unpack that. Because if you come to him for healing, the question is if you come to God for healing, what can you expect? That's why we're looking at the names of God, because you can't know how God is until you know who he is, and you can know who God is by his names. He and he tells us his names. He's like, this is who I am. I am, and we've been walking through this, and it's been opening up a new, I think, dimension of our relationship with God because we're like, I know more of who God is. Not just about him, but I know him more. And so we're gonna we're gonna keep digging. Uh, there's something about names, right? I I have a new gym. I belong to a new gym. It's called Crunch Fitness, it's right next to our new building just down the street. Um and I signed up for Crunch Fitness because um I don't like to commute. So now my gym is gonna be right next to our church. And I can't like working gym, five-second transition. That's how I like it. Um, so I walk in the gym the other day, and I'm pretty new there, so I don't really know the staff or anything. They don't know me. Um, and so I just kind of go into to do my thing, which is sort of my default. Like, if I'm just like honest, I'll just go in and just work out on the machine. That's like that's like why I'm there, right? I'm not there to make a bunch of friends and all that, you know. Like, that's my myself that's not really thinking straight. But when I'm like, when I'm like feeling free, I'm like, yeah, maybe I'll get to know a couple of people. So I'm walking in the gym, don't know anybody, and I get on the treadmill, kind of in that mode, like I'm just gonna do my thing. And then somebody looks at me and goes, Gabe! And I'm like, whoa. And I'm thinking, who is this? Is it are they talking about the same Gabe, you know, kind of looking around, and then it was Reuben over there just calling me by name. It's three treadmills away. And I, you know, my thought was it's so comforting when somebody knows your name. It's so comforting to be known, isn't it? You walk in someplace, maybe that happened to some of you today, and you're like, it feels it's so comforting when you're known. I wonder if God feels the same way. We know he knows us by name. Do we know him by name? He's given us that advantage because he tells us exactly who he is in Scripture. And so we need to know who God is to understand what he does and how he is. And today we get to look at an account from Exodus, and we're gonna we're gonna build everything off this, okay? So this part's not in your notes, but grab your notes right now if you uh haven't done that yet, right from your program or online in the link there. And welcome to all of our online folks. Thank you so much for joining in. We're excited about the growth of our online reach, and just so many of you are tuning in, and we're just grateful for that. Moses was a man who God used incredibly, and it was not always pretty either, because like he delivered the children of Israel from Egypt. And the way that happened was that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Basically, they were construction crew, and so Pharaoh wanted to keep them around because they were building all the bricks that were building all the buildings, they were doing all the heavy labor, and and they were very useful to this Egyptian ruler that was, you know, expanding rapidly. They needed these people. So Moses comes in and says, God said, Set my people free. And what was Pharaoh's thing? Like, not a chance. These people are my workforce. So God sends ten plagues to Egypt. Bad, bad ones. Finally, Pharaoh's like, go, go, just get out of here. And then he changes his mind, right? And so then he chases the Israelites to try to keep them from leaving, but God opens up the Red Sea and they escape uh safely, and then now they're on their way to the promised land. Only thing is, three days in, there's no water. So they come complaining to Moses naturally because they're like, hey, it's been three days, Moses, there's no water. Hey, Moses, do you know how long people can live without water? Three days. Okay, so what are we gonna do here? And it says in Exodus chapter 15, so Moses cried out to the Lord for help. And the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink. I've tried it, it doesn't always work. Um it was there at Marah, that's the name of the place. Mara means bitter, the water was bitter. It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree is a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He said, If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, this is a covenant between God and Israel, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians, which they would have been very motivated to avoid because they saw it up close, right? And then he said this at the end, and this is this is where we kick off today. For I am the Lord who heals you. That's what God told to Moses. I am the Lord who heals you. Literally, God just actually said his name. The name is Yaqwe Rapha. Yahweh is the name for God in Hebrew. Technically, the the Israelites wouldn't even pronounce it with, they wouldn't even say it out loud. And when they wrote it, they would only write the consonants, Y-H-W-H, because they wanted to so respect the name of God. But God says it to them. My name is Yahweh, Rapha, which means the God who heals you. So he's going, Moses, you have a problem. I don't have a solution, I am the solution. That's such an invitation, isn't it? To you and me. If you're a follower of Jesus here, Jesus himself says that he's the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him. And so he invites us in to this relationship where now we we can have that direct connection to the God who heals you. So powerful. On your notes, it says, Yahweh Rapha, I am the Lord who heals you. Something I noticed about that is that Moses cried out, which is really, really important. We're gonna talk about that today. And then God revealed his character. And the word Rapha in Hebrew, it literally means to heal, to repair, to make whole. Think about your life for a second. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the things that feel broken were made whole? Because we think it's impossible. I mean, it seems impossible. I mean, sometimes, you know, you're you're like, wow, I've had this same problem forever and ever. In fact, I I remember when I first discovered my problem. I have a problem. It's called plantar fasciitis. I have many problems. This is the only one I'm gonna tell you about today. It's called plantar fasciitis, okay? Uh anybody else in here have that? You know what I'm talking about. And it hurts, right? The first time that I noticed it, I was just limping, you know, and I'm just like, it hurt, but after a while, I I forgot that, you know, I'm I'm like, yeah, I'm just this is just what I do now. Because your body compensates, you know, for for what's going on. So I'm just, this is like how I'm walking. My wife's like, what is the matter with you? You know, I'm like, what? Because you forget, right? And I'm just wondering today, how many of us are just, we just, we we kind of drug, whatever the problem is, we're just kind of dragging it around, like we we don't even notice anymore. We're so used to it that we're not crying out to God, going, like, this doesn't seem right. God, could you fix this? And and and in Moses' case, as soon as he did that, he God shows up and he says, I can. And I will. Interesting. That's the trigger, and and I want to just let that sit there for a minute. Rafa means heal, repair, make whole. It means stitch, mend, or sew back together. I'm laughing because I would love for him to keep doing that in my life, to sew it back together. I have I have a way of ripping that stuff apart, don't you? I just kind of destroy things, just naturally, like most humans, we're just we're really good at destroying things. And then we're going, okay, God, I did it again. And he's got so much patience and so much grace with me. So if God was to show up and do something supernatural in your life that could only be explained by a living God who's a loving God, who's a powerful God, who not only is able to, but willing to help, um, what would that look like in your life? What would it look like in your life? I want to share with you three scriptural teachings that help us to understand healing because I think one of the things that we need in our lives is we need a philosophy, or I would say a theology of healing. In other words, what do you even think about healing? Do you think it's possible? Some of us might have come from a tradition, uh, I did, where it was sort of thought, maybe even taught, that healing was was a thing for the past. Which is a tragedy because then um, you know, we don't really go to God expecting things to change. And yet he goes, Oh, so you're just gonna deny an entire facet of my character. You're just gonna deny, I am the Lord who heals you, as though I am the Lord who used to heal people, because that's not what he said. So, so sometimes we gotta get used to the fact that God wants to heal us. We've got to get used to the fact that God is still a healer. And I want to I want to just walk through three scriptures. So the first thing I want you to write down in your notes is this is if you want healing, the first thing you gotta do is meet the healer. You gotta meet the healer. That's the the very first, that's the first step toward healing is to meet the healer. It's kind of logical if you think about it, but who's the healer? Well, he's Jesus. He's Jesus. Jesus is the healer. Even in the New Testament, if you read, he was known as the healer. And I want you to see Matthew chapter eight, where Jesus just finished teaching uh the most famous sermon of all time, the Sermon on the Mount. And then in verse 1 of chapter 8, it goes like this. Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Suddenly a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. Let me just pause there for a second because that would have been, if the original people who read this, because you know, this is the first book of the New Testament, the original people who read this would have been living in the first century in Jerusalem, and they would have been like, leper? Get away. You can't be near people, you can't be in the presence of a leper. This is already a foul. Like, it's time out. No, you can't let lepers be near you. It says, suddenly a man with leprosy approached Jesus and knelt before him. Lord, the man said, If you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean. Okay, so what do you think that guy believed about God? He believed that he was great. He knew he was great. If you're willing, you can. He did not know if he was good. And thus, he had never asked. Right? So he continued. Wonder how long, here's what I wonder when I read this. How long did he live without live with leprosy when he could have already been healed? Interesting, right? Jesus reached out in verse 3 and touched him. I mean, Jews weren't even allowed to be in the presence of, let alone touch a leper. Jesus would have been called unclean by all the other Jewish leaders in that moment right there. Jesus reached out and touched him. Isn't that interesting? How many times have you noticed that God would reach out and touch you in your life, even though you might be considered unclean by even the law or by the rules? Jesus just approaches. He just approaches. He says, I am willing, he said. Be healed. And instantly the leprosy disappeared. Jesus goes, Oh, I'm great and I'm good. Be healed. I love it. Now, do you think God has stopped doing that? I would have said yes 30 years ago. I might have said yes uh 14 years ago. But then I saw before my very eyes a girl who was blind to be able to see after just one prayer. We were in Nairobi, Kenya, doing an outreach. 5,000 people were there. We had a team of people leading worship on a rickety stage that was about to fall over in the slums of Nairobi. And they called for prayer, and our team was praying. And this girl Karina put her hands on the shoulders of this woman who clearly had very clouded over eyes. She was blind.

unknown 18:07

Very much so.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

And and yeah, these guys were saying yes, because we were together. And Karina prays for this girl, and she bows her head blind with cloudy eyes, and she lifts her head, seeing, with no clouds in her eyes. And she, of course, had the same reaction that the New Testament you read, this is like dancing around, shouting, of course, you're I was blind and now I can see. It actually happened right in front of our eyes. It's interesting when you witness healing, you change your theology, right? You change your, like, okay, I guess God can't do that because he just did it. What does that mean for you? What does that mean for maybe like that limp that you've continued, you know, you've just continued. He's like, oh, it's just it's just how I am. It's just normal. Is it normal? Is it? Or does God want to heal? I think it's important that we say, I want to meet the healer. Jesus was approached by the leper. By the way, healing's not earned. That's why we need to meet the healer, because he paid for it already. This leper did nothing to deserve being healed by Jesus. Nothing to earn God's attention. Not a single thing. Jesus in his grace reached out and touched the leper and said, Be healed. The only thing the leper did was ask. And he had enough faith to say, if you're willing, I know you're able. So then Jesus said, I am willing. And that was all that was required. That was faith. I think it's very, very interesting to think that Jesus is the reason why we can approach the Father in the first place. And so it's why you've got to meet the healer. You might meet the healer because you have a need, but you're going to find out that he's the forgiver and he's the restorer and he's the transformer and he's the one that makes you new and he's the one that promises you eternal life. I mean, God said for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, and whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. So he's the gate, he's the door, he's the way. And it's the first step that we need to take. If you've got something in your life that's so broken, you've tried everything. And trust me, we've been praying with people all weekend long, and everybody is saying the same thing. I have tried everything. I've tried everything. And now we're begging God. But we're not just begging anybody. We're begging, we're begging Yahweh Rapha. We're begging the healer. Jesus, when he uh opened his ministry in Luke chapter 4, he stands up in the synagogue and he reads a scroll. The scroll was Isaiah, it was a prophecy about the Messiah. It was, it was, it was it was something he was going like, guess who I am? Yahweh Rapha. I am the Lord who heals you. He says, I'm gonna heal people, I'm gonna restore people, I'm gonna give sight to the blind. He's he's calling out that he's here as the God who heals us. And and that's why we have to meet the healer. So I just want to call this out. If you are here today and you're online with us today, or you're in this room, and and you don't know, you don't have a stake in the ground to say this is this is the time, this is the day, this was the moment that God captured my soul. I gave him my life, I received his forgiveness. If you're not sure about your standing with God, if you don't know if you've ever made your own personal peace with your creator, can you please today? I'll show you how in a little bit. But would you meet the healer today? Because he doesn't just want to forgive you, he wants to heal you. And he and he's willing to. Number two in your notes, ask together. Okay, ask together. This is so important. To ask together. The the the man the the man in the scripture we read, he he cried out, Moses cried out, then this guy cried out, and and then what we learn about asking God for healing is that Jesus teaches us to do it not solo, but together. He says, There's power in numbers, you know, not only if two or three are gathered together, I'm in their midst, but also when two or more ask a certain thing in my name, he says, I will do it. I don't know why. I kind of do know, but I mean it's it's sort of a mystery in a way. And he goes, I want you to ask together, not alone, but together. We see this in James. The brother of Jesus wrote James and it says this it says, Are any of you suffering hardships? Okay. If you didn't read Your hand, you're lying. Um, it's okay, that's one of your hardships, okay? Are any of you suffering hardships? He says, You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. He's opening the gates here, like, have a relationship with God. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick and the Lord will make you well. And if you've committed any sins, you'll be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. I mean, if it didn't, why would we pray? If there was no point, if it didn't work, why would we pray? Truth is, prayer works. And James goes, Oh, it produces wonderful results. But he says, there's some specifics. Here's how you're gonna ask. You're gonna ask together. He gets real specific. He goes, you're gonna get with the leaders of your church, and you're gonna let them anoint you with oil. And this is gonna be a moment for you to come clean with if there's something in between, you and God, like that's let's let's take care of all of that. And he goes, and this is how healing happens. In a few minutes, I'm gonna open it up and we're gonna have our prayer team up front, and they're gonna have. Um, I'm giving you a warning because I want you to know something. They're gonna have little bottles of oil, and they're gonna anoint whoever wants to be anointed on the forehead with oil, just like the scripture says. If this seems weird, it's only because we haven't practiced it enough. It's been in the Bible the whole time. Um what is that? The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and we are really coming before the Lord, displaying our need, but we're doing that in community, we're doing that together. And so I want you to know that up front here in just a few minutes, there's gonna be a team of people ready to help you and to pray for you. We're gonna be having a song play, and we're gonna be singing and worshiping, and whoever wants to, and I'll just be honest with you the the the Saturday night service and this morning service was full up here. People were praying for crazy, crazy things. And God is already moving in that. And here's what I want you to know nobody's gonna do anything weird to you if you if you participate, okay? We're not gonna weird you out. That's not our thing. Um we're we're we're trying not to be weirdos. But if we need to be weirdos for Jesus, we will, right? I mean, like we're gonna, this isn't normal either. Neither is baptism. Since when do you like push someone under the water? You know? I mean, I'm just be honest, that's weird. So is this. But God says, do it. And and so we're gonna we're gonna obey scripture today, and we're gonna ask big things. And but but we'll be kind and we'll be gentle, and nobody will bite. Okay? Ask together. We have a friend named Kelly, she was at the last service a couple years ago. She uh was just right on this stair steps of death. She was in the hospital, her liver had shut down, her kidneys had shut down, and they called, they said, Hey, call all the family. They said to her, her close family, call, call everybody here. She's she's gonna go. And so Brandon calls us and we rush to the hospital, Melissa and I, and we go into the room, and there was like, we didn't even have any oil. We go into the room, and there was like 30 people in the room. And we all grabbed hands around the room, and we we just begged God to do something in Kelly's body. I mean, we just begged him to bring her back because we all felt there's no way she's too young, she can't be done, she's got more to do. God, you know, her family, you know, we were just begging God. And you know what? I just said Kelly was here this morning. Um, God restored her. You know, God brought her back. She serves in our church, she's in our growth group. I mean, I was just on the men's truck with Brandon. I mean, these people are close friends, and God brought her back. Like it's a miracle. It's actually a miracle. Now, here's what didn't happen. Kelly did not, in that moment, we pray didn't just bounce out of the bed like, whoa, I feel better, guys. Thanks. I appreciate that. You know, that's not what happened. Slowly, right? I mean, but her kidneys took dialysis, she regained consciousness, she began getting strength, she she spent a long time in the hospital, she got out of the hospital, she started recovering, she's she's whole, she's she's healed, she's stowed back together today. Beautiful, amazing, right? That's a miracle. And we ought to give God credit for it because it was a miracle, yeah. But let me just be real clear and honest is that not every healing is immediate. Okay? I mean, I've prayed many times for things. Some of you, this is your problem, is you've been like, I've been praying for that. I'm I mean, come on. One question did have you asked together? Or is this a secret you've been holding? Because if it's a secret you've been holding, God is saying, that's not what I said. I said, do it together. Do it together. Because whoever two or more agree on something, he's he's going. There's power in that. And there's a whole probably slew of reasons why. But he's calling us specifically into community. And I want to just point that out. I want to point out that at Westside we we talk about the journey of faith, right? It's like a mountain range. We talk about this all the time. So let me just show you the mountain range real quick. Here it is. It starts out with the mountain of Jesus. That's meet the healer. He's the beginning of the relationship, goes to community with people, and then it goes to mission to know why I am here, what am I supposed to do? How do I live out my purpose in life? And um, and so I want you to see point number three in your notes is join the mission. Join the mission. Because I think God wants to heal us so that we can bring his healing to others. It's one of the reasons why next week we're not doing this, we're gonna be all spread out. We're 36 projects serving the city, you know, showing God's love and sharing his light and being the hands and feet of Jesus because He's He's He's saved us to serve, right? He has healed us to be employed as healers. And that's what he's up to is that mission business. It says in Luke chapter 9, it says, on one day, Jesus called together his 12 disciples and gave them a power and authority. Look at this, to cast out all demons. Wow. And to heal all diseases. Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. I mean, he's like, hey, this is what I do, this is what you do, this is what I do, this is what you do. I do think that sometimes we look at this and go, like, ooh, what is this hocus pocus? And like, how are you supposed to do it? And do you just walk up to somebody that has crutches and be like, be healed? Do you just do that? You know, in the stranger you don't know, or how do you actually do this? Is it always physical? No. Um, I'll tell you what, it always involves prayer, that's what I know. And I think it always involves patience. But joining the mission often means looking back in your own life and understanding your own story and seeing how God could use what they say, your misery, to become your ministry. Your misery becomes your ministry. And and and my question would be: what's your mission and do you know what it is? At the men's trek, something beautiful happened. There was this guy, Jim. I know Jim real well. He's been a part of our church for a number of years. He's gone to all the men's treks we've done in the last few years. And um I know Jim because he came a little while back with a friend named Brandon. Brandon Beach is part of our team, uh, one of the volunteers on our team. And Brandon and him were in the construction business kind of associates. So Brandon knew that Jim was really struggling because his son had committed suicide in 2017. And uh for anybody who's here who's ever lost a loved one to suicide, we we recognize the depth of your pain. The depth of your pain. Jim told me the hardest part was that nobody would want to talk to him about it. That if he ever mentioned it, it was like they just kind of like went away. They just didn't want to talk to him. He felt so alone and just excruciating pain. And he started drinking a lot. Like a lot, a lot, a lot. I'm really surprised that he didn't die from how much he was drinking. He gave me permission to share this story. But he met Brandon, and Brandon invited him to church, and Jim told me at the men's track, and I didn't even plant this seed. I want you to know I did not manipulate this conversation. He goes, Pastor Gabe, I've got to tell you something. He said, I met Jesus. And then I found my community. And I'm like, keep going, keep going. No, I didn't even do that, I didn't do that. No, he goes, I found my community, like I'm not alone anymore. And he goes, you know the best part? I was like, what? He goes, I found my mission. And I was like, Yes, winner, you got it. Jesus, community, mission. You know, but no, but he really did tell me, he goes, I found Jesus. I got my community and I know my mission. And he goes, you know what the surprise is about it? He said, I thought my mission was gonna be to help other people who've experienced the loss of someone to suicide. He's like, I was convinced that was gonna be it. He goes, but what I've discovered, because God has healed me from this disease of alcoholism, he goes, I've discovered that my mission is finding people who are on a journey of recovery, but they don't know their higher power. He goes, I know my higher power. His name's Jesus. He goes, so I'm going to AA meetings and I'm finding people who are open and I'm bringing them to church. I mean, let me show you your higher power, his name is Jesus. And he said that today people from his town, St. Helens, Oregon, would be watching. And Jim's probably, hi Jim, I love you. Um, and you know, he's just like, man, and and people are he's he's he's seeing God use his misery to become his ministry, that's mission. And maybe Jim hasn't waved any kind of like magic wand over anything, he's like, he hasn't raised anyone from the dead. Um, he, you know, he hasn't seen somebody grow a new limb. But is he a healer? Oh yeah. Is God using him in miraculous ways to see other people healed? Absolutely. I'm not saying God couldn't do those other things, but Jim's story is he's on mission as a healer in the recovery world, introducing people to the healer. Wow. That's a beautiful story. And he has it, God has an equally beautiful story for you. But you're never gonna find out if you don't experience healing. That's part of the mission journey. You gotta go through some healing. Because you can't you can't actually serve with an open wound. Right? We can serve with scars. I've learned this myself. We can serve with scars, but you gotta have some healing in your life too. And so that you can you can explain to somebody how God will get you through this, right? How God will get you through this. I think I want to call the band up right now, and I want to I want to come up and we're gonna get ready for some time of prayer. And as we do that, I I'm I'm asking you to be open to the fact that God has asked us to ask. He did. He said, ask, seek, knock, right? James goes, get together with the leaders of your church, let them anoint you with oil so that you can be healed. I mean, what is here's my question for you as we have this moment. Yeah, prayer team, come on up. Go ahead. If you're on the prayer team, come on up. I want to know this. What have you stopped believing that God could change in your life? I mean, how long are you gonna live without asking God for a miracle? Because he's ready. I mean, he's he's not only ready, he's able, he's willing. And he's invited us to go, God, will you heal me? God, could you heal me? Yes. Now I want to I want to say this as we get ready to pray. There are this is not about making a guarantee that somehow instantly everything's gonna change for every single person who comes up front today and prays a miracle prayer. But you know what it does? It puts God in charge of the process, it puts him behind the steering wheel. Now he's gonna be in charge of the timing and the method, but he's gonna go to work on the healing. You know what's cool? Even if he doesn't do it the way we think he should, if you're a follower of Jesus, guess what? You are guaranteed complete and 100% healing. 100% guaranteed. Just not necessarily here on this earth, right? God says he's bringing a new heavens and a new earth, and there's gonna be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more tears. Sometimes they just get a little bit too fixated on this earth, right? And so let's open up our hearts and let's open up control, let's hand over control. I wanna ask you to come pray for a miracle in your life. What's the thing you've stopped believing God could change? Would you have the guts, the faith, the audacity today to do what the leper did? And come and ask. Why don't you stand with me? We're gonna worship as we pray.