We continue to unpack the strange account found in these two verses by looking at the present-day "Prosperity Gospel," how our actions can release faith, and how sin can sometimes cause physical sickness, pain, and suffering.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
And we are picking up right where we left off last week. We're still in Acts chapter 19, verses eleven through twelve because this text raises so many questions about high strangeness and the supernatural world. And as we'll find today, even things like evil spirits. And I didn't try to time this to line up with spooky season, but it just does. So, we'll roll with it.
In these two verses, we found something strange happening in the city of Ephesus. The Apostle Paul is working part-time in the leather shop of Aquila and Priscilla, and people are taking his sweat cloths and leather aprons to their sick and bedridden loved ones. And here's the crazy part when they touch one of those sweat cloths or aprons, they're healed. It's incredible. It's just bizarre.
And to make sense of these strange occurrences, we talked last week about the unique work that God was doing through the uppercase-A apostles at the time. Uppercase A apostles, OG apostles, totally different class to everyone else. We talked about the crucial issue of faith, which we defined like this faith is the belief that God is who he says he is, and our faith is evidenced by our actions. In other words, our actions reveal whether we truly believe God is who he says he is. We talked about why these people in Ephesus experienced miracles despite their terrible theology, and we boiled it down to two factors.
Firstly, they responded in faith to the revelation they had received about God, and then secondly, they placed their faith in the right thing, Jesus. Then we learned that when it comes to supernatural healing today, sometimes the Lord is not going to do a miracle no matter what. Sometimes the Lord is going to do a miracle no matter what. And sometimes the Lord is open to doing a miracle incredibly, based on our faith. That's the only way you can harmonize everything we see in the New Testament about healing.
And if you missed last week's message, I encourage you to check it out online so that you can get more detail about those summary points I just shared. I want to take a few minutes because it raises this issue of something called the Prosperity Gospel, which is often connected to things like strange supernatural healings, or should I say alleged strange supernatural healings. The Prosperity Gospel is a false gospel based on the idea that Christianity is about God wanting to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy. It's a false gospel that reduces God to the role of a genie who grants your wishes, or a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is to give you what you want. When you insert the currency of faith, the Prosperity Gospel teaches the millennia-old heresy of manifestation, the belief that you can manifest whatever you want in your life through the power of positive thinking.
This concept is also known as the Law of Attraction because it teaches you can attract whatever you want into your life by meditating on it. All the prosperity gospel does is switch out positive thinking for the word faith and then teach that you can attract, you can manifest whatever you want in your life through faith, which they're just using as a synonym for positive thinking. I don't have this in my notes, but I always want to point out if you want to know why this doesn't work, why it makes no sense, I can just point out to you that when countries are impoverished, and they're having droughts and they're having a famine, or they need earthquake relief. I have noticed that very consistently in those situations, countries ask for things like food and medical supplies. I have never once heard the American government or the Canadian government say, listen, we got the call.
Call came in after this horrific earthquake in North Africa, and they've requested Tony Robbins, and they've said, will you please come and teach our people how to have a better mindset, a winner mindset, a millionaire mindset, so that we can manifest a better reality than the terrible situation we're in? Please send help. Send us your best motivational speakers. I've never heard of that happening in the prosperity gospel. The Bible and all of life is about you, and that's why it's so popular.
My flesh loves the sound of that. Yours does too. Oh. God exists to serve me and my desires. I have the power to create whatever reality I desire.
The Bible's about me. Finally, a religion that understands that the universe really does revolve around me. I've been looking for this my whole life. At home group on Wednesday night, we were talking about this because we were discussing the book of Jeremiah, the prophet who had to battle against false prophets, who were telling the people what they wanted to hear instead of the truth that God had spoken. And we were talking about how easy it can be to fall for false teaching like the prosperity gospel because it can be presented in a way that sounds something like this.
You believe our Heavenly Father is loving and good, right? You believe he's better than any earthly father, right? Well, what loving father doesn't want his children to be healthy, wealthy, and happy? What loving father doesn't care about the welfare of his children? More than anything, your prosperity is God's greatest goal because he loves you.
I could be making so much money doing this. It doesn't sound like dangerous false teaching, does it? Doesn't sound like it. It's so subtle. Because the truth is, God does want his children to prosper.
He does want us to be blessed. He does want us to be healthy, wealthy, and happy. I mean, what's the alternative? That we serve a God who wants us to be sick, poor, and miserable? Stick with me.
If you're a student of Scripture and you're suddenly tensing up and you're like, just hang with me, John. The apostle. John the Apostle sounds like a prosperity Gospel preacher in the opening greeting of his third Epistle, where he writes dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health just as your whole life is going well, it can also be more accurately rendered. I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health just as our soul prospers. You see, you can't even say, Well, John was just speaking spiritually, Jeff, because John explicitly says that what he hopes is that everything in Gaius's life prospers just as Gaius' spiritual life is prospering.
John is saying, your spiritual life is blessed. I pray that the rest of your life, including your health, would also be blessed. And here's what I think. The secret is. I think John could pray that for Gaius because Gaius' spiritual life was on point, he was walking faithfully with the Lord.
Notice that John doesn't... anywhere in Scripture... nobody else does pray for prosperity for the person who isn't walking with Christ. Nowhere else in the New Testament or for the person who has a love affair with money. We don't find anyone in the New Testament praying that they'd be blessed with more money. John prays it for the person who's walking faithfully with the Lord.
The person who isn't walking faithfully with the Lord is already being swayed by the things of the world. They're already choosing earthly wealth and pleasures over Christ. So why would you want to pray for them to have more earthly pleasures and wealth? You wouldn't. You'd pray for them to turn to Christ.
So, write this down. The first thing we notice is that John prays for the prosperity of the Christ follower. He prays for the prosperity of the Christ follower. And perhaps you're still thinking, I don't know, John. I mean, if the Lord answers your prayers and Gaius prospers more financially and in his health, don't the chances increase that he won't rely upon God and those things will become distractions from his walk with Christ?
That's very possible. But if a person is walking with the Lord, then their greatest desires are to become more like Jesus, be a blessing to the Lord, and to obey his commands. That's what a person who loves God and walks with him wants. That person is also regularly praying the things Jesus told his followers to pray. Things like our Father in heaven, your will be done.
Our Father in heaven, give us today our daily bread. Our Father in heaven, do not bring us into temptation. Gaius would have been praying those things regularly, as would have John. You see, faithful followers of Jesus understand that terms and conditions apply to all of our prayers and all of our desires. Whatever we pray or desire, it's always as long as it's your will.
It's always as long as it's what you've decided is best for me today. It's always as long as it won't lead me into temptation. It's just assumed that disciples of Jesus want that because disciples of Jesus want to be more like Jesus. If you don't want to be more like Jesus, you're not a disciple of Jesus. The entire point of being someone's disciple is because you want to become like them.
A disciple of Jesus, by definition, wants to become like Jesus. We understand the Holy Spirit is doing that work in us and we want him to do it. We want him to make us more like Jesus, whatever it costs. Why? Because it's the best path to experiencing love, peace, joy, and hope in this life, by the way.
And because he has loved us with his life and saved us from death. And so we want to honor Him with our lives as best we can. Not to earn anything, but to just say thank you with our whole lives. And also, because we understand that we are going to rule and reign with Christ when he returns to the earth. And right now, he is watching to see who is a trustworthy and faithful servant.
The Lord is watching to see who is easily distracted and who can stay focused, who cares more about being faithful to Him than anything else. Those who are found trustworthy will be entrusted with responsibilities and roles in the ages to come that will blow our minds. And here's what's so great about God he is always working on us to make us more trustworthy and faithful. And those who love the Lord welcome his work in our lives. To that end, it's just assumed that every disciple of Jesus wants to become more like Jesus, no matter the cost.
And I really want you to notice this because I want to ask some of us to change the way we speak and the way we pray. I really want us to notice that. John does not feel the need to use any type of disclaimer with Gaius. He doesn't feel the need to add unless it would hinder your sanctification or unless it would hinder your spiritual growth. John doesn't feel the need to say anything like that to Gaius.
Why? Because it's just assumed that every Christian feels that way. I also want you to notice that John isn't concerned that it might not be part of God's plan to prosper Gaius' health in this season of his life. Because God might choose to sanctify Gaius through a health crisis.
John doesn't mention that. Why? Because John understands that our prayers are filtered by God. They're filtered by God. How do I know that John knew this?
Because of what John himself wrote in his first epistle. He said this is the confidence we have before him, before God. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. What's the implication if we ask something not according to his will? He doesn't hear us.
Not that he's unaware of what we've prayed, but that when we ask for something that is not in his will, his good and pleasing and perfect will, which is good and pleasing and perfect for us. He graciously tosses that request to the side and says no, because he knows he's doing something better. So, we don't ever pray for something that goes against the word of God, against the Scriptures, because we should already know that's not going to be his will. But we can't know something like whether it's God's will that someone's health prospers in this season of their lives or not. We cannot know that.
John couldn't know whether it was God's will that Gaius' health prospers. So what did John do? He prayed that Gaius' health would be blessed and would prosper because John knew two things. Number one, write this down our prayers are God-filtered. Our prayers are God-filtered.
God's will is going to be done. There's no scenario in which we boss God around or tell Him what to do, or that God has a good and pleasing plan for us and for our lives. But when we pray something with good intentions but a lack of information, he's like, too bad you asked for that. I was going to do this great thing that there's no way you could have known about, but you prayed for. This sucks to be you.
It's not going to happen. The second reason that John just said, no disclaimers, we're wanting the best for you, Gaius. I want you to be blessed and to prosper. Second reason, every Christ follower's greatest desire is to become more like Jesus.
John knew that was Gaius' greatest desire. Gaius knew that was John's desire for Gaius. It was assumed. And so, here's the practical application of this that I want us to understand. When someone is not a disciple of Jesus, this is really big, too.
When someone is not a disciple of Jesus, there is one thing we pray for their salvation. That's it. Let me tell you why. Because until they turn to Christ, all hardship they experience should be pointing them to Christ by revealing their ineffective ability to be the God of their own life. If they're not a disciple of Christ yet, anything negative in their life, any hardship, any pain, any difficulty, should be serving the purpose of revealing to them how impossible it is to be the God of your own life, how doomed for failure it is.
And we don't want that conviction to be alleviated in their lives. We don't want the Holy Spirit that is convicting them of their sin to stop. When the prodigal Son leaves and goes away, the father doesn't send him a care package. Why? Because he doesn't want to enable him in his rebellious state.
And so why do you want to pray for your friend or your family member who doesn't know Christ, who's under extreme financial pressure to get a great job so they can put all their faith back in money again? Why do you want to pray for your non-believing friend or family member going through a health crisis to get healed so they can go right back to no longer thinking about life and death and the biggest, most important things there are? We don't want to do that. We pray for one thing that they would come to know Christ. We don't want to pray, oh, Lord, heal them so that they can have 20 more years before they spend eternity apart from you.
That's not what we want to pray. Save them, Lord, by any means necessary. Any means necessary. And in fact, when it comes to difficulty in a person's life who doesn't know Christ most of the time, we want it to increase. Because an awful lot of people don't even become open to the gospel until the bottom falls out of their life.
So, we actually want to see that happen in many cases. Not because we want to see people in pain or suffering, but because we want to see them come to Christ. That's more important than anything when someone is a disciple of Jesus. Here's the practical application we desire and pray for them to prosper in every way in their health, in their finances, in their relationships, in their work, in all of it. We should want to see our brothers and sisters blessed in every way, in every way.
And we don't need to use disclaimers when we pray for that. Why? Because our prayers are God filtered and we can assume that any disciple of Jesus wants to become more like him than anything else. So, when we pray for someone who loves the Lord, you don't need to add as long as it's your will. You don't need to add unless it would hinder their spiritual growth.
Be like the Apostle John who prayed for Gaius' prosperity in every area of life, knowing that both he and Gaius trusted the loved to do whatever was best and wanted the loved to do whatever was best. We can just assume that about each other if we actually love and follow Jesus. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ to prosper, period, and trust that followers of Jesus understand that when you do that, terms and conditions apply. The apostle John understood that. So did Gaius.
The issue with the prosperity gospel is that those who believe it don't want to become more like Jews than anything else. They don't want to store up treasures in heaven. They'd rather have them here and now. They don't want to be sanctified if it means going through trials. In other words, they don't have the desires that people who genuinely love Jesus have.
They don't want to know and love the giver. They just want the gifts. Listen, if I could change one thing about myself, I would make myself someone who grows in times of ease and comfort. That's what I would do. So that the Lord wouldn't have to send me trials to grow because I'm like you 99.99% of the time.
It takes a trial, a hardship, or a struggle to bring about spiritual growth in my life. But the prosperity gospel doesn't have any room for that. In the Prosperity Gospel, something's gone wrong if you find yourself in a trial and what you need to do is speak your way out of that trial by faith. You just need to manifest a new reality for yourself by speaking it into existence so that you're not in that trial anymore. It's heresy, it's unbiblical, it's Gnosticism.
Our brother James writes, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Scripture says, when you're in a trial, man praise God for it because God is doing something good through it, and it's going to produce perseverance in your life. Those who love the Lord are excited to become more like Christ. That's our greatest goal. But those who love the prosperity Gospel read that verse in James and think, listen, unless endurance is a new model that Lamborghini just released, I'm not interested in getting it.
I don't care. I don't want it. And if you've studied the Book of Revelation with us, then you may recall that those Prosperity Gospel is addressed by Jesus in Revelation, chapter three. In his letter to the Laodicean Church, Jesus writes about how they see themselves, and then he writes about how he sees them. Let's just say there's a difference of opinion.
The verses are on your outline. Jesus tells them, you say I'm rich, I've become wealthy and need nothing. And you don't realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed, and our shameful nakedness not be exposed. An ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline, so be zealous and repent. The Prosperity Gospel teaches that wealth is measured by the material possessions you have on the earth. Jesus has a very, very different view of wealth. He measures your wealth entirely by the state of your soul and how much you have become like Him. Does the Lord want you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy?
Yes, he does. In fact, he wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy forever. And that's actually the eternity that he has planned for those who love Him. And he's working in your life, in this life to get you to that place in eternity. And when we're there, we will find all of our health, wealth, and happiness in Him, all of it.
But down here in this life, we're in fallen, broken bodies. But Christ has made our spirits new for those who belong to Him. So those who love the Lord will have to wait for their resurrected bodies to experience full health and wealth. But we can experience the happiness and the joy and much of the spiritual wealth here and now. It's available to us.
We don't have to wait for heaven to begin experiencing the peace and love and joy and hope of Christ. We don't have to spend our whole lives chasing the foolish, empty things that the world does. Our souls can prosper here and now, no matter what.
Now, looking back at verses eleven and twelve, I want to look for a few minutes at how actions can sometimes release faith. As we discussed last week, there was nothing magical about the hem of Jesus' robe that healed those who touched it. There was nothing magical about Peter's shadow or Paul's sweat cloths or aprons. And yet, in some mysterious way, they served as catalysts that helped release greater faith in people. And God moved through their faith.
Think about the laying on of hands when believers pray for one another. Is power actually flowing from me to you? Like if we get two people together, will we have double the amount of power flowing into you? Three, four, five?
That's not what's going on. It's not what's going on. And yet, through that action, faith is released in the person receiving prayer. Because there's this physical action to demonstrate what is happening in the spiritual world. Scripture says the elders are to lay hands on the sick among them and anoint them with oil.
Is the oil magical? Of course not. That's not what's going on. And yet, through that action, faith is often released. It is catalyzed in the person who is receiving prayer.
Jesus could have said, whenever you gather in my name, remember the cross, just remember it. But he gave us the sacrament of communion, something we can see, touch, and taste to help us remember his sacrifice, love, and forgiveness. Because there's something to physical actions that can release faith in us. The Lord knows our weakness, he knows our frailty, and he gives us, even in His Word, some physical actions that help release faith. And yet, shockingly, he moves through some physical actions that sometimes don't make a lot of sense, like sweat cloths.
One of the most practical applications I can think of in this area is the lifting of hands in worship and prayer. Now, if you're new to the faith and you've secretly been wondering what the heck that's about, but you're, like everybody else, seems to know except me. So, I'm not going to say anything, but what is everybody doing? I just want to clear something up. We are not using our hands as like spiritual antennae to tune into the Lord.
We're not like testing like, there it is. Yes, there it is, I receive it now. That's not what's going on. That's not what's going on. When you see people move to the back and worship, it's not because the reception is better there or anything like that.
That's not what's going on. The lifting of hands in prayer and worship, it's a biblical sign, something they would do going all the way back to Abraham 3000 years ago. It was a sign of blessing, extending blessing to someone. When you spoke over them, when you prayed for them, you would extend your hands to them. It was a sign that you desired them to be blessed.
And so, when we do that in prayer or in worship, it's a way for us to say, bless the Lord. We want the Lord to be blessed by what we're doing, and that's why we do that. And then culturally, open hands are sort of a universal sign of need. And so, when we do that in worship, generally, we're acknowledging our need for Jesus and for more of Him. And so, we sometimes adopt that position in worship before the Lord.
Now, again, there's nothing magical about lifting one's hands, but I cannot tell you how often and consistently it releases faith in me and changes the internal attitude of my heart. I don't even think about it anymore. It's just second nature. I know that my heart struggles to focus most of the time. I know that often when worship starts, I'm not zoned in and dialed in the way that I should be.
But when I lift my hands, something happens. Faith is released because by lifting my hands, I'm choosing to have my body tell my whole being, we're worshiping the Lord now. That's what we're doing, so get in line, because that's what's happening. And the same thing happens with singing. When I don't feel like singing, I still do it.
And when I do, I find my heart changing. I find faith releasing and my desire to worship increasing. When it came to Paul's aprons and sweat cloths, that's part of what was happening. It wasn't good theology, but it was releasing genuine faith in people who didn't know much about the Lord. And the loved moved through that faith.
He moved through it. And I love that I'm blessed by that because the Lord is so gracious. I'll repeat what I said last week. He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And he will reward you if you will seek Him wherever you're at today, if all you know is, I know God's real and I think he wants me to know Him more, seek Him and he will reward you no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord right now.
If you're up or down or new or old to the faith, this is true for you. The Lord is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And I'm so glad that he is. Something I didn't want to get into last week because we had all the kids in the service with us is an important detail mentioned in verse twelve. Take a look at it again.
It says even facecloths or aprons that had touched Paul's skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Paul's sweat lots and aprons, remember, were being taken to people who were so sick they were bedridden. They couldn't physically get to Paul. But I want you to notice what happened when those sick people touched the objects Paul had sweated in. It says, for some, the diseases left them.
In other words, the sickness disappeared, and they became well. But for others, evil spirits came out of them, and they became well - meaning some were sick because we live in a fallen world where sickness and disease exist, but others were sick because they were possessed by evil spirits. In our modern Western world, which is dominated by philosophical materialism and naturalism, it offends our sensibilities to make such supernatural claims. How quaint might be our first reaction.
Or, that's a pretty primitive idea. But the Bible consistently teaches that some sickness is the result of living in a fallen world, and some is caused by demonic forces. Write that down and we'll unpack it. Some sickness is the result of living in a fallen world, and some is caused by demonic forces. Just read through the Gospels and you'll find Jews encountering this several times.
When Jesus encounters the demon-possessed men in Gadara, we are told one of them was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. This man had inner torment. He had despair, depression, he had rage, and he was cutting himself, not because he had mental health issues, but because he was demonically possessed. And when Jesus cast the demons out of this man, the townspeople came and found him sitting there dressed and in his right mind. Another time we read a demon-possessed man who was unable to speak was brought to Jesus.
When the demon had been driven out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. Another time we read, a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. He healed him so the man could both speak and see. We're told of a time a man approached and knelt down before Jesus. Lord, he said, have mercy on my son because he has seizures and suffers terribly.
He often falls into the fire and often into the water. Then Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him. And from that moment, the boy was healed. In just these few examples, the Bible records rage, grief, cutting, mutinous, blindness, seizures, and suicidal ideation that were caused by demons, not natural material causes. Now, if you're a genuine Christian, if Christ has come into your life and given you a new spirit, a new nature, then you cannot be possessed.
Your spirit belongs to the Lord, Paul writes in Ephesians 1:13. In Him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of. Your salvation. And when you believed if you're a child of God, you belong to him. You cannot be possessed or owned by anyone or anything, because you are owned by Christ.
And as our brother John wrote, the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. When Jesus was explaining his power to cast demons out of a person's life, he described Satan and demons as a strong man. And he asked rhetorically, how can someone enter a strong man's house and steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can plunder his house. Jesus' point was that he had to be stronger and greater than the forces of darkness that were in a person in order to remove those forces of darkness from that person. But then Jesus went on to say this when an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn't find any.
Then it says, I'll go back to my house that I came from returning. It finds the house, the person's soul, vacant, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. And as a result, that person's last condition is worse than the first. Jesus' point is that he could cast demons out of anyone.
But if that person didn't then ask the Lord to take possession of their life and their spirit, then the vacancy light would still be on. And sooner or later, that demon would return along with a bunch of his friends. That's the spiritual reality of every person's life. If our spirit does not belong to Christ, then the vacancy light is on. It's on.
And there's the genuine possibility that we might intentionally or unintentionally invite some horrendous guests into our lives that bring with them torment, pain, and suffering. Believers do not have to fear possession, non-believers do. That's just the bottom line. And we'll talk more next week about how that can happen, how possession can happen.
But while believers cannot be possessed, they can be oppressed. While the spirit of a believer cannot belong to anyone other than Christ, demonic forces can still attach themselves, for lack of a better term, to our lives and cause us pain and torment, including sickness. The picture you should have is of a demon digging their claws into the flesh and latching on to you. That's the idea. Our brother James writes about this too.
In fact, James gives instructions to believers as to what they are to do when they experience sickness caused by sin, sickness brought about by demonic powers latching on. And this is what James says. He says, Is anyone among you sick? He should call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up.
If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect. Here's the idea. The person who is suffering from sickness or torment because of sin should meet with the elders.
They should confess and renounce their sin. They should turn away from that sin, doing whatever they need to to do that. And then the elders are to anoint them with oil and pray for them. And because they have repented and been forgiven, the Lord will remove the demonic forces that have latched onto that life and are causing that sickness or pain or suffering. So how do you know if that sickness or pain or suffering is being caused by sin in your life?
You examine yourself honestly. Honestly, you look at what God's word says, and you look at your own life and you ask, am I living in ongoing rebellion against the Lord in my life? If not, then you think back to the time this issue began, around that time. And since then, is there any significant sin that you've been involved in that you've not repented of? But as we'll find it next week, when we carry on with this... 'Significant from God's perspective, not yours... We'll find next week that even things like bitterness, refusing to forgive as Christ has commanded, can allow demonic forces to grab a foothold in your life.
According to the Bible, not all sickness is caused by demonic forces, but some is - even in the life of the believer. And so, it makes sense to begin by examining ourselves and seeing if there is any ongoing or unrepented-for sin in our lives. So, write this down. Believers cannot be possessed, but they can be oppressed by demonic forces. They can be oppressed by demonic forces.
And I'm going to begin winding down the message here for this week, but we are going to talk about this much, much more next week because I'm fully aware this raises all kinds of really, really important questions. This stuff has a profound effect and is having a profound effect on the lives of believers and non-believers alike. And so next week we're going to talk about how demonic forces gain access to our lives. We're going to talk about what demons are, where they come from, and some other spiritual realities that the Bible talks about that we don't pretty much take seriously in our day. And we're paying the price for it in a big way.
You don't want to miss next Sunday. If you're not a believer, if you're not a believer and you want Christ to come into your life and take ownership of all of you, please come and talk to me or BJ after the service. That's the most important thing you will ever do. If you're not a believer, though you believe you're being tormented because of sin in your life, things you've done, things you've been involved with. I need to just be as plain with you as I can and remind you of what Jews taught.
There's no point coming and asking for prayer if you're not interested in Jesus being lord of your life. There's no point asking for healing if you don't want Jesus to be Lord of your life. There's no point asking for anything that may have come into your soul to be cast out unless you want Jesus to be Lord of your life. That's the offer. That's why Jesus says he implies I'm not here to sweep out your life and make it temporarily clean and presentable.
I'm here to take ownership of you. That's the offer. And if you'll let me do that, the Lord says I'll bind up anything within you that's tormenting you. And he can and he will do that. But that is the offer.
It's a complete takeover, that's the offer. He's Lord, King, Savior, all of it. If you're a believer and you're struggling with a sickness external, internal, mental, emotional, and you think there's a chance it might be related to unconfessed sin, sin that you're engaging in or have engaged in, that you haven't repented of, haven't turned away from, I urge you... I urge you to repent and not give demonic forces an access point in your life. The longer you walk with the Lord, the more you look in his word. This is why you realize nobody gets away with sin.
Nobody ever. You are not getting away with it just because nobody else knows about it. You are not getting away with it. You are paying a high price whether you recognize it or not. When I pray.
In a moment, I'm just going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us, if that's what's going on in any of our lives, to shine a light and reveal if there's any area in our lives that we've not dealt with, that we've given access to demonic forces into our lives that are causing us pain and suffering. We'll ask the Lord to show us. I'm going to ask the worship team to come up now. And you may not have access, many of you, to one of Paul's sweat cloths. You may not have access to one of his aprons, but you do have access to communion.
And communion represents the body and the blood of Jesus that was broken and shed for you.
The body of the one who sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane for you. Such was the anguish that he walked through that you might be healed and made whole. And while we will have to wait for perfect health and wealth, we can begin to experience the joy, the peace, the love, and the hope of heaven here and now. Your body may have to wait to be healed, but your spirit. Your spirit can be healed here and now.
There's nothing he can't do. And so, if you're thinking, man, I wish I had somebody to bring me something that would heal me, you do. His name is Jesus, and he went through death itself so that he could bring you healing and hope and wholeness. And he moved across space and time so that you would be here tonight where he is waiting to meet you. And here's the good news.
He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Not those who have it all together, not those who have reached a certain level of maturity, not those who have all their theology dialed in. He's a rewarder of those who seek Him. So, seek him, and he will be found by you. Let's pray.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Lord Jesus. Thank you for your word. It is the only true picture of reality in existence. And Lord, we understand what it says that there's pain and sickness and suffering that comes with living in a fallen world.
But Lord, there are also very real spiritual forces. There is a very real line that we are each on one side of either we belong to you, all of us, or we don't. And so, Jesus, I pray right now for anyone who does not belong to you, that you would just touch their hearts and they would say, I don't want that vacancy light to be on anymore. I want my spirit to be filled with Christ, with his love, with his joy, with his peace, with his hope, with Him, with his rule and reign. I want Him to own Me, body, mind, soul, spirit, all of it.
Lord, please move and call those who don't belong to you, to you. And Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, I pray that you would speak right now with clarity by Your spirit and reveal if there's any unconfessed sin in our lives. First and foremost, not because we don't want bad stuff to happen to us, but first and foremost because we want to be in right relationship with you, and we don't want anything to be between us, Lord. But Lord, also if there is pain and suffering and sickness that is happening because we are living in rebellion or unconfessed or unrepentant for sin, Lord, we want to be healed, we want to be made whole.
And so, Lord, please shine a light on that. Please shine a light. Lord, if there is depression being caused by sin, if there's anxiety being caused by sin, if there's self-loathing, suicidal thoughts, anything like that, and it's being caused by sin that has a grip on us, that is tormenting us, and we could be freed of it. Lord Jesus, please let your sons and daughters know that they might walk in freedom. And then Jesus, we just thank you and we praise you for what you went through to bring us hope and healing and wholeness, that we are not left alone on the side of the street begging for bread.
But you have come to us. You have lifted us up. You've brought us into our family.
So, thank you for coming to us. Thank you for finding us. Thank you that you came to us because we could not get to you. And thank you that you are a rewarder of those who seek you. And so, I pray, Lord, in this time of worship, as we seek you, that you would be found by us, Lord.
And I pray especially for those who've never found you before, that they would find you tonight. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.