The Healer

The Healer
Covenant Words
The Healer

Aug 24 2025 | 00:44:50

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Episode August 24, 2025 00:44:50

Show Notes

Matthew 8:14 - 17

Pastior Stephen Lauer

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:02] Jesus, our great God and our great King. [00:00:06] We thank you that you were willing to go to the cross for us and there take all that we deserved because of our sins. [00:00:18] We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were the best king of all, for no earthly king would be willing to go and die for his people. [00:00:30] But this is exactly what you did for us. [00:00:33] In this we see just how big your love and how great your heart is for us. [00:00:40] And we thank you. [00:00:42] And we thank you that now risen from the dead on high, you reign over us, your people. [00:00:50] Lord Jesus, we ask that you would exalt yourself, that your name would be lifted up in your church here and around the world. That as your gospel is preached, your word as it goes forth, would bring our hearts to praise and adore you. [00:01:12] That our hearts would be enlarged, that they would be filled with yet more love for you. [00:01:19] That that our wills, our minds and our affections would all be focused upon you. [00:01:27] And that thereby our faith might be strengthened and built up. [00:01:34] That we would behold you and in seeing you and your goodness and your glory, we would be strengthened for service to you and Lord Jesus, our King. We ask that not only that you would be exalted over your people, but also that your name would go forth into the darkness of this world. [00:02:01] We ask that as we preach your word here and as your missionaries do so in distant lands, that the lost would hear and be drawn to you. [00:02:16] O Lord Jesus, we know that there is a feast that you have prepared and that is ready and waiting. [00:02:24] And that even now your messengers are calling men to come and to join the marriage supper of the Lamb. [00:02:33] Lord Jesus, we ask that your church would be filled with all those that you have died for, that the whole number of the elect, that your body would be made complete so that you would one day come soon come and receive all of us to yourself. [00:02:52] Till that day, Lord Jesus, we ask that you would continue to bless the simple and ordinary means of the preaching of the Gospel by the power of your spirit to our hearts. That we would be preserved, kept and built up and made ready always for your return. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:03:11] We're going to read God's word now from Matthew 8, 14:17. [00:03:18] This will be our sermon text this morning. [00:03:25] Matthew 8 beginning in verse 14. As a reader remind you that these aren't just the words of the apostle Matthew, but these are the words of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. [00:03:37] So listen to his word. [00:03:41] When Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother in law lying sick with a fever. [00:03:49] He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. [00:03:57] That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. [00:04:10] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. [00:04:15] He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. [00:04:20] Please be seated. [00:04:44] As you read this little story with your family and family worship, or by yourself in your private devotions, you may wonder, what's the lesson here? What should I talk with my children about? As we think about this story, as you look closely at it, you ponder it. [00:05:08] Many things, many different teachings, doctrines might come to mind. [00:05:16] You may think about Peter and the fact that he has a mother in law and therefore he has a wife. [00:05:24] So you may talk to your children. Maybe, probably not. But maybe you would talk to your children about the fact that Peter having a wife shows us that the Roman Catholic doctrine of clerical celibacy is in error. [00:05:39] It would be appropriate to talk with them about that. From this verse you may see here too the duty to care for one's in laws and parents. [00:05:52] Peter in his home is taking care of his mother in law. [00:05:58] You may see an example of a good relationship. We talk all the time about bad relationships with our mother in law. A good relationship between a man and his mother in law. [00:06:09] He's caring for her. [00:06:13] You might think of the high calling that a woman has to receive strangers, guests into her home and offer them hospitality. [00:06:24] That's what Peter's mother in law does for Jesus. [00:06:27] She serves him, feeds him a meal. [00:06:31] Or perhaps your mind would go to more higher doctrinal things. [00:06:36] The There is here the proof that Jesus is the Messiah because he fulfills the Old Testament prophecy by healing people. [00:06:51] You may consider yet further. [00:06:54] There is the proof that the Scriptures are inspired because here we find Jesus fulfilling a prophecy from 500 years before his own time. [00:07:08] Only God inspired, holy and Spirit inspired prophecy could foretell what Jesus would do 500 years before. You have the proof of the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. [00:07:25] There are indeed lots of things that you could talk about with your family and teach your children from this short section, these three verses that we just read. [00:07:37] But the central thing that you should talk about with your children and that we're going to look at today is the idea that Jesus heals. [00:07:47] It is a story of sickness and healing. [00:07:52] Now, when you get sick and you don't get better eventually, what do you do if you have a child that's sick and doesn't get better and doesn't get better. Three days go by, five days go by, six days go by. Eventually, you take your child to the doctor. [00:08:11] What does the doctor do? He examines the child, doesn't he? Or if you're the one that's sick, he examines you. [00:08:18] He might touch your glands in your neck. He might feel the pulse and can count your pulse to see how your heart is doing. He might listen to your heart, listen to your lungs, look at your skin. Is it flush? Do you have a rash? He would examine you and having examined you and listened to your symptoms, the doctor would give you advice and a prescription. He would say, go home and rest, Eat some chicken soup. Eat things that are nourishing and not too hard on your digestion. [00:08:46] Take these pills and hopefully in a few days you will start to get better. [00:08:51] That's what you do when you get sick and you need help. You go to the doctor and he tells you what to do and hopefully you start to get better. [00:09:01] There were many sick people in this story. It reads like a whole town full of sick people came to Jesus seeking healing. [00:09:13] Jesus heals. [00:09:14] That's the idea that we want to look at together this morning, that Jesus heals those who are sick. We're going to look at it under three points. First, the woman that Jesus heals. [00:09:25] The woman healed. Secondly, the many healed. [00:09:29] And then finally, the man who heals. [00:09:32] The woman healed. The many healed. And the man who heals, the woman healed. This, of course, is Peter's mother in law who was lying sick with a fever. Jesus came and touched her and all of a sudden she was better. [00:09:49] Consider first her condition. [00:09:53] Jesus entered Peter's home, presumably it was about mealtime. [00:09:58] And as he came to her home. If you've ever received visitors in your home, ask someone to come over for lunch or for dinner. [00:10:07] That's the moment here, Jesus comes over to Peter's home for a meal and at that moment, disaster strikes. Disaster for the hostess. [00:10:20] She falls sick, a fever takes her and she has to go immediately to bed. About the worst thing that could happen to a hostess, right here you are, you're about to serve a meal to guests and you get struck ill and you have to go lay down because you're burning up with a fever. [00:10:39] Literally the word is that she's thrown with a fever. In other words, thrown in bed by this fever. [00:10:47] It's pretty serious. [00:10:49] It's a serious enough fever that she can't just push through. [00:10:53] She's burning up. And fevers can be quite serious. If you have a fever that's high enough, it could damage your eyesight, it could cause neurological damage, paralysis, even kill. [00:11:07] Fevers can be quite serious. [00:11:10] But Jesus comes and he heals her. [00:11:14] In the healing of the woman, we begin to learn about Jesus and his healing. [00:11:23] First thing that you see as Jesus comes to heal the woman is that you see his compassion. [00:11:32] Now what do you think of what comes to your mind, what enters your heart when you see a person lying in a bed with a fever, racked with chills, maybe even shaking? You know the feeling I'm talking about? Maybe you've seen someone, maybe you've experienced it or you've seen someone, right? How do you feel when you see someone who's burning up with a fever and has chills? [00:11:56] You may feel sorry for him, you may feel really bad for him. [00:12:02] But do you want to walk up to that person and touch him? [00:12:07] Certainly not in our modern day where we know about this germ theory of disease. We know that when a person is sick, he's producing all kinds of virus or bacterial particles that can make us sick. [00:12:20] The last thing you want to do is go up to the person and touch him. [00:12:25] We may feel sorry for him, but usually we stay away. And having been through this pandemic a few years ago, we know you want to stay about six feet away, right? So those virus particles can fall on the ground. You don't breathe them in. [00:12:41] You give the person some room. You don't go and touch them. [00:12:45] But. But Jesus sees her and he immediately goes and touches her. [00:12:52] You see his compassion. He's drawn to this woman, to her sickness, to her suffering. [00:12:59] He's drawn to her because of his compassionate heart, his desire to heal her. You see that Jesus wants to heal the sick. [00:13:11] Secondly, you see that he truly heals the sick. This part's obvious. That's the point, right? He touches her and she's healed. [00:13:20] But he truly heals. [00:13:24] He heals with a touch. You go see the doctor, what happens? He touches you, doesn't he? He feels your pulse, he feels your glands in your neck. He examines your skin, maybe other things. [00:13:38] But the doctor's touch doesn't heal. [00:13:42] Helps him know what to do, how to advise. [00:13:46] But it doesn't heal. It gives him a diagnosis and an advice, a prescription that might help you towards healing. The doctor may help you heal, but his touch does not heal you any good. And honest doctor will tell you this. He'll say, I don't heal people. [00:14:04] I just help them a little bit. And then their bodies do the healing. [00:14:09] But Jesus, unlike Any human doctor. [00:14:12] His touch heals. He really, truly heals. That's remarkable. We're used to reading these stories, but think about that. [00:14:22] People cannot heal other people. [00:14:24] Jesus heals this woman. [00:14:28] Secondly, the fever leaves her. [00:14:31] Doctors give pills, they give advice, they give a prescription for healing. [00:14:36] But here you see the actual power of Christ at work in healing. The moment he touched her, the fever left her. [00:14:45] And what does she do? She gets up and she serves a meal. [00:14:50] I had Covid in 2021, and I was burning with a fever, a high fever, for 11 days straight. I could barely get out of bed. [00:15:04] I could barely eat. I lost over ten pounds in ten days. [00:15:09] And then I was left weak for over a month. [00:15:15] Walking was difficult. Doing anything was difficult. [00:15:19] My brain didn't work. [00:15:21] I was weak for over a month. And I had the effects for months after that. [00:15:27] Jesus touched this woman and instantly her body was whole, completely healed. This wasn't a recovery process. I got a fever. The fever broke. And then a few days later, I started to feel strong again. No, instantly she was standing up and serving a meal. Do you see how this healing is nothing like our normal human process of healing and recovery? Jesus completely made her whole all at once. [00:16:00] That's how Jesus heals. [00:16:03] He's the one who heals. He has the power to heal, and he heals completely and wholly. [00:16:11] God told Israel, when he brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, he told them, I am the Lord who heals you. [00:16:23] Exodus 15:26. I am the Lord who heals you. [00:16:29] This is what God does for sinners. [00:16:32] He heals us. [00:16:34] He takes those who are broken, those who are wounded, those who are beaten down, those who are sick and miserable in their sins, man and woman. [00:16:47] He takes them. He delivers them from sin, and he heals them, holy and completely. [00:16:57] Jesus is God. [00:16:59] He is the one who heals. [00:17:03] Don't look for healing anywhere else. [00:17:06] No one else can do this for you. [00:17:08] Jesus is a loving, compassionate God, and He heals men like you and I from the burning fever of sin. [00:17:20] Those sinful passions that burn within you, that drive you to Jesus takes you and he heals you. From that, Jesus is, to quote another Old Testament passage, Malachi 4:2, Jesus is the Son of righteousness who arose with healing on his wings. [00:17:44] In the woman healed, we meet the One who heals. [00:17:47] But secondly, we want to look at the many he heals. The many that Jesus heals. It's not just the woman, but Jesus came to heal many. Not just one person, but a great many people. Jesus comes to heal. [00:18:01] At the word of her healing, this word spreads, rips through town that Jesus touched this woman and in an instant she was up and the fever was gone and she was completely better and she was serving a meal to her guests. People hear this and they say, well, I'm sick. [00:18:20] I've got to come and meet this guy and I'm going to bring my loved ones who are sick and maybe we can all be healed. [00:18:32] So throughout the day, let's say it was a lunch meal that Peter's mother in law was serving Jesus. By evening the whole town had heard this and they had all gathered. And it wasn't just the sick. We're told that many with demons came to Jesus. [00:18:50] Why are there so many that are sick? [00:19:01] The story reads a bit like a pandemic, like there's some illness that has ripped through the whole town, such that the whole town has to come and gather and be healed by Jesus. Why is there a town full of sick people? [00:19:16] And if you think about the broader story of the Gospels, it seems like the whole nation of the Jews is full of sick people. Everywhere he goes, there are sick people that Jesus needs to heal. [00:19:30] Why? [00:19:32] Why are God's people, the Jews, so sick? And furthermore, why are God's people, the Jews, under the control of evil spirits? [00:19:44] They go together. [00:19:47] You see this, don't you? These people are not just sick in body, they are sick in soul. [00:19:54] They are people who has given in to the desire of their hearts, that burning passion of sin. [00:20:01] They've given in to the desire of their hearts to rebel against God and against his good law. [00:20:10] They're sick, not just body, but in soul. [00:20:14] Matthew tells us if you read through the Gospel of Matthew in this portion of Matthew, Jesus had come to the region of Galilee, that northern portion of the nation of Israel. [00:20:26] And when Jesus went there. Matthew tells us that Jesus went to a place where the people sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. [00:20:37] Spiritual darkness and spiritual death brought about by sin, rebellion, their sickness in body and in soul. Sickness in body and souls bound over to demons and evil spirits. [00:20:57] Their sickness was a sign God had promised Israel when he brought them out of Egypt again. Exodus 15:26. He said to Israel, if you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, if you give ear to his commandments and keep his statutes, if you turn away from sin and you follow after me, God says, and you obey my law. [00:21:24] He says, I will put none of the diseases on you which I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you. [00:21:35] But if the Jews rebelled, if they pursued the lusts of their hearts, if they ignored God's law, if they turned away from him, if they turned back to the sins of Egypt, God promised that he would bring curses on them. [00:21:52] In fact, he would bring on them the sicknesses, the diseases that he had put on Egypt. He would put on his own people. [00:22:00] Deuteronomy 28:59. [00:22:03] Then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues, great and prolonged plagues, and serious and prolonged diseases. [00:22:13] Moreover, he will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you are afraid, and they will cling to you. [00:22:22] They gave themselves over to the burning fever of sin. [00:22:28] And they did so because they are sick in the heart with sin. [00:22:33] And because of this, God had given them over to affliction, soul and body. [00:22:43] That sounds like a terrible thing, but that's the picture you get in the Gospels is of a people who've given themselves over to sin and therefore God gives them over to the evil one and to diseases. [00:22:57] The outer disease is a sign of the inner disease of sin. [00:23:02] It sounds terrible, but they deserved it. [00:23:08] And so do I, and so do you. [00:23:12] We're all sinners. [00:23:14] Not one of us deserves compassion. [00:23:17] We deserve sickness and worse. We deserve God's curse. [00:23:23] But God is the God who heals. That's his promise. I brought you out of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God who heals. [00:23:33] It's in God's very character to heal sinners. It's in the nature of who he is. Who is God? He's a God who's compassionate, A God who looks on weak sinners like you and I. And he has a love for them. [00:23:48] And he says, I will come and heal you. [00:23:53] The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. [00:24:00] He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. [00:24:05] God says, that's who I am. [00:24:08] So I may turn you over to your sickness, O Israel. But then I will come in the person of Jesus, my son, and I will heal you. [00:24:19] God afflicted his people so that they would repent and turn to Him. [00:24:24] And when they cried out to him, he healed them. [00:24:28] Jesus is the healer of many. That is to say, he's the healer of all his people, all those that he died for, that the Father gave to the Son. Jesus is their healer. Healer. [00:24:44] See his power to heal you, body and soul. [00:24:49] He heals you by his word. His Word that made heaven and earth also made body and soul. [00:24:59] His word made the angels. [00:25:01] And when he commanded the fallen angels, every single one of them came out of the people. [00:25:08] Those bound by demons. [00:25:10] Fallen angels were brought to Jesus. He spoke a word, they obeyed him and they left. And Jesus set them free. [00:25:19] He healed their souls. [00:25:23] He healed by his touch. [00:25:26] His hand made the woman's body. [00:25:29] His hand touches her body and heals it. [00:25:34] His hand made the body of every person, every single person that was brought to Jesus. He was their maker. [00:25:44] And his hand touched them and healed all their diseases. There's not a body Jesus did not heal, not a disease he did not remove. [00:25:53] There's not a soul he did not heal. [00:25:56] Not an evil spirit he did not cast out. [00:26:01] Jesus heals the many. [00:26:05] Jesus is the man who heals. That's our third point. [00:26:10] Matthew is teaching us about Jesus and his healing. If you're not getting the pattern, it's deliberate. That's the point. That's what Matthew's doing. He wants us to see Jesus as the healer. In these verses, this is all about him and his healing work. [00:26:27] And so to make sure we don't miss that, in verse 17, he quotes from the prophet Isaiah to tell us that Jesus did all of this to fulfill what came from the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and he bore our diseases. [00:26:48] He says Isaiah foretold a savior. God would come in the person of the Messiah, and He would come and heal our diseases. [00:27:01] Let me read that verse again. Matthew 8, 17. [00:27:05] He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. [00:27:10] Keep your finger in Matthew 8 if you have a Bible in front of you. And turn over and look at Isaiah 53, verses 4 and 5. [00:27:22] What Matthew quotes is not what Isaiah wrote. [00:27:34] Isaiah wrote, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, not our infirmities and our sicknesses, our griefs and our sorrows. That's what Isaiah said Messiah would come and do. But Matthew says he came and he took our infirmities, which is another word for illness or sickness, and our sicknesses. [00:28:05] Let you think about that for a moment. [00:28:10] Matthew is doing something. [00:28:13] God, the Holy Spirit, through the pen of Matthew, is doing something. [00:28:20] He's taking Isaiah 53 and he's interpreting it and rewording it and then applying it to Jesus and his healing ministry. In other words, he's giving us, Based on Isaiah 53, he's giving us a theology of a way to read Jesus healing ministry. In the Gospels. [00:28:42] There's a connection between Jesus healing ministry and the work of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. [00:28:50] Let's break that down and put it in maybe simpler terms. [00:28:54] There's a connection between the griefs and sorrows that the suffering servant bears and our sins. [00:29:05] Isaiah 53. 4. Yet we esteemed him. This is Jesus, the suffering servant. We esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. [00:29:14] But he was wounded for our transgressions. [00:29:18] He was bruised for our iniquities. [00:29:22] The chastisement for our peace was laid upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. [00:29:32] How did Jesus bear our griefs and our sorrows? [00:29:36] He bore them by going to the cross and there paying the punishment for our sins. [00:29:46] When Jesus died on the cross, he took the wrath of God due to us for sin. He took the guilt of our sin, the crimes that we committed against God. Jesus say, I'm guilty of those, and I'm going to take the payment for those for you, my people. [00:30:03] And Matthew is connecting Jesus healing ministry, then directly with Jesus ministry on the cross. [00:30:14] Do you see the relationship? [00:30:16] Sin and sickness comes because of sin as a curse. [00:30:22] Jesus, who bears the curse, bears the curse of sin on the cross. [00:30:27] So he takes away both, all of it. [00:30:33] Why does Jesus heal people? Because he says, I came to take away the curse due to you for sin by taking away your sin. [00:30:44] In Isaiah, God has afflicted Israel for her sin, and he afflicts her, you guessed it, with physical suffering. [00:30:54] Alas, sinful nation. A people weighed down with iniquity. Isaiah 1, verse 4, then verse 5 and 6. Why should you be stricken again? [00:31:04] You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart faints from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds. [00:31:18] Israel's sickness is the result of her sin. [00:31:22] It is her punishment, her discipline. [00:31:25] And Matthew says, jesus came to bear all of it so that he might be the healer. [00:31:33] The way that Jesus heals is by bearing griefs and sorrows for sin, including sickness and suffering. [00:31:44] Jesus takes everything you and I deserve voluntarily on himself, so that he can heal you and me. [00:31:53] As Jesus comes and touches this woman, he takes her fever on himself. As he touches the leper, he takes the leprosy of the leper, his uncleanness on herself. [00:32:04] Every other person that Jesus heals shows us some aspect, some angle of how Jesus addresses the sinful condition of our hearts and how it is that he will heal us. [00:32:20] In every case, Jesus takes the curse of God on himself, takes it from people, puts it on himself and he takes it to the cross. [00:32:28] One last question for you as you're thinking about this pattern, this theology of Jesus healing people in the Gospels. [00:32:40] Why does Jesus do this in Peter's house? [00:32:50] Why does he heal Peter's mother in law in Peter's house? [00:32:57] So that Peter would see him heal the woman. [00:33:03] No doubt. This particularly stuck in Peter's mind. [00:33:08] All of the healings he saw, he saw one in his own home. [00:33:14] Jesus saw. Peter saw Jesus heal the many, but he also saw her heal his mother in law. [00:33:26] And Peter saw other things. [00:33:29] He watched Jesus take the curse of all of these people, including his own mother in law. [00:33:35] And he watched Jesus march up to the cross. [00:33:40] He watched Jesus carry those curses to the cross. [00:33:46] And he watched Jesus become a curse for sinners on the cross. [00:33:52] You get the sense of how this pressed into Peter's heart, as one day, many years later, Peter would write this. In 1 Peter 2:24, he says about Jesus that he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. [00:34:20] By whose stripes you were healed. [00:34:28] You see exactly what Peter is saying. [00:34:31] We needed to be healed from this sickness of sin and its curse. [00:34:36] And in order for us to be healed, in order for all of those healings for me that I saw to happen, Jesus had to go and be scourged and go and hang on the cross and bear all of that for us. [00:34:52] But what does he say? [00:34:55] Because that happened, you are healed. [00:34:59] Peter watched Jesus receive the lashes of the whip for his sins and ours. [00:35:06] He watched Jesus receive the nails driven into his hands and feet, blow by blowing for his healing and for ours. [00:35:18] He watched Jesus agonizing breathing on the cross all the way up to that last agonizing breath. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. [00:35:33] And Peter watched him breathe his last so that you and I might be healed. [00:35:40] Peter watched Jesus bear our infirmities and our sicknesses on the cross so that we might be healed. [00:35:51] Jesus is the one who heals and he doesn't want you to miss it. That's why he goes around healing people, touching them, and then he goes to the cross. [00:36:05] Jesus still heals today the very same way he did 2,000 years ago. [00:36:11] He heals by his word. [00:36:14] Everywhere the Gospel is preached, the promise of salvation from sins in Jesus Christ. Everywhere his word is preached and men receive it, they are healed. He heals by his word. [00:36:28] Jesus continues to heal by bearing the sins and the sufferings and the curses of sinners. [00:36:37] God takes them from you and he Puts them on his son. That's how Jesus continues to heal. [00:36:43] And Jesus continues to heal sinners by making us whole. [00:36:49] Some of that happens in an instant, doesn't it? When our sins are forgiven, we receive that sense of peace and we know he loves us and, and we have peace with God. And then there's other aspects of that healing that are open to us, but they take time. [00:37:04] As Jesus puts sin to death, as we continue to struggle with it again and again and again. There's healing for us in the cross, isn't there? [00:37:14] As he slowly but surely changes us and makes us whole and complete on the inside, there are. There is nothing outside Jesus healing power. [00:37:28] What is your sin that you struggle with? [00:37:30] What did you fall into this week? Is it your pride? Is it your lust? [00:37:36] Do you hurt the people around you? [00:37:39] How big is your sin? How long have you struggled with it and been unable to put it to death? [00:37:46] Guess what? Your sin is not too powerful for Jesus. [00:37:50] He can heal you of your sin. Even the greatest of sins, there's none too great for him. [00:37:57] Jesus cross work satisfies all of God's demands. It's sufficient for all of your needs. [00:38:05] There's nothing outside Jesus healing power. [00:38:11] How miserable is your condition? [00:38:18] You look inside yourself. [00:38:20] You know how awful you are, how pathetic you are, how weak you are, how sick you are. [00:38:28] You look in that mirror and you say, there's no hope for me. There's no one who would love me. [00:38:36] Look at the one who heals. [00:38:39] Look at Jesus. [00:38:40] Everyone that they brought to him. He had compassion on them and he healed them. [00:38:47] You are not too miserable for Jesus. In fact, the more miserable you are, the greater his compassion is for you. [00:38:55] Don't turn away from him. Turn towards him. [00:38:59] Daily Jesus touches and heals sinners just like you. [00:39:05] And today, today right now, Jesus cries out from heaven to you, dear sinner. [00:39:15] He calls out, turn to me and be saved. [00:39:19] All the ends of the earth, for I am the Lord who heals you. Let's pray. [00:39:34] O Lord our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [00:39:42] We confess that we are just like these people, living in darkness, suffering on the inside and on the outside. [00:39:52] And just like them, we are pathetic and weak. No matter how we build ourselves up, if we are honest, we're just like them. [00:40:02] So we throw ourselves at your mercy. Lord Jesus, come and heal us. [00:40:09] You know exactly what we need. You know where we are hurting. You know where we are weak and sick. You know the portions of our heart that are rotten and like gangrene, need you'd the great physician to cut them out and heal them. [00:40:26] You know, Lord Jesus, where we need you to take our hearts that are broken and shattered and to bind them up and make them whole again. [00:40:38] You know, Lord Jesus, for you know what is in the heart of man. You know where we yet give ourselves over to sin, where we are yet stubborn and don't want to repent and turn from certain sins. Lord, we confess that we cherish the we treat them like they're precious to us when they are what condemns us. O Lord Jesus, have mercy on us in our pride and in the hardness of our hearts and graciously and mercifully and compassionately break that hardness of our hearts, show us our sin and turn us to you that we might repent and receive healing. [00:41:17] O Lord Jesus, we cast ourselves on you for the needs of our soul, but we lift up to you all the needs that we have as your people. [00:41:27] King Jesus, you reign over all things. [00:41:32] All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to you. Indeed, you are even the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. [00:41:39] We ask that you would grant what we need as your church. We ask for big things. We pray for the progress of the gospel and for the advance of your kingdom in our hearts here and in the hearts of men throughout the world. [00:41:55] We pray for society that we live in. We ask that your gospel would reach the hearts of the lost. [00:42:01] We pray for our nation, for governments at every level. We lift up to you, especially those who serve in local governments and in law enforcement. We ask that you would help them to do their jobs and that you would use them to establish order and peace and protect the weak and innocent. [00:42:20] We ask, Lord Jesus, that you would be with us as a congregation here, that you would bless us as we seek to serve you together, that you would give us love and compassion for one another, that you would hear us as we lift our prayers up to you, interceding on behalf of each other. [00:42:38] We ask, Lord Jesus, that you would knit us together in the bonds of love. [00:42:44] We ask that you would bless those who lead and serve in your church as pastors, elders, deacons, those who serve in various other roles as Sunday school teachers, that you would bless our ministry and that you would use those in leadership to lead us, especially to the Lord Jesus. [00:43:03] We ask, Lord Jesus, that you would be with us in our homes and our families, that you would protect our marriages, that you would fill them with joy and with love for you and one another, that we might experience the grace and goodness and blessings that you offer us in marriage that we would grow in sanctification as husbands and wives. [00:43:26] We ask that you would bless us as we seek to care for our children, to lead them to you, to raise them, to know you and to serve you. [00:43:34] We ask that you would protect our hearts from the evil one and that our children would profess faith in the Lord Jesus and serve him all their days. [00:43:44] Lord Jesus, we ask that you would bless our children as they've started school. Bless those who serve as teachers. [00:43:52] We ask that you would grant them joy as they learn about you and about the world that you have made. [00:43:59] That school would be a delight to them. [00:44:03] We ask for those who are in need, those who are poor. Be near to them and provide for them and use us to provide for them. [00:44:12] Those who are sick, grant them healing those who have become aged. We ask that you would be near to them in the struggles and trials of old age, that you would comfort them, help us to be a blessing to them as their church family. [00:44:28] Be with those who are single. [00:44:31] Watch over them as they seek to serve you faithfully. Encourage them in their faith. [00:44:38] Lord Jesus, we thank you that you know exactly what each of us needs. And we ask that you would hear our prayers and bless us. [00:44:46] We come to you in Jesus name. Amen.

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