Hey there, this is Jen Wade, part of the core team here at Springs Church. We just want
to say thank you so much for joining us and listening to our podcast. We are praying that
it encourages you and it inspires you. And if you'd like to find out more about Springs
Church, please visit our website springschurch.co.uk. Here's today's message.
The wonderful Sam Wright is actually leading worship this evening up at Eve Lane. And so
Joe stepped in to lead worship absolutely wonderfully. Thank you so much, Joe. We appreciate
you very, very much. I'm going to put a timer on my phone because apparently we've got somewhere
to be and I'll make sure we get through this evening nice and rapido.
Good afternoon, good evening. I never know which quiet one to go with. When officially
does the evening start? Is it five o'clock, half five? Okay, because it's five oh one,
so I think it's good evening. For those of you who don't know, my name is Ben. It's wonderful
to be with you this afternoon. I am one of the leaders here at Springs, along with my
wife Jen, who runs all manner of things across church. If you need to know calendar dates
or organisational things, my wife is the person to speak to. I'm just going to pray and then
I'm going to talk you through another name of God this afternoon. Lord, I pray that you
would be with us this afternoon as we speak together. Lord, I pray that you would speak
to our hearts, that we might understand a little bit more about you and that we might
know you a little bit more, that we might love you a little bit more. In your name,
amen. Amen.
So this is part two of our series, God Has A Name. Pete did an incredible job last week
introducing this series and introducing us to the name Jehovah Nissi, which I'll talk
about a little bit more later on. Please go and find that on YouTube, the messages up
on YouTube, or if you search Springs Church Gornal, wherever you get your podcasts, it
will come up on there as well. Please take a listen to that. I don't know if you're aware,
but in the Bible there were actually many different names given for God. Many of these
words that we eventually translated into English in what was called the King James version
of the Bible, these just came down and boiled down to the word God for us. But actually
in the original language, these names were quite varied and very different. I'm sure
we've all had nicknames throughout our life. Unfortunately, I don't have a nickname as
dramatic as Pete being called Thor because he slammed a coffee mug down. I still don't
know the physics of how the coffee mug didn't break. Yeah, I'm calling you bluff here, mate.
Coffee mug. Or weak smash and Thor maybe wasn't. Of course, my nicknames at school are mainly
hair related. So the one I was proudest of was Paul Scholes. I absolutely smashed it
in the year eight into house football competition. And so I was given the name Scholesy. Unfortunately,
the comparison didn't last very long. I'm an absolute shocker in the next game. So we
decided I was more Steve Sidwell than Scholes. If anyone knows their noughties football.
In my job as a primary school teacher, I often have to lead singing assemblies, which is
essentially me singing in front of 300 children while they look like they're singing, which
is actually with the name at work of Ed Sheeran. So they're mostly hair related themes for
me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, trying. So in this series, we're looking at different names for God.
Beginning all of these names, beginning with the word Jehovah. As Pete explained last week,
these are completely unrelated to thinking today. And we think about things such as Jehovah's
witnesses. We are a Bible believing Jesus following Pentecostal church. And this word
Jehovah actually has a really important meaning in the old Testament. So this name Jehovah
was so important for these people. It was actually forbidden to be written down for
many, many years. This word Jehovah or Jehovah, if we don't pronounce our J's as they would
have been in that time. And some people translated that as similar words like Yahweh. These words
were only passed along verbally. So for many generations, these words weren't even allowed
to be written down. So I guess the question over this series over the next eight or nine
weeks, when we're looking at these names of God, if this is the most holy name that we
have for God, what does God mean to us when he is at his most holy? Our story picks up
today and we're going to look at a name in the Bible in the second book of the Bible.
It's called the book of Exodus. And Exodus is the story of a literal Exodus. It is a
mass departure of people. The story of the Israelites moving from slavery in Egypt. I
think there's just a fight going on in the corner here. It's okay. Yeah, it's okay. We've
sorted it. Don't worry. The story of, I didn't know whether to carry on then. I'll call it
out anyway. The, yes. The story of the Israelites physically going on an Exodus, moving out
of a country called Egypt, where they were held as slaves and being taken into what they
believed was their promised land of Israel. Now, I'm sure many of you have seen the Prince
of Egypt from the nineties and I need to call Pete out on something. Last week, Pastor Pete
actually told you a lie. Pete said, and this is a direct quote because I've listened back,
he said, the famous Disney movie, the Prince of Egypt. The Prince of Egypt, everyone, is
a DreamWorks movie, not a Disney movie. So just in case anyone was trying to find it
on their Disney Plus and it's not there, that's because it's not on there, guys. It's on your
Amazon Prime. I would encourage you to go and read this book for yourself, the book
of Exodus. It's probably not best to base our Bible theology off a cartoon with some
great songs. I would suggest you go and read this book yourself. We're going to pick up
this week in the book of Exodus chapter 15. I'm going to talk to you first about chapter
14. Chapter 14 of this book is probably the most action packed part of the Bible. In chapter
14, after many years of slavery, the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Egyptian King Prime Minister,
finally decides to let God's people go. At this point, he then, the Israelites start
to leave Egypt and Pharaoh changes his mind and says, I want to keep my slaves. I want
to keep these people. And so the whole of Egypt charges after the nation of what will
be Israel. Can you imagine like two whole countries, one running away, one running too.
And at this point, God speaks to Moses and Moses parts the Red Sea with his staff. And
then honestly, it's just the most action packed chapter of the Bible you will ever read. There's
a pillar of fire. The fire slows down the Egyptian army and then the Egyptians are actually
decimated when God shuts the Red Sea on their own army. So we're now picking up in Exodus
chapter 15, the Israelites have found themselves now wondering in the desert, if you know your
sort of maps, it will be in between Egypt and Israel. As we know today, we get this
passage Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the desert of Shur. For
three days, they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they
could not drink its water because it was bitter. This is why the place is called Marah, which
in the ancient language meant bitter. So the people grumbled against Moses saying, what
are we to drink? And Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a piece of wood.
He threw it into the water and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord issued a ruling
and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, if you listen carefully to
the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands
and keep his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought upon the
Egyptians for I am Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you. So today's name that we're
going to unpack for the name of God is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals us. What a weird
story to plant this name into. If you're going to go Jehovah Rapha, I would expect someone
to be sick and get better. Maybe I'd expect someone with some mental health issues or
an emotional need. But this just seems like God gave them water. Was he really healing
them? These people weren't physically sick, but the nation of Israel at this time was
twisted and bitter. Bitterness of the water was just a reflection of what Israel felt
in their heart. They had just been part of the most incredible miracle to date, one of
the most famous miracles that exists in the Bible. This country of people had just seen
the Red Sea part with a pillar of fire behind them and the Red Sea closed and yet three
days later they find themselves bitter and twisted and grumbling. You see, this bitterness,
God was trying to heal their hearts at this moment. He was Jehovah Rapha to their hearts.
This country had become Israel's comfort zone. They knew what the day to day looked like.
It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't nice, but at least it was comfortable. God is showing
people that he would physically care for them in the desert. I will make the water fine.
But he also wanted these people to be whole emotionally and spiritually. God can heal
us and God wants to heal us spiritually, emotionally and physically. I know time and time has passed
time again that God has healed in my own life personally. I've seen healing take many different
forms and many different paths, but I can tell you absolutely that God still heals today.
He still heals today. The promise that he gave Israel in the Old Testament is made whole
through a person called Jesus that we'll unpack later on and this is one that we can take
personally today.
So, I've shared a couple of my stories before, but eight or nine years ago, just as we started
Springs I went through a really, really tough period of what in hindsight was properly crippling
anxiety. I was 21. I'd just started full time teaching straight out of uni. Jen and I had
just got married and we'd just started Springs all in the space of five months. My dad is
a very wise man and my dad says, Ben, you do one big life change a year. I did three
in about three or four months. And I was consumed with these anxious thoughts. I was thinking
things like, what if I don't know how to be a good husband? What if my wife really sees
how selfish I can be? What if Springs falls flat on its back? We've gone out on a limb
here. If I have to go back, I'm going back to all my mates with my towel between my legs
saying it didn't work. What if we got it wrong? What if we weren't meant to start a church?
And what if I can't be a good teacher? What if I can't cope with full time work? It got
to the point where I was being physically sick in the morning, just with the thought
of what would happen for the rest of that day. It all came to a head on my 22nd birthday,
March the 4th, 2015. Jen and I had been married for just under a month. What a start to our
life. My mom and dad came round and just everything came out, how I was feeling, how I couldn't
cope with everything that was going on. And after lots of tears, I remember Jen and my
mom praying over the situation. I can honestly say that God healed me from that anxiety.
That was something that was removed from my life. It was something that changed instantly.
Matthew 11 verse 28, Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will
give you rest. I also am aware that God can physically heal us as well, as well as our
mental health and our emotional health. I was born with something called a duplex kidney
system. I don't want to turn this into a biology lesson or talk too much about kidneys, but
I was born with something that affects 1% of the population where I had two tubes coming
out of one kidney that weren't quite wide enough. And essentially I was quite poorly
as a boy. This is normally caught in ultrasounds when the child is not yet born. Unfortunately,
mine wasn't picked up until I was about age three, three and a half. And so yeah, I was
pretty ill as a child. A quote from a family friend came to visit me in hospital. I was
talking to them in the week and she just said, you really were a poorly little boy, but God
made my body. Did He make my body imperfect? That's a complex issue and not one that we
haven't got time, we haven't got time to speak about tonight. I would say no. What He did
do was give me a story that could bring praise to His name. After two successful surgeries
and some time to heal up fully, I've had no further kidney issues since. And God held
my mom and dad's hand through the hardest times. Just as I'd gone under for my first
surgery, which was going to be about five or six hours, mom opened a Bible and mom landed
on Isaiah 41 verse 10. So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am
your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand. God created my body, your body, our body. And therefore He is ultimately responsible
for the healing that occurred in me. Just because a surgeon played his part doesn't
remove any of the glory from God. Our church at the time, Calvary Church, absolutely incredible
church we had the pleasure of growing up in, was going through a season of healing. We're
going to put up on the screen now the newsletter that was sent out in 1996, I think. You'll
notice me in the middle there, Benjamin Wade healed of kidney problems. Do you see about
two thirds of the way down, a miracle of God due to being born premature? That's Jake Allen
who drummed for us this morning, this afternoon, this evening, afternoon, evening, morning.
But you can just see the list of things that were going on at church at the time. God still
heals, God still heals, healed of an eye condition, healed of cancer of the brain, had two months
to live, healed of a hernia, healed of diabetes, healed of a phobia of flying, now walking
without sticks. God can still heal and he still does today. The other time I've experienced
healing personally in my life that I want to share this afternoon was when I actually
broke my foot playing football. We were youth leaders at the time, Pete and Rach were our
youth leaders and we were leading football. That meant, can I go and play football? Yeah,
you can, just make sure no one kills each other. All right, mate, thank you. So we were
leading football. I was actually leading football with Esther's brother, Timmy, and it was one
of those where Tim went right on my foot. And it's one of those where, you know, straight
away I've definitely done something here. So we had to leave Friday night youth and
left the leaders a little bit short and head up to A&E. And they confirmed that I'd broken
a metatarsal bone in your foot. So I had, at the time I was 16. It was my first year
of A levels and I had two exams on the Monday. So I broke my foot on the Friday night at
the weekend and on the Monday. I felt really prepared for these exams. I'd like revised,
I'd made notes, I'd got wallpaper that I'd written on the back of and stuck it up on
my wall. I knew what I was doing. And I had to wait until everyone else had gone into
the hall and then I had to go in last on my crutches because they deemed it that someone
might knock me over as they go in. And I'm clumsy at the best of times. On this, this
was the longest walk I have ever done in front of about 120 of my peers who were all like
15, 16, 17. And I managed to put my crutch on someone's foot and they shouted out the
top of their voice in this silent exam hall. Then I knocked my pencil case off the top
of my desk with my crutches and everybody was just looking at me. I've never gone so
red in my life before. I was a bit all over the place and I absolutely fluffed that first
exam. I then had to go into like a private room with a tutor and sit down and wait because
all the other kids were going in another room that I couldn't get to because it was upstairs.
And so I just about scrapped a pass in my second exam on the Monday. My next exam was
due to be on the Wednesday. So I had the Tuesday off and I went to see my tutor and said, look,
that was just, I've messed that up because of the prep and the way that I went into the
hall. So next time can I go in first, which would have been logical to me anyway, and
just sit and then everyone else can come in and he sort of agreed that's absolutely fine.
Tuesday night, I get a phone call from Pete. Pete and the other youth leaders were all
meeting down at Calvary Now Arise. They'd had this sort of monthly youth prayer meeting
and they felt really cool to pray for healing. So I had a phone call that night and they
prayed for me over the phone. I wasn't in the building with them and I had a really
hot sensation, like a tingling feeling over the top of my foot. And I looked down and
all I can explain is like over the time they were praying for like three or four minutes,
it was quite a long prayer. I felt I could see the swelling and the bruising on my foot
reducing and it went to kind of like a redness rather than a bruise. So Pete said, can you,
has anything changed? I said, I think so, keep praying. So he kept praying and I eventually
managed to walk down the stairs without my crutches and walk straight outside to kick
a football. This was a broken metatarsal and I was in no pain at all. You can imagine my
college tutor's face when I went to see him on Wednesday morning and said, I don't need
to go in the hall first, it's okay, it's all sorted. And that actually led to a really
cool time with our Christian union at King Ed's. I helped run the Christian union at
the time there. Lydia's sister, Haley was part of that as well. And it just felt really
fresh and really cutting edge. We ended up being called into the principal's office and
we said that we had to stop offering to pray for people because we actually saw healings
out on the street in Stowbridge as a result of all this. I know God has healed me in many
other ways in my life. Sometimes I personally find it really easy to slip into like negative
thought patterns or develop a bad attitude towards something and God has healed me of
a bad attitude time and time and time again. Now to frame all of those stories, there have
been many more times that I prayed for people and they haven't been healed miraculously
than the other way around. It's easy to feel that our prayers for healing sometimes don't
work. God isn't supposed to be a magic genie, a wish granting genie who always does exactly
what we want. But he does promise to never leave us nor forsake us. He promises that
he knows what is best for us, that he works all things to the good of those who love him.
Your answer to prayer may not be the answer that you're looking for right now. And if
you do have questions about unanswered prayer, I haven't got time to go into that this afternoon,
but there's a really great book by a man called Pete Grieg. Pete Grieg is the founder of 24
7 Prayer in the UK and he's written a book called God on Mute. I'd really encourage you
to go and read that. There's another guy called Tyler Stanton who runs 24 7 Prayer in America.
I'm currently working through one of his books which is Pray Like Monks, Live Like Fools.
It's very good. It's very good. So it's well worth a read on if you're struggling with
that topic as every single Christian has struggled with that topic. I'd encourage you to go and
read those or even check out the YouTube bits. We did one of Pete Grieg's series about unanswered
prayer through our live groups recently and that was really, really helpful. Just rest
assured that God does heal. Faith means that we put our trust in God and that is especially
powerful when sometimes we feel unheard and we still choose to put our trust in God. God
does hear you. God is closer than a brother. God knows the number of hairs on your head.
We just need to trust him. In the Bible we have the perfect example of the person Jehovah
Rapha when we look at Jesus. He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and a perfect mirror
to the story of Exodus. He's bringing us modern day Christians into our promised land which
is eternity with him. During Jesus' ministry he performed many, many miracles in the name
of God. Too many to list this afternoon but he healed people physically, emotionally,
spiritually. Jesus showed he was what the Bible calls the great physician who heals
the sick. In Galilee Jesus went from town to town healing every disease and sickness
among the people. In Judea large crowds followed him and he healed them there. In fact it says
in the book of Mark, wherever he went into villages, towns or the countryside they placed
the sick in the market places. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his
cloak and all who touched it were healed. Not only did Jesus heal people physically,
he also healed them spiritually by forgiving their sins, the things that would disconnect
us from God. Luke 5 verse 2. Every day in every way Jesus proved himself to be Jehovah
Rapha in the flesh. In Mark 2 we see how much Jesus wants to heal us spiritually, forgiving
our sins and bringing us into new life with him. This is Mark 2 verses 1 to 5. A few days
later when Jesus again entered Capernaum the people heard that he had come home. They gathered
in such large numbers there was no room left, not even outside the door and he preached
the word to them. Some men came bringing to him a paralysed man carried by four of them.
Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd they made an opening in the roof
above Jesus by digging through the ceiling. I can imagine the person who owned the house
was pretty annoyed at this point. They lowered the mat that the man was lying on. When Jesus
saw their faith he said to the paralysed man, son your sins are forgiven. I love that story
because there is a paralysed man on the floor and what you are expecting Jesus to say is
get up and walk. The first thing he says is son your sins are forgiven. In the next verse
Jesus did go on to physically heal the man. He said to him get up and walk as people were
chastising him and saying who is this man to be able to say these things. But this man,
Jesus was Jehovah Rapha in the flesh. Church I am going to wrap up in a moment, the band
are going to come up and play but what I do want to do this afternoon is give you the
opportunity to know this Jesus for the very very first time. This person who was the very
embodiment of Jehovah Rapha. So if you would not class yourself as a Christian, if you
are sitting here thinking oh I think I want to start this journey, my heart is beating
a bit quicker, more than normal, I would love to pray for you. We will say that prayer and
then we are going to open up the front just down here. For anyone who wants to be prayed
for maybe you are struggling with a sense of anxiety like I was a couple of years ago.
We want to pray for you here at the front. We are not going to promise anything but we
do know that we serve a good God and we would love to pray with you. Maybe if you are struggling
with something physically maybe you could come and share that with somebody at the front
and we would love to pray for you. If you have got a family member who is sick or ill,
they do not have to be here in person, I was on the end of a phone, you can come to the
front and speak to one of us and we would gladly pray for you right here. So as the
band come up I am going to pray. This prayer is for maybe someone who is feeling like they
want to know this Jesus for the first time. Maybe you are someone who would not say you
are a Christian but maybe you want to make that step this afternoon. So let us pray.
Lord God thank you that you love me. Thank you that you love me so much that you came
to this earth and died for me. Lord I have got so many questions, I do not understand
all of this stuff but I know that I want to know more. Lord please come and help me, please
come and be with me, please come and live in my heart. And thank you that because I
ask you have permission to come into my life. Lord thank you that you are my saviour, thank
you that you are my lord. In Jesus name. Amen. I would just ask everyone to keep their head
bowed for a moment and if you are someone who maybe said that prayer for the first time
this evening I would love you to do an incredibly brave thing and just look up and make eye
contact with me. We would love to pray with you, we do not want to embarrass you. We would
love to pray with you and put a bible in your hand and help you with your next few steps.
Amen. Amen. Lord I pray this afternoon that you would be Jehovah Rapha to us. Lord I pray
that you would come right now and heal us. For those of us in here who are sick in our
bodies, who have something that we want to get rid of that is plaguing our health. Lord
right now you have the power to remove that thing. Lord maybe we have come in this afternoon
feeling like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. Maybe we have come in with
a sense of anxiety, maybe we have even been diagnosed with some mental health things.
Lord you can break that right now. You are Jehovah Rapha. Lord we believe in you. There
is a prayer on the screen that you might want to pray right now church. Dear God I know
that the first step in all spiritual healing is to believe. I believe. I open my mind and
heart believing in your infinite power and possibility. I believe that healing is a dynamic
and reachable experience, a reality that can be experienced right now. I maintain a patient
and loving attitude for I believe that your healing activity is now at work in my mind
and body. I look forward with joyful expectation to the perfect wholeness that you are now
bringing into manifestation through me. I believe in your constant expression of perfect
good in and through me. I rest in the certainty of your healing power. I know that with you
all things are possible. In the name of Jesus Christ everybody said Amen, Amen. The front
here is going to remain open. I am going to move the big table out of the way. If you
feel like you need someone to pray for you this is your opportunity right now. We are
here. We want to pray. We are going to sing and worship God and if that is you, you feel
like you need to come to the front for prayer, we would love to pray with you. Bless you.
In the presence of my enemies I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief. I raise a hallelujah.
My weapon is a melody. I raise a hallelujah. Heaven comes to fight for me. And I'm going
to sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder you're going to hear my praises
and hope will arise. Death is defeated, the King is alive. I raise a hallelujah with everything
inside of me. I raise a hallelujah. I will watch the darkness flee. I raise a hallelujah
in the middle of the mystery. I raise a hallelujah. If fear you lost your hold on me. Cause I'm
going to sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder you're going to hear my praises
and hope will arise. Death is defeated, the King is alive. Sing a little louder. Sing
a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder ś around the world. Sing
Sing a little louder In the presence of my enemies
Sing a little louder Louder than the unbelief
Sing a little louder My weapon is the melody
Sing a little louder The heaven comes to fight for me
I'm gonna sing In the middle of the storm
Louder and louder You're gonna hear my praises roar
Up from the ashes The folk will arise
Death is defeated The King is alive
I'm gonna sing In the middle of the storm
Louder and louder You're gonna hear my praises roar
Up from the ashes The folk will arise
Death is defeated The King is alive
Thank you Lord Hallelujah
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