WEBVTT 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:12.699 Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:15.279 Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:19.000 podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast, 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:20.879 you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:24.359 change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:36.039 message from our preaching team. Isn't absent 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:37.880 in our life, but you're a god of love who is 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:42.820 with us Father pray that right now that as I 00:00:42.820 --> 00:00:45.560 speak as I preach this message father that your 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.439 spirit would go before me Father may your spirit 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:57.320 here in this room do a work in us tonight God 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:01.840 may you be glorified above all else We declare 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:03.960 you as king we declare you sovereign over this 00:01:03.960 --> 00:01:07.810 place Father, may anything that isn't of you 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:11.709 in what I've prepared, may my eyes miss it, may 00:01:11.709 --> 00:01:15.069 I forget about it, may I just go past it so that 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:17.909 your words and your message can be declared tonight. 00:01:19.010 --> 00:01:24.530 In your name, amen. Some of you already know 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:27.930 this about me, some of you don't, but growing 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:32.659 up, my mum had a fight with breast cancer. I 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:35.700 go back through my memory, and I try and recall 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:38.120 a time before the diagnosis, but it's actually 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:41.980 really hard. For as long as I can remember, my 00:01:41.980 --> 00:01:44.799 mom was going through this fight with breast 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:49.019 cancer. I have lots of memories of the time. 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:53.519 One of the most distinct is when my mom had just 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:56.439 started chemo, and when you go through chemotherapy, 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.120 your hair falls out. And so she just said, stuff 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.519 it, I'm just going to shave it. And so we all 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:03.359 got together, me, my brother, my sister, my dad, 00:02:03.620 --> 00:02:05.099 we all got together and we all shaved our head 00:02:05.099 --> 00:02:07.079 and then she gave us a bunch of textures and 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:10.419 she said just go to town, just draw my head. 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:13.960 And I was quite young at the time and so I drew 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:17.620 the big red car from The Wiggles. It was my favourite 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:19.699 thing to watch on TV and so for a while my mum 00:02:19.699 --> 00:02:21.520 just had a big red car on the back of her head. 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:27.419 But I remember hospital visits, I remember... 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:29.939 Endless nights spent at my grandma's house because 00:02:29.939 --> 00:02:31.639 mum and dad were going to be at the hospital. 00:02:32.900 --> 00:02:35.539 I remember my mum calling out to me from the 00:02:35.539 --> 00:02:37.680 bedroom as I would go past on my way to soccer 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:39.879 games. She didn't even really have the energy 00:02:39.879 --> 00:02:42.800 to get out of bed, let alone to come to my soccer 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.860 games. She would always wish me good luck from 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:48.080 the bed as she heard me go past though. I remember 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.580 going shopping for weeks, prosthetic breasts. 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:54.800 That was strange. I remember meals being dropped 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:57.439 off for the house and I remember people coming 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:01.159 and cleaning up the place for us. And I also 00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:05.439 remember praying. My mum had just come to faith 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:09.800 and we'd started going to this church. And she'd 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:13.259 given her life to Christ and so me, my family, 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:16.000 church, her friends who were also Christian, 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:21.030 we would spend time praying for mum. And eventually 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:23.789 we received news that the cancer was gone. There 00:03:23.789 --> 00:03:28.509 was our own little miracle, a miraculous work 00:03:28.509 --> 00:03:32.389 of God, a miraculous work of healing that the 00:03:32.389 --> 00:03:35.770 cancer was gone. We celebrated, we gave thanks 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:38.449 to God, we were going to church and they invited 00:03:38.449 --> 00:03:40.770 my mom up to come and share her testimony of 00:03:40.770 --> 00:03:42.710 the way that God had moved in her life and this 00:03:42.710 --> 00:03:46.169 miraculous healing. Everything was just really 00:03:46.169 --> 00:03:49.870 good. For the first time in a long time, I kind 00:03:49.870 --> 00:03:51.969 of had a taste of what a normal childhood might 00:03:51.969 --> 00:03:56.370 have been like. But a few months go past, and 00:03:56.370 --> 00:03:59.689 when my mum goes in for a routine checkup, they 00:03:59.689 --> 00:04:04.469 found the cancer had come back. And it was a 00:04:04.469 --> 00:04:08.889 lot more aggressive. She went back to going through 00:04:08.889 --> 00:04:13.069 chemotherapy. She was back to spending days on 00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:17.339 end in her bed. We were back to spending nights 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:21.379 at Grandma's house and we were back to praying 00:04:21.379 --> 00:04:26.839 every single day. We were begging God to do another 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.620 miracle. You've done it once, God. Surely you 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:35.720 can do it again. Please heal my mum. But things 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:38.139 kept getting worse and she was eventually admitted 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:42.240 to a hospital ward and she spent a few days there. 00:04:43.779 --> 00:04:49.110 Then on the 12th of September she died. 2012, 00:04:49.610 --> 00:04:55.910 two days before my 14th birthday. We're talking 00:04:55.910 --> 00:05:00.550 about healing today. And I share this story because 00:05:00.550 --> 00:05:06.410 I have firsthand experience of God healing in 00:05:06.410 --> 00:05:08.910 a miraculous way. I've seen it with my eyes. 00:05:09.189 --> 00:05:11.329 I've seen it in my own life and my mum's life. 00:05:11.790 --> 00:05:16.930 I've seen God's power to heal people. But then 00:05:16.930 --> 00:05:21.110 I'm also intimately familiar with the pain that 00:05:21.110 --> 00:05:24.310 comes when there is no healing. When we spend 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:28.269 hours on our knees begging and praying for God 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:34.230 to intervene to do a healing work and for there 00:05:34.230 --> 00:05:40.970 just to seemingly be silence and nothing. Healing 00:05:40.970 --> 00:05:43.810 is one of those funny things for us in the 21st 00:05:43.810 --> 00:05:47.879 century because we read the Bible, And all throughout, 00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:51.660 but especially in the Gospels, we see Jesus performing 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:53.959 all these miracles and all these healings of 00:05:53.959 --> 00:05:56.680 different people all the time. Even in the Old 00:05:56.680 --> 00:05:58.680 Testament, like how Harry read for us, we have 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:01.600 this story of Naaman, or Naaman, however you 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.819 want to say it, I don't know. He was healed of 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:08.079 his leprosy, of his skin disease. Now we come 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:10.939 to church and we sung it today in that song, 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:13.899 I speak Jesus, you know, Jesus your name can 00:06:13.899 --> 00:06:19.519 heal. There is healing in your name You know, 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:21.680 we declare that our God is a God who can and 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:25.779 does heal. I think it would be pretty fair for 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.180 me to say that every single one of us in this 00:06:28.180 --> 00:06:33.519 room has known someone unwell and If you haven't 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:36.040 prayed you've at least thought about praying 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:40.680 for that person Maybe it's been yourself The 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:43.519 encounter slack prayer channel where members 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:47.060 of the church can put in prayer requests, constantly 00:06:47.060 --> 00:06:50.620 filled with people asking for God to, or for 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:55.319 people to pray for God to heal them. Even though 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:57.420 we read about it all the time in the Bible and 00:06:57.420 --> 00:07:01.060 we can ask for it and we can pray for it, supernatural 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:03.939 healing can sometimes feel pretty foreign to 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:09.459 us. In an age where we have incredible medical 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:11.660 advancements and incredible medical technology, 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:14.560 You know, a first century Jew coming in would 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:18.800 look at it and be like, what is that? You know, 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:22.100 we can take healing into our own hands and take 00:07:22.100 --> 00:07:26.579 it out of God's. When we get headaches, we take 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:29.360 a Panadol. When we break a bone, we go to the 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.139 emergency room and we get a cast on it and we 00:07:32.139 --> 00:07:36.319 might wait a few weeks and then it's fine. Do 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:39.360 we only turn to God when it's out of our hands? 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:43.040 Do we only turn to God when the doctors can't 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:46.199 help? And if there is no healing, do we get bitter 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:49.959 at God? How much do we really believe in the 00:07:49.959 --> 00:07:54.120 power of God to heal us? And for some of us, 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:56.120 I don't just mean physical healing, but it could 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.100 mean spiritual healing, emotional, mental healing. 00:08:02.459 --> 00:08:04.379 The preaching series that we've been making our 00:08:04.379 --> 00:08:06.079 way through over the last few weeks is called 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:09.149 The Power of Encounter. And the whole purpose 00:08:09.149 --> 00:08:11.769 of this series is to turn up the spiritual heat 00:08:11.769 --> 00:08:14.290 here at Encounter Church by looking at the different 00:08:14.290 --> 00:08:17.069 ways in which the Holy Spirit can come into our 00:08:17.069 --> 00:08:20.189 lives. How the spiritual realm is not just a 00:08:20.189 --> 00:08:22.230 cool foreign kind of concept that we read about 00:08:22.230 --> 00:08:25.490 in the Bible, but it's real. And it can have 00:08:25.490 --> 00:08:30.209 real power in our lives if we let it. Because 00:08:30.209 --> 00:08:32.649 encounter is more than just experiencing God's 00:08:32.649 --> 00:08:35.529 power. When we're talking about encounter, it's 00:08:35.529 --> 00:08:38.720 encountering the presence of God. And there's 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:41.379 a distinct difference because God's power can 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:44.559 change our circumstance. You know, God's hand 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:46.519 and his intervention can come in and it can do 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:48.899 amazing things in our world and in our life. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.620 But God's presence does more than that. It changes 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:58.299 us. God's presence changes us despite our circumstance. 00:08:58.460 --> 00:09:00.220 Regardless of what's happening in life, whether 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:02.600 it's absolutely amazing, having the best day 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:04.480 of your life, or maybe it's the absolute worst 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:07.509 day of your life. the presence of God and His 00:09:07.509 --> 00:09:12.090 Spirit has the power to change us. By opening 00:09:12.090 --> 00:09:14.549 ourselves up to the power of encountering the 00:09:14.549 --> 00:09:17.169 Holy Spirit, we are opening ourselves up to a 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:19.990 richness of life and relationship with God that 00:09:19.990 --> 00:09:25.009 goes deeper and burns brighter as a result. We've 00:09:25.009 --> 00:09:26.629 looked at a couple of different things already, 00:09:26.830 --> 00:09:31.809 humility, holiness, hearing, and now we're rounding 00:09:31.809 --> 00:09:34.830 it off by talking about healing. If we think 00:09:34.830 --> 00:09:37.850 of it like yin and yang, healing is something 00:09:37.850 --> 00:09:41.750 that's synonymous with suffering. One cannot 00:09:41.750 --> 00:09:44.710 exist without the other. You must suffer in some 00:09:44.710 --> 00:09:48.909 capacity in order to need healing. And that can 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:50.950 be healing in many different types of ways. It 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:53.669 could be physical healing of an illness or an 00:09:53.669 --> 00:09:56.210 injury. Maybe it's some kind of emotional or 00:09:56.210 --> 00:09:58.769 mental healing. Maybe you have anxiety or depression 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:01.490 or some other mental disorder or mental health 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:05.549 struggle. Could even be relational healing a 00:10:05.549 --> 00:10:07.309 fractured relationship that you have with someone 00:10:07.309 --> 00:10:11.830 else that needs healing All different ways in 00:10:11.830 --> 00:10:14.769 which we can encounter God through healing and 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:18.129 before I go in any further I Just want you guys 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:21.830 to stop and think Where do you need God's healing 00:10:21.830 --> 00:10:27.149 in your life? Where do you need God's healing 00:10:27.149 --> 00:10:31.559 in your life? It might not be for you personally, 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:34.820 but it might be for someone that you know. And 00:10:34.820 --> 00:10:38.620 as you're thinking of that, I wanna preface this 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:41.399 message by saying that I cannot promise you healing 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:46.259 after this sermon. At the end, I'm gonna open 00:10:46.259 --> 00:10:48.799 it up and we're gonna give people an opportunity 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:51.000 to receive some ministry and receive some prayer 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:54.639 for healing. But I cannot guarantee that by the 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:57.480 time I'm finished talking up here, that I'll 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.049 be giving you a word of knowledge. or the keys 00:11:00.049 --> 00:11:02.929 to unlock God's power of healing in your life. 00:11:03.389 --> 00:11:06.070 I can't promise that. I can't guarantee that. 00:11:07.230 --> 00:11:10.529 I know that for some of you in the room, you've 00:11:10.529 --> 00:11:13.929 been suffering. Or you know of someone who has 00:11:13.929 --> 00:11:16.330 been suffering and you might have had some advice 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:18.929 given to you or maybe you've had some of your 00:11:18.929 --> 00:11:21.690 own thoughts along the lines of maybe you just 00:11:21.690 --> 00:11:24.990 need to pray more. Maybe you need to have more 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:27.250 faith. You just need to believe a little bit 00:11:27.250 --> 00:11:32.440 harder. And if I'm being frank, and as someone 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:36.679 who's heard all of this before, that's rubbish. 00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:42.919 Maybe you've given this advice to someone before 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:47.320 and I'm sure you've had great intentions, but 00:11:47.320 --> 00:11:50.799 it sucks. As someone who's been through that 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.320 suffering and being told you just need to pray 00:11:53.320 --> 00:11:56.539 more and you just need to have more faith, it 00:11:56.539 --> 00:12:02.120 stings. Because that's not how God works Where 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:05.360 tears of his power are unlocked by having a particular 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.720 amount of faith? You know it's not like a Netflix 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.899 subscription Where you can just be like all right 00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:13.639 Angus has prayed a hundred prayers this month 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:15.919 that means he can get more healing than just 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:18.860 for his block nose Now he maybe he can walk a 00:12:18.860 --> 00:12:21.080 little bit quicker this week that pain in his 00:12:21.080 --> 00:12:26.399 hip now that he's getting old That's gone You 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:29.120 know, it's not like that. It's not how God operates. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:32.320 You know, more faith does not equal more healing. 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:35.639 More prayers does not equal more healing. That 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:37.320 just doesn't make sense because when we look 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:40.860 at Jesus, he was begging and pleading for God's 00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:43.819 intervention in the Garden of Gethsemane. He 00:12:43.819 --> 00:12:46.679 was pleading desperately for God to step in and 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:48.980 intervene when he had to go to the cross. And 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:51.340 this is Jesus who's the perfect man. He's lived 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:54.320 the perfect life. He has no sin, no shame, nothing 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.000 that he's done wrong in his life. He's been in 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.580 perfect relationship with God his entire life. 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:00.820 And yet when he prays for God to do something, 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:06.799 God says no. And so if God can say no to Jesus, 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:12.539 he can say no to us. It's not a matter of having 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:16.200 enough faith and I want to say that if you have 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:20.940 had a lack of healing in your life if you have 00:13:20.940 --> 00:13:23.259 been struggling with something for a long time 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:25.200 and you've been praying you've been pleading 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.399 and you've been begging for God and you've seen 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:29.259 no breakthrough it's not because of a lack of 00:13:29.259 --> 00:13:32.080 faith maybe you've been told that before and 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.740 I just want to break that lie it's not because 00:13:34.740 --> 00:13:37.830 of a lack of faith It's not because you're not 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:40.070 good enough. It's not because you haven't believed 00:13:40.070 --> 00:13:41.809 hard enough It's not because you haven't prayed 00:13:41.809 --> 00:13:44.289 enough and it's not because God doesn't love 00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:49.029 you enough While I'm up here speaking I can't 00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:52.370 promise you all the answers But my hope and my 00:13:52.370 --> 00:13:54.450 prayer is that wherever you find yourself today 00:13:54.450 --> 00:13:56.570 whether you're in need of healing or whether 00:13:56.570 --> 00:13:59.250 you're not that this message would just be an 00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:03.750 encouragement for you and so I've already been 00:14:03.750 --> 00:14:06.769 talking for a while, but let's jump into it Let's 00:14:06.769 --> 00:14:10.149 get started. When we think of healing, we can 00:14:10.149 --> 00:14:13.269 often approach it in a similar way, a similar 00:14:13.269 --> 00:14:17.070 mindset to Naaman in the passage. Naaman, he 00:14:17.070 --> 00:14:20.029 was a military leader and he's been diagnosed 00:14:20.029 --> 00:14:22.529 with leprosy. And so he goes to this king of 00:14:22.529 --> 00:14:24.450 Israel and he offers him a bunch of money and 00:14:24.450 --> 00:14:27.389 says, heal me. And then he gets sent to Elisha, 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:29.769 who's a prophet. And he just wants to be healed. 00:14:29.889 --> 00:14:32.940 That's all he wants. And Elisha tells him, go 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:35.840 and wash yourself seven times in the River Jordan 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:40.220 and you will be cured. And Naaman gets mad. He 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:42.419 starts ranting about how Elisha should just wave 00:14:42.419 --> 00:14:45.700 his hand over him and be done. Or surely you'd 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:49.879 send me to the rivers of Damascus, far greater 00:14:49.879 --> 00:14:52.779 than the River Jordan. Surely if there's power, 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:55.360 it'll be in these great rivers as opposed to 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.960 the River Jordan. And we can get exactly like 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:02.970 that. Or at least I can. We pray to God and we 00:15:02.970 --> 00:15:05.809 ask for healing. We pray for breakthrough. We 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:09.009 pray for release. We pray for help and all these 00:15:09.009 --> 00:15:11.509 different great things. And we have an idea as 00:15:11.509 --> 00:15:14.769 to what kind of answer we're gonna get. We even 00:15:14.769 --> 00:15:17.750 try to predict how God will work only to not 00:15:17.750 --> 00:15:20.509 get the answer that we want. We don't get the 00:15:20.509 --> 00:15:22.470 direction we're looking for. We don't get the 00:15:22.470 --> 00:15:27.690 silver bullet. But I don't think that is up for 00:15:27.690 --> 00:15:31.490 debate. whether God can heal or not. I'm sure 00:15:31.490 --> 00:15:33.250 for most of us in the room, we would say, yeah, 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:36.070 I know God can heal. I believe that he can. It's 00:15:36.070 --> 00:15:38.429 in the Bible. We know that God has the power 00:15:38.429 --> 00:15:40.850 to heal. That's not a question. I think we can 00:15:40.850 --> 00:15:44.669 all safely agree that God can heal. Some of you 00:15:44.669 --> 00:15:46.309 have even seen it and experienced it in your 00:15:46.309 --> 00:15:50.370 own lives. Perhaps the harder question to ask 00:15:50.370 --> 00:15:55.730 is what do we do when God doesn't heal? Where 00:15:55.730 --> 00:16:00.860 do we go? What do we do? Maybe even before that 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:03.039 we need to ask ourselves what kind of posture 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:06.159 does God ask of us when we come to Him for healing? 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:08.820 How do we posture ourselves? What are we expecting 00:16:08.820 --> 00:16:12.919 from God when we ask for healing? Because this 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:15.679 story of Naaman being healed, it's not just a 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:19.500 story of healing. It's not just a story of healing. 00:16:19.659 --> 00:16:22.580 First and foremost, this is a story of encounter. 00:16:24.569 --> 00:16:27.509 Don't forget that. This is a story of encounter 00:16:27.509 --> 00:16:30.929 and that's what this series is all about. This 00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:34.750 is a story of a man encountering God, but it 00:16:34.750 --> 00:16:37.909 happened in a way that he wasn't expecting to. 00:16:38.929 --> 00:16:41.309 Because Naaman wanted healing on his own terms. 00:16:42.490 --> 00:16:44.669 Elisha tells him what he needs to do to be healed 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:48.250 and Naaman refuses. He walks up to the king with 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:50.090 a bunch of money and says, this is how I get 00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:52.730 healed surely. But then he gets sent to Elisha 00:16:52.730 --> 00:16:56.259 and Elisha tells him what to do. And Naaman walks 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:59.259 away angry because he already had an idea in 00:16:59.259 --> 00:17:01.960 his mind about what the miracle should be. This 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:03.639 is what this miracle should look like. This is 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:06.299 what it means for me to be healed. Naaman expected 00:17:06.299 --> 00:17:09.220 to be healed instantly, or if not that, he expected 00:17:09.220 --> 00:17:11.660 something far more grand than just going to a 00:17:11.660 --> 00:17:16.339 river and dunking his head seven times. Naaman 00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:19.920 was trying to fit God into his own expectations, 00:17:20.259 --> 00:17:23.420 but what Elisha told Naaman and what God wanted 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:28.839 from him, was obedience and surrender. Naaman 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:31.140 is used to dishing out orders, he's a general 00:17:31.140 --> 00:17:33.859 in the army, he's high ranking in the military, 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:37.619 but here he was being told what to do. In his 00:17:37.619 --> 00:17:39.960 mind he wasn't being healed, he was being put 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:44.299 to work. He had an idea as to how much control 00:17:44.299 --> 00:17:46.880 he'd be willing to give up and when that expectation 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.779 wasn't met he walked away disappointed and angry. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:56.940 And how often can we get like that. How often 00:17:56.940 --> 00:17:58.960 do we pray for healing in our bodies, in our 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:01.799 minds, in our relationships, or we pray on behalf 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:04.220 of someone else only to not have it answered 00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:09.779 and to end up bitter and resentful? I know I 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:13.200 have. Because when I was praying to God for months 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:17.140 to heal my mom and then she died, I was bitter 00:18:17.140 --> 00:18:22.599 for a long time. I hated God. It's a miracle 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:27.259 that I'm here now. I couldn't reconcile the God 00:18:27.259 --> 00:18:31.880 who healed my mum once, but then he didn't do 00:18:31.880 --> 00:18:39.380 it again. I couldn't make sense of that. I knew 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:42.500 that he could heal my mum, but every prayer I 00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:46.359 prayed was met with silence. We often want God 00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:48.720 to operate within our own frameworks, our own 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:53.160 ideas, our own paths and our own boxes, instead 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:57.099 of they're just letting God do his thing. But 00:18:57.099 --> 00:18:59.900 what we learn from Naaman's story is that encounter 00:18:59.900 --> 00:19:03.900 with God often starts with surrender. It doesn't 00:19:03.900 --> 00:19:07.180 start with control. We can't expect to have an 00:19:07.180 --> 00:19:08.940 encounter with God when we're trying to tell 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:13.299 him how he should work. God invited Naaman to 00:19:13.299 --> 00:19:17.119 trust him rather than dictate the terms of how 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:20.630 the miracle will happen. And that same invitation 00:19:20.630 --> 00:19:22.829 is there for us, regardless of whether we're 00:19:22.829 --> 00:19:25.549 healed or whether we're not. When we surrender 00:19:25.549 --> 00:19:28.950 control and we let God work in His way rather 00:19:28.950 --> 00:19:32.549 than ours, we open ourselves up to encounter 00:19:32.549 --> 00:19:35.809 with Him whether or not healing comes in the 00:19:35.809 --> 00:19:39.650 way that we'd hoped. Because for God, healing 00:19:39.650 --> 00:19:42.970 is about more than just feeling better. Healing 00:19:42.970 --> 00:19:47.710 is more than just getting well. It's about growing 00:19:47.710 --> 00:19:50.839 closer to Him. It's about getting to know Him 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:53.900 better. The passage shows us this because Naaman 00:19:53.900 --> 00:19:57.220 isn't just healed, but at the very end, in verse 00:19:57.220 --> 00:20:00.420 15, he says, now I know that there is no God 00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:04.160 in all the world except in Israel. And I think 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:06.460 for many of us, we can turn healing into something 00:20:06.460 --> 00:20:09.400 like a transaction. We can say, God, if you heal 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:12.180 me, if you heal this person that I love, if you 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:15.880 do this for me, then I'll love you forever. I 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:18.259 will do all these great things for you. I will 00:20:18.259 --> 00:20:21.039 dedicate my life to you if you do this for me. 00:20:22.220 --> 00:20:24.279 Or maybe it can be the other way around where, 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:25.759 you know, we're asking for something and God's 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:27.779 not giving it to us. And we can turn around and 00:20:27.779 --> 00:20:31.519 say, God, I've been such a good son. God, I've 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:33.480 been doing all this work for you. I've been trying 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:36.039 so hard for you. I've been faithful. I've been 00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.680 praying. I've been loving you. I've been reading 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:40.339 my Bible. I've been doing all the right things. 00:20:40.380 --> 00:20:42.160 And you won't give me this one thing that I asked 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:47.619 for. That was me. And my mom was sick. That was 00:20:47.619 --> 00:20:52.140 the prayer I prayed all the time. My mom, she 00:20:52.140 --> 00:20:53.900 was a dedicated Christian. I was sitting there 00:20:53.900 --> 00:20:56.640 going, God, she loves you. Why did you let her 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:02.039 die? But for God, healing isn't just an event. 00:21:03.420 --> 00:21:06.099 Healing isn't just something that happens. God 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:10.220 sees healing as part of a relationship. Healing 00:21:10.220 --> 00:21:12.859 can come and we see that in all different forms, 00:21:12.859 --> 00:21:16.210 but The hardest part is that sometimes it just 00:21:16.210 --> 00:21:20.049 doesn't come. The thing about God is that every 00:21:20.049 --> 00:21:22.730 encounter we have within produces deeper trust, 00:21:23.230 --> 00:21:28.670 deeper humility, dependence, and faith. Naaman's 00:21:28.670 --> 00:21:30.950 story of healing, just like every other story 00:21:30.950 --> 00:21:33.710 of healing in scripture, it points to something 00:21:33.710 --> 00:21:36.869 greater. And it foreshadows the work of Jesus 00:21:36.869 --> 00:21:40.250 who comes to heal more than just our minds or 00:21:40.250 --> 00:21:44.279 our bodies. But before we get to Jesus, let's 00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:47.880 talk about Job. The book of Job in the Old Testament 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:52.640 has a lot to say about suffering. A little bit 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:55.799 about God's perspective of our suffering as well. 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:58.319 If you've never read the story, it's actually 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:00.819 really good. I highly recommend it. There's this 00:22:00.819 --> 00:22:03.359 guy, Job, and he has it all. He has this perfect 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:05.759 life. He has an amazing family. He has all these 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:08.420 kids. He has a wife that loves him, and he loves 00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:10.799 her. He's got all these cows and sheep, which 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:12.579 are really important back then. He's got all 00:22:12.579 --> 00:22:16.460 this money, and he is wealthy, and he's successful, 00:22:16.460 --> 00:22:19.299 and he has a really great relationship with God. 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:21.680 He's faithful. He prays. He does all the right 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.079 things, and God loves him. He loves God. everything 00:22:26.079 --> 00:22:31.359 is up for Job. And then we see a conversation 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:35.720 between Satan and God. And Satan says, God, let 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:40.240 me go a few rounds with him. Let's see how faithful 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.859 Job really is. Let me go at him and we'll see 00:22:44.859 --> 00:22:49.220 if he's still faithful to you after I have a 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:52.519 bit of fun. And so God permits Job to be tested 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:57.900 by Satan. And Satan takes away his kids. His 00:22:57.900 --> 00:23:02.740 wife leaves him. His wealth is all gone. He gets 00:23:02.740 --> 00:23:05.640 super sick. He ends up completely homeless and 00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:09.279 completely destitute. He's lost absolutely everything. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.380 And his friends start saying all these things 00:23:12.380 --> 00:23:14.740 and they're trying to explain to Job how God 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:17.220 works. They say stuff like, maybe you're being 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:19.519 punched. What have you done wrong? You need to 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:22.559 pray more. You don't have enough faith. The same 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:24.440 things that I've heard before or maybe you've 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:28.200 heard before. They tried to fit God into a formula 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:30.220 and they tried to explain to Job what he needs 00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:34.460 to do in order to be blessed and healed. And 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:38.240 at the very end of the book, after 40 odd chapters 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:41.400 of Job suffering and going back and forth with 00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:45.220 his friends, at the end of the book we see Job 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:49.039 have an encounter with God. And Job challenges 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:51.359 God and he starts asking why he's allowed all 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:55.160 this to happen. And God responds in a very interesting 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:58.339 way. He says, where were you when I laid the 00:23:58.339 --> 00:24:01.640 earth's foundation? Do you give orders to the 00:24:01.640 --> 00:24:05.339 morning or to the dawn? Who is this that obscures 00:24:05.339 --> 00:24:11.480 my plans with words without knowledge? So God 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:14.819 challenges Job. But his point isn't to say don't 00:24:14.819 --> 00:24:19.369 be bitter. Don't be upset. Don't ask questions. 00:24:20.789 --> 00:24:23.309 Because Job has every right to have these feelings, 00:24:24.250 --> 00:24:28.869 right? He's lost absolutely everything. And God 00:24:28.869 --> 00:24:31.369 doesn't rebuke him for that. This isn't a rebuke 00:24:31.369 --> 00:24:34.450 from God. And so maybe that's where you're at 00:24:34.450 --> 00:24:37.130 tonight. Maybe you're feeling bitter or you're 00:24:37.130 --> 00:24:39.130 feeling resentful and you've been praying really 00:24:39.130 --> 00:24:40.950 hard for something and you're not really seeing 00:24:40.950 --> 00:24:43.609 any breakthrough and you're upset about it. That's 00:24:43.609 --> 00:24:48.359 fair enough. That is okay. Bring it to God. He 00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:53.220 can take it. Thanks so much for tuning into this 00:24:53.220 --> 00:24:56.339 week's message. If you felt challenged or need 00:24:56.339 --> 00:24:58.920 prayer, we'd love to hear from you on Instagram 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:02.039 at encounterhenley. Or if you're interested in 00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:04.599 how you can support this ministry, please go 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:09.400 to our website encounteradelaide .com .au. Thanks 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:11.440 again for listening. God bless you.