[00:00] Speaker 1: (music)

[06:09] Speaker 2: (music)

[12:19] Speaker 3: (gentle music)

[13:13] Speaker 3: (bells chiming)

[17:02] Speaker 3: Congregation of God who meets us here tonight is a healer. He heals our diseases and He redeems our life from the pit, and He crowns us with love and compassion. He greets us saying, "Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father, from Christ His Son, through the mighty and powerful work of His Holy Spirit." Amen. Welcome everyone to our evening service tonight at La Grave Avenue Christian Reform Church. Um, welcome to members and visitors. Whoever you are here tonight, you've come to a special service. This is our annual service of prayer and healing. I say annual service, the truth is, we haven't done it in a few years. Uh, we used to do these every year, but when COVID came, um, things changed and we haven't done one since. So we thought we should revive it tonight. And it's a wonderful chance for us to be able to bring our cares, our needs, our, our wounds, our diseases, to God in prayer, and be prayed over by pastors and elders.

[18:05] Speaker 3: And the way that will b- work, and I'll explain most of it now so I don't have to explain it later, in your bulletins are these little cards. And if you feel the need of prayer, if the Holy Spirit, uh, moves you to write a prayer request on this card, there will be four stations.So a pastor and an elder here, a pastor and elder here, a pastor and elder through the back door and in the narthex there, and a pastor and elder through the back door and in the narthex there. So if you just write your request briefly on this card, there are little pencils in your pew if you don't have a pen, and that will give us the prompt we need to pray for you. Now this could be a prayer for you. It could be something that, uh, a disease that you have, something you're struggling with. It could be, um, something that's in your spirit. It could be a prayer for grief and for your help with grief. It could be a friend, it could be a coworker.

[19:01] Speaker 3: If, if the Holy Spirit puts someone on your heart, please feel free to come forward and share that with one of the prayer teams and we would love to be able to pray over you. If you are not moved, that's okay. You're not obligated. But we hope that many of you will bring forward your prayers so that we can lift you up. In preparation for that, um, I have a meditation prepared. And this is a meditation b- based on Mark 2:1-12, one of Jesus' very first healing miracles in the Synoptic Gospels, when Jesus heals a paralyzed man. You know this story, I will read it for you. Listen. "A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he'd come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and so he preached the word to them inside.

[20:05] Speaker 3: Some men came bringing a paralyzed man, carried by four of them, and since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then they lowered the man that was r- they lowered the mat that the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven.' Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?' Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit, uh, w- that this was what they were thinking in their hearts and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things?

[20:54] Speaker 3: Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up, take up your mat and walk"?' But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins." So he said to the man, "I tell you, get up, take up your mat, and go home." The man got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this." This is the word of the Lord.

[21:33] Speaker 4: Thanks be to God.

[21:34] Speaker 3: Tonight, we're doing a service of prayer and healing. And as I do that and as we think about that, I, I don't know if there's any, any household, any person, any family who doesn't need those kinds of prayers in their life. I think that most of you know that we have a prayer team at La Grave, so a group of people who gather weekly now to pray. They gather in the chapel on Wednesday at 1:15. We have a whole list of things that, that we pray for every Wednesday. I'm there sometimes, not as often as I'd like, but there are many, some of you here and, and others in the church who are there every single Wednesday, lifting up the whole congregation in their prayers. And one of the things we do at that prayer time is that we always have a list of eight households from the congregation that we pray for, eight households. They're simply listed there. And they're just, they're, we, we choose those eight households alphabetically.

[22:31] Speaker 3: We started at the beginning of the alphabet with A and we're just praying through the whole directly, r- directory. We're gonna keep going until we get to Zylstra and Zuidervliet. Um, in that way, we lift up the whole congregation in prayer. But then one thing we do after we've prayed for those eight names, uh, Jolene, blessed be her name, will email all those eight people and we'll say, "Hey, we prayed for you this, this week in our prayer team. Is there anything else specific that you would like prayed for?" And it is always astonishing to me, Jolene shares those with the team, how many people respond and how many needs are lifted up, how many needs there are below the surface of peoples' lives. Concerns about family members, concerns about health, concerns about the health of a loved one, mental health, work, finances, you name it. When you read that list, you know that everybody is looking for healing.

[23:33] Speaker 3: Every single person is throwing their lives up to God and saying, "O Lord, hear my prayer. When I call, answer me." And we throw those up to heaven because this book and the gospels tell us that Jesus is a healer. Jesus is a healer. There are so many stories that confirm that in the New Testament. And in the story we read, the man comes to Jesus 'cause he believes that Jesus is a healer. He comes, carried by his friends, with his weakness, and he's looking for Jesus to heal that physical weakness. It is physical healing that he is looking for primarily. In that respect, he's like a lot of us in our prayers.Uh, a lot of our prayers, and, and probably the prayers that will be brought to us tonight will be prayers for physical things. Right? Diseases that we have, diseases our friends have. Lord, heal this person's cancer. Lord, help this person to recover from surgery. Lord, lift the cloud of depression. Lord, lift this chronic pain.

[24:45] Speaker 3: Physical prayers for physical needs are often the first things we throw up to heaven, and that's understandable because our physical needs are, are right there. They're right in front of us. They're immediate, right? Tangible. And Jesus is a healer. He heals, he hears the prayers of this man and he heals them. Jesus heals our physical needs, which is why we schedule a service like this. But I hope you notice that in addition to those sort of obvious physical needs, which are the first things we throw up to God, there's another kind of healing that Jesus does in this passage. When the paralytic is brought to Jesus, I'm sure he's thinking first and foremost about his legs. He's thinking that he wants to walk. He's thinking that he wants to rejoin productive society. That's the presenting affliction that he has.

[25:43] Speaker 3: But Jesus sees beneath the presenting affliction, and so the very first thing he says to this man who's brought to him is, "Your sins are forgiven." Jesus seems to see a different need than the friends who brought this paralyzed man. "Your sins are forgiven." That's an odd thing for Jesus to say. Some commentators have said, "Oh. Well, maybe it was a sin that's the cause of his affliction. Maybe Jesus needs to forgive the sin because it was a sin that this man is being punished for and that's why he's paralyzed." I, I don't think that's right. John 9 I think excludes that. Remember John 9 when the disciples say to Jesus, "Whose sin, this man or his parents, that he's been born blind?" Like it's a punishment. And Jesus says, "That's not how any of this works." Nope, it's something else. Jesus just sees human struggle differently than we do.

[26:42] Speaker 3: When the man is lowered to the roof in front of the crowd, I'm sure every single person there thought, "His main problem is that he's paralyzed." But Jesus sees that paralysis can also be something that gets your soul. That this man is in the grip of fear and worry, spiritual bondage. He sees these deeper struggles and so he says to those, "Your sins are forgiven." Jesus' healing is multidimensional. It's not just for our bodies, it's for our souls. Jesus came to heal all of it. And I think that's worth remembering as we come and bring our prayers tonight, if you choose to go to one of the four corners, I hope many of you will choose to fill out those cards. I imagine that a lot of what you choose to fill out will probably be physical needs. But even as you present these physical needs and these physical afflictions, know that Jesus will be looking more deeply than that. At the whole of you. And that's why I want to say that, um, whatever happens tonight, um, there will be healing.

[27:56] Speaker 3: Every prayer that is prayed will lead to healing. Now I know, not, not complete healing. We know from experience that we, a lot of times we pray for, for personal healing and we don't get exactly the healing that we need. But I am confident that Jesus the healer will hear every single one of our prayers and that there will either be some sort of strength for your physical life, some sort of strength for your spiritual life, maybe some for both. But every prayer that is said over every single person and every single need here will cause some strength to flow from Jesus to you and bring some healing. We can be assured of that. Here's something interesting when we think of both sides of Jesus healing. The teachers of the law hear Jesus say, "Your sins are forgiven." And they are skeptical about that. And so Jesus asks them a question, "What's easier?

[28:52] Speaker 3: To say your sins are forgiven or take up your mat and walk?" And I think when the, the, the teachers of the law hear that, I think they- th- their answer would be, "Well, of course it's harder to say take up your mat and walk. Anyone can say your sins are forgiven. Take up your mat and walk, uh, uh, that would be a supernatural healing where a paralytic walks, that would be really amazing." But is that the correct answer? Which is easier for Jesus to do? Which of those two things is gonna cost Jesus more? Saying your sins are forgiven or pick up your mat? Which is gonna cause him more pain? The take up your mat, that's a little bit of his power going out of him, it's a little bit of his time. The forgiveness is going to cost him everything, right? It's gonna cost him his life on the cross. It is too easy a thing for God to take away our aches and pains. Ultimately, he has come to this earth to renovate us completely, body and soul.

[29:56] Speaker 3: There's one more thing I'd like to share about this passage, and that has to do with the work of the friends. I think you probably noticed, and it's a thing that's often noticed about this passage, is that, um, when Jesus starts his work, the thing he responds to is faith. But it's not the faith of the man, it's the faith of the friends. Right? When Jesus saw their faith, the friends' faith, that moved him to action, to heal.So those guys did for their paralyzed friends what we're gonna do for each other tonight. They lifted ... Well, actually, they lowered their paralyzed friend in front of Jesus for his healing. It's a kind of prayer. And today we will lift up each other up to heaven for that same healing, friends carrying friends. It makes me wonder whose idea it was for the paralyzed man to go to Jesus. I wonder if it was the friends' idea. Maybe after all those years of being paralyzed the paralyzed man didn't have much hope.

[31:07] Speaker 3: Maybe after all those years of being paralyzed and praying about it and nothing happened, maybe he didn't have so much confidence in prayer. Maybe his faith was paper thin, but his friends said, "Come on, let's go." His friends had hope for him when he couldn't hope. His friends had faith for him when he had no faith. His friends prayed for him when they couldn't pray anymore. And that is what we do as a community, because the weight of our struggle can sometimes make it hard for us to hope and hard for us to pray. And when that happens, the rest of us lift each other up and carry one another. So let's do that tonight. Let's come to Jesus, the healer. Let's pool our faith and our hope and love, and let's lift each other into the presence of Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, uh, we're gonna come to you tonight with our, with our diseases, both of the body and of the soul. We're gonna come to you with our worries and our woes.

[32:22] Speaker 3: We're gonna come to you with the deep things of our hearts. Thank you that you are a healer and that you will hear these prayers and that you will move towards these prayers. Lord, I pray for each one of the four prayer teams that will pray tonight. Send your Holy Spirit upon them, send your power and your mercy, that their prayers may be powerful and effective on the behalf of your people. In Christ's name I pray it. Amen.

[32:45] Speaker 3: (organ music)

[32:56] Speaker 4: (singing)

[36:18] Speaker 4: Be then a vessel, O

[36:20] Speaker 3: As we come tonight looking for healing that is both for our body and soul, let's ... Before we have our prayer time with the four prayer circles, um, let's come in a time of confession and ask God to heal our souls.... and the call to confession are these words from James 5:16, which link confession and healing. James says, "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." Please join me in the prayer of confession. Dear Jesus, for the times we have lied to one another and the times we have been lied to...

[37:08] Speaker 4: Heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.

[37:10] Speaker 3: For the times we have laughed at another's pain and the times we have been laughed at...

[37:15] Speaker 4: Heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.

[37:20] Speaker 3: For the times we have spoken when we should have remained silent, and the times when we've rai- remained silent when we should have spoken...

[37:29] Speaker 4: Heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world.

[37:32] Speaker 3: For the times we've not respected another's freedom to be different from us...

[37:39] Speaker 4: Heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world. For the times we have betrayed a friend, and the times we have been betrayed. Heal us, Jesus, Savior of the world. O God of heaven and earth, You emptied Yourself of Your power and became a helpless babe in order that You might heal the sick world. Teach us to empty ourselves of the things that destroy us and keep us alone. Empty us of our jealousy, our meanness, of our fear for others, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

[38:25] Speaker 3: Our healing comes through Jesus Christ, and these words from Isaiah are about Jesus Christ. "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him. And by His wounds, we are healed." Thanks be to God. (gentle music)

[38:56] Speaker 4: My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine; Now hear me while I pray; Take all my guilt away; Oh, let me from this day Be wholly Thine! Make Thy rich grace, oh Lord, Strength to my fainting heart; My spirit's fire; As Thou hast died for me, Holding my love to Thee, Pure, born, and changelessly, A living sacrifice. While life's dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread; Be Thou my guide; Bid darkness turn to day; Wipe sorrow's tears away; Oh, that we never stray From Thee, oh Christ.

[41:35] Speaker 3: Please be seated. Now in a moment, I'll say the words of invitation and you may come forward to be prayed over. Um, we're gonna be singing those hymns printed in your bulletins, uh, during this time, and we're gonna sing all three of those hymns no matter what. If we're, if all the prayers have been prayed over after the first hymn, it doesn't matter, we're gonna sing these hymns as we lift one another before God in prayer. Hear the words of invitation. These are Jesus' words to you. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Thanks be to God.

[42:23] Speaker 3: (gentle music)

[42:44] Speaker 5: (instrumental music)

[48:52] Speaker 6: (choir sings)

[49:01] Speaker 6: (instrumental music plays)

[55:01] Speaker 7: (slow instrumental music)

[01:01:11] Speaker 8: (music)

[01:04:05] Speaker 3: It's a beautiful thing to see the church lift one another up, the family of God lift one another up in prayer. Let's gather these prayers in this concluding prayer that I will pray f- on behalf of us all. Almighty God, you have promised to hear the petitions of all who ask in your Son's name. We ask that you will mercifully turn your ear to us now that we've made our prayers and our supplications to you. Grant that those things that we've asked for faithfully and according to your will may be granted by your grace and through your power. May they give relief to our need and may they magnify your glory. Merciful Jesus, you've promised that when we don't know what to pray for, your Holy Spirit intercedes with us and for us in groans that words cannot express. So we pray that w- you will hear both our groans and our words tonight. They're deeply personal. They come from our pain.

[01:05:12] Speaker 3: Lord Jesus, you came to this world to share and to bear our pain, to destroy our sin and destroy the pain of this world through the power of your blood. We know that someday we will be made new, that every one of our diseases will be healed, and every one of our pains will be gone, and all our tears will be dried. Until that glorious day, keep us faithful and hopeful. We ask these things because where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life and our hope is in you all day long. In your name we pray, Jesus. Amen.

[01:05:53] Speaker 8: (music)

[01:07:21] Speaker 4: congregation sings

[01:09:15] Speaker 3: Go out from this place and go out into your week with the strong blessing of God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord lift up His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face towards you, smile upon you, and fill you with His peace, both now and forever more.

[01:09:34] Speaker 4: Amen.

[01:09:45] Speaker 9: (piano music plays)

[01:14:42] Speaker 9: (piano music plays) (piano music plays)