James Bailey - "The Power to Be Healed" (August 26, 1979)
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Transcript
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| - | Duke University Chapel Service of Worship, | 0:04 |
| August 26, 1979. | 0:06 | |
| (organ playing) | 0:15 | |
| - | Christ invites us to confess our sin | 15:39 |
| and to receive God's forgiveness | 15:42 | |
| and then to go and sin no more. | 15:45 | |
| Let us now begin that healing, redemptive process, | 15:48 | |
| by confessing together our sins. | 15:53 | |
| Almighty and most merciful God, | 15:57 | |
| we have aired and strayed from my ways like lost sheep. | 16:01 | |
| We have followed too much the devices | 16:06 | |
| and desires of our own hearts. | 16:08 | |
| We have offended against thy holy laws. | 16:11 | |
| We have left undone those things | 16:15 | |
| which we ought to have done. | 16:18 | |
| We have done those things, which we ought not to have done. | 16:21 | |
| But thou, oh Lord, have mercy upon us. | 16:26 | |
| Spare thou those, God, who confess their faults. | 16:30 | |
| Restore thou those who are penitent. | 16:36 | |
| According to thy promises, declared unto mankind, | 16:40 | |
| in Christ, Jesus our Lord. | 16:45 | |
| Grant, oh most merciful God, | 16:48 | |
| for his sake, that we may here after | 16:51 | |
| live a godly, righteous and sober life, | 16:54 | |
| to the glory of thy holy name. | 16:59 | |
| Amen. | 17:02 | |
| The Lord is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, | 17:18 | |
| patient, kind, a real source of steadfast love. | 17:24 | |
| God's promises are sure. | 17:31 | |
| We are reconciled to God and our neighbor. | 17:35 | |
| Peace be with you. | 17:39 | |
| We extend a hardy welcome to those of you | 17:46 | |
| who are worshiping with us this morning. | 17:48 | |
| It is our prayer that your worship with us | 17:51 | |
| will be inspiring and filled with joy. | 17:53 | |
| A special welcome to those of you traveling in this area. | 17:57 | |
| We hope that your travels are enjoyable | 18:01 | |
| and that you can return to your homes in safety. | 18:04 | |
| To new and returning students, | 18:08 | |
| who are with us this morning, | 18:10 | |
| welcome to and back to Durham. | 18:12 | |
| You certainly have a warm greeting this morning. | 18:15 | |
| May your time at Duke be exciting, | 18:19 | |
| challenging and satisfying. | 18:21 | |
| Especially this morning, we welcome to our pulpit, | 18:25 | |
| the Reverend Doctor Jim Bailey and his family, | 18:28 | |
| who is with us this morning. | 18:31 | |
| We thank him for sharing the word with us, this morning. | 18:33 | |
| Let us pray. | 18:40 | |
| Enlighten our minds, we pray you, oh God. | 18:44 | |
| By your Holy Spirit. | 18:47 | |
| That as we prepare to hear your word, | 18:50 | |
| as your son has promised, we may be led into all truth. | 18:53 | |
| Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. | 18:57 | |
| Amen. | 19:01 | |
| The scripture lesson for this morning, | 19:04 | |
| is a reading from the third chapter of the Book of Acts, | 19:07 | |
| beginning with the first verse. | 19:10 | |
| Now Peter and John were going up to the temple | 19:14 | |
| at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. | 19:17 | |
| A man lame from birth, was being carried, | 19:21 | |
| whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, | 19:24 | |
| which is called beautiful, | 19:26 | |
| to ask alms of those who entered the temple. | 19:28 | |
| Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, | 19:32 | |
| he asked for alms. | 19:35 | |
| Peter directed his gaze at him with John | 19:39 | |
| and said, "Look at us." | 19:41 | |
| He fixed his attention upon them, | 19:45 | |
| expecting to receive something from them. | 19:48 | |
| But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold. | 19:51 | |
| "But I give you what I have. | 19:55 | |
| "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." | 19:58 | |
| He took him by the right hand and raised him up | 20:03 | |
| and immediately, his feet and ankles were made strong. | 20:07 | |
| Leaping up, he stood and walked | 20:12 | |
| and entered the temple with them, | 20:14 | |
| walking and leaping and praising God. | 20:16 | |
| All the people saw him walking and praising God | 20:20 | |
| and recognized him as the one who sat for alms | 20:23 | |
| at the beautiful gate of the temple. | 20:26 | |
| They were filled with wonder and amazement | 20:29 | |
| Here ends the reading of the lesson. | 20:35 | |
| (organ playing) | 20:39 | |
| - | There are three things | 21:52 |
| that Jesus commanded that we do. | 21:54 | |
| First, that we celebrate the Last Supper, | 22:00 | |
| in remembrance of him. | 22:06 | |
| That we baptize and make disciples. | 22:11 | |
| And thirdly, that we heal. | 22:17 | |
| Now the first two commandments, | 22:23 | |
| we have somehow institutionalized in the Protestant church | 22:25 | |
| and have converted into what we call sacraments. | 22:32 | |
| But somewhere, somehow, sometime, | 22:37 | |
| we have forgotten | 22:42 | |
| to adhere to the third commandment, | 22:46 | |
| which is to heal the sick. | 22:49 | |
| I don't want to sound heretical, | 22:56 | |
| but I want most of all to be biblical | 22:59 | |
| and according to the Bible, | 23:04 | |
| healing should be a sacrament of the church. | 23:09 | |
| I wonder how many days or weeks, | 23:16 | |
| maybe even months it's been, | 23:20 | |
| since someone was healed in the name of Jesus, | 23:23 | |
| here in Duke Chapel. | 23:29 | |
| How long has it been? | 23:34 | |
| Now the Bible, from the beginning to the end, | 23:41 | |
| reaffirms that healing | 23:44 | |
| is a part of God's nature. | 23:48 | |
| In the 15th chapter of Exodus, | 23:52 | |
| it says that God promised the children of Israel, | 23:54 | |
| that if they would keep his commandments, | 23:59 | |
| that they would not have the sicknesses | 24:04 | |
| and the diseases that came on | 24:07 | |
| the children of Egypt upon them. | 24:11 | |
| In the 27th chapter of Exodus, | 24:16 | |
| it already says again, "I will take away all your sickness." | 24:20 | |
| It also implies that for the 39 years | 24:28 | |
| of their wandering in the desert, | 24:32 | |
| that from the time they seriously committed themselves | 24:36 | |
| to the covenant with God, that there was no sickness | 24:40 | |
| like that in Egypt. | 24:45 | |
| But then it goes on to imply | 24:49 | |
| that as they turned away from God and his ways | 24:51 | |
| and faith and attitudes, | 24:55 | |
| that they became sick like all the others around them. | 25:00 | |
| Now the New Testament affirms | 25:06 | |
| that man in his natural state, | 25:08 | |
| does endure sickness. | 25:13 | |
| It doesn't quite say why. | 25:19 | |
| But it does say that now | 25:23 | |
| in the new covenant in Jesus Christ, | 25:24 | |
| you and I have a new power of healing, | 25:27 | |
| beyond that which God gave even to the children of Israel. | 25:30 | |
| The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, | 25:36 | |
| now can heal in his name. | 25:39 | |
| The same spirit, or the same powerful kind of personality | 25:44 | |
| that went about healing others, now, can heal us. | 25:49 | |
| In fact, you remember | 25:56 | |
| when Peter was asked | 25:57 | |
| to explain in a few words who Jesus was by Cornelius, | 26:03 | |
| he described Jesus' life this way, in the 10th chapter. | 26:10 | |
| God anointed Jesus of Nazareth | 26:15 | |
| with the Holy Ghost | 26:19 | |
| and with power and he went about doing good | 26:22 | |
| and healing all those that were oppressed of evil. | 26:27 | |
| Now this is in the old church calendar, | 26:35 | |
| the first Sunday in Kingdomtide | 26:38 | |
| and the last of the season of Pentecost. | 26:41 | |
| Pentecost is the season of the study of the power | 26:46 | |
| of the Holy Spirit within the church. | 26:50 | |
| Kingdomtide was the study of the church, | 26:53 | |
| as it began to move, having received the Holy Spirit. | 26:56 | |
| And so the Scripture assigned for this Sunday, | 27:01 | |
| is a rather appropriate one. | 27:03 | |
| It is the Scripture explaining how the Holy Spirit | 27:07 | |
| came upon the church and the characteristics | 27:11 | |
| by which you could determine whether or not the church | 27:15 | |
| had the Holy Spirit. | 27:17 | |
| Which was, if it had the power to heal. | 27:21 | |
| Now since healing is according to Acts in the New Testament, | 27:29 | |
| the criteria by which the church | 27:34 | |
| can measure its authenticity. | 27:37 | |
| Whether it can measure that it has received | 27:40 | |
| the Holy Spirit, which makes you and I the church, | 27:44 | |
| then it has to be important, | 27:49 | |
| that you and I be able to at least examine ourselves | 27:51 | |
| and the fellowship to which we belong. | 27:56 | |
| But let's look at the Scripture. | 27:59 | |
| You all know probably, | 28:03 | |
| that the third and the fourth chapter of Acts, | 28:04 | |
| is the older account of Pentecost. | 28:07 | |
| Most of us are more familiar with the account | 28:10 | |
| in the first and second chapter. | 28:12 | |
| But like the account of the creation in the Bible, | 28:14 | |
| there are two accounts of Pentecost. | 28:18 | |
| They both basically contain the same things, | 28:21 | |
| almost the same wording, but in a different order. | 28:26 | |
| But this original account says, | 28:29 | |
| that the way the church knew | 28:33 | |
| that it had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, | 28:36 | |
| was when Peter and John on their way into the temple, | 28:40 | |
| heal a man who had been lame from birth. | 28:45 | |
| That that was the criteria of determining | 28:51 | |
| whether or not the Holy Spirit had come upon them. | 28:54 | |
| Note, there's no previous evidence in this account | 29:01 | |
| of the in-dwelling, or the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. | 29:05 | |
| This was the beginning. | 29:10 | |
| The power to heal. | 29:13 | |
| Note that the lame man had chosen for his place | 29:17 | |
| to make his stand, or the ground of his being, | 29:21 | |
| or the spot to beg, whichever you choose. | 29:24 | |
| He had chosen the door outside of the temple. | 29:27 | |
| To me, that's probably one of | 29:34 | |
| the greatest compliments of the church. | 29:35 | |
| In the city in which I live, | 29:37 | |
| or the city in which most of you live, | 29:38 | |
| where do people go when they wanna beg? | 29:41 | |
| When they have needs? | 29:45 | |
| They go to the church. | 29:47 | |
| Most of the time, not in the church, | 29:49 | |
| but right outside of the door, | 29:51 | |
| because they know that they've got a better chance, | 29:54 | |
| of being helped at the door of the church | 29:58 | |
| than they have at the door of IBM, | 30:01 | |
| or General Motors, or Liggett Myers. | 30:03 | |
| I think that's a compliment to the church. | 30:09 | |
| But notice also, that it says | 30:12 | |
| and the now spirit-filled church, | 30:16 | |
| the first characteristic of the spirit-filled church | 30:20 | |
| was that it took notice of those | 30:25 | |
| that were crippled by life's events. | 30:29 | |
| Those with burdens and infirmities they could not bear. | 30:34 | |
| People crippled by fear and self-consciousness. | 30:38 | |
| By mistakes and hate and resentment | 30:42 | |
| and built in bitternesses. | 30:46 | |
| People crippled by memories they can't forget, | 30:48 | |
| or blot out all kinds of malignant diseases. | 30:51 | |
| Now, the lame man, it says, | 30:57 | |
| asked for something. | 31:00 | |
| That's what it says in the translation, something. | 31:03 | |
| He didn't know what it was he needed, precisely. | 31:06 | |
| All he knew was that he had needs. | 31:10 | |
| He asked simply, for something. | 31:16 | |
| Maybe he was implying alms. | 31:20 | |
| But Peter, knowing what he needed, | 31:23 | |
| did not treat his symptoms. | 31:29 | |
| But he gave him what he needed, | 31:33 | |
| knowing that what he needed was Christ | 31:36 | |
| and the power of the Holy Spirit flowing in his life, | 31:39 | |
| Peter said to him, "Silver and gold have I none. | 31:44 | |
| "But what I have and what you need, I'll give you. | 31:48 | |
| "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." | 31:53 | |
| Notice he gave him walking and leaping | 32:00 | |
| and dancing and singing, | 32:05 | |
| instead of crawling | 32:08 | |
| and crippledness | 32:12 | |
| and realistic despair. | 32:15 | |
| Instead of resentment, he gave him praise. | 32:20 | |
| But let's look at the Scripture. | 32:26 | |
| First, it says that the crippled world | 32:30 | |
| looks to the church for help. | 32:33 | |
| That is a fact. | 32:36 | |
| Whether you see them or don't see them, | 32:39 | |
| that the crippled world, looks to us for help. | 32:41 | |
| They ask for something. | 32:46 | |
| They don't usually know what they need. | 32:49 | |
| Or something. | 32:58 | |
| The real ultimate question I guess, | 33:01 | |
| has to be, are we delivering? | 33:02 | |
| Right? | 33:05 | |
| If they ask for bread, do we give them a stone? | 33:06 | |
| Or for fish, are we giving them serpents? | 33:11 | |
| If they ask for healing, are we giving them diagnosis? | 33:15 | |
| If they ask for meaning, are we giving them psychoanalysis, | 33:21 | |
| to which just is another method of diagnosis? | 33:24 | |
| If they ask for Christ, are we giving them religion? | 33:28 | |
| Most people don't know what they need. | 33:38 | |
| That, according to the Scripture, is the role of the church. | 33:41 | |
| We are supposed to know what it is they need. | 33:45 | |
| Now, the church during the scientific age | 33:50 | |
| in which we've lived, has lost the ministry of healing. | 33:53 | |
| You know, prior to the 19th century, | 33:59 | |
| healing was perhaps the greatest | 34:01 | |
| and most essential priority in the church. | 34:03 | |
| Unquestionably. | 34:07 | |
| But you and I in the 19th and 20th century, | 34:10 | |
| have refused to accept, even the possibilities | 34:13 | |
| of spiritual healing. | 34:17 | |
| So much so, that we will repudiate science, | 34:19 | |
| before we will admit the possibility of spiritual healing. | 34:23 | |
| For example, penicillin heals | 34:27 | |
| and we don't doubt that. | 34:32 | |
| We say that medical science has proven | 34:35 | |
| that penicillin can do such and such. | 34:40 | |
| But if there's a spiritual healing | 34:44 | |
| of which there is no explanation | 34:49 | |
| and you can't explain it away. | 34:53 | |
| What do we do? | 34:55 | |
| We say, "Well X-rays aren't too accurate. | 34:57 | |
| "Microscopic analysis is faulty. | 35:03 | |
| "Medicine is really sort of quackery." | 35:10 | |
| And we'll even call doctors, | 35:14 | |
| or scientists, charlatans, | 35:17 | |
| before we will admit the possibility of spiritual healing. | 35:22 | |
| Abingdon Press, who publishes my things, | 35:31 | |
| have some kind of a system that they pick up articles | 35:34 | |
| that have your name in it anywhere in the world, | 35:38 | |
| I don't know how they do that, | 35:40 | |
| but about every two or three months, | 35:41 | |
| they will send me photostatic clippings of book reviews. | 35:43 | |
| They sent me some recently on my book | 35:50 | |
| on the miracles of Jesus. | 35:52 | |
| And I put them aside and didn't read them for about a month. | 35:56 | |
| Last week, I pulled them out | 36:00 | |
| and started going through some of them. | 36:02 | |
| There was one in there | 36:06 | |
| by a distinguished Presbyterian theologian | 36:07 | |
| in Presbyterian Outlook, | 36:10 | |
| a very good church periodical. | 36:12 | |
| He paid this normal kind of niceties, | 36:15 | |
| but finally got down to ultimately, | 36:19 | |
| what he wanted to say | 36:21 | |
| and he said, "Mr. Bailey, in this book, | 36:22 | |
| "makes no distinction between | 36:25 | |
| "the supernatural and the natural." | 36:29 | |
| I wanted to write this gentleman and say, | 36:35 | |
| "How perceptive you are. | 36:38 | |
| "That is a very accurate, honest appraisal and criticism." | 36:43 | |
| Because I make no distinction in my own life, | 36:48 | |
| between the supernatural and the natural. | 36:51 | |
| To me, they are all the same. | 36:53 | |
| God, ultimately, is in control | 36:56 | |
| and whether or not it happens by naturalistic means, | 36:59 | |
| or the process of medicine, | 37:02 | |
| or the process of hospitalization, | 37:04 | |
| or the process of loving and healing, or rest, or time, | 37:06 | |
| or whether it's a supernatural kind of event. | 37:10 | |
| To me, there is no distinction. | 37:13 | |
| It all is done by him. | 37:16 | |
| I promised my wife, when I turned 40, | 37:21 | |
| that I'd go and get a physical examination. | 37:25 | |
| I hadn't had one since I enrolled here as a student at Duke. | 37:28 | |
| Four years ago, I went through the process. | 37:35 | |
| Had around 20 cardiograms, every way shape or form, | 37:40 | |
| standing on my head and every kind of (?) | 37:44 | |
| and finally, the head of the Department of Medicine there, | 37:48 | |
| brought my folder here to Duke | 37:50 | |
| and had the head of the department here to look at it | 37:53 | |
| and they concluded unequivocally | 37:55 | |
| that one side of my heart was dead | 37:59 | |
| and I was in the advanced stages of arterial cirrhosis. | 38:01 | |
| Well, it's not every day, | 38:07 | |
| your physician tells you, | 38:12 | |
| that you're dying and it's a matter of | 38:13 | |
| just a short period of time | 38:16 | |
| and that you ought to tell your family | 38:17 | |
| and you sit down and go through that process. | 38:19 | |
| But I really, I felt all right. | 38:24 | |
| But I wanted to know and I insisted | 38:30 | |
| that I have a catheterization, | 38:32 | |
| which they didn't do too many, in those days. | 38:34 | |
| But I was waiting for five weeks, I guess, | 38:39 | |
| before the catheterization. | 38:42 | |
| It was a Maundy Thursday service | 38:43 | |
| and the whole family were home, and we went to communion. | 38:44 | |
| As we were riding home, I said to them casually, | 38:48 | |
| "You know, as I was partaking of the sacrament, | 38:50 | |
| "I felt an assurance from God, that it was all right." | 38:56 | |
| And that's what I call healing. | 39:00 | |
| I came to Duke and they did the same tests | 39:04 | |
| and after that, they did the catheterization | 39:07 | |
| and discovered that my heart | 39:09 | |
| was beautiful and normal and healthy. | 39:11 | |
| My cardiograms and tests still showed the same thing. | 39:15 | |
| Now, I have never been presumptive enough to tell this, | 39:20 | |
| these four years, to a congregation, | 39:25 | |
| because I didn't want to be presumptive enough | 39:29 | |
| to conclude, or to analyze | 39:31 | |
| and diagnose how I was healed. | 39:34 | |
| Now, you can say, "Well, the tests were wrong." | 39:39 | |
| That's all right with me. | 39:42 | |
| I'm a pragmatist. | 39:43 | |
| You could say, "There was a supernatural kind of healing, | 39:45 | |
| "the moment that the Holy Spirit just touched | 39:48 | |
| "your whole body and being." | 39:50 | |
| That's fine. | 39:51 | |
| Or you could say, "Well, the tests show you've still got it | 39:53 | |
| "and I don't understand how you can still | 39:56 | |
| "maybe run five miles a day." | 39:58 | |
| That's all right with me too. | 40:00 | |
| All I'm concerned about is the outcome. | 40:03 | |
| I don't wanna delineate between | 40:08 | |
| the natural and the supernatural, it's unimportant. | 40:11 | |
| All I know is, that through the power | 40:15 | |
| of the Holy Spirit, God heals. | 40:17 | |
| And he healed me. | 40:21 | |
| Most of us are like that crippled man, | 40:24 | |
| we don't know what's naturalistic | 40:25 | |
| and what's supernaturalistic. | 40:27 | |
| And we only just ask for something. | 40:28 | |
| The result is what matters. | 40:32 | |
| If you and I are the church and have the power | 40:36 | |
| of the Holy Spirit within us, we'll be healing people. | 40:39 | |
| In James the fifth chapter it says, | 40:45 | |
| "Is there anyone among you who is sick? | 40:48 | |
| "He should then go to the church elders | 40:52 | |
| "that they might pray for him | 40:56 | |
| "and lay on hands in the name of the Lord Jesus." | 40:58 | |
| Now this brings the second thing. | 41:03 | |
| "In the name of Jesus Christ, | 41:05 | |
| "I order you to walk," he says. | 41:07 | |
| Now there's power in that name. | 41:10 | |
| A name in biblical times, carried with it | 41:15 | |
| the power of the personality. | 41:18 | |
| And from that, we got the habit of saying, | 41:21 | |
| do such and such in the name of | 41:23 | |
| the king or queen of England. | 41:25 | |
| Or in the name of decency, for example. | 41:28 | |
| There's power in the name. | 41:33 | |
| There's something about Jesus Christ, | 41:36 | |
| that brings out the best, even the best healing powers, | 41:38 | |
| within our being, in our body. | 41:43 | |
| Last month, I was on a preaching tour in Canada | 41:47 | |
| and I was preaching for the annual evangelistic camp meeting | 41:52 | |
| for the United Church of Canada in Nova Scotia. | 41:57 | |
| They traditionally end that service, | 42:02 | |
| with a healing service, which was a little new to me. | 42:04 | |
| Of course the Anglican church, has for a long time, | 42:10 | |
| emphasized healing. | 42:14 | |
| But I was so elated at the kind of healing took place. | 42:18 | |
| They brought children and persons | 42:23 | |
| who were physically crippled. | 42:26 | |
| And I remember them and I can still see them, | 42:30 | |
| as I and some of the other elders laid on hands. | 42:33 | |
| But I can remember a college student | 42:37 | |
| coming and saying, "You know, I don't have | 42:39 | |
| "a good relationship with my dad, and I need to be healed." | 42:41 | |
| A youth came and said, "I'd like to be healed | 42:47 | |
| "of my resentment of authority." | 42:49 | |
| A girl came and said, "I'd like to be healed | 42:55 | |
| "of a sickness of adultery." | 42:58 | |
| Another person came and said, "I'd like to be healed | 43:02 | |
| "of memories I have that I haven't been able | 43:04 | |
| "to forget that are haunting my life." | 43:07 | |
| And I saw healing after healing, | 43:13 | |
| that in the name of Jesus, I could lay on hands | 43:15 | |
| and say, "In his name, be healed." | 43:18 | |
| And it says, "Then, he took him by the hand | 43:25 | |
| "and helped him up." | 43:28 | |
| Notice he said, "Look me in the eye." | 43:31 | |
| And Peter looked him in the eye. | 43:34 | |
| Have you ever passed a beggar on the street, hmm? | 43:36 | |
| Could you look them in the eye? | 43:39 | |
| Maybe you might be able to, | 43:43 | |
| but they then couldn't look you in the eye, could they? | 43:44 | |
| There's a shame there. | 43:46 | |
| A kind of a shame, or a guilt. | 43:49 | |
| He's saying, "Listen, man. | 43:52 | |
| "You don't need to feel guilty any longer. | 43:53 | |
| "Look me in the eye and in the name of Jesus," | 43:56 | |
| he said, and when he took his hand and touched him | 43:59 | |
| he said, "Rise and walk." | 44:01 | |
| Now, touch, it's saying. | 44:05 | |
| There is power in human touch. | 44:09 | |
| Notice the New Testament says and the old, | 44:12 | |
| every time it advises us to heal in God's name, | 44:15 | |
| it says to touch. | 44:18 | |
| The laying on of hands, or the anointing of oil, | 44:20 | |
| or the handshake. | 44:23 | |
| There is a beauty and a healing power | 44:25 | |
| in just human touch. | 44:28 | |
| And it says, "At once, his feet and ankles became strong." | 44:30 | |
| I have almost 200 shut ins in my congregation | 44:37 | |
| and when I visit some of them, | 44:39 | |
| so many of them will have a stuffed animal on their bed | 44:42 | |
| that they have worn the wool off from hugging it. | 44:45 | |
| I have people that tell me time and time again | 44:52 | |
| that sometimes, 10 and 12 times in a period of 24 hours, | 44:54 | |
| they'll call time service, to hear just a human voice. | 44:58 | |
| There is power in touch. | 45:05 | |
| My favorite bumper sticker is that one, | 45:09 | |
| "Have you hugged your kid today?" | 45:11 | |
| I saw in a magazine in California, two years ago, | 45:15 | |
| an advertisement for college kids | 45:20 | |
| at 3.75 an hour to come in and pet rats, | 45:23 | |
| in a laboratory. | 45:27 | |
| 3.75 an hour to be a mice petter. | 45:31 | |
| Even rats need human touch. | 45:37 | |
| Jesus when he healed, it says always touched. | 45:41 | |
| Doctor Crieger, who is head of the Department of Medicine | 45:45 | |
| at the New York University Medical School, | 45:48 | |
| says that, in the last few years, | 45:50 | |
| he has taught 3,000 doctors and nurses | 45:53 | |
| how to transmit healing through loving touch. | 45:56 | |
| Or if you've ever been to Lourdes, | 46:04 | |
| that cathedral in Europe where so many healings take place | 46:07 | |
| and if you've watched the nuns as they touch the people | 46:11 | |
| who come there and they carry them back and forth | 46:15 | |
| from the pools to the hospital | 46:18 | |
| and there is that loving human touch. | 46:20 | |
| There's the power of the Holy Spirit, | 46:23 | |
| that moves through your body, | 46:25 | |
| to other people. | 46:29 | |
| Then he took him by the hand and helped him up. | 46:33 | |
| But last of all, it says that people in the church there, | 46:34 | |
| in the temple, were surprised at what happened. | 46:38 | |
| They were surprised. | 46:44 | |
| Probably most of you here, today, | 46:46 | |
| would be surprised if you actually saw someone healed. | 46:49 | |
| The problem is, you can't picture it, you see? | 46:57 | |
| They were astonished. | 47:00 | |
| You've got to at least be able to picture | 47:04 | |
| what you would be like healed. | 47:08 | |
| You know, biofeedback has proven the power of that. | 47:14 | |
| Biofeedback has proven that you and I | 47:19 | |
| can control the activity of the heartbeat. | 47:21 | |
| That we actually can control | 47:26 | |
| and it's scientifically measured. | 47:28 | |
| We can actually control a single cell in the spinal column | 47:31 | |
| and even determine whether it moves | 47:35 | |
| east, west, north or south. | 47:37 | |
| 20 years ago, we would've called that witchcraft. | 47:41 | |
| Why don't you right now, visualize your body, | 47:48 | |
| or your mind, | 47:55 | |
| or your marriage, | 47:58 | |
| or your relationships, | 48:01 | |
| or your broken heart, | 48:05 | |
| or your bitter despairing kind of spirit, | 48:08 | |
| whatever sickness you suffer from. | 48:11 | |
| Imagine yourself whole. | 48:13 | |
| Picture your life healed. | 48:19 | |
| Don't be surprised. | 48:27 | |
| A lot of you say, "Well, I don't wanna | 48:32 | |
| "pose false hopes with people." | 48:37 | |
| Baloney. | 48:43 | |
| There is no such thing as false hope. | 48:46 | |
| Hope is still hope. | 48:49 | |
| I get on the building superintendent at the church | 48:57 | |
| every time they call the expensive engineers | 48:59 | |
| to come and look at the air condition system. | 49:01 | |
| When they haven't at least run a check | 49:06 | |
| of the basic things like, you know | 49:08 | |
| is the switch on in the power box? | 49:11 | |
| Have you mashed the reset buttons? | 49:15 | |
| Have we paid the light bill? | 49:21 | |
| It really bothers the Scotch in me | 49:25 | |
| when we pay an engineer $400 for a service call | 49:27 | |
| to come and say, | 49:32 | |
| "You didn't have it switched on." | 49:34 | |
| Now, I don't wanna one day, | 49:38 | |
| when I have to meet God face to face, | 49:39 | |
| I don't want him to say to me, | 49:43 | |
| "Well Jim, you know, I could've healed | 49:45 | |
| "I could've healed that broken heart. | 49:49 | |
| "I could've healed that ulcer, | 49:53 | |
| "or that tension, | 49:56 | |
| "or that depression, | 49:59 | |
| "or that bad attitude. | 50:00 | |
| "I could've healed your life, | 50:03 | |
| "if you had asked me." | 50:06 | |
| He'll be able to say and charge me with a lot of things, | 50:10 | |
| but one thing he won't be able to say to me, | 50:14 | |
| "Hey, I could've done that, if you had asked me." | 50:17 | |
| That's not a false hope. | 50:22 | |
| Because the assurance is, that he will heal, always. | 50:25 | |
| It happens to be like say, the cells are so damaged | 50:31 | |
| in the body that they're already dead. | 50:35 | |
| He'll heal us, one way or the other. | 50:41 | |
| And the assurance is, that is in this life, | 50:45 | |
| or the life to come, that he can make us whole | 50:47 | |
| and we don't have to stay sick. | 50:51 | |
| So I'd like to say to you, since this is the church, | 50:57 | |
| since we've been filled with the Holy Spirit, | 51:03 | |
| that you, in the name of Jesus are healed. | 51:09 | |
| Could we pray? | 51:24 | |
| Father, we'd like to lay on hands in loving touch | 51:34 | |
| and heal in your name. | 51:42 | |
| Let everyone here who listens, | 51:49 | |
| on the radio, or in this chapel, | 51:54 | |
| let them picture themselves whole. | 51:59 | |
| Their mind, their attitudes, their body. | 52:03 | |
| Then Lord, heal. | 52:13 | |
| That we may go forth, dancing and running | 52:15 | |
| and singing and praising God. | 52:20 | |
| In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, | 52:28 | |
| arise and be healed. | 52:32 | |
| (organ playing) | 52:42 | |
| - | God has spoken to us in his Word. | 55:53 |
| Let us now affirm what we believe. | 55:56 | |
| We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 56:00 | |
| who has come in the truly human Jesus, | 56:06 | |
| to reconcile and make new. | 56:09 | |
| Who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 56:12 | |
| We trust God, who calls us to be the church. | 56:17 | |
| To celebrate life and its fullness. | 56:22 | |
| To love and serve others. | 56:25 | |
| To seek justice and resist evil. | 56:28 | |
| To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen. | 56:32 | |
| Our judge and our hope. | 56:36 | |
| In life, in death. | 56:39 | |
| In life beyond death, | 56:42 | |
| God is with us. | 56:44 | |
| We are not alone. | 56:46 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 56:49 | |
| Please be seated. | 56:51 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 56:58 | |
| Let us pray. | 57:03 | |
| Almighty God. | 57:07 | |
| Through the healing waters of holy baptism, | 57:09 | |
| you made us your children in your kingdom. | 57:12 | |
| Enable the church, which you have gathered | 57:16 | |
| by your Word and Spirit to be a faithful witness | 57:19 | |
| to you in all the world. | 57:23 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, bless the church | 57:26 | |
| with faithfulness. | 57:28 | |
| Hear our prayer, oh Lord, for the nations of the earth. | 57:32 | |
| Breathe on them the spirit of peace and understanding. | 57:36 | |
| Grant your protection and support | 57:41 | |
| to all those in troubled places of this world, | 57:44 | |
| who fear the loss of life and home. | 57:48 | |
| Give wisdom to all in authority | 57:52 | |
| and inspire in them a desire for peace and harmony. | 57:55 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, bless the world with peace. | 58:02 | |
| Holy God, we pray for ourselves. | 58:08 | |
| Strengthen us with the bread of life, | 58:11 | |
| to be kind and tender hearted to each other | 58:15 | |
| and to praise and honor you, the creator of us all. | 58:19 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, bless us with growth and faith. | 58:24 | |
| Merciful God, you have born the pain of the world. | 58:31 | |
| Look with compassion on all who are sick or suffering, | 58:36 | |
| or in distress. | 58:40 | |
| Especially those family and friends | 58:43 | |
| who we name in our hearts before you. | 58:45 | |
| In your great mercy, grant healing and peace | 58:51 | |
| and surround them with your love and care. | 58:56 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, bless the sick with your presence. | 59:00 | |
| We thank you, Lord, for all those who have gone before us | 59:06 | |
| and who now dwell with you in life eternal. | 59:10 | |
| Grant us grace to follow them, | 59:14 | |
| as they followed Christ, that we too | 59:16 | |
| may live in you eternal presence forever. | 59:20 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, accept our thanks and praise. | 59:24 | |
| For into your hands, oh Lord, we command all | 59:28 | |
| for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy, | 59:32 | |
| through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, | 59:36 | |
| who has taught us to pray with him. | 59:39 | |
| Our Father, who art in heaven, | 59:43 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 59:47 | |
| Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 59:49 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven, | 59:53 | |
| give us this day our daily bread | 59:56 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 59:59 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 1:00:02 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 1:00:07 | |
| but deliver us from evil, | 1:00:10 | |
| for thine is the kingdom | 1:00:13 | |
| the power and the glory forever, | 1:00:15 | |
| Amen. | 1:00:19 | |
| (organ playing) | 1:00:26 | |
| Go out now, to live in the world, | 1:10:37 | |
| what we believe in our hearts and proclaim with our lips. | 1:10:41 | |
| That Jesus Christ is Lord. | 1:10:46 | |
| To the glory of God. | 1:10:49 | |
| Depart in peace. | 1:10:51 | |
| In the name of God, creator, Son and Holy Spirit. | 1:10:54 | |
| Amen. | 1:11:00 | |
| (organ playing) | 1:11:04 |
Item Info
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