“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?”
Genesis 42:1-4,16 ; 43:8-14
I. There Ain’t No Free Lunch
A. Everything costs something
B. “Will work for food
1. Have to give up your street corner
C. Crippled preacher
1. “I know a good thing when I see it!
D. Some blessings come with consequences attached to them
1. If we want our sin forgiven and our land healed
2. “If my people... will humble....and turn from their wicked ways”
a. Have to lose our pride and our spoiled attitudes
II. New Testament Examples
A. Woman w/ the issue of blood
1. 12 years of suffering
2. Laying in a bed hardly able to move
3. In order for Jesus to touch her she had to be willing to give up
some things
a. Comfort of the bed
b. She would have to go to work
c. Have to be responsible for her healing
d. Would no longer be able to moan and groan when people asked her how she was feeling
B. Dead boy raised to life
1. B-a-a-a-d shape...about as bad as it can get...DEAD !
2. Really couldn’t complain to anyone about his problem
3. To receive his healing he would have to give up some things
4. Peace and quiet beyond belief
5. Have to go back and live with human beings
C. Leper
1. Surely anything would be better than being a leper 2. If you are going to be healed “Go show yourself to the priest” a. Or “GO TO CHURCH!!”
b. Means giving up laying out when you feel like it
D. Crippled beggar at the Gate Beautiful
1. Looking for silver and gold
a. What man could give
2. We ain’t got none
a. But such as we have give we unto thee
3. Means you gotta give up the tin cup
a. No more man made blessings
b. No more pats on the back “you poor thing”
c. No more looking for the preacher to make you feel good
d. No more undivided attention
e. You might just have to go to work in the kingdom
III. Israel in Famine
A. Joseph has already been sold and is now a ruler in Egypt
1. Name means “to add” or “to add to”
B. Jacob sends his other sons (all but Benjamin) to Egypt to get corn
C. Come before Joseph, who is a type of Christ, w/o recognizing him
1. Ask for corn ( or to be healed)
D. “How bad do you want to be fed?”
1. To really be fed demands a price to be paid
2. Real healing demands real worship
3. All you brought with you was Simeon(Noise) and Judah(Praise), isn’t there another brother at home?
a. Well, there is Benjamin. (Power)
4. Go get him, because praise without power is just a bunch of noise
a. And just to prove it I’m gonna lock up noise until praise
goes back and brings some power with it!
b. Do you want to be fed bad enough that you will give up noise to get it?
c. Then when you bring praise and power together I’ll let noise go free and when they are all added together we just might have some worship around here.
IV. How Bad Do You Want To Be Healed?
A. Are you willing to give some things up in order to get what God wants you to have?
