Intro: We have been talking for the last few weeks about things that are common to all of us. Things that often look like failures in the eyes of the world, often can turn out to be successes in the eyes of God. This morning we want to look at one of these: Sickness. I’m sure sickness is something we can all relate to. There’s not a one of us who doesn’t get sick. Yet, often we look at our sickness only as a physical malady. This morning, realizing that everything about our life is spiritual, let’s look at the spiritual side of sickness. Shall we pray . . .
I’ll be the first to admit: sickness can be nasty. It can bring out the worst in us. Did you ever go up to someone who has a migraine headache? The least little disruption can bring out a vehement tongue-lashing. I’ll be the first to admit, I can’t even begin to imagine the pain of a migraine, and I’m thankful for that. Please, no one pray that I get one so I can empathize. Ronda was very sick when she was pregnant: the least little movement would get her gagging, nauseous, and about to regurgitate. Yet, these are trivial sicknesses, because we know they are short-term. Many people live in daily pain, knowing the pain will never be eased or go away until they are freed from their earthly body. These are the saints who truly know what it means to trust in the grace of God. Yet, in all of our sickness, let’s remember that there are lessons we can learn: we can see God turn our sickness into a great success in our life.
I. Sickness is a success when God provides healing: When God says YES
Did you ever know anyone who was really sick, and God worked in a miraculous way? I’m not talking just a headache, but a visible, tangible miracle of his healing power? I believe God can still work miracles of healing today. Yet, so often those who look for the miracles of healing are looking for them in the wrong places. So often those who need healing go out to some special “Holy Ghost Anointed Messenger Healing Service” and listen to someone plead for their money and heal just a few people of internal diseases that can’t be verified. There are a lot of charlatans and quacks out there, going from city to city and on TV who make it look like multitudes are healed, but when asked, they can’t give out the name or address of anyone who was healed.
Yet, God does heal. Growing up, there was a family who would visit our church from time to time. The husband lost his sight in one eye. He ended up getting a glass eye. God did a miracle and restored his sight in his eye.
Barbara Johnson tells the story of her husband. He was declared blind, I think, or some major problem, and God restored his sight.
In college, a guy I had some classes with developed terminal cancer. He was given 6 months to live. The whole school made his healing a matter of prayer. He had dropped out of school for a semester. The next year he returned with the report: the cancer was completely gone. God is a God of healing. Look with me at 2 Kings 5.
Read 2 Kings 5:1-8, 14-17
Here is just one example, and we could give many, how God takes sickness and uses it as a testimony of the power of God. When you get sick, really sick, and God intervenes--what a wonderful opportunity to testify of the power of God. But, it is up to you to give the testimony of the healing to God. When we get sick, let’s look to God first. We realize that God uses medicine-- in the parable of the Good Samaritan, he rubs oil and wine into his wounds. Let’s not go to the extreme of saying “God will provide” and refusing medicine or treatment. The Bible talks about a fool in his folly. But let’s not trust alone in medicine. We pray for God to work, and take all the help doctors can give us. But when healing comes, let’s give praise to God.
Most of us will probably not experience miraculous healing, but we will see God provide his help in the times of our sickness. Let’s look to him for his healing power. But there is another time when we see our sickness as a success.
II. Sickness is a success when our healing takes time: when God says WAIT!
We know that all sickness is not healed instantaneously. There are some who would tell us that if you are not healed there is sin in your life. I have heard well-known televangelists teach this. There are some who say that Christ healed all your diseases. Yet, in Isaiah 53 we see the disease we are healed from is the sickness of sin in our lives. Good men of God get sick. In 2 Kings 13:14 we see Elisha, the man who had twice the power of the Spirit that Elijah did - the man who healed Namaan the leper - yet he has a sickness and dies. God does not always choose to heal. Sometimes we know that we need to be patient in waiting for God’s healing to come. Sometimes it comes in stages.
Look with me in Mark 8:22+
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spat on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Now, I do not believe that Jesus made a mistake. I do not believe that Jesus did not have the power to heal right the first time. Rather I believe that Jesus chose to provide healing in two stages: first restoring sight, then restoring the focus.
I believe in our lives often God gives healing in stages. Often God’s healing is a process. This teaches us patience. I believe that if God does not heal instantly we should continue to pray and wait for him to work. If God chooses not to heal instantly, he is still able to heal through time, medicine, and a process. God tells us in Romans 5 we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, or patience
As we think about the success of sickness, often we get great benefit from our sickness, for our waiting for healing helps us become more patient.
There is a third benefit of sickness.
III. Sickness is a success when God chooses not to heal us: When God says NO
There are those who tell us if you are not healed it is because you do not have enough faith. But we know that is a lie. It sure sounds good when you hear the televangelists preaching it, but it’s just not true. Look at the example of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul knew his sickness was one that God wanted him to keep. It wasn’t a matter of sin in his life. Rather, it was God’s way of teaching Paul to fully rely on the grace of God for each day. Paul knows that God can heal, and he continues to pray for healing. yet, God gives him a definite answer “No”.
We can even see the reason for God’s refusal. It was to teach Paul about the grace and strength of God. Through Paul’s weakness, God’s strength was seen. We so often think of Paul as this strong, powerful person who just marches into town, and things happen. Yet, Paul, while a strong personality, was weak in his physical abilities. In 2 Corinthians 10:10 it says
For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing."
Paul probably had an eye disease as well. He had scribes write all his letters as he would dictate them. Yet, it was through Paul’s sickness that he drew strength from God. Joni Eareckson Toda, crippled in an accident, speaks daily on the radio about the strength and grace of God in her life. What often would make someone bitter, can be used by God to make them better.
How do we respond to ongoing sickness. God wants to use it to make us better.
Sickness gives us a reason to praise the power of God.
Sickness gives us a reason to praise the process and patience from God.
Sickness gives us a reason to praise the grace and perfecting of God.
Concl: So, what do we learn from all this about sickness. First, be prepared, for sooner or later, you will get sick. I have had a grueling week, with much driving, much emotional stress, and poor sleep. Yesterday, I started getting a sore throat and a head cold. God personalized his lessons for me. We will all get sick. Let’s prepare ahead of time as to how we will respond.
Let’s decide now that before we take medicine, we take the best medicine.
How do you spell relief? P-R-A-Y-E-R!
Let’s remember that the key to our victory in sickness is twofold. Our testimony and our attitude. God desires to glorify himself through our sicknesses. We are told that there are those who are sick because of sin. God often judges people by bringing sickness into their lives. While not all sickness if from sin, there is a sickness that does come by disobedience. 1 Cor. 11 tells us For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
Let’s make the first step of sickness an examination of our hearts to make sure they are right with God.
Second, let’s make the choice that whether in sickness or health, we will respond by manifesting the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Some people choose to be kind, except when they get sick. Then they become a royal pain in certain parts of our anatomy. Let’s make sure we show the manifold grace of God by responding to sickness in love, hope, and patience.
