Ed Young Christian News

Those are valid questions, good questions, and biblical at that.  Before we get into faith healing, I think it’s important for us to understand how Jesus performed miracles.  Jesus performed dozens and dozens of miracles throughout the Gospels.  Whenever I say Gospels, I am talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

I want to lift out one miracle that Christ performed in the book of Luke, chapter five.  Now, here is the situation.  Back in biblical times, leprosy, which is called Hansen’s disease today, was a horrible situation.  The person who had leprosy could not receive healing through conventional means.  There was no medication, no help whatsoever.

Leprosy caused nerve endings in the body to die, which particularly affected the extremities.  Fingers, hands, feet, and faces fell off, because the person no longer had the benefit of pain receptors to keep from injuring and maiming their extremities.

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Today, we are going to talk about one of the most controversial subjects in Christianity, divine healing.  I know for many of you, this subject hits close to home.  It kind of kicks you a little bit, because maybe you are dealing with a chronic illness.  Or maybe you have a family member who is very sick.  Or maybe you have prayed for someone to get well.  Maybe you have prayed for their healing, yet, they are still sick or maybe they died.

Let’s face it, we live in the belt buckle of the Bible belt, Dallas/Ft. Worth, the hotbed for faith healers, the Mecca for miracle workers.  All we have to do is scan the dial, skim the headlines and surf the channels, and, chances are, we are going to run into a man or a woman that claims to be a faith healer.

Now, if you are like me, you ask several questions.  You lob questions God’s way like, “God, what do you think about this situation?”  Or, you might say, “God, are these people for real?”  Do you ask things like this, when a person comes across the stage and the faith healer whacks them on the head, “Is that person really a different person, have they been changed?”

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She was scheduled to go see the doctor the following Thursday for a chemo treatment and blood work.  Her doctor would take the usual blood sample to see how fast the cancer was progressing before administering the chemo treatment.

He took the blood and sent it to the lab.  She would always wait for the lab to send its report back to the doctor, who would then talk to her about the results and then administer the chemo.  When the doctor came in this time, he wanted to take more samples of blood and to send to the lab.  He came back a second time and told her that the lab could not find any evidence of leukemia.  The doctor then scheduled her to have a bone marrow biopsy done the following week.  The bone marrow biopsy showed that there was no leukemia and no cancer.  She was cancer free and still is today.

Two similar situations.  In one, God seemed strangely silent and, in the other, he showed up big time.

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It does not take a rocket scientist to say, “I think those people have great commitments.  I think they love the Lord.  I think I had better go there and develop friendships there.”  Are you going to do that or wallow with the same people who mess you up and drop the weights on you?  Come on, we have got to wake up here.

Let me tell you something that really encourages me.  Let me tell you something that really caffeinates me.  It is when I see people make these changes, when I see people, and I am talking about students, single adults and married couples, change and move away from their old friendships, who are dragging them down and tripping them up, and gravitate toward new encouraging friendships.

In our small group, we had a Home Team party, like I told you, because a couple in our small group is moving to another state.

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I’ll just vent for a second.  I sit down and talk to people, and they will talk and talk and I’ll say, “Wait a minute man.  Wait a minute.  Change your friendships.  Don’t you get it?  They are tearing you apart.”  “Well, you know, dude, I can hang with the guy.  He’s not pulling me down.  He’s not messing me up.” Have you lost your mind?

I talked to a woman, “Well, you know, I don’t want to hurt their feelings and they are my friends.  Yes, even though they mess around and drag me down, I can help them.”

Have you lost your mind?  I’m not saying to dis your friends or to turn you back, but the Bible will tell you and me that we have to turn from people who are dragging us down and hook up with people who will lift us up.  It’s not like we don’t have a zillion opportunities to build great relationships here at Fellowship Church.

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One of the biggest frustrations that we as a leadership team deal with here at our church is trying to build the church and develop programs around people who say yes but don’t really back it up.

People say “Yes, I will help in the Nursery.”  “Yes, I will help with traffic control.”  “Yes, I will get involved with the athletic ministry.”  “Yes, I will become a part of the home teams.”  “Yes, I will participate in a bible class.”  “Yes, I will really get engaged in Women’s Ministry.”  But rarely do they stand beside and behind the yesses.  Usually there are empty chairs, empty spots, forms filled out but no one showing up.  We have got to let our yes be yes.

Another benefit of being a part of the church is that it enables you and me to build a base of faith that will serve us now and help and encourage generations to come.

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And if you’re hearing “no” a lot, your marriage needs some help.  It is fine to say “no,” but say “no” with an appointment.

Because ladies, I’m a guy, let me sit right here and tell you this.  A normal, red blooded husband, if he is not fulfilled, if he does not make love at least once every 72 hours, sexual stimuli becomes almost overpowering.  Whoa!  Do you realize, wives, the role that you play in this?  And you’re telling me and you’re telling God you use sex as a weapon, sex as a reward, sex as a point system?  You mean you have your man, your husband on a starvation diet?

“Okay, I have not fed you for the last three weeks. But tonight, if you play your cards right, you can have some din din.”

And wives, right now I know what you’re thinking. “Well, that’s just like a man.  Typical.”

Well, Lisa’s getting ready to talk, okay.  My wife is getting ready to come up here.  So just chill.  Take a relax pill.

Here is what a man’s sexual drive is like, ladies.  I’m talking to the wives now.

Let’s say for example you and your husband are in this room.  There’s a table in this room.  On this table there’s a giant pitcher of water with one glass.  Ladies, you’re incapacitated and your husband is not.  Your husband is the only one who can give you a drink of water.  So what do you do?  You get thirsty and say, “Honey, would you please pour me a glass of water?”

And what if your husband goes, “I don’t really feel like it.  Maybe in a couple of hours.”  You say, “Okay.”

A couple of hours go by, “Honey about that water.”  And you (the husband) go, “You know, I’m not sure about the water, because the kids, they have just been wearing me out.  And you know my career; I’m just into the career.  And you know there’s soccer practice.  I don’t have time to get you water right now. I’m totally exhausted.  Not now.”  And you (the husband) leaves.

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“Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time….”

Wow!  One’s in the mood, one’s not in the mood.  What do you do?  Do you wait and say, “You know what, I’m just going to wait until we both feel it. And when we’re both amped up and we’re both on the same page, then we can do our thing.”

If you wait that long, you will never have sex.  Well, maybe once a year on your anniversary or if you go to Bora Bora on some trip you win with your company.  But it isn’t going to happen.

What do you do when one’s in the mood and one is out of the mood?  Well, the Bible says, “Don’t deprive each other of sexual relations.”  In other words, just do it.  Let me say it again, just do it.

In marriage, it should be all about unselfishness.  We’re believers.  We have submitted our lives to God.  Our bodies are his our bodies are our spouses.  We’re to meet one another’s needs.  So it should be a whole thing of unselfishness.

And the Scripture says, as we fulfill one another’s sexual urges, guess what’s going to happen? Look at the last part of verse five.  You won’t believe this.  This will mess you up.  “So you can give yourselves more completely to” ‑‑ say it with me ‑‑ “prayer.”

Are you ready for this?  Sexual fulfillment in the rack, in the bed, is all about seeking God and knowing his will and praying better.  Again, please, this week, do not take my name in vain.  “Well Ed said…”

No, don’t be doing that.  I’m talking about God’s Word.  God said.  So again, if you have a problem with this, you don’t have a problem with me; you have a problem with God.  You’ve got an authority issue, man.  You’ve got an authority issue, woman.

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True sexual freedom, we’re going to find out, occurs within the guidelines and the guardrails, within the stanchions of God’s directives.

Here (in the marriage bed) is where we have freedom.  Here is true liberation.  Here is true creativity.  Here is true ‑‑ are you ready for this ‑‑ worship.

Did you realize when a husband and wife make love it is an act of worship?  Did you realize that when you fulfill your spouse’s desire it is a part of your discipleship?  That might give a whole new twist, a whole new meaning to making love.

“Honey, let’s go home and worship.  I feel like some discipleship, how about you?”

AOL just conducted a study.  And this study had to do with 60,000 fathers.  79 percent of these fathers said that they want more sex.  60 percent of these guys said that they regularly view porn.  And then 40 percent of these fathers, now, said their sexual advances are rejected at least once a week.  Isn’t that amazing?

So those of us who are Christians, those of us who understand the gospel, we should be the sexperts.  We should be the ones who understand what it really means to make love.  But to make love in marriage, you’re going to have to make time for it.

I have been married for a while.  Lisa and I have four kids and I have discovered something. There are some bedroom barriers that you have to get over if you’re going to have a wonderful sex life.

Again, I will say it from this stage; we’re talking about Lust Vegas, so I will just put the cards on the table.  Your sex life is a mirror, a reflection of the depth and the majesty of your marriage.  Your sex life is a mirror of the majesty, the makeup, the depth of your marriage.

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