(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, we're starting in Jeremiah 8, we're going to get back to that in a little bit. I'm just going to give you a little groundwork or framework for what I want to preach on this evening and what we're going to get into. The title of my sermon is Seeking a Physician and there's a lot of different opinions on health care and what we ought to be doing and we're going to look at what the Bible says for just as much as possible on this subject. It's kind of a complicated issue and especially in the world we live in today there's some complications when it comes to health care on what's right and what's not right and some things maybe I'm going to try to stay away from opinion and stick with what the scripture says to guide us as our guiding light and truth and obviously you're going to form your belief and opinion on what the Bible says so I want to get into this. My view has changed slightly on a few verses specifically but the number one thing, there's a few pieces of this, we're going to look mostly at what the Bible talks about like with physicians and God's role in all of this and this may be a sermon that gets taken off of YouTube because YouTube has just been censoring like crazy with the COVID stuff and everything else and this isn't about COVID at all and I'm not even going to get into any specifics on like vaccines or anything like that or specific treatments for specific problems. It's an overall sermon but there's a problem in our culture when it comes to even trying to get good health care and this is completely going outside of my notes but I want to lay a little bit of a foundation. When it comes to your health, when it comes to anything really, I mean we ought to be going to the Bible for everything, right? So when it comes to even just things like diets and eating, you know, the fundamentals is what, you know, and here's a basic philosophy and basic mindset of God made it, you know, to be eaten if God made things for our sustenance and God made things to be meat for us and it's good. If you see God telling the priests and telling, you know, like here's these sacrifices, you're going to eat these things then we should know that God's not going to command us to do things that are bad, right? We're going to do things that are wrong or like, you know, they have all these different diets like, well, you know, bread is bad for you, Jesus said give us his day or daily bread. You know, we say, well, red meat's bad for you and I mean what were they eating when they were eating the sacrifices that were being offered up, the bullocks, you know, so the world's got a lot of different things we're going to tell you about this stuff and this is all very simple basic things and I'm not saying that there isn't a time where it's appropriate to withhold certain foods and, you know, you could learn more and understand and a lot of this is just going to be scratching the surface in general. There's another one of those areas that we need to study to show ourselves approved and because the medical care and everything gets so complicated in our system, in our society, it really, for you to make a really good decision, it's going to require a lot of effort on your part to get to know what treatments are being offered and things like that to do your own study and research into what all is involved and I say that because we've developed into a society and I blame this more on like my immediate generation past, one or two generations past where we've turned into a society that treats, you know, what the doctor says, you know, the doctor's orders, well the doctor said to do this and you just have to do like what, this is what the doctor said and that's how I was raised, that's how I was brought up, that's how so many people, even in the previous generation, like well this is just what we do, this is just what the doctor said, you know, and this is having this faith, almost a gospel-like faith into what people say and just total trust in that what you're being told is good for you. Now that's not good in any area of your life to have total trust just in what someone else is telling you and I don't care what the situation is. Now don't take me the wrong way on this either because I'm going to get into this more later, I do believe it's a good thing to see doctors and to go to people who have experience and go to people who can help you and advise you and guide you into any health problems and concerns that you have. I absolutely am for that, I think it's a good thing and I think there's a time and place for many things, almost everything, but just real basic, real high level, just going to someone and saying well this is just what the doctor said so I'm just going to do it is a bad approach to take. Get a doctor's opinion and then try to learn as much as you can about that and take it into consideration when they're telling you, suggesting for you to do that. Now again, like I said, this sermon isn't about vaccines particularly, but it's a great example of something, well the doctor just said I need to get my flu shot, this is what I need to do to be healthy, well you know what, hold on a second, hold on a second, what is in that? What is it going to do when I inject it into my body, what are you actually pumping into my body? Those are good questions to ask and something that you ought to learn and know about before you just go ahead and do it, well the doctor said so, well yeah, the doctor said so. And it doesn't even mean, and this is important to understand too, it doesn't even mean that a doctor has ill will towards you, because I'm not, I don't believe that either, I believe that the vast majority of doctors out there probably are sincere in their care for their patients. But it's what do they believe, where is their mindset, what is their worldview, all these things matter, they matter. And the reason why they matter is because a lot of medical science stems from a worldview that there is no creator. And when you have the wrong foundation in your science and the wrong mindset going forward, if you think things are just random, if you think there's these mutations and all this other stuff, you're going to go down the wrong path like so many people have. You think you're going to start improving on God's creation and genetically modify things to just be better than what God made, you're not as smart as God, you're not as wise as God, you're going to end up failing in areas that you had no idea also is involved in that process or whatever and cause more problems than you're making solutions for. Because man doesn't know many areas that they like to think they know all about. It doesn't mean that physicians are bad, it doesn't mean doctors are bad, but we need to understand where the philosophy is coming from, where the mindset is coming from, and if we're going to treat our bodies and treat our health, we ought to be looking at things that are going to work in coordination with the design that God built us with. Because real science, when you study things, you study out anatomy, you study biology, you study how God made things, and you really dig down and you get out the microscope and you see how things were made and designed, it's incredible and amazing and the body is fascinating in all the functions that are performed within the body. Absolutely fascinating. Great field of science and one that ought to give some respect to and acknowledge and say hey, there's people studying this that can learn a lot of valuable wisdom and knowledge and information on what's good for us and what's not good for us when it comes to seeking medical attention. So there's a great purpose for that. But because of the source of a lot of things, we still have to be able to question whether or not whatever area we're going down is going to be the right way to go. So it's not, this is not something where it's going to just easily, everything is going to be always yes or always no, you're going to have to be able to add your own mindset to this. Unfortunately some people see a lot of corruption, which is out there absolutely, there's corruption in our medical system, and another motivation for things to not be in your best interest when it comes to medical is the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. And the medical industry at large and the pharmaceutical companies, there's so much money in these major corporations, in the society, even the American Medical Society, the AMA, in these places that will even put out research and they're supposed to be watchdogs and everything, there's so much corruption that you read about in many of these areas, it's going to give you doubts, and here's the thing, it should give you a justified reason to investigate, but it doesn't mean that everything is bad either, you just have to be able to look at things carefully and appropriately to determine what's going on, I mean there's so much now that has been screwed up in the medical industry in this country coming from many different directions, you've got people having frivolous lawsuits to just getting tons of money for stuff where people aren't liable, now all of a sudden doctors and medical practitioners have to do X, Y and Z because of bureaucracy and red tape and because they're worried about covering themselves from getting these frivolous lawsuits that ultimately may not be the best advice for you, but they have to do all this stuff because otherwise they're going to lose a bunch of money. For example, we dealt with that first hand when it came to our child birthing with the midwife in Arizona, there's all these hands are tied and all these different things and well no you have to have, if this much time goes by then you have to have this type of intervention and you have to be transferred to a hospital and they have to do the C-sections and stuff and it's like look, no, no, there's actually competing ideas on these procedures and when they ought to be done and when it's appropriate and it's not just all standardized and just one person gets to say well nope, this is what the book says so this is what you have to do, you know we ought to have the freedom to be able to choose what's right but you see in order to do that you have to get educated and we need to be able to look at things from the biblical standpoint, from a creation standpoint and make the decisions for ourself. Now there's two types of physicians that are mentioned in scripture, Job 13 4, Job was speaking he says but you are forgers of lies, you're all physicians of no value, we have to understand first of all there are physicians out there that are of no value, there are people that are just no good at their job. Now this goes beyond just physicians, this could go into any area and I'm going to be drawing some correlations between mechanics and physicians right because there's going to be some similarities in both industries because first of all we have to understand that people are people, whether you're a neurosurgeon or an auto mechanic, people have the same sin nature and are capable of committing the same types of sins and having the same failures as people right. Now you say well one's more educated than the other, yeah but they're still both going to have a lust and potential to fall to greed equally. There are physicians of no value but you know what there's also someone like Luke who's called the beloved physician. The Bible does not say that physicians are bad, first of all I just want to get rid of this notion because there's some people that get so spiritual, so religious, they say well I just don't ever go to the doctor, I don't think anyone should go to the doctor and doctors are bad. No doctors aren't bad, there's not, there's plenty of physicians that are good. Luke was a beloved physician, Jesus even said they that behold need not a physician but they that are sick. You know what that means? There are some people that need a physician, the people who are sick need a physician. There's nothing wrong with that and it's a good thing and absolutely they need a physician, that's what they're there for. When you need a physician because you're sick, go to one, but we shouldn't have this concept or this idea of saying like no, because there's some people out there that'll say you know I'm never going to a doctor, I'm only going to just pray and rely on God and just never go to a physician and that's not right and that's not true, that's not even a biblical concept. Now we should be going to God absolutely and I'm going to get into that a little bit later but we need to understand that one, the reason why you don't take everything that physicians say as gospel truth, no matter what they say I'm just going to believe it, is because they're human and they can be wrong on things and because you may be dealing with someone that even if they are sincere may not be very good at their job. I don't know about you but I brought my car to people who I think were very good people to work on. I told you I would make correlations between mechanics and physicians that may have been very sincere in trying to find a problem but just weren't very good at their job and spend a lot of money trying to figure out like well oh wait that wasn't it maybe it's this oh maybe it's this maybe it's this and trying to figure out and diagnose what's wrong with the vehicle. There's people that, it's funny you find these things out later, there's people I've gone to high school with and I find out after you know however many years there's like some reunions coming up and like oh what's this person doing, what's that person doing and people have become doctors that I would never want to go see the doctor because I didn't ever think they were really that bright. Honestly I just didn't they just didn't seem to be very intelligent people now they maybe they were able to pass some tests but a lot of people are able to pass tests and get through and get through school and it doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to be that good at their job. It's just a fact it's a fact of life I mean it's even if those people are good hearted people right and not ill-intentioned and ill-intended they may not be very bright. It's just it's just a fact like I mentioned about the autoback they might be a great person a great guy real friendly not trying to harm you or do anything but they're just not that good at diagnosing it. It's a possibility and a reality that these people exist out there right so that's one reason not to just have blind faith in someone but another reason is because they may be looking to get that extra money. They may be changing their practice ever so subtly and ever so slightly after years of dealing with insurance companies and dealing with the way there are systems set up now because it's easier for people to sin against people and to commit these types of crimes and sins when it's put off of the actual individual just ever so slightly when they can make this money well this is how the insurance company so I'm going to bill them for this or do this I have to do this extra procedure and they made it so that way if I if I do this this and this I get extra money and the small it's not really that big of a deal it's not really going to hurt them if I do you know and this is how some people will start to just want to make that extra money and there's a motivation for that you can see in dentistry you can see it in medical you know and when people don't have the best morals or best values they could easily succumb to that and even if they do I mean people are like I said people are sinful there's there's plenty of opportunity for people to do wrong and the whole point of why I'm going in all this is just to say don't just have blind faith in what some doctor just tells you it doesn't mean well don't ever go to the doctor because you might not find a good one it means try to find a good one if you keep your health serious or serious about your health which I think we all should be find a good one and then also another main point just that comes from scripture is to not be fearful and don't make any decision that you make based on fear the only fear we ought to have is the fear of the Lord and this is actually going to be very relevant as I get further into the sermon fear-based decisions is never a good decision to make and unfortunately with our health care it's so personal and you may be faced with something that could potentially be a very difficult problem or situation it can cause you to fear but you need to be able to keep a level head to analyze what you're being told and to do the proper investigation to know instead of just making decision well the doctor said this so I just need to do this because otherwise I might die and you know a lot of people end up going that route and they may take treatments that might not be the best for them out of fear now again I know I'm speaking very broadly because it's hard to get into all the specifics and it would just take too much time anyways and what I care the most about the Bible isn't get into every single specific but it gives us these principles and having the wisdom having knowledge having understanding being educated is is very highly promoted in the scriptures and so is not just making your decisions based off fear but with a sound mind being able to to understand things and not just giving blind trust in people based on what just based on the fact that they have some degrees or something that's not you're also going to find that that's not in scripture either now Matthew 9 is why I already quoted this verses 11 and 12 the Bible says when the Pharisees saw it they said unto his disciples why eateth your master of publicans and sinners but when Jesus heard that he said unto them they that be whole need not a physician but they that are sick now this is one area where I've changed a little bit my understanding or the way that I view this verse and I'll tell you why I used to just never and I still don't really because but but I think the reasoning was faulty and let me explain that so there's some people out there where if you just you know if you want to make sure you're up and again the car analogy is a good one because you're diagnosing things your body your body's kind of like a machine you know you have people who understand it more and can take a look at it there's some people out there some mechanics out there where if you just want to find something that's wrong with your car they can tell you what's wrong with your car everything could be fine it could be running fine you're gonna have no problems it's gonna drive but if you're looking for someone to tell you hey there's something wrong with your car you'll be able to find someone that can tell you there's something wrong with your car and you'll be able to find someone's gonna tell you oh no no you need to do a whole flush you need to get all these fluids out you need to do this and that it's gonna cost you six grand there's people out there that'll tell you that when it's totally unnecessary right I mean it's out there the same way with doctors you could go to check up like oh man you need to be on this medication this medication you need that and that and this when you may not need it at all now I'm not saying you don't I'm saying you may not there's a risk of that being out there of you running into someone who's just going to tell you you need a bunch of stuff that you don't need but that doesn't mean that you should never go and get a checkup and say I used to think that this person saying hey they that behold need out of position but they that are sick so I'm never gonna go get a checkup or never go doctor ever because there may be someone out there that might lie to me and tell me I need stuff I don't need that is a risk and you need to be able to think about that understand that that may be a possibility but what if what if you aren't whole but you don't quite realize it what if you are in need of a physician and you're able to identify a problem area that once it's detected you can go wow well this could be an easy fix I just need to do this there's nothing wrong with that you can be not whole and not be fully aware of it yet is my point but I used to take that and say well I'm never going doctor unless I feel something unless I know that there's a problem but you just may not know it yet and there may be one so I'm not saying that you should never go the doctor either but again be aware that there are people out there that may try to take advantage of that and steer you down a bad path now why we even go to physician anyways well the same way you go to mechanic if you don't know that much about cars you know anything you know someone who's dedicating their time and their life into into studying this and working on that and have experience fixing things they're gonna be able to help you same thing with your health you got someone who's dedicated their life into studying a certain matter and dealing with patients and seeing things that actually work and and being able to help you in certain areas it's a great it's a good source to resource to go to to help you determine what should I do with my health I'm having this problem okay well I've dealt with a hundred other people they've had the same problem and this is what I've done and it's worked for them so let's see if that works for you too it's a lot better than you just having to figure everything out on your own for the very first time going I've never seen this before let me go look it up on the internet and figure it out hey Internet's a great tool too but again there's something to be said for people who have experience and physicians that that are doing this all the time and again I'm bringing this up because I think unfortunately sometimes too many people go to an extreme of not wanting to have anything to do with any doctors any Western medicine and they think it's just all a bunch of garbage just because they've seen some of the corruption and some of the bad practices and some of the things that that don't line up but you can't throw it all away because it's not all just garbage we started off in Jeremiah chapter 8 right and this is we're gonna see how God fits in to the picture and we're gonna end up closing in James because James 5 talks a lot about this and there's great teaching in the book of James we're gonna see how this all fits together with seeking health seeking physicians and seeking God for our health Jeremiah chapter 8 look at verse number 20 the Bible says the harvest is past the summer has ended and we are not saved for the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt I am black astonishment have taken hold on me is there no bomb and Gilead is there no physician there why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered so he's basically saying again referring to well wait I mean don't they have don't they have a physician there don't they have someone to see the people for the health then then why aren't my people just why aren't my people recovered I mean if there's doctors there then why aren't they healed right just giving more credence to that's what physicians do that's what good physicians do the Bible saying okay well I mean isn't there a physician but there could also be a reason why you're going through problems and a vision can't help you and this is extremely important and we need to know this because as believers especially as the people of God you may be going through health problems and no physician may ever be able to help you because you have another problem and because God may be the one bringing that on you and this is extremely important and we can't ever overlook this and this is you know again we're gonna get into this more but turn if you go to 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 and we're gonna see some examples of people who went to physicians and it didn't help them at all saying Corinthians chapter 16 is a story about King Asa now King Asa did a lot of great things for Lord he actually was was ultimately went down as someone who was a righteous King and did a lot of good now he had a problem at the end of his life and he ended up kind of having lapsed in faith and did some things we didn't finish off as solid as he could have and should have but he was still regarded as a good King is still regarded as a righteous King and there's a verse here in verse 12 that if you take it out of context again might make you think that like oh well just physicians are bad I shouldn't go to a physician look at verse number 12 I was an ace on the 39th year of his reign was disease in his feet until his disease was exceeding great yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physician so he's saying like he just went to the doctors and doctors weren't able to help so what good are physicians anyway so I'm not gonna go to the physicians I'm just gonna go to God well no that's not that's not what the Bible saying here well then what the Bible saying here is that you could have a problem with God where no physician may be able to help you it doesn't mean that physicians bad it just means if you've got a problem with God you better go and get your problem straight with God first it doesn't mean never to go to to a physician look at the context of this we're gonna jump up to verse number one and we're gonna see exactly what's happening in aces life and why this is a problem for him verse number one about says in the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa Bayash a king of Israel came up against Judah and built Rhema to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria that dwelt at Damascus saying there is a league between me and thee as there was between my father and thy father behold I have sent thee silver and gold go break thy league with Bayash a king of Israel that he may depart from me and Ben-Hadad hearkened unto King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel and they smote I John and Dan and Abel Mam and all the store cities of Naphtali so what's happening here is that Bayash a king of Israel comes up to war against Asa king of Judah right so they're having this problem and what Asa decides to do at this point in his reign is take the money out of the house of God and out of the king's house and send that to the king of Syria to say hey we've got a league together right so when someone comes against me you're supposed to help defend me but see they also had a league with Israel with Basha he says okay break break your league break your agreement with them and go fight them and here's a whole bunch of money for you to do this to basically rely on the king of Syria to help protect them right because he has a problem coming up now Asa was supposed to be relying on the Lord to protect him so when you're doing righteously the Lord supposed to fight your battles for you right they're supposed to go out they fight their fight they don't need to go and dead sure not take God's money out of God's house and go send that to some heathen King to come and defend you as if God can't defend you right that's wicked and wrong but this is what Asa does verse 55 says and it came to pass when Basha heard of it that he left off building of Rhema and left his work and let his work cease then Asa the king took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rhema and the timber thereof wherewith Basha was building and he built there with Geba and Misma so it works it works for him in this short term it works he goes he gets Syria they come Israel goes away and he's thinking great right now we're building these other cities and Israel left verse 7 says and at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said on him because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen yet because thou didst rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong and the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him herein now is done foolishly therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars so he's saying look you've been able to defeat people in the past he had faith before and God to fight the battles for him even with bigger problems bigger armies bigger bigger enemies but this time he decides not to rely on God and he says you know what now you're not gonna have any peace now you're just gonna have continual wars because you went this this path and this is a prophet of God who came to preach and rebuke Asa and look what Asa does verse 10 says then Asa was wroth with the seer so he gets angry at the rebuke he's told hey you've done wrong that was wicked that was foolish of you to do what you did now the humble person and a person who's ready to receive the Word of God they're gonna humble themselves and go you're right I shouldn't have done that and then humble themselves before God and turn to God to God I'm sorry you know I repent but that's not what Asa did which is also why then he then has his problem verse 10 says then Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in a prison house for he was in a rage with him because of this thing and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time so Asa is basically doubling down on what he did and he's angry at hearing the rebuke doesn't want to hear it you're cast into prison you're canceled I'm censoring you you know because I don't want to hear it because I'm not wrong I'm right right that type of an attitude well because of that then that's where God ends up bringing a plague on his feet so he's disease in his feet and then even when he's plagued by God you know he's seeing all these positions he's the king he has access to the best positions right that the most respected reputable whatever he can get whoever he wants and they can't heal him it doesn't matter what position he goes to it doesn't matter what they do and what they try why because God's plaguing him and the Bible says you know yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians he didn't get it he didn't realize hey maybe I should humble myself and turn to God this concept is important we're going to see this multiple times in Scripture about what the Bible is referring to especially with seeking the Lord in Mark chapter 5 will turn if you would to Jeremiah chapter 30 Jeremiah 30 in Mark 5 there's the story of in multiple Gospels as well as the story of the woman who has that plague of the blood right the fountain of blood that's that's in within her that gets healed by Jesus remember like Jesus is walking there's a great multitude there's this great press and and she goes and touches him and then she's healed right so we know that God heals as well that God is a healer Jesus is a healer and that you know he was even able to give his disciples the gifts of healing and be able to heal people but again you're not going to see the teaching that well never go to a physician because that's not found in Scripture and so I make sure that that we that that's understood I'm going to read for you from Mark 5 verse 25 says in a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse when she had heard of Jesus came in the press behind and touched his garment for she said if I may touch but his clothes I shall be whole and straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague and Jesus immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him turned him about in the press and said who touched my clothes now there's obvious there's a lot of things going on even in this story okay there's a lot of symbolic meaning here with this woman having this this incurable disease incurable problem which is representative of her sin right and she hears about Jesus and turns to Jesus and just goes I just need Jesus and when she goes to Jesus she's healed completely healed that plague that that death sentence that she had in her body gone wiped away completely great picture of salvation right because we need to go to Jesus for our sins to be washed away for us to be clean cleansed from our sin we need that but at the same time we can still gather from this that there are diseases that people could have and you could go to physicians and sometimes you're gonna end up being worse than getting better and you can spend all the money that you have and still never grow better because the physicians don't always know what they're doing they don't they're gonna tell you they always do they like you to think that they always do but they don't always know and oftentimes the problem you can be helped with your problem by going to God first because again if it's a problem that God is plaguing you with good luck with the physicians you've got a bigger problem on your hands Jeremiah chapter 30 risky you know the Lord causes disease again if the Lord's causing the disease on you who are you gonna turn to to help you look at verse 11 Jeremiah chapter 30 the Bible says for I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee but I will correct thee in measure and will not leave thee altogether unpunished so God's saying right here in verse 11 I'm with you to save you right he says but I'm still gonna correct you you've done wrong I'm gonna save you but hey I'm not gonna leave you unpunished right I'm gonna correct you in measure verse 12 says for thus saith the Lord thy bruise is incurable and thy wound is grievous there is none to plead thy cause that thou mayest be bound up thou hast no healing medicines there's nothing that's gonna be able to help you with this verse 14 says all thy lovers have forgotten thee they seek thee not for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy with a chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were increased so God's saying I've wounded you I'm the one that caused that to happen and it's because of your sins and Asa had his problem because of his sins you know what the physicians were no help of him that woman who needed Jesus I mean we don't know her background but obviously she needed Jesus to be healed the physicians weren't able to help her she had a spiritual problem that was impacting I believe impacting her health you can have spiritual problems that impact your health that's a reality that's why we need to seek God first so if we do have a spiritual problem let's make sure that we get that settled so that way we could see that have the path paved for potential healing because if God is causing you to be ill no one can fight against God and having understanding this I'm going to drive this home as we go through the sermon because this is what the Bible is teaching it's not saying never go to a doctor and people I think can misconstrue that based on some of these same stories into thinking well I guess I should just never go to the doctor then right because there's physicians are no value no there are some out there that are of no value that's true but there's a good reason to go to physicians let's keep reading verse Bible says why cryest thou for thine affliction thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured and all thine adversaries every one of them shall go into captivity and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey for I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds saith the Lord because they called thee an outcast saying this is Zion whom no man seeketh after so God's able to bring the disease and God's also able to heal he's able to do both and make both happen so of course we should see seeking the Lord first always turn if you would to 1st Corinthians chapter 11 further evidence and further proof that God can be causing sickness on his people we saw it on in Old Testament times how about 1st Corinthians chapter 11 it's a great example here that I don't see how you can take this any other way in reference to the Lord's Supper specifically about people not discerning the Lord's body that's the context of 1st Corinthians 11 at the end of the passage that we're looking at here look at verse number 28 the Bible says but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup this is talking about communion it's talking about eating bread and drinking the cup that we that we observe at communion for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's body look at verse 30 for this cause for what cause that people aren't discerning the Lord's body for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep now it's about sleeping talking about dying for this very cause because people aren't discerning the body and blood of Lord many people are weak and sickly among you your health has gone down you're weak you're not as strong you're getting sick you're getting physically ill as a chastisement of God because you're not discerning the Lord's body that's what it says God causes sickness even within the church even among his people because they're just not respecting they're not discerning is the Lord's body and saying hey look be holy let a man examine himself and that's why it says in verse 31 for if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged don't be in judge of God he judge yourself get right with God see if you're right or wrong in that area because if you're if you're just living in sin wickedness and not discerning what God did for you then you could find yourself being weak sickly and maybe even dying and if that's the case what is God gonna do for you all right well what is what is a doctor gonna do for you they won't be able to do anything because you'd be fighting against God I mean it's like it's the same thing with with other thing about like with money if someone if God's if God's judging someone and causing them to be in poverty because they're just full of pride and he needs a base them and bring them down trying to give that person more money that God is judging you're just wasting your money is throwing it down the toilet because if God's trying to get through to them you're actually be working against them by trying to just well I'll give you more money I'll give you more money and God's saying no I want them humble there's no one amount of money you could give someone like that if God is judging them for it because he's God I mean the same you know again it's the same type of concept so turn if you would to James 5 I'm gonna read you for you from Jeremiah 46 pay attention as you turn in James 5 Jeremiah 46 verse 10 the Bible says for this is the day of the Lord God of hosts a day of vengeance that he may avenge him of his adversaries and the sword shall devour and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood for the Lord God of hosts at the sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates go up into Gilead and take balm Oh Virgin the daughter of Egypt in vain shalt thou use many medicines for thou shalt not be cured again just another reference to God just saying look you can do what you could think you could try to do whatever you want to do you go to your physicians you could get this balm you could get this medicine you can do apply whatever you want to apply but you're not going to be cured because I'm not gonna let you be cured Asa could go to all the physicians he wants to go to and God gave him a disease in his feet guess what he ain't gonna be cured if you're being chastised by God with your health no doctor can help you you need to get right with God but that does not mean you should never see a physician it's a bad conclusion to go to because you may get ill and you may get sick and you're not doing anything you know that's that God is going to be judging your health with and you may not be whole and need to see a physician now again these days with all the complications and all these other agendas and things going on you got to be careful right you want to make sure you could find someone who who has the right understanding of medicine in general and that we don't just treat everything with some drug right everything isn't just some chemical imbalance again that's the mindset that goes from the wrong worldview if when people think that we just came from this this we just evolved and ultimately you're nothing more like even your personal everything it's nothing more than just electrical impulse is going in your brain and that kind of decides who you are and we could make these changes your brain you're just gonna change who you are and everything else that you basically have no soul then everything becomes this chemical problem that's why they treat depression and all these other problems and everything you know just want to take a pill everything just take a pill we just we just mess with your brain and mess with all these other things look it's not all good they may think they know what's best for you but they don't if that's the path that you're trying to go down you know watch out for that educate yourself what is this actually going to do what does it do and why are you trying to do this why are you trying to release more serotonin in my brain why because you think there's some problem there okay well how did that get there how about we go to the source of the problem instead of trying to mask the symptoms not every doctor is made equal and you're gonna be the ones that buy into all that stuff thinking they're helping someone in or not at all but see that the responsibilities up to you it's not easy but you have to figure it out again though I can't stress this enough you can't just say because there's bad people because you have to watch your back because you have to protect yourself because you have to learn about these things it doesn't mean just don't ever go right but gain what you can from people who have experience in areas and if something's happening to you something's happening to your children something you know you're having problems especially you're having problems seek out some advice some opinions at least I know we live in perilous times and I know that you know people who take a philosophy or mindset like I'm putting forth right now can even potentially be dangerous if you have someone that wants to impose their will on you and especially when it comes to children now look it's another area you got to be careful with because we have got a government that's willing to take kids away from their parents if they're deemed to not be treating you know whatever with the way that they think you should be treating them so there's a risk but you know what you can't have there's a risk but you can't make decisions based off of fear because it still won't lead you to the right to say whether your fear of dying or fear of you know having your kids say wait you need to get good advice find someone good find someone that that can advise you on health and put in the time put in the extra effort to find someone that you can at least reasonably trust to give you some decent information at the end of the day I believe God's given us the responsibility to know what you know to make our own decisions with our own health drives me nuts that the government thinks that they're gonna be some big brother and help you out by making you do things that you don't want to do and you don't think is right but you know we start that's the the world we're turning into and living in but with all these things you know it's a complicated subject let the Bible truth the worldview of understanding what you know even just basic facts how God created us guide you in making your own medical decisions for you and your family because God's Word we need that as the light to direct the path I mean I use that with with my understanding of vaccines that hey I'm not gonna I'm not gonna inject myself with a disease to be protected from a disease I'm not gonna put something unclean into my body and think that I'm gonna be clean and that's a whole I mean there's a whole host of other things for that but just just biblically speaking you know we are not designed to require at birth injections to keep us healthy in our life God made us better than that the slap in the face to God to say oh man this baby this this this poor baby you need to inject them with this and this and this and this and this and all this stuff so that they could be healthy in their life no God made our bodies capable of surviving because God's amazing and God has made our bodies capable of adapting and changing and have this awesome immunity and everything else you don't need to just inject every single child that's born into this world with poison to make them healthy ridiculous but again one example I'm a little passionate about it's why I keep bringing up but it but I hate when people try to force that agenda on you and it happens but just because people try to force that you know what we do it doesn't mean we don't ever go to a doctor we just try to find a doctor that understands that position and isn't gonna pressure us into trying to vaccinate our kids and yeah it may be harder to find but they're still out there there's still people that you could find that's gonna advise you on on what you need advice on in your in your health or in your city you know and in seeking that that type of advice and getting getting some steered in the right way to dealing with your health but always we ought to be seeking God first now turn you're in James chapter 5 let's look at this passage because it's a great passage and God is always able to heal that's why we have a prayer request that's why we get people that we pray for regularly because God is always able and capable of healing and he always is the first place that we go to all the time but just as much as we also rely on God to support us right about the seeking first the kingdom of God is righteousness all these things shall be added unto so we know that God will provide for us he'll clothe us he'll feed us if we if we seek him first and we but it doesn't mean that you just never get a job you never do any other work of course we're gonna we're gonna I'm gonna trust that God will provide for me because you provide ways for me to work as a man somehow I don't need to worry exactly about how that's gonna happen but I definitely am not just gonna say well I'm just seeking God on my couch and I'm gonna listen to the Bible all day I'm gonna study and read and well God will just take care of me look you gotta get up and work take the Bible is always the same way with your health is oh I'm just gonna try you know like yeah trust in God absolutely I'm gonna trust God with my healthy you know I'm gonna do what I can also to make sure that that I could treat the the temple of the Holy Spirit which is our body with with as much care as possible and and and have respect under that too and if and if someone who studies biology anatomy and can can understand some areas of like hey this is this actually isn't good for you there are these these carcinogens or these chemicals or these other things that are that are in his food or whatever that's gonna cause some problems to you then you know what study that look at that and you know take in as much information as you can to make the best informed decision that you can James chapter 5 verse 13 the Bible reads is any among you afflicted let him pray is any Mary let him sing Psalms is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of Lord no this is where people get this the world gets this this idea of crew all these Christians they're just believe in this magic and everything look it's not magic it's the Lord who's capable of healing now I don't think this is something that what you would even do first of all over like oh I got a cold let's call the elders and bring them over here and anoint me with oil or this is gonna be a serious problem but there's more to this as we keep reading because it says here anointing him with the oil the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if you have committed sins they shall be forgiven him now this also carries that same symbolic meaning that the woman who was cured of her plague carries because look at the wording that's used here the prayer of faith shall save the sick and if you've committed sins they well why in the world would your sin just be forgiven you you know what is this talking about someone someone being made whole and I believe receiving then that they can receive the healing because they got right with God verse 16 then continues on the same vein confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed Asa would have done well to follow this advice I believe God would have healed him had he humbled himself and gotten right with God he should have called for whatever profit of the day was around and said hey I need to get right with God because I made this and this you know instead of putting him in a prison call him out of prison like man I made a big mistake here can you wash me anoint me with oil can you can you you know help me get clean then God will forgive about the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much now the the supernatural healing I think is tied in with this as well God's seeing hey there's someone calling the elders and they're you know they're getting serious about getting right this would be something that I think is is God provoked now you're getting God's mercy because you've been wrong with him and now you gotta get right with God and then God's gonna heal you and the passage continues to explain you know the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much because it does and this is not you know we absolutely 100% believe in the power of prayer of asking God to help in our need verse 17 says Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that might not rain and it rained on the earth by the space of three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which convert the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins and you can't ignore how this passage about the prayer and the sick is riddled with someone to committing the sins and the confessing their faults and going through this process of being of trying to get right with God they go hand in hand at the end of the day when you face major medical problem right go to God first search your heart search your life is there some area why am I like is God putting me through this because of me because of something that I did confess your faults get right with God right and seek God first trust in God have faith in God right but then there's nothing wrong with going to a physician after that nothing wrong with there's nothing sinful about that either at all the problem that Asa had the Bible says clearly it says he went to physicians but didn't go to God it's when people don't go to God when they have the problems so don't you can't reverse this is logically speaking you cannot reverse this you cannot go the other direction logically speaking you'd say okay he had a problem he went to physicians he didn't go to God the problem is he didn't go to God it's not that he went to physicians and instead that we have two physicians only if you have a problem you get right with God then you know what God might use the physicians to heal you he might he doesn't have to it can be done with no human hands but you know what God we see all the time God using people to for his will to be done all the time there's no reason to think that that wouldn't happen that way as well so I'm sorry if I didn't get it quite as clear I feel like sometimes I didn't get it quite as clear I know some of the concepts are clear but like you know there's a lot of different opinions out there when it comes to seeking medical advice and I would just not I would hate to see people ignoring very important health factors in their life because they're so anti doctor and not going to position not seeking anyone out that it ends up you know doing damage to yourself or a loved one when you really ought to just be seeking out that advice and on the flip side you I don't want to see people taking the other extreme of just well whatever this doctor says I'm just gonna do and maybe end up harming them more because they're just doing things that that is just well this is just what we're told to do is well you know and it may not actually be good for you so there's a balance here there's a balance here and as with everything important in life you can't just unfortunately just can't trust anyone at all you can't just trust people you have to do the work for yourself you can't trust the pastor to tell you everything that's true and right you have to do that on your own it doesn't mean don't listen to a pastor it means judge what they're saying judge it against the Word of God is it true great I'm gonna receive it is it not true I'm not gonna receive it but don't just have blind faith in anybody you say oh well pastor said this so it must be true no the word God says this it must be true not pastor says this I mean you don't take the same car mechanic said this so it must be true maybe it's good it could be good advice let's take that in and it's process that and see okay well yeah this makes sense and as that with anything important you don't get it get it get counsel get multiple counselors involved with your health go to multiple doctors what are these people well they all tell me the same thing maybe there's something to that or maybe they all studied from the same book I don't know I hope the sermon helps somebody you know I hope I hope you can take it to heart you know and be able to make good decisions because I want to see a healthy church I want to see everyone first and foremost going to God you got a problem pray to Lord look at yourself is there something that I did that's bringing this on myself that I can fix and then you know what seek some advice seek some counsel from people who are well educated in the area that you need help with as far as that word of prayer dear Lord love you thank you so much for all that you do for us God we just ask that you pour out your wisdom and knowledge help us to make wise choices Lord we we care about our bodies here on earth and we want to get the most life that we can to serve you we just ask for you to watch over us guide us into all wisdom and knowledge dear Lord and help us to just have good discernment when it comes to making major especially major decisions for our health and that you would we know that we know that your word is true we know that much and I pray that you would just help us to identify things that may potentially be harmful for us help us to know what's right dear Lord that we wouldn't we wouldn't end up causing damage unintentionally Lord we we love you want to serve you the best of our ability and to Jesus name we pray amen