Recognizing Spiritual Needs

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July 2, 2017

Recognizing Spiritual Needs

Matthew 9: 1-13

Her pastor said it was difficult to care for Jeanne. To be quite frank, many nurses didn’t go into her room because of her unreasonable demands. One day after making her comfortable he said, ‘I took her hand. Her voice was anxious. She said, “Please don’t ever leave me!”

I responded, “Jeanne, I WILL have to leave you. But I know someone who loves you very much and will never leave you.” That day her deepest need, a spiritual need, began to be met by the one who came to call all sinners to repentance.

You see Jeanne’s pastor recognized she had a spiritual need. Have you ever experienced a time when you realized you had a spiritual need? We all know when we have a physical need. We need the care of a physician….the medicines they are enabled to prescribe.

But have you ever felt a time when you had a deep, spiritual need?Maybe there’s been a time when you felt you were abandoned by friends, neighbors, relatives, even God? Have you ever seen someone else in spiritual need? How do you recognize a spiritual need in someone else? And if you do, what do you do about it?

Those are some of the questions we’ll look at today as we move through this study about caring for each other in our spiritual needs, inspired to me by having studied Phyllis Le Peau’s ‘Caring People Bible Studies’ by InterVarsity Press, among other resources and especially my own heart in studying God’s word, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

(Prayer)

Caring for Spiritual Needs. When have we seen that in action?Have you experienced it personally? Have you seen that in action when your back was against the wall and you said, “I can’t handle this!”

While you’re still awake this beautiful Sunday, this Sunday when we recognize and praise God for the freedoms we enjoy, let me give you a key point here for the day.

Remember God’s word promises God will meet every need. God will free you….not armies, not nations, not leaders – God.

Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will meet ALL your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” God will meet our needs. God will free us.

Notice I didn’t say God will meet all our “wants”. We want this, we want that. Gimme…Gimme…Gimme. Thank goodness we’re not close to Christmas today, right?

God will meet our needs….and in saying that what we’re focused on today is God will meet our spiritual needs…..we’re not guaranteed to receive our worldly wants. Even our mental, emotional, physical needs.

So the real question is – what happens when it looks as though Satan is winning in the battle of any of our needs? What about those times when it looks like,“I can’t do it?”

Remember God will never allow his people to experience trials in which God will not also sustain them and bring them through to everlasting glory – how? God gives you a way to escape even the temptations we face as we learn in I Corinthians. (Again, God will provide a way of escape – he never gives his people trials in which he will not sustain them and bring them through to everlasting glory…..and a way to escape falling. You don’t have to give in to evil.

If you are “in” – you’ve claimed Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life and you seek to live out that life in the fellowship of believers – you will find that you will be enabled to do all you must do to get there,” as pastor John Piper offers in his work, “Desiring God.”

What might that trial look like? I don’t know what your trials will be, but let’s see what one looked like in Jesus day.

Turn with me if you would to Matthew 9: 1-13 and let’s see one instance of this.

Matthew 9: 1-13 gives us a picture of a man who had deep needs. Right? Not only did he need physical healing, Jesus realized that ultimately he most needed spiritual healing.

Notice one other thing. The man’s friends brought the man to Jesus. It was their faith….not the man’s faith that brought about the healing that happened that day. It was the faith of his friends. That’s what we are to be about, church. We are, in faith, to bring those who need Jesus TO Jesus….and all of us need Jesus, Amen? Amen!

You see, friends, it is the foundational purpose of the church of Jesus Christ – including Faith Church to lift up those who are struggling, to be present to those who are suffering, and to be witnesses to the love of God when that love sometimes seems very difficult to see or feel.

This is a hospital for sinners – I’m a patient here….you are patients here. This isn’t a sanctuary for the saints – or those who think they’re saints. It’s not a museum for the “members.” This is a hospital – a rehab center.

We all come in here with our needs and, as God enables, we go from here to be the church challenged by Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit toward meeting the needs of others.

Here in this passage which can also be found in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus offered both physical and spiritual healing for this man.

God’s forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ is the key. It’s the greatest gift of the Christian faith – Amen? Amen! It allows us to shout “Alleluia” every Easter morning, but does it resound inside us the rest of the year, the rest of the week, the rest of today?

Folks come in here and those that are able walk the sidewalks around here who are stuck in the paralysis of physical and mental illness, addiction, depression, economic hardship, discrimination, violence – you name it. Our needs are great.

One of the blessings of a victorious Christian life is the sweet serenity and peace of God….knowing the closeness of our Lord in every circumstance of life. It is so important that we develop strong spiritual lives during the peaceful hours – hours spent in fellowship with God most especially the hours you spend right here in this place on a Sunday morning, in order that we will be able to be victorious when difficulties come, which they surely will to everyone at some time.

“I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord, No tender voice like thine can peace afford.

In this passage we see that our paralytic friend’s needs were great. Imagine what life would be like to be unable to do for yourself. Anything for yourself. I can’t.

Even if we don’t know folks who are physical paralytics…..Many of us do know people whose psyche is so beyond their own control that we might almost say they are paralyzed…..even suggesting that demons have them under their control. Too many bad habits and destructive behaviors take up housekeeping in people’s formerly contented lives.

Think what an addiction to gambling or drugs, gossip… can do to the well-being of people we love and care for. They are a paralytic.

Some of us are addicted, held hostage by grudges. A grudge against someone. And oh the sludge that builds up with hanging on to a grudge. We’re paralyzed as much as our friend in this passage.You struggle to forgive and find healing for your heart.

There’s all kinds of ways we can be paralyzed.There are lots of addictions that can paralyze us as much as it is to be without the use of arms or legs.

Ok, some are hoarders. There’s even been a TV show about it. They can’t let go of stuff. Imagine the well-meaning family member who decides to clear out the crowded closets of a loved one. What seems like thoughtfulness on the part of the organizer can seem like inexcusable interference to the person who has saved all that stuff for all those years.

Sometimes addictions to racism and sexism are so embedded….even in our sense of humor. Do folks ask for forgiveness in that?

All of us are like the demoniacs, who are not only being paralyzed and destroyed but who know they are being destroyed and still can’t let go.

Like the abused spouse – they won’t save themselves from the abuser even when the chance presents itself. They’re paralyzed.

We can’t turn away from the false hope the world holds outso we can affirm the eternal hope in the gift of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes it’s not the power of the habit that has folks in the grip; sometimes we are kept in the thrall of our demons by the thought that healing demands too much effort – too much sacrifice – resisting chance even if change would be for the best.

And what are we left with to help someone who is the paralytic in our lives? We offer “hang in there” “things will get better, you’ll see” and a messed up interpretation that would say, “Well, God will never give you more than you can handle”….

We go through times of waiting – waiting, paralyzed through illnesses or handicaps or other trials.

Again, here’s a key about this passage.

Jesus claimed he had the authority to forgive sin. Why did Jesus do this, and what does this show about who Jesus is?

To prove he had authority to forgive sins, Jesus went ahead and performed the miracle of physically healing this paralyzed man. He can forgive sins, because he is God. He can heal the man physically because he is God!

If Jesus didn’t have the authority to forgive sins, then how could he heal at all? Jesus’s miracles obviously were of God – they were God in action. They proved he was God – God of creation and re-creation. The God who created the man and can and does re-create the man in wholeness of mind, body and spirit.

Jesus was questioned here about how he could forgive sins. The teachers knew that only God – the one, true, eternal God - could forgive sins…so if Jesus can forgive sins…then he must be– God – God in the flesh. That becomes significant in the days to come when they reject Jesus – subjecting him to ridicule, even death.

Some accepted that Jesus could forgive sins and some,praise God, accept this today…..but many didn’t and still don’t. And that’s where they are in serious need of having spiritual needs cared for by you and me, the church.

What a comfort Jesus words had to be to the poor man, especially since the community blamed him for his problems. We don’t know what caused the guy’s infirmity – his paralysis. Jesus never says it was sin – which the culture of the day always pointed to first. Who sinned here, folks would ask first here?

No, Jesus just offers total wholeness. Jesus is offering compassion, not condemnation to the man. Jesus is offering compassion, not condemnation as we ask forgiveness.

Where was the evil in this passage? The evil was in the hearts of those who should be the first ones to offer compassion…the scribes (the church)….how would that translate to today? Well, unfortunately it happens at all levels of society, and forgive me, even in the church.

Instead of rolling up a sleeve to truly help, they offer and we do so often as well – “get well”…..”I’ll be praying for you”….and then we end up not even doing that.

Jesus rolls up his sleeves. He frees the man from his affliction.

Jesus offers not only healing of body to this man, he offers healing of spirit.

Jesus makes available full wholeness…..forgiveness for sin, even if there will be those who are not given full physical healing.

‘Cause which is more important to us? Healing of body…..or healing of heart? Unfortunately there will be those who only care about the physical and never concern themselves with the spiritual healing that is truly, eternally needed.

Verse 8 says the people standing around were filled with awe at this miraculous healing of the afflicted man and praised God, glorifying God that Jesus had been granted authority to heal the man.

That God forgives our sins is a more stunning marvel. It’s greater than the wonders of medicine.

We more often pray for someone’s physical healing than for the salvation of their souls. “Forgive us, Lord.”

I’m thinking that with the advent of so many medical advances in the world, we forget that it’s all God at work anyway…..God provides the mental ability to those scientists who research the four corners in how to cure an illness. God provides the ability to put medical knowledge in diagnosing and illness and coming up with the proper manner for a person’s body to overcome that illness or injury. God provides the researchers, the physicians, the nurses, the facilities….all of it.

So when we recognize that it is all of God….then we can truly give God the credit for all healing – mind, body and spirit, but Jesus was first and foremost about the healing of this man’s spiritual heart.

Why?

People need the Lord, friends. More than they need healthy bodies, we need healthy souls.

Are you paralyzed today? Paralyzed physically, emotionally, and more importantly, spiritually?

Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh were trying to write a song one day. They said, “We spent most of the morning talking about ideas. We decided about lunch time to go to a restaurant near Greg’s office in Nashville. After we were seated, a waitress came to our table.

As she approached us and smiled, it seemed that her eyes were so empty. She was trying to convey a cheery attitude, but her face seemed to say something else. She took our order and walked away.

Phil and I looked at each other and one of us said to the other, “She needs the Lord.”

We then began looking around the restaurant at all of the people there. They, too, seemed to have an emptiness in their faces. We sensed a real heaviness in our hearts as we watched them. Suddenly we realized that all of those people need the Lord. Just as quickly we both thought, we need to write that—that people need the Lord.

We finished our meal and went back to my office and sat down to write what was in our hearts. The pictures from the restaurant that remained in our minds, coupled with the realization that millions of people around the world are also groping for some ray of light.

Every day they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, Headed who knows where?
On they go through private pain, Living fear to fear. Laughter hides their silent cries, Only Jesus hears.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord. At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord.

I can read these words and maybe you get it by the power of the Holy Spirit, always at work…..but maybe, I pray, Dustin can be used by God in singing it to our hearts.