I Need Healing

I'm excited to get into the Word of God today because we are in week three of our sermon collection, People Are Our Heart, and this is one of our eight core values. So, I'm excited to continue on what Pastor Lyle started last week. Wasn't that a dynamic message last week? Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Wasn't that a dynamic message last week? Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. So, Pastor Lyle spoke from the topic lost in the house. Everybody say lost in the house. And we examined the parable, the well-known parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Now, generally when people are preaching this passage, they major on the lost son and they minor, or don't even really talk about the dysfunction and the complication that is exhibited through the older brother. But Pastor Lyle flipped the script on us last week and he majored on the big brother. And I really, really, really love what he said when he said that the younger brother was lost in the pig pen, but the older brother was lost in the house. And I don't know about you, I'm so grateful that we have a pastor who is willing to be vulnerable. I started working with Pastor Lyle about seven to eight years ago.

And at first I didn't know what to do with the vulnerability, because he's the same guy now that he was back then. And he would just be vulnerable about the things that were going on in his heart. And all I had ever been introduced to was leadership that was taught to uphold a picture of perfection. But through Pastor Lyle, he showed me that vulnerability is actually a superpower. Why? Because when you're vulnerable and you're transparent, it actually breaks the back of the enemy. And so I was so grateful as you shared your story and the journey that you had been on, the older brother, with your identification with the older brother. It was amazing. Thank you for that, Pastor Lyle. Let's give it up for Pastor Lyle. So I've been pondering this passage and I've been just thinking about your message throughout the whole week. I had the opportunity to have a great conversation about the message with my Legacy Group on Wednesday as well. There's a group of 15 to 18 guys that we meet with. And so we had the opportunity to discuss this. Shout out to Legacy Groups, by the way. Anybody in the Legacy Group? Come on. If you're not in one, I encourage you to join one.

But there's so many incredible nuggets for us to dissect in this passage. And there's so much dysfunction for us to process through. So I thought that it might be beneficial for us to continue our analysis of the prodigal brother and draw further conclusions about his spiritual state. Is that okay? We're just gonna continue the convo today. Are y'all ready to lean in with me? Okay, let's thank Brian. Brian, thank you so much for being with me. Okay, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna open our Bibles to Luke 15. And we're gonna be reading from verse 25 to 32, okay? So go ahead and make your way over there. Whenever you're there, go ahead and stand with me. Or if you're reading on the LED screen, go ahead and stand up and we will begin to read, amen. Does anybody love the Word of God? I don't know about you, but I love the Word of God. And I'm excited to have the opportunity to explore it together. So this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna read together and then we're gonna have a bit of a Bible study. We're gonna discuss this scripture to ultimately draw some language and behaviors that are going to lead to a conclusion that we'll talk about for the rest of our time. Are you ready to read?

Here we go, it says this. Now his oldest son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fattened cow because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. Everybody say, he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I served you and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him. And he said to him, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. Well, you could go ahead and sit down. You could go ahead and sit down. So in verse 25 to 27, we read about the older brother coming back from a hard day's work.

And as he's journeying towards the house, he hears what sounds like a party happening. And so he rolls up to the house and he wants to find out what is going on. As he approaches, he asks one of the servants, hey, what is happening here? Why are we having a party? I didn't get an invitation to this party. Right, and he finds out that his long lost brother has come home. And then in verse 28, we read about the response that he has to this revelation. It says that he was angry. Everybody say angry. In response to the revelation that this celebration for his long lost brother is happening, emotion, the emotion that arises within him is anger. Now, we know through psychology that anger is a secondary emotion. So immediately, we know that something else is going on in the older brother's heart, amen? And then going on in verse 28, it says that he refused to go in. Everybody say he refused to go in. This is indication of an invitation to come in, right? And let me give a little bit more context around this. Him refusing to come inside the house during a celebration that has been sanctioned by his own father and the patriarch of a family in this Middle Eastern context is blatant,

is a blatant show of disrespect and dishonor. He is blatantly saying to his father, I will not honor your request for me to come inside and celebrate at this celebration that you have called. Older brother has decided that he would like to cause a scene. Now listen, this is childish behavior. And I know a little bit about childish behavior because I got two sons. I got two sons, and let me tell you this, it is quite the show when they do not get what they want. Their current boycott right now is the refusal to eat dinner if they can't sit by mom. They'll just put their arms like this and I'm not eating. They want to cause a show. Let's continue on. In verse 28, the father then comes out and he entreats his son. So everybody, entreats. So listen, this is crazy. Somewhere in between eating a beautifully braised beef rib and drinking some choice select wine, his father hears about some commotion that is going on outside. And he decides to depart from the celebration of one son that's coming home to go out to entreat or to plead with another son that will not come inside the house, amen. Again, this is very, very, very odd behavior in this Middle Eastern context because a father, a Middle Eastern father

generally would never beg a son to do anything. He would command his son to come in. Hey boy, look at me. I ain't playing with you right now. Get inside the house. That's how I sound with my sons, you know. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. But this is ultimately exhibiting the father's radical love and mercy for his son in this moment. Moving on to verse 29 and 30, the son has set the stage. He has his father's attention now and he decides to set the stage of a discourse that ultimately gives us a lot of revelation about what's happening. He has his father attention and he decides that he wants to give him a piece of his mind or better yet, a piece of his heart. He launches into this discourse and tells him, these many years I've served you and you ain't given me nothing. He comes home after squandering everything that you gave him, after sleeping with prostitutes and then finding himself as a disgrace to the family in a pig pen and what do you do? You kill the fatty calf, but I've been here all along and you're not doing anything. Ultimately, what this is doing is giving us an inside look into how skewed older brother's perspective has become and how poisoned the wellspring of his heart is.

Because this is the fact of the matter, Legacy. Living life through the lens of a hurting heart will always lead to distorted perspective. Is it okay if I'm honest with you about how I feel about this passage? After researching and praying and asking the Lord some questions about this text, the more that I examine it and I examine the behaviors of older brother, the more that I am convinced that the root of self-righteousness that we are observing is actually a wounded heart. His wounded heart has inhibited him from being able to share in the joy of a brother coming home. This actually kind of gives me some empathy and some compassion for older brother because I think that more than a rebuke, what older brother needs is healing. So all of this leads me to the conclusion that I want us to consider for the rest of our time together, and it's this, if we're truly to live out the value that people are our heart, we have to continually allow God to heal our hearts. Today, I want to talk to you about God's desire to heal your hearts. The title of my message is very, very simple. It's this, I need healing. Do me a favor.

Look at your neighbor. Hopefully, you know them. And say, hey, neighbor, I need healing. Father, we come before you today in humility, recognizing our need for the healing touch of Jehovah Rapha. Father, I'm asking in the name of Jesus that you would sweep through this place and that you would leave no heart untouched, God. Holy Spirit, breathe in this place. Jehovah Rapha, come and have your way in this place. In Jesus' mighty name. And the whole church said, amen. You know, scripture is very clear about the necessity of the believer having a healthy heart. Proverbs 4, verse 23 tells us this, keep or guard your heart with all vigilance or carefulness, for from it flows the wellspring of life. And then in Luke 6, verse 45, it says the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If it's okay, I wanna share in vulnerability this morning about the journey of healing that I have been on over the last year in my life. I've been in ministry since I was four years old. My parents started traveling when I was four years old as missionary evangelists. We would travel all across Oklahoma and the surrounding states every single week.

We were at a different church morning and evening. It was a life, I'm telling you. It was hard to explain on Monday morning at school. But nonetheless, I've been in full-time pastoral ministry for the last five years, and I've learned a lot of lessons in these five years of ministry. But the biggest lesson that I've probably learned is that ministry is warfare. And within the context of the warfare that you engage in, in ministry, you accrue your fair share of wounds. But the expectation, whenever you accrue those wounds, is that you just keep going. You just keep on going. And the Lord has been so faithful to our church. Over the last 10 years, getting ready to celebrate 10 years in October, I've been a part of the church for eight of those years. It's kind of crazy to think, but the Lord has been so faithful to our church as we've pioneered, as we've taken territory for his kingdom and ultimately fought to position our house in a position where people could come in, they could find life, and they could be discipled into who God has called them to be. A lot of battles have been fought over the last five years. A lot of battles. I was joking with Pastor Lyle in the last service that we could have a whole revival week just telling stories of the battles.

Telling stories of the battles that we have fought to ultimately do our best, do our best with the help of the Holy Spirit to position our church in the position that it is right now. Battles we some of the battles that we fought we knew we were fighting them But some of the battles we didn't know we were fighting them until we were on the other side And in may of 2025 We as a church we came out of a season of elevated spiritual warfare And I could tell that my heart was growing a little bit weary of everything that I have gone through And there was evidence by some of the behaviors that that that I was observing and that people around me mainly my wife Were beginning to observe as well and i'll just put a name to it I just put a name to it because I think it's important. You know, I was experiencing a level of a level of cynicism a level of shortness with those I love and and who I serve a lack of grace and Kindness and my desire to continue on in the mission was coming into question Fast forward to last november during a trip to the united kingdom I took an early morning flight from gatwick airport in london to belfast northern island And on this plane that seats about 150 people There were only about 50 people so we were afforded the opportunity to have our own roles Isn't that just the expression of god's grace on your life? Like like when you're on a plane and you get your own role it's like lord you have shined your face upon me today Hallelujah. Thank you. Jesus But anyways our plane Departed for belfast in the dark of the night But mid flight as the sun began to rise it was like the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen In my life and so i'm sitting here in my window seat and i'm looking out at the sunrise and i'm just giving god Thanks for this incredible moment that he's allowing me to sit in and then all of a sudden I just begin to cry I just begin and it's one of those cries that you didn't ask for You know some of the cries you ask for it's like, you know, I need a good cry. Maybe maybe not

But this was one of those cries that I didn't ask for and it was a cry that was I knew from a deep place And then I uttered words that I to that point in my life had seldom ever uttered before I said I need healing I need healing And it was as if in that moment My understanding was catching up with the reality that my spirit had known all along That I needed healing And the funny thing about it is this though In this encounter, it didn't really feel like a 9-1-1 emergency It was just a statement of the reality that I have just come out of a season of spiritual warfare And there is healing that I need for my heart and there is healing that I need for my soul And in that moment man, I could just sense the father's healing bone begin to just pour over my weary heart But I also knew in that moment that he's this is the initiation of a process of healing for my heart And I do want to testify today That the last four months the lord has done such a marvelous work of healing in my heart The lord has done such a marvelous work And and I do get to stand before you this morning healed I get to stand before you whole And I get to stand before you ready to cross the head of the enemy I get to stand before you ready to embark on the next chapter of this church as we labor together for the kingdom of god. Amen What this encounter Showed me and this process has shown me is that in every season of life every season of life will bring wounds And every season of life requires a measure of healing that you need to go through But the problem that i've observed in many christian contexts is that we have a very narrow understanding Of healing. I know I did I'm gonna admit that I had a particularly narrow Understanding of healing because many of us were taught to think about healing almost exclusively in terms of a dramatic supernatural miracle A limb growing out a deaf person receiving their hearing a blind person receiving their sight a tumor Disappearing from somebody's body and guess what praise god for these miracles because they happened and we believe in them

But because of that framework Many of us have been taught to view healing as a rare one-time event that mysteriously happens So we end up interacting with healing as though it is some inaccessible lottery ticket type benefit of the Kingdom of God. Something that might happen to someone somewhere but probably won't happen to me and I probably won't experience it regularly. But the reality is this, church, when you look at Scripture, healing is not presented as a rare luxury afforded to lucky people. It is presented as a normal covenantal provision of the Kingdom of God to the children of the Kingdom of God. And this is the reality. In a world that is filled with brokenness and broken people, we are desperately in need of God's healing touch in our lives. In Exodus 15, verse 26, the Lord presents Himself to the people of Israel in a way that He's never presented Himself to them. He says this, I am the Lord, your healer. Or I am Yahweh Rapha. Or I am Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals you. In this moment, Jesus, in this moment, God is giving them an inside look into who He is. Healing is not just what He does, healing is who He is.

He is healer. He doesn't just heal. He is healer. And then in Exodus 23, verse 25, He says, I will take your sickness away from your midst. Right? God's promise to the children of God is that He will take our sickness away from us. And this is the reality. Sickness is not limited to physical manifestations. In fact, many physical ailments are secondary manifestations of what is going on internally. Right? Church, I need you to know this morning, this is what I'm trying to convince you of. From season to season, from month to month, from day to day, from hour to hour, Jehovah Rapha wants to heal you. He wants to heal your bitterness. He wants to heal your offense. He wants to heal your unbelief and your weariness. He wants to heal the wounds from abuse. He wants to heal the pain that's been inflicted upon you through mistreatment, rejection, and anything else you're experiencing in your daily life. Come on, someone shout, I need healing. Can we just stop right there and give God praise that He's a healer? Is it okay if we just stop for a moment? I don't know about you, but I'm so grateful

that He heals my body, but I'm even grateful that He heals my heart. I'm so grateful because I need a healer to come and heal the things that are going on in my heart on a daily basis. The offenses that I feel, the bitterness that tries to rise up in my life, but I need a healer. In Matthew 15 verse 26, in a fascinating exchange with a Gentile woman, ooh, fascinating, Jesus refers to healing as children's bread. Oh, someone shout children's bread. In this passage, you gotta go read about it. I don't got time to go through all of it right now. You gotta go read about it. In this passage, a woman is in need of healing for her daughter, and Jesus says, hey, healing is children's bread, right? And He tells her, I gotta give the bread to the children of Israel. But she says this, I know I'm a Gentile, and I know that this might not be for me right now, but even the dogs need crumbs. And Jesus is moved by her faith, and He says, I've not seen such great faith. Go and be healed. Jesus makes the correlation between healing and bread, because the provision of bread is not something that we need on a monthly

or a yearly basis. We need bread daily. What does the Lord's prayer say? Give us this day our daily bread, not weekly, not monthly, not yearly. I need daily bread. I need daily healing in my life. Amen. Come on, we gotta catch this revelation, church. We gotta catch this revelation that just this bread is a daily expectation. God's healing can be a daily expectation in your life. In Jeremiah 8, verse 22, the prophet Jeremiah, he brings a lament to the people. And he says this. Says, is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? What is Jeremiah doing? Jeremiah is lamenting the fact that in a place like Gilead that is economically known for its plenteous healing balm, why are the children of Israel still spiritually sick? He's saying in this place where healing is flowing, plenteous, you can just go to the field and pick it. Why are the people still sick? Listen, I have that same lament this morning. I have that same lament in places where God's presence is promised, specifically the house of God.

Why are so many of us still sick in our hearts? Why are we so sick in our souls? As I was meeting with my counselor over the last couple of months because the Lord told me on that plane, he gave me a prescription for all the things I need to do to receive my healing. One of the things he said is, you need to go back and you need to see your counselor. So over the last two months, I've been seeing my counselor and on the first day that I met with him, I told him about this encounter that I had to give him a little bit of context of what he's dealing with. You know what I'm saying? Some of you have been lying to your counselors too whenever you tell. You need to stop lying so they can really help you. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Nick knows, Nick knows. He's been meeting with too many people. He's like, yo, tell me what's really happening. But I decided, I was like, I'm just gonna be very honest with you. This is what I've been walking through. Like I've been through five years of ministry and man, we've been fighting a lot of battles and my heart is wounded and I need healing right now.

And he looked at me and he said, Brian, let me tell you something. It takes me six months to a year to get most people to admit that. He said, it takes me so long, session after session to get people to a point where they can admit that they need healing. And he said this, he said, Brian, listen, the body of Christ is sick. The body of Christ is in need of healing right now. And the first step towards healing is what? Admitting it. Admitting that you need healing. Because this is the reality. The moment that you admit that you need healing, you invite Jehovah Rapha in. You invite the personhood of God into your life. The personhood of the healer of God into your life. The moment that you'll stop, the moment that you'll swallow your pride, the moment that you'll face your fear and the moment that you'll say, you know what? Guess what? I've been through a lot and I need healing. I need healing. So what happens when we don't receive healing from season to season? This is a good question with great ramifications. Good question with great ramifications. This is what the Lord was showing me on that plane.

He says, when we do not face the pain and the suffering and get the healing that we need from season to season, we begin to live life carrying compound brokenness. Now let me define compound brokenness for you to give us a little bit more visibility and understanding. Compound brokenness is what happens when we carry the pain of one season into the next season without allowing God to heal it. Because for so many of us, what we think is that since I'm out of the season, I'm good. We exit a season or we leave a place, right? We leave a place, we move away, right? And we're like, boom, I left the pain, I'm good. I'm good. But the reality is this, the wounds accumulate from season to season until the weight of them begins to shape how you think, how you love, and we're seeing this in a generation, how we see God. It's sad to say, but it's not abnormal for people, even believers, to go from season to season, experiencing pain, suffering, trials, troubles, tragedy, but they never stop to process the pain. This morning, I wanna give somebody the permission to stop. I wanna give you the permission to stop and to get the healing that you need. To stop and to get the healing that is available for you. Life often moves like this. Heartbreak, heartbreak, betrayal. disappointment, stress, transition, new responsibilities, new challenges, and

instead of stopping to heal, we just keep it moving. So what happens is the heart continues to accumulate offense, grief, exhaustion, distrust, fear, until eventually we reach a breaking point. I was in my legacy group this past Wednesday and one of my group members was vulnerable and sharing how his life is going right now and it was so powerful he said there's a room in my house that I always keep the fan going. I always keep my fan going in this one room and he said for the first time in such a long time I stopped the fan and then when I stopped it I realized that it was so dirty. I realized that there was so much dirt on this fan but I couldn't notice it because I just kept going. It was not until I stopped the fan that I was able to perceive that the fan is dirty and I need it to be clean. This is so many of us, we've gone through decades of our lives, decades of our life and never turned the fan off to examine the reality that oh no it's dirty and I need it to be cleaned. I want to let you know today if that's you in this room God wants to heal you. God wants to heal you. You don't have to stay broken. He wants to heal you and I understand it's a process and then this is the thing great battles will always elicit great healing. So some of the battles that you guys have been through it may take three four years to undo and to get the full healing that you need but one of the things I want to let you know is you got you got a friend in me you got a friend in this church you got a friend in us who will stick by stick with you as you go through your process of healing. Oh thank you God I feel him in the room right now. Does anybody else feel him in the room right now? Does anybody else feel him in the room right now? And he's got an agenda and the agenda is healing it this morning. Come on grab it for yourself just like the woman with the issue of blood she knew and understood something that we gotta catch. If I could just touch the hem of his garment I will be made whole. If I could I don't even need him to acknowledge me. I don't even need him to see me. If I could just touch someone needs to touch to reach out and touch him this morning. I want to continue in sharing in this this revelation of compound brokenness. Compound brokenness is plaguing the body of

Christ right now. We got people with decades of brokenness. Decades of brokenness that are carried. Look I've been over 500 churches in my life. I have seen this firsthand. Pastors, man, drowning in the weight of brokenness with an expectation to keep going. And that's why I want to say specifically for our church leaders we need our church leaders to be healthy and we need them to be whole. This is this is the thing. Listen to me please. It does you and it does the world no good to have church leaders carrying compound brokenness. It does us no good. I know there's this thing going on in the world right now where it's like popular to make fun of pastors and it's popular to like to like look for opportunities to shame and to look for the wrong in church leaders and and to blame them for everything that ultimately is your brokenness. But it's not funny and if you're doing it it's demonic and you got problems and you need to clean your heart out. You need to get your heart clean. We need to pray for our church leaders in this hour because they are in crisis right now. I am one of them. Listen, they are in crisis and their hearts are failing them. We need to pray for the strength of their heart in this season rather than criticizing. Pray. I got three truths about healing and then the Holy Spirit. He's already moving. He's about to move in a miraculous way in this room. I got three truths about healing that I want to share with you. I had a whole thing about the Prophet Elijah and how great great battles were always necessary. to take great healing, but I'm not gonna share it. Three truths about healing. The first thing is this, healing is a habit. I know y'all didn't wanna hear that. Healing is a habit. God has given us practical prescriptions that we can follow to receive healing on a daily basis. To receive this daily bread. The first one is this, Sabbath, rest.

When's the last time you rested? When's the last time you stopped? Matthew 2, 27, the Sabbath was given to man. You are limited and you need to understand that. Your observation of the Sabbath and of rest is an invitation for the unlimited God to come in and heal your body. And to come in and heal your heart. And to come in and heal your mind, your heart. The second is this, renewing your mind. Romans 12, verse two says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We renew our mind when we habitually engage with the word of God. When we eat the bread of the word, the bread of the word comes inside and nourishes us and heals us. And then the last thing is this, it's very practical. Physical activity, physical activity. Creating a habit of physical activity because first Corinthians six, verse 19 and 20 tells us your body is a temple. And it's through physical activity that we partner with God in the healing of our whole person. The second truth is this, healing is hard. Healing is hard. Addressing your trauma, addressing the abuse that you've been through, mistreatment, offenses, betrayals, disappointments, mistakes, et cetera, it's difficult.

One of my favorite movies is American Sniper. I'm not suggesting that you go watch it. But it's one of my favorite movies and the Lord has spoken to me through it, so huh. Just kidding. But it tells the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who served multiple tours in Iraq and he experienced intense combat and carried the weight of everything that he had seen and done during the war. When Chris came back home, the war didn't just stay overseas. The battle followed him back home. He struggled with the psychological weight of everything that he had experienced during battle. And like many soldiers, he struggled with the weight during battle. And like many soldiers returning from war, he carried wounds that were not visible to the public. And like many of us, it was easier to avoid those wounds than to confront them. But what began to bring Chris healing was not running from the pain, but facing the pain. Facing the pain. He started helping other veterans who were struggling with the same wounds that he was carrying. Healing required him to confront what he had experienced and that process was not easy. In the same way, healing in our hearts

often requires us to face the past, to face rejection, to face betrayal, to face disappointment. But the good news is this, church, when we face those wounds, we don't face them alone. God meets us in those places. The Lord who heals does not just heal the wounds we ignore, he heals the wounds that we bring to him. And this is one of the things I wanna encourage you today as you face the pain. Don't do it alone. Don't do it alone. Find a friend, find community, and also find a professional. The last truth is this, healing is personal. You know, we live in a very polarized world where it's easy to discount your pain because someone else has experienced something worse, you know what I mean? But comparison does not cancel your pain. Do not downplay your hurting hearts. Big or small, God wants to heal you. Little or much, God wants to heal you. Jehovah Rapha wants to heal you. Let's stand together.