What a day that'll be when I see Jesus. Amen? All the things over there to see, you think about, you know, the wonders, the beauties, the sights, the people, all the sounds. The main attraction will be the Lord Jesus Christ when you get to heaven. And we appreciate the Lord, appreciate salvation. It has been an interesting few weeks now at the church, and we desire, we pray for each other. We have so much loss of loved ones. The one thing about it, if they're saved, you didn't lose them. You can't lose something if you know where it is, right? So, you know, I know we all grieve and we all cry and we should, but Paul wrote it best. He said, I don't want you to be ignorant, so I know when you are asleep that your sorrow Nazo, you have no hope. I know to quote that exactly word for word. But what Paul's telling you is it's all right to sorrow and mourn, but do that with hope. Amen. If they're saved, I said, you didn't lose them. They're right where they're supposed to be. And thank God for that. So we're going to preach this morning just whenever they tell me they're ready. the right now I was supposed to be second Peter leave it to a deacon all good It's not there. Yeah, 2. David can't read my handwriting. 1 Peter chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 21-25. I was making sure y'all was reading your Bibles. what that was. I was getting ready to preach one night, and I said, I'm going to be preaching in the morning. I try to give it out sometimes. This evening, I'll be preaching from the book of Hezekiah, chapter 3. Y'all go home and read that, and come back to church that evening. And I was like, all right, who read their scripture before I gave it out this morning? About four or five folks raised their hand. The honest truth, they raised their hand. And I said, there is no book of Hezekiah in the night, so the message is online. And they got mad at me for that. It wasn't my fault they lied. All they had to do was say, well, Brother Gary, there wasn't no Hezekiah. We couldn't find a lot of David. There ain't no 1 Peter chapter 5. You got to love deacons, amen. That's why he's number 14 on the brother-in-law list or son-in-law list. Now I want to preach to you, Lord willing. To me, it's one of the greatest heresies of today's church movement. And the movement that I'm going to be preaching on is the healing movement. We've seen everything. Did I turn that on? I don't remember now. It's not on? Is it on now? Now? I think we've done this last week. I've got a green light, so I don't know what's going on with it. All right, so I'll try to stay put. Y'all know how good that's going to work. It might be this piece may need to switch out. OK. So we'll fix on that. So we have this movement. And we have everything today in today's church, this church age. from faith healers, people that go around claiming to have this apostolic gift or ability, gift of healing. You have that. You have folks that are anointing any and everything. I mean, we've become so obsessed. Listen to this. We have become obsessed with healing in church. That's crazy to think for a preacher to get up and say that like that, but listen, it's going to get better. Enjoy what you can this morning. We've got to the point now that in a lot of services, a lot of church services, they'll have at some point in their service what they call a healing line, where the sick people in their church will line up and then they'll come and they'll get prayed for and they're supposed to get healed and all that. I've looked. I can't find that in Scripture. Can't find it. And we do this. We've butchered James chapter 5. Y'all know James chapter 5 verses 13 through 16? Y'all know? There'll be any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church. Now you notice a few things in these verses. The first thing is that elders were to be requested by the sick people. Right? Y'all with me, right? If there'll be any sick among you, let them call for the elders. Now, not once in the Bible does it say, if I'm sick, does Miss Alicia come up here and say, I want to stand in and be anointed for Brother Gary. Not what the Bible says. Hello? It says, if that sick person is sick, let them call for the elders of the church. And then the elders go to the sick person. And it doesn't teach us that this happens within the church service. Now, you guys are real quiet this morning. You're learning something, right? Thank you. Who was it? That'd be Owen. Then, before the elders go to these sick people, this is why you know this isn't supposed to happen in churches, is it says that the elders are going to be confessing their faults one to another. Now I challenge you, think back to all, we've all seen it. I'm from Southern Michigan too. We've all seen folks come in to a church service and say, I'm not going to be the one to pray for it. And boy, they'll be 40 out of the back of the pulpit, and they'll be, Not once does anybody ever go confess their own faults. They do. Has anybody ever seen them go confess their fault? They'll confess their fault because they're not Catholic. They're not Catholicians. They'll confess their fault. They confess their fault and not eat too much. We don't have to confess our own faults, do we? We all do. Not all of you. Some of you do. Some of you don't. But we'll go to these church services and they'll do that. And not much as they do, the same difference. So, I won't have to hurry through this introduction to get to the message. I can tell they're all ready. So there you go. They confess their faults one to another. Now catch this part. James said if they've committed any sins, what's going to happen? They'd be forgiven. Now that's a clue for you that this passage is also tribulational. Book of Peter, James, all these books have a lot of tribulational doctrine in them. So what you see in the book of James that I said, as I said earlier, we butchered it so much is there's no prayer clause. I said, we are not apostles. Amen. You don't, you know, I'm not Peter, you're not Paul, you're not going to take my handkerchief, you're not going to lay it on Brother D, and all of a sudden Brother D's going to get pretty. It just don't work that way. If it did, I'd have done tried it. Amen. But listen, we don't do, we don't have prayer lines. You're not going to, you should not come into a church service and there'd be a designated time for healing in a church service. Think about this. You've seen a lot of revivals here locally advertise this and this and healings. Well, that'd be great. The folks that work at Boone Memorial wouldn't appreciate it so much, but that'd be great. Right? We don't do prayer lines. We don't stand in. Listen, if you're sick, you call for the elders of the church. It doesn't work any other way. Right? Now listen, we don't even, within this church, within this building, but I know unless there is some Crisco or something downstairs, we don't keep anointing oil here in the church on purpose. Why? Because we want to try to do this thing scripturally. If I'm going to be right, I want to be biblically right. Amen? So, I wrote this down. I said this here a couple of weeks ago at church and it sounded so good and I loved it. It's so eloquent. And I very seldom say anything real eloquent. But I said this and I'm going to remember that. And this is what I said. Every faith healer I've ever met was a liar. Ain't that eloquent? That just rolls off the tongue, don't it? I mean, seriously. I've met some. And every one of them jokers were liars. So if they were liars, they're not of God, right? Who are they from? That's right. So, if I'm going to say, if I want to get anything right, I want to be right biblically. And before anybody goes home or online and they're starting to make up non-confessional faith, they say, well, hey, I believe in healing. I believe in healing. I've seen people healed. I've seen God answer prayer. I've seen God move. I've seen miracles. They find out miracles happen. My own family, my son, y'all heard the story. We sent him to one hospital. very much dancing. We'll fly him out. We go to another hospital where they find him. And we get there, and the hospital develops, and we see the reports of him in Williamson. We know what they saw there, but we run the same test here, and we can't find it here. Same test, we see what they saw, but we do the same thing here. We can't find it. So what happened? God happened. I've seen people go to the Duke University Hospital down there in North Carolina. And they say, we see what they saw, but we can't find it here. Actually, God knows. God does what only God can do. This preacher right here, I believe in God's ability to heal. Amen. I've seen it too many times. I've seen people come in, a preacher back home, diagnosed with cancer, and he goes back to the doctor and they tell him, they said, listen, we can't explain this, but somehow that cancer encapsulated itself, and it almost like it made itself into its own little net, and it just sat right there in that one spot, and they said, get rid of it. And of course, I think God's still alive right now. I've seen God heal. I believe in healing. Amen. What I don't believe in is healers. Amen. I've seen sickness. I've had prayers answered. I'm not doubting God's ability at all. What I'm striving to do this morning is to be faithful to this book, to the word of God, and to preach to you the things that God has given me to preach and educate you and enlighten you and show you the biblical truth of this matter. Now, if you have your Bibles, 1 Peter chapter 2, Get down to verse 21. For even here unto where ye called. Now remember the title of the message is the things that need healing. Now we're going to give you a couple of things that really need healing. So he says, for even here unto where ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps. who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Who, his own self, bare our sins in his body on the tree. Amen. That we, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness. Now, Paul or Peter rather here begins to quote from the book of Isaiah. He says, by whose stripes you were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your soul. Now, as we said, Peter's obviously quoting Isaiah 53 verse 5, where Isaiah writes, but he was wounded for our transgressions. Maybe I've heard that verse of scripture say, man, it was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Uh, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed. Amen. I believe that you believe that now the question is, is what was healed? Now I'm going to give you this real quick. Jesus was not crucified to heal cancer. Cancer is ugly and it's horrible, but Jesus did not die on the cross and bear cancer in his body to heal you from cancer. No, Jesus didn't die to heal COVID. Amen. I don't want to say Christ offers victory over infectious diseases. That sounds pretty nice and all that. But truth of the matter is Jesus did not die for COVID. He died for the cause of COVID and that's sin, amen. All sickness is a result of sin, right? Y'all believe that? He didn't die to cure the common cold, right? He didn't die for nothing. Why did Jesus die? Again, you go back and you look at Isaiah 53, he says, for our transgressions and our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And because of this, he was wounded, he was bruised, he was chastised, he went to supper and chastisement, and by his stripes, we are healed. Paul wrote, Peter wrote rather, Christ suffered for us, leaving us for an example that we should follow in his footsteps. Ladies and gentlemen, let me encourage you this morning, do not be fooled by people such as the Hinn's and the Hagin's of this world, the Copeland's, the Plantis' and even that well-meaning, biblically ignorant Christian down the road or your family member. that really believes that it's God's will to heal everybody. And if they can just lay hands on you, you're going to be touched and healed and all that. That is misguided and not biblical in today's world. There are bigger issues that we as a church should be concerned about than folks that are sick. I'm not saying don't be concerned about that sickness. I'm saying there are more important things than us praying mumbo out of heaven and praying somebody out of hell. Amen. We spend half of our prayer list up here. I'd show you this morning. Over half of our prayer list is this one's sick, this one's sick, this one's sick, this one's sick, this one's sick. And you ought to pray for your sick. But for every five minutes you spend praying for somebody that's sick, you ought to spend 10 minutes praying for somebody that's lost and dying and going to a devil's hell. Amen. Now listen, I told you I prayed for him when he was sick. I called my dad that morning. You remember that morning, 2 or 3 o'clock, I was going to find him. He wasn't out. early in the morning I would get him up, I'd pray for him, pray for him. I'd pray for him, pray for him. I'd pray for him, pray for him. And we'd do that, we'd pray for him. Oh, we'd pray for him, we'd pray for him. But for every five minutes I spent praying that that boy got healed that night, I should have been on my face saying, God, we're going to get all that blood, bring him to salvation. God, don't let him die lost, let him go to hell. We spend more time worried about their health than we do spending time worrying about them going to hell. And we're watching our young people die by the hand loads and dying lost and going to hell because we was worried because they had a cold. Amen. It's good preaching whether you like it or not. Amen. There's bigger issues than sickness. We've got sin. Now I'm going to preach to you on things that need healing. Number one, y'all ready? Our calling needs healing. Verse 21, you go back there and you read the very first few words that Peter writes, for even here unto where you call. Why were we called? Because Christ suffered for us. Leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps. What steps? We live in a certain age where almost every Christian thinks that if God's will is going to go just smooth and fantastic and nothing is going to matter. You've not been reading your Bible. There are preachers that have preached Paul being a prosperity preacher and used letters that he wrote while he was in prison. Now that's stupid. Just be honest. You're going to tell me a man in prison wrote and said, God, you should enjoy your best life now. No, sir, he did not. That's not what he was talking about in those letters. He wasn't talking about your physical prosperity and all that mess. And I hope you guys are millionaires. I hope everybody in this church is a millionaire because then your ties will go up. I hope everybody here, if you win, don't play the lottery. If you play it, put your ties in. Amen. I mean, if you're going to be a crook, at least be a good crook. Amen? But our calling is in trouble. First of all, we are called to suffer, as I mentioned. And this goes down to our attitude needs healing. We have a bunch of Christian people in churches right now. Brother West's got sorry attitudes about everything coming and going. If this don't come my way, I'll quit. Like Brother Jeff, I love what Jeff's saying. If you drop, I'll burn your house down. I love that. I think that's the best thing. I've heard a long time. And what has God done us that way? When y'all like, what is it? I'll burn your house down. Y'all don't want you to. We had bad attitude. But this didn't come out and we created it. Oh, he was this, he was that. Them ladies, they sung their songs. I didn't care for none of those songs this morning. So I'm gonna go to the middle of church where the ladies dressed like hookers, amen, and they got me swayed back and forth and shake their hips and all that. And I just wanna go at it. And I might as well just go. You all might as well go back there. You know what we need? We don't need that kind of filthy, erotic entertainment in our churches. What we need is psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms. Amen? That's what we need. I'm telling you this morning, our attitude needs to change about suffering. Suffering is part of the Christian life. If you are not suffering or have not ever suffered, you are not saved according to the book and the word of God. Say amen. It's good stuff. Amen. During any warfare, there are always casualties, amen, and captives, amen. And Paul said in Romans 7, 23, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity. Ladies and gentlemen, you ought to be suffering for God right now. We have bad attitudes. Who promised you sunshine and roses every day of your Christian life? What verse of Scripture was that in? Who promised you that as a Christian you would not have enemies? Are you not opposed to this world? Are you? How many of you think it's just peaches and cream that they teach atheism in our schools? How many of y'all are excited about that? Raise your hand. Atheistic cultures. Atheistic practices. Atheistic definitions of creation. You can't offer creation as an alternative to faith-based. If you can teach an entirely faith-based alternative Neither one of them has been proven scientifically. So it's all faith-based. And I can't have my religion, they should not be allowed to have hers. We ought to be opposed to this world. That's what I'm telling you. You ought to be willing to suffer a little bit for your salvation. I am opposed to that stuff. I am opposed to this animalistic teachings. Another problem with evolution is it teaches us that we evolve from animals and plants and amoebas and particles and all this and that. It basically teaches you that you're animalistic. Listen, I am not an animal. I have never been an animal. I'm never going to be an animal. The closest I'll ever be to being an animal is if you are what you eat, amen? And then I'll turn into a cow, amen? And thank God for every last bite of it, amen? But listen, this morning, we ought to be against this stuff, this sexual perversion in our world, this effort to cause drunkenness in our world. I know folks get mad at me, I preach around this, but listen, alcohol's still a sin, amen. The consumption of beer, alcohol, why not? That's ungodly, that's wretched, that's miserable, and smoking pot is just as ungodly as anything else coming and going, amen. I know that ruffles feathers, but you know what? I'm ruffled myself. Telling you our attitude. I forgot to turn the timer on. Dalton, just hang on. I am against this world. And as such, this world is against me. But I'm not God's enemy. People, listen, people are going to get mad at you. Yes, they are. People are going to talk about you for being a Christian. They are. Satan is going to hinder you from doing God's will And while I'm there, let me just quickly says not everything that happens in this world in this life is God's will We'll start stop blaming God for sin Bible says if I suffer with him today Paul said in 1st 2nd Timothy 2 12 if I suffer with him I'll reign with them gonna be a lot of Christians gonna get to the millennial reign and have to sit and watch a lot of other folks reign and The suffer is to be patient. The Bible uses that word, I suffered them. Patience. I didn't allow it. Patience. You need to be patient with other people. Amen. Hello. Let me give you this one too. You also need to be patient with God. God does not have to judge just because you decided to pray. Amen. If God decides to wait for four or five days, there might be something better coming. Don't push it. Be patient with God. Our attitude, let me move on. I'm on page six of about 45. We got our calling to liberty needs healing. Galatians 5.13, Paul says, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty only. Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. For by love serve one another. You are not free to sin. So this is why I'm a Christian. It's no wonder folks hate to hear people speak in terms of purity. You can go out and live like you want to. If you can go out and live like you want to, you can get saved. Right? I can't live like I want to. I think about sin and the dog dumped the holy gospel. You better not. You better not do that. If you're going to live like you want to, without any kind of chastisement about the sin, are you a bastard? You're not a sinner. You don't belong. Earned liberty means sin. We're living in a church world where we're free to do so much. Oh, I've got this freedom. And I've got that freedom. Listen, you are not free to sin. You are not free to complain or we'll burn your house down. Right, Brother Jeff? That's right. You know what? I'll tell y'all a story out there. Years ago, I was at this church. And we had this one friend. We were working on some stuff. This one friend was coming down that time to work with me. And he turned out to be prominent. Now, she had a plan for me, but Ray J was such a great man. You know what I mean? That stuff don't go further with Ray J, because you know what? That stuff don't go further with Ray J. And some of those boys, even Ray J, were going to get dressed up. And I had got four of them to get dressed up. So a boy came to me and said, this is from Ray J. He said, can I get in that truck one more time? He said, I said, one more time? He said, no, one more time. He said, I don't know what the truck is talking about. How was that? How was that? Fifteen. One more time. How do you think? You are not at liberty to run over a man. I said, we're going to smoke a cigarette for a while. And that old boy came to me. He got mad at me. He said, well, things was just peachy cream, man. And you guys, we can't do any more work. And I demanded, I was, I demanded though, why you stop working? I said, I was stopping you from getting a buck whooping is what I was doing. And there'd be four guys ready to pull you out of your trip. So you come in here and run your mouth at the end of the day and dropping everything they did while they worked all day. And you didn't handle it the same way. Amen. Listen, there comes a time we need to realize we are not free to complain. We are not free to be a hindrance to other people. You say, well, Brother Gary, I'm just this and that's just the way I am. Listen, I understand sometimes that's just the way you are and all that. But sometimes your attitude needs adjusting. Sometimes you're just sorry. Sometimes you're just hateful. Amen. And you're using your liberty to become a stumbling block for somebody else. Your liberty means you are free to love one another. Jesus said twice in the Bible to be in our example. One was suffering. I read to you in Peter. The second time was when he washed the disciples feet. He said, I've done this for your example. You are free to suffer and you are free to serve. I try not to retaliate. How many of y'all ever get mad at somebody? All right. You fellas that's married, y'all know that feeling. You see it? How do you pay it? And then, um, and you see them all over the place. And you're like, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I I would love to play with you. Have I become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. Liberty. Suffering. We're called to be saints. That means you are called to be sacred and set apart. This, you can, kind of relates to liberty. In that fact, you're free. Apostle Paul and the boys in that prison, and their chains were off and the doors were open, they were at liberty to leave. Anytime they wanted, they could have just gotten locked out. A lot of times, we've been set free, but we choose not to be set apart. And our calling of sainthood means healing. Are you a biblical saint? Or are you just considered a saint by those who have forgotten all the mean stuff? You know, I've never hurt anybody. But I've seen a lot of folks. I've seen some mean people. And you said I'm just by myself. What in the world? I'm not paying attention. I don't know. True saints will suffer. A true saint will utilize their liberty as an opportunity to serve. A true saint will oppose sin and preach salvation. Then our calling needs healed. Lastly, our discernment needs healed. The healing in Isaiah, as I mentioned earlier, and Peter here, has nothing to do with physical healing. Nothing. Isaiah 53 verse 5 was written in 712 B.C. approximately. 712 B.C. That would be over 2,735 years ago by his stripes you were healed. 2,000 years ago that was written. Almost 3. As of right now, as of 2015, there were 16,500 hospitals in the world by his stripes you were healed. Well, if that's the case, why in the state of West Virginia are there approximately 3,000 doctors in that state if what Jesus died for was for your physical healing? 3,000 doctors in a state, that's 55 doctors for every county in the state. And you've got some nut job misquoting and abusing the Bible saying body stripes, you're healed. I'm telling you, our discernment needs healing. These verses have a spiritual meaning. You see that transgressions, iniquities, peace, the healing you received at Calvary was spiritual. I said, Jesus did not die for the flu. We abuse this stuff. Listen, your body, as saved as you are right now, Your body's not even a danger. The Bible doesn't even wait for the redemption of the body. My body's behind this soul, this spirit, that has been born again. It's tempered. I'm talking about circumcision of the Holy Ghost, as I would call it, where it's tempered from the flesh. The flesh is pure. There's no access to the flesh. It's pure flesh. It's pure blood. There's no access from the body. I told me that I would be straight with everybody. And if you're sick, you're going to need me. And people think that's no big deal to misuse and abuse the Bible. If the application is such as that has been made in the average churches across the country, even in the book of James in chapter 5, if that is all true, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is not for us to decide. It is not for us to decide. It is not for us to decide. You put as much effort into their salvation as you do into their athletics. I don't know why my kids don't go to church. Because when you talk to them, the church doesn't matter. We are raising a generation that thinks church is just something you do if you don't have nothing better to do. We will drop church in a heartbeat for everything else. I grew up in a time when church was the reason you didn't do anything else. I remember in fifth grade, I think it was, in basketball, my dad going to the coach And he can play, but he won't be here on Wednesdays. Right? Because we're going to church. And I knew bad men. I guess we'll have to start putting the challenge out to the kids. I think a lot of our parents, not you all in particular, I think a lot of the parents don't want to take that stand. Kids, you go to school and you tell your coaches, listen, I have church on Wednesday. I'm coming, I'm going to church. The odds of me going professional in any sport are like .002%. The odds of me standing for the Jesus Christ are .002%. That's in my mouth. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know one of that. I'm gonna find out if this one might know. What I can tell you is, I'd much rather hear somebody say, God bless you. I mean, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. I don't want to beat them to death, I love you this morning. You may not have enjoyed the message, but hopefully you learned something that will help you.