Pastor Doug Brown

Sunday, September 19, 2004—AM Service

Exodus 15:22-27

Jehovah Rapha:
The Lord That Heals You

Names are very important. A man has 3 names.  The name he inherits.  The name he is given.  The name he makes for himself.

God is everlasting to everlasting.  Every name of God tells us one more
thing about the one God.

Jehovah Rapha is the God who plans to heal you.  This name tells you more about who God
is.  There are many good doctors in
this world.  There is only one Great
Physician.  He has the proper
credentials:  His Word.  He Is Our Great Physician.

Doctors practice medicine. Medicine continues to change as
physicians practice.  God
doesn’t practice medicine.  He
has the proper credentials.

Medicine has changed, but the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ never changes.  He can heal
all of our diseases.  He has a
perfect record of success.

He made our bodies and sustains our bodies.  He breathed life into the first
man.  He made the first woman from a
rib of that man.  He fixes our bodies.  He laid his own body, Jesus, down for
our salvation.

Each doctor has his own area of expertise.  Each doctor works on the part of the
body that he has specialized in.
God does all things well.  He
works on every part of the body.  He

Has expertise in all areas.

My God can do anything.
He made the earth in its fullness.
My God can do anything.

What is God’s specialty?  God’s specialty is anything that
man can and cannot do.  With man
some things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

God specializes in “things thought impossible.”

Jesus knows all about us.  He knows about all the problems we are
going through.  He knows about the
situation, and He understands.

God called himself Jehovah Rapha:  I am the God that heals you.

There are many types of healings.  God provides social healing—such as
slavery as the Israelites had been in Egypt.  He does not want us to become slaves to
anything:  our possessions,
television, etc.  He will deliver us
from any oppressive situation.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

He heals from spiritual disease.  The Israelites had to be delivered from
the religious practices of Egypt,
such as worshipping a golden calf.
God had to cut out the cancer of these religious practices.  The Levites killed many.  After that they did not worship the
golden calf.

God provides financial healing.  The Israelites had been oppressed for
many years because they had been slaves.
They were poor.  The slaves
came out of Egypt
with the spoils (wealth).  They
carried away the wealth of Egypt
when they left.  Their gold became
their idol, and they were forced to eat it.  God will provide for all of our needs.

God provides for out physical healing.  We go to doctors for help.  Ultimately, God is our healer. God is in
charge.  God is in control.  Sometimes God heals us before we go to
the doctor.  Sometimes God heals us
after we go to the doctor.
Sometimes God heals us through the doctor.

God promises healing.
For the Israelites, He used a tree to bring healing to the water of Marah.  Life
without God is empty and without meaning.
The more we try to find meaning in things other than God,
life is bitter and ends in death. God moved through the obedient act of Moses
to heal the waters by showing Moses a tree to throw into the water to make the
waters sweet.  Later God used
another tree—the old rugged cross that Jesus died on.  That tree brings healing to people.  An old rugged cross brought life out of
death.

God requires some conditions for His promise. God says that
He cures their diseases if the Israelites will follow His conditions and obeys
His words.  If my people which are
called by my name will turn from their wicked ways, fall on their face and
pray, I will hear from heaven and heal their land.

We must come to God with our whole heart without demands
from God.  Only have faith and trust
in God.  Obey whatever God tells you
to do.  At the command of Jesus,
even the dead can live again.  If
God tells you to stop an addictive habit, stop.  If God tells you to go to the doctor, go
to the doctor.  We must come to God
on His terms.

Last cast all of your cares on God.  He will refresh you and give you rest.
Place your hope in God.  Release
your fear.  Let God do what God
wants to do for you.