Examine the Source - Audio
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Mornin'. Boom. Well, I don't know about you, but I would not want to work 40 hours in a hospital. That's about how many hours I spent in hospitals this past week, and I have a new respect and admiration for you who are doctors and nurses and others who care and minister to others through the Ministry of Health Care. It is an amazing line of work, and having spent about 30 or 40 hours between visits to Eric Paulson at UCI and visits to my father-in-law at Mission. Boy, it's amazing. I'll say this. How many Christians are in health care? You ever notice that? How many Christian doctors there are? How many Christian nurses there are? It seems that every single one of the nurses my father-in-law gets is a Christian nurse who prays for him as he's being cared for. For those of you that may not have heard, we've been praying for two men, friends of the coast, Eric Paulson and Bob West. Eric Paulson was diagnosed with SJS, Stephen's Johnson syndrome. Last week, we prayed and just had a prayer service where we asked God to let this syndrome peak. It's a syndrome that can take your life if it gets severe enough, and Eric was even told a week could go Thursday by the doctor. He said, 'I need you to know that you may want to get your affairs in order just in case.' But we prayed on Sunday, and I know thousands have been praying for Eric, and today I'm happy to report that on that very Sunday last week when we prayed, the doctors indicated to him that they thought it had peaked, and that now Eric is on the mend, totally healing well. He's still in pain, but his skin looks amazing, and there's even talk of him going home this week. Is that amazing or what? Yes. I know Eric was very grateful for all the cards and notes that you wrote to him. As for my father-in-law, Bob, it was a really hard week. I won't lie to you. It was very scary. Wednesday morning was the worst, and so bad that we didn't know what was going to happen. We were scared as a family, but God was gracious to us. And by Wednesday afternoon and evening, he had made phenomenal improvement, and apparently a gallstone, which has been the source of the problem this whole time, a gallstone which was stuck in a portion of his body, the doctor said it somehow just passed. Surgery, they couldn't do it through surgery. They had attempted twice, couldn't do it, and then by Wednesday, about midday, all of a sudden the pain was gone, and it had passed. And so here, Bob is today. He's on the mend. His heart rate's still a little high, and so please pray that his heart rate stabilizes, but he's looking at gallbladder surgery sometime this week or next, so just pray for his continued recovery. It's amazing what a little stone can do in your body. God has been good to our church family, and I want to just recognize him for it. So let's stand together and just thank the Lord for what he's been doing in our midst. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we would be so remiss not to look up and acknowledge you right now. We prayed God last week for many requests, for Eric, for Bob, and there were many others, and God, we've already seen your hand at work. We thank you, God, for the power of prayer. The knowledge that you listen to us is so comforting that you hear what we specifically asked for with Eric, that his syndrome would peak last Sunday, and now to know that it did that very day, maybe that very hour. The Lord were bolstered and encouraged in the faith by that. And for what you're doing through Bob, and through many others, Lord, just healing and bringing peace, we give you thanks, and we're just continually indebted with gratitude to you, God. Help us now, Lord, to express that back to you in an increase of our faith, in a desire to honor and worship and glorify you more, and in a passion now to dig into your Word and learn more. Soak up more about all we can about the benefits that we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We thank you, God, for your love for us, for your listening ear toward us. We pray now that you would guide us and speak to us through your Word. In Jesus' name, amen, you may be seated. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. If you have a Pew Bible, it's page 622. I had one person come up to me last Sunday and say I shamed them into bringing their Bible on Sunday, so I was happy about that. Bring your Bible to church. It's important. Mark it up with a pen. Take some notes. We're
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Pastor Neil reminds us to be wary of worldly philosophies that attempt to influence our lives and to turn instead to God and His Word.