“Is There No Great Physician?”
Jeremiah 8:18-22
Sunday, June 27, 2010

Introduction: Sickness is a reality of our world. We would like it better of that was not true, but it is. It is nice when we can be healthy and feel good, but there are many times in life when we don’t feel good. In those times, we need help; we need healing. However, there are many kinds of sicknesses, and many reasons why they are caused. The prophet Jeremiah says in chapter 8, verse 18: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.”
What is causing his sickness? He tells us in the next few verses: there are many who have turned to idols; the sins of the people are great; the people are feeling crushed; this and more is causing the prophet to feel sick. But where does the healing come from? The prophet is feeling like there is no one to heal this sickness. He knows there is, and that person is God, but so many are not willing to turn to Him.

I. Physical- (Genesis 2:17; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9; James 5:14-15)

a. Sin and sickness- The most obvious kind of sickness is physical.
Physical sickness can come from issues we have at birth, such as inherited condi-tions. It can come from birth defects. It can come upon us through viruses that are passed from one person to another. Stress can lead us to health issues, as well as overworking, bad diet, or lack of exercise. A pathogen, or biological agent can infect us and cause us to get sick.
One thing we need to understand is that without sin coming into the world, there would be no sickness. It is because of the sin of Adam and Eve, that not only sin exists, but sickness and death exist as well. In reality, all sickness and suffering can be traced back to the result of original sin. As the Lord tells Adam in Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it you shall die.” God was being literal here with Adam. It’s like a parent telling their child, ‘If you touch that hot pan, you will get burned.’ Then they touch it and they get burned. It is not a surprise that this happened.
Because of the fact that evil came into the world, so did evil behavior. This evil behavior led people to do things that created conditions for sickness to come upon people. This sickness was then passed on biologically over time. So, our sinful behavior can lead us to physical sickness. And because of sin, it is not God’s will for everyone to be healed. If this were so Jesus would have healed everyone that was sick when He was on the earth.
We see this in the life of Paul. Paul ended up being the greatest missionary of all time. Paul was completely committed to serving the Lord. And yet when Paul had a condition, and prayed for healing, the healing did not come. Paul surmised this in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” In this day of sin, Paul understood that sometimes God can use our physical imperfections for good.
b. The healer- We do know that God can heal, because it has been
shown many times in the Bible this is true. In fact, after Paul was blinded, Ananias came to him, prayed over him, and he was healed of his blindness. When Jesus was here, He did heal many people. The Bible tells us to pray for healing. In James 5:14-15 we are told: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray for him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick…” I have personally seen healing come to others and myself when I prayed for them.
1. My friend Glen, who needed surgery on his knee
many years ago, had our small group pray for him; and he was healed. The next day when he saw the doctor, the doctor couldn’t explain it, but told him he no longer needed surgery.
2. My own foot: I injured it badly one day playing
soccer. I was going to go counsel at a youth camp the next day and needed to be healthy, so I prayed for healing, and the next day my foot was all better.
3. Margaret Jones is another example. She was
literally on her death bed, when I received a call one night to go to the hospital. The family had gathered at the hospital after the doctor told them he couldn’t do anything else for her. I went and prayed over her. It took a couple of months, but now she is very much alive and still active in church!
And yet there are many who I have prayed for who haven’t been healed; including my own migraines and back condition.
Along with God being a healer, we also have doctors and medicines, which heal us. This is wonderful how we have come to this place where we understand so much about the diseases and illnesses that exist. So many of the conditions that used to kill people can be dealt with by medicines when you get sick, or even inoculations that are given to us when we are young.
A combination of prayer and medicine can be even more powerful. There was a study shown in a hospital, where some patients were being prayed for and others weren’t. The patients didn’t know if they were being prayed for or not. By a wide percentage, those who were prayed for got better faster than those who were not. God allows us to have gifts and skills to heal people of their physical ailments.
God is the healer, the Great physician, but let’s us play a part as well!

II. Emotional-

a. The cause- Along with physical sickness, there is mental and
emotional sickness. Emotional and mental sickness can be brought on through physical issues (such as abuse or lack of love), it can be passed on genetically, or even through sins we commit or are committed against us. Emotional and mental sickness is to be taken as seriously as physical sickness. Mental health professionals can consist of social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and ministers, just to name a few. And over the last 70 years great advancements have been made in helping those with a mental illness.
In regards to our health mentally and emotionally, it is important to have a stable, loving environment. It is believed that more and more children are dealing with mental and emotional issues because there is a lack of stability in so many homes. When we are regularly placed in an unhealthy environment, we WILL be affected in our emotional well-being.
Part of the challenge of emotional sickness, is that you can’t just put a band-aid on it, or have some surgery. There are medications available that can help, but the medications don’t always help, and it can be tricky business trying to figure out what medication will work. Sometimes a person will be taking one medication, and then the body adapts to it and the medication needs to be changed.
As I counsel people, it is always more challenging to help someone go through an emotional crisis, than a physical one. In regards to this challenge, think for a moment about a time you got something in your eye….
Illus. Several years ago Tami was helping decorate for Palm Sunday. She was placing some of the palms in the church. As she was placing one of the palms up on the post, she felt a piece of the palm fly into her eye. Because of this her eye got infected and she had to get some special eye drops from the doctor. However, due to this injury her eye is scarred and it still affects her from time to time.
This reminded me of how our words can affect others emotionally and mentally. We can choose to be kind and loving, or hurtful and mean. Through our words we can impact the emotional well-being of others. And these emotional hurts can scar us for years to come. They can pop-up without any warning.
b. The healer- As I said before, there are many kinds of mental
professionals that can help heal people of their mental and emotional hurts. Yet, because it is not an exact science, full remission is challenging…..
People have experiences that are damaging which can impact their thinking and cause them to be distorted. Mental health professionals seek to challenge cognitive distortions, negative thought patterns, and irrational thought patterns. They try and re-visit the trauma of the patient and provide corrective emotional experiences. How affective are mental professionals? They are helpful in many ways, but there are great limitations because of the clients’ limitations and the therapists’ limitations and the kind of trauma they have experienced. While helpful, there is much a professional cannot do to help.
There are other ways that people can receive help and healing. Being placed in a loving, secure environment is often helpful and healing. Even receiving a nice gift can lift up a person up from their emotional distress. We just recently got a wonderful letter from someone in regards to our Binky ministry. Our Binky’s make blankets and then take them to the police department and fire station and hospitals to hand out to children in high stress situations. Let me read the letter…
We had a tragic call, where two young boys were affected, and we were able to use the blankets to help the kids a little bit. The call was a suicide where a father of three children, ages 5, 2, and newborn, killed himself inside his house while his kids played outside. The scene was understandably chaotic when Officer Ly and I got there. The kids' mom was totally overcome with grief, yet was still trying to take care of her newborn baby while dealing with what was happening. That left the two young boys standing next to their mom watching the scene unfold in front of them. Relatives were on the way, but we were waiting for them to arrive and help with the kids.
The blankets are available in the sergeant's vehicles & a sergeant was on scene. I grabbed a selection of blankets and let the two boys look at them and choose the ones they wanted. The 2 year old picked a purple blanket with a basketball pattern, and the 5 year old picked a blue/green one with some characters on it.
The blankets provided a nice distraction for the boys at a time when they needed it. By the time we left the scene relatives had already arrived. The kids' grandmother was holding the 2 year old in front of the neighbor's house and I saw he was still tightly clutching his purple sports blanket.
While God is the Great Healer, God can use people, and blankets to help.

III. Spiritual- (Jeremiah 8:19-21)

a. The spiritual issue- Let me read this mornings text for you again,
and as I do, try and listen to how the need for healing is really a spiritual one… I’m going to read Jeremiah 8:19-21: “‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?’ 20 ‘The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.’21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me…” The feeling of sickness is real, as Jeremiah says that he is crushed, and that horror grips him. But the sickness is not physical; it is spiritual. Although it affects him physically, mentally, and emotionally, what Jeremiah is really dealing with here is a spiritual issue.
What are the issues? They are spiritual in nature: There are many who have turned to idols; the sins of the people are great; the people are feeling crushed. Because of this Jerusalem was destroyed as Jeremiah had predicted. Jeremiah took no pleasure in having his prophesy come to pass. Instead, it made him sick. This is because it could have all been avoided. They didn’t need to turn to idols. They didn’t need to give in to their sinful nature. They didn’t need to allow themselves to be crushed. They had prophets who were warning them. They had princes and priests who could have reformed the nation. But the people were willful and were not willing to turn to the Lord.
Jeremiah is asking this question knowing all along that the answer is that God is the great physician, but they did not listen to God; they did not turn to God for help.
b. God is the Great Physician-
STORY: GOD'S ROSEBUD- A new minister was walking with an older, more
Seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he asked the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to the rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud, and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher didn’t understand what this had to do with his concerns, but out of respect attempted to open the rosebud while keeping the petals intact. It didn’t take long for him to realize that this was an impossible task. With this the older preacher began to recite a poem, which said:
"It is only a tiny rosebud, A flower of God's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals With these clumsy hands of mine."
"The secret of unfolding flowers is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily, But in my hands they die."
"If I cannot unfold a rosebud, this flower of God's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom to unfold this life of mine?"
"So I'll trust in God for leading each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance in each step of the way.”
"The path that lies before me, Only my Lord knows.
I’ll trust God to unfold the moments, just as He unfolds the rose.”
There are some things that only God can do. One of them is heal us
spiritually. This is true, because we do not have the knowledge or the power to heal our spiritual issues. Like the Israelites in Jeremiah’s time, we tend to go off on our own, making idols, giving in to our sinful ways, and allowing ourselves to be crushed by so many issues of this world.
And the sad thing is that it can all be avoided. If we carry forward on this willful path, then we too will have destruction like Jeremiah’s people. If we do not listen to the word of God, the cry of God’s leaders, the wisdom that God places in our hearts, then we too will be spiritually sick calling out for a Great Physician.
It is like a doctor who tells his patient that he is sick, but his sickness can be healed by changing his diet and taking some medicine. The patient goes away and decides not to listen to the doctor’s advice. In time he gets sicker, and then wonders why he is in this condition. ‘Is there no great physician?’ he wonders.

Conclusion: Jeremiah knows that God is the Great Physician. Jeremiah knows that it is the willfulness of the people that have led them to their sickness. Jeremiah knows that God can still heal this nation and bring them back to wholeness. As God’s prophet, Jeremiah speaks these words to the people to try and wake them up from their slumber, and get them to repent and turn back to God.
What is it that troubles you? Are you physically sick in any way? Are you emotionally and/or mentally sick in any way? Are you spiritually sick in any way? The good news is that whatever our condition, be it small or great, we have help. We have doctors who can help, medicine which can help, a minister that can help, friends that can help. But most importantly, we have a God who cares deeply about us and is there to help. God is always present, and always willing to lift us out of our troubles. The healing might look different than we expect, but it will be there, and it will take us to the place God wants us to be; able to serve Him and love Him. Amen.