Larry Truitt: Good morning. We're a but we're a great few, aren't we? Yes. Well, I kind of struggled with what I'm going to do today. A few months ago or weeks, don't remember why. Anyway, Ruth asked me something about that we needed to do something on prayer. so I, okay, so I worked on that. I don't know how long ago it was. It's been a while. And... There was some areas in there that made me feel uncomfortable. Now, it probably would make you feel uncomfortable, but it did me. So I'm gonna share, I wanna share some things with you today that I think is very important because it's gonna kind of set the stage for, is it week after next? a week after next and to help us get ready, I think it's very important. I don't know, I think I was probably eight or nine years old. I was trying to figure that out and I couldn't come up with about eight or nine, somewhere in there. I had a lot of ear infections. And I was out of school a lot because of ear infections. It was just getting really bad and it was hard for me to kind of endure what was going on. And one night I had an earache that I thought I thought I was dying. It hurts so bad. And I, I was almost going out of my mind and my mom and dad didn't know what to do. and they hadn't been Christians very long, I think maybe about two years. So they didn't really have a good background in praying for the sick or anything like that. Finally, my dad said, I'm taking him to the doctor. It was probably eight or nine o'clock at that time. And so we go to the doctor. took us about 15 minutes to get there. My dad knocked on the door and doctor had already been in bed. He got up and he told my dad and said, bring him into the office in the morning. My dad said, no, he needs to see you now. He said, I can't see him. Bring him in the office tomorrow morning. My dad wasn't real happy. I remember that. And all the way home, he was. complaining about doctors that wouldn't do their job. It was bad. They were beside themselves, both my mom and my dad. So there I am, I'm sitting there, miserable, and my mom's crying. My dad, he's saying, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I think it was my mom said, well, maybe we should pray. And my dad got the Bible and he opened up to the book of James instead of therapy. And he's sick among you. Let him call for the elders to the church. Well, there were no elders to call that night. And my dad said he was going to pray and He takes scripture literal. So when it says, anoint, he anointed and he prayed and he poured the oil. It ran down my face. And I remember that. And I, I don't know what happened, but my ear popped. Pain was gone. it drained and I went to sleep. That was 70 some years ago and I have never had an earache since. And every time I would seem like I'd get an earache or it would kind of bother me, I'd go, Lord, you took care of that. I hope it still holds. And it has. So. When Ruth asked me to look into this, I thought, well, I think I'll, I'll do that. And I went to James. That was the chapter my dad read. and I want to, I want us to look at that because I'm not going to, I don't want to sound critical, but we don't do it right. We don't do it right. I recall a time my dad had a lump on the side of his neck, a tumor, that it was bad and they were concerned that they had to remove it and the artery was nicked or something. He could either bleed to death or be a vegetable the rest of his life. And they didn't really want to do the surgery, but it kept growing and it was getting larger. And so I remember one Sunday night, somebody said, I think we ought to anoint brother Truett. And my dad said, I don't think God wants to do that. And that kind of shocked him. but he said, I don't think God wants to heal me. they went ahead and anointed him and he went to the hospital. And my dad always said the reason he was in the hospital was because of the man in the bed next to him. And I think I've shared this before where he was dying with emphysema and my dad had the surgery and everything was great with the surgery. The lump just fell out. They made the incision and it fell out and the doctor he was all excited and he was running up and down the aisle of the hospital telling everybody what was going on. He was just so excited about it. And my dad was, he knew God was going to take care of him. But the older man that was there was dying. And my dad said the reason he was in the hospital was because of that man. And I don't know, I think I was maybe 12 years old at the time. My dad. told me, he said, son, I want you to go over there and pray for him. Now 12 year olds. I, what am I going to say? I, I didn't know what, you know, I meant to now I lay me down to sleep. I prayed the Lord my soul to keep, know, that was my, that was my prayer or Lord, thank you for the food. Blessed. Amen. You know, that was kind of where I was at and So I went over and I talked to the guy and said, would you want me to pray? I don't know what I said. He said, yes. And I thought, okay, that's good. I'm done. My dad said, you need to ask him if he's saved and he's ready to meet the Lord. I didn't want to. And he said, no, you need to go over there. And how do you argue with your dad when he's laying there all bandaged up, you know, and he's saying you need to do that. So I went over and I asked him, I said, do you want Jesus to come into your heart? Now that's what I'd heard. So I figured it works for him. It worked for me or whatever. And he just nodded yes. He could hardly talk. And so we prayed. And he grabbed my hand and tears was going down his face. I assume the Lord saved him. I don't know. He died the next day. Now God doesn't always heal the way we expect. Now my dad was fine after that. So there was no issue there. And I've often wondered, you know, what would have happened had the Lord healed him at that point? But God in his wisdom knows things and sometimes we don't. But here's, here's what James says. James said, if there is any sick among you, now we have sick among us. We have people who have physical issues. So we qualify. have, we have sick, but this is what he said. Let them. call for the elders of the church. Sometimes we get ahead of the Lord and we say, I think we ought to pray for so-and-so and anoint them and they have an ask. You understand what I'm saying? The scripture says, let them call for the elders of the church, not somebody else make the decision for them. We call for the elders of the church. Now that is humbling. You may not think it is, but it's humbling because you have to, you have to come to the place that you realize that you have to ask God to intervene with what is happening with your health. And so It's a personal request. I'm saying, Lord. I'm calling the elders of the church. I'm going to ask them to pray. Now here's something that we don't talk about. There is a preparation period before that takes place. And that is that we are to search our hearts. We are to examine our life. We are to ask God to look at us. and to examine us. Sometimes God brings things upon us to bring us closer to him spiritually. Are you aware of that? Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes he has to get our attention, doesn't he? And so God speaks to us and this examining of our heart, we're asking God to speak to us, to show us what it is that we need. Is this because of what I have done? Remember the disciples came to Jesus and the blind man, you remember him? And they said, Is the blind man blind because of sin? And no, no, he's blind because God wants to show his glory. God is doing this that he receives honor and glory, not because the blind man had, or his parents had done something wrong. God was putting an opportunity here for people to see what could happen. when God takes control. And so he says to examine yourself, confess your sins, seek reconciliation where there needs to be, and then call for the elders of the church. I remember William Smith, and I think I only heard him speak maybe once or twice. I don't know if it was in a chapel service. Anyway, he's the founder of Union Bible Seminary. He was sick and he said he wanted the Lord to heal him and the Lord said, spoke to him and said, there are provisions for healing. And he was to call for the elders of the church. And he said, he got in an argument with the Lord. He didn't believe that the elders of the church were as faithful to him as they should be and that their prayers wouldn't matter. And God said, that isn't what I said. I said, call for the elders of the church. And he said, he struggled, but he did what God wanted. They prayed and anointed him and he was healed. And he realized that is what God wanted and now what he wanted and that his judgment of the people was kind of wrong. And I thought, well, we have to follow. what God says. God says, if there's any sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church. And when they do the prayer of faith and the anointing of oil and they would be healed. And that's what happened. I looked at anointing because I kind of followed my dad's philosophy. It's not a little dabble, do you? I remember a lady asked to be anointed and... talking to her husband not too long ago and he said, remember when you anointed my wife, she was a little concerned of all the oil you poured on her. And I said, well, did it help? He said, well, she was healed. I said, well, I guess maybe a little dab won't do you well. It takes a lot. If you look in the Old Testament, When Aaron was anointed by Moses, the oil ran down through his beard and into the garments. When David was anointed, they took an entire horn of oil and poured upon David. And in other cases, vials of oil were poured out. And so anointing is a pouring of the oil. And so... and, and I've shared this with you. The first time that I anointed someone was out in Wyoming. our neighbor came over and he, he told me we were going to go to the hospital because his grandson was dying. They'd called the family in and he was all hooked up to machines and everything. And we went in. I had to stop at Safeway and I could only get a bottle of olive oil that was this big. It wasn't a little bottle and I didn't have anything to, and I thought, well, okay. So there I went in with it in my pocket and went in and they told everybody to leave. And he said, now do your thing. And I went over it. I prayed and I thought that might be enough. And it was running down his cheeks and I thought the hospital is not gonna like this. And we got out of there and he went home the next day. So God touched and healed. It wasn't my prayer, I can tell you that. I don't even remember what I said. And I didn't have enough faith to believe that he was even going to get out of there. So it wasn't my faith. It wasn't what I said. It was God honoring his word. So when we look at process is important. The process is very important because God laid it out and he said this is the way you do it. After we do this, we have to trust God for the healing. Right? That's all we can do. there was a lady, a lady came to Jesus. She had been sick and the Lord healed her. here's, here's what I find interesting. when you read the story, she began to be healed at that day, at that moment. So I'm thinking, It must have been a process. And the same thing with the lepers. You remember when Jesus healed the lepers, what did he tell them to do? They go to the priest and they had to go through the whole ceremony of cleansing. And at the end of it, they were healed. And the blind man, remember it was when he put the mud on his eyes and when he washed his eyes, he was healed. It doesn't work the same for everybody. It's different. And I don't know what the process that God decides to use for the healing, we pro we have to Trust Him for the process. That's the bottom line. We trust God and we listen to the person who is making the request. Healing is not general. It's specific. So Lord, heal their body. What is it that you want healed? That's the thing that you have to look at. I don't know how to tell somebody to pray for healing other than follow what the Bible says. That's the only thing I know. I know there are times people have been prayed for and nothing happens. And I have wondered, is it because we don't follow the process? We don't do what we're supposed to do. We get ahead of the Lord. We're doing things that maybe God didn't want us to do it that way. He says there's a certain way and we need to follow that. and the prayer of faith. Now, I don't know how much faith you have to have. I don't know. A grain of mustard seed is pretty small, pretty small. And when you look at the amount of faith that you need, he's saying you don't need a whole lot. I don't know what a whole lot is. I don't even know what a little bit is, but I do know this. If somebody believes enough, that God will heal them. That's a little faith. When you think, I would think so. And God says the prayer of faith. It'll save the sick. So. I've thought about that this week, last week. And I struggled. Now, not because I'm having surgery on Thursday, my foot surgery doesn't bother me. I'll just tell you that. I'm not asking the Lord to give me new toes. I'm not asking, that is not a concern I have. My concern is, the last time I had my kidneys checked, I was just, a few points from total failure and it was from the antibiotics and they talked about dialysis but We haven't got to that point yet and I don't know if I want to do that because of once you start, you're tied in the rest of your life. And right now it looks like I would have to go to Indianapolis every, well, three days a week or do it at home. I don't know that can do that. Well, if I'm going to preach about healing, maybe I should be an example. And I struggled with that because here again, I thought, well, Do I really want the Lord to do this? Or does he have something else? Now it doesn't matter one way or the other. I mean, that's the way I look at it. I did find out that if it continues the direction it's going in about a year, things are going to shut down entirely. So I thought, well, there's only one thing I can do. So I am calling for the elders. My concern is my kidneys. It's not my Parkinson's, it's not my cancer, it's not my heart, it's my kidneys because they're about, they're about ready to throw in the towel. So I'm going to ask those that feel comfortable, I don't want you to to do this if you don't feel comfortable. Whatever the prayer is, whatever the results are, that's up to the Lord. an example, maybe it will encourage others to do this because I think the 28th, 25th. Maybe it will help you. I have blood work tomorrow, so I will tell you. soon if any improvement is taking place. I would be happy to be stage three. Stage three and I would be rejoicing. Stage five is not rejoicing material. So I did bring some... anointing oil, so, and I'm going to ask Kyle if he will do the anointing, and I trust he won't use the whole bottle, but if he does, I guess he does. So I'll come down there. Why don't we gather around everybody, please? Father, we see over and over in your word as Jesus was on this earth, the power that can flow through him when people believed in their heart of hearts that he could heal. And Jesus told us that same power resides in us and even greater things reside in us. We lift Larry up to you Lord. He's come to you boldly something that is not comfortable for him. That is not in his nature to do. And we lift him up to you right now. We lift his kidneys up to you right now that he would be totally healed. Not stage three. Totally healed Lord. If it is your will let it be done. And his boldness speak to everyone here and to others in the hospital and everyone doing the test of your power. Please anoint this oil right now. Pour it on his head. We ask for that healing. Father, you tell us that the righteous prayer availeth much. So Lord, we're asking for your healing. Father, we love you. We gather right now as a body to lift Him up to you. Our whole thing today is to just be obedient to your word. Larry's being obedient to your word right now and being an example to us. Let us be an example to others. We love you, Lord, and we ask this so boldly in Jesus' name, amen. Yes, I used the whole bottle was going say, do I need to bring a gallon? my.