Keith Battle - God's Benefit Package - Part 2

The benefit we are going to talk about today is at the end of verse three. It says He heals. If you’re a Zion Landover member right now, we have one of your members over here who showed up at the wrong address. This 945 at Greenbelt is not the place to act up. The people in here are dignified; these are Harvard graduates, Ivy League individuals who come to pontificate and reflect on the goodness of God. Some of you are supposed to be in Landover right now because you thought you could just come in here and let God know, «I don’t care what you think about me; God has been too good!» Woo! I ain’t going to get through this. He heals! This is not just good poetry; this is not just parallelism. Do you see? He said, «I forgive all your sins; I heal all your diseases.» This is not a mere lyrical observation; it has spiritual implications. The fact that He has healed all of our diseases is equivalent to the fact that He forgave all our sins. Both things have already happened. God is not in the process of forgiving you or healing you; you’re already forgiven, and you’re already healed. In fact, before I go deeper into that, here’s a lesson: this Psalm is a Psalm of Praise. There is not one prayer in this Psalm! Read through the whole Psalm, and all you see is praise to God for what He did here. Praise the Lord for what He did! In fact, the first words of Psalm 103 are «Praise the Lord, O my soul» or «Bless the Lord, O my soul.» The last words at the end of the Psalm in verse 22 are «Praise the Lord, O my soul.» The whole Psalm is a Psalm of Praise, not a prayer. Why is that so important, Pastor? Because you don’t have to beg for what’s yours. He is not asking for these benefits; He is thanking God for these benefits. I’ve been married 35 years now; I don’t have to ask for a wife; I have a wife. I need to thank God for what I have. Do you understand what I’m saying? Listen, you don’t have to ask for something that’s already yours! Psalm 103 is like will call when somebody leaves tickets for you at will call. I’ve got a little pull at Maryland football games; they leave me parking passes, you know what I’m saying, a little game pass—it’s even got a little picture on it! Do you see what I’m saying? I walk in there like this, «Yes, what’s your question?» The security just goes like this. Watch this! Even if I don’t show up with it, if they tell me where to go get it, it’s already mine! I just have to get to the place where it is! Y’all are too slow for me! It’s already mine; I don’t have to ask for it; I’ve got to claim it! Who am I talking to in here? Do you understand? When you get to will call, all you have to do is identify yourself, and whatever’s yours is waiting for you with your name already on it! Somebody give God praise—not for what I’ve got to ask for, but it’s already mine! In Psalm 103, this is our will call. Every blessing, every benefit, every grace! Oh, y’all are acting differently in here! Listen! He says He heals all your diseases—all of them! There is nothing that I haven’t already healed you of. You know what? This one is harder to embrace than last week. It’s easier to say He forgave me of all my sins than to say He healed me of all my diseases because we’ve been so conditioned to accept illness in our life. We just think it’s a part of life because the people around us are sick, and there’s sickness in the church. We’ve been sick, and we’re on medication. We take a pill as soon as we get up, and then we take another pill an hour later to deal with the side effects of the first pill. Then, we take one later in the day because the side effect of the side effect pill constipates me, so I’ve got to take this to get loose. Then I’ve got to do that every day. And I’m not even making fun of anybody; how many people have been there? I’ve been there. I know all about it. But here’s what I’m saying: I’m not saying you’ll never get sick in life, but I’m saying our conditioning makes us feel like sickness is a part of the plan—this must be God’s plan for my life. And I’m saying I don’t see one sentence in here that says the benefit package includes sickness. But what I do see is that He will heal me—that He has healed me of all of it. I see that in here; He has healed me of all my diseases, whatever they are. The reason we struggle with this is because our social conditioning and our theological conditioning make us misunderstand the fact that the work of Jesus included not just salvation but healing. That’s right! Go to Isaiah 53.