Matthew 15.

29-31
We recognize that for some illnesses and ailments there are no cures, there is only medication.
Coming home from Bible Study on Wednesday last, I was listening to WPR and the program "On Point" was being
broadcast.
Tom Ashbrook was interviewing Dr Scott Grundy of the National Cholesterol Education Program.
After several years of study, the NCEP is recommending that those who are in a high risk of heart attack, stroke or
diabetes have their bad cholesterol lowered from 100 to 70, and those who are in the moderate risk category have
their's reduced from 130 to 100.
This means that many, many more Americans would be encouraged to take statins like Lipitor.
They cost about $2.50 a pill.
Physical cures are vital and necessary.
We desire mobility and function
We desire to live with the greatest possible ability to play.
A spiritual cure is of greater necessity.
To feel safe and secure.
To be in a state of comfort and con dence.
MAIN BODY:
First we search for a cure
There are no easy answers.
A New Yorker magazine cartoon showed a middle-aged couple standing in the square of a small town. Across
from them was a restaurant that o ered FREE LUNCH, a library that proclaimed EASY ANSWERS, a pharmacy
selling CURE-ALLS and a repair shop advertising a QUICK FIX. The man said to his wife: Hey, I like this town.
There was a man of Galilee who went up on a mountain.
Great crowds of people followed him there.
They brought with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others.
They put them at his feet.
This was no easy task.
It was a long climb up the mountain.
You were probably carrying, leading, or helping another person make the journey.
You were doing it for the best reason in the world.
There is the story of a man who came to a holy person seeking healing. (3)
The holy person listened patiently as the man listed his complaints and then asked, "Do you really want to be
cured?"
The man was shocked by the question and said, "Of course I want to be cured. Why else would I have come?"
To which the holy person replied, "Most come, not to be cured, that is too painful. They come for relief."
The people who came to Jesus did not come for relief, they came for a cure.
In the cure they found relief.
No matter how much Botox is sold, there is no cure for aging.
You are going to get older and eventually die from the breakdown of the bodies cellular structure.
There is only medication for the degenerative results of growing older.
This is for this life.
There is a cure, but there are a lot of people who do not want to contemplate it.
Second, we accept the cure
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Two fellows opened a butcher shop and prospered. Then an evangelist came to town, and one of the butchers
was saved. He tried to persuade his partner to accept salvation also, but to no avail. "Why won't you, Charlie?"
asked the born-again fellow.
"Listen, Lester," the other butcher said. "If I get religion, too, who's going to weigh the meat?"
We accept the whole cure.
We have to accept not on our terms, but on the terms of the One who is o ering.
We accept completely, not partially.
It is like taking a course of treatment for a disease.
You have to take it all, or it will not bring the greatest bene t.
We maintain and honest set of scales and a candid, open, understanding way of life.
Third, we apply the cure.
What good is the medicine if it is not used.
"I'm driving at what I think is the central problem of the Christian church in America today: Most of us fear the
cure more than the illness. Most of us prefer the plausible lie that we can't be cured to the fantastic truth that we
can be. And there's a reason: If it's hell to be guilty, it's certainly scarier to be responsible - response-able, able to
respond to God's visionary and creative love. No longer paralyzed, our arms would be free to embrace the outcast
and the enemy, the most con rmed addict, ... No longer paralyzed, our feet would be free to walk out of any job
that is harmful to others and meaningless to us, free even to walk that lonesome valley without fear of evil.
Everything is possible to those whose eyes, no longer xed on some status symbol or other, are held instead by
the gaze of him who can dispense freedom and life in measures unheard of." (4)
What does it say about a person who knows the viability of the medicine but neglects to use it.
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