Stretch Out Your Hand to Heal - Audio

Bakersfield First Assembly

Acts 4:27-31 (NIV) – [27] “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. [28] They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. [29] Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. [30] STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” [31] After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Stretch Out Your Hand to Heal “The hand of God is the symbol of his power: its being upon one denotes favor or punishment.” (Easton’s Bible Dictionary) 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (MSG) – [26] Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. [27] Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, [28] chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? [29] That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. [30] Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. [31] That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.” Exodus 7:5 (NIV) – [5] “And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” 1. God stretches out His hand to DELIVER. Exodus 15:12-13 (NIV) – [12] “You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. [13] In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. “The hand of God, and especially the right hand, is also understood as a place of salvation, refuge, and protection. It is the favored position.” (Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology). 2. God stretches out His hand to LOVE. “This was written… for those of us who know God loves us but suspect we have deeply disappointed him. Who have told others of the love of Christ yet wonder if—as for us—he harbors mild resentment.” (Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly) 3. God stretches out His hand to GUIDE. Psalms 138:7 (NIV) – [7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. 4. God stretches out His hand to SAVE. Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV) – [17] The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”