WEEKLY SERMON NOTES
THE SHARING CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes - Part8
March 7, 2010
Good to see everybody! We’re in the last message of the series Life's Healing Choices.
Friends, because we live on a broken planet – and we’ve talked about this many times; it’s broken by sin – pain is a part of life. There is no such thing as a pain free life. Pain is inevitable and pain is universal. When you begin to follow Jesus, that’s not going to take away all your pain. Jesus does not eliminate all your pain in life. He transforms it. He gives meaning to it. He gives purpose to it. You see the significance of it. But as long as you live here on this planet you will experience pain.
That’s what makes the hope of heaven such a wonderful hope because in heaven there is no sorrow, no more suffering, no more sickness, no more sadness, no more tears, no more tangles, no more problems of any kind. That’s heaven. But we’re still on earth. So you will experience pain here on earth.
The Bible teaches us three great truths about pain in your life. The Bible says that you’re going to have pain all your life, but it says three things about it. That regardless for the reason for your pain and regardless of the cause of your pain – by the way, stop trying to figure out all the causes. It really doesn’t matter whether you caused the pain or somebody else caused the pain or Satan caused the pain or the environment caused the pain. All you’re going to do is place blame in a lot of that. Regardless of the cause – you may have brought it on yourself – God says three things about your pain.
God says that when we give our pain to him he says I will use it for 1. your benefit, 2.I will use it for my purposes, and I will 3. use it to help other people.
God never wastes a hurt. Never wastes a hurt! We do. We waste hurts all the time. Things hurt us and we don’t learn from them so we have to go get hurt again and again and again. But if we will give God the pieces of our lives, his purpose can transform our problems. And he can bring good out of bad. God specializes in that. If you take the pieces of the pain of your life and you give them to God, God will piece them all back together. He will give you peace of mind and he will make you an agent of peace in the lives of other people.
We’ve been looking at these Beatitudes – eight Beatitudes over the last eight weeks. I want to go back to the one where Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” God wants to make you a peacemaker. Not just a keeper but a peacemaker. You make peace; you bring peace to other people’s lives. But you can’t do that until there’s peace in your life, until the peace of God is in you. That’s what recovery from the habits and hurts and hang-ups is all about – finding the peace of God in your heart.
The Bible says this in 2 Corinthians 5:19[that’s where we find our own recovery – peace with God, peace with others, forgiveness, being forgiven by God, learning to let go of people who’ve hurt us.]
How do you know you’re recovered? You start sharing the area that you’ve been hurt in with others for their healing and their benefit. Circle the word “sharing” in that verse. Because we call this step the Sharing Choice. The Sharing Choice is this: “I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring the Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.”
You say, “Damon, I couldn’t do that! I’ve got a lot more to go.” Yeah, you do. But you don’t have to be perfect for God to use you. If God only used perfect people in the world, nothing would ever get done. Because there are no perfect people.
One of the myths is that you help people through your strengths. You don’t. You help people through your weaknesses. It is through your weaknesses that you best help other people.
For instance, if I stood up here and told you all the good things I’m good at you’d go, “La de da. Good for you, Damon! You’re good. I’m not. So what? Let’s go home!” When somebody has a strength in an area and you don’t have that strength and you’ve never had it, it’s kind of discouraging.
Like I’m real neat – you’re messy. What does that do? It just makes you feel bad. I’m organized, you’re disorganized. I’m always on time – why can’t you be like me? You don’t learn from the strengths of other people.
It is our weaknesses that help other people, not our strengths. So we call this the Sharing Choice. I choose to yield myself to God to be used to bring God’s Good News to others, both by my example and my words.
Who can be more sympathetic to somebody than somebody who has already been through what that person is going through right now? Who can better help the parent of a special needs child than a parent who raised a special needs child? Who can better help somebody going through a bankruptcy than somebody who says, been there, done that! Who can better help somebody experiencing the heartbreak of rejection or divorce than somebody who says, I remember what that felt like – how terrible that felt. Who can better help somebody who’s been abused, molested and raped than somebody who has been abused, molested and raped?
That’s what we’re going to look at this weekend – how God wants to use what you’ve been through. How God wants to take your brokenness and bless other people with it.
You may be thinking, “I can’t think of anything in my life I could share that would actually be a benefit to other people.” You’ve got a lot to share. Let me suggest to you four things today that God wants you to learn to share from your life that can help other people - and it’s not your strengths.
1. The Bible teaches that we need to learn how to share with other people how pain got my attention.
Proverbs 20:30. Anybody agree with that verse? Would anybody be able to give a story about that verse? We do not change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. We change when the pain exceeds our fear of change. Why is it that we wait until things get so bad before we finally change? I don’t know. But it is pain that motivates us.
Why do we wait until it gets so bad? Sometimes we have to hit bottom. We have to be laid out flat on our back before we look up to God. That’s a stupid thing to do. God says learn from pain quickly.
God uses pain for a lot of different reasons in our life. He uses pain to inspect us, correct us, to direct us, to perfect us.
God uses pain to inspect us to see what’s inside of us. And show us, that’s what’s in you that needs changing.
God uses pain to correct us – Don’t do that; do it this way.
God uses pain to direct us – This is the path to go on.
God uses pain to perfect us, to build character in our lives.
But the number one way God uses pain in your life is to get your attention. Pain is God’s megaphone. Pain is God saying, “Hello! Are you listening? Do you think I made you to live a little self-centered clod of a life and to ignore me forever? Hello? Anybody there?” God whispers to us in our pleasure. He shouts to us in our pain. Pain is a warning light. Pain is the bells going off. Pain is the wake-up call. Pain is God’s way of saying something is out of whack! This is not the way I want you to go! Pain is a wake-up call.
Why do we have to wait until it goes completely belly up before we come to our senses? Why can’t we be smart enough to obey God when it hasn’t gotten that bad yet? Why do we have to wait until all of a sudden we need a crisis, we need an intervention in our lives? We rarely change until we get desperate. We postpone difficult decisions. We delay doing things we need to do. We delay counseling until it’s too late. We ignore the problem until it reaches crisis stage. We just keep procrastinating, procrastinating.
Sometimes, God dries the brook up in your life because he doesn’t want you doing what he wanted you doing a year ago. He, God, led Elijah to the brook and just as soon as Elijah stayed there – he got comfortable – and God said, that’s not what I want you to do forever. So he dries the brook up. Like our job, friends, family, abilities, etc. then we see we have to depend on God.
Sometimes God has to use pain to get our attention. God whispers to us in our pleasure, but He shouts to us in our pain.
The best example of this is again the apostle Paul. As I said, probably the greatest Christian who ever lived next to Jesus himself. Paul in his life, if you read through the New Testament and all those books that he wrote, he is very honest about five different things in his life. Things that we don’t like to talk to other people about. Paul had such an impact; single handedly revolutioned the Roman Empire. Christianity spread all over, because he was willing to be honest about things that we’re not willing to be honest about.
What are they? To help other people I must be honest about these five things.
· My feelings.
I have to be open with my feelings. This is kind of hard for men. We’re not guys who really share our feelings very well. 2 Cor. 6:11 Paul says I didn’t just teach you. I opened my heart. I shared my feelings. If you’re going to have an impact in the lives of other people you’ve got to learn to share your feelings.
· Then I have to learn to share my faults.
That’s a little bit harder. I have to be humble about my faults. Gal. 6:5 That’s pretty easy to admit. Be honest about our faults, and specific about them.
· The third thing you have to be honest about if you’re going to have an impact on others is your failures.
I have to be honest about my failures. I Tim. 1:15 If you read the rest of the passage it says, I helped kill a guy. I stood there while they were stoning Stephen. I persecuted the church. He’s very frank about his faults and his failures.
· I need to be truthful about my frustrations.
We’ve got to stop saying, it doesn’t bother me. It’s no big deal. Forget it. No, you be honest about your frustrations, the things in your life that you can’t seem to get control of. That helps other people. Rom. 7:18-19 Do you feel that way sometimes? You want to do the right thing but you end up not doing it. He says I keep doing the evil that I don’t want to do. All that stuff I don’t want to do, I keep doing it. I don’t want to look at that, I don’t want to read that, I don’t want to act that way, I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to respond that way, but I do. It’s in that kind of gut-level honesty you make a difference in peoples’ lives.
Truthful about my feelings and my faults and my failures and my frustrations.
· I’ve got to be honest about my fears.
We hate to tell people what we’re afraid of. Every time you share a fear with somebody else it does two things. It lowers the level of fear in your own life and it encourages that other person. It lowers the level of fear in your life. Fear builds when you keep it a secret. It lowers it in your own life and it helps other people. 2 Cor. 12:20 Frustration with each other – this isn’t going to happen.
What is Paul saying here? He’s saying we’re all broken. Why don’t we just admit it? If I hold it in it makes me miserable. It doesn’t help anybody else. I need to learn to be honest about my fears and my faults and my failures and my frustrations and my feelings. When I do that, I get healing and other people get healing.
Learn to share how pain got your attention.
2. I need to learn to share what I’ve learned in the process.
In other words, since that crisis in your life, since that trouble, since that problem, since that pain, what have I learned from it? What are the lessons I’ve learned that I can pass on?
You’ve heard people say, it’s wise to learn from experience. That’s true. But let me tell you something better than that. Yes, it’s wise to learn from experience. It is wiser to learn from the experience of others. Why? Because I don’t have time to make all the mistakes myself. If I have to learn everything by personal experience I’ll die before I can learn it all. Isn’t it a whole lot better for me to learn from your failing than for me to go out and do it myself? Fail and then go, I shouldn’t have done that. It’s less painful and it’s quicker for you to learn from the experiences of other people.
That’s why you need to read history. That’s why you need to read the Bible. That’s why you need a mentor in your life, no matter how old you are. That’s why you need spiritual partners. That’s why you need a spiritual small group. Because we learn from each other. Somebody who’s already been through that can help me move along quicker.
What are the lessons that God wants us to learn from pain? Let’s look at the three things that God wants us to learn from our pain.
The first thing I can share is, I can share what I’ve learned.
· I’ve learned to depend on God’s love.
As we’ve gone through these eight weeks, many of us have decided that there are things in our lives that we’re ready to get rid of – our habits and our hang-ups. We’re ready to strip those aside and turn to God and depend on him only. Maybe for you it’s food or it’s shopping or it’s any of these habits – anger. There are different things that we turn to for comfort.
When we begin to strip those away, we begin to let God be our comfort; we realize that he’s really all we need. Because we find out that sometimes we go through situations and people slip. Our friends leave us. We find that we’re alone. The thing that’s been giving us comfort is actually killing us. So we turn to God and we find that he is all the comfort we need.
2 Corinthians 1:8-10 That was good? Crushed and overwhelmed? Yes, it was good because then we would turn to God and we could learn that he is all we need.
We often don’t learn that until he’s all we have. So when we come to this place where we find that God is our comfort – that we can go to him and depend on him, depend on his love, you can share that with other people.
The next thing we learn as we go through painful times,
· We learn to follow God’s Word.
God wants to teach us about himself – his power and his love, his grace and his wisdom. He does that through his Word. This is a tough one for a lot of us because it seems like we don’t turn to the Bible until we’re in crisis. We don’t fill our minds with Scripture until it’s too late. But the Bible is full of loving warnings.
Learn from my mistakes instead of making your own. The Bible says here are some things you can learn from. When God gives us warnings and God gives us rules and tells us things of how we should live, it’s because he loves us and he wants us to have a fulfilled life.
Proverbs 119:71 In our painful times, we depend on God’s love, and then we learn to follow God’s Word.
The third thing we can learn from painful times is, I can
· Learn that I need other people.
This is why it’s so important that we’re in small groups.
1 Corinthians 11:11 This doesn’t have anything to do with marriage or relationships. He says I created you in my image. I put some of my traits in men, and some of my traits in women. You need each other. Men, you need some good, godly, spiritual women to come alongside you who can talk into your life. And women the same thing. When we do that, we find we get a bigger picture, a better picture of who God is. We can also see what’s going on in our lives that needs attention.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Usually, we’re not willing to face the truth about ourselves until we’re forced to. Other people in our lives can do a couple of things. They can encourage us and pray for us like we talked about last week. But they can also point out these flaws in our character that help us; and when we need them, when we go through the hard times, they’re the people we call. They’re the people we lean on. They’re the people who encourage us and walk with us through the hard times. We can share those three things that we learn from our pain.
You’re not fully healed, you’re not fully recovered, you’re not fully mature until you’re able to start sharing
with other people the hurts, the habits and the hang-ups that you have been going through. Doesn’t mean
you’ve worked them all out of your own life. It means you can say, I’m one step ahead of you. Let me tell you
where you can head toward.
What do I share? I share how pain got my attention. And I share how I learned from pain, the lessons that I learned from pain.
There’s a third thing God wants you to share.
3. He wants you to share how God can bring good out of bad.
All of us have examples of this in our lives that we can share. You can look at your life and think of times how God brought good out of bad.
One of God’s great promises in the Bible is Romans 8:28. It’s one of the most well known verses in the Bible. It’s also one of the most misunderstood. Let’s look at it word by word. This is God’s promise. Let’s look at what this says.
First, what does it not say? It doesn’t say we know that everything will work out the way I want it to work out. That’s not true. It just doesn’t happen that way. Things don’t always work out the way I want them to work out.
It does not promise that all things will have a happy ending here on earth. That’s not true either. There are a lot of unhappy endings on earth. This is a broken planet. It’s not heaven. We shouldn’t expect everything to have a happy ending here on earth. It doesn’t.
What does this verse promise to us about recovery and about growth?
First it says, “We know.” In other words, we’re not guessing, we’re not hoping, we’re not wishing, we’re not desiring. We know for certain. This is a fact of life. We can be confident. We can be absolutely certain. We know this for a certainty, that we can stake our lives on it.
What do we know? “We know God causes.” What does that mean? It means your life is not an accident. There’s no such thing as random chance. There’s no such thing as bad luck. There is a grand design behind everything. Our lives are not a result of fate. Our lives are not a result of chance. Our lives are not a result of accident. You are not an accident. God had a plan and purpose for your life long before you were even born, and there is a grand design.
We make mistakes but God never makes mistakes. And everything that happens in life happens because of choices, not chance. Choices that God has made, choices that I have made, and choices that you have made. It’s not chance; it’s a choice.
We know for certain that God is the grand designer who causes all things. Everything. What is included in “all things”? My mistakes? Yes. Are your sins included in all things? Yes. Are the sins of others included in all things? Yes. Are your genetics and DNA included in that? Yes. Are all of the circumstances throughout history included in that? Yes. Are all of the bad decisions that other people make, and I make? Yes. All includes all. All things. Does that include miscarriage? Yes. Does that include divorce? Yes. Does that include failure? Yes. God says I fit it all into the plan. There’s no part that doesn’t fit in the plan. I fit it all into the plan.
“We know that God causes all things”… if we just stop there, that would make God the author of evil and God is not the author of evil. Nothing that is evil in the world was caused by God. So what is he saying? Look at the rest of the verse. “We know that God causes all things to work together for good.”
Notice, that verse does not say all things are good. They’re not. There’s a lot of bad in the world. There’s a lot of evil in the world. If you don’t believe in evil, just travel with me around the world. I’ll show the face of evil straight up in your face. There’s a lot of evil. When little children are stolen from their parents and sold into sex trafficking, that’s evil. When world leaders take money and store it in Swiss bank accounts when their people starve to death, that’s evil. When people betray each other, that’s evil. When people torture each other, that’s evil. There’s a lot of evil in the world. So not all things are good in the world. Cancer is bad. Molestation is bad. There’s a lot of bad in the world. It says there that “God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God.”
Not separately, but together. There are a lot of things that don’t taste good on their own, but you mix them together, they taste good. Like a cake. Separately the ingredients are bitter, but when Delight works it all together, you don’t even have to cook it. I’ll eat the batter. Just give me that cake batter and I’ll eat it.
When it’s worked together, individual bitter elements actually come to taste good. Never by themselves.
There are things in your life you’ve experienced that were flat out bitter. And they left a bad taste in your mouth. They weren’t good. They were bad. But God says, I’m bigger than the bad and I can work it all together and I can make a cake out of it and it will be delicious. And your life will be delicious. And your life will be something you take to a party. All of those bitter elements put together, I will work them together for good.
Can God really bring good out of bad? Oh, yes he can. How about the crucifixion? The death of his Son, that was bad. They tortured him, they spit on him, they beat him, then they hung him as a shameless criminal. Did God bring any good out of that? Oh yes. Just the salvation of the world. God specializes in bringing good out of bad.
Friends, this verse, this promise is not for everybody. It’s not a promise for everybody. It’s only for those who are giving God the pieces and saying, “God I love you. Take the pieces of my broken life and put them back together.”
If you’re not following Christ, if you don’t love God, if you haven’t given him every piece of your life, all things are not working together for good in your life. In fact they’re working together for bad.
God says I give you the choice. Have it your way on earth. But if so, you’re going to have it your way for eternity, which means you don’t want me on earth, you don’t want me in eternity. Be separated from me for eternity.
You were made to last forever. You’re going to last forever either with God or without him.
God weaves even our mistakes, even our disappointments, even our hurts, even our sin, into his plans.
As your pastor who loves you, follow me on this for a minute. I want you to think of the biggest mistake in your life right now that you’ve committed. Think of the biggest disappointment in your life that you’ve experienced. Think of the biggest sins that you have committed in your life that you’re most ashamed of. Think of the biggest hurts in your life. Realize this: that even before you were born God already knew those things were going to happen in your life. And he developed a plan in advance that would bring good out of them. What a God! What a God!
What a God who already has known in advance my rebellion, my sin, my stupidity, my mistakes and the mistakes of other people and the sins that were done against me and the sins that were done by me; and God said I knew it even before it was going to happen. I’m going to develop a plan and fit it into the plan and bring good out of it.
What a God! That is the kind of God we worship. That’s why we can be optimistic and realistic at the same time. As followers of Jesus Christ, we don’t deny our mistakes. We don’t hide them in the closet. We don’t pretend it didn’t happen. We don’t pretend we never screwed up. We don’t pretend other people didn’t hurt us. We’re open about our feelings and our faults and our failures and our frustrations and our fears. We’re trophies of grace. In spite of all that, God still loves me and God does not have a Plan B for your life. You’re not on Plan B. You’re still on Plan A.
Friends, there are people in your life who have intended to hurt you. They meant to hurt you. They intentionally meant to hurt you – physically, emotionally, sexually, verbally. There have been parents and partners and peers and professionals and kids on the playground and all your life, people intended to hurt you. They meant it for bad. But God intended it for good.
It is the grace of God that gets my attention through pain. It is the grace of God that helps me learn things in the pain. And it is the grace of God that brings good out of bad.
There’s one other thing God wants you to share if you’re going to get to the final stage of recovery.
4. God says he wants you to share with others how Jesus gives me hope.
How Jesus gives me the hope I need to change. I can tell you this. This next week as you go out and meet people at the grocery store, in your driveway, at the post office, stores, work – everybody you see this week has a hidden hurt. Everybody. Everybody you see this week has a hidden pain. Everybody. And everybody you meet this week needs massive doses of hope. When you share hope, you’ll have a willing audience.
The best hope that helps us is the hope from somebody who says, been there, done that. That’s how God wants to use you. God wants you to be a hope dispenser. God wants you to be a hope pusher. He wants you to promote hope wherever you go. It is the core message of Saddleback.
Look at this verse. You know what I’m doing today? I’m teaching you how to witness. Yes. Jesus said, “You will be my witnesses.”
Most people have got that all wrong and they’re scared to death to be a witness. They think a witness means I’ve got to go explain why Jesus died on the cross, I’ve got to quote memorized Scripture verses, I’ve got to know all this theology and all this doctrine.
You don’t have to know a single Bible verse to be a witness. Do you know the difference between a witness and an attorney? It is the job of the attorney to press the case, to show the evidence, and to ask for a decision. That’s the job of an attorney. Not once in Scripture does Jesus say, You will be my attorney. It’s not your job to convince people to accept Christ. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. You’re not to be an attorney. But you are called and commanded by God, if you’re going to be his child, to be a witness.
What does a witness do? This is what I saw. I saw the blue car run into the red car. Are you an expert on cars? No. Do you know anything else? No. I just saw the blue car hit the red car. Thank you, you’re dismissed. That’s called witnessing.
What does God want you to be as a witness this week to the unbelievers in your life and in your work and in your school and all around? He wants you to say when they’re going through pain. “Pain really got my attention. Let me tell you what I learned. I learned that I need people in my life when I’m going through pain. I learned that God is all I need. You don’t know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. I learned that God’s going to hang with me no matter what.”
You share the lessons. You say, let me tell you about a time that something bad happened to me but God brought good out of it. There’s a word for that – witnessing. That’s what God commands you to do. To tell your story of how you had hope in a hopeless situation. You pass it on.
That’s what God wants you to do.
Some of you have been going through some really difficult times. You’ve been scared to death to start this journey of recovery because of what it might unveil or reveal about you. Now we’re in the last session of it. But these eight choices don’t end with this series. They are choices that you’ll have to make every day for the rest of your life. Recovery is an ongoing process. Maybe what you need to do is show up Friday night and go through recovery for a while. Walk through the steps and get some help so that a year from today you’re healed. You’re not continuing to be hassled by that hurt from the past or that hang-up or that memory. You get it over with. You’re giving it up. I’m not going to hate any more. I’m not going to hold on. I’m not going to feel guilty any more. And you get rid of it.
Prayer:
As we close, I want to ask you some personal questions. Has God been trying to get your attention through pain? Is he saying Hello? Are you learning anything from your mistakes? Are you learning to depend on God? Are you learning to obey his Word? Are you learning that you need other people in your life? Question number three, will you trust God to bring good out of the bad that’s going on in your life? Will you trust him to do that? Are you saying, I want it my way? Or are you saying, I want it your way, God. Are you trusting in your own power? Or are you trusting in God’s power to make the changes you want to see? Here’s the big one, the Sharing Choice. Will you allow God to use your mistakes to help other people this week? You didn’t get into the mess you’re in overnight. And you’re not going to get out of it overnight. That’s why these eight Life's Healing Choices are an ongoing process. Let’s pray this prayer together. In your mind say, God thank you for loving me enough to get my attention. I ask you to bring good out of the bad in my life. Help me to learn the lessons I need to learn. I want to learn to be totally dependent upon you. I want to learn to follow your Word. I want to learn to become all that you made me to be. I want you to use me to help others. Please give me hope when I feel hopeless. Give me the power I need to change. I’m willing to follow your steps of recovery from here on out. I ask you to help me to be more honest than I’ve ever been with you and with myself and with others, about my faults, my fears, my frustrations, my feelings, my failures. Use me to encourage other people. Thank you that you’ll always be with me.
If you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ, say Jesus Christ come into my life right now. Take over every area of my mind and heart. I want to follow you and trust you. In your name I pray. Amen.
THE GROWTH CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes – Part 7
February 28, 2010
SIC is a church where people are serious about spiritual growth. I want to praise you for this last series because this is not an easy series. The Beatitude series has been particularly challenging. We have been looking at our painful past. We’ve been looking at our persistent sins. We’ve been looking at our personal weaknesses in Bible Study and on weekends. It would be easy to say, I think I’ll just wait until we get to a lighter topic. And I’m so proud of you.
I thought of a verse in Galatians. Gal. 5:7
The message I want to share with you this weekend may be one of the more important messages I’ve shared with you because it’s about how to finish the race, how to keep on keeping on, how to continue growth your entire life. Because life is not a fifty-yard dash. It’s a marathon.
The Bible says this in 2 John 1:8 [That is my prayer for you, as your pastor, as somebody who loves you. I don’t want you to lose what you’ve already gained in your spiritual life. Watch out that you do not lose what you’ve worked for.]
Have you been watching the Olympics? A lot of people start off great in life. They never finish the race. If you go to a marathon, at the starting point, everybody looks great. All their suits are clean, washed, new shoes, the hair looks nice. They’ve got a lot of energy. It’s a party celebration at the start of a marathon.
If you’ve ever been to the end of a marathon it’s a different story. People are straggling across the line. They’re sweaty, they smell, they’re dirty, maybe they’ve got their skin burned, their number’s been torn off. It’s a totally different picture. They’re just kind of getting across the line.
You don’t get the gold medal for starting the race. You only get the gold medal for ending it. I want you, as your pastor, so badly; I want you to finish well.
Today I want to talk to you about how to end the race well – the Growth Choice. That’s the seventh choice we’re going to look at in just a minute. It requires this – the Growth Choice says this:
“I reserve a daily time with God for Bible reading, self-examination and prayer in order [here’s the reason why you do this, in order] to know God [that’s the first thing] and his will for my life [that’s the second thing] and to gain the power [that’s the third thing] to follow his will.”
Spiritual growth is a choice. Spiritual growth is intentional. Are you going to be more spiritually mature a year from today? Let’s say, next February 28th, will you be any different than you are today? You say, “I don’t know.” Then you won’t. Because growth is intentional. You have to choose to say, “I’m not going to be this way next year. I’m going to be different by next year. I’m going to have to let go of some of those painful past things. I’m going to have to let go of some of those persistent sins. And I’m going to let go of some of those personal weaknesses and I’m going to be better than I was last year.”
But that’s a choice. You must choose to continue growing. The verses that we look at today are all going to have the word “continue” in them; because it’s all about continuous growth. Growth is a continual process. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.
The Bible says this in 2 Peter 3:18 Today we’re going to look at how to continue your growth, how to maintain the momentum you started.
How do I keep on keeping on? How do I maintain my momentum? How do I complete the course, finish the race and get the gold medal? The Bible tells us there are seven things that we need to do to continue in the faith.
1. First, I need to fix a daily time with God.
That means you nail it down. You must set it in stone. You say, this is going to be my date with Jesus on a daily basis.
All through Scripture we’re taught that you have to be connected with God in order to have the life of God in your life. You cannot bear fruit in your life if you’re not connected to Jesus on a regular basis.
It’s like a blender unplugged in your kitchen. You can push all the buttons but it’s not going to blend anything because it’s disconnected from the power.
That’s true with God. It’s true with any relationship. You have to spend time with God in order to be close to him, to feel his love, to sense his presence in your life.
I want to tell you personally the hardest thing in my life to keep is to be consistent in my daily time with God. Because everything fights against it. Everything fights against it! Why? Because Satan knows if he can keep you disconnected, you’re worthless. You have no power. You have no defense. You have no strength against his temptations. He doesn’t care what you do. You can do all kinds of good things as long as you don’t spend time with God. Why? Because it’s the number one purpose in life.
You weren’t put on this planet to do things on your To Do list. God didn’t create you just to do a bunch of activities. God created you so you could know him and love him and he could know and love you back. If you’re not spending time knowing and loving God, you are missing the number one purpose of your life. And Satan doesn’t care about all the good things you can do, as long as you don’t spend time with God. It is the number one connection. So he’s going to try to keep you busy.
If you’re too busy for God, it’s real simple – you’re too busy. Because you’re putting everything else in front of the number one commandment – Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
Why does Satan fight it? Because it gives you the power. The Bible says in 1 John 3:6. What does that mean? It means when I’m connected with Christ he gives me the power, the ability, the effort, the desire and everything I need to not do what’s wrong and to do what’s right.
The Bible says this “Continue praying, keeping alert, and always thanking God.” What does it mean “continue praying.” It means you don’t just do it in your quiet time. You talk to God all the time. You don’t have to use a bunch of thees and thous and fancy words. You just talk to him just like I’m talking to you. In fact, I can talk to you and talk to God at the same time. Ever do that? A two-tracked mind. It’s very easy to do.
Sometimes somebody’s talking to me and I’m listening and I’m talking to them and I’m going “God, what in the world do you want me to say to this person? I haven’t the slightest idea. They think I’m smart, but I’m not. And I need your help right now and I need your wisdom and I need to know what to say because I haven’t the foggiest idea what to say to this problem.” I can talk to God and talk to you at the same time.
You just talk to God. Nothing big. He’s my best friend. I’ve talked to him for over thirty-two years. But you’ve got to fix a daily time with God. Forget all the others if you don’t do that one.
2. If I’m going to keep on making it to the finish line I must fill my mind with Scripture.
You know, if you go without food you start feeling a little weak. You go a little bit longer, your mind starts getting a little groggy. You go a little longer and you start feeling cranky. If you go even longer without food you start feeling like, “All I want to do is lay down!” and you get lethargic.
The same is true with God’s Word. This is soul food. It is the food for your soul. The Bible says, “Man shall not live by food alone – bread alone – but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” This is as necessary to your soul as food is to your body. If you don’t get this Word, this soul food into your soul, you’re going to start feeling lethargic and cranky and weak and all these things. You’ve got to get this in your heart.
You say, “But I come to church every week.” That would be like saying I’m going to have a banquet every Sunday and fast the next six days. If the only spiritual input you get in your life is the weekend message, you’re having a banquet once a week and fasting the rest of the week. No wonder you’re weak. No wonder you’re groggy. No wonder you’re spiritually cranky. You’ve got to have the Word of God in your heart.
You’ve got to fill your mind with the Word of God. To be happy – you want to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy. To be happy you have to have continuous input of the Word.
James 1:25
Circle several verbs and words in this. Circle the word “study,” circle the word “obey,” circle the phrase “not forget,” circle the word “hear,” and circle the word “continue.” This is the secret of happiness. You hear the Word of God, you study the Word of God, you do the Word of God, you obey the Word of God, you don’t forget – you memorize the Word of God. All the things you need to do in the Word of God are right there in that verse. That’s what it means to fill your mind.
What are the results of me filling my mind with the Word of God? Two things. Jesus said “If you continue [There’s that word “continue” the Growth Choice.If you chose to continue] in my Word then, (a) you are my disciples; [and (b) it proves you’re a believer, proves you’re going to heaven, and two,] and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” You experience freedom in your heart and you experience heaven for eternity if you continue in my Word. It proves you are my disciple.
Let me explain it like this: inside your mind there is a scale of the negative thoughts and the positive thoughts. The evil thoughts and the good thoughts. The bad and the good. There’s a scale. When you get more negative in your life and in your mind than you’ve got positive in your mind, there’s a word for that. It’s called depression.
Where do these thoughts come from? A lot of them come from you. You’re telling yourself all the time “I’m no good. I can’t do it. It will never happen. I’m lousy. I’m a failure. I could never do that.” You talk to yourself all the time. You’re your biggest critic.
But then you get all the stuff from the world. You just pick up a newspaper and hear about all the bad things. You turn on the TV and it’s bad news. You turn on the radio, it’s bad news. Other people will tell you bad news. You’ve got thoughts from your past, your parents, your partners, your peers, professionals all said, no, no, no. When you get more of this than you’ve got good in your life, that’s called depression.
The only way to change that mental pattern is what the Bible says in Romans 12:1-2 “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” How do you renew your mind? Put more positive content in than the negative. Fill your mind with the Word of God.
How do I continue growing? I fix a daily time with God. And I fill my mind with Scripture. That sets me free.
3. The third thing I have to do to keep on growing is focus on my goal, not my habit.
Focus on my goal, not my habit. When I say habit, I’m talking about those habits, hurts, hang-ups, those sins, those weaknesses, the failures. The things in your life that you don’t like. What I’m saying is, if you want to grow you have to focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
Why is this so important? Because God designed the universe, that one of the laws of the universe is the law of attention. The law of attention states that whatever you focus on, whatever gets your attention, attracts you. It pulls you. There’s a natural pulling when you focus on something.
Have you ever stood on a cliff or a tall building and you looked over and all of a sudden you felt like you were being pulled over? That’s the law of attraction. That’s the law of attention. It’s whatever gets your attention, you tend to move towards.
Obviously you don’t move toward things that don’t have your attention. Then you need to choose to make sure your attention is toward good things, not bad things. You’ve got to change your mind.
So what do you do? You focus on your goal not your habits. This is why diets don’t work. When you’re on a diet, what are you focused on all the time? Food. You think far more about food on a diet than you do when you’re off the diet. You’re focused on, “Man, that would be good!”
It’s like the guy who’s smoking. “One of these days I’m going to give up smoking… I know it’s bad for me.” But the whole time you’re focusing on what you don’t want to do. That’s keeping you stuck in a rut. You’ve got to focus on something else.
This is what Paul talked about in Philippians.
Let me explain to you that spiritual growth is not an unbroken string of successes. Nobody goes through life with this unbroken string of successes, with no struggle, no suffering, no sin. It just doesn’t happen. Growth is a curvy road. The road to recovery is jagged. The road to recovery is a lot of twists and turns. The road to health and wholeness and spiritual maturity often means three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, two steps back. Relapse is a part of the process. So don’t beat yourself up.
The Bible doesn’t promise a temptation-free life. That doesn’t mean they don’t have the lust of the flesh. It means they don’t fulfill it. If I have a natural attraction towards something, that may be a wrong attraction, but it doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. It just means that’s a natural attraction in my life. I just don’t give in to it. So I don’t beat myself up saying, “I thought I was never going to do that again!” No, you just realize you stumbled, you fell and so you must learn how to deal with relapses.
How do you do that? The fourth step.
4. I face and forsake my failures quickly.
You’re going to stumble in life. But the key is not trying to live a perfect life. The key is to face and forsake my failures quickly. I don’t cover them up and I don’t blame others and I don’t excuse myself and I own up to it.
I’ve never met anybody who didn’t want to be successful. The Bible says this in Proverbs 28:13. [You want to be prosperous in life? You want to be successful in life? There it is. People who cover over their sins will not prosper. Why? Because you’ve got God on the opposite side of you.]
Here’s the problem. It’s easy to confess and forsake a sin from five years ago. It’s difficult to confess and forsake the ones I just did. Five years ago – oh, yeah. I’m sorry God. It was wrong. It was bad.
But if I am in an argument with you and I just blew it, I don’t want to confess it at that second. That’s ego. I need to confess and forsake instantly. This is the key to spiritual growth. I let it go quickly. I don’t let sins pile up in my life. I keep short accounts with God; I take out the garbage on a daily basis. I don’t let garbage pile up in my life. And when I stumble I don’t go, “I shouldn’t be stumbling. I’m not going to admit it. I’m going to cover it up.” No, I admit it. I don’t cover it up and I confess it and forsake it quickly. The quicker the better. That’s how you deal with relapses.
You don’t be ashamed. You just go, I’m on the road to recovery. I’m on the road to development. You keep short accounts with God.
The Bible talks about the value of personal examination. If you don’t ever examine yourself, you’re not going to grow.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:31. God says either you can judge yourself or I’ll judge you. Which would you rather do? You can judge your own sins or you can have God judge them. God says if you judge your own sins and you own up to it right away and you don’t cover it up but go, “God, I stumbled again. I don’t want to say these things to my kids but I did. And I don’t want to use that word but I did. And I don’t want to look at that channel but I did. And I don’t want to be controlling but I was…” and on and on and on. You just admit it to God. That’s a part of the growth process.
You don’t beat yourself up, you don’t tear yourself down. You say, “God thank you. I’m not the way I used to be. Yeah, I dropped the ball and the string unwound a little bit. But I’m going to pick it up and I’m going to wind it up again. And it didn’t completely unwind that ball of string. It just unwound a little bit. I’m going to pick it up and I’m going to wind it up again and hopefully it’s going to be a long time before the next time.” I’m going to focus on the future and not on the past.
What does God do when I come to him with my relapses? Is he going to go, “Come on! Not that sin again! Can’t you come up with any new ones? You come to me with that sin nine- thousand, nine hundred times. I’ve already forgiven you nine-thousand, nine hundred times!”
No. He doesn’t say that at all. God is love. He never tires of forgiveness. He’s waiting on you. You come to him.
The Bible says this in Psalms 103. Not criticizes me with judgment and scorn. He blesses me with love and mercy. God gives me what I need, not what I deserve.
There are three more steps. If I’m going to make it to the finish line, if I’m going to be all God wants me to be, I have to fix a daily time with God, I have to fill my mind with his Word, I have to focus on the future, and what I want and not what I don’t want (all my faults and hang-ups), I have to forsake and forgive and face my failures instantly, quickly.
5. I have to flee temptation, but I don’t fear it.
So many people when they’re tempted get all intimidated by it. Like I shouldn’t even be tempted. Oh, yes you should. It is not a sin to be tempted. Don’t feel guilty about temptation. It’s not a sin to be tempted. It’s a sin to give in to temptation. The Bible says, “Jesus was tempted in all points like as we, yet he sinned not.” That means Jesus experienced every temptation known to man. Every one of them. But he didn’t give in to it. Temptation is not a sin. It’s what you do with it.
When God gives you an idea, we call it inspiration. You’re inspired. When Satan gives you an idea, we call it temptation. What you do with those determines whether it’s good or bad, right or wrong, sin or righteousness. Don’t be intimidated by temptation. Just “I know where that one came from. Get out of here Satan!” When he reminds you of your past you remind him of his future. He doesn’t have one; you do.
Martin Luther said, “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”
So I flee temptation, but I don’t fear it. When temptations come in to your mind, you don’t get intimidated by them. You just know where that came from. Some people actually get shamed. “I’ve been a Christian twenty years. Why would I have that temptation?” Let me let you in on a little secret. The closer you get to God, the harder Satan is going to fight you. If you’re not close to God he’s not even going to worry about you, because you’re messing up your own life. But if you get close to God he’s going to throw out all the attacks.
It’s not a sin to be tempted. But the Bible says we need to flee it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16:13. Circle “be alert.” That means you need to know what tempts you and you need to stay away from it.
There are two things you need to stay away from: tempting situations and tempting associations. Tempting situations – stay away from circumstances. And tempting associations – stay away from people that tempt you. If you don’t want to get stung you stay away from the bees. John Baker says, “You hang around the barber shop long enough, you’re going to get a haircut.”
“Don’t be fooled. Bad companions ruin good character.” There are some people you need to stop relating to. There may be some friends who maybe should not be your friends, because it’s always easier for them to pull you down than for you to pull them up. There are some friends you need to drop. They’re not friends. If they’re leading you away from Christ, they’re not friends. Bad company corrupts good character.
6. If I’m going to make it to the finish line, if I’m going to grow continuously, I must form an ongoing support group.
But there are two reasons why you need to be in a group. First, is prayer, and second, encouragement.
The Bible says, He’s going to renew us. He’s going to revive us. This is a recovery verse. You need other people in your life. You’re not going to get well on your own. You will not get well on your own. If you could you would. You can’t, you won’t. You need other people. God wired us to need each other. That’s why you have to be in a small group. You have other people praying for you.
Do you have anybody praying for you? Are you praying for anybody? If you don’t have a small group praying for you, I pity you because you’re out here on your own. You’re helpless. You don’t have anybody giving you prayer support.
I know when people are praying for me. I can feel it. You need people praying for you. You need a small group to support you in the things that you need prayer for. And you need to pray for others.
You also need encouragement. You need continuous encouragement.
People will pray for you out there. But take the steps – face and forsake failures, flee temptation, form an ongoing group and then there’s one other thing you need to do.
7. Follow Christ to the finish line.
One of the great promises of the Bible is Philippians 1:6 .
What God starts he finishes. You may be feeling a little discouraged right now. You may be feeling a little discouraged. But I have a verse for you, Galatians 6:9. God brought you here today to say this to you. Don’t give up. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. God is not finished with you. He will be faithful to complete it.
May the grace of Jesus Christ, may the love of the Father, may the power of the Holy Spirit bless you this week, as you seek to continue to live for him. As you take these steps, may he bless you in every area of your life, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God bless you everybody!
THE TRANSFORMATION CHOICE
The Beatitudes: Life’s Healing Choices – Part 5
February 14, 2010
We’ve been in this series for six weeks where we’re looking at Life’s Healing Choices, which are the eight Beatitudes. Today, we’re going to look at the fifth Beatitude which is “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness sake…”
Before we actually look at that verse which I’m going to end the message with, I want to take you through the story of Jacob. The story of Jacob actually illustrates all of the first five steps we’ve just been through. These steps, these healing choices of life, are not just something we made up. They’re all through Scripture. They’re not just in the Beatitudes. But you can actually find them as the road to healing, the road to growth, the road to fullness, the road to recovery, the path to becoming all God wants you to be. We’re going to look at them in the life of Jacob.
Turn to Genesis 31 and 32. We’re going to look at the five phases that God uses to change us, which parallel to the five steps we’re looking at. This is really kind of a review of where we’ve been so far.
I. If God’s going to change you, make the changes in your life that you want to see and that God wants
to see in your life, here is the first phase. The first phase is Conflict.
It always starts with a struggle with other people. Did you know that God uses your struggles with other people to get your attention on him? If you’re experiencing any kind of relational conflict in your life right now, congratulations. You are experiencing stage one in God trying to get your attention to change you for the better. When God wants to change you it always starts with conflict.
Let me give you a little background of the text we’re going to look at today. Jacob’s entire life can be summed up in one word: conflict. This guy came out of the womb fighting with his twin brother Esau. In fact he was holding on. He was second born. Twin brothers, Esau was born first. When Esau came out of the womb, Jacob was holding on to his ankle. They named him “Supplanter” or Jacob – deceiver, cheater. Which means you’re hanging on. You’re trying to get out first. It’s not your role to get out first.
From that point on, Jacob and Esau fought in an unusual way. In fact, Jacob cheated his brother out of his inheritance. So Jacob and his brother were estranged from each other their entire life.
Where we pick up the story here in Genesis 31 and 32, Jacob is between a rock and a hard place. What’s happened is he’s got two conflicts going on.
First, he’s got a conflict going on with his father-in-law. His father-in-law was named Laban. Laban actually cheated Jacob and Jacob ended up serving his father-in-law fourteen years to marry his wife. He actually married two daughters – Leah and Rachel. There was bad blood between Laban and Jacob. So he’s fighting with this guy.
So he gets his whole family, this entire group, and he says we’re quietly leaving. You can’t quietly leave when you’ve got eleven kids, two wives and a bunch of sheep and goats! He takes off. When Laban, the father-in-law, hears about it he gets ticked. Why? You’re taking the grandkids! Some of you understand what I’m talking about here. You’re taking the grandkids! You ain’t doing that!
So Laban starts after Jacob to get him back. That’s part of the battle.
On the other hand, Jacob goes, I don’t have any place to go except go back home. But I’ve been estranged from my brother my entire life. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to send some gifts on ahead to my brother Esau. Maybe if I send him enough gifts he’ll just forget about the fact that I stole his inheritance.
So he sends the gifts on ahead to Esau. The messengers come back to Jacob and Jacob asks, How did it go? They say, Not so good. He took the gifts but he’s coming after you with an army of four hundred men!
You might circle the word “terrified.” Jacob, his entire life has run from conflict in his family. Now he can’t run any more. His father-in-law is coming after him one way and his brother is coming after him another way. He’s reaping a lifetime of choices. It’s out of his hands now. That’s stage one: conflict.
Notice the next verse. Here’s what Jacob prayed. He’s at the end of his rope, caught between a rock and a hard place and he prays. He’s scared to death of the conflict.
What’s happened here is, he is forced into the very first choice we’ve looked at. We call this the Reality Choice. We looked at it the first week. “Realize I am not God. I admit that I’m powerless to control the tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.” This is where Jacob is in the first phase. Until you get to this stage in life, nothing is going to change. Until you realize, this conflict that I’m in right now, I’m powerless to change it. It isn’t going to get any better. In fact, it’s probably going to get worse. I’m in a mess.
I. That’s called the Reality Choice. We call that the Reality Choice because the first Beatitude we
looked at was Mathew 5:3. That’s the starting point. Nothing happens in your life until you get out of denial and you realize “I cannot solve this on my own. I cannot solve the conflict on my own. I cannot make it right. I can’t make this marriage right. I can’t make this friendship right. I can’t make this estranged relationship right. I can’t make it right with my kids or my parents or my brother or the boss or whoever. It is a mess. God, I need your help!” That’s the conflict stage.
Jacob goes, “I’m going to stop denying. I’m going to stop running. I’m going to admit I have a need.
Here’s what Jacob does. He goes, I’ve got four hundred people coming after me this way and I’ve got a family behind me mad at me because I took the grandkids. So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to separate my party into two parts. Half of my family will go with this group, and half of my family will go with this group. I’ll send them across the river. Because if my bother comes and attacks us he might kill half of my family, but the other half will live. He might kill half of my flocks, but the other half will live.” It’s kind of divide and conquer. You might want to read this whole story – Genesis 31-32. He divides them all up into two groups and he sends them over the brook Jabbok, a river. But he stays on this side, by himself, to spend the night.
Now we’re going to come to the next phase that happens in growth. This is stage two in Life's Healing Choices. He stays behind and he spends the night alone and that night while Jacob is alone knowing that the father-in-law and the brothers-in-law are coming after him on the one hand and his brother and four hundred men are coming after him on this hand. He has sent his family on ahead, he’s all alone in this camp by the brook Jabbok, and he gets in a fight that night. He gets in a wrestling fight. It’s an unusual wrestling match because it’s actually a wrestling match with God. This is really wwf wrestling.
II. Phase two, the second phase in growth is, you move from conflict to crisis. In crisis, the crisis is a struggle with God. Now I’m not just in a conflict with other people, now I’m in a wrestling match with God.
If any of you can relate to these phases, congratulations. You’re moving forward. He says I struggled with God. Genesis 32 [This is a long wrestling match. He’s wrestling all night. Ever wrestled with God all night? Couldn’t sleep, your mind just going a mile a minute.] We’re going to come back and talk about the significance of that. There’s an important lesson in that.
God doesn’t mind having a wrestling match with you. When you wrestle with God it doesn’t bother God at all. Why? Because wrestling is a contact sport. It means you’re up close. And God would rather have you up close wrestling with him – “God, I don’t like this in my life!” Then you have distant and apathetic. He’d rather have you going, “God, I don’t like the situation I’m going through right now! I’m ticked off, God! I’m mad. Let’s have it out. Let’s wrestle!” God says “Fine. Let’s do it. Bring it on. How much of a man/woman are you?” God doesn’t mind wrestling with you because it’s a contact sport. It’s personal. It’s up close. He’d rather have you up close and angry than far away and apathetic.
That’s why you have to move from phase one – conflict with others – to crisis – struggle with God. And you’ve got to realize it and admit it.
What is my struggle with God? And what is your struggle with God? Your biggest struggle is when things don’t act the way you want them to and they don’t go as fast as you want them to you take matters into your own hands. You don’t wait and you don’t trust God and you don’t pray and you don’t sit back and you don’t think God will provide for your needs and you get in a hurry. You get out there and struggle. “I’ve got to get married!” I wonder how many people have “had” to get married and married the wrong person? “I’ve got to get a job… I’ve got to make more money…” And they pick the wrong job.
We get in a hurry and we take matters into our own hands. That’s what Jacob has done all his life. God said I want to bless Jacob but he didn’t believe it; what does he do? He cheats his brother out of his blessing. God said I’ll take care of you. What does he do? “I’m afraid my father is going to deceitfully scam me so I’m going to leave him.” And on and on.
I don’t really think God will take care of me. I’ve got to take this into my own hands. I’m not going to wait and I’m not going to trust and I’m not going to believe.
The root of all your conflicts in life is, you want to be in charge. You want to be God. You want to call the shots. You want to run it. You want to make your life your way. The root of all your problems is you want to be in control. God says, “Ok, let’s have it out. Let’s go to the mat. Let’s wrestle. You and me. One on one. Let’s have it out. Let’s see who’s really in charge here.”
God is waiting for you to say that. He’ll wrestle with you as long as it takes.
This is the second step, the second choice where we have to “give up”.
Notice it says “couldn’t win the match.” I know this is kind of obvious but if you wrestle with God, you’re not going to win. The fight is fixed. You’re not going to win. If you ever get in a no-win situation, God’s behind it. He says; let’s see who’s really in charge here. You think you’re the master of your fate? Let’s just see how brilliant, how smart, how arrogant you think you are.
Who do you think is behind it? God is. God loves you just the way you are. But he loves you too much to let you stay that way. He’s going to wrestle with you. And he’s going to move you from conflict, struggle with others, to crisis – struggle with God.
The fact is, we rarely change until our pain exceeds the fear of change. What keeps you from changing is you’re afraid of what will happen if you do change. If you give everything to God. What will happen? Will I become some nut case? Some fanatic? If I’m really sold out to God, will I become a kook? A religious nut case? God says I love you, but I love you too much to leave you that way. I’m going to wrestle with you. When the pain exceeds your fear you’re finally going to give up.
That prepares you for the second step. We looked at this in week two. Week two is the Hope Choice. “Earnestly believe that God exists and that I matter to him and that he has the power to help me.”
That is the second step. Now, once you’ve gone through these two steps you come to phase three. Phase three in the process is that God uses to change you. Phase one – conflict with others. Phase two – struggle with God, crisis with God. Phase three – commitment. In phase three I finally cry uncle and I commit to God’s changes. I commit to God’s changes. I hang on and I hold on and I don’t give up and I say I am going to go with God’s plan if it kills me. God, I’m going your way because I want you to help me change. I want you to bless my life.
Notice the next verse, the unusual wrestling match between God and man.
III. That’s phase three – commitment. Ok, God, I’m serious about this change. You’ve got to help me. I’m not going on in this marriage the way it’s going on. I can’t get out of it. I can’t get on with it. I’m not going on with this habit. I can’t get out of it. I can’t get on with it. I’m not going on with this relationship or this career. I want your blessing in my life.
He says, “God, I won’t let go until you bless me!” Hear the passion in that? God loves passionate praying. He hates “Dear God, would you kind of, sort of, please help me out?” What God loves is passionate praying. “God, I am not letting go until you help me. I have got to get help! I’m not letting go until you bless me.” That’s commitment.
Jacob is moved to step three. The Commitment Choice. We looked at that in week three. “Consciously choose to commit all my life and my will to Christ’s care and control.” Nothing is going to happen in your life until you get to step three.
They had been wrestling for hours. Why is that? He’s wrestling God. God could have overpowered him, just like that! Why is God letting this thing go on?
Here’s the real reason why God lets the struggle go on when you’re saying, God I need help in this area. You know the mess you’re in right now? You didn’t get into it instantly. It took you years to get as screwed up as you are. You didn’t just make one bad choice. You made a lot of bad choices. A lot of them. You don’t build a problem in your life for twenty years then instantly end it with a pill.
Let me give you a little advice in phase three. If you’re serious about letting God change your life in the Commitment Phase, you’ve got to hang on. You’ve got to hold on and don’t give up until God blesses you. You don’t just say, God save my marriage, and pray it one time and then give up. Get a divorce. Many people – most people miss God’s best because they give up too soon. They don’t make it till dawn. They give up in the struggle. Forget it! It isn’t worth it! I’m giving up on this dream. I’m giving up on this relationship. I’m giving up on this change. “I’ll never be able to change.”
Don’t do it. Stay with phase three, Commitment. I commit to God changing me. I’m not letting go until you bless me. Recovery is a process. Healing is a process. It’s not a one-time event. Growth is a process. It’s not a one-time event.
The Bible says this in the Commitment Phase.
Let me tell you– you’re broken. Remember I told you, you’re not crazy but you’re broken. Everybody is broken because nobody’s perfect. Nobody is perfect.
That takes us to the next phase. Phase four. Phase one: conflict with others. Phase two: crisis with God. Phase three: commitment to change. Phase four: confession.
I admit I am the problem. Not my husband. Not my friends. Or my mom or my dad. Not my kids. I am the problem in me. I am my own biggest problem.
IV. This is the breakthrough step. Phase four – confession.
We talked about this last week. In the confession phase, “I admit. I openly confess and examine my faults to God.”
This, as I said is the breakthrough phase. Notice how it happened in Jacob’s life. He’s wrestling with God and it says, “Then the man [that’s God] asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘ Jacob’ he answered.” What an unusual strange request. They’re wrestling all night. It’s the middle of the night. God obviously knows Jacob’s name. But he says, “What is your name?”
And Jacob’s name means “deceiver.” And boy! Did he live up to his name? His entire life he lied out of this situation, lied in that situation, one conflict after another because he was a deceiver. He was a manipulator. When God says what’s your name? He’s saying Jacob; I want you to own up to who you are.
I’m broken. I am a manipulator. I am a liar. I am prideful. I am a gossip. I’m a worrier. I’m an addict. I am… whatever. I can’t control my temper.
So all of his life he had lived up to his name. He deceived his dad, he deceived his father-in-law, he deceives his wife, he deceives his brother.
By the way, I wonder if you were named after your biggest character flaw what your name would be? Hi, my name is Bitter. Hi, my name is It’s-All-About-Me. My name is Gossip. Hi, my name is Angry Temper. My name is Lust. If you were named for your biggest character flaw what would people say? “There goes Greedy! Look who’s with him, Fearful!” You probably better be glad we name people for how it sounds today rather than their character.
But in those days your name was your label. When Jacob says, “I am Jacob,” he’s saying I’m willing to take a step of confession – the Housecleaning Step. “Openly examine and confess my faults to myself [I’ve got to be honest to me], and to God, [I’m honest to God] and someone I trust. [I’m honest with somebody else.]” It’s an act of confession. It’s self-revelation. He says I am a manipulator.
One of my favorite verses is in the book of Romans where God just says “Jacob have I loved.” I like that verse because it gives me hope. If God loved Jacob, maybe he could love me. If God loved Jacob who was so unlovable, who was such a manipulator, who was such a scoundrel, who was such a crook, who was such a liar, such a deceiver – then maybe God could love me.
The point is, lasting change starts with this humbleness, this brokenness, this honesty. When I stop making excuses and I stop blaming and I stop rationalizing. And I am honest to God and I be honest with myself and I am honest with one other person. That is the symptom of brokenness, when I just say, God I admit it. I’m the problem. I am the problem.
V . How does God respond to our brokenness? That’s why we get to Phase Five. Here is Phase Five in God’s changing you: Conversion.
In conversion I get a new identity. God picks up the pieces and replaces the pieces with peace. I move from conflict with others to crisis with God to commitment that I’m going to change and trust God with those changes. Then, the confession that I am the problem. Then God says, Ok now comes the conversion. You’re going to get a brand new identity.
I love God’s response to Jacob’s brokenness and confession. The Bible says this in Genesis 32 and this is the fifth step that we’re in tonight and this weekend. [Ever heard that one? This is the guy the nation of Israel is named after! This is the guy. The scoundrel, the crook, the deceiver.] Your name will no longer be Jacob. It’s going to be Israel.”
Jacob by this time had twelve sons and they became the twelve tribes of Israel. I saw God face to face…
What happens in phase five in your life? When you get to the conversion phase? The recovery stage? When you start following these Beatitudes step by step and the healing choices step by step as we have just seen them outlined in this man’s life.
First thing, Jacob gets a new identity. He [God] says, “You’ve been called manipulator, schemer, cheater. Your name has been crook. But you know what? Beneath all that Jacob, I see in you a prince. And I’m going to rename you Israel.” What does that mean – Israel? It means prince of God. Everybody else saw a defeated, mean spirited, cheating, lying, manipulator. God says I see deeper than that. I see in you a prince of God. Beneath all your sins and all your hang-ups I see a prince.
Listen closely to me: when God does his deepest work in you, he does his deepest work in your identity. In who you are. That is the deepest work that God does in your life. He changes your identity. How you see yourself. Why? Because the way you see yourself affects everything else in your life. You act according to the way you see yourself. For lasting change to happen you must change your self-perception. You need an identity change.
God says people see you that way; I see you this way. He did it all the time. He did it to Peter. Peter, you’re a rock. Gideon, you’re a mighty man of valor. Sons of thunder, I call you beloved disciples. He changed the names of people all through Scripture. He gave them new identities.
Some of you were given an identity by your mom or your dad – you’re a looser, you’re a fake, you’re worthless! And on and on and on. And the world has given you labels. And they were lying. God says, no I see beneath all that a prince. I see beneath that a princess. I see what you can be. I see what I made you to be.
So Jacob gets a new identity in conversion.
The second thing is, it says, “And he blessed him.” You get blessed. That leads us to this week’s beatitude. When you’re hungry and thirsty and have to have it at all cost, hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let me say it another way. “I’m not letting go of you until you bless me, God!” That’s what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Exactly what Jacob did. I’m not letting go. I’m not settling for second best. I want your blessing on my life. This is the Transformation step. “Voluntarily submit to every change that God wants to make in my life. [He’s going to change my identity. He’s going to bless me.] And humbly ask him to remove my character defects.”
Thank God I’m not what I used to be. Thank God, I’m not what I’m going to be. God isn’t finished with Damon Tripp yet. Hang on. I’m getting better. And you are too. Hang around. I’m not what I used to be. I’m just not. But I’m not what I’m going to be either! That is the transformation process.
How do you know when you’ve made it to Phase Five? In the Conversion step when God gives you a new name he gives you a reminder that you will carry the rest of your life to remind you to trust in him. You remember that when God and Jacob are wrestling, the Bible says that God dislocated Jacob’s hip. He pulled it out of the socket.
What is the significance of his limp? After you have had a genuine encounter with God, you’re going to have a limp. What is the significance of this limp? Three things.
One, for his entire life Jacob had run from conflict. He’d run from his brother. He’d run from his dad. He’d run from his wife. He had run from his father-in-law. He’d run from God.
God said, “We’ll fix that. No more running. I’m just going to touch your hip so you will limp the rest of your life. You’re not running any more. You’re not going to run any more. You’ll never solve a problem by running from it.” So he touches his hip. He gives him a limp.
Second, it was a daily reminder to trust God. He touched him on his thigh. You know what your thigh muscle is? It is the strongest muscle in your body. It’s the biggest muscle. It’s the strongest muscle in your body. And God touched Jacob at the point of his greatest strength. And he said, You’re no longer going to rely on self-strength any more. You’re going to rely on me. You’re no longer going to rely on your cuteness, your cleverness, your lies, your manipulation, your background, your ability to talk yourself out of a situation. I’m going to touch you at the point of your greatest strength. The most powerful muscle in your body. You’re going to remember that you’ve got to depend on me for strength. He could no longer stand on his own power.
The third meaning of it, when he walked with a limp, is that Jacob emerged both stronger and weaker. He was weaker because he couldn’t walk on his own power any more. And he was stronger because God said you’re going to walk in my power. You’ll never walk the same again. You’ve got a new identity.
Listen to me: God’s giants, the men and women that God has always used greatest in life have always walked with a limp. There may be an emotional limp, a physical limp, a mental limp, a relational limp. But there’s going to be something in your life that keeps you remembering it’s about God not about you. God’s great giants, the men and women that he uses, the men and women he blesses, gives new identity to always walk with a limp.
The reason why you can’t talk about your weakness is because you’re not at Stage Five yet. You’re still trying to hide your weaknesses. But to get to five, the change, the blessing, the new identity you’ve got to admit it.
Prayer:
As we close, I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. I want you to think about this in your mind. Are you experiencing any conflict right now? Congratulations. God’s trying to get your attention. Two, in what area are you struggling with God? You know the right thing to do but you just keep ignoring it. You keep fighting with God over it. You’re afraid to trust him. Friend, there’s no way you’re going to win. You need to give in to God’s control. Go to the mat. Three, where have you felt like giving up? I’m telling you as your pastor and as your friend who loves you – hold on. Say to God, I am not letting go until you bless me. Four, when are you going to face the truth about you? When are you going to stop blaming other people for the problems you’ve caused? When are you going to stop pretending that you’re not the problem? That it’s not an addiction. That you don’t have a problem. When are you going to share your struggle with a friend? Five, will you let Christ give you a new identity? Underneath every Jacob, God sees a prince. He sees in you a princes, a prince. He sees what God meant for you to be. Yeah, you’ve been Jacob. But now you’re going to be Israel – prince of God.
Follow me in this prayer in your mind: “Dear God, I admit I’m like Jacob. I’ve been struggling with you and I’ve been fighting with other people. I’ve got conflicts and stress in my life. I don’t want to get stuck at Stage One in conflict with others. I certainly don’t want to get stuck at Stage Two, a struggle with you, a crisis. So today, I’m taking these next steps – three, commitment. I commit myself to you, Jesus Christ, one hundred percent. I open my life the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s all I give to you. Jesus Christ come in and take over my life. Every area. And number four, I admit that I’m the problem. I’m not only going to admit it to you and to myself I’m going to admit it to somebody else. The thing that I’ve held on to I’m going to share it with somebody so that they can pray with me and become my accountability partner. I want you to change my identity. If I have to walk with a limp the rest if my life, so be it. I will glory in my weakness because it shows your greatness. I pray this in your name. Amen.
THE HOUSECLEANING CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes, Part 4
Feb 7, 2010
We are in the fourth week of an eight-week series called Life’s Healing Choices. So before we move forward, let me take us backwards and review where we have been so far. We can sum up the first three weeks, the first three choices of this study I think in three short phrases: I can’t, God can, Let him.
Week one was “I can’t.” That’s what we call the Reality Choice. “I realize that I am not God – there’s news for you right there. I admit that I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.” I can’t.
Week two – God can. That is what we call the Hope Choice. It says, “I earnestly believe that God exists. That I matter to him and that he has the power to help me change.”
So I can’t, God can. Then…
Week three is Let him. That’s what we call the Commitment Choice. Here’s what that says: “I consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ’s care and control.” Let him. Let go and let God. That’s what that means. Just let go and let God.
You say, “How do I let God? What does that mean? How can I let God make the changes in my life that he wants to make in my life?” That’s what leads us to the fourth choice. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. It’s probably the toughest choice of all. It’s called the Housecleaning Choice.
Before we even get into it I just want to say, let’s be honest with each other here. Because all of us have failed, all of us have blown it. All of us have sinned. Nobody’s perfect (except my dog). Other than that, none of the rest of us are perfect.
Romans 3:23
The fourth choice is called The Housecleaning Choice. It says, “I openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God and to someone I trust.”
You’re going, “Hold on a minute! Hang on a second. I didn’t sign up for any of this kind of stuff. To admit something to myself? Sure. I guess I can probably do that. To admit it to God? Yeah, maybe. It’s not like he doesn’t already know. But I am not about to just bare my soul for all the world to see.”
I just want you to relax. We’re not asking you to do that. God’s not asking you to do that. He’s not asking you to call the tabloids and create a scandal about your own life. But he is asking you to be honest. God is asking us for honesty. To be honest with him and with ourselves and with the people that are around us. It’s because freedom is impossible without honesty.
John 8:32 In other words, truth is the cost of freedom. But freedom is the reward of truth. Freedom is the reward of honesty. If we want to be free from all the stuff that we’re carrying around in our lives, it begins with being honest with ourselves and with God and with the people around us.
My purpose this weekend is to help bring you hope and courage to take the steps necessary to move forward; to help us see how things can be, to see how things will be, and actually in a very real sense to see how things actually are right now. I want to help us understand, maybe in a way we’ve never understood before, just how deeply God loves you. It’s so important. Because when this whole issue, this whole idea of honesty starts to come up, a lot of us get kind of afraid; we get scared. “I don’t want to go into this. It’s too painful. I don’t want to do this.” We’re afraid of it. But the Bible says, 1 John 4:18, “Perfect love casts out fear.” I believe that whenever I’m afraid of the truth, if you’re afraid of the truth, it’s because we don’t fully understand how much God loves me. If I really understood the depth of his love there would be nothing to be afraid of.
I want to talk about this today. In order to do that we’re going to look at the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. The things that Jesus taught us and the Beatitude this week is the fourth Beatitude. It’s in Matthew 5:8.
The first thing I want you to notice is what it doesn’t say. Jesus did not say “Happy are the religious in heart.” It’s happy are the pure in heart. Some of the most unhappy, sorry-mouth people I know are religious in heart. They’re just miserable. They won’t be happy until everybody else is as miserable as they are.
You know people like that? Their whole life is a bunch of rules. All those rules are Don’ts. They want you to believe that the Christian life is just Don’t, Don’t, Don’t, No, No, No. They want you to think that’s what life in Christ is all about.
But that’s not what it’s all about. The Christian life is not about don’t. The Christian life is about do. It isn’t about can’t. It’s about can. The Christian life is not about no, it’s about yes.
John 10:10. Not that you might have religion, but that you might have life.
Jesus doesn’t want me to be religious. He wants me to be real.
“Happy are the pure in heart.” Not the religious in heart.
In John 11 we read about the time when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. I want us to look at this for a moment, because there’s a truth here that we need to discover. Remember the Bible doesn’t just tell us the things that God did. The Bible tells us how God does things.
The Bible says this, John 11:43-44. It says he was bound hand and foot with graveclothes and his face was covered with a cloth.
There’s significance there. That means that nothing that binds you up and keeps you from fullness of life, nothing that trips you up as you try to follow Jesus, nothing that covers you up and keeps you hidden from the rest of the world – none of that can withstand the life-giving power of Jesus Christ.
When you gave your life to Christ, the Bible says he brought you from death into life. It’s just like Lazarus – you were brought from death into life. But there are still things in your life that keep you from fulfillment in your life. As we read a moment ago, Jesus said I came to give you fullness of life. But there are things that bind us up, that hold us back, that restrict us, that keep us from finding or reaching our full potential in life. There are things that still trip us up as we try to follow Jesus – old ways of thinking, old behavior patterns, addictions, all of that kind of stuff. Things that trip us up as we go along. There are still masks that we try to hide behind because we don’t want people to see the real me. Jesus says I want to set you free from all of this stuff. It’s not just enough that I’m bringing you from death into life, but I want to bring you into freedom. And he does it through his people.
Look at that text in John 11. Look toward the end, “Jesus said to them…” Who are the “them”? “Them” are the disciples, his followers. Jesus said to his followers, you loosen him and you let him go. Jesus does it through his people. That’s why small group life is so important. That’s why it’s so important for all of us to be in relationship with other followers of Christ. It’s about people helping other people to walk into freedom. And to get free from the things that hold us back and trip us up and cover us up. Jesus says to his followers, loosen and let him go.
Notice he doesn’t say, loosen and then wrap him back up in another bunch of stuff. He says let him go. The Bible says in Galatians 5:1. It’s not to bind us up and restrict us. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Then Jesus said in John 8:36. He said, “Happy are the pure in heart.” Not the religious in heart.
You say, “That sounds great but how is that possible to have a pure heart? Because I know me and when I look at me I don’t see a whole lot of purity going on around here.”
First, it’s important to understand that you cannot make your own heart pure. Good behavior does not purify the heart. You can’t just say, I’m going to clean up my act and behave myself and then I’ll have a pure heart. Good behavior does not purify the heart. But a pure heart will change your behavior. Repentance is not what you do in order to earn forgiveness. Repentance is what you do because your forgiveness has already been paid for.
Romans 5:8 He didn’t wait for us to clean up our act. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. The only way to have a pure heart is through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross for your sins. Purity of heart is the gift of God’s grace. You cannot earn it. You cannot buy it. The only way to get a pure heart is to surrender to him. Give your life to Christ. Let him forgive you of your sins and purify your heart, to give you the pure heart.
That’s what the commitment choice was all about that we talked about last week. You commit your life to Christ; you receive his gift of forgiveness and of a pure heart. That is how God sees you right now. He sees you right now as having a pure heart.
2 Corinthians 5:17.
You’re still going, “I still don’t see how this is possible. How can I have a pure heart when there’s all of this stuff that’s still in my life? How is that possible? Because, quite honestly, my mind is dirty. My hands are dirty. My mouth is dirty.”
Let me let you in on a secret. So am I. You think you’re the only person in this place who doesn’t still have to fight against temptation? You think you’re the only person in this place who doesn’t still lose his temper or do things you shouldn’t do or say things you shouldn’t say or think things you shouldn’t think? There’s not a person in this room, there’s not a person on this platform, who still doesn’t have to fight temptation, confess sin and repent. We are all in the same boat.
This is so important for us to understand.
The basis for a pure heart is not how good you’ve been. The basis for a pure heart is how good God is.
It’s not how good you’ve been. It’s how good God is. It’s based on God’s character not yours. It’s based on God’s actions, not yours. It’s based on God’s goodness, not yours. Your good behavior does not purify your heart. But a pure heart will change your behavior.
So my question is what does your heart want? Deep down inside, what does your heart want? Do you want to see God in your life?
I think you do. The reason I think you do is because you’re here. The very fact that you’re here today is a reflection of the deep desire in your heart to have a relationship with God. And to have him make things right in your life that are not right.
Psalm 139. God knows all about you. He knows that you really want to be free. He knows that you don’t want sin in your life. He knows that you want him to purify your heart. The only way to do it is to surrender to him. He promises if you surrender he will purify your heart. Then you will see God in your hands, in your feet, in your mind, through your eyes, in your mouth, in the way you live. You will see God in and through your life as he develops the character of Christ in you. That’s when you will see God in your life.
It does not happen overnight. It is a process. It’s a lifelong process. And you have a role to play in that process. So do God’s people who are around you. They have a role to play in that process in your life. Your role is surrender. Your role is to practice what you already know. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Just practice what you already know. Your role is to cooperate with God in becoming what you already are.
The Bible says in Romans 4:17. He sees you right now in Christ as already having a pure heart. So you are cooperating with him in becoming what you already are.
Let me explain that to you. Let me give you a couple of word pictures.
Let me give you a word picture. We just celebrated Doren’s graduation To do that we got to go on a trip. While we were there we got to see an ice sculputere. He started with a block of ice. As he carved we were asked what we thought it would be. All we saw is a big block of ice. But the master artist saw a heart and two beautiful swans in there. He cut away everything that wasn’t the swans and heart. So the swans and heart became what he already was in the mind of his creator.
It’s the same process with all of us. God has already declared your heart as pure. He already sees you in Christ as having a pure heart. Now you cooperate with him in the process of becoming what you are. The cutting away, the getting rid of the things that bind you and that trip you up and that cover you up. And God does it through his people. He just wants you to cooperate with him and let him do it in you.
If you fall down in the process, get back up. If you fall down again, get back up again. And if you fall down again, get back up again. This is where God’s people come in. You need people around you who love you, who love the Lord, to help you get back up on your feet and keep moving forward in the right direction. When you fail, when you sin, when you fall - confess it, repent, and move forward.
But the way things tend to be for me, and I have a feeling probably for a lot of us, is that when I fail, when I mess up, I want to hide from God. I don’t want him to look at me. I can’t talk to him. I sure can’t read my Bible because I’d just be a hypocrite. I can’t go to church. I stay away from my small group and Christian friends because I feel guilty, so I want to hide.
Don’t ever let sin keep you from God. When you do that, you’re just playing into the devil’s hands because he wants to separate you from God. He wants to isolate you from fellowship. Don’t ever let sin keep you from God. Sin should drive you to God. Because that’s the only place you’re going to find forgiveness and mercy and hope and healing and the strength to get back up and move forward. When you sin, don’t run from God.
The Bible says – he promises forgiveness 1 John 1:9.
Don’t misunderstand me here. God is not soft on sin. He’s not just some old man, winking his eye, “No big deal.” It is a big deal. He hates sin. It’s what separates us from him. It’s the reason that Jesus had to die for us. God hates sin. But he loves you. He loves you. And he promises to forgive you and to make your heart pure. So don’t run from God when you sin. Run to God and receive forgiveness and the strength to get up and to keep moving forward.
I want to get back to this fourth choice. This idea of examining our hearts and confessing our sins. Lamentations says “Let us search and try [or test] our ways and turn again to the Lord.”
Why does the Lord want us to search our ways? Why does he want us to search our hearts? Why does he want us to take this kind of inventory? There are a couple of reasons I think.
One is that I can’t really understand the fullness of God’s forgiveness until I realize how undeserving I am. Luke 7:47. It’s equally true that he who has been forgiven much, loves much. If I don’t see the wound then I won’t see, I won’t recognize the healing. If I don’t see the sin then I won’t see the forgiveness. If I don’t see the need and how desperate I am, then I won’t see or recognize the miracle when it takes place.
But I think there’s a second reason for this kind of heart search. It’s because so much of our continuing struggles, so much of our behaviors now are tied to poor choices we’ve made in the past. They’re the result of things, either that we did or that were done to us, and those are the things that still shape our character, they shape our behavior, they have shaped our thoughts, they’ve shaped our lives. And those are the things, yes our sins are forgiven, but there are things that need to be taken away. We need to be unwrapped from the graveclothes, from the things that are restricting us, holding us back from fullness of life. There are hurts that still have to be healed. There are habits that have to be broken. There are hang-ups that we have to get over.
God will do it. The Bible says Philippians 1:6. And he wants to do it in your life but he wants you to cooperate with him.
You may think, if it’s all forgiven then why can’t I just carry on with my life? Go on my merry way?
That’s not how it works. The Bible says this in Philippians 2:12-13. It says work hard to show the results of your salvation. You work out what God is working in. There needs to be in your life the demonstration on the outside of what God is doing on the inside. Just like the roses that show the new character of that little stick. Just like David emerges behind all the stuff that gets cut away. God wants that. He wants that beautiful work of art so that the rest of the world will look at it and say, I need that in my life!
God does this cutting away, this cleansing work, this freeing work; he does it through his people. As they help you. As we help each other in following the Lord.
As I said a moment ago, it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process.
I was talking to a guy just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine who came to the Lord just a little over a year ago. I could see as he was talking, I could see the wonderful tremendous progress that God has made in his life in just one year. But in his mind all he could see was everything that still has to be done. He said, “It’s like everything I try to deal with, God just dumps something else on me. Just one thing after another. It’s like he’s building this case against me.”
I had to help him see, God isn’t piling anything on you. He’s taking stuff off. You know that anger? I want to help you with that anger. I’ve got some people who can help you with that. As he deals with that he sees underneath it something that was causing it. God says, “Let’s deal with this behavior here.” As he deals with that something else emerges. It’s not God piling it on; he’s taking it off. God doesn’t want to load you down with guilt. He wants to free you up from guilt. He’s setting you free. He’s bringing you into freedom. It’s for freedom that Christ has set us free.
I know there may be some here that say “That sounds really nice but you’ve got to understand the kind of stuff that I’m carrying. You don’t know my past. You don’t know my present. You don’t know the guilt that I carry. You don’t know the things that I’ve done and I’m still doing.” I know there are some of us right here now, and you are living with the memory, a painful memory, maybe a horrible memory of things you’ve done in your life, things that are still going on in your life. There are people right here buried in guilt, paralyzed by it, of things that have happened, and things you’ve done in your life. You might be so addicted to things. Who knows what it is. There could be old ways of thoughts, old behavior patterns. You’ve tried over and over and over again to get free from them. You’re going, this isn’t working for me. I’ve tried it way too many times. It’s too late for me. Every time I make this promise to God that I’ll behave myself and clean it up, then I fail. Then I promise again and I fail again, and I promise again. That may work for other people, but it’s just too late for me.
I’m here to tell you it is never too late. If you think you’re too sinful for God, you’re just what he’s looking for. Jesus said, Luke 19:10 “I came to seek and to save the lost.” You are exactly what he’s looking for. He’s come to set you free. He’s come to heal you and make your life right. You cannot come to grips with God’s forgiveness until you come to grips with how much you need him to forgive you.
The longer I walk with Jesus Christ, the more convinced I am that I need a Savior. God help me if I ever get to the point where I think I’ve arrived. When the Bible says,1 Corinthians 11:28 “Let a man examine himself,” and by the way it does not say, let a man examine his neighbor; let a man examine himself. When you honestly, honest to God, examine yourself, the only conclusion you can come up with is you need a Savior. You can’t do this on your own. But God promises forgiveness when you come to him with an open heart.
God isn’t asking you to make a promise that you cannot keep. He’s asking you to receive a promise that only he can keep. 1 John 1:9. God promises forgiveness. He never breaks his promises. You have his word on it. He will not lie. He loves you. He cares about you and he wants to bring you freedom and wholeness. Not just to bring you from death into life, but from death into life in its fullness.
This is the pathway. This is the process to get there. “Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Do you want a pure heart? Do you want to see God at work in your life, in your family, in your household, in your business, in your friendships and relationships? Do you want to see God there? Do you want freedom? Then you have to let the Lord set you free. John 8:36. It begins with being honest to God. When you know the truth it will set you free. It begins with examining your life and admitting your faults to yourself, to God, and to people that you trust; and allow them to help you through the healing process.
Look at these next two verses. The Bible says this in Psalm 32. The psalmist has been wrestling with his guilt and hiding from God.
I know I’ve given you a lot to think about so far. I know that this is heavy stuff. Notice we haven’t laughed a lot in this service. Maybe it’s because I’m not funny. I don’t know. This is heavy stuff. But I want you to think about it for a minute before we go on with the rest of the message. I want you just to think about this idea of becoming what you already are, of stepping into freedom, of how God wants to set you free from things that are still holding you back or tripping you up. The things that you’re hiding behind.
I know that this kind of honesty with yourself and God and other people can be scary. I’m not denying that. But remember who we are in the message. I said, “Perfect love casts out fear.” I want you to know how deeply God loves you. If you understand that he loves you, you don’t have to be worried about it. Why be afraid of God when he loves you? Don’t be afraid of the consequences. They’ve already been taken care of. He’s paid for them. Just step into the freedom that God offers you.
As you think about making this choice, as you get ready to go into your small groups this week, I want you to remember three things.
First of all, remember God’s kindness.
Remember his kindness! Romans 2:4.
It’s not his anger. His kindness leads you towards repentance. The Bible says in Romans 8:1.
And Romans 5:8 . Remember God’s kindness.
The second thing to remember is, remember God’s faithfulness.
Remember his faithfulness. The Bible says in Philippians 1:6.
Romans 8:38-39
And this promise of his faithfulness: Hebrews 13:5. Other people may give up on you. They may walk out the door. But God says I’ll never leave you. I’ll never abandon you. I will not give up on you. He’s not ashamed of you. Remember his kindness, remember his faithfulness and…
Third, remember God’s promises.
1 John 1:9
Ezekiel 36:26
2 Corinthians 1:20
I want you to take courage. God is at work in you. He’s already started this process. He already sees you as having a pure heart. He has decreed a pure heart for you. He’s got you in a process of becoming who you are. You don’t have to be afraid. Follow him into it. Expect the freedom that God has for you. And make the Housecleaning Choice.
THE COMMITMENT CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes, Part 3
January 31, 2010
We’re in part three of a series that we are calling Life’s Healing Choices. You say, why are we doing a series on Life’s Healing Choices? Because if we want to be honest with one another, most of us in here are messed up to some degree. How many of you would say that’s true about the person you’re sitting next to? Absolutely!
One of the things I’ve learned is that you and I are pretty good at covering up our pain. We try to hide our pain and our hurt. What we do is we develop harmful habits. These habits are our attempt to quiet or to cover up the pain.
A lot of times we look at bad habits in ourselves or in other people and we think, “That’s a character weakness. They just have that bad habit.”
I want to say it’s something different than a character weakness. As a matter of fact when somebody has a bad habit, whether it’s you or somebody you’re connected to, that bad habit is really their hurt and their pain that hasn’t been dealt with screaming out: “I’m hurting!” The habit is the cover up. The habit is the disguise. What a lot of us do is we skip the hurt and we focus on the bad habit. It doesn’t matter what your bad habit is – you pick it – spending, drinking, pornography, shopping, television, lying, overeating – the habit will never stop screaming until you get to the root of the hurt.
What a lot of us do is we simply go, “I have to stop drinking!” Then we try to conquer that habit, but then we just replace it. Because we haven’t dealt with the hurt, we just replace it with a different habit. It’s a sick and vicious cycle that leaves us on the doorstep of pain and misery.
But really there is good news today. The good news today is that you and I can make some choices. What we’re calling Life's Healing Choices. With God’s help you and I can be different.
Tell me if you want this: “that we can heal our hurts and we can experience greater joy, a deeper peace, more enriching relationships, a more profound wisdom. We can live out God’s given potential for us.” How many of you would be interested in that? Absolutely.
The summary of the last two weeks is: 1. Basically, I’m not God; I don’t have the power to change myself. If I did, I would have. I don’t, so I can’t. 2. There’s a God who’s crazy about me, who loves me, who’s wooing me into a deeper more meaningful relationship with him, who wants to see me change. That’s good news.
If we stop there, it really doesn’t get us anywhere. It’s nice to know those things, but it really doesn’t bring about a total transformation. Just knowing those is not going to bring you the healing that you need. Knowing is not enough.
Think about this: there are a lot of things that you and I know that don’t change our lives. What I’m saying is, there’s got to be something bigger than simply knowing that God is God and he cares and he has the power to change me.
Satan knew that, and look where that got him. So thankfully there’s a third choice.
This third choice is a critical choice, because the rest of the five weeks really build on whether you make a commitment to this or not. That’s why we call it the Commitment Choice. To consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
But before we start I want to look at the most famous teaching of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament, Matthew 5, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount is what’s called the Beatitudes. They’re these eight statements. These eight “blessed” statements. Blessed is another word for “happy.” Happy are, blessed are, there’s even the deeper meaning of full, effectiveness. That’s what the word “blessed” means.
Jesus says this “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” We hear that and we go, what’s the big deal? But Jesus’ audience was very prideful, spiritually prideful people. They didn’t want a meek Jesus Messiah. They wanted a messiah to bring about a physical revolution and Jesus came to bring a spiritual revolution.
The Jews understood that great causes are fought by the proud, not by the humble. You can’t conquer Rome, the greatest empire on earth, with meekness and humility. But that was his audience. And Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek.”
I can imagine… the Bible says every time Jesus taught there was this large crowd. I’ve got to imagine there’s got to be some people in the crowd going, maybe we heard him wrong. There weren’t speaker systems and sound systems like we have today. So when he taught, it was a large crowd and they might go, “What did he say? What was that?” Blessed are the meek.
This concept, they didn’t understand it in the first century. A lot of us in here we don’t understand it. Or maybe you do understand what meek means. But we don’t want to embrace it. Because meekness feels mousy, feels weak.
Men, when you were growing up playing sports, your coach didn’t say, “Get in the game! I want you to be as gentle as a dove! I want you to go after that quarterback and nurture him.” No, it doesn’t feel right. Meekness rubs us the wrong way.
But if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, meekness is not optional. In the original language of the Bible the word for meek is praeis, which has different levels of meaning. On the surface it can mean mild or humble. If we just stay there on the surface, that kind of fits with what a lot of people have the stereotype of what Christians are like. Those who look on the outside and look at Christians they’re mild and humble, kind of weak, kind of spineless, kind of wimpy, they wear a lot of polyester, they say “Praise the Lord.” It fits the stereotype.
But there’s deeper meaning to this word and it’s the one I really want you to get. In the Greek, the word was often used to describe animals whose naturally wild spirit had to be broken by a trainer. Why did that spirit have to be broken by a trainer? So they could become useful.
So if you imagine in your mind a stallion, an incredible horse that can run like the wind, that can pull plows through a field. That’s not a picture of weakness. But a tamed stallion, that’s the image that he’s representing. The definition for your notes:
I. Meek is strength under control. That’s the tame stallion. Strength under control.
Being meek is simply more than just being nice. It’s not just this lacking of conviction. It’s actually courage under fire. It’s strength. It’s conviction but with a gentle spirit that comes from God’s infusion in your life. It doesn’t come from your own spirit. The spirit of meekness is actually the spirit of Jesus.
1 Peter 2 Jesus not only said, Blessed are the meek. He modeled it in how he lived his life. Why?
HANDOUT “Meekness has always been God’s way for humanity.” Moses in the Old Testament, the great leader and deliverer of the Jews, the one who oversaw the escape from Egypt, the shepherd of the people.
What I want you to get is this: with God meekness wins. It wins! It’s what separated Moses from everybody else and God said that’s the heart that I want.
Fast forward to the New Testament and you’ve got Jesus delivering the most important sermon that he ever gave. He said, Happy are the meek.
Why? Because he’s calling us to a different lifestyle. He’s calling us to live at a different level. He’s calling us to live in a way that goes past what everyone either seems to settle for or go after. This third choice that we’re talking about today, it requires meekness, humility. It’s not like you can walk out of here and go, “Ok, that makes sense to me. All of a sudden I’m going to become meek.” And flip this little switch: “Now I’m meek. Check me out. I’m meek. Look at how meek I am.”
It doesn’t work like that. There’s got to be something deeper that drives it. Here’s what it is. It’s based on God’s holiness.
II. Meekness means I acknowledge God’s holiness.
When I look at myself in light of who God is, I’m humbled by his righteousness, by his worthiness, by his holiness. Let me break it down even more.
Ø Meekness is a confidence in who I am.
I don’t mean this like the self-help seminars – you’ve got to be confident in who you are and people are walking around arrogant and prideful.
Let me go personal. Who I am: Damon Tripp. I am a sinner. I’m not perfect. I have evil thoughts. I misuse my words and wound other people. I’m fearful at times. I struggle with people pleasing. I have things about myself that I don’t really like. I’m the king of selfishness. You know what you need to be thinking? “Wow! He sounds like me.”
Meekness is the confidence in who I am. I’m confident that I’m not God. In light of who God is that’s not me.
Look at this verse in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 10 That’s not me. Meekness is a confidence in who I am. I know who I am and I’m not that.
Ø It’s also a confidence in whose I am.
You know whose I am? I’m a child of the King. I am one of God’s children. I am adopted and welcomed into his family because Jesus died for me. Therefore, the Bible says I put my faith in what Jesus did on the cross as a payment for my sins. I am one of his. I’m not just a creation of God. There are six billion creations of God. I’m actually in a different category. I’m a child of God.
1 John 5 I’ve got a new identity. There’s the human side; that’s the confidence in who I am. But there’s also this godly side, in whose I am. I’m a child of the King.
Here’s how meekness fits with this third choice. If I’m not meek I can’t realize my brokenness. If I don’t humble myself I can’t commit all of myself to Jesus Christ. Not a weakness, rather a confident humility in who I am and whose I am.
Let’s unpack this third choice a little bit. I’ve kind of taken this third choice we’re talking about and broken it down into specific phrases. At the very end I’m going to ask you for a commitment. I’m going to ask you to make this commitment. Not just read this choice but make a commitment to this choice.
III. So consciously, next to consciously, write down the words “It’s my decision.”
Some of you take a position of faith based on your heritage. I’ve talked to many of you – “My parents drug me to church when I was a little kid. I’ve always been a Christian.” Or “We’re a Christian nation and I’m a citizen so therefore I am a Christian.” Or “I’ve got a brother- in- law who’s a priest.” You play the bloodline card. Or your middle name was Christian or you’ve got a Christian bumper sticker or something. It’s this healing choice that we’re talking about that requires a conscious decision, your choice not anybody else’s choice.
So consciously, it’s my decision. Consciously choose to commit.
- Next to “choose to commit” write down “over and over.”
I’ve got to choose to commit over and over. This is 24/7/365 – choices every day that I’ve got to make.
A lot of times people go, “I chose God I think it was in January of ‘97.” And they think that’s it. They’re in. They accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior. That is the first choice. But you also have to make choices over and over – 24/7/365. Do I choose my own agenda or God’s agenda? Every day, all the time.
You’re sitting at the computer. You’re mad at a friend, a co-worker, somebody in your family. You want to write this mean, nasty email. You know it’s going to hurt them. Do you send it? It’s your choice.
You’ve got a friend who’s hurting. You know they’re hurting. You’ve got some margin in your life where you could care for them. You have some resources to help them but it’s going to take time. Do you? It’s your choice.
Over and over and over again you’ve got to make choices.
The Bible says this in Romans 6:16 You’ve got to make that choice over and over and over.
- So I consciously choose to commit – here’s a biggie, this one’s tough – all of my life and will. Next to that write down “everything.”
This is part of the choice that separates those that walk authentically and intimately with Jesus and those who are casual occasional fans of Jesus. It’s all in the word “all.” All means everything. Choosing a commitment to Jesus is not about half measures. He wants everything. It’s not like you say, “Ok Jesus, here’s a leaf. Here’s another leaf. Here’s a branch.” No. He wants your whole tree cut down. Because then when he does, he gives you a new self. That’s the win. The win for you is the new self.
The cost? Everything! Not my words. I’m just the messenger. Here it is: Luke 14:33 All my life and will.
ILLUSTRATION? Ever been in a club where they give you badges/patches for accomplishments?
I think there are a lot of us in here that choke on the word “all.” We choke on the word “everything.” And here’s why. I think we do it because Jesus is just one of our badges. We’ve got the Jesus badge that we’ve earned because we go to church and we tithe and we’re in a small group and we occasionally read the Bible. So we’ve got our Jesus badge.
BADGES: One of the reasons why you and I are so stuck in our hurt and our habits and our hang-ups is because Jesus is just one of the patches. It’s a cool patch. Everybody likes the Jesus patch. We like that. That’s one of the reasons why we can’t deal with the pain and the hurts in our lives. It occupies the space of the Student badge or the Marketplace badge or the Family badge or the Friend badge or the Exerciser badge or the Animal Lover badge or the Shopper or the Social Conscious person.
They’re all great badges and there are different roles in our lives. Here’s what happens. We get stuck in our hurts because Jesus is just one of the badges and rarely do we make him first.
This third choice that we’re talking about today, it requires that I commit all of my life to Jesus. When I do that it might look something like this – we wear it differently. It doesn’t mean that those other roles we have in our life disappear. They’re just not prominent. It’s Jesus plus nothing. Jesus is not an extra. He’s everything. There are other roles that I play so I can always point – here’s my Dad badge that I’ve got. I’m a dad. But I’m a dad who’s trying to be a dad based on being a follower of Jesus. Does that make sense?
I’ve also got a Friendship badge. But I don’t hide Jesus from my friends. And I try to treat my friends the way Jesus taught me.
Jesus is not a bonus. He’s not an extra. He’s God. It’s not about me having more badges so I can gather the will power to change. It’s about committing my all to his power to change me. So I consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. That’s the final part.
- Christ’s care and control. Next to that I want you to write down “He loves me.”
That’s what Christ’s care and control is – he loves me. In week one we talked about he’s in control. In week two we talked about he’s crazy about me and he cares for me. For some of you today this is the only thing you need to hear. For some of you, you needed to come here to hear that Jesus is crazy about you. That he loves you. That he wants a more intimate and authentic and real relationship with you. It’s not a badge to be worn; it’s a relationship to be lived. He wants you.
Some of you say, I’m hurting and I’m wounded. I know. But he cares. He was wounded on the cross and died for your sins. He cares. So you have a relational loss right now. He cares.
You’ve got financial loss. He cares.
You’re struggling with a secret habit in your life that’s killing you and you don’t want to tell anybody. You know you need help. He cares.
You’re unemployed and fearful about the future. He cares.
When you commit all of your life to the will and care and control of Christ, the Spirit of God enters you and fills you with love and a new desire. You don’t have to do it alone. You just walk on his path rather than your own.
The memory verse this week for this campaign is Matthew 11:28 Because he cares.
If you’re really thinking, there’s some wild stuff being said today. On this hand he says give me everything. Over here it says, Come to me and I will give you rest. And that seems loving and nurturing. Which is true? Both. That when you give him everything you can rest on the fact that he’s God and you’re not.
There are rewards down this path. You know what those rewards are? Blessings. Blessed are the meek. Happiness. Favor. Character transformation. The stallion is tamed. Meekness appears.
So let’s look at this choice one more time. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control.
My guess is if you and I were to go out to lunch after this and we would just sit at a table – knee-to-knee, eye-to-eye – and talk. Talk about your pain, talk about my pain, we could relate to one another at the pain level. But then if I ask you this question, are you ready to commit all of your life and your will over to Christ’s care and control? My guess is the majority of us here would say, “I’m ready!”
For some of you, you would be saying, “There’s got to be something better than the way I’m living on my path.” And there are a lot of testimonies in this church that would say, there is. There is a better way. There’s got to be something better.
Last month Doren turned eighteen years old. I just had all these memories flashing back. My son being eighteen. So many times when we look back at our childhood and things are not now what they seemed back then. For example, when we played at school growing up it was the greatest thing, all those swings, slides, a baseball field etc. What would have happened if Walt Disney came up to us as we were playing and told us he had a better playground just down the road. We would be welcomed any time all we had to do was accept the invitation.
If your brain is working you’re going to make the connection. A lot of us go through life playing life on this dirt field. We think it’s good. We think we’re really living it up. We’ve got friends, we’re in relationships, we’ve got resources, we’ve got stuff that we’re doing. But Jesus is saying, “Hey, I’ve got something over here. It’s more than a magical kingdom. It’s an eternal kingdom. And I’ve created it just for you. I’m not going to force you to go there but I want to let you know, you go there and you’re going to live life to its fullest. You’re going to come alive in ways that you’ve only dreamed of.”
As a matter of fact, that’s what Jesus said. John 10:10
That’s what I want. Better life than I ever dreamed of. Being in the center of God’s will for me. Playing life the way that he designed it to be played. That’s what I want. That’s what I want for you too.
So my final question to you is this: will you? Will you commit all of your life and will over to the care and control of Christ? Will you choose to commit everything to the God who not only created you but who loves you enough to change you?
But to make that commitment you have to be meek. You have to be humble. Here’s what you have to do. You have to humble yourself. You have to drop your pride and say, my way isn’t working. And you have to pick up his love and his grace and his forgiveness and allow it to seep into your life and change you.
Will you? If you’ve never said yes to that invitation to a new life, if you’ve never said yes to God coming in and forgiving you and heading you in a new direction, I want to challenge you to make that your offering today. You begin on that journey today.
There are many of you, maybe even the majority that say, Damon, I’ve done that. I’ve stepped across the line. I want to ask you today to recommit.
Some of you have gone a little sideways in your relationship with God. Some of you have maybe slid, fallen back, whatever term you want to use. Jesus has been one of many. You’re wearing a lot of those badges. So today you recommit.
By the way, I’ve done this a lot of times in my life. I’ve never claimed to be perfect. I have to recommit all the time. So I’m asking you to recommit. The next five weeks are built on today. If you’ll do that I want you to also write, “I will.” On your handout. But I want you to underline it. If you underline it, I’m going to recommit to the foundation of who I am, to strengthen that foundation in my relationship with Jesus.
That’s a lot to think about. I’m really glad you’re here today. Let’s pray together.
Prayer:
Lord, it’s a treat to be alive. Thank you for your love for us. We don’t want to take life for granted. We pause to say thank you. Thank you for loving us without any condition. Thank you for saying that you will give us rest if we give you everything. God, I know there’s a lot of tension happening in hearts right now. There are some people who wrote down “I will” maybe for the first time to step across the line. If that describes you, wherever you’re sitting, say God I want a relationship with you. You don’t have to say it out loud. Just in the silence of your heart say, “God, I want a relationship with you. Come into my life. Forgive me. As much as I can understand, I acknowledge that Jesus died on the cross as a payment for my sin. I repent. I turn from my sins, my own path, to walk your way. Help me begin that new life.”
If you’re here today and you’re ready to recommit, you know the prayer. “God, forgive me. I’m sorry for you being one of many, for turning my back on you, for stepping sideways – whatever it is. I’m in. I recommit. I recommit to the journey of giving you everything.”
God, there’s great joy in my heart knowing that the people here so desire to be different; that you use somebody as broken and weird and as fallible as me to be able to teach your love letter. We thank you as we come here today to celebrate how great you are. That in light of who you are we can know who we are and whose we are. For that we’re thankful. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
THE HOPE CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes, Part 2
January 24, 2010
It's good to see you in the second week of Life's Healing Choices. Last week we started a look together at the Beatitudes of Jesus at the beginning of the most famous sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus began by saying here's eight things that will make you happy. Here are eight things that will bring you true fulfillment in life. We're walking through those eight things these next eight weeks here talking together about how you and I can make Life's Healing Choices based on those eight things that Jesus taught us.
The first choice we talked about last week was from Jesus' first Beatitude, Matthew 5:3. Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That's the reality choice, the choice to realize I am not God and admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing, and my life is unmanageable.
There are two choices there. The first one is easier for me than the second one - realize I'm not God. How many of you have a pretty easy time saying, I'm not God. I think we're ok on that.
It's this second one that's the tough one - admitting I'm powerless to control. Admitting I'm not in control. Admitting my faults and my failures.
I think coming into this Life's Healing Choices, we've got this picture of what the next eight weeks is going to be. I want to change that picture, I hope, a little bit as we begin today. Let me give you an entirely different picture of what Life's Healing Choices is all about.
It's like the door being opened to a prison cell. And all of a sudden you're out and you're free for the first time in your life. Our hurts, our hang-ups, and our habits can build the four walls of a prison cell in our lives. The hurts from the past, the hang-ups and habits that you have right now, they can become things that lock you in from being all that you know that God wants you to be and from doing all that you know God wants you to do. You feel locked up. You feel like, I can't get out. Life's Healing Choices is all about opening the door and walking out into this fresh air of freedom.
Galatians 5:6 Experiencing that freedom, for some of you, for the first time in your life. Realizing, Yes, I can live out the life that God has made me to live out. Yes, I can do those things I thought I never could do. Yes, I can set aside that habit that I thought would have a hold of me for the rest of my life. Those things can happen. That's the fresh air of freedom. That's what God is going to do in my life and in your life during Life's Healing Choices.
That gets us to the second choice. The second choice is in Jesus' second Beatitude, second blessing.
The second choice is the hope choice. It is the choice to earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, that he has the power to help me to change. It's based on this Beatitude - Matthew 5:4. That's what Jesus said.
You read that and immediately you realize, blessed are those who mourn… that Jesus' path to comfort and hope is entirely different than our path to comfort and hope. Two entirely different paths.
The truth of the matter is "Blessed are those who mourn…" He's saying that the thing that I am most often trying to avoid is God's path to real comfort.
The truth is I don't want to mourn. I don't want to feel bad about my faults. The minute that I admit that they're there and I mourn that, that's God's path to comfort. That's reality and that's where he can give strength.
I don't want to mourn the past and the things that have happened, the hurts that have happened. But the minute that I admit that and see that, then God can open something up and give me real comfort.
I don't want to mourn the fact that this habit has gotten a hold of my life and I can't seem to get rid of it, I can't control it. But the minute I do that, that's God's path to comfort and reality.
The truth of the matter is, what I want to avoid is God's path to real comfort. I have a path to comfort and hope… God has a path to comfort and hope.
Our path to comfort and hope: We've got a lot of different paths to comfort and hope. And all of them have to do with how I can get to a place of comfort, a place of hope as quickly as I possibly can. We don't want to go through any process. We don't want it to take any time. We just want to get there quick.
Because of that our paths to comfort and hope can be things like alcohol. I don't feel comfortable about life. I didn’t like the way that my day went so what do I do? I take a drink.
Or it might be your drug of choice, whatever drug you take that makes you feel more comfortable about life.
For some people their path to comfort and hope is gambling. Any time life feels uncomfortable, any time you feel without hope, you either go to Vegas or you go online and all of a sudden you're getting the adrenalin up.
Other people, their path to comfort and hope is shopping. Just go out and buy something and I feel better about myself and better about my life. Who cares if I can afford it? I've just got to buy something to feel better.
Some people it's entertainment. I don't just go to a movie to enjoy a movie. Every time I feel bad about my life I immerse myself in television or movies or whatever, just to get away from the fact that I feel bad.
Other people, it's self-pity, believe it or not. Some of us, the more we feel bad about ourselves, maybe then we feel better about ourselves. When I feel uncomfortable about life I just pity myself in that case and I have this pity party. You know what that's like. You get home, you close all the doors, you pull all the blinds. It gets all dark inside. Usually massive amounts of chocolate are involved somehow. And you have this pity party. And you think that's going to make me feel better about my life. That's your path to comfort and hope.
Other people it's anger, believe it or not. Some people, the way they feel more comfortable about their life is by making you feel less comfortable about your life. If they can make you feel bad somehow they feel more in control. That's their path to supposed false comfort and hope.
Other people it's food. You don't just eat to eat. You eat to escape to this place of comfort and hope.
Other people, it's work. I've got to achieve something to feel better about myself.
We could go on and on and on. But write down one word… the one word we're talking about here is the word escape. We try to escape to a place of comfort and hope. We try to get there as quickly as we possibly can.
The problem is this. All the things that I think would give me comfort, all this escape, it only gives me a momentary escape at best. It gives me no comfort in the end. And these things often leave me addicted because I've got to try to get more and more of that thing to try to give me comfort when it's never going to give me comfort in the first place.
The truth of the matter is this. Many of you have discovered this. A comfortable life will not comfort your soul. You and I need something bigger, something greater than that. Something that only God can give.
So how does this happen? How does this kind of comfort and hope come into our lives? "Blessed are those who mourn."
Sometimes when we expect to be happy and never have bad things happen in our lives, I think it's like we've never watched a movie. When you watch any movie it starts good. Then you've got some kind of crisis in the middle and then it gets better at the end.
Life is all about "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." How does God give us comfort and hope? What is his path? Three simple things we're going to talk about the next few minutes together.
God's path to comfort and hope begins with this:
- See who God really is.
That's where it starts. You see who God really is. How do I know that I can trust God to comfort me? I only know that if I see him for who he really is. How do I know that I can trust God to comfort me if I think that God is out to condemn me? Because that's what I'm thinking all the time. And some of you do think that. You think God is out to condemn you. You just have this feeling in the back of your mind that God is always watching over your shoulder. He's always looking for you to mess up so he can tell you how messed up you really are.
If you feel that way let me ask you a question: What are you going to trust? Are you going to trust your feelings? Are you going to trust the event that changed human history? Because that event, what happened when Jesus Christ walked onto this planet, what happened at Easter, the Resurrection, is all about God telling you he is not out to condemn you.
The Bible says in Romans 8:34
When it comes to God being out to condemn you, your feelings have been told a lie. The truth is Jesus lived his life for you. The truth is Jesus died for you. The truth is he was resurrected to tell you, I'm not out to condemn you. The truth is he is sitting at God's right hand, right now praying for you, to let you know he's not out to condemn you. That's how much he wants you to know who he really is.
Who are you going to trust? Your feelings; or what God has not only said about you but demonstrated toward you. God is not a condemning God.
What's God really like? Who is God? We could spend weeks talking about that. Who is God really?
God is really a God of compassion. Psalm 86:15 That's what God is really like. He's compassionate.
When we talk about life's hurts and hang-ups and habits we say, God I've got these hurts in my life. He doesn't look at us and say, "That's not that bad. Let me show you this person over here. They've got really bad hurts in life." No. He is compassionate about your hurts.
Who is God, really? 2 Corinthians 1:3. That's who God is. He is the Father who is full of mercy and all comfort.
What's God really like? God is all about being a part of your everyday life. God is about being close to you. God is about having a relationship with you. Because of that the Bible says in Psalm 23:4, a very familiar chapter for a lot of us.
Some of you who are struggling with this God is condemning thing are going, "See right there. He is a condemning God. He's got a rod and he's got a staff and he's out to get me. I just feel it. There's a proof right there."
Let me tell you what this is about. This is comforting. Your rod and staff are not they get me, not they punish me. What does it say? They comfort me. How could they be comforting? This is the picture of a shepherd and sheep, a rod and a staff. A rod was to discipline the sheep. A staff was to direct the sheep. If the sheep was headed off of a cliff, the shepherd would make sure it didn't. And that was comforting. It is comforting not to fall off a cliff. Most of you would say that's a good thing. When I'm heading off a cliff in my life God will bring discipline into my life; he'll bring direction into my life, to keep me from falling off that cliff. But it's not condemning. It's comforting. Because I realize somebody loves me enough to tell me when I'm headed the wrong direction. Isn't that refreshing? If you've got somebody in your life that loves you enough to say, "Don't go that direction," that is a good thing in life to say that somebody loves you that much.
If I'm going to have hope I've got to see who God really is. I've got to see that he doesn't come into my life to direct me to make me feel judged. But to let me know he really cares.
If you want to get to a place of hope first you have to see who God really is. But that's not all. You also have to be honest about a second thing.
- I have to see who I really am.
We began to talk about this last week. One of the things I have to see about who I really am is I am broken. That's who I really am. I am broken.
The Bible says this in Romans 3:23 . I think we all know that. I've never met a person who would say I've never sinned. I've never met a person who would say I've never done things in my life that I wish I hadn't done. We all know there's something in us that is broken.
As much as we know this is true, there is something in every one of us that wants to hide from that truth; just wants to pretend that it's not there and cover it over instead of just being honest about it. I don't know about you but I spend way too much of life and time and energy hiding from just this simple truth - I am broken.
The truth of the matter is, in the end I'm not going to be able to hide from it anyway. Luke 12:2. You read that and think "What? I thought if I could just get through the rest of this life, keep my hurt, habit, or hang-up secret and not tell anybody and then I get to go to heaven, that it would all get erased. If I could just make it until I die, then I'm going to be ok and nobody will ever know."
We spend so much of our life and time and energy hiding from the truth of who we really are. When the truth of the matter is people know anyway. We think we're hiding it. People can see it anyway. In the end it's going to be known anyway. If this scares you to death, the fact that we're all going to know in the end who we really are, that's not the picture that Jesus was trying to give at all. He's just saying, why be a hypocrite because in the end it's all going to be known. We've all got the same struggles. We're all broken. We're all together. We're all one in this. We're all in the same boat. We're not going to be pointing fingers at each other. We're going to be pointing at the one who loves us - Jesus Christ. And saying thank you. Thank you that you've forgiven us all.
There is something freeing about that. But you don't have to wait till the end. Right now you can begin to recognize that. And as you recognize that it brings a new freedom into your life. It brings a new hope into your life. You see who you really are.
The truth of the matter is I'm broken. But don't stop there. You want to see who you really are. It can't be just that I'm broken; but I am loved. I am loved by the one who knows me best. I am loved by God who knows that I'm broken. He loves me with his all.
How does God love you? He loves you like no human being has ever loved you. The human love that you've experienced in this life, it is entirely different from God's kind of love. We could, again, spend many, many verses looking at God's love. The difference between God's love and our love. Human love fades. You've seen that. It might be there for a moment and then it fades. Too many of you have been disappointed by that in life. Human love fades but God's love, it is ever lasting.
The Bible says God says, "I love you with an everlasting love. So I will continue to show you my kindness." Human love fades but God's love is everlasting.
Human love fails. Many of you have had a failed love. Someone who has failed you. That's one of the biggest hurts in your life. Maybe it was a parent. Maybe a husband or a wife. Maybe one of your kids, a close friend. Human love fails. Because human beings are imperfect. But God's love? It is unfailing.
Psalm 119:76 Be comforted in the fact that God's love is never going to fail you. Human love fades but God's love is everlasting. Human love fails but God's love never fails. Human love is often earned. But God's love is a gift. We often earn love from each other - you do this for me, I do this for you. You treat me nice, I treat you nice. That's how we love oftentimes as human beings.
God doesn't love like that. God's love is a pure gift. Romans 3:24 That is a gift. The gift of a relationship with God. The gift of forgiveness. The gift of a new life.
In Life's Healing Choices that's the first healing choice. That's where it all begins. If you're not sure that you've made that choice, the choice to begin a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Start there. That's the foundation.
You can do that right now. It's a gift. How do you receive a gift? Just by saying yes to it. God's saying here's the gift. I want to give you my forgiveness. I want to give you a new life. Will you trust me instead of trusting yourself? You say you want a relationship with me. Just say it in your mind right now. You can pray it right now, with your eyes open. You don't have to close your eyes to pray. Just say, "God, right now, I do want that gift. I want that gift of forgiveness. I want that gift of a new relationship with you. I want that gift of the kind of life only you can give. Jesus Christ, come into my life." As you pray that prayer, you're receiving the gift that recognizes that you are loved. I am loved. Then once you've received that gift then you live it out every day of your life.
Some of you, you received that gift maybe a month ago, maybe years ago. You know you have the gift of God's relationship within you. You know that you're loved. But the truth of the matter is, life lately hasn't been telling you that. The circumstances of your job, of your marriage or something with your kids, or what's happening in your life, everything happening right now makes you feel I am not loved. I am the loser.
Every day of your life, no matter what circumstance, no matter what somebody says about you, every day of your life the most important truth about you is this: you are loved. The most lasting truth about you is this: you are loved. You are loved by the God who made you, who wants to have a relationship with you.
I've got to see who I really am. I am broken. I am loved. That's who I really am because of God's love in Jesus Christ.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." That goes to who we really are and what God wants to do in our lives. When I begin to take a look at who I really am there are some truths about me that help me to get a hold of Life's Healing Choices.
The truth about me is I must often have to feel worse in order to feel better. That's just a truth about me because of how human beings are designed. We've all experienced this.
I want a relationship to get better but I've got to have a difficult conversation first. That makes me feel worse. I've got to feel worse in order to get better.
I want to be better at my job. I have to have a tough conversation with somebody who says, you need to really work on this. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear where I'm failing. But I've got to feel worse in order to feel better.
I want to deepen my relationship with God. But I have to admit where I'm trusting myself and trying to do it my own way. That's going to make me feel bad about myself. I didn't do it well. I've got to feel worse in order to feel better. There are a thousand places in life where this is true.
I don't like to feel worse. I don't like the mourning part but I do like the comforted part. I do like the hope part. I do like the better part.
A couple others, the truth of the matter is for us as human beings I must often feel grief in order to experience joy. I've got to feel the grief of some little happiness that I'm holding on to that I think is going to give me the joy that I want in life and realize it's not there. And let that go. There's always grief in letting go and realizing the real joy is in my relationship with God. The real joy is what he's going to do in my life, here and all through eternity.
One more. I must often feel weak in order to receive power. I've got to feel weak in order to receive power. That's really the third part of receiving hope. If I want to experience God's hope and God's comfort, I've got to see who God really is; I've got to see who I really am. But the third thing is:
- I've got to see how God can change me.
When I say that - God can change me - this whole idea of change, I think for a lot of us there's two negative reactions we have to change. Let's deal with that because we've all had these.
One of the negative reactions is, yeah, I'd like to change but I just don't have the time or energy right now. I just can't throw one more thing into the hopper, one more thing into my life. I'm just too tired right now to change my life. If you've ever felt that way, join the human race.
Another reaction, often people have when I say, "God can change your life," is "Who am I kidding, that God can change my life? I've tried this a hundred times, a thousand times. I've prayed a prayer for change. I've tried to climb up that mountain again and again and I keep finding myself back at the same place. I've disappointed myself; I've disappointed others so many times. I feel like I've disappointed God. I'm not going to try to climb up that hill one more time. Why should I even try? Who am I kidding?"
Both of those negative reactions to change come from one place. They come from the place that's feeling like it's all on my shoulders. That somehow I've got to change my life for God. But somehow I've got to change my life. The idea that I've got to change my life, it just wears me out.
I'll be honest with you. If I had to feel like I had to motivate myself to change like we're talking about the rest of my life, every day of my life, I'd give up right now. I'd be home watching cartoons on tv instead of here because why even try? I don’t have that kind of motivation in me.
So where do I find the power to change? God talks about it. He's got some refreshing hope for you.
There are a couple of verses over at the end of Isaiah 40, a chapter that begins "Comfort, comfort my people." It's a chapter all about how God comforts us. At the end here's what God says about the kind of power that he wants to give into your daily life.
It's not all on your shoulders. You want to have hope, you realize that God's power to change is God's power to change. It's not me changing for God. It's God changing me through his power. It's hoping in him.
I want to give you a picture if this. I know living this out in everyday life you've got to get a picture of how does this work. How does it work to trust in God's power rather than my power? Let me give you a picture.
In this verse it talked about wings like eagles, that's God's power. Let me give you a picture that sometimes our power is like a humming bird and God's power is like an eagle. Our power is like a hummingbird. You've seen humming birds. Humming birds don't soar. They just go here and there, here and there. Hummingbirds will get a little bit of nectar and fly over to this bush. Fly back over and get a little bit of nectar, fly back to that bush. Going back and forth. Bush to nectar, nectar to bush, back and forth, back and forth, up and down, this way and that way. Their little wings are going so fast. Have you ever seen a hummingbird's wings in slow motion? They're just as fast! They're still fast in slow motion. They're just going from here to there and up and down and everywhere.
Some of you, you're exactly like the hummingbird. You're just worn out by life. You're here and there. Looking here for hope, looking there for hope, looking up for hope, looking down for hope, trying to get hope in your life.
I get it. You've got to work hard at your job. You've got to put energy into your job. But when it comes to hope, when it comes to connecting with God, when it comes to what is most important in life, you're not going to get it like the hummingbird. It's not a matter of how much energy you put into it. If you're worn out by trying to get to a place of hope on your own, I've got some good news for you. It's not the hummingbird. It's the eagle.
You watch an eagle fly. They can soar to a height of ten thousand feet. A little hummingbird? They can barely get above your house. It doesn't get anywhere. But this eagle is soaring to ten thousand feet. Its wings aren't going fast like the hummingbird. It just stretches out its wings and it soars. Flaps every once in a while.
How does the eagle do that? The eagle is able to do that because God designed the eagle's wings to catch the updraft of the wind. So it soars to these points, these incredible heights as it flies.
Here's the truth about you. God has designed your soul to catch the updraft of his love. It's not a matter of you trying to hope. It's a matter of you saying, God, I need you. I'm not going to get there on my own. I trust you. I trust you moment by moment. I trust you day by day. As long as I'm trying to do it like the hummingbird I'm going to be worn out. The moment I realize I need you, I feel the updraft of his love, of his strength, of his power.
I need to be motivated by hope. How can I achieve this attitude of hope this next week?
Let me just say to you the way to get there is not try to achieve the attitude of hope. But to recognize that God and God alone can give you the kind of hope that you've never experienced. That's what growth and hope is all about.
The last verse talks about what God's willing to do for you and what God's willing to do for me. The Bible says this in Philippians 2:13. It is God who is at work within you, giving you the will. He'll give you the desire. You feel like, I don't even want to change. I know I should but I don't want to. Say, God give me the will. He's willing to give you the will.
And giving you the power. You feel like, I don't have the energy to change. I'm hopeless about change because I don't have the energy to climb that hill one more time. God will give you the power. That's where the unlocking of the prison door comes in. That's where the freedom comes in, when you recognize it's not all about me and my power and my energy. But it's all about God and what he alone can do in my life.
The more you and I can help each other to see that in our groups, together on the weekends, in personal conversation, the more I can remind myself of that, the more I'm going to connect with the God who alone can give me the kind of hope that we're talking about.
Prayer:
As we pray, I want to invite you to pray this simple prayer for hope. Instead of trying, start trusting and just say, "Father, instead of trying to hope, I choose to trust you in hope. I trust that you're a loving Father. Whatever I might feel about you, the truth is you love me enough to die for me, Jesus. I trust that you're a loving Father. I trust that you love me, whatever's happened in my life, whatever someone else has said about me. I trust that you love me. I trust you to give strength to my soul. And Father, I trust that you will do this because you have shown me your love in Jesus Christ. And so in Jesus' name I trust you. In Jesus' name, I hope. Amen.
THE REALITY CHOICE
Life’s Healing Choices: The Beatitudes - Part 1
Jan 17, 2010
Good morning everybody. Good to see you! If you have a Bible will you open to Mathew 5? We're going to begin this series on the Beatitudes. All of the verses on the outline will be up on the screen during this series.
Anybody here ever go to Peter Piper Pizza? There is a game there called Whack-a-Mole. Does anybody remember this game? Whack-a-Mole. In Whack-a-Mole these moles pop up out of holes and you take a hammer and you slam it back down. As soon as you slam one down what happens? Another one comes up. Then you slam that one down and two come up. You slam that one down and three come up. It goes on and on and on.
The thing about that game - and this is why it's evil - is you can't win it. No matter how many you slam down they keep coming back up. And pretty soon you just give up and you walk away.
Friends, Whack-a-Mole is a metaphor for your life. Just about the time you've got one problem whacked down what happens? Another problem pops up. And you whack that one down and two more come up. You whack that one down and three more come up. That is life. Whack-a-Mole.
This is also true of persistent sins. Not just problems but persistent sins and temptations. Just about the time you think you've got victory over that weakness in your life, it pops back up again. Have you noticed this? It just keeps popping back up.
You can go read self-help books and they will teach you how to whack faster. But that's not what God's Word does. God's Word teaches us how to end the game with sin. And how to unplug it so that the power isn't getting into it anymore and those moles don't just keep popping back up.
I want to take a little survey here. Time for confession. Have you ever stayed up late when you knew you needed sleep? Have you ever stayed up late and then slept in church? Have you ever eaten or drunk extra calories that you knew you shouldn't have? Have you ever made commitments that you couldn't possibly keep? Have you ever felt you ought to exercise but you didn't? Have you ever known that you should be kind and unselfish but instead you were unkind and selfish? Have you ever tried to take control of your life, a circumstance or another person and discovered that you couldn't?
Welcome to the human race. And you came to the right church. Even Paul struggled with these kinds of struggles.
I've read a lot of commentators on this verse who try to explain this away and say, Paul is talking about his pre-Christian days, before he became a believer, before he was saved, before he was born again, before he had Christ and the Holy Spirit in his life. This is the way he acted. But that's not at all the truth. The fact is Paul is writing this in the middle of Romans and all of these verbs are in the present indicative, which says I'm doing it now. I'm struggling right now as I write this very verse. He was struggling with it.
Let's take a little inventory. There in your outline I'd like for you to circle which of these things keep popping up in your life? Which of these keep popping up?
Stress? Fears? Overwork? Attractions that I shouldn't have, to another person or something else. Addictions? Regrets? Diet? Yo-yo diet. Worry? Bad habits? Anger? Does that keep popping up in your life? Dishonesty? Does that keep popping up in your life? The need to control? Finances? You can't pay your bills. Relationships? Painful memories keep popping up. Perfectionism? Resentment? Compulsive thoughts?
If you have circled any of those things you are in the right church. This is the place for people who want to grow. If you're perfect please go find another church. But don't join it because then it won't be perfect the moment you join it.
What is the cause of all of these problems? It is the same root cause. Every problem in your life has the same root cause. It's playing God. When I act like I'm God and I'm going to make my choices instead of doing what God tells me to do, I'm going to have these problems in my life.
Our oldest temptation is the temptation to play God. So it's our oldest temptation. It comes from Satan. It's caused by our pride.
When do you think you're as wise as God? When God tells you to do something and you don't do it? "I know God says not to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I know God says don't do that, but I'm going to do it anyway. I know what will make me happy more than God does. I know God says no sex outside of marriage but I'm going to do what I want to do. I know God says tithe but I'm going to do what I want to do. I know God says…" Every time God tells you to do something and you don't do it, guess what? You are playing God. You're saying I actually know what will make me happy more than God does.
That is the source of all your problems. It is the root. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:23 "Pride ruins people."
What is the cure? The cure is what we're going to look at for the next eight weeks. Over the next eight weeks we're going to look at the eight Beatitudes of Jesus, which are the first eight statements in the most famous sermon, ever gave. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts the Sermon on the Mount by saying, "I'm going to tell you eight ways to be blessed. You'll be blessed if you do this… You'll be blessed if you do this… You'll be blessed if you do this…" eight statements. We call them the Beatitudes.
He starts off by saying, I want to tell you how to live a blessed life.
What in the world is a blessing? Most of you wouldn't know a blessing if it hit you in the face. The word "blessing" or "bless" literally is the word in Greek makarismos. Makarismos is the poetic form of the verb makar, which means in Greek "happy." That's all it means. To be blessed means to be happy. That's all it means. To be blessed means to be supremely happy. It's the poetic form of being happy.
So Jesus in his most famous Sermon on the Mount starts off by saying, I want to tell you eight ways to be happy. He says the way you think you're going to be happy is not at all the way the world tells you.
The first Beatitude is the first healing choice for getting rid of your habits and your hurts and your hang-ups that mess up your life. Matthew 5:3, the first Beatitude "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
He's saying blessed is the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He's saying nobody gets into heaven by pride. It's all by grace. "Not of works, lest any man should boast."
What does it mean to be poor in spirit? That’s what I want us to look at today. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
First, circle the phrase "in spirit." He's not talking about physical poverty. There is no blessing in being poor physically. He's not talking about physical poverty. He's talking about spiritual poverty - recognizing my sinfulness, recognizing my helplessness, recognizing my hopelessness. That's what he's talking about - spiritually helpless.
God says if you develop that attitude, that I admit that I am powerless, that I need help, that I can't control and manage everything in my life but I need God's help, he says, then you will be blessed. It's the first step on the step to being blessed. It's not being physically poor, it's spiritually poor. They don't called them be attitudes for nothing. This is the first attitude you need to be. You need to be poor in spirit.
How do I develop the spirit of being poor in spirit? The Bible teaches us three ways.
1. First, to be poor in spirit I must humbly admit I need help.
I've got to face the truth about me. I've got to stop living in denial. That's why we call this the reality choice. Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." So I have to face the truth about me. But the truth about the truth is we don’t like the truth. You can't handle the truth! You don't like the truth about you. You love the truth about everybody else. You love it about everybody else. But you hate the truth about you. You can't handle it. We avoid it and we fake it. The problem is it's painful. We'd rather live phony lives. It feels a whole lot safer to not handle the truth about me because the truth sets me free, but first it makes me miserable when I realize what needs changing in my life.
So I humbly admit that I need help. That's being honest.
The good news is your habits and your hurts and your hang-ups can be healed. The bad news is it takes humility. You've got to humble yourself and swallow your pride. James says this "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble."
What is grace? Grace is the power you need to change. Let me be really honest with you. In the next eight weeks you're going to see some radical changes in your life if you'll do what we do in this campaign. But it's not going to happen by will power. Will power doesn't work. How many diets have you started? How many exercise programs have you started? Will power does not work! ‘Cause you get tired.
What you need is the grace of God. Grace is the power you need to change.
How do you get grace? "God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble." So if I want God's power to change, I've got to be humble.
What does that mean? Let me get real specific. There are some facts that you need to admit about you. These are things that you need to admit about you if God's going to bless your life.
· The first thing you need to admit is this: I am broken.
Why? We live in a broken world and in a fallen world nothing works perfectly. The weather doesn't work perfectly, the economy doesn't work perfectly, our relationships don't work perfectly, our marriages don't work perfectly. Everything is broken. Have you noticed your body doesn't work perfectly? Even your DNA is broken. God never intended for there to be deformities in the world, physical deformities, emotional deformities, mental deformities. But we live in a broken world. Everything is broken. You can't expect two broken people to get married and have a perfect marriage. It ain't gonna happen! It's going to be broken too because you can only work with what you've got.
The Bible says this in Romans 8:20. It's frustrated. It's groaning. It's confused. Everybody's confused today - I don't know what I'm supposed to be, what I'm supposed to do… we have confused attitudes, confused attractions, confused additions, confused about everything in life.
You be who God made you to be. Our identities even are confused. Why? Because we are in a broken world. But the fact is we're all in the same boat. Nobody is perfect. I'm broken. That takes humility to admit that.
· I need to admit that my secrets make me sick.
David says in Psalm 32 when he held in his secret sins. He said when I held in all these secrets I got sick.
It's not so much what you eat; it's what's eating you. If you're tired all the time and you're frustrated all the time, and you've got all these problems, guess what? You need to look at what am I holding inside. What am I hiding? My secrets make me sick. When I get them out, when I'm honest and I'm open and humble I get a whole lot better.
So, let me ask you a very important question. What are you pretending isn't a problem?
Here's another thing you need to be honest about.
· I must admit it to defeat it.
I can't work on the sins in my life until I admit the sins in my life. I can't work on the hang-ups in my life until I admit the hang-ups in my life. I can't work on the fears in my life until I admit the fears in my life. I must admit it to defeat it.
Proverbs 28:13
We waste an enormous amount of energy hiding our hurts, our faults, our hang-ups. All that energy you use to pretend that you're somebody that you're not and to hide your weaknesses and your faults from other people, it drains your life and it's why you're tired all the time. If you didn't have to hide anything - you were open and authentic - you'd have a whole lot more energy for the good stuff. I am broken.
My secrets keep me sick. I can't defeat it until I admit it.
· Another thing you need to be honest about: It's my pride and fear that keep me stuck.
This problem is as old as man. Genesis 3 Adam in the Garden of Eden right after he sins he says "I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." What's the first fear? The fear of exposure. That somebody's going to find out what I'm really like on the inside. "I was afraid because I was naked [That's the way we feel - vulnerable, naked] so I hid." And people have been hiding and hurling ever since. We hide our own sins and we hurl at everybody else's.
You go over to Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. The guy who had the one talent says, "I was afraid so I hid my talent." A lot of you are doing that. It is pride - I don't want anybody to know my weaknesses. And it's fear - I'm scared to death of my weaknesses. That keeps us from getting well, from getting healthy, from getting whole, from growing, from getting unstuck.
The truth is I'm not ok, you're not ok, but that's ok because God will make me ok. That's what Jesus came to do. If I'm ok, you're ok, imagine Jesus on the cross, arms outstretched bleeding to death saying, "If you're ok why am I up here? If you're ok, why am I dying on the cross for you?" You're not ok. I'm not ok. But that's ok. Because God's grace makes us ok.
What's not ok is your refusal to admit that you're not ok. That we need each other and we need God's grace.
Cleaning out the refrigerator can be quite a spiritual experience. I learned a very important theological truth in cleaning out the refrigerator. Stuff doesn't have to stink for it to be rotten. That's profound! Some vegetables when they go rotten they let you know it. Ever smelled a rotten potato? Oh baby! That stinks. A potato when it's rotten on the inside, it lets you know it. But an avocado can rot and it still looks ok on the outside and it doesn't smell. But they're both just as rotten.
Here's the point. Some of you think, "I don't need recovery because my rottenness doesn't stink." Just because your rottenness doesn't stink doesn't mean you're not rotten. There's stuff in you, you don't like. I'm not talking about what God doesn't like. I'm talking about stuff in your life you don't even like about you. You wish you could change it. You always do that and you wish you didn't do that. "I wish I could be more loving, more unselfish. I wish I didn't lose my temper so much. I wish I didn't have that compulsion. I wish I didn't have that fear. I wish I weren't so insecure."
Because of our pride and because of our fear we don't want to be honest about this. We don't want to admit our weaknesses. We don't want to admit our fears. We don't want to admit. Have you ever been talking with someone and said, "You're getting angry." I am not angry. "Yes, you are." I am not angry! It's really obvious they're angry but we don't want to admit our emotions a lot of the time.
Because of our pride and fear we try to fix ourselves. Jeremiah says it this way. Jeremiah 2:13 "My people have committed two sins: [One] They have forsaken me, the spring of living water [I'm the one who’s got all the answers, God says, for your life. And two] they have dug their own broken wells, their own broken cisterns that can't hold water." Not only do we reject God, we make up our own plan to fix ourselves. And it doesn't hold water.
So the first thing I have to do if I'm going to be poor in spirit is I must humbly admit I don't have it all together. Humbly admit I need help.
2. There's a second thing I need to do. I need to humbly ask God for help.
I admit and then I ask. I admit I need help, then I ask God for it. I move from confession - I admit I need help - to petition - I need help! I'm asking God for help.
In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul says it like this. He was going through tough times and he said, "We despaired of even life itself." Did you know at one point Paul said I was ready to kick the bucket. I was so depressed, I was so discouraged, I was ready to give up on life. Then he says in this verse "We saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; [That's step one - poor in spirit. I don't have the power to change.] but that was good, [why would it be good to admit my helplessness and powerlessness?] for then we put everything into the hands of God, [You don't know God is all you need until God's all you've got. For then we put everything into the hands of God] who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead."
If God can raise a dead person he can raise a dead marriage. If God can raise a dead person he can raise a dead career. If God can raise a dead person he can raise a dead dream. If God can raise a dead person he can restore the love and romance in your marriage. God can do miracles. Anybody can bring good out of good. God can bring good out of bad. He specializes in turning crucifixions into resurrections.
So I ask God for help.
Notice on that verse it says, "We couldn’t help ourselves; we put everything in the hands of God." Circle the word "everything." This is total surrender. It's not partial surrender like "Ok, my finances are in a mess so I'm going to give God my finances." No, you've got to give him all of your life. Or "My marriage life is in a mess so I'm going to give him my marriage life." No. You've got to give him all of your life. It's total surrender. You put everything in his hands.
Have you done this? Have you ever come to a point in your life you say, Everything in my life - the good, the bad, the ugly, the stinking', the rotten, the happy, the sad, the ups, the downs - I put it all in your hands. I put it all in your hands.
Matthew 5:3
I admit I need help, I ask God for help. Then there's a third thing if I really want to be poor in spirit, and this is the hardest step of all for many people.
3. I must humbly accept help from other people.
This is the third way God wired us in such a way that we don't get well by ourselves. Let me be very blunt with you. You know that problem you'd like to get rid of in your life? That temptation? That defect, that fault, that fear, that worry, that loneliness, that whatever is in your life that messes you up? You're never going to get rid of it on your own. If you could you would but you can't so you won't. You're only going to get well when you're honest with others. Not just God but with others.
You say, "I don't want to do that. Why should I do that?" It humbles you and God gives grace to the humble. It is your pride that keeps you stuck.
The Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 4:9
God wired us, as I said, that we need each other. Fifty-eight times in the New Testament it uses the phrase "one another" -- love one another, care for one another, help one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, support one another, counsel one another. We are to help each other out. That's why we have church. We are to help each other out. You were never meant to go through life as a Lone Ranger. You were never meant to go through it on your own. You were never meant to face your problems or your sins by yourself. We need each other. We have a longing for belonging. We're not just believers, we're belongers. We're to help each other out.
Did you know that the Bible says that when a guy's going through a tough time and he's so upset he can't even believe in God, he still deserves to have friends. God says even when people don't believe in me, they still deserve to have friends who hang in there with them. Job 6:14
God says this. I put people on earth to help each other out. Even when a guy's going through a tragedy and goes, "I don't even believe in God right now! I'm so mad! I'm so angry. I'm so ticked off! I'm so upset! I'm in such a crisis! I feel so lost. I don't even believe in God." He still deserves friends who will be around him and say, "We believe in you. Don't worry about it. We'll believe in God for you. We're going to carry you through on our faith. We'll believe God for you and we’re going to pull you through this crisis."
God says that's real friendship. And he says pity the person who hasn't ever gotten into a group, gotten close to somebody, close enough to do that, to help each other out.
This next verse is one of the most important verses for your health and holiness and hope and becoming like Christ and getting over your habits and hang-ups. James 5:16 Circle the word "healed." And circle the words "admit" and "pray" and "each other" and draw a line between them. If you want to be healed in your life that's the key. Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so you may be healed.
Sharing that fear, sharing that fault, sharing that difficulty, revealing your feelings is the beginning of healing.
This is the hardest step for some of you because it really hits your pride. In other words "I don't mind telling God about my habit, but I'm not about to tell anybody else. And I don't mind telling God about my attraction, but I'm not going to tell anybody else. My stomach just starts churning even thinking about it. I don't mind telling God because I know he already knows about my addiction, about my problem, about my fear. But I'm not about to tell anybody else."
You don't have to tell everybody. You don't have to put it on the Goodyear blimp at the Superbowl. You only need to tell one or two other people. People that you trust. Who don't have a big mouth, who are going to love you unconditionally, they're not going to blame you - but go "Me too. Been there, done that." Or even if it's not the same thing they’ll go, "It's got to be tough." You don't have to tell everybody but you have to tell somebody. And that starts the healing process.
If you're serious about actually being changed in the next eight weeks, you're going to have to get over your fear of being honest with a few other people.
Conclusion:
Friends, this is going to be a life changing eight weeks. But Jesus' Beatitudes have nothing to offer you unless you've accepted Jesus and have faith in him.
"When we were unable to help ourselves, [which is right now] at the moment of our need, [which is right now] Christ died for us." It's the cross, the cross, the cross. Jesus came to give you grace and grace is the power to change. You've got to accept Christ into your life.
You may be thinking, my problem isn't that bad. Question: how bad does it have to get before you ask for help? One guy said, the acid of my pain finally ate through the wall of my denial. If you feel at the end of your rope, congratulations. Now is the time for change.
The Healing Model Of Jesus part 2
January 10, 2010
1 Cor. 3:9 Let me remind you of something - very important. This man, this paralyzed man did not get to Jesus Christ on his own. He had four friends who helped him to get there. If you feel like you're stuck and you've been stuck for a long time and you've tried and tried again and you can't get there, this man didn't get there on his own. He had some friends who helped him. You're not meant necessarily to get out of this on your own. In fact, if you feel stuck and you can't get there on your own, you're like the rest of us. We all need other people to help. I'm going to talk in just a minute about how other people help. If you have a friend and you feel like that friend is stuck, you’ve talked to them again and again and they can't get out of this, maybe they need the right friends around them.
That's what happened with this man. Part of Life's Healing Choices for him was not just having an encounter with Jesus but having friends who helped him have an experience with Jesus Christ. He had four friends who looked at their friend and said, "We're going to get him to Jesus Christ. Jesus is in town. We know that Jesus heals. We know that our friend needs healing. We're going to get him to Jesus Christ."
As you look at what these friends do, I just want to walk through this quickly, seven things that friends can do for each other. That a small group can do for each other to encourage healing. Not just me; it's also us.
Seven marks of a church that bring healing.
1. Compassion.
That's why it happens, because someone has compassion on someone else. They became concerned for their hurting friend. It starts with lifting up your eyes to see another person's need.
Let me ask you a question. How do you know if you're filled with love for other people? You could say that but how do you know if you're filled with love for other people? The only way that you know if you're filled with love for somebody is if you care about them, if you're thinking about them and if you care about them. If you never think about them you can't say that you love them.
How do you know if you care about somebody? The only way you know if you care about somebody is if you notice their needs. That's how you know if you care about somebody. So if you have a neighbor and you say, I love my neighbor, but you don't even know their name, you don't know any needs in their life, you can say you love them, but you don't love them. If you've got somebody in your office, in the office next door or the cubicle next door and you're thinking I love them, but you never care about them and let them make noises you don't like in the cubicle next door, you don't really care about them. You don't notice their needs. You don't love them.
Love is noticing other people's needs. That's why God says he loves us, because he notices every need in our lives. He has compassion on us. If you care you'll be aware of people's needs.
Then what you see will make a difference. The Bible says this in Romans 15:2. So you're concerned about someone else.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:24 Then it ends by saying “and not just about themselves."
That puts the finger on it for me and probably for you too. The truth of the matter is, the reason I don't care about other people many times, isn't because I'm evil. It isn't because I wish them harm. The reason I don't care about you is because I care about me. I care about what I'm going through in life. I care about what's happening in my day and I don't have any space left to care about you.
The Bible says you want to love other people? Show compassion. You want to have compassion? Care.
How do you do that? You go to a movie and all of the dramatic music is playing, a dramatic scene comes across and tears are running down from your eyes. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you cried for a real person? You had compassion on a real person? Not some fake fictional movie with all the fancy music. But a real person.
How do you have compassion on somebody else? You show up. You get involved with another group of people. You show up for somebody who's hurting. That's where the compassion comes from. That's where it starts.
Every one of us needs that. You need somebody in your life, you look in their eyes and you see tears because they care what you're going through. Somebody else needs that from you. They see that in your life because of what they're going through. We're not meant to go through life alone. Compassion.
2. The second thing that a group does for each other for healing is faith.
We encourage each other's faith. They believed that Jesus would heal their friend so they got him there. The Bible says in Luke 5:20 . You might circle the word "their." Not just the man's faith - the paralyzed man. He saw their faith. It took the man's faith to be forgiven. But it took the friends’ faith to get him to a place where he could experience Jesus' forgiveness. They're the ones that got him there.
Did you know… some of you may not know this; God wants to use your faith not just in your life but in somebody else's life. You can encourage somebody else's faith in amazing ways. The Bible says in Romans 1:12 . Faith is not this individual thing I do just by myself. My faith helps you, your faith helps me. We encourage each other.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 . That's what we do for each other as we encourage faith.
3. A third thing that groups do for each other is action.
They decide to act together. This group of four men didn't just pray for their friend; just pray that Jesus would come and see him. They took action and took their friend to see Jesus. Sometime if there's a hurting person and we say, Let's just have a prayer meeting, that's an excuse rather than a prayer. Sometimes prayers are just excuses for not acting.
Prayer, instead of that, should be a motivation to act. I should pray but when I pray it should motivate me to do the thing that God wants to do next. So because they cared about their friend, Matthew 9:2. God wanted them to act so they acted.
As we go through Life's Healing Choices this fall here at SIC there's somebody, some friend that you have that you think, "I'd love for them to be a part of a small group with me. I'd love for them to maybe come to church with me some weekend." What are you going to do? Just pray for them that they'll show up somehow? No. You go out and you act. You let them know.
The Bible says "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled." God doesn't just say pray that more people will come and experience my love and forgiveness. He says, No, go out and tell people. I want you to act.
What action are you going to take during Life's Healing Choices? So that not only you can experience God's healing but also other people can experience the healing of Jesus Christ in their heart and their soul.
I want to give you a few ideas in just a minute. But there's a fourth thing that these men show us that you and I can do in a group that we can't do all by ourselves, to encourage faith and to find healing.
4. Persistence.
They didn't let the difficulties discourage them. They were persistent together. They got there and there was this crowd there and they couldn’t get in. You're always going to have difficulties on the way to healing. There's always going to be some obstacle in the way. But because they were in a group they were able to encourage each other.
I can just figure how this happened. If you have a group of four men they're going to have different personalities. I'm sure one of the personalities, one of the guys when they got there said, "Oh, no! Look at all these people. It's not going to work today. We're going to have to give up. This is not going to happen. Sorry but we're going to have to go home. We'll try another day."
But there is another guy with a different personality - that's why it takes a group. This other guy said, "We are not going home. We're going to go up on the roof. We're going to find a way in."
The first guy's going, "This is going to be a problem. I can just feel this is not going to work."
But the fact that they had four people there, they were able to encourage something to be done that wouldn't have been done otherwise. There is something about living together and working through life together that gives you a greater power of persistence.
The Bible says in Galatians 6:9 . By the way, do you ever get tired in doing what's right? Yeah, you do get tired in doing what's right. But don't get tired of doing what's right, but instead realize that after a while "… we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up." Don't give up.
I don't know about you but I need other people in my life to remind me to be persistent, to remind me to not give up. That's what a group can do for each other. You're not meant to do this thing on your own, this life of faith, this life of healing. We help each other to be persistent.
2 Peter 3:9 . I'm glad that God's persistent with me and he's persistent with you. For some of you it's been many, many years that God's been speaking to you about beginning a relationship with him. He's not going to give up. He's just going to persistently keep speaking to you with love and with grace. But he never gives up on us because he wants us to find his love.
There may be somebody like that in your life. We're doing another fall, another opportunity at SIC for people to get involved in a group and see the incredible things that God wants to do. You've invited this friend, maybe gone and knocked on their door maybe the last six or seven years: "We're doing something new at SIC. Why don't you come and get involved in our group. Why don't you come with me?" And the last six or seven years they've said, "Thanks for inviting me but no, I don't think so." You're thinking, "I'm not going to invite them again. It's just going to be one more year, knock on their door one more time. They're going to say no one more time."
Let me just encourage you - ask them just once more. Just once more. Because who knows if this is going to be the year when there's some need, something going on in their life they say, "I'm so glad you asked one more time."
Aren't you glad, so many of you, somebody in your life asked one more time? You said no to God, no to faith, no to grace so many times. But there was somebody in your life that asked one more time.
Who is it in your life you need to ask one more time. As long as they keep opening the door to you, keep asking. When they just look through that little thing and won't even open the door then maybe it's over. I understand. There comes a moment. But if they're opening the door, with kindness and grace say, just one more time I want to let you know. If they say no again, then there's another chance again. God is persistent with us and he can encourage us to continue to let somebody in our life know “I love you.” Persistence.
5. A fifth word is the word innovation.
These guys dared to do something different. There are many times when in a group we can dare to do something different than we'd ever have done on our own. When they couldn't find a way in because of the crowd, Luke 5:19.
Here's the question in that verse for you and me. When is the last time you went through the roof for somebody? Not just did the normal, not just the routine, not just the expected. But you went through the roof, you did the unexpected. The Bible tells us to do this. Hebrews 10:24. So you find some inventive way to do it. We're talking about getting together in a group to talk about God's healing choices and you think, "I can't do a group in my neighborhood. Nobody wants to come." Then do one in your business. "I can't do one in my business. It just doesn't work out." Then do one on line.
Find some inventive new way to do it. You say to yourself, "I can't meet in a small group. I get off at two in the morning. How is this going to work for me? Nobody wants to come to a group then." Start a group at two thirty in the morning. There's going to be plenty of people who say, "Finally a two thirty a.m. group. That's what I've been looking for all my life!"
You be inventive and you find out how God works. That's what we can do together that we could never do alone. Innovation.
6. Cooperation.
That's what groups can do, cooperation. They worked together on a friend's behalf. They went up on the roof. They went up on the roof and lowered the man on his mat through the ceiling in the middle of the crowd.
Just think this through with me, the math of this. You've got four friends. And you've got a mat. And it's got four corners. And it's got to be lowered down. If you've got four friends and four corners of a mat, how many people does it take to lower the mat down? Four! Because if you've got one who lets down, he slips out that side and that would be a whole different thing. Jesus would have still healed him. It took all four to make this work.
In my life and in your life sometimes it takes four, sometimes it takes six, sometimes it takes more. The cooperation of us together can get done more than anyone could get done on their own. You are not meant to go through life alone because life is too heavy for any of us alone to carry. That's why we do it together. That's why it's important we do this together.
So what can you do? What can you do during Life's Healing Choices to do something different, something new so that more people can hear the good news and you can hear it in a new way?
Let me put up on the screen some ways that your small group can fulfill your mission during this spring. Some new ideas of some things that you can do.
You could start a new group within your group. If you're already in a small group, I want to talk to you who aren't in a small group in just a moment. But if you're already in a group and it's gotten pretty big then break into two groups in the home so that more people have a chance to talk. If your group is more than five or six or seven, everybody's not talking, I'll guarantee you that. We're going to talk about Life's Healing Choices. You want everybody to have a chance to share what God's doing in their life. Just split into two groups. You might volunteer to lead the other half of that.
Or a second idea is sponsor another group by providing a leader for a season. Just say we're going to take one couple or one person in our group and we're going to send them out to help start another group. Don't pick the person you least like in your group to do this. Like, "This is great we'd like to get rid of them. That's a great idea. I'm liking this more and more." No, no. Pick the person you most like in the group because they're going to be the most likely to be able to start another group well. Somebody you're going to really miss being there and send them out.
Or you can send out some members to birth a new group. You can actually split into two groups. Say, half of us are going to go this way and half of us are going to go this way. Don't just send out a couple. Send out some members.
Those of you who aren't yet in a group, what do you do? What I'd encourage you to do is start a new group. You just become a host and start a new group. You think, How could I do that?
Let me tell you what a host is. Some of you have heard this before. Host -- h-o-s-t. What does it mean to host a group of people who are going to talk about God's truth?
H stands for you have a Heart for people. You have the care for people we talked about earlier.
O means you Open your home. You give them a place to meet.
S means you Serve them some coffee or some lemonade. Serve them something to drink.
T means you Turn on the DVD, because there's a dvd study that goes with this.
You can do this. Just think it through. I've got two or three friends. I want to help this to get started. I'm going to get a new group started myself. I'm not going to wait for somebody else to ask. I'm going to take a step of faith myself.
I have to tell you one more thing that a group can encourage us in.
7. One final thing that we have to be honest about- that is sacrifice.
The truth of the matter is they were willing to pay for that roof. You know that at some point the owner of that house had to say, "Who's going to pay for the roof?" And he had to look at those four men who ripped the roof off. You have to think that the one guy said, "I told you there were going to be problems. I knew that the whole way."
They had to somehow pay for that roof. It did take a sacrifice for this to happen.
The principle here is there's always a cost to bringing somebody to faith. There's always a cost to healing. Jesus Christ has paid the greatest cost - he went to the cross. He gave his life for us. But you and I, there's the cost of our time, there's the cost of our energy, there's the cost of our giving up a night that we don't want to give up, there's the cost of us putting ourselves out there and somebody might say no to us. There is a cost. There is a sacrifice. But it's worth it.
Luke 16:9. You know what that's saying? That's saying that the little sacrifices I make with my things here, if I make the sacrifice in the right way it looks forward to eternity. If I make a sacrifice for someone to come to know Christ, I get to rejoice in that sacrifice forever together. Those are the kinds of sacrifices I want to make and I want you to make. I don't want you to make sacrifices that just last the few years on this planet. I want to make sacrifices that are going to last all the way into eternity. You make sacrifices.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:9. Part of that partnership is making that sacrifice. In fact when you stop sacrificing, you stop living. You just start resting. That's all you're really doing. Sacrifice is hard. But it is where the joy comes from.
Those of you who are married, have you ever had to make a sacrifice for your spouse? Maybe give up something you wanted to do? Yeah. And that can be hard in the moment, but that's also where the joy comes from. Those of you who are parents, ever have to make a sacrifice for your children? You don't really want to be driving that minivan do you? But you are. You didn't really want to go to McDonald's for dinner, did you? But you did. Ever have to make a sacrifice from little to big for your children? Of course you do. But is it worth it? Absolutely. It's where the joy comes from. In the moment the sacrifice is difficult. But at the end of the sacrifice there is always the joy. The greatest joy in life comes out of the greatest sacrifices of life.
I just imagine this day when this man stood up and walked. I just imagine the joy on his face. All his life he had looked forward to this moment that he is able to stand up and walk. But I can't help but imagine over on the other side these four men standing there who had brought their friend to Jesus, who had believed in the fact that Jesus Christ could heal him. Watching their friend stand up and walk. Can you see the joy on their face? That is the joy of sacrifice.
When you and I make a decision of faith for Life's Healing Choices it's not just about what God wants to do in my life. But it's also what God wants to do in us, and how God wants to work in our lives. I'd like to take just a moment as we close to talk to God about it. Would you pray with me?
Prayer:
As we pray I encourage you first of all to say, Jesus Christ, heal me. Heal me of those hurts and habits and hang-ups in my life that are keeping me stuck. Do something in my life this spring that right now I barely have enough faith to pray this prayer. But God, I pray it. I ask you to do something in me that I have a hard time even believing in myself. But I believe in you and I ask you to heal me. And God, I also ask you to use me. Use me in someone else's life to let them know that you are a healing, loving, encouraging God. God, you want to do something in me and you want to do something in us and I thank you. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
THE HEALING MODEL OF JESUS
Introduction to Life’s Healing Choices Series
January 3, 2009
As the SIC family we're getting ready in just a couple of weeks to start Life's Healing Choices. We're going to look forward to some incredible things that God's going to do in my life and in your life.
I don't know a better way to sum up the kind of way that God's going to work in our lives this spring than with the first verse that's in your outline. The first verse in your outline, Psalm 147:3 "He heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds."
"He heals the brokenhearted." Every one of us has a broken heart. At some point in our lives because of some thing in our lives our heart has been broken. By some relationship, by some circumstance, by some dream that wasn't realized our heart has been broken. We all have broken hearts.
But that verse also says "wounds". We all have wounds. We all have things from our past where someone else has hurt us, something that they've said, something that they've done, some abuse that's come into our lives, some evil that's come into our lives. We all have wounds.
But the great thing about this verse when you look at it is, the bible says he heals. Circle "heals". He heals the brokenhearted. God knows that we all have broken hearts and he's willing to come and he's willing to heal your broken heart. So you don't have to live in the past. You don't have to live with the past in such a way that it paralyzes your future.
The great thing about this verse is it says "he binds up their wounds." He doesn't just look at us and say, I'm sorry that you have wounds. He's willing to bind up, he's willing to strengthen us - that's the idea there - even in our wounds.
God knows what you face. He knows what I face. He's willing to come into my life and strengthen me.
Jesus heals. Jesus heals not just external things but even more significantly to me, he heals my soul. He does things in my life.
In fact if you take a look at the ministry of Jesus Christ, how he healed people, you'll find out that he always did three things. Just take a look at all the people that he healed in the Bible and you'll find out that there's sort of a pattern. There's a way that he works. There's three things that he does.
First, he encourages people; he gives them a word of encouragement. Second, he helps them to see the real problem; not the problem on the surface but the real problem. Then third, he asks the person to take a step of faith. He does this again and again and again.
In fact today we're going to take a few minutes to take a look at an example of how he did that - a man who had been paralyzed from birth. You see in your outline that the story of this man is in Matthew and Mark and Luke. Three of the good news gospels tell the story of this man because it's such an important story of how Jesus Christ can heal us. But it's not just about that man. It's about me. And it's about you. It's about what God wants to do in your life.
What does Jesus do personally in my life when I need to be healed of some past hurt, some habit that's gotten a hold of my life, some hang up that's come into my life? What does he do? He does these three things.
- First of all he always does this first. First he calms my fears. (Matt 9:2, Luke 5:17-26)
When you need to be healed of a wound, when you need to be healed of some past hurt, something hidden in your life, first he comes and he surprises you many times because he calms your fears.
I want you to imagine the scene of what was happening this day when Jesus healed this paralyzed man. Jesus is teaching in a town and some people have found out he's teaching. He's in a small home and they’ve come to hear him teach. They fill up the small home. So many people want to hear Jesus teach they start to look in through the windows. Then they start to get in lines between and behind the windows and outside of the door. And all of a sudden the small home is filled and around this small home there are crowds of people just straining to hear Jesus speaking inside of the house.
There's a group of four men who have a friend who is paralyzed. They decided that day, "We're going to get our friend to Jesus because we know that he heals people. We're going to take our friend to Jesus." They put him on a mat and they take him to see Jesus at this house and when they get there there's so many people around the house there's no way they can get in. So they get very creative. They figure out: there's nobody on the roof. So they go up on the roof and they dig a hole in the roof through the tile and they actually lower the man through the tiles in the roof in front of Jesus.
That would be weird wouldn't it? Just think right now if all of a sudden stuff started falling down and all of a sudden this person just lowers right in front of me. That would be a different experience. That's what happened that day.
I want you for just a moment to put yourself in the place of that paralyzed man. Here he is. His friends are saying "We're going to get you there. We're going to lower you through the roof." He can't stop them. He's sort of at their mercy in this moment. All of a sudden with this huge crowd of people he's being lowered down.
How would you feel? He had to feel little embarrassed. He had to feel like "I shouldn't be interrupting Jesus." And he had to certainly feel like every eye is on me, because every eye was on him in that moment.
Have you ever felt that way? Like I've got a hurt in my life and now every eye is on me. Everybody sees it. Jesus Christ knew exactly how this man felt. The natural reaction of a speaker in that situation - if that happened to me, that that started to happen - I'd go "Excuse me! What do you think you're doing? Can you see all these other people here? Why would you be interrupting all these other people?" The natural reaction would be a little irritation.
But not Jesus. Jesus knew this guy's heart. He knows your heart. He knows how we feel when we come to him and we say, I need healing in my life.
So the first thing that Jesus does is he encourages us. Matthew 9:2
That's the way it starts. Be encouraged. He didn't ignore the man. He didn't pity the man. He didn't get angry at him. He saw him. And because he saw him he was considerate and sympathetic and he encouraged him.
That's the point in my life and in your life. The point is if I bring my hurt to Jesus Christ the first thing he's going to do is he's going to encourage me. Even if that hurt was my own fault somehow. It wasn't for this man. But even if it was my own fault he's going to encourage me.
Jesus says he's got the power to encourage you because he understands exactly what you're going through. He knows your heart.
Hebrews 4:15. That's the difference between Jesus and us. He never sinned. But what's the same is he was tempted in every single way that we are. He understands what you're going through.
We think, if I go to God with my hurt he's going to condemn me. No, he is not! Jesus’ initial response in my life and in your life when you come to him is always love. Because love casts out fear. When you come to Jesus with your hurt, with your fear or with your shame he's going to respond to you in the same way he responded to this man. The first thing is always encouragement. The first thing is always love. You do not need to be afraid to take your hurt to Jesus Christ. That is the good news.
He always responds first with encouragement and with love. But then that love takes him somewhere. I'm glad that it does. I'm glad that he doesn't just sympathize with me and pat me on the back and say "Oh, it’s ok." And then leave me in my hurt. I'm glad that he does something about it.
He certainly did in this man's life. He didn't just say, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you're paralyzed. Let's all pray for this poor paralyzed man. Go and be encouraged even though you're still paralyzed."
No, Jesus Christ made a difference in his life. The second thing he did to heal his hurt is the second thing he does to heal our hurt.
- The second thing he does is he confronts my faults and failures.
Jesus goes beneath the surface. He goes beneath the symptoms and he gets to the real problems. He does it in a loving way. He does it in a gentle way. I've had him do this in my life so many times - confronting my faults and failures. He never does it in a way that makes me feel condemned. He always does it in a way that makes me feel invited to this new life that he has to give. But he confronts it. Because he knows that's where it's going to need to change if I'm going to change.
He doesn't beat around the bush. He goes straight to the heart of the problem. He gets to the point.
In this man's case the problem he was facing was not just his paralysis. He needed to also deal with his guilt. And Jesus knew that. Luke 5:20. If you read the story in the Bible you wonder, why did Jesus say that? The guy didn't ask for his sins to be forgiven. He just wanted to be healed of his paralysis. Why did Jesus say that?
Because he knew the guy's heart. He knew exactly what he needed. So Jesus dealt with not just the cause that was going on in the person's life. He dealt with the very heart of the issue. Not just the effect. But the heart of what was going on.
When you have an addiction that you're struggling with in your life, a habit that seems to have a hold of you, you just want to get rid of that habit. But Jesus Christ knows that there's something behind that in your heart and he's going to deal with that. Because if he doesn't deal with that you're never going to get rid of the habit.
When you're stuck in the past, some bitterness, some memory, and you think, I'd just like to forget it and never think about it again, I don't like it that it goes through my mind every day and seems to control my actions. I just want to forget it. Jesus Christ comes into our hearts and says, I want to show you how to heal. I want to deal with the cause that's behind that. That's what he does in this man's life when he says, "Son, your sins are forgiven.”
The world is dying to hear those three words: you are forgiven. And Jesus Christ forgave that man that day, because he knew the cause behind what he was facing.
Let me be extremely clear here. Not every sickness that somebody has is the result of some personal sin that they've committed. There's no truth to that at all. Much of the sickness that we have is just the fact that we live in an evil world. One day we're going to be in heaven and in heaven there's going to be no more sickness, no more pain. I'm looking forward to that. But in this evil world we have sickness that we face. So not all sickness is the result of some personal sin.
But more than we realize is. If you look at what doctors say, if you look at statistics, about half the people that are in the hospital they say are there because of some kind of stress in their lives. And stress is the result of me trying to manage my life on my own many times. Me trying to figure it out without God, without God's life, is the greatest sin of all; me figuring it out without him.
So this man, Jesus Christ knows needs to be healed. And he knows the inner need of his life is to know that God has forgiven him. So he says "You are forgiven."
To me part of the great miracle of what happened when this man came to Jesus with his hurt is Jesus was able to put his finger on the real cause. I can't always do that in somebody's life. I can guess. But Jesus always can. That's why you go to him with your hurt.
This guy, he'd probably been to a lot of people with his pain, with his hurt in his life, his paralysis. He'd been to doctor after doctor. One of them might have said, “You know what you need? You need to try to exercise that leg. Get a friend to exercise it for you." Another doctor probably said, "Why don't you use better nutrition. If you'll just eat 'this' you'll be better." Somebody else probably said, "You need to go to this back doctor and re-adjust this and everything will be fine."
If you're facing a problem or hurt in your life right now start with him. Start with God. Say, God what can you do in my life? What can you show me in my life to heal this hurt?
And Jesus knew. Jesus knew the real problem in this man's life was not his paralysis. It was his guilty conscious. He knew that his past was paralyzing his future. So he told him: You are forgiven.
The awesome thing to me in what Jesus did for this man and what he does in my life and your life is he didn't minimize his guilt. He eliminated it. Jesus doesn't minimize guilt. You don't come to him and he says, "Oh, that's ok. I understand why you did it. I understand why it happened. It was this hurt in your past. It's ok." He doesn't do that at all. He takes it very seriously. Instead of minimizing it he eliminates it. He says, "Your sins are forgiven." That's the awesome thing that Jesus does.
He confronts my faults and failures. If I'm going to be healed of those faults and failures in my life I need Jesus to confront them. But I also need something else.
The next verse says (James 5:16). Part of healing is not only saying to Jesus Christ "Will you heal me of this hurt?", but also confessing it to other people. Telling other people about it.
I don't know why it is we have to pretend. We just act like, I've got it all together and everybody else doesn't, when we all know we don't have it all together. We all know we have struggles. But there's just something in us that's afraid it's going to come out somehow. I don't want to be put on the spot.
If I said right now, "I'm going to pick somebody in the first two rows and I'm going to bring you up here on stage right now and I'm going to throw a list of sins up on the screen and I'd like you to just check off the one that you committed this last week." If I said that right now, the people on the first two rows, they know I'm not going to do that, but they're sweating right now! There's just something about all of us to think, "I'm going to be put on the spot for my sins. I'm going to be embarrassed in front of all these people."
God doesn't do that. The idea of "Confess your sins to each other" is not to embarrass yourself in front of other people. The idea is just be honest enough to say we've all got problems. We've all sinned. We've all blown it. Praise God that he forgives us. Thank God that we have a forgiving God. One of the reasons why I need healing sometimes personally, that we all need healing, is I'm trying to keep up this front of perfection in my life. I need to be healed of that. You need to be healed of that.
The way to be healed of that is just to say to other people, "Yeah, me too. Yeah, I struggle too." There is something refreshing about that. There's something encouraging about that.
How many of you would confess right now the fact that at least one time in your life you have sinned? Look around. I'm not alone. I've never met one person who says that they are perfect, that they've never sinned.
When we realize we're in this together, I'm in this with other people, there's something so healing about that. We're not people trying to be perfect. We're a people recognizing our need before God who is perfect and who is willing to come into our lives together and heal us. I pray for me, I pray for you, during Life's Healing Choices, that there will be the freedom of recognizing that like never before.
There's a third thing that Jesus does when he heals us, when he heals you of a hurt.
- The third thing he does is he challenges my faith.
He calms my fears, he confronts my faults, then he challenges my faith.
He challenges my faith and he has a specific way that he does this. The way he challenges my faith and he does this again and again in the Bible, he's done it again and again in people's lives. He asks me to do something that seems to me to be impossible. He asks me to do something that seems to me to be impossible.
That's what he did for this man. The Bible says in Matthew 9 “Jesus said to the paralytic,‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’"
Just pause there for a minute. The man had to be thinking, That's what I want to do! What are you saying, Jesus? Get up? Can't you help me up? If I could have gotten up I wouldn't be here. What do you mean 'Get up'? That's impossible. I've tried so many times. Why are you asking me to do this?"
Listen to what happened instead. "The man got up and he went home. And when the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe…” of what God could do in a person's life. He challenges my faith.
Jesus asks this man to do something he had never done before. And he does the same thing in our lives, every man and woman. He asks us to do something we've never done before. A lifetime invalid, a shut in. No wheelchairs in that day. That meant he had to be carried, physically, everywhere that he went. And Jesus says, "I want you to get up." And he demonstrated his faith.
The Bible says, "According to your faith it will be done to you." The Bible says that many times. Jesus says many times to people, "It is your faith that has healed you." And faith is something that you do. It's not just something that you think. It starts with a thought but then it's something that you do. When Jesus challenges my faith he asks me to do something that I've never done before.
The lesson is this: God gives you the strength to do it when you make the decision to do it, as you take the step to do it.
What I want, if I'm going to have faith is I want to say, God give me all the strength before I do it. Fill me with all this energy and emotion and power. And by the way, could you send me a little email list of all the things that you've done, first, that guarantee this is going to work. How many of you would like that? Wouldn't that be awesome?
But he doesn't do it that way. That's not how it works. God says here's what I want you to do. Then the strength, the assurance, the emotion, the power comes as you take the step of faith. Not before you take the step of faith. It comes as you take the step of faith.
CONCLUSION:
You might be thinking, I don't feel like this whole Life's Healing Choices thing is going to work for me. It just doesn't feel right. I'm a little scared of it. I don't feel like God wants me to get involved in this.
You might be thinking, I don't feel like this whole Life's Healing Choices thing is going to work for me. It just doesn't feel right. I'm a little scared of it. I don't feel like God wants me to get involved in this.
Yet something in you knows that he wants to heal you. When are you going to feel like it? If you feel like it, how do you take the step of faith? The idea that God has to give you a certain emotion or a certain feeling or a certain strength or send you a certain friend before you take that step of faith, that's not faith. That's you needing proof. God says take the step. He tells you what to do and then you take the step. He challenges my faith.
In many ways this paralyzed man represents all of us - men and women both. All of us at some place in my life, some place in your life, you're handicapped. You're paralyzed in some area. Maybe it's by worry. Maybe it's by doubt. Maybe it's by indecision, depression or anger or envy. There's something in your life, something in your past. For most of us that's what paralyzes us. Some experience, some word that somebody said, something that happened, something that didn't work out, some relationship that went wrong. Something that somebody did to us, or that I did to somebody else, something in my past. Now I'm paralyzed. We all carry regrets and guilt and shame and painful memories of failures and hurts. The result is I cannot get on with the present because I'm stuck in the past. I need healing. I need healing from that paralysis. The good news is, the good news is that today Jesus Christ wants to set you free. He says I want you to take a step of faith. Because I can heal you.
There are a lot of people going through a lot of life wanting all kind of things that never happen in their life. Unless I take a step of faith and say, "Jesus Christ I'm going to trust you with this rather than trust in me. I'm going to do something about this”, then nothing's going to change.
This man got up and he walked. What's he asking you to do so that you can change?
How do you show faith? Let me just remind you of the three things this paralyzed man did. It's the way we show faith.
First, I admit I need help. That's something you can do. I admit it to myself. I admit it to somebody else. I need help. That’s a step of faith.
Second, I believe that Jesus Christ will help, instead of me getting my own help. Instead of me pridefully saying I'm going to do this all on my own so that I can point to myself at the end of this and say what a great person I am, I realize what a great God Jesus is and that he loves me. I say, I believe in you that you will help me. That's the reason that he went to the trouble to come to this planet. That's the reason that he died on the cross and was resurrected again, to say, I can help you. So I believe that Jesus will help.
Then I do what he tells me to do. You're going to find that out through talking to other people who are following him. You're going to find that out by reading the Bible. You're going to find that out at church. Sometimes it's an impression in your mind that matches what he says in the Bible. I do what he tells me to do. This man got up.
What if he hadn't? What if he'd just said, "Jesus, I can't. I've tried so many times." The miracle wouldn't have happened.
I know as we talk about Life's Healing Choices that some of you are hurting. I know that as I talked a moment ago about fear and guilt and shame, past hurts, regrets, that you look at yourself and think, I look ok on the outside but inside spiritually I really am paralyzed. The question is what are your hidden wounds and how can Jesus Christ heal those? What are the painful memories that still hurt? And how can he bind up that wound?
Regardless of who you are, regardless of what's been done to you or regardless of what you have done, Jesus Christ can heal you. That's why he came into this world.