Even the strongest, fastest person can't run very well when we are weighed down and our legs are bound. And last week, we began this three weeks as we talk about freedom and the Lord setting us free. And so specifically last week, we talked about this idea of being free from performance and religion and the law of the knowledge of good and evil. The thing we saw in the garden of Eve choosing in her own way to become the judge rather than a childlike faith of trusting God and taking him at his word and following him and stepping into the judgment seat that we were never supposed to take.
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I think the rocks that are put in our bag, in our backpack, if you would go along with me in this picture, can be, maybe not our only, but can certainly be some of the wounds and hurts and pains that we have from life. From our past, from our upbringing, from our family of origin, from whatever it looks like, the way people have treated you, the things that have happened to us. And I believe that we all have these rocks, that they are part of the everything that hinders, and that there is an invitation to run the race rock -free.
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Every one of us, if you have gone through life at all, will come to a moment where you find yourself having faced that you have been hit, that you have been wounded, you have been injured to varying degrees. But if you do life with people at all, if you know people at all, or even if you don't, there are things that are hurtful to us. And they're not the obvious things that we can just see.
[00:05:33]
The emotional things that have gone on in our lives, the things that have wounded us and hurt our spirit, we can't see with the naked eye. We can't see with just our physical eyes. And so we go about our day with the appearance of health. And no one's asking us what's hurting. And no one's asking us what happened.
[00:06:19]
If we ignore them, like a wound that we understand with, you know, a fleshly wound, if you ignore it, then your injury, your wound will lead to other wounds. It will lead to chronic pain. It may even lead to death. Similarly, in our soul, if we don't tend to, the deep wounds that we have, the hurts, the pains, things that have gone on within us, it can lead to other problems. It can lead to other pains. It can lead to even on our own spiritual disconnecting from the source of life. And those things limit us.
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There are many things that we won't have the answer to why this side of eternity. And we concern ourselves so much with the why, but I think some other questions are really important for us to ask. Like, when I experience pain, when I experience hurt, I think realizing that there are, there's a how that the enemy wants to use it, but there's also a how that God wants to use it. And if we understand the how, not just how it happened, not just why it happened, but how God wants to use it or how the enemy wants to use it, then we can actually move into what to do.
[00:08:37]
It's not simply that hurt people hurt people. And I would say it this way, we see in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 4, that God wants to comfort you in the trials you face, in the hurts you face, in the suffering that you have. God wants to be your comfort. Why? So that you can be a comfort to others in their trials, in their pain. Because in God's way, it's not that hurt people hurt people. In God's way, hurt people help people.
[00:10:41]
In God's way, there's a redemptive opportunity where the hurts that I've taken on, if we allow God to step in and bring healing and bring health to those wounds, to those injuries, then it actually becomes something that God will use to bring healing, not only to you, but to those around you. That's the how, how God wants to use the trials that you've been through, the hurts you face, the things, the rocks in your bag, is actually, he wants to bring healing to you so that you can be a helper to other people.
[00:11:24]
When we are healthy, and we get hit, it doesn't cause us pain all the time. When we have a wound, when we have a hurt, and that gets hit, it causes us to pull away, it causes us to recoil back. Like, oftentimes, it causes us to be mad at the person who didn't know that they were hitting a wound, but we're mad at them. In our anger, often we sin. And I think the big thing is, is that I feel I've been guilty of doing that even in my relationship with God. Where something gets hit in me, and it reveals a hurt, it reveals that there was pain there. And I pull back from God. I pull back from people, maybe.
[00:14:45]
There are some simple, these are very simple pathways that I believe that the Lord has given us in Scripture, unto freedom from those things of the past, freedom from the things from, whether it be our childhood, whether it be our adolescence, whether it be your family of origin, whether it be experiences you had as a young adult, or in your marriage, with your kids, with your parents, whatever, that there is freedom, so that we cannot look at the things and pretend they're not there, and shove them down, and act as if it's not real, but that we can be healthy, that we can say, God, this is a real injury. And I want to be healed. And you are the source of my healing. You are the one that brings healing to me.
[00:15:41]
I love the idea that God has two speeds. That God moves slow and suddenly. He has two speeds, slow and suddenly. And I want to just say from the outset, we believe in the God of the suddenly. We pray for healing physically and believe that God at times moves suddenly and in a moment will bring healing. We believe that God suddenly, that today, that we bring in the wounds that we can't see, the injuries that we can't see, that we can pray, and God might in a moment bring healing. And that would be my even, that I would come when David writes, he's like, oh, to go. When can I get to the house of the Lord, how I used to go? Like, that there would be this like, oh, I want to go into the presence of God. Who knows what God might do. Today may be the day of my healing. But he also moves slowly. And that's probably most of our experience, is we experience the slowness of his movement. And it's, it, it, honestly, it's always slow until it's suddenly. It's always slow for us until it's in a moment.
[00:18:22]
So that I can live in a healthy way. So that I don't have to be hindered from, yes, we, you, if you've said yes to Jesus, there is a salvation offered. And in a moment, you went from death to life. But the rest of life is working out that salvation and growing into the type of people that God uses to not only be healthy, but then grow as those who bring life to other people.
[00:19:50]
Our healing comes in the context of people. You've heard us say that so many times. I was so, we kicked off our groups this past week. Many of you, I've already, I've already been hearing stories of, man, we've started to do this group. And I've just decided I'm like maybe done with like summer breaks. Like what are we doing? Like come on, we need to, what are we doing? So anyway, but I love even just going through and seeing the wild percentage of our church body that is connected in a group. I think it's beautiful. And I think it offers an avenue towards our freedom, an avenue towards our healing. And so we are healed in the context of people, which is hard because we are also hurt most often in the context of people.
[00:20:35]
The enemy wants to plant lies in the wounded places in our hearts that cause us to avoid the shepherd. This is what we're talking about. That cause us to pull away from God and cause us to pull away from people. That cause us to lean out and become. And these lies are often, simultaneously, they're either about God or they're lies about ourselves. And we believe that either God is not good or God is not who other people say he is or God is not the God that I've read about in the Bible. And if the enemy can get us to believe those false lies, those false things about God, then I pull away from God. Or we begin to start to believe about ourselves. I'm not actually worthy of his love. I'm not worthy of what he said about me. And so I'm going to pull away.
[00:21:51]
I love our friend who we worked with for years, Glenn Packham, talks about the idea of a constellation of relationships. And many of us look for that, like, North Star relationship. And can I have this, the best friend, and if I have one best friend that will fill every need that I have, then that's all I need in life. But the truth is, is there are very few of us that will ever find that one person. And I don't know that we were even made to have that one person. But that there would be a constellation, if you think of stars, of relationships that we have.
[00:23:00]
I think sometimes we need friends, we need comrades, we need leaders, we need sages. I think sometimes we need professionals, we need people who just who in a professional context even specifically like counseling like I am pro counseling good Christian counseling I think can help us walk in a biblical manner pointing us to Jesus and so I would even just say like really helpful in the context of if I have a if I'm going through something counseling is like where there is a leaning into a specific wound where it's like God has brought something up in my life and I know that this thing happened and I don't have just on my own the ability and the tools to process this to work through this and so I need to bring in some outside professional help.
[00:26:58]
Forgiveness is necessary because we're in relationship with people and people are gonna hurt us and if we don't learn that the ability to forgive then we're just gonna start bouncing around from friendship to friendship relationship to relationship always holding a fence towards someone and leaving as soon as they hurt us and so we have to learn the ability to forgive.
[00:30:03]
Forgiveness is not saying things are fine, it's not pushing it down. Forgiveness is not saying that things were okay and what happened was okay. Forgiveness is even going back to last week releasing from me being in the seat of judgment and to God I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna release them from my judgment I'm gonna allow you to work what you are gonna do and I'm gonna trust in you.
[00:31:57]
Would we do the work of forgiveness where we need to so that we can have relationships that bring healing.
[00:32:30]
With the helpful people in your life I want to invite you to seek wise counsel this is what Proverbs talks about that we seek wise counsel that we would have people speaking into our life that constellation of friendships right and whether that's a whether that's a counselor a pastor a friend a sage whatever would we get good advice but would we then take that advice to God in prayer he's the one that gets the final say and it just because a counselor said it doesn't make it gospel just because a pastor says it's a good idea doesn't make it the best idea we take all things and we submit it to the Holy Spirit we submit it to the scripture we say God what are you saying and in prayer we take the people that God has put in our life the people that we have friendship with and we take all their good ideas well -intentioned and not and we said God what do you say and God would you help me understand and God would you give me clarity.
[00:35:00]
It's just real hard to hate people I pray for, it's just real hard to allow anger and hate to live on the inside and there are times I'm just confession maybe I should be confession there are times I want that anger in there and I'm convicted to pray and I'm like I don't want to because I know what you're gonna say or I know what's gonna happen when I pray for them and it's this invitation of the Lord to pray for those that have hurt us again this is not saying that the way that people have hurt you is okay it is not saying that the circumstance that has brought you pain was good and fine but would we bless those who have brought pain in the midst of our life.
[00:36:31]
Would we invite God into the rocks that we're carrying and when those moments happen God where were you God what are you saying today God what is it that you want me to know and this I think is part of how we respond in prayer.
[00:38:38]
When we read the Psalms over and over again where David and the other authors of Psalms command us to praise command us to declare of God's goodness of who he is of what he's done and that we would even in Psalm 42 we read it I mean just throughout the Psalms David why so downcast oh my soul put your hope in God there are so many Psalms of lament that are beautiful and needed and and time after time after time are turned into praise because we don't just stay in the why so downcast oh my soul but it is turned into put your hope in God and it is turned into praise.
[00:39:15]
It's so easy to look at other people, it's so easy to look at the circumstances that we find ourselves, it's so easy to to to look at the news, it's so easy to look at the people that we love that are hurt, it's so easy to look and I'm not saying we don't look at those things, I'm saying we fix our eyes on Jesus, I'm saying I'm not saying we live in ignorance to what's going on, I'm saying we fix our eyes on Jesus, we turn our attention to him, we look to him and the praise I believe when we remember who he is and we proclaim what he has done it gives us right perspective so it's not ignoring pain it's not ignoring problems it's remembering who has the final say it's remembering who he is in the midst of them what he has promised us it is not like toxic positivity it is not just I'm gonna put on this fake smile and pretend things are fine it is even in the midst of things not being fine I know who God is I know who what God has said I know what God has done and sometimes I have to remember it because it's not easy to remember in the moment and the one of the easiest ways the easiest wrong word one of the greatest ways that we remember it is through praise so declaring who God is is through opening the word turn to psalms read it turn it into a prayer praise remember what he's done.
[00:40:15]
If you're in the place of sorrow or pain or hurt or you ever have been you are not the only one and also you are not alone it's not just your constellation of people that will be with you but God promises to be with us Psalm 34 18 the Lord is close to the brokenhearted he saves those who are crushed in spirit Psalm 147 3 he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds 2nd Kings 25 I have heard your prayer and seen your tears I will heal you this is the invitation that we have that we would fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross we are invited into freedom from the wounds and hurts and pains that life will inevitably bring.
[00:45:09]
There's many of us who maybe feel like we've been hurt not injured but we're actually carrying around like real deep things that need deep healing and would we not belittle the things that have happened by just trying to say I'm going to grip my teeth and pretend like things are fine and our question is God would you show me where are the areas that I'm hurt and maybe I need some friends to come along and encourage me where are the areas that I need time to heal and I need to not fill in the blank of what it would be but I need to not do that for a while because I need to just take some time but where are there like real injuries and God we need to do some like heavy lifting in the healing department and God would you do it suddenly but I trust you're slow I trust your process.
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