Let me start by giving you an analogy…When we begin our lives, we’re kind of like a brand new car that’s just off the show room floor. Now, if you’ve ever been blessed with a brand new car there’s some things you notice right off the bat:
It’s all clean and shiny and it has that ‘new car smell’ It’s kind of like that with a new born baby– all clean and shiny – with that new baby smell…
But here’s the thing: over time, that new car has a tendency to pick up some dents and some dings and the older the car gets, unless you really look after it the worse it starts to look. And then there’s all that wear and tear.. and over the years that bright shiny brand new car turns into a beat up old rust bucket…
Well, Life’s like that too.
See life has a way of bringing dings and rust into our lives. Life can literally wear you out! Then we wind up looking pretty much like that very worn out , beat up old car: Life brings with it scratches, bruises, and hurts.
Everyone of us have been through situations that have left us with emotional pain. While we all excel in some areas of life, we all have hang-ups that seem to keep us in neutral in other areas. And we seem to go nowhere in still other areas. As people, we’re all different, and yet we all share the same need: the need for spiritual and emotional freedom.
Most people have habits they would like to say goodbye to. And it’s all those hang-ups, hurts, and negative habits that make us like that old rusty old car.
Now, God has a number of goals for our Christian lives and one of them is to get us back to showroom condition again:
That’s what I call a restoration project! See, we hope to wind up better than we are right now. We want to get our body work restored – that’s called healing. And we need to get our engines tuned up – that’s called heart work
And so today I want to start teaching about the first step towards freedom.
Look at what the Bible says in Luke 4:
17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
You gotta thank God He preached to the poor - because otherwise not many would be serving God since the rich have a hard time wanting God
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives
as people, we can all become captive to things that are binding such as sin
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised
Now, a bruise is caused by a sharp blow to the body and it causes hemorrhaging underneath the skin – that’s why it look purple. A bruised area is both tender and sensitive.
Here’s the thing: If you’re severely bruised you hurt really badly under the surface and our churches are full of people who are carrying internal bruises. And they picked up those bruises, those hurts in many ways
We get bruised when we are verbally abused. People say things to you that hurt and people say things about you that cause major bruises when they get back to you
We get bruised when we’re let down by somebody we trust. That can leave a huge great bruise on the soul.
BUT, Jesus said that he would set at liberty them that are bruised. You know what that means? It means that we’re not really completely free when we still have unhealed bruises in our lives.
Maybe you got bruised when if you we’ve mistreated by an employer. Maybe you got fired without good reason – or downsized as we call it today. You feel like you got the short end of the stick, and I guarantee that that left a big bruise.
The trouble is that these bruises are the type of wounds that can lead to bitterness and hate. See, our emotions make the pain of the bruise even worse and they turn into internal toxins that destroy us from the inside out. So, that’s what God wants to do through this series on the path to freedom: see, when God does a work on the inside of our hearts, we see the whole world differently. When our souls are bruised it has a way of causing everything we look at to seem negative to us.
Why?
Go back to the car analogy: because our internal filter hasn’t been changed in a while and the Spirit of God can’t flow freely in us. We need Spiritual freedom.
Turn to II Timothy 2: 25:
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Notice the word recover and the word snare. Satan has snares or traps that are designed to catch us and leave us stranded. They’re things that bruise us, bind us, and hurt us. A sinful life will do that to you. So that’s why we should all be thankful that Jesus came to set us free! When we first come to Jesus, we come in with a lot of bruises. We all need a continual maintenance program to stay fresh.
It would be great if you only needed to get the oil in your car changed one time for the entire time you owned it – instead of every 3k miles. But as we all know, that’s just not reality. And it’s the same with you and me. And that’s why Jesus wants to work on us on a regular basis . He wants to keep us in good shape.
To recover means to get better, to get out of the trap and snare.
Isaiah 57:17 I was angry, so I punished these greedy people. I withdrew from them, but they kept going on their own stubborn way. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them. I will comfort those who mourn,
Isaiah’s saying that God’s not happy with sin or with man choosing his own path. But while that makes God upset. God says he’ll still heal us, lead us, and restore us.
That means that God’s saying if you’ve ever been hurt, He wants to heal you.
Now, some of you don’t have to look back very far to remember being hurt. Here’s another question though: How many of us can remember when we were the one who hurt somebody?.
Don’t you just hate that? We say to ourselves “Why did I do that?” Even when hurts are unintentional bruises still hurt.
Sometimes we do things that we know we shouldn’t do. We even say to ourselves “Don’t do that” and we went and did it anyway.
Know why you went ahead and did it anyway? Because you wanted to.
The Bible says that we’ve all sinned. All of us have blown it and made mistakes. We’ve all been hurt and we’ve all hurt other people. So I want to talk about how to overcome these hurts. We’ll talk about overcoming habits, hang-ups and hurts. And before you say “Yeah well, I’ve got it all together.” Think about this list of things that many of us may need to address:
How about overworking? Or How about overspending? How about anger and rage or those insecurities? How about procrastination? How about fear, grief, and anxiety? Or those hurtful relationships? How about guilt, or divorce, or abuse?
See, here’s the 1st base to healing: If you truly want to recover and get out of the snare of the devil, the first thing you have to do is to realize that you have a problem and the second is to realize that you aren’t God!
Do you know the difference between you and God? He never thinks He is you!
You have to get to the point of admitting that you’re powerless to stop on your own. But see, our pride doesn’t want to go to God for help, but without His help, we’ll remain stuck in our pain, with all our bruises
The reason we have these hang-ups is our sinful nature. We’re all wired to do the wrong thing. Look at Romans 7:15
I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it
Can anybody relate to what Paul just said? Why do I do what I do when I know I’m going to hurt somebody?, when I snap at somebody?
The Message paraphrases it this way:
What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!
See, the society we live in tells us that we’re supposed to be so tough that we don’t need anybody to help us. We’re told that in order to be awesome you have to stand alone. That’s the John Wayne and Rambo mentality, but it's not the Bible way. The Bible way is to seek for God’s help and that’s not standing alone!
Why is there so much chaos in our lives? Its very simple, yet very difficult all at the same time. Its simple because we know what the answer is. But difficult because we have to align our emotions to the thoughts of God and humble ourselves before Him on a regular basis.
Knowing what to do is the easy part, but it's actually doing it that’s hard for most of us.
The first step to freedom is understanding that our sinful nature is the cause it’s the desire to be in the place of God and yet stay in control of our own lives. The very thought of giving up control is scary for most people, yet freedom only begins with total surrender to Jesus.
But we say to ourselves I don’t want anybody telling me what’s right and wrong. I want to call my own shots and make my own rules. I want to be my own boss, and live my own way….if it feels good, I want to do it.
See, the more insecure a person is, the more self control they want….and the more control they seek the more out of control things get, and that heightens their sense of insecurity. The more insecure you are, the more you want to control yourself, other people, your environment, and the more you’re driven to play god. The problem with this is that is leads to a whole lot of bruises, both your own life and in the lives of those around you others…..
It started in the garden of Eden….Adam and Eve had this same problem….God put them in total paradise….and they wanted to start controlling it! God’s says, all of the trillions of acres on this planet are for you, but this one little tree over here, hands off. And they said, ‘I want to have some control around here!” Adam and Eve wanted to play God……And they took it upon themselves to try and seize control.
In order to be successful in life, we have to remind ourselves over and over again, “You’re not God, you’re not God, you’re not God.”
The key is to get your hands off the wheel, don’t sweat it, don’t react to it, just give it to Him and He will deal with it. Let God be God! But by not admitting the fact that we need God - we set ourselves up for failure.
Why is it that we work so hard to control our image?
We really care a lot about what people think of us. The more important a person is in your life, the more you’ll care what they think about you. And sometimes it can be hard for us to get close to people because we’re afraid that they are going to see us for who we really are so we put on our best act for each other. We want to make sure that people will like who they see. We want to be accepted and popular. So we deny our weaknesses and our feeling: I’m not worried, I’m not angry, I’m not afraid….and we put up a fake front because we want to control what other people think about us.
Jesus took a totally different approach, and it's an approach that still works today:
Phil 2:5 says, You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So, God’s in the restoring business. He’ll take that old worn out car and make it look brand new again. Some of us may have even had to be towed in…God will even do that.
God wants to restore health, joy, and peace…..It’s not God’s will for the hurts of life to affect us for the rest of our lives.
Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
A cast sheep is a sheep that has rolled over on its back and can’t roll back over. It is very vulnerable to wolves and dogs…its throat is exposed. A sheep is a lot like a turtle in this case. It is helpless when it can’t get off its back. All it can do is make noise.
Hurting people make all kinds of emotional noise as a result of their bruises
But, fortunately, we have a shepherd who will come to us when we call on His name….Just as the shepherd must come and put the sheep back up on its feet….That’s what God wants to do to anybody who is hurting. A lot of times we carry things in our lives that we are not even aware of…and that is because of denial…see we’re experts at denying root causes of pain…sometimes the source of our pain happened so long ago and we have a hard time accepting that thing way back when could have anything to do with my current misery.
How many of us here can look on our hands or arms and find some childhood scars….But we don’t want to look at the scar….it's painful to us…if we look at it and deal with it..it hurts….
Jesus said that the Lord hath anointed and sent him to heal the brokenhearted.
Betrayal hurts….you might have pain and broken heartedness because someone betrayed you.
Life bruises us…life brings us blows…you could go into work one day and get laid off…anyone of us could be involved in a bad car accident…..we all need the Jesus Tow Truck Service from time to time…
We don’t always want to deal with the bruises because they hurt. Bruises cause us to stumble. They cause us to be bound. They cause us to become afraid to reach out and be sociable because we were hurt in a relationship once…..
For a lot of people, Golf is a frustrating game… and there is something in golf called the yipps….
a yipp most often affects older golfers who’ve been on the tour a while…
Ithappens when they get to a crucial putt and their memory flashes back….to a put just like this, on a green like this, and when they get to address that little ball… all of a sudden, that memory kicked in…. this is just like that time when I missed it before…
and so they get the yipps…they get nervous inside…..and they often miss again…all because of the yipps.
This happens in our lives all too often…we get in situations when our minds get the yipps…we remember a time when we were in a similar situation….And that’s a great time to call on the name of the Lord.
Now, just because you remember something doesn’t mean that you’ve not forgiven the person. That’s baloney. God doesn’t wipe away your memory…however, sometimes the yipps can be a good indication that you’ve not been completely healed of the situation. See, when those bruises have been properly healed, you no longer shake, you no longer get tense at the thought of that situation, it no longer puts you in an emotionally freeze where you can’t function. at that point, you’re free. You have been healed by the healer.
Now, unless you’ve lived a perfect life, there’s something you need to recover from. But the trouble is denial is so common among hurting people. The need for those bruises to heal doesn’t make you a freak or a weird person. it just means that you are human….because weare all in this same boat called life.
II Timothy 2:25 25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
Isn’t it interesting that this verse talks about people who oppose themselves…have you ever felt like you wanted to be successful but you got in your own way? You said the wrong thing, you did the wrong thing, you got mad, you didn’t prepare…and you let yourself down…
When the Lord’s tow truck is trying to recover people, they have all these habits, hang-ups, and hurts, they oppose themselves…. but this passage tells us to help these people ….why?
Verse 26...26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Satan is the source of your hurts, habits, and hang-ups but God has made a way for people to be free.
Sometimes the Holy Ghost has to confront…us.
Sometimes as an under shepherd I have to confront a sheep who’s rolled over on their back….and my goal is always to help that sheep get back on their feet.
Someone said, “A real friend stabs you in the front.” False friends will gossip about you and stab you in the back…but a real friend will talk to your face in love with one goal in mind - to truly help you.
Confronting is hard….but the way we are is that we try to cover up pain…I think I’ll turn up the music …I think I’ll drink my pain away. But none of those things fix the problem, and if the bruises aren’t dealt with properly, the bottom will fall out of your world.
Now, before you can really get help from God, we have to understand some things about His character. First off the bat - you must understand that He wants to help you and that He truly cares for you…..
See, the real issue for most people is not, is there a God, the real issue is, what kind of God is He? What’s he like?
Here’s the problem for some people we get our ideas about God because we think of Him like a parent…which is fine if you had good parents…But if you had a parent that was unloving, then you tend think God as unloving. if a parent was abusive, then you tend to think that God as abusive….And we tend to transfer these images over to God and that’s not the truth….God’s is one way and He does not change..
If you really want to know what God is really like….look to the Word…If you want to know what God is like…look to Jesus Christ….read the gospels….watch His life. He operated with total compassion…He healed people because He really cared…not because He was trying to draw a crowd…Jesus just ministered because he loved healing hurting people…
So when you wonder what God is like…remember that Jesus is God. When you really know God, you’ll find out that He’s a God of love…
Have you ever done anything that you knew it really turned God off…(raise your hand)….why didn’t he kill you on the spot? Because he loves you right? That’s what God is like….longsuffering, not willing that any should perish. He knows where we are, He knows the way that I take….He knows, He knows all about it……….and He loves us anyway
Psalm 31:4: 4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. 5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. 6 I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; 8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
You know what I’m going to do God? I’m going to rejoice because I know you’ve taken note of my life's bruises!
When you really know and believe that it takes the sting out of the wound.
Once there was a woman who was counseling with her pastor, telling him all about her sins and problems that resulted….
and the pastor said, “Well, have you talked to God about all of this?”
She replies, “Oh no, I don’t want Him to know about it!!!!!! “Please pastor, don’t tell God!”
Quit hiding behind fig leaves people because God already knows all about it and guess what….
He loves you in spite of it all.
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