Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 So Lord, we thank you. They're all across the world. You are working.
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:00:07 There are revivals taking place around the nations.
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:00:11 There's never been, I don't think in my lifetime, a greater openness to the gospel And we are alive in these times. And your spirit has not come here today just to get us a little bit excited or to just give us a nice morning together. You're healing. You're recruiting. You're empowering. Thank
Speaker 1 00:00:36 You.
Speaker 0 00:00:37 Stir in our hearts with faith.
Speaker 1 00:00:39 Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:00:41 And we say to you holy spirit. Yes,
Speaker 1 00:00:45 Yes,
Speaker 0 00:00:45 Yes. In me, Lord me,
Speaker 1 00:00:47 Lord. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:00:48 Work in my hearts heal our hearts of God work among us. Yes. In Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:00:57 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:00:58 Amen. Please take your seats. Thank you, ban so good this morning. So appreciate you. And it's so good to welcome all our online viewers and everybody in the room today, uh, for the continuation of our series on healed and healing. And I believe that there's gonna be something that transactional or the Spirit's gonna happen in these next few moments. We're gonna finish our gathering together with communion. So if you've not received communion, our steels will come around a bit later on and we will explain that when we get to that, you all okay?
Speaker 1 00:01:33 Yep.
Speaker 0 00:01:35 If I'm using your response as a litmus test or whether you're okay, then that wasn't very positive. <laugh> Someone's okay. Hey listen. Even if you're not, God is
Speaker 1 00:01:50 That's right. Amen. That's right.
Speaker 0 00:01:52 He's a bit more than, okay. He's amazing. Isn't he? And he's with us and he's wanted to move in our hearts. A number of us on the team have just come back from a few days away at our national conference up in Harrogate. Harrogate is a beautiful town. They call it the bath of the north and it's such a lovely area. And they're around 1500 of our leaders from our 600 churches across the UK. And beyond that had gathered together to hear from God. He was the first time we'd met in probably three years now because of COVID. And there was just such a joy to hear of what God was doing in people's lives and have this prophetic sense that he's up to something in the nations. Um, before I went, I thought I was gonna do something that, um, might be quite helpful. I've got a few computer bags that I put my laptop and my other bits and pieces in. And one of my computer bags has got about seven zipped pockets. And, um, I dunno what you are like. Um, but our bags tend to fill up with all sorts of things. Don't they?
Speaker 1 00:02:56 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:02:58 Come on ladies. <laugh> like really? Do you need to carry that? My stuff around with you? Yes, of course you do. Well, I thought before I take this bag away with me and carry it between the hotel and the venue, it might be worth me having a little look in there to see if there's some things I can take out. And I was quite surprised by some of the things I found in the various pockets of his bag. I found some leaflets for an event. We ran five years ago in my bag that was of no relevance, no significance. The time had gone. They were crumpled up. They had no purpose, but obviously five years ago, I'd intended to give them out. And there was still a few hanging on, took 'em out. I put them in the bin. Do you know, I couldn't believe I've been carrying those those around for five years.
Speaker 0 00:03:53 Then I found a lead, a charger lead for a phone that I owned four years ago, that doesn't fit my new phone didn't fit the last one either. It was one before that. And I thought I've been carrying that around for years. And there were other bits and pieces that I was able to take out the bag and just to get rid of. And I find that in my walk with Jesus, I have the propensity to walk around with all sorts of things that I do not need to carry that's right. And I mentioned a few weeks ago as we started this series about my clear art of the garage, but I want to go a bit more personal, a bit deeper today. And I wanna talk about the things that we carry from past seasons, into present seasons in our heart and how I believe the holy spirit wants to bring freedom and healing.
Speaker 0 00:04:52 Amen. I'm gonna share a story in a little bit that's um, that up until the first service, I don't think I've ever shared publicly about a very painful time Nira. And I went through, and this is going back many, many years ago. And, um, I feel the time is right that I could share it and I'm not gonna share it for pity. I'm not gonna share it and say my wounds bigger than your wounds. I'm gonna share it because I believe there's something helpful in the transparency of it, to see some of the ways that things from our past want to hold on to us and stop us operating in the present. And I believe that the Lord is going to move on our hearts with areas of freedom today. But can I ask you some questions first? Do you know what to do with anger in your life? Do you know how to manage the sadness within you? Are you afraid of being honest With your friendships and your relationships? Do you manicure the presentation of yourself so that other people see a better version of you? Because you're afraid that if they see the real, you, they will reject you.
Speaker 0 00:06:19 Do you avoid conflict Because you want to be perceived as a nice person. You know, the Bible or Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacekeepers. Peacemaker sometimes have to storm into an area and to combat an enemy. That's trying to take ground peacekeepers, just go in and try to keep it all together. Yeah. And Jesus never said blessed are the peace keepers. He said, blessed are the peace makers, right? Do you often say yes. When you really want to say no, It's a good job as a rhetorical question, cuz you wouldn't like to answer that one. Would you, Do you assume that you know what other people are thinking without checking with them first as to whether your judgements or your assumptions are correct? Do you pick up, do you find yourself picking up responsibilities that other people should be picking up and you do it because you have a little bit of a savior syndrome and you want to be liked, but really you're providing a crutch for other people when you should be strengthening the muscles in their legs. Do you know how you and I handle these situations? Because our faith in Jesus is as relevant on these matters as it is about how well you sung and lifted your hands in worship this morning. This is not the spiritual bit.
Speaker 0 00:08:08 There is no spiritual bit. If you've given your life to Jesus, there's a spiritual whole, a wholeness. There's a spiritual fullness. There's not a spiritual bit.
Speaker 2 00:08:18 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:08:19 This is not more spiritual here today than your job tomorrow or your family context or the pain of your heart and how you manage that. Right? My job is not more spiritual than your job. Yeah. Because when we come to Christ, we give him as we just sang, Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone.
Speaker 2 00:08:47 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:08:48 And that's okay when we're on the mountains. Yeah. And things are good and we can gather, and we can just celebrate the goodness of God. But what about when there's disappointments and pains and difficulties? Where is God? At those times, Someone once said, How do we measure spiritual maturity in our lives? I wonder what you think the answer to that is, Is it how high you can extend your hands in worship? <laugh> who's the tallest person in the room today.
Speaker 2 00:09:30 Joel,
Speaker 0 00:09:31 Come on, Joel, stand up a second. This is my youngest son. Come on, Joel, look, I'm on the stage and he's still my height. How high can you lift your hands? Joel, Does anybody think they can beat that? Anybody beat that? No. Okay. Let's give him a round of applause. We think he might be the, the highest stretch in hands, But our spirituality is not determined by how high we lift. Our hands is determined by how well we love one another. That's the manifestation of spiritual maturity. You can be spiritually immature and lift your hands and sing songs. You can even be spiritually, be immature and be involved in lots of activities in church. You might be out six nights a week at church and be spiritually immature. That's
Speaker 2 00:10:31 Right.
Speaker 0 00:10:33 The thing that marks us as spirit mature is about how we handle our hearts and our lives. And then that manifests itself in how we engage with one another. And didn't Jesus say these words, people will know that you are my disciples because you love one another. The problem is also the biggest source of pain and disappointment in our lives comes from who Those that we are called to show spiritual maturity and love. So the biggest form of blessing can sometimes be the biggest form of hurt and disappointment. And in these next few moments, we're gonna open up your R sack. And we're gonna look at some of the things that we are carrying and we're gonna see what needs to be taken out, But God never designed you and I to carry pain. You know that God never designed illness or sickness of the heart or disappointments. He never designed betrayal.
Speaker 0 00:11:50 These things. They came not from the source of God. They came from the source of sin. Here's an illustration on the screen that shows just, if you look on this right hand side here, these are things that we find present when God made Adam and Eve in Genesis one and two, when God made the heavens on the earth and he made people, and these are things that we see embedded in the characteristics of people. And then on this side here, this is just one chapter later in Genesis three. And we see approachability defensiveness. We see low self-awareness. We see isolation, we see blame. We see anger. And by the way, sorry, the side screens are not working today. We'll get that fixed for next week. We see fear. We see self-absorption addiction and dishonesty. And the thing that changed from those to those were sin.
Speaker 0 00:12:52 And the thing that changes from those to those is salvation. Amen. The cross, because Jesus didn't come and die on the cross just so that you could be free from all the things you've done wrong. Yes, he did that. There are sins be like Scarlet. He washes us white as snow. He takes our sin and removes 'em as far as the Easter from the west, but that is entry level faith in Christianity. Amen. Because he calls then outta that new resurrection of Christ, he calls us to move back to the place of wholeness, not live under the curse of brokenness. Amen. So if you see some of those things present in your life, God, by his spirit is wanting to deepen and heal and resurrect and restore so that these are things that are present. Now let me explain something to you. This is not a self-help journey that you and I take.
Speaker 0 00:14:02 This is not you leaving this morning saying I must try harder. This is us saying, we must allow the spirit of God, which was released upon the people of God through the cross. We must allow his spirit to work within us so that we grow the fruits of the spirit. So that wholeness comes so that the brokenness is healed. And so there's resurrection life. Amen. It's about abiding in the presence of God. It's about knowing his work within us. Amen. That's right. And the holy spirit is within you and I, he lives not in Northern hay street in this building. He lives in your life and he comes to dwell to empower, to release, to resurrect, to resource and to bring wholeness amen to our lives. Amen. And if you've been carrying around some brokenness and some things of yes to year, then the spirit of God is one in the go through your bag and he's wanting to heal you.
Speaker 2 00:15:12 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:15:13 Someone had a picture in the worship in the first service. It's a great illustration. They didn't know what I was speaking on, but they had this picture of someone who had been put in a straight jacket. And as they're held in this straight jacket, I've never had a straight jacket on, but it brings back some bad memories from me though, because I remember on one occasion, bringing in somebody to do a youth event that did, um, this trick where they got out of a straight jacket. And so they played the Rocky theme music as the, as the straight jacket was tightened upon them. And the Rocky theme music kept playing and he couldn't get out of it. And the track finished and he was still on the stage trying to get out of this thing. And it was embarrassing. But in this illustration, in this picture, this person had the straight jacket had been removed. Yeah, because whom the sun said free, said's free. Indeed.
Speaker 2 00:16:14 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:16:17 But they got so used to their arms being like that, That they were still living like that. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:16:24 That's good.
Speaker 0 00:16:26 Their hands were still in a position like they were bound. And that happens in our faith that we are free. That that second list is what God has made available for us. But we got so used to living these things that we still hold the position And God, he sets us free. But he also wants us to learn some new ways of living in that freedom.
Speaker 2 00:17:04 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:17:13 I understand in medical circles that a blood transfusion can be life saving, But the Bible says that there is a blood transfusion that you and I need in our lives, not just to save us or to help us recover, but to transform our form, our sick hearts, our sick bodies, our sick minds. Thank you to bring us fully alive. Thank you Lord. And to bring us into the wholeness that we saw on that list, amen. The blood of Jesus is not a pick me up. It's a resurrection. Come on. It's a transformation. It's a miracle. And just these next few moments before I share this story with you, let's look at what some of the things that the blood of Jesus does. Ephesians one verse seven says these words. He is so rich
Speaker 3 00:18:18 Halle
Speaker 0 00:18:19 He's showing off. Now He is so rich, Not in with Bitcoin, Not with American dollars, but he is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins. Amen, because he is so rich.
Speaker 3 00:18:52 Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:18:54 Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 says, let us go Right into the presence of God. Come
Speaker 3 00:19:05 On
Speaker 0 00:19:06 With sincere hearts, Fully trusting him. See when we carrying pain and brokenness, that can stop us from trusting him, But let us go right into the presence of God. With sincere hearts, fully trusting him for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean. Amen. And our bodies have been washed with pure water. What are the descriptions of the enemy of your soul is that he is the accuser. He seeks to come to you. And I, and remind us of our sin. Remind us of our failures, remind us of our faults and the blood of Jesus sprinkles. Our conscience deals with the realities and says you are healed and free and restored and forgiven and never again, does that need to frame part of your life?
Speaker 3 00:20:20 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:20:22 Then the Bible says we are also set apart. Galatians two verse 20 says these words, my old self. Do you know who that is? Do you know who the old self is? You know, we have new selfies and we have old selfies <laugh> And the new selfie is, is what God has designed. I like the live it's that wholeness section. This is the new self, the old self is that broken section.
Speaker 3 00:20:56 Better than that. Brushing,
Speaker 0 00:20:58 Come on, come on, come on,
Speaker 3 00:21:00 Come on.
Speaker 0 00:21:03 And it says my old self has been crucified with Christ.
Speaker 3 00:21:09 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:21:10 It is no longer I who live that list on the left hand side. As you saw it, no longer lives you say, but it does The jacket's gone.
Speaker 3 00:21:25 Hallelujah,
Speaker 0 00:21:26 But there needs to be some new ways of learning to live in your new freedoms. My old self has been crucified. It is no longer high who live, but it is now Christ who lives in me. That's what this is all about. We cannot live in the restored freedom in the new whole self by ourselves. It can only happen when we allow Christ to live his life in us and through us. Amen. There's a lot of people saying I need to find myself. I need to know who I am. No, you need to know who Christ is. Yeah. You need to know his ways. You are supposed to have died. Come on. It's no longer you come on. Oh, but this world of self discovery, you know, this world of, um, there's a book that really sort of explains it's called the rise and triumph of the modern self.
Speaker 0 00:22:21 And it's this like everyone today is trying to say, no, I'm the most important person in this world. I'm the most important person. And you know, it's difficult because we can touch on that with the gospel and say, actually, Jesus loves you. We say things like, if you are the only person in the world, then Jesus would give his life for you. And we say these things and it feels that we're massaging the self that God of this age, which is wow, I'm so special. I'm so wonderful. It's all about me. It's all about me. Jesus. It's not about you as if you would do things your way. It's not about you. It's about Christ. Amen. If you wanna know who you are, spend less time looking in the mirror and more time into the presence of God. Amen. Come on. That's how you discover who you are, because that's where your healing is. That's where your Liberty is. If you stare at the mirror, you will see these
Speaker 3 00:23:25 That's
Speaker 0 00:23:25 Right. That's what you will see. That's right. And you might come away and say, well, I'm a bit angry, but I'm gonna try and be better. But the thing is, you can't do that by yourself. You can go to an anger management course. You can do some C, B T. You can try and resolve it, but that's a small vision. The big vision is that Jesus comes and brings a resurrection life yes. Into the people of God. Amen. If anyone is in Christ, we're our new creations. Thank you. So it, the verse says, I live in this earthly body by trust in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, the blood of Jesus produces the miracle in our lives, a miracle, which has all the power and resources to heal us from the brokenness of our lives and restore us to a place of wholeness. But our broken ways of thinking and living in the past will fight back. Nevermind return of the Jedi it's return of the old self, the empire, the old empire strikes back. I can't think of any more star wars themes to add in there,
Speaker 0 00:24:42 But the blood of Jesus is stronger, but it will take a recognition of our unhealthy ways. And it will take an openness to the holy spirit, to form his new ways within us. Amen. What I see happening so often, I know I've sometimes got into the car and I've been intending to drive somewhere. And I found myself sitting in, parking up in a location that I go on a regular basis. And I'm thinking, I turn the engine off. I think, oh, what have I come here for? I was on my way somewhere else, because we do some things outta habits. We take some journeys out of ritual and routine, and there are decisions that you and I have made every day of our lives. And so when Christ comes in us and the oldest gone, the newest come, but we wake up and we've still got those habits in our neurological systems.
Speaker 0 00:25:41 We've still got those patterns of behavior. We've still got those thoughts. And so we revert to form and we do what we've always done. And that is a deeply spiritual, powerful discipleship moment because God is wanting to transform us by the renewal of our mind and our thinking. There are some regular ways that you and I walk that when we come to Christ, he wants to give a new pathway. Amen. He wants to take us on a new road. And then there were other things that, you know, maybe someone hurt you years ago. And as a result of that, you've said, I'm never gonna get close to someone again. And so there's like that road of friendship now has a diversion sign on it. And so you refuse to get close to people. And so you begin to walk this pathway of distance, this pathway of isolation, this pathway of not trusting people and you come to Christ and now Christ, you are a new creation.
Speaker 0 00:26:47 The oldest gone, the newest come, but you still feel those issues of distrust to others. And you've got so used to living this way of isolation, that that's the normal pathway for you to walk. That's your regular journey, but Jesus comes and he says, I want to take you to that road that you've said is closed. And I wanna show you, it's not closed. There's no diversion. I've got a better way for you to go, come on. And it's the way that was intended for you. Yes. So let's look at our R sacks. Let's look at what's in there. I'm gonna take you back to many years ago, our kids were very young and I was a, a youth pastor in a church that we had been in for a number of years. And we'd experienced a real season of blessing. Our youth group was getting between two to 300 young people every week.
Speaker 0 00:27:49 It just seemed like the blessing of God was all over it. We were right in the center. It felt of what God was saying and doing. And there were lots of signs of this. We were seeing more young people give their life to Christ. We had front page newspaper article on this youth ministry. That was a really positive newspaper article in the city. We were in negotiation with someone who offered us a building in the city center that had, I think it was 27 rooms. And we were gonna turn it into a youth resource center. And we were being given it for a pound a year <laugh> we just seemed to have such blessing. And we, we had lots of friends in the church. We loved it there. We believed that God had lots of things he was wanting to do. We loved the area. There was so much that just felt like, wow, God, you are good.
Speaker 0 00:28:43 And then one weekend I taken the youth group away for a youth retreat. And on the Sunday afternoon we were returned and we dropped young people off and I was driving the minibus and we, um, needed to unload some equipment from the minibus into the church building. And we'd go into the church building Sunday afternoon, and I walk into a room and I see something I wasn't expecting. I see that there was an elders meeting taking place. And I was like, oh, that sorry, guys. I didn't. Cause I was normally on the eldership. I, I didn't realize, I, I didn't realize I missed a meeting. And, um, it was all, it felt a bit awkward. I didn't know why I had no idea why over the next couple of days, Nita. And I found out why that for a period of months, the senior pastor of the church had been having conversations with the elders. He felt it was time for us to go, never communicated that to us. And the elders felt we should stay. It was a difficult one. And I don't know if you can imagine just maybe some of the feelings that we were articulating or the things that were going on in our hearts,
Speaker 0 00:30:02 I felt hurt. We felt hurt. Why did the pastor not speak to us directly? How come these conversations were happening without our awareness Confused, God, I thought this was a blessing. A time of bless him, thought things were going well. And yet we find out there's something going on. And we'd served both the church and the senior pastor with faithfulness and integrity. And honor, Why is this taking place? Why does he want us to leave? And we felt like someone had taken an ax to us and began to chop us down. What about all those plans? Those dreams, those visions, God. And we were concerned
Speaker 0 00:30:52 Because we see in the new Testament that there were often divisions in the churches. It's not a new phenomenon. We see Paul right into the churches and say some, say, I follow a Polish who is a great teacher and others follow Paul. Some were saying, Hey, that leader has baptized me. Other people say, wow, well I've been baptized by this person. No, it's Jesus. It's all about Jesus. But wherever there's people, there's disputes, fallouts differences of opinion, difference of objectives. And I found this, I found people can have a genuine, heartfelt, honest observation that looks very different to someone else's heartfelt, genuine observation. That's why insurance companies, when there's a car crash, get more than one person's opinion as to what happened. It's not that they say someone's lying, cuz their account is different. They just, we see things from different perspectives. Don't we? And we were concerned that if there was this conversation of no, we think mark and it should stay. No, we think it should go. That if that crept out into the church, that it would become a division And we loved the church, But we were hurting. We were confused. We felt kept down and carry in these concerns about the wellbeing of the church.
Speaker 0 00:32:20 But that list, those two lists. I just gave you.
Speaker 0 00:32:24 I wonder if we try and interpret into this cur into this situation, this painful time, that Neer and I went through and I'm not bringing this today to say, Hey look, our big, our pain has been, um, we, we feel so healed by the Lord. We feel God's been so gracious to us. Um, and uh, you know, that's another story, but that this is not, we are speaking from a, a scar, really not a wound. It's not, it doesn't feel sensitive or difficult for us. And partly we've not shared it over the years because we didn't want to expose any situations or people. And if anybody in our old church is watching back, we are so grateful for those years and we see God's hand in it now. Amen. Amen. But if I just look, maybe some of the issues defensive or approachable, you know, when we experienced this time, when we were feeling this pain, um, we could definitely say we've been hurt and we might have said, I'm not gonna let anybody hurt me again.
Speaker 0 00:33:29 See that would've created a diversion that would've stopped this from stepping into some of the things because you and I, we can't do life unless we trust people. That's right. No matter how much we've been hurt, we can't do life. Unless we really trust people. If you've got guards around your life and you don't trust people, then it's a deeply spiritual issue that the Lord wants to address in your life. Doesn't matter how you lift your hands in worship. He wants to deal with your heart and he wants to build your trust deposits back up. See that's the old self, that's the broken self, but the whole healed self. And this is what we sort of do that. We didn't tell many people. We were, we certainly didn't tell people in the church, but we said, let's invite some input from those who love and care for us because we didn't want to carry this.
Speaker 0 00:34:18 Cuz when you carry this pain, it becomes toxic. And that toxicity pollutes our heart and it stops the grace and the beauty of the Lord being present in our lives, although were tears, we were hurting, but we didn't want to become toxic. I look at some of those other things on the list, like a low self-awareness versus a high self-awareness. I, I see sometimes that hurting people feels like a continuous bubbling volcano. And it just feels like the, the constant flow of lava out of their lives. That if you stand around them, you'll get some on you because it's constantly bubbling away and they don't even, they don't even aware in their conversations that they've actually just deposited some red, hot, red, hot pain onto you. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't share. I'm not saying we shouldn't find trusted people, but if you are still bubbling years after the event, it's a sign that it's still unde with in your life rather than it's healed. But instead we sort to say, I, we need help our hurts. And we're gonna find godly people who we can trust and help us appropriately and safely address it.
Speaker 0 00:35:40 I look at the list that said blame the brokenness versus taking responsibility in the wholeness section. And it would be so easy for us to have said, look, what's been done to us. We call a member's meeting of the church and say church, do you realize what's taking place behind the scenes here? Do you realize that there's been, it feels like a conspiracy against us. We thought we've done our best, but this feels so unfair. It's all their fault. And there are times when things happen to us, there are unfair aren't they? Life is cruel. Times people mess up and life is not fair. If you are waving your fist of God and saying, God, it's not fair. There are times he's not looking back and saying to you, yes it is. There are times he's looking with you and he's saying you're right. It's not, It's not. But the taken responsibility was saying, even though we are hurting, we are gonna invite Jesus to help us move into a place of hope and healing. And then I look at the other list of the anger versus the delight. Anger is not a, uh, an unspiritual thing. Sometimes the church needs to be more angry about the things that are taking place around us. Eh, we need to be more spoken out about things that are in just exploitative. We need to tone some tables over Jesus was angry about my father's house should be called a house of prayer for the nations. Amen. And instead you've turned it into Aden of thieves and robbers that deserves anger.
Speaker 0 00:37:29 But when your anger is all about you, look what someone has done to me. Look what they have injured me with. Look how they've offended me and look how they've hurt me. Then There's something quite so about that. Not to say that the Hurt's not real, but a lot of the anger of the scriptures are people being angry about things that impact others.
Speaker 2 00:37:56 Mm.
Speaker 0 00:37:58 And we could have in this situation said, let's punish the people who have done us wrong. We would've our truth. On our side, We believe we would've been right in our assessment, that there was some injustice, But I needed to remember The very many times that I've hurt and betrayed Jesus myself. And when I remember that, I learned to delight in his grace and know that he is so rich in grace.
Speaker 2 00:38:39 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:38:40 And that there's more than enough, not just to satisfy my failure, but there's more than enough to pour through me, to extend to others. In fact, when we don't extend it to others, it builds a dam in our lives. Amen. It stops grace flowing. It becomes something of a barrier for the goodness of God in our life. And maybe in your R SAC, you need to pull out offenses Ways that people have hurt you Because it will be a blockage.
Speaker 2 00:39:25 Amen.
Speaker 0 00:39:27 Then I looked at some of the other lists, fear versus courage, the fear would've said, how are we gonna get through this? What if we lose our job? Where are we gonna live? Rob our, our house and our kids. And fear is always knocking on the door of those moments of pain. But the courage was God is in control and we can trust him. He will make a way. I mentioned about the concern about the potential sense of division that may have come into the church. And I was reminded of the story of king Solomon being brought a young baby or a child rather by two mothers. And both the mothers said, this child is mine. No, he's mine. No he's mine. And Solomon listened to their petitions and their complaints and their pain. And he said, okay, I've got a solution. We're gonna chop the baby in half. You have one half, you have the other, If you are familiar with a story, you'll know what happened next. And that was the real mother said, let her have the child. And Solomon knew immediately who the real mother was because the real mother cares more about the wellbeing of the child than about the rights of the parent.
Speaker 0 00:41:00 And we were reminded of that. And we said, we love this church too much. So we contacted, we contacted our regional leader and we said, Hey, we, we, we need to move on.
Speaker 0 00:41:16 Got no idea the pain that was involved in saying those words, but we need to move onto new adventures. We don't know what's ahead. We don't know what it's gonna look like, but we need to leave. And we just announce the church that, Hey, we believe that God's gonna lead us into some new adventures. And we don't know where that is. They dunno what that's gonna look like. And we kept our council because we cared about the baby. Yeah. Amen. You see, there are roads that God's people travel that don't always look like the roads that the world travels on because the travel out of wholeness requires difference to traveling out of brokenness. Amen. But my regional leader, he said these words to me as some of the wisest words I've ever heard, and these words you might, if you've moved from another church, you might have heard me say these words to you and the words are this, how you leave one place, determines how you are blessed in the next.
Speaker 0 00:42:21 Totally. Yeah. We knew that all the pain we were experiencing, if we did not allow the Lord to lead us to wholeness, then we would take that brokenness everywhere we go. And I know for a fact that we would not be here ministering in Exeter. If we had not chosen the pathway of wholeness, if we had not asked the Lord to help take the pain out of our baggage, if we had not lived in a way to honor those people around us, rather than injure them, I don't believe I'd be here today. Right. Because how you leave one place determines how you're blessed and the next right. And if you've left another church and you have unresolved issues, deal with them. Yes. Yeah. Come on. First of all in your heart. Yeah. It's not about having a coffee with the person who offended you and then being a volcano before them.
Speaker 0 00:43:22 It's about allowing Christ to shape the pain and to heal the hurts. And then for you to be a conduit of grace of that other person, come on. Amen. Come on. Never write to someone and say, you know, you've, I've had a problem with you for the last 20 years. Just thought I'd let you know. Oh, thank you for that. Oh, I feel, I feel really released by that email. Don't do that. That's that's cruel. Oh, I'm just speaking the truth in love. No, you're not. You're just being a volcano. That's right. You're just LA at somebody. Amen. And not with grace deal with it. Scripture says freely, you have received freely give amen. And it's not easy. All of us are real people facing real things in a real world. But we have a God who is bigger, who has ways that are greater. We sing Waymaker miracle worker. And we see that that's such a song of joy. Yes. God will make a way where there seems to be no way. But sometimes we don't like those ways Waymaker oh yes. Called forgiveness.
Speaker 2 00:44:44 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:44:44 Miracle worker. Yes. It's called grace flowing through you and extending to others. Promise keeper light in the darkness. Yes. And he wants to shine a torch into your bag. We left at church. We had a lovely farewell And the journey that God led us on from that moment has been A hair raising adventure.
Speaker 2 00:45:23 Obviously
Speaker 0 00:45:29 Every step along the way Has had contention
Speaker 2 00:45:34 That's
Speaker 0 00:45:34 Right. Between living out of brokenness or living out of wholeness. There are some things that are giants to be, and there are other things that are crosses to be carried And in our lives, making daily decisions to be filled with the goodness of Christ And to ooze him out of our life. Amen is a daily decision.
Speaker 2 00:46:07 Yes. Amen.
Speaker 0 00:46:11 Matthew 10 Jesus said go and announce to them that the kingdom of heaven is near Heal. The sick raise, the dead cure. Those leprosy cast out demons give as freely as you have received, There's a blood transfusion. Maybe the bank could join me. If you have your communion cups, Would you locate them now? And if you, if you don't know that Jesus is your savior, Please just feel free to observe what's going on for these next few moments. And I will give you an opportunity in a moment to be able to join the family of God Yourself. But this is a, This is a significant reality That we have as believers in Jesus Christ Because the blood of Jesus has transported us from the brokenness to the wholeness. And as in a moment, we share the wafer together, symbolic of the bread, Jesus, the bread of life. We, as we take it into our bodies, we're saying That we want Christ to live his life in us. And it's a protest against the ways of the world. It's a rejection of the highways that the world travels. It's an utter campaign in our lives that says I'm not having my arms shaped. Like they're still in a straight jacket. It's a decision that says I'm gonna clear the baggage from past adventures
Speaker 0 00:48:14 So that I'm traveling only with what God's got for me today. So would you just lift the film off the top and hold the way for <affirmative> hold the wafer in your hand. And I don't want you to take this out of habit. I want you in a moment to put it in your mouth and say in Christ, live in me, Christ live in me. Let's take this together. Christ live in me. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. If he just pushed the little tap down, it should click. He says confidently, And then peel it back so that you're ready to take the juice. In a moment. We're reading the scriptures that after S Jesus took the cup, This is the blood That was shared for you and I. The blood of Jesus. It's better than any treatment you can get from the hospital. It's better than any C you can get from a counselor. It's better than any advice you can get from a psychotherapist. It's better than any medication you can take. Not to say that any of those things are wrong. Thank God for all of them. But the blood of Jesus is greater.
Speaker 0 00:50:19 It's the most powerful force in the universes, The blood of Jesus. And as you take this into your body in a moment, Say every part of me, every hurt, Everything that has brought me pain, every injustice As you forgive me, I ask that you will heal me. And I ask as I take this, that as you live your life in me as this heavenly blood transfusion brings me resurrection life. I pray that you'll give me wisdom to reshape how I posture my arms and how I travel the journey of my life. To allow you to live your life through me. When you're ready, you take this, Say Christ in me, hallelujah.
