Speaker 1: Today we're going to be coming.
Speaker 1: So if you've been with us for the last few weeks the first of the series I told you to be stupid, that you need to start acting.
Speaker 1: Stupid Because my Bible says that God used the foolish to dumbfound the wise.
Speaker 1: God wants some stupid, willing vessels that say you know what?
Speaker 1: It might just work if I pray, it might just work if I lay hands on somebody.
Speaker 1: God is wanting people who is willing to step out in stupid faith?
Speaker 1: And in week two we said I hate you, that we should be willing to abandon it all for the cause of Jesus Christ, for somebody to know Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That should be our one singular moment, our one singular movement of this church on the forefront of our minds that somebody needs to find Jesus.
Speaker 1: But if you got people you don't like, it's hard.
Speaker 1: So guess what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: Y' know it's thanksgiving coming up.
Speaker 1: Y'all got to deal with your family.
Speaker 1: There ain't no hurt or troubles like family hurt and troubles.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 6, verse 28 through 30.
Speaker 1: Bless those who curse you.
Speaker 1: Pray for those who hurt you.
Speaker 1: This is going to get some of you on this next one.
Speaker 1: If someone slaps you, turn the other cheek.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all just wrote that check to slap somebody.
Speaker 1: If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt.
Speaker 1: Also, if someone's wearing a coat, it's probably cold.
Speaker 1: And somebody said amen in the church house.
Speaker 1: Verse 30 says give to anyone who asks, and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your word.
Speaker 1: I ask God that it transform lives, that minds be renewed and today, before we leave this house, that hurts be healed.
Speaker 1: In your name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: You may be seated today in the church.
Speaker 1: Man, I love coming to church.
Speaker 1: I love coming to church and apparently my son thinks it's his number one priority to get me in a bad mood before I get here.
Speaker 1: Anybody else have that.
Speaker 1: It's only when you come in the church that you get in a fight with the spouse, or the kids ain't't acting right, or the grandkids broke something.
Speaker 1: The devil knows the game, but I see your hand devil.
Speaker 1: So you may.
Speaker 1: Some of you may know, some of you may not, some of you don't want to know, but it is the holiday season.
Speaker 1: It is among us, although four days ago we had the air conditioning on and then we had the heater back on Texas, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Just pick one.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying anything about women, but it's called mother nature for a reason.
Speaker 1: Can't make up its mind.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm going to need security when I leave here today.
Speaker 1: Somebody just told me I need an army.
Speaker 1: All right, thanksgiving is among us and some of you, some of us, are ready for all the good food.
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen?
Speaker 1: Some of y'all got great grandma's recipe that somebody makes and they bring it.
Speaker 1: I know Jessie's grandparents.
Speaker 1: She's always got chocolate pies and, man, I know she brings two of them, but I'm pretty sure they're different, so I got to try both.
Speaker 1: Just to make sure.
Speaker 1: It's my responsibility as the man of the house to be my work off the carbs months.
Speaker 1: Everybody's getting a gym membership right after the first of the year.
Speaker 1: But we love the good food.
Speaker 1: We love the time with family.
Speaker 1: We love being able to see people that we haven't seen in a long time.
Speaker 1: Sister Jessie and I, always, for Christmas break, we always go up to see my grandparents Tristan's great-grandparents because we never get to see them.
Speaker 1: They live in Missouri.
Speaker 1: It's about an eight-, nine-hour drive, and so we only get to go about once a year.
Speaker 1: You know they're getting older, they're up in age, so we try to see them as much as possible, but usually Christmas is the only time we get that break.
Speaker 1: So that's a good thing for us.
Speaker 1: We get to go see at Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: All of her family comes over to either us or over there in a bullet area and uncles and aunts, and everybody gets together and we have a good time and all these things are great, sitting with loved ones.
Speaker 1: You know, and sometimes we don't even know, but it may be the last moments we get to.
Speaker 1: But though some of us are excited about this holiday season, there are some who hate it Because of the same reasons I just mentioned.
Speaker 1: Family, and specifically church family, can hurt people so deep and so hard and the people who have been forgiven of so much do not live a life asking for forgiveness from others.
Speaker 1: We feel a righteous justice because we know God, did I get too real too quick?
Speaker 1: You know I love getting up in your business and some they have this terrible feeling in this pit in the lower part of their stomach, like they just.
Speaker 1: They know they're going to see somebody.
Speaker 1: They know they're going to see that person.
Speaker 1: Every family's got one.
Speaker 1: If you don't know if your family has one or not, it's probably you, and I told you this just now and you still won't believe me.
Speaker 1: It's you, but sometimes this holiday season for some people is going to be the first without A lot of hurt and a lot of pain when you have an empty seat at the table.
Speaker 1: There's going to be a lot of first times where someone that you said I hate you to, or a child that you're not talking to anymore, that you're not going to invite them, or you may be the one not talking to anymore, that you're not going to invite them, or you may be the one not invited because a family feud blows up.
Speaker 1: There may be people that used to come to this church that do not come right now because someone messed up or hurt them, and they will not apologize.
Speaker 1: Alexis, if you come up, we're going to have.
Speaker 1: She's going to talk about something for just a second.
Speaker 1: I was talking to her at the bonfire.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everybody who made it possible.
Speaker 1: Friday, when we came out, had hot dogs and we had a fun time, but I was talking to her and I told her the title of my message today and she said I may have something so Okay, title of my message today and she said I may have something.
Speaker 2: So for those of you who don't know, I have done drugs most of my life.
Speaker 2: I'm here today to tell you I've reached two years of being completely drug-free on Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 2: I never thought I could reach this day until God took over and has protected me in mighty ways from myself.
Speaker 2: He never said it was going to be easy, but it is possible through him and his strength.
Speaker 2: This year has been very tough for me, going through four years of torment at my job.
Speaker 2: They fired me and committed fraud against me so they wouldn't have to pay me unemployment, not pulling any money in for a few months and bills piled up.
Speaker 2: God has been my husband, father and best friend through these times of hardships and has taken the best care of me.
Speaker 2: God has also tested me on how to have faith.
Speaker 2: When I felt like I had been defeated.
Speaker 2: He had given me rest for my soul before he started, blessing me in ways I never imagined or understood.
Speaker 2: The times I got to come to church Tuesday mornings to pray with the sweetest people meant everything to me.
Speaker 2: Through that time of hurt and confusion.
Speaker 2: To anyone who is struggling with addictions of any kind.
Speaker 2: Fall apart and let God rebuild you.
Speaker 2: Pray when you don't feel like praying.
Speaker 2: Surround yourself with good people and lean on them when you don't know what else to do.
Speaker 2: Love you, guys and thank you for praying for me always.
Speaker 1: Her story rings so true with me, Just because I battled through addiction and everything myself.
Speaker 1: Just because I battled through addiction and everything myself.
Speaker 1: And when you come up on times where you've hit a marker in your life, it needs to be celebrated and you need to tell people, Because we find freedom, people find Jesus by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
Speaker 1: And don't you hold that back from somebody else Just because you've been serving God for years.
Speaker 1: Don't hold back what he done for you, because you need to share what God, how he transformed you, to prove to somebody else that God still loves, he cares and he still transforms today.
Speaker 1: But for her to go through this, especially here, she told me Friday night.
Speaker 1: She said you know, this is one of the hardest times that I have felt that pull towards that addiction again.
Speaker 1: The devil knows what will get you upset.
Speaker 1: The devil knows what will hurt you.
Speaker 1: If he can get you distracted and dismantled and confused and get you away from the herd so you don't draw strength from the fellowship of the believers.
Speaker 1: He can trip you up.
Speaker 1: He can get you so bitter and angry that you will keep falling over and over again and then bound by bitterness and always bound by shame.
Speaker 1: He can make you feel like there is no hope and he is a liar.
Speaker 1: He is the father of liars.
Speaker 1: Anything out of his mouth is deceitful and is a lie.
Speaker 1: But she had to start down this journey by accepting that she needed to be healed.
Speaker 1: Today's title of my message is Healing from Hurt.
Speaker 1: This is not going through the pain.
Speaker 1: This is on the other side.
Speaker 1: This is living in the echo of the pain.
Speaker 1: It's now you have to realize that you are living in hurt, and hurt will hinder you from the Heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: There's a fact with every hurt that is endured whether it's somebody who hurts you or the hurt of loss is that you cannot control when or how it happens.
Speaker 1: But you can control when you decide to start down the road of healing, to take those first step towards healing, healing from hurt.
Speaker 1: I believe the enemy is trying to condition you to become your pain and hurt, convincing you that the valley of hurt is the only place and the only choice that you have to live, that your only choice is to remain bitter instead of getting better, getting through the offense.
Speaker 1: And now you have to deal with the echo.
Speaker 1: There's always an aftermath when there's pain, there becomes hurt and there's a great echo and wave that can demolish people that weren't even in contact with the person that actually did the hurting.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to map out some key things that probably won't make sense and, if you haven't noticed, if you have prayed or read the word of God, the Lord uses things that don't add up to our physical minds.
Speaker 1: It does not add up to bless those that curse me or to pray for those that hurt me.
Speaker 1: I want to bless those that curse me or to pray for those that hurt me.
Speaker 1: I want to punch those that hurt me, especially if you come towards my family.
Speaker 1: I am a very likable, laid back, go with the flow type of guy, but you step on my family, you don't get a little thunder and a little lightning.
Speaker 1: Sorry, but the things that we're going to map out today and talk about that, if you are hurting or you have been hurt it may have been 30 years ago and you have not dealt with this hurt it will fester and become an issue.
Speaker 1: It will affect who you're, affect who you are and it will affect your personality.
Speaker 1: Now, what we're gonna read, what we just read, seems opposite and counterintuitive what you should do, how you should feel, steps to take, thoughts to be thinking, the way you should see a situation and how to see a person or people that have actually hurt you.
Speaker 1: And I've said this many times.
Speaker 1: I'm changing the way I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: Let me see if you've said this before.
Speaker 1: Time heals all wounds.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the Holy Spirit is the only one that can heal those wounds.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how long it's been Sometimes.
Speaker 1: The healing power of the Holy Spirit is the only thing that can heal the wounds that you've been hiding.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, the echo of the hurt manifests itself in places that you didn't plant.
Speaker 1: The seed Hurts become weeds in the gardens that will choke the life out of any fruit of the spirit that God is trying to plant inside of you, any goodness and mercy and faithfulness and love and joy, all the things God desires for us to have, desires for you to have.
Speaker 1: If you are dwelling in your hurt, you will not be able to grow properly.
Speaker 1: If you've ever had a garden, sisteresse, at the house that we came from before we moved over in flint, she had a garden and it started off great because the dirt was dug up, it was fresh, it was new, it had been toiled, the seeds have been planted, it was beautiful.
Speaker 1: We even put up a little fence about that tall around it because we had little rabbits and all the stuff.
Speaker 1: We were out in the country and this garden looked amazing and about a month later, weeds were everywhere.
Speaker 1: She works full-time.
Speaker 1: I work full-time Neither one of us ever and it was on the side of the house.
Speaker 1: It wasn't in our face and it was on the side of the house.
Speaker 1: It wasn't in our face and it was on the side of the house and weeds were not planted, but they grew.
Speaker 1: Seeds of hurt and bitterness will grow and you will never plant them.
Speaker 1: You have to, on purpose, start to weed out the garden by the root.
Speaker 1: You don't have to cultivate or water, because weeds will always show up, especially in the places you're trying to grow good fruit.
Speaker 1: So how do we get the weeds out?
Speaker 1: How do we get the hurt out?
Speaker 1: How do we deal with the pain?
Speaker 1: Number one if you're taking notes, write this down.
Speaker 1: You have to be realistic.
Speaker 1: Number one if you're taking notes, write this down.
Speaker 1: You have to be realistic.
Speaker 1: Someone hurt you.
Speaker 1: You allowed yourself to be vulnerable, you let someone in and it backfired.
Speaker 1: You allowed yourself, your heart, your soul, your mind, your body.
Speaker 1: You allowed yourself to open up to someone and they hurt you.
Speaker 1: Pretending like it didn't happen doesn't solve the issue.
Speaker 1: If you don't know you're sick, you won't take medicine.
Speaker 1: You have to admit that you're sick to even want to go to the doctor it's hard to admit.
Speaker 1: You allowed yourself.
Speaker 1: So you get this false sense of healing.
Speaker 1: That is really just a small Band-Aid on a constantly open wound.
Speaker 1: Telling yourself and telling others I'm okay, I'm fine, I know from experience.
Speaker 1: If me and my wife get in an argument and she says I'm fine, it's a lie, I know I'm dead.
Speaker 1: Or somebody is I'm fine, means you better run.
Speaker 1: Or if you've experienced loss, you have to admit that there is a void, that something has happened to you.
Speaker 1: You can cover up a wound for so long, but if you never let it breathe and never let it in the open, it will fester and it will become infected.
Speaker 1: It has to become out in the open to be able to heal properly.
Speaker 1: Because if you don't admit there is something wrong, here's what will happen.
Speaker 1: You'll try to cover it up, but you will become angry, you'll become bitter, you'll become frustrated.
Speaker 1: In every situation You'll play the blame game.
Speaker 1: It's everyone else's fault, everyone's against you, they're all my enemy.
Speaker 1: You will never be satisfied.
Speaker 1: You will constantly self-sabotage.
Speaker 1: You're never good enough.
Speaker 1: No one will ever love me again.
Speaker 1: I can't deal with this.
Speaker 1: Oh, this looks like what that did.
Speaker 1: So now I'm going to sabotage everything so nobody can come near me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to set the world on fire Spiritually, emotionally and physically.
Speaker 1: You will become drained.
Speaker 1: It will drain the life out of you because you are constantly fighting against hurt.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to tell you a little insight.
Speaker 1: When Sister and Jesse and I first got married and I've apologized to her so many times since there was a period of time when we first got married I had been married before and I've been hurt so deep that when her and I got married, if she did anything that resembled what that last person did, I would blow up.
Speaker 1: I would be angry, I would get mad at her for something that she wasn't even aware of.
Speaker 1: I would be upset with her and starting fights with her, having arguments with her, and she didn't do anything wrong, something she had never been a part of my hurt.
Speaker 1: Labeled her as the enemy, part of my hurt.
Speaker 1: Labeled her as the enemy, something she never did to me.
Speaker 1: She was now paying for, because I didn't realize that I'd never faced the hurt and I had become bitter.
Speaker 1: This pain and this hurt began to surface in ways that I wasn't even aware of.
Speaker 1: But see, here's what it is.
Speaker 1: I thought that her and I had an issue.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about me and her, it was about the past and me not dealing with the past.
Speaker 1: Just because you leave the past doesn't mean it doesn't move with you.
Speaker 1: Just because you walk away from it doesn't mean it's still not chained to your leg.
Speaker 1: But we serve a chain-breaking God that can separate you from your hurt and your past, because the Bible says that who God sets free, you become free.
Speaker 1: Indeed, and there is no devil in hell or person on this earth that can rebind you to what you left behind.
Speaker 1: Because when God sets you free, it's a done deal.
Speaker 1: When you become redeemed through the blood of Jesus, it is a done deal.
Speaker 1: You don't have to live in who you was.
Speaker 1: I was talking to somebody last Sunday and God just spoke to me and he said you know, your past is like when you were a little child, when I was three or four, I had a coat.
Speaker 1: We lived in Missouri.
Speaker 1: We had coats.
Speaker 1: It snowed every Christmas.
Speaker 1: Now that I'm a grown man, I know some of y'all think I'm small.
Speaker 1: But now that I'm a grown man, that coat I can't fit it anymore.
Speaker 1: I outgrew it.
Speaker 1: When the devil tries to bring my shame and pain and hurt back to me and say, no, you got to put this on, I say no, sir devil, I outgrew that years ago.
Speaker 1: You can't bring that shame back to me anymore.
Speaker 1: That don't belong to me.
Speaker 1: I've outgrown it.
Speaker 1: When the devil comes knocking on your door trying to put shame back on, you say no, I've outgrown it, I've moved past that.
Speaker 1: That don't belong to me anymore.
Speaker 1: I donated that to goodwill, don't belong to me.
Speaker 1: And so we have to have the same mindset with our shame and our hurt and our pain, because sometimes we wear pain as a mask, all painted up as healing, and we walk around and we, we, we, we, we try to hide it so well.
Speaker 1: And the way that it manifests itself is hurting the people that we love the most, because you're not facing the pain and the hurt that it manifests itself is hurting the people that we love the most, because you're not facing the pain and the hurt that you're actually holding on to.
Speaker 1: So she had to deal with something, echoes of something that happened years before I met her.
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 1: Who are you affecting today?
Speaker 1: Who are you allowing to affect you?
Speaker 1: What are you holding on?
Speaker 1: That is still in, that is still.
Speaker 1: You try to wear it as your identity.
Speaker 1: But if you have come to God and you have you have been sanctified and washed in his blood.
Speaker 1: It does not belong to you anymore.
Speaker 1: You can set all of your masks down because listen, the Bible says that we find strength in numbers.
Speaker 1: There's a reason we love coming to church because we get revitalized and revived by talking to others, smiling, laughing, having a good time and enjoying people who enjoy God.
Speaker 1: And there is a time where you get so close with somebody and you take off that mask.
Speaker 1: And once you do that, here's what Satan likes to do.
Speaker 1: He likes to convince you that if you keep your mask on, everybody will accept you.
Speaker 1: But here's what actually happens the mask will always be a separation between you and everyone else.
Speaker 1: Literally, it will always stay between you and them.
Speaker 1: They can never really see you.
Speaker 1: And if you ever want a mask on your face, it's hard to see around you.
Speaker 1: It will distort your vision and when you take that mask off, what it does see.
Speaker 1: We often like to impress people with our accolades and the things that we do.
Speaker 1: Well, I want you to see the best shoes I got.
Speaker 1: I want you to never see me mess up like I did a minute ago during worship.
Speaker 1: When we first started One of the first few Sundays I was here.
Speaker 1: I put the capo, this little thing right here.
Speaker 1: I put it on the wrong one and the band's like I don't know where he is and I was like, oh sorry, I just stopped and I moved it.
Speaker 1: I'm like well, that happened.
Speaker 1: You have to be real for people to not think that you are fake, because we've got enough fake in churches today.
Speaker 1: So when you take off your mask in front of sinners, you struggle with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and God still loves me.
Speaker 1: He still cares for me enough that, in the depths of my sin, he sent his son to sacrifice for me.
Speaker 1: So if he can do that for me, why can't he do it for you?
Speaker 1: That's some stupid faith, because it doesn't add up.
Speaker 1: Wait, so if I take my hurt off, if I really leave it behind, you mean that will make a deeper connection with other people?
Speaker 1: Yes, the thing you've been trying to use to hide yourself the whole time is actually the thing that you leave behind and will strengthen you.
Speaker 1: Hurts that my wife never caused.
Speaker 1: She was now having to pay for them.
Speaker 1: When we first got married, one of the things that broke my heart was one of the first things we had to do.
Speaker 1: We had to go to court for the stuff that I did years ago.
Speaker 1: For the stuff that I did years ago, I had to take my new wife to court to support me because I had been locked up.
Speaker 1: You know how embarrassing that is my new bride.
Speaker 1: I take her.
Speaker 1: My shame all of a sudden started being her shame as well.
Speaker 1: My hurt, my past, was also now her hurt and her past, because when you start getting close to somebody, you start mirroring each other.
Speaker 1: So if you're living in pain and hurt, if you're complaining, if you're bitter, if you're bitter, if you're suffering, the people that you are around will begin to also become bitter.
Speaker 1: They will also wear that shame Stuff she had never done.
Speaker 1: So what did I have to do?
Speaker 1: Number two, if you're taking notes, I had to recognize and face the hurt.
Speaker 1: I had to recognize that I had been hurt.
Speaker 1: I had covered up for so long with alcohol and drugs and everything else.
Speaker 1: I was covering up that pain because I'd been hurt so deep.
Speaker 1: I found something that would numb me up so much that I didn't have to face it, because when I got high, when I got drunk, everyone wanted me around because I was the life of the party.
Speaker 1: I was the one always laughing, cutting up.
Speaker 1: I was the one in the middle of the people fighting, calming them down.
Speaker 1: I was never the one fighting.
Speaker 1: I was always the one saying hey, man, you're being stupid, come on, everyone wanted me around because I was the life of the party.
Speaker 1: I would have a blast and the same hurt that I was trying to hide hit me in the face the next day.
Speaker 1: It never satisfies.
Speaker 1: Sin never satisfies.
Speaker 1: It will make you so distracted and think it's so fun that you will forget that you're hurting.
Speaker 1: But after that ride you have to get off and reality will hit you in the face.
Speaker 1: You don't believe me.
Speaker 1: Have a good knockdown Sunday service and you go outside and, oh my goodness, everything's still the way I left it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't change anything sometimes.
Speaker 1: But when God gets a hold of you and starts changing you and you allow him to heal what has been done to you.
Speaker 1: Sister Vicki and I was talking about getting your joy back.
Speaker 1: When the joy of the Lord comes on you and that peace is beyond understanding, the joy of the Lord is our strength and it won't matter what's happening around you or to you, you'll be happy and satisfied Because you know an almighty God that loves you in spite of you.
Speaker 1: Leave your hurt behind.
Speaker 1: You have to one admit that you are hurt, that you allowed yourself to be hurt.
Speaker 1: It happens.
Speaker 1: People will hurt you, people will make you upset, people will leave you, but God will never forsake you.
Speaker 1: Number two recognizing and facing the pain and facing the hurt.
Speaker 1: Now, the reason this is so important.
Speaker 1: I said this earlier if you don't know you're sick, you won't take medicine.
Speaker 1: It's so easy to be living in your hurt, wearing the mask of pain, painting up like everything's okay, when in reality it's not.
Speaker 1: You may cry yourself to sleep at night, but then put the mask back on when you go out in public.
Speaker 1: You may even scream out in the depths of your misery God, why I was drunk so many times crying to God about my first marriage Wasted Saying God.
Speaker 1: Why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Because it was falling apart.
Speaker 1: It was done, god.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Because it was falling apart.
Speaker 1: It was done.
Speaker 1: God, why won't you fix this?
Speaker 1: Why won't you just stand up for me and make a miracle happen?
Speaker 1: Why can't I?
Speaker 1: I even would cry to my mother.
Speaker 1: I would call her in the middle of the night and say I'm drunk again.
Speaker 1: I'm drunk again.
Speaker 1: That was one thing my mom opened up to me.
Speaker 1: She said if you ever get in a spot, you call me.
Speaker 1: And she knew what I was doing.
Speaker 1: She knew I was being stupid, but she left that door open to me and I would call her and say why am I this way?
Speaker 1: I would be so drunk and I would know.
Speaker 1: I would text youth pastors that I had known before, ministers that I knew.
Speaker 1: I knew in the depths of my sin.
Speaker 1: I was just hurting and I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: I couldn't walk away.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to let, to let the grip get off of me.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to shake it.
Speaker 1: Every day I wore my shame and every day I felt like I wasn't good enough.
Speaker 1: And God is still working on me through that.
Speaker 1: But I know that in him I am more than in him I am enough.
Speaker 1: I have the hardest time stepping into the jacket of minister because I am not worthy.
Speaker 1: But in the midst and the depths of my struggle and my flesh, he says that when I call on his name, and the depths of my struggle and my flesh, he says that when I call on his name, no enemy can stand against it.
Speaker 1: And I believe that God has opened my eyes to who I am supposed to be and that will transform how you act when you start seeing you through the lens of God.
Speaker 1: And I'm like God.
Speaker 1: I'm not worthy, god, I can't do this, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: He said shut up, I didn't ask you.
Speaker 1: We like to put our labels and say it's from God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've all sinned, but through the blood of Christ we've all been sanctified.
Speaker 1: Yeah, god talks to me like that, because I have to hear it that way.
Speaker 1: I have to Recognize and face the pain.
Speaker 1: The devil likes to play this game where, if he can convince you that, no one will understand you, that no one will accept you for what you've done or how you've been, or your past.
Speaker 1: That's the beautiful thing about being in a church, a loving church like this is that, no matter what you've done.
Speaker 1: If anyone ever argues that fact with you, say well, the preachers used to be a meth head.
Speaker 1: What can they say to that?
Speaker 1: I'm sure no Christian would ever pray for that.
Speaker 1: But it happened.
Speaker 1: Because when we put things and we put hurts and we put pain in the hands of God, he literally will transform and make something new.
Speaker 1: Psalms 36, five through 7, it says this your unfailing love, o Lord, is as vast as the heavens.
Speaker 1: Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
Speaker 1: Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains.
Speaker 1: Your justice is like the ocean depths.
Speaker 1: You care for people and animals alike.
Speaker 1: O Lord, how precious is your unfailing love.
Speaker 1: Oh God, all humanity finds shelter in the shadows of your wings.
Speaker 1: We can find true healing and peace in the arms of a loving God.
Speaker 1: So let's recap.
Speaker 1: Number one you have to admit that you are hurting and that you have pain.
Speaker 1: Even if it's way behind you in the past, it will manipulate who you are today.
Speaker 1: Number two you have to recognize and face it.
Speaker 1: If you never face it, it will always bind you.
Speaker 1: If you don't recognize it, it will always wreck you.
Speaker 1: And number three is restoration.
Speaker 1: You have to try to restore and let God redeem what the devil has tried to steal from you and even more, bless and pray for those who hurt me.
Speaker 1: You'll never find a new level of restoration or deliverance from this bondage until you start praying for the one that hurt you.
Speaker 1: There's never a truer freedom and a deeper peace.
Speaker 1: When you start praying for the person who did something wrong to you, you know what the devil likes you to do.
Speaker 1: He likes you to talk about how you've been hurt, and that's it.
Speaker 1: Talking about how you've been hurt solves nothing and actually only causes more issues, because it tethers you to what happened.
Speaker 1: It binds you to where you came from.
Speaker 1: It keeps you.
Speaker 1: There's a difference in testimony and gossip.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all saw this morning, but I I posted a picture on facebook and it said uh, what did it say?
Speaker 1: You may pray in tongues, but you gossip in English.
Speaker 1: Be careful what you say, because you may be the issue.
Speaker 1: Be careful how you phrase things.
Speaker 1: Be careful what you shake your head in agreement with, because someone may tell someone else that you agreed with what they said about them.
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody, be careful.
Speaker 1: The enemy likes to find the cracks.
Speaker 1: The enemy's job, his mission, his purpose is to divide the church house, because if he can divide us here, he can ruin our witness for there, if he can get us fighting amongst each other.
Speaker 1: You see, when we take the mask off, sometimes that looks like, hey, I don't like you.
Speaker 1: No one wants to say that in the church.
Speaker 1: But you know, when you reveal something that you don't like about somebody, you become vulnerable to them, you start submitting to them, and if we have a church who believes in Jesus and his life and follows his lead, he washed the feet of Judas too.
Speaker 1: He called him out at the dinner table.
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: And David wrote you make a table for me in the midst of my enemies.
Speaker 1: We are meant to face things, not hide them.
Speaker 1: Hiding is the devil's game, because if he can hide something under the rug, then it begins to be a stumbling block.
Speaker 1: Say that five times fast.
Speaker 1: When we hide, we keep the hurt.
Speaker 1: When we expose, we expel the hurt After you've admitted that you have been hurt, after you recognize and you face the problem.
Speaker 1: And sometimes you may need to go to counseling for this.
Speaker 1: Counseling or therapy is not bad words.
Speaker 1: I think probably the reason a lot of us snap the way we do is because we have no outlet and you need to be able to talk to somebody.
Speaker 1: And just so you know, just sister Jesse and I's doors are always open, our phones are always on.
Speaker 1: We will talk to you.
Speaker 1: If you don't like to talk to us, we'll find somebody.
Speaker 1: But you need to talk to somebody because, listen, here's what happens Sometimes.
Speaker 1: Now I tell my wife 98, 99% of the stuff that I do.
Speaker 1: I'm very open with her.
Speaker 1: She is my best friend.
Speaker 1: But there's some things that a man struggles with that my wife will not understand.
Speaker 1: There's some things that she will struggle with as a woman that I don't get, which is 99% of stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm not stupid, I know, I don't know, I don't have a clue.
Speaker 1: She needs someone to talk to as well.
Speaker 1: She needs fellowship that will understand her.
Speaker 1: I need fellowship that will understand me, and in this we get stronger.
Speaker 1: But when you start to close yourself off, when you start to separate yourself from that connection, you don't have anybody to watch your back and to make sure you're not doing anything stupid.
Speaker 1: How many times have people committed suicide and nobody ever knew?
Speaker 1: Get in some people's business, show them that you care and then don't talk to anybody else about it.
Speaker 1: So why do you have to forgive?
Speaker 1: Why do you have to pray?
Speaker 1: Why do you have to bless?
Speaker 1: I can stay my distance, but to bless them, to give somebody a gift when I don't like their face, to speak well of them when I don't think well of them, sometimes it can change, change them, but most of the time it's changing me.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 12, 14 through 15 says this make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy with holiness.
Speaker 1: No one will.
Speaker 1: Without holiness, no one will see.
Speaker 1: The Lord See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up because trouble, it will trouble and defile many.
Speaker 1: Here's the ugly truth.
Speaker 1: Bitterness is the unseen joy killer.
Speaker 1: You may never have the conversation face to face to ask somebody to forgive you or you forgive someone else.
Speaker 1: But if you do it here, it will change here.
Speaker 1: But you have to release it from your heart because it will create a bitter root inside of you that will grow all sorts of nasty, ugly fruit and it will choke the life out of the spiritual fruit God desires for you to have.
Speaker 1: And if you've ever been bitter against somebody, it will not affect you.
Speaker 1: It will affect everyone around you.
Speaker 1: You will constantly have a bad attitude.
Speaker 1: You may even be the reason someone won't come back to church.
Speaker 1: I know this because I have been this.
Speaker 1: I've been.
Speaker 1: People say this all the time like well, I don't want to go to church, there's a bunch of hypocrites.
Speaker 1: It's not hypocrites, it's sinners.
Speaker 1: We all are sinners, saved by grace, and only grace.
Speaker 1: No amount of works that will make us not hypocrite status will get you into heaven.
Speaker 1: It is only by the grace and the love of Jesus Christ that we're even here.
Speaker 1: So if anybody ever says that to you, there's some ammunition.
Speaker 1: You got something to shoot back now.
Speaker 1: We're not hypocrites, we're sinners.
Speaker 1: Wait what?
Speaker 1: The root of bitterness has grown so deep beneath the surface that I had no clue that I was hurting my wife, that it was something that wasn't between us.
Speaker 1: It was in me.
Speaker 1: Good, wholesome, righteous fruits in my life.
Speaker 1: Bitterness would choke them out.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find the love, the joy, the peace, the things God desires us to have, because the bitter root went so deep.
Speaker 1: And these roots made themselves known, and when they do, they're aggressive.
Speaker 1: They choke the life out of my good fruit.
Speaker 1: So how do you kill the root of bitterness.
Speaker 1: Expose the objects of your bitterness.
Speaker 1: You have to expose the hurt, you have to expose the pain.
Speaker 1: You have to expose the pain.
Speaker 1: You have to be one-on-one with somebody or get in a connect group and you have to talk about these things.
Speaker 1: Talk about your hurts, because when you talk about it, you say it out loud.
Speaker 1: The Bible says confess your sins to one another, because when you let it out, it no longer builds up inside of you and the devil has no ammunition because you're telling everybody.
Speaker 1: Anyways, I used to.
Speaker 1: As a kid, I used to tell on myself when I would do something wrong.
Speaker 1: I couldn't get away with.
Speaker 1: Anything Made me so mad.
Speaker 1: It was all over my face and my mom would be like what?
Speaker 1: I would just break and start crying.
Speaker 1: I threw it, okay.
Speaker 1: So there's this instance that my cousins tricked me into going and telling on myself.
Speaker 1: I broke this gun.
Speaker 1: It was like a toy gun but it was like an antique thing and I was chasing them.
Speaker 1: I couldn't catch them.
Speaker 1: They were too fast and I threw it against the concrete wall in the basement and it shattered.
Speaker 1: Oh, the pain in my stomach, it was bad.
Speaker 1: And they're like oh, I'm going to go tell.
Speaker 1: And I was like no, no, I'll go tell.
Speaker 1: I would think that the punishment would be less if I went and told myself I don't know if it worked, but I'm still alive, so whatever.
Speaker 1: But we have to be willing to say that something is wrong.
Speaker 1: We have to get the hurt and the bitterness out and expose it.
Speaker 1: Talk to someone in your inner circle that will fast and pray for you and touch heaven on your behalf, sister Barbara, if you come up.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 5.11 says this have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
Speaker 1: The reason, hurt and pain have to be addressed and dealt with because, if not, it will only produce darkness inside of you.
Speaker 1: It will darken and cloud your relationships, people you love and care about.
Speaker 1: It will cloud your judgment.
Speaker 1: You'll never feel happy, you'll never be fulfilled, you won't have that joy and you can't.
Speaker 1: Most of all, you can't get healed.
Speaker 1: And God desires all of these things for us.
Speaker 1: He wants us to be happy, he wants us to live a fulfilled life.
Speaker 1: He wants us to have fullness and joy and peace and love and goodness and mercy, and show grace, goodness and mercy.
Speaker 1: Show grace towards each other, with every head bowed if you have been hurt or you are dealing with hurt.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of the things I said to you hit home to you because you've still been holding on to something that happened years ago.
Speaker 1: It could be a fresh hurt, it doesn't matter what time frame it's in.
Speaker 1: God loves you and he cares for you so much that he got you here today or watching online so that you can hear that God loves you and he cares about your hurt and he cares about your pain and he wants you to be restored and healed.
Speaker 1: Healing is what he does and love is who he is.
Speaker 1: He desires for you to feel that love and to bask in that healing.
Speaker 1: If you're here today and you've been hurt or you haven't got past or hurt, I want to pray for you.
Speaker 1: Just slip your hand up and slip it right back down.
Speaker 1: Just say I've been hurt, I've been hurt, I need healing, I need to be washed, I need to be cleansed, I need to be restored in my spirit.
Speaker 1: I become bitter, I become angry, I become negative.
Speaker 1: I need that restoration in my life.
Speaker 1: I need that healing in my life.
Speaker 1: Every person who lifted their hand under the sound of my voice.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray right now a supernatural healing over them.
Speaker 1: Let your supernatural peace come down and restore them.
Speaker 1: Let them confess it today.
Speaker 1: Let them get with somebody today.
Speaker 1: Let the sun not go down today before they go to somebody and say I need to talk to somebody, I need healing.
Speaker 1: God, time is not what heals all wounds.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit can heal what the devil has been trying to break, the little cracks the devil's found to try to work his way into.
Speaker 1: Father, I pray you seal them with your holy power.
Speaker 1: I rebuke it in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Let a washing come over them right now of healing and restoration and peace and joy and love, and let your mercy and grace flow over them so that they can also give that out to those who have offended them and hurt them.
Speaker 1: Let this place be a house of healing.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, do what only you can do.
Speaker 1: Do what only you can do.
Speaker 1: If you lifted your hand, just allow God to do that work in you.
Speaker 1: Allow God to do his work.
Speaker 1: Allow the spirit to work inside of you.
Speaker 1: Just confess it with your mouth or think it, whatever you want to do, but say God, all this hurt and this pain, I give it to you.
Speaker 1: It's yours.
Speaker 1: I don't want it anymore.
Speaker 1: I've been holding on it too long.
Speaker 1: It has kept me bound.
Speaker 1: Loose me in the name of Jesus, free me.
Speaker 1: He.
Speaker 1: Loose me in the name of Jesus, free me.
Speaker 1: He's a chain-breaking God.
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, break those chains Still, with every head bowed.
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to leave a service without offering.
Speaker 1: If you don't know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, if he has not washed you and sanctified you and you want to feel His love today like you have never felt love before, just slip your hand up, slip it right back down.
Speaker 1: Say I need Jesus, I need him to be my savior, I need him to wash me clean.
Speaker 1: Just slip it up and slip it right back down If everyone wanna pray out loud dear Jesus, cleanse my heart, forgive me of my sins, wash me clean.
Speaker 1: You are the Son of God.
Speaker 1: You came and died for me.
Speaker 1: I receive your gift In the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Give up a hand clap of praise for those who accepted Jesus today.