Bruises

The Lord cares about even our most delicate slights and sensitivities and desires to comfort us concerning them. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi, welcome to the Authentic Worshiper Podcast. I'm Ivy, and I have a word today that I think is going to bless you. It blessed me as I was studying this, and the name of it is Bruises. Bruises. You know, God cares about the little slights and delicate things that percolate in our hearts. He cares about those things. And he wants to set us free from those things. And so our scripture reading today is taken from Luke chapter 1, verses 24 and 25. And it reads, Now after these days, his wife, Zechariah's wife, became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among people. This is Elizabeth speaking, Zechariah's wife. And she was older at this point. And I am impressed by the fact that those five months, she didn't say, Oh my goodness, the Lord is going to use me to bring forth a great, a great person. Oh, I'm so excited. She said, This is the way the Lord has dealt with me. He has looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among people. She had that disgrace as a bruise for being barren. And it had it had gone with her all these years. Now, you know, the Lord had a purpose for Elizabeth. She was to bring forth John the Baptist. That is incredible. It's, I mean, what a privilege, right? But within this purpose was the Lord's care and concern for this one lady, Elizabeth. And she recognized another purpose in how the Lord dealt with her, and that was to take away her reproach among people. Do you know that the Lord cares about those little things? It may not be so little, but he cares about those tender, hidden sensitivities that are in our souls and in our hearts. He didn't just use Elizabeth as a means to his end, you know, as this conduit to bring forth John the Baptist. He addressed her embarrassment about her barrenness and her questioning about whether she was acceptable before the Lord. You know, that barrenness had pressed down on her for so long till she began to question, do I really have the Lord's favor? I mean, why has this plagued my life? Do I still have the Lord's favor? So the Lord addressed that. And you know, in Israel, barrenness was not a favorable state, okay? It was looked down on. Deuteronomy 28, 18 says that it was the consequence of disobedience. So if you were barren, you know, people speculated there might be some kind of disobedience in your life. And we see it with uh David's wife Macall, you know, uh as a consequence for sin. Remember, uh David went out one day and he was worshiping the Lord exuberantly, and Macall uh he ridiculed him for it. You know, look at the king, look at, you know, you're just looking ridiculous. And because of that ridicule, Macall was barren until the day of her death. We read that uh she was barren until the day of her death. That was 2 Samuel 6, 23. Okay, so barrenness was a curse, it was bad, but the Lord cared enough about this one lady, even as she fulfilled the Lord's purpose for her life to deal with her bruises. Okay, now that comforts me. That comforts me about the things that I experience that are outside of the main purposes uh for my life. I know that the Lord has called me, but there are other things that I deal with, and he cares about those things. He is not merely trying to ram through his purposes for me. No, he cares about the little hurts and slights from others, little doubts, little fears, all these bruises that trouble me. And he desires to free me from them. Remember, Luke 4.18 says that he came to set at liberty those that are bruised. So he wants to set you free. He wants to set us free. Okay, now those of you that are leaders in the body of Christ, I really want to address uh uh this because it can really comfort you. Yes, the Lord calls us, he intends to use us as a conduit for his purposes, it is a mandate. We we sense his enabling upon us, his weight, his glory upon us to accomplish his purposes for our lives. But I wrote here that in the mandate, he is merciful. In the mandate, he is also merciful, and in his purposes, he is also personal. Does that make sense? It's not just about ramming through the purposes that he has in his heart through you. He cares about you, all the little sensitivities, all the delicate issues, all the little movements of your heart, the bruises and things he cares about. There are things that make our hearts grieve, and there are things that make us feel vulnerable, and there are things that make us feel sad, and sometimes we walk around with those things for years and they are unaddressed, especially as leaders. He cares about those things. You know, I remember in Leviticus uh chapter 10, remember when Aaron's two sons offered strange fire to the Lord? What happened? Well, they died, they're on the spot. And there was Aaron having experienced the loss of two sons. And afterwards, Moses talked to him and said, Now, why didn't you do this and why didn't you do that? Let's come on, let's get going. Sometimes in ministry, we just feel the need. I gotta keep going. I just gotta, I we gotta just, you know, boast over this. We gotta get through this and and do the work of the Lord. And it is good to be consistent, it is good to be faithful, but sometimes the Lord just wants to press pause and deal with your bruises. And he did he did that this time for Aaron. You know, Moses was saying, Why didn't you do this? You know, you you forgot to do that. That's what the law will do. Moses is a type of the law, right? That's what the law will do. You should do this, you should do that, you should be here, you should give, you should come, you should do this. And uh Aaron's like, I I I lost two of my sons. I would the Lord have been pleased if I just plowed ahead like that? Would that please the Lord? And when he told Moses that, Moses acquiesced. He said, Okay, I understand, I understand. And the Lord wants to show compassion. You know, um, I think it's 2 Corinthians 3, it says, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. The letter will wear you out, it will have you on the hamster wheel, doing ministry, doing ministry, doing ministry, and none of those bruises are ever addressed. But the Lord's like, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. I care about your bruises. I came to heal you. You know, I he said a uh where is that? Uh I have it written. Let's see. Matthew 12, 20. A bruised reed will he not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out till he has brought justice through to victory. You know, he doesn't want to just press you forward and press you forward. He wants to heal you. He wants to heal you. He wants to heal you. Okay, now I'm not saying that we need to coddle our bruises and indulge them and focus on them and talk about them endlessly and let them paralyze us and stagnate us so that we don't do the work of the Lord. That's not what I'm saying. But we do need to remember that he came to set at liberty them that are bruised, and that word means to be broken by calamity or shattered by circumstances. Psalm 145-9 says that the Lord's tender mercies are over all his works. He's good to all his, he has compassion on all that he has made. He doesn't drive us like we drive cattle. No, he tenderly leads us as a shepherd leads his sheep. He is merciful to our unrighteousness. You know, uh Romans 8 26 says the Spirit helps our infirmities. We have them, you know, and uh what does that word mean, infirmities? It means want of strength and capacity required to understand a thing or to restrain corrupt desires or to bear trials and troubles. He this the he helps those things, he helps our infirmities, he helps us. So is it clear that the Lord wants to address those things and just let him take some time and be still and be with him and say, you know, Lord, I'm doing ministry, but I I got this vulnerable area. I just feel so vulnerable in this area, and the Lord will come and deal with that. Okay, and so as he deals with us in those areas, let us be compassionate to others who have bruises. As we minister to others, let us be compassionate about their bruises. Do we have regard for others' bruises? Or do we say, you know, you need to do this, you need to do that? Come on, let's work in the church, come on, be here, give, work. Do we do that? Let us instead have compassion on other people's bruises. Okay, so a bruised reed, he won't break. And I want to pray about that today. Some of you have bruises, relational things that have so troubled you. You have runaway thoughts that you you know you can't seem to lasso in. You have things that you're dealing with that are little areas of the heart that make your heart real tender and susceptible to hurt. So can we pray about that? Okay, Father God, we come in the name of Jesus. You said that a bruised reed you wouldn't break. And in many ways, our hearts are shattered, broken. Father God, abused by circumstances. And Lord, we want to serve you. We're not gonna shrink back from serving you. But would you deal with these issues, Lord? We bring them before you. We bring them before you, Father. We ask that you would address them. Address them, Father. Lord, desires that have gone unfulfilled, and we didn't understand why. I just pray, Father, for those that are listening, that Father, every bruise be healed. Every bruise be healed, and Father, they be made more fit to serve you with full capacity. We thank you for what you do. We bless your name. We thank you for your kindness. In Jesus' name, amen.