This was my first sermon as Senior Pastor
Intro
As Christians, we are called to love God first and foremost and secondly, everyone else in the world.
At the end of our journey, Jesus will say to us “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In order to go and make disciples, you must communicate and be open.
You all have these qualities!
And this scares Satan out of his wits. He would be so furious if this church would rise up like he knows they can.
But before we can go to war and before we can build – we must heal.
Tell me, brothers, is it easier to run with only shirt and shorts – or is it easier to run with a 40 lb backpack full of rocks?
In the same way, it is important for us to take of the burdens that we carry.
3 Things One Can Do to Heal
1) Forgive (Matt. 6:12)
2) Share. (James 5:16)
3) Renew your mind (Romans 12:2)
I. Intro
a. Why is it the way it is?
b. My experience on Thursday
c. Why? Satan knows what this church can do.
d. Must do things in order
II. Forgive
a. The first step in healing is admitting that there is something needs to be healed.
i. If you won’t accept that something is wrong, you will have no need to change it.
b. The second step is forgiveness
i. In Matt. 6:12, we read in the Lord’s Prayer that “and forgive us of our wrongs as we forgive those who have wronged us”.
1. I know a lot of times, we focus so hard on asking forgiveness for our sins, but we spend a lot less time forgiving others.
2. You have heard it said many times “do to someone as you would want them to do to you”.
3. If you wish for forgiveness on yourself, you must also forgive!
a. You reap what you sow.
b. If you sow forgiveness, you will reap forgiveness.
ii. You say, but Pastor, how do you forgive someone who has hurt you so badly?
1. The bible tells us to take captive every thought and make it submit.
2. Think about that person and actively and literally say from your heart “I forgive you”
a. Whenever you think about that person and what has happened, take that thought captive and defeat it “I forgive you”.
III. Share
a. After you have forgiven, there is still a wound.
b. Like a bullet
i. If you get shot, you can forgive that person all you want, you will still be shot.
ii. If you do not deal with that wound, you will get infected and die.
iii. The infection of a rotting spiritual wound is bitterness.
1. Bitterness leads down a long and lonely path, one filled with misery.
iv. But if you take out that bullet and clean the wound, your wound will heal.
c. James 5:16
i. “If we confess our sins (hurts) to one another, so that you will be healed.”
ii. Think about all the help psychologist give.
1. They sit and listen to people’s hurts and sins.
2. After a while they give advice on what to do for help.
3. But, by simply talking to that psychologist, they are beginning to heal.
iii. How smart is our God, that he put this in our in the Bible?!
1. Find someone accountable and responsible.
2. Go talk to that person.
a. As God is three, He is a social person by His very nature.
b. We are created in His image
c. We are also social people by nature.
IV. Renew Your Mind
a. After the bullet has been taken out of the wound, and the healing has been coming along, you notice that your skin, muscle and bone have grown back and you are able to do the same movements as before.
b. Now you have something valuable.
c. You are able to know from experience, what not to do to get shot.
i. Whether it be something you said or somewhere you went.
ii. You are renewed.
d. Romans 12:2
i. “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
1. Brothers, who wants to be in God’s good graces?
e. Updates
i. On phones and computers, they have to be updated from time to time. This happens when something has been improved – security increased, more smooth functions, quicker response – any of it.
ii. After the update, the device now uses this new information to carry out its normal operations.
1. In the same way, once we have forgiven and healed, we are to renew our mind.
2. We are to take what we have learned, change how it affects us and then live in the new way of thinking.
a. This gives us victory over our old selves.
V. Conclusion
a. Please stand and bow your heads.
b. This altar is open, but before you come, listen to me.
i. You can come to this altar all day long, but it is not here where changes are made and lives transformed.
ii. Those happen in your heart. Go to the altar of your heart, where the Holy Spirit is waiting to fulfill his duty as the Comforter.
c. Pray to close
PRAY FOR HEALING AND RESTORATION
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