September 28, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Heals Us"

Isaiah 53:1-12

Our God Heals Wounded Hearts

Introduction

Illustration – Ed Dobson, pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, suffers with ALS. He says: I have muscle atrophy and nerve damage in my right hand and arm, and I have twitches all over my body. There is a remote possibility the disease could remain localized in my arm, in which case it wouldn't kill me. So I have three prayers for healing: a small-faith vision, a medium-faith one, and a big-faith prayer. When my faith is small, I pray, "Lord, I'll give up my right hand; just let the disease stop there." If I'm a little stronger in my faith, I pray, "Lord, stop it right where it is; let it get no worse than it is today." If I'm feeling particularly bold, I pray, "Maybe you could heal me, Lord. Maybe you could reverse this disease." One night I asked my friend, the former pastor of First Assembly, to come over and anoint me with oil. He talked to me about people he has anointed who got healed and people he anointed who didn't. He said, "You need to get lost in the wonder of God. If you'll get lost in that wonder, who knows what he'll do for you." I understood him to mean that if I get lost in the love of God, the faithfulness of God, the power of God, if I can focus not on healing, but on the Healer, then watch out. That perspective really changes how I pray (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
Context – The prayer of my heart is that, by the end of this service, we will begin not only to have a better understanding of our healing God, but more importantly that many of us will begin to experience the healing that God has for us. So let’s read Isaiah 53:1-12 to find out who this God Who heals really is.

Scripture Passage

Isaiah 53:1-12 (from The Message) – (NEW SLIDE) Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God – a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. (NEW SLIDE) He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried – our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. (NEW SLIDE) We thought he brought it all on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. (NEW SLIDE) We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. (NEW SLIDE) Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off – and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. (NEW SLIDE) They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it – life, life, and more life. (NEW SLIDE) And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. (NEW SLIDE) Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly – the best of everything, the highest honors – Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Healing for Wounded Hearts

I know that’s a long passage to read, but what a beautiful one! To think that Jesus did all that for us! What an awesome truth! But there is one thought I want to pull out of this. The Message translation says, But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins! He took the punishment that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. (NEW SLIDE) As the New Living puts it, But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! It’s the truth of the healing power of the life and death of Jesus Christ that speaks to us so powerfully from this passage, isn’t it?
You see, we all share something in common. We’ve all been wounded in many ways. We’ve all been hurt. We’ve all suffered through the pain of rejection, the pain of piercing words that stabbed us deep in our hearts, the pain of thoughtless acts against us that have hurt us badly. We’ve all suffered the pain of dealing with those accidental woundings, taking offense at something harmless because we’ve felt tired or hurting or lonely. And we all have something else in common – we have a hard time allowing those hurts to be healed.

(NEW SLIDE) Jesus faced the same hurts we face. As our passage tells us, He was rejected. He heard piercing words that stabbed deeply into His heart. He was hurt by thoughtless acts against Him. He dealt with this temptation, to be hurt by harmless things because He was tired or hurting or lonely. He faced everything we face, but with one difference – He suffered them so that we can be healed. He took our punishment so that we can be made whole. He gives us the healing our wounded souls so need badly.

I know what many here are probably thinking, because I’ve thought the same things at many times in my life. "That’s really nice theology, Hawes, but if it’s true why haven’t I been healed? Why do those hurts still cause me to be bitter and angry with those who hurt me?" Jesus did die and rise again so that our wounded souls can be healed. The critical word here is "can." We CAN be healed. But we have to receive that healing. "Okay, Hawes, how do we do that?" There is a word we don’t like to hear because we don’t like what it implies – forgiveness. We have to forgive so that we can be healed.
(NEW SLIDE) In Luke 6:37, Jesus says, "If you forgive others, you will be forgiven." That statement gives our concept of God a beating, doesn’t it? If we forgive others, then we will receive forgiveness. Jesus is talking about how we relate with others in this context, so I believe that part of what He’s saying is that if we forgive others for what they have done to us, others will forgive us for what we’ve done to them.
Anger and bitterness are signs of unforgiveness. Sometimes we’ve refused to forgive other people for what we feel they’ve done to us. Sometimes we’ve refused to forgive God what for we feel He’s done to us or allowed to happen to us. Times when we’ve been abused physically, emotionally, mentally, or even sexually, are incredibly tough. The fact that sin can cause someone to do things that are so terrible and vile and evil is just hard to stomach. And where is God in this? What’s He doing? Why didn’t He intervene?
I am no expert on dealing with abuse victims, but I do know why God doesn’t intervene. (NEW SLIDE) God will not do anything to stop us from sinning, other than the urgent voice of His Spirit crying out within the heart and mind of those who are thinking about doing such terrible things. We have free will. We have the freedom to choose to sin or to do things God’s way. God loves us enough to give us the freedom to choose. This freedom applies to everybody. And just as some of our choices have very negative consequences on other people, some of their choices have very negative consequences on us. That’s the sad reality of what happens when sin wins in any given situation – someone always gets hurt.
So where’s the hope, Hawes? How do I get past this? As long as we insist on the possibility of revenge against those who’ve hurt us, we lose. We stay angry and bitter and unable to deal with our pain enough to get past it. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him – our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. (NEW SLIDE) Jesus took all the sin of the world, from the beginning of time to the end of time, on Himself and it died on the cross with Him. We’ve got to receive this gift and all the implications of this gift if we’re going to find the peace and healing we so desperately need. How do we receive this gift of healing and hope and peace? Forgiveness.
You see, forgiveness is a choice, not an emotion. Once you make the choice, the emotions come later. We choose not to demand or personally take revenge on whoever has hurt us. We choose to say, "What you did was rotten and evil and awful, and you never should have done it. But by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ I choose to forgive you. I choose to leave this in Jesus’ hands and begin to receive His healing. I choose to stop allowing my reaction to what you’ve done to rule my life." It’s a choice. Maybe you need to say something like that to yourself concerning a person who’s hurt you. Maybe you need to say something like that to God. Maybe you need to tell God, "I really feel like You let me down on this. I don’t understand why You didn’t intervene and stop this. I was innocent. I couldn’t stop what was happening. But I want to tell You that a lot of the time I don’t understand how You work, and this is one of them. So I’m choosing to give You the benefit of the doubt. I’m choosing to stop trying to punish You by rejecting what Your Spirit has been trying to do in my heart and my life. Even though part of me knows You are perfect and flawless and never do what is wrong, I am choosing to forgive You for what I have believed You’ve done wrong. I am choosing to believe You are good and true and loving and holy, because that is what You are. And I’m asking You to forgive me for allowing my false perceptions of who You are to rule my life. I’m making these choices by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ."
Maybe the hurts you’ve experienced aren’t as bad as some of this stuff, but they still are open wounds if they cause anger and bitterness. (NEW SLIDE) And Jesus still died and rose again so that those hurts can be healed. The pain doesn’t have to rule our lives any longer. As Paul wrote, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free!"

Illustration – There once was a little boy. He was persecuted and rejected by just about all the other kids at school because of his weight and his glasses and the funny shoes he had to wear. And he never could seem to do anything right in any part of his life. He can still remember standing there while hurtful words were spoken to him, words of criticism and rejection that ripped every last bit of self esteem and every feeling of self-worth from him time and time again. He can still remember the pain of failing to live up to expectations that he couldn’t even come close to. He can remember knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d never be good enough to amount to anything. He can remember crying himself to sleep night after night, wondering if it would ever get better, trying to find reasons to live, wondering where God was. He went through his high school and college years depressed and lonely and even suicidal at times. He had received Christ, but something was keeping him from receiving all of God’s love for Him.

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I was that little boy. In fact, there are times when I still am that little boy inside. There are times when I still struggle with anger and bitterness over the consequences of those sins against me. But a major turning point in my life came several years ago when I began to make the choice to forgive. And I put it that way because there are times when I try to take that burden back from God because I’m tired of dealing with the consequences. Just because we forgive does not mean the consequences go away, but when we forgive we have divine help in dealing with those consequences. But when I began to choose to forgive, God began to work in my heart. I began to see where those people were coming from, how broken and fractured their lives were and still are, and how much they need Jesus. Where before I would have been satisfied to see them burn in hell for all eternity, I now have a tremendous burden for their souls. I weep for them and plead with God week after week for their salvation. God is helping me learn to feel what I’ve made the choice to do. And God is working to heal those holes in my soul caused by the pain and anguish I lived with for so long. It’s a process, and way too long by my standards, but God is gradually healing me. Why He doesn’t totally heal me instantly, I don’t know. But I do know He is healing me and helping me work through the consequences.
I know some of you have been through much worse stuff than I’ve been through. I know that the pain runs deep. But I also know that we have a God Who heals wounded souls, and I know He wants to begin the process of healing in all of our hearts and souls today.

Conclusion

What I’m going to ask next is going to take some courage, but it all revolves around how miserable you are and how much you long for healing. If you long for healing enough to do something about it, whether it’s something huge or tiny, and you want to make the choice to forgive this morning, please come forward right now and kneel at the altars. Nobody will think any less of you – in fact, I know I’ll admire you even more because of the courage that it takes to make the walk up here. And you don’t have to tell anyone what your situation is about if you don’t want to.
So if you want to make that choice to forgive and to receive the healing your wounded soul needs so badly, please come forward and kneel at the altars now. Then I’d like some of your brothers and sisters in Christ to come forward and join you and pray with you. You don’t have to tell them anything. And please, men pray with men and women pray with women. But don’t miss out on the miracle God wants to begin working in your heart this morning.