Who's Invited to Dinner? Hurt or Healing

Main Idea:

Opening Line:

Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends to come together.

It can be a time of great celebration or a time of awkwardness or dread

Introduction (Pain Point/Problem)

Often those closest to us can be the ones who hurt us the most

We can live life in 2 ways

The Sum of our hurts

guarded and afraid of bring hurt again

Angry and irradiated or offended

Often ending up hurting others

The Sum or our Healing

Open and courageous

Showing grace and connecting with others

In the world of hurt people we will all become hurt, but will we let that dictate our next iteration?

Colossians 3:12–17 NIV

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The Series title for this month is

“Who is invited to Dinner?”

Today we are looking at will it be

Hurt or Healing

Main Point

True Healing is More than a Feeling

Hurts are deep feelings that bring death to relationships, to our hopes and dreams, and our fruitfulness for Christ.

This is why true healing is more than a feeling

We must accept the healing of Jesus for those things and people that have hurt us or we will never be able to rebuild relationships, trust, plans, and we will not be effective followers of Jesus.

James 1:19–22 NIV

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Matthew 6:14 NIV

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

If we are living as the sum of our hurts we will not be able to follow the words of Jesus to forgive others. Or what James writes to live without angry or see the righteousness of God in our lives.

Why does it matter?

Feelings lead us away from Christ Healings lead us toward Christ

Jeremiah 17:9–10 NIV

9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Following your heart/your hurt will always lead you away from the vision, mission and power of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 61:1 NIV

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

It is important to allow the Holy Spirit to transform your heart every moment.

Surrender your heart/hurt to the Holy Spirit

He will give you a new heart full of healing instead of hurt.

The hurt is a feeling and a memory of something bad

Healing is a state of being and action looking forward to the leading of Jesus in your life

Example/Object Lesson

Matthew 18:21–35 NIV

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

It doesn’t matter the size or amount of times we have been hurt we must live in forgiveness and healing as an example of God’s Grace.

Living as the sum of your hurts at LEAST will leave you powerless and unable to see the power, presence and purpose of the Holy Spirit working in your life.

AT WORST…You will find that you never truly knew Jesus as your savior accepting His Forgiveness for your sins.

When we live in unforgiveness or hurt we need to be careful that we haven’t become people who don’t have the forgiveness from our Heavenly Father.

Side note

Living in healing does NOT always mean rebuilding a relationship.

Allow the healing of the Holy Spirit to guide you to rebuilding a relationship that hurt you.

It maybe the Holy Spirit is bringing you back together to bring Jesus to that person, but if you are putting yourself in danger without the leading of the Holy Spirit you will simply get hurt again.

Remember the heart is deceitful so don’t follow feelings in rebuilding follow the healing grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

How?

And HOW to Find and Live in Healing?

1. Express your Hurts in Humility

1 Peter 5:5–7 NIV

5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

submitting to the authority and help of elders or mentors in our lives will help us take the steps toward identifying the feelings that are leading us away from Jesus and keeping us living in hurt instead of healing.

Feelings are real - it is not wrong to have feelings but in humility we need to bring them bring those hurts to Christ in prayer and often with another trusted believer.

Feelings are real, but when feelings rule our hearts and actions we will just like that servant in the parable Jesus told.

The feeling of forgiveness makes us feel good, but the feeling of forgiving makes us feel bad.

Humble yourself under God’s mighty had so you can take the first step in true freedom from those hurts

2. Forgive as Christ Forgave

Matthew 18:21–22 NIV

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Colossians 3:13 NIV

13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

James wrote don’t just be hearing of the word, but Do what it says.

step 1 and 2 are both about getting those feelings under control under the grace and power of Jesus Christ.

Living in healing must start with bringing your hurts in humility not blaming others, but expressing your pain to Jesus.

Believe that Jesus Cares for you and wants to hear your hurts as a loving parents wants to hear their children recount the story of their pain so they can better care and comfort their child.

3. Bring Blessings to those people

When we start to move into the healing that is more than a feeling we start to see some pretty difficult commands in the Bible.

We must read it, but to get a little bigger picture the New Living Translation writes.

Colossians 3:13 NLT

13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

be a person who starts with the grace for others that Christ has extended to each of us.

Make allowances for each other’s faults is the beginning of putting actions to your forgiveness.

Luke 6:27–31 NIV

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Bringing blessings and living healing is about feelings and actions.

Actions display the truth of your heart.

4. Be Thankful in Love and Worship

Healing is a process of love and worship to Jesus.

Colossians 3:15–17 NIV

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And be thankful!

With Gratitude to God.

Throughout the journey of healing we must always remain thankful.

It is out of a desire to Love and worship Jesus that we live in healing and forgiveness.

Thankful that He is good and He is faithful and He has already forgave us.

Ephesians 5:19–21 NIV

19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

When life gets hard and the hurts of the past or the present or the possible hurts of the future get too hard to bear

BE THANKFUL for Jesus

Through psalms, Hymns and Spiritual songs.

Worship in your War

True healing is not just a feeling, but it is a living in Humility, Forgiveness, Blessing others, and in Thankful Worship of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer/ Worship Team

Don’t let the hurts your dealing with today stop you from the Power, Presence and Power to bear fruit and seek the Kingdom of Heaven impact this world through your example and testimony!

Who would say they don’t want to go to dinner as that person who is living as the sum of your hurts instead the sum of your healings?

Today is the day of Salvation, Today is the Day of the Lord’s Favor!