Life Change Story Pt1
Soul Care • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Redeeming Our Story
Today is Mother’s Day, and for many people it’s a celebration.
We honour mothers who have loved us, sacrificed for us, prayed for us, and shaped our lives.
But for some people, today can also be complicated.
Some are grieving mothers who are no longer here.
Some carry painful memories of difficult relationships.
Some long to be mothers but that door hasn’t opened.
Some grew up without the nurture they needed.
Motherhood has a powerful influence on our identity.
Because the first place most of us learn about love, safety and belonging is through the care of a mother.
When that love is present, it can shape us in wonderful ways.
But when it is missing, broken, or painful, it can leave deep questions in our hearts:
Am I wanted?
Am I loved?
Do I matter?
The amazing thing about the Bible is that while God reveals Himself as Father, the Bible also shows us something of the mother heart of God.
God says:
13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…
Jesus said:
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.
Again in Isaiah 49:15 it says:
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Even when human love fails, God’s love never does. God’s love carries motherly tenderness.
He comforts.
He nurtures.
He cherishes.
He restores.
And one of the things God loves to do is heal the wounded places in our story.
Today we are continuing our Soul Care series, and we’re talking about something deeply personal: how God redeems our story.
Because every one of us carries a story.
And not every chapter has been easy.
Rob Reimer says:
“We don’t get to choose if we suffer, but we do get to choose how we suffer.” Rob Reimer
Suffering will shape us.
But through Christ, suffering can also be redemptive.
Behaviour Change vs Heart Transformation
Rob Reimer talks about a discovery he made early in his ministry.
He realised that much of his Christian life had focused on behaviour change, rather than heart transformation.
He knew how to behave like a Christian.
But his heart still needed healing.
Jesus pointed to the same issue.
Matthew 12:34 says:
34 …For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
And Matthew 15:19 says:
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
The real issue is not just behaviour.
The issue is the heart.
God is not interested in simply managing our behaviour.
He wants to transform our hearts.
That means dealing with the deeper places in our story.
The wounds.
The labels.
The lies we have believed.
Soul care is about allowing the Holy Spirit to heal the root issues of our story.
The Holy Spirit wants to bring things into the light to bring healing but we often respond with resistance as it can be painful.
Rob Reimer put forward 3 ways we often respond:
1. Defensiveness
“I’m not the problem.” “I’m fine”. I’ve got over it and don’t need to deal with it”. Sometimes we can even play the super-spiritual card “I’m a new creation - the past is gone, I don’t need to deal with it!”
We protect our image and keep the walls up instead of letting God heal us.
2. Blaming
We focus on other people’s failures, their sins against us, rather than our own responsibility, how we reacted, how bitterness, offence, unforgiveness have festered. We need to own 100% of our part.
3. Bargaining
We negotiate with God instead of surrendering.
But transformation begins when we become honest about our story.
“You will never rise above your level of self-awareness. The things we deny about ourselves are the very things that deny us from the fulness of God.” Rob Reimer
7 But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light, as He [Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses (removes) us from all sin and guilt [keeps us cleansed from sin in all its forms and manifestations].
God cannot heal what we hide. We need to bring it into the light.
The Story of Jabez
We see this in the story of Jabez.
In 1 Chronicles 4:9 we read:
9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”
The name Jabez literally means pain or sorrow.
Imagine growing up with that identity.
Every time someone called his name they were saying:
“You are pain. you are the personification of sorrow”
His identity was shaped by someone else’s suffering.
But Jabez refused to live under that label.
He refused to let his past define his future.
Instead he cried out to God:
10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
See, Jabez did not hide the pain, he instead named the label of pain, and asked that God would free him of it. To quote a powerful woman of God: He chose not to “wear it!”
And the Bible simply says:
“And God granted his request.”
Jabez did not allow the name given to him at birth to determine his future.
Through his relationship with God, his story changed.
And that same thing happens when people encounter Jesus.
Your past may explain you. But it does not have to define you.
Jesus Rewrites Broken Stories
We see again this same principle in John 9 with the man born blind.
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
People believed his suffering meant he had been cursed by God.
Later the religious leaders even told him:
34 …“You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
That was the label placed on his life.
He was cursed
rejected
defined by his suffering
But Jesus saw a different story.
John 9:3 Jesus said:
3 “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
Jesus then spat on the ground, made some mud, and revealed Himself as creator God, creating seeing eyes that were not, from the dust of the ground.
Where others saw punishment, Jesus saw redemption.
Where others saw shame, Jesus saw glory.
Where others saw a hopeless story, Jesus saw a testimony waiting to happen.
In the Open Doors book “Witness”
There is a powerful modern example of this in the story of a man named Mateo from Cuba.
From a young age Mateo felt unwanted and unloved.
His father left when he was nine months old.
Soon after, his mother abandoned him.
She asked a cousin to look after him while she went out to send a letter to his father — and she never returned.
Mateo grew up being passed between relatives.
Often they had nothing to eat.
Some of his uncles forced him to steal food just to survive.
If he refused, they would throw him out of the house.
At times he was so desperate he picked food up from the street just to eat it.
He felt completely alone and suicidal. He turned to alcohol and crime.
But deep inside he sensed something telling him to keep going.
Everything changed when another uncle — who was a Christian — took him to church.
Mateo said: “There I met the Lord. He gave me a second family.”
The church leaders welcomed him.
They fed him.
They bought him clothes.
They treated him like a son.
They looked beyond what Mateo was and saw what he could become.
Mercy brings mercy Mateo chose to forgive his mother.
He went and found his mother and said:
“I want to forget everything and start a new life where we can love each other.”
That conversation became a moment of healing.
Today Mateo says that he now has the best relationship with his mother.
And now he serves as an evangelist sharing the gospel.
God redeemed his story.
God Redeems Our Story
Every person here carries parts of their story that are painful.
Some of it came from:
family
culture
relationships
disappointments
words spoken over you
“We can’t choose if we will suffer, but we can choose how we will suffer” Are we going to choose redemptive suffering?
The good news of Jesus is that God is a redeemer of stories.
Romans 8:28 says:
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Not some things. - All things.
Even the painful chapters.
Even the broken moments.
Even the suffering we would never have chosen.
God has the power to redeem it.
20 Even though you planned evil against me, God planned good to come out of it. This was to keep many people alive, as he is doing now.
Your past may explain your story.
But in Christ, it does not get to define your future.
As we finish today, I believe the Holy Spirit wants to minister us.
So let’s take a quiet moment together.
If you feel comfortable, just close your eyes.
Holy Spirit, we invite you to come.
Would you gently show us any places in our story where we still carry pain or labels.
Maybe these come from painful memories
Maybe we have build up walls of resistance, places we fear opening up
God is a good Father — and He carries the tender heart of a mother.
He does not shame us.
He heals us.
Maybe there are words spoken over you years ago that still shape how you see yourself.
Maybe words like:
unwanted
not good enough
failure
abandoned
Just bring that label to Jesus now.
And quietly say in your heart:
“Jesus, I give you this label.”
Pause.
Now ask Him a simple question:
“Father, who do you say I am?”
Just listen.
Sometimes God speaks through a word, a scripture, a picture, or a sense of peace.
Let His truth replace the lies.
Father, thank you that you are a good Father.
And thank you that you carry the tender heart of a mother.
Where there has been rejection, release belonging.
Where there has been shame, release identity.
Where there has been pain, release healing.
Lord, rewrite the stories in this room.
Let testimonies be born from suffering.
Let identity be restored.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
