Redemption

Good morning. Welcome to LWF, I am Chris Wiley the lead pastor of living Word Fellowship and what a blessing it is to be so. How incredible it is to be here and to be the pastor of such a glorious church. I mean seriously, look around. Isn’t your neighbor just awesome? You should tell them so.

Ok enough of that, let’s get on with the service. We are continuing our message on our book that you see behind us. If you haven’t gotten a copy, get one. If you have gotten a copy and it blessed your life as I know it did, give it away, and then sponsor a book. For $10 you can sponsor a book and it will be mailed along with post cards from the church for 4 months to people in this community. This community that we are impacting for God.

Again we are not filming for life due to some of the sensitive nature of the topic. Today we have Sergio and Rachel with us.

Now Sergio we are going to be gentlemen here and let ladies go first. So Rachel we are going to start with you.

For those that don’t know we change names in the book to protect the innocent or so we don’t get sued. Whatever you hear today from these two is their version of the story or the events how they saw them. I say that because in these stories there are some accusations laid if we get to them. So just know that. Now Rachel tell us your name in the book and then a bit about your story.

Rachel

Rachel aka Addison

Thank you. Now Sergio tell us your name in the book and a little bit about your story.

Sergio aka Reuben

Let me as you both this question and you can answer.

How does your story make you feel and enable you to relate with other people?

Rachel talk about one thing that kept popping up in your story, that another man had let you down. The main man in your life your dad had failed you and how did that image of failure flow over to your view of God.

Sergio talk with us a bit the inability to escape. I just kept seeing that. One thing after another.

Did telling your story help to relieve the weight of it and were you reluctant to share your story?

Now you might say, pastor why are we telling this stories. This isn’t a message. I came here for something positive, uplifting, make me laugh, touch me a little bit.

Then you got exactly what you came for. See here is the deal, scripture says

Revelation 12:11 NKJV

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

So these folks that are doing this are overcoming even more in their own life by the word of their testimony. They are also here to help someone over come their struggle. We are real people here, with real lives, real problems, but we know a real hope. That is why we do this.

Now I get to preach a bit so just hold on. See what you need to know in their story is that God who redeemed their lives, can and wants to redeem yours. Redemption is all about bringing value to something. Both of these two felt they had no value. Or that their value was tied into what they could achieve or what some man thought of them. So they spend years trying to achieve and trying to please and never quite getting there but always seeming to fall short. That is an ugly cycle to be in. They couldn’t escape it seemed like they were captives. What does Jesus say?

Luke 4:18 NKJV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

You too may be in a cycle of just falling short. You may feel trapped. You may even be trapped let’s be honest. The enemy and sin are really good at trapping people and keeping them in bondage. Maybe like Rachel you just have a wrong image of God. You may think God doesn’t care, he does. He loves you. You may think he is absent. He isn’t he is ever present. You may think his is far off. He isn’t. He is at hand. You may think He doesn’t or can’t help. He can and He does by holding you with his mighty right arm. You may think he is disappointed in me. He isn’t. He is the good good father that points to you as a show of his glory. You may think he is angry but he isn’t. He is full of mercy. You may think that he is ready to just drop you as soon as you mess up. He isn’t. He knows your mess ups before you do and He loves you anyway. You may think he is against you. he isn’t. He is for you.

Your story can also be redeemed. If you let the redeemer in.