Becoming Whole Sermon Week 7

Welcome

Good Morning One Hope Church,

So good to be back together again.

My name is Justin, Pastor

Glad you are here. So good to be gathering together.

We believe in the power of the preaching of God’s word and of corporate worship

Opportunity to serve one another

Call to serve with the church

Serving is a form or worship.

Galatians 6:10 ESV

10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Intro

We are in the middle of a series called Becoming Whole as we are examining what biblical transformation looks like.

The idea is if we can experience transformation in our lives, if we can become whole, we can begin to live out God’s call in our lives

Transformed people can then help others experience their own transformation.

It’s the multiplication of ministry

Last week we talked about the importance and the power of forgiveness.

We talked about what forgiveness is and what it isn’t.

This week, we address the flipside of that as we look at the danger of unforgiveness.

By way of introduction let me ask you this.

Illustration

Do you lock you doors at night?

Set your house alarm?

Make sure you windows are shut?

Cars are locked?

Why is that?

Because you don’t want to let an intruder in

Very simply put, when we live in unforgiveness in our hearts it is akin to leaving our doors unlocked at night.

In fact its worse than that, its actually opening the door to intruders.

If you wouldn’t sleep at night with your doors unlocked an open, why would you do the same with your soul?

Unforgiveness is an open door to soul.

When we don’t forgive we keep the door open to the enemy of our souls

and he comes in and wreaks all kinds of havoc in our lives and the lives of others.

Hebrews 12:14-15 says it this way:

Hebrews 12:15 ESV15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Unforgiveness, a lack of grace, leads to bitterness, resentment and becoming a prisoner of our pain.

But when we forgive, we are not only freed from our pain and can become whole.

Bible

We’ll be in Eph 4:26-27, go there in your Bibles

150 days of prayer for home, health and revival

Pray

pray for the power for give.

Pray against he enemy. close the doors and windows to our souls.

Be Angry

Let’s look at Ephesians 4

Context

All of Paul’s letters begin with what God has done for you in Christ, then what follows is how we are to live in light of what Christ had done for us.

In other words, it is what we have been talking about in this series of what it means to Behold the person and work of Christ, and then to take hold of Him and live in light of that.

here in Eph 4, Paul is unpacking what this life as a Christian looks like.

Ephesians 4:21–24 ESV 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:25 ESV

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Eph 4:26 is on practical application of these truths.

Ephesians 4:26–27 ESV 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

What does this have to do with forgiveness?

When we are wronged, when we are sinned against, there is an injustice that happens

We have the experience of Hurt.

This is the wound.

What follows the wound is Anger & Sadness

Anger & Sadness are the exact appropriate emotions.

This is exactly what God feels when sin happens.

Anger and Sadness (Gen 6:6)

There is such a thing as Righteous Anger

this is good and holy and to be experienced

We can, and should “BE ANGRY”

We should feel anger when we or someone we loved is sinned against.

If we don’t feel anger at sin, we are acting less than human

But what we do with that anger is what is crucial.

“Be angry and do not sin”

We cannot right the wrong because we are not God and we still have sin in our

James 1:20 ESV

20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Our attempts at revenge and avenging will never meet God’s standards of Justice, it’s why we need the Cross

A perfect savior, a perfect solution to sin.

What we do with anger

Ephesians 4:26 ESV 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

BUT he says, “don’t sin in your anger, don’t let the sun go down on you anger”

In other words, deal with you anger, process your anger and ultimately give it over to God

This is what forgiveness is

Allowing God to be God

releasing someone from the debt owed and allowing God to deal with it.

Romans 12:17–21 ESV 17 Repay no one evil for evil...19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God...21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is what forgiveness is actually doing.

As we saw last week, we need to grieve the pain, forgiveness is allowing Jesus to absorb the debt of sin on the cross

He died or all sin (Romans 6:10)

both your sin and the sin done against you.

This is the greatness of the cross

This is the biblical way to deal with our anger and injustice.

We ultimately trust in the Justice of God on the last day.

again, it doesn’t mean we don’t hold people accountable

doesn’t mean we don’t call the cops

it doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences

It means we are trusting God with all sin and justice.

Paul is emphatic here to deal with our anger.

To not let the sun go down.

This doesn’t mean you can’t go to bed angry, it means unresolved anger will causes problems

it will lead to a root of bitterness

Now haven’t you experienced this in your relationships?

spouses, significant others, good friends?

A rift happens in your relationship and rather than directly dealing with the issue we become passive aggressive

we stew in our anger and hurt

we can become bitter and resentful

This is the power of unresolved anger.

It’s unfinished business

It’s unforgiveness

and by it many can become defiled.

Opportunity to the devil

But it’s not just that.

Look at what Paul says next.

Ephesians 4:27 ESV 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

Not only will it lead to detriment in our relationships

but it gives and open door to the devil.

“Opportunity”

This word literally means “place”

as in a “place to stay”

A room in your “house”

A place at the table

This is the open door to wreak havoc in your life and relationship.

Unforgiveness, unresolved anger, opens the door to the enemy of your soul

The Devil — the enemy of your soul

You need to know that we have a real enemy

he is bent on your destruction.

Paul talks of Satan’s schemes.

2 Corinthians 2:10–11 CSB 10 Anyone you forgive, I do too…for it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.

Satan is a schemer.

he has been doing it since the beginning, and in truth, his tactics haven’t changed all that much as we’ll see.

the devil doesn’t have to be that creative to be effective.

What is the devil’s aim?

He will do anything and everything to draw you away from God through distraction, disordered desires, damaged emotions, abuse, neglect, complacency...

His goal is to feed us the lie that God is not good, not loving and not powerful.

He’s been doing what he’s been doing since the beginning

Casting God’s goodness, character and power into doubt.

Genesis 3:1 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan hates God and everything he stands for

And since he cannot directly hurt God he goes after his beloved creation

keeping us in the bondage to unforgiveness is one of his schemes and we become prisoners of our pain.

How Satan Works

This is how he works:

Tempt us to Sin by using what God created for good and turning it for evil.

He elicits often the good desires in us and gets us to use them in ungodly ways

If he succeeds in giving birth to sin, now he can really go to work.

He can now accuse us of sin and condemn us.

Revelation 12:9-10 ESV And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him...the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

His aim is to convince us how unworthy of God’s love and grace we are.

He is very effective at this.

On the other side of it if we are the one’s sinned against

He goes to work and accuses us

to convince us that the sin we experienced was somehow our fault

and that we are unlovable and unworthy of anyone’s blessing let alone God.

This creates pain and hurt within us.

Now he can tempt us to go to sinful solutions to cope with the pain rather than returning to our Good and Loving Father

He will convince us that God is not good and not to be trusted and so you have no where else to turn.

He will convince that we have to take matters into our own hands

Anger makes us feel powerful, like we have some measure of control.

And so we hold on to our anger, we cling to it for a sense of power and control, all the while it is eating away at our soul.

Addictions become especially powerful here.

This gets us caught in the cycle of sin and we can spend years, even decades here.

Sin is the power of the devil.

He is particularly effective in our wounds here.

Satan will continue to shout in our pain, that God can’t be good, God can’t love you else this never would have happened.

You see Satan does exactly the opposite of God

Satan turns good things for evil,

While God turns things meant for evil to Good.

We buy into the lie that because suffering and evil exist, becuase we sin and are sinned agains that God doesn’t love us, that God isn’t in control, that God isn’t good.

Me: It took me a long time to really begin to trust God again.

That God was good, that God is able to redeem anyone and anything

And it came by degrees

Trust is not like a light switch, on/off

it’s more like a dimmer, it’s built up over time.

Only the truth can shatter these lies

And the truth came in a person.

God does love you.

Jesus undoes the work of Satan

1 John 3:8 ESV 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus Christ appeared to destroy the work of the devil

all the lies, deception, abuse, neglect, and harm done.

And he did in the most unimaginable way.

He proved God’s love for you, his care for you in an undeniable way.

in an undeniable historical fact

His death on the cross for sin

Some say that God is just passive and doesn’t do anything about suffering, but that’s wrong, he did do something and he will do something.

He didn’t just stay on the sidelines

He entered into our story, into our mess

and he not just suffers with us so that he knows our pain

He suffers for us, he takes our sin, our pain and our shame

But not just ours, also those who have sinned against us, which opens the door to forgiveness.

The truth of the cross, shatters the lies that you are unlovable and unworthy, that somehow God doesn’t care.

He does care, immensely so.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Your value and worth was such that God entered in and died for you, to show you that not even death and suffering could overcome the power and presence of God

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Jesus died for your sin to prove God’s never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.

God has not abandoned you.

He has promised to never leave or forsake you.

When we believe this we open the door of our soul to God and let him enter in and we shut the door to the enemy.

We need to shut the door to the enemy and open the door to God, the lover of our souls, our redeemer, our healer.

And being convinced of God’s love for us and his presence with us

we too can overcome evil with good and move towards forgiveness

Forgiveness lifts up the cross as sufficient for all sin

both ours and those who have sinned against us.

When we forgive we can then be healed.

When we are freed by the truth, we can shut the door to the enemy and extinguish the fiery darts of his lies.

We can then, as Ephesians 6 says, stand strong

Ephesians 6:10–12 ESV

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The Spiritual War: Whose voice?

Look at this image:

We are in a spiritual war

We are at war for souls.

Do you know the voice of your father in heaven?

It is found in his Word

do you know the voice of the enemy of your soul?

Do you ever stop to ask those questions?

Where is this thought coming from?

Is it accusation? is it putting you down?

Is it shaming you and condemning you?

That is not the voice of your Savior.

He loves you, he invites you

He speaks tenderly to you.

he died for you, he lifts you up.

He convicts you of sin, he doesn’t condemn you for sin.

Condemnation is from the devil, conviction is from the spirit.

This is so critically important.

To Forgive or not to forgive

So the question remains:

Is there unforgiveness in your heart?

Do you have open doors to the enemy of your soul?

Will you forgive?

Are you willing to give your hurt and anger to the one who suffered with and for you, to redeem you from sin and provide the path to wholeness?

Will you overcome evil with good?

Will you experience true freedom from the pain you have endured?

Will you render the enemy ineffective?

Will you open the door to God’s power and presence and shut the door to the enemy of your soul

and become whole, become healed, become His.

Let’s Pray