Hope And Healing For The Hurting Family Series

Hope and Healing for the Hurting Family – Luke 8:40-56

Gladstone Baptist Church – 29/8/04

There was once a man driving along the road and he was involved in an accident with another car towing a horse float. A few months later he tried to claim damages for his injuries, but the insurance company lawyer questioned his claim. "How can you now claim to have all these injuries?" he was asked "According to the police report, at the time you said you were not hurt."

"Well It’s like this," said the man. "I was lying in the road in a lot of pain, and I heard someone say the horse had a broken leg. The next thing I know the police officer pulled out his gun and shot the horse. Then someone came and asked me, "Are you okay?"”

There are a lot of people floating around this world who say they are okay, but underneath the smiles, the laughter and the “I’m doing just fine” is a huge amount of hurt.

You only have to pick up the paper to read of people who are hurting. But it is not just outside this church that people are hurting. There are families and individuals that are desperately hurting who are sitting in this building today and trying to cover it up with a brave face. Some have old wounds that just won’t heal. Others have fresh wounds that are still raw.

• We have Single moms trying to make it work

• We have Marriages that are going through some rough waters. Some have fallen apart

• There are parents trying hard to blend 2 families or wondering when that wandering child will come home

• We have kids trying to survive, living in one home most of the time and another, every other weekend.

• There are families who have lost a child, a father or a mother and are trying to keep their heads above water.

• We have family members trying to escape the hurt by losing themselves in alcohol, drugs, gambling or even shopping binges and just creating even more problems.

BOY – there’s a lot of hurt floating around …

• Some of us, are still stinging from - harsh or cruel words that pierced our hearts

• Some are hurting because it seems that in this life they never measure up and always fall short of someone’s expectations.

• Others are desperately trying to have a baby and can’t understand why it happens for others, but not for us.

• Others are tired of always being alone, wondering why the one they loved walked out on them.

• Others are trying to find love and affection in their family, but not finding.

• AND – still others are battling a physical sickness.

Boy there is a lot of hurt floating around …

You know as well as I do, that LIFE hurts often. And if you are not hurting now, it is just time before something comes your way to cause hurt. It is not IF, but WHEN. “Life Hurts” - that is the Bad News.

But the Good news is that “God HEALS”. Life Hurts but God Heals

I want you to know that God is interested in your pain. I know this, because

1) This was not how God PLANNED it. God created a garden of Eden as a paradise. It was without needless pain, hurt and suffering. I say needless, because God created us with nerves. If Adam, God bless him, dropped a rock on his toe – it would hurt. Some pain is healthy and beneficial – like the burning sensation when you put your hand on the stove top. But God didn’t create a world where there was needless pain, where there was death, where there was disease or the need for labour. And let me tell you that heaven will be just like Eden again.

Rev 21:3-5 "Look, the home of God is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever." And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making all things new!" And then he said to me, "Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true."

Yes we have pain and suffering now, but it is only for a time. Now that is hope, but doesn’t necessarily help deal with your pain now.

2) I also know that God is interested in your pain because the Bible says that God CARES again and again and again …