Healing Hearts

23, April 2006

Dakota Community Church

Healing Hearts

I want my faith to be real, dynamic and growing.

I want God’s power to be at work both in me and through me.

I don’t want to be a pretender, having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof.

As I have said before we want to be a Church that is about transformation – not information!

Luke 4:16-21

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“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 captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Isaiah 42:1-4

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth.

Clearly Jesus was interested in doing more than just physical healing.

Life can be a punishing experience and some of us get wounded along the way.

Three requirements for the healing of broken hearts:

1. Honesty with ourselves.

Sometimes people who would never think of trying to deceive others can be experts at deceiving themselves. We lie to ourselves when the truth is something we cannot bear to face.

- The truth may be too painful.

- The truth may be embarrassing.

- We may just not want to face the reality of whom or what we are.

Proverbs 30:20

"This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ’I’ve done nothing wrong.’

- There may be an issue of pride involved.

1 Corinthians 3:18-19

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

We have to be willing to admit; Houston, we have a problem.

2. Vulnerability before God.

Isaiah 57:15

For this is what the high and lofty One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy:

"I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Psalm 51:16-17

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Definition:

Contrite:

- Feeling regret and sorrow for one’s sins or offenses; penitent.

- From Latin contrtus, past participle of conterere, to crush: com-, + terere, to grind

After we realize there is a problem we need to come honestly before God.

We often do not want to do it, we want to believe we can handle it on our own or that we shouldn’t have to ask. That God should just fix us without us asking.

Deuteronomy 10:15-17

Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

3. Time and submission.

1 Peter 5:5-6

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Psalm 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Philippians 2:12-13

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

There is a walking out element to this Christian faith. We are on a life long journey of fellowship with God.

Power Point Available on request – dcormie@mts.net