SPEAK TO THE DIVINE POSSIBILITIES:
#7: SCARS ARE A TESTIMONY AND OPPORTUNITY
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
We are studying Divine Possibilities:
1. Climb into God’s Envelope; 2. Accept the Mantle; 3. Starving at a feast; 4. Let God! 5. DYING IN A RUT! When an unforgiving preacher preaches 6. Rising above the Minimum; 7. Rising above the scars;
8. Every miracle starts with a problem! 9. Walking in Divine blessings; 10. Importunity/Determination
I have faced great obstacles in bringing this series to you. Today we had a power outage and I lost 6 1/2 hours of work on this lesson. Wow, was I frustrated? What do you do? Do it again! This happened on another message in this series? Wow?
TEXT FOR THE SERIES:
Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him: IF THOU CANST BELIEVE, all things are possible to him that believes.
24. And straight way the father of the child cried out, and said WITH TEARS, Lord, I believe; HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF!
LET US START THIS LESSON WITH A QUESTION:
I WOULD BE A BETTER CHRISTIAN IF ________________________?
I. WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SCARS?
A. We will be wrapping up the series on Divine Possibilities. But before we can we must address the role of scars in the heart of the believer.
B. The Scars of the past were never meant to dictate to our faith and stop us from walking in our Divine Potential and our Divine Possibilities OF THE FUTURE.
C. Many associate scars as a type of defeat and this is not true in the Bible. A scar is a testimony that we survived and have overcome.
D. Scars cannot be allowed to hinder God’s plan for you today.
E. A SCAR IS NOT UGLY, A SCAR TESTIFIES WE HAVE OVERCOME, GOD LEAD US THROUGH THIS BATTLE! A scar is a way of remembering where we have been.
F. SCARS CAN OPEN DOORS TO OTHERS OF GOD’S POWER!
Consider Matthew 25:31 His Lord said unto him, WELL DONE, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler
over many things, ENTER THOU INTO THE JOY OF THE LORD!
G. DEFINE SCAR:
*** a mark left by the healing of injured tissue
*** a lasting moral or emotional injury
II. I HAVE OFTEN HEARD EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER!
THE SCARS OF OTHERS SHOULD TEACH US CAUTION TO AVOID THE SCAR!
A. Experience is a very good teacher, but it can be a very costly experience.
I once heard of a young girl that loved to play with matches. Her parents caught her on several occasions playing with matches and fire. They warned her to never play with fire again.
The girl did learn a powerful lesson.
One day she was playing with matches in her bedroom. She caught her curtains on fire.
The whole house was engulfed in flames, her hair caught on fire and 80% of her little body was burned with 3rd degree burns. Her head swelled to a large size.
She is scarred for life, her mind will never be the same.
But she learned a costly lesson.
That’s why I can’t agree that experience is the best teacher. She learned but at what cost?
B. I know a man that was drunk and driving down the wrong side of the interstate, he wrecked at a high rate of speed into a church bus and killed 27 people.
That 27 does not count the children that are scarred for life from their burns.
The man learned not to drive drunk, but at what cost?
C. That young girl wants to be very popular. Her boyfriend takes her out some dark road.
They start kissing and petting, and a few weeks later the girl finds out she is pregnant and the boy has nothing to do with her? She learned but at what cost?
One day she starts getting very sick, and the doctor runs an AIDS test and the beautiful girl finds out she is dying of AIDS. She learned, but look at the cost?
III. JESUS TAUGHT US --- SCARS HAVE A PURPOSE!
A. THE SCARS I CARRY ARE BUT A VISIBLE WITNESS I HAVE FOUGHT THE BATTLE AND SURVIVED! JESUS WAS NOT ASHAMED OF HIS SCARS! THEY WERE MORE LIKE A TROPHY! Are you ashamed of your scars?
B. OFTEN TIMES SEEING IS NEVER ENOUGH!
WE WANT TO SEE? THEN WE WANT TO TOUCH? THEN WE WANT A CIRCUS?
John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said unto Thomas, WE HAVE SEEN THE LORD. But Thomas said unto them, EXCEPT I SEE in His hands the prints of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hands into His side, I will not believe.
C. JESUS KNOWS YOUR FAITH LEVEL NO MATTER WHAT WORDS YOU MAY SAY?
John 20: 27 Then said Jesus to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
D. FOLLOWING JESUS, ACCEPTING THE ROLE OF THE SCARS, IS GOOD BUT FAITH MUST STAND BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT, NOT BY FEELINGS!
John 20:29 Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: BLESSED are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
IV. GOOD WISDOM LEARNS FROM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS!
WATCH PEOPLE AND LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES.
Luke 17:32 Remember Lot’s wife.
A. Before you feel you have to look back, you must consider from where others have traveled.
Wisdom applies to considering the cost others paid and is this worth that?
B. SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT EXPERIENCE AND SCARS:
1. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. Ben Franklin
2. Hope must grow no matter what experience says!
3. Often it seems the lessons of history and experience teach us that men seem to learn very little from the past.
4. Experience is laying the hand down on a hot stove, this might teach us fear so that we have a fear of a cold stove?
5. What a sad statement that an optimist is a person that has never had much experience. Optimism must teach us no matter what happened yesterday, today
is a new day and a new opportunity.
6. Not until the scar disappears, do we begin to discover where we are, and that nature is one and continuous everywhere.
7. William James said: We are spinning our own fates, good and evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little
scar ... Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.
V. THERE WAS A YOUNG MAN THAT HAD GREAT POTENTIAL AND HIS DIVINE POSSIBILITIES SEEMED ENDLESS, BUT THE SON MISSED HIS MARK, AND THE SCARS OF THE PIG PEN TRY TO LIMIT GOD’S WORK IN HIM.
STUPIDITY AND FAILURE MUST NOT DICTATE THE FUTURE.
Luke 15 is called the LOST CHAPTER. It records the lost sheep, the lost coins, and the lost sons.
A.THE YOUNGEST SON PAID A HIGH STUPID TAX! HE WALKED WITH BAD ATTITUDES.
Luke 15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, FATHER GIVE ME ---
B.This was not the end of the sad story, for the SON WASTED ALL ON RIOTOUS --- PARTY HARDY LIVING!
C. THERE IS A THING I CALL THE MISERY INDEX THAT GOD USES TO AWAKEN HIS CHURCH.
Luke 15:14 He spent all, THERE AROSE A FAMINE, and he began to BE IN WANT!
D. ONE SAD DAY, THE YOUNG MAN SAW HE MISSED HIS DIVINE POSSIBILITIES AND THE DREAM THAT THE FATHER HAD FOR HIM --- HE WAS IN THE PIG PEN OF LIFE!
E. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE PIG PEN? WILL YOU BE SATISFIED TO STAY IN THE PIG PEN?
WILL YOU ALLOW THE ENEMY TO IMPRISON YOU IN THE PIG PEN?
F. YOU MUST SEE WHERE YOU ARE TO GET UP?
Luke 15:17 And when he came to himself, ---
G. THE YOUNG MAN MAKES A WILLFUL DECISION!
Luke 15:18 I will arise ---
H. This means I can’t stay here!
This means taking a bath and cleaning up!
Luke 15:18 --- and I will go to my Father ---
I. I think every step of the way the enemy threw up the scars of the past.
I think the young boy thought --- How will Dad and my brother receive me?
J. THE YOUNG MAN HAS A PARADIGM SHIFT IN HIS HEART AND LIFE...
Luke 15:19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: MAKE ME as one of the hired servants.
Luke 15:20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and HAD COMPASSION, and ran and fell on his neck,
and KISSED HIM.
K. SO WHAT, YOU HAVE FAILED AND YOU SMELL LIKE THE PIG PEN?
COME AND RECEIVE THE KISS OF RESTORATION!
L. THE FATHER GAVE THE SON:
The best robe. (A symbol of a Father’s care.)
Put a ring on his finger. (A symbol of authority)
Put shoes on his feet. ( Slaves in this day did not wear shoes, the Father is acknowledging his son is home, not a slave!)
Kill the fatted calf --- eat --- and be merry!
VI. PETER THOUGHT HE WAS SO STRONG?
PETER FAILED, BUT HE WAS NOT A FAILURE!
Luke 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the WORD OF THE LORD, and how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt
deny me thrice.
62. AND PETER WENT OUT, AND WEPT BITTERLY.
A. If at first you don’t succeed --- try, try again.
PETER WILL STEP TO THE CENTER STAGE AND DECLARE THE FIRST PENTECOSTAL MESSAGE: "WHAT MEANETH THIS!"
B. WE MUST NOT ALLOW OUR SCARS AND FAILURES TO STOP GOD’S DELIVERANCE!
Psalms 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and DELIVERS them out of their troubles.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord DELIVERS them OUT OF THEM ALL.
VII. SAMSON LET HIS SCARS DICTATE A LIMIT ON DIVINE POTENTIALS.
A. Samson was blind before he was blind!
B. Samson was scarred by a pretty young Philistine girl, but the scar never taught him very much.
Judges 14:1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman --- daughter of the Philistine ---
Judges 14:17 And she wept before him ...
C. IN ANGER SAMSON PAYS HIS DEBT AND CATCHES 300 FOXES AND SETS THEIR TAILS ON FIRE TO RUN THROUGH THE DRY FIELDS.
SAMSON LOOSES HIS WIFE? Another man marries her?
But the scar did not work to warn him!
D. SAMSON WILL BE SCARRED AGAIN...
SAMSON STILL THOUGHT HE WAS STRONG? The wound would be very deep.
Judges 16:1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw a harlot, and went in to her ...
3. And Samson lay till midnight, and took the doors of the gates of the city, and the two post and carried them up the hill.
E. THE OTHER SCARS WERE NOT ENOUGH, ALONG COMES DELILAH.
Delilah never loved Samson, she used Samson to become a wealthy woman.
F. SAMSON’S SCARS WILL HINDER THE DIVINE POSSIBILITIES IN HIS LIFE.
SAMSON’S SCARS WILL HINDER HIS PRAYER ABILITY.
Judges 16:28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God remember me, strengthen me, I pray thee ONLY THIS ONCE ...
G. LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION?
WHAT MIGHT SAMSON HAVE DONE IF HE HAD NOT LET HIS SCARS DICTATE HIS PRAYERS?
Samson could have been a great judge of God’s people for many years.
Samson --- Samson --- WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN?
VIII. GREAT PEOPLE FAIL AND THEY GET UP AND TRY AGAIN!A. Did you know Albert Einstein was one of the greatest Mathematicians of all times?
Did you know once in elementary school Albert failed a Math class?
B. I have heard you can fail in many ways, but you can only succeed in one way.
This is not true, we can learn from failure! Our failures can bring success.
C. I Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails ---
D. A few successes will overcome all failures!
Have you been a person of FAITH? Have you been faithful to your post of duty?
Have you been a person of mercy and compassion?
Have you been honest, truthful and given to integrity? Could God trust you in the little things?
Have we really been totally committed and dedicated to the cross?
IX. POOR OLD DAVID HAD BATTLE SCARS AND BEEN AWAY FIGHTING AND THEN COMES HOME TO FIND OUT THE ENEMY HAD SNEAKED IN AND TAKEN ALL THEIR DREAMS AND FAMILIES.
A. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN OTHERS SEE YOUR SCARS
AND HUMANNESS?
I Samuel 30: 6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and
for his daughters: BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.
B. SEEK THE LORD AND OVERCOME THE SCARS OF THE PAST!
I Samuel 30:8 And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?
AND GOD ANSWERED HIM, PURSUE: FOR THOU SHALT SURELY
OVERTAKE THEM WITHOUT FAIL --- RECOVER ALL!!!!
X. CHURCH, PERHAPS WE COME TO THE LORD WITH MANY BATTLE SCARS.
SOME HAVE BEEN WOUNDED BY OTHERS?
SOME ARE WOUNDED BY SELF INFLICTED BATTLE SCARS.
A. We have not gathered here for what we can do, but for the Divine Possibilities that Jesus our Savior can bring to pass.
B. Dare to dream! Dream BIG! Dream again!
C. Don’t let the scars of the past dictate the future!
Arise, let us wash off and go to the FATHER’S HOUSE.
D. STAND ON THE PROMISE!
Deut. 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, He it is that goes WITH YOU, He will not fail you, nor forsake you!
E. FIRST THING YOU KNOW ---
Romans 8: 28 And WE KNOW that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8: 37 Nay, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through HIM that loved us.
F. WE CAN OVERCOME! These scars allow us opportunity to minister and move in the REALM OF DIVINE POSSIBILITIES. We have come to this point not by accident, but to release God’s word to do His work!
G. Consider David Roever, he was in Viet Nam when a grenade blew up in his hand. He is scarred for life . But he has a ministry around the world.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
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This is part 7 of a 12 part series.
