IN SPITE OF IT ALL
By Pastor Jim May
I know that his is the Christmas Season and that most ministers, during this time of the year, will focus on the story of the birth of Christ. Perhaps that will be the message subject for Christmas Day, but today I want to talk to you more about the things in your life that are the direct, or indirect results of Jesus’ birth. The day that Jesus was born was a day of miracles. It was the day that light, joy, peace and the final phase of God’s plan to redeem mankind began.
Jesus didn’t stay a baby in that manger for long. Just like every other baby, born into this world, he grew quickly. Though it may seem like a long time when they are very small and keep you awake all night, or wear you to a “frazzle” trying to keep them out of things that they shouldn’t get into, the truth is – those days of being a baby, and a toddler will quickly pass.
Around the time that Jesus was two years old, the three Wise Men from the East came to worship him. The Star of Bethlehem had appeared in the skies on the night Jesus was born and these astronomers had seen it and knew that it was a sign of a very special event. It took them two long years of preparation and traveling to get to Jesus. I know that we depict the shepherds, Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus in the manger, and the 3 Wise Men all there at the same time, but the truth is, the Wise Men weren’t any where near that manger that night.
Time passes quickly as Joseph is given dreams whereby angels warn him to gather his wife and 2-year old son, and leave Israel. They traveled hundreds of miles and went into Egypt to avoid Herod’s attempt to murder Jesus. Then Joseph has another dream where an angel tells him its safe to return to Israel because Herod was dead. Then they travel back to Israel but because of a third warning from God in a dream, the family went to Nazareth instead of Bethlehem. It was in Nazareth then that Joseph, Mary and Jesus finally settled down for a while as Jesus continued to grow up.
We then find them in the city of Jerusalem for the Passover Feast when Jesus is 12 years old. He had grown in strength and wisdom in those years as a child. Even at the age of 12 he astounded the wise men of the temple and the elders who had studied the Law so much. They just couldn’t believe that this 12-year old boy could understand and know so much. What they didn’t realize was that it was this 12-year old boy, named Jesus, in another form, who had given Moses the Law on Mount Sinai in the first place.
Mary and Joseph came back to get him after missing him from their caravan and found him teaching the teachers of Israel. They were still his elders, it was not time yet for his public ministry. According the original instructions of God to Moses in the operation of the Tabernacle, the 4th chapter of the Book of Numbers says in several verses, that the office of the priesthood would be given to those who were between the ages of 30 and 50. Since Jesus was to be our Great High Priest, he could not enter into that office officially, as a man, until he reached that age of 30.
So, until that day came, Jesus would remain with his parents and his family, learning, growing and gaining favor with everyone around him. His popularity would grow. His reputation as a very wise teenager would grow. He would be recognized as someone very intelligent, very honest and as someone who had a very compassionate heart. In all of this time He was just getting ready to begin his true ministry to the world.
Luke 2:51-52, "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."
And so we see that there isn’t much said about the years of Jesus childhood and his teenage years other than he grew taller and stronger physically, and became wiser with every passing day, learning well the ways of man and understanding well the way that He was to walk among men.
I can only hope that the same can be said of each of us as we walk this path of life. I pray that it will be true that we “ grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
That time of growing and developing, learning and becoming the man that he was to be, may have seemed like a long time as he was going through it, but in reality, it was only a wisp of a vapor in the expanse of eternity. How quickly do our children grow and become adults with children of their own. Time waits for no man. It relentlessly marches on. Every tick of the clock draws us every nearer to the coming of the Lord and the day that we will all stand before God. We can’t go back; yesterday is gone; and if God wills it; there is only tomorrow.
So the story of Christmas begins with that baby in a manger, but it continues on until it ends on resurrection morning when Jesus rises from the tomb. There is where the real celebration must begin. It isn’t that baby born in weakness – it’s that man, raised in power and glory, that really matters.
Jesus is no baby in a manger anymore – that was just the beginning of a magnificent journey that God’s only Son would take for you and I.
In spite of all that Satan had tried to do to stop the birth of Jesus; in spite of the efforts of Satan to destroy mankind who is made in the image of God; in spite of Herod’s best efforts to kill Jesus before he could grow up; in spite of Satan’s final blow when he tried to kill Jesus on the cross, unwittingly bringing God’s perfect plan to pass; in spite of it all – God’s plan for the salvation of man was fulfilled in Christ!
And because Jesus lives, as the old song says, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds tomorrow, life is worth the living just because He lives.
There isn’t a man or a woman in this building, indeed in this world, which has not faced some hard, difficult and distressing times in life.
Some of you have gone through things in your life that are unimaginable. Some have looked at death in face and wondered, “Can I make it through this one more time?”
Some of you have sank deeply into the mire of sin, felt that hopelessness of the power that the sin had over you, and wondered, “Can I ever be set free”.
Some of you have physical afflictions that seem to haunt you and torment you every day of your life, and you wonder, “Can I ever be healed?”
Some of you bear in your body the marks of a hard life. You’ve been physically bruised, beaten, and tortured, and most it was done by someone you truly thought loved you, and you have prayed, “God, why did this happen to me. I was doing the best I could.”
Some of you are carrying around deep hurts, deep wounds, and terrible memories in your heart and mind, of things in your life that almost to too painful to think about and you cry out to God, “Can I ever forget what happened? Can I find peace through it all?”
Some of you have been abused and tormented by your own children and your cry is, “God, all I ever did was try to love them, teach them and train them in your ways, and look what I get in return. Is there no justice? Is there no way to stop this hatred that I feel from my own children?”
Proverbs 18:14, "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?"
You can be sick in your body, you can have injuries and things to go wrong with your physical body and somehow, through God’s grace, you will be able to withstand it. Your spirit in you will keep on fighting to the end. But when the soul is hurt, and your spirit is wounded, you need more than just your own power to get through. You need the healing and delivering power of God to work in you.
I believe that some you this morning have a wounded heart and a wounded spirit, and you need the healing touch of God in your life right now. You need victory over all of the things that people have done to hurt you.
If you have a wounded spirit, you can’t seem to worship like you want to. You can’t seem to praise God like you want to. You can’t stop thinking about the pain you feel in your heart. You can’t get real victory in your soul because you are hurting too much down deep inside. Your spirit is wounded and its destroying your peace, wreaking havoc with your relationship with God and other people, and slowly eating away at your soul like a cancer.
Let me tell you that Jesus was born, lived, died and rose again, just so you could have healing and victory in spite of it all. Only Jesus has the power to heal your hurt and set you free. No doctor, no counselor, no preacher nor anyone else can help you. But Jesus can, and He wants to set you free this morning.
In order to get deliverance there are some things that you have to do. Sometimes they will be hard but they are necessary nonetheless.
1) You must first of all, forgive God.
Now I know that you will think, “Forgive God? What do you mean by that?” Well let me just say that I know a lot of people who think that God just turned away and let the devil attack you. It’s as though He was just too busy to worry about you.
I know of someone that became mad at God and stopped going to church, just because a child got sick. I know of others who just quit serving the Lord because they just couldn’t handle “trying to live right” anymore. The draw of the world was just more than they could resist and they blame God for letting that temptation come. Others are mad at God because they are convinced God put more on them than they could stand. Others are mad at God because they know that He has the power to make life perfect, supply all their wants and desires, and make their relationships perfect, but He just won’t do it for them.
The bottom line is that there are a lot of reasons why people get mad at God and blame him for everything in their lives.
So, the first step is to forgive God. You must voice it to him from your lips and from your heart.
“God, I forgive you for all the bad things that happened to me. I ask you also to forgive me for being mad at you. I know that you love me. I know that you care. And I know that, in spite of it all, you’re still God and it’s going to all work out for my good.” I forgive you God.”
2) The second step is to forgive yourself. Too many people walk around with guilt in their lives. Just because they failed God terribly they don’t feel that they could ever be good enough or do enough to win God’s approval again. Let me tell you that you are right – You can’t be good enough or do enough to win God’s approval. None of us can. We don’t earn God’s love. We don’t earn His forgiveness. We don’t earn His cleansing power. We don’t earn His salvation. - WE JUST ACCEPT IT!
Jesus died on the cross for you. He went to Calvary’s hill with you on His mind. His love reaches out to you right now, even though you don’t deserve it, because He loves you first.
God doesn’t hold a grudge against you for failing. He wants to wipe your slate clean and have you stand before Him in perfection. But that only comes through His power and His blood and nothing that you can do.
In spite of all of your failures, in spite of all of your sin, in spite of all of your hurts, in spite of all of your pain, in spite of all your sickness and diseases, and suffering, and doubts and fears – GOD LOVES YOU AND HE WANTS TO MAKE YOU WHOLE AGAIN.
If God is willing to forgive you, then you must forgive yourself. Here’s what you must say in your heart.
“I forgive you ________________, (put your name in the blank). Just as much as I am willing to forgive anyone else, I forgive you. Just as much as I am willing to forgive my brothers and sister for the wrongs they do me, or the things they might say to me, I am willing to forgive myself too. And just as much as God is willing to forgive me, I am forgiving myself and freeing myself from the bondage of guilt that has held me for so long.”
Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
1 John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 John 2:12, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake."
In spite of it all – in spite of the things you have done, the things you have suffered, and the things that have kept you in their prison of despair – in spite of it all – Jesus will deliver you and set you free because He loves you.
3) You must forgive those who wounded you, regardless of what they did.
I know that you can never forget what others did or said to hurt you so deeply, but I want you to know that you can forgive them and then move one from there in victory over it all.
God can remove the pain of the memories. He can heal the hurts of your heart. He can remove the deep sorrow in your soul. And He can give you a new heart, a new life and a new joy right now.
This final step is sometimes the hardest one of all because it’s not always easy to forgive someone of the terrible things that they did to you, but let me tell you that its absolutely necessary that you do just that.
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was reminded one day of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. But she acted as if she had never even heard of the incident. "Don’t you remember it?" her friend asked. "No," came Barton’s reply, "I distinctly remember forgetting it."
The act of forgiving someone for what they have done to you is a conscious choice that you make. It’s something that only you can do. God can’t do it for you, even though He will help you overcome it if you do. You have to be the one who chooses to forgive.
In the pattern of prayer that Jesus gave us in Matthew 6:12 He says, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
He said also, a few verses later in Matthew 6:14-15, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
So, if we want forgiveness, if we want deliverance, if we want joy, if we want peace – then in spite of what anyone has done to you, you must forgive them.
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean that they have to become your best buddy again. It doesn’t mean that you have to trust them, or even go around them anymore. It doesn’t mean that you have to open yourself to being hurt time and again. It just means you won’t hold against them what they have done to you.
So how do you forgive those who have hurt you? Let me give you a sample of a prayer to pray. If you will say this and mean it, the work will be finished.
“God, I forgive ________________(put their name in the blank) for what they said and did to me. And I want you to forgive them too. I know that they hurt me. I know that they wounded me deeply, but I forgive them right now by my own choice and my own free will. I will not hold a grudge against them any more. In fact Lord, to prove that I forgive them, if I had to stand in the judgment and testify against them, I would not do so. I would not accuse them, nor condemn them. I would seek no justice in the courts of Heaven against them. I forgive them. Please forgive too. AMEN”
There’s your pattern. There’s your way to get healing for your wounded spirit. First, forgive God; second, forgive yourself; and third, forgive others.
Once that pattern is finished you will have obeyed the Word of God and God will begin the healing and delivering process in you. It may come in an instant, or it may take a little time, but the healing will come. God wants to set you free. He wants you to live in victory.
In spite of all that the devil can do to destroy your heart, your mind, your soul and your body – Jesus will bring you through in victory and power. He arose from the dead, triumphing over all the powers of hell and He has the power to set you free right now.
Do you need healing for a wounded spirit? Is your heart hurting this morning? Then come and let’s pray together and let’s allow Jesus to heal you and deliver you. AMEN
