We’ve all been hurt by other people, we’ve hurt ourselves, and we’ve hurt others. And, as a result, every single one of us ends up with some sort of hurt, hang-up, or habit. And the question we all face is, “Where do we go from here?”
Transcription (automatically-generated):
We are kicking off 2023 here at Gospel City Church by pressing the pause button on our study throughout the Book of Acts so that we can start a brand new nine week series titled Life's Healing Choices. In this series, you're going to hear about eight different choices that you can make in your life. Eight choices that you will be invited to make and encouraged to make in your life. Eight choices that if you choose to make them, they will radically change your life for the better. You intrigued?
I hope so, because I strongly believe that the things we're going to learn in this series will not only change us as individual people, but the things we learn. This series, if we choose to make these choices, are have the power to collectively change us as a church. Starting next week, we're going to unpack each of the eight choices one week at a time. That part of our journey begins next week. This week's message is an introductory one.
In tonight's message, I'm going to be setting the stage for what you can expect to experience in this series. But first, I have a few disclaimers that I want to share with you up front. Disclaimer number one this is going to be a topical sermon series. Now, our normal practice here at Gospel City Church to take an entire book of the Bible and teach through it, chapter by chapter, verses by verse, line by line, like we've been doing through the Book of Acts. If you've been with us these past few months, this method of Bible teaching is known as expositional teaching, and this will continue to be the primary way that we teach through the Bible here at Gospel City.
We just believe that teaching the Bible expositionally is the best way to teach it, but that doesn't mean it's the only good way to teach it. That's because there's another good way to teach the Bible, and this way is known as topical teaching. In this method of Bible teaching, you take a specific topic and you focus your teaching on that one topic by drawing from what the whole Bible has to say about it. And this is how we're going to go through Life's Healing Choices. We're going to tackle the topic of finding freedom from our hurts and our hang ups and our habits.
And we're going to use a whole bunch of scripture from COVID to COVID in the Bible to do it. By the end of this series, you're going to come away with a richer understanding of what God's Word has to say about recovery. And by the way, just so you know, god's Word has a lot to say about it. Disclaimer number two almost all of the content for this verses comes from the Bible by way of a book titled Life's Healing Choices, written by a man named John Baker. I brought this book here.
You can see it. It's a real book. Some of you have read this before. I know some of the things you're going to hear in this series I've reworded or changed altogether, but some of the stuff I'm going to be sharing with you is going to come straight from the book. That's because I don't think I'm going to be able to say some things better than they've already been said in the book.
Now, I'm no, you probably didn't know this, but I'm no expert in copyright law, so I'm not 100% sure of this, but I don't think I don't think it could be plagiarism if I tell you exactly where I got my information from. I hope not, anyway. Disclaimer number three. Although we're using a large portion of the teaching from the book, life's Healing Choices, that does not mean that we agree with all of the doctrinal positions of the author or the local church that he was a part of. John Baker, who just recently passed away, was a leader in the largest church in California and one of the largest churches in the United States.
It's called Saddleback Church down in Lake Forest, California, led by a very well known pastor named Rick Warren. Gospel City Church and Saddleback Church are two churches that both belong to Jesus Christ, but that does not mean we are exactly the same in every way. There will be some differences between our two churches, both theologically and practically. So our use of this book as the foundation of this series doesn't give a broad affirmation of all the things that our brothers and sisters in Saddleback believe and do. Disclaimer number four.
And this is actually going to be the first fill in on your outlines. This is a series for everybody. This is a verses for everybody. That's because this is a series about personal recovery and restoration and wholeness. Now, I want to make sure up front that everybody knows that this is a series that's for them, this is for you.
Because I have a sneaky feeling that when some of you hear the word recovery, you may be tempted to check out. You may be tempted to think that this series won't apply to you. You may be tempted to think that you don't have any problems in your life that you need to recover from. You might be thinking to yourself that you know someone else who would benefit from coming to a series like this, but not you. That's because maybe you've never been addicted to any substance before of any kind.
Maybe you've never smoked meth before. Maybe you have never even tasted a sip of alcohol in your life. Maybe you don't have a criminal record. Maybe you've never been homeless before. All that might be good and true and hear me praise God if it is.
Amen. Praise God if that doesn't mark your life. But that still doesn't mean that you don't have any serious issues in your life. The bible tells us that all have sinned. You sinned against God.
You sinned against other people, and other people have sinned against you. And that sin has consequences in your life, whether you realize that or not. That sin has shaped you and affected you in ways that you wish it didn't, ways that all of us need to be healed from. So you may be tempted to think that you don't need to hear what's going to be shared throughout this series. But if that's you, let me graciously correct you.
You do. We all do. Good. Okay, with those four disclaimers out of the way, let's kick this introductory message off with a story. A few years ago, a father was trying to take a nap on a lazy Saturday afternoon, but his little boy kept bugging him with the classic line, daddy, I'm bored.
So, trying to occupy him with a game, the dad found a picture of a world map in the newspaper. He cut it up into about 50 pieces and said, son, let's see if he could put this puzzle back together. Then he went back down to finish his nap, thinking the map would keep his son busy for at least an hour or so. But in about 50 minutes, the little guy woke him up. Daddy, I've got it all finished.
It's all put together. You're kidding. He knew his son didn't know all the positions of the nations. So we asked him, how did you do it? The little boy said, that was easy, dad.
See, there was a picture of a person on the back of the map. So when I got my person put together, the world looked just fine. I want to ask you a question. How is your person doing? Are you all put together?
The fact is that many of us are a mess. We're scattered all over the living room floor with no one to put us together and no idea where to begin. The process of healing each of our lives is tangled with hurts that haunt our hearts, hangups that cause us pain and habits that mess up our lives. And we're going to hear a lot about hurts, hangups, and habits over the course of this series. So let me take a moment here to explain what they are.
A hurt could be classified as any life experience that may have damaged your heart, some offense against you, that crippled your ability to deal with the world in a healthy way, something that may have twisted your view of yourself, of God or of others. Some common hurts include, but are not limited to the personal experiences of abandonment, having an abortion, being abused as a child, or by a spouse or by an employer, or even by the church being put up for adoption. Betrayal, cheating or affairs by either you or your spouse. Growing up in a dysfunctional family marred by divorce or alcoholism or addiction or rage. Being chronically neglected, being a victim of sexual abuse, rejection, battling unwanted same sex attraction, unforgiveness.
These are just a few things that can hurt your heart. Hangups are those roadblocks that keep you from progressing further in God's plan for your life. They are often shaped by some bent thinking you may have received as a child or some unhealthy attitude you may have adopted as a means of coping with life's challenges. Here are some common hangups anger, anxiety, worry, arrogance, body image, distortions, bullying, bigotry, codependency control, depression, fear, greed, envy, false guilt and or shame lack of self control lack of trust in God, laziness materialism people, pleasing, perfectionism, pride and procrastination. These are just some examples of hangups that can hinder a person from experiencing the fullness of God's plan for their life.
Habits tend to be unhealthy patterns that often start as a perceived remedy for some problem in your life, but they end up turning into chronic bad behavior or addiction instead. Habits are the repeat, default solutions you run to when the going gets tough and they continually lead to trouble in your life. Some common habits are abusive behavior, over, consumption of alcohol, bitterness, drug abuse, eating disorders, gambling, gossip, isolation, lying, pornography and other manner of sexual immorality, self harm, obsession with social media, spending problems, wasteful pursuits and workaholism, just to name a few. Hurts, hang ups and Habits there's not a person in the world who doesn't deal with at least one of these on some level. And if we're honest, many of us struggle with something in all three of these categories.
The truth is that life is tough. We live in an imperfect world, we've been hurt by people, we've hurt ourselves, and we've hurt other people. The Bible says that really plainly in Romans 323 all have sinned. That means none of us is perfect. We've all blown it.
We've all made mistakes. We hurt and we hurt others. But it's amazing how much better the world looks when our person is all put together. And that's what we're going to give ourselves to in this series. With God's help in making eight healing choices, you're going to be able to have the pieces of your world put back together.
Now, you might not have known this about God, but God actually wants this for you. He desires this for you. God wants you to experience recovery and restoration and wholeness in your life. And not only does he want those things for you, but he's willing and he's able to help you experience more of those things. Listen to what God says in this passage in the Old Testament from the book of Isaiah, where we can see four ways God promises to help people find freedom from their hurts, hangups, and habits.
You can read this verse on your outline. Isaiah, chapter 57, verses 18 and 19. I've seen his ways, but I will heal him. I will lead Him and restore comfort to Him. And his mourners.
Creating words of praise, the Lord says, peace. Peace to the one who is far or near, and I will heal him. Notice the four promises that God extends in this passage. Number one, if you're hurt, God says, I will heal you. Number two, if you're confused, God says, I will lead you.
Number three, if you feel alone, God says, I will comfort you. Number four, if you feel anxious and afraid, God says, I will offer peace to you. Trusting the promises God makes to us, we can find hope for a better future, a life of freedom, peace and happiness. Now write this down. This is going to be the next film on your outline.
Happiness where blessing is possible, but you've got to choose it. Blessing is possible, but you've got to choose it. Since the beginning of time, men and women have searched for happiness, usually in all the wrong places, trying all the wrong things. But there's only one place where we can find tested and proven absolutely going to work principles that will lead to healing and blessing. These principles come in the form of eight statements found in the Bible from the most revered teacher of all time, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus laid out these principles for happiness in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in what is widely regarded as the greatest sermon ever preached is the Sermon on the Mount. Today, we call these principles from that sermon to be attitudes. Happiness or blessing, Jesus says, can be ours. But the pathway to happiness may not be exactly what you're expecting from a conventional viewpoint. Most of the following eight statements that I'm about to share with you don't make sense at first.
They may even sound like contradictions. But when you begin to grasp what Jesus is really saying, you will realize these eight statements are God's pathway to wholeness, to growth, and spiritual maturity. Now, Rochelle, read these once already for us at the beginning of our time, but let me read them again for us now. Jesus says in Matthew, chapter five blessed or happy are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the humble, blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed or happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness. Are these statements true?
Are these really describing the way for a person to experience true happiness and true blessing in their life? Listen to this short testimony from John Baker, author of the book Life's Healing Choices. He says this I know that the eight healing choices work. Why? Because they worked in my life.
I've not always been a pastor. Prior to being called into the ministry, I was a successful businessman. I was also a functional alcoholic. I struggled with my sin, addiction to alcohol, for 19 years. Eventually, I came to a point where I was losing everything.
I cried out to God for help, and he led me to Alcoholics Anonymous. Even then, I knew that my higher power had a name jesus Christ. And I started attending Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. After a year of sobriety, I answered God's call to start a Christ centered recovery program called Celebrate Recovery. Since 1991, millions of courageous individuals have found the same freedom from their life's, hurts, hangups and habits that I did.
If these eight choices worked for someone like me, I promise they can work for you, too. End quote. After celebrate recovery. I've been going for a year. John's Pastor Rick Warren saw how that program was helping people in their church family find God's healing from their life's hurts, hangups and habits.
He decided to take their entire church through a sermon series called The Road to Recovery. That Road to Recovery series served as the foundation of the book Life's Healing Choices, which is serving as the foundation for the sermon series that we're starting here tonight. Rick Warren used the Acrostic Recovery Recovery to help to identify the eight principles, and I'm going to share these with you now. As you hear these eight principles and the corresponding beatitude, you'll begin to understand the choices that lay before you, choices that will change your life if you make them. Choice number one are realize I'm not God.
I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. When we make this first choice, we have come to understand that we do not have the power to control our hurts, hangups, and our habits on our own. When we admit this, God can begin his healing work in our lives. Do you know who the ones are who are going to be able to admit their own powerlessness? Well, Jesus told us who.
He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Choice number two he earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that he has the power to help me recover. As we begin to believe that we are important to God, we find great comfort in knowing that he has the power to change us and our situation. Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Choice number three see consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ's care and control.
When we commit our entire lives to Christ, we become a new person. We can finally give up trying to control ourselves and others. We replace our willpower with our willingness to accept God's power. Jesus said, Blessed are the humble or the meek. Choice number four oh, openly examine and confess my fault to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart and in order to have a clear conscience, in order to deal with our guilt and have a pure heart. We need to admit all the wrongs of our past and present. We do this by writing it all down and sharing it with another person. Choice number five voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. We submit to all the changes God wants to make in our lives, and we humbly ask Him to work in our lives to bring about the needed changes.
We hunger and we thirst for it. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Choice number six e evaluate all of my relationships, offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me, and make amends for harm I've done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others. We do our best to restore our relationships. We offer forgiveness to the people who have hurt us, and we make amends to the people that we've hurt.
Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful. And he also said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Choice number seven r reserve a daily time with God for self examination, Bible reading and prayer in order to know God and his will for my life and gain the power to follow his will. We maintain these daily habits of spending time with God in order to know Him, in order to keep our recovery on track. Choice number eight why yield myself to God to be used to bring this good news to others?
Both by my example and by my words? Through God's grace and living out these eight principles, we will find freedom from our hurts, our hangups, and our habits. It's only a matter of time then, when we've been changed by God, we yield ourselves to be used by Him as we share, we share our story and serve others. At this point, we give ourselves to be used by Jesus no matter what it costs us. Jesus promised, blessed or happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Jesus eight principles for healing and happiness are the basis for the eight choices outlined each week in this series. With the exception of choice number seven, each choice has a corresponding beatitude. Choice six actually has two. But regardless of the problem you're struggling with, whether it's emotional, financial, relational, spiritual, sexual, or whatever, regardless of what you need, recovery from the principles that lead to happiness and recovery are always the same, and the choice is always yours. So what can you expect to happen in your life if you decide to go on this journey with us?
Well, after going through this series and applying the principles you will learn, you will be able to join the many others who can say things like this I've been living with shame or guilt from my pastor, and now I don't have to live with that pain anymore. I've been trapped in a habit or hang up that is messing up my life and now I can be free from its hold on me. I've always been afraid and worried of what may happen tomorrow, and now I can face my future with peace and confidence. This is the freedom that I hope and pray you will find by making the eight choices offered in this series. Freedom to know peace, freedom to live without guilt, and freedom to be happy.
The choice is yours. So as we take this amazing journey to freedom together, you're going to be led principle by principle, choice by choice into the healing that you desire. Now, here are a few of the things we're going to do together throughout this series. You can find these on your outline, but we're going to hear stories of hope starting next week. At the end of each week's message you're going to hear from a member of Gospel City Church.
Men and women who are going to honestly share part of their stories with you. How with God's power, they are finding freedom from their hurts, hangups, and habits. You're going to be very encouraged and blessed by what you hear from them, I promise you. Next, and this is going to be the next villain on your outline. We're going to focus on the future.
We're going to focus on the future. This series is forward looking in nature. We're going to spend some time looking at the good and bad things that happened in our past. But rather than wallowing in the past or dredging up and reliving painful memories over and over, we're going to focus on the future instead. Regardless of what has already happened due to either your poor choices or the hurtful choices made by others, you and your situation can change.
The solution is to start making these healing choices now and depend on Christ's power. To help you write this down. We're going to accept personal responsibility.
This verses emphasizes taking personal responsibility. Instead of playing the accused and excuse game of victimization. This series will help you face up to your own poor choices and deal with the things that you can do something about. We cannot control all that happens to us, but we can control how we choose to respond to what happens to us. That's one of the secrets of happiness.
When we stop wasting time fixing the blame on others, we have more time and energy to fix the problem. When we stop hiding our own faults and stop hurling accusations at others, the healing power of Christ can begin working in our hearts, in our minds, in our wills, and our emotions. Write this down. We're going to make a spiritual commitment. We're going to make a spiritual commitment.
More specifically, we're going to emphasize making a spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ, who is the highest power in the universe. At Gospel City Church. We believe that everybody needs Jesus. That's because we believe a supernatural recovery of any kind cannot happen without total surrender to Him and without his powerful presence in our life. Now, I'm guessing that the vast majority of people in this room, and of those who are watching online, already believe in Jesus.
Most of you already follow Him. You already trust him. You already love him. You already obey him. But some of you here haven't come into a relationship with Jesus yet.
Some of you watching this series online haven't believed in Him yet. You don't follow him yet. Trust him yet. Love him yet. That's okay.
You do not have to become a Christian before you go on this journey with us. You can come as you are, and you can relax. Because even though we're going to be talking a lot about Jesus and the Bible, you will never be forced to believe anything you hear in this series that you do not want to believe. If you're listening to the series and you're a skeptic of the Christian faith, your skepticism is welcome here. And believe it or not, you're welcome here.
You can bring your questions and your pushbacks to the table. God can handle them, and so can we. I'll just ask you one thing. I'll just ask that you consider coming to this series with an open mind and test the things you hear before you discard them outrightly. If it's trash, throw it out.
But if you find it to be a treasure, don't let anything keep you from holding on to it. In the end, you are completely free to choose to take as much or as little of what you learn here as you want. But because Jesus is so amazing, I won't hold back from pointing you to Him and nudging you towards Him every chance I get. Write this down. We're going to say yes to a call to action.
We're going to say yes to a call to action. Listen to me carefully. You will not be changed just because you have a desire to change. Wanting to change is important, but just wanting it not enough. You will also not be changed by simply listening to the content in this series.
Hearing what you need to do is important, but only hearing about it is not enough either. If you're going to change, you must take action to achieve the changes you desire. I read a great quote this week from a philosopher and theologian named Dallas Willard. In his book The Great Omission, he says this grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning.
Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone. End quote. At the end of your message outlines that you're going to be receiving each Sunday throughout this series.
There are going to be three action steps that you can complete during the week. Completing these actions will help you apply the choices you are learning to learning about, to your own life, and I want to encourage you to take your time and complete each Action Step honestly and to the best of your ability. It's through completing each of these steps that true and lasting healing will occur. The three action steps that will be included in each week's message are pray about it, write about it, and share about it. In the Pray About an Action Step, you're going to be prompted to pray for specific things regarding each choice.
And if you're not used to praying, don't worry, they're going to be written prayers to help you get started. And as you move through this series, you're going to see how important prayer is in helping you make the changes and healing choices that you desire in your life. The Write About Action Step will ask you to put your thoughts and insights down in black and white. When a thought passes from the lips to the fingertips, it becomes really specific. This is also called journaling.
As you progress through each of the choices, you're going to learn to rely on your writings. And it will be a good idea to get a journal if you don't already have one. What you write in your journal will help you see your areas of growth and the areas you still need further work on. After you pray about it and then write about it, you're going to have a chance to share about it. Life's healing choices is built upon the New Testament principle that we don't change or get well by ourselves.
We need each other. Fellowship and accountability are in two important components of spiritual growth. In this third Action Step, you will be asked to find a safe person, otherwise known as an accountability partner, to share your journey with. As you go through these eight choices, you'll find some suggestions and guidelines to help you make your selection of this safe person. You'll also be guided along the way on what to share with them and how.
As we go through this series together, I suggest that you take your time. The hurts, the hangups, and the habits that have been interfering with your happiness did not happen or develop overnight. It makes sense. They're not simply going to disappear from your life or be changed by the snap of your fingers. You will discover that you must rely on God's power to help you take the actions necessary to complete the eight choices.
Only by God's power will lasting life changes occur. So I'm eager and excited to take you guys on this amazing journey and I hope that you'll come back over the following weeks to explore and experience all of the freedom that God has made available to you. So with that said, I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up and I'm going to invite you to pray with me. And I'm going to pray. I'm going to ask some things of the Lord if.
These resonate in your heart and your mind. Pray them for yourself too. Pray them in the quiet of your heart.
Father, I pray right now that you will do in this place and not in this place, in this building, in this place, like in these people, in us. Do something in our hearts and in our minds that you say you can and will do. Reveal to us in the Scriptures, which means open up the eyes of our hearts, let our minds conceive and understand and see what it is that you're inviting us into enlarge in our capacity to hope for a type of life that maybe we've never even experienced up until this point. If we know you already, Lord, show us how much deeper and how much more profound, how much more powerful we can experience this life. I pray, Lord, that you'd show us that you didn't come and live and die and rise and then go to heaven where you are right now.
You didn't do all of that just so that we can have eternal life one day in the future. And then here we have to hold on for Your dear life until eternal life starts one day. Then I pray, Lord, that you to show us that eternal life, a quality of life, a spiritual, heavenly, abundant life, starts the moment a person believes upon you, the moment your spirit floods their life, the moment you cause us to be born again. That's when eternal life starts. And then our death is just a comma and we continue to experience eternal life beyond the grave.
Show us it. Lord, don't let the enemy steal any words that were shared here tonight from those who have heard it. Saying things to them like, this is not for you. You're too broken, you're too messed up. This might work for other people, but it won't work for you.
I pray, Father, that you'd silence the enemy if he's speaking any of those kinds of words to any of the people here or online, and replace those words with Your words of hope and power and love and invitation to more. I pray, Lord, that you would remind every single person here that they are not alone, they are not the only ones struggling. Everyone has hurts, everyone has hangups, everyone has habits. We're all in this life together, battling the same kind of stuff. So don't let people suffer, Lord, in isolation, I pray.
And I pray. Lastly, Lord, as we just go into a time of worship, show us, Lord, that freedom is possible. We might look at our situation and say and deem it impossible. But Your word says, lord, with man some things are impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. And I pray that that would permeate our thinking as we leave this place tonight and go through it this week and come back next week.
That the freedom from the things that have been weighing me down and burdening me and hurting me and holding me down. Freedom is possible. Deposit that in people's lives. Now I pray, Lord, do all these things, Jesus, because when you do these things, it makes you look amazing when you work your kind of love and power in our life like this. So do it for us, but do it for you, Lord, and let us enjoy the fruit of your work.
I pray all these things, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Amen.