Self-Care - Cleaning Out Your Closet
This past Sunday we continued our Self-Care series where we're going to look at some of the Scriptural teachings about how you can be a better you and experience a better self-care as it relates to your mind, body, soul, spirit, and rest in general. This week we addressed some difficult topics pertaining to some of the things in our lives that we try and hide away hoping they’ll just go away. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Our Self-Care series is off to an incredible start, with a second powerful and convicting message this week, Pastor Robbie is not shying away from the very real issues in our lives! This message surrounded the reality that many people are dealing with either sins or past hurts/struggles that have not been dealt with in their lives. Ps. Robbie said, ‘So we're going to look at what God's Word says about how we can experience freedom from some of the hurts and sins that have marked our lives.’ Ultimately coming down to, if we want to live lives that are honoring and glorifying to God, we need to consciously make efforts to clean out our closets every so often!
The first practical tenet to take away from this message was the truth that God will not heal the things that we continue to keep away from His influence. Beginning in Proverbs 28:13 we see, ‘Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.’ There are things in our lives some in the present, some in the past, and we hide them, we are basically saying, "God, I do not want you to heal this arena of my life." There's an Enemy called Satan who is feeding you the lie that "You can't tell anybody. You need to suffer in isolation alone because if people really knew the real you, they'd reject the real you." It's a lie. The God who's there says, "I'm inviting you to experience the cure," James confirms this further by declaring we should actively confess our transgressions. He says in James 5:16, Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” God says with that, along with prayer, you will begin to experience the cure. Confession is the cure. He's inviting you.
The second practical tenet is that to defuse the power these past hurts have in our lives, we have to truly forgive those who wronged us; true forgiveness destroys the oppressive power the event has over us. Hebrews 12: 15 speaks to this saying, ‘See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…’ - we know that bitterness is poisonous to the soul, and causes a tremendous amount of trouble and turmoil in our lives. Colossians 3:13 gives us the solution to this issue of bitterness from hurts in our lives saying, ‘bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.’ Ps. Robbie said that ‘The action you need to take is not choosing to forgive yourself; it's choosing to accept God's forgiveness despite the fact that you do not deserve it.’ This forgiveness will lead to you being able to forgive others of things in the past.
The final practical tenet to take away is that there is no situation of past hurt that God cannot wield for His honor and His glory through your life! There's no person who has committed sins and offenses and done such things that God can't write an incredible story through your life, and he wants to write an incredible story through your life; You can be a platform for the power of God. Take the story of the demon-possessed man of Mark chapter 5 verse 18-20 - this restoration that occurs through the saving work of Jesus spoke to so many people in that area; this is exactly what God desires to do through each and every one of us when we surrender to Him! Ps. Robbie concluded with ‘The only way for you to experience healing, whether it's a hurt or a sin hang-up, is for you to reveal and bring others in, for you to release the hurts from your life and allow God to be the one who administers justice for those things and for you to recognize, whatever your story is, God wants to use it if you will let him or you can just let it get lodged.’
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Self-Care - Cleaning Out Your Closet: In our lives, we have all gone through tremendously difficult things and some of those past hurts are still alive in our lives; this does not have to be the case!
Main Scripture Passages: Proverbs 28:13; James 5:16; Hebrew 12:15; Colossians 3:13; Mark 5:18-20
God Will Not Heal What We Continue to Hide: God desires for us to be conformed to the life of His Son Jesus, but he won’t force us - if he want to be healed of our past hurts we have to be open about our struggles.
Defusing Past Hurts Comes Through Forgiveness and Release of Power: The way Scripture says we need to address our hurts in life is very different from the rest of the world, we are to forgive, not destroy; forgiveness, true forgiveness releases the power that hurt has over you
There Is No Past That Cannot Be Used As A Platform For God’s Power If We Let Him: Everyone has these kinds of hangups, but nothing is beyond God’s means’ of restoring you for His honor and His glory; your personal sanctification is a direct testament to believers and non-believers alike!
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
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Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Self-Care series!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!