Healing the sin-sick soul
SERMON STARTER
This sermon was inspired by a seminar I did over 10 years ago for a group of spiritual leaders who asked me to present an in-depth teaching concerning those who come from addictive backgrounds who present themselves again and again to evangelical altar calls, but never seem to get relief. The unhealed often become burdens to their pastors. They represent what I call an 8% - 92% problem for leaders in pastoral care. Eight percent of the people require ninety-two percent of the pastor’s time.
Most evangelicals believe that those who respond to their altar calls get salvation, enter Christ’s Kingdom and get all they need to follow Christ. The problem is that while Christ does enter the name of a sinner, now saved by grace, into “the Lamb’s Book of Life,” the person still carries a lot of baggage from their past. Discipleship and real pastoral care can lead these people into healing.
The Sin-Sick Soul must be able to deal with the pain of their own consequences for poor choices in their past. Plus, they must wade through the pain caused involuntarily by those who made wrong choices for them. This sermon explores some of the avenues of healing that are foundational. We have Christ who is our continuing healer and we have each other, especially those mature souls who have the time to reach out to others with Christ’s love and nurture.
February 24, 2008
Sheepfold Ministries, Pastor Phil Roland
Healing the sin-sick soul
The Goals of Healing inner wounds
I. YOU MUST BREAK AWAY FROM YOUR PARENTS
A. Leave and Cleave – Genesis 2:22-24
“Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man,
and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of
man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united
to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
1. Physical and Emotional Leaving Home
2. Primary Support must come from spouse
B. Find God for Yourself – Joshua 24:15
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served
beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But
as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
1. First Faith Borrows from the Faith of Parents
2. Final Faith is Tried by the Fire of Personal Experience
II. DISCOVER IDENTITY AND PERSONAL UNIQUENESS
A. Birth-Traits
1. ABILITIES:
a. Musical Abilities
b. Speaking Abilities
` c. Teaching Abilities
d. Athletic Abilities
2. PERSONALITY:
a. Choleric – 3% of Population
b. Sanguine – 11% of Population
c. Phlegmatic – 67% of Population
d. Melancholy – 17% of Population
B. Kingdom Abilities: Spiritual gifts – 1 Cor. 12; Romans 12
1. Twenty-Seven Including supernaturals
2. Wagner-Modified Hout’s Spiritual Gift Inventory
C. Ministry Abilities – The Fruit if the Holy Spirit – Gal. 5:22,23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
1. Comforting and Healing the Broken-Hearted
2. “Find a Need and Fill it - Find a Hurt and Heal it”
III. EMBRACE THE POLARITIES IN YOUR LIFE
A. You have the Capacity for Good or Evil – Genesis 2:9,17,22
“And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that
were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the
tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
“. . .but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for
when you eat of it you will surely die." V. 17
“And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing
good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from
the tree of life and eat, and live forever." V. 22
1. Own it and Accept it - Deny and you Lie
2. Embrace only Evil and you Die
3. Embrace only Good and you Die
B. The choice is yours – Romans 10:8-10
“But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
1. Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue – Prov. 18:21
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will
eat its fruit.”
2. Choose Christ and Choose Life – 1 John 5:11-13
“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life
is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son
of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
IV. GIVE YOUR LIFE TO CHRIST IN SELFLESS SERVICE TO OTHERS – Matthew 16:25,26
"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
A. Release Yourself - Luke 9:23-25
“Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. "For whoever desires to
save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. "For
what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or
lost?”
1. Stop holding on so tightly
2. Grow Up – Life isn’t always about you - 1 Cor. 13:11
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
B. Serve Others with Christ’s Love
“Only one life will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”
No Scar?
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound, no scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who hast no wound, nor scar?
Amy Carmichael
God Knows What He’s About
When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all his heart
To create so great a man
That all the world will be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial lumps of clay which only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends, but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses
And with every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out . . .
God knows what He’s about!
Author Unknown
God's Little Princess
I am God's little princess, He takes great joy in me,
The apple of His Eye, I am clothed in royalty.
My fingers tucked in His Hand, He leads me all the way,
He shows me what to do, and He tells me what to say,
My shortcomings He'll notice, but He beams a great big smile,
As I do my best He showers me with praises all the while.
And there are times I need His help; I cannot fight my foes,
With fury and with rage to my defense He goes.
No weapon formed against me shall prosper in this world,
That dart becomes my blessing as soon as it is hurled.
And when I need His comfort, His shoulder's always there,
To lay my weary head upon, and cast my every care.
And when it comes to living, it's nothing but the best,
He tends to every single need to make sure I am blessed.
O Lord, I've been Your servant, my hands from service bruised In life I've been mistreated and at times I've been abused.
Those times I felt so lonely; Your Voice so far away,
I wondered where I'd get the strength to make it through each day.
I worked so hard to gain Your Love, O how I wish I'd knew,
What You longed to tell me all along; "Your Daddy's proud of you!"