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Let us open our time of worship by singing: And Can It Be
Scripture Reading James Ch 1:2
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given you.
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Join with me as we go into a time of pray and let us sing: I Will Offer Up My Life
Let Us Pray
Father God I come before you today in need of your healing hand. In you all things are possible. Hold my heart within yours, and renew my mind, body, and soul. I am lost, but I come to you with grace.
You gave us life, and you also give us the gift of infinite joy. Give me the strength to move forward on the path you've laid out for me. Guide me towards better health, and give me the wisdom to identify those you've placed around me to help me get better. Amen
Let us share together in The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Healing Victory
Life can be cruel, can’t it? Sometimes it seems like it’s one thing after another that brings hurt and pain into our lives. I know many people are overwhelmed with the things that life keeps throwing at them. But here’s a thought. Jesus died and rose again to give you and me victory. Be of good cheer, He said, for I have overcome the world. Jesus died and rose again to make you a victor, not a victim.
Sometimes pain is completely unavoidable but here’s the sad thing some of the pain that we suffer can be self inflicted. But at the same time, the world throws things at us that are way beyond our ability to cope – the death of a loved one, deep rejection, divorce, sickness or an accident or something big and it just hurts.
Sometimes people plot against us – they turn against us and reject us and well, you know the things that have happened in your life and we can end up feeling like a victim – like we are on the receiving end of things that just aren’t our fault and it’s not fair and now I’m the victim.
Sadly, whether it’s as a result of one really big thing or an accumulation of lots of little things, many people live their lives as perpetual victims. That’s not how God wants us to live our lives. There are almost seven billion people on this planet today and fully two thirds of them don’t have the basics of enough food, housing, clean drinking water or safety and security that they need to live their lives. And so whether it’s looking at it from a global scale like that or just looking at our own particular area of pain and suffering, that we might be going through right at this moment, sometimes we ask God, ‘What were You thinking, God? Why do You let this go on?’ It feels as though God doesn’t care and it feels as though we are the victim in all of this.
You may be feeling right now and asking, does God really have a heart for the weak and the downtrodden or do they need to live the rest of their lives as victims?’
There was a time when God was speaking to His people Israel, through the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. its Ezekiel chapter 34, beginning at verse 1. Have a listen:
The word of the Lord came to me, writes Ezekiel: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel, you have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep.
You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled over them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals.
Seems that God wasn’t pleased with the leaders of Israel; the ‘shepherds’, as He calls them who were making victims out of ordinary people through their own misdeeds. Well, in a sense, words are cheap. Question is: was God prepared to do anything about it? Let’s read on verse 11, in Ezekiel chapter 34:
God said: I myself will search for my sheep, I will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God to you: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats: Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but must you tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?
Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between the sheep and the sheep.
Doesn’t require much explanation, does it? God is a God who so loves His people, He comes against injustice; He comes against leaders who abuse their flock. My friend, whatever you are going through at the moment; whatever injustice; whatever pain; whatever that thing is that makes you feel as though you are the victim; it hasn’t escaped God’s attention. And His heart is very much for those who are weak – we have just read that! His heart is to reach out; to seek you out and to save you. And you know what? I believe that is exactly what He’s been doing. He has come for you through His Word and it is for this reason that God sent His Son.
Lets read Luke chapter 4, verse 16:
When Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was His custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll; He found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Jesus came for you as much as He came for anyone else. He came not as some rich powerful king but as a carpenter’s Son, not with great riches according to the world’s measure, but with the riches of heaven – to pour them out on you and on me and on anyone else who will place their trust in this Jesus. Jesus came to set the captives free.
Sometimes that means a change in our circumstances, but you know, sometimes it doesn’t. It always, though, means a change in who we are. No matter what’s going on, no matter what’s happening to us, no matter how unfair it appears, this same Jesus suffered and died for us on a cross. He knows first-hand how injustice feels and He came to give us peace and joy and strength, right here in the middle of it all – the sort of peace and joy that you can’t put into words.
If you are looking for some relief for the soul, then there is only one place that I have discovered It, and that place is Jesus. He came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour; He came for you. And right in the middle of whatever we are travelling through; right in that place where we feel as though we are the victim, Jesus came so that we would be victims no more. Jesus came to give us victory right in the middle of life … the life we are leading now. I believe that God wants to deal with it, to heal it, to give us victory right in the middle of the pain.
Listen to James Ch 1, beginning at verse 2:
My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given you.
And whether or not the circumstances causing the pain change straight away in our lives, God wants us to have victory, right in the middle of those circumstances; right in the face of the adversity that’s confronting us.
Just before Jesus was betrayed and crucified Jesus prayed for you and me. If anyone at any time in history had a reason to be concerned for himself rather than others, it would have been Jesus, right at this moment. You and I would probably have been worried about saving our own skins – Jesus on the other hand was willing to lay down His life so that you and I could be forgiven our sin and have eternal life. As He said in John chapter 10, verse 17 and onwards:
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.
In other words, Jesus was no victim here. He was going to the cross of His own volition, suffering for you and me out of His great love. I wonder had I been in His shoes, how much more I would have felt like a victim? But in the face of a brutal, painful, gruesome, torturous, lingering death, slowly suffocating as He hung suspended by nails through His hands and feet, Jesus prayed for you and me. Let’s listen to what He prayed – John chapter 17, beginning at verse 1:
He looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
I have made your name known to those whom you have given to me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and they know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; (see how Jesus is praying for us?)I am asking on their behalf, not on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you have given me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be as one, as you and I are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you gave me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, Father, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is the truth.
Isn’t that a beautiful prayer? Here is Jesus about to be crucified and He prays quite a few things for you and me but the main thing is that He has given us His Word; the truth and because of that, we no longer belong to the world. We are in it but we don’t belong to it. And when we are suffering, the thing that we most want is to be taken out of those circumstances that are causing us the suffering. But that’s not what Jesus asked His Father to do. Let’s look at it again:
I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I don’t. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is the truth.
“Don’t take them out of it. Strengthen them and protect them through it”. And with that He heads off to Gethsemane where He prayed in effect, exactly the same thing for Himself. Luke chapter 22, verse 42:
Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me,” (the cup being the suffering.) yet not my will but that your will be done.
Suffering what He was about to suffer wasn’t His first choice, but He bowed down His will to His Father and He suffered it anyway. Was He a victim in this suffering? No! On that cross and through the empty tomb, Jesus won the greatest victory in all history. He won salvation, eternal life, forgiveness for you and for me and for countless others, even though He suffered so greatly and hanging, dying there on a cross, He looked such a failure.
Sometimes we are called to suffer – often times it doesn’t make sense. It’s not our first choice; our first choice is to be taken out of that place but that’s not always what God does. Jesus didn’t ask for us to be taken out of the world. He ask Him to protect us and strengthen us and set us apart by His power and His Word. And here’s what I have experienced sometimes in the middle of suffering that doesn’t make sense: a peace that is so powerful, so beyond anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. It completely surpasses any understanding or explanation. It just doesn’t make sense. And it’s exactly the thing that Jesus goes on to pray for you and for me in the rest of John chapter 17. I want to encourage you – go and read that chapter for yourself.
God doesn’t want you to be a victim. He wants us to be humble and strong; assailed, yet peaceful; right in the middle of the storm. That’s what victory … that’s what His victory, looks like. And it’s that victory that is the sweetest victory of all!
I can’t tell you the number of times that I have been in the midst of a battle in life; struggling, wrestling with it, learning to live through it God’s way and when I do that; when I lay it down; when I repent of my own sin; when I turn the other cheek whatever it is that God is calling me through His Word to do, what happens then is that I enter into God’s rest and peace. We need to take that peace and live in it and the only way that I have learned to do that is to spend more and more time with Jesus, praying and reading His Word.
Reading those stories of old; reading about how God has saved His people over and over again, letting the Spirit of God write the story of God’s faithfulness onto my heart. And little by little, what happens is that we discover God’s peace. We start living in His rest. We start living in His rest. Let me leave you with that truth right out of God’s Word.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me.
And that, is what God wants for my life and yours – His peace, right in the middle of that deep, dark valley. Amen
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The Lord bless Thee and keep thee
The make his face shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
And give thee peace
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