hurt people#4

Welcome to Acts

"Hurt people hurt people # 4

Sermon Outline

Prepared by

Dr. Joseph P. Metoyer, Jr., Pastor/Teacher

May 18, 2003

Text: Luke 15:11-30

Subject: The Price & Power Of Change

Introduction:

I. The Price Of Change

A. Hidden hurts. Suffocating secrets. Like weeds, they grow relentlessly through the cracks in our souls, threatening to over run our lives. Why would we hesitate a millisecond to acknowledge and uncover them no matter what the cost? Many of us fear the light of truth that reveals them.

1. Truth brings suffering as well as freedom

2. Truth brings increased hurting before increasing health

B. Tears about family losses are a price of change. Many of us stall on the starting line of change because we fear what we’d lose if we did. We must count the cost of change with ruthless realism. Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to losses of family member’s approval and affection.

1. The brother of the Prodigal Son is an example of living the hurt of the loss of his father’s affection, in his mind, (Luke 15: 11-30)…

2. We will never begin the move from hurting to healing until we answer the question: Whose rules rule? Is it the father’s rules or the older son’s rules that this family needs to apply? If the rules of the older brother were applied to this situation healing could not take place and the cycle of "Hurt people hurt people" would rule the day by allowing ourselves to continue hurting, hurtful ways.

3. In unhealthy systems, whether they’re families or companies, the person who sees and speaks the problem becomes the problem. The Prodigal son saw his problem and he spoke it: Luke 15:17 "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" His brother instead of working to resolve this situation focused on removing his brother: (V. 28a) "But he was angry and would not go in." This must have produced tears of pain for the father! Tears about family losses are a price of change.

C. Blaming as a price of change. Some of us must face the truth that we have gotten bogged-down in blaming our parents or other powerful people from childhood.

Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself." Let’s not pay the price of blaming someone else, or using that as a stumbling block to make the necessary changes we need to make to heal.

People we must take responsibility for our own choices: Ezekiel 18:30 ""Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord God. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin." One of our most important choices will be to invest the time necessary to underwrite the cost of genuine change.

D. Time as a price of change.

Not many people want to wait for a process to take place to bring about change. Consequently, we usually think only in terms of extreme polarities: wrong-or-right, bad-or-good. Or more pertinent to our on going focus, wounded-or-well, hurt-or-healed. The Prodigal son paid the price and ended up in the pigpen, but his brother did not want to accept time as a price of change. He did not want to accept a process; he wanted to impose his rules. But the father applied God’s rule: confession, forgiveness, and restoration.

II. The Power to Change

A. Looking at the life of the Prodigal Son the power of change started with his truthfulness about hidden sin (Luke 15: 18-19)…

B. The affect of this power of change caused the father to react in love: Luke 15:20b "But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." Luke 15:32 "It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

We are not truth-seeking, truth-loving creatures by nature. Deceit is the natural current of our lives. So we desperately need a power source-maybe even a motivation source-outside our natural selves to propel and guide us as we swim upstream by choosing to change by consistently choosing truth.

Did you hear about the farmer who bought a chainsaw that was guaranteed to cut five big trees an hour? The day after his purchase, he returned it to the store with an obvious frustration. Five trees an hour? It barely cut three trees the whole day the angry farmer exclaimed… Puzzled, the store owner took the saw outside and pulled its cord and started the powerful engine. The deafening roar of the startled the farmer… He asked, what’s that noise?

Cutting trees with a silent chainsaw is no more foolish than trying to "do recovery" or "get well" in our own strength alone. Zech. 4:6 "So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the Lord of hosts."

C. We need to understand and commit to change. We need a plan to guide the process. But without the power of God’s Spirit energizing our understanding, commitment and process, we will go through the motions of change without anything significant happening.

Application: We need to admit that much of our hurting is rooted in a far deeper issue than childhood experiences. The Bible describes it in one, three-letter word: sin. Ephes. 2:1

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins". All humans are sin stained, but Christ has paid the price. We must let Jesus pilot our lives before we can ask Him to power our changing. He won’t barge in and take over but He enters hearts when invited.

(Romans 12:1-2)… "By the mercies of God" is His part, and our part is "To present our bodies…"