©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

06-19-05

What Did You Say, God?

6/19/05 What Did You Say, God?

For the past month or so

there has been a theme

that has turned up in my teaching every few weeks,

the theme of the wounds

that are inflicted on us in childhood.

We’ve talked about some of the things that produce those wounds,

about how Satan seeks to inflict them on us, especially in childhood,

in ways that make it far more difficult

for us to hear and respond to our God’s love for us in our adult years.

Then, two weeks ago,

I took the morning to share with you

a passage from the first few verses of the 61^st chapter of Isaiah

in which God shares with us

the kind of healing process He seeks to accomplish

in the lives of those who come to Him.

It is a powerful passage,

one that allows us to look into the heart of our Creator,

showing us what He’s seeking to do,

and at the same time

showing us in deeper measure

the depth of His love for us.

I’m not going to teach the passage again this morning,

but I do want to read it

because I think it will help move us back into where I want us to go this morning.

ISA 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners;

ISA 61:2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

ISA 61:3 To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

ISA 61:4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations, And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations...

ISA 61:6 But you will be called the priests of the Lord; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast...

ISA 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

That is the kind of healing our God seeks to accomplish within us.

He’s speaking to the afflicted,

and to the brokenhearted,

and to the captives,

and to the prisoners,

and to all who mourn.

That is a perfect description

of the end result

of that vicious wounding process

brought about in each of our lives by Satan,

those wounds that have left us afflicted in spirit,

and brokenhearted - filled with sorrows for which we don’t even know the causes,

captives of our weakness,

prisoners of the lies we have believed,

with spirits that mourn for the loss of who we might have been,

who we could have been

had our lives not been damaged by our own sins,

and by the sins of others against us.

But look at the offer He’s making.

Look at the exchange He wants to make.

To the afflicted He wants to bring GOOD NEWS.

To the brokenhearted He wants to bring healing.

To the captives He wants to bring liberty.

To the prisoners He offers freedom.

And He wants to comfort all of us who mourn.

I don’t know what concept of God you’re carrying around with you right now.

If you haven’t yet fed your mind on the truth,

you’re mental “God” probably looks a lot like a huge version of your dad.

But I want you to know

that, if you cannot see your God

longing to bring you truly good news,

seeking to heal your broken heart,

bring you liberty where you are held captive,

and freedom where you are imprisoned in spirit,

if you cannot see Him comforting you

at those places where your spirit mourns the losses inflicted on you by Satan,

if your “God” does not seek to accomplish those things in your life,

then your mental God is not the God who really exists.

Now, I am in no way simplistic

about all that is involved

in our finding the kind of healing we long for.

I’ve been actively engaged in this healing process with my Lord for nearly 40 years now,

and I still have some major areas of woundedness

that plague me every day,

and some of them

I will still possess

the day I exit this planet

because there are places where I still can’t hear the truth,

and sometimes the truth still terrifies me so much that I run from it,

and sometimes the wounds are still so painful

that I won’t let the great Physician near them,

and with every wound,

even when our Lord has brought us healing in some area,

though the pain of the wound is gone,

still there remains within us

a longing for that recreative work of our Lord within us

that we will not know

until we meet Him face to face.

And forward movement rarely comes easily.

Sandee and I have recently introduced a phrase into our conversations with one another

that has become our own little family joke.

Sometimes we’ll say to one another,

“Oh, I just can’t handle the stress of being healthy today.”

It’s our way of acknowledging to one another

that, in those areas where we have been wounded,

our God’s leadership toward greater health

never comes without struggle,

and quite frequently without pain and disruption in our lives.

And our instinctive response to that process

is to pull our little head and feet inside our shell,

and close our eyes,

and pretend that everything is just really OK the way it is.

But underlying that whole process

it is essential that we never loose sight

of the healing, redemptive heart goal of our God for us.

For, if we ever lose sight of that,

we also lose sight of the only thing

that can give us the courage of spirit to move forward.

Do you remember that first Jurassic Park movie that came out in the 90's?

Do you remember the scene

in which one of the heros

was leading the two children through the park,

and at one point they all had to climb over a massive electrified fence that was soon to be activated.

The man and the girl made it over safely,

but when the boy got to the top of the fence

the height made him freeze in fear.

There he was,

clinging with all his might

to the very thing that would soon destroy him,

and the man below was calling out,

“Let go. I’ll catch you. TRUST ME!!”

That’s us in the healing process.

So often our fear

causes us to cling all the tighter

to the very things that are destroying us.

And the only thing that can give us hope

is our willingness to trust the heart intent of our God toward us.

And unless we know the truth,

unless we know that our God comes to us

To bring good news to the afflicted;

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners;

to comfort all who mourn,

and to give a garland instead of ashes,

and the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

and the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting,

unless we understand what He seeks to do,

and then choose to trust Him,

we simply will not let go of the fence.

Now, this morning I want to take us one step farther

into this whole area

by offering a few comments

about how our Lord goes about bringing this healing into our lives.

We’ve talked about the wounds - about when and how they are inflicted,

we’ve talked about God’s heart desire to bring us healing from those wounds.

But how does He do it?

And before I go any farther,

I’ll tell you right now

that I cannot offer the kind of answers we would like to that question.

I cannot

because most of all

healing takes place in our lives

when we finally know the love of our God for us

in the midst of our pain,

at the point of our woundedness.

And we all hear the love of our God differently.

This shouldn’t surprise us

because it’s exactly the same way in our human relationships.

I have three fatherless adolescent boys

whose lives I’ve been involved with for several years now.

My goal with all three of them

has been to do what I can do

to offer them some measure of father-love replacement

with the hope that it will heal some of their woundedness.

All three of them are absolutely unique

in those things that enable them to receive my love.

One of them dropped his heart into my hands without reservation the first day we met

and has been well pleased to leave it there ever since.

One of them watched me for more than a year

before he finally decided he could risk receiving my love.

One of them, the one who was most deeply wounded by his father,

will, I think, keep me on probation for most of his teens,

testing to see whether I’m truly safe,

before he will allow himself to risk a deep trust in my love.

Two of them can receive love through my touch,

one of them can hear it only through my trust in him, my affirmation, and the time I invest in him.

Should we expect it to be any different between us and our God?

The way in which we are each able to hear His love

is absolutely unique.

And it can rarely be done through teaching.

Certainly wrong teaching can complicate the process tremendously within us,

and correct teaching can create a mental environment

in which it is easier for us to hear the truth,

but the real communication of that truth

is something that only the Spirit of God can accomplish within us.

Do you remember that statement made by Paul

when he offered us that list of 7 birthday presents

given to every Christian by God the day we come to Him?

The list is found in the first 11 verses of Romans 5,

and the specific gift I want to point out now

is the one given to us verse 5.

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit,

but Paul does not just tell us

that God has given us the Holy Spirit,

but he goes on to tell us the central goal of the Spirit of God within every Christian.

Do you remember what it was?

Did you think the Spirit was given primarily to empower us to be good?

Did you think He was given mostly to equip us for outreach and evangelism?

Did you think His primary role was to equip us with gifts

or to teach us the Word?

Certainly He does all of that and more,

but all of that is done

only as it contributes to His primary goal in our lives.

And what is it?

ROM 5:5 ...the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

He has entered our lives

with one primary goal -

to pour out within our hearts

a growing knowledge of the depth of the love of God for us.

And His ability to do that

is a deeply personal process,

one in which He often has to prepare us for years

before we can hear some aspect of the love of God for us.

Perhaps the best way for me to illustrate

what I’m trying to say here

is with several examples from my own life.

I’ll begin with something that happened to me

at my daughter’s graduation from college.

I don’t know why,

but the Spirit always seems to spring these things on me

at times when I’m not expecting them.

Her graduation was in a large theater-style auditorium,

with hundreds of parents sitting in the darkened room,

watching as the graduates lined up along the side,

walked up onto the platform,

received their diploma,

and then walked to the center of the stage,

down a set of stairs back into the auditorium

and back to their seats.

Sandee and I sat toward the back of the auditorium,

watching the students filing up, one by one

until we saw Joni take her place in line.

As soon as I saw her reaching the head of the line

I knew I had to be at the base of those center stairs

when my daughter came down.

No other parents were there.

None had been there all day.

But I knew I had to be there.

It simply wasn’t right

that she should descent those steps by herself

and not have me there.

I sprang out of my seat,

and raced down the isle

just as I heard the man at the podium announce over the PA system,

“Joni Sue Huntsperger...with great distinction.”

(It was a Canadian school,

and in their system

rather than graduating with honors or highest honors

the students graduate “with distinction” or “with great distinction”.)

And when she came down those steps

I just wrapped my daddy arms around her,

hugged her,

and we walked back up the isle together.

The sense of fulfillment,

and gratitude,

and absolute delight in my daughter that I felt at that moment

was perhaps the most fulfilling experience of my life.

And then, as I thought about that experience later,

the Spirit of God took that event

and gave me eyes to see something,

and ears to hear something I’d never been able to hear on a personal level before.

“Larry, when your graduation day from this life comes,

and you descend those steps

off of this stage on which your God asked you to play your part for a few years,

He will be there,

and He will be there just for you,

and He’ll wrap His almighty arms around you

and hug you just the way you hugged your Joni Sue that you love so much,

and the two of you will walk up the isle together.”

And all of the sudden,

in a way I’d never been able to do before,

I heard His love,

and the sound of it healed some old wound deep within me.

Let me share another example with you.

I always carry a golf tee in my pocket.

I have for nearly a year now.

Last fall,

on one of those absolutely perfect early fall days

that we had so many of last year,

when the sun was shining

and the leaves were reaching that intense gold,

and there was just a touch of that fall chill in the air,

I’d lined up a golf game

with one of those three boys I mentioned earlier,

the one who dropped his heart into my hands the day we met.

I was looking forward to that game so much,

and as I was driving out there with my young friend

a thought came to mind

that has caused me to carry a golf tee in my pocket as reminder ever since.

The thought that I am certain the Sprit of God placed in my mind was this.

Larry, do you realize that God enjoys playing golf with you

just as much as you enjoy playing golf with this boy?

Now, I know that to you that probably communicates very little,

but to me,

after 57 years on this earth,

and after nearly 40 of them lived in the presence of my God,

I was able to receive His love

and the healing it brought

in a way I had not previously been able to do.

And it happened to me again just last month

when Sandee and I were on vacation.

We spent a week with Matt, and Joni, and our 16 month old grandson, Matty.

Matty isn’t saying words yet,

but his parents have taught him hand signals.

The last day we were there

he and I were in the livingroom together

and he looked up at me,

looked at the patio door,

and then made his little sign for “open”.

He wanted the two of us to go for a walk together.

I picked him up,

and we headed out of the yard,

and then down the road.

Shortly after we started walking,

along side the road I found a piece of red and white plastic.

It was the lense cover

off of the running lights on someone’s truck

or perhaps the tail light on a trailer.

I picked it up and gave it to Matty

and he just loved it.

For the next 20 minutes

as he and I walked along the road

he clutched that piece of plastic

and talked and talked and talked about his treasure.

And even though he and I are not yet using the same words,

I knew exactly what he was saying.

He was telling me how pleased he was with his treasure,

and how valuable it was to him,

and how grateful he was to me for finding it for him

and then putting it into his hands.

And do you know something?

Because it was important to him,

it was important to me.

And what he was saying about it

mattered a great deal to me.

There was nothing in the world that I wanted to be doing more at that moment

than listening to Matty

talking with me about our walk,

and about his new treasure.

And then, once again, I heard the voice.

“Larry, that’s you and Me, you know.

During the time I have allotted you here on this earth

I have placed within your hands

a few little treasures,

things that you value every bit as much as Matty does that piece of plastic.

They are only loaned to you for a time,

and will one day be destroyed

or passed on to someone else.

But right now I want you to have them

because they tell you of My love for you,

and because they are fun things for us to share together.

I love listening to you talk to Me, Larry.

I love the sound of your voice.

I love carrying you,

and being your friend.

And just as there is no place you would rather be

than right here, holding that little boy in your arms,

listening to his funny little noises,

so there is no place I would rather be

than right here, with you listening to you share your life with me.”

If we weren’t out of time

I would tell you about things I heard

when I danced with my daughter at her cousin, Christie’s wedding,

or when I prayed for my grandson

the day we thought Joni was going to loose the baby.

But I’ve said to enough, I think, to make my point.

Obviously, from the things I’ve shared,

the Lord has used children

as a special tool with which to communicate His love for me.

But my point here is simply

that the voice of the Spirit within us

that communicates to us the love of God

is an extremely intimate, personal communication between us and Him.

And the specifics of that communication

are nontransferable.

I mean,

for me to stand up here today

and say, “If you want to understand the love of God

then all you need to do

is to attend your child’s graduation,

or go golfing with a 13 year old boy,

or take your grandson for a walk around the block…” would be nonsense

because you would not bring to those experiences

the preparation that the Spirit of God has been doing in me

to equip me to hear what He wants me to hear.

So here’s what I’ve been trying to say all morning.

First, the kind of healing that God needs to do,

wants to do,

seeks to do within us in those areas where we have been wounded,

the healing that we saw Him describing for us in that Isaiah 61 passage

is accomplished within us

by His communicating His love to us at the soul level at the point of our woundedness.

And He alone knows how to say it to each of us

in a way that we can hear it.

And I want us to begin here

because, even if you have not yet heard His voice,

I want you to know what it is that He is trying to say to you.

There are so many false gods screaming at us,

voices determined to keep us from hearing the truth.

And if the voices you’ve been hearing

have not communicated to you

the breadth, and length, and height, and depth of the love of Christ for you,

then they are liars,

committed to your destruction.

And then second,

even though the specifics of how He speaks that love to us

will be unique with each of us,

there are some universals,

some steps in that process of hearing His love that are universal.

And next week I want us to look at a few of those universal tools

used by the Spirit of God

to enable us to hear the love of God.

That will make more sense when we get into it next week,

but I will tell you now

that I think the first one I’ll share with you

will come as quite a surprise.