Skip to content In the Middle: The Savior of Shattered Souls Aug 16 · 30 min ...more
In the Middle: The Savior of Shattered Souls
August 16, 2023 · 30 min
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Series A Significant Life August 16, 2023 · 30 min · A Significant Life
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Jim Graff is a respected pastor, leader, and author who loves helping people fulfill their unique
potential while finding their significance in Jesus Christ.
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0:02 Thank you for being with us today on A Significant Life. Tamara, today we're kicking off a new series titled In the Middle.0:10 That's right. And it's an important 1 because Job fourteen:one reminds us how short life really is and how full of trouble it can be. We're all usually either in some trouble or headed towards it. And we're gonna learn0:22 from Jesus' own words today how to receive the Holy Spirit's work well so that our problems turn into answered prayer.0:46 All of us at 1 time have had an opportunity to receive counsel from somebody. And if it's been a professional counselor, at some point, they probably looked at you and they said, tell me more0:58 about that season of childhood that you went through. And the reason they do that is because our past experiences have a way of creating perspectives. Right? And then those perspectives have a way of1:10 creating choices that we make, and ultimately they determine circumstances that we end up living in in our lives. I'll tell you a humor story about it. There's a pastor I know,1:22 and when he was young, he was raised poor. And so he thought most of the time that what he saw other people afford, there was no way that he could afford it. So he took his first flight when he was just1:34 in his twenties, and he said he got on the airplane, and whenever the stewardess started passing out meals to people, he thought there was no way he could afford it. So he politely declined, got out his cheese1:46 and crackers, and he began to eat them, and then he began to look around and everybody else was eating lasagna and chicken on the plane. And he said he thought about some words that his daddy shared with him,1:58 that is, sometimes, you know, things just happen to us in life, But how many of you know, even though everything happens for a reason, how many of you know sometimes the reason is we're stupid? Can you say amen?2:09 And this morning, we're not gonna talk about the fact that we're stupid, though we all have some choices I'm sure we wish we could take back, but we're gonna talk about the fact that life isn't easy, and2:21 sometimes we really need God's help with things that we're going through in life. And during these 5 weeks, focus is gonna be on a ministry time in Jesus' life that's2:32 recorded in Luke chapter 4. And the Bible says after ministering down in Jerusalem and Judea, that he returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee, and news of him went through all the2:44 surrounding region, and he taught in their synagogues and he was being glorified or he was being praised by all the people. And it said he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was,2:56 he went into the synagogue and on the Sabbath day he stood up to read and he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he opened the book, he found the place where it was written that the spirit of the Lord3:08 is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. So for the next 5 weeks, what we're really gonna learn is this, what does it mean to receive the gospel3:20 well in an area where today pastor, my life is kind of poor? And I read to you this morning from the New King James version, which we don't normally do in Faith Family Church,3:32 but here's why, and that is there were 2 different ways that the the Old Testament was circulated throughout Israel in the in the days of Jesus. First of all, there was something that was called the3:44 Masoretic text, and it was the Hebrew text. And the King James and the New King James used that text because they believe that Jesus would have stood up with the Hebrew text on that day.3:56 The people who translated the NIV and the people who translated the ESV bible believed that Jesus would have used the Septuagint, which was another version. It was the Greek version of the Old4:08 Testament. But Jesus is gonna talk about 5 things that God wants every believer to experience because of the fact the Holy Spirit now lives within us. And the first4:20 thing we're gonna talk about is that the Bible says that he was sent to heal the brokenhearted. The word brokenhearted is is in the Greek, and it means to crush4:32 completely or to shatter something. And I'm gonna share an illustration this morning I think can help us understand what is in God's heart. In 19 85, we experienced4:44 what my family calls a year from hell. And the year started great. My parents were all excited because they were going to have their eleventh grandchild that year,4:55 And they were excited because they had designed their dream retirement home, and it was going to be built over this beautiful farm that's in my small town. And and then in April, my5:07 mom was having trouble with 1 of her eyes, and she went to the doctor and she found out she had a tumor in her eye. And within 2 weeks, my mom found out not only did she have a cancerous5:19 tumor in her eye, but it had spread to her liver, and now it was throughout her body. And the doctor told her that she couldn't even expect to live through the end of the year. So of course, we rallied around5:31 her as a family, but then 4 months later, my father passed away. So now my mother didn't have her husband, she wasn't going to have the home that they were dreaming of building,5:43 and literally the doctor told her she wasn't even going to live through the year. Well, I took a leave of absence that year from my job for 6 weeks to take care of my mom, and I'll never forget the most5:55 horrendous day that I think I've ever lived through. It started whenever I made breakfast for my mother. Now that was horrendous enough, believe me. My my cousins say, Jim, whenever you made us6:07 breakfast, we knew you were gonna be a pastor because it motivated prayer and fasting whenever you made breakfast. But I made her breakfast, and and that was the first day that when she picked up her fork, she couldn't6:18 get it to her mouth. And not only was my heart shattered when I saw my mom in that condition, but, you know, she was comfortable with me and she just began to cry. And then she6:30 composed herself, and later some of her grandchildren came and they were playing. And there was this beautiful vase my grandmother who went to heaven 4 years earlier had given my mother, and they6:42 broke that vase, and it shattered in so many pieces it could never be put back together. And my mom was a very stoic, strong person, and she stayed strong, but later that afternoon,6:54 it was just she and I, she looked over where that vase was and she just started to cry as if to say, know, that vase represented what it kind of represents my life,7:06 that everything that I held dear has been shattered. Now I share that because that's what Jesus is saying when he says that the Holy Spirit wants to invade those shattered places that7:17 exist on the inside of every 1 of our hearts. And when we think of those shattered places, who do we think of in the Bible? Of course, it's Job, who in 1 day the Bible says Job had his7:29 servants come and he was the wealthiest man in his area, and literally he lost all of his wealth. There was no financial currency in that day, so it meant all of his7:41 livestock had been lost in just 1 day. And then later, the servants came back, and there was a tragedy, and all his children were were killed in 17:52 day because of a tragedy that occurred. And the Bible said he held his heart together, and he kept worshiping God even though things couldn't didn't seem like they could get worse. But then8:04 just some days later, Job ended up being afflicted in his body, and it looked like there was no way he was gonna be able to recover from his sickness. And his wife told him, Job, why8:16 don't you just curse God and die? And Job started by saying, you speak like a foolish person. Yes, there's evil in the world, but there's also a God who lives in who influences8:28 the world, and I believe God is gonna do good to me. And sure enough, it happened. Job 42 says this, that after Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored to Job8:40 his fortunes and he gave him twice as much as he had before the crisis. But when we go through times like this, first of all, I think this question comes to every 1 of our hearts and that is, why8:52 do we experience struggles and brokenheartedness the way that we do in life? And quickly, I'm gonna just share the 4 reasons that the Bible says we experience brokenheartedness, and the9:04 first is just our sin. In Romans 6 23 it says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So all of us know9:16 what it's like to do bad, and because we do bad, we end up reaping bad in our life. But do you notice in that verse that the writer of Romans is very, very intentional9:27 about saying, now there's 2 forces at work in the world. Not just 1, that the wages of your sin is gonna produce heartache and pain in your life, but the gift of God is that9:39 he wants to restore life to you in spite of what sin has done to your life. And of course, not all of our pain is is in our own sin, and it's certainly not in all the sin that we9:51 knew that we're committing, which is why there's a second thing that happens sometimes when we're going through hard times, and that is we experience the chastening of the Lord. Hebrews 12 says, my son or daughter,10:03 don't make light of the Lord's discipline and don't lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the people he loves and he chastens everyone that he accepts as a son. That word chasten10:15 means that the Lord brings discipline through punishment into our lives. It's why I have this little paddle at my home, and it's when the kids were little, and I've held10:27 up that paddle when they're adults, and I'll say, now who wants me to leave you this in the will? Just lift up your hand if you want me to leave this paddle in the will because they've got their memories. And I would10:38 take that little paddle, and I would say to them, now this is the board of education in my hand right now, and I'm only gonna sting you in that place God custom designed for you to take this stinging.10:50 And I want you to know this is God's ejector. When it hits here, it's because there's an attitude and a thought that I want to go out of here. And I think it's important that as parents, never11:02 discipline in anger because anger should never be the reason. It should be love that causes us to do it. And it's important that we show them that it's because I don't want sin to influence your11:14 life and rob you. That's why I'm doing this. And personally, I don't believe in spanking kids once they become teenagers because I think it's degrading, and I think there are better ways to bring discipline11:26 into a child's life at that point. But sometimes we're going through hard times because of our sin. Sometimes it's because God is chastening us, and he's trying to get something out of our hearts.11:38 The third reason is because of the sins of others. Proverbs 13 20 says, when we walk with the wise, we become wise. But you know, whenever we hang out with fools, we're gonna suffer11:49 harm. And we can all probably think of people real quick. Right? That man, I hung out with this person and because I hung out with them, the the same bad they were getting ended up coming into12:01 my life. But then there's a fourth reason and that is there's unknown sin. And in 2 weeks, I'm gonna preach from this passage in John 9 where it says that Jesus and his disciples were walking along 112:13 day, and they saw a man who was born blind. And the disciples asked Jesus, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Do you see how12:24 prevalent this mindset was that when you do bad, you're gonna get bad? Now Lord, was it his bad that made him blind? Was it his parents' bad that made him blind? What is the reason that12:36 this man right here has become blind? And I love the Lord's answer when it says that he answered them, neither this man nor his parents sinned. It wasn't either 1 of those reasons,12:49 but listen, this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. What a beautiful perspective, and it's the very perspective that when you read the book of Job,13:01 which I'm reading right now, and if you're in the same bible reading plan, I mean you're reading it right now too. Job has 3 friends who go through 3 different series of discussions with13:12 him, and all 3 of them have the same perspective, and that is Job, if you got bad, it must be because you did bad. And Job doesn't get through all of that, and13:24 he doesn't get into his blessing until God does something, and this is the beautiful something that God did. God helped Job see, yet yes, sometimes we do bad and we get bad. Sometimes we13:36 get bad even though we didn't even do bad. There are a lot of reasons that we get bad, but that's not the thing to focus on. The thing to focus on is the God of Psalm 1 47 who says, you know what? I wanna13:48 heal the shattered hearted, and I wanna give you such reason to praise me. Your heart's filled with gratefulness because I'm doing so much incredible good in your life on the other side of that bad.14:00 Can you say amen? And that's what it means to experience Jesus as the savior of our shattered souls. You say, Jim, how do we do that? 3 things that we're gonna14:12 share in the second half of the message. And number 1, we have to resist iniquities. Why? Well, I'm gonna read you a story, just parts of it today about when David was king of Israel.14:25 And man, he was feeling awesome because he started as just a little kid, and he slew that Philistine giant Goliath, became a military leader, and14:36 then God helped him overcome all the opposition, and he became not just king over all of Israel, but they were prospering at a level they'd never prospered before. And David14:48 built himself a house to celebrate what God had done, And then his conscience kind of got pricked, and he thought, you know, God's the only reason I'm living in all this, and I need to15:00 build God a house. So he went to his friend who was the prophet Nathan, and I'll pick up the story in verse 7 where after he told Nathan, Nathan, I'm gonna build God a house. Nathan said, that's a15:12 great idea. But then that night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan and and God told him, go tell my servant David, this is what the Lord says, are you the 1 to build me a house to dwell in?15:24 And then in verse 8, says, and tells David this that this is what the Lord Almighty says, I took you from the pasture from tending the flock and I appointed you ruler over my people and I've been with you15:36 wherever you've gone, and I've cut off from you all your enemies, and now I'm gonna make your name great like the names of the greatest men that are on the earth. And when your days are over and you rest15:48 with your ancestors, I'll raise up your offspring to succeed you and your own flesh and blood is going to have me establish his kingdom. He's the 1 who will build a house for my name and16:00 I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever. But then listen to verse 14, it says, I'll be his father and he'll be my son, but when he does wrong, I'll punish him with a rod that's16:11 wielded by men with floggings that are afflicted by human hands. So this verse is talking about Solomon who God blessed, and it's interesting that every single day according to Deuteronomy16:23 17, Solomon was to read God's word. And God's word told Solomon, you aren't supposed to multiply wives to yourself, and you're not supposed to multiply horses to yourself.16:35 Well, Solomon had about 900 wives and concubines. How many of you think somebody should have said, Solomon, what is it about Deuteronomy 17? You just don't get bro. Right? Because it caused all16:47 kinds of trouble in Israel, and in the same way sin causes all kinds of trouble in our life. So if we want to eliminate the pain, we have to start with resisting the16:59 iniquity that's been behind the pain. Whether it is your own choice, whether it's somebody who hurt you, whether it's just something that seems to be hurting a lot of people because of17:11 the choices of the culture that we live in, it really starts with resisting iniquity. It's why in 1 version, second Samuel 7 verse 14 reads this way, God says, I'll be17:23 his father and he shall be my son, and if he commits iniquity. That word iniquity is the Hebrew word ava, and it means to pervert, to make crooked. And God says when we go down a17:34 crooked path, he chastens us and he disciplines us because he doesn't want us to reap the the consequences of that sin. But there's a second thing, and that is you have to release yourself17:46 from inner vows that you start making as a person. And this is really the battle in the book of Job if you'll read it and and just stop and think about what's going17:58 on. But listen to this phrase from Job in the beginning in Job 3 verse 1 to 4. It says, after this all after all this bad happened, Job opened his mouth and he cursed the day of his18:10 birth. And he said, may the may the day of my birth perish and the night this set of boys conceived that day, may it turn to darkness, and may God above not even care about it. May no18:22 light shine on the day of my birth. Now interesting enough, 12 times in that book, Job either asked God if he could die or else he says, I wish I'd never been18:34 born. That's how much things were happening on the inside of Job's heart. And think about it. We this is going on around us all the time. Have you ever hurt somebody with this18:45 attitude? You know what? I'm never gonna let anybody hurt me again. And they won't let anybody into their heart. But here's the challenge. How are we gonna be loved if we're never gonna let anybody hurt us? Or18:57 if we're never gonna give anybody entrance into our heart again. Or how about this 1? I'm not working that hard for that boss. Here's what I'd say. Listen, if if you do that, what's19:09 happening to the potential that can lead to the promotion, that can lead to the blessing that you hope to have? Or how many of you have ever heard, I just can't forgive that person. Have you ever heard that? Well, how's19:20 God gonna heal that relationship if that's the condition that our heart has come into. And that's why it's so important that we learn to break inner vows. An inner vow is19:33 a commitment that we make based on past experiences that we go through. And we don't realize it, but those those inner vows are the very thing that's keeping our heart shattered,19:45 that's keeping us in a place where God can't bless us the way that he longs to bless us. And Jesus said, if God is gonna restore life, number 1, we have to bring the shattered19:56 places of our heart to him. In other words, we have to be able to bring those places that we feel like even God can't deal with this part of my life. I remember, and you're gonna laugh at this, but when20:08 I was 21 years old, I was a junior in college, and for some reason, the the school chaplain picked me to speak in the last vespers of the year for 10 minutes before he did,20:20 and he said, I want you to charge all the seniors about their future. And I'll never forget talking to 1 of my friends, and he said, Jim, you really did good. I said, Do you think I did good? I said, I'm just glad I20:31 never have to do that again. For some reason, he said, Are you sure you're not called to ministry? And and as I prayed, I knew that God was doing something, but it was just so hard to take the20:43 steps that God wanted me to take. And I remember looking at my friend, and does anybody remember when Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali fought in Manila, and they called20:54 it the thrilla in Manila? Anybody see that? I told my friend, I said, listen. I said, if I have to preach every week, he I said, I don't want you to tell anybody this, but I had the diarrhea all week just trying to get21:06 ready for that sermon. And I said, you know, if I have to be a pastor, I said, it's it's not gonna be the thrill in Manila. It's gonna be a modium behind a podium every single Sunday whenever I get21:18 ready. And listen, some of us, we have that going on in our heart that the pain is so great. We just don't we don't know how God can heal the marriage. We don't know how God can restore this21:30 relationship with the child. We we feel like somebody's come in and robbed us of our potential, and we've been we've had life shattered in 1000 pieces in that part of our life, and I hope sometime this21:42 week you'll just stop and you'll say, okay, this month I'm dedicating my heart to letting the Holy Spirit have his way in the midst of the shattered places of my life. Can you say amen? And here's the final21:53 point, it's the best part, and that is we have to learn to rely upon the intercessor that God's given us. And if you read the book of Job, there's a point where there's a breakthrough, and22:05 Job says, hey, I know my redeemer lives. Redeemer means he's gonna take us back from a position we've gone into that we should have never been into, and22:17 he's gonna restore the worth of our life. And Job says, I know I have an intercessor. You know what Job's saying at that point? He's saying, I know that not only is bad at work in the world, but22:29 I know there's a God who works for good in this world. And that's the beginning point of Job's breakthrough. Now as believers, that same breakthrough has to happen in our22:41 hearts. And Romans 8 speaks of it. We'll close with this verse where Paul wrote that in the same way, the spirit wants to help us in our weakness. He says we don't know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit22:53 himself intercedes. Everybody say intercedes. He intercedes for us through wordless groans, and he who searches our heart knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God's people in23:04 accordance with the will God. So do you notice when we're weak and when our heart is shattered, God wants to be the healer of our shattered souls, but it depends on how well we let the Holy Spirit23:16 become our intercessor and take over a situation. I'll never forget when this reality came into my heart in a really motivating way. I was watching a talk show, and this23:28 lady talked about how she had God restored. Beautiful marriage to her, and she loved her grandkids, and she was just so happy about her life, but she said it would have never happened if23:39 it wasn't for this 1 day. And she told about how she was a part of a small group for marriages in her church, And it was a holiday, and she didn't think a lot of people would be at the small23:51 group. So she said, you know, think I'll just skip the small group meeting this week. And she said, when I prayed, the Holy Spirit said, no, you really need to go. And when she got there, the small group leader had24:02 prayed and he said, you know, when I was praying for the group, he said, I felt like the Holy Spirit told me that there's a shattered area of your life that he wants to start dealing with. And24:14 it was when she was a little girl, she remembered at her first communion that it was really hard for her because she wanted to love God. But as she was taking her first communion, she had such painful memories24:26 because somehow she was abused in the place where she should have never been abused. And it always kind of affected how she related to God. And she just got in her prayer time,24:38 and she said the Holy Spirit started dealing with her and he said, you know, you love Jesus, but you don't love me. In other words, you love what Jesus did for you on the cross,24:50 but you haven't learned to love the work that the Holy Spirit wants to do for you daily on the inside of your heart. And she said that just set her free.25:02 She went to her husband and with tears she confessed to just holding back her love, holding back her affection. She talked to her kids about how she just kind of lived distant when she knew25:14 she should have been more involved in their life. She talked about how that 1 moment began to change everything that happened in her life. That's what Jesus is25:25 saying. Listen, our hearts get shattered because sin is so terrible and it does a lot of bad, but how many of y'all don't want sin to have the last word25:37 and define your life? Listen, sin does bad, but God does good. Amen?25:49 We hope today's teaching was a great blessing to your heart because Tamara, we've pastored 37 years, which is almost our entire married life, and we've certainly seen high stress incidents shatter26:01 hearts. In fact, I remember 1 highly esteemed clinical psychologist telling us that people need to view their spiritual heart as a muscle, because sometimes it gets torn by the stresses of life.26:13 And it needs time to heal spiritually and emotionally, just like our torn muscles physically need time to heal.26:18 For sure. And today's teaching gave us such a clear biblical prescription that we can count on. Life can be so tough when our heart is broken. But those can also be times when the Holy Spirit will reveal just26:30 how special and dear we are to God. If we'll learn to experience His work well, you know, Jim, we found such incredible joy in loving and nurturing the faith of God's people. You mentioned that we've been doing this26:42 almost our entire married life, and it hasn't always been easy. But it's always been extremely fulfilling. And it's because of the testimonies like the 1 we'll hear today. And as you enjoy it, remember, we'd love to hear26:54 what God is doing in your life to both to give glory to God and to encourage others. Would you take time to share some of your story with us at a significant life dot com. And while you're there, please check out our27:05 free resources designed to help you nurture your God given significance.27:11 I'd lost all our money. I even missed mortgage payments, and even my house went into foreclosure. I knew I had to make a change.27:27 I had a career as a golf professional, recently divorced. I had 1 of my club members give me Lachelle's name and phone number, and she told me, You need to call this27:39 girl. We've now been married for 17 years. Everything was going great. We had a great life.27:52 And then it all turned for the worse. I started gambling and I gambled all of our money away. I lost a28:04 job. Not knowing what we could do, I put all my faith in God. God opened a door for me.28:18 Hi, welcome to the club at I got a professional job at the club at Colony Creek. But we weren't done yet. You see, my wife and I had 128:30 biological child that was a blessing from God, but we'd also been fostering kids for the past 2 years. We had a young girl named Emery that we had had28:42 in our home for 6 months and we adopted Emery 2 years ago. My encouragement to anyone who finds himself in a situation like mine28:54 or even completely different is put your faith in God and trust in Him. He will show you a way, He will open doors, and He will take the burden off of your shoulders.29:14 Pastor Jim Graff's A Significant Life Ministry invites you to be a part of what God is doing around the globe. Partnering with several local agencies in our29:35 in our next generation. For over 30 years, our ministry teams have been a huge part of blessing the unreached, marginalized and forgotten through prayer, financial support and training.29:47 But we cannot do it alone. Won't you consider joining us? To be a part of what a significant life is doing worldwide, visit asignificantlife dot com.
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The Bond of Peace: Forbearance: His Way or the Highway Jim Graff
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