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Jan 06, 2019

New Steps

New Steps

Speaker: James Gallaher

Series: Moving Forward

Category: Sunday Morning

Instead of resolutions for the New Year, Pastor James talks about desiring to see the Lord’s plan worked out in our lives in 2019.

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

2019 is going to be a year of change, a year of blessing and a year of growth as we commit to becoming a healing community of believers, and becoming an intentionally organic community of believers.

First of all, to be a healing community, we have to be a healed people.

John 5:1-9 Healing at the Pool  Jesus asked the crippled man at the pool, “Do you want to be made well?” The man would have had good reason to think twice, for to be made well would mean he’d have to give up his old way of life. It’s a question about change: Do you want to change your life or do you want to remain the same? Consider the question, because healing always brings with it the necessity to change. You cannot be healed and remain the same.

Sometimes, we get stuck because we are afraid of what will be required to get rid of the problem. The idea of healing brings with it the fear of what will have to change in order to receive healing.

The question from Jesus meant that everything that the crippled man had known for the last 38 years was about to change! Accepting Jesus’ healing, the man simultaneously gave up his dependence on others to attend to him. Jesus gave him wholeness, including the ability to care for himself.

Are we ready to give up our dependencies in order to allow God to make us whole? What would Jesus heal you from? What would you be living without if you accepted Jesus’ healing?

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The challenge for many is that our healing can often look very different than we had imagined. Sometimes we just want the symptoms to disappear but healing deals with the root of the pain.

How do we know if something needs healing? The answer is simple, does still hurt? Pain is the greatest indicator of unhealed hurt, reminding us that there is still work that God wants to do in our lives. We often would rather deal with the issues of those around us than admit the pain and struggle that still remains inside of us.

God promises that whatever He does, He does with purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11-13    Revelation 12:11   

James 2:14-18  Faith is best shared when it is lived in front of others. To be intentionally organic means that we purposefully focus on the pursuit of what we see the Father doing around us. It’s organic because it has little to do with us and much more to do with Him. It's organic because it is free of our own desires in favor of those around us - thoughtful and intentional (not spontaneous). In order to have a clear image of who God is, God often times has to come in and heal the things that are clouding our view of who He actually is.

2 Kings 6:17 Then Elisha prayed and said, "O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Our experiences become our reality even if it is not the finality that God has prepared for us. Because our experiences have wounded us, we have to experience His healing in order to see His promises. 

The eternal perspective of God which leads us to become a healing community motivated by His movement is dependent upon our own willingness to be healed. 

We are a community of believers, focused on bringing Christ into focus that we might reflect a true image of who He is to the world around us. Let’s seek what God wants to do. God created community - so let’s walk with others through the change, the pain, the fear, the anxiety, the work required. Let’s commit to be a place of healing both for each other and for our community.

Do you want to be healed? to be done with pain? to be set free?

What challenges you the most in being healed? about being organic?