Sermon Central
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Life Choices Part Four Series
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Oct 4, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: our prayer is to live the life that God intended for us and that comes from making good Godly decisions.
Life choices part four
Introduction-
We have for several weeks been looking at life choices and today plan to finish this series.
It has been in preparation of the launching of our new Recovery group next month.
We have looked at John Bakers eight principals and they have been in your bulletin. Prayerfully, you have heard them enough that you can remember and recite them as you look at your own Hurts, habits, and hang-ups.
If you only remember a few things from this series, remember these things;
There are a lot of hurting people. They are for many different reasons. Some they have caused for themselves and some others have done to them and were unavoidable.
Each one of us is on a journey and we are at different spots in the journey.
Every one of us has hurts, habits, and hang-ups. That is not for someone else, it is for each one of us to realize and do something about it.
Matthew 5:1-12 which has been our text for weeks. Beatitudes.
Jesus waited for his disciples to come to him he was ready and willing for them to be taught, but it was not the crowd that impressed Jesus, it was the willingness to admit that you need help and seek it out in the person of Jesus Christ.
Remember that burdens are meant to be shared, shouldered, and shed.
We need others to help us, we need to help others.
Realize that you are not God- life-changing if you let it.
You are not expected to carry the weight of the universe on your shoulders.
Only one person can do that and it is not Atlas, it is Jesus Christ.
Understand that you matter to God- the God that is able to carry the universe can also at the same time care for each one of us.
Stop running from Him and run toward Him.
By looking at this text, we have seen that we consciously have to choose.
The Lord will not force Himself upon anyone. You want help, He is willing to help. You want to keep running from Him, he’ll be there when you stop running, but understand that you will also create problems you could have avoided had you come to him.
Remember the illustration of the 4 tons of birds in a 2 tons truck and the driver having to hit the wall of the truck to keep the birds flying. Well, when you are tired of balancing all those plates, and beating your head against the wall to do what is impossible in yourself, Jesus waits for you to stop the cycle of despair and reach out to Him.
He is truly the only one that can take you hurts, habits, and hang-ups.
Until you realize that, you will struggle, you will be depressed and you will carry the weight of the world on those shoulders.
Guilt destroys confidence and God desires to restore.
Guilt will keep us in the past and Jesus wants us to live in the future.
Hurts, habits, hang-ups destroy relationships and God desires to build relationships most importantly with Himself and then those that we come in contact with everyday.
There are patterns that must be broken in our lives and there are patterns that must be established in our life and we need the Lord to help us know which is which.
He offers help.
He offers healing.
He offers people in your life to help you and some are right here in this church.
You have a choice.
The choice that you make will determine quality of life and what you will receive from the Lord.
Some will know they need help but for whatever reason will decline his help.
I cannot do anything for you except to prayer that you have a change of heart.
I want to talk to those that decide that they want help.
The people that decide they are willing to submit themselves to God and allow Him to do something amazing in their lives and through their lives.
You have tried everything that you know to try. What do you have to lose?
To have any kind of recovery, you must submit to the one that can help you and He has a name and it is Jesus Christ. The difference between Celebrate Recovery and AA or NA is that we know who the higher power is and we know His name.
It is to understand that God gets no pleasure out of someone hurting and will use that situation to help you or help others.
That sometimes what we have went through is a tool that God will use to help us help others. He recycles pain if you will to help someone else.
