WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.580 So let me open with a prayer adapted from the Book of Common Prayer. 00:00:11.540 --> 00:00:18.039 Heavenly Father, giver of life and health, comfort and relieve those among us who hurt 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:23.879 and give your power of healing to those who minister to their needs, that those for whom 00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:28.260 our prayers are offered may be strengthened in their hearts and have confidence in your 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:34.020 loving care. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:37.780 Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:44.719 So this morning's sermon is the second in a four-part series on the Holy Spirit and what 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:51.420 it means for us to have more of the Holy Spirit. And this morning's sermon specifically talks 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:58.240 about inner healing. You will see, I think, in the Friday newsletter, an invitation to 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:03.400 send in questions. I'd love to be in conversation with anybody who wants to be in conversation 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:09.599 on these topics. If you have a comment or a response to either last week's sermon or any 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:15.460 of the sermons coming up or want to pose questions, the questions will come to, I think, Natalie 00:01:15.460 --> 00:01:22.240 and to Deborah and they'll come anonymously to me so you can ask your question as bluntly 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:27.140 as you want. Challenge anything you hear in any of these sermons as straightforward as you 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:32.939 want and we'll figure out a way to reply back. So I just want to invite people into that. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.500 I'd love to be in conversation. For this morning, I want to start with a story just to get us 00:01:38.500 --> 00:01:43.739 into the topic of inner healing and then talk about Jesus' heart for us when we're in our 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:50.119 pain and then talk about inner healing itself and how it works. And so to begin with this story, 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:55.380 a couple years ago, I had what I think is the privilege of sitting with someone who, 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.100 after many years of not walking with the Lord, was going to have her very first conversation 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:08.580 with God again in many, many years. She grew up in faith. She grew up in a very conservative church 00:02:08.580 --> 00:02:15.740 and there were a number of, a combination or a number of hurtful experiences while she was at 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:22.900 that church and being told sometimes not to ask questions about hard things and not to challenge 00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:27.820 simple answers. And through some of the hurt she experienced, she walked away from this church. 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:34.439 And in time, she walked away from her faith. And the crisis moment that led to this evening where we 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:40.080 were sitting together and she was going to have this first conversation again after a long time was 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:47.080 watching her partner die in a hospital bed in deep pain. He was screaming as he died. 00:02:48.220 --> 00:02:54.920 He didn't know the Lord and by her account, he was an amazing, brilliant, and wild man who was 00:02:54.920 --> 00:03:01.580 incredibly talented. And all of this amazing image of God shone through his brokenness and she loved him. 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:09.240 And his pain and his death was devastating for her to watch. And so when we were gathered there, 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:16.060 we heard her story and what led to this moment and why she was there. And so she quieted herself and she 00:03:16.060 --> 00:03:24.760 closed her eyes and turned to God just to begin praying. Her very first prayer after a long time 00:03:24.760 --> 00:03:30.980 was actually a scream. It made me jump. I didn't expect it. I was thinking there would be some kind of 00:03:30.979 --> 00:03:37.959 words, some kind of going over the past, but it was actually a long scream. And the scream turned 00:03:37.959 --> 00:03:45.199 into heaving, sobbing cries and yelling at God. There was some salty language in there. I'll leave 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:52.079 it up to you to decide what those salty words were. But they were there. There were questions and 00:03:52.079 --> 00:04:00.199 accusations. Why God? And how could you? And where were you? And as I prayed and I reflected and sat in this 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:09.319 moment, I realized that these were not the screams of a person in rage or rebellion against God. This is not 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:16.579 somebody who is defiant and who hated God. This was the heart cry of someone who deep down believed in God, 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:24.800 that God is good, who expected more and better from God. But the way her church had treated her and her 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:31.100 experiences, the way they lived out faith to her, and then watching her partner die, had wounded her 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:39.699 and made her question whether God was in fact loving or good or fair. So this moment that night didn't 00:04:39.699 --> 00:04:46.580 spring up spontaneously. It came about through a pastor friend's long, patient friendship with her. 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:53.180 He had invited me to join them for this first prayer in a long time. And over the course of this long 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:59.900 friendship the two of them had, they could talk about Jesus and he could portray Jesus in a way that was 00:04:59.900 --> 00:05:05.280 different from how she knew him growing up. And they could take time to talk through stories of Jesus 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:11.579 from the Gospels and see him for who he is in the Scriptures. And as well, they could talk about all the 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:16.699 things that you read about in Scripture where we don't understand why God did something and it's confusing. 00:05:16.699 --> 00:05:26.259 This conversation, this first prayer of hers was as every bit tender, as it was angry, heartbroken, 00:05:26.539 --> 00:05:34.800 as it was combative. It was raw, it was authentic, and even sacred. And Jesus felt very close in that 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:41.539 moment. And I'm thinking of Psalm 147 verse 3 that says he heals the brokenhearted and binds up to their 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:47.080 wounds. Jesus is close to the brokenhearted and he felt present that night. 00:05:48.260 --> 00:05:54.740 So after that night, that first conversation, she started walking with God again. She chose to do so, 00:05:55.020 --> 00:05:59.520 but not because she had all the answers and everything was sorted out or because she had no 00:05:59.520 --> 00:06:06.060 more pain left, but because a pastor friend and eventually a community had walked alongside of her 00:06:06.060 --> 00:06:13.660 and loved her to a place where she was able to see Jesus and give Jesus a chance. A Jesus that she 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:23.279 had met anew or maybe for the first time. In John 11, we read about Jesus raising Lazarus to life. 00:06:24.019 --> 00:06:31.779 And this unbelievable miracle happens and is described in two verses. But in the 42 verses that precede it, 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:38.559 other important things happen. And mainly in this time before this miracle happens, Jesus is simply 00:06:38.559 --> 00:06:46.439 with people, Martha and Mary in particular. So after Jesus gets word that Lazarus is sick and dying and 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:53.139 he should come and he mysteriously waits for two whole days and doesn't come, he comes. And when he's on 00:06:53.139 --> 00:06:58.779 the outskirts of the village, Mary comes out to meet him. And when she comes up to him, she is as every bit 00:06:58.779 --> 00:07:04.519 real and authentic with Jesus, as this woman I talked about in the story just now. And she complains 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:11.279 to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And Jesus, for his part, speaks 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:17.959 words of truth and hope and life to her. And he offers himself to her as the very salve for her pain. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:20.559 He is present to her. He is with her. 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:27.040 And then after Martha talks to him, Mary comes and she meets him in the same spot. And she also 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:31.819 complains to Jesus in the same way. If you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And she begins 00:07:31.819 --> 00:07:38.040 to weep. Jesus, this time, he doesn't say anything. He's just there with Mary. He lets her weep. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:44.439 And he's present to her. But there's even more going on before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:57.779 We read at some point that Jesus is deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And the ESV 00:07:57.779 --> 00:08:02.339 translation that we use, and even the English translation, is a little bit dry on these verses. 00:08:03.019 --> 00:08:08.480 The Greek words that underlie it mean to feel something deeply and strongly. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:16.200 And in its extra-biblical use in non-biblical Greek literature, it literally means to snort. 00:08:16.819 --> 00:08:24.920 It gets used to describe in one place in an ancient Greek writing, a war horse at the moment right 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:31.439 before battle, snorting and stomping the ground. It connotes a sense of anger and indignation. 00:08:32.259 --> 00:08:38.420 And it's important to know that it says in the verse that Jesus felt these things when he 00:08:38.419 --> 00:08:43.439 saw Mary and those with him weeping. That's how he responded to her and those with her. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:49.099 And these deep feelings that Jesus felt were not just anger and indignation, but grief also. 00:08:49.459 --> 00:08:54.459 Because a few verses later, Jesus is standing before Lazarus' tomb, and he weeps. 00:08:55.479 --> 00:09:00.559 He knows that he can raise Lazarus from the dead. He knows what's about to happen. He knows how the 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:10.439 whole thing ends. And yet, he still wept. Jesus' response to our pain and our heartache, our suffering, 00:09:10.579 --> 00:09:16.199 our grief, is to be with us and to let us feel the things we feel without judgment. 00:09:17.099 --> 00:09:22.699 But his response is also to be deeply, deeply moved to sorrow and grief and anger 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:26.480 for the things that have happened to us and the things we're going through. 00:09:28.280 --> 00:09:33.440 So what we see in John 11 is we see Jesus living out what's called compassion. 00:09:34.520 --> 00:09:42.140 And in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, that word is chesed. It's a visceral, overwhelming, 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:48.220 emotional love. And this word is used over and over again, almost constantly in the Old Testament. 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:53.420 Every time you read something like, God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, or 00:09:53.420 --> 00:10:01.460 the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, this is that word coming into play. This describes God's 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:09.360 heart. He doesn't just love. He has an overwhelming, emotional love. And so we shouldn't be surprised 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:15.440 when Jesus describes his heavenly father in the parable, the prodigal son, this way. So after the 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:22.300 whole parable plays itself out and the younger son is coming home, Jesus says that when this father 00:10:22.300 --> 00:10:27.720 saw his son still a long way off, he felt compassion. He felt this overwhelming, emotional 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:33.840 love for the younger son. And he runs to him and embraces him and kisses him. This is how God feels 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:40.760 about people who've completely messed up their lives and life's been hard on them. He's just glad to see us, 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:47.960 to hold us and welcome us home. Words always come later. And Jesus himself is described this way in 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:52.899 the Gospels over and over again as a person with that kind of compassion, that overwhelming, 00:10:53.059 --> 00:10:59.299 emotional love every time he encounters someone who's sick, grieving, or tormented. Just one example 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:05.539 from Matthew 29. When Jesus leaves Jericho and sees the two blind men who wanted to see again, 00:11:05.539 --> 00:11:14.000 it says that Jesus was moved with compassion. And he touched their eyes and they regained their sight. 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:21.579 Over and over again, Jesus is compelled by this compassion he has inside of him to literally stop 00:11:21.579 --> 00:11:28.659 and teach and heal and forgive or cast out demons or raise the dead, even when it was awkward, when it was 00:11:28.659 --> 00:11:34.879 inconvenient, when he was misunderstood, when he was ridiculed, when the crowds were around him pressuring him, 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:43.039 or even when to do so put him at risk of being arrested or put to death. Right after he raised Lazarus 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:49.679 from the dead, Lazarus's family lost it. They were overjoyed. The people who are watching lost it. They 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:54.179 were amazed. And there were another group of people who lost it and immediately held a meeting to decide 00:11:54.179 --> 00:12:00.480 how to best kill him. It was, it was, he was willing to put himself at risk and he was literally, 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:04.840 and he is literally willing to risk death to help the people who are hurting around him. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:10.940 This kind of compassion was passed on to the apostles and we read in the reading from Acts 3, 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.279 what compelled Peter and John to minister, to reach out and pray for the person at the gate, 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:18.379 was that same kind of compassion. 00:12:18.379 --> 00:12:26.700 So most of us don't need to have explained to us what is an inner or emotional wound. Too many of us 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:34.159 have experienced hurt or disappointment, shame, rejection over our lifetime. We've been hurt by the 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:41.220 words and actions of people around us. And the wounds that, the wounds that hurt the most are the ones 00:12:41.220 --> 00:12:47.840 that come from the people we're most open to emotionally, that we most expect love from. Childhood wounds are 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:53.720 especially hurtful and damaging. In part because we're so open to the people around us who we 00:12:53.720 --> 00:13:00.220 expect love from, but also because as kids we don't have a solid foundation of truth about ourselves yet. 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:05.980 We believe people in authority when they say things about us and to us, because we believe they have 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:13.180 authority to speak truth. And some inner wounds are hurt or caused by things or events that happen to us. 00:13:13.179 --> 00:13:21.639 I've been thinking about this past year, 15 months, an intense year of COVID, lockdowns, fear, social 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:28.279 tensions, an overdue racial reckoning, extremely intense political season. We all experienced at 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:36.919 least one of these and probably more than one of these in combination. And inner wounds are stored in us. 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:42.360 Things that are said and done are stored in our memories. And the emotions that come with these 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:49.019 memories are literally the felt reality of our inner wounds. And as adults, we cope with these things. 00:13:49.139 --> 00:13:57.479 We have rationalizations, we justify, we disassociate, or whatever we need to do to manage and suppress 00:13:57.479 --> 00:14:04.319 hurt. But it never gets resolved that way. It always comes back on us. And I don't know if anybody knows 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:11.940 the expression, the body keeps score. Our bodies keep things that happen to us emotionally can play 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:18.020 themselves out physically. Research has shown that unforgiveness and bitterness is linked to cancer. 00:14:19.100 --> 00:14:22.900 Now, if you have cancer, it doesn't mean you have unforgiveness and bitterness, but they've been 00:14:22.900 --> 00:14:29.280 linked together. So can we be healed of our inner or emotional wounds? Does Jesus do that? Yes. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:37.919 We're told in Scripture that when Jesus, Jesus in his lifetime, and especially in the last hours before 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:44.559 the cross, he suffered everything that we ever have. Not that he experienced every literal form of 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:51.100 suffering that ever was or will be, but he experienced everything that we can experience. Shame, degradation, 00:14:51.439 --> 00:14:57.679 humiliation, fear, he experienced it all. And when he was on the cross, he did more than just take our sin 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:05.359 and more than just pay for our sin. He took all sin, the sin that we've done and paid for it, and the sin 00:15:05.359 --> 00:15:12.319 others have done that have wounded us. He took it all on himself. Evil, suffering, disease, affliction. 00:15:12.659 --> 00:15:18.959 Isaiah 53 makes it really clear that this is what he did on the cross. He took all this, what we've done 00:15:18.959 --> 00:15:27.399 and what was done to us on himself. And when he heals, he comes to take away those wounds. He comes to deal 00:15:27.399 --> 00:15:33.379 with those memories and the feelings sometimes, and he comes to bring truth that sets free. 00:15:35.620 --> 00:15:41.299 Jesus goes into those places of wounding when we pray for each other. And by his love and with truth, 00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:48.100 and by what he's done for us in his suffering and cross, he resolves. I want to give you two examples 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:56.139 from praying with people of what this might look like. So I had a friend once come and ask me for 00:15:56.139 --> 00:16:02.620 prayer, and she told me that she felt ashamed when she was around specific people that she perceived 00:16:02.620 --> 00:16:08.899 to be of a higher social standing than herself. Whether it was by education or job title or wealth, 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:16.040 she just felt a sense of shame. So we met for prayer, and I asked her just to talk about this, 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:21.699 and talk about a recent time when she felt this shame, and she told me about an interaction at work. 00:16:24.099 --> 00:16:30.179 And so I asked her, and I first explained to her how this kind of prayer works about our memories and 00:16:30.179 --> 00:16:34.959 emotions and where they're stored and things like that. And we agreed that we would pray about this 00:16:34.959 --> 00:16:40.879 and ask Jesus to start showing her where this comes from. And so as we did, we kind of went through 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:46.200 an unpeeling of layers of different memories where she had experienced shame like this and 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:51.899 unhelpful interactions with people. But eventually the Lord led her to a place 00:16:51.899 --> 00:16:59.679 where that felt like a core memory. And if any of you have ever seen Inside Out, that animated film, 00:17:00.100 --> 00:17:06.900 kind of think of that. There was a core memory. And in this core memory, what she was recalling was 00:17:06.900 --> 00:17:12.560 that her parents had immigrated to the U.S. And she was born here, but her parents had immigrated. 00:17:12.840 --> 00:17:18.220 And back home, her dad was highly educated to PhD level in a very technical field. 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:24.280 But when they moved here, he was looked down on for his skin color, his accent, 00:17:24.820 --> 00:17:29.940 and his credentials just weren't taken seriously. So he ended up driving a taxi to support his family. 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:38.519 Now, she didn't think anything of this until a few years later when she was a girl. She applied for 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:43.620 and was accepted at a very prestigious private school on a scholarship basis. They couldn't afford it, 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:49.660 but she earned it. And so her dad would take her to school in the morning in the taxi and drop her off. 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:55.700 And that was fine for a while, but as she made friends at school and got plugged into the school 00:17:55.700 --> 00:18:02.440 community, she became aware of the spoken and unspoken social dynamics at her school. She became 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:08.740 aware of her skin color, her clothes and her lunch, her hobbies and sports and interests, and even where 00:18:08.740 --> 00:18:15.000 they did or didn't vacation. It all was in view and being constantly talked about and compared 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:22.039 among the friends. And she became especially acute of being dropped off in front of the school by her dad, 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:28.819 her immigrant dad, in his taxi. So nothing came to mind specifically about being mocked or made fun of. 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:34.319 So it wasn't about a key moment. It was just a broad sense of shame about how it all looked 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:40.379 and how the kids in her school thought of her. And with the Lord's help and this core memory, 00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:45.240 with all these feelings, she became aware of the things, the beliefs that she'd taken on board about 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:50.559 herself that were associated with the shame, how she felt that she was less than the other kids and 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:56.500 that her dad was less than the other dads. And so with this memory and an awareness of the beliefs 00:18:56.500 --> 00:19:02.599 she had about herself, we asked Jesus to come into this memory. And as we prayed, she suddenly saw 00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:10.200 herself sitting in the back of the taxi, her dad taking her to school, and her asking her dad, as she 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:15.319 normally did, please drop me off a couple blocks back around the corner from the school so she could get 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:21.579 out and walk to the school without being seen. And in this prayer moment, Jesus climbed in the back 00:19:21.579 --> 00:19:27.919 of the taxi. She saw him in this memory climb into the back of the taxi with her. And she heard Jesus 00:19:27.919 --> 00:19:33.740 speak words of truth to her about who she is and who her dad is and how she's okay and how much he loves 00:19:33.740 --> 00:19:39.859 her. And as they had that time, she felt the shame melting away. She felt the beliefs she'd carried 00:19:39.859 --> 00:19:46.039 about herself losing their hold. And she felt herself in that memory in a place where she was 00:19:46.039 --> 00:19:51.619 willing for her dad to take her up and drop her off in front of the school. And so in her mind, 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:57.399 she kind of pictured her dad doing that. And she got out and she felt good. She felt better. 00:19:58.679 --> 00:20:04.059 And then later, after this prayer time, I asked her, you know, how are you? How are you doing? 00:20:04.059 --> 00:20:10.220 What's changed for you? And she was telling me about new freedom that she felt from shame when 00:20:10.220 --> 00:20:14.159 she would interact with some of the people that had originally triggered the sense of shame. 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:21.200 One more example, just to give you a sense of what else it can look like. I had a friend who asked 00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:27.379 me for prayer about anxiety attacks he was having. And these things would be triggered in by lots of 00:20:27.379 --> 00:20:32.480 different things. It was really hard to pinpoint what it was about. But we prayed in the very same way, 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.220 and the Lord took him back to a memory he had when he was a boy. He was caught in an earthquake 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:43.880 while hiking in a hilly and wooded area. So he told me he'd received prayer for this already, but 00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:50.039 he discovered that sometimes we have experiences that wound us in lots of different ways. And there 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:56.579 was still a fresh wound associated with it. And it needed more prayer. And the Lord showed my friend 00:20:56.579 --> 00:21:01.539 in our prayer time that his anxiety was coming from a sense that during the earthquake, 00:21:01.539 --> 00:21:07.779 everything around him, like reality itself, was coming apart. And he had nowhere for himself to 00:21:07.779 --> 00:21:13.960 stand. The ground was moving under his feet. Buildings nearby shook. Trees fell down. There 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:19.720 were rock slides. And the noise of it all was deafening. He had a sense of being in utter danger 00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:25.539 with nothing to protect him. The very earth was giving way beneath him. And he thought he was going to die. 00:21:25.539 --> 00:21:32.460 And we asked Jesus to come into the memory, like that in the other example I gave. But my friend 00:21:32.460 --> 00:21:38.200 didn't see Jesus come into the memory. But so we asked Jesus instead just to say, where were you, 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:43.700 Jesus, during the earthquake when this, all this was happening? And my friend heard the Lord say that 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:51.279 he helped him keep, reach a place of safety during the earthquake. And he knew in a deep way that the 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:57.599 Lord was his true rock and foundation of safety in that moment, in a way that was deeper than his 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:02.240 experience of the earthquake, in the sense that the very foundation of himself was giving way. 00:22:04.379 --> 00:22:09.480 And so, and like this other friend, I checked in with him a little later and said, how are you? And he 00:22:09.480 --> 00:22:14.180 said, the anxiety attacks are diminished. They're not totally gone, but they were diminished. 00:22:14.180 --> 00:22:21.900 So with these two examples, I want to encourage us. Jesus longs to be able for us to live like his 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:28.140 children. He wants us to be able to receive his love and his delight in us, to trust him to provide 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:34.779 for us, to trust him to protect us, and to know that he loves us and is good and faithful. But of course, 00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:41.600 our inner wounds damage our trust receptors, making it hard for us to believe these things and receive 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:47.980 these things from Jesus, and including receive the healing we need for that damage. But I can tell 00:22:47.980 --> 00:22:52.939 you from based on experience praying with others, but probably more importantly, having received my 00:22:52.939 --> 00:22:59.000 own inner healing for things, Jesus always finds a way. There isn't anything, literally anything, 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:05.179 that he can't heal. There's no suffering, no loss, grief, or trauma that's too much for Jesus. 00:23:05.859 --> 00:23:09.619 There's never a point where you're going to be praying with Jesus, and you're going to hear the Lord say, 00:23:09.619 --> 00:23:15.679 I'm sorry, I'm just, you know, I don't know what to do with this. He's always has an answer. The cross 00:23:15.679 --> 00:23:22.859 is always sufficient. He is able to heal every bit of our hearts, our souls, and our minds, even our bodies. 00:23:24.139 --> 00:23:29.539 So I want to invite you, invite all of us, like the person that I, whose story I told at the very 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:37.539 beginning, to press into Jesus, into who he is in the gospels, to trust that he has an overwhelming 00:23:37.539 --> 00:23:44.299 emotional love for you, that he'll risk everything to come meet you and heal you, that he's moved by 00:23:44.299 --> 00:23:51.720 grief and indignation at your pain, and he has healing for you. Let me pray for us. 00:23:53.220 --> 00:23:58.119 Lord Jesus, you know the things that have happened to us, the things that even sometimes we haven't 00:23:58.119 --> 00:24:03.879 even told others. And Lord, you know what those things are, and you long to heal them. You long to 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:09.760 bring light and truth, and with your love to heal us and make us whole. You don't want us to carry 00:24:09.760 --> 00:24:16.980 those wounds anymore. I thank you that you do heal. You do bind up our broken hearts. So come, 00:24:17.100 --> 00:24:23.800 Lord Jesus, by your spirit, move among us powerfully to give us the courage and the willingness to take 00:24:23.800 --> 00:24:29.280 another risk with you, to take another chance with you, and come with our wounds to see you heal us. 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:36.039 We know it could be fast, or it could be a journey, but Lord, you're here for us, and you'll do it. 00:24:37.019 --> 00:24:42.799 So help us, Lord, connect with you and find you, and find the healing you have for us. Amen. 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:42.920 Amen.