"What To Do When You've Been Hurt" | The Apostolic Connection

i'm gonna minister today on what to do when you've been hurt that relate to anybody here anybody been hurt would you raise your hand if you've been hurt not been hurt well i am matthew chapter 18 and verse number 21 then came peter to him and said lord how oft shall i shall my brother sin against me and i forgive him till seven times jesus saith unto him i say not unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven lord jesus today god would you please anoint my lips would you please anoint my mind god i pray today that i can minister to people who have been hurt or maybe even people that have caused the hurt father help me today all the praise honor and glory goes to your great name in jesus name amen and you may be seated very interesting question peter asked the lord how many times would my brother that's very important my brother sin against me and i forgive him would i forgive him seven times now it is believed that there was a tradition among the jews in that day that you would forgive your brother a grand total of three times in life he had a blank check for three offenses and i guess that that was the origination of three strikes and you're out you would forgive your brother three times and after that he would cease to be your brother peter no doubt maybe thought that he would add to that he mentions the number seven and to that i don't know if he expected some kind of praise from god but what he got was astonishing he said not only seven times but seventy times seven in one place it says in a day that you were to forgive if your brother would wrong you that you were to forgive and to go with that story he adds a parable of a man who was in debt and this man's the person that he was indebted to called him in and said i forgive you of this huge debt that you owe me i forgive you of this huge debt the man was no doubt thankful and left the office there rejoicing could you think how some of us would feel today if the bank called us and said we've just decided to write your home loan off so i get back in the boat with me sins are much more important than a home loan all right wait think about that if they just said you know just come up on the files here and we're going to pick out one lucky person you you're it you don't have to pay that car payment anymore it's paid for here's a title man you'd leave that you'd leave that bank happy you'd be you'd be happy wouldn't you you'd be happy well no doubt would you think if somebody owed you twenty dollars and you ran into him there at the store you'd probably just say if he was really happy you just say hey you know or at 20 bucks you owe me you don't owe it to me anymore i just got back from the bank they wrote my loan off they just said my number had come up and and i i was one customer i have a me and they want to wrote it off the heart you don't owe me that money anymore but jesus said that man left his office and found a man that owed him about 20 dollars and he got him by the throat and he said you pay me that 20 or i am going to cast you in prison i'm going to get my money out of you well the bible this parable goes on and says that that man that forgave him that huge amount heard about it and got angry and called him back in and brought up his note again and he said this time you're going to the prison house and you're going to stay in prison until you pay me everything you owe me you know you want to know why it's so important to forgive people because the side effects are horrible when you don't forgive people and you harbor it it sets up again green inside your soul called bitterness and that bitterness is like acid it only harms the container it's in so the reason i have got to be very quick to forgive people is because that cancerous bitterness will begin to blur everything in my life because bitterness is a poison it'll keep you awake at night you'll work a 14-hour shift be so tired that you think that you can't make it to get in your bed climb in your bed and fall asleep only to have bitterness wake you up in an hour and in the darkness of your bedroom say remember oh trying to forget trying to go back to sleep bitterness will have you sitting on the edge of your bed when you ought to be sound asleep bitterness will have you setting with grit jaw and clenched fist when you ought to be loving your children or loving your spouse business will cause you to be in church with your arms folded when your arms ought to be lifted up to the king of kings and the lord of lords bitterness has a way of poisoning your personality bitterness will take a person with a good personality of everybody wanting to be around them to a person that nobody wants to be around them because they're continually pulling you down bitterness my friend i must preach about it today because bitterness has been the downfall of many souls bitterness of spirit has caused people to lose out with god bitterness of spirit has caused people to divorce bitterness of spirit is called children not to want to come home i don't know about you but i want to learn how to forgive because i can't afford to have bitterness will you say that person's not even asked for forgiveness you got to understand when you've been wronged it's not about the behavior of the person that's wronged you that's important it's about your own behavior that's important that matters you hear me it's not about did they come and ask it's not about that they make it right it's about what i allow to have happen you see the only eternal the only eternal part we have is our spirit we must keep our spirit from bitterness bitterness will flavor our spirit bitterness will poison our spirit this is why brother erickson that from the cross jesus made the proclamation father in to your hand i commend my spirit he kept it pure he kept it pure oh yes he did when they spat on him when they plucked his beard when they beat his back when they rejected him when they mocked and ridiculed him he took it and he said father forgive them for they know not what they do jesus that perfect one begin to examine the ignorance of the one that did the wrong and he said they're ignorant they don't know what they they don't know who i am and jesus all the way to the cross and on the cross he presented the man christ jesus presented to god a spirit that was not bitter could you and i try to reach for that today brethren could we try to reach for all the wrong that we've been been happened in our lives some people are actually identified by the wrong some people are known they talk about they're wrong so much that you don't hardly know their name as much as you know what they were wrong by but could we today could we try to be like our lord and as we're nailed to our cross say lord i hand you a spirit that has not one taint one tent of bitterness in it i hand you my spirit because i'm going to tell you something today if bitterness ever gets in your spirit woe be unto you if it ever gets in your spirit and it begins to flavor your your personality well yeah brother carpenter that's jesus you you don't know what i've been through you don't know the hurt you don't know how they stabbed me how they did me wrong how i did nothing wrong and they walked out and on and on it could go and i'm not trying to minimize your hurt today because some of you have been through things in this church that would just be a nightmare to me to go through so i don't want to minimize your hurt today and to talk to you about jesus may be a little far out because we're not the god-man robed in flesh but how about how about stephen how about stephen in acts chapter 7 he's not the god man robed in flesh he's a deacon in the new testament church he's just recently filled been filled with the holy ghost he's just recently been baptized in jesus name now he finds himself on a chore of taking care of the widows in the new testament church but one day as he goes to take some lunch to some widow the religious crowd surrounds him and the religious people demand of him an answer and he takes the seventh chapter of the book of acts and he begins all the way back with abraham and faith and moses and he comes all the way up through and he gets to verse 51 and he says you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the holy ghost as your fathers did so do ye as a message they didn't like to hear you're a bunch of stiff necks you won't turn you're a stiff neck you're uncircumcised in your heart and ears you can't hear which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom you now have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it when they heard this they were not happy with what what stephen said when they heard this they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth but he being full of the holy ghost boy this is what we need to be full of today people going to hurt you in life i can't protect my children that somebody's going to hurt them if they've not already hurt my children somebody's going to hurt my grandchildren somebody's going to hurt my my family somebody's going to hurt my brothers and sisters it cannot be avoided but we can prepare for when hurt comes am i preaching to somebody today am i preaching to somebody that's been hurt today but we can prepare by being full of the holy ghost and looked steadfastly up into heaven and saw the glory of god and jesus standing on the right hand of god you know it's amazing you can get hurt and you can begin to rehearse it and put it in the museum of your soul and you can talk about it facebook it twitter you can do everything in the world to it or you can begin to look to god and you can be full of the holy ghost and then god will begin to reveal himself to you that's what we need today in the midst of our hurt we don't need somebody to side with us you don't need a lonely hearts club today but when you've been hurt you need a revelation of who jesus is you need to get your eyes on jesus and he said behold verse 56 i see the heavens open and the son of man standing on the right hand of god he saw the great art of the mediator he saw the great art he saw the great reason why god become man so that man could become a mediator a bridge he saw the bridge of reconciliation you know too many times in our hurt we can only see the hurt but don't we not do we not serve a god that we preach who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask and or think do you not think today that god can take the person that you hurt you that hurt you and cause you two to be back at one today i believe that he can would you clap your hands if you believe me today i believe that he can then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord you see today that person won't hear me i've tried to tell them how wrong and they just stop their ears up doesn't matter and they cast him out of the city and stoned him has anybody ever been in the pathway of flying stones they stoned him they began to hurl the stones at them you see evidently they had forgotten the master's message about he that be without sin cast the first stone you see we have to understand sometimes that we get among people that haven't yielded to christ's message of he that be without sin cast the first stone you see i find it hard and impossible to hold anything against anybody because of how great god has forgiven me i find it hard to get anybody by the throat demand payment when i realize there's not one perfect one among us and we would do ourselves a world of good when somebody has obviously blatantly done us wrong by not looking at their horrible imperfection as much as looking at our imperfection because no one no one has lived such a perfect life as jesus just maybe i caused just a little bit of this i know this is i know this is maybe a hard pill to swallow today but in the midst of your being wrong have you ever tried just to stop for a moment and try to think did i do anything to bring this upon cast him out of the city and stoned him the stones were flying witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was saul i'm going to tell you something saul was going to be writer of over half of the new testament bible saul was not yet converted saul was a christian killer he was not yet converted it is very important to note that no doubt how stephen handled being wronged greatly turned the mind of this young man that was yet not was yet converted do we realize the potential for the kingdom of god is in the bedrooms called our sons and daughters the potential of the kingdom of god is in our brothers and sisters around us but whether or not that potential will ever come forth may hinge on how i handle how somebody wrongs me whether god will never use nolan may hinge on how god i do you understand what i'm saying today and they stoned stephen calling upon god saying lord jesus receive my spirit when the stones start flying it's time to start calling on god when the stones of accusation and the stones of hurt start flying instead of running for facebook or twitter or a telephone or a luncheon date so that you can talk about your hurt i say you've missed it by mile when the stones start flying you ought to start calling on god when the hurt starts coming instead of thinking about what you're going to say back to that individual you need to start saying i bless the name of jesus i magnify the name of jesus when the stone started flying and hitting no stephen he didn't start he he didn't start complaining he didn't start saying i didn't think it would him this way he starts saying i bless the holy name of jesus great is the lord and greatly to be praised you'll never leave me nor ever forsake me it's time to have a praise break in our lives when you find yourself having the stones of injustice and the stones of hurt and ridiculed throat at you it's time to start praising god and he nailed down verse 60 he knelt down now whether the rocks knocked him down looks like to me scripture says he kneeled down when the rocks start coming get in your prayerful position and he cried with a loud voice look at that with a what voice a loud voice evidently he was wanting not only the lord you don't have to you don't have to speak loud for the lord to hear you i believe he lifted up his loud voice so that they which were stoning him would hear because no doubt he wanted them to be part of the church of the living god i'm going to die in a few moments and i want them to know how i felt about their stoning me i don't want condemnation of something that cannot be changed if i'm dead in the grave they cannot come and talk to me but i can let them know before i die how i felt about what they did and he said father lord lay not this sin to their charge you see i need to let the person who wronged me they've got a soul that needs to be saved and if i put up walls and fought against them when the holy spirit comes to them they may allow their spirit to say they don't love me anymore they don't care about me anymore but if while they're throwing rocks at me they know how i feel about what they're doing lordly not the sin to their charge and then something wonderful happened and when he had said this he fell asleep let's see something an unforgiving heart will trouble you and keep you awake but being forgiven just allowed him to lay his head down and go to sleep would you stand with me this morning