This stuff of betrayal, and wounding and being deserted and being stabbed in the back has been going on since the fall of man. It is not a new thing under the sun. It is an old thing that has always been. The fact that the Bible teaches forgiveness indicates that trespasses against your person can occur. It is not fun, it is not cool but it does happen. People have been abused, hurt, let down, wounded, deserted, betrayed by a spouse, stabbed in the back by a fellow church member, and rejected by friends, family and even parents. ¹  You can overcome it though. You can overcome all of it through the power of God’s love and by operating in forgiveness.

God Loves Broken People

• We live in a society where many people have been broken.
• Many people are brokenhearted.
• Many people are carrying around on the inside of them heavy burdens that we were never made to carry.
• Some have been abused physically and sexually in their coming up.
• Some have been isolated and stepped upon because of their race and color.
• Some have been suffering the internal tearing that comes from divorce.
• Others have been tormented by the emotional effects of abortion.
• What about the shy, the lonely, the fearful?
• What about the outcasts, those that weren’t just quite good enough to make the team or be in with the crowd?
• The list goes on and on.
• My question to you today is this, ‘Doesn’t God love these people that have been stabbed, rejected, wounded and deserted?
• How are these dear ones to be helped?’
• Do we have to rely on the world’s system and the world’s way of doing things?
• Do we have to depend on their psychology and their man made reasoning’s in order to get relief?
• Do we have to turn to men in order to get help from human-inflicted problems?

Can the God Make You Whole?

Here is the proposition: can the God that made man whole and entire in the beginning with no hang-ups at all fix a man or a women once they have been broken or trespassed against?

• The answer is yes He can! Forgiveness is the start!
• Forgiveness is the door to that deliverance.
• Forgiveness opens the door to the ‘Ministry of the Servant of the Lord’.
• If forgiveness opens the door to wholeness, then let us, first of all, define what forgiveness means.

 DEFINITION: forgive/ἀφίημι/aphiēmi – to release from legal or moral obligation or consequence, cancel, remit, pardon ²

• The word also means ‘to let go’ in many lexicons.
• Not let go of your hurt, but let those people go who have done the hurting.
• It means let go of the group of people that were highlighted in the questions above.
• Let go; the people that have betrayed you.
• Let go; the people that have stabbed you in the back.
• Let go; the people that have rejected you.
• Let go; the people that have wounded and deserted you.
• Let them go.
• We mentioned the fact that faith is nullified when you choose to not let go.
• When you choose to harbor, when you choose to hold onto.
• There is one way to tell if you haven’t let go and that is this; are you telling the story of what they did to you?
• If you are constantly retelling, not from a testimony standpoint the story, you have not forgiven, You have not let the person, that has done you wrong, go.

If you keep telling the same sad small story, you will keep living the same sad small life. – Jean Houston

• Now to reiterate, unforgiveness messes your prayer life up.
• But, the decision you make to hold onto unforgiveness, to hold onto bitterness, affects and encompasses more than just your prayer life.
• The help that you need to get past the damage that was done by the group of people mentioned above is cutoff in your decision to not forgive.
• You can be a victor instead of a victim but in order to gain access to the spiritual help  you need to overcome bitterness, you have to do what Jesus told you to do and that is forgive people from your heart.
• So, let’s talk about spiritual help, let’s talk about how Jesus helped people.

How Jesus Helped People

•  First, He gave people something to believe.

Luke 6:17-18 (NLT)
17 When they came down the slopes of the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. 18 They had come to hear him and to be healed, and Jesus cast out many evil spirits.

• People came to hear Him and to be healed.
• The hearing caused the believing, because faith comes by hearing.
• One avenue that the Spirit of God may use in trying to get help to you is to give you a verse of scripture.
• He will give you something to hear.
• He will give you something to believe.
• Exercise faith in what you hear.
• Believe that verse intentionally.

Hebrews 4:2 (KJV)
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

• There is much that can be said here, for Bible reading so that He can give you something to believe.
• So that He can bring up something out of your spirit.
• The Bible has a tremendous impact on people’s hearts.
• It breaks hard hearts and heals broken hearts.

John 8:31-32 (NLT)
31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• Second, He ministered out of the anointing that was upon Him.

Luke 4:18–19 (KJV)
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

• The Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus to heal the broken-hearted. To heal people that have had stuff done to them.
• If you are broken and bruised Jesus will help you.
• A broken bone mends stronger than the original one at the point of the break.
• You can come out far better than you ever dreamed.

ILLUSTRATION: God Uses Broken Things
God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume–it is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.

• Broken people are a prime candidates to be used by God.
• You will never get there unless you forgive from your heart.
• The access to this is the forgiveness piece.

God’s Power Is Involved with Forgiveness.

Matt. 12:15-21 (NKJV)
15 But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. 16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”

• Now this verse quoted in Matthew is from Isa. 42:1-4.

Isaiah 42:1–4 (ESV)
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.

• These verses in Isaiah is a prophecy concerning the ministry of Jesus.
• These words describe a particular anointing that Jesus had.
• Notice that these verses are prefaced by these words, “I will put my Spirit upon Him.”
• Bruised reeds and smoking flax are words that represent certain kinds of people.
• For the sake of this lesson, understand that how Jesus handled ‘bruised reeds’ and ‘smoking flax’ are part of that anointing.
• Have you ever heard the testimonies of deliverance that people experienced when they forgave? A person who may harbored bitterness and how God delivered them almost instantly once they let the person that hurt them go?

ILLUSTRATION: Testimony of Corrie ten Boom, author of biography ‘The Hiding Place’
“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, a former S.S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein.” He said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!”
His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

• Here is another testimony.

ILLUSTRATION: Testimony of Reverend Ernest Gordon (Bridge Over the River Kwai).
Gordon was serving as a captain in the British army during the Second World War when he was captured by the Japanese and marched with other prisoners into the Southeast Asian jungles. The prison camp, which was constructing a railroad bridge over the river Kwai, would eventually claim the lives of 80,000 men. The prisoners were forced to work for hours in scorching temperatures, chopping their way through tangled jungles. Those who paused out of exhaustion were beaten to death by the guards. Treated like animals, the men themselves became like beasts trying to survive. Theft was as rampant as hunger and disease among them. Life was met with indifference, deceit, and hatred—by captive and captor alike.
Yet, Gordon lived to tell of hope and transformation in the valley of the river Kwai. In his widely acclaimed book, he gives a firsthand account of the story behind the “death railroad” and the spiritual resurrection of the camp.There were incidences of great sacrifice that unfolded. Once, after a work detail, a Japanese guard believed a shovel missing. He told the men that unless someone stepped forward to accept responsibility, all the men would be killed. A soldier stepped up and stood at attention. The guard beat him to death. Later it was discovered the missing shovel was the result of a mistaken inventory count by the guard. Another time Dusty fainted. The doctor believed him to be close to death. Others reported that Dusty had not been eating. All his meager rations were going to Ernest.Two weeks before the end of the war, Dusty was nailed to a tree and disemboweled by a Japanese guard that was flustered because Dusty would never break, and never anger. This made the Japanese guard “lose face”. God had reconciled their lifeless estates to Himself, such that they found themselves unable to respond to others without a similar inexplicable grace. So complete was the transformation of the men, so real the presence of Christ among them that they were able to reach out even to their captors with the love that had taken hold of them. While still in the hands of their enemies, a train carrying Gordon and several others came alongside another boxcar at a stop in Burma. The entire car was filled with gravely wounded Japanese soldiers. They were left alone, without medical attention or company, as if abandoned refuse of war. “They were in a shocking state,” Gordon recalls. “The wounded looked at us forlornly as they sat with their heads resting against the carriages waiting fatalistically for death…. These were our enemy.” Without a word, many of the officers unbuckled their packs, took out part of their rations and a few rags, and with their canteens went over to the Japanese train. The guards tried to prevent them, but they pressed through, kneeling by the side of the injured men with food and water, cleaning their wounds. Eighteen months earlier the same men of the river Kwai prison camp would have celebrated the humiliation and destruction of any on the side of their violent captors.Yet Gordon explains, “We had experienced a moment of grace, there in the bloodstained railway cars. God had broken through the barriers of our prejudice and had given us the will to obey his command, ‘Thou shalt love.’”
Ernest Gordon left his three years of brutal imprisonment with an unexpected turn in his own story. Among suffering and enemies, God had spoken. Now Gordon could not remain silent. He returned to Scotland to attend seminary, eventually becoming the dean of the chapel of Princeton University where he remained until his death in 2002.
Among a valley of dry bones, God had breathed men to life. In the trenches of despair and hatred, the inexplicable love of Christ called enemies—and men—to hope and forgiveness.

• Now notice again what the scripture says about Jesus.

Matt. 12:15-21 (NKJV)
18 “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory 21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”

• Did you notice the words bruised reeds and smoking flax?

What is a Bruised Reed?

• A reed is a water plant.
• A common, everyday ordinary, ‘reed’ had stems that grew to 12 feet tall.
• Have you ever seen someone breathing under water using a reed?
• They were strong, stout cane like plants that would sprout out at the top and were sometimes used as walking sticks.  If you sharpened the end of a reed (i.e. whittled it) it would easily pierce a man’s hand.
• The word ‘bruised’ here means ‘cracked’.
• A bruised reed is a cracked or broken reed.
• This person who has been cracked by the forces of life.
• A bruised reed cannot be used underwater to breath.
• The Bible says very clearly that the Lord Jesus Christ, will not break what has already been cracked.
• Jesus is a healer of broken reeds.
• Jesus is a mender of broken lives and not a breaker of broken lives.
• And He can do wit with a tangible anointing because the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him (Lk. 4:18)!
• Have you ever noticed that although God demands a whole heart, He will accept a broken one if He gets all the pieces!

ILLUSTRATION:  
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash all over the place. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. The buyer said, “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”

• That’s God’s message to us! He is not worried about the repairs to your life.
• Just give Him your heart – He will make all things new! He will build a new site!

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What is Smoking Flax?

• Flax is the material for the wick of a candle.
• Smoking flax then would be a candle whose fire is just about out.
• The Lord Jesus will not put out (i.e. with His fingers) the little bit of activity that is left on that wick.
• Instead, He does the opposite.
• Jesus mends the broken reed and fans into flame smoking flax.
• But, He can’t fix you if you won’t let go.
• He can’t minister life to you with a tangible anointing unless you are willing to forgive.
• Here is a side note.
• We should absolutely copy Jesus in this ministry of repairing people.
• We should be menders and supporters of people.
• We should minister as Jesus did.
• We should give people the Word and we should minister to people with the anointing.

Phil. 2:5 (NLT)
5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.

• Be a helper of people.

Gal. 6:2 (NLT)
2 Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

• If Jesus doesn’t put out smoking flax – if He doesn’t snap off the reeds that are cracked, neither should we.
• One of your prayers should be, “Lord help me to help people”.

Call to Action:

We have a responsibility to forgive, that’s for sure. But think about it, if forgiveness is such a big deal in God’s economy, how about living life in such a way that we do not put other people into positions where they have to forgive us for what we said, or what we did? Be easy to live with instead of being a pain in the neck. How about watching your words and thinking about what you are going to say before you say it? How about living a life where you minimize offense? How about not giving people a piece of your mind? How about speaking more tenderly, and more carefully instead of wounding and putting people into a position to have to forgive you for your words? How about being easy to be around instead of being difficult to be around? Jesus said, “My stuff is light and easy” (Matt. 11:28-30). How about being light and easy instead of being heavy and hard to deal with? We should live life in such a manner where we don’t put other people in a position to have to forgive us.

 Question: Do you have a life changing ‘forgiveness’ story that you are comfortable sharing? Would you please leave it in the comments section below?

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References