WEBVTT - Freedom GOD Heals 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.800 Good morning and welcome. We're continuing our series of conversations 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:07.200 about freedom, and maybe you think this morning, what does 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:10.760 freedom have to do with my purpose and being fulfilled 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.400 and what life is all about? And just give a 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:17.360 thought to this way back our forefathers said, we believe 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.120 that all people are created equal and endowed by their 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.759 creator with certain and alienable rights like life, liberty, and 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.720 the pursuit of happiness. And so freedom gets tied into 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.120 the idea of happiness and how we find fulfillment. And 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.519 last week we talked about the God who hears, and 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.959 today we're thinking a little bit about the God who heals. 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.080 And I shared with you the quote from Tolkien's book 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:44.640 Lord of the Rings. This is frodo. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:46.560 I wish it. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.839 Need not have happened in my time, So do I 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.520 said Gandalf, And so do all who live to see 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.040 such times. But that is not for them to decide. 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.040 All we have to decide is what to do with 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.000 the time given us. So I think all of us 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.679 understand that feeling that'll be in circumstances and to be 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.240 going through things in our life and in our journey 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.000 that are unsettling that we wish were not happening that 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.240 we wish had never happened. And so when we look 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.520 at that and recognize that there are some problems and 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.600 there are some things that need to be addressed, it's 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.080 important to remember that God is working for our freedom. 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.040 John sixteen thirty three. I've told you these things so 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.320 that in me you might have peace. In the world, 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.199 you will have trouble, But take heart, I've overcome the world. 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.240 And so there is an acknowledgment that the world's broken, 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:36.640 that there are a lot of things in it that 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:42.840 aren't working right. But God hears, and then also God heals. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.800 So when you begin to think about that, and you 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.960 think about brokenness and what it looks like and what 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.520 it means, what kind of brokenness in your story and 0:01:52.600 --> 0:02:00.920 in your life needs some healing. Maybe personal failure, chronic sin, addiction, trauma, 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:06.080 family dysfunction. Maybe you just have a ruminating mind and 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:11.120 it wears you out. Maybe it's depression or anxiety, emotional 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.880 battles that wear us down. Maybe it's relational battles that 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.959 finally wear out our hope. So when you begin to 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.400 think about that, and you think about life, and you 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.000 think about the biblical narrative and what it has to 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.920 teach us. You got to admit that a lot of 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:34.960 the key characters in the biblical narrative suffer from incredible brokenness. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:40.119 Adam and Eve had some obvious issues. Abraham passes off 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.000 his wife as his sister to Farah so he could 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.240 save his own life. He has a child with his 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:50.840 wife's servant, Hagar. And if you know church history, and 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.400 you know the history of religions, then you know that 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:59.560 still has reverberations into our modern culture today. Isaac, he 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.920 has the process of deception. Jacob joins with his mother 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:11.080 to deceive Isaac and to steal his brother's birthright. Dysfunction, brokenness. 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:17.480 Stephen Specter writes the patriarchal narratives display the blessings of 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.960 being favored by God, but also reveal its human cost. 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.200 Abraham and his descendants are both exalted and riven by 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.040 their chosenness, and as a family they inflict severe distress 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.000 on each other. Seen from that perspective, much of Genesis 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.000 twelve through fifty is an account of dysfunction and trauma, 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.480 but the narrative arc of Genesis leans in the direction 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.920 of spiritual, moral, and emotional growth, and that opens the 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:46.560 possibility of healing and reconciliation for that to happen. The 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.880 text stresses the importance of human kindness, love, and forgiveness 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.960 as well as God's grace. So when we're goin to 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.680 think about that and the brokenness that comes up with it, 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.280 we get to this store. Jacob played favorites with his children, 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.320 and he set up Joseph to be at odds with 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.120 his brothers. But Joseph is also arrogant, and he doesn't 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.000 show much discretion in what he chooses to say out loud, 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:18.160 and then that leads to great division. Eventually, Joseph is 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.520 sowed into slavery. He arrives in Egypt, he goes through 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.680 a process in Egypt, and eventually comes to power in 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:31.000 Egypt over the famine. But it all starts from dysfunction. David, 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.400 the Great King of Israel, has a great deal of 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:38.960 brokenness in his story at all levels mental, emotional, relational, sin, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:42.920 on and on it goes. When you look at Matthew's 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:47.120 genealogy of the story of Jesus of Christ, you find 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.680 all kinds of interesting people in the genealogy. The patriarchs 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.480 are there, but so is Tomorrow. Tomorrow a woman who 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:00.000 is in one of the most broken stories of the Bible, 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.800 rehab a woman of ill repute, Ruth who's not even Jewish. 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:08.080 All of that to say, God uses broken people, and 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.480 he uses broken people because there really aren't any other 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.680 kinds of people in the world, just broken people. So 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.640 somehow you've begun to think that you're too broken to 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:20.760 be a part of the redeeming story, that you're too 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.480 broken to be a part of a solution in your 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.440 own home and in your own family, even to heal 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.359 from your own brokenness. Think again, because that is a 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:37.560 part of the story. Then there's Moses. Moses was raised 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.080 in the tradition and luxury of Egyptian royalty, and then 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:47.200 he got into some trouble and he murdered someone, and 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.560 then decided that the best course of action. 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:52.279 Was to run away. He just ran away. 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.680 He ran away from his obligations, he ran away from 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.760 his family, he ran away from his responsibilities in the palace, 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.320 and he spent the next forty years. 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:04.560 Think about that. He spent the next forty. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:09.200 Years moving on, getting on with his life, just leading 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.200 a quiet life. He doesn't go back to check on 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.960 his loved ones, he doesn't go back to check on 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:18.039 his friends. He doesn't check on his family. He's just 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.880 decided he'll just watch his father in law sheeps. Not 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:22.800 even in business for himself. He's going to watch his 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:25.760 father in law sheep, and he does so for forty 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:33.240 years brokenness. Not exactly the person that you would call 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:36.200 on to fix things that are broken. 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:36.960 But here we are. 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.600 And so during that long period, we're told in Exodus 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.200 two and three that the king of Egypt died and 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.000 that the Israelites were groaning in their slavery and there 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:48.400 were issues going on. 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:53.119 But God heard their cry and he began to take action. 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.560 So one day, as Moses is tending his father in 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.279 law sheep, he notices that there is a a bush 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.120 that has caught on fire, and he notices it's not 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.880 being consumed, and so he thinks, I'm going to go 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.880 check this out, and he does. He goes over to 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.040 the site and he hears the voice of God. Take 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.680 off your shoes, Moses, this is holy ground, and he 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.760 does so, and now God begins to speak to him 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:25.840 about what's going to happen. He's going to send Moses 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.760 to help the people be delivered. He's heard the groanings 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.440 of his people. He's a god who hears, and now 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.240 he's going to send Moses and he's going to go 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.560 and he's going to have them speak to Pharaoh and 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:43.840 be delivered, and he's going to take them, the Israelites, 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.800 to a promised land that he had given to Abraham 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:51.840 and Isaac and Jacob. And this big promise begins to unfold, 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.600 and then Moses kind of gives that a little bit 0:07:55.640 --> 0:08:00.600 of thought, and he's not quite sure how it all 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.560 is going to fit together and how he fits into it. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.480 So how does God respond to this broken man and 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.560 the broken story. He not only extends in mercy, but 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.600 he says, you're just the man I need for the job. 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:18.160 You're my chosen purpose to accomplish my will in the world. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.200 I'm going to free people and I'm going to change 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.640 the circumstances through your influence and your journey. I'm not 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.640 sure why God is so merciful and gracious in all 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.760 of the stories, but he's merciful and gracious in our 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:36.800 stories too. He always responds to us in mercy. Moses 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.840 doesn't think he should be the person. He feels disqualified, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:44.800 he feels underqualified, But God keeps calling him anyway, And 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.040 I think he keeps calling each of us into a 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.839 place of service, into a place where we can make 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.120 a difference in the world, where we can see the 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.160 Kingdom come and God's will done on earth as it 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:59.840 is in heaven. Do you see yourself as being used 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:05.840 in God's hands for God's purposes? His interactions with mothers 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.199 tells a few things about God. Number One, God sees 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:13.240 a big picture. God sees things in Moses' life, and 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:16.079 how he's uniquely equipped. Think about it. Is there anybody 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.319 on the planet more qualified to do this than Moses. 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.800 He knows about Pharaoh, he knows about royalty, he knows 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.000 about the practices of the palace, and he's raised as 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.400 a Jew, and so he understands the plight of his people. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.320 He knows his own history obviously as a relationship with 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:37.400 the divine God of the Israelites. And so who really, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.760 when you just look at the raw information, who would 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.199 be better qualified. He's rough, He's lived forty years as 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.960 a shepherd out in the middle of nowhere. But there's 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:51.000 something about him that's very, very important, and he sees 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.040 the big picture. He sees the big picture in our 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:59.040 story as well, and then deeper motives. God sees that 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.560 Moses has missed guided as his choices were, that he 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.160 was responding to the situation with the Egyptian shoulder as 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.640 an act of protection. It went wrong, and it should 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:15.240 have happened differently. But God looks at our deeper motives 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.240 that Moses, in fact, in this moment of great failure, 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.640 was acting as a shepherd, was acting for the cause 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.000 of justice, and it went wrong, and it's not the 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.920 right thing. But God does look at the motive. He 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.080 sees something in us that's worth calling out. He had 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.600 forty years for the passion of youth to wear off, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.160 to gain a little bit of wisdom and maturity, and 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.840 he looks at our deeper motives of what's going on 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.719 in our hearts and in our minds. We're going to 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.240 come back to this right after this break. 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:48.440 Welcome back. 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.560 You're listening to Healing Conversations on KABC seven ninety M 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:56.559 Dave Roberts. We're talking about brokenness, Moses's brokenness. How many 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.440 of us feel like our story are so broken that 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.960 we just don't have anything to offer. We can't be 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:07.439 very useful, we can't ever be what we once hoped 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.840 to be. But the entire biblical narrative, and especially the 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.960 story of Moses, reminds us that God looks at a 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.760 lot deeper things. He sees a big picture, He sees 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.920 things we can't see or things we've forgotten. And then 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.559 he looks at our motives. I think that's so important. 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.280 Sometimes you and I have to be honest about our motives. 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.719 Sometimes we need to forgive ourselves for failures, that we 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.680 had the right motives, but we made the wrong choices. 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.839 Other times we need to confess that we've made good 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:45.760 choices with bad motives. Sometimes we've made bad choices with 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:50.200 bad motives. But motives matter. God looks at the condition 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.480 of our heart, and even when things don't turn out 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.960 exactly right, he sees something deeper in us, things that 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.040 we can't even see ourselves. 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:00.760 And God is full of. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.680 Grace and redeems our failures and even redeems the motives 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:09.560 behind them. Then number three sees hidden potential. God sees 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:13.719 something in Moses that no one else sees. That he 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:16.720 can look at Moses. He can look at his story 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.040 and remember, Moses is now eighty years old. He was 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.440 in Egypt for forty years, and now he's been tending 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.640 sheep for forty years. Not many people look at a 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.840 person at that stage of life and see a lot 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.440 of hidden potential. But God does. God does, and so 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:38.760 there's this opportunity. There's this moment. And when God looks 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.240 at a person who's been shamed and disqualified and in 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:48.120 many ways exiled into the wilderness and sees potential, sees 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:54.040 someone who has something worth salvaging, something worth celebrating, and 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.199 think about it, Moses becomes this heroic character. 0:12:57.559 --> 0:12:58.160 Very few of. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.040 Us think of Moses in the state that he's in 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:05.720 at this stage of the story. God sees something in him, 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:10.079 and he sees something in you. God sees our hidden potential, 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.560 even when we think we've been used up, when we 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:17.320 think we've been disqualified, are shamed into submission, or misused, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:24.679 or mismanaged, our unappreciated, more extreme cases, abused. We have 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:28.040 a million ways to get broken, but God still sees 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:32.160 our hidden potential. What would you change if you believed 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:36.680 God sees in you hidden potential and is calling you 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:42.200 to accomplish something, to heal something down inside of you 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:47.080 that's been broken for a long time. God knew Moses's story, 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.800 and he knew his journey. He saw the big picture 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.400 and the deeper motives. But he saw in him a 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:57.520 champion who could lead his people to freedom, and he 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:02.040 begins to heal the brokenness of his life. Number four 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.719 he sees in Moses' willingness to listen. Moses saw the 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:11.360 burning bush, went closer. God spoke, Moses listened. God said 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:13.520 this is holy ground. Take off your shoes, and Moses 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:17.400 took off his shoes. God may see our weakness and 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.800 our failures and our selfishness, but he also sees, when 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.240 in spite of it all, we're willing to listen and respond, 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.200 that the best way to navigate brokenness is to get 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:35.280 really serious about humility and listening and being teachable and 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.680 being curious and interested in what God might say or 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.840 what he might do. It matters to our healing, and 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.440 it matters to the health of our relationships that we 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:46.760 are able to listen. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:48.680 Are you able to listen? 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.520 It says in Psalms forty six, Be still and know 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:58.280 that I'm God. God looks for willingness to listen as 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.600 he works to heal what's broken in us. And then 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.520 number five he sees his anxious doubts. As God tells Moses, 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.840 you're the person, Moses has a very long list of 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.560 reasons why he's not the person. He has a very 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:17.080 long list of reasons why God should pick someone else. 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.080 He has his own anxiety and fears about what God 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:22.480 is saying. 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:23.520 Now. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.040 Moses could have seen this opportunity in a lot of 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.320 different ways. He could have seen it as a moment 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.320 of revenge. He's going to go back. He's going to 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.560 show everybody that he shouldn't have been run out of town, 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.080 that he's stronger than they thought. He's going to get 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.760 revenge on the old system that's abused as people. He 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.000 could have seen it as a time for his own edification. 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:48.200 He's going to become a hero. He's going to ride 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.080 back in and save his people. But he didn't see 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.960 any of that stuff in himself. What he saw instead 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:58.400 was the fact that he was really not ready for it, 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:01.360 and he gives a whole list of reasons why he's 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.480 not ready for it. He doesn't talk very well, he's 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.640 not an eloquent person. He's just not the right person 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:12.520 for the job. That God's probably made a mistake, that 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.320 he really one by one just has a lot of 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.920 reasons why he's not the person, and God's gracious like that. 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.200 Seems to me that a lot of times broken people 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:29.600 are humble. Brokenness somehow takes out the fight and the 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.920 starch and the pride, and it causes us to be 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.720 in a space where we are anxious about a lot 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.880 of things. How could IF fix that? How could I 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:40.960 cure that? How could I be a part of a 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:45.040 solution in that with my own issues and my own stuff. 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:50.440 And God patiently deals with our anxious doubts. 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.880 One by one by one by one. 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:57.920 He acts like that with us. And then finally number six, 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:03.400 God sees in Moses a self effacing leader. He sees 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:07.040 a person who has the capacity to be incredibly strong 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.840 and courageous. That Moses will find himself and find some 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.399 strength that he never knew he had. But he also 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.119 finds in him someone who will remain dependent on God. 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.840 And is this complex story begins to unfold. We're going 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.240 to see Moses again and again and again and again 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.399 as a self effacing leader pointing the people to God, 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.679 coming back to God, remembering again and again, this is 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:36.920 not about me. It's not about how smart I am 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:40.000 It's not about my strength. This is about God. It's 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.200 about what he can do, It's about his calling. It's 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.560 about what he desires for me. And that is so 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.160 incredibly important as we think about that, as we think 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.000 about what it means for us. So how does God 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.439 respond to this broken man in this broken story? He 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:02.080 extends him Mercy says, you are just the person that 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:06.680 I need for this job. You're exactly who I'm looking for. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.240 And how does he respond to the brokenness in our story? 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.080 Let's go back to where we started this conversation. What 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:20.280 is the brokenness in your story? What makes you feel shamed? Disqualified? 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.359 Is it choices you've made? 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:26.800 Is it chronic failure? 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.640 You know, acute failure where we just wake up one 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:34.120 morning and we just spectacularly fall apart is one kind 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.920 of thing, but the kind of shows up week after 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.159 week and year after year that just stays with us 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:41.840 and we think, by now I should be over this. 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:43.920 That's a kind of brokenness that eats away at the 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.119 very center of our soul. 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:52.240 How do you deal with that? Is it relational trauma? 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:52.560 Is it? 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.080 Are you in a relationship, in a marriage, have some 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.520 children that you just can't parents? You just can't seem 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:03.560 to get along and it's not working. There's just constant 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:10.120 friction and stress and sadness and grief and anger. Brokenness 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:11.760 is an addiction. 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.520 There's so many ways. Is it financial? Is it career? 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.719 Is it self doubt? There's so many things that cause 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.600 brokenness in our lives and in our story, and we 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.560 start to see ourselves as less than and we walk 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:31.320 around in life feeling wounded and hurt and overwhelmed. I 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:34.119 just want to remind you there are really no people 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:39.879 in this Biblical story that don't display incredible amounts of brokenness. 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.600 And it's not because they're somehow significantly more terrible than 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:47.600 the next person. The fact of the matter is they're 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.760 just people. But the good news of the narrative of 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:54.000 the Bible is that God uses broken people, uses them 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:54.640 again and again. 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:55.720 And sometimes I hear. 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.200 People say the Bible is just propaganda. Well, it's very 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:06.399 bad propagand it's broken people who suffer frequent failure, but 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:09.400 are encountered by a divine God who loves them, who 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:13.320 reaches out to them. Not only that, but uses them, 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:16.520 doesn't cancel them, He doesn't keep them from being a 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:18.440 part of the story, part of the narrative, a part 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:23.760 of what matters. Instead, He's a God of mercy. He 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.120 forgives them, he sees the potential in them. He looks 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.120 at the deeper part of their heart, of who they 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.720 really are. There's a passage in the New Testament says, 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:34.400 even when our hearts condemn us, he doesn't commit us. 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.119 We're often so hard on ourselves. But God shows mercy 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:40.840 to us, and thank God he does. 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:41.600 We need that. 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.040 Some of us this morning need a chance to heal. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.040 God doesn't have a plan B. He just has a 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:52.600 plan A that whatever has happened to you, and whatever 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.800 you've suffered through, and however you see yourself or think 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.280 of yourself, God today would say to you, Hey, anyone 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.560 who's in cry, this is a new creation. The old 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.080 is gone and the newest come. You don't have to 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.760 carry this around. You can lay it down and you 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.520 can set it aside, and you can be done with it. 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:10.760 And we'll come up with a brand new plan A 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.119 from where we are right now. Whatever happened before is 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.960 the past. We'll make a new plan A. Paul says, 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.960 this one thing I do forgetting what is behind, I 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.440 reach forward to take hold of the prize for which 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.600 God has called me heavenward. So give that some thought, 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:30.840 let that resonate in your heart. 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:31.960 We're coming up to a. 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:34.439 Break, and maybe you just take the next few minutes 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.760 and think, what if I could have a fresh start 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:39.720 in a new beginning. What if God really can heal 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.679 the deep brokenness in my heart and mind. We're going 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.120 to pick that up right after this break. Welcome back 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.480 here listening to Healing Conversations on KABC seven ninety. I'm 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.280 Dave Robertson. We're welcoming into the studio. Eric mclennanan. Welcome Eric, 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:57.320 Good morning, Dave. How are you man, I'm good. How 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:57.640 you doing. 0:21:58.280 --> 0:21:59.040 I'm doing good? 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:05.040 Moses, Moses, Brokenness, got Healing. There's a lot of stuff here. 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.439 There are times that we start the show and you 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:11.320 look and you're like, oh, we're gonna talk about brokenness today. Fun. 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.359 Yeah, I think we've talked about this before. 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:16.480 Maybe we've not talked about this. 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.640 On the show, but I think it's really important as 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:24.280 a speaker that I talk about the things I'm learning, 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:27.920 not the things that I already know. And then that 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.200 necessarily means that I kind of have to talk about 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.639 my own brokenness, which is not hard to find, you know, 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:38.080 It's it's not a difficult thing to come up with. 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:44.719 Yeah, it's interesting talking about Moses because he's he's certainly 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.480 one of like the pillar hero characters. 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:50.399 I think I said last week, but he must have 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:52.520 the best press agent in the world. Yeah, I mean, 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:54.960 because his reputation is so stellar. 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:59.360 It's a Mount Rushmore thing. And I even think it's 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.160 kind of funny because I can tell that you were 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.879 raised with him as the hero, because you even said, 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.880 you know, he got himself into trouble, you know, killed 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:14.960 the guy, and then yeah, I just gotta just kind 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:15.640 of killed the guy. 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:18.320 You like glossed over it, right a little bit. 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:20.200 Well, you know, back in the day you glossed over 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:22.320 because he was a hero, but now you gloss over 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:25.359 because you don't want that kind of violence in the story. 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:27.520 You're gonna have to scrip over. 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:33.760 It's definitely something that has emerged in culture, kind of 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.960 the acceptance of the flawed hero. 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:37.520 Yeah. 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.680 You know, like if you just take Batman for instance, 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.439