God heals our brokenness
9th April 2006 - Tim Hewitt
Tim played us the Coldplay song 'Fix You' which is about brokenness, overlaid with scriptures about binding up the brokenhearted and God making the way ahead for us.
This talk is 5 months of Tim's experience in Ibiza with 24-7 distilled into half an hour.
We get broken and God heals us in an amazing way. God's purpose is to love and heal. John 10 v 10 life in all it's fullness.
Hope
The thing which is stolen the most is hope. Do we believe we can be healed? We often have a distorted image of God. Tim at the beginning of his Ibiza stay felt like this.
Luke 5 v 31 it is not the well who need a doctor. We sometimes need to acknowledge that we are in fact sick and we need God's help. Maybe in one area of our lives, which is what happened for Tim.
Luke 18 v 39-41 what do you want me to do? Christian maturity by our own efforts doesn't necessarily mean that we are healed of all our sick-ness. The healing process is a maturing process but it's God's doing. Not so much 'what do I need to do or know' but 'how have I been hurt'.
It's not about a formula but it's about a relationship with Jesus who loves us and wants us to get to know him.
How have I been hurt and is that why I'm responding this way? It's not a nice thing to think about. We usually either ignore our hurts or somehow cope with it, but both lead to us being stuck. Do we want Jesus to begin our healing?
If you let God lead you he will take you to unfamiliar uncomfortable places where your 'stuff' can rise to the surface.
Pathway
Matt 3 v 3 a voice shouting in the wilderness 'prepare a pathway'.
In Tim's experience, God leads us into the wilderness in order to prepare a pathway. That's the hard dark place where it happens.
Psalm 139 v 12 even in the darkness I cannot hide from you. When we are at the bottom of our humanity and we feel God should leave us because of what we've done, he is still there with us.
Hurt & Harm
Difference between hurt and harm. Operations hurt us but they don't harm us. Healing after an op may also hurt but it's doing you good.
God leads us on a path of healing which is sometimes quite hurtful, that's Tim's experience, but as he looks back on it, it hasn't harmed him.
Hosea 6 for he has torn us but he will heal us. This is in terms of repentance. We often don't have the right attitudes and God doesn't judge us but we do need to repent of it. Acknowledgement of who God is and that we're broken and need God.
God acts out of love not hurt. Our response releases healing.
Psalm 103 v 8-10 God is merciful and gracious, slow to get angry and full of unfailing love. He can handle our response even if it's anger to start with. He meets us in it.
It's not about what we've done but what our response is. God understands us and also understands the world we live in.
Grace
The centre of our response needs to be grace. We are only free to do something if we are free not to do it. Eg are you free to not read the Bible or pray and God will still love you? It's about relationship, we are free also to spend time with Jesus.
If we don't understand grace, we try to protect ourselves. If we have a distorted view of God we might try to order our world and protect ourselves. Grace may not be a comfortable place to be but we don't need to keep trying to protect ourselves. We become what we don't want to be when we make ourselves 'safe'. Jonah ran away from what God asked him to do.
Phil 2 v 13 God is at work in us giving us the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.
We can't make ourselves love God and do what he wants, we respond in love to him. That's our desire.
Phil 3 v 9 I no longer rely on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me.
We can't make ourselves better, but when we get to know God more and accept his grace, we'll be changed. Tim went to Ibiza trusting in his own Christian maturity but God has brought him to a different place now.
Final thoughts
Don't wait. If there's something you feel bad about, don't wait to bring it to God, no matter how bad you think it is. We're not all that bad, our lives are generally OK, and we have a God who loves us. We are who he says we are.
Confession – speak out the words, not just in your head. Other people will not respond as badly as you think.
Get some time, stop rushing around, make some time. Doesn't have to be Bible reading, go for a walk or something. | 
