GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Healing Rain: The Latter Rain for the Soul

Keala Thompson

1. The Walking Wounded

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

We saw you a little bit later because I think somebody just told me that they printed the wrong room number, like 1 of 4 downstairs.

And so I think that my wife just went downstairs to redirect.

If you have your Bibles, opening text is 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 1 and 2.

And before we begin, just an announcement, we have, we actually have handouts for you.

And if you haven't had a handout, then if you can raise your hand.

My daughter, the people raising their hand, Anya, could you please hand out the handouts to them please?

She's a little bit slacking back there, so.

No, no, she was helping with other things.

So please raise your hand if she has a handout for you.

Actually, you know, someone could help hand her out because my wife had to go redirect people downstairs It's something be willing to help my 10-year-old daughter there and be kind.

I appreciate it Thank you Thank you, folks.

Please raise your hand and she can have it maybe Okay Okay, everyone found a way nice I Thought I'd just be my daughter, my wife, and myself, but glad you showed up.

Okay, so there's a handout for those who are just arriving.

Maybe Anya, you can go to the door so you can catch some new people coming in.

So if you need a hand out, please raise your hand.

And thank you so much for helping hand it out.

Raise your hand really high so we can see.

And for those of you, it's also online, and we have signs on the door how to get there.

I guess they had a misprint of the room numbers, but we can start now.

So, turn with me to 1 Timothy in your Bible verses 5, verses 1 and 2.

And this series is entitled, Healing Rain, the Latter Rain for the Soul.

And this is a six-part series with 6 different presentations.

And it starts and it builds upon 1 upon the other.

And this first 1 I'm going to be presenting is entitled The Walking Wounded.

There are many people today who are walking around wounded.

But when I say walking wounded, I'm not referring to those with physical illness or sickness, with wounds on their bodies.

What I'm really talking about, I'm referring to those who have been wounded in life through its suffering, through its pain.

They've been put down as a child, They've been criticized as a teenager, they've been abandoned as a spouse.

And these walking wounded that I refer to today, which is in reality all of us here today because you know the Bible says all have sinned, right?

And we look at what we have done to others, right?

But we never really hear that, yes, we have sinned toward others and hurt others.

We have also been sinned against by other people.

We have also been wounded from their sins in our own selves.

And so many people walking around wounded, and what I realize in my ministry that most people don't even realize that they're wounded and they're walking around.

And so through this presentation, my prayer is that not only that you experience healing, but that you will also be able to help those who are hurting themselves.

Let us pray, Father, as your word is open, help us to understand.

You know, some people think, okay, what's the importance of this?

I just, last night after the meeting, 1 of my former church members came up and talked to me.

And she's a call porter, she maga book, and she just did big books.

And I talked to the leader, the director of the program and the director of the program told me yesterday that she excelled like really high in the program, did the best of anyone else, really, really excelled.

And I would never thought she had it in her.

And she told me last night, you know, pastor, the turning point in my life was the time that you asked me to sing for you.

She's a beautiful singer, to sing for you at a church.

So she went to a church to sing my appeal song.

And then normally my church, these traveling speaking engagements where I speak on healing, I do anointing service with oil and anointing with oil and healing, spiritual healing.

People think it's physical healing, physical healing is important, but spiritual healing.

So she said, it was when you made an appeal for healing.

And she said, she came to the front for healing.

She said, when you prayed for me, I shared with you, and you gave me some biblical advice, and you prayed for me and anointed me.

She said that was the turning point in my life.

And I think, you know, I've done ministry.

And my wife, you know, I had the privilege of baptizing her in our first evangelistic meetings, tent meetings.

See some people that were here with us, you know.

And I ended up marrying my wife, who I'm baptized.

2. Facing the Pain

So if you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 16 verse 21 and 22 Matthew 16 verse 21 and 22 And everyone has a handout, right?

Can you raise your hand and they can get your handout?

Just keep your hand up so we can see you.

You bet, can you post a sign inside and outside of the doors, please?

Okay, Matthew Chapter 16, Verse 21 and 22.

In the front here, you may need a handout, raise your hand.

Now most of us have heard of the phrase growing pains, have we not?

And what that means is that whenever there's growth, there is always pain, right?

Now, most of us want to grow, Whether it be physical strength, our relationships, or our profession.

Now the truth is that we're not going to grow in any areas of our lives if we're not experiencing some type of suffering, right?

For a baby who is growing new teeth has pain.

An athlete training for a marathon has pain.

Someone breaking out of a bad relationship has Pain.

We can't save our money, lose our weight, or improve our relationships without denying ourselves and thus experiencing some level of pain.

In the same way, in order to grow spiritually and emotionally, we first need to experience pain.

For oftentimes, in order to grow, we first need to face the pain of our past wounds so that we can then begin to heal.

So may God help us embrace our pain rather than to deny it or run away from it.

Father, help us to face our pain so that we may desire healing.

What happened when Jesus told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to face suffering and death?

Notice the Bible says in Matthew 16, verse 21 and 22.

From that time forward began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer, that's pain, suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be far from you, Lord.

And when Jesus told his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to suffer physical and emotional pain, Peter said, be far from you, don't let this happen.

In other words, Peter didn't want Jesus to face the pain.

But How did Jesus respond to Peter's reaction?

Matthew 16, verse 23, notice the Bible says, but he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, what?

Satan, you are an offense unto me, for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of, what?

You see, Satan was using Peter to try and hinder Jesus from embracing the pain.

But Jesus rebuked Peter and he focused his path towards suffering.

In the same way, Satan often speaks to people, and even to Christians, to try and hinder us from facing the pain.

And it's during these times that we must remember that we are to take up the cross of suffering and follow Jesus.

There's a young man, after I shared this sermon, and it was a men's retreat.

And I shared this sermon about facing the pain.

He was about 6' 5", 300-something, and not muscles, and tough-looking.

He said to me, you know what, Pastor, your sermon is just for me.

I'm always the type of guy that goes around joking and cracking jokes so I can run away from the pain.

What did Jesus want to do in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Turn with me to Luke chapter 2, 22 I'm sorry, Luke chapter 22, verse 42.

You know I always believe, I tell people don't believe a word I have to say, but believe what the Bible has to say.

The Bible, you know the Bible is relevant.

Don't believe that the Bible doesn't relate to the real issues of your heart and your life.

It can minister to the needs of your soul if you let it.

Luke chapter 22, verse 42, what did Jesus want to do in the Garden of Gethsemane?

The Bible says, Jesus says, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.

You see, at first, Jesus didn't want to go through the suffering of the cross.

This is the reason why he pleaded with his father 3 different times to take the cup of suffering away from him, right?

But in the end, Jesus decided to do not what he wanted to do, but instead what his father wanted him to do.

So when the mob of religious rulers and ruffians came to get Jesus, Jesus bravely embraced the pain while all of his disciples ran away from the pain.

You see, in the same way, we may not want to do what we know we should do because we're afraid of the pain and the suffering, but we must follow Christ's leading and we must embrace the pain.

In the same way, facing the pain of our past wounds can be very agonizing.

But before we can bring our wounds to the cross, we must first acknowledge that we are wounded.

For how can we confess to God our wounds if we can't even admit them to ourselves?

And how can we experience healing for ourselves if we won't even admit that we have something that needs healing off.

I think I realize there are a lot of people who experience healing.

Some places I go, up to 90% of the people come up for healing afterwards, and I do anointing with oil, and I pray and give biblical advice to them.

Some places, hundreds of people come forward.

3. Take Away the Show

The handouts is actually, there's no handout for this 1.

But at the same time, if we have time, we're going to use the first handout and do a breakout session at the end also.

And because we didn't get to finish it, because I would like to hear people share what they've learned from the first group discussion that we had this morning.

So we'll kind of go over a little bit and then we'll have some people come up and report like how we did the second session.

And I think that went really good, really, really well.

So, and then the next session at 3 o'clock, we're going to have handouts, Emotionally Disconnected.

And this 1 is entitled Take Away the Show.

And actually, there's a Revelation of Hope packet in front of you.

It's my friend Taz Paklev, and It's a good ministry.

And we also have a booth there inside the exhibit hall.

And some people ask me, well, who is your family?

You mentioned your family here, but we're trying to see who it was.

You didn't figure out in the blue shirt, in the GYC shirt.

So if you have your Bibles, you can start.

In John chapter 11, verse 38 is our opening text.

John chapter 11, verse 38 is our opening text.

We're living in a time in this world where the external is everything and the internal is nothing.

It's because of this that we have put up a front as to who we really are just so that others will like us.

But unfortunately this is only a mask And the mask usually comes off at home, or we're at work, or with our friends, or with our roommates.

For the home in our rooms, that everyone sees who we really are, except of course for the dark secrets that no 1 knows about.

And because everyone wears these masks, that we meet so many nice people out there, but then we wonder why their homes are falling apart.

You see, if there ever was a time where we needed healing in our homes, in our schools, and in our churches, then that time is now.

So as we learn about the mask that we all wear, may the spirit of a loving God search and convict us as to who we really are.

Father, Again, we ask for your presence as we open your word.

May your spirit help us to understand it.

And his family called for Jesus to come and heal him.

But the problem was that by the time Lazarus had come, I mean, by the time Jesus had come to see Lazarus, It had already been 4 days since Lazarus had been dead.

And this is where the story picks up in John 11, verse 38.

And the Bible says, Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, coming to the grave, it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

So what was covering the grave of Lazarus?

Now this stone had to be removed in order for the light to come in.

But when the light came to the darkness of the tomb, it could not penetrate into that darkness because there was actually a stone hindering it from coming in, right?

And Jesus also is God and the Bible says that God is love in 1 John 4 verse 8, right?

So the light of love, in other words, love could not penetrate into that dark tomb because there was a stone hindering that light or that love from coming into that tomb.

You see, this stone represents the many different ways we try to keep things covered up so that we can then fool others and ourselves into believing that we're okay.

In other words, the reason why the light doesn't come into our dark souls is not because it doesn't want to, but because we ourselves have put up a covering or a mask so that it cannot come in.

And God wants to break through that stone.

Notice what it says here next in John 11, verse 39.

The Bible says, Jesus said, take you away the stone.

Jesus commanded that they take away the stone.

Yes, Jesus was about to do a great miracle here, but there was a part that Jesus required humanity to do.

And so in order for the miracle to happen, humanity had to cooperate with divinity.

And thus the role was to take away the stone.

And now it said of Jesus that Jesus loved Lazarus and his family.

For their home was in Bethany, where it was a place where Jesus could find true rest.

And it was because of this love for Lazarus and his family that Jesus gave such a strong command.

And he was able to be bold to them and said, take away the stone.

In other words, the reason God often gives us strong commands is because He loves us.

And He knows that if we would just listen to Him, we would be healed.

And the same way, beloved, He commands us to take away the stone so that the light may come in.

He commands us to take off the mask so that the truth may shine through.

He commands us to stop being fake so that the love may come in.

He commands us to break down the walls so that the healing may begin.

I want healing, how about you, huh, amen?

Turn to John 11, verse 39b, to continue on the next part of the text.

It says here, Jesus said, "'Take ye away the stone.' Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks, for he hath been dead 4 days.

So after Jesus commanded to have the stone taken away, Martha then protested.

It says here, But Lord, he's been dead for 4 days and if we take away the stone, then everyone will see his rotting cadaver and smell his decaying body.

Now we can relate to Martha and that she didn't want to face the decay and despair of what was in that dark cave.

And the same way, many of us don't want to take away the covering from our lives because if we take off the covering of our lives, people are going to start to see how nasty, smelly, and humiliating it might be to us.

4. Emotionally Disconnected

Okay, there are handouts for this last presentation called Emotionally Disconnected.

Oh yeah, because you're still inside here.

Taj has a booth and there were some handouts there for his booth.

And we have a booth called A Loud and Clear called Ministry.

And before we begin, let me tell you a little bit about our ministry.

You know, I pastored 15 years in Hawaii, in the Hawaii conference, and I've been sick of medical disability, I shared with you this morning, for 15 months, and yesterday I came off it, and today is my first day off medical disability.

And I'm here to, I know God called me here and gave me the energy for today.

I didn't think I could do 4 meetings and I just thank God for everyone's prayers.

And prayer is actually what got me through.

But I wanted to just ask something of, and this is about our ministry And we're feeling that God's impressing us to go not part-time into our ministry, but go full-time into our ministry, a loud and clear call.

And do more speaking engagements and traveling and so forth.

And so what supports our ministry is donations, which has helped support us from people, but also our CD albums.

We have CD albums, and my wife has CD albums in the back there that we use for a donational basis and also individual CDs on relationships.

And today we're talking about relationships but especially the healing part.

So whatever on donations or support in getting CDs helps out our ministry and you know I don't charge any I believe the gospel is free so my personal policy not to charge any speaker fees, honorariums, or any per diems at all.

But God gave me the gospel free, and we should give it to you free 1 to another.

So we just ask for airfare, that's all we do.

And sometimes we split between 2 different ministries or churches and we split half half between 2 churches and it's really cost effective to bring people over.

But sometimes some places don't pay for my wife and daughter to fly as a family, So we take a loss.

Series

Healing Rain: The Latter Rain for the Soul

1. The Walking Wounded

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Holy Spirit in Evangelistic CARE Groups

RE-Formation, Part 2

50m

Healing Broken Relationships

1. Soul Searching Our Emotions

52m

Making Your Campus Ministry Thrive

2. Mastering the Method

53m

Occupy Wall Street with Jesus

4. Attracting Spiritual Interests

1h 1m

Devotions For Decisions

5. By Every Word

1h 3m

Cosmic Conflict

2. Good God, Evil World?-Theodicy

1h 8m

Abortion and the Redemptive Grace Revolution

Life After an Abortion: part 2

42m

GYC 2013 Seminar: Witnessing to the Wealthy, Worldly, and Well-Educated

01-The Need

1h

Soulwinning 201: The Next Level

3. Which Study Should I Use?

1h

GYC 2013 Seminar: Health Evangelism

02-Applying the Right Hand

1h

GYC 2011 totalChurch

Total Church: Breaking Bread, Part 2

1h

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Holy Spirit in Evangelistic CARE Groups

RE-Evolution, Part 1

41m

Sound Doctrine