For The Broken Hearted | Brett Esslinger

Welcome to the Saints Church Glastonbury podcast! We are a local church network based in Alberta, Canada. We go to places no one wants to go and do things no one thought possible so that anyone and everyone can discover hope and life in Jesus.

This week, the sermon focuses on the healing power of Jesus, delving into the spiritual and emotional restoration that goes beyond the physical, guided by insights from Legacy Church and the story of the woman with the issue of blood.

Verses:
- Luke 4:18
- Ezekiel 36
- Proverbs 23:7
- Matthew 9:4
- Psalm 147:3
- Matthew 1:21
- Matthew 9:20
- 2 Corinthians 11:14-15
- Jeremiah 31:34
- Matthew 18
- Ecclesiastes 3:11

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Creators & Guests

Host

Brett Esslinger

Senior Pastor of SAINTS CHURCH | Author of #HopeNotHype | #YEG | Nacho Enthusiast

What is Saints Church Glastonbury?

A Modern Expression of a Timeless Tradition. A local church in the Glastonbury Neighbourhood of West Edmonton. Sr Pastor Brett Esslinger.

Let's dive into God's Word today. Let's dive right into the scripture and as we do that, I just want to welcome our Highlands location, anyone who's online, and I want to welcome our friends from Legacy Church in Hamilton and Kitchener who are joining us today. Come on, can we give some love for everyone who's joining us? We're so grateful that you are with us. Here's what we're going to do we're going to go right to Luke, chapter four. Going right to Luke, chapter four, verse 18, and it says this the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. And then Jesus rolled up to scroll, handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and all the eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently, as if to say what's he going to say next? What I want to do today? We've been looking at the four core ministries of Jesus. We've looked at the idea of salvation, and there's a line right here in the midst of this portion that I want to talk today about mending broken hearts. In Luke four, 18, in the new King's James version, it says he has sent me to heal the broken hearted. There's two Greek words that make up broken hearted in scripture, so in tribo, which means to break in pieces, to shatter or to bruise, jesus wants to heal broken, shattered and bruised heart. Second word there's cardiac. It's where we get cardiac meaning, meaning literally the heart, but not like just the heart that pumps, the heart that feels. You know, I was reading this, this, these journals, as I was studying, and there's all these, these reports about some transplant patients actually take on, especially with the heart, take on memories or dietary preferences or different gifts, talents and abilities from the person that they're receiving the heart from. You take it on. There's this one guy who's a retired caterer, who had no artistic ability, received a heart and he woke up and he could draw and he could paint. Heart transplant Memories from the donor's life are hypothesized to be stored in the cells of the donated heart and then are remembered by the recipient following heart transplant surgery Interesting.

It's also interesting that in Ezekiel 36, god says I want to give you a new heart and that we get a heart from heaven. We get a heavenly heart. We get a new heart, which means we take on new gifts, talents, abilities, characteristics from our heavenly Father. We get a new heart. We get a new heart.

And it's no surprise to us because scripture is very clear that when we're talking about the heart, when Jesus is talking about the heart, he's not talking about the thing that pumps blood, but he's talking about the seat of our emotions. Right, you know, we kind of sub in like we talk about hearts, we're talking about how we feel, right, like our emotional positioning. Proverbs 23, verse seven says for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. In Matthew nine, verse four, jesus spoke right to them. He says Jesus knew what they were thinking. So we asked them why do you have such evil thoughts in your hearts? We're not talking about the actual heart. It's like when you express your love and your affection to your spouse, you don't say I love you with all my blood pump, right? You say I love you with all my heart, which means the full capacity that you have to give emotionally.

The heart is the seat of our thoughts and our emotions and many times our hearts can get broken and shattered and bruised. Maybe it's a loss of a relationship, loss of a career, loss of finance and really loss of finances, a loss of security, and that gives us a broken heart. Maybe it just feels like a broken dream or something that just didn't go the way that you thought it was was going to go. Maybe you experienced something difficult and you end up with what we casually call a broken heart. But right here in Luke four says Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. And the thing that we casually write off as just as just, maybe a rite of passage or a thing that we have to experience, which is a broken heart, scripture says that Jesus wants to heal it. See, I think sometimes we underestimate the healing power of Jesus because we love Jesus. See, I think sometimes we underestimate the healing power of Jesus because we leave it up to physical infirmity. We go oh, he just wants to heal that. No, he wants to heal all of you. He specifically wants to heal a broken heart. In the new living the word says that the oppressed would be set free. And the King James version, going all the way back to the old King Jimmy, it says to set at liberty them that are bruised.

A bruise is a contusion happens when a part of the body is injured and blood from the damaged capillaries leaks out with no place to go. The blood gets trapped under the skin, forming a red or purplish mark that's tender when you touch it A bruise. I like to suggest to you today that a broken heart is a lot like a bruise. You bump into it. Oh shoots this pain through you. Many times we have wounds from the past that haven't been healed yet. You bump up into something like oh, shoots pain through you. It's like you're living that moment all over again. You bump up into something. You bump up into an attitude or a person you meet them like. I know that type of person. It begins to limit your interactions and limit your relationships.

My son Everett this is a number of years ago. He used to go to this little coffee shop in Spurs Grove called Perks. We used to go get peanut butter marshmallow bars. They don't want to have a peanut butter marshmallow bar. It's not really my jam, but he is into it. He loved it. Like anytime we would go. He's like dad, can I have a peanut butter marshmallow bar? And my answer is always yes, because I'm a good, good father. I'm like yeah, you can have a peanut butter marshmallow bar. So one day we go and he eats this peanut butter marshmallow bar and, in a completely unrelated bout of sickness, the peanut butter marshmallow bar in case you're wondering it looks the same way going, is it does coming out. And from that moment on, every can no longer eat a peanut butter marshmallow bar because it is ruined, it is over, it is dramatic, it is finished. Dad, that thing made me sick. No, son, it did not make you sick. Yes, dad, that thing made me sick. I am sick. I think about it, I look at it. That thing makes me, dad. I'm telling you that's what makes me sick.

And I'm wondering how many of us are avoiding good things in life because of previous moments of pain, and now that pain is defining our lives. This is what the scripture says in Psalm 147, verse three he heals the brokenhearted Bandages. It will. When these things happen to us, these moments of pain, these moments of loss, these moments of heartbreak, oftentimes, when they happen, we didn't know how to handle it. We didn't know that we could submit it to Christ, we didn't know that he wanted to heal it. We just thought we have to be tough, we have to be strong, we have to make it through.

Today I want to go in a slightly different direction, which I guess is actually our normal way of doing it, because I don't know that we actually go in any normal direction at any given time. We just follow. We go where Jesus wants to go. We follow one step at a time. But here's what I want to do. I want to share a little bit of scripture, I want to just create a bit of a thought process for you, and then I want to lead you through a process that will do this. All mass will do this together. That would maybe normally be a time of ministry in my office or at your house To help you find freedom by the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe today, whether you're online, you're in the room or you're in another city, that we're going to experience healing and breakthrough on mass.

Matthew 1, 21. It's Christmas, so we can go here. Angel speaking to Mary, it says, and she will have a son. Sorry, speaking to Joseph about Mary, and she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. That word save. If you've got that, if you've got your paper, bob, you're going to underline it, if you're taking notes, you want to write this down.

Is the Greek word sozo, s-o-z-o From the root word safe, as if I'm going to make you say. The Greek word sozo is used over 100 times in the New Testament. The Greek word sozo is used over 100 times in the New Testament. Its meanings are to make well, to heal, to restore to health, to keep safe, to deliver one from the penalties of the Messianic judgment and to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance. The term combines all three aspects of wholeness salvation, healing and deliverance. We are speaking of God's process of removing the hindrances that prevent us from walking in a fully redeemed life.

When the Bible uses sozo to describe a person's breakthrough, the implication is that what is received is a full three-dimensional blessing, one that includes physical, emotional and emotional healing, one that includes physical, emotional and spiritual help. We have underestimated the power of Jesus and left him confined and compartmentalized, as if to say he cares about my soul, he cares about my body, but he does not care about my emotional well-being. And the truth is he cares about every part of you. That's why he creates you body, soul, spirit. When you think about heart. We think about the soul, which is our mind, our will and our emotion. So he wants to bring hope, life and healing. He wants to save every part of you and he wants to bring healing to the broken-hearted.

I want us to go to Matthew, chapter 9, and I want us to look at this moment in full effect and as we can take a look at Scripture in this moment, you're actually going to see that there's more than meets the eye right here. Are you still with me today? In Matthew, chapter 9, verse 20, this is the woman with the issue of blood. Just then, a woman who has suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She came up behind Jesus. She touched the fringe of his robe before. She thought if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed. And Jesus turned around and when he saw her, he said daughter, be encouraged, your faith has made you well. And the woman was healed at that moment. In every instance of the usage of the word healed in that passage, it is the Greek word sozo, including when it says your faith has made you well.

3d, three-dimensional wholeness and healing in Jesus' name. Here's what we know. We know that she had an infirmity for 12 years that no specialist could diagnose, that nobody could solve, that no one could figure it out, that she used all of her income to do it. We also understand in Jewish culture. We'll come to understand that in Jewish culture if a woman was bleeding she had to be removed from society. She could not participate. There was a ceremonial cleansing that would happen and they would have to wash themselves and sit out and go through this whole process and procedure, meaning you couldn't be a part of family, you couldn't be a part of community. She lived a life alone of isolation and at a further level, she could not touch anybody because anybody that she touched would become unclean. So she had a physical issue, but she had a soul problem, rejection, abandonment, a loss of physical touch. She was broken on every level. She had no income, she had no way to hold a job because anything she touched, including inanimate objects, became unclean.

So as we read this portion of scripture and we say that, we see that Jesus says go, be well, be sozo, be healed. It doesn't just mean that she's healed in her body. She finds wholeness in every area of her life. In every area she can have a job, she can go back to her family, she can go have friends, she can give somebody a hug, she can walk in a crowd. She walks through a crowd and what nobody understands is that every person she bumped into into that crowd became unclean, but nobody paid any attention.

There was healing and wholeness in every area of her life in a moment, not just a physical healing. In the King James Version it says Thy faith has made thee whole, and the woman was made whole from that hour. Complete healing in every area of her life, complete wholeness. We've been missing maybe a portion of what God wants to do in us, because we know all about salvation. We got our get out of hell free card and we go when we ask for certain things at different times and different moments, and you're like I need help in this area, I need help here, I need help here, and he's faithful, he wants to heal your heart. Today, In this moment, you can leave change, you can leave transformed. You can discover complete healing and wholeness in Jesus name. Complete healing and wholeness in Jesus name.

Come on, is anyone ready for complete healing and wholeness in Jesus name? So here's the process. I'm going to just share the process and then we're going to go through the process. But I just want to give you a picture of this framework because I understand this isn't a normal sermon that I might preach. Here's the process, the first thing I'm going to do and we're going to do together, but I'm going to lead this process. You can take that if you need to. Whatever that is, clearly the Lord's got something to say to you today. Here's the process.

In just a moment, I'm going to ask Jesus to bring to our memory, to bring memories to our mind that he wants to heal. We're going to pray and we're going to ask Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring back memories to our mind right now that he wants to heal. This is not for hurt, it's for healing. You might even already start feeling some nervousness because you're like I don't know, this is like a bruise and if I bump up into this thought or this memory or this thing, I don't know that I can come back from this. You can. I also need you to make you aware of this.

Sometimes demonic spirits attach themselves to these memories and they can come to us as a comforting spirit. They're really tormenting spirits and they masquerade angels of light. This is 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14 and 15, but I'm not surprised. Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so it's no wonder that his servants also disguise himself as servants of righteousness. In the end, they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve. I need to bring this up for this reason that as you have these traumatic moments and you have these things, demons in the spiritual realm, those that are evil, are not omnipresent. They can't get into your thought. They don't know everything that you're thinking, but they can see and they can understand what's going on. And as we walk through traumatic moments, they can go oh, this is something I can use, this is a weapon I can use and they just start poking. They just start poking and it says they come as an angel of light.

It might even appear in this conference like you're going to get through this. You're going to get through this. You need to cut that person out. You need to stop that relationship. You can't go there. You can't have this job. You can't step in. You know what You're not. And then it starts to change. It's not for your protection. Now it's like but you're not worth it, don't you know? Don't you know? You're wounded, you're walking wounded and every time you think about it you're like whoa, there's just this deep hurt that's like getting into me, because there's just this lie that's mattering away at your spirit.

So today, as we submit these things which is what we're going to do first we're going to ask Jesus to bring them forward. Then we're going to submit these thoughts and we're going to pray that Jesus just breaks the power that is behind those things and we're actually going to ask for something called holy forgetfulness. Like I don't think that's real. Okay, jeremiah 31, 34 says I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. That's holy forgetfulness. When God looks at you, he looks at you with holy forgetfulness. He's like I will forgive their sins and I will forget. I won't bring them up anymore. I'm just not going to, I'm just not going to remember them. It says it's not that he doesn't know, it's not that they're not there, he's just not going to bring them up. Holy forgetfulness doesn't mean that we won't have the memory anymore. It means that we won't have the stress and pain associated with the memory because we're breaking that power and Jesus is going to bring healing and wholeness.

You're like this sounds really spiritual. You're in church, we have prayer meetings. We believe that the Holy Spirit moves. He's active in these, alive. You're in a Pentecostal church. You're in a place where the Holy Spirit is active right here, right now, and he has the power to break these lies and these chains that bind. The last thing we're going to do is we're going to ask for healing and wholeness.

Now, as we ask for healing and wholeness, there is a responsibility on each and every one of us that we have to choose to forgive. You have to choose to forgive those who are involved. Matthew 18 lays out a whole thing that you can go read later a whole process of forgiveness. Now, here's the thing. I'm going to take it one step further. You not only have to forgive those individuals who are involved, you have to forgive you. I could have done better. I should have known, I could have handled it. I shouldn't have said that you got to forgive you. So we're going to ask Jesus to bring memories to our minds that he wants to heal. We're going to ask for holy forgetfulness and choose to forgive, and we're going to ask for healing and wholeness.

Now I want to say this what you don't know about how these Sunday messages come to be is that there's a lot of prayer that goes in. I think you might assume that, but I actually got the whole series layout for the year in August in a prayer time, and so this realm that we're dealing with today was first thought about in August Over a month ago I really started studying it. But this week has been I'm just going to go on record and say a week from hell. We've had accidents. Our dear friend, rob Crocker at the City Service Warehouse got crushed by a forklift and thank the Lord it's a miracle he's alive. He needs your prayer and we will pray and continue to pray for Rob. We had other friends in a car accident. After prayer lift. After prayer lift, after a prayer meeting, we've had marriages and addiction issues pop up.

This has been some of the craziest week that I've walked through in the last number of years in terms of like things happening in a consistent, concise amount of time and what happens in all of these situations? That there is bruised hearts, there is broken hearts. That's happening. So imagine this that at just the right time, at just the right moment, god planted a seed in August because he knew what was coming in January and he says I'm going to give you the tools to walk through. And sometimes we go.

Well, how come you just didn't stop it? He said listen, listen, here's what I need you to know that this world, it functions and things happen and bad things happen, and there's there's principalities and powers, there's all types of things, but Jesus doesn't leave you, he doesn't abandon you, he doesn't forget about you, he will never forsake you and he's going to give you the tools to walk through, because if we can embrace this set of tools, it doesn't matter what comes at you. You're going to find healing for your broken heart and, let's be honest, you're going to have a broken heart again. Something's going to happen, someone's going to say something, except this time Jesus is going to heal it. It's not going to define you.

You know that your pain is defining you when you don't go to a certain restaurant because you might see that person, because they like to eat there. Now your pain is controlling your life. You know that pain is controlling your life because you don't take a promotional work, because you might have to see that co-worker and you can't handle to be in the room with them because they might, because they said something you know three years ago. That's your pain directing your life. You can't have your kids over because they said something to you about your parenting from 20 years ago and you've taken it personally. So you're not seeing your grandkids now. That's pain defining your life.

Jesus wants to set you free today. Bring healing today. Bring hope today, in the moment. Like I don't know if it's possible in a moment, it's possible in a moment because it's not me, it's Jesus. It's Jesus, and it doesn't matter if you're in the room or you're on a podcast or through a video, it doesn't matter. This is Ecclesiastes 311,. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He's planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. This is the right time. Jesus wants to come and heal the broken hearted today. He decided that a long time ago and we're going to now step obediently into his timing, into his process. We're going to let him do what only he can do. Amen, here's what we're going to do.

As I lead us through this process, I am going to invite everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes, and this is why it's a personal moment. It's a personal moment and you're like, well, I don't know, and I'm just going to ask that nobody moves around. You, just stay, still, stay where you are. This is a private moment between you and God. I'll be really honest, I've never done this to the whole room full of people, but we're going to do it together because we just do what the Lord asks us to do and he's going to bring hope and healing in life right now.

First, what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to pray that the Holy Spirit would actually begin to bring memories and thoughts to your mind that he wants to heal right now. I'm going to pray and then, very quickly, you're going to start to see thoughts, or however you process information in your own brain and your heart. He's going to bring it to your attention. Don't strive, don't try and make it to happen. He'll come to you. We'll just take a moment. Let's pray right now.

Holy Spirit, would you now bring to our minds the memories, the thoughts and ideas that you want to heal today, in Jesus' name? Right now, would you just bring those things to our mind, jesus. Would you just bring those childhood moments to our attention, that you want to heal, that have been defining our lives without us realizing. God, would you bring to our attention and to our memory those things, that thing that was said about us, that has actually made so many decisions for us, god, that traumatic moment? Would you bring that to our attention, not to hurt us but for healing today? Would you bring it to our hearts and to our mind right now? Right now.

I'm just going to speak to you right now. I'm going to ask the team to put the next prayer on the screen. We're actually going to. I'll pray this. You don't have to pray it out loud, but I want to just put the language up there for you so you had it as a tool moving forward, speaking about these things that the Holy Spirit is now bringing to your attention. We're going to pray that he heals it. This is a prayer that you can use. If you want to take a screenshot of it, you should do that quickly, right now. Save it for another moment, another time. We can send it out in the email as well, so that you have it. Let's pray together.

Almighty Father, I submit these memories to you. I ask you to heal me now from all the stress and give me holy forgetfulness. I choose now, by an act of my will, to forgive, to forget and to be healed in Jesus' name. Jesus, I pray for the brokenness, I pray for the pain. I pray for the bruised hearts and minds. God, right now, in this moment, I just pray that healing would come across the room by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, in the room or online or on a podcast or in another city. God, right now, by the power of your Holy Spirit, I declare healing in Jesus' name. Lord, you said that you came to bring healing to the broken heart, for those who would just have these traumatic thoughts and memories that haunt them and cause them not to be able to sleep. I pray for healing right now, in Jesus' name, for those who are just wrestling with a bout of insecurity that comes all the way back from something said in the past. I just pray healing in Jesus' name, lord. We just break the ties now, those lies that are being whispered into their hearts and into their minds, that says that these things own them and define them. They don't. Your love does your healing does Jesus. So I thank you now for healing in Jesus' name. Healing in Jesus' name. Healing in Jesus' name. Healing in Jesus' name.

Now, here's the second part of it. It's going to show up on the screen if you want to read it. If not, you can leave your eyes closed. I choose now to forgive every person involved, including me. I choose to forget. We're choosing to forget the way that God forgets. Do not to bring it up again to use against others, or even to use against ourselves. Jesus, we choose to forgive, as you've chosen to forgive us. We choose to forgive ourselves because you already have In this moment. We forgive moms and dads and grandparents and aunts and uncles, friends and colleagues. We choose forgiveness. We choose forgiveness, jesus name, jesus name. Now I want to just take a moment to pray for you. And just before I do that.

You know, I was getting ready, I prayed and I was writing down this example from my past because I'd gone through a really difficult season about 16, 17 years ago, where heroes in my life and mentors betrayed, and there's a time where people would always ask me how come you're not angry? And I would say, well, I can't be angry because God's leading me. And I really wasn't angry. But as I wrote that thing down to share with you, that night I had a dream and in that dream that same person had hired me again and I woke up so angry I'm like, oh, I just pushed it down, I just have coping mechanisms. I don't want you to push it down today. I want you to give it to Jesus and you go. I don't know, I don't know. The truth is, you've tried so many other things. Why not give it to him right now? You might be a skeptic in the room. Why not give it to him right now? He can do it.

Only, I want to pray for you now, god. I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit, that these memories that are coming back, that you're healing each one of these memories, each one of these thoughts, each one of these things that have been habit-forming. We break the power of those habits right now. In Jesus' name, we break the lies of the enemy that come in Jesus' name. Right now, jesus, I just pray for widespread hope and healing, and infectious hope and healing to just sweep across this room, across this place, wherever the sound of my voice would be in this moment. God, I just thank you and we submit these things to you. We don't hold on to them anymore, we give them to you. We're not defined by these things. We're defined by your love, your mercy and your forgiveness. So we break any power or any attachment that these things have, and we do that in the name of Jesus.

Jesus, in the same way that you heal the one with the issue of blood, you want us to be whole, 3d wholeness, complete wholeness in every area of our lives. And to you, god, we just say we're going to give it to you. We're going to give you our pain, we're going to give you our insecurity, we're going to give you our anxiety, we're going to give you our anger and our doubt. We're giving to you right now, those things, those things that are buried deep inside, that we don't want to come out. We just give them to you right now and we say, jesus, I don't want to carry this anymore. I lay it at your feet. I lay it at your feet. I lay it at your feet and say, jesus, bring healing and hope in this world.

And Jesus, where those things are and where that's taken up space in our hearts and our lives, would you fill us now with your love, would you fill us now with just a sense of your presence, would you just fill us to the top, any area, any gap that's been created in our hearts and our souls by these areas and these entanglements. God, would you just come and fill that area right now by your power of your Holy Spirit. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus, and in your mighty name, we thank you for healing and wholeness. Be healed in Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, amen.