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Your wounds don't get to name you, isolate you, stop you, or have the final say. Through Isaiah 43, Pete Campbell shows how God calls you by name, walks with you through every fire and flood, and is already preparing what's next in your story. Scriptures: Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 43:2, Isaiah 43:3, Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 43:11, Isaiah 43:18, Isaiah 43:19
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So, several years ago, I don't know anybody ever watched the show Tool Time. Tim the Tool Man Taylor, right? I love that guy because, you know, he leads this show talking about tools and how to do things. And yet he was the one dude who really couldn't always do things without injuring himself. Anybody ever, right? So, quite a few years ago, I went to go help some friends, and they were getting ready to. They were ripping out their flooring and doing all of this stuff, and they were getting ready to prep their floor to put some new flooring in. And my wife and I had recently, before that, we had just bought a foreclosed home. And so I was like, oh, I know how to do flooring, you know. And we had put some subfloor in and got stuff set up for tile. And I was like, oh, this is easy. I can cut some subfloor. And so they gave me this saw, and I'm like, I've used power tools before. I've got gloves. This is cool. It's all good. I'm safe. I got my glasses and all these different things, and so I'm going out and helping. And we made it through the part of this one room, and then we got into the kitchen, and I'm just, you know, grinding out, doing some stuff with the. Just prepping the floor for the subfloor that we were going to put in. And so I'm cutting away all these edges, and next thing you know, I'm pretty comfortable. And all of a sudden, as I'm taking the saw, all of a sudden it goes. And, like, things jump, bounce, whatever. It happens so fast. And in a blink of an eye, I was like, oh, well, whoa. What just happened? And I look, and my hand is stuck in the saw. And I was like, this isn't good. And I'm not one of those. Like, I don't do good with blood, and I don't do good with all those different things. And I get kind of queasy in my legs. And I was like, okay. And all I remember all I could do was like, you know, just. God, you're so good. Like, I could sing of your love forever, you know? And I'm like, don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look. Just. Okay. Just begin to pray. Just begin to pray. Cause I was like, this is probably pretty bad. Cause I looked and my hand is stuck in the saw. And next thing you know, it starts to get warm, and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is really not good. And I had gloves On. And I had done. Worked with a saw before. And of course, so what happens? You know, everyone's like, what are we, Pete? What are we doing? I'm like, let's unplug it. And next, you know, my friends, they're taking me in their big, you know, multiple seat van or whatever. And then they park me in. I'm, like, sitting in the captain's chair in the back seat. And I've got another guy, he's holding the saw and my hand. And then we've got a towel and all these different things. And. And I'm a lefty, okay? And so it was on my left hand. It was in my ring finger. I'm not flipping anybody off, okay? This is my ring finger. And we go to the hospital and we're doing all these different things. And next thing you know, they're like, well, we gotta get the saw off. And I'm just in a lot of pain. And I'm like, somebody just get the saw off. Like, this hurts. Why can't doctors, nurses, like, nobody can figure this out. And then they're like, well, maybe we should call the guy. Cause we can't get the blade off. We can't do this. And then my wife comes in and she finally gets to the hospital after hearing, you know, she's calm in the storm, super composed, nothing like me. And, you know, I get worried and all these different things. And then finally she says something. Well, why don't we call the guy who the Saul belongs to and he can tell us how to actually get the. Oh, that's a great idea. So then they do that and then they get it off. And I don't remember because by this time, they finally injected my hand with drugs. And it was good and it felt really good, and I don't remember too much else. And I wasn't the queasy type. And next thing you know, they got it off. And thank God I didn't lose my finger. But, like, they flipped it back and then prepped it for surgery, and all that stuff was good. Okay? So, long story to tell you. Like, I've got this nasty scar. I've got, like, weird feelings that happen. I've got, like, arthritic pain. Arthritic pain and all this stuff, like when it gets cold and, you know, and I'm a lefty, right? And I play guitar. And I was like, how am I supposed to do that? Like, all of you guys, like, your hand, you should be able to do this with your fingers. Right? Right. Like, on this one like it's decrepit. Okay. Like, it just looks funky. All right? You know, and that's what my hand is. But that's a scar that I walk with, that I live my life with. And I had to reteach myself how to play guitar. Had to do all these different things. And I thought about it for a moment, you know, as we were going into today. Some of us have got these physical scars that we've dealt with, that we've been dealt. But I wonder how many people have walked into this room today or how many people that you know, or even including yourself. You're carrying around a wound that no one can see. Not the kind that'll show up on an X ray. Not the kind that, like mine needed stitches, but the kind that some time ago, somehow, someway, it still speaks today. Maybe it was somebody in your life who walked away. Maybe it was the words that were spoken over you that you still to this moment right now as I'm talking about it, you can hear it replaying in your mind. Maybe it was a betrayal, a rejection. Maybe it was growing out with someone that you felt like you desperately needed. Maybe it wasn't what someone did, but it was what they never did. See, the deepest wounds aren't always the ones that will make us cry. Thank goodness, right? Cause sometimes I can be. I can get pretty emotional. But sometimes the deepest wounds are actually the ones that quietly begin telling us who we are. It whispers things like, you're not enough. It whispers words that you're unwanted. It whispers that, oh, hey, you know what, you'll be overlooked, you'll be passed over, or you'll never measure up. Or you know what? People will never stick around. That community, that group that you like so much, like, they're not going to be around, like, just forget it. Just give up. Wounded to be hurt in such a way that it cuts to the core of a person's feelings. It hits their self esteem to be wounded. It even affects their mental health, mental state of being wounded. So the question for us today isn't whether we've been wounded, but the question I want to pose to us today is to ask is what has your wound been saying to you? See, this isn't just something that I studied this week. It's something that in my own life, I've literally had to walk through time and time and time again. For me, growing up in a single parent home and understanding that, you know, the only thing that I know about my dad is that I have his name. And then I'M a junior, and I have no idea what he looks like. He left when I was two. I've got some dad issues. I had some empty space in my life, shall we say, that showed itself in multiple different seasons, in different moments. And I had to wrestle with it. I had to wrestle with these things. And I had to come to a place where it was like, okay, what is going on? And it left questions, questions that I carried for many years, even after coming to know Jesus wounded. Questions of stuff where sometimes I wondered, am I enough? Sometimes I wonder, you know, am I worth being a part of this team? Is it gonna all work out? And a life has a way of adding to these wounds, right? You go through your life, maybe, you know, in your workplace, people then begin to underestimate you. Maybe you're like me. And after 20 years of being in one type of field and profession, you step out and you're like, hey, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur and start my own business. All right, thank you, social media, for encouraging me all. And then you feel maybe taken for granted. You feel disappointed. People leave. Jobs don't come as easy as they should. Maybe people say things, or you find yourself saying the things that people said, and you're like, where was this coming from? And if we're not careful, we start believing that what happened to us now is actually who we really are. See, the greatest danger of a wound isn't the pain that it caused, but it's actually believing the lie that it whispers. So I want us today, I want us to understand, man, God, what is it that you have for us? Cause here in the next couple weeks, and we're gonna be diving into a couple things I know, with this week getting to share with you, and then next week, and then when Pastor Joe and Christine, they come back, we're gon be diving into discipleship, and there's going to be some amazing stuff. But I was praying about it. I was like, okay, Lord, what are some of the things that are kind of the hitches in the giddyup that kind of get in the way of us serving you, of us walking with you? And the Lord brought it to my heart. And I was like, okay, we're going to go into it. And so today I've titled this message wounded but not defined. Wounded but not defined. Because when I think about it and I think about the things that I've wrestled with in my own heart and the lies and the voices and all of that, I realize, you know, what the greatest danger is? Believing the Lies believing the sound of the whispers. But then I was reminded that in Scripture time and time again that before God tells his people what he's going to do, he always reminds them who they actually are. And not just who that they are, whose they are, who they belong to. You see your wound, it's going to explain part of your story, but it never will get to tell you who you really are. So wounded, but not defined. And this is where it's going to bring us into our passage today. And we're going to jump into Isaiah 43. And so if you guys got it, give me a little Tim Taylor, all right? If not, it'll be on the screen Isaiah 43. And we're going to read verse one out of the new living translation and says this. And here's the prophet Isaiah. He says, but now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. Now catch this. O Israel, the one who formed you says, do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you, I have called you by name, and you are what, mine. I love this passage because whenever I read the scripture, and you can leave that up, babe. Whenever I read the scripture, there are always things that for me, I love to point and underline and highlight and whatever. It's like, okay, these are these words that really stick out, right? Listen to the Lord who. What, created you. And I think about these words and I think about this passage. You know, first off, what I want to tell us today, that when it comes to being wounded but not defined, the first point is this is. Wounds don't get to name you. They don't get to name you. You see, your wounds, they will become dangerous when they start naming us. And I don't think it's an accident that before God tells Israel where he's taking them, he reminds them who they are. Because if you don't know who you are, then every wound will try to tell you who you are, Right? Rejection will say, like, you're unwanted. Failure will say that you are incapable. Betrayal will say that you know, it's not worth to trust again. Abandonment will begin to tell you, you know what? Everyone's gonna leave. No one's gonna stick around. Criticism will start saying things like, you'll just not be enough. See, the wounds, they don't just hurt, they speak. And if we're not careful, we'll spend our entire lives listening to voices that God never intended to define you. And I see wounds when I think of it. They really make terrible identity statements. Horrible. They don't go anywhere. They don't last long because in this passage, right in that first verse, it says, but now, O Jacob. So this is what Isaiah is writing. And so Jacob is the person he's referring to, which if any of us remember and know our Bible a little bit, Jacob was a brother. He had an older brother who was hairy, smelly, was a man's man, right? His name was Esau. You know, Jacob tricked his older brother so that he can get a birthright, so that he can get all the good stuff from his family. And then through his own process and through his own journey, then God took Jacob. He wrestled with God, he fought God, and then ends up through that whole entire altercation. Now God changes his name from Jacob to Israel. So in the same verse, we see, but now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord. Jacob had his own battle to listen to the Lord. And now we see, oh, Israel, the one who formed you. Do not be afraid. I want to encourage you today. And it was great. Brittany, you said, I want to encourage you. Like, we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be fearful. Why? Because God has ransomed us. He has given Jesus for you and I to experience freedom. He has given Jesus so that you and I do not have to be named by our wounds. We don't have to be identified by our wounds because every wound will begin to tell you who you are. See, God never asked me in my life to pretend that things didn't happen. He refused to let them become my identity. And there were people in my life that he sent my way. And this is what the power of the church is. This is what the power of lies in community. To have people that will plant seeds of faith in your life, that will light flames of identity in your life, to understand that what God is saying, what his Holy Spirit is putting into your heart, how he's nudging you, how he's leading you, how he's guiding you, can be reinforced by his people who are walking in the same path and the same journey of saying, Jesus, today I crucify myself so I could follow you. See, life can wound you. People can wound you, but they will never have the authority to name you because it's God's job. And just like Jacob, who is now Israel, God has called you and I by name. Not our wounds name, not our fear's name, not our failure's name, but your name. And then I want to say this. He now declares that you are mine. You are mine. So whose voice has been naming you? What voices have been Trying to name me. Because every day, right, we have a choice. Will we let our past define us or will we let our Father name us? See, church. When we discover and know who Jesus is, our lives are now different. We've been given a new name, one that isn't defined by our blemishes, that isn't defined by our failures or our weaknesses. See, when we enter into a relationship with Christ, we are now a disciple. We are now a follower of him. The last time I checked, disciples aren't people who have never been wounded, but they're people who have learned whose voice to actually trust. See, I love what God says. Next, he doesn't stop at your mind. He begins to then continue it further. And he says something that every wisdom wounded person needs to hear. And this is in verse two. He says, when you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not. What? Drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression. Right? Oh yeah, first. Oh, sorry, okay, yeah. You will not be burned up and the flames will not consume you. And then I love verse three. He says, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior, and I gave Egypt as a ransom for your freedom. Notice what God doesn't say. He doesn't say if you pass through the waters, right? He doesn't say I'll just keep you from every fire. He doesn't say you'll never be wounded again. He says when, when, when the difficulties happen, when the times come, when the pressure turns up, God will be with you. When? He never promised us a wound free life, but he promises something even better. He promises us his presence. Because it's not in the absence of pain that it transforms us, right? It's in the presence of God while he's in the middle of it. So not only do wounds, they don't get to name you, they don't get to do all those things, wounds, the other things, they don't get to isolate. You see, the promise was never for us to live a pain free life. That's why there's Advil Tylenol, right? I mean, think about this for a moment. What have you passed through? What things have you gone through? What are you going through right now? Because I want to encourage truth to you today that God is saying, and he has always said that I will be with you. You know, sometimes we think that if we're following God faithfully, if we choose to say, jesus, I want to be your disciple, then a lot of us, we get tricked or almost. In a lot of ways, we just become naive and we think that, oh, well, you know, life should get easier. That if we're obedient enough, that if we're faithful enough, that if we've prayed enough, we'll somehow avoid deep waters. Well, Lord, you're guiding my steps. You're ordering my path. Oh, yeah, there's a fire over there. But thank you, Lord, for taking me around it. Right? No, it's not the promise that God makes. See, discipleship, it's not about escaping hardship, but it's about discovering how Jesus is enough in the middle of it. See, God never promised that we would avoid the wounds of life, but he promised we would never have to walk through them alone. I wish I could tell you that Jesus erased every wound from my life, but he didn't. I wish I can tell you that I still don't have disappointments. I wish I could tell you that there have been people in my life that didn't leave. I wish I could say that. You know what? I can stand up here today and say that I've not dealt with moments of rejection. But the big difference wasn't that life stopped hurting. The difference is that I no longer walked through it by myself. See, not only do wounds right, they don't get to name you, they don't get to isolate you. Wounds don't get to stop you. See, when we look at Isaiah and we continue on in this passage in verses 10 and 11, I love what he says here, but you are my witnesses. Catch this. O Israel, says the Lord, you are my servant. And he continues to say that you have been chosen to know me. And not just know, but now to believe in me. And not just to believe. Understand that I alone am God. There is no other God. There never has been and there never will be. Put my stamp on it. And he says, I, yes, I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. I've met so many people over life that believe God can forgive them, but they're not sure he can still use them. Somewhere along the way, they started believing the lies. They started believing the voices. They started believing that what happened to them or what they rent went through. Now puts them on the sidelines. And it breaks my heart because people get to experience only one side of the coin of salvation, of knowing who Jesus is and knowing that we don't have to walk now in our sin anymore, but we are now forgiven, that we are now new. But then they don't do anything from it. They don't really get to experience what life is really all about, To have the life of. And understand that, you know, now because of us, knowing Jesus now, we're not just, you know, living for eternity. We're living from it. That now heaven gets to invade earth, that heaven gets to live and shine brightly through you because of Jesus that is in you. And there's nothing more than our wounds and the lies and all of these different things. They would want to put you on the sidelines. So, yeah, you may feel like, all right, I'm good and I'm safe and I'm clean and I got it set and I'm all good. But then you miss out on all of the stuff that God has, and it puts us on the sidelines. I mean, haven't you noticed that whenever we go through these wounds and we go through these moments, we want to isolate, thinking that it's only going to. That it's going to help us. And we isolate, thinking that we don't want to be a burden, that we don't want to bring any extra weight or bring our troubles, because it's then going to latch onto somebody else. But in reality, when we allow ourselves to listen to that voice and we allow the wounds to now isolate us, we're depriving ourselves from the very thing that God set in motion so that you and I can now get to really understand that life is experienced. That life, the process of becoming more and more like Christ, it's gained through the nitty gritty of just doing it, of just being in it, of just understanding that, you know what? I need to have people in my life that will encourage. I need to have people in my life that will. Will challenge, that will pray. And not just pray, but live life. I love prayer, and I know we are a praying church, and I love Pastor Joe because every time I'll talk to him, he's like, hey, I was just praying for you today. Like, oh, thanks, man. You know, like, every time I talk to him, I was praying for you, brother. And I'm like, dude. And I know he is, but isn't it amazing that when we. It's one thing to just pray for somebody, it's another thing to say, you know, not only am I just praying, but now I'm walking with you. Hey, you got my number. That it's not just gonna be a text message that's left unread, right, for multiple days at a time. And it's not just gonna be maybe a text that's read, but there will be Some type of response. That's the gift of relationship, the gift of community, the gift that our wounds would want nothing more than to deprive us of, to have, you know, not. Not to give the enemy credit, but we do very good at just deleting ourselves from the equation. When God's like, I want. I have the solution. Will you just be part of the problem? I mean, think about it. Our wounds, they don't get to stop us. They don't get to stop us. See, Israel, in this passage of Isaiah, God never says, once you're healed, once you've got it together, once you've moved past your pain, then I'm going to use you. But what happens? He calls his people, he calls them his. Before everything's perfect, he just said, you're mine, right? We read that in verse one. You're mine. See, there were seasons in my life where I thought my wounds would limit what God can do through me. I thought my wounds would affect me as a dad. I thought my wounds would affect me as a husband. You know, I've got my wounds of growing up without a dad. I have my wounds of being brought up in an Asian household. You know, wow. Let's just pray right now. Oh, my gosh. That was a lot bigger of a response than I was expecting. You know, Sarah and I joke. My life, in some ways was almost kind of like crazy rich Asians, but without the rich part. You know, I have my moments, right? I've had deep misunderstandings with my mom. I've experienced lots of rejection. I've felt overlooked. I've been a part of teams and groups where you thought people were on your side, and then the first thing that would come out of their mouth was, why are you even here? Life is good at bringing wounds. But what do we do with them? What do we do with it? How do we move through it? See, I could have spent my life believing I was missing something everyone else had. But God showed me something that was so incredible that God wasn't waiting for me to have this perfect story. He wanted to redeem the story that I already had. And can that bring freedom to some of us in this room today? That this isn't some Nicholas Sparks book or some whatever type Hallmark movie or some Disney cartoon, you know? Cause in Disney cartoons, the, like, good people that we like usually always die in the very beginning anyway, just messing. But like, God wants to take our very story, our very life, and redeem it. Because even in our best day, we couldn't write the amazing story that God has in store. See, the very places that I thought in my own heart would disqualify me became the places where now I could point people to Jesus. See, you aren't the only person who was wounded. If we look through scripture, Joseph was betrayed. Moses, he had a past. David failed and then tried and then murdered someone to cover it up. I mean, you can look through a study on David and see, oh, David had some problems, y'. All. Peter denied Jesus. Paul persecuted Christians, killed them. None of them were disqualified by their wounds, but they were transformed because of God's grace. See, your wound may become the place where someone can see God's faithfulness, where someone can see God's goodness. And that's what I love about the beauty of the gospel. The gospel doesn't erase your story, but it redeems it. That's who Jesus is. That's who God is. You know, who is God saying that to? Maybe people who have been through. Right, we look at this passage. People who have been through exile, people who have known fear, people who have experienced loss, people who have. Who have forgotten their identity and their purpose. People with wounds. But then God says, guess what? You are still my witnesses. I still want to use you. Isn't that just like God? And, man, it drives me nuts sometimes. It's like, dude, I'd rather just disqualify myself and stop calling my name. Like, leave me alone. He doesn't wait until your story is spotless because we'll always find ways to mess it up. But he steps into it and he says, now, let me show you the world, or let me show the world what I can do through someone who knows my faithfulness. See, the wounds that you have in your life, they don't get to name you. They don't get to isolate you your wounds, they don't get to stop you. And the last thing I want to say is that your wounds, they don't get the final say. See, the goal is not to have a life with no scars, because in a lot of ways, sometimes those scars are actually pretty cool stories to tell tell that can make some of you queasy. But the goal is to have a life where every scar points back to the goodness of God. But how many of you would say, you know what, Pete, though I'm a pretty good expert at looking back at things. I'm a pretty good expert at looking backwards. I'm a pretty good expert of knowing all of the stuff in my record. Some of us were really good in this room, looking back at who hurt us. Some of us were really good at looking back at what we lost. Some of us were really good at looking back at what. What we should have been. Some of us, we're really good at looking back at the opportunities that we've missed. We've become experts at looking back at the people who are no longer here. We're pretty good at looking back at the words that still echo and resound in our minds and in our hearts. And while we've been staring at yesterday, God has been trying to lead us into tomorrow. And in order to get to tomorrow, you have to live through today. So you can't let one chapter, or maybe a series of chapters become the title of your life, because that is not who our God is. It is time today, Church. It is time today, young man, young woman. It is time today to look, let go, and to let God. It is time for us to stop keeping tabs of the negative and to start seeing how good and faithful our God is now. Because I know that it's easy to complain. It's easy to gripe and to complain about the things that are meant to be gifts that we should really be grateful for. It's easy to gripe and complain and say, man, I hate having to clean my house, but thank God I have a house. It's easy to gripe and to complain about, oh, man, I gotta do the dishes and we gotta clean up and put the food away. Thank God somebody's got food on the table. It's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of flipping the script and saying, God, what are we staring at? What are we focusing on? On. Because good things, and the reality of it is good things are happening every day. So how has God shown you his faithfulness? What has he done in your life? Because I want to let you know that the good things that God has been doing and is doing are only just the beginning. Your best days. And I know it sounds cliche, but I'm telling you, your best, best days are not behind you. They're in front of you. They are today. Because we think of this moment, right? We're wounded, but we're not defined. Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19. It says this. When you start to flip the script and you start to have a different perspective and you start to understand who God really is, who you are, that your wounds aren't going to stop you. They're not going to have the final say. Now, this is why. Because in Isaiah 43, 18 and 19, he says, forget all that what? Forget all that. He says it is nothing compared to what I am going to do, for I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. And I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Today, maybe some of you, your greatest obstacle is not your wound. Maybe you've become so familiar with your pain that now you've stopped looking for God's promise. May we not be the type of people who are so focused and familiar with what the pain and. And the hardship and all of that feels like. And then we forget to look at how good and how great God is that he's saying that your wounds don't have the final say. You can move forward. You can progress your faith. It may seem small, but the last time I checked, the faith the size of a small mustard seed can move mountains. Maybe for some of us, we've gotten so used to. To rehearsing what happened that we just stop expecting. Don't let yesterday's wounds keep you from today's invitation. Because the same God who called you by name, who walked with you through some waters, who is present with you through some fires, he's already at work preparing what's next. And your wound doesn't have to have the final say to what God has for you. Hey, thanks for tuning in. There's a bunch of different ways that we connect throughout the week, including Sunday mornings, and we would love to see you there. You can check out all the details@c3oc.com.