Maybe there's some people here, and you've been involved - you've been abused, could be a young man, you were abused when you were younger. There's a huge shame and defilement comes in. If this was a serious and prolonged abuse, you may need to get special help, and today may be just the trigger to get stuff off your life, but you may need to get some further help to deal with the thinking patterns in your life. Maybe a woman's been abused in various kinds of ways; could have been verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse. We want to let God set us free. Or maybe you've been through a trauma in your family, and you know exactly you made these inner vows, you made these death wishes, agreements with death or you came to these judgements about men, judgements about women.
If you know that's you, this would be a great time to get it all right with the Lord. We're going to sing a worship song. You make your way to the front and do some repenting and doing business with God, and then we'll get to have a time of ministry.
Listen, just before we go any further, just in making the altar call now, what would just be helpful is if I just get women on one side, men on the other - just makes this a little easier to minister, if we have the women here on the right side, men on the left side. There'll be issues of sexual sin or sexual abuse. It just is helpful if we just make that separation, just while we're doing this. It may not be that, but just come on the women's side if you're a woman, on the left if you're a man. It just helps us, just in the ministry area. Women can spread right out across to the right here, make a bit of room so you're not all jammed up. Okay, are we ready?
If you know there's been sexual sin, sexual bondage, sexual abuse, there's been some kind of trauma, you know you've got these inner vows, death wishes, why don't you come up and say God, I want to be free today. I want to be free. Let's worship while you just work with God and repent, confess these things now.
Oh Holy Spirit come, begin to touch our hearts, begin to touch us now Lord. Thank you Lord.
Okay, just listen now. That's right, just lift your hands to the Lord. You can just feel the turmoil that's in the spiritual atmosphere now because what's happening in your heart is so very painful. It's okay to weep. It's okay to let the Spirit of God touch you. He loves you. When Jesus died on the cross He was terribly, terribly abused, violently abused and He hung on the cross naked for all to see. The Bible says He carried your shame, the shame you've had of the things that were done to you, things that you didn't want to happen, He took that shame. He took your grief and sorrows. The Bible says He was acquainted with sorrows, acquainted with rejection and so He carried it somehow on Himself so you could be free - and your part is just to open your heart and let Him come in.
You've tried all these years to contain the pain, and now it's letting Jesus to come in. There'll be some of you women here who've been abused by men, and the trauma of it, and the pain of it's very, very deep and that person may never ever put it right with you. They may never be taken to justice, but God is able to deal with this. God is able to bring justice to this situation, if not in this life, then in eternity. What I want to do is this: it's so important that you are able to, from your heart, let go forgiveness, not because the person deserves it. They don't deserve it at all. This is about breaking free of your past. This is about moving on with your life, and so what I want to do is, I want to stand on behalf of any man who has abused you, dishonoured you, used you and then discarded you like a doll that was unwanted. I want to stand on behalf of those men that did this to you, and I want to say what I did was wrong. What I did was destructive. What I did dishonoured you. What I did brought shame to you. I stole from you, and of course pain that's followed you all these many years. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to let go the sin. I ask you to release this bondage of your heart that I created.