Redeeming Your Past: Beauty from Ashes
August 3, 2008
Sam Ford
A Final Redemption Sermon
This is the final sermon in our Redemption series. Last week, Brad spoke on Redeeming Music. He did a fantastic job and I half expected to find Brad Loomis T-shirts and Bobble heads at the back table this week. Brad is one of our elder candidates, and I hope that one day you can hear his complete story. Before I met Brad, he was busy pursuing self-glory as he sang rock-roll to the glory of everything but God. When I met Brad, which was only 5-6 years ago, he was that big scary guitar-playing that, if he was a friend, you wanted to walk with down a dark alley but if he wasn’t, you didn’t want to meet him there. Today, he is one of my dearest friends and key leaders, who Jesus has had on a journey for some time. He’s gone from singing music with a Satanic beat, to writing fun vacation Bible school songs with a big cowboy hat on, to writing some of the most amazing music I’ve heard in church, leading a flock in worship, and preaching God’s word with authority. He is the picture of Redemption—of God taking something rough, broken, and dirt—giving it a bath in the blood of Jesus—and seeing God use it to His glory.
Each of us has a story.
But Brad’s story does not begin with roses and rainbow tambourines. He has a story, I have a story, and everyone here has a story. Some of our stories sound a feel like comedies, others probably feel more like horror films. Some are full of light, others full of darkness, some might sound boring, others more colorful, some are rated PG, and others rated R. All of our stories are windows into other worlds and other experiences that are all part of God’s story that, according to Ephesians 1, he wrote before he even created a single atom. All that to say, we mustn’t shy away from our stories—we must share them. When we share our stories are invitations into a place where we encounter a mysterious God saving His people from the bondage of their own sin, and the destruction of those who sin against us. Today is about Redeeming our past.
Before we begin Redeeming Our Past
Today is about beginning to experience FREEDOM from your sins, and the sins of others. It is not simply liberation for the purposes of happiness, but being released and empowered to use that which was birth out of evil for good. Redeeming our past is the choice to use the sins of your past (and not be used by your sins) to magnify the character, faithfulness, and power of God.
Many of us believe that our past sins are not ‘redeemable’ and we would prefer to forget about our own sins and/or ignore the sins of who have sinned against us. We’re not really sure where God was at that place in time, but we’re willing to overlook it, stuff it, or ignore it—as we hold a grudge about it. In other words, let’s just “move on” without talking about it anymore. Before we can begin to redeem anything, we have to consider how BIG our God is….
- Do you believe that God will be in control of your future? (Most will say yes)
- Do you believe that God is in control of your present? (Some will say yes)
- Do you believe that God was in control of your past? (Many will say yes but feel no)
Is God in control of your story?
If you can agree with me that God IS IN CONTROL of your future, your present, and your past, then you I pray you can agree that God has purposes in ALL things he allows or ordains to occur. The Bible teaches Romans 8.28 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Man’s chief purpose in this life is to magnify the greatness and beauty that is God AND in that magnification is my ultimate joy. The belief (or lack thereof) in ability of God to be glorified and us joyful in our past sins is directly related to HOW BIG YOUR GOD IS. Consider the tragedy of Job who after losing all that he had in this world, all that he loved in this world….after his friends tell him he’s did something to make God mad, after his wife is telling him to curse God so he can die… Job 19.25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
The story of Joseph and the Sovereignty of God
The story of Joseph is the story of a man who is sinned against by his own family. Their sin resulted in all varieties of suffering which God uses to His glory. Joseph appeared to have a “right” to be angry, a “right” to inflict harm, and a “right” to not forgive. Genesis 50.20 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The story Jesus
Acts 20.23 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Our Sin and our relationship with God.
The Bible says that how deal with our sins will impact our relationship with God. The Bible also says that how we deal with the sins of others will impact our relationship with God. Many people today will be tempted to shove a fist in the mouth of the Holy Spirit who I believe wants to peel back some of the layers of your heart today. Romans 6.11 says we are to consider ourselves dead to sin. It is my fear that many of us are allowing the sins of our past, whether they be our own or others, govern our lives.
Defeated by our own past sin –GUILT
Many of us are DEFEATED by our own past sins. WE LIVE IN GUILT. Our past mistakes govern our daily attitudes, our interactions with people, and our decisions.
Guilt is not a bad thing to feel for those who are guilty! Guilt is what rebellious, enemies of God should feel. As sinners, we have disobeyed, broken God’s law, and declared ourselves enemies to a good God who has done nothing but love us. We are legally guilty, emotionally guilty, and sentenced to die, unable to pay the debt that we owe.
Guilt is not what those who are in Christ should feel because they have been made innocent through faith in the shedding of his blood. Romans 5.1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Legally, we have been declared innocent in Jesus. So, while we can and do grieve the Holy Spirit when we “sin”, our sin does not change our standing with God. But the accuser (Revelation 12.10) screams “guilty, guilty, guilty” day and night before God to which our response is…Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Ultimate Guilt is removed once we have confessed Jesus, we have been purified from our guilt and debt, and we are free to live for Jesus. When Jesus enters our heart we become NEW CREATIONS…there is a change! We live differently, we think differently, we speak differently, we see differently because that OLD guilty person is DEAD! (Ephesians 4, Romans 6)
God hasn’t made you a better person, he KILLED the old self that existed, the sinful, dirty, guilty person that you were, and TRANSFORMED YOU. But I still feel guilty….
1)You have never confessed Jesus – Pagan
2)You have unconfessed sin/unrepentant Christian.
Psalm 32.1-4 1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
3)You have confessed the Jesus of a false gospel- confused Christian
You are not made acceptable by what you have done. What you do does not determine how much God loves you. You are made acceptable to God by faith in Jesus. There is nothing that God doesn’t know you’ve done and nothing that is outside the power of God to redeem. You are forgiven…you are forgiven…you are forgiven.
Hebrews 10.11 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
“It is finished.”….Jesus has moved on, why haven’t you?
Rebelling because of your past – BITTERNESS
While some of us deal with the GUILT of our own sin, probably many more people deal with bitterness. Bitterness is what we feel when OTHERS SIN against us. We have all been sinned against in some way. We have all been betrayed, lied to, or hurt by someone close to us. We believe with all of our heart that we did not deserve it, we did nothing, in fact many of us received the very opposite of what we gave—we gave our love, gave of our resources, gave of our home, gave our trust, gave our hearts…then were betrayed. Think of that betrayal, think of how you dealt with that person…
Didn’t we do the same for God? Consider, the greatest betrayal you can think of. God did the same for us, a people who rebelled and denied our God who gave us everything. He did not sit in resentment, he did not unleash his wrath, he did not walk away and wash his hands…he pursued us. Time and time again, he went after a people who hated him to have relationship, to forgive and to love those who did not deserve it.
Why can’t/won’t I forgive?
Unlike God, many of us use the past sins of others, either those who have sin against us or those we loved, as a justification for our unwillingness to forgive. And many people will say with them, “Oh yes, I can understand…I wouldn’t forgive them either.” The Bible says, Hebrews 12.15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; The Bible says forgive. No one is suggesting that we are sufficient to muster this up in ourselves. We sin. Our default is not to forgive and the Bible calls that bitterness.
Bitterness is sin, resentment is sin. The Bible says that when you don’t forgive, you harbor resentment. That resentment doesn’t stop with just “not forgiving” whoever hurt you or someone you love. We not only fail to forgive, but our bitterness infects other parts of our lives and other people. We use our “bad experience” our “hurt” as justification to sin in other areas of our lives. A church leader hurt us, so we hate church. Our wife or husband betrayed us, so we sleep around with others.
How much have we been forgiven?
At the core of all of this is a failure to recognize how much we’ve been forgiven of.
Matthew 18.21- 21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.
23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
When you don’t believe or recognize, by God’s grace, how much he has forgiven you of, then you will not forgive others. You will read verses like Love your enemies and add footnotes or hear a verse that says forgive 70X7 and keep a chart. If you are bitter, you are sinning.
Getting Rid of Bitterness
We want the offender to suffer as much as we have. We believe that if we can somehow have that person experience the emotional or physical pain that we did, or those that we loved did, that we would be free of our bitterness and all would be well.
“How can you get rid of bitterness towards somebody who beat up your three year old son unmercifully?” So I told him how, and then I said, “You know, when you get rid of your bitterness you can help this person so that he won’t beat up other little kids.”
He said, “No, this guy cannot be helped.”
I said, “Sure he can.”
“No, no.”
“Why not?”
“He is not with us anymore.”
This inmate had murdered him. He had murdered him because of what he had done to his three year old son that’s why he was in prison. But even though he had killed the man, he was still bitter. In other words, expressing it did not get rid of it. Pg. 16 (Jim Wilson)
OUR REDEMPTION
No one has the right not to forgive, either himself or others. Guilt and Bitterness are both “redeemed” in the same way. The way is confession.
CONFESSIONto God of my Sinfulness
Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions (PASHA/rebellion)
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity (AVAH/twisted out of shape)
and cleanse me from my sin (CATHA/miss the mark)!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
CONFESSION of God to Men
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,