Dealing with Regret & The Past

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No matter where I go, no matter where I've been, I will see Your goodness, Lord, in the land I'm living in. Sing it to the daughters, sing it to the son, to every generation, look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the darkness, that the light has come. Sing it to the nations, come on today. Look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the daughters, sing it to the son, to every generation, look at what the Lord has done. Look at what the Lord has done. Sing it to the darkness, that the light has come. Sing it to the nations, look at what the Lord has done. As I bow before You, Lord, I will rise in confidence. I will see Your goodness, Lord, in the land I'm living in. No matter where I go, no matter where I've been, I will see Your goodness, Lord, in the land I'm living in. As I bow before You, Lord, I will rise in confidence. I will see Your goodness, Lord, in the land I'm living in. No matter where I go, no matter where I've been, I will see Your goodness, Lord, in the land I'm living in. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Man, it is great to be gathered here with you this morning. Why don't we continue by reading our call to worship out of Psalm chapter 42. Will you say these verses with me, church? As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night. While they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. This is the word of the Lord, and we all say, thanks be to God. Let's keep singing together. O the perfect Son of God, and all His innocence. Here walking in the dirt with you and me. He knows what living is. He's acquainted with our grief. A man of sorrow, Son of suffering. O blood and tears, how can it be? That there's a God who weeps, and there's a God who bleeds.

O praise the One who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the Son of suffering. Some imagine you, our distant enemy. But you chase us down in merciful pursuit. To the sinner you were gracious. To the broken you embraced. And in the end the proof is in your wounds. And in the end the proof is in your wounds. O blood and tears. ♪ How can it be that there's a God who lives ♪ ♪ And there's a God who lives ♪ ♪ Oh praise the one who would reach for me ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the son of suffering ♪ ♪ To the son of suffering ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ Oh praise him Jesus ♪ ♪ You're Christ, my freedom ♪ ♪ You're strength, my healing ♪ ♪ King Jesus, glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ And your blood, it's still speaking ♪ ♪ And your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ You're Christ, my freedom ♪ ♪ You're strength, my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ And your blood, it's still speaking ♪ ♪ And your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ You're Christ, my freedom ♪ ♪ You're strength, my healing ♪

♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ And your blood, it's still speaking ♪ ♪ And your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ You're Christ, my freedom ♪ ♪ You're strength, my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ And your blood, it's still speaking ♪ ♪ And your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever, glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Oh blood and tears, how can this be ♪ ♪ There's a God who weeps and there's a God who bleeds ♪ ♪ I'll praise the one who would reach for me ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah to the son of suffering ♪ ♪ We praise the one who would reach for me ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the son of suffering ♪ ♪ We praise the one who would reach for me ♪ ♪ When peace like a river attended my way ♪ ♪ And death my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll ♪ Whatever my lot, come on, sing it out. ♪ Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me ♪ ♪ To say it is well, it is well, it is well with my soul ♪ ♪ It is well with my soul, it is well with my soul ♪ It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well, with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trumpets shall sound, and the Lord shall descend.

Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. Hallelujah. Glory to God. You were the Word at the beginning. One with God, the Lord most high. You're hidden glory in creation. Now revealed in You are Christ. What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a beautiful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus. You didn't want heaven without us. So Jesus, You brought heaven down. My sin was great, Your love was greater. Oh, what could separate us now? What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. What a wonderful name.

Holy are You, Father. Oh, what a beautiful name. The name of Jesus. What a wonderful name. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. ♪ The heavens are roaring the praise of your glory ♪ Oh, what a wonderful name. The name of Jesus. ♪ For you are raised to life again ♪ What a wonderful name. ♪ And you have no rival, no you have no equal ♪ ♪ And now and forever God you reign ♪ ♪ Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory ♪ ♪ Yours is the name above all names ♪ ♪ Death could not hold you if the will told before you ♪ ♪ The sun is the best I've seen anyway ♪ ♪ The heavens are roaring the praise of your glory ♪ ♪ For you are raised to life again ♪ ♪ And you have no rival, no you have no equal ♪ ♪ And now and forever God you reign ♪ ♪ Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory ♪ ♪ Yours is the name above all names ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ my King ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is and nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus Christ my King ♪ ♪ And you have no rival, no you have no equal ♪ ♪ And now and forever God you reign ♪ ♪ God you reign ♪

♪ Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory ♪ ♪ Yours is the name above all names ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is ♪ ♪ The name of Jesus Christ my King ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is and nothing can stand against ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ What a powerful name it is the name of Jesus ♪ Come on give Him praise in this place today. ♪ And you are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ And you are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from you are things and to you are things ♪ ♪ And God you deserve the glory ♪ Can we unify around that this morning? Can you sing today? ♪ You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ I know that you are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For there is no one like you there is none besides you ♪ ♪ For from you are things and to you are things ♪ ♪ And God you deserve the glory ♪ We sing day and night, night and day every voice in this place. We sing day and night, night and day every voice. The people of God who are tempered, be praised, be honored, people who are fighting your heart today. And day and night, night and day every voice. Day and night, night and day. For all days we will sing your praise. And so day and night, night and day. ♪ Oh, day and night, night and day ♪ ♪ But it seems to rise, oh day and night, night and day ♪

♪ But it seems to rise, oh day and night, night and day ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from You are all things, and to You are all things are ♪ ♪ I live and I love You, Lord, be rich in my today ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ You are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all ♪ ♪ For from You are all things, and to You are all things are ♪ ♪ For from You are all things, and to You are all things are ♪ ♪ For from You are all things, and to You are all things are ♪ ♪ For from You are all things, and to You are all things are ♪ Can you lift your voice? Can you shout up to the Lord today? Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest. Be praised, be honored, be worshipped. Lord, You are worthy, You are powerful, and You are beautiful. And we as Your people today, we just stand in awe of You. We as Your people today, we are grateful that You still choose to reveal Yourself to us. Thank You. Thank You for who You are and what You have promised to do. In Jesus' name, everybody said this morning. Amen, amen. Would you clap your hands together one more time? Hallelujah! Why don't you do this before you are seated. Greet those.

Your next two will keep things rolling this morning. Well, good morning, 10 o'clock service. We did it. We survived time change weekend. It's so good to see each and every one of you. My name is Ken Vaughn, and I'm here with Priscilla. And here in a moment, Pastor Lee will be out as we continue in our series in Breakthrough. But before that, I want to say a special welcome to those of you that may be joining us for the very first time. We're so glad that you are here. And our heart and our prayer for you is that you would feel welcomed and at home. And so whether you were invited by somebody, brought by someone, or you showed up here today by yourself, man, we want you to know that we have a couple of next steps for you to take to get connected. That's right. If you are new, would you let us know that you're here by texting the word new to the number 23101. We're going to send you a Chick-fil-A gift card on us. It's just a small way for us to thank you for being with us this morning. And we want to invite you to come back. We know that walking into a big church like this for the first time, it can be really overwhelming to know how to get involved around here. That's why we do a gathering every single month

for you called Next Move. And when you join us in Next Move, you get to hear more about who we are as a church from our lead pastor, Witt George. Our team is in there as well. We really do love getting to meet you and hearing more of your story. But really, our goal with Next Move is to help you decide if this is a church home you want to get rooted and planted in. So if you'd like to get signed up, it's super easy. Just text the word next to the number 23101. Childcare and food is provided. We actually have a gathering happening at the end of the month, which is the kickoff of Holy Week for us. Yes, Holy Week is a time where we remember the final days of Jesus' life, leading Him to the cross. And as a church family, we have a unique opportunity that week to slow down, to reflect, and redirect our attentions on Him. And we've created a Holy Week guide that walks us through those final days of events. And so when you leave today, be sure to pick up your guide on your way out. That's right. Holy Week is a really special time of prayer and fasting. And maybe you've never fasted before

and you want to learn a little bit more about what to expect. I would encourage you, like Ken Bond said, grab a Holy Week guide on your way out. It will line out everything that you need to know. But we're going to wrap up Holy Week with our Good Friday and Easter services. And I just want to remind all of us, those are two completely different experiences. On Good Friday, We're gonna gather together and contemplate the cross, really focus our attention on the sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us. Then on Easter, we're gonna gather back together and celebrate his glorious resurrection. So our service times are gonna be exactly the same on Sunday, but we're adding a Saturday service just for Easter weekend and adjusting our times just a little bit to 4 and 5.30. So as we all prepare for Holy Week, be thinking about who you can invite to come with you to Good Friday and Easter services. Pray about that, get someone to come with you. And we've made it super easy for you to bring someone. We have invite cards on your way out as you grab your Holy Week guides, grab some of those invite cards as well, and we hope to see you that weekend. So each weekend, we take time across all of our services to honor God with giving.

And if you've never given with us before, there's a generosity card in the seat back in front of you that lists three ways that you can partner with us. And if you came prepared to give electronically, you can text the word GIVE and the dollar amount to 23101 and follow the prompts. Or if you came prepared in the room to give by cash or card, you can fill out that giving envelope that is in the seat back in front of you. And as you leave today, you can drop it in the drop boxes that are at the entry ways. But before Pastor Lee comes out, I'm going to pray over the rest of our time. Lord, like we sang about today, you are worthy of it all. God, what an honor it was to celebrate with the 10 people getting baptized this morning. God, I thank you for what you are doing in the hearts and the lives of each and every person in this room. Thank you for the testimonies that we've heard over the last several weeks of people experiencing breakthrough in their lives. Holy Spirit today, it's no different. Do what only you can do. God, we just ask that you would speak through Lee. God, our hearts and our minds are ready to receive. And it's in your son's name we pray, amen. Good morning, Church on the Move, how we doing? Good, all right, good. I mean, you lost an hour, but we gave you 15 minutes back, right?

So time change weekend. I'm so glad to see you guys. Like they said, my name is Lee. I'm one of the pastors around here. And it's been a minute since I got to preach on a weekend. And so I'm just glad to be doing it again and really excited about this topic. This is a topic that has been very, very personal to me in my own life. Before we jump into the teaching though, I just wanna look at the camera and give a shout out to the ladies at Dr. Eddie Warrior and the men at Dick Conner Correctional Facility. We've got, those are a part of our church. We love you guys. We're glad you're a part of this. If you've got your Bible, open it up to Philippians, the third chapter. Last week we were in Philippians four. We're gonna start off the message in Philippians three. But before we do, I just wanna tell you this. 2026 has been good so far. I don't know if it has been for you, but for me, it's been fantastic. In fact, on December 28th, just three days before the new year started, I had a birthday and I turned 49 years old. And I was on the phone with my good friend Stephen Posey and he said, you better expect big things because this is your year of Jubilee is what he said, okay?

Now you may not know what that is. If you go back and look in the Old Testament, the year of Jubilee was like the seven times seven, 49, like this perfect number. The slaves were set free, debts were forgiven. The bank hasn't told me that yet, but there were parties that they had and celebrations. He's like, expect big things. And honestly, it's been like that. Like the year has started that way. The first weekend in February, we did our forming men conference here, forming men's conference here. And it was awesome, like 1,000 guys in this room from all of our churches and from around the country. That's kind of my jam, you guys know that. And so, man, that was awesome. Then a couple weeks after that, we had our mountain men kickoff meeting. We're taking like over 300 guys to climb mountains this summer. And that was so exciting and enjoyed that. Just last weekend, I was up in Williston, North Dakota. Not a place you typically wanna go in February, but it was a balmy 19 degrees up there. And I got to be there with a good friend of mine, Jason Winnis, who used to be a pastor here at Church on the Move. Him and his family moved up there five years ago, planted a church.

They celebrated their five-year anniversary of their church. And at that same weekend, they moved into their first permanent facility. It was really, really cool. That church has grown to like, yeah, that's worth celebrating. It was cool for me to go up there. I didn't have to speak or anything. I just got to enjoy seeing this church of about 400 people just thrilled with what God is doing among them. And that's good for me sometimes to get outside the walls of the church, to get outside of Tulsa, and to see that God is at work other places. He's just moving and working in his church. And I love to do that, but I also love to come back because you guys are my church family. You guys are the people that God has entrusted to me and that I've been entrusted to you. You're the people that I do life with, and I love that. Excuse me. And that's what makes me excited about what we're talking about this weekend. We're talking about finding. Freedom from our past. Freedom from our past.

We're in this series called Breakthrough and the theme verse is John 10, 10. That is actually my favorite verse in all of scripture. I hope you haven't memorized by now. It says this, there's an enemy, he's a thief. He comes to steal and to kill and to destroy, but Jesus says, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. Have it to the full. The tricky part is there's sometimes things in our life that hold us back from experiencing the life that Jesus has for us. I think Paul addresses that here in Philippians the third chapter. Paul's a man who had a checkered past. He was a persecutor of the church. He didn't himself kill any Christians, but he cast his vote. He made it possible for even Christians to be killed in opposition to the church. In Philippians three, he's talking about how he's moved from a checkered past of sin into the life that is truly life, into this John 10, 10, this breakthrough kind of life. And this is what he says. He says, not that I've already obtained all of it or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Jesus Christ took hold of me. So he's saying, Jesus paid this price

and he took hold of me and I wanna take hold of all that he has on offer. And then he says this, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but this one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Paul says, I'm moving toward this life that is the capital L life that Jesus offers. But before I can fully get there, what's the one thing he says I must do? Forgetting what is behind. Forget the past. Easier said than done, amen. It's difficult because you got a lot of stuff in your past. You got a lot of stuff back here that is, some of it's heavy, some of it's painful, some of it's buried way down in there because you don't want anybody to know it or see it, some of it you're trying to forget yourself. And we have a way, it seems, of getting tethered to the past, like it connects itself to us. And we try to make progress, right? And we see a vision for this life that's really life, and we start moving toward it. And the more we go, maybe the harder it gets because there are things in our past that haven't been healed. Things in our past that we haven't gotten over,

open wounds, and we see it out there, but something seems to pull us back. And then we hear a great sermon, or we join up with a small group, and we say, okay, this time, this time, I'm going, I'm gonna do it, I'm moving toward that life that Jesus offers, I'm gonna get there, I see what he has for me. And it gets harder and more difficult because we just seem to be tethered to the past, to the things that are in our past. You guys, it's not connected to my belt loop, it's not gonna break, all right? I know some of you are thinking that, and I thought it too, and I thought that might be a really good illustration, if the belt loop broke and I untethered from the past, but that's not gonna happen, okay? Because I gotta use it for next service. Listen, some of you, I know, have already dealt with a lot in your past. I have too, I've been on a journey, I've been through counseling, I have close friends, I'm a part of a great church, and there's so little in my past that still holds me back. If that's you, good, congratulations, but the reality is, things are happening right now, that pretty soon are gonna be your past, so we have to make sure we stay focused in this area, right? We have to make sure we learn to live fully in the present.

The present is what we have. I don't know if you guys heard the Tell Me More podcast this week with Seth and Ethan and Witt talking, and Ethan mentioned a quote from C.S. Lewis. It's very interesting, C.S. Lewis said this, today is the only day where a virtue can be performed and a grace can be received. Today is the only day that a virtue can be performed and a grace can be received. There's nothing you can do about your past. It's gone. Martin Lloyd-Jones says it this way, it is always wrong to mortgage the present for the sake of the past. But some of us do that all the time. We can't live fully in the present because of what we're tethered to in our past. And so I wanna ask this question this morning, why do some people stay trapped in their past and others are able to be transformed by it? which camp are you in? Are you trapped by your past? Or has the past allowed you to be transformed and move forward? I wanna look at four areas where I think we get stuck. And I just wanna tell you right off the bat, we're gonna look at the first two really quickly. It's not that they're not important, it's just for the sake of time, I'm only gonna be able to talk about these briefly

and then I wanna speak more extensively on the last two. So here's the very first one. What are the things that get us stuck, tethered, where we can't move forward with God? Here's the first one. The lies that we've believed. The lies that we've believed, that our past has taught us. This is us saying I can't move forward because what I've come to believe about God and about myself and about others. The enemy comes to distort identities. That's what he does. Think about this. If the enemy came and threw something at you that you knew was false, like a crazy lie, you would just bat it away. What the enemy does is he comes and lies to you about things that you already kind of believe. See, you say things like I'll never be enough. I'll never be good enough. I mean, look at my track record. I'm never at the top of the class. I was never the best one on the team. I mean, look, it's true, right? I'll never be enough. And others of you may say, I'll never be able to trust anyone. I've always been betrayed by people.

People can't be trusted. They're all out to get you, right? Or others of you might say, I could never be used by God. I mean, God, I wasn't gonna share this, but I know that she won't mind. My wife, Shannon, grew up for a long time with this mentality of that things just don't work out for her and her family. Like she said, for much of her life, she felt like a stepchild to God. And maybe you feel that way, too. It's like God doesn't see me the way he sees other people. He can't use me the way he uses other people because I'm too introverted, because I'm not intelligent enough to be used by God. The enemy comes in and he says, that's kind of true, isn't it? This is where he started in the garden. He comes to Adam and Eve and God had said, hey, don't eat from this tree. And he's like, God's kind of holding out on you, isn't he? He didn't say you could have everything. He distorts the truth. And this is what God wants to say to you if you're struggling with believing a lie about yourself, about God, about others. He wants to say this. Listen, you are mine. And I bought you at a great price.

Why? Because he believed you were worthy of it. Because you're his. He was willing to pay a great price to redeem you back to himself. You are a beloved son and a beloved daughter of God. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago after worship, but I love 1 John 3 where John says, hey, hey, hey, behold, look at the manner of the love of God that he's lavished on us that we would be called sons and daughters of God. And then he says this. And that is what we are. It's like he has to tell us you don't believe it. You are a son, you are a daughter. That is what you are. When Jesus is speaking to a group of people that he's teaching in John the eighth chapter, there's a group there that have chosen to not believe a lie and believe what Jesus is saying about them, about God, about himself, about the world. And this is what it says in verse 31 of chapter eight. It says, to the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. And this sounds like a breakthrough verse. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It will untether you from the lies that have held you back. Oh, there's so much more that can be said about that.

I'm so glad that I'm a part of a church that we have rooted in real Jesus in mid-sized groups and small groups. And we speak the truth every weekend in this room. So keep going with the truth. The truth of God will set you free. But here's the second one. A second area where we get held back in our past. And it's the fears that we've embraced. It's the fears that we've picked up along the way. I can't move forward because I'm afraid that what happened before is going to happen again. And this is the person that says, last time I trusted somebody, I got burned. Last time I loved and gave myself to that person, they rejected me. They broke up with me. They divorced me. This is the person that says last time, maybe this is you, last time I had all the confidence I could muster and I boldly took a step that I thought would be, I took a little risk to see what would happen and I fell on my face and I humiliated myself and I failed. This is the person that says, never again, never again will I put myself in a spot where that could happen to me. Fear keeps people living on defense rather than living on. Purpose. You know what God says to that?

Do not be afraid. I am with you. Over and over and over, throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, this is a common refrain that he says to us. Do not be afraid. Why? Because I am with you. He doesn't say there's nothing to be afraid of. There's plenty of things to be afraid of. He says you just don't have to be afraid because I'm with you. Through the valley of the shadow of death, wherever you go, I will not leave you. I will not forsake you. In 2 Timothy 1 is a verse that's been used in our Kids on the Move curriculum for years. Maybe your kids have shared it with you. Maybe you were a part of Kids on the Move years ago and learned this verse. This is what it says. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity. You may feel fear and timidity, but that didn't come from God. What God has given us is a spirit of power and of love and of self-control, self-discipline in our lives. Listen, if you've believed a lie, the truth is the antidote to untether you from the past. If you've had fears that have held you back,

trusting God more is the antidote to be untethered from your past. But I can't spend any more time on those because I really wanna talk about these last two. And these are centered in the thing that I think holds us back as people more than anything else from our past, and that is pain. Pain. Pain that we carry and pain that we've caused. This is what holds us back. I've shared this story before, but it just is so fitting for this. And it's one of the things that God showed me years ago that has just been so helpful for me in my life. And so I wanna share it with you. If you've heard me share this before, forgive me, but I have a nasty, jagged scar on my wrist. And it's from being in the sixth grade. I went to a junior high youth conference at this college in Missouri. And we had only been there for like an hour. And we junior high boys were getting to stay in the college dorms, it was really cool. But one of my buddies had opened up one of these windows and put it back and the window was ajar. And I was like, oh no, we're gonna get in trouble. So I hit it to try and get it to go back into place. And I put my hand right through the window and I slit my wrist.

And I'm a sixth grader, I don't know how these things work. I just know that that's the way that people die. So I'm like, it's bleeding. I'm like, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, right? And so we get our youth sponsor, they get me to the emergency room. I get nine stitches in here. I missed the entire conference, right? Now that's a sensitive spot right there. And so I remember when they were giving me the stitches or when they give me the shot to deaden it. And then after, for days, when my mom would change out the bandage and put the medicine on there, all of it just hurt, it just stung so bad. And if anything got close to it, I would just wince. I would just pull back, because it hurt. But then time passed. And the miracle of the body did what the body does when it's healthy, when things are working right. And it healed. It completely healed. And today, like, there's no pain whatsoever where that wound once was. And a few years ago, God just said, hey, I want you to see something about the spiritual life that's true of the physical life. That God intends that the wounds that you've taken would heal. But far too often, we don't allow them to heal, right? Just think about it.

Think about a conversation that you've had with somebody that you love that gets a little too close to that wound from their past, and they wince back. They don't wanna talk about it, or they get angry, or they get defensive. Why, because that wound is still open, and everything that gets close to it is like, don't touch that, don't go there. And we end up organizing our lives around protecting those wounds. God wants them to heal. Here's the thing about this scar. It doesn't hurt me anymore, but it tells a story of that day when that happened. It also tells a story of healing, that once there was a wound, but now it's completely healed. Do you know that that's what God wants for the wounds that you have in your past? That you might be healed in such a way that you would remember the story. It's not forgetting what happened to you, but that you'd be able to experience true life afterward. You know, scars aren't bad. Do you know that Jesus has scars? The Bible tells us that he does. That even in his resurrected body, he said, come, look here at these scars to remember the day that that happened for you and for me. And so let's look at these two areas real quickly, this pain that we have.

The first part is the pain that we carry. These are the hurts that have been done to us. We say, I can't move forward because of what has happened to me. by someone, maybe it was an accident, maybe it was just like the results of living in a fallen world, somebody you lost way too early. The Bible calls this brokenness, that's what this pain is. It's brokenness. Did you know that you weren't meant to stand up under the weight of the world? Like you weren't meant to stand up even under the weight of your own world. There's enough that's just heartbreaking and difficult and disappointing that when that weight comes on us and we're the only one holding it, it breaks us down, it results in brokenness over time. And we say things like, how can I possibly move forward with all of this pain? Don't you know that I was betrayed? Don't you know that I was abused? I was abandoned, I was divorced. I was treated harshly or abandoned by my mother or my father. I lost that person that I loved way too early even though I prayed that God would heal them. People often build a life around protecting the wounds, the real wounds that they've suffered. And I get it.

But where does that kind of living actually lead us? You know where it leads? It leads to places like fear and distrust and skepticism and cynicism and self-protection and isolation and maybe the worst one of all, bitterness. When bitterness takes root in us, the life of John 10, 10 cannot grow. It pushes it out. You know what God's word is to you if you're suffering from this kind of pain? This is it. You are not alone. I will never leave you or forsake you, he says. I will heal you and make you whole. You've probably heard a few of these passages before, but listen to this. Listen to it afresh. If you're in this room and you're saying, I do feel a lot of pain from some loss, some wounds in my life, this is what Jesus says. Psalm 147, verse three, this is what the psalmist writes about God. He says, he heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds. The question is, do we believe that? When Jesus came on the scene in Luke, the Gospel of Luke, he opened up a scroll in the synagogue and he said, I'm gonna read this prophecy and it's about me. This prophecy is about me.

This is why I have come. It comes out of Isaiah 61 and this is what it reads. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, Jesus said, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness from the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance for our God. God will bring vengeance and comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them, listen, a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair and they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. As I was thinking about this yesterday, I don't know why, but Revelation 3 came to my mind. This is Jesus talking to a group of people just like us. He's talking to the church and the church that he's speaking to is in a place called Laodicea and he has this thing that he says to them. You've probably heard it before. I think it relates to what we're talking about. He says, look, I stand at the door and knock. If you would hear my voice and open the door and let me come in, I would have fellowship with you. I would sit down with you and share a meal with you and I think for some of us in this room

who are carrying around some really deep past wounds that are legitimate, Jesus is there saying, let me into that place. Invite me into that wound that I might heal it, that I might bind it up, that I might untether you from the things that are holding you back, that they would not hurt you anymore. He wants to free us from the pain that we carry, but the one that's maybe harder than that is the next one and that is, it's the last one, it's the pain that we've caused. This is guilt, this is shame, this is consequences from our failures, from our actions. This is as I can't move forward because of what I did. And it's just as much as all of us in this room have felt the effects of sin from other people, other people have also felt the effects of our own sin. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. This is what the Bible calls sin and it's the thing that separates us from God and it's where we say, how can I move forward with all of this guilt over my own failure, with all of my selfishness because I was unfaithful to my wife, I was. faithful to my husband. I was mean and cruel to my children because I didn't know how to be a parent and I was angry. I was greedy. I compromised my integrity in my business.

All these things that I've done that I'm not proud of. Where does this kind of thinking lead? It means that there is a verdict from our past that holds us fast rather than a lesson from our past that moves us forward. It brings about doubt. It brings about condemnation. How many of you in the room feel unworthy of God's love? Disqualified from being used by him. Angry that your life has turned out the way that it has. Helpless to do anything about it. Depressed and then really, I've mentioned them already but it's really the one-two punch of guilt and shame over the pain that you've caused. Guilt says I'm wrong because of what I did and shame says I'm wrong because of who I am. I am a failure. I am a mistake. You know what God says to that? He says your sins have been forgiven. Will you believe him? He says your sins have been forgiven. You have been set free as far as the east is from the west into the deepest part of the ocean. I have cast off your unrighteousness, your sin and I've placed it on the cross. The debt has been paid. God does not say wink, wink, don't worry about it. No, your sin is serious. Your sin has serious consequences and Jesus took them

so that you might be declared not guilty. In Romans eight it says there is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for he came and he brought a spirit of life and you've been freed from the spirit or from the law of sin and death. But if that's you, if you've got some ugly sin, some ugly failure in your past that's holding you back, I've learned something very interesting about failure in my life. Unfortunately, in my own story, failure is a key feature in my life and I've learned something about it. Failure in a way that's different than almost any other experience has a way of teaching us how to depend on God. Failure, if it's handled the right way, can lead you to a place of humility and reliance on God like you can't often find in other ways. Failure helps you understand the goodness of God, his grace, the good news of the gospel. Failure allows you to be a living testimony of what God has done in your life. It doesn't detract from God, it highlights who he is. That's what Paul's talking about when he's writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy. Look at what Paul says, he says, even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. And then he says this, here's a trustworthy saying, so he means believe it, here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst, but for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. That passage, each service, as I read it, I go, that's my story too. Maybe that's your story. That God in his amazing grace can take my worst failure and make it no longer a verdict about who I am, but can turn it to be on display for his goodness and his grace and his mercy. That's why he wants us free from the past in order to move with vigor into the future. He set us free from that. Martin Lloyd-Jones says it so well. He says, he, God, is the judge and you have no right to waste his time or your own in condemning yourself. Forget yourself, leave the judgment to him and get on with the work he has for you. This whole trouble is due to a morbid preoccupation with self, but why, he says. The answer is that we are not sufficiently occupied with him.

It is our failure to know him and his ways as we should. That's the real trouble. If we only spent more of our time in looking at him, we should soon forget looking at ourselves. Not only that, it is indicative of a proneness, still to think in terms of what we can do rather than what God can do. Why does. Some people get trapped in their past and unable to move forward. And why do some people get transformed by it? And it ends up being to God's glory. I think Paul lays it out with this last passage of scripture that I want you to look at. It's in 2 Corinthians, the seventh chapter. And Paul's talking about sorrow. He's talking about pain. You see, whether you get trapped or whether you get transformed has to do with what you do with your pain. Paul has written them a letter that has held them accountable. He's written them a letter that has called them out on their sin. They have failure. And he said, hey, you have turned away from God. And he corrects them. And in the second letter, he's saying, hey, I know I had to write you that letter, but then, this is what he says,

but you became sorrowful as God intended. And so we're not harmed in any way by us. Did you notice that? You were sad, you had pain, and God intended you to have pain. Hold on a second. This is why I wanted to look at the end of verse nine before we just jumped to verse 10, because there are people in this room, you have been harmed by Christian people. You've been harmed by the church maybe before. And nobody ever came and said, hey, I'm sorry. Nobody ever made amends. And you're saying, isn't that convenient that I was the victim, I was the one that got hurt? Maybe you're sitting next to someone who hurt you in that way. And this person can just go, hey, we're good, me and God are good, I forgive myself. Wouldn't that be convenient? And Paul says, no, there is a godly sorrow that God intends. And that's what he talks about next. He says, godly sorrow brings repentance and leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow leads or brings death. Two paths, worldly sorrow, godly sorrow. Two very different outcomes, very different destinations. Worldly sorrow is a sorrow without redemption. You know what, I think it's one of two things, this worldly sorrow.

Either on the one hand, it is the person that says, I'm so sorry I got caught. And I've sat with couples many times where I could tell the real remorse was just that they got caught. It's not real remorse, it's not real repentance, it's just regret. The other one is the person that says, I can't forgive myself. I don't deserve God's mercy for what I did. I've gotta pay the penance for what I've done. That was me years ago. Whenever things started getting better in my life, but I realized I felt like I still needed to suffer for what I had done, I had to suffer, and God rebuked me. And he said, do you not think that the blood of my sin on the cross was enough even for what you did? You can stand up and tell everybody else that his sacrifice was for their sins, but you won't receive it for yourself, and I was tethered to the past. Because I couldn't receive that from God. God told me in that moment, and I wanna say it to you, whatever you did, no matter how ugly, in fact, the fact that it is ugly, God said, that's why I did it. I didn't do it for the little stuff. I did it for the stuff that you could not fix on your own.

I did it for the stuff that separates you from me completely. Whatever you've done, Christ has paid the price for it. See, godly sorrow is different. It doesn't deny the past. It doesn't excuse it. It says, I own what I did, but I will not let it define who I am. Godly sorrow says, I have sinned against God first, and then against the people that he loves. Godly sorrow says, I am deeply sorry, and I wish to make amends. I wish to demonstrate my remorse. See, instead of producing shame and regret, godly sorrow produces repentance. And so this is the idea that I want you to take with you as it relates to your past. Repentance is greater than regret. Forget regret. Regret doesn't serve you at all. Regret doesn't make any difference. Repentance is what leads to salvation and leaves no regret. And repentance is something that happens in your heart. It's a change of posture. It's a change of moving toward God, but it's also something that must be reflected in your hands and in your words and in your actions. To honor God in repentance and to honor those we have harmed in our repentance,

it just looks like that very next verse. Look at what Paul says right after he talks about godly sorrow. He says, see what godly sorrow has produced. This is what true repentance does. What eagerness, he says. That's a desire for honesty. about the pain that you've caused. And some of you just may need to make a phone call when this service is over and be honest. I've hurt you with my actions, I've hurt you with my words. He says, what eagerness to clear yourselves. That's a desire to make things right. Maybe you can't fix it all, but to say, whatever I can do to make this right, I wanna make it right. He says, what indignation, what alarm. That means I'm taking it seriously. I hate what this has done to me, to God, to you. And I'm taking it seriously now. There may have been a time that you were hurting somebody and just blowing it off, saying, that's their problem. They're too sensitive, she always feels that way. And you're saying, no, I realize what I did hurt you. And I'm taking it seriously. He says, what longing. This is a desire to be restored to God and to people. What concern. This says, I care about the damage that I have caused and the consequences of my sin.

He says, what readiness to see justice done. This says, I'll accept whatever the consequences are. I'll do what I must do to make it right. It says, at every point, you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. This kind of godly sorrow leads to repentance. And you can be freed from the tether of your regrets and you can break through to the capital L life. God is in the business of doing what's impossible. The one weekend of February that I didn't mention at the beginning was the second weekend of February. Many of you know my story, high level. About 16 and a half years ago, I blew my life up. I was the senior pastor of a church in Omaha, Nebraska. I had an affair with a woman on my staff. I nearly lost my marriage, my family. I completely obliterated my reputation. The last 16 plus years of my life has been a journey of exactly what we're talking about here. What does it look like to heal? What does it look like to allow God to free you from pain and guilt and shame? And the story is incredible. I am completely healed. It's why so often I can stand up and talk about it and it's a scar. I remember it, but it no longer hurts me. But something happened on the second week of February. Our son has moved up to Omaha. He's doing youth ministry at a church there

and while we were there through some mutual connections and some old friends, I was able to drive back onto the church property of the church that I pastored. I haven't been there since we left 16 and a half years ago. I drove back into the parking lot and I walked back through the doors of that building and I sat down in a little room with a group of elders and leaders and the current pastor. And with tears in my eyes and in their eyes too, I was able to say, you know, when we left here, I was such a broken person, 33 years old. I'm 49 years old now, but I wanna look you in the eyes and one more time say, I am so sorry for the pain that I caused. I'm so sorry for what I put you guys through. And with tears in their eyes, they said, Lee, we forgave you a long time ago. We're just so glad to see you again. We're just so glad that you and Shannon are doing so well and being used by God. And I got to, we huddled and we prayed for one another and they said, hey, we're doing a birthday party in August for the church, 40 years old, the church is, and we want you and Shannon to come back and be a part of it, be in the middle of it, tell the story of what God has done. Now, who gets to do that? Only the sons and the daughters of God. I mean, I didn't go there because I was tethered to it. No, I was healed.

But the chance to have that kind of reconciliation with the people that I wounded, for God to bring us back together, I share that story with you, one, because I want you to know it because it's awesome, but two, because I want you to know that God can do the impossible in your life, that he's in the business of healing up your wounds. He's in the business of setting you free from your guilt and shame, and not just so that you can kind of, sort of be over the hump, but so that you can walk into joy and freedom and purpose and being an oak of righteousness for his splendor on display of what God can do, even in the lives of people who least deserve it, of whom I am the chief. That's available to you as well. And so I wanna give you an opportunity to respond. Would you bow your heads, close your eyes. If you're in this room and you're saying, today's the day, I'm untethering from the junk of my past. Maybe you've got a wound. and you need healing, you've been protecting it, you're saying, God, come into this place, heal me here, so that it will no longer hold me back, it will no longer hurt me. If that's you, if you've got a wound of something that happened to you, something that someone did to you, something that you suffered, I want you to do this,

I want you to throw your hand up right now, throw it up real high. Yeah, lots of hands in the room, going up everywhere. I've got something in my past that trips me up, that holds me back. Yeah, lots of hands. I'd say half the room would put their hand up for this. I want healing in that area. We're gonna pray about that in just a second. If you're in this room and you say, the sin in my life has held me fast, it's put me in a prison, it's kept me from moving forward, I want real repentance, not just regret, repentance that leads to salvation. If that's you, if sin has held you back, throw your hand up really high. Yeah, hands all over the place. Repentance, real repentance that sets me free. If that's you, put your hand up. I'm gonna give you just another second. Yeah, I see you, lots of hands. I may not see you, God sees you. Let's pray this prayer together. Repeat this prayer after me. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place, to set me free from my wounds and from my sin. Jesus, you paid the price for me. I give you my past, I give you my present, I give you my future.

Jesus, I want to live free in you. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. In Jesus' name, and everybody said amen, amen. Listen, a lot of you raised your hands. A lot of you have wounds that you're getting over. A lot of you have areas of sin. You're like, I need to turn to Jesus fully. Our prayer partners are gonna be right down here when this service is over. Come, pray with them. They long to do this with you. They pray for you all week to say, who could I agree with? Who could I pray for healing? Who could I help? And so if that's you, come and pray. If it's not today with them, tell somebody you know. I don't want to be tethered to my past anymore. I want to live free from it and see what God can do. Hey, why don't you stand to your feet? So good to be together this weekend. Glad that you were here. Hey, we finish with a blessing out of Numbers, the sixth chapter. We say it over ourselves and our families. We say it over one another as we walk out into a new week. So you can say it out loud and receive this from the Lord. Let's say it together. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you

and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Thanks so much for being here. We love you. We'll see you next time. Thank you, God. And God bless Christ for his birthday this weekend. And God bless Christ. Have a good family and God bless you. God bless you. I love you. Thank you. You too. Amen. Come on. Okay. God bless you. Teacher I'm gonna be right back. I'm gonna say I'm so scared. I have so much. God bless you. Thank you. Bye. I love you, God. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

I'll see you on Sunday. I'll see you on Sunday. Bye. Bye. Have a good week. God bless you and God bless you. Bye. Bye. Peace. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.