Sin arrepentimientos | Pastora Jen DeWeerdt

¡Hola! Bienvenidos a la iglesia a todos, dame un fuerte aplauso a las mamás, feliz día de las madres. Estamos muy emocionados de que todos ustedes estén aquí el día de hoy. Y bueno, vamos a darle un fuerte aplauso a todas las localidades de City First. En Dios detrás de las rejas, te amamos. Me encanta, me encanta. Estamos tan emocionados de que, bueno, todas las mamás que se preocupan, estamos tan emocionados. Y el amor, gracias, gracias de verdad, que tenemos un regalo para ti cuando salgas el día de hoy. Quiero tomar pausa para... Yo sé que el día de las madres puede ser que le rompa el corazón a personas. A lo mejor en tu vida tu mamá no supo cómo enseñarte amor, o quizá ya perdiste a tu mamá, o quizá perdiste a un hijo, o no has podido tener hijos. Y esto te hiere. Y quiero que sepas que estamos orando por ti. Que hay mujeres que, bueno, sabemos que también hay mujeres que desesperadamente quieren tener un bebé y no lo han podido tener, o un bebé que murió, o un hijo que murió. Y déjame decirte que estamos orando para que Dios conforte tu corazón, le de paz a tu corazón, y para que tu fe suba. Te amamos, te vemos. Así que para esos corazones de mamá, damos un fuerte aplauso. Estamos agradecidos, somos agradecidos por ti. Quiero contarte una historia. Cuando Jerry y yo estábamos comprometidos y íbamos a certificarnos en scuba diving, en buceo. Y bueno, era padre cuando estábamos en una alberca

con agua blanca, sin tiburones. Y yo hice esto del submarinismo con, yo dije, yo no quiero ir al final de mi vida, ¿y por qué no intenté bucear? Tomé las clases, nos casamos, y fuimos a nuestra luna de miel. Y decidimos ir a la marina, al océano. Y bueno, el clima estaba malo, así que cambiaron esto al otro día. Y sabes, yo no estaba triste. Y secretamente oré de que la fecha que lo cambiamos también lloviera. Bueno, llegó el día de ir a bucear y era hermoso afuera. Así que fuimos y compramos las cosas que necesitábamos, y rentamos lo que necesitábamos, y entramos al barco. Y cuando salimos al océano abierto, al mar abierto, y se fue la línea de la playa, podría decir que mis sentimientos en una palabra, ¿qué crees que pasó? ¿Por qué dije que voy a hacer esto? En una palabra te diría que me arrepentí. Ojalá hubiera dicho que no. Llegamos al lugar donde íbamos a hacer esto, en el mar abierto, ya no veíamos la playa, y bajamos el ancla y entonces se nos dice que tenemos que caernos hacia atrás. Jeremy está de un lado y yo de otro. Tenemos que caer hacia atrás al océano y luego nadar a la línea del ancla. Así que, híjole, imagínate, yo me sentía como una caricatura porque nadé tan rápido,

así como que corría sobre el agua, y llegué al ancla y ahí venía mi esposo, y literalmente estoy entrando en pánico yo sola. Y tuve este resentimiento, me arrepiento de esto. Profundamente, ¿por qué dejé que mi esposo me convenciera a hacer esto? Si no hubiera visto la película de Jaws, del tiburón. Mis hijos por años, déjame ver esta película del tiburón, no. Ay, esto me maco de por vida. Bueno, llegamos al ancla que nos dijeron que y empezamos a bajar 90 pies debajo del agua y empezamos a explorar. Y yo ya estoy entrando en pánico y estoy respirando, que no debes de hacerlo porque, hola, tienes que mantener oxígeno cuando estás 90 pies debajo del agua. Y entré en un pánico tan cerca de mi esposo, Jeremy, que no una vez, sino dos veces, su mano me pega en la cara. Y yo ya estoy entrando en pánico y estoy respirando, And it takes away my way of... que no debes de hacerlo porque, hola, It takes away the little thing I had for oxygen. tienes que mantener oxígeno cuando estás 90 pies debajo del agua. I put it so close to him, it hits me in the face. Y entré en un pánico tan cerca de mi esposo, Jeremy, And the piece that was giving me oxygen falls off. que no una vez, sino dos veces,

su mano me pega en la cara. I'm not exaggerating, but I paid attention in class. I had to put it back on at that moment. And what did I feel again? Regret. Because I said, why did I marry this man? He's trying to kill me right now. Well, I survived. I survived that dive. And also our marriage survived this dive. And you know, of course, my message today, if you don't realize what it's about, is about regret. What does having regret mean? Well, the dictionary says here, the following. To have sorrow, regret, of this decision, or a decision to have a type of pain, a pain that you can't fix, a circumstance beyond your own repair, or that really is close to death, right? You're crying like you're mourning. And I'm not talking about regretting, like I wish I hadn't eaten Taco Bell at 10 at night, which, well, for some it can be regret, but I'm talking about a type of regret like this. Yes, I wish I hadn't spoken to that person like this. I wish I hadn't said that. Or maybe it's, if I hadn't made that decision, that decision that changed everything. Yes, I wish I had been a better father, different in that situation, or have seen things differently, change my life.

See, many of you here, I wish I could have happened a physical change, if I hadn't been so overwhelmed, where you can't see the ocean. You know, a lot of you guys made a decision and it's taken you away. And maybe you didn't go 90 feet below the water, but you know what? And you've made a decision to go to a place that you never wanted to go. And maybe you didn't go into the water, 90 feet under the water, but you feel this way because you feel trapped. You took, you made a decision that you regret. I've talked to multiple people, there are people here in our congregation, who tell me, because you know, they have pain in their heart, trying to get to know God, because you know, if only I had known God before, I had made things different. If I had known or known about Jesus, that decision, that choice, things would have been different. And that's what I do know, is that there isn't one person that is listening to me today, that doesn't have some level of regret, of something that they did

that they wouldn't have liked, something that they would have liked to change, that I wish they hadn't done, right? We have regret, because we live the result of the decisions that we made. Here's the question of the day, a big question, as followers of Jesus, what do we do when we can't undo what we made? How do we live? What do we do? What do we do when we can't undo that decision? What is the process of those people in the Bible that were able to move forward after regret? And that's what we're going to talk about today. How do we change in regret? And you know, I saw the scripture and there's a lot of things that it tells us how we can move forward. And today I want to talk about this. How? How? Let's remember. Let's see, Jen. Yes, I remember. I remember. I remember what I did wrong. I want you to remember, not what you did, but that you're in good company.

Let's start in Genesis. The scripture is full of people who did incredible things, incredibly stupid things. They made bad decisions. Adam and Eve. Let's start there. They regretted it. We felt regret for them. They ate the fruit and regretted it. Why? Why? They did it. How do we know that they repented? They hid. And then, I know that Moses felt regret for killing the Egyptian and giving his position in the house of the Pharaoh. How many? How many moments of, how about this? Moses had those thoughts. Imagine, for 40 years, he was there in the desert. And for a long time, he was in silence. What did I do, right? To think, what did I do? Imagine, he repented of using his position of power to have, well, David the Adulterer with Bathsheba and then he killed his husband. And I think that here, too, this person in the Bible repented. And he repents. We're going to talk about that in a minute. And yes, the man who wrote this, the man who wrote the New Testament, the Apostle St. Paul, the man who wrote this, and, you know, actually, he repented of having people in prison

before he had his clothes, the mask, this, and the dance. Before Jesus. And I'm sure he read the famous one. He met Jesus. And he denied Jesus. And he repented. And he denied Jesus three times. And I want you to understand this today, when you go deep in your soul. And I want you to understand this today, when you go deep in your soul. And I want you to worry about this entire book, the Bible, that God, the maker, is the people of God and terrible decisions and terrible mistakes that they make and then they have to live the consequences of those decisions. And then what do you believe? God, the love, God's love, God's kindness, God's forgiveness, they receive it at home. And he says, wow, and there's the restoration of the things that were broken by their decisions. But Jesus replaces it. And that's what this book is about,

over and over, over and over. Jesus has the good news. And the good news for us is that there's a story with redemption that doesn't stop with you and me in our mistakes. It doesn't stop in our mistakes. You're not the exception to have the grace of God. You're not the exception to His grace. His mercy didn't run out. He gives it to you. And it continues in this story. It doesn't come out. The first thing we need to do to overcome, to get past our mistakes, to get past our mistakes, you're in good company. That's why we're in this moment. God is always giving you a story. And He hasn't finished your story. Of course He has. I'm grateful that He wrote this story for me. A big round of applause. So we remember. And the second thing we do is that we repent.

I'm going to go back to this. Repenting is not a word for some of us. I want us to talk about this. Repentance is not just feeling sad for what you did or bad for what you did. That's regret. Repentance is acknowledging where you messed up. It's turning away from what you were doing. It's walking away from your heart. It's walking away from what you did wrong and walking towards God. It's a change at the heart level that moves you from the place of repentance to transformation. It transforms you. The Apostle Paul talks about this when he's talking in 2 Corinthians 7.10. He says the following. He says in 2 Corinthians 7.10. Let's read here exactly what he says. Let's say this word without regret. The kind of sadness

that God said we suffered moves us away from sin and brings salvation as a result. You don't have to grieve for that kind of sadness. But the sadness of the world that lacks regret results in spiritual death. Don't live like that with regret. And you know, in Corinthians it doesn't mean you're not going to make mistakes, but you're not going to live. But the world, the sadness of the world results in spiritual death. You get stuck. But repentance is a way of living. Repentance is a prison. The enemy wants you to stay there stuck in repentance. But God says, repent. And it's a path to something new. It's to move forward, to move forward. God doesn't want you to stay in the past, no matter where you are in your sin, but He can save you. You know, sometimes we say that saying goodbye to our sins is going to bring us shame, is going to bring us shame. No, it's the opposite, it's the opposite.

It frees us to move forward. And look, what does it mean to repent, and to repent biblically, and to repent when we simply have regret, we're looking back. Have you ever tried to look back and forth at the same time? No, you can't, you can't look back and forth at the same time. Regret looks back, you're looking out and you're thinking about the past, but when you repent in the way that God wants, you say, well, even if you feel bad for what you did, the biblical repentance changes you. You're saying, I'm going to change direction, and it's going to produce. You know, when you sit in regret and you feel bad, the biblical repentance changes you. The biblical repentance focuses on God, on the story that He's writing for you. And it's emotional, right? You say, oh, I made a mistake, I did a terrible thing. No, but repentance, the biblical repentance gives you direction to do better, to go in my direction, to walk in the right direction. Repentance says, I wish I hadn't done that, but the biblical repentance says, I'm not going to get stuck in my sin, but the grace of God, and you walk forward. Repentance is an invitation, an invitation to God to enter your failure. And when we do that, things change. And this is what I want us to take note of, that repentance isn't just one time.

Repentance wasn't the day you met Jesus, or you did it to your Savior, and you surrendered your sins, and you repented of what you did wrong, and you took the right direction. No, repentance is ongoing. Amen, right? It's ongoing, it's daily, it's weekly. We have to repent this week, and it's ongoing, and it's like, oh, Lord, I'm sorry for what I did, I regret it, I don't want to be like that, I'm sorry I did that, I'm sorry. Again, you know what I'm doing right now? I'm inviting God into my story. And I'm saying, I'm not going to focus on my failure, but I'm going to turn, I'm going to take another direction. And God is so patient with us, that we do it wrong, and we turn, we do it wrong, and we go back, we do it wrong, and we go back. And God's grace is great. His grace is new every day for you. Remember, and then with the second thing, we repent, and the third thing is we release what has been forgiven, because we repent for what we have done, but we have to learn to move past what we've done, and then we release what's already been forgiven. Let's think of the Apostle Paul earlier.

He persecuted or imprisoned the Christians. The Apostle Paul persecuted Christians. He imprisoned them. He had some of them killed before he came to Christ. And if there was anybody that he regretted, it was Paul. How do you even get over that failure? And he tells us in Philippians chapter three, he tells us, I love this, we have to understand the context. This is what we're talking about. Paul, this is who were doing the bad, bad things. No, dear brothers, I'm not all that I should be, but I am proud to say, I am proud to say, I am proud to say, I love this, I forget the past, and I look to what lies ahead. I see to reach the end of the race, to receive the heavenly prize, which God has called us to through Christ Jesus. Forget the past, says Paul. Forget the past, says Jesus. And let's look ahead to finish the race. It looks easy enough, right? But I want you to take note of this. Paul is talking about this years after finding Christ. What does that mean? That he's still learning to forgive himself. As I begin to study this passage, I studied this in the original word,

to forgive in the word, and I'm not going to try to pronounce it. six syllables, and I'm not able to pronounce that, all right? And I have an additional gift for you to learn this. What does it mean? Forgive what is left behind. What does that word mean to forgive? What does that word mean to forget? To no longer care for. To no longer care for. Let's see, this word, neglect, is used in a negative way. If you neglect a child, it's not good. If you neglect a child, it is good. But that word is powerful in this context because that's why Pablo is saying, I'm going to neglect my past. I am not going to be focused on my past. I'm not going to be occupied with my mistakes. I'm not going to pay attention to my past. Pablo is not saying, I don't have a memory of my past. No, God is not saying that you don't have a memory of your past. God isn't asking you to have a memory of your past. How do you remove from your memory a past as dark as Pablo's? You don't remove your dark past, but Pablo remembered because he talked about his past in his letters. He talked about chasing Christians and his ancient identity. But in this verse, he's saying, I am going to bring all my energy,

I'm going to bring all my energy, I am bringing all my energy, to be careful of what is left behind. That's like this little plant here. If I take care of this little plant, if I put water to this little plant, I didn't bring water because there was a relaj here, but if I put this little plant, this little plant food, if I put this and I say, okay, I'm going to pour water, and I put this little plant in the pot, where it has to be, what's going to happen? It's going to flourish and grow, but what would happen if I neglect this plant? What happens? It's going to die, it's going to die, it's going to dry up, it's not going to flourish. And that's what I know, many of us keep pouring water to our regret, to our old conversations, to our old shame. We keep reliving our past failures. We keep reliving our past failures. And you know what? We keep bringing everything to light, our shame, our sins, and they're trying to feed what God is trying to heal. And we keep visiting, and we keep bringing, and we keep revisiting,

and we keep drinking, and we keep rehearsing, and we keep re-watering the past. And you know what? Sometimes you think you're going to feel better from crying about the past. Stop. Why did I do this? I wish I hadn't done this. Sometimes it's going to take all of your energy to stop this way of thinking. It says, I put all of my energy to neglect the past. All of my energy to neglect the past. Some of you, and God is telling you, stop it. I need you to put all of your energy and neglect your past. Stop feeding your shame and your shame of the past. Paul is telling you, I had to stop, I had to stop paying attention to the past. I had to stop paying attention to my sin of the past. And what does he say next? We're going to talk here in Filipino. He says, I hope for what is to come, what is to come in life. And you know what?

I want to get to the end of the race to receive the celestial prize which God has called us to through Christ Jesus and what he has done for us. Stop putting your energy in the past and instead of this, go forward and he's trying with all of his energy to get to this. Why? For what Jesus did. So the next thing, the fourth thing we have to do is to repent, to let go. Right? We repent, we say, well, what does it say here? We re-focus. See, because repentance means to let go of what we did to what he did. We focus on the mistake we made but what he did for us to heal that sin, stop looking at what you did in the past and start focusing on what he did. Stop it.

He already paid that price for you. And start focusing on what he did He already paid those failures of yours so that you can have a new life. And what you are going to learn today is to stop putting your energy and attending to what God already wants you to not, already wants you to neglect. Let it go! This is the good news of God's evangelism, of the Scriptures. This is the good news. This is the good news. We no longer have to put water to our failures, to our mistakes. I wish you could go back in time and do things differently. Listen, I know you wish you could go back in time and just do things differently. I wish you didn't do what you did in the past. I know you know that, but I want you to listen to me. Jesus is still writing your story of redemption. I need you to hear today. This is what this Bible is about, this book. When you read it, it surprises you. The goodness of God, that we can water it in a horrible way, that we can make mistakes, but the redemption of Christ, He takes away the shame, the shame, and He gives us purpose and restoration. He doesn't end your story here. He keeps working on you. This redemption, He has plans, good plans for you. So this is good. And I know it's dangerous to do it right now. Don't go unless it's an emergency. Unless it's an emergency, but because it's a moment, it's an absolute emergency. Because this is a holy moment. So stand up. And what we're going to do is next, I'm going to ask Sam to lead us, to sing a little bit of this song. Because I feel like we need to take a moment here. This is our direction.

I'm no longer tending to my past. Wait, you know what? Wait for me. We're going to declare about our family, about our future, that God has good plans, no matter our sins, that our story is not over. The story of your children, your grandchildren, is not over. And He has a purpose. God, God, God has good plans. Let's praise, let's praise the name of God. Let's sing this song. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. So I will take on deserts and gardens. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. If I know my Father, then I can prevail. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. So I will take on deserts and gardens. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. If I know my Father, I know my Father has good plans. Oh, in faith today we're going to declare that His goodness and mercy will be there each day. Surely, Your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, because I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely, Your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, because I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely, Your goodness and mercy will follow after me. So fear will not find me, because I'll be dwelling in the house of God. Surely, Your goodness and mercy will follow after me.

So fear will not find me, because I'll be dwelling in the house of God. He has good plans. He has good plans for me. ♪ I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ If I know my Father, I know my Father has ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ If I know my Father, I know my Father has good plans ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ But we have not finished our story ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ But we have not finished our story ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ But we have not finished our story ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪

♪ But we have not finished our story ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ But we have not finished our story ♪ ♪ So I will take heart in deserts and gardens ♪ ♪ He has good plans, He has good plans for me ♪ ♪ But we have not finished our story ♪