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Overcoming Three Types of Regret | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  We're almost home. Aren't you glad that you can
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  sing that with absolute confidence that nothing can
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  change your eternal destination? That's the hope that we have.
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  That's the power of the gospel. And we believe here that even
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  Satan himself cannot take away your salvation.
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  But as much as that is the truth, we have to also
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  acknowledge that He is intent on stealing the blessings that you
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  are called to enjoy in that salvation.
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  He is viciously ambitious to do that, to rob us of all that God
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  has purchased for us in Christ beyond just our heavenly home.
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  But the things that He wants us to enjoy and know and live in
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  today, Satan is after. And I want to remind you of that
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  because he does this in both obvious and subtle ways.
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  And today I want to focus on his most, most subtle methods,
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  particularly one. And it's often more destructive
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  than people imagine. The enemy of your soul and mine
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  is dedicated, takes great pleasure in making sure that
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  God's children live with regret, to live with regret.
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  And by regret I mean this persistent sorrow,
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  disappointment, guilt that you might know because of past
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  failures or mistakes. And before I I try to bring to
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  your attention how this crippling remorse ties to the
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  enemy and how our flesh is integrated with that, I want to
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  also tell you that there is a redemptive aspect to remorse.
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  It's called godly grief and the Bible tells us that it is meant
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  to lead us to reconciliation with God if responded to
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  accordingly. So meet me in the book of Second
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  Corinthians Chapter 7 and let's look at verse 10 briefly.
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  Second Corinthians Chapter 7, verse 10 Paul writes for Godly
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  grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without
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  regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
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  It's straightforward, isn't it? The regret of any shortcomings
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  or deliberate disobedience is meant to produce repentance, a
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  repentance that. Leads to salvation.
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  That's what that pain concerning your sin is is designed to you
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  have a choice with what to do with it.
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  But God's desire is that it would draw you to his forgiving
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  arms. And one of the wonderful things
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  about this verse is that we are told a beautiful thing about
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  what this repentance leads to. So yes, this grief, regret, call
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  it what you will, should lead to repentance.
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  And then once you arrive at that repentance, Paul promises by the
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  Spirit. That it would not provide any
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  regret afterwards. Do you see that last part says
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  here. A repentance that leads to
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  salvation without regret. Here's what it means by that.
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  Primarily that when you turn from your sin, turn your face to
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  the Lord, call upon His compassion, receive his
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  forgiveness, be saved, you'll not think twice about that
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  decision. You will never second guess
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  giving your life to Jesus Christ.
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  That's what he is saying here. And how could you if you've
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  truly tasted the joy and peace that Christ offers?
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  Which makes me also believe that Paul has another meaning with
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  this this phrase here of a salvation without regret.
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  That when a person receives this gift of salvation, then they are
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  called to dwell, live, be free from any regret, any sorrow, a
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  salvation without regret. I'm redeemed, I'm delivered, I'm
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  new. And so there is a sense here in
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  which, you know, A rush of freedom, not just in that
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  decision, yes, I'm say, but also who I am now, how I'm
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  identified, how I'm seen by God. And all of us in here can
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  testify to that freedom, especially when you were first
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  born again. But why is it that for so many,
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  that feeling doesn't last? That awareness, that rock?
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  Solid confidence begins to wane, and let me give you one of the
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  main reasons. Because the accuser seeks to rob
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  you of that gift. He is so driven to make the
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  children of God miserable with regret.
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  Is it any wonder why in Revelation 12/10 he is
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  identified as the accuser of our brothers?
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  And he stands before God day and night, and he accuses us before
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  God. And don't limit to his ambition
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  in that he also accuses you directly.
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  He violates your conscience, He attacks you, He whispers the
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  lies. That is the essence of spiritual
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  warfare. And it impacts us in ways that
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  people overlook because this kind of regret, this sense of
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  condemnation is able to choke you to such a degree that it
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  hinders your spiritual progress and it stifles with your
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  relationship with God. And I want to give you a brief
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  example of that from the book of First John.
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  In chapter 3. We're going to different
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  scriptures. Today.
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  There isn't 1 main text, but many texts.
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  So you have to hold your Bible tightly.
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  And 1st John 319 Look what the apostle John says now.
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  He's speaking to believers, he says in First John 319.
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  By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure
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  our heart before Him, for whenever our heart condemns us,
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  God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything.
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  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence
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  before God, and whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we
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  keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.
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  Two main observations that I want to make from this passage.
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  Observations concerning the possibilities of the condition
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  of your heart as a Christian. Number one, we are informed that
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  it's possible for Christians to feel condemned.
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  What does he say here in verse 20?
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  For whenever our heart condemns us.
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  So it's possible that at any time, not just in the beginning
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  of your walk, not as you are trying to come to terms with
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  what the gospel does for you, at any point, even 1020 decades
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  after you've confessed Christ, condemnation can visit your
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  heart. Which is why he says here in
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  verse 19 that our hearts need to be what?
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  Reassured, reassured. And don't you love how John says
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  we? He doesn't say you, He includes
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  himself. We need to be.
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  If you struggle with that temptation, if if you're not
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  stable in your security, what is required of you is to reassure
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  your heart. But it's also possible, and this
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  is what we should all strive for, for you to live
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  condemnation free. And that you would never ever
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  doubt God's goodness and His favor towards you.
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  That you would never fear that at any point He would disown
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  you. Seeing where do you get that
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  from? Look at verse 21, beloved, if
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  our heart does not condemn us, if our heart does not condemn
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  us, we have confidence before God.
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  So what does that tell me again, it tells me that it is possible
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  for me to have absolute, total, unshakable confidence before God
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  in my relationship with God. Aim for that.
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  That's your goal in mind. That's where the Lord wants us
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  to be. But for so many, it's not that
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  they settle for a shaky foundation.
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  They just think it's almost normal for them to live doubting
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  their acceptance before God. That that's possible, but it's
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  not God's desire. And.
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  Here's one of the most striking things about this passage that
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  you have here, John, transitioning from the
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  discussion about your security in God and your prayer life.
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  Don't you see it in verse 22? Notice what He says and whatever
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  we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments
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  and do what pleases Him. That seems out of place.
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  You're going from talking about your confidence before God to
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  now talking about the strength of your prayer life.
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  What's the relationship? Well, if you really meditate on
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  it, it actually makes total sense.
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  The former affects the latter. In other words, what motivation
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  would I have to come before God and pray if I am unsure that He
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  is not holding my sin against me and even if a person tries and
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  really pushes. Themselves, to pray in that kind
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  of a mindset. It's not really the way you're
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  supposed to pray. At least you find yourself
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  there. You find yourself living in that
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  reality and even praying with that state of mind, trying to
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  feel less guilty altogether. So I'm praying because I'm, I
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  want to try to earn more points. I want to try to convince myself
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  and maybe even convince God that I'm worthy of his acceptance.
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  And what, what you'll end up finding about yourself if you're
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  praying, maybe you recognize this, if you really reflect on
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  it, your prayers are really just asking God for forgiveness all
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  the time. Forgive me, Lord, forgive me,
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  Lord, please, Lord, forgive me, please.
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  It's you're almost subconsciously.
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  The more I ask for him, the more I bother him with it, the more
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  he'll reluctantly say, OK, fine, here's forgiveness.
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  And you never move beyond that. You never know what it's like to
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  enjoy His presence. You never know what it's like to
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  feel the freedom to ask Him of anything, to communicate with
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  him. All your desires, all your
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  concerns, you're just stuck in that place, trying to persuade
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  God of him just even receiving you initially.
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  So I want you to see how constant regret, guilt, the
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  pricking of shame drains you. It's like a parasite that sucks
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  the spiritual vitality out of you.
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  And this is just in regard to our prayers.
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  It has impact on so many other things and that's why I want to
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  speak about it today. This is really my prayer, that
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  every person leaving this place with no relief, that you would
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  know, this anchoring hope that would remain, that you would
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  have confidence before God. And so that's why I want to
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  speak to you about three types of regret that Christians can
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  overcome. And I say 3 because Satan is
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  much more clever. And this, this flesh is much
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  more deceptive than we initially thought.
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  And so the first kind of regret I want to address is to be free
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  from the regret of the sins of the past, even if such sins were
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  committed as Christians. The second kind of regret I want
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  to talk about is the regret of questionable choices.
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  What do I mean by that? Choices that you made initially
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  thinking that they were in the will of God, but after some
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  unfolding, after some more truth was brought to the matter, now
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  you're doubting. Was that really God's will?
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  And it haunts you to this day. And the last kind of regret I
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  want to address. Is the regrets of missed
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  opportunities, those who are discouraged over what they feel
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  to be paths that they have bypassed ignored, leaving you
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  constantly wondering what if, what if?
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  So let's deal with the obvious one, our past sins.
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  And I'm assuming as I bring this point to you, that the sins that
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  we've committed in our former lives, the sins that we've even
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  committed as born again believers are repented of.
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  You have relinquished them. You have turned to the Lord and
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  you've asked for forgiveness. But there is still a possibility
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  that even if you've done what the Lord has asked of you
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  concerning those past sins, that you Can't Sing confidently about
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  you being a child of God and God loving you and wanting the best
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  for you and wanting to lead you and and writing a story for your
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  life for His glory. You being drained of energy,
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  it's this sorrow that sucks the life out of you because as you
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  lay there in bed, you're you're visited by those sins or there
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  might be even people in your life that you've even sinned
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  again against. Just the sight of them causing
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  you to feel. There's no way that God smiles
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  over my life after what I've done.
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  This dark cloud of doubt that's over your head all the time,
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  wrestling even with the fear of judgement.
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  If that is you today, I want to let you know you have one main
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  goal in this life. You have one main goal, knowing
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  deliverance from that, and it is to be reacquainted with the
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  fullness of God's forgiveness. You know it, I know you know it.
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  You can quote, you've probably even counseled other people with
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  it, and you're not even convinced of it yourself.
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  That's totally possible. But my aim today is to just give
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  you a sample of what can happen. Really.
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  I'm asking that the Lord would, in His power make these truths
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  come alive in you. To get an idea what facing the
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  truth of the fullness of God's heart in His mercy should do to
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  you, what it can do to you, what it offers you.
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  Here's the thing with us humans when it comes to this idea of
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  forgiveness. If you're honest, I know you
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  love the Lord. But if you're honest,
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  forgiveness more than anything else feels like a duty because
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  of this flesh, right? And so it's more like, I have to
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  do this. And yes, it's a command and
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  we're happy. It's a command, or else we would
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  try to justify our lack of forgiveness and our bitterness.
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  But I'm talking about the way it feels.
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  It feels like this is what I'm just supposed to do.
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  God is not like us in this area even because to the Lord, it's
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  not just this obligation, it's not this reluctant
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  responsibility. You ready for this?
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  God actually delights in forgiveness.
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  It's not a duty to God. For you.
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  It feels like a duty to God. He actually finds genuine joy in
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  extending it. Really.
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  Yes, really. He actually, he know there's
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  this eruption of happiness in God's heart when he invites
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  people to receive his forgiveness and when they accept
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  it by faith. We can go to hundreds of
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  scriptures that can testify to that.
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  Let me bring you as a starting point to Lamentations in
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  chapter. Three, let's go there together
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  and verse 33, Lamentations 333, the prophet Jeremiah says
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  something astounding about the heart of God, for he does not
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  afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
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  You know what the prophet is doing by the Spirit.
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  He's revealing how the default of God's heart is not one of
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  judgement and wrath. We think the opposite.
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  We think that we're unable to shake it off.
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  Some of us, the Lord's impulses to discipline.
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  It's to punish, while forgiveness and extending grace
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  is a grudging chore to him. And yet the prophet Micah tells
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  us something in the context of pardoning iniquity and
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  overlooking our trespass if we repent, that he delights in
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  steadfast love. Micah says that he delights in
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  steadfast love. That's where his delight is.
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  That's his disposition. Here's another way to grasp.
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  I was thinking about this, thinking what's what's the
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  easiest way to perhaps draw us into experiencing this truth?
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  I want you, even for a moment now to think about something
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  that you know automatically, automatically will flood your
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  heart with some kind of joy that can transport you into elation
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  that can actually bring you. Out of a time where you're
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  really in the slumps, it could be the company company of a
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  beloved friend. It can be the sense of
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  gratification you know after accomplishing a certain task or
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  any strange subjective experience that very few people
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  can understand. Just imagine something that
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  actually unlocks a sense of joy in your heart.
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  Now take this in God, forgiving a Sinner, does that for him, but
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  with a joy that is infinitely more intense.
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  Than you can even fathom that's how God feels when he what when
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  he extends mercy and especially when it is believed on by faith
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  so he doesn't afflict from his heart.
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  And what makes this more precious and limitations is that
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  Jeremiah is giving this. Truth in the context of him
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  having to forcefully remind himself of it.
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  Look at verse 21. Look at chapter 3, verse 21.
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  But this I call to mind. And therefore I have hope.
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  And then down in verse 33, one of the things that he calls to
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  mind is that he does not afflict from his heart.
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  You know what that tells me? And it should tell you the same,
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  that we often lose sight of the fact that God's heart is like
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  this. We are prone to believe the
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  opposite. And Lamentations is not the only
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  book that defines the Lord's tender temperament toward those.
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  Who are in sin? So go to Hosea in Chapter 11,
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  please. I hope I prepared you in advance
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  that we're going to be bouncing to different places in the
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  Bible. Hosea 11, verse 8.
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  This is when Israel was steeped in sin.
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  And the prophet says as he speaks on behalf of the Lord,
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  how can I give you a boy for him?
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  How can I hand you over, O Israel?
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  How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboim?
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  My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and
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  tender. This is perhaps one of the most
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  explicit passages that unveil the raw emotion that God feels.
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  God feels. He's not robotic.
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  He's not mechanical. He has emotions.
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  And you see it so plain here. And he makes reference to a
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  couple of places that we're probably not familiar with.
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  We know Efrain, we know Israel, but what what's and where is
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  Admah? And what's and where's Zeboim?
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  Well, if you go to Genesis 14, don't turn there, don't turn
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  there. But if you were to go there in
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  chapter 14, verse 2, you would learn that these two areas are
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  neighboring cities to the infamous Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  And these two regions were also destroyed alongside them because
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  they shared in the same sins as them.
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  And at this point in Israel's history, they were imitating,
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  they were mirroring the sins of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the region
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  all together. Now, you and I know what he did
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  to Sodom and Gomorrah in his perfect righteousness.
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  And as we come to this passage, we would expect that what's
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  going to grow warmer, if anything is going to grow
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  warmer, is his anger and his desire to execute his wrath.
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  And though we do not overlook God's justice, what's being
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  emphasized here is that what's growing warmer and more tender
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  is his compassion, confirming what we read in limitations that
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  it is not His heart to afflict. And so how do you understand
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  this passage if you were to translate in simple English?
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  I don't want to judge. I much rather extend forgiveness
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  and to make you whole when you repent and receive my
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  forgiveness. That's what he desires.
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  His heart recoils within him. It's it's stirring the deepest
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  parts of who he is. Not that he's uncertain, not
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  that he's wrestling with his will.
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  That's not the case. But we're we're we're granted
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  human like understanding and language to try to relate to
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  what God is like. And here we see that what's
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  actually becoming more ferocious and what's stirring him more
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  than anything else is compassion for what a people who are broken
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  for this and know are people who are stubborn in their sin.
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  This is God's heart and he longs for them to know it.
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  I think this is almost too good to be.
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  True, and I'm here to tell you it's true.
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  This is what he wants and this is really difficult for many of
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  us to believe. So in the very next verse verse,
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  as though Hosea anticipates us to be hesitant to actually grasp
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  this, look at what he says in verse 9.
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  I will not execute my burning anger.
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  I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a
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  man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
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  Now, when you hear the title Holy One, what do you often
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  associate that with? His purity, His justice once
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  again, which is true. But in this instance, the Holy
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  Spirit wants you to link the holiness of God, the
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  transcendence of God, the otherworldliness of God, with
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  His willingness to withhold judgment and actually receive
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  those who deserve His wrath. In other words, by communicating
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  this, he's saying I being holy and not like you in terms of how
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  I am willing to forgive. I'm not like man, I'm God.
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  I'm God. And I want to show you how I'm
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  so much different for you from you.
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  I want to forgive this people here, not judge them.
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  So he is so different from us also in the strength and
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  availability of his compassion. And this is, again, astounding.
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  It should cause us to worship, yes, but it gets better because
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  this is just the surface of God's willingness to forgive.
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  What happens once He does? What happens when the heart of
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  faith connects with this willingness to forgive?
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  And that's where it gets even better.
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  So I quoted Micah briefly, but I want you to turn there now, and
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  I want you to notice something. Notice that I'm pointing you to
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  the prophets. Did you notice this trend?
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  Those are the same. Books that provide the greatest,
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  most scathing declarations of judgement.
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  But if you read the Prophets carefully, you'll note that at
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  the end of each one of their books, there is a message of
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  hope. Read it, you'll never Unsee it.
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  No, no matter how scathing, you always end on a note of hope,
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  and it's no different with Micah in Chapter 7, verse 19.
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  Micah 719. He will again have compassion on
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  us. He will tread our iniquities
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  under foot. That's how the ESV renders it.
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  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
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  Let's break this down slowly. For Micah to say he will again
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  have compassion on us is a reminder that his reception of
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  the repentant is readily available.
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  He'll, he'll do it. He'll do it.
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  Again and again and again and again.
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  He is always willing to receive the repentant again and again.
• 24:59
  It's not short lived. It is long-suffering.
• 25:03
  And when that compassion is called upon and humble
• 25:05
  penitence, Micah tells us something that the Lord will do
• 25:09
  with your record of sin. The ESV says that He will tread
• 25:13
  our iniquities under foot. So let's follow that imagery.
• 25:16
  A person realizes they've sinned, they confess their sin,
• 25:19
  and the Lord takes your sin. He places it on the ground and
• 25:26
  with his mighty feet. The earth is his footstool by
• 25:28
  the way. He treads on it until that
• 25:32
  record of sin becomes fine powder, unrecognizable,
• 25:37
  destroyed, disintegrated. And if that wasn't enough, what
• 25:42
  does Micah say he does? He bundles up.
• 25:45
  All of that, every fragment of your record of sin.
• 25:47
  And with his mighty arm he throws it into the depths of the
• 25:51
  sea. Why does he do that?
• 25:54
  So it can be out of sight and so that it can be out of reach.
• 25:58
  That's why he does that. You say, well maybe with some
• 26:04
  sins, but not my sin. We convince ourselves like this,
• 26:09
  do we not? OK, well, look what he says.
• 26:12
  You will cast what? Some of our sins all name it.
• 26:18
  He's willing to tread it, and he's willing to bundle it, and
• 26:21
  he's willing to cannon it into the depths of the sea.
• 26:25
  There's not one sin that you can name that he is not willing to
• 26:28
  do this for any sin. All are sin.
• 26:33
  No matter how dark, no matter how much it's permeated your
• 26:36
  record, your history, He is willing to tread it.
• 26:40
  He is willing to put it beneath his feet.
• 26:41
  And if he puts it beneath his feet, what does that mean?
• 26:43
  Just to begin with? It means that it's out of out of
• 26:45
  his sight. He's not studying it.
• 26:47
  He's not contemplating. It's there.
• 26:48
  It's, it's, it's beneath him. And then he doesn't even keep it
• 26:52
  there. He plunges into the depths of
• 26:53
  the ocean now. Micah's words here should remind
• 26:59
  us of a lyric in a song of the Bible.
• 27:03
  It's not in the Psalms. It's actually one of the first
• 27:05
  songs of the Bible altogether in redemptive history, the Song of
• 27:08
  Moses when the people were just delivered from the Red Sea, and
• 27:12
  the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt. Let me quote this to you from
• 27:16
  Exodus 15, verse 4. Pharaoh's Chariots and his host
• 27:22
  he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the
• 27:29
  Red Sea, cast into the sea. Can I ask you a question?
• 27:35
  Was Pharaoh's army a threat after they were cast into the
• 27:37
  sea? No, you know why?
• 27:39
  They were non existent? They were totally and absolutely
• 27:44
  eliminated. They can no longer harass the
• 27:46
  people of God. They can no longer threaten the
• 27:48
  people of God because they were destroyed by God.
• 27:51
  It's no different. With your record of sin now, how
• 27:54
  ridiculous would it be for you being an Israelite in that day,
• 27:59
  being a part of that awesome testimony, that generation that
• 28:02
  was rescued from slavery? How weird would it be that
• 28:06
  coming through that Red Sea and God bearing your enemies for you
• 28:10
  to look out and to see Israelites sitting on the shore
• 28:14
  and quivering while looking at the ocean, wondering is this
• 28:18
  really it? Is this?
• 28:21
  Is this it? You can't see?
• 28:24
  A chariot you can't see. Pharaoh's uniform, they're at
• 28:28
  the bottom of the ocean. So how weird would it be for you
• 28:31
  to look at somebody or to be that person to think?
• 28:34
  I don't know. It's done.
• 28:37
  They're destroyed. Move on.
• 28:40
  And here's the problem. Many Christians choose to sit on
• 28:45
  the shore of their memories, staring out into the ocean of
• 28:48
  the past and regretfully ruminating over forgiving sins
• 28:52
  that God intended for you to forget about.
• 28:59
  So if your sins have been cast into the depths of the sea, you
• 29:02
  know what you should do. Imitate the Israelites in Exodus
• 29:05
  15. Sing with relief and rejoicing,
• 29:09
  and March on. It's done.
• 29:14
  And that happens every single time you repent.
• 29:20
  It was AW Tozer who said that the regret of a sinful past can
• 29:24
  only dissipate when we recognize that in Christ that past doesn't
• 29:29
  exist. You're remembering something
• 29:33
  that the Lord forgot about. Not that he's not omniscient,
• 29:36
  but he chooses not to dwell in it.
• 29:38
  He chooses not to use it against you, Isaiah tells him.
• 29:41
  But he takes our sins, and he casts it behind his back.
• 29:43
  It's not before him, so it's behind his back.
• 29:46
  It's beneath his feet. It's in the depth of the ocean,
• 29:48
  and it's tormenting you day and night.
• 29:51
  How can that be? You have to be reacquainted with
• 29:54
  the fullness of God's forgiveness.
• 29:58
  I can assure you that the more you saturate your mind with this
• 30:00
  truth, the less you'll be convinced that God is dangling
• 30:04
  your sin over your head, that you can at any moment expect Him
• 30:09
  to strike you with judgement in this life.
• 30:11
  And more than that, this false notion that He's going to
• 30:13
  surprise you at the end of your life with eternal denial because
• 30:17
  of the severity of your sin. If you have repented of it, you
• 30:22
  forget it. And if you continue to struggle
• 30:26
  with that feeling of guilt, because I, I, I know, let's be
• 30:29
  real. Let's be real, right?
• 30:32
  Some of you know these things, but you're still going to
• 30:35
  wrestle with that feeling. So let me offer some advice,
• 30:39
  some advice that I thought was beneficial.
• 30:42
  You must, as you pursue this familiarity with the fullness of
• 30:46
  God's forgiveness, right? Because it's not instantaneous.
• 30:50
  It's not like you read a page and then everything just
• 30:52
  disappears. No, it takes time, the renewal
• 30:55
  of your mind. So as you work with that
• 30:57
  process, and you might still be visited by those feelings of
• 31:00
  regret, guilt, shame, whatever the case may be, fear.
• 31:04
  Learn to discern the difference between guilt as a feeling and
• 31:07
  guilt as a fact. Big difference.
• 31:13
  Big difference. What I feel doesn't determine my
• 31:17
  fate. Tell yourself that as you're
• 31:19
  trying to memorize and as you're trying to connect, as you're
• 31:22
  trying to build the case of what God is like and what he is like
• 31:24
  for you and towards you. And you still might be wrestling
• 31:27
  and still might be clutching at your soul and you're thinking,
• 31:29
  Tell yourself this feeling of guilt doesn't confirm my status
• 31:34
  before God. And you know that from a human
• 31:39
  to human level that somebody might have forgiven you, but you
• 31:41
  still wrestle with what you've done to somebody, right?
• 31:44
  But it doesn't determine your relationship with that person,
• 31:46
  especially if they've forgiven you.
• 31:49
  So this, these emotions, these things that don't align with the
• 31:52
  truth, I will manage it by reminding myself that what God
• 31:57
  says, and that's my first John 3 is all about if my heart
• 31:59
  condemns me. God is greater than my heart and
• 32:03
  He knows everything. Regret over sinful past.
• 32:08
  Let's talk about regret and overcoming the regret of
• 32:12
  questionable choices #2 I'm talking about the range of
• 32:16
  decisions that we believe were in God's will.
• 32:18
  But as unfavorable experiences follow, or as more light was
• 32:24
  shed on the matter, you begin to feel the suffocating
• 32:30
  realization. Maybe I missed it.
• 32:36
  Maybe this was not God's will all along.
• 32:39
  I arrived at the wrong conclusion and this is how this
• 32:43
  works. The more costly or permanent a
• 32:46
  decision is, the greater the sense of regret becomes.
• 32:52
  We don't feel so guilty or regretful about things that you
• 32:55
  can reverse overnight. And so this can happen with
• 32:59
  money and time spent for an education that you realize is
• 33:04
  not beneficial. This can look like you moving
• 33:08
  and having to leave behind so many things because of a
• 33:11
  promising opportunity, even a ministerial 1.
• 33:13
  And you realize that this was not what I expected.
• 33:17
  It can look like any opportunity you thought was going to be for
• 33:21
  your good, even God's will, and it disappointed you.
• 33:28
  This even happens when people get married and wonder if they
• 33:33
  made the right choice. Did I really marry the right
• 33:37
  person? If that's you, please hear this,
• 33:42
  please. If you sought God, if you sought
• 33:49
  godly counsel, if you aligned your thinking and your planning
• 33:54
  according to God's word, no matter what the outcome of that
• 33:58
  decision was, you working with the light that God has given you
• 34:02
  in the moment, in that season should relieve you in that you
• 34:06
  have no reason. No, you don't even have a
• 34:08
  second, a right for a moment to live in regret.
• 34:13
  Do you know why? Because I think that you've done
• 34:15
  all that. And to still be tormented by the
• 34:17
  possibility of missing the will of your heavenly Father actually
• 34:22
  goes against everything Jesus taught about the character of
• 34:24
  our heavenly Father. So let me remind you a verse in
• 34:28
  Luke 1111. Here we are in the New Testament
• 34:30
  and look what Jesus said about the Father by making a contrast.
• 34:37
  And Luke 1111 what father among you?
• 34:43
  If his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a
• 34:47
  serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, we'll
• 34:50
  give him a scorpion? Never forget this.
• 34:53
  Jesus never wastes his words and his teaching.
• 34:55
  Everything that he says is intentional and is meant to be
• 34:58
  studied and carefully regarded. Let's just ask 2 simple
• 35:04
  questions. What does a fish?
• 35:07
  And. An egg have in common.
• 35:10
  It's not some deep mystical thing, by the way.
• 35:13
  Very simple. They're nutritious.
• 35:15
  They're good for you, right? You may not like fish, but it's
• 35:18
  good for you. May not like eggs.
• 35:19
  Good for you. OK, what do scorpions and
• 35:22
  serpents have in common? Not good for you.
• 35:26
  Dangerous for you. I know some people that have
• 35:28
  them as pets. God bless you.
• 35:32
  Generally, they're harmful. They can hurt you.
• 35:37
  So a crisis conveying that is, if a child asks for something
• 35:41
  profitable and beneficial, no good father would give him
• 35:44
  something harmful instead. So let's connect this with this
• 35:49
  truth. If I'm a child of God who
• 35:51
  earnestly seeks for the will of God.
• 35:54
  In any matter, I have no reason to fear that He will lead me
• 35:58
  down a path that is perilous, wasteful, or injuries because
• 36:03
  that's not who he is. That's not that's not his heart.
• 36:06
  And I can't express you. I can't even put into words the
• 36:09
  glorious rest that that this is provided in every area of my
• 36:14
  life, especially if after choosing something or deciding
• 36:17
  something or moving forward in a certain direction, it brought
• 36:20
  about pushback or or unfavorable experiences.
• 36:24
  This truth that I'm presenting to you should make you
• 36:29
  absolutely unshakable because here, here's how it looks like.
• 36:33
  Lord, I know. I know that I've surrendered my
• 36:37
  life to you and I know that I've brought this matter before you.
• 36:40
  And Lord, you know that I, I wanted the best.
• 36:43
  I wanted your will. And I've sought it from godly
• 36:46
  leaders. I've sought it from godly family
• 36:47
  members and friends. And though I cannot make sense
• 36:50
  of what's transpiring here because I know that I've laid it
• 36:54
  at your feet, because I've put you always before me, I'm going
• 36:56
  to trust you in this. I don't get it, but I'm going to
• 36:59
  trust you in this. And the relief in part comes
• 37:01
  from you giving it to him before anything even started.
• 37:05
  That's why it's so important to be prayerful.
• 37:08
  That's why it's so important to it's not just so that you can
• 37:10
  get what you hope to get. It's so that when things don't
• 37:13
  look like what you expected, you can be at rest.
• 37:14
  Amen. That's right.
• 37:17
  So be relieved, no matter what it looks like, no matter.
• 37:21
  I don't know how this happened. I didn't expect this, but did
• 37:23
  you see God about it? I did, absolutely, no question.
• 37:26
  Then be at rest and don't live in regret.
• 37:31
  I'm sure it gets a lot more complicated than that in many
• 37:33
  scenarios, but that's just a general commentary and hopefully
• 37:36
  it brings some kind of help. But I know that there might be
• 37:39
  some people excluded, or at least feeling excluded.
• 37:41
  You know why? Because the source of your
• 37:45
  regret is not I prayed about it, but doesn't make sense is I
• 37:47
  didn't even pray about it to begin with.
• 37:50
  I'll be honest with you, preacher, I didn't see God at
• 37:53
  all. I was thinking carnality.
• 37:56
  I was thinking in the flesh. I was thinking my will, not
• 37:58
  God's will. I moved ahead.
• 38:02
  Is there still hope? For me, would it amaze you if I
• 38:05
  say, yes, there is hope for you? I, I want to let you know that
• 38:10
  there is an example in the scripture of a man of God, not
• 38:13
  just a man, a man of God who in a moment's time made a very
• 38:18
  serious, permanent, lasting choice without seeking God about
• 38:24
  him. And the story goes to show that
• 38:27
  even though he moved ahead, he realizes wrong.
• 38:31
  He chose to still seek God after the fact.
• 38:34
  And God did something wonderful with this man's story.
• 38:38
  Turn with me to Joshua Chapter 9.
• 38:41
  I want to talk to you about what is known as the Gibeonite
• 38:43
  deception. Joshua was the leader of the
• 38:47
  nation of Israel, and he was called to lead a generation into
• 38:51
  the Promised land and as the vessel of God's judgement to
• 38:54
  destroy all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
• 38:57
  Why? Because century after century
• 38:58
  after century, this people group ignored God, hated God, despised
• 39:02
  God, and grew worse and worse in their sin.
• 39:04
  And so the Lord said, that's it, they must be destroyed.
• 39:07
  I'm using this nation as an instrument to bring about that
• 39:09
  judgement. So the mandate was clear.
• 39:11
  Everyone who lives in this land who is outside of covenant with
• 39:14
  God must be judged accordingly. Now, this group called the
• 39:18
  Gibeonites learned about it. They learn about what the God of
• 39:21
  Israel has done. They learn about the early
• 39:23
  conquest of this nation. And so they were fearful.
• 39:26
  And so they came up with a cunning plan.
• 39:27
  And here was the plan. We're going to pretend as we
• 39:29
  introduce ourselves to Joshua and his people.
• 39:32
  That we are from a distant land. And they put on this whole show
• 39:36
  really. They brought like old looking
• 39:38
  food and they dressed like they were worn and they traveled for
• 39:41
  so long. And they came persuasively
• 39:43
  telling Joshua, hey, we heard about your God and and we love
• 39:47
  what we see. And we're not from here, by the
• 39:49
  way, We'd love to make a peace treaty with you, Joshua.
• 39:52
  And the leaders were, at first, a little suspicious.
• 39:53
  But they gave in. They eventually gave in,
• 39:56
  especially when they interacted with the physical, the material
• 39:59
  that what was on the surface. And we're given this commentary
• 40:02
  in Joshua Chapter 9, verse 14. So the men took some of their
• 40:08
  provisions but did not ask counsel from the Lord.
• 40:15
  So why is that there to tell you that what's about to transpire
• 40:18
  is due to this mishap, due to this failure, They did not ask
• 40:24
  counsel from the Lord. It's not because they weren't
• 40:25
  smart enough. It wasn't because no one main
• 40:27
  reason they didn't stop and say Lord is this is this of you.
• 40:33
  Lord, should we move forward with this?
• 40:34
  Lord, is there something that I'm not seeing that you see that
• 40:35
  you want me to be aware of? They didn't do that.
• 40:39
  They trusted in themselves. They trusted in their senses.
• 40:43
  Verse 15 And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant
• 40:46
  with them to let them live. And the leaders of the
• 40:49
  congregation swore to them. You learn later on this chapter
• 40:54
  that they swore in the name of the Lord.
• 40:56
  It was just say, hey, we can be friends.
• 40:57
  It was we're invoking the name of God in this covenant.
• 41:00
  That's serious. I know it's not serious today.
• 41:03
  People throw around, people make vows and doesn't mean anything.
• 41:06
  No, no, no, no, back then you rather die than break your word,
• 41:11
  especially if you invoke God's name.
• 41:14
  But look what happens in verse 16.
• 41:16
  At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with
• 41:20
  them, they heard that they were their neighbors.
• 41:24
  And that they. Lived among them.
• 41:28
  And so there was a problem. The people of Israel were upset
• 41:32
  with their leaders. The leaders were upset with the
• 41:35
  Gibeonites. So they confronted them.
• 41:37
  Now, let me pause here before I move on.
• 41:41
  This is why this is so significant.
• 41:43
  Number one, this covenant that was made was built on deception.
• 41:50
  It was built on a lie. This was not a good start.
• 41:56
  The Gibeonites pretended to be something they were not, and the
• 41:58
  Israelites only learn about who they truly were after they made
• 42:00
  an unbreakable treaty. Can you imagine?
• 42:05
  This is not an item that you bought, that you have to go in
• 42:07
  return in 30 days. This is permanent, and we're
• 42:13
  dealing with God's grand narrative plan for the people
• 42:16
  and for the Messiah. This is a major blunder.
• 42:22
  So this relationship was built upon a fraudulent foundation.
• 42:27
  Secondly, it was a covenant that was established that was not
• 42:31
  sanctioned by God. God didn't approve of this.
• 42:36
  What was supposed to happen to the Gibeonites is what was
• 42:38
  supposed to happen to what happened to Jericho and what
• 42:40
  happened to AI and everybody else.
• 42:42
  They were supposed to be annihilated.
• 42:46
  Instead, they became partners with them.
• 42:50
  And I want to just say this. What happened with the
• 42:54
  Gibbianites in Israel is how some marriages have been
• 42:57
  formulated. God's will was not sought.
• 43:01
  You were just in love. Supposedly you were just
• 43:05
  infatuated. You were just after the
• 43:07
  physical, you were just after the security.
• 43:10
  You were just after the companionship.
• 43:12
  But you never sought God's will. You didn't pray and ask.
• 43:17
  In fact, you were probably scared to because you thought
• 43:19
  he's going to say no. So I'm going to get ahead of
• 43:21
  him. And like this covenant, one or
• 43:25
  both parties relied on self in assessing the legitimacy of the
• 43:28
  other. You trusted in your senses, your
• 43:31
  ideas, your ability to maybe redeem that person.
• 43:34
  You're not the Savior, God's the Savior.
• 43:38
  Husbands and wives make terrible saviors.
• 43:42
  Only Jesus can save. And like this covenant in Joshua
• 43:46
  Chapter 9, one or both parties have made heart shattering
• 43:49
  discoveries only after they got married.
• 43:52
  Who are you? Or maybe you've said this.
• 43:57
  You're not the person I married, right?
• 44:00
  In heated moments, maybe you've told yourself that when you left
• 44:05
  the house on your way to work. Like what?
• 44:08
  What is this? And really, in summary, the
• 44:13
  relationship wasn't blessed by God to begin with.
• 44:15
  And I'm referring to marriage because I can't think of
• 44:19
  anything more permanent in terms of covenant decisions in this
• 44:22
  life. So I'm not picking on married
• 44:24
  people here. It can be in anything.
• 44:27
  But what can be more lasting than this?
• 44:28
  At least it should be lasting. So coming back to this.
• 44:30
  Story you would imagine that the way forward for Israel's to do
• 44:33
  what? This is done.
• 44:38
  I don't care if it's been 3 days, I'm not waiting a day
• 44:40
  longer. You lied to me.
• 44:42
  You are not who you say you were.
• 44:44
  So this is over. But you know what?
• 44:46
  You discover that Israel understood the power of an oath,
• 44:51
  and they understood that if they were to break this covenant,
• 44:54
  they would incur God's wrath. Oh, so they much rather stay in
• 44:58
  this covenant and knowing that they would bring honor to the
• 45:01
  Lord. In doing so, and that's what
• 45:06
  they chose to do. And I think even in this
• 45:10
  historical account you have a universal principle for God's
• 45:12
  people. This is this is it.
• 45:14
  This is the crescendo of this point, that even though you may
• 45:17
  have not initially sought the will of God, God's guidance in
• 45:21
  any decision, you can still choose to move forward with the
• 45:24
  desire to honor him. That from this moment on, I will
• 45:28
  honor the Lord. I will do my best to seek his
• 45:31
  pleasure and his delight and His will.
• 45:34
  And if you choose to do that, especially with irreversible
• 45:37
  commitments, God will do amazing things.
• 45:41
  The possibilities are endless. And that's exactly what Joshua
• 45:45
  does. Israel chose to move forward and
• 45:48
  amazing thing is, you quickly see that the Lord does not
• 45:51
  abandon Israel. He actually works with them.
• 45:55
  In fact, he continues to write their story, though this is a
• 46:01
  major mistake, a significant. One God doesn't miss a beat.
• 46:07
  He sees the heart of these people and he and he continues
• 46:10
  to walk with them. He continues to provide for
• 46:11
  them. He continues to guide them.
• 46:13
  And I want to show you one instance where this is really
• 46:15
  beyond what we would think. Look at Joshua 10 very next
• 46:18
  chapter. We don't have to wait 2
• 46:19
  chapters. The very next chapter what
• 46:23
  happens the neighboring nations find out that Gibeon.
• 46:25
  Made a peace treaty with Israel. They were infuriated.
• 46:29
  You betrayed our people for this people that's invading us.
• 46:32
  And so there is a coalition that was created and now they come to
• 46:35
  fight against Gibeon. Gibeon cries out to Israel,
• 46:38
  saying we're on the same team. You got to help us and because
• 46:42
  of the covenant. They help them.
• 46:46
  A war breaks out. The leaders of Israel, Joshua in
• 46:49
  particular, makes an incredible prayer request that the sun
• 46:52
  would stand still, so they can have light, so that they can
• 46:56
  fight. And here's how this account
• 47:00
  concludes in Joshua 10/14. There has been no day like it
• 47:06
  before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for
• 47:10
  the Lord fought for Israel. There's been no day like this.
• 47:17
  This is a unprecedented miracle. And it happened in the context
• 47:22
  of one nation. God's people defending a people
• 47:26
  that they shouldn't have made a covenant with to begin with.
• 47:31
  That's God's mercy. You know what God could have
• 47:34
  done? Oh, whoa, whoa, look, You got
• 47:37
  yourself in trouble now, huh? You brought in the Gibeonites,
• 47:39
  and other people want to fight Gibeon?
• 47:40
  Well, since you made a covenant with them, good luck.
• 47:42
  Let's see how you fend for yourself when you don't seek me.
• 47:44
  Go for it. That's how some of us think.
• 47:49
  You look back saying I don't know how I got myself here.
• 47:54
  I know I didn't seek God's will. And now you think that you're
• 47:58
  just living out a lesser version of God's will for you if there's
• 48:01
  anything really left. And what I see here is that God
• 48:06
  came through in an amazing way in a very unlikely covenant.
• 48:12
  He can rewrite your story. Even if you didn't ask for his
• 48:17
  authorship in that decision, He's still willing to, in your
• 48:20
  humble acknowledgement and confession, to bring back his
• 48:24
  authorship into your life and to write the story for testimonies
• 48:27
  that you never thought would be possible.
• 48:29
  Regret about questionable choices.
• 48:34
  Let's come to the final one, overcoming the regret of missed
• 48:36
  opportunities. The nature of this regret, it's
• 48:40
  not so much about a wrong or lesser decision or choice, but
• 48:45
  about not acting at all. And so it's a remorse that
• 48:49
  involves feelings of disappointment, sadness over
• 48:53
  things that could have been, you've missed it, experiences
• 48:57
  that could have been had, potential paths that were not
• 48:59
  taken, and the most familiar to believers.
• 49:04
  Who felt like. They've missed opportunities as
• 49:07
  when they are later in life awakened to what it means to
• 49:10
  follow Christ, to really be sold out to the Lord, and they
• 49:13
  reminisce on what they've done with their earlier years,
• 49:16
  walking with Christ and felt like they wasted it.
• 49:18
  They were caught up in carnality, distracted by
• 49:20
  worldliness, living not a spirit filled life.
• 49:25
  And so there's some people who look back thinking, I wasted
• 49:28
  those years. I, I wasted what could have
• 49:30
  been, what could I have been today?
• 49:32
  What would I look like now? What, what could my ministry
• 49:34
  have been like if I just from the start honored him, if I had
• 49:38
  not been so foolish. There are some people who
• 49:42
  constantly live in regret to the point where it keeps them in the
• 49:45
  same place. And I want to offer you a verse
• 49:47
  that will, I think, perfectly summarize the entire message.
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  And this is where we are ending today.
• 49:52
  Paul's words in the book of Philippians, chapter 3 and
• 49:55
  beginning of verse 13. Brothers, I do not consider that
• 50:01
  I've made it my own. But one thing I do, forgetting
• 50:07
  what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
• 50:14
  Here's the great apostle highlighting a crucial element
• 50:18
  to knowing great, significant spiritual progress.
• 50:22
  Do you know what it is? Don't dwell on the past.
• 50:26
  This one thing I do like. He made it an ambition, a
• 50:29
  priority and his sanctification. I regularly, consistently decide
• 50:35
  not to dwell on yesterday and usually this is quoted to
• 50:42
  comfort those who are haunted by failure.
• 50:46
  But what makes this even more amazing is that Paul mainly is
• 50:50
  talking about his past success. I do not consider that I've made
• 50:54
  it my own. What what's that?
• 50:56
  What's your, what's the goal you're talking?
• 50:57
  What's the object that you're saying that you you don't fully
• 51:00
  possess? And he brings it up in verse 10.
• 51:04
  I believe that I may know Him and the power of his
• 51:08
  resurrection. And may share his sufferings,
• 51:12
  becoming like him in his death. That by any means possible.
• 51:15
  I maintain the resurrection from the dead.
• 51:17
  Not that I've already obtained this or am already perfect, but
• 51:20
  I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me
• 51:23
  his own. So it's as though he unfolds it.
• 51:25
  Earlier and he expects you to know what he's talking about in
• 51:28
  verse 13. So the IT the thing that he
• 51:30
  says, I haven't made this fully mine, but I know that if I dwell
• 51:35
  in the past, I won't arrive here, that it is two things
• 51:38
  knowing Jesus Christ fully. And becoming like Jesus
• 51:42
  completely. Look at verse 10 again, that I
• 51:45
  may know him and the powers of his resurrection, and then he
• 51:49
  says later on in the same verse becoming like him in his death,
• 51:53
  and it goes on in verse 12, not that I've already obtained this.
• 51:56
  What's this? This knowing him and becoming
• 51:58
  like him. Not that I have already made in
• 52:03
  my own verse 13, but there's one thing I do forgetting what lies
• 52:06
  behind and straightening forth to what lies ahead.
• 52:09
  Paul understood that both discontentment and contentment
• 52:14
  with your past can keep you from knowing greater testimonies,
• 52:21
  greater experiences, greater feats in the faith, and so he.
• 52:27
  Said I'm not going to let discontentment what I failed to
• 52:30
  do, and I'm not going to let contentment what I did
• 52:32
  accomplish. All my credentials, all the
• 52:35
  revelations I received, all the people that I impacted, none of
• 52:38
  that also will keep me from running ahead.
• 52:44
  I asked you to imagine looking at an Israelite after the Red
• 52:46
  Sea incident and how crazy it would be to see him there
• 52:50
  quivering or maybe in a fetal position, looking out to the
• 52:53
  ocean, wondering how are they going to come back for me?
• 52:55
  OK, now imagine this. Imagine a runner in a race and
• 52:59
  you're in the stands and everybody's running in their own
• 53:03
  respective lanes and they're ahead, They're focused, and
• 53:06
  there's one guy, maybe a guy that you know, and as they're
• 53:08
  running, they have their head behind them, looking behind.
• 53:10
  The whole time you're thinking, what are you doing?
• 53:15
  Or you're driving and you're not looking through the windshield,
• 53:17
  you're looking in the rearview mirror the whole time.
• 53:19
  What's the same for both of us? What's the same possibility for
• 53:22
  the runner who's running like this and the person who's
• 53:24
  driving like this? It's dangerous.
• 53:27
  It's not the way you drive. That's not the way you run.
• 53:29
  If you want to actually know success.
• 53:30
  And here's what Paul is saying. I don't look back.
• 53:34
  Not that he forgets, but he doesn't dwell.
• 53:37
  It isn't allowed to have a grip on him.
• 53:39
  He shoes it away when it tries to sit there, whether that be
• 53:44
  discontentment or contentment. Here's what's so amazing.
• 53:48
  If his man was willing to do this with his achievements, how
• 53:51
  much more she and I be willing to do it with our failures, with
• 53:55
  our missed opportunities. Paul said there's so much more
• 54:00
  ahead. I'm not going to dwell on what I
• 54:02
  did or didn't do before. I'm just focused on today and I
• 54:05
  focus on tomorrow. And I trust in the goodness of
• 54:08
  God enough to believe that He has something for me today and
• 54:11
  He has something for me tomorrow.
• 54:12
  And so I'm going to take advantage of it by His grace.
• 54:15
  And with whatever time I have left, I will give it to Him,
• 54:17
  believing that He can make much of it.
• 54:21
  So don't give a moment, a moment's time of regret, even
• 54:24
  with missed opportunities. You know why?
• 54:26
  Because God has so much for you now and so much for you ahead
• 54:30
  and you need that energy that you're wasting thinking about
• 54:33
  yesterday for what he has for you today and tomorrow.
• 54:36
  Oh, I can keep going, but I think I'm content here.
• 54:42
  Hopefully you are as well. Life, Lo, we thank you for this
• 54:46
  time. We, we worship you, Lord, these
• 54:53
  truths were showcased, the references were made, but only
• 54:56
  the reality of the experience of them can can you make real in
• 55:00
  our lives. So we ask that you would do
• 55:02
  that. Lord, with all our
• 55:02
  imperfections, all our neediness, Lord, all our
• 55:05
  forgetfulness, we pray that in this moment we would receive
• 55:08
  something from you that would change us as we've been praying
• 55:10
  throughout the service changes. So Lord, receive our worship and
• 55:13
  our thanks for you are the God of second chances and more than
• 55:18
  second chances. And for this we give you glory
• 55:21
  in Jesus name, Amen. The praising we come, let's
• 55:23
  stand, let's worship the Lord and honor him.
• 55:31
  I went back and forth wondering if I should add this little
• 55:34
  excerpt in the in the sermon, but I thought it'd be better
• 55:37
  maybe to conclude with it. I love the story of Joseph and
• 55:41
  one of the reasons for that is because he points to Jesus in so
• 55:44
  many ways in so many scenes. It's Christ.
• 55:47
  It's so obvious and I argue that you even see him in the final
• 55:50
  chapter of the book of Genesis. Jacob dies.
• 55:53
  His father and the brothers who remained with Joseph in Egypt.
• 55:57
  Listen to this. In Genesis 50, verse 15, when
• 55:59
  Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said it
• 56:03
  may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil
• 56:07
  that we did to him. You know what's so amazing about
• 56:09
  that? Joseph already forgave them,
• 56:12
  didn't he? He wept on their necks, He
• 56:16
  embraced them, He took care of them.
• 56:18
  After all the goodness that he had shown, the brothers still
• 56:21
  doubted in the fullness of his forgiveness.
• 56:25
  That's you and me. With Jesus, at least some of us,
• 56:29
  it's always a temptation, second guessing and that Christ
• 56:33
  actually forgave us. So what happens?
• 56:36
  They come up with this strange plan.
• 56:39
  They lie. When you live in fear, it makes
• 56:43
  you do crazy things. When you doubt the goodness of
• 56:45
  God, it makes you do crazy things sometimes.
• 56:48
  Notice what happens in verse 16. So they sent a message to Joseph
• 56:50
  saying your father gave this command before he died.
• 56:53
  Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your
• 56:55
  brothers and their sin because they did evil to you.
• 56:57
  But that's not true. There's no such thing of Jacob
• 57:01
  asking the brothers to do that or giving them kind of, you
• 57:03
  know, this assistance. And so they say, now please
• 57:07
  forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your
• 57:09
  father. Here's how Joseph reacted.
• 57:12
  Joseph wept when they spoke then they didn't please Joseph to see
• 57:19
  that they were still guilty. It broke his heart.
• 57:23
  You know, some people actually think that they're actually
• 57:25
  pleasing God by mourning over their past sin over and over
• 57:28
  again. And some people remain in that
• 57:31
  place under the guise of spirituality.
• 57:33
  Like, yeah, I'm a wretched Sinner, and I want God to know
• 57:35
  I'm a wretched, filthy Sinner. Yes, we all are in our nature.
• 57:40
  But he forgave you. Now you're a St. in Christ, and
• 57:44
  so here you have Joseph. Weeping, he's not pleased with
• 57:49
  this verse 18 his brothers also came and fell down before him
• 57:54
  and said, behold, we are your servants.
• 57:55
  But Joseph said to them, do not fear.
• 57:59
  And this is him obviously in his humanity speaking for I many the
• 58:01
  place of God As for you meant evil against me, but God meant
• 58:04
  it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept
• 58:06
  alive as they are today. I focus on those first 3 words.
• 58:11
  Do not fear, you're forgiven. If Joseph and his humanity and
• 58:18
  fallenness was willing to extend that forgiveness and reassure
• 58:22
  his brothers who did what, who did what, who wanted to kill
• 58:25
  him, who sold him into slavery, how much more the greater Joseph
• 58:30
  who looks at you and me. If we've asked him for
• 58:32
  forgiveness initially and he says do not fear it's, it's
• 58:36
  done, it's over, move on now and enjoy me and enjoy the blessings
• 58:41
  I have in the same way Joseph blessed and preserved and
• 58:44
  prospered his brothers leave here lighter.
• 58:47
  I pray leave here with a song in your mouth.
• 58:50
  I pray leave here at rest in Jesus.
• 58:55
  That's my prayer where we thank you for this time.
• 59:00
  We trust that you'll use this message for your glory, and we
• 59:03
  pray that we will never be the same.
• 59:06
  We love you in moments of doubt, moments in our heart condemns
• 59:10
  US. Help us discern between feeling
• 59:12
  and fact and help us remember in the goodness of who you are, the
• 59:15
  fullness of your heart, the depth of your mercy.
• 59:18
  And even if we fumble and stumble in this life as
• 59:20
  believers, as your children, help us know that you can redeem
• 59:22
  questionable choices and even miss opportunities.
• 59:25
  You are beyond good words. Can't express what you mean to
• 59:30
  us? Help us love you the way you
• 59:31
  deserve. In Jesus name we pray, Amen and
• 59:35
  Amen.