Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Your Regrets Cannot Ruin You

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Your Regrets Cannot Ruin You · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We all have things we wish we hadn't done. Memories
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  Speaker 1: that just pop into our heads at two am in
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  Speaker 1: the morning make you cringe for how you hurt someone.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's more than just cringing. It's just a
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  Speaker 1: wash of shame, this deep, heavy feeling that your past
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  Speaker 1: is a ghost, and that ghost is following you around,
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  Speaker 1: a haunting memory you cannot forget. But what if the
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  Speaker 1: ghost of your past doesn't actually have the power to
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  Speaker 1: wreck your future? Today on ask Pastor John why your
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: regrets cannot ruin you? The question is from a young woman.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, I love this podcast, and I love that
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  Speaker 1: you love the Apostle Paul so much. My question is
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  Speaker 1: about him as I try to get into his mind.
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  Speaker 1: Romans eight thirty five to thirty nine is glorious to
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  Speaker 1: me and listing off the many things that cannot separate
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  Speaker 1: us from the love of Christ. He focuses on present suffering.
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  Speaker 1: Yet Paul never makes mention of the past. Like past sins,
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  Speaker 1: past wrongs against others, many people struggle deeply with shame
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  Speaker 1: and rumination over memories of their past evils. That's me
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  Speaker 1: as well, and I know Paul's past was dark too,
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  Speaker 1: so is Paul assuming the past has already been dealt
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  Speaker 1: with through the cross? Or why do you think he
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  Speaker 1: does not mention past things here in this list of
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  Speaker 1: things that cannot separate us from Christ.
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  Speaker 2: I have never asked myself this question. Yeah, I like
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  Speaker 2: questions that make me, WHOA what do I think about this?
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  Speaker 2: And so it has been very helpful for me to
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  Speaker 2: give a little bit of thought to this. Why does
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  Speaker 2: Paul not refer to past sins when he's listing the
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  Speaker 2: things that cannot separate us from the love of God.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Here's the passage the great climactic statement the end of
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  Speaker 2: Romans eight. I am sure that neither death nor life,
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  Speaker 2: nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,
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  Speaker 2: nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in
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  Speaker 2: all creation will be able to separate us from the
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  Speaker 2: Love of God in Christ, Jesus Our Lord. Now, as
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  Speaker 2: I pondered this question, what struck me He is not
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  Speaker 2: that Paul doesn't mention past sins, but that he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: mention any sins. He does not say sin will not
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  Speaker 2: separate us from the love of God in Christ. Now,
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  Speaker 2: why is that? Why doesn't he say sins will not
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  Speaker 2: separate us from the love of God in Christ. And
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  Speaker 2: I think Paul would answer like this, I just spent
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  Speaker 2: seven chapters. I just spent seven chapters showing how God,
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  Speaker 2: in his mercy, has obliterated the guilt of all your sins, past, present,
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  Speaker 2: and future, all of them. This climactic chapter of Romans
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  Speaker 2: the Great Eight begins with the thunderclap summary of seven chapters. Therefore,
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  Speaker 2: there is now no condemnation for those who are in
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  Speaker 2: Christ Jesus. No condemnation for past sins, no condemnation for
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  Speaker 2: present sins, no condemnation for future sins. Your past sins
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  Speaker 2: cannot separate you from God in Christ. And then I
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  Speaker 2: think Paul would add, tenderly, knowing where this person is
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  Speaker 2: coming from, I know about past sins. Oh how I
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  Speaker 2: know about past sins. I ravaged the church. I entered
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  Speaker 2: house after house and dragged off men and women and
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  Speaker 2: committed them to prison and death. I ruined people's lives,
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  Speaker 2: and I boasted in it. I persecuted the church violently.
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  Speaker 2: I tried to destroy the very work of God. And
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  Speaker 2: then he would add, I think, listen to me, my
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  Speaker 2: dear friend, my burdened friend. The saying is trustworthy and
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  Speaker 2: deserving a full acceptance that Christ, Jesus came into the
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  Speaker 2: world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
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  Speaker 2: I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as
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  Speaker 2: the foremost Jesus, Christ might display his perfect patience as
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  Speaker 2: an example to those who were to believe in him
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  Speaker 2: for eternal life. That's for Timothy one fifteen. That's you.
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  Speaker 2: That's you. God saved a killer of Christians so that
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  Speaker 2: we would know and feel what God has done with
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  Speaker 2: past sins and sinners like Paul. That's why he ordained
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  Speaker 2: for Paul to be chosen in the womb and then
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  Speaker 2: saved after he becomes a murderer, so that we would
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  Speaker 2: take heart and not despair over our past. And would
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  Speaker 2: not Jesus step in at this point and ad remember
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  Speaker 2: the woman at the well. She had five husbands and
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  Speaker 2: was living with a lover. What a wreckage she has
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  Speaker 2: left in her life. And he gave her living water,
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  Speaker 2: and she lived and she was new. And then wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: Jesus remind us of the woman who was wiping his
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  Speaker 2: feet with her tears and her hair. I tell you
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  Speaker 2: her sins, which are many, are forgiven. But he who
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  Speaker 2: is forgiven little he says to Simon, the Pharisee loves little.
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  Speaker 2: Her passins were not producing paralyzing remorse. They were producing
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  Speaker 2: humility and love. Let the word all sink in From
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  Speaker 2: Colossians two thirteen. All God has forgiven all our trespasses,
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  Speaker 2: all of them, by canceling our record of debt. This
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  Speaker 2: he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Same word.
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  Speaker 2: Let us sink in all in first on one seven,
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  Speaker 2: The blood of Jesus, God's son, cleanses us from all sin.
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  Speaker 2: What a precious word, What an absolutely precious word. Let
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  Speaker 2: it sink to the bottom of your troubled heart, all
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  Speaker 2: of it, all of it forgiven, canceled, nailed to the cross, cleansed.
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  Speaker 2: Why is God willing to do this? And he tells
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  Speaker 2: us in Isaiah forty three twenty five, I am he
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  Speaker 2: who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and
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  Speaker 2: I will not remember your sins. I won't for my
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  Speaker 2: own sake. In other words, why why does he act
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  Speaker 2: like this? Why does he save us like this? For
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  Speaker 2: the glory of his grace? That's why that we would
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  Speaker 2: spend eternity making much of the glory of the grace
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  Speaker 2: of God. In the blotting out of our sin. If
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  Speaker 2: you're a Christian, if you're in Christ Jesus, nothing, absolutely
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  Speaker 2: nothing in your past can ruin your life. Let us
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  Speaker 2: think in there is a difference between your past and
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  Speaker 2: what you make of your past. It isn't past sins
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  Speaker 2: that will condemn the Christian. It's not believing that those
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  Speaker 2: past sins are forgiven. What a difference. That's the issue.
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  Speaker 2: Whether you believe it, it might it might feel like
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  Speaker 2: it's the past sins that are ruining you. That's not true.
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  Speaker 2: It is not true. It is not the past sins
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  Speaker 2: that are ruining you. It's what you're doing with those
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  Speaker 2: past sins right now that is ruining you. Or not.
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  Speaker 2: God has dealt with the sin, He's dealt with it,
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  Speaker 2: and he's urging us to believe him, to rest in him,
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  Speaker 2: to enjoy what he's done for us. Now, let's be
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  Speaker 2: let's be really honest. You might have sinned against someone
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  Speaker 2: so badly that you ruined much of his or her life.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe you ruin them financially, maybe you ruin them physically.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe you were driving drunk and you hit someone and
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  Speaker 2: they're now paralyzed for the rest of their life. And
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  Speaker 2: it is totally understandable. Oh yes, it is that the
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  Speaker 2: memory of this can be crushing. But I'll say it again.
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  Speaker 2: God has dealt with that at the level of guilt,
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  Speaker 2: and the guilt is taken away. Therefore, the effect of
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  Speaker 2: the memory should not be a consciousness of damnation or guilt.
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  Speaker 2: It should be it can be regret. What a difference
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  Speaker 2: between guilt and regret. Regret and guilt are not the same.
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  Speaker 2: Regret is proper. We would be callous and hardhearted if
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  Speaker 2: we did not regret for the hurt that we have
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  Speaker 2: caused people. But there is regret that leads to death,
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  Speaker 2: and there is regret that leads to life. And the
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  Speaker 2: regret that leads to life is built on the promises
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  Speaker 2: of God, the promises of grace working in us. What
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  Speaker 2: is humanly impossible, namely that we are able to press
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  Speaker 2: on with life even fruitfully, not just surviving, but living
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  Speaker 2: humbly and lovingly and productively. We close of this. This
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  Speaker 2: may be hard to grasp, but I'll bet many of
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  Speaker 2: you who have wrestled with these things know what I'm
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  Speaker 2: talking about. There will always be a sad part of
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  Speaker 2: our lives when we realize what we have done to
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  Speaker 2: offend God and hurt others. It's like a plaintive strain
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  Speaker 2: in the melody of our lives. There goes away the
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  Speaker 2: sorrowful tone in the music, but not a joyless sorrow.
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  Speaker 2: That's the scar that is left from the wound of sin.
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  Speaker 2: But that sadness, that scar need not paralyze us, but
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  Speaker 2: actually actually can sweeten and deepen our humility, our brokenness,
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  Speaker 2: our empathy, our compassion, our love for other people and
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  Speaker 2: for God. God doesn't waste anything. He wants you to
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  Speaker 2: trust Him and live.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, trust Him and live free from all those past regrets.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Mastor John. This is the great news in
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  Speaker 1: the world for redeemed centers. For Christian it is not
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  Speaker 1: the weight of past sins that causes ruin, but rather
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  Speaker 1: the failure to believe and accept that God has already
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  Speaker 1: forgiven us that causes the problems. So while Christians may
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  Speaker 1: live with a plaintive strain of regret for the earthly
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  Speaker 1: consequences of their actions, we must distinguish that healthy sorrow
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  Speaker 1: from the false belief that our past still carries a
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  Speaker 1: verdict of condemnation over us. It doesn't. In Christ, your
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  Speaker 1: regrets cannot ruin you. And that's because the one damning
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  Speaker 1: weapon that Satan could use over us, that wielded over
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  Speaker 1: us as unbelievers, his accusation of your unforgiven sins, that
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  Speaker 1: has been stripped out of his hands by Christ, one
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  Speaker 1: of two weapons that Satan has lost over us. And
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  Speaker 1: for more on those weapons now render powerless, see the
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  Speaker 1: Aspectial down book on page three point thirty four for
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  Speaker 1: more on those two weapons rendered powerless by Christ selfies
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  Speaker 1: in the end times. That's next, Antonio Rank. You will
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  Speaker 1: see you on Thursday,