HOW TO LIVE ABOVE REGRET

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Benjamin Norris
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1 Message for THE LORD S DAY MORNING, January 8, 2012 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister HOW TO LIVE ABOVE REGRET Scripture Text: PSALM 51: 1-17 (JUST READ VS. 1-3 for right now) P R A Y E R I N T R O D U C T I O N REGRETS...who among us doesn t have more than a few? Who among us this morning hasn t wished we could TURN THE CLOCK BACK to a certain day...or certain period of time in our lives and UNDO OR CHANGE A DECISION WE MADE OR FAILED TO MAKE. Perhaps some of you here this morning have so many regrets in your life you would love to just TURN THE CLOCK ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE DAY YOU WERE BORN AND START ALL OVER AGAIN! It is interesting that the word for REGRET in the original Greek language of the New Testament is the same word for REPENT. METAMELOMAI (Meto-Mello-My) literally means, to change one s mind afterwards the desire to improve or amend one s actions or choices. Is that not EXACTLY WHAT WE DO when we REGRET something?...we CHANGE OUR MIND...we WANT TO GO BACK and MEND what we did or failed to do....we WANT TO TAKE BACK HURTFUL WORDS WE SAID. It was JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER who said, For all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: What might have been.

2 *If only I had... *I wish I would have... *I wish I wouldn t have... *I could have if I had just... *Why did I... *Why didn t I... *If given the chance to do it all over again I would... *If given the change to do it all over again I would never... YOU FILL IN THE BLANKS!!!!!!!! Are you living in constant regret over the things you did or did not do in the past? It has been said, When you spend more time regretting the past than building toward the future, you have stopped living and started dying. REGRET is really nothing more than A CEMETERY where your past is buried. *ALL your bad choices. *ALL your miserable failures. *ALL your terrible sins. *ALL your foolish mistakes *ALL your missed opportunities. *ALL your blown chances *ALL your un-realized potential *ALL your un-fulfilled dreams

3 *ALL of your lost time with loved ones *ALL of your harsh words. *ALL your broken relationships *AND ALL YOUR WASTED YEARS. All of these things are buried in a place we can NEVER go back to again. ******************************************** TRANSITION TO SCRIPTURE TEXT ******************************************** Here in Psalm 51...David teaches us HOW TO LIVE ABOVE OUR REGRETS. You remember earlier I told you that in the original greek, REPENT and REGRET come from the same greek word. This 51ST PSALM...is called David s Psalm of Repentance. But it could also be called... David s Psalm of Regret. As we think back over David s life, we can see why he had so much to regret. The good things about David were really good! God Himself called David, A Man after God s own heart. He was a tender shepherd boy who faithfully tended his father s sheep...he was a very talented musician who was summonsed to play his harp before King Saul to soothe his troubled spirit...he wrote almost all of the Psalms...He killed the giant Goliath with a stone from his slingshot...and he became the second King of Israel. Oh there were many good things about DAVID. But there were also

4 a number of BAD THINGS about him too. In many ways, David s life was like The Tale of Two Men. *HE spent a great deal of his LIFE ON THE RUN as a fugitive...because King Saul became enraged with jealousy toward him when the people wanted David to be their new king instead of him. *HE lusted after Bathsheba and committed adultery with her. *HE arranged for Bathsheba s husband, Uriah to be killed in battle to cover up his adulterous relationship with his wife. *HIS OWN SON ABSALOM then tried to kill him so he could take over his throne. *DAVID S SON AMNON raped his own sister, TAMAR. Brothers and sisters, this Man after God s own heart..this man who authored so many of the beautiful Psalms we find in our Bibles, for a period in his life was also A LIAR, AN ADULTERER, AN ACCOMPLICE TO MURDER, A FUGITIVE, and a MISERABLE FAILURE AS A FATHER. Is it any wonder, by the time you get to Psalm 51 David has a ton of regret weighing upon his heart. How Did David Rise Above His Regrets and Move On With His Life? In this 51 st Psalm we see two keys: I. Repent of Your Past And Let It Go Read: Verses One thing that is noticeably absent in this Psalm is that DAVID never once asked God for a chance to GO BACK AND UNDO WHAT HE HAD DONE IN THE PAST....He doesn t say, Lord, if you would just wind the clock back to that day on the roof...i wouldn t look at Bathsheba.

5 ...He doesn t say, Lord, if you will just allow me to go back in time, I will not send my servant over to Bathsheba and have her come over to my palace....he doesn t say... Lord, if you will just wind the clock back I will take back that order to send Uriah to the front lines...so he wouldn t be killed and could live happily ever after with his wife, Bathsheba. 2. NO, DAVID KNOWS HE CAN T GO BACK IN TIME AND UNDO ANY OF THE HORRIBLE THINGS HE HAD DONE. RATHER THAN TRYING TO UNDO HIS REGRETFUL PAST...HE REPENTS OF IT. 3. Brothers and sisters listen, there is not a one of us in this room who doesn t have things in our past we REGRET. Even the people in this Church you look up to and admire the most have some regrets. ALL OF US HAVE SINNED...ALL OF US HAVE HAVE FALLEN SHORT OF GOD S GLORY. 4. The place to start LIVING ABOVE REGRETS is to do exactly what David did...repent OF OUR SINS, THEN LET GO BY ACCEPTING GOD S WONDERFUL FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST....Beating yourself up over and over again is not going to change anything....constantly obsessing over your unworthiness is not going to change anything....constantly digging up your past like a dog digs up an old bone is not going to change anything. 5. If you have truly confessed your sins to GOD and truly repented, then its time to accept God s forgiveness and move on with your life. Psalm 103: 12 says... As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

6 In Hebrews 8:12 we find this promise from GOD... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Once confessed, it is as though God Now here s the second key to living above our regrets. II. Don t Allow Past Regrets To Rob You of Present Joy 1. I want you to notice DAVID S COMMITMENT in V E R S E S Read------Verses Having confessed his past sins to God, David now makes a commitment toward a better future. Not only is he committed to NOT repeating the same sins over again...but EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, HE IS COMMITTED TO EXPERIENCING THE JOY OF TEACHING OTHERS TO LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKES SO THEY WON T FOLLOW THE SAME PATH. 3. Perhaps some of you have allowed your regretful past to rob you of joy for a long, long time. Let me ask you something: Do you truly believe all your loving, forgiving, merciful Heavenly Father sees when He looks at your life is all your mistakes? Do you truly want who you are as a person to be defined by your biggest regrets? 4. It has been said, People make BIG MISTAKES and sometimes BIG MISTAKES make BIG people. David made some BIG MISTAKES, but by the grace and forgiveness of GOD, David became a bigger and better man. David failed forward by not allowing his PAST REGRETS ROB HIM OF PRESENT JOY, and so can you and I.

7 CONCLUSION THE CITY OF REGRET I had not really planned to take a trip this year, yet I found myself packing anyway. And off I went, dreading it. I was on another GUILT TRIP TO REGRET CITY. I booked my reservation on WISH I HAD Airlines. I didn t check my baggage... you see everyone carries his own baggage on this airline...and I had to drag it for what seemed like miles in the REGRET CITY AIRPORT. And I could see that people from all over the world were there with me, limping along under the weight of the baggage they had packed themselves. I caught a cab to the LAST RESORT HOTEL, the driver taking the whole trip backward, looking over his shoulder. At the LAST RESORT HOTEL I found the ballroom where my event would be held: THE ANNUAL PITY PARTY. As I checked in I saw that all my old colleagues were on the Guest List: -There was the DONE FAMILY...Woulda, Coulda and Shoulda. -Both of the OPPORTUNITIES...Missed and Lost. -All the YESTERDAYS...there were too many of them to count, but all would certainly have their sad stories to tell. -Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises would also be there, along with their friends, Don t Blame Me and Couldn t Help It. And of course, hours and hours of entertainment would be provided by that renowned story teller, IT S THEIR FAULT. As I prepared to settle in for a really long night, I realized that one person had the power to send all those people home and break up the PITY PARTY...ME! All I had to do to get out of REGRET CITY was start today living the ABUNDANT LIFE CHRIST desires me to live! My friend, the only way out of REGRET CITY is for you to have the COURAGE TO CHANGE. Why not begin this New Year right? Why not let go of your past regrets and get a fresh new start? This year, LIVE ABOVE YOUR REGRETS!

How To Live Above Our Regrets

Message for WEDNESDAY NIGHT, August 30, 2017 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister TOPIC: Christian Living, Regret How To Live Above Our Regrets Psalm