How To Live Above Our Regrets

Transcription

1 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 51:1-17 (NKJV) Please open your Bibles to tonight's scripture text in PSALM 51. And let's read verses Psalm 51:1-17 (NKJV) 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

2 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart these, O God, You will not despise. I N T R O D U C T I O N ILLUSTRATION: Jane s drinking had nearly destroyed her family and her life. Years earlier she had slipped into the very depths of alchoholism and her husband gave her one final warning that he would divorce her if she ever touched another drink. She admitted herself into an Alchohol Rehab Program and managed to stay dry for almost seven years...and she had a number of medalions to show for it. But one day while in a restaraunt with several of the other women from work, Jane yielded to their pressure to take one little drink. That one little drink that day sent Jane spiraling downward into the depths of her alchoholism all over again. One day she arrived home drunk...the next day her husband served her with divorce papers. Now as she sat in the counselor s office with her face in her hands... she cried...she begged...she pleaded for the chance to turn the clock back to the day she made that foolish choice to take that one little drink. ************ ************

3 I don't know of anyone who doesn't have a few regrets. -Perhaps you regret that you weren't a better student in school. -Or maybe you regret that you never took music lessons or that you stopped taking music lessons. -Perhaps you regret that you didn't go on to College. -Or maybe you regret the career path you chose...or that you didn't start saving money or investing money when you were younger. - Perhaps you reget that you weren't more strict as a parent or that you were too strict. -Maybe you regret a heated argument you had with your spouse where you said some very hurtful things you now wish you could take back. -Perhaps you regret spending too much time working and not enough time with your kids when they were growing up. -Or maybe you regret that you didn't spend more time with a loved one that has now gone on to be with the Lord. Or perhaps it is something far more serious. Perhaps you had some monumental failure in your personal life or in your marriage that you deeply regret and it haunts you to this day. All of us have regrets! And no doubt if we had the chance to live our lives all over again, I'm sure there's a lot of things we would do differently.

4 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 ammend 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 AMMEND what we did or did not do....we WANT TO GO BACK AND IMPROVE on how we did it the first time. WE WANT ANOTHER CRACK AT IT... WE WANT TO TAKE ANOTHER SHOT. JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER said, For all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: What might have been. *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... YOU FILL IN THE BLANKS!!!!!!!!

5 It has been said, REGRET is really nothing more than A CEMETERY where your past is buried. *ALL of your bad choices. *ALL of your miserable failures. *ALL of your terrible sins. *ALL of your foolish mistakes *ALL of your missed opportunities. *ALL of your blown chances *ALL of your un-realized potential *ALL of your un-fulfilled dreams *ALL of your lost time with loved ones *ALL of your harsh words. *ALL your bad relationships *AND ALL YOUR WASTED YEARS! All of these things are buried in a place we cannot go back to ever again. ******************************************** ********************************************

6 If ever there was a man in all the Bible who had lots of regrets it was KING DAVID. You remember earlier I told you that in the original greek, REPENT and REGRET come from the same Greek word....metamelomai Well this 51ST PSALM...is sometimes called David s Psalm of Repentance. It could also be called... David s Psalm of Regret. David's life had so much promise and potential. * When he was just a young shepherd boy tending his father's sheep, GOD chose David to become Saul's successor as the next King of Israel. * David was also such a talented musician that King Saul invited him to come to his palace and play his harp for him to sooth his troubled spirit. * The Bible also tells us young David slew the Philistine giant GOLIATH, and even to this day, we use the saying, David slew Goliath when an over-whelming underdog defeats a heavily favored foe. * And let's not forget David is also the author of most of the beautiful Psalms we have recorded for us in the Old Testament. We must remember this is the man of whom the scriptures say, David was a man after God's own heart.

7 And yet, like all of us David's life was also characterized by some monumental failures and glaring weaknesses. * He committed adultery with Bathsheba and got her pregnant. * To cover up his sin, David had Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, sent home from war, and David got him drunk, hoping that Uriah would sleep with his wife and no one would ever be the wiser. * But when Uriah refused to go home to his wife that night, David sent Uriah back to battle with a sealed note to give to Joab, the Commander of David's army. Uriah didn't realize that inside that sealed note David commanded Joab to place Uriah on the front-line of the battle, and in the heat of the battle, Joab was to command his troops to pull back, leaving Uriah totally helpless against the enemy. Sure enough URIAH died in battle. * The fall-out from David's sin was devastating in so many ways: -The baby he fathered with Bathsheba died in infancy. -Later, David's son Amnon raped his own sister, Tamar. -A year or so later, David's son Absalom murdered Amnon for what he did to Tamar. -And eventually Absalom turned against David and tried to take the throne away from him. David's life was filled with TRIUMPH and TRAGEDY! This Man after God's own heart was also an adulterer...a murderer...and a miserable failure as a father.

8 David wrote this 51 st Psalm after the Prophet Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba. And as we study this Psalm for the next few minutes, David teaches you and me two valuable lessons on How To Live Above Our Regrets. Lesson 1: You Can't CHANGE The PAST illustration: Those who play golf are familiar with the term Mulligan. A mulligan is basically a do over when the player has hit a really bad tee-shot into the water or lost a ball in the woods. 1. I'm sure if David had a chance he would love to have had a mulligan or a do-over that night he committed adultery with Bathsheba. That one single night in David's life invited so much misery and heartache that haunted David for years! 2. But one thing that is noticeably absent in this 51 st Psalm is that not once did David ask GOD for a chance to go back and undo his past. David doesn't say, Dear Lord, if you would just wind the clock back to that night on the roof, I would never even go upon my rooftop and lust after Bathsheba as she bathed. And David doesn't say, Dear Lord, if you would let me just go back to that night, I would listen to my servant when he warned me that I was asking him to bring a married woman to come sleep with me. And David doesn't say, Dear Lord, if you would just let me go back and do it all over again, I would never send Uriah to his own death on the battlefield.

9 2. David knew there was no way he could change the past... there was no way he could undo what had been done. 3. David did the only thing one can do with a regretful past and that is HE REPENTED OF IT! PSALM 51:1-9 (NKJV) 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 4. David took complete ownership of his sins. He didn't point the finger of blame at Bathsheba. In fact, the scriptures never implicate Bathsheba for any wrongdoing that night. She was simply taking a bath on her roof-top, and the only house that was tall enough for anyone to even see her bathing was the palace where King David resided.

10 5. David is telling GOD, I did this! I own this! Forgive me of my iniquity... my sin...and my transgressions. 6. There isn't a one of us in this room who wouldn't love to go back and change some things we did or failed to do in the past. Not a one of us! But the truth is we can't! And we need to realize that our lives will never get better by replaying our regrets over and over again like a broken record. 7. I know some people who are stuck in the past. All they think about and all they talk about are the things they wish they hadn't done or things they wish they had done differently. And you know what? Those people are robbing themselves of joy and happiness in the present because they can't let go of their regrets. 8. When it comes to our regrets over our past all we can do is what David did. Confess our sin to the LORD... confess those things which we regret and LET GO! And the way we let go is by accepting God's wonderful promise of FORGIVENESS through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ. Psalm 103:12 (NKJV) As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. I John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

11 Isaiah 1:18 (NKJV) Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 9. You and I really cannot change the past, but we can certainly bring our past under the precious, cleansing blood of Christ. Now here's... Lesson #2: You Can CHANGE The FUTURE 1. Changing the future starts right where you are, right now, this very day! 2. Notice David's commitment to changing his future in verses Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 3. I want you to notice in these verses David not only making a commitment to GOD not to repeat the same sins over again, he is also making a commitment to teach others to learn from his sins so they don't go down the same path he did.

12 4. Right there is one thing you and I can do to move past our regrets. We can allow ourselves to be used by GOD to teach others valuable lessons we learned from our own regretful mistakes. You know the Bible commands the older women to teach the younger women and the older men to teach the younger men. Think of all the heartache and misery we could save those who are younger than us if we would teach them some of the valuable lessons we have learned through our own failures and mistakes in life. 5. This is one way GOD can turn our minuses into pluses.

13 C O N C L U S I O N I'm sure I have probably shared this with you before, but its worth repeating. 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 baggage of regrets 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 were there...missed and Lost. -All the Yesterdays were there...there were too many of them to count, but all would certainly have their sad stories to tell. -Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises were also there, along with their friends, Don t Blame Me and Couldn t Help It.

14 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, AND THAT ONE PERSON IS ME! Brothers and sisters, WE CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST, BUT WE CAN CHANGE THE FUTURE, AND THAT ALL STARTS TODAY BY LETTING GO AND LETTING GOD HAVE HIS WAY IN OUR LIVES. And that's How We Can Live Above Regret.