Deep-Sixed: Anchors of Regret

Transcription

1 Transcript January 16/17, 2016 Deep-Sixed: Anchors of Regret Jake Barker Psalm 103: 8-14, Micah 7:18-19, Hebrews 12:1-12 What s up Traders Point? I hope you are having a great weekend so far. If this is your very first time, we are so honored that you would spend part of your weekend with us here. I also want to welcome those of you at the North campus. Man, we love you guys. We are so excited for you guys and what s going on there. Before we dive into the sermon let me share a quick story. There are people at our North campus who are serving for the very first time and leading for the very first time. Last weekend our campus pastor, Greg, told me a story that after the 11:00 service a woman came up to him and said, You know what? I m ready to go all in. I ve been on and off around here for a long time but now I m locked in at the North campus. She s going to get baptized next weekend with a bunch of other people. Next weekend is our baptism service and we get to celebrate as a family together, at both locations, as people are going all in for Jesus. So can we take one more chance to celebrate what God is doing around here? We are so excited so honored to be a part of it. Now you may be wondering what would motivate someone to make such a decision. Like why go all in for Jesus? Why baptism? Let me catch you up to speed. We are in week 3 of our series called Deep Sixed. And I don t know how many of you grew up in a sailing family. Probably not many of you because we live in Indiana, right? But deep six was a nautical term in the days before sonar that referred to something that was 6 fathoms or 36 feet underneath the surface. If they said that something was deep sixed it was so far gone that it was irretrievable. There was no point in going after it. It was way too far down below the surface. And what we ve illustrated over the last couple of weeks is that many of us, at one point or another in our lives maybe you re doing it right now we have tried to deep six our past. We ve tried to push those experiences and those memories so far down. And if we can keep them so far down no one will have to know. No one will ever find us out. So we take our secrets and we suppress them and we keep them from people. Many of us have kept secrets from loved ones, from our friends. We ve kept secrets from people in our small groups. And some of us have convinced ourselves that we re keeping secrets from God. But in week one of the series we ran across this unavoidable and inconvenient fact. And it s that secrets float. Secrets float. They always find their way back to the surface. They are resiliently buoyant. Maybe you ve been in a swimming pool and you grabbed a beach ball or a basket ball and tried to keep it under the water for a while. Well that works for a while, but as soon as you lose your grip, or as soon as you let go, it just bounces right back up. The same is true of our secrets. So many of us thought that we deep sixed that painful break- up in our past, but then we started dating someone, or maybe we got married, and those secrets started to float. Or, many of us thought that we deep sixed our incredibly dysfunctional family upbringing. And then we had kids of our own and those Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

2 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 secrets, they started to float. Or, many of us thought that we had deep sixed that thing that we called a bad habit but everyone else called an addiction, and someone gave us a drink and those secrets started to float. No matter how long we practice, no matter how deep we get them they always find their way to the surface. So our proposal over the last couple of weeks, and it will be for the entire series, is that there is only one way to properly and healthfully deal with our secrets and that s allowing God in. If we allow God access to the dark corners of our hearts they exist in all of us then He can set us on the path to freedom. But not only is that the best way, it s genuinely the only way of handling our secrets. Now, we don t suggest this as if it is simple and it s easy and everyone should just do it right now because we know that coming clean with our past and with the things that we have kept hidden is actually a pretty intimidating prospect. Because when I come clean to someone or when I reveal the dark corners of my heart, I put myself squarely in the mercy of a person s response, right? And I don t know if he will be kind. I don t know if he will be compassionate. I don t know if he ll be mad and angry. So to not risk that response, I m going to keep things to myself. Many of us have done this in different areas of our lives. Now in week one Aaron started the series and he kicked off with a story about himself and a BB gun and there was a frog that he shot, and he killed it, and he covered up the evidence. Now, I ve never done anything like that because I m not a psychopath, alright? That s why I ve never done that. But there have been instances in my life where I went into a massive cover- up to cover- up something that I had done wrong. When I was in middle school I told one of the worst lies I ve ever told in my entire life. And I call it my worst, not because it was some dark and sinister untruth that I told, but I call it one of my worst lies because it was so poorly executed. It wasn t a well told lie. See, I had this problem on my hands. My friends were going to see the new James Bond movie and thus far in my life my parents had been very conservative about the movies that they would allow me to see. And so in order to not risk a no I lied to them and told them that I was going to go see a more family- friendly flick. See back in the day the movie times didn t come to a fancy app on your smart phone. I had to do this really old- fashioned thing I looked them up in this thing called a newspaper. You guys remember those? The paper would come and give you information. Well that s where I found the show time and I was hoping that my mom and dad would not do the reconnaissance work to figure me out. Now, I go to the movie and I sneak in and I see the show with my friends but the problem was here s why it was such a bad lie. The movie I told my parents that I was seeing wasn t even playing at the theatre that they took me to, alright? So when my dad picked me up the marquee should have just said, Jake s a liar. That s what should have been on the front of the building. So I get pulled in and they totally find me out easiest parental bust of all time. They sat me down and they did they ultimate kick in the gut. They say, If you had just asked, we probably would have let you see it. But because you lied, you re grounded for a month. That was a bummer. Now, I don t know if they really would have let me see it because I m a parent and I say things to my kids all of the time that I don t mean so that may not have been true. But ultimately, what I ve found is that Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

3 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 the cover- up is far worse than the crime. And many of us have done the same thing in far more serious areas of our lives. Because I didn t know how someone else would respond to me, I just kept the secret. I was afraid of the response. That s not only true of people in our lives. There are some of us who have kept secrets from God because we don t know how He ll respond. See, there are a bunch of different rumors out there about who God is, and how He feels about us, and what He does with our sin. And maybe you ve heard that He s really angry, maybe you ve heard that He s kind of indifferent or somewhere in between and you don t know how He ll respond. So you just kind of keep it to yourself. If we re being really honest we d say, If God is anything like me, then I m definitely not coming clean because when people hurt my feelings I m vindictive, and I have a long memory, and even though I say I forgive them in six months, when we re fighting again, I m bringing it back up, alright? That s who I am. And so if God s anything like me, I m definitely not confessing. Or, If God is anything like my previous church experience, then I m definitely not coming clean because I trusted those people and I took them at their word and then when I revealed who I really was I was met with rejection and I was on the outside of the circle. So, I m keeping that stuff to myself. Or, If God is anything like that person in my life who I trusted and I became vulnerable, and I really revealed some stuff to him, and then he told other people and he completely betrayed my trust, I don t know if I can really come clean with God if He s like any of those people. What I d like to do today is give God a chance to explain Himself to us. In fact, that s actually what the Bible is, it is God revealing to you and me who He is, words from His mouth describing who He is. So we re going to give Him a chance to say, Here s who I am. He tells us how He feels about us and what He wants to do with our sin. The first passage that we re going to read together is Psalm 103, verses 8 through 14. These are God s words describing Himself and how He wants to deal with our sin. Here s what it says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, really important, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. So, again these are God s words describing Himself and no matter what you have heard, this is what He said about Himself. Let me make a few observations. First He says that He is slow to anger. He s slow to anger. Now, that might hit you as being a little bit weird because the idea of God being angry is a foreign idea. You thought that God was love, and you thought that God was grace, and you thought that God was mercy. But God getting mad is kind of an uncomfortable thought. Like, When I get mad, it s never a good thing. So is that allowed for God? Is He allowed to be angry? Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3

4 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 What we need to understand is that there are two different types of anger. Often the anger that you and I experience is a very selfishly motivated anger, I didn t get what I wanted and now I m mad. But God, He has a righteous anger. When He sees the consequences of sin, the ramifications of sin in His perfectly created world, He grows angry toward that sin. It s similar to the feelings that you and I have when we hear a news story of a negligent parent who abused a child. When we hear that we say, That s just not right. That makes me mad. That makes me angry. I m feeling something about that. Or when we hear a story about a young girl trapped in a sex trafficking trade we say, Man, that s terrible. That s wrong. Something should happen about that. Or when we hear stories about people in our country, in this day and age, who do not have the food or the medicine to live a healthy life we just say, That s wrong. That makes me mad. That s the same kind of righteous anger that God feels toward our sin. But, I m so thankful that He is slow to anger. We deserve the anger that is pointed at our sin, pointed at the way that we behave but it says that God doesn t even hang on to His anger forever. In fact, He lets it go. It says that God doesn t keep His anger forever and He is defined by a steadfast love that reaches from earth all the way to heaven an unbelievably massive love that wants to separate us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. I don t know when the last time is that you looked at a compass but those are opposite directions. God wants to remove us as far as possible away from our sin. These are God s words describing Himself. He says, This is what I want to do with your sin. Example number one: Psalm 103. Next we re going to look at Micah, chapter 7. The prophet Micah had some words about God, who He is, and what He wants to do with our sin. He puts it like this. It will be on the screen. You can read along. It says, Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? Look at it again. Here it is, He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights, that word is so important, He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; anybody need compassion again, and again, and again, and again? I do. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You [God] will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. So Micah is saying, Look, here s what you need to know about God. Here s who He is and what He wants to do with our sin. First he says that there is no one like God. In all the other religions, with all of the other deities, there s just no one like our God. All of those other deities, they are vindictive and they are angry. They don t love their subjects. They take their anger out on them. They are completely unpredictable. But our God is defined by a steadfast love. He doesn t hold on to His anger forever. He lets it go. And He wants to put our sin at the bottom of the sea. So you and I, we have to embrace this life changing truth. You don t have to deep six your sin. God wants to do it for you. You don t have to suppress that thing that you ve been holding on to forever, you don t have to hide it from Him. In fact, you don t have to deep six it at all because God it says it clearly here in Micah 7 wants to do it for you. See, we don t have some begrudgingly reluctant Savior who is really mad at us for making Him save us. He s not trying to keep a record of wrongs to where He saying, Gosh, again? Seriously? Again? No, Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4

5 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 He s saying, I want to forgive you. I delight in steadfast love. God wants to do the thing that we re trying to do for ourselves. It s this crazy, crazy game that we are playing. So despite every right that God has to be angry, to stop dealing with us, to wipe us off of the face of the earth, He forgives us gladly. So, when we submit to His Lordship and accept Him as our Savior, He tosses our sins to the bottom of the sea. He separates us from our sin as far as the east is from the west and He sets us on a new path of freedom. Between Psalm 103 and Micah 7 here s what we know about God and what He wants to do. God knows us inside and out yet He is merciful, slow to anger, repeatedly forgiving, abounding in love. He is a one- of- a- kind, compassionate Father. That s what God says about Himself. That s what He says that He wants to do for you and me. So for those of you who came here and you ve been playing the hiding game, you ve been playing a game of hide and seek or you thought that with enough smoke and mirrors, enough suppression you could keep this stuff from God, can I just ask you this simple question? Why? Why are you hiding it from God? He s begging us from His Word. He s saying, Here s who I am. Here s what I want to do for you and with you. Today today is the day that you can come clean because God is trustworthy with our sin. Now some of you hear that and you re like, Okay, that sounds great. I m all in for love, and mercy, and compassion. That sounds really, really good. Here s the problem. I did this, I came clean, I tried to actually deal with my sin and it still hurt. I mean, I heard words like love and grace, and mercy but this was still a really painful process. What s up with that? Why in the world would this sting? So I m really glad that you asked that question. Hebrews, chapter 12 is where we re going to hang out. If you have a Bible or a Bible app I d love to have you head that way. That s where we re going to spend the rest of our day. And I also believe that this is what is going to answer that question, Why does it sting when I come clean? Thus far in the Book of Hebrews, in the chapter right before Hebrews 11, the author kind of works through this who s who of the Old Testament. You read through this list of names and their faithful lives, and the difference that they made in their community, and really what we can learn from them. And then in chapter 12 he says, Okay, with their examples in front of you, here s how I now want you to live. That s what we re going to read together. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1 says this, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, he s referring to that hall- of- fame list that he just gave us out of the Old Testament who s who. He says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The author of Hebrews is putting this in front of us and he s saying, Look, living the Christian life, living a life with Jesus is like a race. Now this is a metaphor that is used in multiple places throughout the Bible. And he says, Run it with endurance. We re talking marathon, not sprint. And he gives some very practical advice here. He says, Lay aside every weight that you are carrying so that you can run the race most effectively. Very practical. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5

6 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 When you watch the Olympics and you see Usain Bolt run the 100 meters, he s not doing it in a parka, alright? That would be impressive. Maybe it would be showing off a little bit, but he doesn t wear that. He wears a jersey and some shorts because when you re running a race you don t want unnecessary weight. So he says, No, sin in our lives is that weight. As we re running the race it s the weight that weighs us down. It s the one that feels like that pressure on your chest when you go to bed at night and when you wake up in the morning. It s that thing that you can t stop thinking about. It s the thing that you ve had to tell so many lies about and have so many cover- ups about so that no one will find out. It s a heavy life the life of un- confessed sin. It s heavy with burdens, heavy with guilt, heavy with shame. So the author of Hebrews is looking at us still today and he s saying, You can set that aside. You re running a race with all of this unnecessary weight. Set aside your sin. In verses 2 through 4 he tells why. How in the world is this even possible? Why should we? In verse 2 he says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. For those of you who are weary, who are tired, and you re beaten down here s the hope. It s that Jesus died for the sin that you re hiding. Jesus died for your sin before you ever knew that you needed Him to. Jesus died for your sin before you ever asked Him to. It was for the joy that was set before Him offering you and me forgiveness and a freedom that we could not manufacture on our own that He endured the shame of the cross. And it was an unbelievable shame. Jesus was falsely convicted, and He was beaten, and He was spat upon and crucified so that you and I would have new life. So, here s the truth. Can I just put it as plainly as I can so that we can understand it? If you re hiding your sin, you just don t get the cross, alright? You haven t fully understood the ramifications of the cross. If you re still carrying around this bag of secrets, this bag of sins, then you haven t fully embraced grace. In our years of ministry we meet so many different people, people who would say that they are all in for Jesus, and they are Christians yet they still have this bag of secrets that they carry around with them. In fact, they ve allowed themselves to be defined by their sin. It is their identity now. I would just say if that is you today, you haven t yet fully embraced grace. You haven t fully embraced the ramifications of the cross because when Jesus died, He didn t die for most of your sin, He didn t die to make you a good person. He died to save you from your sin. That was the ramification of the cross. So remember back to Psalm 103 and Micah 7. God is merciful, compassionate, and loving. He paid the price for our sin that we could not pay. We owed God our lives. And instead, He gave us the life of His Son so that we could be set free. If you are hiding, if you are playing games, if you are suppressing your past today is the day that you can come clean. Now again, you may hear that and say, Oh, that s awesome. Super cool love compassion, love mercy, love all that stuff why does this still sting? Here s your answer. In verses 5 through 11 the author of Hebrews is going to walk us through why this process of coming clean still stings. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6

7 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. So here s the Bible s answer if you re asking that question, I came clean. It still hurt. It still stung. The Bible says that God is disciplining us. As a loving, compassionate father He is guiding and disciplining us toward righteousness. Now I love the honesty of verse 11. No one enjoys it. No one likes being disciplined. It s painful in the moment. But we understand its greater good. As I said before, I m a dad. I have three kids, which I m surprised is allowed. I didn t know that they would let me do that but I do. So I have these kids. And one of the incredible things about being a dad is watching your kids grow and become uniquely them. I didn t have anything to do with it. They just developed these personalities, right? For better or worse, they become them. My middle son, he s four years old, he is the most unique person I ve ever met in my entire life. I do not know where he came from. If aliens are real, my son is definitely an alien. That s the way I would describe him because his decisions are logic defying. So this summer he s at a zoo. And outside the reptile exhibit there is a young girl who works at the zoo and she s holding a snake. She s there kind of bringing the animals a little closer to the guests up close and personal, the whole thing. Now most kids are scared of snakes or at least they are very creeped out by them. My son skips right up to the snake and kisses it on its head, alright? Kisses a snake. So the zoo keeper girl is like, I don t know what to do with this because non- alien people don t kiss snakes. So she s creeped out by my son. I have to later pull him aside and say, Hey, man. General rule we re not going to kiss snakes. That s going to be You know what? Let s go whole animal kingdom. Just don t kiss animals in general. Stuff I didn t know that I had to explain to you. I had to discipline him for his greater good further down the line. In a much more serious and life altering way, you and I have been presented with the idea and the truth here in Hebrews 12 that God wants to discipline you and me. And I was thinking about that this week and thinking about how in the world I was going to tell a bunch of people that God wants to discipline them cause I m not sure that I love that idea. The idea of being disciplined isn t the most exciting thing in the world. And, also, I kind of think that I m an adult and I thought that stuff was over. I thought that as a kid yeah, you get disciplined. Maybe as an adolescent you get disciplined. But as an adult we re like, Don t discipline me. Don t tell me what to do. I m a grown man. So why do I want God coming in and disciplining me? Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7

8 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 On top of that, I think that there are two terms that we often use interchangeably as if they are the same thing but they re not. And it causes this really significant misunderstanding when it comes to God s discipline. Here s what I mean: Discipline is different than punishment. Discipline is different than punishment, but we often confuse the two or almost use them as interchangeable. So when I consider the sting of confession, or the humiliation of honesty, or the embarrassment of coming clean and it stings I often think, God, are You rubbing salt into my wound? I mean, I already feel bad about my sin. I m already really torn up about this and now this hurts even more. Why are you punishing me again? But discipline and punishment are two different things. So let s be really, really clear. Punishment is paying the price for sin. Discipline is guiding us toward growth. Two different things, really important to understand, I ll say it one more time. Punishment is paying the price for sin. Discipline is guiding us toward growth. And we have to understand the difference between the two if we will allow God to discipline us. See, the Bible is incredibly clear that the very moment that you and I receive grace, when we submit to Jesus leadership in our lives, when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior He pays the price for our sin. Done. The penalty of our sin is removed. That is over and it is done with. Jesus didn t pay for most of it. He didn t pay for 99 percent of it. He paid for all of it. The punishment, the penalty of sin is now removed from us. That is incredibly, incredibly good news. But many of us, when we hear about grace like that, that He has removed the penalty for our sin, we then come to the faulty conclusion that that means that the rest of our lives should be really simple, right? It should be really easy, I m going to skate through life right up to the pearly gates and this isn t going to hurt at all. But in reality, even though you and I will not pay the penalty for our sin, we still face the consequences of our actions. So you and I will not pay the penalty for the sin of gossip, but we will experience the consequences of deteriorating relationships that s true. Now we will not pay the penalty for the sin of infidelity but we will experience the consequence of a damaged marriage. We will not pay the penalty for the sin of selfishness but we will experience the consequence of a really empty and vapid life. There are still consequences to our sin here on earth. And then on top of that, God is aiming at a much higher goal for you and me. In fact, in Hebrews 12 it says that His goal is for our lives to be filled with holiness and righteousness. Here s how it works. When we receive grace our salvation is taken care of. We are saved from the penalty of our sin. Salvation is done, 100 percent complete. But at that very moment, God begins this thing called sanctification. And sanctification is a process where He shapes you and me to look more like Him. So salvation is done, but sanctification has begun. That s what we re feeling. We re feeling God shaping us into who He wants us to be. I love how Aaron said it last week. It was so good. He said: Grace is not a transaction like God coming to us and saying, Hey, here s your get- out- of- hell- free card, I ll see you in eternity. Grace is not a transaction; it s an invitation to transformation. That s what this whole life is about. God s grace did not Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8

9 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 end once He paid the price, God s grace is the very thing that shapes us into the men and women that He wants us to be. And it requires discipline. Now here s where I think this falls apart for many of us. If we were all being really honest, like we laid it all on the table, we took some truth serum and we verbally vomited like, Here s how I really feel about stuff. If we were forced to describe our spiritual goals, many of us would say, You know what? I m looking for the minimal possible requirements to get into heaven. Like D is for diploma in high school and I m looking for the same thing when it comes to my spiritual life. And I want enough faith to save me but not enough to make me uncomfortable. I m fine being the last one to get in as long as I get in. I don t even care. I ll be at the back of the line totally cool. So my job, my goal when it comes to God is really to do as little as possible to secure my eternal retirement plan without really having to change a whole lot in the mean time. That s really what we re aiming at and I think that God is looking at us and saying, Really? You think I sent My Son to die for that? You think the cross was worth that? You don t think that I have a better vision for your life? God is saying, No, no, no I didn t die just so that you could barely get into heaven. I died so that you can live the life now that you were meant to live. A life of holiness, a life of righteousness, and I m here to shape and mold you into that kind of person. This is the sting that we feel. This is sometimes the pain that happens. The Bible uses multiple metaphors to explain this process. There s one where it calls us the clay in the hands of a potter who is trying to shape and mold us into a dish or a piece of art. And, much like the clay doesn t understand what the potter is doing, we don t always get what God is up to. Then there s the metaphor of pruning. The Bible says that God will prune us like a gardener or a farmer for the long- term health of the plant. Now, I have self- admitted that I m a pretty terrible gardener but I do know something about pruning because my family owns a Christmas tree farm in Kentucky. They grow Christmas trees. So in the month of December hundreds of families come and they cut down the tree, and they put it up in their home, and it smells like merriment and it s awesome it s great. What those customers don t see in the month of December is the hours of work in the spring, and summer, and fall that it took to make those trees look like that. In fact, left to their own devices most pine trees do not grow into perfect cones for you to put up in your living room to look like those on TV or in the movies. It takes a lot of shaping. And even the farmers, for the long- term potential of the tree, will do this counter- intuitive thing where they will reduce the size now so that it can grow to its long- term potential in the future. Now the trees don t have feelings about this, unlike what you may hear from people in Vermont I don t know. They don t have feelings, okay? But, you and I we do. We do. Like, if you ve been on this journey with God for very long, you ve probably been pruned in one way or another. There was something that God took away from you and you didn t understand why anymore than the clay didn t understand what the potter was up to. Maybe He took away a relationship that you really valued or a career opportunity that you thought you were entitled to. Maybe He even took away your physical health for a season. And you didn t understand why. And if you d been writing the plan, you definitely wouldn t have done that. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 9

10 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 And God is looking at us and He s saying, Trust Me. Trust Me as your compassionate, loving Father who is merciful and has a better plan for you. It is painful in the moment, but in the long- term I have a better plan. I m shaping you to be the man or woman that I actually created you to be. Don t stand in the back of the line and sneak in on a technicality. Live the life that I intended for you right now. So discipline from God, I promise you it stings. And I don t want to stand up here and tell you any differently because I think that one of the worst things that we could do is to tell you, Hey, come to Jesus and everything will be simple, and everything will be easy, and it will never hurt. No, that s not true. But it s stinging with a purpose. God has a better plan than you and me. Now, if you will join me in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 12 it s the last verse that we will read together. It s the author s final encouragement to people like you and me. It says, Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Look at those last words rather be healed. There are some of us here who have carried in just an enormous burden. You got yourself together today, and you look good, and no one can really tell right now but you know on the inside you are carrying a massive weight of sin, of secrets, of shame, of regret. And the author of Hebrews is looking you squarely in the eyes and saying, strengthen your week knees and lift your drooping hands, set your feet on the path of healing. And the path of healing goes right through the gate of confession. We have to come clean if we re going to experience the life that He intended that God intended for us. Let us no longer try to hide our sin and to stuff it so deep that no one finds out. Let us do the thing that only God can do and the thing that He wants to do for us allow God to deep six our sin, and our secrets, and our shame. Now there are some of you who have been around and you ve been hearing these messages, and you re just about over all of this. You re ready to move on and get on to something else. Each week, at the end of this whole thing, you start feeling it rise. You can feel that secret starting to float and it s right at the surface and then you get into your car, and you go home, and you spend the rest of the week just pushing it back down. Can I just say right now that if you are on the verge, if you are on the edge of coming clean: Today can be the day. Today can be the day that you are set on the path to healing and freedom. After the service there will be some people down front who would love to talk with you and pray with you about what you re wrestling with. And here s why I know that they are trustworthy people. They have a me too story. If you come and tell them the path that you re on, and the stuff that you re struggling with, and the questions that you have they are going to look at you and say, You know what? Me too, man. You struggle with that? Me too. You have those questions? Me too. There s not a perfect person in this place. We are all on the path together. And we trust that God is perfect, and that His plan is perfect, and that His salvation is perfect so we don t need to be. But we do need to trust His path. So if you are on the verge and you re tempted to just stuff it back down and hide Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 10

11 Deep- Sixed: Anchors of Regret January 16/17, 2016 it a little bit longer can I just encourage you from the bottom of my heart that today could be the day that you experience the freedom that God wants for you. Next weekend we re having this thing called a baptism service and baptism is a symbol of the life- changing truth that Jesus has saved us from our sin. We go down into a watery grave and we rise up a new creation. Aaron is going to talk a lot more about that next week. And there are some of you who feel like you are on this path and you don t really know how to stop it, and you want to drag your feet, and you feel pushed, and you feel kicked toward that decision can I just tell you: Embrace it, man. Allow God to do His thing. And this week invite your friends, invite your family, make this a landmark weekend. Next weekend make it a landmark weekend in your life with Jesus and in this life as a church. Right now we re going to do this thing called communion. It s our weekly opportunity to remember what was described there in Hebrews12. It was for the joy that was set before Jesus that He endured the shame of the cross and we get to remember what that really means for us, how it changes our lives. So I pray that you can take this moment with the bread and the juice that represent Jesus body and His blood to thank Him for His sacrifice and allow Him to point out the dark areas of our lives that He needs to have access to in order to set us on the path to freedom. Let me pray for you. Father we are so grateful for Your truth. We are undeserving of Your grace. And with those two things, as they collide, allow them to change us from the inside out. Wreck our hearts. Lay us bare. And then build us back up to be the people who You created us to be. Give us the courage to come clean. Give us the courage to take the next step. Give us the confidence that You are the only One worth trusting. We trust You, God because of who You are and who You ve proven Yourself to be. Father we lay all of this at Your feet. It s in Your good Name I pray. Amen. Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 11