This might be one of the most important sermons you ever hear, so please listen carefully.
Your past does not define who you are.
[2 Corinthians 5:17]
There are many of you who are not living this crucial truth,
because you're still living in the past. And you're letting it influence your present.
The way you think. The way you act.
The way you live. You are letting
what happened to you in the past and also your failures influence who you are, your identity.
[Philippians 3:13-14]
And this is one thing that you should also do.
Forgetting the past, and straining forward to what lies ahead.
Examine yourself - do you do this?
And I want to explain something here that a lot of people miss.
Before you can move on, you need to deal with the past.
Once and for all with God. If you don't do that, it will continue to
bother you until you sort it out with Christ. The Holy Spirit will convict you.
He wants you to bring it to the light and ask for His forgiveness.
The more you try to hide it,
The more the Holy Spirit will convict you of it until you bring it to the feet of God.
Those things that happened - those sins - you need to take all of
those things captive. Bring it to Christ.
And ask Him to forgive you by name. Be specific.
Father, forgive the way I talk to my father. Not just what I said but the way I said it.
Forgive what I did to this co-worker. Forgive me for what I did with my
husband - my wife - you need to be specific so that God can cleanse you of it once and for all.
[Isaiah 1:18]
You see, it's a relationship between you and God. And you need to live Holy because God is Holy and
if there are things in your life - in your past - that have not been sorted out between you and God,
you need to. Then he says:
[Isaiah 43:25]
You see, it's not just about you. Oh, I'm ... I did this, oh man, I'm not a good
person because I did this and this ... It's not always about you.
Yes, we all are not perfect. No one is perfect.
We have that sinful fleshly nature within us and that is why we should look away from ourselves
to Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. In our place.
We cannot cleanse ourselves from the filth that is within us.
Only God can.
So yes, you need to look at yourself. To examine yourself.
To identify those things that are not right that you haven't sorted out.
But then you should not let that influence your life.
You should bring it to Christ. At His feet.
And ask Him, Father, please forgive me for everything that I have done.
And then He forgives you and He doesn't even think about the sin that you have done anymore.
You are washed clean, white as snow. I'll read it again.
[Isaiah 43:25]
If you did that, then it's done. God forgave you.
Done. Completed.
You don't need to go to Him tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and ask Him
to forgive you for the same sins, because you've already asked Him for forgiveness.
It is done. He doesn't think about it
anymore and you shouldn't think about it either. But your sinful flesh and also the devil can
come and he can make you feel guilty about it and say, oh, remember what you've done.
You are not a good person. No one can love you.
Look at how filthy you are. He can come but then you shouldn't give
in to those feelings, those thoughts. You should stand on the Word of God
and you say in the name of Jesus, go away. Because I have been forgiven, I am white as snow.
Then the devil might even say again, no, you're a terrible person.
No one can love you. You're not good for anything.
Why should people respect you? You're not even really a Christian.
You say no - you stand on scripture. You say that you trust God's Word,
over what the devil says. What your own feelings say.
What people in your life tell you, You stand on God's Word.
That says that you have been forgiven. Washed clean.
You are a new creation. The old has passed away.
The new has come. And you walk within that newness of life.
You don't walk according to the old flesh anymore. That walks by its feelings, its own thoughts.
No. You now live through the power of the Holy Spirit.
[1 John 1:9]
Does it say some unrighteousness?
Maybe 50 percent? No, it says all unrighteousness.
You always need to remember that the enemy and your sinful flesh always work on your soul level.
Your emotions. The way you think.
Your intelligence is the way the things that make you feel ... I'm
not good enough, or can I really trust God?
That's the power of the enemy and your sinful flesh.
But God, He always works through the Spirit. Through peace, through discernment.
Discerning between the lies of the enemy and the truth of God.
You need to understand His word. Because He works through His truth.
He is truth. And if you know the truth,
you can easily discern lies. So you fight the spiritual fight,
by not giving in to your emotions - your feelings- and the lies of Satan.
But - you live in truth. The truth of God's word.
And by abiding in Him and the assurance that He gives you.
That is how you stop trying to fight through the flesh - your own power - and you start to rest in
what God has already done for you. You enter His rest.
[Hebrews 4:11-12]
You see, your identity - your new identity because you are a new creation in Christ - it
has not been built based on who you were or what people say about you.
What you even think about yourself. It is based only on God.
On His word. On His truth.
What He says about you. And let me tell you, if you walk
within this newness of life, through the spirit within God's will, God will not only bless you,
but He will also give you - equip you- with what you need to accomplish His will for your life.
In my new book, Bold Pursuit, I wrote:
Thomas Edison said:
That's the perspective of someone who knows what it takes to ultimately succeed.
Every way that didn't work taught Edison more about the problems he faced and
the resources he needed to overcome them. That perspective inspired him to persevere.
To try again.
For the five thousandth and the tenth thousandth time.
The book of Proverbs gives us a similar perspective.
[Proverbs 24:16]
Do you get it? When you face setbacks,
it doesn't mean it's over and you are a failure. It just means that God is working on you and that
you need to overcome this setback. You see, God's way of thinking is
a bit higher than our way of thinking. We just want to sort out the problem.
God wants to change us, to be able to handle this problem and similar problems
that we will face in the future. And if He always just steps in,
you will never learn to handle the problems you face with faith and perseverance.
And listen to me today - you will always face difficult times in this life.
There will always be ups and downs. You should expect trials to come.
[1 Peter 4:12]
You see, the truth is that you will experience trials and tribulations.
And when you fail, it doesn't make you a failure. You need to understand this.
You're just a human with a fleshly nature within you.
And you will try to overcome the challenges in your life.
You won't overcome them when you act in the flesh.
But you will overcome them when you act through the Spirit.
But when those times come - when you fall - you need to cling to God.
You need to have your faith in Him. And trust Him and understand that even when you
go through difficult times that you can still have peace - still have complete confidence in God.
In who He is. That He will keep His promises.
If you don't have peace in trials and tribulations,
then that is a sign that you don't have true faith in Jesus Christ, that He will help you.
[Isaiah 26:3]
So let me say this again, do not let your failures or your past define who you are.
Find only your identity in Christ. Let Him define who you are.
Because He can. Because He knows
you better than you know yourself. Better than your parents know you.
Because He created you. He knew that you would live in this time.
What you would do. Your name.
The number of hairs on your head. He knew everything.
Thousands of years before you were even born.
And that is why you can only find your purpose and identity in Christ.
Jesus said:
[John 10:14]
[Ephesians 2:10]
You see, when you become a mature Christian, you start to realize
that life is not about you at all. You're not the center of life - God is.
Everything is about God and you're only one small piece of that plan.
The plan for humankind. The redemption plan.
Man, we are so small. And that is why you can have
God confidence - you can have confidence in God's plan and purpose for your life.
And you need to walk in His plan. You don't follow your own will.
There's no purpose in your own will. Because you'll just die.
God's blessing won't be on your life. But if you walk - if you abide in
Christ - you in Him - He in you - if you walk within His will, then He will bless you.
You will have peace. You will have fulfillment.
You will walk within the purpose that God has for your life.
And when you do that, you don't look at yourself, your self-life, your own will.
What you want to do with your own little human power.
You look to Christ, because that is the answer to all the questions you have.
Corie Ten Boom said, if we look at the world we will be distressed.
If we look within we'll be depressed. But if we look at God, we will be at rest.
I can assure you even if you're a Christian, if you walk outside of His will, you just use
religion as a necklace now and then when you feel like saying yeah I'm a Christian,
but you'd still want to live life according to your own will - your own desires - your
own goals in life - you have not come to the point where you deny yourself.
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus. You haven't fully surrendered to Christ.
When you do that - when you live according to your own
ideas and thoughts - what do you think is best for you - you will never have peace.
You won't have fulfillment. You'll feel lost.
And as if nothing is working out, you try to do this one thing.
And then, oh man, you just get closed doors and it's not working out and you thought it would be.
You planned so, so perfectly for everything. But it's just not working out.
And then you try something else and that doesn't work out.
You're lost if you live outside God's plan for your life.
And nothing is working out because His blessing is not on your life.
But, when you abide in Him and you live according to His will,
everything seems to go well. Your paths are made straight by God Himself.
[Proverbs 3:5]
If you deny yourself - if you pick up your cross and if you truly follow Jesus Christ
in a life of complete surrender - as I said before, He will not only bless you,
but He will also give you what you need to accomplish His purpose, His plan, for your life.
And, you will be content with the highs and lows because you have complete peace in Jesus Christ.
You see the bigger picture of life and that is why you are able to do
everything through Christ who gives you the strength to do it, to handle difficult times.
[Philippians 4 ]
This last verse - a lot of us know this verse - but we don't know what
comes before it. Now you know.
May God bless you to understand this message. And if you want to grow stronger in Christ - learn
what it means to abide in Him - to live spiritually - then watch these videos here.
And I'll see you there. And always remember, God loves you.
And I love you too. Bye.