Moving Beyond Our Mistakes

Experience how grace breaks the hold of regret and helps us go a new way.

  • 00:04:07
    - Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andy Reider
  • 00:04:09
    and you're joining us in our series Leave Lies Behind.
  • 00:04:11
    Now, we've been unpacking some of the false messages
  • 00:04:14
    that we pick up in culture and contrasting those
  • 00:04:16
    with the truth through the lens of the Bible.
  • 00:04:19
    And that song, the Good News, says it really plainly
  • 00:04:21
    that Jesus loves you.
  • 00:04:23
    Yeah, we believe that here at Crossroads
  • 00:04:24
    and we're going to be diving into that more and more today.
  • 00:04:27
    Right now, though, we're going to start our time in worship
  • 00:04:29
    as we continue singing songs about God and to Him.
  • 00:04:32
    And whatever you believe about God or church,
  • 00:04:34
    whatever your comfort level with all of this,
  • 00:04:36
    hey, we're just glad that you're here
  • 00:04:38
    and just encourage you to lean into this time
  • 00:04:40
    and into this music as we sing these words together.
  • 00:16:50
    - Lord, that's our prayer.
  • 00:16:51
    God, would You bring Your Kingdom?
  • 00:16:54
    And would you help us to understand what that looks like
  • 00:16:57
    and what it means, God?
  • 00:16:59
    As we sing to You, as we make claims
  • 00:17:04
    that we'll surrender to you.
  • 00:17:07
    That I pray that You'd make Your Kingdom more known to us
  • 00:17:10
    and how we're a part of that Kingdom,
  • 00:17:12
    bringing light to the world,
  • 00:17:15
    walking in the way that Jesus did
  • 00:17:18
    because His ways are better.
  • 00:17:21
    They're better for us in ways we haven't experienced before.
  • 00:17:24
    So, Lord, would You help us to see Your goodness
  • 00:17:29
    and help us to follow You.
  • 00:17:31
    Even when we're unsure what it looks like or how to do it,
  • 00:17:36
    well we just start with a prayer
  • 00:17:39
    that You will come in and let Your Kingdom come.
  • 00:17:43
    God, I love singing to You.
  • 00:17:44
    You're amazing and You're worthy.
  • 00:17:47
    It's in all this we pray. Amen. Amen. Come on.
  • 00:17:53
    Hey, why don't you find somebody you don't know around you
  • 00:17:56
    and give them a high five, tell them your name.
  • 00:17:59
    We're one big family here.
  • 00:18:01
    And then you can have a seat.
  • 00:18:09
    - You need more fun in your life.
  • 00:18:11
    Don't worry. We've got you covered.
  • 00:18:13
    The annual Super Bowl of Preaching
  • 00:18:17
    is right around the corner.
  • 00:18:21
    Don't let the word "preaching" fool you.
  • 00:18:23
    This isn't for your grandparents,
  • 00:18:25
    unless your grandparents are into pyrotechnics!
  • 00:18:29
    No idea what the what the Super Bowl of Preaching is?
  • 00:18:31
    No problem. Amazing tailgating experience. Check.
  • 00:18:35
    Incredible event energy. Check.
  • 00:18:38
    Spectacular halftime show. Check.
  • 00:18:41
    Hilarious Super Bowl commercials. Check.
  • 00:18:44
    Questionable officiating. Check.
  • 00:18:48
    This is the most fun you'll ever have in a church.
  • 00:18:52
    Join us for the Super Bowl of Preaching.
  • 00:18:55
    Service times and locations at Crossroads.net.
  • 00:19:00
    For decades, Super Bowl Sunday has been
  • 00:19:03
    the least attended church weekend of the entire year.
  • 00:19:06
    Why? Because, let's face it, people would rather
  • 00:19:08
    tailgate than attend a church service.
  • 00:19:11
    But what if you didn't have to choose?
  • 00:19:12
    The Super Bowl of Preaching is the answer.
  • 00:19:14
    It is a can't miss event that's become one of
  • 00:19:17
    our most viewed and most meaningful services
  • 00:19:20
    of the entire year with tens of thousands of people
  • 00:19:22
    tuning in and showing up.
  • 00:19:24
    It is the perfect mix of epic trash talk,
  • 00:19:27
    of hilarious and fake commercials,
  • 00:19:29
    of over the top bad officiating, and most importantly,
  • 00:19:32
    truth that can actually help your life get better.
  • 00:19:34
    This year, the fun kicks off
  • 00:19:36
    on Sunday, February 9th at 8 a.m. eastern
  • 00:19:38
    with a live stream that you can watch from anywhere.
  • 00:19:40
    And this is a perfect opportunity to invite
  • 00:19:42
    your friends, your family to watch with you,
  • 00:19:44
    or you can even host one of
  • 00:19:45
    our Super Bowl of Preaching watch parties.
  • 00:19:47
    In it, you will find a unique experience
  • 00:19:50
    that's as fun and meaningful as it is entertaining.
  • 00:19:53
    So don't miss a chance to laugh, learn,
  • 00:19:55
    and maybe even cheer a little bit.
  • 00:19:57
    Thanks for joining us.
  • 00:19:58
    Let's hand it over to our Senior Pastor Brian Tome.
  • 00:20:27
    - Man, it's going to be a good day.
  • 00:20:28
    Are you ready for this? [cheers]
  • 00:20:30
    Yeah, I hope you are.
  • 00:20:31
    I got something to talk about that
  • 00:20:33
    I'm really, really excited to talk about.
  • 00:20:36
    When I tell you what it is,
  • 00:20:38
    you're probably not going to be excited.
  • 00:20:41
    But hang in there, because by the end
  • 00:20:43
    of our time together today, I think you might
  • 00:20:46
    come into a place of freshness, a place of wholeness,
  • 00:20:51
    a place of healing, a place of just joy
  • 00:20:54
    that you might not have been before you came in today.
  • 00:20:57
    We're talking about grace.
  • 00:20:59
    It's our fourth time talking about grace.
  • 00:21:01
    And I'm going to be looking at grace
  • 00:21:06
    and the prerequisite of grace, which is sin.
  • 00:21:11
    Oh, yeah. Let's pray about that. Okay.
  • 00:21:13
    God, thank You for our time and for Your truth.
  • 00:21:17
    And I'm asking, God, as I dig into this,
  • 00:21:19
    man, this really, uh, difficult thing
  • 00:21:23
    that we don't want to want to think much about
  • 00:21:25
    and talk much about, that You would meet us
  • 00:21:28
    in a great place and You'd bring us to a great place.
  • 00:21:31
    And I ask You to help me to be clear, not just compelling,
  • 00:21:35
    but most importantly helpful and in alignment with Your truth.
  • 00:21:38
    And I'm honored, God, I'm honored that I get to talk
  • 00:21:40
    about transcendent, important concepts like this.
  • 00:21:42
    So I hope You're pleased.
  • 00:21:44
    And I pray these things according to the character
  • 00:21:46
    and identity of Jesus. Amen.
  • 00:21:50
    All right. In the book of Romans 3:22, here's what it says:
  • 00:22:05
    Young. Old. White. Black. Yellow. Male. Female.
  • 00:22:09
    All. All who believe.
  • 00:22:11
    There is no distinction: for all have sinned
  • 00:22:17
    and fall short of the glory of God.
  • 00:22:19
    No distinction because all of us who sin.
  • 00:22:21
    What does that mean?
  • 00:22:22
    Sin means there's this person of God
  • 00:22:26
    and His glory and His goodness, His love,
  • 00:22:29
    His perfection, His standards, and we all fall short.
  • 00:22:32
    No distinction. No distinction on who He is,
  • 00:22:36
    no distinction on who we are. We fall short.
  • 00:22:39
    And then it continues.
  • 00:22:49
    Grace, a gift, justified, we fall short.
  • 00:22:53
    We are justified, it's a gift. Man, it's so good.
  • 00:22:58
    You know, there's words that we like to say
  • 00:23:01
    and are pretty common to say.
  • 00:23:03
    Words like mistake, problem, issue,
  • 00:23:09
    a shortcoming I may have, and I have--
  • 00:23:11
    I have all of those and more.
  • 00:23:13
    Let me tell you something about some of the mistakes I've made.
  • 00:23:16
    When I was in high school, man, I don't know
  • 00:23:19
    how I literally lived through high school,
  • 00:23:23
    and I don't know how I got through high school
  • 00:23:25
    without literally killing somebody.
  • 00:23:28
    I was a hard, hardcore drinker,
  • 00:23:31
    and this was in the day when you could drive drunk
  • 00:23:34
    and you weren't supposed to, but like,
  • 00:23:36
    it wasn't a big thing back then and a lot of us did it.
  • 00:23:39
    Graduated in 1983, and I remember many, many times
  • 00:23:43
    pulling into my parents garage with their Chevy Citation,
  • 00:23:49
    hands on the wheel and going,
  • 00:23:51
    "Wait a minute, how did I get here?
  • 00:23:52
    I don't remember anything from the party until here."
  • 00:23:57
    Terrifying and stupid and indefensible.
  • 00:24:02
    It was a massive, massive mistake, to say the least.
  • 00:24:07
    And then going into and through college
  • 00:24:11
    and in my 20s, I made a lot of mistakes
  • 00:24:14
    as it related to just personal drive
  • 00:24:17
    and personal discipline.
  • 00:24:18
    I didn't have a lot of drive.
  • 00:24:19
    I didn't have a lot of discipline.
  • 00:24:21
    I skated my way through everything
  • 00:24:22
    and took shortcuts in everything
  • 00:24:24
    and didn't want to do anything that was difficult.
  • 00:24:26
    And of course, studying would be difficult,
  • 00:24:28
    so I didn't want to do that.
  • 00:24:29
    And somehow, crazily, crazily,
  • 00:24:32
    not only did I to get an education,
  • 00:24:33
    I got jobs and I get paid really, really well.
  • 00:24:37
    Thank you very much for your generosity.
  • 00:24:39
    I would have never, never thought that
  • 00:24:41
    I would have had any level of drive.
  • 00:24:44
    And no one knew me thought I would have
  • 00:24:46
    in college and my early 20s.
  • 00:24:48
    It was mistakes, I had issues.
  • 00:24:52
    I still make mistakes.
  • 00:24:54
    A couple months ago I made a whole series of mistakes.
  • 00:24:56
    I'm a hunter, I love hunting,
  • 00:24:59
    and so I have these deer cameras
  • 00:25:00
    and they take pictures of deer that I want to kill.
  • 00:25:04
    Here's some of them right here.
  • 00:25:06
    These guys, man, these guys, I had their number.
  • 00:25:09
    I wanted them badly. Badly.
  • 00:25:12
    And going after these guys, I made a mistake --
  • 00:25:16
    I've never made as many mistakes hunting as I have,
  • 00:25:19
    a lot of mistakes, and probably because
  • 00:25:21
    some of you are praying that I don't get a deer.
  • 00:25:23
    I know what you're doing. I know, I know.
  • 00:25:25
    Some of you are really bothered I'm talking about this.
  • 00:25:27
    I probably should stop talking about it
  • 00:25:29
    because you're all praying, or many of you
  • 00:25:31
    are praying that I don't get a deer.
  • 00:25:32
    Well, God said yes to your prayer because I --
  • 00:25:35
    Actually He said yes to your prayer
  • 00:25:36
    of me not getting a big buck.
  • 00:25:38
    I got two doe's anyway because the meat is amazing.
  • 00:25:42
    Fantastic. Isn't it gamey? No, it's freaking awesome.
  • 00:25:46
    No, no hormones in it. Just grass fed. It's phenomenal.
  • 00:25:50
    Anyway, all kinds of mistakes.
  • 00:25:52
    But, you know, it's one thing to talk about our mistakes.
  • 00:25:55
    It's another thing to talk about this three letter word sin.
  • 00:26:02
    Sin is the truth that God has a standard
  • 00:26:07
    and I don't meet it.
  • 00:26:09
    God wants me to be here because that's where He is,
  • 00:26:12
    and I fall short of that glory.
  • 00:26:15
    Sin is there's a bull's eye,
  • 00:26:17
    and I miss the mark on that bull's eye.
  • 00:26:19
    We miss the mark on that bull's eye.
  • 00:26:22
    And here's the thing, no one wants to talk about our sin.
  • 00:26:25
    We want to talk about our mistakes.
  • 00:26:27
    We want to talk about our challenges, our problems.
  • 00:26:30
    All that's fine. But my sin?
  • 00:26:32
    And let me tell you why we don't want to talk about our sin.
  • 00:26:36
    It's because we don't understand grace.
  • 00:26:40
    The more you understand the amazing grace of God,
  • 00:26:45
    the more you embrace the powerful, mystical,
  • 00:26:48
    awe inspiring truth of the grace of God
  • 00:26:53
    that He loves and gives mercy as a gift.
  • 00:26:56
    The more you understand, comprehend, and embrace that,
  • 00:27:00
    the more comfortable you will be
  • 00:27:03
    talking about your sin and dealing with your sin
  • 00:27:06
    because your sin no longer is a source of shame
  • 00:27:09
    and something that scares you,
  • 00:27:11
    because it's cloaked, it's covered by the grace of God.
  • 00:27:15
    That's good news.
  • 00:27:16
    At any moment, if you want to clap, you can do that.
  • 00:27:20
    And maybe this is an entirely new concept for a lot of us.
  • 00:27:23
    You can't clap at all because, "Wait, I don't understand."
  • 00:27:26
    I know you don't understand this
  • 00:27:28
    because this is really, really strange.
  • 00:27:30
    There's nothing in our current cultural context
  • 00:27:32
    that helps us to understand grace and sin.
  • 00:27:37
    And there's two lies, if you will,
  • 00:27:39
    two lies that are on opposite ends of the spectrum,
  • 00:27:42
    but they're both far, far, far, far away from grace.
  • 00:27:45
    The first lie goes something like this,
  • 00:27:48
    and you may believe this, even if you've never said it.
  • 00:27:51
    "I'm an understandably flawed person
  • 00:27:53
    who just needs a few helpful spiritual principles.
  • 00:27:55
    That's all I need. We're all flawed.
  • 00:27:57
    We all make mistakes. I'm under --
  • 00:28:00
    And all I need is a few helpful spiritual principles.
  • 00:28:03
    I get them from Jesus, or I get them from Buddha,
  • 00:28:05
    or get them from whoever it is."
  • 00:28:07
    That's actually a line that comes from
  • 00:28:08
    the Christian psychologist Larry Crabb,
  • 00:28:11
    who spoke here at Crossroads some time ago.
  • 00:28:13
    He died a few years ago.
  • 00:28:14
    But this is kind of where normal America is.
  • 00:28:18
    We're that way like, "Hey, sin. Woo, hey,
  • 00:28:21
    whoa whoa whoa whoa, let's-- So don't. Stop.
  • 00:28:23
    Repentance? Whoa, whoa.
  • 00:28:26
    I'm not that bad. I'm fine.
  • 00:28:28
    I'm flawed like everybody else,
  • 00:28:30
    I just need a little oomph of spirituality."
  • 00:28:32
    Then the other extreme, it's also a lie,
  • 00:28:35
    goes something like this, "I'm horrible,
  • 00:28:38
    but I'm trying to work it out."
  • 00:28:40
    This comes more likely from somebody who identifies
  • 00:28:43
    as a Christian, somebody who goes to church.
  • 00:28:45
    We're like, "Yeah, sin, I get it. I am that.
  • 00:28:47
    I'm horrible. I've done some horrible stuff.
  • 00:28:49
    I am a wretch. I am a worm.
  • 00:28:51
    I embrace that identity and I'm trying to work it out,
  • 00:28:54
    trying to figure it out, trying to do all the right stuff,
  • 00:28:56
    trying to invite people to Super Bowl service,
  • 00:28:58
    trying to volunteer as a Kids' Club.
  • 00:29:00
    Trying to tithe, make a push for 10X commitments,
  • 00:29:04
    separate my recycling, all that stuff.
  • 00:29:06
    I'm trying to do all the -- all those things."
  • 00:29:10
    And all those things are fine.
  • 00:29:11
    All those things are good to do,
  • 00:29:14
    but those things are not grace.
  • 00:29:16
    Those things won't get us over our sin.
  • 00:29:19
    Constantly reminding myself that I'm horrible
  • 00:29:21
    and I don't match up, may be true that we don't match up,
  • 00:29:26
    but it's not true because God has grace for you.
  • 00:29:30
    He has love for you. He has mercy for you.
  • 00:29:32
    He has acceptance for you,
  • 00:29:34
    even when we don't understand how that could possibly be.
  • 00:29:38
    This is the core of Jesus message, in the book of Mark,
  • 00:29:41
    the very first thing Jesus says,
  • 00:29:43
    the very first thing He teaches when he goes public is this:
  • 00:29:56
    We've shared this before, and I'm going to give it again,
  • 00:29:59
    because sometimes we forget.
  • 00:30:00
    And this ties right into what we're looking at here.
  • 00:30:04
    All right. Let's say -- let's say we have a time frame.
  • 00:30:07
    I want to make this a little bit a little bit larger here.
  • 00:30:12
    And of course it just went away on me. There it is.
  • 00:30:16
    Let's say we've got a time frame.
  • 00:30:21
    Goes kind of like this.
  • 00:30:23
    Jesus says the time is at hand.
  • 00:30:25
    There's two words for time in the ancient world or in Greek.
  • 00:30:29
    The first word for time is chronos,
  • 00:30:32
    which is where we get chronological from.
  • 00:30:35
    It's chronological time.
  • 00:30:37
    So on our timeline, chronological lines,
  • 00:30:39
    time is that repeatable pattern.
  • 00:30:44
    Seconds become minutes become hours
  • 00:30:46
    become days become weeks become months
  • 00:30:48
    become years become decades become millennia.
  • 00:30:51
    Right? That boom, boom, boom, boom.
  • 00:30:53
    But that's not the word that Jesus used here.
  • 00:30:55
    When He says the time is at hand
  • 00:30:57
    He's talking about another word.
  • 00:30:59
    That word is the word kairos.
  • 00:31:01
    And that word is the sense of, bam, oh my gosh. Boom.
  • 00:31:06
    Something at a moment in time,
  • 00:31:08
    at a point right here, something happened.
  • 00:31:10
    So Jesus says the time has come, meaning, bam!
  • 00:31:13
    At this moment here the Son of God has come to the world,
  • 00:31:17
    God Himself has taken on flesh,
  • 00:31:19
    and the grace of God has become physical. Bam!
  • 00:31:24
    There are moments for you where something will happen
  • 00:31:29
    and you'll see something about God you weren't expecting to.
  • 00:31:32
    You'll feel something about God you haven't felt before.
  • 00:31:35
    You'll understand something you haven't understood before.
  • 00:31:39
    Tonight, if it hasn't been already,
  • 00:31:41
    tonight may be a kairos moment for you.
  • 00:31:43
    It's like, boom, something just happened.
  • 00:31:45
    What happens when we have one of those moments?
  • 00:31:48
    Well, let's follow the pattern, the pattern of Jesus here.
  • 00:31:52
    He says. Uh, He says repent and believe the gospel.
  • 00:31:59
    So what we do is that kairos hits,
  • 00:32:01
    we kind of circle up a little bit.
  • 00:32:02
    Go, "Whoa, whoa, let's go around the circle.
  • 00:32:04
    Let me -- let me think about this."
  • 00:32:07
    What has taken place here?
  • 00:32:08
    There's two parts of repentance,
  • 00:32:10
    he says repent and believe the gospel.
  • 00:32:12
    Gospel is good news.
  • 00:32:14
    Repent. Repent means to change your mind.
  • 00:32:18
    Repentance, the word there in Greek,
  • 00:32:20
    which this is written in, is metanoia.
  • 00:32:23
    Meta, change; noia,
  • 00:32:25
    which is where we get the idea of noggin or your mind.
  • 00:32:28
    Change of mind.
  • 00:32:31
    So when I'm going this way and I change my mind,
  • 00:32:35
    I go, and I change my mind.
  • 00:32:38
    And when I change my mind, I change my thought pattern
  • 00:32:42
    and I change my direction.
  • 00:32:44
    So when we repent, that means we do things,
  • 00:32:49
    like we reflect, we notice something, uh, we think,
  • 00:32:55
    what just took place?
  • 00:32:56
    There's mental things that are happening, maybe there's regret.
  • 00:33:02
    There's these things that happen in our mind.
  • 00:33:05
    And then when we refocus,
  • 00:33:08
    I could probably put that up there too, refocus.
  • 00:33:11
    When we refocus, we go a different direction.
  • 00:33:15
    Where you look is where you're going to go.
  • 00:33:18
    If you look inward all the time at all your pain,
  • 00:33:20
    guess where you're going to go?
  • 00:33:21
    Inward in all your pain all the time.
  • 00:33:23
    If you look back at your past all the time,
  • 00:33:26
    guess where you're going to live, in the past.
  • 00:33:28
    You're going to go in the past.
  • 00:33:30
    Wherever you look, wherever your mind's eye goes,
  • 00:33:33
    that's where you go.
  • 00:33:34
    So if you're going towards an area of rebellion,
  • 00:33:37
    not just a mistake, but an area of rebellion towards God,
  • 00:33:40
    you're going to go towards that
  • 00:33:41
    and you're going to go away from God.
  • 00:33:43
    And then you're going to have all other
  • 00:33:45
    kinds of things that happen when you go away from God:
  • 00:33:48
    loneliness, depression, sense of rejection,
  • 00:33:52
    a sense of isolation, a sense of powerlessness.
  • 00:33:55
    These are all things you get when you're separated from God.
  • 00:33:57
    No wonder we feel this as often as we do.
  • 00:33:59
    But when I change, when I change my mind,
  • 00:34:02
    repentance, repentance.
  • 00:34:04
    This isn't an idea of somebody on a street corner
  • 00:34:07
    who's holding a cardboard sign, who's yelling
  • 00:34:10
    and screaming judgmentalism at us.
  • 00:34:13
    Repentance is a beautiful word.
  • 00:34:14
    It's like, "Man, I'm going the wrong way.
  • 00:34:17
    Boom! I'm changing my gaze. I'm changing my mind.
  • 00:34:21
    And instead I'm going this way.
  • 00:34:25
    This is where I am moving. I'm changing.
  • 00:34:31
    I'm going from death to life."
  • 00:34:35
    Yeah. There you go. Someone's getting happy now.
  • 00:34:37
    Right. So I'm coming up. I'm coming up
  • 00:34:41
    and I'm coming around the circle.
  • 00:34:42
    And I come around the circle, my trajectory gets changed
  • 00:34:46
    and I come out on the other side.
  • 00:34:48
    This is what the gospel is. This is what grace is.
  • 00:34:51
    God enables us to do things
  • 00:34:54
    and see things that we hadn't seen before.
  • 00:34:56
    Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit, he says this:
  • 00:35:11
    You're all here today at whatever campus you're in,
  • 00:35:15
    whatever site you're in, whatever home,
  • 00:35:18
    bar or coffee shop you're in, you're in there.
  • 00:35:20
    And if you're watching it with anybody else,
  • 00:35:22
    you're leveraging this right now.
  • 00:35:24
    You are leveraging the power of a group.
  • 00:35:27
    You're experiencing something in a group context.
  • 00:35:30
    And in a little bit I'm going to give you
  • 00:35:32
    something to do in a group context.
  • 00:35:33
    I'm not going to tell you what it is right now.
  • 00:35:35
    If I told you right now you'd be really freaked out.
  • 00:35:37
    But over the next ten minutes, I'm going to soften you up
  • 00:35:40
    and you're going to find out what it is. Okay?
  • 00:35:41
    But this is tracing to this truth that
  • 00:35:45
    we have to do things of potency in community.
  • 00:35:50
    Psalm 32:1 says this:
  • 00:36:13
    When I kept silent, when I kept it to myself,
  • 00:36:16
    when I kept thinking internally, when I kept going inside.
  • 00:36:19
    But when I brought it out to somebody,
  • 00:36:21
    when I confessed to somebody,
  • 00:36:23
    when I brought it out into the light,
  • 00:36:25
    there could be health and there could be wholeness.
  • 00:36:33
    See, we have these these things in our world,
  • 00:36:38
    in our life that I think are very harmful.
  • 00:36:41
    We have these phrases that we've just taken
  • 00:36:44
    as normal phrases in our culture.
  • 00:36:48
    Phrases like you be you, live your truth.
  • 00:36:55
    Don't let anyone tell you
  • 00:36:56
    who you should be or what you should do.
  • 00:36:58
    All these phrases they're reminding us,
  • 00:37:02
    "No, you're your own person.
  • 00:37:04
    Just stay inside of yourself
  • 00:37:06
    and don't listen to a communal sense.
  • 00:37:09
    Don't do that at all."
  • 00:37:11
    And all of these things are outside
  • 00:37:13
    the power of community, the power of grace.
  • 00:37:19
    And when we do talk with somebody, we tend to
  • 00:37:22
    just keep rehashing the old things
  • 00:37:23
    and bringing up all the old problems.
  • 00:37:26
    I have a mistake, I do something,
  • 00:37:27
    something happens to me that shouldn't happen to me.
  • 00:37:30
    Like, I don't know, a gerbil peed on me or a gerbil --
  • 00:37:33
    A gerbil licked me and now I lick people.
  • 00:37:35
    Let's just make one up.
  • 00:37:36
    A gerbil licked me once, now I lick people.
  • 00:37:38
    And now we got, I got this problem. This problem.
  • 00:37:41
    It's not a sin. It's a problem. It's a mistake.
  • 00:37:43
    It's a pain point.
  • 00:37:44
    And so what I do? I talk about it,
  • 00:37:46
    I go to counseling about it,
  • 00:37:47
    they patch me up and I go, "Okay, good good.
  • 00:37:49
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I'm good."
  • 00:37:51
    And then something happens and I'm triggered
  • 00:37:53
    and I go back in, I go back in
  • 00:37:54
    and I start going this downward spiral.
  • 00:37:56
    So I go and I share it. It's part of my story.
  • 00:37:58
    It's who I am.
  • 00:38:01
    It's your -- It's who you are?
  • 00:38:03
    It happened in your past, but is that really who you are?
  • 00:38:05
    That pain is now your identity?
  • 00:38:07
    That pain is your thing?
  • 00:38:09
    So we go back into another self-help group.
  • 00:38:11
    We go read some more self-help literature.
  • 00:38:13
    We keep thinking about it. We go to another counselor.
  • 00:38:15
    We keep thinking about it over and over and over
  • 00:38:17
    and over and looking at it.
  • 00:38:18
    And I'm okay to go back.
  • 00:38:20
    I'm okay to look at things from different sides.
  • 00:38:23
    But let me ask you this, do you ever expect to be over it?
  • 00:38:27
    Do you ever expect it not to define you?
  • 00:38:30
    Here's the good news of Jesus Christ.
  • 00:38:31
    The good news of Jesus Christ is He meets us
  • 00:38:34
    where we are in that pain, and He takes us out of it.
  • 00:38:37
    He meets us where we are, where we are, and we repent.
  • 00:38:41
    We change our minds, saying,
  • 00:38:43
    "I'm not going to fixate on that anymore.
  • 00:38:44
    That's not going to define me."
  • 00:38:46
    I change my mind and I go another way.
  • 00:38:49
    This is the grace of God, and a lot of us
  • 00:38:53
    don't know how to live without that thing.
  • 00:38:55
    I got to keep saying that's my identity and that's who I am.
  • 00:38:57
    No. No, it isn't.
  • 00:38:58
    Well, what do you mean, you be you?
  • 00:39:00
    What do you mean you live your truth?
  • 00:39:02
    See, these are anti-grace slogans.
  • 00:39:04
    Those slogans say you can't change.
  • 00:39:07
    You'll never get over it. Don't try.
  • 00:39:09
    And those slogans are always said
  • 00:39:10
    by people who don't understand grace.
  • 00:39:13
    The power of God, the power of love,
  • 00:39:17
    the power of mercy, the power to do things
  • 00:39:20
    that you and I aren't normally wired to do on our own,
  • 00:39:25
    but when the grace of God comes to us,
  • 00:39:29
    we have capacities that are expanded
  • 00:39:32
    and we do bold moves, like maybe tell somebody else
  • 00:39:37
    and confess.
  • 00:39:38
    Not tell somebody, like, "Let me tell you my pain,"
  • 00:39:42
    but confess and say, "This is something that I've done
  • 00:39:48
    and it's sin and I need to move on."
  • 00:39:53
    That kind of kind of confession.
  • 00:39:55
    That, my friends, is very rare
  • 00:39:58
    which is why healing is very rare in our culture.
  • 00:40:01
    I'm not talking about physical healing, broken bones.
  • 00:40:03
    I'm -- Yeah, that too.
  • 00:40:05
    I'm talking about, like, emotional healing,
  • 00:40:07
    relational healing, physical healing.
  • 00:40:10
    We just don't see that kind of thing, like,
  • 00:40:12
    "I am responsible for my part and I'm going to say it,
  • 00:40:16
    it was sin and I'm sorry. Would you forgive me?"
  • 00:40:21
    Man, that thing I just did right there,
  • 00:40:24
    that's something you may have never said to anybody.
  • 00:40:27
    Have you ever said: I have sinned by blank and I'm sorry.
  • 00:40:34
    Would you forgive me? Period.
  • 00:40:37
    Not like, "But let me tell you my backstory."
  • 00:40:39
    No. Who cares about your backstory?
  • 00:40:41
    "No, but let me tell you why I did."
  • 00:40:42
    Why? Who cares? Are you saying you sinned
  • 00:40:45
    or are you trying to justify why you are the way you are?
  • 00:40:48
    This isn't about why you are the way you are.
  • 00:40:50
    It's about you getting to a new place,
  • 00:40:52
    a place has empowered us by grace.
  • 00:40:55
    In the book of James 5:15, it says this:
  • 00:41:18
    That you may be healed.
  • 00:41:20
    Healed of bitterness. Healed of anxiety.
  • 00:41:23
    Healed of depression.
  • 00:41:25
    Whenever I meet somebody who deals with
  • 00:41:27
    any of those things, fear, anxiety, depression,
  • 00:41:29
    the first question is always saying,
  • 00:41:31
    "Is there any sin you haven't repented of?"
  • 00:41:33
    I'm going in the deep end today, by the way.
  • 00:41:34
    Are you okay with this? Are you okay with this?
  • 00:41:36
    I don't care if you are or not,
  • 00:41:38
    I'm going to tell you anyway because I tell you
  • 00:41:40
    I have a heart for you and I feel for you.
  • 00:41:42
    And this is spiritual truth that just,
  • 00:41:45
    I don't know where else you get this,
  • 00:41:46
    unless it's a some sort of healthy, Bible believing church.
  • 00:41:49
    This is just the way you are,
  • 00:41:52
    and this is the way God has ordered your world to operate.
  • 00:41:55
    It's the way of grace.
  • 00:41:56
    And if you don't know this,
  • 00:41:58
    you're not going to encounter His grace
  • 00:42:00
    and His freedom and His healing in a powerful way.
  • 00:42:05
    Let me tell you about one of my sins just this past week.
  • 00:42:08
    I had to confess something to my wife.
  • 00:42:12
    It's not that heavy. Relax. Just relax.
  • 00:42:14
    Just release your -- Relax your butt cheeks.
  • 00:42:17
    It's not -- I know. Relax.
  • 00:42:20
    This is a relatively tame one. Okay?
  • 00:42:23
    I was coming home from work this last week,
  • 00:42:27
    and, um, long day. It was dark outside.
  • 00:42:31
    And I needed to get some gas in my truck.
  • 00:42:35
    So I pull up to the gas pumps, and there's a truck
  • 00:42:39
    like at the pumps right ahead on the one side of the island.
  • 00:42:42
    And it's a truck.
  • 00:42:44
    It's got like some junk in the back of it.
  • 00:42:45
    It's got some -- I can't tell if he's taking
  • 00:42:47
    to the dump or what he's got.
  • 00:42:48
    He's got some stuff in the back.
  • 00:42:50
    He's got the the back tailgate that's down.
  • 00:42:53
    He's got some straps in there.
  • 00:42:54
    And so I'm going to pull up behind him in the next pump.
  • 00:42:57
    And so I'm pulling up and I don't want to hit him
  • 00:43:00
    or that tailgate so I stop. You know, all good. Get out.
  • 00:43:03
    I start going back, put my credit card in, pumping.
  • 00:43:06
    And I see this guy.
  • 00:43:07
    This guy looks, we're at the same island.
  • 00:43:10
    This guy looks at me, he goes [gestures],
  • 00:43:13
    and he walks, he walks, he walks the back of his truck
  • 00:43:15
    and he goes like this. And then he comes back.
  • 00:43:18
    He looks at me and he goes, looking at me like that.
  • 00:43:21
    And he goes back. He goes back to his pump.
  • 00:43:24
    He's pumping and he's muttering, looking at me,
  • 00:43:27
    and like, wrong time, wrong guy, dude.
  • 00:43:33
    Especially when I look at you immediately
  • 00:43:34
    and I know I can take you.
  • 00:43:36
    Like, that's always -- that's always when you're bold,
  • 00:43:39
    when you look at somebody, "I could take you." Right?
  • 00:43:42
    So I'm just in a bad mood, right?
  • 00:43:44
    So I, I walk up, "What!? What do you want?
  • 00:43:55
    Plenty of room."
  • 00:44:00
    He backs down. Okay. Good. Fine. So I go back.
  • 00:44:04
    Go back and I'm watching him.
  • 00:44:05
    He's like swearing under his -- He's giving hand signals.
  • 00:44:08
    He's like trying to be sly
  • 00:44:10
    about how he's giving me the finger
  • 00:44:11
    by brushing his hair and stuff like that.
  • 00:44:13
    And I'm like, I'm going, I'm going, all right.
  • 00:44:17
    I was going to go inside and get something,
  • 00:44:19
    and I can't do that now.
  • 00:44:21
    I can't leave my vehicle here because
  • 00:44:22
    this vehicle will get damaged if I leave it.
  • 00:44:24
    So I just stay there.
  • 00:44:26
    I stay there and while I'm staying there
  • 00:44:28
    and he's getting done, he's done.
  • 00:44:30
    I see his truck go away.
  • 00:44:31
    Fortunately,
  • 00:44:32
    he goes the opposite way that I'm going to go.
  • 00:44:34
    And then it then it starts sinking in.
  • 00:44:36
    I have a kairos moment, like, boom, I realize,
  • 00:44:40
    "Okay, what is wrong with me? What is going on here?
  • 00:44:44
    Uh, I reacted like I wanted to get violent really quickly.
  • 00:44:48
    How tired am I right now?
  • 00:44:51
    What is going on in my life right now?
  • 00:44:54
    I know Jesus says, turn the other cheek,
  • 00:44:56
    and I certainly did not turn the other cheek.
  • 00:44:59
    What? That was really stupid.
  • 00:45:01
    I was -- I'm obviously not being like Jesus here.
  • 00:45:06
    This is -- I gotta unpack this. This is not good at all"
  • 00:45:10
    So I get done with my truck, I get in and I drive home.
  • 00:45:15
    And I'm thinking about it as soon as I go home.
  • 00:45:17
    So I go in, I see Lib.
  • 00:45:18
    I said, "I gotta tell you what happened."
  • 00:45:19
    Not like I just want to fill you on my day.
  • 00:45:21
    Tell you something funny and laugh about it.
  • 00:45:23
    And like, make you feel like your husband
  • 00:45:25
    won't get pushed around.
  • 00:45:26
    No, not that wasn't that kind of thing.
  • 00:45:29
    It was like, "This thing happened. It's horrible.
  • 00:45:32
    I don't -- I don't know what's going on with me.
  • 00:45:34
    I just it's -- I, I was wrong. This is sin.
  • 00:45:38
    I gotta, I gotta get to a new place."
  • 00:45:40
    Right? We had some good words and that was confession.
  • 00:45:44
    And I was looking forward to it.
  • 00:45:46
    I was looking forward to it because
  • 00:45:47
    I knew she wasn't going to judge me.
  • 00:45:49
    And I also knew God, though he was disappointed in me,
  • 00:45:52
    He wasn't judging me because He's a God of grace.
  • 00:45:54
    And I knew by bringing it out and talking about it
  • 00:45:58
    I would get a sense of healing,
  • 00:46:00
    I would get a sense of of closure from it.
  • 00:46:03
    1 John 1:9 says this:
  • 00:46:26
    When I say, we say, "I don't have any sins.
  • 00:46:28
    I just have some understandably flawed,
  • 00:46:31
    I just have some mistakes."
  • 00:46:32
    When we say that we make Him a liar
  • 00:46:33
    because His truth has always said, Jesus said,
  • 00:46:36
    "I, out of grace and love for you,
  • 00:46:38
    I've gone to the Cross.
  • 00:46:39
    I've turned the other cheek eternally.
  • 00:46:41
    I've gone to gone to the Cross
  • 00:46:43
    and taken the justice for you, so you don't need to.
  • 00:46:46
    So if you think that you didn't need Me to go to the Cross
  • 00:46:50
    because you're all good, it's all good,
  • 00:46:51
    then you've made me a liar.
  • 00:46:52
    I guess I didn't need to do that, huh?"
  • 00:46:57
    And Jesus says, "I did that because I love you
  • 00:47:01
    and because I have a purpose and plan for you
  • 00:47:05
    and because My grace is sufficient for you.
  • 00:47:07
    I want to cover you with My grace."
  • 00:47:11
    And one of the ways this comes out is with other people
  • 00:47:15
    and confessing to other people,
  • 00:47:17
    letting other people into your world.
  • 00:47:22
    Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor.
  • 00:47:25
    He died in prison as he was part of
  • 00:47:29
    a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
  • 00:47:32
    And he was in Germany at the time,
  • 00:47:34
    one of the very few pastors that had a backbone
  • 00:47:38
    and was trying to stand up for truth.
  • 00:47:39
    And he was doing that because he was motivated by grace actually.
  • 00:47:44
    He had a term that he coined called cheap grace,
  • 00:47:47
    when we take it for granted and we abuse it.
  • 00:47:50
    And it is in one of his reflections, he says this:
  • 00:48:02
    See, the pride of the flesh makes me want to say,
  • 00:48:04
    "Hey, I'm understandably flawed. It's just a mistake.
  • 00:48:06
    It's just that anybody would have done it.
  • 00:48:08
    You would have done it too, if you were in my position
  • 00:48:10
    and you understood my story."
  • 00:48:11
    This is what this is all pride,
  • 00:48:13
    which is another sin you could repent of, pride.
  • 00:48:16
    And he continues and says this:
  • 00:48:34
    Gift of grace.
  • 00:48:37
    Jesus's most famous story He ever told,
  • 00:48:40
    we've told her a number of times here.
  • 00:48:41
    I'm not going to go all the way into it,
  • 00:48:43
    but I'm going to look at an angle of it
  • 00:48:44
    that we haven't gone into.
  • 00:48:46
    It is in the book of Luke.
  • 00:48:48
    It's the longest story that He ever told.
  • 00:48:51
    It's known as the Prodigal or the Prodigal Son.
  • 00:48:55
    And again, I'm not going to go
  • 00:48:56
    into deep weeds on all the story,
  • 00:48:57
    but let me just give you this background.
  • 00:48:59
    I'm going to dig into an element of the story
  • 00:49:02
    that I really haven't unplugged too much.
  • 00:49:04
    Two brothers. One brother says to his father, says,
  • 00:49:08
    the younger brother says, "You know, dad,
  • 00:49:10
    I just don't want to be around you.
  • 00:49:12
    I would rather have my own stuff.
  • 00:49:14
    I don't want to work for you.
  • 00:49:15
    How about if you just pretend that you died
  • 00:49:17
    and you give me my inheritance right now?
  • 00:49:19
    Because I just want to go do my own thing."
  • 00:49:21
    That's kind of what all of us naturally do.
  • 00:49:24
    "God, I really don't want to --
  • 00:49:25
    I really don't want to follow You.
  • 00:49:27
    I really don't want to be in Your family.
  • 00:49:28
    Just give me the blessings that I might get someday
  • 00:49:31
    so I can go do my own thing.
  • 00:49:32
    Because I really don't want to do what You want me to do.
  • 00:49:35
    I want to go out and do it."
  • 00:49:36
    And so this father, representing God,
  • 00:49:39
    does what God does for all of us.
  • 00:49:40
    "You don't want to be with me. Okay, fine.
  • 00:49:42
    Go, go, go, go! Go away. Get your own life."
  • 00:49:45
    And so the kid goes out and he spends
  • 00:49:47
    all his money on wine, women and song.
  • 00:49:50
    And he finds himself feeding pigs,
  • 00:49:53
    which is a horrific thing in a Jewish culture
  • 00:49:55
    to feed something that's unkosher.
  • 00:49:57
    That's how low that he's gone.
  • 00:49:59
    That's how much he's sunk down.
  • 00:50:00
    That's how much healing that he needs.
  • 00:50:02
    He needs financial healing.
  • 00:50:03
    He needs relational healing.
  • 00:50:04
    He needs spiritual healing.
  • 00:50:06
    He needs physical healing because he's hungry.
  • 00:50:08
    And here's where the story, here's the story picks up.
  • 00:50:11
    But when he came to himself.
  • 00:50:13
    Came to himself. What does that mean?
  • 00:50:15
    Came to his senses. This is a kairos moment.
  • 00:50:18
    He was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
  • 00:50:20
    What is going on?" He has a kairos moment here.
  • 00:50:44
    He's practicing a confession.
  • 00:50:48
    Father, I've sinned against heaven and you.
  • 00:50:50
    Sinned against the constitution of heaven,
  • 00:50:53
    all the truth that's represented in heaven
  • 00:50:56
    and sinned against you.
  • 00:50:57
    There's no like, "But God -- But, but, but. But, father."
  • 00:51:00
    He's not rehearsing this in his mind, going,
  • 00:51:01
    "But, father, you know that I was frustrated.
  • 00:51:04
    And my older brother. Father, you know
  • 00:51:06
    it's kind of hard to do all the things you want me to.
  • 00:51:08
    Father, you know." That's what we do.
  • 00:51:10
    Like, we're like we're okay to take some responsibility
  • 00:51:12
    but I'm going to give you all the backstory.
  • 00:51:15
    Because my sin of pride is keeping me
  • 00:51:17
    from actually giving the real real.
  • 00:51:19
    But this guy, he's come to a place of like,
  • 00:51:21
    "No, no, no, I'm practicing. This is all on me.
  • 00:51:24
    Uh, this was just wrong." Verse 20:
  • 00:51:36
    This is our graceful heavenly Father.
  • 00:51:39
    He gives grace even when we don't deserve it.
  • 00:51:42
    Son doesn't deserve it. Son said I wish you were dead.
  • 00:51:45
    Son said I want to leave you.
  • 00:51:46
    But there's still love, acceptance, and grace available.
  • 00:51:50
    And the son said to him, he just basically says
  • 00:51:52
    what he has rehearsed:
  • 00:52:18
    He says -- his actions say it all.
  • 00:52:20
    He doesn't even have to say I forgive you.
  • 00:52:23
    You know he's forgiven when he says,
  • 00:52:24
    "Hey, put a ring on his finger.
  • 00:52:26
    That's my identity. That's the family wealth.
  • 00:52:28
    Put shoes on his feet so he can get up off the ground.
  • 00:52:31
    Wrap a cloak around him. That's his identity.
  • 00:52:34
    Wrap him in my identity. We're going to celebrate."
  • 00:52:38
    Because I'm not -- this, this, this, this man
  • 00:52:41
    who Jesus is representing as God,
  • 00:52:43
    he doesn't fixate on the past.
  • 00:52:45
    We fixate in the past.
  • 00:52:47
    We keep analyzing it and analyzing it.
  • 00:52:50
    We keep doing it. But no, He doesn't. He doesn't.
  • 00:52:52
    He's saying, "I don't need to talk about it anymore.
  • 00:52:54
    You came forward. You confessed.
  • 00:52:56
    Let's go, let's go. Chop, chop."
  • 00:52:57
    Do you realize you can have that with God right now?
  • 00:53:01
    Do you realize whatever you're done,
  • 00:53:03
    no matter what you've done, there is a grace,
  • 00:53:07
    graceful God, who wants you
  • 00:53:09
    to practice the grace of confession.
  • 00:53:17
    Here at Crossroads we're really holding out
  • 00:53:20
    and praying and working for the dream of an awakening,
  • 00:53:22
    that the Spirit of God would sweep across our land
  • 00:53:25
    and do amazing things in individuals lives
  • 00:53:27
    and in our culture.
  • 00:53:29
    Revivals and awakenings are somewhat similar,
  • 00:53:32
    identical to many people,
  • 00:53:33
    but I think there's some differences there.
  • 00:53:35
    A number of a couple of years ago,
  • 00:53:37
    there was a revival down in Asbury College in Kentucky.
  • 00:53:41
    College kids and other people from all over the country
  • 00:53:43
    were coming and worshiping 24/7 for on and on and on.
  • 00:53:46
    It was really, it was really powerful and profound.
  • 00:53:50
    At that college, Asbury College, it's a link
  • 00:53:53
    to the Methodist and the Wesleyan tradition.
  • 00:53:56
    It's named after Francis Asbury, who rode on horse
  • 00:54:01
    6000 miles a year on horse to go to pioneer villages
  • 00:54:05
    and share the grace of who Jesus was.
  • 00:54:08
    Somewhere like 26-30,000 miles he's logged on a horse.
  • 00:54:13
    If you've never been on a horse ride for a mile,
  • 00:54:15
    you have no idea, it is horrible. Horrible. Right?
  • 00:54:22
    Well, he comes from the tradition of John Wesley.
  • 00:54:25
    He was discipled, he was built into by John Wesley
  • 00:54:29
    that founded basically Methodism because of his methods.
  • 00:54:33
    And his brother Charles Wesley
  • 00:54:34
    was the musician and the hymn writer,
  • 00:54:37
    and John Wesley was the author and preacher.
  • 00:54:40
    Wesley would have 21 questions
  • 00:54:43
    that he would ask people to consider
  • 00:54:45
    as we considered our sin and our need for grace.
  • 00:54:49
    I'm going to share these with you.
  • 00:54:51
    I'll just go through them quickly,
  • 00:54:53
    because oftentimes we think of sin
  • 00:54:55
    we only think of like the big ones,
  • 00:54:57
    like adultery, embezzlement.
  • 00:55:00
    Those are sin for sure. That's big stuff for sure.
  • 00:55:02
    And there's grace that's sufficient to cover that.
  • 00:55:05
    But what about the other ones
  • 00:55:06
    that are just normal small sins of rebellion?
  • 00:55:10
    I say small, I say small because
  • 00:55:11
    it's never going to make the news
  • 00:55:13
    and normal people would say, "Oh, that's no big deal."
  • 00:55:15
    What is the big deal? Big deal.
  • 00:55:17
    Anytime we step outside of the standard of God
  • 00:55:20
    that's there for our freedom, it's a big deal,
  • 00:55:22
    it's a moment of rebellion. Here they are.
  • 00:55:24
    I'll go through them so quickly, 21 of them.
  • 00:55:27
    Am I consciously or unconsciously creating
  • 00:55:29
    the impression that I am better than I really am?
  • 00:55:33
    In other words, am I a hypocrite?
  • 00:55:34
    In other words, do I have a social media account?
  • 00:55:37
    Number two. [laughter]
  • 00:55:39
    Am I honest in all my acts and words,
  • 00:55:42
    or do I exaggerate?
  • 00:55:44
    Do I confidentially pass on to another
  • 00:55:47
    what was told to me in confidence?
  • 00:55:50
    Can I be trusted?
  • 00:55:52
    Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
  • 00:55:58
    Am I self-conscious, self- pitying, or self-justifying?
  • 00:56:03
    Did the Bible live in me today?
  • 00:56:07
    Do I give it time to speak to me every day?
  • 00:56:11
    Am I enjoying prayer?
  • 00:56:14
    When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
  • 00:56:18
    Do I pray about the money I spend?
  • 00:56:22
    Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
  • 00:56:26
    Our bodies are created by God,
  • 00:56:27
    He wants us to take care of it. Am I taking care of it?
  • 00:56:30
    Do I disobey God in anything?
  • 00:56:34
    Do I insist upon doing something
  • 00:56:36
    about which my conscience is uneasy?
  • 00:56:40
    Am I defeated in any part of my life?
  • 00:56:44
    Am I jealous, impure, critical,
  • 00:56:46
    irritable, touchy, or distrustful?
  • 00:56:49
    How do I spend my spare time?
  • 00:56:53
    Am I proud?
  • 00:56:55
    Do I thank God that I am not as other people,
  • 00:57:00
    especially as the Pharisees who despise the publicans?
  • 00:57:03
    Or especially the people who are in politics
  • 00:57:06
    on the other side of the aisle?
  • 00:57:08
    Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown,
  • 00:57:12
    criticize, hold resentment toward, or disregard?
  • 00:57:16
    If so, what am I doing about it?
  • 00:57:18
    Do I grumble or complain constantly?
  • 00:57:28
    We'll take about a minute to see if
  • 00:57:32
    the Spirit of God might do something in you right now.
  • 00:57:36
    Let me see if you have a kairos moment,
  • 00:57:37
    if you haven't already had one.
  • 00:57:39
    Just see if these, of these 21 things,
  • 00:57:42
    is your heart drawn to it or repulsed by it?
  • 00:57:46
    Is your mind drawn to it?
  • 00:57:47
    Let's just see if God may be speaking to us.
  • 00:58:27
    Okay. Here's what we're going to do.
  • 00:58:29
    We're going to give you the opportunity
  • 00:58:30
    to come under the grace of God.
  • 00:58:33
    We're going to give you the opportunity
  • 00:58:37
    to have some healing.
  • 00:58:40
    And you get to do this.
  • 00:58:42
    You opted into this thing today
  • 00:58:44
    because I think you wanted to get pushed,
  • 00:58:46
    and you want to get to another place.
  • 00:58:49
    And I'm going to give you the opportunity to do that.
  • 00:58:52
    You're going to get to confess.
  • 00:58:55
    You're going to confess to somebody right beside you.
  • 00:58:59
    It might be best if you see someone beside you
  • 00:59:02
    who you don't know, might be easier to confess to them.
  • 00:59:05
    This can be really, really quick.
  • 00:59:07
    And if you don't want to, just hold your --
  • 00:59:10
    Cross your arms and look down and people get the clue.
  • 00:59:13
    Now it's okay, maybe there's something else going on. Fine.
  • 00:59:16
    Well, a lot of us, this is rare for this.
  • 00:59:17
    You haven't done this before, but this could be
  • 00:59:19
    the thing that unlocks some healing in you,
  • 00:59:22
    some freedom in you.
  • 00:59:23
    This is a moment to experience grace.
  • 00:59:26
    So here's what you're going to do.
  • 00:59:28
    You're going to turn to that person
  • 00:59:30
    and you're going to say, "My sin is that I..."
  • 00:59:36
    You're not going to give the backstory.
  • 00:59:39
    You're not going to explain it.
  • 00:59:40
    This isn't counseling.
  • 00:59:42
    "My sin is that I blank."
  • 00:59:47
    And then the person who is receiving
  • 00:59:49
    they're going to say something really easy,
  • 00:59:51
    even if they don't believe this,
  • 00:59:52
    they're going to say this,
  • 00:59:53
    and this is going to be truth,
  • 00:59:55
    it's going to be real, real simple.
  • 00:59:57
    It's going to be, "By the grace of Jesus, you are forgiven."
  • 01:00:03
    By the grace of Jesus.
  • 01:00:04
    And then we're going to switch.
  • 01:00:07
    And then we're going to do something else.
  • 01:00:09
    So I'm going to give you, here we go. Um, yeah. Yeah.
  • 01:00:14
    It's time, it's time, it's time to step up
  • 01:00:15
    and do something you haven't done before.
  • 01:00:17
    Sometimes that's what spiritual growth is.
  • 01:00:19
    This the means of grace, so there's the script.
  • 01:00:22
    Find somebody. It shouldn't take long.
  • 01:00:25
    Person one. Ready? Go.
  • 01:00:42
    Okay, good. Good.
  • 01:00:43
    It's all you needed, person one. That's it. That's it.
  • 01:00:47
    I gave you more than enough time. Good.
  • 01:00:51
    Okay. The person who was the receiver,
  • 01:00:54
    now you're going to be the confessor.
  • 01:00:58
    So go ahead, person two,
  • 01:01:00
    confess to the person who just confessed to you.
  • 01:01:19
    By the grace of Jesus, you're forgiven.
  • 01:01:23
    You're forgiven, every one of you. You're forgiven.
  • 01:01:26
    [applause] Good.
  • 01:01:29
    I have developed a bit of a friendship with a guy
  • 01:01:33
    by the name of Dallas Jenkins.
  • 01:01:36
    He has created this series, the best series
  • 01:01:39
    that's ever been done on Jesus called The Chosen.
  • 01:01:42
    And I was reminded of this scene that he did
  • 01:01:48
    where there's a woman by the name of Mary Magdalene,
  • 01:01:52
    also known as Mary of Magdala.
  • 01:01:54
    And it said of her, she's one of
  • 01:01:56
    the early followers of Jesus, who is kind of
  • 01:01:58
    with the 12 disciples just hanging in that court.
  • 01:02:01
    And it said of her in the book of Luke
  • 01:02:03
    that she had seven demons.
  • 01:02:06
    Now I happen to believe in literal, actual demons.
  • 01:02:10
    So I believe it was just, yeah,
  • 01:02:11
    she had literally seven demons.
  • 01:02:13
    You could still get something out of it,
  • 01:02:14
    even if you don't believe that she had demons,
  • 01:02:18
    that maybe that was representative of seven things
  • 01:02:20
    that were dragging her down.
  • 01:02:22
    Whichever way you choose to go right now,
  • 01:02:25
    I think you're going to connect with this clip
  • 01:02:27
    as she is in this crazed state
  • 01:02:32
    and she encounters the grace of Jesus for the first time.
  • 01:02:50
    - Leave me alone!
  • 01:02:56
    - Mary.
  • 01:03:05
    Mary of Magdala.
  • 01:03:19
    - Who are you?
  • 01:03:21
    How do you know my name?
  • 01:03:23
    - Thus says the Lord who created you
  • 01:03:28
    and he who formed you,
  • 01:03:32
    "Fear not,
  • 01:03:37
    for I have redeemed you.
  • 01:03:41
    I have called you by name.
  • 01:03:45
    You are mine."
  • 01:03:59
    [sobbing]
  • 01:04:23
    - Do you need anything?
  • 01:04:25
    - Where is He? - In His tent.
  • 01:04:29
    - Should I wait?
  • 01:04:31
    - No, no. I'll take you to Him.
  • 01:04:52
    - It's not you.
  • 01:04:55
    There's quite a lot going on right now.
  • 01:05:08
    So it's good to have you back.
  • 01:05:16
    - I don't know what to say.
  • 01:05:18
    - I don't require much.
  • 01:05:25
    - I'm just so ashamed.
  • 01:05:28
    You redeemed me and I just threw it all away.
  • 01:05:33
    - Well, that's not much of a redemption
  • 01:05:34
    if it can be lost in a day, is it?
  • 01:05:36
    - Yeah.
  • 01:05:40
    I owe you everything,
  • 01:05:44
    but I just don't think I can do it.
  • 01:05:48
    - Do what?
  • 01:05:51
    - Live up to it,
  • 01:05:55
    repay You.
  • 01:05:56
    How could I leave?
  • 01:05:57
    How could I go back to the place I was?
  • 01:06:00
    And I didn't even --
  • 01:06:02
    I didn't even come back on my own.
  • 01:06:06
    They had to come get me.
  • 01:06:12
    I just can't live up to it.
  • 01:06:16
    - Well that's true. - [sobs]
  • 01:06:19
    - But you don't have to,
  • 01:06:23
    I just want your heart.
  • 01:06:26
    The Father just wants your heart.
  • 01:06:30
    Give Us that, which you already have,
  • 01:06:34
    and the rest will come in time.
  • 01:06:39
    Did you really think that
  • 01:06:40
    you'd never struggle or sin again?
  • 01:06:43
    I know how painful that moment was for you.
  • 01:06:45
    - I shouldn't.
  • 01:06:47
    - Some day, but not here.
  • 01:06:57
    - I'm just so sorry.
  • 01:07:02
    - Look up.
  • 01:07:04
    - [sobs] I can't.
  • 01:07:08
    - You can. Look at Me.
  • 01:07:18
    I forgive you. - [sobs]
  • 01:07:24
    - It's over.
  • 01:07:45
    [music]
  • 01:11:16
    - There will come a day that we won't have to
  • 01:11:17
    think about a confession message anymore,
  • 01:11:21
    because there'll be no need to confess someday.
  • 01:11:23
    In the moment it's just a regular discipline of grace
  • 01:11:26
    that we get to operate by,
  • 01:11:29
    and we need to be reminded of it
  • 01:11:31
    and see the beauty of Him and the love,
  • 01:11:34
    the joy He offers, the endless chances that He gives
  • 01:11:38
    because of His mercy.
  • 01:11:41
    So I'll close with this charge.
  • 01:11:42
    Why don't we all stand up? Let's all stand up.
  • 01:11:46
    I'm just going to speak the Bible to you
  • 01:11:47
    because this is true for you.
  • 01:11:49
    It comes from Psalm 103:10, and here's what God says to you.
  • 01:12:21
    Yes. [applause] That's the grace of God.
  • 01:12:26
    Walk in it this week. Live it, breathe it.
  • 01:12:29
    We'll see you next weekend.
  • 01:12:33
    - Brian just invited us in to confession
  • 01:12:35
    and prayer with the people around us.
  • 01:12:36
    That includes you. That includes me.
  • 01:12:38
    We don't want you to miss out on this
  • 01:12:39
    and you've got two options.
  • 01:12:41
    First, find someone that you trust,
  • 01:12:43
    maybe it's a close friend, or a mentor, or even your spouse
  • 01:12:45
    and have a moment of confession with them.
  • 01:12:48
    It might feel weird.
  • 01:12:49
    It might feel a little uncomfortable.
  • 01:12:50
    It probably will. And that is okay.
  • 01:12:52
    Just lean into it.
  • 01:12:54
    Growth almost always starts where our comfort zone ends.
  • 01:12:57
    Option number two, if you're thinking,
  • 01:12:59
    "I don't have anyone to do that with,"
  • 01:13:01
    we've got you covered.
  • 01:13:02
    We actually have an incredible team
  • 01:13:03
    that is ready to jump in.
  • 01:13:04
    Just head to Crossroads.net, click the chat button.
  • 01:13:07
    We have real people that are awesome,
  • 01:13:09
    the team that I get to work with all day, every day.
  • 01:13:11
    They'd love to pray with you and help you
  • 01:13:13
    take your next step in your walk with God.
  • 01:13:15
    Now, before we wrap up, I just love to pray for you.
  • 01:13:18
    Father, thank You that You give us confession
  • 01:13:20
    as a tool to greater levels of hope and freedom and joy,
  • 01:13:25
    and that it helps us just put things to the wayside,
  • 01:13:28
    like shame and guilt and fear.
  • 01:13:31
    God, help us to lean in and experience healing
  • 01:13:34
    and new life on the other side of this.
  • 01:13:36
    In Your Name, Amen.
  • 01:13:38
    Guys, thank you so much for staying with us
  • 01:13:40
    and joining us today.
  • 01:13:41
    Don't forget, next week is the Super Bowl of Preaching
  • 01:13:44
    and is going to be amazing.
  • 01:13:45
    Fake commercials, trash talk, bad officiating,
  • 01:13:48
    real truth, all of it. You name it.
  • 01:13:50
    Grab your friends, get your snacks, join us.
  • 01:13:52
    You don't want to miss it. We'll see you guys then.

Feb 1, 2025 • 1 hr 13 mins 53 sec

Recent Series