Redeeming the Past - Sermon Summary

Redeeming the Past – Sermon Summary If you could change one thing that has happened in your life what would it be? Something you said, something you did? A relationship, a financial decision, a time you were sinned against, or a time you sinned against another? Do you have regrets? What could have been? It tempts us to apathetically fall back into self pity, self condemnation, bitterness, humiliation, defeat, futility or to become contented with less than what God has planned for us. But thank God that He is our Redeemer and Reconciler. In the book of Joel we read how God’s people had turned away from Him. Because of this, as an expression of love, God disciplined them. Swarms of locusts were sent all over the land. Joel 1:10-12 describes the damage this way. “The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away.” For Joel’s agricultural society it is a picture of utter destruction. After the locusts had passed God called to His people to return to Him. In Joel 2:12-13 God speaks these words: “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” In Joel’s culture it was common to tear or rend one’s robe when you were sorry or mourning. God takes it one step further. It is not enough to tear the robes they are wearing. God is calling for a tearing or brokeness in their hearts. God calls them to repent and turn back to Him. Step one was God’s discipline. Step two was God’s call to repentance. Step three was God’s promise to make things right. After listing how He would restore everything He ends it with Joel 2:25. “I will repay you for the years the locust have eaten.” It was God’s beautiful promise of making up for the past. He would now redeem the time that had been lost. Although this verse was focusing on the damage the locusts had brought, we see the idea of God redeeming the past continue in the New Testament. What are your locusts? Do you have something in your past that has devoured precious, years, relationships, or opportunities? Can you think of things that you have done or have been done to you that seemed to have robbed you from the best God had for you? Have there been issues even in your character that have tainted your past? God comes to us today as the redeeming God. The reconciling God. God promises to work all things for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) Can that really mean all the things in our lives? We have a choice what to do with the past. We can be enslaved by it. We can try to ignore it. We can be freed from it. We can use it for God’s glory. Because of our past we will either move closer to God or farther away from him. Scripture is filled with stories of God taking imperfect people with imperfect pasts and doing incredible things in and through their lives but it depended on how they responded to their past. Peter and Judas both betrayed Jesus. Judas allowed his betrayal to chase him away from Christ. In response he killed himself. Peter let his betrayal and guilt turn him towards Christ and he was restored. We see in the book of Acts that God later even used Peter to preach one sermon that led 3,000 people to Jesus Christ. At the crucifixion we see two thieves being crucified next to Jesus. Both had committed crimes in their past. One’s heart is hardened to Christ. The other allows his past mistakes to move him towards Christ. One curses Christ the other honors him and gains eternity. Moses murders a man and flees into the wilderness to save his own life. 40 years later God has changed his character and uses him to free the entire nation of Israel from slavery. Rahab, the prostitute turns to God and helps the Israelites in Jericho. In the book of Matthew we see her listed as one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ. Matthew, a hated tax collector leaves everything to follow Christ. Eventually he becomes a writer of part of the New Testament. It wasn’t their past that determined their relationship with God. It was their response to their past. Life with Jesus Christ gives us an option. The past no longer has power over us. It might have been painful or even devastating, but scripture clearly teaches a new life in Christ where we are no longer slaves to the past. Where healing, forgiveness, and new life is possible. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a call to a new life and a new way of living. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Romans 6:4 shares the same idea. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. “ Our past impacts us, but it is our response to our past that shapes our future. Here are possible ways to respond to the past. We can allow our past to weaken our faith. “God isn’t good! God doesn’t love me! God isn’t trustworthy! God doesn’t exist! God can’t be trusted!” We judge our situation as if we know all things, but we can’t know the truth about our past until we have heard God’s perspective on it. As Joseph said to his brothers who had sold him into slavery years before. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done. “(Gen. 50:20) From a human perspective his life had been very difficult, but from the perspective of God everything had happened for a purpose. We can allow our past to embitter us. “I’ll never forgive them! I’ll pay them back! I hate them! I’ll never speak to them again!” We refuse to forgive because they don’t deserve it but in the end we are the ones who are held in bondage by our hate and bitterness. It is from the forgiveness of God that we able to forgive others. When we are sinned against we need to let it turn us towards God. Only there will we find the power to forgive and the freedom from our bitterness. We can allow our past to enslave us. We experience criticism or failure and begin to speak falsely about ourselves. “I am no good. I am defeated. I am condemned. I am foolish. I am unloveable. I am hopeless. I am worthless. I’ll never be worth anything.” We can believe a lie, or believe the truth. In Christ we find the truth. We are victorious and forgiven. He is the one who has already counted us as a treasure and rejoices in us. We can allow our past to grow our faith and spiritual maturity. “God carried me. God never left me or forsook me. I found God in the midst of my pain or anguish.” At times God uses our past to prepare us for what He has in store for us in the future. As written in Romans 5:2-3, “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Rom. 5:2-3) Difficult times in the past can lead us to experience God like never before as the Healer, the Provider, the Forgiver, or the Sustainer. Our past can then be a source of testimony for the glory of God. People can watch our lives and say things like, “How were you able to forgive them? How were you strong in the temptation? How did you come through such tragedy or failure? How did you love them when they hated you?” As we trust in God our response will give credit to God and how He has worked in our lives. Our past can also be a source of ministry to others. For example, one who has experienced an abortion can minister to others who are considering abortions. One who has lost a loved one can minister to another who has lost a loved one. All of us have a past that has shaped who we are in the present, but our response to our past will be what shapes our future. May we look to Jesus Christ and find in Him the forgiveness, the joy, the peace, and the forgiveness to face the future as we see a biblical perspective of our past. Never forget. “He works all things for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) May He redeem our past so that He may use our future.