Speaker 1: If you pull out your message notes now. In the
Speaker 1: first message in this new series on time to Dream
Speaker 1: and open doors, in our campaign last week, I gave
Speaker 1: you a dozen reasons why you have to know God's
Speaker 1: dream for your life. If you miss that message, you
Speaker 1: really need to listen to it. A dozen reasons why
Speaker 1: you're not living. You're just existing if you don't know
Speaker 1: God's dream for your life. But one of the things
Speaker 1: that I said is that God's dream for your life
Speaker 1: is always, always bigger than your dream for your life.
Speaker 1: The Bible says God can do far more than you
Speaker 1: think or ask, or imagine or even dream of. God's
Speaker 1: dream for your life is bigger than your dream for
Speaker 1: your life. That's why you need to discover it. That's
Speaker 1: why you need to develop it. But I want to
Speaker 1: pause before we go into the actual steps of discovering
Speaker 1: God's dream for your life, and talk to you this
Speaker 1: week about the biggest barrier that will keep you from
Speaker 1: God's dream. The number one barrier to your future is
Speaker 1: your past. It's your past because we tend to perpetrate
Speaker 1: the past. Now your past is past, it's over, it's
Speaker 1: done with. But a lot of people still try to
Speaker 1: live in the past. You can't live in the past.
Speaker 1: It's over, it's done with. But you can live in
Speaker 1: the present and you can prepare and dream for the future.
Speaker 1: So this weekend I want us to look at living
Speaker 1: God's dream despite poor past decisions, because I meet people
Speaker 1: all the time ago, Well, I think maybe I had
Speaker 1: my chance, but I've missed God's dream. I'm now on
Speaker 1: plan B or C or D or E, and I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't deserve to have God's dream because
Speaker 1: I so messed up so much of my past. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I should dream. Well, you're dead wrong,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad you came this weekend because we're gonna
Speaker 1: look at how to live God's dream despite past poor decisions. Now,
Speaker 1: the one reason we know that God's word is God's word,
Speaker 1: that the Bible is God's word is it always tells
Speaker 1: us the truth, even we don't like to hear it.
Speaker 1: It tells us the truth. And the first verse there
Speaker 1: on your outline, James, chapter three, verse two says this
Speaker 1: we all stumble in many ways. Everybody agree with that verse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're all in the same boat. Okay, we all. I
Speaker 1: looked up that word all it means all. Okay, we
Speaker 1: all stumble. We mess up, we screw up, we make mistakes,
Speaker 1: we sin, we have problems, we hurt other people, we
Speaker 1: hurt ourselves. We all stumble in many many This is
Speaker 1: one of the most obvious truths of the universe. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never met anybody in all my years who's claim
Speaker 1: to be perfect that they've never stumbled. No, No, we've
Speaker 1: all messed up in many ways. Just a couple other
Speaker 1: verses on the screen. Ecclesiastes seven twenty there's not a
Speaker 1: single person in all the earth who's always good and
Speaker 1: never sins. That includes me, it includes you, includes the pope,
Speaker 1: includes everybody. There's not a person on earth who always
Speaker 1: does what's right, always does what's good, and never does
Speaker 1: what's wrong. The Bible says it like this in Romans
Speaker 1: three twenty three. Yeah, all of us, all of us. Again,
Speaker 1: there's that word, all of us have sinned. Everyone falls
Speaker 1: short of God's glorious ideal. Now another way to say
Speaker 1: that verses all of us have sinned, and all of
Speaker 1: us falls short of God's original dream for our lives. Okay,
Speaker 1: we've all fallen short of God's original dream for our lives.
Speaker 1: Does that mean that that dream is now on hold? No,
Speaker 1: it does not, it does not. We all fall short
Speaker 1: of the glorious idea. We don't hit perfection. We don't
Speaker 1: get what God has dreamed for us. But this is
Speaker 1: why Jesus came to earth. He said this on the screen,
Speaker 1: Luke nineteen ten. I came, Jesus said, to save and
Speaker 1: restore what was lost, what's lost When we make poor choices,
Speaker 1: we lose our vision, we lose our dignity. We can
Speaker 1: lose our identity. We can lose our confidence. We can
Speaker 1: lose our joy, we can lose our peace of mind.
Speaker 1: We can lose our plans and dreams and hopes. A
Speaker 1: lot of stuff's lost from our poor decisions. But the
Speaker 1: whole reason Jesus came to earth, he said, I came
Speaker 1: to recover and to restore that which is lost. And
Speaker 1: part of what Jesus came to restore is God's original
Speaker 1: dream for you. He hadn't moved on to Plan B
Speaker 1: in your life. He still has Plan A in your life.
Speaker 1: He still has his original dream for why He made you,
Speaker 1: regardless of what has happened in your life, what other
Speaker 1: people have done to you or what other people have
Speaker 1: done against you, or what you have done to yourself,
Speaker 1: or all the poor decisions that other people you made.
Speaker 1: How do you live God's dream despite past poor decisions? Well,
Speaker 1: I want us this weekend to look at the steps
Speaker 1: because the Bible gives us a very clear pathway on
Speaker 1: how to get back on track, to how to get
Speaker 1: back to God's original dream even if you haven't been
Speaker 1: there for fifty years, how do you get back? It's
Speaker 1: never too late to get back on track with the
Speaker 1: original plan God had for your life. He hasn't shelved it.
Speaker 1: It's still in force in your life. So what are
Speaker 1: the steps to recovering God's original dream for my life
Speaker 1: even though I may have not even known about it
Speaker 1: until now? Well, there are six steps. I want you
Speaker 1: to write these down. Here's number one. The first step
Speaker 1: in recovering God's dream for my life is to honestly
Speaker 1: accept responsibility for my poor choices. That's where we start.
Speaker 1: I just go, I own up and say I honestly
Speaker 1: accept the responsibility for all the dumb choices I've made
Speaker 1: in life. Nobody was holding the gun to my head.
Speaker 1: Nobody forced you to make the choices that you made.
Speaker 1: You chose to make them, and I've chosen. And the
Speaker 1: Bible says we've all stumbled in many ways, we've all
Speaker 1: made poor choices. Now what this means when I don't
Speaker 1: when I don't accuse others and I don't excuse myself,
Speaker 1: which is what we typically do. We accuse an excuse.
Speaker 1: Since Adam and Eve, God's people and everybody has had
Speaker 1: this accusing, excusing, we excuse ourselves well well well, and
Speaker 1: we accuse others. We blame others. You've heard me say
Speaker 1: many times, you spell blame, be lame. Every time you blame,
Speaker 1: you are being lame. So don't excuse and accuse it. Now,
Speaker 1: there are many many examples. I could give it scripture
Speaker 1: on why we make poor choices. Let me just give
Speaker 1: you one. Uh. It is the time when Peter betrayed
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ the night before he goes to the cross,
Speaker 1: and Jesus even predicted said Peter, you're going to deny
Speaker 1: me three times before tomorrow morning. And in Peter's night
Speaker 1: before Jesus goes to the cross betrayal where he betrays
Speaker 1: Jesus three different times, he makes three really poor choices,
Speaker 1: but he does it for four very common reasons. So
Speaker 1: I want you to see these. They're all in Mark
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen if you want to read about it. Mark
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen is Jesus being betrayed by Peter. And there's
Speaker 1: fourth common causes. The first cause that causes us to
Speaker 1: make poor choices. Write this down is pride, pride, arrogance,
Speaker 1: ego egotism. The Bible says that pride causes us to
Speaker 1: make dumb decisions. Now we see this in the Upper room.
Speaker 1: Jesus is in the upper room with his closest disciples,
Speaker 1: the original twelve. They're taking the Lord's Supper together. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: at that moment, one of you is going to betray me.
Speaker 1: One guy pipes up, saying, no way, Jose, that isn't
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Who is it? It's Peter. And in Bark
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen, verse twenty nine, Peter in the upper room
Speaker 1: says this. Everybody else may stumble in their faith, but
Speaker 1: I won't. He's being set up by the devil right here,
Speaker 1: big big target on his back. Nobody else makes this
Speaker 1: boast of the twelve guys, but Peter, of all the guys, goes, Lord,
Speaker 1: all these losers over here, they may deny you, they
Speaker 1: may back out, they may wimp out on you. I
Speaker 1: know what you're about to go through. You're getting ready
Speaker 1: to be arrested and tortured and go to the crossmit.
Speaker 1: In no way am I going to back out. I
Speaker 1: die for you. He's setting himself up with pride. The
Speaker 1: Bible says Fennyman thinks he's not gonna fall take heed
Speaker 1: because he probably will. And the people who brag about
Speaker 1: their confidence the most are the ones who are going
Speaker 1: to most likely stumble. He said. Everybody may stumble, but
Speaker 1: I won't. It's his pride. Proverbs eleven, verse two on
Speaker 1: the screen says pride leads to disgrace, but humility leads
Speaker 1: to wisdom. Anytime I start thinking I'm a hot shot,
Speaker 1: I'm dead in the water already. Anytime I start thinking
Speaker 1: I'm invincible, this can't happen to me. I'm already dead.
Speaker 1: Given the right situation. You and I are capable of
Speaker 1: any sin given the right situation. If you don't believe that,
Speaker 1: you're already in trouble. Because the Bible says the heart suceitful.
Speaker 1: You lie to yourself, and I lie to myself more
Speaker 1: than we lie to anybody else. Pride causes us to
Speaker 1: make dumb decisions. Have you ever made a dumb decision
Speaker 1: out of pride? Don't give me your illustration, but I
Speaker 1: know you can think of one. Okay, number two. Second
Speaker 1: cause of poor decisions in life fatigue. Fatigue when you
Speaker 1: get tired, when you get warned, when your resources are low,
Speaker 1: when you're stressed to the limit, when you're hanging on
Speaker 1: and you're about to go under, you're at the end
Speaker 1: of your rope, when you're fatigued. Vince Lombardi, the Great Coach, said,
Speaker 1: fatigue makes cowards of all of us. And it does.
Speaker 1: The more fatigued you are, the more fearful you will
Speaker 1: tend to become, and the more controlling you will tend
Speaker 1: to be. Now, now, Jesus, Before he is arrested, he
Speaker 1: goes to this place, his favorite place to pray, is
Speaker 1: called the Garden of Gossemite. And while he's there, he
Speaker 1: takes the twelve guys with him, and he takes three
Speaker 1: of them, Peter, James, and John goes, you guys, come
Speaker 1: along with me. I just need you to be here
Speaker 1: with me while I pray. I don't need you to
Speaker 1: pray for me. I just need you to be with
Speaker 1: me the ministry of presence while I'm praying through what
Speaker 1: I'm going to face tomorrow, being crucified and tortured. So
Speaker 1: Jesus is there praying his heart out, and the three guys, Peter, James,
Speaker 1: and John all fall asleep and in Mark after fourteen
Speaker 1: verse thirty seven, Jesus wakes up, goes, guys, could you
Speaker 1: not stay awake with me for just one hour? Just
Speaker 1: one hour? I'm just ask you to stay awake with
Speaker 1: me for one hour. What's happened? They're fatigued. When you
Speaker 1: get fatigued, you're going to make poor choices in your eye.
Speaker 1: Never make a major decision when you're tired or depressed.
Speaker 1: Never make a major decision when you're tired or depressed. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the third reason people make bad decisions. Fear of disapproval.
Speaker 1: When you start worrying about what other people think. What
Speaker 1: will other people think if I make this decision? What
Speaker 1: will other people think if I stand up for God,
Speaker 1: if I represent Christ at my business site, at my
Speaker 1: job site, at my school. What will other people think?
Speaker 1: That's going to cause you to make a poor decision.
Speaker 1: The fear of disapproval. After Jesus is arrested that night,
Speaker 1: the Bible says this mark sitting before that, Peter followed Jesus.
Speaker 1: How at a distance? Circle that at a distance. He's
Speaker 1: following Jesus at a distance. Anytime you follow Jesus at
Speaker 1: a distance, you're gonna make dumb decisions. You gotta get
Speaker 1: as close to God as you can. You got to
Speaker 1: get as close to Jesus as you can. Peter, who's
Speaker 1: been right by his side for three and a half
Speaker 1: years now, he's scared to death and he's following Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's just following him from a distance. Are you doing that?
Speaker 1: Are you following Jesus from a distance. Oh yeah, I'm saved.
Speaker 1: I'm in the family of God. I'm a believer, I'm
Speaker 1: a Christian. But you're following God as a distance. You're
Speaker 1: gonna make dumb decisions if you follow at a distance.
Speaker 1: Why do you follow at a distance? Why was Peter
Speaker 1: following this? Because he's afraid if I get you close
Speaker 1: to Jesus, they might crucify me too. They might torture
Speaker 1: me too, they might arrest me too. And he's concerned
Speaker 1: for his own safety. He's following at a distance because
Speaker 1: he's worried about what other people think. When you worry
Speaker 1: about what other people think, you're always going to make
Speaker 1: the wrong decision. All right, here's the fourth reason we
Speaker 1: make poor decisions. Short term pleasure. Short term pleasure. You know,
Speaker 1: you're getting ready to go to bed at night, and
Speaker 1: you know, really probably eating a banana split isn't the
Speaker 1: best thing for me, but it would be so good
Speaker 1: while I'm eating it. And so we go for short
Speaker 1: term pleasure instead of long term health. And this happens
Speaker 1: in a thousand different ways. When people overspend on their
Speaker 1: credit card and they get deeper and deeper and deeper
Speaker 1: into debt. Why they're doing short term pleasure. I gotta
Speaker 1: have it, I gotta have it now. I got to
Speaker 1: have it now, even if I can't afford it. They're
Speaker 1: exchanging short term pleasure for long term pain. Now, here's
Speaker 1: what you need to understand in life. Put up with
Speaker 1: pain now, you'll have pleasure later on in life. Put
Speaker 1: up with enjoy pleasure. Now you're gonna have pain later
Speaker 1: on in life to pay back for all the things
Speaker 1: you paid for. It's one or the other. If you
Speaker 1: put up with discipline and put up with some inconvenience now,
Speaker 1: and you save your money, you'll have a lot more
Speaker 1: pleasure later on in life. But if you spend it
Speaker 1: all now short term pleasure, then you're gonna have the
Speaker 1: pain there. You're gonna have it one way or the other.
Speaker 1: You get to choose short term pleasure, Matthew, excuse me.
Speaker 1: Mark fourteen, verse fifty four, it says, so then Peter
Speaker 1: sat down with the guards and warned himself. At the fire,
Speaker 1: I imagine they were making smores. Anybody got a hot
Speaker 1: dog stick? Well, there are some weenies and have hot
Speaker 1: dog makemores? Is this fun? Jesus is being arrested and tortured,
Speaker 1: and what's he He's sitting sitting with the enemy around
Speaker 1: the campfire. Why it's convenient, it's comfortable. Anytime I place
Speaker 1: comfort before character, I'm gonna make poor decisions. Anytime I
Speaker 1: put short term gain over long term gain, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make poor decisions. Now, those are four common causes.
Speaker 1: Are a lot more. But we all make poor choices
Speaker 1: out of pride, out of fatigue, out of fear of disapproval,
Speaker 1: and out of short term pleasure. Now here's an interesting point.
Speaker 1: These four things that caused Peter to make dumb decisions.
Speaker 1: Jesus wasn't surprised by any of them. In fact, Jesus
Speaker 1: told Peter in advance, this is what's gonna happen. Jesus
Speaker 1: knew that Peter was gonna betray him before Peter did,
Speaker 1: because he's God. And he even tells him. And he says, Peter,
Speaker 1: before the rooster crows three times tomorrow morning, you're gonna
Speaker 1: deny me three times. And here's what he says. Look
Speaker 1: at the next verse. Jesus isn't surprised by our failures
Speaker 1: in life. Luke twenty two, Verse thirty one thirty Jesus said, Simon, Peter,
Speaker 1: Satan has asked to test you, but I have prayed
Speaker 1: for you. Satan has asked to test you, but I
Speaker 1: have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.
Speaker 1: So when you have repented and recovered, this is after
Speaker 1: you've denied me, I want you to strengthen the other disciples. Now,
Speaker 1: this is a very powerful verse that teaches us a
Speaker 1: lot about your failures. Okay, First, I want you to
Speaker 1: notice that Jesus knows every failure in your life before
Speaker 1: it happens. Okay, He's not gonna be surprised you're gonna
Speaker 1: have failures this next year. You're gonna make some bad
Speaker 1: decisions in the future. He already knows them. God knows past, present,
Speaker 1: future all the same time. So it's not like I
Speaker 1: go oh Man, didn't see that one coming, didn't know
Speaker 1: you were gonna make that one before you were born.
Speaker 1: He knew every dumb decision you'd make and I would make.
Speaker 1: Jesus knows every failure before it happens. Then notice next,
Speaker 1: Jesus prays for you before it happens, the things that
Speaker 1: you're gonna fail at, this next week, this next month,
Speaker 1: this next year, the next ten years. Jesus has already
Speaker 1: prayed for you. That's what he says. He's already prayed
Speaker 1: for the dumb mistakes you're gonna make, the bad decisions
Speaker 1: you're gonna choose. He says, I know what you're gonna
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. And not only that, I've already prayed
Speaker 1: for you. I've already prayed for you. And then notice,
Speaker 1: he says, when you have repented and recovered. He didn't
Speaker 1: say if Jesus knows you're gonna recover, Jesus already knows
Speaker 1: you're going to recover from the sins and the mistakes
Speaker 1: and the bad decisions that you're going to make in
Speaker 1: the future. He already knows, he knows what they are.
Speaker 1: But he also knows He's prayed for you, and so
Speaker 1: he knows you're going to recover. He says, when you
Speaker 1: have recovered and repented, and then he says, I want
Speaker 1: you to strengthen the other disciples. Here's the fourth thing.
Speaker 1: Jesus wants you to help others with what you learn
Speaker 1: from your mistakes. WHOA. Now we're getting somewhere. We're in
Speaker 1: this series. We're going to take six weeks to talk
Speaker 1: about God's dream for your life. Part of God's dream
Speaker 1: for your life is to take the lessons of your
Speaker 1: mistakes and help somebody else. The same four things he
Speaker 1: said to Peter, he says to you, I know every
Speaker 1: mistake you're going to make in life. I've already prayed
Speaker 1: for every mistake you're gonna make in life. I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna come back to me after that mistake in life,
Speaker 1: and I want you to help other people when you've
Speaker 1: come back. That's a comfort. That's good news because it
Speaker 1: means Ultimately, I can't destroy my own life if I've
Speaker 1: given it to God, because he is gonna work it
Speaker 1: all out. So the first step in recovering God's original
Speaker 1: dream is just a humbly or honestly accept responsibility for
Speaker 1: my poor choices. Yeah, that was a dumb one. And
Speaker 1: that was a dumb one. And that was a dumb one,
Speaker 1: and that was a very hurtful one. And that was
Speaker 1: an evil choice that I made. And I made it
Speaker 1: out of pride, and I made it out of fatigue.
Speaker 1: And I may have made it out of fear of
Speaker 1: what other people think. I may have made it out
Speaker 1: of choosing short term pleasure over long term character. Here's
Speaker 1: the second step. Now, I moved to the second step
Speaker 1: after I honestly accept responsibility. Number two, I humbly ask
Speaker 1: for God's mercy and forgiveness. I humbly ask for God's
Speaker 1: mercy and forgiveness. Now I don't have to explain this
Speaker 1: a lot, because it just means humbly ask. If you
Speaker 1: don't know what to pray, I would highly recommend you
Speaker 1: learn and read Psalm fifty one. Write that down. Psalm
Speaker 1: fifty one. Psalm fifty one is David's prayer of confession
Speaker 1: after he'd had a guy murdered so he could steal
Speaker 1: his wife. Pretty significant sin, adultery and murder and the
Speaker 1: same thing. And in Psalm fifty one, if you don't
Speaker 1: know what to pray when you need to confess to
Speaker 1: God something you've really blown up, here's what to pray.
Speaker 1: Psalm fifty one, Verses one to three, verse six, and
Speaker 1: verse ten, David said, have mercy on me, God, because
Speaker 1: of your unfailing love. In your great compassion, please wipe
Speaker 1: out the stain of all my wrongdoing, wash away all
Speaker 1: my guilt. Cleanse me from my sins, for I am
Speaker 1: haunted by my failures and I can't forget the evil
Speaker 1: things I've done. I can't forget it. I'm haunted by it.
Speaker 1: I know, he says, I know you love, complete honesty
Speaker 1: from my heart. So help me see what's deep inside me,
Speaker 1: what made me do this, what caused me to make
Speaker 1: this dumb decision. Help me to see what's deep inside me. Then, God,
Speaker 1: create a new pure heart in me and renew my
Speaker 1: spirit with the right desire. I want to do the
Speaker 1: right thing. I want to do what's right and restore
Speaker 1: the joy of your salvation. Then he says, I'll help
Speaker 1: bring others back to you too. Now I want you
Speaker 1: to notice that in this thing, David, in this just
Speaker 1: small passage, the whole chapters are terrific. He mentions eight
Speaker 1: things he asked God to do. I want you to
Speaker 1: circle them all. First, he says, have mercy. Circle that
Speaker 1: have mercy. And then he says, wipe out circle, wipe out,
Speaker 1: wipe out the stain of all my wrongdoing. Then he says,
Speaker 1: not only have mercy and wipe out, he says wash away,
Speaker 1: wash away circle that all my guilt, and cleanse me
Speaker 1: circle that cleanse me from my sins. And then he says,
Speaker 1: down a little bit further, he says, help me see
Speaker 1: circle that help me see. These are things you could
Speaker 1: ask God whenever you help me see what's deep inside
Speaker 1: of me. Then he says, create a new pure heart
Speaker 1: in me. Circle that create a new pure heart in me.
Speaker 1: And then he says, and renew my spirit with the
Speaker 1: right desires, renew my spirit. Circle that and restore the
Speaker 1: joy circle that. These are eight things you can ask
Speaker 1: God to do in your prayer when you have committed
Speaker 1: any kind of mistake or sin or evil or whatever
Speaker 1: you can say these eight things to God and then
Speaker 1: notice circle what David promises to do back. He says,
Speaker 1: then I'll help bring others back to you too. Isn't
Speaker 1: this interesting that David promises to do to God the
Speaker 1: very thing that Jesus told Peter to do when he
Speaker 1: was restored. He said, Peter, I know you're gonna blow it,
Speaker 1: but when you come back, I want you to help
Speaker 1: other people with what you've learned from your mistakes. I
Speaker 1: want you to help other people with what you've learned
Speaker 1: from your sins. I want to bring good out of bad.
Speaker 1: I want you to help other people. And this is
Speaker 1: exactly what David promises to do. Here. He goes, God,
Speaker 1: I have totally blown it, and I don't deserve any
Speaker 1: of this, but I'm asking to do this, this, and
Speaker 1: this because you're a good, loving God. And he says,
Speaker 1: you know if you do that, Then he says, I'm
Speaker 1: going to do what Jesus later told Peter to do,
Speaker 1: and that is he says, I'll help other people with
Speaker 1: the pain I've been through. Who could better help somebody
Speaker 1: through the pain of a broken relationship than somebody who
Speaker 1: went through the pain of a broken relationship who can
Speaker 1: better help somebody struggling with an addiction, then somebody went
Speaker 1: through an addiction. Who could better help somebody who went
Speaker 1: through a fiasco of a marriage than somebody who went
Speaker 1: through a fiasco of a marriage, And on and on.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that God says your past is part
Speaker 1: of the plan that I want to even use the
Speaker 1: bad parts in your life for good. You're gonna go
Speaker 1: through pain in life, don't waste it. This is the
Speaker 1: difference between believers and non believers. Everybody in the world
Speaker 1: has the same kind of pain. The differences Believers use
Speaker 1: it to help others. We use it for good, We
Speaker 1: redeem it. And God says, that's what I want to do. Now,
Speaker 1: I want you to write. I didn't leave you much
Speaker 1: room on this outline, but I want you to write
Speaker 1: down three important statements. If you only get this, you
Speaker 1: got the message. Okay, write these three things down. Number one,
Speaker 1: there is no Plan B for my life. Write that down.
Speaker 1: There is no Plan B for my life. You're still
Speaker 1: on Plan A. But but but what about? You're still
Speaker 1: on Plan A? But what but what what about? You're
Speaker 1: still on Plan A. God has not revoked his original
Speaker 1: dream for your life. There's no Plan B. You're like,
Speaker 1: but what about doesn't matter? What other people did to you,
Speaker 1: what you've done to others, what mistakes? What more decisions?
Speaker 1: You're still on Plan A number two. Write this down.
Speaker 1: My mistakes are part of God's plan. My mistakes are
Speaker 1: part are a part of God's plan. Now, this will
Speaker 1: set you free if you'll learn it, because it'll set
Speaker 1: you free to dream and stop thinking, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: worthy to dream, and I don't deserve to have a
Speaker 1: big dream, and I messed up so much. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, there is no Plan B for my life.
Speaker 1: My mistakes are part of God's plan. Look up here
Speaker 1: on the screen. One of those famous verses in the Bible,
Speaker 1: Romans eight twenty eight. We know, we don't guess. We
Speaker 1: know that God causes everything to work together for the
Speaker 1: good of those who love God and are called according
Speaker 1: to His purpose or his dream for them. We know
Speaker 1: that God causes everything. What's in everything, the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: the evil, the poor, decisions, the sins. Yeah, that's sins
Speaker 1: are included in everything. God causes everything to work together
Speaker 1: for the good. It doesn't say it's all good. It's not.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of bad in the world. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of sin in the world. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: evil in the world. It's not all good, but God
Speaker 1: causes it all to work together for good for everybody. No,
Speaker 1: not for everybody. Everything is not working for thegether for
Speaker 1: good for everybody, but only for those who love God
Speaker 1: and are called according to His purpose, his dream them.
Speaker 1: When you say, God, I'm giving you all the pieces
Speaker 1: of my life, he puts them back together in the
Speaker 1: right way. People said, well, you can't unscramble an egg.
Speaker 1: God can, God had created the universe, can do anything,
Speaker 1: he said, God can. God can do anything you think.
Speaker 1: You're God. He'll make it all fit together and work
Speaker 1: it together for good. That means I can relax and know, Okay,
Speaker 1: even my mistakes are part of the plan. And here's
Speaker 1: the third thing I want you to write down. God
Speaker 1: expects me to use them to help others. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about my mistakes. I'm talking about my sins. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about my embarrassments. I'm talking about my failures. God expects
Speaker 1: me to use them. The troubles and the trials that
Speaker 1: come into my life, whether somebody else brought them into
Speaker 1: my life or whether I brought them on myself. God
Speaker 1: doesn't really care about the source of your problems, he said,
Speaker 1: just says, I will use them all. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you cause the problem yourself from your dumb decision,
Speaker 1: or I don't care if the problem is caused by
Speaker 1: somebody else's dumb decision. I don't really care about the source.
Speaker 1: God says, I'll still use it for good in your life,
Speaker 1: and I expect you to use it to help others
Speaker 1: on the screen Tewod Corinthians, Chapter one, verse six. If
Speaker 1: we have troubles, and of course we do, it is
Speaker 1: for your benefit and salvation. When you have troubles for
Speaker 1: somebody else's benefit, that is called redemptive suffering. If we
Speaker 1: have troubles, it's for your benefit and salvation. You're helping
Speaker 1: somebody else with your pain. For when God helps us recover,
Speaker 1: then we can encourage you so you can patiently endure
Speaker 1: or the same things we did. This, by the way,
Speaker 1: is the twelfth step. In twelfth step, celebrate recovery is
Speaker 1: you're not recovered till you're helping somebody else. You are
Speaker 1: not recovered from your pain until you're helping somebody else
Speaker 1: with it. Are you helping anybody with the pain you've
Speaker 1: gone through in your life. Let me ask you a
Speaker 1: couple problems. Can you put that verse back up there
Speaker 1: for just a minute. If we have troubles, it's for
Speaker 1: your benefit. And then he says, then God helps us
Speaker 1: recover so you can patiently endure the same things that
Speaker 1: we did. All right, two questions. I want you to think,
Speaker 1: what are the biggest troubles you've had in your life.
Speaker 1: You're not going to think of them all right now,
Speaker 1: but I would encourage you to go home and think through.
Speaker 1: Rick said, think through what are the biggest troubles in
Speaker 1: my life that I've had? What are the starting from
Speaker 1: a little child, what have been the biggest troubles in
Speaker 1: my life? The second question I want to ask you
Speaker 1: is to consider maybe making a list of what have
Speaker 1: you had to patiently endure? What have you had to
Speaker 1: patiently endure a physical handicap, a mental handicap, a relationship
Speaker 1: that's broken. What have you had to physically or emotionally
Speaker 1: endure patiently endure? The answer to those two questions are
Speaker 1: a vital part of your life ministry and your life dream.
Speaker 1: God doesn't want you to waste your hurt. I've told
Speaker 1: you this so many times. We always help people more
Speaker 1: through our weaknesses than through our strengths. You have some
Speaker 1: great strengths, you also have some massive weaknesses. We're all
Speaker 1: a bundle of both. I've got some really great strengths
Speaker 1: in my life. I got some really great weaknesses in
Speaker 1: my life. We're all a bundle of both. And if
Speaker 1: I got up here and I tried to tell you
Speaker 1: all the great things that I'm good at, that wouldn't
Speaker 1: help you at all. It wouldn't help you at all.
Speaker 1: But if I get up here and I share with
Speaker 1: you how I went through this problem, and I went
Speaker 1: through that problem, and how I recovered from that stupid mistake,
Speaker 1: and how I made a progress even in my weakness
Speaker 1: in that particularly, then you go, oh, well, then maybe
Speaker 1: God could use me. That's the point. God wants to
Speaker 1: use you, not when you're perfect. God wants to use
Speaker 1: you now. And God wants you to use you even
Speaker 1: in areas that you have been embarrassed about. This is
Speaker 1: the power of the gospel. This is the power of
Speaker 1: the Gospel. That they're part of your vital dream that
Speaker 1: we help people not simply through the gifts and the
Speaker 1: strengths that we have, but we help people through the
Speaker 1: problems and the pain we have. One of the biggest
Speaker 1: pains in my life was the death of my youngest son,
Speaker 1: who took his life after struggling with mental illness for
Speaker 1: twenty seven years. I can't think of anything more painful
Speaker 1: for a dad. And I didn't ask for that ministry.
Speaker 1: But almost not a day goes by that somebody calls me,
Speaker 1: often very well alone, often famous, from around the world,
Speaker 1: asking for help on either mental health, illness or suicide.
Speaker 1: I didn't ask for that ministry. I didn't ask. I
Speaker 1: didn't think that would be a part of my dream.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna waste my pain, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: help other people. And if I gave you a list
Speaker 1: of the people who have, you'd be shocked. You'd know
Speaker 1: many of their names. But they figured out that guy
Speaker 1: must be safe because he went through it and he
Speaker 1: talks about it. What are you not talking about in
Speaker 1: your life? Number three? I gratefully accept God's grace and
Speaker 1: forgive myself big ending. I gratefully number three, accept God's grace,
Speaker 1: God's amazing grace. Okay, and notice, write this down and
Speaker 1: forgive myself, put that on it and forgive myself, because
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't do that. Last part Ephesians,
Speaker 1: chapter one, verse seven says this on the screen, Christ
Speaker 1: sacrificed his life's blood on the cross to set us free.
Speaker 1: Means that all our sins look at it, all, all
Speaker 1: our sins are now forgiven. And when were they forgiven
Speaker 1: when he died on the cross. That's two thousand years ago.
Speaker 1: When were your sins forgiven? Two thousand years ago? Christ
Speaker 1: sacrificed his life blood on the cross to set us free,
Speaker 1: which means that all of our sins are now forgiven.
Speaker 1: God did this because of his generous grace to us
Speaker 1: all right on the cross, Jesus. Christ died for every
Speaker 1: sin you'll ever commit, even the ones you haven't committed yet.
Speaker 1: So what's the daily implication of that? Romans eight one.
Speaker 1: We're going to memorize this verse up here on the screen.
Speaker 1: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong
Speaker 1: to Christ Jesus. Huh, Wait, shouldn't I feel guilty? No?
Speaker 1: What does that say? No condemnation for those who are
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. Now let me pause here. The reason
Speaker 1: I decided to do this message is I talked to
Speaker 1: a number of different people this week who are struggling
Speaker 1: with their past keeping them from dreaming in the future,
Speaker 1: and one guy told me a while back, a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago, said, you know, I know that God
Speaker 1: has forgiven me. I just can't forgive myself. A lot
Speaker 1: of people feel that way. I know that I'm forgiven.
Speaker 1: I know Jesus Christ paid for all my sins on
Speaker 1: the Cross. I just can't forgive myself. Now, let me
Speaker 1: say this to you. When you say that I can't
Speaker 1: forgive myself, you're saying that you doubt the power of
Speaker 1: the Cross. You're saying, I don't really believe God forgave me.
Speaker 1: Because if I really believed it, If God forgives me,
Speaker 1: who or am I to argue with God? When you
Speaker 1: are doubting God's forgiveness, then you hold on to not
Speaker 1: forgiving yourself because I still have to pay for it. No,
Speaker 1: you don't. Actually, not forgiving yourself is a sin because
Speaker 1: you're saying I don't believe that the Cross paid it all.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that Jesus covered all my sin. I
Speaker 1: don't believe that I'm totally free. I still got to
Speaker 1: pay for it, and that in itself is a sin.
Speaker 1: So forgive yourself and stop sinning. Did that makes sense
Speaker 1: that when you refuse to forgive what God has forgiven,
Speaker 1: you're really doubting the power of the cross. You're doubting
Speaker 1: that jesus blood was enough. You're doubting that salvation was
Speaker 1: not fully paid for, and so you have to pay
Speaker 1: for it yourself. You can stop nailing yourself to the
Speaker 1: cross because Jesus already was. He was hung up for
Speaker 1: your hang ups. So you got to forgive yourself. Now.
Speaker 1: Why does my sin, no matter what I've done, not
Speaker 1: invalidate Why does my sin not invalidate God's dream for me?
Speaker 1: Three reasons? I want you to write these down. Three
Speaker 1: reasons that there is no sin you can commit that
Speaker 1: invalidates God's dream for your life. Number one, because Jesus
Speaker 1: already paid for all my sins. Because Jesus already paid
Speaker 1: for all my sins, they were paid for before you
Speaker 1: even knew God had a dream for your life. First
Speaker 1: John two says this, when Jesus served as a sacrifice
Speaker 1: for our sins, he solved the sin problem for God.
Speaker 1: Not only our sin, but the whole world's sin. All right,
Speaker 1: So remember when Jesus died on the cross, he paid
Speaker 1: for the sins that you haven't even done yet. So
Speaker 1: he's already paid for all your sins. There's no way
Speaker 1: you need to pay for him. That's called double jeopardy.
Speaker 1: It's saying that that wasn't enough. Do you understand why
Speaker 1: we take communion to remember the cross? That in the Cross,
Speaker 1: everything I've ever done wrong was wiped out. All those
Speaker 1: words that David said, wiped out, forgiven, cleanse, purified, eliminated, forgotten.
Speaker 1: Number two. Second reason my sin doesn't invalidate God's dream
Speaker 1: for my life is because God's goodness isn't based on
Speaker 1: my performance. God's goodness to you is based on the
Speaker 1: fact that God is a good God. It's not based
Speaker 1: on the fact that you deserve it. It's just because God
Speaker 1: is a good God. So God is good to you,
Speaker 1: and it isn't based on my performance. Titus three, verse five.
Speaker 1: He Jesus saved us not because of the good things
Speaker 1: we did, but because of his mercy. So everything that
Speaker 1: God does good in my life is not because I
Speaker 1: deserve it. It's because He's a merciful God. Has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with me. Either earning it or deserving it,
Speaker 1: or working for it. It just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: It's called grace, it's called mercy. Third reason why my
Speaker 1: sin is not invalidate God's dream for me? See number three.
Speaker 1: God's calling and gifts are given unconditionally. God's calling, and
Speaker 1: God has a call on everybody's life. God has called
Speaker 1: you to a certain dream. God has called you to
Speaker 1: a certain purpose. God has called you to a certain calling,
Speaker 1: and he has given you gifts to fulfill that calling
Speaker 1: in life. And they are given unconditionally. You don't work
Speaker 1: for them. If you had to work for him, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't be called gifts. If you have to work for something,
Speaker 1: it's not a gift. That's a wage. If if you
Speaker 1: came and worked for me for a year and then
Speaker 1: I paid you money, I said, here's my gift. You say, buddy,
Speaker 1: that's not a gift. I warned that. A gift means
Speaker 1: you didn't earn it, you didn't work for it. God's
Speaker 1: calling and gifts are given unconditionally, and there you can't
Speaker 1: earn them Romans eleven twenty nine. For God's gifts and
Speaker 1: his are irrevocable. They cannot be withdrawn everybody. I want
Speaker 1: you to just look up here, and I want to
Speaker 1: say this to you. God's dream, original dream for your
Speaker 1: life is still in full force. You're not on Plan B,
Speaker 1: no matter how many times you blew it. And what
Speaker 1: I want to do in the next six weeks is
Speaker 1: help you live that rest of your life with that dream.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter how late in life you're getting started on it.
Speaker 1: It's never too late to get into God's dream for
Speaker 1: your life. It's never too late unless you just said
Speaker 1: I'm in and you die, then it would be too late.
Speaker 1: Just a little humor, there, we b a humor, all right.
Speaker 1: I know I'm driving this home, but you honestly accept responsibility. God,
Speaker 1: I'm not blaming anybody else for all my dumb decisions,
Speaker 1: for the evil things that I've done, for the mean
Speaker 1: things I've done, for the hateful things I've done, for
Speaker 1: the hurtful things I've done. God, I've not been a
Speaker 1: good person many times in my life. I've been selfish
Speaker 1: to the core. That's called sin. Okay, I don't accuse
Speaker 1: others and I don't excuse myself. Then I humbly ask forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Like David Lord, I need your clessic. I need your purifying,
Speaker 1: I need your forgiveness, I need your grace, and then
Speaker 1: I gratefully accept God's grace and I forgive myself. Extremely
Speaker 1: important because if you don't forgive yourself, you haven't really
Speaker 1: accepted God's forgiveness. All right, now here number four Two
Speaker 1: more things to get you started for where we're gonna
Speaker 1: go in the week's heead. Number four. Next, I generously
Speaker 1: forgive those who've hurt me. Of I don't really like
Speaker 1: this part. I like being forgiven, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to forgive anybody else. Well, this is part of the plan.
Speaker 1: Generously forgive those who've hurt me. Not only do you
Speaker 1: need to let your own sin go, you need to
Speaker 1: let everybody else's sin go too against you. Now follow
Speaker 1: me on this. There are three things that will keep
Speaker 1: you stuck in the past that will keep you from
Speaker 1: living God's dream for your life. Grief, losses in the past, guilt,
Speaker 1: sin in the past, grudges hurts from the past. Grief, guilt,
Speaker 1: and grudges will keep you stuck in the past. And
Speaker 1: if you let grief or guilt or grudges are all
Speaker 1: three come into your heart, you will continue to miss
Speaker 1: God's dream for your life. That's why I had to
Speaker 1: do this message on the past. You got to let
Speaker 1: go of your guilt, that's confession. You got to let
Speaker 1: go of your grudges. That means forgive other people. I've
Speaker 1: got to forgive other people. You gotta let them off
Speaker 1: the hook, just like God lets you off the hook.
Speaker 1: Matthew Chapter six, verse fourteen and fifteen. Jesus says this,
Speaker 1: if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly
Speaker 1: Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others,
Speaker 1: your father will not forgive your sins. What's he's saying here,
Speaker 1: He saying, we can't expect to receive what we're unwilling
Speaker 1: to give. We cannot expect to receive what we're unwilling
Speaker 1: to give. You have to let the people who hurt
Speaker 1: you off the hook. Not because they deserve it. They don't.
Speaker 1: They don't deserve it anymore than God letting you off
Speaker 1: the hook. You don't deserve that. I don't deserve that.
Speaker 1: You gotta let people off the hook so you can
Speaker 1: get on with your future. As long as you hold
Speaker 1: on to a grudge, as long as you hold on
Speaker 1: to resentment, As long as you hold on to a hurt,
Speaker 1: thinking you're hurting them by your bitterness, you're being stuck
Speaker 1: in the past. Your past is past. Those people can't
Speaker 1: hurt you anymore unless you choose to let them from
Speaker 1: your memory. And that's dumb. You don't forgive them because
Speaker 1: they deserve it. They don't. Forgiveness is never deserved. You
Speaker 1: forgive them because you go I'm not gonna be stuck
Speaker 1: in the past. I'm gonna get on with my life
Speaker 1: in the future, and whatever day is left, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make this the best days of my life. I'm going
Speaker 1: after God's dream and I'm gonna walk through those open
Speaker 1: do But you can't walk through those open doors until
Speaker 1: you let go of that bitterness, until you let go
Speaker 1: of that hurt, You let go of that pain, you
Speaker 1: let go of that resentment. You gotta let people off
Speaker 1: the hook, not for their sake, but for your sake
Speaker 1: so you can get on with the future. Finally, the
Speaker 1: fifth step, the fifth thing I do. I accept responsibility, humbly,
Speaker 1: ask forgiveness, gratefully accept God's grace, forgive myself generously, forgive
Speaker 1: those around me who've hurt me. Number five courageously face
Speaker 1: the future with faith. That's what this Time to Dream
Speaker 1: and Open Doors campaign. It's all about courageously facing the
Speaker 1: future with faith. And I want to close with just
Speaker 1: a couple verses, but they're very important verses. Courageously face
Speaker 1: the future with faith. In Job Chapter eleven, Job gets
Speaker 1: some of the best advice for recovering a dream, for
Speaker 1: recovering what has been lost in your life, for recovering
Speaker 1: God's original plan for you. Job eleventh, thirteen to eighteen.
Speaker 1: Here's what he says. Devote your whole heart to God. Okay,
Speaker 1: got that? Check reach out to him in prayer for help.
Speaker 1: Check if you get rid of the sins in your
Speaker 1: heart and your home. You got any sins in your
Speaker 1: home like some magazines that shouldn't be there. Get rid
Speaker 1: of the sins in your heart and your home. You
Speaker 1: will face the world again without shame. Circle that without shame,
Speaker 1: and you'll be strong and free of fear. Then you'll
Speaker 1: forget your past troubles. Hallelujah. You'll forget your past troubles
Speaker 1: and mistakes and sins and faux pause and all of that.
Speaker 1: You'll forget your past troubles like water under a bridge,
Speaker 1: your life will be brighter than noonday. And even in darkness,
Speaker 1: you're gonna shine like the morning. And now you'll have
Speaker 1: courage because you will have hope. I could spend twenty
Speaker 1: minutes unpacked on that verse. I want you to just
Speaker 1: go home and read it and reread it, and reread
Speaker 1: it and reread it, because all those things that do.
Speaker 1: If you do that, then you're courageously going to face
Speaker 1: the future with faith. The point I'm making is this,
Speaker 1: the Bible is full of people who got a second chance.
Speaker 1: God is the god of second chances and one hundredth chances. Abraham,
Speaker 1: called the Father Faith, traded away his wife that wasn't
Speaker 1: much faith in terms of Sarah, because he thought, well,
Speaker 1: they'll kill me unless if they so tell him you're
Speaker 1: my sister, Thanks, honey. Really confident in God. Right there,
Speaker 1: Abraham trades away his wife. Moses murders a guy. Jonah
Speaker 1: runs from his assignment, and the word of the Lord
Speaker 1: came into Jonah second time. Noah gets drunk and embarrasses himself.
Speaker 1: After he does the biggest event of his day, Ray
Speaker 1: abs a prostitute. David commits adultery and as his lover's
Speaker 1: husband put to death. Every one of those people I
Speaker 1: just mentioned are in God's Hall of fame in Hebrews eleven.
Speaker 1: God loves to give second chances. If you had to
Speaker 1: be perfect, none of us stand a chance of that.
Speaker 1: But we need to courageously face the future with faith,
Speaker 1: realizing that God just loves to give us chance after
Speaker 1: chance and chance. Do you know that in America there
Speaker 1: are seventy million Americans with the prison record. Seventy million
Speaker 1: Americans have a prison record. Every one of them deserve
Speaker 1: a second chance, because God is the God of second chance.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget I've told you this story before. The
Speaker 1: one time I was preaching in a prison in northern
Speaker 1: California and there are several thousand prisoners out on the yard,
Speaker 1: and they gave me a live microphone, but nobody was
Speaker 1: asked to pay attention. So there's guys over here playing basketball,
Speaker 1: and there's different gangs sorted out over this huge football
Speaker 1: stadium sized field, and I just needed to get their attention.
Speaker 1: So I pulled out out of my wallet a fifty
Speaker 1: dollars bill and I held it up, say anybody liked
Speaker 1: this fifty dollars bill. Four thousand hands went up. I
Speaker 1: crumpled it all up. Anybody still wanted four thousand hands
Speaker 1: go up. I took it and I tore little tears
Speaker 1: in it. I put it on the ground. I stamped
Speaker 1: it into the ground and dirt. I picked it up,
Speaker 1: I spit on it. Anybody still want it? Four thousand
Speaker 1: hands went up when I said, many of you, this
Speaker 1: is what your daddy did to you, or society did
Speaker 1: to you. And you've been spit on, and you've been
Speaker 1: put down, and maybe you've even been the victim of racism,
Speaker 1: and you've done stupid things yourself. That's why you're here.
Speaker 1: You've made some bad choices too, and you've gotten beaten,
Speaker 1: and you've gotten torn, and you've got gotten dirty. But
Speaker 1: you have not lost one cent of your value to God.
Speaker 1: Now that's got everybody's attention. I don't know what you've
Speaker 1: done stupid in your life, but you have not lost
Speaker 1: one cent of your value to God. When Christ died
Speaker 1: on the cross, when he died on the cross, he
Speaker 1: was saying, this is how much I care about you,
Speaker 1: This is how much I love you. This is how
Speaker 1: much we're still on track. The dream is not invalidated
Speaker 1: by your sin. I still have plan a for your life,
Speaker 1: because I say, all things work together for the good
Speaker 1: of God, even the good of those who love God
Speaker 1: called according to this purpose. Not everything's good, but even
Speaker 1: your dumb sins, I'll weave them into the plan, and
Speaker 1: the dark threads and the light threads, and that will
Speaker 1: make a beautiful tapestry out of it all. But if
Speaker 1: we're going to go where I want to take you
Speaker 1: as a church family in the next weeks, we're going
Speaker 1: to have to shut the door on the past. Today.
Speaker 1: You're going to have to give up your grief, give
Speaker 1: up your guilt, and give up your grudges so we
Speaker 1: can move forward together. This is what Jesus wants us
Speaker 1: to do. One other verse Isaiah forty three, Verses eighteen
Speaker 1: and nineteen. Forget the former things and do not dwell
Speaker 1: on the past. See I'm doing a new thing now.
Speaker 1: It is springing up. Do you not perceive it. I'll
Speaker 1: make a pathway through the wilderness, and I'll create streams
Speaker 1: where there's been a wasteland. Your past is passed. That's interesting.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that we're to learn from the past.
Speaker 1: We're to celebrate the victories of the past. We're to
Speaker 1: learn the lessons of the past. We spend an entire
Speaker 1: month talking about the past of Saddleback Church and what
Speaker 1: God has done and celebrating that. But we can't live
Speaker 1: in the past. He said, you got to let that go.
Speaker 1: All the pastes prologue. We're moving into the future. It's
Speaker 1: time to dream, and I'm opening doors that no man
Speaker 1: can shut. And all your future, all your life, is
Speaker 1: in the future. You know, it's interesting. I started with
Speaker 1: Peter and his big three failures in life, his big
Speaker 1: three you know, betrayals. After Peter's big fail Jesus went
Speaker 1: out of his way to affirm him. In fact, on
Speaker 1: Easter Morning, the first people who learned that Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: had risen from the dead were the women who had
Speaker 1: gone there to prepare it the body, Mary Magdalene, Mary Saloon,
Speaker 1: the others. And the Bible says this that the Angel
Speaker 1: said to the women, Jesus is alive. He's risen from death.
Speaker 1: Now go tell the disciples and especially Peter. Why did
Speaker 1: God make sure that Peter was mentioned by name, because
Speaker 1: he was the one carrying the most guilt from two
Speaker 1: nights before. Go tell my disciples and tell Peter, because
Speaker 1: I love that guy. Yeah, he blew it. He blew it.
Speaker 1: He really blew it. But I love that guy. Go
Speaker 1: tell my disciples and tell Peter. He knows your name.
Speaker 1: He said. It's ok, Peter, all is forgiven. Come on home.
Speaker 1: He singles out. Peter, the one who was the biggest failure,
Speaker 1: and not fifty days later, that's the guy God chooses
Speaker 1: to preach on the day of Pentecost on the first
Speaker 1: day of the church, and three thousand people are saved.
Speaker 1: He chose the biggest failure for the greatest message. About
Speaker 1: a week later, after the resurrection, Peter and his friends
Speaker 1: have gone back fishing again on Siagali. Jesus comes walking
Speaker 1: by says, come on in, bring the fish in. We'll
Speaker 1: cook you some breakfast. When he sits there and they
Speaker 1: eat breakfast together, which, by the way, ghosts don't eat.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't a ghost. It wasn't an apparition, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a vision. It's Jesus in the flesh. He's they're eating.
Speaker 1: They're having fish and chips, okay. And Jesus says this
Speaker 1: after eating breakfast. John twenty one. After eating breakfast of them,
Speaker 1: Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon, do you love me
Speaker 1: more than these the rest of the disciples. Yes, Lord
Speaker 1: Peter replied, you know I love you, and Jesus said,
Speaker 1: then feed my lambs. Then Jesus repeated the question, Simon,
Speaker 1: do you love me? Yes, Lord Peter said, you know
Speaker 1: you know I love you. Then take care of my sheep,
Speaker 1: Jesus said. Then a third time, Jesus asked Peter Simon,
Speaker 1: the son of John, do you truly love me? Now?
Speaker 1: Peter's hurt that Jesus asked the question the third time.
Speaker 1: They said, Lord Lord, you know everything. You know that
Speaker 1: I who love you. Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. Now,
Speaker 1: what's going on here? That Jesus asked this question three times?
Speaker 1: He's giving the one who denied him three times the
Speaker 1: opportunity to affirm him three times. Peter, who had denied
Speaker 1: Jesus three times, now Jesus three times asks him, and
Speaker 1: he lets him say it, and say it and say it.
Speaker 1: He was reaffirming the affirmation to overcome the three denials,
Speaker 1: but he was also doing something else. He wanted to
Speaker 1: reinforce what he had said before it even happened. He said,
Speaker 1: when you recover, you're to use your pain. You're to
Speaker 1: use your sin. You're to use your mistakes to help
Speaker 1: other people. That's part of my dream for your life.
Speaker 1: And he wants to reinforce use your mistakes and pain
Speaker 1: to help others. Now here's your homework for this week.
Speaker 1: Week of Time to Dream one. I want you to
Speaker 1: say and place the Covenant prayer tint where you can
Speaker 1: see it in your program. There is a card that
Speaker 1: looks like this. Everybody pull us out. Everybody pull this
Speaker 1: out and it folds. You can fold the bottom parts
Speaker 1: like this, the bottoms and you pull it and then
Speaker 1: you put it together and it makes a little tint.
Speaker 1: I want you to put this where you will see
Speaker 1: it every day for the next forty days. All right,
Speaker 1: pull it out. I want you to put it together.
Speaker 1: And on one side are our five goals doors, and
Speaker 1: on the other side is the time to Dream Covenant.
Speaker 1: All right. It says God can do far more than
Speaker 1: you imagine. A request or dream my covenant forty two
Speaker 1: days from February twenty third to April fifth, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: because I want to know God's dream for my life,
Speaker 1: because I want to grow stronger spiritually, because I want
Speaker 1: to support my church family, and be supported by them.
Speaker 1: I commit to the five Time to Dream habits for
Speaker 1: the next forty two days. I'm not asking to do
Speaker 1: this the rest of your life. I'm asking you to
Speaker 1: do it for forty two days. Number one, I will
Speaker 1: listen to all the Time to Dream weekend messages, either
Speaker 1: live or online. If you missed last week, you need
Speaker 1: to go listen to it. Number two, I'll read the
Speaker 1: daily Open Doors devotional. This is the new book, and
Speaker 1: you'll read the weekly. This week you're going to read
Speaker 1: February twenty three to twenty nine. I will participate in
Speaker 1: the Time to Dream small groups study. And this week
Speaker 1: you're going to look at the second open door, which
Speaker 1: is the door to authentic relationships. I will ask what
Speaker 1: my part should be in our twenty twenty vision offering,
Speaker 1: which we're going to do Easter week. And Number five,
Speaker 1: I will pray for everyone else participating in our church family,
Speaker 1: knowing that they're praying for me. I've already signed mine
Speaker 1: right there. I want you to sign it. I want
Speaker 1: you to put it where you'll see it every day,
Speaker 1: and you can pray for others, knowing that everybody else
Speaker 1: in our family is praying for you. What's power heads.
Speaker 1: You are a good and gracious God. Your plans never change.
Speaker 1: Our sins cannot change your plans and dreams for our lives.
Speaker 1: Thank you. May we take these steps this week. You've
Speaker 1: never opened your life to Jesus Christ. Say, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: come into my life right now. I want to follow you.
Speaker 1: I want to trust you. I want to know your
Speaker 1: dream for my life. I acknowledge, I admit that I've
Speaker 1: made a lot of sins and mistakes in my life
Speaker 1: and I need your forgiveness. Then I thank you for
Speaker 1: your grace and your mercy. Help me to forgive the
Speaker 1: people who've hurt me, and help me to step out
Speaker 1: in faith in the next forty two days. I pray
Speaker 1: it in your name, Amen, Bless you.