Crossroads at Baggage Boulevard - Six Crossroads for the Journey Ahead

Dave, can you go to the back? There's a backpack right in front of the table there. Um you know me and my memory. Um could you just put it on, bring it up here? Yeah, how are we doing? What? It's heavy. It's heavy? What do you mean it's heavy? A snack? Really? Well, put it down. That's some snack, baby. Well yeah, oh I forgot to tell you. Yeah, this is um you might say this is a rock concert. Yeah, thank you, David. I'm sorry to make you a victim. I'm I'm sorta sorry. Guys, yeah, I don't know where you open this thing. It's not mine. But um believe me, it's rocks. There. Okay I think I just broke something, my toe. So, now listen, how would you like to go running with that baby, huh? Would you like to be in a race? Do a little uh little uh oh uh 4 440 or uh what no no you probably wouldn't because you could not get run hardly at all with that backpack Many of us have a backpack of rocks, of stuff that we have buried, and stuff that we have carried for too long. And this is a crossroads. Because to deal with it and to unpack those rocks is critical to whether you're going to be able to run victoriously. You cannot run victoriously with all that past stuff in the backpack. And we're going to talk about two basically encumbrances that threaten all the other crossroads decisions you might make. Before the new thing God has for you You have to remember, forget the former things and do not dwell on the past. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is um how to get ready for the run of a lifetime. Since we now Paul is looking at an Olympic image here back from the Greek Olympics of his day. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, people who went before us, who were going, you can do it, we did it, you can do it, let us throw off Everything that hinders. That's what the stuff of our past does. It's slowing us down. That hinders. And the sin that so easily entangles trips you up every time. And let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us. How do you do that? Fixing our eyes on Jesus. He started our faith, he's the perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. So you can run with endurance. He did the hard thing. We can do the hard thing for him. Unpacking rocks that we have carried or buried too long. You ready for the two encumbrances? We are on the threshold of this journey ahead, and both of these have the same effect. They cause you to look at life through a dirty window. Yeah. Now if you have a really dirty window and you look through that, you go, boy, it's really dingy out today, isn't it? It's really dark today. No, it is not dark today. The window's dark. And some of us, because of what we've not dealt with from the past That's why before the new thing, he says, you've got to do something about that past. Or it will be clouds over the new thing. And so your dirty window and you look through stuff, you look through the undealt with, the buried and the carried stuff, and everything looks dark. There's something called confirmation bias. How many of you have heard of that? That's and let me let me tell you what that is. We do it, we may not know the name for it, they've given it a fancy name now. It's the type of cognitive bias. that favors information that confirms your previous existing beliefs and biases. So if you've already got a negative view of something, you will tend to add everything that happens to you, you'll say, oh see, there it goes again. Yeah, that always happens to me. Yeah, you know Louie. He's a creep. So you know what? He's being a creep again. So nobody can change. You won't let anybody change. Because you have confirmation bias. All the things happen to you. You just have a because you've got this negative filter. You're looking through a dark window. So You're trapped in this cycle of dark in certain parts of your consciousness. That's how it works. Well, thanks to Jesus, I got good news for you. You can be free of the baggage, and you can run the rest of your life unhindered. So tonight's about hope. So we're crossroads number five. Two choices. Let it go or let it grow. These things will do one or the other. They will not stand still. You let it go or you let it grow? Now what you'll need to let it go is yours for the asking And you know where you get it? The most powerful place in the universe. Hebrews 4. 16. Let us then approach God's throne. Of what? Oh, grace! That's what I thought. Throne of grace with confidence. So we may receive mercy. And find grace to help us in our time of need. Customize grace for your time of need. This is the place, the God's throne room is where you unleash grace. It's where you tap into an ocean of grace, which makes available changes and freedom that you never otherwise could experience. It's the amazing power of grace. And for the first encumbrance we're going to talk about, you're going to need to receive grace. You'll see what I mean in a minute. For the second one, you're going to need to give grace. So you're going to need grace to unload both of these. Here's the first encumbrance. I just call it unworthiness. A persistent sense of unworthiness. You know where it comes from? Failure. Failure and we all have failed. And when I say failure, I don't know what you think of. Marriage. Feel like you failed? Your kids? Your grandkids? Ministry. Promises you made to God. Failure We all deal with it. I wish I had. I wish I hadn't. If you've ever lost anybody close to you, you know that one of the things that makes grief worse is regrets. Some of you are nodding your head, you know that. She's buried in a little cemetery across the road from our our headquarters And we call it, we don't call it the cemetery, we call it the rapture launch pad, which is a more accurate description of what it is. But I remember standing there and thinking of some of my regrets. I wish I had. I wish I hadn't. I always told Karen, I want to make you smile. My greatest joy is to make you smile. I didn't always And I remember talking to Jesus there and leaving those regrets at the cross. Because I couldn't change those, but I could be released by his forgiving. I had to go to the grace place and unleash some grace on my failures. So here's the problem. Failure lies to us. And it makes us believe some things that are wrong. Number one, I'm a failure. You may have failed, but fail your is not your identity. Don't ever say, I am a failure. You can say I failed, but you cannot biblically say I am a failure. That means that's what your ID card says. Failure Hutchcraft. It's not who you are. I know you feel defeated. You feel guilty. You feel damaged. You feel ashamed By the way, sometimes God uses our failures, and sometimes we think it's a failure and it isn't. Zach Muircubs is the assistant soccer coach at Asbury University, which was very much in our religious news not long ago for the revival there. uh or whatever awakening, whatever you want to call it. He had he preached the chapel sermon that morning when that broke out. February 8th, 2023, he called his wife and said, I whiffed today. Yeah, my sermon, I whiffed. He said, I blew it. Here's what his text said. Latest stinker. I'll be home soon. He failed. Afterwards, some 18 students stayed to worship and pray, and it sparked the two long two-week-long outpouring of the Holy Spirit that rocked many, many campuses, his stinker sermon. So sometimes God uses our failures, doesn't it? Maybe it wasn't even a failure, apparently not. Failing may be what you did, but it is not who you are. Make sure you get that in your notes. Failing may be what you did, but it is not who you are. Look at Luke 15. Prodigal son. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy. This is unworthiness. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. I'm not your son. Not after what I did. Look at what the father said. This son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Listen, he failed his father, but he never stopped being his son. He never stopped being the father's son. Neither do you. That's why you can't say this is my identity. Your identity is child of God. That's your permanent ID card. Never stop being his son. John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, on his deathbed said this. He was dictating sort of memoirs to a young scribe, and he said, there's so much I don't remember. But I said I he said I do remember two things vividly. I am a great sinner And Jesus is a great savior. Amazing grace. But don't believe the lie that I am a failure. Secondly, I'm unworthy. Because I blew it, because I messed up, I'm unworthy Well, let me just say this. You got your worth before you were born. Ephesians 2. 10 We are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. You're God's that's translated masterpiece, handiwork, workmanship in different translations. Just know that your worth is not based on your performance. And we'll talk more about this in the morning. It is based on something God gave you prenatally. The other lie you would believe it's over. It's over. I wanted to do some things for the Lord or I w hoped that I would be, maybe I could, and there's a belief that It was just kind of what's the use? I failed. What's the use? Well, Micah chapter 7, verse 8, do not gloat over me, my enemy. I want you to read this next phrase out loud with me. Though I have fallen now defiantly, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. It's not over, though I have fallen. I will rise. Luke 22. Peter has made the ultimate boast. They're going to have to kill me to get to you, Jesus. You won't die, because I'll die first, really. And he can't even admit to a little 12-year-old girl that he knows Jesus. Even then he knew him. Peter replied, man, I don't know what you're talking about. And just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Boy, we get I guess we get to imagine what that look was. All I know is it broke Peter's heart And Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him before the rooster closed today. You'll have sown me three times. What an absolutely abominable failure. And he went outside and he wept bitterly. The Greek tells us that he was wailing out loud. Everybody could hear him. This wasn't just sniffling. This was wailing out loud, weeping. Wept bitterly. It's over. Clearly it's over, Peter. Acts chapter 2. Then Peter stood up with the eleven on Pentecost Day, raised his voice, addressed the crowd Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. Those who accepted this message were baptized. And about 3,000 people were added to their number that day. It's not over. The chicken has become a tiger. How's that for a magic trick? Turn a chicken into a tiger. It's not over. What did Jesus when he called Peter for a private conversation there by the Sea of Galilee? Three times he asked him, why did you fail me? Why did you fail me? Why did you fail me? I don't know what Bible you're reading No. All he wanted to know was you tell me what? Do you do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And then he said Great failure, man. Take care of my lambs. And you feed my sheep. You go shepherd my flock. With Jesus, failure is not final. Um you remember the Boston Marathon when the terrorists set off the the bomb? And some people died there, of course. It was a terrible tragedy. There was a 78-year-old man, all I know his first name was Bill, and um was in this orange tank top near the finish line. And he was knocked down, kind of leveled by the blast, wasn't injured, but the percussion really got him. And then one of the race assistants came and helped him up. And he managed to finish second in his division. Well, a few days later, uh President Spoke in Boston, as presidents do when they come in and do their comforting thing. And at the end of it, because a number of people were in the hospital with severe injuries, many of them at least temporarily, if not permanently, crippled. And he simply, after using Bill as an example, he looked straight in the camera and he said to them, you will run again. And then he repeated it. You will run again. And Jesus might be saying to somebody here, you will run again That's grace. Believing failures lies will mean that you will miss laying claim to the more that God has in store. Let me just say a quick word here to those of you, and I know I was at I was at the Billligram Training Center to do Speaker the Cove. Jim Cymbala was there right before me, the pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle. And I got there in time to hear him speak for his final session. for an auditorium full of pastors and wives. And at the end of his time, he said, for those of you who would like prayer, for a child who's away from God, He said, if you would like that, I'll include that in my closing prayer. Why don't you come on up here? It was a stampede. of shepherds, pastors, and wives to the front. Nick was with me. We won't forget that. We were in the back. We could see it all and it wasn't I wasn't shocked because I know a lot of pastors and I know that's a heartache, but the visual was pretty overwhelming. And I know that Satan is attempting to get to you through a wandering child And I just I don't have time to talk a lot about this. We have a little booklet over there called A Jesus of Their Own that's about this. I hope you'll pick it up. But based on the book of Hosea, which we're not going to turn to I want to tell you how to pray for a child that's away. And then I want to tell you what the devil is trying to do to you with it. How to pray for a child away from God. Lord, frustrate their sin. Make their sin not work for them. Secondly, block their exits. Bring them to a point where they have nowhere to turn but you. Block their exit. So their friends won't work, their sin won't work. Thirdly, send them a voice. You know the kind of person that they would respect and listen to. Send them one of your followers who would be on their wavelength Send them a voice. Fourthly, remind them of Jesus. Maybe when they were little they sang, Jesus loves me, this I know. They haven't sung it for a long time, maybe. Lord, would you remind them that it's not about Christians, it's not about Christianity, it's not about church, all those things that may have disillusioned them. Would you please remind them It's Jesus. Jesus has not hurt them. Jesus did not let them down. Remind them of Jesus. And then, Lord, do whatever it takes within your will. That's a scary prayer, but when you say within his will, don't worry. Do whatever it takes within your perfect will to bring them home. I'm happy to tell you there's a beautiful story in the book of Luke of Jesus coming upon a funeral procession, a widow who'd obviously already lost her husband, now her only son has died. They're marching out with him to bury him. Jesus comes up, raises him from the dead, and there's this beautiful statement, and the Lord gave him back to his mother. He is still doing miracles like that. Seemingly hopeless situations with a son or daughter, he's still giving seemingly lost children back to mom or dad. Now let me tell you what the prodigal plot is. It's to go after the child to neutralize the parent spiritually He wants you to be ashamed. He wants you to back off. Because you're doing damage to his cause. Don't let that happen. That is the prodigal plot that makes you feel unworthy. There's someone who wants you to never forget your failures. Revelation 12, 10. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, Now have come the salvation of power, the kingdom of our God, the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser, Satan, that's what the word devil means, by the way, accuser. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before God day and night. has been hurled down. Satan is the accuser who will bring up your every failure and say you are unworthy to do anything for God. Who do you think you are? That is your enemy, the devil, the liar, who is not able to tell the truth. He is the father only of lies. Hebrews 8. 12. Here's the truth. I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more, says the holy God, will remember their sins no more. And there's someone who wants you to live forgiven of your failures. The verse after, Revelation 12, 11, that verse after the accuser, they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb. By the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. You see, there are two things that he brings up there And that is what Christ did for you on the cross and your testimony to it. They triumphed over the accuser. You can too, and his lies through the blood of the Lamb. Corey Tenboom said, God casts our sin into the depths of the sea, and then he puts up a no-fishing sign. Yeah. Obey that no fishing sign. So what does grace do? Well, it's for us people who feel inadequate. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Have you ever felt inadequate? You have. Yes, I have too. Here's the confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves. Oh guess what? You're not. You're not competent. Not that we, this is Paul. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves. Our competence comes from God. Hallelujah. He's made he made us competent. He made us competent as ministers of a new covenant. Don't you ever see Hide from doing something for God because you say you're not adequate. You're not. Good. That's your first qualification to be of service to him is to realize you're not adequate. Because then you will depend on him. Wonderful. Ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, the spirit gives life. Grace trades, write this down, our deficits for his surplus, and our can't for his can. Dio Moody, the great evangelist, he was preaching in England and a man who had never heard him and was uh Fairly uh snooty guy, if I can say that. I can. Um he's not here. Uh but he was preaching actually in Birmingham, England And a noted congregational theologian and preacher was there to hear him. And he listened to Moody preach, who only had a third-grade education. And he wrote this in his denominations magazine. I told Mr. Moody that the work was most plainly of God, for I could see no real relation between him And what he had done. It's like, I don't know how that guy does this. And here's what he said. Moody laughed cheerily. and said he should be very sorry if it were anything otherwise. I love that. He, the man had his head on straight. I love that. So Rocks in your backpack from believing the unworthiness. It's time to unpack that tonight. and embrace the grace. And you're feeling guilty, you feel unworthy, let's walk through David's experience after his Horrific sin with Bathsheba and then arranging for the death of her husband. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned. I've done what is evil in your sight. You're right in your verdict and you're justified when you judge. Will you clean me up? Cleanse me with hyssop. I'll be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than the snow. And create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. This is full of hope. Don't cast me from your presence. I feel unworthy. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Look at this. He's saying I'm going to turn my failure into a hope story to help other people see the kind of God you are. Then I'll teach transgressors your ways. And you know what? I'm going to use this failure. To help sinners turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt. You are God my Savior, my tongue, and we'll leave it here. We'll sing of your righteousness. Romans 8. 1 says, there is no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus. Would you all like to have a little showing of your junior high picture? Will you really study in junior high? You've never heard of a junior high reunion, have you? Middle school reunion, you won't. Nobody really wants to remember those days. We were all geeks, let's face it. But you know what? If you pull out your pictures, we could all get a good laugh. And you could laugh with us. Because that was you. But that's not you anymore. Because of Jesus. Whatever the sin. If you've been there to repent and get that grace That picture of you, that was you. But that's not you anymore. When you look in the mirror, that's not you anymore Hallelujah. Embrace the grace, man. Embrace the grace. Because Jesus shatters the shackles of the past. Encumbrance number two. If it's unworthiness, here's a big one. Unforgiveness. Boy, oh boy, you want heavy rocks in your backpack. You just have some people you've had a hard time forgiving. Because it means that you are living shackled to your wounds. You're defined by how you were hurt, and you're shackled to your wounder. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, as you know, for many, many years in South Africa. Was in terrible health. He had lung damage from the work that they made him do 27 years. He had suffered in prison. The day he walked out, here's what he said. As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind. I'd still be in prison. It is a prison. Unforgiveness. It is cancer of the soul. Hebrews 12, 15. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God. Now that's a scary thought. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up. And what will it do? It doesn't stay the same. It grows, like cancer. It grows up to cause trouble and defile many Your unforgiveness is spilling onto people you love who didn't do anything to you. It's like a toxic waste dump sending out radiation. And you will be forfeiting the grace because you won't give grace. Forfeiting grace because you won't give it. It was just it was a few years ago now that that awful shooting took place at the church in Charleston. I'm sure you do remember it. The Mother Emmanuel Church, a iconic church in the black community. Young man came in and went to the Bible study that night. They prayed over him. They laid hands and prayed on him. And then he shot nine of them to death It was a bloody awful night. I was kind of glued to CNN that night because of that awful breaking news And I wrote down some things that were said that that night and nights that followed. They were there, Anderson Cooper, uh all of the crew. They said there's so much pain here. And so much grace. Mark Garrigus is one of the leading defense attorneys in America. And he was there that night. He said, I have never seen such an outpouring of forgiveness. It's shocking Anderson Cooper said, as dark as the darkness has been here, the light has been much brighter. And this is profound. He said, there is so much grace here. Amazing grace. And it's not just a song, he said. That's the power of grace. over wrongdoing and hurt. It is the power of grace, it is the power of forgiveness that can capture the attention of a nation on a night like that. Matthew 18 says, in that parable Jesus told about the master who was forgiven a huge debt by the king. The master called the servant in because the servant was owned a little bit and he wouldn't forgive the debt of his friend. And the king said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you? Well, that's a pretty good question, which leads to probably the key to forgiving. Because you know what happens when when we hear somebody talk about forgiving? Because you were probably legitimately hurt. I have no idea the wounds of your life The abuse, the neglect, the abandonment. The hurt. I just know there is some. The betrayal. And our instinctive flesh reaction is, I know I'm supposed to forgive. Yeah, but. Yeah, but. And all the yabits that have kept us from unpacking the rocks. Yabbaut. If you only knew, I don't want to make them feel like it was okay. Yabut. And then there is all of a sudden God's answer to every forgiveness, yabat. You ready? Kind of makes you go, oh boy. This is one of those oh boy verses. Colossians 3. 13. Bear with each other, forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, read the next words with me slowly and thoughtfully. Forgive As the Lord forgave you. Did you deserve it? All of a sudden I have no excuses. None of my yah, but stand up. See, forgiving, turns out, according to God's word, is not about what they did to you. It's about what Christ did for you. If it's about what they did to you, you probably won't forgive. But if it's about what Christ did for you, That's a whole different story. So this isn't really between you and the person who wounded you It's between you and God. That's where the transaction is. So unforgiveness Looks at the one who wounded you and just sees somebody who hurt you deeply, understandably. But grace looks at your wounder and doesn't see a victimizer so much, even though they were. But somebody Jesus thought was worth dying for. He thought they were worth dying for. As bad as they are, the horrible things they've done, he thought they were worth dying for. And very likely they were somebody else's victim. Because hurt people hurt people. And it was a chain of hurt. Doesn't excuse them. So forgiveness is not excusing the wrongdoing. Nope. It's a decision that you will treat them, not as they treated you, but I will treat them as Jesus treated you, treated me. As long as you harbor unforgiveness, you are chained to the person. You at least want to be chained to. You will never be free. Until you go to the great forgiver And ask him to give you what you don't have in yourself. The ability to release and forgive the sin against you as he did for you. For forgiving starts at the cross Go there. To let the process begin. And start unpacking the backpack Forget the former things. Do not dwell. Do not dwell on the past. The issue can be settled, the issue of your unsettled past at this crossroads. And you can go into the rest of your journey no longer burdened by your failure or weighed down with the poison of bitterness. No longer living shackled to your wounds. No longer living shackled to your wounder. Do you hear the liberating invitation of Jesus? Come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavily burdened. And if I may paraphrase, I'll help you unpack. Noelle, my granddaughter was only three years old. Doug and Anna were still on the reservation. And she came out with her red backpack full of books. It was really heavy. She's all bent over, carrying a backpack full of books. And she said, Daddy, it's so heavy. He said, well, honey, why don't you let daddy take it off your back and and I'll carry it for you? Well, she's a firstborn. All of you who are have that handicap, um, like me, uh, you know that no, I can do it. I'll do this. I can do this So she tried to carry it, she took another step, and she finally said, here daddy, I can't carry it anymore. And he took it. He said, how's that, honey bear? She said, all better, Daddy. All better. Can you hear your father tonight? Saying you don't have to carry that anymore? Embrace the grace. Let him take it. All better, Daddy. All better Let's pray together. If tonight there's something you need to unpack out of your backpack, And I don't have to go into any detail because the Holy Spirit's already done his job. You got a little slip of paper we put on at your place. Would you write it down there? You've carried it and you've buried it a long time. It's going to be a trash can down here to my right and your left. And if you're ready with his grace to let that part of you be healed, and to move into the rest of your journey without being in bondage to it. Trash it. Lord, um We thank you that deserve is not in the grace dictionary. And grace is the difference. Because of grace we are not unworthy. Because of grace we can forgive. We have received much more grace than you ask us to give I pray for the beginning of healing and freedom. And that one of my brothers or sisters here tonight might be able to run the rest of the race without the rocks. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.