Abounding Grace

Narrator: Getting past the past, next on Abounding Grace.

So you say your past is haunting you, hurting you, holding you back. What, if anything, can you do about it? Today on Abounding Grace, Pastor Ed Taylor will suggest a few very practical things you can do with your past. We talked about the first last time, and that was to forget the past. Let's see what the other two are now as we join Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Step number one dealing with our past: forget it. Choose not to dwell on it. Number two: what do we do with our past? We forgive our past. Turn over to Luke chapter 15. I want you to learn something from Jesus here. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, we forgive our past. Pick up in verse 11 with me.

A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'" And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." And they began to be merry.

Now his older brother was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, "Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf." But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

So he answered and said to his father, "Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him." And he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

Forgiveness is a key to a healthy, vibrant life in Jesus Christ. What did the son do exactly? By asking for his inheritance early, the son is saying in effect to his dad, "I wish you were dead. I don't want the kind of relationship that we have today. I want what's mine as if you were dead." When you die, I get all this, but I want it now. And his dad gives it to him.

The son chooses to live a sinful life. He leaves Israel. He leaves the comfort of his home. He leaves his family. He literally leaves his senses. I know that some of you are praying for prodigal sons and daughters in your life today, and I know the prayer becomes, "Whatever it takes, Lord," because that's what happened to this boy. Whatever it takes to bring him home, to bring her home.

In verse 20, we see that the son does come to his senses and he goes back home. He comes to his father. We call this the parable of the prodigal son, but if you took a pen and you circled every time the word "father" is mentioned, I think you would agree with me that it's actually the parable of a loving father who actually has two sons and a lot of people watching him.

This father receives him. He runs toward his repentant son. And yet not everyone is so willing to forgive. The older brother represents condemnation in this parable. The father is forgiving. Actually, the father was ready to forgive before he ever talked to his son. He didn't wait for his son to explain everything. He was rushing and running as he recognized his son had come home.

The older son, who had been faithful and working and had a relationship with his dad and enjoyed all the comforts and all the blessings of being with his dad, represents condemnation. I want you to notice that condemnation is not only rooted in your past, but condemnation is rooted in unforgiveness. Unforgiveness leads to condemnation.

If you're condemned, then you're not receiving the forgiveness of Jesus Christ that's available to you in Christ. And if you're condemning others like the older brother, then you're not extending that forgiveness. It's a sad, twisted way to live life that passes so quickly. If I'm in the son's place coming back to my dad, then I can't bring my past with me. Neither can I do anything to change my past.

I come to him broken because of my past, and I need to learn how to live in my father's favor because the father forgives the repentant. Isn't that just a wonderful thought? The father forgives the repentant. And you wouldn't be repentant if it wasn't for the work of the Spirit of God in your life. So it's a work that begins with him and ends with him, and we get to be a part of it.

The very fact that you want to say you're sorry is his Spirit convicting you and calling you and drawing you into the future, not the past. And the day that you say, "I'm sick of my sin and I hate it," is the day where you agree with the working, convicting, finished work of Jesus Christ in your life. But realize there's always the big brother.

So you get it. You're relieved, you're fresh, you're free, you come home, and Dad's there, but so is your big brother. Dad is the picture of forgiveness and the big brother of condemnation. And the big brother doesn't even need to be another person, although sometimes it is. The big brother could be your head. Why? Because you and I are at times unwilling to receive God's forgiveness.

I want you to really receive it as simple as it is because you refuse to forgive yourself. Now, I know the world's twisted this whole thing and made it very worldly, and the idea is you can't love others until you love yourself. The problem is you love yourself too much. That's the problem. And that raises up pride.

That's not a biblical definition. When I teach the need for you to forgive yourself, it's rooted in the truth of receiving the forgiveness of God. When you and I choose not to forgive ourselves for our own failures, there's a Bible word for that. It's called idolatry. It's called idolatry. And idolatry in its basic definition is becoming a little god of your life.

When you choose not to receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ in your life, or as the phrase I'm using, you choose not to forgive yourself, this is what's happening in the spiritual realm. You are becoming God and you're saying this: "If I was God, I wouldn't forgive myself. So I'll become God and hold it against myself the rest of my life."

Instead of acknowledging that in no way whatsoever will you ever be God. And the God of the universe who created you and loves you and sent his son Jesus Christ to die for you forgives the repentant. And what's left for us but simply to say thank you? Or even if you want to use the picture, if the father runs to you to embrace you, what do you do? You take the hug. And it feels good.

Even if you can't hug back, you just kind of embrace and you go, "I can't believe this is happening, of everything I did to him and everything that I've been and what I did with his inheritance." To receive an inheritance, not only how it worked on a personal level between him and his dad, but to waste your dad's money like that on sinful living. It's just layer after layer of condemnation, and yet what does his dad do but run to him and embrace him?

Then he throws him a party. And then what does it say in verse 32? It's so key. The party, the forgiveness, the welcoming, the food, everything about it. The dad says, "It was right that we should make merry." It's right to receive the forgiveness. It's right to forgive the past and to receive the forgiveness because there are always those, including ourselves, that want to focus on the bad, that want to focus on the negative.

It's very easy. Like here in the church context, just on a lighter note, around the sanctuary here, we have offering boxes. Those boxes around the sanctuary are for the sole purpose of putting in your tithes and offerings and prayer requests. But some people that visit here actually think that we have complaint boxes here. And that's what they want to use it for. They don't offer a tithe and offering; they offer some complaint or, "You could do it better." There's just people like that.

Perhaps you have a bent toward that. And so in a time of glorious worship, our time in seeking God's word, our time of growing together, we'll get a note in there that says, "I really don't like the carpet here." Don't look at it. I don't know what to tell you. It's all we got. Some of the things get reported, I just don't know what to tell you. I'll pray for you. I just pray that what a miserable life, what a miserable way to live.

You came, maybe haven't been in church for forever, you finally sit in and you're like, "I just don't like the way you whatever." And the Lord wants to free you. There's just people like that. The enemy loves to get us off the main thing, and sometimes we gladly cooperate. May the Lord help us to receive the embrace of the Father, to receive the love of the Father. You forget the past, you forgive the past.

And then thirdly, what do I do with my past? You forsake the past. You forsake the past. Would you turn over with me to Psalm 103? You see, the Bible gives very practical instruction to us for life. I want you to trust the Bible, church. I want you to trust the Bible for what it is. It's not only God's love letter to you revealing a loving, caring God, but it's God's manual for living life.

It's his design for our life. It's not a book of do's and don'ts. That's not God's heart for us to relate to him on a bunch of do this and don't do that. It's God's encouragement to us to live a full life. It's God's encouragement to us like us as parents or grandparents, where we help our kids because we want them to have a full life. In many ways, we want them to have a fuller life than we've experienced.

I know that was very big in my heart and mind as I was raising my children. It was very big in my life to help them avoid the very obvious sinful mistakes that I made and to help them navigate around those temptations because there always comes an age in all of our kids that they're not with us anymore, that we can't be with them every day.

You young people, you high schoolers, you junior highers that are here, listen. Your parents want you to live a life that is greater and grander than what they've even experienced. And it's not a list of do's and don'ts, even though it feels like that sometimes. When they're little, you just say, "Don't do it," and they go, "Okay, I won't do it." But then you get to an age where you say, "Don't do it," and they go, "I don't care what you say."

So we have to change our tactic. Well, I wouldn't do it if I was you because then we start to reason. And then even reasoning doesn't work, and then we just know that the seeds that we planted in our kids from a young age, when they are old, we raise kids in the way they should go, when they are old they won't depart from it. And even if they choose temporarily to depart for a season, we pray they get back soon because the world will kick their tail. And that's a nice way of saying a lot of things that the world will do to try to destroy our lives.

And we need to forsake our past. Psalm 103, verse 1 says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

"The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities." At that point, you guys should just say a hearty amen there.

This is true. As bad as it is, it could be worse. I was talking with a brother recently at one of our morning coffee shop meetings, and we were talking about justice. When you feel injustice, you often have this thought of wanting justice for the other person. That's why Jesus teaches us to pray for our enemies. Don't be wishing justice on them and judgment. Let the Lord deal with that, right?

And then we talked about that because anytime you talk about justice and you start demanding justice, just remember that when it comes to you, you don't ask God for justice. You don't want justice, do you? I don't want justice because I would be judged according to my iniquities. I would be judged according to my failures. I don't want justice.

I want Jesus. And I want that for me, and I want that for others, even those that have hurt me or those that are hurting me. I want Jesus. I want Jesus to heal and change. I don't want justice. And this is not justice. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. He has not punished us according to our iniquities.

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him." The New Living is better here: "The Lord has compassion on his kids." He knows our frame; he remembers that we're dust.

We need to forsake. It literally means to let it go, to let it sink or drop. Over and over, the Bible says that God will not forsake you, that Jesus will never leave or forsake you. So when we think of that word, it's God will never let you sink. He'll never drop you. You're secure in the Father's arms. He's not going to drop you as Mephibosheth's nurse did. But even then, when he was dropped, what did he experience but grace from David later on?

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. He doesn't treat us as our sin deserves. He says, "I'll forgive you. I'll throw it. I'll cast it. I'll drive your sin away." That's what the word "remove" means in verse 12. I will deal with it as far as the east is from the west. That's far. Forsaking your past, you let it sink into the sea of forgetfulness. You let it drop. You let it go.

It's back there and you're right here. There is therefore now no condemnation, right now, those who walk in the Spirit. The Spirit walk is forward. It's progressive. It's spiritually alive. But the flesh walk, the condemnation walk, is regressive and backwards and spiritually dead. You say, "It's just not possible, Ed. What you're suggesting is just not going to happen. It's great stuff for a sermon. I'm glad you put it all together in a nice, tidy, three-point message. But this is just not possible for me."

Look, God is into the impossible. What's impossible with man is possible with God. And with the commands of God always comes his enablement to follow through.

Narrator: What do I do with my past? Forget your past, forgive the past, and forsake the past. You're listening to Abounding Grace and part of Pastor Ed Taylor's study called "Free From Our Past." He'll be right back with more. Now to hear this again, stop by aboundinggraceradio.com. And I also want to recommend a book Pastor Ed just wrote on this subject. It's titled "Letting Go of Your Past." It's our featured resource here in November.

Can you think of something that occurred a while back that is continually plaguing you? Maybe someone did something to you that really hurt, or you did something that you're ashamed of. God wants to set you free. No matter what you've been through or what you've done, I think you'll find this book encouraging and helpful. Request a copy of "Letting Go of Your Past" today when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE or order online at calvaryco.store.

Please remember we are listener-supported and we'd very much appreciate your standing with us. If the Lord is leading you to take an active role in the ministry, either through a one-time gift or ongoing support, please visit us online at aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Now to wrap up today's message, here again is Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Turn over to Luke chapter 6. Can we close there? Because we could even be overwhelmed by the impossibility. I know that many people listen to us in jail. We get quite a few letters from men and women in jail and prison. This radio is a lifeline for them, especially the word of God. And whether you're in a physical prison today or a spiritual prison, they feel the same in many ways.

Being imprisoned, especially if you're physically locked up, you did something. You wish you didn't and you're there, and now you've got a mark and a blemish on your record and you've got these things, and you just sit there thinking it's impossible to follow through with what you have. But even in a spiritual prison, you feel shackled and you feel held back and you feel like there's no future.

Listen, the power of God is greater than your inability. It's greater than your talking to yourself and talking you out of steps of faith. And we see it here in Luke's Gospel, in chapter 6 and verse 6. This is so life-giving. As a pastor, all I can do is teach you the Bible. All I can do is lay it before you. All I can do is encourage you. In the gifting that God has given to me, I can exhort you. And I believe if you act on it, and I believe if you believe it and you do it, that crazy wonderful changes will take place in your life, and you will literally be free.

But if you sit around just being upset and arguing with the pastor and arguing with the Bible and arguing ultimately with God, then you're going to stay in the same place that you're at, and it's going to get worse. The wages of sin is always death. You can't escape it. And so when God speaks something into our lives, as we've seen it in various passages...