Rick Warren - God Can Restore Everything Thats Been Taken from You

0:00We all know we're imperfect, but we say to God, God, we're going to trust you. And when you come to Christ and you say, I'm going to, you're going to take my sins on you. Yeah. What are you giving me? You're going to, my goodness. You don't have to beg. Please, God, please, please save me. You don't have to bargain if you'll do this, God, then, then I'll do that. You don't have to bribe. I'll read my Bible every day. You just believe. That's it. That's why it's called the good news. Now, he says, he restores my soul. What does that mean? First, what's your soul? What is your soul? Well, the Bible says that you have a spirit. You have a soul and you have a body. Just like the tabernacle in the temple, where three-part dwelling place of God, the inner court, the outer court, and the Holy of Holies, God dwells in you in three parts in your spirit, in your soul, and in your body. What's the difference between your spirit and your soul?

1:01Well, the Bible even says itself that only the Bible can discern the difference, that it is the Word of God that is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing even a sunder of soul and spirit. And so I don't want to get into that, but I do want to tell you what your soul is. Your soul is your mind, it is your will, and it is your motion. So why don't you write this down if you're taking notes. My soul is the part of me that thinks, chooses, and feels. My soul is the part of me that thinks, that chooses, and that feels. It's your mind, it's your will, and your emotion. Now, if you don't have a soul, you don't have a lot. But these three parts of who you are, the way you think, the way you feel, and the choices that you make, your mind will and your emotions, really determine who you are. And it's very easy to get these damaged. Can your mind be damaged?

2:01Of course it can. Yeah, by what you put in it, by experiences, by trauma, chemistry, all kinds of things, your mind can be damaged. You don't always think straight and either do I. And how about your emotions? Can your emotions be damaged? Yes. Your emotions can get raw, that you can get depleted emotionally, you can be out of emotion, you can be over-emotional. And yes, our minds are broken, our emotions are broken. And actually, can your will be broken? Yes. Can it be damaged? Yes. Have you ever had a chance to look at your life and you think, I really know the right thing to do, and I want to do the right thing, but I never do choose it. Because our choosers are broken. Our choosers are broken. We're all flawed in many ways. And that's why there are addictions. And that's why you do things that you don't want to do. And you don't do things that you want to do. That's part of your willpower doesn't always work.

3:03How many you agree? Willpower doesn't always work. Yeah, right. And so, when we talk about our soul, the way we think, the way we feel, and the way we choose, the decisions that we make, God says, I want to restore that in your life. I want to restore you to wholeness. I want to restore your mind and will and emotions to health. That's one of the things the good shepherd does for the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. Well, sometimes I need to think straighter. And sometimes I need to feel correctly, because my emotions aren't always right. Sometimes they lie. And sometimes I need my will fixed, because I don't have enough willpower to do what I need to do. Now, what is it that damages your soul? What I want us to do this week is ask a couple of questions. What damages your soul, because you can't get it restored, unless you know what's causing the problem. What damages my soul will look at that. And then we're going to look at what Jesus does to restore it.

4:04How does Jesus restore, right, thinking, right, feeling, and right deciding? And then finally, we'll look at just very briefly, how do I make the right decisions to let my soul be restored? What's my response to what God wants to do in my life? Okay. Now, let's begin with what is it that damages your soul? Why don't you always think right? Why don't you always feel right? And why don't you always choose right? There are many things that could damage your soul, but I want to focus on the three most common. Three most common. You might write these down. Number one, the first thing that damages the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you decide is under or unaddressed, grudges, unaddressed grudges. When you get resentful, when you get bitter, when you start thinking about retaliation or revenge in somebody who's hurt you, it damages your soul. Now, there are a lot of verses about this, but let me first talk about the background. The fact is in life, you're going to be hurt.

5:07Why? This is not heaven. This is earth. And we're all broken people. We're all imperfect. Sometimes we hurt each other intentionally. Sometimes we hurt each other unintentionally. But the truth is, you're going to be hurt in life. And sometimes people hurt you, and sometimes you hurt them. And so when that happens, we start to build up grudges. Now, let me just start at the bedrock. Life is not fair. God never said that life would be fair. This is not heaven, where everything is done perfectly. God's will is always done instantly, perfectly, and completely. On earth, a lot of times we choose not to do God's will. That's called sin. And because life is in fear, the Bible tells us that innocent people suffer. This is not something new. Everybody can see it. That good guys don't always win. Bad guys often are successful. That there is injustice in the world. There's racism in the world. There's prejudice in the world. There is unfairness in the world.

6:08And every one of us in different ways have experienced unfairness or prejudicial treatment against you in some way. And you shouldn't be surprised by that because the world is broken. Everything is broken. What I'm interested in is not so much the fact that you're going to be hurt in life. I'm sorry for it. But what I'm more interested in is how you respond to it. Because your response to how you get hurt in life is far more important than the hurt you have. Because they can either make you bitter or they can make you better. And when God wants to restore your soul, He wants to take all of the bitter things in your life and turn them into better things in your life. We'll come to that in just a minute. Now, when you have grudges, when people hurt you, you can either let it go or you can start dwelling on it and stew and enspielen and worrying about all things. And you start planning how to retaliate,

7:11how to resent them, how to get even with them. When you, somebody hurts you, that puts them beneath you morally when they hurt you. But when you try to get even, it just puts you on the same level. You're no better than they are. When you let it go, when you forgive them, it actually puts you in a superior position. You don't want to ever get even with people because that means you're the same as they are. If you get even with them, you're no better than they are. So what do you do when you're hurt? Resent, retaliate, seek revenge? No, no, you don't. Let me show you why. A couple verses, Job 5 verse 2 says this, To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do. And in Job 18 verse 4, it says this, You're only hurting yourself with your anger. You're only hurting yourself. We've talked about this many times. That when you hold onto a grudge, it's not hurting them.

8:11It's only hurting you. They're out there having a good time. They're watching movies. They're going to nice restaurants. They're going to ball games. They're having a whole lot of fun. They're totally oblivious. What, who gets hurt when you're resentful? You do. It's like drinking poison and hoping it kills them. It's like taking fire into your stomach, your chest, and hoping they get burnt. Resentment is worthless. He says to worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish thing to do. Now the Bible does say that one day God's going to even the score. The Bible says that there is a judgment day and that God is not just a loving God. He's a just God. If God was not a just God, people like Hitler could get away with everything they did. I'm glad that God has addressed God. Now you can get around that judgment by accepting the grace of God and accepting the salvation that Jesus Christ paid for your sins. But there is going to be a judgment day for everybody.

9:13And God is going to be just in measuring out what people deserve based on their sinfulness. God says, I don't want you to have to go through the judgment. God doesn't like the judge. He likes to show mercy. All through Scripture God is very patient. And God is very reluctant to judge. And he'll wait and wait and wait and wait before he judges the nation or person things like that. He'd rather be merciful. But there is a judgment coming one day and God is going to even the odds and people who were mistreated and misjudged and treated unfairly. There will be an equaling out, a time of justice. But that's not your job. If you try to show justice yourself and you take matters in your hands and get revenge, God says, fine, that's all we're going to do on that. So what are you doing in the meantime? You let it go. You say, but Rick, you don't know how much they've hurt me.

10:15You let it go. Why? Not because they deserve it. They don't. You don't deserve to be forgiven. You don't deserve to be forgiven at all either. But God has forgiven you. You forgive people not because they deserve it. You forgive people because you don't want to carry the pain around anymore. You don't want to be stuck with unaddressed grudges. Because it's not going to hurt them. It's only going to hurt you. You know, Martin Luther King once said, bitterness is blindness. Bitterness is blindness. And I like that because when I get bitter against somebody over here, I get blind to a whole lot of other things. I get blind to how much God has done good in my life. I get blind to the truth. I get blind to all the needs of people around me. I'll just say this. You're never going to stop hurting. Your soul will not be restored until you learn to forgive and let it go. You got to drop it. We'll come back to that in a minute.

11:15The second thing that destroys your soul from the inside, I said first, unaddressed grudges. The second is unconfessed guilt. Grudges and guilt are two of the biggest things that warp your soul. And grudges have to do with what people have done to you. And guilt is what you've done to other people. And we have both. We've heard others and other people have heard us. And so unconfessed guilt. Nothing damages your life more. Your soul more. Nothing will rob your happiness quicker than to go around carrying a load of guilt. A lot of people have a misconception of God. They think that God wants us to walk around feeling guilty. He does not. God hates guilt. In fact, God loves to forgive guilt. God doesn't want you to be guilty all the time. In fact, he didn't make your body handle guilt. You should only handle guilt for about five seconds.

12:16That's long enough to realize that was wrong. And I confess it to God and I let it go. You don't carry all your sins around in your life. Unconfessed. If you do that, it's like carrying a garbage bag of junk with you into the each new year. Many years ago, I remember there was a couple in our church who were singles and they found each other in our church. And they got married. And that's when the church was much smaller. And I actually was able to do their wedding. About 10 years later, they came back and they said, can we take out to dinner and we had a dinner with them? And I said, so tell me what's happened in the last 10 years. And I remember the woman told me she said, you know, Rick, I never realized that when I was walking down that aisle in that beautiful white dress that I was carrying a sack of garbage with me into this marriage. We all do that. Now listen closely. Marriage does not create problems.

13:19It reveals them. It reveals them. And the things that need correcting in your life show up real quick when somebody else is living with you. And what needs correcting in their life shows up real quick when they live with you. Marriage doesn't create problems. It reveals things that need to be worked on. And the purpose of marriage is not just to make you happy. It's to make you holy. And the number one tool, if you're married, the number one tool that God uses in your life is your spouse. He said, oh, brother. My spouse says they're not even a believer. It doesn't matter. God will still use them in your life. And so we start having guilt over all of the things that we've done to other people. Look at this verse Psalm 38. David talks about guilt. He says, my guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. God doesn't want you to carry that around. I'm bowed, bowed below, down.

14:20And I've brought low. And all day long, I go about mourning. Now there's a couple of problems with guilt. One of them is, every one of us have a good reason to have it. It's legit because we don't always do what's right. We always hurt other people. We do selfish things. I don't know if it bothers you, but it bothers me. I often say that most unkind things to the people I love the most and just being honest with you. You never happen to any of you or you also holy. Oh no, I never say anything mean to my kids or my spouse, you're right. Yeah. Why is that? Because at root, we're selfish. I want what I want when I want it and your spouse wants what they want when they want it and when two very self-centered people hit together, it's going to cross problems. And that creates guilt. And you cannot have two imperfect people

15:22and all of a sudden they're going in the same direction and they're going to create a perfect relationship. There are no perfect relationships. And that's why we need forgiveness. Because unfathomable guilt causes a lot of problem. Now look at this verse. Proverbs 20 verse 27 tells us the other reason why we have problem with guilt is because we run from our own consciences. Proverbs 20 verse 27, the Lord gave us a mind and a conscience and we can we can't hide from ourselves. You see, you can hide all kind of stuff from me and I'll never know about it. You might even hide a whole bunch of things from a friend or your boss or your spouse or your kids but you're not hiding anything from God and not only that, you're not hiding anything from yourself. And when you try to hide it, it just starts eating you on the inside because the Lord gave us a mind and a conscience we can't hide from ourselves.

16:22And if you think, well, you know, I just feel bad I'm going to go to, you know, take a vacation but you take yourself on vacation. And so you take that same stress that's in your mind. The grudges you have toward other people and the guilt that you have about the stuff you've done wrong. Now, what do you do with guilt? What do you do with guilt? Well, the answer is the same thing as grudges and it's forgiveness. In grudges you've got to forgive them but in guilt you've got to ask God for forgiveness and you've got to forgive yourself. Now normally we do everything except that. Let me show you all the ways that don't work and why our soul, the way we think, the way we feel, the way we choose, is often broken because when you are feel guilty, you don't make smart decisions and neither do I. Now sometimes we just try to deny our guilt. We just pretend like it doesn't exist. You know, it's like those T-shirts we have in celibate recovery.

17:23Denial is not a river in Egypt. Denial is the thing that keeps you stuck in your guilt. And what we do in denials, we just try to pretend that it doesn't exist and we say, you know, I'm just going to bury my past. You know what the problem with bearing your past? It resurrects itself at the most inopportune times. And it comes back and it resurrects and it comes back to haunt you like the living dead and something that happened 20 years ago all of a sudden it's back in your face again. So denial doesn't work. Sometimes we just try to minimize it. And when we minimize our guilt, it's kind of like, well, it's no big deal. I mean, everybody else does it. You know, it wasn't that bad. It's just a little teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny sin. Well, if it's so tiny, why do you still remember it? It's not, it's not tiny. If you remember it, it's a big deal. And if it keeps coming back and you're right, it's a big deal.

18:26And you're not going to get rid of it by denying it or by minimizing it. Now, third way we try to deal with guilt that doesn't work is we rationalize it. And I've said before, to rationalize means to tell yourself rational lies. That you know, you're trying to convince yourself in your head what your heart knows is wrong. That's to rationalize. And we live in a society where everybody rationalizes everything. And that if I shout enough or I affirm it enough or I march for it enough, then I'll think it's okay. But inside your heart's gone, it's not okay. Rationalizing doesn't work. Trying to convince your heart with your mind doesn't work. Your heart's going to win out every time. Because there's an inbuilt conscience in our lives that God put there. And so we say, you know, I'm going to rationalize it away, but it doesn't make it right and your heart still knows. And you go around and say, why didn't everybody accept me?

19:27Why didn't everybody believe in me? Why didn't that's a rationalization? You need to listen to your conscience. Another way we try to deal with guilt is compromise. And that's the whole idea of, well, I'm feeling guilty. And here's the standard. So what I think I'll do is I'll just lower my standard. And then I won't feel guilt anymore. And I'll say, I don't believe that's a sin anymore. How's that working for you? Again, it's trying to convince your heart what your conscience knows is wrong. And compromising, you know, maybe if I just do it enough, then it won't be a sin anymore. Right. Get back to me on that one. Here's another one that we try to do. When we feel guilty, we blame other people. Because if we can put the blame on them, it gets the focus off us. Now, couples do this all the time. Boyfriend, girlfriend, husband's wife, parents, kids.

20:28And it goes like this. There's a scale in your mind. And on one side is blame. And on the other side is guilt. And in this, the only way you can feel good about yourself is if it's kind of balanced. So when you do something wrong like this, you have to have somebody else blame because you did that. Yeah, but you did that. You did that. Yeah, but you did that. But you did that. Yeah, but you remember that really big thing you did? There are people who one of us spouses really gone over the edge in a wrong way. But they've come back and they said, I'm sorry. I apologize. I want to rebuild trust. I want to make this marriage work. But this person won't let him off the hook, the other one. And no matter how many good things this person does, they have it. You did that. And if you're doing that with a spouse, you're killing your marriage. Because you've become unpleasable. You're acting like you're God.

21:28You're not. Anybody could hold you accountable for stuff you've done too. And so blaming doesn't work. We say blame is spelled B lame. And it just makes you lame when you do that. Every time you blame, you are being lame. So you blame others. You got to scale in your mind. Which is by the way why people don't want to forgive. Because if I don't forgive you, then I can keep blaming you for that. You see, if I'm trying to balance between guilt and blame in my life and all of the sudden, you ask for forgiveness and that sets me off balance. And I say, sure, I forgive you. Now don't have anything to blame anymore on this side. So what happens? The scale tells toward me. And I feel bad. So I don't want to forgive you because then all it's all on me. There's nothing to even the scales. And you keep yourself in tension all the time.

22:28Your soul needs to be restored. It's being chipped away at. It's being eaten at. Like little bacteria, like a viruses. Just working on your heart, making it smaller and smaller and smaller. One other way that doesn't work. We've talked about rationalizing, you know, compromising, minimizing, blaming. One is, well, I'll just beat myself up. And for the rest of your life, you're trying to atone for your own sins. You're trying to make up for it. And a lot of people actually sabotage their own success and don't realize they're doing it. Because they feel about guilty about something in the past. And they feel unworthy. And because they feel unworthy, they go, well, you know, this is too good. I shouldn't be getting this much blessing. I know what I've done. I know all the things. I'm not worthy of this. And as a result, you start setting yourself up for failure. You beat yourself up. Because internally you go, well, I've done something wrong. Somebody's got to pay for it.

23:29And subconsciously we try to pay for our mistakes. And our sins by getting sick or failing. And it can cause all kinds of stuff. guilt can make you depressed. It can make you disparate. It can set you up for failure. I don't deserve to succeed. None of those things work. There's only one thing that works to get rid of unconfessed guilt. Confess it. Just admit it. The word confession in the Bible in Greek is the word homo-legueo. Homo, we know what that means. It means same. Homogenized milk, homosexual. Homo just means same. Legueo is the word to speak. Confession simply means to agree with God. You're right, God. That was wrong. I don't deny it. I don't minimize it. I don't rationalize it. I don't compromise it. I don't blame other people. I don't belittle myself. That.

24:29The third thing that destroys your soul is not unaddressed grudges or unconfessed guilt. It's unprocessed grief. Unprocessed grief. Now, you're going to have grief in life because you're going to have losses. There is no growth in life without change. There is no change in life without loss. Because you give up some old to get some new. You're going to have a loss without pain. And there's no pain without grief. So you've got to learn how to grieve good. Now, grief is not a bad thing. Gilt's a bad thing. Grudges are a bad thing. Grief is actually a good thing. It's the way we get through the transitions of life. What is a bad thing is unprocessed grief. You haven't learned how to deal with it. How to go through the stages of grief. In Psalm 31 verse 9, Lord, have mercy because I'm in misery.

25:29He's grieving. I'm in misery. My eyes are weak from so much crying and my whole body, whole being, is tired from grief. Now, if grudges don't get your guilt well and if guilt doesn't get your grief well, and all of us can have these things that kind of eat away we think, the way we feel, and the decisions we make. Now, the question is, how does Jesus, our good shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need, how in the world does he help me with my grudges and my guilt and my grief? Three ways he does it. Here's how he does it. First, when we are hurt by others, Jesus turns my hurts into holiness. I need to explain this. Jesus turns my hurts into holiness. What I'm saying is that God brings good out of bad.

26:30He brings good out of evil. He has a way of turning things around. The stuff that happens to you, it's not all good. There's a lot of bad stuff that happens to you. But God says, I can turn it around. I can transform it. I can bring good out of evil. Let's look at some verses. It is the goodness of God that allows us. Now, one of the most famous verses in the Bible is Romans 8, verse 28. We keep coming back to this verse. Why? Because you keep getting hurt. You have guilt, you have grief, and you have grudges. And so you need to understand that God says, yes, I know that happened, but I can bring good even out of that. Romans 8, 28. One of the greatest promises in the Bible. We know that in all things, circle the word in. That in all things. It doesn't say all things. It says in all things. God works for the good of those who love Him.

27:31Stop right there. This is not a promise for everybody. It's a promise for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. We know that not everything that happens to you is good. There's a lot of bad things that are happening to you. Decisions that you make that are bad. And decisions that other people make that are bad for you. There's diseases, there's all kinds of accidents and things like that. Nobody is saying God is a polyanna optimist. You say, you know, the sun will come out tomorrow. It doesn't always come out tomorrow. Reality is the sun does not always come out tomorrow. And that's the difference between optimism and hope. Hope is based on a certainty, but optimism is based on, you know, just wishful thinking. Polyanna, it'll come out all right. We know that in all things, God works for the good. It's not all good, but God says, you know what? I can take even that. Can God take the bad things people do to do me, to do against me,

28:31and use it for good? Yes. Can God even take my own sins and bring good out of them? Yes. Can God take my own weaknesses and my damaged will and my damaged mind and my damaged heart, my emotions and my way I think? Can God work even in that for good? Yes. Now, not everybody else could do that. Anybody can bring good out of good. But God specializes in bringing good out of the bad in your life. And he turns my hurts into holiness. You know, it's not all good. You know, sitting down this morning and I just start thinking of all the different ways God uses bad things in your life for good in your life. And I actually made a list. He turns my hurts into holiness. He turns my wounds, the things that hurt me, into wisdom. You're a lot smarter after you've gone through that. He turns my pain into gain.

29:35He uses correction to bring me to perfection. He uses offenses to remove my pretenses. You're a lot more humble if you get criticized. He uses my bruises for good. They're not good. Those bruises aren't good. But he can use my bruises. He uses my bruises for good. And when others want to bash me, God uses it to bless me. That's the kind of God is. He's a good God. The Lord is my shepherd. He knows how to bring good even out of bad. Now Romans 8.28, all things work together for good. It's a wonderful promise. But it makes no sense at all unless you read Romans 8.29, the verse right underneath it, which explains why God uses everything for His purpose. And what is His purpose? His purpose is to build your character.

30:36He uses the conflicts and the crises to turn you into your character. And he wants to make you like Jesus. Look at verse 29. It's up here on the screen. Romans 8.29 says this. God knew His purpose from the very beginning. So it's not a big surprise to God. Before you even created, he knew what he wanted to do with your life. He planned in advance that all of us in God's family, here's the key, would become like Jesus, His own son. God wants a family for eternity. And God wants you to be His child. And He sent Jesus to show what a child a God is like. You want to know what God wants you to become like? Look at the character of Christ. Now listen, God is far more interested in your character than He is in your comfort. You know, people act like, well, I don't understand. Things aren't going good for me. And I'm trusting God. Did God ever promise that everything will go the way you wanted to go? No. Because if it did, you'd be the selfish little snot.

31:37If you got everything you wanted in life, this life is preparation for the next. In heaven, there's no sorrow. There's no suffering. There's no sickness. There's no sadness. There are no people throwing arrows and barbs at you. This is the preschool. This is the character development stage. God wants you to grow up before you go to heaven. And so when you go through tough times, you should never ask, hmm, why is this happening? I'll tell you why. Romans 8.29, to make you like Jesus. And the question you should ask, anytime you go through any difficult time, is not, why is this happening? Or why is this happening to me? Or why is this happening now? The question you should be asking is, what? What do you want to teach me, God? What character development do you want me to grow like? God is far more interested in your character.

32:38What's your becoming than he is in your comfort. Yes, God wants you to be comfortable. But he's not going to give you comfort at the expense of character. You're going to be comfortable for trillions of years in heaven. Right now, he wants you to become like Christ. So what is Jesus like? Romans 8.28 says he wants to make me like Christ using all things, verses 29. Well, the perfect picture of Jesus is called the fruit of the spirit. It's Galatians 5, 23, and 24. And Galatians, it says, nine qualities. The fruit of the spirit is love. God wants you to be loving. Joy. God wants you to learn real joy. Peace. God wants you to learn real peace. Patience. God wants you to learn patience. Goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. There are nine qualities there. And when you look at those nine qualities, you know what they are? Perfect picture of Jesus. Jesus is total love, total joy, total peace, total patience. She wake up every morning and say, well, Lord,

33:38I don't know which one of these are going to teach me today. Patience. How does God teach you patience? You're waiting. Have you ever had to sit in God's waiting room? Have you ever been in a hurry and God wasn't? The number one way God teaches you patience? Department of motor vehicles. And so God often teaches you those qualities in the exact opposite situation. You learn love being around unlovely people. You learn joy in the middle of grief. You learn peace in the middle of chaos. It's easy to be peaceful. You have fly fishing in the mountains with Brad Pitt. You know, a river runs through it. You know, you're not there. Who could not be peaceful? He doesn't get any better than this. But if God's going to teach you real peace, he'll put you in the middle of chaos. Some of you are in it right now.

34:39Patience, gentleness, how does God teach you gentleness with people who annoy you to death? Don't look at them, but you know who they are. Teaching you how to be gentle. Self-control. There are lots of ways he teaches you self-control. And so God says, I want to turn your hurts into holiness. And what's the purpose? Put Romans 829 back on the screen. God knew his purpose from the very beginning, and he planned in advance that all of God's family would become like Jesus. That's the number one goal God has for your life. Not comfort, but character. Be like Jesus's son. Now God's son is the first born of restored humanity. There's that word restoration, restored. He restores my soul. We're all broken. We all have broken relationships, broken minds, broken emotions, broken wills.

35:39We are all broken. And God says, I want to restore humanity to the original position I created it to be in the Garden of Eden. So I'm sending Jesus to come and die for your sins. And it says then on the screen, so we see the intended shape of our lives in Him. Look at Jesus, and you'll know what God wants to do in your life. We see the intended shape of our lives in Him, and He will have many brothers and sisters in God's eternal family. Like Father, like Son, like Father, like daughter. He wants you to become not a God, but Godly. Now, Genesis 50 verse 20 explains then why God allows people to hurt you. Knowing what God's goal is, and verse 50 verse 20 says, you intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done. This is a quote from a guy named Joseph. Joseph had every reason to have unaddressed grudges because his own family sold him into slavery.

36:43He was one of the youngest kids in the family, and his older brothers didn't like him. They thought he was pompous, they didn't like him at all. So they took him and threw him in a pit and told the father that they were buried eating him. And then he's living in this pit by himself, and some slave traders come by on their way to Egypt, and the brothers pull him out, sell him into slavery. He's taken down to Egypt, and he's hired out as a slave to a guy named Potipher, and Potipher's wife is a seductive woman. And she gets the hots for Joseph, and she tries to seduce him, and he says, I'm not going to do that, I have integrity. I serve the God of the ages. I serve the Almighty God. And so she's spurned, she's scorned. What does she do? She screams and claims that he's taken advantage of her. And falsely accused, he's thrown into prison.

37:43The first 40 years of his entire life, nothing goes right. Some of you might identify with that. He's thrown into a pit, he's rejected by his family, he's sold into slavery, he's taken to a foreign country, he's falsely accused, he's put in prison. God had him exactly where he wanted him to be. And the second half of his life looked a whole lot brighter, because out of that, through a series of circumstances, he's raised up to be the second most powerful man, under Pharaoh in Egypt, which was the most powerful empire in the world at that time. And he not only saves Egypt from a famine, but he saves all of the Middle East from a famine. And when he finally comes face to face with his brothers many years later, and they come to buy grain from Egypt, he looks at him and says, you meant it for bad. You, you, you, let's don't beat around the bush, you didn't like me, you meant it for bad, but God meant it for good. And God's bigger than you, and God can bring good things out of even bad things.

38:47When you learn that, you will begin to rebuild your soul. The broken thoughts, the broken emotions, and the broken choosing of decision making in your will. So God says, I will turn your hurts into holiness if you will trust me. Number two, what about when, when we do wrong, what about when we sin, what about when we have that uncomfessed guilt? How does God, the good shepherd deal with that? Well God's a good God, and here's the answer. When we do wrong, Jesus takes my sin on Himself. He says, I'm going to take your guilt. Please just hand it over to me, and I'm going to go die on the cross and pay for all your sins, so you don't have to pay for your sins. This is the best news in the whole world. We call it the gospel, which is an old English word for good news. And Jesus takes all my guilt on Himself. He says, I'm going to give you all my goodness, also called righteousness.

39:48I'm going to give you all my goodness so you can get into heaven, and you're going to, I'm going to take all of your guilt, and I'm going to pay for it on the cross. Nearly 700 years before Jesus died on the cross, so that would be about 2,700 years ago. A guy named Isaiah was a prophet, and God told him in very specific terms that he was going to send a savior to the world, a Messiah, to save all our sins, and to pay for him. 700 years he gave him this prophecy. It's in many chapters of Isaiah, but Psalm, I mean Isaiah 53 is the clearest. And when you read these details, you got to read that this guy was saying this 700 years before it happened. Only God could have told him this. And Isaiah 53 verses 5 and 6, it says this about Jesus. 700 years before Jesus arrived. He was wounded and crushed for our sins. This is on the cross.

40:52He was beaten and he took our punishment so that we might have peace. And through his wounds, our wounds are healed. All of us have strayed away like sheep. You know, sheep I told you last week are not real smart. We've all done our own thing. We've left God's path to follow our own, yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. Now what I just read to you is the most basic fundamental truth of the Bible. If this wasn't true, we could all go home right now. Because we wouldn't have anything at all if Jesus Christ hadn't come to pay for your sins. But the most basic truth is that he did, that everything you're going to do wrong in life, including the stuff you're going to do tonight. And tomorrow, and next week, and 10 years from today, it's already been paid for.

41:52It's already been paid for. You just have to accept God's grace and goodness. That is the goodness of God. That he's already paid for everything I'm even going to do, not just a passport in the future, it's already paid for. I remember one time there was a guy out on the patio at the Lake Forest campus, and he came up to me frantically after the service, and he said, I need to know what do I need to do to get to heaven? I said, well, you're too late. Just started shocking. You're too late. He goes, no, no, really. What do I need to do in order to get to heaven? I said, sorry, you're too late. So what do you mean? There's got to be something I can do. I said, there's nothing. It's already been done by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. This is what makes Christianity different from religions that are out there.

42:52Every religion has a list of things to do to get to heaven. And each religion says, this is our list, and this is our list, and that's our list, and another religion, and that's our list. And if you'll do these things, it's all based on your performance, you might make it into heaven. Okay, and be sure, but you might. And so all the other religions can be summed up in the word do. Christianity is summed up in the word done. And when Jesus was on the cross, he cried out, it is finished. Now notice, he didn't say, I'm finished because he wasn't. He came back to life three days later, and he wasn't finished and he's alive today. He lives in my heart. I've been his friend now for over 50 years, and many of you have too. But when he says, this finish, he's saying, you don't need daddy thing. It's not, I die on the cross, plus you do these 10 other things, then you get to go to heaven. There's only one thing you need to get into heaven, humility, to realize you're never getting there by what you do.

43:56The only way is to say, I am a sinner and I need a savior. That's what you say. That's humility. That's the sin that'll keep you out of heaven. I don't need anybody to say, I'm good enough to get thrown on my own. Really. It's a perfect place. I stopped being perfect about 30 seconds into this planet. And so nobody bats a thousand. I've never met anybody who actually claimed to be perfect. We all know we're imperfect. But we say to God, God, we're going to trust you. And when you come to Christ and you say, I'm going to take my sins on you, what are you giving me? You know what I'm saying? You don't have to beg. Please, God, please, please save me. You don't have to bargain if you'll do this, God, then I'll do that. You don't have to bribe. I'll read my Bible every day if you do this. Bragg, bribe, bargain. You don't do anything. You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't, you just believe. That's it.

45:00That's why it's called the good news. The word gospel is just an old English word that means good news. And what's the best news? You can't get the heaven and your good works, but it's already been paid for. You just have to humbly admit you need a savior that you're not good enough to go to a perfect place. You said, Rick, you don't know what I've done. It doesn't matter. I don't need to know what you've done because I know what Jesus has done. And what Jesus has done is bigger than what you have done. The good thing he did on the cross is bigger than the bad thing you have done. That's why we call it good Friday when he died. It's not good for Jesus. It's painful, but it's good for you. He said, Rick, I've asked God to forgive me. I just don't feel forgiven. It means you don't fully understand it yet. Because once you understand how fully forgiven you are, you just want to shout. You want to jump up it down. And if God comes into your life, it's going to make some changes. You can't have him come into your life and it not change you.

46:05So if your life hadn't changed any, you might have gotten something, but you haven't gotten God. Somebody's biggest God can't come into your life and not change you. And when you enter the more you understand grace, the more joyful you'll be. Many of you know that one of my mentors in life was the father of modern management, Peter Drucker. And he mentored me the last 30 years of his life from about 65 to 95. And he trained all of the who's who of business leaders that are leading businesses today. And one day I was up at his house and he was mentoring me on some leadership things. And I said, Peter, when did you step across the line? When did you find Christ? When did you put your faith in Jesus? And he said in that thick Austrian accent, well, Rick, he said, when I finally understood the concept of grace, I knew I was going to never get a better deal.

47:06When you finally understand how good God really is, you're not going to go anywhere else because he's a good, good father. Now, as I said, Isaiah wrote that part about Jesus suffering on the cross. Let me read you some more of it. And listen to the details of this, 700 years before it actually happened. Isaiah 53 verses 7 to 12. He was beaten down and punished. I'm not Jesus on the cross before the cross, but he didn't say a word. That's all happened. He was let out like a lamb to be slaughtered. He was condemned to death without fair judgment. And then he was put to death for the transgressions of everyone else. That's us. He died like a criminal, but then was buried with the rich, even though he'd done nothing wrong and it never lied. You know this is true. Jesus died on the cross as a criminal.

48:06That was the worst capital punishment available. It's humiliating death on the cross. But when they took him down, there was a wealthy man named Joseph of Verimathea who had a brand new tomb he'd bought for his family, often buried people in the same tomb for decades. They're like a hole in the wall of a cave and they covered up. And Joseph of Verimathea was quite wealthy. But he offered his tomb for Jesus because he had not got to need it very long. Think about that. Like, you know, what's a few days? He's, you know, he said he's coming back to life. So why would I worry? He's borrowed for a couple days. I don't intend to die between now and then. But 700 years, Isaiah says a rich man is going to provide him a tomb. And it says, yet it was God's plan to cause him to suffer. It was God's plan. Who put Jesus to death? Not the Romans, not Jewish leaders. God did. God did. Jesus said, I lay down my life. He's part of the training. I voluntarily do this for you and me.

49:15It was God's plan to cause him to suffer and make his life a guilt offering for our sins, a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. But after his soul suffered many things, he will enjoy life and joy again. That's the resurrection. He's saying this 700 years before it happened. But my suffering servant God says will make many people right with God. And he will be, he will bear all their sins and he will willingly give his life. And he was treated like a criminal, but he took the place of everyone who had sinned and he interceded for their forgiveness. Now when Jesus died on the cross, he covered all your sins and he forgave you. And the Bible says he throws your sins in the deepest part of the sea. It's like a metaphor. And then I want to add, and he puts up a no-fishing sign. Why would you drag out something to remember that God has already forgiven and forgotten? When you keep feeling bad about something you've already confessed to God and God's forgiven you and Jesus died for it, then it says, I don't really believe Jesus paid for my sin. That's unbelief.

50:28When you keep asking for forgiveness for something you sincerely asked for already is unbelief. Because Jesus gives completely and freely and instantly and with grace. When Jesus forgave all your sins, which one were not included? None. They're all included. Every single one. This is why I serve Jesus Christ. I don't serve Him for money. I don't serve Him for fame. I don't serve Him out of duty. I don't serve Him out of fear. I don't serve Him out of guilt. I serve Him out of gratitude. And you should too. And if God has forgiven all your sins, shouldn't you? Now, what about the third thing? We talked about guilt. We talked about a grudge. What about this third area that warps my soul? You might write this down. When we experience loss, here it is, loss in pain. Jesus feels my grief and heals my heart. He feels my grief and heals my heart.

51:31Why does Jesus feel my grief? Because He understands grief. He's been there. He's experienced it too. He understands. He came to earth and became one of us. So, He's experienced all of the loneliness that people experience, the betrayal that people experience, the rejection that people experience. And He came to feel my grief and heal my heart. That is the goodness of God. The Lord is my shepherd. Again, more in this same chapter, Isaiah 53, same place, 700 plus years before Jesus came to earth, Isaiah says this, describes Jesus the Messiah, the Savior. He was despised and rejected by others. If you've ever been despised, you know how that hurts. Maybe you were despised at school. That hurts. Maybe you were despised because of a handicap or the color of your skin or because your female or male or whatever.

52:31If you've been despised, Jesus understands. He was despised. He was rejected. If you've ever had somebody reject you, walk out on your life. Jesus understands that hurt. There's no hurt you can experience that you don't understand. No grief. Why can Jesus understand my grief? He's experienced it all. Isaiah, He was despised and rejected by others. He was a man of sorrows which endured much pain and suffering. And He experienced deep grief. Imagine leaving heaven and come here to live a bunch of people who hate you. He experienced deep grief. But we ignored Him and we looked the other way. He was hated and we did not care. Yet it was our weakness that He was caring on the cross. And it was our sorrow, our sorrow that weighed Him down. So He understands. We didn't just understand. He didn't just feel. He heals. Look at the next verse. Psalm 147 verse 3.

53:34He heals the broken hearted and He binds up their wounds. I don't know what's broken your heart. Some of your hearts break in right now. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I'm glad you're here because this is a place for the healing of broken hearts. But the fact of life is Jesus says, I heal and I feel and I care about what you're going through. Now, so what are you doing with your grief? Maybe you just had a big break up. Maybe you just got fired at work. Maybe you just go, does anybody want me? Does anybody want me? Does anybody notice me? And there's that ache in your heart. What do you do with that ache? You take it to Jesus. Three things that are my response to what Jesus does for me because of my guilt, my grief and my grudges. How should I respond?

54:36Well, it's all summed up in the attitude of belief. Trust. And number one is trust the good shepherd to forgive my sins. Actually believe that he has forgiven my sins. Start acting like all your sins are forgiven. And number three, 23 and 24, all of us have sinned yet God declares us not guilty. If we trust, circle that word trust in Jesus Christ who in his free mercy freely takes away our sins. So I just trust. I believe I accept that my sins have been forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross. I just want to say, please, I just want to go back to the point where I'm not guilty. Release my offenders. Release my offenders. People who've hurt me and focus on the future. Don't let them get under your skin anymore because your soul cannot be restored until you let go of resentment in your mind, in your thoughts, and let go of revenge in your emotions and let go of retaliation in your actions and your decisions. You gotta let it go.

55:41And the Bible says in Ephesians 4 30, get rid of all bitterness. I mean, you should not bitterness is a barrier to your life, forgiving each other, justice Christ forgave you. Not only said should you get rid of resentment, he said you gotta get rid of retaliation. Romans 12, never avenge yourselves, leave that to God. He said, he'll repay those who deserve it. So I trust God. I really did forgive all my sins. And then because of that, I start off and forgive this other people. I let other people off the hook and I release my offenders so I can focus on the future. I'm certainly not going to get stuck in the past for the rest of my life. I'm going to give you a three. I team up with Jesus to carry my load. God never intended for you to go through life carrying all your grief, guilt, grudges, problems, pressures, stresses, situations by yourself.

56:45And Jesus says, I want to team up with you. I want to yoke up with you. And when he uses the word yoke, he's not talking about an egg yolk. The kind of yoke that they would put over two cattle is a beam. And the beam, then the two cattle can pull the wagon together. Here's what it says. Look up here on the screen. Come to me. Come to Jesus. Come to me, you who are weary, you tired, you carry heavy burdens. And I will give you a lot more to do. No, that's all he says. Come to me and I will give you what? Yeah, rest. I talked about that last week. Take my yoke up on you. Let me teach you because I'm humble in general. And you will find rest for your souls for my yoke fits perfectly. And the burden I give you is light. Now, when you read that, it sounds like he said, OK, you know, this cattle yoke that they put over two horses or two cattle, they pulled the wagon.

57:45And he's putting something else on me. That sounds pretty heavy. That doesn't sound good. A little big heavy thing like that. No, no, you don't understand the purpose of a yoke is not to put more on you. It's to take off half of your load. If you're pulling the wagon by yourself, it's 100% dependent on your energy. Jesus says, yoke up with me. Let's share it. And guess what? I'll help you carry. And it will be half as difficult. Does that make sense? The yoke is not to put more on you. The yoke is saying, I'll pull your load. Jesus doesn't have any load. He's got. He has no load. Everything's easy for him. And so when you yoke up, team up with Jesus, he says, I'll help you pull your load. And by the way, when you yoke, that's Jesus, it's impossible for you to run the wagon into the ditch. Because he's not going to let you do it. You got to go the direction he's going and you got to go with the pace he's going and he will go at a more reasonable pace than you will.

58:50That's what he says. I want to do in your life. Let's power heads. Would you pray? And would you talk to God right now? Say, God, my soul needs restoring. I don't always think right. I don't always choose right. I don't always feel right. And I need you to restore my damaged soul, my mind, my will, and my emotions. And Lord, specifically today, I want to ask your help on the things that do damage my soul. About those unaddressed grudges. I know it's not doing me any good to hold onto the hurt. I'm only hurting myself with the anger. And every time I remember that the way they hurt me, it just hurts again. Would you turn my hurts into holiness? Would you turn my pain into gain? Would you do what only you can do? Would you transform me and turn the conflict and the chaos into character in my life? I need your help to do that.

1:00:11And Lord, I'm going to ask you also with the unconfessed guilt. And there's stuff I've been carrying around in a large garbage bag for a long time, and it's starting to stink. I'm going to say to you, I need your forgiveness. And then more than that, I'm going to believe it. I'm not going to listen to my feelings or what anybody else says or what thoughts the Satan might try to put in my mind. Thank you, Jesus, for taking all of my sins on yourself at the cross. Thank you that you were wounded and crushed for me. Your beaten took my punishment. So I might have peace. You've said in your word that your wounds heal my wounds. I'm asking you to do that. And then Lord, all of those losses that I've had in life that have caused grief. I need your help with that. I need you to feel my grief and heal my heart like you've promised.

1:01:15Help me to realize that you understand how I feel better than I do. And as I continue this journey with learning about your goodness, I first want to say I'm going to trust that my sins have been forgiven because I've humbly just come to you and said, I need it. I need a savior. And I'm going to release the people who've hurt me. And every time I think of them, help me to just pray or prayer, blessing to not hold onto the hurt. Most of all, Jesus, I want to team up with you. Yoke up with you. I'm going to ask you to help me in the load that I'm carrying. If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your heart, say, Jesus Christ today, I want to get to know you. I want to learn to love you. I want to learn to trust you. And I humbly ask you to accept me into your family. And I pray this not because I deserve it, but because on the cross it was finished.

1:02:23You paid it all right there. Thank you. In your name I pray. Amen.