Freed Into Your Future | Emotionally Healthy Spirituality - Part Two | Sunday Service

Well, ladies, I have a question for you today.

Did your man take care of you this weekend?

Kinda, sorta, maybe.

A little bit.

I hope, I hope you're hope you're let more.

Let me hear you, ladies, one more time.

Did your man take care of you this weekend?

That's what I'm talking about.

Good job, fellas.

I'm proud of you.

I hinted to you last Sunday just to remind you, don't want to miss this date.

And you know, yesterday being Valentine's Day, I got a few Valentine's dad jokes for you this morning.

Who wants a Valentine's dad joke today?

Come on.

That's what I'm talking about.

Here's the first one.

These are Valentine's dad jokes.

Really, they're they're kind of Valentine's pickup lines.

And and here's the first one.

Do you hear about the guy that walked up to the lady and said, Are you a parking ticket?

Are you a parking ticket?

Why would he say that?

Because he responded, You got fine written all over you.

That's pretty good.

That's that's that's pretty good.

You're welcome.

I'll be here all day.

Here's number two.

Everybody say number two.

What did the pickle say to its Valentine's?

What did the pickle say to its Valentine?

He said, Well, you mean a great deal to me?

You're welcome.

One more, one more, and I know that everybody is thankful that it's just one more.

I have six here, but I'm not gonna do them all.

You're welcome.

I love you.

I love you very much.

Here's the last one.

Why shouldn't you trust, why shouldn't you trust a pastry chef on Valentine's Day?

Why shouldn't you trust a pastry chef?

Well, it's really simple.

Because he'll desert you.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Caleb, thank you so much.

You're amazing.

If you have your Bibles, grab those this morning and turn with me to Psalms 139.

Psalms 139 is where we're going to be together this morning as we continue a series we kicked off last week entitled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.

Last week we looked at the religious leaders of Jesus' day and how they had built a faith system around their works.

And we discovered that anytime you build your faith around your works, you're setting yourself up to be emotionally insecure.

Because we can really only build our faith and build our lives around a relationship with Jesus.

And so Jesus had some pretty harsh words for the religious people that were basing their faith on their performance.

We were just singing about that a moment ago.

It's not about our performance.

I'm so thankful that I don't have to be perfect to be in a relationship with Jesus.

But that's what the religious leaders were doing, and Jesus scolded them pretty harshly and helped them to understand that you're on shaky ground.

Today, we're gonna take it a step further.

And we're not gonna look at our works, we're gonna look at our wounds.

We're gonna look at the things that we've been through, the experiences that we've had, because if we're not real careful, what we've been through will have a tendency to define our destiny.

But neither our works nor our wounds are a sure foundation to put our lives upon.

It's in a relationship with Jesus.

And so today we're gonna look inward just a little bit.

And I'm believing by the end of our time together today that God's gonna do a transformational work in your heart and it's gonna work out in your life.

That there's some things that you may be carrying that you don't even understand or realize that you're carrying, but you're gonna walk in one way and you're gonna walk out a different way.

You're gonna walk out healed and whole today by the power of the name of Jesus.

Psalms 139.

Stand with me as we read God's word together today.

Psalms 139, starting in verse 1.

This is David writing here.

He says, You have searched me, Lord.

You have searched me, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise.

You perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down.

You are familiar with all of my ways.

Just in case you were wondering, there's nothing that you can hide from God.

You're familiar with all of my ways before a word is on my tongue.

Lord, you know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me, and such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It's it's too lofty for me to attain.

What's what's David really saying here?

He's saying, Lord, I don't know me, but I know you do.

Can I tell you that is one of the most healthy things you can ever say in your life is that God, I really don't know myself, but you do.

And there's somebody that you can turn to in your life that knows everything about your life and still loves you.

Thank you, Jesus, but doesn't just love you, wants to bring healing to you.

And jump all the way down to the end of the chapter and listen to David's cry, the response of his heart.

Verse 23, he says, Search me, God, know my heart, test me, know my anxious thoughts, and see if there's any offensive way in me.

And then, lastly, don't miss this.

It's easy to overlook it, it's easy to move past it.

He says, Lead me in the way everlasting.

What is he saying?

He's saying, God, don't just search me and know me, but help me to know myself so that I can follow you better.

Lead me in the way everlasting.

Church, this is God's word, and the title of my message this morning is simply this freed.

Everybody say, freed into your future.

Say that one more time.

Freed into your future.

Turn to your neighbor and say you are freed into your future.

Turn to your other neighbor and say you are freed into your future.

Turn around to the person behind you and say you are being freed into your future.

Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

It is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path, shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray, Lord, this morning that we wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but God, that we would be doers of it.

In Jesus' mighty name.

Everybody said, and you may be seated.

Thank you, Caleb.

I want to open this morning with a question.

Have you ever had an experience?

And you responded to a comment that somebody said, or you reacted to what somebody else did, and your response and your reaction shocked you.

And you ever thought, where did that come from?

What why why did I respond that way?

Why did I react that way?

What's going on inside of me?

Anybody else ever had an experience like that?

You know what I'm talking about.

I had an experience like that a couple months ago.

And it really caused me to begin to process what's going on on the inside of Jeremy.

For those of you that don't know, my wife and I, we have two little lap dogs that are our pride and joy.

They're really more her pride and joy than mine, but you know how that goes.

And here's a picture of our two dogs.

Aren't they precious?

So cute.

So cute.

Over here on the left is Nilamack.

She's a little girl.

She weighs about 12 pounds.

And over here on the right is Leo.

He's our little boy.

He weighs about 17 pounds or so.

And they're about nine years old, actually, nine going on, 10 years old.

And Leo, in the last year, bless his heart, has developed diabetes.

So we have to we have to take him.

And in the process of getting diabetes, he's gone blind.

I know, it's pitiful, isn't it?

And so we have to be very careful when we're taking them for a walk.

We always have them on leashes, and and even he gets around the house fine.

So about two months ago, we were out one evening taking them for a walk.

We're towards the back part of our neighborhood, and we're walking on the sidewalk, and they're in their leashes, and and it's just gotten dark, but our our neighborhood has street lights, so it's pretty well lit, it's no problem.

And we're walking along, and and there's a house that we're approaching that's across the street, other side of the street, and I see the owner outside, and I see him with his dog, and his dog is a pit terrier type of dog.

It's probably a 40 or 50-pound dog, but it's not on a leash.

And I I notice what's going on, and I'm aware, we're on the opposite side of the street, we're good, and the dog starts trotting over towards us.

And the neighbor says, or calls his name, and the dog doesn't respond.

And then the neighbor says, Don't worry, he's friendly.

So I'm like, okay.

Well, there's a, as we're walking on the sidewalk, there's a car parked right here on the side of the street between the house and where we are, and we get on the other side of that car, and that dog comes around the corner of that car back behind us.

It crouches, doesn't say a word, doesn't bark, doesn't growl, doesn't do anything.

It crouches and then pounces on Nilamack, grabs her by the nap of the neck, picks her up, and starts shaking her violently.

I cease to become a pastor at that moment.

I immediately, and I've I've I've got him by the leash, and he's got Nila Mack, and she's squealing bloody murder.

And I start swinging on the dog.

I mean, like I start swinging on the dog, the owner comes running over, and I I hit it a couple of times, it finally lets go of Nilla.

In the meantime, the the mayhem that has ensued, Meg gets knocked down, cuts her leg, and then Leo, our blind dog, is over there doing his best version of Stevie Wonder, wondering what in the world is going on.

I think I heard him singing, We Are the World.

We are the children.

Well, the dog, I I I get Nilla free, and then it keeps trying to come back.

So I put myself in front of my family, and then it circles around behind the car to kind of come behind us again.

And so I Meg gets a hold of the dogs, and I put myself right in the middle.

It's coming around, and I'm like, let's go.

I'm like, come on, what you got?

I'm I'm like, I'm getting ready to form tackle this thing, and I'm I'm I'm taking it down.

So it starts charging, and I charge at it, and I'm screaming, look, I've got blood in my eyes.

I am like, this dog's getting ready to die.

So as I charge it, it backs up.

The owner then comes over and yells at me.

Jesus.

He yells at me.

I got my dog, you get your dog.

I don't know all that I said in response at that moment.

But I yelled back something to the effect, no, you don't.

If you did, your dog wouldn't be ripping my dog apart.

There may have been other things in there.

I don't remember entirely all that I said.

Anybody feel me just a little bit?

So I get out of my mouth.

Your dog wouldn't be ripping my dog apart if you did.

He yells back at me again.

Way to blow it out of proportion.

Oh.

Heck to the no.

To the no, no, no.

No, no, no.

I'm about to blow something else out of proportion.

I s I start going at him then.

And Meg has me at that point by the shirt tail.

And I'm s let me go.

Let me go.

You better let me go.

I'm swatting.

And about that time, he retreats into his house, and then I'm I'm torn because I want to get my hands on him, but Nilla's still squealing.

And we don't know how bad she's hurt.

And so I wheel around and we get to a street lamp, and thankfully, we have a pretty significant harness on her.

She wasn't hurt, praise God, hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Nothing broke the skin.

Um, she was bruised up a little bit, but she was fine.

And so we get home, and I would just candidly, I don't know the last time I was that mad.

I mean, I I'm I'm losing it.

So I get home and and I look at Meg and I say, do I have an anger problem?

Because I I'm telling you, I had I was spitting nails ready to go.

I spit nails because this dog attacked my dog, and then the owner took no responsibility for anything whatsoever.

So I felt the need to make sure he needed some responsibility.

And I get home and I'm like, Lord, do do and Meg, I love I love my wife, and and she said, No, you don't have an anger problem, you just love your family.

That's why I married you.

Love that.

That's right.

You don't have an anger problem.

Put my jacket back now on.

But I got to wondering in that moment, you know, why why do we react the way we do?

Maybe you haven't had that kind of situation, but we all can react that way given the right situation.

It may not be the exact one that I went through.

It's probably something a little bit specific to your experience, to your upbringing, to your wounds.

Church is what David is dealing with in Psalms 139.

Think about David for a moment.

David, I believe, in Psalms 139, is taking a step back and reflecting on why he is the way he is.

He was overlooked by his father, despised by his brothers, haunted by Saul, and betrayed by those closest to him.

You can't tell me that didn't impact his life.

You can't tell me that that from time to time didn't well up and cause a response and a reaction in him.

And I'm thinking David in Psalms 139, maybe towards the end of his life, we really don't know when he wrote it, but I see him writing it as an as an older man looking back on his life and saying, Why am I the way I am?

What causes me to react and respond the way I do for the different situations and circumstances that I walk through?

And and so he turns his attention, he turns his heart to the Lord and says, God, you know me.

You know when I rise and when I sit.

You know a word that is on my tongue before I say it.

You know my beginning from end.

And so I think what David is doing is he is asking the Lord to help him understand why he is the way he is.

There's an important truth in that.

And here's the truth: what you don't name can never change.

What you don't name will never change.

Honesty is always the path to healing.

It's only when we get honest about what we've been through, honest with what has impacted our life, honest with what has hurt us, honest with the words that have been spoken over us that weren't lifting up but were casting low.

It's only when we get honest with what we've been through and name it that we can then allow God to change it.

Because what do we say the first step to recovery is?

First, you've got to acknowledge you got a problem.

And what I've come to understand after 20 years of ministry is that we all got problems.

But the problem is we rarely really know what they are.

We ignore them, we sweep them under the rug, we just go through life, and then occasionally, out of nowhere, without any kind of warning, all of a sudden those problems that we have refused to name.

Well up and come out in response or reaction to something that we have experienced.

All of us know what that is like.

So this morning, I want to help us begin to name some things that are impacting our lives that we don't even know are impacting our lives, so that we can invite Jesus into it, allow him to redeem it so that we can be freed into the future that he has for our lives.

Listen, Jesus loves us way too much to leave us as he found us.

He wants to heal the hardest, darkest, most painful parts of our lives so that we can fulfill the potential that he has for our lives.

Last month in our Dream Again series, we we we were awakened again to dream.

This series is about God doing something on the inside of us so that the dreams he has for us don't outrun the character he's developing in us.

So what what do we need to do?

Here's a key truth that is going to begin the healing process in your life.

The first step to knowing yourself is to name, everybody say name the past patterns that have deeply shaped your present.

If if you really want to be freed into your future and believe that God has more for you yet to do, the first step is is being willing to name past patterns that have deeply shaped your present.

The other day I was asked, Pastor Jeremy, how many how many weddings have you performed during your ministry?

And my answer was a lot, but that made me begin to think, how many weddings?

So I went back and counted.

I've done something like 52 weddings over the last 20 years of ministry, something like that.

As a part of every wedding ceremony I do, I do four to six premarital counseling sessions.

I will sit down with a couple, and and many of you that are in here today, I have have walked through those sessions with, and we we talk about personalities uh differences, we talk about expectations, we talk about money, we talk about sex.

And anytime we get to that topic, everybody gets squirmish as if I don't have two kids.

But probably my my most favorite session is about family history.

And and the reason it's my most favorite, it's it's the most easily overlooked session, but probably most impactful part of their life.

You know, the young couples come to me and they're like, hey, I want to get married.

And so we start, I start asking all these questions that they haven't yet asked because they're convinced they can just live on love.

Good luck with that.

How many guys know love don't eat?

There's some things you gotta work through.

And so I start asking questions in the family history session about what was conflict like in your home?

Who talked?

Who was quiet?

Who shut down when there was an argument?

Who exploded when things got difficult?

How did your family handle money?

How did they show affection or not show it at all?

And as I ask these questions, it's amazing to watch light bulbs.

Literally, I can see light bulbs go off in their head as I'm asking these questions because all of a sudden they begin to understand that the family that they were raised in, the situation that they grew up in, had a profound effect on who they are today.

I mean, you guys know we're not just born into a void.

We aren't just the way we are because that's the way we are.

We are the way we are because of our experiences, our upbringing, all of those things have a huge impact upon our life.

And until we really begin to come to grips with that and acknowledge that and name some of those experiences, those experiences can have a strong hold on our lives and we be completely unaware of it.

All of a sudden, as I'm asking these questions, these young couples will light up with oh, that's why I shut down when we begin to argue, or why I panic when we talk about money, or why I feel guilty for resting.

They realize I didn't invent this, I inherited it.

In this session, let me clear something up.

This this isn't about blaming mom or dad, it's about naming the water you've been swimming in so that you can invite Jesus into it.

Because none of us are perfect.

There are no perfect parents.

That's not what this, we're not about blaming, we're about naming so that we can walk into the freedom that God has for us.

So because if you don't name it, you know what you do?

You un uh unconsciously either repeat it or run from it.

But when I begin to name the waters I grew up in, the waters that I I swam in, the environment that I grew up in, when I begin to name that, all of a sudden now I'm positioned to invite Jesus into it.

Because he alone can heal it.

And so that's that's the second key here that we have to understand.

It's not enough just to name our patterns.

We have to invite, everybody say invite, invite Jesus into them because he's the change agent.

See if if I can name it, then I can invite him in it, and if he's in it, it can be changed, and that's the goal.

Joseph in the Old Testament.

His story is like a premarital counseling session on steroids.

His family was a mess.

Issues all over the place.

His family was full of favorites and full of secrets and full of jealousy and and and betrayal and if Joseph had not invited God into the waters he grew up in, he would have been doomed to repeat them or run from them.

But Joseph shows us what happens when we invite God in.

At the end of his life, his brothers are standing before him, terrified that he's going to exact revenge against them, and they probably deserved it.

His brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery.

And if there's anybody that was ever positioned to exact punishment on those who had wronged them, it was Joseph.

But in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, the Bible says that Joseph looks at those who wronged him horribly beyond what you could possibly imagine, and said, You intended to harm me, but God.

Genesis 50:20

Everybody say, but God.

But God intended it for good.

He didn't excuse it, he didn't push it to the side, he didn't overlook it, he didn't sweep it under the rug.

He acknowledged that evil had been done to him.

But instead of focusing solely on what had been done to him, he invited God into the situation.

And because God was invited to the situation, God was able to redeem it and turn it into his good.

Can I tell you this morning?

What you've been through doesn't have the power to define you if God is in it.

Anyone know what I'm talking about this morning?

Anybody been through something and all of a sudden you get on the back side of it and you see God was with you the whole time working things together for your good?

See, this is what Joseph teaches us is the past doesn't have to define your future because our God is a redeemer, He makes all things good in their time and in our lives.

And if God did it for Joseph, he can do it for you.

Some of you last month, as we talked about dreams and the destiny that God has for your life, maybe had some things stirred in your heart, but you quietly thought.

See, when we invite Jesus into our story, he wonderfully heals us, frees us, redeems us, so that the destiny that he has for our lives is released in us and through us.

So get this progression.

We gotta name it.

Everybody say name it?

We gotta invite Jesus into it.

Everybody say invite Jesus into it so that he can redeem it.

Everybody say so he can redeem it?

Why?

So that we can be freed to pursue the future that he has for our life.

God redeems our future by freeing us from the bondage of our past.

Your past doesn't have the power to determine your destiny.

When you invite Jesus into it.

The Bible tells us that they stood up for what they believed in.

And as a result of that, they were thrown into a fiery furnace.

Can I tell you, just because you're doing the right thing, doesn't mean you're gonna get the response you always want.

They get thrown in the fiery furnace for doing the right thing, but then something miraculous happens.

King Nebuchadnezzar, the one who threw them in the fiery furnace, stands up to look in and see what's going on.

He's expecting these three Hebrew children to be burnt alive, but he sees something very unexpected.

He sees a fourth man in the fire.

It says their hair had not been singed, their robes did not smell like smoke.

Nothing on them had been wounded.

The only thing that got burnt in the fire was the ropes binding them.

See, when we invite Jesus into the difficult and darkest days of our lives, we're able to walk out of it free.

Redeemed and restored by the power of the Spirit of God.

Can I tell you, when you walk with Jesus, you don't look like what you've been through?

I'm so glad today that I don't look like what I've been through.

How do you not look like what you've been through?

How do you not smell like what you've been through when you invite Jesus into it?

He frees you from it so powerfully it has no smell of smoke on you.

This is what God wants to do in every heart, in every life.

To kind of wrap this up this morning, the key truth, the takeaway from today is this.

Our worth isn't in our works or our wounds.

It's in the one who walks with me in the fire.

Your worth isn't in your works, neither is it in your wounds.

It's in the one who walks with you through the fire because he has the power to redeem it and free you from it so that you can fulfill his destiny for your life.

Anybody thankful this morning that my worth isn't in my works?

It isn't in my wounds, it's in the one who walks with me through every situation, through every circumstance, through every relationship, through every problem, through every hurt.

He's with me.

So they have no power over me.

So let me give you three applications just in conclusion this morning.

Number one, this week, this week I'm gonna invite you to do this.

I want you, number one, to pray Psalms 139 personally over your life.

Every day this week, I want you to pray Psalms 139.

You can read just the first six verses and the last two, like I did this morning, or you can read the whole chapter, but I want you to pray Psalms 139 over your life and in and invite the Lord to search you and show you so that you can name what's impacting you.

So read Psalms 139.

Number two is this.

I want you to start a spiritual map, and you're like, what in the world is that?

I want you to, so I want you, God, God, search me, show me.

I'm gonna read Psalms 139, and you're gonna show me.

And then number two, you're gonna start a spiritual map, and really that's that's these three things that that as God begins to show you, then you're gonna identify what patterns do I see in my family line?

Where have I made inner vows?

What do I mean by that?

What I mean, where have you said, I will never be like them, or I always have to be a particular way?

I want you to identify the vows that you've made.

A lot of times when we walk through stuff, we say, I will never, and in the process of saying, I will never, we overcorrect.

And we're still bound by what we went through.

And number three, where do I see those patterns in my life?

That's what that's what a spiritual map is.

You're you're helping to identify and name what's going through, going on through your life.

And then finally, number three, I want you to invite Jesus into one specific memory.

Ask the Holy Spirit to bring one memory or one pattern to mind, and then invite Jesus.

Everybody say, invite Jesus.

Invite Jesus into that experience, into that pattern, into that habit, and allow him to heal it and redeem it so that you can be freed from it so that you can move forward into your future.

How many of you guys will do that this week?

I want you to do that this week and allow God to free you into your future.

Stand with me where you are this morning, all across the house today.

I want to ask the worship team to join me on stage because I just want to lead us through a corporate prayer, but I also want to have a moment here at the end of our service because I believe that the Holy Spirit has pinpointed some things in many of your lives that you know are a pattern or a wound that's holding you captive.

And I'm believing today God's gonna free you from it by the power of the blood of Jesus.

You just close your eyes right when you stand and maybe open your hands and extend them heavenward as a sign of openness to the Lord.

I'm just gonna pray this over you today, Lord.

You have searched us, and you know us.

You know every chapter of our story.

You know the parts that we're proud of and the parts that we are not.

You know what's been done to us, you know what we've been through and what maybe we're still carrying today.

And it is our declaration this morning that we don't want our works or our wounds to define us any longer.

We want you, Jesus, to define us.

We want our worth to be in you alone.

So, God, we invite you today, at the very beginning of this week, to search us, show us, change us, God, help us to identify the negative patterns and tendencies in our family so that we can be freed into our future in Jesus' name.

I want to ask my prayer team to join me to my right and to my left this morning, and if there's something you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that's in your life, and it's impacting your life in a negative way, and it needs to change.

I'm gonna ask you this morning not to leave here without allowing.

Us to partner with you to pray that it would be broken and that you would be freed to move forward into the future that God has for your life.

I believe, church, we believe in the power of the name of Jesus.

We believe that his name has the power to break every yoke, to break every bondage, to rewrite the story of our lives.

And you don't have to leave the same way in which you came.

You can leave free and full in him.

How many of you would say, Pastor, there's something in my life right now?

Just right now, just raise your hand right where you stand.

Yeah, I see that hand.

I see that hand.

I see that.

Hey, don't leave here today.

I'm imploring you as your pastor, come forward as we worship and allow us to minister to you so that you can leave this place different from how you came.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we release your freedom in this house today over every heart and every life.