Rick Warren - Living God's Dream Despite Past Poor Decisions

If you pull out your message notes now. In the

first message in this new series on time to Dream

and open doors, in our campaign last week, I gave

you a dozen reasons why you have to know God's

dream for your life. If you miss that message, you

really need to listen to it. A dozen reasons why

you're not living. You're just existing if you don't know

God's dream for your life. But one of the things

that I said is that God's dream for your life

is always, always bigger than your dream for your life.

The Bible says God can do far more than you

think or ask, or imagine or even dream of. God's

dream for your life is bigger than your dream for

your life. That's why you need to discover it. That's

why you need to develop it. But I want to

pause before we go into the actual steps of discovering

God's dream for your life, and talk to you this

week about the biggest barrier that will keep you from

God's dream. The number one barrier to your future is

your past. It's your past because we tend to perpetrate

the past. Now your past is past, it's over, it's

done with. But a lot of people still try to

live in the past. You can't live in the past.

It's over, it's done with. But you can live in

the present and you can prepare and dream for the future.

So this weekend I want us to look at living

God's dream despite poor past decisions, because I meet people

all the time ago, Well, I think maybe I had

my chance, but I've missed God's dream. I'm now on

plan B or C or D or E, and I

don't know. I don't deserve to have God's dream because

I so messed up so much of my past. I

don't even know if I should dream. Well, you're dead wrong,

but I'm glad you came this weekend because we're gonna

look at how to live God's dream despite past poor decisions. Now,

the one reason we know that God's word is God's word,

that the Bible is God's word is it always tells

us the truth, even we don't like to hear it.

It tells us the truth. And the first verse there

on your outline, James, chapter three, verse two says this

we all stumble in many ways. Everybody agree with that verse. Yeah,

we're all in the same boat. Okay, we all. I

looked up that word all it means all. Okay, we

all stumble. We mess up, we screw up, we make mistakes,

we sin, we have problems, we hurt other people, we

hurt ourselves. We all stumble in many many This is

one of the most obvious truths of the universe. I mean,

I've never met anybody in all my years who's claim

to be perfect that they've never stumbled. No, No, we've

all messed up in many ways. Just a couple other

verses on the screen. Ecclesiastes seven twenty there's not a

single person in all the earth who's always good and

never sins. That includes me, it includes you, includes the pope,

includes everybody. There's not a person on earth who always

does what's right, always does what's good, and never does

what's wrong. The Bible says it like this in Romans

three twenty three. Yeah, all of us, all of us. Again,

there's that word, all of us have sinned. Everyone falls

short of God's glorious ideal. Now another way to say

that verses all of us have sinned, and all of

us falls short of God's original dream for our lives. Okay,

we've all fallen short of God's original dream for our lives.

Does that mean that that dream is now on hold? No,

it does not, it does not. We all fall short

of the glorious idea. We don't hit perfection. We don't

get what God has dreamed for us. But this is

why Jesus came to earth. He said this on the screen,

Luke nineteen ten. I came, Jesus said, to save and

restore what was lost, what's lost When we make poor choices,

we lose our vision, we lose our dignity. We can

lose our identity. We can lose our confidence. We can

lose our joy, we can lose our peace of mind.

We can lose our plans and dreams and hopes. A

lot of stuff's lost from our poor decisions. But the

whole reason Jesus came to earth, he said, I came

to recover and to restore that which is lost. And

part of what Jesus came to restore is God's original

dream for you. He hadn't moved on to Plan B

in your life. He still has Plan A in your life.

He still has his original dream for why He made you,

regardless of what has happened in your life, what other

people have done to you or what other people have

done against you, or what you have done to yourself,

or all the poor decisions that other people you made.

How do you live God's dream despite past poor decisions? Well,

I want us this weekend to look at the steps

because the Bible gives us a very clear pathway on

how to get back on track, to how to get

back to God's original dream even if you haven't been

there for fifty years, how do you get back? It's

never too late to get back on track with the

original plan God had for your life. He hasn't shelved it.

It's still in force in your life. So what are

the steps to recovering God's original dream for my life

even though I may have not even known about it

until now? Well, there are six steps. I want you

to write these down. Here's number one. The first step

in recovering God's dream for my life is to honestly

accept responsibility for my poor choices. That's where we start.

I just go, I own up and say I honestly

accept the responsibility for all the dumb choices I've made

in life. Nobody was holding the gun to my head.

Nobody forced you to make the choices that you made.

You chose to make them, and I've chosen. And the

Bible says we've all stumbled in many ways, we've all

made poor choices. Now what this means when I don't

when I don't accuse others and I don't excuse myself,

which is what we typically do. We accuse an excuse.

Since Adam and Eve, God's people and everybody has had

this accusing, excusing, we excuse ourselves well well well, and

we accuse others. We blame others. You've heard me say

many times, you spell blame, be lame. Every time you blame,

you are being lame. So don't excuse and accuse it. Now,

there are many many examples. I could give it scripture

on why we make poor choices. Let me just give

you one. Uh. It is the time when Peter betrayed

Jesus Christ the night before he goes to the cross,

and Jesus even predicted said Peter, you're going to deny

me three times before tomorrow morning. And in Peter's night

before Jesus goes to the cross betrayal where he betrays

Jesus three different times, he makes three really poor choices,

but he does it for four very common reasons. So

I want you to see these. They're all in Mark

chapter fourteen if you want to read about it. Mark

chapter fourteen is Jesus being betrayed by Peter. And there's

fourth common causes. The first cause that causes us to

make poor choices. Write this down is pride, pride, arrogance,

ego egotism. The Bible says that pride causes us to

make dumb decisions. Now we see this in the Upper room.

Jesus is in the upper room with his closest disciples,

the original twelve. They're taking the Lord's Supper together. Jesus says,

at that moment, one of you is going to betray me.

One guy pipes up, saying, no way, Jose, that isn't

gonna happen. Who is it? It's Peter. And in Bark

chapter fourteen, verse twenty nine, Peter in the upper room

says this. Everybody else may stumble in their faith, but

I won't. He's being set up by the devil right here,

big big target on his back. Nobody else makes this

boast of the twelve guys, but Peter, of all the guys, goes, Lord,

all these losers over here, they may deny you, they

may back out, they may wimp out on you. I

know what you're about to go through. You're getting ready

to be arrested and tortured and go to the crossmit.

In no way am I going to back out. I

die for you. He's setting himself up with pride. The

Bible says Fennyman thinks he's not gonna fall take heed

because he probably will. And the people who brag about

their confidence the most are the ones who are going

to most likely stumble. He said. Everybody may stumble, but

I won't. It's his pride. Proverbs eleven, verse two on

the screen says pride leads to disgrace, but humility leads

to wisdom. Anytime I start thinking I'm a hot shot,

I'm dead in the water already. Anytime I start thinking

I'm invincible, this can't happen to me. I'm already dead.

Given the right situation. You and I are capable of

any sin given the right situation. If you don't believe that,

you're already in trouble. Because the Bible says the heart suceitful.

You lie to yourself, and I lie to myself more

than we lie to anybody else. Pride causes us to

make dumb decisions. Have you ever made a dumb decision

out of pride? Don't give me your illustration, but I

know you can think of one. Okay, number two. Second

cause of poor decisions in life fatigue. Fatigue when you

get tired, when you get warned, when your resources are low,

when you're stressed to the limit, when you're hanging on

and you're about to go under, you're at the end

of your rope, when you're fatigued. Vince Lombardi, the Great Coach, said,

fatigue makes cowards of all of us. And it does.

The more fatigued you are, the more fearful you will

tend to become, and the more controlling you will tend

to be. Now, now, Jesus, Before he is arrested, he

goes to this place, his favorite place to pray, is

called the Garden of Gossemite. And while he's there, he

takes the twelve guys with him, and he takes three

of them, Peter, James, and John goes, you guys, come

along with me. I just need you to be here

with me while I pray. I don't need you to

pray for me. I just need you to be with

me the ministry of presence while I'm praying through what

I'm going to face tomorrow, being crucified and tortured. So

Jesus is there praying his heart out, and the three guys, Peter, James,

and John all fall asleep and in Mark after fourteen

verse thirty seven, Jesus wakes up, goes, guys, could you

not stay awake with me for just one hour? Just

one hour? I'm just ask you to stay awake with

me for one hour. What's happened? They're fatigued. When you

get fatigued, you're going to make poor choices in your eye.

Never make a major decision when you're tired or depressed.

Never make a major decision when you're tired or depressed. Okay,

here's the third reason people make bad decisions. Fear of disapproval.

When you start worrying about what other people think. What

will other people think if I make this decision? What

will other people think if I stand up for God,

if I represent Christ at my business site, at my

job site, at my school. What will other people think?

That's going to cause you to make a poor decision.

The fear of disapproval. After Jesus is arrested that night,

the Bible says this mark sitting before that, Peter followed Jesus.

How at a distance? Circle that at a distance. He's

following Jesus at a distance. Anytime you follow Jesus at

a distance, you're gonna make dumb decisions. You gotta get

as close to God as you can. You got to

get as close to Jesus as you can. Peter, who's

been right by his side for three and a half

years now, he's scared to death and he's following Jesus.

He's just following him from a distance. Are you doing that?

Are you following Jesus from a distance. Oh yeah, I'm saved.

I'm in the family of God. I'm a believer, I'm

a Christian. But you're following God as a distance. You're

gonna make dumb decisions if you follow at a distance.

Why do you follow at a distance? Why was Peter

following this? Because he's afraid if I get you close

to Jesus, they might crucify me too. They might torture

me too, they might arrest me too. And he's concerned

for his own safety. He's following at a distance because

he's worried about what other people think. When you worry

about what other people think, you're always going to make

the wrong decision. All right, here's the fourth reason we

make poor decisions. Short term pleasure. Short term pleasure. You know,

you're getting ready to go to bed at night, and

you know, really probably eating a banana split isn't the

best thing for me, but it would be so good

while I'm eating it. And so we go for short

term pleasure instead of long term health. And this happens

in a thousand different ways. When people overspend on their

credit card and they get deeper and deeper and deeper

into debt. Why they're doing short term pleasure. I gotta

have it, I gotta have it now. I got to

have it now, even if I can't afford it. They're

exchanging short term pleasure for long term pain. Now, here's

what you need to understand in life. Put up with

pain now, you'll have pleasure later on in life. Put

up with enjoy pleasure. Now you're gonna have pain later

on in life to pay back for all the things

you paid for. It's one or the other. If you

put up with discipline and put up with some inconvenience now,

and you save your money, you'll have a lot more

pleasure later on in life. But if you spend it

all now short term pleasure, then you're gonna have the

pain there. You're gonna have it one way or the other.

You get to choose short term pleasure, Matthew, excuse me.

Mark fourteen, verse fifty four, it says, so then Peter

sat down with the guards and warned himself. At the fire,

I imagine they were making smores. Anybody got a hot

dog stick? Well, there are some weenies and have hot

dog makemores? Is this fun? Jesus is being arrested and tortured,

and what's he He's sitting sitting with the enemy around

the campfire. Why it's convenient, it's comfortable. Anytime I place

comfort before character, I'm gonna make poor decisions. Anytime I

put short term gain over long term gain, I'm gonna

I'm gonna make poor decisions. Now, those are four common causes.

Are a lot more. But we all make poor choices

out of pride, out of fatigue, out of fear of disapproval,

and out of short term pleasure. Now here's an interesting point.

These four things that caused Peter to make dumb decisions.

Jesus wasn't surprised by any of them. In fact, Jesus

told Peter in advance, this is what's gonna happen. Jesus

knew that Peter was gonna betray him before Peter did,

because he's God. And he even tells him. And he says, Peter,

before the rooster crows three times tomorrow morning, you're gonna

deny me three times. And here's what he says. Look

at the next verse. Jesus isn't surprised by our failures

in life. Luke twenty two, Verse thirty one thirty Jesus said, Simon, Peter,

Satan has asked to test you, but I have prayed

for you. Satan has asked to test you, but I

have prayed for you that your faith will not fail.

So when you have repented and recovered, this is after

you've denied me, I want you to strengthen the other disciples. Now,

this is a very powerful verse that teaches us a

lot about your failures. Okay, First, I want you to

notice that Jesus knows every failure in your life before

it happens. Okay, He's not gonna be surprised you're gonna

have failures this next year. You're gonna make some bad

decisions in the future. He already knows them. God knows past, present,

future all the same time. So it's not like I

go oh Man, didn't see that one coming, didn't know

you were gonna make that one before you were born.

He knew every dumb decision you'd make and I would make.

Jesus knows every failure before it happens. Then notice next,

Jesus prays for you before it happens, the things that

you're gonna fail at, this next week, this next month,

this next year, the next ten years. Jesus has already

prayed for you. That's what he says. He's already prayed

for the dumb mistakes you're gonna make, the bad decisions

you're gonna choose. He says, I know what you're gonna

what's gonna happen. And not only that, I've already prayed

for you. I've already prayed for you. And then notice,

he says, when you have repented and recovered. He didn't

say if Jesus knows you're gonna recover, Jesus already knows

you're going to recover from the sins and the mistakes

and the bad decisions that you're going to make in

the future. He already knows, he knows what they are.

But he also knows He's prayed for you, and so

he knows you're going to recover. He says, when you

have recovered and repented, and then he says, I want

you to strengthen the other disciples. Here's the fourth thing.

Jesus wants you to help others with what you learn

from your mistakes. WHOA. Now we're getting somewhere. We're in

this series. We're going to take six weeks to talk

about God's dream for your life. Part of God's dream

for your life is to take the lessons of your

mistakes and help somebody else. The same four things he

said to Peter, he says to you, I know every

mistake you're going to make in life. I've already prayed

for every mistake you're gonna make in life. I know

you're gonna come back to me after that mistake in life,

and I want you to help other people when you've

come back. That's a comfort. That's good news because it

means Ultimately, I can't destroy my own life if I've

given it to God, because he is gonna work it

all out. So the first step in recovering God's original

dream is just a humbly or honestly accept responsibility for

my poor choices. Yeah, that was a dumb one. And

that was a dumb one. And that was a dumb one,

and that was a very hurtful one. And that was

an evil choice that I made. And I made it

out of pride, and I made it out of fatigue.

And I may have made it out of fear of

what other people think. I may have made it out

of choosing short term pleasure over long term character. Here's

the second step. Now, I moved to the second step

after I honestly accept responsibility. Number two, I humbly ask

for God's mercy and forgiveness. I humbly ask for God's

mercy and forgiveness. Now I don't have to explain this

a lot, because it just means humbly ask. If you

don't know what to pray, I would highly recommend you

learn and read Psalm fifty one. Write that down. Psalm

fifty one. Psalm fifty one is David's prayer of confession

after he'd had a guy murdered so he could steal

his wife. Pretty significant sin, adultery and murder and the

same thing. And in Psalm fifty one, if you don't

know what to pray when you need to confess to

God something you've really blown up, here's what to pray.

Psalm fifty one, Verses one to three, verse six, and

verse ten, David said, have mercy on me, God, because

of your unfailing love. In your great compassion, please wipe

out the stain of all my wrongdoing, wash away all

my guilt. Cleanse me from my sins, for I am

haunted by my failures and I can't forget the evil

things I've done. I can't forget it. I'm haunted by it.

I know, he says, I know you love, complete honesty

from my heart. So help me see what's deep inside me,

what made me do this, what caused me to make

this dumb decision. Help me to see what's deep inside me. Then, God,

create a new pure heart in me and renew my

spirit with the right desire. I want to do the

right thing. I want to do what's right and restore

the joy of your salvation. Then he says, I'll help

bring others back to you too. Now I want you

to notice that in this thing, David, in this just

small passage, the whole chapters are terrific. He mentions eight

things he asked God to do. I want you to

circle them all. First, he says, have mercy. Circle that

have mercy. And then he says, wipe out circle, wipe out,

wipe out the stain of all my wrongdoing. Then he says,

not only have mercy and wipe out, he says wash away,

wash away circle that all my guilt, and cleanse me

circle that cleanse me from my sins. And then he says,

down a little bit further, he says, help me see

circle that help me see. These are things you could

ask God whenever you help me see what's deep inside

of me. Then he says, create a new pure heart

in me. Circle that create a new pure heart in me.

And then he says, and renew my spirit with the

right desires, renew my spirit. Circle that and restore the

joy circle that. These are eight things you can ask

God to do in your prayer when you have committed

any kind of mistake or sin or evil or whatever

you can say these eight things to God and then

notice circle what David promises to do back. He says,

then I'll help bring others back to you too. Isn't

this interesting that David promises to do to God the

very thing that Jesus told Peter to do when he

was restored. He said, Peter, I know you're gonna blow it,

but when you come back, I want you to help

other people with what you've learned from your mistakes. I

want you to help other people with what you've learned

from your sins. I want to bring good out of bad.

I want you to help other people. And this is

exactly what David promises to do. Here. He goes, God,

I have totally blown it, and I don't deserve any

of this, but I'm asking to do this, this, and

this because you're a good, loving God. And he says,

you know if you do that, Then he says, I'm

going to do what Jesus later told Peter to do,

and that is he says, I'll help other people with

the pain I've been through. Who could better help somebody

through the pain of a broken relationship than somebody who

went through the pain of a broken relationship who can

better help somebody struggling with an addiction, then somebody went

through an addiction. Who could better help somebody who went

through a fiasco of a marriage than somebody who went

through a fiasco of a marriage, And on and on.

I'm telling you that God says your past is part

of the plan that I want to even use the

bad parts in your life for good. You're gonna go

through pain in life, don't waste it. This is the

difference between believers and non believers. Everybody in the world

has the same kind of pain. The differences Believers use

it to help others. We use it for good, We

redeem it. And God says, that's what I want to do. Now,

I want you to write. I didn't leave you much

room on this outline, but I want you to write

down three important statements. If you only get this, you

got the message. Okay, write these three things down. Number one,

there is no Plan B for my life. Write that down.

There is no Plan B for my life. You're still

on Plan A. But but but what about? You're still

on Plan A? But what but what what about? You're

still on Plan A. God has not revoked his original

dream for your life. There's no Plan B. You're like,

but what about doesn't matter? What other people did to you,

what you've done to others, what mistakes? What more decisions?

You're still on Plan A number two. Write this down.

My mistakes are part of God's plan. My mistakes are

part are a part of God's plan. Now, this will

set you free if you'll learn it, because it'll set

you free to dream and stop thinking, well, I'm not

worthy to dream, and I don't deserve to have a

big dream, and I messed up so much. No, no, no,

no no, there is no Plan B for my life.

My mistakes are part of God's plan. Look up here

on the screen. One of those famous verses in the Bible,

Romans eight twenty eight. We know, we don't guess. We

know that God causes everything to work together for the

good of those who love God and are called according

to His purpose or his dream for them. We know

that God causes everything. What's in everything, the good, the bad,

the evil, the poor, decisions, the sins. Yeah, that's sins

are included in everything. God causes everything to work together

for the good. It doesn't say it's all good. It's not.

There's a lot of bad in the world. There's a

lot of sin in the world. There's a lot of

evil in the world. It's not all good, but God

causes it all to work together for good for everybody. No,

not for everybody. Everything is not working for thegether for

good for everybody, but only for those who love God

and are called according to His purpose, his dream them.

When you say, God, I'm giving you all the pieces

of my life, he puts them back together in the

right way. People said, well, you can't unscramble an egg.

God can, God had created the universe, can do anything,

he said, God can. God can do anything you think.

You're God. He'll make it all fit together and work

it together for good. That means I can relax and know, Okay,

even my mistakes are part of the plan. And here's

the third thing I want you to write down. God

expects me to use them to help others. I'm talking

about my mistakes. I'm talking about my sins. I'm talking

about my embarrassments. I'm talking about my failures. God expects

me to use them. The troubles and the trials that

come into my life, whether somebody else brought them into

my life or whether I brought them on myself. God

doesn't really care about the source of your problems, he said,

just says, I will use them all. I don't care

if you cause the problem yourself from your dumb decision,

or I don't care if the problem is caused by

somebody else's dumb decision. I don't really care about the source.

God says, I'll still use it for good in your life,

and I expect you to use it to help others

on the screen Tewod Corinthians, Chapter one, verse six. If

we have troubles, and of course we do, it is

for your benefit and salvation. When you have troubles for

somebody else's benefit, that is called redemptive suffering. If we

have troubles, it's for your benefit and salvation. You're helping

somebody else with your pain. For when God helps us recover,

then we can encourage you so you can patiently endure

or the same things we did. This, by the way,

is the twelfth step. In twelfth step, celebrate recovery is

you're not recovered till you're helping somebody else. You are

not recovered from your pain until you're helping somebody else

with it. Are you helping anybody with the pain you've

gone through in your life. Let me ask you a

couple problems. Can you put that verse back up there

for just a minute. If we have troubles, it's for

your benefit. And then he says, then God helps us

recover so you can patiently endure the same things that

we did. All right, two questions. I want you to think,

what are the biggest troubles you've had in your life.

You're not going to think of them all right now,

but I would encourage you to go home and think through.

Rick said, think through what are the biggest troubles in

my life that I've had? What are the starting from

a little child, what have been the biggest troubles in

my life? The second question I want to ask you

is to consider maybe making a list of what have

you had to patiently endure? What have you had to

patiently endure a physical handicap, a mental handicap, a relationship

that's broken. What have you had to physically or emotionally

endure patiently endure? The answer to those two questions are

a vital part of your life ministry and your life dream.

God doesn't want you to waste your hurt. I've told

you this so many times. We always help people more

through our weaknesses than through our strengths. You have some

great strengths, you also have some massive weaknesses. We're all

a bundle of both. I've got some really great strengths

in my life. I got some really great weaknesses in

my life. We're all a bundle of both. And if

I got up here and I tried to tell you

all the great things that I'm good at, that wouldn't

help you at all. It wouldn't help you at all.

But if I get up here and I share with

you how I went through this problem, and I went

through that problem, and how I recovered from that stupid mistake,

and how I made a progress even in my weakness

in that particularly, then you go, oh, well, then maybe

God could use me. That's the point. God wants to

use you, not when you're perfect. God wants to use

you now. And God wants you to use you even

in areas that you have been embarrassed about. This is

the power of the gospel. This is the power of

the Gospel. That they're part of your vital dream that

we help people not simply through the gifts and the

strengths that we have, but we help people through the

problems and the pain we have. One of the biggest

pains in my life was the death of my youngest son,

who took his life after struggling with mental illness for

twenty seven years. I can't think of anything more painful

for a dad. And I didn't ask for that ministry.

But almost not a day goes by that somebody calls me,

often very well alone, often famous, from around the world,

asking for help on either mental health, illness or suicide.

I didn't ask for that ministry. I didn't ask. I

didn't think that would be a part of my dream.

But I'm not gonna waste my pain, so I'm gonna

help other people. And if I gave you a list

of the people who have, you'd be shocked. You'd know

many of their names. But they figured out that guy

must be safe because he went through it and he

talks about it. What are you not talking about in

your life? Number three? I gratefully accept God's grace and

forgive myself big ending. I gratefully number three, accept God's grace,

God's amazing grace. Okay, and notice, write this down and

forgive myself, put that on it and forgive myself, because

a lot of people don't do that. Last part Ephesians,

chapter one, verse seven says this on the screen, Christ

sacrificed his life's blood on the cross to set us free.

Means that all our sins look at it, all, all

our sins are now forgiven. And when were they forgiven

when he died on the cross. That's two thousand years ago.

When were your sins forgiven? Two thousand years ago? Christ

sacrificed his life blood on the cross to set us free,

which means that all of our sins are now forgiven.

God did this because of his generous grace to us

all right on the cross, Jesus. Christ died for every

sin you'll ever commit, even the ones you haven't committed yet.

So what's the daily implication of that? Romans eight one.

We're going to memorize this verse up here on the screen.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong

to Christ Jesus. Huh, Wait, shouldn't I feel guilty? No?

What does that say? No condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus. Now let me pause here. The reason

I decided to do this message is I talked to

a number of different people this week who are struggling

with their past keeping them from dreaming in the future,

and one guy told me a while back, a couple

of days ago, said, you know, I know that God

has forgiven me. I just can't forgive myself. A lot

of people feel that way. I know that I'm forgiven.

I know Jesus Christ paid for all my sins on

the Cross. I just can't forgive myself. Now, let me

say this to you. When you say that I can't

forgive myself, you're saying that you doubt the power of

the Cross. You're saying, I don't really believe God forgave me.

Because if I really believed it, If God forgives me,

who or am I to argue with God? When you

are doubting God's forgiveness, then you hold on to not

forgiving yourself because I still have to pay for it. No,

you don't. Actually, not forgiving yourself is a sin because

you're saying I don't believe that the Cross paid it all.

I don't believe that Jesus covered all my sin. I

don't believe that I'm totally free. I still got to

pay for it, and that in itself is a sin.

So forgive yourself and stop sinning. Did that makes sense

that when you refuse to forgive what God has forgiven,

you're really doubting the power of the cross. You're doubting

that jesus blood was enough. You're doubting that salvation was

not fully paid for, and so you have to pay

for it yourself. You can stop nailing yourself to the

cross because Jesus already was. He was hung up for

your hang ups. So you got to forgive yourself. Now.

Why does my sin, no matter what I've done, not

invalidate Why does my sin not invalidate God's dream for me?

Three reasons? I want you to write these down. Three

reasons that there is no sin you can commit that

invalidates God's dream for your life. Number one, because Jesus

already paid for all my sins. Because Jesus already paid

for all my sins, they were paid for before you

even knew God had a dream for your life. First

John two says this, when Jesus served as a sacrifice

for our sins, he solved the sin problem for God.

Not only our sin, but the whole world's sin. All right,

So remember when Jesus died on the cross, he paid

for the sins that you haven't even done yet. So

he's already paid for all your sins. There's no way

you need to pay for him. That's called double jeopardy.

It's saying that that wasn't enough. Do you understand why

we take communion to remember the cross? That in the Cross,

everything I've ever done wrong was wiped out. All those

words that David said, wiped out, forgiven, cleanse, purified, eliminated, forgotten.

Number two. Second reason my sin doesn't invalidate God's dream

for my life is because God's goodness isn't based on

my performance. God's goodness to you is based on the

fact that God is a good God. It's not based

on the fact that you deserve it. It's just because God

is a good God. So God is good to you,

and it isn't based on my performance. Titus three, verse five.

He Jesus saved us not because of the good things

we did, but because of his mercy. So everything that

God does good in my life is not because I

deserve it. It's because He's a merciful God. Has nothing

to do with me. Either earning it or deserving it,

or working for it. It just doesn't work that way.

It's called grace, it's called mercy. Third reason why my

sin is not invalidate God's dream for me? See number three.

God's calling and gifts are given unconditionally. God's calling, and

God has a call on everybody's life. God has called

you to a certain dream. God has called you to

a certain purpose. God has called you to a certain calling,

and he has given you gifts to fulfill that calling

in life. And they are given unconditionally. You don't work

for them. If you had to work for him, they

wouldn't be called gifts. If you have to work for something,

it's not a gift. That's a wage. If if you

came and worked for me for a year and then

I paid you money, I said, here's my gift. You say, buddy,

that's not a gift. I warned that. A gift means

you didn't earn it, you didn't work for it. God's

calling and gifts are given unconditionally, and there you can't

earn them Romans eleven twenty nine. For God's gifts and

his are irrevocable. They cannot be withdrawn everybody. I want

you to just look up here, and I want to

say this to you. God's dream, original dream for your

life is still in full force. You're not on Plan B,

no matter how many times you blew it. And what

I want to do in the next six weeks is

help you live that rest of your life with that dream.

Doesn't matter how late in life you're getting started on it.

It's never too late to get into God's dream for

your life. It's never too late unless you just said

I'm in and you die, then it would be too late.

Just a little humor, there, we b a humor, all right.

I know I'm driving this home, but you honestly accept responsibility. God,

I'm not blaming anybody else for all my dumb decisions,

for the evil things that I've done, for the mean

things I've done, for the hateful things I've done, for

the hurtful things I've done. God, I've not been a

good person many times in my life. I've been selfish

to the core. That's called sin. Okay, I don't accuse

others and I don't excuse myself. Then I humbly ask forgiveness.

Like David Lord, I need your clessic. I need your purifying,

I need your forgiveness, I need your grace, and then

I gratefully accept God's grace and I forgive myself. Extremely

important because if you don't forgive yourself, you haven't really

accepted God's forgiveness. All right, now here number four Two

more things to get you started for where we're gonna

go in the week's heead. Number four. Next, I generously

forgive those who've hurt me. Of I don't really like

this part. I like being forgiven, but I don't want

to forgive anybody else. Well, this is part of the plan.

Generously forgive those who've hurt me. Not only do you

need to let your own sin go, you need to

let everybody else's sin go too against you. Now follow

me on this. There are three things that will keep

you stuck in the past that will keep you from

living God's dream for your life. Grief, losses in the past, guilt,

sin in the past, grudges hurts from the past. Grief, guilt,

and grudges will keep you stuck in the past. And

if you let grief or guilt or grudges are all

three come into your heart, you will continue to miss

God's dream for your life. That's why I had to

do this message on the past. You got to let

go of your guilt, that's confession. You got to let

go of your grudges. That means forgive other people. I've

got to forgive other people. You gotta let them off

the hook, just like God lets you off the hook.

Matthew Chapter six, verse fourteen and fifteen. Jesus says this,

if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly

Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others,

your father will not forgive your sins. What's he's saying here,

He saying, we can't expect to receive what we're unwilling

to give. We cannot expect to receive what we're unwilling

to give. You have to let the people who hurt

you off the hook. Not because they deserve it. They don't.

They don't deserve it anymore than God letting you off

the hook. You don't deserve that. I don't deserve that.

You gotta let people off the hook so you can

get on with your future. As long as you hold

on to a grudge, as long as you hold on

to resentment, As long as you hold on to a hurt,

thinking you're hurting them by your bitterness, you're being stuck

in the past. Your past is past. Those people can't

hurt you anymore unless you choose to let them from

your memory. And that's dumb. You don't forgive them because

they deserve it. They don't. Forgiveness is never deserved. You

forgive them because you go I'm not gonna be stuck

in the past. I'm gonna get on with my life

in the future, and whatever day is left, I'm gonna

make this the best days of my life. I'm going

after God's dream and I'm gonna walk through those open

do But you can't walk through those open doors until

you let go of that bitterness, until you let go

of that hurt, You let go of that pain, you

let go of that resentment. You gotta let people off

the hook, not for their sake, but for your sake

so you can get on with the future. Finally, the

fifth step, the fifth thing I do. I accept responsibility, humbly,

ask forgiveness, gratefully accept God's grace, forgive myself generously, forgive

those around me who've hurt me. Number five courageously face

the future with faith. That's what this Time to Dream

and Open Doors campaign. It's all about courageously facing the

future with faith. And I want to close with just

a couple verses, but they're very important verses. Courageously face

the future with faith. In Job Chapter eleven, Job gets

some of the best advice for recovering a dream, for

recovering what has been lost in your life, for recovering

God's original plan for you. Job eleventh, thirteen to eighteen.

Here's what he says. Devote your whole heart to God. Okay,

got that? Check reach out to him in prayer for help.

Check if you get rid of the sins in your

heart and your home. You got any sins in your

home like some magazines that shouldn't be there. Get rid

of the sins in your heart and your home. You

will face the world again without shame. Circle that without shame,

and you'll be strong and free of fear. Then you'll

forget your past troubles. Hallelujah. You'll forget your past troubles

and mistakes and sins and faux pause and all of that.

You'll forget your past troubles like water under a bridge,

your life will be brighter than noonday. And even in darkness,

you're gonna shine like the morning. And now you'll have

courage because you will have hope. I could spend twenty

minutes unpacked on that verse. I want you to just

go home and read it and reread it, and reread

it and reread it, because all those things that do.

If you do that, then you're courageously going to face

the future with faith. The point I'm making is this,

the Bible is full of people who got a second chance.

God is the god of second chances and one hundredth chances. Abraham,

called the Father Faith, traded away his wife that wasn't

much faith in terms of Sarah, because he thought, well,

they'll kill me unless if they so tell him you're

my sister, Thanks, honey. Really confident in God. Right there,

Abraham trades away his wife. Moses murders a guy. Jonah

runs from his assignment, and the word of the Lord

came into Jonah second time. Noah gets drunk and embarrasses himself.

After he does the biggest event of his day, Ray

abs a prostitute. David commits adultery and as his lover's

husband put to death. Every one of those people I

just mentioned are in God's Hall of fame in Hebrews eleven.

God loves to give second chances. If you had to

be perfect, none of us stand a chance of that.

But we need to courageously face the future with faith,

realizing that God just loves to give us chance after

chance and chance. Do you know that in America there

are seventy million Americans with the prison record. Seventy million

Americans have a prison record. Every one of them deserve

a second chance, because God is the God of second chance.

I'll never forget I've told you this story before. The

one time I was preaching in a prison in northern

California and there are several thousand prisoners out on the yard,

and they gave me a live microphone, but nobody was

asked to pay attention. So there's guys over here playing basketball,

and there's different gangs sorted out over this huge football

stadium sized field, and I just needed to get their attention.

So I pulled out out of my wallet a fifty

dollars bill and I held it up, say anybody liked

this fifty dollars bill. Four thousand hands went up. I

crumpled it all up. Anybody still wanted four thousand hands

go up. I took it and I tore little tears

in it. I put it on the ground. I stamped

it into the ground and dirt. I picked it up,

I spit on it. Anybody still want it? Four thousand

hands went up when I said, many of you, this

is what your daddy did to you, or society did

to you. And you've been spit on, and you've been

put down, and maybe you've even been the victim of racism,

and you've done stupid things yourself. That's why you're here.

You've made some bad choices too, and you've gotten beaten,

and you've gotten torn, and you've got gotten dirty. But

you have not lost one cent of your value to God.

Now that's got everybody's attention. I don't know what you've

done stupid in your life, but you have not lost

one cent of your value to God. When Christ died

on the cross, when he died on the cross, he

was saying, this is how much I care about you,

This is how much I love you. This is how

much we're still on track. The dream is not invalidated

by your sin. I still have plan a for your life,

because I say, all things work together for the good

of God, even the good of those who love God

called according to this purpose. Not everything's good, but even

your dumb sins, I'll weave them into the plan, and

the dark threads and the light threads, and that will

make a beautiful tapestry out of it all. But if

we're going to go where I want to take you

as a church family in the next weeks, we're going

to have to shut the door on the past. Today.

You're going to have to give up your grief, give

up your guilt, and give up your grudges so we

can move forward together. This is what Jesus wants us

to do. One other verse Isaiah forty three, Verses eighteen

and nineteen. Forget the former things and do not dwell

on the past. See I'm doing a new thing now.

It is springing up. Do you not perceive it. I'll

make a pathway through the wilderness, and I'll create streams

where there's been a wasteland. Your past is passed. That's interesting.

The Bible says that we're to learn from the past.

We're to celebrate the victories of the past. We're to

learn the lessons of the past. We spend an entire

month talking about the past of Saddleback Church and what

God has done and celebrating that. But we can't live

in the past. He said, you got to let that go.

All the pastes prologue. We're moving into the future. It's

time to dream, and I'm opening doors that no man

can shut. And all your future, all your life, is

in the future. You know, it's interesting. I started with

Peter and his big three failures in life, his big

three you know, betrayals. After Peter's big fail Jesus went

out of his way to affirm him. In fact, on

Easter Morning, the first people who learned that Jesus Christ

had risen from the dead were the women who had

gone there to prepare it the body, Mary Magdalene, Mary Saloon,

the others. And the Bible says this that the Angel

said to the women, Jesus is alive. He's risen from death.

Now go tell the disciples and especially Peter. Why did

God make sure that Peter was mentioned by name, because

he was the one carrying the most guilt from two

nights before. Go tell my disciples and tell Peter, because

I love that guy. Yeah, he blew it. He blew it.

He really blew it. But I love that guy. Go

tell my disciples and tell Peter. He knows your name.

He said. It's ok, Peter, all is forgiven. Come on home.

He singles out. Peter, the one who was the biggest failure,

and not fifty days later, that's the guy God chooses

to preach on the day of Pentecost on the first

day of the church, and three thousand people are saved.

He chose the biggest failure for the greatest message. About

a week later, after the resurrection, Peter and his friends

have gone back fishing again on Siagali. Jesus comes walking

by says, come on in, bring the fish in. We'll

cook you some breakfast. When he sits there and they

eat breakfast together, which, by the way, ghosts don't eat.

So it wasn't a ghost. It wasn't an apparition, it

wasn't a vision. It's Jesus in the flesh. He's they're eating.

They're having fish and chips, okay. And Jesus says this

after eating breakfast. John twenty one. After eating breakfast of them,

Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon, do you love me

more than these the rest of the disciples. Yes, Lord

Peter replied, you know I love you, and Jesus said,

then feed my lambs. Then Jesus repeated the question, Simon,

do you love me? Yes, Lord Peter said, you know

you know I love you. Then take care of my sheep,

Jesus said. Then a third time, Jesus asked Peter Simon,

the son of John, do you truly love me? Now?

Peter's hurt that Jesus asked the question the third time.

They said, Lord Lord, you know everything. You know that

I who love you. Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. Now,

what's going on here? That Jesus asked this question three times?

He's giving the one who denied him three times the

opportunity to affirm him three times. Peter, who had denied

Jesus three times, now Jesus three times asks him, and

he lets him say it, and say it and say it.

He was reaffirming the affirmation to overcome the three denials,

but he was also doing something else. He wanted to

reinforce what he had said before it even happened. He said,

when you recover, you're to use your pain. You're to

use your sin. You're to use your mistakes to help

other people. That's part of my dream for your life.

And he wants to reinforce use your mistakes and pain

to help others. Now here's your homework for this week.

Week of Time to Dream one. I want you to

say and place the Covenant prayer tint where you can

see it in your program. There is a card that

looks like this. Everybody pull us out. Everybody pull this

out and it folds. You can fold the bottom parts

like this, the bottoms and you pull it and then

you put it together and it makes a little tint.

I want you to put this where you will see

it every day for the next forty days. All right,

pull it out. I want you to put it together.

And on one side are our five goals doors, and

on the other side is the time to Dream Covenant.

All right. It says God can do far more than

you imagine. A request or dream my covenant forty two

days from February twenty third to April fifth, twenty twenty

because I want to know God's dream for my life,

because I want to grow stronger spiritually, because I want

to support my church family, and be supported by them.

I commit to the five Time to Dream habits for

the next forty two days. I'm not asking to do

this the rest of your life. I'm asking you to

do it for forty two days. Number one, I will

listen to all the Time to Dream weekend messages, either

live or online. If you missed last week, you need

to go listen to it. Number two, I'll read the

daily Open Doors devotional. This is the new book, and

you'll read the weekly. This week you're going to read

February twenty three to twenty nine. I will participate in

the Time to Dream small groups study. And this week

you're going to look at the second open door, which

is the door to authentic relationships. I will ask what

my part should be in our twenty twenty vision offering,

which we're going to do Easter week. And Number five,

I will pray for everyone else participating in our church family,

knowing that they're praying for me. I've already signed mine

right there. I want you to sign it. I want

you to put it where you'll see it every day,

and you can pray for others, knowing that everybody else

in our family is praying for you. What's power heads.

You are a good and gracious God. Your plans never change.

Our sins cannot change your plans and dreams for our lives.

Thank you. May we take these steps this week. You've

never opened your life to Jesus Christ. Say, Jesus Christ,

come into my life right now. I want to follow you.

I want to trust you. I want to know your

dream for my life. I acknowledge, I admit that I've

made a lot of sins and mistakes in my life

and I need your forgiveness. Then I thank you for

your grace and your mercy. Help me to forgive the

people who've hurt me, and help me to step out

in faith in the next forty two days. I pray

it in your name, Amen, Bless you.