Ghosts Of Christmas Part 1 | Get Past Your Past with Chris Schlotterbeck

Hey, good morning everyone.

How we doing today?

Doing good.

Excellent.

Good to hear.

Hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving.

As you can see, we had a full house at our place for Thanksgiving.

All the kids were home, we had a great time together just celebrating and being together

because that's the most important thing of Thanksgiving.

And hopefully you did as well.

Thank you for joining us from home.

Our live stream is back up.

If you're joining us from there, thank you for welcoming us into your space.

And I also want to shout out to our friends at HHC.

We love you.

We can't wait to come and hang out with you on Wednesday.

God bless you guys for joining us.

So it's crazy.

I know it is, but it's December 1st and the Christmas season is upon us.

Every year, it just shows up.

It invades our lives.

Decorations begin to appear slightly everywhere we go.

A church at Walmart.

Maybe some of you have already gone out and purchased the tree.

That's a little early for me, but that's okay.

The music changes.

Christmas movies begin to be watched.

Everything that is Christmas begins to happen.

And they tell us it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Now those of us who are followers of Jesus have good reason to believe that it's true.

But if we're honest, many people come to a place that the Christmas season, Thanksgiving

through the New Year's is not the most wonderful time of the year.

Even for those of you who enjoy Christmas, Christmas has a unique way of showing up in

our lives.

It has a way of doing something that is very unique because it forces us to think about

our relationships.

It forces us to think about our wealth, our worldview, and how we view faith in a relationship

with God.

It forces us to contemplate where we are in our lives in so many ways.

Christmas is unique because this season functions as a magnifying glass to our lives.

We look inward and we begin to see all the good and bad things.

They are put on blast, if you will, as we travel or receive family and friends into

our homes.

It highlights who is in our lives and who is no longer at the seats around the table

because their life is always changing.

People have passed on.

Relationships have changed.

And Christmas highlights these truths.

And listen, because of that, if you do have a loved one that's passed on and you're missing

them, we have a memorial tree in the back left right corner of our auditorium.

You're welcome to bring in any ornament and decorate it yourself.

We encourage you.

Decorate it with loved ones as a memory to remember them and who they are in your life.

Christmas also has a way of pointing out where we are in our lives, both in the successes

that we had and the failures that we experienced throughout the year, the resources that we

have had or don't have, the hope that we have or don't have, the joy that we have or we

don't have.

It's a magnifying glass to our lives.

And some of us, we will put that magnifying glass on our heart and we will celebrate where

we are, while for others of us, we will not understand or like where we are.

And when we think about our lives, they are broken into three components and they are

made up of the past, the present and the future.

And when we put a magnifying glass to our lives, we begin to think about our past, our

present and our future, where we've been, where we are currently and where we are going.

And depending on how you're wired, the past, the present and the future, they develop different

levels of anxiety within you.

But the past, present and future have a way, as we contemplate on them, of haunting us.

For some of us, when we pause and are quiet with all the decorations and the glitter,

we look at the past and we remember that pain and it still haunts us.

While other of us, we look at the present, at our current family state, at our current

financial state, the current state of our spirit or our marriage and that haunts us.

For some of us, we think about tomorrow or five years from now into the future and it

haunts us almost like a ghost.

And then the spirit of Christmas, the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, where three ghosts

visit old Ebenezer Scrooge, we thought this will be a great theme for our community of

faith.

This season, let's put ourselves in Scrooge's shoes.

How do the ghosts of Christmas past impact us?

What can the ghost that is present and how it haunts us do for us?

And what can the ghost of Christmas future do to us?

Now I believe that this reflection on our past, present and future is important.

Self-reflection in fact is vital for those in a relationship with Jesus because life

is too short and your calling is too big to let the ghosts have power.

Life is too short.

The Bible tells us life is a vapor.

It's here today and gone tomorrow.

It's a mist.

We don't get that long.

I mean, when we think about it, we move from the excitement of Santa in our elementary

years to college graduation to working a career to retirement and then we die.

It just happens.

Life is too short.

And if you're in a relationship with Jesus, what God wants to do in your life is too big,

too great, too abundant, too powerful for you to be trapped in the fear of the past,

the present or the future.

God did not call us into an, oh, humbug boring life, a life where we don't make a difference.

He calls us into a life of abundance, a life of power, a life of fruit.

And for the next three weeks, we're going to be discussing these different ghosts in our December series, ghosts of Christmas.

And I want to open with prayer this morning as we get started.

Holy Spirit come.

God, you are so evident in this place today as we launch this Christmas season.

I just pray that the spirit of reflection falls on us, God, that as we look inward,

as we discuss this past ghost, that we all become better people, that we all grow closer

to you and we are challenged to live in abundance in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So with that prayer, it leads us to our first thought this morning.

See, our past hinders our present.

Our past hinders our present.

And how do we know that?

Well, I just want to begin with a simple story and I want you to put yourself into that story.

You were at work, you're doing your job or maybe you're at school, having a long boring

day and your attitude is kind of off.

It's one of those days you're just trying to get through it.

There is no life in your spirit.

You're short and abrupt with your coworkers and your friends.

There's no real joy or passion.

You get the job done, you get the work completed, but there's no excitement or enthusiasm.

Lunch, in fact, is boring and bland.

But you make it through the day sluggishly.

When you get home, you walk in the door, you greet everyone, but truth is you kind of just

want to sit on the couch and chill.

Sure enough, after dinner, you find yourself drifting off in the Netflix or scrolling on

your phone and you just get through it.

Now you're not necessarily mean to your family or friends, but you're definitely passive,

aggressive, and easily agitated.

You're just kind of there.

You're present, but not fully engaged.

Then you're tired, so you quickly go to bed.

But sure enough, you can't sleep.

You try to, you put on the sleep sounds, but you can't.

You're tossing back and forth wondering, why can't I sleep?

But as you ask that question, you quickly begin to reflect on your day.

You realize how negative you were at work and school.

While at home, I really didn't want to eat or have conversations with my family.

The music I was listening to was irritating.

The book was not enjoyable, and that Hallmark Christmas movie just made me angry.

Why did I have such a bad day?

Then you quickly remember the conversation that turned negative in the morning with your

spouse or coworker or friend that left you feeling defeated and questioning your character.

And from that moment on, that incident followed you for the rest of the day.

See things like that happen in life all the time.

What happened back then follows us to right now and then into the future.

What should be forgotten about and ignored, moved past, becomes an anchor in our lives

showing up in a lot of different ways.

See, sometimes at the past, it's a decision that was made at work that didn't go our way,

leaving us upset for the rest of the day.

Sometimes, let's be honest, it's Starbucks or Chick-fil-A that got our order wrong.

Sometimes it's when our favorite team loses.

Sometimes the election didn't go the way we wanted it to.

Sometimes we look back and realize I picked the wrong college, I dated the wrong people,

my kids are leaving me down, I spent all that money, and whatever it is that is back there

in the past has followed us to today.

And let's be honest, we all have them because it hinders us.

We're not able to fully function and live in abundance.

The awfulness of our upbringing, the job we did or didn't get, the marriage that fell

apart, whatever it is, it literally becomes an anchor and leaves us feeling stuck in the

present.

Now, we try to get through life, but with this weight, this object, it constantly is

slowing us down and dragging us down.

And friends, if we can't move past our past, it's going to impact our present and our future

because our future is just all the additions of our presence.

And that's why we read in Isaiah 43, 18, but the Lord says, do not cling to events of the

past or dwell on what happened long ago.

So this morning, I want to focus on how we move past our past, how we move past those

awful painful experiences in the past that was either done to you or done by you, the

past of our sin, of our choices, of our mistakes, or the past of someone else's sin, the past

of pain and the heartache that either you created based on what you've done or what

someone has done to you.

And you've become stuck in that season.

Or I would go as far as to say you've become a slave and you find yourself in bondage because

of the past.

I want to say it again.

Life is too short and your calling is too great to be stuck with that ghost from the

past.

But even after making that statement, here's the reality with human nature.

We make a habit of remembering what we should forget and forgetting what we should remember.

That's our human nature.

That's our sinful nature.

Our mind gets all twisted.

We focus on the wrong things.

We have poor focus and that ghost just haunts us because we don't know how to fight back.

Today I want to help us fight back.

I want to share with you how to begin focusing on the kingdom of God, on the call, on the

promises we should be remembering, that we should stand on.

Because all of us have a past.

It doesn't matter if you're in a relationship with Jesus or not.

And listen, I am in no way minimizing what has happened to you or what has been done

to you.

I want to maximize what God has done.

I am not going to minimize anything in your life because it's real, it happened, and it's

painful.

But listen, God is greater.

And this morning I want us all to lean in and realize this pain, this heartache from

the past, it's a faith problem.

It's a belief in God deep within us that God is real and he is greater than a past.

And to discover this truth, we're going to the book of Ephesians where we find Paul writing

a letter to the church in Ephesus about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

And this is what we read in Ephesians 4 verses 17 to 20.

Ephesians 4:17–20

With the Lord's authority, I say this, live no longer as the Gentiles, now some translations

use the word heathen do, for they are hopelessly confused.

Their minds are full of darkness.

They wonder far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened

their hearts against him.

They have no sense of shame.

They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

But notice what Paul says about those in relationship with Jesus.

But that isn't what you learned about Christ.

And Paul is saying, if you're in a relationship with Jesus, don't live as these people are

living.

Don't think as these people think.

Be different.

You shouldn't be negative all the time.

You shouldn't be second guessing yourself all the time.

You shouldn't be desiring those lustful things that the world provides.

He says, be different.

And if you're here this morning and consider yourself to be a follower of Jesus, ask yourself

this question.

Are you different than the people living in the world around you?

Are you different than those people that just live for themselves and no one else and just

step on others?

And this can include people that go to church.

Paul is saying, HCV, you're called to be different.

And as you sit there, some of you are thinking, okay, I get that, but how?

Well, that leads us to our next thought.

See, Jesus moves us past our past.

And let's continue in Ephesians 4, 21 and 24.

And I'm going to break it up a little bit as we read.

Please follow along with the scripture.

That you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him.

So Paul, he's writing to us and he says, friends, it's not about us.

It's not about what we do.

It's all about Jesus.

The power to get past our past is not us.

It's Jesus.

The hope to get past our past is not us.

It's Jesus.

Paul is saying, you used to live a certain way and then Jesus showed up in your life.

And now you shouldn't live that way anymore because Jesus is in the room.

Jesus is here with us this morning.

So let's act and live like Jesus is here because he is.

He's all around us.

And since Jesus is here, let's continue.

Paul says, throw off your old sinful nature, your former way of life, which is corrupted

by lust and deception.

Because of Jesus, we are different.

We throw off the past.

We throw off deception.

We throw off the lies.

We throw off the sin.

We throw off the confusion.

Continuing.

Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Put on your new nature created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

See the new you is created to be like God.

I mean, think about that for a second.

We are changed and transformed by the work of Jesus on the cross, his death, burial and

resurrection.

And now Paul says we have true righteousness and holiness in our lives.

In other words, we are different.

We are not like we were.

So therefore, since we are different, we should see differently, think differently, live differently.

Jesus has come to town, not Santa.

And when he showed up, everything changed.

See the important part of moving past our past is believing what is true about being

new.

See church, we have to believe what is true about being new.

And what do I mean by that?

Second Corinthians 517, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone.

The new life has begun.

The old life is, everyone say it?

Gone.

The old life is gone.

So therefore, the answer to releasing our past is rehearsing the newness that we are

in Jesus.

The answer to releasing our past is rehearsing, practicing the newness that we are in Jesus.

And when we're in a relationship with Jesus, we are called to be more like him, to be changed,

to be transformed.

And this is a process of moving from unbelief to belief, from unbelief to belief.

And this is true in our spiritual life, in our marriages, in our parenting, with our

finances, with our character, that we're constantly moving from unbelief to belief.

And for those of us stuck in the past, we have a faith problem.

And here's the reality.

We can't have a works problem because Jesus has already done the work.

It's not about what we do.

Jesus did the work.

We have a belief problem.

We don't believe what is true about being new.

We don't believe what the Bible says about the new you.

And if we're going to move past our past, we have to ask the question, what does God

say about it?

And here's the reality.

Whatever God says trumps anything that we say about ourselves.

We have to believe what is true about being new.

And if we're going to get past our past, we have to realize that sometimes the filter

we use on our past is our former life, not our new life.

But you don't live that way anymore because Jesus came to town.

And what I want to do is just look at three simple truths this morning that will deal

with our past once and for all.

I believe that if you fully embrace and begin to believe and walk out these simple truths,

you will be changed.

Not because of anything we do or have done, but because Jesus is awesome.

That's it.

Because we don't have to do anything.

God has the power to do something inside of us that moves us past our past if we believe

what is true about being new.

In our first truth this morning, you have to believe you are forgiven.

You have to believe you are forgiven.

Ephesians 4, 21 to 22, Paul writes, since you have heard about Jesus and have learned

the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature.

Jesus paid the price.

And when we are in a relationship with Jesus, we are fully forgiven.

We are fully forgiven.

And some of you don't believe that.

Here's the reality.

Some of you, when I say you're fully forgiven, immediately you make this statement in your

mind, not me.

Not me.

Not that thing, not that choice, not that action to which I say, that's a lie.

You are forgiven in Jesus.

You have to believe what is true about being new.

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 6 through 7.

Ephesians 1:6–7

So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear

son.

He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased, everyone say purchased, our freedom

with the blood of his son and forgave our sins.

So I want you to imagine, just put yourself into this story.

It's the Christmas season.

And next week, someone surprises you with a brand new 72 inch flat panel HD smart TV.

And they show up at your front door and just hand it to you, fully paid for.

It's yours.

And they even hand you the gift receipt.

You grab that TV quickly because it's game day, get it out of the box, hang it on the

wall, plug it in and you sit down to watch the big game like you're sitting in that stadium.

It's that nice of a TV.

You go to bed, fall asleep.

And the next morning you wake up, you remember, oh, that TV.

You quickly run to it, turn it on again to make sure you weren't dreaming.

And sure enough, it works.

Then for some odd reason, you grab your receipt, jump in your car and drive to Best Buy so

you can pay for it.

When you arrive at the store, you go up to the counter, you hand the cashier the receipt

saying you want to pay for the TV.

The cashier then looks back at you and says, what TV?

You respond, the TV that was given to me last night, to which they respond, you have a receipt,

right?

Yeah.

Then why are you trying to pay for it?

Why are you trying to pay for what someone has already paid for?

Why are you trying to pay saying, oh God, I'll clean myself up today.

Oh God, I promise I won't do it tomorrow.

Oh God, I'm not religious enough.

Oh God, I got to figure out a way to make it right.

Oh yeah, I will eventually forgive myself.

God, I promise to change in 2025.

Listen, we won't ever solve the problem of our past sin.

Great news, we are fully forgiven in Jesus.

It's paid for.

And I know you made that choice.

I know you may have hurt people and the pain was great, but Jesus is greater.

You are forgiven.

You stole it.

You smoked it.

You slept with it.

You've cheated and lied.

So have I.

Jesus knows all about it.

And guess what?

We are fully forgiven.

How forgiven are we?

Psalm 103 verse 12 says, he has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.

Psalms 103:12

Jesus died on the cross for us and our sins and they're gone.

And that is why Paul tells us, what's he tell us to do?

Throw off that old way of thinking.

But for some of you, you're stuck in the past because you don't believe you are forgiven.

To which, if that's you this morning, that's a lie.

The grace is that good.

The resurrection is that real.

And if we're going to move past our past, we have to first believe we are forgiven.

Past, present, and future sins will be forgiven, which leads us to our next truth.

We have to believe we are discerning.

Believe you are discerning.

See, for some of you, your past struggles is not what you've done, it's what was done

to you.

The people that said they loved you but hurt you.

The people that said they were for you but took advantage of you.

The people that were supposed to be protecting you violated you.

Now I understand it, I get it, it's painful.

It's awful.

It shouldn't have happened to you.

It's sin, it's wrong.

But through Jesus, you don't have to stay back there.

In Jesus, we are discerning.

And some of you are thinking, all right, Chris, what's that mean?

It means that we're smart.

We have a new vision.

We have a new life, a new passion.

Ephesians 4.23 tells us instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

See, when we embrace Jesus and walk with him, we have to learn to think differently.

We have to see differently.

We have to process differently.

We have to see life spiritually.

First Corinthians 2.

Verses 13 to 15 says, when we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from

human wisdom.

Instead, we speak words given to us by the spirit, using the spirit's words to explain

spiritual truths.

But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's spirit.

It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it.

For only those who are spiritual can understand what the spirit means.

Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things.

See that our spirits need to come to life to receive the Holy Spirit and then walk in

unison with him.

We see, we think differently.

Now in honor of Sunday morning matinee, I'm not ready to let it go yet.

I want to show you a short clip from the movie National Treasure starring Nicolas Cage.

Now in this movie, if you know anything about it, Nicolas Cage plays a historian who has

to steal the Declaration of Independence to find a treasure that was supposedly left for

the people of the United States when the country started.

And I want you to notice as you're watching the spectacles or the glasses that are used.

If you're watching from home, there will be no sound, but you can read the subtitles.

Let's watch.

Wow.

See, the key to the treasure was on the map, but they needed the glasses to see the clue.

And when we're following Jesus, we're given these new glasses and these new glasses come

in the form of the Holy Spirit.

And friends, we need to wear those glasses every single day.

When we're wearing the spirit, when we're walking with the spirit, suddenly we begin

to notice what is true and what is not true.

But when we don't put on our glasses, when we aren't walking in the spirit, sometimes

we forget that God is good all the time.

Even when that bad thing happened to us, God was there with us.

He didn't want it to happen, but because of sin, it did.

And now he wants to walk us through it.

See, when we're wearing our glasses, we understand the difference between guilt and shame.

Guilt isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It's the conviction of the Holy Spirit reminding us when we're about to make a bad decision.

Shame is not the same as guilt.

It comes from the devil.

It's condemnation.

It tells us we are bad, that it's not true that we are forgiven, that it's not true that

we are new, that it's not true we are righteous in Jesus.

And sometimes when we're not wearing our glasses, when we're not walking in the spirit, we interpret

guilt as shame, as condemnation, rather than God chasing after us, telling us to stop.

Don't make that decision.

When we're wearing our glasses, we can fight off the lies of the enemy and others that

attack us.

Lies like, God could never forgive me.

Lies like, I know God loves people, but he doesn't love people like me.

Lies like, God could never use someone that has done what I've done.

Here's the reality.

We know their lies because we can go right to God and ask him.

He already knows what we've done.

He knows what we'll do.

I mean, he invites us in James 1, 5, if you need wisdom, ask your generous God and he

will give it to you.

He will not rebuke you for asking.

He's not going to pour condemnation on you.

He's going to say, oh, okay, let me help you.

We have to change the way we think.

We have to believe truth.

And when those lies, those thoughts, they show up, right?

When they appear, when they become part of our mindset, what do we need to do, church?

We need to go karate kid on those beasts.

You need to kick them to the curb.

Kick them to the curb.

Which leads us to our next truth.

We have to believe we are resourced.

Believe you are resourced.

In Jesus, when we're in relationship with him, we are called to become more like him.

That's why Paul again says in Ephesians 4, 24, put on your new nature.

Created to be what?

Like God, truly righteous and holy.

You know, if you're not feeling truly righteous and holy, then you need the Holy Spirit to

invade your life.

Bill Johns who attends HGV is a partner with us.

He leads True North.

It's a professional grant writer.

That's one of his many talents.

He writes grants that help people get the resources or funds to fulfill the project

or mission they're pursuing.

Now in Jesus, we have not a professional grant writer, but a powerful grant writer because

we've been resourced to fulfill our life's mission.

We've been empowered with the Holy Spirit.

Look at Galatians 2, 20.

My old self has been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself

for me.

And since we have God, the Holy Spirit, living inside of us, we can be assured in Philippians

6, I am certain.

Notice what I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his

work until the finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus returns.

God has resourced us to get to the end, to get to the end of the race and win, to cross

the finish line into God's kingdom and bringing many along with us.

And how do I know that?

Because when we believed in Jesus and started to follow him, God literally deposited himself

inside of us in the form of the Holy Spirit.

He says, oh, you now believe in my son?

Here you go.

Here I am.

And whatever power we think we have as a person is nowhere close to the power of God living

inside of us.

We have the Holy Spirit.

So when you say to me, Chris, I can't change, I'm going to say, what are you talking about?

The Holy Spirit lives in you.

Get past your past because the power of God is living inside of you to transform you and

make you new.

And not only did he give us his Holy Spirit, he gave us the Bible, which was written by

the Holy Spirit.

Not only does he give us the Bible and the Holy Spirit, he gives us the church.

High five your neighbor, please.

That was really weak.

My gosh, guys, pretend like you love somebody.

My gosh.

That's the church.

Right?

And see, when we gather together, we encourage one another to keep moving forward.

Right?

God is saying, I am with you.

I'm resourcing you with spiritual gifts.

First Corinthians 12, seven, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each

other.

I mean, God gives us the resources to complete the task, to walk in the calling of changing

other people that he's called us to do.

And not only that, but he fills us with a love, a love that is not human love.

It comes from God and empowers us to love others.

Let's be honest.

People are annoying.

I said it.

But we don't have to love them in our own strength.

John 15, 12, this is my commandment.

Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

Right?

God's done so much for us.

Of course we love others.

How do I get past my past?

First, I have to believe whatever I did is forgiven.

Right?

Second, whatever I'm doing, I need to filter it through the truth and discernment of the

Holy Spirit.

And third, I have to realize I'm resourced by the Holy Spirit to continue to change and

to be a different person tomorrow and the day after.

And here's the reality.

Those that have been forgiven much can forgive much.

It's realizing that we have been forgiven of all of our sins, therefore we need to daily

forgive others.

We are no longer living in the past.

We are no longer stuck in the past.

We throw it off and embrace the new that Jesus promises us.

Life in Jesus is the hope of moving past the past.

That is what we need to believe each and every day.

And listen, if you're here this morning and you're not a follower of Jesus, you won't

be able to move past your past without him.

He is the key, which leads us to our simple action step I want to challenge you with this

week.

Identify and replace.

I want to challenge you this week to identify a lie, a sin, a past experience, something

you did to someone else that's holding you stuck in the present, not enabling you to

move forward, and then I want you to replace it with what?

With God's truth.

Second Corinthians 10.

The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons, but God's powerful weapons,

which we use to destroy strongholds.

We destroy false arguments.

We pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God.

We take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.

You identify an area of your life this week that's your homework.

You want to get past your past, identify it.

Where you're still living in that old sinful nature.

Identify where you believe in that lie.

And then you replace it with the truth that you are new.

And then you tell someone about it.

You hold yourself accountable that you will no longer believe the lie.

You will walk in truth.

You will become a new person.

Now a few years ago there was a tool created called Carfax.

And now if you're going to buy a used car, everyone uses it.

Because it gives us the power to know everything about a car that we're about to purchase.

We can find out anything that happened to any car.

Maybe it was in an accident, had a transmission replaced, maybe it needed a new engine or

a head gasket.

Usually we use these reports to help us avoid purchasing a car that has a bad past.

Because guess what?

If we buy a car with a bad past, it becomes our problem in the present.

Jesus has the Carfax on us.

He knows all of it.

He knows about that relationship that was lost.

He knows how broken you are because of your parents.

He knows about your first marriage.

He knows what you do on your computer when no one else is watching.

He knows that choice you made to lie.

He knows every single fact about us.

Yet he still went to the cross and died for us.

And guess what?

He would do it again.

He knows the truth when he buys us, when he purchases us.

And he makes us one of his own.

He invites us into his family and he says, you are my son.

You are my daughter of God.

He doesn't keep us where we are.

He changes us and he redeems our past for what?

His glory to become a part of our story that we then share with others.

Our story of freedom and health and wholeness and passion and excitement and joy.

It comes from him so that others are drawn to us because we're different.

We're set apart.

We're full of the Spirit.

And they say, yes, I want that.

Will you stand with me this morning?

So listen, as I was praying for our community of faith this week, as I was praying over

this talk, I get it, it's a little different.

It's not the birth in the manger.

It's not cows and donkeys and hay and poop.

This is real.

This is real.

But this is truth.

And I felt like God has led us in this direction because self-reflection is key.

If we want to be different, if we want to go into the new year, passionate about Jesus,

living with abundance and desiring to see others change and transform, we've got to

self-reflect.

So as I was praying about how to close this gathering, I felt like the Holy Spirit whispered

to me that everybody into this place was going to bring something from their past here.

Because we all have it.

We've all walked in it.

But here's the difference.

Many of you, you hear about me talking about being filled with the Spirit, but you've never

been.

You've never been filled with the Spirit.

I may have prayed for the whole church, for the Spirit to come.

Maybe you've got tingly hands or goosebumps or you felt warm and you felt the embrace,

but you don't know what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

And that's the reason you're trapped in the past.

That's the reason you're carrying bondage.

Because the Holy Spirit hasn't filled you to the point where you just move on and move

on and move on because that's what the Spirit does.

We're new.

So if you need that this morning, listen, I'm going to be real raw and honest.

If you're struggling with something in your past, you can't move forward, you can't get

over it, get up here.

I want to pray for you to be filled with the Spirit.

Or if you just want to be filled with the Spirit, let's go.

Come Holy Spirit, let's go.

Yeah, you've got to want it, guys.

That reality.

You're not going to move forward, you're not going to get past your past if you're not

willing to be filled with the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit in the fullness that He has

for you.

Come on.

There's many more.

But be willing to be obedient.

Come Holy Spirit.

All right, now, if you're willing, I need people with hands on their shoulders.

So if you're good, if you're looking at your life, you're like, yeah, I'm good.

I'm full of the Spirit.

Get up here and pray.

Come on.

Let's go step out, church.

Come on.

If you're full of Spirit, let's go.

I need people to pray for these people.

I'm going to pray.

You don't even have to pray.

I just need you to put your hand on them and grieve.

I'm going to do the praying.

Just move chairs.

I don't care.

Move chairs.

It's okay.

They reset up.

Rudy will get them.

Move the chairs.

Let's go.

All right, if you're in the aisles, someone get in the aisles there and agree with them.

Put your hand on their shoulder.

All right, here we go.

All right, let's all say it.

Holy Spirit.

Come.

Fall in this place, God.

Yes.

I just pray, God, you release your Spirit into each and every person that came forth

and want more from you, God.

That they are changed, they are transformed, they are healed, they are set free in Jesus'

name.

That, God, they don't look back, they look forward, they focus on the prize, and they

walk in the power of your Spirit in Jesus' name.

That that sin that has trapped them, that has imprisoned them, that they carry with

them, it's broken in Jesus' name, and as they walk in this freedom, God, there's a new spirit

of life and abundance and joy and passion, God.

That lives are changed, that people are set free in Jesus' name.

That we will no longer go back there.

That we will no longer live there.

That your Spirit will empower each and every person that came forward and those in the

seats changes, God.

Make yourself evident to us in Jesus' name in church we say together.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you guys.

Now listen, as they're going back to their seats, you know that as a community of faith,

you know as a community of faith we pray a simple prayer every single Sunday because

I believe people come into this place either far from God or desire to be in a relationship

with Him or want to come back to Him.

So we all pray this simple prayer together, and if this is you, just pray it with us because

I want you to experience the fullness of God this morning.

So let's pray.

Jesus, I'm broken, I'm full of doubt, shame, regret, sin.

Change me.

I believe you're God's Son.

I believe you died for me.

Make me new.

Set me free.

Fill me with your Spirit.

Help me God to move past the past and forward with you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So if you prayed that prayer, see me, hug me, don't leave yet.

See me, hug me, let me know, text me, do something.

I want to get you baptized.

Now listen, the Christmas season, the Christmas season, statistics prove that people that

are invited to church on the holidays during Christmas come more often than any time at

any other point during the year.

We have created Christmas invite cards for you with our Dickens logo on them.

They're out on our poster wall.

We have thousands of them.

8, 5, 10, 50, I don't care.

Give them out.

Invite people to experience all that God has for them this holiday season.

Amen.

Now hold on, now hold on, hold on.

There are several words of knowledge.

Our prayer team will be here on my right to pray for you.

You have a puncture wound in your right leg above the knee.

You have a broken nose or a deviated septum.

Dude, if that's you, you've got to get prayer.

Because I don't even know what a deviated septum is.

You have right shoulder pain in your rotator cuff.

You have an abnormality on the left top of your head.

You have stomach issues similar to Crohn's disease.

You have glaucoma in your right eye or you have left ear pain.

Okay, so if any of those address or speak to you, our prayer team will be here on my

right to pray for you.

I'm going to that door to say goodbye so no one can leave on that side.

God bless you guys for joining us online.

We love you.

We'll see you next week.