September 27, 2026 Bobby Dagnel - Your Future From the Past

playing in a pickleball tournament today. I of course called her at 6 30 this morning and tried to shame her a little bit about playing pickleball on the Lord's day and I don't think it really fazed her that much but she had six matches today. They put the senior matches on Sunday so she had her first match at eight o'clock and has five more to go. So I'm glad I'm here and glad we get to study together and this morning we are going to since I've been here so frequently in the past month and a half. This is my third time I think in five weeks or so. I've been kind of doing a little mini series that deals with I think some of the struggles that we can be prone to as believers. I think the first message in this mini series had to do with how often we get stuck in the what-if mode, worrying and fretting about the future to the point of being paralyzed in the present. The other last week or last two weeks ago, we looked at the past in the sense that's the if-only mode. If only this had happened. And I really dealt more with missed opportunities, how we think as we get older especially, we look back across our lives and we We see opportunities that were missed, regrets over opportunities that weren't taken.

And this morning I'm going to continue on that theme a little bit on dealing with the past. And I'm calling it your future from the past because this is an issue from your past that if it's something that is constantly haunting you, that you fret over, it is going to impede the future that God has for you. what God is trying to develop and nurture in you in this great salvation that he is accomplishing within you if you're constantly fretting over the past regrets of the past and what I'm going to speak to this morning is more especially some particular sin that continues to haunt you perhaps from your past and I think we are all prone to this at some point I want us to look at first timothy i'm going to draw from first timothee in chapter 1 in verses 12 through 16 in particular if you're like me you grew up most of us here grew up in an in an era where school teachers and school administrators educators they had a means of controlling us and dictating our our behavior with this thing called the permanent record. You remember that? You remember the permanent recorded?

I can remember numerous times in elementary school, you know, being told, well, you don't want this on your permanent record, hey, you better act right, you don't this going on your permanent record? And I always had a feeling that this permanent record was something in a manila folder, and there's this little weaselly looking guy that has my folder, and he moves it from the elementary school to the middle school to the high school and it follows you into college. And at some point your permanent record is exposed. The good news is that there is no such thing as a permanent record. I was relieved to find that out.

That there is not permanent record. Sadly there are a great many people, Christians not withstanding, that live in the shadow of the past they are haunted by the idea of a permanent record there is some sin some particular sin from their past and even though and I'm speaking about individuals that that no God has forgiven them they understand that Jesus died for their sins they they understand they understand the sufficiency of the atonement that the death of Christ was was fully sufficient to cover the entirety of all sins for all those that would believe. It's not a lack of understanding. They understand that God has forgiven them, but they have, for some reason, this inability to forgive themselves.

And that may well be the most difficult forgiveness of all. And so, the purpose of this Bible study, as we begin to explore this a bit more this morning, is that I want this to be a source of peace comfort and encouragement for you that it can hopefully launch you more in the direction of the future that God has for you to move you past the past that you can let this thing go whatever it is once and for all never to to redress it again now to do that i want to share with you a couple of things before i get into the the meat of this what i what i want to speak to a couple things i would call your attention to is that when we're dealing with this kind of issue and i used to deal with this a great deal in pastoral care the first thing we we have to recognize is that when you become a believer when you you become a follower of Christ, you immediately, perhaps in a greater way than before, you become a focal point for the attention of Satan. That if he cannot keep you from becoming a follower of Christ then his next objective is to keep you from being an effective witness for Christ.

And as I mentioned in the prior two messages, the way that Satan works is in our mind, between our ears. If we relegate our understanding of Satan to being some individual in a red suit with a pitchfork, we've missed it. Satan works in the mind.

He lives between our ears to trouble us over issues like this. So if he cannot keep me from becoming a follower of Christ, his next objective is to make me less than effective in being a witness for Christ. the second thing i would say and that we're really going to address this more fully that's the point of of this study this morning is that for whatever reason if this is an issue that you've that you struggled with there is something doctrinally lacking in your understanding of the salvation that god is accomplishing there is nothing theologically that you are lacking that you you don't fully understand rightly that is impeding you from moving forward into the future that God would have for you so borrowing from Paul and Paul's relationship with Timothy has been very helpful for us in these in these previous studies borrowing from this relationship with Paul and and Timothy uh I want us to to look at these issues uh more in depth and the first thing i want us to look at verses 12 through 16 and in address what i'm going to do is i'm going to address four things for for your benefit and for my benefit we're all prone to this of looking back over our shoulder it's something we did in the past the first thing i would bring to your attention is the demonstration of your past your past is not insignificant my past is not insignificant and the providential purposes of God he has taken our past and he he is he has taken that and he is using it for an effectiveness in his kingdom's work now I want you to listen to what Paul says to Timothy first Timothy chapter 1 let me read verses 12 through 16 Paul says I I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into service even though i was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor yet i was shown mercy because i acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in christ jesus it is paul says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that christ jésus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now don't miss what Paul is doing here. He is offering himself as Exhibit A. He said if you want to see how God takes someone's past their corrupted past their broken past what I did out of ignorance if you if you want someone to look at of how God doesn't use someone's past against them look at me I'm exhibit a here that God does not limit his work based upon my past performance in fact he says what my what my past has become come is a demonstration of God's graciousness my past which many could grieve over which many could be haunted by Paul says my life is simply my past has simply become a demonstration of the graciousness of God you see this is what I want to call our attention to when we're talking about salvation and again i and i will always say this i used to say it ad nauseum as a pastor because i think it is so easily missed when we talk about the salvation of god sadly in the western church especially in the evangelical tradition however you want to however you wanted to define that term these days we have taken something like the majesty of god this this great salvation that god is accomplishing and we've made it into into being nothing more than me make me missing be missing hell and making it to heaven that's what we've reduced it down to i mean we shouldn't be surprised in this self-absorbed self-centered culture that we want to take this great Salvation of God and we want to reduce it down in this myopic form to being nothing more than me just missing hell and making it to heaven. But if you have a New Testament biblical understanding of the salvation that God is accomplishing, the scale and the scope of that salvation is beyond comprehension. It is a redemption of the entire created order. That's So this salvation that God is weaving, that God is accomplishing even now, this is a scale and scope that is beyond our comprehension. And so understanding salvation in that light, then we can appreciate all the more that what God is doing isn't based upon me. I'm not the centerpiece of God's salvation. I'm not the centerpiece of God's salvation the salvation God is accomplishing is not based upon my badness it's based upon his goodness salvation is about God alone and what he is doing what is apart from our merit we can never earn it we can ever deserve it this is about what God is accomplishing in his redemptive purposes a second thing I would share not just a demonstration of your past and how god is even using your past in my past but i would also call your attention to the differentiation of your sin not just the demonstration of your past but the differentiation of your sins notice in verse 15 he says it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom i am foremost now don't misunderstand what Paul is saying our tendency human nature is to differentiate between sins we want to grade sin well this sin is worse than this sin and I think even again trying to trying our human nature wanting to fall back to a kind of work salvation we might even look around the room and say well I I know so-and-so over there I'm not as bad as he is so I must be a christian we differentiate between sins now it sounds like paul may be doing that when he said i'm the chief of all sinners that's not what paul is doing at all paul understands the true nature of sin he understands that that that sin is not graded that sin has the very the very thing that alienates us from god and in fact over in james chapter 2 listen to what james would write in James chapter 2 he says for whoever keeps the whole law verse 10 for whoever keeps the hole all yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all that's what Paul understands about the nature and character of sin the law rises and falls on any one of those Paul says it's it's not a matter of whether it's the The lesser sin or the greater sin is just sin that alienates us from God.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention James 2 · chapter mention James 2 · chapter mention

But we tend to grade sin, don't we? That's how we make ourselves feel better about ourselves. You listen to testimonies.

Back in the old days when I was first starting in ministry, you know, churches had like fall revival, spring revival, and you'd bring in these guest speakers, and it seemed like we ascribed more power to those that had the worst background i heard a joke one time about this mafioso that became a believer became a follower of christ and you know had this powerful testimony and uh you know he got up and youknow the whole community turned out for this event to hear this guy give his testimony and one man invited a friend and friend came and he was sitting there near the front and this former mafioso is talking about his life and it before christ life in the past and man this guy had killed he had uh you know he would he had been a hired gun i mean he had embezzled i mean everything imaginable that the mafia does this guy was a ringleader in it well this guy up front who was a guest of another gentleman he went home that night he he was deeply moved by that man's testimony and man it came time for bed and he'd had been thinking about that service all night what he had heard from that guy and he dropped down to his knees there at the bedside he said lord i've i've never killed anybody i've never pillaged i've ever embezzled but if you can use me in spite of those shortcomings i want to give my life to you we do that don't we we grade sin and we ascribe some kind of of greater power to those individuals with the more heinous background Paul says listen whether it's great or small I'm the chief of all sinners Paul a persecutor of the church Paul a man who tried to wipe the church off the face of the earth and yet his past became came a demonstration of what God is doing and how God is working. Paul becomes a reminder that we cannot grade our sins. There is no lesser sin, there is no greater sin. A third thing I would bring our attention to, notice in verses 15 and 16, this has to do with the verification of your Bible. Because Paul has stated some things here and the real issue is whether you believe it or not. Whether we as believers ascribe authority to Scripture as being the Word of God. Whether ascribe to authority to this being the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Paul says some things that are significant here. Listen, he says in verse 15, it is a trustworthy statement. It's the issue of belief, veracity, believability. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for For those who would believe in him for eternal life. One of the things I so appreciate about scripture is the value of all of these letters, all of these epistles, because, you know, whether it's Paul writing or James or Luke, you know, Peter, the writers of the epistles is they were addressing very real issues in the lives of very real people and i think and i think paul is is helping timothy to understand some things and and by benefit of what what what timothy is receiving you and i become the beneficiaries as well and the things that paul are saying to timothy he's trying to bolster him up he he wants him to have confidence and an assurance it's a trustworthy statement paul doesn't Paul knows that Timothy is likely to believe him. Paul had a hand in him coming to Christ. Paul was a mentor. I'm sure Timothy had confidence in Paul's words.

But Paul's not pointing to himself. He's pointing to the work of Christ. He's point to the word of God. He's pointed to the Word of God through Christ Jesus.

Timothy, do you believe this is credible? Changed my life. Do you think this is a trustworthy statement? Do you believe these claims?

See, we have to ask ourselves these things. Have we verified in our minds once and for all that this is the actual Word of God? Have you clarified it? Have you verified it in your mind once and för all?

Have you driven down the stake? that in that in matters of faith and practice this is my source of understanding it's not it's not the world but is but have i driven down the stake that this will be my my source in all matters of faithfulness and practice do you believe what paul says to timothy i mean we've we've benefited from the letter do you believe this letter inspired by god you believe what i mean other places in in scripture do you Believe what what John would write in his epistle in first John chapter 1 verse 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous so that he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness do you believe that about micah the prophet god through his prophet said i've i've thrown your sins into the depths of the ocean never to be seen again do we do we really believe that or the psalmist who described it this way that he has cast your sins as far as the east is from the west never never to meet again do you really believe that or are you in your sin the one exception that it doesn't apply to you see it's always about god's graciousness and not not our badness have you verified the bible as being authoritative in its claims once and for all. Paul would write in Romans chapter 5 and verse 20, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Or I like the way Peter describes it in the book of Acts recorded for us by Luke in chapter 10 and verse 15. Peter declared what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. See whether not when we look in the mirror I don't think any of us would look in the mirror and say, well there's a holy man looking at me. Oh there's a holy woman right there if I've ever seen one. None of us are probably thinking that way. But the theological reality is that's exactly who you are in Christ Jesus. That is exactly who you are. We are called out to be a holy people. We have been established as a holy people by god through christ jesus regardless of our emotions regardless of our feelings regardless of what the man in the mirror wants to say to us otherwise the theological biblical reality is that you are a holy child of god cleanse and if you don't have the ability listen if you sense that you don't have the ability to move forward into the redemptive purposes of god how god is fashioning us if you feel like you're you're paralyzed in the present tense because of your past and an ability to move forward listen we have to allow scripture to expose these things for us or we never grow if i'm at a place of being unable to move forward into what God is fashioning because of something in my past it shows I don't really believe this book that's what it's exposing my past has been dealt with and all I'm really showing and revealing and making obvious is that I really don't believe believe what this book has to say i really don't believe in the claims that this book is making about the sufficiency of christ and the salvation that god is accomplishing which brings me to a final thing significant thing and that is the the justification of your salvation again never our merit but listen to this in verse 15 it is a trustworthy worthy statement deserving full acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom i am foremost you remember the angel the angel told joseph that the child will save the people from their sins the savior of the world he will be the redeemer this one that will be born he will be the redeemer he will be the justifier not us I mean that's those are the claims that we have through the entirety of Scripture again 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24 says and he himself speaking of Christ and he Himself brought our sins in his body up on the cross so that we might die to sin and And live for righteousness by his words.

1 John 1:9 Romans 5 · chapter mention 1 Peter 2:24

By his wounds, you were healed. By his words, by what he took upon himself in our sin. By his ones, you are healed. All the self-flagellation that we seek to practice in our lives, it's unnecessary.

It's wasted energy. Wasted time. By his wounds, we are healed. We don't have to beat ourselves up any longer.

Paul would say, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. When Jesus said, it is finished, It was a statement, a fact, that all the promises made in the Abrahamic covenant have been fulfilled in me. I'm the one true Hebrew. I'mthe one true Israelite. The sacrificial lamb of God who has taken upon the sins of the world.

and the redemptive purposes of god have been fulfilled in me now the significance of that is that everything that is true of christ him being the one true hebrew the one truly israelite the one real representative of all humanity the beneficiaries of that are us because everything that's true of Jesus, everything that is true of Jesus, it's true of you. Right now it's true of you everything regarding who Jesus is what he accomplished it is no less true in you you go back and read the book of Romans chapter 5 verse 6, it is thick in the theological weeds you would think boy this is dry bones this is it's theologically rich but man it is dry it is pedantic I mean it just it just drags in reading but the significance of it is everything that is said about Christ that we are that we were crucified with Christ that we are buried with Christ's that we have been resurrected with Christ and we have ascended to the right hand of God with Christ he is coming again all of those things are stated as present realities for you and for me Romans 6 11 I think is the best word from Paul in this regard when it comes to moving forward from our past he said reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive unto God through Christ our Lord you You know, justification can be a real meaty subject.

Romans 5:6

I mean, you can get lost in that subject. I mean the greatest theological minds have studied the justification of God for over 2,000 years. But here's Bobby's version of justification. I'm going to sum up 2, 000 years of theological history for you.

you. Justification, to be justified by God, and to be justified in the eyes of God. Hold on to your seats. It means never having to look back. That's it in a nutshell. Being justified inthe eyes ofGod means never havingto look back, just Just look ahead. Therein lies your future. Let's pray together. Our Father, how often it is that we need just simple reminders of the truths that are found in your word that give to us such confidence and assurance that bolster our spirits. Father, How often it Is we allow the flesh to dictate the understanding of who we are. oh we look in the mirror and we know that we fall so short of what of what you would have us to be but we know you are a God that that is working in the present tense to lead us into a future that you have for each and every one of us father I pray for each one of us that are here this morning that anyone within the sound of my voice that we Lord from this day forward that we would have That we would never allow ourselves to be defined by anything other than our identity in Christ.

That all other opinions, all other voices are without meaning. And can never trump the work of our Father through His Son, Christ Jesus. In His name I pray, Amen.