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

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 missed 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. And 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 wanna 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 and go, 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's God's word is it always tells us the truth,

even when 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. We all, I looked up that word all,

it means all. 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 ways. This is one of the most

obvious truths of the universe. I mean, I've never met

anybody in all my years who's claimed 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 7.20. There's not a single person in all the

earth who's always good.

And never sins.

That includes me, it includes you, it includes the Pope,

it 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 3.23. 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 verse is all of us have sinned and all

of us fall 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 19 10. 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

is that 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's 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 50 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 to make them.

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 accuse others and I don't excuse myself, which

is what we typically do.

We accuse and 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 in Scripture on why we

make poor choices.

Let me just give you one. 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 gonna

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

Mark 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14 if you wanna read about it. Mark chapter

Mark 14 · chapter mention

14 is Jesus being betrayed by Peter. And there are

four 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 12.

They're taking the Lord's Supper together. Jesus says, at that moment,

one of you is gonna betray me. One guy pipes

up saying, no way, Jose, that isn't gonna happen.

Who is it? It's Peter.

And in Mark chapter 14, verse 29, Peter in the

Mark 14:29

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 12 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 cross, but no way am I

gonna back out.

I'd die for you.

He's setting himself up with pride. The Bible says if

any man 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 says everybody may stumble but I won't.

It's his pride.

Proverbs 11 verse 2 on the screen says pride leads

Proverbs 11:2

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's deceitful.

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 worn out, 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, Jesus, before he is arrested, he goes

to this place, his favorite place to pray is called

the Garden of Gethsemane. And while he's there, he takes

the 12 guys with him, and then he takes three

of them, Peter, James, and John, and 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.

A ministry of presence.

While I'm praying through what I'm gonna 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 chapter 14, verse 37, Jesus wakes them

Mark 14:37

up and goes, guys, could you not stay awake with

me for just one hour? Just one hour. I'm just

asking 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 life. 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 a 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 gonna

cause you to make a poor decision, the fear of disapproval.

After Jesus is arrested that night, the Bible says this,

Mark 14, verse 54, that Peter followed Jesus, how? At

Mark 14:54

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 gotta 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 going to make dumb decisions if

you follow at a distance. Why do you follow at

a distance? Why was Peter following at a distance? Because

he's afraid, if I get too 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. 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 gotta 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, 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 14, verse 54, it says, so then

Mark 14:54

Peter sat down with the guards and warned himself at

the fire. I imagine they were making s'mores. Anybody got

a hot dog stick? Well, there's some weenies.

That have a hot dog, make s'mores. This is fun.

Jesus is being arrested and tortured, and what's he doing?

He's sitting with the enemy around the campfire. Why? It's convenient.

It's comfortable.

Anytime I place comfort before character, I'm going to make

poor decisions. Anytime I put short-term gain over long-term gain,

I'm going to make poor decisions. Now, those are four

common causes. There 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 22, verse 31, 32. Jesus said, Simon Peter,

Luke 22:31

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 at the same time.

So it's not like, 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 10.

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'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 gonna 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 gonna 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 going

to make in life I know you're going to 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 to 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 made

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

the second step. Now I move 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 whole lot, because it just means humbly ask. If

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

you learn and read Psalm 51. Write that down, Psalm 51.

Psalm 51 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 51,

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 51, verses one to three, verse

six and verse 10. David said, have mercy on me,

O 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 desires. I wanna do the right thing.

I wanna 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've blown it. 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 wanna 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 you to do this, this, and this

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

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

gonna 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 than 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 And on and on.

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

of the plan. That I wanna 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 difference is 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, 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, but, but, what about?

You're still on plan B. on plan A.

God has not revoked his original dream for your life.

There's no plan B. But what about, doesn't matter what

other people did to you, what you've done to others,

what mistakes, what poor 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 the most famous verses in the Bible, Romans 8, 28.

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 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 together for good for everybody, but

only for those who love God and are called according

to his purpose, his.

Dream for 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 say, well, you can't unscramble an egg.

God can.

God who created the universe can do anything. You say,

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 just says, I will use them all.

I don't care if you caused the problem yourself from

your dumb decision, or I don't care if the problem

was 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, 2 Corinthians 1, 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 the

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

12th step in 12 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 gonna think 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? 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 endure?

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've 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 progress even in my weakness in

that particular area, 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 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 27 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 known, often famous from around the world, asking for

help on either mental illness or suicide.

I didn't ask for that ministry. 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 called me, 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 there.

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, which means that all our sins,

look at the all, all our sins are now forgiven.

And when were they forgiven?

When he died on the cross. That's 2,000 years ago.

When were your sins forgiven? 2,000 years ago. Christ sacrificed

his life's 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.

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 8.1, we're gonna

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 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 am I to argue with God? When you are

doubting God's forgiveness, then you hold on to not forgiving yourself.

Because you're like, 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 gotta

pay for it. And that in itself is a sin.

So forgive yourself and stop sinning.

Did that make sense? Okay.

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 hangups. So you gotta

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.

1 John 2 says this. When Jesus served as a

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

Not only our sins, 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 them. 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, cleansed, 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 3, 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, it's 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. And third

reason why my sin does not invalidate God's dream for me. C,

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 them,

they wouldn't be called gifts. If you have to work

for something, it's not a gift. That's a wage. 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 earned that.

A gift means you didn't earn it, you didn't work

for it. God's calling and gifts are given unconditionally and

you can't earn them. Romans 11, 29. For God's gifts

and his call are irrevocable. They cannot be withdrawn. Everybody,

I want you to just look up here and I

wanna 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 wanna 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 in

to 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, wee bit of 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.

And like David, Lord, I need your cleansing. 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 weeks ahead.

Number four, next, I generously.

Forgive those who've hurt me.

Uh-oh.

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 or

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 gotta let

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

of your grudges, that means forgive other people. You gotta

forgive other people. You gotta let them off the hook

just like God lets you off the hook. Matthew chapter six,

verse 14 and 15, 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 you.

Your sins. What's he saying here?

He's 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 any more 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 days 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 doors. 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

for 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

is all about. Courageously facing the future with faith. And

I wanna close with just a couple verses, but they're

very important verses. Courageously face the future with faith. In

Job chapter 11, Job gets some of the best advice

Job 11 · chapter mention

for recovering A dream. For recovering what has been lost

in your life. For recovering God's original plan for you.

Job 11, 13 to 18.

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. Hallelujah.

You'll forget your past troubles and mistakes and sins and

faux pas 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 20 minutes unpacking 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 to do, if you do that, then

you're courageously gonna 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 100th chances. Abraham,

Called the father of faith, traded away his wife. That

wasn't much faith in terms of Sarah. He thought, well,

they'll kill me unless if they, so tell them 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 a second time.

Noah gets drunk and embarrasses himself after Jonah. he does

the biggest event of his day. Rahab's a prostitute. David

commits adultery and has his lover's husband put to death.

Every one of those people I just mentioned are in

God's hall of fame in Hebrews 11. 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 after chance.

Do you know that in America, there are 70 million

Americans with a prison record? 70 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. One time I was

preaching in a prison in Northern California and there were

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 size field.

And I just needed to get their attention. So I

pulled out of my wallet a $ 50 bill. And I

held it up and said, anybody like this $ 50 bill? 4,000

hands went up. I crumpled it all up. Anybody still

want it? 4,000 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. I picked

it up.

I spit on it. Anybody still want it?

4,000 hands went up. And 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.

And you've made some bad choices too. and you've gotten

beaten and you've.

Gotten torn and you've gotten dirty.

But you have not lost one cent of your value

to God.

Now it'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 his 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 we'll make

a beautiful tapestry out of it all. But if we're

gonna go where I wanna take you as a church

family in the next weeks, we're gonna have to shut

the door on the past today. You're gonna 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 43.

Verses 18 and 19.

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 past. Now it'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. You gotta let

that go. All the past is 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 the body. Mary Magdalene, Mary Salome,

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 okay, Peter. All is forgiven.

Come on home, he singles out Peter, the one who

was the biggest failure. And not 50 days later, that's

the guy God chooses to preach on the day of

Pentecost on the first day of the church and 3,000

people are saved.

He chose the biggest failure for the greatest message.

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

friends had gone back fishing again on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus comes walking by and says, come on in, bring.

The fish in, we'll cook you some breakfast. And 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.

They're eating. They're having fish and chips.

Okay?

And Jesus says this. After eating breakfast, John 21. After

eating breakfast, 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. Jesus said, then

feed my lambs. Then Jesus repeated the question, Simon, 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 a third time. He said, Lord, Lord,

you know everything. You know that I 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

sign and place the covenant prayer tent where you can

see it.

In your program, there is a card that looks like this.

Everybody pull this 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 tent. I want

you to put this where you will see it every

day for the next 40 days.

All right? Pull it out. I want you to put

it together.

And on one side are our five goals, D-O-O-R-S, and

on the other side is the time to dream covenant.

All right?

It says, God can do far more than you imagine

or request or dream. My covenant, 42 days from February

23rd to April 5th, 2020. Because I wanna know God's

dream for my life. Because I wanna grow stronger spiritually.

Because I wanna support my church family and be supported

by them. I commit to the five time to dream

habits for the next 42 days. I'm not asking you

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

you to do it for 42 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 gonna read February 23 to 29. I

will participate in the Time to Dream small group study.

And this week you're gonna look at the second open door,

which is the door to authentic relationships. I will ask

what part my part should be in our 2020 vision offering,

which we're gonna 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, and 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.

Let's bow our 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. And 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 42 days.

I pray it in your name. Amen. Bless you.