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July 18, 2018 Sermon: God’s Word and Your Past

Don Ruhl

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God’s Word and Your Past

God’s word has the cure for healing your past

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 15, In the year of our Lord, 2018

Persuasion:

  1. God’s Word Gives Hope
    1. God knows everything about humans.
      1. He knows
        1. why we have problems
        2. and how to solve them.
      2. He knows us individually.
        1. Psalm 33 shows just how individually He knows us:

          15 He fashions their hearts individually;
          He considers all their works
          (Psa 33.15, NJKV)
        2. In Matthew 10 it is written:

          30 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt 10.30).
          1. How many of us know
            1. the exact number
            2. of the hairs on our heads?
              1. We do not know ourselves
              2. as well as God does.
        3. First Corinthians 2 affirms this truth:

          11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1Co 2.11).
        4. Now listen carefully to the reasoning of First John 3,
          1. which assures us
          2. that God knows us much better than we do:

            20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things (1Jo 3.20).
        5. Psalm 139 shows that King David also knew this truth:

          1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
          2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
          You understand my thought afar off.
          3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
          And are acquainted with all my ways.
          4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
          But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
          5 You have hedged me behind and before,
          And laid Your hand upon me.
          6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
          It is high, I cannot attain it.
          (Psa 139.1–6).

          15 My frame was not hidden from You,
          When I was made in secret,
          And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
          16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
          And in Your book they all were written,
          The days fashioned for me,
          When as yet there were none of them.
          (Psa 139.15–16)

          23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
          Try me, and know my anxieties;
          24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
          And lead me in the way everlasting.
          (Psa 139.23–24)

    2. Yet God has given us only one Book and
      1. it was designed with each individual in mind.
      2. Furthermore, no matter what has happened to us
        1. God shows us the way of freedom and peace
        2. through the Scriptures.
    3. In First Corinthians 10 He gives us hope by promising
      1. that what ever comes our way
      2. will not be more than we can handle:

        13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1Co 10.13).
        1. Knowing our strengths and weaknesses,
        2. He does not allow a greater temptation
          1. than what He knows
          2. we are able to handle.
      3. Moreover, God provides the way of escape by
        1. providence or
        2. the knowledge of Scripture.
    4. Like Joseph
      1. we do not have to be a victim of our past,
      2. we can be successful in life
        1. by having faith in God
        2. as Joseph did.
  2. God’s Word identifies the ways that need to be changed
    1. We are not so fragile that we will fall apart if we are mishandled.
    2. This does not deny that people have hurt us, but
      1. our response is up to us.
      2. We must choose the way that is righteous, and
        1. make sure that we do not use someone else’s sin against us
        2. as an excuse for our own sin.
      3. We are responsible for our actions.

        10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2Co 5.10).

        12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God (Rom 14.12).

    3. Searching in God’s word,
      1. meditating on what we find
      2. will reveal the specific ways
        1. that we need to change and
        2. the areas in which we need to grow.
    4. The word of God shows the truth about feelings.
      1. When we have been hurt,
      2. our tendency is to our feelings control us.
        1. However, the Holy Spirit reveals that we are to control our feelings
        2. by living a life that is based on the commandments of God.
          1. We must decide whether to live by
            1. the commandments of God
            2. rather than our own feelings,
          2. letting the commandments of God guide our feelings.
    5. The word of God encourages us to fellowship with other Christians,
      1. who encourage us and
      2. correct us when needed.

        17 As iron sharpens iron,
        So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
        (Pro 27.17)
        1. Often when we have been hurt
        2. we conclude that other people
          1. are like the person who hurt us.
          2. For example, a white who has been hurt by a black
          3. might think that all blacks are harmful,
            1. or a black who has been hurt by a white
            2. might think that all whites are harmful,
              1. or a woman who has been hurt by a man
              2. might think that all men are dangerous,
                1. or a man who has been hurt by a woman
                2. might think that all women are out to get him.
    6. Philippians 4 commands us to think the truth:

      8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things (Phi 4.8).
  3. God’s word teaches that the past can be a friend
    1. Rather than letting our past hold us down,
      1. we should be determined to learn from it
      2. as we would from a friend.
    2. We can begin to learn from our past
      1. when we realize that God gave us a memory,
      2. not to haunt us, but
      3. to teach us.
    3. First Samuel 17 shows that remembering the past and
      1. how we conquered a problem
      2. can give us courage for the present:

        37 Moreover David said, “The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” (1Sa 17.37).
    4. Revelation 2 shows that remembering the past
      1. can make us see our sins,
      2. leading to repentance:

        5 “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent (Rev 2,5).
    5. Remembering the past can keep us humble

      7 “Remember! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD (Deu 9.7).
    6. Remembering the past can make us forgiving and compassionate

      32 “Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’” (Matt 18.32–33).
    7. If you have confessed and repented of past sins:
      1. Wait for God to deliver you from your past (Psa 40.1–3).
      2. Look to the future instead of wallowing in the past.

        13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, (Phi 3.13).
    8. When we suffered some other way through no fault of our own:
      1. Am I remembering the situation perfectly?
      2. Am I totally innocent?
      3. Was my reaction righteous?
      4. If the other person repented, have I forgiven him? – Lk. 17:3.
      5. Have others either in the Bible or in modern times gone through similar conflicts? – 1 Pet. 5:9.
      6. Do I remember that Jesus suffered innocently? – 1 Pet. 2:21-23.
      7. Have I sought to glorify God in this situation? – 1 Pet. 4:11 “that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Exhortation:

  1. Is your past a stumbling stone or a stepping stone?
  2. Sometimes we are not aware of
    1. how our habits
    2. beliefs of the past
    3. affect what we are today.
  3. This does not mean that we have to try to relive the past,
    1. but let us realize that God has been working in our lives,
      1. past,
      2. present
      3. and future.
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