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Audio Files

 Length

Past, Present and Future (Recovery version)

(Audio)

7:49

Past, Present and Future

(Audio)

6:34
     
     
     
 

These are excerpts from messages given to those in a recovery program. 

Most of the subject matter in these clips applies to all Christians.

 

TRANSCRIPTS

 

Past, Present and Future  (Audio)   6:34

Alright, we'll talk a little bit about past, present, and future. So I talked about the condemning voice of Satan and this and that. There's, the past has happened to us and we're all here right now, and I've had bad things happening in the past. You guys have had bad things happen to you. You, hey, you've also done bad things to other people. That's our past. Okay?

 

   We've hurt others and others have hurt us

 

and get this, there's nobody in the entire world that hasn't done bad things to other people or had bad things happen to them.  

But just think about those rich, those rich guys that grew up in that rich household and they're given a brand new car when they're 16 and this and that. Oh wow. You know what they turn into seriously entitled, lazy people. And they go to take over their dad's business and ruin it. And because they never learned discipline, right? Oh wow. They had a nice, easy life. Look at that. Everything is given to them. That wasn't what was best. That thing you say, wow, it must be nice. Get you a brand new car when you're 16. Get this, get that, and have all these things and live in a beautiful home and never have trouble. And all this. Oh yeah, doesn't work. Doesn't work. So we have a past, okay? And even for them, somebody's been given it all, they’ve got a past.

 

   There's only one thing you can do with the past.

 

Satan wants you to beat yourself up over it. Satan wants you to keep reliving it. That's what Satan wants you to do.

 

   Satan wants you to keep staying under condemnation for it.

 

He wants you to label yourself because of your past. You are this because you did that. That's what he says. He puts a label on you.

Can you find anything in the Bible you've ever read where people are labeled because of their past, only one time when they die, they're labeled because of their past, because they've chosen one or two roads. They've chosen the road to doing everything their own way. Or they've chosen the road to accept that Jesus Christ died and paid the price for their sins. So they either are children of God or children of the devil. They're labeled at that point.  

You know, maybe so. But

 

   there's only one thing we do with the past.

 

Who knows what we can do with the past?

AUDIENCE: Put it behind you.

Put it behind you. Yes. And Paul says, put it behind us, (Phil 3:13) but there's a positive thing we can do. Learn from it.

 

   Learn from it. And you must learn from it.

 

You've got to learn. So instead of beating yourself up for what you did wrong, you stop and say, where did I go sideways? Was I trusting God then? Nope. Okay. That's a good start, right? That's a good start. Was I thinking about what God wants to do in my life? No.

 

For those struggling with addiction.

I was thinking about, you know, where I'd maybe get the next drink or maybe where I could find drugs or whatever. Yeah. That, that wasn't good. And so even learning from it with, when it comes to addiction, is you don't all of a sudden just go along here and say, oh, there's, there's, there's beer. I mean, I, I've never walked along and found beer on the street ready to drink, or no, it's not beer. I know it's not <laugh>. I know it's not.  

So I, you, you don't just, just just find that stuff just like that. You know, it's just, it's really unusual. Not that you can't, you know, find cracks someplace or whatever, but it's, you normally, you're going through life and you start thinking, oh, life's not turning out this way and you know, the way I want it and I'm in pain and sure feel good to this and maybe I should, you know, could go that direction. And you start here, it starts there, and then little by little you start taking steps, and then boom, there you are.  

And then once you start using, you got a physical addiction to go along with your emotional pain and you're gone. So what do you do? You learn. You go back at the different times you relapsed.

 

Where did I go wrong?

 

   What was the first wrong step I took?

 

What was the first wrong step I took? Say, "Lord, help me instead of taking that wrong step, do this instead." The first wrong step. (2 Cor 10:5)

 

   It's always easier to overcome sin when you start early.

 

You don't let yourself get too close to it. So learn from the past, okay?

In the future, we don't know what the future brings, right?

 

   So what's the only thing we can do with the future?  Trust God.

 

You can worry about the future. What's going to happen when I get out here? Am I going to have a job? Am I going to have this? Are my kids this and my parents this, and are people going to accept me and this and that? You don't know what's going to happen and we can have all these worries and all these concerns. And scripture says, "Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow has enough trouble of his own." (Matt 6:34) Right? So we trust the Lord.

 

   "God, you got this." I can't handle the future.

 

You do the best you can in the present. In the present. All we can do is to glorify God (1 Cor 10:31) and live for him. That's it. And it's that simple.  

 

   You learn from the past, you glorify God, and live in the present right now. And you trust God for the future.

 

Now, God tells you very clearly that the ant, for example, stores up in the summer for the winter. (Prov 30:25) 

And so you don't just go spend all your money now and just say, "Well, live and be merry for tomorrow we die." You know, but we live for God. And we, he says, store up your money. Take care of your body. Take care of yourself. Do these things because you've got a future ahead. And I've given you this and I've given you the wisdom and knowledge to know you need to brush your teeth. You need to drink enough water, you need to get some exercise, you need to do those things. Get plenty of rest, right? Because tomorrow you’ve got a big day ahead of you.  

So use wisdom. So there's a difference between glorifying thinking of, oh, I'm just going to live for, for God and not even thinking about what he's taught you and shown you that you need to do. So we live in that and

 

   each moment you say, Lord, what do you have for me today? What do you have for me this moment?

 

This is my present. The future's in His hands. My past doesn't matter. I learned. And that's it. And so these are lies that I've shared with you that Satan hems us in and he shackles us. And it's just like when you have, when

SPEAKER PICKS UP CHAIR WITH ONE HAND

you're carrying around the past, it's like walking around with something. You're walking around with it. And if you carry it with one arm, it makes you all twisted and, and your body gets twisted trying to carry it.

 

   And you're just carrying this thing around. "What's that?" "Oh, that's my past."

 

Well, why are you carrying it around? "Well, I did it." You just keep carrying it. It's a heavy weight. Why?

 

   Why would you walk around with something that's not helping you?

 

"Well, I mean, you can't? Because I did it." Yeah. So what? You're not living for today. You're living, you're living for your past. You're living for today and what God has for you. This doesn't do you any good. It doesn't do you any good at all. You learn and that's it.

These are simple things and some of you know it, but we don't always put into practice. And guess what The past has to do with what you did yesterday, not just what you did way back. It might be the way you treated somebody. Because sometimes I'll do things and maybe I don't treat my wife just right or say something I shouldn't say or whatever might happen. And then I can feel bad about it and I confess it and say, I've got to move on. Definitely got to confess it. Go to her and say, Hey, I'm sorry you know what I did, you know, and move on. And so, but then you move on. (Phil 3:14) 

That's your, that's your path.