02162020 The Case for Jesus Rebuilding a Legacy of Love Al Robertson

thank you for that smattering of applause for my arrival this is Ella Goodwin and she's going to read our scripture would you mind standing while we read this scripture together Nehemiah to 17th or 18th then I said to them you see the trouble we're in Jerusalem lies and ruins and its gates have been burned with fire come let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and we will no longer be in disgrace I also told them about the gracious hand of my god on me and what my king had said to me they replied let us start building so they began this good work Psalm 127 1 unless the Lord builds the house the builders labor in vain unless the Lord watches over the city the guards stand watch in vain thank you morning church what a blessing to be together with you today so glad you're here we welcome to our simulcast audience we are always appreciative that you're tuning in I know there's a lot more of you tuning in we appreciate that as well a couple of things I want to mention be sure and sign up for that daddy-daughter banquet that's coming up this Saturday if you've been on the fence about it just go ahead and cross over and take your daughter's you'll enjoy it and so will they also we're working on some some really great events a lot of weekly things we're gonna do for the Passion Week for Good Friday all the way through Easter Sunday so be praying about that you hear more about that in the coming coming weeks and also the lang offers next Sunday will be their last Sunday sadly for us but we want to send them off so next week they're gonna be here we're gonna have my front they're gonna have an opportunity on the for year to say goodbye and have some hugs and cries I'm sure but we love you guys so deeply I'm looking forward to next Sunday this was our marriage refresh a weekend and it was a fantastic we kind of kicked it off last Sunday what Tommy's amazing sermon and I you know I felt like show that picture I felt like since we saw Tommy's picture and now today we saw a little bit of grants picture that we needed to make a comparison let me show you my wedding picture as well it was quite the soiree [Applause] you can tell Lisa's family seemed so thrilled that I was entering into the family all smiles and hugs in their defense I only had I only gave him a week to think about it kind of Phil s on that move in then I look at this like little thin guy that I used to be you know back there when I was 19 years old now I wonder what happened I feel like I swallowed that guy you know at some point along the way and I think God the next picture will explain it show this right here this is how it starts they start shoveling it in right next thing you know you're fifty five you know you got my vest and you get but my mentor Carl Allison called the furniture disease for young guys that's when your chest falls in your drawers just so you know it's coming but that's okay it happens it's life it's part of the cycle now I had to say there was a Tommy show to picture last week's show that next picture it really disturbed me you know was he just WiDi excited was he what was he doing you know and it really bothered me because it reminded me of somebody you know how it is when you get this in your mind you just you know it's somebody and you can't figure out who it is and about halfway through the week it hit me like a thunderbolt next picture and so there you go [Applause] you know Tommy don't worry we all have a twin somewhere right so Thank You Tommy for the great job you did last week appreciate that we're going to continue our conversation about a legacy of love today we talked about last week Tommy talked about building a legacy and today it's kind of a little bit of a shift in and we're talking about rebuilding a legacy of love because sometimes I face it we just mess up and we blow it in our relationships and our mayor's sometimes just in our personal walk as a son or daughter of the Almighty I remember an illustration that Zach when he was here Zach my cousin he was teaching or preaching one time and he talked about how easy or how difficult it is to build something but how easy it is for it to be torn down and he used an illustration of his sons and I can't remember if it was max to bear or bear to Fred but they're all destructive so it doesn't really matter and but the older one had gotten this you know Lego set and the guardian spent the whole day closed the door locked it and just built this whole city of Legos just went all day working on it and he opened the door to go out to get Zach and Jill to come see it and in the time he went to get them and they got back the younger brother had just totally destroyed the whole work of the day and I remember him making the point that's what it's like for the evil one to come in and destroy so quickly and so massively after you build and you work and you try and you're praying and you're saying you know help our relationship to be better we have a video today of a couple that experienced this very thing so guys if you will I'll show that video I was broken I was a mess I felt like I couldn't get any lower than what I was feeling at the moment after I come clean but saying that I'd had an affair I cheated on my husband and been unfaithful how did how do you fix something like that how do you fix a marriage that's just been destroyed to nothing is there even anything left to be fixed because what we had before it wasn't it wasn't good we weren't in a good place and now I just made it worse if it could have gotten any worse than it was I needed hope I needed help I needed healing I didn't know what to do except for turn to someone else who knew what to do and who to point me to and of course that was that was Jesus and so I just decided then that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna dive into knowing who he really is because at this point my life I knew a lot about Christ but I didn't know him and that's what I came to realize was that I needed to know who Jesus was and it was way more than showing up every Sunday morning and sitting on a Pew and so for me during this time I was just full of anger bitterness and putting all the blame on nana and not really want to look at my own my own sin and just kind of hiding and what Anna's not telling you is that I was heavily involved with pornography brought her into that and didn't stop there and we brought it into our sex life and we brought other people into our marriage and so to say it was a mess as an understatement it was a train wreck and but God began to heal Anna and I've started to turn her life around yeah there was months it was hard it was some of our darkest my darkest personal nights were throughout the next few months going through trying to heal what what we we messed up ourselves and allowing God to change me being willing to look inside and say wow yeah that's gotta go that's got to change and I've got allow God to do that and the whole time I couldn't fix Trey at all I couldn't blame it on him I had so much of my own that needed fixing and healing I didn't need to borrow any from tre at all and so I I drove you into reading God's Word every day and allowing it to actually read me and show me who who was it that he actually intended me to be all along how do we rebuild this how do we fix this and it started with me just individually which then turned to our marriage being affected yeah and so I can remember a time where Anna and I were in this this horrible place in our marriage and actually living on opposite ends of the house and I can see her in the living room she's got her Bible open she's you know asking God what to do and how to be a godly woman and she's working on herself and I'm I'm still not working on myself and I see her in there and I go in there with the intention of starting a fight with her but what I noticed is she didn't respond back and she's she was kind and I thought well that is so unlike you and it really impacted me but for four months I continued to blame everything on Nana and put it all on her until she finally left not to leave the marriage but she left and the good thing was when she left the only person I had left to focus on was was me just where it needed to be all along and so God really began to kind of speak to me during this time and and he reminded me against you and you only have us in the problem that I had wasn't against me and it was but with my with with God and so he began to remind me of these things and brought me to a place of brokenness and and vulnerability they brought me to my knees and he reminded me that you can't out sin me like you everything that you've done [Music] everything that you've done first and foremost was against me but I love you that much I can forgive you I do forgive you and my grace is sufficient and so that really changed my life from you know my past of my history with pornography and sexual sin of have periods where I was pure and periods where I was clean but never really changed my life and to I really internalized God's grace and I really changed my life forever so once we're both looking at ourselves Trey's working on himself I'm I'm working on me and we're working on our relationship with Christ obviously our relationship got better things changed between us and healing and forgiveness was truly able to be extended to one another and that process began and it's amazing what God does when you're both broken and both being willing to forgive and accept God's grace and the cool thing is what happened next was beyond our wildest dreams ever I don't know if we ever dreamed about it but other couples would start coming and ask him for help usually ones that had been in an affair like how did how do you put this back together how does this work after so much damage and basically all we did was share with them the way God walked with us and what he taught us through our mess and eventually one of the elders were like I think I need to get some training some kind of formal training on how to you know how to help couples through this and say that's what we began to do we began looking for ways to equip ourselves to help others and then here comes reengage you find that and now the fact that our elders and church leadership have asked us to lead a marriage ministry like it's it's crazy what God can do because we are we were not the poster kids for marriage that is for sure yeah I can remember one of the things that I remember saying to God during our darkest time was that of God if you will heal this I will do whatever you want me to do I'll tell anybody and I think sometimes you'd be careful what you say because that's exactly what he did and it just took that to broken people and I just turned it into something that we never dreamed of ever imagined and so now we know we had no desire whatsoever to be marriage ministers and that just goes to show you when you trust God and and just get to a place where he can use you that he he will I love that couple to see their humility now and what they're doing and helping couples we talked yesterday about pouring in what the god pours in that we now pour out and that's what we see and what a blessing we were able to sing that song about changing who you were to who you are thank you guys and that's really night at 6:30 for anybody wants to check that out so last week Tommy talked about denying ourselves being that first step on building the legacy and then the next step which becomes easier once you do that to love fully and then finally to serve completely you serve your spouse you serve other people today those are simple steps but simple doesn't mean easy see that's the thing it's simple we understand that but we all know it's difficult it's like losing weight right eat less move more well that sounds simple yeah right simple doesn't mean easy and so today I want to continue that same idea when we talk about rebuilding well maybe things fall apart maybe it took whatever it took to get you to the broken place so what do we do then and so I've got four terms and once again they're simple but they're certainly not easy the first one is one of my favorite Bible words it's a good Bible word repent I love it in the old days when they would say repent you know you got to get that preacher voice repent ye everyone up ye what if I just started preaching like that oh you wouldn't like it repent it's a great Bible word and it's simple and it lays out it's all over the Bible here's the English definition of it to feel regret or remorse there's a first stage of repentance you have to feel something you have to finally get to that point where you're right you know what I regret this I'm having remorse but that's not repentance that's just the first half you feel regret or remorse and you commit to change see repentance is a two-part word I feel something now I'm going to what do something so it's both it takes the feeling it takes that part of me it takes my conscience to be pricked and then it takes action to do something it's like the old Seinfeld bill it's one of my favorites when he said he knew he makes a car reservation and so he goes down to get the car and they say well sir we don't have any cars and Sam said but I reserved a car and they said yeah but we don't have any and he was like but isn't that the point of the reservation I reserved the car when I come you have the car see anybody can just make reservations but the holding the action that's where it's at and that's exactly what repentance is it's making a decision but it's then following up by doing something about it here's the way power said in act twenty six twenty it's that they should repent and turn to God that's that idea God I'm gonna turn to you that's that moment and prove their repentance by their deeds that means they did something I thought it I made the mental commitment and I'm gonna do something about it that's the only way we can rebuild you know it's interesting because the gospel does so much for us does it not what Christ did when a person embraces and obeys the gospel of Christ and that means who Christ is that means what Christ did that means what Christ does that means what he will do they repent and commit to follow him that's the ultimate first act of repentance which changes everything we receive forgiveness of sin and by the way that's past present and future sin which is awesome that's the power of the blood of Christ we receive hope and promise of a resurrected body because Jesus himself was resurrected so we know we have that hope and a promise it will happen to you in fact the Bible tells us that we receive the promise of eternal life in our resurrected bodies when he comes back one day in the great resurrection see that man look at what all the gospel does for us but there's one element of the gospel which shows you its limitation in terms of us and that is that we are weak that we still sin as Christians that even though we work hard to build up and we repent and we change our lives and we're trying to do the right things in it some of those old things just come back and where we can we fall and sometimes we fall so hard it devastates everything around us our families and our relationships the reason Jesus went back to heaven is very thought about it wouldn't be great if he had just stayed like he's here we know he's arisen Lord like until the time is just stay here Lord will follow you you can just beam into our churches every Sunday and preach all the sermons and we'll do whatever you tell us to do but he said it's better for you if I leave and there's some reasons why he went to the right hand of the Father to mediate for our weaknesses first Timothy 2:5 he went to the right hand of the Father to advocate and defend us in our weaknesses first John 2 he went back to the right hand of the Father to embody perfection in heaven for his imperfect brothers and sisters Hebrews 12 wanted to he is the author and perfecter of our faith that's what he's doing for you and me this morning you see our limitations our weaknesses flowed to him and he's waiting on that day when he'll come back that's why Jesus said when he went back he told the disciples he went back to the father so that he could send His Holy Spirit to and well his followers on earth why would he do that to guide and counsel in weakness John 14 through 16 to represent a deposit guaranteeing our future glory despite our weaknesses I mean I don't know about you but you're living that day by day and you're thinking how do I get to another day and remember you've got the Holy Spirit deposited in you that says you will live forever that are to lift you out of any funk if you believe seasons 1 13 14 he said the Holy Spirit is in us to bear fruit if we don't grieve him and allow him to bear that fruit in our weaknesses he leads we follow Galatians 5:22 Paul put it succinctly and beautifully in 2nd Corinthians 12 9 and 10 he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness for when I'm weak then I'm what strong and it's not your strength you're strong only because Christ is strong see that's that element of the gospel that's so important and that's the important part of repentance we have to live that repentance which means we have to realize our weakness so every day we deny ourselves as Tommy said last week and we say you know what Lord I got a tendency to do this but your Holy Spirit I'm praying to you today that you help me not do that and I want to do something different I want to be somebody different I want to act differently and I want to change how many spouses pray oh if they could just change and yet out of weakness and sin it's difficult to not trust Hillary Clinton was right but you thought I'd never say that Didius we're all deplorable including her on our own we're nothing we are cleanse only by Christ we have hope only because of Christ we have life that's abundant only because of Christ and that's what it takes to rebuild you got to start with that building block I've made a decision and would I act and I'm gonna do the second step that I have for you today there's another easy word ah that's so hard release after release you know my mom is we dad says she's not a hoarder but she has hoarding tendencies she doesn't like to get rid of stuff so she just keeps renting storage units and building buildings or finding places on the property for stuff god help whoever has to look through it when she's gone it won't be me I can tell you that it's hard to release and stuff we care about stuff we just don't want to give away stuff that means something to us it's also hard to release pain and hurt and sinful tendencies because some of us that's been part of our life for so long that's all we know we know it's not healthy we can't give it up the only way we can release I believe is through forgiveness first of all from God let's face it when we have trouble believing that we can get past them you out hear people tell me all the time how it just can't forgive myself and I always say well then you're having a trouble you're having trouble with your faith because what you're saying is that our God is not big enough to release you from this hurt and he is that's what he does so it's not a forgiveness issue it's a faith issue in that moment is God big enough and I'm here to tell you this morning he is he said I can take it all jesus said on the cross I can take it all and I offer it back and so when we receive that now we have the capacity to do what forgive others that's what gives us that but I get it if you don't understand that first forgiveness from God it's gonna be very difficult for you to then be able to forgive others or to embrace it yourself or maybe a family member this hurts you long-standing battle oh I've got stories everybody has them and yet forgiveness becomes the first step to release whether it be sin hurt pain consequences or the control of the evil one through all the ways that he likes to control us whenever we wrote our book desperate forgiveness which is our latest book in that we told stories stories from the Bible about great stories of forgiveness and people were releasing things to God stories about people who had real deep trouble releasing and then we told other stories people we knew people we'd worked with and and tre allowed us to tell part of their story that said you can release when we first started first time we got the books in went to our first event so I like to come up with a different verse to sign in my books you know something that's really meaningful to me from the text that kind of goes along with this and so I loved Luke 7:47 and I thought well that'll be easy for me to remember because you know you're in a book line you're signing books too so Luke 747 well for some reason the first like three events that we did we're selling books I was writing John 747 instead of Luke 747 and then I don't know what made me think about it wasn't at a book signing it was just out you know we were training John this house we're talking about marriage now and it just hit me oh no I've been sounding the wrong burst in my books and Randy's you're near like what where'd that come from I said it just came in my mind like in mine you'll squirrel and so it just popped in there and so then it hit me I thought well is there a John 747 because you know I don't even know me verses I don't know the verse right off the bat so I look it up right quick and here was the verse that I signed in the first 300 books has he deceived you as well retorted the Pharisees first of all I didn't even know retorted was in the New Testament and then I thought about some person says oh I'm gonna look up this verse and they're like what did he mean by this well so I don't do that anymore but here's what the verse says and this is remember the saving Luke 7 there's a woman there in a setting that Simon the Pharisee is invited Jesus into and she just comes in broken I mean we don't know what got her to that place but it's evident when you read that text like she has got nothing left she is at that place of repentance that I talked about she has made her decision and she is acting on it and she's only got one possession that we know of and it's an expensive jar perfume and she comes in and she's just weeping on Jesus's dirty feet and wiping him with her hair and pouring the perfume and it's just like and this guy Simon who's sitting there I mean he's the Pharisee it's his house it's obscene I mean and he has this thought or says to himself if this guy was really a prophet he would know who was doing this this woman of ill repute it was obvious she had a reputation Jesus looks over at Simon gives him a little parable and then he gives him a little rebuke about what Simon should have provided as a host but instead he's sitting there with this judgemental heart thinking never while this woman continues to cry and here's what he says in Luke 7 47 that's why I love this passage and it really shows you about release therefore I tell you talking to Simon her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much Jesus looks that look at this love that she's pouring out this submission to me but he who has been forgiven little you you didn't say you but that's what he meant you're sitting there all pompous invite me in to have a big show with all your friends I got the rabbi over he has been forgiven little loves little do you see how that works the more I embrace the forgiveness of God the more I'm willing to pour it out in love other people the less I receive it the less I give in let's face it we've all either been that person or we know that person everything's pompous we never get down to the realities of life then jesus said to her the magic words your sins are forgiven that's what we all alone to hear right not just from the Lord from my spouse from someone I've harmed from my child for someone that I've taken advantage of release you have to give it up you hold it it's toxic you release it and here's what's gonna happen not only are you forgiven but you're gonna be so full of love you're gonna pour it out to everybody you know that was the story we saw on the screen today toxic but now an ability to triumph that's what God does number three is remember remember now most people say we're supposed to forgive and what forget that's the saying right I'm telling you it's really forgiving and remember these no wait a minute what you tell my preacher because I know there's two places in Hebrews where the Bible says God says I will forgive them their sins and what remember them no more so well that's what we're supposed to do well two things one is we God well okay I get that and we forget now I step on someone's foot in the elevator oh I'm so sorry please forgive me oh no worries I'll walk away I can forget that and so can they I pull in front of somebody anyway what are you doing I'm so sorry that's okay you know we're on our way I forget I forgot but you got a big ol 800-pound sin that destroys your family and wipes out the life you knew you ain't forgetting that it ain't happening you'll always remember the question is what will you do with the memory for years after Lisa and I were put back together by the Almighty we began to pour out our love to help other people just like the Tomlinson's have done and others and every once in a while you know it'd just be a moment and it would be hard and least it would no it was hard because we wouldn't talk about hard things and she would say I'm so sorry I hurt you and you know just humility I loved it because see she remembered I remembered how do I respond I made a vow to Lisa when we got back together that I would never use her sin or my sin or our sin against us as we move forward I'm standing here 21 years later I'm I've held the vow and the reason why is because I choose to remember why I forgave her and it was by the power of God and His forgiveness to me so therefore when she would say I'm so sorry I hurt you I would say will you remember why I forgave you and that we've done that for 21 years still because we'll never forget the hurt but we'll always glory in the healing and the ability to help someone else and to pour out love God pours in us to pour out but only if we remember why just like every Sunday we just took communion why to remember what Christ did for us we don't want to forget that the cost it took I want to remember that every single second of my life and the last word is report we report and others decide it's a powerful testimony to stand before people and say you know what I am weak but he is strong I heard it all day yesterday from changed lives tragedies that turn to triumph and it's up to us to tell that I've said for years do not be stingy with the victories of God because he's done great things and we should want other people to know about the great things this morning Kenny came rounded up he said look here's my five year chip praise the Lord that's triumph that's what God is doing in this brothers life he wanted to tell me about it you keep telling Kenny anybody that will listen revelation 12:11 says they the brothers and sisters overcame him the evil one by the blood of the Lamb it starts with Christ everything points to him and by the word of their testimony they saw it happen and they were willing to tell others and you know what two thousand years later here we are still talking about transformed lives that came about because the disciples told us about what Jesus did for them and for us that's how we overcome the evil one and they did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death even if you tell them the story means your death all glory because you're going to have we cower and worry because of persecution that's now going on in our culture I say if that's what you're going to do bring it on because we know eternal life and we won't stop telling the story and that's not just in church that's anywhere that's out there where people live Jason dad and I do a podcast unashamed and we talk about the Bible we talk about what God is doing in our lives hundreds of thousands of people are tuning in and they're saying we want to change that's what we do we report on what God has done in us so too the challenge for you is where are you at on the on the process we're at that place where your conscience maybe has been pricked by something recently and you think you know what I need to make a change we saw our brother do it last week and by the way that brother is now going through the process of repentance I live in it by changing that's what we do when he can release some of the stuff the evil one has had over him oh man there's gonna be great victory and he's gonna remember and today you have that opportunity as well if you have a need at all why don't you come while we stand and while we sing thank you so much for being a part of our live stream family if you have any questions or if you just want to continue this conversation please contact us at info at WFO our church org have a blessed day

Channel: Whites Ferry Road Church

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Length: 36min 9sec (2169 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2020