CHAIN BREAKER - The Chain of our Past

so I'm gonna just talk about the past and for tints if you will and a lot of us can visit each one of these tents but just talking about the past is a big thing because all of us have different experiences in life but all of us have come through I think at least four areas of life and the first thing that's in our past is holding on to us tonight is the failure in our own lives that is in our past can I get an amen from anybody on that okay a few people understand that one few people signed up for that one of just a few people in that tent with me we made a decision and we regret it I'm not talking about like a small decision we made some stumbling steps and then maybe we just absolutely collapsed we made things that we did things said things whatever that we regret that to this day still have a mark on our life they they were in the past but this the shame is in the present they they were in the past but the guilt is right here with us right now and it still got a hold on us we try to push it away we prayed a couple prayers about it we we said God I think this time I'm going to move through it but somehow the weight of it is still in the story another one of the tents that that we we gather in when we think about the past is that tent of disappointment it's that place in life where something or someone let us down somebody we trust it and we're counting on walked out the door a family that we were depending on for our very livelihood cracked up and someone made a decision to say hey I'm gonna kind of look out for me and not look out for you and we are living with the sense of disappointment that they could make that kind of a decision maybe it's a relationship that evaporated or something that you'd invested in or we're banking on it and it just all dissolved somehow maybe it was if we if we're talking real talk tonight a moment where you cried out to God and seemingly all those prayers went unanswered on earth it did not resolve there you do still to this day cannot make sense of it sitting in this gathering tonight you still don't know what to do if somebody were to ask you and in where was God in the middle of all of that and you're like you know what honest answer I'm not sure I know where God was in the middle of all that I know all the right answers I'm just talking real talk if that's okay at the five o'clock gathering tonight and that moment of disappointment has got a hold on a lot of us and it's keeping us from living fearless for sure and keeping us from living free is keeping us from believing that God has a future for us I think another tent where we can gather is that place of wounds where when we're thinking back through our life there was a moment in time where someone said something or did something to us that left a mark on our life that injured us mentally physically or emotionally there was a wound that came into our life and again real talk we're not gonna just try to paste a bumper sticker on that tonight and say oh let's just praise God and shout hallelujah and pretend like that didn't happen because for you it wasn't something back there it's something right here and right now and the enemy has tried to define you by it not to define the person who hurt you by it but to define you by it it's amazing we live with a sense of responsibility I might have done something maybe somehow I was the one who was at fault maybe maybe in my life something was all disjointed that got me into that place in the first place and it just becomes a vicious cycle that leads us down into nowhere and here's Jesus tonight saying look I'm telling you I know everybody has a pass but what I would like to talk about is the future and I know the plans I have for you and ultimately they are for good and not for evil I want to prosper you and not harm you and I want to give you a hope and give you a future and I want to show you how we can match that up with a real-world scenario where stuff doesn't go right every time and a lot of things go horribly wrong and a lot of people are living with a wounded past and it's keeping them from from flying with Jesus into the future he has so then I think the last place where we gather around the less tent if you will as a tent of loss and and I just I just want to open up for just a moment I know we don't need much time to really get into the honest place together but come on this message isn't going to work if we don't talk about what's real in our lives and for a lot of us there's loss in our past stuff so you don't get back people that are gone things that are gone dreams that are gone innocence that's gone you don't get it back you don't get to go back and rewind it and get a do-over in that moment there are things in our lives that have been lost so if there is loss and if there are wounds and if there is disappointment and if there are our own failures in the past then how can we walk free and I just believe where we started last week this is the overarching hope of our story tonight God has a freedom plan for you he has been working through history to announce and to bring you into his freedom plan for your life he wants to bring you home to him he was to give you peace with him and he wants to give back to you everything if the enemy has stolen from your life and this is God's plan ultimately for every single one of us and God isn't hung up by the dilemmas of our past I love in John 4 we're gonna look at John 4 revelation 5 tonight in John 4 there's a story of Jesus coming to this village in Samaria called Sychar and when he comes to sidecar he meets this woman at the well if you've been around Church you know the story you've heard it a hundred times if you've not been around Church here's the cultural backdrop the Jewish people Jesus didn't really like the Samaritan people and vice versa there was a cultural and a racial clash between Jews and Samaritans so it was a little bit odd that Jesus had to travel through Samaria most Jews wouldn't be comfortable in Samaria and most Samaritans wouldn't be that thrilled to have some Jews coming through Samaria but Jesus Trump's all of that because he loves everybody equally he's at home everywhere he is in the world he's got a freedom plan for everybody on planet Earth he's come to set all the captives free and he sees a future for everybody so he doesn't mind showing up by the way in any parts of town and here he comes to citecar he stops at a well his followers say we're going into town and so there he is alone which is a little bit interesting in the dynamic of this story there's a woman there who is a Samaritan and he engages her in a conversation a couple of cultural no-nose happening all at the same time but Jesus figures he can forgive himself if he trespasses anything and so he's just gonna go with it because he's got a plan he sees this woman and he's got a plan and he says to her well you can look at the story with me so when it comes down to verse 7 when a Samaritan woman came to draw water jesus said to her will you give me a drink and she says to him because she's kind of you know worried about what's happening here you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman how can you ask me for a drink in other words we shouldn't even be talking together and he uses that as an opportunity to begin a life-changing dialogue he says if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water and she is very smart and she says sir you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep where can you get this living water are you greater than our Father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as did also his sons in his flocks and his herds which makes me think awesome we're drinking water now that the flocks and herds have drink so that's cool as well and he answered her and he said everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life okay you you want to hear something if I promise on the table that is a promise on the table Wow I can give you something that will trump every thirst in your life I can give you something that if so satisfactory to the deepest core of who you are as a human being that you will be good with what I give you even if you have nothing else Wow she's like okay good I'm down let's do it her words sir give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw the water he said great I'm gonna do that but before I do that go call your husband and come back she said I have no husband he said you are right when you say you have no husband the fact is you had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband what you have said is quite true hello can you imagine dude shouldn't be talking to me and I shouldn't be talking to him but now he's offering me like one last trip to the well I'm going to take him up on that hello you know about all of them and you know about Owen Wow who is this guy now if you're dating Owen and he's not in God's plan for your life that came out of nowhere pre-planned I would start taking notes right about now and ask your neighbor to pray for you cuz you're gonna make a decision tonight and Owen is gonna go to sleep sad can I get a witness no I mean that's for real I don't know it just is that are you here if you're here let us know let someone know let a door holder know she does what I would do in that moment she started scrambling Jesus looks right through her and she starts scrambling just like you and me diversion sir I can see that you are a prophet our fathers worshiped in this mountain and I have a big question I'd like to ask you by the way that's not have anything to do it Owen or anything else in my life so let's shift over to that for a moment and she asked a question about the place of worship he says believe me woman a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem you Samaritans worship what you do not know and we worship what we know for salvation comes from the Jews yeah a time is coming and we're in that time tonight it has now come when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks God is spirit and his worshipers what must worship Him in spirit and in truth the woman said I know that Messiah is coming you talking about this thing coming ai ai ai ai I'm leaning in with with you on that I believe Messiah is coming so maybe maybe you wouldn't have thought that based on kind of my background but I'm with you I do believe Messiah is coming and I think when he comes he's gonna explain everything to us kind of like if we had five husbands and we're living with Owen he would explain all that - oh wow and she's now slowing down and looking at him and he says I who speak to you a.m. he he just went hi and we know from the story we're gonna see it in a moment her life changed at that well permanently radically gloriously her life changed at that well a woman with five strikes and on her way to number six got free from her past and she is revered as a martyr this woman in the early church of Jesus Christ because of the influence that she had in her life for Jesus Christ how did she do it and how do we do it well a it's the way we prayed and what's what we talked about last week this one comes out by prayer and by fasting you lean into who God is you lean in prayer into who God says you are in him and you lean in towards God to believe what God says is true about your life you fast so it in places in times we back up from the voice of the world we back up from what the world says it's gonna be like we back up from what the world says is true about who we are and we back up from what the world is telling us we are going to be able to do in our lives so this is how what happens no magic bullet no secret seminar we don't have a little pamphlet that you didn't get yet and if you can just get that one you're gonna get away from all the guilt and the shame and the hurt and the wounds and the disappointment in the loss of the past no this comes from leaning towards God and leaning away from the voice of this world but there are some other ways that I think we can get some handles around it today in the first one is this if we're going to get free from our past we have to face up to and embrace our past [Music] and if that sounds counterintuitive I get it because it because you would think the message tonight would be we need to forget about our past no we don't need to forget about our past because you've already tried to do that your entire life to this moment and that hasn't worked yet and that's not because you are defective at forgetting about your past it's because you can't forget about your past because it is your past it's a part of your life and a part of my life and God isn't rolling into our story and I going okay we're just going to sort of like a race chapter two and just pretend like that one never happened if we're gonna get free from the past we have to embrace the past and we have to face the past we have to understand this is a part of my story it's always gonna be a part of my story that doesn't mean you have to like it of course that's not what we're saying and it doesn't mean that you really have to accept away everything went down but you do have to embrace the fact that it is your story and as long as you live on earth and this is going to be a little curve ball and as long as you live in heaven it's always gonna be a part of your story you're like I don't want it to be a part of my story I'm ignoring that part of my story I stuffed that part of my story so far down in a hole I will never see it again except for the times that I say every day I've stuffed it down in a hole and I'll never see it again and here's what happens to us we try so hard to get away from the past that what we're doing isn't angling in ourselves in a cycle of the past we try so hard to get away from the guilt and shame I mean somebody please let me know I'm not on an island here that we actually go back and do the same thing we did before that we feel the guilt and the shame about they were talking about how we get away from that and so how do you get free it's not by saying it didn't happen it's not by saying I don't want to deal with it it's not by saying I'm gonna tune that out or zone that out or numb myself to that it won't work the only way to get free from the past is to stare right at it and to own it not responsibility for it unless it's your failure that's in the past and you got to own that but the disappointment to loss the wounds you just got to say hey that's me that's my story I don't love that it's my story I don't like that it's my story but it is my story and once this happens just stay with me tonight it's gonna set us up to move on in a whole different mindset from our past but as long as we're afraid of it and afraid to talk about it or look at it then it's gonna keep pulling us backwards where God is calling us forward Jesus said to the woman I'm the one who's talking to you right now I am he he could have said that earlier I can give you living water she could have said sir I want this water he could have said okay I'm Messiah I'm the one who you've heard about I'm the fulfillment of all God's purpose and plans I'm the one who is able to save I'm the one who can change lives and I want to do that for you today now let's pray together and I want you to put your faith in Jesus and put your faith in me and I want you to trust me and I'm gonna lead you to me because I that's how you lead people to Jesus when you're Jesus I want to lead you to me and I'm gonna change your life and we're gonna do it right here and right now and it's gonna happen right here why did he say to her I want to do that but first I'd love for you to go get your husband and come back and then I'm gonna change your life why did he do that because he knew she wasn't going forward until she went backwards he knew that in her freedom story there had to be an embracing of her path and man I have so much compassion for this woman I I cannot imagine honestly and I don't think any of us can what she went through being married to five different guys the toll that was taken on her mentally emotionally physically the toll that was taken on this woman and God wanted to bring her into the future but he wasn't ignoring her past and you know what the big takeaway for me today is in that God knows everything about your past but he still has a future for you he knows it all but he still has a future for you when I was studying this week I had this big revelation this is gonna knock you for a loop so get ready okay put a seatbelt or a harness on because this one's gonna blow your mind I had this revelation that our scripture our word of god is divided into two sections how many of you knew that did y'all already know that who knew that already who knew the scripture was divided into two sections anybody know that already show hands okay you didn't know that already okay well this gonna be revelation for everyone I thought maybe more people would have been ahead of me on that the first section in the Bible is called the kiss couldn't get my hand up Louie but I knew all along where you were going but you know it's been a long day and I figure you're gonna ask a couple more times and I'm saving my energy for the right one the first section is called the Old Testament you turn a page at the end of Malachi and the first word starts the New Testament so what we hold in our hands is a meta-narrative if you will for the work that God does in our lives because God has given us living truth and the living truth is about moving from the old to the new he's trying to say to us the plans I have for your life are not back there the planes I have for your life are out there what I'm hoping for in your life is not somewhere back there but it's to move you on with me now this honestly was Old Covenant New Covenant this was given by Meletis of Sardis in the second century that's where Old Covenant New Covenant came in for the very first time into the words of Scripture so that wasn't God breathed in holy spirit-inspired Old Testament and New Testament it just was a way of understanding the work and the story of God in the old days the priests would sacrifice day after day after day in this new covenant one man perfect sacrifice for all time for all sin never be a sacrifice again all the guilt all the same of all the people of all the ages now is finished and done old way to approach God day after day you got to keep the ritual going new way to approach God it's already been done for us you just walked in the finished work of Jesus Christ old way new way Old Covenant New Covenant and then Jerome comes along a few centuries later and he changes the word slightly in the Latin to Old Covenant to Old Testament and New Covenant to New Testament our story if second Corinthians 5 If any man or woman is in Christ he or she is a new creation the oldest is gone and the new has come God is about moving us forward but he always recognizes what was before he helps us understand what is he always wants us to get a clue into what was so that we can really appreciate what is and what is to come and if you're living in the old then you're you're missing out on the promise that God has put in your hands with the starting point tonight is to face and embrace the past the second thing I think it's helpful for me is to constantly consider the cross of Christ if you want to get free from the past you you must you you must come to terms with the cross of Christ like oh I believe in it I actually have one on a necklace I have embroidered one in my house I I get the cross I believe it I have accepted Jesus now I'm not talking about that I'm talking about understanding its power I'm talking about meditating on it I'm talking about a deep dive I'm talking about not taking my eyes off of it I'm talking about soaking in it and letting it soak in me I'm talking about coming to fully grasp as much as possible on this earth all of what was won on that cross and seeing your past on the cross do I believe in getting help from people to help you navigate your past I do do I believe that God could use the medical community to help us with things that we've experienced in life I do but I don't think any of us are ultimately gonna get fully free unless we constantly consider the cross of Christ and understand that our past is on that cross you say what do you mean by that I mean all the shame that's holding you back right now is on that cross all the guilt that's got a grip on you is on that cross that the knife that got stuck in your back and has got you stuck in life is on that cross it's all on the cross the anguish that we've experienced the sense of abandon the sense of separation the pain the agony the abuse the death all of it is on that cross hello everything that I've done is on the cross amen but everything that's been done to me is on the cross also because that's somebody else's sin and it's also been paid for on the cross it's all there in the Son of God that's hanging there is hanging there abused beaten forsaken sold out betrayed crucified cursed and dead so when we say I've got a ten a disappointment or a tenth of loss or a tenth of wounds or a tenth of failure guilt and shame Jesus is like tell me about it can you imagine all of that falling on me on the cross and when I see that on that cross is the finished work it catapults me out of the past not forgetting about it it just catapults me out of the past into something glorious and it lifts my view up from my self up to something triumphant that is right in front of every single one of us tonight to get free from our past we have to take a moment right now and go into our future and we can do that because of Revelation 5 thank you John for going up into heaven on the Lord's Day in the spirit and taking good notes we love you you're like I don't read Revelation a lot it's full of weird things yep it is that's because heaven is hard to explain because it's not going like going to Dublin Georgia it's not like driving down the freeway and going oh what a beautiful sunset no eye has seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the minds of men what the Lord has in store for those he loves we don't know what it's like so if you think well there's a angel on a pillow you need to jettison that idea pretty quick because heaven is a mind boggling experience in John a it's flat on his face like a dead man because he saw the glorious risen Jesus so don't get ready for a high five and a bro hug fist bump Jesus I've been waiting for this moment no it's gonna be face down I had no clue I had no clue who I was dealing with can't can't put my eyes on you even in heaven can't put my eyes on you and down on the ground the angel says hey can you take good notes of everything that you see and hear up here and send it back to the to the people because they need to get free from some things and to get free from the past we have to jump into the future and thankfully we can do that in Chapter four we see the throne of God in Chapter five we see a dilemma in the right hand of the one sitting on the throne as a scroll written front and back sealed with seven seals but no one can take it and no one can break it and no one can open it and that's a problem because it's the unfolding of the end of the ages it's the climax of God's redemptive salvation plan and it's the way he's gonna banish Satan into Hell forever and lift us up into a place with no more tears no more death no more sorrow no more sickness no more pain and it's in this scroll but nobody can open it and everyone is weeping because there's a story but nobody can open the story there's a victory comin but nobody can unlock the victory and there's a pause in heaven and then someone steps forward and we see that happen in verse six and then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain you're catching the past tense terminology they're standing in the center of the throne encircling the four living creatures and the elders and drop down to verse seven he came this lamb and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne and we had taken it the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb and we know this because it says up in verse five one of the elders said to me to me John do not weep see the Lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has triumphed and he is able to open the scroll and it's seven seals and so now he emerges when he does the angels bow down the elders fall down the living creatures fall down and they sang a new song verse nine hello this is what's happening in heaven right now they saying you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God hello anybody in this company right now is he talking about you in this verse right now were you bought with his blood did he purchase you by his sacrifice were you one of those now who's been made a priest of God hello here's what's going to be true of you they will reign on the earth so we're not talking about a hypothetical anymore that God can take the past and catapult us out of a past into a glorious future we're talking about a real person right now his name is Jesus Christ he's standing in the center of the throne when he takes the straw and breaks the seals everybody falls down and a brand new song emerges in heaven worthy is the Lamb who was slain now that's not new news because when he reached out to take the scroll you could see the nail scars in his wrists do you think man can we just not like get over that part cuz we're in heaven now right streets of gold glassy sea angel chorus we were all redeemed we're all alive we're all free can we just like okay why do we need to keep going back to the blood and back to the slain and back to the sacrifice because it's the past of Jesus that catapults us into the present that Jesus has for us and even in heaven we celebrate the wounds of Jesus past as the way that he has become worthy to open up the culmination of God's salvation plan into the future he didn't get worthy just because he was a part of the Trinity he didn't get worthy just because he'd come down from heaven he was worthy worthy is the Lamb who was slain because you purchased men with your blood that's how you get to take the scroll and to break the seal it was all the abuse in the wounds in the abandonment in the separation in the darkness in the anguish of that moment on the cross that delivered you up out of the grave and brought all of us out of the grave it's the fact that you overcame the past that lets me know that I'm going to be able in you to overcome the future and I love that how our story in heaven is not going to be a story of all where heaven now news stories starting now we're gonna be talking to each other in heaven would you overcome I'm telling you man when I met Jesus let me tell you about all the things he overcame in my life that's incredible I'll tell you what he overcame in my life we overcame cancer diagnosis we overcame losing too people that we loved we overcame a tragic accident we overcome getting abandoned we overcame abuse and our family we overcame an addiction lifestyle and our family we overcame so much God brought us through it all and here we are and this doesn't happen just by us rallying around and trying to hype it up tonight it happens when we lock our gaze on the cross of Jesus Christ and say my past is on that cross and that cross canceled out all the power of the darkness and the message over it and over me if it is finished everything in the past and everything it is telling me about the future it's finished now and I am free to receive from Jesus what he has for me and what he is speaking over my life beginning right now I think the third thing that helps us is that we just walk with a God we remember today that we walk with a God who every single day is writing a new chapter of our story that scripture says His mercies are new every single day you know the best thing about the past it is past you made it you made it through more than you ever thought you could make it through and you made it all the way to here and by the grace of God we are all in the house of God tonight through the abuse and the wounds and the disappointment and the loss and the failures they're all in the past that means you made it and you made it because every day God turns a page and every day his mercy comes and every day he takes up his pen to write the story of your life and we've got to remember that we're not walking with the God who wants to take us back to five busted marriage we're walking with a God who wants to give us living water so that we won't thirst anymore he knows about all the busted marriages and he knows about Owen but he's still saying to us I've got life for you and I have freedom for you and I got a purpose for you and I have a plan for you and it's just remembering that today God turns to play the page now can we just say honestly today on some of the pages he's going to write in the future deaths going to be on some of those pages loss is going to be on some of those pages pain is going to be on some of those pages disappointment from a earthly point of view is going to be on some of those pages because we're living on a broken earth but every single day every single morning every single evening he turns again with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy with new mercy he's still got the pen of your story in his hand and lastly I'll just say I think that a helpful thing in moving away from the chain of the past it's to use our past as fuel to defeat the enemy works in our life and in the lives of others yeah I know I put that past in a closet that doors been closed for a long long time I shoved that thing down an elevator hole 50 floors down it ain't coming back again except for each time every day I remind myself that I put it in an elevator hole and put it down 50 floors and it's not coming back again other than that it doesn't ever come back again except when I remember that I put it way down in an elevator hole and it's not coming back again here's the thing about God God is a redeemer and he takes what the enemy uses against us and he uses it against the enemy but you only do that if you'll let him and I believe you'll only truly get free if you're willing to use your past and not hide your past well I don't want anybody to know about that that was way back when when I was in college and I had a different friend groups and it was before I got married and my wife doesn't even know my husband doesn't even know my co-worker certainly would never know that and that's just another chapter of life and I moved on from that and kind of you know put it in the past and I'm now a respected businessman or respected business owner respected businesswoman I'm aspect respected member of my community and you know we don't need to bring all that up again and there's some things that maybe honestly don't need to fully be disclosed to everybody on planet earth we would all understand that wisdom but there's a lot that you've come through that God wants to use and it's in you using it that you're actually going to continue to experience the freedom from it because you're gonna be on top of it now and it's not going to be on top of you you're gonna be taking the blows and using them to kick the hell out of hell instead of the enemy using the blows to keep pushing you down into despair and it's that willingness to say god take it and use it I love how John four ended after the disciples come back there's some conversation and then it drops down to the very last of the chapter and it says in verse 39 many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony okay what was their testimony he told me everything I ever did so we have Amanda now she'd like to come she's gonna share her testimony Amanda calm everybody welcome Amanda yay um he told me everything I ever did thank you it's good to be with y'all you're like what can a testimony is that it's the testimony of a woman who obviously got transformed because many of the people in the town believed in Jesus because of her it's a testimony of a woman who didn't have to tell everybody about her past because everybody in a town already knew about her past it's a testimony of a woman who said this man knew it all but instead of judging me and condemning me for the past he called me into the future this man knew everything I'd done some of you was keeping you from coming to Jesus as you're afraid what's gonna happen when he finds out about everything you've ever done and it's gonna be amazing as soon as you come towards Jesus and he says hey before before we finish all this and I am gonna forgive you and I am gonna cover you and I am gonna fill you and I am gonna give you life and I am gonna come and live inside of you and I am gonna change your life and I am gonna make you a daughter of God I am gonna bring you to brand new spiritual life right now but before we do that can we just talk for a minute about this big giant chain that's been on your life called the past I want to talk about Eddie for a minute because you've been stuck there for what seven years now and I want you to know something Eddie is in the past and I'm calling you into the future so I know about Eddie I need you to know that good that's cool don't worry I've always known and I loved you anyway I kicked down a wall for you anyway I knocked down doors for you anyway I climbed a mountain for you anyway I tore down every life for you anyway I knew it all that's why I went to the cross for you I'm inviting you out of the past and into the future he told me everything I never done and then he told me he had a future for me that he was the Christ of God and when this happens to us something inside clicks and we're like wait a minute I don't like the past I'm not gonna accept it really that that's just the way it had to be but I'm gonna take it and let God use it to bring freedom to somebody else who's in the same hell that I was in I remember the day that God called me to preach like it was today I don't remember on that day saying I'd like to sign up by the way if I get any vote in like how this works long-term being called to be a preacher communicator of truths whatever I love it if maybe at some point in life I could become the poster boy for anxiety that would be awesome if that's just a slot that maybe I could get into I'd like that but ten years ago next month I hit a wall of depression and anxiety that almost took me completely out and by the grace of God after a grueling few months Jesus brought me out and and when he did a handful of people would have known about that probably less than 200 people would have known about all of that the 40 doctors that I'd seen the handful of 50 people that were thinking about planning passion city church in that moment my family Shelley's family that's about who would have known really and God lifted me out he's still lifting me out and I could have just closed that door and I think even maybe for a little season I did and say think thank God I've sort of come back to life and I'm seeing again and I know I'm not crazy and I'm gonna be able to live and then I started realizing I've got an option here I can just close that door and say that never happened let's don't talk about that or I could stand on a platform where people expect bulletproof and say nobody's bulletproof and depressions real and it'll take you out but it's not bigger than Jesus and I've been able to say that too I would say probably several million people in the last 10 years and I pray to God in some way by his spirit and work through Christ to serve and help some body by taking what could have just pulled me back and kept pulling me back and even now it keeps trying to pull me back to say no I'm gonna take that and use that as fuel to go after what the enemy is doing not only in my life but in a lot of people's lives and I believe my past and being open with that just like your past and you being open with your past is going to give you a platform in position because Jesus now is in the center of the throne he is being adored and exalted he's receiving all the praise from all the ages in this moment but the thing that gave Jesus the position and gave him the prominence and gave him the power in that moment was the past that he had experienced his past gave him the prominence his past gave him the position his past gave him the power in that moment so don't you believe for a second tonight that your past is gonna keep you from the position that God is dreaming about for your life or the prominence he wants to give you with your friends the influence he wants to give you on planet Earth don't you think that for a second it is actually your past that is going to give you the position and give you the prominence because you've got a story to tell yes there was disappointment and yes it was real true loss and yes there were wounds and yes there was a lot of failure but I've got a god who's overcoming all his name's Jesus he is a chain breaker he was and he is and he always will be the one that sets the captives free he overcame it and I'm in him and I am overcoming with him and here's where I'm headed I'm gonna reign on the earth with my king when people say the best is yet to come don't you believe for a minute when somebody says I can't stand all that Christian hype that is a billion miles away from - somebody tells you the best is yet to come because your future is you are gonna stand not in the center of that throne but you've got a reservation at that throne you got a place at the table with your name on it you've got a seat at the table with the King of Kings you have an invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb you get to join with the four living creatures you get to join with the angels and you get to join it with the elders who bow down you get to sing it the heaven song it and you get to stand in that place and say worthy is the Lamb who was slain - now receive all glory in all honor in all blessing in all power in all wisdom and all strength from this time forth and forevermore the future worship of Jesus was bought by the past pain that he endured and we've come through that story with him and that's where we're going come hell or high water in Christ that is where we are going and nothing can stop us

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 97,205

Keywords: passion city church, louie giglio, louie giglio chain breaker, louie giglio sermons, chain breaker, passion city, passion city church worship, louis giglio, passion city atlanta, passion conferences, passion 268, atlanta, atlanta church, atlanta churches, faith, christian, sermon, message, christianity, preach, preacher, preaching, Jesus, God, church, atlanta service, church service, pastor, pastor louie giglio, pastor louie, georgia, atlanta georgia, atl, religion

Id: Hesw2GpZdAw

Length: 49min 32sec (2972 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 18 2018