Getting Past Your Past | There Is A Cloud | Perry Noble

I consider it an honor to be on this stage and be with you in our time together today um and I want to kind of go ahead and give some people and out because as I was studying this message I realized that this message isn't for everybody and it's really difficult in the kind of culture that elevation has to get a message ready for everybody because you guys have like um 87 million campuses and you're starting one on the moon next week and that's going to be amazing and there's all kind of people here there's all kind of ages and races and economic backgrounds and so that's what I love it's kind of like a picture of heaven right it's kind of like a picture of heaven and so so coming up with a message that impacts everybody is a challenge so today today today I'm only going to be talking to the people who have a problem getting past your past the only people I'm going to be talking to today are the people who have a problem getting past your past now if you don't have a problem getting past your past we're glad you're here today Jesus [Music] but for the honest people in the house we all have a problem sometimes getting past their past I was thinking about this and in the sixth grade I was in the sixth grade and in the school I went to it was an it was elementary school at sixth grades now part of most middle schools but I'm from Easley South Carolina where we just got running water last week and so we always kind of we're a little slow to the game and so sixth grade was a part of elementary school and in elementary school I was a large child large child and so I didn't do well in certain subjects like PE physical education now in our elementary school I don't know what genius came up with this but we had PE immediately following lunch now I don't know what school administrator was like but they plan to eat right after lunch so on this particular day by the way this complete story is true nothing is embellished it happened exactly the way I'm going to tell you on this particular day we went to lunch and we had Mexican food now I don't know what Mexican food does to you but to me let's just leave it there you know what it does all right and so then we went from we went from lunch into PE and on that day we were doing the president's physical fitness challenge and all that gets better on that particular day that the challenge that we were all going to do were sit-ups and so we numbered you know how you know I used to pick partners in npe is like 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 and the ones and the twos will partner together well I was number one and number two was Tara and and tear and was the hottest girl in the world a sixth grade hot don't get me wrong sis great hot okay she was 6th grade high and I had a crush on Tara and in fact every boy in the sixth grade 5th grade and the 4th grade had a crush on Tara and he was absolutely beautiful and Terra Ann was going to hold my feet well I prepared to do sit-ups in the president's physical fitness challenge and in my heart I just knew this was my opportunity I was going to win Tara and over he was going to fall madly in love with me because I was going to do sit-ups with such style and such precision that she was going to say you are my man and I was going to say yes I am so we we have son to position she was holding my feet when I have for lunch so she was holding my feet and the Cubs blew the whistle and it was like 1 2 and on the third sit-up [Applause] a part of her hair it was on real I started crying I know he's up I quit I failed the president's physical fitness challenge she was fine we called 9-1-1 we got her some emergency help we got it I never will forget the look on her face as she was passing out and I just it was that event in elementary school that stuck with me forever so in middle school we're in the middle school and I see cherry and walking down the hallway she would be coming this way I'd be like oh come get behind this nation because I ruined her life I feel like I had a part in killing some brain cells um I'm never will forget in high school she was walking down the hallway with her boyfriend at the time and I was walking towards him I was like you know what I need to kind of dump because she might tell him what I did and he might try to beat me up which I could have taken him it wasn't that big of a deal but I was really embarrassed every time I saw her I was really really really embarrassed I'm not making this up can your high school reunion I'm at the football game and I'm standing there and somebody's pulling on my shirt pulling on my shirt and I hate that by the way they pull on my shirt and I turned around and it was Tara and and she looked at me and said I bet you don't remember me I'm like there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about the time I nearly killed you this one event in my past and in college is funny it really did happen but I'm convinced that there's some people in this room that we've got something in our past and it's not that funny and what I would say pass let me kind of define it a little bit because a lot of times in church we talk about the past we're talking like 10 20 30 years ago but I'm talking as like last night passed last week passed last month passed there every person in this room there's probably an event or a season that you wished just didn't happen and it's either what you did or what was done to you and so I want to I want to visit just one verse today it's found in the book of second Corinthians chapter five and I want to look at this one verse because the Apostle Paul um by the way he wrote more information to the church and chorus than any Church in the Bible because the church in Corinth was a jacked up Church jacked up I'm talking about they were getting drunk during the Lord's Supper when you get drunk in the Lord's Supper you've got problems he was having to address issues that shouldn't have to be addressed so the entire church is full of jacked up people by the way did you know did you know that the church today is full of jacked up people in fact go ahead and look at the person next to you and tell them you're jacked up [Applause] Oh No some of you enjoyed that a little bit too much it was just the continuation of the conversation you had on your way to church but the Apostle Paul he's riding this church in Corinth and in the middle of chapter 5 he he almost pauses his thought and he and he speaks some encouragement and he speaks summit life into this church in Corinth and this is what he says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 this means this meaning what he had referred to that anyone say anyone one two three anyone now I did not finish seminary but I have studied a little bit of Greek and in the Greek that word anyone means anyone that's about all I got when it comes to seminary education this means that anyone who belongs to Christ you've given your life to Christ Jesus has saved you guys Jesus Christ to come into your life this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person see the problem was that I was bad and Jesus made me good the problem was I was dead and Jesus made me alive that's what Jesus does when he comes into our lives the person who belongs to Christ has become a new person the old life is gone a new life has begun so if you don't hear anything I say today I want you to hear this that if you don't let your past die it won't let you live if you don't let your past die it won't let you live and maybe just maybe here today somebody is going to have to step out of your history in order to step into your destiny because so many people are caught up in our history and do you know that living in our history will prevent us from stepping into our destiny now anybody in this room knows about getting past the past it's captain stupid right here on stage and so for me I wrote down three thoughts along with this verse that kind of keep me grounded any time I have trouble dealing with my past so if you're taking notes write this down and if you're not taking notes write this down because the devil hates it when you take notes number one in Christ in Christ I am completely forgiven aren't you glad that Jesus didn't just partially forgive he completely forgives now real quick real quick survey I need everybody participate this is an all-skate it's not a very spiritual question it's just a question to ask you about a certain life circumstance how many of you have ever purchased a new car raise your hand raise it high raise your hand Rachel hi yeah yeah okay Dave Ramsey would be mad but but-but-but-but I'm excited about it notice my hand was up I remember the first new car I bought was also an SUV because my car needs to be your car in a wreck and so I've got an SUV it was awesome it was massive had leather seats had heated seats up never had heated seats before it was incredible and I drove that thing for about two weeks and then one day was backing out of my driveway and somebody moved my mailbox no they did cuz I had always been there somebody came in the middle of the night and I'm convinced move my mailbox but I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so what I'm backing up I hit my mailbox and I was like I was like oh I've hit something no I didn't so I just kept going and put a really nice racing stripe down my car right now in the South you get credit for racing stripes on certain automobiles but not on your brand new SUV I remember I got out and looked at that dent and almost threw up it was sickening sickening I went to work that day I was having a real good day you know how did you kind of forget you kind of forget I walk back out looked at the dent and just about threw up every time it didn't matter what kind of day I was having every time I looked at the dent by the way that I had made it made me sick and that's how it can be in our lives if we've got something in our past we can be having the best day in the world and all of a sudden we see him or we see her or we hear that song that reminds us of that season and all of a sudden we are flooded with guilt pain and shame because of what we did and if that's you here today I did it I understand but the beautiful thing about the gospel is this that in Christ and only in Christ ah you we are completely forgiven you know why we feel so condemned two reasons two reasons number one we know who we really are like we not only know the sins that other people know we know this is that we committed then nobody else knows we know the things we thought about and every person in this room wonders this at the core of their being if people knew who I really was would they really love me that's heavy isn't it the other reason we feel so condemned and I'm not tracking on and I'm all about it is most of us are on social media and on social media we see everybody's highlight reel oh my gosh they have perfect pets they have perfect children they eat perfect food but we don't know that especially the ladies took 72 selfies before they found the one that they were going to put on Instagram hello don't get mad at me because I'm preaching the gospel right now oh oh and by the way if there's a group photo when you look at the group photo who's the first person you look at you and if you look good the picture looks good and if you don't look good take the picture down [Applause] so we felt condemned because of what we know about ourselves we feel condemned because we look at other people but something else that Paul said in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 is so now there is there is no condemnation no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus there's no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus so guess what he knows about the abortion he knows about the affair he knows about the adultery he knows about the thing that nobody else knows about and you and I are completely forgiven in any way that's something church that we can celebrate all of us have been all of us have been but as a Christian my life is not found in the identity of my debts but in the death of Jesus on the cross and the death of Jesus on the cross are bigger than the debts is I've caused in my life and in the life of others I love um there's a story and you don't have to turn there but John chapter 8 John chapter 8 is the story about a woman who was caught in the act of adultery how many of you are familiar with that story how many of you know what I'm talking about if not you can read it but not during my message another time um John chapter 8 there was a woman and the Bible says don't with this that he was caught in the act of adultery imagine how scandalous that was like somebody didn't see a tweet about her somebody didn't see an Instagram story like she was caught in the act of adultery and then brought to Jesus who was teaching in the temple and they were trying to trap him and they're a bunch of Pharisees around holding rocks getting ready to stone this woman and hey there's something I've learned about Christians who are self-righteous they all carry rocks hmm yeah so you're like and so so Jordan I want you to come up here he's going to be the woman caught in adultery um and and so so I want to I want to show you a picture of what Jesus does for us when we come in front of him call in our sin so they bring the woman called let me step over this way just little bit there we go we're great so the brand of woman call an adultery before Jesus and they're saying this woman was called adultery what do we do what do we do what do we do and the Bible says that Jesus bent down it's the first thing it says about Jesus that he bent down and that's an incredible picture don't miss this the Bible says God became man that Jesus humbled himself so instead of taking a posture over this woman he demonstrated how he humbled himself in front of this woman oh it gets better it gets better and the Bible says he took his finger I've always wondered which finger he used and he put it on the ground now um Mel Gibson made that movie The Passion of the Christ it was great because a lot of Christians didn't go to r-rated movies until the one that came out about Jesus was rated R and then we all went to rated R movies again um but in that movie he does his finger like this and it's dust but archaeologists have shown us that the ground where Jesus was he was in the temple in the temple Herod would have had that entire place covered in marble so the ground wasn't dusty the ground was stone don't miss this finger to stone so Jesus took a posture of humility and put his finger to the stone finger to the stone finger to the stone where else in the Bible did the finger of God touch a stone ten commandments what is one of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not commit adultery so the one who wrote thou shalt not commit adultery of initially stood to the woman and said woman where are your accusers and she said they've gone then he said neither do I accuse you go now and leave your life of sin demonstrating that in the in Christ all of us are completely completely completely forgiven thanks man forgiveness is not achieved it's received and I got to tell you sometimes I don't feel forgiven sometimes I don't feel forgiven but the facts in God's Word are greater than the feelings in my life so I've discovered then what I don't feel forgiven I've just got to celebrate that I am forgiven I just got to start celebrating the Cross I've just got to start celebrating the scriptures I just got to start celebrating that the tomb is empty I've got to start celebrating that there's the God who knew every stupid foolish simple thing that I would ever do and he still saved me and arranged for the payment for that sin to be made the good news is this the end Christ and all the in Christ you ah we are completely forgiven number two in Christ I am valuable I am valuable years ago years ago years ago I worked at a place called Ryan's you'll remember Ryan's drape and um I worked my way up the cashier when I started in the dish room so when you worked your way up the cashier that was a big deal and I remember I take people's blood and make a change and do all the stuff and one day this guy never will forget this guy comes in and he's got a hood pulled over his head and it was like May and I was like this is weird so in a hood and me and this was like 1990 where nobody wore hoodies right um and then he had on gloves and I literally had this all huh that'd be funny if he tried to rob me and it was funny right up until I opened the cash register and he reached inside his jacket and he pulled out the most massive knife I've ever seen in my life it was like my name is Eagle Montoya anyways telling you I don't have time and he said give me the money and I was like I hit the little button on the cash registers like a man is yours you can have it all you'll mistake you only eat you want to roll I'll get you a biscuit like rides whatever you need man and every once in a while I need a redneck [Music] who's gonna ride it in your bottom then with my money stupid I want to carrot it to the car for him see he wasn't after my money he was have your Ryan's money and I'm in Ryan had the money but had he said and you give me your wallet now that's where we're to grow on the line and the reason is very simple it's not because I had credit cards in my wallet because at the time I didn't have any credit cards it's not because I had a lot of money in my wallet because at the time I didn't have a lot of money the reason he could have had my wallet it's because my driver's license is in my wallet and if he would have taken my driver's license ah what I had to go to the DMV and I would rather be sad at 17 times then go to the DMV now I know there's probably somebody here going I work at the DMV well for us to be here put a smile on your face and act like you're glad to see somebody my gosh my wallet because it has my license is valuable and because something is valuable if something truly is valuable you're willing to lay down your life right I all talked to the Mamas for a second so Mama's in the room and Mama's there all nice and sweet now thank you can you mess with one of their kids I have seen moms transform into alien do you remember the movie Terminator you know why because you messed with something that was valuable and there are people in this room there are people in this room that you don't think you're valuable because of what you've done or because what's been done to you there are people in this room that you think you're a mistake your parents told you that your parents told you you know we didn't we didn't plan on you you're a mistake there are people in this room listen even our culture is teaching you that you are an accident now I'm not here to start a fight but the whole evolution argument tells you that you just got here and we don't know how there was one cell and it turned into two cells two cells turned into four cells four cells turned into a tadpole and the tadpole turned into a frog and Frog hopped up on the land and turned into a bunny rabbit and the bunny rabbit hopped around eventually and turned into a cat and then the cat turned into a dog and the dog turned into a monkey and the monkey climbed the tree and he went to sleep and he came back down he went to target and he bought a razor and he shaved he became a man it's kind of like from goo to you by way of the zoo and there is no reason for you to be on this planet but I have a Bible that tells me I was fearfully and water please made by the head of God and God doesn't make garbage [Applause] you you were custom-designed by the hand of God and I think we could all agree on this that the value of something is determined by the price that someone is willing to pay would you agree like I see paintings that sell for like two million dollars and I my eyes I don't get it I want to pay that but somebody did in football um deshaun Watson the former quarterback for the Clemson Tigers just signed a deal with the Houston Texans I wrote this down for years thirteen point eight million dollars with a nine million dollar signing bonus do they think he's valuable yeah because they invested in him now every time you talk about that there's some idiot that goes all that money won't make you happy I'd love to give it a shot have you ever notice broke people are the only people to say that see the Bible says the second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person the old life is gone a new life has begun and the way that that happened is Jesus gave his life for us on the cross and if the value of something is determined by the price that someone is willing to pay and Jesus gave his life for us on the cross that means that you are we are intrinsically value valuable to the Son of God even in a world that tells us that we're not in Christ I am valuable because the value of my life is not determined by the mess I've made but by the price that Jesus paid number three in Christ I am unconditionally loved in Christ I am unconditionally loved and I got to be honest I don't unconditionally love people and don't judge me because you don't either yesterday on my drive up to Charlotte I experienced the person in the left lane you do know why it's the left lane what are you supposed to do in the left lane pass you're supposed to break the speed limit in the left lane it says in second hesitations chapter 4 verse 8 don't loot that up on you verses it's not there some of you're like really I I have a problem with that I have a problem I have a problem with the close talkers have you ever met a close talker like they're like right here am i are you going to slip me the tongue right now like what are we doing right you're kind of backing up the entire time right the problem and slip the tongue I can't believe I didn't say that last night we will put this one on line I have a problem loving certain people and you do too but let's go back to the parents for just second knows a lot don't have a problem loving my daughter Karis and it's not because she's earned it come on how many of your parents moms the dads raise your hand okay moms always raised their hand and dad's like I don't know you know Mama's baby daddies maybe but but if you come : come on if you're paying raising I get him up getting up okay yeah now what that's the reason you love your children because they're yours they did not deserve your love they are robbed on this planet with an attitude screaming and none of them in the middle of night said Oh mommy I am concerned for your well-being in your sleep I will delay my gratification of eating just a little while run in and out and they start toddling and when they start falling why is it that they can find every deadly instrument in the house I don't understand that and then they become teenagers so it's not like they earned our love you know the reason you love your children because they're your children you don't love them because of their performance you love them because of their position as your job am i right and you love them even when they're messy I want to talk to the person here today that your past is messy your present is messy and you have a hard time believing that God could actually love you I get it I get it but in it funny what the Lord will teach you about his love through your own children huh I went to get cares out of a rim one morning she's about to and I was gonna take her on a little date we always do a little date she always wants to go to Waffle House I've asked her can we go somewhere else it doesn't take ten years off your father's life every time we walk in no sir daddy okay that's good it's good so I walked into the room and this is a true story I'll open the door and there was a smell that greeted me it just about knocked me down and I was like what is that smell and I walked around the corner and she's sitting on her bed and she had a stomach virus the night before okay now I'm not going to go into intrinsic detail about this because we have sympathetic vomiter x' in the room and if you know like if you blaze we all blaze and so we're not we're not going to do that all right because I don't want people just like that would be a remarkable experience but I'm not trying to create that here at elevation Church on any campus but let's just say she'd gotten real sick real sick like sick on the wall sick on the carpet sick on the bedspread sick all over her pajamas and I walked around the corner and I stood there and I looked at her mess and I was a little grossed out until she turned around and looked at me and made eye contact with me and held her arms out and said daddy now let me tell you what I did not do I didn't say daddy girl you better recognize who you're talking to right now I'll tell you what why don't you clean yourself up why don't you clean up that wall why don't you clean up that bedspread why don't you clean up that carpet why don't you clean yourself up and then when you get clean and everything else gets cleaned I will let you come into my presence no you know what I did is her father I picked her up in her mess I am briefer in her mess I cleaned up her mess because as her daddy I'm bigger than the mess that she made and we have a God in heaven who's bigger than the mess that we've made in our life the bright be paid is bigger than the mess we've made and in Christ we are unconditionally loved think about the people in the Bible that God loved that didn't deserve it we call them Bible heroes but they're not that heroic because they all had problems just like we've got problems we tell how did Noah get to be a Bible hero how did that happen something well he's a man of faith you know God told him bill Mork and he built an ark and he built the ark and he got his family on there you go all the animals on there and he saved the world yeah yeah yeah yeah except for except for except for Genesis not the Bears Noah planted a vineyard right one got drunk and naked passed out and woke up and cussed out his grandchild like if you grew up in church I don't think we could flannelgraph that right here's no one here's drunk he's thinking pass out he's speaking curse is I'm like like we can't really figure it but he gets to be a hero in the Bible Abraham took matters into his own hands several times and didn't trust God yeah Abraham gets to be a hero in the Bible David was a man who committed murder and adultery yeah he gets called a man after God's own heart Thomas actually doubted the resurrection and he gets to be a hero in the Bible Peter did not Christ three times and fifty days later he got to preach on the day of Pentecost I'm not saying that the Bible gives us an excuse for sin because some people get nervous when you start talking about grace because they don't realize they need it too [Music] and they say pee don't tell about grace don't tell about grace don't tell about grace because if you teach grace they'll leave this place and go live however they want but that's not true because when we understand grace in its purest form we will lead leave from here and do whatever he wants because his plans are greater than our plans in Christ in Christ I am unconditionally loved and so are you and so are you I don't care what you've done I don't care what's been done to you in Christ you are unconditionally loved you are completely valuable and you are completely forgiven and if you're not in Christ you can have that relationship starting today because here's the thing I know about the scriptures every person I read about in this book needed the forgiveness of God and if God did it then he can do it again and if he did it back then he can do it right here and I don't know about you but I'm thankful that Jesus Christ forgave my sins power wash my soul made me into a brand new person finds me valuable places value only created me for a greater purpose than myself unconditionally loves me well by the heart even to love myself enemy cinnamon he can do it again if he did it means he can do it again here

Channel: Elevation Church

Views: 189,570

Rating: 4.8915939 out of 5

Keywords: Elevation Church, Perry Noble, There Is A Cloud, Forgiveness, Past, Present, Future, Salvation, Forgive, How to forgive, Reconciliation, New life, New day, Recovery

Id: treNkfcbaSU

Length: 37min 2sec (2222 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2017