- If you'll take out your message notes, welcome to Part Four in this
10 week series through Psalm 23 that we're calling
Living in God's Goodness, Now you know, it would be
really be a waste of us to study Psalm 23 for 10
weeks and not memorize it. (audience laughing)
Oh. It's only six verses and
you've heard it all your life, so you need to get this down. Here at Lake Forest Campus
and at all the other campuses, we're gonna put it on the wall for the next eight or 10 weeks, whatever. We're gonna give you a
little card that has it, you can keep it in your pocket. We're actually working on a
song that we'll sing it through. But I want you to take your outline and let's just read the first three verses aloud together, okay? "The Lord is my shepherd,"
let's start over. "The Lord is my shepherd;
I have everything I need." Now, stop there. The original King James Version
says, "I shall not want." But literally, it means in the Hebrew, which it was originally written
in, I don't lack anything. I have all I need and almost
every modern translation translates it the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need, okay? So, let's say that one again. "The Lord is my shepherd; I
have everything that I need." Okay, now you already know one verse, so turn to the person next to you and say, "You're brilliant." Okay, you're brilliant,
you've got one verse down. (audience laughing) These are not long verses anyway. Now, let's read Verse Two. "He makes me lie down in green pastures. "He leads me beside still waters." Alright and then the next line is the beginning of Verse
Three, so let's read that. "He restores my soul." Now, what you just read talks
about what the Good Shepherd, your Heavenly Father,
and Jesus, calls himself the Good Shepherd, wants
to do in your life. And he says, "I want to give you rest "and I want to give you refreshment "and I want to give you restoration." He says, "First, I want to give you rest." He makes me lie down and if
you missed last week's message on rest and relaxation, you desperately need to listen to that. In fact, all of the
three previous messages will help you get caught
up on the good things, 10 things God wants to do in your life, 'cause God is a good God. And he says, "First, I
want to give you rest." Then he says, "I want to
give you refreshment." "He leads me beside still waters." Quiet waters, you know, that's why people like to go to parks, sit by a lake, it has a
tranquilizing effect in your life. And then he says, "He restores my soul." So rest, refreshment, and restoration. This weekend, we're
gonna look at the third. There's so much that
could be said on this. I'm gonna come back later
and do an entire series on personal renewal and restoration. But let's get into it right
here at the beginning. And he says, "He restores my soul." What does that mean? First, what's your soul? What is your soul? Well, the Bible says
that you have a spirit, you have a soul, and you have a body. Just like the tabernacle and the temple were a three part dwelling place of God, the inner court, the outer
court, and the holy of holies, God dwells in you in three parts: in your spirit, in your
soul, and in your body. What's the difference between
your spirit and your soul? Well, the Bible even says itself that only the Bible can
discern the difference, that it is the Word of God that, sharper than a two-edged sword dividing even asunder a soul and spirit. And so, I don't wanna get into that but I do wanna tell you what your soul is. Your soul is your mind, it is your will, and it is your emotion. So, why don't you write this
down if you're taking notes. My soul is the part of me that
thinks, chooses, and feels. My soul is the part of me that thinks, that chooses, and that feels. It's your mind, it's your
will, and your emotion. Now, if you don't have a soul,
you don't have a whole lot. But these three parts of who
you are, the way you think, the way you feel, and the
choices that you make, your mind, will, and your emotions, really determine who you are. And it's very easy to get these damaged. Can your mind be damaged? Of course it can, yeah,
by what you put in it, by experiences, by trauma,
chemistry, all kinds of things. Your mind can be damaged, you
don't always think straight and neither do I. And how about your emotions,
can your emotions be damaged? Yes, your emotions can get raw, you can get depleted emotionally,
you can be out of emotion, you can be over-emotional,
and yes, our minds are broken, our emotions are broken, and actually, can your will be broken? Yes, can it be damaged, yes. Have you ever had a chance
to look at your life and you think, "I really
know the right thing to do "and I wanna do the right thing,
but I never do choose it." Because our choosers are broken. Our choosers are broken,
we're all flawed in many ways. And that's why there are addictions and that's why you do things
that you don't wanna do and you don't do things that you wanna do and that's part of your will
power doesn't always work. How many agree will power
doesn't always work? Yeah, right, and so when
we talk about our soul, the way we think, the way we
feel, and the way we choose, the decisions that we make, God says, "I wanna
restore that in your life. "I wanna restore you to wholeness. "I wanna restore your mind, "and will, and emotions to health." That's one of the things the Good Shepherd does for the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd,
I have everything I need. Well sometimes, I need to think straighter and sometimes, I need to feel correctly, 'cause my emotions aren't always right. Sometimes, they lie and
sometimes, I need my will fixed because I don't have enough will power to do what I need to do. Now, what is it that damages your soul? What I want us to do this weekend
is ask a couple questions. What damages a soul? 'Cause you can't get it restored unless you know what's
causing the problem. What damages my soul, we'll look at that and then we're gonna look at
what Jesus does to restore it. How does Jesus restore right thinking, right feeling, and right deciding? And then finally, we'll
look at just very briefly how do I make the right decisions to let my soul be restored? In other words, what's my response to what God wants to do in my life? Okay now, let's begin with what is it that damages your soul? Why don't you always think right? Why don't you always feel right? And why don't you always choose right? There are many things that
could damage your soul but I wanna focus on
the three most common. Three most common, you
might right these down. Number one, the first thing
that damages the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you decide is unaddressed grudges,
unaddressed grudges. When you get resentful,
when you get bitter, when you start thinking
about retaliation or revenge in somebody who's hurt
you, it damages your soul. Now, there are a lot of verses about this but let me first talk
about the background. The fact is, in life,
you're gonna be hurt. Why, this is not heaven, this is Earth. And we're all broken
people, we're all imperfect. Sometimes, we hurt each
other intentionally. Sometimes, we hurt each
other unintentionally but the truth is, you're
gonna be hurt in life. And sometimes people hurt you
and sometimes you hurt them. And so when that happens, we
start to build up grudges. Now, let me just start at the bedrock. Life is not fair, God never
said that life would be fair. This is not heaven, where
everything is done perfectly, God's will is always done instantly, perfectly, and completely. On Earth, a lot of times we
choose not to do God's will. That's called sin. And because life isn't
fair, the Bible tells us that innocent people suffer. This is not something
new, everybody can see it, that good guys don't always win. Bad guys often are successful, that there is injustice in the world, there's racism in the world,
there's prejudice in the world, there is unfairness in the world. And every one of us, in different ways, has experienced unfairness
or prejudicial treatment against you in some way and you shouldn't be surprised by that because the world is broken,
everything is broken. What I'm interested in is not so much the fact that you're
gonna be hurt in life. I'm sorry for it but what
I'm more interested in is how you respond to it. Because your response to
how you get hurt in life is far more important
than the hurt you have. Because they can either make you bitter or they can make you better. And when God wants to restore your soul, He wants to take all the
bitter things in your life and turn them into better
things in your life. We'll come to that in just a minute. Now when you have grudges,
when people hurt you, you can either let it go or
you can start dwelling on it, and stewing and spewing and
worrying about all things and you start planning how to retaliate, how to resent them, how
to get even with 'em. When somebody hurts you, that puts them beneath you,
morally, when they hurt you. But when you try to get even, it just puts you on the same level. You're no better than they are. When you let it go, when you forgive them, it actually puts you
in a superior position. You don't wanna ever get even with people because that means you're
the same as they are. If you get even with them,
you're no better than they are. So what do you do when you're hurt? Resent, retaliate, seek revenge, no. No, you don't, let me show you why. Couple verses, Job Five
Verse Two says this, "To worry yourself to
death with resentment "would be a foolish,
senseless thing to do." And in Job 18 Verse Four, it says this, "You are only hurting
yourself with your anger." You're only hurting yourself. We've talked about this many times, that when you hold on to a
grudge, it's not hurting them, it's only hurting you, they're
out there having a good time, they're watching movies, they're
going to nice restaurants, they're going to ballgames,
having a whole lot of fun. They're totally oblivious. Who gets hurt when you're resentful? You do, it's like drinking
poison and hoping it kills them. It's like taking fire into
your stomach, your chest, and hoping they get burned. Resentment is worthless, he says, "To worry yourself to
death with resentment "would be a foolish thing to do." Now, the Bible does say that one day, God's gonna even the score. The Bible says that
there is a judgment day and that God is not just a
loving God, He's a just God. If God was not a just
God, people like Hitler could get away with everything they did. I'm glad that God is a just God. Now, you can get around that judgment by accepting the grace of God and accepting the
salvation that Jesus Christ paid for your sins but there
is gonna be a judgment day for everybody and God is gonna be just in measuring out what people deserve based on their sinfulness. God says, "I don't want you "to have to go through the judgment." God doesn't like to judge,
He likes to show mercy. All through scripture, God is very patient and God is very reluctant to judge and he'll wait and wait and wait and wait before he judges a nation or
a person, things like that. He'd rather be merciful. But there is a judgment coming one day and God is gonna even the odds and people who were
mistreated and misjudged and treated unfairly, there
will be an equaling out, a time of justice, but
that's not your job. If you try to show justice yourself and you take matters into
your hands and get revenge, God says, "Fine, that's all
we're gonna do on that." So, what do you do in the meantime? You let it go. You say, "But Rick, you don't know "how much they've hurt me." You let it go, why? Not because they deserve it, they don't. You don't deserve to be forgiven. You don't deserve to be
forgiven at all, either, but God has forgiven you. You forgive people not
because they deserve it, you forgive people because you don't wanna carry
the pain around anymore. You don't wanna be stuck
with unaddressed grudges 'cause it's not gonna hurt
them, it's only gonna hurt you. You know, Martin Luther King once said, "Bitterness is blindness,
bitterness is blindness." And I like that because when I get bitter against somebody over here, I get blind to a whole
lot of other things. I get blind to how much God
has done good in my life, I get blind to the truth, I get blind to all the
needs of people around me. I'll just say this, you're
never gonna stop hurting, your soul will not be restored
until you learn to forgive and really let it go,
you've gotta drop it. We'll come back to that in a minute. The second thing that destroys
your soul from the inside, I said first, unaddressed grudges, the second is unconfessed guilt. Grudges and guilt are
two of the biggest things that warp your soul and grudges have to do with what people have
done to you and guilt is what you've done to other
people and we have both. We've hurt others and
other people have hurt us. And so, unconfessed guilt,
nothing damages your life more, your soul more, nothing will
rob your happiness quicker than to go around
carrying a load of guilt. A lot of people have a
misconception of God. They think that God wants us
to walk around feeling guilty. He does not, God hates guilt. In fact, God loves to forgive guilt. God doesn't want you to
be guilty all the time. In fact, he didn't make
your body to handle guilt. You should only handle guilt
for about five seconds, that's long enough to
realize that was wrong and I confess it to
God and then let it go. You don't carry all your sins around in your life unconfessed. If you do that, it's like
carrying a garbage bag of junk with you into each new year. Many years ago, I remember
there was a couple in our church who, they were single,
so they found each other in our church and they got married and that's when the
church was much smaller and I actually was able
to do their wedding. About 10 years later, they came back and they said, "Can we
take you out to dinner?" And we had dinner with them and I said, "So, tell me what's happened
in the last 10 years." And I remember the
woman told me, she said, "You know, Rick, I never realized "that when I was walking down that aisle "in that beautiful white dress, "that I was carrying a
sack of garbage with me "into this marriage." We all do that, now listen closely. Marriage does not create
problems, it reveals them. It reveals them and the
things that need correcting in your life, show up real quick when someone else is living with you. And what needs correcting in their life shows up real quick
when they live with you. Marriage doesn't create
problems, it reveals things that need to be worked on. And the purpose of marriage
is not just to make you happy, it's to make you holy
and the number one tool if you're married, the number one tool that God uses in your life is your spouse. You say, "Oh, brother. "My spouse isn't even a
believer," doesn't matter. God will still use them in your life. And so we start having
guilt over all of the things that we've done to other people. Look at this verse, Psalm
38, David talks about guilt. He says, "My guilt has overwhelmed me "like a burden too heavy to bear." God doesn't want you to carry that around. "I'm bowed down and I'm brought low "and all day long, I go about mourning." Now, there's a couple problems with guilt. One of them is every one of us
has a good reason to have it. It's legit because we don't
always do what's right. We always hurt other people,
we do selfish things. I don't know if it bothers
you but it bothers me. I often say the most unkind things to the people I love the most, I'm just being honest with you. Does that ever happen to any of you or are you all so holy? (audience laughing) Oh no, I never say anything
mean to my kids or my spouse. Yeah, right. Why is that? Because at root, we're selfish. I want what I want when I want it and your spouse wants what
they want when they want it and when two very self-centered
people get together, it's gonna cause problems
and that creates guilt. And you cannot have two imperfect people and then all of a sudden, they're going in the same direction and they're gonna create
a perfect relationship. There are no perfect relationships. That's why we need forgiveness. Because unconfessed guilt
causes a lot of problems. Now, look at this verse,
Proverbs 20 Verse 27 tells us the other reason why
we have a problem with guilt. It's 'cause we run from
our own consciences. Proverbs 20 Verse 27,
"The Lord gave us a mind "and a conscience and we
can't hide from ourselves." You see, you can hide all
kinds of stuff from me and I'll never know about it. You might even hide a whole
bunch of things from a friend or your boss or your spouse or your kids but you're not hiding anything from God and not only that, you're not
hiding anything from yourself. And when you try to hide it, it just starts eating you on the inside because the Lord gave us
a mind and a conscience, we can't hide from ourselves. And if you think, "Well, I just feel bad, "I'm gonna go take a vacation." But you take yourself on vacation and so, you take that same
stress that's in your mind. The grudges you have toward other people and the guilt that you have about stuff that you've done wrong. Now, what do you do with guilt? What do you do with guilt? Well, the answer is the
same thing as grudges and it's forgiveness. In grudges, you've gotta forgive them but in guilt, you've gotta
ask God for forgiveness and you've gotta forgive yourself. Now normally, we do
everything except that. Let me show you all the
ways that don't work and why our soul, the way we think, the way we feel, the way
we choose is often broken. 'Cause when you feel guilty,
you don't make smart decisions and neither do I. Now sometimes, we just
try to deny our guilt. We just pretend like it
doesn't exist, you know? Like those tshirts we have
in Celebrate Recovery, denial is not a river in Egypt. (audience laughing) Denial is the thing that
keeps you stuck in your guilt and what we do in denial is try to pretend that it doesn't exist and we say, "Oh, you know,
I'm just gonna bury my past." You know what the problem
is with burying your past? It resurrects itself at
the most inopportune times and it comes back and it resurrects and it comes back to haunt
you like the living dead. And something that happened 20 years ago, all of a sudden, it's
back in your face again. So, denial doesn't work. Sometimes, we just try to minimize it and when we minimize our
guilt, it's kinda like, "Well, it's no big deal, I
mean, everybody else does it. "You know, it wasn't that bad, "It's just a little
teeny-tiny, teeny-tiny sin." Well if it's so tiny, why
do you still remember it? It's not, it's not tiny. If you remember it, it's a big deal and if it keeps coming back
in your mind, it's a big deal and you're not gonna get rid of it by denying it or by minimizing it. Now, a third way we try to deal with guilt that doesn't work is we rationalize it. Now I've said before, to rationalize means to
tell yourself rational lies. You try to convince yourself in your head what your heart knows is wrong. That's to rationalize. We live in a society where
everybody rationalizes everything and that if I shout
enough or affirm it enough or I march for it enough,
then I'll think it's okay but inside, your heart's
going, "It's not okay." Rationalizing doesn't work. Trying to convince your heart
with your mind doesn't work. Your heart's gonna win out every time because there's a built-in
conscience in our lives that God put there and so we say, "I'm gonna rationalize it away," but it doesn't make it right
and your heart still knows. And you go around saying, "Why
didn't everybody accept me? "Why didn't everybody
believe in me, why didn't?" That's a rationalization. You need to listen to your conscience. Another way we try to deal
with guilt is compromise and that's the whole idea
of, "Well, I'm feeling guilty "and here's the standard,
so what I think I'll do, "is I'll just lower my standard "and then I won't feel guilty anymore." And then say, "I don't
believe that's a sin anymore." How's that working for you? Again, it's trying to convince your heart what your conscience knows
is wrong and compromising, you know, maybe if I just do it enough, then it won't be a sin anymore. Right, get back to me on that one. Here's another one we try to do. When we feel guilty, we blame other people because if we can put the blame on them, it gets the focus off us. Now, couples do this all the time. Boyfriend, girlfriend,
husbands, wife, parents, kids, and it goes like this,
there's a scale in your mind and on one side is blame and
on the other side is guilt and the only way you can
feel good about yourself is if it's kinda balanced. So when you do something wrong, like this, you have to have somebody else
to blame 'cause you did that, yeah, but you do that. You did that, yeah, but you did that. But you did that, yeah, but you remember that
really big thing you did? There are people who, one of a spouse who've really gone over
the edge in a wrong way, but they've come back and
they've said, "I'm sorry, "I apologize, I wanna rebuild trust, "I wanna make this marriage work." But this person won't let 'em
off the hook, the other one. And no matter how many good
things this person does, yeah, but you did that. And if you're doing that with a spouse, you're killing your marriage because you've become unpleasable. You're acting like you're God, you're not. Anybody could hold you accountable for stuff you've done, too. And so, blaming doesn't work, we've said blame is spelt B-lame and it just makes you
lame when you do that. Every time you blame, you are being lame. See, you blame others, you've
got this scale in your mind, which is, by the way, why
people don't want to forgive. Because if I don't forgive you, then I can keep blaming you for that. You see, if I'm trying to
balance between guilt and blame in my life and all of the
sudden, you ask for forgiveness and that sets me off balance and I say, "Sure, I forgive you,"
now I don't have anything to blame anymore on
this side, what happens? The scale tips towards me and I feel bad. So, I don't wanna forgive you
because then it's all on me. There's nothing to even the scales and you keep yourself
in tension all the time. Your soul needs to be restored. It's being chipped away
at, it's being eaten at, it's being like little
bacteria, like a virus is, just working on your
heart making it smaller and smaller and smaller. One other way that doesn't work. We've talked about rationalizing,
compromising, minimizing, blaming, one is, well,
I'll just beat myself up. And for the rest of your life, you're trying to atone for your own sins. You're trying to make up for it and a lot of people actually
sabotage their own success and don't realize they're doing it because they feel guilty
about something in the past and they feel unworthy and
because they feel unworthy, they go, "Well, this is too good, "I shouldn't be getting
this much blessing. "I know what I've done,
I know all the things. "I'm not worthy of this." And as a result, you start
setting yourself up for failure. You beat yourself up
because internally, you go, "Well, I've done something wrong, "somebody's gotta pay for it." And subconsciously, we try
to pay for our mistakes and our sins by getting sick or failing and it can cause all kinds of stuff. Guilt can make you depressed,
it can make you disparage, it can set you up for failure,
I don't deserve to succeed. None of those things work. There's only one thing that works to get rid of unconfessed
guilt, confess it. Just admit it, the word
confession in the Bible in Greek is the word homo-lageo. Homo, we know what that
means, it means same. Homogenized milk, homo-sexual,
homo just means same. Lageo is the word to speak. Confession simply means to agree with God. "You're right, God, that was wrong. "I don't deny it, I don't minimize it, "I don't rationalize it,
I don't compromise it, "I don't blame other people,
I don't belittle myself, "I don't beat myself up, I just admit it." We'll come back to that. Number three, the third
thing that destroys your soul is not unaddressed grudges
or unconfessed guilt, it's unprocessed grief. Unprocessed grief, now, you're
gonna have grief in life because you're gonna have losses. There is no growth in life without change. There is no change in life without loss because you give up some
old to get some new. There's no loss without pain and there's no pain without grief. So, you've gotta learn how to grieve good. Now, grief is not a bad thing. Guilt's a bad thing,
grudges are a bad thing, but grief is actually a good thing. It's the way we get through
the transitions of life. What is a bad thing is unprocessed grief. You haven't learned how to deal with it, how to go through the stages of grief. In Psalm 31 Verse Nine, David says, "Lord, have mercy, because I'm in misery." He's grieving, he's grieving. "I'm in misery, my eyes are
weak from so much crying, "and my whole being is tired from grief." Now, if grudges don't get you, guilt will, and if guilt doesn't get you, grief will, and all of us can have these things that kind of eat away at
our soul, the way we think, the way we feel, and
the decisions we make. Now, the question is how does
Jesus, our Good Shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd,
I have everything I need, how in the world does he
help me with my grudges and my guilt and my grief? Three ways He does it,
here's how He does it. First, when we are hurt by others, Jesus turns my hurts into holiness. I need to explain this. Jesus turns my hurts into holiness. What I'm saying is that
God brings good out of bad. He brings good out of evil. He has a way of turning things around. The stuff that happens to
you, it's not all good. There's a lot of bad
stuff that happens to you but God says, "I can turn it around. "I can transform it, I can
bring good out of evil." Let's look at some verses. It is the goodness of
God that allows this. Now, one of the most
famous verses in the Bible is Romans Eight Verse 28. We keep coming back to this verse, why? Because you keep getting hurt. You have guilt, you have
grief, and you have grudges and so you need to
understand that God says, "Yes, I know that happened "but I can bring good even out of that." Romans 8:28, one of the
greatest promises in the Bible. "We know that in all
things," circle the word in, "that in all things," it
doesn't say all things, it says in all things,
"God works for the good "of those who love Him,"
let me stop right there. This is not a promise for everybody, it's a promise for those who love Him and have been called
according to his purpose. We know that not everything
that happens to you is good. There's a lot of bad things
that are happening to you, decisions that you make that are bad and decisions that other people
make that are bad for you, there's diseases, there's
all kinds of accidents, things like that, nobody's saying God is a Pollyanna optimist
who's saying, you know, "The sun'll come out tomorrow." It doesn't always come out tomorrow. Reality is the sun does not
always come out tomorrow and that's the difference
between optimism and hope. Hope is based on a certainty but optimism is based on, you
know, just wishful thinking, Pollyanna, it'll come out alright. "We know that in all things
God works for the good." It's not all good but
God says, "You know what? "I can take even that." Can God take the bad
things people do to me, do against me and use it for good, yes. Can God even take my own sins and bring good out of them? My own mistakes and
bring good out of them? Yes. Can God take my own
weaknesses and my damaged will and my damaged mind and my damaged heart, my emotions and the way I think, can God work even in that for good? Yes. Now, not anybody else can do that. Anybody can bring good out of good but God specializes in bringing good out of the bad in your life and he turns my hurts into holiness. You know, sitting down this morning and I just start thinking
of all the different ways God uses bad things in your
life for good in your life. And I actually made a list. He turns my hurts into holiness. He turns my wounds, the things
that hurt me, into wisdom. You're a lot smarter after
you've gone through that. He turns my pain into gain. He uses correction to
bring me to perfection. He uses offenses to remove my pretenses. You're a lot more humble
if you get criticized. He uses my bruises for good. They're not good, those
bruises aren't good but he can use my bruise. He uses my bruises for good. And when others want to bash
me, God uses it to bless me. That's the kind of God,
God is, he's a good God. The Lord is my shepherd,
He knows how to bring good even out of bad. Now, Romans 8:28, "All things
work together for good," is a wonderful promise but
it makes no sense at all unless you read Romans 8:29,
the verse right underneath it, which explains why God uses
everything for His purpose and what is His purpose? His purpose is to build your character. He uses the conflicts and the crises to turn you into your character and he wants to make you like Jesus. Look at Verse 29, it's
up here on the screen. Romans 8:29 says this, "God knew His purpose
from the very beginning." So, it's not a big surprise to God. Before you're even created, He knew what He wanted
to do with your life. "He planned in advance that
all of us in God's family," here's the key, "would become
like Jesus, His own Son." God wants a family for eternity and God wants you to be His child and He sent Jesus to show
what a child of God is like. You wanna know what God
wants you to become like? Look at the character
of Christ, now listen. God is far more interested
in your character than He is in your comfort. You know, people act like,
"Well, I don't understand. "If things aren't going good
for me and I'm trusting God." Did God ever promise
that everything would go the way you want it to go? No because if it did, you'd
be a selfish little snot if you got everything you wanted in life. This life is preparation for the next. In heaven, there's no
sorrow, there's no suffering, there's no sickness, there's no sadness. There are no people throwing
arrows and barbs at you. This is the pre-school. This is the character development stage. God wants you to grow up
before you go to heaven. And so when you go through tough times, you should never ask,
"Why has this happened?" I'll tell you why, Romans
8:29, to make you like Jesus. And the question you should ask anytime you go through any difficult time is not, "Why is this happening," or "Why is this happening to me," or "Why is this happening now?" The question you should
be asking is, "What? "What do you want to teach me, God? "What character development
do you want me to grow like?" God is far more interested
in your character, what you're becoming, than
He is in your comfort. Yes, God wants you to be comfortable but He's not give you comfort
at the expense of character. You're gonna be comfortable for trillions of years in heaven. Right now, He wants you
to become like Christ. So, what is Jesus like? Romans 8:28 says he wants
to make me like Christ using all things, Verse 29. Well, the perfect picture of Jesus is called the fruit of the spirit, it's Galatians 5:23 and 24. In Galatians, it says nine qualities. The fruit of the spirit is love,
God wants you to be loving. Joy, God wants you to learn real joy. Peace, God wants you to learn real peace. Patience, God wants you to learn patience. Goodness and gentleness and
faithfulness and self-control. There are nine qualities there and when you look at those nine qualities, you know what they are? Perfect picture of Jesus. Jesus is total love, total joy,
total peace, total patience. So, you can wake up every morning and say, "Well Lord, I don't
know which one of these "you're gonna teach me today." Patience, how does God teach you patience? Waiting, have you ever had
to sit in God's waiting room? You ever been in a hurry and God wasn't? The number one way God
teaches you patience, Department of Motor Vehicles. (audience laughing) And so, God often teaches
you those qualities in the exact opposite situation. You learn love being
around unlovely people. You learn joy in the middle of grief. You learn peace in the middle of chaos. It's easy to be peaceful
if you're out fly-fishing in the mountains with Brad Pitt. (audience laughing) You know, River Runs Through It, you know? You get out there and who
could not be peaceful? It doesn't get any better than this. But if God's gonna teach you real peace, he'll put you in the middle of chaos. Some of you are in it right now. Patience, gentleness, how
does God teach you gentleness? With people who annoy you to death. Don't look at 'em but
you know who they are. (audience laughing) Teaching you how to be gentle. Self-control, there are lots of ways he teaches you self-control. And so God says, "I want to
turn your hurts into holiness." And what's the purpose? Put Romans 8:29 back on the screen. "God knew His purpose
from the very beginning "and he planned in advance
that all of God's family "would become like Jesus." That's the number one goal
God has for your life, not comfort, but character. Be like Jesus' son. "Now, God's Son is the
firstborn of restored humanity." There's that word restoration, restored, he restores my soul. We're all broken. We all have broken
relationships, broken minds, broken emotions, broken
wills, we're all broken and God says, "I wanna restore humanity "to the original position
I created it to be "in the Garden of Eden,
so I'm sending Jesus "to come and die for your sins." And it says that on the screen, "So we see the intended
shape of our lives in Him." Look at Jesus and you'll know what God wants to do in your life. "We see the intended
shape of our lives in Him, "and He will have many
brothers and sisters "in God's eternal family,"
like father like son. Like father, like daughter. He wants you to become
not a God but godly. Now, Genesis 50 Verse 20 explains then why God allows people to hurt you. Knowing what God's goal is,
in 50 Verse 20, he says, "You intended it to harm me
but God intended it for good "to accomplish what is now being done, "the saving of many lives." This is a quote from a guy named Joseph. Joseph had every reason to
have unaddressed grudges because his own family
sold him into slavery. He was one of the youngest
kids in the family and his older brothers didn't like him. They thought he was pompous,
they didn't like him at all, so they took him and threw him in a pit and told the father that
a bear had eaten him. And then he's living
in this pit by himself and some slave traders come
by on their way to Egypt and the brothers pull him
out, sell him into slavery. He's taken down to Egypt and
he's hired out as a slave to a guy named Potiphar
and Potiphar's wife is a seductive woman and
she gets the hots for Joseph and she tries to seduce him. And he says, "I'm not gonna
do that, I have integrity, "I serve the God of the ages,
I serve the Almighty God." And so she's spurned, she's
scorned, what does she do? She screams and claims that
he's taken advantage of her and falsely accused,
he's thrown into prison. The first 40 years of his
entire life, nothing goes right. Some of you might identify with that. He's thrown into a pit,
he's rejected by his family, he's sold into slavery, he's
taken to a foreign country, he's falsely accused, he's put in prison. God had him exactly
where he wanted him to be and the second half of his life
looked a whole lot brighter because out of that, through
a series of circumstances, he's raised up to be the
second most powerful man under Pharaoh in Egypt,
which was the most powerful empire in the world at that time. And he not only saves Egypt from a famine, but he saves all of the
Middle East from a famine. And when he finally comes
face to face with his brothers many years later and they
come to buy grain from Europe, from Egypt, he looks at 'em, he says, "You meant it for bad, let's
don't beat around the bush, "you didn't like me, you meant it for bad "but God meant it for good
and God's bigger than you "and God can bring good things
out of even bad things." When you learn that, you will
begin to rebuild your soul, the broken thoughts, the broken emotions, and the broken choosing of
decision making in your will. So God says, "I will turn
your hurts into holiness "if you will trust me." Number two, what about when we do wrong? What about when we sin? What about when we have
that unconfessed guilt? How does God, the Good
Shepherd, deal with that? Well, God's a good God
and here's the answer. When we do wrong, Jesus
takes my sin on himself. He says, "I'm gonna take your guilt. "Please, just hand it over
to me and I'm gonna go die "on the cross and pay for all of your sins "so you don't have to pay for your sins." This is the best news in the whole world. We call it the gospel, which is an old English word for good news and Jesus takes all my
guilt on himself, He says, "I'm gonna give you all my goodness," it's also called rightousness, "I'm gonna give you all my goodness "so you can get into heaven "and I'm gonna take all of your guilt "and I'm gonna pay for it on the cross." Nearly 700 years before
Jesus died on the cross, so that would be about 2,700 years ago, a guy named Isaiah was a
prophet and God told him in very specific terms
that he was gonna send a savior to the world, a messiah, to save all our sins and to pay for them. 700 years, He gave him this prophecy. It's in many chapters
of Isaiah but Isaiah 53 is the clearest and when
you read these details, you've gotta read that
this guy was saying this 700 years before it happened. Only God could have told him this. In Isaiah 53 Verses Five
and Six, it says this about Jesus, 700 years
before Jesus arrived, "He was wounded and crushed for our sins." This is on the cross. "He was beaten and He took our punishment "so that we might have peace. "And through His wounds,
our wounds are healed! "All of us have strayed away like sheep." The sheep, I told you last
week, are not real smart. We've all done our own
thing, "We've left God's path "to follow our own, yet
the Lord laid on Him "the guilt and sins of us all." Now, what I just read to
you is the most basic, fundamental truth of the Bible. If this wasn't true, we
could all go home right now because we wouldn't have anything at all if Jesus Christ hadn't
come to pay for your sins. But the most basic truth is that He did, that everything you're
gonna do wrong in life, including the stuff you're
gonna do tonight and tomorrow and next week and 10 years from today, it's already been paid for. It's already been paid for,
you just have to accept God's grace and goodness,
that is the goodness of God. That he's already paid for
everything I'm gonna do, not just the past but in the
future, it's already paid for. I remember one time, there
was a guy out on the patio at the Lake Forest Campus and
he came up to me frantically after the service, then he said, "I need to know, what do I
need to do to get to heaven?" I said, "Well, you're too late." Just thought I'd shock him. (audience laughing) "You're too late." He goes, "No, no, no, really, "what do I need to do in
order to get to heaven?" I said, "Sorry, you're too late." "So what do you mean, there's
gotta be something I can do." I said, "There's nothing,
it's already been done "by Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago." This is what makes Christianity different from religions that are out there. Every religion has a list of
things to do to get to heaven and each religion says this is
our list and this is our list and that's our list and another
religion, that's our list, and if you'll do these things, it's all based on your performance, you might make it into heaven. Can't be sure but you might. And so all the other religions can be summed up in the word do. Christianity is summed up in the word done and when Jesus was on
the cross, He cried out, "It is finished." Now notice, He didn't say, "I'm finished," 'cause He wasn't. He came back to life three days later and He wasn't finished
and He's alive today. He lives in my heart,
I've been his friend now for over 50 years and
many of you have, too. But when He says it is
finished, He's saying, "You don't need to add anything, "it's not I die on the cross "plus you do these 10 other things "then you get to go to heaven." There's only one thing you need
to get into heaven, humility to realize you're never
getting there by what you do. The only way is to say, "I am
a sinner and I need a savior." That's what you say, that's humility. That's the sin that will
keep you out of heaven, "I don't need anybody to get to heaven. "I'm good enough to get there on my own." Really? It's a perfect place. I stopped being perfect about
30 seconds into this planet. And so, nobody bats a thousand. I've never met anybody that
actually claimed to be perfect. We all know we're imperfect. But we say to God, "God,
we're gonna trust you." And when you come to Christ and you say, "You're gonna take my sins on you, yeah? "What are you giving me in return?" "My goodness." You don't have to beg, "Please God, "please, please, save me." You don't have to bargain, "If you'll do this,
God, then I'll do that." You don't have to bribe, "I'll read my Bible every
day if you do this." Beg, bribe, bargain, you
don't do any, you don't beg, you just believe, that's it. That's why it's called the good news. The word gospel is an old English
word that means good news. What's the best news? You can't get to heaven on your good works but it's already been paid for. You just have to humbly
admit that you need a savior, that you're not good enough
to go to a perfect place. He said, "But Rick, you
don't know what I've done." It doesn't matter, I don't
need to know what you've done 'cause I know what Jesus has done. And what Jesus has done is
bigger than what you have done. The good thing He did on the cross is bigger than the bad
thing you have done, that's why we call it
Good Friday when He died. It's not good for Jesus, it was painful but it's good for you. He said, "Well Rick, I've
asked God to forgive me, "I just don't feel forgiven." It means you don't fully understand it yet because once you understand
how fully forgiven you are, you just wanna shout, you
wanna jump up and down. And if God comes into your life, it's gonna make some changes. You can't have him come into your life and then not change you. So, if your life hasn't changed any, you might have gotten something
but you haven't gotten God. Somebody as big as God
can't come into your life and not change you and the
more you understand grace, the more joyful you'll be. Many of you know that
one of my mentors in life was the father of modern
management, Peter Drucker. And he mentored me the
last 30 years of his life from about 65 to 95 and he
trained all of the who's who of business leaders that are
leading businesses today. And one day, I was up at his house and he was mentoring me
on some leadership things and I said, "Peter, when did
you step across the line? "When did you find Christ? "When did you put your faith in Jesus?" And he said in that
thick, Austrian accent, "Well Rick," he said, "When I finally understood
"the concept of grace, "I knew I was never
gonna get a better deal." When you finally understand
how good God really is, you're not gonna go anywhere else 'cause He's a good, good Father. Now as I said, Isaiah
wrote that part about Jesus suffering on the cross, let
me read you some more of it and listen to the details of this, 700 years before it actually happened. Isaiah 53:7-12, "He was
beaten down and punished," talking about Jesus on the
cross, before the cross, "but He didn't say a
word," that all happened. "He was led out like a
lamb to be slaughtered. "He was condemned to death
without fair judgment "and then, He was put to death "for the transgressions of
everyone else," that's us. "He died like a criminal but
then was buried with the rich, "even though He had done nothing
wrong and had never lied." You know this is true,
Jesus died on the cross as a criminal, that was the
worst capital punishment available, it was a
humiliating death on the cross but when they took him down,
there was a wealthy man named Joseph of Aramathea
who had a brand new tomb he had bought for his family. They often buried people in
the same tomb for decades, like a hole in the wall in a
cave and they covered it up. And Joseph of Aramathea was quite wealthy but he offered his tomb for Jesus. He goes, "You're not gonna
need it for very long." Think about that. Like, what's a few days, you know, "He said he's coming back
to life so why would I worry "borrow it for a couple days "'cause I don't plan to
die between now and then." But 700 years, Isaiah says a rich man is gonna provide him a tomb. And it says, "Yet it was God's
plan to cause Him to suffer," it was God's plan, who put Jesus to death? Not the Romans, not Jewish
leaders, God did, God did. Jesus said, "I lay down my life." He's part of the trinity. "I voluntarily do this for you and me." "It was God's plan to cause him to suffer "and make his life a guilt
offering for our sins, "a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. "But after His soul suffered many things, "He will enjoy life and joy again." That's the resurrection,
he's saying this 700 years before it happened. "But my suffering servant," God says, "will make many people right with God "and He will bear all their sins "and He will willingly give
His life and He was treated "like a criminal but He
took the place of every one "who has sinned and He interceded
for their forgiveness." Now when Jesus died on the
cross, He covered all your sins and He forgave you and the Bible says, "He throws your sins in the
deepest part of the sea," it's like a metaphor and then I wanna add and he puts up a no fishing sign. Why would you drag out
something to remember that God has already
forgiven and forgotten? When you keep feeling bad about something that you've already confessed
to God and God's forgiven you and Jesus died for it, then it says, "I don't really believe
Jesus paid for my sins." That's unbelief, when you
keep asking for forgiveness for something you sincerely
asked for already is unbelief. Because Jesus gives completely and freely and instantly and with grace. When Jesus forgave all your sins, which ones were not included? None, they're all
included, every single one. This is why I serve Jesus Christ. I don't serve Him for money,
I don't serve Him for fame, I don't serve Him out of duty, I don't serve Him out of fear, I don't serve him out of guilt, I serve him out of gratitude
and you should, too. And if God has forgiven all
your sins, shouldn't you? Now, what about the third thing? We talked about guilt,
we talked about grudges, what about this third
area that warps my soul? Grief, you might right this down. When we experience loss, here it is, loss and pain, Jesus feels
my grief and heals my heart. He feels my grief and He heals my heart. Why does Jesus feel my grief? Because He understands grief. He's been there and He's
experienced it, too. He understands, He came to
Earth and He became one of us, so He's experienced all of the loneliness that people experience, the
betrayal that people experience, the rejection that people experience and He came to feel my
grief and heal my heart. That is the goodness of God. The Lord is my shepherd. Again, more on this
same chapter, Isaiah 53. Same place, 700 plus years
before Jesus came to Earth, Isaiah says this, he describes
Jesus the Messiah, Savior, "He was despised and rejected by others." If you've ever been despised,
you know how that hurts. Maybe you were despised
at school, that hurts. Maybe you were despised
because of a handicap or the color of your skin or
because you're female or male or whatever, if you've been
despised, Jesus understands. He was despised, he was rejected. Have you ever had someone reject you? Walk out on your life? Jesus understands that hurt. There's no hurt you can experience that he doesn't understand, no grief. Why can Jesus understand my grief? He's experienced it all. Isaiah, "He was despised
and rejected by others. "He was a man of sorrows, "which endured much pain and suffering "and He experienced deep grief." Imagine leaving heaven and come here to live amongst people who hate you. "He experienced deep
grief but we ignored Him "and looked the other way. "He was hated and we did not care. "Yet it was our weakness that
He was carrying" on the cross, "And it was our sorrow, our
sorrow that weighed Him down." So he understands but He
doesn't just understand. He doesn't just feel, he heals. Look at the next verse. Psalm 147 Verse Three, "He heals the brokenhearted
and He binds up their wounds." I don't know what's broken your heart. Some of your hearts are
breaking right now, I'm sorry. I'm sorry and I'm glad you're here because this is a place for
the healing of broken hearts. But the fact of life is Jesus
says, "I heal and I feel "and I care about what
you're going through." So, what are you doing with your grief? Maybe you just had a big breakup. Maybe you just got fired at work. Maybe you just go, "Does anybody want me? "Does anybody want me? "Does anybody notice me?" And there's that ache in your heart, what do you do with that ache? You take it to Jesus. It's all summed up in the attitude of belief, trust, and number one is trust the Good Shepherd
to forgive my sins. Actually believe that
He has forgiven my sins. Start acting like all
your sins are forgiven. Romans 3:23 and 24,
"All of us have sinned, "yet God declares us 'not
guilty' if we trust," circle that word, "trust in Jesus Christ, "who in mercy freely takes away our sins." So, I just trust, I believe, I accept that my sins have been forgiven because of what Jesus did on the cross. Number two, release my offenders. Release my offenders,
people who have hurt me and focus on the future. Don't let 'em get under your skin anymore because your soul cannot be restored until you let go of
resentment in your mind, in your thoughts and let go of revenge in your emotions and let go of retaliation in your actions and your decisions. You've gotta let it go. Say, "God, today I'm letting it go." The Bible says in Ephesians 4:30, "Get rid of all bitterness." You should not, bitterness
is a barrier to your life. "Forgiving each other just
as Christ forgave you." Not only is that should
you get rid of resentment, he said you've gotta
get rid of retaliation. Romans 12, "Never avenge yourselves. "Leave that to God, He said He'll repay those who deserve it." So, I trust God really
did forgive all my sins and then because of that, I start off in forgiveness
to other people. I let other people off the hook and I release my offenders
so I can focus on the future. I'm certainly not gonna
get stuck in the past for the rest of my life. Then number three, I team up
with Jesus to carry my load. God never intended for
you to go through life carrying all your grief,
guilt, grudges, problems, pressures, stresses,
situations by yourself. And Jesus says, "I wanna team up with you. "I wanna yoke up with you." And when he uses the word yoke, he's not talking about an egg yolk. He's talking about the kind of yoke that you would put over
two cattle as a beam and the beam, then the two cattle can pull the wagon together. Here's what it says, look
up here on the screen. "Come to me," just come to Jesus, "Come to me, you who
are weary," you tired? You carry a heavy burden? And I will give you a lot more to do. No, that's not what he says. Come to me and I will give you what? Yeah rest, we talked about that last week. "Take my yoke upon you. "Let me teach you, 'cause
I'm humble and gentle, "and you will find rest for your souls. "For my yoke fits perfectly, "and the burden I give you is light." Now when you read that,
it sounds like he said, Okay, you know, this cattle yoke that you put over two
horses or two cattle, they pull the wagon,
you go, "Wait a minute, "he's putting something else on me? "That sounds pretty heavy,
that doesn't sound good, "little big heavy thing like that." No no, you don't understand
the purpose of a yoke. It's not to put more on you, it's to take off half of your load. If you're pulling the wagon by yourself, it's 100% dependent on your energy. Jesus says, "Yoke up with me,
let's share it and guess what? "I'll help you carry and
it'll be half as difficult." Does that make sense? The yoke is not to put more on you, the yoke is to say, "I'll pull your load." Jesus doesn't have any load. He's God, He has no load,
everything's easy for Him. And so when you yoke up,
team up with Jesus, He says, "I'll help you pull your load." And by the way, when
you're yoked up to Jesus, it's impossible for you to
run the wagon into the ditch 'cause He's not gonna let you do it. You gotta go the direction He's going and you've gotta go at the pace He's going and He will go at a more
reasonable pace than you will. That's what He says on
what to do in your life. Let's bow our heads. Would you pray, would you
talk to God right now? Say, "God, my soul needs restoring. "I don't always think right,
I don't always choose right, "I don't always feel right
and I need you to restore "my damaged soul, my mind,
my will, and my emotions. "And Lord, specifically
today, I want to ask your help "on the things that do damage my soul. "About those unaddressed grudges, "I know it's not doing me any
good to hold on to the hurt. "I'm only hurting myself with the anger "and every time I remember
that, the way they hurt me, "it just hurts again. "Would you turn my hurts into holiness? "Would you turn my pain into gain? "Would you do what only you can do? "Would you transform me
and turn the conflict "and the chaos into character in my life? "I need your help to do that. "And Lord, I'm gonna ask you also "with the unconfessed guilt, "there's stuff I've been carrying around "in a large garbage bag for a long time "and it's starting to
stink. I'm gonna say to you, "'I need your forgiveness' "and then more than that,
I'm gonna believe it. "I'm not gonna listen to my feelings "or what anybody else
says or what thoughts "that Satan might try to put in my mind. "Thank you, Jesus, for
taking all of my sins "on yourself at the cross. "Thank you that you were
wounded and crushed for me, "you were beaten and took my punishment "so that I might have peace. "You said in Your Word that
Your wounds heal my wounds, "I'm asking you to do that. "And then, Lord, all of those
losses that I've had in life "that caused grief, I
need your help with that. "I need you to feel my
grief and heal my heart "like you've promised. "Help me to realize that
you understand how I feel "better than I do. "And as I continue this
journey with learning "about your goodness, I first want to say "I'm gonna trust that my
sins have been forgiven "because I've humbly just come to you "and said, 'I need it, I need a savior.' "And I'm gonna release
the people who've hurt me "and every time I think of them, "help me to just pray
a prayer of blessing, "to not hold on to the hurt. "Most of all, Jesus, I
want to team up with you, "yoke up with you, I'm
gonna ask you to help me "in the load that I'm carrying." If you've never invited
Jesus Christ into your heart, say, "Jesus Christ, today,
I want to get to know you. "I want to learn to love you,
I want to learn to trust you, "and I humbly ask you to
accept me into your family "and I pray this not because I deserve it "but because on the
cross, it was finished. "You paid it all right there. "Thank you, in your name, I pray, Amen." (light upbeat rock music)
- Thanks for checking out this week's message on YouTube. We would love to get you connected with our online community. There's three easy ways
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visit saddleback.com/online or shoot me an email at
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