May 13, 2018 - Pastor Carter Conlon - Leaving My Regrets And My Successes

I want to talk to you this morning on the topic of leaving my regrets and my successes leaving my regrets and my successes from the book of Philippians chapter 3 if you have a Bible or device that can give you access to that Philippians chapter 3 now father I thank you God with all of my heart for your presence oh Jesus Jesus thank you Lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you for guiding us and guarding us and encouraging us and strengthening us especially in these perilous times in which we now live thank you for putting oil in our lamps and causing us to burn brightly giving us heavens value system and heavens focus for our lives and for eternity thank you for strengthening us where we are weak and tempering us where we are strong thank you Lord Jesus Christ for your patience and mercy in dealing with all of us when we would have walked away from ourselves you stayed and you didn't leave us because you promised I will never leave you or forsake you thank you for your mercy your kindness thank you for revealing to us your character through your word God I pray Lord for a touch of heaven to be able to speak to every heart today and I ask you Holy Spirit to open every heart to be able to receive your words to us you are God you created us we are made for you in your image give us the grace Lord to turn in that direction and to allow you to be Christ in us the hope of glory do we thank you for it in Jesus name Amen leaving my successes and my failures Paul the Apostle writes these words in chapter 3 beginning at verse 8 yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness or in other words right relationship with God which is from God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the Fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus therefore let us as many as are mature have this mind and if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal even this unto you it's evident from the writings of Paul that he had a preeminent desire in his life it was all encompassing to him it was everything it was his life it was his breath it was his journey that I may be found in Christ that I may know him in other words he said that I may be fully yielded to the Living Christ who now he was aware was taking up residence inside his earthly body it was only Paul who could write the words his Christ in me the hope of glory he wrote to elsewhere in the book of Acts I said it's in him we live and move and have our being Paul was aware of something that we need to rediscover again today that we are not called of God just to simply bring the knowledge of God to our generation which is wonderful in itself but we are called to be a visible expression of who God is to our generation by letting God show himself through us show his power through us his wisdom his grace everything he is it's truly a miraculous life to live in Christ now if we live halfway between our old way of living in the new way it can be a confusing thing not only to us but to those that we are talking about the Living God - Paul understood though if I'm going to honor Christ I have to be fully yielded to him - let him guide me - let him lead me - let him speak to me - let him chart the course of my life he says it this way that I may know him the power of his resurrection and the Fellowship of his sufferings being conformed unto his death and Paul says I want to be able to yield up my will my comforts and even my life so that the desires of Christ in me might be fulfilled the desires of Christ in me the desires of Christ for me is not my will that matters in this life it's his will that needs to be done and that I may know the power of his resurrection that he might be empowered what Paul was praying to walk in a way that is completely foreign to the natural man this is what Paul said God I want to know your power I want to know the full measure of your resurrection life inside of my life and I don't want to be turned back because it might bring bring into sufferings and I want to be willing to even die if that was where you're leading me I don't want to be cut short on this journey because I recognize that it's all about other people you died for us and you left us here to live for others and it's to be your life that's lived inside of us accompanied by your giftings your power your vision your speech your touch your miracles everything beginning to flow through my life for the sake of others absolutely amazing a supernatural life but it does require the yielding of the old way of thinking it requires that some things in our life need to be left behind and Paul says in verse 11 if by any means I might attain to the resurrection the dead now he's not talking about I'm working for my salvation he already knew that heaven was his eternal home by faith and he wasn't working to attain heaven but he was moving towards his final destiny he was moving towards being the person that God had already destined him to be until the day that Paul made it to heaven he wanted to live in the power of the eternal life inside of him that was now his this ought to be the desire of every believer in Christ if we're in Christ were a new creation the old things in our life do pass away and all things become new and I'll tell you one thing it's not boring it's not religious it's not repetitive it is an amazing life to live for God it is an amazing absolutely amazing life now Paul made a confession in here our statement which which does encourage us to it because we look at these people in the Bible and we think like all of them just walked around with a mask and a cape and they could fly and leap buildings and do all of these things and raise the dead and send handkerchiefs to people and just sing a song and prisons were shaking and doors fell off and we feel so utterly mediocre sometimes when we look at the people in the Word of God but Paul shares his own heart he says not that I've in verse 12 not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected but I'm pressing on that I'm a little dove that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me and that's a phenomenal statement Paul is saying I'm not everything that I should be you are not either and neither am i I'm not I'm not God has a plan for my life and now I'm in measure stumbled into most of it I think but I'm not everything that I should be but I'm moving forward to fulfill that which Christ is determined to do through me I'm moving forward that's going God for the grace to be yielded asking God for the grace to do his will asking God for the Greece not to live according to my own desires and thoughts and the way I think things should go or the way I think things should be but Oh God help me to follow the path you've laid out from my feet and as Paul said even if it means suffering along the way even if it should cost me dearly more than I even imagined it was going to therefore Paul says I have not apprehended in verse 13 but I'm leaving behind what needs to be left behind and embracing what I now need to embrace therefore brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended in other words I'm I'm not yet the man in Paul's case or the woman whatever your case is I'm not yet the person that I believe that God wants me to be but what I am doing is I'm forgetting those things that are behind me and I'm reaching forward to those things that are ahead of me you know the Bible says that as we simply behold the victory of Christ as we as we study and learn about his heart as we see his willingness to give us or to show us things to come as we begin to understand that his promises to us are all true as we begin to say God I want that new mind I want that new heart I want that new spirit I want that new direction I want to care about other people I want to be delivered from this this high percentage of self focus and I want to really live for the benefit of others I'm not attained it but by the grace of God within me by the power of God within me I'm going to let go what God asked me to let go of and I'm going to reach forward to this incredible calling of God that his mind in Christ the reason for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me in other words there's a divine plan that God has chosen to fulfill through my life and that's the same for you today there's a plan that God has for you it's not your plan it's his and he doesn't show you the whole thing he shows you one step after another step after another step and as we begin most of my life I've only understood the leading of God after I looked behind and saw where he was leading rarely have I understood it in advance Paul says I'm I'm leaving I'm forgetting those things that are behind me you know one of the hardest things for you and I to leave behind is our regrets it's hard we we have a tendency to carry them with us those inner knowings that if only I had done this if only I had done that if only I had been this if only I had known if only I hadn't done this if only I had been there if only I hadn't been so selfish Paul himself says in first Corinthians 15 9 for I am the least of the Apostles and I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God and in acts 26 verses 10 and 11 sharing his story he said this I also did in Jerusalem and many of the Saints I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests when they were put to death I cast my vote against them and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly enraged against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities Paul had a lot of reason to live in regret as he as he would visit churches and he would look at the faces of men women and children that formerly people like them he had hauled them out of their homes I could see them the mums and the dads pleading for mercy the children crying he was merciless he tortured some folks do you understand that he tortured them and caused them to blaspheme the name of God because of the pain some were put to death and when it was decided to kill these people he cast his vote in favour even the Beloved Disciple Stephen just a young man who was full of faith and serving tables when he enraged the religious crowd Paul was the man who held their coats while they killed him and they stoned him and Paul knew and had these memories of the things that that he had done yes oh it's so hard to leave your failures behind isn't it it's so hard to to get out of your mind the regrets I've just written a book that's going to come out it's an autobiography called it's time to pray and in that book I catalog the struggles in my own life there regrets it's a book that's hard to read even the men that was helping me to write it burst out in tears twice just reading the transcript and even he said are you sure you want to write this I said I do want to write it because the truth has to be told God uses imperfect vessels God uses struggling vessels God watched with us through our trials and our difficulties and I'm simply not willing to to gloss it all over there was a time in my life when I would go to my knees and weep almost every day weep for the things I had done weep for the things I had not done weep for the deficiencies in my life even as a young Christian the things that I should have known and didn't know places I should have been and didn't go and I wrote it all down and I used to go into my office and I used to cry every day until one day the Lord spoke to me and said Carter if you succeed in what I've called you to do you're not to touch the glory you give it all to me but he said that's not the only thing you give to me I want you to give me your sorrow I want you to give me your failures I want you to give me your struggles you are not called to touch the glory and you are not called to carry the shame both of those things belong to me I took it all on the cross and that you may not forget but you're not to carry the sorrow in your heart for it any longer and it's true God took the sorrow away I have the memory but not the sorrow anymore if you want to know what that's all about you're gonna have to read the book is I'm not going to tell you Acts chapter 10 verse 15 the Lord spoke to the Apostle Peter and these are words that you need to know today everyone that's here what God has cleansed you have no right any longer to call common or unclean if God has cleansed you you have no right to drag yourself through the mud you've no right any longer to hang your head you are a new creation in Christ Jesus your sin you're wrong your failure is cast as far away from you the Bible says as the East is from the West as a matter of fact in the Book of Isaiah God Almighty says your sins and iniquity I will remember no more God doesn't even remember it it's gone it's all gone when you get to the throne of heaven one day if you want to speak a list of your failures in life the Lord's going to look at you and say well I'll have to take your word for it because I don't seem to remember any of it when my blood touched your life it blotted out your transgressions that's what the scripture says didn't he say the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to open the prisons to those that are bound sometimes bound by the regret of past mistakes to heal those that have been bruised in hard people that are wounded and you carry this sorrow in your heart you think of today is Mother's Day today and Mother's Day can be a sorrowful day because in our generation many women have had abortions and there are some women here today that you carry a deep inner sorrow now that you're a believer in Christ and you realize what happened and you wonder what would that life have been like what would it be like to have that child with me at church today etc Center but I'm telling you on God's behalf it's time to leave that sorrow down today it's time to lay it down you have to put it away there's a time in Christ if you're going to find the fulfillment and the fullness of what God has destined for your life you have to walk away from your regrets you've got to walk away you take that and you put it on him on the cross he died to take that he died to give you a new mind a new heart he died to take your sorrow do you understand yes you will still have the memory but it doesn't have to drag you down anymore you don't have to mourn every mother's day you don't have to have that thought keep coming back into your mind and say oh god if only I had known today then what I know today if only I hadn't been so selfish if only I hadn't been so casual with life you need to learn to walk away the father's you need to learn to walk away from what you did or didn't do what happened because of what you did or didn't do as the people of God we're not going to be able to go into the fullness of what God has for us if we can't leave our sorrows behind I'm not saying that we just pretend it didn't happen I'm not saying we don't ever talk about I'm saying it loses its power to destroy us it loses its power to keep us in mourning it loses its power to imprison us behind walls of regret it gives us an understanding of what really happened on the cross he took our captivity captive and brought us into a place where we can testify about the goodness of God to others but bring them out of their own personal struggles in darkness and into the life and the light of Christ the second thing that we have to learn to leave is our successes Paul the Apostle it says concerning the righteousness which was in the law blameless there were very few people that could make that claim if any in his generation in other words I didn't violate the law he was a driven man he was a man driven by success he sat at the feet of some of the best scholars of his time he was a leader among the Pharisees he even had influence among Gov and officials who would give him letters of authority to drag Christians out of their houses and torture them killed them and put them in jail Paul was not passive he was an active leader he had accolades he had diplomas he had decrees degrees he he had he had position he had power but he says I count all of it rubbish all of it all of my successes and others are not going to live there that's not what I talked about thank God for the past but the past is the past and that's not going to become my identity my identity is in Christ I don't want to know anything but him I don't want any power but his I don't want people looking on my wall and seeing a diploma and thinking on something the strength I have the grace I have the direction I have the compassion I have the power I have is all Christ in me the hope of glory we all have former successes but as believers in Christ those former successes are not our identity my identity is in Jesus Christ his power his resident power within my life is resident power within your life praise be to God that's why Paul said I press toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus because the call of God is higher than anything offered in this world anything can be achieved in this world it's higher and so I love the fact that I can put my failures and successes in the hands of God and it all leads to one name Jesus Christ king of kings and Lord of lords it's Christ in me that's the hope of glory Christ in me who determines my path Christ in me who stretches his hand in heels Christ in me who speaks with the wisdom that I know I don't naturally have it's all Jesus Christ that's what Paul was saying that I may be found in him that I might be conformable to his life his that power that raised him from the dead that that power might be in and that people might see that this man Paul was raised from the dead even while he lives he was raised from the dead by the power of God raised from the dead of failure raised from the death of human accomplishment raised from the death of trying to somehow living the way that's pleasing to God and I put it all at the foot of the cross and the life I now live I live by faith in the one who died for me and has become the source of my life and the resurrection power of God within me and Paul says if it leads me to suffering let it lead me there but may I be conformable to the one who went to a cross for me may I have the ability in my heart the desire in my heart to go the full distance for the sake of others who yet still need to know him yeah I don't suffer like Paul did yet but yesterday pastor Teresa and I got to be together in Virginia and got to minister together and talked about the school and challenge and business people and Virginia to live for a higher cause than themselves and then we went to the airport we flew to Charlotte Charlotte something I don't know where it was we flew to an airport on the way home anyway and at that Airport we had to go to different gates she went back to Harrisburg because they're going over curriculum and suchlike at the school this week and I went to another gate to fly back to New York and it was the first time in a long time that I just got really weepy in the airport and you know I just I had just preached that night before on or the day before I just preached on living for the benefit of others and I realized that in our small way in our small way we're doing that as God is leading and there is a cost but I feel in my heart that for the rest of my days I want to lay down my regrets I want to put it in the hand of God my successes and just say Lord lead me now lead us both no matter what it costs or where it leads take us there and make us willing to give up our thoughts of what our future should be for the sake of your kingdom and for the sake of other people and I tell you folks there is a measure of sorrow with it but there's no better way to live because you are continuously aware of the presence of God he bides he's not he just doesn't meet me at church he meets me on the street it meets me when I get up in the morning it becomes an all day walk every day not just in church and I thank God for with all my heart now to know this you have to be willing to let go of your sorrow your failures those things that nag at the heart and could destroy your testimony if you don't give it to God I lived with such deep regret for the stupidity in my own life as a believer for so many years that only God could take it away and he did I was too busy I was travelling them saving the world while my own family was suffering just a stupidity but God said give me that give it all to me and you watch what I will do with it we watch the healing that I will bring you watch and then when you are successful it's always good to remember your stupidity it helps you balance off when you're successful it just it just reminds you that God takes a stupid man to do wonderful things so we don't get lifted up and it never becomes a me and God doing anything it's all Christ in me everything is him it's all him the hope of glory so my Lt Col was real simple this morning for people to need to walk away from his sorrow and for others to just today you see my whole identity is in my success outside of Christ it's in my diplomas my job my degree what I used to be when I meet with people all I do is talk about myself and what I've accomplished my identity is not fully in Christ yet I need to learn to walk away and that doesn't mean you you burned your diploma it just means that's not your identity anymore thank God for it did you have it but it's not your identity my identity is Christ and him alone so the grace it takes as much grace to walk away from success as it does from sorrow but if that's in your heart today and you can just say with me I just want I want that walk that Paul talked about that I may know him that I may know the power of his resurrection that I may know the Fellowship of his sufferings that I may be made conformable even to death if necessary that I might win him and be one of him for the purpose for which he laid hold of me that I may know that purpose and so father I just thank you this morning God for the simplicity but yet the the powerfulness of these few thoughts for on it hangs the future of the testimony of your life inside of ours would you give us the grace to lay down our sorrows to give us the grace to lead down our successes and to find our identity in you and you alone that you would become the author and the finisher of this testimony that you have established inside of each of our lives Oh God especially now as we see the society around us disintegrating before our eyes as we see some here of so much sorrow everywhere you have need of a bride that can be seen before she's heard so help us Lord to be healed help us to be humbled help us God to be everything that you called us to be please Lord please God have mercy on this church please God I'm asking in Jesus name for people who need to lay down deep regret and sorrow that they would lay it down today give it to you and be healed as I did Lord God I thank you lord I thank you that you will hear this prayer I thank you for a new life I thank you for hope thank you God that you will do what only you can do this is all in your hands Lord this is your church it's not mine it's yours it belongs to you these are your people this is your body this is your testimony let there be a profound healing at this altar today father I thank you for with all my heart in Jesus name now before we pray I just I just want to make a statement for all the men that are here today abortion is not just a woman problem the person that robs the bank and the one who drives the getaway car both guilty of the same offense so it's not just seeded this or she did that no you did it too sir we all stand before God kneeling needing to put our sorrows in the hands of Christ but here's the God who heals us he sends his word and thank God for His healing thank you lord thank you Jesus if if Paul had not opened his heart to the healing of Christ he would have been swallowed of sorrow as he had the memories of what he had done but he said I'm the chiefest of sinners I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle but I received grace I received I received I received the forgiveness I received the healing the touch of God into my life so father today lord I just speak healing healing in this sanctuary healing at this altar healing of the regrets of the past the difficulties the memories Lord father you came Jesus to open the prison doors you came to heal the bruised heart you came to give the spiritual sight to see a way forward and to see the plan that you had for every life that's that's why you came you came to have the Treasury of heaven open to those who knew they had no strength to go forward the gospel is first to be preached to the poor thank you Lord that in our poverty you came and you gave us the riches of your grace your mercy your healing your hope for the future the new song that we read about in the new heart and the new mind I saw thank you today you're not suggesting to anybody here they should lay down their sorrow you're telling them now to do it come to me all you who labor and are heavy-laden and I'll give you rest come and learn at me I'm meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your soul for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but through him that the world might be saved thank you for the cross thank you for mercy my god thank you lord thank you for hope for the future thank you Lord that you have made us clean were clean were clean in the sight of a holy God we're forgiven there's no record of wrong and Lord whatever happens through our lives we give you the glory in advance for yours is the kingdom it's the power the glory it all belongs to you Lord none of it belongs to us but Oh God we pray that you would make our lives a sweet song for you that you would extend your hand of healing through us as broken and bruised as we were when we came to you that you would heal multitudes through our lives the testimony of who you have been to us and what you have done in us thank you Father thank you lord

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 18,241

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Keywords: Pastor Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: APeEltQgwpA

Length: 33min 12sec (1992 seconds)

Published: Tue May 15 2018