Pete Briscoe at No Regrets 2015 - Living Free in Christ

will you pray with me please Lord Jesus here we are none of us by accident either sitting in this room or sitting looking at a screen alone in our seat available to you Lord my simple prayer is that you would speak by your spirit through me allow me to disappear oh Jesus let them hear you I pray that each of us who are listening would worship with our ears that we would be available to the spirits leading and prompting to his challenge to his comfort and that this time would be for your glory Jesus and no one else's speak to us I pray in Jesus name Amen I'm really really excited to be here and I'm really excited you're here I'm excited every single one of you are here cuz I I really don't believe any of you were here by accident I think God's got something for every single one of you I'm believing that he's gonna do something in every one of your life at some point today so I'm hoping you're anticipating that as I was thinking about an opportunity to share with you the word that kept popping into my mind and it's weird this is the word that will pop into my mind but the word that kept popping into my mind was disappointment I'm wondering if you're disappointed in yourself I'm wondering if there was any point in time that you were disappointed in yourself sometimes when we come to men's retreats or men's conferences it's almost overwhelming because we come already disappointed in ourselves and we hear like 15 speakers tell us what we should be doing is man and we leave even more disappointed in ourselves and then for some reason we're gluttons for punishment we signed up next year when we come back and the disappointment starts piling up a little bit I don't know if you've had a year where you didn't feel like much of a man a season of life where you started looking in the mirror and you're you're overwhelming emotion was disappointment you looked at yourself you looked at the guy in the mirror and you thought you know I thought you'd turn into more than this my dreams for you were higher than this thought it would end up better than this up until 2008 everything worked in my life everything worked and whatever I tried to do worked and if you talk to me in 2007 if I've been speaking to you in 2007 my talk would have been very different than it's gonna be today you see my wife and I were doing great our marriage was awesome we were a model marriage people would look at us and say I want to be like Pete and Libby we were really really cool with that my kids weren't teenagers yet so they they all wind up and they looked good and they behaved fairly well they were kids but you know what I was proud of them they weren't disappointing me they were actually making me look pretty good my church was doing great the church where I lead we we actually grew tenfold in 10 years that's pretty good in a church I was pretty excited everything was working and then the calendar turned to 2008 and the little phrase around our house is 2008 wasn't so great that is an understatement of epic proportions 2008 stunk through mostly neglect and passivity on my part my wife Libby and I just drifted apart I was working a lot we just weren't around we didn't talk much culminating in a conversation one evening in our kitchen that I'll never forget she sat down she said he'd sit down we need to talk whenever she calls me Pete I know I mean she calls me honey all the time but Pete Oh we sat down and she looked at me and she said I am so angry at you I could spit the problem is I don't even know why I'm mad but I'm feeling it I these are the words I don't even like you anymore and I looked at her and all I could think to say was right back at you I don't like you much either and then silence we just stared at each other like what do we do now we got this no out Clause we're not going anywhere but we don't even like being in the same room together my kids became teenagers my oldest started to rebel my daughter turns 13 and an alien invaded her body one day she was just a sweet little thing and what the next day she walks down and she is a completely different human being and she and I start doing this and and we enter into those years and then a church ok so we're moving into our brand-spankin'-new 33 million dollar facility it's magnificent it's gorgeous it's beautiful but behind the scenes my elder bored is disintegrating we have disunity at the very core I'm losing friends I'm losing staff members it's falling apart I'm trying desperately to fix it and I can't so you know what what are the three things men do right we husband we parent and we work and all three of them wobbling out of control I remember looking in the mirror and I was just so disappointed in myself I remember thinking man I thought it'd be better than this I thought you do better than this a friend of mine once told me that the difference between expectation and reality is called disappointment the gap between what you hope for and what it really is the gap is called disappointment or in keeping with the theme regrets he said there's two ways you can fix the disappointment gap you can take the expectations down to reality that's called giving up lots of men do this or you can move reality up to your expectations and that's called impossible good luck with that and then you go to no regrets and guess what happens your expectation bar goes up two more notches God was gracious to me in 2008 when I got to the end of where my flesh could take me which is what happened that year when I got to a place where I looked at my marriage and I couldn't fix it and I looked at my parenting and I couldn't fix it and I looked at my church leadership but I couldn't fix it I finally called out to God it happened at a camp in Northern California I went there with my daughter it's really cool camp I took all three my kids there you spend a whole week with one teenager a whole week with one teenager you do cool ropes courses and all this kind of stuff and they have you have one-on-one time together and at the very beginning of the week the leader does a talk and in the talk he's talking about the fact that we tend to pretend our way through life we're so seldomly honest with others and the truth is we are seldomly honest with ourselves so he said I'm gonna give you just an opportunity here tonight to be honest with yourself write an honest prayer everyone take out your notebook and write an honest prayer and I remember sitting there in the back row thinking I'm not doing that mm-hmm it feels forced to me and then I looked around and everyone else was writing their honest prayer so peer pressure positive peer pressure I opened my notebook and I started to write I actually have that prayer with me it's probably the most honest prayer I've ever prayed went like this Lord I know you're working on me big times all summer long in my loneliness my marriage parenting my lack of discipline my depression my numbness and my tiredness I'm broken and I have questions how do I appropriate you in my life for real why do I feel so bad how could I lead my wife and children when I'm so scared and I don't even know what I'm scared of how can I love Libby in a way that she feels loved how do I raise a thirteen-year-old daughter I feel like an abject failure but my ruts are so deep I can't seem to break out I'm flailing I'm failing and I desperately need you Jesus how do I lean in to you it's the most honest prayer I've ever prayed I was done and I begged him to help and then his grace he broke through to me and he started that very week but over time he started drilling the same thing home to me over and over and over and over again it was something that I had learned when I was six years old but had never applied have you ever done this they were to learn something taking notes maybe even put it in your journal or put it on a three by five card but never done anything about it this is a truth that I'd known since I was six years old but I had not lived it and the secret of course is in the living it and so he started teaching me and re teaching me the truth and whispering to my spirit Pete start living this and I will take care of the disappointment gap stop trying to fix everything you're disappointed in stop trying to fix your marriage stop trying to fix your kids stop trying to fix the church stop trying to fix yourself do this one thing and I will take care of the disappointment gap you want to know what it is oh one of you does bless you brother I'm preaching to you which raised your hand tell me who you are so I can see alright I know more of you do it's a simple truth turn in your Bible if you have your Bible to Galatians chapter 2 Galatians chapter 2 now as soon as I start reading this verse you're gonna say yeah I know this I know many of you know this but we're not talking about knowing it we're talking about living it okay cuz I knew it for years but I wasn't living in Apostle Paul writing to the church in Galatia a church that had said yes to Jesus and now was struggling with the living of it and they had turned back to the law they had turned back to a list of rules they had turned back to a conference notebook full of things to do and they were trying to do them in their own strength the Apostle Paul at one point in the letter says hey starting out in the spirit if you turn back to the flesh if you turn back to your own effort and this book is designed to teach them how to live the Christian life and there's one summary verse right in the middle it is my life first if you I've written four books that no one's ever read I can prove I could ask if anyone's ever read none of you have but if you had ever bought one of my books and I'd signed it for you I would have put this verse there as my life first it was my life first and I wasn't living it until 2008 I started to he goes like this for I was Galatians 2:20 for I was crucified with Christ and therefore I no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me I've known it for years but I wasn't living in that one verse is a summary of how to live the Christian life there's three parts to it it goes like this I died I'm indwelt I'm depending I died I'm indwelt I'm depending it starts with I died for I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live I don't have time to get into this this morning but if you want to read Romans chapter 6 Paul expands on that theme they're very simply stated it goes like this Jesus came died on the cross but he did not die alone when he went to the cross he took you who you were with him and you were crucified with him you were then buried with him read about in Romans six and then raised to new life and the moment that you say yes to Jesus the moment you bow your knee and say Jesus wash me of my sin forgive me cleanse me in that moment that death burial and resurrection is applied to you so that the old man you once were is crucified with Christ buried with him left in the grave and you are raised a new creation a new person born again not just tidied up recreated that's the first part of that verse ton of theology in the first part of that verse I died I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live but here's the second part Christ lives in me I'm indwelt you see Christ doesn't simply recreate you he simply doesn't forgive you of your sins you see if we're sharing the gospel and all we're saying is Christ died on the cross to forgive you of your sins that's just part of the story forgiving your sins as a means to the end the end is that he wants to be in union with you he wants to be one with you he had to get your sins out of the way so he could live in you he forgives you he cleanses you and then by his Spirit he indwells you this is actually true this isn't just theologically true this is actually true the God of all creation in the person of Jesus Christ by his Spirit comes to live inside and become one with you this is true I mean dwelt as you read the New Testament you'll see this teaching all over the place let me give you a couple examples Jesus actually predicted it if you read the farewell discourse in John's Gospel Jesus is basically in about six chapters teaching the disciples one simple thing hey guys I've been with you I'm about to leave but don't worry after I leave I'll come back to be in you the farewell discourse is all about the transition from I'm with you which you think is pretty great but it's actually gonna be better because when I come back I will be in you closer than with you've ever been jealous of the disciples because Jesus was with them don't be it's better now he's in us he said it in John 14:21 my father and you are in me and I am in you can you imagine the disciples looking at Jesus thinking how is this gonna work you're gonna you can see why they struggled catch you later John affirms it in first John 4:15 if anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God God lives in them and they in God Peter declares it listen to this an amazing text 2nd Peter 1:3 his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life can I just pause there men you have everything you need to be a godly man right now if you are in Christ did you know that you don't have to add you say how do you know that because you have a godly man living in you you have the godly man living in you thus you have everything you need to live a godly life right now if you are in Christ he goes on to say because of all these blessings we get to participate in the divine nature do you realize as a believer in Christ you are participating in the divine nature because Christ is at home in you I told you I learned this when I was six years old I got to tell you about that day I'll never forget it it was in Sunday school I was in England where we lived at the time at Cape enrage Bible School and my my Sunday school teacher was a guy named Billy Strachan and Billy was a magician I think every child should have a as a sunday-school teacher because every week he would do a different magic trick it was awesome I'll never forget the one week he comes in and he says hey guys and this isn't his glove but he had a glove it's my golf club he said this is a magic glove magic glove I'm gonna tell this glove to pick up that Bible it's gonna obey me you watch and all of us were just staring so great glove pick up the Bible nothing happened glove pick up the Bible nothing one more time you said gloves pick up the Bible and the Bible started levitating and one of the little kids said do you think we're stupid it's not the glove it's hand inside the glove to which he said before I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God loves me and gave himself for me when I think about the glove illustration it's a powerful one but I think there's more to it because if you think about it this is a pretty accurate picture of us as gloves isn't it this is us before we knew Jesus we're filthy we've got holes and we got gaps we are worn out and you know what there is no life in us this was biblically true we are spiritually dead for I was crucified with Christ he takes this old man to the cross I was buried with him and buried with him I'm raised to new life and when we are raised to new life this is left behind in the tomb and this happens but not only does this happen not only we are new creation he comes and indwells us and Christ lives in me so that is a picture of the first two-thirds of Galatians 2:20 got it new person and dwelt and live because this is true not just theologically true but because this is practically true pragmatically true it changes everything listen to Romans 8:11 and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to you in your mortal bodies in your glove because the spirit who lives in you you see the old glove is lifeless and youth useless can't tell this club to do anything I'm gonna give it the most simple thing a glove could do I want you glove to wave to all the guys at no regrets ready young I want you to wave to all the guys and no regrets the gloves isn't it a remarkable glove what are you stupid it's not the glove it's the hand inside the glove P yeah I know it's the hand inside the glove do you see why boasting about anything that God has done from you is the most pathetic thing in the world see because this is true not just theologically true but pragmatically true we can encourage one another we can fight for our families we can beckon someone into a relationship but it's not the glove it's a hand inside the glove because this is true since Jesus is in me I can bear fruit listen to what he said in John 15:5 I am the vine and you are the branches if you abide in me and I in you you will bear much fruit apart from me you can do that nothing apart from Christ this is us but with Christ we can bear fruit I can take a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty I can comfort someone who is hurting in case you can't get the Pens mine this is a tissue box right here I'm dabbing the tears from your face I can comfort you because Christ lives in me I can disciple my children I can love my wife as Christ loves her through me what a difference this simple indwelling Christ thing makes since Jesus is in me I can experience life I can bear fruit this is a good one since Jesus is in me I will want to avoid sin and so will you listen to how Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6 listen to this the body the glove however is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the glove for the body by his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also you see the same theme it's all the way through here do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself the hand and the glove are morphed they become one they're in union together you are members with Christ himself so I then take the members of Christ and unite them to a prostitute you see what happens to the glove happens to the hand now so anything is a glove do I am dragging Jesus into it with me so I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute never do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her embody 40 said the two shall become one flesh listen but whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit since I'm one with Christ in spirit anything sinful I choose to do I drag him into it with me being a lotion being alone is an illusion my friends you are never alone not only is Jesus watching you Jesus is in you participating in everything you do understanding the indwelling Christ takes all the fun out of sinning guys since Jesus is in me I can overcome the evil one too this is a really important one this is the evil one it's the best I could do kinda looks like him he's the right color right okay so think about it this is you before you knew Jesus and this is the evil one in this corner JimBob in this corner Satan ding-ding-ding-ding-ding that's pretty much how it went you remember that's pretty much how it went then in first John 1:4 greater is He Who is in you who's that Christ than he who is in the world Satan so now this is different totally different in this corner Jim Bob with Jesus living inside him in this corner Satan ding-ding what an amazing gloves not the glove it's the hand inside the glove I told you I've known this since I was six years old it's the third part of the verse that's the key I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me listen and the life I now live in the glove I live by faith by dependence in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and now lives inside me what is the Christian life the Christian life is the glove depending on the hand moment in moment out day by day hour by hour so if I could summarize this whole message in one phrase if you write one thing down out of everything I say write this down since Jesus is in me I'll trust him to do it since Jesus is in me I'll trust him to do it what changed for me in 2008 is I started living that instead of just believing it if Jesus is in me I'll trust him to do it so let me give you a couple examples of how this works one of the things I prayed that day in my honest prayer was Lord how do I parent a 13 year old daughter right and so I asked him show me and so he started drilling this home to me a whole week long while I was at the camp hey Christ is in me I'm gonna let him do it Christ is in me I'm gonna let him do it the first opportunity to trust him I'm gonna trust him with whatever is precious to me later in the week we're in a session and Annika is sitting ahead of me because he's talking about how to pick a godly mate and so all the dads sat behind and all the kids sat up front I'm looking at the back of our nika's head while he's teaching and he's teaching about what to look for in a man and I see her and I see her taking notes and the whole time I'm like oh yes God give her a man like that I mean I wanted her to have a man like that and as I'm praying this the spirit speaks to me not out loud just pressin in my mind and what he says is go fight for honor cos marriage and I said yes Lord I'm gonna fight for her marriage he said no actually what I meant by that was when he's done speaking I want you to go up to the hay bales and I want you to kneel there and I want you to fight for her marriage whose hay bales that we would go and pray afterwards I didn't well I want to go up there because when you went up to the hay bales one of the young leaders would come and they would kneel down next to you and they would ask how can I agree with you in prayer and I didn't want to do that it was weird and then the spirit said to me not only go up there and fight for her marriage I want you to take her up there with you I want you to lay hands on me I want you to fight for her marriage I want you to pray over her and I said to the Holy Spirit no you ever do this you ever say no to the Holy Spirit bad idea bad idea no you're gonna fight for her or not I told you I am Lord trust me oh yeah since Jesus is in me I'll let him do it what does that look like right now hi Jesus here I go I'm putting one foot in front of the other you do this so he finished speaking you invited us up to the hay bales everyone's just sitting there no one's moving when I find myself walking down the aisle okay Jesus I'm yours I walked down the aisle and I have to go through all the girls that are sitting next to Annika and I tapped her on the head and I said hey come up to the hay bales with me I want to pray over you No okay yeah and so I'm gonna confess to you what I did next I went up to the hay bales and I kneeled down and I faked like I was praying I wasn't praying but I was earnestly faking it just kind of counting I started counting I thought I count to 30 and then I'll go back to my seat one but then I saw the young guy coming to pray with me oh my god this is I'm from bad to worse and he kneels down he says peep you guys like 19 years old he doesn't have kids either what does he know peak how can I agree with you in prayer you know I thought God wanted me to come up and fight for onic his marriage but maybe I don't know let me pray for you to pray for my daughter and for her purity and for her future and for her future husband and he prayed with words I never imagined to pray for my daughter it was the most beautiful prayer ever prayed I started weeping as he prayed and I just started agreeing with him in prayer yeah Lord what he said what he said yes do that do that that's Lord yes yes yes and I was fighting for my daughter baby steps since Jesus is in me I'll let him do it he was doing it through this young man he was leading me he leaves and I just kind of melt there and I was just about ready to leave in Austin I felt this soft hand on my back I looked and there's my little 13 year old daughter kneeling next to me and she goes so what do we do now so I said this is where I pray for you honey and I put my hand on her and I plagiarize that guy's prayer like word-for-word baby the best prayer I ever prayed she's looking at me like wow daddy you've never prayed for me like that before that's because Jesus is doing it sweetheart it's not me I'm just a glove he's gonna fight for your marriage one of the things that Libby said to me that night we were sitting in the kitchen where she said to me you know what you we've been married 15 18 years whatever it was you still don't even know how to show love to me I've been trying to tell you you just don't know you miss you do it in the way you receive love you don't do it the way I receive love and so a few weeks later and it was gonna be our anniversary and a little backstory I'm a terrible gift giver raise your hand if you stink at giving gifts to your wife come on let's see it all right so all my brothers in arms you know who you are I don't just think I've actually made my wife cry on Christmas morning after she's opened a gift and I've tried so hard and this is one of those deals where I've tried I've tried I've tried but I miss every time I just miss it and all some work and the problem is her birthday is December 4th Christmas December 25th our anniversary of December 31st I've got the three gift things in December it's the worst month of a year by the time I get to the anniversary I've made her cry twice already and I'm just dreading this you know Lord I need to give Libby a gift for our anniversary I have no idea oh yeah wait since Jesus is in me I'm gonna let him do this here's what I told him there's an early morning quiet time I remember it I said all right Lord I'm not gonna think about it I'm not gonna go to the mall I'm what I usually do is just go to the mall and troll every store just hoping something jumped off the shelves I'm not gonna do that I'm not gonna ask her friends what she would like this is yours Jesus either you show up or she gets nothing this is a major risk I'm making here right and this is a true story I then went for a run around our neighborhood and I plugged in my earphones and I had my iPhone with me and I got on my iPhone and and I just pushed shuffle on my iTunes and I have 3286 songs in there I just pushed shuffle and I started to run and then while I was running during the first song I sense the spirit say here's your gift for Libby tell me what is it play for her the next song that comes on your iPhone seriously I mean if you knew some of the Bands I had in here gotta be the next one it's got to be the next one and so now I'm kind of excited this is an adventure right I'm wondering what song he's gonna come on next right shuffle it could be any of the 3286 arms I'm running along there's a pause the next song starts it's her favorite artist Matthew Ward this is the song that started to play okay so this is a song that Matthew Ward is singing to his wife on their anniversary I'm like this won't work this is perfect and so I made a reservation at a really cool restaurant that has these little individual tables and you can actually pull these curtains and like just be alone in your little room and I sat down with her and I had a little gift bag just like this and I had tissue paper in there because I learned that lesson one year and I said okay honey it's time for me to give you your gift she's like okay and I reached in and I pulled out my iPhone's she's kind of looking at me she's already got one she doesn't need an iPhone I plugged in my earphones I put one in her ear I put the other in mine and I push play and that song started to play and tears filled her eyes it rolled down her cheeks and we held hands and we both started to sob our way through the song and we had this moment like a moment she said it's the best gift you've ever given me I'm like man the first one I didn't give her you know what a glove now it's the hand inside the glove so here's what I'd love to encourage you guys to do today I'm so glad you're here if you're struggling with the disappointment gap and I got a verse for you goes like this for I was crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the glove I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me gave himself for me lives inside me by all means take notes and write things that you want to see different in your marriage and in your parenting and as a man in the community and the business write them all down but here's what I want you to write under every one of them since Jesus is in me I'll ask him to do this since Jesus is in me I'll ask him to do this since Jesus is in me I'll ask him to do this and surrender to him tell him go out on the lip Jesus if you don't show up this isn't gonna happen but I'm available I'm available I started journaling when I came back from that camp and I journal for about a year and a half straight and ended my journal with the same little line on the bottom every day Lord Jesus lived through me love through me and lead through me today Jesus lived through me love through me lead through me today I'd encourage you to throw that on 3x5 card and stick it on your mirror or you get ready for work every day of whatever you do just to remind yourself hey Jesus lives in me I'm gonna let him do it let me pray for you please Lord Jesus I thank you for 2008 in my life it was miserable to live through it was painful I got to the end of myself and then I found you to be more than enough that is my prayer for my brothers here in this room and in 71 others all over the place that as we get to the end of ourselves even before we get to the end of ourselves much better to do it that way that we would simply surrender to You Lord Jesus thank you for dying for us thank you for coming back to life thank you for taking our old men and crucifying them and leaving them in the grave so we could be new creations thank you for indwelling us thank you for empowering us thank you for making this Christian life possible Jesus we leave our disappointments and our regrets at your feet you deal with them as we move forward we pray that you would live through us and love through us and lead to your glory

Channel: Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe

Views: 16,473

Rating: 4.712575 out of 5

Keywords: Pete Briscoe, briscoe, sermon, message, teaching, church, telling the truth, video, No Regrets, Galatians, free, christ, disappointment, Living Free In Christ

Id: XKb4b38lJDo

Length: 40min 15sec (2415 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 08 2015