Oh, how it gets me.
I was waiting this week to turn behind this other car. But when the traffic cleared, the car just
sat there. I tried to be nice about
it. I thought. Maybe this driver was distracted for a
moment. It happens. But then the traffic
cleared again, and guess what did not happen?
No turn again! That’s when I
lost it. I started yelling “Turn, just
turn!!” Eventually the driver did turn
of course, but that sort of thing drives me nuts!
Now that may not bother you, but you probably have
something that does? Do you have
something that pushes your buttons; an annoying habit; a certain noise that
sends you around the bend. It could
be anything. And when it happens, oh
how it can irritate.
Still, life goes on.
On the scale of problems, these things, they’re irritating, but they don’t
really mess up your life. But in your
life, you have something else, something that pushes your buttons in a
different way that will mess you up, that could even destroy you.
When it comes to doing wrong things in life, let’s be
honest. Some of the wrong you and I do, it
doesn’t bother us that much. Maybe it
should, but it doesn’t. You don’t feel
that much guilt or regret about it.
Heck, you may not feel any. But
not every mistake you make is like that.
In your life, you probably have one that really pushes your
buttons. When you mess up here, that
failing stays with you. The guilt
follows you, the regrets. You find it
so hard to let it go.
Normally, with my son, Patrick, I’m the more patient
parent. But a few times, I’ve lost
it. I can’t even tell you why I lost
it, but I remember that I did. It wasn’t
pretty. Afterwards, I went to Patrick and apologized. And he, like 3 year olds do,
let it go and moved on. But I carried
it. I carried it for way too long.
Now that particular screw-up may not push your
buttons, like it pushes mine. But do you
have something that does? Do you carry
regret over a mistake, maybe one from years ago? Do you have a failing that you hope no one
finds out about ever? That stuff weighs
you down. It holds you back. It can even eat you alive. Some have found such stuff so hard to live
with, they kill themselves. They’d rather die than carry it another
day. But here’s the truth. If you’re carrying that, you’re not supposed
to. You can let it go. You can be free of it. In these words, God shows the way. Let’s listen and hear what God has to say.
You can carry regrets, guilt about things for years
and years even. You can even think
you’re supposed to, like it’s a virtue or something. It’s not.
But even if you know that, it’s hard to let it go. So, how do you? How do you leave it behind? How do you get free of it, really free? God
tells you here. God says. I am greater than your heart.
And it’s that, your heart, that is holding you
back. When John talks about your heart
here, he doesn’t mean that big red muscle beating in your chest right now. John means what you mean, when you say; That
guy was really speaking from the heart. John
means what Selena Gomez means when she sings, The Heart Wants What It
Wants.
John is talking about the forces that drive you, for
good or for bad. For sometimes your
heart will not only lead you to do something stupid. It won’t let you forget it. It will torture you with it, condemn you for
it, burden you with it. And you can
think that all this bad feeling even comes from God. But if that’s true, why does John say when
our hearts condemn us, God is greater than that. God not only doesn’t condemn you, John says,
instead he reassures you.
Now, that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care when you
do something wrong. But God doesn’t
condemn you for it. Now, God may convict
you. You may hear God saying to
your heart. What you did there wasn’t
right. That thought you’re carrying it
leads nowhere good. But do you see the
difference? When conviction comes, it
wakes you up to something wrong. Then it
encourages you to go a different way.
It is saying something like: You are better than this. It gives you hope.
But condemnation offers you no hope. Condemnation just locks you up and throws
away the key. So when condemnation
comes, it never comes from God, even if you hear it in a church. God doesn’t condemn. Evil condemns. That’s why the Bible calls the Devil, the
Accuser. That’s part of the evil of
evil. It gets you coming and going. It tempts you to do wrong. And then it
condemns you for what it tempted you to do in the first place.
So how do you get free? You realize. Your heart is
lying to you. It is telling you
something isn’t true. God is bigger than your mistakes. God is greater than your failings, no matter
how bad. Instead, God has taken all
that for you. He carried your guilt so
you can be free of it. God paid the
ultimate price to set you free from your lying and condemning heart. And the more you believe that, the greater
your freedom becomes.
The preacher Tim Keller tells a story about one of the old Czars in
Russia. One of the Czar’s nobleman was
dying. So, he asked the Czar to adopt
his little son, as his mother had died also.
The Czar adopted the boy into his household, gave him everything. The boy grew up and took a commission in the
army. But he had some issues, a big
gambling problem. And he began to
embezzle from his division, as he was the bookkeeper. Eventually it got so bad, he couldn’t hide
the stealing any longer. It was going to
come out. So, one night he looked at
the books and saw the mess he created.
Then, he drank as much as he could, trying to find the nerve to kill
himself. But he drank so much, he passed
out. Now, the Czar had a practice of dressing
up as a soldier to see what was really going on. And that night, he was doing just that. He went to look in on his adopted son. And he saw the revolver, the open books, the
passed-out man. He realized everything.
So, the Czar wrote a note, and sealed it with the Czar’s seal. Then he left. When the young man woke up, he saw the
note. It read, “I, the Czar will make
good all the debts in this book.” And he
realized, the Czar had come and seen everything. But the Czar hadn’t condemned him. No, the Czar out of love had taken all the
debt on himself.
In Jesus God came as one of us. And God saw everything, all the messes you
and had made. But God did more than
write a note. In Jesus, God offered up
everything, even God’s own life, so that you might be free forever. Let Jesus free you from your lying and condemning
heart. Receive the liberation from guilt God has given to you. What do you need to do? All you need to do is believe that it’s
true, that God's love is greater than your heart.
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