Surviving Our Past
2003053
Topic # 2055
I. If you had the power to change your past, what would you change?
A. Most people would like to alter their past in some way.
1. Some would eliminate a tragedy or hardships.
2. Some would add some opportunities.
3. Some would change decisions and make different choices.
4. Some would remove a disease, or suffering, or eliminate a death.
5. Some would make basic changes in his or her family.
6. The list of ways that people would alter the past go on and on.
B. What about you? What would you alter?
II. May I suggest that none of us need to change our pasts, but most of us need to survive our pasts.
A. Be very careful to understand what I say.
1. Not run from our pasts.
2. Not hide from our pasts. Not deny our pasts.
3. Not fantasize about our pasts.
4. But survive our pasts.
B. The person who was pampered needs to survive his or her past.
1. When we are pampered, the message of the pampering is this: "You are so special that you deserve special treatment."
2. "You should get good treatment before others receive consideration."
3. Why does anyone need to survive pampering?
1. Pampering equips a person to be selfish, self-centered, and to consider and think of self first.
2. Being conditioned to be selfish is a curse, not a blessing.
C. The person who was taught to be materialistic needs to survive his or her past.
1. This person was taught to look at people and life in terms of monetary value.
1. The most important measurement for everything is money or financial value.
2. Being conditioned to value things above God or people is a curse, not a blessing.
3. The person who has been taught to indulge himself or herself needs to survive his or her past.
D. The person whose life has been touched by the agony, the loss, and the grief of tragedy needs to survive his or her past.
1. Tragedy can effect us in many different forms. Disease; accidents; death
2. Whatever the form of the tragedy, whatever loss the tragedy inflicted, the tragedy created situations to be survived, not blessings to be enjoyed.
E. The person who had a troubled past needs to survive his or her past.
1. Troubled pasts take an unbelievable toll on life and relationships.
2. "What do you mean by troubled pasts?"
i. The agony, grief, destructiveness, and rejection of divorce.
ii. fears and insecurity of a broken home.
iii. The devastation of abuse: alcohol, drugs, or rage.
III. To survive the past, three things must happen.
A. First, the person must destroy his or her burden.
1. You cannot do that by yourself.
2. To destroy your burdens, you have to give your burdens to someone bigger than a human being.
3. You have to give them to the burden bearer, the only one who can carry your burdens:
4. Jesus Mt. 11:28-30
5. God 1 Pet 5:6-7
B. Second, the person must accept and trust forgiveness.
1. It is impossible to survive your past if you live in the slavery of guilt.
2. As long as you are chained by guilt you have no hope of surviving your past.
3. The fascinating thing about forgiveness is that you will not forgive yourself until you accept and trust God's forgiveness.
4. Hebrews 8:12
C. Third, we must be liberated from the person created by the past.
1. The horrible thing about being enslaved to the past is we keep living and acting like the person of the past.
2. God saved us to give us the opportunity to escape the "same old me."
1. That is the existence he wants us to escape.
2. One of the purposes of salvation is to change us.
Col. 3:9-10
3. Romans 12:2
God says, "I am the God of your past, the God of your present, and the God of your future. If you allow me to be your God, I can recreate you. I can make you a new person with a new life and a new future."
God can do it. That is not the issue. The issue is this: do you believe that God can do it?
