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'An Independent Baptist Church' FACING THE GIANT OF GUILT
Are you haunted by mistakes in your past? We could entitle this message 'BEING ABLE TO FORGIVE YOURSELF'.... We all have failures in our past... Bad Decisions.....things we have SAID..... Things we have DONE.....that we regret.... And if we let him, the DEVIL WILL CONSTANTLY BRING UP OUR PAST and hold us 'HOSTAGE' it........and he will whisper in our ear, 'Remember what you did, you have not changed....God can never forgive you for that...' I want to show you in this lesson that EVERYONE has failures and mistakes and terrible sins in our past.....we cannot let the devil keep bringing these things up and haunting us with them... We must...we have got to....turn them over to the Lord....confess the sin to the Lord and take full responsibility for it....and leave it with the Lord! The Bible is full of examples of people whom had terrible pasts and the Lord was able to use these people and He can use you and I too... We're going to look specifically at the Apostle Paul and King David and see how they were able to deal with their GUILT over their past failures. Listen to what Paul Said in Philippians 3;13,14 "Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Now here is a man who had a horrible past.... We read in Acts 7:58 and Acts 8:1,3 some of the things Paul did in his Past (when he was named Saul): "And cast him out of the city, and stoned
him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose
name was Saul. My Friend, I don't know what the devil is haunting you with in your past, but could it be worse than the Apostle Paul's past? As I look at a definition of GUILT, I see the following: "A feeling of responsibility or remorse for some real or imagined offense in the past." Perhaps of all the 'GIANTS' we have looked at so far, GUILT over our past could be described as 'The INVISIBLE GIANT' that is the heaviest to carry.....slowly suffocating, slowly crushing us to a SLOW DEATH..... Guilt over our past failures....and the inability to FORGIVE OURSELVES....is so destructive because it is always there... when we wake up, when we go to bed.......it won't go away... Until we finally realize that Jesus Christ has come to set the captives free! If we allow it, the devil will enslave us to the bondage of GUILT.... Listen to 2 Timothy 2:26 "And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." Are you CAPTIVE to the Snare of guilt over failures and mistakes of your past, my friend? I have talked to ladies who are guilt-ridden over an abortion they had years ago....when they followed the advice of someone.....it seemed to be the right decision at the time....but the counselor never told them about the guilt that would follow in the years to come... I have know folks who were involved in an accident years ago in which another person was seriously injured or even killed, and these people feel that they were responsible for the accident and what happened to the other person.......Maybe alcohol was involved.... and even years later they feel so much remorse that they were responsible for what happened... I have talked to husbands and wives who got divorce from their mate and they thought at the time it was the right decision.....and now years later they know it was a terrible mistake.... but there is nothing they can do about it now....it is too late....and they live with the regret and the guilt...... I know parents who live with the guilt that they failed their children in someway....they said or done things they regret now...that hurt their children a lot.....and they have to live with that now.... HOW DO YOU FORGIVE YOURSELF? Guilt is so devastating because.... 1. IT TAKES AWAY YOUR JOY AND PEACE OF MIND.
2. THE DEVIL USES YOUR PAST GUILT AS SATANIC BLACKMAIL. He keeps bringing it up.....every time we want to turn things around perhaps and move on in life.....the devil whispers in your ear, "Now you remember what you did in your past, don't you?" 3. GUILT KEEPS PEOPLE FROM SERVING CHRIST. I wander how many people do not serve Christ because of guilt over their past? When they start to do something down at Church, there is the devil whispering in their ear again reminding them of their past..... Let's look at another person in the Bible who had lots of guilt to deal with....King David... As you're turning to Psalms 51, you recall the story of David..... He was at home one night on his balcony when his army was out at war....and he noticed a beautiful woman taking a bath, Bathsheba. Well, you know the story...He took her and committed adultery.......and she became pregnant. He contrived a plan to hide the sin....eventually had her husband, Uriah, sent to the front line of battle where he was killed! David thought he had his problem settled, but he didn't figure into the equation the terrible guilt that eat at his soul for the next few months..... Finally in agony and desperation, he comes to God in Psalms 51 and confesses the sin and asks God to forgive him. Listen to the pain in this man's confession: Psalms 51... 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies blot out my transgressions.
Can you hear the pain in this man's voice? Does that picture sound familiar? Does it describe you? You see, there are.... TWO TYPES OF GUILT GOOD GUILT...... The kind of guilt from the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sin! If you are an unsaved person, it is the Holy Spirit who is convicting you of your need to trust Christ as Savior! If you are a Christian like David, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts of your wrong-doing until you confess it to the Lord so fellowship can be restored! These are good kinds of guilt! But there is also.... BAD GUILT.... Bad guilt is when we don't do anything about it...or feel we can't do anything about it.......we just let it enslave us for months and years ....allow the Devil to continue to blackmail us with! Oh, My friend, follow David's example and take the guilt to the Lord! From Paul and David's example, I can learn the following things about how to deal with GUILT over our past......Especially when I look at Philippians 3:13,14 again.... "Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Here's what I learn and maybe it can help
you too.... FACING OUR GUILT AND FORGIVING OURSELVES.....
1. WE ALL HAVE FAILURES IN OUR PAST.
2. WE MUST DEAL WITH GUILT OVER OUR PAST AND MOVE ON.....OR BE ENSLAVED TO IT AND LIVE IN BONDAGE.
3. IDENTIFY THE CAUSE OF THE GUILT.... What is it that is causing your guilt? Is it real or false guilt? Psychologists tell us there are two types of guilt... True guilt and false guilt.... False guilt is when we blame ourselves for things that we should not blames ourselves for... For example, I've heard people say: "If I would have been a better wife, my husband would not have had an affair with another woman..." "If I would have been a better parent, my child would not be wayward as he or she is today...." "If I would behaved differently, Uncle Bob would not have molested and abused me..." My Friend, these are LIES..... First, we must determine if we have a legitimate reason to feel guilty.....or it is FALSE GUILT.... If our guilt is legitimate, then we must.... 4. FACE IT AND ACCEPT FULL RESPONSIBILITY.... CONFESS & ADMIT THE FAILURE (OR SIN) TO THE LORD...
5. IF NECESSARY, GO TO THOSE YOU HAVE WRONGED AND MAKE IT RIGHT. Now be careful here. There are some times when it is best just to take it to the Lord and leave it there.... Sometimes it does more harm to tell your wife, or anyone else about some matter of the past.... Ask yourself the question, "Will this do more harm than good by me confessing this matter to other people?" Most of the time it is best to keep the matter private between you and the Lord....unless the situation demands public confession to other people. I would advise talking with another wise and older person for counseling and advice on whether to tell anyone else about the matter...... Often we can do more harm by opening up a can of worms..... especially PUBLIC CONFESSION.....BE REAL CAREFUL HERE BEFORE DOING THIS!!!!!!!! 6. FORSAKE THE SIN. Many times we continue to have guilt over a sin or matter because we keep doing it....and repeating the sin! We need to, with God's help, FORSAKE THE SIN! 7. TURN IT OVER TO THE LORD AND LEAVE IT THERE. The devil will try to bring up failures in your past and haunt you with it, but remember 1 John 1:9... "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God promises to forgive and cleanse us from the matter, then why should we not forgive ourselves? Psalms 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Hebrews 10: 17 "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Now if God promises to FORGET our sins
and failures and not bring them up any more, why Should we allow the devil to
keep bringing them up??
We must be willing to to forgive ourselves and move on and not let the devil ENSLAVE US to the guilt of our sins and failures in the past! Everyone in the Bible had failures and bad decisions in their past, and like Paul, we must move on! Listen to Philippians 3:13,14 once again, 3:13 "Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." My Friend, perhaps your guilt is because you have never asked Jesus to forgive your sins. If you realize your sinfulness, would you ask Jesus to Save you and trust His shed blood at Calvary to pay for your sins? If you are sorry for your sins, wouldn't you call upon Jesus to save you now, trusting Him completely? Romans 10:13 "For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
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