Pastor Jon Burgess
April 10, 2016 - W1615

Regrets are those things that hold us back. It’s the ball and chain that keep us from running the race that God has called us to.  Today, we continue The Divine Mentor series inviting you to leave those regrets behind At The Intersections.  If you came to Jesus Christ, the enemy knows he can’t get you with sin because Jesus took care of them at the cross.  Since the enemy can’t get you with sin, he will hold you back with the residue of sin called “regret.”  Regrets are missed opportunities that still haunt us. Regrets keep us looking into the past, while God is calling us to look towards the future 

John 10:27, “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.”  It is necessary to understand that we are His sheep and we do hear His voice. The voice of God is redemption and reconciliation, not regret.  God talks about the future, not the past.  God wants to move each of us into a place where we are no longer held back by what we have done or not done.  What happens when we choose to hear the voice of regret, fear, and condemnation?  It trumps the voice of the Shepherd.

Jesus meets At The Intersection of Indifference and Involved! An intersection is where two paths cross.  This is where Jesus wants to meet us.  The opposite of love is not hate—it is indifference. If you hate somebody, they are still on your mind and you care about how they feel about you.  Indifference, on the other hand, means you don’t care at all.  God wants to meet At The Intersection of “I don’t care” and “I’m going to be involved in what He is doing.” 

Luke 24:32-35. “They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scripture to us?’  They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem.  There they found the eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true!  The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’  Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread.”

Connection Key: Look Up!  Recently, I went to Maui for a wedding. After the wedding, I went to the airport two hours early so I could relax.  I checked in my luggage and got my ticket.  The line to Honolulu was really long.  I was hungry and my goal was to eat quickly but then I realized that I had left my delicious Mac Nuts with sour cream and onions in the rental car!  Now I’m hungry and angry— “hangry”!  So I decided to get out my cellphone, go online, and check my messages but then realized that my battery was almost out!  I panicked—I don’t have my cellphone and I don’t have anything to eat; meaning, I have to look up and talk to people and I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone!  Interestingly, God moved me from a place of indifference where I cared less about my personal circumstances to realizing what was going on around me. God convicted my heart and said, “Hey, Jon, there is a reason for this.  I need to teach you something.  You’re missing out on what I’m doing around you!”  It was an awakening. I began to notice the exhausted mothers trying to keep their kids happy and the frustrated ones and I began conversations with them.  Most importantly, I started praying God’s heart for the people and the islands, and time went by just like that!  I was now in a zone with the One who knows and even if I had to wait for the last 11:00 p.m. flight home, I became involved with what God was doing. God reminded me that He is always talking but I’m not always listening because I’m usually looking down at my cellphone instead of looking up at my surroundings.

Regrets add up. My regret is that I spend most of my time being busy. Even when I’m busy with the things of God, I’m missing out on what God is really doing in front of me At The Intersection of Indifference and Involved.  God wants us to be honest with our regrets at the collision point, and turn the collision into a connection with His heart and to care about the people around us because Jesus cares about them. 

1. Jesus meets At The Intersection of Abstract and Actual! Abstract is something that’s way out there—ethereal—you can’t actually touch, grab, or feel it. Actual is something that you can feel, touch, and know it’s there and you don’t deny its validity in your life. There is an entire group of people trying to make the abstract, actual and they fall short of the knowledge of the One who can actually do that. They feel that God is abstract and they don’t need Him because they are gods. Now is the time for the people of God to rise up and actually show them who God is.

Luke 24:36-43, “While they were still talking about this, Jesus Himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I Myself!  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’  When He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet.  And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, He asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence.”  

Jesus enters the room and the disciples are filled with regrets of fear, shame, and condemnation because they had run and left Him at the cross! They were probably thinking, “I said I would be there with Him and I ran.  I spent 3-1/2 years with Him and here He is, the Resurrected Christ who conquered sin, death, and hell.” 

Connection Key: Show Up!  When you show up, Jesus shows up!  Show up no matter how much doubt, fear, regret, shame, or condemnation you feel, no matter how many times the enemy lied to you saying, “You have no right to call yourself a Christian.” The disciples were afraid of what Jesus would say, but instead of condemning them, He says, “I am real, I am here, and I love you,” and asked for some fish to eat and called them to freedom.

The disciples were fearful, hiding behind locked doors because the Roman soldiers were rounding up Jesus’ disciples. It is important that we are honest with the regrets of our lives because people will find God only in the honest, imperfect, actual reality of Christ lived out in us.  The world will know that our God is real by seeing the actual Jesus with “holes” in His feet and hands.  How will our family and friends know that we serve an actual God and not an abstract one?  Look at your hands and feet.  Those are Christ’s hands and feet.  Where you go, He goes.  When you show up, He shows up.  When you lay your hands on someone, they are His hands.  I see Jesus all the time.  When you give me a hug, Jesus is hugging me.  When you pray for someone, Jesus is praying.  When you love someone unconditionally, that’s Jesus.  That is how we show that God is actual and not abstract. We are changed because He is an actual God, not an abstract one.  If there are regrets in your life and you think, “He can’t use me.” I promise you that no matter how many regrets you have, the disciples had more. Jesus will say the same thing to you as He did them, “You’re just getting started.  Let’s go!” 

1. Jesus meets At The Intersection of Regret and Redemption! When Jesus walks into a room, He changes everything. The same thing He told the disciples, He is telling us. Luke 24:44-49, “He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [He looks them straight in their eyes and looks past their regret, remorse, fears, and says] You are witnesses of these things. [These are the guys who totally messed up and let him down. Jesus does not speak the language of regret. He speaks the language of redemption.] I am going to send you what My Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’”

The language of regret says, “You missed it!” The language of redemption says, “Here’s your mission!  Now get going!”  Have we missed it?  Numerous times, but because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, He not only conquered sin, He also conquered our regrets (the residue left by sin) the places where you and I have missed it, At The Intersection of Regret and Redemption.  Jesus looks you in the eyes and says, “You are my witness.”  Not only does He not beat us up and does not slam the door in our face, but He literally opens the door to possibilities that you and I never even considered possible.

Connection Key: Wake Up!  Would you like to wake up to the reality of God’s Word as the disciples did and have an understanding to what the scriptures actually mean? Then may I encourage you to become involved in the Divine Mentor Small Group and allow Pastor Wayne Cordeiro to show you how to read God’s Word and help you understand what it is saying?

The second way is to wake up literally every Wednesday morning from 5:30 to 6:00, get out of bed on your knees and pray, and God will meet with you.

The key is in Luke 24:49 (my paraphrase) Jesus said, “Before you go, I must give you the gift of the Holy Spirit because you will not be able to do the work without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.”

One hundred ten years ago today, the Azusa Street Revival began that brought thousands of people together from around the world and every denomination, race, and culture. For the first time, people who previously had nothing to do with each other found themselves in the presence of God worshipping together. People were being saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit, healed physically, and people who had nothing to do with God came by the thousands to receive Christ.  Today in Los Angeles, over 70,000 people from across the country and around the world from every denomination are joining together, crying out to God for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as He did 110 years ago. 

What has that got to do with us, you might ask? When I called the church for an April Awakening last week, I did not know this was happening in LA this week.  I believe it is confirmation of what God is doing because He speaks the same message to all. There is a hunger, thirst, and desire in all of us to wake up to what God is doing.  He wants to get us out of the place of regret and push us out into the world God has called us to.  It just may start on a Wednesday morning during the one-half hour on your knees, listening, and crying out to God, “Holy Spirit come and pour out on me like never before.  Awaken me to see what you are doing.”  If you are not familiar with what I am saying, read Acts chapter two this week and ask God to let this happen to you and watch what He does. 

Don’t let the “regret of pride” say “I can do this on my own.” “I already know the scriptures.”  You and I, apart from the Holy Spirit, cannot erase the regret from our lives no matter how hard we try, no matter how spiritual we think we are.  We cannot remove the residue of regret that clouds our decisions and causes us to doubt that God can use us. Praise the Lord! The Blood of Jesus covers all my sins—the sins I did yesterday, will do today and in the future! What regrets we cannot erase, Jesus covers it all!

STUDY QUESTIONS:

• Explain the meaning of regret according to Pastor Jon Burgess.

• What is the opposite of love? Explain.

• How can we show the world that God is actual—real and tangible?

• How does the voice of redemption differ from voice of regret?