Pastor Jon Burgess
July 28, 2019 - W1930

Make Peace With Your Past

Faith For The Journey

Pastor Jon Burgess

July 27?28, 2019 

The year was 1879, and a man named Thomas Edison was working on a crazy incandescent contraption called a light bulb.  He and his crew worked 24 hours straight, then entrusted a young assistant with the task of taking the light bulb to store for delivery.

Can you imagine the nervousness of the young assistant as he carefully handles the light bulb—worrying that he won’t make it to storage at the top of the stairs?  And as he walks upstairs, almost to his destination, he trips and drops the light bulb—which shatters on the ground!

Now, the young assistant might have thought, “That’s the end. I’m done for. I’ll never be welcomed back to be a part of this groundbreaking work ever again!” Yet, 24 hours later when they had finished another light bulb guess what Thomas Edison did?  He took the new light bulb and handed it back to the young assistant and said, "You can do it again."  

You and I have been entrusted with shining the light of grace.  If you're like me, you've missed the mark and dropped the ball multiple times; yet, the grace of God wants to remind you that your past doesn't determine your future! 

As we finish our Faith For The Journey series, we find the apostle Paul saying that God will hand the light back to you, as you learn to Make Peace With Your Past:

Philippians 3:13-16 NLT:  “¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. ¹⁵ Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. ¹⁶ But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.”

Paul is making it clear that we can't make progress at the same time we’re holding on to the past!  Past mistakes or even past achievements can keep us from stepping into all that God has for us. We must choose to forget the past (no matter how bad or how good) and look forward to what God has planned for our future—we can't do anything about the past.  It's already done!

To that end, I want to talk about three things to help us understand what Paul is trying to get through to us: Rearview Mirrors, Rotten Wood, and Rubbish Cans. Hopefully, you'll see what these things have to do with our Faith For The Journey.

1. Rearview Mirrors:  The Past Is A Place Of Reference Not A Place Of Residence

Before Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, he was known as Saul—a zealous warrior for the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day. Thinking that he was serving God, he was actually fighting against God: ripping families apart and throwing them in jail for their belief in Jesus Christ! He even watched with approval as Stephen (a servant of God) was being stoned to death!   

One day on his way to wreak more havoc upon Christian believers in Damascus, a blinding light stopped Saul—the Light was Jesus! What Jesus spoke to Saul completely changed the trajectory of his life, forever! But none of the early believers accepted the fact that Saul was now a fellow believer! They wanted nothing to do with him—so how did he become a part of the church and write a large portion of the New Testament? It was Barnabas—his name means encourager. He became a bridge from Saul's past to Saul's future—the apostle Paul!  He became a relational way to leave behind the past and step into his God?given calling…  

Acts 9:26-27 NIV:  “²⁶ When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.  ²⁷ But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.”

Too often we hold our family and friends to their mistakes. We need to learn from Barnabas that the rearview mirror is a reminder—a place of reference not a place of residence!  When our spouse and children are taken captive in mistakes, let’s give them the same grace that God extends to us, and help them move to a future God has for them—like Barnabas.

It’s very clear from Paul Globak’s testimony that the enemy wants us to live with guilt, pain, and sorrow; and even after we are set free, he tries to pull us back into condemnation! That would be like driving forward while staring into the rearview mirror! We learn from the past, but we cannot live in past successes because God is calling us into something new!

2. Rotten Wood:  The Master Craftsman Sees A Masterpiece

Ephesians 2:4-7, 10 NLT:  ^“4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)  ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus…For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” 

Jesus built his disciples from a bunch of rabble?rousers that no one wanted to spend time with—some were even hated.  Matthew was one of the hated tax collectors, who turned into a world changer because he met Jesus Christ!  Matthew writes in his gospel about the arrival of Jesus, with a very peculiar, interesting, and rare genealogy—mentioning women in his genealogy who had, what we will say, checkered pasts:   

Tamar slept with her father; Rahab was a prostitute; and Bathsheba committed adultery with King David.  And yet, each one is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ; and Rahab is even mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith.  God used the stories of broken women by their circumstances, to lay the path for the arrival of the Savior of all mankind. We can't fix our family or friends! God is asking us to forgive them and see them the way He does—as a masterpiece! He looks at us not as trash, but a treasure—a beautiful, powerful, poignant story of redemption!

When Cyndi and I pastored New Hope Legacy in Kona, we moved across the street from Makana Delovio and his family.  At that time Makana was a carpenter, but had dreams to be a pastor one day; so he went to Bible College (where he met his wife, Tammy) and returned to Kona with a desire to plant a church—but failed, and thought that would never happen! He accepted our invitation to attend our new church and went through a series of restoration, and began having visions of pastoring a church. I asked him to help me lead worship, then a small group.  As I watched him grow, I saw a calling on his life that he had completely given up on.  

When Pastor Wayne asked Cyndi and me to come here to New Hope Oahu at Sand Island as campus pastors, I saw the reason God sent us to Kona—to mentor Makana and Tammy into their original calling of church building and being pastors of New Hope Legacy!  

About a year ago Makana gave me a gift that he wants me to share with you:  He said he found an old Koa wood mill in Kona, and under a pile of overgrown grass he found scraps of Koa wood the workers had left behind.  Koa wood is very valuable, rare, and expensive, but these were left as worthless, worm-eaten, and moldy.  He took all the scraps and cut away the rotted strips, and sanded, glued together, and lacquered, and made a plaque with the words:  "New Hope Legacy, Mahalo For Running With Us.  Hebrews 12:1, The Burgess Ohana."   

Makana started with some rough-looking wood, but the finished plaque is so beautiful! What he did with the forgotten Koa wood is exactly what God did with Pastor Makana, and is what He wants to do with you and me!  What I love about this plaque is that it doesn't deny the fact that this is still some rough?looking wood, but it actually enhances it—brings it out!  

As Makana was redeeming the Koa wood, God, the Master Craftsman, spoke to him that He always saw him as a valuable gift (Makana means gift). While Makana saw himself as worthless, not able to fulfill the call to build a church, God said, “I want to remind you that this is how I’ve always seen you.  Maybe others don't, but I do!”  

Makana also made a plaque for Pastor Wayne; Pastor Wayne has it on a shelf next to his book covers and other pieces of honor in his office. The Master Craftsman sees us not as trash, but treasure. His plan for us is not over yet—but you must surrender your plans back into His hands. That's what God wants to do with the rotten wood in our lives. He sees a beautiful, powerful, poignant story of redemption.  We are His treasure, His masterpiece, and His handiwork!  

When we don't let go of our successful past, it becomes an idol, and the Lord is saying, “Your successes aren’t bad until they supplant who it is that I'm asking you to be—in retrospect, put them in the rubbish can!” 

3. Rubbish Cans: The Message Is In The Mess

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 NIV:  “⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

This is about Making Peace With Our Successful Past!  Some of us have been living so long in what once was; and the Lord is saying we must be drastic with it because if we’re so beholden to our past successes and celebrating in nostalgia—we’ll miss what God has for us!

Philippians 3:7-8 NIV:  “⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”

Jesus is saying I want you to Make Peace With Your Painful Past, and also to Make Peace With Your Successful Past—see them as rubbish, in comparison to His righteousness!  When we don't let go of our successful past, it becomes a God—an idol! The Lord is saying, “The successes aren't bad until they supplant who it is that I'm asking you to be!”  The only way is to put them in the rubbish can—then God will teach what He wants us to do.  

What is meant by: Message Is In The Mess? Our God takes from the rubbish can, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and puts us all together with the golden repair of His grace and beauty; then features us as a receptacle to bring the Water of Life to the world.  That sounds like the Gospel to me; that's what He wants to do with us! 

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV:  “…My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

God sent His Son to take away your sins, but He will never take away the scars—your scars are the stories that will lead others home to heaven! 

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:

1.      Describe what it would be like to constantly look at your past (in the rear view mirror) as you try      to walk forward, to claim what God has for you.
2.      What are some of your past successes that hinder your view of God’s plan for you?
3.      What does 2 Cor. 12:9 mean to you?  How is God’s power made perfect in your weakness?
4.      Describe how The Lord redeemed you.