Jesus Is Not Part Of My Past

Notes

Jesus is not part of my past, He is my past.  He was at work in my past in order that I’d see Him today, be more like Him tomorrow, so that that those around me would know and see His love for them.

How might we live rightly understanding Jesus as our past?

1. Live forgiven - your past failures, sin and rebellion do not define you.  What defines you is that you are forgiven by God.
2. Live forgiving - if we'd be ALL IN, then forgiving those who've hurt us in the past, those hurting us in the present and those who will hurt us in the future is a non-negotiable.
3. Live forward - we chose not to live backwards dwelling on past failures as well as past victories.  We move forward trusting that God has even more for us in the days ahead.

Verses

{“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” Hebrews 12:3 NIV}{“You killed the author of life…” Acts 3:15 NLT}{“For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not turned from my God to follow evil. I have followed all his regulations; I have never abandoned his decrees. I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin.” 2 Samuel 22:22-24 NLT}{“Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:5 NLT}{“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 NLT}{“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14 NLT}{“I, yes, I alone will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” Isaiah 43:25 NLT}{“God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.” Genesis 45:7 NLT}{“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Genesis 50:20 NLT}{“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Colossians 3:12-13 NLT}{“You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it… But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.” Galatians 1:13, 15-16 NLT}{“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 NLT}{“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Acts 20:24 NLT}

Quotes

Steve Timmis : “Following Jesus is a beautifully all-encompassing reality. There is no area of my life that is not subject to God’s saving sovereign care. That includes my relationships, my affections, my emotions, my ambitions, my work, my leisure, my time, my money, my resources. You name it, and Jesus made it all, paid for it all, claims it all, and rules over it all. This is an altogether wonderful and liberating truth.”
(I Wish Jesus Hadn't Said That); Ravi Zacharias : “Across history, people have come to God through different experiences, but in the end they have seen a designing hand that shaped their lives and their circumstances. Sometimes I thought He was silent; now I see He was not. At times I thought He was absent; today I know He was there. He has gently yet unmistakably demonstrated to me, both by argument and by experience, that He is very near and very active.”
(The Grand Weaver); Ravi Zacharias : “Every thread matters and has a specific purpose.”
(The Grand Weaver); Milton Vincent : “Doing good and showing love to those who have wronged me is always the opposite of what my sinful flesh wants me to do. Nonetheless, when I remind myself of my sins against God & of His forgiving and generous grace towards me, I give the gospel an opportunity to reshape my perspective & to put me in a frame of mind wherein I actually desire to give this same grace to those who have wronged me.”
(The Gospel Primer); Matt Chandler : “Those wins can all be beautiful reminders of God’s provision, of God’s power. But they can also make us smug and lazy if we try to rest in those temporary victories. The victory of yesterday was given to you by the grace of yesterday. Today comes with a grace of its own. Yesterday’s grace is inadequate in the face of today’s struggles.”
(To Live Is Christ To Die Is Gain);