GETTING FREE FROM THE PAST

In this award winning film called “The Mission,” Robert DeNiro plays a mercenary who has taken asylum in the local church after killing his brother in a fit of jealous rage. He eventually leaves the church and heads to a mission post located above the waterfalls in a South American jungle. Because of what he has done, and how bad he feels, he ties himself to a several-hundred pound net of items that represents his sinful life. He feels compelled to drag this sack of sin around with him as a way to do penance for what he has done.

As you watch this clip you’ll see him slip under the burden of his past, with the rope choking the very life out of him. He feels terrible and yet doesn’t know what to do with his sin and the shame that comes with it.

Have you ever felt like that? I suspect that some of you are tethered to some transgressions this morning. Others of you are gasping under the guilt of things you did several years ago. What do you do when you realize that you’ve messed up? How do you stabilize your life when you experience more ups and downs than the stock market? Where do you go when you’ve failed? Where do you turn when you’ve hurt those closest to you? Do you grab some rope and hitch it up to your sin pile and start dragging? Or, is there something better?

Jeff Seaman gives some insights about guilt and forgiveness that are worthy or our attention today.

1. Guilt destroys our confidence.

Guilt can make us feel insecure because we’re always worried that someone is going to find out what we’re really like, or what we’ve really done.

Many years ago, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, played a prank on five of the most prominent men in England. He sent an anonymous note to each one that simply said this, “All is found out, flee at once.” Within 24 hours all five men had left the country.

That’s exactly the picture described in Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

Is guilt destroying your confidence today?

2. Guilt damages our relationships.

When we live with unconfessed sin we can respond to people in wrong ways. Are you impatient with others? Do you find yourself reacting in anger? Are you pulling back from those you love? If so, there may be some guilt in your gut somewhere.

3. Guilt keeps us stuck in the past.

Do you continuously replay your sins over and over and over in your mind? Someone has said, “Guilt cannot change the past just like worry cannot change the future. But it can make you miserable today.” Have you ever noticed how your stomach keeps score when you swallow your sins?

While many of us wrestle with false guilt, too few of us take our real guilt seriously. Instead of confessing our sins, we often bury them or just try to ignore them.

The Bible calls us back to the truth that we are sinners who have missed the mark of God’s perfection. Our own death warrants have been written into our birth certificates. In short, we struggle with guilt because we’re guilty.

Ecclesiastes 7:20: “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.”

Go to Psalm 32. 

The great theologian Augustine said that the beginning of knowledge is to know oneself to be a sinner. In order to be reminded of his depraved sinfulness and God’s gracious forgiveness, he had this psalm engraved on his bedroom wall as he lay dying in his bed. He read it all the time and when he was too sick, he instructed others to recite it for him.

Read this Psalm slowly and take in the words that are written.

Psalm 32:1-11 (ESV) ¹ Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. ²  Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. ³  For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. ⁴  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah ⁵  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah ⁶  Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. ⁷  You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah ⁸  I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. ⁹  Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. ¹⁰  Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. ¹¹  Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

“May God breathe on you and your life today.  May His Holy Spirit fill you with a sense of freedom and forgiveness.  I pray that guilt would go away and that your heart would rejoice and shout for joy at the freedom that you sense and feel.  May your past be your past and may you move forward to a new sense of peace and confidence in your faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.”