These Walls of Regret

Right here, right now, we're issuing divine eviction notices to every regret that's been living rent-free in your head. This isn't a conversation—it's a CONTROLLED DEMOLITION. This isn't therapy—this is WARFARE! In the next hour, we're going to systematically DESTROY every wall of regret you've been leaning on.


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God Bless,
Pastor Tim

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's been honey, many of you down for years. And
the thing about regret that you have to understand that
regret as a master architect, break by brick. What regret
does is it builds a wall around our minds. And
when it builds a wall around our mind, it prevents
anything from coming in. But it also, more importantly prevents

(00:22):
anything from coming out. What are the bricks we're talking about.
We're talking about the words that you wish you could
have taken back. We're talking about the marriage that ended.
We're talking about the regret for a marriage that started
and ended that you didn't want. We're talking about friendships
that you let drift away. We're talking about money that
you wasted, opportunities that you wasted, businesses that failed because

(00:46):
you didn't put your best foot forward, the degree that
you never finish, talking about the secret that you're still keeping,
the addiction that you hide from everyone, the person that
you heard, regret that you have for the person that
you heard. They're no longer here for you to apologize too.
So each memory forms a brick, and together these bricks

(01:09):
form a wall around my mind. And the wall that
we're identifying today is these walls of regret. But today
I don't want to just talk about it. I want
all of us to declare war on this wall once
and for all, because we're here today with a divine
demolition order to tear down every single one of these

(01:30):
walls of regrets that you've been walking around with, that
you've been walking around processing and replaying in your mind.
So wherever you are right now in this moment, whether
you're in your living room, whether you're in the kitchen,
your bedroom, your truck, your car, your office, I need
you to lean in real close. I want you to
remove any distractions because what God wants to do today

(01:51):
requires your full undivided attention because we are about to
stage a prison break from the inside out, and I
need to know who's with me. There's a movie that
plays constantly on television, depending on what platform you have,
and it's a movie called The Shawshank Redemption. And if

(02:13):
you're familiar with The Shawshank Redemption, then what am I
about to share with you won't sound foreign to you.
If you haven't seen The Shaw Shank Redemption, well you're
about to get some spoiler alert, so focal up. But
I want you to picture in the Shaw Shank Redemption.
The two prisoners I want to talk about. I want
to talk about Brooks and Andy. Brooks and Andy both

(02:37):
incarcerated in the exact same prison, but both of these
men have two different outfleots. And this is what I
mean by that. Brooks was a librarian. Brooks spent fifty
years inside those prison walls. Fifty years, half a century.
So for Brooks, the prison stopped being a punishment and

(02:58):
it became his world. Brooks had a job, Brooks had
a routine. Brooks knew every rule, he knew the CEOs,
he knew every stone that was in that prison. But
here's the thing that I want you to also understand.

(03:18):
The walls. One second, the walls that Brooks were holding,
the walls weren't just holding Brooks. Brooks was being held
in a situation where he had been in prison for
so long that Brooks had become comfortable. Brooks had become

(03:41):
situated in his walls. So the walls weren't just holding
him in. The walls were actually holding Brooks together. The
walls of his prison gave him his identity. But then
one day, this is something that happened, and I don't
know if Brooks was even ready for this. Get this.
One day they paro Brooks, they parolled him, they stamped

(04:03):
his papers. They opened the gate and they set Brooks
outside of the prison and they told Brooks, Brooks, you're
a free man. So now Brooks is legally, officially completely free.
But what happens. Brooks can't handle his freedom. Brooks can't
make the adjustment to freedom. The world that he's in

(04:26):
now is too fast. He can't handle it. It's too loud,
it's too different. See inside, Charles Shank, he was somebody
on the outside. He's a nobody. Freedom to Brooks is
more terrifying than the confinement of the walls of Shawshank

(04:46):
ever was for him for fifty years. There's a scripture
in John chapter a verse thirty six, and it says,
if the Sun therefore shall make you free, you shall
be free. Indeed, he who the Son sets free is free. Indeed,
that's our divine parole paperwork. That's the gate swinging open

(05:07):
for all of us. All of us have access to
this gate. But here's the tragedy. Just like Brooks, how
many of us, though we have been set free by
the sun, we can't walk in that freedom. We're legally
pardoned by the blood of Jesus, but we're still mentally
institutionalized by our past, by our regrets. We're so used

(05:31):
to the familiar walls of our regrets, we're so comfortable
with the identity of our failure that we can't even
handle the wide open spaces of God's grace. So you
know what we do. We do just like Brooks. We
stand just outside the gate, paralyzed, immobilized, unable to believe
that we're truly free. But there's another prisoner in that

(05:54):
same institution. His name was Andy, Andy beframed. So for
nineteen years, Andy had a tiny rock hammer. It was
a rock hammer. You could fit it in the palm
of your hand. And for nineteen years Andy was chipping
away at his wall inside of his prison cet. Andy

(06:19):
refused to let his past be his prison. Andy believed
in a life beyond the walls of his sentence. Andy
knew he was a free man. Andy knew I don't
even have no business being here, So I'm not going
to get okay. I'm not going to be okay with this.
So Andy began the process of chipping at his wall,

(06:42):
chipping at his wall, chipping at his wall to the
point where Andy created a tunnel to get out of
that prison. And that man crawled through five hundred yards
of filth and feces. But that man came out clean
on the other side. He came out a freeman. So
my question for you right now is this, who are

(07:04):
you in this moment, right here, as you're listening? Who
are you? Are you? Brooks? Have you gotten so comfortable
with the memory of your regrets that you've forgotten what
the freedom of God's grace even feels like? Do you
even know what grace feels like? Have you leaned in
to the grace of God? By grace? Are you saved?

(07:26):
Paul says over the Ephesians chapter two. He says, not
of works lest any man should boast, But have you
accepted God's grace? Or have you accepted the walls of
your regret as your home? Are you comfortable there? Or
am I talking to some Andy Defrans? Is there a
little Andy on the inside of you? Is there a

(07:46):
part of you that is sick and tired of being
sick and tired? Is there a part of you that's
sick and tired of being confined? Is there a part
of you that still believes in the world beyond these
walls of regret? Is there a part of you that's
ready to crawl through whatever is takes to feel the
rain of God's mercy on your face. So today we're
gonna look at a man, because we got a demolition

(08:07):
permit this morning from a man who built, in my opinion,
the highest walls of regret ever imaginable. And I'm talking
about the Apostle Paul. But before we meet him as
the Apostle Paul, he was sal of Tarsus and bab

(08:28):
let me tell you something. You didn't want no problems
with Solve of Tarsus. For my wire fan, Saul of
Tarsus was Avon, Stringer, Omar and Marlowe all rolled up
into one baby. You did not want to see him.
And if he had to come and get you, then
he could be Bunk, Jimmy or Freedman, because you know

(08:50):
if any one of those three got to file on you,
they're coming to get you. So Saul of Tarsus was
no joke. This man was a one man terrorists. So
I want to take you to a scene in his past.
I want to take you to the scene of what
I feel is one of his greatest crimes because of
what it involved, what it encapsulated. I want to take

(09:13):
you the ground zero of his regret. Have you ever
gone to ground zero of your regret and you were
able to walk away from it? Or do you go
to ground zero of your regret and you get stuck there?
So over in Acts chapter seven, there's a deacon. The
early Church chose out seven deacons, and Stephen was one

(09:34):
of those deacons. The Bible says that Stephen was a
man full of the Holy Ghost, and Stephen was on trial,
and he was before the Sanhedrin. As Stephen is on trial,
he's preaching the truth of Jesus with so much fire
and so much conviction that the religious leaders can't stand it.

(09:54):
If you go over to Acts chapter seven, you will
read they rushed this man and they began to bite him,
and then they drug him outside the city to execute him.
The Bible says in Acts chapter seven, verse fifty eight,
that they cast even out of the city and they
stoned him. Those that were stoning him, they laid their

(10:17):
coats down at a young man's feet whose name was Saw.
The Bible takes a moment to pan away from this
murder scene. So let you see. There's a young man
standing over here in a corner, and I want you
to see this, and I want you to feel the
dust kicking up. I want you to hear the rage

(10:39):
of the voices in the crowd, see the rocks heavy
jagged in their hands, and then they're off to the
side is a young man named Saul. He's not throwing
a stone, but in my opinion, he's doing something far
more sinister. He is the official authority. He is the

(10:59):
stamp of a proof of the killers laid their coats
at his feet as a sign of respect. He is
guarding their cloaks so their arms are free to commit murder.
And so the Bible says that they drag Stephen out
the council. They looked at Stephen's face, and this is

(11:21):
what the Bible says they saw. They saw Stephen's face
as it had been, the face of an angel. Can
you imagine seeing that? Can you imagine a man about
to be brutally murdered and his face is shiny with
the peace of heaven. That image alone was a brick

(11:44):
and saw's wall of regret that would haunt him. Then
as the rocks are flying, I love the images that
the Bible is giving us as we're reading this, because
the Bible is letting you know every that's happening in
the foreground and in the background. And so as the
rocks are flying, Stephen looks up. He doesn't see the

(12:08):
hate filled faces of his killers. Please hear me. You
have to get your eyes off of people and what
they're saying and what they're doing against you or to you. No,
Stephen doesn't. He doesn't pay their faces any mind. You
know what Stephen does. He sees past them. The Bible
says in actually seven, verse fifty five, But he, being

(12:31):
full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly. That means
he was locked in. Stephen is looking towards Heaven. And
as he's looking towards having the Bible declares that he
saw the glory of God. And get this, Jesus standing
on the right hand of God. So now allow your
eyes to focus on the posture of Jesus, not sitting

(12:56):
but standing. Nowhere else in scripture will you see that.
It's as if the King of the universe was rising
to his feet to give this martyr a standing ovation
to welcome him home. And then came the final blow.
I believe Saul's conscious because that Stephen's bones are breaking,
as his blood is staining in the ground. Stephen cries

(13:18):
out with a loud voice, and he echoes the word
of his savior from the Cross in Act, chapter seven,
verse sixty. This is what Stephen says. He kneeled down,
cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge. And when he has said this, he

(13:39):
fell asleep. Stephen prayed for the men who were killing him.
He prayed for Saul. How many knights this Saul? Now?
Paul lay awake, replaying those words over and over in
his mind, the face of an angel, vision of a

(14:00):
standing savior, the prayer of forgiveness. These were moments that
were seared into his soul. And these were the heaviest,
most haunting bricks in the wall of regret. None of
us can compare to that, None of our regret can

(14:23):
hold a candle to that. And it's important that you
see this from his perspective before you can see it
from your perspective, because if you see it from his perspective,
then you will have the faith to believe that God
can also do this for you. But it gets worse
because the Bible confirms his state of mind. Even in
Acts chapter eight, verse one, the Bible says that Saul

(14:46):
was consenting unto Stephen's death. Do you know what that means?
That means he was in agreement with his death. He
took pleasure in his debt. He got a thrill from it,
even as the evidence of Heaven was right there in
front of his face. Nothing in that moment triggered anything within.
Saul said, Hey, this ain't right, y'all. This ain't right

(15:08):
what we're doing. But it gets even worse. Acts chapter eight,
verse three asked for Saul, this is what he pivots
and decides to do. The Bible says Saul made havoc
of the church. Saul was entering every house and taking
men and women and committing them to prison. Anyone who

(15:29):
called on the name of Jesus. That was their faith,
and that was his mission. He had authority to do this.
Saul of Tarsus was that knock on the door that
you didn't want to answer. He was that knock on
the door in the middle of the night. He was
the reason that Christian children woke up and their father

(15:50):
was gone. He was the reason that wives became widows.
So now imagine, just for a second, put yourself in
his sandals, and imagine the walls of regret that that
man had to deal with, the walls of regret that
would build in his mind for the rest of his life.

(16:10):
Every time Paul closed his eyes, don't you think he
saw Stephen's face. Don't you think he heard that prayer
of forgiveness that Stephen prayed. Don't you think he heard
the screams of families that he tore apart. Those faces,
those names, those tears, those kids that were begging him
not to take their father. They were the bricks and

(16:31):
the highest, thickest wall of regret a man could ever build.
Get this, Paul called himself the chief of sinners. Do
you know what that means? Paul says, I am the
pre eminent center. Paul is saying everybody else has to
get in line behind me. Paul was a man who was,

(16:53):
in his own words before a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious to the church. He was hell bent on
destroying the church. That was his mission. So now let's
pivot here. How does a man like that? How does

(17:13):
a man with that kind of past? How does he
ever sleep again? How does he ever even look at
himself in the mirror? How does he become the man
to write about love, to write about joy, to write
about grace, to write about peace? How does he become

(17:39):
the apostle for the gentiles? Heath? He gives us the
cheat code, He gives us the divine explosion that leveled
his walls of regret and is found in First Corinthians,
chapter fifteen, verse ten. Please lean into what this man
is saying with everything that we've just talked about, And

(18:01):
that's just a snippet, and First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse ten.
Paul sums it up by simply saying this, but by
the grace of God, I am what I am, And
his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.

(18:21):
But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not
I but the grace of God which was given to me.
Paul said that he intended to take full advantage of
the grace that God gave to him, God's righteousness at
Christ's expense. That's the acronym Paul decided I am going

(18:45):
to outwork all of these other disciples put together. Why
because this grace that was given to me. That's not
the whisper of a man hiding in the shadows of
his past. Oh No, that's the sound of them. That's
the sound of walls coming down. That's the roar of
a soul who has been set free. He who the

(19:06):
Son sets free is free. Indeed, so now that you're free,
you have to walk in your freedom. You have to
talk in your freedom. You have to live in your
freedom Galatians five to one. Stand fast and the liberty
wherewith Christ has set you free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. There was nothing from
Paul's past that was going to pull him back into bondage.

(19:28):
Paul is letting you know, a that dude that was
consenting on to death. Yeah, that dude is dead. He's buried.
That man who hated the church, the man who was
trying to stamp the church out, That man is gone forever.
The man standing before you hear right now first Corinthians
chapter fifteen, verse ten. That man is a trophy. I
am a trophy of God's grace. I am a completely

(19:52):
new creation, built not by my own power, but by
the overwhelming, powerful, relentless, redeeming grace of the Almighty God.
And it was from that place of grace that Paul
wrote our battle cry in Philippius, Chapter three, verse thirteen.
Listen to what he says. He says, brethren, whenever you

(20:13):
reading out of King James and Paul used the word brethren,
He's not talking about gender. That's a word that he
uses to speak to the church. He says, Church, I
count myself now to have apprehended. What he was talking
about apprehending in the previous verse was Christ. So he says,
I haven't arrived. So Paul has given you and I
permission to be humble. He said, I count myself now

(20:35):
to have apprehended. He said, but this one thing I
do forgetting those things which are behind, forgetting those are
regrets which are behind, forgetting those mistakes which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before. There's

(20:55):
a pivot in that verse, and I want you to
see it before he forgets what's behind it, before he
reaches for what is ahead. He makes the most powerful,
most declarative, most definitive statement in scripture. And if you

(21:19):
and I can just simply do this, it'll change the
trajectory of our lives. But this one thing I do.
Paul became a master at one thing. Remember his past.

(21:39):
There's no way this man can move forward in his
future if he doesn't master this one thing. So what
isn't a suggestion, It's a battle cry of a man
who has decided to eliminate all of the options. See,
this is the thing that you have to understand about. Regret,

(22:00):
regret it. So regret a slip. Regret tries to divide
your attention. You know what regret does. Regret forces you
to look backward and forward at the same time. Guess
what that means. That means you will never fully focus
on either direction. You'll be stuck because every now and

(22:25):
then you'll go forward a little bit, you'll take two
steps forward, and then you'll take three steps back. You'll
take three steps forward, and you'll take two steps back.
Because every time you try to go forward, you can
see potential, you can see purpose, you can see hope,
you can see doors opening. But then you will just
stopping for whatever reason. Like Locke's wife, You'll look back.
You'll look back so Paul drives a line, thank you, sir.

(22:48):
A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.
Not some of his ways, all of his ways. You
can't do both. God didn't call you to do both,
didn't save you to do both. So Paul draws a
line in the saying you know what he says. He says,
I've had enough of having a divided mind. I've had

(23:10):
enough of having a double mind. I've had enough of
the ghost of the past dictating the possibilities of my future.
So he says, from this moment on, I have a singular,
all consuming, white hot focus. I am Now. I am
a one thing man. Now this one thing I do.

(23:32):
What's your one thing? What's your one thing that you're
committed to do above all else, no matter what comes, nobody,
what goes, This is my one thing. It's so profound
that this comes from the depend of the apostle, Paul,

(23:54):
this one thing I do, He says, Tim, if you're
ever going to get past your past, you have to
have one single pursuit, you have to have one single calling.
We have to have that same laser like focus. So
you and I we must decide that our pass will

(24:17):
no longer be one of the many things that we do.
Our failures will no longer get a vote, Our failures
will no longer get a say. So in this I
regret will no longer be on our schedule for today.
Let me say yeah, from twelve to one years, while
I stop and I deal with all my regrets. No stop.
From this day forward, we do one thing. If you

(24:42):
watching with us live, let's tape that in the chat.
One thing, one thing, and then you pray about your
one thing. Pause. One thing was I got to forget
my past. I can't move forward if I'm still replaying
the real in my mind of when they were starting.
Steep Grace is what elevated him from that place to

(25:07):
the purpose in which God had called him. One thing, y'all,
imagine how simple that is. But imagine how complicated we
make it. Because we want to do this school and
to do that, we want to do this school, and we're
so busy, we're so consumed, we're so scheduled, locked in,
and you're just spending time just freestyling. You're all over
the place. Paul says, No, you need to reduce it

(25:28):
down to one thing. We forget what is behind and
we press on. And that next verse he said, I
pressed towards the mark of the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ, Jesus he had a goal. See,
not only once you have one thing, but you also
have to have a goal. And I find it so

(25:52):
interesting that Jesus himself confirms this practice, this principle of
radical forward facing focus found over in Luke chapter nine,
verse sixty two. Jesus said, un to him, no man
that means no exceptions to this, No man, having put

(26:16):
his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit
for the Kingdom of God. Let that sink into your spirit.
When a farmer puts his hand to the plow, he
has made a commitment to break new ground. That's the

(26:38):
reason why he's in that field. That's the reason why
he has that plow. He is committed. I'm about to
break new ground. He's going to create something fruitful where
there was nothing before. Forget this. In order for him
to plow a straight line family, he can't look over

(26:59):
his shoulder and do it. He has to fix his
eyes on a point in the distance and never look away.
Because the second he looks back, guess what's going to
happen to that plow. That plow is going to begin
to drift. Guess what's going to happen to that line.
That line is going to become crooked. Now what you got,

(27:20):
the entire road is ruined. Period. Looking back compromises the
integrity of the work and the direction of your future.
When Jesus says a backward glancing man is not quote
unquote fit for the Kingdom of God, Jesus is giving

(27:41):
us a very profound spiritual diagnosis. He's saying that a
person whose heart is still tethered to the past, a
person who is constantly looking back at their old life,
their old sins, their old regard. He's saying, you cannot

(28:02):
effectively plow a straight line for the Kingdom of God.
You're not fit. Your work will be crooked, your witness
will be compromised. Your life will not be straight. Your
life will not lead others to righteousness because it's not straight.

(28:25):
It's all over the place. It's just a meandering, useless pad.
Get up every day. Just no direction, no aim, no
focus on that, just whatever happens happened. I subject myself
to whatever happens today. No. No, as Christians, we are

(28:47):
called to put our hand to the plow of the
Great Commission. You do remember the Great Commission, don't you
just found over there in Matthew Chapter twenty eight, verse
eighteen through twenty. I know the church doesn't talk about it,
but I just want to kind of give you a
little reminder, put a little pebble in your shoe, because
we must understand that looking back is not an option.

(29:11):
You have to violently, intentionally fix your eyes on Jesus,
the author and the finisher of your faith, and refuse
to give the past another glance. To be fit for
the Kingdom of God is to have a singular focus
on the Kingdom yet to come, not on the one

(29:34):
you left behind. We haven't even got to the verse yet.
Let's break this thing down. Let's break down with this
one wall, with this one thing focus. Let's see what
it does. Let's see how it demolishes our walls. Wall
number one the wall of replay or the walls of replay.

(29:56):
Wall number one is the walls of replay. Look at
the verse. Flipping chapter three, verse thirteen, Paul says, forgetting
those things which are behind this is a direct assault
on the first regret wall. But before we tear it down.
Let me ask you a question. How long will you
punish yourself for a crime that Jesus already served a

(30:18):
sentence for. How long are you going to hold that
thing over your head? He's forgiven you. But like Brooks,
you don't want to come out. You don't want to
walk in freedom. See here's the thing about the wall
to replay. The wall of replay is built from the
mental movies, the mental reals of our greatest failures that
we play on the Loop twenty four to seven. See,

(30:40):
you know when freedom of deliverance has happened because you
can go back to the scene of the crime, but
it won't to rest you again. I can go back
to the scene of the crime March twenty third, nineteen
eighty four. If you google that, that was a Friday.
I'll never forget it for the rest of my life.
But I can go back to that day and I

(31:01):
don't have to stay there. See. Now I can go
back to my greatest regret and I can use it
as a testimony for God's school. That's when you know
you're free. But now if you go back to your
greatest regret and you get stuck and then you say,
if I had only did this, if I had said this,
if I hadn't done this, if I hadn't gotten involved
with this person I had. When you start doing all
of that, you just got stuck. Now we've got to

(31:22):
send somebody to come get you. So the wall of
replayers where we're playing this thing on a loop twenty
four to seven, and it becomes a spiritual vampire sucking
the life and the hope out of your present by
feeding on the wounds and the regrets of your past.
Every time you press play on that thing, you know
what you're doing. You're reopening the wound and you're letting

(31:44):
the poison of yesterday infect the potential of today. So
to tear this wall down, Paul says, you must make
a violent, intentional choice to forget. And when he says
that forgetting those things which are behind this isn't passive amnesia,

(32:06):
that's not what he's talking about. No, Paul is talking
about an active, aggressive amputation. You're cutting off the past
power over your present. You're cutting off your regrets power
over your present. Every morning or whenever that highlight real

(32:26):
of your regrets starts to play, you know what you
have to do you have to stand up in the theater
of your soul, empowered by the grace of God, and
you have to shout this film is canceled, this real
is canceled. I don't live like that anymore. Then you
have to press the play button on God's truth and say,
as far as the east is from the west, so

(32:47):
far has he God removed our transgressions from us. You
have to stand on the word of God. That's how
we're going to do this, Jesus said, having done all
the stand, do what stand there? For? Jesus said, Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but what my word shall
remain forever. So now, since the Word is going to

(33:08):
stand forever, how about this family, Let's stand by the
word of God. Wherever the Word is standing, let's just
go stand next to it. Wall number two, This is
the wall of paralysis. Wal number two the wall of paralysis.
His second action and that verse is reaching forth onto

(33:28):
those things which are before. So he speaks of activity,
But we find ourselves in paralysis. So what Paul is
saying demolishes this second wall. But let me ask you,
if your future is a gift from God, why are
you letting your past hold it hostage. If your future

(33:50):
is a gift from God, if your purpose is a
gift from God, if your calling is a gift from God,
why are you allowing your past to hold it hostage?
Why are you allowing your regret to hold it hostage? See,
this is the thing about the wall of paralysis. The
wall of paralysis is built from the fear that I

(34:14):
pass mistakes will inevitably sabotage any future attempts. It's to
lie that whispers. Don't even try it. You know how
this ends. Don't even trust them. You know how this ends.
Don't even open up your heart. You know how this ends.
So you know what it does. It keeps you frozen
in place. It keeps you paralyzed by the fear of

(34:36):
more failure. So you find yourself in tuned by the
walls of paralysis. And let me tell you what this
paralysis does. Let me tell you what it does. Let
me tell you what it does. You can stay there,
you can embrace it, you can hug it all you
want to. But this is what it does. Child of God.
It grieves the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is

(34:56):
a river of living water, and it's meant to flow
through you, not to you, but through you. But here's
the problem. Your wall of paralysis builds a damn. It
builds a damn around you. It builds a damn of doubt,

(35:16):
in fear, and it says, no, I'm not letting anything
come into me. I'm not let anything. I'm not letting
anything come into my heart, not here, not through me.
So you block the flow of God's power in your life.
But if you look at that verse, Paul's posture is
the opposite of paralysis. The language Paul does this better

(35:40):
than any other writer. Paul uses a lot of sports
analogy when he's writing, and what he's saying, I press
towards the mark. When he's saying forgetting those things which
are behind you, reaching forth, that reaching forth, it's like
four by four one hundred. It's the image of a

(36:00):
runner at full sprint, stretched out every muscle, screening, lungs
on fire, leaning so far into the finished line. Theyre
define gravity. Here's the thing. You can't have that kind
of posture if you're still staring backwards. I've never seen
an Olympic runner across the finish line while looking back
at the same time. So to tear this wall down faith,

(36:25):
your faith, my faith, our faith must put on sprinter shoes.
Wall number three, the walls of diminishment. Wall number three,
the walls of diminishment. This is the knockout blow. And
this is kind of a sneaky wall right here. Paul says,
I press towards the mark. I press toward the mark.

(36:50):
That's what's going to help us to shatter this wall.
Pressing towards the mark. Question for you, whose report will
you believe? Are you going to believe the accuser, who
reminds you of your failure? Or are you going to
believe the report of your creator, who reminds you of
your destiny, who reminds you that he loves you with

(37:10):
an everlasting love? Do you understand that the Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit each love you with your crazy self?
The Father loves you John three sixteen. For God so
loved the world that he gave his only be godden
son John fifteen nine. Jesus loves you as the Father
has loved me. Jesus says, as the Father has loved me,

(37:32):
so have I loved you. Continue in my love? The
Holy Spirit over in Roman chapter five, verse three, and
hope make it not a shame because the love of
God is shared broad in our hearts about the Holy
Spirit which is given up to us. So now the
Triune God loves you. And if you are equipped with that,
and if you believe that, then you have to come
from behind this last wall, because the wall of diminishment

(37:56):
is the lie that says, because of your past, you
are a quote unquote lesser version of a Christian. You're
the Christian who's okay with slithering into the church and
you just sitting in the last row every week. You're
good with that because that's all you're trying to be. See,
behind this wall, your potential has been diminished, your confidence

(38:20):
has been diminished. That doesn't mean it's over. It just
means it's to a lesser degree. But it takes the
power of God to funnel you back into the purpose
that God has called you. Because this wall wants to
funnel you into a street of self condemnation. This war
wants to leave you behind the wall of your regrets.

(38:43):
It wants you to live a diminished life. Do you
know that a diminished life is a form of theft. Yeah,
it's a form of theft. You're robbing the kingdom of
the glory that God wants to get from your full restored,
powerful story and your powerful testimony. Listen to me when
Paul says press towards, this is what's so awesome. That

(39:09):
word pressed towards is the very same root word that
was used to describe what Saul of Tarsus did when
he was persecuting the church. This is the divine genius
of God. God didn't give Paul new energy. He still

(39:31):
had that old energy. What he gave Paul was a
new target. God took the very same fire, the very
same ferocity and that Paul used for persecution, and he
aimed it like a laser beam at his divine purpose.

(39:51):
The mouse that once blaspheming God now preaches and teaches
the Gospel. The hands that once arrested Levers now has
written through thirteen letters that build the church. God doesn't
just forgive you. I hope you understand this. No, God
doesn't just forgive you. That's not enough. He redeems and

(40:16):
he repurposes you. And here's the legal document that gives
you the right to do all of this. What Paul
is laying out for us, and it's found over in
Romans chapter eight, verse one. I remember reading this verse
for the first time, and it resonated in my spirit
all the way back in June July of twenty two,

(40:39):
and I remember writing in my Bible, write above Romans
eight one. Not guilty. That's what it said to me.
Not guilty, Romans chapter eight, verse one. Because these are
the words that will turn these walls of regret to dustin.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are

(41:03):
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. I want you to let that hit
you in your face. Therefore, that means it's based on
a case that has already been closed. You are exonerated.
It's a set of fact. Now, not when you feel better,

(41:24):
not when you give the church, not tomorrow, now, right now,
in this second. There is therefore now no not a
little bit, not a trace zero. No, the file is empty,
the slate is cleaned. Know what, no condemnation. That word
is dead and buried. The word condemnation doesn't even exist.

(41:48):
For a child of God, the judge of all the universe,
the Ancient of days, He looks at you through the
precious blood of his son, and with a voice that
parts the heavens. He hits the gap and he says,
my child is not guilty, not because of anything that
you've done, but because of what Jesus has done, what

(42:08):
he has provided for you. So now here's a question.
If the court of heaven has declared you pardon, why
are you still serving time behind these walls of regretting.
There's one final wall I'm gonna touch on. The we're
gonna get out of here. The final wall, the final

(42:29):
inner wall we got to deal with. And the final
inner wall is simply you forgiven yourself. That's where it
has to start. Forgiving yourself. Listen to me, You have
to demolish this wall. God has forgiven you. But that
doesn't mean anything if you can't forgive yourself, because the

(42:53):
only judge who keeps putting you back on trial is you.
Your refusal to forgive yourself is a subtle, dangerous pride.
It's you pointing your finger at God, shaking your fist
at God and saying, your grace is good, but my

(43:14):
mistake is bigger than your grace. You better think about
Saul of Tarsus. You standing before God and you're telling
you're telling God your son's blood wasn't enough for sault,
the chief of sinners, but it's not enough for me.
You're arguing with God. You are insulting the creator, who

(43:39):
declared in Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse seventeen, Therefore, if
any man, if any woman, if any child be in Christ,
they are a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Please please write that verse down.
That's who you are. The beauty that I love about

(44:01):
the word of God. The Word of God comes to
let you know. Everything is done, everything is good, everything
has been paid. You don't have to do anything. Just
go in and enjoy the feast that the Lord has
prepared you, prepared for you. But so many of us
are sitting there wondering, what's the angle, what's the trick?

(44:23):
What's no? No, no no. This isn't a hustler's mentality.
This is for the child of God who is ready
to lean in by faith and receive and accept everything
that God has provided for you. The person who made
that mistake, in the eyes of God is dead and buried.

(44:46):
Paul even confirms this over in Relations chapter two, verse twenty.
Paul says this listen to this language. He says, I
am crucified. That right there means his old life is dead.
Just that those those three words, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,

(45:07):
what I'm dead and I'm alive At the same time,
what is he saying? My old life is dead, but
the man that you see right now is alive. I
am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me and the life which I
now live in the flesh. I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. You have to learn how to lean

(45:29):
in and accept what God has done for you. What
is it Ephesians Chapter one, verse three. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. That's in
your account. That's done. There's nothing else that you can do.
Do You who lives in regret has been legally crucified.

(45:50):
So to refuse to forgive yourself is to perform CPR
on the corpse that God has already pronounced dead. You're
trying to perform CPR on your past, and God said
that's dead. Bro, that's dead. It's to stand at the cross,
look at Jesus on the cross and tell him, yeah,
what you're doing right now, that's not enough. Please stop

(46:12):
insulting the sacrifice of Jesus with your refusal to let
go of your past, to let go of your regret. Today,
all of us, you have to make a choice. Will
you agree with your feelings of regret or will you
agree with the finished work of cross. Will you believe
in the same savior that salt of Tarsars believe in.

(46:33):
You gotta let it go. You gotta let them go.
You gotta let you go, because that person is not
you anymore. So let me give you three orders to
walk out of that life of regret and into your destiny.
Let me give you three Let me give you a
walking papers. Number one, the declaration of Parton, and I'll

(46:55):
explain to you what these mean. The declaration of pardon. Period.
Before you go to sleep today, some of you may
have worked third shift and you just got off, Okay,
even that, Before you go to sleep today, I want
you to stand in front of a mirror. I want
you to look at yourself in the eye, and I

(47:16):
want you to speak the verdict, Speak the word of
Heaven out loud and all I want you to say,
is this. You're gonna echo what Paul writes in Romans
chapter eight, verse one, but we're gonna add a little
variation to it because I want to personalize it for you.
There is therefore now no condemnation for me because I
am in Christ Jesus. That's it. There is therefore now

(47:41):
no condemnation for me because I am in Christ Jesus.
And say it to you, mean it. Say it until
it gets inside of your spirit. Say it until the
sound of God's truth is louder than the echo of
your regret. You have to speak the Word over your life.

(48:02):
So that first action is going to be you declaring
your own pardon. God has already pardoned you. You have
to also pardon you. You have to come in agreement
with what God has done in your life. Number two,
the act of replacement. Remember, Saul had all that energy

(48:26):
to do what he did, and God replaced all of
that energy and he pointed it in a different direction
for God's purpose. You ready, the active replacement. This is
what I want you to do, and this is just
between you and God. But I promise you here, if
you do this, you're going to feel so liberated. You're
going to feel soul free. It's nothing. I can't describe this,

(48:48):
but it's nothing like when you know you are in
the will of God. So do you want to be
in the will of God? This is what I want
you to do. Because regret makes you turn inward. Freedom
makes you look outward. Regret has you looking inward. Freedom
is like on the lookout for more freedom, you look out.
So this is what I want you to do. You're

(49:09):
gonna find one person to serve, one person to encourage,
and one person to bless. Everybody with me this week,
one person to serve, one person to encourage, one person
to bless. What's the system calling ourselves Christians and going
to church every single week and we don't do nothing
for nobody that's a bootleg Christian. This is what I want.

(49:31):
This is an example. I want you what I want
you to do. When you go into the store, when
you go into Starbucks, when you go into Dunkannos and
you buy your coffee, pay it forward, buy somebody else,
even if you're in the drive through. Just pay it forward, no,
no no strings attached. One you can do that. Number two,
Send an encouraging text, Send an encouraging text. You don't

(49:54):
want anything, you don't want to follow up. You just
got a scripture, you got a word, You got something
that you feel can encourage. Now, don't get a people
want the text. Don't do that. Don't do that. But
just one person, ask God, God, who show me in
my mind who needs a word of encouragement. And when
God shows you that person, it could be your child.
How about that, it could be your child. Just hit

(50:15):
him with a word he I love you. I got
a meeting set up today with my daughter because there's
just some things I just want to bless her with.
So send an encouraging text. Help a neighbor. Your neighbor
needs some help. Your neighbors elderly, help them. Missus Lewis
stay right in the back of my on the other
side of my alley, Missus Lewis, No, I'm looking out

(50:36):
for her every chance I get. So what am I saying?
Replace the energy that you were spending on your past
with energy invested in somebody else's future. Show the love
of God. Number three, the breaking of isolation. Number three,
the breaking of isolation. Regret thrives in sight. Regret feed

(51:02):
to itself in our silence. So this week, it's what
you're gonna do. You're gonna drag your regret into the light.
You're gonna expose it. But this is what you're gonna do.
I want you to just find one trusted, grace stilled
believer and you're gonna share your struggle of regret. The

(51:23):
Bible says, confess to one another that you may be healed.
So it's time for you to stop fighting this fight alone.
Stop trying to carry this all by yourself. You don't
get no prize for trying to carry this by yourself.
It's breaking you. It's breaking you, it's changing you into

(51:45):
something you don't want to be. Now start. We started
this teaching at the gates of Shawshank Redemp at the
sharp at the gates of Shawshank Prison. And we started
this teaching talking about Brooks and Andy. And that's where
I want to end this. I want to end this
by talking about Brooks and Andy. There's a biblical difference

(52:07):
that I see between Brooks and Andy. Brooks was a
prisoner who was set free. He received a legal part,
but he couldn't lead prison. You know why, even though
he was outside of the prison and he was free legally.
You know why he couldn't lead because the prison was

(52:30):
still inside of him. Brooks was so institutionalized by his past,
he was so defined by his routine of failure and
shame that he couldn't even function in the world of freedom.
He was free, but he was still in prison. And
in the end, that freedom that Brooks had it was

(52:53):
too much for Brooks to bear. Brooks chose to end
his life. He didn't end his life fifty years in
Shawshank prison. He ended his life in freedom. He ended
his life in a halfway house. Why because he couldn't
imagine a new life. He couldn't imagine freedom. But Andy,

(53:19):
Andy was a free man who was temporarily in prison.
That's how Andy viewed this. I'm free, I'm just in here.
By y'all got the wrong dude. Andy's body was in
a cell, but his mind and spirit were already free.
He never accepted these walls. He never accepted Shawshank. He
never got comfortable. He was always projecting out. He never

(53:42):
accepted the identity of a prisoner. That man held on
the hope. And you know what he did every day.
He chipped at that wall. For some of you every day,
you're gonna have to chip with some of these walls
that are trying to build in your life. And that
man crawled through five hundred yards of Philly to come
out clean on the other side. He embraced the reign

(54:05):
of freedom because he believed I'm meant for this. I'm
meant for this freedom. So disclose with this. The cross
has already peroge you. God has declared you free. Indeed,
the only question left for you is this, who are you?

(54:28):
Are you Brooks legally free, but so institutionalized by your regret,
so defined by the memory of your sin, so defined
by the memory of your trauma and your toxic relationships
that you can't walk past the gate? Are you choosing
to live in the halfway house of your past because
the wide open spaces of God's grace feels too big

(54:51):
for you. It feels too uncomfortable to you, too scary,
too different from the familiar. It's amazing how people can
get familiar, people can embrace toxic freedom. Is just like,
what is this? What do you mean? I need somebody
to argue with, I need somebody to yell at, I
need somebody to curse out. No, that's not what God
has called us too? Are you Andy, do you believe

(55:14):
in a life beyond these walls of regret? Even if
you can't see it. Andy didn't see his freedom, but
he saw it in his mind. Are you willing to
crawl through the filth of your past? Are you willing
to crawl through your regrets? Are you willing to know
and understand that if you crawl through this on the
other side of this, you're going to come out clean?
Are you ready to feel the grace and the mercy

(55:35):
of God? The gate is open, The choice is yours.
And all I asked you is one last time? Who
are you? Let's pray Father, We honor you, we bless you,
We thank you God. I thank you for your word,
because your word has truly come to set us free.

(55:55):
Your word has come to liberate all of us. God.
So God, I thank you for this place form to
speak to your people, to speak to your children. I
speak to every man, I speak to every woman. I
speak your words God, that you have set us free,
and we're free. Indeed, So help us God to walk
in and help us God to put boots to ground
and begin to press past everything that is trying to

(56:18):
hold us everything that's trying to destroy us, everything that's
trying to destroy our families, to destroy our purpose in you. God,
your word is yea and Amen. And so God, we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principality. So God,
help us to cast down any imagination that exalted itself
against the knowledge of Christ. God, I thank you for
the work that you're starting in us, because this is

(56:39):
the work that you will do with us until the
day of Christ. So we thank you for this moment
of sharing. We thank you for this moment of learning.
We thank you for this moment of trusting. And now
I pray God that we will not simply be hearers
of your work, but we will be doors of your word.
Were honored to be called your sons, with honored to
be called your daughters. And so Father, I just pray
that this family, his family that you've called together for

(57:02):
a time such as this guy will now walk out
in freedom. We bless you, we honor you, and it's
in Jesus match the name that we do. Pray. Amen, Danny,
we got anybody we need to thank before we get
up out of here.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Yeah, We've got e j We've got, We've got Sam
on the brothers on the Facebook side, We've got sister Sheila,
sister sa Mika, sister Keisha, cousin Keisha, Abigail Sharon, and

(57:36):
Ywanda Collins. So we got, we got, we got a
full house.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
Hey man.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
We also want to say thank you to the Live
Milwaukee for restreaming this right now.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Ay Man, Amen, and shout out to the hometown Milltown.
Love you guys, Appreciate you guys, Thank you TODs for sharing,
thank you for showing up. I pray that this lesson
will be a you know how sometimes you got to
your car needs a jump, doesn't mean you get rid

(58:11):
of the car, just means your battery went dead and
you need a jump. And so I hope that this
lesson will charge your battery, charge your spiritual battery and
give you the jump to get back on the road
and to be everything that God has called you to be.
So honest that you all could show up. Listen, we
are brothers in the world, and we do this thing
twice a week. Were doing on Tuesdays at seven eight
seven pm, and we're doing Saturdays at eight pm. I'm

(58:34):
going to be doing some pop outs here shortly. Just
got some things that I'm working on in the past,
trying to get some audio podcasts going. But nevertheless, family,
thank you all for being here. Do me a favor.
Share this, Share this lesson to that. Share it with
somebody that you know. Even in the days going forward,
you might have a conversation with somebody. Might you know

(58:55):
what I got something I think you need to hear.
Because when we look at Saul of Tarsa's life, and
then we look at our own life. Remember, the Bible
says God said, I'm no respector of persons, meaning that
if he did that Fasaul of Tarsus and turned that
man into the apostle. Paul, your eyes haven't seen, Your
ears haven't heard, neither has an entered into your heart
the things that God has prepared for those that love him.

(59:17):
But God will reveal it by his spirit. For the
Bible says the spirit searches all things, yes, even the
deep things of God. That's First Corinthians chapter two, verse
nine and ten. We love you, guys, and until next time,
we'll see you. Peace.