Open your Bibles, please, with me to 2 Corinthians 7. If you need a copy of the Scriptures, we have a copy in the pew in front of you. There should be two copies each pew. Help yourself to that. And also, I would encourage you to find the handout that was given to you when you came in. You're never going to believe it when a preacher says this, but one of the greatest fears every preacher has is not finishing a sermon. Not finishing a study. And that can only be compounded by having a whole month passed since I last tried to preach this message. I just listened to the end of that message online and was looking at the date. And almost to the day it was a month ago, I approached this study and got over halfway through it and didn't finish it. So here's what we're going to do tonight, OK? If you just want to listen to the review, that will take five minutes. Great, don't feel like you have to write anything down, but I do need to build up some momentum to the point so that when we get caught up, we're on the same page here. We're doing a study on Sunday evenings called Moving Forward from the Past, and it's been very well received in private conversations I've been having with many of you, and some have even been able to counsel others with things we've been talking about, along the lines of how do you deal with your past? As a matter of fact, most counseling that you will do when someone walks in your office is dealing often with the present, but often the present is anchored in the what? In the past. And so this is something that every one of God's children needs to know how to deal with in their own lives so that they can help others. And just to start off by way of reminder, I just want to tell you about the four areas that when you're talking about someone's past, it'll fall under one of these four categories. First of all is what we call unconfessed issues. This is, and I'm assuming the conversation with a Christian. I'm assuming I'm talking with someone who is a believer in Jesus Christ. Often, when they come for help with the past, it's to deal with something that's in their past, recent or distant, and they have never approached Christ. They've never approached the Heavenly Father to confess it as sin and to deal with it according to Scripture. We already did that study together, and that was about a month and a half ago. That's online for you. But there's a second category of dealing with the past, and it's what we call confessed issues. This is the one that's often missed. A lot of people think, well, if I've confessed my sin, then I never have to deal with them again. I never have to go eyeball to eyeball with that sin. But we realize life teaches us that often we do. Sin that we think we take care of vertically with God continues to stare us down. And often, it's not that God doesn't forgive us, it's that we ourselves won't let go of a sin of a failure in our life, albeit a one-time failure or a pattern. And this is what we're studying now. We're halfway through this, but let me just remind you while we're here of the other two categories in dealing with the past. You have a third category called innocence issues. And this one, as I mentioned before, we're going to come up to in September. I'll take two Sunday nights probably to go through this one. And I'm just telling you now, it's heavy. It's a heavy topic because we're going to have to talk about what happens. It's not that I started this sin or I initiated this sin. Someone else acted sinfully against me. I was a victim. There's a perpetrator, and they sinned against me. They violated me, whatever the case may be. How do I deal with that if it's in my past? And what I'm going to do when we talk about this category is I'm going to go to the darkest part of the spectrum on that, which I just want to let you know if you have children. It'll be done tastefully, but we're going to talk about the area of sexual abuse. And you'll agree with me, I'm confident, that when we see that God's word is sufficient, that the gospel is enough to give hope and relief to someone who suffered through these innocence issues, listen, then his grace will be sufficient for anything less, right? And so we're going to cover that, Lord willing, as we come into September. But then there's a fourth issue that we tend to forget in the area of the past as well. And I call it, I don't know what else to call it, but fall issues. It has nothing to do with October, November every year, sins that we do in the fall. No, it's the fact that the Genesis 3 fall happened. And we read in Romans, in Paul's words to the Roman believers, that the whole creation itself was subjected to the fall of man into sin. And Paul will even say in Romans chapter 8 that creation itself groans, eagerly anticipating our redemption of our bodies, the new heavens and the new earths. The whole creation itself was submitted to the fall of sin. And you know what happens when a world is fallen, when cosmos are fallen? It means that accidents happen. It means that tsunamis and earthquakes happen. It means that there can be things that happen in your past, no fault of your own, but you live in a fallen world and you have to find yourself limping through the rest of your life, or at least up to the present, with damage that was introduced into your life because you live in a fallen creation. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with that? This is where disease comes from. This is where pain comes from. There's one medical doctor up in Lafayette, Indiana. He's a medical doctor, but he's also a biblical counselor. His name's Dr. Bob Smith. And he's very eager to say in his book on biblical counseling in the medical world, he says, there are many, many, many types of pain in the human body that science can't give an answer to. And then he says this, he says, but what do you expect? The fall happened. We live in a fallen world. There's going to be pain and suffering. So if that's in your past, up into your present, how do you deal with that? And we're going to talk about that, Lord willing, as well. But one thing we're going to see in all four of these categories, we've already seen in the first category. We're going to finish seeing in the second category this evening. And here's the answer. The gospel satisfactorily answers all four issues. So those are your four options. But then we look secondly at, well, what are the common indicators? We're thinking specifically about that second category tonight. Unconfessed issues. I'm sorry, confessed issues. Sins that we've confessed to God. We've come to Him, but we don't seem to be able to let go. How do you know if you're struggling with that? Or how do you know if someone else is struggling with that? Well, let me just give you some bullet points, if you will, or some areas of the ground to tap in your own heart, or in the hearts of those that you're trying to help, and see if these are true. These are common indicators. First of all, their particular sin is a constant topic of talk. I read in Matthew 12.34, Jesus saying, for the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. If someone is constantly talking about their failure or failures in the past, and you stop them and say, did you confess that to God? As a child, did you approach your heavenly Father and seek forgiveness and help moving forward? Yes. Well, do you understand that you're still talking about this all the time? It's fixated in your conversation. Then it's a good tell that they are struggling with confessed issues. We also saw, secondly, that it may be a constant topic of meditation. Proverbs 18.14 reminded us, as for a broken spirit, who can bear it? We saw in other Proverbs as well, and you can hear it online, that someone who's struggling with letting go of confessed sin in their life will constantly meditate on their failure. And what is a meditation can easily move into the category of being a constant distraction. And that distraction can lead into a fixation. And it's all they think about. It's the morning thought that they wake up to. It's the last thought as they pillow their head at night. It's what they think about in the shower. It's what they think about on their commute. It's what they think about when they're looking at other people who are talking to them and they're zoned out. They're thinking about me and my failings. In their minds, when they meet someone new and extend their hand in a handshake, in their minds they're introducing themselves by defining themselves with their failures. That's a common indicator. A third one that we saw is this. It's a constant topic of prayer. bringing this up constantly in an area of praying with other believers. And not that we don't pray for that, and not that we don't mistrust our flesh and cry out for help, but they don't get much beyond this issue in their corporate prayer for others to even consider praying for other people. And then a fourth tell would be a growing coldness. And this one's very concerning. When I say a growing coldness, I mean that they're growing away from praying and being more defined as being prayerless. Their reasoning is this, who, me? Approach God? Now, they might pray when called upon, or might pray in a small group in a service or in a Bible study, but on their own, by themselves, when it's just them and God alone, there's a reluctance to lift their eyes towards heaven with confidence that their Heavenly Father is eager to dialogue with them, to have them approach in prayer. They never finish Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? And they stop reading there. They should keep reading. But there is forgiveness with you. Someone who doesn't deal with confessed sin in their past will notice a growing coldness. But then there's one more tell. Looking for opportunities for auto-atonement. Auto-atonement, and I'm kind of using a phrase there that those of you who are involved in counseling will become aware of. When I say auto-atonement, I'm meaning self-atonement. You say, that doesn't help at all. I don't know what that means. And it means simply this, that they are willing, because of their constant feeling of dirtiness, their constant feeling of unworthiness, even though they've confessed a certain sin or a pattern of sin, they never really let go of it themselves, and they can actually come to this point where they start inflicting pain on their own physical body. They do it through deprivation or abuse of foods or substance or the inflicting of pain And what they are setting up at this point now is a sacrificial system of their own making. It's as if God's forgiveness is incomplete, and I must inflict punishment on myself. Pain makes me feel like I'm paying. I would like to say that this is rare. It's very common. It's very common. And the sad thing is, these are children of God. who've approached their Heavenly Father, who is good and kind to His children. And they've asked His forgiveness, and they've asked for His daily help and grace, and then they turn and, in essence, live as if it's not. What are the dangerous pitfalls that could follow if not dealt with? Well, towards self, there could be the constant fear of death. They start doubting their own salvation. And I read to you last time a quote from Mark Dever, in a book that the deacons are reading together, that there are some people that will limp along in their Christian life, and they are so busy in the church, but they're afraid to die. They're afraid to die because though they've accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, they can't reconcile why they struggle with certain sin and how could they still be a believer. And so toward self there's a fear of death. Toward the body, or the local church of Christ, the local church representing the body of Christ, there can be an absence from ministry. An absence from ministry. Suddenly they start disappearing from the pews. Or they move farther away from the point where the Word of God is preached. They find excuses with work, or fatigue, or school. It's just too busy, but they're really just starting to pull back. Or, they might go to the other extreme with number two. Not absence from the body of Christ, but over-commitment to the body of Christ. they can actually get into a mindset where they are thinking the busier I am to the point where it's even hurting me physically as far as fatigue and attention and and doing all doing things well then that's part of my auto atonement I'm actually punishing myself by over committing to try to soothe my conscience so it can go Orion either extreme towards the body of Christ but there's another dangerous pitfall we looked at and that's toward God And sadly, you can develop a blindness to His presence. Oh, it's not that you're dropping out of church. You come. It's not that you begin to be absent from the Bible study. You still go. But once you're at church, once you're on that campus, once you're in that counseling room or in that small group, you are there to live off of others' faith and experience with God and joy. because in your life it seems silent. So it's pretty dark. This is the category of the past that we tend to overlook a lot. We've been forgiven, yet we won't let it go. So what is the gospel answer? And we're almost to where we left off. The gospel insists that you conduct a nine-point heart inventory. And we got to the first two of these. First of all, observe the sincerity of your repentance. We looked at Proverbs 28, 13. He that covers his transgression will not prosper, but he that confesses and forsakes it will find mercy, will find help. Some of your translations say, will find compassion. In other words, you cover your sin, you can't move forward spiritually. But if you confess your sin and forsake it, you will get forward movement again by God's mercy and grace. And we talked about that much, and that's online. We also saw this. Meditate on the mercy of God. And here we went to 1 Timothy 1, verses 12 through 17, and we read Paul's personal testimony. And he paints a pretty dark picture of not only what was in his heart towards God, not only what was in his heart towards the people of God, but what was in his heart as far as how he viewed himself. I mean, it was indeed a dark testimony, and then God crashed right down into the middle of that and gave him faith and repentance, and changed his life. And he can never get over that. And not only in fact can he not get over that he's been rescued, but God has placed him in the ministry. He's like, go figure! This is me! And then he ends his testimony in verse 17 with words of praise to God. And we made this point on number two. You may be overwhelmed with what you've done. You may have great regret And you've confessed it to God. You've come to Him on His terms as a child of God. You don't have to go to Him as a judge anymore because you're His child. But you go to Him as your Heavenly Father. And you seek to restore that fellowship, not the relationship, the fellowship with Him. But you don't let it go. Why? Because you just come back and you're thinking to how big your sin was. How long that pattern ran. And we were reminded on this point that the only way to overwhelm those wrong thoughts is to meditate on the enormity of God's mercy. You take in your mind not only the dimensions of your sin, but you take them to the nth degree. And you know what? God's mercy will always be greater. If you meditate on your sin, it will weigh you down. You meditate on the enormity of the mercy of God in His Son, Jesus Christ, suddenly there's a boundary to how far your sin can reach. And we spent some time even reading a prayer of the Puritans at that point. Well, here we go, number three, new material. Reject the mindset of legalism. Or you might want to put another word in there, transaction. Reject the mindset of legalism and transactionism. I don't even know if that's a word. It must be. It's on PowerPoint. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, here your Bibles are open to 2 Corinthians 7, verse 11, which I want to remind you as a church family is the best definition of repentance for the life of a child of God. It's the best definition found in Scripture. I want to start reading in verse 10 to remind you of this text that we've looked at before together. Verse 10, for the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow of the world produces death. Look at this. For behold, and he's going to describe the repentance that's coming out of the life of the Corinthians. He says, behold, what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow has produced in you. There's earnestness. There's a vertical sorrow. And then he continues. There's a vindication of yourselves. In other words, you were living one way that was inconsistent with your identity in Christ, and now you want to vindicate that. You want to put on projection for the world to see what a true Christian should be living like by God's grace. And he continues, what indignation. You know, when you're repentant, there's an actual anger against sin. It says, what fear. And that fear is a fresh awareness of the presence of God in your life. Remember, our Kent Hughes, in describing King David when he fell into sin, Kent Hughes says, God disappears to lust-glazed eyes. When you and I are indulging in sin, suddenly there's a veil over our awareness of the presence of God. But when there's repentance, we see Him again. He's with us. It says, what fear. It says, what longing Verse 11, what longing, what is that? That's simply, if you're truly repentant, you are leaning towards the very people who confront you in love. You're not saying, they didn't approach me perfectly. Who were they to point out sin in my, you know what, even if they approached you in the worst way, you're loving towards them because you know what, perfect or imperfect approach, you were used by God as a tool in his hand to rescue me. And I love you. That's a sign of repentance. And he continues, what zeal! What avenging of the wrong! What does that mean? It means you're ready and eager to accept the consequences. Now, I read you that portion of the verse to get you to this point at the end of the verse. He says, in everything, you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter. You know what that last phrase does forever with this verse? I mean, the rest of your life, as you read 2 Corinthians 7-11 and remember what repentance is, this last phrase really forces you to acknowledge something, and it's this. Repentance is not a matter of checking boxes and then saying, well, God, I've checked the boxes here. Vertical sorrow, anger at sin, awareness of your presence. I've checked the boxes. How come I don't feel any better? When we start talking like that, we are talking as a legalist. We are talking as someone who is guilty of a transaction mindset with God. We are basically saying, God, I did what you said, and I'm finished now. You owe me perfect peace. You owe me, and we get into a transaction mindset where we make God give us what we think we need and make us feel like we think we need to feel. Never forget that 2 Corinthians 7-11 is descriptive, not prescriptive. When God's work of sorrow and repentance in the heart of his children is present, this is what comes out. It's what comes out, to the point where Paul says at the end of the verse, man, when I see what's coming out of your heart, I have no other response but to say that God's done that and you're innocent in the matter. Anything less is a legalism or a transaction mindset. Reject that. You know, sometimes we need to repent over being legalistic about confession. Now, how's that for a mouthful? Number four. evaluate your reconciliation with man. If you're struggling with letting go of something that you've confessed, perhaps the Spirit of God is kindly reminding you of a very important reality, and it's this. You may have confessed things vertically with God. You've approached your Heavenly Father, You've confessed your sin and He's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin. You understand 1 John says right before that, if we say we as believers are without sin, we're not accepting the truth. We still sin, we struggle. But we now have an advocate with the Father. You might have taken care of things vertically, but if your sin pattern or one-time sin involves someone else, then you need to still go to them. And that spiritual burn your saddle, so to speak, is a mercy from God to telling you, hey, finish the job, man. The Heavenly Father has forgiven you, and your Heavenly Father is saying, you have to get it right with man, too. You must. I'm thinking of, oh, it's all over Scripture. Think of the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments, you have two tables. You have certain commandments. The first commandments deal with your relationship with God. It's a vertical focus. And the rest of the commandments are a horizontal focus, your relationship with man. We see this again when we come to the Sermon on the Mount, starting with the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, verse 3, and going down to verse 20, 21. It's dealing with your relationship with God, vertically. But the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, or the rest of that section of the Sermon on the Mount, is dealing with your horizontal relationship with men. As a matter of fact, you'll read this. I mean, starting with the Beatitudes, it's everything between you and God. And then you get to the second part of chapter 5, and you'll read something like this. If you are worshiping, and you've brought your offering to the Lord, and you become aware that your brother has something against you, you need to leave your offering there and go be reconciled. God is very much concerned that we are taking care of things horizontally as well. And he mercifully withholds his peace until we take care of not just the vertical, but the horizontal. It's why Paul would say in Acts chapter 24 in his trial before Felix, here's my goal, to have a conscience without offense towards not only God, but also towards man. As a matter of fact, you're open to 2 Corinthians. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1. He says it again, Paul lived by this, an awareness of not only the vertical but the horizontal elements of confession. He says in verse 12, 2 Corinthians 1.12, "...for our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you." He said a clean conscience is not just a vertical reality, it needs to be a horizontal concern as well. So the Gospel tells you, evaluate your reconciliation with man. Have you followed through completely? Freedom may just be within a few moments and a few conversations in your life of taking care of your sin that you confessed with God with people that it involved. Number five, guard Scripture's theology of God. Guard Scripture's theology of God. I'd like for you to turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, a Psalm that many of us know tunes to some of these words. Great Psalm of David about the Lord's mercies. As you're turning there, you know, we got this eclipse coming tomorrow that I mentioned this morning. How do we know How do we know that we're going to be at the four-minute peak of that eclipse at 2.27 p.m. here in Washtenaw County? How do we know that? How do we know that the eclipse is going to come in at the Pacific Northwest and exit over Columbia, South Carolina? I mean, how can we be so certain about that? How do we know that the eclipse even here will start a little bit after 1 o'clock and end a little bit before 4 o'clock? How can we be so certain about that? Well, we just are doing the research. NASA, astronomers, they've been watching this, and they can tell you within seconds of what's going to be happening. It's very, very predictable. I mean, you study it, you accept the facts, and this is what you expect tomorrow. Well, how do we know that God forgives sin? How do we know that? I mean, is that just some Hallmark-type expression that makes a good screensaver? Or is it really something that he does in the lives of his children? How do we know that? Well, the answer is the same. We do the research. We go to Scripture, the only place we can do research on the character of God. And you know what we find when we do the research? He forgives. For example, Psalm 103, look at verse 8. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him." We just sung this to open the service. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust." Oh, and I'm reminded of Psalm 40 as well. Psalm 40, the first three verses. Again, David. Big surprise there, right? He says, I waited patiently for the Lord. And he inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. And he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. I love this next phrase. Many will, and I'm expecting the word hear it, But when God cleanses your conscience of sin, that you confess to Him, He puts a new song in your heart that will not only be heard, but it'll be seen. Because this joy will bubble out of your life. He says, many will see and fear, and they too will trust in the Lord. Guard Scripture's theology of God. Listen, God promises to forgive. He'll do it. As a matter of fact, Paul says in Romans 3, 4, let every man be found a liar, God is true. I know you've had people in your life who have said, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? I know that you've approached people and you've said, I'm sorry, will you forgive me? You've had those exchanges with other people. But then sometimes those other people, they go back on their promise to forgive you. I get that. And we all struggle with that. But whatever you do, do not project that on your Heavenly Father. He says in the Psalms, you thought I was like one of you. In other words, I'm not. When God promises to forgive, He forgives. Guard Scripture's theology of God. Dr. John Bettler is one of the early pioneers on biblical counseling in the biblical counseling world in our country as well as in the world. for many years teaching, counseling, and counseling people connected with Westminster Theological Seminary in Philly. And he wrote an article in the Journal of Biblical Counseling entitled, Counseling and the Problem of the Past. He wrote it in 1994. And I love this quote, listen. And he's talking to the counselee. When you move from your experience to God, you always distort God. Notice, I'm not saying that you shouldn't take your experiences to God. Of course you should. Anybody who reads the Bible even casually know that you bring your experiences to God. But when you see God only through those experiences, you distort God. The Bible turns this upside down. Start from God and work down to your experiences, whether past or present. Define who God is and then bring that to bear on what's happening in your life." And he's right. Guard what the Bible says about God. Number six, identify the presence of idolatry. Identify the presence of idolatry. Can I get you just to write down James 4, 1 through 4? You can just listen as I read this text to you. James 4, 1-4. We're in the heart of this epistle, and I look forward to starting our study of James, Lord willing, mid-September, just a few weeks away. James says, What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and you do not have, so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. And I believe that ask there is talking about praying, as it is in the next verse. You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses. And when God calls his people adulteresses, that's another word for idolatry. You are looking for something or someone else to give you a joy that only God himself can give you. Idolatry is wanting something or someone so much more, you want them more than God for your satisfaction and joy. And you know what? Someone who's struggling with letting go of a sin of the past that they confessed to God, they are walking on a precipice that they could easily fall into idolatry from. In other words, there's a certain feeling of freedom that I must have, and until I do, I will not have joy in my moments, I will not have hope in my days, and I'm not going to be any fun to hang out with. When we start talking like that, that's idolatry talk, because only God Himself can satisfy those desires. You say, is it right to want to have a clean conscience after you confess sin? Yes. But you know what? That's going to show up at different times in different ways with different people. You say, is it wrong to pray for that? No. But if you're praying for it, saying, until I have what I think I want and that right feeling, I won't live in the joy of being in Christ. Now you've crossed the line. Identify this presence of idolatry. Your joy is not ultimately sourced in your perfect worded confession or performance. Number seven, flee from the trap of pride. Flee from the trap of pride. 1 Corinthians 10.12 says, well, let me just get you to look at this real quick. 1 Corinthians 10.12. He says, therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed. that lest he what? Lest he fall. You see, sometimes pride can grip us and really keep us from moving on from sin we've confessed. Why? Because you still can't get over that you were involved in that sin. I mean, where did that come from? How did you get ensnared in that pattern? How could you? I mean, you know other people are around struggling with that, but how did it get a hold of you? And the enemy of our souls is so crafty that he will get you believing that lie, and distract you with that lie, and chain you to that lie. When the reality is, God says, you're capable of any sin. I'm capable of any sin. I tell all the seminary students in the classroom, you know, don't you nod your head and roll your eyes in the counseling room. Anything you'll ever counsel, you are fully capable of. Not only out here, but at the heart level. That's why Paul says in Galatians 6.1, when you restore a brother who's caught in a trespass, it says, watching yourself also, lest you too be tempted. Don't let pride keep you from walking in the freedom of the gospel as you walk beyond confessed sin. Number eight. Treasure the intercession of Christ. I'm just going to take you to two more passages because we have to conclude. Treasure the intercession of Christ. This is Romans 8, verses 26 and 27. Romans 8, 26 and 27. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should. You ever feel like that? I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. My heart's heavy. My conscience is crushed. I have worries, fear, anger. I don't know what to say, but I know I must pray. He says, we do not know how we should pray as we should, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Verse 27, for he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. You say, what's going on there? Even when we can't pray, or we don't know how to pray perfectly, the Spirit Himself takes our imperfect efforts at prayer, and He makes them perfectly as He gives them on our behalf. to the Heavenly Father. As a matter of fact, look down on verse 34. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather he who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. And if you want one more verse, 1 Peter 2, 4 and 5, talk about Christ making perfect our worship to God, our Father. He takes our imperfection and makes it perfect. You know, we've been having a lot of heavy prayer requests as a church family in the last few weeks. Many. And there's been a lot of sweet-answered prayer. Talked to Amy Lewis this morning. She's rejoicing. One of the intense one was the overbee baby. And God's people prayed. and Xander came through in his home, and this morning during the service, I get a tap on the shoulder, it's Jason. I got here and didn't even know he was here, and he says, I just really have a desire to thank the church family for praying for my son and for my wife and for me. And we had so much packed into the service, I'm hoping he'll send an email. Just put yourself in his position, or in Cheryl Malloy's position. Or in Robin and Phil Gromet's position with Robin's mom. Or Amy Lewis with the infection. Put yourself in their position. And so many of you have been there before. Isn't it a joy to know that people that gather over here on Wednesday nights get a prayer sheet and they pray for you not only during that hour, but they go home and they continue to pray. Isn't that a great blessing? And you have a reason to rejoice when God answers the prayer. And even if He answers it in a different way than you would prefer, there's still a strange rejoicing in your heart that someone out there is praying for you. Well, check this out. Even with your imperfect confession of your sin to your Heavenly Father, do you understand that Jesus Himself is praying for you? He's interceding for you, and He makes your imperfect prayers perfect before the Father. Treasure that intercession of Christ. Well then, just one more. Enjoy the freedom of moving forward. Enjoy the freedom of moving forward. And our final passage is Philippians 3. Philippians chapter 3. Paul writes in verse 7, whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Verse 10, that I may know Him, His resurrection and suffering and death. Verse 12, not that I've already obtained it, or not that I've already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Verse 13, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. Paul had learned at this point in his life that he continued to press forward. You don't live your Christian life staring at the rearview mirror. Be aware of what's in that mirror, but you must face life through the windshield and move forward in God's grace. Enjoy the freedom of moving forward. A biblical counselor who counsels and teaches the topic out at the Master's College and Seminary with MacArthur wrote these words about this text that we just read. He says, the Apostle Paul speaks about the past. He shows that the key to handling the past is not in reliving it. but rather it is in turning your focus away from the past and striving to keep your eyes fixed on the goal of becoming like Christ. Paul had held the garments of those who stoned Stephen. He had persecuted the church, dragging out Christians to be tortured and put to death. Yet, he chose not to put his mind on the past but to set his mind on the goal of becoming like Christ in the present. enjoy the freedom of moving forward. So I guess my question to you this evening as we go into our week is this, are you struggling with letting go a sin that you have confessed from your past? Just a reminder, I guess you can summarize everything we've said now in these two messages with this phrase, what you won't release, God chooses not to remember. 1 John 1, we say we have no sin. As believers, we're deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we, believers, confess our sins, He's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, we, Christians, say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. End of discussion. I know it's a struggle. I know it's a struggle. Because I've walked this road many times of not letting go of sin in the past. And you can tell your stories too. And you know what the answer is? The answer is to treasure the gospel of Christ. And may these nine points which are all truths that are tethered to the gospel. May they give you, finally, freedom to move forward.