Have you ever been led to step out in faith and tackle a mission that God placed on your heart? Maybe the Lord asked you to witness to a friend or coworker. Perhaps He asked you to tell a relative about the love of Jesus, or maybe He asked you to surrender to the call to preach or become a missionary.
There are unlimited tasks that God could choose to place on our heart. Some believers will hear the Lord speak and tell them to go, and they will refuse to respond to His call. Some, however, will have the faith to believe that God can accomplish His will through them, and they will step out and say, “Here I am, Lord, send me.”
The first step in being used by God is to be willing, but many believers never make it to this point because Satan whispers in their ear telling them they can’t do it; that they are unable, that they’re not good enough, or that perhaps they don’t have enough experience to be used by the Lord.
When this happens, a believer will begin looking to himself instead of God. The individual will focus on his own inability and forget that the Lord is able to do what a person can’t do alone. Those who make it past discouragement and rely on God to accomplish what they can’t do by themselves, will follow the Lord where He leads them. However, Satan doesn’t give up harassing a person once he surrenders and obeys the Lord.
Allow me to provide an example from my own life. The Lord called me into ministry during my freshman year in college, but I didn’t know exactly to what area of ministry. Time and again, though, I was confronted with the question, “Are you going to be a preacher?” and I would reply that there was no way I would become a preacher. I knew that I didn’t have the ability to pastor a congregation.
One day during my freshman year in graduate school, I finally took that first step of faith and relied on God to do within me what I couldn’t do on my own; and I surrendered to the call to preach. We need to make certain that we never tell God that we’re not going to go to a certain place, or that we’re not going to do a specific task, because that could be the very thing He will make us do!
So, I made it beyond that initial step of faith, but then Satan began hitting me with something very painful, which was my past. First, I was attacked within my mind by being reminded of past failures, and as I recalled how I was a shy person back in high school and college.
I was not only attacked within my mind, but I experienced criticism from without. It hurts when we realize our own failures; but when other people, such as family and friends, point them out it can be debilitating. And that’s exactly what the devil wants to do to God’s people; he wants to cripple them so they can no longer be effective for the Lord.
In our message this morning we will look at how Satan tries to hinder God’s people from serving the Lord by holding their past over them. We will also see how the apostle Paul was able to overcome whenever people held the past over him, and when they accused him of not following God.
It is my hope that this message will help us find the strength and courage to press onward into victory and freedom in God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
The Past Can Hinder Our Usefulness (Matthew 13:54-58)
When I was in junior high I carried my books to class in a brief case. This was considered an uncool thing to do, and I received ridicule and was labeled a nerd. About fifteen years later, after college and graduate school, I returned home one weekend to visit my parents. I stopped at a gas station to fill up, and while standing at the pump a truck drove by and someone rolled down the window and yelled out, “Hey brief case!” In one’s hometown it’s nearly impossible to reverse a label, and Jesus experienced this firsthand:
When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”
So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:54-58).
This passage portrays a classic example of how Satan tries to hold the past against us in order to hinder our usefulness to God. Jesus had performed many miracles prior to returning to His own country, but we read here, “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Mt 13:58).
The people talked among themselves and said, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers . . . and His sisters, are they not all with us?” (Mt 13:55-56). Jesus’ fellow countrymen were holding His past over Him.
They spoke among themselves; however, if they had spoken directly to Jesus they probably would have said something like this: “You were just a simple carpenter and an ordinary person the last time we saw you, and that’s all you’ll ever be! God can’t do anything through a carpenter!” If it had been an ordinary person who had received such criticism, he would have likely taken these words to heart and become very discouraged, but Jesus was no ordinary person.
We read that it was because of the people’s unbelief that Jesus couldn’t do many great works (Mt 13:58). The Lord works in people’s lives in proportion to their faith (Rom 12:6), and since the people had little faith, then God didn’t do much among them. If we try to minister among people who know our past and we’re not being used by the Lord, then part of the problem lies within the hearts of those particular people.
However, since most people – you and I included – don’t overcome criticism as easily as Jesus, part of the problem can lie within us. When friends and loved ones hold our past against us, then we can value their opinion so much that we might actually believe them. We can easily take what they say to heart, and then “we” become the very reason why God doesn’t work in a certain situation.
Satan oftentimes takes our past and holds it over us. He uses it to hinder God’s work in our life. So, the question I have this morning is this: “How can we be an overcomer when people keep bringing up our past?”
We Must Keep Pressing On (Philippians 3:4-6, 12-14)
Bob Dylan once sang, “Well I’m pressing on to the higher calling of my Lord. Shake the dust off your feet, don’t look back. Nothing now can hold you down, nothing that you lack.”(1) When Bob Dylan sang this, he actually echoed the teachings of both Jesus (Mt 10:14) and the apostle Paul. Right now, I’m going to share with you what Paul had to say about pressing ahead in faith:
Though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless . . .
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:4-6, 12-14).
Paul said that he was once very proud of his accomplishments before he became a believer. He was born a pure-blooded Jew; and he was a Pharisee, which was a person who was a great teacher and lawyer. Christians were at that time considered lawbreakers, and since Paul upheld the Jewish law so strictly he imprisoned and killed many of them. He said that he was never accused of any fault by his Jewish peers whenever he persecuted believers, because the Jews were convinced that it was the right thing to do (Phil 3:4-6).
However, when Paul accepted Jesus into his heart and received his commission to preach the gospel, his Jewish companions condemned him for it, and mocked him. Some Christians refused to believe that he had turned his life around, and they condemned him for his past in which he killed and persecuted many of them. They reasoned that a man who was that bad could never change. So for a while, Paul received criticism and judgment from both Jews and followers of Christ.
People held his past over him, but Paul didn’t let it bother him because he knew that even though people condemned him, God still loved him; and His Son, Jesus, refused to hold his past against him. So, what did Paul do that helped him overcome the condemnation that people were dishing out?
He basically said, “I know I’m not perfect, but I know and God knows that I’m doing the very best I can for Him. People may hold the past over me, but the Lord erased my past when I accepted Jesus into my heart, and so I’m not going to dwell on my past because it will just get me down. I’m going to forget the past and look forward to my life in God’s future” (Phil 3:12-14, my paraphrase).
Paul developed an overcoming attitude by reminding himself that God loved him; that Jesus died for his past, present and future mistakes; and that Jesus would never condemn him. And we need to remind ourselves of this fact too, perhaps even on a daily basis.
People have the habit of holding past wrongs against us. That’s just human nature. A man once chatted with his friend about how he and his wife got into arguments, and he told his friend, “Every time my wife and I argue she gets historical.” His friend asked, “Don’t you mean hysterical?” The man replied, “No, I mean historical, because she keeps bringing up things from the past.”
God doesn’t condemn us, so why should we allow other people to hold our past over us and make us feel defeated?
We Must Shake It Off (Acts 28:3-5)
When we’re seeking to press ahead to where God is calling, then we must first break off the chains of the past before we can ever move on. The way in which to break free is simply by shaking it off. The phrase “shake off” actually has a definition, believe it or not, and it’s defined as, “to free oneself of” and “to get rid of.”(2) The freedom to press on is found in shaking off the shackles of the past!
Paul unexpectedly encountered a fatal wound, which the devil had hoped to use against him to stop his ministry dead in its tracks. However, Paul overcame by shaking it off, setting an example for every believer. We read in Acts 28:3-5:
But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.” But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm (Acts 28:3-5).
We read here that when an extremely poisonous snake bit Paul on the hand that people said Paul must have been a murderer (Acts 28:4). They judged him as not being a man of God. No doubt the serpent was none other than the accuser Satan who, in an attempt to take Paul’s life, had hoped to foil God’s plans and discredit Paul’s name and reputation as a man of God before those around him. So, what did Paul do with the accusation placed on him? We read that he just shook it off (28:5)!
There’s the story of an old mule that fell into a farmer’s well. After assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule but decided that neither the mule nor the well were worth the trouble of saving. Instead he planned to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.
When the farmer began shoveling, initially the old mule was hysterical. But as the farmer continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck [the mule]. It dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back that he should shake it off and step up. This he did blow after blow. “Shake it off and step up, shake it off and step up, shake it off and step up!” he repeated to encourage himself.
No matter how painful the blows or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept shaking it off and stepping up! It wasn’t long before the mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well.(3)
If we will take the judgment and criticism that’s heaped on us and shake it off and place it under our feet then, like the old mule, instead of being buried and put to death we will eventually rise above it until we step over the edge. “Whatever may be troubling [us] from the past, [we must] shake it off! God has a great future planned for [us]. The dreams of the future have no room for the snake bites of the past.”(4)
Time of Reflection
We are free from condemnation if we know Jesus Christ and He lives in our heart. He came into this world to set us free from the consequences of our past. The past is full of many things that we deeply regret. We may have lied, cheated, stolen, or worse. There are many bad things that only we and the Lord know about.
These bad things are called sin, and the Bible says that if God holds our past against us, and convicts us of our crimes, then our soul will be put to eternal death, and we will never see the kingdom of heaven (Rom 6:23). However, if we will ask Jesus to come into our heart, God will no longer hold our past against us.
By God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-9), we will be able to live the rest of our lives free from guilt, free from the accusations of other people, and free from condemnation. With Jesus in our heart we can press onward into victory both here in this life and in the life to come.
NOTES
(1) Bob Dylan, “Pressing On,” (1980) Special Rider Music.
(2) “Shake Off,” The Free Dictionary: www.thefreedictionary.com/shake+off (Accessed January 27, 2010).
(3) Bruce Shelley, “The Parable of an Overcomer,” Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2002), p. 205.
(4) Joyce Meyer, How To Succeed At Being Yourself (Tulsa, OK: Harrison House, 1999), p. 183.
