Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Get Rid of Your Guilt | Habits of a Healthy Heart | Part 4

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

We’ve all done things we regret, and the feelings of guilt can weigh on our minds and hearts. Imagine what your life would be like if you could finally get rid of the guilt and move forward. With God’s help, it’s possible. Let’s find out how. ABOUT THIS MESSAGEIn new seasons, we often focus on what we should do more of. But sometimes, we just need to simplify. In our series, Habits of a Healthy Heart, we'll take a deep breath, make space for God, and allow Him to work in our lives.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LCNowCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #habitsofahealthyheart Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I want to ask you a very personal question, and I hope this isn't too direct. But how many of you have ever been caught doing something wrong? Again, am I coming on too hot? Like, do I need to take you to dinner first before we get that personal? You've been caught doing something wrong. Now, here's another question. When you were caught doing something wrong, how many of you were sorry? A little deeper question.

Were you sorry that you were caught? Doing something wrong? Or were you sorry that you did something wrong? Because there is a difference. For example, when I was in high school, I got caught cheating on a test. Small town, very embarrassing. Everybody knew I was very sorry that I got caught. cheating on a test. I wasn't really sorry that I cheated. I was sorry that I got caught. The last

time I got caught, I got caught talking bad about somebody that I love. And I was very, very sorry. Not just that I got caught, but I was very sorry that I was talking bad about someone that I love. And this introduces our theme for today in a message series we're calling Habits of a Healthy Heart. In the new year, if you want to change your life, what do you change? You change your habits. But if you want to change your habits, you let God change your heart. And so we're talking about different habits of the heart. The first week we talked about the habit of self-examination. The second week we talked about the habit of simplicity. Better is one handful of tranquility than two with toil and a chasing

out of the wind. Last week we talked about the habit of slowing and slowing. And solitude to be still and know that he is God. Next week, we're going to talk about the very important habit of steadfastness. Today's habit, though, is a very important habit that the devil does not want you to adopt. Because if your spiritual enemy can keep you from this one habit, he can keep you living in shame, he can keep you distant from God and he can keep you from fulfilling your calling. And that's why today I want to talk to you about the habit of godly sorrow.

The title for our message is, get rid of your guilt. So Father, we ask today that the truth and the power of your living word would pierce our souls, change our hearts. And God, may our lives reflect the goodness of your son, Jesus. Speak to us, God. We pray. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. Amen.

Let's talk about the habit of godly sorrow. This comes from 2nd Corinthians chapter 7, where Paul actually talks about two different kinds of sorrow. Let's look at God's word that tells us this. We'll start in 2, Corinthians 7.9. Paul says this. He says, yet now I'm happy. Not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to what? Let's say it aloud. It led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended. And now here's the difference. Godly sorrow, there's two types of sorrow, godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Godly sorrow, what does it bring?

It brings repentance, and what does it lead to? It leads to salvation, and it leaves no regret. Godly sorrow leads you to turn away from your sin. It leads you to salvation. But worldly sorrow, what does it do? It brings death. There's two types of sorrow, and I want to look at these on the screen just to kind of drive it in.

The first one is godly sorrow, which brings about what? It brings about repentance. It's a turning away from our sin that leads us to salvation. There's a different type of sorrow, and this is the, oh, I'm not sorry I did wrong, but it's I'm sorry I got caught. It's a worldly sorrow that brings about remorse. I don't really want to change, but I'm kind of embarrassed. I get caught.

And that leads to spiritual death. the good news is godly sorrow can actually bring about significant change, healing, and wholeness in our lives. Now, I'll be a little bit transparent, and I hope this doesn't offend you. I can't speak for all of you, but I am actually an expert at finding fault in others. Some of you are too. Some of you got the spiritual gift of criticism. You can find fault everywhere you go. And it's really, really, really, easy for me to make excuses for my own shortcomings while picking out everybody else's wrong doings. And some of you are doing that right now because you're already thinking, oh, I know so and so who needs this message because they've been, you know, they got the world is

sorrow and I need that. I hope my husband's listening to this one, you know, because if you're like me, it's really, really easy to point out someone else's fault. Easy to point out the spec in someone else's eye. and ignore or rationalize or justify the log in your own eye? What do we do? We often will accuse others and excuse ourselves. You did wrong and you're a mess and you sin, but then we make excuses for our own shortcomings,

especially in today's culture, because almost everything in culture today wants to like sanitize or rebrand sin. In fact, even the fact that I've used the word sin, for some of you is too much. There are a lot of people today who say, like, yeah, don't use the word sin, because I didn't sin, I made a mistake.

Or a lot of people would say, well, I'm living my truth. Who are you to tell me what sin is for me? And so cultural kind of like sanitized, we're almost like trying to baptize sin. Like we wouldn't say like I told a lie because that sounds too harsh. I exaggerated a little bit. Or it was a white lie. Or it was kind of a fib.

We'll make it sound a little bit better. Sex outside of marriage, the Bible calls it fornication. That's kind of an old-fashioned judgmental word. I don't like that. I just kind of like called it beating my needs. Like just getting things done. Like, you know, let's just. just call it cohabitation, which makes a lot of sense nowadays, right? Because we can save money,

we can kind of see how things go, and you wouldn't buy a car without test driving at first. Now, would you? Some of you're not like really laughing. Like going, is he being serious or is he joking? This is sarcasm in case you don't know, just in case you're wondering. We're going to make things sound better. Like, the Bible says some, like, pretty direct things. Like, drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. So we're not going to use the word drunkards, but we're not also going to call ourselves an alcoholic. We just like to party a lot.

We just like to have a good time. I'd just like to have three or four glasses of wine to unwind. It helps me feel closer to God and sleeps better at night. Sarcasm again in case you're wondering. Gossip, this is a good one. Like we don't know when gossips. We just share prayer requests. And you knew what Sister Sally was doing?

Oh, we got to pray in the spirit for her, because she's doing this, that, and other. And before long, we, like, take everything and kind of just, like, make it pretty. And literally, we might be like the movies we watch, the shows we consume, what we see on our social media, like, literally the things that we enjoy are sin. Like, many times we are being entertained by sin. And Isaiah said, woe to those who call evil good. Changing the wording doesn't change the sin. What is sin? Not a popular word.

A lot of people get angry with it. It comes from the Greek word Hamartia. It's kind of like, it's like an archery term. What it literally means is if this is the target and this is the middle of the target, Hamartique means to miss the target. It means missing the mark. In other words, if we believe that there is a God, then there is absolute truth. And truth is not our idea.

Truth is a person. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. And so if there is a God and God is God, then God sets the truth. And if we miss his standard of truth, that's called harm or to you, that's sin. That's coming under or missing God's standard in the way that he calls us to live. Now, Craig would be in judgmental, like call me, you know, saying, calling out my sin or whatever. I can't call out of your sin without calling out my sin. Every single one of us.

Every person who's ever lived except for Jesus has sinned. Romans 323 tells us very, very clearly, for every one of us has sinned. We all fall short. We all miss the standard of God's glorious grace. We miss God's standard. And so you may say, like, why are you doing this to us? You're supposed to be fun. You're the feel good life church guy, right? You know, easy-belieism, stuff like that, life church, entertainment, feel-good church, right? Why are you talking about sin? I already feel bad about

myself. I just want to eat my donut here in church. The reason we talk about this is very, very important that we recognize that we sinned against God. Because until you see yourself as a sinner, you won't see your need for a savior. We've all sinned every single one of us. It's amazing that you're clapping for me calling you sinners. That's got us really fine. I love this church. And so I sinned my senior year of high school two weeks before graduation and got caught cheating.

And I was sorry. because I was embarrassed, and I felt remorse because I got caught. The challenge is remorse is not the same as repentance. Some of you, if your sin became public, that part of you that you don't want anybody to know, that secret, dark part of your heart, of your life, if it became public, you'd feel bad that other people know. repentance is not just feeling bad that other people know it's feeling so repentant before god that you turn away from the sin and run to god with all of your heart and some of you right now there's something going on he kind of feel bad about you don't really anybody know and you might have a little bit of remorse and if it came out or if we talked about it or if i like called you on or you called me on something

Some of us, we just come up with our excuses. Well, this is just how I deal with things. It's not that big of a deal, and it's really someone else's fault. And if you do get caught, you're sorry that you got caught, and you're sorry for what it cost you, but you might be blind to what it's doing to others. And when you're remorseful for your sin, you often run away from God.

You don't want to take it to him. You run away from him, and then one day, you look in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself. and you have no idea how you got to where you are. And for those of you that are Christians, one day you might wake up and discover you're not as close to God today as you were before. Like you used to be intimate with God

and talk to God and be aware of his presence and he would prompt you during the day and his word was feeding you consistently. But now not so much. What's happened? Your heart has grown cold. toward God. And some of you might even say, like, why don't I feel God the way I used to? I used to feel his presence. Why don't I feel him? Well, perhaps one of the reasons might be because

sin separates us from God. God is holy and doesn't look. It separates us from God. For example, let's say you're out in the cold. And where I live, that's been about all there's been for the last like four years it feels like. If you're out in the cold, it's really, really cold, but you have a great hat on, and maybe you have a scarf on, and you've got some long johns or some long underwear on, and it's in a nice jacket, and some gloves, and some snow boots, and some great socks. If you're covered in really, really warm clothes, you won't feel the cold because your clothes separate you from the cold. In the same way, if you go out into the world, And you're covered in sin.

You can't feel the presence of God because your sin separates you from God. There's a difference between remorse and repentance. I'll tell you a story. Have ever mentioned that we have six kids? I'm still trying to get my mind around that. Like now we've got six grandkids. How did this happen? They're going to multiply.

There's going to be like 700 of them. I can feel this. It's exponential. Okay. my second son, my youngest son, his name is Stephen. I'll show you a picture of this was Stephen when he was about three. We called him Buki. Sam is in that picture.

Sam started calling him Bovey, which we felt would be inappropriate, and so we rebranded it as Buki. And so Stephen became Buki. And when Stephen was about this age one day, I came out in our front yard, and he was just squealing in sheer delight. Three-year-old Buki was going, my friend! My friend!

And he was dancing around his fwind! And I went and looked at his fwind, and it was a little baby rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was dancing and rattling, Stephen was dancing and rattling, having a blast with his friend, my friend! So I disposed of his friend, and Stephen was so devastated. My fwind, my fwind, my fwind, my fwind, a rattlesnake was his fiend.

I would ask you with a serious tone, is there a sin you've befriended? Is there a sin that you're enjoying? Is there a sin that is dangerous to you, but you've been very comfortable with it? It could be jealous Like you're jealous of her perfect hair and her perfect kids She's got more shoes than Oprah You know Or it could be that someone hurt you

And you're just really good at hating them You look at their feet all day long You pick it apart Spend more time looking at their feet than the people you love To pick them apart It could be materialism But you rationalize it I just like

nice things all your other losers, you like dumb things, but I just like nice things. It could be that you're like me, you're cheating your way through school. Or you just take God's name in vain. I mean, you play golf and you take God's name in vain. Could be your comfort eating or medicating yourself or watching porn again and you rationalize it and try to tell yourself, it. It's not big deal. It's not that big of a problem. I can quit at any time. Really, this is just my one thing. This is just how I get by. I'm not as bad as most people. And you rationalize sin. My friend, my friend, my friend. Rationalizing your sin is the first sign. Your heart is growing cold.

toward God? Is there a sin you befriended? Worldly sorrow may be embarrassed, making it feel kind of bad, makes excuses, but it lacks repentance. And godly sorrow is very, very, very different. Godly sorrow is a very, very deep and honest. It's a sincere, over your sinfulness, over your wrongdoing. It's marked by this genuine humility and grief, not that you were caught, but that you sinned against God. It's this heartfelt repentance to God. What does it mean to repent? It's like a churchy word. Well, what does re mean? re means to turn. Pint is like the pent house.

It's turning from that which is lower to God's higher standard. It's to re-pent. It's not just like, ah, yeah, I just had it again. And, you know, I'm going to try hard not to do it. And three days there I did again. I wish I had it. And it's just my one day, no. It is a God.

I'm so sorry, God. I love you. God, I know you have something better. God, I don't want to do it again. I am turning away. I'm closing the door. I'm doing something. Have you ever noticed that most of the time you fall and give into temptation,

you do it through a door that was left cracked open? Because it's being kind of quiet. The door was still open. You send and you left the door cracked. I don't want to do it anymore. Oh, but the door is still cracked. I can still do it if I want to. Repentance is like, I'm getting as far away from that which breaks the heart of God

and hurts me as humanly possible. I am turning away from the lower destructive things and lies of the enemies to the higher calling of God. It's a repentance. It's turning toward God. How do we do it? Very, very simply, this is what happens. We are going to confess.

quickly, and we're going to repent wholeheartedly. What I've noticed is one of the marks of maturity when I am walking by the spirit, when I'm intimate with God, there is an immediate awareness of sin. If I'm distant from God, if I'm ignoring God, if I'm put God up on a shelf and I'm going to call on when I need him, if I'm not in the word, then I can actually slip into a sinfulness and justified and rationalize it and kind of tolerate it and and almost accept it. But when God's word is in my heart and when His Spirit is directing my steps, the moment I step out of His will, immediately I'm convicted, not condemned, convicted. That there's a better way. That this is a lower lie of the enemy and there is a higher truth of God. And I will confess quickly. Oh God, I'm

Oh, I didn't mean to you. Oh, God. Oh, please God. God, God, thank you for your God. God, God, I need your grace. God, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly. It's not that you're not going to fall. It's not that you're not going to fall. It's not that you're not going to recognize it quickly. That's a good sign. And then what do you do you? You repent wholeheartedly. It's not, oh, I'm sorry. I'll probably do it again tomorrow. I'm going to rededicate to you and I'm not going to do it for three whole weeks. This time, God. No, it's a full-on, God, I know that is against your heart, against your will, hurts your people, and destroys me. I turn, I slam the door, I run away from that, I confess quickly, and I repent wholeheartedly. What happens when you confess your sins to God? scripture tells us this. If we confess our sins to God, the Bible says, God is faithful and just. And what will he do? Hold it against us, bring condemnation into our lives, make us feel like losers for the next 30 days while we earn our way back and do his good grace. If we confess our sins, our God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and pure our sins. us from all unrighteousness.

Not only, listen, does he forgive us, but he purifies us. He cleanses our hearts. When you confess, he forgives you freely. You did nothing to earn it. You don't deserve it. And yet he gives it to you. And so what I want to do is I want to be close to God. Am I going to still sin?

Unfortunately, I'm still stuck in a sinful body prone to sin. Prone to the wrong thoughts, wrong judgment, wrong words, wrong actions, wrong attitudes. But when I do, because I'm close to God, I confess quickly. God, forgive me, change my heart. And I'm going to repent wholeheartedly. And when I receive God's undeserving. mercy and grace, it changes me when you receive his undeserving mercy and grace, it changes you and you're different. Confess quickly. Repent wholeheartedly. Confess quickly. Repent wholeheartedly.

Confess quickly. Repent wholeheartedly. I was talking to a guy that was still battling with pornography. And he said, Craig, I'm, you know, all these years, I'm still fighting the urge to look at porn. I said, well, let me tell you the good news of what you just said. And I said, what's the good news? The good news is you're still fighting. Meaning you haven't rationalized, you haven't given into it.

You're not dancing. My friend, my friend. You don't want to do it. So at least there's that. And then we talked real openly about it. So tell me about your repentance. What does your repentance look like? It's like, well, I tell God I'm sorry and then I do it again.

I tell God I'm sorry and then I do it again. I said, no, no, no, no, that's confession. What about your repentance? What is, how do you turn from it? Because what do you mean? I tell God I'm sorry and I go three days and I do it again. I say, where do you look at it? He said, well, I'm always on my mobile phone.

So, okay, so if that's where you're looking at it, if you're turning from it, how are you closing the door? and he looks kind of confused. And at that point, I didn't push anymore. I said, just think about what you can do. I was thinking you can, like, block things. And said, go ask God what you can do to repent, to close that door. About, I don't know, three or four days later, he came to me and he was smiling really big.

He said, I repented, I repented, I said, what did you do? And he showed me a dumb phone. I said, where's your smartphone? He goes, ah, I repented. I got rid of it. So you got rid of your phone? He goes, he said, man, he said, if I continue in that, I will lose my mind. marriage. I'd rather have a dumb phone and my marriage than a smart one without it. That's repentance.

That's turning. He's, uh, he told me he's been four months without looking at porn for the first time in his life since he was 13 years old. In the beatitudes, Jesus said this. He said this. He said, blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. I always love that verse. You lose a loved one. Blessed are those who mourn. Jesus will comfort you. I didn't realize that that's true that when you are hurting, God does comfort you,

but the word in the Greek is actually talking about those who mourn for their sin. Blessed are those who are really, really sad that they sinned against God. Blessed are those whose heart is breaking

when our actions break the heart of God. Blessed are those who mourn for their sin for they will be comforted. Very similar to the woman who was caught in adultery. When all the religious men said stoner, stoner, stoner, stoner to death. And Jesus knelt down by the woman and started writing something in the sand. We don't know what he wrote, but whatever he wrote calls all the men to leave. One by one, they left. Some scholars think he probably wrote their sins. Rabbi important wrote his sin down,

and he left. We don't know, but they all left. And Jesus looked, at the woman and said, where are your accusers? And she said, they've all gone. They're not here. And he looked at her with love and said, then neither do I condemn you. Go your way and sin no more. Go your way and sin. Can you see how much God loves you? Can you see its grace? Romans 2-4 says this. don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? It's His kindness. It's not his anger. It's not his wrath. It's not His justice that leads you to repentance. It is the love of God. God, the grace of God, the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. And that's why this should be a habit.

Sorrow? Yes, godly sorrow. Confess quickly, retent wholeheartedly. God, any time, I want to be so close to God that I'm aware immediately when I step off the path. When my mind wanders, when my mouth says something dishonoring to God, oh, God forgive me, I turn from it. God forgive me. That's why this is one habit. The devil doesn't want you to adopt. Because if you don't, he can keep you living and shame, distant from God, and keep you from filling your calling. There's a worldly sorrow. Not that big a deal.

You got your thing. Why, don't criticize me or rationalize it out. And there's a godly sorrow. It's a heart that's broken before God. It's one that confesses quickly. It's one that repents wholeheartedly. And this leads to salvation where there is no regret. So what is God saying to you today?

don't feel a bit of condemnation. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If it's conviction, that is the result of a God who loves you and has something better for you. We close the door. We confess quickly. We repent wholeheartedly. And we run to a father who's running to you

because when you draw near to him, he draws near to you. It's his love. It's his kindness. that leads you to repentance. And repentance leads to salvation and the life that God wants you to have. So don't settle for anything less. So Father today, we thank you. We thank you in advance for all the mercy and grace that we're going to receive.

Because God, we need it. Holy Spirit, you work in the way. that you need to work, we're open to what you want to say to us. Church, if you want to be so close to God that you confess quickly, repent wholeheartedly, you've got a, you've got the habit of turning quickly from your sin and turning quickly to God. If you want to be sensitive, righteous, you're going to honor God. Just lift up your hand right now, just all of our churches, just lift up your hand right now. Online, you can type in the comment section.

I want to honor God in every way. I want to honor God in every way. God, I thank you that in our life groups, we've got a safe place to confess. God, we know that we confess to you for forgiveness. And we know we confess to people for healing. We confess our sins to one another and we pray for each other that we may be healed.

God, I thank you that on the other side of confession, there's forgiveness and there's healing. So God, prompt us to do what we need to do. If we need a dumb phone or whatever it means or whatever of our life, God, we want to close the door. We want to turn away from the lower lives of the devil and turn to the higher things of your kingdom to confess quickly and repent wholeheartedly.

And we think there's healing, forgiveness, grace, mercy in your presence, so we run to you. that we thank you that if we're mourning for our sins, that you will comfort us. So we need you. We turn to you. We run to you. As you keep praying today, there are those of you that you might be like I was. You know, I cheated in high school and then did a whole host of other things.

And I felt so guilty. I thought I need to really try to be good enough for God. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get there. And I didn't realize that every single one of us have sinned it, that it's impossible for me to work my way to God. And it was when I read his word and I recognized that the only way that we're made right with God is by his grace. It's never our works. It's only his grace. We put our faith in Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the son of God. He was without sin. He was our sacrifice for our sins. He died on the cross and God raised him from the grave. And so what do we do now? What is repentance? It's turning away from our

sin. It's turning toward Jesus and just saying, I want to be. be like you. I want you to be the Lord of my life. I want you to be my Savior. I want to follow you. I want to be your disciple. When you turn, when you call on him, God hears your prayers. Listen, he forgives everything. Every sin is gone, separated from you. You become brand new. There are those of you today. This is your moment. You've been under the weight of your sin for too long. Today is the day. We're turning away from it. This isn't like a little Sunday school prayer. This isn't like a feel good thing. This is a life change. We are walking away from the old. We're pursuing Jesus at all of our churches today. Those who say, that's me. I need its forgiveness. I need

his grace. This isn't just a little prayer. This is a life change. We are repenting. We're turning away from our sin. We're turning toward Jesus. He's king. He's Lord. He's Savior. When you call on him, he hears your prayers. He forgives your sins. You're about to be changed. All of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his grace. Yes, I need his forgiveness. Yes, I step away from my sin. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now. All over the place and say yes. over here. Praise God for you. Right here. Others if you say yes, Jesus, right back over here. I surrender. I give you my whole life. Others today lift up your hand and say yes, Jesus. I trust you. Online, type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. And as we have people all over

the world calling on him, would you just pray aloud with those around? You pray, Heavenly Father. I turn from my sin and I turn to you. Jesus save me. Forgive me. Forgive me. make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit. So I can know you and I can live for you. Direct my steps. Heal me. Change me.

My life is not mine. I give it all to you. I am your disciple. You are my Lord. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. And we've got a church full of people.

People thanking God, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise, give him praise.