Separating from Your Past - Episode 46

"Old things have passed away.  Behold, all things have become new!"

In this episode, hosts Justin Olbrantz and Don Schaefer explore the theme of separating from one's past to embrace the present and future that God has in store. They discuss how Jesus provides an opportunity to discard past burdens and live a life aligned with God's purpose. Key topics include the importance of focusing on the present, overcoming the weight of past mistakes through accountability and forgiveness, and living in gratitude. They emphasize breaking ties with toxic habits, environments, and relationships to fully walk in one's purpose. Practical steps are outlined, including daily focus on God, surrounding oneself with positive influences, and viewing past experiences as sources of strength and lessons rather than burdens. The episode concludes with encouragement to embrace a future filled with hope and purpose through faith in Jesus.

Chapters

• 1:52 Living in the Present
• 6:34 Making Peace with Your Past
• 9:15 Breaking Bad Habits and Seeking God
• 11:38 Decluttering Your Life
• 14:27 The Power of Getting Back Up
• 15:27 The Miracles Come if the Thanks Comes First
• 24:15 Forgiveness is First
• 26:27 A New Beginning with God
• 29:10 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Episode 46 - Separating from Your Past

Justin: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. This is Justin Olbrantz and this is Don Schaefer, and you are listening to the Wise and the Wandering Podcast. For those who know “The Way” and for those who are led astray. And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories. Then you're in the right place. So let's dive in...

Justin: So Don, what are we going to talk about today? We're gonna talk about Separating from your past, Justin, separating from your past. Yes. Okay.  so just to start, what are we separating from specifically? Well, 

Don: you know, this is a, a part of life that God has given us an opportunity of.

(both): Yeah. So 

Don: where you don't have to be concerned about the past of your life as far as how you live life, what you did might, what [00:01:00] you might have said. Mm-hmm. The, the situation you're in. Jesus has given us an opportunity to take that pass and push it aside and forget about it and work forward. Mm-hmm. And that's where a lot of times I tell people there comes a time in life where you have to draw a line in the sand.

Don: Yeah. And you step over it and 

Justin: live your life the way God wants you to. I like that. The line in the sand. And I've often said, uh, I think on other episodes too about like kind of going through a door. You know, I like that analogy of like going through a door. Yeah. And we're gonna shut that door. Yes. And a lot of the times that, you know, , a lot of the times Jesus says in John 14, six that he's the way, the truth and the life.

Justin: He says, no one comes to the Father except through me. 

(both): Yeah. 

Justin: Right. So to get. to find the way back to the father, to find your way back to God. Jesus is the door. Yes. Right. So once you accept him in your life as a believer, right, you go through that door and I think a lot of the times, like you were saying, the Bible talks [00:02:00] about.

Justin: Um, Jesus talks about, even Paul talks about the present and the things to come right. The present in the future. Right. They do not emphasize the past. Yep. Because the past is not important. Right. It is what you focus on, right. In the future, in the present. I think the present is so important. We did an episode, I think it was our second episode, and we did an episode called, your Purpose is Your.

Justin: Present, and that really is so important because we have to focus on the present. We can only be better versions of ourselves. We can only walk in tune. We can only walk with God and grow up in him if we're focused in the present. If we're aware. Right. Yeah. We have to be aware. Focusing in our past, living in our past is a distraction, and it does not allow us to be aware of what's happening around us.

Justin: No, no. So, you know, when it comes to. Your past. Your past is gonna hold you back, like you were saying. Yeah. So what we need to do is we gotta become [00:03:00] surgically removed from it. We do. You know, , we have to pull it off of us. We have to separate it from completely, we have to separate it from us completely.

Justin: We cannot be, we cannot be conjoined to it anymore. Right? It cannot be part of us anymore. Right. So in order to do that. I'm a believer. 

(both): Yeah. 

Justin: And, \ since I'm a believer, you know, I believe God is saying today that we're not going to talk about how you got here. We're not gonna talk about what happened to get you into this spot right now.

Justin: But let's live for today and we're gonna walk out of this together. 

Don: Yes, we 

Justin: are. I believe God is going to walk you out of your past. Yeah. Paul said that the mystery is revealed that God, who we've been looking for is inside of us. Right? Jesus is the hope of glory. Mm-hmm. For God to be revealed, right? In order for God to get the glory, he needs you to get outta your past and walk in your purpose in the present.

Justin: Yep. 

Don: That is so true. , Justin, [00:04:00] and a lot of times, you know, as you were mentioning. We are very imperfect. Uh oh. Yeah. And that's where I know the Bible has a nice little, , analogy. It talks about the potter's wheel. It talks about mm-hmm. You know, getting back on the wheel. Yeah. And, and letting the, uh, master mold us.

Don: And so many times, you know, , we're imperfect. We've done a lot of crazy things and, and we're paying a price sometimes for it. And we think we get ourselves in a hopeless situation. I know myself. Before I really opened up to the understanding of who Jesus Christ was and the possibilities of life, my life seemed like, you know, I was a good old boy, you know, I figured I'd be just like everybody else, you know, doing things and, mm-hmm.

Don: But not really proud of myself and having different imperfections and stuff. But the Bible gives us a whole different hope. It says that, you know, we can get back on a wheel where a master can mold our life. And what Jesus is wanting to do is he's trying to make something beautiful outta something that's maybe a little bit messed up.[00:05:00]

Don: Mm-hmm. And, but he's created us that way. Yeah. He's created us in a way where, uh, we're imperfect. We come into this world and no matter how perfect we wanna make ourselves, it can't be done. It's just in a situation where we allow him to get his hands on our life. And what he does is he takes that past and he deals with it.

Don: And the beauty of it, you can forget your past. You can forget everything that's been a part of your life. 'cause I know the Bible also tells me this, and this bothers me a little bit, but it talks about the accuser of the brethren. Mm-hmm. You know, it talks about an adversary. Some people call him the devil, or Satan, constantly telling you how useless you are and how worthless you are, and all the things that you've done 

Justin: condemning you and shaming you.

Justin: Yeah. You'll 

Don: never be good. Mm-hmm. Don, you'll never make it. You know, Justin, you got this and you got that. Mm-hmm. But you know, and that's where uh,, the Bible tells me that, that Jesus deals with the accuser. 

(both): Yeah. And 

Don: he changes things and he gives us a different way of looking at it and realizing that we are going [00:06:00] into another ownership.

Don: The Satan and , the things of this world have no more hold on us. Mm-hmm. And the past has no more hold on us. We place ourselves into his hands. Mm-hmm. And he makes all things 

Justin: beautiful. Yeah, he does. He really does. And and because your sins are forgiven, right? Yeah. And because of that, any wrongdoings that you're convicted of, any charges that have been against you are all expunged.

Don: Yes. 

Justin: The case is closed. Right. So I think a lot of the times, I just wanna say this first though, is that. I think it's important to make peace with your past before you can just separate it from you. Yeah. It's so hard because there's a lot lingering there. There's a lot that hasn't been dealt with.

Justin: There's toxicity there. Yeah. There's people that you've surrounded yourself with, like toxic people, and I think you have to make peace with your past. You know, Jesus is known as the prince of peace. Yeah. And he can do this for you. And I believe , he's [00:07:00] going to do it for you. So the first, I think the first.

Justin: Way that you can separate from this is you first have to be accountable for the things that happened in your past. Not necessarily saying that you condoned them right, or that what happened to you was okay or deserved. 'cause it, it most likely wasn't, but that. You just kind of accept it. Mm-hmm. You accept the things that happen.

Justin: You're aware of what happened, and not acceptance Again. Not acceptance, like it's okay, but you accept that things have happened so that you can make peace with it and put it behind you. Yeah. Right. Remember that door? You're gonna open that door, you're gonna go through that door, and you're gonna close that door.

Justin: What's behind that door cannot come with you. Right. Whatever's behind that door stays behind that door. Mm-hmm. It's not gonna go with you wherever you go Next. 

(both): Yes, you 

Justin: are now cut off. You're cut off. You're separated from what was behind that door. Yep. So many things won't separate from you unless you start cutting ties [00:08:00] and making decisions to break off those things, , that toxicity, right?

(both): Mm-hmm. For 

Justin: me, in my life personally, it was letting go of certain people, uh, maybe friends that I had that just weren't. Wanting the same things in my life, didn't have the same visions of the things that I saw. 

(both): Mm-hmm. 

Justin: , weren't open to a relationship with God. Uh, yeah. Found it cringey. That's true.

Justin: Didn't want to go that route. Didn't even want to talk about God without laughing or something like that. Yeah. It, it was cutting off those people, honestly, and distancing myself, setting boundaries. 

Don: Yeah, that's 

Justin: true. Also, one thing that I did, I just wanna mention it was kind of getting rid of certain music and.

Justin: Movies that I watched and, 'cause I think there's a spiritual aspect to that when you're constantly, 'cause I'm a very musical person, so when you're constantly taking in music that's not feeding your spirit the right way, it's really not it, [00:09:00] it has more damaging properties and it has more true. Glorifying properties.

Justin: Oh, yeah. You know, so there's certain things that I just felt convicted and I had to separate myself from. That's just me. And then I would say lastly is just. Getting out of bad habits. Yeah. You know, because addictions really are bad habits and, and addictions are a whole nother beast. And that's something that I believe God's gonna walk you out of too.

Justin: But when it comes to these bad habits that are,, that keep you, because when you start doing them again, you start being reminded of the things that are behind that door. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's true. And that door's shut. We can't go back. No. So we, , we gotta break off those bad habits. Yes. And we gotta seek.

Justin: Seek the kingdom. Right. Seek the kingdom first. Seek God. Find the strength to do these things. Yep. Yep. And. You will be surprised at how easy it is to separate from the former you. 

Don: Yes, for sure. That's for sure. You know, and it's interesting too, 'cause I know the Bible talks about a little bit about something too.

Don: It [00:10:00] talks about a man grabbing a hold of plow and he says, , you know,, when you grab a hold of plow, you look ahead. Mm-hmm. You don't look behind. Yep. Yeah, because you started looking behind your row are not gonna be too straight. And it's interesting too, you talk about music and some of this stuff. I know.

Don: Uh, I sometimes I'll, I'll give a good message. Mm-hmm. You know, I'll say, this is dynamite, you know? Yeah. It flowed so nice. But it's a one and done. You know, I sit there and I'll give the message and I'm thinking it's pretty good and maybe somebody else might too. And, but then it's a one and done. But music, it's a message that people play over and over and over again.

Justin: Yep. And I know it gets into your subconscious time. Oh it does. You 

Don: know, it gets you thinking that way and you don't know even know where it came from. Mm-hmm. But I know as you were saying about people too, 'cause I know one time I talked about success by association. Yeah. And, and it is, you know, it's the people you hang around with.

Don: And I know, , if, if a person wants to really change, this has been told to me, I don't know how good it is, but they were saying there's two things that will change you. And one [00:11:00] thing is, is the books you read, the things that you put yourself into. Mm-hmm. Because people write. Their lives, and it's good to get good books, good understanding, and the things of God.

(both): Yeah, you 

Don: feed yourself with that. But it is by association because if you hang around with the same people that are causing the problems that you've had in the past, you know, and expect yourself to change in the future, it won't happen. But if you can. Find people who are successful, who are living life the way they should and follow these individuals and be around them.

Don: Eventually you'll become like them in certain ways. Yeah, and I know, like, you know, the Bible talks a little bit about church. It talks about a lot of that stuff. Mm-hmm. But it's surrounding yourself because it becomes your protection because the past, you know, depends on where you're at. Is sometimes very alluring and a lot of people find themselves falling right back into it.

(both): Mm-hmm. And 

Don: it takes a real strong person and it takes the the presence of God. But I just wanna mention something if I could, Justin? Yeah, 

Justin: sure. 

Don: In Job chapter 11, he gives a couple points. 

(both): Okay. And 

Don: [00:12:00] it says, if you devote to God. And reach out to him, Uhhuh. So, so the start of all of this, you know, if you wanna change from your past, from whatever it might be, you have to be devoted and want the things of God and reach out.

(both): Mm-hmm. Like 

Don: you're talking about a door, you know, oh, he wants to open up a door. He wants to close a door from a past, but he wants to open up a door for the future. Mm-hmm. You know, that's where it talks about seeking, knocking, and he will. Open that door for you. Yeah. And then it says, if you put away sin, it says in job and keep it out of your house.

Don: Okay. So what is sin? I always say it's, it's the wrong, it's possibly the bad habit. Mm-hmm. You know, but you start to say, you know, I'm a housekeeper now, and , you know, I'm gonna. Work on keeping a good house. I'm gonna take everything that's not proper and make sure I don't bring it back into my house anymore.

Don: I'm gonna get rid of this stuff. Might take a dumpster, I might might take a two dumpsters, I don't know. But you put 'em in the driveway. 

(both): Yep. 

Don: You know, and you, you come before God and you say, Hey, you know, help me Lord, to [00:13:00] unload all this stuff. Mm-hmm. This is all burden. Clutter , is a bad thing in a person's life.

Don: I don't know about you guys, but. I know clutter is, is a refreshing feeling. I've moved already from properties and I've gotten rid of a bunch of stuff, and it seems like there's a freedom in that. But then the third thing I wanted to mention is mm-hmm. He will change you and he will blot out your past.

Don: And that's where God, what God wants to do. He wants to blotted out. Blotted 

Justin: out. Yeah. 

Don: You know, allow it to be removed so that. You don't have to deal with it day in and day out. 

Justin: And I think that's so good and I think to really get rid of that clutter, because there's a lot there and it's just important to understand, Don, we all have our stories.

Justin: Yes, we do. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't validate your story, your story, what happened in your life. Your experiences should be validated. When I say accept the things that you've went through, it doesn't mean, again, accept that they were okay for you. 

(both): Yes. 

Justin: Or it was okay for it to be done to you. Or [00:14:00] it was okay for someone else to be there and mm-hmm.

Justin: Talk about you or laugh at you or put you through a certain situation that's not, it's not okay. It's not accepting that. , it's just accepting what happens so you can make peace with it. So you can declutter. Like you were saying, we, we have to come to terms that we let our house get messy or to a certain degree of messiness.

Justin: Yeah. Before we say, okay, it's time for me to clean house. Right, right. So we all have our stories, , you know, one thing that I realized is the thing that makes great people when you study great people is they get up. 

(both): Yeah. 

Justin: You know, they get up when they fall down, they get up. You know, so when you think about it, Don, we live in a fallen world.

Justin: It says that there was a fall, right? Genesis, we we're now fallen because of sin. We now, we have to die because of sin, right? Yeah. Be because, uh, because of [00:15:00] sin , and my, um, my proposal. Or my response to someone who's fallen is to get up. Yeah. You know, since we live in a fallen world. Okay. The proper response is, we need to get up.

Justin: This is true. We need to get back up. We need to get back up into God's grace. We need to get back up into his sights. We need to get back up near his throne. We need to get back up into his view. Right. Into his His bubble, right? Yes. Into his love. We need to get back up into that. Yeah. Yep. And. Part of doing that is living from a place of gratitude.

Justin: I cannot stress this enough. That's good. It's so important when Jesus would pray to God, when miracles would happen, when he be breaking five loaves and two fish feeding 5,000. Yeah. He would start it before he breaks it, before anything happens, as he would give thanks to the father. That's right. He would see it being done before it's done.

Justin: That's what faith is, right? Yeah. But he would start it with thanks. There was a place. Of gratitude. Amen. He postured himself from a place of gratitude [00:16:00] where I'm thanking you for this happening before it even happens. Yes. I'm bringing it down from heaven, bringing it down to earth. Right on earth as it is in heaven.

Justin: Right, right. Yes. And I think when we live from a place of gratitude, we cannot focus on our past. And the reverse is the same. When you are stuck in your past, you cannot live in a place of gratitude. Yeah. 'cause you're just focusing on all the wrong things. Yeah. That happened to you and all the wrong.

Justin: Things that you had to go through and the things that you had to endure and the people that you had to put up with. Mm-hmm. And the, and the traumatic imagery that you have and the flashbacks that you have, this will not put you in a place of gratitude. No. The miracles are not coming unless the thanks comes first.

Justin: Right. That's right. Right. So holding onto. Guilt or resentment ties you to the past. It's like sometimes tying a cinder block to your leg, right? Yeah. You can't get rid of it. So, and, and also holding onto a fence offense [00:17:00] is just, just as strong. You know, I think of Jesus when he sent out. The 70, you know?

Justin: 'cause a lot of people, they talk about the 12. The 12 disciples, but there's the 70 too. It eventually grew a number two by two. He sent them out two by two. And he says, when you go into the town, find the nearest house. And when they receive, you say the peace is upon you right now. And if they don't receive you, then you go on your way It, he says that , you wipe the dust off your sandals.

Justin: Yes. And you leave. A lot of people, I think, in my opinion, actually , I think the only way I've heard this translated is very literally that you just wipe off the dust off your sandals, which could be true. Mm-hmm. But we're talking about 2000 years ago. I. In the Middle East where we didn't have, uh, laminated flooring and wooded flooring and stuff like, you know what I'm saying?

Justin: Yeah. So it was probably a pretty dusty home. Right. So wiping off all the dust on your sandals probably [00:18:00] wasn't very possible. I think in a way Jesus is speaking in. A figurative way. Mm-hmm. He's speaking in a metaphor here. He's saying that if you go into that house, , and if they don't receive you, you're bringing the peace of Jesus to them.

Justin: You're giving 'em a, a chance to see the glory of God. Right. To really change their lives. To come into contact with all, with the, the person who was . Healing people and forgiving sins and doing all this for the last three and a half years, all these miracles that were being witnessed, you can come into contact with that.

Justin: But if you are not willing, if you don't wanna believe, you should leave that home and not take anything with you. Right? Right. Because your past will come with you. So if there's any offense, don't take it with you. If there's any bitterness, you don't get offended. You . You don't get bitter. I think that's.

Justin: A way of what he was saying to them is, don't take anything with you. Leave it all behind. Whatever happened there. If they're not willing to receive, if they're [00:19:00] not willing to believe, then you move on and. Nothing, not even the dust that comes from that house. Yeah. Comes with you on your sandals. Yep.

Don: That's very good. That's very good. . 

Justin: Just to conclude that, I just want to conclude that by saying it's a lot like your past. What you need to do is you need to shake off the dust of the past, off of your sandals and continue forward.

Don: Yeah. You know, and you can, you can collect this stuff and carry it with you. . 'cause I know, um. You know when you're out there with people and when you're grateful and you're thankful, like you were mentioning there, it creates an atmosphere. 'cause everybody loves to be thanked and like, loves to be praised.

Don: Bible says God inhabits the praises of man. Mm-hmm. You know, so when we thank God in the situations and stuff like that, . God wants to do things for us, you know, and he wants to work with us. We keep a presence. We keep our focus on him. And what you're saying too, you know, you're ministering, uh, with your sandals on, you're ministering in, in a home or whatever, and the, you [00:20:00] know, they don't receive you well, you know, so you, you get to dust and dirt off your feet and you walk away, but you know, you have to be able to forgive these people for where they're at.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know? And you, if you have a focus and a peace on God, you start to walk in the love of God. 

(both): Mm-hmm. 

Don: And, , and oh. A lot of the individuals, if you keep your eyes on Jesus, in other words, you spend time allowing him to be part of your life, and this is something you, you have to learn to do, but you, you know, you wake up in the morning, you find time.

Don: You're talking about habits and stuff like that. I. Developing habits where you, you would come to God first. You know, in the morning , you're talking about God before you go to bed, you're talking about God, you're feeding yourself thoughts, all this sort of thing. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden your focus is on him.

Don: And what happens is he takes away the focus of the past, you know, because we've got a future. We've been designed for certain things. 

(both): Yeah. A 

Don: lot of times, you know, our past have nothing to do with what God has designed us for. 

(both): Yeah. And 

Don: if we focus and keep on focusing, we'll find ourselves. Being [00:21:00] distracted, we'll find ourselves, , cutting ourselves down and not realizing how valuable each and every one of us are.

Don: Yeah. And, and God is wanting us to clean and get ourselves in a position where we can, , uh, be able to focus on him. And a lot of times too, , you know, your past , can be channel X, y, Z, and every once in a while what'll happen is , you'll get to the right, wrong channel. You know, you don't want to go to X, Y, Z.

Don: So if you catch yourself getting into the past and starting to make yourself, a lot of people deal with depression. They deal with a lot of down things because of things that have happened to him. You need to change the channel. 

(both): Mm-hmm. 

Don: And the beauty of it, you know, God has got some good channels for you.

Don: He's got ways of looking at things that will get you over the past and separate you from the hurts, the pains, whatever you might have gone through, because not everybody. Has been raised and lived in an ideal situation. Your past could be very rough and very hard on you, but you need sometimes to change that focus, and that's [00:22:00] the beauty of seeking after the things of God.

Don: You start to keep focused on the good things and the places where you're wanting to go, and you start to learn what your purpose is in life. And it changes everything. I don't have any time for the, I dunno about you, Justin. Yeah. I don't have time to dwell in the past. 

(both): Right. You 

Don: know? 'cause there's such, so much in front of me.

Don: I know Paul talked about that. He's, I press forward, he's, I don't look at the past anymore. If you get into the Bible and you read about him, he was a scoundrel. He was a murderer. This guy here probably should have been executed for some of the stuff that he was doing, but God forgave. All of that. Mm-hmm.

Don: And all of a sudden he developed a relationship and a different focus. He's seen himself totally different and he learned how to love people. Mm-hmm. He learned how to love and cherish people. Like you're talking about getting the dust off the feet. You didn't, it didn't matter what you did to Paul. He just love you back.

Don: You know, that's what the Bible basically tells us, and that's the way we need to be. Yeah. And if we get stuck in the past, we'll always carry around our burdens. , the [00:23:00] old fences and everything that's happened to us, we won't be free 

Justin: of that. Yeah. Because it's, it's not a burden. I love what you're saying about focus, because our focus is so important how we look at things like you're talking about Paul viewing, you know, viewing.

Justin: Trials and sufferings with great joy and just always approaching people with love. These are the things that Jesus embodied and this is what was imparted to him and should be imparted. To all of us as believers, but just reframing your perspective is so important because instead of seeing the things that happened to you in your past as a burden, right?

Justin: Yeah. 

(both): Yeah. 

Justin: Consider it a source of strength and lessons. Yes. Right. Think of many things in your life as. Opportunities to grow closer to Jesus and find your purpose. Yeah. Instead of thinking it as something that anchors you and weighs you back. You know, also by doing this, you can shift your focus from [00:24:00] self-centered regrets.

Justin: Yeah. To Christ centered purpose. And this is how we really walk. Yes. We do. By the spirit, like we were talking about last week. 

(both): Yeah. 

Justin: And you know, I just want to go back to one thing that you said. We've. Talked about this a lot on numerous podcasts, but forgiveness, forgiveness is first, in my opinion. You know, forgiveness above all, because you need to get that weight off your shoulders.

Justin: This is heavy. Your past is heavy. Like I was saying before, we all have stories. Yeah. We gotta get rid of some of that weight. You have to free yourself from that resentment and that bitterness. Yeah. You know, Jesus said, I've come to set the captive free. 

(both): That's right. And 

Justin: if you don't forgive. Yeah. Just like he forgave you, right?

Justin: If you don't forgive, we allow these memories and these, this trauma and stuff like that that we have, it won't go away. We allow that stuff to dictate our life and to block us [00:25:00] from our freedom, to block us from getting out of captivity and forgiveness itself. , it doesn't get rid of the memory, right? It doesn't get rid of that stuff, but it stops it from.

Justin: Infiltrating our present and holding authority over us. Right. You know, by doing this, by forgiving people, we make peace with our past. Yeah. We made peace with it, right? Forgiveness allows you to kind of release you from the suffering and the resistance, right? That you've had, the rebellion that you've had all your life.

Justin: Forgiveness allows you to, it releases you from the suffering, the resistance, because loving yourself. Is wanting more for yourself. 

(both): Mm-hmm. Right? 

Justin: If you wanna love yourself and you wanna start loving yourself, loving yourself is wanting more for yourself and deliverance. Is releasing you from what is restricting your ability to fully love yourself.

Justin: Yep, that's true. That's true. You know what I'm saying? So you can accept the past, like we were [00:26:00] saying. You can accept it, don't condone it, but the acceptance is gonna allow you to forgive yourself as well as others so that you can focus on the existing moment. And what God has for you. Yeah, 

Justin: , it's true because then you can fully love God when you fully love yourself. 

Don: Yeah. 

Justin: And you gotta get to that point. You can fully forgive people when you fully receive the forgiveness that God has for you. That's right. 

Don: That's right. I got a good example here, Justin, I'd like to share. 

(both): Okay. 

Don: Um, this was, uh, right after, uh,, how would you say the day of Pentecost or whatever, where the apostles received the baptism, the Holy Spirit, but mm-hmm.

Don: It talks a little bit. Peter talks about who Jesus Christ was. Yeah. And the people started realizing who they were. Saying, crucify him. Crucify him was, he said That was your salvation. So they had a past, you know, it wasn't good. That's what they were saying. I. What shall we do? This is hopeless there. You know, , this is hopeless.

Don: And that's what Peter [00:27:00] told him. He says, you know, that's all you need to do is come to God. Mm-hmm. Tell him you're sorry. He says he's gonna, he's gonna forgive you. He's gonna blot everything out. He's gonna make all things new. He's gonna wipe out everything you did. And said, you know, because it's all done.

Don: And that's where in life we can get to a place with God where we reach out to him and we say, Hey, you know what? We're, we've messed up. We really have. But we realize that. You by allowing Jesus to die on a cross can forgive all that and we can have a brand new life. Mm-hmm. And there was, the Bible says that there was 3000 people that believe this message, and that's the key to a lot of this here.

Don: You gotta believe that God is gonna forgive the past. He's gonna get rid of it, he's gonna separate you from that. Mm-hmm. Everything you're gonna see from this day of fourth is gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be everything that God has. Designed it. You know, we stay close to him. He stays close to us. We cast our cares upon him.

Don: He cares for us. He takes care of our [00:28:00] every need. Mm-hmm. So every situation, our mind gets on the wrong channel. He switches it back. We sit there in a place where we can allow him to, to allow our thinking process and the way we look at life, the way we perceive things. We realize that. That was passed. I don't even think about that anymore.

Don: 'cause I got a future. You got a future. We all have a future. 

(both): Mm-hmm. God 

Don: has got something created beautiful for each and every one of us. And the beauty of a lot of this is it happens in a moment. It happens in a moment. We believe and reach out. God is an instant God. It isn't something that he waits five years to do something with.

Don: He does it right now. And that's the beauty of. What Jesus Christ came to do, and that's what he was doing with Peter in those 3000. He was making some instant changes. These people, their whole way of life changed. All of a sudden, there was a whole new ray of hope. Their past was nothing to be worried or concerned about anymore.

Don: So it doesn't matter how colorful a past we [00:29:00] might have, God is wanting to make something beautiful out of us, and we truly can separate ourselves from our past. Amen. Well, 

Justin: I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another Good word.

Justin: I. Until then, stay blessed by the best. See you guys.