Louie Giglio - The Past Is on the Mic
We’re closing out our series «Who’s on the Mic?» and we’ve talked about a lot of voices that get on the microphone in our lives. Just to say it one last time: the microphone isn’t the issue; microphones simply magnify sound. The issue is what voice is on your mic. In other words, what voice is most dominating your thinking? Because whatever voice is dominating your thinking is ultimately going to dominate your feeling and your being. It’s up to us to get what’s good and true on the mic. That was the subtitle or the tagline of this series, and that’s really the most important line: turn up what’s good and turn up what’s true. We talked about that last week: how does God speak to me and how can I get God’s voice on the mic? Because God’s voice being on the mic is what pushes whatever other voice is negatively affecting you off the mic.
As we wrap up today, I want to highlight that for a lot of us, the voice that’s on the mic is the voice of the past. In other words, something happened in your story that was so significant that it’s still hugging the mic right where you’re sitting right now. It has come with you through every season of life and up until this moment, and it’s still dominating the microphone. Maybe someone walked out on you, or maybe someone never walked in on you, and that’s still on the mic. Perhaps a circumstance occurred and a loved one was taken from you, or a situation happened and your whole life was turned upside down in one moment. Maybe you failed, or maybe someone failed you. Perhaps something was spoken about you or to you, and even though it was said five years ago or 45 years ago, way back in time, those words are still very much on the mic today. The past is controlling the future. It’s like you’re stuck in a moment, or perhaps stuck in a season. It could be a high moment; we like to go back to our best moments sometimes and get stuck there. That part of the past is on the mic.
It’s sort of like that guy in his 30s who’s still wearing his high school letter jacket around. He’s saying, «Remember that? Remember that moment in the past?» and that’s still dictating his identity in the future. Or it’s the person who goes back to the lowest moment in life and has resolved that this is the hand they were dealt; therefore, they’re not putting a big bet on their potential in the future. They walk into conversations, opportunities, and situations, and as they come in, their mindset is, «Because of the past, I’m not going to be able to go very far into the future.»
What I want you to know today is that God is doing a new thing. The message that God wants to put on your mic today is: «I am doing something new.» We look around and say, «I don’t want anything new; I kind of like it the way it is. I actually want the old. If we could just get back to the old, that would be amazing.» But what God is constantly saying is, «I’m in motion; I’ve always been in motion. I’ve got a plan that I’m moving toward, and I would like for you to move toward that plan.» The last book of Revelation says, «Behold, I am making all things new,» and that is the consummate «all things new,» new heaven, new earth, new future, new eternity—us going with God into all things new. But on the way to that moment, He still makes new beginnings for you and new beginnings for me, and I believe maybe that’s what He wants to speak over somebody’s 2021: «I am making all things new, and this year I want to do something new in your life.»
I think that for a lot of us, it’s hard to get past the voice that’s dragging us backward to believe that God actually is leading us forward. But God wants you to believe that no matter what’s in your past, He holds your future. Can we just pause on that for a moment? Whatever is in your story—and I’m sure that if we went story by story today, we would discover that one of the common threads in this gathering and for everybody linked around the world is: hey, we all have a past; we know that. But in all of our pasts, there are moments that want to take control of our future. For some of us today, it’s just to pause and say, «Doesn’t matter what’s back there; however big that story is, God holds your future, and He’s there in it right now.» Imagine that He’s not just here; He’s already there, and He’s inviting you into that future with Him. Do you believe it? Do you believe that can be true of you? Do you believe that you can break free from the past and move with God into the future? Does anybody want that? Does anybody want a new start? Does anybody want a new beginning? Does anybody want to go forward with God?
Well, if you do—and here comes the curveball—the first thing we need to do is go backward. You might say, «Okay, now you’re talking nonsense; you just spent the whole thing setting up that God wants to do something new, and now you’re telling us we need to go back?» In fact, our text today, if you’ll look with me in Isaiah 43:18, says, «Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past.» See, that’s a key word. Can we just say that word together? See, I am doing a new thing. That’s what’s on the mic. Forget about the past; don’t dwell on the former things. I want you to see and have a revelation, a new understanding today that I’m doing something new. But to get to the new, we have to go back to the past. You might say, «I don’t understand how that works.» Look at the text: even the verses right above this say in verse 16, «This is what the Lord says: He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and the horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there never to rise again, extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.»
What is God doing? He’s reminding His people of His story and their story. Isaiah is a prophecy that sits right in the middle of the story of God, and in this prophecy, what God is trying to communicate to His people is, «I love you and have a plan for you. You’re going to keep forsaking Me and walking away from Me, and ultimately that’s going to cost you—in their case, exile into Babylon. But I’m going to come back and get you; I’m going to bring you back home. We’re going to start all over again, and I’m going to make a brand new beginning for you.»
He’s painting the picture of how this story is going to play out, and we drop down right in the middle, and He says, «No matter what happens, here’s what I’m going to do in the story: I’m going to make all things new, and the reason you can trust Me is by going back and remembering what I’ve already done. I made a way through the sea. I opened up the waters. I gathered up your adversaries, and they all sunk to the bottom of the sea. Now don’t remember the things of the past and don’t dwell on where you were because I’m going to do something new.»
He’s not saying, when He says, «Don’t remember the past,» that He’s going to give you some miraculous spiritual amnesia and you’re not going to remember the disappointment, hardship, or failure of the past. He’s just saying, «I don’t want you to dwell there,» meaning I don’t want you to live there. I don’t want you to build a house there. I don’t want you to call that your permanent address. I don’t want you to get back into that spot and feel like this is where I’m going to operate for the rest of my life. He said, «No, I’m going to do something new.» It doesn’t mean that you forget it and that it isn’t real; it just means that God doesn’t want you to dwell on it. He wants you to move forward from it.
This is how God wants to get you forward, by taking you back. There’s a principle in life that none of us can break, and it is this: if you want to ruin your future, ignore your past. You can flip it around to the positive: if you want to realize future success, then acknowledge and address your past. I remember when Jesus encountered people; if you read through the gospels, He would step into their story. When He would meet them, He would realize there was a story in motion. Like when He called Zacchaeus down out of that tree. Zacchaeus is hated by his Jewish brothers and sisters because he’s working for the Roman Empire, taxing his own people, and he’s probably skimming a bit off the top. As Jesus is coming into his town—you know the story—he’s up in a tree down the road so he can get a good view of Jesus, but he stops and Jesus says, «Hey, Zacchaeus, come down! I’m coming to your house today.» This freaks everybody out, and they’re like, «No way! He’s going to the house of a guy like Zacchaeus!» But lo and behold, He does.
I mean, think about the implications of that. This guy works for the government and collects money from my people to pay that government, which they’re going to use to kill me on a cross. «Hey, Zacchaeus! I’m going to come to your house tonight.» Apparently, Zacchaeus lives nearby. They probably keep going right out in front of where he lived. He got up in the tree where he could see Jesus coming by. They got into Zacchaeus’s place pretty quickly, but we don’t know what went down there. We just know that Zacchaeus came out, turned his life completely around, and said, «I’m going to go back. Anyone that I’ve cheated, I’m paying them back four times.»
Notice how Jesus came into Zacchaeus' story. He didn’t go to his house and say, «Hey, we’re good from here on out.» He said, «No, we’re going to need to walk backwards a little bit so that then we can walk forward into the future together.» He realizes that people have a story. He knows you have a story in motion, and when Jesus meets you, He’s not going to say, «Hey, here’s the magic eraser for everything that happened—all the hurt, all the pain, all the disappointment, what you did and what was done to you. We’re not just going to wipe all that out.» He says, «I’m recognizing that you’re in motion.»
That’s the woman in Samaria at the well. He says, «I want to change your life today, living water like a spring on the inside; you’ll never have to draw water again. You’ll never be thirsty again.» She says, «Yeah, yeah, I want that.» He says, «Great! Go get your husband and bring him.» Because He knew she was in a story; He knew she had a past. He wasn’t trying to put her down; He was trying to lead her forward. When she said, «I’m not married; I don’t have a husband,» He said, «I know. There were those five husbands, and the guy you’re with now isn’t working out too well either.»
In that moment, He acknowledged with her, «We need to go back a step or two because I came here today to change your life, and I came here today to lead you into the future.» So, if we want to go forward, we’ve got to go backwards and deal with stuff. But how? How do you deal with it? I mean, you look around and see how people are dealing with it. Some people are dealing with the past by going to 2,000 bars; some are dealing with it with 2,000 lattes, where they’ve hashed it out for a long time. Some people are dealing with it with 2,000 days on the hamster wheel, trying to make up for something or push something aside or overcome something or achieve something. Some have tried to deal with the past by putting 2,000 layers of protection around themselves so that nobody can get in, or maybe it’s been 2,000 isolated nights in the dark by themselves.
How do you deal with the past? Well, there are two essential ways. The first one is this: with Christ and in Christ. That’s how you go back to the past so that you can start again. You do it with Christ and in Christ. You might say, «Louie, I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to face that again. I don’t want to deal with my own issues, and I don’t want to deal with the issues that I had to deal with. I just don’t want to go back there. I don’t think I can do it.» And God is saying, «I’m not asking you to do it; I’m asking you to let Me do it through you and with you and for you. Let’s go together and acknowledge and deal with the past. Let’s go back to where we came from.»
It goes on to say in Isaiah what this new thing looks like. Look at verse 19: «See, I am doing something new! Now it springs up.» That’s a key word. «Do you not perceive it? I’m making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.» I just want to underline that because somebody in this gathering would describe your life right now as being in the middle of a wasteland. I mean, it just feels barren; it’s dried up. In any direction you look, you only see desolation. That’s where I am, and that’s the person God is speaking to today. He’s saying, «I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.»
Then He gives us a peek into how He’s doing that around the world for all of creation right now. He said, «The wild animals honor Me, the jackals and the owls because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland to give drink to My people, My chosen.» The people He’s talking about is you now. «I formed it for Myself so that they may proclaim My praise.» See, the amazing thing is that this pathway that God is talking about in Isaiah is actually a person that has now been revealed, who is Jesus Christ. It’s not that He’s saying, «Watch; a real river is going to flow in a desert,» although He can and does do that. The jackals will tell you about it; the owls will tell you about it. He can part seas, and He can swamp our adversaries. But more, what He’s saying is the pathway is a person, and His name is Jesus.
This is the best news: it’s not 2,000 bars or 2,000 lattes or 2,000 layers of protection around your heart. It’s 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ stepped into your story and changed everything about you, giving you the ability to know with confidence that you can go forward with Him because you’ve been back with Him. Then you can step into what He’s making new. Colossians 3 is the verse that really highlights this talk. It’s a summation of who you are if you know Jesus, and this is the most interesting verse when you just take it by itself. It says it all—talking about your past, my past, and about our future. It says, «For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.»
What an amazing thing to have said about you! In other words, the old you—your life, your tendencies—all the generational stuff that’s come along, all the baggage—all that is swept away now in the old life. You now have a brand new identity and a brand new place to live life from. You know what it is? You’re hidden with Christ. That means you’re tucked into Jesus, encapsulated by Him, enclosed in Him, sealed in Him, protected by Him, and identified with Him. Oh, and He’s in God, and that’s where you are and that’s who you are. That’s your brand new identity.
It doesn’t mean, again, that you don’t have a past, that there wasn’t devastation or damage or failure, or some kind of situation that spun out of control. It doesn’t mean that there is no past; it just means that you have a brand new you. So it’s possible then to identify with your past and not be defined by it. In other words, it’s possible to say, «I’m going to be straight up with where I am, where I was, what it was all about, but I’m not going to be defined for the rest of my life by my past.» You know why? Because I died, and now I’m hidden with Christ in God. I am a brand new me in Him, and that is how I’m going back to the past.
I’m going to take hold of a nail-scarred hand, and I’m going to go back. For some of you, you just have to go back a few days. Some of you need to go back a couple of weeks. For some of you, you need to go back way back. But it’s taking hold of the one in whom you are now hidden and taking hold of the nail-scarred hand. Why? Because the nail-scarred hand lets you know that you can be healed back here and find the ability to release what needs to be released so that you aren’t carrying stuff into the future. It also, that nail-scarred hand, lets you know that you can be led from here from anything you need to repent of so that you can take a step forward into God’s future for you.
Taking hold of that nail-scarred hand is the only hand that’s not going to let you down. The second part of it is not going back in Christ; it’s going back in and with community. You can’t do this by yourself. If you’ve convinced yourself that there’s something in your past that you can work out privately, then you’ve got the wrong voice on the mic, and you’re going to be trapped by whatever is in the past. It’s going to domino in and wreck whatever God has for the future. God is about community. I was trying to talk to high school and middle school kids the other night about the Trinity—imagine how fun that was for everybody—and I was explaining that God is so into community and so not about, «I’m just going to kind of live out my faith,» or «I’m going to live out my Christianity,» or «I’m going to have my spirituality on my own.» He is so not into that and so into community that He actually Himself is a community. Yes, we serve one God, but that God has three distinct persons: the Father, who we relate to in one way; the Son, who we relate to in another way; and the Spirit, who we relate to in another way. But they are all interrelated and interconnected, and they are all in complete unity together as one God in three persons.
So our God is actually a community of gods all unified in one God. What is He trying to say to you and me? We are all about community. That means if you want to break free from the past and step into the future, you’re going to need help doing that. You might say, «No, I don’t need help; I’ll work it out myself. I don’t need help; I’m going to deal with it myself. I don’t need help; I’m just going to push it away and act like it’s not there.» Check back later and let us know how that worked out, because that doesn’t work out. God has put you in a family, and we see it at the end of this text right after these first verses of chapter three, where we see a beautiful transaction happen.
Look at verse one: «Since then you have been raised with Christ, so there’s something powerful that happened that’s pulling you up toward a new beginning: set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.» Why? «For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.» So that’s the positional part, and then He breaks it down starting in the next verse and says, «So that means we’ve got to get rid of this stuff, and we’ve got to add this; we’ve got to put this off and put this on.» We got to make modifications based on our new identity.
Then He breaks it down to see how that’s possible in verse 16, and it is possible when we do it with and in community. «Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.» Now, that was our whole thing last week: «As you teach and admonish one another.» That doesn’t mean that you have to get up on stage and preach a sermon; it just means that you’re in community with people. And in the community of people, you are dwelling richly in this word of God so that your interaction with the people who are in your community is always to be digging in and teaching this word and always being able to use this word as a mirror in other people’s lives to encourage them toward God’s best. He says, «Teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.»
In other words, again, it’s not just, «Hey, let’s sit and chat and tell me about your story, and I’ll tell you about my story, and I’ll reflect a little bit on what you’ve been through, and you can reflect a little bit on what I’ve been through.» It’s like, «No, we are going to root ourselves in this word; we’re going to dwell richly in the word.» And then you know what’s going to come out as a result of that? Wisdom is going to come out. What kind of wisdom? The wisdom that comes from dwelling in God’s word, and that wisdom is going to be exchanged and interchanged between the people God has put in community with you. He says, «With one another,» and then do that as you sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and have gratitude in your hearts to God.
So we’ve got word wisdom, teaching, admonishing, and at the end of the day, we all have a song of praise and gratitude to God. What happened back in the wasteland? What happened when the rivers came in the desert? It said God did all that for His chosen people, the people He formed, that they would declare His praise. God wants to get you out of the past and into the future because you have a song to sing, and the world needs to hear it. It’s a song of deliverance, a song of God’s faithfulness, a song of moving forward, a song of not being stuck. It’s a song of God bringing you into the new, and the whole world wants to know: is there a future, or do we all just have to deal with the hand we’ve been dealt, and that’s the way it’s going to be?
There’s a song that God wants to birth down in the valley and back in the past, whatever it is that somebody’s waiting to hear sung, because it’s going to be the song of freedom that draws them into Jesus. This community thing—Shelley and I were talking about it, and she was reminding me how a few months ago she got a car that had lane correction on it. Does anybody have that car? It’s got the thing that will not let you go into another lane automatically. Honestly, I don’t know how it works; I don’t even know where it is or how you turn it on. If I’m totally honest, Shelley tries not to let me drive. So she’s driving, I’m over here minding my own business, and all of a sudden we’re getting on the freeway coming up from the airport, and she’s trying to get on the freeway, but the car isn’t letting her move over out of the entry lane onto the deal.
Suddenly she’s fighting the thing, and the car is telling her she can’t, and she’s saying, «What’s happening?» I see the little symbol on the dash, and I’m like, «Oh man, the lane correction’s on!» But I don’t know how to get it off. As I’m thinking about things, finally we find it’s a little button on the end of the wiper thing. I think community and what God’s wanting to bring into your life today is kind of like that lane correction. It’s people in your life who keep you in God’s plan and keep you moving forward.
It’s not just people who say, «Hey, you know, just dwelling in God’s word here, I wouldn’t go one more inch that way because there’s a massive collision waiting over there.» It’s also people who say, «Hey, we’re not going back, and we’re not building a house in the past. No, we’re not going all the way back there and building that house again. We’re not going to dwell there; we’re going to keep moving forward with God. We’re not going to go back and make our identity out of what was; we’re going to believe that our identity is hidden with Christ in God.»
Hey, hey, this is just a way I’m telling you: don’t take one more step this way. It’s that lane correction that comes in the community of people who are in your space that keep you from wrecking on one side or just completely giving up on the other. It’s through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ that we go back so we can go forward. And it’s through community, with community, and in Christ that we go back so we can go forward. I’m telling you, I know for a lot of us you’re thinking, «Louie, I want to go forward, but I really miss what I had in the past, and I honestly just wish I could go back and make something different.»
But the interesting thing is that none of us can change the past. So all that time the enemy is spending on the mic saying, «Well, what if we went back? What would we do different? Or what if we went back? What if it was like this? Or how can we somehow change or mitigate?» All that energy needs to be invested by taking hold of the nail-scarred hand of Jesus today and saying, «I believe that when You said You make all things new, You meant me.» There’s not a person in this gathering, I bet there’s not one person in this gathering unless you’re super young—and probably not even then—who would say, «When I was back here and I saw my life, and then I stepped forward with God into it, my life up here looks just like I thought it was going to look back here.»
But if you have taken that hand of Jesus and you’ve walked, I guarantee you’ve got a story to tell that God did something new that we didn’t know was even possible to be done in our story. It’s different than what we thought, but God gives beauty for ashes, and He can indeed make a river in a wasteland, and He can make things new. So the key word from the prophet was «see,» old school, «behold.» And I’m just asking on behalf of heaven today: do you see? Do you see that if you’ve put faith in Jesus, your old self is covered in the blood of Jesus and you’re new?
So you can not repeat what so often we repeat, which is, «I’m going to accept the reality of the diminished past because that’s less scary to me—to just live here than it is to step forward into a future I don’t fully know as a brand new you.» Do you see yourself hidden in Christ with God? Do you see yourself as, «Yes, I have a past; it’s real. I didn’t get amnesia; it’s all still there. Some of the stings are still there; the pain is still there. But I am a new me, and I can step forward with God.»
Do you see today how not going back and not facing up to the past could be a roadblock—not just for you and your future, but for your kids and their future, for their kids and their future? A whole future generation may depend on your willingness to go back with Jesus. Do you trust that hand today, and would you take hold of it?