00:01Sin. You already know what that word normally means, but today, I want to use those three
00:09letters a little differently. S-I-N. Self-inflicted negatives. Now, I'm not changing what sin
00:20means in the Bible. I'm using it as an acronym for something most of us do, without even
00:26realizing it. Sometimes, the negativity hurting us the most is not coming from another person.
00:35It's coming from us. It's the thought we keep repeating. It's the mistake we keep replaying.
00:43The rejection we keep reliving. The worst-case scenario, we keep imagining. You know that voice
00:52in your head saying, you're not good enough. You're going to fail. You missed your chance.
01:00Nothing is ever going to change. Those are self-inflicted negatives. And life is already
01:10going to hit you with enough negativity. You don't need to help it along. So, let me ask you something.
01:16How much of what is hurting you right now is actually happening today?
01:24How much of it are you carrying forward from yesterday? You know, maybe somebody hurt you.
01:33Maybe somebody rejected you. Maybe you made a mistake. Maybe something happened that you wish
01:41you could go back and change. That part may not be your choice. But what happens next? Well,
01:50that matters. Because somebody can hurt you once, and then you can hurt yourself a thousand more times
01:58by replaying it in your head. You reopen it. You analyze it. You wonder what you should have said.
02:06You wonder what you should have done. You tell yourself you were not good enough. And eventually,
02:14you have to ask yourself, am I healing from this? Or am I helping it to keep hurting me?
02:22You see, Jesus teaches us something powerful about that. Think about the woman brought to him in John 8.
02:31She had been caught in adultery. Her worst moment was dragged into public. Everybody knew what she had
02:41done. Everybody was looking at her. Her accusers, they wanted condemnation. But Jesus confronted them,
02:52and one by one, they walked away. Then Jesus looked at her and asked,
02:58has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus told her, neither do I condemn you. Go
03:10and sin no
03:12more. Now I want you to think about that story and notice what Jesus did not do. He did not
03:22pretend
03:22her choices were okay. He did not remove responsibility. He did not tell her that what she had done did
03:32not
03:32matter. He also did not tell her to sit there for the next 10 years hating herself. He told her
03:40to go.
03:41And that word matters. Go. Because sometimes God has forgiven something that we're still using against
03:51ourselves. Jesus has already told us to get up and go. But mentally, we keep walking back to the same
04:01place. We replay the mistake. We prosecute ourselves. We remind ourselves that what we should have done
04:11differently. And at some point, you just have to ask yourself, if Jesus is willing to forgive me,
04:18why am I still determined to condemn myself? That's a self-inflicted negative. And most of the
04:28time, it does not sound dramatic. It sounds like the little things we tell ourselves. I always mess
04:35things up. I'll probably fail again. I'm too far behind. Nobody really wants me around. I missed my
04:44chance. I am not good enough. And you may never say those things out loud. But I'm going to tell
04:52you,
04:53the things you say to yourself in your mind, you hear loud and clear. And eventually, when you hear
05:00something long enough, you can start living like it's true. You see, thoughts become things.
05:08And Jesus teaches us something different. He teaches repentance, not permanent self-condemnation.
05:17There is a huge difference. You see, repentance says, I was wrong, and I need to change direction.
05:26Condemnation, that says, I was wrong, so I must be worthless. One moves you forward. The other
05:34keeps you stuck. And Jesus wants you moving forward. You know, sometimes the thing keeping
05:42you stuck is not another person. It's the conversation that keeps happening inside your
05:48own head. Maybe your self-inflicted negative is comparison. You look at somebody else's life and
05:56immediately feel behind. You know, Peter, he did that in John 21. Jesus was talking to Peter about Peter's
06:07future. And Peter looked at John and basically asked, what about him? Jesus answered, what is that to you?
06:19You follow me? Now, that's probably one of the best answers to comparison you're ever going to hear.
06:26What is that to you? You follow Jesus. Their life is not your life. Their timing, not your timing.
06:37And their opportunities are not your opportunities. Their path is not your assignment. Your job is to
06:46follow yours. Maybe your self-inflicted negative is worry. You know, you imagine everything that could
06:54go wrong tomorrow and then suffer today because of something that has not even happened. Jesus said,
07:02don't worry about tomorrow. Not because tomorrow does not matter, but because you were never meant to
07:09carry today's problems and tomorrow's imagined problems at the same time.
07:17Think about how many things you have worried about that have never even actually happened. You lost
07:23sleep. You have felt stress. You planned out the worst case scenario. You know, I always thought if it's
07:31so easy for us to imagine the worst case scenario for things, it must be just as easy for us
07:39to imagine
07:39the best case scenario as well. So the next time you go running down the old negative road of
07:46what if everything falls apart? Change that. Why not go down the road of what if everything works out? And
07:55what if it becomes better than anything I ever possibly could have imagined? I want you to think about
08:02that because, you know, you've suffered through something that only existed in your mind. And that's what I mean by
08:10self-inflicted negatives. Maybe yours is unforgiveness. Somebody really did hurt you. And I'm not minimizing that. But
08:21every time you replay it, you ever notice you feel it again? You may not even be thinking about it
08:29anymore. But you're reliving it. Forgiveness does not mean they were right. It does not mean you trust
08:38them again. It does not mean you remove every boundary. It means you're no longer willing to let what
08:47what happened yesterday. Control your heart today. And Jesus, Jesus wants you free. So start listening to
08:58the way you talk to yourself. And I mean, really listen. When you think I'm going to fail, stop and
09:07ask
09:07yourself, do I actually know that? Or am I afraid of that? When you think nothing ever
09:17works out for me? I want you to stop and ask yourself, nothing? Really? And when you think I
09:26ruined everything, ask yourself, did I ruin everything? Or did I make a mistake that God can still work
09:36through? Don't treat every negative thought like it is the truth. It's a thought. That's all it is.
09:45You don't have to believe everything that enters your mind. Bring it to Jesus and ask yourself,
09:55is this true? Is this helping me? Does this sound the way Jesus would speak to me?
10:04Jesus will correct you. He will challenge you. And he will convict you. But he will not destroy you.
10:14There's a difference, my friends. You already have enough real battles in your life. Do not manufacture
10:21extra ones in your own mind. You already have enough people who may doubt you. Don't join them.
10:29You already have enough yesterday behind you. Stop dragging it into every tomorrow. Own what you need to
10:38own. Apologize if you need to apologize. Change what needs to change. Learn the lesson. But then move on.
10:52Jesus looked at the woman and told her to go. Maybe that's what you need to hear today. Go.
10:59You don't have to stay mentally parked in the worst moment of your life. You don't have to keep punishing
11:06yourself. You don't have to keep predicting disasters. You do not have to keep comparing yourself to
11:14everyone around you. And you do not have to keep repeating things about yourself that Jesus never said.
11:23Some negativity will come at you from the outside. And you know what? You can't control all of that.
11:31But the self-inflicted negatives, those are the ones you can start starving today.
11:39You cannot change yesterday. But you can stop giving yesterday permission to keep hurting today.
11:46So when that old voice says, you're not enough, remember who you're following.
11:53When fear says, it's all going to fall apart, remember who you are following.
12:02When your past says, you will always be this person, remember who you are following.
12:10Jesus does not call you backward. He says, follow me. So follow him and stop helping the thing that is
12:22hurting you. My name is Douglas Vandergraaf, and I believe in Jesus Christ. God bless every single
12:33one of you. Every single one. And everyone you love. Bye-bye.
Comments