“Forget Regrets” – Luke 22:54-62

Any Frank Sinatra fans out there?  Do you remember this song?

Regrets, I've had a few;
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.  (My Way)

How about you?  Do you have any regrets?  I sure do.  My latest big regret was not saving this sermon on my computer and losing everything Friday night.  So, I had to go back through and rewrite it and rethink it all so we are going to do things a little different this morning.  Friday night I was ready to forget the former things including this sermon and just ask for testimonies but God got me up early Saturday morning to do it a little different and I’m glad.

I said jokingly I was ready to forget the former things but that is exactly what we have been called to do.  As individuals and as a church, God tells us in Isaiah 43:18 and 19 to

¹⁸ “Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”

He is going to take us through the wilderness and into the wasteland providing everything we need along the way.  All we have to do is NOT bring our baggage.  We can’t bring our baggage of unforgiveness because that is a sin.  We can’t bring our baggage of anger because nobody will believe we are really a disciple of Jesus if we bring our anger issues and we can’t bring our baggage of regrets because the mistakes we have made in the past tend to skew our vision of the future God has for us.

Everybody has regrets, right?  You know, I asked my dad a while back about what regrets he had in this life and he said he really didn’t have any.  He was serious too.  He said he has made some mistakes and his life hasn’t been perfect by any means.  I think he looked at me a little too close at that point, but anyway.  He said he has no real regrets and I think that is part of what Jesus was talking about in John 10:10 when He said He came to give us an abundant life.  Getting to be 80 years old and not having any regrets?  I’ll call that an abundant life!

I have some pictures of some people who are probably having some regrets in their life.  (Show bad tattoos)

I’m thinking about getting a tattoo at the top of my back that says “Kick Me” written in Chinese letters.  That way I can tell people it says whatever I want to tell them depending on who I’m talking to, right?  “God Is Love” or some great quote.  But when a Chinese person sees it they will think I’m just an idiot but the joke’s really on them…sort of.  I guess it’s really on me and I’ll probably regret that, huh?

Regret.  So, here’s where we do things a little differently.  I’m going to get y’all more involved than normal, sort of like how we do on Sunday evenings at 6:00.  If you don’t usually come on Sunday evening, you are missing out on one of my favorite times of worship.  It’s very casual and if you want to say something you can but you don’t have to.  But I have some questions for you.

What is regret?  Regret means to feel sad or sorry about something that you did or did not do.  What do you say when you have regret?  I’m sorry.  What do you do when you have regret?  You usually try to make it up or make it right.  Is regret a sin?  No.  Is all regret caused by sin?  Not necessarily.  Does all sin lead to regret?  Yes.  Sooner or later.

Does God have regret?  Genesis 6:6 says, “The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”  1 Samuel 15:11 God says, “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.”

Who else in the Bible showed regret?  Judas, for one. Matthew 27:3.  Let’s look at one of the worst cases of regret in Luke 22:54-62.  I love me some Peter.  I do.  I appreciate him so much because I see myself in him.  I’m a tough guy.  I can do this.  No problem.  Let me show you how it’s…Lord, I messed up again.  Would you please forgive me and help me? 

Just prior to the passage we are about to read, Jesus was having the last supper with His disciples and He said, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me.”  But Peter, the tough guy, the brave warrior, said, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”  I can’t help but read that and hear John Wayne’s voice.  “Well, I never will, pilgrim.”

 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”  ³⁵ But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” 

Now, you know how this is going to end, don’t you?  Even if you have never heard this story before, you know how it’s going to end.  Well, even if you do, let’s read it in Luke 22:54-62. 


Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵ And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. ⁵⁶ A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”  ⁵⁷ But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.  ⁵⁸ A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”  “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.  ⁵⁹ About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”  ⁶⁰ Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹ The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” ⁶² And he went outside and wept bitterly.


I realized something as I studied this.  I realized that this story is found in all four of the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John but only John was there for any of it and his version is the shortest.  He and Peter went together, following Jesus from a distance but got separated at some point.  So, how did they get this whole story?


While the whole Bible is inspired by God, I believe this had to have been told by Peter himself.  Now, I’m of the opinion that a good story needs to be told even if it makes me look bad but this is too much.  This is over the top.  I think I would have conveniently forgotten this former thing if I was Peter and made John promise to forget whatever he knew as well.  But he didn’t.  He told this horribly regretful story.  Why do you think he did?


I think Peter told it because he knew that it would be helpful to somebody else someday even if it made him look bad and because the whole story makes Jesus look so good and we will get to that in a minute.  Did Peter have regret?  Absolutely.  In verse 62 it says he wept “bitterly”.  That’s not a mild remorse that made him get a little misty-eyed.  This is an uncontrollable ugly cry; the kind that hurts you just to see somebody go through it.


What made it worse was the look Jesus gave him in verse 61.  Did you ever get in trouble as a kid and your mother just stared at you in utter disappointment?  Happened to me just this week.  Not really, but I remember that look and I remember wishing she would just haul off and slug me.  It would have been better.  I can only imagine how bad it was for Peter.  Not only had he NOT done what he said he would do but he betrayed Jesus at the worst possible time and Jesus knew it.


What is the real problem with regret?  I heard the quote, “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”  (Johnathan Larson) I like the sentiment but it needs to be more specific.  Forget regret or the life God wants for you, the full and abundant life, is yours to miss.  Should Peter have had regret?  Of course, he should.  Regret is a God-given feeling that should motivate us to change and do better.  The problem comes when we dwell on it and don’t move past it.  We should regret some things but we should then choose to forget it and move on.


When they were building the golf hall of fame they were looking for some good golf quotes to go on the wall so somebody suggested the most common phrase heard on the golf course: “Uh oh!”


A golfer was being interviewed one time and said that bad shots are just part of the game but you have to learn from them and move on because golf is such a mental game that if you keep replaying that bad shot in your mind your tendency is to do it again which just makes the situation worse and worse.  Life can sure be that way.


Don’t you know that was the longest weekend of Peter’s life.  Not only had his friend and savior been murdered but he didn’t even do anything about it.  In fact, he betrayed Him and that scene, that look from Jesus, the words he said, his denials kept coming back to haunt him.  Every time a rooster crowed, he cringed.  He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, his mind racing with, “What I should have said is…” and “What I should have done was…”


You know the feeling, don’t you?  It’s good to remember it just long enough to learn from it.  Decide now what you are going to do in the future if you get in a similar situation but don’t dwell on the past because God is doing a new thing.  Do you not perceive it?  If it is sin, then repent of it and accept God’s forgiveness whether you feel forgiven or not.


2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.”  If it’s sin, you should have regret.  You should have sorrow that you did it but then repent of it and have no lingering regrets to focus on.  When we sin, how do we make it up to God?  What do we do that makes us even with God after we sin?  If we do something really good, does that tip the scale back to our favor and we get into God’s good graces again?  No.  There is nothing we can DO to make it right.  All we can do is ask for forgiveness, accept that forgiveness and move on with our lives.


It’s the same with our regrets.  Satan wants you to focus on that regret, replaying it over and over again so that you are distracted from focusing on what God wants for you.  He wants you to try to spend all your time trying to figure out what you need to do to make up for that bad choice but do you know what God wants you to do?


In the great old hymn, At The Cross, that is on page 139 of the hymnal in front of you, the very last verse says:

But drops of grief can ne'er repay
The debt of love I owe Here, Lord, I give myself away
'Tis all that I can do


That’s the answer to our regrets.  We can’t fix it.  We can’t change it.  We can’t make it even with God or earn His love.  All we can do is go on from here giving ourselves away.  Do you want a good example of this?  If anybody, ever should have been burdened with regret, it should have been Paul.  Before Paul met Jesus on that road, he was a bad guy.  He did some really bad things against God and hurt a lot of people.


But you never hear Paul whining about that.  Of course he felt horrible about that but he couldn’t change the past so he just made a plan for the future.  Paul said in Philippians 3, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.


It’s like that old Paul had read Isaiah 43:18-19.  Do you remember what it says?  Forget the former things.  Paul said he forgot what is behind and he had no room for baggage like unforgiveness, anger, regrets, bad habits, worry or pride because he was straining toward what was ahead knowing God would reward him for what he did from then on.


Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death and that includes all regret.  That’s my translation of it.  But you have to be “in Christ”.  What does it mean to be “in Christ”?  It means to truly have Him as your Lord.  Notice it doesn’t say anything about going to church in there.  You don’t have to be “in church”.  You have to be “in Christ” with Him as your daily guide; with a relationship with Him that is stronger today than it was yesterday.


Now, church is one of the places that relationship gets stronger but church doesn’t save you.  Your parents’ relationship with Jesus doesn’t save you.  You can’t do enough good works or be good enough.  Even if you lived a life without regrets, you still have to know Jesus and go through Him to get to Heaven.  That’s what He said in John 14:6. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through me.


Do you know Him today?


Invitation / Prayer


Picture this if you can.  Mary goes to the tomb on the third day and finds it empty; well almost empty.  Jesus wasn’t there but there was an angel sitting there and the angel tried not to scare her but, you know, he’s an angel.  He said, “Don’t be afraid.  Jesus isn’t here.  He has risen.  Now go tell the disciples AND PETER!” In other words, make sure Pete gets the message.  Jesus wanted to make sure.  (Mark 16)


Later on, Jesus shows Himself to the disciples and makes a beeline for Peter.  I bet Peter didn’t know if he should hug Jesus or run for the hills.  But Jesus never brought up the rooster crowing incident, did He?  What did He tell Peter?  If you love me, you will feed my sheep and feed them he did from then on.  Peter was so full of the Holy Spirit and full of God’s grace and mercy that he forgot the former things and he strained toward what was ahead and became a miracle-working preacher who led thousands to faith in Jesus.


Years later, when Peter wrote his book, the very first thing he says was not an apology for that whole denial of Jesus thing.  He didn’t bring it up at all.  Do you know what Peter said?  1 Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth!”


Don’t you know Peter felt like he really had been born again?  So have you.  Now live like it.