June 28
by Jim Hetherington
https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3]
GENESIS 50:20
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
1 SAMUEL 17:47
47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
LUKE 24:16
16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
ROMANS 8:18-28
PRESENT SUFFERING AND FUTURE GLORY
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28138a]] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[b [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28145b]] have been called according to his purpose.
TRANSCRIPT
(Transcribed by TurboScribe)
Our speaker this morning is Jim Hetherington. He needs no introduction and we are so glad to have him as part of our congregation, um, and wherever Jim is. Regrets will come to each and every one of us at some point or time, and they seem to speak the loudest when it’s silent.
When things are quiet, that’s when the voices of regret seem to speak the loudest. And regrets can come in small things and come in big things. It can be something small and simple like, I meant to bring some cereal and contribute to the food bank, I just kept forgetting.
I meant to take a casserole to my neighbour to support and encourage them, but I just ran out of time. I got busy. Because we get busy, don’t we? And we can use busyness as an excuse for not doing things.
Regrets can come in big things. Could be a decision that we made, a financial decision, an investment that we didn’t take advantage of. You come in a career choice, a relationship choice.
Regrets can come in all kinds of shapes and forms. The thing they say about regret is that discipline, you know, doing something to encourage, to support, to grow, costs very little. The invoice that we get from regrets is huge, and oftentimes regret hits us when we can’t do anything else about it.
I know that many people on their deathbed may be faced with regrets. I guarantee you that they’re not regretting that they can’t get up and go into the office and work on another deal. It’s likely a relationship.
It’s likely someone close to them that they regret not investing the time. We just finished a series with Aubrey where he talked about Joseph. Now Joseph, he probably had a few regrets during that course of time.
He probably regretted the way he shared that dream, that vision with his brothers. He probably regretted getting himself in a position where he was caught with Potiphar’s wife. There may have been a few regrets because the truth is it took a couple of decades for that entire process from the time he got that dream and shared it to the time that it actually came fulfilled.
It was a couple decades. Would you agree that that’s a long time? That’s a long time to hold on to something. That’s a long time to be going through the process, to be going through the stuff.
In Genesis 50 verses 20, we read this. Joseph said, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. He recognised that through that process, it wasn’t just the circumstances that he found himself in.
He could see that God had a bigger picture. God had a bigger plan. So oftentimes we get caught up in circumstances, don’t we? Like I said, you know, we have good intentions of going and supporting and encouraging a friend or a neighbour, but we get busy.
Life gets busy. But sometimes those excuses can get in the way and cause even more regret. I know for me, about 15, 16 years ago, I was going through a very busy part and a very busy time in my life and I wasn’t looking after myself.
I had the excuse of I’m just too tired at the end of the day to look after myself, to go exercise. I’m too tired. I’m too busy to really eat well and to prepare extra meals.
And we can use those excuses. I’m too tired. I’ve been chasing the kids or the grandkids all day long.
I’m too tired to spend time reading. I’m too tired to spend time with my husband or with my wife. And we can use excuse after excuse, but all it does is pile up even more regret.
Joseph found himself betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison. Yet he recognised that God was using those circumstances. In 1 Samuel 17 47, we read another familiar story of David and Goliath.
David heard about the battle that was about to ensue with the Israelites and the Philistines gathered on the front lines. And as was a custom in that day, they would send out their best warriors and they would duke it out to see who would win. And if it needed, they would go into a full-blown battle.
But if it could be resolved just with the two very best from each side, that’s how they handled it. So Goliath came out. This big beast of a man came out, said, send out your best.
And everybody quivered and shook and shaked. And I’m sure there was some regrets with some of those men in the army, thinking, I didn’t train hard enough. I wish I was stronger.
I wish I was better equipped. I wish I would have bought that better Nike equipment last week when it was on sale. Here I am on the front lines with this poor equipment.
But David heard of this and he wasn’t going to live with regret. He was going to stand and face the giant. And he went to Saul.
He went to his brothers. He went to everyone and they’re like, you’re crazy. You can’t do that.
You’re not equipped. You’re not trained. You’re not anything.
They tried to put Saul’s armour on him. It didn’t fit. It’d be kind of like wearing, you know, clothes that are 10 sizes too big for you and trying to function in them.
So he stripped it off. He said, no, he said, I know a sling. I know stones and that’s what I’m going to use.
And when we read 1 Samuel 17, it said, all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands. That’s a pretty bold declaration to be making in front of a big beast of a man, a huge army.
Here’s this guy with just his basic clothes on and a sling and a few stones. But the thing that David recognised is that it wasn’t the stone. We could gather scientists.
We could gather all kinds of mathematicians. We could gather all kinds of smart people. And they could probably give us 20 reasons why that stone could not have done what it did.
And we would all probably agree with it, right? The math is wrong. The angle was wrong. The trajectory was.
The fact that it was just a small stone, it’s impossible. I mean, that stone would have to get past the shield bearer, right? Goliath, he was well equipped, but he had his own guy holding a shield in front of him. So it would have to get past that.
It would have to get through that helmet. You’ve seen those helmets with the little pointy thing that comes down between the eyes, right? That stone would have to project through that. But David knew something.
He knew that it wasn’t a stone that he was throwing. It was a name that he was throwing. It was the name that he knew that was behind that stone that was going to accomplish what he declared it would accomplish.
And it did. He wasn’t focused on the circumstances. He didn’t care how big Goliath was.
He didn’t care how much armour he had on. He didn’t care about any of those things because he knew behind him was a name that was greater than any other name. And sometimes we can forget that, can’t we? We can forget that.
We’re on this side of glory. We know historically we see all of these stories we read. And we’re going to look at a few more, but we know all of these stories.
It’d be kind of like, you know, I was thinking about that movie Back to the Future. You’ve seen that movie Back to the Future? It was about a young guy that was transported back into time and he got to see all the stuff that happened and then came back into the future, into time, and was able to live out things differently. But one of the guys got this almanack and the almanack had every sports team that ever won a championship.
Everything that was ever anything it happened. And so he knew what was going to happen. And so being transported back, he knew what was going to happen in that time.
And so this guy used the book incorrectly and bet on things and was very successful because he knew what the outcome was going to be. We already know what the outcome is going to be, yet sometimes we forget. Sometimes we forget and we just get so focused on circumstances, don’t we? And it’s hard not to get focused on circumstances.
When politically we hear all things, you know, things going on crazily, we hear of robberies, we hear of murders, we hear of thefts, we hear of the economy, you know, tanking and all the different things that we hear. It’s easy to get stuck on circumstances. My challenge is, can we get to the place of getting our focus off of the circumstances and onto God’s perspective? Because that’s really what counts.
And David saw that in 1 Samuel. Others were focused on their skills, their strength and ability, the circumstances, but David saw God’s perspective. He didn’t throw a stone, he threw a name.
The rest of the army was fearful. I was thinking of Helen Keller. One of her favourite, her famous quotes is, fear, the best way out is through.
Do you know what fear stands for? Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. But it can paralyse us until we become like Helen Keller and go through it. And then all of a sudden we realise, oh, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be.
It’s kind of like, it’s kind of like the boogeyman, you know, when we’re little. Boogeyman never showed up when the lights were on, always showed up when the lights were off. Never showed up when our parents were home or when friends were over hanging out with us.
It was always when it was quiet, nobody was around, right? The boogeyman never showed up when there was busyness going on, but when things were silent and quiet, all of a sudden. And it’s the same with our regrets. It’s the same with things, situations and times and points in our life.
All of a sudden when there’s silence, all of those voices start to rise up. I know people that cannot go a day, they cannot be in their home and not have a television going, have some music playing, some background noise. Why? Because when it’s silent, those voices of regret, the voices of indecision, those voices seem to come up.
Similar to the boogeyman when the lights go out. But the truth is that they’re false evidence appearing real. They’re just fears that we need to go through and face.
In Luke 24, we read an account of a couple of people walking down the road. This is after Jesus was crucified, dead, buried. They thought it was over, right? The disciples had invested everything believing that Jesus was who he said he was.
But when he was killed, crucified, and all of a sudden his body’s missing, they didn’t know what was going on. They said, well, we better just go back to what we know. And so many of the disciples, they went back to fishing because fishing is what they knew.
These two were heading back to Damascus, and they’re just walking, just thinking about the circumstances, thinking about what’s going on. And Jesus comes alongside and walks along them, but the scripture tells us in verse 16, it says, but they were kept from recognising him. Interesting.
They were so focused on the circumstances, they didn’t even realise that it was Jesus walking alongside with them, having a conversation. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that we don’t think our prayers are effective. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that if somebody says an encouraging word, it just goes in one ear and out the other, because we’re so focused on the circumstances.
We’re looking at our bank balances. We’re looking at our broken down car in the driveway. We’re looking at the broken relationships that are around us.
We’re looking at the economy and the positions that we’re in. We’re so focused on the circumstances, we don’t think that there’s any way that God could possibly use that for good. But yet when we look at it historically, we see over and over and over again how God has used things for good.
And as they were walking along the road, they came to their location, and Jesus pretended that he was going to continue on down the road. And they go, wait a minute, wait a minute. It’s getting late.
It’s getting dark. Why don’t you come and just hang out with us for the night? Let’s just have a meal together, and then you can set off in the morning. So Jesus agreed, and he goes in, and they sit down, and they have a meal together.
And he took the bread, and he broke the bread. And then all of a sudden they looked at each other and went, wait a second. Something’s happening here.
Something looks eerily familiar. My spidey senses are starting to tingle. There’s something about this guy that is familiar.
And they recognised, and God opened their eyes, and they saw who he was. And then instantly he was gone. But he got their eyes off of the circumstances and onto his perspective.
Jesus was right there, but they couldn’t see him because they were so focused on the circumstances rather than his perspective. Just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean that he isn’t working. Sometimes we just feel that, don’t we? I mean, we’re human.
We can be real. We can be honest. Sometimes we just don’t feel that God is working.
We don’t believe that God’s working because we’re so fixated, so focused. I was thinking about Jonah. I didn’t get a scripture for this, but don’t worry.
There’s no scripture verse for this one. But I was just thinking about Jonah. I’m sure he had some regrets, right? God met him, said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh.
He said, no way. I’m going this way. I’m out of here.
I’m not going down there. And he completely disobeyed, went the wrong way, hopped on a ship, tried to take a cruise to get away from it all, gets thrown off overboard, and gets swallowed up by a big fish. Spends three days in a big fish.
How many here, if you spent three days in a big fish, would have some regrets of your decisions? Right? Those would be huge regrets. I’m stuck in the belly of a fish. There would be huge regrets.
But he gets a chance for redemption. He gets spit out onto the shore, and God says, head to Nineveh. I’m heading to Nineveh.
And off he goes, and he does what he’s told. How about the woman that had the issue of blood? For 12 years, it said, she suffered with this issue. She spent everything that she had, all the doctors, all the specialists, everybody, and she didn’t get any relief.
Nothing changed over 12 years. Then she heard about Jesus coming through. She knew of his reputation.
She had heard the story. She had heard about the healing. She had heard about all the different things.
And she said, this is my moment. I’m not going to regret and allow that to go by without taking my healing, without taking a miracle. And she crept up behind him and touched the hem of his garment just to get a healing.
How many of us today, that if Jesus came walking in through that door, came down through all these aisles and went out through that back door, would get out of our pew and ask him for a miracle? Or would we just sit there quietly, wave, nod, you know, just be a little starstruck, and then regret that we didn’t step up, that we didn’t shout out what we wanted, what we needed, what we were asking for. Sometimes it’s our own dignity that keeps us locked in place. Sometimes just looking a little bit foolish keeps us locked in place, fearful of speaking out in that business meeting, fearful of speaking out in that church meeting, fearful of saying something to our children or to our spouse or to a neighbour or to a friend.
We just sit with regret and just let the moment go by. In Romans 8, 18 to 28, this is the big one. We’re going to read this one together.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself would be liberated from the bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and the glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but the hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So what’s Paul really saying here? It seems a whole lot, but really what he’s offering here is a message of hope.
Paul is reassuring the believers that the present sufferings cannot compare to the eternal glory awaiting them. He explains that creation eagerly awaits this redemption. The Holy Spirit intercedes in our weakness, and God uses all circumstances for the of his people.
That’s what Paul is saying here. Regrets come in all shapes and sizes, and the way to regret can be heavy, and it can be a real burden and a real struggle. The difficulty is getting our eyes off of our circumstances and viewing and looking at God’s perspective, because God can see through to the other side.
It’s kind of like being in an aeroplane, an aeroplane over a highway, right? Imagine yourself in a car driving along the highway, and you’re trying to pass somebody on the highway, and you inch out a little bit, and another car comes the other way, and you zip back in again, right? And then you go a little bit further, and you go, okay, maybe I can try it again. You move out a little bit to see, and then, bam, another car comes down. And it’s like God is in a plane, and he can see the highway as long as it can possibly go, and he knows when we can pass.
But we’re so focused on our circumstances that we can’t see his perspective. If we could tune into his perspective, he would say, okay, Alexander, it’s clear to pass. Go.
And we could go. It’s the same in life. We get so focused on the circumstances, and we lose connection with God’s perspective.
We think, well, I made that choice. I made that decision. I made my bed.
I got to lay in it. There’s nothing God can do, nothing God will do. With that kind of attitude, you’re right.
You’re right. If we focus on our circumstances and say, oh, it’s too big for God, you’re right. There’s nothing that can change.
Nothing can happen. Nothing can ever change. You’re right.
We could stay focused on that, and nothing would ever change. But if we will shift our perspective, anything is possible. How many believe that God is a God of the possible? Right? He is.
He’s not the God of impossible. He’s the God of possible. We’re praying for a new leader in our church.
It’s possible. We know that God is going to bring the right person at the right time, but it’s hard not to get stuck on the circumstances. I don’t see any clear candidates.
I don’t see any clear thing, but when we change our perspective, it all shifts. If you take notes, I want you to write down these five words. If you don’t take notes, I want you to write down these five words.
I want to encourage you. This is a side note. I want to encourage you to take notes.
I’ve got a little black book, and no, it doesn’t have addresses and mean things about people. It’s a black book that I keep notes on, and I want to encourage you to have something, even if it’s a small little notepad that you can slip in your pocket. Women, you’ve got a guy’s beat.
You’ve got purses. You can carry things in your purses. Just a little notepad.
Back in the day, I used to write on anything and everything, especially when I was in the construction world. You could ask my wife. The collection of stuff that I had up in my office, I would have pieces of two by twelve, right? Just a chunk, two-foot piece of two by twelve, and with a marker, and I would mark down a note or a thought that I had.
I would take it home with me. I would be scrambling around, couldn’t find anything. I’d rip open a paper bag and just pencil inside this thing.
Cedar shims, anything I could get my hands on, too. You know, little children running by. Right, are you coming home with… No, I wouldn’t do that.
But I would just write notes on everything, and I kept that collection for the longest time because I thought it was the funniest thing, and I thought, dummy, just get a little book. Carry a book with you. So that’s what I do, and I carry that with me, and I carry it until I fill it up.
Then I put it on my shelf, and then I get another one, and I work on that one until I fill it up. So now I’ve got a collection of these little books that I just put little note things. And it’s a great time, you know, with laptops and iPads and all these different things.
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t. This thing in between our ears is the greatest invention in the world. I mean, the capacity that we have in here is fantastic, but you can’t trust it all the time.
Anyone notice that? How many have made a list, gone to the grocery store, forgot the list at home, tried to recall everything on the list? Did you forget at least one or two things on that list? Almost every time, right? We know that we can’t trust that thing, but if we write it down, we can trust that thing. So you can trust what you’ve written, but you can’t trust to remember everything. So I want to encourage you to write these things down.
The first is regrets. Know that they’re going to happen. They’re going to happen.
There’s going to be times where we don’t do the thing. As Paul says, you know, the very thing I want to do or don’t want to do, I do. The thing I know that I should do, the thing that I shouldn’t do is right there all the time.
So we know that these things are going to happen. Regrets are going to happen regardless of how young we are, how old we are, how smart we are, how not so smart we are. See how politely I said that? But it’s going to happen.
Here’s the thing about regrets. The second word that I want you to write down is repent. Just say, God, I blew it.
I forgot to take that casserole. I forgot to bring the cereal again. I forgot to do this again.
I forgot to put my tithe in. I forgot to pay that bill. I forgot to do this.
I forgot to do that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t train hard enough. I didn’t do anything.
Just confess it. Say, God, I blew it. The next one is redemption.
Trust is redeeming grace. Trust that he can use all things together for good. And trust that redemptive work that he’s doing.
The fourth one is restoration. Know that he’s going to restore you. Know that as we confess those things, now we’ve gotten rid of the fear that it’s going to happen again.
Now we can walk through it as Helen Keller says. And now we’ve, as we confess it, we can walk through in a different way. We’ve shifted our perspective off of circumstances onto God’s perspective.
So trust in the restoration. And then the fifth and final one is rejoice. Just give thanks.
Just be happy that you can and will get over those things. So that’s a simple formula to get over regret. Is that a good formula? Will you use that formula? I know we’re only human, and it’s going to happen.
But here’s what I don’t want to happen, have happen. I don’t want us to be on our last breath, regretting all those regrets that have just piled up over the years, over time. Because the compound interest is not a good interest.
It’s not something that you want to compound. Dealing with those things as you’ve done, maybe there’s some broken relationships that need to be restored in your life. Confess that now.
Ask for God’s redemptive work. Allow that restoration to happen. Allow the rejoicing to happen while you’re still walking, living, and breathing.
While there’s still breath in our lungs, we have the ability to change anything. As we confess it and give it over to God, shift our circumstances, shift out of the circumstances, and shift into his perspective. Does that make sense? So that’s what I want to encourage us with.
I knew that today was going to be a challenging day because of the waft of barbecue coming in through the door. Anybody getting a whiff of that? I see that hand back there. Mr. I could eat six hamburgers.
One of the things that’s challenging these days as a speaker, as a presenter, is the attention span is a little bit shorter. Attention span is a little bit shorter. Did I say that already? It is, but it’s just gotten shorter and shorter, hasn’t it? Those squirrel moments happen quicker, more frequent.
Even for people that never suffered from squirrel syndrome, it happens. We get caught up in those moments, right? It’s just happened. But what you cannot compete with is a group of people that are salivating because they know a picnic is coming.
They know a barbecue is coming, and then you get the aroma of that coming in through the building. That is unfair. That is unfair.
So I’m going to finish so that we can get out and enjoy those burgers. Who wants to get out and enjoy a burger? All right. Now, while I got some hands moving, who’s going to begin to confess regrets? Not right now.
This isn’t confession time, but I want to encourage you to look at those moments when those moments come up and say, okay, I know how to deal with that. All I got to do is confess it, and I can allow God’s work to begin in my life. That’s the start.
That’s the beginning. And to begin to accelerate, or begin to propel, or begin to build momentum until everything that you do, God will begin to and continue to use it for good.
