Gratitude, God's Antidote For Guilt Series

Turn your Bibles to John 3:16-17 (Communion Sunday)

Title: Gratitude, God’s Antidote for Guilt

Theme: Resting in the Price Christ Paid for You

Topic: Thanksgiving Communion Service

Series: Full Measure of Thanksgiving

Introduction: Medical research tells us that gratitude is one of the healthiest emotions that a person can express. The more a person understands and responds to God’s Antidote for the guilt that comes from living outside of God’s will, the more he expresses a peace that comes from the Lord.

On that first Sunday after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, (Luke 24:1) Jesus stood among His disciples and spoke forth, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:26)

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” It is Satan who keeps unrepentant sinners from enjoying the peace that comes from responding to Jesus as both Savior and Lord. The Bible says Satan is an accuser of the children of God. (Revelation 12:10)

Satan often uses guilt to keep nonbelievers and even Christians from enjoying the abundant life that is promised in Christ. (Romans 5:17; John 10:10) Rick Warren wrote, “Guilt is man’s oldest problem [outside of sin]. It does not matter what culture you live in, where you are from, who you are, what your background is. All of us experience guilt at different times.

You can see it all over society, people drive themselves because of guilt and they hide it through business, rushing through life and indulging in all this world has to offer.”

In my early days of walking with the Lord, I constantly had the call from the Lord to prepare for preaching and teaching God’s Word, but convinced myself I would do the Lord’s work more harm than good because of the life I lived before coming to know Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. This is how destructive guilt can be when we do not set our hope on God’s Word.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Pray!

Proposition: I would propose to you that responding to God’s antidote for the guilt that comes from living for the flesh, loving the world, and listening to the lies of the devil, will enable you to express true gratitude as you live for Him.

Interrogative Sentence: Just who should we focus on as we partake in the Biblical ordinance, “Communion?” During World War ll there was a man who went around and amazingly obtained 300,000 little hand mirrors. On the back of them he wrote John 3:16 and when he personally handed the mirrors out, he said, “If you want to see who God loves turn to the back side of this mirror and read.” (Rick Warren)

Transitional Sentence: The first step toward enjoying healthy gratitude in the “Communion” service is believe the truth. It is our sins that put Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Romans 3:23 says, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” To have sinned (hamartane) means to have missed a mark on the way. (The Complete Word Study Dictionary) As I study the whole counsel of the Word of God, sinning is missing the intended purpose for which God created you.

Sin is lawlessness, a willful act of breaking the law or choosing to be ignorant of the Word of God. (1 John 3:4) It is of the devil. (1 John 3:8; John 8:44) It is all unrighteousness. (1 John 5:17) It is omission of what we know to be good. (James 4:17) It is whatever is not of true faith. (Romans 14:23) It is the thought of foolishness. (Proverbs 24:9) Sin is all the imaginations of the unrenewed heart apart from the Lordship of Christ. (Genesis 6:5; 8:21)

The Word of God describes sin as coming from the heart. (Matthew 15:19) Sin is the fruit of lust, (James 1:15) the sting of death, (1 Corinthians 15:56) and rebellion against God. (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18) It is the works of darkness, (Ephesians 5:11) dead works toward the kingdom of God. (Hebrew 6:1; 9:14) It is the very heart and mind that God hates, (Proverbs 15:9; Jeremiah 44:4,11) which leads to mocking the Lord, (Psalm 74:18) defilement, (Proverbs 30:12; Isaiah 59:3) deceitfulness, (Hebrews 3:13) and disgraceful. (Proverbs 14:34) Sin is great, mighty, manifold, and presumptuous in God’s sight. (Exodus 32:20; 1 Samuel 2:17; Amos 5:12; Psalm 19:13) Sometimes sin is open and manifest, (1 Timothy 5:24) sometimes secret, (Psalm 90:8. 1 Timothy 5:24) besetting, (Hebrews 12:1) like a stain that cannot be removed, (Isaiah 1:18) and reaching to heaven. (Revelation 18:5)