Forgiveness- Forgiving Yourself Series

Hebrews 10, Chapter 10, verse 10, 14 and 18. "Under this new plan we have

been forgiven and made clean by Christ's dying for us once and for all. For by that one offering he made forever perfect in the sight of God all those whom he is making holy. Now, when sins have once been forever forgiven and forgotten, there is no need to offer more sacrifices to get rid of them."

You don't have to, "God, I gotcha, gotcha. Totally gotcha. Gotcha. Totally

gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha."

He's like, "Done. It's done. Now move forward in forgiveness."

If God can forgive you, you need to forgive yourself. When you do this, you

can say, "God, I grab it. I grab it. And I'm going to stand on this. I'm going to stand on Romans 3:23-24. "Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious ideal; yet now God declares us 'not guilty' of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins."

Wow! We're good. We're good. And he says, "You're forgiven. And when I

forgive you, I give you a fresh start. I give you a fresh start. And you're good. It's a new day."

And I want to give you one illustration here. I want to grab something that will

immediately evoke good feelings in all the people over ten years old. Etch A Sketch. I thought about doing it with an iPad, but this is so cool. I remember growing up and having an Etch A Sketch. If you can't see it, I put SIN on there. We just see it all before us. We know how bad we are. We know it. We created the mess we're in. We created our Etch A Sketch mess. And then God says, "You know what? I've forgiven you. When you asked for forgiveness, I've forgiven you and I made you clean. All it takes from me is a couple good shakes, and I'm good. I got you. It is covered. It's not there anymore. It's good."

Now go ahead. Etch A Sketch away. Your whole life is different now. It's all

different. The slate's been wiped clean. What bound you before, gone. The things that defined you before, gone. Don't see them anymore. It's gone. The Etch A Sketch is clear for you to do whatever you want.

I'm just telling you, grab hold of that. Some of you can't believe it. If you think

that was simple for me to do, it is even easier for God to say, "Covered. Done. Taken care of. Done."

One prayer. Done. Over. And you've got to receive that and say, "I'm not

greater than you, God. You are greater than me. And I receive this forgiveness. If you forgive me, if you say clean slate, then I say clean slate. I say clean slate."

Because he did the work, and all we do is move forward in the amazing work

of Jesus Christ.

So, God, we thank you, we thank you heavenly Father that it was for Christ's

sake that you forgave us. Not one of us could ever do anything good enough to ever be forgiven. But it was because the One that was good died on the cross and His blood poured down that cross so we could be forgiven. He rose from the dead to show us that every promise He made was true. And now we need to live in that forgiveness. Yes, we stumble and fall, but as we stumble and fall, we will repent of those things because it hinders our walk with you. But it's been covered. It's been covered. It's been forgiven. So, God, we come back to you and say, God, keep us close. Keep us close.