Living As A Forgiven Person

When I do some kind of a series I wonder if people are happy for it to be over when the final session ends?

If you have been feeling that way then today will offer you a little relief. This is the last Sunday message in this series; however, the topic is one that we are reminded of in some way almost every week.

On Easter we started this series talking about the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. I hope you will remember that there were two sons and the youngest was dissatisfied with his life with the family that he asks his father for his inheritance…and as far as we know did is not even sick. Much less dead, and culturally this kind of a request was considered inappropriate to the level that putting a son to death would be considered just and right.

The younger son heads off to a foreign country with 1/3 of the estate in cash burning a hole in his pocket. In essence this son is turning his back on the family, and even his culture and goes on to blow all he had on bad choices. Things go from bad to worse after the money runs out a famine hits and then this young man gets what he deserves. He is basically homeless, he gets a bad job, and he is just plain hungry. He is so hungry he started to think the pig feed looked pretty good.

Then the young man wakes up, he comes to his senses, he sees the error of his ways, and he realizes that back home, the servants that feel the stock and did the work around the farm were far better off than he was and he comes up with a plan. HE knows that he messed up big time and He decides that he will go to his father and seek forgiveness and see if his father will give him a job.

Hope you remember the next part, So he returns home and Jesus says, “As the son was in the distance, the father was waiting for him, saw him and went running to meet him.” And he raises his hands to hit him and he yells “I knew you would come crawling back, Get out of here you ungrateful child….”

NO, Wait, that’s not it….That must be some other story.

I remember now, the father goes, meets the son, and wraps his arms around him and the son said—“father, I am sorry, I sinned, please forgive me. Take me on as one of your hired servants.” The father ignores the son’s speech, the words, the request and he restores the son to much more than he deserved. He restores him to full son ship, a robe, a ring and a pair of shoes and then the celebration gets started.

The part of the story about the younger son ends right there with a sort of a “lived happily ever” after kind of feel.

I know it was just a story, a parable that Jesus was telling to prove a point, but I wonder Knowing the details that Jesus shared…what do you think would happen next?

In the story the son returned home and received forgiveness…But,…would his life change?

Think about it, He was not happy at home before, why would he be happy after he had been back for a few weeks or months? He had been selfish enough to demand what would one day be his and then turns his back on all he knew leaving it behind to be forgotten.

Now that he has come back, would he be able to live forgiven?

Would he be able to look his dad in the eyes, what about his brother or even the servants?

I have received God’s forgiveness in my life, the question is, has it transformed me? Have I been radically changed like only God can do?

OR am I still living the same life I was living before?

This series kicked off on Easter Sunday. Easter is a reminder that Jesus gave His life for us on the cross, so that our sins could be forgiven.

We will use several short verses this morning - Look at our first verse. It’s from Colossians 1:14. It says, “God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all of our sins.”

We didn’t earn it.

We don’t deserve it.

We didn’t purchase it.

It’s a gift from God.

The Bible says that Jesus’ death removed the sin that stands as a barrier between us and God so that we can have a relationship with God.

There is only one thing that we have to do to receive God’s forgiveness…Listen to our next verse. John 1:9. “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong.”