Fearless #3 The Fear of Disappointing God
A discussion I’ve often heard, a question often asked is: what is the unforgivable sin? When is that we cross the line and can’t come back? Is there a time when God is finished with us and we are beyond saving?
Why do people ask that? Because we are worried that maybe we have gone too far, done that thing once too many times, played with fire and now it’s too late, that we have really done it this time, that the door is closed and won’t open to us again. We fear that God has shut us out.
But maybe another fear is: are we really forgiven or does God secretly remember? If God is forgiven me than why do I remember? Or maybe our thinking tells us that the health issue we face is because God is mad at us, or that the rebellion of our children is God getting back at us for smoking, or that behind our back God is planning for us to fall.
Today is a third week in our fearless campaign today we want to look at this nagging fear that we’re disappointed God so much that he holds it against us. And we want to get fearless about believing that we are fully and freely forgiven.
Computers have a feature called system restore. System restore allows you to turn back the date on a computer to an earlier time when the computer work better? Unfortunately our life doesn’t come with the system restore because I’m sure some of us would unmake choices, not pick up that phone call, not go to that party, not accept that date, and a lot of other things.
Is anybody here haunted by a memory, a mistake, a sin that has just dogged your life, stolen your confidence, something that has been thrown into your face every time you were on the verge of moving forward?
- The baby out of wedlock?
- A financial losing streak that just about did you in?
- That same old sin that you’re afraid someone might find about?
- That crazy days at college?
- An opportunity that you completely blew?
- The failed marriage?
Somehow we figure we can’t forgive our self, then how can God forgive us? If we can’t forget, how can God forget?
It is time to get free the fearless about forgiveness.
Matthew 9:1 Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city.
2And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven."
There are a couple things about this passage of scripture that stretches our thinking:
FIRST – there’s the obvious- coming for one thing and getting another. You had all the elements of a great miracle… Paralyzed man… The power of Jesus… An obvious faith. I’m sure they were surprised when Jesus said “your sins are forgiven” instead of “get up and walk.”
Can we just conclude from that that Jesus sees and wants to touch our deepest needs and our deepest needs aren’t always the most obvious ones?
Maybe you come here today and the obvious need of your life is for a family miracle, or a financial miracle or even a physical healing. But what might not be so obvious is that what you really need is a brand new start, you need a system restore, you need that unforgiven episode of your life to be dealt with because it’s holding you back everywhere else.
SECOND – notice how Jesus links courage and forgiven sins. We have probably passed over a scripture like this 1000 times and never noticed that link, I certainly have. But now I see it. Fearless living, courageous living, living with an expectation of God’s favor all have in common is the need to be forgiven, the need to have that deep dark secret removed from our life, the need for those major blunders to never haunt us again.
What was this guys sin? This guys sin was so big that it paralyzed him. It left him helpless and hopeless. Unforgiven sin has a tendency to do this to us, leave us paralyzed, leave us fearful, leave us on the outside of God’s blessing and leave us without courage. I don’t know what this guys sin was but Jesus knew that he would never be able to live a fearless life until he was free from that sin.
And for some of us here we may have cried out for forgiveness but the stain of what we’ve done still paralyzes us.
Maybe with real forgiveness we will find courage to live life on God’s terms and we will stop fearing that somehow God is behind why we are paralyzed. He wants you to be well! He wants you to be healed! He wants you to be living forgiven! He wants you free!
So, for anyone who needs to turn the clock back, or get that knot untangled, maybe what it needs to happen today is for you to give right with God first. Before God can fix what is broken outside of our lives he has to fix was broken in side of our lives. Everything begins by getting right with God first and putting God and the priority placed first. And we don’t do this because we want to save our job, or save our fortune, or save our family, or save our marriage… We do it because we want to save our soul!
This guy in this story needed more than a body healing He needed a soul treatment! So did David after one of the most regrettable acts his life: an affair with Bathsheba and the orchestrated killing of her husband. When he finally awoke and saw the hideousness of what he had done he pens these words from his heart…
Psalm 51:1 (msg) Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry. And to the state take a lot
I know how bad I’ve been;
my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
He’s God ready to do that?
Is there a heart work like that?
Can you just be forgiven, can that happen after committing adultery and murder?
Let me a read this passage in a more traditional Bible…
Psalm 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Do you see how David asks for 3 things to happen? This is 3 ways God forgives…
Transgressions blotted out – THIS IS THE ACT ITSELF – “Please Lord, forget I ever did what I did, blot it out so it can never be seen again!”
Iniquity washed – THIS IS THE GUILT IT BRINGS – Guilt is the leftover stuff, the anger we have at our self, what we cannot forgive about what we did, the punishment that I am putting on myself, I cannot forgive me.
Sin cleansed – THE ONE WHO DID IT – The stuff in me that causes me to do these things, I want this cleansed, I don’t want to be that person.
Now, how we can we possibly have courage to live, how can we have confidence to pray, why would we think God would be on our side with this stuff floating around our life? (DEVIL MOVIE)
What we must learn is that these 3 levels are the 3 levels that forgiveness attacks and frees us from.
- God will never remember the act again, He’ll never bring it up
- God’s forgiveness releases me from the sentence of the crime, I am no longer guilty.
- His forgiveness reconciles the sinner with the Holy God. He no longer treats us as sinners. We aren’t sinners anymore!
Do you believe in this type of forgiveness?
Listen to the word of God…
Col 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
All sins…
Heb. 10:18 I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
All time…
1 Jn. 1:9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful (tight on time, you can count on him) and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Not just forgiving, but a bath as well!
ALL is a powerful word…It leaves nothing out. All means…
- Complete..forgiven fully
- Entirely…
- Absolutely
- Thoroughly…
- ALL OF IT!
What about my lies? ALL
What about those things I’ve never told anyone about?
I committed adultery
I embezzled from my business
My actions caused a death
I was involved in sexual sin that was way out of bounds
I knew I was sitting and I dated any ways
I didn’t know what I was doing
I was young, old, a teenager,
I cheated on my taxes
I wasn’t a good parent, son, daughter, grandparent
I gambled, drank,
I used Ouija boards, used astrology, was in witchcraft
Every sin forgiven. Every broken law nailed to the cross. Everything that speaks against us silenced.
You have been set free
- Let go
- No price to pay any more
- Clean
- Released
Have you received this gift? Do you stand completely, utterly forgiven today? As if every obstacle between you and God been removed?
You see that man laying on that mat had lost his courage because his sin was not forgiven. He couldn’t believe, he couldn’t exercise faith, He couldn’t be fearless and approaching Jesus because he was afraid of being exposed. Jesus knew this and so he forgave him.
And the second those words left the lips of Jesus, what happened to his sin? His guilt and his sin we’re never more to be remembered. He opened the prison door and it was up to that man to take a step and leave.
When from the cross, while hanging there, Jesus said “it is finished” what more were you supposed to do?
BUT IT GOES FURTHER…Maybe we think, “OK, maybe God has to forgive me, but what now? Does he just put up with me?”
Rom. 8:15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children.
Adopted…as His own…in the family…given standing in the family…able to ENJOY being part of the family…having all the rights and privileges of a member of the family.
How many of you abandon your child when he floods the bathtub for the first time? When he makes his first bad grade? When you find a dirty magazine hidden under his bed? What he has is first accident? When he doesn’t walk by the time he’s one year-old? When he rebels against your rules?
And if you is an imperfect parent can love your kids to the good and the bad the ups in the downs do not think that God could do at least that much?
Believe it. Live it.
And there’s more…This is what seals the deal… And
Heb 13:5-6 (NLT)
5 Stay away from the love of money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,
”I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.”
6 That is why we can say with confidence,
”The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
If these verses are saying anything, they are saying that we need not be afraid, we will be the people are never failed and never forsaken.
Let’s repeat that, “I am never failed and I am never forsaken.”
Let’s break down this often repeated statement…
I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FORSAKE YOU.
I will never…
It all depends on this doesn’t it…the I! And who is this I? It is none other than God Himself.
Notice who it doesn’t say…it doesn’t say that the church, or the preacher, or the people, or your parents…IT SAYS THAT GOD HIMSELF WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU OR FAIL YOU OR FORSAKE YOU!
You remember God don’t you? The mighty, ferocious, all powerful, miracle working God of the Bible? That is good stuff!
WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT THIS GOD…
• Not this God who gets lip service but no heart service.
• Not this TV God who loves everyone and winks at sin.
• Not this Hollywood God who has his hands tied behind his back.
• Not this denominational God who used to have a book called the Bible but he and it got outdated a few years back by our sophistication.
• Not this religious God who is all about rules and rituals and traditions.
That God is weak, He will fail you and forsake you! He is incapacitated and on life support and someone should just go pull the plug and get it over with.
I am afraid that some of us here today have killed God off! We have traded the real God – the “I will never fail you” God - for a whipping boy. We have traded the God of the Bible for a teddy bear, cute and fuzzy but powerless. We have thrust God out of His seat and replaced Him with some inferior, beaten down, politically correct, all affirming God of love.
The God that says “I will never fail you” is the MIGHTY GOD!
What does this mean? MIGHTY means…
- A hero, a strong valiant hero, we would know Him as such.
- A proven warrior, unafraid to battle and never defeated.
- One of high ranking power who is expected to lead the battle. HE IS NOT AFRAID OF A FIGHT!
He is the MIGHY GOD, THE valiant, undefeated warrior who would fight for His people.
Prov 21:30 (NIV)
30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan
that can succeed against the LORD.
That’s who we can trust!
I will never fail, leave or forsake you!!!
When God says “I will” he is saying 3 things…
1. That He has the ability to make this promise. This means that He is God and can actually make this statement without any fear of not being able to carry it out. I can’t make a promise like this, you can’t, but God is limitless, he is all powerful, he is all knowing and all loving and he alone is capable of being the only one who will never disappoint, disappear or disintegrate.
….He isn’t going to cower in front of your circumstances or problems. He isn’t ever going to wring his hands in fear; he isn’t ever going to be without a plan. He will never be a few bucks short or shrug His shoulders.
2. That He takes on the responsibility to keep this promise. He isn’t going to leave this to angels, God says, “I will…” This is an issue of integrity, of dependability. This is not going to be a detail that is overlooked and you are the one that is somehow forgotten, He will make sure you are receiving the promise.
3. And that he commits to abide by this promise. The Bible is pretty clear that God is not like us when it comes to making promises – anything that he says He is completely committed to and that won’t change. “I will never leave you”…is His will!
I will never leave, fail or forsake you…
As Phil Keaggy sings, “never is a long time, a long, long, long, long time.”
Never…that is forever, everyday, every situation, every fear, every crisis, every loss, every out of control event.
- Never means that if you mess up and sin he is not going to just throw you out.
- Never means that if you are in the middle of chemo…he will not leave, fail or forsake you.
- Never means that if someone is imposing their will on you and you feel that you have no choice and are being painted into a corner…that he will still not leave, fail or forsake you!
- Never means that when you can’t figure out why, or disappointment has set in, HE IS STILL WORKING!
This is so sure that in the Greek writing of this it is literally, Never, no never, no never!!! By no means will God’s hand be pried off of you…NEVER!!
Now I know someone here is having a problem with this…”never? That can’t be right…what if we…”
But God has spoken here to his chosen people. We cannot go into battle, or take on the enemy, or attack the strongholds, or wade through conflict and heartache if we have this theology that says, “ONE WRONG MOVE AND GOD IS LEAVING!” LIKE IT ALL DEPENDS ON US!
God uses the word “never” to convey that He is in covenant with us and that He is not going to break this covenant. IT DEPENDS ON GOD!
And this goes along with the next part of this promise, I will never fail or forsake you…
FAIL – God will never fail us. The word fail means…
- I will not be Feeble, weak or quiet on our behalf. God won’t say, “I wanted to do more but…”
- I will not be Slack, idle or faint when He is looking at our life.
- I will not be He will not relax, take a nap on us while we sink into the pit
- I will not be And he will not refrain from doing what is needed for us.
FORSAKE – he will not leave and abandon us and leave us like a helpless survivor in problems over our head. NO CHRISTIAN SURVIVORS! Forsake means…
- I will not let you be deserted, orphaned and neglected
- I will not leave you destitute or let loose of us leaving us helpless
- he will not leave you and say, “do it yourself!”. He will not drop the ball, leave you stranded (Batdorf story), or let go.
You may say, “Yeah, but I remember when I felt that way!” I am sure that we have all felt that way, but solid and powerful living is built not on feelings, but on statements of truth that work every time. He will never fail or forsake you. Never.
Not when you are wondering why you aren’t married, or not healed, or not rolling in the dough. Not when the family is difficult, the habit is hard to break and the work situation impossible. Never….
CLOSE…
I think that most of us have this little inner voice that announces to us
- Look at what you did
- You’re a loser
- You’re worth nothing
- You’ve send too much, gone too far, made too many mistakes for God to love you
We call that condemnation. Condemnation is that nagging feeling that we have been judged unworthy and that we have been locked out of God’s promises, God’s blessings, God’s favor, God’s love. And it means that we’re looking at everybody else in the fence while we’re on the other side of the fence.
I believe the most of us have a problem with this, with this voice it just whispers, or shouts, or nags at us that we…
- Aren’t good enough
- Can’t possibly be loved in use by God
- That our past proves us as unreliable
- The God blesses everyone except me
- That God really does a one to help me
- That my failures and sends prove that I’m unfit
Well, I’m going after that stuff today. I want to silence that voice forever…
Rom. 8:1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied…
The story ends….
3And some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow blasphemes."
4And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?
5"Which is easier, to say, ’Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ’Get up, and walk’?
6"But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--then He said to the paralytic, "Get up, pick up your bed and go home."
7And he got up and went home.
8But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
