Amnesty part 3--Pastor Rob Ketterling
ANDREA: My uncle was full of life and just so much joy. He loved to find the
simple things in life and to just enjoy the present. And I so admired that about him. And I knew he cared immensely for me.
And so when he took his life, I was shocked. We showed up at the house and
there were cops and sirens and a lot of noises and lights. And we pulled up, and I just remember knowing that he had died. So that was really hard.
My life started to spin out of control at that point. I just started to make
decisions about what I was going to do, and so I started drinking and I started doing drugs, and I started to get into really unhealthy relationships, and I made a lot of poor decisions. It was like this perpetual cycle I couldn't get out of. And I had tried everything and nothing was working.
So there was one day that I was handed a book called Echoes of Mercy by Nancy Alcorn. She's the founder of Mercy Ministries, a place where women can go and find help and healing through Christ. And so I read the table of contents of this book, half the first chapter, and in that moment I knew that either I was going to go to Mercy and walk through this process, or I was not. And I didn't know if I was going to live to see the next summer. Something inside of me started to believe that I could get better. Even though I didn't think it was possible, something in me started to believe that.
One of the first steps at Mercy Ministries is to walk through forgiveness, and
so I made a list. And my uncle was on that list. So that was really hard to forgive him for making a choice to walk away from my family. But I did because I learned that forgiveness is a choice and not a feeling.
And after I'd walked through forgiving the other people in my life, I still felt like
there was something stopping me from more healing. I knew like in that moment that I had to forgive myself for the last ten years of my life. And so I was praying one day, and it was like, "God, what it is this? I'll do whatever it takes. Like, I got nothing left." And I had a picture come into my mind, and I saw Jesus on the cross, and I saw myself screaming at it and pointing and saying, "That's not good enough for me!"
But I knew the promises in the Bible and I knew that God was going to be
faithful if I was willing to walk through forgiving myself. It was as I walked that, the Lord brought hope into my life and joy. And I can't put it into words. It's like I can dance for the first time ever in my life! Like, I never thought that I would be this happy. That the relationships in my life, the really important ones, would be as amazing and phenomenal as they are.
I confidently can say I walk in freedom and that I walk in God's grace, because
I still mess up, but I'm moving forward in the favor of God.
PASTOR ROB: Thank you, Andrea, for being vulnerable on that one. That
was like should have passed out Kleenex for that video. I can feel it. I can feel it here, and I'm sure we are feeling it at all our campuses. There is so much there. Some of you need to watch that again and grab all the truth that was in that over and over and over again. That hope starts to rise up in you that you can be forgiven, that you can forgive yourself and you can grab hold of that.
Okay, so because we are going to deal with that today because this is a big
one. This is one that so many people have trouble with, forgiving themselves. Forgiving themselves, because you know what you've done. You know it. The enemy beats you up. You think surely I can't be forgiven, and so you can't forgive yourself, and it stalls you out and you can't move forward. And so we are going to deal with that today.
As a matter of fact, it was one of the top things that people said that they
struggle with. I want you to see the mosaic behind me. Here and all of our campuses, I want everybody to grab this and just see this right here. I want you to see the mosaic that is up here. It is beautiful because it is a picture of Jesus, but it's beautiful because it's each of those is somebody saying I forgive somebody. Each of those is somebody saying I forgive somebody who's offended me. I'm letting it go. You responded last week. Over 2,000 people last week that did it at all of our campuses, and they said "I forgive, I forgive, I
forgive."
And I want to let you know people said, "I forgive my brother," "I forgive my
sister," "I forgive my boss," "I forgive my ex," "I forgive this person," "I forgive my neighbor," "I forgive classmates." And the top four people they said, number one, they said, "I forgive my mom." Number two, they said, "I forgive my dad." Number three, they said, "I forgive my family members."
It is amazing to me the top three were like the closest people to us. We have
got to deal with that next week. I'm pulling a change there. We're going there, because if that's the top three, we are going there.
But number four, I have to forgive myself. "I forgive myself." People were
saying it last week. "I forgive myself." And it is very, very real, and we are talking to
Christians here. I'm not talking about people that have never been forgiven.
If you've never been forgiven and asked Jesus to forgive you, at the end of the
service there will be prayer teams, and you should go up and ask one of them, "I want to be
forgiven."
But here's the thing, even when you've been forgiven and Jesus has forgiven
you of your sins, you still can't forgive yourself; many of you can't. You're like, "I know what I did, I know what I did, my sins are before me, and I can't forgive myself." And you get paralyzed and you can't move forward. I got to tell you, it's a big thing for a lot of people. A lot of people can't move forward because they can't forgive themselves.
I'll be really honest with you. I'm a quick forgiver. I'm a quick forgiver. I
learned after counseling with people that that's not normal. Okay? When I sin, when I fall short, and even now if I sin and fall short and I feel the spirit of conviction come on me, I feel God saying, "Hey, you messed up there, you sinned, that was wrong," I'm a quick forgiver to say, "God, I'm sorry, you are absolutely right. That was wrong. I'm sorry for my sins. I'm sorry. I don't want this to block us. I don't want this to be here. And I'm thankful for conviction and I'm moving forward." And I get up from it and I move on. And I don't sit there and think like, "Oh, now, God, remember Tuesday, Lord, when I prayed. Are we good?" I don't worry about that. I just get up, and I'm quick. And sometimes people are like, "Are you sure you dealt with that?" But I'm a quick forgiver.
And I'm also a quick giver of forgiveness. So I like that. I'm able to forgive it
quick, you know? People offend me or they sin against me, I'm able to take it and say, "All right, I forgive you, let's move on."
And then people will says years later, "How you doing with that person?
I'm like, "What?"
"Well, remember they did that?"
"Well, yeah, I forgot about that."
Okay, but that is not how a lot of people are. That is not how everyone is. But we need to realize that God wants us to realize that we're forgiven, that we
can be forgivers, that we can move on in forgiveness, and we don't have to hold on to it. If you hold on to it, how many know it just makes you bitter. And bitterness makes you ugly. And some of you need all the help you can get. You don't need that. I'm just saying, just saying. I had to lighten the mood there. I've learned this, bitterness cannot be contained. It just oozes. It oozes into every area of your life. Okay?
So realize this, God has forgiven you. When you ask Jesus to forgive you of
your sins, you ask God to make the way for you and Jesus forgave you of your sins. You said a prayer of repentance. You were forgiven. And I want you to understand, and we are going to look at the Word, but you've got to grab this, it grieves God's heart. It breaks his heart when you don't believe what he's done for you is good enough. When you don't believe what he's done for you is good enough for you to forgive you and move forward, it breaks his heart. If you could see yourself like Andrea said, you know, like, "I'm looking at the cross saying, 'That's not good enough! That's not good enough!'"
I mean, when you can't forgive yourself, even though you may not be shouting
it, that's what you're saying to God. And it breaks his heart. He's like, "It is good enough! It is good enough! Trust me. Trust my Word. Trust the promises. It's good enough. If I forgive you, you forgive you!"
And if you can't forgive yourself, you know what you're saying? "God, I know
better than you."
He's like, "Well, I know you better than you know you. And I forgive you. How
can you put yourself higher than me in this? If I'm willing to forgive you, how are you higher than me? You're not." Okay? So it breaks his heart.
And here is the thing. You've got to grab this that God's forgiven. As a
follower of Jesus Christ, he's forgiven you. Because if you don't, if you doubt his forgiveness, you will disintegrate. You will disintegrate. Over and over again you will disintegrate. And here's what will happen. You doubt, you doubt and you doubt, and you think "I can't be forgiven, I can't forgive myself, I can't move forward." So what will happen, it will affect your speech. You'll start speaking negative, you'll start having foul speech coming out of your mouth. You'll be discouraged. Everything will be negative, and you'll start speaking that over your life. You disintegrate. Your actions will start to disintegrate.
Sometimes I see people and they are acting out, and they are acting out, and
they're acting out. And I'll grab them, say, "What are you doing?"
And when it comes down to it, they are like, "I can't believe what I did against God!" And they are acting out and they are thinking, "He can never forgive me. He can never. I'm so bad I can't forgive myself."
And so they keep disintegrating because they have a wrong understanding.
God has forgiven them. So you've got to grab that.
When you receive forgiveness, when you believe it and receive it, you start to
achieve. You believe, receive and achieve. What do I mean by that? You believe you've been forgiven. You start living in freedom. When you're living in freedom, how many know that you're willing to step out in faith? How many know that all of a sudden positive words start coming out of your mouth? Actions start coming out of your mouth. You are like, "Well, God loves me. He's forgiven me. I've forgiven myself. I'm not paralyzed. I'm going to go lead a Lifegroup. I'm going to go serve. I'm going to go do this." Instead of, like,
"Well, I can't do it. They would never want me after all I've done. They would never do that.
They would never receive it." You start believing it, receiving it, and you start chasing after God's dream for your life. That's what happens. So you have to believe this, and you have to grab this.
So I want to read some of God's promises to you, some of his Word. And
then I want to give you some examples of people that grabbed ahold of this. So the first passage I want to read is in Colossians. God's forgiven you, and in Colossians, chapter 1, verses 20-22, it talks about how we're forgiven and what's been done for us.
It says, "For Christ's death on the cross has made peace with God for all by
his blood." So Jesus died on the cross and made peace with us for God for all of us that called on his name. "This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. " It is incredible right there. "He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you--nothing left that he can even chide you for."
There's nothing. Nothing. Because of the blood of Jesus, because of the
price that he paid, taken care, covered, amazing.
Colossians, chapter 1:13-14, it says, "For he has rescued us out of the
darkness and gloom of Satan's kingdom and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who bought our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins."
All of our sins. And when you believe that, you live different. You start living
different. And here's how you know that forgiveness is starting to be realized in your life. You know, it's applied, but it's not always realized. And you start realizing because you start living different. You start saying, "You know what? I've been forgiven. I can forgive myself. I can do this. If Jesus forgives me, I forgive me and I can move forward. And if you are not aligned with an accurate understanding of God, you need to change. God is not going to change. You need to change. You need to say, "I need to be different. I need to be forgiven. I need to forgive myself and I need to change."
And we fail in this forgiveness because, how many know, that is not how the
secular world works. It is like, okay, we are always like how much are the amends? They are going to have to pay the price for the crime. They are going to have to do this, they are going to have to do that. We want to exact revenge. We want to have them do this. So it doesn't work that way. It seems like nothing is for free. Nothing can be given to us by grace and by freedom. And we are always suspicious. How many know we're suspicious?
We're like, "Really, he has covered us and we're good? Can I really be?" You know, we're always looking for the angle.
Just this last week I was in New York doing some stuff with my book, and I
was giving away free copies to people. And so I was in New York on Times Square, and I was giving away free copies of Change Before You Have To. And so I'm doing that, people were like "Uuuhhhh." I'm like, "It's free." And they are like, "Uuuhhhh." I'm like, "It's free, it's really free. I'm not going to ask you for any money. It's free, free, free. Free gift for you.
Free, free."
And they are like, "Okaaay." And they are kind of like, "Okaaay." You know. They were thinking they were getting punked or something. Because if you've never been to Time's Square, people will hand you stuff, and they will say, "Here you go, it is my CD." And then, like, "It's $10." You're like, "Ohhh," and you want to give it back to them. So don't take the stuff, all right? Unless it's the book, and it's free. All right, you know. But they are like, "Ooohhhh, there's got to be an angle. How can it be like that?"
And that's how we are with God. We are looking at it from the secular world,
and we're saying, "There's nothing for free, you've got to work your way, you've got to totally -- you've got to do it." And God is, like, "If you look from my angle, there is grace and mercy. Look from my angle. There's grace and mercy, and I give it to you. And if I can forgive you, you need to forgive yourself."
Now, somebody that's sinned really bad, really bad, okay, because a lot of us
say, "Well, you don't know what I did, you don't know what I did." And I thank God that in the Word of God he gives us great examples to look at. I thank God for that. And he gives us the example of David.
Okay, you know him, David and Goliath. He's the one that killed the giant. David and Bathsheba. He's the one that committed adultery with Bathsheba. That's the bad side. Then it gets worse. David has her husband murdered to cover up for the adultery. So we've got a guy that's committed adultery and murdered, okay?
And so you are thinking, "Okay, you don't know what I've done." You're like,
"Okay, all right, that's a good story. I'm glad it's in the Bible." All right. Okay?
And David was forgiven. David was forgiven, and he understood a whole
concept of God's forgiveness. And it's amazing. And you've got to understand David has done all this wrong, and he gets called out by the prophet, which is the most amazing thing, where Nathan calls him out with this little story and traps him in it, and then like Nathan is like, "You're the guy! You're the one with sin."
And then David is like, "You're right, it's me! I'm the one that sinned against God. This is horrible!" And so he pleads with God. He says, "I'm sorry for my sins, I repent." And he writes Psalm 51, which is incredibly beautiful, because he gives us a glimpse into this forgiveness and learning to be forgiven.
So in Psalm 51, I want to read the whole thing. It says, "O loving and kind
God, have mercy."
Remember, this is David after he's committed adultery and killed someone.
He says, "Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my
transgressions. Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again. For I admit my shameful deed--it haunts me day and night. It is against you and you alone I sinned and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and your sentence against me is just. But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness. Oh, give me this wisdom. "Sprinkle me with the cleansing blood and I shall be clean again."
Remember that line.
"Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And after you have punished me,
give me back my joy again. Don't keep looking at my sins--erase them from your sight.
Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires. Don't toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to other sinners, and they--guilty like me--will repent and return to you.
Don't sentence me to death. O my God, you alone can rescue me. Then I will sing of your forgiveness, for my lips will be unsealed--oh, how I will praise you.
"You don't want penance; if you did, how gladly I would do it! You aren't
interested in offerings burned before you on the alter. It is a broken spirit you want--remorse and penitence. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not ignore. And Lord, don't punish Israel for my sins--help your people and protect Jerusalem. And when my heart is right, then you will rejoice in the good that I do and in the bullocks I bring to sacrifice upon your alter."
There is so much there. David is like, "I've sinned, I've sinned, I've sinned. I've done wrong!" He's like, "God, but it's sin!" And I'll tell you this, a lot of people want to explain away sin. You can't. It's sin. It's sin, It's wrong, It's evil. And he says, "God, I did wrong, I transgressed, I did evil. I did wrong." But he said, "Here is what I want you to do. I want you to blot out stain. I want you to wash me. I want you to cleanse me. And then he says in verse 7, "Sprinkle me with the blood so I can be pure again."
Now I want you to understand this. This is before Jesus died on the cross and
his blood covered all of us. Because his blood when he died on the cross, when we receive communion, the cup and the bread, it's symbolizing his blood and his body that hung on the cross, and his blood covered all of our sins. But David doesn't have a concept yet of Jesus. He doesn't know Jesus. Jesus has not come to the earth yet. But he does realize that they would sacrifice animals, and they would take that blood, and the priest would then sprinkle blood on the people that were unclean. If they sinned, if they did wrong, if they were unclean, they would come to the priest and they would say, "We're sorry for our sins, we repent, we need to be cleansed." And the priest would take hyssop and he would dip it in there, and he would take the blood and he would sprinkle it on them and he'd say, "You're cleansed, you're forgiven. You can go and worship with the congregation. You are not banned anymore. You are good to go. Go. You're forgiven."
And so David is like, "If the priest can do that for them, God, you can do it for
me. You can do it for me. I just want the blood applied. I just want the blood applied. And if the blood can be applied, I want to be forgiven. And if I'm forgiven, I'm moving forward to you because I know the blood can cover the sins." And every time we think about our sin, we can remember that the blood was applied to us.
When we receive communion, we can say, "God, it was applied to me. I'm
covered. I'm forgiven. And if you have forgiven me, I can forgive me." It's an amazing
thing.
And then David gets right up there from there and he's like, "I'm going for it
again. I'm going for it. I've realized that the blood has covered me. I'm forgiven and I'm moving forward." And he says, "Guess what, I want the strength, God, to never do that. I want the strength. You've got to give me the strength to never do that again because I realize I kind of tripped up. I need your strength. And now that I have the strength to never do that again, God, I want to help people to never do that either. And I'm going to say how good you are. You're an amazing God. I never want to do that again."
You've got to let that sink in. It's an amazing thing. And what we can say over
and over again is, "Jesus, the blood has covered my sin. It's covered me. I'm covered. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good."
And I'm sure you're thinking, "But I'm a pretty bad person." You are. You're
bad. Okay? We're all bad. Every one of us. We're bad. We are unworthy. And he doesn't forgive us because we're good; he forgives us because Jesus is amazing. Okay? You don't deserve forgiveness. I don't deserve forgiveness. None of us deserve forgiveness. Not at all. Okay? We don't deserve it.
But I want you to understand what Ephesians 4:32 says. It says this: "And be
kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God..." now catch this
"...for Christ's sake has forgiven you."
Now, don't miss that line. In our culture, "for Christ's sake" has taken on a
very negative thing. People say it in a very derogatory way. It's an amazing phrase. It means because Christ is worthy, because Christ is amazing, God forgives YOU! I don't think you caught that. Because Christ is amazing, you get forgiveness, okay? Maybe at the campuses they caught that. But you don't deserve it! And God doesn't forgive you because you're amazing. Which, again, is hard for some people, because some people think they are amazing and they are like, "Thank you, God, you've got me." He's like, "You're not that good."
Okay, because Jesus is amazing, because Jesus was perfect, because he
paid the price, God the Father says because of what Jesus did, for Christ's sake I forgive you. And when you have the blood applied to you, you're now under the covering of the blood. And when I look at you I see the covering of Jesus, and that's why you're forgiven. And so God forgives you because of what Jesus did. That's amazing. And he wipes away our sins. He makes us children. He views us through Jesus. And that's the best deal on
the planet.
And when you ask for forgiveness -- grasp this -- Jesus forgives everything
you did in the past, everything you are doing in the present, and everything in the future. I know it's hard to believe that. You are like, wait a minute, do I have to keep coming back, and every communion do I like reexamine and reconfess. Because, you know, I used to do that. I used to get to communion, I used to be like, "Okay, Lord, as I hold these elements I don't want to drink them unworthy, and I'm just going to kind of inventory. Well, it's been a month since communion, so let me think this through. What have I done?" I wasn't flippant.
I was terrified. I was like, "Okay, I better get these all covered, because if I take this bad,
I'm in trouble." So I'd think like, "Oh, Tuesday, sorry for Tuesday, you know, sorry for that.
And anything I might have forgot to mention to you, I ask for."
Does anybody else think? Okay. All right, so some of the people. Okay, you
don't have to do that it. It's all covered, it's all covered, it's all covered, past, present and future. And when you come to communion, if you are convicted of anything, you can pray a prayer that is different than like, "Forgive me again. Make sure it's applied." It is not a fear that it's applied. It has been applied to you. Okay?
Now, I can hear your minds, because the Apostle Paul heard this, too. In
Romans, chapter 6, he's talking about this. "Wait, wait, wait. Past, present and future sins are all forgiven? Does that mean I have a free pass on Friday night?" No. No. Love would never intentionally want to hurt the person that they love.
So Paul says in Romans 6, he says, "What shall we say then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? "
He's saying, "You know, he has forgiven you past, present and future. He's
forgiven you. But don't live in it. Don't try to intentionally go and do wrong. You want to be formed into his image." And so when you sin and if you sin and when you sin, after you've asked for forgiveness -- now grab this -- after you've asked for forgiveness from God, and he's forgiven your past, present and future, let's say you sin, because we all fall short, we are not living perfect yet, you can pray something like this when you are convicted:
You can pray, "Thank you for the forgiveness that first covered my sins and
the one I feel convicted of right now. I'm sorry for this, and as I desire to be like you and I thank you for your Holy Spirit convicting me of this right now, I don't want to live this way anymore, Lord. I thank you that you've forgiven me of this sin, and I want the power of God to overcome this sin, and I don't want to live in it anymore. Give me the strength to move forward now with this conviction and keep convicting me of anything I do wrong, because I want to be formed in your image."
But you're not saying, like, "Oh, one more time I need, I need it applied!" You
can thank God for what was applied. And when you are convicted, thank God for that conviction and move forward knowing that you've been forgiven and thanking God for the conviction that's there that helps you.
Now some people say, "Well, is there a line that you can cross and go too far
and cross the line and step on it? I think there is a line. I really do. I think there is a line where you can sin and sin and sin and sin, and you get to the point where God's Holy Spirit is like, "Are you in or are you out?"
You can say, "I'm out!"
I talked to a lot of people that say like, "I was mad at God. My dad died. I
started drinking." This, this. "And I said, 'I'm out! I'm done with you, God! I'm done!' And they said, 'I'm over.'"
And then they said it was miraculous. Somebody came up to them one day
and said out of the clear blue, "God is not done with you. He wants you back."
Wow, you know! So I think there is a line. I really do. Where that line is I
don't know, and here is my advice to you. Don't try to find the line. Don't try to find it. Death at the line. Life in God. Okay?
But here's what happens to you when you sin as a believer. It has been
forgiven, but here is what it does to you: It blocks your communion with God. It hinders your relationship. It causes others to miss out because you confuse them when you are sinning. That's why he wants us to protect holiness in awe of who he is. And we want to be more like him so people at work say, "You look a lot like Jesus rather than you look like everybody else on Friday night." Okay? It doesn't lead to the abundant life. It cheapens the price that Jesus paid. It says you know better than God. It rips you off, it binds you up and it breaks God's heart. So why would you want to sin? We should want to pursue righteousness and holiness. Okay? So don't, let's not go after that line. Let's go after Christ and realize we are forgiven and we are not going to do these other things. And when we are convicted, we thank God that it's forgiven, and we thank God for conviction, and we want the strength to change.
Now here's the thing, no human effort can make you worthy to be forgiven. Nothing! Nothing, nothing, nothing! You have to receive the forgiveness of God and be able to forgive yourself. The enemy says, "You can't be forgiven. You're so bad."
And you can say, "You're right, I am so bad. But Jesus is so amazing. I am
bad. I am unworthy. I am a loser. Yeah, all those things. Great, I did it. I did all those things. But guess what? Jesus is amazing"
And forgiveness has been applied to you, but it hasn't been realized, and you
need to quote the Word. You need to watch the intro video. You need to keep reading it and reading it and reading it. You may need to have index cards or your iPhone buzz and tell you and remind you over and over again what God has done for you. But it's real, and you need to grab it. I think we irritate God when we don't move forward in forgiveness and we try to do stuff to show how sorry we are. Okay, let me prove this for you. Give you a
simple little illustration.
Imagine you go out with a coworker. You need to do a little workaway at
Starbucks or Caribou. You're going to get some coffee. Here, we are going to get out of the office and we're going to work. So you get to Starbucks, Caribou, you're there. All of a sudden you realize you forgot your wallet. So you say, "Oh, I forgot my wallet. I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to.
And they are like, "Don't worry, I got it." So you order your drink. It's $4,
whatever. And they say, "I got it. It's no problem."
You're like, "Oh, I will totally pay you back. I can't believe I forgot my wallet. I
will pay you back. When we get back to the office, I am going to pay you back."
They are like, "Don't worry. It's under $5. I got it. Don't worry about it. It's all
good."
You're like, "No, don't worry. Really, I got you. I got you." You get your drink.
You're like, "Thank you. I got you. When we get back to the office, I totally got my wallet.
Totally, I'll get you, you know. I think I brought it with me. It's not at home I don't think."
Okay, so you are doing the meeting and you're doing your workaway and
you're trying to strategize. And halfway through the meaning the person is like "Totally thank you." Every sip they are like, "Thank you. Got you. Thank you. Totally I'm going to pay you back. This is good. This is good. Totally. Not taking advantage of you. Got this, all right, so when we get back."
Okay, and you're like, "Okay, that's good, so let's do the workaway."
And they are like, "Totally good. Totally got you. Totally got you."
How many know right now you're like, "I wish you'd remembered your wallet."
You know what I mean? Seriously.
Okay. And then you get to -- you just like, "All right, let's go back to the
office."
You get in the car and you pull up to the office, and they grab your bag and
they run to the front door, and they open the door for you, and they are like, "I totally got you. I got you. I got the door, I got your bag."
And you're like, "Yeah, my bag was unzipped. You dropped." Okay, you
know. And you're like, "I didn't need that."
"I totally got you." You walk into the workplace, and you are like, "Hey, he
bought my coffee, but I got him. Don't worry, totally got him. I left my wallet. Totally got him. Thank him. I thanked him. He's so -- I got him."
You know, how many know like right now they are like, "I don't even want you
to work here anymore." You know?
And all day long they come into your office and they are like, "Totally we're
good. We're good, we're good, right? We're good. I got you. I couldn't find my wallet. I think it's home. But I got you. Tomorrow totally got you. Got you. Got you. Good. We're good? We're good? Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good."
That's how much you irritate God, and then some. No, really! That's how
much you irritate him! You're like, "Totally, God. God, I totally got you. You got me. You got forgiveness. Okay, because what do you need? Do you need me up there front row?
Front row? You need me front row? Front row? Totally, front row."
"One hand for worship or two? Two? Two today. High? Super high. Super
high. Two super high. I'm in."
"What do you need? Yes, I'm there. I'm a Kingdom Builder. I'm in. Good,
good, good."
"Nursery? I'm in. Good, good, good."
You know, really, seriously, God is like, "I got it. I got it. You can't work for
this. You can't work for this. You can't. You are not worthy." He's saying, "Because of
Christ, for Christ's sake I forgive you."
And every time the enemy says, "You can't be forgiven. You can't be forgiven.
You are no good. You are unworthy."
You say, "You are so right, but I found grace. You are so right, but I found Jesus, and Jesus is amazing! He's incredible! He's amazing. He applies that forgiveness to me, and I have peace with God, and I'm going to live different."
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.
For those that have a hard time forgiving themselves, God, I pray that every
time the enemy reminds them of their sin, instead of cowering, I pray that they bow up and realize the grace of God is bigger than they could ever comprehend. The enemy wants to throw sin after sin after sin after them and remind them of what they did. And I pray instead of being saddened by it, they say, "You're right, I did those things. But Jesus forgives me. I forgive myself. Thanks for reminding me how amazing grace is. I'm moving forward. I'm moving forward."
So we thank you for that, God. Help us to be able to forgive ourselves
because you've done the big part. Help us to do the little part.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen and amen.
