Freedom and Forgiveness

We are continuing tonight in our Am I Really That Bad? series. In this we are walking through the book of Romans. And you’re going to find throughout our time in this book that Paul is talking about real things that were and will affect the lives of these people that he’s writing to. What we’re going to see is that Paul is talking to the needs of Christians in Rome. A large part of what Paul is talking about are common issues that they will face together as people in the church and in their lives. Tonight we’re going to talk about 2 issues that are probably a struggle for most of us. These issues are freedom and forgiveness.

Our verse tonight speaks to the heart of these issues. You see I think Paul had a way of understanding people and what they are going through. Because it is incredible that the issues they were facing in the lives of the people in the church during this time are also issues that we face now in 2019. We’re going to read , “4 When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. 6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: 7 “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. 8 Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”

7 “Oh, what joy for those

whose disobedience is forgiven,

whose sins are put out of sight.

8 Yes, what joy for those

whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”*

* 4:7–8 (Greek version).

Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.

Who struggles with forgiveness? And there are two sides of this. It is giving forgiveness or receiving forgiveness. I know in my life I’ve struggled with this on a few occasions. And for me the biggest issue that I face is struggling to forgive people who’ve done something to me or my family or friends. I can specifically remember times in my life where I’ve really struggled with forgiving someone. And a specific person that I’ve had a hard time forgiving was my dad.

I mentioned at the beginning of the year when I shared my testimony that I was raised in a single parent home, my mom took care of me and my brothers. So my dad was not a regular presence in my life for a bunch of years. So in my mind I missed out on having my dad teach me a lot of things that I think dads are supposed to teach their kids. Not only this but when I was in high school I actually saw my dad go to jail. And for a few years I’d get requests to go and visit him in prison. I went a few times but after a while I was ashamed and mad that my dad, who was supposed to be the guy I could trust and rely on, put himself in a position where he could be neither of those for me. I struggled with forgiving him for a while, even when he was released from prison. I’d be resistant in spending time with my dad. And the difficult part in this was being in this position while I was hearing and learning about giving forgiveness in places just like this, at youth group and at church. I’d hear that I need to be someone who forgives but sometimes it’s not as easy as that. There are times where we need to process our forgiveness. To walk and talk through it with someone.

You see the bible says in , “13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” Some translations of the bible say bear with one another. I truly think this idea of bearing with people is the process of taking time to think through and understand why we are bearing with people, to understand that we all mess up and are in need of forgiveness, which ultimately leads to us knowing that we need to forgive those who have messed up in our lives. And it was processing all of this that has lead me to really forgiving my dad. Now I can’t say that we now have the best relationship, but I can say that it is better and always getting better each time I talk to him and each time I get a chance to hang out with him. And the end of this verse is key for what we are talking about tonight, it says “remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others”. And this is the important part for us. Knowing and understanding that when we give our lives to Jesus we are forgiven people. And so our bible text in Romans for tonight is saying that when we put our faith and trust in God that he forgives us.

Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.

Sometimes we need to work through these situations and find what I think Paul is talking about here which is freedom. And I think at times this freedom leads to forgiveness.

As I think through the idea and process of forgiveness I generally think about it through the lens of situations in my life because it helps me to understand, in a small part, how much of this forgiveness I get from God. Because I know my struggles, I know my thoughts, I know the things that I do that no one else sees. And I know that Jesus loves me and forgives me throughout all of that. You see there are times where we feel like we aren’t good enough or aren’t worthy of being forgiven by God. I’ve been in that position. I know there are moments in my life where I’ve done things, and the same types of questions would pop into my mind I’m like why would God forgive someone like me who just can’t seem to get it right, why would God forgive someone like me who can’t stop doing this, why would God forgive someone like me who thinks this way, etc. But what I’ve learned is that God loves each one of us so much that no matter how bad we think we are, God loves us so much more than that. And I’ve learned that through the bible, in verses like, which says “10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. 11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. 12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.”

10 He does not punish us for all our sins;

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12 He has removed our sins as far from us

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

as the east is from the west.

Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.

Then a verse takes it a step further when it says, “9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” This is saying that the only thing that God asks of us is to confess or to recognize where we’ve messed up, our sin. When we do that God is faithful and right and forgives us of our sins and cleans us of the bad stuff that we’ve done. In Romans Paul says it isn’t something that we can work for or obtain. Who here has ever worked, like at a job after school or a summer job? You generally do those jobs for money? Like you work and your expectation is that you get money in return. But what Paul is saying in this passage is that this forgiveness is a gift from God. It is given to everyone who believes in Jesus not because of what they’ve done but because of them believing in Jesus and it is because of that that we can know and trust that we are forgiven. And when we are able to confess these sins we will see God begin cleaning us; what does that look like. God will begin to change the areas in our lives where we’ve been sinning. And it may look different in each of our lives. It maybe that God changes how we look at thing, how we look at people. Maybe God will change how we respond to situations, or who we decide to hang out with. Or maybe God will begin to change what we watch or look at on the internet. Whatever it is God will begin to change how we view these things and that in that process begin to cleanse us.

Tyndale House Publishers. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Print.

And the verse is saying that this isn’t something that we need to work for. It gives the

And you know what, this understanding of forgiveness and this feeling of forgiveness brings freedom. Freedom from whatever sins or areas where we mess up that we might feel burdened by. You know who I think has been an amazing example of this for me recently. And I know you might be tired of hearing this name, but it is Kanye West. This guy is not only unashamed of sharing with the world what Jesus has done in his life but he seems to understand that he is now a forgiven person, who doesn’t need to be shamed by what he’s done in the past but is totally looking forward to where God is directing him. Even one of his latest songs, “Use This Gospel”, he and the other artists on this song are asking God for forgiveness for the mistakes that they’ve made. They use the lyrics “A lot of damaged souls, I done damaged those. And in my arrogance, took a camera pose” Talking about the fact that what they were putting out in the past has caused a lot of damage, and they recognize and know that God can give forgiveness for all of their sins. And you know what I believe there is a sense of freedom in these words for these guys. And this is the same sort of freedom that we can have when we ask God for forgiveness, trust that he forgives us and allow him to clear the burden of that off our lives.

So my question as we end tonight is what do you need forgiveness from? What do you need freedom from? Do you tonight need to say to God, you know what I believe you are who you say you are in the bible and I need to talk to you about all the mistakes, bad judgements, thoughts that I’ve had and things that I’ve done that I know are wrong. And I God I need your forgiveness? Cause this is where we need to start guys. This is the first step to feeling forgiven and experiencing this freedom. And I hope that as we head out of here that we will have incredible conversations with our small groups about this idea of forgiveness and maybe even be willing to share with one another the areas in our lives where we need forgiveness.