5_The Prayer of Cleansing
THE PRAYER OF CLEANSING
The Lord’s Prayer: Path to Inner Peace
Part 5 of 8
Rick Warren
July 20-21, 2002
“This is how you should pray…Forgive us our debts…” Matt. 6:12a (NIV)
HOW DOES GOD FORGIVE?
1. GOD FORGIVES ME _________________________
“Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord, our God He is merciful and quick to forgive.” Isa. 55:7 (TEV)
“If we confess our sins to God, He will keep His promise and do what is right He will forgive our sins and make us clean from all our wrongdoing.” 1 John 1:9 (NIV)
2. GOD FORGIVES ME ________________________
“You are a God of forgiveness, always ready to pardon, gracious and merciful … full of love.” Neh. 9:17 (LB)
“(Christ)… is always interceding on our behalf.” Heb. 7:25 (Ph)
3. GOD FORGIVES ME_________________________
“All of us have sinned … yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’ of offending Him IF we trust in Jesus Christ, who freely takes away our sins.” Rom. 3:23-24 (LB)
“For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved, through faith. It is not your own doing, but God’s gift. There is nothing to boast of, since it is not the result of your own efforts.” Eph. 2:8-9 (GN)
4. GOD FORGIVES ME ________________________
“He has forgiven all your sins He has utterly wiped out the evidence of broken commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross.” Col. 2:13-14 (Ph)
“God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins.”
Col. 1:14 (NLT)
“For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His life for us.” Rom. 3:25 (NLT)
“This is My blood, which seals the covenant between God and His people. It is poured out to forgive the sins of many.” Matt. 26:28 (NLT)
“I, the Lord, will forgive and forget their sins.” Jer. 31:34b (LB)
“There is no condemnation for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1 (GN)
THE PRAYER OF CLEANSING
The Lord’s Prayer: Path to Inner Peace
Part 5 of 8
Rick Warren
July 20-21, 2002
Today we’re going to continue in our series as we’re going verse by verse through the Lord’s Prayer. I’m calling this series “The Path to Inner Peace.”
One of the greatest barriers to inner peace without a doubt is guilt. Millions of people are tortured by guilt. They are stuck in the past. They are a slave to regrets, a slave to shame, a slave to things they can’t get out of their mind. They don’t know how to get out of the past so they can get on with their life in the present and get into the future. You cannot have peace of mind and guilt at the same time.
The thing about guilt is it is a uniquely human emotion. We share a lot of emotions with animals. Animals have fear. Animals have anger. Animals can express joy and happiness. Animals can even express sadness. But only human beings have guilt. No dog ever feels a guilty conscious. Because no dog is made in the image of God.
You were created with a soul and you were given conscious and you know the difference between right and wrong. So this is uniquely human emotion.
It’s also universal. Everybody feels guilt at different times of their life because we’ve all blown it. We’ve all made mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody bats 1000. So everybody has to deal with this issue in their lives on a continual basis.
The problem is guilt is an incredibly destructive emotion. It is probably the number one cause of low self-esteem. It is probably the number one cause of depression. And it’s probably the number one cause of anxiety. When you are filled with guilt and you’re trying to keep something a secret in your life that you’re ashamed of it curses all kinds of emotional difficulties in your life.
Most of all though guilt is a warning light. It is a warning light that says something is wrong in my life and I need to get it corrected. That’s the reason God allows it. It’s a corrective warning light. It’s not something that’s supposed to stay on in your life. It’s a warning light. You correct what’s wrong and then you get on with your life.
A guy by the name of William Justice wrote a book called The 37 Ways We Lie to Ourselves to Avoid Guilt. I was wondering if you maybe were familiar with few of these.
Projection. When you feel guilty you project it on to somebody else. You blame everybody else. “It’s not really my fault.” You blame society. You blame your boyfriend/your girlfriend. You blame your parents. You blame your teachers. You blame the environment – the government. You project your guilt on to somebody else.
He says another way we lie to ourselves is rationalization. We make up excuses. “It’s no big deal what I did. It didn’t really hurt anybody. It’s just this once.” We rationalize. We justify. We make excuses to cover up our guilt.
He said a third way we handle our guilt is comparison. “If you think I’m bad you should see...” If we think if their crimes are worse than ours then we’re Mother Theresa. We’re a saint.
The fourth way is repression. You’re all familiar with this. That’s where you stuff it down. You push it down in your subconscious. You try to live in denial. “I know it was wrong but I just won’t think about it.” You push it down. The only problem with that is it doesn’t work. You can’t keep guilt down permanently. You cannot live in denial for the rest of your life.
You’ve got to deal with the things you feel guilty about. If I were to take you out to the swimming pool this afternoon and you jumped in and I gave you eight tennis balls and said, “Here’s your assignment. I’ll give you a million bucks if you can keep them all submerged at once.” You’d have a hard time. You’d be pushing one down, then another, then another and they’d be popping back up. That’s what happens with guilt. You can’t keep it down in your life. No matter how you try to rationalize it, justify it, blame somebody else, make excuses, push it down, forget it. The fact is you know it was wrong and it keeps popping back up. Here’s the problem. If you don’t learn how to get rid of guilt in your life you’re going to be tired much of your life. Because it’s exhausting trying to keep all those balls submerged. It takes enormous energy to live in denial. It really does. It takes a lot less energy to just deal with it and get it over with. So it doesn’t work to try to repress it.
Anther way we try to deal with guilt is distractions. That is, “I’m never going to slow down long enough so I won’t have to think about it.” So I rush around from one event, one activity to the next trying to do what I want to do, trying to do what I need to get done so at night I can come home and crash. Lay my head down on the pillow and go to sleep before those depressing, guilty thoughts start filling my mind and haunting me again. Guilt is probably one of the primary causes of workacholism. A lot of workaholics are running from something. They’re trying to run away from something they know is wrong in their life and they’ve never dealt with it so they just try to stay busy so they don’t have to think about it.
Then one we’re all familiar with is escapism. Pop a pill, have a drink, smoke a joint, watch TV, go to Disneyland, take up a sport. Any kind of thing to kind of escape from the depression of my guilt.
The problem is none of these work. None of these will help you to get rid of guilt in your life.
I was driving down the freeway one day listening to one of the talk radio psychologists. A guy calls up on the phone and says, “I am so guilty,” and he poured out what he had done to this radio psychologist. He said, “I’m so guilty! How can I get rid of my guilt?” The psychologist said, “You can’t. You’ve got to live with it.” I wanted to go. “Time out! Wait just a minute!” I nearly had an accident. I wanted to pull over to the side of the road, call up that radio station and say, “You give me that guy’s number. I’ll call him. I know a whole lot better answer to get rid of guilt than just saying, Love with it.”
Fortunately you don’t have to live with it. Fortunately nobody in this room – I don’t care what you’ve done – if you’ll stick with us during the next few minutes and apply what we talk about there’s not a single person who needs to walk out of here on a guilt trip. There’s not a single person who needs to walk out of here without a clear conscious.
There’s only one antidote and it’s this fifth prayer in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s what I call the Prayer of Cleansing. Matthew 6:12 “This is how you should pray: forgive us our debts.” There’s only one antidote to guilt and it is forgiveness. While other people may forgive you for things you did against them, all the personal sins in your life the only person who can forgive you for that is God. You need God’s forgiveness.
Some of you say, “But I’ve done this. There’s something in my life I know is wrong. I regretted it from the moment I did it. And I’ve asked God over and over and over to forgive me. Every time I think about it I still ask Him to forgive me. But I don’t feel forgiven.”
What’s the problem? What is the problem with that?
The problem is not God. The problem is you don’t understand the four ways God forgives. So today we’re going to look at the four ways God forgives. Pastor Tom is going to come talk to us about the first two.
Tom: I have some great news for you.
1. God forgives me instantly.
He forgives me instantly. The moment that I ask. There is no hesitation. There is no delay. God forgives instantly. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 55:7 “Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord our God. He is merciful and quick to forgive.” He is quick to forgive. The moment you ask, without delay, God forgives.
We have a hard time understanding this. As human beings this is the exact opposite of how we often forgive. We’re often slow to forgive. We like to hold it over people’s heads a little bit. Pastor Craig, our children’s pastor, called yesterday and said, “I’ve set up all this stuff on the stage for our children’s program next week. I’ve noticed there’s so much stuff there it might be distracting. I feel a little guilty about it. Would you forgive me?” Knowing we were doing this message on forgiveness this weekend I said, “I’ll think about it.” Isn’t that how we as human beings are? We have to think about it a little bit. We wait a little bit to forgive because the truth is we want them to suffer a little bit first before we forgive them. We want them to beg a little bit. We want them to grovel. We want them to suffer. We want to rub it in just little bit before we forgive them. We don’t want to let them off that easy.
God is always quick to forgive. The moment you and I go to Him, He forgives us that instant. He never holds it over our head. He’s perfect. That’s how God forgives us. He never makes us wait.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins to God He will keep His promise and do what is right. He will forgive our sins and make us clean from all our wrongdoing.” So how long should a believer feel guilty? I’d say about fifteen seconds! That’s about how long it takes for you to realize “I’ve sinned. I’ve done something that’s hurt not only my heart and the people around me but the heart of God.” Take it to God, confess it to God and release it to God.
There’s this huge lie out there about guilt. You may have heard this lie. You may have thought this lie. The lie is guilt makes me a better person. If I just feel a little bit guilty maybe I’ll do the right thing next time. It never works. It just gets you caught in the trap of doing the wrong thing, trying to do the right thing, doing the wrong thing again. It’s an endless cycle. It doesn’t make you a better person it just makes you a miserable person feeling trapped the rest of your life.
The truth is some of you feel guilty about not feeling guilty. Your motto is “I should always feel guilty about something.” Then you’ll feel better about yourself. No, you don’t. You feel worse about yourself. The truth is God tells us He wants to forgive us. And that we need His forgiveness to live the kind of life He wants us to live.
He not only wants us to know that we’re forgiven by Him. He wants us to feel that we are forgiven by Him because He forgives us instantly.
There’s second truth about how God forgives us. God forgives me, not only instantly…
2. He forgives me repeatedly.
A quick survey. How many of you have committed the same sin more than once? We all have these areas of perpetual failure in our lives where we keep struggling. We’re caught in this cycle of defeat. We keep stumbling. God forgives repeatedly.
The Bible tells us in Nehemiah 9:17 “You are a God of forgiveness, always ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, full of love.” Circle “always ready.” Not just the first time you struggle with sin and commit a sin but always ready to forgive. In fact, God is more eager to forgive you than you or I are to ask Him for forgiveness. That’s the kind of God that He is.
I used to think (and sometimes still think) that God gets tired of me coming back to Him again and again with the same sin, the same struggle. “Here I am again, Lord, to talk to You about the same thing I talked to You about before – ten minutes ago – confessing the same sin.” I would think God would be up there in heaven, looking down at me saying, “Couldn’t you at least get creative about your sin? It’s the same thing again and again and again.” The truth is I’m the one, I am the one tired of having to confess the same thing again and again. God never tires of me coming to Him, never tires of you coming to Him to talk about the fact that you need His forgiveness, the fact that He is a forgiving God and to ask for His forgiveness.
Jesus loves to forgive you more than you or I could ever imagine. When you ask the Bible tells us in Hebrew 7:25 “Christ is always interceding on our behalf.” He’s always doing that.
Sometimes we delay in asking for forgiveness. We know we’ve done something wrong. We know we could take it to God and ask for forgiveness. But for some reason we procrastinate. We wait. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Sometimes we think, “I don’t want to bother Him again.” It doesn’t bother God. He’s big enough to listen to all of our requests, all day. That’s the kind of God that He is. You’re not bothering God.
Sometimes we think, “What I’ll do is get my life all together, all worked out, perfect in at least this one area and then I’ll go to God and say, ‘God, I’ve got it worked out. Now I want to confess it.’” Don’t wait! It never works. First of all you’re never going to be perfect. You’re always going to have things you struggle with. And secondly, one of the ways to grow in your life is to confess it to God, realize His forgiveness and then grow based on that.
Realize that guilt in many ways is like garbage. You have to take it out repeatedly. In your house you have to take out the garbage repeatedly or the house starts stinking. That’s how life works. I’d guess that for most of you in your house you have different sized containers for your trash, your garbage. In your bathroom you probably have one of those tiny, little containers for garbage. Under your kitchen sink you probably have a medium sized container for garbage. Out in your back yard or in your garage you have one of those big huge industrial things to put everything in. That’s where you take out the trash. When the trash starts to fill up in your kitchen, what do you do? You don’t get a bigger garbage container to hold the trash in your kitchen and fill it up. That one fills up and you bring in bigger container and fill it up. You bring in the one from outside and put it in the middle of your kitchen and fill that one up. You don’t do it that way. When the trash fills up, you take out the trash.
It’s the same way with our sins. When we’ve realized that we’ve sinned what do we do? You take out the trash. You say to God, “I confess it. I realize that You’ve forgiven me.” It’s foolish to let the garbage pile up in your house and smell up everything. And it’s just as foolish, even more foolish, to let guilt pile up in your life.
Keep short accounts with God. When you realize you’ve done something wrong, immediately go to Him about it. Don’t let it pile up. You might practice what a lot of people call “spiritual breathing.” Breathing out and breathing in spiritually. When you breathe out you say, “God, I confess that I’ve done something wrong. I realize this is a sin.” Then when you breathe in, “God, I receive Your forgiveness. I realize that You are a God who loves me and You are a God whose willing to forgive me.”
Rick: The third way that God forgives when you come to confess your sin to Him is…
3. He forgives freely.
You say, “Free? That’s too good to be true! There’s got to be some catch to it. A price tag for it. It doesn’t seem fair to go scott free. I blow it and God just forgives me freely. He just lets me go scott free. Somebody needs to pay for this.”
You’re right. Somebody did. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has already paid for all your sins. Romans 3:23-24 “All of us have sinned yet God declares us not guilty of offending Him if we trust in Jesus Christ who freely [circle “freely”] takes away our sin.” What does it mean when God forgives us freely? It means four things.
First, you can’t buy your forgiveness. You can’t pay God off through church attendance or tithing or doing good things. You can’t buy your freedom. You can’t buy your forgiveness from God. It’s free.
Two, you can’t bargain with God. You can’t say, “If You’ll forgive me I’ll never do it again.” You may misunderstand the difference between confession and repentance. Confession takes care of the past. Repentance takes care of the future. When you come to God and you need forgiveness you just confess. You say, “God, You’re right. It was wrong. You’re right. I sinned. You’re right, I blew it.” That’s not promising to never do it again. Repentance is what you do when you change for the future. Confession is when you say to God, “I agree with You.”
The word “confess” in Greek is homologeo. “Homo” means “same.” “Logeo” means “word”. It means to speak the same, say the same thing as God. “You’re right, God. That was wrong.” That’s all it means. You come to God and say, I was wrong. You don’t bargain with Him – “God, if You forgive me, I’ll never do it again.”
You also don’t try to bribe God. “God if You’ll forgive me, I’ll serve in junior high ministry. I’ll give twenty percent tithes.” You don’t bribe God. You don’t bargain with God. You don’t try to buy it.
And you don’t beg. You don’t say, “Oh, please, please, please. Pretty please with sugar on it!” Like you’ve got to pray fifteen years to get forgiveness over something. Remember, as Tom pointed out, God is more willing to forgive you than you are willing to ask. You don’t beg God. You don’t bribe, bargain, you don’t buy. What do you do?
The Bible says you just believe. That’s how you get forgiveness, by believing. Ephesians 2 says this, “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith [circle “through faith” That’s the belief part. It is through faith] it is not your own doing but it’s God’s gift. There’s nothing to boast of since it’s not the result of your own effort. It’s just God’s grace.”
I heard about this little boy in Washington D. C. and went up to a park ranger and said, “I want to buy the Washington Monument.” The park ranger thought he’d have a little fun and said, “How much have you got?” The little boy pulls out a dollar and eight-seven cents. The ranger said, “Son, let me say three things. Number one, it’s not for sale. Number two, even if it was for sale you couldn’t afford it. It’s too expensive. And number three, if you are an American citizen it already belongs to you.”
Those same three facts are true of forgiveness in the life of a Christian. If you are already a Christian, number one, you couldn’t buy forgiveness from God. And even if you could, you couldn’t pay the price for it. It’s too expensive. But if you’re believer, you’re in God’s family, it’s already yours. It’s part of grace. Forgiveness is your greatest need because you’re imperfect. And it’s also God’s greatest gift. His healing gift of grace is the greatest thing God gives you.
How do you get that kind of healing grace? It’s really pretty simple. As simple as A, B, C. Admit, Believe, Commit. If you want to have every sin forgiven in your life, here it is A,B,C – Admit, Believe, Commit.
A – Admit
I admit I’ve blown it. I admit I’ve sinned. I admit God is right and I am wrong. I admit that there have been many times in my life I’ve been god. I’ve done what I wanted to do. I didn’t check in with God and ask, “What do You want me to do? What have You put me on this planet for?” I did what I wanted to do. I just agree with God. I quit trying to make excuses, blame other people, etc. etc. I just admit it.
B – Believe
I believe that God wants to forgive me. That He wants to forgive me freely and instantly and repeatedly. I believe in His grace. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins so that I wouldn’t have to pay for them. He paid for them. I believe that.
C – Commit
I commit my life to God. I commit my sins to Him. I commit myself to Jesus Christ and say, “God, You take charge. I haven’t done a real good job with my life so far so You be in charge. You be number one. You call the shots. You be the manager. You drive the car.” And I commit it to Him.
What happens if I do that? You’ll receive forgiveness.
Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, probably the most preeminent psychiatrists of the last century, said this: “The forgiveness of God is the most powerful therapeutic idea in the world. If a person can really believe that God has forgiven him he can be saved from neuroticism.”
All kinds of emotional problems in your life are caused because you don’t feel forgiven. I don’t know what secret sin you’re holding inside. Even me just talking about it makes you a little bit nervous probably. I don’t know what you’re carrying but I do know this. It’s stupid to keep carrying it. It’s foolish. It’s dumb. There is no reason for you to keep carrying guilt in your life when God has offered the forgiveness through His Son. Free, total forgiveness. God is waiting to forgive you no matter what you’ve done in your life.
Listen to Chris’ story.
Chris: Ten years ago in 1992 I found myself pregnant by a boyfriend who I loved very deeply
and was very committed to. I had hopes of marrying this man one day. And as unplanned as this pregnancy was in my life I planned to keep my baby. But when I told my boyfriend he had very different reaction to the news. He reacted by blaming me for allowing this to happen, not speaking to me though we were in the same room, and over the next couple of weeks refusing my phone calls. He finally broke his silence by handing me an envelope with enough cash in it to pay for an abortion. I was heartbroken. I was confused. And suddenly the realization that I would be a single mother hit me. There would be no marriage and no family shared with this man. I was suddenly very alone with a huge crisis on my hands. How would I take care of a child on my own? I was overcome with fear about the future and grieving the abandonment of a man that I loved when I needed him the most. In my emotional state I crumbled. The result was the abortion of my one and only child.
As I look back I see a tremendous lack of faith on my part in God’s ability to provide for me. I wrongfully thought that the future of my unborn child and me lay entirely on my shoulders. How very wrong I was. I now know that God would have provided for us in abundance had I trusted Him and not gone against His will.
Two years after my abortion I found myself struggling with depression. I felt so much guilt and shame over what I had done as well as anger and unforgiveness towards my ex boyfriend. The myth that abortion solves a problem is just that – a myth. Abortion only appears to solve a problem. The truth is the destroying of a life which God created also destroys a second life which it was doing to mine.
It was at this time in 1994 that I began a deliberate search for God. I knew I needed help resolving the issues my abortion left me with. Issues of self-condemnation, abandonment and trust issues, anger and unforgiveness of myself and others. I began attending church hoping to find healing by reconnecting with a God I had only known casually. One Sunday I noticed a church flyer for a post abortion healing workshop. I remember crying as I read it at home later that night. I found myself relating all too well with the list of symptoms that are often experienced by women who have had an abortion and reading that God offered healing and forgiveness even to sinners like me. It was as though He had handed my life jacket to save me from drowning in my sorrow, guilt and shame. I attended that weekend workshop and learned for the first time about God’s forgiveness offered to me freely by the blood of Jesus Christ. A journey was begun and over the next year I came to full forgiveness towards my ex-boyfriend for his role in my abortion decision though it would be later in the journey that I would forgive myself and accept God’s forgiveness.
For the next eight years, into the spring of this year, I lived with bouts of depression and in a state of self-condemnation over what I had done. I felt unworthy of God’s love. I tried to forgive myself and fully accept God’s forgiveness only to discover again and again that I hadn’t. I truly believed that I didn’t deserve to be happy or to be loved. How could His amazing grace be applied to me, a hypocrite, and a sinner. The answer finally came clear to be during this past year through a series of events that took place here at Saddleback church. Last summer a friend invited me to attend church here. On that particular Sunday several people gave testimonies on how they had recovered from addictions with the help of God and our Celebrate Recovery ministry. I remember one lady’s testimony in particular because she mentioned having had an abortion. Tears came to my eyes as I sat there listening to her story. It was as though God was speaking to me directly at the place where I hurt the most.
Because of that testimony I was drawn to return to Saddleback. I developed a particular interest in helping within the post abortion group which I saw advertised in the church bulletin though I was hesitant to step forward. Eventually I began asking about how to get involved and was led to Mary, Saddleback’s support group leader. During my interview with Mary last fall she asked me to share my testimony. In the privacy of her office, through tears, I shared about my abortion and told her about my desire to begin helping other women find healing from guilt and shame from their abortion. In Mary’s wisdom she must have sensed that I still had some healing to do myself because she asked me to attend the next ten-week post abortion class prior to taking a leadership role. At the time I though I was taking the class simply to familiarize myself with the materials in preparation for leading a class. But I soon came to realize that Mary had other reasons for having me take the class. God wanted to complete the work of healing He had begun in me years earlier in my first post abortion group.
A couple weeks into this ten-week class God revealed to me another person that I had not forgiven for their role in my abortion decision. I had held this unforgiveness for almost ten years. God, along with the ladies in the class, helped me to sort out and let go of this unforgiveness and to restore my relationship with this person. I was also able to grasp that God had forgiven me the very first time I had asked Him. And I found a wonderful freedom in accepting this. I discovered that when He forgives us, He forgive us immediately and permanently. He doesn’t have to think about it for ten years as I had.
I made a terrible error in judgment ten years ago and demonstrated my lack of faith in doing so. But Jesus did not die to have me live in self-condemnation for the rest of my life. He died to free me of guilt and shame and offer me the same promise of eternal life with Him that every other Christian has. By the grace of God and with the help of Saddleback’s Post Abortion Support Group I have reclaimed my zest for life and have a new purpose for living. I am free of the dark cloud of depression and eager to serve Him in helping women who haven’t yet claimed His amazing grace for themselves. I have just completed serving for the first time as a co-leader of our most recent group. Now that I’ve experienced God’s forgiveness I am trusting Him to use me to offer comfort and hope to other women who are suffering as a result of past sin. He can do the same for you regardless of what you have done if you’ll open your life to His healing grace.
Chris demonstrated the fourth way that God forgives. Instantly, repeatedly and freely and number four…
4. He forgives completely.
Colossians 2 says this “He has forgiven all your sins. He has utterly wiped out the evidence of the broken commandments which always hung over our heads. And He has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross.” I circle “all”, “utterly wiped out”, and “completely annulled.” It’s as if God were saying, “I want you to get the message here. It’s all!” It’s like one of those super stain removers you see on one of those infomercials. It just completely wipes it out. It’s all gone. Nothing is hung over your head so you don’t have to keep carrying it. It’s not partial forgiveness. God doesn’t say, “I’m going to keep My eye on you now.” No, it’s complete forgiveness. Utterly wiped out and completely annulled. That means Jesus was nailed to the cross so you could stop nailing yourself to the cross. He was hung up for your hang ups.
This is so important because even though you hear it in your head many of you still don’t understand how complete God’s forgiveness is. And if you don’t understand how complete God’s forgiveness is the next time you have a problem you’re going to think, “God’s getting even with me.” Some illness comes along or some problem or some accident or some financial issue and you’ll think, “Yes. I knew the other shoe was going to drop one of these days. God is getting even with me for what I did.” God does not get even with you. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ all of the punishment for all of your sins was taken on Christ. And if Jesus took the punishment you don’t. That’s what’s called the Good News. God doesn’t do double jeopardy. God does punish Jesus plus you. No. It was all taken, all of the punishment was taken for your sin by Jesus Christ.
Your forgiveness is free, absolutely free, but it is not cheap. Somebody had to pay for it. And Jesus Christ paid for it with His life. Colossians 1:14 says this, “God has purchased our freedom with His blood and has forgiven all our sins.” God paid the ransom to set you free. He redeemed you. He said He purchased it with His blood so all your sins could be forgiven.
When Jesus died on the cross with His arms outstretched, nailed to that cross, the last thing He said was, “It is finished.” He didn’t say, “I am finished,” because He wasn’t. He resurrected and He’s still alive today. He’s God. He wasn’t finished. What did He mean, “It is finished”?
He meant, I’ve paid for all your sins. The plan of salvation is complete. There’s nothing you need to add to it. It is finished. In fact, in the Greek in the Bible, that phrase “it is finished” is only one word. It is the Greek word teleo. It literally means in Greek, “paid in full”. It was a legal term. Back in those days when someone would pay off a bill like you paid off your mortgage or you paid off a bill to a businessman they would stamp it teleo. Paid in full. When a prisoner had served his time and his sentence was being commuted they would stamp on his prison papers when he was released, teleo. Paid on full. Free to go. You’ve paid your debt to society. You are scott free.
When Jesus Christ died on the cross with His arms outstretched and He said teleo, paid in full. That meant that He has paid already for every dumb thing you’re ever going to do. Every sin.
Notice it says, “He has forgiven all our sins.” When Jesus died for our sins which ones did He include? All of them. Some of you don’t even get this. He’s not just talking about all of your past sins, the ones you’ve already committed. He’s talking bout the ones you’re going to commit the rest of your life. “You mean the ones tomorrow that I don’t even know I’m going to do yet?” Yes. “The ones next year that I haven’t even thought of yet?” Yes. “The ones in ten years, and twenty years if I live that long?” Yes. When Jesus Christ died for your sins He didn’t just die for everything you’ve done up until this point that you feel guilty about. He also died for everything you’ve done that you don’t feel guilty about but you should. And He also died for everything you’re going to commit. Everything. All. That means if you are a Christian, you’ve put your faith in Jesus Christ, and you’re carrying around a load of guilt right now you are carrying a load of guilt over sins that have already been paid for.
What are you doing that for? How long do you remember a bill that’s been paid for? Once I pay my electricity bill do you think I worry about it the next day? I never, ever think about it again. It’s been paid for. I never think about it again. Paid in full.
What are you worried about? Why are you holding on to something that God has already paid for and when you confess it to Him He’s forgiven and you don’t have to keep confessing to Him over and over. In fact, if you keep confessing it that’s a lack of faith that says, “God, I don’t really think You forgave me the first time.” God says, “I did. Why did you bring it back up again? It’s already forgiven.”
Today we’re going to remind ourselves of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross by taking communion – the symbols that He gave us to remember why we can be forgiven. Romans 3:25 “For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. [God is not mad at you anymore. I don’t care what you’ve done. He’s not mad at you because Jesus has taken that punishment.] We are made right with God when we believe [circle “when we believe”] that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His life for us.”
Have you ever fully realized what it cost God to forgive you? It cost His own Son. “For God sent Jesus to take away the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His life for us.”
Jesus never wanted us to forget the sacrifice that He made of His life for you. So He gave us this symbol called communion. He said this on the night before He was crucified. “This is My blood which seals the covenant between God and His people. It is poured out to forgive the sins of many.”
Communion is only for believers, for those who have accepted God’s gift of forgiveness. If you haven’t ever done that communion means nothing to you, it has no value to you. If you’re not believer communion means nothing to you. But, if you’re not a believer, that’s why God brought you hear this morning. Before you were even born God knew that you would be here at Saddleback church, this day in 2002, so you could have every sin in your life completely forgiven. That’s why you’re here. This is your day. It’s y our day to receive forgiveness for everything you’ve ever done wrong or going to do wrong.
Wouldn’t you like to let go of that load of guilt? It’s as easy as A,B,C.
Prayer:
Father, I know there are many people here today who are tortured by guilt and shameful memories. They’ve tried all kinds of things to get rid of it but nothing’s worked. Help them to realize how much You love them no matter what they’ve done. Right now, give them the courage to pray the prayer of cleansing so that they can be free.
You pray in your mind, in your heart, say this, “Dear God, You know all the things I’m ashamed of. You even know the things I’ve done I don’t even know about that were wrong. Thank You for bringing me here today to receive Your forgiveness. I want to take the A,B,C steps. First, I admit that what I’ve done is wrong. I admit that I have often been my own god. I’ve gone my own way. I did things I wanted to do instead of what You wanted me to do. I ask You to forgive me for all those things. Second, I believe. I believe that You want to forgive me. I believe in Your grace. I want to believe that Jesus Christ died to pay for all that I have done wrong. Thank You, Jesus Christ, for sacrificing Your life for me. Now, today, as best as I understand it I commit my life to You, Jesus. I open up my life and say, I want to get to know You. I want to follow You. I want to live for the purpose You made me for. In Your name I pray. Amen.
We’re going to remember Jesus’ sacrifice by taking communion together. If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time and meant it, congratulations. I’d like to send you packet of material that will help you understand your decision.
Jesus, on the night that He was betrayed, took bread and He broke it and He blessed it and He said, “This is My body which is given for you. I want you to remember.” As you take this bread and you eat it I want you to say, whisper, “Thank You, Jesus, for sacrificing Your life for me.”
Did you know that the Bible says God forgets? The Bible says that God, the creator of the universe can actually forget. He chooses to forget your sins once they’re cleansed and confessed. The Bible says this in Jeremiah 31:34 “I, the Lord, will forgive and forget their sins.” Not just forgive. God chooses to forget them. That means when you get to heaven and you say, “About that sin...” He’s going to say, “What sin?” God’s going to say, “I distinctly remember forgetting that. I have not only forgiven I have forgotten it. I have wiped the slate clean.” If God has forgotten it don’t you think you ought to? Don’t you think you ought to forget the sins that God has forgiven and forgotten? Forget the paid bill. Paid in full.
Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup represents the blood that I’m going to shed for you so that you can be forgiven, so that you can go to heaven.” As you drink this, I want you to say, “Jesus, by faith I receive Your forgiveness.”
The Bible tells us in Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation for those in Christ. What does that mean? It means by the authority of this book – the Bible – I can proclaim to you right now, you are forgiven. You are totally forgiven by the authority of God’s word and the blood of Jesus Christ. You are forgiven. That is amazing love!
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