Welcome Home: Forgiveness

and again all god's people said hey man it's good to be with you this morning uh if you have your bibles you can pull them out to psalm chapter 51. uh taking a bit of a hiatus from the gospel matthew we'll dive back into that in a couple weeks uh but if you would just this morning turn your bibles to psalm 51. if you don't have a bible just pull out your phone and google it you can join along with us as we continue the fall kickoff series that we started a few weeks ago which is entitled welcome home uh if you're new or maybe you haven't been with us for a while what we're doing this fall as we kind of move into our ministry year is just taking a step back to re-center us you know in the midst of this crazy year and a half that we have had we want just to take some time to take a step back and remind ourselves of what we are all about here at river city christian no matter what's going on in the world what we're about therefore what we need to be committed to and because of that what we need to be doing yes at times we need to talk as christians about what we need to be doing day in and day out as followers of jesus christ because you know church being a follower of jesus it's not just about showing up on a sunday it's not just about attending a service it's not just about watching online our relationship with god is so much more than that so let me just start in the same place i've started every week in this series and that is with our purpose statement if you're new with us this is the purpose statement that's actually in our constitution the purpose of river city christian why we exist is to be a mission station i'm not going to redefine that every week just other than to say that a mission station member doesn't talk a lot about their personal rights and preferences no as mission station members we talk a lot about what we are willing to sacrifice and time talent money sometimes even preference so that others can come to christ another way to say that is we're willing to sacrifice maybe some things that we desire for those who aren't amongst us yet how do we do this well we share the gospel of jesus christ with every person everywhere that's the evangelism component and then once people come to christ for the rest of us we do what we can to help people grow in their faith and be equipped that means give people tools to live as god has called and lived so grow and equip believers into fully devoted followers of christ now what i want to talk about today is really important to the growth and the equipping component of our mission as being followers of jesus is a really important conversation so that we can continue to grow and be equipped because nothing impacts god's call in our lives as christians more negatively than unconfessed sin so in light of that today we're going to talk about god's call on our lives to holiness because when we live in holiness that is when god is glorified as well as that is when we're empowered as paul says to experience unimaginable things he's doing great things in and through us let me just start by reading some scripture so that you can understand that this call on our lives to be holy is not a man-made calling this calling to holiness didn't come from a church council in the 1500s this is not legalism it's not a guilt trip it's not to make you feel bad in fact if my purpose was to guilt you into living as god's called you to live i know that doesn't last that doesn't work that that's not true motivation that's not the not the goal but what we're going to be looking at is god's calling our life for holiness it comes from he from him and it's actually why jesus died as he died and left now the spirit can empower us to live as he's called us to live holy so we'll start in the old testament leviticus 19 2. i picked one there's actually three different verses in leviticus and other in exodus that say the same thing speak to the entire assembly of israel and say to them be holy because i the lord your god am holy now it'd be very easy to say well that's just an old testament thing but it's in the new testament as well first peter 1 14 you can throw that up it says obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance translation don't live like you used to live before you were before you gave your life to christ don't live like that but just as he who has called you is holy so be holy in all you do now i think most powerfully is in first thessalonians 4 3 it says this it is god's will that you should be sanctified now again i've said this many times the number one reason why people come and see me as a pastor is they want to know what god's will is for their life they don't always say it that way but you know like who should i marry many of you have come and said should i move to texas um what college should i go to i get those questions a lot you know what's god's will for my life that's really what what they're asking and and we i really do think there's a road map that god gives us to help us discern some of those things but there are some very clear things in scripture black and white in fact this there's only one other place in scripture that it literally says this is god's will for you and first thessalonians 5 13 when he talks about unceasing prayer and thanksgiving it's god's will for you to be thankful i don't even need to know you that's god's will for you i will tell you this if you're a follower of christ it is god's will for you to be sanctified and what i have found is when we live out the clear revealed will of god the black and white stuff of scripture a lot of times these gray areas work themselves out it's god's will that you be sanctified that you should avoid sexual immorality that you should learn uh that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable not in passionate lust like the heathen who do not know god and in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage him for god did not call us to be impure but he called us to live a holy life it's god's call on us as followers of jesus to be holy we have a saying on our church that drives who we are and helps us respond to sin we say we have a high standard of holiness with a huge hand of grace high standard of holiness with a huge hand of grace high standard of holiness god's word god's calling our lives to be perfect we don't lower the standard as so many people want to do in our culture because they think it's the loving thing to do number one because it's not a loving thing to lower the standard it's actually harmful sin hurts and then secondly it messes with the need for jesus to die on the cross my friends if holiness if perfection is not needed for heaven if that's not the call jesus did not need to die for our sins then he could just say i don't worry about it your friends your sins are forgiven and so we have a high standard of holiness perfection is the call that scripture lays out but we live in reality and none of us can come close to it if you think you're close you're wrong we're all sinners we struggle with it every one of us every day and so we as a church have a huge hand of grace meeting people right where they're at holiness and grace i like the way that maxwell cato says it he says god loves you just the way you are with all your imperfection mistakes and sin but he refuses to leave you that way because he loves you so why should we deal with it why should we strive for holiness in this day and age of you do you and i'll do me in this day and age of christians any time we try to sit down with another brother and sister in christ and say man i don't think this is quite right in your life and then they throw out the way overused and greatly misunderstood statement ah you're just judging me so that they continue to live in sin and by the way even if they are judging you does that somehow excuse your sinful behavior it's still sinful behavior so why do we need to address it well number one jesus came to die for your sin and you need to know if you've given your life to jesus christ this is the beauty of it you are right now pure he has forgiven you if you've given your life to jesus of your past present and future sins god no longer sees you and your sin he sees the perfection of jesus christ that is what is called justification justification means just as if you've never sinned but again we live in a fallen world and so now he wants to do what is called sanctify you sanctification is the process in which you are empowered by the holy spirit in this life to sin less and less and less every day and for the reason for this is because it glorifies god and it is what's best for you for you will never live happier cleaner fuller than when you're living with less sin and the second reason why we need to address this is nothing will destroy the mission of a church faster than unconfessed sin unconfessed sin doesn't just sideline the believer unconfessed sin it's important to understand never happens in isolation everyone who has their own little sinful life they think they're doing it in isolation you never sin in isolation it always impacts other relationships and the longer you keep hold of it the longer it grows it festers it hurts relationships it breaks down relationships and then for us as a church we it creates disunity amongst the body and destroys our mission so what do we need to do when we knock ourselves down you know i i played football in high school it's all i really cared about as i mentioned last week and i learned something pretty pretty quick when i was playing football there's three ways that you can get knocked down on the field the first way you can get knocked down on the field is when someone knocks you down i'm pretty smart aren't i but you know there's two two groups of people that can knock you down on the field one is the opposing team and that's what you work so hard to avoid but it still happens right but there's another group of people in that field that can knock you down as well who you're teammates do you know the the most damaging hits that take place in football are teammate to teammate it's when a defender is trying to hit an offensive player and misses and then crushes his teammate and the reason why it's so crushing is because he doesn't expect it same is true in life we get knocked down by foe and teammates as believers the bible teaches us we do not fight a battle against flesh and blood but against evil powers of this world and so we plan work hard pray spend time in scripture get accountability to fight against the enemy schemes and yet still at times we get knocked down but still i think many of us would agree some of the most damaging blows that we experience are from someone we love and trust another way i i realize we can get knocked down on that football field as much more due to the emotional side of the game your heart gets torn out because circumstances just go awry no one's fault you've done everything right the ball just bounces the wrong way my senior year in high school near the end of the season we had a game that if we won we go to the playoffs if we lose we're out and of course it's a standard story it's classic there's 30 seconds left in the game we get the ball back we're down by one we start we start our march down the field i had a 30-yard play by the way thank you very much and we get it down to the 20-yard line and there's about 10 seconds left it's only second down but we decided to kick it because we literally had the best kicker in the state he was all state his senior year and so we snap it he kicks it i look up i was left in it goes through the uprights and we go crazy we won the game well the refs call almost down and there's a flag on the field wait wait it's on the defense now if you're watching the nfl no big deal you just decline it and we win the game but back then in high school football the defense was offsides it was considered a dead ball penalty which means the play never happened so we actually had to accept it and do it again we then snapped the ball and they blocked it and we lost the game they made a mistake they got a second chance we lost the game sometimes in life things just go wrong it's not your own fault you're following god obeying scripture being responsible and you lose your home your spouse leaves you get cancer life just hits you in the gut knocks you down but the third way and what we're going to be focusing on this morning is when you knock yourself down when you make decisions that bring you down to the mat again this was early on my senior year we were playing in bella vista i remember this play very specifically i'll never forget the rest of my life i was running a simple wheel route ball comes over the shoulder i catch i'm expected to get hit by the safety and i turn and no one's there it's 60 yards between me and the ends and i sit i was somewhat fast in high school four 740 and so i'm running down the right side of the field and i'm going down and i got what called the stumbles if you've ever seen it it happened i couldn't get my feet underneath me and i started stumbling and fumbling and i fell on my face on the 10 yard line it was the most embarrassing moment of my high school experience so embarrassing the next morning we did film on saturday mornings they replayed it about 10 times and that's what we're going to be talking about this morning spiritually not so much how do you avoid sin there's a bit a little bit of that but more so what i want to deal with today for every single one of us because we all sin how do we get back up when we've knocked ourselves down maybe because of a horrible moment of weakness or more maybe over time we've developed a pattern of sin i'm going to address today what i call avoiding the however what do i mean by that if you ever read through the old testament specifically first and second samuel first and second kings and first and second chronicles there's a theme that repeats itself over and over and over again especially with the kings of judah it will say something like this king assa or king josiah or king jehoshaphat live for the lord and then it goes on to talk about the wonderful things they did oftentimes unbelievably godly courageous things but then it almost always after that says however and then it talks about their life after this godly event and because of unresolved undealt with unconfessed sin their lives actually end tragically apart from god and disaster so i want to talk about how we can avoid that however yeah we sin but i believe god has given us a road map to get back up and still live significantly and because of that we're going to use king david and his infamous horrible moment of failure as our our blueprint i'll tell you why most of us here are familiar with david's horrible failure if you're not let me just simplify it real quick king david which the bible says is a man after god's own heart he committed adultery he then lied about it and in the cover-up he committed murder adultery lies murder humanly speaking you know when we compare our sins to one another you know my sins not as bad as that guy since which by the way you're not supposed to do sin is sin but humanly speaking this is just as bad as bad as it gets but i want to begin with the end in mind although we have a horrible sin it's interesting about david's story is we don't have a however his story doesn't tragically in apart from god in disaster it actually ends quite significantly although there were severe consequences obviously there were moments he was not living for the lord this sin was not a terminal sentence as i said almost all the other stories i just talked about the however stories they make horrible mistakes their lives end in failure even though the mistakes they make really pale in comparison to what david did so what's the difference why does david not have the however how is he able after those horrible sins to come back and live significantly in fact in acts 13 it says this of david david after he served the purpose of god he fell asleep meaning he finished strong he accomplished god's goals for his life in fact i found it very interesting at the end of second samuel i want to throw it up on the screen this is what david writes at the end of his life david writes this for i've kept the ways of the lord i have not done evil by turning from my god i have not turned away from his decrees i have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin wait what you know what this is this is a man that understands redemption he understands true forgiveness the point is we know how horribly he failed and yet we look at his life he finished strong he accomplishes gold there's redemption there's forgiveness there's restoration even though he horribly sinned he was able to avoid the however and so at some point in time he learned how to get back up and so too must we so let's revisit the story real quickly i'm not going to read through it because it's incredibly long we'd spend the rest of our time doing it i'm going to retell the story quickly but if you'd like to revisit after our time it's in second samuel 11 and 12 11 and 12. verse chapter 11 starts with verse 1 and simply says while kings went off to war david stayed at home now this isn't a sermon so much about how to avoid sin yet real quickly he's setting himself up for failure he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing and for us in our walk with the lord if you want to avoid sin in the first place here's a great truth to understand almost all sin that takes us out of significant living happens when we're not doing what we're called to do it's often in apathy when we're not committed to worship where we're not in the word we're not in service when we're not helping other people we're not sharing our faith when we're not making disciples it's often an apathy that we make some of our worst decisions and then in the story says david went up to the rooftop and he saw bathsheba bathing now when i get to heaven i'm going to talk to dave and say come on dude what was really going on there there's no way you just accidentally went to the roof and there's no way that bathsheba was just in a bathtub naked on the rooftop next door so something's going on but then what does he do he invites her over wait for a chat play some bunco of course not right he he has a plan and scripture tells us that he sleeps with bathsheba another man's wife it's uriah's wife and she becomes pregnant it's a horrible mistake that in of itself would have been difficult to deal with but if he had dealt with it right then and there a lot of heartache would have been saved in his life and others and so you can throw up the first point i don't want you to catch the number one yet i just want you to see the first point where it says when we sin come to god immediately the best time to deal with your sin is now it doesn't matter if it's right afterwards or if it's years into it now is always the best time because when we hold on to it it just grows and gets worse and that's what we see in david's life see after he does this there's a cover-up what happens if you don't know the story is he actually brings uriah back from war home and if you look at the story there's other places in scripture riot uriah is actually mentioned in david's 30 mighty men so he's one of his best fighting men so he brings uriah home and his goal is that uriah would sleep with his you know with bathsheba his wife and then everyone would just assume uriah got her pregnant and he's out of it but ironically uriah this man of honor because of his faithfulness to god and to david refuses to sleep with his wife because he feels like his calling is to be where he's supposed to be on the field and so he just sleeps on the doorstep well david's got a problem what do i do now so david writes up a note and gives it to uriah to bring to the general so literally uriah takes to the general his death sentence and what the note said to the generals create a fight fight hard and when it's at its fiercest pull everyone back but uriah and that's what happens and uriah dies which is interesting because most of us don't really read the rest of the part and it actually talks about some other soldiers that died as well in the cover-up because he not he didn't deal with it immediately it grew became worse became murder and the consequences became worse scripture tells us that when bathsheba eventually gives birth the son dies another consequence that david experiences is that his own kids go haywire have you ever done a study on david's kids it's a mess and it's because he didn't deal with the sin he has one son that rapes one of his daughters what did david do about that nothing then another son absalon half brother kills the other brother for doing so what did david do about that nothing then absalon actually creates this cue if you remember the story gets an army and drives david out of jerusalem you know what absalom does because he hates his father so much absalom actually puts a tent in the middle of jerusalem and takes all of david's wives and concubines puts them in the tent and then absalom goes in and sleeps with them all for all of jerusalem to see the bible's not rated pg these are consequences because david did not deal with it immediately he tried to cover up and it grew and became out of control and so again when dealing with our sin the best time is always now well once we decide to do deal with it what do we do number one it's on the screen right there confess our sin to simplify the story the prophet nathan comes to david says hey we've got a problem in the land we've got a a a guy who has a thousand sheep and yet he saw his neighbor and he's a poor man he only has one but he liked that sheep the best so he went over took it killed it and ate it what should we do and david's like incense i can't believe he would do that that man needs to be judged and what does nathan say you are that man you had it all and you took from someone that didn't have much the cool part about this story is in this moment david doesn't say you're tricking me doesn't say you're judging me doesn't say you think you're better than me you think you're holier than now he doesn't make excuses it just simply says this second samuel 12 13 david says i have sinned against the lord he owns it calls it what it is you know we're pretty lucky because in our day and age we keep all of ourselves private nobody's going to probably go on facebook or instagram or whatever you're on these days and you're going to post your confession but david made his confession very public psalm 51. this is his confession after this sin so if you're there psalm 51 verse 1 he says have mercy on me o god according to your unfailing love according to your great compassion plot out my transgression wash away my iniquity cleanse me from my sin for i know my transgressions my sin is always before me against you i have sinned and done what is evil in your sight the first thing he does is confess what does it mean to confess it's important to understand that confession is vital to the process but it's just the beginning confession just simply means you agree with god it's saying yeah these are your your commands these are your calls all my life this is how i'm supposed to live this is what i've broken i agree with you uh i use for years the the the analogy of the garbage bag we're all born sinners so we're all born with this garbage bag and we go through life throwing garbage in our bag confession is just going before the god and pulling out our garbage and laying it out before him and saying yep that's me i thought that thought i did that thing i messed up there it's agreeing with him it's the beginning the second thing we do you can throw that up on the screen is ask for forgiveness first john 1 9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and he will forgive us our sins and he will purify us you know a good question sometimes that people ask is why do we as believers need to ask for forgiveness once in christ because once you're in christ right you have been made righteous he's taken care of your past present and future sins you are forgiven eternally you are made white as snow he no longer sees you and your sin but the blood of jesus so why as christians do we ask for forgiveness once saved it's really just simply showing remorse i'm sorry recognizing the hurt you've caused your relationship with the lord and others what you're really doing is inviting them into your life for restoration you're not just sorry because you got caught you're not just sorry so that he would fix a particular situation or a consequence that you're facing you're truly sorry because of how it's hurt your relationship with him thirdly we repent a lot of times we think confession and repentance are the same thing they're they're not going back to the garbage analogy confession without repentance is like this it's like going before the lord and emptying out your garbage and saying this is me this is what i've done i agree it's bad i'm sorry and then picking it all up and putting it back in the bag and then carrying uh carrying it out with you not leaving it behind we're still engaged in that sense seems ridiculous in the analogy but that's confession without repentance and people do it all the time for us to get back up to avoid the however to get right with god we are to confess say i'm sorry and then repentance is the hard work with the help of the holy spirit to leave that sin behind in psalm 51 verse 13 david says i will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will turn back to you and what he's saying there is it's not just i'm saying i'm sorry but with your help i'm leaving that sin behind number four we're also to accept the pardon if you're with me psalm 51 8 says this david writing let me hear joy and gladness so he's dealing with the sin let the bones we have crushed rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity creating me a pure heart oh god and renew a steadfast spirit within me do not cast me from your presence or take your holy spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me after we've confessed ask for forgiveness are in the process of with his help turning from sin which is all-powerful a vital part though is accepting the forgiveness because many people after they've moved through this process still live in guilt live defeated and i'll just tell you this it's almost impossible to live as paul tells us to live in romans more than conquerors when we live in the guilt of our sin you know it's interesting because when we're in sin i do think god has given us the gift of guilt we have a conscious the scriptures teach us and our conscience it speaks to us when we're out of line with the word of god and so there's a guilt there that moves us back in in proper relationship with god but if you have confessed sin if you have repented if you are with his help turning from sin and you still feel that overwhelming guilt what i would argue is that's actually the enemy he's trying to keep you in guilt keep you in shame because when the believer lives in guilt and shame when they have been through the process of forgiveness they can't live as god's called them to live and so i ask are you still living the weight of something you've done years ago that you've moved through the process of getting right and be restored with the lord are you living defeated brennan manning one of my favorite authors he says it this way when we wallow in guilt remorse and shame over real or imagined sins we're distinguishing god's gift of grace when we say my sin is too big for you to deal with we disdain his mercy but there's something bigger in the world than your sin that something bigger is god's grace mercy and patience the moments you the moment the focus of your life shifts from my badness to his goodness from what i've done to what he can do release from guilt can happen miracle of miracles you can forgive yourself because you have been forgiven at this point i i was writing this message and i just felt the lord say you need to say this there's someone here that needs to hear this whatever you've done whatever that is listen there is nothing you can do to get god to love you less i don't know who you are you need to hear this and i need you to believe it because it sets you free he died to set you free from the bondage of sin and so whoever you are let me speak truth into your life your sin is not bigger than god's mercy your sin is not bigger than god's grace the cross his death is bigger than anything that you've ever done except his pardon because if we don't we cannot swore for god we can't live on mission as we're called to live we must allow ourselves to see ourselves as god sees us if you give your life to jesus you are a child of god you are pure because of the blood of jesus i heard a story years ago i don't know if it's true or not but it makes the point well there was a man he wanted to travel through europe uh mainland europe he was from london very wealthy man but he wanted to do it in style so he actually had his rolls-royce shipped over to mainland and he was traveling around europe he got to france and the rolls-royce broke down so he calls the guys at rolls-royce and said hey i'm broke down i'm over here i need some help in about two hours he had someone there they fixed it and he went on his way about six months later he realized he never was built for it and so he called rolls-royce and said hey this happened i don't remember i need to be built for it and this was their response we have no recollection or record of any rolls royce ever breaking down in france the theological point is this when christ has dealt with it it's thrown in the depths of the oceans and he remembers our sin no more that's what scripture says in psalm 51 if you're there in verse 7 david says this cleanse me with hyssop and i'll be clean wash me and i'll be wider than snow god no longer sees your sin you are justified lastly it's not in your notes but the last point i want to make is make a new commitment and it's interesting because i think the commitment that you should not make is i will never do that sin again why because how many times do we do it again and the problem with that is when we keep doing that then that commitment becomes a little weak what i say what i mean by new commitment is make a positive commitment to be a part of what god's about commit to the kingdom commit to eternal living commit to biblical group life commit to the word of god commit to prayer commit to service commit to share in your faith commit to living as god has called you to live what got david into trouble when kings go off to war david stayed at home focus on what you're called to do make a commitment on what you're called to do and what you will find is when you're living as god has called you to live you will just naturally sin less you know i golf a lot and almost every amateur golfer i golf with that you get a fairway in front of you and there's water on the right they get on that tee box and they say to themselves what don't go don't go right don't go right don't go right you know what they end up doing they go right you talk to the best golfers the best ones i'm not one of them but you talk to the best golfers they don't think about what they're not supposed to do they just clearly say i'm supposed to hit this to the left side of the fairway it gives me a clear shot to the pin and because they're thinking about what they're supposed to do they have a better chance of accomplishing it very same similar here think about what you are called to do do it and you'll find yourself not going down roads you're not supposed to go down we're going to move in time at communion now and it's very intentional jesus instituted communion very intentionally one he said i want you to do this and remember to meet he knows how we are we get we start to major on the minors he never wanted us to get too far away from the central theme of the gospel message of jesus and that is forgiveness is found in the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ but the second reason why i think he wants us to do this on a regular basis it's part of the process of communion is getting right with god he wants us to regularly get right with god and i just want you to practice this process in this time maybe you just need to prayerfully ask god what do you want me to deal with i wouldn't deal with all 15 of your issues just take one take one whatever it is that god's tapping you on the shoulder or whispering to your ear that relationship that you've broken or that thing you've done or the thing you thought or that thing you're just i'm just giving god the spiritual stiff arm confess ask for forgiveness ask him to empower you help you to leave it behind accept his forgiveness but make a new commitment maybe if it's even a small one you know i'm gonna commit to being in worship every sunday i can or i'm gonna commit to pray three days a week or read scripture or i'm gonna commit to start serving i don't know what it is for you allow god to speak that to you but that's an important part of the process because when we start doing what we're called to do we find ourselves not living as he doesn't want us to so as we move into a time of communion just confess sin ask for forgiveness get right make a new commitment let me pray god you're good and i'm thankful for who you are as we move into a time of communion god i just want to read out loud for all of us to hear first corinthians paul wrote for i received from the lord when i passed on to you the lord jesus on the night he was betrayed he took bread and when he gave thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is a new covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it and remember it's from me for whenever the body of christ eats his bread and drinks his cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes lord every one of us has something thank you for forgiveness thanks for the cross thanks for getting right but lord i just pray that every one of us you just whisper into our ear that thing that you want to take from us and lord that we just walk through the process and for all of us lord help us walk out of here living pure white as you see us live in victory even though we still struggle with sin the praise in jesus name and god's people said

Channel: River City Christian

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Id: 9jl95oBZ824

Length: 35min 14sec (2114 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021