Your Sins Are Forgiven / Pastor Randy Goldenberg / FCF Church

[Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] well good morning welcome to FCS good morning [Music] we worship The God Who was we worship The God Who is we worship the God ever more will be he open the prison doors part in aging SE Our God keep holds the victory come on sing with us this Joy there's joy in the house of the Lord there's joy in the house of the Lord today we won't be quiet s it out shout out your PR let's joy in the house to the Lord our God is sh in this place we won be Qui s it out shout out your PR come on we sing We Sing To The God Who here we sing to the God who saves we sing to the God who always makes away as he hung up on that cross and he rose up from that grave Our God still Rolling Stones away let's joy in the house of the Lord there's joy in the house of the Lord today and we won be quiet shout of your praise let's Jo in the house of the Lord our God is short in his place we won't be quiet shout your you're work father come on S this with us cuz we were the B but now we're royalty we were the pristas and now we're running free we are forgive accept it and redeem by his gra let the house of the Lord come on with children of God we were the B now we royalty we were the pr and now we're running we are forgiv accepted by his grace let the house of the Lord sing come sing it out everybody there's Jo in the house of the Lord in the of the that's right we won be we shout it out we shout out your praise heart God is surely in this place and we worship you father we shout out your pra let's joy in the house of the Lord let's joy in the house the Lord today and we won't be crying shout out your pra and Jo in house to the Lord our God is short give you we won't be quiet we shout out your [Music] prise we shout we shout out your PR [Music] sh let's give him praise well good morning SCS good morning we want to welcome you to church this morning we're so glad to be worshiping with you want to welcome all of you joining us online do you believe that he's worthy Church come on Amen so worthy so worthy of all of our praise come on let's sing this together [Music] you're worthy of ever [Music] song worthy of all the praise we could ever you're worthy of every bre we live for you [Music] Jesus the name Jesus the only one you could ever sa you're worthy everything everything we live you oh we live you come on you're holy there is No One Like You There is Noone beside you open up my eyes in Wonder show me who you are and feel me with your heart in your love to those around [Music] [Applause] [Music] worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever [Applause] BR worthy of every breath we could ever Brea we went through all with you Jesus the name above every other [Music] name Jesus the only one who could ever save worthy of every breath can ever for you fall for you you're holy holy there is no like you there is one beside you open up my eyes in W show me who you are F me with your heart in love to love ho ho there is no one you something beside you open up my eyes in what do and show me who you are buing with your heart heing in heart you you love [Music] my upon your it is the found and I will put my trust in you are and I will build my life oh you it is a found and I will put my TR in you and I will whoever bu my heart my is I in you and dark oh you're holy holy you're holy let's go ride here there is some deside you open up my eyes show and show me who you are feel me with your heart and Le me in my life your it is the might in you yes let's give him [Music] praise sing and I will build my life upon your it is a my trust God will put my Str in you alone and I will not lift your voice let's sing it again oh I will build my upon your it is a found put my trust God I put my trust in you alone and I will not be sh you're worthy Jesus you alone are worthy give you all that we are father join with all of Heaven in giving you praise lift our hearts lift our voices to you [Music] Jesus thousand falling down worship to sing the song of Ages to the L all who gone before us and all who will remain we sing the song of Ages to the land your name your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name God is stand all and Dominion all power and you alone you stand above it all and the angels cry holyy all creation Christ holy you are lifted High holy holy forever come on for and if you've been forgiven and if you've been redeemed sing this all through able to and if you walking free and if you B me sing the song Forever sing the song sing this song forever and the angels cry holy all creation chist oh you are lifted high oh you hold here your people sing God New Joy your people sing Holy to the King of Kings holy you will always be holy holy forever come on sing his name is the highest your name your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name God it stands above them all and S it out come on all all and you alone your name God is stand above them all it's your name is the highest it's your name it's the greatest your name stands above the all and dominions all and Dominion all power and positions your name God is stand the the wall and the Angels Cry holy all creation ohy you are lifted high ohy God your holy forever we lift our voice he your people sing your people w to the King of Kings you're holy you will all be holy forever see your name is the highest your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name stands above them all all and Dominion all poers and position your name God stands above them all one time again your name your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name God stands above them all all thoughts and position all power and positions your name stands above and the Angels Cry sing [Music] it beautiful all creation holy you are lifted High holy holy forever here your people sing hear your people sing ho to the King of Kings ho you will always be holy holy forever we're going to sing this song One More Time Church how many have actually heard this song before we've never sung it here at FCF but how many heard it how many believe that he is the name that's above every other name there's no one Higher there's no one greater and he has total Dominion in your life control we're going to sing this one more time if that's your heart you got in full surrender you are worthy of it all I'm going to encourage you I know for some people you know guys raise your hands somebody have a question like what's going on like why they all have questions they're all their hands are for me when I come into a time of worship I say God all that I am every part of me in complete surrender and for me you walk into a bank and you see everybody's hands up you know who's in charge you know what I'm saying like you know what's and for me it's God you have all of me in complete surrender I I raise my hand I say God I Surrender myself to you so no pray but if you say God you have my my heart you have all that I am we're going to sing this one more time your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name it stands above every other name church amen let's lift our voices in our hands to single one time your name is the highest God your name is the highest we surrend is the greatest your name God it stands above all all and all power and position your name God and we worship you father he the Angels cry holy all creation God holy you are lifted high you're holy holy forever and we join in giving him praise hear your people he your people sing Holy to the king of King holy you will always be holy holy forever what time see your name is the [Music] highest your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name God stands above the all and Dom all power and positions your name one of the Angels and the angels cry holy all creation Christ holy you are lifted High holy holy forever come on hear your people sing lift up voices father hear your people sing [Music] holy to the King of Kings you're holy you will always be oh holy forever let's give him praise Jo worthy father [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you're worthy Jesus you're the name above all names come on he's worthy sing it [Applause] [Music] out our hearts will sing in my heart will sing How Great Is Our God when it's beautiful Church LIF your voices to him and sing it he's the name of above the name you're the name of God all and you're worthy and you're worthy of all praise and my heart will sing How Great Is Our God one more time saying you have no rival you have no right you have KN now and forever now you yours is the kingom yours is the glory yours is the name above all sing it again you have no rival come on you have no rival you have no way now and forever Gods is the kingdom yours is the kingom yours is the glory yours is the name above all you're worthy father God God have we see that picture in Revelation father of the Angels coming and worshiping holy holy holy God and we choose not to wait for that day but right now right now in this moment to lift you up to give you praise to give you honor and glory god you have our hearts in complete surrender we put our trust in you we lift you up father as we said earlier we surrender ourselves to you God we surrender our will to your will and we look for your will in your word that you would speak to us that you would anoint Pastor Randy that your word would cut directly to our hearts and we would leave changed so God right now I quiet ourselves push every distraction aside and we Look to You Lord speak to us through your word you are the name that's above every other name we lift you you up in this room father you are worthy of it all in Jesus name and in one loud FCF voice we all said is he worthy church is he worthy you give a high thought to the person next to you and say hey I'm glad you came to church today you look like you needed tell them you look like you need a church today and you can have a seat speak great morning [Music] well good morning morning good morning welcome again to FCF church we are absolutely thrilled you are choosing to spend your Sunday morning here with us especially if it is your first time can we show some FCF love to our first time guest if it is your first time joining us this morning we would love to know that you're here today if you wouldn't mind taking a moment to fill out our connect card either at your seat online or in the FCF app it's the best way for us to learn a little bit more about you next week immediately following second service is our next discover FCF class now absolutely whether you're new to the church or whether you're interested in becoming a member uh the Discover FCF class is going to tell you a little bit more about who we are why we do what we do and how we do it it's going to be an absolutely amazing class we would love to see every every one of you there um if you are interested in joining we would appreciate if you would go online to SCF church.com events and register just to let us know uh to be expecting you Pastor Kim is isn't it great to see God's house full is awesome wow almost like Easter Sunday it's it's fantastic the weather did not stop them that cloudy cloudiness we had an incredible event take place this weekend Pastor Kim and her team they had the women's Ministries conference Retreat amazing wasn't it ladies so so some of some of you a few of you were there two three four it was a fantastic time can we let the women's Ministries team Pastor Kim Miss Tracy all know how much we love and appreciate them I we appreciate all the men who came out on the tech team to support us and I noticed Pastor Pete's voice is a little higher this morning being among all the estrogens he's talking a little bit higher you could cut it with a knife it was awkward we appreciate you guys so much we had we had three incredible speakers Pastor Kim taught on patience and be honest I've had some practice are you referring to me the whole every time she'd used an illustration I'm like that was about me I'm pretty sure she was talking about me Pastor Randy which one one no I'm joking okay great things are happening one more time let let the women women's Ministries team know how much we love and appreciate them thank you so much for serving that team is awesome something else cool is coming up very cool very cool thing this Friday night we [Music] have servicio in espanol that's that's so that's that's all you got they gave me like this phrase to say Sirio I'm so sorry Spanish service we got to have yes it's incredible and right now they're taking the English words that I am saying and translating them into Spanish for those we have interpretation please utilize that we want to make sure the gospel is available to as many people as possible so thank you for doing that this Friday if you want to be a part of that please go to either the the Spanish counter kios in the in the lobby you can also sign up at FCF church.com events Leo and yearling and their team are doing a fantastic job with that service would love to have you come and be a part of it if you know somebody invite them it's going to be a fantastic time there's food right to I don't know I made all that up okay but it's going to be a good time you're going to want to be there okay go away now okay all right Jesus said these words in Matthew he says I will build my church and all the powers of Hell will not conquer it Jesus the church belongs to Jesus and Jesus is the one building his church here on the Earth but the cool thing is that he doesn't do it alone he chooses to use people like me and you scripture calls us his co-workers so we work with Christ in building his church as we do a few things as we number one is we simply invite people uh uh into the church you know we we build up the numbers as we invite that builds the church as we serve in the body of Christ we find that place where where we are functioning in the body of Christ and fulfilling our our role and our calling and then also as we give as we give of our Financial Resources to build his church on this planet uh then we are co-workers with Christ so if you long and your your heart's desires to be a coworker with Christ we invite you to give on our website utilizing those offering boxes or within the FCF app as we prepare for the message now I just want to give a reminder that we have two rooms called Wiggle rooms so if you have a little one in the auditorium with you and they start to you know wiggle and make some noises and become a little bit of a distraction we would love for you to step out just on either side of our coffee bars one of our wiggle rooms where you can watch the service with comfy seating and snacks I might add so Pastor Randy's going to continue now in our series words Every Soul wants to hear [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what Pastor Pete and I were laughing about was I had a dream about him this week it's first Dream I've had about him and uh in the dream I was up here like this giving a message and I was coming to my conclusion and I'm all excited about it because I'm like I can't wait to share this with them and then all at once he comes on the stage with the team and the music starts playing and I I just have to walk off and so I get him afterward I'm like what was that and and he says man you were dying up there he said they they had dialed out way back look at their face you you should have seen so if suddenly he cuts in with his team you know that it's because you dialed out and I'm dying up here oh me um we live in such a an uncertain world live in such an uncertain world and all kinds of things that we wish would never happen happen I I'm just curious how many of you have ever had the unpleasant experience of having something stolen from you can I just see your hands yeah it's sad isn't almost every single one I'm going to tell you what's even worse now now some of you have had this experience probably few of us I hope but perhaps you literally experienced that the individuals that were stealing things were those that lived right under your own roof which is a very very painful what makes it even worse is that maybe you knew it was happening and you kept hoping they would come to you and kind of say something you know show some guilt show some compunction um and yet they just went on blissfully just just like nothing was ever happening I mean it's a really troubling thing I I wish I could say that I didn't know this experience but I do I do I fact I I took pictures this guy right here that's mogly is looking to steal you probably can't see it too well without it being really blown up J next service will blow it up big but it's this little cow ear they will die for a cow ear so mowgly will steal it from from him and then he'll go back if we go to the next slide he doesn't even care he just laughs that's Scooby but these two will steal back and forth and mowgly the wolfy looking dog he'll take your he'll take your lunch in a heartbeat you cannot leave anything with you know food on a plate with him around now here's my point there really was a point animals don't feel any guilt they don't feel any shame some of you will dispute that you say when my dog got in the trash and Spilled it all over the floor and I yelled at him or her he showed shame well that's between you and the dog but but they don't they don't feel any guilt they don't feel any shame they can steal for example and it doesn't really bother them but here's the difference you and I are not dogs we're not animals and and when we do certain things certain acts they they Lodge damage they Lodge trauma in our souls and this trauma often becomes the voice behind everything else in our life it becomes the why for the whats that we do we go through life doing a lot of things a lot of whats but we a lot of times don't even know why we're doing what we're doing and we can trace our trajectory and sometimes we realize the trajectory is not the wisest it's not the best but we keep on being driven and it's because there is there is submerged trauma in our souls that we haven't sufficiently been able to get to the surface we haven't been sufficiently able to see it completely resolved and that's what we want to talk about today we're in a series Ser called this words Every Soul wants to hear I I said at the beginning of the series I believe that there are certain words that because you are human and I am human made by Christ made for Christ Made In His Image made to be like him there there are certain words that we desperately need to hear from God himself and we go through life trying to hear these words in a peace meal imperfect fashion from other people but it's not the same it never it never can soothe the depths of our souls that we want soothe by hearing these words from God and amongst these words that every soul you me everyone needs to hear are these your sins are forgiven now the the problem sometimes with we that have been to church for a lot of years I already know that you know I know about forgiveness of sins yes I understand you may know about that but there is a difference between knowing about it and having the experience I'm emphasizing experience of hearing it through the spirit of God into your soul where God is focusing his attention on you and me and focusing his attention on those things in our lives that we feel the least comfortable about and he says your sins that sin that one that one that you don't even like to think about that one that that you wish you could drive out of your mind that one that you wish you could turn the clock back so that it never occurred he looks at you he looks at me and he says your sins yes that one that one's forgiven now here's the thing about humans is is different from an animal again when we have not sufficiently resolved sin it produces guilt it produces shame it produces fear and a lot of other things it can be incapacitating it becomes the why behind the what but it's not a good why it's a bad why that can us incapacitate us paralyze us from becoming the people that God intended us to be and doing the things that God intended us to do we have a great example of this in a scripture Al passage where a paralyzed man is brought to Jesus let's let's look at the text Luke 5:18 it says some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and they tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus when they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd they went up on the roof and they lowered him on his mat through the tiles in into the middle of the crowd excuse me through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus when Jesus saw their faith and that word faith means trust when they saw their faith their trust he said friend he's talking to the paralyzed guy that they lowered down through the roof friend your sins are forgiven it goes on the Pharisees these the religious leaders in that day the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy who can forgive sins but what does it say who God alone and that that is true I can't forgive your sins sufficiently I mean I can forgive you you can forgive me but I can't forgive your sins to the point that it ceases to become a traumatic force in your soul in your conscience anyway he says who can forgive sins but God Alone Jesus knew what they were thinking and he asked why are you thinking these things in your hearts which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say get up and walk but I want you to know that the son of man has Authority on Earth to forgive sins so he said to the paralyzed man I tell you get up take up your mat and go home and immediately he stood up in front of them he took what he had been lying on and he went home praising God now there is another version of this it's called the Randy Dandy version and it says that the man who owned the house said hey what about my roof so everybody's praising God everybody's happy because this man that was paralyzed incapacitated he's now a a new man New Life new abilities new capacities but I want you to think a little bit about how unresolved or insufficiently resolved guilt shame and the fear that usually goes with it how it can incapacitate us some some of us we don't go places we would really like to go because we still have this this discomfort We have dealt with we don't do things we would really want to do because we have the discomfort some of us we always want to with withdraw we feel like you know we're better at a distance than closeup because we we have insufficiently resolved guilt and shame I could just go on and on and on but but we all know what I'm talking about so it can be paralyzing it can be incapacitating it can keep us from the purposes that God has for our life which are good purposes he wants us to have the best life possible even in this troubled evil world but he can't give that to us unless we're willing to let him heal some things in our souls that only he can heal and then to guide and guard us and direct us uh along life's path so let's start by first of all asking this question um or excuse me by examining this examine the hidden complexities of divine forgiveness so God forgives this guy but it's it's not easy really for God to forgive by by the way just before we leave off this man some of you perhaps in here are thinking that when Jesus said to this guy your sins are forgiven some of you might be thinking you know it would have been better for that man to have died right then because his sins were all forgiven up to that point but there was no guarantee about his sins being forgiven in the future I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands but I know some of you you may not even know it yourself but that's kind of what you believe you might believe that when I first came and put my trust in Christ and became his follower I know God forgave my sins up to that point but since then I'm not so sure you know I've got to be sure and deal with them correctly and all that kind of thing and that's not true some people might be thinking too well maybe that guy sins may maybe his sins were just they're just kind of minor sins you know what I mean they they he you know his wife asked him do I look good in this and he said yeah and um so his sins weren't that bad Randy that's why Jesus forgave him because you know they weren't that they weren like mine you know those ones that we are so uncomfortable with we don't know that we don't know what this guy's sins are like but what I'm telling you is it wouldn't have mattered you got to hear this it wouldn't have mattered how many of you know that that one of the greatest heroes in the Bible is a man named Moses can I just see your hands can I see your hand okay do you know that my man Moses was a murderer yeah but forgiven by God so we tend to label things in ways that God himself does and I'm not minimizing any of the things that God calls sin you're going to see that in just a minute that's far from what I want to do so Examining The Hidden complexities of divine forgiveness and what I mean by that is it's not easy for God to forgive it's nothing from him he is absolutely forgiving that is who he is that is the kind of being he is but giving the forgiveness is complicated because we have a way of misunderstanding uh the reason that he forgives for example supposing that there was was an announcement made presidential announcement the next 6 months in the United States of America all crime it doesn't matter what crime you commit for the next six months all crime will be forgiven in advance now I'm curious do you think I know you're not a student of this stuff but do you think there would be more crime or less crime how many are on the more crime side yeah you see there there's this problem with forgiveness that it can incite us to do further damaging things damaging things to ourselves other so so God has this problem his problem is this is that he knows that when he labels something sin it is something that is absolutely all the time bad for us when we know it and when we don't know it but it's not only bad for us it's usually bad for others that encounter us as well it is what's created this difficult world we live in so God has to somehow try to deter us from further sin he loves us he don't want to see us continue to damage ourselves he don't want to see us continue to damage one another he knows what's best want what's wants what's best we don't always know so he has to deter us from further destructive living while at the same time he is forgiving we tend to think he's angry at us we tend to think he's against us he is not he is never angry he is never against us he wants to free us though he wants to rescue us from the things that are destroying us and depriving us of the kind of life that he intended us to have so he wants to offer forgiveness but he's got to deter further damage further sin there's another problem we don't even think about there's this whole other civilization of beings made like us in our image they're called Angels generically two-thirds of them have stayed loyal to God and they are being forced to live in this universe now that is permeated by evil and so God's got to stabilize them and let them know listen this is I'm letting this happen I'm letting evil happen for a little while I've got a purpose I've got a plan I'm going to let it happen but I'm also going to abolish it forever he promises that in his word I'm going to judge it those that are committing to evil that stay loyal to evil that just want evil as a way of life they'll someday be judged they they'll be repaid is the way scripture says it for what they've done so he sets these deterrence but he offers forgiveness but his forgiveness is not meant to encourage us to further sin and that's where we have a problem we tend to think hey if he forgives it it's not that big of a deal and so if I just do it again we we how many have ever heard people say things like well I'm not hurting anyone but myself and so as long as I'm not hurting anyone else it's okay how many have ever heard that thing before have you ever thought of how shortsighted that is you know when we live our lives we don't live our lives in secret someone is always influenced by us and and so that state is is a a really shortsighted statement all right so it's complex for God to forgive he is forgiving you got to hear that he is absolutely forgiving toward you toward me toward everyone but he has to give that forgiveness in a constructive way and that's where it gets complicated I'm going to read you a series of verses we're just going to let the spirit of God speak to us and you're going to notice that I've inserted some words in these verses they're to to help you learn how to read scripture on your own how to have bread and and come to the right conclusion so you you'll see what I'm saying here we go Hebrews 9:26 he is talking about Jesus he has appeared once and for all at the end of the ages and I inserted the word why when you're reading your Bible that's what your mind needs to be trained to do why well the rest of the verse explains it to us he came at the end of Ages why to do what you say it with me AB abolish sin how sacrific himself by sacrificing himself now you can see that God wants to abolish sin because sin is always destructive always damaging when we see it when we feel it when we don't see it or feel it it's still doing its damage you'll see that later on in the message so he intends he promises to abolish all sin and he wants us now to cooperate with him in abolishing it from our life for our own good for the good of our kids for the good of everybody that knows us but he's sought to abolish sin in our lives by sacrificing himself his sacrificial love for us his demonstration of how much he loves us how for us he is how forgiving he is it is meant to motivate us to trust him and to want to do things the way he designed us to do them to live the way he himself lives and to love the way he himself loves but a sacrifice was meant to inspire us to motivate us to change us to change our Direction notice it doesn't say anything about paying any penalty for sin that's sort of popular in Christian writings today let me go on and look at another one 1 Peter 2:24 he himself again it's Jesus he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross and then I inserted the word why why did he allow evil and sin put him on a cross so that what does it say we might die to sins and do what else live for righteousness once again the sacrificial death of Jesus was not to make me more careless about Sin but rather to cause me to be motivated to be focused to be determined to to live uh with sin being canceled out of my life and to live according to what God says is right the way he designed me to live 2 Corinthians 5 it kind of says the same thing in a different way it says and he meaning Jesus he died for all and I inserted the word why why did he die for all that those who live should no longer longer live for I inserted who who is the who themselves but for who him who died for them and was raised again so the question we should ask when we read that verse is Am I Living For myself or am I living for Jesus who died for me that I might live for him you say well that sounds kind of selfish I mean why can't I just do my own thing Go My Own Way I mean doesn't he want me to be happy I I I want to I want to you know kind of regulate my own life I want to make my own rules well it's because he loves us so much that he knows exactly what is best for us and so he wants to guide us into the best life possible and he wants to guard us from the damage that we incur when we don't live for him but we live for ourselves when we live for him we're just simply learning to live the way he himself lives and love the way he loves and this guides us puts us into the position to experience the best life POS possible but I want you to see that the sacrificial death of Jesus was meant to motivate us to live for him it's a good time to just stop and say did that verse describe me am I one that I have made a decision to put my trust in Christ and become his follower and now I don't live for myself anymore I don't call the shots of my life anymore I believe that he knows what's best wants what's best and so I go to him I go to his word to learn to live the way I as a human being am designed to live and to love the way I is a human being him designed to love first John adds this it says you know that he here again meaning Christ he appeared and I asked the question why why did he appear you tell me he appeared in order to take away sins notice that none of these verses that we've looked at say anything about he came to pay some penalty for sin do you know why those verses don't say that because there is not one verse in the entire Bible that says he came to pay the penalty for our sins there are verses that Christians read thinking that that's in there because they've heard it so much through their life but it's not there not one verse rather the sacrificial death of Jesus is always meant to express the full love of God for us and to motivate us to embrace life as it's meant to be lived so here we go again he appeared in order to take away Sins Not to pay some penalty for sins to take them away to abolish them to stop their activity in our lives in in society if possible and that there is no sin in him so no one who remains United with him what somebody reite him what what does the word say continue sinning everyone who does continues sinning has neither seen him or known him no one who has God as his father keeps on what is the word s sinning let's go on why why why if if God is your father you don't keep on sinning because the seed planted by God remains in him that is he cannot continue sinning why you answer for me because he has God as his father now for people to think that the death of Jesus is simply about paying some kind of a penalty so that we can go to heaven I hope you can see by these verses that the death of Jesus was meant to impact Our Lives dramatically in this world God says to all of us you're forgiven I forgive you I love you I'm for you but man I don't want to see you continue to unnecessarily damage your own soul and damage The Souls of others my followers says Jesus they don't continue to sin because the lights have all gone on we know that it's destructive we know that God loves us more than we love ourselves knows what's best so I hope you can see from this from these verses that when God forgives us he is not in all at all encouraging us to be Reckless about our lives how many of you have read met some people they'll they'll pop off about yeah I'm a Christian I'm I'm born again I'm a follower of Jesus and yet when you look at their lives they are blatantly obviously like my dogs they're not Only Sinful but they don't give a rip in fact they'll even well God God forgives and none of us are perfect Randy I mean come on now it's it's it's just the way it is how many ever met those kind those kind of so-called Christians yeah they are a bad a bad example for everyone else that's still contemplating their relationship with God so am I saying that we become instantaneously perfect no no no no God forgives us he loves us as we are but he doesn't leave us as we are he loves us too much to leave us as we are he wants us to experience the fullness of life I can't experience that fullness of life until I rid myself of those destructive elements that are counter to the way God designed me and I now embrace the things that lead me to experience life the way God himself experiences so one last verse that shows how complex it is for God to forgive it says and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and has freed us freed us from what we always singing songs about God freed us he fre what has he freed us from our what our sins does that sound like he freed us from the penalty of our sins or does it sound like he he did something that caused me to Fe feel think and behave differently about Sin of course it's obvious his sacrifice changes me I know that my God is the most sacrificially loving being in the universe that I can trust him entirely he wants nothing but my good therefore when he says something is wrong I say okay I don't need to understand it you love me you know what's best I'm finished with it I'm changed these verses make very clear that when God forgives he also uh motivates us to stay stay away from those things that will unnecessarily continue to just cause us harm cause our relationships harm cause everyone that interacts with us harm all right so forgiveness is who God is he's forgiving but he doesn't want to encourage us to misunderstand that sin is bad for us and he just wants to rescue us from it actually rescue us from it I don't know you I I just two weeks ago I went to the dentist you guys have you been to the dentist lately go to the dentist and thoughts go through my head so you go in fact we have a picture so you go to the dentist and you know you know what this is right that's the X-ray machine okay so you you go to the dentist and I always love this part they put those sunglasses on you man I like the sunglasses and and then they get the heavy Cape the lead cape and they lay the the heavy lead Cape across you everybody identifying with me you youve been to dentist okay you've been to dentist recently so they lay the heavy Cape Point but then then they take the X-ray that the heavy Cape is supposed to protect you from right the invisible X-rays I can't see them I can't smell them I don't really know they're there but I'm just going to believe that they're there and they're dangerous so they cover my whole body from the x-rays because the X-ray gun evidently sprays sprays this radiation you know but but here's my question if I'm if if I'm in sense danger my organs and everything why is my head not in danger why am I not getting a lead helmet with just a little hole for my teeth I mean it's like we don't care about your brain we'll just fire the radiation right in there we'll aim it at your brain now my real point is this there are things that we don't instantaneously recognize as hurtful we don't feel the damage when when that when the radi when you are you or I are actually affected by radiation by an x-ray we don't feel it immediately when you're exposed to radiation you don't know that damage is gr the damage has immediately occurred but radiation sickness usually doesn't occur for about a month maybe even two months and then gradually we start to fall apart and ultimately die there are things that God says don't don't do that that's that's not the way I designed you there are things he says do that because that will build us to become who we were meant to become the things he says don't do are the things that damage us we don't always see the damage we say man everybody's doing this it's a new day Randy it's it's not those ancient Bible days people think differently today uh they believe differently today it doesn't matter if I if I start believing that gravity is not real and jump off a mountain is my belief going to save me uh-uh I could believe this I'm impervious I'm super man x-rays don't hurt me but if I just let them blast me with radiation it's still going to do its damage here's my point the things that God calls sin we've got to start thinking them differently it's not just a bunch of fdy dudy you know things that are trying to steal all the joy and all the excitement out of our life it is a loving God who says these things are toxic man these things do they start doing damage in your soul immediately way before before you and I can recognize any of the symptoms the symptoms come later remember I started this message saying a lot of us go through life with what we do what we do but we don't know why we do it a lot of times when we have not sufficiently allowed God to heal our souls particularly with his forgiveness we we're driven by motives that we don't even understand but they're not good motives so we want to get on to the positive side of this experiencing the healing capacities of divine forgiveness when you and I can get close enough to God and get our soul sensitized enough where where we're not so distracted by the millions of distractions in our society today but we're focused like a laser and we're in a tender humble condition and we allow God to communicate his forgiveness to us very personally and very specifically we all have those areas that we need to hear specifically your sins are forgiven well well then healing can actually take place in our soul souls and then we can start to grow we can start to develop we can start to be who God intended us to be and do what he meant us to do so I want to give you a little diagram I'm going to go through this really quickly something I just threw together to try to give you a sense of what happens when we do things that God calls sin we don't know these things are happening but they are happening so here we go I'm going call this the the Inner Health meter and we're going to look at first of our moral condition our our moral condition consists of our conscience we have conscience es and we also Fus to our consciences we have God enlightened reasoning abilities we can reason we can imagine we can think we can look at both sides of an issue we have self-awareness other awareness and then our conscience that says hey that's right that's wrong now the thing about our conscience it's only reliable if it's linked to the word of God because if you adjust your conscience or I adjust my conscience by societal standards well it's inaccurate and it won't be the protective mechanism that God intended it to be so here's what happen happens when my moral condition is healthy it's functional it will cause me to feel uncomfortable about something that is wrong and it's me meaning to keep me from doing that which is wrong okay but when my when my moral compass starts to get blurred a little bit well then I start to feel uncomfortable but not uncomfortable enough to change my behavior and then the further to this side I get my my moral compass gets unhealthy and dis functional here's what I mean when you get past this Center Point you and I you some of you going to be insulted about what I'm going to say but I'm going to say it to you anyway because I've lived long enough and I know enough about my own soul that I can say this to you when you and I drift far enough once you get once you get past this Middle Point you start drifting don't you kid yourself you are capable of rationalizing almost anything get a person in the right set of circumstances and you and I are capable of doing things that we would never believe we're capable of it is very dangerous once once we start to drift with this moral compass so the point being we want to keep our conscience and our God enlightened reasoning faculties fine-tuned accurate highly sensitized they're meant to guide us they're meant to guard us but if we start letting them diminish well then they can no longer guide us and guard us and we get over here where we can do almost anything feel fine about it okay let me show you one more picture of the way this Inner Health meter works now now we're looking not at the the moral factors but the mental emotional condition okay so each of us have a degree of Joy or we might have no joy we have a degree of peace or no peace once again if I'm aligning my life knowingly or unknowingly with God's will God's word the way he designed me and you to live I will start having more joy I will start having more peace if I'm drifting from living align to the way God designed you and I to live I will have less peace sometimes we get so used to our condition maybe we're we're uncomfortable we don't we don't have joy we don't have peace exactly we just feel like a little disease that's an interesting word we are diseased inside we neither have peace nor Joy exactly we're always a little uncomfortable in our own skin and we find all kinds of ways to cope with that but it's a warning it's it's like the red light on our Dash It's meant to awaken us to say you you need to get closer to your creator you need to learn the ways that he's designed you to live and to function so that Joy can be increased you have a tremendous capacity for joy and peace because you're made in the image of God but we have to live the way we were designed to live in order to experience the things that God desperately wants us to experience all right forgiveness becomes a massive component in this whole experiential Journey so let let me just share some verses with you in the book of Acts chapter 13:38 it says therefore my friends I want you to know I want you to know I want you to know I want you to be sure I want you to be certain I want you to be positive I want you to be absolute that through Jesus the what forgiveness of sins is what proclaimed to you I am proclaiming to every one of you in here I don't care what you've done according to God not according to me Jesus is proclaiming to you that your sins just like he did that paralyzed guy that paralyzed guy never asked to be forgiven he never confessed his sin he never proclaimed that he even trusted in Jesus Jesus just look at him he said Son your sins are forgiven why because that's who God is he's always forgiving but in Jesus we have it very per very much personalized your sins are forgiven let me me rephrase that your sins because I know what some of you are thinking your sins are forgivable because some of you you think yeah Randy sure God forgives some people's sins but you don't know man you don't know me and you don't know what I've done or Worse what I'm thinking or what I'm capable of but God does he's not shocked or surprised at any of it he just wants to rescue us from it but here is a Proclamation I need to kind of settle it in my soul regardless of what I feel in Jesus God says our sins are forgiven let me go on in the book of Ephesians 1:7 it says for by the blood of Christ meaning his sacrifice we are set free we're set free from what that's my insertion that is our what our sins and forgiveness so when the scripture says we're free this verse interprets it for us it says it's it's meaning your you're forgiven you're forgiven can you imagine walking around feeling like you owe somebody a huge financial debt and yet you don't really owe him anything you don't owe him anything at all that that would be an unnecessary heavy weight it's saying that in Jesus our sins are forgiven How great is the grace of God you know what the word Grace means it's not a girl's name I mean it is but it isn't it means that God just favors us and we don't Merit it or earn it or deserve deserve it at all it's just who he is he just loves us he's just for us he always wants what's best for us he's always waiting to get our attention to see if if we'll we'll be willing to learn be willing to listen be willing sometimes to start over the book of Hebrews and before before I show you this verse I want to ask you a question a theoretical question ver um it does it matter does it matter why a person does does what is right as long as they do what is right now want let's think in does it matter I mean I mean if ultimately a person does what is right is that all that matters or does it matter why a person does what it's right how many think it doesn't really matter as long as they ultimately do what is right that's what counts Randy can I see your hands oh look at you Smarties no we know motives matter we we can do the right thing with the most simp Sinister selfish greedy Wicked manipulative motives for it and of course it matters because we are instead of growing and developing to become the Christlike beings we're meant to be we're we're we're deteriorating to become devilish beings because our motives are not right it doesn't matter what now now you're want to see in this verse that it's hinged this idea of doing things because of a bad frame of conscience here we go says how much more will the blood of Christ again it's referring to his sacrifice who through the Eternal Holy Spirit willingly offered himself unblemished to God do what what what will his sacrifice do do what cleanse your what conscience your conscience now that was at ill ease or diseased it's at peace your conscience is cleansed you're forgiven you know it all right so what's the result your conscience is cleansed from what does it say dead works and lifeless observances why why do I need my conscious cleansed from dead works and I'm going to explain to you what dead works are in a minute and observ this to to do what my conscious is cleansed to do what you tell me serve the Living God people are religious sometimes and they have religious practices and it's because they are trying to appease God they think think he's angry they think he's he's keeping a record against them and he's going to zap them going to punish them not going to bless them they they don't really trust God they don't really frankly like God but they are afraid of God and so their conscience is bad and so they do goody goody two shoes things because they think they goody two shoes things are going to make up and God's going to you know he's got this scale in heaven you know and he's going to he's going to tip your way and you're going to be okay they're dead Works what God wants is to free our conscience oh no no no no you don't have to make up for your sin you can't make up for your sins there's nothing you and I can do God already forgives us our sins and he wants our conscience to be cleansed when we go okay so you're not angry at me no I'm not angry at you you love me yeah I love you uh you I can walk with you and you're happy with me you yeah happy with you love you he wants to free our conscience from dead religious Works to try to earn his favor or appease him or make up for our bad Deeds so that we can actually serve the Living God in other words he wants us to say wow I had no clue you were this cool this good this is wonderful all I want to do now is serve you I realize now that the best thing I can do for myself for my family for anybody that meets me is to become your servant because to become your servant is the greatest sort of Freedom that a human being can never have that's what this is talking about it's some of you I'm I'm going just I'm just trying to help you here some of you you you maybe are very meticulous and this is a good thing it's nothing wrong with very meticulous about your devotions you know you you have your daily devotions you have your Bible time and your prayer time and that's cool that's good that's healthy if you're doing it in order to keep close to God I'm going to have something to say about that in a minute but if you're doing it with the thought that oh man shoot I missed doing my devotions today God's disappointing with with me now he's probably not going to bless me he might even be angry at me you know who you are who think that way and if you're thinking that way you're you're still doing dead Works you're still trying to appease God you gotta you got to see him for who he is he's much better than that he's so much easier to be around than that so he wants to free our conscience from dead works with with his forgiveness now some of us we go in and out of this let let's be Frank sometimes we feel totally forgiven and confident that our sins are forgiven we we we feel like no matter what we've done in the past I know Christ's sacrificial death on the cross it it makes makes its point he died so that I can know that forgiveness is mine and and I don't have to relive those things I don't have to rethink those things and sometimes we do really good with those but then sometimes we don't even know why maybe something happens and we start thinking thinking back about those things and that old guilt that was once gone it comes up fresh and it might come up even more ferocious than it was before and so we go up and down and and and we feel forgiven and we don't feel forgiven and we feel safe with God and we feel unsafe with God and we feel good about being close to him and then we feel uncomfortable being close to him I'm so tempted to ask you how many can identify with this and put your hands up but I won't I'll resist temptation why why I want I want to get you to the why of this because I I think I have something for you um how many of when you're driving in your car and maybe you have a favorite radio station you want to listen to so you tune in your radio station but man if you're like me up in edburg you can't get hardly anything so up in the mountains in edburg so so you start driving and all you're getting is a lot of static you got your station tuned in but I know that until I get past Mount St Mary's and pretty close to Thurmont my station is not going to come in but once I'm close enough to the signal I can hear perfectly well all right this is like unto our experience with God sometimes our proximity to God has drifted we've drifted away we're we're not walking in step with him we're not as close to him and I'm going to talk about what what what works for some doesn't work for others so we've drifted and that signal that certainty of his forgiveness that certainty of his love that certainty of his Joy his Delight just in us we're his kids he actually likes us he knows how imperfect we are he knows how in process but he's always for us but we get that that static and we're not sure that we think he's disappointing we think he's angry we we even think he's going to punish us or reject us or condemn us let's be honest all the old stuff comes back and we get scared and you got to you got to get back closer to the signal you got to get aimed better now how do we get reconnected to the signal each of us has differing what we call spiritual Pathways uh there was a book written about this can't remember the lady's name but but it's it's just like some of you when you hear worship music oh my goodness man it connects you to God it it moves you to the core of your being some of you when you get alone and it's just you and the word of God and you can just spend an hour a half hour 15 15 minutes whatever all of a sudden you're reconnected to God some of you it's when you are around other followers of Christ man their energy just flows into you and and the reality of God's goodness and Grace it comes back so whatever it is you got to figure out your spiritual pathway but when you sense there's diminishing Assurance of forgiveness of God and the favor of God and you're getting static now and you're going up and down like this find that way find that channel to reconnect with God and all of a sudden that certainty that joy that peace will be restored then of course you know now I figured out my rhythms I've figured out my spiritual rhythms I I've got to stay on on this station and now I know how to stay on this station that is something that that each of us has to figure out for ourselves and with with God's help now let's go to this passage here's where the static comes in for many of us there is no what fear fear in love dread does not exist but perfect complete full grown love drives out fear my insertion why because fear involves the expectation of what divine what punishment so that the one who is afraid of God's judgment is not perfected in love has not grown into a sufficient understanding of what God's love here's the reality we fluctuate we get static sometimes we are so confident that God loves us as we are forgives all of our sins he already that paralyzed guy Jesus knew every sin he was going to do for the rest of his life I don't know what he did after he got up and walked but I can guarantee you he was not sin free and Jesus knew that and all those sins were forgiven all your sins are forgiven all my sins are forgiven whether I know it feel it or not why because God declares it so but I get that static sometimes because in me is still this misunderstanding about the character of God that he's angry that he's going to punish me that he that he's got to vent his wrath on me but that's not the purpose of Christ's coming it was to show us that we don't have to be afraid of God not only I know some of you think of Randy but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom well even that verse is misunderstood it's talking about re re for God of course we should rever him he's the best person in the universe there's nobody as kind as him there's nobody as good as him nobody is caring and forgiving as him of course we should Revere him but not be afraid of him because if you are knowingly or unknowingly afraid of God his love is not going to be able to help you blossom and grow I you got to know I got to know that he loves me not because of anything in me because of everything that's in him and I can't ch that he's always going to love me but I can certainly deprive myself of the joy of feeling his love as can you I've got to get to this place where I know no punishment no condemnation and let me go to that verse and I'm getting ready to land a plane the gear is coming down the wheels are starting to lower there is now what does it say no none no condemnation now for who those who live in Union with Christ if you've made the decision to put your trust in Christ and become his follower then Jesus says your sins are all forgiven you're just as sure of eternal life in his kingdom as though you were already there for 10,000 years and God wants us to live with that kind of certainty not the fear that we're going to be cast out someday or we're going to be condemned ultimately now as I close I want I want to really get serious with some of you because I I know this experience all too well myself um I know no matter what I've said today that some of you are going to still experience times in your life where you you are reliving man you're reliving your sins and I don't mean pleasurably I mean your guilty conscience comes back and and you just feel man I I I know that says that God forgives me but I don't know if he can forgive this and maybe to add to it maybe you have one of those wonderful people in your life that will remind you of your sins regularly yeah they're such gracious people they your sin might been 25 years ago but you they froze you in time and they're going to remind you every time that that's who they see you as add to that the Book of Revelation 12: 9- 10 it says that that Satan appears in the presence of God as the accuser accusing us it says Day and Night Before the Throne of God so we've got Satan accusing us sometimes we have dear sweet people accusing us but frankly the worst accuser it's me and you it's the accusation we do to oursel some of you you know exactly what I'm talking about you you have had to to relive some of your sin and reconf it and and and yet nothing seems to detach the pain that it asserts on you from time to time and so Randy how do I get rid of that how can I finally finally live with the peace and the joy and the freedom from my sins of the past the guilt the shame the fear how can I how can I once and for all what do I do when my own soul condemns me and says don't you dare kid yourself and think that that sin of yours is ever going to be forgivable no no no no no that's the kind of dialogue that goes on in our head so what do you do what do you do all right I'm going to give you an image I've shared it with you in other messages in this series but I hope this image will live in your soul for the rest of your life I really do and here it is so you think of your deepest darkest sin that one that makes you sick to remember it and you're being accused you're being accused by yourself you're being accused by that dear Soul or souls in your life that will always remember you for what you were instead of who you are and they'll accuse you and maybe even Satan himself is jumping in and saying yeah don't kid yourself don't you kid yourself the question you and I have to ask oursel in those situations and this is not easy but it is doable who am I going to believe am I going to believe myself well I I know me I I wish I were perfect and always trustworthy but I'm not I'm flawed I'm sinful I need Grace or I could trust that person those purp those accusers I could trust them but I know they're they're flawed and sinful too I could trust Satan but that's kind of crazy isn't it I mean he just wants to destroy me so why should I listen to his voice or or I could position myself mentally at the foot of Jesus cross and with him up on that cross with with arms spread and you got to go there in your soul to know what I'm talking about here's what he says to you he first of all says this looking down you're feeling your guiltiest I'm feeling my guiltiest I'm feeling my most unworthy I'm feeling worthy of condemnation you're feeling worthy of condemnation but he looks down and he says this I will always love you he does say that he is ever saying that the second thing he says is this I will never forsake you and he does and he always says that the third thing he says this you don't have to what be AF be afraid and we are afraid he's saying it this morning you don't have to be afraid and then he finishes it with this your sins are forgiven come on now the choice is who am I going to believe am I going to believe the creator of the universe who hangs on a cross to convince my guilty conscience that it really can be set free or will I listen to my own Foolish Heart or some other foolish person that wants to Brand me and you for life or the accuser the wicked one of course not it comes down to this we have to get where we remind ourselves when we're in those moments and soul is sinking and being crushed by guilt and shame once again we say no I'm going to believe this one I'm going to believe the one that created the universe I'm going to believe the one that hung on a cross because that's what it takes to convince me that I can be set free from my guilt that's what it takes to convince you as well we think sin is a small thing it is a soul traumatizing thing that literally takes the sacrificial death of the creator of the universe to dislodge it sufficiently from from your soul and mind when you get into that place you got to take this mental picture with you for the rest of your life I'm not going to listen to myself I'm not going to listen to others I'm sure not going to listen to the devil I'm going to listen to Jesus and this is what he ever says I'll always love you come on I'll never forsake you others might I won't you don't have to be afraid your sins your sins are are are forgiven that's God's word to you today that's his heart laid out for you today I so hope I I've been so looking forward to this message today because I just know there's plenty of power from God today to to bring deep healing in some broken sad unnecessarily sad souls and I hope maybe you might be one that's a a beneficiary let let's let's pray Our God your goodness is our hope it's our joy your kingdom come your will be done is is our blessed hope we are so thankful that we have a God Like You who's full of kindness full of grace full of patience full of Mercy who knows what's best wants what's best who who doesn't leave us as we are but at least loves us as we are may your spirit do that which only your spirit can do get deep in our hearts our souls we welcome that that we can once and for all be free from the trauma that comes from sin we ask it all Lord Jesus in your holy name amen powerful word you stand your feet how many are grateful that we've been forgiven Church come on he's been so good to us sing this with [Music] us and if you've been forg and if youve been sing a song forever to and if you walk in Freedom and if you bearest name sing a song from it's your name your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name God stands above them all and dominions all power and positions your name God is stands above their all and the Angels Cry Your all creation Christ you holy you are lifted high oh holy forever come on if you been forgiv in that [Music] line sing the song freed and if you are fre and take you name sing sing a song Forever sing song forever and and the angels come oh all creation CH Lord You're holy you are LIF high oh you hold me forever and LIF our voes to you father he your people you we won sing Holy to the kingom oh you will always be holy holy forever what time s your name is the highest your name is the highest your name is the greatest your name stands above all cut all and Dominion all power and position your name stands above it and the angels C holy all creation Christ holy you are lifted High holy holy forever let's give it praise anybody grateful that we have a Creator who forgives come on we feel so honored blessed that you chose to join us for service this morning following service this morning Pastor Randy myself Pastor K on the side guest Central this is your first time you been our first time guest know how much we love and appreciate them our pleasure to have you with us we would love love love to shake your hand answer any questions you have about the church it's our privilege to meet you and then if you are going through something maybe there's something that you've been processing you've been going through it's on your heart and you're just it's hard for you to even imagine that God would forgive you there is a team here that would love to pray with you join you on your faith journey and we do serve a God who forgives amen church have an amazing week we will see you next Sunday fcm [Music]

Channel: FCF Church

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Id: _0DiQoD-XKk

Length: 89min 53sec (5393 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 28 2024