The Forgiveness Of Sins | Phillip Iloff | We Believe

All right, good morning, church family. So glad to be with you today. I'm gonna have you standing just for a little bit. You're not gonna be standing too long, but I just wanted to say it's such an honor to be with you today to share the message. Can we honor our pastors, Pastor Tyrone and Virginia, as they're away? They do so much. They labor in the faith for you. They pray for you. They love on you. They really care. They're such amazing leaders, and so we're so blessed to be under their covering. Can we also celebrate Lady V's message from last week? That was so powerful. I hope you were all blessed by that as I was. I walked into Pastor Tyrone's office after the message, and I said, man, I really don't wanna preach next week because I don't know how I'm supposed to follow that up, but it was such an amazing opportunity to hear her deliver that word, but we're just gonna get right into it. Since everybody's already standing, we're gonna turn to the word and open up to 1 John 1 9. And if you have it, go ahead and say amen. Amen.

Okay, so it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Let's go before the Lord in prayer. God, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you that it's powerful. God, we thank you that it pierces our hearts, Lord, and we're thankful for your Holy Spirit. We're thankful for the atmosphere of worship this morning. We're thankful for the presence of your Holy Spirit today. God, would you minister to our hearts, God, that we would receive your truth. Lord, God, that we receive the word and power, God, that it would resonate within our hearts, Lord, that it would land in good soil. God, I pray that you would guide my thoughts and my words, God. May each word that proceeds from my mouth be directed and guided by your Holy Spirit, God, and anything apart from your Holy Spirit and your word, God, I pray it falls on deaf ears, Lord. I pray that we receive what you want to deliver us today, God, and God, I pray that we don't just hear it, God, but we're also doers of the word, that we walk out transformed and changed, God. We're able to walk in the calling that you have invited us to walk into, God, empowered by your Holy Spirit

and empowered by your word, Lord. God, may it stand firm and grow in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, church, you may be seated. So we're gonna continue our sermon series on the Apostles' Creed together. If you've been here with us for more than a couple weeks, you might remember we went over the Holy Universal Church and the communion of the saints a couple weeks ago. And if this is your first time being introduced to the Apostles' Creed or if you're a first-time visitor, basically what that is, it's this historic summary of the core beliefs of the Christian faith, and that was written in the early centuries, the early church history, and it was used for centuries to teach believers what Christianity teaches about God, what Christianity teaches about Jesus and salvation, the church and eternal life. And now, of course, it's not Scripture itself, but its truths are absolutely rooted in Scripture, and that matters because that keeps Christianity centered on the gospel instead of reducing faith to just this moral self-improvement or just political or whatever culture is focused on at the moment. It helps answer these foundational questions, and that is, who is God, who is Jesus, what did Christ accomplish, and what does salvation actually mean,

and what hope does humanity really have? And so today, we come to one of the most personal and important lines in the creed, and that is, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And this matters because it teaches us that humanity has this real sin problem, right? We have this problem that separates us from God, and since this line comes after, it speaks about Jesus' suffering, the crucifixion, and his death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit. It shows us that forgiveness is actually rooted in what Christ accomplished. So before we can understand why this is such good news, we have to ask, well, what is sin? What exactly are we being forgiven for? And honestly, whether people acknowledge God or not, humanity lives with this constant evidence that something is wrong internally with our human condition, right? We see it in guilt, we see it in shame, and fear, and brokenness, and bitterness, and addiction, and pride, and in condemnation. We have this constant human tendency to run from exposure, while at the same time, we're longing for peace and reconciliation. So once again, before we really understand why the forgiveness of sins is such good news, we have to understand what sin actually is, and what it did to humanity, and why people have been separated from God.

So we're gonna turn to the word, we're gonna turn to Genesis chapter three, verses seven through 10. I believe the words will be on the screen as well. So it says, then the eyes of both were opened. and they knew that they were naked, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. So first off, I think something to notice that's real important here is Adam and Eve's response right after sin enters into the world, right? The response is that they hid, and that's important because before this moment, there was this openness with God. There wasn't any shame, there wasn't any fear, there wasn't any separation. There wasn't this need to cover themselves or withdraw from his presence, but the moment sin enters humanity, we see something shift, and suddenly they feel exposed, they feel ashamed, they become afraid of God instead of secure with him. And of course, something important to notice is that no one had to teach them that, right? No one taught them to feel guilty, no one taught them to feel shame, but sin naturally produces this separation. So the very first thing that humanity does

after sin enters into the world is we attempt to cover ourselves. We see Adam and Eve, they sow fig leaves together, they hide among the trees, they try to manage their exposure themselves, and what's interesting is that in many ways, Genesis 3 kind of becomes the beginning of these false salvation systems that we as humans build before religions and philosophies and political systems and civilizations and cultures. Ever since then, humanity has kept repeating this same pattern. We keep trying to hide, but we're just changing our forms. And so now maybe today we're hiding behind success or achievement, maybe it's distraction or relationships or intellectualism or even religion itself, and especially now in the social media age, people, we build these carefully constructed identities, right, we have to have the perfect family, the perfect lifestyle, the perfect spirituality, the perfect success story, and yet many times behind this image, there's still this brokenness, there's this shame, there's this anxiety, this addiction or fear or condemnation. Under all of that, it's that same instinct that Adam and Eve had in the garden, which is to hide, which is to cover. You know, I don't want anyone to see who I really am. And then in Genesis 3, we see that God comes looking for Adam and Eve while they're hiding.

And one thing that's important to note is that God, it says that God says, where are you, right? It doesn't say he asks, because God wasn't lacking information about Adam's location. He was actually confronting the fracture in this relationship that had taken place because of sin. And so we as people are hiding, humanity is hiding, and yet God still pursues them. That becomes this important thread, this important pattern that we see throughout scripture. We see that sin causes humanity to hide from God, but God is continually calling people back into reconciliation. So this brings us back to this question is, well, what is sin? Well, ultimately, sin is rebellion against God. It's humanity's attempt to define good and evil apart from him and choose self-rule over God's rule. This is ultimately what happened in Genesis. Adam and Eve, they weren't just breaking this random arbitrary rule about fruit. They were choosing whether they were gonna trust God's authority or become their own authority. And scripture shows us that sin, it's not just this external behavior, it's not just these specific acts only, but there's this condition of the heart that affects human nature itself. In Romans chapter three, verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So what that tells us is sin is universal, right? It's not just something that's found in people that we deem worse than us. It's not like, oh, they're sinners and we're not, you're a sinner and I'm not, right? It's universal, it affects all of us. Isaiah chapter 59, verse two says, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. So it shows the deepest effect of sin, and it's separation from God. And we see that separation show up everywhere. It affects our relationships, we see broken desires, we have broken families, we have guilt and shame and fear and blaming and hiding and self-justification. We have these addictions and distractions and comparisons and we constantly have this need to want to prove ourself or to cleanse ourselves. You know, we see technology change, we see cultures shift and civilizations rise and fall, we see societies change. We're trying to make the world a better place and we're trying to build this perfect utopia and we can do better and we can make it work. But the problem is human nature just seems to stay the same through all the ages. And that's because the real problem is a spiritual one. And so humanity knows something is wrong and until we understand the seriousness of what sin did to us, we won't fully understand

why the forgiveness of sins is such good news. And the reality is, forgiveness is not just about correcting behavior, but it's about this, fixing this separation that's happened between humanity and God himself. So we have to ask, how does separation... from God actually get repaired? How do we as sinful people actually get reconciled to a holy God? Well, we see throughout history, particularly in the Old Testament, they have a lot of these sacrificial systems. They have these rituals and this religion and there's this self-effort and there's this performance and they have the cleansing rituals, they have the offerings and they have these blood sacrifices and they're, but ultimately they're showing that we can't fully cleanse ourself from sin and God was ultimately teaching his people that sin is serious, that sin brings death, that sin is costly and which is why Hebrews 9, verse 22, it says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. So it comes down to kind of how we think and treat sin. We tend to think about it pretty casually, right? We're so used to it, we see it everywhere, we become desensitized to it, we're surrounded by it, we're experiencing it and so people ask, well, why can't God just forgive, right? If God is so loving, why does forgiveness require

this serious extreme response? Why is this such a major serious requirement for forgiveness but when we step back, we realize that forgiveness is costly because sin carries such devastating consequences and it's because evil actually matters and deep down, we all know this, right? When betrayal or abuse or violence or manipulation or cruelty or murder, when it touches people we love, when it touches someone we love, we don't want evil ignored, right? We cry out for justice because we know evil is real, we know it shouldn't simply be dismissed and most people don't see abuse or corruption or destruction of innocent lives and honestly think justice doesn't matter. We instinctively know that justice matters and that something needs to be made right because when we see evil, something in us cries out for it to be dealt with. Because we were created in the image of a just God, right? And so a judge who ignores wickedness would not be called a loving or righteous judge. He would be called corrupt. So if God is truly loving and truly good, then he must also be just. He must condemn evil and deal with sin and that's why the Old Testament, you have these serious sacrificial systems that revolve around atonement and sacrifice and cleansing and blood.

It reveals that sin mattered so deeply that we couldn't just ignore it. And we see again in Romans chapter six, verse 23, it says, for the wages of sin is death. And so this also tells us death wasn't just this biological reality after the fall. It becomes more than just physical. It's also the spiritual reality that's tied to sin and separation from God. And throughout the Old Testament, you see sacrifice served as this visual reminder that reconciliation needed atonement. But it also shows us that it's not the final solution. It didn't stay permanent. We see in Hebrews chapter 10, verse one through four, it says, for since the law has but a shadow of good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. So all of these rituals, they reveal that the sacrifices themselves, they were never the final solution. But they constantly reminded us of these two realities at the same time, and that's that sin is serious and that we can't fix the problem ourselves. We need forgiveness, and yet we can't save ourselves. And even today, we're still trying to deal with this guilt.

We have these modern versions of these sacrificial systems that we still want to use to prove that we're acceptable. You know, we think if I'm just successful enough, or if I'm just respected enough, or important enough, or productive enough, then maybe I'll finally feel okay. Maybe I'll finally experience contentment, and accomplishments becomes our identity. We get our worth from performance, or we try to reconcile ourselves through morality. Right, we compare ourselves to people that we deem worse than us, and we build our identities around being better than others. You know, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not like that person. Or, you know, at least I'm a good person. At least I try. I do more than they do. And we have this kind of performative morality, and we try to be on the right side of history. We have these endless self-improvements, and constant self-reinventions. We still feel this pressure to appear aware, or acceptable, or worthy of approval, while carrying shame, and insecurity, and bitterness, emptiness, or guilt inside. We're still carrying these things under the surface, and some of us will try to reconcile ourselves even through religion and performance. If I just pray enough, if I just serve enough, if I just attend church enough,

if I just know enough scripture, if I just clean myself up enough, maybe God will finally accept me. Maybe he'll finally be happy with me. You know, these things aren't bad, of course, but we miss the point. And that's because our relationship with God, at that point, becomes entirely built. on fear and performance instead of reconciliation. We never actually rest because we're still trying to earn something that was never meant to be earned through our efforts. Or we'll try to punish ourselves into cleansing. And I think this happens a lot more than we realize. We think about how much we deserve misery because of what we've done. So we sabotage relationships. We'll reject joy. We'll refuse peace. We'll live under this constant state of self-condemnation. And we start replaying these past failures endlessly. How many of you are some of those people that you just wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning and then all of a sudden you get that thought of that thing you said to that person in eighth grade. But now you're 44 years old and that person probably doesn't even know you exist anymore but then you're just like, man, I'm just so stupid. I can't believe I did that. And you define yourself now based on a random day in 1995.

I mean, but for some of us without realizing it, that's us actually trying to atone for ourselves through suffering. None of these things can ultimately remove our guilt. And just like the Old Testament sacrifices, just like they had to continue repeatedly year after year, we're still trapped in these endless cycles of trying to justify ourselves. And we can actually see what kind of exhaustion this creates. We become spiritually exhausted. We think our reconciliation depends entirely on our ability to fix ourselves and there's never any true peace. We're still trying to solve what God ultimately resolved. But as you continue to see through the Old Testament, you start to see that even through the sacrificial system, even though it was constantly repeated and it couldn't permanently deal with sin and guilt, you had God reveal this greater plan that he was weaving together. You start seeing it through Abraham and Isaac. You start seeing it through the Passover lamb. You have these little hints and clues that point towards what was to come. And especially with the prophets. We see the prophet Isaiah chapter 53, verse five. It says, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed.

So that prophecy was written centuries before it actually happened. And yet Isaiah describes this coming servant who would suffer on behalf of others, who would carry our sin and somehow bring reconciliation and peace with God. There's this growing anticipation building throughout scripture because humanity finally needed somebody who could deal with sin fully and permanently beyond these failed repeated sacrifices. And that leads us to the cross. So when we arrive at the cross, we see all these pieces from the Old Testament come together, right? We see the sacrifices and the priests, the Passover lamb, the day of atonement, all these prophecies about a coming servant. They were all ultimately pointing towards Jesus. And this is where Christianity becomes completely different from every system that we've built on human effort because the gospel is not about people doing something to reach up to God. It's about God coming down to us and doing what we could never do for ourselves. And so Jesus becomes the final and perfect sacrifice for sin. And he's also this fulfillment of the promise that God first gave after the fall in Genesis chapter three, verse 15.

So we see in Genesis again, it says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So we see even in the middle of judgment right after the first sin, God was already promising that one day someone would come to permanently deal with sin and crush the power of darkness and evil. And so the cross was the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament sacrificial system had been building towards. And this matters because I think sometimes the cross gets misunderstood. Some people see the cross as just an example for love or self-sacrifice or just a tragic execution or that God for some reason decided to get nicer and decided to ignore sin now and move on. But the reality is that the cross is where God dealt with sin without compromising justice while also making a way to save sinners. Isaiah when it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. We have to notice how personal the language is. Our transgressions, our iniquities. Isaiah is describing someone who is suffering in the place of the guilty. Someone substituting for us and taking our place. And that's why 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21 says,

for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. And what that's saying is that Jesus was without sin. So he was not dying for his own guilt, but he was bearing the consequences of sin on behalf of others. So we think why Jesus? Why could Jesus take our place at all? Well the thing about scripture is it shows us that Jesus is. is completely unique, and that he is both fully human and fully divine. See, Jesus had to be fully human so he could represent us in the first place. Because we as humans are the ones who sinned and owed the debt. Hebrews tells us he had to be made like his brothers in every way. So Jesus steps fully into human life. He lives as a man. He suffers as a man. He's tempted as a man. And because he truly became human, he could then stand in our place as our representative. But he also had to be sinless. Because a guilty person cannot ultimately remove the guilt of another guilty person. If you owe somebody money and you're broke, you can't pay for somebody else who owes them money. You can't pay someone else's debt with what you don't have.

And so that's why it's so crucial that Jesus was sinless. So when he suffered, he wasn't suffering for his own wrongdoing. He was willingly stepping into the place of sinners. And yet he was also fully God. And this matters because the cross was not just the death of another man. So Acts chapter 20, verse 28, it says, it says that God purchased the church with his own blood. So we see here that the one who was sinned against actually chose to absorb the cost himself. Which means the cross is not this unwilling victim that's being punished by an unreasonable God. But it's actually God entering into our brokenness in order to rescue us at our own expense. Only God could bear the full weight of sin. Only mankind owed the debt of sin. So we see the triune God come in the form of a man and God the son. And he pays it himself. And what that shows us is it shows us the heavy cost of forgiveness. And this is the deepest form of the cost of forgiveness. And many of us know that forgiveness does cost something. When someone deeply wounds us. Forgiveness doesn't mean that the wound didn't matter, that it wasn't insignificant. That it was insignificant. It means that instead of clinging to revenge or bitterness or retaliation,

someone chooses to absorb the cost of what was wrong. And one way or another, forgiveness always costs somebody something. And at the cross we see that God himself is paying the cost to reconcile sinners back to himself. Even though he had every right to give sinners what sinners deserve. And that's why the crucifixion stands at the center of Christianity, right? God remains a just God because sin is dealt with. And yet mercy is not withheld because forgiveness is offered. And then we see that Jesus said it is finished. And that was the end of the repetitive sacrificial systems. That was showing that the work had fully been accomplished. So everything, the law, the sacrifice, the promises, everything that was pointed toward Christ was fulfilled in Christ. And then we see the resurrection that confirms that this work was truly accomplished. Because if Jesus remained in the grave, that would mean that his death was not enough to satisfy the justice of God. We would still be in our sins. And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians, he says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. So it shows the power of the resurrection and what that means and how the resurrection actually becomes

God's declaration and proof that the payment for sin was accepted and that reconciliation with God had truly been accomplished through Christ. And if that's true, that means that forgiveness is no longer grounded in our effort. It's no longer grounded in our performance, but it's completely in what Christ has done, which leaves no room for pride, no room for boasting, no room to take credit for ourselves. And so now that we know that forgiveness is possible through Christ, what does forgiveness actually mean for us? Well, Romans chapter eight, verse one tells us, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's interesting, though, so many of us, we can explain grace with our words, yet we still live like we're condemned, right? We believe forgiveness is real in theory and in concept, but we still approach God like we're rejected people. We're trying to earn our way back into acceptance. We're still trying to carry ourselves like God is barely tolerating us. And honestly, this affects how we live. It affects how we relate to one another. It affects how the culture is shaped.

And when culture is shaped more by shame than it is by grace, we end up learning to perform instead of confessing, right? We end up looking holy instead of becoming honest. We hide our struggles. We fear judgment. We fear rejection or suspicion. So instead of bringing sin into the light, we stay trapped, we stay hiding while we're smiling on the outside, while we're pretending. And many of us today, we still define ourselves by the worst thing we've ever done, right? We stay trapped and mentally chained to these past sins, these past failures, these past addictions, these regrets and this shame. And even after being born again, More and again, we can still feel like God is angry with us we still feel the pain of the past. We still feel the pain of the past. or that Jesus regrets saving us, We still feel the pain of the past. as if somehow we're the one exception And we still feel the pain of the past. And we still feel the pain of the past. that his blood was not strong enough to redeem. Yet this is how the word of God describes what God does to their sin. Psalm chapter 103, verse 12.

It says, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Micah 7, verse 19 says, you will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea. And Hebrews chapter eight, verse 12 says, I will remember their sins no more. See, these amazing promises and statements about what the Lord does to our sins, and yet many of us still live as if forgiveness only partially works, right? We approach God through shame instead of reconciliation. It's like we're trying to convince him that he needs to tolerate us. We still fear that one failure, or one sin, or one mistake is gonna cause God to abandon us. And sometimes we keep punishing ourselves. Even after repentance, we become more familiar with shame than we do with freedom. But the thing is forgiveness, it's not just God letting us into heaven someday while letting us live condemned now, right? Forgiveness means reconciliation with God right now. And in Christ, we're no longer enemies. We're no longer outsiders. We're restored to peace with him, and condemnation tells us to stay ashamed, tells us to stay hidden because there's no hope for us. We're still defined by our sin, but the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin, and at the same time, he'll remind us

that Jesus already paid for our sin, to draw us back to God, to call us into the light, to lead us back into fellowship with him. Now, of course, as many of us know, is forgiveness doesn't mean that pretending sin never happened. But what it does mean is that the sin isn't held against us to pay the penalty for it because Christ already took ownership of it and paid the price. But it also doesn't mean that it erases every earthly consequence, right? We still see it. We still see broken trust and damaged relationships. We see painful consequences. We see emotional healing, years of it that needs to take place that can still remain because once again, forgiveness isn't pretending that something didn't happen or becoming numb to it. But we also have to see that forgiveness also isn't permission to keep living in rebellion. Paul says in Romans chapter six, verse one through two, he says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? The thing about true forgiveness is it doesn't make us indifferent to sin. It actually produces gratitude. It produces humility, and it does change proximity and relationship with God. Yet many of us still serve God

while we're trapped under shame and condemnation because we keep carrying what Christ has already paid for. We haven't fully understood what the forgiveness of sins accomplished in Jesus. And this affects every part of how we live. It keeps us from walking in true freedom. We struggle to pray confidently because deep down, we might feel unwanted by God still. And even though Isaiah chapter 43, verse one through three says, God has called us by name, ransomed us, and redeemed us, but shame becomes this permanent part of how we see ourselves. So we keep replaying these old sins. We keep replaying these failures, these addictions, these broken relationships and these regrets, these seasons where we ran from God and even after genuine repentance, and we fail again and we run into condemnation instead of repentance and back into relationship. We might withdraw from prayer or worship and community. We feel fake. We feel dirty. We feel disappointing. And what's really happening is that we're still believing that our relationship with God depends on our performance instead of reconciliation through Christ. And the problem is when shame shapes the culture of the church, we start to look spiritually fine on the outside while still secretly hiding

what we're actually battling inside. We still live afraid that one failure is gonna make God reject us. And instead of walking in freedom, we learn how to look holy while staying spiritually insecure. We're constantly wondering if God is still angry with us or mad at us, if we've done enough, if we've ruined his plan or if we've gone too far, and that fear slowly shapes our relationship with God. It replaces our peace with this distance and striving and self-punishment. We stop enjoying God. We reject joy. We sabotage healthy relationships and we refuse rest. We stay trapped in shame because we feel like this ongoing misery somehow proves our repentance, our sincerity. But that's not how the scripture describes forgiveness. And while we should absolutely remain honest and humble about sin, there's a difference between remembering what God saved us from and living in prison by what he had already accomplished and forgave. And many of us, we still define ourselves by our wounds or our failures. We're just like, you know, well, this is just who I am. This is just how I'll always be. I'll always be broken. I'll always struggle. I ruined my life.

life, there's no coming back. But what the forgiveness of sins accomplishes is it means that shame has no authority to define your life. We no longer have to spend our lives trying to earn this relationship with God that Christ already made possible through the cross. Our past no longer has that final authority over our relationship with God because we stand before him reconciled through Christ. Yet even when forgiveness is offered, you know, many of us still resist it. And whether that's refusing to receive forgiveness or refusing to extend it to others. See, the thing about receiving grace is it requires humility, right? It takes control out of our hands and our pride often wants, you know, mercy when we're guilty, but then we want justice when we're the ones being offended. When we sin, you know, we want nuance, we want understanding, we want context, we need compassion. But when someone sins against us, we often define them entirely by what they did. So we end up wanting mercy for ourselves while withholding mercy from others, especially when forgiveness is being offered to someone who hurt us. We just, we want justice to be selective. But Hebrews chapter 12 verse 15 says, see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. So that phrase root of bitterness, it matters because bitterness rarely stays small. That pain slowly hardens into resentment and anger and suspicion and cynicism and self-protection. And sometimes we cling to unforgiveness because bitterness starts serving as this emotional crutch for us. It creates the sense of protection or control. And if I stay angry, I never have to become vulnerable again. If I withhold forgiveness, I can still hold power over the situation. If I stay guarded, I never have to risk trust again. So bitterness becomes our protection and sometimes we even fear healing because healing feels like we're letting the offender win. We think if I let this go, then what they did must not have mattered. But forgiveness doesn't mean that evil was okay, it just means that bitterness no longer gets to control the rest of your life. And you also see the same resistance with shame. Some of us become so attached to condemnation that grace actually feels uncomfortable. See, because if forgiveness is truly real, then we can't

define ourselves anymore entirely by our failure or guilt or our shame. We start defining ourselves solely as the betrayed person or the wounded person, I'm the rejected person. And when that happens, letting go of pain and bitterness, it can feel terrifying because it almost feels like we're losing a part of ourselves. And that's how easily our pain can become prisons when bitterness becomes rooted in our hearts. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31 says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. So Paul understands bitterness is something that's dangerous, it spreads like a cancer, it shapes identity, it distorts our relationships, it hardens our hearts. And so from that sense, forgiveness can be scary, right? Because it means that we're letting go of this identity we've learned to survive with. And forgiving someone can feel like we're surrendering justice that we want to serve. So it requires honesty, it requires humility and surrender and trust in the grace of God. It means refusing to let shame or pain become the deepest truth about who we are. So we have to ask, how does someone actually receive the forgiveness of sins? Well, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 through 9 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not a result of works which directly confronts our natural instinct and desire to save ourselves. This belief that if I become good enough, if I fix myself first, if I perform well enough, then God's finally going to accept me. But we see scripture teach that reconciliation with God only comes through faith in Jesus by the grace of God. Acts chapter 2 verse 38 says, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. So once again, repentance is not earning forgiveness, it's the posture of returning to God honestly. It's the opposite of what Adam and Eve did when they hid in the garden. Instead of trying to blame or cover or hide or self-justify, it's to come before God openly, to return to him, to confess to him and draw near to him. Romans chapter 10 verse 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. You know, many of us, we believe these facts about Jesus, but we're still

trying to trust in ourselves, we're still trusting in our morality, we're still trusting in our own effort. But true reconciliation, once again, only comes when we trust that it's Jesus' sinless life, it's his finished work, it's his payment for sin, it's his resurrection that makes us right with God. And this is where the work of the Holy Spirit is essential. Because our hearts are infected with sin, we don't naturally drift towards surrender, right? We don't naturally want to be humble or give up control on our own. And so when we begin to feel conviction over sin, when we recognize our need for mercy and we realize that we can't save ourselves, that's the... The Spirit of God ultimately working in our hearts. He's convicting us, he's softening our hearts, he's exposing deception and he's drawing us towards Christ and so repentance is not humanity climbing up to impress God through self-effort. It's God ultimately calling people to respond through faith and repentance. You see 1 John 1 9, the scripture we read earlier, it says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins. So forgiveness is only in what Christ accomplished at the cross and this is why ultimately forgiveness, it's not something that's achieved, it's something that's received. You know, one of the clearest pictures of this in scripture, many of us have heard this, the parable of the prodigal son. So Jesus tells the story of this son who takes his inheritance. The way he does it, basically tells his father that he wants to receive his inheritance.

Back then, you didn't receive your inheritance until your father was dead. So essentially, he's insulting his father by saying, I'd rather you be dead right now so I can receive my inheritance right now. But the father gives him his inheritance and he leaves the house and ends up wasting everything and reckless living. Eventually ends up broken, he's ashamed, he's desperate, he's dirty. But what's important is it's the condition he returns in, right? He doesn't return successful or cleaned up or worthy. He doesn't say, hey father, I invested that money you gave me and now I'm richer than I was before. I'm a CEO now, I have all these accolades, all these trophies, I hope I've done enough to impress you, right? And the thing I love about this parable is that when the son's about to give this rehearsed apology that he puts together, the father just ignores it. He just cuts him off, he just embraces it before he can even start. And the reason that is is because the forgiveness didn't depend on the quality of the son's ridiculous speech. It depended solely on the love and the character of the father. The father forgave him because he wanted to. And today the heavenly father wants to forgive you.

And he proved it by going as far as giving up the life of his only son to make it possible. The cross is where forgiveness and justice intersect. It's only through the person of Jesus that made this possible. You know, too many of us approach God today, we assume we need to become worthy before we can truly come to Christ. But we see the Bible actually teaches the complete opposite. We actually come to Christ because we can't fully heal or save ourselves on our own. Jesus says, I didn't come for the healthy, I came for the sick. You know, growth is no longer this desperate attempt to earn love from God, it becomes the response of those who have already been reconciled to him through Christ. So don't ask for the forgiveness after every sin we commit to get re-saved or to hope that God is still pleased with us, hope that God still loved us. We also don't neglect to ask for forgiveness because we're ashamed to or out of taking that cost that Jesus paid for granted, thus letting our hearts become hardened and apathetic and distant from God. But we continue to ask for forgiveness because we have been given the gift to. We're given a new cup of mercy, a new opportunity to receive God's grace, to enjoy his presence,

to enjoy his friendship, to speak with him, to navigate life with him, free of shame, free of condemnation. You know, we should really make forgiveness, asking forgiveness such a normal part of our life. It's a core essential to who we are. It keeps us sensitive to sin. It kills our pride. It keeps us from being puffed up. It reminds us of our daily need for God's grace. It keeps us close to Jesus in relationship. It removes the pressure of this lie that tells us we need to perform or bring perfection for salvation. You don't become holier by guilt tripping yourself into a black hole. But the more you forsake anything that is opposed to Christ because you're constantly choosing him, because you're simply abiding in him, you're tethered to him. Every time Jesus says, follow me, and you leave behind everything you would otherwise have attempted to choose over him because you wanna follow him instead of saying, oh man, I sinned again. You know, why did I do that? I'm just never going to get any better. I can't do this. God's so sick of me now. I'm just gonna go, no.

He's not calling us to do that. But we have the opportunity to say, oh God, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful for the mercy of God that it's new every day. I'm thankful for the forgiveness of sins. I'm so glad I have this other opportunity to repent and to confess, to receive forgiveness so I can draw near to Jesus and keep persevering in Jesus so that I'm not in my sin, that he's thrown my sin into the depths of the sea. We can keep abiding in Jesus. We keep enjoying Jesus. We keep delighting in Jesus until we never wanna leave. And everything apart from him just loses its taste. You know, God never gets sick of forgiving us. We just get sick of asking him for it. You know, if Jesus shed his blood, if Jesus shed his blood for me, then I don't wanna waste a single drop if it means I get to stay in fellowship and friendship and nearness with my heavenly Father. Revelation mentions that before the foundation of the world, the land was slain. Before the foundation of the world. Did you know that before the earth was created, God had already made a plan to prepare your way of forgiveness? God wants to forgive you. I'm gonna ask the prayer team to come forward.

And everybody, you can stand to your feet. And I just wanna remind us today that God wants to forgive you today. You know, those of you that are holding on to shame, holding on to condemnation, because, oh man, I just deserve it. No, no, no, no, God wants to remind you that he has forgiven you, no matter what it is, no matter what you've done. How can we honestly think that our standards are higher than God's? That we can think that, oh, well, God has said he's forgiven me for this, but I say that it's too strong for his blood to forgive. Who are we to even determine that? No matter what it is, no matter what you've done, you know, God already knew everything that you would do before he called you by name. It doesn't surprise him, right? He hasn't changed his mind about you. He's not waiting for you to write a speech or to do a good work or to get back to being as on fire as you used to be. So many of us, we look about, maybe we've wandered off and strayed away, and we think, man, if I could only just pray like I used to or worship like I used to or attend church like I used to. Once again, all these things are good, but they're not what pleases God.

God is already pleased with you because of what Jesus did on the cross. That's a gift that's been given, and so we draw to him because we've been given that gift. All he wants for us is to come out of hiding, to trust what he did, to be embraced by him again, to believe who you are because he is who he is, and to walk with him. So I wanna tell you today, you're not your sin. You're not your past, future, or present sins. Some of you spent years trying to fix yourself. When the Bible says that he's taken our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west, if you keep traveling east, you will never reach west. You will never reach it. That's how far he's removed our sin from us. That's how far he's removed our shame. There's nothing we can do. There's nothing we have to do. We just have to believe and trust in what Jesus has already done. So don't walk out of this building today holding on to this identity, holding on to this shame, holding on to this guilt of what you've done. Don't live another day when forgiveness has been extended to us. I'm gonna go before the Lord in prayer. God, we thank you for the forgiveness of sins. God, we thank you that you have made a way for us, Lord, that you suffered and died on the cross

and rose again on the third day. God, just so we can be reconciled in relationship with you, God, may you destroy every lie in our mind and our heart that tells us that we have to hold on to condemnation, we have to hold on to shame, that we have to constantly remind ourselves of how filthy we are to please you, God. But may we actually believe what you have said in your word, God. May we not think that asking for forgiveness is gonna get to a point where you're just tired of hearing from us or just annoyed from us, Lord God, that we're just being biblical. God, you've given us the invitation, you've extended your grace. So God, may we believe it, may we receive it. And God, for those of us that are maybe hearing this for the first time, maybe we've never truly understood that we can be forgiven, Holy Spirit, I pray that you minister to every heart in this room. God, I pray that you remind us that you have made a way for us to come back in relationship with you. God, that we're here for a reason, God, that we're made for a purpose. And God, ultimately, we're made to be in relationship with you.

May we continue to walk with you, enjoy your presence. Lord God, deal with all of the different situations and seasons of life with you because you've given us your Holy Spirit, you've given us that relationship, you've given us access to know you. And it's all through the blood of Jesus. Lord, we thank you, we love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Altars are open if you need prayer for anything, if you just need to be ministered to, these people will be available for you to be ministered to, God bless.