The Forgiveness Of Sins | Phillip Iloff | We Believe | Full Service

Good morning Church for the City. It's so good to be in the house of the Lord this morning. My name's Will, and if you're new here or this is your first time, we'd like to get to know you. We'd ask if you could take your phone, you can tap the disc on the chair in front of you, fill out the connect card, or you can check in with the Next Step booths out in the office, or out in the foyer there. If you're online, you can check the digital connect card there. The verse I want to share with you this morning comes from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He'll show you which path to take. A lot of us, when we get faced with big decisions, we have a hard time trusting in anybody else but ourselves to figure out the answer. Or when things go wrong, your car won't start, your house, sun breaks at your house, you just don't know what to do. The first thing a lot of us, our reaction is to drop on our knees and say, Dear Lord, please help. No. We do the all-American thing and we panic. We go into a mindset of, I have to fix this. But we have to remember that we serve a God that loves us. We serve a God that wants a relationship with us. He wants to guide us and He wants to help us. You know, I know we're at graduation time. There's a lot of you out there, a lot here that are getting ready to graduate, whether it's college, high school, middle school. This applies to everybody in here, but I want you that are going to a new season, I want you to hear me right now. When you get faced with these big decisions and these forks in the road and you don't know what to do, trust in the Lord. All right? And when, pray. I want you to stop and pray and seek God's will. Most important, take the time to be quiet, be still, and listen to what He has to say. He will show you the right path to take. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to come together in your house, Lord. Thank you for being a God that loves us and shows us the path that you want us to take. Lord, open our hearts and our minds and our ears so that we may hear whatever word you have for us today and apply it to our lives in a way that glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's worship.

Come on, church. Let's put our hands together. Come on, church. Let's put our hands together. I'm standing in your victory. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. I was good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. I'm clean. It's not what I have done, but what you've done for me. You've paid it all upon that tree. Oh, hallelujah. I'm clean. And love has overcome. And your mercy is supreme. I'm dancing in your victory. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. I was good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. I was good as new. Oh, hallelujah. I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood. All because of you. Oh, hallelujah. Cause you took away my shame. And you laid it to the cross. You got me running out the grave. Hallelujah, here I come. Cause you took away my shame. And you laid it to the cross. You got me running out the grave.

Hallelujah, here I come. Cause you took away my shame. And you laid it to the cross. You got me running out the grave. You got me running out today Hallelujah, here I come Cause you took away my shame And you made it to the cross You got me running out today Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Hallelujah, here I come Thank you Jesus Thank you Jesus Come on, choose to sing this Washed in the water, washed in the blood Oh, hallelujah I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood All because of you Oh, hallelujah Thank you Jesus The precious fountain From Calvary's mountain From down to you and I He washes us clean Oh, what a mystery The red blood makes me wild Isn't it wild? Doesn't it make you wonder How something so profound

Could be so simple Come on church The blood, the blood, the blood Oh, the wonderful blood Your love, your love, your love Oh, the marvelous love Let the redeemed sing a song Praises belong to the Son The blood, the blood, the blood Oh, the wonderful blood My precious Jesus Oh, I'm so thankful For the day you saved my life As I remember My heart grows tender As I begin to fill my eyes Isn't it wild? Doesn't it make you wonder How something so profound Could be so simple Isn't it wild? Doesn't it make you wonder How something so divine Could be so simple The blood, the blood, the blood Oh, the wonderful blood Your love, your love, your love Oh, the marvelous love Let the redeemed sing a song Praises belong to the Son

The blood, the blood, the blood Oh, the wonderful blood We thank you for your blood, God We thank you for your mercy And your grace, God Yeah, yeah The blood of Jesus The blood of Jesus We thank you for The wonderful you were Come on, just one more as we sing it The work you did is fair Come on, church, let's sing it ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The cross was your decision ♪ ♪ But death was not the end ♪ ♪ You rose and now we're risen ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The work you did is finished ♪ ♪ All of our sins forgiven ♪ ♪ And now we dance to live it ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The cross was your decision ♪ ♪ But death was not the end ♪ ♪ You rose and now we're risen ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ Oh, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ Huh, the wonder of the working blood ♪ ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood ♪

♪ Oh, the wonderful blood ♪ ♪ Your love, your love, your love ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous love ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood ♪ ♪ Oh, the wonderful blood of Jesus ♪ Your love, your love, your love ♪ ♪ Oh, the marvelous love ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song ♪ Praises belong to the Son ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood ♪ Oh, the wonderful blood ♪ The work you did is finished ♪ All of our sin is forgiven ♪ And now we get to live in ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The cross was your decision ♪ But death does not be ending ♪ You rose and now we're rising ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ The wonder of the working blood ♪ On mercy ♪ The throne of God ♪ Makes me quite as the son ♪ Of all the founts I know ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus

♪ Oh precious is the throne ♪ God makes me quite as the son ♪ Of all the founts I know ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ Nothing but the blood of Jesus ♪ Oh the wonder of the working blood ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood ♪ Oh the wonderful blood ♪ Your love, your love, your love ♪ Oh the marvelous love ♪ Let the redeemed sing a song ♪ Praises down to the son ♪ The blood, the blood, the blood ♪ Oh the wonderful blood We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. We thank you Jesus. ♪ I was only the start ♪ ♪ Now I am chosen ♪

♪ Free and forgiven ♪ ♪ I have a future ♪ ♪ And it's worth the living ♪ Come on church, just sing it out. ♪ I wasn't made to be tamed in a grave ♪ ♪ I was called by name ♪ ♪ Born and raised back to life again ♪ ♪ I was made for more ♪ ♪ So why would I make it or beg in my shame ♪ ♪ When the fountain of grace is running my way ♪ ♪ I know I am yours, I was made for more ♪ ♪ I know who I am ♪ ♪ Cause I know who you are ♪ ♪ The cross of salvation was only the start ♪ ♪ Was only the start ♪ ♪ Now I am chosen, free and forgiven ♪ ♪ And I have a future and it's worth the living ♪ ♪ It's worth the living ♪ ♪ Cause I wasn't made to be tamed in a grave ♪ ♪ I was called by name ♪ ♪ Born and raised back to life again ♪ ♪ I was made for more ♪ ♪ So why would I make it or beg in my shame ♪ ♪ When a fountain of apes is running my way ♪ ♪ I know I am yours, I was made for more ♪ Come on church, we have a baptism announced today. Let's celebrate that together. My name is Jordan. I grew up going to church, but it was never a priority in my life.

I may have known about Jesus, but I didn't truly know him. Things were chaotic and stressful. I thought everything was good. I thought everything was fine, but I was ignorant. Over time I became angry, jaded and hurt. I never realized how much I needed God in a relationship with him. A little over a year ago, a work incident brought me to a low point. My family and I realized we could no longer go through life on our own strength. We turned to the cornerstone, which is Jesus, to build a stronger foundation. We started pursuing a real relationship with God and began attending Church for the City. We made a commitment to build our home on Christ. I watched my wife get baptized here at CTC and her statement of faith hit me like a ton of bricks. I surrendered my life to Christ and I felt heavy in my heart that I needed to get baptized as well. Since giving my life to Jesus, the anger and hurt in my life has been replaced with God's love and grace. I've learned that to be the husband, father and man I aspire to be, I need Jesus. While at times I feel unworthy, I've learned that God doesn't call us to be perfect.

He calls us to be bold in our faith. Jesus is the one true God and the King of kings. He died on the cross and endured all of that for us. I am more than willing to do this for him. Today, I'm going public with my faith. Jordan, Jesus said that every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith, today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and according to scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ♪ Hallelujah, you buried my past, I'm not going back. ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, you buried my past, I'm not going back. ♪ ♪ Cause I wasn't made to be tamed in the grave. ♪ I was called by name, born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am yours. I was made for more. Cause I wasn't made to be sent in a grave. I was called by name, born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am yours. I was made for more. Sing Hallelujah. You called out my name so I'll sing out your praise. Hallelujah. You buried my past, I'm not going back. Hallelujah. You called out my name so I'll sing out your praise. Hallelujah. You buried my past, I'm not going back. Cause I wasn't made to be sent in a grave. I was called by name, born and raised back to life again. I was made for more. So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way?

I know I am yours. I was made for more. Come on church, give the Lord a shout of praise this morning. Amen, Amen. Well hey church, we're going to go into what we call a minute to mingle. Go ahead and greet your neighbor. Tell them that you're happy they're in the house today. Good morning CTC family. Can we just give just thanks to the worship team one more time for leading us into the presence of God this morning. I don't know about you but I just feel so lucky that we have, you know what I'm saying, it's just me, it's just my personal opinion. But we have the best worship team around man, they're awesome, we love them. Thank you guys so much for joining us here at Church for the City today. If you are watching online, just welcome, we love you. Just grateful to have you here today. If we haven't met yet, my name is Juan Lozada, I am the next steps director here at CTC. Yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, to God be all the glory. But guys, I'm eager to get out of the way so that we can jump into the message portion of service. But before I do, I do have some verbals that I'd like to share with you. First, we have our men's retreat coming up and we're incredibly excited about this. Yes, come on. This retreat is open to all men, high school age and up. And it truly is an opportunity just to step away from the noise of everyday life and pursue God intentionally. Not only through powerful teachings, worship experiences, small groups. And they're going to have a bunch of outdoor activities. But guys, spots are limited. So if you want more details on that registration, make sure you stop by the lobby. Check our app or visit the website after service. The next thing is our CTC Kids Academy Preschool has a few opening spots left. So whether you have been exploring preschool options or you simply want to learn what makes our academy special. Make sure you stop by the table in the lobby after service. Would love to connect with you also guys CTC family, I just want to take a moment and just celebrate how generous you are and

And you are a generous church and last week was evidence of that once again through convoy of hopes Feed one initiative. We raised a total of twenty seven thousand three hundred and fifty six $36. Yes. Come on. God is so good. You guys are so faithful to give my math isn't a strength And so you do the math how many kids we get? You know we get we get to just bless so Before I move forward. I do want to take a moment and just pray for our CTC campuses For our local churches around the world and we also just want to pray for Paris Tyrone and Lady V as they minister Outside of Yuma this week, so let's let's go before the Lord Lord. We love you. We thank you Jesus We just ask that your presence father not only be fell father, but also be Transformative in our lives not only here at this campus father But also in all of our campuses along with every local church father in our community in America in the world that as we preach the gospel as we preach the good news We just ask that your Holy Spirit just freeze and forgives and pours grace Over your people in the name of Jesus and all CTC family said Amen. Amen Family, can you can we just stand up, please? Can we stand up and can we give a proper welcome to a son of the house to a brother in the faith? Pastor Phil as he brings the message today I Think I'm Well, good morning church family it is such an honor to be with you here today To be able to deliver the message. I'm gonna keep you guys standing for just a little bit. We're not gonna get too long But can we can we just honor our pastors pastor Tyrone in Virginia as their way? Bless them. I was so thankful for Just being pastored and parented by them we you know, they really love us They really love to invest in you and they care about each and every one of you. And so we just want to Wish them well and pray for traveling mercies as they're in Washington Also, can we celebrate and honor Lady V's message from last week? How many of you were blessed by that? It was such an incredible message Yeah, I walked into Pastor Tyrone's office I said I don't want to follow that up next week But we were absolutely blessed to hear that we're gonna get right into it I'm gonna have you guys stand

You guys already standing. That's why that's why I didn't have you guys sit down We're gonna go and write in the scripture reading first John chapter 1 verse 9. We're gonna get right into it And if you have it, please say amen All right So just this one verse 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 for the Lord in prayer God. We thank you for your Holy Spirit We thank you that your Holy Spirit is present in this moment today And God we thank you for the Word of God Lord that it cleanses us that it purifies us Lord that it leads and direct Us and guides us God. So we just ask Holy Spirit that we would just be open to your word that our hearts would receive your word Lord God that you would direct and guide My thoughts and my words Lord as I bring forth this message God may every word that proceeds from my mouth be directed by your Holy Spirit and God may Everything outside of your Holy Spirit and the Word of God fall on deaf ears Lord and may everything that you speak God made that land on good soil God that we would take and receive it and walk in the power of it Lord God we thank you for your church. We thank you for what you're doing in your church Lord and God We just give you all the glory today. We love you and we honor you to Jesus name. We pray Amen Okay, you may be seated All right, so we're gonna go we're gonna continue our sermon series of the Apostles Creed together So what we're gonna do is we're gonna pick up from the Holy Universal Church and the community of the Saints Which we went over the last several weeks and if this is your first time Being introduced to the Apostles Creed It's essentially this historic summary of the core beliefs of the Christian faith, right? So they were written early in church history. It was used for centuries to teach believers What Christianity teaches about God? 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 the scriptures

And so that matters because it keeps Christianity centered on the gospel, right, instead of reducing the faith to moral self-improvement or politics or whatever culture is focused on at the moment. And 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 so this matters because it teaches that humanity has this real sin problem, right, that separates us from God. And since this line comes after it speaks about Jesus' suffering, the crucifixion and 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, okay, well, what exactly is sin, right? 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, or fear, hiding, brokenness, bitterness, addiction, pride, emptiness, condemnation.

And we have this constant tendency to run from exposure while at the same time simultaneously longing for peace and reconciliation. Once again, we really have to understand, in order to understand why the forgiveness of sins is such good news, we need 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 Genesis chapter three, verses seven through 10, if you have it in your Bibles, and we're also gonna have it on the screen. But we read here in Genesis three, seven through 10. 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 this is one of the most revealing things about this passage and it's when Adam and Eve, it's how they respond right after sin enters into the world, right? And that's that they hid, they hid themselves. And before this moment, there was this openness with God. There wasn't any shame or fear or separation. There wasn't this need to cover themselves or withdraw from God's presence. But the moment sin enters humanity, we see something shift. And suddenly, they begin to feel exposed. They feel ashamed and they become afraid of God instead of secure with him.

Of course, something important to notice is that no one had to teach them that. No one had to teach them to be guilty. No one taught them shame. But sin naturally produces this separation between humanity and God. So the first thing humanity does after sin enters the world is it attempts to cover itself, right? Adam and Eve sow these fig leaves together. They hide among the trees. They try to manage their exposure on their own. And what's interesting is that in many ways, Genesis 3 becomes the beginning of these false salvation systems that we keep repeating. Before we built religions and philosophies and political systems and civilizations and cultures, ever since then, we've been repeating the same pattern, only the hiding changes, right? Now maybe it's success or achievement. Maybe it's distraction or relationships or intellectualism or even religion itself. And especially now with social media, we have these carefully constructed identities where everything has to look perfect. We have to have the perfect family, the perfect lifestyle, the perfect success story, the perfect spirituality. And yet many times behind this image, there's still this brokenness.

There's this shame. There's this anxiety. There's this loneliness or this condemnation. Because underneath all of it, we still have that same instinct that Adam and Eve had in the garden, which is to hide, right? I don't want anyone to see who I really am. And then Genesis 3, it says that God comes looking for Adam and Eve while they're hiding. And one thing that's really important to notice is that God says, where are you? He's not asking, where are you? It says he says, where are you? And it's not because God lacked information about Adam's location. He was confronting the fracture of that relationship. And so humanity's hiding, and yet God is still pursuing us. And that becomes this important theme, this important thread and this pattern throughout Scripture. We see that sin causes humanity to hide from God, but God continuously calls people back into reconciliation. So this brings us back to that question again. That's 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, right? That's why we hear my truth all the time. We're trying to define truth on our own

apart from what God has established as the truth. This happened in Genesis. Adam and Eve, they're not just breaking this random rule about fruit. They're choosing whether they're gonna trust God's authority or to become their own authority. And scripture shows that sin isn't just this external behavior. It's not just this action, but it's this condition of the heart that affects human nature itself. And we see in Romans chapter three, verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which means sin is universal, right? It's not just something found in people that we deem worse than us. And Isaiah chapter 59, verse two says, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. So it shows us that the deepest effect of sin is separation from God, ultimately. And we see that separation show up everywhere, right? We see brokenness in families, and we see it in guilt and shame and fear, self-justification, comparison, this constant need to prove ourselves or to cleanse ourselves. And we see cultures change, we see technology rising, we see empires rise and fall and societies progress. We're gonna make the world a better place, we're gonna build this utopia, and yet human nature just seems to stay the same because the real problem

is a spiritual one, right? Humanity knows something is wrong, and until we understand the seriousness of what sin did to us, we won't fully understand why forgiveness of sins is such good news. And the reality is forgiveness, it's not just about correcting our behavior. It's about fixing that separation between humanity and God himself. So we have to ask, how does that separation from God actually get repaired? You know, how do sinful people reconcile with the holy God? And throughout history, you know, we see humanity, we've tried to answer all these questions, whether that's through morality or religion or rituals or performance or self-effort. But we see in the Old Testament, we see these sacrificial systems, they're revealed through the priests and the sacrifices and the altars and the cleansing rituals, the offerings. We see all these blood offerings, but yet we still can't fully cleanse ourselves from sin. But God's teaching his people that sin is serious, that sin brings death and sin is costly, which is why Hebrews chapter nine, verse 22 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Now, we often tend to treat sin pretty casually, right? We kind of see it everywhere,

we become desensitized to it, but, you know, people ask, you know, well, why can't God just forgive us, right? If God is loving, why does forgiveness have to require, you know, something so serious? Why does there have to be this extreme response that requires forgiveness? But when we step back, we realize forgiveness is costly because sin carries such consequences, right? We know evil matters. Deep down, we already know this, right? Whether that's betrayal or abuse or violence or manipulation, you know, murder touches someone we love, we don't want evil ignored, right? We cry out for justice because we know evil's a real thing. We know it shouldn't just be dismissed. You know, most of us don't see abuse or corruption or the destruction of innocent lives and honestly think that justice doesn't matter. You know, we have this instinct, we know that justice matters because we were created in the image of a just God. When we see evil, something in us cries for it to be dealt with, right? A judge who ignores, you know, wickedness wouldn't be called a loving or righteous judge, right? He'd be called corrupt. You know, if God is truly good and loving, then he must also be just.

He must condemn evil and he must deal with sin and that's why the Old Testament, the sacrificial system, it revolves around atonement and the cleansing with blood and blood sacrifices. It reveals that, hey, sin matters so deeply, it can't just simply be ignored. And we read in Romans chapter six, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. So death wasn't just this biological reality after the fall, right? It becomes a spiritual reality. It's tied to our sin and separation from God and we see this reminder throughout the Old Testament. And even though we're seeing reconciliation require these sacrifices, we also see that these sacrifices were never the final solution. We read in Hebrews chapter 10, verse one through four, it says, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they have not 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 these rituals revealed, all they showed is that the sacrifices themselves were never actually the final solutions.

They were constantly just reminding us of our state. They constantly reminded us of these two realities and that's how serious sin is and that we can't do anything about it permanently. We need forgiveness, yet we can't save ourselves. You know, even today, we still try to deal with guilt. We still try to clean up ourselves with these modern versions of the sacrificial systems to prove we're acceptable. We think, you know, if I'm just successful enough, if I'm important enough, if I'm productive enough, if I'm respected enough, maybe I'll finally feel okay. Maybe I'll finally be content and accomplishment becomes our identity. We get our worth from performance. We try to reconcile ourselves through morality. We'll compare people that, once again, we deem worse people, and we build our identity off of being better than others. You know, well, I'm not perfect, but at least I'm not like them. You know, at least I'm a good person. At least I try, right? We have this performative reality, and people are saying that they wanna be on the right side of history. There's this endless self-improvement or this constant self-reinvention. We still feel this pressure to appear aware and acceptable and worthy of approval,

but we're still carrying this shame and this insecurity and this bitterness or this emptiness and this guilt inside. You know, some of us will try to reconcile ourselves through religion and performance. You know, oh, if I just pray enough, if I just serve enough, if I just attend church enough, if I just know enough scripture, if I clean myself up enough, then maybe God will finally accept me. Now, those things aren't bad, of course, but we miss the point, and that's because our relationship with God ends up becoming built entirely on fear and performance instead of the reconciliation he's offered, and we never actually rest because we're still trying to earn something that was never meant to be earned through effort. Sometimes we'll even punish ourselves into cleansing. This happens a lot more than we realize. I think, you know, we think about how much we deserve misery because of what we've done, so we sabotage our relationships, we reject joy, we refuse peace, we'll live under this constant state of self-condemnation. We start replaying our past failures over and over again. You know, how many of you have those 3 a.m. thoughts, right? You think about that one thing you said to that person in eighth grade, but now you're 44 years old, that person hasn't thought of you in decades,

and then you're just like, man, I'm just so stupid. Such an idiot. Right now in this moment, even though that happened in 1995. But for some of us, without realizing it, we actually try to atone for ourselves through misery and through suffering, but none of those things can fully remove the guilt, and just like the Old Testament sacrifices had to continue repeatedly, we're also living in these endless cycles that we're trapped in trying to justify ourselves, and we can see the exhaustion that this creates. We become spiritually exhausted because we think our reconciliation with God depends entirely on our ability to fix ourselves. There's never any true peace. We're still trying to solve this thing that only God can ultimately resolve, but as you continue to read through the Old Testament, you start seeing that even through the sacrificial system, even though it was constantly repeated and couldn't permanently defeat sin and guilt, God was already weaving this plan, revealing this greater plan in all these different ways, through Abraham and Isaac, through the Passover lamb, and through 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. And this prophecy was written centuries before it happened, and yet Isaiah describes this coming servant who would suffer on behalf of others. He would carry sin and somehow bring this reconciliation and peace with God. So there's this growing anticipation building throughout the scripture because humanity needed someone who could finally deal with sin fully and permanently beyond these failed and repeated sacrifices, and that leads us to the cross. So when we arrive at the cross, all the pieces of the Old Testament, they finally come together, from the sacrifices, the priests, the Passover lamb, the day of atonement, all the prophecies about this coming servant, they were all pointing to Jesus, and this is where Christianity becomes completely different from all these other systems that we've built on human effort, and that's because the gospel is showing that it's not about people reaching up to God, but it's about God coming down to us and doing what we could never do for ourselves. And so Jesus becomes this perfect and final sacrifice for sin, and he's also the fulfillment of the promise that God first gave after the fall. Also in Genesis chapter three, it says, I will put enmity between you and the woman

and between your offspring and hers, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So we see even in the middle of judgment after the first sin, God was already promising that one day someone would come to deal with sin and crush the problem of sin and the power of evil and darkness. And even in the middle of this judgment, he delivers it. The cross was this fulfillment. of everything that the Old Testament sacrificial system had been building toward. The thing is, the reason why it's so important is sometimes the cross gets misunderstood, right? Some of us see the cross as only this example of love or self-sacrifice or this tragic execution or that God just somehow decided to get nice and ignore sin and move on, but the reality is that the cross is where God deals with sin without compromising justice, but also making a way to save sinners. We read in Isaiah chapter 53, verse five, it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And now, notice how personal this language is. It says our transgressions, our iniquities. So Isaiah is describing someone suffering in the place of the guilty. This is substitution. This is someone taking our place.

That's why 2 Corinthians 5, 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 might ask, okay, well, why Jesus? Why could Jesus take our place? Well, the Bible shows us that Jesus is completely unique and that he's both fully human and fully divine. See, Jesus had to be fully human so he could represent us in the first place, because 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. But he also had to be sinless, because a guilty person cannot ultimately remove the guilt of another person. Somebody who doesn't have any money can't pay the debt of somebody else who doesn't have money, right? God needed a perfect and sinless sacrifice. That's why this is 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 wasn't just the death of another man. In Acts 20, verse 28, it says that God purchased the church with his own blood. So the one who was sinned against chose to absorb the cost himself. So that means the cross isn't just this unwilling victim being punished by this unreasonable God. It's actually God entering into our brokenness, and he's rescuing us at his own expense, and only God could bear the full weight of sin. So you have the triune God become man. He pays the debt himself in God the Son, and that shows us this heavy cost of forgiveness. And this is the deepest form of the cost of forgiveness. I'm sure some of us have experienced a cost when it comes to forgiveness in our own lives. You know, when someone deeply wounds us, forgiveness doesn't mean the wound was insignificant. It just means that instead of clinging to revenge or bitterness or retaliation, someone chooses to absorb the cost of that wrong. And in one way or another, forgiveness always costs somebody something. Now, at the cross, scripture shows God himself paying that cost to reconcile sinners back to himself, and even though he had every right to give sinners

what sinners deserve, and that's why the crucifixion stands at the center of Christianity. God remains a just God because sin is fully dealt with, and yet mercy is not withheld because forgiveness is offered. And when Jesus says it is finished, that was the end of these repetitive sacrificial systems, right, the work had fully been accomplished. Everything, the law, the sacrifices, the promises that had been pointing toward Jesus was fulfilled in Jesus, and the resurrection confirms that this work was truly accomplished. Because if Jesus remained in the grave, then that would prove that the sacrifice was not sufficient, that it didn't satisfy the justice of God. We'd still be in our sins, and that's why Paul in 1 Corinthians says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. So the resurrection is so powerful because it 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. If that's true, then forgiveness is no longer grounded in our effort, right? It's not grounded in our performance. It's completely in what Christ has done, which leaves no room for us to take credit for it. There's no room to boast.

There's no room to be proud. And so now that we know that forgiveness is possible through Christ, what does forgiveness actually mean? Romans chapter eight, verse one tells us, there is therefore now no No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we read that scripture and yet so many of us, we can explain grace with our words but we still live like we're condemned. We believe forgiveness is real in theory and concept but we still approach God like we're rejected people trying to earn our way back into acceptance and we still carry ourselves like God is barely tolerating us. And honestly, this affects how we live and relate to one another in the church and if culture is shaped more by shame and by grace then what happens is people learn to perform rather than being honest, instead of confessing. We learn to look holy and we hide our struggles and we fear judgment and rejection and suspicion. So instead of bringing sin into the light, we stay trapped, we're hiding our pain, we're hiding our guilt and we're hiding our shame while smiling on the outside. And many of us still define ourselves by the worst thing we've done and we stay mentally chained to these past sins, these past failures, these addictions, these regrets and this shame.

And even after being born again, we can still feel like God is angry with us so that Jesus regrets saving us as if we're somehow the one exception that his blood was not strong enough to redeem. Yet this is how the word of God describes what God does with our sin. Psalm chapter 103 verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Micah chapter seven verse 19 says, you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Hebrews eight through 12 verse 12 says, I will remember their sins no more. And yet many of us, we still live as if forgiveness only partially worked. We approach God through shame instead of reconciliation as though we're still trying to convince him to tolerate us. We fear that one failure or one mistake is gonna make God abandon us. Like sometimes we keep punishing ourselves and even after repentance, we become more familiar with shame than with freedom. But forgiveness is not just God letting us into heaven someday while leaving us condemned now. It means that we're reconciled with God now. In Christ, we're no longer enemies or outsiders. We're restored to peace with him. Condemnation tells us to stay ashamed. We stay hidden because there's no hope for us

because we're still defined by sin. But the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin to remind us that Jesus already paid for that sin to draw us back to God, to call us into the light and to lead us back into fellowship with him. I mean, and of course, forgiveness doesn't mean that pretending to sin never happened, right? It just means that the sin isn't held over us to pay the penalty for it because Christ already took ownership and paid the price in our place. But we see that forgiveness doesn't automatically erase every earthly consequence, right? We see broken trust, we see damaged relationships, we see painful consequences. You know, emotional healing still needs to take place and takes a process, but it's also not 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? So true forgiveness doesn't make us indifferent towards sin, it actually produces gratitude, humility in this changed 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 forgiveness of sins has accomplished. And this affects every part of how we live.

We'll struggle to pray confidently because deep down we think we're still unwanted by God, 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. We keep replaying old sins and failures and addictions and relationships and regrets and seasons where we ran from God and then whenever we fail, we run into condemnation instead of repentance. You know, we withdraw from prayer and worship and church and community because we feel fake, we feel dirty, we feel like disappointments. And what's really happening is we still believe our relationship with God depends on our performance instead of the reconciliation that Christ has bought us. We still live afraid of that one failure that will 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, if we've gone too far and that fear shapes our relationship with God. We stop enjoying God, we reject joy, we sabotage healthy relationships. We have this ongoing misery

because we think it somehow proves our repentance. But that's not how scripture describes forgiveness. And while we should be absolutely honest and humble about sin, there's this difference between remembering what God has saved us from and living in prison by what he already forgave. You know, many of us, we define ourselves by these wounds and these failures. We're just like, oh, well, this is just who I am. I'm just always gonna be. broken, I'll always struggle, I've ruined my life, I've gone too far, there's no coming back from what I've done. But the forgiveness of sins means that shame no longer has that authority to define who we are. The past no longer has that final authority over our relationship with God, and reconciliation has actually taken place. We no longer have to spend our lives trying to earn relationship with God, because Christ has already made that possible through the cross. Yet even when forgiveness is offered, you know, many of us still tend to resist it, you know, and whether that's refusing to receive forgiveness or even refusing to extend it. See, receiving grace, it requires this humility. It takes control out of our hands, and our pride wants mercy when we're the guilty ones,

but we want justice when we're the ones that are offended, right? When we sin, you know, we want understanding, we want context, we want compassion, we want nuance. But when someone sins against us, we often define them entirely by what they did, so we end up wanting mercy for ourselves and withholding mercy from others, especially when forgiveness is being offered to someone we hurt, right? We want justice to be selective. 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 so much because bitterness rarely stays small, right, that pain slowly hardens. It hardens into resentment, it hardens into anger, suspicion, cynicism, and self-protection. Sometimes we cling to unforgiveness because bitterness starts serving as this emotional crutch for us. It creates this sense of protection or control. If I stay angry, I never have to be vulnerable again. If I withhold forgiveness, I still have power over the situation. If I stay guarded, I never have to risk trust again, and bitterness starts feeling protective. 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 didn't matter. They got away with it, no one cares. But forgiveness isn't saying that evil was okay, it just means that bitterness no longer gets to control the rest of your life. You also see the same resistance with shame. You know, some of us get so attached to shame and condemnation because it feels so comfortable. We've just gotten used to living it, it becomes familiar. If forgiveness is truly real, then now we can't define ourselves entirely by failure or guilt or shame. We start defining ourselves solely as the betrayed person. I'm the wounded person, I'm the rejected person. And when that happens, letting go of pain and bitterness can feel terrifying because it feels like we're losing a part of ourselves. And that's how easily our pain becomes prisons when bitterness becomes rooted in our hearts. Ephesians chapter four, verse 31 through 32 says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. So Paul understands bitterness as something dangerous because it spreads like a cancer. It shapes our identity, it distorts our relationships, and it hardens our hearts. And so forgiveness can be scary, right? It means letting go of this identity

we've learned to survive with. And forgiving someone can feel like we're surrendering this justice that we wanna serve, right? It requires honesty and humility and surrender and trust in the grace of God. It means refusing to let this shame or this pain become the deepest truth about who we are. So we ask ourselves, how does someone actually receive the forgiveness of sins? Well, we see in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight through nine it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, not a result of works. And that directly confronts our instinct to wanna save ourselves, right? That belief that if I just become good enough, if I just fix myself enough, if I just perform well enough, then God will finally accept me. Yet the Bible teaches that reconciliation, once again with God, only comes through faith in Jesus by the grace of God. Acts chapter two, verse 38 says, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. So repentance is not earning forgiveness. It's the posture of returning honestly to God. 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,

it's to come before God openly, to return, to confess, and to draw near to him. Romans chapter 10, verse nine says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And you know, so many of us, we believe these facts about Jesus. We believe what he did, we read what he did, we understand it intellectually, but we still end up trusting ourselves. We're still trusting our morality, we're still trusting our own effort. When true reconciliation with God only comes when we trust that Jesus' sinless life, his finished work, his payment for sin, his resurrection, that's what makes us right with God. And this is where the work of the Holy Spirit is essential. We don't naturally drift towards surrender or humility. You know, we don't want to give up control on our own. And when we begin feeling this conviction over sin, when we recognize our need for mercy, when we realize that we can't save ourselves, that's the Spirit of God working in our hearts. Because he's convicting, he's softening, he's exposing this deception, and he's drawing us towards Christ. So repentance isn't just humanity. It's not humanity climbing up to God

through this self-effort. It's God calling people to respond through repentance and faith. As we read earlier, 1 John 1 verse 9 says, "'If we confess our sins, "'he is faithful and just to forgive our sins.'" So forgiveness only, only comes in what Christ already accomplished on the cross. And that's why the forgiveness of sins is a gift. It's something that we receive. It's not something that we achieve. And one of the clearest pictures of this in scripture, it's this parable of the prodigal son. So Jesus tells this story to a son who takes his inheritance. You know, in that day, it's someone that you would wait for after your father passed away. He's basically telling his dad, man, I really wish you were dead now so I can receive my inheritance now. It was an insulting gesture. But the father gives him his inheritance. He leaves his father's house, and he wastes it all. He wastes everything in this reckless living. And eventually, he ends up broken. He ends up ashamed. He ends up desperate. And what's important,

it's the condition that he returns in, right? He doesn't return cleaned up or successful or worthy. He doesn't come back saying, hey, father, I invested all the money. I'm richer than I was before I left. I'm the CEO now. I'm gonna be running this land. I'm the king. I took over everything. He doesn't have all these accolades or these trophies. He actually comes back broken. He's dirty. He's ashamed. He's humbled, and so he surrendered. But you know what I love about that parable is that when the son comes forward, he has this whole rehearsed speech that he had planned. And before he can even finish this rehearsed speech, the father just cuts him off. The father just embraces him. He just embraces and hugs his son and welcomes him home because forgiveness didn't depend on the quality of the son's ridiculous speech. It depended on the character and the love of the father. The father didn't forgive him because he earned it. The father forgave him because he wanted to. And today, the heavenly father wants to forgive us. And he proved it by going as far as to give up the life of his only son to make a better life for him. To give 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 this is made possible. You know, too many of us, we approach God today assuming we need to become worthy before we can come to Christ, but Scripture teaches the exact opposite. We can't come to Christ because of our works. We come to Christ precisely because we can't fully heal or save ourselves on our own. Growth is no longer this desperate attempt to earn love from God. It becomes the response of those of us who have already been reconciled to him through Christ. So we're not asking for forgiveness after every sin we commit to get re-saved, but we also don't neglect to ask forgiveness because we're ashamed to, or out of taking the cost that Jesus paid for forgiveness. We don't wanna take that for granted. We don't want our hearts to become hardened or apathetic or distant from God, but we continue to ask for forgiveness because we have been given the gift to do so. We've been given a new cup of mercy, a new opportunity to receive God's grace, to enjoy his presence, to enjoy his friendship, and to speak with him, to navigate life with him, completely free of shame, free of condemnation. You know, we should make forgiveness

a normal part of our life. It's a core essential of our new life. 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, and it keeps us close to Jesus in relationship. It removes pressure of this lie that tells us that we need to perform perfection for salvation. You don't become holier by guilt-tripping yourself into a black hole, but the more you forsake everything that's opposed to Christ because you are simply abiding in him. You're choosing him. You're tethered to him. Every time Jesus says, follow me, and you leave behind everything, you would otherwise be tempted to choose over him, to follow him instead. You know, right? We don't say, oh man, I sinned against him. Again, why did I do that again? I'm just never gonna get any better. I can't do this. God's so sick of me. I'm gonna go hide. No, what we do is we go, oh God, I'm so grateful for the mercy of God.

It's new every day. I'm thankful for grace. I thank you, God, for the forgiveness of sins. I'm so glad I have another opportunity to repent and confess and receive forgiveness so I can draw near to Jesus and keep persevering in Jesus, that I'm not in my sin, that he's thrown my sin into the depths of the sea and that we keep abiding in Jesus and 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. If Jesus shed his blood for me, if he paid such a weighty sacrifice, I don't wanna waste a single drop if it means I get to stay in fellowship and friendship and nearness with the Heavenly Father. You see in Revelation, it mentions, before the foundation of the world, the land was slain. Before the foundations of the world. Did you know that before God created the earth, he had already planned and prepared the way for your forgiveness? God wants to forgive you. I'm gonna have the prayer team come forward. Everybody, you can stand. I just wanna remind us today

I just wanna remind us today that God wants to forgive us. For those of you that are holding onto shame, condemnation, all the past sins you've committed, you wanna stay in shame because you believe, oh man, I just deserve it. I just deserve it, I need to hold onto this. God wants to remind you today that he has forgiven you. No matter what you've done, no matter what you do, God already knew what you would do when he called you by name, right? It didn't surprise him. It didn't change his mind about you. And he's not waiting for you to write a speech or to get better, to improve yourself. He's not waiting for you to be as on fire as you used to be. Some of us, maybe we've run away and we think about, man, if I could just perform the way I was performing before, if I could just pray like I prayed before, if I could just worship like I worshiped before, if I could just evangelize like I did before, and all those things are good, but we assume that we need to get back to that level for God to be pleased with us. God is already pleased with you today. In spite of what condition you're in, in spite of what yesterday looked like or what today looks like, God is already pleased with you today only because of what Christ accomplished. It's always been that way.

It's always going to be that way. He doesn't regret saving you. All he wants is for you to come out of hiding and to be embraced by him again, to trust in what he did, to believe that you are who he says you are because he is who he says he is, and to walk with him. You're not defined by your past sin or your future sins. Some of you have spent years trying to fix yourself, trying to perform your way into peace. There's nothing that you can possibly do to reconcile with God out of your performance. It's only trusting in what Jesus has done on the cross in his resurrection. God has paved a way for you. Step into it and walk into it. Don't walk out of this building today still holding onto this identity of shame that you've carried. Don't live another day walking in this guilt of what you've done. I'm gonna pray for us. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence, and God, we thank you for your word, and God, we thank you that you have made a way for us to be reconciled with you. God, may you just destroy the lie in our hearts that tells us that we have to work our way back to you,

that we have to earn forgiveness. God, that we have to suffer the shame and the condemnation for the mistakes that we've made in the past, Lord. God, remind us that we have been washed by the blood of Jesus. We've been made whole and clean by the blood of Jesus. God, and that you invite us into relationship with you, to follow you, to walk with us, that your Holy Spirit is continuously working in us, God, even our sanctification process, God, as we continue to walk with you. God, you are completing that process. We don't have to do that on our own, Lord. So, God, we're thankful and grateful for the forgiveness that you've extended, and God, may we walk out of here, God, with the wholeness and the confidence that we rest in the finished work of Christ. And Lord God, Holy Spirit, we just ask that you administer to our hearts today. God, maybe those of us who didn't, who thought we would burn up by walking into a church, Holy Spirit, speak to us and tell us the truth of what you have done, and that's Jesus paid our fine, Jesus paid our sin, and his resurrection was proof that it was sufficient, and all you ask us to do is to trust in him. God, we rest in the finished work of Christ. Holy Spirit, administer to your people today. We thank you, we love you, and we honor you.

To Jesus' name we pray, amen. Altars are open. ♪♪ ♪ So I'll sing out your praise, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You buried my past, I'm not going back ♪ ♪ Cause I wasn't made to be sent in a grave ♪ ♪ I was called by name, born and raised back to life again ♪ ♪ I was made for more ♪ ♪ So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? ♪ ♪ I know I am yours, I was made for more ♪ ♪ Sing hallelujah, you called out my name so I'll sing out your praise, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You buried my past, I'm not going back, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You called out my name so I'll sing out your praise, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You buried my past, I'm not going back ♪ ♪ Cause I wasn't made to be sent in a grave, I was called by name, born and raised back to life again ♪ ♪ I was made for more ♪ ♪ So why would I make a bed in my shame when a fountain of grace is running my way? ♪ ♪ I know I am yours, I was made for more ♪ We love you church and we'll see you next Sunday.