HOW TO EXPERIENCE
GOD'S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS
1 John 1:9; Psalm 32
INTRODUCTION
a. Today is the second in an eight week series of sermons called "Eight Concepts You Should Know"
b. Last week we considered "How to be sure you are a Christian" - today I want us to look at "How to Experience God's Love and Forgiveness
c. Forgiveness is a beautiful word - a better experience
d. Some years ago a survey suggested that more than half of the beds in Mental Hospitals were filled with people with unresolved guilt.
1. Guilt is a powerful force in our lives and destructive if left unresolved
2. Mandy McNames and the "rod" illustration
e. How many of you have wondered if God could ever use you again - or if you could ever be clean again
f. Everyone has an irrevocable past. What is done is done. It can never be changed or recalled. Lord Byron, the English poet, once wrote, "No hand can make the clock strike for me the hours that are past."
g. Let's look more closely at this issue
I. OUR NATURE
a. Jeremiah the Prophet said, Jer 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
b. Did it ever occur to you that you do not have to teach babies to be selfish and "bad". - You have to teach them to share and be nice - Our nature is selfish - "Survival of the fittest"
c. The fastest growing market in books is the "Self Help" books. Most of these emphasize being assertive or demanding your own way, or protecting your self interest - all centered on you
d. The society we live in was created by people who put God at the center - as the authority - You can argue over whether it was Christian or not but God was at the center - That has in the past century or so been replaced by a philosophy called "Humanism" that puts man at the center and as the authority
e. We has so bought into this philosophy that we do believe that we are self made and able to handle our problems
f. The result is: rampant crime, unwed mothers (fastest growing is those that are planned), divorce, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, guns in school, gangs in the street, disrespect of any authority ( ask any teacher)
g. On and on the list could go.
h. The result is a society with people desperately trying to overcome this guilt laden lifestyle.
1. All these behaviors produce guilt whether we want them to or not
2. We must resolve the guilt in order to move forward in life
II. GOD'S SOLUTION
a. Listen to these words from God's Word:
1. Jer 24:7 - "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart."
2. Isa 1:18 - "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
3. Ps 103:12 - "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
4. Heb 13:5 - "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
5. 1 John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
6. Heb 10:17 - "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
b. Form the beginning God has offered redemption and salvation
1. "If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior."
III. OUR EXPERIENCE
a. Read Psalm 32
1. Under God's Thumb - energy drained
2. Solution is Confession
3. Result is Forgiveness of guilt and freedom to live life
b. Daily practice
1. Spiritual Breathing - Exhale and Inhale
c. Today - go to a quiet place with a paper and pen
1. Pray for guidance and ask God to reveal what you should confess
2. Make a list
3. Write the words of 1 John 1:9 across the list and then destroy it
4. Now you are clean - breathe as you need to -
d. Do you need to experience forgiveness
1. Today you can - God is true to His promise
2. It can happen for you right now and forever
3. It begins with becoming a Christian and continues with confession and repentance
4. I invite you to forgiveness today
BOW WITH ME IN PRAYER
HYMN # 203 "MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE"