How many of you have ever felt like you couldn't be forgiven for something? Like ever broken a window when you were a kid? Tripped and put a hole in the wall or your mom's favorite rug? Ever broken something that was your friend’s by accident and you felt so bad? Well, today we're going to talk about how to receive true forgiveness. Let’s kick this series off by defining what it means to forgive. The dictionary definition is pretty simple: to “stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake.”
We all know what this word means, but the question is whether or not we choose to forgive or choose to be forgiven ourselves. Let’s be honest, there is a lot of weight around the word “forgiven.” If you’re like me and start thinking back on your life and your past, it’s hard to imagine that a perfect, loving God, could ever really forgive me for all I’ve done... Throughout this series, we’re going to talk about all the different levels of forgiveness. But it’s hard to talk about needing to forgive someone else when we’re not sure if we can ever even be forgiven, isn’t it?
I once heard this story of a young man named Andrew who climbed the ladder of success, fell off, and had nowhere else to go but God’s forgiveness.
Throughout Middle and High School Andrew lived a life like a lot of you guys do today – he was great at sports, actually, a star running back in football, was focused on having a good life, made decent grades, built strong friendships, and had a lot of fun. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with Andrew, but one bad choice led to another and things gradually got unhealthier in his life.
As his popularity increased so did his unhealthy habits, he found a girlfriend, started going to parties, drinking, messing around with drugs, and eventually even started cheating on his girlfriend and sleeping around with other girls. He chose to go to a large college after high school, ignored football scholarships from some smaller schools, and all just to be around girls and have the big college party scene at his fingertips.
Well, he started out fine, making good enough grades, and studying to be a doctor, but after a while, the social scene got the best of him, his habits, parties, drinking, etc… Caused him to miss class, turn in assignments late if at all, and this even led to fighting in bars just to give him a sense of peace. Among his failing frustrations, he finally graduated, and things were looking up. His college years had consisted of a DUI, major car wreck, and even an arrest for fighting, but for the most part, he thought it was all behind him as he landed an amazing career-oriented job he loved.
About a year in, full of hard work, Andrew gained the “Rookie of the year” award at his job and was even given a free trip to Italy as a reward. On this trip everything for Andrew stopped, he went out drinking, partying again, tripped and fell into a $3000 statue, and to end his night, he got fired because of a misunderstanding between him and a cab driver that led to a career-ending punch in front of the rest of the staff.
Andrew had nowhere to go, he felt lost, broken, beat up, and fired. The only place he realized he could even turn to was God. The only source of hope, happiness, and forgiveness he found was when after this night he made a full 180, got plugged into his local church, and gave his life to Jesus. No matter what he had done he realized God was still available to forgive him.
How many of us have felt like this? Like we’ve made some choices that left us as someone who could never deserve forgiveness? Many of you probably feel pain from the past – by a choice we made to drink, choosing to mess with drugs, sexual interactions, pornography addictions, anger, or mistreating others. You don’t feel good enough for God; all due to your past choices, how you’ve treated others, or maybe even what others have done to you. It makes it so hard to approach God when we’re not sure how to make our past right for Him.
After all, our mind starts considering how this is the Creator of the world, who holds our existence in His hands, that’s a lot of pressure for people like us who can’t seem to get it right... But I want you to know something. You should feel empowered and encouraged after reading through this, even though you’ve made mistakes against God. Let’s remember:
We’ve all felt unforgivable at times. Every single one of us makes mistakes, and every one of us sins or does something against God in our lives. Paul even told us this would happen when he wrote to the Romans.
By saying, Romans 3:23For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
You’re not alone. We have all made choices that separated us from the love of God. You’re not the first or last person to turn to a substance to try and clear your head, you’re not the first or last person to have sex before marriage. We’ve all let our failure define us at one point or another, and to be honest, hear this too. We can never do anything to “Earn” God’s forgiveness or love. We’ll simply never be good enough to earn God’s care, and that’s actually good news even if it doesn’t sound like it because:
God’s Forgiveness is Free.
Paul encourages us with this by saying:
Galatians 5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Now, something that holds a lot of authority is the idea of our choice. It’s our choice if we want to make a decision away from God or not, and it’s also our choice if we simply want to accept the freedom and forgiveness that God is offering us.
This passage tells us Jesus’ freedom is just that, free. How amazing is that? God realized, that there is no way for us, as flawed as we are, to earn the perfection that He offers, so He decided to give it to us. Talk about a loving, forgiving, caring, perfect Father. God has given us an opportunity to be made right with Him through nothing other than a choice.
Now, we can’t only read the first half of this verse. Notice the second half as well, where it mentions how just as simple as it is to choose the freedom God offers, it’s also just as easy to choose to go back to the slavery and burden of sin that pulls away from God and into the pain of our past as well. Paul is helping us understand that being forgiven by God comes down to our own choice of whether or not we want to accept His forgiveness or choose our own broken way of pain again, and we learn from these choices that:
Failure only defines you...if you let it.
Look at a key passage about God’s forgiveness, and probably the most famous verse in all Scripture: John 3:16-2116 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 3:16-21 lays out our discussion today pretty clearly. Being healed, freed, and forgiven comes through what God provided when He sent His Son Jesus to give His life for us. Don’t you love where it says, “Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn it, but to save it?” Jesus didn’t die for you to be condemned for everything you’ve ever done wrong, but for you to be forgiven of it. That is life-changing. Jesus doesn’t see you for your mistakes or past, He sees you as His child with a bright future.
Of course, we should also realize the seriousness of this passage. Because Jesus died, Jesus gave His life for us. See, someone deserved punishment for all the wrong we’ve ever done, and that really adds a powerful understanding of God’s forgiveness. Yes, it's free. Yes, it’s an easy choice to follow, but when that freedom is understood, and the choice to decide to follow is genuine, it should change everything about our lives and the way we interact with those around us.
Notice verse 18 also says, if we don’t believe in Jesus then we stand condemned, guilty of our sins, and awaiting the punishment we rightfully deserve in Hell, a place of eternal punishment away from God. Now I’m not telling you this to scare you into belief, honestly, I don’t know many people who have a healthy understanding of anyone they love, that were initially scared into choosing that love.
I’m telling you this so we can realize, following God, choosing Jesus, and receiving His forgiveness really is as easy as a choice. All we have to do is choose to accept what He has already done for us in His death and then His resurrection. This passage ends with the natural course of action after true life change has happened as well. Choosing to live in the light.
If we’ve really been changed, if we’ve realized the insane love and care given to us when Jesus died for our sins, it should lead us to a life changed forever. A life doing everything we can to avoid the pain we feel when we have grieved the Spirit of God and choosing to live for God’s calling. We can choose today to quit letting our past failure define us, be freed by God, and walk in the light of who God has called us to be. Let’s leave the darkness behind.
We’ve talked a lot about the understanding of how God has provided us forgiveness, but how can we actually quit being defined by mistakes, and instead live for God moving forward? Here are 4 practical things to try:
1. Realize sin: Take some time to do what we talked about, and notice the areas in your life that are holding you back. Notice where you’re still living in darkness and that requires the forgiveness of God to step in and change things.
2. Repent from sin: Matthew 4:17, Acts 3:19, and many other passages of Scripture lead us to understand we can’t just hope that our lives are going to turn around and become more like God. To really walk in the light, we have to repent, or turn from, our past choices and begin living for God today. Once you’ve realized your sin, take an active step to repent of it.
3. Receive forgiveness: This one is easier said than really done but realize, that God’s forgiveness is truly there as we described it today, it’s free and for you. Once you’ve realized your mistakes, and repented of them, understand God’s forgiveness is there for you. Quit holding onto the pain attached to what you’ve done and remember there is NO judgment or condemnation in Jesus (Romans 8:1). Receive God’s forgiveness for you.
4. Respond to God because of His forgiveness: Let’s be encouraged that God’s forgiveness is available, but let’s not stop there. We often conclude our life’s choices with forgiveness. We make a big mistake, we regret it, ask someone to forgive us, then when they do, we just kind of move on. Let’s not do that with God’s forgiveness, let’s instead make it a starting point moving forward. We’ve been set free, so let’s live like it.
I don’t know anyone who after their jail sentence sits in the jail cell for years just for fun, to enjoy the “jail experience.” They get out there and change their life, if they really learned something they move forward doing everything they can to make their lives better.
As a matter of fact, did you know that Robert Downey Jr. served about a year in prison? He tells the story like this. He was encouraged by his parents to interact with drugs at a young age, and eventually got himself so engulfed that his drug abuse led him to be behind bars for a year in 1999. Being sentenced, he was encouraged by the authorities to “hug the cactus,” or basically to take on the painful responsibility for his actions, and deal with some of the uncomfortable moments it would bring him as he held onto his sobriety. After his arrest, he went through years of not being able to land a movie role, but he did choose to hold onto his sobriety. In 2008, the commitment he made to change his life after coming out of jail all paid off when he picked up the role in a new Marvel movie, Iron Man. In 2021, he became the highest-paid actor because of this role.
He used his freedom to do something amazing. So, what are we doing with the freedom that God has given us? Maybe we’re not behind prison cells physically, but I imagine you felt held back by your mistakes and past, but you’ve been set free when you choose to give it to God and follow Him. So what will you do with that?
Let’s use our freedom to change the world, to encourage those in need, to love and forgive those just as God has forgiven us. Let’s take action and live in a way that displays the freedom we have in Christ.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
