Forgive Us Our Sins - Pastor’s Heart

Hi Folks!

Has this year gone fast or what! Here we are at the end of 2005 with this Sunday service marking the beginning of 2006. I believe this coming year will be the finest year for the Church of Jesus Christ yet. If we will finish off 2005 correctly, it will help us commence 2006 victoriously in the power of the Spirit of God. As we continue looking into the Lord's Prayer you will agree with me I'm sure that this message is vital to us all if we are going to go on with the Lord and fulfil His will in the earth in these last of the last days. As a perfect Man, Jesus perfectly pleased His Father by obeying Him until the end. He is our perfect example of the Christian life in action... Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. Luke 23:34

Forgiveness is the very foundation to Christianity. God was willing to send His Son as a sacrifice for our sins and forgive us even when we didn't deserve it, and before we even knew to ask for it. He loved us when we didn't love Him. He loved us first! Wow, what a wonderful God we have!

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

God chose ahead of time, that if we would accept His Son as our personal Lord and Saviour, He would forgive us our sins. That means every one of our sins and shortcomings we committed before we accepted Jesus, are washed away by His blood. You and I have no past life before our salvation, because the old man and his sinful nature have passed away - shout glory! Before our salvation we were "sinners" and we were without Christ. But after our salvation we were made "new Creatures" in the image and likeness of our new God and Father. We now have a new Master - our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's His Lordship I want to discuss briefly today. Lord means Master. Masters are to be respected and obeyed and this is what is required of both you and I after we enter into God's family. Jesus is now our Master and that means we no longer have a life of our own, but a Master we ought to love and obey. To confess Jesus as my Lord means to confess him as my Master. Jesus is now my Boss. He is my King. This is something we all grow into as we mature in Christ - an understanding of His greatness and Lordship. As we develop in our knowledge and understanding of His Word and of His ways there is much we will find that He requires of us as Children of His household. There is one thing though, that whether we have been saved for one day, or whether we have been saved for one hundred years, we each have a command to love one another.

Love. This is not just a suggestion or a good idea somebody thought up one day. This is a command from the Lord and King of the Church. This is a direct order and command from our Master Jesus. If he truly is our Master than He will be obeyed - period! You and I don't have a choice in this matter folks, as we see repeated in the scriptures, If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. I don't know about you but this shook me up the first time I really started to think about it. If I hold something against someone else, than I forfeit my right to be forgiven by the Lord.

To love means to forgive. To forgive someone who wrongs you is love in action. We are to love as God loves and we are to forgive as He forgives. I am reminded of a time when I was deeply hurt and offended by a brother. He had wronged me and had spread lies about me and my wife. The hurt was amplified by the fact that he was a close friend and brother in Christ who was saved before I was and should have known better. By His grace, the Lord was able to get through to me one day by letting me realize that I was holding an offence towards this person by not forgiving him of this "one" sin he had committed against me, when the Lord had forgiven me of a "multitude" of sins. I could see the foolishness of my way and chose to have mercy on my friend by forgiving Him just as my Master had mercy on me and forgave me.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1:9

It's not as though you and I don't miss it from time to time and sin as believers. It's what we do after we sin that counts. Are we going to hold onto it and pretend it didn't happen or hope it goes away? Or are we going to be courageous and own up to it when we fail or when we sin against somebody. For as many times as we miss the mark and sin, and turn away and ask forgiveness for our sin, our God is merciful to forgive us and wipe it away. By our own works each human on earth deserves the judgement of the lake of fire, because we have all failed Him at some point in time. But grace and mercy was given to us through our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ! He is so worthy of all of our praise and eternal adoration.

It's no wonder the Lord added forgiveness right into the middle of His model prayer, for if we are not walking in love than it is not a prayer at all. Before we get right into 2006 let me encourage you to check up on your love walk. This is our primary Christian duty for the rest of our lives and we should be glad to do it for Him. We love Him because He first loved us. Let me close with some scriptures concerning love and prayer working together.

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Mark 11:24-26

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. 1John 3:22-23

Happy New Year!

love

David

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