CURRENT SERIES
The Forgiveness of God
Jan. 14, 2018
LifeWay Moments
LifeNotes
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
— Romans 5:15 NLT
• When we took our first breath, we were sinners. If you don’t know you are a sinner, why would you ever need forgiveness?
• Apart from Jesus, someone could be born on this earth, never commit a sin and still die a sinner. When you understand that, you understand how great the gift of salvation and forgiveness is.
• Forgiveness is a gift. It is not something we work for. All we have to do is receive what He already did on the cross.
• Religion says we have to do something to obtain it. Redemption says we just have to receive what He has done.
When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision — the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
— Col. 2:11-12 NLT
• Circumcision in the Old Testament meant your were in covenant with God and you were God’s children.
• In the New Testament, circumcision happens to the heart. You are part of God’s family, not because of your lineage or merit but because you chose to be part of His family and accepted Him as Savior.
• To be baptized into Christ, you have to ask Him into your heart. Once you do, you are baptized in Christ. Water baptism is not required to be saved, but is something we should all do.
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.
— Col. 2:11-12 NLT
• When are born again, God cuts away our nature to want to sin.
“A saint, a Christian makes a terrible sinner, because they are a not a sinner. You’ll feel awful about the sin you committed, but back when you were a sinner, you didn’t care.”
— Pastor Danny
• There should be a change when we are born again. Everyone’s change is not the same. The more we renew our minds to what He did, the quicker we transform.
• Confessing of each and every sin is not what brings forgiveness; confessing the Lord Jesus Christ does.
• When you know what forgiveness means, you can walk in it.
• He canceled all of our debt. It is as if you never committed it once you have accepted Him.
• God doesn’t look at what we did; He looks at Christ and He is perfect.
In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
— Col. 2:15 NLT
• Your enemy has been disarmed. If you don’t believe that, he is as armed as he ever was. The Bible says Satan is the god of this world. That means that if we function in the world’s system, he becomes our god. We need to function in the Kingdom of God.
• Jesus died on the cross publicly and came up out of the grave and showed himself to witnesses to validate that He is the Son of God.
• In biblical times, when a king was defeated, they would strip him naked and march him through town to 1) humiliate them and 2) prove they had no power. We need to get a vision that Satan has been stripped naked with no power!
• The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken our mortal body.
• It doesn’t have anything to do with positive thinking, it has everything to do with positive believing.
“I could list things in the last 10 or 15 years God has blessed me with that I didn’t even know I needed.”
— Pastor Danny
• Seek God’s Kingdom. Don’t give time or place for people who seek the world’s kingdom.
So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
— Col 2:16-17 NLT
• It is important to have a day of rest, but it does not have to be on Sunday.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
— Col 3:1-2 NLT
• It is easy to think about things of heaven when you remember where you are seated.
• Our righteousness is not about what we do; it is about what Christ has done.
• When we have a thought that is contrary to the Word of God, we have to make a decision what to do about it. We can either meditate on it or cast it down. The choice is ours. We can’t control that the thought came, but we can control what we do with it.
• We have authority over the enemy, but nothing will happen until we enforce that authority.
• God is not out to get us, He is out to get good to us.
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
— Col 3:2-4 NLT
• When you press in to know Christ, you will find the hidden you.
• We are all called to be a disciple and minister Jesus
• We are a witness, we don’t do witnessing. What we “be” is much more important that what we “do.”
• Witnessing and sharing about Jesus is not hard; we just need to share how wonderful He is.
• Two things to focus on 1) God is not mad at us 2) it doesn’t matter what we have done, God knows. He can forgive anyone. He forgave Paul and he was killing Christians. Paul later wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.
• When we understand the forgiveness of God, we have been freed from something. When we really get it, we will be free to do other things.
Life lesson
When we understand how the forgiveness of God really works, we will walk in the highest level of it in every area of our life.