When Faith Feels Fragile | Sunday Message

Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. fellowship with you. And that's what we will discover as we open up this amazing book of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. Lord, these words were written that we might know you and walk with you and walk in the light.

So help us to discover what that means together. We commit this time of Bible study to you now in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You can all be seated. Well, we're starting a brand new series called Unshakeable. And the title of my message is Unshakeable When Faith Feels Fragile. But a quick word about this Thursday, it's the National Day of Prayer. And I love the fact that we have a National Day of Prayer in America. And we want to encourage all of you to participate. Now there's a couple of ways you can do that. Number one, you can come to one of our National Day of Prayer services.

We have them at all campuses, Riverside, Orange County, and also on Maui. But if you can't come, just remember to pray for America this Thursday. I mean, you ought to do it more than Thursday. But just on this Thursday in particular, let's just stop and pray. Thank God for our country. Thank God for the freedom we have in this nation. Thank God for that He loves us and wants to pour His Spirit out on our nation. Pray for another spiritual awakening. Pray for our leadership. A lot to pray for with America. So remember the National Day of Prayer. But as I said, we're in a new series in 1 John. So years ago, why are you clapping?

Okay, thank you. That's a good thing to clap for. So years ago, my oldest son Christopher, when he was just a little guy, I bought him a plastic tugboat that was basically unsinkable. It had super thick plastic on it so you could swim it down to the bottom, excuse me, having some throat problems today. So you could swim it down to the bottom of a pool, hold it there, let it go, boom, it would pop right to the top. So he enjoyed that little tugboat.

He got a little bit older and one day I went to him and said, hey Christopher, you don't really play with that tugboat anymore. Do you want to blow it up? And he said, yeah, let's blow it up. By the way, God's like to blow stuff up, am I right? How many of you guys like to either blow things up or watch things blow up, okay?

How many of you guys don't like that at all? Get out, you're not a man. No, you are. No, you are of some kind. No, I'm kidding. We like to watch stuff blow up, who knows why. So somehow I acquired a cherry bomb. You know what that is?

I don't know how. I don't remember buying it anywhere but I did have a cherry bomb so I cut a little hole in the top of this little tugboat, lit the cherry bomb, dropped it in and we stood way back waiting for this big dramatic explosion. And instead it just sort of went.

Then I heard somewhere. Pretty sad, not that dramatic but the tugboat had a hole in the hole. Little tongue twister there and it slowly went to the bottom. And that can be a picture of us spiritually. We can start to sink because in a way we have a hole in our hole or a breakdown in our foundation and as our faith is shaken and we start to sink. Bringing me to my first point, faith can be shaken but you don't have to sink. Now have you ever had your faith shaken?

Pretty much everyone has in some way, shape or form. I don't know what caused it to happen. A certain set of circumstances caused you to question why you were going through a certain thing. As an example, maybe it was a health crisis. Maybe you've been in great health all of your life and then suddenly you found yourself very sick. You even found yourself hospitalized and one thing led to another thing and you wondered if you were ever going to get out of there again and you're thinking God why are you letting this happen to me?

If you love me you wouldn't let this happen. It could be an unanswered prayer. Maybe you're praying for an unsaved spouse.

Maybe you're praying for the return of a prodigal child and you're wondering God are you even hearing my prayer? Or maybe someone you looked up to spiritually let you down. It might have been your parents. It might have been a spiritual leader of some kind and it caused you to think if someone like that could fall away spiritually am I next? Or maybe it was what you perceived as an irresistible temptation. Something came your way that was so enticing, so tempting that you didn't think you could resist it and in fact you gave into it and your fellowship with God has been broken and you find yourself with a shaken faith.

Well let me say at the outset you are not alone. Others have had their faith shaken. Even godly men. Elijah the wonder working prophet after his contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel was threatened by Queen Jezebel who effectively put a contract out on his life to have him put to death. And Elijah ran away and he was depressed and down and even said to God I just want to die. Same thing happened to Jonah. Things didn't go the way he wanted them to go and he sat under a little plant for shade in the burning sun and said Lord I don't want to live anymore.

David fell into sin with Bathsheba and tried to cover it up. Simon Peter openly denied his Lord three times and guess what? God did not give up on any of them and he's not going to give up on you either.

Maybe you've stumbled but you're still standing. You might feel weak but God is strong. Maybe you feel shaken but you don't have to stay in that state and that is why we're looking at 1st, 2nd and 3rd John together. Why was this epistle written? 1st John in particular. John gives the answer when he says in 1st John 5 13 I've written this to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. I wrote this so you will know that you have eternal life. This is so important because sometimes especially when we're young in the faith we doubt our salvation. We question if we're really saved but we need to remember that God completes what he starts. He's described in the Bible as the author and the finisher of your faith. God's gift to you, salvation is from God to you from beginning to end.

You didn't earn it therefore you can't lose it. It's not based on how you feel. It's based on what Jesus did. That's why John says these things we write to you that believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. He didn't say so you may feel that you have eternal life because our emotions can mislead us.

So this is a very important thing. Obviously written by the apostle John. John is what we might describe as an insider. He spent a lot of time with Jesus. I mean for starters he was one of the chosen apostles.

Jesus him picked him. But then he was in a special group of Peter, James, and John that went with the Lord to certain places on certain occasions. For instance we read about Jesus transfigured and we read he took Peter, James, and John with him. We read that when he raised Jairus daughter from the dead he took Peter, James, and John with him.

When he was in the garden of Gethsemane he asked Peter, James, and John to join him. Now we might think because they were sort of special or what we might describe as teachers pets. Well maybe that's the case though I doubt it. I think of how much time I often spent sitting next to a teacher in a class when I was going to school. Not because I was a teacher's pet. Because I was the teacher's monster.

I disrupted the class and she would say or he would say Greg Laurie pull your desk up here right next to me so I can keep my eye on you. Is that why Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him? I mean don't forget James and John weren't called the sons of thunder for nothing.

These are the guys that wanted to call fire down from on a town because they were not responsive to the message they were bringing. But John was the one apostle that's identified as standing at the foot of the cross and in fact one of the seven statements of Christ was directed to John. When he said son behold your mother and then to Mary who was also there he said woman behold your son. In effect Jesus was committing the care of his mother to the apostle John.

Quite an honor. So John had a unique access to Jesus Christ and in fact he outlived all the other apostles. According to church tradition all the apostles died the death of a martyr with the exception of John who lived to be a very old man and in fact was exiled to the island of Patmos where they thought we'll never hear from him again. And the Lord came to him and gave to John what we now call the book of Revelation.

Talking about having the last word. John was also the pastor of the church of Ephesus. This church was established by the apostle Paul, pastored by Timothy, and also by John. And this church started when Paul went to Ephesus and preached to them. There's an amphitheater that still stands in Ephesus today that I've stood in and I've spoken in. And it's pretty exciting to think Paul was here once.

And they worshiped a false goddess there called Diana or also known as Artemis. And so when Paul preached it caused trouble with the industry that was built on this false idol worship and then a riot broke out. Pretty much wherever Paul went there was either a riot or a revival.

Never a dull day with Paul. So Paul established his church and then it's pastored later by Timothy as I mentioned and then John. I mean can you imagine having Paul and John as pastors in your church. Talk about epic leadership. They would announce starting on Sunday mornings John is going to do a brand new series that he's simply calling Revelation.

Yeah I think I want to come and hear that. So these are the men of God leading this church. But now it's in a different state. John is writing to a couple of generations down the line. So it started with the first generation that heard Paul's preaching. By the time John is writing to them and speaking to them they've been around for a while. They're into their third generation.

It reminds me of this church Harvest. We've been around for 50 years as you know. And by the way I was three years old when I gave my first sermon.

True story. I was wearing a diaper. And funny thing I'm wearing a diaper now. I'm not. But if I was I would never tell you. But I'm not. Okay but so my first sermon I remember the text I preached on. We shall be changed in a moment. And the truth live and I get a changed diaper.

Okay forget it. Now actually I was 20 when I started pastoring. 19 when I started preaching. Now can you imagine having a 20 year old pastor. And I'd only been a Christian for a couple of years.

Well three years at that point. And so we did not know we were starting a church but indeed we were. So you have the first generation because our church was born in revival during the Jesus movement. So now we have our children. Now we have our children's children. Our grandchildren.

And now we have their children coming down the road. So we have multiple generations. And what happens is a church can be started in revival but then the next generation and even the next generation they weren't there for that.

And so maybe they don't have as much passion as the first generation had. Maybe they aren't as close to the Lord as they could be. And that is why Jesus said in fact to the church of Ephesus in the book of Revelation I admire your hard work and your discipline and your discernment. But I have this against you.

You have left your first love. So 1 John is written to people that needed to be reminded of these essentials. And it's also a reminder to us that every generation needs Christ and every person needs to come to the Lord on their own.

I do see some promising signs though of what could be a spiritual awakening happening in America today. I read an article in the New York Times that pointed out that at an unprecedented rate young men are going to church. More young men than young women. And this is unusual because normally the girls are the ones that lead the way spiritually.

But this is a phenomenon and I think it's a reaction to an action. I think our young men have been so beaten down and told that they have toxic masculinity and they're part of the patriarchy that we've turned them into a bunch of soy boys. They're looking for a challenge. They're looking for someone to tell them what a real man is. And there's nothing wrong with being masculine because God created you that way just as there's nothing wrong with being feminine. Let the girls be feminine.

Let the men be masculine and be who God has called you to be. Another interesting thing, in addition to young men returning to church at an unprecedented rate, one more sidebar on that. I was talking to a lady the other day who's been the teacher for many years. She says we have a little Bible club on our campus. It's a public school. She said I went in there the other day and out of 30 students, 27 of them were young men.

I thought, how interesting. That's not normal. Now girls, come on. You've got to rally.

Hello? You go girl. Come on. Get back in the game again girls.

We need you. We can't just have a bunch of dudes running everything. But I like to see young men in particular having this responsiveness to the gospel. But then Bible sales were up 25% across the board last year. I think the runaway success of programming like The Chosen and House of David is also a phenomenon of sorts. We hear of thousands of college students turning to Christ and spontaneous baptisms breaking out. So there's some promising signs for this generation.

And let's pray it happens. Now 1 John can be divided into three sections. And they are God is light, God is love, and God is life. First, God is light. 1 John 1 says this is the message we heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Secondly, God is love. 1 John 2, whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. And finally, God is life. 1 John chapter 5, he that has a son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life.

Alright, so let's dig in. 1 John chapter 1. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we heard and we have seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life.

He was with the father and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard. That you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so you may fully share our joy.

We'll stop there. So my son Jonathan and I were recently invited to go to a concert at the Sphere. Have you heard of the Sphere? It's in Las Vegas. And it's a phenomenal building. It's actually an engineering marvel.

It costs over 2 billion dollars to build. It has two gigantic LED displays with 16K revolution with thousands of individual panels. That creates this immersive, that's a shot inside of it, this immersive visual experience.

And in addition to that there are 167,000 individual amplified speakers. So when you go into this thing, we went and saw the Eagles there. And when you go in, it's like you're in another world. In one moment you're underwater. And you're out in the middle of the desert.

And then you're in the sky. It's just incredible. And it's something to really behold, I have to say. Too bad it's in Las Vegas.

I'm not a fan of Las Vegas at all. But anyway, it was a great experience. But I bring that up because here are the apostles now.

Talking about something far more phenomenal than the sphere. They're talking about the fact that they spent time with the Son of God. They saw Him. They heard Him.

They touched Him. They spent three years plus walking and talking with the incarnate Son of God walking among us. They saw with their own eyes Jesus smile, laugh, had meals with Him. They saw Him weep. They saw Him teach. They saw Him pray. They even heard Him sing. Did you know Jesus sang?

In the upper room we read that they sang a hymn together. But having said that, I think that Jesus was quite ordinary in appearance. Now in some films from the past, He's been depicted in a certain way. But I don't know if that's the way He really appeared. We're actually told in Isaiah 53 that He had nothing beautiful or majestic about Him to attract us to Him. He didn't stand out in a crowd. When you see biblical art, everyone's in these dusty robes and Jesus is in a pristine white robe with a blue sash.

Maybe He has a staff for good measure. That's not what Jesus looked like. He mixed into the crowd. You wouldn't even notice Him. Judas Iscariot had to identify Him with the kids so they would know who to arrest. Jesus didn't glow in the dark.

He wasn't ten feet tall. He was ordinary in appearance, yet He was God walking among us. Like when He, I mentioned already, was transfigured and shined like the sun.

When He walked on water or raised someone from the dead or ascended to heaven. And so they're saying, we just looked at Him. You wonder sometimes, maybe Jesus was sleeping and He would wake up. And all the apostles are like just staring at Him and saying, wow, look at, there He is. They just couldn't get enough and they're talking about what they saw. And by the way, this phrase that they use here, foresaw, is from the root word theater. Which means they were gazing at Him like a spectacle.

They couldn't get enough. You know, sometimes we may meet a famous person. Maybe it's an actor or a musician and we say, oh, I really want to meet them.

And we're a little underwhelmed. You know, you want to meet your favorite actor and they always seem to be, when I've met some actors, they're often smaller than you expected. Like, wow, I didn't know you were that little.

You look so much bigger in the movie, you know. Or maybe they disappoint you because they're not as warm as you hoped they would be. Or maybe they do the very opposite. They're very warm and they're very caring. Well, I can tell you, Jesus never disappointed in any way, shape or form. I've met a few well-known people over the years, powerful people. And I have to say the most impressive person I ever met was Billy Graham. He was obviously famous around the world. But we spent time in his home. And we spent time having meals with him and talking with him and being with him. And he was the most godly man that I ever met. But he still was just a man. But here is Jesus. And they could look at Him. They could grab Him by the arm.

They could hear His words. So how do you have an unshakable faith? That's the key. You need to look to Jesus.

Look to Jesus. And that's something we all can do. That's not merely a privilege of these first century believers.

It's a privilege for us as well. Let's go back to those scenarios I raised a few moments ago. Let's say you're facing a health crisis.

It's knocked the wind out of you. Your recovery is not happening as quickly as you would hope. Well, first of all, look to Jesus. Remember the story of the woman who had the medical condition? And she reasoned, if I can touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.

And that's exactly what she did. Call out to the Lord and ask for His healing touch. The Bible says you have not because you ask not. And the Bible even says if there is any sick among you, call for the elders of the church who will pray for you and anoint you with oil and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man will accomplish much. And I can't tell you how many times that the pastors here and elders have prayed for people. And we've seen amazing things happen.

We've seen miracles take place. So do pray. You say, but Greg, what about when God doesn't heal? Well, first I would pray for the healing. And if He doesn't heal, you'll know this for sure. He'll be with you in your time of suffering. He'll be with you in your time of sickness. The great apostle Paul, whom God used to bring healing in the lives of others, had his own physical infirmity that he described as his thorn in the flesh.

We don't know what it was, but we know that on three separate occasions, he asked the Lord to remove it. And God's response was, my grace is sufficient for you and my strength, my power shows itself stronger in your times of weakness. So at the very least, the Lord will be with you. Let's go back to someone letting you down spiritually.

I'm sorry that happened to you. But remember, Jesus has not let you down. And Jesus will not let you down, ever. So look to Him. Put your eyes on Jesus Christ. As the author of Hebrews says, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Corrie ten Boom, a remarkable woman who suffered in a concentration camp during World War II because her family and her hid Jewish people in their home from the Nazis.

And shared the gospel with them as well. Made this statement, and I quote, Look within and be depressed. Look without and be distressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. And here's the thing. This is what John is really saying.

You can have this relationship with God too. He's not saying, hey man, too bad you didn't live 2,000 years ago. We were there, you weren't.

Instead he's saying, no, this is for you as well. Look at 1 John 1-3, we proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ who are writing these things so you may fully share our joy. We want you to have the same joy that we have had and that we have experienced.

And so this is the thing he's bringing to our attention. But there's something that keeps that joy out of our life and it's unconfessed sin. Go back to 1 John, look at verse 5. This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So we're lying if we say we have fellowship with God and we go on living in spiritual darkness.

And we're not practicing the truth. But if we're living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. God wants us to live in the light. And in the Bible light is a picture, a metaphor for walking closely with God.

Darkness is a picture or metaphor for walking in sin. It's a lot easier to find things when the lights are on. You know, I always wake up before my wife does and I'll be stumbling around looking for my clothes and I walk out going, oh wait, I put my wife's shirt on.

I knew it was tight. But you know, so you turn the light on. Oh, there it is.

You can find things, right? So everything is different when you turn the light on. And the Bible uses this picture for our relationship with the Lord. In Ephesians 5 it says you were formerly darkness but now you're light in the Lord. So walk as children of the light. For the Christian who is living in light, he will not be living in sin.

Real faith is proven by obedience. You're either in the light or you're not in the light. And so when you're in the light, it means that you will be honest. God is not looking for perfection.

He's looking for transparency. So he shines the light in our life to expose our sin so we will turn from it and find his forgiveness. A great example of this is David, the man after God's own heart. Now how could a man who committed adultery and also be responsible for effectively bringing about the death of another man, that would be Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, be called a man after God's own heart.

I'll tell you how. When he was confronted with this sin, he came clean, he admitted it, and God forgave him. Contrast him to King Saul, the first king of Israel, who was rejected from ruling on the throne. Saul would justify his sin. He would excuse his sin.

He would lie about his sin. David, in contrast, admitted it. When David was confronted by Nathan the prophet, basically said, you know, your sin has found you out. David said, I have sinned against God. That is why he was a man after God's own heart. Because he admitted it and turned from it when confronted with it. Listen, when you fall into sin, you have no one to blame but yourself.

James 1 14 says, each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own evil desires and they sin, and then sin when it's full grown gives birth to death. Years ago, when Jonathan was just a little boy, he had a video game and I told him, you know, turn it off and go to bed. So I was walking by his room and I noticed light coming out from beneath the door. So I opened the door and under the covers, there's little Jonathan still playing with this video game. I said, Jonathan, I told you to turn that off. And he looked up at me and said, Dad, I couldn't resist myself. It was so cute. I just said, whatever, turn it off.

You know, it's this. But that was actually theologically correct. I couldn't resist myself. We like to say the devil made me do it. The devil didn't make you do anything. A man sins when he's drawn away by his own desires, the Bible says.

So we are responsible. You say, well, the temptation was too strong. It was irresistible.

That's not true. Nothing is irresistible. Even though there's a song about it, you can resist it. The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. But first it says, submit to God. So first I submit to God, then I resist the devil. First Corinthians 10, 13 says, there's no temptation that you're going to face.

It is not common to everybody else. But God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted above your capacity to resist, but will with temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Bottom line, there's always an exit sign.

You just need to look for it. But see, we excuse it. We don't take responsibility and say, well, I'm only human.

Yeah, that's true. You're only human. But you're also, if you're a Christian, a Spirit-filled child of God. And the Bible says you can walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Listen to this. Sin always takes you further than you wanted to go. It keeps you longer than you wanted to stay and it costs you more than you wanted to pay.

It's there on the screen. Sin takes you further than you want to go. It keeps you longer than you want to stay and costs you more than you want to pay.

That's why we need to avoid it. So God shines his light in your life, not to shame you, but to heal you. Verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. By the way, the Greek tense for cleanse here means continuous cleansing. He's still cleansing because we're still sinning. See, you don't need to say, well, you know, I got saved ten years ago at a harvest crusade and he forgave my sin.

Yeah, that's ten years ago, but then there's today and there'll be tomorrow. Well, I don't really sin that much. Oh, yes, you do. The Bible says if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourself and the truth is not in you. We sin all the time. We need constant cleansing, but the promise is the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin. And the way to be forgiven of your sin is to confess it, to confess it. Look at 1 John 1.8. If we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and we're not living in the truth. But if we underline this in your Bible, please, get your pen out if you have a pen, underline it. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What a promise that is. It's time to stop making excuses and start making confession. See, I don't even know if people know how to apologize anymore.

You know, you're having a conflict with someone, a disagreement, and you want to end the conflict. So you say, listen, I'm sorry if you misunderstood what I was actually trying to say. Or, I'm sorry if this offended you. That was not my intention.

We don't just own up to it. An apology goes along these lines. Hey, I'm sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. No, I'm sorry. Shut up.

You've got to do a proper apology. And we do the same thing with God. Well, God, I'm sorry if you thought.

Come on, give me a break. The Lord knows all things. Just be honest with him.

Tell him the truth. And be honest and confess your sin. I'm sorry, Lord, that I sinned against you. When the Bible uses this phrase, confess, it means to agree with. All right?

To agree with. So let's use an analogy, and this is for our friends over in Maui. So let's talk about Maui sunsets. All right, so California sunsets can be pretty awesome, I have to say.

Every now and then I'll watch one and post it. But Maui sunsets are on the next level. There's a beautiful little beach there on the island of Maui called Nepili Beach.

And I've seen, that's a picture I took with my phone. So that's just a typical Maui sunset. I've seen sunsets there that are even more impressive than that one. But you just watch the sun slowly set.

I remember one in particular not too long ago where the sky took on a pink hue. It's just unbelievable, you know, what you're seeing. So let's say you and I are sitting on the beach and I say, now that is a beautiful sunset. And you say, you know what, I agree. So we just confessed something together.

You agreed with me. Now let's say, I say, let's go and get some dinner. And I take you to my favorite Italian restaurant on the island of Maui called Salle Pepe.

By the way, that's run by some folks in our church, and it's so good. You have to understand that growing up as a kid, I had pretty bad substitute for proper Italian food. This is what I ate for spaghetti when I was a kid. Chef Boyardee. How many of you used to eat Chef Boyardee? How many of you still eat it?

Okay, a few, all right, it's fine. I like the picture on the left. That's what it's supposed to look like.

The photo on the right, that's what it looks like. Okay, so now Salle Pepe in contrast, one of the owners is from Italy. And he has an Italian oven that he imported. He gets his flour from Italy. He gets his tomato sauce from Italy.

So when he makes a pizza or they make fresh pasta, it's on another level. So I say, that is amazing pasta. You say, I agree. So we're confessing something together.

Now let's say we leave and we go by a roadside stand and buy something to eat there. And I say, this is rancid. And you say, I agree. So when we say, I agree with God, or to confess means I see things the way God sees them. God says, that is good. We say, I agree with you, God. God says, that is bad.

We say, and I also agree with you on that, Lord. So to confess is to see your sin as God sees it. Not excusing it. Not making excuses for it. Not blaming it on others, but owning it.

Being responsible for it. And then the promise is that we will confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Max Lucada put it this way, and I quote, God doesn't want your excuses. He wants your heart. When you confess, you're not surprising God. You're inviting Him to heal what's broken. And what a promise. If we will confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from some unrighteousness, right?

No, all. No matter what you've done, it's been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ when He died on the cross for you. And listen to this. God not only forgives your sin and cleanses your sin, He forgets your sin. Because He says in Micah 7 19, you will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean. God says I'll be merciful and your sins will I remember no more. See, sometimes we drag up old things we did wrong and we go over them again and again. And the fact is we should put those things in the past as God does. Our God has a big eraser so let Him use it in your life. We should not choose to remember what God has chosen to forget. His mercy is greater than your mess. His grace is deeper than your guilt and His forgiveness is immediate and complete and it will transform you.

And it doesn't take years and it doesn't take months and it doesn't take weeks or days or even hours. It can happen just like that. You can be forgiven of all of your sin. Can you imagine? You don't have to imagine.

It's real. And it can happen for you because I'm talking to somebody right now that is wracked with guilt. And you've tried to suppress this guilt and you've tried to drown this guilt with alcohol or perhaps drug use or other things.

But the reality is it comes back to haunt you especially when you lay your head on your pillow at night. And you can be free from this guilt. It can be removed from your life because the issue is not guilt. It's the source of the guilt.

That's what you want to deal with. What is the source of the guilt? The source of the guilt is you've done something wrong and you're guilty. But the good news is Christ can forgive you because He paid for that sin when He died on the cross for you. So you must accept and receive that guilt. Maybe you feel like that little tugboat analogy I mentioned earlier and you're sinking, you're taking on water.

What do you do now? I love the story in the Bible where Peter was walking on the water with Jesus and he started to sink. And we read that he cried out, Lord, save me. And Jesus said to him, you got yourself in this mess, figure it out. You read that verse?

I haven't either. The verse I read instead is, immediately Jesus reached out His hand and pulled him up. That's the answer. Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus will hear your prayer. Maybe you would say, man, I've made a mess of my life.

I've tried to figure it out. You need to say, Lord, save me. You might say, I have this addiction. I can't break free from it. I've tried everything. You need to cry out, Lord, save me.

That's the answer. You need to call out to Him and He will hear your prayer and He will answer your prayer because the Bible says, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So we're gonna close now in prayer. And I'm gonna extend an opportunity for you to call on His name and be saved. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now who has never heard these things before. That there's a God in heaven who loves you, who has a plan for your life. And send His son Jesus to die on the cross for your sin because God so loved the world He gave His only begotten son and whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Maybe I'm talking to somebody that was raised in the church.

I mentioned this earlier. And you don't really have your own relationship with the Lord. You need to ask God to forgive you. You need a relationship with Christ yourself.

That's what this is all about. You can have this relationship with God. It's nice someone else has it.

God wants you to have it. You know what's so amazing to me is how personal my relationship with the Lord is. You know, John, the author of this gospel, refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. That almost might sound boastful, like I'm the disciple Jesus loved.

Not at all. If he would have said I'm the disciple that loves Jesus, that might have been boastful. But I'm the disciple that Jesus loved. And sometimes I feel like my relationship with God is such that I don't know if anybody else has this relationship with the Lord like I do. Then I meet someone else and they have it too.

God is so amazing. He can make himself known to us as individuals and we feel like we might even be his favorite. I have five grandchildren and two of them have hijacked my phone. And they've gone into contacts and taken their name out and instead put in your favorite grandchild. And so now when I get a call from my favorite grandchild, I have to figure out which one it is. One of them is sitting in the front row right here. And I saw the other one earlier. And I'm gonna now reveal who my favorite grandchild is.

All of them. But that's the kind of relationship we can have with God. Your favorite grandchild is calling, Lord.

Your favorite daughter, your favorite son, the apostle whom Jesus loved, Jesus loves you. This is personal. This is for you.

This can happen now. But you must call on the name of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you will speak to any person here or on our other campuses who does not have a relationship with you. Help them to see their need for you and help them to come to you right now, we pray. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, maybe you would say, I want this relationship with Jesus you've been talking about.

I want to know him as my savior, as my Lord, as my friend, as my father. I have this guilt. I have this sin. I want it removed.

I want it cleansed. I want it forgiven. Pray for me. If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that when you die, you will go to heaven, if you want your guilt removed, would you just raise your hand up right now wherever you are and I want to pray for you.

Raise your hand up high where I can see it and you're saying, I need Jesus. God bless you. God bless you. Wherever you are, raise your hand up. I want to pray for you. God bless you. You want Jesus today? You want to start this friendship with him? God bless you and you. Maybe there's somebody here that would say, you know, I am a backslider. I've spent a good deal of my life in the church but I can't say I've ever had this relationship with the Lord but I want it.

I want it today. Or maybe you've fallen away from the Lord and you need to come back to him. If that's you, raise your hand up. Let me pray for you today.

Raise your hand up. God bless you. God bless you.

This is for all campuses, Riverside, Maui. You can raise your hand as well. Let me pray for you. God bless all of you. Now Lord, I pray for these that have taken this first step. Help them to take the next one now and follow you for we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'm gonna lead you guys in a simple prayer. I'm gonna ask you to pray it out loud after me. This is where you're asking Jesus to come into your life to be your savior, your Lord, your God, your friend.

Mean it from your heart. God will hear and answer this prayer. So let's all bow our heads and pray this after me now. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I confess my sin. I turn from my sin. I'm sorry for my sin and I ask you to forgive my sin. Thank you for loving me and calling me and accepting me. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. God bless each one of you. God bless you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on Know God.