All right, at all of our campuses, if can we just praise God for Charlie's story? Just an incredible story of God's grace. And that's really the story that we all tell. It's one of God's grace. We go through different trials in this life, but God is gracious to us in all of them.
One of the things I loved out of Charlie's story is his heart to not only say, hey, I've received this grace, but God, I also want to now give this grace to my family, the next generation of people that are coming up after him. And I think, God, that this is a church where while the world says a lot of things about the role of men and talks about how men are uninvolved, how they're distractive, how they're passive, this church says, hey, we as men, we are intentional, we are wise, we are passionate. And while we are not perfect, we are living in the grace of God and desiring to give that grace to our kids and to the generation that is coming up. And so, hey, as we think about that, can we just take a moment and celebrate all the dads across all of our campuses and the investment that you make?
Now, I want to take that and take that into a challenge for us as dads, as husbands, as men and leaders. That this week there's an incredible opportunity to be able to jump in and make an investment for the kingdom. As we got Kids Week starting tomorrow, y'all heard over 1,200 kids registered. What an incredible opportunity to be able to invest not just in the temporary, but in the eternal. And we need dads.
We need guys to step up and jump in and be a part of making a difference this week.
So you still register, be a part of that. Dads, we got guys taking PTO to be able to be there. If it's just one day or if it's all the days of this week, make it a priority to invest in the next generation this week. All right. Hey, Psalm chapter 38.
We'll be in Psalm 38 today as we continue in our series through the book of Psalms. As you turn there, we'll have the words on the screen as well. But as you turn there, I want to ask you this question. Have you ever had a moment when you realized that things were worse than you originally thought? I hear some chuckles.
You had that uh that house repair. The house repair that you think it's going to be the $500 repair, and then you start to open up the wall and you find something else and find something else, and then it begins to be the repair that's the $5,000 repair. That moment where you have maybe your truck or your vehicle starts knocking a little bit, and you're like, okay, I just need to kind of get this. Maybe it's just an oil change, just something's going on. And then all of a sudden, you know, you're hit with that bill of, you know, hey, it's going to be about two or three weeks.
We'll get it back to you and expect a lot of money, right? The other one that I think that we as dads can really understand and maybe appreciate is as we've set New Year's resolutions, we're getting close to summer now, was the hope that maybe you had in January that when you took off that shirt at the beach this summer, you would have that beach body that you were hoping for. And then you quickly realize that you have the dad bod that everybody else actually already knew, right?
So sometimes things are worse than we originally thought they were. They're worse than maybe they have. Yeah. I think about this in our world that we live in. We know there's a problem with our world.
We realize the world is a broken place. It's full of conflict. It's full of disappointment. From famine to war, from relationships divided to dreams shattered. Any of us would say that the world is broken.
But what if there's actually a deeper issue going on? What if there's a bigger issue? What if the issue is not just an out there issue? But an in-here issue. What if it's not just an issue with others, but it's actually an issue In me.
And if this is an issue in me. What do I do about it?
Some of you came in here today and you thought, man. I know that, I know what that issue is. You hear that, you're like, no problem with... here, knowing what that issue is, I feel it.
Some of us here maybe need to see this today, that it's a b it's a bigger issue. There's something deeper going on.
So here's what we're going to do: we're going to take a look with David head-on at our sin. We're going to realize it's a bigger problem than we ever thought it was. And then we're going to allow that weight to point us to a Savior who loved us more than we ever dreamed. We're going to see that God's grace is bigger than your brokenness. God's grace is bigger than your brokenness.
All right, we're going to jump into Psalm 38 this morning. I know it's a heavier passage. I want to let you know on the front end, there is no easing into this passage. I don't know if y'all remember this from years ago. It was very popular doing the polar plunge to kind of shock the system.
That's kind of what we're doing today. There is no ease into Psalm 38. It is you jumping right into the middle of a ton of emotion that David is walking through. All right, so we're going to jump in in verse 1 together. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger.
Nor discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head.
Like a heavy burden, they are too heavy. For me.
Now, we're following David's feelings as he's working through the tough reality of his sin and his brokenness and what that has caused all around him.
Now it's interesting in this passage, it actually doesn't say what sin that David is actually dealing with. It doesn't go into that detail. I know there's various sins that you see within Scripture in David's life. But it doesn't pick out a specific sin in this instance. And I think it's important.
I think it's an important note because I think it leaves the understanding of it as it's not one type of sin. That keeps us from our relationship with God, that breaks us. It's not one type of sin that causes our brokenness. In fact, it's any type of sin that we commit. Because it's against the God who created us.
So, how does the reality of this sin weigh on David?
Well, in verse 2, he talks about that it feels like. Arrows have sunk into me. He feels wounded. In verse 3, he said, There's no soundness in my flesh. There's no health in my bones.
Now it's interesting, this is actually, if you look at the commentators, is actually not likely a physical ailment. But I don't know if you've had a moment in your life where you just felt so overwhelmed. You felt so just grieved of something, so heartbroken of something that you couldn't sleep. Maybe you couldn't eat. Maybe it begins showing itself in some physical ways in your life, but it's actually a heart issue.
It's actually a heart issue that's going on. That's what David's dealing with right here.
So worried, so stressed that he ends up with these physical issues. And then he says that basically I'm over my head. It's too heavy a burden. You ever felt that way? It's too heavy a burden to carry.
He goes on in verse 8, it doesn't get any lighter. Happy Father's Day, right? He says in verse 8, I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult, this excruciating pain of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you.
My sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs. My strength is failing me. And the light of my eyes, another way to say that is like the joy of my spirit, the joy of my soul. It's also gone from me.
And then in verse 11, he says, My friends and companions, Stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.
Now, we don't know if that's the reality of the situation or if that's just what he's feeling, but have you ever been there? There's no joy. No strength left in my bones, and it even feels like no one is even around me to care. It is the depth of this sorrow, the crushing weight. that David is feeling.
Any cause is because of sin.
Now we don't like to talk about sin like this in our culture, do we? We in fact a lot of times don't like to talk about sin at all. Even in church culture, sometimes we don't like to talk about sin. We don't want to deal with it as an issue in us, and so we end up misdiagnosing what the problem is and treating it the wrong way. For example, years ago My family and I got to take a pilgrimage, not to Israel, to Disney World, in case.
Any of y'all were wondering where that was too. But we went to Disney World and we, you know, do the family trip down there and everything. Disney does everything excellent, right? Everything excellent. Even think about when you walk into Disney World, they've designed the smells at Disney World.
So excellent. We actually designed the smell this morning with bacon across all of our campuses, so you're welcome for that. But we're going through Disney World, and again, all things excellent. Um except one thing that I seemed to come across that that wasn't excellent, and that was that my daughter, uh at the my my middle child at the time she was my youngest, she was two years old, she started getting sick. And so we go to Disney's recommended urgent care.
And we've assumed, just like everything else at Disney, this is going to be excellent. Until the doctor walks in. And I kid you not, the doctor was more frantic than I was. I mean, he comes in and he is like freaking out in this moment. Like, I mean, what's going on?
And I'm like, hey, can you, what's what's going on here? And he says, sir, I'm from Lanam Don. He says, sir. What I would need to give your daughter, I would have to have a crash cart here. to be able to give to her.
You cannot fly home like you need to go to the emergency room immediately.
So me as a dad, I mean, I'm just I'm driving 90 miles an hour to get to this emergency room and everything.
So we get to this emergency room. Daughter comes in. And and he says, hey. Like Just so you know, she has something called croup and strider. We're gonna give her some breathing treatments, and you guys can be y'all can fly back tomorrow.
It's no problem. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, what? Like, you're kidding me. Like, I mean, I'm like so relieved, but I'm also equally like mad at this doctor, at this urgent care, of like, you misdiagnosed the issue.
So then you start treating all the wrong symptoms. And and it didn't help anything at all. What happens in our lives all across our culture? We misdiagnose the issue of sin. And then we start treating it in all the wrong ways.
Here's some ways that looks like. We ignore it. You ever heard this or maybe thought this? I'll deal with it later. We dive into screens and busyness and all of the things to go after so we don't have to think about it.
We will even remove ourselves from people associated with the things of God. That community group, that serve team, that friend.
so that we can ignore the reality of sin in our lives. We rationalize it. It's just a part of life. Everyone's got their issues. It's not that bad, right?
Other people are worse than me. You ever heard that? If someone else was in this situation, they would do the same thing. And then we hide it. We know it's not God's design, but we're not going to talk about it.
It's that thing that we keep locked up in the basement of our lives. That as soon as I said hide it, You knew what it was. Eventually, though, our sin will bring us to a place where we can't ignore it, we can't rationalize it, we can't hide it. The addiction's going to get too strong. That dishonest business deal will eventually get found out.
The affair, it never stays in the dark. We get to this feeling where the reality of sin won't be disregarded, and we feel this sense, like David, that we are being crushed by it. that the weight is too much to bear. Eventually we have to acknowledge it. But it's interesting, it's only in the acknowledging of the reality of sin.
that we actually begin to find freedom from sin. We've got to diagnose the reality of the problem.
so that we can actually find the right solution.
So we've got to hit this in the head here. We've got to, in order to be able to experience the freedom that God actually has ahead for us. Hey, every weekend around Mercy Hill, we've got people that have been believers for years and years, and we've got many people that are around here just checking things out.
Okay, and and many of you maybe you're thinking, you're wondering what even is sin? I've heard this term before, but I'm not really sure exactly how I understand it.
Well, let's kind of walk through that just for a minute here. Simply put, sin is missing the mark. Missing the mark. Specifically, it's missing the standard, the mark of the standard of God.
Now, the context for that is that God made the world and all that's in it. It is His, He rules over it, He created it. He made man to be the pinnacle of his creation. to live in relationship with him. God's given us His word, which tells us how the world is supposed to operate and how our relationship with Him is supposed to operate as well, how it's designed to work.
However, in the garden Adam and Eve. They chose to reject God's rules that He made for our flourishing. And they chose that they would rather be like a God than choose to trust the God that actually made them. Since then, the entire world has been broken. We are all guilty of this sin that has separated us from the Creator God who designed us to be in relationship with Him.
Now maybe you're here and I hits you and you're thinking, whoa, whoa, that's a lot. That's a lot. You know? I've never hurt anybody. Is it really like is it really that bad?
I've never stolen. I've never cheated. I've never killed anyone.
Well, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he kind of ups to any of this, all right? In the Sermon on the Mount, you know, there was a lot of religious people around, a lot of other people around as well. He's giving this teaching. And the thing that they were thinking is probably the thing that many people in our culture think: is that if I've done all these things on the outside, it must be okay. If I've never done the big things, right, the big these big sins, it must be all right.
Well, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he levels it up a little bit. Actually a lot. He says, Hey, you've heard it said. that if you murder, you're liable for judgment. But I say to you, if you're angry, You're liable for judgment.
And then he says, Hey, you've heard it said. If you commit adultery, You're guilty and you're liable for judgment. But I say to you, if you've even lusted after somebody, you're already guilty.
So what does Jesus do? He says it's not just an out there problem. It's not just a doing problem. It's a hard problem. It's in us.
And he raises the standard. to perfection. And none of us meet it. And it's not just that we're guilty of it. It's also the issue of who you and I have sinned against.
It's not just that we sinned. is that we sinned against the Creator God, the ruler of heaven and earth. I don't know if you've heard this kind of statements before, but have you ever heard this if you kick a fish kind of concept? If you kick a fish, Somebody might get upset, right? If you kick a dog.
You'll probably get the police called on you. If you kick a cat... Nobody cares. Right? We're just being honest here, just you know, just being honest, just you and us.
Right? So If you kick a cat, no one cares. But hey, listen, if you kick a king, if you kick a king, what? The shoe's gonna drop, right? You're going to jail.
There is some type of major thing going on. Why? Because it matters who you offended. And in our sin, it is not just peer to peer, person to person. It is us.
to the God of the universe who holds all things together. Sin has put us as enemies of our Creator. It's destroyed the relationship that God has designed for us to have with Him. It's not to be ignored, to be rationalized, to be hidden. and has separated us from the Father.
And we are sitting under the crushing weight. Wait. of that reality.
So how do we deal with it?
Well, there's only two ways. We will either be crushed by sin Or we'll be freed from it. That's it. There is no neutral with God. There is no middle ground.
There is no place that you can live in between. We will either be freed from it or or crushed by it. Ignoring it, rationalizing it, hiding it only leads to being crushed by it. But there is freedom to be had. It's available to you and me.
So, what does David do? faced with the crushing weight of sin. And it's interesting, right here. You see in verse 17, he turns to the Lord to confess. It says, For I'm ready to fall.
And my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity. I am sorry. For my sin. He realizes, he says, I'm ready to fall.
My pain's before me. He realizes he can't carry the weight. It's crushing. And he can't hold it up. I don't know how many of you guys do yearly goals and stuff, different goal setting.
I had a goal last year to bench 225 pounds. And so I was in the gym working out and everything. And I got to that day where it was time. It was max out day. I was super excited about the day.
Get to the gym, and you know, no offense to teenagers, but there were a couple of teenagers on a bench, a couple benches over from me. That was the only people in the gym. I would have asked somebody a lot larger, but they were there. All right, so I asked him, I was like, Hey, can y'all spot me? You know, I want to make sure, so important you have a spotter when you're doing that, right?
So I was like, Hey, can one of y'all spot me? He had no problem, glad to do it. Walks over. I kid you not, I g I get the get the bar up off the rack. And I begin to to like let it come come down, and the guy starts talking to his friend and literally walks away from the bar.
And I've got this weight. Like, I mean, it's coming down. I mean, so luckily, luckily, I did have the strength to get it back up, which I was very proud of. I was very proud of until I told Pastor Andrew, and he told me he did that in eighth grade.
So You know, we all have different goals in life, right?
So that was mine. But you think about this, it was this weight where it's like I needed this help. And this weight is just coming down on me. If you ever felt that way working out, you think about that in life. This weight pressing down on us.
It's where we all are apart from Christ. And honestly, it's where many of us as believers can feel sometimes in the struggle with sin.
So where do you turn when you realize you're being crushed? Your own abilities? By the way, that's what every religion teaches. It's your own ability. You do the religious stuff.
You turn there? Do you turn to your friends? Do you turn to an addiction, an earthly comfort? A show, a book, materialism? Your kids' success.
The grades in school? Listen. What you run to when you're crushed. has become your functional savior. You're treating that as your Savior.
And here's the problem. It can't lift the weight of your sin. You can't. Your works All the stuff. All the things we can try to distract ourselves with and go after.
It can't lift. The weight. It matters where we turn to. when the weight's crushing us. You see David and where he turns to.
We're going to follow this right here because freedom from sin. is found in trusting God as your good Father. Not entrusting all the stuff. all the ways that you can maybe lift the weight on your own. It's found in trusting God as your good father.
It's interesting if you look back in verse 1. If you look back in verse 1, David actually uses this word, discipline. He uses this word discipline. It's very interesting because. What happens is he's being crushed by the weight of sin.
And we are either enemies of God. Or we are sons and daughters of God.
So David He looks at this not as future destruction and full destruction in his life. Separated from God, but he actually turns to God in this. And he calls it discipline. He credits God with bringing him low. He considers the fault to be his own fault.
And then he brings his sin before God. This psalm is actually called a memorial offering. Memorial offering was about bringing something before God for remembrance.
So what he's saying is basically saying, hey, hey, I see my sin. It's obvious. But God, remember, you are my salvation.
Now, confess, it simply means to admit. He said, I confessed my sin. I'm sorry for my sin. It simply means to admit. To agree with God about.
In Scripture, we see confession to the Lord for forgiveness in 1 John 1. We confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We see confession to the Lord. We also see confession to one another.
In James five. To admit our sins to one another. A believer should do this for the sake of our healing, to bring these things out of hiding and into the light. that we may be healed. But he's interacting with God not as a foe.
But as a father. Not as a destroyer, but as a dad. Parents, you know this in terms of discipline. Disciplining your kids, it can vary from kid to kid because kids are very unique, right? They're very unique.
As I've got three kids, they're all very unique.
Okay, and it's very interesting sometimes navigating them in their discipline. I was actually, I got. A 10-year-old, a 9-year-old, and an almost 9-year-old, and a 5-year-old, alright?
So, - there's one that's almost not, right? And a 5-year-old. And my five-year-old is, she is a pistol. Uh she can light up a room and she can make everybody in that room cry, depending on how she's feeling, right?
So I'm disciplining my one of my kids, I can't remember which one, the other day. I'm kind of getting on to them about something. And as serious, she had a toy in her hand, as serious as she could possibly be. She looks over at him, she says, Hey, and you're not playing with this toy for a week. And I was like, hold on now.
Like, who made you parent here? She just jumped right in the driver's seat, all right? Parenting and discipline. It it can be interesting sometimes as parents. But as a parent, what's the point of discipline?
We want our kids to flourish. We want them to thrive. We discipline them.
so they may know what is good and walk in it. It's for their flourishing.
Now our children may not like it. Yet the hope is that they eventually grow in living out What we've hoped for them. And that maybe they will trust us. that we actually have their best interest at mind. When you see God as a good father who, like all good fathers, disciplines his children, it frees us.
from hiding. It frees us from running away. And it frees us, like David, to turn to him. For the believer, there's no future of destruction. Our discipline is temporary in this life.
as we look ahead to eternal deliverance from the power and the presence of sin forever. David's fighting to believe that. He cries out to God at the end of this psalm. Do not forsake me, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me.
Make haste to help me, O Lord. My salvation. What had David seen in his life? that he would call upon the Lord for his salvation.
Well, he was anointed as king when he wasn't even invited to be considered. He was delivered from the mouth of the lion and the mouth of the bear as a shepherd. He was victorious over a giant that nobody was willing to fight. And he was delivered from a king who wanted him dead. When everything was going against him and he was feeling crushed by the weight, he doesn't turn from God.
He doesn't run from him. He doesn't reject him. He calls on him to save him. What have you and I seen? Y'all, we have seen so much more than David ever saw.
We've seen the beauty of the gospel. And what I mean by the gospel is the truth. That God, in His great love for us, was not okay with us being crushed by the weight of sin out of relationship with Him forever. In fact, he loved us so much. May he send Jesus.
His perfect son. He didn't need us, but he wanted us.
So he came to earth and lived this perfect life that we couldn't live. He died the death that you and I deserved on the cross. For our sin. And three days later, he rose from the grave. showing that the check cleared.
We have seen that.
So much more than David ever saw. And he calls us to turn to him. You see, it's in viewing the gospel that we realize the weight of your sin is no match for the power of God's grace. It's not. It doesn't touch it.
It may feel really big. It may feel insurmountable. God's grace is bigger. You can't outsend the cross. I want to read a few verses over us.
That helped us to understand this. In Ephesians 2, it says this: But God, being rich in mercy, Because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.
And he raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. You know what that is for the believer? It's experiencing God's grace forever, even though you were dead and He brought you to life. The Romans 5. Verse 20, it says, The law came in to increase the trespass.
But where sin increased. Grace abounded all the more.
So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness. Leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Where your sin felt too big, grace was bigger. Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation.
For those who are in Christ Jesus. Not Zero. He has wiped it clean and given you the positive Righteous is all the works of Christ. have been thrown on you. There's no condemnation.
So what do we do with this weight of sin? This crushing weight of sin. and the truth of God's grace that is bigger. That's our application today. Confess your sin.
and trust Christ as your salvation. Admit you're sit. Agree with God about it. and trust in Christ. That he's done everything.
Everything necessary to save you. In John chapter 8. John records the story. Where Jesus was in the temple. with a uh few religio with various religious leaders.
And these religious leaders, they were trying to always pull one over on Jesus. They were trying to trap him all the time.
So in the middle of the the temple, they bring this woman to Jesus. And this woman is, I mean, she is just in rough shape. Cheers. Pouring down her face. Dishevel.
And they pull her into the middle of everybody. And they say, Jesus. This woman right here, she was caught in adultery.
Now the law says The law says that she should be stoned. What do you say? If you can put yourself for a moment in the position of that woman. Pulled out. In the act of sin.
in front of everybody. Throne. in front of these leaders. with all of their judgmental looks at her. Condemned to death.
There's no ignoring it. There's no rationalizing it. There's no hiding it. I imagine she probably couldn't make out. Exactly what was going on, and just all of her emotions and tears, and she hears Jesus say some words, and then.
She begins to hear feet. moving around the room. And she sees these feet. Walk up to her. And she looks up in the face of Jesus.
And he says to her, Where have they all gone? Has no one condemned you? And through the tears. She probably looks around. Had an empty room.
Because every accuser's gone. She says, No, Lord. The interesting thing about this whole story, though, is the only one who actually had the right to condemn her. was standing right in front of her. The perfect Son of God.
And what does he say? This woman. Crushing weight of scent. Sure condemnation. He looks at her.
And he says, neither do I.
Now go and sin no more. You see, when the reality of the crushing weight of sin. Hits our lives. We are all just like that lady. We're not going to be able to hide it, rationalize it, ignore it.
And it condemns every one of us. But we are freed from the weight of it. Because Jesus was crushed for it. Because just a few chapters later, he would go to the cross to die in her place, and die in my place, in your place.
so that the crushing weight of sin wouldn't crush you because it crushed him. And he beat it.
Now you may feel a lot of different ways this morning.
Some of you may be thinking, my sin is too big. It's too big. Is Jesus' resurrection power bigger than your sin?
Some of y'all might be here, and you may think, man, I can never confess that. That thing that's in my basement. That I know it, but nobody else does. And I can never confess it. Let me tell you this.
God already knows, and Jesus has already paid. He has.
Some of y'all might feel like I'm in too deep. I'm just in too deep. I can never get out of this. Jesus beat the grave for you. If he beat the grave, he can beat whatever you're walking through.
One I hear a lot around here. I'm not good enough yet. I haven't cleaned up myself yet. Listen, you'll never be clean enough. You'll never be good enough.
The only work that can save you is the work that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. And he did it all. If Jesus is alive. Then his promises are true. And that means that his grace is bigger than your brokenness.
Will you believe it? And by believe it, I mean Will you live in light of it being true? I want to talk to just a few groups of people in the room. three groups of people I want to talk to. Hey, if you're here.
You've been checking things out. But you be honest, you say, hey, I have... I've never trusted in Jesus. I've been trying to fix all this on my own. I've been dealing with all the symptoms.
But I realized today that This sin has broken me. separated me from God. Make today the day where you brought that weight in and you left it here. Because Jesus paid for it. Would you trust in Jesus as your salvation?
Would you admit that you're a sinner? Would you believe that Jesus has done everything necessary to save you? And would you confess him as the Lord of your life? Say, God, all my brokenness, all my mess. All my dreams, everything I ever wanted.
God, I give it to you. Because you've done it all for me. Would you do that today? And if you do that, Would you give God the glory for it? by getting baptized in a few weeks.
Baptism doesn't save you. But baptism tells the whole world you are. And if God did something as big as pulling the entire weight of sin off of you. It's worth telling everybody about it.
So, I want to encourage you: if you make that decision today, or if you've made that decision, You haven't given God the glory in baptism to do that. Give him the glory he deserves. Hey, believers in the room. I want to talk to two groups of believers. Before we We close.
Hey, if you're a believer here. And you are just in the midst. of a struggle with sin right now. I mean, it's just got you. It's got a hold of you.
And you're feeling like, man, I can't get past it. I can't get out of it. Listen, confess your sin today. Trust just like David did. That God is a good father.
that he wants good things for his children. And a good thing is not you holding on to sin in your life. It is you confessing it. Come into the altar today. Bringing it before the Lord.
And then letting this church body know.
Okay. Letting somebody in your community group know, somebody on your serve team know. Say, hey, I'm struggling with this. I need your help. Letting this church body rally around you because you're not alone.
You're not alone. But don't let it live in the dark. There is freedom to be had. You don't have to walk out with the weight. Let it go.
They find healing. Last group I want to mention. Hey, some of y'all are here, and you may not be dealing with like a present sin right now in your life. That's that's like a hey, this is like something I'm just caught up in. And that feeling.
But there may be something in your life years and years ago. That you know God's forgiven you of. But you can't seem to forgive yourself. And the accuser. Keep speaking it.
And keep saying, hey, you You should be judged for that. You should be judged for that. You're not good enough. You're not really hits. Let me tell you this.
Just like Jesus looked at that woman. and says she's not condemned. He says the same thing to you. And in Romans 8, 1, it says, there is therefore no condemnation. for those that are in Christ Jesus.
It is true whether you feel it or not. And I want to encourage you. To attack. The enemy. and the accuser with the word of God.
Listen. The Bible says, for freedom Christ has set us free. God did not design for you to carry that weight the rest of your life because He's already paid for it. Walk in freedom. Trust that whatever's in the past, he has paid for, and whatever's in your future, he's paid for as well.
And don't get the accuser. an opportunity to accuse you because nobody's there. Jesus paid it all. Trust him for it. Today.
Let's pray. God, we love you. We praise you that you are good and faithful. We praise you that you're kind and gracious. We praise you that.
God, while we deserve the crushing weight of sin. Jesus, you took it. God, we didn't deserve this kind of love. We haven't earned it, certainly. But God, we thank you for it.
And God, right now, I pray freedom. Over people in this room. Who today are going to trust you for the very first time as their Savior? to repent of their sins and believe in you. God, I pray for those who are in the midst of an addiction, the midst of a just crushing weight of sin in their life.
I pray that they would come forward, that they would confess that today. And that they would walk out in freedom. And God up, pray for those. who can't seem to forgive themselves. For something long ago.
God, I pray that you would today free them from that. God, that they would remember that you have indeed paid it all. And God, if you've taken that sin, there's nothing left for them. And they would walk in the freedom of that today. Pray to Jesus' name.
Amen.
