Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today we’re going to take a look at a passage of Scripture, but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
We live next to a really small Lake at the end of an Old Logging Road. It’s only about Forty Acres in size and approximately 50 feet deep, but for many years it has provided food for my family. It’s filled with a lot of sunfish and bass which to me is some of the best tasting food God created. Many years ago I heard a story from an older gentleman about the little lake that we live by. Apparently our lake has more than just fish in it. He explained that years ago, someone had to dispose of some casino machines that were no longer functional. Sometime during the middle of the winter, when the ice was thick, they hauled them out to the center of our lake, and put them in a pile. Well, eventually that ice started to thaw and get soft. When that ice became so weak, it finally gave way so that all of those heavy machines could sink into our lake, never to be seen again.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When we become soft in our hearts, and allow them to finally break like that ice, God can cast all of our sins to the bottom of the sea, forgotten and never to be seen again.
Micah 7:18-20 – Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
God wants to pardon us of our sins. A pardon is the action of forgiving or being forgiven for an error or an offense. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that is why it is so important to come to Christ. Without Him, we don’t have forgiveness with God on the day of judgment. None of us are righteous and none of us are good but God can change that and turn it all around by casting all of those heavy sins into the bottom of the abyss.
Sin angers our righteous God. It upset Him so much that He made a scourge and threw over tables in the temple, but later, He died on the cross for our sins. He rebuked some of the religious leaders, but then mercifully healed the sick. God will not retain His anger forever. When we break the ice of our hearts, and confess our faults, He is quick to forgive because He delights in mercy. Isn’t that incredible! Delight means to affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy. Jesus wants to forgive us because it brings Him great joy to help us, but first we must accept our faults and come boldly to Him in time of need, so He can bury those sins in the depths of the ocean. Our God is gracious, which means benevolent; merciful; disposed to forgive offenses and impart unmerited blessings..(unmerited meaning that we can’t earn God forgiveness.) It’s something that we must receive. It’s a free unmerited gift that He wants to give us.
Over the years many people have felt that if they did enough good works or kind deeds that they could somehow redeem themselves before God. We can’t no matter how hard we try.
God makes it easy. He wants us to simply come forward and break before Him with a contrite and penitent heart which He will not despise. He will forgive us and cast our sins far away.
Luke 18 ⁹ And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. ¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. ¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
When you sin, there is a break in our relationship with God. Our sin upsets Him so much because He desires us to be with Him. It’s because He loves us. This is why He sent Jesus into the world so that all who come to Him and call upon Him in faith can have complete forgiveness for their sins.
Micah understood that he was a sinner but that God would turn again to us because God loves to show mercy. It’s not by works that we are saved, but by the works of Christ Jesus. We just need to break the ice of our hearts before Him so that we can feel the weight of our sins plunge into the lake.
Psalms 145 ⁸ The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. ⁹ The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
God is waiting for us to humbly reach out to Him, so He can forgive us.
Psalms 86:5 – For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
Daniel 9:9 – To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
Psalms 116:5 – Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
Contrition is the key to finding forgiveness with God. Our hearts will need to break, confessing our heavy burdens unto God. When we do, God can cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea, just like…..
….The Slot Machines
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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