Forgiven

There's so many creatives in our community that are just stewarding things in secret. And I just want to encourage you, no matter what your story looks like, don't despise the day of small beginnings. Don't despise those days. I know that Candy for years, it's like the moment where you put out an album and you think it's going to blow up.

I remember like 10 to 15 years ago, your first album, and it like messed me up as I, it was just you on the piano and it was amazing. But the small beginnings are not despised. And I just want to encourage you to be faithful in the small things. Tonight we're starting a new series called Identity.

Identity. Man, and I think that what we are going to step into as a community is so significant for our storyline right now as we are just launching into this new day as a community, as we're going after every day. The key to understanding who you are in God is found in the simple gospel. And so the next couple months we're diving in to the simple gospel and we're tackling this topic of identity.

And some of us, if you've been around every day for a while, then you've maybe heard some of the things that we're going to be sharing from the Scriptures. And I want to encourage all of us. Let's humble ourselves under the Word of God. Let's humble ourselves and listen like leaders.

Everyone say, I'm a leader. And so if some of the truths that you're hearing are going, yeah, I know that. That's really good. You're listening to it, not to just keep it to yourself, but to actually give it away, right?

And so as we hear the Word, we want to be doers and believers of the Word. And as we listen to the Word, we want to become the Word. And then from that place we actually want to see that get multiplied everywhere, amen. And so you can open your Bibles to Hebrews 10.

As you're turning there, I want to talk about Jesus. Jesus knew his identity. Jesus knew his identity. And right before the cross he actually did something that was just so scandalous.

The Son of God, the one that threw the stars into the heavens. The one that created all things actually bent down and started washing nasty grown men's feet. Right? How many of you know that story?

Jesus bent down and washed his disciples feet. And it says before that he got down and washed his disciples feet. There's a statement that John made about Jesus. And it says that he knew what he had been given.

He knew where he had come from. And he knew where he was headed. Therefore, he got up and bent down and washed his disciples feet. Jesus knew who he was.

And because he knew who he was, he could step into greatness. The thing that's holding us back from greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven, it actually starts with you knowing who you are. Jesus didn't entrust himself to man, it says in the Gospels. They're trying to make him be king, trying to push him into the throne.

They're trying to build people, he started to multiply food. And they're going, this is the guy, this is the prophet, this is our king, this is the Messiah. Let's push him into being the king of Israel. And he's going, I'm not going to entrust myself to man.

He says, I'm not going to let man's opinions define me. I know who I am. I'm not going to entrust myself to what people think because what happens when you entrust your identity to people is you start doing crazy things. When you start letting people define who you are because you don't know who you are, you start doing things you wish you hadn't done.

When you don't know who you are, you go into relationships needy and wanting someone else to give you acceptance. And you start doing things that you wouldn't normally do because you don't know who you are. When you don't know who you are, you let your circumstances actually dictate how you're doing in everyday life. You let what other people say, just like Jesus, you can picture Jesus having, being misunderstood, having people spread lies about you, betray you, come against you, try to actually take your life, have like a price tag on your head.

And can you imagine him actually having his day ruined by it? I honestly can't imagine Jesus' day is getting ruined. Can you imagine him being like, yeah, it's just a bad day? It's a really hard day, guys.

John, I can't take it today. It's not today. Peter, not again. Thomas just believe.

Come on. Can you imagine Jesus being kind of like irked because he's having a bad day? Jesus' identity was firm. Sometimes what happens is we let the world dictate what our identity is because we're hearing that the world says that you are what you sexually desire.

You desire this gender and that's actually your identity. You lust after this person or this gender and now that's who you are. That's your identity. See, the Lord's going, no, no, no, no.

Just because you desire something or someone, that's not who you are. God's going, I have a different identity for you. I'm your dad. I know who you are, right?

What we need is a father that will tell us who we are. And sometimes we've let the father of lies actually tell us who we are. And we've let the world father us through media and the Lord's going, no, no, no, no. I have something to say about you.

I have something to say about you. All of creation is groaning for the sons of God to be revealed. God knows who you are. Even the spirit realm knows who you are.

Angels and demons know who you are. Do you know who you are? Do you know your identity? Do you know the core of what God says about you?

He wants to define you so that you would know. And that's what we're going to dive into. Over the next couple months, I just want to encourage you, like what Ben was saying, we gather to stir ourselves up in the spirit, and we need to remind you of who we are. And I don't know about you.

I'm just like Ben. I come to awakening service and your pastor, whatever you want to call us, your pastor is Katie and I. We want to, we need to get woken up. We need to awake, and we gather so that we can wake up to who we are and who God is and what he says about us.

It's not just like, oh, all of the congregation, no, it's all of us. We need to wake up. And that's what we get to do over the next couple months. So tonight, I want to talk about what Jesus did with sin.

I want to talk about what Jesus did with sin. I believe that as we dive into this, that others aren't going to dictate how we're emotionally doing our mental health or anything of that nature. We're not going to let others dictate our identity. We're going to let him decide it.

We're not going to let the accuser decide who we are. We're going to let him decide it. Amen? Amen?

All right. So Hebrews 10. What's happening in Hebrews 10 is what I believe to be the author is Apostle Paul. And I believe that as he's writing, what he's doing is he's talking about the sacrificial system in Israel.

And so he's giving this commentary on in the old, there would be sacrifices of bulls and goats and sheep and all of these animals and doves, all these animals were sacrificed and how they were sacrificed is the priest would lay hands on the animal and impart the sins of Israel on the animal. Because it's in scriptures that says that without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. And so it's just how the Lord's side up and he's going, I don't want to shed your blood. So we're going to impart the sins of the nation and your sins on an animal.

And that's how your sins are going to be forgiven. Or that's how you're going to experience atonement. And so the Apostle Paul is trying to kind of demystify. This is what that system was.

And then Jesus came. Jesus came and he did something that was totally different. And he talks about how the priests in the temple, they always had work to be done. Because the sins just kept on happening.

Right? People are just always sinning. And so there always has to be more sacrifices to cover up the sin. That's called a tonement.

It's to cover sin. And so the priest, there was never a chair in the temple. The work was never done. The work was never done in the temple.

There was always more sin to be atoned for. And so here we are. Hebrews 10, I want us to start in verse 14. Actually, we'll start in verse 11.

Let's go. And every priest stands daily at a service. So he's talking about the priest, right? Offering repeatedly the same sacrifices.

Here's another bull. Here's another goat. Here's another dove. Which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, what did he do? He sat down at the right hand of God. Which means, when Jesus says it is finished on the cross, he actually meant it. And so as a priest, instead of continuing to stand up, Jesus goes, I'm going to ascend into heaven.

I'm going to apply the blood on the mercy seat. And then I'm going to sit down as the high priest. Which means it's finished. There's no more work to be done.

There's no more sins to be atoned for. Let's look at what he says. Waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days declares the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. And then he adds, oh man, look at this.

I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. A couple months ago, I shared a message where I was sharing a story about a fire alarm moment that happened at our house. And this fire alarm kept on chirping.

And it kept on beeping. And it was driving me crazy, right? And how many of you know that when a fire alarm is going off, you can't be at rest? You can't like crawl into bed and be like, I'm just going to ignore the fire alarm and I'm just going to go to sleep.

That doesn't work, okay? You can't be at peace. You can't be at rest when there's a fire alarm going off. And what happens in our relationship with God is a lot of times shame and guilt act like a chirping fire alarm.

Shame when we sin and then shame says, that's actually who you are. That sin that you just committed. That's your identity. That's still who you are.

You just lust it after someone. That you're actually, that's who you are. You're defined by your sin. You're defined by your mistakes.

And then guilt is that like sibling that comes right in, right after that and says, you're worthy of punishment. You're guilty and you deserve punishment. And so they're chirping and then you enter in to worship. Maybe you give your life to Jesus.

And you're like, man, thank you for forgiving me. And then the pastor comes in and says, you need to repent. Get right with God, right? Hey, before you take that communion, you better get right with him, right?

And so you're like, I was forgiven. And then I think I'm forgiven. Nothing but the blood. Yes.

Washed me wide as snow, I think, right? And there's this mixture of like, am I forgiven? It's like, love me not or he loves me. He loves me not, right?

He's forgiven me. He's forgiven me not. There's this like, I think so. But what does he think when I come to him when I talk to him after I screwed up?

What does he think when, was this like a bait and switch? You know, it's like, hey, you can have all of your sins forgiven us or your sins forgiven. And then it moves into, but there's some conditions. Like once you get on the inside, there are some conditions that you need to know about where it's kind of true that you get fully forgiven, but kind of not.

And it's complicated, right? It's kind of complicated. Like once you get into it, it is complicated. It's like, oh, is it?

Have we made it complicated? Or is the word, it seems simple when I look at the Bible. Did it just say that he perfected for all time those who are being sanctified? Oh my goodness.

So he's perfected you for all time. Do you mean, okay, so, and then no, God doesn't forget. He said that he's not going to remember our sins. Does he have a bad memory?

No, the Lord has perfect memory. He has perfect memory. So what this scripture is saying is that God with perfect memory has made a decision. And his decision is that he's chosen to not remember.

He's chosen with all of his knowledge, his omniscience to go, I'm actually not going to remember their sins. Oh, are you sure? Because that's not how I usually feel. No, he's like, no, I sat down.

I sat down on the throne. I sat down. It's finished. And then he's like, hey, it's finished work.

So it's not like kind of open and you're going to add to it. See, what we start doing is we play, we start playing games with him a little bit. Like we do in our relationships with each other. See, we've learned it's like when little Tommy and little Jenny, they're on the recess.

And Tommy hit Jenny. And then the teacher brings Tommy over to Jenny and says, Tommy, do you have something to say? And then Tommy says, I'm sorry. And then she says, Jenny, do you have something to say?

Yes, I forgive you. Right? And from little on, we learn this is how forgiveness works. You have to apologize and then you'll be forgiven.

Right? So then we grow up believing this is how God forgives that you're not forgiven unless you do some things. Unless you apologize. Unless you repent.

Unless you confess. And then first John, let's turn to first John. I just think this is important to look at. Because this is what comes up.

There's one scripture in the New Testament that sounds like it's a condition on forgiveness. It sounds like, man, you have to confess your sins or you're not going to get forgiven. Okay? First John, one at nine, it says this.

Or actually verse eight, here we go. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look at this.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So we look at this passage and we go, okay, so if you're saying that I don't have any sin or that I'm fully forgiven that I'm not in us, I'm not in us. Or that I'm fully forgiven that I'm perfect and that I'm not, my identity isn't fully that I'm a sinner. Well, then if I say that, I agree with that.

That's actually makes me a liar and God's not happy about it. Right? But when you read the scriptures, this is what Ben is talking about on Wednesday night, we must understand the context of who this is getting written to. Because John is writing to an audience where there's Gnosticism in the church.

And what that means are Gnosticism in the culture, not even in the church. And Gnosticism is this, all things that are physical aren't actually real. And so sin isn't real and you don't need salvation. You don't need someone to save you.

You are without sin. Because sin and all this physical reality isn't even real. The only things that are real are spiritual, right? And so there's like a modern day Gnosticism.

It's universalism that's like, hey, you don't need a Savior. And John is actually addressing Gnosticism in this passage and he's saying, hey, you think that you don't need a Savior? You're mistaken. If you're saying that you don't have any sin, you're mistaken, you need to actually confess with your mouth that you need someone to save you and that you do have sin and you need to save you.

He's talking to people that actually aren't born again. And as the church, we're taking this in going, okay, in order to be forgiven, I actually have to confess sin. But time out. If you're not forgiven until you confess sin, that's a problem.

Because I've got a lot of sins that I haven't asked for forgiveness for, that I haven't confessed. I've had a lot of bad thoughts just like you. And I haven't repented of them. And I haven't confessed.

See, those are all the conditions that we put. And so what is it? Are you forgiven or are you not forgiven? Because we're all in trouble.

If there's the conditions that I have to confess every sin or I'm not forgiven. We are in a situation, if that's the case. See, there's a mixture that we've grown up in. And God's going, no, it's actually black and white.

All time perfected in the Spirit. I remember them no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer any offering for sin. It's finished.

American Christians, I think for years, have put about as much faith in the blood of Jesus as the Jews put faith in the blood of bulls and goats. We've put about the same amount because we're going, well, it's kind of like a Jesus bandaid. Like his sin covers, or his blood covers my sin. No, I want us to look at verse 4, Hebrews 10, verse 4.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Do you remember what John the Baptist said about Jesus? He sees Jesus walking. And what does he say?

He says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. What Paul is saying is blood of bulls and goats just covers sin. But Jesus' blood doesn't just cover sin. His blood actually takes it away.

Hebrews 12, it says that Jesus' blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. There's a story of how Adam and Eve, they have children, Cain and Abel. Cain is jealous of Abel, and so he kills Abel. And Abel's blood is shouting from the ground.

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And Hebrews 12 comes in and he says, Jesus' blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Most of the time we are entertaining this guilty voice of accusation. The same. Guilty. You're guilty for all of these mistakes, all of these thoughts, the addiction that you've been fighting, you're guilty.

And the Lord's going, my blood speaks a better word. My blood says, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. Whole. Restored, righteous, pure.

Holy, set apart. This is who you are. And we're going, but I'm not sure. And the Lord's going, no, my blood speaks a better word.

My blood speaks a better word over you. And we've been uncertain, second guessing, and then what we do is in relationships a lot of times we play the game of, well, maybe I'm just going to take some time away, like just a little bit of separation. I made a mistake, I send, and I'm just going to give our relationship some space. Right?

And then we'll come back together after a little bit, and just like, time does a good work. No, no, no, no. Do you know you have a father that's in the garden that's on pursuit? He's like, where are you?

Oh, my son and daughter, I love you. Where are you? Do you think the father was angry at Adam and Eve? No, he's full of compassion.

Where are you? I love you. Or we're going, man, I'm trying. I need to say sorry.

And if I say sorry with enough sincerity, then he'll forgive me. Or I need to feel bad enough for enough days. And if I feel bad enough for enough days, and I feel sorry enough then, I think we're going to be okay. Do you see what we've been trained in?

We've been trained by the ways of the world and our family systems or whatever influences we've experienced. And it's not the same with the father. That's not how he rolls because Jesus came and he offered a single sacrifice. See, Godly sorrow though is valuable.

So I want to draw attention. So it's like, when I sin, the question is, how do I respond to my sin? When you know who you are in the Lord and you know that you're forgiven, do you know what you do? There's an ache in your heart when you don't live into your identity.

And what you do is there's actually a grieving that happens that you walked in sin when the Lord has called you into righteousness and right living. And so what you do is you don't feel guilt because he's removed. I'll guilt from you. You're not guilty.

You don't feel shame because it's not your identity and it's not who you are. But you actually go, ugh, that's not who I am and that's not what he's done and that's not what he's made me new inside and that's not who I am in the spirit. And what I do is I just turn and go, Lord, I thank you that that's not who I am. I'm not defined by my sin and I'm actually going to turn and I'm going to say something.

I'm going to say this phrase. I'm going to say, thank you. I'm going to say, thank you for forgiving me. And then what I do is I turn and I repent.

And repent isn't rubbing my face in the carpet, giving myself over to guilt. Repentance is I'm going to turn and change the way that I'm thinking. There's something off in my belief system that was the root system behind the sin. And I'm not just going to do the behavior management thing because Christianity is not about behavior management and sin management and do's and don'ts and not do this and then do that and not do that.

And if you don't do this, then I'm going to be a little dejected and mad and upset and a little frustrated with you. That's not what following Jesus is. Following Jesus is, oh, what was I thinking? Lord, what do you think about this?

Oh, that's what you think. I'm going to think that too. Thank you that I don't have to think that way. It's called joyful repentance.

The Lord is restoring joy to repentance. In our day, He's going, what if you joyfully repent and you're like, that's a lie. This is truth. I'm walking in the other direction.

That's not who I am. I'm not a sinner. I'm actually a son. I'm going to step right in to my identity and what you've called me into.

Let's turn to Colossians 2. Paul's writing again here in Colossians 2 verse 13 to 13. It says this, and you who were dead in your trespasses, you were dead in your sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh. And God made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us of some of our trespasses and some of our sins.

Oh, wait a second. Sorry. I just having forgiven us of all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us. With its legal demands.

This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in the cross. There's a trial and you're guilty and you know you're guilty. And it all got caught on footage.

You know, it's all got caught on video. You're guilty and you know it. There's the evidence to prove that you're guilty. And you actually were guilty from the womb because you were born with the sin nature.

So it doesn't even take one sin. You're already guilty. That's how you're born. And then Jesus comes on the scene and He's going, hey, take that tape, take that DVD, take that WAV, take that file and nail it to the tree.

Nail it to the cross. Because all of that evidence and all of the legal stipulations that make you guilty, I'm actually taking it all on myself. Can you imagine how many sins would be piled up from just your life alone? Some of you are in your 60s or 70s and I can imagine for you.

I just so much sin, so much. Way more like bright double my sins, right? It's like whoa. And you just think about the pile of your sin if it could be like physical.

And then take the whole room. Like how many millions and millions of sins just in our community have been committed. And then you multiply that time and times a billion. And then how many people live in history.

And what Jesus does is that He becomes sin on the cross. What Jesus does is He takes on all of the sin of your past, your present and your future. And He takes it on Himself and He becomes one with it. And God is the God of justice and wrath.

And it delighted God the Father to crush Jesus on the cross. Why? Because it delighted Him to crush sin. Because sin is the very thing that destroys the one He loves.

Sin destroys us and He loves us and we are the object of His affections. And He is going, I hate that it destroys them. I'm pouring out my wrath on sin. And it delighted Him to crush sin in His Son.

And Jesus hangs on a tree for six hours and takes the full brunt of the wrath of God on His body and on His soul and on His spirit. It was a single offering. And Paul is saying He disarmed the rulers' authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them on the cross. I just picture us sitting down, you know, it says in Psalm 23 that He's prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

And I think that there's this mixture that still exists where we're kind of going, okay, here He is. He wants to sit down with me, okay. You've prepared a table for me, thank you. I think.

And then we sit down and He's like, I've got a conversation card starter for us. Like a conversation starter for our mealtime. That's what Katie and I do with our kids. We need a conversation starter.

And there we are. We're sitting. And usually what our mindset is, is we got to talk. That's what we're assuming.

Jesus, He's like sin-focused. We're assuming He's like, all right, we got to talk. Man, you and I both know what happened. Let's have the conversation.

Come on, come out with it. I mean, I already know what happened, but come on, let's go. Right? Do you see the games that the enemy tries to play with us about his character and how he is interacting with us?

And the Lord's, He literally is setting the table for us and He's going, let's talk. Let's connect. And He's got this smile that's brought on His face and He's ready to connect. And we're like, but there's all these things that I did.

And I'm going to focus on these things. And the Lord's like, what things? Wait a second. What are you talking about?

And you're like, you know, the, you know, and He's like, oh, I remember them no more. I've actually removed them from you as far as the East is from the West. This is good news. This is good news of great joy.

I'm not saying that, listen, hear me correctly, that there is consequences for our sin because it breaks relationships and it breaks trust and there's no victimless sin. I want you to know that. So what I'm not saying is if there's broken trust between someone because of your sin, it's not like, well, Jesus forgave me. Why are you forgiving me?

Right? No, it's like, there can be forgiveness, but that doesn't mean that there's fully trust there. And we have to see a lot of times as believers, since we're insecure about what He thinks about us, and we're kind of processing that underneath the surface, it's very difficult for us to accept responsibility for our sins as we interact with one another because we're preoccupied with not knowing our standing right here. And so then we actually don't respond in godly humility and apologies in responding to sin rightly with others and accepting responsibility as godly sons and daughters.

Right? And so He's forgiven us of all of our past present, oh, I need to talk about that. When did Jesus die? Two thousand years ago.

When were all of your sins committed? After He died. So that means every sin that you've ever committed was all of it was in the future. And so when He says perfected for all time, what He's saying is the ones that you've done, the ones that you're doing right now, some of you are sitting right now.

And all of the sins in the future, all of them in the future, but not if you don't confess, no, all of them, not if you don't repent for everything, no, all of them, all of them. What does it say? Again, the record of debt, future debt, past debt, present debt, all of the debt has been fully cleared out. It's been fully, it's really good news.

And then some of us kind of go like, oh, okay, well, I get to do whatever I want now. I mean, if I've been forgiven of everything, well, then why wouldn't I just do what I feel like doing whenever I want to do it? And that's when you know that you're starting to preach the gospel. That's when you know that you're starting to understand the good news.

When you start asking the question, well, then I could do anything and you'd forgive me? Yeah. You mean even somebody like Hitler would be forgiven if he surrendered his life to Jesus and made you, Lord? Yep.

You mean even the ones that have sinned against me? Yeah, even them too. Okay, but I'm not as bad as Hitler, right? So that's good.

It's like, yeah, that's great. So I can do whatever I want. You're close. You're close.

And that's what the Apostle Paul is preaching the gospel. And all of a sudden, as he's preaching the gospel, the gospel of grace, the gospel of forgiveness, that's the response of, so I can do anything. He says, of course not. Why would you do that?

Why would you do that? Why would you, the freedom that has been given to you is actually to walk out love? We're sifting. You can come to the front.

I, uh, Roman 6, he comes with the truth and he says, should we continue on sinning? He says, by no means, of course not. What we do is, as we've been forgiven, there's love in our hearts, and then our only response is, I want to obey him. You know what's best for me.

I'm not going to do my way. You've forgiven me of so much. Now I'm just going to love you with my life. My whole life is about loving you.

It's not about being the God of my own life. If you've been born again, even the idea of, well, I can just do whatever I want, isn't a born-again question. When you get born-again and give your life to Jesus, do you know who's the boss? Who's the leader who's in charge?

Him, not you. You've dethroned him out, or you've dethroned yourself out of the throne of your life. And you've given him lordship, and now he's king over your life. He's the king of kings.

He's the king of royalty. He's the king of the royals, and he's going, hey, I'm the leader, and you're the follower. And we say, oh my goodness, I'm so glad, because this would be going very poorly if I was the leader and you were the follower. We think, man, I do whatever I want.

The Lord's going, I've given you the gift of forgiveness and freedom so you can walk in it. And grace is going to abound. When you make a mistake, when you sin, I'm so thankful that I'm forgiven. But it's if, not when.

You're not sin waiting to happen. That's not your identity. You're not sin waiting to happen. Your sons and daughters representing him everywhere.

Your sons and daughters becoming love. That's your identity. That's who you are in Jesus. Some of us are going, well, but I don't feel forgiven, so I don't feel it.

And when I sin, that's why I kind of take a couple days from the Lord, because I don't feel forgiven. It just doesn't feel right. And the Lord's going, hey, that's actually unbelief of the gospel. So I just want to call us out of unbelief.

This is the gospel. You're forgiven. Past, present, future. The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than your emotions and then your feelings and then what you think and what you feel.

That has no standing before the blood. I believe that we're called to give ourselves fully over to the opinion of God. Fully over to the opinion of what he says, and that's going to be our identity that's actually going to set in our hearts as a people. There's a story in the gospels where Jesus, I'm going to close with this.

There's a story in the gospels where Jesus, he's with some Pharisees, some religious people, some religious people, like you guys, right? And he's sitting at their house and all of a sudden there's a sinful woman that walks into the back door and comes up behind Jesus and starts crying over his feet. Her tears are pouring onto his feet and she bends down and starts anointing Jesus with oil. And the religious take the place of accusation and say, if Jesus knew who this woman was, he wouldn't let her be doing that.

And then Jesus tells the parable and the whole lesson of the parable is this, that those who are forgiven much, love much. Some of us need the much forgiven tonight. The much of your life that you felt condemnation for and shame for and guilt for for so many years. And you've let the accuser of the brethren just kind of keep you unsure of what God thinks about you.

Keep you guessing what his posture towards you is. And the Lord's going, enough is enough. I'm putting a nail through the coffin of all the shame, all of the guilt, all of the condemnation that you've been hosting for years. And I'm going, I'm going to be your host.

That's Jesus saying, I'm stepping in and I'm going to set the table for you. No longer is the accuser setting the table. He's not choosing what we're going to talk about. I'm going to choose what we're going to talk about.

And it's all about us connecting. No more is it about our sin. No more is it about all of the things that you did. No, he's going, you're coming into my presence with boldness and confidence now.

We're turning away from believing the lies about the truth about us and Jesus. We're turning away from it. We are repenting from hosting shame, guilt and condemnation in our life. We're repenting of it.

And it's going to be joyful. Who's ready to joyfully repent of feeling shame and guilt and being unsure if we're forgiven or not? Let's all stand. I just believe this is a moment for us.

Jesus dealt with sin and how he dealt with it. Is he removed it from us? He cleansed us from it and he said, this is going to get nailed to the cross. And I'm cleansing you, forgiving you past, present, future sin.

Yes, you get to repent. Yes, you actually get to step in to your identity. Yes, you get to live a godly life. But where it starts, where your identity starts is that you wouldn't know what I think about you.

And what I think about you right now is what his blood thinks about you. There's no more accuser of the brethren that's sitting at the right hand of God. There's a different man sitting at the right hand of God and his name is Jesus. And he poured out God blood to make you pure, to make you holy, to make you righteous, to forgive you of all of your past, present and future sins.

And we're saying, enough is enough. I'm agreeing with Jesus. I'm agreeing with the blood tonight. And if you want to respond and just put the nail in the coffin, the stake in the ground going, enough is enough.

I'm saying, I'm forgiven. And this is my identity. I want you to come to the front as a way of just taking a step and being like, no, stake in the ground. All this accusation is over.

So I just want to welcome you to come to the front and come all the way to the front as many are going to respond. Lord, we thank you that we stand in our identity as sons and daughters, that we stand as those that are forgiven. We stand as ones that have been made whole and righteous in Jesus. Lord, I break my agreement.

There's some of us actually, we can bring the music down. There's some of us that actually need to hear it from him because we've just been kind of second guessing. You know that you're forgiven, but you actually need to hear directly from him. And it's okay.

There's times where I go, man, Lord, man, I'm so sorry. And I receive forgiveness. There's a receiving of forgiveness. We can know it, but then there's moments where we actually just have to go like, I received this forgiveness.

Thank you. And you said, your response. You know you've received it when you've said thank you. That's how you know you've received forgiveness when you say thank you for it.

And so I want us to even do that together. Whatever you're thinking about, whatever that thing is that you're responding with, you're going, man, this is the thing that I've been unsure about. We're all going to say it at the same time. Thank you.

Okay. So I just want you to pause and just what is that thing? It's been on your back. It's been on your shoulders.

And we're just going to take it. And we're going to ask the Lord, Lord, would you take this and forgive me for this? Even though we know that we're forgiven. Sometimes our souls need to hear it.

That's okay. That's okay. We can give grace to ourselves. Would you forgive me for this, or Lord, I'm sorry.

Would you forgive me? We don't even need to ask him. I know that we don't need to ask him. But sometimes our souls just need to hear it.

Okay. And then what does he say? What does he say when you give it to him? You ask him.

What does he say? He wants to make it personally. He wants to speak right to you. What we're going to do is we're all going to say thank you.

And we can say it loudly or you can whisper it whenever you want to do. And however you want to say it, I'll also say it loudly so we can all be bold. But we're going to say thank you. Okay.

We're going to say thank you. I'm going to count to three. And whatever feels authentic to you, you're going to say thank you to him. And whatever way you want to do.

Okay. Thank you, Lord. All right. One, two, three.

Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for your forgiveness, Lord.

Thank you that I've been forgiven. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your blood. Thank you that there's a better word.

Thank you that I'm not defined by my sin. Thank you that you're the one that defines me. Your opinion is the thing that defines me as a son, as a daughter. Thank you.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Yes. Let's just worship the Lord together.

We're just going to sing to the Lord. We're just going to thank Him. We're going to celebrate what He's done. If you're a deacon, you want to come and pray for those that have responded to the altar, you can do that.

Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord. Jesus, we thank you. You're the Savior.

We need it saving. You're the Savior. We love you.