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Please remember that sermon notes are meant to act as a guide and may not be exactly what was preached.

The legions of hell are standing against you as you seek to work out your salvation in and through what was accomplished on the Cross (Philippians 2:12).  One of Hell’s greatest weapons is our past.

When David committed adultery with Bathsheba, had her husband killed – there were consequences. Old covenant. Yet David was still forgiven and called a man after God’s own heart (see 2 Samuel 12). And I am sure that Peter struggled with his denying Christ three times in just one night, that the question of God’s forgiveness was on his mind.

Yet when Jesus talked with Peter by the sea of Tiberias, he simply asked Peter “Do you Love Me?” (John 21). It is not a matter of how we have sinned against God, what matters is that we turn from that sin and love the lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love God is to walk in faith to His promise and in obedience to His Word (see John 14:15).

It does not matter what you have done, God will forgive you and use that experience for the glory of His Kingdom. So you failed God, you sinned, you did something that you think He can’t or will not forgive. Or maybe it is something you are struggling with. You think You have it beat and, wham, you fall to it again, it was not your first failure… But you are still being perfected and as long as you walk this earth God still forgives! But you have to live a life of repentance and continue to walk with God while you are here!

Abby Johnson?  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBLWpKbC3ww  She attended Church every Sunday during her employment at Planned Parenthood. In the 8 years there she helped to terminate the lives of 22,000 unborn children, during that time. Abby believed that she was helping women in crisis. During an interview she said, “It’s a little surreal, if I’m honest, to watch someone play out the worst version of yourself in a film, but it’s also just a good reminder that God can literally use anything from our past and use it for His glory and use it for His Kingdom.”

There is a spiritual battle that is taking place right now in this world for your very soul and for those souls that do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are fighting against evil and the sin that blinds those caught in it to the truth, binds them to their sin, and blinds them to the evil produced by that same sin. This is a spiritual blindness that many suffer without knowing it. Each of us, at one time or another, has suffered from this. That is what sin does.

It is only after we have turned from the world, from our sin, that we can truly see it for what it is. But having turned from our sin we can still be trapped by it, unable to forgive ourselves, we are held in bondage to our past and the enemy has us right where he wants us: blind to the forgiveness that is ours in Christ! And denying what Jesus accomplished on the cross! God’s love is unconditional.

It is a sin to not accept what God did for you on the Cross.

Remember, it was God’s idea to forgive you, you didn’t come looking for forgiveness. He freely offers it to you through the blood that was shed and the life given to cleanse you of your sin, to remove the sin from you! You were once separated from God by your sin, but the moment that you accept by faith, the grace offered in Christ, you are separated from your sin by your God!!!

All you have to do is believe… it is that simple. To say that God can’t forgive you is to call Him a liar; you are spiritually blind and you have placed yourself above God claiming to know better than He does.

It is very important to let go of your past sins. If you have faith that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you don’t need to feel guilty. Guilt causes you to avoid—conviction comes to provoke you to change – to take the next step and move forward. After you go to God and confess your sin, agreeing with Him that you are a sinner, that you have done wrong, then, as God’s Word promises, He forgives you and cleanses you from all unrighteousness.

It’s not the evilness of your sin, but the size of the sacrifice that cleanses you of it, God Himself took on your sin – Jesus became a curse for us –The wrath of God against your sin fell on Him (Galatians 3:13). Jesus paid the immeasurable price that we could never pay. He who was fully God and fully man, sinless, spotless, and perfect, surrendered His life and shed His blood, as the Lamb of God—the life and blood sacrifice for your sin, for mine, and for all those who choose by faith to believe (1 John 2:2).

God’s grace is giving us what we don’t deserve—salvation from sin and a promise of eternal life. He chooses to freely give us His grace as a gift. God promises that all who believe in Jesus Christ “are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice so that you and I could be redeemed, reconciled to God, and freed from our bondage to sin by faith (See Romans 3:23-25)!

“Each of us has a unique pilgrimage with special insights and sensitivities that God can use in significant ways for His Kingdom. No success or failure in our lives is wasted with God. He does not squander any of our disappointments. He fashions the unique life to which He calls us and then He is glorified when we live for Him.” – Henry Blackaby

Romans 8:28-29 – do you think that God only uses what you are going through now? Do you not know that God uses ALL things to the good of those that love Him? That good is to conform us into the image of His beloved Son: Jesus Christ. If the enemy or his minions remind you of your past, remind them of their future (Carmen); “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:31).

Digging Deeper

• Do you truly believe that you are forgiven?
• What is the fate of those who do not repent of their sin, those that won’t let go?

Further Reading: Hebrews 10:1-27, Isaiah 1:18, Acts 13:38-39, Romans 3:24,  Romans 8:1-8, Galatians 5:16, Hebrews 8:12, 1 John 2:12