Unmistakable Assurance (Week #3)

When you watch the news, do you encounter people who you feel are unforgiveable?  Jerry Sandusky….Rae Carruth.  People who have inflicted unspeakable pain onto others.  What about when you examine your own life?  Are there things that you have done that you simply cannot forgive yourself for? 

Samba preached the Word on Monday night out of I John 1: 5-10. (The video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX7IW6bhgbc&feature=youtu.be&fb_source=message) 

Verses 5-7 make an analogy of light versus darkness where God is the light, and everything without God is darkness.  As Samba’s grandma used to say “When the light comes on, everything comes out.”  Samba also talked about cockroaches.  When you shine a light on a cockroach, it scatters.  In other words, light exposes things!  And, to follow the analogy, there is nothing that has not already been exposed to God.  Nothing we have done is hidden from His sight. 

As you can see, we have a problem.  God knows about all of our sin.  What do we do about that?  In the Old Testament, people used to have to transfer their sins onto a blameless animal, and then slaughter the animal as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for their sin.  However, we have one huge advantage, and His name is JESUS!  Jesus died as our sacrifice, knowing everything that we would do and knowing the full extent of our brokenness.  Jesus allows verse 9 to happen.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  Samba told us that this is the best insurance anyone can ever give you! Fireproof insurance that nothing we can ever do is outside God’s forgiveness.  We say we are unforgiveable, Jesus says His love is UNCONDITIONAL. 

Lastly, Samba talked about the confession we read about it verse 9.  Confession is necessary, because we need God’s power to overcome sin.  It shows that we agree with God, that our sins are truly our sins. It shows we are not hiding from anything.  But, we do not need to be fearful when we confess our sins to God.  When you apologize to another person, there is always a chance that they will not forgive you.  When we confess our sins to God, we have security in the fact that He will always forgive us.  No exceptions.  God’s love is so great, that nothing we could ever do is outside of it.  Confession frees us from the guilt Satan likes to use to hold us down.  It empowers us to stay strong, and encourage one another. 

Stay strong, and encourage one another.  God’s forgiveness is UNMISTAKABLE. 

-Brandon