08.16.2024 - Eastgate Service - God Doesn’t Play Sorry

Scripture:

Opening Prayer

Sorry

Read Psalm 32:1–11

Psalm 32:1–11 NIV

1 Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. 6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. 11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!

Many years ago, there was a popular board game called Sorry. I think it was based on some even older games, and the point of the game was to get your four colored pegs across the board and into the center area that matched their color. Meanwhile, the other players tried to do the same with their pegs. You rolled the dice each turn to see how many spaces you could move, and the game was called sorry because when you landed in the same space as another player’s peg, you bumped theirs out, and they had to go back to the beginning and start over. It was a mean game that way, and it might have been the beginning of the saying, “Sorry, not sorry.”

Sometimes, our lives can feel like that game. Everyone is always rolling the dice, trying to find a place they belong and the people they belong with, and we keep running over each other, bumping each other back to start over again. Sometimes, the best we can say is sorry, but it remains a mean world out there.

God knew this world was a mess, so He sent Jesus to save us from this game that left us hurt, broken, and alone. Jesus forgives us and covers us with His grace and mercy.

We Need Forgiveness

It’s not hard to find ourselves in troubling situations. Sometimes, we make mistakes and get ourselves in trouble. Sometimes, other people do things that get us in trouble. A lot of times, it’s a little of both.

When the trouble is bad, it becomes a mark on our character. It stays with us no matter where we go. As a teenager, I worked at Dairy Queen as a cook, making more hotdogs and chili dogs than I could count. One day, I was refilling my mustard bottle from the big jar in the back of the kitchen. It had a pump handle, and I accidentally slipped the lip of the bottle I was filling directly underneath that pump. It sprayed mustard everywhere and covered me from head to toe. You might not think mustard has a smell, but I can assure you when you are covered from head to toe. It has a very distinct smell. It took me three or four hours to stop smelling mustard.

That trouble we get into is something the Bible often calls sin, and we can’t get away from it any more than I could get away from that smell of mustard. We need to be cleansed of it. We need forgiveness if we even attempt to get back to normal life. The good news is that God saw this problem long before we did, so he sent his son Jesus into the world to offer us forgiveness.

The Bible’s word for the bad trouble we get into is sin. But the Bible has another word for the answer to that trouble. Jesus called it “good news,” or the word “gospel,” which you may have heard before. Gospel means good news.

And it is good news that Jesus forgives us and saves us from being stuck in sin forever. Some people wonder why only Jesus rescues us from sin. Why can’t we clean up our own messes? Getting sprayed with mustard was terrible, but a few rounds of soap and water finally did the trick. I’ve heard stories about people who got sprayed by skunks, though, and it sounds like it is way worse than mustard. Growing up, I heard that soap and water don’t do anything to eliminate the skunk smell, no matter how many times you take a bath or shower. I heard that the only thing that gets rid of the skunk smell is tomato juice.

It’s the same with sin. Soap and water don’t touch it. Not even tomato juice will work. It takes the power of God in our lives because sin does more than leave a stain or a smell. It leaves a trap. Once we recognize that we have done wrong and realize that part of us felt good about it, it taints our character. We begin to tell ourselves this is just how we are. Often, the more we try to fix things, the worse it makes things, and we start living, out of desperation, like people in a shipwreck, pushing others down to keep their head above water.

We need to be cleansed from that guilt, and we also need to be set free from the power of sin that keeps us stuck in sin until the day we die. Only Jesus helps us to live differently.

A New Home

Jesus has made a home for us because He wants to live with us. The best part of Heaven is not that it is a happy place. It is that we get to be with Jesus there. God doesn’t look at us like figures on that board game, “Sorry,” trying to get all his pieces in the right place and celebrating every time one crosses the finish line. He recognized how broken we were and brought specialized care to us in Jesus.

Many of you know a lot about specialized care, which may be why you are here today. Maybe you got in trouble and hurt and need some extra help to get back on your feet. Maybe you got sick and are not strong enough to take care of yourself right now. Maybe your body is just tired, and it is hard to be on your own. At least for today, you’ve been given a new home designed to give you the care that you need.

Jesus said to be wholly free from sin, we need to be born again. I think part of that means getting a new home. Our old home in this world only knows how to let sin lead. But in heaven, we will have Jesus with us, and sin will be gone.

Jesus wants us to start living that new life today, so he sent his Holy Spirit to live inside us. Our bodies are like tents, temporary dwelling places for the spirit of Jesus to live until the day when we go to his home, change our address one last time, and live with him forever.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1–10

2 Corinthians 5:1–10 NIV

1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Closing Prayer