Family Sunday (August)

Forgiveness

Good morning! It is family Sunday! We have had a ton of fun and a ton of laughs. Today though our message is a little more serious. Its one that we are going to be forced to talk a look into ourselves. Today Vern and Lavern had to do the same. They had gotten in trouble and had to deal with the problem in their lives. We have all failed at things. In fact our verse today tells us that

English Standard Version Chapter 3

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

This verse gives us a picture into the world around us. We all have messed up we all have sin in our lives. We all have done things that we are not proud of nor should we be. We have given ourselves to pride, and fear. We have allowed sin into our lives. Lets look at the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created by God. They had it all. They got to name the animals and they were able to walk with God in the cool of the day. God told them all was theirs except one thing they could not eat.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

He gave them a command that they were to follow. Yet something was about to happen. Lets find out together.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Eve forgot that God had promised them. Eve had taken a bite and then Adam the man who God gave dominion over the whole Garden he took and ate as well. They didn’t die physically but spiritually they went from pure to dark. You see when we allow sin in our lives the purity that God has given us causes darkness to be in our hearts. Its like things get tarnished and are no longer clean. My daughter is a cheerleader for the 3-4th grade football team and she had to have white shoes and white socks to cheer but I can tell you that after 3 games her shoes are no longer white but have black on them from the track that she is standing on to cheer. When we give our lives to Jesus he makes our heart clean. He cleans us up. Yet we still have these moments when we allow sin into our lives. we disobey, we are ugly with our words, we gossip about people. these things may seem small but they are all sin according to God’s word. Sin is anything outside of God’s will and law. When we allow sin in it darknes our hearts. Even just a drop causes problems.

IODINE EXPERIMENT

Jesus is the answer to sin Jesus is the answer to our problems. Jesus is the answer. because he was without sin his death on the cross has given us the ability to be free from sin and follow Him. Romans 6:23 says this

English Standard Version Chapter 6

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the reason Jesus came so that we could be forgiven and be made free from sin. We no longer have to live in that darkness but can live in the freedom found in Him. He is the only way we can be cleared of our sins. We can’t do it. Nothing we do will help clear us. We may feel better if we try and do our thing but only Jesus can clear us because only He lived and did not sin. As we turn to Jesus He can give us the freedom we need and clean us up. That is the whole reason that he came. John 3 tell us this.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.