the word of forgivenes

THE WORD OF FORGIVENESS

When Love Speaks: Seven Words from the Cross- Part 1

Rick Warren

August 28-29, 2010

Great crowds trailed along behind him, including many grief-stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. Finally, they came to a place called The Skull. All three were crucified thereJesus on the center cross, and the two criminals on either side. Then Jesus said, FATHER FORGIVE THEM, for they do not know what they are doing. And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. As the crowd stood watching, the leaders laughed and scoffed at Jesus. He saved others, they said, let him save himself if he really is God's Chosen One, the Messiah. The soldiers mocked him, too, and offered him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself! Luke 23:27-37 (NLT)

WHAT WE USUALLY DO WITH GUILT

1. ______________________________

When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day longMy strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Psalm 32:3-5 (NLT)

You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Pr. 28:13 (GN)

2. ______________________________

Yes, Adam admitted, but it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it. Gen. 3:12 (LB)

Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord. Pr. 19:3 (GN)

3. ______________________________

My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load it weighs me down because I was foolish, I am bent over and bowed down; I am sad all day long. Psalm 38:4-6 (NCV)


When Love Speaks: Seven Words from the Cross

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WHAT JESUS WANTS US TO DO WITH GUILT

1. ______________________________

The Lord gave us a mind and a conscience. We cannot hide from ourselves. Pr. 20:27 (GN)

Let us examine our ways and test them... Lam. 3:40

2. ______________________________

I recognize my faults. I am conscious of my sins... Ps. 51:3

"Admit your faults to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16 (LB)

3. ______________________________

If we freely admit that we have sinned, we find God utterly reliable... he forgives your sins and makes us thoroughly clean from all that is evil. 1 John 1:9 (Ph)

All of us have sinned... yet God declares us not guilty IF we trust in Jesus Christ, who in mercy freely takes away our sins. Rom. 3:23-24 (LB)

WHAT JESUS DOES WITH MY GUILT

_______________________________________________ God is merciful and quick to forgive. Isa. 55:7 (GN)

_______________________________________________ He has forgiven ALL your sins. He has utterly wiped out the evidence of broken

commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by

nailing it to the cross! Col. 2:13-14 (Ph)

_______________________________________________ (Christ)... is always interceding on our behalf. Heb. 7:25 (Ph)

_______________________________________________ For by the sacrificial death of Christ we are SET FREE, that is, our sins are forgiven.

How great is the GRACE of God! Eph. 1:7 (GN)

What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!... What relief for those who...God has cleared their record! Ps. 32:1-2 (LB)


When Love Speaks: Seven Words from the Cross- Part 1

Rick Warren

August 28-29, 2010

As we kind of wrap up the summer let me ask how many of you took a trip this summer? Where

are some of the places you took trips to? France. (Did you bring back any fries?) Disneyland.

Mexico. Anybody take a trip to Walt Disney World? Did you like it? How about Colorado?

Did you like it? How many of you have ever taken a trip to Hawaii? Did you like it?

How many have ever taken a guilt trip? How many have taken a guilt trip more than once? Did

you like it? No! Absolutely not.

God did not create you to live with guilt. In fact, theres a myth that says feeling guilty makes me more spiritual. Absolutely false! Wrong! Absolutely wrong. Guilt is not required for

holiness. In fact, God did not design your body to handle guilt. In fact he designed it and

intends for you to live guilt free.

Guilt really messes up your body. It messes up your mind. It messes up your relationships.

Guilt is a problem in that it creates all kinds of fears. Theres the fear of I may be found out If somebody knew what I have done then Id really be in trouble

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the guy who wrote all the Sherlock Holmes novels, he was quite a

prankster. One time he sent an anonymous note to fifty prominent Englishmen, in Great Britain.

The note simply said, All is found out. Flee at once. Within forty-eight hours twenty-five of those people had left the country.

A lot of people carry the fear of being found out. A lot of people carry the fear of being

rejected by others. If my wife, if my husband knew about my past or my boyfriend or my girlfriend knew about my past, theyd leave me in a second. It is the fear of rejection.

Theres the fear of retaliation. If other people knew what Id done, theyd get even with me. If other people knew what Id done, Id get in trouble So youre always looking over your shoulder wondering who did I tell this story to, and who did I tell that story to.

There is the fear of judgment. That Gods going to judge me for the wrong things that I have done.

The truth is God wants you to live guilt free. If youve wanted to get rid of the guilt in your life youve picked a good weekend to come to church. Because theres no reason for you to leave here today carrying any load of guilt. God says youve got to let it go. Youve got to dump it. Youve got to let go of it.

This fall were going to go into a couple of new series Im very, very excited about. Ive been working on them, and planning for them all summer where Im taking you this fall. A lot of it has to do with your future and making the most of your future. But before we look at those new

series and get into that, I wanted to just take one weekend where we kind of deal with closing the

door on the past. A lot of you are still stuck in the past and you dont know how to let it go.



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You have regrets and you have secret shame and you have guilt that God never intended for you

to carry.

Do you remember last spring right before Easter; I did a series on the Seven Last Words of Jesus

from the Cross. We looked at the seven things Jesus said on the cross. But I never got to teach

you personally the first words from the cross because we had a guest speaker that weekend. So I

had never gotten to teach on it. I want to go back and look at that first word from the cross

because its the most important word. It is the word of forgiveness.

We pick up the story in Luke 23. Jesus has been arrested. Hes been up all night because they took him through six sham trials three of them Roman trials and three of them religious trials. None of them were legal because you couldnt have trials at night. He has been beaten. He has been battered. He has been scourged. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They spit on

him, they made fun of him.

Now we start the story where Jesus is carrying the cross up the hill to Golgotha. The place

where Jesus was crucified and other people were crucified was just outside the city wall and it

was called the place of the skull or Golgotha. Ive actually been there in Jerusalem. Its called the skull because it looks like a skull when youre standing back looking at this hill.

In Luke 23:27 it says Great crowds trailed along behind him, [behind Jesus while hes carrying the cross] including many grief-stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him [with Jesus]. Finally, they came to a place called The Skull [or

Golgotha]. All three were crucified there Jesus on the center cross, and the two criminals on either side. Then Jesus said, [This is the first words from the cross] Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. [This is the very first thing that Jesus says when hes hanging on the cross. ] Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And the

soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. As the crowd stood watching, the leaders

laughed and scoffed at Jesus [They made fun of him while he was hanging on the cross.] He saved others, they said, let him save himself if he really is God's Chosen One, the Messiah. The soldiers mocked him, too, and offered him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!

Jesus had no intention of saving himself because thats not what he came to do. He came to save you and me. So no matter how much theyre going to taunt, If you are the Son of God, save yourself. He had proved himself as God many times with miracles and he would do it three days later by coming back to life. He had no intention of coming down from the cross because

he wasnt on the cross to save himself. He was on the cross to save us.

But the very first word of the cross is the word of forgiveness. Its a word that you need to fully understand. When you fully understand the meaning of Jesus saying Father forgive them. They dont know what theyre doing. You can live the rest of your life guilt free.



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What were going to do this weekend is three things. First, I want us to look at the ways we usually deal with guilt. There are three of them and theyre self-destructive, self-defeating and they dont work but you use them all the time. Three ways we usually deal with guilt.

Then were going to look at how Jesus wants us to deal with guilt so that we can be guilt free. So we can have a clear conscience, that we dont carry this load on our back.

Then were going to look at what Jesus does with our guilt because of what he did on the cross.

The problem is most people walk around not understanding that. They walk around with a load

of unnecessary guilt.

What do we normally do with our guilt? We do three things.

1. We try to bury it. We try to bury our past.

That doesnt really work very well. You probably heard the advice people say, youve got to bury your past. The problem with that is it doesnt work, because it keeps resurrecting itself. It keeps coming back to life. It wont stay buried. Your guilt is kind of like in one of those old horror movies The Night of the Living Dead! It just keeps coming back to remind you at the most inappropriate and inopportune times; and either you will remember it or somebody else will

remember it and point it out to you. And it just keeps coming back to haunt you.

David says it like this in Psalm 32 When I refused to confess my sins, I was weak and miserable, [In other words, the emotional toll on my body was great because I was carrying this

guilt.] and I groaned all day long My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. [You want to know why youre fatigued all the time? It could be youre carrying a load of guilt unnecessarily.] Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to

myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord. And you forgave me! All my guilt it gone.

When we finally come to God and say, God I need you to forgive me. And he wipes out all of

our guilt. Its such a relief. We go, what was I thinking? Why was I holding on to this in the first place? Its not like God didnt already know my sins. Its not like he didnt already know everything I was going to say to him.

Someday Im going to write a book on phrases youll never hear God say. One of the phrases God will never say is Oh really? I never knew that. I didnt see that one coming. Because he already knew everything you were going to do wrong before he created you, and he still made

you and still chose to love you. So its not like youre going to surprise God I didnt see that one coming. When you confess to God its not for his benefit; its for your benefit. To get it off your chest, to get it out of your mind because you cant bury it.

We all have our favorite ways of burying our guilt.

Some of us are minimizers. We go around and say, It was no big deal. It wasnt that important. It happened long ago. It was no big deal. Then why do you still remember it? It



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was a big deal. Thats why it keeps coming up in your mind. You cant get it out of your mind. Why did I do that? I wish I had never done that. I regret it and I feel ashamed that Ive done that.

It was a big deal. Minimizing doesnt work.

Others of us, we dont minimize but we rationalize. We say, everybody else is doing it. That has nothing to do with you and it certainly doesnt relieve your guilt. You can get anybody to pretty much do anything. Somebody will do everything. Just because somebody else did it

doesnt make it right. Rationalizing does not remove your guilt. What others do is irrelevant.

Some of us are not rationalizers or minimizers; were compromisers. The compromise is I feel bad about it so Ill just keep doing it. I actually opened a fortune cookie one time in a restaurant. I couldnt believe this was actually in a cookie. I opened the cookie and the fortune cookie said, Commit a sin twice and it wont seem like a sin to you anymore.

Thats good advice...!!! Where do you think that came from? Satan? Yeah, Im sure the fifteenth time you murder somebody its not as hard as the first time. But that doesnt make it right. Thats absolutely ridiculous. Theres a word for that: its called hardening your conscience, hardening your heart. Certainly the first time I violate my conscience and I do

something wrong and my conscience says Tilt! Tilt! Tilt! That was the wrong thing to do! Of course Im going to feel bad about it. But if I keep doing it pretty soon I think this is normal.

Just because you think its normal doesnt mean its right. Youve just gotten used to it. If I tell a lie once or I tell it fifty times thats just normal. No, its still a lie. Or I lust once, then I lust fifty times, its still lust.

Minimizing, compromising and rationalizing that doesnt work. You cannot bury it.

Proverbs 28:13 says this: Youll never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Why is that true? There are a couple reasons.

One, every seed you plant eventually sprouts. You cant keep it from sprouting. The Bible says Be sure, your sins will find you out. The Bible says What you sow, you will reap. So if Im out there planting seeds of selfishness theyre going to come back on me. If Im planting seeds of envy and jealousy theyre going to come back on me. If I plant a harvest of anger, Im going to reap a harvest of anger at some point. Its all going to come back to me. Its going to catch up.

We can thank for that today, the internet. Because the internet has become the permanent

repository of all of our mistakes, all of our sins, all of our goof ups. It used to be you might be

able to hide some of your stuff from most people in the world. But today everything you do can

be caught on an iPhone and posted on Facebook or anywhere else. And its now permanent, global, and searchable. And theres no way youre ever going to remove it. There are kids out there right now writing things on blogs and taking pictures of themselves and doing all kinds of

things theyre going to regret the rest of their lives because its never going away. Its never



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going to be taken off the internet. Its permanent, its global. Anybody in the world can type in your name now and find out all kinds of dumb stuff youve said or looked like. Or whatever. Its going to catch up with you.

Thats why the Bible says you can never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins because you cant really hide them. But theres another even deeper reason. That is when youre hiding something, you are investing enormous amounts of emotional energy in something that you dont have the energy to invest in. When youre investing enormous amounts of energy trying to cover up, trying to hide, trying to who did I tell what to? Youre using that energy in the wrong way. You dont have it for real life and thats why youre tired all the time. The most fatigued people are the people who are covering up the most. It takes enormous amounts of energy to

bury your past. It just keeps coming back.

2. The second thing we try to do with guilt which doesnt work is we blame.

We bury and we blame. We blame others. This tactic is as old as Adam and Eve, the first

couple. When Adam sinned he took it like a man, he blamed his wife. And husbands have been

blaming wives ever since and wives have been blaming husbands ever since and on and on.

Parents blaming kids and vice versa. Genesis 3, God comes down and says did you do what I

told you not to do? Yes, Adam admitted. But it was the woman you gave me who brought me some, and I ate it.

Whos he blaming here really? Hes blaming God. The woman you gave me. God, when it was just you and me in paradise it was really copasetic but then you brought in this little

temptress. Ever since then its been downhill. God, if you hadnt given me this woman I would be a godly man. Sound familiar?

Question: Who are you blaming for your unhappiness? Who are you blaming for your

problems? If I just had different parents. If I just had a different boss. If my husband would just

get his spiritual act together. If my wife would stop doing this or that. If my kids, my brother,

my sister, my boyfriend Who are you blaming for your problems? Who are you blaming for your sins? Who are you blaming for your guilt?

The fact is were all pros at this. Youre a pro at it; Im a pro at it. Were pros at what I call accusing and excusing. Accusing and excusing, accusing and excusing. We accuse everybody

else and we excuse ourselves. Or as Adam did hiding and hurling. He hid from God and he hurled accusations at somebody else. They did it! Hes hiding and hes hurling.

We do this all the time. In fact, America is becoming a nation of victims. Everybody blames

everybody else for every problem and nobody wants to accept responsibility any more. Even in

high profile court cases, youll get somebody like a serial killer. His justification is when I was a little boy my mother held my head under the bathtub water for three seconds too long and I had

all this pent-up rage and now Ive gone postal! We want to blame everybody else. Its the governments fault. Its Al Qaedas fault. On and on and on. Just name everybody. Blame everybody for everything.



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You know why we do this. The reason why we blame other people is because we feel guilty.

The more guilty we feel, the more we blame other people. Its a sure sign of guilt. Blame is always an indication that I dont like me. Why? Because in your mind there is a scale between blame and guilt, and we cant handle guilt. So when we feel too guilty we start blaming other people to even the score. Well, you did this yes, but you did that. Well you did this yes, but you did that Well I did this because you act this way all the time.

Blaming is always an indication of guilt. Were trying to justify it in our mind because we cant handle the scale tipped in the wrong direction.

Sometimes we even try to blame God for our mess like Adam did. The Bible says in Proverbs

19:3 Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord. God, why did you let me go bankrupt! And God says, Wait a minute! I didnt put all that stuff on your credit card. I didnt tell you to buy a house you couldnt afford. I didnt tell you to take a risky gamble with that investment. You did that. Why are you blaming me? You made those

decisions that got you into debt and now youre blaming me saying, why did you let me go into bankruptcy? I didnt get you into that situation.

Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid decisions and then blame the Lord. We bury

it, we blame others. Neither of those work.

3. The third way we try to deal with guilt that doesnt work is we beat ourselves up.

Some of us are blamers and some of us are buriers. But some of us are really good at beating

ourselves up. Youre a Mary Martyr. You feel like you have to self-administer punishment to yourself and youre subconsciously trying to atone for the guilt in your life. You make yourself feel bad because of the guilt.

Can guilt cause illness? Without a doubt. I read just recently a study where a doctor said that

about fifty percent of the people in hospitals could go home tomorrow if they knew how to get

rid of their guilt. When I swallow my guilt my stomach keeps score. If I dont talk out my guilt to God, I take out my guilt on my body.

People say Hes a pain in the neck (or back or rearwhatever.) Really often its the guilt thats the pain. Most of the pains in life come from either resentment or guilt. Resentment things that other people did to us. And guilt things that we did to other people. When you carry that, God says your body was not wired to handle guilt and it creates all kinds of problems.

As David said, I was wounded, I was hurting, nothing worked in my life all of that.

Can guilt cause depression? Without a doubt. He says its a heavy load. Psalm 38 My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load it weighs me down [I dont even want to get up in the morning. Thats depression.] because I was foolish, Im bent over and bowed down; I am sad all day long. Its a form of atonement.

Can guilt sabotage my success? Without a doubt. Ive seen it happen many times. You have too. People who are very talented, very bright, very intelligent. Theyre on this track to success



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and theyre moving up the ladder and theyre more and more successful. Then all of a sudden one day they do the stupidest thing and sabotage their own success. You wonder, what were

they thinking? One possibility is inside theyre thinking, Im not worthy of this success and I have to atone for my guilt.

You dont even know how your mind plays games on you. You sabotage your own success because your conscience is saying Tilt! Tilt! While you wont acknowledge it, it says, Well get even. Well sabotage our own success.

My guilt has overwhelmed me; like a load, it weighs me down.

Heres the problem with punishing yourself for your guilt. Your conscience doesnt know when to quit. When you start punishing yourself, your conscience does not know when to stop, when

youve had enough. So it just keeps punishing you and punishing you and punishing you. More and more happens.

Some of you are still beating yourself up for stuff that happened months ago, years ago, maybe

even decades ago. Every time you think about it you beat yourself up again. Why did I do that?

The regret and the shame and all that piles in on you.

Those dont work. Burying, blaming, beating ourselves up do not work.

What does Jesus want us to do with our guilt? He says Father, forgive them for they dont know what theyre doing. What does he wants us to do with our guilt? Three things.

1. One, admit it.

Thats the starting point. The Bible is very clear and specific about how to get off a guilt trip, because a guilt trip is just a dead end. The steps are simple but they are not easy. The first is,

admit it. I dont bury it, I dont deny it, I dont ignore it. Just own up to it. Be a man! Be a woman! Own up to it and you admit, I have sinned. I have made a mistake. This was wrong.

Sometimes we even try to run from our guilt. We try to run away from it and escape it. The

primary way we try to do it is by keeping busy. Busyness is often a coping devise for dealing

with guilt. Workaholism can be a devise for escaping guilt. Overwork. Ill just keep myself busy, move from one thing to the next. You can do that even in good things. Ive seen people do this even with ministry. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason. And if it is guilt

that is motivating you to do good, to try to atone for something in your past, or to try to prove

your worth, or try to express to God, Im valuable! Youre missing the point.

When youre running from guilt, its going to catch up with you. Sometimes we run by traveling. Ever seen that book Eat, Pray, Love? Thats a book about guilt! When you understand it, shes running away from her guilt. She figures if I just go to Italy, if I just go to India, Ill get over it. Ill find peace of mind. No. Youve got to get over your guilt.



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Or we think well move. Ill just move to Idaho! The problem with travel and moving is you take you with you. The problem is between your ears. Its in your mind. So youre not going to find any relief in Idaho. Youre still going to be just as stressed there if the stress is coming from regrets, from shame, from guilt, trying to run from your past. Youre still taking you with you. It doesnt work.

When you finally slow down and you put your head down on the pillow at night, all those

feelings come crashing back in again. God doesnt want you to live that way.

The Bible says you cant run from yourself. Proverbs 20:27 The Lord gave us a mind and a conscience. We cannot hide from ourselves. You may be able to hide your guilt from everybody else, but you cant hide it from you. Thats why it starts with personal honesty, admitting to myself and admitting to God I was wrong.

1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin [I dont carry any guilt. I dont have anything Im ashamed of. I dont have any regrets. Ive never sinned.] If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

We as human beings have the amazing ability to lie to ourselves. You do it all the time. I do it

all the time. We lie to ourselves all the time and we believe our lies. You say its not bad, when it really is bad. And its getting better, when it isnt getting better. And its ok, when its not ok. You tell yourself youre really further along and better than you really are. We lie to ourselves all the time. The Bible says the heart is deceitful.

I want you to write this down: To stop defeating myself I have to stop deceiving myself. I have

to tell myself the truth.

What is it that defeats us? All kinds of things. Worry defeats us. Envy defeats us. Bitterness

defeats us. Jealousy defeats us. Guilt defeats us. Fear and anxiety and insecurity defeat us. If I

want to stop defeating myself I have to stop lying to myself, deceiving myself.

So what I suggest you do is you do a little spiritual spring cleaning. A lot of people in the spring

or sometimes at the end of the summer, to get ready for the fall and the holidays, you kind of go

through the house and kind of clean everything. Give it an extra dusting job. Try to organize

things so youre ready for the fall or whatever. I suggest that at least once a year you do an extended personal inventory of your spiritual condition.

How do you do that? Let me explain because I suggest you do it this week before we get into the

fall. Heres how you do a personal spiritual inventory.

First, you take a couple hours and you set them aside. Its going to take you a couple hours. You set them aside and you get off by yourself with a yellow pad and pencil. If youre serious about being guilt free you do this on a regular basis. The garbage has to be taken out

periodically. If you just leave all the garbage in your house it piles up. In your life you have to

take out the garbage periodically, the stuff thats wrong in your life that piles up, otherwise your life starts stinking like garbage. You get a pencil and a piece of paper. Then you sit down and



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say, God, I want you to bring to mind (help me to remember) everything I feel guilty about either consciously or unconsciously? Whats wrong? What have I blown? Where have I sinned? What mistakes? What do I feel guilty about, either consciously or unconsciously.

You sit down and start writing those things down. You say I cant think of any. Youre not trying. Believe me. Just sit there for a little bit and youll start thinking of stuff. Itll start coming. If youre honest to God, really honest to God and youre authentic, Gods Spirit will start bringing these things to mind. And you start writing them down. Lord, there was that time I exaggerated, and you write it down. There was that time when I was envious, and you write it down. There was that time when somebody hurt my feelings and I attacked them back, and you write it down.

Whatever it is. If its lust, you write it down. If its fear, you write it down. If its I stole from that person, I cheated that person, if I gossiped about that person whatever it is. You just start letting God make the list in your life. It may take you an hour. Just sit there and wait for a while

and write it down. Nobodys going to see this. Youre going to burn it eventually. You make that list.

By the way, years ago I put together a spiritual evaluation tool that weve used many, many times here at Saddleback for this very thing. If youd like me to get you one of those just take out a card and write Spiritual evaluation tool on the back of the card, drop it in the basket and Ill email you that spiritual evaluation tool. Itll help you. Its kind of like priming the pump and getting you started. So if you want to know all your pastors sins write down spiritual evaluation tool. I put down the most common sins known to man and it will help you kind of do some

spiritual house cleaning.

You say, Rick, why do I have to write it down? Cant I just think about the things Ive done wrong? No. Because writing it down helps you be more specific. You committed those things

one by one; youre going to need to confess them one by one. You dont say, Dear God, Im sorry for everything Ive done the last thirty years! Bingo! Blanket coverage. God says, you really dont mean this do you? You dont even care enough to point them out, to think them through. You committed those ideas one by one and you need to confess them one by one. So

writing them down makes you be specific.

Once youve done that youre ready for step two.

2. Step two after I admit it is I accept responsibility for the junk in my life.

For the garbage in my life. For the self-centered times in my life. I dont rationalize it it happened a long time ago. I dont blame others it was mostly their fault. It may be mostly their fault. I want you to focus on the one percent thats your fault and not their ninety-nine percent. Youre not confessing their sins. Youre the one thats getting rid of your guilt. Maybe its only one percent. You dont minimize, you dont make excuses.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba. When he wrote Psalm 51, his prayer of repentance

he doesnt even mentioned her. Never even mentions her name. Why? Its not about her. Its



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about him. By the way, Psalm 51 is a great Psalm to read as your prayer. If you dont know what to say, say Im going to say what David said. So I make this my prayer. Its the prayer he prayed when he committed adultery. Its a great, great prayer of cleansing and forgiveness.

Psalms 51:3 David says this: I recognized my faults. I am conscious of my sins. I accept responsibility.

Whats the best way to insure that I really am acting responsible? That Im owning up to it. That Im being a man. That Im being a real woman. Im not wimping out on this. What is the truth? How do I prove that I really am being responsible in this?

Im going to tell you, but youre not going to like it. This may shock you. The best way to get over the feeling of feeling guilty is to tell one other person. I dont say tell the whole world. Just find one person who loves you unconditionally, is not going to judge you just be a listening ear. And you tell one other person. That is going to be the removal of your feeling of guilt.

Listen very closely. You dont have to confess to another person to be forgiven. All you have to do is confess to God and youll be forgiven. But many of you, Gods already forgiven you and you still feel guilty. If you want to be forgiven, you tell God. If you want to feel forgiven,

youve got to tell one other person. Thats the way God wired it. Revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. We only get well in community. You dont have to tell a bunch of people. You only really need to tell one person. And if its between you and another person that youve sinned against, you go to that person. You just say I need to give you my spiritual evaluation.

Can you listen for five minutes? The Bible says we accept responsibility. God says this is an

essential key to your healing.

James 5:16 Admit your faults to one another [Circle one another. It doesnt say to God. It says admit your faults to one another.] and pray for each other so that you may be healed. Circle healed. It doesnt say so that you may be forgiven, but so that you may be healed. These are two different things. Forgiveness comes from God. Healing comes in relationships.

This is why so many people have confessed a sin to God and Gods forgiven them but they still carry guilt the rest of their lives. Because theyve never been healed. Theyve been forgiven but not healed of their faults.

You say, Rick, why do I need to do this? Why do I need to drag one other person into my own

personal sin?

Listen very closely. This is the most important thing Ill tell you right now. Because the root of all of our problems is relational. The roots of all of our problems are relational relationships to our parents, to the family we grew up in, to our friends, to our husband/wife, our children, other

people in our life. Theyre all relational. The truth is we are dishonest with each other. We play games with each other. We wear masks all the time. We fake it. We pretend to have it all

together when everybody knows I dont have it all together. Everybody knows you dont have it all together. But we still go around like were in a masquerade ball, pretending like Ive got it all together. Were all broken.



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There are only two kinds of people in the world. People who are broken and sinful and know it;

and people who are broken and sinful and wont admit it. Thats it. Everything on the earth is broken. Were on an imperfect planet. No relationship, no marriage, no family, no job, nobody is perfect. Theyre all broken.

When we refuse to be real with another person it creates all kinds of fears in our lives. It isolates

us from each other. It causes fear. It prevents and is a roadblock to intimacy, in marriage, in

friendship. It creates insecurity. If they really knew me they would not like me.

Ive told you this before: whenever somebody out on the patio, Ive been told thousand times, Pastor Rick, Ive never told this to anybody. When I hear that phrase I get excited. Not because theyre going to confess something to me. Im going to love them no matter what. But because I know that they are about to experience the explosion of freedom in their life by

opening the closet and the bogie man is not as big as they thought he was. Ive never told this to anybody! Thats why you still remember it. Thats why you cant get on with your life. Because youre holding it.

God wired the world that we need each other. That we only get well in community. Which is

why I always keep talking about small groups. Where are you going to find somebody whos going to love you unconditionally and you could tell your worst secret to and theyre going to say, got it! And theyre not going to think less of you. Theyre not going to judge you. You have to build that kind of relationship in a small group. If youre not in a small group you probably dont know anybody like that. If youre in a small group you need to start looking and find one person. You dont need the whole group. One person in your small group that you think, I think I could level with them and I dont think theyd think less of me.

You can prove yourself worthy by revealing things of yourself so then other people feel

confident to reveal to you. Everybody needs a listening ear. The book of Job, Job says A man deserves the devotion of his friends, even if he forsakes the Almighty. You know what that means? That means that even if Im at a point in my life that I cant even believe in God, I still deserve friends. Thats what God says. Even when youre at a point you go, I dont even know if I believe in God right now. God says you still need friends that you can talk to who can have

faith for you who can believe for you and who can listen to you.

At first I admit it. Its wrong. Then I accept responsibility and I admit it to another person. I know its a clich but its still true: Im only as sick as my secrets. Youve heard that so many times, but its true. Youre only as sick as your secrets. When you reveal that deep dark secret to one other person it pops the balloon, it lets all the stress out of your life. The more you hide it

the more you hurt. The more you hide it the more you hurt.

Its holding it in. Everybody needs at least one person in their life that they can be totally honest with. Thats why you need to get in a small group and why you need to find one person in that group.

I admit it and I accept responsibility. I own up to it as a man or woman.



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3. Three, I ask for forgiveness.

One of the great promises in the Bible is 1 John 1:9. Over and over again God promises to

forgive our sins but in 1 John 1:9 he says this If we freely admit that we have sinned, we find God utterly reliable He forgives your sin and makes us thoroughly clean from all that is evil. He says Im going to wipe it out. Im not going to rub it in. You come to God and say, God about that sin. Hes not going to rub it in. Gods not going to scold you. He doesnt rub it in. He rubs it out. Makes you thoroughly clean from all sin.

Theres a right way and a wrong way to ask for forgiveness. Let me tell you the wrong way.

One, dont beg. You dont beg God to forgive you. God, please! Oh please! [Like youve got to convince God to forgive you.] Please with sugar on it. God please! God wants to forgive you more than you want to ask for it. Youre not waiting on God. Hes waiting on you. Youre the one whos carrying the burden, not him. Youre the one whos carrying the guilt, not him. Hes waiting on you. He likes to forgive. You dont ever beg God.

Two, dont bargain. Bargaining is, God if you will forgive me I will never, ever do this again! Thats bargaining. Oh right! If thats your area of weakness, you will be back in that area of sin in a matter of hours or days.

Understand this: confession does not change the future. Confession forgives the past. There are

other steps to change a bad habit. Im not talking about those today. Those are principles of recovery, principles in the Beatitudes. Im talking about closing the door on the past. Confession doesnt say youre never going to do it again. Confession forgives you and cleanses you from the past. You dont bargain with God and say Ill never do it again, because you will. Everybodys got their favorite sins. Youve got yours and the person next to you has theirs. And theyre different. You struggle with things that other people dont, but there are a lot of people who struggle with the same things you do. Dont beg, dont bargain.

Third, dont bribe. Bribing is when you say, God, if youll just forgive me for this I will and then you add in something. I will go to church every week. I will read my Bible every day. I

will tithe fifteen no, twenty percent. I will go on a PEACE trip. Dont bribe God. You cant bribe and you cant bargain and you dont need to beg.

So what do you do?

You dont beg, bargain, bribe. You just believe.

Thats what you do. You believe the many promises of God where God has promised over and over if you confess your sins, he will forgive your sins.

One of the great verses of promises is Romans 3:24 right under Romans 3:23, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I love the Living Bible that says Yet God declares us not guilty if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his mercy freely takes away our sin. Circle if we



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trust. God declares us not guilty if we trust. Its not begging, bargaining, bribing. Its believing. If we trust in Jesus Christ who in his mercy freely takes away our sin. Thats what Jesus did on the cross.

I know what some of you are thinking. Rick, you dont know what Ive done. And youre right. As your pastor and as your friend, somebody who loves you, I dont know what youve done. I dont need to know what youve done, because I want to tell you this: it doesnt matter what youve done.

Your forgiveness is not based on how little or much youve sinned. It doesnt matter what youve done. What matters is what Jesus has done for you. Thats what the cross is all about. Thats the central truth of Christianity. Its not what Ive done or how bad Ive done it. Its what Jesus did on the cross and has already done for me, when on the cross he said It is finished. It is done. Ive paid for all your punishment. And no matter what youve done, you can be forgiven today.

I want you to hear Kevins story. Would you give him a warm welcome?

Kevin: My name is Kevin. Im a believer in Jesus Christ and Ive struggled with lust, lying, and sexual addiction. I grew up in England and moved with my family to Canada when I was

seven years old. We came to America in 1969 and thats the first time I remember lying. We snuck across the border and I had to lie to the border guard that we were just going to

the zoo for the day. Soon after, my dad left my mom, this time for the last time; and I was

expected to help support my family. At twelve years of age I was helping to get my two

brothers and sister ready for school, lunches packed and out to the school bus. Then I had to

stay back and clean up the house, run to school and beat the bus there. After school Id run home and start dinner before the bus arrived and then take care of my siblings. Needless to

say, I had to grow up quickly.

I was earning money from lots of odd jobs and my mom would take it all for home support.

However I would sneak a little for me and I would leave after everyone was asleep and go to

bars to drink and meet women. I became sexually active as a young teenager and I would

use pornography, thinking that it would make me feel more like a man since I was the man

of the house. My childhood was primarily eating, working, taking care of the home and

dating older women. My mom sexually and physically abused me, often taking out her rage

on my absent father on me. She abused and embarrassed me on a regular basis, and I felt

more inadequate as she continued to do this. I used movies as an escape staying at the

theater from opening to closing. Eventually things got so bad at home that I was kicked out

of the house. A friends family took me in and they kept me until I graduated high school. I think of them as my foster family. It was during this time that I accepted the Lord at church;

however I really did it to go in the youth group to try to meet girls.

I received my immigration green card, and soon after, joined the United States Marines.

There pornography and sexual encounters were many and I became an alcoholic and a full

blown drug addict while in the military. I was totally lost. My first marriage failed.

Strained by distance and my addictions to drugs, alcohol, pornography continued. I felt so



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guilty and ashamed that I wouldnt even go out on a date, so my next door neighbor set me up on a blind date with a woman named Pat and we fell into immediate infatuation. We

dated and after three months I asked her to marry me.

In 1981 I married Pat and got an instant family with Joseph, Deborah and Timothy just add water and stir! I thought that all of my problems with guilt, lying and addiction and

shame were over. However, Satan continued to tell me lies about what a man was. My

sexual addiction progressed and the severity became worse and worse. Eventually my

family found out about my secret life, and it destroyed my wife, the love of my life.

Through counseling with a pastor we uncovered more issues which also hurt her. I had

crushed my wife and alienated my children. This was definitely my bottom. I was broken

and ashamed, defeated by guilt. I felt abandoned. I thought I had lost everything that I held

dear and I was sure that I would lose my wife, my three children and never see my

grandchildren again.

One night in desperation I came to Saddleback Celebrate Recovery ministry. I was worn out

from all the guilt associated with all my hurts, habits and hang-ups. Only Jesus could save

me. Of course I felt I was the only one with this problem. That no one else could

understand the shame I felt. With my past I knew that I had only a few good friends praying

for me. But I felt so unworthy. I struggled with acceptance from Jesus and others and even

from myself. But my journey to freedom started that night. No words, no sermons just acceptance, from the people in this church family. I was allowed to cry and share without

condemnation and with complete love and acceptance. That gave me a glimmer of hope.

That is what I needed then and what I still need today. Maybe you feel like that too. The

Bible comments that came to mean the most to me is Romans 8:1 There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of spirit of life has freed me in

Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Imagine that! My wife was ready to leave me. In fact, she was at the door with her bags packed telling God she was going. But God said,

you can go, but understand that Kevin gets it and hes going to choose sobriety. My wife later told me she told God theres no way Im going to let some other woman get the benefits of all I went through.

Im so excited to say that she decided to stay. And in March of this year we celebrated twenty-nine years of marriage. In the last few years we have gown leaps and bounds in our

communication, in reading the Word together, in devotions, in prayer and companionship.

Both of us are leaders on Friday night at Celebrate Recovery. Through the support of my

weekly small group, Im learning to walk more and more in forgiveness and freedom every day, and to let go of the painful regrets of my past. Only God can give us that kind of

freedom.

I never had many close friends, as I do now here at Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback and

my small group. I was always hiding who I really was so that I couldnt take the chance of letting anyone really get close to me. Now Ive invested in my life in other mens lives who will help me stay accountable for my actions. The guilt is gone and I have freedom in

Christ. Even more amazing is that I know that God is using my story to help others. I can

feel God using me every day. I know that Ive become the man of God that he wants me to



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be and Im going to keep growing. I really like the husband and father and grandfather that Ive become. I dont know what youre hiding from today, but I pray that you will let go and let God do for you what he began in me since Ive stayed sober in these last six years, one month and fourteen days. It will change your life. What have you got to lose? Just

your guilt, your shame, your fear, and your regrets. I hope you will have the courage to take

that first step today. God bless you.

I know some of you are thinking, Rick theres an incident in my life that Im ashamed of and I have asked God over and over and over to forgive me for that incident. But I still dont feel forgiven.

Listen closely. There are three things I need to tell you.

First, you dont need to ask God over and over and over. You only have to ask God one time. God heard you the first time, and if you meant it he forgave you the first time. Youre asking because you dont feel forgiven. But he forgave you the first time.

In fact, if you keep asking God to forgive you over and over and over, it means you lack faith.

You dont really believe that he kept his promise. Because you dont feel forgiven, you think he hasnt forgiven me. He has. Youve been forgiven but you havent been healed of that emotion.

Every time you ask God to forgive you for something hes already forgiven, thats a sin. Because youre saying, I dont really believe you kept your promise to forgive me the moment I asked. It is a lack of faith.

What it means is you dont understand how God forgives. So this is the most important part of the message: What Jesus does with my guilt because of the cross. Because on the cross, the first

word on the cross was Father, forgive them, you need to understand the ways that he forgives you.

One, God says that when you come to him and you do the things that we just talked about admit, ask forgiveness and own up to it,

He forgives instantly.

Instantly! He doesnt say youve got to suffer a little while. We like to do that but God doesnt do that. He never makes us wait. He doesnt say Ill think about it. He forgives you the moment you ask. There is zero delay. The split second you ask God for forgiveness, youre forgiven in that moment. He doesnt draw it out or drag it out.

In Isaiah 55:7 God is merciful and quick to forgive. Circle quick.

Should a Christian ever feel guilty? The answer is yes, for about ten seconds. Thats about as long as it should take. Because it takes about ten seconds for you to admit that it was wrong, it

was a sin. To own up to it. I accept responsibility. Im not going to blame anybody else. And



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ask for forgiveness. That takes about ten seconds. Thats about as long as you should ever feel guilty, if you have put your trust in Christ and what he did for you on the cross.

Again, I told you a lot of people have this myth that feeling guilty makes me a better person. It

does not! It is unnecessary. It just makes you miserable. So he forgives instantly.

Two, he forgives completely.

You dont have to keep coming back to him on a single event going over it. He forgives completely. When Jesus died for your sins on the cross, which sins did he die for? All of them.

That means even the ones Im going to commit this afternoon and the ones Im going to do next month and next year and in ten years. Theyve already all been paid for by Jesus Christ.

If you choose to reject that forgiveness and say I dont want to go Gods way, I want to go to hell. You go to hell with your sins paid for because hes already paid for them. Hes already paid for all your sins. When Jesus on the cross cried out Father, forgive them, he included you. Jesus was nailed to the cross so you can stop nailing yourself to it. As Ive said many times he was hung up for your hang-ups.

I love this verse, Colossians 2 He [Jesus] has forgiven all your sins. He has utterly wiped out the evidence [Isnt that good??! Wiped out the evidence. That means if someone wants to take you to court, its gone. In the heavenly court, if someone wants to accuse you in heaven, theres no evidence. Why? Because hes wiped out the evidence against your life.] of broken commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it [all your

sins] by nailing it to the cross.

Circle two things: wiped out. He wiped it out. All the evidence. That means when you get to heaven and you say, God, about that sin in 2009, hell go what sin? Theres no evidence of that sin. Its wiped out. God, about that problem that I did in 2010 hell say, What are you talking about?

Wiped out! You talk about a super stain remover. Thats a super stain remover. He wipes out everything youve ever done wrong. All the evidence so theres no evidence of it for eternity. Its not on the internet any more. Thats good news. He wipes it out.

That means hes forgotten it. If God has forgotten it, dont you think you should forget it? Are you better than God? Dont you think you ought to let it go? You see, God doesnt just forgive, he forgets. He distinctly forgets, intentionally.

It says And he has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross. What does it mean to be annulled? Annulled means as if it never happened. And annulment is different than a divorce.

A divorce stays on the record. An annulment means, like it never happened. Thats what it means to get an annulment. Its like it never happened.

What does God say? When you come and you trust what Jesus did on the cross, its like it never happened. Is that good news? Yeah, thats good news. Its like all the stuff Ive done wrong



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never happened. No evidence. Sorry we cant charge against any of this because weve got no proof and its like it never happened. So God has forgiven you, shouldnt you? This is why the cross is so important.

If you dont understand that God forgives immediately, instantly and completely, heres whats going to happen. The next time something starts to go wrong in your life, youre going to start thinking, Gods getting even with me. He remembers what I did back in Nam. What I did two years ago. Now Gods settling the score. God is punishing me now for what I did then.

Listen very closely. If you are a Christian, if youre a child of God, if youve been saved, if youve put your faith in Christ, God never punishes his children. Never, never, never. Because all the punishment was taken by Jesus Christ on the cross. He took all the punishment for your

sin.

If Jesus paid and took all the punishment for my sin and then God turns around and punishes me,

its like saying what Jesus did on the cross was a waste. Theres no value to it. If Gods going to punish me, why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Thats called double jeopardy. Thats double punishment. Thats not outlawed even in America. God says all the punishment for all your sin Jesus took, so when you sin and youve trusted Christ, he does not punish you. Never! Does he correct you? Of course he does. Does he train you? Yes. Does he discipline you?

Yes. But correction and discipline are forward looking. Punishment is looking backwards. Its settling the score. Its getting even. God does not get even with you when you blow it because Jesus already paid for all your sins.

This is why the Bible says God never wants us to forget the cross. Its the most amazing truth ever created. Only God could have thought it up. God said I never want you to forget what Ive done for you. That Ive already paid for all your sins. Because heaven is perfect and youre not and theres no way you can get into heaven. If I let you in with all your sins, heaven will be ruined and spoiled. If all of us could go to heaven with our lusts, with our jealousy, with our

selfishness, with our anger, then heaven would be no different than here on earth. If all of us got

in with all of our sins into heaven, heaven would be imperfect. There would be murder in

heaven, jealousy in heaven, rapes in heaven, adultery in heaven. So God has to figure out how to

take sinful people and change them so that we can get into heaven, a perfect place.

He did that by what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Its so important that Jesus gave us two reminders, two symbols. Baptism and the Lords Supper. He says these two symbols I want you to do because you are never to forget that I have paid for all your sins. I dont want you ever to forget it.

Before I give you these last two things that Jesus sets us free from, that Jesus cleanses us from,

how he forgives us, Im going to ask those who are ushers to start getting ready to serve communion. Well wait until everybodys been served. But let me teach you these last two points while theyre preparing to serve communion. Jesus did this so we will never forget the kind of forgiveness hes done.



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Theres a third thing that Jesus does with our sins. He forgives instantly, he forgives completely

Three, he forgives repeatedly.

Lets just say this in theory. Theoretically have you ever committed the same sin more than once? Just in theory. Yeah. In fact you have your specialty sins. If youre typically angry you get angry a lot. If youre typically a perfectionist, youre a perfectionist and judge people a lot. If you typically exaggerate, you exaggerate a lot. Whatever. You do your sin over and over and

over.

Have you ever felt like this? Ive confessed this so many times Im embarrassed to come back to God again. Once Ive committed a sin a thousand times and I come back for the thousandth time and say Lord, here I am again, I just imagine God going, Come on Rick! Have you got anything better? Boring! Same old sins. Dont you have any new ones? I actually feel a little embarrassed to admit to God for the one thousandth time, Ive done it again.

God never wants you to be embarrassed. He never wants you to be reticent. He forgives

repeatedly. If you have to come to Christ one thousand times a day and say Lord, I did it again!

Then you come to him one thousand times a day. He forgives repeatedly. It is Gods nature to forgive. He never gets bored. He never gets tired. He never gets irritated. He never says, thats it! Nine hundred ninety-nine times! Thats it! The thousandth time, forget it. Youre not going to get the thousandth forgiveness.

God is not that way. He is eternally forgiving. He forgives repeatedly over and over and over.

You know what Jesus is doing right now? Jesus is in heaven seated at the side of the Father, hes sitting there. Whats he doing in heaven? Hes not playing checkers! What is he doing? Hes forgiving you.

Hebrews 7:25 Christ is always interceding on our behalf. Hes saying, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. Always interceding. He forgives you instantly, completely, repeatedly.

Four, this is the most important of all. He forgives freely.

In other words you cant earn it, you cant deserve it. You cant buy it. You cant bargain for it. It is a gift of grace. Because you are a human being, forgiveness is your greatest need and

because Christ died for you, forgiveness is Gods greatest gift.

Lets get real practical. Whats that secret sin in your life that keeps on hounding you? Or what is that habitual sin that keeps on hounding you? You can be guilt free today.

Heres what the Bible says, Ephesians 1 For by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross we are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. How great is the grace of God.

Friends, this is the fundamental truth of Christianity, that God took your problem and made it his

problem and said Im going to wipe out all your sins by paying for it himself. So justice is



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served. Grace is given. The cross is the foundation of everything God does for you and in your

life.

Because of that he says I dont want you ever to forget. Never forget what Ive done so Im going to give you two symbols: baptism and the Lords Supper. Which are both symbols of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that the Lords Supper is only for believers. In fact, its a mockery to take the Lords Supper if you havent accepted the gift. So you need to accept that right now. I want all of us today to settle this issue. I want everybody to settle it today, once and for all, one, I know

all my sins are forgiven, and two, I know Im going to heaven when I die. I want you to settle that today. So Im going to lead you in a prayer. You may have been coming to Saddleback for ten years or this may be your first time. I want you to receive Gods forgiveness and salvation today. Im going to lead you in a prayer so you can step across the line. This is your day.

Prayer:

Im going to pray for you and then Im going to lead you in a prayer. Father, I know that without a doubt there are people right here listening that are suffering under an immense

load of guilt and shame and regret. For some its been eating away at them for years. Let this day be their day of release, their day of relief, their day of redemption, their day of

salvation. Let this day be their day of freedom. The freedom that comes from being totally

forgiven.

Now you pray. You take the steps to forgiveness and salvation. It really doesnt matter what you say. Im going to say something and you can pray this too. As I pray you say, me too, God. Dear God, you know everything about me. You already know all the things Im ashamed of. You know all my regrets. All my sins. All my mistakes. You know the

habitual actions and habits and attitudes that I feel guilty about. This is no surprise to you,

Lord. Today I humbly admit that I need your forgiveness. I agree with you that what Ive done is wrong and I have sinned. A lot of times Ive done what Ive wanted to do rather than the right thing. Today I want to accept responsibility for my sins. Im not going to blame anybody else. Im not going to make any excuses. Im going to own up to whats wrong in my life. Im going to be a man/woman. I want to change. I want to go your way. I want to make a U Turn. I want to repent. I want to follow you. I want to trust you. [Just

say, me too, God.] Jesus, thank you for what you did on the cross and thank you for what

you said on the cross. I ask you to take away my sin and my guilt. I dont know how it all works, but thank you for paying for my sins on the cross so I can be forgiven. Today in

faith I accept your gift of forgiveness and salvation. Im stepping across the line. Save me. Thank you for forgiving me instantly and completely and repeatedly and freely. Please help

me to feel forgiven. Help me to forgive myself. And help me to offer forgiveness to other

people. In your name I pray. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer and you sincerely meant what weve said together, I want to say to you, this is not my opinion, but on authority of the Word of God, that in the name of Jesus Christ you

are forgiven. In the name of Jesus Christ you are forgiven! The Bible says this, What



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happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!... What relief for those who God has cleared their record!

On the night Jesus was betrayed before he went to the cross, they were eating the Passover meal

together and Jesus said Im going to take these symbols, bread and wine, and Im going to give them new meaning. They have been the symbols of the Passover. Now theyre going to be the symbols of your salvation. Baptism and the Lords Supper.

First, he took the bread. He broke it and he blessed it and he said, This is my body which is for

you. Im giving my life for you so that you can be forgiven. As you eat this bread, this symbol of what Jesus did for you, I want you to say, Jesus, thank you for forgiving me instantly and

completely. In your mind say, Jesus thank you for forgiving me instantly and completely.

Thank you for dying for me on the cross.

The Bible says he took a cup of wine. He said this is going to be the cup of the new covenant.

This is going to represent my blood which Im going to shed for you tomorrow. [He hadnt gone to the cross yet.] He said when you drink it you are to remember that every drop of blood that I

shed on the cross is saying I love you, I love you, I love you. As you drink this I what you to

say, Jesus thank you for forgiving me freely.

the word of forgivenes

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