Consider His Forgiveness

Good morning. Just before we start, I just wanted to tell Brother Josh that I'm with the disciples on this one.! Yeah, I'm totally in the boat there. Come on, what are you doing?

I'm working for you, God. Why are you making up the storms and winds? I mean, what's going on here, right? I'm with the disciples on that. Anyway, open your Bibles this morning, Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. So last week, we were given a lesson about God's holiness.

And we were asked to consider His holiness and whether or not He was holy. And I would say that God is, in fact, holy. Today, we're going to consider His forgiveness.

Which, if we want forgiven, we can only be forgiven by a holy God. No one else can do that. Luke chapter 7 this morning deals with His forgiveness.

Call your attention to verse 36. Luke chapter 7. And one of the Pharisees desired Him that He would eat with him. And He went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet.

And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee, which had bitten Him, saw it, he spake with Him himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, for she is a sinner.

And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. Isn't it interesting that the man said within himself? Right?

So it's like the bad movie that's got the oration of the guy, you know, it's all echoey and stuff, and talking to himself. But Jesus knew what He was thinking, didn't He? And decided to answer His question.

Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence, the other 50.

And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.

And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house.

Thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss. But this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loveth much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he saith unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at me with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Let's have a quick word of prayer before we jump into this lesson. Heavenly Father, we just come to you grateful for the day you've given to us, Lord.

Thank you that we could all be together at this time. I just pray, Father, as we go through this lesson, that you would speak to us through it. And I just pray in Jesus' name, amen. The power of sin in the world is evident.

Everywhere we look. I mean, every day we hear about marriages falling apart, crime, terrorism, wars. People's lives are devastated through the effects of sin.

You know, sin is like a plague. And sin seeks to destroy the lives of all. Everywhere we go, we see the effects of sin.

But, by the mercies of God, where sin abounds, God's grace can abound more and more and more. Romans 5.20, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

You know, Luke chapter 7 today shows how Jesus Christ displays this truth. The passage tells of a woman who everybody says was a sinner. Her reputation was bad.

Yet this passage shows how God's grace changed her life. So prior to Jesus meeting this woman, he had been ministering in the Galilean region.

He went from town to town, city to city, performing miracles, you know, healing the blind, you know, sick and all that, proclaiming himself to be the one that John the Baptist himself had announced and the Old Testament had prophesied of.

Pretty bold claims. He was, in fact, though, the Son of God, and he proclaimed throughout these cities that he had come to be the Savior of the world. While in this region, a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus into his home.

Simon was a man who knew the law. He knew Scripture, had memorized large portions of it. He understood, and he knew his religion so well, he even understood parts of his religion that were not in the Bible.

There's a lot of religions like that, even today, aren't there? Yeah. He was a man, let's say, of religious pedigree. So we don't know exactly why Simon invited Jesus into his house.

Maybe it was for prestige. Maybe it was because he wanted to be like all the other Pharisees so he could try to find fault in Jesus. You know? Maybe he just wanted to hear a teaching from Jesus.

Whatever the reason, he had invited Jesus to be a guest in his home. So the interesting thing about first century dinners around this time, this region, they were kind of a semi-public affair.

They ate in a courtyard or in a front yard and uninvited guests could just come and mingle around and there was chairs and cushions for them to sit and they could observe the dinner and they could talk to the guests.

People could come and go as they pleased. But during this visit, something happened that would show the divine nature of Jesus Christ. Notice several spiritual truths we can learn from this event.

So before we start on that, I need four volunteers to read passages when I call them out. So you'll just have to guess. So James, 1 Corinthians 11.15, Brother Gray, 1 Samuel 16.7, Matt, Genesis 3, 1 through 4.

Lou, James 2, 2 through 4. Hang on to yours for a while, Lou. It's going to be a little while later. Okay, here we go. So the first thing, spiritual truth we want to learn about this event was the sacrificial act.

Sacrificial act. During dinner at Simon's house, a woman came to give Jesus a gift. So as we go through this, I want you to consider in yourself what that gift was.

Okay? Look at verse number 36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and had wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and annoyed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisees, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake with him himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him for she is a sinner.

The sacrifice this woman gave was valuable to her. Else how could it be a sacrifice unless it has value? We give away junk all the time.

It doesn't mean a thing. First thing we want to look at today is the sacrifice defined. The sacrifice defined. This passage does not give us much information about this woman. We're not told her name in this passage.

We don't know her family or her city or her pedigree, but we do know that she came from the city. We also know that this woman was a sinner and we shouldn't judge her for that because we're all sinners.

However, the Bible does make a particular point to point out that this woman was a sinner, which comes from the Greek word hamartolos, which is defined as devoted to sin, not free from sin.

The implication here is that she lived a life controlled by the sin that she had. Very sinful lifestyle. Whatever her sin was, the Bible doesn't say, she had a bad reputation.

Everybody knew her wherever she went. In this particular time in history, though, Jewish rabbis really wouldn't consort with sinners, especially women, that were controlled by this sin.

So it's interesting to me that Simon would know her because he was really quick to point out, what's she doing here? She's a sinner and Jesus is talking to him.

I don't know. Is it one of those small town reputation things where everybody knew everybody, right? Maybe Simon was just guessing, but I doubt it. Somehow he knew her. Anyway, it didn't matter because as she approached Jesus, I wonder how she felt.

Was she afraid? Did she think that maybe Jesus won't talk to me? Here's this great man talking to a Pharisee. What business do I have coming here in this presence?

But she came anyway, didn't she? And what the woman did next shows a very deep humility. Even though she had a bad reputation, she was very humble to come in the presence of Jesus.

Why was she humble? Because she understood who he was and she understood who she was. She knew that she wasn't worthy to be in his presence. Look at verse number 38.

And stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and annoyed them with ointment. So when she approached the feet of Jesus, she didn't try to talk to him.

She didn't say, hey Jesus, look at me. I need to say something to you. Here I am. I need your attention. You need to pay attention to me. No. She humbly knelt down and began washing his feet with her tears.

Because something had happened in her life that she became aware who Jesus really was. And she desperately wanted to be in his presence because of that. And she was willing to humble herself before him just to be with him.

So she defined the sacrifice. But she also demonstrated the sacrifice. We see next how. The woman demonstrated her sacrifice.

How? With her actions. Right? There's a lot of people that talk about Christ. A lot of people say, I'm a Christian. A lot of people say, I'm God and I know a lot about him.

But we don't always pour out our love in service to him, do we? So no doubt, Simon the Pharisee could have given a great speech on all the attributes of God that he had learned in the Bible.

From all the things that he had studied over all the years. But what this woman was about to demonstrate to be true was a sacrifice of her actions. By washing Jesus' feet with her hair and anointing him with this expensive ointment, she showed how much she valued the Lord and wanted to honor him.

And verse 38 shows us she was also willing to give all that she had. You know, our actions are always a better indicator of our hearts than our words, right? Actions always speak louder than words.

We judge people by what they do, not by what they say. So we don't have to wonder what Jesus thought about this woman because he tells us. She washed his feet with her hair and instantly know that she highly valued being in his presence by the things that she did.

As a matter of fact, this woman, who was hated and disrespected by all that knew her, had one little thing that she gave. She had one glory left in her life and that was her hair.

Right? 1 Corinthians 11.15. So in this time, a woman's hair was her glory.

It was sometimes even a gift to her husband. She gave her hair to Jesus. That's all she had. The other item this woman had of value was an alabaster box appointment that probably was very expensive.

So, with love in her heart, humbleness in her mind, she came to Jesus offering the only two things of value that she had in her life.

Her ointment and her hair. And she demonstrated her sacrifice saying, Lord, I give you what glory I have. Furthermore, she gave with an attitude of humility.

The Bible tells us that she was weeping. We don't know what brought her into the state of weeping. Maybe just being in the presence of God in the flesh and recognizing what grace is all about.

Her tears may have been tears for joy for she believed Jesus could, in fact, take away the guilt of her sin. And I would hope that all of us that have sin have guilt about our sin. However, because of the harmony of the Gospels, we know that shortly before this event, Jesus did give an invitation.

In Matthew 11, verse number 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Verse number 30, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There's a catch to that verse, though, isn't there?

There's a caveat. Jesus' yoke is only light if you're saved. If you're unsaved, it's the heaviest yoke you could possibly ever bear.

So it's possible that the woman was in the crowd who heard these precious words that Jesus said just before going to Simon's house. She could have heard the man named Jesus speak, the one that John the Baptist said was the Lamb of God who take away the sins of the world.

As he gave the invitation, come to me, my burden is light. But she may have seen hope for her own life, hope for her burden of sin.

Because let's face it, she knew she had a bad reputation. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that everybody looked down on her. Maybe that's why she was crying as she put the ointment on Jesus' feet.

Because she knew that Jesus was the only one that could lift her burdens. So, the question is, can Jesus take your burdens this morning? Okay, we're in Sunday school, right?

I asked you a question earlier. So, we're going to have a pop quiz. Ready? Pop quiz. What was the gift? What was the gift? During dinner at Simon's house, a woman gave a sacrificial gift.

Luke 36 to 39, chapter 7, what was the gift that she gave? Anointment? Hair. Devotion. Good. Anybody else?

Love. Yep. How about gratitude? Thankfulness. Yep. The ointment was nice. It was the other things that Jesus wanted.

Which she gave all that she had. So, this woman, in a humble, repentant state, poured out her love at the feet of the Lord. The prideful Pharisee, however, what did he say?

Well, he made a sarcastic comment to himself, didn't he? Right? Verse number 39, a sarcastic assessment. We know that God looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance.

And he saw the heart of this repentant woman. But sometimes, right, or maybe more than sometimes, men look on the outward appearance.

1 Samuel 16, 7. So, I gotta say, this verse right here pierces me. Don't look on a stature. Come on, I'm 6'4". This hurts me.

Height should matter. When the Pharisee saw what this woman was doing, he judged the outward appearance of her. She's a sinner. And made a proud assessment of the situation.

Verse number 39 says, Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake with himself, saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she's a sinner.

His assessment was, first of all, directed toward the Savior. Simon the Pharisee said, this man, if he were a prophet. You know, the Pharisees were always trying to fight fault with Jesus, weren't they?

Constantly trying to find fault with Jesus. So, why would they? Because they wanted to show how they were better than Jesus. we know religion better than you.

We know the law better than you. We do it the right way. You're doing it the wrong way. But it's not just Pharisees that do this. It's easy for us to get it caught into a legalistic trap, isn't it?

Yeah, you betcha. Luke chapter 15, verse 1 says, They drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man received sinners and eat with them.

You know, the Pharisees, I think, came that day so they could see Jesus, what Jesus was doing, knowing that he was going to receive the sinners just so they can condemn him for doing it. Because you weren't supposed to do that.

They were doing it wrong, Jesus said. I didn't come to earth to save good people. Right? Jesus didn't come here to tell us how great we were.

Why did Jesus come? Luke 5, 32 says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Good people don't need to repent because they're good.

Luke 19, 10 says, For the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost. Seems every time Jesus tried to help someone, someone in sin, someone that was hurting, hurting.

The Pharisees were there to criticize him about it, weren't they? Like I said earlier, though, we have to be careful of having this attitude of a Pharisee also, though, sometimes. Because in reality, the Pharisee also needed the forgiveness of Christ.

So, those of us have been saved for a while, 30 some years, right? It's easy to fall into the trap of maybe looking down on others from time to time.

We see somebody out in the world, people that, you know, don't dress very nice, people that don't speak very nice, right?

Whatever it is about their appearance that we may or may not like, it's easy for us to judge them, saying, I don't want to be around them, I don't want to talk to them, I don't want to, whatever. But I think it's important for us to remember what Simon forgot.

And that's that all of those people are carrying a burden of sin also. And maybe what that person really needs is to see the grace of Jesus Christ in us late in their life.

Simon, however, was bold in his criticism. I mean, that's pretty brave. Jesus was the son of God. And for Simon to sit there and say, what are you doing?

She's a sinner. That's pretty bold. sarcastic and dismissive comment of Christ's response to the woman is similar to the way that Satan questioned the word of God in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 4. Satan had found Eve in the garden and convinced her to question the word of God. Since the beginning of time, the devil has done his best to question the word of God, especially towards mankind.

Simon, very similarly, questioned Jesus' authority. as he sarcastically judged this woman. She's a sinner. It's interesting, though, that Simon didn't stop his criticism with the woman, did it?

Or stop his criticism with Jesus. He moved on to the woman. That's letter B in your handout. Toward the woman. The Pharisee never saw the hope that Jesus brought.

I mean, shouldn't it be that when someone who is struggling in life, when we see them getting close to God, shouldn't we be happy for them? Not upset that they're not wearing the right clothes or maybe they haven't taken a bath in a day or two.

We should be happy that they're trying to get close to God and encourage them in every way we can. Simon, however, had never experienced the grace-filled vision that Jesus has for all of mankind.

And he had never seen the change that can happen in someone's life when they go to him. People ask me, there's so many religions in the world. What makes yours the best?

What makes yours the right one? They respond, Christianity is the only one that changes people's lives. It's the only one.

The grace, however, always has a vision for hope of change. The Pharisees only had a biased attitude. James, too, admonishes us to not have that type of attitude.

James 2, 2-4. When people come to church, if somebody comes, take a bath, comb their hair, we should be grateful. We should be happy. We should be glad they're there.

But if others come in that aren't like that, we should be just as glad to see them. Just as glad. I like how Jesus, it took me a while to realize this.

When Jesus went to minister, he traveled all around the Holy Land, he always went to the regular people. The riffraff, if you will.

Always. Maybe we should, too. The reason is that the ground at the cross is level, and everybody matters to God. Rich, poor, tall, short, as much as it hurts me to say that.

Everybody matters to God. So, what God wants us to understand from that is that everybody should matter to us also. The Pharisee, in his sarcasm and his disdain for Jesus doing it the wrong way, failed to understand the grace that Jesus was giving out that day.

In Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new.

And I hope that today, this morning, you can say, that's me. I've experienced the new not. It's still available. You can have that today.

You can experience the new. Jesus heard the proud rebuke, aimed at himself and the woman, who was, by the way, repenting. Jesus gave a spiritual answer because Jesus always gives a spiritual answer to criticism.

During the meal, Jesus was observing everything around him. And as the woman was washing his feet, he heard the Pharisee speak to himself and question his deity.

And in that question, Simon was saying, you can't be God because you're not doing it right. You can't be God because you're not doing it the way that we were taught. That's not how we deal with sinners.

Jesus chose to give the spiritual answer in the form of a parable. Look at verse number 40. And Jesus, answering Simon's thoughts, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.

And he saith, Master, say on. So I'm thinking, as I'm studying this, I'm thinking to myself, Simon had invited Jesus, over for dinner. And when you invite somebody over to your house for dinner, you want to, obviously, you want to have some type of conversation with them, you want to learn something from them, right?

That happens all the time. People say, Lance, you can fix furnaces. Why don't you come over for supper some night? And I know there's a lot of you that have experienced that, right? So, it's not surprising, Simon wasn't surprised, that Jesus would have something to say to him.

But I would imagine that what he said to him probably did surprise him. Now, I don't know, I'm speculating here, right?

So, this is a side note. My speculation is that Simon wanted to have, you know, deep conversations about things of the Bible, right?

Jesus is going to go around teaching these things, you know, so Simon's going to ask him all these big questions because he knows, he's a man, he knows everything, right? He's studied all these years, he's a Pharisee. He knows everything about all of it.

He's going to ask these questions. So, I wonder if Simon was taken by surprise when Jesus said, in verse 41, there was a certain creditor which had two debtors.

The one owed 500 pence, the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Therefore, tell me therefore, which of them will love him the most?

So, the parable has been announced. And it was directed at Simon. Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. Jesus wanted to show Simon the difference between Simon's hard heart and the woman's penitent heart.

And the parable itself had three thoughts. First thought was the debt of finance. So, we hear about debt all the time, right? Our national debt is so big, I can't even say how big the number is.

What, every American, every man, woman, and child in America is on the hook for what, 130 grand if we were to pay it off today? Four people in my family, I don't have a half million dollars. In Jesus' parable, though, both of the people were in debt.

So, a pence was about a day's wages during that time. One man in this parable owed 500 pence, the other only owed 50. They both felt this heavy bondage of debt, but the one who owed more felt the greater burden.

However, the creditor forgave both of the debts. So, the gift of forgiveness. So, whenever forgiveness happens, it's a gift because you can't earn forgiveness.

You can't buy forgiveness. It can only be given. Those who have experienced much forgiveness appreciate it and understand it to be the gift of what the gift is.

When Paul discovered the forgiveness of God after he had murdered scores of Christians, he understood that the forgiveness he enjoyed was a precious gift. 1 Corinthians 15, verse number 10 says, By the grace of God, I am what I am.

And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.

Forgiveness is a powerful, powerful idea. Carl Meiniger was a famed American psychiatrist of the 20th century.

And he believed that if he could convince his psychiatric patients that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them would be able to walk out the very next day.

Because when someone experiences great forgiveness, he understands how amazing of a gift it is. And he understands his chains that once bound him are now loosed.

Now he's free. Most of us have a mortgage. How wonderful would it be? Free house. And I think that's the appeal of the lottery, right?

To get out of debt, instant start over. So apply that. If we apply that perspective to our sin, what does it mean?

The bigger the debt, the bigger the gift. As the woman washed the feet of Jesus, she probably felt very thankful for his forgiveness.

Her actions showed it, didn't they? She had been forgiven of much debt. And for that, she was grateful. You know, Jesus had never told her how to serve him.

She never said, okay. He didn't turn to her and say, yep, you know, for what I've done for you, you need to do this. Because that's not how God works.

Because then the debt isn't paid, is it? Yep. She did what she did out of pure love. So next we see the debt of love.

The one who was forgiven more loved more. What was once, what had once been a debt of money became a debt of love. You know, when we recognize how great the sin that we have in our lives, we'll recognize how great forgiveness is.

And our response will be love. Our desire to serve the Lord should not be out of duty, but because of that love. because when we consider all that Christ has done for us, for me, should move us to want to serve him.

The woman knew she was a sinner, but she also knew the Lord had forgiven all of her sin. But we can't let our motivation for service be the chains of bondage either, can we?

Some legalistic thing. We don't have to do anything to gain the acceptance of God. We're saved. We're forgiven. That's it. When you come to a point in which you realize that God brought you out of a sinful state and freed us from our sin, our life can change.

Not can. It does. And we don't serve God because we have to. We serve him because we want to. 2 Corinthians 5.14, the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.

That's why we serve God, isn't it? What great a way is there to serve with our lives and to forever say thank you to the one who gave us hope of eternal life.

Next, we see the parable applied. So Jesus didn't forgive this woman just because she had the most sins. Right? It's not a tally book. And you don't have to be good to be saved.

Jesus forgave this woman. Class, who can tell me why? Why did Jesus forgive this woman? Yeah, she came to him.

Jesus forgave this woman because she repented. That's why. And when we repent and ask, Jesus always, always, always says yes.

She needed forgiveness. But you know what? No one can receive forgiveness until they have first acknowledged their need for it. Right?

None of us can receive forgiveness until we acknowledge that we need it. Notice how the events unfolded after Jesus gave the parable in verse 44.

And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet. feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much.

But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Simon showed no humility, and the woman showed great humility.

However, Jesus always forgives the repentant. And he can do this because he's the son of God. This is the theological crux of this passage.

How does a person find forgiveness? If Jesus Christ can and does forgive sins, he is indeed the son of God, not just a common man, not just a prophet, not just a good guy.

Because one of the attributes of deity is the power to forgive sin. The Pharisees did not comprehend that Christ had this power. So many deny that Jesus is God, but the truth is that this truth that Jesus is God is the bedrock of our Christian faith.

Because Jesus is God, he alone can take away the sins of the world. Isn't it wonderful that we don't have to go to a man for forgiveness? Isn't it wonderful that we don't have to pay for our forgiveness?

We don't have to buy our way into heaven? Or that our family doesn't have to buy our way into heaven? Just saying, if that was the case, I wouldn't make it. You guys see my house?

I'm not going to make it. Here was a woman with repentance and faith toward Christ, and she was saved from her sins. The Pharisee would not even acknowledge the worth of that woman.

Isn't that interesting? Christ came to save everybody, and the Pharisee, all he could see was a sinner. May we never lose sight of what Jesus did for us to save us from our sins. And as we consider forgiveness, I hope that we all also decide to never become like the Pharisee who looked at sinners and saw them for what they were and not what they could be.

I mean, that's a great truth I have in my life. I like to think that even at a little past middle age, I can still be something. I still have potential. I still have things to do.

I hope we all look at each other that way, of what we could be and not what we are. In every life where sin abounds, grace more abundantly abounds. So let's refuse to be a judgmental Pharisee who does not see how people can be redeemed from their sin.

Pray for the Lord to work on the hearts of sinners so they may find the forgiveness that you yourself may have found. As we consider the forgiveness of Jesus, may we all remember the reason why we do what we do.

We do not have to do anything to gain God's acceptance or his love. He loves us just the way we are and there's nothing we can do to make him love us any more or any less than he already does.

Our motivation for service should not be out of fear or duty but out of the love and the joy that he's given to us. As we consider forgiveness, may we consider where we were before he saved us.

Like the woman in this passage, we all carry burdens of sin and sometimes the burden is so heavy that we're bound and controlled by it.

The Bible teaches, however, that before we were saved, we were slaves to that sin. Romans chapter 6, verse 17, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. So Jesus freed us from our sin debt and he made us the servants of righteousness. You know what that means?

We don't have to sin anymore. After we're saved, sin's now choice, but we have freedom through his forgiveness. Let's pray together.

for heaven.