Good morning, Watermark. That's really echoey.
Good morning. My name is Alfie. If you don't know me, I help out with the university stuff around Watermark Church.
And today we're continuing our series on preparing him room, making room.
Last week we talked about making room in our hearts for Jesus.
And today I want to talk about forgiveness.
I think there's so many things to say about forgiveness.
If I was to start now, I'd probably be done around Wednesday.
So I'm not going to try to say everything.
I'm going to try and just look at what forgiveness looks like when God forgives us, when God forgives his people.
And so I'm going to start by giving you guys a very practical, tangible thing to do with forgiveness.
I'm sorry if I don't talk about the things that you want me to talk about.
And I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
There are many things.
And, you know, early on this year in October, Evelyn came and she did some workshops on forgiveness.
I know many of you guys were there.
And she left behind some books and some resources.
And so if you guys, after this, are intrigued and you want to know more about forgiveness and what that looks like when we're forgiving other people and other people are forgiving us, there will be some books.
And Sylvie will be helping you guys with that.
But for now, I'm just going to keep it simple.
I'm going to talk about why Jesus came.
Jesus came to forgive.
He came to forgive us of our sins.
And I think that Christmas time, you know, we gather around with our families.
We get together.
And there are many opportunities for forgiveness.
Because we see that sibling that we haven't seen in a while.
And, you know, back in March, we had this argument.
And we haven't talked to each other since.
And now, all of a sudden, we need to have that confrontation.
Or, with the kids being home, they're just always fighting and you're trying to teach them forgiveness.
And people think that Christmas is a great time for forgiveness.
And I think it is.
But I think Christmas is also a great time for remembering the forgiveness that Christ offers us.
There are some times when I think about forgiveness, and I think that it's incredibly simple.
And other times I think about it some more and I realize it's very complicated.
And there are times that I overcomplicate forgiveness, and there are times that I oversimplify it.
And I think our confusion, I think my confusion about forgiveness comes from the way that, you know, I was taught forgiveness as a child.
I have a younger brother.
And as children, we were always fighting.
So we'd get into arguments.
And depending on the day, it might escalate.
And, you know, punches would be thrown.
Kicks would be thrown.
And my mother would come in, and she would break up the fight.
And she would find out who started it.
And then she would say, it was usually me who started it.
She would say to me, Alfie, now you need to forgive your, you need to apologize to your brother.
And I'd say, no, I'm sorry.
And then she'd say, no, say it clearly.
And I'd say, I'm sorry.
She'd say, what are you sorry for?
And, you know, I'd have to explain.
And then she'd turn to my brother and say, hey, now, Jojo, you need to forgive your brother.
My brother would say, I forgive you.
And then my mother would make sure that this forgiveness and this reconciliation happened.
And she said, now you guys need to give each other a hug.
Now, in those situations, the last thing I wanted to do was to hug my brother.
The last thing he wanted to do was to hug me.
Because I wasn't really sorry.
And he hadn't really forgiven me.
But we did it anyways.
Because if we didn't, there'd be more trouble.
And, you know, I think sometimes we do this.
And, you know, I talked to my parents about this yesterday over lunch.
And, you know, they said that, you know, when you're a parent, you know, you make do with what you've got.
And that's what they did.
And so I'm not going to try and, you know, berate you parents for teaching forgiveness badly.
But I think there's so many things in our lives that skew the way that we view forgiveness.
The way in which we forgive each other.
I think, you know, the way I was taught forgiveness in those stressful moments as a seven-year-old.
Was to grit my teeth and to forgive and to put it out of my mind and to get on with life.
But as we grow, I think conflicts become a bit more complex.
It's not he hit me and she said I smell funny.
We go and we have interactions with different people and they hurt us in different ways.
And, you know, we learn different things about forgiveness from our different cultures, you know.
I think forgiveness in Texas is very different from forgiveness in Taiwan.
All right?
And you come to Hong Kong and in my life where I'm not really Chinese and I'm not really Western and I'm not really African.
Forgiveness just became this really huge confusing mess.
Forgiveness.
I think that some of us grow up and we're told that forgiveness is actually a bad thing.
It's a weakness if we forgive.
You know, that when we are wronged that we should hold it against other people.
Right?
That actually holding a grudge is fantastic because it means that, you know, we can get something from them later.
There's these ads on the MTR and on TV.
It's got Alan Tam, an old canto pop star there with his friends.
And the advertisement says it's a PSA for prostate cancer and it says, real men protect their assets.
And I think that's the most Hong Kong ad ever.
I love it.
But I think that line, real men protect their assets, is a lot of the way some of us, we think about forgiveness.
You know, forgiveness is giving up our assets.
And if we're going to protect our assets, we're going to hold our grudges.
We're going to withhold forgiveness.
Because that's going to give us profit sometime down the line.
You know, one day, you know, this person's misdemeanor against me is going to come in useful when I'm in a sticky situation.
At other times, I think we make forgiveness to be something really, really light and really cheap, really flippant.
Where, you know, we forgive everybody for no real misdemeanor.
And we forgive them for huge things without even giving a thought.
You know, we say that love and peace and harmony are these ideals and they need to be, you know, maintained at any cost.
And so we say, I'm going to forgive even though I haven't really dealt with this conflict in my heart.
I haven't really dealt with it with this person.
We say, I forgive not because we've forgiven, but because we have this idol of peace and harmony that we're going to chase after and we're going to serve no matter the cost.
And while it seems very nice that we've forgiven, we realize that under these layers of plasters of forgiveness, there's hurt and there's wounds which have gone untreated.
You know, Watermark, the way that we interact with God, who God is should be changing and it should be reaching and transforming our lives.
But many times I think I do this, where I take my experiences from my life and I put them on God.
I paint Jesus with the brush that I've received from other people.
You know, we look at God and we think that he's like our parents who for 15 years have been dangling this misdemeanor over our heads to ensure our compliance,
to ensure that we do things the way that they want.
Or we walk through life assuming that God's going to forgive us all the time.
After all, it's his job, right?
I'll do whatever I want and I know that if I come and say, sorry, God will forgive me.
And on one hand, we have God who is this tyrant who's just waiting for us to mess up so he can crush us with a hammer.
And on the other side, we've got a God who's nothing more than an impotent genie who's just there to make us feel good, to soothe our emotional state.
And, you know, I think as I look out here, I don't think that many of you are on either one of those extremes.
But we find ourselves somewhere in the middle, somewhere in between those things.
And even the middle can be a dangerous place.
I know that the way that I interact with God puts me in a very unhelpful middle place.
Because, you know, I know that God will forgive me.
I know he loves me and that he forgives me.
I also know that God takes sin seriously.
And so there are times when I think that, you know, I can be forgiven for my small sins.
You know, the little white lies, you know, the candy I stole from the shop as a child.
God can forgive me for those things.
But, you know, the big things like, you know, knowingly letting your colleague get fired for a mistake that you made or maybe an affair.
God can never forgive those things.
Or sometimes I feel like God can forgive me and he has forgiven me for all the things I did before I became a Christian.
But all the things I've done since then, and I am responsible for those.
But I need to find a way to earn his grace.
I need to find a way to earn his forgiveness.
I need forgiveness.
We need forgiveness.
We all need forgiveness from God.
It's this longing that I think that God has put in our hearts for us to be right with him.
For us to have a right relationship with him.
And that's why Jesus comes.
Jesus comes to fulfill that longing in our hearts for forgiveness.
We're given a child at Christmas.
We're given the Son of God.
This man who would grow and who would do amazing things to ensure that his children, that those who put faith in him, do receive forgiveness.
Who are made right with God.
Who are brought into that relationship.
That's not here.
He didn't come to, you know, make us feel good.
To feel warm and fuzzy because of Christmas time.
He didn't come to leave us with resentment in our hearts.
But he came to forgive.
He came to bring hope and joy.
He came to give life with his forgiveness.
And so today, we're going to look at the story of the paralytic in Mark chapter 2.
And I really want you guys to see that God is able to forgive.
That he's willing to forgive.
That he loves to forgive.
And that when he forgives, he doesn't offer it by itself.
But he offers with it joy.
He offers with it hope.
And if you've been around church, you've probably heard the story.
Especially if you grew up in the church.
And it's a great one because it has everything.
It's got suspense.
It's got adventure.
It's got friendship.
It's got a happy ending.
It's really one of these great stories that is really nice to tell little children.
But I think as we hear this story so many times, a lot of the significance is lost on us.
And I think even as we think about forgiveness, we forget actually how deep and meaningful forgiveness is.
As I read around this topic and reading different commentaries, I found that there are so many different focuses that different people took.
There's one author who spent a lot of time talking about these friends.
These man's friends and their bravery.
And doing property destruction.
And destroying a roof so that his friend could get in.
And their bravery was really the star of the story.
And I read another writer who said that actually, you know, the roofs are made of sticks and mud.
So actually, it's not a big deal to break it because you can fix it.
And if there's heavy rain, you'd have to repair your roof anyway.
So them tearing up the roof was not a big deal.
There are a lot of people who read these stories and they find different bits to focus on.
And I think the guys that I read where it captured me, which spoke to me, were the guys that focused in on God's forgiveness.
That focused in on Jesus forgiving this paralyzed man.
So let's start by looking at this.
It starts with Jesus and he's returned from Capernaum.
And he's at home.
And many people have gathered there.
Many people have got together and they're crowded in and they're listening to Jesus.
It says that Jesus is preaching them the word.
We don't know exactly what he was saying, but it must have been good because there was a huge crowd.
The house was filled.
The door was filled.
And the only way that these guys could bring their friend was through the roof.
These four men, they come and they carry them, his friend, up the stairs, which would have been outside the side of the house.
And they go to the roof and they begin dismantling it.
And they lower him down into the room where Jesus is teaching.
And the Bible says that Jesus looks at them and he sees their faith.
And he says, son, your sins are forgiven.
It's interesting.
You know, in the Bible, you can see other places where faith plays an important part in God's miracles.
In Mark chapter 5, you see there's a woman who's been bleeding.
And when Jesus heals her, he turns and says, woman, your faith has made you well.
Go in peace.
But responding to their faith in this circumstance, Jesus says, your sins are forgiven.
The faith of this man, the faith of his friends is what causes God to respond to them.
And I think this is where the average church person says, great, forgiveness.
We've received it.
You know, let's go for the healing and move on.
But instead, this is where the scribes come into the narrative.
If you read this account in Luke, it says that they were Pharisees.
And that will probably give you a little bit of the idea of what they were there for.
You know, they weren't really listening to Jesus because they wanted hope,
because they wanted to hear the good news.
They were listening to Jesus because they were trying to catch him out.
They were trying to figure out what it is they could do to accuse this man,
to get him out of their way.
The scribes come in, and they say, well, they don't say anything.
Perhaps they're shocked at what Jesus has said,
because by saying, son, your sins are forgiven, he claimed to be God.
By saying, son, your sins are forgiven, he said,
I have the authority to make these kinds of announcements.
And in shock, they don't say anything, but in their hearts, they question.
In their hearts, they ask.
And you look in verse 6 and 7, it says,
they say, why does this man speak like that?
He's blaspheming.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
And I think with that last question, who can forgive sins but God alone,
they're beginning to get somewhere.
They're beginning to get to the heart of what Jesus is doing here on this day.
Jesus goes on, and he speaks to them.
And he says, why do you doubt?
Why don't you believe?
Mark tells us that in his spirit, he knew the words that he was saying.
And, you know, I think I would have really liked to be there,
because, you know, we're in this crowded room,
and there are people all over the place.
The roof begins, you know, being picked apart.
But somebody's lowered down on his bed,
and Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven.
And then he turns to the Pharisees,
and he says, why don't you believe?
Now, for anyone else there,
that would have been a very, very strange transition,
from forgiving this man to talking to those people over there.
I think that people would have probably been very confused
about what was going on.
But the Pharisees knew.
They knew that when Jesus spoke to them,
he wasn't just looking at their faces,
that he was looking into their hearts.
That he was looking, and he saw the doubt
that was in their hearts.
Jesus asks a puzzling question.
He says, is it easier to forgive these man's sins,
or is it easier to heal him?
Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven,
or to say get up and walk?
He follows that by saying,
that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority to forgive sins.
I say to you, pick up your bed,
and go home.
And the man does.
And the crowds are amazed,
and they probably leave in this amazing little party.
The scribes probably slink off,
having been beaten with their tail between their legs,
and the disciples probably give each other high fives,
very excited, another miracle.
And the paralytic and his friends,
for the first time in a long time,
walk off together.
And that's a great story.
It's forgiveness,
and there's healing.
And everyone except for the Pharisees
is really a winner.
But I really want to look at a couple of things
in this story that I think will unpack
and help us figure out what it is
that forgiveness is like
when God forgives us,
when God forgives his people,
when God forgives his children.
And the first thing is to do with the man.
The Bible says that in the beginning,
in the fall,
that Adam rebelled against God.
He ate the fruit from the tree,
and through his rebellion,
through his sin,
sickness and death and decay
enter the world.
The Bible says that because of sin,
we have sickness and death.
And in this time,
it was very common for people to believe
that if somebody had any kind of serious sickness
or serious injury,
that it was because of a sin in their life.
And so this man,
having been paralyzed,
is coming to God.
And I think that he felt that
his paralysis was a result of his sin.
If he didn't think it,
maybe his friends did,
but definitely the Pharisees.
They'd have looked at this man
and they'd have seen this guy is a sinner
because bad things only ever happen
to sinful people.
Now, we don't know why it is
that this man was actually sick.
The Bible doesn't tell us that.
But it does tell us
that when Jesus looks at him,
he says,
your sins are forgiven.
When Jesus looks at him,
he thinks,
and he says,
that the most important thing
in your life right now
is for you to have a right relationship
and right standing with God.
in the midst of his poverty
and his paralysis,
in the midst of all the things
in his life,
Jesus says,
you need to be forgiven.
And I think this man
would have been overjoyed by that
because he's paralyzed.
He couldn't go to the temple
and offer sacrifices
to make right his relationship with God.
As a guy who was paralyzed,
he could do nothing.
He was helpless.
He was completely at God's mercy.
And so when Jesus says,
son, your sins are forgiven,
he's giving this guy hope.
He's giving him life.
He's giving him joy.
He's giving him something
that he could not have obtained
for himself in any other way
other than God coming
and saying to this man,
your sins are forgiven.
I think that we are a lot like this man.
The Bible says that we are a lot like this man,
that we spiritually are paralyzed,
that spiritually there isn't a lot we can do.
But in this story,
we see what God offers to this man.
He offers it to us as well.
He offers forgiveness,
hope,
and life.
He's saying that you may be poor
and starving and helpless,
but here is forgiveness.
He's saying,
I can give you hope.
Jesus is saying to us
that he can be the solution
to our heart's deepest problem.
And people respond in different ways.
In this story,
we see that the scribes
that they don't believe.
And their response is one of two responses
that I want to look at.
But I also think it's interesting
that Jesus asks this question,
what is it easier to say?
Is it easier to forgive
or is it easier to heal?
Now again,
as I was reading about this,
many people have many different answers.
Some people will say
that actually the healing is harder
and they give their explanations why.
Other people say forgiving is harder
and they give explanations why.
But I think that
when Jesus asks this question,
he's saying
they're both hard.
Today,
standing before you guys,
with all the medical technology
in the world,
I cannot heal a paralyzed person.
And I'm no closer to doing that
than I am
to forgiving your sins.
I can't forgive the sins
that you have done against God.
By asking this question,
Jesus is saying
that both these things
are hard things.
Both these things
are difficult things.
Both of these things
are things
that God
must do.
God must be the one
who forgives sins.
And God is the one
who heals this man
from his paralysis.
But these guys,
they doubt.
The Pharisees doubt
his ability
to forgive.
They doubt
his authority
to forgive.
They doubt
God's love
and mercy.
They doubt
God's grace.
Their response
is doubt
and I think
sometimes
my response
is doubt
as well.
I doubt
that God
can forgive
all of my sins.
I doubt
that
God
does it
willingly.
The Bible
says that
if you have faith,
if you're like this guy
and his friends,
if you have faith
that God
will do
what he says,
then your sins
are forgiven.
The same words
that God
says to this man,
son,
your sins
are forgiven,
he says to us,
son,
daughter,
your sins
are forgiven.
And for me,
I think this has been
a very,
it's been a difficult
story for me
to learn.
It's been a difficult
journey
in learning this.
When I was
about 10 years old,
my mother
was diagnosed
with MS,
multiple sclerosis.
And from the time
I was about 11,
she's been in a wheelchair.
And,
you know,
in those times,
I think it was very stressful
for our family,
trying to figure out
what was going on,
trying to adjust
to life.
And we sought,
you know,
medical help
from all over the place.
And one day,
one of my aunt's friends
came and visited.
And she came,
she sat us down at the table
and she talked to us
about God
and his power to heal.
And one thing
she said is that,
you know,
your mother might be sick
because of some sins
that you haven't confessed.
Some sins that God
hasn't forgiven you for.
Right?
And that stuck out in my mind.
And she said,
you know,
is there any sin
that you guys have confessed?
That you guys have not confessed?
And I sat there
and I was quiet
because I was definitely,
definitely not going
to admit to any of this,
you know,
some of the things
that I hadn't confessed yet.
But I went to my room
and I prayed.
And I prayed
and I asked for forgiveness
and I confessed sins
that I'd done.
I confessed sins
that I'm not sure
if I'd done.
I confessed sins
that I'd,
you know,
I made up sins
to confess
because I wanted my mother
to get better.
I confessed all these things
and my mother
was still sick.
My mother was still unwell.
And I think for many years
I struggled with
whether God loved me
or whether God truly
forgave my sins.
I think it's only
been in the past couple years
that I'm beginning to see
that God does forgive.
And even though my mother
isn't well yet,
that when I pray
for my mom's healing
I can pray with this certainty
and this joy
that while my mother
is still in a wheelchair
that the most important thing
in our lives
has been taken care of.
That while there is
still sickness
that the disease of sin
has been cured
that God has forgiven her
that God has forgiven
that God has forgiven me.
I think
that we don't believe
that God can forgive sometimes.
In my life
I'm learning
every day
that God
does forgive
that God
will forgive.
that he forgives
our small sins
and our big ones.
You know
and he's forgiven us
for the sins
that we're going to do
tomorrow
and next week.
I love the response
of this crowd
because
of what they rejoice in
and what they're amazed at.
In verse 12
it says
after the man
got up
it says
that the crowds
were all amazed
and they glorified God
saying that
we never saw
anything like this.
that we have never
seen anything
like this before
and this is why
we're going to rejoice
and praise
and glorify God.
Now
I don't think
that they
rejoiced
because
the man
was healed.
They had no shortage
of opportunities
to see people
getting healed.
God had used
prophets
in the Old Testament
to heal people.
Jesus had done it.
In Mark
even before
we get to this
chapter 2
there are two
instances
of different people
being healed.
There's a guy
who's exorcised
who has an evil
spirit cast out of him
and there's a whole
crowd of people
who come to Jesus
and Jesus
heals all their
sicknesses and ailments.
These people had seen
Jesus healing people
before.
I don't think
that is why
that they rejoice.
I don't think
that people are amazed
that the roof
got destroyed.
I don't know
why they would
glorify God
for that.
But I think
they're amazed
because up to
this point
forgiveness
meant
taking a sacrifice
to the temple.
It meant
the blood
of an animal
and it meant
going again
and again
for your sins
to be forgiven.
I think that this
crowd
saw
in this story
that they saw
in this interaction
between Jesus
and the paralyzed
man
forgiveness.
they saw
the hope
that brought
to their lives.
They saw
God forgiving
and God
proving
that he had
the authority
and the love
and the grace
and the mercy
to forgive
our sins.
so what about
us?
What is our
response
when God
says
our sins
are forgiven?
Do we
doubt
or
do we
believe?
Do we
respond with
hope
and joy?
Do we
respond with
sadness
and despair?
I
really
enjoy it.
I like
what Matthew
has to say
when he
talks about
this interaction.
It will be up
there in a second.
In Matthew 2
when Jesus
says
to the paralytic
he says
take heart
my son
your sins
are forgiven.
Take heart.
Different translations
say
have courage
cheer up
be of good
cheer
that's the
King James.
but
Jesus
is calling
for a
response
of joy
with
forgiveness.
He's saying
that forgiveness
isn't just
something that
okay we're
forgiven
and we're
going to
go and
be sad
for the
rest of
our lives
because
you know
we're not
allowed to
do fun
things.
Jesus
is saying
to this
man
that this
forgiveness
is not
just
life for
you.
It's not
just
rightness
with God.
but it
should be
a source
of hope
of joy
of happiness
and you know
I think
for the first
time this
guy is
in right
standing
with his
heavenly father
but he doesn't
just say
take heart
he says
he calls him
son
he says
child
he brings
him
into this
family
forgiveness
isn't just
the wrong
things that
were done
cancelled
forgiveness
isn't just
bad things
put under
the carpet
it's a new
identity
as God's
children
it's a new
hope
new life
in being
with Christ
imagine
imagine for a
moment that
you're a thief
of the worst
kind
you've stolen
candy from
children
you've stolen
from museums
you've stolen
gold and
diamonds and
billions of
dollars
and eventually
you're caught
and you're put
on trial
you're put on
trial and
the judge looks
at all these
things that you've
stolen and he
thinks
this is
ridiculous
we're not
going to put
you in prison
we're going to
sentence you
to death
and so you
go and you
sit in your
cell and
you're waiting
for the
assigned date
and they
bring you
your last
meal
and the
guy sets
it before
you
you've
asked for
jelly beans
and ice
cream
but as
you look
at it
you realize
that
your death
that's coming
is too
much to
bear
you can't
even stomach
at it
you push
it away
and you're
carried
and you're
led up to
the gallows
and you
know the
executioner is
there and
he puts
the noose
around your
neck
and you
know just
you catch a
glimpse of
your family
over there
and you
try and
hide your
face from
your children
and the
guy with the
big trumpet
and the
scroll starts
reading off
your charges
and says
for these
crimes of
stealing candy
and billions
of dollars
you're sentenced
to death
and he turns
to the
executioner
who's about
to pull
the lever
but then
there's this
commotion
there's this
commotion
there's a man
who's running
from the
castle
he's running
from the
castle
to the
king
and he's
running
and he's
running
and he's
running
and he goes to the crowds
and he comes
and he comes closer
and you realize that
this isn't a messenger
this is the king's son
the king's son is coming
with a message
and he says
your sins
are forgiven
imagine your relief
imagine your joy
imagine what it's like
to be on the brink
of death
but the king's son
not a messenger
the king sends
his own son
to say that
you're forgiven
that the noose
is going to be
removed from your neck
that you are free
that you can be
with your family
that you can go
and enjoy
jelly beans
and ice cream
that your life
is going to be
transformed
because
of the king
forgiveness is good news
forgiveness is amazing news
forgiveness is why
Jesus
came
this is why we celebrate
Christmas
because God sent his son
to pay the price
for our sin
because God sent his son
to say to us
while on the brink of death
your sins
are forgiven
the story
it offers forgiveness
and it calls us
to be a part
of God's family
but it also calls us
to have faith
the former paralytic
and his friends
they set an example
for us
in faith
and it's not that
they had to do
some amazing feat
like climb a mountain
or whatever amazing things
you do to demonstrate faith
but all they had to do
was come
they came
not knowing
what God
was going to do
they came
because they had a hunch
because they
they had hope
they had faith
that this Jesus
could do something
for their paralyzed friend
this Jesus
do something
and I think
the Bible says
the Bible says that
it says come
come with faith
come trusting
that God
will do the things
that he promises
come trusting
that on the cross
Jesus has paid
for your sins
come
faith
because Jesus
has done
what it takes
to forgive
your sins
this story
this paralyzed man
Jesus healing them
and his interaction
with the Pharisees
it calls us
to
live a life
transformed
by God's forgiveness
to live a life
of faith
I think we're all
in different places
spiritually
emotionally
you know
I don't know
what your week
has been like
what it's been like
at the office
or
what tensions
you have at home
the people
who have been hurting you
the people
who have been
offending you
but I know that
2,000 years ago
a king sent his son
to give forgiveness
and freedom
to give us joy
that will change
the way that
we look at God
that changes the way
that we relate to God
and that flows out
and changes
the ways in which
we interact with people
are we looking to God
for our forgiveness
are we looking to Jesus
and
putting
our hope in him
or do we
do we doubt
that when God says
I forgive you
that
we can follow through
sometimes I do
sometimes I doubt
but this Christmas
I want to invite you
to come and
to believe
have faith
to look at
Jesus in the manger
to look at him
healing this man
to look
at Jesus
on the cross
to look at Jesus
and to believe
that
that he's paid
the price
that he offers
forgiveness
that he offers
opportunity
to be his child
that he offers
that to us
with joy
let's pray
heavenly father
I confess
that I doubt
your forgiveness
I confess
that
that when I look
at the cross
I wonder
if you really
can forgive me
that if you really
have forgiven me
that if you really
will pay the price
for my sin
God I thank you
for Jesus
I thank you
for this story
I thank you
for the faith
the life
of this paralyzed
man
that him
and his friends
went and said
we believe
that God
can do something
we believe
that this Jesus
guy is for real
I pray father
for us
as we
as we walk
through life
as we
interact with
different people
as we are hurt
as we
hurt other people
as we forgive
our friends
our family members
our co-workers
our children
as we receive
forgiveness from them
that we will be
reminded of you
that you've
called us
to open our
hearts and faith
and to receive
forgiveness
to receive a
promise of joy
to receive a
promise of being
your child
to be made
right with you
Jesus
thank you for
Christmas
and we thank you
for your
forgiveness
I pray this
in your precious
name
Amen
that we