April 12, 2024
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We were in the middle of a community-wide outreach event, sort of a non-traditional strategy for bringing Christ into a community. One of the committee leaders took me on a media marathon to help build awareness for it. So we raced to the local CBS TV affiliate.
I asked the cameraman when the interview would be on. He said, "tonight's news." That was amazing to me! He said, "I'll just go right into the editing room and we'll do a quick edit." I joked with him about spending half his life in the editing room, which might not be far off. Isn't it great that we can make all kinds of goofs on a video, and there are people who can edit all that right out?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Erasing Life's Big Mistakes."
When that cameraman finished shooting me (you know what I mean), I asked him a question. "Wouldn't it be great if we could edit our lives like that videotape?" He liked that idea. So do I. After all, we've all got moments we're not very proud of; that we're actually ashamed of. There are too many failures on our life-tape, and they're not just recordings. They're flesh and blood, and we can't edit them. But there is Someone who can.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 130:1-4. This is filled with hope for me. "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy." This is a heart that's feeling the weight of their sin; the weight of the past. Maybe like yours. And then comes this incredible hope statement, "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? For with You there is forgiveness." Wow!
God - the last one we would expect to forgive us? After all, He's perfect. It's His laws we've trampled. God is the only one who could edit our sins, and He will. His editing process is called forgiveness - erasing forever from His eternal records the sin that burdens us with guilt, and shame, and condemnation. When God forgives a sin, it's gone!
Acts 3:19 - "Repent and turn to God, and your sins will be wiped away." But there's only one basis on which a Holy God can erase a lifetime of sinning. In God's own words, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Forgiveness can be found only one place; at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ, where He absorbed all our sin and all of its death penalty when He died. Your sin is edited from God's records the moment you come in faith and repentance to the cross where Jesus died for you.
You say, "Well, I've done that, but I still feel guilty." You may feel guilt, but you aren't guilty any more. Not when the only perfect person in the universe has declared you forgiven and clean. Would you base your life on the fact that you are now clean in Jesus Christ and not on the feeling that you're dirty?
If you've made Jesus your Savior from your sin, your sin is gone. Yes, you want to confess it as other ones come up but all of it is covered by the blood of Christ. This is liberating news! Don't carry unnecessary guilt around any more. Accept the forgiveness God has given you and remember, Jesus said, "Whoever is forgiven much, loves much." If you're still trying to deal with your past without the Savior in your heart, why would you go one more day unforgiven? This could be your day to have a lifetime of sinning erased from God's Book forever. That's freedom - that's forgiveness!
If that's what you want, tell Him that, "Jesus, I turn from running my own life. You died and gave Your life to pay for my sin. I'm Yours today." I want you to be sure you belong to Him. That's why we have it set up at our website, to help you be sure of that. It's ANewStory.com. Would you go there today?
There is Someone who can edit your life; removing from every record in God's Book, every mistake and every sin. It's that man who hung on a cross and said these three words, "Father, forgive them."