Forgive us our debts

Lords Prayer 4 Forgive us our debts

Sin, evil, good, bad, it is kind of hard to understand what it all really means isn’t? Who determines what is good or bad? If I ask you what it means to be good it will likely differ if I ask someone.

If I ask Mother Teresa I will get a different answer than if I ask a felon or a criminal. What does it mean to be bad? Or evil?

There's a Calvin and Hobbes comic I like that helps me think about it.

As the two are sledding they have a profound exchange about the nature of goodness:

Calvin: I’m getting nervous about Christmas.

Hobbes: You’re worried you haven’t been good?

Calvin: That’s just the question. It’s all relative. What’s Santa’s definition? How good do you have to be to qualify as good? I haven’t killed anybody. That’s good, right? I haven’t committed any felonies. I didn’t start any wars . . . Wouldn’t you say that’s pretty good? Wouldn’t you say I should get lots of presents?

Hobbes: But maybe good is more than the absence of bad.

Calvin: See, that’s what worries me.

Calvin and Hobbes make a good point. Who gets to determine what is good and what is evil. One of the best ways we can argue the existence of God is argue there is evil in the world.

Because if there is systematic, fully agreed upon evil, right from wrong, then there must be a being that stands outside of us and gives us an idea of what is right and wrong.

Darwinian evolution and survival of the fittest does not naturally teach me to not kill unarmed soldiers. Neither does it teach me not to eat babies if I am hungry.

In fact if my survival and my offspring's survival is the only thing that matters then there is no reason to be compassionate to people who are less fortunate to me, treat my wife with respect and give her rights, or not do everything in my power to steal, kill, and destroy.

But even if we may disagree with some of the minor differences on if something is okay or not we know the big things. Early on we are convicted in our soul and in our spirit.

And yet, somehow despite knowing there is such evil in the world, most of us are unwilling to admit we are sinners. We are unwilling or incapable of acknowledging our own wrongdoing and the role we have to play that has made the world such a mess.

The incredible 20th century writer and journalist Malcom Muggeridge insightfully writes this

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”

There is sin! But there is only a little sin in me right?

Did you know in the 1980s People magazine did a survey and tried to gauge how much people thought they themselves sinned and the average was 4.64 sins? A month. (https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2017/march/8032017.html)

That's it! They sinned about once a week! I guess it depends on whose defining sin huh?

When I judge myself by my dog's expectations I am perfect.

When I judge myself by my expectations I am a bit more critical but I usually turn out to still be pretty perfect. When I put myself up against my wife's expectations for myself I don't always measure up quite so well. When I judge myself by God's standards and expectations well.. Well it really does not look good at all.

But what really is sin? What is our debt against God? William Stringfellow gives us the idea of those hidden unseen sins against God.

Sin is not essentially the mistaken, inadvertent, or deliberate choice of evil by human beings, but the pride into which they fall in associating their own self-interests with the will of God. Sin is the denunciation of the freedom of God to judge humans... the displacement of God's will with one's own will. Sin is the radical confusion as to whether God or the human being is morally sovereign in history."William Stringfellow (William Stringfellow instead of death pg 19-20)

I don’t know about you, but I put myself in front of God and his kingdom far more than 4.64 a week.

And here's the thing about sin and evil and doing wrong. There is this big christian word called sanctification.

sanctification is the act of God, through the Holy Spirit, to make a believer more like Jesus. To break the chains and addictions of sin, and make them holy like Jesus.

And as you become sanctified, as you become more like Jesus, what you view as sin, what you feel guilt over will change.

You see Sin will always draw you deeper. No one starts with adultery, murder, or assault. You start with jealousy, anger, gossip, porn, and once sin has its claws in you it draws you deeper where the previous sins that convicted you no longer feel bad.

Sanctification has the opposite effect. as you draw closer to Jesus things you once did not view as a sin now become heavy burdens of guilt that you must seek repentance for.

I will give an example. For many people when they first get into a relationship it becomes very clear early on it is wrong to cheat on them. We know this. But as you grow in your marriage and as you grow closer to Jesus knowing his word now you recognize that porn might as well be cheating.

Because you allow your eyes and your heart to be drawn away from your spouse to another person. But it goes deeper still. Grow in Christ and you will recognize when you let your eyes wander at the beautiful celebrities on the movie screen, and you dwell on what they look like… that is sin. And all sin is sin.

This is why Jesus says just one chapter earlier in the same sermon that he teaches us this prayer, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. (Matthew 5:21-22)

And again just a few lines down he says,

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

Did we think being a Christian was easy? This is why the christian life can never be a passive life where we hear from God and wait for him to whisk us away into heaven. It is a constant working towards being more like Christ. As long as I exist in the fallen mortal body I am a sinner. I dare not hide, I dare not talk like it does not exist.

Just a few weeks ago I had committed what 10 years ago I would not have even considered a sin. But I recognized my own heart in the matter. It was not a mistake, or a tumble, it was a willful desire to do something. And i text my friend overwhelmed with guilt knowing i had to repent and seek forgiveness from the person i wronged and my friends response was

“That sucks. But congrats on your sanctification.”

When we encounter the love of Christ it changes us completely. It has an overwhelming change in our lives.

This is why I love the story of Zachaeouss. (Luke 19:1-10)

Zacchaeus is this rich tax collector who is really short and so he climbs this tree to see Jesus when he hears he is coming to visit his town. Jesus walks past all these other people, looks at Zacchaeus this wretched tax collector and says, come down because I am going to dine with you today.

In the middle of the dinner, so overwhelmed by the glory and mercy and love of Christ; Zacchaeus stands up in front of everyone, grabs his hidden stash of money and says look! I give half of all I own away. If I have cheated anyone I will pay them back four times as much as I took!

Now most people assume he must have cheated people, he's a tax collector after all. But he does not say I will pay back everyone I cheated. There’s no implication that he cheated anyone except that he was rich and so must have cheated. You see friends, when the overwhelming love Christ enters our lives it leads to exponential maturity and growth.

Incredible generosity is the sign of a Christ filled life. Incredible repentance and change is the sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When our lives are turned around our response should be who have I wronged unknowingly because I see right from wrong differently.

I recognize now that the way I viewed women on computer screens and in person was an affair of the heart.

stranger, the way I cheated you when I sold you that car and didn’t tell you it had engine issues was deception and thievery.

Friend I recognize now the gossip I spread about you when you wronged me was unacceptable.

I recognize when I got soda in the water cup I didn't have to pay for was stealing.

I recognize sneaking from one movie to a second movie is stealing.

This is why Martin Luther, the great german theologian who kickstarted the reformation says this “God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world” -Martin Luther

That quote for a long time did not make a lot of sense to me. It was hard to understand? Sin… boldly?

And then I came across a different German theologian explaining it so well. Bonhoeffer, in his book the Cost of Discipleship writes SLIDE

“As Luther saw it, "sin boldly" did not happen to be a fundamental acknowledgment of his disobedient life; it was the gospel of the grace of God before which we are always and in every circumstance sinners. Yet that grace seeks us and justifies us, sinners though we are. Take courage and confess your sin, says Luther, do not try to run away from it, but believe more boldly still.” (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. London, SCM Press, 2015. pg. 52)

You are a sinner, so be a sinner, and don't try to become what you are not. Yes, and become a sinner again and again every day, and be bold about it.

There is no need here, in this community, for us to speak like we are anything else besides sinners saved by grace. People for whom the Holy Spirit is working on day in and day out to rid us of our sinful desires. To break our chains of addiction. To free us from the evil that so easily entices and captures.

We are people who are in need of heart change, people who wish to be holy like Jesus but even in our best moments we fall so unfathomably short. So if you are a sinner, if you are weighed down by guilt and shame.. You are welcome here.

And yet, in this painful realization of our ineptitude to live up to the standards of God there is hope. There is a hope in a God that saves. Scripture tells us that even now, if we have put our faith in Jesus that our sins are separated as far as the east is from the west.

And like the woman caught in adultery, Jesus asks you and here now, does anyone condemn you? Then neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. (John 8)

There is freedom in Christ. There is forgiveness in Christ. The door is cracked. He waits at the door. He is eager to forgive you. He is eager to sanctify you.

He is eager to invite you into the kingdom and wash your sins away and make you as white as snow. So let us knock, let us barge in, let us cry out God forgive me because my sin is great but your forgiveness is so much greater…

If you struggle with that right now. If there is a sin that is holding you. A struggle that eats away at your innermost being holding you captive, keeping you from experiencing the rest and joy of the father. Then hear these words from that same man and book I read before.

“No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised that you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered. Go further and be reconciled with your brother, renounce the sin which holds you fast- and then you will recover your faith! If you dismiss the word of God's command, you will not receive his word of Grace. How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him? The man who disobeys cannot believe, for only he who obeys can believe" (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. London, SCM Press, pg. 67)

So we are going to have an abbreviated time of discussion tonight. And instead we are going to confess our sins together.

Repentance is the act of turning away. If you are going south you do a 180 and go north. If you were going left you go right. If you were living in sin now you live in Christ. So together we are going to enter into the presence of God together, confess our sins together, and work towards genuine repentance together.

“O Father, we are gathered before you, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, whose chosen dwelling place is with the broken and contrite, to confess that we have sinned in thought and word and deed; we have not loved you with all our heart and soul, we have not loved you with all our mind and strength; we have not even loved our neighbor as ourselves. Purge us from selfishness, the fear of man, and the love of praise. In your mercy, deepen our sorrow for the wrong we have done and for the good we have left undone, so that we may hate our sin with a holy hatred. But, please Father, do not leave us in sorrow. With you, O Lord, there is forgiveness. In your mercy, restore the joy of our salvation; so that we may love you with a holy love. Amen.”