What A Difference Forgiveness Makes

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That's CS Bible@hotmail.com. May God bless you. And dear Heavenly Father, we just come before you right now, and though we have had a laugh, Lord, at the end of the day, your word is no laughing matter. It is the word of God.

And Lord, I come to you as one who feels deeply that in and of myself, I have absolutely nothing to offer anyone. And Father, I come to you asking that you would intervene, that you would extend grace, that Lord, you would be so kind as to as to use me in order to minister to. Your people for whom you have died. Father, as we look at this passage, use it to impact our hearts.

Lord, in anticipation of the passage, we confess to you that we have sinned, and Lord, that we have fallen short of your glory. We confess to you, Lord, even the fact That there are ways in which we struggle to comprehend. The degree to which we have been guilty. There's ways in which because of the pride that is within our heart, we refuse to see the magnitude of our sin.

Lord, some of us have this struggle in which we actually think more highly of ourselves than we ought. And Lord, we pray that you might be gracious to us and with convicting grace, that Lord, you would help us to understand more deeply and to be made more aware. Of the debts. Of our sin.

Lord, so that we might be made more aware of the greatness of your grace and the experience of forgiveness for our many sins that we can have in you. And as an overflow of these things, that Lord, having been forgiven a multitude of sins. That Lord, we would love you much. Help us, Lord, to love you much.

We confess that our love for you oftentimes is more shallow than it ought to be. And as we take some time to explore this passage, I pray that you would press home to our hearts. The truths that you would have for us in this passage. And I ask these things from you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. On a few occasions, I have shared bits and pieces of my personal testimony. prior to coming to the Lord, one of the things that stands out as I have been reflecting upon it the last week, Is the fact that I was very, very, very well aware of my sin. Now, I wasn't aware of all of my sin, but there was one sin in particular in my life that I struggled with that I was extremely aware of and as a result of my sin, I experienced.

a lot of guilt over my sin. In fact, I did have a dream on one occasion in which I saw myself in hell. OK. Now, I'm not one of those hyper charismatic persons out there, but I did have a dream and I did see myself in hell, and when I woke up, I was sweating.

During this season of experiencing conviction, knowing that there's a God, knowing I have sinned against Him and feeling the magnitude of my sin against Him and knowing that I was headed to hell. It was against that backdrop. That when I first heard the gospel and understood the fact that in Christ, I could have forgiveness, that at that moment I experienced, and many of you can testify to this, you, you, you experience this forgiveness and this Freedom and this relief and, and, and there is this love that is deep within your heart that you have for the Lord to where your, your desire and your passion is to worship Him with all of your being and regardless of what other people might think, you're just gonna go on and worship your Lord.

As a result of this experience of forgiveness, there are a couple of people in particular that I remember commenting to me, about the change that they could see in my life as a result of my salvation, as a result of the experience of having been forgiven for the multitude of my sins.

I submit to you this morning, I want to say to you this morning, I believe God wants you to understand this morning, of the fact that in Him, we, we have forgiveness for a multitude of sin and that the result of that experience of heart is that we would love him much. We would love him much. As we move towards our passage this morning, again, the point is going to be that when we experience forgiveness for our sins, the result of that should be that we love much and that love will demonstrate itself in very, Practical ways.

There will be demonstrations, visual demonstrations of our love for the Lord as a result of the experience of having been forgiven for a multitude of our sins, and we're gonna see that in our passage.

Please turn to Luke chapter 7 beginning in verse 36. Luke chapter 7 beginning in verse 36. God is wanting to remind us, I think afresh. Of the difference that forgiveness makes in the life of his people.

And as you're turning to Luke chapter 7 beginning in verse 36, just by way of background, enjoy with me, there's, something technical that I want to try to explain as it relates to this narrative section of scripture. in our Western culture, oftentimes we tell a story and we, we develop the characters. There's plot, there's a, there's a thickening of the plot, the tension mounts and then the point. Point is given at the end of the story, OK?

And the moral of the story is, well, in Greek literature, they also have devices that they use in order to direct you to the point. And I believe that as we outline this narrative into its seven parts, we will find that that point is being delivered right smack, In the middle in scene number 4, that point is being delivered. OK. Let me explain the outline.

I know this is a bit technical, but follow with me. The basic outline, the major scenes of this narrative are as follows. Scene one, an introduction of the characters. OK.

OK? And then scene 7, OK, follow with me because, because what's happening is, is, is 1 parallel 72 parallel 63 parallels 5, and then you get 4 where the point is. again, one, the characters are introduced. We get to scene 7 and we have an evaluation of the characters.

We go to scene 2, T. In scene two, we have the sinful woman's example. We get to scene 6, we have the sinful woman's example compared to Simon the Pharisee. We continue on in scene 3.

In scene 3 we have Simon the Pharisee's evaluation. It is, it is a wrong evaluation, but then in scene 5, we have this evaluation and finally, it is a right evaluation. And then the punch is thrown in scene 4 in which Jesus presents this parable, and the point of the parable is he who is forgiven much. Loves much.

OK. So, those are the scenes, forgive me, I didn't do them in chronology. I did them 17 to 6, it seems backwards, but this is just the way in which literature works, in, in, in sometimes in this day. Let's go to each scene and things will be Become more clear now.

Let's go to each scene and follow with me what is happening. Scene number 1, the introduction. There is an introduction to the three major players here. Verse 36, it says, now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him.

And he, Jesus, entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table, and behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. We've got our characters. We are introduced to the characters, the Pharisee. We all hopefully understand that the Pharisees were the religious elite in their day.

They pay careful attention to the details of the old Testament and they drew out applications and they developed their traditions and they made their traditions as equal to the scripture and they lived their lives underneath this tradition and they, and they passed it on to those after them and expected them to follow after these traditions. These were the, the Pharisees, the religious elites. So, there is this one, Simon the Pharisee. It doesn't call him Simon yet but later he'll be addressed as Simon.

So, we've got Simon the Pharisee. The other character that we are introduced to is the Lord Jesus Christ himself and we note that Simon is requesting Jesus to dine at his house, OK? And the interesting thing that we note about Jesus is the fact that he accepts the invitation. Jesus knows That he is entering into a potentially hostile environment.

Now, there's no guarantee it would be hostile, but at the very least, it is a potentially hostile environment. Jesus accepts the invitation of the Pharisee, OK? And I believe that in part what he is doing is demonstrating love, care and concern. For this Pharisee and that he is willing to go to even the Pharisee in an effort to, to befriend him and to, and to speak truth to him and to minister to him.

So we have the Pharisee, Jesus invited and, and notice in the text, it says that he was invited and then the next thing you read is that he, he is, he is in the house. OK. He is in the house. It says, he's, the Pharisee was requesting him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and, and reclined at the table.

without me getting into details, suffice it to say that there is something missing there. There is something missing, OK? Kiss, washing of the feet, anointing with oil. That stuff is not mentioned.

The Pharisee invited him but did not, show him the hospitality that Jesus would have been worthy of, OK? We'll leave it at that. And then the other character is that of the woman. The text says, and behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner.

We've got this sinful woman. Now, we don't know exactly what her sins were. some would suggest, and perhaps this is true, that she were a prostitute, the alabaster vial of perfume that she comes with, was something that prostitutes would oftentimes use to sweeten the breath and perfume the body. So, some would go so far as to say that we don't know for sure, but at the very least we can say she was a sinner in the city and people knew that she was so.

So, we've got these three characters. And Jesus invited to this banquet, accepts the invitation. And then we move on to scene two, beginning in verse 37B. In this scene, Luke will draw our attention to this woman, this sinful woman and her behavior in the Pharisee's house.

Read with me 37B. And when she learned that, he reclines at the T in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume. Now, Luke in this section is actually drawing our attention to the part where it says, weeping. She began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of his head.

I believe that for grammatical reasons as well as literary reasons, without getting into those details, Luke is drawing our attention to that particular scene. The other things that he says prior to weeping, she began to wet, wet his feet with her tears. the, the, the things that he says leading up to that is, is information to help us to understand some things about the woman, but the focal point here, weeping. Weeping.

Intensely crying, not just shedding a tear. But so overcome with emotion that the tears began to flow from her face. She's, she's crying in a profuse manner. weeping as she is near the backside of the feet of Jesus.

Jesus would have been leaning this way, holding himself up with his left arm maybe reaching out for some food, his feet down there. She's at, at the position of humility at his feet, and she is overcome with emotion. She cannot control the emotion, she begins to sob heavily. attention is being drawn to that weeping, she began to wet his feet.

In relation to that, however, Luke does add some additional information. In relation to, she began to wet his feet, prior to that, Luke gives us three participles that relate to she began to wet his feet. Notice what Luke says. These are participles, he says, knowing what was she knowing as she's wetting his feet.

What is she knowing here? Well, she had heard that he dines at the table in the house of the Pharisee. She heard that he dined there, knowing that he dined there. So, knowing that bit of information, bringing What, what does Luke say about her in relation to her bringing?

What was she bringing? An alabaster vial of perfume, very expensive perfume. She's, she's coming prepared, knowing, bringing, and then we read standing, standing, here, here, here she is standing at his feet. Then all of a sudden, OK, we move into the present tense.

Luke's drawing attention to this moment, standing, Weeping, she began to wet his feet. He's drawing her attention to that. When we consider her weeping, we must ask ourselves the question, this woman having entered courageously a hostile environment, she's there at the feet and she's overcome with emotion. Why in the world does she begin weeping and in the process wetting his feet?

Why does she do that? She, at some point, prior to entering the house, had already heard from Jesus. She had already experienced forgiveness for her sins, and she comes to Jesus with the backdrop of having been forgiven for many sins, and here she is weeping. Wetting his feet.

But I believe that there is more than just that. She would have been in the room. Either before Jesus' entry or she could have been coming into the room as Jesus is arriving. And there is something that she observes.

That triggers her at his feet, weeping. She begins to weep. What does she observe? She observes the ill treatment of Jesus as he enters through the door.

She observes that no one greeted him with a kiss. She observes that there is no one there to wash his feet with water and to dry his feet with a towel. She observes that there is no one to anoint his feet with oil, and I believe that on that basis, coupled with the fact that she had already experienced forgiveness for sin and she had an understanding of how beautiful the savior was, she is overcome with this emotion. of weeping and spontaneously, she comes up with the idea of using those tears in place of the water to wash his feet.

And in the process, she unravels her hair. this would have been an embarrassing thing to do in this age. Others would have looked down on her for this promiscuous activity, but she lets down her long hair because there's no one there who would give this sinful woman a towel to dry his feet with. She comes up with the idea of using her hair, her crowning glory, and she begins to dry his feet, the dirty part of the body.

With her hair And at the same time, we read that she's kissing, fervently kissing. Imagine this scene Luke draws our attention to. This woman is here on her hands and knees, uncontrollably crying. Wetting his feet, drying them, kissing them fervently.

An anointing with this very expensive jar of perfume. This is the scene that we have, scene 2. Moving on to scene 3. We discover Simon's judgment concerning Jesus and even the woman.

Scene 3, beginning in verse 39. His judgment is going to be wrong. Read with me. Now, when the Pharisee, Simon, who had invited him, saw this, when he saw this, when he observed this scene, he said to himself, not speaking verbally but speaking to, to himself, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, one anointed by God, sent by God, a spokesperson for God, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what person this woman is, who is touching him.

That she is a sinner. If she were a, if he were a prophet, he would know. The irony of all of this is the very fact that Jesus does know and he knows what Simon is thinking. He knows without hearing it audibly, he knows what is going on in the heart of Simon and Jesus Christ is going to address Simon.

Lovingly, I believe, but with the purpose of correcting him, him. And Jesus answered and said to Simon, In the middle of Simon casting judgment on Jesus. Simon, I have something to say to you, and he replied, say it, teacher. Say it, teacher.

So here in this scene three, we have a wrong evaluation by Simon and Jesus says to Simon, I, I, I, I, I will, I've got something to say to you. And we arrived in at scene 4, the, the delivery of the parable, the parable of the two debtors. Jesus is going to speak a parable to Simon. Look with me, beginning in verse 41 now, and again, this is where the punch is.

This is, this is the central, important part of the whole thing. This is, where, from a literary perspective, attention is being drawn to this parable, a certain, Money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they were unable to repay, note the similarities.

Two men owed a debt. They were both debtors. One's debt was 2 years of work, roughly speaking. The other man's debt was 2 months of work, roughly speaking.

Huge debt, little debt, OK? and, and, and so they have that in common. And they were both unable to repay their debts. They had that in common.

And furthermore, Jesus says he's speaking to Simon, says he graciously forgave them both. He graciously, Simon, I'm directing your attention to, to the grace of this money lender. In grace, mercifully, he decides to cancel their debt. And now, Simon, I have a question for you.

Which of them, therefore, will love him more? You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know what the answer to this question should be. any Tom, Dick, and Harry would know that the answer is obvious. It's the one who had the greater debt forgiven.

That's the one who will love the most, the one who understands the greatness of his debt is the one who will, when the debts are forgiven, will love the greatest. That's the answer, but notice Simon's response. As we move on into the scene 6, or scene 5, if you will, his response, his judgment, OK? Before the parable, wrong.

After the parable, it's going to be right. But notice he reluctantly makes the right judgment. Simon answered and said, I suppose, I suppose, there's no supposing about it, Simon. Anyway, I suppose the one whom he forgave more, and Jesus said to him, You have judged correctly.

Bingo, Simon, you are absolutely right. You have a nail, you hit the nail on the head. Now, what does Jesus do? As we move into the next scene, as we move into the next stage of the story, what does Jesus do?

He takes his teaching and he applies it directly to Simon. He utilizes his teaching and makes it very practical for Simon and, and, and he, he's going to, to, to use the example of the woman and compare her example with that of Simon in order to help Simon to realize that he is way out of line, that he does not understand this concept of being forgiven resulting in loving much. Read with me then, verse 44. Simon's example compared to the woman's.

And turning towards the woman, he, Jesus said to Simon, so now finally Jesus turns to look at the woman, but he is addressing Simon. He's wanting Simon to, to look at the woman, says, turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, Simon, Do you see this woman? Well, he saw her, he saw her, but he didn't see what was going on here. He saw, but there was a lack of understanding.

So in a sense, he really didn't see and Jesus is wanting him to see. Do you see this woman Simon? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet.

It's the very least you could have done for me, your honored guest. You gave me no water for my feet, but in contrast to you, she has wet my feet with her tears. And wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss.

It would have been the appropriate thing for you to greet me with a kiss, but you gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, which is what makes me believe that she was there as he's answering, from the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. Simon, do you see what is going on here? You, you, you, you failed to demonstrate love to me.

But this woman, by way of contrast, she has, has demonstrated great love to me. And I'll tell you why this is so, Simon, because she understands that her sins have been forgiven and against the backdrop of the fact that her sins are forgiven, she has rendered worship to me. She has loved me much. She has loved me deeply.

Jesus is wanting Simon to understand that comparatively speaking, you have nothing on this woman. A total contrast to what Simon's self-evaluation and opinion of himself would have been. Jesus sheds light on the situation and he says, Simon, She, she, what she has done. Is better than what you have done.

You could have done those little things for me. She went beyond the little and she poured it on. In relation to me. And now we're going to get in this narrative, to the end, the final scene in which there are some conclusions being drawn regarding the two central figures and what by that is, is, is the woman and Simon.

Notice what Jesus says in verse 47. For this reason, or literally, for your sake, Simon, for you, I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. He's not denying the fact that she had been a sinful woman, but he is affirming the fact that she had already at some time in the past experienced forgiveness and he's going to go on to argue that what she did is an expression of the The fact that she has been forgiven, that the love she has shown to me is rooted in her experience of having been forgiven.

The reason she's able to love me much compared to you is because she understands that she has been forgiven for her many, many sins.

I say to you, Simon, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven for she loved much. Now, this clause is an evidential clause. What by that is the evidence of the fact that your sins have been forgiven is she has loved much. Her demonstration of love is proof that her sins have been forgiven.

And now Jesus is going to say something that I believe is, is related directly to Simon himself, but he who is forgiven a little. Loves little. And he said to her, He affirms to her a fact, your sins have been forgiven. The worship that she renders to him is totally accepted because it is an overflow of the fact that your sins have already been forgiven and he is affirming to the woman, woman, your sins have been forgiven.

And those who were there, Reclining at the table with him, began to say to themselves, Who is this man? Who even forgives sin. Who is this guy? This one who forgives sin is the one who has the authority to forgive sin.

He is God in the flesh. And he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. And so here, we've got an evaluation of the two with the woman.

She loves much. Because she had experience in the very depths of her being. Having been forgiven much. She understood very clearly that against the backdrop of the holiness and perfection of God, that she was a sinful person.

Jesus draws attention to the fact that her sins are many, yet they have been forgiven. Her ability To worship the Lord in the way that she does in this hostile environment is rooted in her experience that she had been forgiven of many sins. You've got this Simon, the Pharisee, casting judgment on the woman. not willing to accept her expressions of love to Jesus, being critical of her and of the Jesus who would receive the type of worship she was given to him, who would receive this type of service.

And you see, in reality, both are sinful. Both are sinful. The difference is the one has experienced forgiveness and Simon has not. That's the difference.

And because of the experience of forgiveness versus the lack of that experience, love is being expressed. There's an emotional component to her love. She's just weeping, but there's a service component to her love. She comes prepared with the vial.

There's a courageous element of her love in the sense that she's willing to enter a hostile environment and, and she's willing to even humble herself in the letting down of her hair in order to render service to her master. She is consumed. In a moment of passion which is rooted. In her sins being forgiven.

And Simon, Is a contrast to her. We don't know what inevitably happens with Simon with any certainty, but I, I do like what one commentator says here. Listen to what the commentator says in relation to Simon. He should confess, quote, he should confess.

When the woman leaves, Jesus says, your faith has saved you, you're saved, go in peace. When she, Simon should have confessed something, he should have said, I am a great sinner, as was this woman. This, I have not realized. I have not repented.

Nor have I heard the offer of the grace of God as this woman has. I have been forgiven little. And thus I have loved Jesus little. If Jesus really wants to avoid sinners, Simon should have said this, he should avoid me.

Not this woman whom I have despised. That would have been a wonderful prayer of repentance on the part of Simon. We don't know. I wanna ask you here this morning, which one do you find yourself identifying with?

As you look at Simon, And as you look at this woman, which one would you say is a better reflection of your life? Are you like this woman who is so keenly aware of your sins against the backdrop of his greatness, to where you find yourself in expressions of worship, falling down on your feet before Him, weeping. With the full assurance of your forgiveness for your sins. You see, As we look at this narrative, it, it is clear to me.

That if we are to experience God's forgiveness, we need to be made aware of our sin. And when we are aware of our sin, and when we do experience forgiveness, that will manifest itself in an overflow of love, like this woman. Think about this woman. She was prepared to serve Jesus.

She planned out what she would do, and she proceeded to implement her plan. He was totally prepared. Do you find yourself as an overflow of having been forgiven, experiencing his love and your love for him, preparing yourself? Is, is your life a preparation for service to Jesus?

You see, the woman in her passion for Christ, and her love for him, she went to where he knew he would be. Do you find in your heart that you are like the woman and that, that you just desire to be where he is going to be? The woman was willing to endure hostility in order to serve Jesus. Do you find yourself willing?

As an overflow of love to endure hostility for his name's sake. Will you serve him even if that means entering into an environment of hostility. So these are the expressions of love for Jesus. These are the things that we see from this woman.

It's interesting because in her focus on Jesus, she experienced, experienced courage. The fear of man in her life vanquished. I thought of, I thought of Psalm 27 in relation to this woman, not that she knew it, but, but if, if, if you look at Psalm 27, what does David the psalmist say? The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men rise up to devour my flesh, even then I will be confident. When an enemy encamps around me, I will not fear.

This is what David is praying in the Psalm, and the interesting thing is what does he say next? What he says next is an indication of his focus and his passion. And when he is focused and focused on the right thing and passionate about the right thing, these fears get evaporated. Just like this woman focused on the Lord, the fear of man was evaporated against that backdrop.

She renders her service to the Lord. What does David the Psalmist say in Psalm 27? One thing I ask, that he would deliver me from my enemy? One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I see, I want the presence of God, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.

You see, the passion of David at that point in the Psalm was Jesus. And it enables him to overcome this fear even of death. This woman is overcoming the fear of men and what men could do for her. Because she was focused on seeing Jesus and being with Jesus.

What a difference passion for Jesus, love for Jesus makes in the life of a person. You see this woman weeping openly, right? Do you relate to that experience? Or do you perhaps like the Pharisees think that such a deed is something that really shouldn't be taking place?

She, she's weeping, she can't help it. There is an emotional component to love for the Lord, and she's experiencing that in the form of tears. She, she, she performs a humble service for the Lord. Would that characterize your love for Jesus?

Humble service for the Lord. about a week ago, as Mike and I were, Pastor Mike and I were walking outside, I noticed something that he did and it, and this passage reminded me of it as, as we're walking, he, he reaches down to pick up some trash to try to clean up the facility, and I felt to some degree instructed by his example, humble service for the Lord. That's what this woman performs at his feet. A dirty part of the body, cleans the feet, makes up for that which is lacking.

Here's this woman, how do you relate? How do you compare with the example of the woman? See the degree to which you love God. hinges upon your understanding of how sinful you are and how much you have been forgiven.

That's why she loved him much. She knew her sin, she knew her forgiveness, and she loved much. Failure to love God is an indication that you may not be saved. If you find that you do not love God in ways similar to this woman, you perhaps should ask yourself the question, why?

It may be that you're not saved or it may be that you just have a, you have a low estimation of how great your sins are, and it is good to be made aware by God's grace of how great our sin is and to enter into forgiveness. For from those sins and to, and to be free in our love and worship of the Lord. Let me say this in closing, we're talking about a woman. We're talking about her expression of love for Jesus.

We're talking about before the cross. By way of comparison, we should blow her away. By way of comparison, our passion, our love, our consuming desire for him, ought to blow hers away. Because we have further revelation.

We have the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross for our benefit. See, we have the knowledge that Jesus Christ suffered and died for us. We have this picture, a picture that she did not have of the suffering Messiah who had been beaten and spat. and mocked at and laughed and ridiculed and despised by men and forsaken by his closest friends.

We've got the savior who had had a crown of thorns pressed upon his brow and the blood dripping with, with the nails piercing his hands and his feet, and the splinters climbing their way up into his back and in agony, him struggling for every breath that he could take on the cross, dying for our sins, and every sin. One of our sins, past, present, and future are nailed to the cross. We have way more than what this woman has. We have a Jesus who took upon Himself all of the wrath of the Father for our sins.

We deserve to be at the cross. We deserve to die. We deserve to say, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the answer would have been obvious because we're sinful.

But Jesus in our place, cries from the cross with a load of our sin upon his back and he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's because of my sin. It's because I sinned against the holy God and he loves me so much that he says, I'm going to provide atonement. I'm going to provide a way of salvation.

See, we must come to grips with the depths of our sin and the reality of the cross and against that backdrop to experience the forgiveness that he has for us and as an overflow, we love much. Think about the multitude of our sins. I can speak for myself and most of these would apply to me, and most of them would probably apply to you as well. Think with me for a second about the, the many types of sins, the sin of pride.

The sin of arrogance. Self-centeredness. The things that come from the words you speak, words of discouragement to others. Gossip about people, lying, idolatry of the heart, murder.

anger in the heart, hatred, murder, the commitment of abortion, the failure to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, coveting grumbling. Oh God, why have you allowed this in my life? grumbling, finding fault with others. I really wish that they would do things differently.

It really irritates me the way in which they do this, that and the other. I, I, I wish that they would, would just do it right for once, fault finding and grubbling. The lack of submission to God ordained authority, submission to government, submission, to, to my husband, I don't have a husband, by the way, but if you are a woman, submission to your husband, children, submission to your, the, these are all sins for whom, Jesus Christ died for all of these sins, lack of submission to pastoral.

Leadership, judgmental attitudes concerning sinners.

the list can go on and on and on and on, and I do not know what sins it is in your life that you have committed, that perhaps you've even experienced forgiveness for or even the sins that you're struggling with now, but I am here to tell you that we have way more than what the lady had because we have a Jesus who died on the cross. He made him who knew no sin. To be sin for you, for me, for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God. And we will be made the righteousness of God when we comprehend the magnitude of our sin and the debt that has been forgiven, our forgiveness in Him.

The overflow will be righteousness in our life, love, passionate, consuming, loving, adoration. Just like this woman, and even more so because of the cross. I'm going to ask you to, pray with me. If you would Before our God, bow your head and close your eyes.

Being totally aware of his presence. Of the fact that he is here and he knows you and he understands you fully. He knows what you're thinking. I would like to give you just a short moment, if you need to, to recall sins that you're struggling with.

And even since that you have been guilty of, I want you to recall these things so that you might be able to remind yourself of how great your sins are. OK. So, so that as you recall these sins to yourself, And you embrace the cross, realizing your forgiveness. You might, as you come out of this time of prayer, find yourself loving Jesus much.

Take A minute. To rehearse and to recall and to confess your sins. And now I am here just to remind you again, Of the cross, direct your attention to the cross, to the nailed scarred feet of Jesus. And in worship and adoration of Jesus.

lay your sins down, as it were, at his feet and affirm to yourself once again, That in him you have been completely forgiven. And whether that be in the quietness of your heart, or in any other manifestation? Perhaps brokenness over your sin, yet joy because they're forgiven. Allow yourself to express praise and worship and adoration.

To the lover of your soul. And as you continue in your worship, With your eyes closed, the worship team will lead us in a song. As you might feel led, feel free to join them. In song And then DJ will offer a closing prayer.

Continue in your worship to the Lord as we're being led in song. She Of you stand with me? When I hear So what can I How I Let's pray, Lord, we thank you so much for this time that we've had in your presence. We thank you for the example of this humble woman, Lord, in consideration of her sin.

Loved you much, Lord, may we rightly consider our sin. Not with morbid introspection, but in view of the cross so that our love may increase towards you. Lord, we thank you that you are a friend of sinners. And we ask, Lord, that we, as your followers would be friends of sinners.

Lord, may, may we invite people like this woman into our lives. May we allow sinners to touch us. May we, Lord, come as fellow sinners, showing them the good news. We thank you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen. We do have a,