THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS
He Gets Us #1
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Sunday, March 30, 2025
(Luke 23:27–37, NLT) “A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’ People will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
Guilt is unavoidable
“People have a sense of guilt and sin, but no longer a sense that they live in a loving universe marked by divine mercy, grace and forgiveness. There is sin but no formula for redemption.” –David Brooks, The Strange Persistence of Guilt, NYT, (3-31-17)
Denying my sin will leave sin in control of my life
(Psalm 32:3–5, NLT) “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. … Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”
(Proverbs 28:13, NLT) “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.”
(Proverbs 19:3, NCV) “People’s own foolishness ruins their lives, but in their minds they blame the Lord.”
(Psalm 38:4, 6, NLT) “My guilt overwhelms me— it is a burden too heavy to bear. … All day long I walk around filled with grief.”
Loving God leads to the Victorious Life of Love
(Matthew 6:9–10, NASB) “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”
- Admit my sin
(1 John 1:8–9, NLT) “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
- Accept responsibility for my sin
(Psalm 51:3, GN) “I recognize my faults; I am always conscious of my sins.”
- Ask for forgiveness of my sin
(Romans 3:23–24, LB) “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.”
GROWTHWORK
- JESUS FORGIVES ME IMMEDIATELY
(Isaiah 55:7, GN) “God … is merciful and quick to forgive.”
- JESUS FORGIVES ME COMPLETELY
(Colossians 2:13–14, NLT) “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
- JESUS CONTINUES TO FORGIVE ME
(Hebrews 7:24–25, NLT) “But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.”
(Numbers 14:19, Message) “Please forgive the wrongdoing of this people out of the extravagance of your loyal love just as all along, from the time they left Egypt, you have been forgiving this people.”
(Psalm 32:1–2, NLT) “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!”