Sermons: Recent Episodes
Grace Harbor Church Cape Cod
A portion of this sermon did not record (at the end). The following is the rest of the sermon:
“When was the last time we asked Jesus search and know our hearts? To try us and see if there is any think in us that is grieving him?
If you’re willing, let me encourage you to take Psalm 51 and use it this week. Picture yourself at Jesus’ feet as you tell him in desperation:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
If you’re desperate for his forgiveness, and you land on your face before Him, Jesus never turn you away. “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) The beggar before Jesus has a view of the holes in his feet – the marks his body bears still from the Cross he bore for you and me. If we hang on his every word for hope, then we will hear His voice from the Cross saying – “Father, forgive them.” And when His Word speaks forgiveness to you, then His Spirit comes and assures you that you are restored. Christ got up and walked in resurrection power over our sin. In the new life, he tells everyone covered by his blood to rise, and walk with Him.
You don’t need to persuade Jesus to forgive you, you only need to ask, and trust Him.
I like to imagine that the cleansed leper and the healed cripple ran into each other down the road. Maybe, realizing they had such a remarkable experience in common, they started meeting up regularly to talk about Jesus, and what a difference He made in their lives. Maybe they had a long relationship that wasn’t ever divided or destroyed by their disagreements, because they remembered that moment of having nothing without Jesus.
Church, that’s a picture of us. A family full of desperate testimonies, with Christ’s grace in common. If Christ has forgiven us, we can forgive each other. If Christ has forgiven us, He can forgive any desperate outcast or sinner we meet. A church that forgives one another glorifies Jesus. People who tell about Jesus’ ability and willingness to forgive glorifies Jesus.
And church, if Christ has forgiven us and washed us clean – we have a lot to be joyful about. It wasn’t that long ago when he touched you and you knew your sins were washed away. I can still remember how free I knew I was when he took away my guilt and gave me His grace. We are clean – we can walk in life. So the next time another believer asks you how you’re doing – consider responding with a joyful smile, “I’m forgiven.”
And for any who are desperate for that joy, Christ is able and willing to forgive you. Face him, fall at his feet, trust Him, and He will forgive you and raise you into new and joyful life.
Let’s pray. “
Audio Block
Double-click here to upload or link to a .mp3.
Learn more The sermon audio cuts off before the sermon is over. Here is the remainder of the sermon in text form:
“…Like Saul, Jesus’ earthly life ended in disgrace – shamed and ridiculed by all who saw him. Unlike Saul, Jesus through his resurrection now holds the place of highest honor with His Father God in heaven.
The Death of Jesus was the pinnacle of our death, defeat, and disgrace. It was the lowest point in our human history. And it was the turning point. Because finally, there was a king who would obey God, love God, trust God, follow God. Finally a king who can make a way back to God for us by living righteously so that by his death, we can give him our sin and we can receive his righteousness. Finally a king who can show us the way back to God through his death and resurrection. Finally a champion who can strike down our enemy once and for all. Finally, a king who welcomes us to let go of our fatal resistance to Him, and embrace his loving rule and and authority in our life. Finally, in Jesus we find what satisfaction is, what the security of absolute dependence feels like, what comfort in who He is feels like for us, what being His child does to displace our shame and disgrace with his love and honor. Jesus brings life, and victory, and honor – and He is the King we need! May we welcome him by looking to him and believing that by his death and resurrection, he takes away our death, defeat, and disgrace.
Church, we benefit from the life, victory, and honor of our King Jesus, and we get to be the messengers of this good news to the world. We’re the opposite of the Philistines in verse 9. Without the good news, the people who see the cross of Jesus may very well think the cross speaks that death won again! So we go out and herald the news that the Cross is the symbol that Jesus won for us – that he was stripped of his earthly honor, but clothed in resurrection with heavenly glory. That his body was fastened to a cross, and removed and put in a tomb, but also visibly seen by hundreds days later! We know that the cross tells of death and life, defeat and victory, disgrace and honor. So let’s go and tell that good news to others. This is how God will extend that same life, and victory and honor to men, women and children who hear it!
In light of Saul’s tragic downfall, we should notice that faith in God and obedience to His Word are the way to perseverance and protection. Saul spent so much time trying to make his life work out the way he thought it should be, and it was a huge obstacle to him seeing that all he needed to do was obey God. If he had done that, God would have taken care of everything – just like God was clearly planning for Saul’s burial when he told Saul to rescue Jabesh-Gilead. Israel didn’t need a different king, they needed to listen and obey the king they had in God.
We spend too much time worrying today, as if God hasn’t thought about tomorrow. We spend too much energy striving for things that elude us now, or will evaporate when we die. We agonize too often about our physical safety and security. And in all that fretting and striving, we give too little attention to God the King who has thought about and planned for every day and season of our lives to go according to His good and perfect will. Oh, and who loves us in such a way that the best way we can describe His love is that He willingly died to save us.
Christian – what is it that we long and hope for?! WE long to get to heaven where you enjoy life with our Father, and live in unbroken fellowship with Jesus our Savior, and love one another in perfection and unity. We are about to sing about it – We long and wait for our groom to come, to collect his church, his bride. We long for the day to arrive when the race is won, and all our grief gives way to deliverance. The experience of being fully known by our Father, and fully knowing Him and each other. We long for the groaning to stop and our finally unburdened hearts to break out in praise. We long to stand in the middle of the sea of people – all God’s redeemed. A multitude from every tribe and tongue, brilliantly shining in robes of righteous white handed to each of us by Jesus whose blood bought those robes for us.
What will surely get you there? It isn’t worry and striving. It isn’t doubting and questioning. It isn’t dabbling in the kingdoms of other pleasures and so-called gods.
It is the sure and steadfast hand of God the King guiding us to what He has prepared for us. Do you want to make it all the way – then trust God with it all. Do you want to be protected from losing your way to Him? Then listen to Him, and obey. And when you fall in sin, look up from where you fell, and ask God by His grace and mercy to forgive you again, and pick you up and lead you on. We need no other King than the one who made us to depend fully on Him. We need no other way of life today than the one that follows King Jesus. We need no other future than the one in which we are God’s people, and He is our King.
Let’s pray. “