The Forgiveness We Forgot About | Forgiveness Is For Fulfillment | Judah Smith

Hey, welcome back to weekly service. I'm so glad that you're here. We are talking always about the person of Jesus and the good news surrounding his love and his forgiveness. This month, we've dedicated these weekly services to probably my favorite subject. Jesus is my favorite person and my favorite subject is forgiveness. talking about forgiveness.

We've admitted that for a lot of people the subject of forgiveness incites kind of trauma or pain because you have felt forced to forgive people you don't want to that frankly don't deserve it haven't earned it or worked for it. Well, I got good news. This entire series starts with this idea that you are freely forgiven.

And that forgiveness is for you and it's forever, but it's also for everybody. Everybody can be forgiven. And by letting even the people that have hurt you be forgiven. You let yourself go and you experience more freedom. And I think it even aids in your mental health. This week we're talking about how forgiveness is not merely the pardoning of a person, the removing of judgment, the removing of consequences, or the removing of guilt, but it's also something that is added to you.

It's something that is restored to you. Forgiveness, its end is a restoring of relationship. So I want to read in Romans chapter 3. This is kind of the passage we built this whole month on. It says we've every single one of us have sinned and we need the glory of God or we need the essence of God.

For through his powerful declaration of a quiddle, God freely has given away his righteousness. His gift of love and favor now cascades over all of us because of Jesus, the anointed one. And we've now been liberated from guilt, punishment, and the power of sin. Jesus whole God-given destiny was to be the sacrifice to take away our sins.

Now he's our mercy seat. Because of his death on the cross, we come to him for mercy. For God has made a provision for us to be forgiven by faith in the sacred blood of Jesus. This is the perfect demonstration of God's justice. Because until now, he had been patient holding back his justice out of tolerance for us.

So he covered over the sins of those who lived prior to Jesus sacrifice. But when the season of tolerance came to an end, there was only one possible way for God to give away his righteousness and still be true to both his justice and his mercy, and that is to offer up his own son.

So now, because we stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, God declares us righteous in his eyes. When there or where now is there room for boasting? Did our works bring God's acceptance to us? No, not at all. It was not our works of keeping the law, but our faith in his finished work that makes us right with God.

And there it is. Forgiveness is rightess or righteousness with God. It means we have connection with God. We have friendship with God. We have relationship with God. So this week is dedicated to this idea that forgiveness is fulfillment. that God's passion for your life is not to merely pardon you or remove guilt, shame, consequences, pain, or a removal or a distance between him and you.

But he wants to restore the ultimate relationship you've been craving and looking for your whole life. It's interesting. Um, I believe it's Matthew chapter 10. We read this earlier in the series, but freely you have received. Matthew 10:8 says, you've received the power of the kingdom. So freely release it to others.

What is the power of the kingdom? The scripture defines the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. Righteousness is a gift of right relationship with God through the finished work of forgiveness based on what Jesus did on the cross. Simply put, when people say the kingdom of God, it sounds so ornate and intense, but it it means three simple things.

It means rightness with God, which through the finished work of forgiveness, which produces two preeminent predominant uh predominant I don't know if that's the right term, but but overwhelming uh emotions, two primary emotions, peace and joy. So when it comes to forgiveness, here's the three things forgiveness affords you.

Forgiveness gives you. It gives you number one, a restored relationship with the one who made you, with the being who made you. Now people will say, "Well, I don't know if I'm looking for God." Some will say, "I don't even believe in God." Some will say there isn't a god.

And yet the pursuit persists here on the planet, does it not? Constantly looking for the thing that will finally cause us contentment, fulfillment, resolve. Music theory is interesting and I know so little about it. So let's not fool ourselves here. But without a resolve, music hangs and the note just ((music playing)) Well, that's not the songs that travel around the world that people listen to and share and love.

There has a resolve. Music theory teaches us that the listening ear finds enjoyment, soothing, excitement, passion, love, meaning, fulfillment when the song resolves. When the music finds resolve, something intuitively in our makeup tells us you need to resolve that note. There needs to be a resolve. I'm back on Instagram.

I don't want to brag, but it's been wild, man. First of all, I feel like I left the planet and just came back. I'm serious. I went to my DMs. By the way, I got a DM from one of my favorite ESPN analysts and hosts and uh if he's out there, you know who you are and it was so incredible to hear from you because I admire you and look up to you and I love ESPN.

ESPN is um is it's like a big practice for me and I love it. But I'm getting back on Instagram and it's been wild. But but also like not great because it's so pervasive. Um, right now currently I took a bath this morning and I opened Instagram, looked at some of the stories of my friends and looked at my DMs and then I went to my feed and my feed now is golf swings, a few of my friends and artists and travel like like like travel accounts sending me hotels and homes basically pretty much all and entirely in Europe and Latin America. non-stop.

And I'm, by the way, I'm falling in love with every home they send and every hotel they send and every beach club. And Chelse knows it's true. My wife in 25 years, I'm literally just sending her all these like clips and she's like, "Oh, this is adorable. This guy is so new to Instagram.

Like, he's just so excited." But it's overwhelming. And my point is this. Instagram seems to be sending me a message every day, and it's the same message over and over and over and over. And that is you need this. This morning, the first thing that hit me on Instagram was the guy, this guy comes on the screen and he's like, "Save this.

Stop right here. Listen closely. This is the last golf tip you'll ever need for the rest of your life." The golf tip I'm about to share is a tip that every single pro and great golfer has ever used, and they're not willing to tell you. disregard all the coaching, all the training, all the devices.

This is the one. And I am telling you, I sit up in my bubble bath and I am like, let me have it. And by the way, I sent it to my own text message to myself and I will be reviewing it because I want to believe what he said.

But the message is clear, isn't it? There's something you're missing. There's something you need. this hotel in Europe. It'll finally resolve that looming, hanging, lingering note in the soul and heart of your being. Okay, this is this this will this will finally bring me to resolve. And so, at the risk of sounding like that guy selling that golf tip on Instagram, I'm going to tell you the only way I have found resolve in this life is what I'm about to tell you for the next 10 minutes or less.

This is it. This is the only way I have found true peace, lingering peace, enduring peace, lasting peace. It's right here through the person of Jesus and the unique and exclusive forgiveness that only he offers. It is a forgiveness for all the dumb, selfish, selfserving things I have done or has been done to me or anyone else has done around me.

This forgiveness is pervasive. This forgiveness is forever. This forgiveness endures and lasts. And so, it's changed my life. It's changed my life. Here is the three things this week I want you to see about this forgiveness and how it brings fulfillment. Number one, it restores a relationship that you actually crave whether you know it or not, and that's a relationship with the one who made you God.

Number two, with that restored relationship to God, that righteousness, you'll have two lingering, lasting, powerful emotions that will be present in your daily life. Peace and joy. Righteousness, peace, and joy is the gift that this forgiveness brings. Therefore, you actually can start to live a contented, fulfilled life.

So, here's how it works. Now, because my relationship is right with God and always will be and always will be. Here's the forgiveness we forgot. We forgot that righteousness is finished, permanent, fixed, secure, eternal, and forever. So I can never once I accept the work Jesus did on my behalf, my relationship with God is forgiven forever, fixed forever, pleasing forever, accepted forever, right forever.

I am in right relationship with God. There are a lot of trends that when you are not performing well, when you're not living well, speaking, acting, thinking, whatever it is, morally unwell, you fall out of a right relationship with God. Now, that produces insecurity, discontentedness, a lack of peace and happiness and joy breeds anxiety.

These things are not from God. Righteousness, peace, and joy is his kingdom. And when you accept the king, when you accept Jesus, you're forgiven forever. Never changes. And so what begins to surface in your soul is two emotions, peace and joy. And I want to describe this peace and joy.

The word peace there means wholeness. It means you're not missing anything or in need of seeking anything. Now, you can get golf tips. You can go on vacations. You can have a good meal. You can have a nice wine with friends. Sure. There's a level of seeking left in this life, of course.

But that gnawing haunting sensation in the center of your being that tells you nothing's enough, nothing feels safe, nothing feels sure, nothing feels secure can be filled by the forgiveness of Jesus. And what ends up coming over your life is a word called shalom. And it really means wholeness.

So this right relationship with God breeds wholeness in your being. You tell yourself even when your brain says we need more and we don't have enough. Even when your brain says I'm low on cash and can't pay my bills and I need there's a wholeness that holds you steady even in the midst of life's ever inching everchanging circumstances and situations.

And then lastly that that peace breeds joy. What is this joy? It means happy. It means flatout happy. But it actually its meaning speaks to this idea of an eternal state of happiness. Eternal, yes, but internal state of happiness based on the character of Jesus, not on your everchanging circumstances, which is simple to say.

This happiness is abiding and enduring. This happiness is uncovered every day through reviewing and remembering and recalling who Jesus is, how much he loves us, how right we are with him, how pleased he is with us. And that breeds what? A peace and joy. A peace and joy.

Now remember, people will challenge you and they will challenge me and they have. You can't have peace with God and joy with God if you are not performing well. If you are not moral, kind, godly, reading your Bible, praying, going to church, you know, if you are smoking something or drinking something or saying something that you shouldn't, then you don't have peace and you don't have joy.

And so they have deduced and reduced the wonderful, mystical, magical, mysterious forgiveness of Jesus accomplished on the cross. They have turned it in to another circumstantial, natural, mundane, ordinary forgiveness. One that says, "I'll forgive you when you ask. I'll forgive you when you deserve it. I'll forgive you when you work for it.

I'll forgive you when I see it. Why don't you show me you feel the depth of how you hurt me and then I'll forgive you. Man, I got good news. That is not how God works. That's just not how this forgiveness works. And that's why I am committed to taking this supernatural forgiveness as far as it actually goes.

It is free. It is for everyone. It is forever and it exists for your fulfillment. How? You're right with God forever. That never changes. And that produces a peace and joy that transcends your circumstance and your situation. That's why I'm still doing what I'm doing. I mean it.

That's why I'm still doing this. That's why I love doing this because I never heard such good news anywhere at any point and certainly not on Instagram. I've never heard such news like this. It truly is the most wonderful, extraordinary, extensive love and forgiveness on the planet. And so my prayer is that you would absorb this, that you would go, whoa, this is possible.

Yeah, it's possible. The great challenge is to, the scripture says, labor to enter into rest. I think a lot of the tension in that verse means that sometimes it feels like work to not work. It feels like work to not strive. It feels like work to trust that this is true.

And that's where the challenge is. Will I trust my performance or Jesus' performance? Will I trust that I'm whole even though maybe my bills aren't all paid? Will I trust that I have an internal state of happiness when externally I don't necessarily feel the emotion called happy? It is a transcendent truth.

It is a supernatural life. But I got to tell you, it's true and it works and it can change change you and change me. Let's pray. God, thank you for righteousness, peace, and joy. Especially, thank you that being right with you really does produce peace and joy. I just can't help but think there's so many people that aren't experiencing peace and joy.

And I'm asking that you would show up for my friends and show them who you really are. We stand on your faithfulness, Jesus. We thank you. We are right with you. Not because of what we do, but because of what you have done. If you want to be right with God, if you want to accept the forgiveness that only Jesus offers, you say, "I do."

Say it right now, wherever you are in the world, and it's done. I do want to ask you consider just talking to us on Pastor Chat. There are pastors actually waiting right now to talk to you, pray with you, converse with you, think with you, pray with you.

I think I already said pray with you, but they're there and we would love to serve you and help you. Um, lastly, I got to say it. Will you join me next week for one of the wildest sermons a preacher like me could ever preach as we talk about forgiveness is for your enemy?

It's going to be wild. I'm not sure I've ever preached a message on forgiving your enemies, but we're going to give it a we're going to give it a whirl next week. So, join us if you dare. Love you. ((music playing)) seated on the high throne. A love like I have never known.

Lord of earth and heaven, holy one, there is no one like you. Jesus, Jesus, you're so beautiful. I fall down before you, Jesus. Jesus, you can have it all. All of my heart is yours. ((music playing)) Taste your ways. You never change. You still take my breath away. King of all creation.

Holy one. There is no one like you, Lord. Jesus. Jesus, you're so beautiful. I'll fall down before you, Jesus. Jesus, you can have it all. ((music playing)) All of my heart is yours. ((music playing)) Ooh. ((music playing)) I want a heart that burns with holy fire. Lord, you deserve it all. Lord, you deserve it all.

I need a hallelujah that reaches higher. Lord, you deserve it all. Lord, you deserve it all. I want a heart that burns with holy fire. Lord, you deserve it all. Lord, you deserve it all. Oh, I need a hallelujah that reaches higher. Lord, you deserve it all. Oh, you deserve it all.

Woah. ((music playing)) Woah. Woah. ((music playing)) Oh ((music playing)) Jesus. Jesus, you're so beautiful. I fall down before you, Jesus. Jesus, you can have it all. All of my heart is yours. ((music playing)) Oh Lord, you're beautiful. ((music playing)) Your face is all I see. For when your eyes are on this chart, your grace abounds to me.

Oh, you're beautiful. ((music playing)) Your face is all I see. For when your eyes are on this child, your grace abounds to me. Your grace abounds to me. Your grace abounds to me. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing))