The Forgiveness We Forgot About | Forgiveness Is Forever | Judah Smith

Welcome back to weekly service here at church home. It's Father's Day, which means uh I am hoping my family gets me an amazing gift. Uh my dad's in heaven, so I'm off the hook. All right, Judy, you can't say that. That's inappropriate. But happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

So grateful for dads everywhere. Um man, happy Father's Day. I don't know why, but the only thing I can think of is my boys now, 20 and 18, who are both athletic and enjoy sports. The 18-year-old might play college basketball, but we see these athletic phenomenons. And it's kind of a reoccurring theme right now in our home as my children turn to me, particularly my sons.

Even my daughter recently got into me about not making her play tennis. And there's this theme. Chelsea's right over here watching this recording. She knows it's true. There's this theme in our home where the kids are like, "Dad, why didn't you make me golf more? Why didn't you make me play tennis more?

Why I could have been Cocoa golf? I could have been Scotty Sheffller." And I'm like, I tried. So on this Father's Day, I'd like to say to dads everywhere who tried to raise a Tiger Woods, but they wouldn't do it. I feel your pain and I love you.

And we tried, didn't we, gentlemen? We tried to be those dads, but our kids wouldn't have it. Um, anyways, I'm not sure why on Father's Day that's the story I thought of, but if you're just checking in with us here at Churchome, these weekly services are 20 minutes or so dedicated to telling the story of Jesus.

Ultimately dedicated to good news, not average news, ordinary news, or bad news, but good news. And here's the good news this week. Your forgiveness is forever. We've been talking about the person of Jesus and my favorite subject surrounding him, which is forgiveness. So, if you get a chance, check out the last couple of weeks.

We've been talking about how forgiveness is free. It's for everyone. This week, we'll talk about how it's forever. Next week, we'll talk about how forgiveness is for your fulfillment. And then the last week, we'll talk about how forgiveness is also for your enemy. So, that's kind of a weighty one, an intense one.

But anyways, we're waiting into the depths of that level of forgiveness. First and foremost, this Father's Day, this week is dedicated to forgiveness is forever or it's permanent. Can I read you a portion of scripture? We based this whole month off of Romans chapter 3. We'll read a few verses here and they're they're intense and they're dense verses.

They're magical and mystical and dense and there's so much to say about them, but I want to highlight one aspect from these verses. It says, we jump in kind of mid-sentence, we've all sinned and we are in need of God's character or his glory, yet through his powerful declaration of a quiddle.

God freely, there it is, freely gives away his righteousness, his gift of love and favor now cascades over us all because of Jesus, the anointed one. He's liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin. Jesus whole God-given destiny was to be the sacrifice to take away our sins.

He's now 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, not by works, but by faith in his sacred blood. This is the perfect demonstration of God's justice. Because until now, he had been so patient holding back his justice for tolerance.

He covered the sins of those who lived prior to Jesus sacrifice. And 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. So he offered up his own son.

So now, and here it is. Because we stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, God declares us right in his eyes. We stand on the faithfulness of Jesus. We stand on the faithfulness of Jesus. Forgiveness is forever. Now, why is that an important statement? Forgiveness is forever. Because in the world we live in, it's conditional.

It's transactional. It's like I said at the beginning of the series this month, we taught our kids to say, "Will you forgive me?" Our middle son said, "Will for you give me?" Oh, so precious. I miss it. Will you forgive me? And then the sibling would say, "I forgive you."

But you had to ask for it. Um, you had to be willing to ask for it, give it, extend it, resolution, etc. So when I say forgiveness is forever, it's kind of like our brains go on tilt because how could it be forever? And I want to say this and this is an important theological statement.

Forgiveness flows. This forgiveness we speak of not mere natural uh forgiveness we use for the resol uh resolution of conflict talking about forgiveness that sets you eternally free. This forgiveness flows directly from the essence of God which is to say the glory of God. Romans 3:23 says everybody has sinned and we fall short of the glory.

When you see glory it means essence or character. So, in other words, Romans 3:23 is we've all messed up and we we need God's character. Our character is flawed. Our essence is marred. His essence is perfect. And we need to share his character. We need his character to make up for our deficiency.

And that's what this forgiveness does. Jesus finished the work of forgiveness on the cross. He said, "It's finished." And so now from his essence flows the most reliable forgiveness you could ever imagine. This forgiveness is three things. It's definitive, it's permanent, and it's secure. This forgiveness is definitive, permanent, and secure.

I've been married 25 years. 25 years. It's so weird when I say that. I got to be honest. It feels like an out-of- body experience. I remember being a young man hearing old guys like me say, "I've been married 25 years." And at the time, 25 is like longer than I had existed, longer than my system had been up uh uh booted up, you know?

Um and it was like hard to even fathom. And yet here I am, one of those guys. um this morning uh and there's a room back here like a little dressing room and I was preparing to shoot the sermon and Chelsea says to me and she came today to the studio which is awesome because she can't always come and she does so much.

She's the lead theologian here at Churchome and she has a lot more meetings than me and she has a lot more brain power than me. But she came today to watch these recordings which is motivating to me. But she came in the back studio or the dressing room and she said, "Oh my word, I forgot to kiss you today.

I love you." And I said, "You do?" And she said, "Yes, I do. You want to kiss me?" I said, and she kissed me. And then I'm gonna tell you something else that happens. And it happens kind of on a regular basis. And forgive me if this is like TMI, which stands for too much information.

Um, all right. Everyone knows that. But, uh, I will literally at my age, 46, you want to ask your lover, best friend, partner, and spouse of 25 years, are you still like attracted to me? Like, do you find me attractive? And that's the thing as you get older.

You're like, "Hey, so are you like are you like still into me or like and what's funny is all of those interactions in my wild and awesome and fulfilling marriage proves something about our connections down here. There is a sense that it's changing. It's eb and flow. Uh, I have a lot more gray.

Um, I have more wrinkles. Um, I was 6'2 when you married me, but I think I'm slightly shrinking. Um, I need to stretch. I need to do yoga. Uh, do you still are we still Hey, are we are we cool? You ever had a relationship with someone and for whatever reason you're starting to get the vibes in the bills that like things are like not okay and you don't know if it's like non-verbal communication or you used to text a lot and now you don't text as much or you used to voice memo they used to call and then are like you ever had one of those moments like yo um hey uh are we still good?

Are we cool? And the person maybe goes, "Yeah, no, bro. For sure." Yeah, man. It's funny you was kind of wondering the same thing. Like, are we are we good? Are we cool? Yeah. No, for sure. All right. Yeah. All right, man. Perfect. Great. Okay. Talk to you soon.

That's the nature of our connectedness. That's the nature of our relationship. That's the nature of our interaction. It is conditional. It is sometimes transactional. It is everchanging. Our skin's changing. Our frames changing. Our hairline is changing. Our teeth are changing. You know, everything's changing down here. And so this idea of forever.

Well, it's not really in play if you think about it. What's forever? Nothing's forever. Nothing's forever. I love those commercials. A diamond is forever. Nope. No, it's not. It's not forever. I mean, the diamond might exist for as long as there's people on the planet, but but we don't.

So, the diamond, is it forever? Maybe. Now, I'm like convincing myself that that commercial is actually true. But, but like it's not forever for us. Diamond is forever. No. Well, nothing's forever except something is. Your soul is forever. And your forgiveness that Jesus offers freely for everyone, how long does it last?

How reliable is it? Well, it's it's forever. What does that mean? I love you, God. His response is always, I love you, too. I love you first. I love you forever. You can you can bank on that. You can stand on that. You can stand on that. So now we stand on the faithfulness of his essence, the faithfulness of what he's completed.

We stand on it. We stand on that. So it is definitive, something we can count on, something we can rely on, something we can wake up to and go to sleep with. Our forgiveness is permanent. What does that mean? Our past is forgiven. our present is forgiven and our future is forgiven.

Now there's many many traditions and many iterations of this practice of the faith in Jesus and the life of Jesus and the way of Jesus. So much so that there has been whole uh factions and whole expressions and whole traditions and whole uh uh groups and communities of worshippers who have decided that only your past is forgiven if you ask forgiveness.

And anything present if you want it to be forgiven you have to ask for forgiveness. Now, anything in your future, that is yet to be determined. And unless you acknowledge what you do in the future, when you do it, hopefully soon after you doing it, you won't be forgiven.

And so, there are practices still today on this planet that teach you have to tell someone what you did and then you'll be forgiven. By the way, confessing something you did is a helpful practice. Not a bad thing at all. The concept of confession is there in scripture, but it's necessary act so that you can be forgiven.

No, says believe in your heart. And because you believe in your heart, you confess Jesus, I need you to save me. And he saves you and you're forgiven forever. And that's how it works. And it's permanent. It's definitive. It's secure. But how logical and convenient can we get?

We think in our minds that must just mean all the sins in the past. Some still practice today that only the sins you have confessed are forgiven. And here's my argument. It's very very simple. If the sins that I only the sins I remember and confess are forgiven, the truth is friends, I'm doomed.

And I know you are too because I can't remember all the sins I've committed. In fact, I commit unconscious sins like jealousy rises in my heart, envy, uh wishing people harm that sometimes unconsciously you're like h there's is that sin probably, I don't know. And there we go splitting hairs.

And it becomes almost, how should I say, but like polarizing and paralyzing when you start to get into the splitting of hairs of wait, what did I do? What did I do in ' 89? What did I do in 2003? What about 2012? Oh, I got to remember what I did to confess and then I can be for that's not how fragile and finite this forgiveness is.

This forgiveness comes from his essence. He is true. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is secure. He is permanent. He is definitive. He is reliable. It is his essence. And so if you simply receive the finished work of Jesus on the cross for your forgiveness, you can stand on the faithfulness of Jesus, not the faithfulness of your memory account, not the faithfulness of your confession practice.

That's not what our forgiveness is secured to. Our forgiveness is secured to the faithfulness of Jesus. So three things I want to rehearse in conclusion again forgiveness is forever. What does that mean? His forgiveness comes from his essence. Therefore it is by definition reliable. It is consistent. That means this forgiveness is definitive.

It is definitive. One of the meanings of definitive is this forgiveness ends up defining your whole life. It becomes the defining factor of your existence. It is very distinct. It is very direct. It is not just this blob of ooze of feeling. It is very definitive and descriptive and reliable and it defines your whole life.

I am a forgiven fallen broken person completely made right with God forever and ever without end. And now that literally shapes my day-to-day life. It shapes my conversations. It shapes how I relate to people. It shapes how I'm generous to people. It shapes how I listen to people.

It shapes how I approach people I don't know or people I don't like or people I don't understand or people I'm upset with or people I'm afraid of. All of a sudden, forgiveness becomes a defining factor of my entire existence because it is forever. It's definitive. That means I'm no longer in pursuit of forgiveness.

Forgiveness has arrived. It's complete and it's done. This pursuit of God or this pursuit of his forgiveness. I understand when people say they're pursuing God, they're worshiping. They're thinking about him. They're cognizant of him. They want to talk to him. And I understand that. And I think there's even biblical precedence to say, "I'm pursuing God."

But make no mistake, the overwhelming evidence in scripture is in fact that God pursued you when you didn't even know how to pursue him. He sought you out. He found you. He forgave you. And that now defines the rest of your life. Forgiveness is definitive. Forgiveness is permanent.

It's permanent. Cannot be a sponged. It cannot be eradicated. It cannot be erased. It is done. It's done. What if you lived like this? Think about that. What if you actually lived like this? It's done. I'm forgiven forever. That breeds what? Security. Security. Did you hear what I just said?

If you are single out there, I just gave you the secret. If you don't want to be single, some people want to be single and I applaud that. But if you don't want to be single, I just gave you the road map to never be single. I'm telling you, you will have suitors lining up the door outside the door of your apartment.

If you accept the defining forgiveness of Jesus, which is permanent, here to stay, never to be erased, eradicated, it will breed in you security. Now my identity becomes secure. Security is the opposite of the thing we despise most in social settings. Insecure people who do really weird stuff, who just say weird things, who are constantly trying to posture and promote themselves or sell themselves to you.

And you know, the other day I actually DM'd with, "Bro, I don't know if we need to know about who you DM'd with or what influencer are you DM'd with, but insecure people act in a way and in pursuit of securing approval, securing acceptance, securing po position, place in the world.

Secure people know I know who I am. I know my value. I know my worth. I know where I am in the world. I am forgiven forever. And that breeds security. I want that for you. I want that for me. One of my models in life is better at 70.

To get better with age. I got a tattoo on my left knee. I don't want to brag. But the whole idea is I want to get better with age. You know what that really means? I just want to get more and more secure and less and less insecure.

Boy, there are few things more soothing and settling than running into a human who is at peace with themselves because they're at peace with God. They're at peace with their skill set. They're at peace with their abilities. They're at peace with their lot in life. They're at peace where they live.

They're at peace with those they live with. And they're at peace with the world around them. Well, you find that person. Make them your best friend. That's a person who's aging well. And I want that for you. And I want that for me. Let's be secure people. I think it all starts with absorbing and accepting his forgiveness.

That's for free. It's for everyone. and it's forever. Let me pray for you. God, I thank you for this moment right now. Right now, I am asking for your definitive, permanent forgiveness to breed in the souls of my friends supernatural security. Supernatural security. We do things so much, God, because we are so afraid.

We want to do things out of faith and love and security. And I ask that for my friends. If you're watching this and you would like to receive the free gift of forgiveness that only Jesus offers, just say, "I receive it." Say that right now. I receive it.

And so it's done. And it's forever. And you'll never be the same again. Thank you for watching this. Uh I'm excited next week to talk to you about how forgiveness is for your fulfillment. It's for your contentment. It's more than just to relieve guilt so that you can live a fulfilled life.

I'll see you next week. Love you so much. ((music playing)) and I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me. And all my days I've been held in your hand. From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God.

((music playing)) And I will sing. Ooh, I love your voice. You have led me through the fire in darkest nights. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God. ((music playing)) And all my life you have been faithful.

And all my life you have been so so good. Every breath that I am, I will sing of the God. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. Every breath that I have made, I will sing of the good of God.

((music playing)) Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me with my life laid down. Surrender now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. ((music playing)) Your goodness is running after.

It's running after me. With my life laid down, I surrender now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am able. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.

((music playing)) All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I have made, I will sing of the goodness of God. I will sing of the goodness of God. I will sing of the goodness of God. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. ((music playing))