This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, October 21, 2007.Spiritual life can become predictable, stale, tasteless. What a wonderful way to describe the church. From time to time we need revival. We need to feel the fresh wind of God’s spirit blowing across your life, through our souls. Have you ever had those times when the heavens seemed like brass? When your prayers don’t make it past the ceiling? This is the world in which we live in. Sometimes life is difficult, even unbearable. How do you face life when it is like that? How do you rise above it?
What God said to Pastor Rod through this last week’s series of meetings. “Three great truths that I knew but didn’t know.”
1. God’s grace is far more gracious than most of us realize.
2. Forgiveness grows out of our own experience of forgiveness, and it is something we have to grow into. It doesn’t come naturally, and it doesn’t come easily.
a. Forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a choice.
b. Forgiveness is not a desire, it’s an act of obedience.
c. Forgiveness is not a one-time thing. It ends in a comma, not a period.
d. If I am going to forgive:
1. God’s grace is far more gracious than most of us realize.
2. Forgiveness grows out of our own experience of forgiveness, and it is something we have to grow into. It doesn’t come naturally, and it doesn’t come easily.
a. Forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a choice.
b. Forgiveness is not a desire, it’s an act of obedience.
c. Forgiveness is not a one-time thing. It ends in a comma, not a period.
d. If I am going to forgive:
- It’s going to demand an honest acknowledgment on my part of the wrong that has been done. It isn’t forgiveness if I lie about what has been done.
- There must be a faith-filled belief that God is at work even in that wrong.
3. The life that is pleasing to the Lord looks far different from what we usually imagine. It is a life that demands honesty, humility, transparency, and persistence.