The other day at team time we started working on writing sermons. I had a few ideas and I was very excited to get them out. This is my first attempt at writing a sermon. I am open to suggestions, edits and anything you feel that would make this better. It is a little short but every sermon on the race as to be translated so that will add time.
WHITE AS SNOW
The other night I became very overwhelmed with the thought of the sin of my past catching up with me. The thing I am most afraid of is falling back into my past sins when I get home from the race. I felt like I needed to read my Bible but I tried a few other things first. I watched a movie, I worked out in the hallway, I watched YouTube videos and I played Disney Crossy Road. Finally at 1:30 in the morning my restless heart settled into bed and I opened up my Bible. I had started my Bible reading for the day in the morning but didn’t finish, it’s funny how God knows exactly when you need to read something.
I was reading in Isaiah this day and I finished up with Isaiah 43. Two verses really stuck out to me. “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.” 43:18-19 This verse was in the last sermon I heard at home before I left for the race. God was trying to tell me that He was doing a new thing in me but it took a couple of months to sink in. The next verse was 43:25 “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for MY OWN SAKE: And I will not remember your sins.”
Here I am in bed worrying about my past catching up to me and God doesn’t even remember my sins. He has blotted out my sins and He is doing a new thing in me. The best part of Isaiah 43 is when it says “I am He who blots out your transgressions for MY OWN SAKE”. He does it, He cleans us, because He loves us so much. He doesn’t want to spend eternity without us. We are in the greatest love story and we are often missing out on it because we are stuck on what we have done wrong that separates us from God’s love.
Think about the cross for a minute. Usually when I think about the cross I picture the crowd yelling, gawking and watching Jesus die. Have you ever considered to picture the cross through Jesus’ eyes. In my devotional the other morning it said “He had eyes on the very people that were watching him die. But instead of a look of revenge, Jesus had compassion in his sight. He wanted those gawkers to make eye contact with him so that he could peer into their souls and overcome their judgment and fear with his forgiveness and hope.” (Make a Difference By Ken Castor)
God has looked into your soul while he was on the cross. He knows your present, past and future and he has already overcome it with forgiveness and hope. Your sins are not what define you. Your past is not what defines you. “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” Psalms 103:12. Christ is what defines you and through Christ you are a new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Today God is doing something new in you.
You are pure of sin and you are WHITE AS SNOW.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow.” Isaiah 1:18
