When our daughter was little, we displayed most of her artwork on the refrigerator door. We were usually proud of her creative efforts...usually. There was this time, though, that my wife was painting the woodwork of our daughter's room and she stopped briefly to answer the phone in another room. She gave our little girl one instruction, "Do not touch the paint!" You want to guess what happened? When my wife returned from her call, little Miss Rembrandt was working on a three-year-old masterpiece. Unfortunately, she had chosen the wall for her canvas. There on her bedroom wall were Designs by The Princess done with the paint that was intended only for the woodwork.
Now, Mom didn't spank. She didn't even yell. She just went and got a bucket of soap and water and a rag and gave our daughter a new instruction, "Clean it up." Well, my little girl scrubbed and scrubbed, mostly to no avail. But she learned something important that day. We're responsible for the messes we make. By the way, I think that was the only wall painting she ever did.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fixing What Sin Has Broken."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. It's really about how to clean up the messes we've made. It involves that renewing, transforming process the Bible calls repentance. You might say, "Oh, you mean the feeling bad about what I did?" Not exactly.
Verse 9 says, "Your sorrow led you to repentance." Feeling sorry is a good start on repentance, but it's sure not the whole story. Verse 10 says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. See what this godly sorrow is producing in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done." See, these people understood repentance. It's not just a forgiveness fix for your guilty feelings. It's an all-out campaign to fix what your sin messed up. It's the kind of cleanup that "leaves no regret."
Now, our daughter was quick to say she was sorry for what she had done that day, and she was forgiven. But she had to step up to the responsibility for the marks she had made. She had to do what she could to remove those marks. Well, so do you and I with some of the sinful mistakes of our past.
If you've brought them to the cross where Jesus died to pay for them, and you've asked for His forgiveness, you are clean. In fact, if you've never brought the sin of your life to the cross where Jesus died for you to have the wall between you and God come down so you could go to His heaven and experience His love, today say, "Jesus, I take for myself what You did for me on the cross."
I'd love to help you begin that relationship, to be clean, to be forgiven today and to be sure you belong to Him. That's why I want to invite you to go to our website - ANewStory.com.
But then after you've made that commitment to Jesus, you're not really done. You aren't emotionally free until you go do what you can to remove any marks your sin has made. If you've wronged anyone, would you obey the Spirit's prompting to go back and make it right? If you took something, would you repay what you took?
When you make every effort to fix what your sin may have damaged, you complete the spiritual circle of repentance, restoration and healing. Now, this will require special grace and special courage from the Lord. But if He's telling you to do this, He will give you everything you need to obey Him. The Lord who has forgiven that sin may now be pointing to a mess we made and lovingly saying, "Clean it up."
By making things right you can really close a chapter. You can actually say a firm goodbye to the sin of the past, and maybe really feel that great forgiveness that Jesus has already given you.