The Fragrance of Forgiveness

Good morning. Please be seated.

My name is Trey Os. If we have

not met, my wife, Melissa and I

joined Cp...

Well, it was Cp back in that day.

Cp,

in 19 96.

We had just graduated from college.

This is my family.

This is

My wife is there between my son and

my third daughter.

This is our dog. We just got a

dog which is a big deal for us.

It's a little dog, but his name is

diesel. So little dog, big name. Mom picked

the dog, boy picks the the the name.

But, Mi michele is number 1. Mariah is

number 2 next between Mc michele and I,

but all 4 of our children were baptized

here at Cp.

And And,

we consider this church home,

we were here, for the first 10 years

of our marriage.

And in the first service, as I was

sitting there, I was I was reflecting on

how this church has been a blessing to

us. When Miriam was born, so she's the

tall 1. She's nearly 6 feet tall.

She had a little bit of a heart

issue. And so she was born at Texas

women's,

and the elders came and prayed over her.

And what was interesting is we were scheduling

her heart surgery. She had a situation that

she needed surgery,

but they came and prayed, And the next

day the doctor came in with tier tears

in her eyes, and she says, I can't

explain it, but your daughter's fine.

And it was the elders at this church.

There was another moment that really impacted my

life and it was in my dad who

my mom and dad and my brother and

his family are there in the back.

He was diagnosed with cancer.

And so we knew nothing better than to

come and be prayed over by the elders

of this church.

And 10 years later, he's cancer free.

And so God has been at work through

you in my life, and this is just

a great honor

to be able to share god's word today

with you.

Today, we are going to look at a

passage in Luke 7. But before we do,

I wanna explain a little bit about what

I do for a living. So

I was here in the marketplace in Houston

after graduating.

Love what I did. Was on the Missions

committee of the church,

and my wife was with me, and we

looked at each other and said, why don't

we

answer our own prayers for others to go

out of this church, and let's let's move.

And so we left

the states and move to China as missionaries.

And we only committed to 1 year. Like,

it was a 1 year deal. God, we're

gonna tie this for you in

somehow 1 year turned into 25.

But we came home to have our our

oldest daughter,

And when we returned the, a friend of

mine said, man, you seem to really love

people from China and I said I do.

And he said, would you consider minister administering

to Chinese students at Rice University.

And I was like, I think we can

do this. And so we gave 1 more

year, and that's where we found Bridges international.

You see many of us

can try to go to places that are

inaccessible,

but the truth is is is that those

same places are sending students to America. So

places like Iran or the parts of the

Middle East. It's parts of India that you

would think oh, I can go anywhere in

India, you can't go long to be honest

with you. But all of these students are

coming to Us universities, and we have the

blessing, but also the privilege

of being able to share the gospel to

love them with love of Christ to show

biblical hospitality.

And 2 of my friends that I I

think of that came from a part of

the world in the Middle East that

we really couldn't meet them there.

Were Oc and fatima.

And when they first arrived,

Ahmed said, look, I

was raised to some muslim, but the truth

is

He said, I'm an atheist. He says my

religion is my academics. And he he was,

like, I have... I want nothing to do

with God. Fatima on the other hand,

was really engaged, really interested in who this

person of Christ was.

She ended up giving her life to Christ.

And which was a wonderful thing. But what

ended up happening is O started to get

mad at her and fight her and argue

with her

And she said,

the Lord was very clear to me, Jesus,

in my spirit said, love him. Just love

him. Don't respond. Just love him.

And so Aqua kept pressuring. And 1 night,

they had an argument or he tried to

have an argument,

and they ended up just going to bed,

and he said,

In

the night, he had a dream. And he

said the Lord used this stream basically to

bring him to himself. He said, I was

in this city, and I was running from

a group a mob, a group of people

and he said I couldn't get away from

the mob, and he kept running until he

got to an alley that was a dead

end. And he said he noticed at this

alley, there was a book. And so he

goes and he opens the book, Well, it's

the Bible.

And he said out of the bible came

this beam of light,

but he said it there also came a

fragrance, a sweet aroma,

out of the bible.

And he said he woke up.

And he explained to his wife

what had just happened

and he'd concluded it with, like, there was

a sweet aroma coming from the Bible, and

she said, like the 1 we... I can

smell it in our room.

And he's like, what? And he. He goes,

yeah. That was the smell.

And they went out into their living room.

There was no smell.

For 24 hours, there was the sweet aroma

in Oc med Fatima bedroom.

That led him ultimately to faith in Jesus

Christ.

And that's... Those the those are 2 of

the people out of many that we want

to minister to. But I share the story

because for Oc med,

Jesus, as well as the gospel

had to become personal

before it became transformational.

And I think that is true for every

single 1 of us.

Jesus has to become personal to you before

you can see his work in you

transform you. And so today, we're gonna look

at a story

from Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

It's only told in Luke,

We don't hear of the story in any

of the other gospel.

But it's the story

of a ph who invites Jesus to his

house to eat.

Who gets scandalous

interrupted by a center,

the prostitute

of the town,

and Jesus is not bothered. In fact,

he forgive.

And so let's look at luke 07:36

to 51

of the ph asked him to eat with

him, and he went into the Ph house

and recline at the table and behold,

a woman of the city who was a

center when she learned that he was refining

at the table in the Far house,

brought an a

flask of ointment or perfume.

And standing behind him at his feet, weeping,

she began to wet his feet with her

tears and wipe them with the hair of

her head and kissed his feet and anointed

them with the ointment.

Now when the ph who had invited him

saw this, he said to himself,

is that if this man were a prophet,

he would have known who and what sort

of woman this is and who was touching

him

for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered, by answering said to him,

Simon. I have something to say to you.

And he said say a teacher.

A certain money lender had 2 debtors, 1

owed 500 den air and the other 50.

When they could not pay, he canceled the

debt of both.

Now which 1 of them love him more?

Simon answered the 1, I suppose, from whom

he canceled the larger debt. And he said

to him, you have judged rightly.

Then turning toward the woman, he said to

Simon, do you see this woman? I entered

your house and you gave me no water

for my feet

but she was... She has wet my feet

with her tears and wiped them with her

hair. You gave me no kiss, but from

the time I came in, she has not

ceased. To kiss my feet.

You did not annoy my head with oil,

but she is anointed in my head with

the ointment.

Therefore, I tell you her sons, which are

many are forgiven.

For she loved much, but he who is

forgiven Little loves little.

And she said to her, your sons are

forgiven.

Then those who are at the table with

him began to say among themselves, Who is

this? Who even forgive sense,

and he said to the woman, your faith

has saved you.

Go in peace.

Please pray with me.

Father, we, we love you.

God, thank you for this story that is

a great reminder that you really have first

loved us,

and that our love comes from a love

that you've shown us through Christ.

Father, would you use these words to transform

our lives to be a little bit more

like you.

And father, I pray for those in this

room,

Lord, I pray that they would have ears

to hear God that you would set me

aside and just use this time to to

honor your name. And for those father that

maybe are a little too comfortable. I pray

that this would victim.

But honestly, father for those that are feeling

convicted that these words would bring comfort.

And so father, thank you. We pray the

all Jesus name.

Amen.

So we're gonna look at this story

in 4 parts,

and I will try to move quickly through

them all. The the 4 parts are this.

The first is a personal yet sincere invitation,

a scandalous

interruption,

an illustration of great forgiveness,

and then finally the impact of saving faith.

And so let me set the scene of

this personal yet sincere

invitation,

We learn from verse 40 that that the

fair who invited Jesus to his home is

name is Simon. And Simon

is someone of notoriety in the town.

People know him because he's outstanding.

He may be hip critical, but the truth

is is he's

respected. He gives. He's memorized. The torah, he

is a person who you probably wouldn't be

that embarrassed being around.

Because he's the Who's who of that community.

And he extends an invitation to Jesus to

come and dine with him. And if we

look in scripture, Jesus often

is minister administering at a table.

He is inviting,

maybe he's inviting people honestly to himself through

this time together with him. And,

as I reflected on this, I reflected on

Revelation 3,

where Jesus tells us as his followers.

He says I stand at the door and

knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens

the door, I will come in into come

into him. And eat with him and he

with me. He will dine with us. He

is inviting us to a table. But you

see Simon had invited Jesus.

And Simon,

we can't fully know his motives.

We would

believe, you know, hey, let's believe the best.

He was just curious, like nico dim, maybe.

He wanted to know more about this person.

But the truth is is that the ph

were often working together to try to ent

Jesus.

And so the reason we know that maybe

his motives were not all pure that they

were actually inc sincere is what we read

later. But

Before we go there, I wanna read a

quote from John Macarthur that I think explains

it well.

Now here Jesus was willing to go into

the house of a man that he knew

was a hypo.

He knew the man had evil intentions toward

him. He knew the man was going to

do everything he could to get some inc

evidence against Jesus.

By something that Jesus did or said,

he knew he was looking to mount the

case for him, but nonetheless,

Jesus

gracious says he always is and coming to

seek and to save that which is lost,

is willing to expose this wicked.

The hip critical ph to the power that

he had to transform.

And so he entered the Far house.

You see this invitation was personal,

but it was

sincere. And so verse 44

to 46 kinda help us say, okay. This

is how we know it was sincere.

This is when Jesus

after having his feet washed by this woman,

ends up speaking to Simon about what he

didn't do. And it says this. Do you

see this woman?

I entered your house and you gave me

no... Water for my feet but she has

wet my feet with her tears and wiped

them with her hair. You gave me no

kiss, but from the time I came in,

she has not ceased to kiss my feet.

You did not annoy my head with oil,

but she has annoyed in my feet with

ointment.

You see there's 3 things that would happen

in that day that everyone knew you would

do if you had a guest,

especially a guest of notoriety like Jesus, a

rabbi.

You see you first, you would actually greet

them

with a kiss. And that that that kiss

was a

it was a sign of respect. If sign

of friendship, you would... They would put their

hand on their shoulder and just greet them.

I took my son once I was appreciating

a wedding in that part of the world.

And so he's only 10 at the time

and I remember

being able to take him, but we were

greeting people that way. And to watch my

10 year boy, like, trying to greet... It's

a kiss on the cheek. Who was like,

oh my gosh, Dad. Why did you bring

me here? Like it was overwhelming.

But that was custom

for thousands of years. It was a sign

of friendship. So the first thing was a

the kiss. The second part was that they

would walk on these dusty roads.

They had sandals on, they would come in

dirty. Their feet were incredibly dirty. And so

as a sign of just courtesy,

either if you had servants, they would wash

your guest feet. If you didn't have servants.

You would provide a basin and some water

for your guests to wash their own feed.

Simon didn't neither of those 2.

The third thing Simon did not do was

provide oil or perfume.

Imagine walking you're hot.

And you get to the place where

you're going to dine and

you smell. You have a little bit of

a stink. Well,

they would use rose oil.

To just freshen things up,

and

they would put a dab on,

the person's head, the guests head.

Those 3 things were customary at any point.

Like, it was just known. Everyone knew. That's

what you do. I think back to being

in China, and when we first arrived, like,

we would have friends over to our house

and or to the apartment. And when they

would leave, I would say, hey, it was

great having See, which is totally normal for

America.

But as I got to know them, I

noticed that they would walk with me

out of their dorm room or wherever they

lived, down to the street, I'd get on

my bike, and they'd be standing waving at

me as I wrote off. And so when

I had the courage, I said, what why

do you do that? And they said, oh,

in our culture,

you song. It's called so it's seeing someone

off.

And and and I said, so when I

tell you buy from my my house, like

I don't leave my

couch. What does that communicate to you? They

were like, you don't like me. I'm like,

oh,

You see, I learned pretty quickly to song

my Chinese friends all the way to when

they left. To tell them by, It was

almost like a game to tell them by.

But that was culturally appropriate for me as

a missionary there.

And what's so interesting is Simon knew exactly

what he was doing. Simon knew what the

culture required,

but he did not do it.

Here is what John bloom from desi and

God said about this moment.

And Jesus feet were still dirty.

Offering foot Washing guests had been a deeply

ingrained custom for near east peoples for thousands

of years.

To not offer it was to disarm one's

guests.

It's not like not likely that Simon simply

forgot but Jesus showed no sign of fence

and the meal on the table,

superficial pleasant trees were exchanged, and a few

polite questions were asked.

So Jesus overlooked the offense.

So we're not here to focus on Simon,

and it's not just about Simon who invited

Jesus. It's about this woman. A center. And

so our next point is the scandalous

interruption.

And so it goes on and it says

and behold in verse 37.

A woman of the city who was a

sinner,

learned that he was refining at the table

in a Far house.

Now that word behold,

is truly there to say, look, this is

a big deal. Like, this does not normally

happen. So let me paint a picture further

of what was

this meal was like. This is not like

a traditional meal that we would have here,

where you're in a dining room at a

table with chairs.

This is 1 where it's a low sitting

table

where men would only be the ones eating

by the way. It would be typically in

a courtyard.

And the courtyard would be big enough that

people from town if they wanted to come

and listen to this rabbi or the distinguished

guest. They would be able to

gather around the edges of the courtyard.

And so this is what that woman did.

She came

because she heard Jesus was there.

And when she shows up,

you know,

Jesus is sitting there and the way he's

having to recline, which was tradition of the

day, his feet were behind him. It's almost

like he's laying on 1 side, eating

and his feet are behind him. And as

this woman

breaks away from the the crowd that Sydney

against the wall. She gains courage

to go to the feet of Christ.

You see this woman

needed Jesus.

And my guess

is that even though this is the only

time we hear about this woman, in look

7,

is that she likely heard the words of

Jesus

in Matthew 11

that said come

all y who are bare burdened and and

heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

I am guessing that she had heard Jesus

teach.

And she had figured out that Jesus

was the lover of her soul.

And so she could do nothing. She could

care less of the crowd

she had to go

to his feet.

And so

it's it's interesting,

Charles Spur says that she was

a particular kind of center. You see here

on this on the screen. She was not

a center in the ordinary sense of the

word. She was a center by trade,

a center

by profession.

You see, I...

She was known in the city.

And I realized this is con, and I

could be totally off. But as I was

praying about this,

I was comp I'm confident that

that Simon knew who she was because of

how he responded.

But did he ever pay her for her

services?

It's convict to think about.

But that is the type of person

that I think Simon could have been

But it's also,

she was not hiding the fact that she

was there,

and she had the courage because she was

desperate.

To walk up to the feet of Jesus.

And so

let's look at what

John Macarthur says

about the the the scene here.

Jesus was declining at a low table as

was the custom.

It would have been shocking

to all for a woman of such low

reputation to come to the Far house.

Such dinners involving dig militaries were often open

to spectators.

But no 1 would have expected a prostitute

to attend.

Her coming took great courage and reveals the

desperation in which she sought forgiveness.

Her weeping was an expression of deep repentance.

And as you look at the scene,

you have her weeping

and enough that she was sobbing.

She had enough tears

to literally cleanse

the feet of Jesus.

But where it gets really,

really scandalous is that she let down her

hair.

And as a woman of that age,

You do not let down your hair. That

was akin to basically starting to un undo.

Like, it was completely a modest. So she's

creating this comp... This scene

And and and what's fascinating to me is

everyone is bothered,

but Jesus.

Everyone is bothered.

And yet, she doesn't stop there. She takes

this vial a perfume that more than likely

she made

the money

to pay for that through her prostitution. And

yet she takes this rose oil perfume and

the fragrance of

her forgiveness

is filling the air. You see she's putting

that on his feet

because she loves

Jesus so much.

And there's nothing inappropriate about this scene. Jesus

again is very, very comfortable.

And so

as we look at her

in this moment,

the attention goes back, Jesus is

focus turns to Simon. And why is that?

Look at verse 39.

Now when the ph who had invited him

saw this. So when Simon saw what was

happening, he said to himself.

If this man were a prophet,

he would have known who and what of

what sort of woman this... Is touching him

for she is a sinner.

You see, I think Simon

was too caught up and who she was.

Before

to realize who had she had become because

of Christ.

He was too caught up in her past

and her profession and to realize that God

had redeemed her

that Jesus was doing a work.

He was far from the Lord, and yet

she was yet so near.

And

I love what

John Blu says again. He says Simon watched

the woman pour fragrant oil

from her jar on Jesus feet. He felt

both contempt and pleasure.

His appraisal

of Jesus was being vin before his eyes.

See, he's he's testing.

He's wondering is this really

a man of God,

but he's concluding no, not at all. Nothing

spoke more eloquently of the false of this

so called prophet, then his stunning lack of

discernment

regarding this immoral woman. No holy man would

have ever let her poll him with her

touch.

He began to rehearse what he would report

to the council.

You see

in those days, a woman touching a man

like that would def file the man too.

It was not okay.

And I just love the fact that Jesus

was completely fine.

Jesus

was willing

to have her touch,

and it was not an inappropriate touch.

And as I think about

how much

god loves each 1 of us.

I am overwhelmed

by the fact that we can love

because he first loved us.

And I think that's what the woman knew.

I think she had heard that she could

come to him despite her profession.

She could

give herself to him.

There could be a new life.

And my prayer for you is that that

is something that you've encountered personally.

That it's not just a lot of head

knowledge that you want to learn the Bible

similar to Simon. Like, yeah. I'm gonna memorize

this.

It doesn't become a ritual. It's not functional.

It's at the heart level. Sorry. I don't

wanna tap the micro phone here.

It's

transformational

because it's personal.

And so

it fa me that the way Jesus responds

to Simon. Again, Simon did not speak those

words of, oh. You know, he doesn't know

who this is. He thinks those words.

And so what does Jesus do?

0.3.

He he gives a parable. He illustrates

what it looks like to have great for...

Forgiveness.

So he goes on and says Jesus,

answering him said to him Simon have something

to say to you,

and he answered, say a teacher. A certain

money lender had 2 debtors, 105 hundred an

Air, the other 50

when they could not pay. That's the key.

Don't worry about how much. Once 10 times

more than the other, there's comment that say

it's like a year's wage versus 10 years

wage, but the truth is this, neither debtor

could pay. That's the point.

He canceled the debt of both

Now, which of them will love him more.

Simon answered the 1 and check it out.

He goes, I suppose. Is that snarky?

You know,

Is he thinking he's about to be trapped?

The 1 I suppose for whom he canceled

the larger debt,

and he said to him, you have judged

rightly.

Then turning toward the woman, he said to

Simon.

You know what? I...

I'm fascinated by this interaction because as we

look at the scene,

Jesus is talking to Simon,

but he's looking at the woman.

So before everyone's looking at the woman,

Jesus is fine.

He's not paying attention to the woman. Actually,

he's paying attention to assignment. But in this

moment he directs his attention to her.

To the center.

And he teaches Simon a great lesson. And

that lesson is the lesson for all of

us.

We have a debt we can't pay.

But we have a creditor

in Christ who has.

And you see, I

am overwhelmed

by what that means for each and every

1 of us. We have access

to the God of heaven

because he made a way through his son,

and it is the only way.

And so yet this woman sees this understands

this,

The other aspect of Jesus

talking to Simon,

but looking

at the woman is this.

You really can't love someone

until you begin to look towards them.

Any of you in your marriage ever have

that going on where you think your spouse

talking to you, but they're watching the football

game. I'll just own that maybe that's happened

to me. And,

so when my wife and I talk, we

have to have eyes on each other.

My daughter taught me that well. I won't

say which 1 because, it... It's a it's

a compliment to her. When she was really

little,

we would come up to, like, this... You

know, in the car, panhandle or, you know,

like, wanting money

and Mara... Oh, it's I already said it.

Mori mariah. That's the 1.

She would go daddy. Do you have money

in your wallet I give it to that

person.

But the truth is is why I share

that it's because in my heart,

I wouldn't even put my eyes on that

person because I'm like, I wanna give them

my money.

But she knew my daughter, like, 4 or

5 years old knew that the The first

step was to look.

So my question is, do you look or

do you turn away?

You see Jesus was looking at her? The

just as he looks with fondness at each

and every 1 of you.

And so,

III

can truth be told just I'm overwhelmed

by the extent of God's goodness to us.

When we don't deserve it. Here's what Macarthur

says.

He says if I lend you 500 air

and can't pay you, and I say forgive

that and Then I incur that debt, then

I have now incurred that debt completely.

That debt is now mine.

The cost is transferred to me, I pay.

To understand that is to get get an

insight into the forgiveness of God. When God

forgave your sins,

he then incurred the dead and Jesus Christ

paid it.

The debt doesn't go away. It must still

be paid,

but the forgive incur

incur it and pays it.

So it's not just forgiveness and it's done.

It's forgiveness and then the debt is transferred

to the debtor.

So what's the difference between this woman

and Simon.

And I would propose really 1 thing?

She knew her desperation.

She knew she was desperate for a savior.

She knew

how much sin she had in her life

and how much cleansing she needed.

And she had heard of this person Christ

Jesus and she

desired to be near him. She could only

respond with being broken down in gratitude

because of that desperation.

You see what it says here as we

look at the last point, the impact of

saving faith

Therefore, I tell you her sins, which are

many are forgiven. For she loved much,

but he who is forgiven little loves, little.

And he said to her your sins are

forgiving,

then those who are at the table with

him began to say among themselves. Who is

this? That even forgive sins, and he said

to the woman your faith

has saved you go in peace.

You see, she's not saved for her love

for Jesus.

Her her

salvation comes because of faith in Jesus,

and that is true for each and every

1 of us.

We have to put our faith in Christ

in Christ alone

in order to experience the type of love.

That God is intended for you to experience.

For you to know,

it comes

not only with an element of

desperation like the woman,

but also this realization of your... The the

forgiveness.

And so I... There's a little equation I

like to use

saying that

desperation,

plus forgiveness

equals left for a savior.

She understood this.

The ph had no idea.

You see he was in his mind forgiven

of he's a good guy.

He doesn't have much need.

And yet, she knew the depths of her

need.

Where are you this morning?

Are you possibly relating more to the fair

sea, and that's okay. There been many days

in my life where I honestly relate to

the fair.

You see the root of every sin is

pride.

It really is.

And maybe you're feeling like, I'm pretty good.

You know, I've been memorizing the book of.

You know, I'm good. But what you notice

if you take a true audit of your

soul,

is it your distant from God?

That that knowledge is not drawing you any

closer to the person or the work of

Christ.

And my prayer for you this morning is

that you would just take a moment and

realize to how desperate you truly are.

Kind of a goofy story and in confession

here. I deal with, claus.

And I don't know if you've ever been

in a situation where you have felt really

desperate. Like, recently, I... I've had my wife

and I've had way too many... Ortho orthopedic

surgeries. We've tried to remain active, and went

before you get 1 as many of you

probably know, you have to have an Mri.

And I had to have an Mri for

my hip.

And when they put me into the Mri,

I'd had never been in 1 before.

I don't know if it's an open or

closed. I just remember someone asking after the

for service. It just felt like I was,

like, I was gonna be crunch. You know?

Like, just crushed.

And so I was, like, for remember I

I had memorized scripture, I was singing praise

songs,

but within, like, a minute of being in

that Mri where I could feel it on

my shoulders.

My feet just started to shake.

I could not control the fact that I

was the claustrophobic kicked in.

And I couldn't think of anything

except for get me out of here.

And I remember when the woman, the technician

put me in. She's second, are you gonna

be okay? I'm like, I'll be fine. You

know, a wash egg over my eyes. She

said, but if you need me,

push the button and I'll come get you.

And I'll I'll never forget how much... Like,

when I started to push the button.

It wasn't like I pushed it once. I

just started pushing it like it was a

video game. Like, just get me out of

here. Like, please, please, you know, the and

she... It... It was 30 seconds, but it

felt like 30 minutes. She pulled me out.

And and I almost wanted to hug her.

Like, I was like, oh, you've you've saved

me. Thank you. You know? But it's just

funny how your mind when you have a

struggle like that,

you... How you respond.

But see, the fact of the matter is

this,

without Christ,

we are destined to an eternity separated from

him.

We are going to a place that is

way worse than being in an Mri machine.

We need him desperately?

Are you in a place that you're like,

you know what Jesus, I really do need

you, and I feel that desperate need for

you.

You may not have a silly example like

this, but there's gotta be something in your

life,

a season, a time where all you had

was Christ.

All you could do is cry out and

say, Lord, I need you.

I need you desperately.

And the fact of the matter is this,

when you realize that, when you are desperate,

but you also realize just how much you've

been forgiven.

It creates such a great love.

A love for our lord, and again, we

love because he first left us, and that's

what the woman knew.

And so the impact of our saving faith

is that we can go in peace.

That we can go in peace like the

woman.

We can be salty and bright as a

dear friend of mine here in Houston says,

to those around us,

who are desperately

grasping for other things just like we prayed

earlier in our confession.

They're they're looking to things that will never

give life.

And yet Christ is here.

I wanna close with a somewhat hard story.

You see the fragrance of forgiveness

yields of gratitude.

And

maybe you're sitting in the audience and you

can relate to this

the question of I've been forgiven of much.

You know, I I turned 50 this year,

and,

for the first, probably 49 years, I I

could say I think a lot of times

I'd relate more to the fair sea than

I would this sinful woman.

If I'm honest,

But there was a night,

where I realized just how much I've been

forgiven, and it happened because a friend forgave.

You see on April first of 20 23,

my son,

and

had a party at our family ranch. My

dad was born on the ranch, and we

love the ranch.

We did a number of activities. There were

6 boys, including my son. It was he,

I'm gonna brag on him. He's a godly

boy. The... He and his best friend we're

the class president and vice president.

And they invited a boy that was kinda

on the fringe,

and they would go from an activity

to bible study. And I didn't tell him

to do this. And so they would go

from fishing to studying John. They go back

out and I'd go ski shooting skate with

them, and then

finishing the book of john. Like, it was

just a wonderful weekend.

And so 24 hours in, I had to

run an Errand. My wife was there.

And I...

We have an Atv that's a side by

side, very powerful, you know, ranch tool. And

I had lecture the boys because they had

been on it all day I said be

careful. They're 15. I didn't think I need

to take the key.

But unfortunately, the 1 boy got in with

Cad, and he rolled it, and it killed

Cad

at our property.

On April first.

I share it because

we were undone by the accident.

I mean, it's it's devastating.

And yet,

here we are at the hospital knowing that

cad is deceased

and income his mom and dad.

His dad is a very large man. Probably

643

hundred and 20 pounds,

play football college.

Honestly, I I just... We hugged, they saw

our faces and knew that something was terribly

wrong.

They go into the room right behind us

as we're in the waiting room and you

hear his mom cry, you know, cry out

because they learned he's gone.

But in the very moment that they learned

he's gone, his dad, very large man comes

out. And I'm like, okay, Here it goes.

He is going to assault me, and I

don't mind. Like, send me to Heaven with

Cad right now. Like, on it, it was

awful.

And he looks at me.

And he says,

I love you.

This was not your fault.

This was an accident.

It because, but I forgive you.

And then he goes, my son is with

Jesus

It was overwhelming.

You see I love cadence stat.

Our daughters are roommates in college.

We do life together. 72 kids put their

faith in Jesus as a result of this

family's response.

But I love Rob. I would do anything

for Rob.

And my love for him has

been magnified.

Because of the forgiveness he showed when I

felt like I had sent much.

You see that same type of forgiveness comes

from Jesus because guess what? You may not

feel responsible for a young boy's death,

but you have sin that would send you

separate to... It would send you to hell.

And yet Jesus

loves you.

He loves you enough to redeem you.

So my prayer today is that if you

don't know of that saving love that at

the end of the service, you would come

up and we could talk.

All you need to ask is say Jesus,

I need you.

I need you.

Forgive me for my sins. I trust you.

You can begin a new life like the

woman did.

You see

desperation

plus

forgiveness

equals a great love for our savior. That

is the fragrance of forgiveness. Let's pray.

Lord,

we are just overwhelmed

by your goodness.

Thank you that you demonstrated your love for

us and that while we were still sinner

Christ would die for us.

Thank you that in this room,

there are people who come from every background.

God some of them are very near to

you at the moment and then some,

are honestly far. And so would you allow

this to be the moment where they come

in their desperation and say, Lord, I just

really need you.

God, if we've grown cold

because it's just head knowledge, God, would you

refresh our hearts in Christ.

Would you be glorified in us?

Thank you for all that you do and

have done and will do.

Not because we deserve any of it, but

because you are a good good father. We

pray in Jesus name. Amen.