Room for Jesus’ Forgiveness

Good morning, Watermark. That's really echoey.

Good morning. My name is Alfie. If you don't know me, I help out with the university stuff around Watermark Church.

And today we're continuing our series on preparing him room, making room.

Last week we talked about making room in our hearts for Jesus.

And today I want to talk about forgiveness.

I think there's so many things to say about forgiveness.

If I was to start now, I'd probably be done around Wednesday.

So I'm not going to try to say everything.

I'm going to try and just look at what forgiveness looks like when God forgives us, when God forgives his people.

And so I'm going to start by giving you guys a very practical, tangible thing to do with forgiveness.

I'm sorry if I don't talk about the things that you want me to talk about.

And I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

There are many things.

And, you know, early on this year in October, Evelyn came and she did some workshops on forgiveness.

I know many of you guys were there.

And she left behind some books and some resources.

And so if you guys, after this, are intrigued and you want to know more about forgiveness and what that looks like when we're forgiving other people and other people are forgiving us, there will be some books.

And Sylvie will be helping you guys with that.

But for now, I'm just going to keep it simple.

I'm going to talk about why Jesus came.

Jesus came to forgive.

He came to forgive us of our sins.

And I think that Christmas time, you know, we gather around with our families.

We get together.

And there are many opportunities for forgiveness.

Because we see that sibling that we haven't seen in a while.

And, you know, back in March, we had this argument.

And we haven't talked to each other since.

And now, all of a sudden, we need to have that confrontation.

Or, with the kids being home, they're just always fighting and you're trying to teach them forgiveness.

And people think that Christmas is a great time for forgiveness.

And I think it is.

But I think Christmas is also a great time for remembering the forgiveness that Christ offers us.

There are some times when I think about forgiveness, and I think that it's incredibly simple.

And other times I think about it some more and I realize it's very complicated.

And there are times that I overcomplicate forgiveness, and there are times that I oversimplify it.

And I think our confusion, I think my confusion about forgiveness comes from the way that, you know, I was taught forgiveness as a child.

I have a younger brother.

And as children, we were always fighting.

So we'd get into arguments.

And depending on the day, it might escalate.

And, you know, punches would be thrown.

Kicks would be thrown.

And my mother would come in, and she would break up the fight.

And she would find out who started it.

And then she would say, it was usually me who started it.

She would say to me, Alfie, now you need to forgive your, you need to apologize to your brother.

And I'd say, no, I'm sorry.

And then she'd say, no, say it clearly.

And I'd say, I'm sorry.

She'd say, what are you sorry for?

And, you know, I'd have to explain.

And then she'd turn to my brother and say, hey, now, Jojo, you need to forgive your brother.

My brother would say, I forgive you.

And then my mother would make sure that this forgiveness and this reconciliation happened.

And she said, now you guys need to give each other a hug.

Now, in those situations, the last thing I wanted to do was to hug my brother.

The last thing he wanted to do was to hug me.

Because I wasn't really sorry.

And he hadn't really forgiven me.

But we did it anyways.

Because if we didn't, there'd be more trouble.

And, you know, I think sometimes we do this.

And, you know, I talked to my parents about this yesterday over lunch.

And, you know, they said that, you know, when you're a parent, you know, you make do with what you've got.

And that's what they did.

And so I'm not going to try and, you know, berate you parents for teaching forgiveness badly.

But I think there's so many things in our lives that skew the way that we view forgiveness.

The way in which we forgive each other.

I think, you know, the way I was taught forgiveness in those stressful moments as a seven-year-old.

Was to grit my teeth and to forgive and to put it out of my mind and to get on with life.

But as we grow, I think conflicts become a bit more complex.

It's not he hit me and she said I smell funny.

We go and we have interactions with different people and they hurt us in different ways.

And, you know, we learn different things about forgiveness from our different cultures, you know.

I think forgiveness in Texas is very different from forgiveness in Taiwan.

All right?

And you come to Hong Kong and in my life where I'm not really Chinese and I'm not really Western and I'm not really African.

Forgiveness just became this really huge confusing mess.

Forgiveness.

I think that some of us grow up and we're told that forgiveness is actually a bad thing.

It's a weakness if we forgive.

You know, that when we are wronged that we should hold it against other people.

Right?

That actually holding a grudge is fantastic because it means that, you know, we can get something from them later.

There's these ads on the MTR and on TV.

It's got Alan Tam, an old canto pop star there with his friends.

And the advertisement says it's a PSA for prostate cancer and it says, real men protect their assets.

And I think that's the most Hong Kong ad ever.

I love it.

But I think that line, real men protect their assets, is a lot of the way some of us, we think about forgiveness.

You know, forgiveness is giving up our assets.

And if we're going to protect our assets, we're going to hold our grudges.

We're going to withhold forgiveness.

Because that's going to give us profit sometime down the line.

You know, one day, you know, this person's misdemeanor against me is going to come in useful when I'm in a sticky situation.

At other times, I think we make forgiveness to be something really, really light and really cheap, really flippant.

Where, you know, we forgive everybody for no real misdemeanor.

And we forgive them for huge things without even giving a thought.

You know, we say that love and peace and harmony are these ideals and they need to be, you know, maintained at any cost.

And so we say, I'm going to forgive even though I haven't really dealt with this conflict in my heart.

I haven't really dealt with it with this person.

We say, I forgive not because we've forgiven, but because we have this idol of peace and harmony that we're going to chase after and we're going to serve no matter the cost.

And while it seems very nice that we've forgiven, we realize that under these layers of plasters of forgiveness, there's hurt and there's wounds which have gone untreated.

You know, Watermark, the way that we interact with God, who God is should be changing and it should be reaching and transforming our lives.

But many times I think I do this, where I take my experiences from my life and I put them on God.

I paint Jesus with the brush that I've received from other people.

You know, we look at God and we think that he's like our parents who for 15 years have been dangling this misdemeanor over our heads to ensure our compliance,

to ensure that we do things the way that they want.

Or we walk through life assuming that God's going to forgive us all the time.

After all, it's his job, right?

I'll do whatever I want and I know that if I come and say, sorry, God will forgive me.

And on one hand, we have God who is this tyrant who's just waiting for us to mess up so he can crush us with a hammer.

And on the other side, we've got a God who's nothing more than an impotent genie who's just there to make us feel good, to soothe our emotional state.

And, you know, I think as I look out here, I don't think that many of you are on either one of those extremes.

But we find ourselves somewhere in the middle, somewhere in between those things.

And even the middle can be a dangerous place.

I know that the way that I interact with God puts me in a very unhelpful middle place.

Because, you know, I know that God will forgive me.

I know he loves me and that he forgives me.

I also know that God takes sin seriously.

And so there are times when I think that, you know, I can be forgiven for my small sins.

You know, the little white lies, you know, the candy I stole from the shop as a child.

God can forgive me for those things.

But, you know, the big things like, you know, knowingly letting your colleague get fired for a mistake that you made or maybe an affair.

God can never forgive those things.

Or sometimes I feel like God can forgive me and he has forgiven me for all the things I did before I became a Christian.

But all the things I've done since then, and I am responsible for those.

But I need to find a way to earn his grace.

I need to find a way to earn his forgiveness.

I need forgiveness.

We need forgiveness.

We all need forgiveness from God.

It's this longing that I think that God has put in our hearts for us to be right with him.

For us to have a right relationship with him.

And that's why Jesus comes.

Jesus comes to fulfill that longing in our hearts for forgiveness.

We're given a child at Christmas.

We're given the Son of God.

This man who would grow and who would do amazing things to ensure that his children, that those who put faith in him, do receive forgiveness.

Who are made right with God.

Who are brought into that relationship.

That's not here.

He didn't come to, you know, make us feel good.

To feel warm and fuzzy because of Christmas time.

He didn't come to leave us with resentment in our hearts.

But he came to forgive.

He came to bring hope and joy.

He came to give life with his forgiveness.

And so today, we're going to look at the story of the paralytic in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And I really want you guys to see that God is able to forgive.

That he's willing to forgive.

That he loves to forgive.

And that when he forgives, he doesn't offer it by itself.

But he offers with it joy.

He offers with it hope.

And if you've been around church, you've probably heard the story.

Especially if you grew up in the church.

And it's a great one because it has everything.

It's got suspense.

It's got adventure.

It's got friendship.

It's got a happy ending.

It's really one of these great stories that is really nice to tell little children.

But I think as we hear this story so many times, a lot of the significance is lost on us.

And I think even as we think about forgiveness, we forget actually how deep and meaningful forgiveness is.

As I read around this topic and reading different commentaries, I found that there are so many different focuses that different people took.

There's one author who spent a lot of time talking about these friends.

These man's friends and their bravery.

And doing property destruction.

And destroying a roof so that his friend could get in.

And their bravery was really the star of the story.

And I read another writer who said that actually, you know, the roofs are made of sticks and mud.

So actually, it's not a big deal to break it because you can fix it.

And if there's heavy rain, you'd have to repair your roof anyway.

So them tearing up the roof was not a big deal.

There are a lot of people who read these stories and they find different bits to focus on.

And I think the guys that I read where it captured me, which spoke to me, were the guys that focused in on God's forgiveness.

That focused in on Jesus forgiving this paralyzed man.

So let's start by looking at this.

It starts with Jesus and he's returned from Capernaum.

And he's at home.

And many people have gathered there.

Many people have got together and they're crowded in and they're listening to Jesus.

It says that Jesus is preaching them the word.

We don't know exactly what he was saying, but it must have been good because there was a huge crowd.

The house was filled.

The door was filled.

And the only way that these guys could bring their friend was through the roof.

These four men, they come and they carry them, his friend, up the stairs, which would have been outside the side of the house.

And they go to the roof and they begin dismantling it.

And they lower him down into the room where Jesus is teaching.

And the Bible says that Jesus looks at them and he sees their faith.

And he says, son, your sins are forgiven.

It's interesting.

You know, in the Bible, you can see other places where faith plays an important part in God's miracles.

In Mark chapter 5, you see there's a woman who's been bleeding.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

And when Jesus heals her, he turns and says, woman, your faith has made you well.

Go in peace.

But responding to their faith in this circumstance, Jesus says, your sins are forgiven.

The faith of this man, the faith of his friends is what causes God to respond to them.

And I think this is where the average church person says, great, forgiveness.

We've received it.

You know, let's go for the healing and move on.

But instead, this is where the scribes come into the narrative.

If you read this account in Luke, it says that they were Pharisees.

And that will probably give you a little bit of the idea of what they were there for.

You know, they weren't really listening to Jesus because they wanted hope,

because they wanted to hear the good news.

They were listening to Jesus because they were trying to catch him out.

They were trying to figure out what it is they could do to accuse this man,

to get him out of their way.

The scribes come in, and they say, well, they don't say anything.

Perhaps they're shocked at what Jesus has said,

because by saying, son, your sins are forgiven, he claimed to be God.

By saying, son, your sins are forgiven, he said,

I have the authority to make these kinds of announcements.

And in shock, they don't say anything, but in their hearts, they question.

In their hearts, they ask.

And you look in verse 6 and 7, it says,

they say, why does this man speak like that?

He's blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

And I think with that last question, who can forgive sins but God alone,

they're beginning to get somewhere.

They're beginning to get to the heart of what Jesus is doing here on this day.

Jesus goes on, and he speaks to them.

And he says, why do you doubt?

Why don't you believe?

Mark tells us that in his spirit, he knew the words that he was saying.

And, you know, I think I would have really liked to be there,

because, you know, we're in this crowded room,

and there are people all over the place.

The roof begins, you know, being picked apart.

But somebody's lowered down on his bed,

and Jesus says, son, your sins are forgiven.

And then he turns to the Pharisees,

and he says, why don't you believe?

Now, for anyone else there,

that would have been a very, very strange transition,

from forgiving this man to talking to those people over there.

I think that people would have probably been very confused

about what was going on.

But the Pharisees knew.

They knew that when Jesus spoke to them,

he wasn't just looking at their faces,

that he was looking into their hearts.

That he was looking, and he saw the doubt

that was in their hearts.

Jesus asks a puzzling question.

He says, is it easier to forgive these man's sins,

or is it easier to heal him?

Is it easier to say your sins are forgiven,

or to say get up and walk?

He follows that by saying,

that you may know that the Son of Man

has authority to forgive sins.

I say to you, pick up your bed,

and go home.

And the man does.

And the crowds are amazed,

and they probably leave in this amazing little party.

The scribes probably slink off,

having been beaten with their tail between their legs,

and the disciples probably give each other high fives,

very excited, another miracle.

And the paralytic and his friends,

for the first time in a long time,

walk off together.

And that's a great story.

It's forgiveness,

and there's healing.

And everyone except for the Pharisees

is really a winner.

But I really want to look at a couple of things

in this story that I think will unpack

and help us figure out what it is

that forgiveness is like

when God forgives us,

when God forgives his people,

when God forgives his children.

And the first thing is to do with the man.

The Bible says that in the beginning,

in the fall,

that Adam rebelled against God.

He ate the fruit from the tree,

and through his rebellion,

through his sin,

sickness and death and decay

enter the world.

The Bible says that because of sin,

we have sickness and death.

And in this time,

it was very common for people to believe

that if somebody had any kind of serious sickness

or serious injury,

that it was because of a sin in their life.

And so this man,

having been paralyzed,

is coming to God.

And I think that he felt that

his paralysis was a result of his sin.

If he didn't think it,

maybe his friends did,

but definitely the Pharisees.

They'd have looked at this man

and they'd have seen this guy is a sinner

because bad things only ever happen

to sinful people.

Now, we don't know why it is

that this man was actually sick.

The Bible doesn't tell us that.

But it does tell us

that when Jesus looks at him,

he says,

your sins are forgiven.

When Jesus looks at him,

he thinks,

and he says,

that the most important thing

in your life right now

is for you to have a right relationship

and right standing with God.

in the midst of his poverty

and his paralysis,

in the midst of all the things

in his life,

Jesus says,

you need to be forgiven.

And I think this man

would have been overjoyed by that

because he's paralyzed.

He couldn't go to the temple

and offer sacrifices

to make right his relationship with God.

As a guy who was paralyzed,

he could do nothing.

He was helpless.

He was completely at God's mercy.

And so when Jesus says,

son, your sins are forgiven,

he's giving this guy hope.

He's giving him life.

He's giving him joy.

He's giving him something

that he could not have obtained

for himself in any other way

other than God coming

and saying to this man,

your sins are forgiven.

I think that we are a lot like this man.

The Bible says that we are a lot like this man,

that we spiritually are paralyzed,

that spiritually there isn't a lot we can do.

But in this story,

we see what God offers to this man.

He offers it to us as well.

He offers forgiveness,

hope,

and life.

He's saying that you may be poor

and starving and helpless,

but here is forgiveness.

He's saying,

I can give you hope.

Jesus is saying to us

that he can be the solution

to our heart's deepest problem.

And people respond in different ways.

In this story,

we see that the scribes

that they don't believe.

And their response is one of two responses

that I want to look at.

But I also think it's interesting

that Jesus asks this question,

what is it easier to say?

Is it easier to forgive

or is it easier to heal?

Now again,

as I was reading about this,

many people have many different answers.

Some people will say

that actually the healing is harder

and they give their explanations why.

Other people say forgiving is harder

and they give explanations why.

But I think that

when Jesus asks this question,

he's saying

they're both hard.

Today,

standing before you guys,

with all the medical technology

in the world,

I cannot heal a paralyzed person.

And I'm no closer to doing that

than I am

to forgiving your sins.

I can't forgive the sins

that you have done against God.

By asking this question,

Jesus is saying

that both these things

are hard things.

Both these things

are difficult things.

Both of these things

are things

that God

must do.

God must be the one

who forgives sins.

And God is the one

who heals this man

from his paralysis.

But these guys,

they doubt.

The Pharisees doubt

his ability

to forgive.

They doubt

his authority

to forgive.

They doubt

God's love

and mercy.

They doubt

God's grace.

Their response

is doubt

and I think

sometimes

my response

is doubt

as well.

I doubt

that God

can forgive

all of my sins.

I doubt

that

God

does it

willingly.

The Bible

says that

if you have faith,

if you're like this guy

and his friends,

if you have faith

that God

will do

what he says,

then your sins

are forgiven.

The same words

that God

says to this man,

son,

your sins

are forgiven,

he says to us,

son,

daughter,

your sins

are forgiven.

And for me,

I think this has been

a very,

it's been a difficult

story for me

to learn.

It's been a difficult

journey

in learning this.

When I was

about 10 years old,

my mother

was diagnosed

with MS,

multiple sclerosis.

And from the time

I was about 11,

she's been in a wheelchair.

And,

you know,

in those times,

I think it was very stressful

for our family,

trying to figure out

what was going on,

trying to adjust

to life.

And we sought,

you know,

medical help

from all over the place.

And one day,

one of my aunt's friends

came and visited.

And she came,

she sat us down at the table

and she talked to us

about God

and his power to heal.

And one thing

she said is that,

you know,

your mother might be sick

because of some sins

that you haven't confessed.

Some sins that God

hasn't forgiven you for.

Right?

And that stuck out in my mind.

And she said,

you know,

is there any sin

that you guys have confessed?

That you guys have not confessed?

And I sat there

and I was quiet

because I was definitely,

definitely not going

to admit to any of this,

you know,

some of the things

that I hadn't confessed yet.

But I went to my room

and I prayed.

And I prayed

and I asked for forgiveness

and I confessed sins

that I'd done.

I confessed sins

that I'm not sure

if I'd done.

I confessed sins

that I'd,

you know,

I made up sins

to confess

because I wanted my mother

to get better.

I confessed all these things

and my mother

was still sick.

My mother was still unwell.

And I think for many years

I struggled with

whether God loved me

or whether God truly

forgave my sins.

I think it's only

been in the past couple years

that I'm beginning to see

that God does forgive.

And even though my mother

isn't well yet,

that when I pray

for my mom's healing

I can pray with this certainty

and this joy

that while my mother

is still in a wheelchair

that the most important thing

in our lives

has been taken care of.

That while there is

still sickness

that the disease of sin

has been cured

that God has forgiven her

that God has forgiven

that God has forgiven me.

I think

that we don't believe

that God can forgive sometimes.

In my life

I'm learning

every day

that God

does forgive

that God

will forgive.

that he forgives

our small sins

and our big ones.

You know

and he's forgiven us

for the sins

that we're going to do

tomorrow

and next week.

I love the response

of this crowd

because

of what they rejoice in

and what they're amazed at.

In verse 12

it says

after the man

got up

it says

that the crowds

were all amazed

and they glorified God

saying that

we never saw

anything like this.

that we have never

seen anything

like this before

and this is why

we're going to rejoice

and praise

and glorify God.

Now

I don't think

that they

rejoiced

because

the man

was healed.

They had no shortage

of opportunities

to see people

getting healed.

God had used

prophets

in the Old Testament

to heal people.

Jesus had done it.

In Mark

even before

we get to this

chapter 2

there are two

instances

of different people

being healed.

There's a guy

who's exorcised

who has an evil

spirit cast out of him

and there's a whole

crowd of people

who come to Jesus

and Jesus

heals all their

sicknesses and ailments.

These people had seen

Jesus healing people

before.

I don't think

that is why

that they rejoice.

I don't think

that people are amazed

that the roof

got destroyed.

I don't know

why they would

glorify God

for that.

But I think

they're amazed

because up to

this point

forgiveness

meant

taking a sacrifice

to the temple.

It meant

the blood

of an animal

and it meant

going again

and again

and again

for your sins

to be forgiven.

I think that this

crowd

saw

in this story

that they saw

in this interaction

between Jesus

and the paralyzed

man

forgiveness.

they saw

the hope

that brought

to their lives.

They saw

God forgiving

and God

proving

that he had

the authority

and the love

and the grace

and the mercy

to forgive

our sins.

so what about

us?

What is our

response

when God

says

our sins

are forgiven?

Do we

doubt

or

do we

believe?

Do we

respond with

hope

and joy?

Do we

respond with

sadness

and despair?

I

really

enjoy it.

I like

what Matthew

has to say

when he

talks about

this interaction.

It will be up

there in a second.

In Matthew 2

when Jesus

says

to the paralytic

he says

take heart

my son

your sins

are forgiven.

Take heart.

Different translations

say

have courage

cheer up

be of good

cheer

that's the

King James.

but

Jesus

is calling

for a

response

of joy

with

forgiveness.

He's saying

that forgiveness

isn't just

something that

okay we're

forgiven

and we're

going to

go and

be sad

for the

rest of

our lives

because

you know

we're not

allowed to

do fun

things.

Jesus

is saying

to this

man

that this

forgiveness

is not

just

life for

you.

It's not

just

rightness

with God.

but it

should be

a source

of hope

of joy

of happiness

and you know

I think

for the first

time this

guy is

in right

standing

with his

heavenly father

but he doesn't

just say

take heart

he says

he calls him

son

he says

child

he brings

him

into this

family

forgiveness

forgiveness

isn't just

the wrong

things that

were done

cancelled

forgiveness

isn't just

bad things

put under

the carpet

it's a new

identity

as God's

children

it's a new

hope

new life

in being

with Christ

imagine

imagine for a

moment that

you're a thief

you're a thief

of the worst

kind

you've stolen

candy from

children

you've stolen

from museums

you've stolen

gold and

diamonds and

billions of

dollars

and eventually

you're caught

and you're put

on trial

you're put on

trial and

the judge looks

at all these

things that you've

stolen and he

thinks

this is

ridiculous

we're not

going to put

you in prison

we're going to

sentence you

to death

and so you

go and you

sit in your

cell and

you're waiting

for the

assigned date

and they

bring you

your last

meal

and the

guy sets

it before

you

you've

asked for

jelly beans

and ice

cream

but as

you look

at it

you realize

that

your death

that's coming

is too

much to

bear

you can't

even stomach

at it

you push

it away

and you're

carried

and you're

led up to

the gallows

and you

know the

executioner is

there and

he puts

the noose

around your

neck

and you

know just

you catch a

glimpse of

your family

over there

and you

try and

hide your

face from

your children

and the

guy with the

big trumpet

and the

scroll starts

reading off

your charges

and says

for these

crimes of

stealing candy

and billions

of dollars

you're sentenced

to death

and he turns

to the

executioner

who's about

to pull

the lever

but then

there's this

commotion

there's this

commotion

there's a man

who's running

from the

castle

he's running

from the

castle

to the

king

and he's

running

and he's

running

and he's

running

and he goes to the crowds

and he comes

and he comes closer

and you realize that

this isn't a messenger

this is the king's son

the king's son is coming

with a message

and he says

your sins

are forgiven

imagine your relief

imagine your joy

imagine what it's like

to be on the brink

of death

but the king's son

not a messenger

the king sends

his own son

to say that

you're forgiven

that the noose

is going to be

removed from your neck

that you are free

that you can be

with your family

that you can go

and enjoy

jelly beans

and ice cream

that your life

is going to be

transformed

because

of the king

forgiveness is good news

forgiveness is amazing news

forgiveness is why

Jesus

came

this is why we celebrate

Christmas

because God sent his son

to pay the price

for our sin

because God sent his son

to say to us

while on the brink of death

your sins

are forgiven

the story

it offers forgiveness

and it calls us

to be a part

of God's family

but it also calls us

to have faith

the former paralytic

and his friends

they set an example

for us

in faith

and it's not that

they had to do

some amazing feat

like climb a mountain

or whatever amazing things

you do to demonstrate faith

but all they had to do

was come

they came

not knowing

what God

was going to do

they came

because they had a hunch

because they

they had hope

they had faith

that this Jesus

could do something

for their paralyzed friend

this Jesus

do something

and I think

the Bible says

the Bible says that

it says come

come with faith

come trusting

that God

will do the things

that he promises

come trusting

that on the cross

Jesus has paid

for your sins

come

faith

because Jesus

has done

what it takes

to forgive

your sins

this story

this paralyzed man

Jesus healing them

and his interaction

with the Pharisees

it calls us

to

live a life

transformed

by God's forgiveness

to live a life

of faith

I think we're all

in different places

spiritually

emotionally

you know

I don't know

what your week

has been like

what it's been like

at the office

or

what tensions

you have at home

the people

who have been hurting you

the people

who have been

offending you

but I know that

2,000 years ago

a king sent his son

to give forgiveness

and freedom

to give us joy

that will change

the way that

we look at God

that changes the way

that we relate to God

and that flows out

and changes

the ways in which

we interact with people

are we looking to God

for our forgiveness

are we looking to Jesus

and

putting

our hope in him

or do we

do we doubt

do we doubt

that when God says

I forgive you

that

we can follow through

sometimes I do

sometimes I doubt

but this Christmas

I want to invite you

to come and

to believe

have faith

to look at

Jesus in the manger

to look at him

healing this man

to look

at Jesus

on the cross

to look at Jesus

and to believe

that

that he's paid

the price

that he offers

forgiveness

that he offers

opportunity

to be his child

that he offers

that to us

with joy

let's pray

heavenly father

I confess

that I doubt

that I doubt

your forgiveness

I confess

that

that when I look

at the cross

I wonder

if you really

can forgive me

that if you really

have forgiven me

that if you really

will pay the price

for my sin

God I thank you

for Jesus

I thank you

for this story

I thank you

for the faith

the life

of this paralyzed

man

that him

and his friends

went and said

we believe

we believe

that God

can do something

we believe

that this Jesus

guy is for real

I pray father

for us

as we

as we walk

through life

as we

as we

interact with

different people

as we are hurt

as we

hurt other people

as we forgive

our friends

our family members

our co-workers

our children

as we receive

forgiveness from them

that we will be

reminded of you

that you've

called us

to open our

hearts and faith

and to receive

forgiveness

to receive a

promise of joy

to receive a

promise of being

your child

to be made

right with you

Jesus

thank you for

Christmas

and we thank you

for your

forgiveness

I pray this

in your precious

name

Amen

that we