Sermon Sunday

Wow, I can’t believe it’s Super Bowl Sunday, and in a few short hours football season will be over for another year!!! At least conference play in college basketball has hit full swing so I can devote my energies to that, LOL.

Today starts the first day of Sermon Sunday, as I will recap the sermon from this morning at The Pointe, where my family and I attend church. The actual sermon will be put online later today, you can click here to listen to this sermon, as well as the first sermon in this series. These are my notes taken from the sermon.

OVERWHELMED: Getting Past Our Past

Jim Taylor, Sr. Pastor, The Pointe

Everyone loves snapshots, we love to catch those moments and time and hold on to them forever. However, a snapshot never shows the entire picture, or tells the whole story, it only captures an instant, a single moment in time. Unfortunately, when it comes to the snapshots of our lives, we often allow one or two bad snapshots to define our lives. You have to realize that when you are of God, the snapshot is not who you are in HIS eyes. Everyone has a few bad snapshots, but ultimately you have to decide if you will let it overwhelm you or will you overcome it.

I. If you are in Christ you are COMPLETELY forgiven.

• you will still see, feel, and hear reminders of your past, but you don’t have to let it define you (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• your past and FUTURE are forgiven
• being forgiven is not about asking, but about accepting the blood of Jesus, because in Jeremiah 31:34 God says. “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
  • the reason it is about accepting and not about asking is that God forgives you whether you ask or not because we are saved by faith and not by works (Eph. 2:8-9), and the requirement of asking to be forgiven would be considered a work (an entire topic for later)
  • the act of asking is for US and OUR benefit, not God’s (I John 1:9); it makes us feel good to confess and get things out

II. In Christ, we are chosen and valuable (I Peter 2:9)

• we undervalue ourselves because of our snapshots; sadness and rejection stays with us because we feel unworthy of forgiveness
• He is always drawing us to HIM (Romans)

III. In Christ, I am unconditionally loved

• Jesus loved the worst people of the times (lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors)
• Matthew 1:40- He showed compassion to the lepers by TOUCHING him. He could have simply looked at him and healed him, but instead chose to show him compassion and physically touch him
  • God is not afraid of how dirty you are, He wants to wrap his arms around you and give you a hug.
  • God loves you because you are HIS (Romans 8:38)

In closing, we may not be who we want to be, but thank God we aren’t who we were. What is true of your past does not have to be what is true of your future.

Hope you enjoyed the recap. Enjoy your Super Bowl Sunday.