Communion Message
(You're forgiven)
 July 21-22, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

As we've approached the communion table over the many years, we've approached it from so many different facets such as the table of mercy and the table of love, the table of reconciliation. I'd like for you to think of it today as the table of forgiveness. In our weeks that follow today we're going to approach the subject as David in seeking God's forgiveness as have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness blot out all of my transgressions. We're going to be thinking about this whole matter of forgiveness. So I've been doing some research this week into the subject and one of the great books, one of the great writers, is the reform theologian Dr. David Augsburger. David writes a number of books on forgiveness. One of them is a very interesting book. On the front it says "Caring Enough to Forgive"; you flip the book over and it says "Carrying Enough Not to Forgive". It's a fascinating approach to this subject. But his possibly most popular book is entitled "The New Freedom of Forgiveness", and in his opening sentence he says, possibly the greatest hunger of mankind is a hunger for forgiveness.

I've thought much of that and I remembered back and occasion some years ago when we reached out to a fallen pastor, one who had had prominence within the state as one of the great churches, but in a moment of weakness fell to sin and brought shame to himself, his family, his church, and his God. He went away to hide from all of the publicity and he was gone for months. I tried to find him and after almost a year I found him up in a little mountain town in the Sierra foothills. Vernita and I went and spent the day with him and he just poured out his heart. So we made provision, I said, Pastor, we'd like to reach out to you and we'll help you in the process of reconciliation. Surely we can help make amends some way and somehow bring you back into some degree of ministry. And so he came to our church. Month after month I observed his life and I could evaluate that his repentance was absolutely sincere. I never met a more sincere repentance sinner.

One day he was crying and came to me and he said, I'd like to talk with you pastor. So we went to my office and with tears streaming down his eyes, he said, you know, I know God forgive me. I know that, but I have never heard a human being say to me, you're forgiven. He said I long to hear that more than anything, and he said, I long so much I decided I would go to confession at a Catholic Church. And some months ago I went. Maybe the priest would say to me, you're forgiven. And he said, I walked away -- I didn't hear that. He said, when a man falls, pastor, when you know you've done something wrong, you want to hear those words from the one that you've wronged -- I forgive you. And I looked him in the eye and I said, you know pastor, I've worked with you now for a number of months and I know that your repentance is genuine. I know you love God. I know you've done your very, very best to try to amend as many of the hurts that you've created, and I said, I want you to know that you are forgiven. And I'll tell you folks in that moment it was almost like a burst of freedom, and he just wept profusely. And what Dr. David says in his book, he says, when you forgive or have been forgiven there is this marvelous sense of freedom. I forgive you.

Somehow this table every time I come to it, week after week, it shouts that glorious truth to me no matter how much I've sinned -- you're forgiven. When I Repent and when I ask God to forgive me, I stand from this table with all heaven and the angels shouting, you're forgiven Don, you're forgiven -- forgiven. That's the glorious message of God's redeeming love and His infinite grace and His matchless forgiveness. Maybe I might suggest, maybe somebody in your life, you've never yet clarified. Something has been wrong. You've been wronged by them, but you've never gone to them and simply said, I want you to know you're forgiven. It will bring about a whole new healing process and a cleansing that will take place in your relationship. And I want you to know today if you'll come and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner, but I need You're forgiveness and I want to turn my life over to You. All heaven will give witness that you're forgiven. You'll walk out of the doors knowing that the past is the past; God's love and His mercy surround you all the days of your life from here on. Amen? Let's kneel together, shall we?

Lord Jesus, these emblems we hold in our hands shout that glorious truth -- forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, because in Your body You became the substitute for our sins. You died in our stead. You took sin's penalty and that's death. And with this cup that bespeaks Your precious blood that was spilt for the cleansing of our sins, we come to You today, we seek Your forgiveness for our transgressions, for our inequities, and for our sins. We at times have become exceedingly stubborn even rebellious against Your will, for this we ask forgiveness today. Some of us have ventured far down the paths of unrighteousness and we are a million miles from peace today. Please draw us back to You, dear Jesus. Forgive us for our waywardness. Forgive us for sin. May we know You've forgiven us, in Jesus' name. Let's take the bread today, shall we? And then the cup. Forgiven -- forgiven. Thank you Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?