God's Double Blessings

“Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-- who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

What great and tremendous blessings! We are all undeserving of these blessings, yet He blesses us anyhow! Our heavenly Father is gracious, merciful, loving and tender. He is truly worthy of all praise, glory and honor. Let us look at just a few of His double blessings. I. HE FORGIVES AND FORGETS Eph 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace

Heb 10:17 “Their sins and their lawless acts I will remember no more.”

A. We are just the opposite. Something gets in our craw and look out! We hold on to resentments and broken promises, or insults and hurts, like there was no tomorrow. When was the last time you thought about the unresolved issues that you carry around on your back? The tragedy is that this only hurts and destroys our own souls. There is power in peace and forgiveness and you must do everything in your power to keep it. Jesus said, Pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:28). People will hurt you in life. That goes without question or debate. All have issues and need emotional healing, but take the time to forgive and receive forgiveness. Need to ask forgiveness of others and/or release them from our scorecards before we come to ask God for anything else. I have known Christians who barely speak over something trivial, or a personality glitch. Now, it’s been so long some don’t even remember what it was, or perhaps now realize that it wasn’t worth ruining a relationship over. Bea has a relative who when they get angry at one person in the family takes it out on everyone and will not speak to anyone in family. Wonderful! Sounds like some Christians I know. Upset with one person so take it out on whole congregation or leave instead of resolving the issue at hand. How does that look to one another? More importantly how does that look to God. Thank God for his promise of restoration and renewal. Through Him we can move forward in forgiveness. “You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate; slow to anger and abounding in love” (Neh 9:17). B. Fortunately for us that God forgives and forgets. Yet, how often do we look to God as an angry old man who just puts up with us? How do you picture Him when you think about your sins? What do you think His expression is when you come to Him time after time?

1. For many, term “father” conjures up feelings of fear, dread, hurt, and disappointment which robs them of the assurance of forgiveness the heavenly Father sacrificed so deeply for them to experience. 2. But God is the One who initiated forgiveness. Why? He wants us for His very own, his prized possession! His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundary known unto man, for out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again.” Hallelujah! He forgives and forgets. (Illus.: computer flight simulator) You can break sound barrier, crash into buildings or crash into Lake Erie. Greatest thing is that the game always “restores” you. No matter what happens, you can start all over again.” God is faithful to forgive us when we come with true repentance and restores us when we mess up and gets us back into action hopefully a little wiser after our failures and bad decisions. C. God forgives and forgets. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of their sins can receive this double blessing. (1 John 1:9; Phil 3:13 “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” D. We have the joy of knowing His forgiveness. The joy of being forgiven/cleansed from ALL sin. No record in heaven! Washed in the blood, cleansed! Joy of salv; knowing been cleansed by Jesus! When Jesus shed His blood on Calvary’s cross, it washed sin away justified you in the presence of a holy God, just as if you’d never sinned. II. HE SANCTIFIES AND SATISFIES I Thess 5:23 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. A. To receive and experience God’s sanctifying grace, you must first receive and know His peace. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:1 (NIV)