Is Sorry Enough?

Now John came saying you can have a do over in life, but it begins with a change of your mind. You have to see the path you have followed has not led you to where you want to go. Now here is the promise of John. In fact it is the promise of Christmas, it we repent, or change our mind about the direction we are heading, God will give us a do over. God forgets out past as if it never happened. When God forgives, he forgives completely. There is no lingering resentment with God. He is not going to come back to you years from now and point out your past mistakes.
God is less concerned about your past, as he is excited about your future.
In fact if you want to know if the voice you are hearing is from God or not here is a simple test. Satan will always point to your past and say, “look what you have done.” Where God will always look to the future and say, “forget the past, what will you do now.”
Can you see how a message like this would draw people to John. The bibles says in verse 5.
5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
It says they came confessing their sins. I guess I always thought of confession as listing all my sins. I am not sure why. God already knows all the mistakes I made in life. It is not like I going to say something and he is going go, “wah, I did know that you did that.” I was relieved to find out that confess in the Bible means something completely different.
The Greek word used here is for “confess” is homologeō (ὁμολογεω), made up of legō (λεγω) which means “to speak,” and homos (ὁμος), which means “the same,” the compound word meaning “to speak the same thing that another speaks,” thus, “to agree with someone else.”
So confession is less about listing all the things you done, and more about agreeing with God that the path you have taken was not right.
Remember God is less concerned with your past, as he is excited about your future.
So this Christmas season, the message of Christmas is that you can have a “do over.” The road you have followed does not have to be the your destiny.
You may not be able to begin your again, but you can begin now are create a new end.
You can change your mind and have your sins, your mistakes, your missteps forgiveness. Completely forgiven and forgotten by God. Others may not let you forget, But the good news of Christmas is even though others never forget, God will never remember.
As we prepare to celebrate Christmas what a different Christmas it would be if each us were to agree with God that the things we have done in the past have not created the loving caring people we want to be. What a Christmas it would be if everyone turned their lives around.
Where might that begin? How about with you and me?
This Christmas let us be the first to agree with God that we have not been as loving and caring as we should have been. Let us set the example by turning our lives around. So God can forever forgive and forget our past.
What a Christmas present that would be, a new start, a fresh page, and do over for Christmas.
Amen.