THE IOU. COMPLEX

There's a parable that Jesus told to his disciples that I want
us to look at  this morning. It is found in the 15 th Chapter of
the book of Luke and the 11 & ff, verses.

Today I would like to look at this parable from the standpoint
of what it can tell us about the sin-track, how it is so easy to
get onto and so hard to get off of.

The younger son did not want to have to put up with the ways and
ideals of his father. He wanted something  more exciting, more
fulfilling. The father, being one to allow free choice, gave the
son what he asked. When the son received his inheritance, he
left home and promptly wasted in living the party life.

When he had spent all of his fortune, a famine came into the
land, and he became destitute. Soon he was scraping around in
the hog slop looking for some tidbit to eat to keep himself from
starving.

But he just couldn't go home. What would his father say? He
would surely scold and punish him. After all, he had already
received all of the estate that he was entitled to.

So for a period of time the poor younger son slops the hogs and
pulls through the food for bits for himself. He just can't
return, because he can't repay his father. But conditions were
just terrible.  Where he had been used to sleeping on fine
carpets, now he was using a pile of rubbish. Where he had been
used to shelter, he was now living under the merciless sun and
cruel cold. Where he had been used to the sounds of laughter m
father's house, now all day he listened to the grunts of  pigs
squabbling over the husks that he fed them. Where he had been
used to the of cooking food,  and the smells of sweet perfume,
now he existed with the stale stench of the swine.

Finally he decides that's enough. He knows that he has betrayed
his father's love, but he realizes that even in his father's
servant's quarters that it is clean and warm and dry. Not only
that, there is plenty of good food to eat. so, the young man
begins his journey home. As he steps out the miles, he rehearses
his speech to his father.

"Father, I have sinned against you. I know that I am not worthy
to be called your son. But as a means of paying for my erring
ways I would like to be your servant. I'll try to work had and
be worthy of serving you," the emaciated youth rehearses draws
towards his father's house, with a growing anticipation and
apprehension.

As we have looked at the various results of guilt in the life of
the Christian, we have seen some interesting things. We have
noted how we sometimes feel guilty for things that provide no
moral guilt,  and how at times we do not feel guilty about
things that do cause us to be morally guilty. We have talked
some about how our outlook on life and how some of   our
feelings of guilt are brought on by the  way we are raised.

We looked at the necessity of realizing our true worth and
abilities as well as our faults. We saw how psychological guilt,
or feelings of guilt keep us away from our Lord, and from our
fellow man. We also looked at the difference between the, the
fact that we are sinners, (theological guilt) and psychological
guilt, or feelings of guiltiness brought on by the Devil to keep
us bound to him.

Today I want to continue our discussion on how feelings of guilt
can keep us from God, by discussing the question "What happen
after we sin?"

The story of the prodigal son, which we began to look into can
give us a good insight into God after we sin. One of the most
immediate reactions that each of us has when we sin against God,
or against our fellow man, is to  assume that some who we are in
debt to that person, and that we are automatically in their
disfavor. This is where the I O U  factor comes into play. We
have seen this in our own lives, and it has played a large part
in many religions. We have sinned, therefore we have upset some
kind of a balance sheet with humanity or with God, and
therefore, for us to be accepted and acceptable, we must balance
that sheet out.

This is apparent in our thinking even today, for if you are
honest with yourself, you have probably looked into your life in
times of trouble and tried to decide what has happened to cause
you to get into this financial mess, or this illness, or in this
social condition.

 The Bible reveals God as a personal being who set in motion the
entire universe as well as establishing our moral principles. He
knows that humanity has caused the violation of the standards of
God's law, and that as a righteous judge he must dispense
appropriate punishment for sin.

Now this poses a problem for God as well as us. For God on the
one hand, loves us and desires our salvation but we, on the
other, have  already sinned and stand under the condemnation of
the law.

Just as the prodigal son was ashamed to return to his father
because he couldn't make up for the hurt that he had given him,
so we are totally unable to pay the debt that we owe to God and
remain alive. We could pay the penalty for our sins by dying,
but we could never ease the sorrow that would be felt by our
loss to our savior.

So we feel that we are unable to approach God because we have
sinned and specifically are unworthy. And this becomes
particularly bad when we do a particularly noticeable wrong act.
Then is when old Satan gets down and goes to work the hardest.
The last thing that he wants for us to do is forget our sins,
for he knows that if he can keep us feeling that we cannot
approach God because we owe him too much, then he knows he can
keep us under his influence.

You would feel the same way if your debt were a social or
spiritual one,  which brings us to the reason why the devil
wants us to remember our sins and continually feel guilty about
them. That's fear of punishment or rejection.

I feel that at this time in earth's history, God is concerned
not with punishment but with discipline. I will go further, to
say that for the Christian, God never punishes, but that He may
correct, or chastise us to  prepare us for the kingdom. Proverbs
3:11,12  tells us that God reproves his children. Isaiah 13:9,11
tells us that God, in his time, will punish the wicked.

It is important to note that discipline and reproof are not
means of justice.  They are God's way of making us mature. They
focus on the future and are done in love.

On the other hand, punishment focuses on the and reflects God's
anger

Now it is this fear of punishment that Satan wants to keep in
front of us.  Unfortunately, for him,  if he cannot keep us from
looking to the cross where Christ suffered our punishment he
cannot hold us. He tries to keep us feeling guilty so that we
feel rejected and under censure of God so that he can keep us on
his side, even if against our will.

It is a very important point to bring in here, that if we do not
realize that we are accepted in Christ because of His sacrifice,
that it is almost, if not totally impossible, to live a life
that reflects the principles that He lived and died for. In
other words, if Satan can keep us looking at our sin and not our
Savior, he can keep us trapped forever.

But on the other hand, if we can stop dwelling on our sins,  and
the sins of others, and turn our thoughts upon Jesus and  His
salvation, then we will have the power to be live victorious
lives.

So we have seen thus far that the track of sin leads us to

 --Consider our selves in debt to God, A debt we cannot possible
 repay.

 --We realize we cannot pay. This keeps from seeking out our
 Lord.

 --We can't pay, we can't pray ... At least that's what the
 devil teaches us.

 --We begin to fear punishment and rejection. This is encouraged
 by the Devil. By this time it is getting to our attitude.

Which brings us the  last step. We begin to fear God, in our
sense of  the word, rather than respect Him. We begin to look
over our shoulders, as it were, to see if God is peaking in on
us this time. At this point one of several things may happen.
One common exit is to do away with God. If there is no one to
accuse you, then you do not need to feel guilty.  And if you:
don't feel guilty then you are free.

Another thing that can happen is that some become the super
Christian that we mentioned before. This too is bound to lead to
frustration, and often right back to the doing away with God.
(That is, in our minds)

Another thing that sometimes happens is the  tendency to become
the super Christian watchdog. By editing the lives of everyone
else, we try to somehow erase the guilt in our own. By doing
this we often will dwell loud and long on the faults of others,
or go around whispering about them, in order to straighten out
some of the problems we see in our own lives  The only problem
is that none of these ways work.,

I repeat, there is nothing that the Devil wants to do more than
keep us on the guilt merry-go-round. We have all experienced it.
Some have tried to get off, and some have succeeded.

SIN-Feeling of debt--inablilty to pay--fear of
rejection--afraid of God--more sin--more feeling of debt--more
inability to pay --more fear of rejection and so on and so on.

As you can see this can become very discouraging after a while
if there isn't something done about it. The remedy is a
relationship with Christ. And there are many things that Christ
does to remedy the situation.

First, we find acceptance. To Mary Magdaline he said while
squatting beside her, "Women, where are thy accusers?"

To each of us He asks the same question. Brother, where are your
accusers? Sister, where are your accusers? Little one, youth,
where are your accusers?

And as we look to Jesus as Mary did, we can truly say , No man,
Lord.  Then Jesus turns to us and says, "Neither do I condemn
thee go and sin no more."

So the first place that Jesus breaks the viscous cycle of guilt
is frustration, the can't pay, for it is paid in His life. This
also does away with  the fear of rejection and the fear of God.

By the way, did you know that Jesus told people not to fear
more times than He told them not to sin? We are told not to
fear those who can kill the body.  We are not to fear that our
well being. We are not to fear that our prayers will not be
answered and the angels told the shepherds to fear not, for  I
bring you good tidings.

What greater joy that to know that the hold of sin has been
broken., That we can claim victory, over the grinding cycle of
Guilt, because of our Jesus.

And this is the beautiful part of the story of the prodigal son,
or of the loving Father, as I like to think of it. The son
finally nears the house of his father.  Perhaps his father will
throw him out. maybe he doesn't want to have anything to do
with him anymore.

But the Father saw the son from a far distance and went running
out to meet him. He throws a decent garment over the shoulders
of the son and places a special ring on his finger, showing his
acceptance into the family. He is doing this ignoring the little
speech of contrition that the son is making. Not only did the
father do all this, he accepted him back into the home, and gave
a huge feast in honor of his return. The guilt cycle was broken.
The son was accepted and loved. There would be no  more running
away.

That's the way our Father is with us. He watches and waits for
us to make some sign of returning to Him.  And when we decide to
go to Him, to follow Him, to turn towards our heavenly home, He
rushes to give us precious promises and gifts to assure us that
we are accepted. He points to Jesus hanging on the cross for our
sins. He points to the perfect life that Jesus lived our behalf.
He tells us of the love that He has for us. And he offers salvation
a gift, free and clear. In an instant

In fact, He is so delighted to have us return to our home that
we almost have to fight Him off to keep from being saved. And
that is the good news of Salvation. But that's not all. As long
as we are truly following him, and trying to do His will, He is
not going to throw us out of His favor when we slip up. Oh, He
may have to let us go through trials, as we discussed before,
but He will never reject us. He may have to show us a better way
to go, but He will never turn his back on us. He may have to
tell us that we have erred, but He will keep talking to us to
guide us closer to Him and His ideals.

 The enemy wants us to forget. He wants us to let go of the hand
of God. He wants us to close our ears in discouragement, to give
up in frustration, and drift along with the crowd. He wants us
to feel so guilty that we  cannot communicate with God. He wants
to bury us under huge burdens of guilt, remorse, and self-hatred.

That is not to say that sin is not harmful. It hurts us, It
hurts God. It hurts our friends, our families, and the world
around us. And we may have to face the results of those sins,
but that does not mean that God rejects us, is angry with us.
And it does not mean that we become worthless to God.

But the beautiful thing is, that when you begin to realize that
God isn't standing over you with a club, you understand that He
is a loving Father, waiting for your love, and you read that He
is forgiving, loving and kind, it does something to you. For the
first time you find it a joy to pass up a particular sin. You
find that you are pleased when you look the Devil square in the
eye and tell him "NO". You begin to treasure that time spent in
prayer more and more.  If He cares about me that much, there's
nothing that I can do that is too good for Him. And on top of
this you begin to read that he's preparing a new place for the
new person that you are becoming, and He's going to take you up
there with him. You become overwhelmed with the love, the
goodness, the acceptance of God .

When you understand that God wants us to respect him, but not be
afraid of Him then you have been released from the guilt trap.
Then you are able to operate on a higher plane. Then you can
love because you are loved. You can respect, because you are
respected. You can accept others, because you are accepted as
you are. A whole new field of witness and service is opened up.

Yes, the I O U would still there if it were up to us. Mary
Magdeline was forgiven 7 times. To show her gratitude she washed
the feet of Jesus with her hair and expensive perfume.  But that
could not repay the  debt. Peter was willing to  forgive 7
times, but that could not pay the debt, either. Paul was
willing,  even glad to spend the rest of his life working for
the Lord, but it couldn't atone for his past. The same goes for
us. We cannot atone for ourselves. But it has been done. We are
free of condemnation and guilt as we stand at the foot  of the
cross claiming the blood of our savior Jesus Christ. There the
IOU was stamped paid.

The Lord speaks to us, in those words found in Hosea 14:4-9,
which I would, like for you to read with me

Hosea 14 4  "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
freely, For My anger has turned away from him.
5  I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the
lily, And lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
6  His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive
tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon.
7  Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be
revived like grain, And grow like a vine. Their scent shall be
like the wine of Lebanon.
8  "Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do anymore with idols?' I
have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree;
Your fruit is found in Me."

The question that I leave you with today is "Have you accepted
that divine gift that will wash those old feelings of guilt and
condemnation away?"

 If not., will you.

 Moment of silent prayer.  Talk to your God about it.

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