Washed clean

I think that one of the toughest things about having a personal relationship with Christ is when you sin or are disobedient and you have a sense of guilt. Especially when you string together weeks and weeks of righteousness...or even a couple of days. Guilt is one of the worst feelings there is. Even if you feel a little guilty, it is something that will just keep eating away at your heart. Everybody struggles with it, maybe it's just not quite as bad for some people because they don't understand that they are doing something that is wrong. We are all in different stages of our faith so what might be an act of disobedience to me might be a little different than what it is for someone else. I am not saying that some there is a difference between things that are bad. Sin is sin.

The scripture I want to encourage you with this morning comes from 1 Corinthians 7-11: The fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this  to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral not idolaters nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor the drunkards nor the slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.

See, we all do wrong, we all sin, but our God is so good. We were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Sprit of God. I believe that is something that a lot of people needed to hear today.

There is no need to feel guilty! Unfortunately, we still do feel that way. One way to get rid of the feeling of guilt is to simply confess your sins. Give it all to God. I mean he already knows what you did wrong so why not just tell him? A lesson I learned this summer about getting rid of that feeling was making things right with the people I did wrong to or didn't treat right. Talk about getting rid of a lot of pride. I want to be gut level honest with you, it was hard. There were some friendships I needed to make right and there were a lot of people that I needed to apologize to...specifically girls. Can you believe I just said that on here? Well I did because I want to be honest with you and I don't want to keep secrets. I was in Los Angeles when I reached out to all of the people I had to make things right with, so I just sent out probably 10-15 texts. That was super hard for me to do, but when you get rid of guilt you completely open your heart to God for significant growth. You also break down the walls you had made with those people and you have the ability to start some cool relationships with people.

Today, I encourage you to make things right with people if you feel guilty about anything. I promise you will feel so much better. Also, remember that through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you are washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified.