Jesus the Dude: He Forgives

BUT FIRST
Let's recap last week and the sermon series, "Jesus the Dude."
Last week we spoke of what it is to truly live "in our right minds." We looked at how Jesus does not abandon his friends; nor does God abandon us when we've denied him before others. We so often end up doing things on our own, going our own way, become despondent due to failure and life's pressures, and at some point give up. 

The "giving up" point is where we may finally "come to our right minds" and realize that something needs to change if we are going to find success, happiness, or joy. Hopefully, that realization will come with the idea that we can only have those things through God. Many times coming to ourselves means forgiving ourselves, asking forgiveness from others, and giving forgiveness to those who've mistreated us. 

I recently read this about forgiveness from a YouVersion devotional: "Forgiveness is not a gift given to those who deserve it and it is not a promise to never be hurt by the person again. It is a posture of submission to God." What a great quote! In other words, forgiveness is first about you and God. God first! God must be first in our lives for anything to truly happen that will ultimately be favorable for us. 

Jesus experienced everything we have, but remained faithful to God through it all. How might we "come to our right minds" but putting God first in our lives? How have we lived for "me," hoping for God to back us up? What might we need to do in order to shed the old self and take on the new? 

Much of this is handled and answered in a great deal of prayer. So stay tuned for our next series, "No really, Pray."