Please stand as we recite the Shema together.
The Shema
Hear O Israel!
The Lord is our God – the Lord Alone.
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart,
With all your soul,
And with all your might,
And love your neighbor as yourself. Amen.
Thank You, Lord. Please be seated.

2 Sam 12:13, Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. 
	We, as the redeemed of The Lord, are dealing with the matter of facing our transgressions before Jehovah, acknowledging the fact that we are sinful beings. We are saved by God’s grace, Alone. Still, we are in a battle against the conflicting residue of our old nature. There is a cleansing process of God that needs to take full root in the measure of a deep clean-up of our hearts, and minds, and souls. We dare never try to hide any of our so-called indiscretions before God. There is nothing that is concealed from His piercing and penetrating vision of who we are and what we do and think and say.
	 Accordingly, we need to learn to appreciate and honor and praise Our Lord God Almighty for the manner in which He is so long suffering and forgiving in His dealings with us. This is so opposite to what this age puts forth in its lies and accusations against the Most Holy and Loving One.
This world portrays God as a Divine Tyrant Who imposes His will indiscriminately on those who are foolish enough to think that He is doing us good. There is that deception which proclaims that those who belong to God are no longer enjoying life; they are no longer able to choose to do anything that they want to do. According to this age, those who are so foolish as to believe in a Divine Being are trapped in the dogma of religiosity that takes away the freedom to choose what they want to do when they want to do it. 
This entire presentation of God as a Tyrannical Being Who only slings arrows of condemnation and judgment from heaven is such a denigrating lie, It is the vicious scheme of the enemy to slander and malign the One Who created all things. 
The reality is that we are the ones who have chosen slavery to sin and death over the living relationship that has always been the plan and purpose of God in His creation of humanity. Jehovah is the true source of all peace and joy and contentment and fulfillment as we but respond to His so great love and mercy and grace.
The Prophet Isaiah, in Isa 44:21-23, picks up for us with the truth of Who Jehovah is and all that He does in terms of His loving kindness and care for those who are His own. This is the reality that the world tries to hide. Yes, God does deal with the sin in the lives of those who belong to Him. However, rather than harsh judgment and condemnation, He puts forth those characteristics of His eternal essence. 
Isa 44:21-23, "Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. "I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you." Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the Lord has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory. 
	All of creation rejoices with the goodness of the Lord on display as He works His salvation and redemption in the course of the walk of His people. This is not a condemnation of the people; of the sin, yes, absolutely. However because of His Holiness and Righteousness, God deals with the sin in a way that brings forth the full measure of His forgiveness and His work of reconciliation and cleansing. 
	The Prophet Micah details this reality for us in Mic 7:18-20. We, as the people whom God has chosen unto Himself, need to have the eyes of our understanding truly and fully enlightened as to the measure of the Love of God that is meted out unto such as we are in this world. Rather than being dictated to and fenced in with rules and regulations that would bind us and hinder our enjoyment of this life, we see the truth! We are set free in Christ Jesus! Our entire essence is now flooded with the peace and the joy and the celebration of the goodness of God to save such as us. Who but The Lord God Almighty, would so love us and so tenderly hold us in the shelter of His hands. 
	Mic 7:18-20, Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt give truth to Jacob And unchanging love to Abraham, Which Thou didst swear to our forefathers From the days of old. 
	This is the true picture of God, Our Heavenly Father, Who loves us to the ultimate point of sending His Only Begotten Son to die for our sins and trespasses. He paid the price, Himself, for all the sins of our lifetime, for all those who would believe and receive Him as Savior and Lord. This is the reality that the power of this age tries so desperately to camouflage with its lies and deceit and malice, but to no avail. 
Jesus paid the price to set us free from the immense bondage of sin and shame. The Holy Spirit now indwells us to work to cleanse from within every spot and stain and remnant of that old nature. It is all the work of Jehovah: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to the end that we would bring all praise and honor and reverence and glory to His name.
	Jesus, while on earth, as recorded in Luke 15:20+21, told the parable of the love of God manifested through the teaching of what we call the Prodigal Son. We see ourselves in that lesson as the one who needed to return to the home that was forsaken. Maybe we see ourselves as the older brother, filled with anger and disgust at the actions of the younger brother and the forgiveness of the Father. 
	However we put ourselves in that story, the focal reality needs to be centered on the Father - the Loving, Forgiving Father who ran to meet His son. He never gave up, He never forgot, He never forsook, but always kept that heart of restoration open for the son that was lost. That Father, filled with compassion, kept a steady vigil to see His son, and then He ran and gathered His son in His arms. He restored that place of fellowship within the home that had been previously forsaken by that youth. This is only possible by the work of that tremendous compassion of God poured out upon all through the heart of God’s Great Love!
	Luke 15:20+21, "And he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him. "And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 
	Inherent in this parable is the truth of our great restoration as the very children of God. Just as the son returned home to the Father, after having tasted of the vileness and the emptiness of this age, so are we in terms of our seeking out the pleasure of our sinful nature. That is up to the point that we find ourselves wallowing in the mire and the filth of this world which never satisfies. It is only filled with lies and sewage and emptiness and destruction. 
At that point, we turn our hearts back to God with the hope that there might be some redemption as we would serve Him for whatever meager portion He might allot to us. The entire focus is still on what we can get and how our penitent attitude would serve to allow us some relief from our misery and shame and suffering.
	But, in the immense grandeur of the Love of God, we are fully enveloped with His love and His mercy and His grace far beyond anything that we could ever have hoped for or expected. We come back to God for whatever small scraps we can get, and yet He lavishes us with the treasury of heaven. This is to such a point that our hearts and minds become changed to the focus of His Awesome Character and Essence and Love that we see now only so dimly, yet still so very all-encompassing. 
	Jesus, in this parable detailed the heart of the Love of God The Father, and Who God is in the every working reality of His so Great Love. This is the truest depiction of the reality of Jehovah as set so opposite to the disparaging deception of this age. In God, there is restoration and compassion and empathy and redemption from all the bondage and the filth of this world. That is why we can come to Him, even after our greatest sinful binges and seek Him to clean us up and restore us as we confess our sin, seek to forsake that sin, asking His forgiveness with truly remorseful hearts and minds. 
	The reality of the full measure of God’s forgiveness of sin was detailed in the truth that our turning completely away from the lies of this age are centered in the salvation that God has freely offered. His redemption, and the cleansing that is part of it, is open to any will but believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Promised Christ, and the Messiah. The Apostle Peter detailed this as recounted in Acts 2:36-39.
	Acts 2:36-39, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified." Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself." 
	The truth is that it is all the work and the power of God in action as He manifests His call in the hearts of those who will respond to Him. God’s Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence sets forth the magnificent miracle of salvation in the gift of the Holy Spirit in those who are His own in Jesus.
	The Apostle Paul, in Acts 13:32-39, ties it all back to what the Lord proclaimed in His Word spoken in the Psalms. The lineage of David is fulfilled in Jesus, as the heart of God fully envelops all who will but respond to His call unto forgiveness of sins and desire for His eternal life.
	Acts 13:32-39, "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm,' Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.' "And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' "Therefore He also says in another Psalm, 'Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.' "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. "Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. 
	This chorus of the great and manifested heart of God unto forgiveness of sin and release to its bondage in death is as well declared by the Apostle John in 1 John 1:5-10. There is the unmistakable reality that we are, by nature, sinners and in utter need of redemption. Jehovah met that need through the entire salvation reality of the death and resurrection of The Only Begotten Son. 
	1 John 1:5-10, And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 
	There is the utmost necessity to confess our sins, which means acknowledging the fact that we need God to deliver us from our slavery to the sinful nature of our birth. We can not do it by ourselves. There is no way to deal with that corrupt essence without the direct intervention of God to bring us to the free gift of His working power in making us part of His very own family in Jesus Christ. 
	Then the Apostle details the truth that The Lord God Almighty has provided the only means of the cleansing from our sin and the redemption that is in place in Jesus Christ. In 1 John 2:1+2, the Apostle encourages us with the fact that it is all done in and through The Only Begotten of The Father. 
	1 John 2:1+2, My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 
	The final passage of this consideration is Rev 1:4-6. We are so blessed with the presentation of exactly Who God is in the reality of His great and awesome love to those who are chosen by Him. He blesses His children with the knowledge of some of the magnificence and the splendor and the glory that God has invested into those who call upon His name. He has released us from all the horrid imprisonment of our sinful nature and made us a new creation in Christ, priests of the Lord in the entirety of His kingdom. 
	Rev 1:4-6, John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. So be it and Amen!

	This morning’s benediction is 2 Sam 7:22. For this reason Thou art great, O Lord God; for there is none like Thee, and there is no God besides Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. Amen.