Monday, December 17, 2007

"What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).

IDEA: Forgiveness is real, but it doesn’t necessarily wipe out consequences.

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand what forgiveness really involves.

Do you believe in the forgiveness of God?

Do you believe that people can be disappointed when they have been forgiven by God?

I. When we say that God’s forgiveness is real, what do we mean?

Samson’s strength came back again in answer to prayer. 

God used him again for one heroic act.

The writer notes that the dead Samson killed at his death were more than those he had killed earlier.

II. Does forgiveness necessarily wipe out consequences?

Samson did not regain his sight.

He was ridiculed and mocked for his clumsiness and powerlessness.

III. When the consequences remain, should we then doubt that God has forgiven us?

When his brothers came to claim his body and take it back home, what might they have felt about his eyes out of their sockets and his being in the rubble of the temple?