Home and Family Discussion/Presentation in Rockford 26.01.2020

Let us join into thanksgiving and prayer. Heavenly Father, we have come before you with our joys and with our sorrows. We bring our weakness before you and pray, please keep us, take care of us, bless our lives with the greatest blessing, the gift of faith.

Dear God, please open your word unto us as you see that is beneficial and needful for us. Open our hearts, ears, and minds to listen, accept, and believe. Encourage us, uplift us. We kindle the hope which is so weak often times.

We say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

We go into our topic. I don't know and I don't think that we have chosen a moderator for tonight. And I would wish that we would have someone else to serve after my presentation, if possible. And so I ask if you had someone in mind that could prepare for that duty before the presentation and could kindly take that and serve us with that duty.

Who would you suggest? Could you please repeat? Mike Carinimi has been suggested. Dear brother, do you feel it would be possible to serve in that? Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

All days are not equal. Some days are difficult and I'm tired. And I appreciate it very much.

The topic that we have is tender and dear: forgiveness. Forgiveness. And we have talked in small and big gatherings about forgiveness a lot during the last previous years. And I have heard others say the thought that I have had in my mind that the matter of forgiveness is not just about forgiveness. It's about forgiveness. It's about forgiveness. It's about forgiveness.

And forgiveness has been kind of endangered or has been debated. Or there has been something around the matter of forgiveness which I have felt uncomfortable. And I say like one person said that when the person heard of the discussions that are taking place here, the person is from Finland, a believing person, he said, who in the world is pondering that kind of questions? I've never pondered those. I've just believed.

So we have had to talk or ponder or almost debate the questions or topics which should have been self-evident. Where there shouldn't have been much to discuss except rejoice. So I'm thankful despite my weakness and lack of understanding that we have this topic and I can share what is in my heart about this treasure of God's kingdom and a treasure of God's kingdom. And I'm thankful that I have this treasure of my life: the topic of forgiveness.

And when the committee gave the topic of forgiveness, I added these two words, joy and blessing of forgiveness. That's how I see it.

What is your goal? I talked with one young person about the questions in this society. Obviously kind of political questions. What's going on? And this person said, I don't care. I want to make it to heaven. I thought, wonderful. That was his goal, to make it to heaven.

Of course, these temporal matters are important and necessary. But his goal was to make it to heaven.

Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

That's from Revelations, where our dear troubled, tempted, or persecuted brother, John, was allowed to see from afar off, what is the goal of his life and faith.

And if, and when, the goal is to make it to heaven, everything else kind of shrinks and becomes secondary. They still can be important, meaningful, and so on, rewarding, but they're still secondary, very secondary.

The difference, the gap, between the goal and everything else is big. Because everything else is transient. Disappearing. It lasts for a time, and then it's gone. But this goal will last.

During the last few years, we have almost become intimidated at speaking about sin. I have been approached that I speak too much about sin. And I've been troubled with that.

If I have a lethal enemy, why wouldn't I speak about it? If there is only one power that can rob my faith, close the way to heaven, and open a gaping hole towards hell, why wouldn't I talk about it?

The enemy does not go away if I turn away from it or stop talking about it.

Of course, to be in balance, there is grace. Even the studies in his time spoke of a phenomenon where he described it, that reason blocks the sun. Like moon blocks the sun, reason blocks the sun of grace.

And he explained it, how feelings disappear. He said, the feeling of sin disappears. And then the feeling of grace disappears. Which is logical. If there is no sin, what do you do with grace?

The soul. Temptations disappear, he said. Fear disappears, he said. All the elements of faith disappear. And what is left is death.

Like James writes in his letter, of temptations. How temptations cause sin. And the same goes for the spirit of sin. The spirit of sin is the spirit of sin. And when sin is fulfilled, it causes death.

And of course, we understand that in death he speaks about spiritual death. Losing the greatest gift. The gift of faith.

So, some thoughts about sin.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

Who is talking? My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

It's King David.

King David stayed home when he should have gone to the war. He was in the midst of the war. And when he stayed at home, he fell into temptation.

I don't know how it happened. My imagination may be to go too far. But I have thought that he knew Bathsheba. Maybe he was looking for something and he found it. But I don't know how he did it. He found when Bathsheba was bathing.

Neighbor's life.

So he fell into temptation. And he fell into adultery. He fell into sin.

Sin fights against faith. Sin does not expand our understanding nor increase our strength. It weakens us.

He kept silence. He cried all day long. He felt the pain. Day and night God's hand was heavy upon him. He felt it. He knew it. The sin that he had fallen into troubled him.

What did it lead him to? Bathsheba became pregnant and sent a message to the king that I have a child. I am pregnant.

And the war was long. And Uriah, the husband, was on the battlefield.

He kept his silence. He did not want to talk about it. He tried to, I guess at least, that's what I have tried many times, to forget it. To brush it aside. I don't want to talk about it.

And he invited Uriah home, hoping that when Uriah would stay at home, he would go and sleep with his wife. And then the pregnancy would have a natural kind of explanation. And maybe somebody would think that to be a preeminent child, he is pretty well formed.

But anyways, he tried to cover it. And he was unsuccessful. God didn't allow it to happen. Uriah didn't want to go there. He followed the rules. The rules were, you don't approach your wife during the war.

So, David did not want to admit it. He didn't want to talk about it. His strength went to less and less.

He wrote a message. And I don't know how he could have done that. He gave it to Uriah. And Uriah gave it to his leaders in the war. And the message was put Uriah into the heaviest battle, withdraw and let him die.

Just like the prophet said. You killed him with the sword of the neighbor country army.

David fell into another sin. Or well, in lying to Uriah, he fell already into sin. But again, so it's a spiral that leads only downwards. And it sucks the power.

I know what I'm talking about. I battled throughout my life against sin. I fallen into sin enough to know what I'm talking about.

And that's how he felt.

Then God sent the prophet.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.

How do you confess to the Lord?

I remember, I was a high school student. I think I was a senior or something like that. And I went to play volleyball with a couple of my friends who were not believers. They were from a self-righteous home.

And they pulled me to the evening devotion of their way. And that tipped my bottle.

When I listened to that self-righteous sermon, I started talking to them on our way back home. I don't believe that way.

And we talked about sin. Because that's the issue. And how, what to do with unforgiven sin.

And those, those my age men, they said that we beg for forgiveness from God. We confess the sins to God.

I said, I remember I think I could pretty much pinpoint the place where we stood when we talked.

They said, you have made it so easy to yourselves.

I said, no! It's painful to confess. It's shameful to confess to God.

And I remember that the joy my heart jumped with joy when God gave me the thought.

And I said there's nothing that you can confess to God that He doesn't know already. He knows it already.

And I remember how they kind of their tools dropped from their hands. And they started coming to services.

But their parents stopped it. They didn't allow them to come. They came a couple of times. But the parents who lived elsewhere they came to get them home on Wednesdays that they were unable to go to service.

And weekends they always had to go home. So the parents didn't allow them to go.

One of those brothers is now a preacher in his church. I wonder if they would recall the discussion that we had.

And so I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.

This is what the worldly churches think they're yes. I confess my transgressions to God. That's what we hear all the time on Mission Pips.

God has revealed us through His word and through our life's experience.

What does it mean? How do we confess it to the Lord?

Like Luther teaches us very simply, we confess that we are sinners to all manner of sin as we say and pray in the Lord's prayer.

But to confess our Father we confess only those things which we know which trouble our hearts.

David had no problem knowing what troubled his heart. He had been crying all day long. Day and night God's hand was heavy on him.

And when that happened he says, Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

God forgave him through a believing man. That's how God operates.

And this is it's so interesting when, you know, I think I share the thoughts of the speaker brothers here when we go to say to those care sinners where we preach to the people who are of age some are very firm in their understandings. They accept the word except this. They hear the word they follow the Bible message and they say, yeah it was very biblical. But that part they reject. It's too lowly.

This hymn that we sang the dear song leader who picked the song kept a good free sermon for us. It strips all majesty from us and it puts us into the Calvary with all the sinners.

God is against pride and he gives his humble to the poor. To the humble. He sends rich ones empty away. That's what he says in his word.

But oh how much he blesses the weak ones. The poor ones. He, God encourages us. The weak ones. The poor ones. But sends rich ones empty away. That's how God works.

The word of grace. The word of God encourages and emphasizes how God's kingdom is the kingdom of forgiveness of sins.

How we gladly and freely willingly preach the message, the freeing message of the forgiveness of sins.

We are not searchers of the heart. How could we? How could we know what is in a person's heart if they don't say it? If they say it then we know.

But when Jesus kept his sermon on the mount he said blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

There is no better place for a sinner than God's kingdom.

Lauri Taskila said that this is an odd hospital where the ill ones, where the sick ones take care of one another. One is limping this way and the other is limping that way and they help one another.

This is the best place for a sinner. There is so much understanding.

I want to say to you young folks do not believe on the enemy and he says that nobody understands you.

We have been through it. Barely made it. But with the help of God and with the power of the unending gospel we are still believing. And that is a miracle.

Jesus said, Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I have pity on thee.

Remember this story. There was a man, this man who owed ten thousand talents to the king.

One talent by the way have you ever thought about the word talent? Ability or ability to do something. It comes from these words.

And that was money. It was the biggest sum of money.

In that time there were no printed paper bills. It was precious materials. And the value was the weight of it.

And he was very heavy. One talent was it varies that I guess the estimates are tough but they are I think the smallest that I have seen is about twenty pounds.

So a talent of silver or a talent of gold is a big thing. You don't put it in your back pocket and forget it there. You cannot sit. If you sit on it you are going to have a sciatic nerve very bad.

So he owed ten thousand talents.

One talent was worth six thousand days of work.

Six thousand days of work? Depending on how long work weeks are and how long vacation I had in Finland. Six weeks vacation.

Think about it. What a sacrifice when I came here.

So it's about twenty some years between twenty two and thirty years of work.

One talent. He owed ten thousand.

If it's thirty years ten thousand times thirty. Three hundred thousand years.

To have ten thousand talents.

This man owed to his king ten thousand talents.

And the king commanded him to come before him and said pay what you owe.

And he said be patient with me and I will pay you all.

Who do you think could pay to God what we owe to him? No one. No one.

But he didn't have any other way. He just tried to make it up to be able to live.

And his king forgave him all. The whole debt. Everything was forgiven.

He went out and found his fellow servant who owed him a hundred pence.

So one talent was six thousand pence. And this man owed him one hundred.

But the ratio between ten thousand talents and hundred pence is now if my memory serves me right it is oh oh oh oh oh one to three hundred thousand.

Okay.

If somebody has a mortgage of three hundred thousand for their house and they would get a phone call from the bank that unknown anonymous donor has paid for your mortgage congratulations have a good day.

You will get your mortgage papers by mail in about a week.

With ears ringing he puts the receiver on. Nobody puts the receiver now down anymore.

That's right. He puts his smart phone into his right pocket and thinks oh boy this is unreal.

And the believing neighbor would come to the front door and say that I have a funny need but I would need one dollar. Could you please give me a dollar that I'm not sure if I ever can pay it back and you would grab them by the throat right after the phone call from the bank.

You would grab the person by the throat like that and say that I am not going to throw my money less than right.

You have to kind of smile or laugh because it's so absurd. It doesn't make sense.

And that's exactly the parable that Jesus told of an unforgiving heart.

And then he said so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.

This is the kingdom of forgiveness. Where weaknesses are being forgiven. Where there is abundance of sin there is more abundance of forgiveness.

We are to forgive one another. That is very clear teaching of Jesus of God.

And then the third and the last kind of perspective to this matter of forgiveness.

Grace heals and kindles hope.

In John 8 we read when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman. He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?

This happened in the temple of Jerusalem.

This woman was found in sinning. In the act of sinning.

And these men who were Pharisees who were the teachers of the law, who knew the law. They dragged her before Jesus.

And they said, Master, Moses hath in the law said that those should be stoned unto death.

They had witnessed. They were right. They knew exactly. And the word of God was on their side.

They knew the word of God. They were exactly right to the point.

And then they said, but what sayest thou to Jesus?

Jesus, as John writes, stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Bible does not elaborate on what did they write there, or what did he write there.

There is in the Old Testament there is one statement at least where the prophet says that those who will be condemned, their names are written on the ground.

It's interesting. Because those who will make it to heaven, their names are also written. But they are not written on the ground.

You know where they are written. They are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And that's what matters.

So this whole talk about sinlessness has troubled me. I have to say it honestly. It has troubled me.

Because God's word does not put sinlessness as the ultimate demand for making it to heaven.

But it speaks of if your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Those are not being judged on the judgment day whose names are recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life.

This discussion about sinlessness is almost right. Because we fear sin. And we understand that sin steals and robs faith. It's dangerous.

But this matter of our salvation has not been left into our sinful hands. It is in the grace of God.

And the grace heals and kindles hope.

This woman when she was dragged into the temple area she knew that that was the end. She was to be stoned. She saw it from the face of those young men who were ready to kill her.

Right there. Because they, the word of God supported that. He was, according to the law.

And Jesus wrote down. And they still demanded on him.

When they saw him right on the ground, they still demanded on him.

And Jesus said, The one amongst you who is without sin cast the first stone.

And they were all convicted by their own conscience. And they left. Beginning with the eldest.

I have in my heart the thoughts often times been there. And thought about this moment.

When the first, the oldest, the, at that society, he had the most respect of the others.

What did the young ones say the old man turned and took the first step to walk away? What did they think?

Then left the second. And the third. And the fourth.

The stones got dropped from their hands. They were unable to stone. Because their conscience convicted them.

I'm a sinner as well. I have sinned.

She said, No man, Lord.

And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.

That gospel had an advice. A loving and a faithful advice.

That gospel had an advice. Do not sin anymore.

Sin is dangerous.

But there was full grace. Unconditional grace. With the word of exhortation. It was in balance. God is in balance. Always.

It is true that grace is deeper than any one of us can understand.

If we think for our own lives what it has been. How much sin. How many false weaknesses there have been.

The grace has covered it all. And God has promised, I will not forsake you.

My dear brother and sister, there may have been and may be days in the future when the enemy says that you are so sinful. You have used so much grace that you are out of quota.

That is not God's thought towards you. It is what the enemy of the souls wants to push to you.

But God's word encourages us. Both written words and the living word that we hear from the pulpit.

They encourage us to battle against sin and to put sin away.

That our names would stay recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life.

That we could live here in this world happily and hopefully.

Keeping faith, the mystery of faith as Paul says, in good conscience.

Conscience is not the matter. The good conscience. But faith is.

Faith saves us. Not good conscience.

Paul writes elsewhere that I don't know anything between me and God. But I am not saved for that reason.

Faith saves us.

This weak faith that we carry. That weak faith which is like a flickering candle.

Often times we marvel and fear that how am I going to make it? Because I am getting weaker and weaker. My travel is getting worse and worse. I see my sinfulness clearer and clearer.

How am I going to make it? Why doesn't God come right now when I still have a little bit of faith that I would make it to heaven?

We don't need to teach God. He will protect that little flicker of faith.

God knows that you want to believe. If you are sincere before God, fearful and timid, He loves you. And He will take care of you.

It is His joy to take care of you.

You bear much fruit when you want to believe your sins forgiven.

It is pleasing to God that you recognize that I am a sinner and I want to believe.

It is pleasing to God. He never gets tired of that. He doesn't think again this same person. No.

He is pleased because we believe unto Him that we do not see.

Often times it feels that the enemy is more real. Although we don't see him and I don't care to see him.

But it feels like the enemy is more real than God.

The temptations are more real, aren't they?

Those feelings are stronger than the feelings of grace and the kind of trust or whatever God brings.

So it is pleasing to God that we believe unto Him whom we do not see.

God loves you for that very reason.

God wants you to stick with that. To keep that dear to you.

And therefore we speak of sin because it wars against this faith.

Our faith is weak. And sinning never adds or gives increase to faith that we could just believe.

It feels like it extinguishes that little flickering of flame of faith in our hearts.

And that's why we need the oil of the Holy Spirit.

Because that lamp uses this oil of the Holy Spirit to be able to burn.

And like the Ten Virgins parable speaks of the foolish one says our lamps are going out.

They did not have the oil. They did not have the container.

There were two pieces in the parable. The lamp and the container.

And the container was for oil.

You are the containers to one another.

You add the oil just like in the second Kings 5 where the widow lamented her poorness.

And the prophet said get all the empty oil vessels into your home.

Gather as many as you can.

And then they started pouring from empty vessels to one another until all the vessels were full.

It's God's mystery how we empty ones fill one another's vessels.

Dear brothers and sisters uplift your hearts and believe all sins forgiven.

In Jesus name precious atonement blood be thankful and be free.

I came here with many temptations and very weak and I believe my sins forgiven.

Amen.

I want to believe.

That's our joy. That's our blessing. That's our lifeline. That's the source of our strength.

It rekindles the hope and returns the peace.

It washes away sin.

All good things happen because of the forgiveness of sins.

Isn't it wonderful that we have such a gift which is to be used freely as much as needed as often as needed.

There's no limit. There's no quota.

So this is what I put together and with the prayer that God would give you good thoughts we go to the discussion.