[0:00] Let us pray. You are indeed, O Lord our God, the faithful God. You're not changeable. You're not, O Lord, the God who prevaricates, the God who jumps between one position and another, the God who changes his mind.
[0:19] You're not like us, O Lord. You are totally, completely, eternally, faithfully the same in every way. Lord, we thank you that though you are faithful, we confess that we are not.
[0:32] We confess, O Lord, that so often our feelings and our thoughts and our attitudes towards you change. One minute we're trusting, one minute we're rejoicing in your goodness and thanking you for your son.
[0:45] The next minute, Lord, we're moaning and complaining. One minute, Lord, we're seeking to follow in your word and your ways and be faithful to you. The next moment of temptation comes, we find our hearts falling into sin and our lives, O Lord, wandering from your straight and righteous path.
[1:04] Lord, we thank you that where we are faithless, you are faithful. And yet, Lord, it's our desire to bring before you our worship and our praise.
[1:15] We know, O Lord, that's only possible because of your faithfulness. Lord, you don't receive us and accept us because we are good or faithful or righteous. Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves.
[1:27] Every thought, every intention of our hearts, every word that comes from our lips, Lord, you know it completely. You see all the good and, Lord, you see all the bad.
[1:38] And, O Lord, we thank you that in spite of all the bad, and there is a lot of that, Lord, we thank you that you love us and you forgive us. Forgive us, O Lord, not blindly or in a careless way.
[1:52] You forgive us, O Lord, only because an amazing price has been paid to purchase that forgiveness. You forgive us, O Lord, because of Jesus, your Son, who has taken upon himself all our guilt and shame.
[2:05] He's taken upon himself the punishment that is rightfully ours, and he has dealt with it once and for all when he died in our place as our substitute on that cross outside Jerusalem those years ago.
[2:20] We thank you that that was a once for all and forever final payment for all the sins of all the people who will ever put their faith and trust in him. We thank you that this morning as we come, as we come, O Lord, and confess our sins, we know that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sin.
[2:38] But we don't want only to be forgiven, and though we thank you for that, we want to be free from the power of sin. We thank you that Jesus' resurrection has done that too. By his death and by raising from the dead, he conquered sin and death on our behalf, and by the power of his resurrection life in us, we too are able to live, O Lord, those lives which are new, those lives which are pleasing to God, those lives, O Lord, which honour and reflect you to the world around about us.
[3:08] And that's why we're here, because, Lord, we're not there yet. There's still a work to be done in us of transforming and changing, of renewing us and making us the men and women that we were meant to be, created to be, that you long for us to be, the people actually we long to be.
[3:25] O Lord, we pray that even as we meet this morning, you would be at work in our hearts and lives, changing and fashioning and shaping us, setting us free, Lord, from those things that bind and ensnare and spoil and ruin and bring sorrow and grief, setting us free to follow and walk in your ways and your word, in the joy of our salvation.
[3:47] O come, Lord, by your spirit, we pray, minister amongst us, draw from us that praise, give glory and honour to your Son, Jesus, in whose name we bring you our prayers now.
[4:00] Amen. Please, would you pick up your Bible and would you find Luke and chapter 7? Luke and chapter 7.
[4:12] And that's on page 1036, if you've got one of the Red Church Bibles, page 1036, Luke and chapter 7.
[4:24] We've been about four weeks, I think, at least since we were in the Gospel of Luke, but we'll pick up the events from verse 36. Verse 36 to the end of the chapter.
[4:36] Luke 7, verse 36. Let's hear the word of God. When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
[4:56] A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
[5:08] As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
[5:20] When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who's touching him and what kind of woman she is.
[5:31] She is a sinner. Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said.
[5:42] Two people owed money to a certain money lender. One owed him 500 denarii, the other 50. Neither of them had the money to pay him back.
[5:53] So he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.
[6:08] You've judged correctly, Jesus said. Then he turned towards the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house.
[6:18] You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss. This woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
[6:32] You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown.
[6:44] But whoever has been forgiven little, loves little. Then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven. The other guests began to say among themselves, who is this?
[6:59] Who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. If you could have Luke and chapter 7 open in your Bible, that would be a big help, as we look at this event in the life of our Lord Jesus, and draw from it some help, some encouragement, I hope, some challenge as well, too.
[7:27] If you were brought up in a small community, a bit like Whitby, or a village, or a small town, or in my case, an island, then it can be very difficult, if you live all your life there.
[7:39] Because everybody knows your business. Everybody knows your past. Everybody knows what happened at certain times in your life.
[7:49] And it's almost as if you're always marked out by those things. All our failures, all our mistakes, our calamities and sorrows, a common knowledge to everybody else.
[8:06] Even when you're an adult, you're still known as the boy who sprayed graffiti on the side of the school wall. Or you're known as the girl who was caught smoking behind the bike shed.
[8:19] It's always there. Worse, of course, if our sins lead to trouble with the police, or imprisonment, or an unplanned pregnancy, then we're tarred with that brush forevermore.
[8:34] Always when we're spoken about by others. Always in their mind. No matter what we achieve, no matter how much success, later on, our past is never forgotten.
[8:49] The woman who gate-crashed the Pharisees' party was just such a woman. In the small community of her village, she was known as a sinner.
[9:04] Everybody thought she was no good. Whatever her past had involved, and we're not told what it was, she was never allowed to forget it by the community.
[9:18] They thought that she was beneath them. She was always stained with that sin. Yet her encounter with Jesus in that Pharisee's house at that meal is one of the most touching events in the life of Christ.
[9:36] Because here we witness the power that forgiveness brings. The power that it brings even to a tainted life, a broken life, a life that everybody else has written off, the life that Christ treasures deeply.
[9:56] The sort of forgiveness that heals wounds. The sort of forgiveness that sets free those enslaved from their past. Forgiveness that brings the greatest experience of joy and peace that any person can know in this life.
[10:16] But also when we witness forgiveness, forgiveness, we also witness ugliness. The ugliness of self-righteousness. The ugliness of pride.
[10:29] In the thoughts and the words and the actions of Simon the Pharisee, we see just what it means to live as someone who has no need of forgiveness. Someone who is blind to their real self and therefore marred in their view of others.
[10:46] Two very different people but found in the same place. Found in the presence of Jesus. How did they get there?
[10:59] Well, we know for sure that Jesus was there in the house of Simon because he'd invited him there. Simon the Pharisee. Pharisees were that ultra-religious sect.
[11:13] That group that were so sure that they had got religion pinned down. That they were good people. And that they were by far better than everybody else.
[11:28] Quite a rare experience actually for Jesus to be invited to a Pharisee's house. He was more used to spending his time with those people who the Pharisees despised.
[11:40] Earlier on, we read about how they took exception to him. In chapter 5 and verse 30, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to Jesus' disciples.
[11:52] Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Tax collectors were known for being corrupt, working for the Roman occupying forces, skimming off the surface extra money.
[12:06] And even just the verse or so before we read this event in Luke 7, Jesus reminds the people what they think of him. The Son of Man, that's Jesus' title for himself, came eating and drinking and you say here's a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
[12:27] So for him to be in the presence of the Pharisees was a rare thing. And he'd been invited by Simon. We're not sure why he'd invited him. Whether it was that he had any interest in Jesus' teaching, whether he wanted to be a disciple or not, that seems unlikely.
[12:45] In fact, he doesn't seem to like Jesus very much. Seems to despise him as well. Maybe he'd invited him there to get him to say something that he could trap him in his words.
[12:58] That's what other Pharisees did. And in fact, it seems there were other Pharisees there, other friends of Simon who also took exception to Jesus, especially when he began to say, your sins are forgiven.
[13:16] They were in the house. As was the habit and the custom in that day, they reclined at the table, didn't have like we would have, a table and chairs all around. Everybody would have a cushion upon which they would lean with their left shoulder and eat from the table with their right hand.
[13:32] So their body was prostrate, laid out, head towards the table, feet away from the table. I know a few people whose feet away from the table would make things much nicer.
[13:44] But there we are. That wasn't necessarily the reason why their feet were that end. That's because they were reclining, as we're told here. And into this scene, into this meal, enters this notorious woman of the town.
[14:02] It must have been very daunting for her to do that. It must have been a very scary thing. There were the Pharisees, the people she knew who talked about her behind her back and who looked down on her. But she still came in in spite of her fear, in spite of her anxiety.
[14:17] She came in because she'd learned that Jesus was there. And there was nothing that was going to keep her away from Jesus. She had to see him. She had to be near him.
[14:29] And as she comes in, we find that she's already beginning to break down in tears. And as her tears began to fall onto his feet, it would seem natural that she knelt there at his feet.
[14:44] Her tears, which were profuse, not just a few, but many, were such that they wet Jesus' feet enough that she dried his feet with her own hair.
[14:58] Again, something that was not acceptable in that day. Women had to have their hair up in public. You wouldn't let your hair down. It was a disgrace, but she didn't care. Once she's wiped his feet with her hair, she begins to kiss his feet.
[15:15] And then she takes from her neck a very small bottle, alabaster bottle that was only tiny, but it would have contained a very fine, expensive ointment or perfume.
[15:27] And she begins to pour that over his feet as well. It's an act of incredible devotion. It's an act of amazing love by anyone's standards to so humble themselves, to so, in the midst of others, show such genuine love, genuine adoration.
[15:49] Everything that she does in that room proclaims before everybody else that she loves Christ, that she loves Jesus with an unapologetic love.
[16:04] Whatever they wanted to think of her, she did not care. She must show her love for him. Love has to be acted upon, doesn't it?
[16:15] It can't just be a song or a word. It has to be something that is seen. It's something that is visible, something that is tangible. Love is not simply a feeling or a lust or an emotion.
[16:28] And true love, genuine love, is willing to risk all. Willing to risk being mocked or ridiculed or judged or despised.
[16:40] Willing to be shown whatever the cost, whatever the price. before we ask ourselves why this extravagant love for Christ, we need to notice the other person in this story.
[16:58] The other person whose attitude to Jesus is very contrary, opposite. We're given an insight into this man's mind. This very religious man, this man who wasn't gossiped about, perhaps, who had no skeletons in the cupboard, who thought very highly of himself.
[17:23] We get an insight into his mind that although he invited Jesus to a meal which was in itself surely a sign of respect for him, at least outwardly, the reality is the opposite.
[17:40] He has no respect for Jesus and no love for him. His immediate reaction to this woman's lavish love is to judge Jesus a fraud, a pretend man of God.
[17:54] Look at what he says or we're told is in his mind. Verse 39, when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, if he was who he claims to be, sent from God, somebody who knows the mind of God, the will of God, he would know what sort of woman this woman was who was touching him.
[18:18] He would know that she was unclean, unacceptable. He would know that she was a sinner and he would have had nothing to do with her just as we Pharisees have nothing to do with sinful people.
[18:32] His prejudice against Jesus was proven correct by his thoughts towards him. By what he read into Jesus' acceptance of her affection shows that he was blinded to Jesus.
[18:48] He was looking for more opportunities to judge him and to undermine him. It's very easy to find evidence if we want to look for it, for our disbelief, in God.
[19:03] It's very easy if you want to pile up evidence and proof to support your own desires and own beliefs about Jesus or Christianity. We can find them anywhere.
[19:15] We can look at the church and we can say well there's the church, there are Christians who sin and fail and they make mistakes and they're, well that shows that this Christian gospel doesn't need to be trusted or believed and I can continue in my sinful life, I can continue in my own prejudice belief against God, I can continue as I am because I can find all sorts of reasons, I can find all sorts of contradictions in the Bible, I can find all sorts of reasons in science, I can find everything I need to back up what I think so that I don't have to trust Christ or come to God.
[19:54] I wonder if you're like that, piling up the evidence, giving yourself just reason not to trust or love Christ.
[20:05] That's what this man was doing but Jesus was about to undo him. Now notice how gentle Jesus is with him. Jesus clearly knows his mind, we're told Jesus answered him, he hadn't spoken a word but Jesus knows the very thoughts, he is God, he knows your thoughts and mine, he knows exactly what you're thinking now.
[20:27] And Jesus doesn't come down on him like a ton of bricks and say you arrogant so and so, you prejudiced, thoughtless, heartless man, does he?
[20:38] He's even gentle with this man, even with a man who has no gentleness in himself, he's caring towards a man who has no care for others. He says Simon I have something to tell you.
[20:51] And he begins to tell him this parable. And in that parable Jesus makes Simon very aware that he knows his thoughts and very aware that he knows exactly what this woman was like.
[21:05] It's a brief parable and it puts Simon and the woman at the heart of it, doesn't it? These two unnamed debtors, these two people who've taken out unsecured loans as it were, are meant to be Simon and the woman.
[21:21] And there it is, two people owed money to a money lender. One owed 500 denarii, that's nearly two years wages.
[21:34] The other 50, nearly two months wages. There's a disparity between them. One's a very large amount, one's a smaller amount, but they both owe. And neither of them can repay, do you notice that?
[21:47] Neither of them have the facility to, neither of them have the money, neither of them have anything to sell, they are both at the mercy, as it were, of the money lender. But he cancels the debt of both of them.
[22:07] He wouldn't be very long in the business, would he, as a money lender, if he kept cancelling everybody who owed him money. He'd be bankrupt very quickly, so it's not a highly likely situation, but in one sense Jesus says, suppose he did this, imagine he did this, Simon, which of them would love that generous benefactor more.
[22:26] Simon replies, I suppose, the one who had the bigger debt forgiven, do you get that? Begrudgingness in his voice, I suppose. I know exactly what you're saying, I know exactly what you're getting at, and I begrudge saying this, but yeah, I suppose, the one who owed the most.
[22:47] Simon's unwilling to acknowledge that he's anything like this woman. He's unwilling to be bound in one sense as like one who has a debt of sin that's owed and needs forgiveness.
[23:08] That's why he's so judgmental. That's why he's so hard on her and hard on Jesus because in his own heart, in his own mind, he is not a sinner. He's not done anything really wrong enough to be called a sinner.
[23:23] Yes, of course, like everybody else, he knew God's law and commandments and he knew that he hadn't perfectly kept them but he'd done his best. He was a good person, a righteous man.
[23:40] You see, that blind spot that he had to his own sin, to acknowledging that he needed Jesus' pardon, he needed Jesus' forgiveness. That blind spot had distorted his vision completely so that everybody else's sin was magnified.
[23:55] Everybody else was worse than him. Everybody else's faults were glaring. His were not to be seen. We're good at that, aren't we? Haven't we got that sort of dual vision? We look at the sins of somebody else and say, oh, what a terrible thing to do.
[24:09] What awful people. How horrible. And we look at our sins and say, oh, it's only just a tiny speck, isn't it? It was only a white lie that I said. It wasn't really anything nasty such as the distortion of the human heart that it will magnify other sins and minify its own.
[24:33] When we refuse to recognize our own sins, dear friend, it's not a sign that we're good people. When we say we haven't sinned and we're good people, it doesn't mean that we are. It just means that we're deceived, self-deceived.
[24:46] In fact, it's the glaring proof that actually we are more wicked than we could ever imagine. Remember that parable that Jesus told and we looked at it just a few weeks ago in Luke chapter 6.
[25:00] Verse 37, do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. And then Jesus gives that wonderfully visible parable, doesn't he?
[25:13] Verse 41, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? In other words, we're very good at pointing out other people's sins but we don't have any time for our own.
[25:30] So was Simon. I suppose the one who was forgiven the most. Jesus applies this parable to Simon and the woman.
[25:41] He contrasts the two people and their feelings towards Jesus and their actions towards him as well. And so from that parable Jesus says this, do you see this woman?
[25:53] In one sense he's forcing him to recognize her. Because again in Simon's world she was an invisible woman. she didn't matter.
[26:06] She wasn't important. If he saw her in the street he'd never acknowledge her. But Jesus is saying well look at her. Look at what she's done and now be convicted.
[26:18] Now be aware of your own sin. And he points to the fact that Simon has failed dismally in his actions as a host.
[26:29] See if you were invited to somebody's house as Jesus was then there were certain things that custom dictated in those days. Certain things that were expected of you as the host for your guests.
[26:40] The first of them is that you would provide some water or even a servant to wash their feet. They would have been out in the dusty streets all day with some sort of sandals upon their feet if they had shoes.
[26:53] And so when they came to your house you would offer this washing. He hadn't done that had he? Simon hadn't bothered. Such was his disdain for Jesus. The woman though when Jesus was lying at the table reclining she came in and washed his feet with her tears and her hair.
[27:14] And then also if you were the host or guest came in you would greet them with a kiss on the cheek. It was expected. It was a sign of welcome a sign of embrace.
[27:26] We see that of course don't we? Still on the continent we go to France or Spain or Italy you'll often see people greeting each other with a kiss or welcoming each other into their homes with a kiss but Jesus had no welcome from this man.
[27:40] There was no kiss given to him or offered to him but what of this woman? She's kissed Jesus' feet over and over again such was the joy at his presence such was the delight at being with him and him being with her.
[27:57] And then likewise a guest who was coming to an evening meal would expect just a small amount of olive oil to be placed on their forehead with which they could refresh their face. Remember this is a hot country.
[28:08] Face would be dried up from the heat of the day. A bit of olive oil spread over the face would be refreshing. A bit of after sun we can put it that way. Simon hadn't provided such olive oil cheap as it was regular as it was common as it was it was no price to him to give it.
[28:25] This woman had taken her most precious perfume that which was very costly and expensive and she'd poured it over the feet of Jesus and rubbed it into his feet.
[28:37] Nothing was too good for him. Nothing was too expensive that it should be kept back from him. She was willing to give of the very best that she had.
[28:49] And so we have the stark contrast don't we of love and hate of affection and disdain of delight and indifference.
[29:03] How do we account for this? How do we account for these two attitudes? How do we account for these two attitudes that are in the world today?
[29:14] Because in the world today we are separated into two very opposite groups of people. Not because of colour, not because of language, not because of country, not because of Europe or Brexit.
[29:27] We are separated between those who love Jesus and those who hate Jesus. Those who delight in him and those who have no time for him. And the question is why?
[29:38] Why is it that there are people who love Jesus and are delighted in him and rejoice in him and would gladly give everything for him even their own lives and there are those who have no time for him and count him but just some historical, mythical figure?
[29:57] Well, Jesus explains it's all to do with our sense of forgiveness. It's all to do with our sense of forgiveness. Simon believed that he had very little sin.
[30:09] No sin really. Insignificant sin. And if he did have any sin, whatever he thought about it, his religion, his good works, his keeping the law would be more than enough to earn his acceptance by God and entrance into eternal life.
[30:27] He thought himself in no need of forgiveness. He thought himself in no need of God's mercy or grace. He thought himself to be okay.
[30:37] And yet, how come that goodness, that righteousness made him such a nasty piece of work?
[30:50] How come that goodness and righteousness made him so judgmental of others, harsh and critical, made him so unwilling to yield and to believe? If there was goodness in his heart, then surely his first good act would be to love Jesus who loved him and cared for him and gave his life for him.
[31:13] And so I say to you, dear friends, this morning, those of you whose hearts are not filled with love for Christ, who have no time for him, who see no need of forgiveness, but think yourselves to be okay, good people.
[31:28] Why have you no love for one who is so lovely? If you are so good, why is it that your heart is so hardened against God? Why is it you're so seriously concerned with doing what you want and following your course and living life for yourself?
[31:46] Surely that evidence is that your heart is far from God. Surely that evidence is that really you are in need of forgiveness, that you are a sinner and that God himself is the one that you have to appease.
[32:05] The woman on the other hand here knew she was a sinner. She knew what people said about her. She knew what was in her past. She knew in fact that her sin was so great that she couldn't bear it any longer.
[32:20] She knew that it had separated her from God and from others. She knew that she was undeserving of forgiveness, undeserving of grace. She knew that she was a woman who was cut off.
[32:38] And she knew that nothing she could do, no good acts, no advances, no successes could ever change that situation.
[32:51] She knew that she could never be good enough to make herself right with God. she knew that she could never atone for her sins. But as she enters that room, as she comes to Jesus, she comes as one who knows there is forgiveness of sins.
[33:11] She knows that Jesus is merciful. She knows that God has forgiven her. We don't know how this happened, whether she had heard the teaching of Jesus.
[33:23] Remember the teaching of Jesus again and again was that he was the friend of sinners, that he received the lost. Remember how when people came to him, that man who was paralyzed, lowered by his friends, Jesus said to him, your sins are forgiven.
[33:39] Perhaps it was that she herself had met with Jesus. She'd been in the crowd and spoken to him and him to her. We don't know what happens, but we know that what has happened has transformed her.
[33:51] She's not the same woman anymore. She is different. She is free. She is full of overwhelming thankfulness. When she hears that he's in the house, she can't keep herself back from making her love known to him, her thankfulness to him, her gratitude to him.
[34:13] She isn't doing this to win his forgiveness. She isn't doing this to make him forgive her or to have pity upon her, but she's coming with faith and trust in him.
[34:23] Just as we've seen Jesus says to her in verse 50, your faith has saved you. She put her faith and trust in him and in that moment of faith and trust in Christ as the gracious sin forgiver, she herself knew her sins forgiven and the chains fell off and her heart was free and she went forth and followed him.
[34:44] here's a woman who as far as we can tell doesn't yet realize all that Jesus will do for her to earn that forgiveness.
[34:57] Here's a woman who hasn't yet realized as we do that for Jesus to bring forgiveness for her and for her many sins as for us, it meant that he must suffer and die upon a cross, treated as a sinner, treated as a law breaker, treated as one who was abandoned by God.
[35:16] She never knew that and yet such devotion and affection, imagine what it would be like if she had known the cost and the price. Surely her life would have even more been overwhelmingly full of gratitude and love.
[35:31] She had received pardon. Your sins are forgiven. Not they will be, they are forgiven. Now go in peace. She has peace with her past.
[35:44] She has peace with herself. She's been freed from the cloud and the shadow and the shame of all that was before. She is a woman who walks out of that place on air.
[36:01] There is nothing to be compared with the knowledge and the assurance of sins forgiven. sin. But first you have got to acknowledge you are a sinner.
[36:13] You can't have the cure without recognizing the ailment. You can't have the healing without recognizing the wound. And what of Simon here? We know nothing more of him.
[36:25] We don't hear of him changing or being any different. We don't hear of him repenting. We don't hear of him responding in any way. No doubt his attitude was that of the other guests, his Pharisee friends.
[36:35] Who does he think he is forgiving sins? Instead of softening he's hardened. Instead of having a peace which was real and lasting he had a peace which was of his own making.
[36:52] A false peace. A peace that trusted in himself. A peace that would never last and would come shatteringly to an end when he stands before God on the day of judgment.
[37:05] Let me ask you dear friends this morning which one is you? Are you Simon or the woman?
[37:18] You say I could never be the woman. I'm not a sinner. I'm not somebody who's got things in the past of which I'm ashamed. Of course you have. Of course you are.
[37:30] Stop pretending to yourself like Simon did. The question is this. are you going to turn a blind eye to those sins? God won't. God can't.
[37:41] God hasn't. Because at the cross your sins and my sins were laid upon him fully and completely and all their ugliness and all their shame he paid for and suffered for and died for.
[37:58] will you will you be like the woman acknowledging your many sins acknowledging the truth of who you really are and what you're really like but instead of turning a blind eye to it or brushing it under the carpet or hoping it will go away rather you will come to Jesus and say thank you Jesus that you died for me that my sins can be and will be forgiven.
[38:24] thank you that you love me with such a love that took you to the cross a love oh Lord which paid the price which I can never pay which cleared the debt that I can never clear and I love you for it I love you for it let's pray together Lord Jesus just as at that meal you were able to know the thoughts of Simon clearly so you know all our thoughts too you know us exactly as we are you know all the skeletons you know all the shadows you know all the past you know all the things that Lord we're ashamed of the things oh Lord that we know need forgiving and thank you that in your mercy and grace you are gentle with us in showing us our sin as you have done today in showing us that Lord we need above all else above everything else we need forgiveness but that Lord you are willing willing to forgive us and clear the debt and wipe the slate clean and make us right with God and give us assurance and peace peace
[39:50] I want to pray for those this morning who are in that place that oh Lord you would put within their hearts that conviction of sin that conviction that leads to repentance that conviction that leads to faith that conviction that leads to the reception of forgiveness and that gratitude and thankfulness and joy that comes with sins forgiven and I pray for those of us here who know our sins are forgiven but Lord we become complacent with it Lord we've been Christians for a while or for some time or for years and we've become just accepting of the fact that our sins are forgiven it's just a norm it's just an everyday thing it hasn't moved us lately to do anything like this woman has done we've not had any of that sort of passionate burning love that in spite of the cost and in spite of what people think we will make our love known
[40:53] Lord our hearts have become cold dry oh come afresh and reveal to us just Lord what you have done just what you are doing cause us to see again the wonder of the cross and the power of your love cause that love in our hearts which is so small to be found into a flame that we may live love we ask these things again oh Lord with such thankfulness that oh Lord our sins have been forgiven will be forgiven we ask these things in Jesus name Amen Amen