Do you want God to be up in heaven watching for every little thing that you do wrong and
ready to just cloud up and rain on you and give you the maximum punishment or would you
rather that God was a little more lenient and understanding and forgiving with you?
Think about that.
How do you want God to treat you?
Because even if you were to commit a crime today under our earthly justice system and
go to a courtroom, there's not just one penalty laid out for that crime, there's a range.
People will commit a crime and then there will be a range of punishment.
Maybe that crime carries with it six months to five years.
That's a pretty big difference, isn't it?
Going to prison for six months versus five years.
So what is that going to be based on?
It's going to be based on the judge's own discernment or the jury's own discernment
and that allows some room for there to be different varying degrees of punishment based
on the severity of the crime, based on the circumstances, based on the situation.
It provides that human element of judgment where there's a range of punishment that's
given.
Now think about this.
If I were in my home and let's say my kids have been really rebellious and disrespectful,
I might get to the point where I've had enough and I have it in for them and I'm watching
them and I'm just ready for any little mistake that they make, I'm ready to come down on
them.
Other times when the kids are being good and I'm in a better mood, I'm going to be more
lenient and not worry so much about the little things.
Because let's face it, if I were to just expect perfection from my children and be ready at
any little slip up, any little mistake, I'm just going to come down on them, okay, then
they're going to be just constantly getting spanked because nobody's perfect.
And think about it, if God is up in heaven just looking for every time that you just
think a bad thought or do the smallest little thing, he'd be coming down on you pretty hard
every single day.
I mean, if he was really just marking every single mistake that you make.
Does everybody understand?
As opposed to when you're in good standing with your parents, they're not going to come
down on you that hard.
They're not going to be looking for every little thing.
If you're in good standing with the Lord, he's going to be more gracious, but he's going
to be more lenient with you.
He's going to be more forgiving when you make mistakes and when you confess your sins to
him than someone who won't confess their sins.
Someone who's just brazenly living wrong and doesn't care as a Christian is going to get
a lot more severe of a punishment.
It'd be like, for example, let's say when you're driving down the road and the speed
limit is 45 miles an hour.
You're probably going 46, 47, 48, you're probably going 51, 52, because you kind of know that
you have to go 10 over before the police really get on you.
So you usually, you know, if it's 45 you go 50, if it's 65 you go 70.
Who drives that way?
About five above?
Yeah, the entire building, yeah, exactly.
So the point is, you know that that leniency is there.
What if all of a sudden there were just a device in your car that were installed by
the government where every time you go one mile above the, just like, a ticket just prints
out?
If you're in a 35 zone, you go 36, it's just like, "Oh, what in the world, 150 bucks."
You know, or you just barely roll through a stop sign and this computer can know that.
This computer can tell that you rolled through that stop sign.
It's just like, "Oh, we're at a stop sign because you did the California stop."
What I'm saying is that if anybody were that strict with it, you know, we'd all be getting
tickets every single day.
If your parents were that strict, you'd be getting, just like it's happening right now
back there.
But he's not in good standing.
And you know, what I'm saying is that we don't want God, because God knows all.
I mean, God would be even more accurate than that device in your car.
I mean, God knows every thought.
God knows every action that you do.
He really does have that much knowledge about you.
Do you want God to be just up in heaven saying, "You know, every mistake you make, every sin
you commit, every time you slip up, every time you fail to do that which is right, every
time you do something that's wrong, I'm going to be there to come down on you with the maximum
chastening and the maximum punishment."
I mean, who wants to live their life like that before God?
But here's the thing, if that's how you are with other people, that's how God's going
to be with you.
And if you're a person who's very forgiving of other people and when people do wrong and
they're sorry about it, then you are very gracious with them.
You forgive and forget.
You love that person.
You give people a lot of latitude and you're like Jesus who said, "Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do."
Or like Stephen who said, "Lord, let not this sin be laid to their charge."
As people were killing him.
These are people who are going to get great forgiveness from God also.
Because God is going to treat you in regard to forgiveness the way that you treat other
people.
That's what the Bible says.
It says if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you. That's a great promise
That means if I go through life forgiving people that means if I wake up every morning and give everybody a fresh start
And I'm not holding grudges against people from the past that means if I give my wife a fresh start my kids a fresh start
My friends at church a fresh start my friends at work a fresh start
And I'm a forgiving person and and things that people did wrong to me six months ago a year ago two years ago
I've just completely forgotten about you know what that tells me that that's how God's gonna treat me