Hello friends, welcome back to the morning mindset. I hope you're doing well today. I am praying for you. I'm praying for our world as we see the ramifications of sin day after day after day. I'm praying that God will use you to bring transformation in your family, in your community, in your church family.

Well, today we're looking at Proverbs chapter 20 verse number nine. But before we get there, I want to remind you if you have a prayer request or a praise you would like to share with a morning mindset family, you can submit those so that we will include them in a bonus episode we do on Fridays called pray together. You can submit those by going to carry green.com, C-A-R-E-Y, greenlikethecolor.com slash prayer. We would love to pray for you.

Or today Proverbs 20 verse nine says, who can say, I have made my heart pure. I am clean from my sin. Who can really say that? You know, we live in a culture. We live in a world that seems to think that we can redeem ourselves. We even say that phrase. Oh, he redeemed himself. Meaning he made a mistake at some point. And then he kind of made up for it or proved himself.

In some way that shows that was just a one time mistake. You know, that's what we mean. We say that phrase. But the actual meaning of those words for a person to redeem themselves means they have the capacity and the ability within themselves to wipe away their own sin.

And Solomon is asking kind of a rhetorical question here because the answer is obvious. Who can say, I've made my heart pure. I'm clean from my sin. Who can say that? Well, the answer is obvious. Nobody can really say that because we cannot make our hearts pure.

We cannot be assured by our own actions or our own penance or our own prayers or our own endeavors that we have cleaned ourselves from our sin.

Sin is an everlasting stain on the soul of a human being unless unless that sin is cleansed by the forgiving blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, I know it sounds kind of gross to think blood cleanses anything. I mean, we've all dealt with blood in one sense or another, whether from a wound or from an accident we came upon or maybe butching a chicken in the kitchen sink. You know, we see evidence of blood and it's not a pleasant thing.

And friends, that's meant to be that way.

We're supposed to think of it as not a pleasant thing because it wasn't a pleasant thing for the Son of God to hang on across to take the sin of the world and the responsibility for it on himself and to be hung on across to receive the punishment of our holy God for all of that sin.

And you may think that sounds a little strange. It's a little punitive. Isn't God supposed to be loving? Well, it's no different than the kind of punishment or discipline that a wise parent will meet out towards their children.

Except in God's case, he's dealing with the sin of the entire world, everything from white lies to murder and child molestation. I mean, it's all wrapped up and placed on Jesus Christ for those who place their faith in him.

And so the death he died was necessary to pay the price for such a vast amount of sin.

But praise God, he through that death can make any heart pure. He can wash away that eternal stain of sin to where it's no longer eternal.

In fact, it's as wide as snow. It's as if we've never sinned because now he imputes his righteousness to us, which is just a fancy way of saying he gives us credit for his righteousness.

It's this weird exchange where he takes our sin and he gets rid of it and he gives us his righteousness and his life in place of it.

That is the grace of our God and that is the only way, friend, that you can deal with your own sin. And really, it's not you dealing with it yourself at all.

You're just accepting from Jesus the gift of forgiveness that he has provided.

So my friend, have you done that? Now listen carefully, I'm not asking you, have you gone to church? I'm not asking you, have you said certain prayers?

I'm not asking you, have you joined a church and been active in your community? Did you grow up in a Christian home? I'm not asking you any of that. I'm asking you, have you received the gift of forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ?

Lord Jesus, we ask you to speak right now to the hearts of listeners who need to receive your gift of forgiveness.

Touch them with a powerful conviction through your Holy Spirit. Touch them right now with an awareness of their sin and a desperate need to get rid of it.

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