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Session Eight Answers

1. What does it mean to experience conviction of sin? Please share an example of conviction in your own life.

Larry’s Answer: Conviction of sin is not only an awareness of personal failure, but also how that failure must be accounted for before a Holy and just God.

I think the first time I noticed conviction in my life was very young. I was with my dad at a business appointment and was left alone in an office while dad and the business person conferred out in the hallway. I became intrigued with the paper clip dispenser on the desk and started playing with it. I heard them coming back to the office, so I quickly slid one of the paper clips in my pocket and put the dispenser back where it had been. Sure enough, no one noticed what I had done, and I walked out of that office feeling pretty good about myself. I had swiped a paper clip!

As I got home and started playing with the paper clip, it dawned on me that what I had done was wrong. I had taken something that did not belong to me, and although it did not seem like a big deal, I realized that God was not happy with how I had behaved.

I could tell other stories, like the time I was pulled over on the way to work soon after being licensed to drive. The officer gave me a speeding ticket, and I lived under conviction for months—hoping my dad wouldn’t find out about it. My dishonesty with my parents bothered me more than the ticket. They never found out about it, but eventually I felt that I needed to tell them so that I could have a clear heart before God.

Diane’s Answer: It means that we feel guilty, that the little voice inside—our conscience (together with the Holy Spirit if we are saved)—tells us we have done wrong. There have been many instances of conviction in my life, but here’s one: occasionally, I have a day of being ill-tempered and “snappy” at those around me (usually Larry!). On those days, the Holy Spirit brings conviction by making me feel miserable (even more miserable than I felt before becoming irritable), and He reminds me that I am hurting someone I love. I feel miserable until I am willing to change my attitude and seek forgiveness from God and Larry.

2. Explain how the feeling of guilt is removed from our lives.

Larry’s Answer: Guilt is removed when sin is dealt with. When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and confess our sin, we can experience true forgiveness. As we discussed in this session, true confession involves restitution when possible, and a true commitment to try to live a different life. Once I have experienced God’s forgiveness and have tried to make things right the best I can, I have to let go of my guilt and choose to live as one of God’s children whom He loves.

I think we carry guilt from mistakes we have made, because we feel that our failures have somehow defined us as less than we were before we made the mistakes. The way out of that feeling of guilt is true humility. We are loved by God—not because of our sinless perfection, but because of God’s grace. You might think others have not failed nearly as much as you have, but that is where you are probably wrong. Their failures may be different, and they may even carry themselves in spiritual pride because they did not make the same mistakes that you made; nonetheless, they have failed before God in other ways, and God’s love for them is also because of grace. No one is better than another. We have to accept our own humanity, deal with our sin when necessary, and refuse to be defined by a society that wants us to feel shame and guilt. God’s forgiveness should set us free to start over, and we should always have the assurance that God truly loves us unconditionally.

Diane’s Answer: First, we must repent of the sin that we have done or are doing—turn away from it—then turn to God, confessing that sin to him and asking for fresh cleansing by the blood of Christ. If a person has not yet been born again, he or she must acknowledge their sinful condition before God and the fact that they cannot become righteous on their own, and then accept Christ’s righteousness that God offers as a gift.

After we have received God’s forgiveness, when necessary, we need to take steps to make things right with the people we have sinned against or hurt by our sinful choices. And if the feeling of guilt remains after we have done what we could to make things right, then we need to continue evaluating with the help of the Holy Spirit and perhaps a trusted spiritual counselor. Is there someone whose forgiveness we have failed to seek? Is there some wrong we have not yet acknowledged? Does the guilt persist because someone else has not extended forgiveness? Could it be that we are just not letting it go?

Sometimes, we go on feeling guilty because others will not forgive us. At other times, I think we hold onto guilt because we think feeling guilty is a way of being humble and sorry for what we have done. But that is a false humility. Yes, we are sorry for what we have done, but no, we do not have to wallow in guilt for the rest of our lives to try to show everyone that we are still sorry. If God has forgiven us and we have done all we could to seek the forgiveness of others, we have to choose to focus on the truths of God’s Word and hold onto His promises—similar to how we gain assurance of our salvation. When doubt or guilt creeps in, we have to go back to God’s Word.

3. Discuss what the love of God means to you and give an example of how you have noticed the love of God in your life.

Larry’s Answer: To be loved by God is to be accepted and embraced no matter what. God sees the potential that we possess as His beloved, and He will never tire of challenging us to meet that potential; but He loves us during the process of growth. I truly believe that God loves me now exactly where I am, and furthermore, God has loved me all along the journey. There have been times that I was very hard on myself and did not allow myself to feel God’s love, but God was always there in my life, loving me all the same.

I have especially felt the love of God in some of my darkest hours. My mother passed away in 2001, and I felt God so close in my life during those days after her passing. I felt God so close after my first pastorate did not turn out so well. I was very young and inexperienced, and made some people mad. Yet God was there in the form of a sweet mother-like lady who stopped by the parsonage and told me that God had laid on her heart to help me. She counted out fifteen one-hundred dollar bills into my hand and then hugged my neck. She whispered in my ear, “Pastor, you are God’s man, and you are one of the most wonderful pastors I have ever heard preach. Don’t you dare let these cranky people discourage you and make you quit.” That was God’s love in my life. I could go on and on. God has been there in my lows and in my highs. I have felt God’s love when I have achieved, but also when I have failed. God has never left me and has always helped me. Why, just this morning, I had a sweet time of fellowship with God on my knees. What a wonderful joy it is to have the Holy Spirit guiding me closer to God each and every day!

Diane’s Answer: To me, the love of God means that He is always reaching out to me to draw me into a deeper relationship with Him. When I was unsaved, God was reaching out to draw me to salvation; now that I am His child, God continually reaches out to draw me closer.

One of the many ways in which I have seen God’s love in my life is the fact that I was born to Christian parents who made many sacrifices to rear me in the ways of Christ. As far back as I can remember, church has always been an important part of my life because it was important to my parents. But it wasn’t just church. It was important to my parents that each of their children would grow to recognize our own responsibility before God and that we would individually make the choice to be born again and follow in Christ’s love. So, to that end, my parents taught me at home and also faithfully took me to a Bible-believing church from the time I was very young.  When I say faithfully, I mean every time the church was having a service or an event—for our church, that meant we were there at least three times each week. In addition, my parents sacrificed to send my brothers and me to our church school to further expose us to Bible teaching alongside academics. My parents were serious about showing us the love of Christ! And it worked…

4. Discuss how David’s sin was dealt with by the Holy Spirit. What was it that made David feel better?

Larry’s Answer: In Samuel 12, God dispatched a prophet to tell David a story—you know, one of those stories with a hidden message. David was pulled into that story and responded the way that the prophet knew he would. David said, “Who is this man who has done such injustice—he must surely die.” The prophet pointed to him and said, “You are the man in the wrong.” Conviction grabbed David’s heart, and he realized that he had done wrong. Not just against Uriah, not just against Bathsheba, but more importantly David had sinned against Almighty God. The closing words of 2 Samuel 11 always have grabbed me, “But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.”

David was brought to acknowledge the responsibility of his sins before God, and he thoroughly confessed what he had done. What truly made David feel better was coming clean with God. He confessed his sins and tried to make things right. David still suffered the consequences of his actions, but God was gracious to him and forgave him.

Diane’s Answer: The Holy Spirit took away David’s joy and replaced it with the guilt of conviction. In Psalm 32, David describes the sense of guilt as his body wasting away and as God’s hand of discipline being heavy on him all the time. After a full year of this conviction, the Holy Spirit also sent a prophet to confront him about his sin. The only way David felt better was to admit that he had sinned against God and to ask for cleansing.

5. Chastening is designed by God to bring us to a place of greater maturity. How do you think God might bring chastening into a person’s life?

Larry’s Answer: I can answer this question from my years as a pastor. Various people have pointed to things in their life as chastening from God. They have told me that God has withheld his blessings in certain ways, or that God had taken things away from them that they held dear. All because they would not turn from their sins and confess them to God. I have had people tell me that their health had failed, they had lost their families, their jobs and other things because of sin they refused to deal with.

Even so, I think we tend to think of God’s chastening as extreme things—and sometimes no doubt it is—yet sometimes, God’s chastening is not as severe but just as effective. I like the joke that golfers often tell:

This pastor was mad at his church, discouraged with his ministry, and totally frustrated. He decided he would take a “sick day” on Sunday and slip away out of town to play golf. So he got an early tee time (booked under an assumed name) and showed up to the golf course that Sunday morning. He had never played golf on Sunday, and he feared the wrath of God. To the contrary, and much to his surprise, things could not have gone better. The weather was perfect; he felt incredible; and he really started to have a good time, enjoying the solitude of the wide-open spaces of the course. Why, he was playing so well that on the 8^th tee, he had such an amazing shot that he scored a hole-in-one—the first time in his life. Elated, he looked up to Heaven and asked God, “I don’t understand. Here I am out of church—mad at my people—and thinking about quitting the ministry. I am playing golf on Sunday and you are blessing me like this? Wow.” God replied, “Son, just think about it. Blessings? Are you sure? Now, just who do you suppose you are going to tell about your first-ever hole-in-one?”

I think God made his point, and I suppose that was the last time that preacher took a sick day on Sunday to play golf.

Diane’s Answer: I think God’s chastening is as varied as the people who experience it and the paths of sin they have chosen. When I think of chastening, I picture God putting a road block (or many road blocks) on that path of sin so that we have to stop and turn to Him. Perhaps chastening could be a disease, a difficult relationship, a financial disaster, loss of a job, a car accident, loss of someone you hold dear, or a combination of problems.