The Road to Forgiveness...

By Kris Freeman
Revolution Church

Have you ever messed up? Good, keep reading. If you're perfect, it's ok if you stop.

I think I know where the majority of us fall, and I pray you have just a few minutes to share this story too. The road to forgiveness is also the road to unfaithfulness. How you pave it with grace determines how you will ride on top of the story for the rest of your life.

Image: Cars (Pixar)

Lightning McQueen emerged from his trailer from deep sleep into the land of the unknown. A champion race car, he landed in the small forgotten town of Radiator Springs on Route 66 while on his way to the next stop in the Piston Cup Championship.

Pixar is brilliant. An animated movie is not only one of my favorites, but has a pure Gospel story of restoration and forgiveness wrapped in the middle that until just a few weeks ago, I had never noticed? Can I share it with you? I think it will help both of us.

The movie Cars is the story of this young, arrogant champion who found humility and grace at the most incredible of times.

McQueen panics when he realizes he is away from the security of his trailer. He tries to run, but finds himself hopeless. Captured by a local sheriff, he is entrapped and later faces the judge. After trying to escape, he had torn up the only road through the town for the few residents who remained. This once flourishing place was now destroyed because of the remnants of his bad decision. McQueen is ordered to repave the road, hooking up to a machine named Bessie until the work is complete.

Covering his mistakes and making right what was wrong is torture. And several times, he has opportunities to run again, with an open road in front of him. But the most important thing he learns is patience and perseverance to complete the task, and ultimately befriends some of the people he wronged. In the end, he finds the judge that sentenced him is a former Piston Cup Champion. The end of the story is even more brilliant as McQueen is found, takes his new friends to be his crew, and surrenders a shot at the championship to save another car.

He later sacrifices the sponsorship he always dreamed of to remain with his former team and returns to Radiator Springs to unite with his new girlfriend, rebuild the town, and change the course of his career.

Redeeming, yes. But not without pain, was this journey from arrogance and mistake to redemption and forgiveness.

Image: Cars (Pixar)

All of us have been there, hanging from the gripping reality of our mistakes, knowing we have torn up the road. The potholes we create could be everything from gripping consequences, broken relationships, hurtful feelings, terrible mistakes, and it may take a long time to repave what we have destroyed. Sometimes, the road can never be fixed, we only patch what we can and learn that driving over the past will always create bumps in our future, Those consequences are hard.

But it's worth it.

We are scared of transparency. We are scared of people who are willing to see the enemy's weapon and seize it with their own admissions of and transparently work toward a new day.

The Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us of our sins and heal us from all unrighteousness. This is God, and his grace is incredible.

Three lessons from the story of Lightning McQueen that may help you:

1. Confession is the road to Construction

Standing before the judge, he realizes his only hope is to fess up, tell the truth and move forward. But even after doing this, McQueen battles the temptation to bail on the plan and run. But while repaving the road, he learns the value of hard work and his entitled spirit diminishes. He builds the trust of his friends and eventually finds redemption. They don't yet know he is a champion race car, but by the time they find out, he has built enough relational capital to prove to them he is legitimate.

Do what is right to mend what is wrong. IF that is impossible because of the circumstances, then continue paving the road - first in your relationship with God, and second with those that are closest to you. The Prodigal Son (in the Gospel of Luke) didn't run back to the pig pen to fix the pigs. He went HOME to his father. The first step is with God and much of the other may take time to repair, but that first road to forgiveness is with God.

2. Paving reveals the Plan

Pave your mistakes with grace. Here's what is great about the story. Even though Lightning McQueen had to repair the road, the judge of the town and the townspeople paid for the asphalt and the machine. Get that? It's grace. While you are rebuilding the road, God is paying the price. Why does He do this? Because God has a bigger plan than your brokenness.

What McQueen did not know is that when the road was paved, it would boost the morale of the town cars and residents to finally recoup the energy of their once bustling little town. They had lost hope, but through the story of a rebel, they first found the joy of driving on a smooth road again.

When he first tore up the road, imagine their gut wrenching feeling when an already beaten and torn down road was now worse for wear. But they watched as the judge issued the order and the responsible party rebuilt their hopes, all with the tools of the JUDGE. The Great Judge has the ability to press your decisions down on you, but He used His own tools and His own Son to pay the penalty - now the responsibility is to accept the salvation and forgiveness that comes from Him, and then choose to repent as this champion race car did and drive smooth going forward.

3. Challenges change your Cause

When your story becomes the story of Jesus, your future will change. Lightning McQueen decided to abandon his pursuit of the one thing he wanted when an evil counterpart caused destruction, and at the moment of decision, all his previous training in the disciplines of doing what was right took over.

During his recovery, Lightning McQueen learned to value others. He learned respect of his elders. He learned the possibilities that come through forgiveness. He learned who the enemy really was, and it was himself.

When he overcame himself, he revealed a great purpose. He revitalized a town. He found a family. He put a forgotten city, forgotten people and forgotten hero back on the map.

He found grace. And grace repaved the road and taught him a lesson.

Check out this lyric from Unspoken: (watch the video here)

There was a light that found me in darkness
Failing and hopeless barely alive
And for the first time I saw your perfection
In my reflection there in your eyes

My feet are on the ground
My heart is beating now
Your love has showed me how to live

You're my recovery
Changing who I was
To who I'm meant to be
Healing all that's broken
As you wash me clean
Oh you set me free
You're my recovery

This is the day that I'm starting over
I'm taking is slower one step at a time
And the're all the way
But you're here to guide me
Your spirit's inside me and it's changing my mind

My feet are on the ground
My heart is beating now
Your love has showed me how to live

A friend asked me two weeks ago how to fix what they have broken.

Without thinking, praying or even stopping, I responded (with the help of the Holy Spirit) that "the road to forgiveness is the same as the road from unfaithfulness. It all depends on how you pave it."

Everyone needs a fresh start, and there may be much yet to fix.

But let's make it simple.

1. Make it right with God.
2. Put your marriage, family, kids and loved ones first after God.
3. Forgive (and ask for forgiveness from) others.
4. Pave what you can fix, and learn and drive on from what you can't.

There's still a champion inside of you.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K