John MacArthur: Elements of Joy, Part 3

Elements of Joy, Part 3 (5/1/1988): Another thing that will steal your joy is guilt, the unwillingness to accept forgiveness. For many people, it goes like this: 'I just can't forgive myself,' and you remind them, 'But God forgave you.' 'I know, I know, but God does not understand my standards.'

You have a God complex, my friend. You have just crawled up one ahead of the trinity. You can't forgive you for what God has long ago forgiven you for. That is a massive ego problem. And for many people it's that one sin, they've got one sin somewhere in their life or one little period of sin and they can't forgive themselves for that so they literally limp through life, always going back to that one thing which is a non-issue with God which is a joy thief in their life.

What a waste of energy, what a waste of needless guilt. That's why I don't see any virtue in poking around to discover sin. . . . I don't think I need to poke around to find hidden sin. If God is in my life at work, He'll bring it to the fore. The problem isn't finding it, the problem is dealing with it.