Scripture referenced 8 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
-
Matthew 6:9-13 the Lord's Prayer, prayed aloud together and then quoted verbatim as the sermon's central text
9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Matthew 6:14-15
Jesus warns that if we do not forgive others, the Father will not forgive us
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 22:34
Pharisees ask Jesus the greatest commandment; he answers love God and love your neighbor
34 But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Genesis 3:22
God says the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil, used to establish that all mankind knows right from wrong
22 Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
James 4:1
fights and quarrels come from desires that battle within you
1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Deuteronomy 32:35
vengeance is mine says the Lord and I will repay, leave room for God to act
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 7:2
do not judge or you will be judged; the measure you use will be measured back to you
2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Matthew 18:21-35
Peter asks how many times to forgive; parable of the unmerciful servant who was forgiven a great debt but refused to forgive a smaller one
21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.
23 Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.
24 When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’
27 The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 “But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’
29 “So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’
30 He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due.
31 So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told their lord all that was done.
32 Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me.
33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’
34 His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him.
35 So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was about forgiveness, what it is, what it is not, and why it matters more than most of us have treated it. The preacher walked through the cost of unforgiveness, the shape of real forgiveness, and the clear teaching Jesus gives on the subject. It was practical and honest, drawn from scripture and from ordinary life.
What was said
The sermon opened with a simple but unsettling observation: unforgiveness does real damage to the person holding it. It stops spiritual growth, pulls us off course from the command to love one another, steals our joy and peace, and locks us inside a prison of our own thoughts, where the mind runs on revenge rather than love. The preacher wanted that to land before anything else.
From there he walked the congregation through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, not as a recitation but as an actual prayer. The line he stopped on was "forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors," and he pointed out what comes immediately after in verses 14 and 15: Jesus says plainly that if we do not forgive others, the Father will not forgive us. That was, he admitted, new news to him, and he said God takes forgiveness very seriously.
Before defining what forgiveness is, he cleared away what it is not. Forgiveness is not approval of the wrong. It is not the same thing as trust, because forgiveness is free while trust is earned. And it is not fair, because fairness is not how Jesus operated when he went to the cross while we were still sinners. Those distinctions mattered because people stay stuck when they confuse forgiving someone with saying what happened was acceptable, or with putting themselves back in harm's way.
He was honest that most of us forgive only within a comfortable range. Small slights we just ignore, which is not really forgiveness at all. Very large wounds we declare off limits. In the middle, we manage things as best we can, but bitterness and resentment are a reliable sign that forgiveness has not actually taken root over a given issue. He asked the room to consider whether God might want to expand that range in both directions.
The parable in Matthew 18 was the hinge of the message. A servant forgiven an enormous debt, ten thousand bags of gold, turned around and had a fellow servant thrown in prison over a hundred silver coins. The master's response was fury, and Jesus closes the parable by saying this is how the heavenly Father will treat those who do not forgive from the heart. The preacher read it straight and let it sit.
He closed with a practical shape for what forgiveness can look like: take a full and honest account of what was done, grieve it, bring the anger and bitterness to God in confession, and then make a choice to let it go. He was clear that for some wounds, that choice will have to be made more than once. He also turned it around and said that people who have wronged others need to practice the words "I'm sorry" and "please forgive me" as a regular part of their vocabulary, not just a last resort.
The final minutes held an invitation for anyone who had never received God's own forgiveness to do that right there in their seat. The preacher connected the whole theme of the sermon to the gospel: that Jesus on the cross, having been beaten and humiliated, still said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," and that same forgiveness is available to anyone in the room who wants it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The preacher said that unforgiveness stops our spiritual growth, takes us off course, steals our joy, and puts us in a mental prison. Which of those four effects have you seen most clearly in your own life, and what did that look like?
- He drew a distinction between forgiving and simply forgetting, and described a personal 'range' where he found forgiveness easy in the middle but struggled at the extremes. Where do you find your own range, and what kinds of offenses tend to sit outside it?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,354 words
0:00
Speaker 2Good morning, church family. Will you please stand up and let's worship God. Amen? That's why we are here this morning. I would like for everyone to have this feeling that the the Holy Spirit is in this place.
0:12
Amen? And I'm ready to praise him, and also I'm ready to receive a blessing from him, honestly. So let's sing loud. Don't worry about your neighbor. Just sing.
0:21
Just worship God. Amen? At the end of this hour, would like everyone when we go home to say, man, it was good to be at church. I like that. Don't worry about yourself.
3:01
Amen. Praise God.
3:12
Speaker 1Alright. Well, welcome, guys. We got a couple of announcements for us this morning. First is Iwana Issamara. Yeah.
3:18
You guys can be seated. Thank you. Thank you. Iwana is tomorrow night. That's gonna be 05:45 to 07:30 right here in this room.
3:27
We've also got Monday nights tomorrow night, which is meal music and message starts at 06:00 right down the hallway in the fellowship hall. Carl is out of town this week, and that's because he is in Africa. Here's a couple of pictures of Ray and Tanya and Pascal over in Africa. So please be praying for them as they're over in Nairobi. Kenya.
3:56
Yeah. I was trying to think of the the word. So here's a few more pictures of them. And Tanya and Pascal are there too. So keep them in your prayers.
4:12
Also, there's another mission trip coming up. The Largies are headed to Uganda and they're gonna be doing an oil change fundraiser. So it's gonna be down off South Park Loop Road. The details are in your bulletin, but if you bring your car by, they'll get the oil changed for you. There's details.
4:30
You can text Drea to set up the appointment and Richard if you have any questions about what you need to get or anything like that. So that is coming up. So touch base with them. We've got the community Bible study is going on Wednesdays at 09:30 in the morning to 11:30 and also 06:30 to 09:30 at night. Child care is available in the morning.
4:54
Say again, to eight to 08:00. I'm sorry. So 06:30 to 08:00 on Wednesdays. We are starting the Turning Point baby bottle campaign again, which is where we collect loose change in donations and donate it to Turning Point, is a pregnancy resource center here in Jackson. Those bottles are gonna be in the back in the foyer here.
5:16
So grab one of those bottles, make a contribution, and we will help people that are pregnant in need. There's connect hour today in between services, so please meet us in the fellowship hall for coffee and snacks and just to fellowship with each other in with the hour in between services. That's all the announcements I have for right now. So check your bulletins and the band will bring us oh, you guys can stand up and greet one another and the brand will bring us back together. How
5:49
Speaker 2great is our God. Amen? Amen to that. I can hear the church singing so beautiful. Amen.
9:44
May God bless you. This is one of my favorite, and this one shall be a little bit faster. It's my favorite. Amen. Amen.
12:54
I wanna see him working in my life. I promise you he is at work in my life. And thank you for you and for your prayers. And as long as we invite Holy Spirit in our life and we recognize who he is and we just ask him in in humbleness. Lord, God, touch my heart.
13:14
Change my life according to your will. I promise you, he will do that. Heavenly father, thank you for giving us the privilege to be here this morning to worship you. It is great to gather as a church family and feel your presence in this place in our hearts. Please bless us and help us to have a great time in your name.
13:32
And as soon as we leave this place, God, work through us because we are the church outside of these walls. I'm thankful thank thankful for everything. Thank you, Jesus, for what you've done for us on the cross. In your precious name I pray. Amen.
13:47
Amen. Well, when I pray in English, that's a miracle. Music that's good to the heart.
18:38
Speaker 3How about that? There we go. Well, good morning. It's good to see you all. Yeah.
18:42
We are gonna take an offering right now. If I hope I'm not that's what
18:46
Speaker 2I was told.
18:47
Speaker 3Okay. Good. Come on. I'm not wrong.
18:49
Speaker 2You can preach if you want to. You
18:54
Speaker 3know, it's it's so good to have a worship team that when two of our pastors are away who lead the worship are missing, they seamlessly fill in. And they make it look seamless and effortless. And so give them a round of applause. Thank you guys for serving and, we this is just so fun to be a part of a church that has people who get involved and serve. And if you're not involved, we encourage you to get involved.
19:22
And you know Jesus said in the great commission, go into all the world and preach the gospel. And for us that means in Jackson, in Wyoming, and to the other ends of the world. And, this church does that and we just wanna pray for it. And I just wanna pray for some missionaries. I know, mister Eugene just got back.
19:41
He's with he was has been with YWAM, and he was welcome back. He was in Greece. And if I may quote somebody, I think he said he was like being on a honeymoon with Jesus. So talk to him. I think he had a good time.
19:56
And, miss Bernadette here is considering going with, YWAM. And, of course, we have, Florine who is a resident missionary here at out or at, Smith's. Excuse me. And future missionary. So let let's pray.
20:11
We are a mission minded church, and we just wanna thank Jesus for what he's done for us. Heavenly father, we thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Your blood, Lord, shed so that we who were bound in sin, we were who were dead or can be made alive, and we thank you so much for that. Lord, you have blessed us, abundantly here. And, Lord, we wanna give back to you, and we want you Lord, we ask that you'd please bless it.
20:39
Please send it out in this town, in this state, in this country, and around the world. Lord, we pray that you would attach the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every penny that these dear folks worked hard for and put in this offering plate. Lord, teach us to live life with open hands and help us, Lord, to to be ambassadors wherever we find ourselves today, be ambassadors for you. Lord, we are grateful. We do wanna pray, for Carl and Ray and Tanya and Pascal, Lord, and the dear folks that they're there ministering with and to.
21:12
Lord, may they be a blessing, and may they be blessed as they're there. But, Lord, we pray that you will go around and build up your church through the many, many missionaries that this church supports. We ask that you would encourage them today, and, we thank you, Lord, for allowing us to have a little part in it. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
25:18
Speaker 1Thank you guys for being here. Thank you for coming to worship with us this morning. Whether you've been coming for a long time or it's your first time, just welcome. We're glad that you're here in the house of the Lord. I believe that God has something to say this morning.
25:31
I've been praying over this message. I've been praying for each and every one of you that are coming to hear this, I believe that God has something to say. If you look at your bulletin on the backside of that, there is a notes page. If you believe that God is speaking or has anything to say, there's a pen or pencil in the chair back in front of you. I encourage you to take some notes so that this doesn't just go in one ear and out the other, that we'll be able to to soak it in today.
25:57
We're gonna be beginning in Matthew six verse nine today. So if you wanna oh, if you have a Bible and you wanna open it up to those pages, that's where we'll be. And I'm a little nervous. I got some big shoes to fill while I'm up here on this stage. And when Ray talked to me about what I was gonna talk about, we were kinda texting back and forth.
26:18
And he said, do know what you're gonna talk about? And I said, yeah. Ray, I think we're gonna be talking about forgiveness. And he was like he text back and he said, well, God's gonna give you plenty of opportunities between now and then to to work on that. And I was like, oh, shoot.
26:33
So I text him back and I said, Ray, I think I wanna talk on prosperity instead. And so we're gonna stick with forgiveness. And I feel a little bit inadequate. I mean, I'm all of 35 years old up here. And I know that there's people in this room that know far more about some of these spiritual disciplines and some of these spiritual truths than me.
26:56
But if it's okay, I'm just gonna share what what I've learned, what I've been researching, what's kinda surprised me. I wanna pull out some truths and expose some lies this morning. It's a broad topic. I know we won't cover it all today, but if we can scratch the surface and my hope and prayer for us is that we'll just get eyes to see a little bit more about what this topic holds. Forgiveness is an essential part of our walk as a believer.
27:32
And even if you're not a believer, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord, I believe that there is so much in this that if you'll just take this and implement it, you'll live a life that's fuller, happier, with more joy, and more peace. Like, it is it is something that really does have the ability to set us free. So don't tune out. Please focus in and and let's learn through this together. Before I talk about forgiveness, I wanna talk about what unforgiveness.
27:57
And I wanna talk about that because I think that unforgiveness hurts you and it hurts me. Like, our inability to forgive will bind us up. A couple of things that it will do is it'll it'll stop our spiritual growth. Unforgiveness will continue to build and it will stop our our spiritual growth. It will also it'll it'll take us off course.
28:18
In Matthew twenty two thirty four, the pharisees, they came to Jesus and they asked him, you know, what's the greatest commandment? And he told them to love God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. And I believe that unforgiveness completely debilitates us and and stops our ability to love one another. Third, it steals our joy. It takes away our peace.
28:44
And fourth, it'll put us in a prison where we're we're confined by our own thoughts. Our thoughts aren't about love and freedom. It's more about revenge and how wrong that person is. So before we get really into this, let me just pray and invite the Holy Spirit to do his work. Holy Spirit, thank you that you're in this place.
29:04
You are welcome here. I pray that you'll minister today. This place is for you, and we invite you to move as you see fit. Speak through me, God. I just wanna be your vessel right now.
29:13
In Jesus' name. Amen. So I do things a little bit different. And if you guys will just bear with me, I wanna do something a little different this morning that we don't normally do here. If I could have everyone stand up.
29:31
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We're gonna stand up, and then I just wanna I wanna pray the our father together. I just wanna pray.
29:41
And notice I didn't say I wanna say it. What I wanna do is I wanna fight off any type of religiosity, any type of religious spirit that we have. This is something that's meant to be prayed. And whether you wanna say sins or transgressions or trespasses, you are gonna have a conversation with God right now. So pray this prayer with me.
30:01
Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
30:29
Amen. You guys can be seated. Thank you. Thank you. So whether you know it or not, what we just prayed comes directly from the Bible, and it's Matthew six verse nine.
30:43
And he says this, I'm just gonna say it again. This then, they're asking Jesus, and Jesus says, this then is how you should pray. You should pray, our father, in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
30:56
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And the the part I wanna focus on is he tells us, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. And the reason I bring that up is because I see this correlation between the way we forgive other people and the way that we are forgiven.
31:27
And when I started coming back to church and walking with the Lord again, I received grace by faith for the forgiveness of my sins once for all past, present, future, sanctified his righteousness, imparted to me, his atoning sacrifice. But as I've been reading through this, I have to confess that I did not view forgiveness as essential as I think it really is. I viewed forgiveness as something that, you know, kinda needed to do if you couldn't really find peace. If there was a need for it, then you brought it about. But if everything else is okay, then I just went on with my life.
32:11
But what we just read stops in verse 13, and I wanna look at verse 14. He says this, this is the very next line. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. This is red letters.
32:38
This is Jesus saying this. He says that if we don't forgive other people, then we're not forgiven. That was new news to me. So God takes forgiveness very seriously, very seriously. So I got to thinking, what is forgiveness?
33:00
What is it? Well, I looked it up in the Webster's dictionary like my teachers taught me to. It says it's to to pardon, to cease to feel resentment against an offender, To give up resentment of or claim to requital, to grant relief from payment of, those were kind of the formal ones. What it means to me is that a debt that owed that debt that is owed doesn't have to be paid. That it's gone.
33:33
I remember when Ray was talking about this, he referred to it as a casting off. And I I did my best. I went and looked it up in the Greek, and I can't pronounce those words. So I'm I'm just gonna say that I agree with what Ray says, that it is a casting off. Okay?
33:57
And I feel like forgiveness is like it's a big topic, and it's like if it was right here and we were all looking at it together, we'd all see it a little bit differently. We'd all see a little different facet of it. And I don't know. It's pretty complex because I don't even think that we can talk about fair we can't even talk about forgiveness without at least establishing some type of fairness or some type of right and wrong to begin with because I believe in order to have forgiveness, we need to have a wrong or a perceived wrong. And I say perceived wrong because I think that even if if there's not a real wrong there and you perceive that someone has wronged you, I think our bodies respond the same way.
34:39
So I think we have to establish that there is a right and a wrong. And I got to thinking, you know, we live in a day and in a culture where what's right for you might be right for you, and what's right for me is right for me, and, you know, don't really encroach on my beliefs and my rights. But I got to as I was thinking through it, I really believe the Holy Spirit was just saying, what about that tree? What about that tree back there? Where was it?
35:09
Where was it? Genesis. Back there there was a tree and Adam and Eve they ate from a tree. Does anybody remember what that tree was? The knowledge of good and evil.
35:23
Genesis three, it says this, Adam and Eve, they ate of the fruit. And then God says this, this is Genesis three verse 22. And the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil. This to me, when I read this, this doesn't sound like like redemption or salvation where at the moment of conversion you receive things. This is a mankind.
35:50
This is not a Christian thing. This is a mankind thing. That God set eternity in our hearts and that we've eaten from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that there is that we do know right from wrong. And and I know this because we're excellent indicators of this. We know it.
36:08
If something's wrong, if something's unjust, we're we're quick to jump on and say, that's wrong. This person's wrong. That's, you know, you go to a sporting event, you go to anywhere, hey, you can't do that, and we need to make it right. The problem comes in is when we enter the equation. When we're part of the equation, our viewpoint gets skewed.
36:32
Because see, don't think ourselves that bad. Whenever I was reading about this, and whenever we whenever we look at what other people do, we judge them strictly on their actions. But when we judge ourself, we judge ourselves by our actions and our intentions. And our intentions will help kind of soften things. Oh, I didn't really mean it like that.
36:53
I know that's what I did, but I didn't really mean it like that. There is a right and a wrong, and when it gets out of balance, we know it, and our feelings will get hurt. And when we get hurt, we'll build resentment and bitterness. That's the formula, folks. When we have resentment and bitterness, it is very hard to love one another, which is what we're called to do.
37:21
If we were watching a movie, we could pick out the bad person. No problem. But in real life, very rarely is it ever us. So we just gotta be honest with our self. Conflict is gonna come and conflict comes when our will meets someone else's.
37:39
That's what's gonna happen. We're gonna want something and someone else is gonna want something. And if it doesn't happen to the way we would like it to happen, then that's where we're gonna get a little bit out of shape. Does this make sense? James four says this.
37:52
He says, this is James four one, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire to have so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want so you quarrel and fight. You want something and then when you don't get what you want, you get upset about it.
38:13
We get our feelings hurt. And I think in the realm of justice, we all want it. I mean, the blockbuster hits are are there's so many movies about stuff like this, you know, from from Taken to Equalizer, Peppermint. Any of these movies where where we've got, you know, a seemingly innocent person and then something bad happens to them, and then the rest of the movie is gonna play out where someone's gonna track them down and make them pay. We're gonna restore justice.
38:48
Okay? And we'll fill movie theaters for things like this because we wanna see it happen. We like justice. We like revenge. Deuteronomy thirty two thirty five says, vengeance is mine, say it the Lord, and I will repay.
39:04
Leave some room. If somebody's done some wrong things, leave some room for God to work. There's a role that we play and there's a role that God plays. And I don't know if you've noticed, but this is a big earth. It's a big earth and it stays spinning by his hand.
39:18
The earth stays in just the right place. The sun gives us just enough warmth. He set all this in motion. Okay? When things get out of balance, he will correct it.
39:27
He calls us to love, serve, forgive. There's certain things he calls us to. You know, like I said, I think we're really good at balancing things. When I was younger, my let me see. Yeah.
39:48
When I was younger, I liked this gum a lot. Okay? Bubblicious bubble gum, the watermelon. But my dad would come and pick me up from schools on every other Friday. And me and my brother would get in his he had a little sports car, and we'd get in.
40:01
One of us would be in the back, kinda with the heads between the seats, and the other one, he'd he'd pull out a piece of gum, and he would give it to one of us. And he'd say, split that and share it with your brother. And so know, we'd split the gum, and as soon as it got split, my dad, he'd say, alright. Now you split. Now he picks.
40:19
And see that kept things really fair for us. You know, because you'd break yourself off a big piece and try to keep that, and he'd be like, alright. Now he picks and he'd be like, what? Hold on. This looked fair a minute ago.
40:32
But you wouldn't believe how our accuracy improved when that rule got in place. And I I bring it up because we got short memories, guys. And depending on which side of the forgiveness, if we're the forgiver or we're the forgiving, we got different standards. No matter which way it's split, we need to be we need to be fair. Okay?
41:01
And and I think that as a whole, don't think we're that good at judges. And in Matthew seven two, Jesus says this, do not judge or you too will be judged. For this for the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. And it's like we create this standard, you know.
41:26
So if when we wrong people, oh, they just need to get over it, blah blah blah, then that's, you know, that's a standard that we're setting. And I I think that that when I bring up forgiveness, I would think I'm pretty good at forgiving. Yeah. Yeah. Forgiveness.
41:41
Got it. Yep. Mhmm. Debt that's owed doesn't have to be paid. Somebody wronged me.
41:44
Yeah. Let it go. Okay. Great. Cast it off.
41:47
Got it. But as I've really started praying through this and working through this, I believe that I do this, but only within a certain range. Follow me on this. There's like a range where if it's too small, then I just forget it. That's no.
42:02
I don't even look at it, think about it. I just forget it right away. If you're late coming to lunch, if you pull out in front of me in traffic, whatever. It's not really forgetting. It's just me choose I mean, it's not forgiving.
42:13
It's just me choosing not to think about it. So that's kind of on the lower side. Then on the upper side, we've got stuff that's too big. That's no. That's wrong.
42:27
And and I can't forgive that. You can't do that. I would never. And there is some of that in here. There's people in here and you've got something that's something happened to you and it's so big that you're not willing to forgive.
42:47
And I wanna tell you as a brother in Christ to allow God to move in that space. Allow God to move in your heart in that area for your own freedom. There's this area in the middle where I choose to forgive, and it generally looks something like this. Somebody does something, and I try to shake it off. I try to forget about it, but it won't go away.
43:08
It keeps bothering me. And so in that area, if I can't get over it then I'll choose to forgive in that area as best I can. Bitterness and resentment is a sure indicator that forgiveness is not residing over that issue. Does this make sense guys? As I was thinking about it, I believe that there's a couple things that I wanna talk about forgiveness is and a couple things that forgiveness is not because I think this will help us fully understand what how to know exactly which contract to shred.
43:56
Does that make sense? So one thing that forgiveness is not, forgiveness is not approval of the wrong that was done. Someone wrongs you, your forgiveness is not saying this is welcome anytime. That is not what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is you saying what you did was wrong and I'm gonna choose from this moment forward not to hold that against you or between us anymore.
44:21
That's what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. Forgiveness is free. Trust is earned. Don't be scared to forgive because how do I say this?
44:47
Don't be scared to forgive because you're scared of getting hurt again. Boundaries protect us, not forgiveness, not bitterness and resentment. Bitterness and resentment is not a fort we build to keep people out. You can forgive someone and set boundaries in place to keep yourself safe. If there and listen to me, folks.
45:04
If there's anyone in here that's got a history of abuse or anything like that, I want you to know that boundaries can keep you safe. And that if something like that's going on, I'm not saying if there if you're in a situation where you're being harmed, I am in no way asking anyone to stay in that place and just continue to forgive. I'm asking you to get safe. These are two different things. Forgiveness is something that we do from our heart.
45:30
Your boundaries is what's gonna keep you physically safe. Okay? There's a great book, Townsend and Cloud called Boundaries. Highly, highly, highly recommend it. The third thing that forgiveness is not, forgiveness is not fair.
45:49
It's not fair. By definition, for forgiveness to enter the equation, the scales have got to be off. Okay? And we're gonna enter it. And we're not saying, look, when Jesus came and died on a cross for our sins, he did it while we were still sinners.
46:06
He didn't go to God and say, hey, look, you know, you still got, three or four people over here that won't do this and that, and then as soon as you get them cleaned up, I'm gonna head down there. He didn't do that. While we were still sinners, he put on flesh, stepped into this earthly realm and died for our sins. It's not fair. So we can't expect it to be.
46:28
Let's not expect these scales to be equalized. Now a couple of things that forgiveness is. First and foremost, forgive forgiveness is your path to freedom. It's your path to freedom. Forgiveness is acknowledging that this other person is more than their mistakes, their shortcomings, their failures the same way we are.
46:54
We've all messed up. And forgiveness is God's will. If someone's wronged you, man, I'd love to pray for you about that, but we don't need to pray about whether or not God wants you to forgive that person. He's very clear. He wants us to forgive those who wronged us.
47:21
When I when I was researching this I went around and I would ask a lot of people, hey, what's a component of forgiveness that you think people misunderstand? And so I was doing this and I was talking to Diane one day and she said I said, what do you think it is? And she says, oh, well, what God's been showing me is that when I forgive someone, I have to give up my right to be right. That someone else doesn't have to we don't have to show them exactly how they were wrong and how we were right in order for forgiveness to take place. I want us to what I want us to take away from today is that we can expand our range, small and big alike.
48:12
If God is laying someone on your heart today, man, write their name down. Write their name down right now. And if you feel like you can't forgive someone, you're probably right. You can't, but we got a big God, and he helps with things like this. If it's his will, it's his bill.
48:31
He'll help you out. He will help you cross the lines that you need to. I was in in the Denver Airport last week and it was the craziest thing because we missed our flight and I went to go get some chick fil a because that's the only thing that could really make it better at that point. And and I go to chick fil a and it's like the stars were aligned, everything was perfect. I walk up and there's just one lady in line in front of me in this, you know, the big maze.
49:07
You go through and there's one lady right there. So I'm kind of walking through the maze and I'm going up and I I noticed this lady and she's just all beside herself. Okay? I'm thinking, what's going on? So I kinda stop and I watch her for a second and what had happened was another lady, she just she didn't go through the maze.
49:29
She just walked up beside and then got in front and was walking up to the counter. And this lady was about to ruin her day over this. Like, she was her course was set for just she's and I I was watching this and I go, God help us. God help us. You know, doctor Allen Holmes, he says, unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
50:06
In this moment, let me just paint this picture for you. This lady is beside herself. This lady over here is thinking about a refill on iced tea. There's not a war going on. This lady's going on about her business.
50:21
She doesn't even know that she broke in line. And this lady's gonna have a bad day over it. And I said, Lord, please please help us. Help us. Help us have grace and mercy for each other so that we don't ruin our day.
50:39
Has anybody in here ever had somebody try to pass their bad day off on you? You know what I mean? It's early in the morning, and they'll start something and you just go, I'm not taking that. I'm not gonna you mm-mm. I'm not doing that today.
50:52
I'm not gonna take your bad day with me. You're not doing this to me this morning. But, man, we can pass this stuff on to each other or it can die within us. God is high and he is mighty and he is holy, but I take him a lot of junk and he gets rid of it for me. God is a place where sins, where things that should kill us go to die.
51:33
Matthew 18, I wanna share this verse with you. I'm just gonna read it. You can can read it on the Bible in the sky if you want, or you can just close your eyes and just listen to this story. What we're pulling here, guys, this is just gonna be straight from scripture. Matthew 18.
51:47
Just God promises that his word will not return void. So just listen to this with me because we're in this. Alright? Blake, can you do your thing on that form? Can you just follow along with me as I read?
52:03
Thank you. Okay. It says, then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times? And Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.
52:18
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. He began to settle them. As he began to settle them, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold 10,000 bags of gold was brought in. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he, his wife, his children, and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this, the servant fell on his knees before him.
52:45
Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The master servant took pity on him and canceled the debt and let him go. So there's forgiveness. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him.
53:07
Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. So we have a very similar circumstance here. His fellow servant fell on his knees and begged him, be patient with me, and I will pay it back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
53:25
When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and they went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in, you wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.
54:01
Amen. Red letters. Verses 22 through 35, it's all red letters. This is Jesus speaking about his father's kingdom. Forgiveness, it's important to God.
54:28
How do we do it? Well, I'll I'll I just wanna kind of if there was a very easy way to do it or a set way, we would we wouldn't be having this conversation. Let me just kind of paint some of the guidelines or some of the truths that can be components of forgiveness. One, there's a there's a wrong that happens. Okay?
54:49
Someone is offended or they've gotten a wrong done to them. Some of the keys, one of them is in order to fully forgive, you have to take a full account of the wrongs that were done. A full account of from what was suffered. You have to you can't just forget it. You have to be mindful of it.
55:09
You have to sit and think about it for a minute and say, why am I upset? What happened? This is the wrong that was incurred. You gotta take a little bit of time and grieve that. You have to be honest and real with your emotions.
55:22
You have to process it. After you've processed it and you've gone through it and you need to take it to God, you gotta confess it. Confess your anger, your bitterness, resentment. You gotta talk through it with God. And then the last step is you have to make the choice.
55:41
You have to make a choice to let it go, to cast it off, to send it away from you, which means you're gonna choose to not hold it. Every time some some of us, some of the circumstances we have, this is gonna be a one time event. And it's gonna be great, you're gonna get set free. Some of us, it's gonna come back up again, and you're gonna have to choose to forgive in that moment. And then it's gonna come up again.
56:05
You're gonna have to choose to forgive in that moment. You're gonna have to choose to not hold these things against. So it's this balance of surrendering it to God, choosing to not forgive, inviting God to do a work in your heart. I mean, God calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, that it's not just an easy thing. So like I said, my dad, he encouraged us to split that bubblegum right.
56:35
And and as I think about forgiveness and as I think about equal and fair and and kind of I think that it's important to mention that regardless of which side of this equation we're on, man, if you've done something wrong to someone, talk to them about it. Confess it. Tell them you're sorry. I think that as believers we need to have words in our vocabulary and use them often like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you.
57:01
I'm sorry I got angry. I'm sorry I did not fulfill my commitment. Please forgive me. Regular part of our vocabulary. We need to practice on the small stuff.
57:20
Practice on the small stuff. As I close today, I wanna say that if you're anything like me, there's some some skeletons in the closet, some things in your heart. I just believe there's someone in here today that needs to allow forgiveness to have its way in your life. And I wanna encourage you right now, if I could have the band come back up. I wanna encourage you right now to do that business with God, to take some time right now to pray over who it is that you're really struggling with to forgive.
58:10
I was thinking about it. Forgiveness is hard, but forgiveness is here too. When Jesus was on the cross, he came, he paid it all. And when he was on the cross, by the time he got to the cross, he'd been beaten, he'd been flogged, he'd been spit on, he'd been humiliated, he'd been hung on the cross to die. And his attitude with the father was still father forgive them for they know not what they do.
58:40
In this life people get hurt along the way and one thing I know about hurt people is hurt people will hurt people. If people come to you with their hurt, don't let that bitterness and resentment grow. Bring Jesus into that place, bring forgiveness into that place and let the healing begin. Without understanding it's very difficult to have compassion But it's no excuse guys. Even if we don't know where someone's coming from, we still need to choose forgiveness.
59:13
So the Bible says, I just wanna share this right now. I believe that that someone in here needs to hear this that if the Bible says that we are all sinners, that we're born headed in the wrong direction and that no one had to teach this to us that our sin nature is on the inside and that that sin separates us from God. But God had a plan and it wasn't to to just cancel it. He had to send his son to earth to die on a cross for our sins And that for anyone whoever so would believe in this could have eternal life, could have their sins forgiven. And the Bible says that what's required is that you need to confess with your mouth that mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
1:00:01
And if you're here today and you've never heard God's message of love and forgiveness, please today know that it is for you, that you're a child of God and that he welcomes you, that there's nothing you've done that's too bad, that he'll receive you and forgive you just as you are. So if you're in here today with your heads bowed, if I could have everybody bow their heads with your heads bowed and eyes closed, If you're in here today and you say, need forgiveness. If God is working on your heart, you may never be closer than you are right now. If God is working in your heart in here today, do not turn from it. Receive it.
1:00:47
God is doing a work today. Father, thank you that you are good. God, thank you for your love. His love is for you. I want you to know that today.
1:00:56
If you're in here today and you know that you need that, I'm not gonna embarrass you in any way. I don't wanna call you up front. I want you right there in your seat, right where you are to pray this prayer. Dear Jesus, I'm a sinner. I've broken your moral law, and I'm sorry.
1:01:22
But God, I wanna receive your forgiveness. I wanna receive what Jesus did on that cross. I wanna receive forgiveness and grace today. God, if it's real, I wanna know it. Holy Spirit, come and enter me.
1:01:40
Come fill me up with your power in Jesus' name. And with your head still bowed and eyes closed, if you're in this room today and you prayed that prayer, would you just raise your hand? Would you just raise your hand? Thank you. I see your hands.
1:01:58
I see your hands. You can put them down. Anyone else? Anyone else today? Say that's me.
1:02:07
Yes. I see your hand in the back. I see your hand. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for what you're doing.
1:02:15
God, I just wanna pray over each and every person. God, I thank you that in your kingdom, you have a big house, God, and you went there to prepare rooms for us, God. And I just wanna thank you, God, and ask you, God, would you make a couple more rooms, God, for your people, God. I thank you that your forgiveness and your grace is big enough, God. Praise you, Jesus.
1:02:38
Praise you, God. Amen. Ben, you guys can take us away.
1:02:45
Speaker 2Will you please stand up? Amen. May God bless you, and have a good, good Sunday with the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.
1:05:34
Have a good one.
Share this message
Every word on these came out of the message. Download one and post it anywhere.
