Be Ready for Christ's Coming – Forgive Everyone by Zac Poonen

[Music] the Old Testament is a history of God's dealings with his people Israel and even though we are not in the Old Covenant and the promises given to Israel are not the promises for the Christian it's important for us to understand that because a lot of believers in many many churches and preachers go to claim Old Testament promises and they're not applicable for us today like the Lord says in there they give you a land to possess and you make you abound in prosperity and give you your bonds all overflow etc etc and that you love many many children those are not the promises in the New Testament and the New Testament everything there is applied spiritually because it says we have blessed Ephesians 1:3 with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ and the Old Testament it would be they were blessed with every material blessing in earthly places in Moses there's a lot of difference between the two so if you go back to those material and earthly blessings you're going back under Moses not under Christ Ephesians 1:3 is very clear and but yet and so we moved into the New Covenant where the important thing is not even healing from sickness there were many promises of that in the Old Testament but in the New Testament you go to the episodes and there's no promise that Jesus will heal you from all your sicknesses two of God's greatest servants Timothy and Paul suffered with sickness in the end of their lives but again it's transferred spiritually that God will heal us from spiritual sicknesses which is sin so if we understand this difference we will not be confused by a lot of preaching today which leads people the frustration because they're trying to claim a promise which God has not given them it's very important for us to understand we need to distinguish between the things that differ and the Holy Spirit will make us understand that but even though we're you know we're removed from the Old Covenant a lot of lessons we can learn from the Old Covenant for example I know in my own understanding of body soul and spirit man is body soul in spirit we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 actually spirit soul and body my understanding of it became much clearer when I saw that that was pictured in the Old Testament tabernacle and we did a study of that in one conference here where the outer court and the holy place the most holy place for a picture of body soul and spirit and important thing to learn there is how to enter the most holy place how to enter that life in the spirit and that was through the rent veil which was torn when Jesus died on the cross and that symbolizes how jesus never did his own will the rending of the veil we read in Hebrews 20 20 the picture of Jesus flesh or itself will flesh refers to self well that means all through his life whenever he was tempted to do his own will he never did it it says in Romans 15 in verse 3 and for Christ never pleased himself amazing words never pleased himself and John 6:38 he never did his own will that's what rent the veil God sent his son not just to die for our sins but to show us by thirty three and a half years on earth how little children should live how teenagers should live how working men as he worked as a carpenter how they should work and in everything whatever age he was whatever the thing he was doing whether he was a in a profession as a carpenter or a full-time worker he never pleased himself he always wanted to please the father and he never did his own will he always did the will of his father and that's what resulted in the most wonderful life the world has ever seen now we all acknowledge that Jesus lived the most wonderful life the world has ever seen but I don't know if and we all want to live that type of life Bible says we must walk as Jesus walked but we can't walk as he walked unless we are willing to choose that way of life and that is the meaning of the rent rail when he died on the cross and he said it is finished what he was saying was that and the entirety of man's self will was finished every possible way in which man could seek his own do his own well was denied throughout his life tempted in all points as we are and never sinned what that basically means that he was tempted to do his own will alter his life but he never did it and the end result was he could finish that entire range of temptation and doing his self will that's open to us and the veil was rent now the Bible says that that is a way that Jesus inaugurated for us to walk in it's not a door that veil we read in Hebrews 10 20 onwards is a new and living way not a door a door you enter in a moment a way is something in a walk continuously so living in the most holy place or living life in the spirit is something that we have to choose every day if we walk that way we can live in the spirit all the time by denying our own will the reason I mentioned that is because a lot of our problems are because we live in the soul in our mind and in our emotions we live in our mind or emotions we're going to get discouraged we don't get depressed we're going to get gloomy and have seasons of joy it's never a steady life it's always up and down and we will think that our intellectual mind is also part of the soul is the holy place our intellectual understanding of truth we think makes us spiritual it doesn't it's one of the greatest deceptions I have seen even in our own churches in many CFC churches in India I have seen people who think that because they are clever educated they think that because they understand the truths we preach clearly they become spiritual that's one of the greatest deceptions in Christianity the Pharisees understood the truth very clearly yet they were the most evil people of all the Romans didn't want to kill Jesus the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus who are they the people who understand understood the truth of the Bible more than anybody else intellectually and that's one of the greatest warnings we have in the Gospels that the people who killed Jesus was not the Romans Pilate wanted to spare him the heathen are better than many nominal Christians who understand the truth accurately but don't choose to walk the way of self-denial and they pat themselves on the back that they are spiritual because they can understand it or they can explain it or they can preach it these are all deception the proof of your spirituality has got nothing to do with how well you can understand or explain the truth of Scripture that only shows you've got a good mind that you're very clever but the truth the true spirituality is that person was probably ten percent as clever as you who cannot explain our preach like you can but whose daily it could be a woman with daily denying his or her own will and choosing to please God and never please himself or herself it's very important for us to understand this otherwise we live in a world of delusion imagining that we are becoming more and more spiritual because we are understanding more and more of the truth you know in our churches we probably hear more truth than probably in any other church the things that we learn from Scripture here most Christians would not know you have more knowledge of the truth than most Christians today but it doesn't mean you're more spiritual a lot of those people in those other churches could be far more spiritual than you because they're seeking to deny their own will even though their understanding of truth is less unless we have realized this we won't have a sober estimate of ourselves the Bible says we must have a sober estimate of ourselves and not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think that's a verse in Romans chapter 12 and what that means is don't think you're more spiritual than you really are don't delude yourself in 1 John in chapter 2 we read that when Christ comes again there are going to be two categories of believers one who will rise up with joy and boldness to meet him in the air and another group of believers who will shrink back which means they won't rise up to meet him in the air I mean where have you ever heard this have you ever heard that some believers will not be eager to meet the Lord when he comes I mean you don't have to believe what I say unless you see it in the scripture don't believe anybody who cannot show you something in scripture see 1 John chapter 2 and see how you understand it verse 28 now little children very clear that he's talking to believers believers who are called in verse 1 of the same chapter little children who have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous those are the little children who've been exhorted not to sin because and if you sin you have an advocate with the father these are not unbelievers these are believers little children verse 28 abide in him in Christ so that when he appears now there are two categories of people when he appears one who will have boldness confidence means boldness eager to meet him and another second category who shrink away in shame at his coming rule which tell you are you you're going to be in he doesn't matter what people here on earth think of you whether you're spiritual or Carlat the opinions of men as I always say are fit for the trash can throw into the trash can the opinion that every other believer here has of you it's worth nothing I'll tell you that it just means if you they have a good opinion of you it means you put up a good front before them so it's trash this is what will matter in the final day that when Christ appears are we going to have boldness and eagerness to say Lord I'm ready not ready to go to heaven everyone wants to go to heaven is there a single person among the seven billion people in the world who doesn't want to go to heaven I've never met a man who wants to go to hell nobody the terrorists and suicide bombers they want to go to heaven too in fact their religion teaches them that if you do suicide bombing you will go to heaven immediately they all want to go to heaven what is it deception nobody wants to go to hell but just like they are deceived thinking that if I go and bomb somebody for the sake of my religion I'll go to heaven we can also deceive ourselves that if I understand truth accurately and go along to the right church which preaches it i'll also be ready to go to heaven it could be a deception i'll be ready to meet the lord not necessarily we must go by scripture and if scripture says little children some of you will shrink away from Christ and shame that is coming that means the Lord comes and you don't want to meet him because you're not ready to meet him there could be many reasons you know that Jesus said that if you haven't forgiven somebody for what you did against you or against your family or whatever may be cheated you and you haven't forgiven him you may have very good reasons for not forgiving it but Jesus taught that God will not forgive you it's very important to understand the more and more I have moved among believers I have seen clearly that there are many believers who retain grudges against others well people say that was long along a goal that's fine but you still have a grudge against that person for what he did and in some cases where they even apologized to you you still keep a grudge against that person for some reason on the other and in most cases they probably did not apologize to you it doesn't make a difference what Jesus taught us on the cross was that even if they crucify you you have to say Father forgive them but they don't know what they're doing it's really true when a when a worldly person hurts a child of God they don't know what they're doing even when they kill you know you think all these people who killed the Apostles they really believed that they were they understood what they were doing no can you kill a man and not know what you're doing Jesus was not talking about their killing him on the crucifying him on the cross what he was emphasizing was they don't know who they are crucifying everybody knows that killing another man is evil so when you say they don't know what they do it's not about the killing of Jesus the point is they did not know who they were killing they were killing the son of God that's what he meant when he said they don't know what they're doing they don't know who I am forgive them and it's the same when when anyone hurts someone who's a child of God the Bible says in Zechariah chapter 2 verse 5 verse 8 he who touches you touches the apple of my eye what a word it's amazing that God says that about his wholehearted disciples that you know the you're the apple of your eye the center of your eye is the most sensitive part of your body you can touch any other part of your body and you don't feel any pain but there's one part of your body to touch it it hurts so much as to send a part of your eye and God says in the book of Zechariah chapter 2 that when anyone touches you my servant he touches the apple of my eye so if you're a wholehearted disciple of Jesus and somebody kills you or hurts you or harms you in some way or cheats you it's true they don't know what they're doing because they don't know who they're doing it to they're doing it to the apple of God's eye that's why we can say Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing is maybe a small little thing but they don't know who they're doing it they're doing it to one of God's special children so we we have to forgive and Jesus said that very clearly you know when he mentioned I mentioned this because this is one of the reasons why some people will shrink away in Christ think about the expression we use some will boldly meet the Lord and some will shrink away and one of the factors not all the factors one of the factors why some people will shrink away is an unforgiving attitude or spirit towards somebody else and the fact that it was done 50 years ago makes no difference God lives in the eternal present tense he doesn't live in God is no past present future like we have the Bible says a thousand years are like one day so what's 50 years 50 years like one hour so if somebody did some harm to you fifty years ago when God says that was just one hour ago he did that arm to you and you haven't forgiven him she Lord it was 50 years ago yeah one hour that's all one one days with the Lord is a thousand years so don't ignore grudges that you have in your heart against people who did evil to you long long ago make sure I'm not saying you to meet them I'm not saying you've got to go and fellowship with them Jesus never went and met the Pharisees he never fellowship to them but he forgive forgiveness is an act of your will where you say lord I have forgiven that person I say it before you I stand before you the judge of the universe and I'm it's like you know taking a vow in a court and you stand before the judge of the universe and say Lord I promise you I've forgiven him I've forgiven her and all those people anyone that comes to my mind you don't have to torture yourself about people you don't know if you haven't forgiven someone it will be in your mind definitely if you ask the Lord tell me Lord whom I haven't forgiven I tell you in 30 seconds you get a list of all those names definitely because it's there and if you don't forgive them I can tell you in Jesus name right now you will not be ready to meet the Lord when he comes now you can take it or leave it I hope you take it and I'll tell you why if you turn to Matthew chapter 6 it is just one of the reasons when we say we are ready for the coming of the Lord here's one thing we can definitely help you to be ready and I believe one of my callings in life the Lord here means to get God's people ready for the coming of the Lord John the Baptist's got Israel ready for the first coming of Christ and the prophets in the church are to get God's people ready for the second coming of Christ so that's why I emphasize this and the Lord taught us to pray Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9 he taught us six requests we must pray for one Lord I want your name to be hallowed on earth very important it's the first thing we should be praying for God's name will be hallowed on earth second Lord I want your kingdom to come soon when I read of all the evil going on in the world all the human trafficking and sexual evil always my heart Striders Lord Jesus come soon look at all these poor people being exploited come soon and bring justice and judgment and all these people who exploit others your kingdom come in third Lord your will be done in my life just as it is done in heaven total obedience like angels and forth give me my daily bread I want to trust you to provide me a job so that I can earn my living and feed myself and my family and fifth forgive us my our debts our sins in exactly the same way as we have forgiven others it isn't just forgive us our sins he could have left it like that no he's the one request where there's a description of how we want God to forgive us in all those other things there is no description of how God should do it even we were not told how he should hallow his name or how his kingdom should come or how his will should be done or how he should provide us our daily bread or how he should not verse 13 lead us not into temptation or deliver us from evil there's no how in it but when it comes to this fifth required we are telling God how to do it is the only one of the five requests where we are specifically telling god this is the way I want you to forgive me I don't tell him how to hallow his name I don't tell him how to deliver me from evil he knows how to do it I don't even tell him how to give me my daily bread but I do tell him how to forgive me Lord I want you to forgive me exactly like I have forgiven that person and the other person another sister and that other woman and another man and those other people and some of my family members and relatives and that boss at work many years ago and all these other people Lord I want you to forgive me exactly like I have forgiven all those people now ask yourself is that the way you want God to forgive you really you say no I want God to forgive me freely well he'll do that if you forgive all those others freely but that is the request forgive me exactly like I have forgiven others I'll tell you I want God to forgive me freely completely and therefore God is my witness there's not a human being that I ever interacted with those I didn't interact with whom I'm not forgiving and I believe there are a lot more in my case than in your case because I am a servant of the Lord and the devil's mean I've been a target of Satan for years through human beings who try to trouble me and harass me in all types of things but I have forgiven every last one of them freely not only freely but I don't have a grudge against anyone and above all that I don't wish any evil to come upon any of them do you can you say that you honestly don't wish any evil or punishment to come to them who did so much harm to you can you say that or do you get a little thrill when something bad happens to somebody who hurt you I know long ago in my life it was like that I found a little delight in my heart when something bad happened to someone who hurt me and the Lord said to me you have not forgiven that person from your heart you said with your mouth I have forgiven him but here I'm showing you today you have not forgiven that person from your heart because you're a little delighted when that he will happen to that person and I fell on my face and said Lord thank you thank you for showing me that before Jesus returned because you know it's important to forgive a person of the heart and I hadn't done it the proof of it was I was a little happy when something he will happen to that person I'm extremely thankful for the Lord showing it to me and I decided to forgive that person of my heart that moment and I decided to apply that rule to every other person I'd forgiven and that's not the only difference in the six requests at the end of the prayer out of all the six requests Jesus picked out this one he picked out this but one particularly and emphasized it why was that in verse 14 he says if you forgive men their transgressions your heavenly Father will forgive you and like you heard me say before it's not God will forgive you if he had said God will forgive you then of course it's probably referring to unbelievers but when he says your heavenly Father that means he's talking to believers and the whole Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 was spoken to disciples your heavenly what he's already your heavenly father but he will forgive you only if you forgive others and listen to this verse 15 if you don't forgive men your heavenly Father he's your heavenly father right now you're a child of God no doubt about that but your heavenly Father will not forgive you and if you die so we only say like the prodigal son father I have sinned he never made a list of all his sins and the father said welcome that's how we come initially but once your children of God every time you are aware of a sin when the Holy Spirit can makes you the Bible says 1 John 1:9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness of course you cannot be you cannot confess the sin you're not convicted of but you can ignore them but when the Holy Spirit convicts you of a sin whether it's in thought or in a word you spoke to someone if you don't confess it you're not cleansed I mean that's 1 John 1:9 if you ignore it 1 you will never get victory over that sin because you thought of what we look at as it with something light so we cannot enter Heaven if we don't if you got sin in our life now that's absolutely clear no sin can enter into his presence and I'm sure you don't believe that after you die you can get another chance to confess your sins that's out of the question because it says in Hebrews 9:27 it's appointed unto men once to die and after that it's only judgment there is no second chance he there were a second chance than all these believer unbelievers will die we'll get another chance to get to murdered but the Bible is very clear in Hebrews 9:27 wants to die and after that the judgment so it's very important that I live every day of my life with a heart that's free from any unforgiving attitude towards anybody as I said that's not the only thing but it's a very major thing because Jesus emphasized it your heavenly Father he is your father will not forgive you when is he going to forgive you says he won't forgive you and I want to turn to another passage Matthew 18 this has come very strongly to my mind over the last few weeks and months and I've been stressing it everywhere I go whenever the Lord leaves something on my heart I know that people need to hear it so everywhere I've been preaching the last few weeks I've been emphasizing this story where Jesus said about the parable of the slave who was forgiven a huge debt Matthew 18 and verse 23 the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves and one slave oh dear verse 24 Matthew 18:20 for ten thousand talents and the margin of my Bible says that is ten million dollars in value well that's a lot of money I don't think any of you can bear that of ten million dollars none of us can say huge amount and a slave doesn't even get a salary he's got zero in his bank account how in the world can he clear a debt of ten million dollars so what does he say he says have more patience with me I'll try and repay it I'll work hard and do extra work the king was sorry for this slave and said okay you're forgiven verse 27 what a merciful King to forgive ten million dollars what a merciful King that's Lee went out it says and found another slave who owed him and the margin of my Bible says a hundred denarii was a hundred day's wages and I presumed two thousand years ago a day's wage may have been about one dollar a day two thousand years ago it's a lot of money so a hundred dollars it's not a small amount it's quite a large sum it's one hundred day's wages and it's not something that slave could easily let go but when he compared it to what he owed the king it was a drop in an ocean and you may also say what that guy did to me was not something I can easily ignore it's a serious thing he did the way he slandered my children and the way he did evil to my children it's not something I can easily ignore okay it's a large amount hundred dollars but as I said it's a drop in the ocean compared to what God forgive us so the point of that story is whenever you think of someone who owes you owes you in the sense that he's done harm to you compare it with evil you did against God all the sins and I don't believe many of us see the gravity of sin many sins which we take lightly we will discover when we stand before the Lord are very very serious when you're far away from God you don't see the seriousness of many sins the closer you come to God you see the seriousness of trivial little selfish acts and words which made man like Paul but come close to the Lord say Lord I'm the chief of sinners when I think of all the things I did wrong the holiest man on earth Paul felt he was the chief of sinners because he had come so close to God and see that scene the gravity of little little things which most Christians took lightly so when we discover when he stand before the Lord one day we will be amazed how serious and how grave were the sins that God forgave us and the debt we owed him was immense and we will see that what Christ paid for us on the cross was a fantastic debt that we could never never have paid in our entire eternal hell as a price for our sins we have committed and we are forgiven I was telling someone the other day who felt a believer who felt he deserved to be treated better by another believer I said do you know what you really deserve if you ask God to give you what you deserve it's hell go to God to say Lord give me what I deserve hell fire anything better than hell fire is better than what we deserve so I was telling him don't ever think somebody should have treated you better than that you deserve better you deserve hell fire and if you got anything better than that be thankful but it's a proud arrogant man or woman who thinks he deserves better treatment than from others how dare that person treat me like that how dare my wife talk to me like that who in the world do you think you are are you one do you really believe that you're a hell deserving wretched filthy good-for-nothing sinner I'm convinced about this that many Christians have never seen even once in their life that they're good-for-nothing rotten wretched hell deserving sinners God showed that to me even though I never murdered anybody I didn't commit the cross injured people commit and yet I realized when I came before God and I was a good-for-nothing rot in hell deserving make take every adjective you can think of and that's true of me that's why I'm grateful that's why I'm eternally grateful for having been forgiven and that's why I can very easily forgive others whatever they may do and if you find it difficult to forgive others let me tell you to your face my dear brothers sister you haven't really seen what a good for nothing useless person you are in God's eyes you better ask God to show you that and see what a rotten stinking used every adjective possible that's what you are in God's eyes and yet he forgave you so freely and for you to look down on someone else it's arrogance sheer arrogance that's what this man he put that man in prison as shocking now the serious thing I want to mention here is that when the King heard about it he called him back and here is an amazing thing which is not taught in any other passage of Scripture it's very important to learn it as far as I know this is the only passage in scripture where this truth is taught listen carefully that all the sins God forgave you in your entire life can be put back upon your head you thought they were gone you thought God had forgotten about it God never forgets anything many people think when God forgives our sins he forgets about them there's no verse in the Bible that teaches that if you read carelessly scripture carelessly you'll find that God does not forget the sins you committed in your past life from the day you were born he knows every one of them even after he forgives you what he does say read carefully Hebrews 8:12 is I will not remember your iniquities that's a choice I choose not to remember when you come before me I will not remember your iniquities I choose not to remember that's different from forgetting I'll tell you why it's impossible for God to forget I remember the sins I did 60 years ago as an unconverted person is my memory better than God's but I can remember what I did six years ago what God can't remember it I got to be stupid to think that if I can remember it you can be pretty sure God can remember it too but he says I choose not to remember you because you're repented and you come to me you've asked God to ask me to forgive you the Lord says I choose not and so I can stand before God honestly and God looks at me as if I had never committed a sin in my entire life that's what gives me tremendous boldness and you can come like that before God too as if you had never sinned in your whole life because God says I choose not to remember but if there is one person whom you won't forgive whom you spiritually catch by the throat or spiritually put him in a prison that you won't have anything you want something evil to happen to him then this passage teaches that all those sins which you thought God had forgotten he hasn't I put back on your head that's what God said you have to repay verse 30 for all that you owed me that's for the king told the slave he was back to square one he thought he was climbing up to the top when he's back to square one it's like this chutes and ladders game you you think you've done pretty rub bunt to the top and all of a sudden you took a wrong step and back you're down I think the chutes and ladders game you'll never come to square one you come to one of the other squares but with God you come to square one all the way down there just because you took that one wrong step you didn't forgive somebody it's serious and that's not all first of all God put all of that back on his head secondly says you in verse 32 God called him a wicked person God calls a child of his who won't forgive somebody a wicked person you don't deserve to be a child of mine God says you're a wicked person I don't want God to call me a wicked person and remember these words are spoken by the gentle meek and mild Jesus he's the one who said it sometimes we got a one-sided understanding of Jesus he's just this merciful kind forgiving gentle gracious person absolutely true but it's one side of him the other side is very very strict on people who are not who are sinners but who are unmerciful to others we're all sinners he's merciful to others but there's another side of Jesus he's ruthlessly unmerciful to those who are unmerciful to others he said that in the Sermon on the Mount chapter 5 Matthew 5 blessed are the merciful they alone will obtain mercy you know that it's very clear and so God calls such a person wicked very strong word the second thing we read here is verse 34 God was angry with the Lord was angry with the person you think God won't be angry with you a lot of preachers say God will never be angry with you well in most cases he won't even if you committed murder you can repent the thief on the cross repented God was not angry with him he took him to paradise because he took the blame and said yeah Lord I'm guilty Paul was a murderer murdered Christians he became the greatest apostle but if you don't forgive somebody boy God's going to be angry says here the Lord was moved with angers not just angry propelled with anger against this person's only one thing not because he went in kill somebody because he wouldn't forgive someone it's terrible you know a person can fall into dirty ways of thinking or even fall into adultery in a moment of weakness as possible but an unforgiving attitude is not a moment of weakness No and unforgiving attitude is a deliberate choice that a man makes saying I decide I am NOT going to forgive that person in my mind then God is moved with anger he's propelled with anger against such children of his that's I told you first of all this person's got to pay up the hole all his past sins secondly he's called wicked thirdly God is moved with anger and the fourth thing mentioned in verse 34 is God allows the torturers which are the demons to go and attack him until he has repaired all that debt I mean this is Jesus this is the meek and mild Jesus saying what does he say he handed him over to the torturers was 34 torturers are the demons that means they make you sick in some way do you know there are sicknesses that believers get that will never be healed from with any amount of injections and pills and treatment they'll be here when they forgive somebody and you say it does you mean the Lord will do that God will do that to me okay with the next verse exactly in this way will my heavenly father do to you heavenly father not God heavenly father will do to you not if you fall into adultery but if you don't forgive somebody from your heart how many times in your life my brothers and sisters has somebody taken pains to explain this parable in detail to you or have you meditated and studied this parable in detail you know how the devil wouldn't like want you to study all these things he wants you to be with him for eternity the devil no wonder I've hardly found I'll tell you this I was a Christian for before we started CFC I was a Christian for 16 years born-again defeated most of the time defeated discouraged but I used to go to a good church I went to a brethren assembly where they studied God's Word there's no church in the world that emphasizes the Bible like the Brethren but I never heard one sermon on this parable in all the years that I was there never I said why why bees left out they taught me about the tabernacle and about forgiveness and how we are justified and accepted in all ever they never told me that if I don't forgive others I won't be forgiven and if I don't forgive others God will call me wicked he'll be angry with me release the demons on me and put all my sins back on my head her time but I thank God that I discovered these things and if people are I believe that if God allows you to hear it it's because he loves you he sincerely loves you and wants you to have his best that's why he allows you to hear this message and I remember one in case you haven't heard this mentioned before let me repeat it for those who haven't about 37 years ago it was a very well-known musician and evangelist in India very famous who one day he came to our small despised house church people meeting in our house in those days 1980 we didn't even have a building we were just a small group of maybe 40 people meeting in our house and this guy who's so well-known and famous came to our church I was wondering why he came he said well brother Zack I've heard some of your messages and I feel God asked me to come here okay and when he he was a wonderful accordionist he played before the Queen and King in all of England NOLA so when we had a conference I asked him to play the accordion he said no I won't wait I've come here to listen to the Word of God he said they're just like in the crowd two years later he was dying and he was in a hospital in another town he called on me to please come and I took a flight and went there and I went to his bedside in the hospital and he said breath look it seriously and I want to say to you today brother Zack that I have forgiven every last one of them I'm ready to meet my Savior he died the next day then I knew why God sent him to our church two years ago all his fame as an evangelist and musician would not take him to heaven I told his wife after he died isn't it good that he didn't go to heaven as a musician and a famous evangelist that he went to heaven as a repentant sinner but forgiving everybody I wanted to be a disciple of Jesus I'll never forget that and where God sees someone I believe God saw the sincerity of his heart and brought him to hear the very message he needed to hear and a lot of others maybe God sees them they are not sincere so they never hear it you are sincere God's allowed you to hear a very important message so that when Christ comes again with boldness you can say Lord I'm ready to meet you my heart is clear everything that I know I have confessed to you and your blood has cleansed me and I've forgiven everybody that I know so I want you to do something I want you with an act of your will forgive every person who comes to your mind right now that you have not forgiven and make sure that you don't forget what you heard today that ever between now and the coming of Christ there are now many years that will be if ever ever that unforgiving attitude comes back into your mind just release that person immediately and you can come to a life I'll tell you because there were times in my life and I had this unforgiving attitude to you and I was not ready to meet the Lord God had mercy on what I can say today I live in another realm today I live inside the veil in the most holy place where my will is not important I don't you know why is it we don't forgive someone I'll tell you we get a certain pleasure out of not forgiving that person why do people go after sex there's a pleasure in it why do people go after money there's a pleasure in getting a lot of money why do people eat any type of food which they like there's a pleasure in it why is it you don't forgive somebody whether you believe it or not there is a pleasure in it we never do things that hurt us you won't go cut yourself with a knife because that hurts you everything we do whether you didn't realize it or not it's because you find a certain pleasure in having that unforgiving attitude towards that person and you got to hate it you got to put that self of yours out of the throne of your life and put it a debt and put Christ there it's no longer i but Christ and you can do that today and say Lord it's just one area but as you open up your life to God in this area the Lord will begin to show you so many things and your life will like the Bible says go from one degree of glory to another let's bow our heads in prayer God is a good God as we just saying God is good all the time and he's been good to us but when we sing that he's put a song in this heart of mine we don't want it to be imaginary you will not have that song if in your heart if you haven't forgiven somebody you'll only have it in your mouth and your mind but not in your heart determine right now as the above before God say Lord just show me there's anyone I haven't forgiven right now is anybody in this church perhaps you've got a grudge against you wouldn't think there is but perhaps there is you're probably such a proud person that you've got a grudge against somebody in this church only proud people will have a grudge against somebody in their own church a humble person will never have it you're a very proud person if you've got a grudge against anyone in this church I'll tell you that say Lord I forgive begin there begin in your own church and then begin with your relatives and then go to your former bosses and people you work for and work for today say Lord I want to forgive and neighbors and whoever you can think of say Lord I want to forgive every one of them you have forgiven me so much and if you find it difficult to forgive someone because they did so much harm to you or your family then ask the Lord to help you his Holy Spirit is there to help you to forgive that person from your heart we want to mean business with God before we move on now wonderful things God has in store for us but we have to get past this hurdle before we possess those things which God has for us and perhaps this is the thing that's blocked the channel so that you couldn't be filled with the Holy Spirit even though you prayed for years to be baptized in the Holy Spirit nothing happened you claimed it by faith and nothing happened but nothing will happen because it's a block in the channel what you're carrying in today you're getting rid of it and the floodgates of heaven will be open all your life and your life will be entirely different say Lord I forgive completely help me to forgive from the heart let me to release everyone help me not to have my hand on anybody's throat and be merciful to me because I've been extremely unmerciful to others but I want to change today please help me I've been so judgmental and critical of everybody around me thinking that I am Almighty God forgive me for sitting on the throne of God and judging everybody else Lord forgive me and help me to take the low place at the foot of your throne from today onwards and not as sit on it as a judge I want to be merciful to everyone please cleanse me from my unmerciful attitude I humbly ask I pray the blood of Jesus would blot out this sin which I've discovered today and I never ever want to have it again in my life preserve me Lord remind me anytime this evil tries to creep into my heart again I want to be free and I want to be like the birds of the air flying towards you help me Lord and I believe you will Heavenly Father I believe there are some at least here who are sincerely crying out to you today I pray it will be everyone and I pray that there will be a release that will come into their life as they forgive others a healing [Music]

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 10,266

Rating: 4.8086958 out of 5

Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen

Id: 2NBt8cr9EAI

Length: 54min 15sec (3255 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2017