Forgiveness | Jeff Henderson

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well last week Andy began this new series life apps and if you weren't with us and talked about this powerful principle of application that it's one thing to know something but what really matters is when you actually do something when you apply what you know and so I'm very excited about this series because basically what we're gonna do is we picked five life apps five applications that we think these applications are very significant I'm gonna be very helpful very tangible and very practical and so today I get to introduce life at number one and to do that I thought I would tell you a little bit about my hometown and my hometown is actually here in Atlanta Georgia in fact any Atlanta natives in the crowd yeah look at that we need to start a club or something don't we now you know I love Atlanta and there's a lot of things that I experienced about Atlanta growing up but one of the things and you Atlanta natives can probably resonate with this one of the things you realize every year is an Atlanta native is that the likelihood of our professional sports teams winning a world championship is slim right I mean it's happened twice in 46 years the 1995 Atlanta Braves go Braves yeah but does anybody know the second team oh I heard it somewhere Chiefs all right you're gonna get a chick-fil-a card that's great all right the 1968 Atlanta Chiefs to which most of us respond the Atlanta who write the Atlanta chews for a professional soccer team that won the World Championship in 1968 and hey when you've only won two and 46 years you go with what you got people you go with what you guys so that's one of the things I experienced the other thing I experienced as an Atlanta native is we Atlanta natives are very proud of this hometown product we are very proud of coca-cola right yeah now we Atlanta natives we love this product but most of us had nothing to do with this okay but one of the ways you can tell if someone's from Atlanta is how they actually say coca-cola we don't say coca-cola we say coca-cola I'd like to have a coca-cola please never heard that before in Atlanta native now if you're watching online or out of town you may not know this but here in Atlanta we're so proud of this product we actually built a museum for it in downtown Atlanta it's called the world of coca-cola it's awesome man it's great now here's what's interesting about this product though in 1886 a chemist named George Pemberton created this process product known as coca-cola he actually created it now to far from where Buckhead churches but there's an interesting phenomenon that has happened between 1886 to now did you know that this Koch logo is the second most recognizable symbol in all of the world do you know that I mean right here from hometown Atlanta Georgia this is the second most recognizable symbol in all the world come on I think you would agree that ain't too bad for sugar water right I mean that's very impressive now at coca-cola they have this kind of mission statement this mantra it's not a marketing slogan it's kind of internal but their mission and marketing statement is this their mission is that we want to have a coke within arm's reach of everyone on the planet that we want to have a coke within arm's reach of everyone on the planet and they're not there yet but they're closer than most now the reason I tell you this isn't to talk about the second most recognizable symbol in all the world as much as it is to point to what's number one because there's one symbol that's far greater and far more recognizable than the coca-cola logo and it's this one the cross now you've seen this before right you've seen it on buildings you've seen it on steeples you've seen at hospitals maybe some of you have something like this in your home we've all kind of seen this but but here's my point today is that despite what your church background may or may not be that there is a practical life application that is within arm's reach of us all that once we understand the story behind the symbol once we embrace the story behind this simple there is a very practical very tangible and very helpful life app that is available to us and that is with an arm's reach of us all that this isn't the reserved property for the church or institutionalized religion but this has a breakthrough life app that is within arm's reach of us all once we understand the story behind the symbol now let me illustrate that let me ask you a question has there ever been a time in your life when someone has done you wrong as murmur in the crowd yeah has there ever been a time in your life where someone has lied about you cheated you missed represented you harmed your reputation try to destroy your reputation broke the trust in the relationship has there ever been a situation like that in your life see that the truth for all of us is all of us who come up here and share stories about how somebody did something to us and wouldn't you agree wouldn't you agree that that shaped us to some degree what they did to us shaped you and me but wouldn't you also agree that our response to what they did to us also shaped us that if we respond with revenge or if we respond with holding a grudge that shapes us and wouldn't you also agree that when it comes to grudge holding isn't a grudge holding a grudge isn't it one of life's guilty pleasures doesn't it kind of doesn't it kind of feel good I mean you're vindicated what they did to you was wrong and one of the things we do in terms of holding a grudge is we fantasize what it would be like if we could tell them off right if I could give you up if I could give them a piece of my mind we think about what that looks like in fact that fantasy looks a little bit something like this that one day you're walking along the mall just minding your own business and you look up and there the person coming your way is the person who's wronged you and they're too close now so you can't pretend not to see them and so you just get close to them and you stop and they stop and you look at each other and suddenly you were given the public speaking abilities of Andy Stanley and you start on this amazing humdinger of a speech I mean you go all Charlie Sheen on them right there in the mark I mean you're you're you're it's just amazing by the way if you're keeping score that's the first time in recorded sermon history that Andy Stanley and Charlie Sheen had been mentioned we started together so we're just up here making history people making history today so you're you're just I mean this is an amazing speech now keep in mind this is our fantasy lo and behold there are friends of ours that happen to be at this mall at the same day imagine that and they begin to gather around and they begin to tear your speech a whole preach it brother Oh preach it sister whoo that had the burn girlfriend I mean all all that all that kind of stuff right so you're building this crescendo of a speech and you get to the end and person who wronged you there's tears in their eyes and their lips are starting to quiver and you get to the end and you're waiting to hear those words you've always waited to hear from them say which is I'm sorry but right before they say I'm sorry you turn on your heels and you walk away and everybody applauds doesn't that feel good in fact I know it feels good because some of you are smiling as I went through that holding a grudge feels good but here's my question this holding a grudge really work does it I mean it might feel good for a while but does it really work the reason I'm skeptical that it doesn't work is that there's some of us here today you've been holding on to a grudge for a long time now and the fact I'm not being critical I'm just saying the fact that you've been holding a grudge for a long time kind of means it's probably not working but some of us make present-day decisions on something that happened years ago and is that a sign that it's working some of us toss and turn over something that happened a long time ago and the question is does holding a grudge does it really work see here's a sinister thing about a grudge and you know we do this you know we lash out with a text message or lash out with an angry voicemail or lash out with an angry email I understand all of that but here's my point there's a sinister thing about grudge holding and that sinister thing is this the longer you hold a grudge the longer the grudge has hold of you the deeper you hold the grudge the deeper the grudge is lodged in within you and you see some of us are here today and you've been carrying a grudge for quite a while now haven't you and I'm not saying that what what they did to you wasn't that big of a deal and you know it's not that big of a deal no what I'm saying is what they did to you was a big deal and the reason it's a big deal is because you're still thinking about it so it's a big deal but here's the point that you know you've probably come to the point that if you keep carrying this grudge that the weight of the grudge is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and if you're not careful you're going to emotionally collapse under the weight of the grudge and here's how I've been praying for you this week in several weeks I'm praying that you would simply allow the Spirit of the Living God to speak to you today so that he would release the grip of the grudge he would break the chains of the past and you have moved you would move forward you see God has a great plan for each of us but some of us are chained linked to the past and today if you allow God to do this he will begin to release the grip of the grudge and break the chains of the past so that you can pursue what he has for you in the present and the future but some of us today some of us the wound is too fresh isn't it I understand it's just too recent what happened is way too recent the wound is too fresh and the last thing you want to hear is a guy like me talking about releasing the grip of the grudge I totally understand that but here's what I want to challenge you to consider for the rest of our time together that while it may be too fresh while the wound may be too fresh my prediction is that as time progresses you're gonna realize that the person the grudge is hurting the most isn't the person that you're holding the grudge against it's the person holding the grudge and when that day arrives I simply want you to remember this day that there is hope that there is a God in heaven who stands ready to help you release the grip of the grudge to break the chains of the past and to be free from what they did to you so here's where we're going this morning today we're gonna go in a little bit of a journey together we're gonna start here and we're gonna talk about the story behind the symbol and then we're gonna move to a passage of Scripture that really introduces our life app today and the first life app of this series is the life app of forgiveness and here's what I want you to hear is that forgiveness works better than grudge holding so we're gonna start here there we're going to go to the Bible and look and see how we can apply this and as we apply this life app we're gonna see how the grip of the grudge can be released and then we're going to close with a story because here's what I know is true again I'm not arguing with you I'm just saying I understand that some of you the whole time I'm up here talking you're gonna be thinking this yeah but if you knew my story yeah but if you knew my story yeah but if you knew my story and I totally understand so I think maybe the best thing I can do is maybe tell you how this works but then show you that there is hope and that it actually works and we're in a close today with a story about that life out so let's start here we're gonna start with the cross and it's interesting this might be the world's most recognizable symbol but as we look at history and what we know about the cross from a historical perspective in particular how Rome crucified people because Rome was the regime that crucified Jesus Christ particularly the eastern Legion of Rome what's interesting is how the cross has been portrayed throughout history actually differs from how Rome crucified people for example we know that the eastern Legion of Rome they didn't crucify people on a cross that looks something like this a lowercase T they actually crucified people on a cross that looked like this an uppercase T this is how the eastern Legion of Rome crucified people in this in all likelihood it's what the cross of Jesus Christ actually looked like the other interesting thing about this is many times in art and in movies Jesus is portrayed as carrying the full cross to Calvary that's also inconsistent with what we know about history that how Rome crucified people is that this bar actually stayed in the ground the whole time this is called the stikeez and yet it was this bar called the star Ross is that's what Jesus in all likelihood carried to Calvary so some differences there but for my opinion the most significant difference in terms of how the cross has been portrayed and how it actually probably happened in history is that Jesus is often a pictured as being crucified on a cross it's 15 to 20 to 22 feet high in the air so that people kind of come up and have to look way up at him again that is inconsistent with how the eastern Legion of Rome crucified people they crucified people on a cross like this that was about five to six feet from the ground they wanted to make crucifixion very very personal and they did that for a very important psychological reason here's what Rome was tell people when they would crucify people and they would do it all the time they would say this hey come on come on get close we want you to get face-to-face and eye to eye to the person who's on the cross come on come on get close we want you to see it we want you to feel it we want you to hear it because what they knew is that once you experience someone dying on a cross you would never ever forget it it was that horrific and the psychological message that the kingdom of Rome was sending whenever they crucified people and the message they were sending when they crucified Jesus was this the kingdom of Rome was saying if you do not bow the knee and if you do not submit to Rome this too shall be you and it was a powerful memorable imprinted message to anyone who saw crucifixion but the day that Jesus was crucified the kingdom of Rome wasn't the only Kingdom sending a message that day no there was a far greater Kingdom with a far greater message with far greater significance and that Kingdom was the kingdom of God and the message the kingdom of God was sending was this mom get close come face to face and eye to eye with the savior of the world come face to face and eye to eye to see the savior of the world who's been beaten and battered and spit upon and punched and is now crucified and when you understand what's going on here when you come face to face and eye to eye I bet you will never forget this what the Scriptures teach when we come face to face and I die to the story the cross here's what the Scriptures teach the Scriptures teach that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and yet while we were yet sinners Christ died for us so that we can experience God's forgiveness and the Bible would go on to marvel to say how great is the love of the Father that he has lavished upon us so that we would be called the sons and the daughters of God and imagine just for a second imagine what it would have been like that Good Friday to walk up face-to-face eye-to-eye with the savior of the world and you knew that he knew why he was there and he knew that you knew it do you think you would ever walk away and forget that and the reason it's important to remember that and imagine that is because in a very real sense you were there that day we all were the cross isn't reserved for 2,000 years ago the cross is timeless the cross is personal and what the cross means is this that God's grace has come to you God's mercy is available to you God's forgiveness is extended to you and I don't care what it is that you've done nothing Trump's the death of Jesus on the cross nothing there is no sin that Trump's Jesus death on the cross and what that means for you is that God looks at you once you embrace the story of this cross once you embrace and understand who Jesus is God looks at you and says forgiving holy righteous my son my daughter forgiven but this is what happens this is the power of the cross that when we stay there there's a shift that takes place in a heart that God's grace and forgiveness is so overwhelming that God's grace and forgiveness just doesn't come to us but God's forgiveness goes through us and begins to flow out of us that we're not just recipients of God's grace and forgiveness but we are distributors of God's grace and forgiveness and that leads us to our bottom line the bottom line of this life app of forgiveness it's really simple but I think it's really really important and that is this when you understand the cross and embrace it and just stay there here's what happens forgiving people forgive forgiving people forgive forgiving people forgive but don't miss this the reason we forgive is as much for us as it is the person we're forgiving because what happens with forgiveness is forgiveness begins to release the grip of the grudge that forgiveness is very aggressive forgiveness breaks the chain of the past and allows us to move forward and you see your heavenly father deeply desires this for you and so his grace and forgiveness not just doesn't just come to you he wants it to flow out of you and not only does he want you to know this he he inspired a man by the name of the pasal Paul to write five verses and in these five verses he lets us know how to apply forgiveness and to release the grip of the grudge and in a book that Paul wrote that God wrote through Paul Romans chapter 12 verse 17 this is what he says and please don't miss this this is how you apply the life app or forgiveness Romans chapter 12 verse 17 he says do not repay anyone evil for evil if you've got a Bible or you got your iPad or your iPad - or Blackberry or whatever where you highlight or circle or mark or star the word evil those second time he writes that this is important we're not saying that what they did to you wasn't a big deal you just need to put on your big-boy pants you just need to get over it's not that big of a deal know what the Bible says again is what they did to you was wrong in fact the Bible says what they did to you is evil okay we're not denying what they did to you we're dealing with it but what Paul is saying here is you got to understand there's a different pathway if you want to understand how to release the grip of the grudge you have to understand this journey so he says do not repay anyone evil for evil be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody verse 18 if it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone and again if you're taking notes I'd love for you to circle the word peace because what Paul doesn't say here is you need to live in partnership with everyone you see if you're in business for example if someone steals from you somebody rips you off as a Christ follower that doesn't mean that you have to kind of brush yourself off and go okay thank you very much I'll have another this isn't an invitation to be a doormat now what Paul is saying here is you be at peace with everyone what not partnership what that means is you might have to get some smart godly people around you to say look I got to exit out of this business partnership or we're gonna exit out him or her out of this business partnership but I want to do it in a that is as peaceful as possible then he goes on do not take revenge verse 19 do not take revenge my friends but leave room for God's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord now let me ask you a question all of our campuses and please respond out loud this isn't a trick question but based on this verse do not take revenge my friends but leave room for God's wrath based on this verse whose job is it to avenge you yeah now second question not a trick question look let's say it out as well when you avenge yourself whose job are you assuming and come on you and I we do a terrible terrible job at God's job don't we and what Paul is saying is hey let's focus on this let's focus on the grip of the grudge being released and the change of the past being broken and you let God avenge you you see I think some of the times it's the reason we don't forgive people as we think that we're gonna let them off the hook and that somehow they may or may not have to answer to God to what they did to us I'm not so sure that's what the Bible teaches but what Paul is saying here is why don't you do your job and let God avenge you it's freeing and then he goes on to verse 20 I love this verse it says this it says on the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head I like that now let me tell you how you can't read this first okay you can't read this first like in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head please pass the cookies you can't you can't read this first like this you know how you have to read this first you got to read this first like a good old country preacher you know what I'm talking about you know where they got a little growl on their voice like this and they're running at a breath die like that have you ever seen a good ole country preacher yeah I have to tell you my granddaddy was a good old country preacher he started three churches small churches in Alabama if you wanted me to I could preach I got his blood in me I could preach this verse like a good ol country preacher this morning if you wanted me to all right and he's not here so I'm gonna go for it and nah and doing this side you will heap burning coals on his stinking rotten head doc can I get an amen in the house of the Lord or something like that yeah thank you very much sorry yeah thank you like that dad yeah okay good good but the point is this forgiveness is aggressive it's not for the timid it's not passive it's like I'm just gonna let people run all over me now we're talking about breaking chains here we're talking about moving forward you do your part you let God avenge you and the Paul sums it up this way he says okay at the end of the day you got two choices everybody's has a story that people have wronged us you got two choices he splits it up here in verse 21 he says do not be overcome by evil which means you have a choice to be overcome by evil and the way that you were overcome by evil by the evil that they did to you was to hold a grudge try to lash out revenge do you try to avenge yourself you could try that but you'll probably be overcome by evil it'll probably crush you emotionally or the other way is to overcome evil with good to overcome evil with good see if you take a note circle the word overcome that's what we're talking about when you hold a grudge when you try to be your own Avenger you don't overcome it stays with you but as you get on this journey this life app of forgiveness the grudge begin to be released and in the story of the cross and in these verses I want to point you to this process it's really for simple not necessarily easy but four simple steps and here they are this is how you apply the life app of forgiveness you actually start here step one is to embrace God's forgiveness of you that's where you start and some of you the wound is too fresh the only thing you need to do right now is just stay here and just revel in the truth that you are a son or a daughter you're an heir of the kingdom of God and that God looks at you and says you are my son you my daughter you are forgiven you are blameless in my sight some of us the person we need to forgive is ourselves and don't miss this a holy righteous God forgives you and yet you're not going to forgive yourself come on that doesn't even make any sense so step one is just to stay here and embrace the truth embrace God's forgiveness of you and then that overflows out of our heart to step number two which is forgiving people forgive forgiving people forgive and forgiving people forgive leads to step number three which twitches let God avenge you you let God avenge you you let God avenge you and then step number four is that you just rest on this truth that you're going to overcome evil you're going to overcome the evil that was done to you with good all the while being inspired and empowered by the Spirit of the Living God and His grace and his love for you that's why forgiveness works and grudge holding doesn't now again I know the pushback Jeff if you if you knew my story if you knew my story so as I said earlier maybe the best thing I could do today rather than tell you about it is to actually show you a story and it might not be as bad as your story but it's a pretty compelling story and as I saw this story I thought there it is it's hard to believe but it's impossible to deny that the power of the cross and the ability to give us forgiveness and flow to us and through us it's available and it works and the story I want to close with today is a story of a book that I read a few months ago it's a book called unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand this has been on the New York Times bestseller list for three months now and that she wrote the book Seabiscuit and this this is a fascinating book it's a true story about a man named Louie Zamperini Louie Zamperini was at a great American runner in the 1936 Olympics and he was actually Jesse Owens roommate in the 1936 Berlin games he did so well at the 36 games that he was odds-on favorite to win a gold in the 1940 Olympics but as you know the 1940 Olympics were canceled due to World War two so rather than run in World in the 1940 Olympic Games Louie Zamperini eventually joined the US Army Air Corps and served his country in World War two one day he was flying on a rescue mission on a plane over the Pacific Ocean when the plane that he was in crashed into the Pacific Ocean killing everyone on board with exception of mr. Zephyr Eenie and two other men they climbed on two rafts and began an incredible Odyssey to read about traveling or just drifting along the Pacific Ocean for 2,000 miles in 47 days eventually sharks found them and began to rub their backs on the rafts and eventually they started trying to lunge in after them so we'd have to beat the Sharks off with the oars that they had in the rafts and then one night about midway through this journey mr. Zappa ready he's floating in the dark night of the Pacific Ocean with the stars in the sky and he looks up and he says God if you're really there if you get me out of this I'll give you my life so day 47 they were captured by the Japanese Navy and what Louie Zamperini is about to go through over the next two years would make the last 47 days look like a walk in the park he was severely beaten tortured I spent the conditions he was in would deplorable and the stories of what he went through that she read this book is hard to read but of all the men that beat him there was one man that stood out his name was matcha hero what's not to be and watch you hero went on abhi would later become one of the top 40 war criminals that both the United States and the Japanese government would try to pursue after World War two and the day that Louie Zamperini came to Montana B's prison camp he looked at him and he said I know this guy how do I know this prisoner and suddenly went on to be realized this is Louie Zamperini the great American Runner and all the vengeance and all the hatred and all the brutality that he had that was normally scattered among the troops was locked and loaded on Louie's a Perini and what that man did to Louie Zamperini was incredibly difficult to read one day he commanded another prisoner to stand up and punch Louie's a Perini in the face over and over and over and over and over again one day macho heroin tommy's came up to him and said that barrini stand up and so mr. zapper a nice and stood up and he had a belt behind him and he whipped it into his head immediately fell to the ground cracked his skull made him get back up to clean him off off clean him all off step back and hit him with a belt again that happened for two years the filing mr. Zapp brain he said you know what I can't handle this anymore so he began a plot to kill matsuhiro Montana me but one day as a prisoner as he went outside he noticed an American plane going across the sky and he said I think that's a sign that the war might be coming to an end and sure enough the war did end and sure enough long story short Louie Zamperini is is rescued he's released and he goes back to his hometown of Torrance California he meets a beautiful young lady they get married and he's beginning to try to start his life over again but while he may have been removed from the war the war was still within him the war raged in him what was done to him caused anger red anger maybe anger that none of us can really probably understand to some degree to come out of him it caused him to turn to alcohol and as he became an alcoholic it it it devastated his marriage and his life started going on his downward spiral then one night in 1949 his wife came up to him instead Louie there is a young preacher in Los Angeles that everybody's talking about his name is Billy Graham would you be willing to go with me to here Billy Graham this young preacher I don't believe in God I don't want to go but you know wives can be persistent so sure enough he went that night did not enjoy it but his wife said please come back please come back please come back so he said okay we'll go back in a couple of nights but when the preacher says let us pray that means we're leaving and she said okay if you'll just go here Billy Graham so they go to hear Billy Graham the second night when Billy Graham says let us pray sure enough does a pray knees start heading out the door and as they're heading out the door Louise Zamperini remembers floating on that dark Pacific Ocean saying God if you get me out of this I'll give you my life and so what he did is he moved from the exit door and walked down the aisle to give his life to Jesus Christ and you know where Louise F or any basically went in essence he came here to the cross for the first time in his life he embraced God's forgiveness for him and it was a powerfully compelling moment for him and as he stayed here and embrace God's forgiveness here's what happened God's grace and forgiveness began to flow out of his heart and he began to realize this truth that forgiving people forgive he realized this truth I can let God avenge me and he realized this truth and began to practice this application of overcome evil with good so then in 1952 he went back to Japan to a prison Sugamo prison where many of the guards beat him who had beaten him were now war criminals themselves and so Louise Zamperini went to this prison and said I just want to let you know that Jesus Christ is forgiving me of my sins and because he's forgiving me of my sins I just want to you know I forgive you for what you did to me and then he went one by one to tell them that individually it's a powerful moment in the book but there was one prisoner there that there one man that day that was not there and that was much a hero in Tana B because he was on the run and eventually neither the United States nor Japan could find him so they eventually gave up on the search and many thought that wanton abhi had killed himself or had died but then in 1997 a producer for 60 minutes located matsuhiro Watanabe and he said could we come and interview you and he said sure so that producer for 60 minutes called Luiz a per ad and said we have located him would you want to write a letter to him that we could deliver to him and mr. Zaffirini said sure I would do that and as I read this letter I thought there it is as a read this letter I thought this is hard to just imagine after all that he went through to be able to write this simple letter but it's impossible to deny when I read this letter I thought there it is there's the power of the Cross forgiving people forgive they overcome evil with good it actually works and so what I thought I would do today is to close our time together by actually reading the letter that he wrote but honestly I'm not worthy to read this letter because this isn't my story so here's the cool thing Louie Zamperini is 94 years young he is an amazing man and so our team said you know what there's a lot of people that are hurting a lot of people have stories what if we contacted mr. Zappa Rainey in California and asked him to fly all the way to Atlanta to simply close our service today by reading the letter that he wrote and so several weeks ago we contacted him and at 94 years young he agreed to do that so to close our service today and to give you some hope we'll all of our campuses please welcome Louisa barrini mr. separating it's such a treat for for us to have you here so welcome to Atlanta with that welcome to Atlanta we're glad you're here we're glad you or thank you I don't hear too well I think my battery's going dead we had dinner last night and mr. Zaffirini said Jeff you can call me Louie but my parents are here and I would get in trouble if I called you Louie so I'm just gonna call I'm just gonna call you mr. Zappa Rainey but we are so honored that you are here and we just would just be honored if you would read the letter that you wrote well first of all greetings from Hollywood in the name of Christ one more word I wouldn't be here today if it were not for that famous Olympic swimmer five gold medals John neighbor who helps me and runs interference for me where's John he's in the backstop way over there I think John neighbor [Applause] okay until mr. musta Cheryl what's a knobby as a result of my pleasure of war experience under your unwanted and unreasonable punishment my post-war life became a nightmare it was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was to the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance under your discipline my rights not only as a picker but also as a human being were stripped from me it was the struggle just to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end the post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham I committed my life to Christ love replaced the hate I had for you Christ said forgive your enemies and pray for them as you probably know I returned to Japan in 1952 and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo prison I asked them about you and was told that you probably had committed hari-kiri which I was sad to hear at that moment like the others I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a christian science louise operated okay please don't miss this what he just read was the application of forgiveness embrace God's forgiveness for you forgiving people forgive let God avenge you and overcome evil with good it works and it's available to you because God loves you he sent his son for you and he wants to break the grip of the grudge break the chains of the past so that you can move forward that's the message of today now that's mr. zepa Rainey if he would be so gracious to close us in prayer with it okay our Father in Heaven we give thanks it for our Lord Jesus Christ the one who loved us and gave himself for us on the cross somebody also taught us to not only love one another but to forgive one another we are so thankful for your word which strengthens us day by day as we study your words we have seen out of tension bless us each one of us and they were Christ amen

Channel: North Point Care

Views: 1,253

Rating: 4.7894735 out of 5

Keywords: care network, north point community church, woodstock church, buckhead church, Gwinnett church, decatur city church, brownsbridge church, help, struggling, challenges, pain, relationships, transition, change, ministry resources, resources, training, counseling, forgivness, freedom

Id: PodjtwONyNg

Length: 40min 23sec (2423 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2018