It's Impossible To Forgive | Pastor Stephen Chandler

then Peter came to him and that's Jesus and said Lord how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times how many people know that's a good question that's okay that's a really good question how much insert word do I have to put up with before I can biblically say you're dead to me I will never let you it's probably not biblical this is over you're dead to me but Peters like look how much do I have to put up with before I can say you're done you're done I will not forgive you again that's a good question Peter was generous he said I'll give him seven times Seth I'm not that generous Peter said you can do the same thing to me seven times in a row and I'll forgive you is that enough and so Jesus said read it with me 22 and Jesus said I do not say to you up to seven times but up to seventy times seven any mathematicians in the room seventy times seven 490 come on guys seven times seven is forty-nine at the zero for any I worked on that before the message I'm not that bright let's pray the knowledge you said now father God we're so grateful God to come to your presence this morning got to worship you to exalt your name to declare that there is none like you we are grateful that we are not worshipping and serving a god that is far off but you are right here in our midst for you said wherever two or three are gathered in your name there you will be in god you're here got to speak to us to transform our lives to take us one step closer to the plan that you have for us we're grateful we're attentive and we're listening in Jesus name we pray amen and amen please sit down high five to people tell them I heard you singing and I forgive you come on tell somebody tell somebody you got to forgive people sometimes for their worship because sometimes their worship snatches you out of yours you have been sitting next to one of those like I'm all in the worship and they're just flailing and slapping you in the back your head and I give you permission it doesn t Church you could hit them back we're in week two of this series called 70 times 7 the mice under the heartbeat behind this series is what does the Bible say about forgiveness how important is forgiveness in my life the reality is if you are breathing oxygen you will have an opportunity to either forgive or to harbor resentment in your heart towards someone at least once a year there's certain people that it's almost like it's their spiritual calling to destroy your life they went to growth track step 3 they discovered their purpose and when they finished it they'd my purpose is to ruin your life what pastor Young eacho who who was the senior pastor of the largest church in the world they had over 900,000 people that attended church there on a weekend in South Korea he would say and I'm not gonna do the accent cuz I'm not as good as he is or people who pretend to be him but he would say every morning it's my accent he said I would forgive so many people because every morning I hate so many people it's just inevitable you're gonna be in a situation where you're gonna have to decide am I gonna let this go or am I not am I gonna put my foot down and say enough is enough I'm the type of person and there may be a few in there I know there's not a lot of weird people like me but there's a couple you guys where if somebody tells me that something is in possible you might as well triple dog dare me to do it because that automatically means I'm gonna do it if somebody has just its prey for me it might be pride it probably is I don't know what it is but when somebody tells me you can't or I don't see that happening I'm like game on sit down grab your lemonade and watch this because I can do anything not to Christ just me I can do you don't think I'm being spiritual know I'm being Steven like let's just go let's just get this done and when it comes in possibilities there's different levels to it there's things that people don't think you can do but you know you can do so you kind of play up the game of hey it's a big deal or whatever but you know it's not really a big deal like seven years ago before we were married and dating well why she was pursuing me she just left me so bad she just running right after me no tell her I said that but she planned a birthday party for me we weren't dating she's just a friend it just said hey me if I plant birthday party for him he'll marry me and it worked out so hey go plan a perfect party for the person you like but somehow this rumor got around in our group of friends that I was afraid of heights so she thought lovely woman that she was what let's take him to a place where there's a lot of heights now the reality was I was not afraid of heights I got a roller coasters all that kind of stuff in my skirt hi some thing I don't do is I don't jump out of airplanes unless they're going down it makes absolutely no sense it's not a fun time people hey let's go let's go skydiving no it's stupid I don't know if it's Bible but it should be test not thy Lord thy God by jumping out of a plane unless it's going down so anything but that I'll do but we went out to this place called Terrapin trails and they have like like like ziplining and all of this other good stuff and it's like oh he's scared of heights he's scared of heights I bet he won't do it so we get to the zipline like are you gonna do it you know they'll happy now let's go eat cake because what happens is sometimes people would try to project their fears onto you and because they think it's impossible they think it's impossible for everybody and you and your heart you know it's no big deal then there's the next level of things that are impossible and that's like I think I can do it but I don't really know like that's serious but I'm gonna give it a try because if I can knock this out I am gonna feel more proud and accomplished and ever for example I have a friend who lost 97 pounds that is an entire Stephen if you were wondering how much I weigh about I win 98 now play and it wasn't like some quick like binge crash diet or something like that it was 18 months of eating and like I say right cuz I eat right I just don't eat like that I don't you're right of eating healthy of working out of eating broccoli instead of chicken cauliflower asparagus there is nothing more demonic i here's how you know if as a vegetable is of God does bacon fix it you put some bacon with some green beans it works out just fine you put bacon with asparagus you just have nasty bacon but I mean they sent 18 months pursuing a goal that felt impossible and they accomplished it now that that I don't care who you are that's impressive there's other that's a good place to clap come on now summers coming [Laughter] but then there's those impossibilities that you're just I am like on try look you think that's impossible and I know it's impossible come back later it's not even worth my trouble I'm not gonna do that for example for me then possibilities running a marathon but you can't I bet you I can't no interest all these horrible people driving around with their 13.1 sticker on the back of their car and they're 26.2 stickers but I have a zero point zero sticker that I am very proud of I do not run if you see me running so much chasing me you should run also it's about to go down so they say it's impossible but it's no big deal they say it's impossible and I don't know if I can they say impossible and I'm not going to try because it really is impossible I find Scripture is the same way there's certain verses that when we obey those verses other people get really impressed with us and feel like we're super Christians but the reality is obeying that verse wasn't a big deal for us because that wasn't your struggle we all have struggles but we have different struggles and some struggles are just not our struggle so I can't obey that for example one thing that's not a struggle for me is generosity I just grew up in a house where my dad was constant it wasn't even a church thing he was giving money to some random people that would never pay him back and he knew that they weren't gonna pay him back but he just loved to bless people I grew up in that environment so for me generosity is no big deal for some people it may be like a huge deal so when the Bible says hey give the first 10% of your income to God some people are just like oh I'll give up my life but I can't give them the first 10% like that's a lot that's hard like how in the world can people do that that's nuts that may be your struggle it's not my struggle and I'm not being prideful because I do have struggles it's just not that one I mean my wife we're just doing our taxes and all that other good stuff and we found out we need to know in 2017 we gave to this church twenty five percent of our income and that's one of those things where people like that's a good place to clap even you jealous you say yeah this sounds good [Applause] it wasn't much for us because that's not our struggle tracking with me there's other verses in scriptures where it's like that is my struggle and I know that I can do it because God said I can do it but that's gonna be hard like me patience you know that horrible verse in the Bible that says love is I can do the rest of stuff love is patient love is kind I can be kind that's easy for me I'm not a jerk I can open the door I'll hold the car door like I'm just I'm a kind guy I'm just not the most patient person in the world so every time I read is love is patient I lately read it as Stevens not love oh no and I gotta work on that there's another verse in the Bible that says love thy neighbor as thyself that's really hard for me because I really love thyself and if I'm gonna love my neighbor who allows their dog to go on my grass the way that I love me that's a lot of work there's another verse that says esteem others needs higher that I don't like that one either I'm a pastor forgive me there's a lot of verses I don't like that's one of them because I'm a really needy dude I got a lot of needs and to think that somebody else's needs are more important than my needs hope this doesn't scare you Pastor Steven this guy I'm still working on that I'm working though I'm working don't judge me but then there's other verses in the Bible where it's like hang on try Jesus I wrote that for the pastor that ain't for meeting and then ask for TD jakes let me know if he figures it out there's nothing to do with me I'm sure Billy Graham nailed that one before he died that's that's for him but forgiveness is one of those verses Peter came to Jesus and he says okay how much is enough at what point do I get to say no more I'm not giving you other opportunity he said okay Jesus how about seven times now in that context in that culture the rabbis had over 600 laws that you had to Bay to be considered religious anybody grateful for Jesus the Bible says that in Christ he became the law and 600 laws became one thank God because I could barely remember the ten last 600 one of their laws were that you were required to forgive someone up to three times it was actually writen forgive once twice and the third time and then release so what Peter was saying is Jesus it's considered that the priest the most religious people among us they forgive three times and then after that they're done Jesus what if we forgave seven times double the priest plus one in that day the number seven wasn't just a numeric number but it's symbolized completion seven represented in Israel that time the number of completed by the way I wish we we had their culture today been back in that day they would have something called the year of Jubilee which means for seven years he would so you were harvest you would work whatever maybe but at the seventh year every debt was canceled somebody shout just for a moment as if it was like pay that student loan for seven years and then at the end no matter where you are cancelled credit right to 8:20 praise the Lord some of y'all shout a little bit too much Financial Peace University taking place every Tuesday 7 o'clock get yourself some so what Peter said 7 times he was saying I'm gonna completely forgive them and Jesus responded complete forgiveness is not enough you say seven times jesus said seventy times seven one of the things about scripture that's so fun is as you read it it's literal but there's also colloquialisms in there that we may not realize as I was reading through scripture I realized that 70 times 7 wasn't just a number it was a phrase that they threw around at the time anybody remember in the Bible man by the name of Cain he was the first murder in Scripture remember he killed his brother you know why killed his brother he killed his brother because his brother brought the first his brother typed and Cain brought the leftovers and God received the first but he rejected the leftovers and instead of being mad at himself or mad at God Cain killed his brother Abel there's this thing called generational curses and I don't want to get this one explained 70 times 7 and what a generational curse is it's a stronghold or something that you struggle with and if you don't bring it to Jesus and allow him to bring freedom in that area you pass it to your children and your children's children to your children's children that's why things like alcoholism it gets passed down things like anger I'm a mom Barbadian in Beijing Yankee because it's married here but my parents are Barbadian island of Barbados or have beautiful flag it's blue it's yellow and then it's blue and I'm gonna get in trouble it's all right I'm barb and I don't care and we have this trident in the middle of our flag look it up and the Trident represents pride sometimes a stronghold you ain't never met a prideful man til you met a Beijing man the most stubborn human being you move on all the Trinis are like yes y'all aren't allowed to say that only I'm allowed to say so Cain was a murder someone saying you that so was that mean about children they're murderers too and it got worse and worse and worth until the fourth generation there was this guy named Lamech and Lamech got in an argument with someone and he killed that man but that wasn't enough so he killed the man's son - and then Lamech said listen here okay I'm sure pray for me so I'm trying to teach Zoey to be ghetto because she's born in Howard County and she doesn't know a true story forgive me so I have her I'm teaching her to say listen booboo what you not gonna do it's like Oh Zoe listen boo boy she goes pray for me my wife is really upset but we're gonna get her there she gotta remember her roots but anyway so Lamech said listen booboo what you not gonna do is you're not gonna cross me and this is Scripture he said Cain's revenge was seven times he said my revenge is seventy times seven so from that passage in general in Genesis for thousands of years seventy times seven was no longer a number it was a phrase for revenge so they would use it like this they said what about you seventy times seven in other words they got theirs coming to them and here's what Jesus said to the same degree that the world seeks revenge that's how much you should forgive how far they go out of their way to subtweet about you to make sure that everybody in your circle of friends knows how jacked-up you are to spread rumors around the office how far they go out of their way to tear you down is as far as you should go out of your way to forgive I don't like that scripture what Jesus was trying to get us to understand his unforgiveness does not hurt that person it hurts us unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting somebody else to die and Jesus said if you don't let that go you are gonna find your life anchored to that hurt anchored to that moment and you are trying with all your energy and all your strength to move forward but you can't because you're holding on to bitterness from the past unforgiveness has a way of destroying the most joyful moments in our lives let's be honest for a second then we'll go back to being Christians and we'll preach this message and go home you ever been to like a birthday party or Thanksgiving dinner at Christmas or whatever maybe and you were just happy to be there the sweet potato casserole was on the table the ham was there it said there was no vegetables anywhere to be found like I mean it was just like let's go and then that person walked in and instantly no hungry anymore you ever there maybe was a birthday party maybe it was a class reunion maybe we were at work and it's that person's presence or maybe they didn't even show up somebody just mentioned their name and it stole your joy from a moment of celebration unforgiveness steals more from us than from anybody else I like history and I heard this story about the the British civil war in the 17th century in 1649 the Royalists party was in control and King Charles the first was the king he was abusing his power and manipulating and and creating just hardships for people and and a rebellious party rose up led by name by a man by the name of Oliver Cromwell they said we are done with this and and we are going to take them out while a civil war ensued and they actually won and they de thrown King Charles the first and they overthrew the Royalists party it wasn't just enough for them to have power they said this man must pay for his atrocities so they held him trial for war crimes of the atrocities that he had committed to his own people 59 people sat on that jury 59 people found him guilty and since sentenced him to execution what happened however is when they became in power they did exactly the same thing that the Royalists party had done before them is just they were in control it's amazing how abused people to abuse people how somehow we have in our mind power equals me doing to someone else what somebody did to me well obviously that did not last long they continued to battle and then eleven years later the royalist party took the throne again and they put in a new king king charles ii it's really simple who was he the first son it's really kind of easy to follow king charles ii he says my first order of business is to find every single person on that jury who found my father guilty and executed him so he sent the army out they went and they search for these 59 people they could only find 44 of them they came back and they said King Charles we searched and we discovered that 15 of those people over the last 11 years have passed away they are dead they are buried there's nothing that we can do king charles ii said dig them up they went and dug up the corpses of those 15 people he said that's not enough hold them trial look this up when you go up is the most outrageous story you have ever heard in life they sat those corpses in a courtroom and held them trial what do you have to say for yourself I didn't think so guilty if that wasn't enough after the trial was over and they found them guilty they sentenced the 15 corpses to execution by hanging they took the corpses outside and hung the dead bodies from the yeah get you some seventy times seven talk about digging up the past literally like these 15 people not only have they moved on they had moved on to another lifetime and he said no that's not enough they're gonna pay for what they've done unforgiveness tethers us to situations that other people have long moved on from and yet our whole world is still defined by that moment I don't have time to read the whole chapter because we want to get out of here before 4:00 p.m. will be out by 3:00 it'll be great but if you read the entire chapter of Matthew chapter 18 it's a conversation that Jesus was having with his disciples it wasn't one verse the entire chapter was a conversation the conversation started out when the ten disciples found out that James and John had gone behind their back and actually Jesus if they could be second in third in command so there was a little bit of a church split going on on First Baptist Church of disciples they were deacons were having a little bit issue because who do you think you are to action Jesus for a second and third position like so they were fighting and she said hey you need to forgive him and in this Matthew chapter 18 as he's talking about forgiveness watch this verse in verse 19 he says this again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by My Father in heaven it's a chapter unforgiveness and Jesus is saying get along with people and you can open heaven over your life the reason why Jesus was stressing forgiveness so much is because he was trying to get the disciples and us to understand that when we Harbor unforgiveness in our lives we actually lock seven and cut off our prayers because the Bible says in order for heaven to respond you have to agree with someone else and you say now passes as bogus there's only one person I hate everybody else I love it's impossible to harbor bitterness in your heart towards one person and to genuinely trust anybody else say pastor stay out of trouble I can't I'm passive how he almost on the edge they're so worried I'm a fall off one day I will y'all will laugh it'll be great you ever met somebody in the first thought you had when you encountered them was who hurt you I don't know who it is I don't know what it was but somebody hurts you because the way you're interacting with me you don't even know me but I can tell there's something in your history getting troubles they stay out of trouble just go there's some of you people you meet you people where your resting face is a scowl like before I met you I thought you were always angry it's like this is me happy this is me sad but life has just been so hard why waste time smiling and Jesus saying if you don't let it let it go let it go I've never watched that movie forth all I know he said if you don't let it go it's not gonna hurt them it's gonna paralyze your destiny that's why he was trying to get them to understand it's a big deal you have to let that go if you're gonna move forward and all that God has for you three thoughts about unforgiveness and we're gonna move on the first thing is this offense is guaranteed pastor this is good but but I hope you preach to a preacher I'll be this my way anybody who's shouting Amen in a message it's because the preacher is preaching something that doesn't have to do with them that's always you bet tell a preacher and if it's really for you you're sitting there like move on move on okay boo boy am i right you may be sitting here saying it passes good you telling them better people they need to forgive well word to your mama the Bible says every person at some point you will be offended so some people in here you are conflict adverse you hate conflict you hate when people are upset you hate conflicts so much when two other people are upset you try to step in and try to make peace you even know the people you're at target and they're screaming at cashier for nothing okay it's okay it's okay we I got nothing to do with you you're still trying to make peace just let him fight man put your phone out you might get a good clip oh don't do that look I said you can try to keep peace as much as you want and you should the Bible says blessed are the peacemakers but the reality is at some point you're gonna be offense offense is gonna come Luke chapter 17 verse 1 says this then Jesus said to the disciples it is in possible that no offense should come so the question is not do I need it or will I ever need to forgive someone the question is when the opportunity comes what am I going to do I don't think there's anyone on the planet who is more worthy of not forgiving people than Jesus like for real for let's forget being spiritual let's just think reality I come from another world to bless you you gonna kill me are you serious I need to have the comfy little sinful behind and now you gonna make me come and you're gonna kill me not only that not only did they crucify him on the cross but if you read through the story Jesus encountered five different moments of offense that I honestly believe mirrors opportunities of offence and unforgiveness that we face the first thing that Jesus faced when they arrested him was betrayal it wasn't the Romans that arrested Jesus it was his own disciple and Judas didn't even say there's he arrests him he went and kissed the man how awkward is that I don't kiss of the dudes but I definitely don't do that to betray them and get them or is it how's it going pray for me I daresay it doesn't really hurt unless it's somebody close to you so often we're like how could you you were my best friend it's my father it's my mother was my wife that was a husband whatever maybe it wouldn't have hurt if it only hurts because of how close they were you can't betray me if we're not loyal to each other something betrayal if you you were my sister and how could you the second thing that Jesus faced was false accusations first of all it was illegal at that time and still today to hold a trial at night by law they were required to wait till the Sun came up so that the entire town could be witness to the trial and make sure that it was fair they said no we're gonna break the law and hold Jesus's trial at night they paid people money to come into that courtroom and to make up lies about Jesus trying to figure out something that was bad enough to there's nothing that gets under my skin more than when people make lies about me there's a lot of true things you could say there's a lot of okay not that many but there's a good amount of truth things that you can say you don't have to lie you're gonna make I don't know about you just pray for me I don't have issues it's something when people make up things or believe things that just are not true that just gets under my skin the third thing is this rejection one disciple betrayed him the other eleven were nowhere to be found in the worst moment of Jesus's life when he is being arrested beaten flogged and crucified every disciple gone the Bible says one disciple ran so fast he ran out of his clothes like trying to get away more concerned about themselves than the one that had literally gave them purpose in life breaks my heart to see how many people who your life is defined by rejection can't talk for a moment you know just because you're sitting in a room with 500 people doesn't mean you're in community you can walk into church and smile at high five people and walk right back out the door nobody knows what's really going on in your life and they will never know unless you trust them enough to know but you you don't want to trust them because the last person I trusted they hurt me and I can't deal with somebody rejected I was talking to somebody who I've known for years at this church and they were going through a situation they didn't tell me till it was over and I said why didn't you tell me and they said I was afraid that she would judge me as I don't even know what judge means explaining what does it mean injection because I was afraid you're gonna tell me how to a bunch of Bible verses tell me that was wrong that's like what you are wrong you don't need me to tell you that you know that you weren't afraid of me judging you you were afraid of me rejecting you you are afraid of me saying because you've messed up I don't want anything to do with you by the way and I didn't say this the first service I'm off traveling me just if somebody rejects you it's not on you it's on them somebody wanting nothing to do with you has nothing to do with you it has everything to do with the fact that they don't understand how valuable you are if I go to mercedes-benz dealer and I look at all the cars and I said no it's not my flow and I reject every single knows cars and walk out is something wrong with the cars we're still wrong my pockets I rejected those cars cuz I can't afford to lane firuzan people reject you is because they don't have the price that you are worth so their rejection is more of a indication of your value as supposed to I'm preaching and yelling even the fourth thing that Jesus faced was abuse the Bible says that he was beaten so badly that they could not recognize that it was him think about how much it takes for somebody to be so disfigured that you don't know who it is does his own mother couldn't recognize then the last thing is this humiliation I'm so grateful they don't portray this in any of the movies but history tells us that when the Romans would crucify people they would crucify them naked so that the last moments of your life were the most humiliating moments of your life we have this picture of Jesus we've seen it everywhere up you know up on a high hill and then he's up on this cross that's like eight feet up in the air and it's like this we can look to the hill the cross that's not historic the Romans would not crucify people up on a cross they would crucify them straight on the side of the road they would actually line the sides of the highway with these crosses so that when their enemies came into the city they would know this is what happened that people would mess with us they didn't crucified Jesus eight feet up in the air they crucified Him two feet off of the ground remember when the Bible says that they spit on him I don't care how good you are you can win a spinning contest you cannot spit up a hill eight feet up the only reason they could spit on him because he was literally this is about two feet he was literally here starts naked dying and you know what his response was Father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing be selfish for a moment god bless you my prayer is that Stephens response to betrayal and false accusations and rejection and abuse and humiliation maybe father forgive them any mean - they don't know what they're doing one of the reasons why it's so difficult for us to forgive people is because we don't truly understand what forgiveness is can I tell you three things that forgiveness is not right write this down putting them - his forgiveness is now forgiveness is not minimizing the situation so some of you people and me you people is the defensive message you'll be alright some of you people who you don't like you know conflict and all the other kind of stuff you say stuff like it's okay it's not okay oh no no that's all right it didn't really hurt no it did hurt you pulled my heart out like that hurt oh no no it's no big deal it is a big deal and forgiveness is not minimizing the situation forgiveness is not that it's okay it's not okay it did hurt and it is a big deal that's not what freakiness me is the second thing forgiveness is not reconciliation forgiveness is not your forgiving let's go back to being BFFs yeah you can move back in no you can't take your stuff pray for me here's the thing reconciliation is a two-way street reconciliation is not just me releasing the offense but it's that person agreeing not to cross the boundaries that I've set up again so as long as forgiveness and reconciliation is synonymous it makes forgiveness the other person's control like I can't forgive them unless they apologize that's reconciliation forgiveness doesn't need an apology you don't need to leave Church call them up take them out to Panera Bakery and walk down the twenty-seven offenses that they did in your life you don't need to speak to them at all you just have to make a decision in your heart I'm gonna let it go I'm not gonna harbor that bit of reconciliation we'll talk about that in a few weeks it's a completely different story the third thing is this forgiveness is not fair one of the things that I hear often is I'm talking to especially marital counseling and all that other kind of stuff is like well it's not fair or that's not fair can I help you and sit you said all that fairness free let's just not talk about fair okay because fair is that you died for your sins what's not fair is that Jesus dies for Stevens hatred towards the Pittsburgh Steelers that's not fair make sense so fair was done over 2,000 years ago on the cross it doesn't have to be fair and then the last thing is this forgiveness is not impossible some of you have allowed the devil himself to prophesy to you and to say that it is it based on what they have done to you it is impossible to release that isn't possible to move past that it isn't listen to me it is not impossible for you to forgive CS Lewis the greatest writer said this you guys go back to the quiz in this to be a Christian means we forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven inexcusable at me it's not impossible to forgive the Bible says this in Philippians chapter 3 verse 14 can you read this one I know we read the first verse and that's all you do today is a little different let's read this one again thing I throw it up let's read this again ready let me say ready here we go say I stop i some things half things easy things I can do okay you gotta yell at me sheesh I can do all things not because I'm humble enough some of you think well I'll be able to do that when I'm like a super Christian can I just let you in right now the day you get saved is about as Christian as you gonna be there is no such thing as a super Christian you don't reach a level of humility where you just automatically just want to forgive everybody Bible says is not based on your piety it's not based on your self-control I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me so what we've done through this entire message is I've just preached to you what you've already known there's not one person who walked through this door that was thinking yeah unforgiveness is good I don't need to forgive we all knew I know I need to forgive but I'd be a horrible pastor if I told you to forgive and then I prayed for you and I sent you out the door and I told you to do something that was humanly impossible issues not do I need to forgive I know I needed to forgive is unforgettable in my life yes I am a bitter person right now and I need to figure out how to move back what I need to know is how do I do that how do I app into the strength that God has given me here's the thing about God the closer you get to God the more you become like him those moments of our hands lifted saying the Holy Spirit come fall afresh on us as we draw closer and closer to him he makes us patient he makes us kind he makes us long-suffering he gives us a heart of mercy God transforms who we are if you're struggling with unforgiveness keep coming to church keep worshiping God keep reading your word keep pressing in to God and He will change who you are somebody say a man can I give you just three very practical things that you can do with the three people in your life right now that you really hate everybody has about three people I had three I just forgave one so I have two on my list that I'm working these things with but I'm gonna warn you this is this is remembe register you there's no such thing as super Christians this is like Super Saiyan status oh my Dragon Ball Z folks like three people caught that rusty yellow no no about the 90s but anyway it's like Super Saiyan 3 level in terms of Christianity you guys ready first thing is this pray for him pray for them if you have somebody in your heart that you have not been able to release there's this verse of the Bible where David was praying for his enemies and he said God break their teeth God pull their things out I like that prayer because I'll pray that for my enemies God break them God make him hurt that's not the prayer that I'm talking about the Bible says this in Matthew chapter 5 verse 34 it says you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy it was rabbinical law that you were not required to love your enemy but I Jesus say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those pray for those pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you it is physically and spiritually impossible to genuinely pray for someone and hate them the same time either you will hate and not pray or prayer will force out hey step 1 pray for him it gets worse you guys ready or better bless them a lot of us don't know what the word blessing means the word bless means to speak well of making your business not to use your words to tear them down but to build them up you ever spoken to someone who said they forgiving someone but the way they talk I forgave them but I'll tell you that dirty lying look and nobody I'm sure I'll just warn you you better not let that person your life cuz they gonna do you just the way they do me and they are no good up to nothing I mean just forgiving them but tearing them down you know folks used to say if you have nothing good to say Bible takes it a step further don't be silent bless them that's hard that's hard I give you the last one it gets better do good to them look for opportunities to make their life easier I could pray for you without you knowing it I could bless you behind your back without you knowing it there's no way that I can do good to you without you knowing it the Bible says this in Luke chapter 6 verse 27 it says but you who are listening I say love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those speak well of them who curse you pray for those who mistreat you in Romans 12:17 it says this repai no one evil for evil have regard for good things in the sign of oh man if it is possible and jesus said we're not some about reconciliation this is forgiveness and I said if it's possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men beloved do not avenge yourself no lemak up in here no 70 times 7 you gonna get yours coming he said no but rather give place to wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says well in other words a gun says don't look for revenge revenge is God's job well if I forgive them and I'll let them go then that means they'll get away with it that's not what the Bible says the Bible says that someone who hurts children it's better that they talked they tie a stone around their neck and throw themselves into the ocean compared to what God's gonna do to them he said vengeance is mine let me do what I do let me be God and you be you vengeance is God's job here's your job therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him a drink so in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil I live quoted this verse so many times it says when you do good to your enemies you're heaping coals on their head I love that I love it because I always read it as when I do good to people who are evil to me it's like I rub it in their face and I make them feel bad for what they've done to me it's one of those that it just didn't translate well into our context before I even explained it somebody say duh back in that time in Israel there was no central heat duh so the most valuable thing they had in that day was hot coals because what they would do is they would heat up the coals right before they went to bed and they'd put them in the middle of room and it would be those coals that kept the entire room warm and hot and it would keep them not freezing in the winter and all that other good stuff so what Jesus was saying is when you feed them when you bless them when you're good to them you're actually giving them the most valuable thing that they need in life and that's grace and that's forgiveness he said do good to them I'll tell you I've read about forgiveness of preached about it but I can't say I ever truly understood it or was challenged by it until about five years ago I was in a conference in Jacksonville and and Joyce Myers was preaching have you never heard of her she's one of the largest preachers in the world preaches in front of hundreds of thousands of people and she said I'm gonna tell the story that I've never told before she went on to tell how throughout her entire childhood she was raped repeatedly by her father she said maneuv ibid for her even in her old age she remembers every it was over 200 times she said obviously as you can imagine devastated her and look fed into a whole bunch of addictions and issues and problems all of it kind of got stuff got said of free God used her and she's preaching around the world her father was still alive mother's still alive they were still married she's preaching around the entire world with her father not charge or anything like that relationship completely broken she said one day she was preaching in front of arena and she just felt in her heart the Holy Spirit tell her to bless her father so hurt her husband she wrote her father a check and gave them a large amount of money and God said no keep going so they actually built her parents a house right next to their house and in their old age took care of her ailing parents paid for their health care made sure that they had food and clothes and served never apologized never even just nothing and it wasn't months it was years and then finally after sometime like years and years and years her father broke and came to her weeping and I'm sorry and repented and she led him to Christ she said I forgive you and and Jesus does as well and then she baptized him in like weeks after she baptized him he died and went to heaven by the way not hell and she's here telling the story and she said I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to forgive my dad and to see him receive the forgiveness of Jesus I don't know about you I'm listening to this story confused like you are a super Christian I don't get it and she said this phrase in explanation and I want you to write this down she said the forgiving forgive is the only reason I was able to forgive my father is because I had genuinely received the forgiveness of Christ and of all the sins all the addictions all the mistakes that I had made to think that God would release me from that it was only my response to release someone else in the same way that God has released me forgiveness is impossible if you have not first received forgiveness from God but when you receive forgiveness from God it gives you the supernatural strength to do all things through Christ who strengthens me father God we're grateful that while we were yet sinners God you died for us got to understand that a message like this is so difficult to hear touching areas of pain in her heart and maybe bringing up memories that we didn't want to have but God I pray in this moment of vulnerability that she'd heal broken hearts God that she would restore our peace God that she'd give us the strength God to forgive

Channel: Union Church

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Id: X4DdfOMQ-UM

Length: 52min 40sec (3160 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 09 2018