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when we're offended we live in a prison everybody disappoints us whether it's you know i'm never going to trust people i'm never going to trust the church again women or who i mean fill in the blank we're the ones who end up in the prison and jesus came to set prisoners free and teach us a way to not continue to imprison ourselves he comes to lay a whole new way to live the reality is that forgiveness will change our lives it's foundational to the christian life it's the forgiveness is the greatest gift jesus gives the world you might be saying you know what pastor jen i you don't know what these people do to me i don't and i i don't pretend to but i do know this i know that jesus experienced great suffering and great betrayal and had also you know great pain to navigate in his life and so he knows and he sees it he was there when all that happened but i also know that we don't have to stay captives i also know that he comes to set the prisoners free and that we you guys we know we know that there's all of this medically you know there's been all this research about um what bitterness and and and lack of forgiveness does to us in our bodies our health i mean there's a long list of things that happen when we're harboring offense in our hearts we know it's destructive but the beautiful invitation is jesus coming and radically forgiving us and saying i know they don't deserve to be forgiven you guys we don't forgive people because they deserve to be forgiven we need to be clear when you're forgiving somebody it's not because they deserve it or it's okay well it's excusable this one time absolutely not forgiveness isn't you know okay well i'm gonna keep being your friend even though you're super abusive no forgiveness doesn't mean that there's gonna be trust forgiveness doesn't mean that there might not be consequences boundaries that now have to be set in place forgiveness doesn't mean that that you're excusing their behavior [Music] forgiveness means i'm this is too heavy for me to carry i'm going to let god carry this i'm going to let god sort them out i'm going to let god be judged in their life because here's the thing so many of us we have deep deep deep pains that people have brought in our life why this is my challenge to you how much of your life has that already stolen how many years have you carried that how much of your peace has that already robbed you of at what point do you want to say enough is enough this i don't want to give that person the kind of power in my life to continue to still be hurting me even though i haven't seen him in a decade i'm going to let go god i'm going to give this to you you forgave me when we all know i didn't deserve it who am i trying to kid i didn't deserve it i still don't deserve it and you extended forgiveness to me and it changed me through my act of obedience of extending forgiveness to people who don't deserve it for the record i still think they're annoying right for the record it's not like they're just magically like i don't know like it it's gonna take maturity is is making the choice to do things when you don't feel like it so it's not doesn't matter how you feel in that moment it's you know what god i am gonna extend to them the same mercy you've given to me and the way that your forgiveness has changed my life i pray that my forgiveness towards them will change their life i pray that the same freedom you offered me that through my radical act of forgiveness would lead them into freedom [Music] because i'll tell you what i'm not a good god and me holding the strings of somebody doesn't change them but when i give it over to god who is loving and good and who does know how to work in their heart and does know how to get a hold of them that's way better so just like the story you can go free and live happily ever after and they can go free and live happily ever after but many times we don't want that we're like i want to go free and i don't want them to go free return to jesus story that mentality only gets you locked up in prison god is inviting us to truly live unoffendable but guys it's gonna take so much intentionality and forgiveness is not easy but it is our secret weapon it's how we're gonna stay free and it actually ushers the love and the power of god into people's lives it's so powerful when we really receive what jesus has done for us we can generously give it away forgiveness unties us and it releases the power of love in both our lives and the lives of those who have hurt us proverbs 17 9 says love prospers when a fault is forgiven yes the enemy is laying traps to get as many believers offended as possible but jesus is inviting us to live lives of radical forgiveness to practice being unoffendable so the power of forgiveness can bring us together and heal us so love can prosper if offense causes love to grow cold forgiveness is what causes love to prosper and there is a war over love in our culture and there is a war over love in our hearts and guys i want to encourage us as we're launching into this series we're going to struggle every week until we first start here there's a lot of people to forgive my list is long but i'm going to give it to jesus forgiveness ushers us into freedom and not about you if you've carried more offense in this season than you have before it doesn't feel good does it it's heavy it doesn't feel good and we're gonna just take a moment this morning actually would you just stand with me as we close we're gonna take a moment and we're just gonna release to the lord we're gonna give him offense we're going to let go of the debts we're going to stop trying to shake out and get people to pay us what they owe us gonna stop looking for validation we're gonna look to god for validation it's tough but guys it's so powerful i want you to close your eyes for a moment just take a minute with the lord and just begin to ask him god is there any unforgiveness or offense still lingering in my heart [Music] maybe it's a person maybe it's just the whole church in the whole world maybe it's a people group maybe it's your aunt on facebook who really needs to slow her role whoever it is as god highlights those things too i want you to take a moment and i want you to put yourself right in that story i want you to imagine yourself leaving the king's presence your wild debt that you should have been tortured and enslaved not just you your spouse your kids for generations should have been enslaved to pay off imagine that you can't believe it you just got wildly forgiven all of it just gone you don't have to do that you can live free focus on receiving for a moment that radical forgiveness i don't need more time i don't need to prove i'm good i don't any of it it's done it's settled my debt is paid i am forgiven i am chosen i am loved and i want you to envision yourself leaving that place and there in the road picture that person or the whole group of them and i want you to make a choice with the lord in that moment choose to forgive choose to say it was painful when you didn't do what you should have done it was painful the way you treated me but i want you to walk free and i want you to know the love of god and i can't afford to carry you i'm going to give you to god and so just like i don't deserve the freedom i've been given i release to you grace and freedom i release to you the mercy of heaven i release to you and i even pray blessings over you god even as your radical wild forgiveness has transformed our life we pray right now for each one of these people that you would transform their life that you would break in that you would heal and deliver and set free and bless and encounter god we just make a declaration we're not interested in in biting the bait of the enemy we recognize the assignment of the enemy the traps that have been laid for us and we say we're not going to participate anymore and so god i pray for the grace and the grit to truly embrace this practice of being unoffendable that we would work this into our lives that we would work into our life god grieving our losses and having brave and honest communication and setting boundaries and guarding our heart and doing these things father god i pray that we would be known as the most wildly loving and free people [Music] that our bodies and our minds would reflect the freedom that we live in and just anything even going on in anybody's body that's just been leftovers of just this weight they've been carrying i just pray right now for freedom from that in jesus name any sickness in their body any high blood pressure any anxiety and anything that's going on in our bodies as a result of harboring unforgiveness i pray god for freedom freedom health life restoration to us father we thank you we thank you for the power of forgiveness and we speak blessings over ourselves to walk new and free in jesus name amen amen listen before we go [Applause] tell your neighbor get a good look because i am new and free i'm about to get real new and real free these next couple weeks all right you guys have a great week bless you hi everybody it's peter weiss we do have prayer ministry available if you'd like prayer you can come up been before it's sort of a after service space where we meet together online and we hang out we talk about message we play games it's a good way to have community and keep connected with people in a virtual space so we would love to see you there we're starting soon in about 15 minutes you'll find the link on expression58.org events we'd love for you to join us and we can't wait to see you happy sunday [Music] we can't see clearly [Music] [Music] you freeze completely [Music] weeping with injustice you come for your children as the sun rises every morning [Music] so will your faithfulness come to us as the sun rises every morning [Music] so will your love and then [Music] [Music] can you hear the sounds [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] the promise of the as the sun rises every morning so will your faithfulness as the sun rises [Music] as the sun rises every morning so will your faithfulness come to us as the sun rises [Music] [Music] [Music] you fight for the ones you love [Music] you fight for the ones [Music] you fight for the ones you love [Music] you fight for the ones you love [Music] [Applause] [Music] if [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] so will you pay for us [Music] you fight for the ones [Music] you fight for the ones [Music] fight for the ones [Music] [Music] you fight for the ones you [Music] fight for [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you win everybody [Music] [Applause] everybody [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Expression 58

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Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: yWnAKVcevXc

Length: 23min 44sec (1424 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021