"Rest, Relationships, and Healing" - Lesson 7 - Pastor Doug Batchelor

[Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] thank you for that i know that we've all been blessed let's praise the lord as we pray father in heaven as we come together we want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to open your word so freely once again we thank you for the opportunity to learn truth and to be able to learn your truth and your love towards us that we might be able to experience and give it to others as well we want to pray that you will help us to learn experience rest that much more as we look at this great theme of truth and god that you also be with our pastor pastor doug batchelor as he teaches us again here today and so we prayed in jesus name amen morning thank you pastor sean and ayden that was beautiful i sure appreciate that only thing is that um it was so restful i hope you're all not going to rest through the lesson here in that harp music it's very relaxing greetings and if anyone's joined us i think pastor sean mentioned it obviously we've got a little bit different of a background here it's because our church is in the midst of preparing for a vacation bible school that looks like it's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of work went into that so any of the kids that are within 100 miles you want to be here monday the 26th of july and we'll have a great week together anyway we're continuing in our lesson dealing with rest in christ this lesson has been using a sort of a kaleidoscope of different stories in the bible to teach principles of rest and last week we were talking about joseph now joseph the story of joseph i don't know if you realize takes up one third of the book of genesis there's about 12 chapters in genesis that are dedicated to the experience of joe joseph and so and obviously in all the intrigue of what happened with joseph and his brothers there are a lot of lessons about learning to have forgiveness and understanding and healing and rest in relationships because if if your family is one of those unusual families that has people in it then there's going to be conflict wherever you've got families with people in them there's usually going to be some conflict that needs resolution in order for you to have rest in the home environment and rest in the family so we're going to talk about that rest relationships and healing the memory verse is from genesis chapter 45 verse 5 and if you have your bibles you can look at that with me genesis 45 verse 5. i'll say it out loud you can read it from your lesson but now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for god sent me before you to preserve life you know the beginning of the lesson starts out with a rather chilling story of a young lady that had been um attacked and uh i guess she didn't know maybe it was dark exactly who it was but in a lineup she picked the person she thought was guilty and they pled that they were not guilty but they were convicted because they didn't have an alibi and that she had pointed this person out after they spent 14 years in jail they did dna testing became available and they found out that this man was 100 innocent and so this gal when she realized that she had identified the wrong person and was responsible for them losing 14 years of their life not to mention the reputation she just was overcome with remorse not to mention how he probably felt and but there was a day when she came to meet him she said she wanted to meet him and ask his forgiveness and he said i freely forgive you and that just so overwhelmed her and told her something about god's grace how forgiving and loving god can be and so the story of joseph has something similar joseph actually spent time in prison and he was falsely accused matter of fact that's where our study takes up today is we're going to be talking about joseph now this is after his brothers have sold him and he has been a slave for several years in the house of potiphar and i think most of us remember that the wife of potiphar the bible doesn't say much about people's appearance with a few exceptions it tells us that moses was a good-looking baby it always sounds strange it says he was a good-looking baby and so his mother decided not to throw him in the river it's just how it kind of sounds you know she decided to save him i think it just is basically saying the mother's love when she looked at him she just her heart yearned for him and she couldn't do it the bible says that david was handsome says rebecca and that rachel were beautiful and then it mentions joseph as being handsome otherwise bible doesn't ever tell us how good looking or bad looking any of the apostles are there's almost nothing said in the new testament about people's personal appearance because everyone has equal value before god amen but it mentions it in the story of joseph because of his handsome appearance potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon him and she she tried to entice him he refused a great example for christians through history then he was falsely accused of attacking her and potiphar probably had questions about whether his wife was telling the truth because joseph had been such a good worker that rather than kill joseph he simply put him in prison and he spent years in prison and while he's in prison you'll remember that the pharaoh evidently had a party and someone tried to poison him they weren't sure who it was and the two who were the prime suspects was either the butler or the baker that he left out the candlestick maker but it talks about the butler and the baker and they were in prison with joseph and they both had dreams and they didn't know what their dreams meant and joseph gave them some time and attention interpreted their dreams for him and everything happened exactly as joseph foretold he said that the baker was going to be executed after three days and after three days they must have had some investigation in the palace and found out that it was a baker that tried to poison the pharaoh and the butler was absolved and restored to his position and joseph said to the butler i know this is what's going to happen he says when you get back to the palace please intercede for me i was falsely accused and i'm an innocent man a very fact that my interpretations coming true will show you that god is with me and i'm not lying and remember me he said remember me you remember when jesus hung on the cross that a thief said lord remember me did jesus remember him well but it starts out by saying you read in genesis 40 23 yet the chief butler did not remember joseph you know it's often true when people are in prison together that when one of them gets released and they're you become very close friends with people in jail or in prison you're with them day after day they say when you get on the outside the whole family's forgotten me will you remember me send a little something once a month you know what it's like in here hey guys i'm going to work i'm going to start sending you money i'm going to take care of you i'm going to try and go see your attorney try and do this try and do that and it's often true once they get out and get involved in their own lives they forget their comrades in prison but joseph was forgotten now how do you feel when somebody forgets about you and you're in great need is it easy to be resentful and you start thinking they didn't think about me and the great need i have i've been totally neglected how does jesus picture this you look in matthew 25 verse 41 there's a parable that talks about this very thing and he will say to those on the left hand these are the goats depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for i was hungry and you gave me no food i was thirsty and you gave me no drink i was a stranger and you did not take me and naked you did not clothe me sick and in prison that's where joseph was and you did not visit me then they'll say to the lord lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or strange or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you and he'll answer and say to them assuredly i say to you inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these you did not do it to me and so when we forget that those that are in need whether it's someone in prison or someone that needs a hospital visit and we the lord puts them on our heart and we just we don't think of them who are we forgetting to visit jesus right and you know one of the strongest types of christ in the bible there are three really powerful types of christ in the bible characters one is david is a type of christ jesus is called the son of david one is moses the great mediator the deliverer the prophet the judge the lawgiver and the others joseph joseph sold by his brothers for the price of a slave for silver and then he feeds the world is all fed this bread of life by joseph he is separated from the father for the purpose of saving his people i mean there's a number of allegories of jesus in the life of joseph and so he was forgotten in prison all the disciples forsook jesus and fled so while joseph is continuing to languish in prison something else is happening in the palace the pharaoh has these troubling dreams and you remember you know he has these two dreams that are sort of in stereo he has one of the seven fat cows and seven skinny cows and the skinny cows end up eating the fat cows and then he has one of the seven ears of grain that are plump and several seven that are shriveled and in the dream the shriveled ones gobble up the plump ones and the pharaoh wakes up in a very vivid dream he knows this this is some divine revelation he calls in all of his wise men and says help me understand what this dream is and they cannot you know there's several times in the bible when kings had dreams and they could not understand and they had to call a jew and daniel remember on a couple of occasions and then joseph and then the butler says when no one could understand the butler says oh yeah someone with the gift of interpreting dreams pharaoh this day i remember my faults i was in prison with a hebrew and he interpreted the dreams of myself and the baker and they came through exactly as he said well the pharaoh's desperate he said i'll even bring a prisoner in a chance that he can tell me so they clean up joseph and joseph shaves and one of the few times that talks about shaving in the bible in case you're wondering and comes before the pharaoh and he not only interprets the dream uh then he says pharaoh you're gonna have these seven years of plenty in seven years of famine i advise you that during the years of plenty that you take 20 percent you set it aside so that it will be a reserve to sustain the country during the time of famine and the court of pharaoh is listening to this guy who's come out of prison who obviously is very intelligent i keep in mind he's very bright he's the son of rachel and jacob potiphar said he was so bright he put him in charge of everything that he did the prisoner said he was so bright he put him in charge of everything in the prison you ever meet people like this does whatever you do they're extremely efficient they're easy to get along with and they're they get things done and so the pharaoh in his court they look at joseph and they see the same thing that potiphar and the prison guard said they said this guy is really on top of it since the spirit of god is obviously with him to understand the dream let's put him in charge and the pharaoh says this is genesis chapter 41 41 the pharaoh says to joseph see i have set you over the land of egypt so you've got this pharaoh's dream and then joseph's exaltation joseph is again a type of christ in that in one day he goes from the prison to the palace you know and one day jesus went from the tomb to the courts of god isn't that right and in the same way joseph went from the prison to the court of the pharaoh that happens with several bible characters daniel goes from being a captive to being prime minister esther goes from being a captive orphan to being queen in one day happens to several in the bible mordecai goes from sitting in the king's gate to prime minister and i'm leaving one out there's others anyway oh yeah moses goes from being a baby in the river to being adopted prince so the bible's full of these stories of radical change and it's a story of salvation when you come to jesus you go from the prison to the palace in one day you go from being a captive to living and reigning with christ now if you're joseph and you suddenly come into power and you were falsely accused you spent years in prisons because potiphar's wife now you've got power over potterford and his wife what would you do would you retaliate well there's no record in the bible of what happened but i don't think joseph did i think joseph said god has been leading my life had god told joseph early that he was going to do something great with him you know the dreams that he had when he was a young man he may not have wisely shared with all of his siblings yeah you're all going to bow to me one day i had a dream i didn't like that but so i i don't think that he was shocked by this turn of events he saw that god had always promised that he had big things planned for him so i don't think he retaliates but now let's go to genesis chapter 42 and after several years of plenty and joseph directs and all these silos are built all around egypt and they fill the silos he's you know instructed all the people to the pharaoh gets a tax of like 20 and they take that and they store it away and it says they store grain so they left off numbering it they just got silos and silos filled with grain and joseph marries he marries the daughter of the high priest and he has two children named ephraim and manasseh so several years have gone by and then you not only have the seven years of plenty that have gone by then you've got your one or two years into the years of famine and finally the famine gets so intense in the land of canaan that jacob says you know we've heard that there's plenty of bread in the land of egypt you better go down there and buy some of the basics and so joseph now last time they saw his brother your brother he's 17 years old you know he's kind of gangly and strapling he's begging for his life and now he's uh he goes out over egypt when he's 30 that's what the bible says he spent several years as a servant for potiphar and years in prison he finally goes out over egypt when he's 30. by the way when did jesus begin his ministry 30 years of age what about david he's also 30 years of age and how old did a hype did a priest need to be before he could serve 30. so i think that's significant and so then after he goes out over egypt you've got seven so he's 37 then you've got two or three years so he's almost 40. does a person change much between 17 and 40 just get your old photo album out and um yeah you wouldn't recognize me at 17 well you might because you've seen pictures but anyway so and not only that now you know joseph he's got he's wearing the egyptian tire he speaks fluent egyptian after all those years in egypt has no accent and as the people come one by one they make appeals for you know small grain they probably sold in the streets but if anyone wanted you know a large uh quota of grain they had to come to joseph so the next you know joseph's interviewing the people that want to buy grain next next next and all of a sudden he looks up and he sees lo and behold they've changed too but he hears them speak in hebrew and he counts these ten men and he said that's my brothers there's reuben and judah and simeon and issachar and zebulun and naphtali all are there except he looks and look benjamin's missing and they come to buy grain and a translator comes to represent them who speaks egyptian so they spoke you know the semitic aramaic language and so joseph's speaking to him through a translator let me just that sets the stage genesis 42 7 joseph saw his brothers and recognized them but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them he said where do you come from they said from the land of canaan to buy food joseph recognized his brothers but they did not recognize him bible says about jesus he came to his own and his own received him not they knew him not and it says uh his brothers did not recognize him then joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed you know when they came to joseph they bowed before him and that's exactly what he had dreamed as a young man god's prophecies always come true and he said to them you're spies you've come to see the nakedness of the land because of the famine that everyone had been weakened and they said they're shocked by this accord no my lord your servants have come to buy food we are all one man's sons we're all from the same family we're honest men your servants are not spies but he said to them no but you've come to see the nakedness of the land and they said your servants are 12 brothers the son of one man in the land of canaan and in fact the youngest is with our father today and then they realize we've got to figure out how to make it add up to 12. there's only 10 of us here they said and one is not now who are they looking at when they say that they're saying one of them is no more they figured that he had died off in these years working as a slave being sold by the ishmael a lot of slaves were sold to work in mines or they worked in boats rowing and they didn't live very long now what had those brothers been doing to themselves during those years of joseph's absence for one thing they're watching their father continually grieve the bible says they tried to comfort jacob and jacob said i'll not be comforted i will go down to my grave grieving for my son and then they were grieving they thought what selfish immature cruel young men we were that we would sell our brother break our father's heart and sell our own brother just because of our pride that's all it was their pride was bothered because the father seemed to favor joseph it just seemed to he did wasn't joseph's fault and so they had been torturing their souls for years now they were different men but joseph doesn't know that yet so he tests them and you know you got to think joseph's thinking you know you guys have no idea what i've been through but i'm going to give you a little taste of prison i'm not going to make you go through what i went through but i'm going to give you a taste now by the way did jesus suffer for all of your sins does that mean he won't let you suffer for anything does the lord in his love for us sometimes allow us to experience some suffering you will never suffer like jesus suffered joseph he spent years in prison he made his brother spend a few days in prison and so whatever we go through just remember it's a blessing that we get to share in the sufferings of christ but you will never suffer like jesus suffered for your sins in the sins of the world so joseph he says one is no one no more joseph said it is as i spoke to you you're spies in this manner you'll be tested by the life of pharaoh you shall not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here send one of you and let him bring your brother and you'll be kept in prison that your words might be tested to see whether there's any truth in you or else by the life of pharaoh he's trying to talk like an egyptian surely you are spies and he put him all together in prison three days how long was jesus in the tomb then joseph said to them the third day do this and live for i fear god if you're honest men let one of your brothers be confined sort of as a hostage let one of your brothers be confined and um you go and you carry grain i'll give you some grain take it back to your house he began to worry about benjamin his father and his mother's you know he had there's four mothers and so he's worried about the family back at home all the men are locked up he said all right i'm going to keep simming and i'll verify if you're worried that you but you're not buying any more grain unless you come back you're not getting semi unless you come back let me see the younger brother you talked about now why does joseph do this seems so bizarre is he getting even with him he's wondering you know think about it rachel had two sons joseph and benjamin because of the jealousy that the the firstborn right was going to go to joseph they sold him they were going to kill him but now the next one in line is not reuben jacob is wanting the children of rachel to receive the blessing of the firstborn because that was the only wife he ever wanted the next child in line is benjamin and he's thinking what have they done to benjamin all these years they have no telephone or internet he can't text them or send him a tweet and say how are you doing benjamin he doesn't know what's happened he doesn't know if he's alive he says i want to see him and so he's playing a test and any and you know he's kind of running the civilized world back then in egypt he can't just say i'm leaving town on a family vacation and so he works for pharaoh and so he says you got to go bring your brother so he's allowing him to go through a test what he's aiming for is reconciliation but first there's going to be a test and while he's saying this to them they're talking to each other they don't know that he understands everything he's saying because he's using a translator and you read in genesis 42 go to verse 21 i'm hoping your bibles are open to genesis then they said to one another we are truly guilty concerning our brother now what brother are they talking about joseph for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us i imagine that for the last 17 to 40 you've got what 23 years is that right well during all those years every time anything bad happened to them they said god is punishing us for what we did to joseph their consciences were tormenting them so they say this again we heard him crying and we didn't have mercy on him the cries of joseph the last pleading of joseph is being carried off when he was in the pit he pleaded with him when he was being carried off by the ishmaelites he pleaded with him please don't do this and they stopped their ears and reuben answered and said did i not speak to you saying do not sin against the boy and you would not listen they're still reprimanding each other 20 years later for what they've done to joseph so how much peace is in the family they're not they're not feeling too good about it and you would not listen therefore behold his blood is now required of us you remember what happened that the crucifixion uh pilate washed his hands and he said i will not be guilty of the blood of this innocent man and you know what some of the religious leaders said his blood be upon us and our children and the whole idea of the blood of joseph is a type of the blood of christ that washes away our sin and he said i told you now his blood is required of us but they did not know that joseph understood them does jesus hear everything we say the lord knows everything he understands our hearts and see he spoke to them jesus joseph spoke to them through a translator jesus speaks to us through others but he doesn't need to he understands everything we say and it says that when they said this joseph understood them for he spoke to him through an interpreter and he turned himself away from them and wept when he heard how that they had been grieved and how they admonished one another for what they had done it broke his heart he had he had to just you ever get where someone's overcome with tears and they kind of have to turn away and get their act together and joseph had a breakdown i mean this is the culmination of years of wondering what's going on and he sees the anguish in his brothers and it touched his heart does the lord see our anguish when we repent and it says he returned he turned himself again and then he returned to them again and he talked with them and he took simeon from them now why do you think he took simeon who do you think was the ring leader and wanting them killed judah is the one who suggested they sell him as a slave isn't that interesting judah is the one who said sell him for 20 pieces of silver jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver because there was inflation by the time jesus came along for the price of a slave but it was judas that so jesus it was judah that suggested that joseph be sold simeon is probably the one who said kill him when they joseph was coming looking for his brothers he said behold here comes this dreamer let's kill him and throw him in a pit who are the two violent sons of jacob that killed all the people of shechem simeon and levi simeon was a hot head so joseph took simeon and he says simeon's gonna taste prison he's gonna threw me in that pit and simeon was put in jail and he bound them before their eyes and then he gave them some food says go back to your father's house so they disappear and we don't know how long simulant was in jail but jacob said they told jacob when they got home everything that had happened and he said this we've got to go back we've got to take benjamin if you want us to get simeon and show this man that he is our brother and that we were telling the truth and jacob says not on your life he said joseph went out from me and he never returned he said now you want to take benjamin he says no i'll i'm not going to allow it to happen simian may have spent eight months a year in jail while they ate up all the food they bought from joseph we don't know but they bought several a whole caravan worth of grain they brought it back so it took at least months to eat all that you with me and all the time that they're eating that food they're thinking poor simeon now is in jail and it's all because of our what we had done to joseph finally they start running out of food and they're all looking at each other like what next the famine's as bad as ever and jacob says go down to egypt buy some more grain he said dad we told you we cannot go back the man will not see our face unless we bring benjamin finally jacob relents he says if i am bereaved of my children i am bereaved take him take some almonds take some honey they had a few things and he said take a gift to the man let's do everything we can to soften them up so then they take benjamin and the 10 of them go back now because simeon's there and joseph sees them coming again to buy more grain he's been wondering how long it would take and he sees his young brother and he said is this the young man of who you spoke they said he is and he broke down again he cried how badly did joseph want to run up and embrace benjamin he did but he restrained himself because they had a lesson to learn he had to test them how much does jesus want to end this problem with sin and be with us he yearns more than you do god yearns to be reconciled to the human race and to be at uh see us face to face but he restrains himself because there's things we still have to learn we're not ready yet she says we're all going to have dinner at my house i'm thinking wow that's a switch you go from calling a spies inviting us over for dinner and so he then gets simeone out of jail i don't think simeon had too hard a time in jail he probably fed him well he gets simeone out of jail and all the brothers are together and you have this interesting supper where joseph sits and you've got the 12 brothers does jesus have a special supper and in the supper a cup comes up is there a cup at the supper that jesus has with his 12 apostles and the cup becomes a test doesn't jesus say take this cup and drink it it is my blood so he tests his brothers and i i you know the whole story i'm looking at the clock i can't go through the whole story it's one of the greatest stories in the bible it's better than any fiction finally in the story he puts the cup in benjamin's sack he sends them all away they're all on their way home he sends the highway patrol they pick him up they arrest him and say how dare you steal from us we didn't steal we would never do such a thing and they're not knowing what all this bad stuff is happening to them so it's because we what we did to joseph and joseph hears them saying all that finally judah comes judah who sold them judah by the way christ comes through judah judy goes to joseph he says i swore to my father that i would protect the lad my life for his life let him go you'll bring his father's gray hairs down to the grave with sorrow if the boy does not come he will die because the life of our father is bound up with the sun isn't that the father and the son god so loved the world he gave the son judah says to joseph the life of the fathers bound up with the life of the lad said take me let me be his substitute don't you see the whole gospel in that story when judah says that joseph can't keep it together and he tells all the servants that are serving the meal he said get out of here he chases everyone out also joseph breaks down and he goes to pieces he's crying out loud he's wailing he's rocking back and forth and sobbing and it says pharaoh's house he hears them crying they're going what's the matter with joseph now the brothers they're wondering what happened the prime minister is having a meltdown they don't know what's going on this is a guy who put us in prison the guy is you know he's seriously mental what's happened to him and then he shocks him by suddenly being able to speak aramaic and he says i am now how does jesus identify himself he says i am joseph does my father live can you imagine the silence in the room there's several videos i want when i get to heaven i want to replay and that's one of them i want i want the angel to take me to the library and i said i want i want to see that scene i want to see the brother's face when joseph says i am joseph can you imagine how they process all that the one we sold is the prime minister of egypt oh yeah he told us that was going to happen in his dreams and it all came true boy talk about an aha moment and they were afraid and finally he says come to me and benjamin's the first and he embraces benjamin then he embraces his brothers one by one so does he forgive them he sees that they have been transformed and he freely forgives them now in the next section here it talks about i read the part about setting the stage forgive and forget that's easier said than done isn't it once you forgive a person and the bible says forget it well god can take our sins and cast them into the depths of the sea sometimes it's a little harder for us right what does it mean to forget does that mean you literally do not remember i mean without having a lobotomy or some mental procedure i mean how do you really forget really it's talking about choosing not to dwell upon it it's that old adage you cannot prevent the birds from flying over your head but you can prevent them from making a nest in your hair and so those memories might come but you might have to choose to forget many times every time the devil reminds you about what that person did to hurt you and you've forgiven them you have to remind the devil that you've forgotten it clara barton the famous founder of the red cross she got into a dispute with another employee that was saying terrible things about it she was being accused of robbing money from the red cross which she would never do and she just decided not to make it an issue she thought i'll let her accuse i'm not going to retaliate i'm not going to defend myself and one of her gossiping friends said clara you know what so-and-so is saying about you and aren't you upset aren't you mad at her she said no i clearly remember forgiving her and that's what we need to remember so when you do not forgive another person you are basically burning the bridge over which you must pass you know in the lord's prayer jesus has one comment he says forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and the one comment that jesus makes at the end of the lord's prayer he says so if you do not forgive your brother his trespasses neither will your father in heaven forgive you and then he repeats that in matthew 18. and it can't it's not ambiguous it's something that cannot be misunderstood that if we cherish an unforgiving spirit god cannot forgive us now don't misunderstand this part you got to get this right i want to highlight underscore alert alert notice this god is not saying i'll make a deal with you you forgive everyone forgive everyone that's wronged you and then i'll forgive you god is saying i first forgive you now that you've received my forgiveness how's that feel pass that on to others after we've received the forgiveness of christ like the parable of the unmerciful debtor the king forgives him first the son the servant it was his incredible debt after the king is forgiven i'm sorry after the king forgives the man he doesn't then pass it on then he loses his forgiveness the mercy of christ once you receive it will not stay alive in a heart that will not share it with others a lot of people have been stifled a lot of professed christians have been stifled in their experience for years because they are still angry and bitter against someone else that has hurt them they don't know how to forgive and to let it go and if you don't learn that lesson jesus said do unto others as you would have god do unto you if we refuse to forgive it tells us in matthew 18 that unmerciful servant says he was handed over to the tormentors till he should pay his entire debt the forgiveness of christ for his sins had been canceled and he had to pay his own debt let's put a sobering thought so how important is it that we forgive each other there's a general that once said to john wesley i never forgive and i never forget and wesley responded then sir i hope you never sin we need to learn how to be forgiving if anyone had a right to be bitter did joseph have a right he had done nothing to deserve the slavery and the imprisonment now having said that does forgiveness mean that there are no consequences for a person's actions when jesus forgave the thief on the cross did the nails pop out and he walked free no there may still be consequences there are people who have mistreated me and i forgave them but i'm never going to do business with them again you know what i mean so you can forgive people but it doesn't mean you need to continue to expose yourself to abuse and i think we all need to understand that if some people just got some serious problems they got anger issues or whatever it is and you just say look i forgive you because by my not forgiving you it hurts me unforgiveness is like an acid that will destroy its container i've got a little jug of hydrochloric acid up in the hills very powerful stuff you don't put that in any container because it'll burn through all kinds of containers you have to have it in a special container unforgiveness in the human heart will burn through its own container someone says that if you're trying to dig a grave for your neighbor if you don't forgive your neighbor you're digging two graves some people think if i forgive them who will punish them i've got to stay mad at them so that god will be mad at them and all you're doing is hurting yourself i know people that are still mad at their parents and they've been dead for years i said what are you waiting for them to free you to apologize they're not going to do it now they're dead so you're just hurting yourself by retaining that unforgiveness how do we forgive this is a tall order ephesians 4 32 be kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another just as god in christ forgave you how can we forgive like god only if we have the spirit of god but through christ how much can we do all things colossians 3 12 therefore as the elect of god holy and beloved put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness longsuffering bearing with one another forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another even as christ forgave you so you must do forgive us christ forgave us first john 4 11 beloved if god so loved us we ought to love one another so in making it practical how do we forgive what did jesus say when he was on the cross father forgive them they know not what they do what about if they do know what they do did did paul know that he was persecuting christians yeah and god forgave him did david know that he was killing an innocent man and taking his wife i think so did god forgive him and so sometimes we need to forgive even if people don't ask even if they're it's premeditated because your unforgiveness actually hurts you and once you do that they find that's where the rest comes there's a great liberation great rest when you realize you know people may have done unkind things to me but it's a sinful world and the devil's out there influencing people and the devil's just doing his job you can't blame him for being a good devil can you and so if people act diabolical it's because maybe they're not saved and sometimes even saved people misbehave and so you've got to learn to forgive and you know where it starts beginning in jerusalem in the family and then judea in your neighbors and then sumerian the uttermost parts of the earth biggest place you've got to start with forgiveness is at home so much of the conflict in the bible was what they call friendly fire it happened from the family and did the disciples argue among themselves they did does it happen today has the devil changed god's word hasn't changed either christ's object lessons nothing can justify an unforgiving spirit he who is unmerciful towards others shows that he himself is not a partaker of god's grace well we're out of time for our lesson but we want to thank everybody that has been tuning in god willing we'll study with you again next week don't forget there's a free offer called life in the spirit talks about how we get that holy spirit that helps us to love and forgive others the way that christ forgave us god bless you

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Length: 46min 1sec (2761 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021