When Past Hurts Still Hurt | Shawn Johnson

[Music] you feel good and i don't know where you're watching this from but littleton is on fire today i want to say hi to all our denver based locations we love you austin texas we love you brussels we love you and most of all the three the three best campuses let's just admit the truth the three best campuses are god behind bars men and women we love you so much we believe god has a plan for you we're glad you're with us today and your family never forget it if you're watching from somewhere else a house a gym a bike a hike or whatever man welcome welcome everybody online we're a bunch of messed up imperfect people but we love getting together like this and pursuing a perfect god so no matter what's going on in your life you're gonna be loved and welcomed and valued and accepted you've already been prayed for so welcome home welcome to red rocks church [Applause] [Music] god we need you today we ask for your presence we ask that you would speak to us through your word that you would speak to us about our life that you would speak to us about our are today our past and where you want to take us and we thank you that we have the privilege to get together with family and friends and have church like this we love you so much in jesus name and everybody said amen go ahead and have a seat that was moving that like boom ow thank you guys we get it up for the band at all locations love you guys so much seeing a few before i get into today's message i just want to share some information with you those of us who uh get paychecks from the church were employed by the church we tend to hear more things about what's going on around the church than if you are in the church family but not employed at the church and so i just wanted to share one cool thing that just happened at the church that you might not know about last week our youth groups let me say if you are in junior high in high school and you're not going to youth on wednesday nights you are crazy all right crazy last week there was over a thousand students at our youth group on wednesday night and and i just want to say this i i not only want to celebrate that but i want to say thank you because as you know the students aren't coming ready to foot the bill for what it costs to put on a youth service and so what i what i know and what you know is we don't have youth events if it's not for your generosity and i just want to thank you every single dollar that you give obediently and faithfully i promise you we're trying to use it to change the world and church it's happening there weren't just over a thousand students over 150 salvations took place at youth last week we're changing the world and i love being a part of this church family with you so to those of you who have been faithfully giving thank you you're making a difference and i love you guys um let's get into it the title of today's message is when past hurts still hurt when past hurts still hurt i just started me and my son ethan we just started jujitsu training i call it ninja school ethan were becoming ninjas nobody's gonna mess with us give us three weeks trust me i got done with ninja school on monday and my elbow was killing me in fact like it was all i could think about i was trying to drive home i was like i can't even use that arm and like i woke up the next day and all i could think about was oh my gosh my elbows hurt it's killing me it's hurting right now i have a preacher's injury okay that's what's going on i'm this close to the ir and so but here's the thing i didn't hurt my elbow on monday i asked the guys that i work with we just had a very intense pickleball tournament recently um i've been complaining about my elbow pain for like over a year it i didn't hurt it on monday i triggered it what happened is is if the injury actually happened a long time ago i just didn't deal with it properly and so this week it got triggered and it reminded me that my past hurts are still hurting me and the interesting part is is i actually i know the problem because i went to the physician i saw an orthopedic surgeon who told me i know exactly what to do it's a surgery we can fix it it'll be perfect and this was over a year ago but i didn't want to go through the painful process to actually get it fixed because i've had surgeries before and i didn't want to be out of work and i didn't want to be in a sling and i didn't want to do the pt and i didn't want to do any of it so i just haven't done it because i didn't go through the painful process that the the doctor said i need an injury that happened a long time ago is still hurting me today and isn't it true that our souls are like this you ever been having a really good day like a really good day and one little thing and you go from really happy to really depressed in a moment like you just hear a name you see a post you read a comment you hear a song you drive by a place something sparks your memory and all of a sudden you go from real happy to real depressed in an instant and it's not because it was a bad picture taken out of like focus it's because it triggered something that happened 15 years ago that you've never quite dealt with and have you ever been in a conversation with somebody and they say something and you snap on them and then if you could really take a 30 000 foot view back you go oh wait a second what they said didn't deserve my response they're not getting my response they're getting a response from my hurt 10 years ago that i never processed properly because i got a past hurt and it still hurts me today and they triggered a deep wound and you know what i'm talking about don't you guys i my wife has said things to me like she'll go man i'm just chilly this house is so cold and i've wanted to get in an argument i've wanted to get depressed because i grew up feeling like i was never enough and i was never good enough and i i was always screwing up and i've always struggled with that i'm not good enough mentality and so what happens when my wife says she's cold it's all of a sudden this thought starts running in my mind like well that's your fault because you're not enough of a man to have enough of a job to buy enough of a house that has a good enough heater to take care of a wife you're a crappy husband you're a crappy provider and the truth is she just wanted a hoodie but i turn it into something and i went from happy to depressed because she triggered a wound that i had 25 years ago and our great physician says i got the prescription he said what's happening is you get hurt by somebody and it it turns to anger and that anger eventually if not dealt with right it turns to bitterness and if that bitterness just stays there it becomes what the bible calls a hardened heart and it changes who we are as people it changes who i trust or don't it changes who i let in or don't it changes how i respond out of my insecurities it changes how i crush people with my work it changes how if i just meet you i start off not trusting you instead of trusting you it fires off my insecurities and all kinds of it changes this hardened heart that comes from bitterness it changes who we are and how we live and the great physician says i got the prescription here it is you don't have to live that way ephesians 4 31 and 32 get rid of all bitterness rage and anger brawling and slander along with every form of malice i read this this week and i went oh if i could if i could get rid of there's there's something inside of me that wants to get mad all the time and i hate it i hate that about myself i hate that somebody does or says something and they get a response from me they didn't deserve because what i know at my core is you're getting that response because i got some hurts way back there right how much peace and joy would there be in my life if i could keep my anger under control god says you can because that bitterness is killing you here's the prescription be kind and compassionate to one another and here's the word forgive forgiving each other just as in christ god forgave you the great physician says i got the prescription and it's forgiveness and if you can actually go through this but he doesn't he doesn't pull punches he said i'm not going to play around it's a painful process sometimes to forgive and depending on the wound or the hurt that you're trying to forgive for it can be even more painful look here's what i know i know that just as you just found out this is what the message is because i've been talking and doing you're like what's exactly talking about today and i finally got to it and he went oh all right and and already started to create some feels didn't it some of you've already went this one might make me angry this one's gonna be tough to listen to right and if that's you i want you to know i don't approach this subject lightly um i know what it feels like to have somebody talk to you about this because it happened to me a couple summers ago and and i wanted to fight i got angry i got sad i had the thought of don't you dare go there with me because you don't know what i've been through i one of my parents i've never met they left i've been through abuse of about every kind you can imagine i've been betrayed by some people i love like i i'm not coming to you from a place of i don't know any hurt now i don't know your hurt but i know that it hurts i know what that feels like and i know that god says i want to take you through this process called forgiveness because you can get rid of that hurt which will get rid of that anger which you get rid of that bitterness which will begin to soften your heart and change the way you live he says i got the prescription it's called forgiveness and it's not easy to talk about but if you can actually walk through it it'll change things now before we get into this forgiveness process i want to walk you through i want to make sure we know what forgiveness is and what it isn't so go ahead and put that up if you would forgiveness is about freedom in fact jesus tells some of his best friends and i'll let you google this one on your own but he tells some of his but he talks to them about forgiveness and he ends up at the end of the story he tells them when you choose to unforgive it's called the unmerciful servant or something if you were to google it when you when you choose not to forgive the way i forgave you you actually end up putting yourself in prison and in bondage jesus says to be tortured because that bitterness and that hard heart it is torture you don't want that i want you to have freedom forgiveness is about freedom it is not about justifying the other person's actions if we can go through this painful process called forgiveness it it's not us saying what you did was wrong i mean what you did was right it's not us saying it was okay that you left it was okay that you abused it was okay that you betrayed it was okay that you lied it was okay that you know we're not we're not justifying anybody's actions by forgiving them got to be got to be clear on this we're not letting anybody off the hook god says don't worry justice is my job wrath is my job judgment is my job i got you there are consequences for people who hurt my kids i got you nobody's getting let off the hook here it's not a guarantee of reconciliation it's not a guarantee that we'll ever do life together again and i'm going to talk about that in detail here in a minute and i think that's going to set some people free today because forgiving doesn't mean we keep doing life together they're different we'll get into that and why that's so important because a lot of people have dealt with a lot of guilt feeling like well man i have forgiven that person but i haven't let them back into my life so i guess i really didn't forget forgive him and so i guess i'm really not doing what the bible says and so now what do i do do i let him back in i know i'm going to get hurt again but i'm trying to do what god says and we're going we're going to get set free in that area today it's not justifying their actions it's not letting them off the hook it's not guaranteed they'll be reconciliation and it's not a guarantee that we're going to do life together and it's a bit of a painful process who wants to sign up let's let's walk through this i i have five aspects of the forgiveness process that i have been learning about over the last two years and i and some of the stuff you're going to know and some of this i think you're going to see differently than you have before i encourage you to take really good notes today get your phone out get ready to take screenshots remember what we talked about i've been wanting to preach this message for two years and i can't tell you i i created these notes i can't tell you how many times i've needed to go back and read them and go i got to work through this again because it's a process isn't it for dealing with forgiveness it's it's a different kind of wound right it's like it's like a severe burn right if you get a puncture wound or or like a cut they'll actually stitch it up right they want to close it so it can begin to heal that's not how forgiveness works forgiveness is like like a severe burn and someone if you go into the burn unit what do they do they actually scrape off the stuff on top and they want to open up the wound so that it can heal one layer at a time from the inside out and it's a process that's what it's like healing from a wound so this process is not an overnight thing it's not a one-time event it's a process but but listen i told you i wasn't having my elbow surgery i know the process works the the doctor that wants to do the elbow surgery a few years ago he did my shoulder he said i had a torn rotator cuff and he said you need to have the surgeon i didn't want to do it i didn't want to go through the painful process i don't and and but i was so desperate for change because i couldn't throw a ball and i couldn't work out and i couldn't play with my kids the way i wanted and so i had this shoulder surgery and man it was a painful process i was in a sling for six weeks and in pt for several months and i had bad reactions to the pain medicine like it was a thing it sucked but guess what this week this week in 2021 i shot hoops with ashton i lifted weights with austin and i did ninja school with ethan and i've been dreaming about being a dad and being able to do these things with my kids since i can remember because i went through the painful process i'm shooting hoops today i'm walking in my calling i'm living out part of my dream in life but there's there's no there's no in between there's no there's no shortcut around it okay so the forgiveness process let's let's let's dive in first thing we got to do is we got to acknowledge the hurt man this is huge i went to seven weeks as many of you know of anti-anxiety counseling a couple summers ago and was really struggling and sat down with one of the first counselors he was a pastor a therapist a counselor he'd been doing it forever tell me about your anxiety so i started telling him here's what i'm going through and here's what my panic attacks have been like and here's what i'm just crying and the whole thing and he goes okay he goes gets that a piece of paper in a pen he goes tell me about your grievances what i'm here for panic attacks i don't want to talk about he goes i know i know tell me let's write down all the people who have hurt you i was mad i don't want to talk about the people who have hurt me i try to forget about the people who have hurt me i don't want to deal with that i want to deal with my anxiety it's right here in front of us i don't want to go back and he said do you know he said something so profound he said do you know how much anxiety producing energy it takes to hold on to unforgiveness he said it's causing your bitterness and your hardened heart and it's killing you so we got we got we got to acknowledge there was hurt here's what i do here's what i've been doing my whole adult life it's not that bad or i just pretend it didn't happen i pretended it didn't happen or i minimized the effects of it because i'm a man and i'm tough and who cares and get over it and grow up and move on and let's go not a kid i'm not a child i'm not gonna love what happened to me as a kid bothering me today i'm too tough for that my counselor went uh-huh that's why you're here huh i want to fight him let's talk about your grievances he said here's the problem with you sean he says you've never acknowledged that there was hurt and you can't forgive what you haven't acknowledged you've never faced it and felt it so you can't forgive it he said let's go look at a story in the bible and we read the story of joseph and you can read this one on your own in genesis but in 45 genesis 45 through 50 we see joseph begin to go through a forgiveness process with his brothers and if you know the story i'll give you the quick cliff notes his brothers because they thought he was the favorite kid sold him when he was a boy into slavery and told dad that he died he got hauled off to another country years in slavery years in prison i mean years of his life he'll never get back because those closest to him betrayed him his crazy story and then god does some miracles over here while he's a slave in egypt and he ends up being the number two guy in all of egypt and then there's a famine in the whole area and the only people with food is egypt and joseph's in charge of who gets it and so now get this his brothers who several years ago sold him into slavery and assumed he died and told his dad they died now they got to go to joseph to beg for food to stay alive it's a crazy story and joseph joseph has never fully dealt with what happened and you're going to see why we know that he's pushed it away tried to forget about it tried to minimize it i'm a grown man i got past it god got me through it and then all of a sudden he can't hold it back anymore and he has to actually face it and feel it watch this then joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendance and he cried out have everyone leave my presence so there was no one with joseph when he made himself known to his brothers he's like hey look it's me here it is i can't i can't pretend anymore and he wept he wept so loudly that the egyptians heard him and pharaoh's household heard about it he's finally going to face it and he's finally going to allow himself to feel it and he said to his brothers in verse 4 come close to me when they had done so he said i'm your brother joseph i'm the one you sold into egypt and then in verse 50 20. this one's on mugs and t-shirts everywhere and most people who who are like this is my verse they don't even know the story it goes with this is where it comes from you intended to harm me brothers but god intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done the saving of many lives there had to be a time when as a grown man get this guy's in the church a powerful grown man second in in charge a leader led huge people had a huge staff had a huge budget oversaw it all was type a go get him he finally had to have a moment where when i got to stop pretending it didn't happen and i need to allow myself to face it and to feel it i'm going to feel it how bad did it hurt how has it affected my life ever since what are the consequences why is my life different because of that hurt face the whole thing feel the whole thing if we face it and we feel it then we can begin to forgive it that's what joseph teaches us we've got to acknowledge that there's a hurt number two and this one's huge surrender my right to punish and this this is one that i was not do there are many people in my life that have done some things that that really hurt me and i've said i forgive them i've even told some of them i forgive you it's forgiven i never knew this was a thing i'd heard the verse but i never tied it to the forgiveness process and until we can actually surrender our right to punish the person who hurt us we haven't actually forgiven right listen to this do not repay anyone evil for evil excuse me be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone if it is possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with everyone do not take revenge my dear friends but leave room for god's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge i will repay says the lord he says you want to actually go through the forgiveness process you got to get your heart and i'm going to help you do this in a minute with this forgiveness prayer that i want you to take a screenshot of i'm going to help you help you do this but we got to get our heart to a place where we can actually say i acknowledge what happened i acknowledge how bad it was how it's affected me and i'm giving up my right to keep making them pay for it man this is huge let me tell you how it works out in our lives right now i was recently talking with a couple that i love and and mistakes have been made on both sides and they're trying to you know iron out some issues in the marriage and most recently he did something and she's upset and we were talking about it and and and i i know him well enough to get some tidbits of conversations that have happened and whatever and um she said you know i have forgiven him and i challenged both of them on this because they both need to do this i said well have you though because here's what i here's what i keep hearing oh i forgave him for that but then later in a conversation you go oh really am i really going to trust you because i couldn't trust you last year oh is that really what you mean because i think we've been here before haven't we oh now i can trust you now now i can trust you oh i did i forgave you but i'm still gonna make you pay for it and i looked this couple and i said if you guys can't actually surrender the right to keep punishing each other you're never gonna have a functional marriage because you're always gonna be in charge and he's always gonna be the whipping boy and it's always going to be dysfunctional you've got to actually forgive and say i'm not going to make you pay for that mistake anymore that's what forgiveness looks like and that's when what's going to allow us to continue in this relationship and see all god wants us to see man this is huge we got to surrender our right to punish if you think that one's hard wait till jesus gives us number three pray for him what oh i'll pray for him all right god i pray you give them covet god give them covet and uh after they get the shots and uh take away their and i pray that they and somebody ought to like that it did to me i don't think that's the prayer is it i have tried this maybe you have too there's been times when i've sat down to do this and i literally couldn't even say the person's name out loud it's so difficult oh it's easy to that's good in church it's a whole nother thing when you have an actual deep severe burn wound on your heart and you're trying to do something that feels so counterintuitive i don't wanna i don't get to pay him back and i gotta pray for him you're killing me i'm telling you guys this is this is more for you than it ever is for the person who hurt you here's what jesus says you've heard it said love your neighbor and hate your enemies but i'm gonna flip that whole thing on you i say love your enemies and pray for those who have hurt you and everybody listening was upset when they heard that let's be honest right because here's what happens remember the bible says that our bitterness turns to what the bible calls a hardened heart and you know they used a lot of agricultural analogies because everyone was understanding the terminology everyone got the the analogy and and picture your heart or your soul as like real hard dry ground you put seeds on it hoping that something great will happen and the seeds never take and nothing beautiful ever happens it's desolate it's empty it's lacking every time you go through this i can't believe i'm doing this but i'm going to pray for him maybe it starts like this god you know what they need we're done hey it's a start in the every time i choose to pray for somebody who hurt me it's like tilling up that hard soil and every single time it tills up the top soil and then it tills up the next level and then it and pretty soon what was hard and hardened and completely completely useless can now accept seed and become beautiful can't it and that's what jesus wants for us he knows that if i can get you to pray for the people who have hurt you this is about your freedom i'm tired of these past hurts hurting you i want you shooting hoops today i want you to get this in your spirit let's begin to work on that bitterness and work on that hardened heart you're not justifying what they did you're setting yourself free we can do this number four be open to reconciliation now i'm definitely getting some emails be open to reconciliation the first time someone told me to be open to reconciliation i honestly did want to fight cause i'm like you don't have a clue what you're saying because i reconcile with certain people in my life i get hurt again is that what you're saying you're telling me go go get back together with this person and just let them keep hurting me oh that's good that's good biblical advice no thanks i'm out well well what's it what's what's the alternative i keep them at arm's length because i don't want to get hurt again but now i got to just carry a whole bunch of guilt and shame because i don't do what god wants this is a great position thanks god it's awesome it's how we feel isn't it that's how i felt don't know what to do with that and then we read the verse right that is is is live as we already read it as best as you can when it's up to you live at peace with everybody as much as it depends on you live at peace with everybody right and i always thought that meant do everything every single thing you can to make sure that they're back in your life but here's the difference it's saying do the best you can to live with everybody the forgiveness is our part my part your part the friendship the fellowship the reconciliation that's a joint effort and we can't control the outcome of that they're totally different forgiveness and fellowship are totally different and i never understood that until a couple years ago would you in fact would you put that graphic up forgiveness is i do that this is on me i acknowledge that there was hurt i give up the right to punish i humble myself in a way i can't even believe i'm trying to do and i pray for him i do these things forgiveness is up to me fellowship happens if and only if there's some there's some there's some conditions forgiveness is supposed to be unconditional because we want to be able to get freed from everything but fellowship is extremely conditional unless there's true repentance there's no reconciliation and i'm not talking about fake repentance we've got too much of that in our lives these days we've got too many people using the words i'm sorry but not actually making an apology i'm sorry that my words were misunderstood i'm sorry that that hurt you as if the real problem here is your emotional capability of handling things i'm sorry that you took it like that i'm sorry that no no go read genesis 45 through 50 and you want to see a beautiful forgiveness reconciliation process happening joseph's brothers came to him and threw themselves at his feet and said i'm sorry i was wrong would you forgive me i'm at your mercy that's an apology an apology is not i'm sorry that that hurt your feelings i'm sorry that you took it that way an apology is i was wrong i made a mistake will you forgive me that's the kind of apology that it takes to begin real reconciliation there's a difference between forgiveness and fellowship and this is going to set some of you free because you've been dealing with all kinds of guilt wondering if you should let x and y back in your life there's a difference you can forgive without reconciliation now there is a general theme throughout the whole bible that reconciliation is what we strive for for sure but it's okay to know that there's some special cases sometimes it has to do with addictions and sometimes it's mental health related and sometimes it's abuse there's special cases where reconciliation not only do you not need to feel guilty about it it wouldn't even be wise for you to do it and we're gonna we're gonna get this from not my opinion but the bible here in a second true repentance change trust honor and respect don't just tell me you're sorry i got to see it there's got to be change and then there's got to be mutual honor and mutual trust and mutual respect and if all that follows a real repentance then we can slowly begin talking about how to rebuild a relationship over time but you got to keep those two things separate forgiveness and fellowship are two entirely different things we always want to strive for fellowship but there's just going to be times when it's not possible watch this paul remember writing every single word through the power of the holy spirit by god tells timothy and titus two guys that are going into ministry that he loves that he knows you got the call of god on your life i can't let you get sidetracked i need to help you understand this forgiveness thing because some people have hurt you and some people have wronged you and reconciliation just isn't always going to be possible watch this that's what he says to his friend timothy don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because you know they produce quarrels and the lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone able to teach not resentful here it is opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that god will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth gently instructed that is not let me tell you what you did oh no you do not i'll get you know gently as with the fruits of the spirit god i can't even go talk to him god until i can get the fruits of the spirit right now peace joy patience kindness goodness self-control this is what i need now full of these things i will gently let you know i gotta be honest with you like what joseph did you meant what you did hurt me he sold me into slavery i'm the guy it hurt me but i'm telling you gently with the fruits of the spirit that's different than the way we like to to get people even on social media to titus he gives titus he says titus i'm gonna tell you what you've been messing around with these people who are causing you so much pain in your life and so much grief in your life he goes titus i'ma give you the three strike rule avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless warn a divisive person once that's gently we already know that with the fruits of the spirit you know what if they don't listen and they hurt you again do it a second time warn them again gently with the fruits of the spirit after that have nothing to do with them you may be sure that such people are warped and sinful and self-condemned he says there's just gonna be forgiveness is always our job because that's what helps us process the hurt that's what provides us with the freedom reconciliation fellowship friendship doing life together that takes a joint effort and we don't always get to control that and you don't have to feel guilty when that doesn't happen anymore as long as you know to the best of my ability i have forgiven and i've been real open to reconciliation right all right number five pray for divine strength healing and freedom i don't have to tell anyone listening to this message because we all got a past we all got some hurts it's just life it's because we're broken people we live in a broken world we interact with other broken people i mean it's a perfect storm for hurt for us to go through this forgiveness process even jesus knew don't you dare try this alone it's too difficult you need the power of almighty god working in your life one day jesus's best friends asked him how to pray some of you might remember this conversation and he goes you know what guys let me give you some talk to god he's your father but let me give you some basics and banned you guys can come on up he said let me give you some basics and he said he in we now call it the lord's prayer don't we and in that what one of the lines and that was god forgive us our sins because today i need your help forgiving somebody else's sins jesus said this is so difficult it's it's such a painful process because sometimes the wounds are so deep don't do this on your own pray and he said he started out at the beginning by saying this is a daily prayer pray every single day that god would actually help you do the real forgiveness work in your life because that's where freedom is found but you don't want to do this stuff on your own you need the power of the holy spirit working through you you don't want to do this on your own forget it's too it's too tough it'll get too difficult your mind will mess with you you'll get mad and you'll give up would you put up those four verses take a screenshot of this would you i'm gonna give you about 15 seconds to grab a screenshot this is why it's so important that i pray every single day when i'm dealing with hurt that god would help me forgive finally brothers and sisters rejoice strive for full restoration encourage one another be of one mind live in peace and the god of love and peace will be with you i know you've had so much anxiety and so much depression and so much mental anguish over this hurt and this bitterness and this hardened heart and it's affecting every area of your life but if you'll go through this forgiveness process i will bring you peace promise from the father my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness i know you feel like you're too weak to do it you don't have the strength it sounds overwhelming you don't understand how bad i've been hurt god says i know and on your weakest days i'm my strongest i got you let's go get you some freedom jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but with god all things are impos all things are possible god says i know you've been dealing with this for so long it's almost like it's become a part of you there's almost a fear in getting rid of it like who will i be without holding on to this anger it's been a part of me for so long it feels impossible he says it's not just come to me talk to me about it every day i got you all things are possible with me therefore god exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and under the earth he said there is mighty power in the name of jesus bring these hurts to me let's pray for freedom in the name of jesus let's declare that we can forgive in the name of jesus let's declare we're giving up our right to punish in the name of jesus let's declare i will experience a different kind of life in the name of jesus let's declare what hurt me then isn't going to keep hurting me now i'm going to move forward in my calling let's begin to declare these things in faith we walk by faith and not by feelings in sight right we're going to do i'm going to give you for what i call my forgiveness prayer we're gonna do what our nation did back when they signed the declaration of independence they signed the declaration of independence and then they went to war they weren't independent when they signed that thing they were declaring i'm going to be free and here's my name and i'm telling you church it's time we start declaring i'm gonna be free in jesus name i'm going to be free i declare it today so this is my and i'm i want you to uh let's see we're gonna try to we're gonna put this on the website ronnie can we do this ronnie can we put this on the website and the app this week all right we're gonna have this on the website and the app this week because i don't think we have the whole thing on one slide up here but you can take four screenshots if you want to get it now all right go ahead and put this prayer up this is what i want you to start praying on a daily basis because it's going to take the power of the holy spirit for us to move past some of the things we've been dealing with god i'm ready to stop pretending like the pain in my past is not affecting my present please forgive me for holding on to unforgiveness and there's something beautiful in realizing yes someone hurt me but i have held on to that unforgiveness and i need to repent of that i need to be set free of that in jesus name today i declare that i'm getting rid of this unforgiveness and i'm letting go of this hurt and anger i completely forgive and you insert the name you might need to run through this a few times each day right now right i completely forgive in the mighty powerful divine name of jesus because that's what it's going to take for me to get over this one i completely forgive in jesus name and i thank you that you're healing these wounds that were inflicted you're healing me jesus and i thank you i thank you that you are making me whole and you're setting me free i declare that i am giving up my right to judge or punish this person next slide please i completely forgive it's all in your hands now in jesus name amen i'm going to declare i'm i'm set free i've repent of holding on to unforgiveness i declare i'm going to be set free what happened in the past it hurt but i'm gonna acknowledge it and i'm gonna face it and feel it and then i'm gonna start forgiving and i'm gonna say you know what it's not my job to be the judge jury and executioner anymore i surrender that right to jesus and i'm gonna pray for him and i'm to begin to soften my heart and begin to experience the presence of god in a way that i just haven't before oh church we can do these things i can feel it i can give it my right i could pray for him i can say you know what god i got to declare things have to change i got to make some declarations in my life things have to change i need to be set free because what happened in the past i just don't want to let it keep hurting me in the present and so i'm fighting for my freedom i'm declaring my freedom in jesus name can we do that church i hope today was so healing for you god i thank you for your presence today i thank you that you're with us i know you're speaking there's not one of us listening or watching from anywhere around the world that don't knows what it feels like to deal with a hurt from the past and so god i pray you begin to set us free right now in jesus name i pray that you begin to set us free from holding on to unforgiveness holding on to bitterness i pray god that you would set us free from the wounds that have happened help us get real honest and go face it and feel it so that we can begin to forgive it help us to walk through the rest of this process god with you at our side reminding ourself every single day i don't do this in my strength in my power i do this this through your strength and your power and i declare victory in this area over my life over my kids over my family in the powerful name of jesus and everybody said amen would you stand up [Music] here's what i know is every time i've been really trying to work through this process on a very specific wound it's like there's a it's like there's a glass wall between me and my freedom it's like there's a glass wall from between me and the ability to actually say their name in prayer it's like there's a glass wall between actually being able to give up that right to punish it's like there's this this wall between me and the person i want to be and sometimes it's because i'm so used to holding on to this i don't know who i'd be without it and somehow i just know that i got to get them back and i can't let them off the hook and my prayer all week has been very simple god i've been praying the words of this song today in this moment in my heart in my soul in my mind something has to break something has to change and i know you'll take me through i know you'll get me there i know you'll carry me when i'm not strong enough let's go believe this we're going to declare the words of this song in faith today as a church around the world something today is going to break and i'm gonna be set free from some things back there and i'll be shooting hoops today let's go let's worship

Channel: Red Rocks Church

Views: 16,021

Rating: 4.9505153 out of 5

Keywords: redrockschurch, Red Rocks Church, RRC

Id: mNwUSJETmu0

Length: 43min 2sec (2582 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021