Unlocking Freedom Through Generosity and Forgiveness

I was able to receive a free swim pass and a free lunch. Now, that's a big deal, and I want to thank each and every one of you who gave to make that possible. So let's give them a round of applause. [Applause] Thank you so much.

Now, let's turn our attention to the Word of God this morning. I'm going to be preaching from the book of John, chapter 15, and I'm going to be talking about the importance of abiding in Christ. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to John chapter 15, and let's get started.

Good morning! Welcome to Ark Church! We are so thankful to have you here with us on this beautiful Fourth of July weekend. If you're new to the Ark, a very special welcome to you. If you'd like to know more about the church, we have people in our East Lobby and our North Lobby who would love to greet you and answer any questions that you may have about the church. We believe God is doing great things here, and we'd love for you to be a part of that.

To honor America, I'm going to ask you to remain standing, and our worship team is going to come and lead us in the national anthem. Wow, wasn't that amazing? As you are seated this morning, can we give our worship team one more great big hand clap? They did a phenomenal job.

Yesterday, our Outreach teams were at Candy Cane Park and Oscar Johnson Park right here in town, where we, as a church, were able to host a free swim day. Every single person and every family that braved the heat yesterday and came to the water park was able to receive a free swim pass and a free lunch. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you so much.

Now, let's turn our attention to the Word of God this morning. I'm going to be preaching from the book of John, chapter 15, and I'm going to be talking about the importance of abiding in Christ. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to John chapter 15, and let's get started.

The time has finally come for you to pick up your Ark Church merch! If you placed an order in the next few weeks after service, you can pick up your items up in the gallery. 100% of the proceeds go to missions all over the world, and making a difference never looked so good.

Reading your Bible is the foundation for your relationship with God. That's why we made Bible 365. Bible 365 is a reading plan that takes the guessing out of where to start reading your Bible. You can find this Bible reading plan on arc.info or the Ark Church app.

We believe that home plus church equals strong, and that's why we made it easy for you to take church home with your kids at the click of a button. You'll find a big verse, a big prayer, and a big "do to do" with your children throughout the week. You can find Ark Kids at Home under the devotions tab.

Ark Groups is the best place for you to find friends that you can grow with. We're in the middle of our summer semester, but it's not too late for you to join a group. You can find a list of all the groups and their meeting times on the Ark Groups page on our website.

At the swimming pool, everyone was able to swim absolutely free as the admissions fees were covered 100%. As an added bonus, they had snacks and ice cream available. Everyone was completely surprised and so thankful for this sweet blessing. This wasn't something that was promoted or seen on social media or in main announcements. It was just a generous act of kindness.

The most important thing about living generously is trusting in the Lord. Generosity is giving with a joyful heart, knowing that we serve a good God that loves us and will always provide for us. The scripture that I wanted to share this morning is Galatians 6:9, which says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."

As you give of your tithes and offerings this morning, just know that your giving helps us continue the legacy of generosity in our church, in our community, and the world.

If I told you that you could receive a key, a key that could unlock your future, what would you say? This key could set you free and set you on a new course, altering the way you navigate life. It could help you to live for God, grow stronger, and make a difference. Here at the Ark, we have many ways to help you do this. You can jump into a group, class, or activity that interests you anytime on arc.info or the Ark Church app. We have people out in our lobbies who can help you with any questions you may have.

We love you, we're praying for you, and we hope you have a blessed week. Let's all stand together and continue to worship. When the darkness comes, the power belongs to you. Take what the enemy wages and stick with the Lord, for the battle belongs to Him. His favor endures through generations, and we know that He will keep on calling. We need Him now to do the same thing. Holding on to the God of Mary, whose favor is upon the glory. With Him, all things are possible.

Calling on the name of Jesus, take a moment and let's pray.

Father, thank you that You are the same God yesterday, today, and forever. If You heal, then You heal now; if You save, then You save now; if You deliver, then You've delivered now. You are the God of the breakthrough in our life, God of Peace. We can enjoy all those things through Christ Jesus. We are here to honor You today, to lift You up and magnify You in every way that we can. We open our hearts and minds to You, believing You have something for us. We love You, we thank You, and we put all of our trust in You. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.

Effectively dealing with the people and events from our past can open our eyes to a new way of seeing ourselves and change the way we see the world. What if this key could actually change our lives? How many of us would be interested in that key? I believe that the Lord has given us such a key, and I want to take a look at this key this morning and how to use it in our lives.

Before that, I'd like to share something kind of personal with you. I love boats, no matter if they're large or small, sail or motor. I'm an equal-opportunist mariner, and time on the water fuels my soul. So much so that I firmly believe that if the Lord hadn't called me into ministry, I could have easily seen myself as an XO in the Navy, second in command on one of our Navy's finest aircraft carriers, navigating the world's oceans, leveraging the firepower of vessel and crew, protecting our country and engaging our enemy with precision military readiness. That sounds awesome, doesn't it?

Well, as much as I would like to idealize the role of being a Navy officer, a lot of it has to do with everyday mundane things. For example, you might be surprised to know that one of the most powerful enemies of the Navy is not the Chinese or the Russians or even from the Middle East. It lies just beneath the surface of the very water that they live and operate in. It's an enemy that they cannot see, but its impact is huge. The threat of this enemy is constant and relentless. Every ship in the fleet is at risk, and every year the Navy spends billions fighting this enemy. That enemy is the barnacle.

Barnacles are tiny marine creatures that attach to anything underwater. They start very small, in fact, microscopic, but once attached, they replicate and keep building on themselves, and they're hard to get rid of. They secrete a cement that is one of nature's most powerful cements, and the impact of barnacles is huge. It increases drag, which is the resistance that a ship has in moving through the water, by as much as 60 percent. It increases fuel consumption by as much as 40 percent, it increases wear and tear, and it creates faults that, unchecked, can lead to catastrophic failure.

How do barnacles accumulate? If a ship is in the water, it's going to be impacted by barnacles, period. It's just part of moving through water. Barnacles are no respecter of ships, and it requires diligence and constant monitoring to deal with them.

Now, you and I are obviously not in the Navy, but there's a lot of similarity between barnacles and an enemy that we face. An enemy that lies just beneath the surface of our lives, and it affects all of us. It's part of navigating the oceans of life, so to speak. It attaches itself to our hearts and to our souls, and it's an enemy that, left unchecked, will multiply, weighing us down and can severely impact the life that God has called us to. That enemy is unforgiveness, and our ability to deal with it is key to unlocking the life that God has for us.

Forgiveness is the key to our future and the full potential that God has for us. Before you tune me out and think that I'm overstating the impact of forgiveness, I want to ask you to hang in there with me. A few years ago, I experienced some of the most painful hurts and betrayals that I can remember on several fronts. I was completely taken back and felt like I couldn't breathe. Words were shared, and actions were taken. I developed an attitude and defended myself, but no matter how hard I tried to fix it, it only got worse. My wife lovingly spoke truth into my life and said I needed to forgive. I had allowed the hurt of other people's actions to attach itself to my heart, and it was beginning to show.

Taking a closer look, I began to realize that I had allowed the actions of other people who hurt me deeply to get under my skin and into my heart. I needed a better understanding of what it really means to walk in forgiveness. Forgiveness not only allows us to effectively deal with the past, it actually unlocks our future.

This morning, I want to take a look at what forgiveness is and what it's not, and learn from an incredible example in scripture on the power of forgiveness, and then offer a few steps that we can all take to utilize the key of forgiveness in our lives.

Why is forgiveness so important? Unforgiveness in our lives is like a barnacle that attaches to our hearts and our souls. It just happens to all of us; it's just part of moving through the oceans of life. We all have a story to tell, and unfortunately, we have all been hurt to some degree or another. Henry Cloud, in his book "Trust," made this statement: "To hold on to an injury and to nurse anger and bitterness is to allow a cancer to grow inside of your heart, your mind, and your soul."

Unnoticed or unchecked, unforgiveness can stay attached to our lives, continuing to grow and to build up, eventually weighing us down and decreasing our effectiveness and efficiency.

The question then becomes how much of those hurts attach themselves to our hearts and our souls, and how much are we weighed down from carrying these hurts sometimes for years or even decades?

What is forgiveness? Let's start with what it's not. Forgiveness does not okay, excuse, justify, or exonerate another person's actions or what happened to us. Nor is it necessarily a restoration of the relationship. Forgiveness is doable; restoration is a strong maybe. Forgiveness is simply this: it's letting go of the impact of people and events in our past. It's a freedom from the offense. It means that we're no longer trapped by or held to what happened to us. Forgiveness means that our hearts and our souls are clean from the debris that once attached to it. We're no longer carrying that baggage around; we're free, free from our past.

The Bible gives us an incredible illustration from the life of Joseph on how to find forgiveness in our lives. Joseph was one of the younger of 12 brothers, and he had garnered the jealousy of his older siblings due to the favoritism and the love that he received from their father. His brothers loathed and despised Joseph so much that they conspired to kill him. On the day that they decided to take action, an opportunity presented itself, and instead of killing him, they chose to profit from his demise and sold their little brother into slavery.

In Egypt, things for Joseph would go from bad to worse, but eventually, he found forgiveness. Joseph had been through a lot in his life. He had been promoted at his job, falsely accused of rape, and thrown into prison. He was forgotten in prison until God used him to interpret the dream of Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt. Joseph was then elevated to number two in the nation of Egypt and was living an amazing life.

Nearly 22 years later, Joseph's brothers, who were starving from the famine, showed up in his office. Unbeknownst to them, they were bowing before their little brother. Joseph wept aloud, and the Egyptians heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph; is my father still alive?" His brothers were stunned and dismayed by the fact that they were in Joseph's presence. Joseph said to them, "I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt. Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to save life and preserve our family, for the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years in which there will be no plowing and harvesting."

Joseph had a call for forgiveness. He didn't respond in anger or dole out his wrath. He didn't publicize their offense. Instead, he told them that God had sent him ahead of them to save life and preserve their family. Joseph was a great example of what forgiveness can look like.

Joseph chose to use the key of forgiveness when his brothers had done wrong. He wept over them and kept their offense private, preserving their dignity and self-esteem. He hid their error so other people wouldn't see it and so they wouldn't be embarrassed. Joseph walked in forgiveness even though his brothers never asked for it. Never once do we see in scripture the brothers saying they were sorry and asking for forgiveness. Choosing forgiveness allowed Joseph to be free without needing or getting anything from his brothers. Joseph did not allow what was done to him to define his life, and as a result, forgiveness opened up a whole new future for him.

I believe that Joseph had already worked through forgiving his brothers long before they ever showed up in his office. Joseph had already determined that he wasn't going to be held back or hindered by unforgiveness. His heart was resolute; his life was directed by God, not by what his brothers had done to him. Because of that, God was able to do amazing things through Joseph. Forgiveness opened up new doors for him, but it also opened up new doors for his whole family. Joseph used his power and position to provide for and to bless his entire family, altering their lives for generations.

Today, we can use the key of forgiveness in our lives. We need to call it what it is; forgiveness sees the offense for what it is and it doesn't sugarcoat or gloss over what happened. Seeing it for what it is can make us angry, but scripture tells us in Ephesians 4:26 that in our anger, we should not sin. We need to receive God's grace to forgive completely. Forgiving someone will be the hardest thing that we'll ever do, but the best motivator for forgiving other people is when we reflect on God's forgiveness to us.

We often pray these words in the Lord's Prayer, yet we may not fully appreciate what they mean. Forgiveness allows us to overcome the anger and the hurt because forgiveness makes the choice to erase the offense. We did not deserve God's forgiveness, but by letting God's grace motivate us to forgive, we can make the choice to forgive.

Look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32. It says, "Be kind and helpful to one another, tenderhearted, compassionate, understanding, forgiving one another readily and freely, just as God in Christ also forgave you." Forgiving someone readily and freely means that we choose to forgive even if we don't feel like it, even if they don't quote deserve it, even if they're not asking, and even if they don't know it. And sometimes it's better that they don't know it.

Henry Cloud made this statement: "Forgiveness is something that you do inside your soul and does not require anything from the other person." You see, we need to forgive in our hearts and in our prayers to God, even say it out loud. It's key that we articulate our forgiveness and say, "I forgive them; I forgive what was done to me." You see, I have learned that forgiveness is for me; it's not for them. Whether they know it or not is not the point. I forgive so that I can be finished with a transgression; I forgive so that the offense no longer has a place in my life, and I forgive so that I can be free and I can unlock my future.

But do I have to trust them again? is the question. Forgiveness does not mean that we will trust the person going forward. Trust is not free; it is a privilege that is earned, and sometimes healthy boundaries are the best outcome that we can hope for.

The fourth step in utilizing the key of forgiveness is to remember that forgiveness is a process. It requires that we make the choice repeatedly. Look at Matthew chapter 18. Peter is talking to the Lord here, and he says, "Lord, how many times are we to forgive someone who does something wrong to me? Is seven times enough?" And Jesus answered him, "Not just seven times, but 77 times."

Now, the Greek translation of this scripture can either mean 77 or 490, but the point is unlimited forgiveness. Forgiveness is a way of life that we choose; it's not a one and done. And when the offense resurfaces and when old feelings come back and we remember the hurts and the pains, we choose to forgive again, and then we forgive again and again and again. Forgiveness is a lifelong commitment of overcoming, and I can assure you that it's an incredibly fulfilling journey, one that uproots the very core of the hurts and the pains in our hearts and our souls.

For me, I have found that as I make the choice and I use the key of forgiveness, I'm recounting the offenses less often, and the sting of the memory grows less and less painful in my life. But it is a process. There's a prayer that I aim at praying every day; it goes like this: "Lord, I give everyone and everything to you." I encourage you to try.

For Corrie ten Boom, forgiveness was the key to unlocking her future. She had been imprisoned in concentration camps for hiding and assisting Jews during the Holocaust. In 1947, after speaking at a church in Munich, Germany, a balding man in a gray overcoat stepped forward to greet her. Corrie recognized him as one of the most vicious guards at Ravensbrück, the one who had mocked the women prisoners as they showered. He asked for her forgiveness and said, "I know God has forgiven me for the cruel things that I did there, but I want to hear it from your lips as well."

Corrie was faced with one of the most difficult things she had ever had to do. She remembered that forgiveness is an act of the will and not an emotion. With Jesus' help, she was able to lift her hand and forgive him. As she did, an incredible thing happened. A healing warmth seemed to flood her whole being, bringing tears to her eyes.

Henry Cloud said, "When you remain angry, you are just a character in someone else's story, but when you let go and forgive, you are free to write your own story. What's your story going to be?" For Corrie, the key of forgiveness changed her life. She was no longer weighed down by what someone else did and was free to live the life that God had called her to. She was also free to bless other people along the way.

That is her prayer for you. Will you use the key of forgiveness to unlock your future?

Father, I want to thank you for everyone that has gathered here today and online. Father, for anyone who has been hurt and held back and wounded by unforgiveness in their lives, God, I pray right now that you would give them the courage today to use your key of forgiveness. Father, to let go of the past, to break free from the weight of unforgiveness in their lives, and Father, as they do, I thank you that you're going to unlock their future, and Father, their lives are going to be free and whole, and Father, you're going to be all that you want them to be, never hindered back by any longer from forgiveness in their lives.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

With your head still bowed and your eyes closed, the best decision that you can make is to invite Christ into your life and enter into a life-giving, life-changing relationship with Him. Perhaps you're here this morning and you've never said yes to Jesus; you've never asked Him to come into your life, or perhaps you said yes in the past and for whatever reason you've gotten away from Him. Well, today you can renew that relationship. If you've never said yes to Christ or you need to come back to Him, we're going to say a prayer in a minute. We're not going to call you out or embarrass you in any way, but if that's you, you're here to say, "I want in on that prayer; I want to give God a chance; I want to say yes to Christ." If that's you, then simply just raise your hand and say, "Philip, I want to pray that prayer today."

Yes, I see those hands. All right, all right. We're going to do exactly what I said; we're going to pray this prayer together. Pray it out loud. Say:

"Dear God, I know mankind needs a savior, and I know I can't save myself. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God; I believe you died on the cross for my sins, and God raised you from the dead. Right now, I confess you as my Lord, as my savior, as the one who forgives me and restores me. Thank you, Jesus; my past is forgiven; I have a relationship with you; I'm a new creation in Christ because I said yes to you. Amen."

Amen. If you'll look up here and give me just one more minute, if you said yes today, we want to help you in that decision. If you're here in person, there's a card right there by your seat. You can take that, fill it out, and drop it in one of the boxes as you leave here. And online, you can scan that QR code; we're going to get information to you that's going to be a help to you, and we commit to praying with you for this next year.

Hey guys, thank you for being here today. We love you, we're praying for you, have a great week, and we'll see you next Sunday.