I'm shaking hands. Hey, how are you, man? Good morning. Everybody's happy? Everybody's on here on purpose? Good. Have I got a message for y'all today?
We'll continue in our five-part series. We're going to be in week number four. I'm not going to give you the title. You'll have to look at your handout to see the title. Complete Forgiveness. Oh, no amens. Amen.
Last week we talked about overcoming or how to deal with anxiety and depression. So this is obviously the next step, and that's going to be in forgiveness. Amen? Yeah, I'm going to step on some toes today, aren't I? Praise God. I'll pray for your healing when we're done, all right? Not a problem.
So glad that everybody's here. We've got a lot going on this morning. We've got... We've got communion we're going to take this morning. I'm excited about that. I'd forgotten about it. I came in and I was asked, "Hey, when are you going to do communion?" What? Oh, okay. Well, we'll do communion. I love communion.
You know, and I always concentrate on the blood, but today I want to concentrate on the bread a little bit when we do communion. Amen? But right now, if you've got your tithes and offerings, I'd love to pray over them. I'd love for you to hold them up to the Lord. And we'll give them to the Lord.
Father, we just come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day. We thank you for each person that's here, those that have joined us online. Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to continue to sow into a ministry that you've called, a ministry that you've given vision to, that we are a church of hope, a church of salvation, a church of restoration.
Father, we thank you for that vision. We thank you that we are healing the broken hearts of people. We are healing the physical bodies of people. And when they take Jesus, they're getting the spiritual side of them healed, too. Father, we just thank you for that, Lord God. We thank you for each dollar that comes in, that you continuously increase it so that we can continue completing the vision that you've given to us.
Father, we just thank you for all things this morning. We thank you for your presence. We thank you for our worship team. We thank you for our spirit of worship that we're in today to worship you. Father, we just give you all things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. If you will, do the short one. Oops, she had the long one in her hope. Take just a second. Threw a curveball. There we go. Y'all ready?
We are prospering in every area of our lives, spirit, soul, and body. We sow in faith and we reap in joy. We will have more than enough to meet every need. We have a need to pay every debt and to be a big blessing to a lot of people. We're not running out. We're running over in Jesus' name. Amen.
Y'all go ahead. Let's stand up. Let's do some worship. You are my everything and I will adore you. Amen.
Let me read some Corinthians to you. Nobody's ever heard of this, right? Okay. I'm using the Passion translation. Oh, I messed her up. I'm sorry. I gave her the right scripture, but I forgot to tell her it was in the Passion. You ready?
Okay. Verse 23 says, "I have handed down to you what came to me by direct revelation from the Lord himself. The same night in which he was handed over, he took bread and gave thanks. Then he distributed it to his disciples and said, 'Take it and eat your fill. It is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'
He did the same with the cup of wine after supper and said, 'This cup seals the new covenant with my blood; drink it. And whenever you drink this, do it to the remembrance of me. Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are retelling the story, proclaiming our Lord's death until he comes.'
You know, I never really looked at the Passion translation. It's actually not a translation; it's a paraphrase. But here recently, I've been looking at the Passion in several different, and it's only in the New Testament, but I've been looking at several different things.
As I study, y'all go ahead and pass this up. As I study, I'm looking at different translations, different paraphrases, all of that. And the Passion is exactly that. It's a passion. I'm really impressed with that paraphrase. So I'm studying more and more out of it because it has some key words in it.
It's good to see everybody here this morning. Let's talk about the elements that are being passed out. First thing that comes out is the bread. That's what he mentions at first, right? Take this bread, eat it in remembrance of me. And so, let's talk about the bread.
The bread, I don't have my Bible sitting there; it's sitting over there. That's okay, you can keep it there. But the bread can be as simple as just reading your Bible. Amen? It says that He is the Word, and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We know that the Word was Jesus. Everything that's been created has been created by the Word.
You can go to Genesis chapter 1 and see all of that. And you see that it's actually Jesus that is the Creator. Okay? I don't have time to get into that right now. I have another message for you today. I'm putting a bunch of messages together for you.
Okay? That we're going to look at spiritual giftings. We're going to look at the Holy Spirit deeper than just one message that I'm going to do next week. And just several things that we're going to look at. Because I want everybody to understand that the Word of God is the final authority in your life.
It's the bread that needs to be eaten. It's the bread that needs to be absorbed, not just in our minds through our eyes, but down into our hearts, down into our spirit. Because it's the bread that... When something happens to you, what is your reaction? Where are you reacting from? The Bible says the condition of your heart. Out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks.
And so what are we feeding our heart? The bread is so important with that. If you look at Isaiah 53, it says that he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his stripes, talking about the bread again, by his stripes you are healed.
So every time that we take this bread, we should take it in remembrance of the broken body that he did for us. When I came to the Lord June 11, 2000, I was dying of a lung disease, irreversible nerve damages, bad back because of my lifestyle.
And the Lord, first of all, healed me before he saved me. And I thought that was very interesting when I started reflecting on it. It's by the broken body, the bread, that healed me first. And then through the blood, I was saved. And it just really, when I walked out of that church June 11, 2000, I was a brand new creature. Old things have passed away. All things were made new.
And so as you partake with the bread, remember what he did for you. Remember that through those wounds, you can have physical healing. You can have emotional healing. And through that blood, you can have that spiritual healing that we all need if we don't have it right now.
Did y'all get yours? Okay, I didn't. Thank you, gentlemen. Y'all are so awesome.
Blood of Jesus, so hold up your bread. Let me pray real quick. Father, we love you and we thank you for that selfless act of redemption on the cross. Father, we thank you that through that broken body we can be healed both physically and emotionally.
And Father, we thank you for the bread, the Word, your Word that speaks to us daily. So Father, as we partake in the bread this morning, I just ask that you speak to the hearts of each and every one of us that it’s through the bread, through the Word, through Jesus and what is written that we should base our own the things of you.
Father, I thank you, and as we partake, we partake in remembrance of Jesus. In Jesus' name, Amen.
The blood, we all know about the blood, right? Jesus bled seven times from the garden to the cross. Maybe this Easter I'll bring that up and teach on that.
But he took, when he left the tomb, left Mary, he took his blood and ascended and poured it on a mercy seat. And then he came back and started appearing through walls and stuff like that. I'm not gonna get into that today because that's some of next week's message.
But it's through that blood on the mercy seat that when we've been through that blood, we can be healed and we can be washed by this blood. As Corinthians says, therefore if any man or woman be in Christ Jesus, they are a new creature. Behold, old things have passed away; behold, the new things have come.
And when you step through the blood that Jesus poured on the mercy seat, it takes you from who you used to be and does away with it through the power of death of the cross. Once again, like I said, this Easter, we’ll bring some of this. We'll give some more teaching on it.
But you've got to understand that through that blood, everything of who you used to be is gone. And your sins are forgiven. Yesterday, today, and forever. I'll teach on that someday this next year, too.
So as you partake in this, remember that it's through that blood that he bled and poured on a mercy seat and then invited you to come partake, receive what he did. So as we take this blood, or this juice, this blood, we take it in remembrance of him. Amen?
So Father, we just thank you, Lord God. We thank you that you sent your son to die for us. And they're not just dying; they're dying for us on the cross, providing redemption, but also being resurrected from the dead, which sealed the promise.
And we thank you, Father, for that. And we thank you that this blood has cleansed us white as snow. And that when you look at us through this blood, you see us equal with Jesus. As your word says in Romans 8:17, that if heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And so we thank you for that, Father. We thank you.
So, as we partake, we partake in remembrance of what Jesus did on the cross. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Communion to me is one of the important things that we can do, both here in the church once a month and anywhere else we might be. There's no rule. There's no rule about when or how you can tell. Well, how, yes, but no rule about when. You can take it any time you want. Amen.
But understand that communion doesn't get you saved. It's only the blood of Jesus that you receive, making him your Lord and Savior. I'm excited. It may not sound it, but I'm really excited.
We are going to Mark Hankins. Y'all can be seated. Oh, y'all are. Okay. We're going to go see Mark Hankins. And we've got a whole week of a Holy Ghost conference. And I'm excited.
And what's interesting is I hadn't decided to go until last week. But the final message of this series, which is next Sunday, is called The Holy Spirit. So it's perfect timing. God knows what he's doing, I'm telling you. He knows what he's doing.
He knows when he gives me a message. He knows all about it. I have no idea. I just study it. I get it down on paper or computer. And I'm hoping. Siri doesn't answer me again like she did a couple of weeks ago. I'll never forget that. That was hilarious.
But I want to welcome everybody this morning. Let me just say I'm honored. Cricket and I both are honored to be able to come here each week to be with you guys, minister the word, and just honor.
I just... If you knew me before, you would not figure out why in the world did God use that guy to do this. I didn't go to Bible school. I only went for a few years in college studying engineering. And I didn't do very well in high school because I didn't care.
Even though I could, I became an isolationist, didn't like nobody, didn't love nobody, and then one day several years later he says, "Not only are you going to preach the word," which I did as an evangelist, "then he came up and says, 'Oh, by the way, you're going to pastor a church.'" Oh no, I'm not.
I mean, you can't really argue with God. You know. There's a lot of things that we see in his word that are not suggestions; they're basically commands of Jesus. Forgiveness is one of those.
And today, what I want to do is I want to take a few minutes this morning, and I want to talk about complete forgiveness. I love when we walk through these topics like these five topics that we're covering in this little five topics for five weeks or five weeks.
And I love that we could talk about stress because everybody deals with stress. Outward circumstances that get all on you, so all of us experience some kind of stress at some point in time in our lives. We talked about spiritual warfare; we're all in it. Saved or not saved, you're in it.
Last week we talked about depression and anxiety. Does that minister to anybody? This week I want to talk about something else that is really interesting. The topic seems to come back every now and then; it seems like every year to 18 months we come back to this topic again.
And this topic is called forgiveness. And the question on this is how do I forgive people? Should I forgive people? Who's ever had that thought? How does forgiveness work? Because forgiveness, when it works, what happens is it keeps coming back. It's like a circle.
It keeps coming back; the opportunity, small or big, keeps coming back into your life. It may be with families, friends, co-workers, strangers, but it keeps circling around. That's forgiveness.
So I want to talk a few minutes today about complete forgiveness. And so in talking about forgiveness, we have to go to the words of Jesus because Jesus taught on how to forgive. He mandated forgiveness, and he covers it from small to large, big things.
So Jesus actually talked about the power and the need and the command of forgiveness in our lives. Even when the disciples, man, they came to him when he first talked about this subject, it was in Mark chapter six, or I'm sorry, Matthew chapter six. They said, "Teach us how to pray."
Well, then we know that in Matthew chapter six, Jesus gives them the disciples' prayer. We all know it, right? This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Anybody else know this? Your kingdom come. Thy will be done. Where? On earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. And forgive us our debts. Wait a minute.
But it continues; it says, as we also forgive our debtors. Now, wait a minute. In the middle of teaching somebody how to pray, he deals with this idea of forgiveness. Does that seem strange?
And then he caps off this prayer with more instructions. Look at verse 14. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, okay, that's hard sometimes, right? Your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Oh, wow. Another side of the coin.
But if you don't forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Okay. That's some strong medicine, y'all. I don't know about you, but that's strong. Oh, you can't get any more direct than these words that Jesus is using, right?
He also deals with this again in Mark 11. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, so he's talking about our communication to the Father through or in the name of Jesus. Believes that you have received it, it will be yours. I like that. I like answered prayer. Amen.
I like it that when I'm praying about my kids or my grandkids or whatever you guys, whatever, man, I love it when Jesus shows up and takes care of these prayers. I love it when I say, "Jesus, make my wife even nicer." Don't tell her I said that, would you?
Oh, well, we've been married a long time, but I love it when he answers prayers. Amen. But then he says this in verse 25, and when you stand praying, if you hold... Now that's a very interesting word. If you're holding anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in heaven may forgive you of your sins.
Look at Luke; he continues, do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Church, it's so simple, right? Forgive and you'll be forgiven, right? That's easy, right?
Six words that can liberate your life: forgive and you will be forgiven. Yeah, six words. See, this not only comes in the idea of prayer; it also comes out in the idea of commandments. Because I don't know if you realize this or not, but his command here, this is a commandment; it's not a suggestion.
He's not going, "Hey, check out this restaurant if you're hungry, man, it's really good." It's not a suggestion, okay? He's not recommending a certain pair of socks he used to with me because I'd ask him when I was very young in the Lord.
This is not a suggestion, everybody; it is a command. And then he begins some dialogue in the minds of all these people. They start thinking about forgiveness after he's said all of this, so it circles back around the need to forgive people, the need to deal with forgiveness. Amen?
It always circles back. We see it happen in Luke chapter 17, which says Jesus said to his disciples, "Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck." Sounds like gangsters, right? The mob?
Anyway, then to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So he's saying quit making people stumble. Quit being so mean. Huh? Quit causing harm. Quit hurting people. This is what he's talking about.
And then in three, look, so watch yourselves. If your brothers or sisters sin against you, rebuke them. Sin. No, that doesn't mean you go up and tell them you're wrong. You go up and you have communication and you talk about the situation so it can be worked out. Amen?
And if they repent, what? Forgive them. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to forgive them. They hurt me. Even if they repent, I don't want to forgive them. Y'all are looking at me like I'm the bad guy. Am I hitting a nerve? Perfect.
Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, "I repent," you must forgive them. The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." In other words, whoa, do you know who we're dealing with? You're going to have to give us a whole lot more faith to be able to deal with these people and forgive them for what they did to me or to us.
And so I find this very amazing that the Lord is saying it's going to come back to you. Then you have Matthew 18. And of course, this is Peter. Now, Peter's got problems with people, right? Chopped an ear off. Go study him.
Do you know that person who wakes up every morning who's mad at somebody? You have to deal with somebody that's on your team or on your work group or whatever that just doesn't like people. I used to be that person. I didn't like nobody.
How about that friend that you run around that just doesn't like anybody? He's always finding something wrong with somebody and then saying it when he shouldn't be saying anything. Y'all know that person? Peter's that person. And he has a problem with a lot of people.
And look what he says. Matthew 18:21. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me?" Peter's got somebody in mind. Come on. Peter may even have a list of somebodies. Amen? Up to seven times?
Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven." You ever done the math? Seventy times seven is 490 times per offense per day. Come on. Pretty interesting, isn't it?
So it's like Jesus saying, "Hey, Peter, come on, we're going to do some math." Peter said, "No, no, no, no. I'm good at fishing, but I can't count. I know when I got a boat full, but that's all I know." Amen.
Jesus is saying, "Peter, you need to learn how to walk in forgiveness. Constant forgiveness." So it circles back around in moments, in seasons, in your life, in your coworkers, in your friends. I mean, it circles back around.
And if you start counting the offenses, you can't count that high. Amen? I love what Jensen Franklin says. Forgiveness can't be about keeping score. It's about losing count. Amen?
So how do you lose count? You lose count because you're glad that God is loving you. God has lost the count of your problems. God has lost the count of your sins and what you have done because you don't see them anymore because they're washed by the blood.
God has forgotten the count of your failures, your hangups. Amen? And because of that, we should not be keeping count of somebody else's.
The last words, I think, are the most powerful about the idea of forgiveness. So how do I do it? Who should get it? Jesus on the cross. Church, this is the big one. Out of all the words that Jesus spoke, out of all the things in the Gospels that can help us, this is the big one.
He's on the cross. The Lamb of God is taking the sin of all humanity right now. Of all the horror, of all the things that happened, the ridicule, the words, the wounds, the harm, everything that happened to him. Look at Luke 23, verse 34 says, "Jesus said, 'Forgive them, all of them.'"
And everybody's got a them in their life. Amen? "For they do not know what they are doing." Wow. That's complete forgiveness, folks. It's the vertical love of God through Jesus into us. The first forgiveness. Yes.
And it also is the sacrifice that he did for the payment of the debt that we owed. Amen. And he's saying this to humanity also. Forgive them. So what? When I have this vertical forgiveness from God through Jesus in my life, then I'm able to understand the other horror.
I'm able to understand the horizontal forgiveness between me and you. Amen? Only those who have truly been forgiven by God can forgive others. Why? Because it keeps circling back around. In our life. In our relationships. In our workplace. Wherever we go. In a group text.
Maybe there's... There's... There's nothing worse than starting a group text and then being kicked out of it. Amen? But I have to forgive you for that. But I'm mad. Do I really want to forgive you for that?
Listen, I'm going to forgive you, but I'm mad. Listen, there's hundreds of reasons why we don't forgive. I don't think I want to go down that road. Oh, that's not for me. No, no, no. No, I think I'm going to stay bitter. I'm going to stay angry.
Oh, I've been hurt so many times. I'm not going to forgive. I've been hated on. I've been talked about. I've been canceled. I've been deleted. Oh, come on. I've been abandoned. I've been stolen from. I've been disappointed. I've been stabbed in the back. I've been attacked so many times. Are you kidding?
I don't want to forgive. I can't forgive. Church, none of us can forgive. He can. Amen. My bucket is empty. So, Lord, fill me up with what you've done in me, how you've forgiven me.
Our reality is this. There's stuff that happens in our life. Amen? So you get to decide. You've got a decision to make. How are you going to react to the situation? And where are you going to react from?
How many knows that forgiveness is a choice? It's a choice. We get to make a decision, folks. Are we going to live from what Jesus did for me? Or am I going to sit down and try and figure this out by myself?
Because people will get on your last nerve. Come on. Let me see if I can illustrate this. Okay. This is a fictional story. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was hurt. The names are not changed because we're not protecting anybody because it's a fictional story.
Okay? Okay. So, I'm having a great week, man. A really awesome, happy week. Happy, happy Ray. I'm happy. I'm driving down the road. Got worship music playing. I've been listening to some of my greatest Vougez, greatest preachers that I listen to. I am full of God. I'm waving at everybody I see as I pass them. Hey, praise God and all this, and I'm so full of God.
I guess I'm going to decide to go into the sanctuary of all yard birds, Chick-fil-A. You know the Holy Spirit's there in that drive-thru, right? Come on. You pull in, got cars everywhere. You leave six feet between you and a car in front of you because there's young folks running around delivering stuff so they can hurry the lines up.
And you're sitting there, man, you are in absolute mood. All of a sudden, honk honk. You see a lady in your mirror going, "Motion me to move forward." And it's like, you see a lady in your mirror going, "Motion me to move forward." And it's like, I'm in disbelief. Honk honk.
And I look around, where did she want me to go? I'm locked in. So I roll forward a few more feet. I'm sitting there, honk honk. You honk that horn one more time, the final is my turn. Your little girl gives me my half and half tea. That's all I wanted.
And I said, "You need to talk to that girl back there, that lady. You need to get her some Holy Ghost." And I'm out. Before I could put the truck back in gear, honk honk. You ever been there?
Now you go driving down 281, somebody looks at you, what? You've lost your victory. Everybody can get on your last nerve, right? You ever happen to you? All the time. Mad at everybody now. You just whoosh. Ruins it. You've lost that good mood that you were in.
Think about it. Like I said, that story was fiction. But I've been on 281 and 1431. Anyway, this is just a small thing. It's just an illustration I wanted to show you. But some of you got some big things. You're dealing with some big things, some painful things.
Things that are hard. Because if it's anybody that you don't know, you kind of can get by. Okay, that's cool. Yeah, I lost my... You lose your victory. Maybe, maybe not. Okay. But it's when you know the person.
It's when you know this person is really close to you and they're honking their horn at you. David said, it's not the people I don't know. It's the people I can't know. It's the people that came to worship with that ate him up.
That's why we need complete forgiveness. Total forgiveness. The Bible talks about walking in forgiveness. That sounds like to me that's a constant forgiveness. Amen? We've got to walk in the spirit of forgiveness. We can't stop doing it.
We can't detour down the road of forgiveness. We can't detour down the road of bitterness. We can't turn down the road of depression or the avenue of anger, even though that's what we do. No, no, we've got to keep walking in the spirit of forgiveness all day long.
Why? Because every step that I take in forgiveness, I need forgiveness. Every step that I'm forgiving somebody else, the small ones, the big ones, the stuff that's hard to talk about, every step I'm taking in forgiveness, I'm saying I need forgiveness also. Y'all got quiet.
It's called constant forgiveness. It's a walk of forgiveness, a walk of mercy, a walk of grace, a walk of healing. Come on. It's a walk of a new beginning. It's a walk of freedom. My freedom, your freedom. And it begins with what Jesus did for us on the cross.
And that forgiveness that he gave cost a lot. It's not cheap forgiveness, y'all. The forgiveness that we forgive others with cost a lot. So how do I see this forgiveness? The complete forgiveness that is circular. The complete forgiveness that we all must live in.
Even at my age. I know I'm young and handsome, but, you know, anyway. The longer that you live, the more chance that you have to be offended. More and more people. The older you get, the more angry you can become if you choose to.
The longer that you live, the more people can... The more people can go, honk honk. Come on. But then here's Jesus. And this is what he did for us. He forgave me. Now and recept, recept, receptacle. I receive this forgiveness and I can give this forgiveness.
And a part of this forgiveness is forgiving yourself. Y'all sure ain't good. Y'all quiet this morning. Quiet. I'm going to have to pray for a lot of feet today, aren't I? A lot of toes.
Let me assure you, God walked all over my toes before I could walk on yours. Amen. But we receive that forgiveness. We receive this. Because as a part of us forgiving others, we're going to walk in that forgiveness because at some point I might walk and do something wrong with you.
Say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing. Maybe I blew my horn at somebody else. Hmm. Maybe I overreacted. Sometimes I did the other day in a parking lot. The guy was smoking while putting gas in his motorcycle. And I'm right there. I'm right there by him and somebody else to tell him, "You need to put that cigarette out."
This dude's pumping up gasoline and leaning right there. And this other guy was telling me, "You need to put that out." Well, I had a fit of carnality, guys. I told him to put that cigarette out or I was going to pop a cap in him.
And if y'all don't know me, most of the time I have a cap on the side of me that shoots them. He said, "Do it then." I put my hand on my gun. I'm just being honest, guys. I'm transparent.
Yeah, I got a calling on my life. Yeah, I pastor church, but I can have fit of carnality every now and then. Yeah, I got a calling on my life. Yeah, I pastor church, but I can have fit of carnality every now and then.
I have finally, listen to me, I have finally almost been saved as long as I was an outlaw. I have finally, listen to me, I have finally almost been saved as long as I was an outlaw. Think about that. And I've been saved 24 and a half years.
Oh. Anyway. I did not shoot him. He did put the cigarette out. And I got in my truck and drove off. So I saved somebody's life, right? So I saved somebody's life, right?
Boy, I put my gun out there, and it's like, mmm. Boy, I put my gun out there, and it's like, mmm. You're trying to harm everybody's life. And the Holy Spirit, you see, you don't really want to do that. You're fixing to get in big trouble. I said, "You're right."
So I got in my truck and drove off. Listen. The right thing would have been for me to go over there and say, "Dude, I'm sorry I went off on you like that." You know? Because we have things like that that happen to us all the time.
So what are you going to do? What decision are you going to make? Like, are you going to threaten to pop a cap in him or are you going to, hmm? Let me say something else. As I said, forgiveness is a circle. Guess what else lives in that same circle?
I forgive you. I release you. Oh. Listen, it's not, "Well, if you think I hurt you." No, you hurt him. Whoever it was. And now it's time to own up to it. And go up to him and say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong." Amen?
Hard to do sometimes, isn't it? Well, if I forgive somebody, am I just condoning what they've done wrong to me? Mm-mm. Forgiveness and condoning are two different things.
And forgiveness does not condone what was done bad. Amen? Well, if I forgive them, will it minimize the pain that they caused me and my family? When you release somebody in forgiveness and you think you're releasing a prisoner, guess what? The only prisoner that you're releasing is yourself.
Yourself. Ha. It doesn't mean everything is reconciled. It doesn't mean... What it does mean is they're forgiven. Sometimes it takes time for trust to be rebuilt in your life when somebody's done you wrong. But you've forgiven them.
You've released them of anything. Amen? Amen? It doesn't mean everything's going to be restored right away. Forgiveness is a choice. Forgiveness is an instant. But trust and reconciliation and restoration only comes from God. Amen?
Lord, I told you they weren't going to listen to this very nice to me. I know. I know you do. It's a touchy subject. It really is. Bernard Netcher said this: "When you forgive, you in no way change the past, but you do change the future." Amen?
See, I think this is what matters. It's complete forgiveness. Because it'll keep coming back to you as you live. And I'm going to walk in that circle of forgiveness. I'm going to walk in a constant releasing of things that happened to me.
I mean, there's no one on this planet that I've said the words, "I love you," more to than my wife, Cricket. But there's also no one on this planet that I've said, "I'm sorry," to more than her.
I'm sorry to more than her. Amen? She ranks number one in my "I love you" words. I love you, Cricket. Amen? Amen? Amen. And it continues when I say I'm sorry.
It stops all bitterness and anger. Check this out. The degree of forgiveness is the degree of love. He loves us. He forgave us. And out of that love, I'm going to forgive. And I'm going to forgive others. You. Amen?
So, Ray, how do I do that? I'm glad you asked. I want to give you some handles to hang on to so you don't hang on to the wrong handles. I want to give you some handles to hang on to so you don't hang on to the wrong handles. Amen.
So I'm going to give you three good handles to hang on to. The first one comes out of Ephesians chapter four. It says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with..." Check this out. "Every form of what? Malice."
What is malice? I'm glad you asked. It's the intentional desire to be mean and cruel. And he's saying to do what? Get rid of every form of malice, all forms, forms that may be formed in your mouth. Malice that may be formed in your mind. Come on.
Malice is formed by honk honk. So how do we do that? Verse 32 says, "Be kind to God. Be compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you."
So where do you draw this from? Where do you draw the strength and the courage to be able to forgive? We draw forgiveness for others from the deep well of forgiveness of being in Christ. It's all found in him. Every bit of it.
It's not in me to say those words. I forgive you. I release you. I'm not holding anything on you or against you anymore. I'm not going to live that way anymore. I forgive you.
So what's the handle? I'm glad you asked. Number one, the handle is? Remember. Remember what, right? Remember your life and what Jesus has done in your life.
Remember how completely and constantly he forgave you, forgave me. And out of that, it produces an overflow of life. Now, blow your horn at me. You see?
Here's a second handle I found. It's found in Romans 12. This is the Message Bible. "Bless your enemies. No cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy. Share tears when they're down. Get along with each other. Don't be stuck up. Make friends with nobodies and don't be the great somebody. Don't hit back. Discover beauty in everyone. Don't hit back. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even. That's not for you to do. I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of you."
So what's the second handle? Relinquish. Relinquish your right to get even. Relinquish your right to be right. Oh. Y'all ain't amenin' it.
Oh. Do you realize that the energy to get even is really exhausting? Come on. Forgiving is freedom. Can I give you an old statement? Let go, let God. Kind of relevant, isn't it?
I'm just going to let go and I'm going to let God fix this thing. I can't control it. I'm going to remember what he did for me. Amen? And I'm going to relinquish my right to get even.
The last handle that I found is in Psalms 103. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." That is a geographical phenomenon.
I usually give the one illustration of the east from the west, but I'll give you a different one. East from the west means it just keeps getting further and further and further and further away. They never meet. Amen?
The third handle is keep repeating the process. When someone hurts you, when someone harms you, when someone hates on you, when someone talks about you, you should be, "Oh, Lord, I remember what you did for me in my complete forgiveness that you did of me. I know this person has hurt me. I know this person has done me wrong. But I'm going to relinquish my right to get even with them. I'm going to relinquish my right to be right."
Because the prisoner I'm releasing is who? Me. Folks, forgiveness has a circle. Unforgiveness has a circle also. And it's a bad cycle. Amen.
There's a scripture in Hebrews. Let me read it to you. Hebrews 12. "Look after each other so no one of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many."
So in other words, be careful of the root of bitterness. This is what I've realized. When you have the root of bitterness, it will eventually affect the tree. What's in the root touches the tree.
Let me rephrase that. What's in the well is what comes up in the bucket. I told you my story last week. It's about depression and anxiety. During that time, a root of bitterness had grown up in me also.
And what I realized was, is it builds over time. It's sneaky. It doesn't just get you; it builds. I may say a word to you that you didn't like. That root of bitterness slowly grows.
Why? Because you're constantly thinking about it. Amen? Circumstances in your life may create a root of bitterness. The story that I told you, what caused me to go into depression, was that there were several incidents over a three or four-month period done by several people.
And it felt like these people were part of the blame for what happened to me. Because it built up in my life. It created barriers. Then I got into the blame game.
You have to be careful because a root of bitterness can cause you to blame God. And I kind of was doing that too. After the trip to the coast, I told you the story. After the Lord telling me to get back to my vision.
After the scales fell off my eyes and I could see a purpose in my identity again. After the darkness fell off of my mind, I could start thinking clearly again. I realized just how much a boot of... A boot. A root of bitterness.
No. A root of bitterness was blocking out so much of my life. Why? Because I was rehearsing it. I was nursing that hurt, that feeling. I was, as I said, ruminating over it. Amen?
I was replaying the hurt in my mind over and over and over and over and over. Ruminating on the thought. Ruminating on the hurt. On the harm. On the incidents. On the things that happened.
But in that moment that he told me in the truck, "Get back to your vision," I could feel the mercy of God flow into me. And you understand the mercy of God will melt a root of bitterness. It'll root it.
Have I got time to tell this story? Oh, don't answer me. I saw it come up. Yes, you got time to tell this story. Years ago when I was still in the dealerships, fixed operations director. That's a fancy name for a service and parts director.
And I had a gentleman that came in. And one day I drove into the business, into the dealership. And I saw this gentleman walking around in a white service shirt and blue jeans or blue pants. I thought, who's that? Older guy. Ha.
So when I got in, I walked into my office, and in my office, it's joined right to the dealer's office, the owner. And so I just kind of peeked through the window into the office, and there was that guy sitting right there and the dealer sitting right there, and they were talking.
I thought, and the Holy Spirit told me, "That's your replacement." Okay, I already knew it. The Lord told me this is going to happen. Here it is. And here's your replacement right there. I said, "Perfect."
So I went around to the main door into her office, and I walked in and closed the door, said, "Hey, guys, can I come to the party?" And I sat down. I said, "So when is he replacing me?" I'm kind of direct like that sometimes.
And she went, "Oh, well, well, well, well, well, well." I said, "It's okay. Let me know when it is. Just don't surprise me. Just let me know. I'll get my truck and I'll go home. I'm good."
He came in. He got my office. So here starts that route. Here starts me really getting upset. And I had... Before he came in, I had entered a contest with General Motors for the best improved shop and parts department in the region. If you won, then you would get an all-inclusive trip to Rome, Italy for seven days and six nights.
And I'm like, "Yeah, I got this in a bag." Man, I turned that store around. It was going crazy. Of course, the Holy Spirit showed me how to do it. But then here came my replacement.
And one day I walked into what was supposed to be my office, but it became his. And I saw on the desk from the GM Rewards Department for the service manager of the dealership.
Yeah, I took it, opened it up and said, "Congratulations, Sherby Blankenship. Your dealership, your service department, your parts department has succeeded every other dealership in the region." I was not happy.
I watered it up in a trash can. Come on. I'm saved, guys, okay, but I'm mad. And over a period of time, that root of bitterness grew in me and grew in me and grew in me. And that was part of all this that went on with the dealership.
Oh, man, I was upset. It was about two weeks later, the Lord said, "You need to go forgive him." No, you need to go ask for forgiveness. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for forgiveness. He did it.
You better go ask for forgiveness. He ministered to my heart. So one day, and Sherby knew my history. So one day I said, "Okay, Lord, I'm going to do that."
I walked into his office and I closed the door behind me and I just stared at him. And he's like, "Oh, I have a captive audience here." Now went over. I leaned over his desk. I shouldn't have done it this way, but I did.
I said, "Sherby, I need to ask your forgiveness." And he went, "It just mounted the whole situation." And he said, "For what?" I said, "For the unforgiveness I've been holding against you because of the rewards thing."
He said, "I wasn't even going to go on it." I was like, "I'm going to give it to you." See what happens. But as I made that situation right with him, I'm telling you, the mercy of God came in. It melted that bitterness.
And until he finally died... I said finally died. That's a bad word. Until he died a few years ago, he and I became some really, really close friends.
And even though I was gone from the dealership, I defended him when people, technicians in the dealership would come to me saying, "Do you know what?" I said, "Yeah, he's doing a good job, isn't he?"
I didn't join in the conversation. I'm telling you there's a term called "bury the hatchet." Ever heard it? Where did that come from? It came from Native American tribes. Chiefs came together because they were fighting tribes and they were killing people.
Too many people, they were killing the offspring, hurting the families, beating up people. I mean, just one tribe coming after another tribe. And they finally said, "Enough is enough," because they were afraid they were going to erase the legacy of who they were.
Because of destroying the tribes, and so these chiefs came together and said, "Hey, let's forgive each other. Let's bury the hatchet." And they buried the hatchet as a symbol that this is buried like it's never happened before.
And they do that because, well, they have an extreme thing that they also do in extreme situations. They take the hatchet and actually pull the hatchet head off of it, and they bury it in one place and bury the handle in another place.
It's awesome, man. Why do they do that? Because when that thought comes back to their mind, they want to know that if they had the head of the hatchet, they can't swing it because they have no handle. Or the other way around. Amen?
Unfortunately, everybody's got a hatchet. Amen? I don't want to know it, but what is your hatchet? Can I encourage you to bury the hatchet this morning?
Because if you don't, eventually it will destroy you. So I've come here today to ask you to bury the hatchet. Sherby and I buried that hatchet.
And it's only by the strength of God's word that can free you from the pain of unforgiveness. In your handouts today, you'll notice that there's a blank page on the back side of it. That was put in there on purpose. It wasn't a mistake.
You can bring that up here, Troy. What I want you to do this morning, as long as I stay in the camera angle, what I want you to do this morning is I want you to...
While... Have you got a little bit of music that you can play for us? Thank you. I want to take a... Yeah, that's fine. I want to take a few minutes this morning.
Now, some of y'all who've been with me have gone through this before. But as I said at the beginning, it seems like that we have to go through this about every year to 18 months.
So this is what I want you to do is while Ashley's playing some music in the background, I want you to take that blank piece of paper and start writing on it the name, one name, both names, whatever, of the person that you are mad at.
The person that did you wrong. The person that stabbed you. May it be a spouse, a sibling, a friend, a stranger, whoever. Somebody that did you wrong. Put that name down on there.
And then I also want you to add onto that list everybody you've done wrong. You put on there what you feel led to put on there. There's a reason why I'm asking you to do this.
It's because we're going to go through an exercise that I have found one of the most liberating and freeing exercises for sure. So as you write that down, Ashley's playing a little bit of music.
I'm going to pray a little bit because I want to pray for those who may not know the Lord as their personal Savior. So as y'all are filling that out, I want to reach out to anybody who does not know the Lord as their Lord and Savior.
It looks like everybody in here does. So I'm reaching out to you guys out there. Maybe you need to be forgiven. Maybe you're tired of living your life your way and not really having a life at all.
And maybe it's time that you, maybe this time as you feel the Holy Ghost tapping on your heart, maybe this time is the time that you want to say, "Okay, Lord. I need your forgiveness. I want to make you my Lord and Savior."
So anybody in this auditorium out there who sees this as a later date, I want to give you the opportunity to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. And it goes by a short prayer. We do this every week, just a little different prayer.
And if that's you, pray that prayer with me. And then we'll get back to what we're doing over here. So that prayer goes like this. You can say it with me.
Father, I receive the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross. I ask for your forgiveness. And I repent for living life my way. Today, I make you my Lord and Savior. I give you my life completely.
And from this day forward, I will serve you. I believe that you are the son of God. And I believe that you died and rose again. And I believe that your blood is poured on the mercy seat.
And today I allow that blood to cleanse me. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Whether you finish writing on your list or not, it's okay. This whole thing is an exercise of something that you can do at a later date. Now, what I do want to do is if you will dim the house lights or not all the way, but just dim them down.
Give us a different kind of atmosphere. I'll stand on the light so they can see me now. What you're going to do with this list is I'm going to pray.
And then I want you to right now, before I pray, I want you to take that list and fold it in half. And then fold it in half again. This isn't for anybody else. I don't want to see it. I'm not worried about it.
But what I want to do is I want you to move into a place of total forgiveness and total release of anybody that's done you harm or anybody that you've done harm to. Any place that this root of bitterness has grown up in you, wherever it came from, you may not know.
But the Lord wants to... The Lord forgives us of unforgiveness. When we repent, when we get rid of these things, I'm done. No more. I'm not going to live this way anymore. I'm going to be free.
I'm not going to be a prisoner to it anymore. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. Freedom. If you will close your eyes.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I come to you. And I thank you for this message of forgiveness that has gone out. And for anybody that's participated in this exercise, Father, we're going to relinquish our right to get even.
We're going to relinquish our right to be right. We are doing forgiveness for every person on this paper and anybody else that comes to mind that we didn't put on there.
Father God, give us forgiveness, Father, in the name of Jesus. We forgive them in the name of Jesus. We take what you did on the cross, what you did for us, to give us total and complete forgiveness.
We take that and forgive others. Father, I thank you for this now in the name of Jesus. And I just thank you for your presence. In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. Now this is what I want you to do. As orderly as we can, let's make a line. I want you to come to the trash can, and I'm going to ask you to rip that piece of paper in half and throw it away, relinquishing, releasing everybody.
I'm going to tell you, you'll feel a life flow unto you as you get rid of these people. Don't tear it there; you got to tear it here at the trash can. So get in line, come on up here. Don't be shy.
You turn the music up a little bit, please. Just tear it in half. Say, "I forgive. I release in Jesus' name." It's gone forever. As you do this, "I forgive. I forgive."
There it goes. I release them forever. Thank you. You can do any way you want to release and gone to never be remembered again.
Come here. Come here. That's it. Are you feeling the release? It's a release. It's a freedom that comes in. Wow, you just really ripping that one up, Bridge.
Say, "I forgive and I release in Jesus' name." You just throw it away. Ain't nobody going to be looking at it. It's all going to be trash. Woo, look at you. Gone. No more. Forgotten. Buried the hatchet. It's never happened.
Praise God. Amen. How's that foot? Good, good, good. Gone. Uh-oh. Can group them all into one. Yes. Freedom. Freedom. No more. No more. Gone. Gone. Yay.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
on Nov 10, 2024
