September 22, 2024 • 27 mins
Welcome back, Faith It Family.
This week, James takes us deeper into the transformative power of forgiveness with inspiring biblical stories that illustrate God’s unwavering love and mercy.
From the depths of betrayal in Joseph's life to the ultimate act of grace on the cross, this episode brings to life some of the most incredible journeys of forgiveness found in the Bible. Discover how these timeless tales can lead you to a place of healing and redemption, no matter your past or present struggles.
Join us as we explore the profound lessons in Matthew, Isaiah, Micah, and the unforgettable parable of the Prodigal Son. Episode #15 promises to leave you with a heart full of hope and a renewed faith in the power of forgiveness.
Don't miss this captivating narrative that reminds us all of the infinite love and plans God has for each one of us. Tune in, be inspired, and let the journey of forgiveness soften your heart as it transforms your life.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, my name is Charlotte. I want to welcome you to Faith It Till You Make It
with my daddy, James Masse
Me and my sister just want to thank you all for being here.
Hi, my name is Gracie Bell. We just want to remind you. Jesus loves you! Bye!
(00:22):
What's up, everybody? Welcome to Faith It Till You Make It.
I am your host, James Masse. So before we get started, I just want to make
it a habit to start off the show with some good news. Amen.
So no matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done,
or where you're headed, Jesus loves you.
He knows you by name and he has amazing plans for your life.
(00:42):
Jesus Christ willingly sacrificed himself for our salvation.
And then three days later, he rose again, conquering death, hell, and the grave.
All you have to do is believe in him, repent of your sins, invite him into your
heart, and follow his lead. I promise you, it will be the best and most important
decision of your entire life.
And if it sounds too good to be true, that's because it should be.
(01:03):
But luckily for us, there's Jesus.
And that is why we call it the good news.
Your ticket to heaven is already paid in full. So just pick up your cross and let's go.
Music.
Welcome back, Faith and Family. We are up to episode 15. We're just going to jump right back into it.
(01:28):
This is the power of forgiveness part two.
Strap in and enjoy the ride.
Matthew 18, 21 and 22. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord,
how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sinned against me?
Seven times. Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.
(01:49):
That's a lot of times. That's a lot of times.
Isaiah 118. Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Oh my God, this is this. Remember I was saying about Pastor Mark was talking
(02:10):
about don't go digging through the blood like those sins are forgiven.
You're white as snow. That's the scripture he read. Wow.
I just, I like, I knew that I knew what it was, but it just clicked to me that that was it.
Yeah. So he will be made white as snow. I love that.
That is such a, like a cleanse, like a, that's a powerful scripture.
(02:31):
It's like a cleansing scripture.
Micah 7.18, who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.
Man, for some reason, as I was reading that, I just pictured,
(02:52):
because you know, in like the Old Testament,
I mean, and I did this too, I mean, especially I think as young Christians reading
through the Old Testament, I made the mistake and I started in Genesis and I
read like like a couple chapters before I read the Gospels,
even though my best friend told me to start in the Gospels, I just had it in my mind.
I wanted to read Genesis to Revelation the first time around.
(03:13):
It was a terrible decision because I developed something in my mind where I
felt like God was just like angry.
He was just always angry, punishing, like the fist of God and the anger of God.
And it was just a lot of that.
And then when I read the Gospels, like it just totally 180 my my mind like oh
(03:37):
so so like god sent god came here as jesus.
God sent his son here to show us like, no, like this is me.
Like this is, I'm loving God. You know, I'm a loving father.
I'm compassionate and empathetic and gentle. And I'm your shepherd.
(04:01):
And just like, so I would advise you if you're picking up the Bible for the
first time, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for sure.
Because then the rest of the stuff just falls into place. You understand that
it was a process from law to grace, you know.
But yeah, man, that's why we love Jesus so much, right, like, really, like.
(04:23):
He just saved us, he really, he's, he's just, we love him, you know,
we love him, I love him, so I guess what I'm gonna do here, let me grab the Bible real quick,
so I guess I'm not gonna read this, because it's obviously, like,
a huge chunk of Genesis, Genesis, but I'm just going to talk about it.
(04:44):
So I just like pulled a couple scriptures or situations where people were in
a position to forgive, right?
So in Genesis 45, I'm not going to read it because it's pretty long.
Joseph forgives his brothers, right? So I'm just going to talk a little bit
about what this story was about.
(05:05):
So Joseph's brothers, right? So Joseph Joseph was his father's favorite, right?
And his brothers were jealous of him.
And pretty much they threw him in a pit and then they sold him into slavery
because they were jealous, right?
Because the father loved that,
because the father like plain and simply loved Joseph the most, right?
(05:27):
So they sell him into slavery and then, oh man, the story is crazy.
So he gets sold into slavery and then he like,
Man, then a woman accuses him of something he didn't do, and then he goes to
prison, and he's just like, he's interpreting dreams, and these guys are like,
oh, you really helped me out.
I won't forget about you, but then they forget about him. He sits in prison all this time.
(05:51):
Joseph's story was pretty rough,
but at some point, he ends up second in command of all of Egypt, right?
He rises to power because of his gift, because the gift that God put in him, right?
Like, that's why scripture says your gift will make room for you and put you
in the presence of important men.
That's like one of my, that's like one of the most motivating scriptures I found
(06:14):
really early on. I still, every single day I read that.
But so yeah, your gift will make room for you and put you in the presence of
important men. The Bible says that.
So hey, chase that, chase that dream. Use that gift, right? That's what you were put here for.
So anyway, after many years, Joseph rises to power in Egypt.
He's second in command only to Pharaoh, right? And during a famine,
(06:37):
there was no food. It was just a bad, bad time.
People were coming into Egypt to get food. So Joseph's brothers come into Egypt to get food.
And they don't even know Joseph's in charge. They think he's dead,
sold into slavery. They have no idea. They haven't seen him since.
And when Joseph sees his brothers, like imagine this, if you ever have a hard
(07:00):
time forgiving somebody, imagine this,
your own brothers throw you in this pit, sell you in the slavery,
you sit in prison all these years, and now here they come crawling while you're
the second most powerful man in probably the world at this point, right?
Here comes your brothers. Man.
(07:21):
How bad would you want revenge on them? How bad? They come crawling to you.
They need food. They're starving to death, right?
Nope. And this is the character of Joseph, and this is why God blessed him so much, right?
What do they say? They say from the pit to the prison to the palace, right?
That's why you got to hang in there when you're having a hard time sometimes
(07:42):
because you don't even know this process. You have no idea what God has for you.
You have no idea. you could be in the pit or the prison and you hang in there,
you keep the faith and you're going to end up in the palace.
Whatever work God is trying to do in you, he's more concerned about your character
than your comfort, right?
And I know that's hard. That's hard for us, right?
(08:03):
Everything, you know, I say this all the time, everything is a process.
Everything is a process.
All the best things are found in a process, right?
Coal under pressure becomes a diamond, You crush the olive to get the oil.
You crush the grape to get the wine. I mean, it's just endless.
Endless. The silver, purify the silver, get the impurities out,
the gold, the furnace, you know, it's just, it's the case, right? Right?
(08:30):
But anyway, so Joseph went through a serious process, right?
From the pit to the prison to the palace. So here he is, and what do you think
would have happened if this was five weeks after they threw him in the pit? Who knows, right?
That's why God had to have him sit there. That's why God had to have him sit
in the prison, because his character developed so much that when his brothers
(08:51):
came crawling to him, he forgave them.
He could have done anything to them. He forgave them.
And he told them that he told them what you intended for harm.
I forgive you because what you intended for harm, God used for my good.
Man, that's like God takes what the enemy means for evil and he turns it for good.
(09:14):
That is so true. God takes, if you're going through a hard time right now, remind yourself.
God takes what the enemy means for evil and he turns it for good.
He turns it for good, right?
So hang in there. Keep the faith. Be strong, right?
So anyway, yeah, Joseph, he took care of them.
(09:37):
And he went in, they had like a reunion and everyone forgave everybody. So think about that.
Think about how Joseph forgave, right?
Oh, in 1 Samuel 24, we got King Saul was jealous of David, right?
And tried to kill him multiple times. Literally, David comes in there.
(09:58):
Saul is having anxiety, nightmares. I forget what it is. Depression.
But he loved the harp. It made him feel better. Here comes David playing the harp.
This dude just throws a spear at him. Tries to just impale him.
Kill him right there while he's playing the harp.
Imagine just being like playing. You're a band practice. You're playing the
(10:18):
flute, the drums, whatever you like to play.
Here comes a spear from the dude you're playing for trying to make him feel better, right? Crazy.
But it wasn't just that. Saul tried to kill him multiple times because he was
jealous again. Jealous. Jealousy. That's why jealousy is so bad too.
Jealousy is, it's a huge stronghold for the enemy to control you, to get in, right?
(10:44):
Anyway, on one occasion, David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but he chose not to.
Like they were in a cave. I think Saul was like going to the bathroom and David
was right there and they were like, kill him.
And David was like, I'm not going to kill him. I think he like grabs a piece
of his cloak just to remind him, look, dude, you were in there and I could have
killed you. And I didn't.
(11:05):
Because what's that showing you again? Character. The character God developed in David.
How many people wouldn't have
killed him there to save their own lives for revenge, for whatever reason?
All logical answers point to kill him. It removed the threat. And David didn't.
Right? Instead, he spared Saul's life, showing mercy and forgiveness. Forgiveness.
(11:31):
Even though Saul wronged him over and over and over. David's literally like
running for his life. He's depressed.
He's going in caves. He's like starving to death. Him and his men, like it was bad.
And David's act of forgiveness speaks to his character and his reliance on God for justice, right?
God will fight your battles. You need just to be still.
(11:52):
Just be still, right? God's got you.
That's why you just forgive and you let God deal with them, right?
Oh, what about this? Acts 7, 59 to 60.
This is Stephen, the first martyr.
Stephen, one of the early Christian martyrs, is stoned to death for his faith.
(12:12):
And as he's done, they're literally stoning him to death. It's really brutal.
I don't want to go down that road, but I heard a pastor preach talking about
this and walking through it, how bad it was.
They literally stoned him to death right there in the street.
And as he's dying he's literally praying for the people killing him kind of kind of.
(12:38):
You know, along the lines of Jesus, but obviously not. Like that's way,
I'm just saying like following in the footsteps, you know, following the example
that Jesus left. It's actually really powerful.
So as they're stoning him, literally smashing his head with rocks in the street,
he's saying, Lord, don't hold this sin against them.
(12:59):
So this is like such an act of forgiveness and it mirrors, yeah,
it's just, it mirrors Jesus's own forgiveness on the the cross.
That's walking the walk, bro. That's walking the walk, right?
Wow. Stephen, praise God.
All right. And we got, all right, I guess we're going to go to it. Here we go.
(13:21):
I'm going to jump into Luke, Luke 23, 34.
So obviously leading up to this, you know, the story of Jesus is whipped and
beaten and carries the cross all the way up to Calvary and.
I still like man this is this is tough to
talk about a little bit I don't know so after he gets tortured and they nail
(13:46):
him to the cross you know they're just disrespecting him and you know Making
fun of him and mocking him and spitting on him,
beating him up, hitting him over the head. Just terrible. Just terrible.
As they're doing all this, this is what Jesus said.
(14:10):
Remember this if you have a hard time forgiving somebody. Jesus said,
Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.
Forgive them, he says. they don't know what they're doing.
So Jesus forgave those who nailed him to the cross here in the most unjust situation
in the history of mankind.
(14:31):
Forgiveness was extended without limit. If Christ forgave in this way for the
cross, no sin we've ever committed is too great for his forgiveness.
As we experience his forgiveness, we are freed to forgive those who have sinned against us.
Christ enables us to release the bitterness and resentment which can only imprison us.
(14:54):
His forgiveness empowers us to be forgiving people, forgiving ourselves as well
as those who have hurt us.
Wow, that was actually written. I didn't write that.
That was written in the footnotes of my Bible, but that's funny because I mean, I have it highlighted,
but I probably read this like six months ago read through luke
but that's pretty much what i was saying about like bitterness and resentment
(15:19):
and stuff how we don't want those things to take root in us right because when
something takes root what happens it grows right we don't got no ain't nobody
got time for that we ain't nobody got time for that we got jesus stuff to do
we got christian things to do right,
All right. All right. So this is the final, the final scripture.
(15:42):
I'm going to read this directly from the Bible as well. This one's a little longer.
So I was told people were enjoying the scripture reading. So we're going to
go into a little bit more of that.
All right. Okay. So here we go.
Luke, this is the parable of the prodigal son, right? Luke 15, 11 through 32.
(16:05):
This is one of the most famous stories of forgiveness in the Bible.
A young man asks his father for his inheritance, leaves home,
and wastes it all on reckless living.
After hitting rock bottom, he returns home repentant, expecting only to be treated as a servant.
Instead, his father welcomes him back with open arms and celebrates his return,
showing unconditional love and, I'll give you one guess, forgiveness.
(16:28):
Okay. So, Luke 15, 11-32, let's do it.
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story.
A man who had two sons, the younger son told his father, I want my share of
your estate now before you die.
So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later,
his youngest son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land.
(16:50):
And there he wasted all of his money on wild living.
About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he
began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him
into the fields to feed the pigs.
The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked
good to him. But no one gave him anything.
(17:12):
When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, At home,
even the hired servants have food enough to spare.
And here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say,
Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy
of being called your son. Son.
Please take me on as a hired servant. Listen to this.
(17:34):
So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off,
his father saw him coming.
Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
His son said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.
But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him.
(17:55):
Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet and kill the calf we have
been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast.
We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and now he's returned to life.
He was lost, but now he is found. So the party began.
I want to stop there for a sec. This is such a painting of how,
(18:18):
like in the Bible, it says, heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents more
than the 99 who don't need to repent, right?
Jesus leaves the 99 to go find the one lost one.
This is like such, and I just told this, I had youth on last Friday,
a few days ago, and pastor was, read this scripture, and I just like,
(18:42):
spoke up to the kids because, and this is what I said to them,
and I'm going to say this to you.
I just said, you know, you should really pay attention to this scripture about
how heaven rejoices over the one, right?
Because in today's world, in TikTok and Instagram and instant gratification
and followers and likes and stuff,
(19:03):
like these kids are under the mindset that like, if they don't have a million
followers or get 5,000 likes or whatever they like, will delete a picture.
It's just the craziest thing you ever heard. But their mind is so set on quantity over quality, right?
Like they don't understand that when they're 39 years old, if they have two
(19:23):
best friends, you won at life, right?
Like if you have two friends, you could call if you're in trouble,
like that's everything.
But like when you're 16 and 15 and even 20 and 25, like you just don't see it like that.
It's quantity over quality. And that's like this generation.
But the Bible says, like, heaven rejoices over one.
(19:46):
So if you even lead one person to Christ, like, that could be what you were
sent here for. It's such a bigger deal than we think.
Like, even with this, if this, like, helps build one person's faith and leads
them to Christ, like, or makes their relationship stronger with Christ and leads
them to heaven one day, like, that's everything, right?
(20:07):
Of course I'd love a million people to be listening to this,
or it to be touching lives all over the world, right?
But like heaven rejoices over one, over one, right?
Look how this dad welcomes his son back and how condemned his son felt.
I'm gonna go live, like I think I talked about this in the last episode a little bit, which is funny.
(20:29):
We weren't talking about forgiveness, but I was just talking about like,
I guess like the goodness of God, but how accepting, right?
This guy knew he messed up. he knew he wasn't worthy.
He knew he didn't deserve to go back there, right? That's like us coming to Jesus.
Don't say, like, I'm going to clean my life up, and then I'm going to go find Christ.
(20:51):
I'm looking for the Lord. You're looking for the, like, he ain't lost.
What do you mean you're looking for him? He's not lost. And you don't have to
get cleaned up to find him.
That's like, I think I said this a long time ago, like you don't get all cleaned
up to go take a shower, right? You get clean in the shower.
You don't get all cleaned up to go find Jesus. You just show up and then let Jesus clean you, right?
(21:19):
And this isn't religion. This is Christianity. He doesn't clean the outside
of you to make you look shiny to show you to the congregation or to the friends
or to the, you know, he cleans you from the inside out.
He cleans you from the inside out.
He's not concerned about your outfit.
He's concerned about your heart.
(21:39):
He's not concerned about your hairdo or your shoes or your makeup.
He's concerned about your heart, right? So you just show up.
If you're looking for Jesus, he ain't lost, right?
Show up. Heaven rejoices over one.
He wants you. All you got to do is show up. Look how the father welcomed the son back.
(22:03):
He said, I'm not even worthy to be your son. Like, let me be one of your slaves.
You know, he just wanted, and what did the father say? What?
Go get a robe, go get some sandals, go get a ring, go kill the fattest calf.
We're having a celebration. We're having a feast.
This is how God sees you. You know how much Jesus invested in you?
His birth, leaving a throne of grace to come be born in a manger, right?
(22:28):
His life, the invitation, follow me, follow me, right?
His teachings, his sermons, his example, right?
He walked the walk, right? He literally walked in flesh.
He walked the walk of the Bible.
(22:48):
Perfect life in a broken world.
You know how impossible that is? I mean, nothing's impossible for God,
but I'm just saying, like, really, really appreciate it. Let it sink in.
His birth, his life, his death, his sacrifice, his blood, it is finished.
It is finished. And his resurrection, he's risen. He is risen indeed, right?
(23:16):
Conquering death, hell, and the grave. Giving us Christianity,
the New Testament. You know how much he has invested in you?
Open arms. The second you run to him, open arms, no matter what.
I'm going to jump back in here. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.
His father came out and begged him, but he replied, all these years I've slaved
(23:37):
for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do.
And in all that time, you never gave me even one One young goat for a feast
with my friends, yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your
money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf?
His father said to him, Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me,
(23:58):
and everything I have is yours.
We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead.
And has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found.
Wow. So this is like mirroring someone being dead, right, to sin,
(24:20):
and then coming back, being born again in Christ, right?
This prodigal son is like really, really powerful. For some reason,
I've been on it for a while. It really is such a, it's like such a painted picture of humanity, right?
And like God's love for us, right?
(24:41):
Like how he just continues to pursue us, how people put him on the back burner, right?
In certain seasons of life. And then you run back to him when you need him. And where is he?
Right? Just like this father waiting for his son, wraps his arms around you,
puts the ring on your finger, wraps you in a robe, right? Kills the fattened calf. Welcome home.
(25:01):
Right, you were lost, but now you're found, he just, he loves us,
like, he really, really loves us,
we, I mean, it's amazing, it really is, it really is amazing,
like, when you can say it, you can, you can feel it, you can,
you know, tell somebody it, you can,
(25:23):
but if you really get a revelation of of it, of like the way God loves us, like as his children,
it's really overwhelming and it's really beautiful.
And ah man, God is good all the time, all the time.All the time.... God is GOOD.
Music.
(25:47):
Whether you know it or believe it, Ephesians tells us that we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and the rulers of the darkness
in this world. So, let's pray.
Father, I take up the full and complete armor of God over everybody under the sound of my voice.
I declare and decree the cross and the blood of Jesus to protect us,
our families, and our peoples.
Father, with the power of prayer and all of your promises in Scripture,
(26:10):
I take up the belt of truth. I take up the breastplate of righteousness.
I take up the boots of the gospel of peace. I take up the shield of faith,
I take up the helmet of salvation, and I take up the sword of the Spirit.
I take up the full and complete armor of God. I declare and decree that no weapon
formed against us shall ever cross me.
That God will never leave us nor forsake us. That God's plan is to bless us and not to harm us.
(26:35):
And that greater is He who is in us than he who is in this world.
I bind and rebuke any plan or scheme that the enemy tries to form against us.
Music.
I claim the word of God. I claim the power of the Holy Spirit.
I claim all of God's armies of angels in heaven.
And I claim the precious blood of my Lord and Savior over our protection.
In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.
(27:13):
Amen, amen, amen. This is Faith Until You Make It, and I am your host,
James Masse. I just want to thank everybody for being here with us.
I pray each and every one of you leaves with a little bit more than you came
with. If you did, then like I always say, I'm just a lamppost, so praise God.
I love you all, but Jesus loves you more. Now go win your week.
(27:34):
God bless. We'll see you next time.
Hi, my name is Charlotte. I want to welcome you to Faith It Till You Make It
with my daddy, James Masse
Me and my sister just want to thank you all for being here.
Hi, my name is Gracie Bell. We just want to remind you. Jesus loves you! Bye!
(00:22):
What's up, everybody? Welcome to Faith It Till You Make It.
I am your host, James Masse. So before we get started, I just want to make
it a habit to start off the show with some good news. Amen.
So no matter who you are, where you've been, what you've done,
or where you're headed, Jesus loves you.
He knows you by name and he has amazing plans for your life.
(00:42):
Jesus Christ willingly sacrificed himself for our salvation.
And then three days later, he rose again, conquering death, hell, and the grave.
All you have to do is believe in him, repent of your sins, invite him into your
heart, and follow his lead. I promise you, it will be the best and most important
decision of your entire life.
And if it sounds too good to be true, that's because it should be.
(01:03):
But luckily for us, there's Jesus.
And that is why we call it the good news.
Your ticket to heaven is already paid in full. So just pick up your cross and let's go.
Music.
Welcome back, Faith and Family. We are up to episode 15. We're just going to jump right back into it.
(01:28):
This is the power of forgiveness part two.
Strap in and enjoy the ride.
Matthew 18, 21 and 22. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord,
how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sinned against me?
Seven times. Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but 77 times.
(01:49):
That's a lot of times. That's a lot of times.
Isaiah 118. Come now, let us settle the matter, says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Oh my God, this is this. Remember I was saying about Pastor Mark was talking
(02:10):
about don't go digging through the blood like those sins are forgiven.
You're white as snow. That's the scripture he read. Wow.
I just, I like, I knew that I knew what it was, but it just clicked to me that that was it.
Yeah. So he will be made white as snow. I love that.
That is such a, like a cleanse, like a, that's a powerful scripture.
(02:31):
It's like a cleansing scripture.
Micah 7.18, who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy.
Man, for some reason, as I was reading that, I just pictured,
(02:52):
because you know, in like the Old Testament,
I mean, and I did this too, I mean, especially I think as young Christians reading
through the Old Testament, I made the mistake and I started in Genesis and I
read like like a couple chapters before I read the Gospels,
even though my best friend told me to start in the Gospels, I just had it in my mind.
I wanted to read Genesis to Revelation the first time around.
(03:13):
It was a terrible decision because I developed something in my mind where I
felt like God was just like angry.
He was just always angry, punishing, like the fist of God and the anger of God.
And it was just a lot of that.
And then when I read the Gospels, like it just totally 180 my my mind like oh
(03:37):
so so like god sent god came here as jesus.
God sent his son here to show us like, no, like this is me.
Like this is, I'm loving God. You know, I'm a loving father.
I'm compassionate and empathetic and gentle. And I'm your shepherd.
(04:01):
And just like, so I would advise you if you're picking up the Bible for the
first time, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for sure.
Because then the rest of the stuff just falls into place. You understand that
it was a process from law to grace, you know.
But yeah, man, that's why we love Jesus so much, right, like, really, like.
(04:23):
He just saved us, he really, he's, he's just, we love him, you know,
we love him, I love him, so I guess what I'm gonna do here, let me grab the Bible real quick,
so I guess I'm not gonna read this, because it's obviously, like,
a huge chunk of Genesis, Genesis, but I'm just going to talk about it.
(04:44):
So I just like pulled a couple scriptures or situations where people were in
a position to forgive, right?
So in Genesis 45, I'm not going to read it because it's pretty long.
Joseph forgives his brothers, right? So I'm just going to talk a little bit
about what this story was about.
(05:05):
So Joseph's brothers, right? So Joseph Joseph was his father's favorite, right?
And his brothers were jealous of him.
And pretty much they threw him in a pit and then they sold him into slavery
because they were jealous, right?
Because the father loved that,
because the father like plain and simply loved Joseph the most, right?
(05:27):
So they sell him into slavery and then, oh man, the story is crazy.
So he gets sold into slavery and then he like,
Man, then a woman accuses him of something he didn't do, and then he goes to
prison, and he's just like, he's interpreting dreams, and these guys are like,
oh, you really helped me out.
I won't forget about you, but then they forget about him. He sits in prison all this time.
(05:51):
Joseph's story was pretty rough,
but at some point, he ends up second in command of all of Egypt, right?
He rises to power because of his gift, because the gift that God put in him, right?
Like, that's why scripture says your gift will make room for you and put you
in the presence of important men.
That's like one of my, that's like one of the most motivating scriptures I found
(06:14):
really early on. I still, every single day I read that.
But so yeah, your gift will make room for you and put you in the presence of
important men. The Bible says that.
So hey, chase that, chase that dream. Use that gift, right? That's what you were put here for.
So anyway, after many years, Joseph rises to power in Egypt.
He's second in command only to Pharaoh, right? And during a famine,
(06:37):
there was no food. It was just a bad, bad time.
People were coming into Egypt to get food. So Joseph's brothers come into Egypt to get food.
And they don't even know Joseph's in charge. They think he's dead,
sold into slavery. They have no idea. They haven't seen him since.
And when Joseph sees his brothers, like imagine this, if you ever have a hard
(07:00):
time forgiving somebody, imagine this,
your own brothers throw you in this pit, sell you in the slavery,
you sit in prison all these years, and now here they come crawling while you're
the second most powerful man in probably the world at this point, right?
Here comes your brothers. Man.
(07:21):
How bad would you want revenge on them? How bad? They come crawling to you.
They need food. They're starving to death, right?
Nope. And this is the character of Joseph, and this is why God blessed him so much, right?
What do they say? They say from the pit to the prison to the palace, right?
That's why you got to hang in there when you're having a hard time sometimes
(07:42):
because you don't even know this process. You have no idea what God has for you.
You have no idea. you could be in the pit or the prison and you hang in there,
you keep the faith and you're going to end up in the palace.
Whatever work God is trying to do in you, he's more concerned about your character
than your comfort, right?
And I know that's hard. That's hard for us, right?
(08:03):
Everything, you know, I say this all the time, everything is a process.
Everything is a process.
All the best things are found in a process, right?
Coal under pressure becomes a diamond, You crush the olive to get the oil.
You crush the grape to get the wine. I mean, it's just endless.
Endless. The silver, purify the silver, get the impurities out,
the gold, the furnace, you know, it's just, it's the case, right? Right?
(08:30):
But anyway, so Joseph went through a serious process, right?
From the pit to the prison to the palace. So here he is, and what do you think
would have happened if this was five weeks after they threw him in the pit? Who knows, right?
That's why God had to have him sit there. That's why God had to have him sit
in the prison, because his character developed so much that when his brothers
(08:51):
came crawling to him, he forgave them.
He could have done anything to them. He forgave them.
And he told them that he told them what you intended for harm.
I forgive you because what you intended for harm, God used for my good.
Man, that's like God takes what the enemy means for evil and he turns it for good.
(09:14):
That is so true. God takes, if you're going through a hard time right now, remind yourself.
God takes what the enemy means for evil and he turns it for good.
He turns it for good, right?
So hang in there. Keep the faith. Be strong, right?
So anyway, yeah, Joseph, he took care of them.
(09:37):
And he went in, they had like a reunion and everyone forgave everybody. So think about that.
Think about how Joseph forgave, right?
Oh, in 1 Samuel 24, we got King Saul was jealous of David, right?
And tried to kill him multiple times. Literally, David comes in there.
(09:58):
Saul is having anxiety, nightmares. I forget what it is. Depression.
But he loved the harp. It made him feel better. Here comes David playing the harp.
This dude just throws a spear at him. Tries to just impale him.
Kill him right there while he's playing the harp.
Imagine just being like playing. You're a band practice. You're playing the
(10:18):
flute, the drums, whatever you like to play.
Here comes a spear from the dude you're playing for trying to make him feel better, right? Crazy.
But it wasn't just that. Saul tried to kill him multiple times because he was
jealous again. Jealous. Jealousy. That's why jealousy is so bad too.
Jealousy is, it's a huge stronghold for the enemy to control you, to get in, right?
(10:44):
Anyway, on one occasion, David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but he chose not to.
Like they were in a cave. I think Saul was like going to the bathroom and David
was right there and they were like, kill him.
And David was like, I'm not going to kill him. I think he like grabs a piece
of his cloak just to remind him, look, dude, you were in there and I could have
killed you. And I didn't.
(11:05):
Because what's that showing you again? Character. The character God developed in David.
How many people wouldn't have
killed him there to save their own lives for revenge, for whatever reason?
All logical answers point to kill him. It removed the threat. And David didn't.
Right? Instead, he spared Saul's life, showing mercy and forgiveness. Forgiveness.
(11:31):
Even though Saul wronged him over and over and over. David's literally like
running for his life. He's depressed.
He's going in caves. He's like starving to death. Him and his men, like it was bad.
And David's act of forgiveness speaks to his character and his reliance on God for justice, right?
God will fight your battles. You need just to be still.
(11:52):
Just be still, right? God's got you.
That's why you just forgive and you let God deal with them, right?
Oh, what about this? Acts 7, 59 to 60.
This is Stephen, the first martyr.
Stephen, one of the early Christian martyrs, is stoned to death for his faith.
(12:12):
And as he's done, they're literally stoning him to death. It's really brutal.
I don't want to go down that road, but I heard a pastor preach talking about
this and walking through it, how bad it was.
They literally stoned him to death right there in the street.
And as he's dying he's literally praying for the people killing him kind of kind of.
(12:38):
You know, along the lines of Jesus, but obviously not. Like that's way,
I'm just saying like following in the footsteps, you know, following the example
that Jesus left. It's actually really powerful.
So as they're stoning him, literally smashing his head with rocks in the street,
he's saying, Lord, don't hold this sin against them.
(12:59):
So this is like such an act of forgiveness and it mirrors, yeah,
it's just, it mirrors Jesus's own forgiveness on the the cross.
That's walking the walk, bro. That's walking the walk, right?
Wow. Stephen, praise God.
All right. And we got, all right, I guess we're going to go to it. Here we go.
(13:21):
I'm going to jump into Luke, Luke 23, 34.
So obviously leading up to this, you know, the story of Jesus is whipped and
beaten and carries the cross all the way up to Calvary and.
I still like man this is this is tough to
talk about a little bit I don't know so after he gets tortured and they nail
(13:46):
him to the cross you know they're just disrespecting him and you know Making
fun of him and mocking him and spitting on him,
beating him up, hitting him over the head. Just terrible. Just terrible.
As they're doing all this, this is what Jesus said.
(14:10):
Remember this if you have a hard time forgiving somebody. Jesus said,
Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.
Forgive them, he says. they don't know what they're doing.
So Jesus forgave those who nailed him to the cross here in the most unjust situation
in the history of mankind.
(14:31):
Forgiveness was extended without limit. If Christ forgave in this way for the
cross, no sin we've ever committed is too great for his forgiveness.
As we experience his forgiveness, we are freed to forgive those who have sinned against us.
Christ enables us to release the bitterness and resentment which can only imprison us.
(14:54):
His forgiveness empowers us to be forgiving people, forgiving ourselves as well
as those who have hurt us.
Wow, that was actually written. I didn't write that.
That was written in the footnotes of my Bible, but that's funny because I mean, I have it highlighted,
but I probably read this like six months ago read through luke
but that's pretty much what i was saying about like bitterness and resentment
(15:19):
and stuff how we don't want those things to take root in us right because when
something takes root what happens it grows right we don't got no ain't nobody
got time for that we ain't nobody got time for that we got jesus stuff to do
we got christian things to do right,
All right. All right. So this is the final, the final scripture.
(15:42):
I'm going to read this directly from the Bible as well. This one's a little longer.
So I was told people were enjoying the scripture reading. So we're going to
go into a little bit more of that.
All right. Okay. So here we go.
Luke, this is the parable of the prodigal son, right? Luke 15, 11 through 32.
(16:05):
This is one of the most famous stories of forgiveness in the Bible.
A young man asks his father for his inheritance, leaves home,
and wastes it all on reckless living.
After hitting rock bottom, he returns home repentant, expecting only to be treated as a servant.
Instead, his father welcomes him back with open arms and celebrates his return,
showing unconditional love and, I'll give you one guess, forgiveness.
(16:28):
Okay. So, Luke 15, 11-32, let's do it.
To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story.
A man who had two sons, the younger son told his father, I want my share of
your estate now before you die.
So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later,
his youngest son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land.
(16:50):
And there he wasted all of his money on wild living.
About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he
began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him
into the fields to feed the pigs.
The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked
good to him. But no one gave him anything.
(17:12):
When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, At home,
even the hired servants have food enough to spare.
And here I am dying of hunger. I will go home to my father and say,
Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy
of being called your son. Son.
Please take me on as a hired servant. Listen to this.
(17:34):
So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off,
his father saw him coming.
Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
His son said to him, Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you,
and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.
But his father said to the servants, Quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him.
(17:55):
Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet and kill the calf we have
been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast.
We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and now he's returned to life.
He was lost, but now he is found. So the party began.
I want to stop there for a sec. This is such a painting of how,
(18:18):
like in the Bible, it says, heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents more
than the 99 who don't need to repent, right?
Jesus leaves the 99 to go find the one lost one.
This is like such, and I just told this, I had youth on last Friday,
a few days ago, and pastor was, read this scripture, and I just like,
(18:42):
spoke up to the kids because, and this is what I said to them,
and I'm going to say this to you.
I just said, you know, you should really pay attention to this scripture about
how heaven rejoices over the one, right?
Because in today's world, in TikTok and Instagram and instant gratification
and followers and likes and stuff,
(19:03):
like these kids are under the mindset that like, if they don't have a million
followers or get 5,000 likes or whatever they like, will delete a picture.
It's just the craziest thing you ever heard. But their mind is so set on quantity over quality, right?
Like they don't understand that when they're 39 years old, if they have two
(19:23):
best friends, you won at life, right?
Like if you have two friends, you could call if you're in trouble,
like that's everything.
But like when you're 16 and 15 and even 20 and 25, like you just don't see it like that.
It's quantity over quality. And that's like this generation.
But the Bible says, like, heaven rejoices over one.
(19:46):
So if you even lead one person to Christ, like, that could be what you were
sent here for. It's such a bigger deal than we think.
Like, even with this, if this, like, helps build one person's faith and leads
them to Christ, like, or makes their relationship stronger with Christ and leads
them to heaven one day, like, that's everything, right?
(20:07):
Of course I'd love a million people to be listening to this,
or it to be touching lives all over the world, right?
But like heaven rejoices over one, over one, right?
Look how this dad welcomes his son back and how condemned his son felt.
I'm gonna go live, like I think I talked about this in the last episode a little bit, which is funny.
(20:29):
We weren't talking about forgiveness, but I was just talking about like,
I guess like the goodness of God, but how accepting, right?
This guy knew he messed up. he knew he wasn't worthy.
He knew he didn't deserve to go back there, right? That's like us coming to Jesus.
Don't say, like, I'm going to clean my life up, and then I'm going to go find Christ.
(20:51):
I'm looking for the Lord. You're looking for the, like, he ain't lost.
What do you mean you're looking for him? He's not lost. And you don't have to
get cleaned up to find him.
That's like, I think I said this a long time ago, like you don't get all cleaned
up to go take a shower, right? You get clean in the shower.
You don't get all cleaned up to go find Jesus. You just show up and then let Jesus clean you, right?
(21:19):
And this isn't religion. This is Christianity. He doesn't clean the outside
of you to make you look shiny to show you to the congregation or to the friends
or to the, you know, he cleans you from the inside out.
He cleans you from the inside out.
He's not concerned about your outfit.
He's concerned about your heart.
(21:39):
He's not concerned about your hairdo or your shoes or your makeup.
He's concerned about your heart, right? So you just show up.
If you're looking for Jesus, he ain't lost, right?
Show up. Heaven rejoices over one.
He wants you. All you got to do is show up. Look how the father welcomed the son back.
(22:03):
He said, I'm not even worthy to be your son. Like, let me be one of your slaves.
You know, he just wanted, and what did the father say? What?
Go get a robe, go get some sandals, go get a ring, go kill the fattest calf.
We're having a celebration. We're having a feast.
This is how God sees you. You know how much Jesus invested in you?
His birth, leaving a throne of grace to come be born in a manger, right?
(22:28):
His life, the invitation, follow me, follow me, right?
His teachings, his sermons, his example, right?
He walked the walk, right? He literally walked in flesh.
He walked the walk of the Bible.
(22:48):
Perfect life in a broken world.
You know how impossible that is? I mean, nothing's impossible for God,
but I'm just saying, like, really, really appreciate it. Let it sink in.
His birth, his life, his death, his sacrifice, his blood, it is finished.
It is finished. And his resurrection, he's risen. He is risen indeed, right?
(23:16):
Conquering death, hell, and the grave. Giving us Christianity,
the New Testament. You know how much he has invested in you?
Open arms. The second you run to him, open arms, no matter what.
I'm going to jump back in here. The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.
His father came out and begged him, but he replied, all these years I've slaved
(23:37):
for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to do.
And in all that time, you never gave me even one One young goat for a feast
with my friends, yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your
money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf?
His father said to him, Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me,
(23:58):
and everything I have is yours.
We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead.
And has come back to life. He was lost, but now he is found.
Wow. So this is like mirroring someone being dead, right, to sin,
(24:20):
and then coming back, being born again in Christ, right?
This prodigal son is like really, really powerful. For some reason,
I've been on it for a while. It really is such a, it's like such a painted picture of humanity, right?
And like God's love for us, right?
(24:41):
Like how he just continues to pursue us, how people put him on the back burner, right?
In certain seasons of life. And then you run back to him when you need him. And where is he?
Right? Just like this father waiting for his son, wraps his arms around you,
puts the ring on your finger, wraps you in a robe, right? Kills the fattened calf. Welcome home.
(25:01):
Right, you were lost, but now you're found, he just, he loves us,
like, he really, really loves us,
we, I mean, it's amazing, it really is, it really is amazing,
like, when you can say it, you can, you can feel it, you can,
you know, tell somebody it, you can,
(25:23):
but if you really get a revelation of of it, of like the way God loves us, like as his children,
it's really overwhelming and it's really beautiful.
And ah man, God is good all the time, all the time.All the time.... God is GOOD.
Music.
(25:47):
Whether you know it or believe it, Ephesians tells us that we do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and the rulers of the darkness
in this world. So, let's pray.
Father, I take up the full and complete armor of God over everybody under the sound of my voice.
I declare and decree the cross and the blood of Jesus to protect us,
our families, and our peoples.
Father, with the power of prayer and all of your promises in Scripture,
(26:10):
I take up the belt of truth. I take up the breastplate of righteousness.
I take up the boots of the gospel of peace. I take up the shield of faith,
I take up the helmet of salvation, and I take up the sword of the Spirit.
I take up the full and complete armor of God. I declare and decree that no weapon
formed against us shall ever cross me.
That God will never leave us nor forsake us. That God's plan is to bless us and not to harm us.
(26:35):
And that greater is He who is in us than he who is in this world.
I bind and rebuke any plan or scheme that the enemy tries to form against us.
Music.
I claim the word of God. I claim the power of the Holy Spirit.
I claim all of God's armies of angels in heaven.
And I claim the precious blood of my Lord and Savior over our protection.
In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen.
(27:13):
Amen, amen, amen. This is Faith Until You Make It, and I am your host,
James Masse. I just want to thank everybody for being here with us.
I pray each and every one of you leaves with a little bit more than you came
with. If you did, then like I always say, I'm just a lamppost, so praise God.
I love you all, but Jesus loves you more. Now go win your week.
(27:34):
God bless. We'll see you next time.
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