February 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Forgiveness isn't just a command; it's a transformative journey that can radically change your life. Imagine breaking free from the chains of unforgiveness that have held you back, preventing you from truly experiencing spiritual freedom. In our latest episode, we promise to guide you through the profound teachings shared at the Lion Church, where we unravel the intricate relationship between forgiveness, accountability, and spiritual well-being. Drawing from Matthew 18, we explore how extending grace to others not only aligns us closer to God's heart but also brings healing and freedom to our own lives.
We challenge the common misconception that God's grace allows us to bypass His commandments, focusing instead on the Christian responsibility to forgive as we have been forgiven. Through the captivating parable of the unforgiving servant and the compelling story of Joseph, we illustrate how forgiveness can serve a greater purpose in our lives, particularly amidst betrayal and hurt. Discover how prioritizing your love for God over personal grievances can lead to profound personal growth and spiritual restoration, and how embracing the scars of our past is a testament to healing and redemption.
In a world where unforgiveness can imprison us spiritually, this episode invites you to reflect deeply on your heart's condition. By examining the powerful testimonies of individuals whose lives were transformed through forgiveness, we highlight the beauty and strength of a unified church. Join us in fostering a wave of renewal and unity, as we share stories of reconciliation and encourage you to release any chains of unforgiveness. Let this episode serve as a catalyst for embracing the freedom and love exemplified by Christ.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
it's another episode I love it, man, oh pastor the,
the not knowing right the onethat you have created.
Opening a show, bro, is like atop tier.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I mean, you know, it's, it's it's one of the
better things you've ever done.
You know, I don't.
I don't know if it's, I don'tknow if it's just us.
I don't know if the audienceenjoys the suspense of wondering
how it's going to start.
I'm enjoying it.
Well, I mean, hey, you knowwhat that's important.
That's what's important.
Do we enjoy it?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
right, yes, right, because we do this for us.
Yeah, yeah, I just wanted tospend some more time with you.
We've covered, man.
We covered what I preachedabout this past Sunday.
So, man, let's hear about whatold Pastor Seth preached down at
the Lion Church.
Oh, you ready to go right inyou, ready to go right up in it?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
huh, let's just dig on in while we're wasting time.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, come on, get your plate, because I'm
getting ready to feed yousomething I'm over here, you
know me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I got a fork and knife, a little napkin in he's
ready son?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, man, we're still in our series of divided
loyalty.
This past Sunday, bro, wetalked about something people
don't want to deal with.
Can you guess?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Accountability.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Unforgiveness.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Unforgiveness.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, we live a divided loyalty to our
forgiveness.
We want God to forgive us, butwe don't want to give any
forgiveness to anybody else.
I love what Matthew 18, Petersays.
Peter came to him and askedLord, how often should I forgive
someone who sins against me?
Seven times, it's like Paul's,like Peter's, like, seven seems
(01:35):
to be the number of completeness, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, I think that's enough.
That'd be plenty.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But you know, jesus is like nope, not seven times,
but 70 times seven.
I said so.
There are two things that youlearn about.
There's only two ways toforgive, right, only two ways to
forgive, and it is quickly andalways.
Quickly and always.
Never let unforgiveness rest inyour heart.
(01:59):
You mean, we can't hold grudges.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
No, no, no, no, we can't stay upset.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
No, no, no, no.
Don't do that.
That's a bad place to be right.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Don't let anger go down, don't let the sun go down
on your wrath.
Oh, that's right, I'm sorry, goahead.
That's what the bible says.
Let you preach it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, right, it's your sermon, you're preaching
better than I'm backing you up,give it all you got.
You know, without forgiveness,repentance does nothing for us.
I, I want to.
I want to saygiveness is thefoundation of our Christian
faith.
Let me say it like this Withoutforgiveness you would not be
received in heaven.
It requires forgiveness andrepentance of sin.
(02:34):
And so what I know about peopleis that we're great at asking
for forgiveness of our sins, butwe are not good at offering
forgiveness of our sins.
And what we think is, as longas I avoid the person or the
person is not close to me, thenI'm good.
But forgiveness has nothing todo with proximity.
Forgiveness has to do with yourheart, right, and so you just
can't block them out of yourlife and say I'm good, because
(02:55):
God isn't looking at what'saround you, he's looking at
what's in you.
And if unforgiveness is in you,then what does scripture say?
Let's read it.
He says you.
Then what does scripture say?
Let's read it.
He says pray like this the lastpart of that prayer, verse 15,.
It says if you forgive thosewho sin against you, your
heavenly father will forgive you.
But everybody say but.
But if you refuse to forgiveothers, your father would not
(03:17):
forgive your sins.
Your father would not forgiveyour sins.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's even in the Lord's Prayer Forgive us as we
forgive others.
That is the Lord's Prayer.
That is the latter part of it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Matthew, chapter 6, that's exactly what it is the
Lord's Prayer.
That's right.
Look at you.
You know a little bit of theBible.
A little bit, a little bit.
You know the greatest risk.
This is what I share.
The greatest risk of our churchin these days is not that we
may lose a musician, or we maylose money or a pastor or staff.
It's not that we may lose abuilding or even our reputation.
(03:50):
The greatest risk of the churchtoday is that we may lose
heaven, and many of us are goingto lose heaven because we would
rather hold on to this grudgeand unforgiveness than to
receive forgiveness.
Because what does the scripturesay?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That if we don't forgive, he doesn't forgive us,
and oftentimes I think peopleconfuse forgiveness with
reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Forgiveness takes one , reconciliation takes two,
that's right.
But anyway, go ahead.
Yeah, no, you're right, you'reright.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We talked about it a little bit.
You know it's this mentality Ifyou refuse to forgive, god will
forgive you.
And we have this grace-filledsociety that we live in and we
have this thing.
Well, you know what Love isenough.
Love is enough.
I can treat people however Iwant to.
I can live however I want to.
I can do what I want.
You know why?
Because Jesus loves me, and youknow that is true.
Jesus loves you and our life isfull of grace, thank God.
(04:44):
Thanks be to God for grace andmercy and his love, but those
are not excuses to not obey hisword.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right.
In fact he says if you love me,you'll keep my command.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And there is a responsibility that we have as
Christians.
There are steps to take, thereare decisions to make,
forgiveness to give.
You can't just post about jesus.
You've got to live like jesus.
Come on, you know.
You can't just talk about jesus.
You've got to obey the wordsthat jesus said I can just see
standing up for heaven.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Be like lord.
Just scroll through my facebook.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I posted scriptures up there all the time.
Did you see those scriptures?
I know the word.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I might not have lived it, but I knew, knew it
Got a head full of knowledge buta heart full of something else.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You cannot wear a cross around your neck.
You can't just wear a cross,you've got to wear him around
your heart, come on yeah.
You know, I used this examplebefore.
Taylor was leaving the houseone day.
And Taylor's my wife.
If you don't know her Beautiful, she, taylor's my wife.
If you don't know her Beautifulwoman, love her to death, shout
out to her.
She was telling me hey, thedishes in the dishwasher are
(05:48):
dirty.
I've already got them in there.
Let me show you what to do.
You're going to take thislittle pod, You're going to put
it in here, you're going to shutit.
Then you're going to shut thedishwasher and press this, this
before I leave.
I mean after I leave.
Okay, yeah, sure, when I'm doneI'll do it.
Okay, taylor got home and guesswhat?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It wasn't done.
It was not done.
How did I know that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
See, here's the thing .
Speaker 1 (06:12):
What happened was here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I could teach anybody how to use that dishwasher.
Yeah, I knew exactly how to doit.
But you know what?
Those dishes were still dirtyand many of us still live a
dirty and a stained life becausewe can quote scripture and we
know all about it, but we don'tknow how to obey it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Man, I've done this.
I've used this illustrationbefore.
I say I'm a pretty, what Iwould consider.
I've looked at some otherparents over time that I'm old
school.
I'm pretty straightforward,pretty strict.
Yeah, If I tell my kid to godown there and clean his room
and I go down there 30 minuteslater and I check to see if his
room's clean, I don't care if heremembers what I said.
(06:51):
I don't care if he rememberswhat exactly I said and he can
quote it in French, in Japanese,in Aramaic, in Hebrew.
When I go down to the end ofthe room, I don't want you to
tell me what I said.
I want to see your room clean.
I want to see results.
Yeah, and we have a church fullof people who can do that.
They can quote scripture, theycan read it in the Hebrew and
(07:12):
the Aramaic and you can do allthese different things, but they
still ain't doing what the wordsays yeah, they're going to be
just like the Pharisees, whoknew all about the Bible but
couldn't even see Jesus in frontof them.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Right?
Yeah, I mean who killed Jesus,the people who loved the Bible.
They knew the Word, but theycouldn't even see the one in
front of them, right?
So I talked a little bit aboutthat.
You've got to believe the Wordand you've got to obey the Word.
He says if you want to beforgiven, you have got to
forgive, and don't keep tally 70times 7 is just this mindset
(07:45):
that I'm going to forgivequickly and I'm going to give
often.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
At 491,.
I ain't got to forgive you,right, right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
If you're keeping count, you're really not really
having the Father's heart forthe people.
We went and read Matthew 18.
I'm going to recap this story.
Peter came and when he asked,about 70 times seven, jesus told
this parable and he talkedabout this man that owed another
person uh, his master, uhmillions of dollars.
(08:12):
And he asked uh, he told him.
He said I want you to repay me.
And he was like I can't, wouldyou please?
He begged and pleaded himplease, please, let me give me
some time, give me some time.
And he felt pity for him.
So he he says you know what,I'm going to forgive you of your
debt.
So the man leaves and goes andfinds somebody that owes him
just $1,000.
And he didn't have the money topay.
(08:33):
And the guy begged and saidplease, please, please, give me
more time.
And instead of giving him moretime and grace that he just
received for millions of dollars, the man locks him up in prison
until the debt is paid.
And the bible says in the latterparts of this verse, it says uh
, I forgave you that tremendousdebt because you pleaded with me
.
Shouldn't you have mercy onyour fellow servant just to have
(08:55):
mercy on you?
Then the angry king sent theman to prison to be tortured
until he paid his entire debt.
That's what the heavenly fatherwill do to you If you refuse to
forgive others.
Forgive your brothers andsisters from your heart.
From your heart.
He's teaching us that thegreatest way for us to
appreciate forgiveness from himis to give it to others.
(09:17):
To give it to others.
I love this quote from LouisSmides.
It says to forgive is to set aprisoner free and to discover
that that prisoner was you.
Man, I'm telling you there's alot of freedom when you start to
forgive people, even if theydon't even ask for it.
It's just this weight that islifted from you and you know, it
(09:38):
might not be unforgiveness andthis little grudge thing might
be little to you, but God, it isa big deal and it's more than
just holding a grudge, pastorJay.
You're actually puttingsomething in between you and God
.
It comes between your intimacywith him.
That's why Scripture says ifyou've got a problem with
somebody, or you know they'vegot a problem with you, before
(09:58):
you bring your offerings orsacrifices to me, you better go
make it right.
Right, because right now it'sjust emotion.
I'm not blessing this becauseyou've got something in your
heart that's not pure towardssomebody.
Yeah, get that right.
Then bring your sacrifices andI will receive them.
He's saying get this stuff donebecause you can't be as
intimate as you should be in arelationship with me.
(10:19):
So what I do, knowing this,knowing this, is in the word I
forgive people, people because Ilove God, and my love for God
is greater than my hurt frompeople.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, that's good.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Don't put your hurt above your love for God.
Let God he can heal you.
And we think this I'll forgiveafter I'm healed and after I'm
better, and you know.
But healing comes when youforgive.
That is the remedy.
True forgiveness is what'sgoing to bring healing.
If you're waiting on healing toforgive, you're doing it
(10:55):
backwards.
That's not how it works.
Okay, you got the sequencewrong here, right?
So here's another truth that Iunderstand and we know to be
true We've all been hurt bypeople close and people distant
from us.
It's easier to forgive peoplewho are not as close to us as
the people that are closest tous that hurt us.
Right, it's easier to forgivethem.
But could it be that thebetrayal and pain that we get
(11:21):
from people that are close to usput us in positions for purpose
?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Could be.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I mean, you look at let's just look at the biblical
precedence for a conversationlike this or a statement like
that.
Joseph was betrayed almost hiswhole life.
Right, you know?
If you don't know about Joseph,he was the favorite son.
He got a coat of many colorsand he strutted his stuff with
that coat His brother wasn'thappy, he was peacocking around.
You know what I'm saying and itwasn't that the coat that made
(11:56):
him too mad, but it's that hisdreams was like you're gonna bow
down to me, okay, all right,I'm the man, okay, god says I am
.
And they got mad.
His brothers got mad.
They put him in a pit, thendecided the pit wasn't good
enough.
They was going to sell him, andnot only sell him into slavery.
They was going to take thatjacket and rip it up and put
some blood on it and convincehis daddy that he was dead.
That's a bad story right there,son.
So then he goes and he becomessomebody in the in the king's
house, and, uh, he's a cupholder.
(12:17):
And parifer's wife comes in andshe's mad because he's close to
god, but he, she, can't getclose to him because she wants
to do a little something,something he's like nah, I can't
do that, can't do it.
And so the god in him agitatedthe devil in her, and so she and
lied on him to the king.
Then, long story short, itcircles back around and he
becomes the second in command,right Second in command, and the
(12:41):
dream comes true.
We know Joseph now to be the manwho went from the pit to the
palace, but it all started withbetrayal.
Yeah, it all started withbetrayal.
The dream would not have cometrue unless he was put into
slavery and had an opportunityto build himself up in the low
place, to be in a high place.
Betrayal led him.
Look at Jesus.
Jesus was betrayed many times.
(13:03):
Matter of fact, many of usbetray him every week.
You come to church on a Sunday,you lift your hands, you
worship and say you're going tochange.
The next day you go back to thesame mess, back to the same
people, back to the same life.
That is betraying Jesus.
You commit your life to him,but go right back.
He's betrayed every day.
But let's look at some commonpeople that we know betrayed him
Judas.
Judas is at the table.
(13:24):
He's like my betrayer is hereand Judas is like't he did I do
that like steve urkel, get upoff the table.
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, you did do that.
He betrayed him.
Then you got peter, who's likeman, I'm your right hand, bro, I
ain't never going to deny you.
It's just like hold up hold up.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Now there's gonna be a ruser that's gonna grow and
you're gonna do it three times.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, he knows what betraying is like, but the most
beautiful thing that we get outof jesus's betrayal of Jesus'
betrayal that positions him intopurpose is that he is being
beat, he's being spit at, he'sbeing ridiculed, he's being
stabbed by people he's dying for.
I mean, really think about thisman, really think about this.
(14:06):
He is literally looking down atpeople who he is loving so much
, that are doing all this painto him and yet he's still dying
for them.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, and then he even says Father, forgive them.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Father, forgive them, right, right.
One of the things that we endedour message was that statement
that while he's in the middle ofpain, he's saying Father,
forgive them.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They don't know what they're doing, which proves to
us that, in the middle of yourpain, you can still forgive.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, you don't have to wait.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it also should bring youperspective from Christ that a
lot of times when people hurtyou, they don't know what spirit
they're operating.
Yeah, they don't know, theydon't.
To them it's a fleshly thing.
They don't know, they don't.
To them it's a fleshly thing,it's right, I'm upset, I'm mad,
I'm revenging, I'm doingwhatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would even argue the fact thatthey even know really what
(15:00):
they're doing yeah, I mean, howwould you like to be peter
standing in front of jesus andhe says, satan, get behind me
right you know, I mean, oh, Isaw a video.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Man, I'm sorry you made me think about.
This is about that statement,right there.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Satan.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It's this guy who's like Peter in that moment, when
he's like Satan.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
get behind me and he goes behind the guy and he's
like Satan, he's like what Satan?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
He's like Satan oh.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Satan oh.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Satan.
What do you mean?
Satan get behind you.
But that's right, bro.
But you know, if we trulybelieve that god orders our
steps, the good, the bad, theugly, if my steps lead me to
betrayal, I receive the hurt andI believe that I receive the
betrayal and I give forgivenessbecause betrayal is just part of
my story.
Sometimes we got to see not thepain but see the plan of God in
(15:49):
our lives.
The pain is for you.
The heartbreak was for you.
It was good for you.
The backstabbing was for you.
Those words that were saidagainst you were for you because
they were part of your story.
I don't know about you, but I'mgrateful for some of the pain
that I've experienced.
I've grown from it, I'vedeveloped from those and I've
become better out of that pain,developed from those and I've
(16:11):
become better out of that pain.
God can use those things.
That's why James says considerjoy when you face these trials
and things, because it'sperfecting you, it's creating
endurance in you, it'sstrengthening you.
So do you have something?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, I think man back to my pastor heart, right,
I mean, Jesus even brings this,gives us the example, but even
in the parableable man he takestime to teach us, because that's
what the word does.
I mean it teaches us, it renewsour mind, like like we talked
about for my sermon, but it itshows us how we're supposed to
act and how we're supposed to beand how we're supposed to do
(16:43):
things.
He takes time to even teach, aparable to teach you.
You have been forgiven of somuch.
If you don't forgive, you won'tbe forgiven.
Yet we find every excuse in thebook to not be obedient and we
expect to stand before a holyGod and say I've done what you
(17:07):
told me to do.
I mean for Jesus to not onlymake a parable specifically for
this, to teach us.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And a prayer.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah and a prayer, and then get up on a cross and
be the example why he's dying.
How important that is for us toemulate, how important for us to
make that a part of who we are,so that we can be forgiven, so
that we can walk into heaven forus to not take that seriously
and feel like we just we have aright to be mad, or we have a
(17:40):
right to hate someone or a rightto be angry with someone, and
for me, my pastor heart, thathurts because I know I know
there are people who walk aroundhurt out of choice man, who are
offended out of choice right,walk around hurt out of choice
man, who are offended out ofchoice Right and hate people out
of choice Right when they needto be set an example and live in
the example Christ gave Couldbe free.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, could be free.
John 20, 24 through 28 is whenJesus shows up to Thomas,
because Thomas is like I won'tbelieve it until I can put my
hand in the hole and all thiskind of stuff.
And Jesus shows up and he showshim his wounds and lets him put
his finger in it and he saysyou know, now believe, you know,
um, you know, when youtranslate the word wound here in
(18:24):
the original uh language, itmeans scar.
It's not a wound that we thinklike it was an open, open scab
that when you touch it it'sgoing to hurt and things.
And the way I landed this homewas that it means scar.
That Jesus didn't show Thomashis wounds.
He showed Thomas his scars.
There were no more nails there,the pain was gone, everything
(18:46):
that he endured had been healed.
Jesus was beat, he was stabbed,he was ridiculed, he was mocked
, spit in his face, he was hungon a cross, he was put to death.
But I'm so glad that Jesusdidn't come back to show us his
wounds, the pain, that he didn'ttalk about what he endured, he
didn't talk about the pain thathe encountered, but he
(19:07):
resurrected to show us his scars, that he's been healed, he's
been restored, he's beenredeemed, that there was no more
nails.
This was just scars to testifyhow God uses pain for purpose
and that you can be healed, youcan be set free.
What wounded me doesn't have tohold me forever.
(19:28):
What hurt me doesn't have tocontrol.
I can forgive, I can let go andI can walk in freedom.
Jesus is the example for that.
You can do it, you can ask for,you can forgive people in the
middle of pain and you can comeout and be and use your scars to
tell the story of God'sgoodness.
But the beautiful thing is, asyou continue to read, verse 30
(19:51):
says the disciples saw Jesus domany other miracles, miraculous
signs in addition to the onesrecorded.
Jesus was hung on a cross, died, resurrected, came back, said
hey, I'm here and continued towork, continued to perform
miracles after the resurrection,which means that the hurt
should not stop you from doingwhat God had called you to do.
(20:12):
God can still use you.
You can move on.
There's work to do.
Share your scars, and not yourwounds, with people.
Share your scars, not yourwounds, because this doesn't
mean that you've got to go havelunch or coffee with them every
Thursday night, when peopledon't hurt you.
There are people that think Ijust can never forgive them for
what they've done, or uh I'llforgive, but I'll never forget
(20:35):
yeah, I'll forgive it, I'llnever forget, and you know what?
that's fine, you don't have toforget, you don't have to forget
.
But you know it's so importantthat we forgive.
And we talked about a littlebit more things.
I gave them eight, eightreasons why you should forgive
with scriptures.
Uh, one.
Number one is God commands it.
Number two God forgave youfirst.
Three it reflects Christ's love.
(20:56):
Four is forgiveness bringshealing and freedom.
Five it restores relationships.
You know the passage in 2Corinthians 5, 17 says he's
given us the ministry ofreconciliation and of course it
means for us to reconcile peopleback to Christ.
But it's really hard for us toreconcile people back to christ
(21:18):
when we can't even be unifiedtogether, we can't learn to
forgive each other.
How can we have somebody bedraw somebody to a forgiving god
when we can't even forgive thepeople we're talking to?
Right, so it restores ourrelationships.
Number six forgivenessdemonstrates faith.
And number seven it is awitness to the world.
You know I said eight, there'sseven of them.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, it's a number completion.
That's right, we're done so.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I wrapped it up with this.
I used an illustration.
Matthew 18 says that we remainspiritually imprisoned when we
don't forgive and we think thatit's just a little bit of
unforgiveness, it's just alittle bit of grudge, but we
don't realize that it issuffocating us spiritually.
And so I had one of our mencome up and I had him put his
(22:03):
hands like this and I wrappedrope around it, just around it.
He couldn't even budge.
And I said unforgiveness islike this rope it's creating
bondage for you to spirituallygrow.
I said try to open the Bible.
I brought him a Bible.
I said open it.
Turn to James.
He could not open.
I said hey, we just tookcommunion.
Can you open this communion cup?
He couldn't do it.
(22:23):
I said lift your hands inworship.
He couldn't.
And I said, hey.
I called another brother.
I said hey, why don't you givebrother a hug and fellowship
with him?
He couldn't hug him, hecouldn't embrace him, he
couldn't do the things that weas Christians get to do.
It was suffocating himspiritually.
And this is what happens.
And we think this is a smallthing, but it hinders us
(22:48):
dramatically, tremendously inour walk with Christ.
And we ended it with could thesechains of unforgiveness be the
reason that you don't see growthin your spiritual walk?
Could the bondage that thisunforgiving spirit has put on
you makes you feel like you'restagnant with God, or that that
door is never going to open?
We've got to search our heart.
We've got to forgive others,we've got to forgive ourselves.
(23:10):
That way way we can receive itfrom God.
So that's what our message was,man.
People came down, bro, it wasbeautiful.
Altars were full of people whohad unforgiveness in their heart
.
I told them hey, there's peoplein this building right now you
need to go to, you need to mendit, get it right, get it right.
Don't leave anything.
God is moving at our church,man.
I mean, it's something I'venever seen before.
(23:32):
It's like this huge wave.
It's that thing you don't everwant to stop.
It's a huge wave Like don't stop, don't stop.
People are coming down, man.
They're loving on one another,people are repenting, people are
forgiving.
It's this beautiful, powerfulthing, man.
I had stories after church.
I know this has nothing to dowith the sermon, but I'm going
to testify to God's goodness.
People were coming and said man, this week this is what God was
(23:53):
teaching me unforgiveness.
Man, I didn't realize there wasunforgiveness in my heart until
you said this and gave me thisexample.
God was setting people free,calling people, letting them
know they forgive them.
People released their chains ofunforgiveness that they brought
.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, that is beautiful man, man.
And that's why paul tells thechurch, he says, to fight for
the unity of peace.
Yeah, fight, fight for unity.
Yeah, because a church that isgrowing together, man, that is
in one mind and one accord weknow just from acts two, one
mind, one accord a churchwalking together in unity,
walking together in love, man isa, is a powerful and beautiful
thing yep, you are most, aremost like Jesus when you forgive
.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's not when you shout, it's not when you sing,
it's not when you dance aroundand you know, do all those
things, it's when you forgive.
You are most like Jesus whenyou forgive, and the greatest
defense against the enemy withinthe church is that we forgive
quickly and always.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Amen.
Well, glory you ready, I'm done, I'm fired up now I'm ready to
preach it again.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Give it to them.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Good morning God.
Hey, let's hear it at Pastor toPastor.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You just about to say cross blood, boy, the church
blood, that's the ever-lyingchurch.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, now here at Pastor to Pastor, when we wrap
up, look, we'd like to send youoff with a priestly blessing and
we're going to do that fromnumber 6, 24 to 26.
It says the Lord bless you andkeep you.
The Lord make his face shineupon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Amen.
Hey, god bless you.
Thank you so much for joiningus here on pastor to pastor.
(25:34):
Uh, make sure you likesubscribe, share all those good
things, share with somebody, dosomething with it, do something
with it.
You know, I'm saying help usout, plant it down in there and
let it grow some fruit for thekingdom.
That's right.
But hey, thanks for checking usout.
We look forward to seeing youthe next time.
On pastor to pastor see youlater.
it's another episode I love it, man, oh pastor the,
the not knowing right the onethat you have created.
Opening a show, bro, is like atop tier.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I mean, you know, it's, it's it's one of the
better things you've ever done.
You know, I don't.
I don't know if it's, I don'tknow if it's just us.
I don't know if the audienceenjoys the suspense of wondering
how it's going to start.
I'm enjoying it.
Well, I mean, hey, you knowwhat that's important.
That's what's important.
Do we enjoy it?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
right, yes, right, because we do this for us.
Yeah, yeah, I just wanted tospend some more time with you.
We've covered, man.
We covered what I preachedabout this past Sunday.
So, man, let's hear about whatold Pastor Seth preached down at
the Lion Church.
Oh, you ready to go right inyou, ready to go right up in it?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
huh, let's just dig on in while we're wasting time.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, come on, get your plate, because I'm
getting ready to feed yousomething I'm over here, you
know me.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I got a fork and knife, a little napkin in he's
ready son?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, man, we're still in our series of divided
loyalty.
This past Sunday, bro, wetalked about something people
don't want to deal with.
Can you guess?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Accountability.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Unforgiveness.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Unforgiveness.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, we live a divided loyalty to our
forgiveness.
We want God to forgive us, butwe don't want to give any
forgiveness to anybody else.
I love what Matthew 18, Petersays.
Peter came to him and askedLord, how often should I forgive
someone who sins against me?
Seven times, it's like Paul's,like Peter's, like, seven seems
(01:35):
to be the number of completeness, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, I think that's enough.
That'd be plenty.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But you know, jesus is like nope, not seven times,
but 70 times seven.
I said so.
There are two things that youlearn about.
There's only two ways toforgive, right, only two ways to
forgive, and it is quickly andalways.
Quickly and always.
Never let unforgiveness rest inyour heart.
(01:59):
You mean, we can't hold grudges.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
No, no, no, no, we can't stay upset.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
No, no, no, no.
Don't do that.
That's a bad place to be right.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Don't let anger go down, don't let the sun go down
on your wrath.
Oh, that's right, I'm sorry, goahead.
That's what the bible says.
Let you preach it.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, right, it's your sermon, you're preaching
better than I'm backing you up,give it all you got.
You know, without forgiveness,repentance does nothing for us.
I, I want to.
I want to saygiveness is thefoundation of our Christian
faith.
Let me say it like this Withoutforgiveness you would not be
received in heaven.
It requires forgiveness andrepentance of sin.
(02:34):
And so what I know about peopleis that we're great at asking
for forgiveness of our sins, butwe are not good at offering
forgiveness of our sins.
And what we think is, as longas I avoid the person or the
person is not close to me, thenI'm good.
But forgiveness has nothing todo with proximity.
Forgiveness has to do with yourheart, right, and so you just
can't block them out of yourlife and say I'm good, because
(02:55):
God isn't looking at what'saround you, he's looking at
what's in you.
And if unforgiveness is in you,then what does scripture say?
Let's read it.
He says you.
Then what does scripture say?
Let's read it.
He says pray like this the lastpart of that prayer, verse 15,.
It says if you forgive thosewho sin against you, your
heavenly father will forgive you.
But everybody say but.
But if you refuse to forgiveothers, your father would not
(03:17):
forgive your sins.
Your father would not forgiveyour sins.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's even in the Lord's Prayer Forgive us as we
forgive others.
That is the Lord's Prayer.
That is the latter part of it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Matthew, chapter 6, that's exactly what it is the
Lord's Prayer.
That's right.
Look at you.
You know a little bit of theBible.
A little bit, a little bit.
You know the greatest risk.
This is what I share.
The greatest risk of our churchin these days is not that we
may lose a musician, or we maylose money or a pastor or staff.
It's not that we may lose abuilding or even our reputation.
(03:50):
The greatest risk of the churchtoday is that we may lose
heaven, and many of us are goingto lose heaven because we would
rather hold on to this grudgeand unforgiveness than to
receive forgiveness.
Because what does the scripturesay?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That if we don't forgive, he doesn't forgive us,
and oftentimes I think peopleconfuse forgiveness with
reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Forgiveness takes one , reconciliation takes two,
that's right.
But anyway, go ahead.
Yeah, no, you're right, you'reright.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
We talked about it a little bit.
You know it's this mentality Ifyou refuse to forgive, god will
forgive you.
And we have this grace-filledsociety that we live in and we
have this thing.
Well, you know what Love isenough.
Love is enough.
I can treat people however Iwant to.
I can live however I want to.
I can do what I want.
You know why?
Because Jesus loves me, and youknow that is true.
Jesus loves you and our life isfull of grace, thank God.
(04:44):
Thanks be to God for grace andmercy and his love, but those
are not excuses to not obey hisword.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right.
In fact he says if you love me,you'll keep my command.
That's right.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And there is a responsibility that we have as
Christians.
There are steps to take, thereare decisions to make,
forgiveness to give.
You can't just post about jesus.
You've got to live like jesus.
Come on, you know.
You can't just talk about jesus.
You've got to obey the wordsthat jesus said I can just see
standing up for heaven.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Be like lord.
Just scroll through my facebook.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I posted scriptures up there all the time.
Did you see those scriptures?
I know the word.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I might not have lived it, but I knew, knew it
Got a head full of knowledge buta heart full of something else.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You cannot wear a cross around your neck.
You can't just wear a cross,you've got to wear him around
your heart, come on yeah.
You know, I used this examplebefore.
Taylor was leaving the houseone day.
And Taylor's my wife.
If you don't know her Beautiful, she, taylor's my wife.
If you don't know her Beautifulwoman, love her to death, shout
out to her.
She was telling me hey, thedishes in the dishwasher are
(05:48):
dirty.
I've already got them in there.
Let me show you what to do.
You're going to take thislittle pod, You're going to put
it in here, you're going to shutit.
Then you're going to shut thedishwasher and press this, this
before I leave.
I mean after I leave.
Okay, yeah, sure, when I'm doneI'll do it.
Okay, taylor got home and guesswhat?
Speaker 1 (06:07):
It wasn't done.
It was not done.
How did I know that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
See, here's the thing .
Speaker 1 (06:12):
What happened was here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I could teach anybody how to use that dishwasher.
Yeah, I knew exactly how to doit.
But you know what?
Those dishes were still dirtyand many of us still live a
dirty and a stained life becausewe can quote scripture and we
know all about it, but we don'tknow how to obey it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Man, I've done this.
I've used this illustrationbefore.
I say I'm a pretty, what Iwould consider.
I've looked at some otherparents over time that I'm old
school.
I'm pretty straightforward,pretty strict.
Yeah, If I tell my kid to godown there and clean his room
and I go down there 30 minuteslater and I check to see if his
room's clean, I don't care if heremembers what I said.
(06:51):
I don't care if he rememberswhat exactly I said and he can
quote it in French, in Japanese,in Aramaic, in Hebrew.
When I go down to the end ofthe room, I don't want you to
tell me what I said.
I want to see your room clean.
I want to see results.
Yeah, and we have a church fullof people who can do that.
They can quote scripture, theycan read it in the Hebrew and
(07:12):
the Aramaic and you can do allthese different things, but they
still ain't doing what the wordsays yeah, they're going to be
just like the Pharisees, whoknew all about the Bible but
couldn't even see Jesus in frontof them.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Right?
Yeah, I mean who killed Jesus,the people who loved the Bible.
They knew the Word, but theycouldn't even see the one in
front of them, right?
So I talked a little bit aboutthat.
You've got to believe the Wordand you've got to obey the Word.
He says if you want to beforgiven, you have got to
forgive, and don't keep tally 70times 7 is just this mindset
(07:45):
that I'm going to forgivequickly and I'm going to give
often.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
At 491,.
I ain't got to forgive you,right, right.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
If you're keeping count, you're really not really
having the Father's heart forthe people.
We went and read Matthew 18.
I'm going to recap this story.
Peter came and when he asked,about 70 times seven, jesus told
this parable and he talkedabout this man that owed another
person uh, his master, uhmillions of dollars.
(08:12):
And he asked uh, he told him.
He said I want you to repay me.
And he was like I can't, wouldyou please?
He begged and pleaded himplease, please, let me give me
some time, give me some time.
And he felt pity for him.
So he he says you know what,I'm going to forgive you of your
debt.
So the man leaves and goes andfinds somebody that owes him
just $1,000.
And he didn't have the money topay.
(08:33):
And the guy begged and saidplease, please, please, give me
more time.
And instead of giving him moretime and grace that he just
received for millions of dollars, the man locks him up in prison
until the debt is paid.
And the bible says in the latterparts of this verse, it says uh
, I forgave you that tremendousdebt because you pleaded with me
.
Shouldn't you have mercy onyour fellow servant just to have
(08:55):
mercy on you?
Then the angry king sent theman to prison to be tortured
until he paid his entire debt.
That's what the heavenly fatherwill do to you If you refuse to
forgive others.
Forgive your brothers andsisters from your heart.
From your heart.
He's teaching us that thegreatest way for us to
appreciate forgiveness from himis to give it to others.
(09:17):
To give it to others.
I love this quote from LouisSmides.
It says to forgive is to set aprisoner free and to discover
that that prisoner was you.
Man, I'm telling you there's alot of freedom when you start to
forgive people, even if theydon't even ask for it.
It's just this weight that islifted from you and you know, it
(09:38):
might not be unforgiveness andthis little grudge thing might
be little to you, but God, it isa big deal and it's more than
just holding a grudge, pastorJay.
You're actually puttingsomething in between you and God
.
It comes between your intimacywith him.
That's why Scripture says ifyou've got a problem with
somebody, or you know they'vegot a problem with you, before
(09:58):
you bring your offerings orsacrifices to me, you better go
make it right.
Right, because right now it'sjust emotion.
I'm not blessing this becauseyou've got something in your
heart that's not pure towardssomebody.
Yeah, get that right.
Then bring your sacrifices andI will receive them.
He's saying get this stuff donebecause you can't be as
intimate as you should be in arelationship with me.
(10:19):
So what I do, knowing this,knowing this, is in the word I
forgive people, people because Ilove God, and my love for God
is greater than my hurt frompeople.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Right, that's good.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Don't put your hurt above your love for God.
Let God he can heal you.
And we think this I'll forgiveafter I'm healed and after I'm
better, and you know.
But healing comes when youforgive.
That is the remedy.
True forgiveness is what'sgoing to bring healing.
If you're waiting on healing toforgive, you're doing it
(10:55):
backwards.
That's not how it works.
Okay, you got the sequencewrong here, right?
So here's another truth that Iunderstand and we know to be
true We've all been hurt bypeople close and people distant
from us.
It's easier to forgive peoplewho are not as close to us as
the people that are closest tous that hurt us.
Right, it's easier to forgivethem.
But could it be that thebetrayal and pain that we get
(11:21):
from people that are close to usput us in positions for purpose
?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Could be.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I mean, you look at let's just look at the biblical
precedence for a conversationlike this or a statement like
that.
Joseph was betrayed almost hiswhole life.
Right, you know?
If you don't know about Joseph,he was the favorite son.
He got a coat of many colorsand he strutted his stuff with
that coat His brother wasn'thappy, he was peacocking around.
You know what I'm saying and itwasn't that the coat that made
(11:56):
him too mad, but it's that hisdreams was like you're gonna bow
down to me, okay, all right,I'm the man, okay, god says I am
.
And they got mad.
His brothers got mad.
They put him in a pit, thendecided the pit wasn't good
enough.
They was going to sell him, andnot only sell him into slavery.
They was going to take thatjacket and rip it up and put
some blood on it and convincehis daddy that he was dead.
That's a bad story right there,son.
So then he goes and he becomessomebody in the in the king's
house, and, uh, he's a cupholder.
(12:17):
And parifer's wife comes in andshe's mad because he's close to
god, but he, she, can't getclose to him because she wants
to do a little something,something he's like nah, I can't
do that, can't do it.
And so the god in him agitatedthe devil in her, and so she and
lied on him to the king.
Then, long story short, itcircles back around and he
becomes the second in command,right Second in command, and the
(12:41):
dream comes true.
We know Joseph now to be the manwho went from the pit to the
palace, but it all started withbetrayal.
Yeah, it all started withbetrayal.
The dream would not have cometrue unless he was put into
slavery and had an opportunityto build himself up in the low
place, to be in a high place.
Betrayal led him.
Look at Jesus.
Jesus was betrayed many times.
(13:03):
Matter of fact, many of usbetray him every week.
You come to church on a Sunday,you lift your hands, you
worship and say you're going tochange.
The next day you go back to thesame mess, back to the same
people, back to the same life.
That is betraying Jesus.
You commit your life to him,but go right back.
He's betrayed every day.
But let's look at some commonpeople that we know betrayed him
Judas.
Judas is at the table.
(13:24):
He's like my betrayer is hereand Judas is like't he did I do
that like steve urkel, get upoff the table.
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, you did do that.
He betrayed him.
Then you got peter, who's likeman, I'm your right hand, bro, I
ain't never going to deny you.
It's just like hold up hold up.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Now there's gonna be a ruser that's gonna grow and
you're gonna do it three times.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, he knows what betraying is like, but the most
beautiful thing that we get outof jesus's betrayal of Jesus'
betrayal that positions him intopurpose is that he is being
beat, he's being spit at, he'sbeing ridiculed, he's being
stabbed by people he's dying for.
I mean, really think about thisman, really think about this.
(14:06):
He is literally looking down atpeople who he is loving so much
, that are doing all this painto him and yet he's still dying
for them.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, and then he even says Father, forgive them.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Father, forgive them, right, right.
One of the things that we endedour message was that statement
that while he's in the middle ofpain, he's saying Father,
forgive them.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They don't know what they're doing, which proves to
us that, in the middle of yourpain, you can still forgive.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, you don't have to wait.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it also should bring youperspective from Christ that a
lot of times when people hurtyou, they don't know what spirit
they're operating.
Yeah, they don't know, theydon't.
To them it's a fleshly thing.
They don't know, they don't.
To them it's a fleshly thing,it's right, I'm upset, I'm mad,
I'm revenging, I'm doingwhatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would even argue the fact thatthey even know really what
(15:00):
they're doing yeah, I mean, howwould you like to be peter
standing in front of jesus andhe says, satan, get behind me
right you know, I mean, oh, Isaw a video.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Man, I'm sorry you made me think about.
This is about that statement,right there.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Satan.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
It's this guy who's like Peter in that moment, when
he's like Satan.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
get behind me and he goes behind the guy and he's
like Satan, he's like what Satan?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
He's like Satan oh.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Satan oh.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Satan.
What do you mean?
Satan get behind you.
But that's right, bro.
But you know, if we trulybelieve that god orders our
steps, the good, the bad, theugly, if my steps lead me to
betrayal, I receive the hurt andI believe that I receive the
betrayal and I give forgivenessbecause betrayal is just part of
my story.
Sometimes we got to see not thepain but see the plan of God in
(15:49):
our lives.
The pain is for you.
The heartbreak was for you.
It was good for you.
The backstabbing was for you.
Those words that were saidagainst you were for you because
they were part of your story.
I don't know about you, but I'mgrateful for some of the pain
that I've experienced.
I've grown from it, I'vedeveloped from those and I've
become better out of that pain,developed from those and I've
(16:11):
become better out of that pain.
God can use those things.
That's why James says considerjoy when you face these trials
and things, because it'sperfecting you, it's creating
endurance in you, it'sstrengthening you.
So do you have something?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, I think man back to my pastor heart, right,
I mean, Jesus even brings this,gives us the example, but even
in the parableable man he takestime to teach us, because that's
what the word does.
I mean it teaches us, it renewsour mind, like like we talked
about for my sermon, but it itshows us how we're supposed to
act and how we're supposed to beand how we're supposed to do
(16:43):
things.
He takes time to even teach, aparable to teach you.
You have been forgiven of somuch.
If you don't forgive, you won'tbe forgiven.
Yet we find every excuse in thebook to not be obedient and we
expect to stand before a holyGod and say I've done what you
(17:07):
told me to do.
I mean for Jesus to not onlymake a parable specifically for
this, to teach us.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And a prayer.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah and a prayer, and then get up on a cross and
be the example why he's dying.
How important that is for us toemulate, how important for us to
make that a part of who we are,so that we can be forgiven, so
that we can walk into heaven forus to not take that seriously
and feel like we just we have aright to be mad, or we have a
(17:40):
right to hate someone or a rightto be angry with someone, and
for me, my pastor heart, thathurts because I know I know
there are people who walk aroundhurt out of choice man, who are
offended out of choice right,walk around hurt out of choice
man, who are offended out ofchoice Right and hate people out
of choice Right when they needto be set an example and live in
the example Christ gave Couldbe free.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah, could be free.
John 20, 24 through 28 is whenJesus shows up to Thomas,
because Thomas is like I won'tbelieve it until I can put my
hand in the hole and all thiskind of stuff.
And Jesus shows up and he showshim his wounds and lets him put
his finger in it and he saysyou know, now believe, you know,
um, you know, when youtranslate the word wound here in
(18:24):
the original uh language, itmeans scar.
It's not a wound that we thinklike it was an open, open scab
that when you touch it it'sgoing to hurt and things.
And the way I landed this homewas that it means scar.
That Jesus didn't show Thomashis wounds.
He showed Thomas his scars.
There were no more nails there,the pain was gone, everything
(18:46):
that he endured had been healed.
Jesus was beat, he was stabbed,he was ridiculed, he was mocked
, spit in his face, he was hungon a cross, he was put to death.
But I'm so glad that Jesusdidn't come back to show us his
wounds, the pain, that he didn'ttalk about what he endured, he
didn't talk about the pain thathe encountered, but he
(19:07):
resurrected to show us his scars, that he's been healed, he's
been restored, he's beenredeemed, that there was no more
nails.
This was just scars to testifyhow God uses pain for purpose
and that you can be healed, youcan be set free.
What wounded me doesn't have tohold me forever.
(19:28):
What hurt me doesn't have tocontrol.
I can forgive, I can let go andI can walk in freedom.
Jesus is the example for that.
You can do it, you can ask for,you can forgive people in the
middle of pain and you can comeout and be and use your scars to
tell the story of God'sgoodness.
But the beautiful thing is, asyou continue to read, verse 30
(19:51):
says the disciples saw Jesus domany other miracles, miraculous
signs in addition to the onesrecorded.
Jesus was hung on a cross, died, resurrected, came back, said
hey, I'm here and continued towork, continued to perform
miracles after the resurrection,which means that the hurt
should not stop you from doingwhat God had called you to do.
(20:12):
God can still use you.
You can move on.
There's work to do.
Share your scars, and not yourwounds, with people.
Share your scars, not yourwounds, because this doesn't
mean that you've got to go havelunch or coffee with them every
Thursday night, when peopledon't hurt you.
There are people that think Ijust can never forgive them for
what they've done, or uh I'llforgive, but I'll never forget
(20:35):
yeah, I'll forgive it, I'llnever forget, and you know what?
that's fine, you don't have toforget, you don't have to forget
.
But you know it's so importantthat we forgive.
And we talked about a littlebit more things.
I gave them eight, eightreasons why you should forgive
with scriptures.
Uh, one.
Number one is God commands it.
Number two God forgave youfirst.
Three it reflects Christ's love.
(20:56):
Four is forgiveness bringshealing and freedom.
Five it restores relationships.
You know the passage in 2Corinthians 5, 17 says he's
given us the ministry ofreconciliation and of course it
means for us to reconcile peopleback to Christ.
But it's really hard for us toreconcile people back to christ
(21:18):
when we can't even be unifiedtogether, we can't learn to
forgive each other.
How can we have somebody bedraw somebody to a forgiving god
when we can't even forgive thepeople we're talking to?
Right, so it restores ourrelationships.
Number six forgivenessdemonstrates faith.
And number seven it is awitness to the world.
You know I said eight, there'sseven of them.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, it's a number completion.
That's right, we're done so.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
I wrapped it up with this.
I used an illustration.
Matthew 18 says that we remainspiritually imprisoned when we
don't forgive and we think thatit's just a little bit of
unforgiveness, it's just alittle bit of grudge, but we
don't realize that it issuffocating us spiritually.
And so I had one of our mencome up and I had him put his
(22:03):
hands like this and I wrappedrope around it, just around it.
He couldn't even budge.
And I said unforgiveness islike this rope it's creating
bondage for you to spirituallygrow.
I said try to open the Bible.
I brought him a Bible.
I said open it.
Turn to James.
He could not open.
I said hey, we just tookcommunion.
Can you open this communion cup?
He couldn't do it.
(22:23):
I said lift your hands inworship.
He couldn't.
And I said, hey.
I called another brother.
I said hey, why don't you givebrother a hug and fellowship
with him?
He couldn't hug him, hecouldn't embrace him, he
couldn't do the things that weas Christians get to do.
It was suffocating himspiritually.
And this is what happens.
And we think this is a smallthing, but it hinders us
(22:48):
dramatically, tremendously inour walk with Christ.
And we ended it with could thesechains of unforgiveness be the
reason that you don't see growthin your spiritual walk?
Could the bondage that thisunforgiving spirit has put on
you makes you feel like you'restagnant with God, or that that
door is never going to open?
We've got to search our heart.
We've got to forgive others,we've got to forgive ourselves.
(23:10):
That way way we can receive itfrom God.
So that's what our message was,man.
People came down, bro, it wasbeautiful.
Altars were full of people whohad unforgiveness in their heart
.
I told them hey, there's peoplein this building right now you
need to go to, you need to mendit, get it right, get it right.
Don't leave anything.
God is moving at our church,man.
I mean, it's something I'venever seen before.
(23:32):
It's like this huge wave.
It's that thing you don't everwant to stop.
It's a huge wave Like don't stop, don't stop.
People are coming down, man.
They're loving on one another,people are repenting, people are
forgiving.
It's this beautiful, powerfulthing, man.
I had stories after church.
I know this has nothing to dowith the sermon, but I'm going
to testify to God's goodness.
People were coming and said man, this week this is what God was
(23:53):
teaching me unforgiveness.
Man, I didn't realize there wasunforgiveness in my heart until
you said this and gave me thisexample.
God was setting people free,calling people, letting them
know they forgive them.
People released their chains ofunforgiveness that they brought
.
It was beautiful.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, that is beautiful man, man.
And that's why paul tells thechurch, he says, to fight for
the unity of peace.
Yeah, fight, fight for unity.
Yeah, because a church that isgrowing together, man, that is
in one mind and one accord weknow just from acts two, one
mind, one accord a churchwalking together in unity,
walking together in love, man isa, is a powerful and beautiful
thing yep, you are most, aremost like Jesus when you forgive
.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
It's not when you shout, it's not when you sing,
it's not when you dance aroundand you know, do all those
things, it's when you forgive.
You are most like Jesus whenyou forgive, and the greatest
defense against the enemy withinthe church is that we forgive
quickly and always.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Amen.
Well, glory you ready, I'm done, I'm fired up now I'm ready to
preach it again.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Give it to them.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Good morning God.
Hey, let's hear it at Pastor toPastor.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
You just about to say cross blood, boy, the church
blood, that's the ever-lyingchurch.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, now here at Pastor to Pastor, when we wrap
up, look, we'd like to send youoff with a priestly blessing and
we're going to do that fromnumber 6, 24 to 26.
It says the Lord bless you andkeep you.
The Lord make his face shineupon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up hiscountenance upon you and give
you peace.
Amen.
Hey, god bless you.
Thank you so much for joiningus here on pastor to pastor.
(25:34):
Uh, make sure you likesubscribe, share all those good
things, share with somebody, dosomething with it, do something
with it.
You know, I'm saying help usout, plant it down in there and
let it grow some fruit for thekingdom.
That's right.
But hey, thanks for checking usout.
We look forward to seeing youthe next time.
On pastor to pastor see youlater.
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