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Pastor to Pastor
Forgiveness Unlocked: Embracing Grace and Spiritual Freedom
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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.
it's another episode I love it, man, oh pastor the, the not knowing right the one that you have created. Opening a show, bro, is like a top tier.
Speaker 1I 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't know if it's just us. I don't know if the audience enjoys the suspense of wondering how it's going to start. I'm enjoying it. Well, I mean, hey, you know what that's important. That's what's important. Do we enjoy it?
Speaker 2right, yes, right, because we do this for us. Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to spend some more time with you. We've covered, man. We covered what I preached about this past Sunday. So, man, let's hear about what old Pastor Seth preached down at the Lion Church. Oh, you ready to go right in you, ready to go right up in it?
Speaker 1huh, let's just dig on in while we're wasting time.
Speaker 2All right, come on, get your plate, because I'm getting ready to feed you something I'm over here, you know me.
Speaker 1I got a fork and knife, a little napkin in he's ready son?
Speaker 2Yeah, man, we're still in our series of divided loyalty. This past Sunday, bro, we talked about something people don't want to deal with. Can you guess?
Speaker 1Accountability.
Speaker 2Unforgiveness.
Speaker 1Unforgiveness.
Speaker 2Yeah, we live a divided loyalty to our forgiveness. We want God to forgive us, but we don't want to give any forgiveness to anybody else. I love what Matthew 18, Peter says. Peter came to him and asked Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times, it's like Paul's, like Peter's, like, seven seems to be the number of completeness, you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think that's enough. That'd be plenty.
Speaker 2But you know, jesus is like nope, not seven times, but 70 times seven. I said so. There are two things that you learn about. There's only two ways to forgive, right, only two ways to forgive, and it is quickly and always. Quickly and always. Never let unforgiveness rest in your heart. You mean, we can't hold grudges.
Speaker 1No, no, no, no, we can't stay upset.
Speaker 2No, no, no, no. Don't do that. That's a bad place to be right.
Speaker 1Don't let anger go down, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Oh, that's right, I'm sorry, go ahead. That's what the bible says. Let you preach it.
Speaker 2Yeah, 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 the foundation of our Christian faith. Let me say it like this Without forgiveness you would not be received in heaven. It requires forgiveness and repentance of sin.
Speaker 2And so what I know about people is that we're great at asking for forgiveness of our sins, but we are not good at offering forgiveness of our sins. And what we think is, as long as I avoid the person or the person is not close to me, then I'm good. But forgiveness has nothing to do with proximity. Forgiveness has to do with your heart, right, and so you just can't block them out of your life and say I'm good, because God isn't looking at what's around 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 last part of that prayer, verse 15,. It says if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But everybody say but. But if you refuse to forgive others, your father would not forgive your sins. Your father would not forgive your sins.
Speaker 1It'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 2Matthew, chapter 6, that's exactly what it is the Lord's Prayer. That's right. Look at you. You know a little bit of the Bible. A little bit, a little bit. You know the greatest risk. This is what I share. The greatest risk of our church in these days is not that we may lose a musician, or we may lose money or a pastor or staff. It's not that we may lose a building or even our reputation. The greatest risk of the church today is that we may lose heaven, and many of us are going to lose heaven because we would rather hold on to this grudge and unforgiveness than to receive forgiveness. Because what does the scripture say?
Speaker 1That if we don't forgive, he doesn't forgive us, and oftentimes I think people confuse forgiveness with reconciliation.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Forgiveness takes one, reconciliation takes two, that's right. But anyway, go ahead. Yeah, no, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 2We talked about it a little bit. You know it's this mentality If you refuse to forgive, god will forgive you. And we have this grace-filled society that we live in and we have this thing. Well, you know what Love is enough. Love is enough. I can treat people however I want to. I can live however I want to. I can do what I want. You know why? Because Jesus loves me, and you know that is true. Jesus loves you and our life is full of grace, thank God. Thanks be to God for grace and mercy and his love, but those are not excuses to not obey his word.
Speaker 1Right. In fact he says if you love me, you'll keep my command. That's right.
Speaker 2And there is a responsibility that we have as Christians. There are steps to take, there are 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 words that jesus said I can just see standing up for heaven.
Speaker 1Be like lord. Just scroll through my facebook.
Speaker 2I posted scriptures up there all the time. Did you see those scriptures? I know the word.
Speaker 1I might not have lived it, but I knew, knew it Got a head full of knowledge but a heart full of something else. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2You 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.
Speaker 2You know, I used this example before. Taylor was leaving the house one day. And Taylor's my wife. If you don't know her Beautiful, she, taylor's my wife. If you don't know her Beautiful woman, love her to death, shout out to her. She was telling me hey, the dishes in the dishwasher are dirty. I've already got them in there. Let me show you what to do. You're going to take this little pod, You're going to put it in here, you're going to shut it. Then you're going to shut the dishwasher and press this, this before I leave. I mean after I leave. Okay, yeah, sure, when I'm done I'll do it. Okay, taylor got home and guess what?
Speaker 1It wasn't done. It was not done. How did I know that?
Speaker 2See, here's the thing.
Speaker 1What happened was here's the thing.
Speaker 2I could teach anybody how to use that dishwasher. Yeah, I knew exactly how to do it. But you know what? Those dishes were still dirty and many of us still live a dirty and a stained life because we can quote scripture and we know all about it, but we don't know how to obey it.
The Power of Forgiveness in Betrayal
Speaker 1Man, I've done this. I've used this illustration before. I say I'm a pretty, what I would consider. I've looked at some other parents over time that I'm old school. I'm pretty straightforward, pretty strict. Yeah, If I tell my kid to go down there and clean his room and I go down there 30 minutes later and I check to see if his room's clean, I don't care if he remembers what I said. I don't care if he remembers what exactly I said and he can quote it in French, in Japanese, in Aramaic, in Hebrew. When I go down to the end of the 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 full of people who can do that. They can quote scripture, they can read it in the Hebrew and the Aramaic and you can do all these different things, but they still ain't doing what the word says yeah, they're going to be just like the Pharisees, who knew all about the Bible but couldn't even see Jesus in front of them.
Speaker 2Right? Yeah, I mean who killed Jesus, the people who loved the Bible. They knew the Word, but they couldn't even see the one in front of them, right? So I talked a little bit about that. You've got to believe the Word and you've got to obey the Word. He says if you want to be forgiven, you have got to forgive, and don't keep tally 70 times 7 is just this mindset that I'm going to forgive quickly and I'm going to give often.
Speaker 1At 491,. I ain't got to forgive you, right, right.
Speaker 2If you're keeping count, you're really not really having the Father's heart for the people.
Speaker 2We 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 talked about this man that owed another person uh, his master, uh millions of dollars. And he asked uh, he told him. He said I want you to repay me. And he was like I can't, would you please? He begged and pleaded him please, 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 and finds somebody that owes him just $1,000. And he didn't have the money to pay. And the guy begged and said please, please, please, give me more time. And instead of giving him more time and grace that he just received for millions of dollars, the man locks him up in prison until the debt is paid.
Speaker 2And the bible says in the latter parts of this verse, it says uh, I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant just to have mercy on you? Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he paid his entire debt. That's what the heavenly father will do to you If you refuse to forgive others. Forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart. From your heart. He's teaching us that the greatest way for us to appreciate forgiveness from him is to give it to others. To give it to others.
Speaker 2I love this quote from Louis Smides. It says to forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that that prisoner was you. Man, I'm telling you there's a lot of freedom when you start to forgive people, even if they don't even ask for it. It's just this weight that is lifted from you and you know, it might not be unforgiveness and this little grudge thing might be little to you, but God, it is a big deal and it's more than just holding a grudge, pastor Jay. You're actually putting something in between you and God. It comes between your intimacy with him.
Speaker 2That's why Scripture says if you've got a problem with somebody, or you know they've got a problem with you, before you bring your offerings or sacrifices to me, you better go make it right. Right, because right now it's just emotion. I'm not blessing this because you've got something in your heart that's not pure towards somebody. Yeah, get that right. Then bring your sacrifices and I will receive them. He's saying get this stuff done because you can't be as intimate as you should be in a relationship with me. So what I do, knowing this, knowing this, is in the word I forgive people, people because I love God, and my love for God is greater than my hurt from people.
Speaker 1Right, that's good.
Speaker 2Don't put your hurt above your love for God. Let God he can heal you. And we think this I'll forgive after I'm healed and after I'm better, and you know. But healing comes when you forgive. That is the remedy. True forgiveness is what's going to bring healing. If you're waiting on healing to forgive, you're doing it backwards. That's not how it works. Okay, you got the sequence wrong here, right? So here's another truth that I understand and we know to be true We've all been hurt by people close and people distant from us. It's easier to forgive people who are not as close to us as the people that are closest to us that hurt us. Right, it's easier to forgive them. But could it be that the betrayal and pain that we get from people that are close to us put us in positions for purpose?
Speaker 1Could be.
Speaker 2I mean, you look at let's just look at the biblical precedence for a conversation like this or a statement like that. Joseph was betrayed almost his whole life. Right, you know? If you don't know about Joseph, he was the favorite son. He got a coat of many colors and he strutted his stuff with that coat His brother wasn't happy, he was peacocking around.
Speaker 2You know what I'm saying and it wasn't that the coat that made him too mad, but it's that his dreams 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, then decided the pit wasn't good enough. They was going to sell him, and not only sell him into slavery. They was going to take that jacket and rip it up and put some blood on it and convince his daddy that he was dead. That's a bad story right there, son. So then he goes and he becomes somebody in the in the king's house, and, uh, he's a cup holder. And parifer's wife comes in and she's mad because he's close to god, but he, she, can't get close 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 agitated the devil in her, and so she and lied on him to the king. Then, long story short, it circles back around and he becomes the second in command, right Second in command, and the dream comes true.
Speaker 2We know Joseph now to be the man who went from the pit to the palace, but it all started with betrayal. Yeah, it all started with betrayal. The dream would not have come true unless he was put into slavery and had an opportunity to build himself up in the low place, to be in a high place. Betrayal led him. Look at Jesus.
Speaker 2Jesus was betrayed many times. Matter of fact, many of us betray him every week. You come to church on a Sunday, you lift your hands, you worship and say you're going to change. The next day you go back to the same 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 common people that we know betrayed him Judas. Judas is at the table. He's like my betrayer is here and Judas is like't he did I do that like steve urkel, get up off the table. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, you did do that. He betrayed him. Then you got peter, who's like man, I'm your right hand, bro, I ain't never going to deny you. It's just like hold up hold up.
Speaker 1Now there's gonna be a ruser that's gonna grow and you're gonna do it three times.
Speaker 2Yeah, he knows what betraying is like, but the most beautiful thing that we get out of jesus's betrayal of Jesus' betrayal that positions him into purpose is that he is being beat, he's being spit at, he's being ridiculed, he's being stabbed by people he's dying for. I mean, really think about this man, really think about this. He is literally looking down at people who he is loving so much, that are doing all this pain to him and yet he's still dying for them.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then he even says Father, forgive them.
Speaker 2Father, forgive them, right, right. One of the things that we ended our message was that statement that while he's in the middle of pain, he's saying Father, forgive them.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2They don't know what they're doing, which proves to us that, in the middle of your pain, you can still forgive.
Speaker 1Yeah, you don't have to wait. Yeah, absolutely. And it also should bring you perspective from Christ that a lot of times when people hurt you, they don't know what spirit they're operating. Yeah, they don't know, they don'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 doing whatever. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1I would even argue the fact that they even know really what they're doing yeah, I mean, how would you like to be peter standing in front of jesus and he says, satan, get behind me right you know, I mean, oh, I saw a video.
Speaker 2Man, I'm sorry you made me think about. This is about that statement, right there.
Speaker 1Satan.
Speaker 2It's this guy who's like Peter in that moment, when he's like Satan.
Speaker 1get behind me and he goes behind the guy and he's like Satan, he's like what Satan?
Speaker 2He's like Satan oh.
Speaker 1Satan oh.
Finding Purpose Through Scars
Speaker 2Satan. What do you mean? Satan get behind you. But that's right, bro. But you know, if we truly believe that god orders our steps, the good, the bad, the ugly, if my steps lead me to betrayal, I receive the hurt and I believe that I receive the betrayal and I give forgiveness because betrayal is just part of my story. Sometimes we got to see not the pain but see the plan of God in 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 said against you were for you because they were part of your story. I don't know about you, but I'm grateful for some of the pain that I've experienced. I've grown from it, I've developed from those and I've become better out of that pain, developed from those and I've become better out of that pain. God can use those things. That's why James says consider joy when you face these trials and things, because it's perfecting you, it's creating endurance in you, it's strengthening you. So do you have something?
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 takes time to teach us, because that's what the word does. I mean it teaches us, it renews our mind, like like we talked about for my sermon, but it it shows us how we're supposed to act and how we're supposed to be and how we're supposed to do things. He takes time to even teach, a parable to teach you. You have been forgiven of so much. If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. Yet we find every excuse in the book to not be obedient and we expect to stand before a holy God and say I've done what you told me to do. I mean for Jesus to not only make a parable specifically for this, to teach us.
Speaker 2And a prayer.
Speaker 1Yeah and a prayer, and then get up on a cross and be the example why he's dying.
Speaker 1How important that is for us to emulate, 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 for us to not take that seriously and feel like we just we have a right to be mad, or we have a right to hate someone or a right to be angry with someone, and for me, my pastor heart, that hurts because I know I know there are people who walk around hurt out of choice man, who are offended out of choice right, walk around hurt out of choice man, who are offended out of choice Right and hate people out of choice Right when they need to be set an example and live in the example Christ gave Could be free.
Speaker 2Yeah, could be free. John 20, 24 through 28 is when Jesus shows up to Thomas, because Thomas is like I won't believe it until I can put my hand in the hole and all this kind of stuff. And Jesus shows up and he shows him his wounds and lets him put his finger in it and he says you know, now believe, you know, um, you know, when you translate the word wound here in the original uh language, it means scar. It's not a wound that we think like it was an open, open scab that when you touch it it's going to hurt and things. And the way I landed this home was that it means scar.
Speaker 2That Jesus didn't show Thomas his wounds. He showed Thomas his scars. There were no more nails there, the pain was gone, everything that he endured had been healed. Jesus was beat, he was stabbed, he was ridiculed, he was mocked, spit in his face, he was hung on a cross, he was put to death. But I'm so glad that Jesus didn't come back to show us his wounds, the pain, that he didn't talk about what he endured, he didn't talk about the pain that he encountered, but he resurrected to show us his scars, that he's been healed, he's been restored, he's been redeemed, that there was no more nails.
Speaker 2This was just scars to testify how God uses pain for purpose and that you can be healed, you can be set free. What wounded me doesn't have to hold me forever. What hurt me doesn't have to control. I can forgive, I can let go and I 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 come out and be and use your scars to tell the story of God's goodness.
Speaker 2But the beautiful thing is, as you continue to read, verse 30 says the disciples saw Jesus do many other miracles, miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded. Jesus was hung on a cross, died, resurrected, came back, said hey, I'm here and continued to work, continued to perform miracles after the resurrection, which means that the hurt should not stop you from doing what God had called you to do. God can still use you. You can move on. There's work to do. Share your scars, and not your wounds, with people. Share your scars, not your wounds, because this doesn't mean that you've got to go have lunch or coffee with them every Thursday night, when people don't hurt you. There are people that think I just can never forgive them for what they've done, or uh I'll forgive, but I'll never forget yeah, I'll forgive it, I'll never forget, and you know what?
Speaker 2that's fine, you don't have to forget, you don't have to forget. But you know it's so important that we forgive. And we talked about a little bit more things. I gave them eight, eight reasons why you should forgive with scriptures. Uh, one. Number one is God commands it. Number two God forgave you first. Three it reflects Christ's love. Four is forgiveness brings healing and freedom. Five it restores relationships. You know the passage in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says he's given us the ministry of reconciliation and of course it means for us to reconcile people back to Christ. But it's really hard for us to reconcile people back to christ when we can't even be unified together, we can't learn to forgive each other. How can we have somebody be draw somebody to a forgiving god when we can't even forgive the people we're talking to? Right, so it restores our relationships. Number six forgiveness demonstrates faith. And number seven it is a witness to the world. You know I said eight, there's seven of them.
Speaker 1Well, it's a number completion. That's right, we're done so.
Speaker 2I wrapped it up with this. I used an illustration. Matthew 18 says that we remain spiritually imprisoned when we don't forgive and we think that it's just a little bit of unforgiveness, it's just a little bit of grudge, but we don't realize that it is suffocating us spiritually. And so I had one of our men come up and I had him put his hands like this and I wrapped rope around it, just around it. He couldn't even budge. And I said unforgiveness is like this rope it's creating bondage for you to spiritually grow. 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 took communion. Can you open this communion cup? He couldn't do it. I said lift your hands in worship. He couldn't. And I said, hey. I called another brother. I said hey, why don't you give brother a hug and fellowship with him? He couldn't hug him, he couldn't embrace him, he couldn't do the things that we as Christians get to do. It was suffocating him spiritually. And this is what happens. And we think this is a small thing, but it hinders us dramatically, tremendously in our walk with Christ.
Speaker 2And we ended it with could these chains of unforgiveness be the reason that you don't see growth in your spiritual walk? Could the bondage that this unforgiving spirit has put on you makes you feel like you're stagnant 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. That way way we can receive it from God. So that's what our message was, man. People came down, bro, it was beautiful. Altars were full of people who had unforgiveness in their heart. I told them hey, there's people in this building right now you need to go to, you need to mend it, get it right, get it right. Don't leave anything. God is moving at our church, man. I mean, it's something I've never seen before. It's like this huge wave. It's that thing you don't ever want to stop.
Speaker 2It'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, powerful thing, man. I had stories after church. I know this has nothing to do with 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 teaching me unforgiveness. Man, I didn't realize there was unforgiveness in my heart until you said this and gave me this example. God was setting people free, calling people, letting them know they forgive them. People released their chains of unforgiveness that they brought. It was beautiful.
Speaker 1Yeah, that is beautiful man, man. And that's why paul tells the church, he says, to fight for the unity of peace. Yeah, fight, fight for unity. Yeah, because a church that is growing together, man, that is in one mind and one accord we know just from acts two, one mind, one accord a church walking together in unity, walking together in love, man is a, is a powerful and beautiful thing yep, you are most, are most like Jesus when you forgive.
Speaker 2It's not when you shout, it's not when you sing, it's not when you dance around and you know, do all those things, it's when you forgive. You are most like Jesus when you forgive, and the greatest defense against the enemy within the church is that we forgive quickly and always.
Speaker 1Amen. Well, glory you ready, I'm done, I'm fired up now I'm ready to preach it again.
Speaker 2Give it to them.
Speaker 1Good morning God. Hey, let's hear it at Pastor to Pastor.
Speaker 2You just about to say cross blood, boy, the church blood, that's the ever-lying church.
Speaker 1Yeah, now here at Pastor to Pastor, when we wrap up, look, we'd like to send you off with a priestly blessing and we're going to do that from number 6, 24 to 26. It says the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Hey, god bless you. Thank you so much for joining us here on pastor to pastor. Uh, make sure you like subscribe, share all those good things, share with somebody, do something with it, do something with it. You know, I'm saying help us out, plant it down in there and let it grow some fruit for the kingdom. That's right. But hey, thanks for checking us out. We look forward to seeing you the next time. On pastor to pastor see you later.
