SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Would you join me in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we want to thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you're a God that is so much more full of grace than we can even imagine, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's no sin that we can sin that's beyond your grace.
SPEAKER_00: There's no one that's hurt us in a way that's beyond your grace that you haven't forgiven, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning we get more of an understanding of how great your grace toward us is, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that we'd realize that we're giving out of a wealth of grace and not just a little bit of grace, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come?
SPEAKER_00: Would you speak to us this morning, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: We came this morning because we believe you're going to speak.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that you would, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have you all this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be in 1 John chapter 2, verses 3 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: If you guys want to go ahead and turn there, I'll give you a little bit of background.
SPEAKER_00: The question that people are asking this morning in this text is they're asking, do I really know God?
SPEAKER_00: Am I really a child of God?
SPEAKER_00: Would if I ask God right now, would he say that I'm his or not?
SPEAKER_00: And the reason they're struggling with this question is false teachers have come into their town and into their church, and they're spreading this stuff that it's just, it's it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gotten their thinking really messed up, right?
SPEAKER_00: So John is writing to them, and he's writing to them, if you look at 2 1, we're not, this isn't the passage we're looking at today, but in 2-1, he refers to them as my little children.
SPEAKER_00: My little children.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of says a couple of things to me.
SPEAKER_00: One, it says that they're they're members of the church that he's we're talking about today.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that are in the church, and this is a question they have.
SPEAKER_00: Do I know God?
SPEAKER_00: Also, him referring to them as little children, that that kind of shows how old that John is at this point.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, I saw he's he's probably somewhere between 70 and 90 years old when he writes this book.
SPEAKER_00: This is an old elderly man writing to them, and he's writing to them because he's he is upset about what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that he loves dearly, and he loves them enough to refer to them as children.
SPEAKER_00: Because he sees them as his spiritual children.
SPEAKER_00: And these false teachers have come in and have messed with them, and they're believing things that aren't true anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And John's upset.
SPEAKER_00: Like in this in this entire book, John, there's there's some there's some anger in John.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, What who why have you allowed these false teachers to come in and teach you wrong things?
SPEAKER_00: And this is John contending for the faith throughout the book.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why some of it is so sharp.
SPEAKER_00: He's so direct on some of it.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, that's false, this is true.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so that that's what we're gonna be looking at today.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at chapter two, and we want to start in verse three, and we'll read through to verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: 2, 3 to 11.
SPEAKER_00: And by this we know that we have come to know him.
SPEAKER_00: If we keep his commandments, whoever says I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth's not in him.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever keeps his word, in him truly, the love of God is perfected.
SPEAKER_00: By this we may know we are in him.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I'm writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, it's a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves his brother abides in light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's what we're gonna look at.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at two, three to six first, and then we'll look at two uh seven through eleven.
SPEAKER_00: So three to six, something to notice as you look at this section, the word no is in there four times.
SPEAKER_00: So that should be that should be setting off alarm bells.
SPEAKER_00: You should be like, all right, no is important here because it's repeated multiple times.
SPEAKER_00: So no at this time in history, it means something a little different than it does today.
SPEAKER_00: Today, you can know something if you just intellectually understand it.
SPEAKER_00: But back then there was more to knowing than that.
SPEAKER_00: You needed to intellectually understand it, you needed to experience it emotionally, but the but the key thing to knowing was you couldn't know something unless you actually lived it out.
SPEAKER_00: If you really knew something, you would begin to live it out.
SPEAKER_00: It would start to affect your life, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what John is really advocating for here.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying if if you really know God, it's gonna start to affect your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna begin to live out his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: So for all of us, everybody in this room, we've all sinned, and what we deserve for that sin, we we we have a we have a debt to God that we could never repay.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we owe God trillions of dollars, and there's no way for us to ever raise that kind of money.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, for each and every one of us, at one point in our life, the creator of the universe, his wrath was against us.
SPEAKER_00: His wrath was against us.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus did on the cross is we are now completely forgiven of all of that sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're wiped completely clean.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has declared us righteous in him, and and our sins are gone.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty drastic change.
SPEAKER_00: And if that has happened to you, there should you be able to see that in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So let's say somebody came up to me this morning in in first service, and they say, Hey Brent, I want to tell you a story about what happened to me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was driving down 59, and as I'm driving down 59, my car ran out of gas.
SPEAKER_00: And so I cruised over by the curb and I parked it there, and I was just gonna walk to a gas station to get some more gas for my car.
SPEAKER_00: I had a I had a little um uh container that I could get gas in.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm walking with my container down the side of the road, and uh I made sure I was over because I know it's dangerous, it's a big highway, and I look over my shoulder and I see this semi and it's coming toward me, but it's in its lane, so I figured I'd be okay.
SPEAKER_00: I continue to walk, and the only reason I'm able to tell you this part is because I I was able, I talked to the semi-driver afterward.
SPEAKER_00: This semi-driver was driving in his lane and suddenly a squirrel cut in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: And to miss the squirrel, he swerved and that semi just smashed into me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it hit me hard.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if somebody told me that story and they're standing there telling it to me, I would immediately have some questions.
SPEAKER_00: I would be like, when did this happen?
SPEAKER_00: It happened this morning at 7 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Why aren't you at a hospital right now?
SPEAKER_00: I'm fine.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I look at you right now and there's no scratches, no bruises, you're you're completely fine.
SPEAKER_00: What do you see what I'd start to question?
SPEAKER_00: I'd start to say, has this, did you actually get hit by a semi-truck?
SPEAKER_00: Because a semi-ruck should be a pretty powerful experience.
SPEAKER_00: Most people get hit by semi-trucks and they're dead, or they're at least in the hospital with some broken bones, and you're standing here, you don't have a scratch on you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm questioning whether or not this actually happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of what John is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, if Jesus really has come into your life and he's really forgiven you of all of that sin, it should begin to change the way you lived.
SPEAKER_00: You should begin to hate the things that God hates and love the things that he loves more and more.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe previously there was somebody in your life that you hated and you should begin to love them.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe previously you didn't even know where the nation of Yemen was, but now you know where Yemen is and you know it's an impoverished place, it's a predominantly Muslim place, and now you're praying for that country that they would come to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're someone that um your relationship with your parents isn't great.
SPEAKER_00: There's unforgiveness, there's bitterness there, you're mad at them, and you become a follower of Jesus and you start to realize that I can't, I kind of have some hatred toward my parents.
SPEAKER_00: God's not gonna let me stay here.
SPEAKER_00: I I need to I need to work on forgiving and reconciling with them, and you begin to work on that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're somebody that you used to see homeless people along the side of the road, and you say, Man, they need to get a job.
SPEAKER_00: And now you see homeless people along the side of the road, and God's beginning to change your heart, and you're like, man, if Jesus hadn't come into my life, I probably would be just like them.
SPEAKER_00: God, what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_00: How can how can I begin to help and serve these people?
SPEAKER_00: What John's saying is your heart needs to begin to change.
SPEAKER_00: It can't just stay where it is and you say you're you're a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just, you can't purposely go and do wrong things that you know are wrong over and over and say, Yeah, I still love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What John says here, he says, if you do that, if you don't keep his commandments, you're a liar.
SPEAKER_00: The truth's not in you.
SPEAKER_00: So my wife and I, we've been married about 15 years now.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually 16, 16 years now.
SPEAKER_00: And I know my wife, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I know my wife pretty well.
SPEAKER_00: I know what she likes, I know what she dislikes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, my wife, our community group's coming over this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that because the community group's coming over, we're gonna have to clean the house because my wife likes a house to be cleaned before we have people over.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty normal thing.
SPEAKER_00: I know that my wife likes, she loves really good coffee, like a nice dark roast.
SPEAKER_00: I know just how to make it just exactly the way she likes it.
SPEAKER_00: She loves good coffee.
SPEAKER_00: I know that when I pray for my wife, yeah, I can pray for her on my own, but what my wife really likes is if I pray for her there with her in person.
SPEAKER_00: She loves that.
SPEAKER_00: And I know it's a little weird for us guys, but I'll bet if you ask your wife, she probably likes the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: They like when you pray for them in person.
SPEAKER_00: My wife loves Mexican food.
SPEAKER_00: I used to, up in Pennsylvania, I used to think that we had good Mexican restaurants.
SPEAKER_00: And then we came down here, and my wife showed me what real Mexican food was.
SPEAKER_00: It's it is better down here.
SPEAKER_00: You're she's right.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a restaurant in Florida, it's a noodle restaurant, and I think that's probably my wife's favorite restaurant she's ever been to.
SPEAKER_00: She she loves that restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: I know that my wife loves our kids deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if any of you ever mess with our kids, my wife would fight you to the death.
SPEAKER_00: She loves them so much.
SPEAKER_00: I don't question that about her at all.
SPEAKER_00: So I know all these things, and I could go on and on.
SPEAKER_00: But what if, knowing all that about my wife, I choose to live the opposite?
SPEAKER_00: What if this afternoon I know the community group's coming over?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna mess the house up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get the clothes out, throw them everywhere, the spaghetti that's on the stove, I'm gonna throw it across the floor, go open the door.
SPEAKER_00: Come on in, guys, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe even worse, what if I made her made her Folgers coffee for breakfast this morning?
SPEAKER_00: She would not be happy.
SPEAKER_00: If I did that, what would you guys say of me?
SPEAKER_00: You'd say, Brent, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Like you're doing stuff that is is almost purposely upsetting your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can't say you love her and continue to do these kind of things to her.
SPEAKER_00: You see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus has given us this entire book, and he said, This is how you need to live.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not just he's not just giving us a bunch of rules.
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you live the way this book says, it it's for your joy.
SPEAKER_00: The only way you will experience true joy is to do what this book says.
SPEAKER_00: And if you refuse to do that, just like I break my wife's heart, when I know what she wants and I choose to do the opposite, when you know what this says and you choose to do the opposite, you break God's heart as well.
SPEAKER_00: And and and that's not what we're called to do.
SPEAKER_00: And John says that if you do that, that you're a liar.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's not why we're we we we started going to church.
SPEAKER_00: And so um I've often heard people share their testimony, and when they share their testimony, they'll say something like this.
SPEAKER_00: They'll say, you know, my husband and I, we started going to church and now we're followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's basically their testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And when they do that, I'm kind of like, how do I know if you're a Christian or not from that?
SPEAKER_00: Because going to church doesn't make you a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't go home and stick my head in the oven and come out a brownie.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, that doesn't work, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you can't just come to church and I'm a believer because I go to church.
SPEAKER_00: I know in Texas it's popular to go to church, but that that is not what saves you.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing that saves you is actually you're going this way, you're you're sending it up, and you realize that's not the right way.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You turn from your sin, you begin to follow Jesus, and he begins to slowly but surely change your heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's what John's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He's not talking about perfection, he's talking about what Neil talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus has done for us is he's given you, his righteousness has been uh imparted to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's been declared over your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're 100% righteous in him.
SPEAKER_00: That is true.
SPEAKER_00: But it's also true that this side of heaven, you're not gonna be perfect and you're still gonna mess up and have your struggles.
SPEAKER_00: But what this text is talking about is are you actually still going toward Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is that your trajectory of your life, or are you going the other way and rebelling against him?
SPEAKER_00: One way you can know that you're a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're still going through him, toward him, and you stumble and you fall sometimes, you can know that you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But if you can't identify any time, any point of change in your life or any time where you start going toward him and followed his commandments, and your heart hasn't changed, well then you're not a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's carry on.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to 2, 7 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: 2, 7 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Beloved, I'm writing to you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The old commandment is the word that you've heard.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, it's a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in him and in you.
SPEAKER_00: And let's just stop there for a second.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, John, when he writes, I think he's speaking in riddles sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Like I read, like when I first read that, I'm like, I don't know what that I don't get it at first.
SPEAKER_00: You have to sit there and kind of marinate in it a little bit to kind of get it to start to make sense in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: And as I sat and I thought about this, here's what I think he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a lot of time this morning, so I'm just gonna kind of jump to what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna skip a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying there was an old, there was this old commandment, and the commandment was to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: And that commandment, that's still true today, but it's it's a new commandment today, and it's new in this sense.
SPEAKER_00: It's new in the sense that Jesus has come and he's actually lived that out now.
SPEAKER_00: Like he's not just telling you to love, he shows you how to love.
SPEAKER_00: And now your understanding of love goes deeper.
SPEAKER_00: And it goes deeper because Jesus has said it's not just about loving people, but it's this self-sacrificing kind of love where you're even willing to die for people if need be, that they could come to know Jesus or grow in him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a story in the New Testament that kind of illustrates this.
SPEAKER_00: It's this story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jewish people at this time in history, they kind of thought, you know, we just need to reach the Jews and we're good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't calling us to reach anybody outside of the Jewish kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus, this this lawyer, one of the Jewish lawyers, comes up to him and and he starts to have this interaction and he tells him a story of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: And the story is basically there's this guy that gets beat up and left along the side of the road.
SPEAKER_00: A priest goes by him, a Levite goes by him, both kind of today would be modern day preachers, right?
SPEAKER_00: So modern-day preachers just walk right by this guy by the side of the road, and then finally a Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: A Samaritan is someone who's part Jewish and they're part Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: Gentile is just a non-Jewish person, that's their racial background.
SPEAKER_00: So the Samaritan comes by and that would be somebody the Jews would look down on.
SPEAKER_00: The Samaritan comes by and helps this guy, pays for his hotel, takes him to a doctor, gets him cleaned up, and Jesus is basically saying to him that that the Samaritan is how you should live and not the way that your preachers treated that guy.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying with the story is it he's breaking some things down and he's saying, regardless of their race or their rank in society, they're equally loved by me and they need to be equally pursued.
SPEAKER_00: I died on the cross for each and every one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're poor or you're rich, I love you the same.
SPEAKER_00: And so you see, Jesus came and he proclaimed a new kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: Jews in that day, they had this saying, the rabbis taught them this.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles, again, that's people that just aren't Jewish.
SPEAKER_00: Gentiles, they said that these Gentiles, they're created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty strong statement.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what the Jews believed about Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus comes and he tells them the story of the Good Samaritan, just breaking that all down and saying, That's not, that's not how my kingdom operates.
SPEAKER_00: My kingdom's for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so this text continues and it says that's true in him, and it's true in you.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus lived that out, but he's also calling you to live it out.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next passage it says, the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: So you think of the people in this time period.
SPEAKER_00: They got these false teachers in their town, and I'm sure there were people in the town that were like, man, culture is falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: We're all fighting each other, we got these false teachers, this guy saying this, we got this guy saying this.
SPEAKER_00: This must be the end of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Things are just getting worse and worse.
SPEAKER_00: And this this old man John comes walking in and he says, uh-uh, that's not what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: The darkness, even in the here and now, is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: Let me bring this into the modern day.
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh Ukraine just got invaded by Russia.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us we look at that and we're like, man, things, this isn't good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this could this could end up, this could lead to World War III.
SPEAKER_00: That could happen.
SPEAKER_00: We look at our culture here in America and we're like, man, we got COVID.
SPEAKER_00: We have critical race theory, we have we have parents that send their kids to homeschool, and parents send their kids to public school, and parents that do private school.
SPEAKER_00: We are so divided as a society.
SPEAKER_00: We got Democrats, we got Republicans, we like our society is so divided, like things are just getting worse and worse, it's not going well.
SPEAKER_00: And what what John would say to you, and what God would say to you this morning, is that's that's not what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
SPEAKER_00: In their day and in our day, that is what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: God's kingdom is forcefully advancing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we got to see that video of Jill and Chris.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the only ones.
SPEAKER_00: God is restoring marriages, God is setting men free from their porn addictions, God is setting young women free from their addiction to anxiety and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's happening.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing.
SPEAKER_00: He says in here that the darkness is passing away.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I picture that almost like it's like Satan's on his deathbed and he's throwing darts at you and trying to mess your life up.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan and his demons are already defeated.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus defeated them at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the light is shining.
SPEAKER_00: We should be full of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Because the kingdom is constantly expanding.
SPEAKER_00: 9 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever says he's in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there's no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like another test almost for whether or not they they really know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a test that, again, we we've all had to wrestle with.
SPEAKER_00: Like, who among us has not been hurt by someone else in their life?
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's been through their words, their actions, maybe their hands, all of us have been hurt by someone.
SPEAKER_00: I wish it wasn't true, but we're all sinners and we've all been hurt by other people.
SPEAKER_00: We we carry that hurt with us.
SPEAKER_00: And what John is saying here is he's saying, you know, if you if you're if you walk in the light, then you're doing good, but if if you hate your brother, you're not walking in the light anymore, you're walking in darkness now.
SPEAKER_00: And and he says, he says, whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and there's no cause for stumbling.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're somebody that, do you guys remember those seasons in your life where there was you just didn't have any issues with anyone?
SPEAKER_00: There was there was no unforgiveness in your life, and life is just rosy and wonderful and good, and you're full of vision for God, and there's just no stumbling blocks in your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God wants us to live.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he wants us to live.
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, that's just not always how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Um this week, as I was preparing this passage, I woke up one morning and my wife and I we began to talk.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife said to me, she said, Brent, you know, I'm really excited to hear your sermon on forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And I had just woken up, so I was very direct back with her.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing about forgiveness in that passage.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and my wife was like, I think there is.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you've actually studied it that well yet.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I hadn't, I hadn't completed studying it yet.
SPEAKER_00: I was only part way through.
SPEAKER_00: So I disagreed with her in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: I got to the office and I realized my wife's right.
SPEAKER_00: It is about forgiveness that is in here.
SPEAKER_00: And once I realized that, this heaviness came on me.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm driving my car and I'm about to cry, and I'm like, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I so sad all of a sudden?
SPEAKER_00: And then it hit me.
SPEAKER_00: I knew what it was.
SPEAKER_00: I have a relationship in my life that's broken.
SPEAKER_00: And this person, I've done everything I can to reconcile with them.
SPEAKER_00: I've gone to counseling with this person, I have met with them, the two of us, and tried to work it out.
SPEAKER_00: I've met with them and with another person trying to work it out.
SPEAKER_00: I've done everything you can possibly do to try to reconcile a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: I've I have repented of my sin, I've told them what I did wrong, I've asked for their forgiveness, and I've forgiven them.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what hasn't happened.
SPEAKER_00: We have not reconciled.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we haven't reconciled is because this person has refused to admit that they've done anything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: When they've kind of been the one who's done the most wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a person I love.
SPEAKER_00: And so every time I have to speak on forgiveness or something, my heart just gets heavy because I want, I so want this to be fixed, and there's nothing I can do about it besides pray for them, which is a powerful thing to do about it.
SPEAKER_00: But I I'm a doer, I want to do more than that, but I I just I can't right now.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think what I'm wondering this morning, for any of you, do you have anybody like that?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody that you maybe you've forgiven, maybe you haven't even forgiven them?
SPEAKER_00: And and it and it there's a heaviness on your heart right now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I when I've had people like this that I've needed to forgive, a process that Gone through is I often start to think, you know, what they did to me was so bad, so harsh, so cruel.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they deserve my forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I think they deserve to suffer for this.
SPEAKER_00: I think when we're in that place, I think Jesus comes to us and he says, you know, I actually went to the cross for that sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think what we think is we think that being a Christian that we have to minimize this, we think Jesus is just like, just get over it and just forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I forgive you, why can't you just forgive them?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's what Jesus does at all.
SPEAKER_00: I think he does the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: I think he says, actually, just as bad as you think their sin was, I think it, I think it was worse.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize what I did for them?
SPEAKER_00: They beat me 39 times on my back.
SPEAKER_00: They left my back a bloody pulp.
SPEAKER_00: And then they took me and they put me up on a cross, nailed my hands to the cross, nailed my feet to the cross, and I hung there and I suffered for their sin.
SPEAKER_00: I don't take their sin lightly.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I take it more seriously than you take it.
SPEAKER_00: And then I rose again, conquering sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: Is that enough?
SPEAKER_00: Or is there more that you would have me do to fix that?
SPEAKER_00: And I think when Jesus has come to me and said that, I've been like, yeah, that's enough.
SPEAKER_00: And then I don't think he lets it stay there.
SPEAKER_00: I think he often will come as well, and he'll say, Do you know when I went to the cross, it wasn't just for their sin, it was for your sin as well.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve the same punishment.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve to be beaten 39 times.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve to go to a cross and be nailed to it, your hands nailed and your feet nailed and suffer and die.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't leave it there.
SPEAKER_00: I rose again for you as well, and sin and death is conquered.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, you deserve to be burning in hell, but you get to sit in this beautiful new building.
SPEAKER_00: How gracious and good am I to each one of you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: See, I think, you know, we often assume that Jesus comes to us, forgives us of our sins, and is like, here, here's a cup, and all of my forgiveness and grace is in this cup.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take this and just pour this cup out on everyone.
SPEAKER_00: And when you run out, then I'm not gonna hold you responsible anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You'll you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_00: But just you use this little bit of grace that I've given you.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't what he gave us.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Jesus gave us the Pacific Ocean of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, like, this is what I want you to give from.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's never gonna be anyone that can sin so much that you won't have it in you to forgive, because I have shown you an incredible amount of grace.
SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna run out.
SPEAKER_00: I think that Jill understood this.
SPEAKER_00: She knew the ocean of grace that God had shown her, and that's what gave her the strength to be able to forgive Chris.
SPEAKER_00: I think Chris understood this.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that he hadn't sinned so much that God wasn't able to forgive it.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that God had shown him an ocean of grace that could even forgive that sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what he's shown each of us this morning as well.
SPEAKER_00: That his grace is big enough for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: And his grace is big enough for your brother's sin, your sister's sin as well.
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to take a little time here and I want to think about what we've just heard.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a lot this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that you're a follower of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you walking toward him, or is there no evidence in your life that you're a follower at all?
SPEAKER_00: Is there evidence in your life that you're you're you're you're choosing to go toward him, no matter how much you may stumble, you're stumbling toward him.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing is, is there any unforgiveness in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody in your life that you you need to make some things right with?
SPEAKER_00: So the questions are gonna come up here on the screen, and I'm gonna pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want us to think through that.
SPEAKER_00: Just pause for a moment and just connect with the Holy Spirit and ask him, what is he saying?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, I thank you for the grace that you poured out for us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You poured out so much more grace than any of us deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray this morning, would you come, would you give us all a revelation of how big your grace is, God?
SPEAKER_00: Because I think often we just think it's a little cup, but you've given us the Pacific ocean of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And when we start to realize that, it fills us with so much joy.
SPEAKER_00: And it allows us to let go of bitterness and begin to forgive, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be bitter people walking around, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be people that are full of your joy and full of your grace, and we want to spill out all over everyone we come in contact with.
SPEAKER_00: Come, speak to us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Your name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So I have a couple of announcements.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to worship through giving this morning, the offering uh boxes are back in the back by the doors.
SPEAKER_00: Um as well, we as pastoral staff would love to get to know you if you're new here.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new here on your phone, you can uh there you go, you can text that number, and we'd love to get to know you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe get lunch with you or something this week.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing is at the end of the service, there will be pastors here in the front.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk to us, pray with us, we'd love to do that as well.
SPEAKER_00: So would you guys stand with me?
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray a prayer of uh I don't, nope, that's not.
SPEAKER_00: Deal gets on my case about this.
SPEAKER_00: He says I don't do it right yet, so I'm gonna try.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
SPEAKER_00: Empower you to go out and spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: Speak a blessing over you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Not pray, blessing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm blessing you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, I want to bless these people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, fill them with your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Help them to remember how much you have forgiven them from.
SPEAKER_00: That there's there's an ocean of grace for them to give people this week.
SPEAKER_00: And would they go out and give that ocean of grace to others?
SPEAKER_00: We send them out in your name, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.