Forgiveness is Freedom

TRANSCRIPT

I've got two words I wanna share with you today, and they both begin with f. And I thought it was inappropriate to say that I've got two F words for you. But I do have two words beginning with F and I really I'm just gonna just let it straight out. It's the first one is forgiveness.

Forgiveness. Last week, Pope pastor Simon, he spoke on words that build and it was amazing. And that's something that we need to be really aware of. But today we are talking about. Forgiveness and it's a subject that I really feel that we need to get on board with more. We need to talk about it more.

And I had the privilege of speaking about it, maybe I can't remember Pastor Kevin, I think it was around six or eight months ago. I spoke on forgiveness then and I have the privilege of speaking on it again today, and I really do feel that we need. To look at this very carefully because if you've been a Christian in more than five minutes, you know that Jesus really wants us to forgive.

And he spoke very boldly about it in the scripture and he wants us to forgive, bearing in mind his forgiveness for us. And this is where we're going today. The second word, I want to, the second word that starts with F is freedom. And that's the carrot that I wanna draw you along with today as far as us actually committing to be forgiving people and forgive others, is that I've come up with a catchphrase today.

I'm really a bit chuffed with it. All right, so are you ready for it? Here it comes. Here it comes. Okay, here it comes. The journey of forgiveness. Leads to freedom. Stay with me. Stay with me. The journey of forgiveness leads to freedom. I want you to memorize that today. So I'm gonna share a story. It's one of those time in my life stories and ask as Pastor Kev.

Beautifully alluded to my age. I'm in the stage of life where I'm a grandpa. And I've got two beautiful grandsons and that is an amazing time of life for Jenny and I. And they're six and four and that's great and most of you feel like, how could I be, at that stage of life, looking at this beautiful face, but you know that there it is.

I'm a grandpa, but this story relates to something way, way back in, in my past. In fact, right back to the time. When I was a boy and moving into teenage hood and then moving into adulthood after that. So I was living in the family house in the north side of Brisbane with my mom and dad.

And two teenage siblings. So my brother was five years older than me, and my sister was 10 years older than me. And mom and dad were clearly on the five year plan. And it's not something I'm gonna recommend to anybody because I barely knew my brother. He was too cool for me. And my sister was like a second mom.

Anyway, that's by the bye. But it was a time in my life that was interesting. Mom and dad loved us all individually and really really poured into us. However, there was no love at the top. There was no love within the marriage. Something had gone seriously wrong prior to me, and I wasn't I wasn't privy to it and I didn't really find out too much about it, but it was clear that the marriage had broken down and which produced an atmosphere in the house.

Which was really tough to deal with. There were both hurt people. Somehow they, they had hurt one another or there was hurt in the marriage and they were both hurt. And there's a saying that our old pastor used to say that hurt people. Hurt people. And when you are hurt. You've got stuff in the like the black stuff over there and you begin to do and say things and I overheard things and I never actually saw any physical abuse, but there was verbal abuse and there was harsh words said all the time.

And I was only a young boy and it was starting to affect me and it was starting to affect my and I was starting to, to just. Hate this. And I remember I never wanted to have anyone over to my place just in case this was going on. And I never, and at night I used to go to bed and I would actually cry out to God and I believed in God as a very young boy and I cried out to God, you've gotta stop this.

Bring them back together. Side note many years later, they did start to come back together, which was great. But at this point in time, there was no sight of reconciliation. And it was starting to clog up my and even irrationally. I began to think, is it my fault? Is this, as a young guy?

A young boy, you just think, oh, maybe it's me, maybe it's me. And it was a very tough time. And so we moved into teenage hood and it didn't change and then I knew it was affecting me. And then eventually I became a Christian when I was 22 years old. And it was, this was the length of time that was going on.

There was good times and I just wanna say, I just don't want to dishonor my parents at all. Because they did love us and they did want the best for us, but it was something that affected my well, and I know that it affected my siblings and I think I would be right in saying this scars that they have got that went right through life.

But when I was 22 and I became a Christian right here in this church, I. Started examining subjects like gratitude and thankfulness and forgiveness. And I started to look at those three things. And I realized I was looking at things perhaps the wrong way. 'Cause all the time, I used to think of my dad as oh, he's a boring guy, he goes to work at six, he comes home at six, he clears it up.

And he does that on repeat every day, five days a week. And then he goes to, and he does the lawns on the weekend. But I started to have a little paradigm shift where I realized he went to work for me to put food on the table for me and my siblings, and he. Things for me, take me to footy games and take me to swimming club.

And I started to have this paradigm shift where I thought, oh wow, I've been looking at this the wrong way. And ultimately I wrote a letter to my dad and I explained all this, and I told him I'm sorry for the way I thought, and I'm sorry for the way I acted and. And I hid the letter in the man cave, which was the garage downstairs where he does all his tinkering, and I put it behind some tools and stuff.

And he didn't find it for about six weeks. But anyway, he found it. And then he said, that's the best letter I've ever received. And that was my childhood. And let me say again, the journey of forgiveness. Leads to freedom. And I started to feel free. Yes, there were repercussions for me and there were scars and I've alluded to that before in different messages, but you know what?

God started to do a work in me, and it was amazing to be able to feel free from all that. So let me just move along here. Sometimes. People actually believe that unforgiveness is a strength. You hear statements like, I'm never gonna forgive so and so for what he did to me. I'm not gonna do that. I can take so much, but I'm not forgiving this, and this blank, and blank.

Maybe you've thought that at times. I'm not forgiving that. No way. But you know what? You're not hurting the other person. Yes. When you don't forgive, in fact, there's no effect on them whatsoever. They've gotta deal with their own stuff. We gotta deal with our stuff. And you know what? The journey of forgiveness leads to freedom and what that, what people don't realize when you get to that point of unforgiveness is that it's a trap that binds you up.

And God doesn't want us to be trapped. God doesn't want us to be trapped. He wants us to be free. Many years ago there was a a traveling speaker that came to this church and was sitting right on this platform and he was sharing this illustration about unforgiveness. One of the best I've ever heard, and I just, I'm just gonna share it with you now.

Maybe I won't. No, I'm one of the best, one of the best I've ever heard. And I don't know in what countries is they do this, but they, there's a thing called a monkey trap. They want to trap monkeys and and what they do is they build a cage and inside the cage they put a little tasty little morsel that monkey wants, like a big banana or something.

And they construct the cage and such as there's a little wire tunnel that their hand goes through to get this piece of goodness that they're after. Their hand can just fit through and then they grab the bait. The sad news is they can't get their hand out because. The size of their fist is larger than the size of their hand going through open.

And so they start to try and get their hand out and they just can't get it out and they're trapped. And I'm not gonna tell you what happens to the monkey next 'cause it's not pleasant for some reason they don't like your monkeys in this country. And so they can't get their handout and they're trapped.

And so the point of the illustration is the banana or the food is the offense. Someone's hurt you. Someone's betrayed you. Someone's just said something bad about you, or someone's just cut you off at the stop sign. But there's been an offense, which you just not, you can't let go of. And what that means is that you are trapped.

And you can't get your hand out of the cage. That's exactly where the enemy wants us. And it's exactly where God doesn't want us. And so what we have to do is let go of the offense. We have to let it go. I think Pastor Kevs preached half my, messaged us earlier. But we've gotta let it go. And then we release ourselves.

And when we choose to forgive, it leads us to freedom. And that's where we need to be today. Church. We need to be people who let go. Of the offense. We all get offended. We live in an imperfect world. People say stuff, no one's got perfect control of their tongue. And they say stuff or they say stuff online to us and it offends us.

And we just don't wanna, oh geez, that riles me up. We gotta let it go. And we've gotta get adept at letting it go because it's gonna happen every day. Someone is gonna ruin our day and say something stupid and then boom. We don't wanna be trapped. We want to be able to be free.

I had a time, another time in my life where actually yeah. So yeah, there's another time in my life. So Jenny and I we got scammed ultimately from faceless people who ring you up. And they say, if you do this and this, and sadly we fell for it. And they relieved us of a lot of money.

And when I realized it was scam the person I had to forgive most with myself for being so stupid and and that took a long time. And I was angry at these guys and you know what? If I had have seen them, I just wanted to punch 'em. And ultimately the Lord said to me, you know what, you've gotta forgive.

I said, what? I just wanna punch 'em. He said, no, you've gotta forgive. And I said, okay, how do I do that? And so I got to the point where I said, I choose to forgive. And then do you know what happens when you do that? Replays come up in your mind and stuff happens. And if only I, had I done that and if only I, had I done that, if only I had, I said that and I would've done, and then boom, you realize you're stuck again and the replay and you gotta put down the replay.

You've gotta just say, no, Lord, I choose to forgive and I choose to forgive. And you know what? The journey of forgiveness takes time. And do you know what else it is? It's a work of the Holy Spirit in you that helps you to actually forgive. And so ultimately I took, and this was weeks later, and then I started to pray for these guys salvation.

And I knew I was getting close when I was able to do that because those Mongols would be in heaven with me if they got saved.

And I eventually let it go and I knew that I was there. How long does it take? It takes as long as it takes and you need to go the journey of forgiveness. It's most likely that you would've been aware of what happened to Charlie Kirk recently. He was murdered and it was a tragedy. Because a wife lost her husband and a family lost their father.

And you may have seen the memorial service, I think most of you would have,

and we witnessed one of the most amazing declarations of forgiveness that. I've ever seen, and it was just not done in a corner. It was done in front of the whole world. She was able to say of the guy who murdered husband, that young man. I forgive him. I forgive him. I forgive him. And you know what? That was an amazing declaration.

Of forgiveness. But you know what, that is just the start of Erica's journey because she's got a journey now to get through for, to allow the Holy Spirit to bring that forgiveness to completion, because she's gonna go to bed every night with no husband. She's gonna wake up in the morning at this breakfast table with no father for her children, and it's gonna come up every single day.

I've lost my husband and she's gonna have to go the journey every day and say, I choose to forgive. I choose to forgive, but what an amazing woman. And I just, I take my hat. You've gotta tip your cap to that. And you know what? It's gonna have a ripple effect right around the world. There's so many things, so many people are now going to choose to forgive because she's made an example.

She was able to forgive perhaps the most worst, possibly the worst thing could ever happen to you. She chose to forgive. How long will it take? It's gonna take as long as it takes. As long as it takes. It's a work of the Holy Spirit in her and in us to say, I choose to forgive.

Let's look at some scripture this morning.

Matthew 18, 21, 22. Peter asked Jesus, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times. Peter was pretty tough with himself in this state, 'cause I think the Lord just says, three times, he said, oh, he went, oh, he went all the way. He went all the way to seven.

Love that. And Jesus said, no, not seven times, but 70 times seven. That's not just, four 90 or whatever that is. It is, I was pretty good at math at school. It's unlimited. It's unlimited forgiveness. Do you know why Jesus said that? Because the forgiveness that we receive is unlimited.

The forgiveness that we, that Jesus paid for on the cross for us is unlimited. He loves us unconditionally. He forgives us unconditionally. He forgives us totally. And so he is asking us, will we do the same? Will we forgive unconditionally? Oh look, maybe if you give me some of that back, I'll do some of this for you.

And I like this. There's none of that. It's forgiveness that is unconditional. The parable of the unforgiving debtor spells this out for us. I'll just summarize it. A king was owed a massive amount of money, and the man who was in debt to the king pleaded for mercy, and the king granted a pardon for the debt.

And this same man was owed a small amount of money. And as the parable goes. He didn't forgive the debt, this small debt this other guy had for him. And so he grabbed him and began to choke him and he threw him in jail and he said, you'll not get out until you pay me that debt.

The king found out about this, and he said to that man, he called him back in and he said to that, man, shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant?

And the end of that parable says in Matthew 1835, he, it says, this is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.

This is the tough side of forgiveness, church and people online today. This is the tough side of forgiveness. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. Forgiveness is not easy. It's a journey, but if you're struggling to forgive someone today, the answer is we need to get back to the cross and have a revelation of how much Jesus has forgiven us.

Yeah, that's where we need to go. We've gotta get back to the cross and realize that Jesus has forgiven every single sin that had ever committed, no matter how many times I've committed it, and how many times I'm gonna commit it again. He's forgiven it unconditional back to the cross and understand where and how Jesus forgave us.

What is stopping us from forgiving?

Colossians three 13. It says, bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances that you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. This is another reminder. Are focusing on the Lord has forgiven us for, and the Apostle Paul is exhorting us to forgive as Christ forgives us. It's massive.

The forgiveness that he's given us and what we have to forgive is just at a human level.

What about reconciliation? Reconciliation is not always a given. We deal with our stuff. They've gotta deal with their stuff, they've gotta come to God and they've gotta deal with their stuff. And sometimes it doesn't mesh, sometimes it doesn't happen. Reconciliation is not a forgiven. But there is one more scripture that I want to tell you about is in Romans chapter 12 and verse 18.

It is said. It says, as far as this, as it is possible, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone. Pray for reconciliation, pray that it all comes together. But you know what? We've gotta deal with our own unforgiveness first, and we've gotta let that go and we've gotta do the journey of forgiveness.

What would our church be like if we all chose forgiveness? Not in three months after the event, immediately we were able to say, Hey, Lord, I was offended there. I'm gonna let it go. I'm gonna let it go. We have a a value in our church called Protect and Serve. And forgiveness protects the unity of any group of people, any church.

It protects the unity of our church and that stops bitterness from forming in our heart. It stops bitterness from getting down to our wealth. Imagine if we were able to forgive quickly and we got used to that system of just being able to let it go and say, Lord I, I let it go. And maybe the journey.

Would be less and less every time because we practiced being able to forgive. That is where God wants us to get to and I believe we can. I believe we can, and we just need to understand that we need to go back to the cross and recognize his forgiveness to us and be able to let it go.

This morning I've spoken to Pastor Kev and Pastor Anita and we wanna do something a little different this morning. We wanna give you an opportunity right here, today to be able to forgive. There are some of you that may not need to be able need to do this, and you feel like you've got it all covered, that's fine, but.

If you feel like you, you do have it covered and you're feeling in a good place, I want you to pray for those ones who do need to forgive. I want us all to participate in this. And what's gonna happen if you need to forgive? I'm gonna, in a minute I'm gonna ask you to put your hands up and I might ask Tom and the team to come up now and we're gonna play a song through this.

And what we're gonna do is someone's gonna come around with some paper, and I wonder if right now, that if you feel like you need to forgive someone today that you've been holding back on your forgiveness, could you put your hand up and just say, Lord, I want to be able to forgive even today. I want to forgive someone today.

Today is the day. Today is the day for forgiveness. It's not tomorrow. It's not another day. Even you online if you want to forgive someone today is the day. And on these pieces of paper it says. Dear Lord Jesus, today I choose to forgive someone blank, and I really believe that today.

If you are able to do that and you grab that piece of paper once you filled it in, we're gonna let it go. We're gonna scrunch it up, and we're gonna let it go, and we're gonna put it in the bin and it's gonna be the start of your journey to freedom today. Ah, because I know that there would be people here today that have something in their hearts then in their well, that's holding them back, that you're feeling trapped.

And today is the day that we can say, you know what? Enough, I'm gonna pull my hand out of that cage. I'm gonna let that go. I am going to forgive today. And for you other guys. That don't need this, and I'm sure there's many. I want you to pray for these ones today. And right now we're gonna have a an item and it talks about mercy and Tom and the team are gonna take us through this and let's just pray before this happens.

Heavenly Father, I just pray for each one today that. Needs to forgive someone in their life for what happened, a betrayal, whatever, Lord, they can fill in the blanks. But Lord, I pray that it's the start of a journey to freedom for those ones today who say, I want to forgive. I wanna let this go. I wanna release my hand out of the trap.

I want to get free today. And if you do this today and you are able to do this, we are gonna let it go and we're gonna receive forgiveness and we're gonna offer forgiveness for those ones that have heard us today. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.