Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E104 | Everyday Eurasia | Nizar Touma

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S1-E104 | Everyday Eurasia | Nizar Touma · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our very places, and in
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  so many different places around the world.
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  Isn't it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk
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  with him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region.
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  Pastor Nizar Tuma, born in Nazareth and a devoted servant
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  of faith since becoming a believer in 1985.
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  He was ordained in 1990 and has spent decades in ministry,
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  including ten years in Jerusalem and over 26 years in Nazareth.
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  He's married to his wife, Katie. With mom, he shares three
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  children and two grandchildren. Today he serves as the District
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  Superintendent of the Holy Land District.
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  Greetings to you again in the name of Jesus, this is Pastor
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  Nizar, Holy Land District Superintendent.
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  I'm so glad to meet you again and share with you what's on my
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  heart for this great season. One of the major things that we
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  learn in our Christian life is forgiveness.
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  Forgiveness, yes, it's one of those difficult things to do.
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  That's when many, many people cannot do.
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  And the Lord Jesus himself gave us himself as an example when he
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  said on the cross on that day, he said when he was crucified,
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  he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
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  And taking that sentence and thinking about it, Jesus is
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  trying to teach us a lesson in forgiveness because forgiveness
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  is a responsibility. It's one of those barriers that
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  hinders our relationships, our relationship with God because if
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  we don't forgive, we will not be forgiven.
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  Even when we pray our Lord's Prayer, we say forgive us.
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  As we forgive those who sin against us, so do we forgive
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  those who sin against US. One of the things I've learned
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  in my life about forgiveness is it's like some someone is eating
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  something poisoned and they expect his enemy to die.
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  So unforgiving is similar to that picture that you eat the
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  poison, you have your heart, heart and you cannot forgive.
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  It's difficult to forgive and you kill yourself inside by not
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  forgiving your brother. And if you remember, Peter came
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  to Jesus also and asked him, how many times, Lord, should I
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  forgive my brother? He said seven times.
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  Let's read it as it is in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18
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  verse 21 and 22. Then Peter came up and said to
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  him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I
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  forgive him? As many as seven times.
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  Jesus said to him, to Peter, I do not say to you 7 times, but
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  77 times I can just think about that.
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  Jesus wants forgiveness to be a lifestyle.
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  Whoever sins against you, it doesn't matter how hard it is,
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  it doesn't matter what he did against you.
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  You see Jesus forgive his enemies.
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  How much more we need to forgive our brethren who sin against us
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  In the end. They are people, you know, they
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  have their weaknesses, they have their short, you know, falls.
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  They have all in this, this nature, they have this nature
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  that we are living in, in a sinful world.
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  So when your brother sins against you, you should just
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  forgive and let go and you know, forgive and forget.
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  That's another thing we need to do is not just to forgive, to
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  forget also what happened. It seems that the enemy always
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  reminds us of those mistakes that people or those sins or
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  those offenses that people held against us.
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  So to to tell us that, you know, or to teach us something like,
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  oh, it's never done, it's never done with, it's never forgotten.
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  But I want to tell you, as Jesus have forgotten our sins when he
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  took him on himself on that cross.
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  This is how we should come and forgive.
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  We should learn like Jesus, how to forgive.
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  Another beautiful thing about this chapter, Matthew 18, He
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  begins that that chapter with teaching about children.
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  Let the children come to me. And he says that if you don't
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  become like children, you will not enter.
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  Remember, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
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  So we need to become like children.
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  Even when you forgive, it's like, you know, if you take a
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  child and think about it, if you take a child and you kind of
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  hurt him in a certain way and he goes upset and then you go with
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  a few beautiful words to them and say, oh, forgive me.
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  I they automatically turn to you and say, oh, I love you or they
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  hug you. That's the way we should work
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  with forgiveness. That's the way we should
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  approach forgiveness. We should learn how to forgive
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  and forget. So in this season, I ask you to
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  forgive those who have sinned against you, those who have
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  offenses against you, those who have hurt you so bad down deep
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  in your soul, they wounded you so hard that you cannot forgive.
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  I just want to ask you today, ask Jesus for power to forgive.
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  Ask Him to stand there with you when you come and you do it.
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  Go to your brother. Reconcile him.
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  Don't let the night go down or the sun go down on your anger.
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  Don't try to go to your brother and ask for forgiveness even if
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  he sins against you. It's not that you have committed
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  an offence against your brother. Even if he did, you forgive him.
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  You go to him and forgive him. You see, there is a whole
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  process about forgiveness. Jesus wants us to go first by
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  ourselves. If he doesn't listen to you,
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  take 3 witnesses and then take the church.
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  You know, take all these steps. But Jesus wants forgiveness to
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  be a lifestyle. The way we live is a life of
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  forgiveness. It doesn't matter who hurts us
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  or how he hurts us. We need to learn how to forgive
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  and to forget. So in the season of Easter, all
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  this time when we think about what Jesus did on the cross, how
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  many sins did he forgive us? All of our sins were forgiven.
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  Everything that we did, he took it on himself.
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  He took the sins of the world on himself to forgive everyone,
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  every person. So in this season, I pray that
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  God will give power to His children to forgive and to
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  forget. And remember those two verses I
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  read to you. It's not 7 times, it's 70 * 7.
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  It's a lot, but Jesus wants this to be a natural thing that you
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  do. It's part of your being a
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  Christian to forgive, to forget and let go.
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  God bless you. I pray that this video will
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  bless you, bless your family, be encouraged, be strong in the
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  Lord, love you and appreciate you.
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  God bless you. Thank you for listening to the
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  Everyday Eurasia podcast Inspiring Faith for Everyday.
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  For more Everyday stories, subscribe on this podcast
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  channel, follow our socials, Facebook and Instagram, or our
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  newsletter Snapshots. For our newsletter and further
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  information about the Eurasia region, visit our website,
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  eurasiaregion.org.