Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Pray For Your Offender- Minister Max Lucado
Transcript
- 1:00Speaker 1: We're doing our best to be the ice cream truck
- 1:04Speaker 1: in the world to deliver a little joy, to brighten
- 1:08Speaker 1: the day and lighten the load of every person that
- 1:11Speaker 1: we meet. Many of you took the one hundred Happy
- 1:13Speaker 1: People Challenge, some of you are in the midst of
- 1:15Speaker 1: it right now, in which is set out to improve
- 1:18Speaker 1: the lives of one hundred people over a forty day period.
- 1:21Speaker 1: We're still collecting some wonderful stories on that. But as
- 1:24Speaker 1: we bring this series almost to a close, this is
- 1:27Speaker 1: the next to last one, we're turning our attention to
- 1:30Speaker 1: what may be the most challenging of the one another verses.
- 1:33Speaker 1: If you remember, we're looking at the one another verses,
- 1:36Speaker 1: they're fifty nine of them. In the New Testament. We're
- 1:38Speaker 1: not looking at all fifty nine, but we've clustered them
- 1:40Speaker 1: into about ten sections, and we turn our attention today
- 1:44Speaker 1: to this one forgive one another. The most clear admonition
- 1:49Speaker 1: for this is in Ephesians four and verse thirty two.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another,
- 2:00Speaker 1: even as God in Christ forgave you. And then another
- 2:06Speaker 1: way of saying this, John thirteen, Jesus said, if I
- 2:11Speaker 1: then your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you
- 2:15Speaker 1: also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have
- 2:21Speaker 1: given you an example that you should do as I
- 2:25Speaker 1: have done to you. Forgive one another wash one another's feet.
- 2:30Speaker 1: Maybe we should pray before we could. I should try
- 2:34Speaker 1: to figure out what those mean. Let's do. Thank you
- 2:37Speaker 1: Father for this time of teaching and talking. We pray
- 2:41Speaker 1: for forgiveness for our speaker. His sins are many, and
- 2:45Speaker 1: grant that we could see Christ, and just Christ and
- 2:48Speaker 1: his name. We pray, and all the church said. I
- 2:53Speaker 1: start with the story about Buster, although his real name
- 2:57Speaker 1: is not Buster, but I've changed his name because my
- 3:00Speaker 1: story about Buster is not complementary of him.
- 3:05Speaker 2: The word buster.
- 3:06Speaker 1: The name Buster fits a Buster in our high school
- 3:09Speaker 1: was the one who busted through the defensive line. He
- 3:13Speaker 1: busted home run after home run over the outfield fence.
- 3:19Speaker 2: Buster was a buster.
- 3:21Speaker 1: He had arms like a linebacker and a snarl like
- 3:27Speaker 1: a tiger. He ruled our high school campus like a
- 3:31Speaker 1: gang leader. Most of us avoided his orbit, but one
- 3:36Speaker 1: Friday night I got caught up in it. We were
- 3:43Speaker 1: hanging out in a grocery store parking lot. That's what
- 3:47Speaker 1: you do in small West Texas. Towns on Friday nights.
- 3:53Speaker 1: Something I said or did angered Buster, and, emboldened by
- 4:02Speaker 1: a belly of beer and a bunch of buddies, he
- 4:06Speaker 1: came after me. And he shoved me into the through
- 4:10Speaker 1: the open door of a sedan and came in on
- 4:14Speaker 1: top of me with both fists flying, setting out to
- 4:19Speaker 1: reshape my face. It was grizzly on a squirrel Buster
- 4:24Speaker 1: on masks. Had it not been for some kind friends
- 4:29Speaker 1: who grabbed him by the ankles and.
- 4:31Speaker 2: Pulled him out, I don't know if I would have survived.
- 4:35Speaker 2: He was angry.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I went home with my face bruised and my pride
- 4:41Speaker 1: bruised even more, my tail tucked between my legs, and
- 4:46Speaker 1: spent all weekend trying to figure out what happened and
- 4:50Speaker 1: what I should do. How did I make him so mad?
- 4:55Speaker 1: Should I go after him? Or should he is he
- 4:57Speaker 1: coming after me? All weekend I thought about it. The
- 5:02Speaker 1: only thing I could figure is, come Monday, I need
- 5:05Speaker 1: to ask him. So I saw him, and I mustered
- 5:07Speaker 1: up enough courage between classes, and I went up to
- 5:10Speaker 1: him and I said, why did you come after me
- 5:12Speaker 1: like that?
- 5:13Speaker 2: Friday night? And he looked at me and he said,
- 5:16Speaker 2: you know somebody told me I did that. I don't remember.
- 5:20Speaker 2: I was drunk.
- 5:23Speaker 1: That explanation hurt as much as his fisted turns out,
- 5:28Speaker 1: I wasn't his enemy. I was just the closest punching bag.
- 5:34Speaker 1: Now that happened many years ago. I don't think about
- 5:39Speaker 1: it anymore. I can hardly recall the details. But whenever
- 5:55Speaker 1: I was writing this message, I felt my ten get
- 5:58Speaker 1: really tight. At this point, I haven't seen Buster. Really,
- 6:06Speaker 1: I haven't seen him in decades. But then again, I
- 6:13Speaker 1: think I see him almost every week. I saw a Buster,
- 6:19Speaker 1: at least in my imagination a few days ago, when
- 6:22Speaker 1: a young wife was telling me about her abusive husband,
- 6:27Speaker 1: when a teenager told me how he was bullied.
- 6:30Speaker 2: At school, I saw a Buster.
- 6:34Speaker 1: A company bought a small company in the big corporation,
- 6:39Speaker 1: laid off everybody in the small business, and I thought
- 6:44Speaker 1: of Buster. And through the years it has occurred to
- 6:50Speaker 1: me this point.
- 6:53Speaker 2: We all have a Buster, or two, or.
- 7:00Speaker 1: Ten, and I'll just state that the story of my
- 7:05Speaker 1: Buster is a gad fly compared to some of yours.
- 7:11Speaker 1: Your Buster was your dad, and he came out, came
- 7:15Speaker 1: at you daily. Your Buster was that guy who said
- 7:20Speaker 1: I love you back when you were young and slender.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Now you're older and rounder, and he's nowhere to be found.
- 7:28Speaker 1: Your gadfly, I'm sorry your buster flunked you out of spite,
- 7:36Speaker 1: abandoned you, or fired you, or abused you.
- 7:44Speaker 2: We all have a buster. We all do.
- 7:49Speaker 1: Someone who has taken advantage of us, somebody who lost
- 7:53Speaker 1: control around us. And whenever the topic of forgiveness surfaces,
- 8:01Speaker 1: so do our thoughts about our busters. This verse in
- 8:06Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter four, in verse thirty two, makes us think
- 8:10Speaker 1: about ours. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
- 8:17Speaker 1: another even as God in Christ forgave you. There goes
- 8:23Speaker 1: the apostle Paul, doing it again. It's not enough for
- 8:27Speaker 1: him to say, forgive one another to the level your
- 8:30Speaker 1: conscience dictates, or forgive one another as long as it
- 8:35Speaker 1: feels comfortable, or forgive one another as much as you
- 8:40Speaker 1: want to. But he says, forgive one another even as
- 8:45Speaker 1: God in Christ has forgiven you. So the model or
- 8:53Speaker 1: the standard of forgiveness is not my conscience or your preference.
- 8:58Speaker 1: But the model or stand wonder of forgiveness is the
- 9:01Speaker 1: way God through Christ has forgiven us. So to understand
- 9:07Speaker 1: forgiveness in the Bible. We leave the Book of Ephesians
- 9:11Speaker 1: and we go left back into the Gospels, looking for
- 9:17Speaker 1: examples in which we find Jesus forgiving other how to
- 9:22Speaker 1: should I treat the busters of my life? We find
- 9:26Speaker 1: the examples in the life of Jesus. When we turn
- 9:29Speaker 1: left from Ephesians and hit the Gospels from the back side,
- 9:32Speaker 1: we find the Book of John. And we're barely in
- 9:36Speaker 1: the back door of the Book of John before we
- 9:38Speaker 1: find what has to be the most beautiful picture of
- 9:40Speaker 1: forgiveness in the whole Bible. And it just so happened
- 9:45Speaker 1: that it did happen a few days after Palm Sunday,
- 9:48Speaker 1: and so it fits on our schedule as well. Thursday
- 9:52Speaker 1: night before Friday's crucifixion in the Upper Room, when Jesus
- 9:58Speaker 1: washed the feet of his followers, it reads like this, Jesus,
- 10:04Speaker 1: knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands,
- 10:08Speaker 1: and that he had come from God and was going
- 10:10Speaker 1: to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments,
- 10:14Speaker 1: took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured
- 10:18Speaker 1: water into a basin and began to wash the disciples
- 10:22Speaker 1: feet and wipe them with the towel with which he
- 10:26Speaker 1: was girded. John wants us to know what Jesus knew.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Knowing that he had come from God, and knowing that
- 10:34Speaker 1: he was headed to God. Then Jesus acted. Because Jesus
- 10:39Speaker 1: knew who he was and from where he came and
- 10:41Speaker 1: where he was going, he could do what he did.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Here's what he did. He rose from the supper. He
- 10:48Speaker 1: rose up above the disciples. They were all inclined at
- 10:53Speaker 1: those low eastern Mideastern tables. Jesus rose up. He lifted
- 10:59Speaker 1: him self above them. When he got up. I'm sure
- 11:03Speaker 1: they sat up. They must have thought Jesus was about
- 11:06Speaker 1: to teach them something. He was, but he just wasn't
- 11:09Speaker 1: going to use words. He laid aside his garments. He
- 11:15Speaker 1: took off his robe. Even the simple seamless garment of
- 11:18Speaker 1: a rabbi was too ostentatious for the task at hand.
- 11:23Speaker 1: The carpenter might wear a robe, but a servant. A
- 11:27Speaker 1: servant just wore a towel. He would wrap a towel
- 11:30Speaker 1: around his waist. Jesus removed his robe, and he picked
- 11:35Speaker 1: up a servant's wrap. Jesus was prone to do this.
- 11:39Speaker 1: He removed the robe of royalty. When he became flesh,
- 11:45Speaker 1: he removed the spotless garment of purity. When he became sin,
- 11:55Speaker 1: he removed the dressings of heaven, when he wrapped himself
- 12:00Speaker 1: in swaddling clothes and was placed in a manger. And
- 12:05Speaker 1: here he removes his clothes in front of his disciples
- 12:09Speaker 1: and raps this towel around his waist and takes on
- 12:14Speaker 1: the place of a servant. The room fell silent as
- 12:18Speaker 1: Jesus hung his cloak on a hook and girded the
- 12:22Speaker 1: cloth around his waist. I'm thinking that not one of
- 12:27Speaker 1: the disciples spoke. It must have been nothing but silence,
- 12:31Speaker 1: and the only sound that would have been heard was
- 12:35Speaker 1: the splashing.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Of the water.
- 12:42Speaker 1: As Jesus poured the water into the basin. The next
- 12:49Speaker 1: sound would have been the click of the basin as
- 12:53Speaker 1: Jesus said it on the stone floor, and then the
- 12:57Speaker 1: sliding of the bowl as Jesus, on his knees, slid
- 13:04Speaker 1: the bowl in front of the first disciple, maybe Matthew,
- 13:08Speaker 1: maybe Andrew, maybe Nathaniel. And then Jesus would reach and
- 13:13Speaker 1: he would untie the leather sandals and gently remove each
- 13:21Speaker 1: shoe and lift those feet dirtied as they were from
- 13:26Speaker 1: walking the dusty, soiled streets, and place those feet in
- 13:33Speaker 1: the basin of water, the cool water, and in that
- 13:36Speaker 1: water he would begin to wash the feet, massage the feet,
- 13:42Speaker 1: cleanse the feet, even rub those crusty heels. And once
- 13:48Speaker 1: that foot was cleansed, he lifted it up and set
- 13:51Speaker 1: it down, and reached over and he took the next foot,
- 13:54Speaker 1: and he lifted it up, and he set it in
- 13:56Speaker 1: the cool.
- 13:56Speaker 2: Water, and he washed it as well.
- 14:00Speaker 1: And when he was finished with that disciple, he took
- 14:05Speaker 1: that water, dirtied as it now was, muddy, silthy water,
- 14:13Speaker 1: and he would step over to a window or to
- 14:17Speaker 1: a doorway, and he would dispose of the water, come back,
- 14:20Speaker 1: set the bowl down, retrieve the picture, fill it again,
- 14:27Speaker 1: and move to the next disciple. How long do you
- 14:32Speaker 1: think this took? I'm thinking two, three, four minutes at
- 14:39Speaker 1: least for each disciple, times twelve total silence in the room,
- 14:47Speaker 1: just the sound and the sight of Jesus washing their feet.
- 14:52Speaker 1: The one who had fed the crowds, the one who
- 14:54Speaker 1: had walked on the water, the one who had called
- 14:56Speaker 1: forth Lazarus was here knee level with them. Of the
- 15:03Speaker 1: disciples in the room, Jesus certainly was the one who
- 15:08Speaker 1: should have had his feet washed. But the only person
- 15:11Speaker 1: to exit the room that day with dirty feet would
- 15:15Speaker 1: have been Jesus.
- 15:17Speaker 2: No one washed his, but he washed theirs.
- 15:23Speaker 1: One by one, maybe for thirty or forty five minutes.
- 15:28Speaker 1: Can you imagine no sound, No one spoke, just this
- 15:32Speaker 1: image the disciples watching Jesus wash.
- 15:38Speaker 2: Finally Peter spoke up.
- 15:40Speaker 1: We could always count on Peter to say something, and
- 15:43Speaker 1: maybe he was the last one. And when Jesus took
- 15:46Speaker 1: the basin to him, Peter said, oh, no, not my feet.
- 15:50Speaker 1: And Jesus said, if you don't let me wash you,
- 15:52Speaker 1: then you're not a.
- 15:52Speaker 2: Part of me.
- 15:54Speaker 1: As if this cleansing is a requirement for admission into
- 15:59Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God, that if you want to be
- 16:01Speaker 1: my disciple, you begin not with what you do for me,
- 16:05Speaker 1: but with what I do for you, that I cleanse you.
- 16:14Speaker 1: At what point do you think the disciples began to
- 16:17Speaker 1: realize what Jesus had done. When did it dawn on
- 16:21Speaker 1: them the enormity of this upper room? Deed, I'm thinking
- 16:28Speaker 1: it would have happened even later that night. And in
- 16:32Speaker 1: my imagination I see this unlit, shadowed path somewhere in Jerusalem,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and I can see these disciples, the same ones Matthew
- 16:42Speaker 1: and John in Nathaniel. I can see them hurrying back
- 16:47Speaker 1: through this shadowed path sometime around midnight. They're going to
- 16:53Speaker 1: that corner where no Roman soldier will know to look.
- 16:56Speaker 1: They're hiding in that shadow and Palestinian where no soldier
- 17:01Speaker 1: would find them. They promised Jesus they would stay. They
- 17:06Speaker 1: promised him. Everybody else may leave.
- 17:08Speaker 2: But we won't. We will stay.
- 17:11Speaker 1: But boy, those promises melted.
- 17:13Speaker 2: Like wax.
- 17:16Speaker 1: In the heat of those Roman torches over Gathsimone's wall.
- 17:23Speaker 1: They scampered through the Jerusalem streets. They fled, and they
- 17:30Speaker 1: ran until their legs grew heavy and their lungs burned,
- 17:34Speaker 1: and they felled them. They plopped down, exhausted, And I'm
- 17:38Speaker 1: thinking that about then they might have looked down and
- 17:41Speaker 1: seen those feet that Jesus just minutes at most hours before,
- 17:52Speaker 1: had Jesus washed the feet, the very feet that would run.
- 18:00Speaker 1: And that's when they realized. Jesus gave them grace before
- 18:04Speaker 1: they knew they needed it. Jesus washed the feet before
- 18:09Speaker 1: the disciples knew their feet would be dirty. He forgave
- 18:15Speaker 1: his betrayers before they betrayed him.
- 18:20Speaker 2: He's done the same for us.
- 18:23Speaker 1: It's true, Church, we all have a buster. But I
- 18:28Speaker 1: would quickly add, we all have a basin. And what
- 18:37Speaker 1: Jesus did for the disciples, he does for you, and
- 18:41Speaker 1: he does for me. Moment by moment he washes our feet.
- 18:51Speaker 1: I like to imagine that in heaven there's this huge
- 18:54Speaker 1: warehouse where all the basins are stored, and these large
- 18:58Speaker 1: sliding doors are kept open because they're never closed, and
- 19:03Speaker 1: Jesus is sending angels in to retrieve basins. And were
- 19:07Speaker 1: you and I to walk into that warehouse, we would
- 19:09Speaker 1: see the shelves are way up into the sky, several
- 19:13Speaker 1: stories tall, and as far to the right and as
- 19:16Speaker 1: far to the left as we can see, there are shelves.
- 19:20Speaker 1: And on those shelves there are basins, individual basins, And
- 19:24Speaker 1: somewhere up in heaven there is a basin that has
- 19:27Speaker 1: the name Max on it. It's probably the most used
- 19:30Speaker 1: of them all. There's one with your name on it.
- 19:36Speaker 1: And whenever necessary, Jesus instructs the angel, get me Max's basin.
- 19:43Speaker 1: It's time to clean him again. How often does how
- 19:52Speaker 1: often does your basin get used? Suppose I were to
- 19:57Speaker 1: tell you that I had a video of your whole life,
- 20:02Speaker 1: everything you've ever done, every secret, every thought, every act,
- 20:09Speaker 1: not just of your good moments, but of your bad.
- 20:16Speaker 1: Suppose I told you I had a video of your life.
- 20:19Speaker 1: Would you want me to play it? Would you want
- 20:22Speaker 1: it to be shown up on the screen. You would
- 20:24Speaker 1: beg me not to and I would beg you not
- 20:27Speaker 1: to show mine.
- 20:31Speaker 2: Jesus has seen our videos.
- 20:37Speaker 1: He has seen every backstreet, back sea, back yard, backhanded
- 20:44Speaker 1: moment of our lives everyone, and he has said, you know,
- 20:50Speaker 1: I can cleanse that because I love that disciple, I
- 20:55Speaker 1: love that person, and I have great dreams for that child.
- 21:00Speaker 1: I'm going to move in and I'm going to remake them.
- 21:03Speaker 1: I'm going to cleanse them from the inside out. They
- 21:06Speaker 1: belong to me, and I'm going to wash away their
- 21:09Speaker 1: betrayals before their betrayals even happen. That's why the Apostle
- 21:16Speaker 1: John I think, was so fond of using the word
- 21:19Speaker 1: clean or cleanse when he spoke of forgiveness, because he's
- 21:24Speaker 1: the one who gave us this story from the Upper Room.
- 21:27Speaker 1: Remember in his epistle he says it at least twice,
- 21:32Speaker 1: if we live in the light as God is in
- 21:34Speaker 1: the light we share fellowship with each other. Then the
- 21:37Speaker 1: blood of Jesus, God's son, cleanses us from every sin.
- 21:42Speaker 1: It's an ongoing process that cleanses us. He can be
- 21:46Speaker 1: depended upon to forgive us and to cleanse us from
- 21:50Speaker 1: every wrong. God knew your promises would fall to the
- 21:54Speaker 1: ground like broken glass. He knew you would dart into
- 21:58Speaker 1: an alley of shame. And he knew there would come
- 22:00Speaker 1: a time in which you would look down, even at
- 22:03Speaker 1: your own feet. And he wanted you to see when
- 22:05Speaker 1: you saw your feet, that he had already washed them.
- 22:10Speaker 1: He had taken the grimiest part of your life into
- 22:13Speaker 1: his hands, place it into the basin of his grace.
- 22:19Speaker 2: And cleaned you. He has cleansed you.
- 22:25Speaker 1: He wanted you to see what those first followers saw,
- 22:28Speaker 1: and that is clean feet. And he wanted you to
- 22:31Speaker 1: be able to say what those first followers said, I
- 22:33Speaker 1: was clean before how I even knew I was dirty?
- 22:38Speaker 2: That Jesus has washed me.
- 22:41Speaker 1: This is the gift of God's grace. That we are cleansed,
- 22:47Speaker 1: not because we deserve to be cleansed. That we are
- 22:52Speaker 1: washed clean, not because we have figured out some secret
- 22:55Speaker 1: code or achieved some moral accomplishment, but that we are
- 23:01Speaker 1: forgiven simply because God has chosen to forgive us, and
- 23:05Speaker 1: that we are loved simply because He has chosen.
- 23:09Speaker 2: To love us. This is the great story of grace.
- 23:15Speaker 1: And it is in this context that the Apostle Paul
- 23:21Speaker 1: urges us, who have been so doused with God's grace,
- 23:25Speaker 1: to turn and extend that grace to others. Yes, we
- 23:30Speaker 1: all have a buster, we all have a basin, but
- 23:34Speaker 1: we also all have a choice. The Apostle Paul says,
- 23:40Speaker 1: forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you,
- 23:49Speaker 1: this is our choice. I think there are many reasons
- 23:56Speaker 1: to forgive people, and I love to sketch these down
- 24:01Speaker 1: on a little page in my Bible in the margin.
- 24:05Speaker 1: The margin reads with phrases like this, grudges corrode the soul.
- 24:10Speaker 1: An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
- 24:11Speaker 1: tooth leaves us with poor vision and gappy smiles. A
- 24:16Speaker 1: bitterness is to the soul what heroine is to the body.
- 24:20Speaker 1: Revenge requires two graves, one for your enemy and one
- 24:23Speaker 1: for you. These are all good reasons to forgive, very
- 24:26Speaker 1: valid reasons. But for the Christian there's really only one
- 24:30Speaker 1: reason to forgive, and that is Jesus went first, and
- 24:37Speaker 1: that you will never give more grace than Christ has
- 24:41Speaker 1: already given to you. And when you give grace to someone,
- 24:46Speaker 1: you're not endorsing their misbehaviors. When Jesus washed the feet
- 24:50Speaker 1: of the disciples, he sure wasn't endorsing their betrayals. When
- 24:55Speaker 1: you give grace to someone, you're simply saying, I am
- 24:59Speaker 1: being obedient to what God has told me to do,
- 25:03Speaker 1: and since he has forgiven me, I'm going to do
- 25:06Speaker 1: my best to forgive others. I realize how difficult this is,
- 25:13Speaker 1: and for many people, this call to forgiveness is by
- 25:19Speaker 1: far and away the most difficult command in the Bible.
- 25:24Speaker 1: It is because you've been hurt so deeply. I mean,
- 25:32Speaker 1: we'd rather give money, give time, give service than give grace.
- 25:38Speaker 1: We'd rather memorize the Book of Leviticus then forgive our buster.
- 25:47Speaker 1: It's hard to forgive. It's hard to forgive, not just
- 25:52Speaker 1: because that person was so cruel, but also because anger
- 25:58Speaker 1: becomes an intoxicant.
- 26:01Speaker 2: It really does fuel something within us, but it is
- 26:06Speaker 2: a deadly fuel. It will consume you.
- 26:12Speaker 1: It comes in, it comes in like a fire, and
- 26:15Speaker 1: it consumes the joy out of your life, and it will.
- 26:19Speaker 2: Listen to me.
- 26:20Speaker 1: Your revenge will turn you into an angry, bitter, hollow,
- 26:27Speaker 1: shriveled up person. For this reason, when the scriptures talk
- 26:36Speaker 1: to us about forgiving others, it does so in the
- 26:39Speaker 1: form of an imperative command. This is not a suggestion.
- 26:46Speaker 1: The call to forgive other people is not Jesus's good idea,
- 26:52Speaker 1: or if you get around to it, or maybe here's
- 26:57Speaker 1: a popular idea for having a happy life. In the
- 27:03Speaker 1: same tone that he said do not murder or do
- 27:06Speaker 1: not commit adultery, the same God says, now forgive one another.
- 27:12Speaker 1: This is how we do things around here. You see,
- 27:17Speaker 1: the church is still a gathering into the upper room.
- 27:23Speaker 1: That's all we are. You and I trudge in with
- 27:27Speaker 1: dirty feet and we walk out with clean feet.
- 27:29Speaker 2: That's it.
- 27:34Speaker 1: At our best, We're just sitting there letting Christ do
- 27:38Speaker 1: the work. That's what God does, That's what grace gives.
- 27:44Speaker 1: And so while I know it is terribly difficult for
- 27:47Speaker 1: you to forgive, I must also say it is so
- 27:50Speaker 1: good for you to do so, and you honor God
- 27:54Speaker 1: when you begin forgiving someone else. What if you were
- 27:59Speaker 1: just to begin this journey of forgiveness today. Just begin it.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Whatever that means, just take a step toward the giving
- 28:11Speaker 1: of grace. It usually begins by thinking more about what
- 28:17Speaker 1: God has done for you and less about what that
- 28:19Speaker 1: person did to you, turning your mind toward.
- 28:26Speaker 2: What God has done.
- 28:28Speaker 1: It usually involves a step of saying, Okay, Lord, I'm
- 28:31Speaker 1: going to entrust that person to you. You said vengeance
- 28:34Speaker 1: is mine and that you will repay. Okay, then that's
- 28:37Speaker 1: not my job and I'm going to leave this up
- 28:40Speaker 1: to you. Doesn't mean you endorse what they did, but
- 28:44Speaker 1: it does mean you're going to trust God to take
- 28:46Speaker 1: care of them, and he will. He is a God
- 28:49Speaker 1: of justice. What if you were just to give the
- 28:54Speaker 1: grace that you have been given. I cannot promise you
- 28:59Speaker 1: that Bust, sure, upon receiving your forgiveness, will change.
- 29:04Speaker 2: Buster may be a Buster for the rest of his
- 29:07Speaker 2: or her.
- 29:07Speaker 1: Life, but we're really not talking about changing Buster. We're
- 29:14Speaker 1: talking about changing ourselves. And you will be different. And
- 29:20Speaker 1: when you make your list of one hundred happy people,
- 29:22Speaker 1: your name will be on it because you'll be the
- 29:25Speaker 1: happiest of all. It's time to give the grace that
- 29:29Speaker 1: we've been given. To forgive, just as God through Christ
- 29:34Speaker 1: has forgiven us.
- 29:36Speaker 2: Amen.
- 29:38Speaker 1: And so Lord, we'd like to ask you to help
- 29:39Speaker 1: us do this, to receive this message today and in
- 29:43Speaker 1: the spirit of obedience and trust and hope and knowing
- 29:46Speaker 1: you're going to set us free from anger that has
- 29:50Speaker 1: been a stronghold in our life, and you're ready to
- 29:55Speaker 1: set us free from that. Thank you, Lord. We're excited
- 29:57Speaker 1: about what you're going to do. Welcome the work of
- 30:00Speaker 1: your spirit, and we thank you. And we pray Father
- 30:04Speaker 1: that you would forgive those who have hurt us, and
- 30:08Speaker 1: that you would help us to forgive them through Christ.
- 30:11Speaker 2: We pray then, m A A. I'll be all right.
- 33:00Speaker 3: You don't have to stay if you've already chosen. I
- 33:07Speaker 3: won't stand in your way.
- 33:12Speaker 4: I can feel it in your distance, in the way
- 33:16Speaker 4: you barely speak, like your heart is somewhere else now,
- 33:23Speaker 4: somewhere I can't reach. I was trying to just doo
- 33:28Speaker 4: hold us.
- 33:30Speaker 5: Why are you slowly slipped away? Now I'm left with
- 33:35Speaker 5: all the silence you didn't want to say. Maybe I
- 33:44Speaker 5: just held long to something.
- 33:51Speaker 3: Already gone.
- 33:56Speaker 5: I'll be fine.
- 33:57Speaker 4: You can leave.
- 33:59Speaker 5: You don't know anything if your heart is.
- 34:05Speaker 4: Found, LOUI, how do what we used to be? How
- 34:11Speaker 4: be fine? Don't look back? How survived this sempty space?
- 34:18Speaker 4: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but holler to be okay.
- 34:29Speaker 5: We don't need to fake the feeling. I can see
- 34:34Speaker 5: in your eyes. There's no reason left for stand when
- 34:40Speaker 5: the love already died. Through the quieting your voice, how
- 34:53Speaker 5: can hear your choice?
- 34:58Speaker 4: How be fine?
- 35:00Speaker 5: You can't leave, you don't know me anything. Give your
- 35:06Speaker 5: heart is spun? How do what we used to be?
- 35:14Speaker 4: Be fine?
- 35:15Speaker 5: Don't look back. I survived this empty space, not tonight,
- 35:22Speaker 5: maybe not so, but I learned to be okay.
- 35:29Speaker 2: I don't need a reason why.
- 35:33Speaker 5: I can see it in goodbye, and it breaks me
- 35:38Speaker 5: in Dutch.
- 35:39Speaker 2: But I won't ask you to stay. I'll be fine.
- 35:48Speaker 5: You can't eat, you don't know me anything.
- 35:54Speaker 2: Give your hardest found oil.
- 35:57Speaker 5: How do what we to be?
- 36:01Speaker 4: Be fine?
- 36:03Speaker 5: Don't look about?
- 36:05Speaker 2: How survi have this sampy space?
- 36:09Speaker 1: Not a lie?
- 36:10Speaker 4: Maybe not so, but I'll learn to be okay.
- 36:23Speaker 2: I'll be all right,