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Well, good morning.
If you've got your Bibles, I wanna invite you to join me to First John chapter one.
That's where we're gonna be today.
Um I wanna kind of re emphasize some things that you heard some things that Pastor Dave said.
Uh but you've got your calendar uh here on this card of all the things that we're gonna be doing in our church church wide.
There are other things like our women's uh ministry, our, our, our teens are doing some stuff, our student ministry, our kids ministry, but this is our church wide things that we wanna point everyone to um with that so excited December 24th instead of doing two different service.
This is one in the morning, one in the evening.
Uh what we've done before and what we're gonna do uh since Christmas Eve is a Sunday is we're gonna come together that morning for our full Christmas Eve service, packing everybody in the room.
Hope to fill it out and be a, be a little bit, uh, uh, uncomfortable.
You'll be so close, but that'll be good.
Uh, and, and, and sweet to remind us all that God is doing.
Uh, but what I'd also like to emphasize is before that morning, you wanna show up early like we normally do and we'll have the lobby filled, uh, with homemade goodies for you to be able to try and be able to sample.
Um and maybe even put some in your pockets and take home like that's between you and the Lord uh whatever you wanna do.
Uh Then also on Sunday, December 31st, last year, uh we started this Sunday fell on January 1 and we started off the New Year by having a time of prayer together for our, our whole church, everybody in here together and had breakfast with that.
And so on Sunday, December 31st, we're gonna do uh that prayer breakfast uh again and so details out how to register for that.
You don't have to pay for it, but we need to know how many to prepare for uh so that we can do that and, and I don't know about you, but it was a great way of starting our year off of being able to come together as a church family um in a very casual uh relaxed atmosphere and, and just coming together to, to fellowship over a meal together and then to spend some intentional time praying, unified together um as a church and then on January the seventh, we'll have um our church family come back that evening.
So all the details and then our adjustments for our discipleship hours.
So you wanna make sure that, that you're a part of that.
Um I hope you had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving.
Um uh a little, a little time to kind of share.
I think I did well.
um I think I did really well with what I was able to accomplish on, on Thanksgiving.
Um So there's a group of guys that, that work out uh on Tuesday mornings up here at the church.
Uh Joel Van Ham um is the leader of it.
Like, I don't know if y'all know this or not, but like Joel likes to work out like all the time.
That's what he does, what he talks about, it's his thing.
Um And so he invited three guys who don't uh to join him in that.
Um So it's me, uh Tim Shall and Josh Nick and, and we're just there uh to kind of do some motions and complain mostly is, is what we do uh while we're, while we're working out together.
Uh The, the workout started harder and like most workouts go, you know, over 68 months, like you would think that we would increase in our ability and, and we're just declining in what he can get us uh to do.
So he gave us a challenge though.
He gave us a challenge.
Uh, I don't know if, if, if Tim, or, or Josh, uh, heard Joel or, or really process what Joel said.
Um, but, but he said now on, on Thanksgiving, I want you to be good because we talk about what we eat, the amount of exercise, all those things.
And he said on Thanksgiving Day, I want you to limit yourself to no more than 1600 calories and, uh, with honesty and integrity, I can stand here today and tell you that every plate that I ate was less than 1600 calories, all four of them, you know.
Uh, so, uh, and, and even yesterday, right, I got that styrofoam plate out of the refrigerator and it was probably like 1580 you know, and so we ate that and that was good too.
Uh, but I hope you had a, I hope you had a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving.
I'm a Thanksgiving guy.
I love Thanksgiving.
I, I love gathering with, with friends and I love gathering with family.
Um, I love getting really full off of nothing but carbs and then taking a nap, you know.
Um, and it's just, just, just good day, good day, good day.
But now it's Christmas season, you know, uh, this weekend, uh, Aaron and, and, and now we get down all the Christmas decorations.
The kids were helping us when we were decorating, um, inside the house.
Um, that, that's Aaron's area, you know, she, she decorates the tree.
Uh, it's, it's gorgeous.
Um, if it were up to me, um, like, like, like I would decorate, like everything, like eye level, you know.
Um, what I can see right, right there.
Uh She does let me, um, decorate AAA one ornament that, that I, I say let, she doesn't stop me.
Um, I stop myself except for one ornament.
Um, a few years ago, uh when I was in like prime physical peak of my life, I entered into AAA race and I came in third place in this five K and there was four of us in this race, but, but I came in third.
Um And, and I, and I shared the story a few years ago.
What, what like really motivated me to like to finish strong was like, like with a mile left, a pregnant woman pushing a stroller past me, you know, and I just was like, if I could just finish right after her right, then I'll do well.
And so, uh I got, I got a, I got an ornament for that.
Uh the third place ornament out of a race out of four old men.
Um And so I hung that up on the, on the tree.
It used to be front and center right in the middle and she asked me that I not hang that up there uh uh anymore.
And so now I have the ornament position where when we sit at our kitchen table and eat, it's right at eye level, right?
Just to remind everyone of my accomplishments of third place out of four for a bunch of old guys who I walked more than I ran.
Let's just be honest.
But man, when that eight month pregnant lady went flying by me, I was like, buddy, you gotta do better than this.
And so um we did, but I, but II, I love Christmas now that Thanksgiving's passed.
I love Christmas.
Um I love Christmas movies.
I, I love it.
I don't like Hallmark Christmas movies.
Um I don't like those.
Um, I don't like Netflix Christmas movies.
I like the traditional Christmas movies.
Um, was it 20th anniversary of Elf?
Right.
Um So I know it makes you feel like older than what you should feel when you hear that.
Um, but it's there.
I, I love the food.
Uh Emma and I went, went Black Friday shopping.
Um, and, and our last point was the mall and, and we're getting ready and we got packages and, and, and things loading up in, in her car and, and we were leaving the mall and, and we went to take this turn around like our last stretch to get in the parking lot and, and there was that the, the, the stand that sells like the sausages and cheeses and I was like, Emma, we gotta stop, we gotta just pause for just a second here.
Um And so we got some of that.
So that was fantastic uh to be able to have that, but I love the food.
I love the lights.
Um I spent all day yesterday getting lights out in the yard, getting inflatables out in the yard like we're, we're, we're those people and we love people like us uh that do stuff like that.
Our, our inside of the house is, is, is, is nice and classy and then the front yard is what I do.
Um And so that's fair.
Um I love, I love the gatherings.
I love how we, how we spread them out like this excites me for all of these things that we're gonna do together as a church family and then the things that we'll have with, with our family.
Um um I love that, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
OK.
Uh And, and some people can, can try to be super spiritual about these things and I'm just gonna lay it all out man.
Like, like I love the gifts, like is, is this the safe space to say that like, like I love gifts, right?
And, and let's be honest, like you don't get a gift and go wow, I wish that person would have not thought of me like, like, like you like the gifts too, right?
Like we like gifts, we do.
And so as we were kind of coming into this to this season.
Like I got thinking about a, a theme for a Christmas series for us and, and I thought, like, let's talk about gifts.
Well, it's like the Christmas season is, is filled with, with gifts.
We'll, we'll buy gifts for friends and family and for coworkers.
We, we'll, sometimes we'll, we'll do that in like, gift cards.
Sometimes we'll think of what they want.
Sometimes they'll give us a long list of all these things.
But, but we love, we, we love gifts and, and here's, here's what I love about the gifts.
Kind of kind of two things, two things about the gifts that I love and, and these aren't in order.
These are, these are equal for me.
I, I love to, I love to get gifts.
I do, I do.
Emma asked me the other day when we were out shopping.
She's like, what do you want for, for Christmas?
And I was like, sweetie.
Like I, I want you to think about what you would like for me to have and then, and then that's what I would like.
II I would like because I like, I like sitting there and thinking that, that this person knows me and, and they thought of this for me and, and they, they've, they've bought this for me.
I, I love, I, I love getting gifts, but I also II, I love to give gifts.
I do.
I, I love to, to see the, the excitement on someone's face when, when they open up the gift and, and they know that, that you thought of them and that, that you thought that they would like this.
And, and, and so you, you, you did that and, and I love the, the gathering together on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with, with, with family and, and just having that, that point in time where, where everyone in the room is just their hearts are filled with, with gratitude.
The tension I think for this season is we can hit a space where it's all about those things.
It's, it's all about the movies.
It's all about the food, it's all about the lights, it's all about the gatherings and it's all about the packages under a tree and, and what, what I want us to do is, is to take those things, but especially the, the gifts and, and I was, when, when we look at a package under the tree, when we're, when we're out at the mall and, and we're shopping or we're on Amazon and the 55th package of the week is gonna arrive at our house.
Right.
We're about to hit that buy now button and three things are for someone else and four things are for us.
That's how that works, right?
Is that what when we're doing those things, what we're reminded of is, is Jesus, a gift exchange, giving and receiving of gifts should remind us of Jesus.
He is the ultimate gift, John 316 through 17, for God so loved the world that He gave.
He gave his only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life for God to not send His son into the world, to condemn the world.
But in order that the world might be saved through Him like this whole season should remind us that God gives us Jesus, the ultimate gift, the gift that we can't repay the gift that we can't pay back, the gift that we don't deserve.
Like the whole narrative that when we, when we read through the gospel account, this is this, this is this packaged gift sent from God to the world that God gives so that Jesus is gonna do something for us.
But here's the thing about the Gospel, God does give and we receive.
But more than likely, unlike the gift you're going to get on Sunday morning on Christmas morning.
This gift of Jesus is not just for us to get and hold on to.
It is for us to hold on to it is ours.
Jesus is mine, but I'm required to, to do something with it.
I'm required to, to share this gift.
Apostle Paul says in second Corinthians 520.
Therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us and we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
So as recipients of this gift, as much as we hold on to, we're called to give it away.
So the next several weeks, as we, as we look at the gift of, of Jesus, we're, we're, we're going to understand and, and press into that.
When you and I enter into a saving relationship with, with Jesus, we are given even more gifts and, and here's the, here's the big idea what we do with these gifts.
Once we receive them matters, it matters.
And so here's the first gift that we're gonna talk about this morning is it's the gift of forgiveness.
It's the gift of forgiveness in Christ in a relationship with him.
One of the things that we get is we we we get forgiveness first John 17 through 10.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.
And the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
And so at the front end, what we wanna talk about is the gift, forgiveness of forgiveness, received, the gift of forgiveness, received that in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is as my Lord and savior.
What does that mean?
It means that we have received what, what, what John Rock writes about here, what we have been given is we have been given forgiveness.
We've been given forgiveness for our sins, the sins of our actions, the sins of our attitude and the sins of our nature, all of it, God has forgiven us.
And so what does it mean?
We're, we're used to a world of forgiveness where we say, I'm sorry, someone says, ok, and then we kind of wait for the conflict to come back again.
But what do we mean?
When we say that Jesus forgives us?
Number one, it means this, that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.
He paid the penalty for our sin just as you will purchase a gift to give to someone in order for us to be forgiven.
Jesus had to pay the price for our sin.
Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ, Jesus, our Lord.
So what do we deserve death, complete and total removal, the presence of God death.
But through the forgiveness of Christ and because of Him, what we gain is the eternal life.
And Jesus had to do this.
One of my favorite songs at the Christmas season is a song that I don't know if it's written by them, but I've heard it performed by them the most.
It's a, it's, it's a, it's a duo called called Shane and Shane.
They're, they're worship leaders and the, the, the title of the Christmas song is He Came To Die.
And it's a song about the journey from the manger to the cross and what he came to do.
So Paul writes in first Corinthians 1515 3 for I delivered to you as of first importance.
What I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures for our sins.
This is the price it was paid and we didn't give him anything back.
We couldn't pay him back, we didn't do anything to deserve him to do that.
But everything we did called for his death.
And so he died and Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.
But that hit honest for a moment yours, man, the sins of the world.
He forgives us, not in spite of his death, but he forgives us because of his death.
And then the, the, the second thing, what it means to be forgiven is jesus' righteousness, his holiness, his goodness, his perfection was then imparted to us, right?
He got arson.
We got his good second Corinthians 521 for our sake.
He made him to be sin.
Who knew no sin so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.
I love that verse, Jesus never experienced the feeling of after sin.
All that.
He didn't it was good, it was perfect, it was holy and was in line with the father's will and he deserves all the good that comes from that.
But in this world with this baby who would grow to become a man takes on is all of our sin.
And then he says, you give that to me.
And then here's what I'm gonna give to you all the goodness of who I am and the standing of who you are.
And then the third is, is our sins will be remembered no more.
Wow.
In that gift of forgiveness, our sins will be remembered no more.
The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 812 for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.
I, I don't know any other way that we can describe that other than looking at the word of God in their sin and their iniquity, I'll be merciful toward them.
I will not give them what they deserve.
I will not give them what they earn.
And then as far as that goes, hey, I'm remembering it no more.
It's gone pretty good deal.
Right.
Pretty good deal.
Pretty good gift to get well, I severe this morning.
And how my ho ho how do I get that?
How do I get that?
And, and, and you might be in here kind of figuring out like, like how, how do I feel?
How, how do I feel this gift.
How do I receive this gift?
How do I live in this gift?
And, and you've grown up in church or you've grown up here and, and, and, and you've heard the Bible and you've heard messages like this or, or maybe this is first time for you and you're like, oh man, II, I want that, that that's the forgiveness that I want.
That's what I need.
I don't want death.
I want this.
What do I get to get this gift?
And John says, here's what you do out of surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, John says, you just have to confess.
You just have to confess, right?
So I just need to stand up and, and just just start saying things well, no, no, he here's what it means to confess.
Number one, we we, we have to admit that we were wrong.
We got to admit that we were wrong.
We're not gonna have a show of hands if that's difficult for some people in here.
But there's a guy standing on stage wearing a plaid jacket that has a hard time with this from time to time, right?
We gotta admit that we're wrong.
We got to admit that our actions, our thought, our word of what we've done is wrong, that it's a sin, but it stands in rebellion to God's standard for our life, but it's wrong.
We have to admit that in that we violate God's standard.
Why is it sin?
Is it sin?
Because we determined it to be, is it a sin?
Because culture and society determined for it to be?
No, no, no, no.
It's a sin because it violated the standard that God gives us.
This is gotta do not form a committee or a council to decide what's sin.
I says, I give this to you in my word of who I am in what I've determined and it's sin because it violates God's standard.
And then the, the third, that in that once we admit that we were wrong, once we admit that we violated God's standard.
The third thing we must do is we must admit that we're guilty.
I must admit that we're guilty now, but you, you maybe push back.
Well, I've already admitted that I'm, that I was wrong.
Why do I have to admit now that I'm that I'm guilty?
And I would say this.
Have you ever been wrong at something?
And then blame someone else for it, like traffic in Harbison on Black Friday and the person who's standing there at the do not turn left and they're turning left or they're trying to turn left and you're behind them, right?
And then with your daughter sitting beside you, you lose your cool.
All right.
Not saying I did that.
That's just a hypothetical.
Was I wrong?
Yes.
Did I violate God's standard?
Yes.
But here's the breakdown that can happen for us is number three.
If they would not have done that, then I would have not done this.
Now, who have we tried to make is the guilty party, then them right?
And for our sin, there is no guilty party other than the person who committed the sin.
So we have to admit that we're wrong that we violated God's standard and that we are guilty.
But then the fourth and this is where confession becomes more than just giving a list of things that we confess that we've done.
We embrace repentance, a desire to change.
What happens in us when we, when we sin and when we confess is that the Holy Spirit in us draws us to a part where we do not want to do the wrong and the evil that we long for.
And instead we wanna embrace the standard that God has for us.
And the words that Paul uses in His epistles that we live a life worthy of the calling.
We live a life.
We, we, we, we can't do it perfect, but we live a life worthy, worthy to be called sons and daughters of the living God because of the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, have you admitted you've done wrong?
Have you admitted that you have violated God's standard?
Have you admitted that you're guilty if we check all of those boxes?
But we don't feel the drawing of the Holy Spirit called conviction to make a turn to head toward the path that God has for us.
Then we've missed it.
I read an author this week.
He was asked a question.
This author is a pastor.
He was asked a question from one of his church members.
How often should we confess?
And here was his answer.
It'll be on the screen.
He said, confess, daily.
Confess, often confess as the spirit leads, I love that confess daily.
Confess often confess as the spirit leads.
May that be the positioning of us and who we are of what we're long for, of who we desire to be.
When do we confess?
We confess daily.
I don't know about you, but daily, I need it.
Well, when do we confess daily?
Well, we confess often how often, well, as often as the spirit leads.
But why, why, why are we at this spot?
If if God's forgiven for forgiveness has forgiven us for past sins, present sin and future sins?
He's forgiven us fully.
Why?
Why do I need to confess daily?
Why do I need to confess often?
Why do I need to confess as the spirit leads?
When John 13 6 through 11?
It's the kind of Jesus washing the disciples feet.
And there's a dialogue that happens in this and I wanna read this to you starting in verse six.
He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?
No washing the feet.
That's what servants do.
And, and Simon Peter is like, no, no, no, like you shouldn't have to do this for me.
And Jesus answered him what I am doing.
You do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
And Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.
And Jesus answered him.
If I do not wash you the work of the cross, the blood of our savior, you have no share with me.
And Simon Peter answered him.
Lord, not only my feet only but also my hands and head.
Verse 10.
Jesus said to him.
The one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but it's completely clean.
So here's what Jesus says in me, Peter doesn't understand this yet in me, in the work that I'm going to do.
You do not need to be washed completely.
You've been made queen.
But here's what's going to happen as you walk along this world, Peter.
Yy, your feet are gonna get dirty.
Your feet are gonna get dirty.
Verse verse 11 for he knew who was betray him.
And that was why he said not all of you are clean.
So Jesus says, listen, listen, you're in here but but here's what I, what I need to do for you daily.
You've been cleaned, you've been made new by the blood of the lamb.
When we are found in Christ, we are brothers and sisters in him.
We have been bought, we have been sealed.
This is who we are, but Daly, your feet are gonna get dirty daily.
We're gonna walk through this world and we're gonna pick up the sin that's there.
We're gonna commit it.
We're gonna violate God's standard and we're gonna think that we're justified for doing it.
And when the spirit and who he is convicts us and draws us, the, the imagery that that's getting here is that we confess it.
And here's what happens when we sin as Children of the living God, our relationship and who we are in Christ is secure.
But when we sin, the fellowship is broken, right?
It clouds the relationship that's there.
When we sin, we don't trust him like we should.
When we sin, we don't pray to him like we should.
When we sin, we fall short and we break that relationship that's there.
And what confessing does is it restores this.
That's right here.
We're not earning back our salvation.
What we're doing is we're building back the joy of our salvation in the fellowship with our father, married couples.
You, you, you probably at some point in time have had a conversation like this in your marriage.
Um Aaron will will, will say this.
She, she's better at acknowledging this in, in, in her discernment with, with things, but we'll, we'll hit like those busy seasons.
You know, work is busy, kids are busy, activities are busy, the house like stuff has to be done and there's these things that are going on and, and, and what she will say to me is, hey, hey, hey, we're, we're, we're, we're feeling disconnected right now and, and what we need to do is acknowledge these things that we're doing and then intentionally look back into restoring some of these pieces from our, from our marriage that we've kind of walked away from for a season.
right?
And I love that about her.
And that's what confession is for us, for God that I've walked away and I need to draw this back, right?
So that's the gift of forgiveness received.
But as we said, this is about what we're gonna do with this as well.
And so we're talking about the gift of forgiveness given this is clear in scripture that we're to do this three verses that I or three passages I wanna read to Ephesians 432 be kind to one another, tenderhearted forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.
Colossians 312 through 13 put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
And if one has complained against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
So you must also forgive Matthew 614 through 15.
For if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others, their tres trespasses.
Neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
So we can't argue away in scripture that forgiveness is just what we receive.
That if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven.
And what we are called to do is to forgive others.
This is called to be who we are.
And, and, and what happens when we, when we don't forgive others, what we experience of what the scripture teaches us.
One of two things.
Number one, we've either never truly experienced the forgiveness that comes with a relationship with Jesus Christ.
If we're unwilling to forgive others.
The first thing that we have to check is number one, maybe we haven't ever experienced the forgiveness that comes with a relationship with Jesus Christ, which means this, we're not saved, which means this Jesus isn't our savior, which means this, we're not a Christian, which means this, we're going to hell.
That's one.
The, the, the second is, is this if you are saved, but you've got this person, man, you know who I'm talking about right now.
That person's face is in your brain and you're like bo but you don't know whoever.
All right.
And here's what I typically say to that.
I've got someone like that.
And chances are I am that person to someone.
And so are you?
And what's happening right now in your relationship with the Lord?
Is your unwillingness to forgive, is causing a break in your fellowship with God it's causing a break.
Your unwillingness to forgive them is sin in your life and the sweetness of the goodness of the relationship with your father.
The joy that you're called to experience in him is not being lived to its full capacity in your life because you've chosen bitterness instead of forgiveness this past week as I was studying and, and preparing for this, I, I've read, there's a, there's a Christian counseling uh uh network in, in California and, and they, they, they wrote an article about this.
And so I, I wanna share the, the title of the article was how can a Christian forgive?
And, and as we close, I wanna share what they gave, I typically, I'm weary of like do these five steps and then everything is great, right?
But as I read through this, as I prayed through this, as I got back into this, this morning, I'm like, well, it's hard to push back against this.
So I if you're, if you're a person right now, like me, I struggle with this and you're struggling to forgive someone in your life.
My, my prayer for you, we're gonna go over these pretty quickly is that you will ee embrace this of how you can forgive someone that's hurt you, right?
Number one is this, acknowledge the pain, acknowledge the pain too many times I feel like, and, and, and, and pastors myself included, we, we've done a poor job of acknowledging that you're hurt, not because you want to be hurt, but you're hurt because someone hurt you.
And that hurt is real.
And that hurt has brought scars, sometimes, physical, sometimes emotional, sometimes spiritual scars and all it takes is something to jar your memory.
It can be their face.
It can be as small as a smell or a word that you hear and you're taken back to that place and you recycle the hurt all the way over again.
And so what I want to begin with, what they began with is I, I is the first team to, to acknowledge the pain, right?
N number two is, is think through things, think through things.
I, I love their vagueness of, of number two as you acknowledge the pain, think through things.
Think back to the setting of, of where it happened and where it took place, think through and ask yourself the question, why is this so hard to give up and so easy to hang on to take time to journal and to think about yourself within the Goddess of the Holy Spirit to just process and, and and understand and to think through things.
So that number number three can happen, imagine being on the other side, imagine being on the other side.
Imagine putting yourself in, in their shoes.
Don't seek to justify, just seek to understand, just seek to understand.
So acknowledge the pain.
Think through things.
Imagine being on the other side.
Number four.
Remember God's forgiveness.
Remember God's forgiveness, the fully innocence of Christ for us.
Did you asked for it?
So Jesus said, I'll go to the cross.
No, Jesus went to the cross even before you asked for it.
And how did God forgive you?
Forget fully?
Remember God's forgiveness.
Number five, number five, reflect on the biblical command.
If you, if you wanna write these down, these are just three verses that that commanded us.
So go back, Ephesians 432 Colossians 312, 313, the very words of Jesus in Matthew 614 to 15, there's more in scripture.
But those three that we can come to as Jesus calls us to love one another.
As Jesus calls us to serve one another.
As Jesus calls us to be kind to one another.
Jesus calls us to forgive one another as well.
Number six, let go with a hurt.
I go with her.
I understand this is a process.
But as we move down through what we're doing in all of these is we're allowing the work of the Holy Spirit to work and to work and to work.
And, and here's what I found out in, in my life and maybe this rings true in yours too.
I'm holding on to the hurt because I want to hold on to it, the more that they hurt me, the easier it is to hate them and like go with the hurt, acknowledge it.
It's real.
Let go.
Number number seven, forgive, continually, forgive, continually.
Thanks.
Don't let forgiveness be a holiday that's off in the calendar.
Let forgiveness be a daily reminder of what we're called to do.
Whether it's your spouse, your kids, your coworkers, your friends, your parents, the strangers on the street, forgive, confess daily.
Confess, often confess as the spirit leads, forgive daily, forgive, often, forgive as the spirit leads and then the last one and we'll close with this, pray for the person who hurt you, pray for the person who hurt you.
It's hard to be mad at a person that you pray for.
Now, let's talk about what your prayer looks like.
This isn't God.
I thank you for today and all these blessings that you're giving us.
And Lord, you know Ralph today, he just needs some wrath, God, right?
Not like sodom and Gamora wrath just like lose your job today.
Wrath, God like that'd be good for Him.
You know, pray for Him.
Maybe we begin by if they don't know Christ, that we would pray that they would come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Maybe instead of praying for their punishment, that we pray that they would be blessed, that their relationships would be filled with joy, that they would have financial opportunities that we would learn to celebrate with them when they have things to celebrate.
Maybe we pray as we put ourselves in their shoes and we understand that we don't know why they do the things that we do, they seem that they're angry and they always try to lash out and hurt us and we don't understand why.
And so we pray for those, for them because others have hurt them.
And we know that I found in my life that when the Holy Spirit brings me to the spot where I pray for those who hurt me, which by the way, Jesus says, pray for those who persecute you, pray for those who persecute you.
That's our response, not a fist but a prayer.
Pray for those who persecute you found when I can pray for those who hurt me.
And I ask God, God help me forgive them that God's faithful to do what he says.
He's going to do.
I don't know about you, but I love opening the package of forgiveness.
But maybe this Christmas season, I understand that I open that all the time.
And what I need to do is to find those who I don't think deserve it and understand that they're just like me.
And then I mark this season of giving away the forgiveness that God has given me.
Would you pray with me?
God?
I thank you so much for this time.
I thank you for the beauty of your word.
Well, I thank you that we confess our sins and you were faithful and just to forgive us, gotta pray.
If there's anyone here who has not experienced that forgiveness that comes from a relationship with Christ, that today would be the day that they could experience that.
And it's not found because they deserve it.
It's found because this is who you are and this is what you do.
And they can experience that through a saving relationship with you or that they'll admit that they're a sinner, that they'll believe that that Jesus Christ is God's son.
and through his sacrifice, our sins are paid and through the power of his resurrection.
Lord, we are given eternal life and in that word that we will confess to.
Lord, I pray if there's anyone here who does not know you or that they will not leave here today without coming to know Jesus Christ is be God for all of us, for all, every, every one of us, from the youngest of the young to the oldest of the old, there's someone we need to forgive.
They may be in this room, they may be sitting next to us.
They may be someone we haven't spoken to in 2030 4050.
And Lord, what we're holding on to is bitterness and God, I pray that in the kindness and the goodness of your Holy spirit or that you would draw spot of understanding how you've forgiven on in that war that we would desire to forgive others in the same format where to live joy that comes in a relationship with you what I know, you know that none of us deserve and we're called to do it.
Can't we experience that freedom?
Or I I recognize that some of us in this room have been hurt in ways that many of us could not understand.
And it is difficult.
It is painful, spiritually, emotionally, physically in war.
Today today is just not happening.
What, what I pray?
Number one, if there's that man, woman or child in this room, who is with that Lord Lord, I pray that right now what they would forgive, what they would feel is your, is your grace and mercy.
God, I pray that you would work in.
We would understand that when we forgive others, it's not about them, but it's about so God would they be we dear?
But they walk this out.
Lord, I pray that they would see victory area of their life where they currently are experiencing where we ask all these thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us at Willow Ridge church.org or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.