City Central Church Podcast
Forgiveness
Chris Hippe - November 8, 2009
How many of you enjoyed Laura's announcement? All right. How many of you heard about Stadium's victory this week? A pretty decisive win. Anybody there during the storm? Everybody make it a few of you. Yes. I got the text from Julie Walton. Praise God. Thank you, Julie, for keeping me up to date at all times. If you are not on her texting list, get on her texting list. It's helpful. I don't think she has a list. But anyways, approach her anyway. I'm sure she'll put you on the list of some sort. Tonight, this is what I want to do is, before we get into the word, I had a wonderful time this week being at Stadium High School. I got to participate in something called Building Bridges. And how many of you were there or around? Raise your hand right there. And I just want to acknowledge this because this was one of the most encouraging things that I personally have been to in a very, very long time. And it was one of the more sobering things I've been to in a very, very long time. What it was, it was Adam Narciso and Ryan Buzzker and Julie Walton basically bringing 150 stadium kids together. And what they did is they basically said it's time to get real with one another. And if you really knew Chris Hippie, this is what you would know. And they had fun in games and they had all this fun times, but then the kids would get into small groups and that's where I sat with a small group. And there's other small groups around the gym. And what I got the opportunity to hear was real life in Tacoma. And I got to hear from the mouth of young men and young women, the reality of what this generation faces. And I literally, it was everything that I could do to just hold myself back from weeping in their presence physically, but then yearning for them. I heard things that I'm so thankful that I heard, but it gave me a reality to know what's going on out there. And what it did inside of me, it is it just even fortified me deeper as to what we stand for and who we are and where we're going. Because there are so many lost that are aimlessly wandering around. And they come in and out of different religious institutions, but they don't know the truth. And so I looked into hollow eyes over and over and over again basically that we're pleading saying, "Help me, help me, help me." I had young woman in my group just weeping, weeping at the reality of her life. And it was, and I just broke for her. And I just so God, this is not just her. But it is the city at large. And I felt like I was having a meeting with the Holy Spirit, why I met with this conglomeration of students. And I know I wasn't the only one. I know story after story of those of you that raised your hands and others. And I'm telling you, body I'm telling you this, is that there is more of a need right now to engage what God is doing on the streets, to prepraying diligently, to be seeking God at all times that God would come and touch this generation and touch every lost person on the streets. Amen. I wasn't expecting that, but there's your intro. Okay. Acts 2. This is what I believe. Acts 2. I believe that we talked about encouragement last week. And I believe it's kind of fun because I've been spending some time with the Lord over these last weeks and have you ever had that sense that God's smiling at you? And He's kind of opening a door to you of understanding that you don't quite understand, that He knows the whole thing. And it's just kind of like, keep going, you're doing great. Have you ever been there before? I've had that experience over this last week. And it was kind of like the Lord was saying, I'm building an Acts 2 community. I'm building an inferno. I'm laying foundation stones by which a community really is a community that fiercely changes the world for Jesus Christ. And so an Acts 2 community would be one that has a heavenly mindset, one that endures Bobsorg, one that is constantly encouraging and stirring up. And tonight I want to share with you a very, very large key in the overall process for you and I. It's a key that opens up encouragement to us. It's a key that if we are not implementing in our lives, then we are compromising the true fellowship we have with the Lord. If I don't, if I'm not implementing this in my life, then I'm compromising the intimacy that I have with the Holy Spirit. If I don't have this thing that I'm going to talk to you about tonight, then I really I am not storing up ultimate treasures in heaven. This key tonight is a very, very important thing for you and I to consistently be using it all times, that we would not grow weary on this point tonight. This is also very key. If we're not implementing this in our life, then we don't have the fullness of the anointing that we could be functioning in, the fullness of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This key tonight is that important to the overall of what God is doing, okay? But first, I want you to open your Bibles and we're going to explore a little bit about who God is. Open up to Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2, I want us to sit in Ephesians 2 to build the case a little bit. Everybody say build the case. Are you happy tonight? Anybody just feeling like super good, like you just like praise God, I'm just about to come on court and un-popped. No one? Raise your hand and give me an amen. I want to see you out there, okay? You're pretty rare on the overall planet scheme, just so you know, all right? So look at Ephesians 2, verse 1, and let's set the stage. You know one of the things that I love about Paul is he keeps a consistent writing pattern in a guy like me can follow him. He writes his epistles that work like this. He usually spends the first half of his books, if it's Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. If any of these books he usually spends the first half explaining doctrine and then the second half explaining now what are you supposed to do in light of that doctrine. So he's able to tell me this is what the Bible says, Chris. Now this is what you should be doing in light of what I just told you. So we're going to explore that scripturally, Ephesians 2, verse 1. And it says this. And this is going to make you really happy tonight, by the way, if you came in a little bit frazzled, and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Everybody say alive. In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Say that was me, okay? But God, verse 4, but God, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Someone say amen. Now what we explore here is I want you to take a moment with me before we even go any further, and I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Let's have a moment, shall we? Let's have a moment. I want you to think back about what life was like before you met Jesus Christ. I want you to explore the realities for a moment of what you were feeling before you met Jesus, where you were when before you met Jesus, what circumstances were like before you met Jesus, how you went to bed every night without Jesus, okay? Open your eyes. This is what I know. Is before I met Jesus Christ, I was hopeless, I was defeated, I was depressed, and I had no purpose in life. I was an aimless wanderer through the existence with a smile on my face, but miserably deficient in all sides of my life, wondering what is life all about, and I walk through life wondering where do I go, what am I supposed to do, and there was this aching tension inside of me at all times that if I was to acknowledge, nod at me consistently. I don't know what life was like before you met Jesus, but when I look back at the depression that I would face and the heavy cloud that I had to just compromise with and make friends with and say this is as good as it gets, and I would go to bed at night and I would feel that hopeless feeling of shallowness, of going there's nothing inside of me. I don't know what life was like before you met Jesus, but when I met Jesus I was aimlessly wandering trying to find anything to just drink or to smoke or to numb this existence. And I look back on that, that time, and I remember where I was when I committed my life to Christ, but I look back from there on, and it's interesting when we're when we become deeper in the faith how important it is to remember the past, to never forget where we've come from, how miserable life was, the realities of the darkness, the reality of the nightmares. In light of that, you now have been made alive. In light of that, remember where you were and who you are now. Never forget where I have brought you from is what the scriptures would say. Because when we are able to look there and now look here and understand that I'm alive in Christ, I get really happy because I start to get a taste of God's mercy, verse 4. God who is rich, exhaustless, abundant in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we are dead in trespasses. Do you know that rich in mercy, mercy is an actively compassionate form. It's an outward entity of who God is. It's not something he does. Mercy is something that he is actively compassionate toward you and I before we met him as our Savior and Lord, and even now today. How many of you are thankful for the mercy of God? Isn't that amazing? That the mercy of God is rich and exhaustless for you and I, even when we were dead in our violations is the word trespasses. Even when we were dead and all the ways that I cursed him and all the ways that I just despised everything that he was about, he still had mercy on me. And I get to wake up every day today, tomorrow, under his mercy. Now it's interesting that many people balance out the mercy justice piece. Mercy and justice, what we will see is mercy is who God is in nature, but justice comes when a person despises God's mercy. This needs to come about when mercy is continually despised and hated, justice must come. But in entity, when we look at God's mercy in light of who we were, and now today where we stand, that is good news because he made us alive together with Christ. How many of you could recognize your life really did tangibly, like you could tangibly feel a physical difference when you got saved, I mean you were just dead, anybody like really dead, like probably 10 days in the casket dead, you know stinking dead, like man don't even approach that dead. And then Jesus came and said rise, rise up, Lazarus come on out, and there you came. For those of you that have that I want you to preach that continually, those of us that have to look, it's still there, he made us alive by grace you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceedingly riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is clearly declaring that not only have I been given life, not only was I a punk that had nothing to give anyone, and Jesus said there's my son and redeemed me into a man, but then he gave me a heavenly inheritance on top of that and seated me in the spirit already in heaven so I can't lose. Look at this, he might show the exceedingly riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves it is the gift of God, everybody say the gift. Not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, someone say amen. You see it was God's ultimate, ultimate design to show you and I mercy then and now. And when you look at throughout the scriptures the ultimate act of God's mercy was the sending of his son Jesus Christ that he would die on a cross for you and I. The ultimate act of mercy is a God that would be able to look down on the world and see nothing but carnage and hatred and difficult situations and all of a sudden there's the God saying my son is the one for the job. It is only a merciful God that will be able to exude that type of reaction and attribute in his fullness and so it is his son that he gave to us and then in turn Matthew five seven says that God blesses those who are merciful for they will be shown mercy. So in lieu of God's mercy and how right and just he is may we be a people to extend mercy to one another. You see that right there in essence could be an amen let's call it done. To for me to live a life to receive mercy I thank you Jesus even now as I'm talking. The mercy right now over my life in your life to be even in this room. To be able to be able to corporately meet together there's so many things that as mercy extends to us every day that if someone comes up to me I can extend them mercy. And even this field of hatred extend them mercy God's design is we are to emulate who he is and I'm telling you in this day and age it's not very well seen when you travel and you see things and situations knowing God and emulating who God is in this world is a revolutionary revival topic. So check this out Hebrews 8 verse 12 says this open your Bibles Hebrews 8 verse 12 Jesus is ultimate act of mercy was dying on a cross for the forgiveness of my sins. Everybody say the word forgiveness. Hebrews 8 12 says for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. So my proposition to you tonight is that the ultimate act of mercy that you and I can extend to another person is forgiveness. I want to introduce you to something very supernatural and not of this world tonight. I want to introduce you to one of the greatest miracles that if implemented and you're in my life is as a big of a miracle of a dead person coming up front in a casket and then being raised back to life I want to introduce you to one of the most miraculous things that has ever been extended to you and I for us but then to extend to another person. I want to talk to you tonight about the key that if this is implemented in our lives we will be a people that are always living in this passionate loving relationship with Jesus Christ. This is key to my anointing key to my intimacy keys tonight in the word falls within the word forgiveness. Everybody say forgiveness. I would like you now to go to Ephesians chapter 4. I have been sitting in this for about two years as the Lord has been taking me to the woodshed if you will on this topic I quickly realized over the last two years how I didn't know forgiveness. I thought I did but I came to realize that I didn't. Ephesians 4 verse 30 remember this is the second part now of what Paul is saying. First part he is saying listen in light of me redeeming you out of my mercy and my love for you now in light of that Ephesians 4 verse 30 says this and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Everyone say grieve the Holy Spirit of God. The living translation says do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit. So that's probably a pretty important thing for you and I to perk up. The last thing I want to do is grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. No one wakes up in the morning saying hey I got my top 10 list number one grieve the Holy Spirit. No one thinks that. That loves Jesus at least right. We all want to be people that are co collaborating with the Holy Spirit. So when it says do not bring and do not bring sorrow or grieve the Holy Spirit of God by the way you live. Remember so following this is how you will grieve the Holy Spirit. Remember he's the one who has identified you as his own guaranteeing you that you will be saved on the day of redemption praise God. Living translation verse 31 get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words and slander as well as all types of malicious behavior. Someone say amen. Instead be kind to each other tender hearted forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Just as God through Christ has forgiven you, whoa, whoa that's intense. He says be kind, be ones that are soft towards each other, be tender hearted and gracious toward one another and forgive one another even as Christ has forgiven you. And now you're probably thinking how is Christ forgiven me unconditionally, quickly at all times joyously with a smile on his face. What are the spruits of the Holy Spirit? That's what you will find within the forgiveness of our Savior and Lord. And he says as one that is my follower be like me and imitate me be one that is so close to me forgive each other intensely, amen. So look at this, Matthew 6 verse 14, let's pound through a couple passages, 6 verse 14. There seems to be a qualification in Matthew 6 verse 14. It says this, for if everybody say if, notice it's not a commit, notice it's, everybody say the word option, yes. For if you forgive men their trespasses or their violations towards you, if you forgive their violations towards you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, the violations are trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses, someone say oh my word. Now what we see here is that there's an expectation that you and I will be violated. There's an expectation throughout Scripture, it just basically doesn't say if you're going to be violated sometimes, it's just saying when you get violated, what are you going to do about it? Anybody violated today? Come on, this is church, you're supposed to be honest. A couple people got violated today, okay? Anything you violated this week, trust passed against, someone cropped off right on your life and you said uh-uh, I don't want any of it. You see the Scriptures are clear to expect it. Don't act like you're surprised that it happened, Chris. Don't act like your buddy just said something to you that you didn't like and you got all flustered and it's not like you should be surprised. It says very clearly throughout the New Testament what we're supposed to do when it happens. So it just says then if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. So the simple principle is this is you and I will be forgiven to the degree that we forgive others. This is really good news, but really frightening news. There's a ton of fear got around this topic because Chris will be forgiven if I choose to forgive, Billy over here for this offense against me, 50% meaning partially kind of forgive him. Then the Scriptures are saying what do I get in return? You see this is directly affected by this in all times, wherever we go, whatever we do. And so you can you notice how you can spend your life in and out of churches and in and out of prayer rooms and in and out and and just be absolutely inundated with unforgiveness and come in and you just feel hollow and just you just flatline until you wake up one day and go this thing is not working and they either encounter the reality or they bail, amen. So forgiveness for if you forgive men their trespasses, another word for trespasses is unwarranted infringement, unwarranted infringement, I think that should just someone should adopt that and just every time someone someone gets like a fenzi or something, just like have a little little unwarranted infringement, that should become some of your normal conversations. Some of you men that live together in your houses, you just start talking that way, it will boost the vocabulary, all sorts of stuff, okay, you have violation, yes, okay, so let me ask you some questions, shall we, shall we do some exploring? Anybody feel like you want to explore tonight? Let's explore our inner sanctum, shall we? Everybody say assessment, okay, I want to ask you a couple of questions, here we go. Did you ask yourself, am I living in a level of isolation? Am I living in a level of isolation? I want you to ask yourself, do I find myself being a little punchy, a little edgy? Do I find myself being a little critical? Do I find myself cautiously critiquing? Now I'm asking, I'm going to dig into some sophisticated forms of unforgiveness tonight, okay, cautiously critiquing in the name of help, cautiously picking another person apart when they're not present. You see, you and I can become sophisticated, the longer we get in mature in our life with Christ, what happens is we can say, I don't have any unforgiveness just because you read through the freedom manual and the unforgiveness boxes don't necessarily sit with you, doesn't mean we don't have it, it just means that we must maturely approach it and hunt it then. It's not going to come find you, you've got to go find it, holy spirit open my eyes, remember when we prayed before, we just prayed 15 minutes ago, precision, holy spirit, precision, and I keep praying it, precision, any eruptions and anger. What about the eruptions and anger that you hold back because you don't want that, but you're just, how many people do you choose to avoid? Everybody say choose, now I've noticed this, can I just have a moment, now I've noticed this with some that I've known for a long time that have had a lot of incredible relationships within the body and without, and I've noticed one person being over here and another person being over here and there's this conscious decision to create a conversation because they see this person coming over here, hurry up, strike up a conversation with someone, and I'm watching potentially a sophisticated form of avoidance. I want to ask you, is there someone that you're avoiding? Is there someone that you'd prefer not to just embrace, and I'm telling you, you could potentially, potentially have something to explore tonight. Everybody say inner sanctum, yes, inner sanctum, it's true. How is my trust level with others? If you were to say your body language represents your level of trust, are you here with others initiating with others, or are you kind of like this, or are you kind of like no way? How's the level of trust with others? The Lord told me about a month ago through my dear brother Evan, praise God. How's the trust, Chris, are you trusting me? Are you trusting me? And I realized that my trust to the Lord had a direct reflection on my trusting others. And I had to go before the Lord and go undo me again, creating me a clean heart, oh God. Confusion in mind, an oppression of the heart, have you, have you, has there been a confusion of the mind, an oppression of the heart? Has there been a complaining to others in the name of processing? Processing. What? Come on, don't go, oh, like it's bad news. I'm telling you there's cancer in there maybe. This is good news. You're getting a biopsy tonight, hallelujah. How many people do I just tolerate? You know, I put up with so-and-so. I put up with this person, and I put up with that person, and I just put up, and I just want to ask you, does Jesus put up with them? Does Jesus just put up with their weaknesses that drive you your pride crazy? Does it just make you raw around them? And I tell you, they're exactly sent from God for you, probably. So give me an amen. I'm telling you this is such good news, it's so good news. Remember this is all mercy. God is merciful. He shows me mercy. And I'm just saying, if we want to be ones that are living in revival and fire, will we sure better have forgiveness flowing like a river? Like the Rio Grande around here, a big river of forgiveness. You see what I'm saying? We can't joke ourselves that a new revelation is going to take us somewhere. We can't joke ourselves that we're over the basics. We will always be at the basics. We'll always live the basics. If we master the basics in this body, we will be living in revival all day, every day. So let's not get so edgy on the topic of forgiveness. How about a low level of depression? I want you to raise your hand if you've struggled with a low level of depression in here. You're getting free tonight. You're going to get free tonight. Last one is this of the inner sanctum violation, holding any grudges. Any grudges, any edges, anything that you get, you're stuck on. Because the reality of this is the Lord told me this week, He says, "Unforgiveness will lock you in the past and from keeping you from embracing the present." So you hear messages about pressing forward in Philippians 3, but unforgiveness locks you back here in this situation and this is where grudges hang out. But when you cut ties with unforgiveness and you cut ties with all that stuff and embrace the new day, you come alive. I can tell you from personal experience, praise God. Look at Luke 18. Open your Bibles to Luke 18. Sorry, there are a lot of Bible passages on this topic. He's the Lord, Luke 18, verse 9 says this, "Then Jesus told this story to some who had a great self-confidence and scorned everyone else. Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by Himself and prayed this prayer, "I thank you God that I'm not like everyone else, especially like the tax collector over there, for I never cheat, don't sin, I don't commit adultery at fast twice a week, blah, blah." But the tax collector stood at the distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest and sorrow, saying, "Oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner." You see, pride is a deceptive thing that comes in and it's always about other people. It's always about other people. The problem with this Pharisee, the spirit of religion, always is so focused on other people. It's always out here. But may we have the heart of the broken tax collector and saying, "I'm undone, but I'm empowered. I'm undone. God created me a new heart because the reality is this, is when I understand that He's merciful and I receive His forgiveness over my life and I understand my nature and who I am and my deficiencies but my redemptive power in Christ, not dwelling on a bunch of sin, but knowing that I'm forgiven by the blood, I can forgive anybody, can walk with anybody. You can't out-send me, we can't out-send each other, we're all level, level. And so if we understand this, but we must have revelation into me and not be so worried about you," where do we go? Matthew 18, I want you to write this down. I want you to study this this week. Matthew 18, verse 21 to 35, "You'll find the story of the king who forgave the man much, millions, and the man then gets, be begs and the king is patient with him and cancels his whole debt and then he runs off to his buddy and demands a thousand dollars from him and becomes incensed by him." And then the verse 33, "Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant just as I've had mercy on you?" And so if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters in your heart, I will not forgive you. So you understand, I want to share with you a couple of principles of forgiveness tonight. Amen? How many of you would say you might have a tinge? Tinge, upgrade? That's a great word. Upgrade? Anybody got an upgrade? I want to share with you a few things that I've had great revelation out of a book by RT Kendall. It's called Total Forgiveness. And it is a must for you to read, re-read, and it has revolutionized my understanding of forgiveness. I thought I knew what forgiveness was and I just quite frankly didn't. And I see as reading his book, it's helped me. But there's one individual within his book that he quotes that came up with three different types of forgiveness, three different levels of forgiveness. And the first level of forgiveness is detached forgiveness, detached forgiveness. There's a reduction in negative feelings toward the offender, but no reconciliation takes place. This is the type of forgiveness that tolerates other people. This is the type of forgiveness that just puts up with people. So I can say that I forgive someone, but if there is no reconciliation, but there is a reduction in negative feelings, but I still have some negative feelings, probably a pretty good likely what we would call detached forgiveness. Everybody say detached. The second level is this, is limited forgiveness. There's a reduction in negative feelings toward the offender, and the relationship is partially restored, though there is a decrease in the emotional intensity of the relationship. Meaning there's not an exchange of emotions. You don't laugh with each other. You don't cry with each other. You don't trust each other with the emotional intensity is, it's partial. You're more than tolerating, you can smile at each other, but still yet there's not a full freedom. Do you know what it's like to be have full freedom? That's what full forgiveness is, number three. Full forgiveness is a total cessation of negative feelings toward the offender, total cessation. Total cessation, meaning a ceasing, a stopping of negative feelings toward the offender, and the relationship is fully restored. Everybody say fully restored. I want to ask you, do you have relationships that are not fully restored? Do you have relationship, do you have relationships that are not fully restored? And I want you to ask yourself, is that because there's not a total forgiveness in place? It's interesting part of this full forgiveness is you can have total forgiveness functioning in your life, even if there's not a restoration of the relationship. And so there may not be a rest, if I have this, say cousin that's hurt me, that lives in Australia, it's not like we have this massive relationship going, but I can be totally great that if she shows up 10 years from now on a plane, I just feel great around her. It's a total cessation of negative feelings, and the relationship is fully restored. That is full and total forgiveness. Praise God. Now I'm going to send you a bunch of notes, okay, but I want to hit this, I want to hit this, and then we'll bring this thing down to a close. How do we know when we've totally forgiven a person? Isn't that the greatest question? I've struggled with this over the years. How do you really know? I feel like I've said I forgive, and then this thing steals inside of me, it's like this animal, and it turns from this raging wolverine into a little hamster, you know, and then it gets the durable status, but it's still in there, you know, it's like it moves inside of me, I don't know what else to tell us to describe it, it's there, you know, you know what I'm saying? And so how do you know when the whole thing is out of your life, a few things? You do not let anyone know what someone else said about you or did to you. You don't need to tell anybody else, no one else's business. It's me and you, it's me and you, between me and you. No one else needs to know, I don't need to air my dirty laundry in the art of processing da-da-da. Right? Two, do not let, you don't let anyone be afraid of you or intimidated by you. So that person, that person comes around and you've forgiven them, but you know how you, if you still have the vengeance inside of you, you want them to pay. So you're not spiteful, but you're quiet. So it's like your lack of activity, total forgiveness is I don't want this person at all to feel any of that. They will not feel intimidated by me. They will not feel threatened by me. They will be loved by me. Three, we will want them to forgive themselves and not feel guilty. We'll actually want them to say, I forgive myself and to be guilt free. That's a sign of total forgiveness. Number four, we'll let them save face. We'll protect their image. We'll protect them from looking bad. We'll protect them from being railroaded. We'll protect them from the lynch mob to show up and beat on them. You know, there's some legal exceptions to this, okay? There's legal things that happen in violations, okay? I'm just more sharing broad brush. This is why you have to promise me you're going to read the notes because I'm going to go into specific situations. Well, what about this when this happens and this person gets arrested? That type of stuff I'm going to send you in the notes. We just don't have time to cover it. I'm more giving you broad brush principles here, okay? But we'll let them save face. Next one is this. We'll protect them from their greatest fear. We will protect them. The person that violated me, the trespassed against me, as gross and and horrible as it is, total forgiveness is a sign that I will protect them. I'll go, no. In intercession, practically, keeping the devil off of them, just no, no. Do you see how Jesus forgives us? I'm telling you, this thing is deep well. You'll protect them from their greatest fear. They're probably their greatest fear if it's been a gross offense against you is ever being held accountable for it. The next one is this, it's a commitment to a lifelong commitment. One person is totally forgiven by me. They will stay forgiven. They will stay forgiven. I will not allow the enemy to come unlock it in a weak moment. I will guard and say, no, it's a lifelong commitment. They're forgiven. No. They're forgiven. No. You can forgive someone and the enemy shows up and he comes and says, no, no, no. And you say, they're forgiven, they're washed by the blood, get off. There's a fight for the person that violated you, the shoes of Christ. Here I am, the violator. Last one is this, we'll pray for them to be blessed, blessing on them. Colossians 3.13 says this, you must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you and you must also forgive others. Oh, thank you, Lord. Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Proverbs 19 verse 11 is a passage that I want you to meditate on this week. It's a fast road to glory. A man's wisdom gives impatience. It is to his glory to overlook and offense. Proverbs 19 verse 11 says, it's to your and my glory. Very few passages speak to glory coming to you and I, but as we overlook and offense, it is to your and my glory that we're more like Christ. We stand in a place of deep anointing, deep fellowship of Philippians 2, deep intimacy. Many heavenly rewards being stored and I go, I'm more like Jesus, thank you. So Father, we just tonight come before you and I thank you for the mercy you have over our lives. I thank you that you are mercy. I thank you that you never change. You'll always be merciful toward me. And Lord tonight, I thank you for your forgiveness over my life, that you have given me freedom. I'm reminded of the weight that I carried for so long. And Lord, I don't have to live under the weight of my sin any longer. You forgive me as I confess it. And as I repent, Father, I thank you in Jesus name for your cleansing. And I pray tonight that you would make us a people that are even more deeply like you, for just into your likeness tonight. Father, I pray that there's some of us tonight that have been hurt and violated in inexplicable ways. I pray for courage upon my brothers and sisters. I pray courage to fall on them, to face the lion in Jesus name and to make it bow through a method of forgiveness and a giving away of it all. Father, I pray tonight that you would just even now move amongst the room, move amongst the room and highlight in our hearts, Holy Spirit, areas that we might have, unforgiveness. First with Christians, Christians, those that are in this room and those that are amongst the city streets and across the U.S., I pray, Father, for that category. Areas that we have unforgiveness in our hearts, and I pray that you would bring those things to the surface right now in Jesus name. I believe the Lord wants us to just take a moment here and not overlook this. And so some of you may need to just get a pen and a piece of paper. But you know how thorough the Holy Spirit is? We want to allow him to be thorough with us tonight in Jesus name. So the first category we want to allow the Holy Spirit to address is just those that are Christians and we might say, I have this edge or some of these characteristics that I mentioned before, a little edgy, a little punchy, isolation, toleration. We want to take those areas to the Lord and go, God, am I angry? Have I become bitter? Have I become defeated? These are all signposts of unforgiveness in our lives. So I invite you to just allow the Holy Spirit to till those people up to mind. And even as the Lord does that, I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to go to the next category of those that fit into a category of partial forgiveness or detached forgiveness. And you might have been hurt very bad in ways that you just, it hurts so bad to go back to. But you might be needing tonight the Holy Spirit, the healer to come and in this moment, you see forgiveness is a decision, it's not an emotion, it's not a, I want to necessarily. But it's because Jesus forgave me, so I also will forgive all because quite frankly I just, I got nothing other than Him. So some of us might fit into that partial category tonight or a detached category. I want to encourage you on, you might need to reassess some areas of expectation that people have had on you. And it's exasperated you, unrealistic expectations, and you've become potentially embittered or something on those lines. I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to go there tonight. We don't want to make friends with unforgiveness. We want to apply the blood of Jesus, amen? Just by an amen, how many of you say that you have some homework to do? Tonight as we are going to go into worship, this is a time between me and my God. This is not a prayer team moment tonight. This is between you and the Lord. And as I've just been sitting before the Lord, just going, "God, I just so desperately cry out to you for my own life and make sure everything is cleansed before you." But also that my brothers and sisters would be given every opportunity to get things right with their Lord and Savior. And so tonight I just felt like we have not opened the altars or the front area at Geodroni Middle School since we've been here. But I just feel like there's a time that's coming tonight that I just want to encourage you to come forward. And sometimes it's just good to get on my knees before Him and acknowledge His superiority and goodness over my life, to be more like Him. So tonight we're going to open up the front end just for you to come and give it to the Lord, to get rid of it tonight, to get rid of the cancer that is blocking you and causing these areas of your life. And I must say this to you tonight that if you come in and you do not know Jesus Christ intimately, that you don't know Him factually, you may know about Him, but you've walked in and you're saying, "I need Him inside of me. Tonight I want you to come forward and find me. I will be right here in the front row." If you've come in and you're saying, "I don't know Him intimately. I need help. I want you to come up here," meaning you have not committed your life to Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and tonight you've come in and you said, "I want you now fully here. I want to share the good news with you." So as Jason leads us in worship tonight, let's take some time here before the Lord and open the altars and just get right before God. [BLANK_AUDIO]