Forgiveness is a deliberate choice that releases the wrongdoer to God's justice rather than taking vengeance into one's own hands, and unforgiveness is a sin that blocks God's purpose, spreads bitterness to family members, and can cause physical health problems including anxiety, depression, and weakened immune system.
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Shocking Prophecy: This Is Exactly What Is Coming Next | Kent Christmas ⏳Added:
Amen. Well, good evening. You could be seated. And I want to also say thank you to all of our visitors that came. And um in reference to the pre-ervice prayer, I grew up with that.
>> I mean, we had prayer to where a lot of times when it was time to start church, we were already having church >> and we just spilled over into that. And so I I want that church to be I want this church to become that. And I want to encourage you um you know again we we really encourage fellowship and loving each other. But once you get through the doors I'm asking you let's just pray. Uh we seem to be deterring a little bit on on our first Saturday of every month. We got several people that like to stand for 10 minutes and visit each other. And when you come through the doors, let's not visit. Let's pray. And if you want to fellowship, just do it in that beautiful atrium out there. But once you get through the doors, let's let's just make an effort to honor God. and and then then after 10:45 you can go out and visit all you want, hug their necks, but let's make sure that our prayer time is powerful and uh we are a praying church and so I just want to salute you. We have tremendous participation in our prayer meetings and uh we're very unusual house in that. Before I get into the word of the Lord, obviously um the issue with Charlie Kirk is disheartening and um just such a shock. But I was listening to one of the commentators. He said, "I've known him for years." And he said, "I know one thing. Charlie Kerr knew the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and he was ready to meet him." Um, we have to understand that these are indicators that Jesus is close.
>> And Jesus said this. He said, "When I come back, it's going to be like the days of Noah."
Yeah.
>> And when you read, I think maybe the eighth chapter somewhere in Genesis, one of the traits of Noah's day was the Bible said, "And the land or the earth was filled with violence."
I'm wondering if the enemy has stepped over the line today.
>> That you can only push God so far.
>> And then God says, "I've had enough."
>> And so I I want to encourage you. God is I'm going to preach the message Sunday.
God is still in control.
And um pray with your family.
>> Yes. But don't let the devil destroy your faith and your hope >> because God is in control.
I thought about just getting a chair out here tonight to sit and talk to you. Um I want to talk to you about on a subject that is very personal for all of us.
It's probably one of the greatest tools that the devil uses against human beings and it's one of the most difficult to navigate and that's the spirit of unforgiveness.
for about 10 12 days, God has just put this in my spirit. And uh I don't know if I've ever taught on this, but um several years ago in Russia, of course, Russia has great uh religious oppression.
We we don't know what persecution is in America. I promise you, you don't know.
And um a lot of these ministers had house churches. And there was one gentleman, he he wasn't a minister, but um he lived in a very very small home, you know, these apartments that are just cardboard apartments at most and the walls are thin. And he had two small children. and he and his wife wanted to teach their children just about the Bible. And so, uh, in that little room, they would he would tell Bible stories to his kids and and they would sing Christian songs, but because the walls were so thin, neighbors could hear him. And pretty soon people began to knock on his door and they they said, "Can we come have church with you?" He said, 'Well, he said, "This is not a church." He said, "I'm I'm not a pastor.
We just want to learn about the Bible."
And they said, "Well, can we come?"
It wasn't too long and they had like 50 people that are showing up because they were drawn by the spirit of the Lord.
Eventually, he said, there was about a hundred of us. He said when it got that big we caught the attention of the police in Russia and they came and um they said you can't have a church. He said well this is not a church I'm just a pas he said I'm not a pastor and they arrested him and they put him in prison.
The guards were very, very cruel, very, very vicious.
And they would take these prisoners and they would put a lot of salt on their food. So salty you couldn't hardly eat it. And then they would deprive them of water.
They would do sleep deprivation on them to where they would keep them up for three and four days. And when they begin to nod off, they would beat them. or if they finally passed out, they would beat him while they were on the floor.
One particular guard had an intense hatred for this man. And when he would bring him his food, he would put his own human feces and spread it on it when he gave him his food. And this man lived like this for several years in this prison. One day they came to him and they said, "If you will recant on Jesus, we'll let you out."
He said, "Well, I'm not recounting on the name of Jesus." They said, "Well, we're going to shoot you today."
So, they told him they were taking him outside to a firing squad and and when they got there, uh, he would not recant.
And they became so angry they opened a side door and they threw him out of the prison.
Later on, he found out that they had commuted his sentence and the guards knew that he was supposed to be released, but they were hoping before they released him that he would recant on the name of Jesus and he did not. He went back to pastoring his small group of people. And one of the ladies in his group came to him and said, "Pastor, my son is very, very sick and he has diabetes and he's blind and he's going to die unless we get him some medication."
So this pastor, I don't know what means, but somehow he was able to get a hold of medication, maybe it was insulin, something of that nature, and he went to the home of this lady that came to his church. And she said, "My son is in bed in the back room." room. And so he walked in the back room and when he saw the man, it was the man, the guard that had spread feces on his food and beat him and treated him so inhumanely, made his life hell.
And he said, I stood there. He said, the man didn't know who I was cuz he had gone blind. And his mom said, "If you can give him the medicine, he'll live."
And he said, "I stood there and he said, I let the grace of God create forgiveness in me." Praise God.
>> And he said that day, I forgave that man. He said he never didn't know who I was.
He never said he was sorry.
But he said God did a work in me that I was able to release him in my life. I want to read a verse out of Matthew chapter 6 and verse 14. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
One verse in Ephesians chapter 4 says this. Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven you.
I want to read one more scripture. This is out of the book of Mark uh chapter 11.
The issue for a lot of us as believers is we don't think in terms that unforgiveness is a sin.
>> It is a sin cuz it's a commandment.
But we think you know other things are sins but unforgiveness or we just feel justified. But in in um the book of Mark chapter 11 in verse 25 it says and when you stand praying so he's talking to believers here.
He said you need to forgive because if you have ought and that word ought just simply means something.
So that in that encompasses a wide array of things. He says if you have something against any.
So again th this is a wide scope. He said that your father, he said when you stand praying, forgive if you have something against anybody so that your father which is in heaven may forgive you also your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
So unless you are perfect, you're going to have to forgive because we we have this wonderful facade that we all walk behind.
>> But we all know this behind the facade, we're human.
And all of us have flaws.
And we stand here tonight or we sit in this building tonight only because of the mercy >> of the Lord.
>> Amen.
>> Because even where we are now, there are things that God can indict us for that we are in the process of dealing with.
Forgiveness only involves one person and that's you.
>> Forgiveness is never about the person who's done you wrong and them saying they're sorry.
It has nothing to do with that.
Everybody tonight in this building probably has a story to tell of something that was done to us that we did not deserve.
If you're waiting for that person to come tell you, I'm sorry before you forgive, it's not going to happen. Probably you have to leave them in the hands of God. So then pastor why is it so important to forgive?
Because forgi unforgiveness.
The first thing it will do is it will stop you dead in your purpose.
The moment that you harbor, you let that thing get roots in you. Whatever God has purposed for you to do comes to a standstill.
>> That's right. and you are no longer going forward.
It the another thing that it does is unforgiveness has roots.
I've seen those roots get in the person who has so much unforgiveness in them.
I've seen them get in their kids.
I've seen them get in their husband. And I've seen them get in their wife because unforgiveness dries up your soul.
>> It makes you bitter.
And so forgiveness, just like the story I told you, it's not about you and that person coming to an amlicable reconciliation.
It's about you not letting a demonic spirit get inside of you that will eventually shipwreck you in your walk with God. Right.
>> It and so it's um one of the reasons why it is so hard for for human beings to forgive is because God did not put anything in us that is able to deal with injustice.
And a lot of times things that happen to us are so unjust.
>> Yeah.
We did not do anything to deserve it.
>> We did not ask for it. We did not treat the person bad.
But something's been done and it's so unjust.
And when when that happens that that un that injustice that's done because it's so wrong, >> we now feel justified.
>> Yes.
>> To feel the way we feel.
>> Right. That's right.
>> And that's where the enemy gets in and will trick you.
>> Yeah.
because you now feel justified in feeling like you do. So the Holy Spirit can't convict you about it because soon as you feel the Holy Spirit talk to you about they go you you say but but I'm right.
I'm right. I I I'm right on all accounts.
This was not right what they did to me.
And you let that thing get in you. You forgiveness doesn't mean that you have to have some kind of reconciliation of a great relationship.
People that do you wrong, it doesn't mean you have to let them back into the same place that they were. But it also means that you cannot let that thing get a hold of you. You say, "Well, I think I've forgiven." Well, here's the number one way you know you've not forgiven. If it dominates your thinking if you forgive, that thing will go away.
But if you think about it all the time, you still think, you say, "Well, I forgave him." But you're still thinking about it. You ain't forgave them cuz that thing's getting a hold of you.
That's why the Bible says you have to cast down every imagination. How many of you have ever had a conversation where you told somebody off, but it was only in your mind?
I mean, I have ripped some people up, especially after I had a conversation when they left. I thought, "Boy, I wish I'd have remembered this." And you're thinking and I'm and they said this and boy I said this and by the time you get done you're so riled up and it never happened.
But the devil can get a hold of your mind and he can Here's another thing.
Sometimes things that have hurt you being done by somebody else they didn't know they did it.
Right?
>> What is mountainous to you was minute to them.
>> They did not realize what they did to you by what they said or whatever. And see, that's where the enemy will like to come in and take that thing and turn it into something huge, regardless of how bad it is.
If you let unforgiveness stay in your life, the only one that's going to suffer is you.
>> That's right.
>> It will shipwreck you.
>> I can think of somebody right now that I've known for years.
I don't even think they go to church anymore.
that thing they just couldn't forgive >> and it's turned them into a very bitter individual and bitter people. You know what happens is friends start leaving you cuz they don't want to hear it cuz every time they get around you all they hear is the same scenario >> and they don't want to hear that.
And so you can't let the enemy get into you to a point that that thing will will literally change the way your life is.
And the hardest part about forgiveness is when what's been done to you is so wrong.
When Stephen was being stoned, he had preached this great message.
which I think is in Acts 67 and 8.
What a man of God.
>> I'm not sure I could have done what he did, but and the way that they killed him was so horrendous. They took up large rocks and I don't know if they had him tied up, but the Bible says they stoned him to death.
They took these large rocks and they begin to hit him and it began to hit his skull and crushed the eye sockets and fractured his head and he's bleeding and and as life is ebbing out of him.
He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
I I find it very interesting that he didn't say, "Father, I forgive them."
>> He said, "Father, will you forgive them?" Now, that's forgiveness.
>> Because sometimes we think we'll tell the Lord, "Okay, God, I forgive them.
Get them."
Yeah, I'm talking to somebody in this house tonight.
You know, well, you know, the Bible says, uh, vengeance is mine.
>> I will repay.
>> So, we're just think, okay, Lord, I forgive them cuz I know you're going to get them. That ain't forgiveness.
There's a B. There's a scripture that says this, "Pray for those who despitefully use you and say all manner of things against thee." The word despitefully there literally means false witness.
>> How many has ever been lied against?
Sometimes it can cost you a job, a relationship, set you back in life because somebody bore a false witness against you and you find out who it is.
And not only does the Lord say forgive him, says pray for him.
uh many many years ago uh when when I went through the divorce and it was of no fault of mine um it was very difficult to forgive and um the thing tormented me.
I remember I'd go to bed at night and I'd just wake up with nightmares and um and I felt it was so injust.
There were just a lot of nuances to it.
And I went to prayer one day and the Lord said, "I want you to pray for him."
And I said, "I don't want to pray for him."
Felt justified.
You know, I got lots of people I want to pray for. they need it.
And Lord said, "No, you do it." And so I told the Lord, I said, "Okay, I will, but I don't mean it."
I mean, he already knows your thoughts.
So, you know, don't think that that you're down there. You got some, you know, you got some tin foil around your brain and your Holy Ghost can't get through the tin foil because he knows your thoughts. Yeah.
>> So, I figured I might as well be honest about it cuz it was the truth.
And um so I, you know, I would do that every day just, you know, just out of obedience to the Lord.
And um I remember uh maybe two, three weeks into this, all of a sudden I realized I meant it.
And you know, I remember um in the dead of winter, December, driving my old car.
I was trying to get to my uncle's house.
He said I could sleep on his on the couch in his front room. I wound up homeless and all of that. and and um and I know all of this have stories to tell, but I'm just telling you this to give you. I remember um my lights wouldn't work at night and I was in a truck stop and I'm pulling everything I have over me in that little tiny car trying to stay warm and the injustice of it all just you just felt this justification on how you felt and it's in that setting the Lord is saying pray you know pray for them But when I did, after a while, it didn't come from here.
It came from here.
And when it came from here, the nightmares went away.
>> And I got free.
Don't think you're spiritual if you got unforgiveness in you, because you ain't.
All right? You're in a battle.
You're in a you're in a place to where the enemy is making a play for your soul because there are so many people that wind up in hell.
They never looked at pornography. They never smoked. They never sold drugs.
They never stole.
They just couldn't let go of an injustice that was done to them.
And there are probably three different I can think of three different reasons why people wound us and uh they don't ask for forgiveness for doing you wrong. One is they're just not good people.
They don't have good character.
They don't they don't know what it is to to do the right thing or they're always looking for a shortcut and so they don't feel bad about what they do.
The more pure in heart you are, the more you will think everybody is going to act like you do.
My wife always tells me says you're too trusting.
You know, you look for the nice in everybody and then boom, you get it gets you.
But doesn't matter how many times you get hurt, you got to keep forgiving because if you don't, it'll change who you are >> and then you can't be who God wants you to be.
Second one is they feel justified in what they did to you.
They have How many have ever heard the term cognitive distances?
simply means this that people will form a way of thinking that they feel justified in how they live or how they conduct themselves.
They have to create some kind of reasoning that takes the guilt out of how they conduct themselves.
There are some people that that's what they do. They feel like they have a reason why they did what they did. And you know, they don't, but they do it anyway. The third reason sometimes this happens is because they just hate the spirit of God that's in you.
>> Jesus said this, "They hated me and they're going to hate you. You might as well get used to it."
>> It's it's not you.
It's the spirit of God that's in you. So many people have had jobs and they get in the workplace and for some reason somebody will take an immense dislike to them and they can't figure out why. It's because the spirit of the Lord's in them.
>> And so they'll do everything they can to sabotage you because they're coming after the spirit of the Lord. And there's a there's a spirit um that wants to wound those things that that they sense in you.
You say this this is some of the things that happen besides the eternal side of not forgiving. This is what um the medical profession says can come from unforgiveness. And these are not preachers or theologians.
This is what medical science says happens to the physical body when people get eat up with unforgiveness, anxiety, depression, irritability, mood swings, high blood pressure, weakened immune system. That's just a few of what happens to people who cannot let go of something.
Jesus said this, "As long as you're in the world, you're going to have tribulation.
And because you're human, you're going to have to be around humans.
And there are always going to be situations. Some are much more severe than others.
But forgiveness is not an emotion.
It's a choice.
>> Yeah.
>> See, you we think, well, if I forgive, then I ought to have this great euphoria come over me. That's not going to happen.
Just because you forgive somebody doesn't mean you still have to like them.
>> There's lots of people that they don't control me anymore, but I'm not looking to go to lunch with them.
But you you have to reach a place with the injustices that have been done to you that they don't control you.
>> Yeah.
>> They don't manipulate you. They don't change your personality.
I think the greatest act of forgiveness in the scriptures is Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth.
I really believe this that unforgiveness is part of the strong nature of Satan.
There is nothing in the scriptures that ever remotely indicates that Satan never asked for forgiveness.
And you talk about injustice, boy, he's doing it to everybody. It's injust that Charlie Kirk's wife has to raise two small children.
That's injust.
But as painful as these things are, the nature of the devil is unforgiveness because he's full of hate. And the Bible says he is a murderer. The nature of Jesus 100% is forgiveness.
And you have to make a choice. Last couple of years, I had to make a choice about forgiving some things.
that have happened to this church. And I remember I told the Lord, I talked to Linda, I said, "We're going to do something about this." And I went to prayer and the Lord said, "No, you're not.
You let me deal with it. And I will tell you this.
When you release injustice through forgiveness, you release it into the hands of God.
It doesn't mean that they walk away scot-free because the Lord said this, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay." And I can promise you that when God deals with it, it's a lot better than when you deal with it.
>> Because when you deal with it, you're going to wind up getting bloody. When you let God deal with it, you walk away with hands clean.
>> Jesus is suspended between heaven and earth.
Isaiah says now he's unrecognizable because of the the extent of torture that's been done to him. We have no idea what Christ went through for you and I.
And as he's dying in Luke chapter 23, he said, "Father, forgive them."
Again, he didn't say, "Father, I forgive them."
He'd already released that. He said, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do."
As I end, I want to show you just a a small video I felt like would be very impactful to help bring home um our teaching tonight and then we could have some prayer together. Our guys could go ahead and run that.
>> A man whose brother was shot by a Dallas police officer forgave his killer. After she was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Brandt spoke in court as the victim's brother. But instead of blaming her, he said, >> "I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. But I love you just like anyone else. I don't even want you to go to jail.
I want the best for you.
And the best would be give your life to Christ." I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that both of them would want you to do. Again, I love you as a person and I don't wish anything bad on you.
I don't know if this is possible, but can can I give her a hug, please?
Please.
Yes.
>> A man who's >> Amen.
If a man can do that that someone who killed his brother have that kind of love.
Can you imagine what the church can be like if we can step over into that dimension?
I'm not minimizing what's been done to you, but I am emphasizing that you need to let it go.
And if you will let it go, God is a healer >> of the brokenhearted. I want us to stand tonight.
I don't really want to give an alter call for those of you that feel like you need to forgive. I'm not going to single you out. But I wonder if we could just all come and stand in this altar and just for a few moments that we would just open our hearts to the Holy Spirit and allow God. And I know that there's many of you who struggle with things.
You just it's difficult to get past some of the things that are done to us.
But I know this. The Lord said, "I have been anointed to heal >> the brokenhearted."
So I want you to slip your hands up.
Amen. And just for a moment, let's all pray out loud. If you need to release somebody, you need to tell the Lord. You can say it quietly. You can tell the Lord, "God, I'm doing this by faith. I don't feel it. God, I really don't want to do it. But I also if you can do what you've done for me, Father, that you could forgive me for all the moments I broke your heart, all the moments I failed you, all the moments that I stumbled, God, and I disappointed you, Father, I forgive. Lord, we forgive tonight. We loose the spirit of forgiveness in this sanctuary.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on now.
Just begin to release your spirit. If you need God to heal your heart, let the Lord begin to heal your heart in the name of the Lord. But God, we're releasing in the name of Jesus.
Hallelujah. The spirit of God. Lord, you said, "I'm all love. I'm 100% love." So God, we pray tonight for those who have despitefully used us. Uh we pray, Lord, for those that have bore false witness and lied about ush. And God, for those that have cost us things in our life, Lord, tonight, hallelujah, we just step over into another dimension. And God, I'm declaring right now that the spirit of freedom begin to flow through this building right now, God, that we just begin to breathe in the freedom of the Lord. That we're casting this off on thee. And Lord, we are receiving, hallelujah, by the spirit of the Lord.
God, we receive it in the name of Jesus.
Now, Holy Spirit, we can't do this without you.
And so, we're embracing you, God, by faith.
Lord, we want to thank you right now that you're stitching up some wounds.
And Lord, as we as we release this thing, we're asking that you would make the enemy now give back to us seven times.
>> Hallelujah.
Heat. Heat.
Heat.
Heat.
Heat.
Heat.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
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