← Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Forgiveness to Make a Difference
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Part 3 of Different to Make a Difference
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What a great day to be in church. And one more time, I want to welcome all of our locations, Alabama and Georgia. We love you guys. Anyone joining us online or at some point on demand. And the men and women of the Alabama and Georgia correctional facilities. What an honor it is to be all together in this moment church. One more time, can you put your hands together to welcome everybody who's joining us? And this is a really great day in church that begins a beautiful week in church for us. And I'm so excited about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, our Grow Leader conference. And Pastor Chris, I just want to honor you, really the legacy of your life. Churches being impacted around the globe. Over 3,000 pastors will be here in Birmingham learning and being sent back to make a difference. And then we're just kind of a. Y', all, we are a crazy church because Thursday night we start A youth conference. 17,000 students packing out the BJCC Arena Legacy Arena. To God be the glory. A generation change will change not just the future, but the now generation. Like they impact the world now and into the future. And that's going to be really powerful. And then next Sunday, we have a great day in church. Do not miss it. We'll be finishing this series, but we're also going to celebrate life change, really, all that God's done this summer through water baptism. And so you saw a video earlier of a student's life being changed this year. To date, we've seen over 13,000 salvations at our church. Yeah, we need to clap right there. 13,000. So if you're one of those or if God does something in your life today or even in the past, but you've never gone public with water baptism. After every service next week, we're prepared for you. We have a change of clothes, everything you could possibly need. Just come to church. Bring your family and friends. And of course, also I'm believing for hundreds of students who get impacted at motion to then get baptized on that Sunday morning. Amen, everybody. So it's a big week, so be praying with us. And just excited to be again here today because I love the word of God. This is a church that loves the Bible. Can I get an amen? And so this series has been all about. We're calling it different to make a difference. All about how really our faith is different and that God has changed our lives. And living that difference out in the world is how we then make a difference. This is what our theme verse says. First Peter 2. 9. You. And this is talking about you. You're a chosen people. God has chosen you. You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You are God's special possession. And. And you got a job description. We all have one. As a follower of Jesus, here it is to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Can I ask a question? At Church of the Highlands today, is anyone grateful for what God did in your life? Come on, make some noise. Anybody? I'm grateful. So our job is to then actually just tell that story, to testify about the God who brought us out of that darkness into his wonderful light. And as we do that, we make a difference in the world. And so this whole series, we're jumping into some pretty. Pretty. Not edgy, but they're serious topics because they're very different than the way the world lives. And I'm just telling you, in this series, we're being bold because we're not hiding from being different. Can I tell you why we're not hiding from being different? Have y' all noticed normal is not working? Can I get a better amen? The world's looking for different. And as we live that out in front of them, we become the salt and light that Jesus taught and the world notices. That's how the early church grew. From day one, there was about 3,000 followers of Jesus when the church was born in the book of Acts. So a couple hundred years later, three million. Over three million. And it wasn't because we got put in positions of power, and it wasn't because, you know, we were blending into culture for sure. It's we just live differently. And so I'm praying that this series impacts our life. And here it is. Church that as we go into the fall and we're going to see a fall harvest in Jesus name, that this series will kind of equip us to reach the world around us. So if you have your app, get it out. You're definitely going to want to take notes today. This is a big topic that we're going to hit on today. The whole series, as a reminder, has been around these four areas. Week one, Pastor Chris taught on generosity. Last week, I taught on purity. If you missed those, go back and check them out. Next week we're going to talk about community, which is going to help prepare us for the small group semester coming this fall. But today, everybody, we're going to talk about forgiveness. Look at your neighbor and say forgiveness. There probably isn't a bigger topic in Christianity. There probably isn't a single place that we are more different than the world than when it comes to forgiveness. Forgiveness is the core. Like, if you strip it all the way down to the core, forgiveness, it is really the core of our Christian faith. Faith. And the Bible, of course, then, has a lot to say about forgiveness. But I'm going to. And the Bible's strong here. And so I kind of need your permission today. Can your pastor go hard in the paint today? I'm not going to hold back today because I know this is a huge topic and I'm believing for God to do something. So Jason gave me an amen. I'm just going to take that and I'm going to preach today. Luke 17. This is Jesus. He says to his disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should come. We all understand this. In this world, we are all going to be faced constantly with plenty of opportunities to walk through unforgiveness. The pain hurt. Has anybody noticed? Offenses come, okay, they're out there. They're going to come, he says, but woe to him through whom they come. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, telling you, this is different. Seven times a day returns to you and says, I repent. You shall forgive him. And the apostles were like, lord Jesus, that last line is appropriate. Lord Jesus, can you please increase our faith? Y' all do know that's the only time the disciples ever asked for this. Jesus is like, hey, we're going to heal the sick. They're like, great. You know what we're going to do today? We're going to raise the dead. They're like, awesome. You know, we're gonna walk on water. But when Jesus says, we're gonna talk about forgiveness up to seven times a day, they were like, can you pray for us? It was a prayer. It just turned into a prayer service. We get that. Don't you get that? We all get that. Because again, these offenses never stop. So here's what I know today as a pastor. I've been praying this week, actually fasting this week. I know in the sound of my voice. I mean, through that camera, every. Honestly, every single one of us, this topic hits all of us. And for some of us, there's small offenses. We're carrying small pain. It's the everyday stuff happened at work this week. You got cut off in traffic. We all have been there, and those are still real. But I know there's a spectrum here. It goes all the way from that today to Some really, really, really big stuff, like you're in church today and you got the smile on, but you're hurting today. And then I've just been praying for God to do exactly what the disciples said in that scripture to increase our faith today. So here's how I'm gonna teach this. And actually, this is kind of the formula, honestly, that's behind almost all of my messages, kind of how I learned, how I learned to preach. And this is what we're gonna do today. Starting out with kind of that what like we gotta know what we believe. We are very different in this area. And that we wanna have good orthodoxy, we wanna have good practice here. We wanna understand our theology. And then of course, this is what Pastor Chris has always taught us, is we gotta know how to live it out on Monday. Can I get an amen? So today we're gonna talk about what we believe about forgiveness and then how to actually do it. And at the end, I'm just telling you to get ready, we're gonna allow some ministry. Cause all, all of that's only possible because of the who, and that is Jesus. We gotta have his power to live this out. So we're gonna start with what we believe kind of Sunday school style. Today I wanna have some fun with this. Cause on a topic like forgiveness, as a pastor, you gotta find ways to have fun. All right, so here's four questions we're gonna hit today to learn what we believe. And they're gonna be true or false questions. Don't answer em out loud and kind of just reflect on em for a moment. We'll go through them one by one. Forgiveness is a good idea if someone deserves it. Forgiving includes minimizing the offense and the pain caused. Number three, if we choose not to forgive, eventually the issue will go away. And then number four, if we do not forgive each other, we will not be forgiven. Y' all ready? Say ready. Number one. Forgiveness is a good idea if someone deserves it. And that is false forgiveness. This is what we believe. It's different, but it's what we believe. Forgiveness is never based on the other person. Forgiveness has nothing to do with what they deserve. Colossians 3:13 says, Bear with one another. Forgive one another if you have any grievance. Because what are we called to do? Forgive as the Lord forgave us. Write it down. Today, forgiveness is based on what Jesus did for me on the cross, what he did for us. I think all of us would agree. We like being forgiven ourselves, right? It's nice to be forgiven. But here's what comes along with our faith. If we let it in. Oh, come on, somebody. We gotta let it out. We gotta let it out if we receive it. I love probably, like, every single one of you. Cause we're from the South. I love to eat. Anybody feel like your spiritual gift is eating okay? A bunch of us in the South, I love to eat. I love a great meal. I love sitting down with friends. You know, typical meal, you all order your own deal. And everybody gets real selfish with that. You know, my family with four boys, no one is sharing any food. But what I really love is a group of friends with a long dinner that's like family style. So we kind of all order together. Y' all know what I'm talking about. And everybody just. And isn't it fun when you eat something good? I mean, you just. You eat that food. And what's so exciting in that setting is you get to then say hey to your friend. Hey, hey, can you try this? I mean, this is an amazing. My friend Austin here on the front row. Austin, you gotta try what I just say. Don't y' all love that? That's forgiveness. We receive something, and it is so good in our life, we have to then share it with others. And honestly, pain gets so confusing. It gets so complicated. There's so many levels of it. We just gotta keep it simple. And that point right there is the best way to keep it simple. I am forgiven to forgive others. God forgave me. I am going to forgive others. Y' all ready for number two? Number two, forgiving includes minimizing the offense and the pain caused. And that is also forgiving. False. That may surprise you. In fact, real forgiveness, what we believe in Christianity is real forgiveness actually requires me to acknowledge the fullness of the offense, to actually hold nothing back. This may surprise you. Maybe if you grew up in a religious setting that was kind of like you felt the pressure to hide it. Oh, no, no, no. What Jesus is looking for is us to hold nothing back, but at the same time write it down. To reject our right for repayment. To reject our right. And this is where forgiveness really gets very different than the world. So I want to just do a quick illustration right now, because I have on the stage, actually something that's precious to me. This, everybody, is my favorite bowl in the entire world. Isn't this a beautiful bowl? I love this bowl. Can you imagine how much Cinnamon toast crunch. And don't you love one you finish. When you finish cinnamon toast crunch, you get to drink the Milk. Maybe if you're healthy, it would be a salad bowl. Oh, no, no. No salad for me in this bowl. This is cinnamon, and so I love it so much. I love sharing this bowl with people and showing them. Harrison, come on out here, y'. All. Welcome Harrison to the stage, everybody. It's a good man, Harrison. I love. I love you, buddy. Look, man, this is my favorite bowl. We got it from World Market. It's an amazing bowl. And I just want you to look, look. I just want you to see how amazing. Can you check out my amazing bowl? This is your favorite bowl. That's my favorite bowl, man. Harrison. What? Harrison. Why? Harrison, don't. What? That. That's my fake favorite. Harrison. This was my favorite bowl, y'. All. Boo. Harrison, off the stage right now. Harrison just broke my bowl. And I don't know what this represents for you, but whatever's broken in your life now, I'm offended. I'm hurt. I just invited him out to see my World Market bowl, and in front of thousands of people, he just broke it again. I don't know what this represents. Maybe this is hurt towards a person, or maybe for you, it's hurt towards God right now, that's where your hurt is towards God. Maybe for you, it's circumstances. And that's a frustrating one, right, because they're out of our control. Like, it's just whatever's happening in the world ends up impacting us. We all experienced that back in 2020. I mean, so much hurt and pain. Or maybe honestly, today, something we're going to pray through, maybe your hurt is towards yourself. I want us to think about hurt. My broken bowl here today. I want us to think about it like a debt. A debt has been incurred, and whenever there's a debt, there has to be what repayment. This is true in offense. In fact, Hebrews 9:22 gives us. Our theology says, in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And. And without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness. There is a debt, and someone or something has to pay for it. So now my temptation is to make who pay. I want to make Harrison pay. I want to yell and scream that Harrison Chatham is a bowl breaker. I'm going to go on Reddit. I'm going to go on Facebook. I'm going to go on every single website I can and make sure the world knows that man breaks bowls. I'm going to ruin his reputation, that bowl breaker. You know what actually I'm going to do? I'm going to break in his house tonight. Your boy's going to break all his bowls. Won't that be fun? On the front page of AL.com, pastor Mark Breaks all Harrison's bowls. You know what I may do? There's a few lawyers, I'm sure, in the house today. I may get one of those and sue him. I'm going to withdraw relationally from him. I'll never be his friend again. How can I be friends with a bowl breaker? And for the rest of my life, I'm going to cheer for his pain. I'm going to buy a voodoo doll, and I'm going to stab Harrison every single day until I feel like he has paid the price. Or I can forgive his debt. I can let him off the hook. But there's only one problem. Church. Remember, somebody still has to pay. Now I'm the one who is pain, because I'm the one that's left with a broken bowl. I'm now suffering for what Harrison did to me. I told you, I'm going hard in the paint today. We just have to recognize this truth. I promise we're going to work through it at the end, but I'm going to let it hang for a minute. That forgiveness is actually a form of voluntary suffering. That's what Tim Keller said. Do y' all know now why the disciples said, pastor Jesus, can you please give us more faith? This is a huge topic. This Christianity thing is so different than the world. Y' all okay out there? I told you we'll come back to it. Number three, third question. If we choose not to forgive, the issue will eventually go away. And that is also false. We all know this one. I won't hang out here long. We've all tried. This time does not heal. Can I get an amen? Forgiveness actually is our only pathway to healing. That forgiveness doesn't just heal us of the thing that happens. So forgiveness is not just gonna heal you of your. Whatever it is today. Broken bowl. Forgiveness does get us past that situation. But isn't it true today church, that actually the thing that actually happened becomes kind of in the background? Because usually the easy part is to forgive someone of what they did. But the hardest part is to get past our own unforgiveness. What we really need healing from is that unforgiveness in our hearts. And it is honestly so dangerous, because the Bible teaches us that unforgiveness can lead to this bitter root in our lives. And all of us in some situation have experienced that. That. That becomes a Filter that we see the world through. Come on, church, let's be honest today. And that bitter root of unforgiveness is a vampire. It will steal your time, your energy, your joy. It's like it defines the rest of your life because you're seeing through the that pain and that hurt. And God comes along and says, I want to heal you from that. One of my favorite stories of this is so big and such a huge offense that happened to this man. It's so inspiring for me. A guy named Louis Zamperini. You may have read his book called Unbroken or seen the movie Unbroken. He was a young man, grew up in California, ended up volunteering for the military. He'd actually had an athletic career. He'd been in the Olympics, incredibly gifted athlete. The World War II starts. He volunteers. He's put into training to be part of a bomber crew. He's a bombardier on B24s. Ends up flying a lot of missions. On one of those missions, his plane crashes into the ocean. If you've seen the story, it's so dramatic. Only three of them live. They then are on a raft for 47 days, drinking like rainwater, fighting off sharks, getting strafed by other planes. Eventually they're rescued, but it's rescued by the Japanese army for two years. They are put into a camp where they go through the worst imaginable, kind of just, I mean, torture, literally torture, pain. And one guy in particular had it out for Louis Zamperini because he knew he was an Olympian. Louis comes home and that bitter root grows, destroys his family. He's on the brink of divorce. He becomes an alcoholic. But he ends up by invitation. Come on, somebody at a Billy Graham revival. And he meets Jesus and it changes everything. And the grace of God comes into his life and heals him. And this is his quote. This is to build faith in somebody's life. Today, I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. I think we agree with that. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're actually hurting yourself. But forgiveness is a healing. It's actually a real healing. He ends up spending the rest of his life sharing the news of Jesus out of the healing that God did in his life. No offense is too far. I said no offense is too far gone. Acts 3:19 says, Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out. And here's the promise of God for today at church. Times of refreshing can come from the Lord. That's what God has for somebody out there today. We got one more question. This is a big one, too. Number four. If we do not forgive each other, we will not be forgiven. And that one is actually true. Matthew 6, 14, 15. Told you we're going for it today. If you forgive each other their trespasses, this Jesus, each other their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Everybody look at me. Today we're going to breathe in, breathe out, but write this down. Forgiveness is a requirement for Christians. It's not an elective, it's not extra credit. It is core curriculum. It's not a got to, it is a get to. But here's the good news today is Jesus never asked us to do something he didn't do first. Jesus went first. And he's gonna give us his power today to do it in our own lives. Another example of the power of God at work. And this is again, just to build faith. Today when I was finishing up my Master's, I was in a class, one of my last classes. This was back actually in 2020, so it was on Zoom. We. We were only gonna do the final meeting in person. One of my last classes was called Spirit Empowered Discipleship. So I'm just trying to finish school. I mean, we're busy here, building the college. All the things I'm just gimme. Honestly my minimum requirement here. I just gotta get past this class. I'm assuming this class is about discipling other people. On the first day of class, I discovered that this class is actually about our own personal journey with God. And I was kind of bummed already. Cause I'm just trying to get done with this now. I'm about to get introspective. And she says, basically, if you wanna know what this class is for the next nine weeks, we're just gonna talk about all of our feelings. Any men out there today, I'm, like, crushed in that moment. I do not wanna spend nine weeks on Zoom talking about my feelings. She says, so here's what I want you to do. And she was real. You know those people that are so godly, you just believe it's fake? Come on, don't judge me right now. She's just so sweet. She would tell us how she spent time with Jesus every day. She would say, I always have coffee with Jesus. I was like, doctor, what does that mean? She said, well, I drink my coffee and I always make a cup of coffee for Jesus. And I put it on the other side of the table. I was like, really? Then you have to pour it out. That's kind of weird. Anyway, so she's just so sweet. She's like, oh, here's what I want you to do. Go get you a poster board and go back in your entire life. And any pain, put it in red. And any healing, put it in green. And where you're still working through it, put it in orange. And then we're gonna all talk about it. So I had to go to Walgreens. It was so embarrassing. This guy's like, is this poster board for your kids? No, sir. It's my school project. That's right. I'm talking about my feelings today in this poster board. I make the poster board. She was like, take good care of it when you fly out here. I did not take good care of it. I folded it into, like, 10 pieces, stuffed it in my suitcase. I'm so truly bitter about this. We get there, she's like, all right, we're gonna spend the next 10 hours today talking about our feelings. But I'm gonna go first. I'm like, thank you, doctor. You can go first. This sweet lady, who I would have thought nothing had ever happened to, begins to tell us a story that I can't even repeat here on stage of what happened to her. That as a college student, she was kidnapped. I mean, violently abused, was almost at the point of death several times that night, and was miraculously saved the next morning by just a Good Samaritan bystander. She should not be alive. She begins to tell us this story, and then she finishes the story. She goes, does anybody have any questions? I got questions. How are you so sweet, so pure? How are you so in love with Jesus? How did you let all of that go? That's my question. And I wrote it down in my journal that day in class. This is what she said. It was never about what I let go of, direct quote. It was about who I grabbed ahold of. Oh, church, receive this today. I just decided. Every day I'm grabbing ahold of Jesus and. And I'm gonna let him get me through it. Put your hands together and thank God. That's what it means to rely on God to bring us through this. So how are we gonna. That's what we believe. How are we gonna do this? Four things I want you to write down as well today. And we're gonna pray. It all starts. We kind of talked about this. We gotta talk about it again. It all starts by remembering Christ Forgave us. This is the well church. I feel the weight of this moment. Even as your pastor, I know how heavy this topic is. You cannot do this on your own. The wellspring of life, the living water, man. I'm just pulling from what God has done for me from the smallest to the biggest offense. Here's a great truth to hold onto. I can just never forgive more than God has already forgiven me. That's where it all has to start. Psalm 103 says, he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. Let's never forget we. We got a long resume of sin. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Are we grateful that God has forgiven us? Are we grateful that God has forgiven us? Okay, I can just never out forgive God. I just. I can never. What he's done for me, that's where I'm going to pull from now. I want to be really clear at this point in the message. This is a message where on forgiveness, not a message on reconciliation. It takes one person to forgive. It takes two to reconcile. Now, it is always a different message in our relationship series. It's always God's heart for reconciliation. But that actually isn't always possible because we can't control. Have y' all noticed? We can't control other people? Anybody notice that in the world? But you know what? We can't control ourselves. Forgiveness is in our hands. And we're actually going to pray through this later. But here's my ask today. This is, I feel like, from the Holy Spirit. This is the practical application at this point. And this may be massive for you today, and this may be literally the reason you're in church today is just to start a journey where you just decide, today I'm going to be a person that forgives God. I'm going to need your help. It's going to be a journey, but I'm just deciding today I'm not going to let that bitter root grow in my life. Oh, God, I need you. But I just. I'm deciding today in faith that I'm going to be a person that forgives. And maybe the most important person to forgive today is yourself. All right, here's number two. Y' all with me today. This one's big, and that is to release our hurt into God's hands. And I got to Be really clear here, then repeat to release that hurt. The good news here is, no matter what you have gone through, no matter what you have gone through, Jesus understands from the smallest things to. To the biggest things. We have a God who understands our pain. I gotta be really strong with this. Today we have a God who has been through anything you have been through. Hebrews 2 is where we learn this. It says for this reason he had to be made like them, fully human. Not in part, partially fully human. In every way he was fully God, fully man. In order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. God is merciful, Church. He is faithful. He's in service to God that he might make atonement for the sins of people because he himself suffered when he was tempted. And he's able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus faced. Look at me. Today. Jesus faced it all. He faced betrayal. He faced false accusation. He faced rejection. He faced abuse. My goodness. He faced humiliation. He was stripped naked on a cross for the whole world to see. So today you do not have to hide your hurt. You got to know today he wants all of it. Don't dress it up, don't deny it. Here's the practical application today. Name it. God. This is what I'm walking through. This is where I am hurt. This is what has been done to me. You name it. Oh, church. And then you just open your hands and just like I read from Dr. Corbett, you say, I'm just not going to hold onto this. I'm going to hand this back over to you. I'm putting this in your hands. And maybe for you that'll be a one time thing. Praise God for that. But for most of us, you're going to have to repeat. And here's what I want to break off in this moment. Any spirit of religion that would tell you that repeating that is like a lack of faith. Oh, no, no, no, Church. Doing that over and over is a sign of faith. God, you're my source. I'm not doing this on my own. I'm not finding some answer in the world. I trust you with this pain and I just let go of it. And Jill and I right now are walking with so many friends in so many situations, from smaller things to some really massive things. And that's my encouragement every day via text and conversation. Hey, just give it to God again. Give it to God again. Give it to him again. He is a good God. Here's number three. This is wildly different. I mean, all this is different, but this is where Christianity, like, we already had a high standard. And then Jesus says, oh, it's going to keep going higher. Here's a higher standard. And that is to return good instead of evil. Y', all, Christianity is wild. It's different. But wouldn't you agree if we live this out, we will not have enough seats in this church? Because that is so different than the world. I mean, the world just look on any comment section of any website or on any social media, the world is like, oh, no, no, you do this. You know, if the level bad you do to me is a one, I'm coming back to you with a ten. It's like, me at Harrison, I'm not just going to break his bowls. I'm going to burn down his house. I'm going to steal his car. I'm coming after you with everything. But Jesus says, actually, no, but to you, I say, he's speaking to us today. This is Luke, chapter six. To you, I say, love your enemies. Love them. Do good to them. Actually, you know what I want you to do? Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Don't just not do evil back. God says, do good. It may be a journey to the doing good. There's so many different situations, but you know what we can all do today in faith today, I can pray for them. I can bless them. This is a huge thought, but it's a weapon against that bitter root that wants to grow inside of us. The best way, the best roundup poison to spray on that bitter root is to tell the enemy, you want me to do evil to them? You know, actually what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do good. And I don't know your situation today. I don't know your circumstance, but I want to give you a question here. I actually gave it to you last week because we talked about purity, that it would be so improper for me to tell you what to do in your situation. But you know what? God can. Here's the question. Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me in this situation? Holy Spirit. And that person's. That. That offense with that person in that circumstance, even maybe towards God today. Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? What are you calling me to do? Hey, Church. And then trust him to take you on that journey. Because ultimately, number four, we got to rely on God to redeem. One of the best verses, I think you would agree, in the entire Bible. Romans 8:28 says this. And we know that in some things, in most things, and likely more times than Not. No, no, no. In what? Come on with faith today. In. In all things. God works for the good of those who love him, who. Who've been called according to his purpose. God works in all things. God works in all things. Your abandonment, God's going to work in it. Your betrayal, speaking to somebody today, God can work in it. Your abuse, that situation, God can work in it. That infidelity, God can work in it. Those childhood wounds, God's saying, give those to me today. I can work in those. Your church hurt, God can work in it. The lies, whatever the situation is, from the smallest to the biggest, from the small cuts to all things, God works for good because our God is a redeemer. I want to minister to you for a few moments. I feel the weight of this moment. I've been praying, I told you, I've been fasting this week for some ministry to happen in this moment. You can actually put your phone away, put your app away. We're done with notes. I've been praying for the Holy Spirit to meet us right where we are today. So a few years back, I came across this form of Japanese art called kintsugi. And kintsugi is actually the art mending broken pottery. And this is pottery that's been shattered by trauma. So maybe it's an earthquake, it's in Japan, or a tsunami, or maybe it's just because it was dropped or broken and it would be logical to throw away this pottery. But to the artist, the kintsugi artist, the trauma is actually the opportunity for redemption. The very thing that happened to it is the opportunity for redemption and even transformation. So what the artist doesn't do is the artist doesn't grab glue and try to put this pot back together perfectly like it was. In fact, the artist doesn't hide the cracks. The artist doesn't pretend like this bowl that Harrison broke is as good as new. Instead, here it is church. The artist mends the cracks with something profound and bold, with gold and what's created. It's way more than pottery now. It's a one of a kind piece of art, more beautiful and powerful than before, more valuable than before. Earlier, we learned that in offense, somebody has to pay, that I could either make that person pay because that debt's incurred or. Or if I forgive that person, that I'm the one to pay, that I'm left with a bill of brokenness and I'm the one that is suffering. And again, I know that is where so many of us are today. You were right in the middle of that pain and that suffering, that's how you walked in church today. But I got good news today that Jesus, the great artist, did not leave us with the bill. That on the cross of Calvary, he paid the debt of my sin and he paid the debt of my suffering. And by his stripes, you were healed. And Jesus, he picks up the pieces of trauma and brokenness and offense. He doesn't leave them like they were, doesn't put them back exactly like it was. And I know sometimes that's what we wish he would do. He doesn't do that. He makes something new with the golden paint of his grace. He puts it back together and it's more valuable than it was before. So I know today, I know that some of you are hurting. Look at me. Church through the cameras. Look at me. I know you're hurting today. And I am so sorry for what has happened to you. It breaks my heart that you have walked through that situation more than me. It breaks the heart of God. I need to say something strong right now. What happened to you cannot be undone. It can't. But it can be redeemed through the miracle of his forgiveness. Through his grace and his mercy, you can forgive, you can heal, be healed. And God can make something new in your pain. Can we thank God for His grace today? It's available. So I want to pray for us today. In fact, after the service, there's going to be even a prayer team. Today is one of those days that you may need to just come forward and agree with somebody. But I actually want to pray for us now. Let the Holy Spirit minister to us, every head bowed, every eye closed. Just allow God to work in this moment. And the question I gave you earlier is actually where I want to start, because we're all in a different place right now with this topic. We've all walked through different things. So here's the question that I'm actually boldly asking you in faith today. To ask God, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me? Let's take these next five or 10 seconds and just let God speak to you. And you're like, I don't. What does that. The peace of God comes with his voice. Maybe for you today, what you're hearing in this moment is, here's all I got, the faith I have today, it's a mustard seed. I want you to know that's enough. Just decide, today I'm just gonna be a person that forgives. And your journey will begin right there. Maybe that's what God is calling you to do. In this moment, for others of you. And we're gonna pray this in just a moment. Maybe today's a day, and this would be available for any of us. Just begin to release some of that hurt to go, God, or to do it again. And even today, maybe boldly, God is saying it's time to ask me to redeem this, to let me do in this situation what I'm trying to do, to bring my healing and my redemption. God, right now, I pray for your church. I pray for your people. God, we thank you for the miracle of forgiveness that you have forgiven us. God, thank you. We remind ourselves today that you went first. That's the basis of all of this, is that you have forgiven us. We thank you for that today. And Holy Spirit, I'm praying for everyone in the sound of my voice. For some, it's. I'll be a person that forgives. For others right now, if this is you begin to do this, we're just releasing that hurt to you, that betrayal, that pain, that abuse. We're putting it into your hands today. Holy Spirit, do what only you can in that situation. And God, I'm praying right now that we begin to invite you to redeem it all. We don't understand that, God, that's so far beyond us, but we. We trust you today that you actually want to bring good in this situation. Oh, God, work as only you can. For some of you in this room, you didn't feel like you had the faith to pray that because you actually don't have a personal relationship with Jesus yet. This is the perfect moment for that, for you to receive that forgiveness. That becomes the basis the. Well, for all of the other forgiveness to come out of you. Not going to embarrass you, call you at the front. Every location we're together, every head is bowed. If that is you today, you can begin that relationship through a simple prayer. Just pray this. I'll help you with the words. Pray this in faith. Today, say, Jesus, today I give you my life. Today I receive your forgiveness. I declare you Lord and Savior and ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can live. For you. God, thank you for those who just gave their heart to you. God, thank you for the moment that we have in your presence today as a church family to receive your forgiveness. And God, we're just so filled right now with gratitude. You're an amazing God. You are a good God. And we thank you for what you've done in our lives today and for what you've done in others. Today in Jesus name and everybody said Amen. Put your hands together. Let's thank God for what he's just done.