← City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
City Light Church Las Vegas | Jabin Chavez
Let Go and Let God | Jabin Chavez | City Light Church
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Let Go and Let God | Jabin Chavez | City Light Ch…
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Genesis13. We were here last week. Abraham and Lot, his nephew, have conflict, and now Abraham lets him go and gives him the best of the land. And I just really felt like I kind of got on something last week that I want to continue down, talking about forgiveness and talking about being free. And so Genesis 13. Abram said to Lot, let's not allow. Now, I want you to notice this phrase again. This conflict come between us. Never let a conflict get between you and a person. Never, never let a thing matter more than a soul. Never let one moment of tension or disagreement get in the way of a relationship. Don't let this, Abraham said, the conflict and the conflict that we're conflicting over which was land, that will never mean more to me than you. So go wherever you want. This whole country is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land, and we will separate. If you want to go left, I'll go right. You want to go right, I'll go left. Like, just. I'm releasing you. And what's crazy about this, by the way, is that when. When Abram gave Lot this shorts, which Lot was the younger and was the nephew? Lot should have said, absolutely not. You tell me where to go, and I'll go. But when. When Abram gave him this option, Lot took it. I don't know if you've ever been generous to someone and then they actually take you up on it, and you're like, dang, I didn't been out to eat with people. You pull out your credit card, like, no, no, no. And then it's like, oh, no one's gonna fight me. Okay. Sick. You know, one time I let a guy or I gave a guy a loan, and it was months and months and months, and he was staying away from me. So I knew he felt awkward. So I finally called him and said, hey, man, if you can't pay me back, don't worry about it. And he was like, thank you. And I was like, oh, you're welcome. I didn't. I wanted him to be like, no, man, I'm going to pay you back. Give me a couple months. No, he took it. I was like, sick. So my heart wasn't totally right there, but it's funny to think about. But what's amazing about this is that Abram really let him go. Like, Abram's heart was clean. And here's how we know it. Because when Lot got in trouble a couple of chapters later, and God's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham prays and begs God to save Lot and bless Lot. And Abraham saves Lot's life. See, you know you're free when you can pray for the person who wronged you. I want to get there. God. I want to get there. So I said this phrase last week. I want to preach on it a little bit. Let go and let God. Let go and let God. Just elbow your neighbor, tell him let go and let God. Amen and amen. Thank you, brother. Beautiful worship today. Wonderful. So Abraham chooses to let Lot go. He chooses to trust God. He chooses to release lots of. I think that's an amazing thought, that Abraham really was free in his heart. I talked about it last week that Abraham was big, Lot was small. Abraham had a big spirit, Lot had a small mentality. And Abraham was willing to give Lot the best of the land and take whatever the leftovers were. Because he knew that though Lot was opportunistic in looking for the best of the land, Abraham knew he had the blessing of God on his life. Abraham was free. Abraham was free. Abraham was free. And I want to be free. When we talk about letting go, when we talk about forgiveness, I think it's an interesting thing because when we talk about unforgiveness or bitterness, I wrote this down. It's an interesting experience that we're in. It's a weird emotion that we're feeling because for most of us in this room, we know that it's not healthy. Especially if you're a church person, you know it's not healthy, you know it's wrong. But I think the reason we hold on to it is because in some ways it gives us a form of control over the situation. Like they did me wrong and they're wrong and it doesn't seem like they're getting justice or consequences for what they did. So maybe if I just stay mad at them, in some way I'm hurting them by holding on to the offense, which in reality it isn't hurting them, it's only hurting us. But I think in some ways it gives us like, alright, well, I'm. I lost control when they hurt me. But now if I stay mad, I'm regaining some form of control, which in reality it doesn't give us control, it actually controls us. So the reality is both forgiveness and unforgiveness will do nothing to change the past. Forgiving or not forgiving, it does nothing about the past. But your choice to forgive or not to forgive will radically impact your future. So I'm not forgiving to change yesterday, I'm forgiving to change Tomorrow. Now, Jesus talks about this now in Luke 17, and he tells the disciples something that is. It's just jarring. It's not good news or bad news, just truth. And it's a. It's just a reality of life. He says this, that it is impossible. It is impossible, impossible, unavoidable, that no offenses should come. Like it's going to happen in your life. There's going to be opportunities for. He says, offense. This is a Greek word, scandalon. It's where we get scandal or to be scandalized. And the word skandalon literally means a trap. And it's like a big game trap, like for all the old people like me. The cartoons we used to watch when we were kids, and they would step in the trap and that big trap would come. That's what this is and what it would do. I swear. There's a demon, by the way, that is just in charge in churches of knocking over Stanley Cups. Ah. If you're online, 1900 Stanley Cups have fallen during this service already. They just. There's a little demon walking around. It's just funny. It's just funny. I had to talk about it. It's hilarious. Just wanted to break the ice with that. So he says, and I'm too add to ignore it, so I'm waiting for one to go all the way down the staircase one of these days. It'll be great. So anyway, we'll see you next week. Okay. No, just kidding. So there's gonna be these opportunities to get trapped. Think about that. A big game trap doesn't kill the animal. It keeps the animal. And what the scandal does is it traps you. It traps you in a moment, it traps you in a season, it traps you in a memory, it traps you. It keeps you stuck in a space. So it's. It's 2025, but. But your soul is still in 1988. It's 2025, but your soul is stuck on the day that you had to sign those divorce papers. It's 2025, but your soul is stuck on that day that that person hurt you or that person wounded you or that offense came into your life. And what the do is, he wants to keep you trapped in a moment. So you never move forward into what God has for you. And they're all around you. And sometimes people hurt you on purpose, sometimes it happens by accident, but either way, the traps have been set by the devil. And Jesus tells the disciples this, and here is their response. Verse 5. Lord, increase our faith. We're going to need Faith, power to overcome the scandal. God, give us power. Give us faith to overcome. See, the love of God in me says, I want to forgive, but it's faith in God that gives me the power to overcome. First, John says that it is our faith that gives us the power to overcome the world. And so there is this faith, faith that we need. And my prayer is even by the end of this sermon that it becomes the prayer of our church. Lord, increase my faith. I don't want to live with this. I don't want to live scandalized. I don't want to live in a constant trap of what the devil's setting for me. No, there is a faith that overcomes. And when they pray for faith, here's what it lets me know. It lets me know that forgiveness. Supernatural. That it's going to take a supernatural element here to forgive. Now, as I start talking about forgiveness, I can already. I can feel the tension. I can feel the. I can see the thought bubbles over everyone's head. But, yeah, but what about this? And what about this? And what about. But I went through this, and what about. And so let me try to define very quickly. Forgiveness is letting go. It's not justifying what they did. It's saying, this happened, and I don't want to hold onto it anymore, so I'm letting go. Forgiveness is trusting God. Forgiveness is choosing my future over the past. It's not justifying what anybody did you. But it is saying that I refuse to give that moment of pain the power to dictate the rest of my life. I have to let go. Because if I don't let go, that moment wins. And so I have to let go. Now, forgiveness is not being a doorman. Forgiveness is not accepting abuse. Physical, spiritual, emotional, sexual abuse. It is not accepting abuse. So we're not talking about just in the name of Jesus letting somebody abuse you. Of course not. Amen. Forgiveness. Watch this. It does not always lead to the restoration of a relationship. Like Lot and Abraham had to separate. Sometimes you have to separate from a person, you know, even in marriage. By the way, I've met people who. The marriage ended and they forgave. Like, they separated, but they forgave. I know other people who stayed and still haven't forgiven. Y' all know what I'm saying? So they stayed married just to torment the person. And it's like, well, that's not. See, so if you are gonna stay, you're gonna have to forgive. But by the way, if you don't stay, you're still gonna have to forgive. I've been doing some research on dealing with childhood wounds. And a lot of unforgiveness begins in childhood. A lot of bitterness begins in childhood. Memories and experiences and situations we've been through. Sometimes they're very extreme and very gross and very painful. And sometimes it's just moments of trauma that traumatize you. And I think that's important, by the way, because Proverbs 4 tells us that no one knows the heart of a man. In other words, why something hurt you is why it hurts you. And we don't have to justify that. We, we have to deal with the feelings, but we don't have to always try to justify our feelings to another person. Sometimes we just have to bring our feelings to God. So for whatever reason you've had trauma, especially from childhood. And one of the things that I was, I was studying was like, why do some people need an enemy? Have you ever met that person? Like they just, they've gotta be mad at somebody. As long as they're mad at somebody, they feel like they're living, you know, well, what is that? And what they say is that when you have an undealt with childhood wound, you become counter dependent, not codependent, not independent, counter dependent. And here's how you know you've gone into counter, counter against, counter dependence. You start telling yourself, if I get too close, I will be controlled and hurt by that person. And when I read that, I realized something about my life. I thought I'd been independent and I'm very independent. But I realized I have some counter dependence in me that I didn't know I had. I still have some wounds that make me feel like I need to be in control. And I've got to fight that or I will end up pushing people out of my life that God is trying to bring into my life. So, and a lot of this I kind of knew, but I kind of didn't know. I've done all the personality tests, you know, I've been a leadership fan forever. So I've done all the different tests and all the different personality traits and all the different. And I realized that. And back to childhood wounds. I have a need for control. And when I say control, I don't mean controlling people. I mean I need to feel like I'm in control. So like I travel and preach basically every week of my life. I go somewhere and preach somewhere. I rent my own car because I don't want some dude driving me checking his map. You know what I mean? I'm like, nah, Dog, I'll drive myself. Like, I ain't let you take me out. You know what I'm saying? I just like, well, it's not healthy. I booked my own hotels. I'm like, no, I'll go stay at my own hotel. I'll figure it out. But what that actually is birthed from is a wound. Because as a child, I felt so out of control from the physical and verbal abuse of my older siblings. And I felt very alone as a kid. I felt very powerless as a kid. So all I ever, like, I can remember from a very young age saying, I'm getting out of this town and I'm getting out of this family. Now, did God use that? Yeah. Because I'm here, does that mean I have undealt with wounds? I guess so. Does that make sense? So in some ways, it felt like that was my dream. I'm gonna go to a big city one day. I don't like this small town thing. And because God's so gracious, he will actually give you a dream through your pain. But, oh, this is. Man, I'm in it right now. Sometimes. I'm not. I am right now. But if you. But if you start walking in the dream and don't heal the wound, the dream becomes a nightmare. So in God's grace, he will. He will put something in you that's bigger than the moment of pain. But you still have to get healed. So I got this thing to feel like I'm in control. I got a weird thing. I'm gonna let you in on a weird thing. I like paper towels. I mean, I'm telling you, I got cases of paper towels in my. It looks like Covid 2020. I got paper towels. You wanna know why? Because as a kid, we couldn't have paper towels because they were expensive. So paper towels to me now I thank God it's not cars and watches. Amen. Because that'd be expensive. But I got this little thing about paper towels that's like, I got it. I did it, I made it. I use paper towels for anything. I'm wiping the counters with paper towels. I'm tempted to bring them into the shower, start exfoliating with paper towels. I love me a paper towel. I never grab one paper towel. We got paper towels in the kitchen. We got paper towels in the bathrooms. We got paper towels in the garage. I love paper towels. Watch. That's a wound. That is a. I need to dry my tears with paper towels. That's a wound. Because it's something in me that feels Like I won control. So am I going to stop buying them? Not today, but maybe in a couple years. I don't know. You'll come talk to me, Pastor. You, pastor. Paper tells you, you know what? I'm healed. I'm using rags now. Praise the Lord. What am I? Do you see how weird that can be? But how there's this thing. Here's another way. You know, you're still dealing with childhood trauma. I know who I am only by who I am not. See, the person who hurts you or your enemy is still forming you. I only know who I am, not by who God has told me I am. Instead of I am who God says I am. It's. I'm not like them. That's a wound. Because Jesus isn't telling you who you are. Your enemy is still a part of the story. What am I saying? Of course you can learn from the mistakes and the pain of what they did to you, but they should not be defining your personality and your values and your future. But if I'm not careful, instead of figuring out with the Holy Spirit who I am, I'll just live in. Well, thank God I'm not like them. Like, as a pastor, I should be going to the Word and to the Spirit to find out who I am. Watch me as a man of God, not. Well, at least I'm not like that preacher that stole money. Well, at least I'm not like that preacher cheated on his wife. Well, at least I'm not like that preacher who got caught at the strip club. Well, at least I'm not like that preacher got a dui. Well, at least I'm not like that. Well, no duh. But do you see that I can actually just define myself by who I'm not instead of discovering who I'm supposed to be in God. Now, now, that's very easy to say that, but it's all. It's hard for all of us to live in that. And I've got to fight the wound or that moment of pain is still telling me who I am. I haven't even gotten to point one yet. So we're in trouble. Well, the 1245 is in trouble. They're in trouble. They're not going to have a place to park, but they come late anyway. Number one. Number one, forgiveness shuts the door. Here's what forgiveness does. It shuts the door. In your anger, do not sin. Look at this. Ephesians 4. In your anger, do not sin. Here's what that lets me know. There is an expression of Anger, that's okay, but don't sin in it. Okay? How do I know I'm sinning in my anger? I'm refusing to address it. Anger becomes a sin when I refuse to bring it to God and allow him to help me deal with it. And I would just say that almost about anything in life. Any area of your life that you refuse to talk to God about is an area that you know you need to involve God in. It could be your sexuality, it could be your soul health, it could be your physical health, it could be your money, it could be your anger, it could be whatever it is. Any area that you're like, I don't want to talk to God. I don't want to bring that up to God. He's busy. No, you. Hello. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Okay, Let me say this is not about a 24 hour period. This is about Paul saying, you got to deal with it, stop pushing it off, bring it to God and do not let the devil have a foothold in your life. This word foothold means a place, dedicated space or opportunity. Paul says, don't give the Devil an opportunity. He's looking for an opportunity, don't give it to him. What do we do at night? We lock our doors. What do we do at night? We set alarms. What do we do at night? We make sure the cars are locked. What do we do at night? We check the windows. Why? Because we don't want to give an enemy an opportunity. We're not fearful, we're not worried, but we are wise. We don't open up all of our doors at night and go, whoever needs food, the kitchens are open. No, no, no. We don't do that in the same way. I'm not afraid of the devil, but I want to keep every door shut. And now I want you to notice Paul did not call him Satan. He didn't call him Beelzebub, didn't call him Lucifer. He didn't call him a demon, didn't call him the enemy, called him the devil. Devil is a speaking. It's the speaking expression of the enemy. Devil means slanderer, accuser and the author of evil. When you go to bed with unforgiveness, you will be counseled by the Devil. See, when you go to bed with unforgiveness, it's not that you get demon possessed, it's that you open your ear to his opinion about humanity. And I don't want the Devil's opinion of you. He hates you. So I don't want to hear from him. I want to hear from God who loves you. You see the difference there? So I don't want him talking to me because he's come to steal, kill and destroy. He's come to destroy my life and destroy the lives of those who I love. So I can't let him talk to me. Therefore, I've got to deal with my anger, my bitterness, my unforgiveness, or he becomes the voice in my life in which I see the world. Hebrews chapter 12. Strive for Peace with everyone and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many are defiled. So here's what we know about roots. They create fruits. The fruit of our life should be that we're receiving grace, that we're walking in peace, and that we're walking in holiness. But if we have the root of bitterness, we produce bitterness. And now we no longer have the fruits of peace and grace and holiness. And notice what happens here. It defiles many, not one. The greatest lie of the enemy is that you can hate one person, that you can have a root of bitterness towards one person. No. One more part about unhealed trauma is that if you don't deal with it, you stop processing the original pain and you start recreating new enemies. So now all men are. Girl, you know, all men are. No, they're not, bro, you know, all chicks are. No, they're not. All cops are. No. All preachers are. No. I know some of y' all talk at home, not about me. What is that? That's an undealt with root of bitterness that is now recreating new enemies. So you got to bring that root to the sword of the spirit. And you have to let him cut that and uproot that and pull that out. That word bitterness literally means a poisoned spirit. And you know what the writer of Hebrews says? He says you won't see God. I don't know if Hebrews 12 or Hebrews is about heaven or hell thing here, but here's what I do know. You can't see God anymore when you have a poison spirit. You will miss a million miracles all around you because you're poisoned. I don't know if you've ever gotten food poisoning on vacation. It's the worst. Because you might be in the most beautiful, picturesque circumstances. You might be in Hawaii, you might be in Cancun. You might be Wherever it might be. And it's so beautiful out there. But all you. But you're in bed, dying because you just needed that raw salmon sashimi at 11 o' clock at night. And you're dying and you miss out on all the beauty because you're poisoned. What are you missing out on right now? What are you not seeing God do in your life? Because you're poisoned. 2. Forgiveness sets me free. To forgive is to set a prisoner free, only to discover that prisoner was me. I hope now, at this point in the sermon, somebody's going, all right, how do I do it? Help me, preacher. I know I need to forgive. How do I do it? Well, Jesus gives you the steps in Luke 6 in 10 verses. Luke 6, 27 through Luke 6, 37, Jesus gives us the way to forgive. Now, I don't have time to read it all, but it's all right there in Luke 6. And he gives you instructions on living at peace with people. Here's the first thing he tells you to do. Watch this. Says, pray for your enemies. How do I forget? See, here's what happens. A lot of times in church. I'll lead you to a moment like this. Everybody's crying, lord, I forgive. Lord, I let him go. Lord, I'm gonna walk in freedom in the name of Jesus. And then by Monday, you're like, I hate him. I wonder if he has a ring, camera. Can I slash his tires? Would I get caught? So that was too real, huh? Someone's like, pastor, I got a court date for that. I bet. So there's actually a process to get free. And the first is Jesus says, pray for your enemies. So you pray for them. And it hurts to pray for somebody you don't like. But remember, back to Hebrews. When you pray and when you forgive and when you get rid of that root of bitterness, what happens is that grace starts flowing. So now you're not failing to obtain the grace, you're obtaining grace. What prayer does is it releases oil in your life, it releases grace in your life, it releases ease in your life. You want to love your spouse more, pray for them more. You want to love your job more, pray for your job. You want to love this church more, pray for this church. Wherever there's prayer, there's a flow of the anointing. So you got to pray for your enemies. And if you don't know what to pray, tell God that. God, I don't know what to pray for. But you told me to pray for them, so here I am. God goes, thank you, that's an invitation. I can start working with that. Here's the next thing he tells you to do. He says, bless those who curse you. Speak life, not death. Speak peace. Hey, do you know. Yeah, yeah, they're great. Oh, really? Because I heard. No, yeah, no, I love everybody. I remember hearing that one time from a preacher friend who's. Who's learned this. And I said, what about? You know, I was kind of going there. I wasn't trying to gossip. I was just trying to talk to him about. And he goes, man, I just love everybody. Well, I found out later he didn't like that guy at all. But he was getting his confession in order so that he wasn't feeding that root of bitterness. He wasn't putting miracle grow on the root of bitterness. Amen. He was putting some weed killer on it. I love everybody. Really? Oh, I didn't know that. I hate him. You know, he's like, no, no, I love him. Okay. Yeah, I don't hate anybody. You get it? And then he says this at the end. He says, and treat people like you want to be treated. The golden rule. Here's what that reminds me of. Anytime someone offends me, I'm reminded that I've offended somebody, too. And so I got to give them grace, because I'm hoping for grace from them. And in seven years of doing this, seven years of talking for a living, do you know how many people I've offended? Never on purpose. I have never walked on this pulpit in seven years and thought, man, I'm really hoping today I can offend somebody. I've never gone on my Instagram and thought, I'm gonna post this. I'm really hoping to tick somebody. Never. But you know what? I offend people all the time. People leave the church. I'm shocked. I'm like, what? They left. And you know what? They never leave because of Amanda. I've never gotten an email. You know, Amanda was just really mean. You know, Nadia was awful. No, it's always me. Every email's about that preacher. I'm like, dang. So you know what? I gotta give grace, because I'm hoping for some grace. Thirdly, forgiveness keeps my eyes on Jesus of the team. Come. Just let God. Just let God start healing you right now. I'm serious. Let God start healing you. There's ministry in this room right now for you. There's an anointing for you today to break that yoke off of your shoulders. God's going to do something in these next 10 minutes. God doesn't need a lot of time. He's about to minister to you. I want you to open your heart to this. Make an allowance for each other's faults. Forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, okay, that word remember. Please look at me real quick. That word remember is the word of the day. That word remember is more important than forgive. Look at me. That word remember is more important than forgive. Because if you take that word out, you have no power. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. I can't forgive unless I know that I've been forgiven. So my forgiveness is rooted in a memory, not in what happened to me, but what happened for me on the cross of Calvary. I got to give you a principle very quickly. This is the Book of Acts. That's called the New Covenant. This is all after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is all the Old Covenant before the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Old covenant, Genesis, through Malachi. No forgiveness. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. You hurt me, I hurt you. You hit me. I hit you. You kill me, we kill you. It was vengeance. Then there's this short three and a half year period of time called the Ministry of Jesus where Jesus is bringing specifically a nation called Israel to the end of the law into the beginning of the New Covenant. And he is having to strip them the religious piety and the religious trust in the Commandments because they didn't just have the 613 Mosaic commands, they were now making up commandments for everything. They had rules and regulations for everything. And Jesus is stripping them of their self righteousness. So we go from you don't have to forgive to if you don't forgive, God won't forgive. You See, the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to get you to read the Sermon on the Mount and go, I can't do that. That's the purpose. There's no way I could fulfill the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus goes, I know, but I'm going to. I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. And now I'm not under the law because the law has been fulfilled by Jesus. Old Covenant, you don't have to forgive. Ministry of Jesus. You have to forgive or you go to hell. New Covenant now is not in disagreement in the sense that it's contradicting. But now, after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a new way we forgive. It's not, I have to forgive you or I won't be forgiven. It's can we go back to Colossians 3 one more time, remember? Because I've been forgiven. Colossians 3. 13. One more time. I just want to put on. I just want to make sure you guys know this is in the Bible. I did not quote this from Tony Robbins. I didn't make this up. It's not from the Book of Mormon of the Quran. It's from the Bible, New Testament. Remember? Because you've been forgiven. Forgive. I don't forgive to be forgiven. I've been forgiven, so now I freely forgive the difference. So this is not forgive and forget. Well, just forgive and forget. No, no, no. This is remember and forgive.