2020-07-18 No More Debt Collecting [Healing: Restoring the Broken #2] - Pastor Jason Canfield

Been to our service and we're jumping into a part 2 of a series on healing deep healing and emotional healing in our lives and restoring the Brokenness we have and so is we jump into this part 2 I would just say someone asked me did you say that specifically because of me know I don't do that. I don't specifically write sermons for specific individuals in the congregation in this is going much broader. But what I would say is in another sense I did because I know that everybody is experience has experienced deep hurt and pain if they lived in this world very long, so I know it's a relevant topic. It's nothing personal but I hope the holy spirit will speak to you as we go into our next section and you might be wondering if you seen the title online no more debt collecting what that has to do with actually feel healing the broken this but we're going to dive into that. In just a minute. So before we do that, let's begin with the word of prayer about your heads with me. Loving father in Heaven. Thank you so much that we have a loving God that hears and answers prayer a god that is always seeking to heal us to heal our Brokenness to restore us to bring us back into your image and Lord. We want to be not a part of the problem, but we want to be working with you towards the solution. We want this healing even on a selfish level. We all want healing deep healing we want peace the last we want the joy that only you can give but Lord we need to be willing to allow you to work in our lives and so Lord as we enter into your word and a time in your word again this morning. May you guide and direct my lips. May you hide me behind your cross and I just pray that you would anoint my lips at this message would be exactly what People need to hear me. They not feel offended but to feel comforted and challenged by your word and experience the the deep healing and joy that you have for them. Thank you. God that we can always trust in you in Jesus. Mighty and all-powerful name. I pray amen.

Again the title this morning and we're basing this house Matthew. 6:12 is a starting point no more debt collecting so last week just to give a little bit of recap since this is part 2 last week was called Sozo and we looked at Sozo one word that is used throughout the gospels in the New Testament the most in fact that talks about all the levels of healing and saving the god plans for each and every one of us we looked at how so is a word that is described as forgiveness physical protection demonic deliverance from raising the dead and physical healing and so regardless of what we're facing what we need is Sozo most often translated as saved and I might add that as if we've is I've been reading about these things and studying through I find it very fascinating that one of the areas that Jesus was constantly continually trying to do with the His people breakdown prejudices and challenges in it and forgiveness and being able to love other people and let's face it. They had a lot of people they didn't really like and in today's day and age we might have a similar list for them. It might have been Samaritan's or Gentile. It could have been Tax Collectors. It could have been all kinds of different professions. But if you recognize the stories in Jesus day Shepherds were considered low. They're the first ones to come to the nativity scene when he's born Tax Collectors. He gets Matthew in as a tax collector, you know over and over he has Paul going to the Gentiles. He tells the story of the Good Samaritan. You have the syrophoenician woman all of these stories repeatedly through scripture where God saying. Hey, I just want you to love everybody. And I mean everybody and he wants to break down those things. And so today's day and age. We might look at as debt collector tax collector or something along those lines similar to something that was despised back in Jesus day and we're going to look at debt collecting and what that might mean as far as our lives. I found it interesting that the eye doctor David Belgium. He was commenting on this idea that 75% of the people in hospitals. That's right 75% with physical illness has sickness rooted in emotional, and he said that quoted him these patients were punishing themselves with their illness and that their physical symptoms and breakdowns might have been their involuntary confession of guilt. That's in a book. He wrote called Guild where psychology and religion meet. But this idea that many times. I think we punish ourselves as he put it here. Can even experience physical pain suffering and illness simply because we involuntary not not that we don't want to or don't mean to but we don't confess our guilt. We don't recognize our Brokenness and we don't seek the only one that can bring true healing and that's the great physician Jesus Christ as we think about these topics. I thought of a few different things that we looked at the common problems amongst Christians where we eat we struggle with this. I think you could really come to a description we're emotional problems that we face and we all have them in different ways often come down to two things in this is a pastoral perspective, but failure to understand receive and live out God's unconditional love Grace and forgiveness. There's one reason if you don't understand God's love if you don't understand God's grace if you don't understand his forgiveness, Likely to be exacting an unforgiving of others. We end up living out. Our understanding of who God is in our lives in a similar way. There's the failure to give out God's unconditional love Grace and forgiveness the weather. So one is more of an inward one is more of an outward. But either way if you really start thinking about all the turmoil we go through it can come back to a simple understanding of how God sees us and how we experience that and how we relate it to other people. There's a lot of examples I could give here we're going to look at one specifically from scripture. But this idea that when you are constantly if you're one of those people that have a really easy time finding false another's you might be beating yourself up not believing God really loves you. You could be questioning God's grace or under snot Merit necessarily fully understanding or comprehending his unconditional love because we're looking at finding fault in others finding blame in the others and many times. We want to make others look bad to raise ourselves up, even if it's not something we do at consciously we can often take in these very destructive patterns when it comes simply to what and how we understand God's grace and forgiveness. This is the text. We're basing the the sermon on today. Jesus when he was teaching the disciples how to pray if you are familiar with this passage, this is coming from the Lord's Prayer we often call and he says they're in the midst of the Lord's Prayer is kind of a keynote of something that we need to pray on a regular basis. He's teaching them how to pray. He says forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Well forgive us our debts. Well, are we talkin about money? I owe you money. I owe someone else or maybe this goes a little bit deeper and a little bit further. I might add that as we look at this if you feel at anyway, like this is personal again remind let's let's be reminded that there's only been one perfect normal person that's ever lived without problems in the same way. We doing that would be Jesus and even then he experienced the challenges of this world. He got tired. He often had his will that but he chose not to surrender to his will but the father's but this idea that we need to forgive others debts. What does that look like? What is this really referencing tomb? I want to go to a familiar story and you are me recognize this says, sometimes it's described and your subheadings in your Bible as the unforgiving servant. So this was another one of those stories. Jesus told a story to give us a deeper. Meaning Jesus had a wonderful way of doing this to use Parables to help them understand some things and I think there's still much we can learn from this on how we can find Healing ourselves through the story. So it starts with a Matthew 18 and verse 23 there for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants verse 24 and when he had begun to settle accounts one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. Now, I'm going to pause right there. He's doing a accounting. This is a weird thing. He's kind of value could say it's a judgment of cleaning out the books and making a record of what's there and this man is found one servant and he has an enormous debt and buying normous. It's hard to even explain how big this number would be back in their day. But let me give you a little bit of an example. Not my clickers not working again. Let's see. If we there we go ten thousand talents is approximately if you're trained equate this something along the lines of 10 million dollars. It's an impossible some to give me the idea of the annual taxes for an entire year for the entire province of Judea it Amelia Samaria Galilee Parrilla all combined with only about $800,000. So if you wanted to put this in perspective to the people listening when they heard ten thousand talents or put it there probably wasn't audible gasp who could ever do that much money. How could it Keene even lend that much money out and not be aware. It's this enormous exaggerated size of the debt and it's the point of trying to make a very valid point. There's a debt. That is absolutely Beyond Comprehension. There's a death it is too much to even wrap our minds around because it's so huge as we go into this. I will look a little bit further 25 through 27 in verse 25 the story continues. But as he this is the servant was not able to pay surprise his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that. He had and the payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying Master have patience with me. And I will pay you all.

Write 10 million dollars when 800,000 is the taxes of the entire region of the area. He lives in have patients on me. This is an absurd request friends went when he has this much debt have patience with me is is astronomically out of the question. There's no way he could ever make enough money to repay this so his request is preposterous. It's it's it's not even something reasonable in any way, but he said just have some patience with me and I'll repay it all its Hispanic that comes up in him and we're going to come back to those words in just a minute first 27 this then says then the master of that servant was moved with compassion. Released him and forgave him the debt now. You asked yourself immediately reading this who would forgive or who could forgive such a debt but this master depicting God in the story has compassion he feels for them he feels for this servant that is down saying Lord forgive me, but it's quite interesting it it seems clear as we move on in this story that there was there's a bit of a misunderstanding you might say in the story The servant asked for a special kind of Mercy. There's a specific Greek word that he uses macro through Mason every single use for this in the New Testament refers to an extension of time or delay. Notice it was translated have patience on me. The idea is this Ervin is saying hey, if you just give me enough time, I'll pay you back. I'm going to pay it back and so he's not really embracing his Gods concept of Grace entirely the idea that his dad could be gone forgiving he couldn't even he couldn't take it in. So he was still thinking. All right, I got to pay it back. What do I got to do? I can't believe he gave me more time and we're going to see that's exactly how he understands it the servants understanding their forgiveness was very different than that of the Lourdes in Astoria, or that the king in the story the difference the Lord forgave all while the sermon was still determined to repay the debt given more time. Now to take this away from this ancient story and take it to a little bit more home. We often have heard you may have heard sermons on this exact passage and say yes, this is all about forgiveness. We have said we need to forgive others that send. Yes, that's what it's about. But it is it is a deeper level that goes to this this idea that we could forget we could actually repay. What would you call it? If a person really felt they could repay God will how would you repay him? works salvation by works and then we might not ever think we're legalist that that we think we're actually saving ourselves by our works. But how many Christians out there and it could be us at time if we're going to be really honest are trying to make God happy. We're trying to appease God in some way. We're trying to repay the debts. If we just if you'll just give us enough time to work on ourselves if we can just work on ourselves if I can keep cleaning myself up and if I can cut this out and do this and do that and change this and change that then I'll finally repay. I'll finally make it in the way and its really a misunderstanding of unconditional Grace. It is taking God to be one that just granted more time. Not Absolution of the debt and so it comes out and interesting ways and we're going to tease this out a little bit more but let's continue reading the story because the servant responds differently and you might be familiar with it. But we're going to read it in verses 28 through 30. It says but that's Urban went out and found one of his servants who owed him a hundred denarii. This is like the equivalent of like $10 or less. He wasn't a very very very small amount of money and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me what you owe me. Now this very clearly shows that he didn't really understand. He still trying to collect the debt to repay the Lord. He's trying to get any and every little thing anybody owes him so that he can repay. He's a debt collector. Will get that two more of that in just a moment. Where is 29 says so his fellow servant fell down on his feet and begged him saying have patience with me and I will pay you all now that should sound very very familiar it it's like retelling the story of what just happened with the first sermon he fell down at his feet and he begged his Lord in the story The King who was the King of Kings saying same words have patience with me and I will pay you all have patience with me. Give me more time and I'll pay you but the servant doesn't respond the way the king did and he would not but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. You see he needed to collect the debt is clear that the servant didn't really believe his debt was forgiven the good news seem too good to be true. And isn't that true that don't you we've all experienced that have you ever bought something that you thought. Wow. That's an amazing price. I can't believe they're selling it that cheap and only to find out it was too good to be true. Many of us have been Alice from life. That is something sounds really really good. It must be you got it too good to be true. And so this isn't an unnatural thing even for us we can relate to the gospel sometimes to some of us feels like it's just too good to be true that you mean God would really forgive me restore me heal me and forgive all my sins and make me into a new creation. I can't believe it. It's just too good to be true. This is the concept He couldn't receive it so he couldn't live it and he couldn't enjoy the Forgiveness of the debt. He believed he must still repay the debt by collecting debts in his believed time extension. Was a grievance collector in a sense if we're going to take this from what we were reading about before these two common causes of emotional problems amongst Christians. He didn't understand the gospel correctly and so he couldn't live out the gospel correctly. Now, let me just ask the question just a pause for a moment. You've all probably heard quotes like Gandhi saying I love your Jesus, but you Christians. I don't know about them. And I'm paraphrasing obviously but this idea that we met people that claim to be Christian, but don't live a live as though it's really believed. They don't think they understand it as superficial selfish level you can say where I don't want to be burned in hell and I definitely want to go to heaven. So what do I got to do? And again, you're asking the wrong question it begins with what do I have to do now when you submit your life to God when you really give him your all it's not so much about doing because she begins to do it in you and this is the total difference between being born again and actually changed and transformed but the problem with this is is it requires change? Most of us don't like change many times. It's unwanted change its undesired change. We don't like to change. We don't want God messing with things in our lives. And as we try and deal is I'm addressing this topic and diving into deep emotional pain that we've experienced. That's an area. We're scared quite frankly to bring up. Most people don't want to talk about deep emotional pain because this year fact that you're talking about it makes you in some sense relive some of the paint it makes it as though the pain is fresh again. It's almost like throwing salt in the wound to bring it up. But if we never bring it up and give it to God can we truly ever heal from it? Where is it a festering wound that never quite goes away. If you ever got one of those injuries where it just never stopped hurting at sure. It might have got better than it was when it first happened. But it it just never stops hurting. It's just it seems like there's ongoing agonizing pain and unforgiveness unlived Grace when we have emotional trauma and pain in our lives that we don't really heal from will be like that festering wound and it will destroy relationships all around us and it's not hard to find people and find people to people, you know, the most often are the people you realize do this and it's one of the reasons, sometimes we find that problems at home can be stronger than problems. It's a workplace. Because in the workplace we put on the mask we smile we do our job cuz we have to otherwise you would probably lose your job. But it home when we let those guards down. It's amazing that sometime some of this ugliness and undealt with pain and emotion in our past comes out and we live it. This is really salvation by promissory note. That's my own phrasing. But did that is really what it is here. I promise you all eventually pay you. That's the concept when our understanding of God's love and grace is only in our mind and not in our hearts and in our living we live our lives as though we are still trying to repay God for a promissory note type of contract or self atonement. In other words. God can't forgive me. You don't understand past and I've had people tell me this on numerous occasions where they say you don't understand Pastor. You don't know what I've done. And this is concept that it got really really really understood and seen even the thoughts in our minds in the actions in our lives. Why would God forgive me? How could he forgive me? And so we don't forgive ourselves we live with this festering wound where we feel like, we're not good enough. We can't do it. God hasn't given his victory giving us his grace. I don't know when many times it's it's our hang up where we're not really dealing with it. And so we try to atone for ourselves and live by promissory note. You can put it this way. The unaccepted are often the unaccepting The Unforgiven are The Unforgiven and the ungrazed are the ungracious. So when you meet someone that's not very gracious. Do they really understand Grace have they experience graced and understood Grace at a profound deep level be on the brain and into the heart and into their lies. Or forgiveness. So if you have a an inability to where you just don't feel like you could possibly ever forgive someone for something. Maybe you don't fully comprehend God's forgiveness. And I don't mean this is a harsh criticism. The reality is like I said, there's only one normal human being that ever lived at that didn't struggle with all these in some of the same way we do and that's Jesus. So if you're feeling like I don't want to be any of those three things you're human. It's okay to some extent to recognize our humanity and go to the source of her to come to Jesus. The one who is accepting the one who is forgiving and the one who is full of grace and truth when we come to him and we really experienced that and this is the difference between this legalistic works based religion where we have to do everything versus letting God do it in us and through us. It's that Ezekiel 36 26 + 20 Uncommon set where Jesus says I will take out your Heart of Stone give you a heart of Flesh. And when I do I will put my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statues in judgment. You'll do what I ask you to do and it becomes naturally. It's not such a grudging struggling ongoing struggle of Life Christianity shouldn't always be so hard. The hardest part is surrendering self when we surrender yourself and let God live in US amazing things happen. We become the accepted and the accepting of others. We become the forgiven on the forgiving of others. We become the graced and the gracious people. And you begin to ask yourself sometimes when you see these symptoms in people. This is often exactly what it is. It's a it's a lack of true in-depth letting us go deeper than surface-level healing. You know we often so quickly want to stop at I just want to be forgiven and go to heaven where this all goes away. And trust me, we probably all been there, but we need to let it go deeper. And going deeper. Yes, it might not be easy. In fact, I can almost promise you it won't be easy but I can guarantee you it'll be worth it who doesn't want to have a festering sore completely healed to have forgiveness in their heart enjoying them that Springs forward like a spring of Living Water is Jesus described it. It's what he's wanting to give this Sozo healing is something where we often are the cost. And this is really the Crux of the matter when we get to no more debt collecting many see every unkind and unjust action towards themselves as a debt that is owed them causing them to become grievance debt collectors. I'll let that settle in I'm going to read it one more time many see every unkind and unjust action towards them as a debt that is owed them causing them to become grievance debt collectors. This pervades pretty much every aspect of your life. Now one area and I I can come back to the let's just take marriage anybody that's married. Sometimes I find and it's it's interesting the most common challenge. I find when I do premarital counseling is people are looking at life through a very Rosy lens. We say we have this idea that they're going to change somehow when we get married and everything will be magically better. Once we're married. It's the most bizarre idea but it seems to be a pretty Universal problem. And what happens is is if for example you believe you married this person because of their good looks time goes by there not as good-looking and now they owe you a debt because they're not what you bargained for. And maybe they're not as kind. Maybe they dated you and they were so friendly and dates were amazing and you love them and you thought everything was going to be amazing forever and then it's stop. And then now you they owe you a debt. And so you begin to hold things against them you begin to look at them differently because they owe you a debt in the reality is they have done something wrong in your eyes. Now we can go Way Beyond this we could do it with siblings. Anybody have a sibling that ever did something mean to them. I had a lot of older sibling so I could tell you stories all day here. I won't do that. But the idea of having siblings to do cruel things, especially when you're a younger sibling. It seems to be more often. Sorry older siblings out there. We love you too. We forgive you. But sometimes you do mean things. Let's face it. We are kids kids do what kids do but many times we can hold that against our older siblings for so long in such a way that we treat anybody that even resembles our siblings with discontentment with resistance with hostility because we haven't really ever forgiven the person way back in the past that hurt us. Are you beginning to see this? And then this is everywhere this happens in a job if you've ever worked for a job and you had a really mean and nasty boss that you just couldn't stand and he was horrible to you you leave but then anybody that resembles that boss in your life you begin to treat them like your debt collecting even if they didn't do anything wrong. And one of the worst ones is when we are the ones that do that then we beat ourselves up and there's no healing process at all because we end up in this vicious cycle of sorrow and sadness and we're just we get depressed and we can't forgive ourselves and we don't know what to do when we beat ourselves up because we keep doing it again and then were upset because our feelings have gotten so negative that it's causing the problems to go on you get the idea we could go on and on and on because we're collecting debts owed to us by others. Now. This isn't the picture the gospels that scripture as a whole paint. That's how we are supposed to act as Christians when we become debt collectors. We lose so many of the benefits of being in a god-given relationship in gracefield. Atmosphere we should have churches that are continually debt-free. If you will churches that are people are not having grievances against each other so much so that we can't forgive one another that week and he'll the we can be the church. God wants us to be we let our human ailments on our resistance to really live God's grace be a barrier to becoming who we see through God sees we have the potential to be Now if we could paint this picture a little bit more clearly before we get into 3 test if you need to forgive someone that there's some tests we can look at that really help, you know, whether you need to forgive someone cuz maybe you don't think you need to but I find often when I went through these tests. I found a few people I still needed to forgive and the reality is we we probably all have some of this but I want you to get the picture that if you really allow and I mean really allow Jesus in to the full complete extent of not I Surrender some I not I Surrender most but I surrender all to Jesus as we often sing when we really do that. You become like Christ because it's Christ in you the hope of glory. Can you imagine where you didn't hold anything against anybody ever again that you would begin to see them as Jesus on people? Where he could forgive the people hanging him on a cross? This is the picture of what the gospel has the potential to do when God's people truly live it and like I said when we started God was Jesus when he was here on us, he was constantly trying to get them to understand that my grace my kingdom that's here is so much bigger and better than anything you pictured it to be and we've often read this passage where it's exceedingly abundantly beyond all you ask think or imagine. That's really true. It's not just flowery words that make us go it. It's real God's grace lived in assistant amazing thing and that's what God wants for your life. Now it's going to take some work on our part. Not that were earning it but it takes them working allowing ourselves to break down walls, we built up to not let anybody or anything in we cement it off these things in our lives these memories in our lives and God saying let me break it down not to hurt you further but to heal you completely let's look at these three tests because I think this will lead us into that. The first one is the resentment test now, that should be the most obvious test. If you are resenting someone or something someone did you probably need to forgive the person? Now the responsibility test is a little bit different and as we get through these let me just talk a little bit more on the resentment test this idea of resentments. What could this look? Like? Have you ever resented someone because they didn't let you speak up you resenting maybe me because I did something or said something that you didn't like in a sermon and you resent me for because you really didn't like it you might have not have been able to argue with it because it seemed like it was coming out of the Bible, but you definitely didn't like it. You might be holding onto resentment. And so we need to check our resentment. We have to examine ourselves. We need to be like David and say Lord. I need your Holy Spirit to search me to look deep within me and tell me if there's somebody I'm holding resentment towards resentment comes in a lot of different shapes to give you the example of the wedding again anybody ever withheld things that are okay in a marriage because you are mad at the other person that would be resentment something that shouldn't happen. Now, it doesn't mean you need to just give in and do whatever you need to deal with the issue. Sometimes we blanket over the issue don't deal with the issue and just rather go back and pretend it never happened avoidance isn't a solution. You have to deal with it avoiding it forever is acting like it someday just going to magically go away and that's not usually how this works the idea that we could give again. It's this idea of coming back to watch the servant did in the passage that you just give enough time and everything will be okay. Just let enough time go by and maybe a little all healing. It'll all be okay and we'll forget all about it. Now. I can tell you there's people I know particular in this church as well where this church went through some trauma. And in most people that have ever been in a church, very long have been in some kind of trauma in a church because churches are full of Sinners and when we go through that trauma, it's amazing how quick it is. We call it kind of a knee-jerk response sometimes wear that in motion and those fear the anxiety and all the stuff can come back in an instant when it's not dealt with were so worried. We're jumpy and so we're not Dealing with the resentment that may be there. The second test is the responsibility test. Now the responsibility test might look something like this if someone so had only now it's that now get that. This is blaming the other person if they hadn't you fill in the blank or had only done then I wouldn't then I would feel this way or I wouldn't feel this way or be in this mess. I forgot an NT there. So the idea that we we often use other people if this hadn't happened to me if this person hadn't done this, then I could be happy. If this person didn't do this then or had done this or again this goes on and on these are the stories the lines we tell ourselves in our mind so that we avoid dealing with the issue. We don't want to deal with the issues. So if you find yourself saying it's not my fault, it's someone so every time you make a mistake your probably blame shifting. This idea that it's not really my fault and this has been done for years psychologist and people look at the idea of teenagers at a certain stage often blame their parents for everything. I'm this is a normal concept. We don't want we're still discovering ourselves until the quick and easy thing to do when you find something you don't like his wife it on somebody else. And so when we blame all our fault when we don't address our own faults the reality is it if your having a conflict it's usually between one or more. It's not usually just one person maybe at some inner conflict. But if you have a conflict with another person both of you have a part in it Now you might be thinking Walla Walla password. That's not true. This person did this you don't understand. Well, like I said that person may have done that and it may have been 100% wholeheartedly unjust. But you can allow God to heal you from it. You can choose to not carry that baggage around with you. You can choose to forgive them regardless of how bad it was. I'm not saying you say it's okay what they did may have been genuine hurtful and harmful and that doesn't mean you put yourself In Harm's position again, but you can forgive them. The last one is probably the most complicated the reminder and reaction test. So this one this is where it often goes deeper and we don't notice where someone remind you of someone that did something to me. And so you react to them, even when they have nothing to do with it. I've seen this happen where it can be completely random. It could be in a store and someone is they say something with a tone that reminds them of someone that used to yell at them and they be just they just explode and so this idea where someone reminds us and this is a little more subtle sometimes maybe it's your father that was too hard on you. And so when someone's hard on you and someone tells you you should do something different you immediately get hard you the walls come up and you react to any criticism as that was harsh unjust criticism because you genuinely received harsh and unjust criticism of some On your life by someone so we can allow a experiences we've gone to to dictate our future when it doesn't have to when we allow God to live in us and to heal us and friends as I'm going through these maybe you're feeling like this is impossible. You're right. It is impossible without Christ. All things are possible with Christ though. So we need to allow him to do this because this is not a natural thing to be able to go through this. So these are some of the tests we see Well, how do we deal with it? Okay, pastor you've convinced me. I've got a whole bunch of people. I need to forgive. I need a deal with my debts. How do I biblically do that? Well, there's some rules there's some things than inside scripture can give us one thing. We know we're supposed to do is to forgive our debts and debtors as you forgive us. So for one, you shouldn't be holding onto any day emotionally speaking. And so if someone has heard you we need to figure out how to move through it and move on in a way that brings healing. Now God's exemplary forgiveness goes far beyond the surface forgiveness. This is not a simple. I remember when my kids were really little we used to always make them say say you're sorry and you've all seen little kids do this. They say sorry and it gets grumpy face. That's not the kind of forgiveness were talking about just in case you were wondering this is a deeper level of forgiveness forgiveness and surrendering the resentment we hold onto even if we don't mean to hold on to it God takes sins failures and hers that happen to us and threw his love repurposes. Andre uses them for his glory. One of the most amazing things I see is when someone has gone through deep emotional pain and suffering. They allow God to heal them but now they have the ability to understand and relate to others that are going through pain and suffering similar to what they went through. And when you allow God to do that healing and you you can and then being agent of healing for others, I know I've had people in my life when I've been hurting and struggling with something and I God brought me into someone's proximity in the start of the conversation. I found out there have dealt in the past was something I'm dealing with right now. And they know exactly what I need to hear because they can speak with compassion with empathy. They can sympathize and empathize with us at a deeper level because they know what it's like they know how hard it is and there's things that no matter how much I would love to sympathize and empathize with everything you've gone through if you're a woman and it has anything to do with that. I can help you. I can't fully relate to that. I can understand it's tragic things happen, but I can't relate at that level because I'm not been that if you were a person of color and you've been racially abused in some way. I can't fully relate to that because I've never experienced it in the exact same way. But the beauty is when we have experienced something and we allow God's healing he will repurpose that he will use you as a tool to bring healing in someone else's life and let me just tell you if you've ever experienced this kind of deep healing in the joy and the peace and the love All of the things that it brings into your life to be able to give that gift to another human will bring more joy to you than you can even fathom. So the challenge with this why this is hard. Why isn't it happening everywhere? We're scared of being hurt again. That's the reality. We're scared of being open to acknowledging I struggled with that sin. It's been hard for me. I look at this. I did that whatever it is, you're afraid to say that to another Christian because somehow we get this idea that everybody else must be perfect. But me don't know where that comes from or why we all know it at mine level that all of us and we know up here that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God we read the text but we don't want to admit to others that we've actually done these things and came through it, but I will tell you this is what God's plan and purpose is he he likes to use the evil that was meant for good Romans 8:28. He works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. I believe that particular verse is telling us when we love him enough to let him in And truly let him in he will work together all those purposes because he calls us to be used for his purposes. He gained he begins to take the healed the broken becomes the restorer because you were the broken that got healed so then you can go forward and help others heal. Some biblical examples. Very famous. One is Joseph now. We're just starting back in Genesis. And I don't have time to go through all of the stories that are in here, but let's just go back and look at the story of Joseph. Did Joseph's brothers wrongfully do things to him today. Throw him in a well and sell him. Yes, was that wrong? Yes, was that an unjust done to him? This should have received some type of Retribution, right? That's how we feel when someone's done wrong against us. He had every reason in the world for when his brothers came to him on their begging on their knees. He could have paid every single he could have made them pay every debt back. He could have nailed it to them and they deserve every bit of it. And you know, they deserve every bit of it. We read the story. That's how we feel at least. That's how I'm sure Joseph had to fill out of it. I don't know any of you that have been sold into slavery lost in a foreign country gone through all that he went through but the idea is the same when someone's done something wrong to you and rightfully, I mean it's easy to see scripture says that's wrong. It's wrong. It's wrong it's wrong. So therefore I can hold it against. You know, God says, I want you to forgive them bring healing and restoration for my glory. So Joseph does that send we can read about it Genesis chapter 50 verse 19 and 20. This is the New Living Translation In this passage that says bet Joseph replied here. He's standing in front of his brothers. Don't be afraid of me. They had reason to be afraid. Am I God that I can punish you could he have punished them. He could have been some way you intended to harm me, but God intended it all for a good he brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people and pause for a minute. Is that natural thinking? No, this is a man that said I'm going to allow God to live in me. And I'm going to do everything. I possibly can to see things from God's perspective as I Surrender day in day out whether I'm in prison whether I'm a slave it doesn't matter where I'm at or what's going on. I'm going to try and look at people and circumstances from God's perspective on how not looking for the negative in people not trying to find fault, but trying to find a way that you can use every situation every conversation for his glory to bring about greater healing and peace through Jesus Christ. That's the goal. Well, there's more stories Romans 13:8. Put it this way. We're talking about debt collecting only an emotional death in some way. Oh nothing to You read it, right anyone. Anyone, you shouldn't be holding anything against anyone in a debt type thing of resentment except for your obligation to love one another you need to love them even if loving them means tough. Love you need to put some distance between you that's okay. But if you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law you catch this. I mean in this is said over and over love is the Fulfillment of the law. So if you are following all the laws and you're coming to church on the right day and you're doing this and you're doing that and you have all the theological knowledge and you're not loving people you're basically the equivalent of a Pharisee because that's exactly what they did in Jesus day. And if you go back and read Jesus was the hardest on the people that had a religious pretense, but refuse to love Those were the people he had strong words for those were the people that he turned over tables because of these are the people he got emotionally upset with in the sense that you're hurting people. Stop hurting my people stop hurting everyone and start being a Healer. That was the burden of God's heart because he's telling us again. Oh nothing in at an emotional dead of this set towards anyone love people love everyone because that's how you fulfill the requirements of God's law. The greatest example as I kind of already reference Jesus himself said father forgive them for they do not know what they do and they divided his garments and cast lots know most people read this and very quickly acknowledged. This is not natural. Nobody in their right mind is society might say would forgive someone that's rude Ali killing them like not like okay they shot you was quick and over this is brutally pain induced intentional pain to make you suffer and he says, forget them for they know not what they do. Did Jesus have every right to be upset? I can tell you I didn't naturally I'd be pretty upset if someone was crucifying me. I would be very happy up there suffering as nor would any of us and so I'm not in value and I'm not trying to make the harm and the pain that you've experienced. Not as though it didn't exist. Don't misunderstand me. Those things are real and they are deep and they are painful and they are valid you have been hurt. I'm not invalidating that God's not invalidating that but God saying you can't change the past you can't change what happened to you, but you can change the future by letting me change you if you'll allow me to change you you can change your future where these things that have been a pain in your side. There's a Bentley's festering wounds. I can heal that I can give you Sozo healing I Can save you in a way that you never dreamed imaginable so much so that you would you would be like the disciples it would be willing to give their lives. Like Peter that says I can't die in the same way as Jesus crucify me upside down. I'm not even worthy of that. It changed everything the world changed when God's people got a hold of the full grasp of what God through Jesus was trying to do when the Holy Spirit came in and they took it as a heart level. They set aside their differences. They stopped trying to rise one above another it wasn't about who was the greatest in the Kingdom anymore. It was about I doesn't matter we can Bunch be a bunch of idiot. This is it says, you know, we can just be a bunch of idiots. It doesn't matter who we are. God can and will use us if we surrender to him when we surrender to him everything changes. So was I titled this no more debt collecting. I think God's telling us as we've been potentially praying in the Lord's Prayer over and over. We've heard the words over and over again forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. People of hurt you it's true, but it's time to forgive. It's time to heal. It's time to let Jesus finish the work he has begun in Earnest. Hey, man, let's close whisper. Loving father in Heaven forgive us forgive us our debts and help us Lord because we don't know how to forgive our debtors. Sometimes we want to we try to but Lord sometimes the pain is so deep. So pervasive we don't dare open that can we don't dare bring down those walls, but Lord, you don't want us to have those festering pains with an S. You want to bring about true healing and Reconciliation in ways that frankly we don't even know how to picture this sinful world has somehow jaded us to an extent that we we don't even know how it's possible. We don't we were afraid it's not possible were scared to let it down but Lord Allow us to come to you just as we are as you tell us to to let you search our hearts and allow you to change Us From the Inside Out help us to understand your grace your mercy your forgiveness in a deeper more profound level that we could be forgiving gracious. Loving people that have truly experienced what you have to offer because until we experience that we're selling ourselves short and we haven't embraced the fool healing restoration gospel that you came to Proclaim that you came to provide. So Lord. We want it here. We are make us like you we love you Jesus. Thank you Lord for the work you are doing and will doing our lives to fulfill these promises for we know we ask according to your will in Jesus name. Amen. Happy Sabbath.