The Condition of Forgiveness

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quite a bit of questions last time I taught on forgiveness.
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I said some things that some people disagreed with, and I'm glad because if we disagree with one another, we want to make sure that if we do have a disagreement, that our disagreements are rooted in scripture.
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And first of all, forgiveness is a very complex subject.
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It's not something that we can just come to and go, hey, it's no big deal.
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You have offended parties, you have people that have had grievous sins.
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We have some sins that we should be able to overlook.
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1 Peter 4, 18 says, love covers a multitude of sins.
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So in today's case, we're going to be probably dealing with most of things that we would struggle to forgive someone based on how grievous the sin is.
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I already okayed this with Keith.
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So just tell you about an instance me and him had years ago when I first came here, probably only been here a couple of years, and he was counseling someone that I was counseling at the same time, had no idea.
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I mean, I knew that they were talking, but we had a disagreement on what was being said.
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Me and Keith had a very heated conversation over the phone and it was over.
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And he called me and says, hey, I just want to make sure that we're okay.
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I said, brother, love covers a multitude of sins.
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And I don't in one way, any shape, form or fashion feel like you sinned against me.
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We both disagreed on how this marriage should proceed forward and all.
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And I said, hey, dude, it's no big deal.
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And that is how primarily we should interact with one another.
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You know, those of y'all that do know me, and I'm not easily offended.
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I mean, unless you come up here and punch me, we'll probably be able to shake hands and it's no big deal.
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But that being said, there are people that are easily offended.
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So when we begin to talk about the forgiveness, let's make sure that when we say that someone has sinned against us or that someone has offended us, hey, first of all, will we all agree that if somebody offends you, that that could not be, that it's a possibility they have not sinned against you? Would we agree with that? Okay.
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Because here's the deal.
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Let's say I commit a sin and he comes to me and confronts me on that.
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Am I going to be offended when he comes to me? Most likely.
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I have never approached someone to speak with them of a sin in their life that on the first time going to them, that they have received it in love.
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And nobody likes to be polemic.
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Nobody likes to have errors pointed out in their life.
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So if Andy came to me and he says, hey, this is areas in your life I see they're inconsistent with being a Christian and I'm offended at his words, is my offense to him, has he sinned against me? And the answer is no.
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I may not like what the words that came out of his mouth, but he did not sin against me.
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So when we talk about forgiveness and make sure that we're trying to seek forgiveness or trying to be reconciled to someone, we need to make sure that what they have done has, it is a violation of either God's law or that they have actually sinned against you.
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Okay? I'm gonna use a couple of illustrations.
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In 2015, in June of 2015, a boy by the name of Dylan Roof walked into a Charleston church and he shot and killed nine people.
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I don't know if y'all remember that.
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That young man at his arraignment, there was no remorse for what he did.
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At the sentencing phase, he stood up, let these people, these church members stood up and said that they had forgiven him for what he did.
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They had forgiven him for what he did.
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They had forgiven him for what he did.
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They had forgiven him for what he did.
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And the quote from him, and I can pull it up and read it, was this.
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I am in no shape, form, or fashion regret what I did.
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I don't want your forgiveness and I would do it again.
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You don't answer this question yet.
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But were those church members right for telling that young man that they forgave him? To that, one year later, Pulse Nightclub, Orlando, June 2016, Omar Mateen walks in there and guns down 49 people and then hit 53 others, killing 49.
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He wound up killing himself or getting, being shot.
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A guy by the name of Angel Collin was one of the victims.
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He says, I forgive that man for what he did.
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And I learned to forgive that man because I went to church and the church told me that I have to forgive him so that I can move on in life.
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And he said, don't have to answer this yet.
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Was that biblical forgiveness? The Amish community in 2008, West Nicoll High, Charles Roberts walks in, takes the hostages, 10, lets the girls, the boys out, takes 10 girls.
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He shoots all of them, five of them die.
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Roberts, in a cowardly fashion, then shoots himself.
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The Amish community comes out and it says, we forgive Charles Roberts for what he did.
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And then told the mother, we forgive you too.
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Was that biblical forgiveness? December 10th, 1974, a young boy by the name of Chris Carrier, 10 years old.
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He was lured into a man's car.
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That man then took him out into a secluded place, stabbed him repeatedly in his back with an ice pick, then pulled a pistol, shot him right behind the temple, passing right behind his eyes, leaving him for dead in the Everglades.
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So a pastor by found him, he was still alive.
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After six days of laying, he wound up being blind in his eye, he did recover from his injuries, although he was blind in one eye and probably a mental anguish that none of us could ever imagine.
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20 years later, a man, so this is 1994, was in a nursing home.
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77-year-old man, he called the police and he says, I'm gonna confess to the abduction of Chris Carrier.
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He comes in, statute of limitations had already been over.
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He confesses to what happened, the abduction, why he did it.
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They call Chris Carrier, now this man, blind in almost both eyes.
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And 20 years later, and Chris Carrier says, I want to see my abductor, talk with him.
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So he goes to the nursing home and he sits down and he talks to David McAllister, that was his name.
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And he begins to confess to Chris what he did.
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And he said, Chris, I ask you to forgive me.
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And Chris said, David McAllister, I forgive you.
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David said, as I repeatedly stabbed you, you said, Father, please forgive him, he doesn't know what he's doing.
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And he said that just resonated in his memory.
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Chris Carrier then continued to come see David McAllister for weeks, months.
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David McAllister eventually professed faith in Christ and him and Chris Carrier remained friends up until the day that he died.
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Is that biblical forgiveness? Biblical forgiveness has to be rooted in scripture.
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The scripture says that we are to, just as God in Christ has forgiven you, so to you must forgive one another.
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So if we wanna know how to forgive someone, where does it have to be rooted in? Has to be rooted in the scripture and it has to be rooted in the way that God forgave you and me.
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First of all, how did God forgive you and me? First, he sent his son into the world, one, to be the propitiation for our sins.
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We were the offender, God was the offended, therefore God sent someone to reconcile us to himself.
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So there can be no, forgiveness can't be complete apart from reconciliation.
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Would we agree with that? Would we agree with that? And if you don't agree, if you're more than glad to stop me, raise hands, throw something at me and I'll be more than glad to answer any question at any time.
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Forgiveness, here's the definition of forgiveness.
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When the offended party graciously offers to the offender to release them of all moral responsibility upon the offender's repentance.
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Although, when extending that forgiveness, all consequences may not be released.
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Does anybody disagree with that? Okay, that's what biblical forgiveness is.
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God came to you and I through the power of his spirit, awakened us from our deadness, granted us repentance and faith.
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Had we committed sins, I don't know about y'all, but I've got sins that still follow me today.
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Did God remove those consequences? No.
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Can he? He can, but he doesn't always.
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So what is biblical forgiveness? First of all, forgiveness is transactional.
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Anybody want to say why or why we would say that forgiveness is transactional? Or you want me to just say why? It's a matter of giving and receiving.
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Has to be, has to be.
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Remember, our definition of forgiveness has to be rooted in what God has done.
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I can't, you're not God, but I came to God and said, God, here's my sin.
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And what did God do? He forgave it.
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He forgave it.
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But was the transactional forgiveness, it was this.
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This is what people don't like.
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It was conditional.
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It was conditional.
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A guy by the name of Louis Smeed wrote a book, and I'll give you some books that I've read.
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Some of them were bad dealing with forgiveness because a few of them that I read was more in the line of Dr.
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Phil and Oprah Winfrey.
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I'll just say this.
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How many people have said, we forgive so that we won't be bitter? How many? How many people have heard that? I've got to forgive them so that I won't be bitter.
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That is the average definition of forgiveness.
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And I'll tell you what, that is nowhere in scripture.
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Shake your Bible up, check it, turn it upside down, read it upside down, backwards, whatever.
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You ain't gonna find it.
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Because bitterness does not dissipate by you forgiving someone.
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Because he says in Hebrews, do not let a root of bitterness grow within you.
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Look, bitterness can grow in even after forgiveness if you continue to dwell on the very fact that that person has offended you.
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So it's conditional.
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Forgiveness is never unconditional.
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Turn over to Matthew 18.
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Actually, if you have ever read the whole chapter of Matthew 18, it all points to 15 through 20.
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And even the verses that go after that, 21 through 34 also deal with forgiveness.
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15 through 20 says here, if your brother sins, go to him, show him his fault in private.
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If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
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But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth or two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
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If he refuses to listen, even into the church, let him then be treated as a Gentile or tax collector.
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And truly, I say to you, whatever is bound in earth shall be bound in heaven.
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Whatever shall be loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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And again, I say to you that if two or three of you, I'm sorry, if two of you agree on earth and ask anything in my name, I shall do it for them.
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But by my father who is in heaven and for where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm there in the midst.
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You see that it's conditional.
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If your brother sins against you and you go to him, what does he do? If he confesses, it's over, right? Is that not conditional? If you go over to Luke 17, maybe it's Luke 15, I'm sorry.
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Maybe I should have wrote that down.
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Here it is, Luke 17.
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And we'll start in verse three.
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It says, be on guard, brother, if your brother sins, rebuke him.
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Does anybody else say anything other than rebuke? Anybody else say, no, everybody said rebuke him.
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And if he repents, forgive him.
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And if he sins against you seven times again, and he returns to you seven times and says, I repent, you forgive him.
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Is that not conditional? If, if, if, if he repents, then we forgive him.
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Now, how, this is normally the question.
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If I go to Mike, because Mike has sinned against me, and Mike doesn't repent, then how do I not stay angry at him? That is normally the thing, the case.
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Should we not have the disposition towards people that sin against us that God had towards us? What was God's disposition towards every sinner who's ever walked the face of this earth? What's his disposition been? His anger towards the sin, but his disposition is to love and offer forgiveness freely to all of those that do what? The condition of repentance.
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Sure, it's conditional.
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It is conditional.
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I sinned against Mike, Mike's heart towards me should be when I come to Mike and say, Mike, I stole your car and robbed a bank and ran all your gas out.
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What should you be ready to do? You should be ready to forgive me and say, Mike, I forgive you for stealing my car, robbing a bank and running all my gas out.
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That doesn't remove the consequences.
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That's exactly correct.
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And that doesn't mean you ever trust me again.
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Yep.
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It doesn't mean you ever have to trust me again.
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Matter of fact, you shouldn't.
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Trust has to be earned.
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Are you are you are you doing the OK? Yes, ma'am.
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How does that work with Christ on the cross? When he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
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And they they didn't ask for forgiveness or even want it.
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They didn't even believe.
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But you know what I'm saying? Like I will do.
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I will answer that in two ways.
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OK, first, Jesus didn't say I forgive you.
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He prayed to the father to.
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I believe that's an inspired verse and not to get the text to a variant situation.
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But that actually was an axe and ended up in the seven sayings of Jesus when they harmonized it.
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I know I don't have the time to get into that right now.
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It's an inspired text, but it was moved from axe.
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You know that who said that? Remember, Stephen? And if you look at the exact quote, it was put there.
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Now, somebody wants to disagree with all Jesus said.
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OK, but it was a textual variant that ended up when they harmonized the Gospels with some of the other writings.
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It is an inspired verse, but it was added to the seven sayings of Christ at a later date.
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But if you do look, even when when Stephen's being stoned, did Stephen say I forgive them for what they're doing? He did not.
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He says he prayed and interceded for God to forgive them for what they were doing.
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You see the difference or not? OK, well.
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He is interceding for his offender.
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OK.
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Stephen's getting hit with rocks.
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God forgive them.
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He's praying that God would forgive them.
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And we do know that that prayer in Acts 7 at some time in the near future came about because who was standing there? Paul under the name of Saul, and he was holding the cloaks of the men that killed him.
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OK, but Stephen did not say, God, I forgive them.
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He didn't say that.
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Neither did Jesus.
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Even if you want to say if we wanted to agree that Jesus on the cross said that he did not say, God, I forgive them for what they're doing.
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He interceded for his offenders to still that God would God would forgive them.
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OK.
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All right.
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You look like you.
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I lost you somewhere.
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OK, I know what you're saying.
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I'm just in my head.
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Different scenarios are coming up that I'm trying to reconcile.
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But that's fine.
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Not, you know, that's fine.
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But forgiveness is always for the purpose of reconciliation.
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When God forgave us, what did he forgive us for? For the purpose.
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To be reconciled to his father.
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To be reconciled to his father.
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Look all through scripture.
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You even go through in Corinth, when the man would sleep in with his basically his stepmother.
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When he repented, what did Paul have to rebuke the church of Corinth in second Corinthians? Do you remember? They wouldn't let him back in after he repented.
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They wouldn't be reconciled.
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And as long as it depends on you and me, what does it say in Romans? Long depends on you and me.
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We should live at peace with all men.
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So you could even go to as far as to even say, if you know that you're, what does the other say in the gospel? Jesus said, hey, if you know your brother has ought against you, leave it, leave the gift.
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Now that doesn't always mean there's a sin involved.
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Look, me and Mike may just have conflict with one another.
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But what am I supposed to do before I worship? I'm supposed to do that.
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And man, whatever it is, whatever I got to do, we have to make this right.
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Because I can't worship in my heart and spirit and in truth, knowing that me and my brother have conflict with one another.
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So forgiveness is transactional.
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There has to be, Mike, I have sinned against you.
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I keep using you because you're the closest person.
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I'll use you in a minute.
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Mike, I've sinned against you.
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This is what I've done.
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And Mike's response biblically would be, Mike, I stole your car, did this.
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And Mike says, I forgive you for stealing my car.
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Now, if I go to Mike and say, hey, man, I stole Mike's car, robbed a bank.
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And I say, hey, man, I'm sorry.
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I ran all the gas out of your car.
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It does not cover it.
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Yeah, it doesn't work.
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Because the offense was not running the gas out of his car.
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It was stealing your car, robbing the bank.
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Anybody else? Questions? Protests? Demonstrations before I move forward? Go ahead.
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Bitterness.
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Okay.
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You said that, well, let me just say what I wrote down here.
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Does bitterness mean that you haven't actually forgiven? If you're still bitter about it? I would say, yeah.
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And here's the thing.
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If I go to Mike, I'll use you.
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I'll offend you.
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I'm tired of using you.
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If I offend you and I come to you and I say, hey, man, whatever those infraction is, we're not talking about a harsh word, okay? We should be able to cover those types in love, right? Okay.
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I agree with sin against you and I come to you and you say, I forgive you.
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But then you turn right around, you slander, you backbite, you talk bad, defend character.
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I mean, all those things.
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Well, what was the evidence that you've not forgiven? All those things.
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Now, dealing with those in your mind.
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Sure.
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Has people sinned against us in such a way that as we work through that, and we say that we've forgiven, those thoughts come from our mind, and they still make us angry, right? Is anger, thinking of those things, and the situation being angry at the injustice that happened is not wrong.
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But wrath and malice towards the individual that did it is.
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And that's difficult.
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Hey, Sybil, back in, I think it was in 2009, a friend of Sybil's was stabbed 31 times over off that street.
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And the boy was 17 years old.
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Obviously, it killed her.
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And the parents of Sarah, when they did not give that boy the death penalty, here's what their disposition towards him was.
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We are glad that the death penalty was taken off.
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Because now we can pray and God will have that much longer to bring him to faith in Christ.
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Dude, that right there is not being angry and malice towards the individual.
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I don't know if I could do that, man.
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I would pray that my disposition towards that situation would be that.
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But dude, that's something to swallow.
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That's sanctification.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that's tough.
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But dude, that's a person that's trusting that what the Lord is going to do is just.
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What does it say in Romans 12? You think you get mad, you get angry at towards someone, and you have a hard time dealing with the bitterness, just go to Romans 1.
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Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.
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Leave room for the Lord.
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Leave room for the Lord.
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He'll take care of it.
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Look, does God not know how to take care of sin? Look at the cross.
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He took care of it on the cross so that every person in this room that has faith in him, he took care of it forever.
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And he threw it in the depths of the sea, cast as far as the east is from the west.
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And we never have to worry about that again.
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As far as it being held against us in judgment.
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Hey, but those people that have offended us, and we want to lash out in anger and malice.
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Look, man, God knows how to do that.
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God knows how to fix that.
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We wouldn't do it right anyway.
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Have you ever seen a movie or read the book A Time to Kill? Anybody remember what Samuel Jackson did in that movie? They raped his daughter.
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They raped and beat his daughter half to death.
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He goes and gets a machine gun, guns them people down, but he hurts innocent lives in the process.
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That's how we would do it and be unjust.
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Although when you think of that movie, you're like, man, when he goes in there and he starts gunning those people down, we're going, yeah, get him, get him.
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But dude, it's wrong.
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You know what I mean? It's wrong.
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We chuckle about it, but it's wrong.
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It is wrong.
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It is wrong.
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Yeah, it's wrong.
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It's wrong.
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So when I was talking about Louis Smead, he wrote a book.
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I wouldn't recommend reading this book, but it is in the Christian section.
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We hurt, we hate.
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These are chapters.
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We hurt, then we hate.
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Listen to this.
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Then we heal ourselves.
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How do we do that? Then it says, chapter six says, forgiving invisible people.
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In other words, forgiving institutions that have wronged us.
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Then forgiving people that have hurt us and are died.
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Forgiving those who have offended us that we can no longer be in contact with.
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It says we can forgive those people.
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The Bible says we can't have complete forgiveness apart from confrontation, transactional forgiveness, and it's all conditional on that person confessing and repenting.
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And then it goes on to say, forgiving people who don't care.
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Was that not that Dylan Roof guy? That church offered forgiveness to that.
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And you know what he said? You remember what I said? He said, he said he'd do it again and he didn't want it.
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So how are you going to forgive somebody? One who doesn't see what they did was wrong.
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Does that not impugn God's justice? Just check out for a minute.
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Does that not? Did he see what he, that church was offering forgiveness to a person who did not think that murdering nine people was wrong? So they offered forgiveness that God wouldn't even do.
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God wouldn't even do that.
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Well, he, the God shut his eyes.
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What's that? I would say, I wouldn't say that God shut that boy's eyes.
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His own sin did.
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Well, you know, he, God will turn you over to your sin.
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Sure.
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But he, but he came into the, but he came into the world already depraved.
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And all he did was seek out that depravity.
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It wasn't like he came Dylan Roof.
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Didn't come into the world being an innocent, a little baby.
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Yeah.
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What I'm saying is that the Lord did not reveal to him what he did was wrong in his heart.
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He has not seen it.
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So he doesn't know it, but he knows because he will stand before God on the day of judgment.
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And what he did was wrong.
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Hey, me and Lance know each other, by the way.
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Let me, then it goes on after that and say, you should learn to forgive yourself.
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I'll tell you what that is.
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That is one of the most retarded, retarded, just things to say.
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How many people here have ever offended themselves? Did you stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself for forgiveness? Mike, I punched yourself in the jaw today.
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Would you forgive yourself? Sure, Mike, I forgive you.
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Then hang on.
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But if you listen to this progression, okay, listen to this, and this is absolute heresy, this isn't a Christian section in a Christian book.
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The man claims to be a Christian.
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Then learning to forgive God.
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Dude, you follow that progression.
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That's where you end up.
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That's where you end up.
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God owes nobody an apology.
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That's where you end up.
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Because you can be angry at God for what he's allowed in your life.
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All I know if you want to be angry about God for what he's allowed in your life, you go to Job and see what Job said.
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You go to Habakkuk at the end of that and see what he said.
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Both of them.
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I'll stand here with my mouth shut and give me my medicine.
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Now, it has to be transactional.
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It's conditional.
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And it's always like we said for this.
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For the purpose of reconciliation.
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Now, can this step be very hard? Let me just say this.
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I go to Mike.
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I can conditionally come to him for the repentance.
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The transaction for forgiveness takes place.
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Mike, I did this.
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You say I forgive you for what you did.
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Now, for me and Mike to worship in the same room together and to have the fellowship with one another, this may take some time.
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It may be hard for him to stomach me being in the room.
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He may get uneasy when I walk at her by his car to get my car.
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So that's going to take some sitting down.
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Hey, you know, you want to learn how to do this good? Get married.
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Hey, you want to perfect this? Get married.
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I see you back there smiling, Andy.
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Is that not true, Andy? Yeah.
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Now, we shouldn't grievously sin against our spouse, but you'll learn to do this.
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Should learn to do it on a much lower scale.
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But all this is involved every time we sin against one another such a way we say something to one another that can't be covered under love.
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Dude, this is it.
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Go to that person.
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Confess and repent.
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That transactional takes place that I forgive you.
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And then if it takes a time of restoration and working through those things, that's what we got to do.
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And that is difficult.
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Yes, sir.
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I just had two things.
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When you talked about this after we had the plenitude last time, you got me thinking, so I kind of shook it upside down.
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Like I said, I tried to find it.
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Anyway, but it was neat how it's congruent even to the Old Testament, 2 Chronicles 7, 14.
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If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and then there's the then conditional statement, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their land.
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So that's even in the Old Testament too, which is pretty neat.
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But I had one point back to the, you know, your wife and the friend that got stabbed and the whole death penalty thing.
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So it's just difficult because like my mom, when Ted Bundy came to Tallahassee, she was in college there.
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She was one dorm over from the sorority house where he broke into.
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Yes, sir.
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I'm listening to you.
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And just the aspect of like, you know, desiring the death penalty for him because there's friends that, you know, had gotten hurt and killed by him.
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You know, so how do you reconcile desiring the death penalty, which is God's righteous judgment, which is righteousness with still the aspect of forgiveness if somebody doesn't get it? Well, in their case, the death penalty was on the table.
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OK, it was.
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They said they were thankful that it was taken off so that he had longer time to repent, that God could work in his heart.
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They didn't say that death penalty was unjust.
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They just said that they were fine with the decision to remove it.
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And I could pull the article up from her dad actually saying, we still feel that this judgment was just.
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That was his exact quote from the father.
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We still feel like this judgment's just.
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Hey, but if the Paul, I'd have to look at, I think it's in, it's either in Acts 25 or Acts 15.
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I'd have to go back and look.
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But Paul standing before one of the magistrates being questioned about his, he says, look, if I've done anything under the law that deserving of death, he said, put me to death.
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So what would Paul affirm right there? Paul would be affirming the death penalty, wouldn't he? Look, the state has the power of the sword.
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And going back to that little instance, like I've talked about in John Grisham's book or in the movie, A Time to Kill Samuel Jackson.
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He didn't have the authority to take that to his own hands.
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God's given that to the state.
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Look, I'm not saying that our emotions don't run high and stuff like that.
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Look, I'm not saying that.
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I'm not saying I wouldn't have felt the same way that he did.
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And I ain't saying that I wouldn't have acted in the same manner that he did.
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I hope that I wouldn't, but you know, I mean, sometimes I say, hey, I'm not saying it was right, but I understand it would be wrong for us to take that because of what it says in Romans 12.
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Vengeance is mine, I will repay.
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Leave room for justice for God.
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I'll tell you, go over to Genesis and you're right.
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Even in the Old Testament, it's always conditional, always.
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Hey, there's nothing new in the New Testament that wasn't rooted in the old.
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Look, a person sinned and they went to the temple.
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Sin wasn't, quote, under their understanding, propitiated until the time of Christ.
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If they didn't do what? Bring a turtle, dove, an ox, whatever the required thing was.
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Yeah, it was not covered.
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It was if you sin and you do this, okay, I'll remove my judgment for a time.
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But go to chapter 50.
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And hey, when I taught through Genesis, I don't know if anybody was in here.
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Maybe Lee and Ann were in there.
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And Pam, I think I taught through Genesis when this used to be the other one.
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And when I got to the time of Joseph, and we're getting to that with Keith.
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If you can't read through the story of Joseph and your heart not be turned and warned, and there are some of the most kindest, most gentlest reactions of Joseph towards his offenders.
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I mean, the people that actually offended him.
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And his response was never in anger, never mind.
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You can go back to when his brothers came in and he saw who they were.
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He tested them to see if their sinful hearts had been changed.
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Yeah, was he testing them through somewhat of a deceptive manner? Yeah, to see if it was genuine.
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But when you get to the end of the book, chapter 50, we'll go to verse 15.
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It says, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph bears a grudge against us? Well, why would Joseph have more grudge against him? Anybody remember? Sold him into slavery.
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Sold him into slavery.
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They were going to kill him.
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Reuben steps in and says, don't do it.
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We could probably get some cash out of the deal.
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They sell him into slavery.
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It says, what if he holds a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did him? Did Joseph under the authority of the Pharaoh have the authority to impose some type of judgment against those men? He sure did.
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So they went and sent a message to Joseph saying, hey, your father's charged us before he died saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, please forgive.
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I beg you the transgression of your brothers and for their sin, for what they have done to you was wrong.
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And now please forgive the transgression of your servants of the God of your father.
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And then it says this, and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
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Then his brothers came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants.
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But Joseph said this, do not be afraid.
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Listen to what he says.
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Am I in the place of God? Look, he had the authority to do to them whatever he wanted.
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But because Joseph had forgiven his brothers, he said, you know what? Am I the one to be in the place of God? Am I the one to do what only God can do? I don't know about y'all, but I don't think any of us have ever been sinned against the way Joseph had.
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Sold into slavery, wrongly accused, accused of rape, then interpret a couple of dreams for somebody to get you out of prison and you wind up being in prison longer, you know, and then you see the people that actually sold you into slavery come in wanting something that you have and he graciously forgives them.
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Any questions? We have about a minute and a half.
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I didn't finish.
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We'll finish in two weeks.
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No, we good? All right.
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Daniel, pray us out.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time of study.
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We thank you that we have a place to come to to get away from the world for just a little while or to be with like-minded people.
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Thank you for this study.
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You know, maybe take it and think on it, use it so you're better, so you get out of the way with the Lord.
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Just ask that you will bless Keith this morning as he comes.
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Give him the liberty of his calling, Lord, and bless us, those that will hear.
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We may understand those things as well.
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Thank you for your goodness and your kindness.
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Most of all, we thank you for your son, Jesus.
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We ask these things in his name, amen.