Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
jesus name for your anointing god for the anointing of the holy spirit now to touch us and to teach us lord for you to open our hearts and minds god to your word for you to shake us lord for you to shake us and wake us up for you to expose and deal with issues deep in our hearts and minds that you will help us lord to grow and to flourish lord you said that those that will be planted in the house of the lord would flourish in the courts of our god lord you said if your people would hearken unto your voice and listen to your word and do what you say that you are blessed and that you will heal that you will protect that you will deliver that you will be our refuge and our fortress in the storm and so lord we just thank you lord you want us to to pay attention to your word and to examine our hearts so lord we just ask you to help us examine our hearts today in jesus name [Music] amen and amen you may be seated um [Music] got a few things here this morning just to trying to figure out where the lord's going and i think he's showing me but i want you to turn in your bibles to psalm 81 that's where we're going to start this morning i just want to talk a little bit about examining examining your heart and uh [Music] i'm actually going to be honest about some things this morning but i want to read this scripture we're going to go to psalm 81 because you know um i preach a lot about you know obeying god and living a holy life and and you know and all those things are true and biblical and i want to say before we delve into this that i hope that i don't give the idea that i believe that we can do this christian walk and our own strength okay there is individual personal responsibility that we have to be diligent and passionate about the things of god and to go after god um but if you think for one second that you can be holy enough or good enough or moral enough or are powerful enough in what you can do by yourself um then i then you're getting the wrong idea for me because i promise you i want you to know this morning that number one i'm not a perfect man nor am i a sinless man nor do i am a man that doesn't struggle with the same things that everybody else struggles with so i don't ever want to give that impression i need the grace of god i need god to help me live this christian life i need the mercy of god which means i need undeserved at times undeserved forgiveness undeserved help and frankly you know even though i'm the pastor and even though you know i've been in this walk a long time i don't do anything perfectly and god's dealing with me about an issue that's been going
on for almost a year where i think now you know i'm having to admit to myself that i have unforgiveness and bitterness towards somebody and it's dragging me down and it's dragging me down spiritually and it's dragging me down mentally and emotionally and i have to deal with it i just don't sometimes it's hard to deal with it's just hard to to dig down there and admit okay i really don't like this person i really despise them i really don't want to be around them don't want to talk to them don't even want to hear their voice [Music] and it's caused the relationships in my family to be severed and it's caused a lot of a lot of pain and a lot of issues this last year but you know i have to say that even even pastor dean [Music] sometimes buries things and denies things and and washes over things but the bottom line is that's that's what it is and i think there's i think there's a root of bitterness and unforgiveness in me and i'm really trying to figure out how to deal with it because really standing here right now i still don't like this person i still don't want to be around them um i don't want to hear their voice don't want to see them there's only a few words i want to hear out of them and that's i'm sorry please forgive me and i won't do that anymore you know what i mean but they're not doing that so what do i do you know what i'm saying but i want to show you something here psalm 81 [Music] is it okay for the pastor to confess he's human okay um but we're not going to read the whole thing you can read the whole thing later but i want to skip down to verse verse 8 and this is the lord speaking here and uh speaking to his people and he says hear o my people he said and i will testify unto you o israel if you will hearken unto me there shall no strange god be in you neither shall you worship any strange god i am the lord thy god which brought you out of the land of egypt open thy mouth wide and i will fill it he says but my people would not hearken to my voice and israel would none of me so i gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels and then listen to how god speaks through the prophet here he goes oh that my people had hearkened unto me and israel had walked in my ways i should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries the haters of the lord should have been should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured forever he said he he should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey and out out of the rock should i have satisfied you so the lord says here oh that my people would have hearkened unto me he said i would have subdued their enemies think about that you know the key to walking with god is is listening amen
listening and obeying now whenever you see something going wrong in your life whenever you see yourself struggling with something and you pray about it and you pray about it and you pray and you ask god and it but yet it doesn't seem to get better it doesn't seem to change uh you may even go through a deliverance and and you may see a change in other areas but you don't see a change in that area this is something that's interesting let's back up i want you to see this it says because my people verse 11 but he said but because my people wouldn't listen to my voice look at verse 12. so i gave them up to their own lust their own desires and they walk to their own counsels see that's what happens when we don't listen and i want to talk to you this morning a little bit about examining your heart about forgiveness about forgiveness and unforgiveness i think sometimes you know we think that uh that we don't have it and yet there are people that if we think about them our blood pressure goes up a few notches our blood pressure goes up a few notches and and really we start thinking about how you know there are bad things we'd like to happen to them or maybe we don't go so far as to thinking how we want bad things to happen to them but then we go and we start going well you know they really deserve god's judgment oh be careful there you know god should judge them for what they did to me really when we start listen when we start desiring god's judgment and discipline on somebody else guess what it won't be long for it's on you and it's hard to really want god to have mercy on somebody who's mean and nasty and offensive and grates on you and pushes you but how many of you know we all have those people right and i want to say this i'm sitting yesterday i'm sitting in the in the wedding and it was a beautiful wedding and then it was very christian very spiritual it was a good you know it was a good wedding but i'm just sitting there and god's dealing with me before the wedding even about some things and dealing with me about you know you you you you don't really talk about love too much loving your enemies blessing those that curse you doing good to those who despitefully use you you don't bless them you don't pray for them there's people that that i've realized that deep in my heart that i don't even want to pray for not people down there's been times god's told me not to pray for people because he's done with him he's good he doesn't want me fooling with it but there's people i'm supposed to be blessing and praying for and i noticed
that over this past it's been about 10 months but every time i i'd normally used to pray for that person all the time that i have the problem with i don't pray for them anymore you know because deep down i don't want god to bless them i want god to smack them all right and and i'm sitting here going you know what it's ruining a relationship with someone in my family between me and them this other person and i got to figure out how to let this go i got to figure out how to forgive them and bless them even if they don't change because they're still probably going to be nasty because it's just i don't know this person just they don't even know how to be i mean they're supposed to be a christian but they don't even know how to act but you know in my older days i'd want to smack them right but that didn't answer anything anyway right so what do we do we examine our hearts let's go go go with me to uh second uh corinthians chapter 13. and i want to say this i mean this has affected me so bad that there have been times i don't even want to get up to preach because i just don't i i'm just having such an inward struggle over this second corinthians chapter 13. i want you to see this because i talked about you know examining your heart and you know here's the thing about examining your heart examining your heart and then being and being honest how many of you know that we are not honest with ourselves i guarantee you this morning and i think the lord wanted me to share this because i think the lord's going to point out some people to you that you really have an issue with that you have christianized this thing glossed it over and said no i really don't but i really don't but i really don't but but when they speak they irritate you or when you think about them they irritate you okay this is a sign that you probably need some forgiveness issues to go on you need to start praying for them diligently blessing them and really desiring good things to happen to them and then maybe even not in all situations but maybe even trying to work it out with them in some way okay i know there's some people we can't we just gotta leave alone but we still have to forgive them i use the example a lot of times you know a woman that's that's been raped she doesn't have to hang out with her rapists but she does have to forgive him right i mean he may never repent he may never say he's sorry he may never
you know he may never get out of prison but the bottom line is is that she has to forgive him somehow she's a christian and she wants to be have be in right relationship with god and she wants to go to heaven she has to forge find a way in her heart to forgive that man from her heart and uh that's i can't even imagine how you know that's not an easy thing to do but she didn't have to hang out with him anymore right i want you to see this verse because this is something that um [Music] that paul spoke to the to the corinthians are you with me in second corinthians 13. all right well verse one he says this is the third time i am coming to you and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established i told you before and foretell you as i were present the second time and being absent now i write to them which there are heretofore have sinned and to all others that when i come again i will not spare. it says since you seek proof of christ speaking in me which to you word is not weak but mighty in you for though he was crucified through weakness yet he lives by the power of god for we are weak in him but we shall live with him by the power of god toward you look at verse five examine yourselves whether you be in the faith and prove your own selves know you not your own selves how that jesus christ is in you except you be rep reprobates i want to stop right there he says examine you you got to realize who he's writing to he's writing to a spirit-filled church full of people who talk in tongues and prophesy and have been born again and loved jesus and serving jesus even in a hostile world i mean the the first century church had a hostile world around them a world full of of idolatry full of lust it wasn't any better or easier for them than it is for us but the bottom line is paul tells them in his second let actually this is his third letter to him but only two of them got put in the bible but this one right here he says examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith think about that one that now he was the apostle he was the founder of that church he wasn't pastoring that time but he was still their pastor in a way and when he he looks at that he tells the whole group of them elders and everybody examine yourself to see whether you're in the faith oh why did he say that there's things that can take you out they can take you out and this issue of bitterness and unforgiveness and i mean some of us i'm gonna go ahead and say some of us still have issues with our parents some of us have issues with siblings some of us have issues with step parents some of us have issues with maybe somebody heard us when we were a kid a teacher or something we still have issues and when we think of that person again the blood pressure goes up
anger starts rising up and those are just little symptoms and little signs that we hadn't forgiven them and we hadn't been praying for them and truly blessing them and truly letting it go man i don't want to root a bitterness in me turn to [Music] turn to um hebrews chapter 12. i want to show you this it's going to tie back in with psalm 81 but hebrews 12. because remember in psalm 81 what did he say he said because my people wouldn't listen to me about about anything he said if my people i give them over to their lust let me say this if if god deals with is dealing with you about something there's something in there like like god tells us the command is forgive or you won't be forgiven right that's a command right am i correct forgive or you won't be forgiven so that's the command so if we don't listen to that command and we don't deal with offenses correctly look what he says he says in psalm 81 says because they didn't listen to me i'm going to give them over to their lust and their own desires let them do what they want to do here's what's dangerous if god lets you do what your own desires and you think he's telling you you think you're doing the will of god yet he's just he's just backed away and he's giving you over to what you want to do the worst deception in the world is when god just steps away and lets you have your own way i mean think about it they prayed for quail in the wilderness didn't they and god gave quail they said they go look at god answering our prayers and then god started killing them while while they were eating it see them saying sometimes god he said matter of fact psalm 78 says god gave them their desires but then sent leadness into their soul and here's what's even scarier see as a minister of the gospel someone in the five-fold ministry god's called you and god's given an anointing there you know that you can still operate the anointing in your heart not be right just ask samson now here's what happens though that can only happen for so long before either the heart will get right or the anointing will leave one of two things and if the anointing leaves means the judgment of god is now upon you and the fivefold minister does not want the judgment of god upon them i assure you it's rough all right just ask samson blinded by his enemies became a human ox disgraced humiliated brought down what we don't realize what it what does solomon say he said the little foxes
spoil the vine sometimes something as little as an offense can start spoiling your spiritual life and trust me i know because it's been spoiling mine and i'm getting honest it's been spoiling me these last few months guess what still here for god from god still since the anointing ministering to people preaching but i've noticed something changed in my relationship with god and it finally got to a point where son you got to deal with this i'm gonna have to i'm gonna have to get rough amen so i need y'all's prayers about this because i need to deal with this but i wanted you to see that look at this i want to show you why again remember he said if you don't hearken to me what i'll turn you over to your own lust your own desires basically i'm gonna turn you over to sin see we need grace we need the holy spirit to help us stay out of sin we need the holy spirit to help us walk the christian walk well guess what when we when we don't listen and we don't obey then when the holy spirit starts pulling back guess what that means you can't live the christian life as you should and then what happens it's a snowball it just gets worse and worse because then you don't you're not able to resist the temptation then somebody else comes along with smart mouth you see what i'm saying you got one offense somebody else comes along and starts talking or does something to hurt you you're going to be worse because now you got two of them to deal with and you're already weakened from the first one right all right y'all with me hebrews 12. i see some wheels turning in some heads this morning hebrews 12 verse verse 12. he says wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but rather let it be healed follow peace with all men now this is interesting i just want you to you might want to underline that you always hear the second part of this verse you know it says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man will see the lord peace what is peace with men follow peace with men i don't want to be at war with you i don't want to be at odds with you i don't want to be in a battle with you i want to try to be i want us to get along right follow peace try to make peace right he says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man will see the lord and see i think that these two things right here are i think this is the forgiveness issue he's talking about following peace here why do i think that because he said follow peace with all men and holiness without which you will not see the lord so what will keep us from seeing the lord two things here unforgiveness towards someone else
and no and lacking holiness okay and then he follows it by this verse look at what he says verse 15 looking diligently lest any man fail or fall from the grace of god lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled have you ever thought much about this verse a root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many being defiled what's that mean think about it if if an offense or an unforgiveness or a hurt or someone's done you wrong or you know hey done your children wrong all right blend someone in your family wrong i mean you can take up somebody else's offense it doesn't even have to be yours right but you take that offensive and it stays in there and it stays and it stays like putting a seed in the ground see you can put a seed in the ground but if you pull it right back up it's not gonna it's not gonna grow but if you put it in the ground and you leave it in the ground and then you water it by talking about it and thinking about it and getting angry about it and thinking about how you'd like to what you'd like to say what you'd like to do and not you see your water in that seat right water water water water and then finally it springs up into this root of bitterness now why does it say many many people be defiled because if it springs up into a root of bitterness you will fall from you will fail the grace of god will depart from you so then you don't have the grace to live the christian life so what's going to happen you'll fall and then because of your fault everybody who's around you that's been watching your witness people that you've been witnessing to people that you try you're trying to influence to come to know jesus and people in your family friends co-workers everybody's gonna see if you go down hard now i'm not talking about stumbling on something and getting back up but i'm talking about if you go down hard okay which is possible if you go that hard then many people are going to see that they may not know that what got you was a root of bitterness but they'll see the results of it you know they'll see when you fall into sexual sin or they'll see when you when you know when you when you do something you shouldn't have done or you know end up in a fight or whatever it may be well let's see when you fall down hard and then many people you you know your witness will be gone and this is what we got to guard against that's why he said what follow peace with all men
holiness and then he said lest any root of bitterness bringing up trouble you and look at the example he gave the next thing he said lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled listen to this lest there be any fornicator or profane person as esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright for you know that how afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears he uses the example of esau esau hated jacob why he stole it from him right now here's what's so interesting about that story god was going to give it to jacob anyway well jacob and his mother came up with their little plan and they they tricked you know they tricked their father isaac and but that's not the issue what happened though was deep in esau's heart that thing was an offense to him that thing made him angry at his brother so angry he wanted to kill his brother and that's why jacob had to flee and you know what jacob was wrong yeah you know what he was wrong he was wrong the way he went about it he should have just let god do it the way he was going to do it instead of trying to manipulate and force the situation but regardless of jacob being wrong esau let a root of bitterness come in that's what god like god gave us he let a root of bitterness come in and if you go read the story of esau his root of bitterness was not just with jacob but also with his father and his mother so much so that he went out on purpose and became a fornicator and married heath and women just to make his parents angry and became the father of the backslidden nation of the do you know that because of that esau esau is a picture two sons of isaac two sons born one is both of them are messed up but one ends up getting his heart right and following after god and one ends up being the father of what we what we would call the backsliders they both came from the same father [Music] but a root of bitterness god he saw anger offense he didn't let it go he didn't let it go for years here's what's interesting later when jacob and y'all can all read the story of genesis when jacob came back they were kind of reconciled but what's interesting is i don't know that esau ever really dealt with it thoroughly because it passed down to his descendants this hatred even to this day remember the esau is the father of many of the arab people
this hatred for jacob [Music] is still there [Music] and what do we see because of a root of bitterness many have been defiled think think of if the think about where the world would be right now if the arabs and the jews were at peace you know i may be talking about this next week but we are very close to a nuclear war in the middle east i really think within the next year two to two years at the most but it's this hatred they can't let go of it and this hatred is about because of this root of bitterness and this hatred that's in them for each other we're going to see millions of people die over there and and it won't stop until jesus comes back and stops it that's how bad it is jesus will have to come back at the battle of armageddon and stop this by force because mankind won't stop it you know i i think about this this issue of hatred and offense and you know i think about it between between the races i mean think about america my 50s in the 60s even now still the racial issues between and there's racism on both sides of the fence and now we got racism going on even you know hispanic racism going i mean why do we dislike people [Music] because they're different race in us it's just about gotten crazy i can't even imagine sometimes when you see a report in the news of you know some type of racially motivated crime whether it's toward jews or toward whites or towards blacks or toward hispanics or you know even toward a toward muslims and you hear about you know it was strictly done because of you know what neighborhood they ended up in or you know because of this color of the skin you sit there and go what is wrong with us what what what is wrong well they did this my to my grandfather they did this to my brother they this group did this you know what is it what is it all offense anger root of bitterness hatred but see we christians in the church world
we gloss it over don't we i don't i don't really hate them i just i just don't like them interesting you know what the word hate means don't you in the new testament one of the definitions is just to love less let me tell you give you a good definition it means to love less than you should that's a tough definition isn't it you know one of the things go to matthew 24. one of the things and this is something we kind of skip over and preaching about the the last days and everybody ought to be real familiar with matthew 24 these days and i've been preaching on it a good bit you all know it's the sequence of events that lead us to the end but right in the middle of this chapter and now you are everybody ought to know where i'm going here verse verse 10 and then speaking of the days we live in and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall rise and and shall deceive many and because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold here's what's interesting about that verse the word love there is agape that's the love of god that only a christian can have in their hearts that's been put there by the holy ghost it's not normal human love and he says that the love of many will grow cold now think let's back up he said many will be offended and shall betray one another and hate one another many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many and because iniquity or injustice people treat not treat you right because iniquity shall abound the love the agape love of many will grow cold but he that will endure unto the end the same shall be saved you know i see some of the biggest some of the biggest walls that we have to get over as christians some of the monsters and really two two monsters that'll get us really three offense is probably the biggest after you're born again after you're a christian offense is out to destroy you [Music]
second thing is sexual sin and lust [Music] and the third thing is pride because always pride goes before a fall and what is pride pride is simply thinking what thinking more of yourself more highly of yourself than you than you ought to thinking thank god i'm not like other men it wasn't dangerous it's dangerous to get your life right get on fire for god then you start looking down your nose and thinking how holy you are and thinking how you're better than other people and then you're headed for trouble and i give you these three things and they're not necessarily in that order but those are the three monsters everybody agree that's that's a little bermuda triangle for a christian right there if you get through that and endure to the end you'll make it and why do i bring those up right there what got lucifer cast out of heaven cast out of heaven i will exalt my throne above the side i will do it my way i want god's glory i want people to look at me and see me i want i i i i will i said oh no no no you won't right he said he got he got all captivated in his beauty and his anointing and his giftings and all these things and here's what blows my mind he was able to convince one third of the angels so pride is dangerous and because we are made sexual creatures and because we're made to desire that the devil knows he can play with that and push that but for the christian i can tell you this much if we let offense in we will end up in the other two at some point if you don't deal with it and get it rooted out you're going to end up in a big mess see i really believe honestly i believe i used to watch jimmy schwager and i love jimmy swaggart back in the old days he was one of the only preachers on tv that would tell it like it was i mean he would just preach the truth the man stood for the truth but that man was in so much pride over his success in the ministry i remember i mean they said that if jimmy swaggart hadn't fallen into sexual sin when he did he would have probably been one of the greatest evangelists that the world had ever known at that point he personally in his ministry and crusades led somewhere between three and four million people to the lord and i'm talking about people were converted i remember sitting there in tears watching him give altar calls and those crusades and seeing thousands of people run forward in tears and getting sick the power of god i'mma say this was on that man that man would pray two and a half hours
every day he read his bible through every six months there wasn't really a man more dedicated to god but pride got in his heart and he started thinking like he was better than other ministers and other things and he started you know when jim baker fell instead of going oh my god you know instead of going you know this is terrible this is wrong i mean he got on tv and railed against jim banker and it wasn't i mean it wasn't even a year before he was in it he was tempted and fell but pride got him a good man an anointed man a man we needed the body of christ needed him and his influence was lost and many stumbled and many mocked and many walked away from god and many were hurt i don't want that to happen to me i don't want it to happen to you or any one of you well y'all thinking hard this morning go to matthew 18 real quick [Music] see i only been preaching 38 minutes that's about to quit but we're not going to do that i gotta save a long one for next week i'm just messing around matthew 18. this is why this issue is so important there's a lot of people don't think because a lot of people think you're you're you're once saved always saved no matter how you live and eternally secure no matter what you do but this is probably one of the most damning passages to that thought and this is what scares me about this issue and listen you know when i say scares me it means the fear of god in me because you know what look at me it doesn't matter how strong how holy how godly you've been even for maybe decades you will not be immune to somebody hurting you or offending you or hurting or offending somebody in your family you're not going to be immune to it and it's going to stick in you like an arrow somebody shot a arrow it's stuck in you you can't pull it out you roll around and it's there it's an arrow stuck in you
and you got to go to god and you got to say god you got to help me get this thing out and some people aren't willing to do what it takes because sometimes you know what it takes time to get it out you'll get it out in the day you don't get it out in the five-minute prayer time at an altar you have to admit it to god i remember boy i had there was somebody that this is this was a few years back but i remember somebody had hurt me terribly and offended me and lied about me and i mean destroyed some relationships and i mean just bad and it took me a little time [Music] but i but through just praying for them and blessing them and constantly saying god please help me forgive them i and i would just say it lord i forgive them i bless them well you deal with them you help me just let it go and i mean i had to stay on that thing it just it didn't happen in the night it didn't happen in a week it took it actually took me a couple of years but i think because i stayed on it i didn't get judgment over it you get what i'm saying because i was dealing with it i wasn't ignoring it and letting it fester you know i was poor pouring the peroxide and the alcohol and i was taking care of the wound you see what i'm saying i wasn't letting it fester and i finally you know i finally got and finally i remember i remember the day that god pulled it out of me i was free from it and some people can hurt you worse than others and some people some people this is what's so bad some people hurt you and then they come along later and you know twist that arrow they stuck at you [Music] then they'll leave you alone when they come out and twist it again and come back twist it again you're like god how can i deal with this person they stuck this in me and they keep twisting it well you got to be just as persistent god i bless them god i forgive them god help them i can't fathom jesus on the cross same father forgive them they know not what they do and then you think well that was jesus then you think of stephen while he's be being stoned to death says father don't lay this sin to their charge can you even comprehend that that's forgiveness right there i decided we got a long way to go and i got a long way to go but i'm not going to give up the fight see it's when we quit fighting the battle and just give in to it or ignore it again that's why paul said examine your selves to see if you're even in the faith whoa
i mean that's just hard to comprehend he said that to a church folks and the reason he said is because what i'm about to read right here let's read this in matthew 18. y'all ought to know this but let's look at it again about forgiving people verse 21 then came peter to him and said lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and i forgive him tell seven times and jesus said in there i say not until seven times but until seventy times seven and then jesus told the story he says therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take in account of his servants and when he had begun to reckon uh one of them was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents but for as much as he had not to pay his lord commanded him to be sold his wife and children and that all all that he had and they payment to be made [Music] and the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying lord have patience with me and i will pay you all and the lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the entire debt i know i added the entire but the entire debt was forgiven but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying pay me what you owe me and look what he says he says fellow servant fell down at his feet and sought him saying have patience with me and i will pay you all but he would not but went and cast him into prison so he should pay the debt how many of you know you can't pay a debt if you're in prison right you can't work you can't get anything you're in jail so he went and put him in in prison so when his fellow servants one of his fellow servants saw what was done they were very sorry he came and told their lord all that was done now listen closely to what happened next then his lord after that he had called him he said unto him you wicked servant i forgave you all that debt because you desired me should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant even as i had pity on you and his lord was wroth or means very angry and he delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses so let's think for a minute jesus made it plain my father will do exactly the same to us if we don't forgive from our heart what did he do what is he saying here your entire state of sin everything you've ever done that you when you came to god and asked him to forgive you and jesus washed that
entire debt of sin away he says if you won't forgive someone else their trespasses all of it comes back on you again as if it had never been forgiven it is one sin that will bring back your entire sinful life that you never heard a preacher say that places god in the place where he says i can't forgive you who i don't want that makes me tremble it's called the fear of god i know god means what he says right even you young people listen to me you're just getting started in this life but you're gonna have plenty more opportunities where people are gonna say things that hurt you they're gonna do things that hurt your feelings they're gonna do things that make you mad maybe your parents sometimes you gotta forgive them you gotta bless them you got to pray for him you can't let that thing get in there this is why a lot of teenagers end up in drugs and alcohol and anger and violence and and all the stuff they get into they're angry and bitter and they got a root of bitterness in them some toward their parents some toward a sibling some toward a teacher some toward friends or bullies and they're eating up with they're eating up with anger and bitterness so how do we do it let's say this again i'm going to end this here how do we do it pray pray for that person pray for that person and bless them and pray god's blessing upon them and you can even try the little trick of stephen pray that what they did to you god won't hold against them and get this notice he said from their hearts not from their mouths not from their mouths not from their heads what is what does that mean sometimes you gotta say it say it say it say it say it until your heart changes and it's from your heart you will know that you are forgiven when you can think about what that person did then bother you anymore right now i know the person that i did forgive that hurt me so badly
i honestly it doesn't bother me anymore i honestly want good to happen to them i honestly want them to make it to heaven i honestly want them to be blessed i don't want revenge i don't want judgment on them now i got a new one to deal with [Laughter] but you know what if god commands us to do it even though it's difficult to do if god commands us to do it we can do it and i believe as the days move on and we move into more dangerous and terrible times and the wicked get more wicked and people are doing horrible things it's going to take a greater amount of love and forgiveness toward our animals amen let's pray father in heaven i ask you lord right now just to help us lord examine our hearts help us to examine our hearts and to not lie to ourselves anymore if there are people that we are offended with if there are people that we have unforgiveness or bitterness or hatred or we want desire judgment and wrath on them but we don't want it on ourselves lord just help us to see it [Music] and help us to have the faithfulness and the diligence to deal with it until that root is pulled out and we truly have forgiven them from our hearts jesus we need you we need you we want you we want to be clean we want to be holy we want to be able to overcome temptation and lust and attacks the lord we know we can't if we're in a root of bitterness we know we can't have your grace if we let the anger and pride be in us so lord i just pray in the name of jesus that you will just move and lord to everyone in this room everyone who hears this message whether it be in a on a cd or a podcast if you're listening to this message you need to make a list if someone came to your mind or more than one person came to your mind you need to sit down write them down and pray for that person and ask god to help you and if it takes weeks or months or a year if it takes it to get them out of your heart and to truly love them and forgive them no matter what they did no matter if they beat you if they raped you if they robbed everything from you if they lied about you if they no matter what they did even if they steal around and say things that hurt you got to fight through this and forgive
so lord we just pray right now in jesus mighty name give us the grace and ability and help to have this revealed in our hearts and to truly bless our enemies and pray for them and to to to just minister life and to get to the point that we really want them to be blessed and saved and delivered and for good things to happen to them and father i pray this this morning in jesus name amen