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Psalm 32 verse 1. A real short verse this morning. Psalm 32 verse 1. The Psalms are

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right in the middle of your Bible. So if you flip over to the middle, you'll probably be

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pretty close to the book of Psalms. Psalm 32 verse 1. We'll read the scripture, then we'll

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pray. How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Let's pray.

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God we come to you today and we thank you for the freedom and the privilege to come

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and to hear your word. And I pray God that today you speak to us through this word. God

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such a simple truth this morning, but God it is the truth that gives us hope that our

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sins can be forgiven, dear Lord. God we come into this place with a lot of sin in our life.

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There are things that we've done that we wish we hadn't done. There are things that eat

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away at us dear Lord. We just feel the guilt and the burden of our sin. But I pray today

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God that we would know that there is forgiveness of our sin through Jesus Christ. I pray dear

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Lord today that we would be those who leave happy knowing that our sins have been taken

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care of. So God I pray that you would hide me behind the cross today that I would preach

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and teach in a way that brings glory and honor to you. That you take away any pride or any

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nerves that I have today dear Lord that everything that is said here is for your glory. I pray

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that your Holy Spirit would be among us today that you free us from the distractions and

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the worries of this world. And for a few minutes dear Lord that you would just let us hear

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from you that you'd work in our lives. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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Psalm 32 was written by David and it is believed by many that David wrote this Psalm not long

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after he had sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba. Not long after he had done

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that he had Bathsheba's husband killed. So David knew what it was like to sin and David

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knew what it was like to sin greatly. And so do you and I. We understand the burden

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of sin and it's a bad feeling. It's a bad feeling when you know you have done wrong.

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When you know you've cheated someone. When you know you've said something to someone you

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shouldn't have said. When you know you've treated someone in a bad way. When you know

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you've sinned against God. When you know that you just haven't done right. And those sins

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they just they seem to eat away at us. And they seem to continually just be in our minds.

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But there is hope in our sinfulness. Our hope comes from Jesus Christ and there's probably

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no worse feeling in our life than when we struggle with that sin and the burden of that

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sin. But anybody in this room that's ever put their faith in Jesus Christ and come to

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that realization and come to that hope and come to that reality to know that our sins

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have been forgiven. What a joy that brings to our soul. There's a there's a joy in there

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that you cannot understand if you have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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So David knew this happiness. This happiness that comes. How happy is the one whose transgression

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is forgiven. Whose sin has been covered. It's a beautiful thing to know that we can go to

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God in the midst of our sin and know that through Jesus Christ that God will forgive

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our sin. And God removes the weight of that sin instantly. Some of you have experienced

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that today. Perhaps there are some of you today that have never experienced that. Perhaps

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there are some in here today and you're not happy. Happy is the one whose sin is forgiven.

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But unhappy is the one who's living in their sin. Who's living with their sin. Who hasn't

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given their sin to God. So maybe there are some in here today and your life's just not

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very good. You say I just want to be happy. I'm never happy. Well maybe the reason why

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you're not happy today is because you have not trusted in Jesus Christ. Perhaps today

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if you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ you would experience that forgiveness just

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as David did and you would be one who would leave here today who are happy because your

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sins have been forgiven. There's no better feeling than when someone forgives you of

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your sins. When the Lord forgives you of the sins you have committed against him. Maybe

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it's your spouse. You had an argument. You said some things you shouldn't say. Boy it's

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a beautiful feeling when you sit down and you say I'm sorry and they say I forgive you.

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Maybe it's some other family member. Whatever it may be. Probably every one of us in this

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room has had some experience in our life where we have done someone wrong and we have felt

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the guilt and the pain and the shame of that and it's a beautiful thing when that person

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says I forgive you. It's a beautiful thing when people who hurt you and people you hurt

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can still come to you and they can bring forgiveness to you and offer that in your life. And David

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says you're happy as the man whose sins have been covered. That's the good part of forgiveness.

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That's the part of forgiveness that we seek right. That's the part of forgiveness that

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we long for. The part that is fulfilled by God when his word tells us in Psalm 103 verse

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12 that our sins are cast as far as the east is to the west. What a beautiful thing that

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is. What a beautiful truth that is for us today that we can come into this room and

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you need to know today that you do not have to carry your sin with you today. You don't

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have to carry the burden of your sin with you today that Jesus wants to free you from

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that. That you might have done some really rotten things. You might have sinned in some

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really great ways but I want you to know today the truth of the gospel is this that if we

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would just repent of our sins, if we would say Lord Jesus I have sinned and I'm so ashamed

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and I'm so guilty, that the truth of God's word says that God will forgive us of our

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sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Isn't that a beautiful thing that we can come

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here today and that we can have hope that in the midst of our rottenness that God doesn't

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cast us aside but God brings us to church and he brings us to encounters with his words

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and he brings us to encounters with other Christians who remind us the truth that we

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are still loved and we can be forgiven and there are some in this room today that are

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maybe struggling with your sin and you need to know today that there is hope in Jesus

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Christ and if you would just repent. David has sinned pretty greatly. I don't know about

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you and I but we sinned pretty greatly too. I don't know what your sin is but David committed

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adultery and killed a man to cover it up. That's pretty bad. I suspect that many of

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you in here have not topped that and yet what did David discover? He discovered that there

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was forgiveness for his sins and for that David rejoiced. Even a sinner like David can

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rejoice through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. What about you and I this morning? And that's

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the good part of forgiveness. That's the beautiful part of forgiveness is that we who are so rotten

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can be forgiven of our sins. But then there's two sides to the coin of forgiveness. There's

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the side that says we can be forgiven and we are forgiven and then there's the harder

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part of forgiveness. The part where God says that we must forgive others. Jesus says in

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Matthew chapter 6 verses 14 and 15, for if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your

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heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive people, your Father

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will not forgive your wrongdoing. Now I don't know about you guys but that's a pretty strong

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verse. That God's Word says that if we have been forgiven through Jesus Christ, that if

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we forgive others our sins are forgiven but if we don't forgive others our sins will not

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be forgiven. And that is strong language. Why would Jesus say such a thing? Well I'll

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tell you why I think Jesus says that. I think Jesus says that for this reason. Because I

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believe that anyone who has experienced the grace of God, if anyone has experienced the

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forgiveness of God for our sins and we've experienced a relationship with God through

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Jesus Christ, then it should be our desire to forgive others who sin against us. If we've

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received such grace and such compassion knowing how rotten we are, how can we not have that

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compassion on others? And I think what Jesus is saying is, is if you don't have any desire

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and you won't forgive those who have sinned against you, then maybe it's because you've

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never really been forgiven of your sins. Maybe you've never really experienced the compassion

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that Jesus Christ brings. Maybe you've never experienced the grace of God. Maybe you don't

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realize that God has given you great mercy. So Jesus gives us a hard command here. That

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if we are those who claim to be forgiven of our sins, if we are those who have trusted

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in Jesus Christ, if we are those who have confessed our sins and God has been faithful

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to forgive us of our sins, then we must be a people who forgive others. And that's where

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it gets hard because we can overlook all of our failures because as bad as we may be,

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we're not quite as bad as that person who has wronged us. As bad as we may be, there's

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still some reason why we deserve forgiveness. There's still some reason why God should have

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compassion on us, but there is no reason that we should have compassion on those who sin

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against us because they're not worthy of it. And that's a hard truth that the Bible tells

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us here, is that if we have received the forgiveness of God, then we are called to forgive others.

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And that is a hard truth to live by. That is a hard thing to live by. We look at the

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example of Jesus Christ in scripture, which is the great example of forgiveness you will

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ever find in this world. And we see that Jesus was so full of compassion and so gentle and

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so willing for even those who nailed Him to the cross to come to forgiveness there at

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the very end. And yet there are so many times in our life that people have wronged us and

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we cannot bear to forgive them. We don't want to forgive them sometimes if we're honest.

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We just, we don't even want to consider it because the things they have done are so rotten

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and so evil that we just can't bear to give them an ounce of compassion. Now there are

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a lot of things we hold on to that are trivial that we need to let go. Your buddy stole your

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girlfriend in third grade. It's time to let that go. There are some trivial things in

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this world that you need to forgive people for and you need to let that go. But I also

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understand that not everything is that easy. I understand that there are times in life

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that people really hurt us. They really hurt us deeply. It may be a parent, something they

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did to a child, a child something they did to a parent, maybe it's your spouse, whoever

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it may be, whatever the circumstance may be. I get it. There are people that hurt us and

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it hurts. It cuts us to the core and the closer that person is to us, the more it hurts and

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the harder it is for us to forgive them. But Jesus says if we do not forgive, we will not

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be forgiven. I can't twist that and make it pretty and sugar coated in any way. These

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are the words of Jesus Christ. And maybe the reason why you're unhappy today is because

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you've not been forgiven. And maybe the reason that you're unhappy today is because you're

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not forgiving other people in your life. You may have so much bitterness and anger and

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hatred in your heart that that's why you're unhappy. Maybe you know the word of God and

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you know what Jesus says and you try to live by the word of God, but then there's this

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one part here that trips you up because this one part says that person that is so evil

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that has done you so wrong that you need to forgive them. And you don't want to forgive

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them. You want revenge because revenge revels in wrath. You want them to suffer. You want

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them to suffer as you have suffered. And whatever it is they've done, no matter how trivial

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or how great it is, there are times in our life that it's hard for us to forgive people,

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but these are the commands of Jesus Christ. And maybe the reason we've got so much bitterness

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in our heart today is because we have not experienced forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

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And you've not experienced the forgiveness of those who have sinned against you. Perhaps

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there are some people in here today and you're thinking, maybe you've got a list of people.

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Some people do that. Boy, they got a list of people. They keep up with everything somebody's

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done to them since first grade. You get one shot, you wrong me and I don't want nothing

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to do with it. There's people who go to their grave holding grudges, as angry and as bitter

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and as pitiful as they can be because they have hatred in their heart and they do not

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forgive sin. And that hatred builds and builds and builds, but there is nothing more beautiful,

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not just for the one who is forgiven, but for the one who is forgiving. And maybe today

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we need to check our hearts and we need to check our life and we need to look at those

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who have sinned greatly against us and we need to forgive them yet once more. How many

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times? Seven times? Jesus said 70 times seven. I believe what Jesus said is there's no limit.

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Should one who sins against you come to you and repent and ask for your forgiveness, Jesus

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says forgive that person. And we've got those people in our life. We've got those people

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and they've done us wrong and we've forgiven them and they time and again and time and

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again and time and again and we want to say I'm done with that person. I don't want anything

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else to do with that person. I don't want to see them again. I don't want to forgive

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them again. I'm done. But then we come to church and we hear a message like this and

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we're reminded of the words of Jesus and we're reminded of the compassion of Jesus, of all

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the people who were out to get him, of all the people who were part of that mock trial

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that voted to nail him to a cross, of those very ones that put the nails through his hands,

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of the very ones who put the cross, I mean the crown of thorns on his head as he hung

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on the cross and yet Jesus still up until his last breath had compassion and a heart

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for forgiveness. And that's a beautiful thing and that's a hard thing. So we come today

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and for many of us, most of us, maybe all of us, and we have to say God I need some

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help because it's way easier for us to hold a grudge. It's way easier for us to want to

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see people get what's coming to them. What we have to realize and we need to be grateful

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for if we've put our faith in Jesus Christ is that God didn't give us what was coming

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to us or else we would not be in this room today. That God forgave us again and again

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and we sit in this room today and there are sins that we've sinned against God repeatedly

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and we've said we'll never do it again and you're going to leave this room and in the

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next week and in the next month and in the next year you're going to do it again. And

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you're going to go to God and you're going to pour your heart out to him and you're going

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to repent and God is going to forgive you because his word says that he does. And if

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we've experienced that joy, if we're happy in that way that we've experienced forgiveness,

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then how can we withhold that from other people? So maybe there are some people in your life

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today that you need to forgive. Even your worst enemies, those who have hurt you greatly,

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love them, pray for them, forgive them. I want to read a story to you this morning.

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It's a relatively short story. A man by the name of Richard Wormbrand told this story.

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Some of you have heard of him. Some of you may have not have heard of Richard Wormbrand.

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He was a Romanian priest back in the 40s around the time of World War II. He lived in a communist

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area. He was a Christian. He said communism and Christianity cannot, they just do not

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go together. They do not go together. And because he preached the truth of the gospel

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of Jesus Christ, he was in prison for that for 14 years. Richard Wormbrand has told many

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stories of his imprisonment. He was beaten, beaten often along with other priests, pastors,

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along with other Christian believers. You need to look him up. You need to read of his

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story. He started a ministry called The Voice of the Marver. You can find that online. In

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which he brings light to brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are suffering.

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Now he died in 2001, but the ministry still continues. And his stories are really unbelievable,

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unbelievable stories of suffering that people go through. And a great example of brothers

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and sisters in Christ that suffer and all the way up until death, they still do not

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give up on Jesus Christ. And he wrote a story once, a story of forgiveness. And I was going

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to sum it up to save time. It'll take three or four minutes to read it, but it's such

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a beautiful story. I wanted to read it in his own words this morning. And I think it's

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a beautiful example of what forgiveness is. When I was in jail, I felt very, very ill.

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I had tuberculosis of the whole surface of both lungs. And four vertebrae were attacked

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by tuberculosis. I also had intestinal tuberculosis, diabetes, heart failure, jaundice, and other

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sicknesses I can't even remember. I was near death. In my right hand was a priest by the

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name of Iskew. He was abbot of a monastery. This man, perhaps in his forties, had been

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so tortured he was near to death. But his face was serene. He spoke about his hope of

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heaven, about his love of Christ, about his faith. He radiated joy. On my left side was

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the communist torturer who had tortured the priest almost to death. He had been arrested

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by his own comrades. Don't believe the newspapers when they say that communists only hate Christians

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or Jews. It's not true. They simply hate. They hate everybody. They hate Jews. They

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hate Christians. They hate anti-Semites. They hate anti-Christians. They hate everybody.

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One communist hates another communist. They quarrel among themselves. And when they quarrel

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with communists with one another, they put the other one in jail and torture him just

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like a Christian, and they beat him. And so it happened that the communist torturer who

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had tortured this priest nearly to death had been tortured nearly to death by his comrades.

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He was dying near me. His soul was in agony. During the night he would awaken me saying,

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Pastor, please pray for me. I can't die. I've committed such terrible crimes. Then I saw

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a miracle. I saw the agonized priest calling to two other prisoners. And leaning on their

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shoulders slowly, slowly he walked past my bed and sat on the bedside of this murderer.

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And he caressed his head. I will never forget this gesture. I watched a murdered man caressing

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his murderer. That is love. He found a caress for him. The priest said to the man, You are

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young. You did not know what you were doing. I love you with all my heart. But he did not

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just say the words. You can say love. It's just a four-letter word. But he really loved.

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I love you with all of my heart, he went on. If I who am a sinner can love you so much,

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imagine Christ, who is love incarnate, how much he loves you. And all the Christians

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whom you've tortured know that they forgive you. They love you. And Christ loves you.

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He wishes you to be saved much more than you wish to be saved. You wonder if your sins

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can be forgiven. He wishes to forgive your sins more than you wish your sins to be forgiven.

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He desires for you to be with him in heaven much more than you wish to be in heaven with

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him. He is love. You only need to turn to him and repent. In this prison cell in which

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there was no possibility of privacy, I overheard the confession of the murderer to the murdered.

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Life is more thrilling than a novel. No novelist has ever written such a thing. The murdered,

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near to death, received the confession of the murderer. The murderer gave absolution

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to his murderer. They prayed together, embraced each other, and the priest went back to his

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bed. Both men died that same night. It was Christmas Eve. But it was not a Christmas

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Eve in which we simply remembered the 2,000 years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It

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was a Christmas Eve during which Jesus was born in the heart of a communist murderer.

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These things which I have seen with my own eyes. What a beautiful story of forgiveness.

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That this communist guard beat this priest daily till he was near death. And when this

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communist guard himself was near death, it was the very priest he had beaten daily that

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came to his side and told him of the love of Jesus Christ. He told him that Christians

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that he had beaten had forgiven him and he told him more importantly that God would forgive

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him. What a beautiful example of forgiveness. So when we say, I can't forgive this person.

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They've done this horrible thing to me. Really, what have they done to you? Have they beaten

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you for years while you were in prison? Even so, what a beautiful example of this priest

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to offer forgiveness. Chances are many of the things that people do to us as bad as

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they may be and as hurtful as they may be are things that pale in comparison to this

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story I just read. And yet in this story we see an example of forgiveness. Throughout

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scripture we see a beautiful example of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. There is forgiveness for

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you today if you'd repent of your sins and know that Jesus Christ loves you, he will

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forgive you. And if you receive that forgiveness, if you're living in that forgiveness today,

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then let us be those who will forgive others just as Jesus Christ has forgiven us. Let's

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pray. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray, dear Lord,

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that you would help us because we struggle. God, life is hard and people do really horrible

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things to us. And we're not excusing people, dear Lord. We don't excuse wrong behavior.

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We don't sweep it under the rug. We don't pretend like it doesn't happen. But dear Lord,

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we have to be able to forgive people, dear Lord. And so I pray that you would help us

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to do that. God, as bad as the pain may be in this room today, and there are probably

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some great pains in this room, I pray, God, that you would touch those hearts. I pray,

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God, that they would feel your love and feel your grace and feel your presence. God, that

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today, even in the midst of their hurt, they would find happiness. That they would be those

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today that can echo the words of David, how happy is the one whose sins have been forgiven.

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And dear Lord, knowing that our sins are forgiven, give us the ability to forgive those who have

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caused us such pain. Dear Lord, maybe there are some in this room today and they don't

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know who Jesus is. Maybe they've come to church a lot. Maybe they know some scripture. But

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maybe today they tested theirself and they see that there is too much hatred and too

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much unforgiveness in their life. And maybe they realized that maybe they've never experienced

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the forgiveness of Jesus Christ this morning, God. I pray that if there are any in this

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room that do not know who Jesus is, that have not lived in the grace of forgiveness, dear

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Lord, that today that they would confess their sins to you. Dear Lord, I don't know what

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they did. It's heavy. They know what they did, dear Lord. They probably some in this

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room that think it's too much, but it's not, God. When Jesus died on the cross, his death

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was sufficient to cover our sins as bad as they may be. God, if there are some who have

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been struggling under the burden of their sin today and just living miserable, unhappy

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lives, I pray today, God, that they would repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ,

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that they would ask you to forgive them today, dear Lord, that they would know their sin

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has been covered. Oh, how happy the one is, dear Lord, whose transgression has been forgiven.

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I pray that they would find that happiness today. Dear Lord, maybe there's some bitterness

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and hatred in our heart, even for some of those who are yours this morning. And maybe

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that's the source of some of our unhappiness today. God, I pray that right now that we

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would just kind of relinquish those judges, those grudges, dear Lord, and those bitterness,

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the feelings that we feel, dear Lord, and that we would just give those to you today.

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That we would even reach out to those, dear Lord, today, tomorrow, this week, who have

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heard us, that we'd call them, we'd go to their house, and we'd just tell them those

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words, I forgive you. Dear Lord, we may find that that is such freedom for us, and it may

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be freedom for the other person, too, dear Lord. I pray, God, that we would know that

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our relationship with you would be restored today through forgiveness, and I pray that

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you would let that guide us to restore relationships through forgiveness ourselves for those that

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we encounter in this world. Help us to follow the example of Jesus Christ. God, it's hard.

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It's hard to forgive. But dear Lord, we know that you've forgiven us, so give us the ability

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to forgive those who sin against us. And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.