visitors as well. God is good to us. What a joy. Well, I want to give you a thought tonight that I truly believe, church, it'll help you. And I know in my life it's helped me. This is the type sermon, a type thought that will help you in the days ahead as well as today. You say, today, I do not need this. Well, keep it because it's going to help you on down the road because if you live in this world, If you're, if you're around people, how many is around people on the daily day? Yeah, most of us is around people on daily basis. Then you're going to need what we have tonight. How many in the church has ever been done wrong? You've been done wrong. Some of you haven't, praise God. How many has ever been hurt by someone? Somebody just hurt you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. How many has been lied about? Anybody? A few of us. You've been lied about. Sure, sure. How many has been falsely accused? Anybody on that one? I would say, you may not raise your hand, but you are in your heart, you have been. I'd say if you haven't been, this is the first day you've ever come out of your home, if you haven't been in any of those things. Very first day you've ever been around anybody. You're meeting people you never thought, you thought you was the only one in the world, but you're around people today. So you will, these things will take place. It's in my heart to preach about something that is so powerful, so powerful in your life if, if, You are willing to do it. And that is, are you ready for it? Lock the door security. Nobody's leaving. That is forgiveness. Boy, y'all thought she was going to get a shouting message, didn't he? I did too. I really wanted to preach one. Come back Wednesday. Forgiveness, forgiveness. It's so powerful. If you give forgiveness, it's powerful. And if you hold forgiveness back, it's powerful as well. We're going to look at some of those thoughts tonight. If only people, if only people, I'll preach in a moment, stay with me. If only people, brother Ralph, if only people would, that hurt you, if they would show some type of remorse. If they would sow some type of apology or sorrow, then maybe forgiving would be easier. But since that rarely happens, then we need to find some help in God's word when I need forgiveness. Aren't you glad, ladies and gentlemen, there's always help. in the Word of God. Let's find the Word of God and go with me to Matthew chapter number 6. Matthew chapter number 6. I want to preach on when I can't forgive. When I just can't forgive. Matthew chapter number 6, the first book of our New Testament. Matthew and chapter number 6. We're gonna begin reading just two verses, then we're gonna go to Colossians in just a little while and give you our fault. Matthew 6, let's just read verses 14 and verse 15. You have a Bible and the words are in red, we know this is the Lord Jesus speaking. 6, 14, for if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. When I can't forgive. Lord, we love you. Help us right now. Lord, do surge on our heart. There may be someone in the building tonight. Lord, they've been hurt. Lord, they cannot see the way to forgive someone, or maybe they're holding something in their heart. I pray you'd help us tonight, God. In your name, amen and amen. I first want to say forgiveness is powerful again, and unforgiveness is powerful. When we refuse to forgive those that have wronged you, have wronged us, we hurt ourselves. Stay with me. Ladies and gentlemen, forgiving is the only way to be fair to yourself, to you. Be honest now, would it be fair to you that a person that hurts you once go on and keep hurting you over and over and over again? Now church, I'm not saying this is easy tonight, but I'm telling you, the Lord tells us to forgive. So you and I, we will need God to help us forgive. And when you do not forgive, refuse to forgive, you are giving that individual the privilege to hurt you over and over and over again. Here in verse 15, Jesus says, we can't have forgiveness unless we give forgiveness. So in other words, the Bible tells us we can't separate receiving forgiveness from extending forgiveness. Are you with me? Isn't it true? Unforgiveness causes stress. It's emotional pain, and hear me well, friend, it does have side effects. Unresolved anger keeps us from moving forward because it will lock you into an exact moment that that certain instance, that hurt, happened. You're locked in there. It also leaves you in fear of future relationships. Fear that someone will hurt you again. But most of all, the spiritual side effects are dangerous. They are deadly. Number one, tonight we'll find what are some obstacles of forgiveness. I would say number one would be fear. Fear that someone would hurt us over and over. If we assume that we forgive that person, it carries the risk of being hurt again and again, or they will repeat the same offense to us. Listen to me, church. Forgiveness does not always change the other person's behavior. It's the way to cleanse ourselves of grudges and resentment that damage us. Now, there are some relationships and some situations, church, you can change, you can limit the person's ability to continue to hurt you. Stay with me. Can I be honest with you here? I believe fear of losing hope for a better relationship. Some people have expectations of friends and family that are just too high. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes, sometimes I believe you're just going to have to accept some people of just who they are, because they will not change. Are you with me? That's a happy fillet at church. I'm telling you that's the case. In other words, stop hurting yourself thinking they will. Fear of losing power and control. There's another one. Refusing to forgive keeps others in our debt. I've seen families, I've experienced, Dr. Aitken, parents, grandparents, and children with their parents, and mate with mates, and I've watched it, I've seen it play out over and over, refuses to forgive, I've seen it happen over, they hold some wrongdoing against some adult child, keeping love from them, keeping care from them, keeping communication from them because of something that happened. May I say when those people hold others captive in their life to their judgment, they are playing God. Stay with me. What is forgiveness? Well, number one, I believe what is forgiveness, that is what forgiveness is. What is forgiveness is not, it is not condoning their behavior. Forgiving an individual that wronged you, But all good is not saying, okay, it was okay, you did that. No, no, it's not condoning what they did unto you. Stay with me. But I believe it's just helping your own. You're saying what you're saying. When I forgive you, I'm saying, I'm living the consequences to God. I'm taking you and I'm putting you in God's hand. God saw it. God heard it. I don't have to fight in this battle. God knows all about it. And I'm not going to allow you to hurt me over and over again. I'm giving you to God. Are you with me? It belongs to God, not me. See, when you forgive, you then transfer that person to the Lord. I know I want to put them in the headlock in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. I want to body slam them in Jesus' name. But you can't do that. So when they hurt you, Brother Don, You take that person in your heart and your soul. You're not going to hurt me over and over. I'm taking to Jesus. He can handle the situation. He saw a bit of it. He heard it all. So I'm giving them to the Lord. Are you with me? Stay with me now. We'll preach in a minute. So as to God's justice, not mine. Forgiving is not forgetting what happened. I know we love the term forgive and forget, but be honest, you cannot forget. So what's going to happen? When you see that individual or when you think about the hurt or when you hear about it, you got to forgive again. And forgive again. And forgive again. Are you with me? So you do that. Wouldn't it be foolish to not guard yourself from wrongs that was done to you to not be repeated? That would be pretty foolish. The problem is many do not learn. If you're gonna learn from your past experiences, from your past hurts, friend, then you'll walk right back into the same hurt. Similar situation, only to face the same hurt and disappointment again, again, and again, and again. Listen, you give, help me now, you give trust to someone that deserves it. Not the one that keeps hurting you. Am I preaching to anybody? Trust is earned. Now, now, if someone's a thief, just say, Brother Ken's a thief. No amens on that. Say, I know Brother Ken's a thief. Wouldn't it be silly to me to say, hey, Brother Ken, I'm going on vacation. I'm gonna give you the keys to my home. Would you take care of my house while I'm gone? Now, wouldn't that be kind of crazy, silly? You with me? Why do you keep giving the keys to somebody that keeps hurting you? You learn. Are you with me? So we're forgive, but we understand what's happened. We gonna forgive, sure we are. Sure we are, we're too forgive. We expect forgive, we're to forgive. I'm telling you, we learn some things along the way. Hear me well, you cannot reconcile with someone unrepentant, someone unchanging, and someone unwilling. Say this forgiveness is more about you than them. It's about you. So you can be right with God. So you can have the blessings of God. So you can have a fellowship with the Lord. There's nothing blocking up your prayer life when you go to Him. Everything's good. That may not change, but you've changed. You see, prayer doesn't change, don't always change the circumstances, but it changes you in the circumstances. Prayer always changes things, but sometimes it may be just you. So it's forgiveness. So forgiveness, stay with me now. Did you know in the Bible days in Judaism, forgiveness is not required unless repentance is shown? Unless it's demonstrated and pardon is sought for. But Jesus now, He sets the bar a little bit higher. Amen. He sets it higher here. And Jesus, He said, He raised it. He says this is what Jesus said. We are to forgive even though that person remains unrepentant. That's what Jesus Christ said. Now why? Because again, forgiveness is more about you than them. Are you with me, church? It's different tonight, but it'll help you. Ladies and gentlemen, listen to me. I don't know who it is tonight listening or watching or somebody in this building tonight. God's placed in my heart. It may be for me on down the road, but I'm telling you, I come by to say tonight, you can move on. You can get your joy back. You can get your smile back. You can get your peace back. Just go to God with it and allow God to take care of it. You can get it back. You can move on, friend. Don't listen to the devil. He's a thief. He'll take every good thing out of your life. He'll take your joy away. He'll take your peace away. He'll take everything in your life away from you. He'll take every good thing. Determine tonight, determine tonight, God's gonna handle this. God's gonna handle them. God has a circumstance. God has it all under control. God saw that, God heard that, and I'm His child, and I can, I can, I can move on for the glory of God. They're not gonna imprison me any longer. I'm moving on, I'm giving it to God. I'm gonna live for Him in true victory. You can, you can. You can, sure we can. It will not hold me back any longer. You need to turn out tonight, they will not hold me back, I'm going on with God. I'm gonna forgive, God's gonna help me do that, but I'm gonna keep hurting me again over and over. I'm gonna forgive and move on. I want you to notice this with me. Go to chapter 18, we've got time. Matthew 18, you won't believe this. So I gotta show you what the Bible says, it's gonna be unbelievable. Buckle up, this is not gonna be easy on us, you ready? Matthew chapter 18, Matthew chapter 18, one verse. Old Peter, we was talking about him on Wednesday nights. Old Peter, look at verse 21. Then came Peter to him, Jesus, and said, Lord, he's trying to be spiritual here. How all shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him till seven times. That sounds pretty spiritual, Peter. All right, Lord, now, he done it to me five times. How many times am I supposed to forgive this fella? I mean, seven, I got two more I can do. I'll give him two more, Lord. This is gonna be unbelievable. You be ready for this. Lord, Seven times, that's pretty good. I mean, that's a good number, Lord. You like that number in the Bible, seven? Seven times? Then Jesus says, no. 70 times seven. Can you see Peter? 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. He's trying to figure it all out. How many times I got to forgive this fellow? 13, 20, 21. He got 100, 101, 102, 103. Now, can you imagine that? That is forgiving someone 400 times. and 90 times. Four, Peter, Lord, seven times per spiritual Lord, ain't you proud of me? The Lord said no. 490 times, try that Peter. Four, now listen, I'm gonna bring it down for us. Can you imagine having someone come by and kick you in the shin every day of the week for 70 weeks? Hey, how you doing? Forgive me. Hey, how you doing? Wednesday, how you doing? Forgive me. 70 weeks, Miss Judy, we ain't that spiritual. 470 weeks, I'm supposed to forgive him? Lord's really not trying to put a number on this. He's telling you, you can forgive. You know what that is? That is, imagine this now, being kicked in the shins, one year, four months, two weeks, forgiving someone. Every day. Now be honest now, it's hard for us to forgive somebody one time. You're telling me I gotta do it for one, for every single day for one year, four months, and two weeks? Yep. Oh my, alters is open if you need to move now. And I'll be honest with you now, Jesus has asked us to do something that really is humanly impossible. How can we do that? In ourselves. We do not have enough forgiveness to go around, but aren't you glad that God does? Hey, I can't do that. I don't have that in me, but thank God, God does. You're in a house tonight, you can lift up your hands, look up here at the preacher and say, yeah, he's probably forgiven me 490 times. So I can probably forgive too. Another thing I think about here is when our resources run out and you are unable to forgive, we're gonna ask God to forgive them through us. Through us, forgive them. Ladies and gentlemen, aren't you glad you can't, but God can. And you're gonna need God to do that. He can. God is so amazing. God is so caring. God is so good. He wants us to allow nothing to hold us, you, back from serving Him, from going forward for God, for doing something great for God. But we can't do that with unforgiveness. We all need Him to help us, church. So the Christian, Forgiveness is more for you than them is for you. Oh my, so we need his help. Let's search our hearts tonight. Let's search our hearts tonight. I believe we all could get some help out of this tonight. Now let me go to the second sermon. I'm gonna give you two for one tonight. You ready for it? Now I want you to notice this. Can you find Colossians? Go to Colossians. Go to your right. Colossians chapter number one. The first part we're looking at forgiving others and oh my God help us to forgive others. What's wrong with us? And not one in this building hasn't been wronged. Not one in this building hasn't been hurt. You've been hurt. You've been wronged. You've been lied about. You've been accused falsely. But you can't live in that. Don't allow them to hurt you over and over again. You forgive and you move on. And look at this, that's others forgiveness. Now look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 20 and 20 through 22. You got your place, amen. The Bible says this in verse 20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated, the enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now have to reconcile. That's a good place to say amen. 22. In the body of his flesh through death to resent you wholly, unblameable, Lord, and unreprovable in his sight. That will be some of y'all's favorite verse. That's what I'm fixing to show you. If you ever came to a place in your life, church, when you could get to that place where you could forgive someone else, but you did not still, you didn't still feel free. You forgave them, you gave forgiveness to them, but there was still something there. and you didn't feel free, you felt like something is still stopping me from moving forward, something from keeping me from being healed from this hurt, from this wound, something's keeping me. What is it? There are many people that have come to that point that I've spoken to through the years, but when they realize they needed to forgive themselves, Are you with me? Forgive themselves, then the joy came back. Well, you just read that verse. You just read it. You just read it. Isn't it true, church? Isn't it true that it's sometimes hard to forgive yourself because you know what you did. You know what you said. You know what took place. And maybe you're in the wrong. And it still creeps up in your mind, the guilt, the shame, and the past. Maybe it's the devil. Maybe it's your mind or some other friend that you used to have in the world. And they keep bringing that up. And you care around the guilt. It's like you just can't go forward because it keeps coming up. You keep thinking about it. Listen what you need to do, you need to trust the promises of the Bible completely and know that God forgave you on the cross of Calvary and you can forgive yourself. Two of you believe it. It's true, it's true, it's true. The devil, the enemy beats you up all day. Oh, it's coming tomorrow, get ready. In the morning, Monday. I think that's his favorite day. He's beside the bed, not your wife, but he's beside the bed when you get up. Not your husband, I mean the real devil. He's there, he'll do all he can to steal your joy on Monday. He'll do what he can to bring the wrong crowd around, to bring up something in your life, or somebody that's agitated and then always in the dumps, or someone to bring up some past, and he's gonna try his best to steal your joy. pursue your happiness over something you regret in life. Listen, the devil, the enemy, he's gonna do that. You think you can't be forgiven. I can't be forgiven. I know what I did. I know what I said. I know how I reacted. It wasn't good. I hurt people. I know that. And that's when your life stalls out and you cannot move forward. Studies show, studies show that forgiving yourself is one of the top things people have trouble with. They struggle with that. Forgive themselves. We have said, I forgive my friend, I forgive my husband, I forgive my wife, I forgive my children, I forgive my mom, I forgive my dad, I forgive my church family, I forgive my neighbor, my classmate, I forgive them, but we find it hard to forgive ourselves. Aren't you reminded of your sins and your failures? Sure you are, sure you are in life and you're paralyzed from moving forward. Listen church, if you're still saying, if you're safe today, if you're safe today, you must realize Jesus Christ died for you at It doesn't matter what happened, what went on. The sin has been covered. Get repentance of it and get rid of the cross. Say, God, I'm sorry. Forgive me and get up. Dust yourself off and go on for the glory of God. It's been forgiven. Past erased. You can move on for God. You can move on for God. I don't care what that lying devil tells you. You can go forward. You can. You can forgive yourself because Christ did. And you must. You must. You must. You must. You must. It's like, you know what happened, Dr. Aiken, when it's like this. I thought today, I told someone, I said, it's like when you can't forgive yourself, what you're doing is saying what Christ did on the cross wasn't good enough. His blood wasn't good enough. What he did for me wasn't good enough. No, he's forgiven you of that. You get on your knees. You ask God to forgive you. You've got forgiveness. Now go on for God. Glory to God. Glory to God. God says whoever it is here tonight, whoever it is, it's good enough. The cross is good enough. The blood is good enough. Those nails were good enough. Jesus back on the cross. He died once and for all, and he covered all your sins. All of us gone, friend. You can go on for God. He's been forgiven. That's what Colossians is all about here. Christ's death has made peace with God. Boy, that's shouting ground, friend. What Christ did, it brought peace. I could not get to God. I was in damnation under God's eyes. But thank God there's one that stood in the middle. And now from the crawl, Jesus is right in the middle. He took my hand. He took God's hand. And through him, we've joined together so I can go to God, get forgiveness, and live for him now. God help us, God help us, Christ's death made peace. That includes anything you said, anything you did. Man, I got some wet shouting grounds right now. We'll be jumping out of the balcony. You think about what we deserve. You think about all the wrong you've done. When you start, and it reminds you all that, you know what needs to happen? When the devil reminds you, he's saying, hey, don't you remember what you used to be? Don't you remember what you said? Don't you, you're up there in that choir, you're a hypocrite, you're out there with them church people, you little phony, you don't remember what you used to do. You used to drink, you used to do dope, you used to run around, you used to curse, you used to do this, they cared about God, you fought the Lord. Don't you remember all those things? What you need to do, ladies and gentlemen, you need to agree with the devil. Say, yes, I used to. I used to build my road to a devil's hell. I used to pay for my sins. I used to be away from God, but thank God, peace came my way. Jesus came my way, and I used to be, but today, my past is erased. My sins are forgiven. I've got a home in heaven because of Christ. You agree with him? Yeah, I used to be. Glory to God. I'm gonna buy my own CD tonight. Hey, what you did, don't you remember? What you say, oh yeah, I do remember that. You know what you need to do? Let me help you here. When you're reminded from your friends, family, whoever reminds you of your past or of some sins, and when the devil, sorry, lying devil. I don't know why I looked at Brother King when I said that, I had no idea. But when I think about, when I hear, I think about all those things, you know what you ought to do? That very moment, you're gonna say, thank you for your grace, Lord. Thank you for your forgiveness. You're gonna try to implement that in your life. Tomorrow the devil says, hey, don't you remember this? Hey, what about this? Thank you for your grace, Lord. Yeah, devil, you're right. But hold on a minute. Thank you for your grace, Lord. Thank you for your forgiveness, Lord. Thank you for your mercy, Lord. That'll help you go on. You've been forgiven of it. How many times have you come to the altar and you ask the Lord to forgive you over the same exact thing? Over and over and over. Quit putting Jesus on the cross. Nail it there, leave it there. He's covered those sins. What sins are you talking about? I don't remember them anymore. That'd be good to sing tomorrow when that old sorry devil comes by and says, hey, hey, hey, don't you remember? Say, yeah, I do, devil. Hold on a minute, I got a little praise time right now. Thank you for your mercy, Lord. Thank you for your forgiveness. I know what it used to be. I know what you thought of me and what the friends thought of me, but thank God I've been changed. Yeah, yeah. So we have peace now. So you can forgive yourself. Glory to God. Isn't that good? You say, Preacher, that's simple. Yeah, but I'll tell you, if we get a hold of those basic things that help your life, that's what Colossians is about. Some of you, you've applied that, you've read that, but you need to learn to implement that in your world today. You may think, well, Preacher, you don't know what they said. You don't know what I did or what I said. Maybe not, but I do know what Adam and Eve did. I do know what Paul did. I do know what Peter did. I do know what Rahab was into, but I'm telling you about authority of the Word of God. Hey, hey, look up here. I'm telling you about authority of the Word of God. You can get forgiven, and you can forgive yourself, and you can move on for God. I don't need to know what you did. I don't need to know. God does. He put it in here. I can handle that. I shed my blood for that, I can handle that. So you can forgive yourself, you can forgive others, and you can move on. It's been under the blood. Glory to God, glory to God. It's amazing, it's amazing. We've all had those moments when we cringe over what we've said in emotions. When you act out in emotions, you usually make the wrong choices. You say things you regret in emotions. And we've done that, we've done that. And we think about those things we said we didn't say, we wish we'd have done, but we did do. You know, we're wrong, and we ask, we ask God to forgive us, and he has, and yet we still carry blame on the inside of us tonight. But we stand up here and sing, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. But on the inside. You still got that on the inside. You haven't forgiven yourself. You haven't got true victory. Ladies and gentlemen, it's more than a song. It's more than lyrics. It's more than religion. This is true. Tonight, you can get forgiven or you can't forgive someone else. And I thought, I got to close, I got to close. Isn't it amazing to me, I could go through the whole Bible, isn't it amazing to me, after Peter, He denied the Lord. You remember that. He denied the Lord. He went out. The Bible says he wept bitterly, right? Okay. He wept. And then you know what happened. He did wrong. And then after resurrection, Jesus shows up to Peter again. You know that. And you know what? What does he do? He confirms his love for Peter. If he didn't love Peter, he never went and sought him out. Peter did wrong. Don't you know he laid awake at night? Don't you know he, he said, oh, I cannot believe what I just did. He's been there for me. I've been there with him for all these years. I can't believe I did that. Can you imagine the guilt on the inside of Peter? And Jesus Christ knew that, brother John, he knew that. Jesus says, hey, when I go off this cross and I get out of this tomb, I got one man I'm going to. Because I know Peter's over there, he's beating himself up. Peter's over there doubting himself. Peter's over there down on life. The devil's beating him up over this, so I'm gonna go to find that man and tell him, I still love you, Peter. And he asked him, he said, Peter, you love me? He said, yeah. Watch this. What did Jesus do when he confirmed his love for Mother Dan? He said, go feed my sheep. So in other words, the Lord said, hey, Peter, I forgive you. Get over it and get on. Get busy. That's what he's told him. Time to get up and go on. Serve me. Feed my sheep. I got a job for you to do. Get over it. Let's go on. That's a good word tonight for some of us tonight or maybe the rest of the week. I'm telling you, if you love me, feed my sheep. Jesus says, Peter, the pity party's over. The pity party's over. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Put your lip back in. Pick it up off the ground. I forgave you. You did wrong. We know all that. I know what you did. I'm gonna forgive you, now go feed my sheep. Somebody tonight, you're sitting around like Peter. You're beat up by things you did, things on the inside troubling you. Jesus may come by the Tabernacle Auditorium tonight in the balcony or here on the main floor and say, hey, time for you to get up. I forgave you, I forgave you, forgive yourself and get up and do something for me. That's a good word tonight for us. Feed my sheep. My, my, so much to be said here. If you repent at church and God forgave you, then who do you think it is bringing up your past or bringing up what you did just yesterday? It's not the Holy Spirit. If you've repented over this and got it right, the devil. He knows I can't take their salvation away, but what I can do is take their joy. I'm gonna remind them every time I can, put them in a wrong crowd, bring somebody back. I'm gonna remind them somehow, some way of what they've done. But you need to learn right now tonight here at 7-Eleven, say right now. I'm gonna learn, when I'm reminded of those things, I'm gonna say, thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for your mercy, Lord. You've been mighty good to me. And go on, and go on, amen. Ladies and gentlemen, is there something in your life, the first part, something in your life, someone you've been hurt, been lied about, But you keep carrying that and you is finding it tonight so hard to forgive them. You're finding it so hard to even see them. I'm telling you, you can. All they're doing is holding you in prison, in bondage and hurting you over and over again. It's time I can say tonight, Lord, help me forgive them and I wanna move on. And you can. And you can. There's someone here tonight, you've been forgiven by the Lord, but all that stuff still comes back. Mind games, the devil gets your mind, he's got you. Begs about to fill your life between your ears. If he gets in there, he'll get in your mind. You need to understand tonight, if you've repented, you need to say, thank God that's gone, he's washed it away. How can tonight start learning to forgive myself and move on, do something for God? Musicians are coming when forgiving is hard to do. Our job is not to carry it around, church. Don't carry around unforgiveness. God saw it. God heard it. Give it to the Lord. Turn them over. Turn that situation over to the Lord. It has you in bondage. Do you need help tonight? There's an old-fashioned altar. You can make a move, show God how serious I am about this. I'm coming here, God, and you know what's going on in my life. And Father, I'm coming to do business with you tonight. Help me forgive. Lord, help me forgive myself.