Hello, Illuminate Church. How's everybody doing out there?
I mean, it's an exciting time to be a part of Illuminate Church.
How many of you agree? Amen.
I mean, it's this is in a historical time.
This is something that God is doing.
Amazing. How many of you remember when
Israel came out of Egypt and they were going into the
Promised land? That was an exciting time.
We're still talking about it today.
Well, I just believe that people in the future going to be
talking about this time and Illuminate Church.
They're to say, do you remember when we were in the high school
and we moved from the high school to our new building?
I'm going to even know that those conversations are going to
take place. Amen.
It's awesome to be here with you.
I just want to give a shout out first and foremost it, you know,
and Pastor Tim and Christina, they're just awesome.
And I just, I really love friends like this and when we
met in Israel. But it felt like I've been
knowing them for years just because of the joy and the
laughter. And how many of you know that
Pastor Tim needs a sense of humor?
He doesn't need a sense of humor.
He has a great sense of humor. And sometimes you think, is he
serious or is he joking? But it's just great to have
great, great friends. I tell you it's somebody that I
can be around and really enjoy myself and just be myself.
Amen. So it's good to be around people
that you can be who you are. So I just want to thank you.
Thank you for inviting us today. Thank you for for all that
you're doing. You, Christine, you're you're
awesome and and it's a privilege and an honor to be here.
I do want to introduce my wife, Carmen.
We've been together for 29 years going on 30 years we that was
when we met and we have a son that's 29 years old, but we
didn't get married until 97. So we just celebrated our 26th
year anniversary And so could you please stand?
I just would like for people to see you.
It's. And this is my daughter,
Valerie. Go ahead and stand up, Valerie.
If I'm up here, you guys are going to be the oldest too.
So you can be seen this. So we got four children.
We got three older boys and my son, he's ministering for me at
our church. We have a 29 year old, a 26 year
old and a 22 year old and we're just very, very grateful.
Amen. And I do want to give a shout
out to the media team. We've been watching you guys
online, we've subscribed to your YouTube page and you guys are
doing a phenomenal job. Can you give it up for your
media team? I know a lot of times they're
behind the scenes and we don't see them, but I just want you to
know that Illuminate Church has an online church and there are
people all over the world that are watching you.
Amen. They're watching your worship
team, they're watching people. So you're ministering already to
the nations in and you may not, you may not know that, but I
just want to give props to all of you guys because y'all are
doing a phenomenal job here in Orlando, FL.
It's great to be in the great state of Florida.
State of Florida is leading the way in a lot of of things that
are happening in our nation. So I'm just we're grateful to be
here. We love we love Florida and we I
don't know when the future we we may have to buy some real estate
here. But anyways God is good and I I
want to I want to continue on the series on the antidote.
How many of you been joining the series.
OK, so this is the big question. How many of you have it?
Has it made changes in your life?
OK, there's less hands. So we got to start using the
antidote that God has given us. And you know, I was, I was
praying about coming here and just really what the Lord would
put on my heart because I'm, I'm ministering on the verse, I
believe 14 where it says bless those who persecute you, you
know, mourn with those and mourn, weep with those who weep
and, you know, associate with the lowly and and, you know, and
things like that. And I was just praying about
what the Lord would have me bring to you today.
And and it was really how to be a blessing, how to be a
blessing. If you're going to bless those
that have hurt us and persecute us, then we have to learn how to
be that. Because as the church, we're
supposed to be illuminating. Amen.
Jesus says you're the light of the world, right?
You're the salt of the earth. We're a city that is set on a
hill. So everybody sees us.
And when they come, they come hurt and then they come broken
and and you know, I, I really want to give you a little bit of
of who we are and where I came from.
I didn't grow up in church. I didn't.
I didn't know. I didn't know the Lord.
I didn't know Jesus. And you know, we were young.
And me and my wife met. She was 15.
I was 16. You know, we had our first
child. She had her first child at 16,
and we just didn't, we didn't know the law.
We were kids having kids. But I didn't, you know, both of
my parents, they had a struggle with drugs.
So you know, they were both hooked on heroin when I was
growing up. And so there was a lot of moving
in my life. We moved from place to place to
place and all I wanted ever as a child was stability, you know.
And so there was a lot of things that happened in my childhood
and in my wife's childhood that really, if by the world
standards, we shouldn't even be doing what we're doing today.
But by the grace of God, we are where we are and we, you know,
we are who God made us to be. So I'm just I'm up here today to
tell you that it it doesn't matter what is happening and how
you started because with the enemy meant for evil.
Come on, somebody can it. I'm, I'm going to preach a
little bit. I'm going to teach a little bit
with the enemy meant for evil. God will turn it around and use
it for good. How many of you can testify to
that already And so you know I'm just Long story short I'm not
going to give you the whole, I'm going to give you the the short
version. But at the age of at the age of
17 I was I I got incarcerated for attempted murder.
I used grew up in in gangs and doing things like that.
So at the age of 17, I was incarcerated and my wife was
pregnant. We were basically a a statistic,
you know, she getting pregnant, me going to prison and then her
having the baby at a young age, single mom.
But in all of that, I know that God had a purpose because it was
there that I got saved. I got, I got led to the Lord by
my celly. If you don't know what a celly
is, a celly is the person that bunks under you or on top of
you. But he's he, he had 99 years.
He led me to the Lord. He led me to the Lord in in
September of 1993. So I'm at the age of 17.
I weighed 117 pounds. And I was 17 years old and I was
in the Harris County Jail and it was there that I met Jesus.
It was there that I met Jesus. It was there that.
See, let me just tell you that it doesn't matter where you go,
how dark the place is. God will go with you.
I said God will go with you wherever you go.
It doesn't matter how dark. It doesn't mean, look, if you
have a protocol that has left and you're like, oh Lord, I
don't know what Jesus is going with them wherever they go.
And he's not going to stop until they come back, train up a child
on the way that they should go. And when they are older, they
will not depart from it. I had my middle son and he was a
protocol. He went out, but thank God he
came back in. Amen.
So I mean, you know it's it's one of those things that you
know people like that. And I was telling Pastor Tim
that yesterday we met with a couple there were that we met at
at Lakewood Church and and they were a big part of our
testimony. They they were mentors for us.
And you know I went to Lakewood in 98 when me and my wife when I
came out, we, you know, I try to do the right thing.
I came out in 97, I mean, I'm sorry, 95.
And then in 1998, my mother had an overdose.
And I remember we went to the government hospital that was
nearby. And I remember the ambulance
took her in and we were all there and and we were waiting
and we were crying and we were worried.
And I remember my father telling me, look, I know where to go.
Let's there's a church down the street and we went to Lakewood
Church in the old building. And I remember that day I had
flip flops on. I had my shorts on.
I was acting like I was in Florida.
I had a muscle shirt on and I have like, you know, you know, I
have tattoos and stuff because you know my the way I grew up.
And I remember it was a Wednesday night, we went to
Lakewood Church and it was during their service.
And I remember we were too embarrassed to say that my
mother had an overdose. So we just told the lady at the
information booth that she had a seizure and we needed prayer.
And when we went in there, she took us right to the front.
And that's when Pastor John Osteen Do y'all do some of y'all
know who Pastor John Osteen was before Joe?
Pastor John and Miss Dodi Osteen.
They were right in the front. But I remember when I went into
that church, the love of God hit me.
It hit me in a way that I never felt before, ever in my life.
And they took us right to the front.
And I remember this little old lady was such love and
compassion. She just embraced us and loved
us. And I wept like I never wept
before. And it did something to me.
And there was something on the inside of me that says you need
to have your family here every week from that day forward.
My family was in church every single week.
I'm talking to you today about being a blessing.
And there are so many people in my life that have been a
blessing to me because I didn't get here on my own.
I said I didn't get here on my own.
And wherever God has led you, wherever He is, He showed you
what you're going to do. There's going to be people along
the way that that God put there strategically to speak into your
life, to pour into your life to love you back to health.
Because I'm going to tell you something.
I needed a lot of love in my life.
I mean, we we we were broken. We were broken.
There was a, you know that's there's a lot of different parts
of our our life. But that's what I I want to I
want to bring to you today. I want to, I want to bring to
you how to be a blessing. You know, because when we're
when people are persecuting us or when they're hurting us, it
doesn't help for us to become a part of the problem.
Amen. We got to be a part of the
solution. We have to be able to bless
instead of curse. We have to be able to heal
instead of causing more pain. How many of you agree today?
Come on. Eliminate church in the house
this morning. Amen.
So I, I, I want to, I want to read this to you.
But I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to read this.
I'm going to, I want to read this.
I want to go back to Romans 12, but I want to read it to you in
the message translation. And I'm going to start at verse
9 and I just want to lay this out.
So Romans chapter 12, verses 9 through 21, it says I love this
and it just it's a message and it's ministers to me and I just,
I want to I didn't have this apart, but I said I need to, I
need to speak this. But it says love from the center
of who you are. Don't fake it.
How many of you heard people say fake it till you make it?
Well, the worst tells us don't fake it.
Love from the center of who you are.
You see, Because when we learn to love, we don't have to fake
it. We can be genuine.
We can be real. We don't have to smile.
Hey, brother. God bless you.
How you doing, sister? Hallelujah.
We don't have to do all that. It could be from the heart.
Amen. We can do that from the heart.
So it says love from the center of who you are.
Don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil.
Hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply.
Practice playing second fiddle. Don't burn out.
Keep yourselves feud in the flame.
Be alert servants of the master. Cheerfully expected.
Don't quit in hard times. Hey, hey, come on, somebody.
Don't quit in the hard times. Some people are probably
thinking about throwing in the towel.
I don't know about this church stuff.
I don't know. I've been serving the Lord.
It says don't quit in hard times.
Play all the harder. Pray all the harder.
Help needy Christians. We all got them.
Be inventive in hospitality. Here we go.
Bless your enemies. No cursing under your breath.
Laugh with your happy friends. That's Tim.
He's my happy friend. Laugh with your happy friends.
When they're happy. Share tears.
When they're down, get along with each other.
Don't be stuck up. Come on.
How many? There's There's too many
Christians there. They're stuck up.
We don't need to be stuck up, Christians.
We need to. Here we go.
We need to make friends with the nobodies and don't be the great
somebody, don't hit back, discover beauty and everyone, he
says. If if you've got it in you, I
love this. If you've got it in you, get
along with everybody. Now they're going to be some
people you're not going to be able to please or going to be
able to make happy. But if you got it in you, you
get along. Amen.
The great thing about it, when some when we're hurt we can work
on us. We can't work on them, but we
can work on our our response. And so don't insist on getting
even. That's not for you.
I'll do the judging, says God. I'll take care of it.
Our scripture tells us that if you see your enemy hungry, go
buy them some lunch. Or if he's thirsty, get them a
drink. Your generosity will surprise
them with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of
you, but get the best of evil by doing good.
The antidote. Amen.
The antidote. So, you know, like I said, I've
been meditating on this and I've been reading it and one of the
things that I really feel in my heart is to is to talk about
forgiveness. Okay.
Now you may be here. So, like, I don't have nobody I
need to forgive. Well, you just let the Holy
Spirit work on you because I tell you, sometimes, sometimes
the church needs it more than they preach it.
Hey, man, sometimes we we, we know a lot, but we just
sometimes don't walk it out. And I'm sure nobody here needs
this message. It's all for the people that are
not here, right. So I just want you to listen
with an open heart and just allow Holy Spirit to speak to
you and just ask the Lord Lord show me.
But I'm going to tell you I went through some persecution, you
know, with, you know, in our church.
And you know, I've had some people to talk about me and try
to turn people against me and hurt me and and so I was trying
to do the right things. I was trying to do the right
things. I said, you know, let me just
let me call a meeting and let me just tell them, hey, you know, I
love you. I'm sorry.
And so I, you know, I did the meeting because I'm trying to do
the right thing, right? I'm trying to do the right
thing. And and after the meeting, I
didn't feel better. I felt worse, you know?
And I tried to write a letter. I said, Lord, I'm just, I'm in
my prayer time. I'm, I'm going to write a
letter. And I told my wife, tell me what
you think about that letter. She said it doesn't really sound
genuine. I said, OK, so, you know,
everything I was trying to do, I was trying to do it from an
external point, not an internal point.
You know, have you ever just tried to do the right thing, but
you really didn't feel it in your heart?
And that's why I go back to that scripture that says love from
the center of your heart, don't fake it.
And so I just begin to do things differently and I begin to pray.
And these are some of the antidotes that I'm going to get
to later in the message. But I want to give you some
reasons why we need to forgive. Because, you know, that's what I
I've realized that even though I was trying to do the right
thing, I really hadn't forgive them in my heart.
Have you ever been there? Church.
Have you ever been there? But the one of the main things
is that we want, we need to get rid of bitterness.
Because unforgiveness turns into bitterness.
It turns in to bitterness. I heard a story about a little
village in Africa that all the people were getting sick and
they didn't understand why people are getting sick.
And some of them were dying. And they've called some
researchers in from the main city and they came in and they
came, came and did the inspection.
There was a river running right by the village, and they begin
to take samples of the river and they found out that the water
and the river was bad. And so they searched, and they
searched, and they looked, and they looked and they went to the
very beginning of the source of where it started, and everything
on the surface looked good. But then they sent divers down
and they found a mother pig, and her piglets had went down there
and they got wedged and they had drowned.
So everything that flowed from the river flowed right through
their dead carcasses, and it was contaminating the rest of the
river. And I begin to think how so many
times when we hold on to bitterness, when we can't
forgive, everything runs through that bitterness to everything
else. And this is what happens.
The ones that we love the most, they end up getting the
byproduct of that. So my wife knows if I'm dealing
with something, I get a little snappy, I get a little touchy,
and I get impatient. I know, I know that doesn't
happen to anybody here, just me. But you can tell and and the
people around you that you love the most, you know, my daughter,
your children. And so that's why it's very
important that we get rid of the unforgivable.
So we get rid of the bitterness because it hurts our
relationships, especially those closest to you also.
It's an open door. You know, it's a it's an open
door to the enemy. And the enemy is looking for
any, looking for a place in Ephesians that says give no
place to the devil, give no place.
And when? When?
When we When We refuse to allow God to do what he wants to do,
or to speak what he wants to speak or to say what he wants to
say. If God says bless them, bless
them, send them a gift, send them this.
Or maybe the Lord is just telling you, you need to pray.
You need to you need to ask God. You need to ask.
You need to ask the guy what What's in my heart that I need
to release. So and this is the thing I want
to tell you because like Pastor Tim mentioned, just like you
guys, we we're about to cross over into our promised land.
Amen. We we we were supposed to close
before we we came. But we'll be closing when we get
back. And you know we bought a
building and it's 3 1/2 acres and it's our promised land
because we've been 12 years and we've been renting a building.
But the Lord just begin to show me that were crossing over into
the promised land and over there.
In Exodus chapter 15 it talks about how when Moses was leading
the children of Israel and right after they crossed over into the
Red Sea. Crossed crossed through the Red
Sea not over but through it. That the Bible says that they
were needing water and they came to the streams of Mara.
Does anybody know what Mara means?
It means bitter waters, and it's amazing that before they were to
go into the promised land, they had to pass through Mara.
Amen. And I just began to look at our
church and I began to think we need to crossover with cleans
hands and a pure heart. Amen.
We don't need to go over murmuring and complaining.
We, you know, God brought them by there and and this is this is
what's the this was the solution when when the waters were bitter
and when they drunk he told God, pray.
I mean Moses prayed to God and God says there's a tree throw it
in there. What does the tree represent the
cross. What happened at the cross?
Me. And you were forgiven me.
And you were forgiven. If God did it for us.
Amen. Then we should be able to do it
for others. That's where your healing comes
from. We have to turn to the cross.
And we got to look at what Jesus did.
On our behalf And that's this is, it was just so significant
for me that because I just declare that that illuminate
church is going to this new land and you're going to be ready to
love from the center of your heart.
You're going to be ready to love with open arms.
You're not going to look at the people of what they did, where
they came from. You're going to love them
because of the love of God that was poured out on you and poured
out on me. Amen.
And I'm telling you, the city of Orlando is going to be
transformed. And you know where they're going
to come. They're going to come where it's
illuminated. Amen.
Where the light of God is. So and the last thing I want to
tell you, the reason why we need to do it is because Jesus tells
us to do it. Amen.
It's like, you know, it's it's, it's sometimes we think that
it's hard, but God told us to do it.
And we know, like I knew God was telling me to do it, to forgive.
But, you know, sometimes we think it's hard.
How can we do it if you don't know what happened to me?
You know, not to get into a lot of details, but me and my wife,
we were both abused when we were children, you know, and we had
to forgive. And these are people that you
still see, but it comes out of it.
It doesn't. Let me just tell you this.
You're anointed. You're anointed for heart.
Did you know you were anointed
for heart? How many of you been filled with
the Holy Ghost? So what is the Holy Spirit
called? He's called a helper.
So you only need help if something is hard, right?
You only need help if something is hard.
If you're if you're hurt and you and you need a helper.
He he's a comforter. If you need direction, he's a
counselor. If you need to forgive, he's
there to help you. You're anointed for Come on,
look at your neighbor and say you're anointed for hard.
Amen. So these are some of the
benefits that we know that God, that God gives us.
Some of the benefits is that he tells us in this scripture we
just read that when you forgive, when you let go, when you
release it, God says I'll fight your battles.
Amen. Now I've tried to fight my own
battles and it didn't come out too good.
But when I've learned to let God fight my battles, he did a lot
better job than than I did. I mean, I have.
I have a testimony. There was a person that was
talking about me and stuff like that and and you know, I was at
the church and I remember I was praying and they were speaking
to this person. He's like, yeah, he said this
about you. He said that about you, which
none of this stuff was true. But I didn't.
I wasn't trying to going to defend myself.
And I never forget they were talking to another pastor and
this pastor calls me out of blue.
He goes, hey, what's up with so and so?
And I was like, what do you mean?
He's like, he said this and this.
And then I told him, he said this pastor just sensed that.
He says you're wrong for that. He told this other guy, he said
you're wrong for that. And everything that he was
trying to do just blew up in his face.
But I didn't have to do a thing. Hey man, when people talk bad
about you, when they make it their aim to make you look bad.
God says if you just let me fight the battle for you, I'll
take care of it and you come out with not even the smell of
smoke. Hey man, when we learn to say
God, I'm doing your will, I'm going to stay with you.
I release whatever is in my heart and you just walk with
God. God is going to fight your
battles. And let me just tell you
something, It's not just stuff in the church.
It's stuff that you grew up with.
These are things that we went through as children, that we had
to learn how to release folks. Because as you know as well as I
do, when you forgive, it's not for them, it's for you.
Do you? Do you, do you agree?
Now, I know that we've talked about forgiveness before in
church, but I don't think that a lot of times we do a self
evaluation. We think we're good.
But it's something that we have to ask the Lord, Lord, show me
in my heart the people that I need to forgive.
So, you know, a little test is. A little test is, is.
If you hear somebody talking good about somebody that hurts
you and then you're tempted to say, well, let me tell you a
little something you don't know about that person, then that's a
little that's a clear indication something's wrong in here.
Hey, man. So another benefit is that
you'll keep your peace and you walk in freedom.
If you do anything, if you minister to anybody, if you're
there to give counsel, if you're there, then you need your peace.
You know, I don't have a luxury to hold grudges.
I don't have the luxury to go hide for two or three weeks.
I get up and I and I administer to people every week.
So I need my heart, right? I need my peace.
And you know, it's torment. It's torment to hold on to
things that have happened yesterday or a year ago or 10
years ago. I'm free.
Whom the sunsets. Free is what?
Free indeed. Boom.
The sunset's free. It's free indeed.
So if the if Jesus set me free, then I should walk in total
freedom with the spirit of the Lord is there is what?
There's freedom. So as believers you know the
benefit of of you walking and and and forgiveness is that
you're going to have peace. The peace that surpasses all
understanding. And this is the one thing that I
love and we talked about it. Don't fake it, but you'll truly
love without hypocrisy. I mean, again, you won't be
having a smile on your face but hating your heart.
Amen. When you say I love you,
brother, you can really mean it. You're like, yeah, I love him,
but I don't want to talk to him or I'm gonna love him from a
distance or yeah, you know, or I'm not going to hang out with
whatever it is Or if somebody you can hear somebody's name and
it just ruins your day. Come on, somebody you can truly
love without hypocrisy because how many of you know that if
there's any real people, it should be the people in the
church. Amen.
We should be the people that reflect God's love.
And and just to be totally transparent, totally honest, we
know that there's a lot of times not all churches, but some
churches, they don't reflect the love of God.
They don't reflect the acceptance or the forgiveness.
And so we need to be that church to love that loves without
hypocrisy. Amen.
And again, you're blessed. You're blessed.
When you forgive, you're blessed, the Bible says in
Matthew 511 through 13. It says, blessed are you when
they revile and persecute you and and say all kinds of evil
against you falsely. For my sake, he says, rejoice
and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
How many of you know when you're in good company, when they
persecute you for being a blessing?
Come on, somebody. Hey, man, When we were in Israel
we had a terrific guide. Her name was Sonia and she did a
whole study on the Beatitudes and she was talking about in the
Hebrew language, that word in the Beatitudes, when it says you
know you're blessed, blessed all the plore, blessed all the meek,
blessed all those, he said. She said that word means you are
extremely blessed when you mourn with those who mourn.
You're extremely blessed when they persecute you, she says.
She talked about that this being a divine reversal, which meaning
that it goes against what the culture does.
How many of you know that Jesus was countercultural?
How many You know that we got to be countercultural, that we
can't repay evil for evil, but we can.
We can do good where there is evil and we can get rid of evil.
Amen. So that's what she was talking
about when Jesus spoke this on on that amount of of of
beatitudes that he was saying don't do what the world does, do
what I do. We also talked about not the
external, but he said the internal.
He says you have been told eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
But I tell you the truth that when you when you hate your
brother you murder him in your heart because the Pharisees
thought they had to figure it out.
They thought they were all square cut and they thought they
didn't have any issues. But he says you do things out
the external, but I'm telling you to do it from the heart.
Amen. And they said, oh, you know, we
don't commit adultery. No.
When you look at a woman with lust, you've already committed
adultery in your heart. Amen.
And so it's it's just Jesus was always telling us to do
something on on the inside versus the outside.
So, you know, again, I just love that scripture, Romans 12/9.
It says love from the center of who you are, don't fake it.
Amen. So you might be hitting here and
just like okay pastor, how do you do it?
How, how do we get rid of all of these things?
I've tried to forgive, but I still feel the same way.
Well, first of all, you just, again, like you rely on the Holy
Spirit. You ask the Holy Spirit to help
you because you know you can't forgive on your own.
You need Holy Spirit to be able to move on your life and to help
you and to show you things and to remember.
But I there's three little things that I want to I want to
give to you. But first I just want to tell
you that in Proverbs 423 it says guard your heart above all else
for out of it for what? The issues of life guard your
heart above all else, because out of it flow the issues of
life. So we have to learn to to guard
and govern our heart because the heart regulates our actions.
Amen. So the first thing that I had to
do in my life when I was going to, that is the first thing I
had to do. I have to pray.
I have to pray for this person. Amen.
I have to pray for those that I have to pray for them.
I mean really taking the time to pray, to speak a word, a good
word. Lord, bless them, Lord, Lord,
show them things. Lord, show them all the things
that that you have in store for them.
Lord, I pray good things. I pray that you would bless them
and not curse them, and that that that you would overflow
them in all of these areas of their life.
I just be getting to pray for them, you see, because when when
if you can't pray for somebody, you probably can't forgive them.
So we got to learn to pray. We got to learn to bless.
We got to learn to speak that the Bible says that power of
life and death is where and your tongue and those that love it
will eat the fruit thereof. So when we learn to bless, when
we learn to speak a blessing over them, then you know that's
just kind of the first step that I be have I I've learned to do
things internally when somebody has come against me.
The other thing that I do if that if I'm praying and praying
that don't work, man, I just take a day of fast for them.
What are you fasting for? I'm, I'm fasting for this,
brother. I'm fasting for this, sister.
I'm fasting because I'm just believing God, for a
breakthrough in their life. You're like, wow, they're
they're not worth the whole day. They're not worth me.
Losing, not, not eating. You know, the Old Testament
talks about the Old Testament talks about when you fast, you
afflict your soul. Did you know that?
So what is your soul? Your mind, your will and your
emotions. You don't want to do it in your
mind. You don't want to fast.
You don't want that. You don't want to do it.
That's part of your will and your emotions, right?
Is this. I don't like them.
Why would I fast for them? But these are just some things.
These are principles in the word of God that God gives us to to
to get it out of our system. Amen.
So then you're going to, you're going to want to bless them.
You're going to want to see them, You're going to want to be
able to speak over them. Now, I want to just tell you
this because I know that some of us have come come out of very
hurtful relationships or situations.
When you bless those that persecute you, it does not mean
that you have to go back into an abusive relationship.
Amen. You just want to get it out of
your heart. You just want to be able to
laugh again, learn to love again, learn to enjoy life, not
not treat everybody the same. Because again, like that filter,
that, that contamination, there's been people that have
got hurt in church and now they they're church by, they're hurt
by every church. Or maybe a Christian has hurt
them and they filter that. Or maybe a woman has been
mistreated by men and she treats every man that she meets or vice
versa. We just want to get it out of
our heart. I'm not taking it lightly from
what you've been through because I've been through some some
things in my life when I couldn't defend myself as a
child, but I've released it and I've forgiven them.
It doesn't mean that I go back into that.
I don't have to go back into that.
Heard a pastor counseling the lady and he had she had a lot of
bitterness and unforgiveness and and he told her, he said you got
to forgive. And she began to weep.
She began to cry and then she stopped crying.
She goes, you mean to have to go back into that relationship?
He says no, you just got to let it go.
Amen. Just got to let it go because
God wants you free. Amen.
So we pray, we fast. And this is the thing This is
the point I want to get to is that we remember.
We remember how much God loves you and how much he forgave you.
Amen. So the antidote to that
forgiveness, to being able to forgive, is to remember how much
we were forgiven. And I want to take you to this
word. This word has always blessed me,
but it's a Luke. Chapter 7, verse 36 through 48.
But it was really about this woman that when Jesus was in the
House of Simon this Pharisee, and he went in there and he went
in there to die and he went there to sit.
And this woman with an alabaster box, she comes in, she sneaks in
and everybody starts talking about her.
And they even said if he really was a prophet, he wouldn't know
what type of woman is touching him.
And here he was, he was reclining and she's she comes in
and Jesus hears them or he knows what they're saying under their
breath. And so he says in verse 40 let's
going to go to we're going to go to Luke 7.
Verse 40. So in Jesus answered him and
said to him, he said, Simon, I have something to say to you?
He said, see? He said say it.
Teacher. He said there was a certain
creditor who had two debtors, 1 owed him 500 Denari and the
other 50 and when they had nothing with which to repay, he
freely forgave them both. He said, tell me therefore which
one of them love him more? And Simon answered and said, I
suppose from the one he forgave more.
And he said to him, you have rightly judged.
And then he turned to the woman, and I just love this.
I want you to just sit right there in that room.
I want you to picture this because man, Jesus is putting
that fairy on the spot and everybody else that was judging
that day, he said to him, he says he turned to the woman.
He says, You see that woman over there?
He says I entered your house. He says you gave me the water
for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped
them with her head. He says you gave me no kiss, but
this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I
came in. He says you did not anoint my
head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with
fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her
sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much, but
to whom little is forgiven the same loves little.
And then he said to her, your sins are forgiven.
Let me ask you this today church how much has he forgiven you?
For how much? When he saw you and he loved you
and he said, how much have we been given?
Because the Bible says when you've been forgiven much, you
love much. But to him it was forgiven
little Love's little. Now regardless of the way, if
you think you've been forgiven little, we've all been forgiven
a lot. Hey man, let me just tell you
church, if we don't know, we were all on our way to hell but
Jesus, come on. But Jesus, he left the Kingdom
of God to come down to earth to give his life as a ransom for
you and for me. And if if everybody would have
been able to see what this woman saw and the way that she loved,
they would have been different. But forgiven people Let me this
is my point that I want to make that forgiven People they know
how to love. Forgiven people know how to
forgive, and forgiven people know how to bless those that
persecute them. Amen.
So in closing, I just want to say this, that unforgiveness can
steal your voice, ruin your ministry, hurt your
relationships, and even damage your health.
I love what Paul said in Acts 2024.
He said none of these things move me, nor do I count my life
dear to myself, except that I may finish my race with joy and
accomplish the ministry that the Lord Jesus has given me.
He says none of these things move me.
I'm going to tell you today, church, when you get in that
place with God, none of these things will move you either.
Paul was a man just like you and me.
He was a human just like you and me and and the things that he
went through, the things that he did in his life, he called
himself the least of all the Apostle soul reminding,
reminding ourselves of God's love removes the contamination
from our lives. What would we look like?
What would we feel like? What would we act like if we
were to just let it go? How would we look at, Let me
tell you something. When people when y'all move into
that new building and you're going to be there, you know what
people, people are going to come.
They're going to be looking for the father, not the older
brother. Amen.
How many of you know the prodigal story, the prodigal son
story? O K5 people.
All right, OKI just want to give you that little the prodigal
son. Think I want you to think about
this. The prodigal son came home and
he was he needed mercy, he he needed forgiveness, he needed
grace. He needed all that.
And the father was waiting for him.
And when he saw him, he ran out to him.
But when they begin to party and kill the fatty calf, the word,
the noise got around to the older brother and the older
brother refused to go in. You don't know what he did.
How can he have done that and just come back home like that?
How? How is it that the father?
He told the father. How can you even kill the fatty
calf? He says.
I've been here, I've been good. I've done everything right.
You haven't even killed a skinny goat for me.
This is what the father told him.
The father did not please the older brother, he said, Son, I
love you. I love you just like I love your
brother. He said we should be rejoicing
because that brother of yours, he was lost and now he's found
he was dead and now he's alive. He said we should re rejoice
him. This is what happened and we
don't see this. We don't read a new story.
The father and everybody, they still went to the party.
The party didn't stop because somebody was judging.
Come on, somebody. The the party didn't stop
because he couldn't let go. The party didn't stop.
The party went on. When we don't let go, the
party's still going on. When we don't let go, that that
person still enjoying life. You didn't.
We didn't. We don't stop nothing by holding
on to it. He blessed us to be a blessing.
Amen. You know, if we learned it.
I tell this to our men's ministry.
I always tell them if you can do it at home, you could do it
anywhere. Hey, man, there's times when me
and my wife used to get in our little tiffs.
Come on, Have you got into the little tiff, little spats?
And you know, we're laying in bed and I'm just laying on the
edge of the bed and not wanting to touch her because I'm mad And
she falls asleep warm and cozy. Didn't do me no good.
So I wake her up. Hey, we need to talk.
No, but you know, it doesn't do any good.
We've learned over the years. Thank God we started at the age
of 16. Come on with somebody.
We got a lot of practice in, so we've learned to be quick to
forgive. Amen.
When we do that church, you know our life will be full of peace.
None of us deserve an innocent man dying for our sins, but he
did it anyway. What would illuminate Church
look like to be so bright, to be so loving, to be so much joy?
I'm telling you, it's going to be, it's going to be amazing.
And I'm not saying that you guys are not doing.
I know y'all are doing it now. But I know that God did not give
me this message for everybody that's not here.
I know that there's some some of you here today that you may feel
like there is some things you know.
First Corinth. I'll close with the scripture.
1st Corinthians 15, nine through 10.
This is what Paul says is I'm the least of all the apostles.
In fact, I caused so much trouble for God's church that I
don't even deserve to be called an apostle.
But God treated me with undeserved grace.
He made me what I am and his grace wasn't wasted.
I work much harder than all the other apostles, although it was
really God's grace at work in me.
How many of you can say that today?
Amen. I want you to stand to your feet
with me for a moment, and I just want to pray with you.
I just want to pray with you. I'm not going to call you out.
I'm not going to singing you out.
But I just want this to be a time of you and the Holy Spirit
just allowing the Lord to to minister to your heart with
every head bound, every eye closed.
I want you to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, examine my
heart and see if there's any wicked way in me, anything that
I'm holding on to. Lord, that if there's people
here that you know that you need to release and just allow the
Lord to do a work. And I'm telling you, July 23rd
will be a day that you can be free.
Maybe if you're here today and you feel like I don't have
anybody, that it's coming up, well, why don't you pray for the
family member that you know that they're not talking.
Maybe it's something that split the family.
Maybe it's something that they had a disagreement about.
Whatever it was. Pray for them right now.
Stand in their behalf, stand in the gap.
But if you're here today and you say, you know what, I want to
get right with you, Lord, I want you to repeat this prayer after
me. Say, Lord Jesus, I ask you today
to show me the things that I need to release.
Lord, I forgive those that have hurt me.
I release them. Lord, I release them.
I no longer hold on to the past. I know I'll no longer hold on to
what is done. And Father, I pray today that
you will replace the hurt with love.
I thank you, Jesus, for forgiving me of all my sense and
loving me just the way that I am.
And I pray that I will be able to do the same for others.
In Jesus name. Amen And Amen.
Hallelujah. Will God bless you.
I hope that today that that minister to your heart.
Thanks a lot, Tim. No.