The Fruits of Forgiveness

[0:00] a seat. Please turn your Bibles to Philemon. Philemon. As you all know, we've been in a series on forgiveness. And for this last part of the series, I'm going to preach on what is called the Fruits of Forgiveness. It's been, it was interesting, I was just spending some time with Carl, and this is just a little segue into something a little bit different.

[0:34] But Carl just kind of made this comment that we've been here for three months, my wife and I just being amongst you. And he said, well, how's it going? You know, and I think I can speak for my wife and myself that we love being Squamites, right? We have felt loved, we felt welcomed in, and we truly enjoy our time of worship with you. We enjoy the friendships that we are creating, and we're looking forward to a lot more than just three months, right? I'm going to ask you guys a favor. I'm going to ask you guys, can I ask you guys to pray for me? Is that all right? You guys pray for your pastor and stuff? All right, good. Just the next couple of weeks, I'm actually going to be gone. And I don't want you to think that I don't love you anymore. But that's got nothing to do with it. But the last couple of years, I've been working on my doctorate in expository preaching, and I've got one more class to go.

[1:35] So for several weeks in July, I have to go down to L.A. and sit under some really good teaching for two weeks, and then I've got about two years of writing to do. So just pray for safe travels and tender mercies along the way that I'd be able to soak up what they're teaching.

[1:56] Continue to pray for my wife. She's looking forward to me being away so she can eat all the vegetables she wants, not steak every day, you know? So just please remember us as we're, I'm away because I know it is, I was just commenting to my wife, it's the, usually I'm pretty anxious to get down there and learn, but I'm not feeling that anxious. I love being here, and I know I'm going to miss you and just miss being here just as we're establishing our home, and that's been kind of weighing down on me. So I'm just going to ask you guys to pray for me. Before I go any further, I'm just going to ask the Lord's blessing on our text. Dear God, just, I pray that you would bring this letter to Philemon alive for us. There's this fact of life that there is no enduring relationships without forgiveness. Forgiveness is tough. For some, forgiving someone means releasing a lot of sorrow.

[3:00] Sometimes it's confusing. Sometimes we don't want to forgive because we want our rights established. But Lord, through our time together in your word, I pray you would bless my tongue with your spirit that the words that you desire for us to understand would come forth with ease, and that these words would penetrate our hearts, oh God. May you make them a reality in our lives as followers of you. We ask these things in your name. Amen.

[3:43] Last couple of weeks, I've talked about two specific types of actions in regards to forgiveness. Remember, two weeks ago, I talked about how do we receive a brother or sister, a friend, a brother or sister in Christ who comes to us and says, hey, will you forgive me? And what that response looks like in last week, we looked at the dynamics of actually going to a brother or sister in Christ who has hurt us, offended us, and what the mechanics are of saying, hey, there's been a hurt, there's some sin, and there's this blockage in our relationship, and I want to make that work.

[4:25] So I would encourage you, if you weren't here for any of those, we've got our website, the sermon's up. I would appreciate you taking the time. And one of the root passages that I kind of rooted it in is John 17. And John 17 is the high priestly prayer that Jesus Christ prays to his father before the day of crucifixion, before he is put on this tree. And he's got this prayer that he goes to the father, and he says, God, I do not ask for these things only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. And their word is the word preached by the apostles, the disciples, those guys who put words to paper, right? The Bible, people who would receive that word. And he says that they may be one. That Jesus Christ's last thoughts before he goes to this cross is this desire that these Christians, these people that I'm going to be eventually dying for, where I'm going to be taking the wrath of God upon myself for them, my desire, and I'm praying for it right now, that they be united by one. And he compares it to the Trinity just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

[5:49] We talked about how one of the most powerful testimonies that we have as believers in Christ is forgiveness, right? Nothing creates that bond of fellowship like forgiving one another.

[6:07] I am thankful and I believe for many of you, this has been a challenging and freeing series. One of my goals as a pastor is I never want to give you the impression that the Christian life is some kind of formula. That if there's these 10 steps, you follow them, you have this perfect life.

[6:32] The reality is life doesn't work like that, does it, right? For some of you guys, you might have had that checklist of boxes. If I do these certain things, I will receive either blessing or the kind of life that I want. But somehow, somewhere, life got in the way, right? Things went different. The path turned. The reality is God grows us in very different ways. There are no two paths alike.

[7:10] And the reality is I believe that God is not so much interested in us following a bunch of to-do lists, but I believe God is interested in that we become more like his son, Jesus Christ. Amen?

[7:27] That's the goal. It's not a to-do list, but it's being transformed into his likeness. And how are we transformed into his likeness? Is that we are exposed to God's eternal word. And it's God's word that washes us, cleans us, makes us better. In fact, Paul writes to his precious disciple, Timothy, he says in 2 Timothy 3, 17, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for training, for reproof, for correction. Then he says, for training in righteousness, that the man of God or woman of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I think if we got down to the core understanding of our being is to say, I want to be the person God wants me to be. Amen?

[8:24] Isn't that really what our prayers get down to? Now, I think when we pray that, we're thinking something else sometimes, right? I'm going to become the man or woman of God by virtue of how I see myself becoming. And therefore, I'm going to design this perfect plan. But God sees it differently. Paul in this passage is not talking about a particular skill, such as being a teacher, a small group leader, or even a great welcome member of the church. But Paul is referring to a quality of character and behavior based on the sound doctrine of the Bible.

[9:11] It's part of us being submissive to God, is it not? Submissive to His will. It's a lifelong process.

[9:22] And if I could give you some wisdom that I have learned in my 50 years, is there is nothing that is natural. Nothing that is natural. Not even forgiveness. It's something that we have to submit to constantly too. And I want you to come to grips with the fact that you will never be perfect in this.

[9:51] All right? I'm letting you off the hook. You are not going to be perfect. And because you are not perfect, it does not mean that God is against you.

[10:05] But I can promise you on the subject of forgiveness, if you are willing, if you are submissive, if you are teachable, God will work with you. And I'm talking to those people here whose pain has been done so great against them that they actually have taken on the identity of the sin, right?

[10:29] Whether I've been abused, whether emotionally, physically, whether it's been someone who says, well, I'm divorced. They take on that identity.

[10:40] I want to tell you right now that God wants to free you of that so that you are a child of Christ. Amen? That is our first and foremost identity before the Lord.

[10:55] So today I want to talk to you about two specific issues today. The first is what I call the fruits of forgiveness. These are the fruits that I believe appear in our lives as we obey God and forgive.

[11:11] These are the things that we will see in our lives, and I believe people will see on others as we take on the action of forgiving those who hurt us.

[11:23] Many people think that perfection is the fruit, and let me tell you that is not the fruit. Perfection is a state that you reach when you are called to Christ in glory. Amen?

[11:36] That's the only time it's ever going to happen. So if you think you're going to reach some form of perfection on this earth, it means you died and went to glory. Okay? That's what it means. You're not going to have perfection here.

[11:49] So what I mean by that is sometimes forgiveness is going to be a struggle. It's going to be something you have to work through. It's got something that you've got to go head to head with God, and as you give little bits and pieces to Him, I believe you will experience what we're going to talk about today, and these are the fruits of forgiveness.

[12:08] And there's one other issue I want to address with you today. It is the whole idea of forgiving oneself. We're going to look at what the Bible says about how do I forgive myself.

[12:19] Anybody ever heard that expression? Maybe it was you who said it or someone. You know, I could just never forgive myself. We're actually going to talk a little bit about that today. So I'm sure you've turned to the letter of Philemon, right?

[12:32] Just before the book of Hebrews. So I'm just going to read the last couple of verses. Today's passage is 19 to 25. So just to let you know, if you weren't here, letter to Philemon, Philemon Christian leader in Church of Colossae.

[12:49] He had a slave named Onesimus, ran away, took something very valuable from him. Remember Rome, 50% of the population were slaves.

[13:03] So in order to maintain order, in order to maintain order, the orderly Romans ordered that, sorry, I got carried away on that, that you could be put to death if you ran away as a slave.

[13:17] That's how they maintain peace and prosperity in Rome. So he's gone. And all of a sudden, he shows up at Philemon's home with a letter from Tychicus, a well-known friend of Paul's with this letter.

[13:32] And he's basically saying, hey, this man who used to be useless, who ran away, has now come back as a brother in Christ. And I'm asking you to forgive him.

[13:44] So this is where it says, I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it. And he's talking about, what is he going to repay? He's going to repay what Onesimus owes him.

[13:57] The damage of the sin that Onesimus has done. But then he reminds him to say, nothing of you, you're owing me, even your own self. So somewhere along the line, guess who saved or led Philemon to Christ?

[14:12] Paul, right? Paul gave up something for Philemon to know the wondrous love of Christ. And he says, yes, brother, I want some benefit from you and the Lord. And he says something.

[14:24] So, and we're going to mine in on this a little bit. Refresh my heart in Christ. I was just thinking about that this morning. Who says that, right? Hey, Dustin, I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks, man.

[14:36] And refresh my heart in Christ, right? We don't say that. But if there's a word or a greeting we would love to give, this is the kind of greeting we'd want to give to one another, all right?

[14:48] And we're going to hear why in a bit. So it says, refresh my heart in Christ. And he says, confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.

[14:59] At the same time, prepare a guest room for me. For I am hoping that through your prayers, I will be graciously given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you.

[15:12] Epaphras was from this congregation. And so do Mark, Arctus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. From verse 9, we understand that the first fruit of forgiveness is humility.

[15:28] The first fruit of forgiveness is humility. This is Paul not giving Philemon some sort of smackdown or letting him know who's the big boss.

[15:44] Hey, I'm the apostle. You're just a little guy. But he's reminding him, yeah, Onesimus does owe you something. And I will cover his debts.

[15:56] But you owe me something. And that is a spiritual fact. I think when it comes to the forgiveness, we owe someone so much more than we've been sinned against.

[16:07] Amen? There's this interesting person that I got to meet many years ago. They were a doctor, quite young, quite established. They spoke six languages.

[16:18] And they were so bored being a top-of-line medical doctor. This is down in the States. They decided to get their MBA from one of the top schools at the same time. And this person gets to speak all over the world.

[16:29] And a believer, and it made the comment that he said that there was an arrogance to him. And I pointed this out.

[16:40] And I said, even though I appreciate all the great and amazing things that you've done, after getting to know your parents, I said, your parents really put you in a great position of life, didn't they?

[16:52] And they were kind of shocked by that. I said, well, your dad immigrated from overseas, came with nothing, built himself up, built a medical practice. And what he decided he would do for his kids is that he wanted them to have a life that he came from a very war-torn country.

[17:09] It's been in war since, I think, the 70s. It just, it knows nothing but destruction. Dad moved them there and I said, your parents did a lot for you.

[17:20] And they were kind of put off by that. Well, look what I've worked. I said, no, you've been to private schools. You've had the best education. In fact, I found out that the first job that they ever had was being a doctor.

[17:31] You can believe that, right? Never having to worry about what you're going to do for the summer. And I said, you know, that's all because of God's grace. And I think that's the same thing with us.

[17:44] Where we are before God is really by the grace of God. Amen? For us to take credit, hey, I'm a real forgiving person. There's a little bit of an arrogance in that.

[17:59] We aren't where we are because we're perfect. But we have been forgiven as well and most prominently by God. When our reaction to being hurt or offended is to wallow in self-pity, looking for attention or pridefully demanding justice, is an indication that we have forgotten what we've been forgiven of.

[18:25] You see, when we forgive, we don't magnify the offense. We minimize it. As we forgive, we will not demand our fair share. We will be willing to release past hurts and never speak of them again.

[18:42] Think about this letter that Philemon is receiving. What next Sunday is going to look like for him? His slave, Onesimus, is going to be there worshiping beside him as a brother in Christ and not a slave.

[19:01] You get that? He's now joined to him eternally, and he's going to be sharing that worship with him. You see, humility will cause us not to take the offense personally any more than Jesus takes our sin personally.

[19:18] But pride wants to demand eye-for-eye judgment. God does not. One of my favorite books and movies is the story of the Count of Monte Cristo.

[19:31] If you're familiar with the story, he is robbed. His quote-unquote best friend desires the woman that he loves, so he fixes him up and he goes to prison for decades.

[19:41] And he finally comes out, and at the point of finding out that the woman that he loved is still alive and has a son, he makes his comment, he says, when he's being pressed for forgiveness, and he says, don't take my hate from me.

[20:01] Don't take my hate from me. That's part of forgiving, is it not? It's to say, hey, I'm giving up that right to hate. I'm giving up the right to hurt negatively towards that person.

[20:14] So the first fruit of forgiveness is humility. A forgiving person is a humble person. The next fruit of forgiveness is mercy. Forgiveness, fruit of forgiveness is mercy.

[20:27] Verse 20 says, Brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. What Paul is wanting to see from Philemon is mercy.

[20:42] I was in high school. I was grade 10, and I still remember my first pair of Nikes. You know that? First pair of Nikes. We didn't have a lot of money, so I took a job working at McDonald's.

[20:57] Cook and grill, Big Mac, and I saved up my money, and I bought these pair of Nike Pegasus running shoes, and I was so very proud of them. Within a month, they got stolen out of my locker.

[21:10] But the thing is, and we had a pretty big school. It was over 1,000 people. I had a special device put in because I've got bad ankles, so I could see that my shoes look different than other people's shoes.

[21:24] So guess what? I saw the guy wearing my Nikes, right? So I tried to beat him up. So I got hauled into the principal's office, and it turned out the principal was a believer, and I did not know this until I was at one of my other churches, and his daughter was there.

[21:44] And she shared to me, but he asked me something. He pulled me into his office, and he says, will you have mercy on him? Will you have mercy on him and not demand anything more?

[21:58] And I remember, I'm like grade 10, right? That's a lot to put on a little grade 10, right? So I got my shoes back, but God did something.

[22:08] I didn't want to hate him, and I actually got to know him a little bit. And I wasn't a good friend, but I ended up golfing with him years later. He was in this foursome, and he says, do you remember me?

[22:21] And I said, yeah, I do. And he just said, thank you for forgiving me. And this is like 10 years after the fact, right? So Onesimus comes before Philemon. He says, Philemon is, or Onesimus is a changed man.

[22:34] He is a brother, and he's not just so one that works for him, one who was a thief and useless, as Paul calls him, but he's now a brother who would sit at the communion table with Philemon.

[22:48] And I think that word mercy best describes God's heart towards us, does it not? Mercy. We see it in the last supper.

[23:01] Jesus knows who's going to betray him. It talks about he takes this piece of bread and he dips it, and he gives it to Judas. And in case you didn't notice, that is the act of honor.

[23:15] He's given Judas one last chance. I will treat you, no matter what you've done, you can repent right now. Take this bread.

[23:28] We know what Judas did, but even right to the very end, Jesus showed mercy. John 3.17 says, For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

[23:48] that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Amen? You see, mercy will be shown in you pleading to grant forgiveness.

[24:00] Mercy is what the father of the prodigal son displayed to his wayward son. And as God is eager to show mercy to us, so should we show mercy to others.

[24:14] In restoring, we will not be harsh. We will not remind them of their sin. We will not ask them to make penance. We will accept their repentance, and that will be the end of it.

[24:26] We will not ask them to do it generously, eagerly, and abundantly, because that's what God does for us. So the first fruit of forgiveness, we see, is humility.

[24:39] The second fruit of forgiveness is mercy. And the third fruit of forgiveness is joy. It's joy. So going back to verse 20, Refresh my heart in Christ.

[24:53] That whole idea of refreshment that he's bringing up is the idea of a man who's been toiling all day, a soldier after a long march comes, and he's at the point where he's run out of water, he's ready to die, and then he finally finds that oasis in the desert, and he just throws that water on him.

[25:18] How refreshing that is, right? I remember we were actually hiking in the Alps when I was a kid on a missions trip, and we got lost. And I remember all day long in the, just burnt, and I remember we ended up finding a cave that had this spring water, and to this day, to me, that was the most refreshing, purest water ever drank in my life.

[25:41] Right? After being out for like 12, 14 hours with not enough water. So that's what Paul is saying here. Paul is talking about a man who had offended Philemon, who he had forgiven, and was now asking to forgive him, lest he be driven to excessive sorrow.

[26:02] That's from 2 Corinthians 2, 7. And you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Our role is to refresh those who come into forgiveness.

[26:15] You know that? It's to release them. Nothing would bring Paul more joy than to have Philemon forgive Onesimus. If that was going on today, Paul would be at his prison internet looking for the selfie.

[26:31] Right? Philemon and Onesimus together forgiven, giving him a nuggie or something like that. Right? Just buddies. That would refresh, right? I remember just in university, a quick story in my life.

[26:46] There was a young lady. I was a resident Don in charge of a residence. And there was this one girl who, to say it in very vernacular terms, was a real pain in the rear to deal with.

[26:56] Just constant needy over false accusations. It was just one drama after another. Years later, she's sharing her testimony and she mentions my name.

[27:07] And so a friend of mine calls me and says, hey, there's this girl who shared your name at your testimony. And I went up and I said that I knew you. So she was talking about the pain that she was.

[27:19] And I can honestly say that was a refreshing time of worship because I came the next Sunday and visited her at church where she's still at and still a fruitful member. It was just good to see someone that was a real pain in the butt now be released to Christ.

[27:34] That's God with me. Right? Before, when I was a sinner, I was a pain in the butt. But God lifted my burden.

[27:47] And we become joyful at our loved one's response, their repentance. We will be eager to bring joy to one another. Ezekiel 18.23 says that God takes no pleasure in the punishment of the wicked, but delights when the wicked repent.

[28:05] This is our God. Guess what? This is actually written in the Old Testament, not the New Testament. You guys have heard that a lot, right? Old Testament God, really bad God. Stay away from that Old Testament God.

[28:17] You hear a lot of quote-unquote Christians say, hey man, I'm a New Testament God, not a New Testament Christian, not an Old Testament Christian. Man, you want to be an Old Testament Christian. You want to see the loving, patience, endurance that this God of the Old Testament, which is the same today, loved them so much that he provided over and over and over amongst bickering.

[28:40] There's this Old Testament scholar. It's quite interesting. He wrote one of the most formidable commentaries on the Hebrew language in the Old Testament. And his son followed him in his footsteps like every, I'm sure, father at some point would want his son to do.

[28:55] But his son lost his faith along the way that he gave up the study. And he says, I could no longer submit to studying this God that he thought was cruel.

[29:06] And I thought, man, talk about a guy who missed the whole picture of the Old Testament, that he would be a scholar and understand everything, the patience, the long-suffering, the love, the mercy that God poured out on a sinful people.

[29:23] The reality is when we see joy in our lives, that is the work of God in us. To not forgive is a sin and there is absolutely no joy in that.

[29:35] Luke reminds us in Luke 15, 7, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

[29:50] forgiveness. The fourth fruit of forgiveness, my friends, is love. Is love. Verse 21, Paul writes, confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.

[30:09] John 13, 35 says, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Paul knows, hey, I'm asking you to forgive him. He knows that Philemon, if he's a true believer in Christ, is going to do what he says, right?

[30:24] And he's going to love him with that. It's not going to be something that he's going to do begrudgingly, but as a leader in the church, he wants to display who Jesus Christ is. To withhold forgiveness is to withhold love.

[30:38] Paul would later remind us in 2 Corinthians 2, 8, so I beg you to reaffirm your love for him against the one who sinned against you. So how are we to show that Squamish Baptist Church is different from the world?

[30:56] It's because we have, what, really good potluck dinners? Right? Small groups? Who meets in small groups? It's forgiveness. It's forgiveness.

[31:08] It's this unity that's built out of love and forgiveness. That is how we know. So we have this first fruit, humility. Then we see a mercy, joy, love, and now the fifth fruit is obedience.

[31:25] The fifth fruit of forgiveness is obedience. Verse 21, confident of your obedience. I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.

[31:41] The reality is the more we forgive, the more natural forgiveness becomes, doesn't it? Because we tend to overlook sins as we learn to love more. You won't need to hear me preach on it as much.

[31:56] You will not need your small group to talk to you as much. In fact, my heart is that you will become a teacher of forgiveness. Yes, it's tough.

[32:10] Sometimes it's hard picking up the pieces after repentance. Sometimes it's difficult restoring to fellowship one who's hurt us. Sometimes it's hard strengthening the one who offended us.

[32:24] And sometimes it's hard to love. But we obey. I believe this is Paul's promise to us. This is God's promise to us.

[32:37] As we pursue the Lord and forgive, we will experience love, joy, mercy, humility. humility.

[32:50] And now I want to get to the question of how do I forgive myself? Has anybody ever heard this comment?

[33:01] Anybody ever heard this? Or am I the only one who's ever heard this? All right, you're not leaving me hanging. Good, good. good. This is a popular question that people ask.

[33:15] It might interest you to know that the Bible actually says absolutely nothing on how to forgive yourself. You know that? It doesn't. Nowhere does it say that or how to forgive ourselves.

[33:31] To ask that question means we are not understanding our situation before God very well. The reality is it's interesting through reading and studying most people who struggle with forgiving themselves.

[33:46] It has to do with sins that happen post-conversion rather than pre-conversion. So when we struggle with forgiving others we are actually struggling in our understanding of our sin.

[34:01] This can be a specific sin or it can be a season of sin that we've lived under experience consequences. And the best way I can illustrate this is to read you guys a story.

[34:13] So I'm going to read you guys a story that I believe perfectly exemplifies what happens when we start thinking that we need to forgive ourselves. There's this lady named Rebecca Pippert writes in this book it's called Hope Has reasons.

[34:33] And she writes and it's from a pastor's perspective. Several years ago after I had finished speaking at a conference a lovely woman came to the platform.

[34:46] She obviously wanted to speak to me and the moment I turned to her tears welled up in her eyes. We made our way to a room where we could talk privately. It was clear that she was sensitive but tortured.

[35:00] She sobbed as she told me the following story. Years before she and her fiancé to whom she is now married had been youth workers at a large conservative church.

[35:11] They were a well-known couple and an extraordinary impact on the young people. Everyone looked up to them and admired them tremendously. A few months before they were married they began having sexual relations.

[35:24] That left them burdened enough with a sense of guilt and hypocrisy. But then she discovered she was pregnant. You can't imagine what the implications would have been admitting this to our church.

[35:37] She said to confess that we were preaching one thing and living another would have been intolerable. The congregation was so conservative and had never been touched by any scandal.

[35:50] We felt that we wouldn't be able to handle knowing about our situation nor could we bear the humiliation. So we made the most excruciating decision I've ever made.

[36:02] I had an abortion. My wedding day was the worst day of my entire life. Everyone in the church was smiling at me, smiling at me, thinking me a bride beaming in innocence.

[36:16] But you know what was going through my head as I walked down the aisle? All I could think of is, you're a murderer, you're a murderer, you're a murderer. You were so proud that you couldn't bear the shame and humiliation of being exposed for what you are.

[36:34] But I know what you are and so does God. You have murdered an innocent baby. At this point, this woman was now sobbing so deeply that she could not speak.

[36:46] As I put my arms around her, a thought came to me very strongly, but I was afraid to say it. I knew that if it was not from God, it could be very destructive. So I prayed silently for the wisdom to help her.

[36:59] She continued, I just can't believe that I could do something so horrible. How could I have murdered an innocent life?

[37:11] How is it possible I could do such a thing? I love my husband. We have four beautiful children. children. I know the Bible says that God forgives all our sins, but I can't forgive myself.

[37:27] I've confessed this sin a thousand times, and I still feel much shame and sorrow. The thought that haunts me the most is, how could I murder an innocent life?

[37:39] I took a deep breath and said what I was been thinking. I don't know why you are so surprised, I said. This isn't the first time your sin has led to death.

[37:51] It's the second. She looked at me in utter amazement. My dear friend, I continued, when you look at the cross, all of us show up as crucifiers, religious or non-religious, good or bad, abortors or non-aborters.

[38:11] All of us are responsible for the death of the only innocent person that ever lived. Jesus died for all our sins, past, present and future.

[38:28] Do you think there are any sins of yours that Jesus didn't have to die for? The very sin of pride that caused you to destroy your child is what killed Christ as well.

[38:40] It does not matter that you weren't there 2,000 years ago. We all sent him there. The great theologian Luther said that we all carry the very nails in our pockets.

[38:54] So if you have done it before, then why couldn't you do it again? She stopped crying. She looked at me straight in the eyes and said, you're absolutely right.

[39:07] I have done something even worse than killing my baby. My sin is what drove Jesus to the cross. It doesn't matter that I wasn't there pounding in the nails, but I'm still responsible for his death.

[39:21] Do you realize the significance of what you are telling me? I came to you saying that I had done the worst thing imaginable and you tell me that I even did something worse.

[39:36] I grimaced because I knew this was true. then she said, if the cross shows me that I am far worse than I ever imagined and also shows me that my evil can be absorbed and forgiven.

[39:54] If the worst thing a human can do is kill God's son and that can be forgiven, then how can anything else, even my abortion, not be forgiven?

[40:07] I will never forget the look in her eyes as she sat back in awe and quietly said, talk about amazing grace.

[40:21] This time she wept not out of sorrow but from relief and gratitude. I saw a woman literally transformed by a proper understanding of the cross.

[40:34] My friends, I am here to tell you without a proper understanding of the cross, we will never understand forgiveness.

[40:45] It is the why we preach Jesus Christ crucified. Amen? I am going to ask the worship team to come up. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.