[0:00] This message was preached by Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church in Alfreda, Georgia. The title of this message is, The Forgiven Forgive.
[0:14] Well, take your Bibles if you would and open them to the book of Philemon. I am very honored to be able to be here with you today. It's great to be in McEwen, and my wife corrected me. We did come back here one time after we got married.
[0:28] So, as always, I'm wrong and she is right. And if you've been married long, you know that. There's two ways a man can be right or a man can be happy.
[0:39] Amen? And if he wants to be happy, he'll let her be right. But I am so glad to be here. Thank you. I was sitting here. There's all kinds of thoughts running through my head as I consider this church.
[0:51] I don't know how many hours I spent on my knees at this altar. There's a lot of youth prayer meetings on Sunday afternoons and youth revivals and all sorts of places, things that happened here.
[1:05] And I sure thank God for it. And I congratulate you on all the improvements. It's not quite the same place I used to run around and play in. And so I really thank the Lord for this church and for you.
[1:16] My mother is here and my sister. Would you all hold your hand up right back there? They came. And then my brother and his wife are here. You can hold your hand up there. You can't see them. They're here. And I'm glad that we're able to be here today and to be with you.
[1:29] I want to take the next few minutes and show you one of the most exciting stories in the Bible. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Philemon. And we're going to read the whole book of Philemon.
[1:40] Philemon chapter 1. Philemon chapter 1. Well, all the chapter of the Bible says, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Aphia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in the house.
[2:01] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
[2:23] For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, which I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and me, to whom I shall have sent again.
[2:59] Thou therefore receive him that is mine own bowels, whom I have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.
[3:16] For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
[3:30] If thou count me therefore as a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or owe it thee, ought, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it.
[3:43] Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest thou unto me, even thine own self besides. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord. Refresh my bowels in the Lord.
[3:54] Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. But withal, prepare me also a lodging, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.
[4:07] There salute thee. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, and Marcus, and Aristarchus, and Demas, and Lucas, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
[4:19] Amen. Father, I pray now that you would bless this time together in your word. And I pray, God, that you would bless your people here, those that you have saved, those whose lives you're working in.
[4:30] And I pray, God, for those that might not know you yet in the full pardon of sin. I pray, God, that today you might save them, and I'll give you great honor and glory and praise for all that you do. In Jesus' precious name, amen.
[4:43] There's a wild story here. I'm sure you know the story pretty good. But let me kind of tell you the story and what I would say everywhere I preach around the world. I always tell them I'm going to say this in Tennessee Hillbilly. But I guess here I'll just talk like y'all talk, amen, because I still am one of you.
[4:57] But anyway, there's a guy in the story. His name is Philemon. He's a very rich landowner, and he's got slaves. And one of his slaves is a guy named Onesimus. And Onesimus one day breaks away from home and runs away.
[5:10] He's an escaped slave and probably tore up some stuff and broke free. Property is gone. And he ends up somehow finding Paul, and together they're in jail.
[5:23] And Onesimus, they're all there, and Paul's talking about Jesus. Because Paul can't help but talk about Jesus. He's the preacher of the good news. He's the one that can tell you no matter where you're from, no matter what you've done, God can save you.
[5:35] God can change you. God can fix your life. And so Onesimus hears the good news and gets saved. And while they're talking one day, Onesimus says, well, you know, Paul, he said, he said, I really got a messed up past.
[5:48] And Paul said, really? He said, yeah, I'm a runaway slave. And Paul said, well, you know, you ought not have done that. And they got to talking, and Onesimus says, yeah, well, my owner, Philemon, I'm afraid he'll kill me if I go back.
[6:01] And Paul said, who'd you say was your owner? He said, my owner's a guy named Philemon. Paul said, Philemon, Philemon's my buddy. I led him to Christ just like I led you to Christ. And so I know old Philemon.
[6:12] And so then he writes a letter to Philemon. He puts it in Onesimus' hand, and he sends another one of his guys with him. And all of a sudden, this escaped slave is on his way back home, and he's going to run the risk of losing his life.
[6:26] He's going to walk right back into Philemon's house and say, Philemon, Philemon, please don't kill me. Runaway slaves got killed. But as he walked back in the house, he walks in the house, he hands him a letter.
[6:38] And here's what Paul said. Philemon, I led this guy to the Christ in the jail. And Philemon, I want you to know that he was a slave, but now he's a brother in Christ.
[6:50] And Philemon, I know he probably owes you a lot. But let me remind you, you owe me a lot. Because you were on your way to hell when I talked to you. And now you got saved, and you're on your way to heaven.
[7:02] So if he happens to owe you anything, I want you to put that on my account. And please don't forget that if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have anything, because you'd be going to hell.
[7:12] So don't forget me. So there's a great big lesson here. There's two big lessons I want to get across to you that I'd have you take home with you today. And I wish you'd repeat this with me, and maybe you'd write this down.
[7:24] Are you ready? Could you say this with me? The forgiven forgive. How many of you could say that? The forgiven forgive. Say that again with me. Forgiven. Forgiven. Now, how many of you have been forgiven? Say amen.
[7:35] Amen. If you've been forgiven, hold your hand up. All right, now then. Here's a big problem we have. Just to be honest with you, we Christians, and us Baptists in particular, we're not the forgiven kind.
[7:46] We still remember what somebody did to us in 1822. And we might have forgotten a little bit, but not really. And we might have forgiven a little bit, but not really.
[7:59] And sometimes that messes up the way we think God forgives us. And we don't understand forgiveness. And so I'm also going to show you a big word called imputation that I want you to maybe write down if you write stuff down.
[8:12] Imputation, it's a big word that talks about that. And so if you've got a Bible, I'm going to show you several verses, and we'll look at this story. If you would, go with me to 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. Now, this is the most exciting news anybody could ever hear.
[8:26] We are forgiven when we don't deserve to be forgiven. Now, can I tell you, when Onesimus shows back up at Philemon's house, Philemon has every right to kill him.
[8:37] How many of you ever heard of that movie Spartacus? You know, where the slaves all rebelled and they end up killing all the slaves? That was based on a true story. Those slaves rebelled. All this bad stuff happened.
[8:48] And so there was a tremendous amount of pressure on people to take and make sure slaves didn't get the idea they could run away. To make sure slaves didn't think they could steal some money out of the kitchen cupboard and take off running.
[9:01] And so Onesimus really deserved to die. It was the law of the land. He should have died. And so he goes back and Philemon forgives him. Now, could I say before we read the verse that the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
[9:17] And the Bible says there is none righteous, nobody good, not a one anywhere in the world. Everybody is messed up. Could you say amen right there? I'll tell people like this. I tell people, when I've talked to them, I said you stunk when he found you.
[9:32] And you still stink. And you'd stink if it wasn't for him cleaning you up. Amen. Some of us get the idea. Some of us get the idea, well, you know, I'm a pretty good guy now. No, you're not. If it wasn't for Jesus, you'd still be stinky.
[9:44] It's the grace and the goodness of God. Now, look if you went at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. The Bible says, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
[10:00] Now, you need to look at that verse with me just a second. Don't leave it. Let me show you something. How do we get saved? How do we look in God's eyes?
[10:13] I'll be honest with you. I was raised to believe in Baptist purgatory. I know they never called it that. But I was afraid of going to heaven. Because you know they've been keeping records on us.
[10:24] And every word we've been saying and every little thought. And I used to think, man, we're going to get to heaven. I'm going to get my backside beat for the first million years. And if I can make it through a million years, I'll be all right. But that's not what the Bible teaches.
[10:36] I'm going to show you that. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, look at what the verse says. The verse said that he took him who knew no sin. Now, who was that? Would you talk to me?
[10:47] Who was it that knew no sin? Jesus. Jesus knew no sin. Look at it. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
[10:58] Jesus knew no sin. And God made him sin. Now, look what else happened. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
[11:09] What did he make us? Could I get help with that? What did he make us? He made us the righteousness of God in him. Now, so when you look at me, the fact is, if you were my son, if you were Margie Gunn, and you knew all the bad stuff I did as a little boy here, and you would always go in and tell Carolyn and Charles and tell everything I was doing wrong, and all the stuff, you know, goes on, you'd have a whole lot of stories about me.
[11:34] I'm going to tell you, God doesn't have all those stories about me. I'll show you that. When I was a pastor in the first church, I started in a city in Cartersville. One day, the old gentleman in the church, he was kind of like my right arm.
[11:48] He'd help me start the church. I was 23, he was 65, and at about 25, he came to see me one day. I was 25 years old. He came to see me one day, and he said, preacher, what do you do with that kid in the Sunday school who will not, will not sit still and listen, and he will not obey?
[12:06] I said, you just tell him he better, or we're going to talk to his parents. He said, well, what if you're afraid of his parents? And I said, well, you just tell me. I ain't afraid of them.
[12:17] I'll go tell them. He said, you are his parent. I said, I can promise you this. Before the day's over, he will be more afraid of me than you are of me.
[12:31] I can fix that. But look what happens in the verse. You know what God did on Calvary? God took your sin, and he took all of your sin, and he placed it on Jesus. And he made Jesus to be sin.
[12:42] He knew no sin. He had never sinned. Never sinned. And Isaiah chapter 53, he placed, he lifted our sin and put it on Jesus, and Jesus became sin and paid for sin he didn't know.
[12:53] How many of you believe that? Say amen. Whoa. You don't really, you got to get the next part of it, though. Guess what the other part of the equation is? Then he took all the goodness and all the righteousness of Jesus, and he put that on your account.
[13:06] And that's called imputation. And so what happened, that's not true about you if you're not saved. That ain't true about everybody. Some of you this morning, your account's still stinky.
[13:17] Some of you, your account's still in bad shape. But if you're born again, you know, by the way, some of you say, well, we get to heaven. I wonder what he's going to find in the book. I tell you what he's going to find in my book. When he goes to open my book, and the judge says, let's open Austin's book.
[13:30] Let's see what's in Austin's book. Here's what he's going to find out. We are righteous, not because of what we did, but because of what Jesus did.
[13:42] That ought to make us happy. That's why the Bible calls it gospel. That means good news. We can be excited because somebody who did not deserve to be saved was saved. Onesimus, go tell Philemon.
[13:55] Onesimus, you go tell Philemon that though you did wrong and you deserve to die, he owes me his life. And so whatever you owe, put it on my account.
[14:07] And so Philemon gets in there. And I can just see Philemon saying, boys, get the swords, get the spears, get the whip. I'm fixing to take it out on him. He said, hold on, got a letter for you to read. Uh-oh.
[14:20] Yeah, I do owe him. Let it go, guys. Put all the stuff up. Not going to happen because what was Paul's was now on Onesimus' account.
[14:32] You get the story? Next verse, would you read with me? Go, if you would, with me to Romans chapter 10 and verse 4. This is all introduction, and we got about 15 minutes to get the rest of it, but you watch this, this beautiful stuff.
[14:44] You got to remember the forgiven forgive, but you got to know first you're forgiven. In Romans 10 and 4, the Bible says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
[14:56] For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You know what he's saying there? Is I no longer have to keep rules to be righteous. I no longer have to keep rules.
[15:09] I no longer have to, I got to do this and do this. Somehow, we bought into this bill of goods where in heaven someday God's going to say, here's all his good and here's all his bad, and let's hope his good outweighs his bad.
[15:20] That's not the story in the Bible. The story in the Bible is your bad outweighs anything. In fact, it's your goods on the stinky side. Your righteousness is as filthy rags.
[15:31] And he comes down and he says, I'm going to take all of your filth, and I'm going to put that on Jesus. I'm going to take all of Jesus' goodness and put that on you. And that's what salvation is. And that ought to be an exciting thing for all of us.
[15:43] In Romans chapter 4 and verse 5, it says, To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
[15:54] Now, I really would love to tell you a lot of stories from the Bible. It would just excite the fire to you, but I don't have time. But let me tell you one. Romans chapter 4. You've got to check me out later.
[16:04] You've got to go read it and make sure, find out I'm telling you the truth. But in Romans chapter 4, there's the word in Romans chapter 4, the Bible says in verse 22, And therefore it was imputed to him, it was counted to him for righteousness.
[16:19] And here's the story. Now listen, I need you to listen to this. Abraham was told that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham was told that he would have a lot of sons, and Abraham believed God.
[16:32] And he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. This is the beautiful story of grace. Are you ready? It's the beautiful story of grace. When you read Romans chapter 4, the Bible says he never wavered.
[16:45] He always knew that God would complete his promise. He was fully persuaded that God would do all this good. So go read the last part of Romans chapter 4. And every word of it is, he never got weak in the faith.
[16:58] He never doubted. But you know that story, what he says in Romans 4 is really not the truth. Hang on. That's really not the truth. It's the truth in grace, but it's not the truth in law.
[17:13] Would you listen to me? Watch this. In the Old Testament story, Abraham was sitting there, and God said, You're going to have children. And so Abraham waited, and no children were born. And finally Abraham said, Hey, Lord, I need to talk to you.
[17:23] And they had a prayer meeting, and he said, Lord, it looks like you're not coming through. It looks like what you promised me ain't happening, so I got this servant here, and I'd like him to be my seed, so that what you said would happen would happen, because you obviously ain't coming through.
[17:39] And God said, No, that ain't happening. You're not going to use him. I said you was going to have a, I said you was going to have children. Okay, Lord. You sure? Because you serve, I don't know.
[17:49] I'm beginning to doubt. The Bible says in Romans chapter 4 that he never even considered the deadness of his wife's womb. And then one day he and his wife were talking, and he wanted a baby so bad.
[18:00] His wife said, Honey, I don't know what we're going to do about getting a baby, because it ain't happening. And so they got to talking about it, and she said, What about if you took my maid, Hagar, and slept with her, and you'd have a baby there?
[18:12] And Abraham said, Sounds like a good idea. You know, God's going to need a little help on this one, because I got doubts. And they went and had a baby with Hagar. And then God said, I don't want that baby. I told you I was going to give you a baby.
[18:24] And Abraham was like, Well, I'm telling you, I'm 100 years old, my wife's 90, and she can't have babies no more. And then God came and said, The angel said, In one year you'll have a baby.
[18:34] And Abraham laughed. Sure. But when God writes the story in Romans 4, you've got to get this. This will change your life. When he writes the story in Romans 4, here's what he said.
[18:46] Abraham never doubted me one time. Because guess what grace does? It erases all your filthy, stupid messes up and puts him aside. And he only looks and sees the grace of God working in your life.
[18:59] And all of a sudden, I want to say, Hey, he did consider. He did consider the deadness of a wound. And he did doubt. And he wasn't fully persuaded. And here's what the Lord Jesus says. Oh no, he did the right thing.
[19:12] Because grace sees past my messes. Doesn't just forget them, but fixes them. You get the, boy, it's a wonderful story. You're here today and you wonder, I wonder if God had ever, forgive me, you remember some stuff.
[19:27] You did, be honest. You know your own self that when you hear the pastor preach and you read the Bible and you hear about grace, you're like, I'm not sure that God really would forgive me. There's some things I don't think God could forgive me of.
[19:41] And I'm going to tell you, if you read Romans chapter 4 and you see the grace story, you'll be like, what a God we serve. Y'all remember David. David looks over the battlements of his house, looks down and sees a woman taking a bath.
[19:52] You know the story of David and Bathsheba ends up committing adultery and killing her husband. Did you know after he's dead, God said, I ain't had a guy like David love me with all his heart. I'm like, that guy was a jerk.
[20:06] He's a murderer and a fornicator and an adulterer and a pervert. I don't know how you can say that, but grace can say, God forgives. Look in your Bible if you would. Let me give you three things now real quickly and I'll finish.
[20:21] Philemon 1, 18. Write this down if you take notes. We owed a debt we couldn't pay. In Philemon 1, 18, he said, If he hath wronged thee or owe it thee ought, put that on mine account.
[20:36] I, Paul, have written it with my own hand. I will repay it, albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest me even thine own self. Onesimus is in deep debt to Philemon.
[20:48] He's a runaway slave. He deserves to die. He most likely stole something while he was leaving. And Paul says, Hey, Onesimus did wrong and Onesimus deserves to be punished, but when he comes to your house, I want you to treat him like the Apostle Paul just got there.
[21:06] Huh. You know, can you imagine what happens when a runaway slave shows up at the house? I mean, can you not hear them as they're in the house watching TV?
[21:17] They're in the house watching TV and drinking, got the air conditioner going and one of the maids runs in and says, Hey, Onesimus, the runaway slave is coming down the driveway. He's coming home. Can't you imagine as Philemon jumps up and says, Get the guards, grab that guy.
[21:31] We're going to get him. He ran away. He's in trouble. He gets to reading a letter and he says, Oh, would you like a guest bedroom? Let me get you the best guest bedroom I got because it's on Paul's account.
[21:43] You don't deserve to go to heaven. You don't deserve to be forgiven and you don't deserve salvation, but you're going to get it all on Jesus's account. That's what imputation means.
[21:54] Look if you would in Philemon chapter one, Philemon chapter one and verse 20. Now we have been blessed so we can bless others. Remember this, the forgiven, what do the forgiven do?
[22:06] Forgive. Now I want you to realize, you know, I think we all revel and love it. How many of you just love it that we're forgiven? Say amen. I mean, when you think about, when you think about all the dumb stuff you've done, when you think about how you deserve to go to hell and he forgave you, you have got to be astonished.
[22:26] What a good God. He forgave me. Amen. But it doesn't stop there. Philemon had been forgiven, but now it was time for him to forgive because the forgiven, forgive.
[22:42] Sometimes we're highly critical and judgmental of everybody that walks around because we're saints now and we're forgiven and we become almost like Baptist Pharisees. thinking we're somebody when we ought to be forgiven forgivers.
[22:57] We ought to be forgiven forgivers. Chapter one, verse 20, Philemon 120. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord.
[23:08] Refresh my bowels in the Lord. Now listen, Philemon, I'm sitting in Onesimus and he deserves to die and I know he deserves to die, but you've been forgiven and so I'm asking you to put his guilt on your account.
[23:23] I want you to forgive him. His forgiveness, Philemon's forgiveness should motivate him to forgive Onesimus. We ought to forgive others because we have been forgiven.
[23:34] Younger Christians ought to see in our lives that we are forgivers. When God wants to teach an Old Testament lesson, he always shows it by having somebody live it out and God's going to teach his people to forgive watching you.
[23:49] The older people in this room are teaching the young people a lot of lessons because they're learning from you. Do you forgive those people that did you wrong? Do you live out this salvation? Do you live out this forgiveness?
[24:01] Philemon 121. Having confidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. We forgive because we obey our Father.
[24:13] We forgive because we obey our Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Real quickly, Matthew 18, 21, Peter goes to Jesus and he says, How many times do I have to forgive the guy that sins against me?
[24:26] I think a good idea would be seven times to Jesus. How about that? I'll forgive him seven times. As a boy growing up, I do not know where I heard it, but some guy preached and he said, as Christians, we're to turn the other cheek.
[24:38] You let him hit you here, you let him hit you here, and then you hit him there. One, two, bam. But here's what the Bible said. Peter said, Jesus, we want to be real good. We'll let him go seven times.
[24:50] And Jesus said, No, I tell you, 70 times seven is how many times I want you to forgive. He taught it all the time. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 7, So that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such one would be swallowed up in over much sorrow.
[25:08] We forgive. That guy is the 1 Corinthians 5 guy most likely who slept with his daddy's wife and the church disciplined him. But Paul says in 2 Corinthians, forgive him.
[25:21] Forgive him. For the sake of time, just let me say this. Would you repeat this with me? The forgiven forgive.
[25:33] Could you say it with me? The forgiven forgive. Say it again with me. The forgiven forgive. Maybe I'll stop and just say this. I have preached in many, many places, countries and cities and states.
[25:47] And it is amazing how much bitterness is in the hearts of God's people. They're bitter at some pastor that did them wrong. They don't go to church because a pastor did them wrong.
[26:00] They don't go to church because a deacon did them wrong. They don't go to church because a Sunday school teacher did them wrong. They don't go to church because somebody else did them wrong. It doesn't matter. They're just bitter.
[26:11] They claim to be saved. They claim to know Jesus. They claim to be forgiven. But they're just some things you can't forgive for. That's what they'd say.
[26:22] Jesus told a story about a man who went in and he owed him 10,000 talents.
[26:35] It's the equivalent of a few billion dollars in today's economy. There was no way an individual could ever repay. This is Bernie Madoff, the guy who did the big Ponzi scheme.
[26:48] This is the richest guy in the world owing more money than he could ever come up with in his life. And he went in and the ruler said, you will pay me every dime you owe me right now or I'm going to put you in jail.
[27:03] I'm going to sell everything you have. I'm going to put your wife in jail and I'm going to torture you until you pay me. And I said, please, please, have mercy on me.
[27:14] Don't do me that way. Don't treat me that way. Please, if you'll give me time, I'll pay you back. The ruler knew there was no way he could ever pay it back. The ruler knew there was no way he could ever pay it back.
[27:26] And so the ruler who represents the Father, God, said, I'll forgive you. And he forgave him a debt he could not pay. He walked out the front door of the palace and he found a guy coming across the road that owed him three months minimum wage.
[27:46] I don't know, $4,000, $5,000. He grabbed the guy by the throat, body slammed him to the ground, started yelling at him, said, you pay me what you owe me or I'll kill you.
[27:59] I'll lock you in jail. I'll have your wife. You've had it. Pay me. I mean it. Pay me. And the guy started saying, please, have mercy on me. Forgive me. I'll pay you if you'll give me time.
[28:11] And he said, no way. And he threw him in jail. The other servants ran back in the palace and said, the guy you just forgave for $10 million or $2 billion or $3 billion over $4,500 wouldn't forgive another guy.
[28:26] He said, go get him. And he brought him in and said, turn him over to the torturers. Now you don't lose your salvation, but he was trying to teach us a big lesson. Salvation is not up for grabs.
[28:37] You're not going to lose your salvation, but a lot of us are locked in prisons that's hurting us worse than it's hurting the person we're bitter about. You're suffering at the hands of torturers. Did you know you're a forgiven person?
[28:49] And the forgiven forgive. Who is it? Is it your uncle? Who is it? Your mother? Who is it? Your daddy? Who is it? Somebody at work?
[29:00] Who is it? The president? You're forgiven and you're forgiven for something you could have never repaid. And if you'll consider how big your forgiveness is, the little forgiveness you've got to give is nothing in comparison.
[29:12] The forgiven forgive. The forgiven forgive. I'll tell you something. God's churches are shrinking.
[29:25] We don't have the people. The joy's gone out a lot of times because we're bitter, crotchety, old people hurt by somebody and we won't put our feelings on an altar and say I've been forgiven and I'll forgive.
[29:48] Now I got a lot of really good memories from McEwen but I got a lot of really bad ones too. I mean, you know, I got taken in, the band director took me in I went in the band room and there was like 30 or 40 people in that room and nobody was in there and I grabbed his baton and I got up and acted like I was directing the band and everybody was playing along making fun of me and all of a sudden everybody got real quiet and put their instruments down and I had no idea and I was going ding, ding, ding, ding like he did trying to get their attention and all of a sudden he goes and I went and I turned around and he said I'll see you at 3 o'clock in my office and I go in there and I got my three licks and I said I just asked one thing don't tell my daddy because my daddy's philosophy was whatever they do to you at school I'll do more at home they don't believe that anymore but that's the way it was he said
[30:52] I won't tell a soul it was an hour bus ride from the school to my house when I got home my daddy already knew my friends called him and told him people out of my class I think he was at Brian Monroe's house and Brian Monroe said you won't believe what happened to Austin today I walk in the door and he says you know anything you're going to tell me I said not a thing he said how'd it go I said great day he said well you won't talk to me about the paddling you got no sir I didn't get a paddling yes you did now I'm in even bigger trouble you know the feeling I'm still bitter about that you know I say that there's bad memories you can all hey you can live on a bunch of things your daddy did you wrong your mama did you wrong life's treated you bad hadn't it and you can come up with all those things you're holding bitterness about you know who's in the jail don't you you you know who's getting beat up don't you you that person you're bitter about they don't even know you're bitter about them they forgot you they can't even remember your name but here's a principle from Jesus the forgiven the forgiven forgive the forgiven forgive so I have two questions for you are you forgiven
[32:12] I don't know if all of you are but I want you to know he loves you and he paid every bit of your sin debt and he stands ready to save you when the prodigal son was coming back from the pig pen after having wasted everything he knew the father would be angry with him and he was just going to say I know I don't deserve to be your son but when he started getting close to the house his dad took off running and hugged him and pulled him to himself and the boy's trying to tell him he doesn't deserve to be there and the father is hugging him and said kill the fatty calf bring me the robe give me the ring my boys come home that's the father we got you're here and you're not saved he's waiting for you come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden I'll give you rest so if you're not saved today the pastor will be here in a minute you could be put your trust in Jesus and what he did on the cross but then I'll say to the second group I figure the majority of us are saved isn't it time to quit being bitter I don't want to be a bitter old man
[33:15] I want to be one of those sweet people I stayed with two of the sweetest people in the world last night hidden Margie Gunn is sweet and kind great impact in my life I want to be sweet like that I want to be sweet I want to know that my I want to know that I've been forgiven but I have forgiven I want to know that I'm keeping no accounts because he keeps no accounts with me I ask you to repeat it one more time and I'll pray the forgiven one more time the forgiven Father in heaven would you help us to love you and trust you and believe in you God would you help us to believe with all our hearts that you have forgiven us help people to be saved today and help those that are saved today help them dear Lord Jesus to forgive and I'll give you praise for it all with your heads bowed and your eyes closed the pastor will come you have been listening to Austin Gardner pastor of Vision Baptist Church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.VisionBaptist.com
[34:26] Thank you.