Pete McKenzie
All right. Okay, buddy, have a great trip. Anybody else got announcement?
being a Christian man wanna
Unknown Speaker
ride?
Pete McKenzie
Just Yo, Kava average ordinary life, this Christian life.
All you got to do is read the Sermon on the Mount feel like something’s different going on here. Jesus requires a lot of those who follow him. How many of you guys are watching that series on TV called chosen? Raise your hand. Rest, you guys are out of God’s will. I watched a lot of Jesus movies and they’ve been good and the 10 commandments was on the other day. And that’s always a great movie to watch. I’ve never seen anything though, that smooth me like the chosen. You can go to your phone and download an app called the chosen. And it’ll take you right there. And it’s totally free. I mean, you can donate if you want to, but is totally free to watch. They finished first season I think there were about eight episodes. And I think it’s moved me the most because I’ve read the story and taught on the paralytic that they dropped down through the roof because there’s too big a crowd and put him in front of Jesus. And Jesus said Your sins are forgiven and got him in trouble. And then he healed him to prove that he had the power and authority to forgive sin. But what moved me was watching Jesus, and then watching the people that he healed the lepers, casting the demon out of Mary, who was called Lilith as a prostitute and she was demon possessed. And he cast a demon out of her and just see the change in her life. And just say the woman at the well when he told her everything about her and she said you’re living with a man you’re not married to and you’ve had five husbands. Well, you’d have to know more than that. And he started naming her husbands. And to see her life change, she became giddy. She ran in the town when she was at the well because she didn’t want to hit the noon de hour because she didn’t want to be around the other women, they always spit on her and called her names and put her down. And after Jesus set her free, she ran into Samaritan town and told everybody what he had done and they came running out to see who the Messiah was and who this man was she was talking to because they all knew she was a different person. She’s not the same woman she’s been. And just to watch him and to see his spirit and his heart and his attitude. This guy does a wonderful job of portraying that and see how the disciples respond to each other. They were arguing over who’s the greatest and who ought to be in charge and who’s first and who’s the best. Kind of like you and I would be done. But the thing that really gets me every time is when I read the Sermon on the Mount. And I remember the night that I got set free. I remember the night that after being riddled with guilt and shame and not knowing what to do with sin in my life. And Lenten sin, just cause all the guilt and shame and then burden with that. Maybe you might remember that in your own life. And I remember the night when I came to Christ and I knew I was forgiven. And it changed me. It changed me so much as Susan came up to North Carolina to break up with me. Because all the shenanigans I pulled in college in the way that I lived, and I think she had decided that I’m not I’m not going any further with this guy. Because we were either going to get married or not. We’re at that point in our relationship. She came up to break up with me but my life was so different. I changed so much that God changed her heart and we got married five weeks later. God is a life changer. God is a forgiver Redeemer deliver. He comes to lift burdens, not give them when you read the Sermon on the Mount and and you read things like if you lust after a woman in your heart, you’ve committed adultery with her that’s a pretty high standard. If someone slaps you on one cheek turn the other. What sense does that make? He’ll just keep slapping you before someone forces you to go one mile volunteer to go to when you read that kind of stuff, you just go How can you make a book in the marketplace doing that? Praying for your enemies and blessing those who persecute you. What is this life in Christ all about? What has been his disciple? What is following him really mean? And how do we has it working out in your life today. And I want to talk last week, we talked about sin. And I hadn’t heard a good message on sand. So I thought I bet appreciate if I was gonna hear it.
And I’m an expert, so I knew what I was talking about. I don’t think I’ve ever preached anything I knew more about than that last week. But what sin leads to in for a believer is forgiveness. Now I want to talk today about how to get forgiveness and how to give it. See, there’s two kinds of people in my life one person that sins against me, and the other is a person i sin against. And the thing that I realized as I’ve gone along is it doesn’t bother me half as much or doesn’t hardly hardly bother me at all. When I sinned against you, it really bothers me when you sinned against me. That’s a bigger problem. It but I got a problem in both directions. I got a problems, sinning against people hurting them and going and then asking forgiveness. Then I got a problem, forgiving those who have sinned against me. So I have a problem asking for forgiveness, and I have a problem giving forgiveness. So I got to figure out how can I do both of those with joy and get it done? Bill gothard define a clear conscience is living a lie. So no one could put a finger June say you rang me. And you never made it? Right? I want you to think about for a second who you got in your life that could say that to you. You wronged me, and you never made it right. And we have all kinds of defenses against that. Well, they were wrong. I got a resentment bank over here and see, resentment. Banks are born out of rights that are being claimed in expectations that are not being met. rights and expectations. Building. I mean, Oswald Chambers said, Any fool can claim his rights. In any demon, I make sure he gets some. Think of the people that violated your rights. Well, I have a right to expect. And eggerichs wrote a book called respect, love and respect, and it’s about marriage. Men need respect and women need love.
And if you don’t get that respect, you get wounded, you get angered, you get upset. I’ve had guys say to me all the time, well, she doesn’t respect me. And I say you respectable. What are you doing? And how are you living with her in such a way that she would respect to? I got a feeling you’re not forgiving her for not respecting you. I got a feeling that it’s causing a distance between you and her. And then a wife will give me three pages of his sins. And I’m pretty sure 80 90% of That’s all right, he’s done it, he’s guilty. But after hearing her three pages of that, which takes quite a bit of time sometimes because I like to go into detail. I’ll say you know, I’m sure he’s guilty of 80 90% of that. But the thing I’m most concerned about is your heart toward him. How you respond toward him. The bitterness, the anger, the resentment that I’m hearing in your voice, and it’s coming from your heart. That’s the biggest problem. You make a big problem out of his sin and it is a big problem. And I can tell it’s separated you from him and him from you. But what you have to guard is your heart. guard your heart with all diligence because out of it spring all the issues of life. So we got a problem forgiving others and then we have a problem asking forgiveness. I remember Jerry Leachman in a retreat A number of years ago tell shared the difference and being pardoned for sin and be unjustified. Pardon Didn’t you probably seen the movies where you come up for Pardon? If you’re in prison and you and you’re been there for a number of years every now and then every year so they’ll bring you up for for the pardon for panel it decides where they’re going to pardon you and you’ve paid enough you’ve been rehabilitated your change your debts been paid, and so they’re gonna let you out. And when they do that they pardon you and you, they let you go. And so they release you from prison. But you’re still guilty. You still did the crime. And I think that the people that have to wear that crime and last the longest are child molesters. They never get out from under the label. yoke. They’re never they can they’re, they might even be pardoned. But they never get out of the label. There’s never a release from the guilt and the shame that culture puts on them. So there pardon but they’re still guilty. They’re still criminals. They’re still felons. They have it on their record. But when you’re justified, and God justifies and men pardon. When you’re justified, Jesus clears your record. It’s just as if you’ve never done sin before. His blood cleanses you of all sin. So the two have no record. I remember Jesus teaching me this lesson one time I was journaling and I was out in the desert and I was taken a week just to spend with God and have a habit when I do that if going over this list that somebody came up with, for pastors, to check their heart, take heart inside looks to look at your motives, your sins, your thoughts, to check every area of your life and just see why you’re doing with the Lord. Now remember, starting to write down some sin and and then later that afternoon, I wrote the same sin down and I said, I gotta confess something. He said, What? You know that stuff I was telling you about this morning, he said, What stuff? Well, you may watch stuff. I don’t want to have to go over it again. He said, I don’t remember that stuff. Did you confess your sin? Yes, I did. Did you ask me to forgive you for your sin? Yes, I did. Don’t you believe I did. Because when I forgive sin, I never remembered again, I put it behind me as far as the east is in the West. I don’t hold grudges and I don’t have resentment, banks. I love you, I forgiven you. Your record is clear, you’re justified. Just as if you never sinned. When I look at you, I don’t see all that sand you did this morning and yesterday and you’re gonna do the rest of the day. I choose not to see that. What I see is a righteous robes of Christ that your but you’re rode with. I see that when you stand before me at the gates at the judgment seat. We call it the pearly gates.
When you stand before me at judgment, you’re not going to answer for all that sin. You’re going to have the white robes of righteousness. You’re gonna have belief in Jesus Christ. If you believed in your heart, did you? Yes, I did. And you profess with your mouth? Have you professed with your mouth? Yes, I have that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. Have you done that? Yes, I have. Then you’re saved. You’re forgiven. It’s just like you never seen before. I don’t hold grudges. I don’t have resentment banks. You’re free. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Nobody’s ever set me free like that before. No one’s ever not held grudges. No one’s not just bringing up the past and reminded me of all my missteps and sin and shortcomings. Who could Who does that? I do. He said. That’s what I do. I’m good at it. I love to do it. Come to me are you are weary and heavy laden and I’ll give you rest. I’ll forgive you. I’ll release you. I’ll set you free. You know what our problem is. We won’t set ourselves free. We beat ourselves up. We send again and we send again and we think sand we do sin we act sin. We commit sin and we hold on to it. We may even ask for forgiveness, but we still hold on to it. We beat ourselves up I’m no good. I’m never gonna make it in here. Do we give the debt open the door to the devil? The blast fame God and just like he did with the you know why God doesn’t want you to eat from the tree of that knowledge of good and evil. He knows as soon as you do, you can be your own God, you’ll be like him. He’s a jealous guy. He’s jealous for his own glory. He’s jealous for his own power and authority.
So we bless him again. God and who God is, and what God does the character of God. Same thing with a man with the talents, the man that got one talent and buried it in the ground. And Jesus said, How where’s my talent? Where’s my prophet? He goes, Well, I knew you were a hard taskmaster who gathered? Well, you have not someone in retail you have not scattered. So I buried it in the ground. Here it is, You wicked servant. So you knew I was so wicked and hard taskmaster. That’s not who I am at all. You bought a lie of the devil. You believe the lie that I don’t forgive, and I don’t cleanse and I don’t make clean and deliver and set free. And you believe the lie. And you keep beating yourself. And you were afraid of me. Instead of run into me, you run away from me. And today you don’t have a prayer life if you don’t have a prayer life because you don’t believe God forgives. You don’t believe that God has set you free. You don’t believe he doesn’t have resentment banks, and he’s not keeping record on all your food. POS are your mistakes. All your cuss words are your thoughts of lust are your greed, all your selfishness, all your anger, we could go on and on we did that last week I’m tired. I would you probably are too. You’re never gonna live that life of more than a conqueror, you’re never going to be that that man of God that you could be in should be in that so desperately needed today if you don’t believe God forgives. But then there’s the issue of you forgiving. They say the Unforgiven heart is an unforgiving heart. If you never really had that moment in your life, where you sue or sit free, were you with that woman at the well. And he told you everything about yourself and you knew he was the Messiah. And he forgave that and you became giddy and excited and changed and different and happy. If you’ve never had that moment in your life, where you realize you’re not gonna have to stand before the judgment seat and be a goat. When he separating the sheep’s and the goat, and you’ve been forgiven your claim, you’re forgiven your righteous, and his eyes. If you’ve never had that moment, then you’re gonna have a hard time helping others have that moment. You’re gonna have a hard time forgiving that person that wounds you and hurt you. Maybe it was your dad. Maybe he was an absentee dad, he wasn’t there much. Or maybe he was there. But he was still absentee that he didn’t engage with you. He didn’t talk with you. He wasn’t there to build your character. He wasn’t there to help you. He didn’t play ball with you. He didn’t come to your games. He mistreated your mom. Maybe you got a wound against him? Most men do, unfortunately. And some of our children have wounds toward us is that. And we need to make it right if that’s the case. But see, I can’t make it right. If I haven’t been to the Beatitudes. That’s where the Sermon on the Mount starts with bless it or the poor in spirit. It all starts with humility. You can’t forgive if you haven’t been forgiven, and you’ll be forgiven. You have to humble yourself. blesses the poor in spirit. Bless those who are repenting and mourning over their sin. Those are the forgiven people.
Unknown Speaker
I don’t
Pete McKenzie
understand how all I know about that. But a few weeks ago, when God gave me Jeremiah 24, seven, I will put it in your heart to know me. God puts it in a man’s heart to know Him and to know Him we have to humble ourselves. If my people will humble themselves. That’s where you started in Second Chronicles 714. If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways you don’t turn from your wicked ways if you hadn’t started with humbling yourself and praying and not seeking his hands in what he can do for you, but seek in his face in his forgiveness and his
Unknown Speaker
love.
Pete McKenzie
Then you get to that place where you can turn from your wicked ways. And then when you turn from your wicked ways, and you’ve done all that then he says I will hear from heaven. I’m not going to do it before those things happen. We pray for revival but we won’t come to the process of forgiveness. The ngunnawal forgive your sins, and now heal your land, your marriage, your bodies, all those things you need healed. But it starts with humility and mourning and repentance and brokenness before God. Which I look back on my sinners prayer. God I know I’m not the man you want me to be. I’m a terrible Christian. I’m failed at everything and keeping the rules. I didn’t know Never heard of the Beatitudes at the time. Or maybe I’d heard them and didn’t understand them. And if you’d asked me what’s the Beatitudes, I couldn’t tell you. But I was going through the process. I was going through the process of the important. poor in spirit, I was destitute in spirit. I tried living the Christian life, I couldn’t do it. God lets us do that to show us we can’t do it. He gave us a 10 commandments to show us we couldn’t keep them. A fallen nature a sinful guy cannot keep the rules. Oh, he can keep them some of the time, little of the time a few times. But he can’t consistently live a rule keeping life. No matter how hard he tries. We have fallen nature some better than others at it. The Pharisees were just took it to a doctrinal level of keeping all that they made two or 300 and fair, Seiko laws, he had to keep all of them not just the 10 commandments. And they were righteous in themselves. And Jesus called them the scum of the earth. Why did separators inside their dead man’s bones? He called them snakes, john the baptist did. You put loads on man shoulders that you won’t even carry yourself? He called them hypocrites. Jesus doesn’t have a lot of patience with that. All the people that you ever read about in the Bible and ever saw depicted in movies, he doesn’t have a lot of patience with Pharisees, with hypocrites of those who think they’re righteous in themselves, they compare themselves to others and think that they’re better. And they’re good. They want first place at all the banquets, they wear robes and uniforms. Show that they’re leaders and better than you and hire the new and have authority over you. You know how the Gentiles lord it over those under them. But it’s not so among you. you humble yourself. And when you come to know Jesus, and you’re truly forgiven, you don’t have to work at that. Because you came to know Him because you humble you. You were broken you, you he invited you to come Are you weary and heavy laden and you came and I’ll give you risk. You don’t have to strive anymore and be anxious anymore and struggle anymore. You don’t have to work so hard to get me to love you and approve you and accept you. I do already do. Quit trying to get on my good side. You’re already on it. Yeah, but you’re still on it. Yeah, but no, but you’re still on it. I still love you. I’m never going to forsake you. I’m never going to leave you I’m never going to disavow you. I’ve made vows to you and promises to you. And I’m going to keep my promises Will you keep yours which ones you’re talking about? I’m talking about not the guy you didn’t forgive, I’m talking about the person that sinned against you. They hurt you. They wanted you you got it dated, you got it marked, it’s in your resentment bank, but you’ve never forgiven them. Oh, you’ve gone through the motions of forgiving them. But when you get in their presence away, you know that you haven’t forgiven them. It’s when you get in their presence or see them, you feel awkward, you feel uncomfortable. You don’t want to make eye contact. If you see them in a crowded place you avoid them. Even at church it’s a terrible thing to have to go to church and avoid some people because they’ve hurt you and never made it right or you’ve hurt them and you know they have a grudge against you. It’s even worse when it’s in your own home. Even worse, when it’s your wife or your children. And as men of God, we have to make things right. We have to ask forgiveness and give forgiveness. We have to do it as a lifestyle. We have to be free, you cannot be free. If you’re not asking and giving forgiveness. You’ll never be free and it’ll hurt your witness. It’ll hurt your self esteem your Christ esteem your Christian a stain.
You give the devil ammunition to accuse you and rob you of your joy of your confidence in Christ. It’ll keep your prayers from being answered. And basically, it’ll make you useless and worthless in the war effort that we’re in. That’s what he’s good at doing. That’s what the devil is good at doing. neutralize me and marginalize them. Not just in culture where they’re dishonored and the disrespected in culture. You white supreme issue. You Christian, you. You call yourself a Christian and you listen to that You have a judge you have an advocate, the Holy Spirit who’s come and ministers to your heart and nudges you and coaxes you to ask forgiveness. Start with God. Is God forgiving? You guys come to me sometimes and they’re confessing their sin and talking about their issues. essay, did you forgive that person? Yes. Did you forgive yourself? That’s a hard question. Have you forgiven yourself? Because if you won’t forgive yourself, you’re saying Jesus, his death on the cross one enough. I have to be righteous in myself, I have to be perfect. I have to be holy, I have to accomplish my own salvation. And his death wasn’t enough. So if you’re gonna go around, beating yourself up and feeling guilty all the time and being unforgiving of yourself, not to mention others. You may not even be saved. He may not have the real disease. He may not have been ever forgiven in your own heart. The unforgiving heart is an unforgiving heart. I think the Scripture tells us to examine yourself. See if you’re truly in the faith. Because there’s a lot of people I’m telling you right now, there’s a lot of people out there that do not know Jesus Christ, but they claim him. They say they follow Him, they go to church, they may even go to Bible study, they may go to retreats and conferences, but they’ve never surrendered to the point of being willing and able to forgive others, the way that they’ve been forgiven. And Jesus made it this serious at the end, the Matthew six when he was teaching, if you pray, pray like this Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On Earth is it even heaven forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And then one verse later, he said, For if you don’t forgive those who, who hurt you, then I won’t forgive you. And I’ll never forget reading that I went cry. I mean, I gotta go forgive them. If I don’t forgive them. You’re saying you won’t forgive me? He said, That’s exactly right. He didn’t mess around with this stuff, is not small potatoes to him. He died, he had his son down the cross for us to be forgiven, and we won’t forgive. He takes offense at that. And I think we need to examine ourselves and see if we’re truly in the faith. Because if you’re having a hard time, if you’re unwilling to forgive, yeah, but you don’t know what they did to me, you don’t know what you did to Christ.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a message like this. And you may never hear another one like this. But this is most important message you ever heard. This is something that you can’t mess around with this, some you have to get right. This is something you have to be doing and not just for you. God’s a jealous God and you know what he’s jealous of your joy, your peace, your happiness, your freedom. He wants you to have it he died that you could have that. Nice jealous for you to have that. And he knows every time you get to a grudge and you got resentment and anger and bitterness. Start with your wife and your children. Start there. And then go from there. Take a heart inside, look at your heart. Get in the habit of doing that. Make sure things are right with God make sure that your conscience is clear the best you can do. That means that you’ve done everything you can do to clear your contents. Now you may go and ask forgiveness you may be thinking as someone you’ve wronged and hadn’t made it right, and you may go and ask for forgiveness and maybe they don’t have the grace in themselves to forgive you. That’s not your problem. Your job is to go and ask in sincerely meaning if you ever heard these athletes that get up and say they’re sorry, and you know they’re not. You can tell just by the way they say it, their body language, their tone of voice, their expression on their face. They’re doing a call some agent told them to get up and do that. But they’re not doing it heartfelt they’re not but when someone gives a heartfelt confession, I was wrong. Which is what we have to do with God. We have to get on his side against ourselves. I agree with you god that that sin it’ll break fellowship with you if I don’t confess it and repent and ask for you to help me not do it again. Would you forgive me? David did that in Psalm 51 be gracious to me. Oh God, according to your loving kindness according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions for my sin has ever been before me. It’s you and you alone that I’ve sinned against. So when you’re gonna ask forgiveness, name your sin. I forced myself home Bathsheba killed her husband. My son is ever before me. And God forgave him. But he never had peace in his home again. He may go and ask forgiveness and they won’t forgive you. That’s a burden. But you’ve done your job. If you do it, then do it sincerely. But don’t go do it until you’re sincerely broken about it. You wish you hadn’t done it? Yes, they deserve it. Yes, they deserve your anger, your bitterness, your shunning them, whatever it is you’re doing to make them pay for what they did. And you’re the big one. So as I forgave and set, the prisoner free only defined the prisoner was me.
So I don’t know what kind of guy you walked in here. But I want you to walk out a different guy. I want you to go out there and give them heaven. And to give them Heaven, you have to have it yourself to give away You can’t give them something you don’t have. And to have heaven in your heart and joy in your heart and peace in your heart and freedom in your heart. To have that. You’ve got to get it from the Lord. You’ve got to get it from your own confession to your own homeland yourself and seek in his face and turn from your wicked ways. And when you have it, you can’t help but give it away. You give it away to everybody did you come in contact with you give it to the gal on the freeway, he doesn’t deserve it. You give it to your wife, she might not deserve it. It wouldn’t be grace if she deserved it. God gave you grace, he forgives us by grace, we’re saved by grace through faith. Not of ourselves. It’s a gift of God not a result of work. So no man can brag and boast about it. So would you come to me, if you’re weary and heavy laden, if you’re not wearing heavy laden, if you’re going to stand on your rights and your expectations, if you’re going to stand on the fact that they’re guilty, they really hurt and wounded you. The Holy Spirit is gonna withdraw from you. You wonder where you went. And maybe you never had him in the first place. But you did have him and now you’ve hardened your heart because you’ve been hurt and wounded. It’s not about you. We have to live our lives knowing that it’s not about us. I’m not offended that I forgive you. You have my absolution. So you’re quick to forgive when you’ve been forgiven. Just don’t do it again. Couldn’t have planned that better. Thanks for being a part of the deal. God, God’s getting a laugh out of this too. He loves it. God wants to laugh with us. God wants to have fellowship with us. God wants to be joyful with us. God wants to have a good time with us. That’s who he is. That’s what he does. But to get from here to there, we have to do some things. To enjoy his fellowship, we have to do things that he said do and that one of them is asking forgiveness and receiving it and giving it when we need to. And then we have then he says enter into the joy of your Lord. You have my peace. And Dewar, you will hang in there. You will. Because you have a god that’s hanging in there with you and he’s already done it for you. We just need to do our part. We do our part. He’ll do his part. You know what he’ll do his part even if we don’t do our part. That’s the kind of God we have. That’s kind of savior we have in Jesus Christ. He’s worthy of everything we’ll give him and we give him our heart. It’s not so hard to ask forgiveness when you humbled yourself before God and received it. It’s not hard. It’s not hard to receive forgiveness and walk in newness of life. Did you come in here guilty and ashamed and feel a little beat up because of your sin and your shortcomings. You can take care of that. And the second it doesn’t take a half day or a week. You can do it right now. You can just say God that he’s preaching. Even follow me around. He’s preaching that message right to me. I have the I hear a guy say that all the time. So you don’t have to say it today.
God’s calling you to himself. In between here and there we have take care of some business. Take care of it in your heart first. And just ask forgiveness and receive it from him. Let him cleanse you with the blood that he shed on the cross, to forgive that sin, that hardness of heart, that unforgiving heart, that callous thing. Get it right with Him. And then he’ll help you get it right with others. Whether you need to forgive them or need to be forgiven, he’ll, he’ll make that a joy. You can’t wait to get to. And then you’ll be given them heaven. You’ll be given them grace and grace changes people. I gave it to Susan and she wanted to marry me Go figure. She told me about our mundo. And I didn’t get mad I didn’t get angry. I’ve been forgiven. I’ve been freed up. I could give grace and it changed her heart. It’ll change people’s hearts when you start forgiving and giving grace and living that life. So I’m going to give us 30 seconds it won’t take any more than that. 30 seconds for you to do whatever you need to do with the Lord right now. Let’s don’t miss an opportunity to do that. And then we’ll close.
If you confess your sin, I’ll be faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and cleanse you of our unrighteousness not some unrighteousness
Unknown Speaker
what a God,
Pete McKenzie
what a Savior. And Lord, we worship you today. Nobody has a god like our God. No one has a savior like Jesus. And we thank you for Him with all our heart in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them heaven guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai