Dr. Michael Youssef guiding you toward forgiveness as he begins this episode of Leading the Way. When Jesus taught the disciples, saying, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, or as Matthew said, forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. He was giving the disciples and he was giving every one of us and every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ the key to fill that emptiness and restlessness in life. Relationships often bring seasons of difficulty.
When you're required to extend forgiveness, that makes these times even tougher. Wounds often last for a long time. Hello. Welcome to Leading the Way, where doctor Michael Youssef is teaching through the Lord's Prayer, guiding you to a deeper understanding of the Fatherhood of God and hopefully sweetening your prayer life along the way. Today, let's focus on forgiveness.
Here's Dr. Michael Youssef to begin this episode of Leading the Way Audio. If I have experienced one thing, Regardless of geographical boundary, wherever I had the privilege of ministering the world over, I have experienced that same thing. That is deep down in many people's heart there is such emptiness. There is such a void.
There is such restlessness. That in their honest moment they will tell you there's something missing in my life, even though if they don't know what it is. That empty feeling that nothing seemed to be able to fill. They have that sense of restlessness and dissatisfaction. Right across economic boundaries, right across racial boundaries, right across geographical boundaries.
I have experienced that and I have seen that happening all across the world. When I talk to people, whether on airplanes or one-on-one or in functions. And whenever they open up, they can tell me that I feel something is missing in my life. I don't know what it is. And by the grace of God and the insight of the Holy Spirit, I have often been able to put my finger on it very quickly.
And I can summarize it this way. If the person is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if he or she is not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if they're not born again, if they're not saved from eternal hell, it is very easy for me to say to them, listen, you and I are born with sin and that sin is separating you from God the Father and until you come to Jesus Christ, that feeling will not be cured. If the person is a believer and I have met many of those And whenever they confess that there is emptiness in their life, there is that void in their life, I invariably find that it is unforgiveness and bitterness that they are carrying, whether they know it or not. In fact, that feeling is worse in the life of the believer because they ought to know better. And people cope with that emptiness and with that restlessness in variety of ways.
I have seen it. I have seen some who try to cope by burying themselves in their work and their work twenty four hours a day. There are some who bury themselves by going from one relationship to the other. There are some who bury themselves in hiding away from churches that preach the word of God, which is going to bring them to conviction. There are some who bury themselves in churches that are soft on sin and deny the cure of repentance and faith.
I have seen it all. And all of this, or some of this. may give them a feeling of a local anaesthetic. Those of you who have experienced local anesthetic You know what how it feels when it wears off. It gives him just a slight moment, a momentary relief.
Well, I've done this. I got this.
Now I got myself filled. But soon that void, that emptiness comes back again after whatever they were doing to bury themselves in. You know why? because they do not deal with the root of the problem. When Jesus taught the disciples, saying, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, or as Matthew said, forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors, he was giving the disciples and he was giving every one of us and every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ the key to fill that emptiness and restlessness in life.
He was giving us the key for true contentment, true joy. Not the world's joy, ha ha, but the real inner joy. For those who have never accepted the death of Christ on the cross of Calvary as a payment for the penalty of their sin. with which we all born. For those who have not accepted the salvation of the Lord.
And therefore are separated from God. They feel that emptiness. And we'll feel that emptiness until They're reconciled to God the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on Calvary. For Christians who have accepted forgiveness of their sins, who are saved from hell and damnation, who are on their way to heaven. They're going to experience this emptiness in a far worse way.
If they do not prepare their heart to receive on a daily basis daily forgiveness from the hand of the Lord. And the way you receive daily forgiveness. By daily willing to ask for forgiveness. and give forgiveness. Forgive us.
our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. Matthew, a good Jewish thinker, he knew that sin is a death toward God. It is a debt. For believers His or her eternal debt is paid once and for all.
You can't do anything about that anymore. But our daily sin incurs daily debt. And that will not affect your salvation, but it's going to affect your relation with the Lord. The best example that I can think of, I can illustrate this to you from the Word of God, is John chapter 13. Turn with me, please, to John chapter 13.
And there you're going to discover that the Lord Jesus Put a towel round his waist. And he began to wash the disciples' filthy feet. Peter Refused to let the Lord wash his feet. But I suspect that he, a little bit like me, I would not mind washing anybody's feet. But oh, I have a dickens of a time having somebody else wash my feet.
But I think it's a good idea. Peter said, Lord. You cannot wash my feet. And that's exactly what I would have done. How could the Lord of life wash my feet?
There's no way. What did Jesus do? First of all, he said, listen, Peter, you don't understand what I'm doing. I know you don't want me as the Lord and the Master to wash your feet. You do not understand what I'm doing right now.
But the time is coming when you will understand it, when you be able to comprehend it. But that didn't do the job. Peter still did not want the Lord to wash his feet.
So finally, The Lord said to him something that got his attention, and I want you to listen to it very carefully because it's of uttermost importance. He said, Peter, If I do not wash your feet, you will have no part with me.
So Peter went to the other extreme. He said, Man, no, no, no way. Not only my feet, give me a bath. All of me. And here's what the Lord said to Peter.
He who is bathed need only wash his feet because he's completely clean. What is Jesus saying? He is saying to those who are already saved. That they're going to still get dirty feet as they walk in this world. Those who already committed their life to Christ are on their way to heaven.
They're not going to lose salvation, but they're going to get the surface contamination of sin. They get an outer layer of dirt when they walk through life. And I want you to really hear this. If you are saved, you cannot get eternally dirty again. You cannot get Permanently defiled again.
Why? Because you are permanently washed and cleansed, because you are positionally purged and regenerated. And that does not get repeated. But The practical purging. is needed Every day.
Not once a week, every day. Why? Because every day we fall short. I fall short of God's perfect. Holiness.
The person who feels no need for confession and forgiveness on a daily basis, I want to tell you right now, listen to me. I personally doubt your salvation. I doubt that you are born of the Spirit of God, and what you need to do today is be born again. Because when the Spirit of God comes and dwells in you, He's going to convict you on a daily basis. Listen.
As judge God is eager to forgive repentant sinners. Oh, but as Father, He is more eager to forgive His children, to keep on forgiving His children all the time. Listen. Asking for forgiveness implies confession. Feet that are not presented to the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be washed by Him.
Sin that is not confessed cannot be forgiven. And that is why 1 John 1:9 is a conditional clause. Those of you grammatarians or grammatists, it is a conditional clause. If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. You don't get it automatically.
Proverbs 28:13 says, He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confessed them will find mercy. Here is the clincher. There is a prerequisite for receiving daily forgiveness. There is a prerequisite. For receiving daddy forgetting, what is it?
As we Forgive others. As a prerequisite, Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you. Forgiveness for the salvation of your soul is freely given. There are no probational time, there are no tests, there are no time waiting. Forgiveness for the salvation of your soul is graciously offered.
It's all of grace. You did nothing to get it. You freely Received it. You freely were given. But daily forgiveness on the other hand has a condition attached to it.
When God the Father forgives us, it is absolutely imperative that we forgive one another. If you think That I'm going to stand here. Until you That forgiving others is It's a piece of cake. If you think I'm going to stand here and tell you that forgiving those, especially those who falsely accused you, those who maliciously abused you, if you think I'm going to stand here and tell you it's easy, I would not be telling you the truth. But what I can tell you is this.
You do not have another option but forgiveness if you are a child of God. There are two things that I want to share with you. About this part of the Lord's Prayer. Number one. When you forgive others, you are manifesting the divine nature.
that God has given you as born-again believer. The second thing you're doing when you're forgiving others is that you are bringing delight to the heart of God. Mark those down, write them down. Two things. First of all, you are manifesting the divine nature.
The Bible teaches us that when we become born again, when we say yes to Jesus, the Spirit of God comes in, He gives us His divine nature to live within us, to strengthen us, to be manifested in us.
Now, there are some people who think that this is sort of a mechanical trade-off. That I'm going to say I'll forgive so I can get forgiveness. No, it is not that mechanical. He said, forgive us as we also have forgiven others.
So, what he's saying? Here's what he's saying. He's saying, one of the signs that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the signs that God is your Father and that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in you, one of the signs that the Spirit of God is. Empowering you and living in you. One of the signs that you have that divine nature in you and working in you is that you freely forgive.
others. When you say to somebody who comes to you and asks for forgiveness, and you say, I forgive you, here's what you're saying: you're saying, Lord, I belong to you, Lord. I am doing what you do, Lord. I'm trying to love just like you do. Lord, I am following in your footsteps.
To manifest a divine nature is a privilege. Listen to me. It is a privilege. I'm aware of that all the religions of the world. This is a privilege that are only given to the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is incredible privilege. And I'll tell you something else about that privilege: of being able in the power of God to forgive. Is that the more you exercise that privilege, the more you open up the possibility of God pouring His blessing in you, and the more you exercise the privilege, the more He pours His blessing in you, and the more you use it, the more He gives you, the more you use it, the more He gives you. Secondly, forgiveness brings delight to the heart of God. Forgiveness is hard.
Forgiveness is not easy. But there are few things that please the heart of God more than when we forgive. Why? Because The Lord looks at you and He sees His reflection in you. He looks at you and He sees His nature in you.
He looks at you and He sees His likeness in you. It delights the heart. of God. Heaven rejoices. When we freely forgive those who have deeply wounded us.
You know, sometimes I feel the embrace of God. after exercising forgiveness. like no other time. In fact, a number of years ago There was a minister. Who did not believe in the divinity of Christ, did not believe in the resurrection?
We basically had very little in common. And I heard that he had denounced me and my biblical orthodoxy and standing for biblical truth publicly. And he used some very interesting adjectives to to describe me. But I'm going to tell you, in all truthfulness, it didn't bother me one bit. I never lost a second sleep over it, I had no problem forgiving.
But wait to the rest of the story in case you're going to say, oh man, he's bragging. Wait to the rest of the story.
Well, I tried to reach out to him, but in vain. And then we met in a public place. We had lots of friends with him at the table. And when I saw him was lunchtime, I went right across the room and I put my arm around him and gave him a hug.
Now, guess what he did? He stood like this. I mean, it was so stiff as a dodo. I mean, just stood like this. Man, I felt terrible.
I feel rotten. I went back to my lunch. I couldn't eat. I was angry. I was gritting my teeth, and the more I thought about it, the more angry I got.
And I said, I need to go over there and give him a piece of my mind. And that's exactly what I would have given him, a piece of my mind. But I didn't. I got angrier and angrier. I could not eat lunch.
As I thought about it and thought about it, Satan kept reminding me. You looked like an idiot over there, didn't you? Yeah. I mean, you look like an imbecile. And he reminded me of that.
And he reminded me of this. Then I was driving home. I was driving back wherever I was going, and I sat in my car. As often happened the case, I began to hear the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God began by saying, Well, You sure look like an idiot over there.
That's hope. Yeah, I don't need the confirmation of the Spirit. But then the Spirit of God said to me, Do you think that my son looked like an idiot. when he hung on the cross for your sins. When he hung there, And he looked down from that cross.
Did he look like an idiot? Especially when he looked at those who have nailed him to that cross and those who spat upon him and those who cried out and saying, Crucify him. And he looked upon all of these people at that time and the times all of eternity and he said, Forgive them. Did he look like an idiot? Oh my.
Tears began to flow down my face. I began to feel the cleansing of God from my pride. I wanted to go back and give him another hug. Mm-hmm. Amen.
delights the heart of God. Please listen because I'm getting ready to close. I want to tell you a few things about forgiveness. The first thing I want to tell you about forgiveness that is often a process. not just a quick act.
It's a process. We keep on forgiving and we keep on forgiving until the pain and the hurt begins to go away. Listen to something else about forgiveness. The deeper the wound, the greater the forgiveness needed. Just as the doctor has to keep the physical wound in our body clean from infection.
so that we can heal properly.
So must we. We must keep our emotional wounds clean from bitterness.
so that we can heal properly.
Forgiveness. keeps the wound clean. Spending time talking to your heavenly daddy. Goes a long way toward giving you the strength to be able to do what I said to you earlier, it is impossible to do in our own strength. Do you know why God loves to give you the strength to forgive?
Because forgiving brings delight to His heart. And God wants to delight in you. He really does. You know, even if you listen to secular speakers and secular prophets, and they'll tell you, forgiveness is very good for your emotional well-being. Forgiveness keeps you healthy emotionally.
What they're saying is true. They know the cure, they know the ultimate results, but they never give you the prescription. Because left up to our own devices, our own strength, it is impossible to be able to forgive. No matter how much you try. But I want to tell you That without the power of God the Father, through the example of the Son, in the strength of the Spirit, you cannot fully forgive.
You really cannot. I'm going to give you A testing cat. And that testing kit is going to Help you. in applying that test to yourself. Ask yourself that question.
When somebody's name is mentioned who has wounded you deeply, Or you see that person. Do you tense up? Does your heart Beat a little faster. Your pulse races away. Do you feel the grinding your teeth?
and your eyes narrow. If this is the case you really have not forgiven. You really have not forgiven. He said, but I have, I know I have, I said that I have.
Well You have it. Here's the next part of the test. Can when that person's name comes up, or when you see that person, can you go to God and say, God, bless them, God, enrich them, God, open the windows of heaven and pour your blessing on that person? Can you do that? If you can, then you have forgiven.
I know this is something touch all of us. And as I'm listening to the voice of God. I know Some of you are struggling. with this issue. But I want to Tell you as your pastor who loves you.
There are no That each of us will bring delight to the heart of God individually and corporately. We will manifest his divine nature. when we absolutely keep those wounds clean. And if you've never been able to do that, I pray that as we pray, that you will begin the process. of keeping that wound clean.
And don't allow bitterness to build. Shall we pray? Lord, I have very little to say. Except this, to thank you. To thank you that if it wasn't for the blood of Jesus Christ, it would be impossible to ask for the strength to forgive.
Father, I pray that we would be known as forgiving people. Not compromising people. but forgiving people. Father, I pray for each person that they will be strengthened by you, empowered by you. In ways they don't even know possible.
And oh God, I pray that you remind them on a daily basis. that this is at daily Privilege. and a daily exercise. We bless you. We thank you.
There are many times I feel that the word thank you is so anemic, Lord. But Father, we bless The name of Jesus. Thank you for making time for leading the way. with pastor and the author of more than 50 books, Dr. Michael Youssef.
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