Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church Sermon Podcast.
We're so glad you're here, and we hope this message inspires you,
builds your faith, and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.
Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible
and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.
So welcome and enjoy the message.
If you have your Bible, please open it with me to the book of Philemon. Philemon chapter
one. There's only one chapter in Philemon, so that makes that part easy, all right? This morning's
message is called Making Things Right. Now, when you think about it, the entire Bible from beginning
to end is about making things right, because when we look at the world, we see
that things are wrong. There's a lot of pain and suffering and evil within our world, and that's
not how God created it. God created the world very good and right, but in our sin, we wrecked it,
and we turned everything that was good and right upside down on its head so that it's now wrong.
And the Bible is about God's ultimate plan in history to make things right again.
Now, that plan will culminate in Jesus' second coming when he ushers in his kingdom in full.
But for now, Jesus is building His kingdom
one person at a time. And here's our story as Christians. Through faith in Jesus, we're forgiven.
Amen? And our relationship with God is made right. But that's not all. Through faith in Jesus, our broken relationships with others
can also be made right. And that right there is what the book of Philemon is all about.
Philemon is sort of a how-to manual for how to mend broken relationships. And that's very
important because relationships really are what life's
all about. Someday when we're on our deathbed, if we make it that far, we're not going to care
about how much money is in our bank account. We're not going to care about our house or our car or
our hobbies. We will only care about our relationships, our relationship with God and our relationship with our loved ones.
Now, here's the thing about relationships. The closer the relationship, the greater potential
for hurt. Maybe there are people in your life who you used to be very, very close to,
but because of something they did or something you did or something you both did, you no longer have a relationship with them. Philemon is a real
life example to all of us that our broken relationships don't have to remain broken.
Verse number one, finally, Paul says, he says, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy,
our brother, to Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved of Phea,
that's probably Philemon's wife, our archipist, our fellow soldier, that's probably his son,
and to the church in your house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul is
writing this letter to a man named Philemon. Now, we're going to see it's a very personal letter.
We're going to see that Paul asked Philemon to receive his runaway slave, Onesimus, back,
not as a slave, but as a brother. Now, as we're reading the letter this morning, if you're
like me, you probably will be wondering, where's the condemnation of slavery? Why doesn't the
Apostle Paul take time to condemn the institution of slavery? Well, first of all, we've got to
understand that slavery within the Roman Empire was rampant. About half of the population were
slaves. It was not based on racial lines. It was based on who the Romans had conquered.
And then you have this little tiny group of people called Christians. And that little tiny group of
minority Christians were being persecuted and hunted down and killed by the Roman government.
They had no political power. They had no political voice to speak of. So talking about what the
government should or should not do about slavery was an exercise in futility. So that's not what
the apostles did. It's also not what Jesus did. I mean, Jesus could have focused all of his attention on how the Romans were oppressing the Jews, but he didn't.
Instead, Jesus came not to reform governments, but to transform hearts.
And so we have in the New Testament, and certainly Philemon's a huge part of that,
principles of human dignity, principles of human rights, principles of freedom. And the seeds that
were planted eventually grew to become the abolitionist movement that was led by Christians.
What was implicit in Philemon became explicit within history, because everywhere the gospel
has gone, the rights of people have been elevated. Now, I want us to set
the context for this letter of Philemon for just a moment. Paul is writing to a wealthy man by the
name of Philemon who lived in Colossae. And we know he was wealthy because his church was meeting in
his house, which means he had a pretty good-sized house for the time. Now, we also know that he
owned at least one slave by the name, a man by the name of Onesimus. And one day, Onesimus
stole some valuables from Philemon, and he ran off to Rome, which is about a 1,200-mile journey.
And while he's in Rome, he met the Apostle Paul. Now, Paul was in Rome under
house arrest. He was chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours a day. He was allowed to have visitors
into that rented house of his so that he could teach them the things of the Lord. More than
likely, he was also allowed to go into the marketplace to get some food as long as he was chained to a guard.
And so we really don't know the backstory of whether a friend invited Philemon to church
in Paul's house or whether Paul ran into Onesimus, rather, whether he ran into him in the marketplace.
Here's what we do know. The apostle Paul told Onesimus about Jesus, and he led him to faith
in the Lord. And then Paul and Onesimus, they become close friends, and Paul begins to disciple
him. And I think one day Onesimus, under deep conviction, he tells the apostle Paul about how
he had stolen from his master and run away. And within the midst
of that conversation, Paul learns that his master's name was Philemon. And I think Paul says, Philemon
from Colossae? He says, yes. He says, I know that guy. I led him to the Lord in Ephesus when he was
there on business. Now, talk about coincidence. Actually,
I don't think it was coincidence at all. It was providence, wasn't it? God was orchestrating all
of these events. And so Paul tells Onesimus, he says, here's what you got to do. You need to go
back to Philemon and make things right. I'm writing you a letter, so you just hand the letter that I write you
to Philemon. That's the letter we're looking at today. You hand him that letter, and you watch
God work. Now, here's what's truly amazing. Onesimus agrees to the plan. He travels with
Tychicus. He delivers this letter and himself to Philemon. Now, here's why that's
shocking. Under Roman law, a runaway slave could have been severely punished even to the point
of death. And yet, making things right with Philemon, who he had stolen from, was so important
to Onesimus, it was worth the risk. Some of us are unwilling to walk across
the street to make things right with a neighbor, and yet Onesimus traveled 1,200 miles in the
ancient world to just make things right. Here's our principle. As Christians, God calls us to take radical steps to restore broken relationships within our life.
Now, obviously, I think he calls us to also take wise steps.
But my point is we should be willing to do whatever it takes, right?
Now, sometimes, admittedly, whatever it takes isn't enough because we don't hold all the cards in the relationship that might be broken.
You can try as best as you possibly can to make things right with a person.
But if the other person doesn't forgive you, there's nothing you can really do about that.
Romans chapter 12, verse 18 says, if it's possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Paul says, if there's a broken relationship with your life, you can't guarantee peace,
but you better do everything within your power that you possibly can to make amends. Now,
I've found that a lot of Christians point to this verse right here and say, I've done everything I can,
but they haven't. And the way I know they haven't is they reject every new idea I have for them to reconcile. Listen, I recognize that at some point a person has to move on when another person
isn't willing to reconcile. But make sure you don't ever dream of moving on until you have taken
the radical steps necessary under the lordship of Christ to make amends. Now, in the case of Onesimus,
he stole from Philemon and ran away before he was saved. I think it would have been very easy for him
to justify not going back. I'm a new
creation of Christ. Why do I need to go back and make things right? But when God convicts, we better
listen. My dad was our pastor for over, or nearly 40 years rather, but when he was a teenager, he was
in deep rebellion against the Lord. And one night, seven years after he got right with God, he came under deep conviction
about some of the wrong things he had done as a teenager before he got right. He felt like he
needed to go back and to make it right with some of those people. And he tried to rationalize away
his conviction, but the Holy Spirit just wouldn't let him go. So he drove back to Oklahoma, and one by one he went to those
people and apologized for certain theft and vandalism, things they didn't even know about,
but he apologized for to make it right. Now, what do you think happened when he did that? Well,
I'm sure a massive weight was lifted off of his shoulders, but also, and perhaps more importantly, a massive spotlight was put upon the transforming grace
of Jesus. Maybe before you got right with God, you cheated on your spouse, or maybe you were a
lousy father, a lousy mother, or maybe you stole some things, whatever it might have been, but now
you've met Jesus,
and Jesus has transformed your life. That's wonderful. Praise God for that. Now I think you
ought to go apologize for what you did. If it's possible, as much as within your power,
to make things right and shine a light upon the grace of God. Here's the principle. If you've offended someone, own it. Own that offense.
That's what Onesimus did. Now, another way of saying that is confess it. Now, we don't have
any record here of Onesimus confessing, but we know that he took Philemon the letter and turned
himself in. He was owning what he did. And you
know what? I tend to think Onesimus apologized as well. See, most of the time when a person's
offended, they need to hear the words, I'm sorry. Those are powerful, powerful words. Now, we know
that that's the case with God. God wants us to confess our sin and to own it, right? It's not
enough for you just to know that you're a sinner. God wants you to admit that you're a sinner,
to admit it to him. Now, because the person, you need to come clean with that because the person
you've offended needs to see and hear it so they can believe it. You've got to own it, not just to the Lord, but to them. Now, I think
Onesimus was probably a little bit conflicted. I mean, part of them, I'm sure, felt justified
in what he did. I mean, after all, he was a slave. And no man created in the image of God has a right
to own another man created in the image of God. So in Ephesus, I think he did what
any of us would have done in his situation. He ran away. But the problem was, in order to fund
his trip to Rome, he stole from Philemon. And so while he feels justified, he also feels convicted
because deep down he knows that two wrongs don't make a right. So he owns what he did in this situation.
Now here's the deal.
Whenever you justify your sin and you blame the other person without recognizing the part that you play in it,
whenever you justify your sin, your relationship with the Lord, it stalls out at that moment.
Because you can't be right with God and wrong with others.
Jesus said that if you go into the temple to make your sacrifice, which is a big deal for the Jewish
people, and you remember there at the altar before you make your sacrifice, you remember that your
brother has something against you. You leave your gift at the altar. You go make it right before you
go present the gift. Now, Jesus did not say, if you have
something against your brother. That's not what he said. He said, if your brother has something
against you, if you've offended them in such a way, go make it right. Now, in my personal experience,
most of the time when I offend someone, I didn't mean to. Occasionally I meant to. That's
a whole other issue. But sometimes, most of the time, I didn't mean to offend them.
Now, sometimes I'm even surprised by their offense. Some people in that situation,
they assume they didn't do anything wrong. Well, you're offended. I didn't do anything. I didn't
mean to offend you. I didn't do anything wrong. My assumption is when someone's offended,
I did something wrong. That's my assumption. Now I've got to figure out what it was. Maybe I'm
blind to it. Maybe I didn't recognize it. Lord, what did I do? Then I asked him, what did I do
to hurt you? And I have found that most people are very capable of pointing out exactly what I did, right? Kelsey's really good at it. Here's what you did.
Here's what you did. Now, at that point, if I'm at fault, I owe that person an apology.
It doesn't matter whether I meant to offend that person or not. If you shoot someone on purpose or
you shoot them on accident, either way, you owe them
apology, right? I don't care if it was an accident or not. You just shot the person. You just offended
them. You just hurt them. You need to say, I'm sorry. Well, you say, well, what's done is done.
I can't change it. You're right. You can't change it, but you can't confess it.
And God can forgive it. And by God's it, but you can confess it, and God can forgive it.
And by God's grace, maybe they can forgive it as well. Now, let's put ourselves in Philemon's shoes
for a moment. Onesimus is stolen from him, and he's run away. Now, years later, Philemon hears
a knock at the door, and he opens the door to find Onesimus standing right before him.
And I think maybe his blood pressure starts to rise.
His anger starts to burn, and Onesimus hands him the letter.
And Philemon opens the letter, and he sees right away that it's from the apostle Paul,
the man who led him to faith in Christ that changed his life.
And so he begins reading the letter. He reads about how Paul is actually praying for him and
he thanks God for him. And that in a sense, Paul is saying, I'm proud of you. And then he gets to
the meat of the letter. We find it in verse number eight. Paul says, therefore, though I might be very
bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, remember, he's an apostle. Yet for love's sake,
I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the aged, now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who I have begotten while in my chains. That's another way
of saying I led him to the Lord. He's my spiritual son, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to
you and to me. Paul says, I want you to know that the guy standing in front of you, Philemon,
or Onesimus, Onesimus has received Jesus Christ, your brothers. And the guy who was unprofitable
to you is now profitable. Now, you can't see it in English,
but in Greek you could see it. This is a play on words, because Onesimus' name literally means
profitable, useful. Paul's saying, I know that the useful one, Onesimus, he stole from you,
and he ran away, and at that point, he became useless to you.
You wrote him off.
And then Paul says, but God saved him now.
And now he's useful again to you because he's a brother in Christ.
Let me ask you, is there anyone in your life that you've written off as useless?
Maybe someone that at one time was a true blessing to you,
but they did something, something happened, and you wrote them off.
You said to yourself, I don't need that person anymore.
Maybe you even said, they're dead to me.
I don't care about them.
If they don't care about me, I don't care about them.
I don't need them in my life.
If that's the case and you're both Christians,
you don't have the right to write them off because God has made them useful in Christ Jesus to you.
Verse number 12, Paul says, I'm sending him back. You therefore receive him. That is my own heart.
He says, I love this guy with my heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf you might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.
But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose.
In other words, he's saying this is providence, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave,
but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord. Paul's saying, I'm sending Onesimus back to you,
and I want you to receive him, no longer as a slave, but as a brother. Now this word receive indicates reconciliation. Paul's saying, I want
you to forgive him. I want you to restore your relationship to him, not as it was before, but
even better in the gospel as brothers. Here's our principle. If someone's offended you, forgive him.
Forgive that person. Now we don't have a record of it,
but we have every reason to believe that Philemon forgave Onesimus. Fast forward in your mind about
50 years later, Onesimus has moved to the neighboring city of Ephesus. He's no longer a
slave, and we have a letter by a man named Ignatius,
who was one of the early church fathers. The letter was written in 107 AD. And Ignatius,
in his letter, he mentions that the pastor of the church of Ephesus was a man by the name of
Onesimus. Perhaps the same Onesimus who robbed Philemon and ran away, who Philemon had forgiven.
Now, if Philemon had had Onesimus killed like he had the right to do under law,
Onesimus would have never become all that God wanted him to be in God's providential plan.
The famous psychologist Carl Menninger said that 75% of patients in the psychiatric ward could walk out today if they just knew they were forgiven.
The power of forgiveness is amazing and had a transforming effect upon Onesimus' life.
Now, Philemon's forgiveness wasn't just important for Onesimus, although that was important. It was important for him as well.
So many people that have been wronged in life, and you're not going to get through life without
being wronged, I can promise you. But so many people hold on to grudges. Oftentimes, they won't
release the offense. Someone's wronged them 30 years ago. They can't let go of it. They've
written that person off. Do you know what that does? It doesn't hurt the person that has wronged
you. It hurts you because unforgiveness is poison to the soul. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6,
verse 15, but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
You think a lack of forgiveness is no big deal? Think again.
You think, oh, this is just the way I am.
My daddy was like this. His daddy before him was like this.
We're just a kind of a stubborn people. No, you're just a sinful people.
Peter asked Jesus one time, he said, how often shall we
forgive our brother who sinned against us? Seven times. He thought he was being so holy and pious.
Seven times? And Jesus said, no, 70 times seven. In other words, there's no end to how often you
forgive. Why is that? Because that's how God forgives us. There's no end to it. And the Bible says we are
to forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ. How? As Christ has forgiven you. There's a saying,
to err is human, to forgive is divine. Actually, to forgive is just Christian.
That's what it means to be a Christian, is to forgive as Christ
has forgiven us. But you say, well, you don't know what they did. No, but I know what I did to God,
and he forgave me. I know that I played a huge part in nailing God's son to the cross and
murdering him on the cross, and yet God forgives me. How much more can I forgive those
who have offended me? Robert Smith, he just retired as a preaching professor at Beeson
Divinity School. I've had the opportunity to sit under his preaching a few times, and he's just
one of the most unique preachers I have ever heard, extremely gifted. But in 2010,
his son Tony was shot and murdered in an armed robbery, and Robert became very, very angry. He
was filled with rage, understandably so. About eight months after the murder, he was in Kenya
on a mission trip,
and he felt the Lord asking him in his heart, not audibly, but in his heart,
do you believe in forgiveness?
He said, yes, Lord, I believe in forgiveness.
Do you teach and preach on forgiveness?
Yes, I teach and preach on forgiveness.
Well, I want you to forgive your son's murderer.
Now, Robert knew it was something that he needed to do, but he knew also he needed
to do it out of delight and not duty, because he knew that it had to come from the heart for it to
be real. So, he began reflecting over time on just a great deal on the murder of God's son on the cross. And it was through that time of reflection
that he was able to forgive the young man who had murdered his son.
So he wrote the young man a letter, and he sent it to him,
telling him that he had forgiven him.
And the young man didn't respond.
He didn't write him back, so he wrote him again and again.
Several times he wrote him. He again. Several times he wrote him.
He told him how much he loved him and that he forgave him
and that he was praying for them.
And the young man finally wrote him back.
And in the midst of their correspondence, the young man said,
My own father has never said I love you.
And yet you, who I killed your son, you say that you love me and you've forgiven me?
And he was overwhelmed by Robert's
forgiveness. Robert was later asked if he had to keep on forgiving his son's murder. And he said,
yes, it was a process. But then he said, but now it's complete. I have no ill will against the
young man. I look forward to the day when he gets out
and giving him a big hug and looking him straight in the eye to be able to tell him face to face
that I love him and that I forgive him. That right there is someone who understands the implications
of the gospel, who understands how much they have been forgiven of their sin, and that should make them forgiving as well.
Now, here's the deal, though, about forgiveness,
that Paul knew, that Robert knew.
It can't be forced.
Yes, it's a choice, but it can't be forced.
Paul knew that, so he says, as an apostle,
I could command you right now to do what's right,
but I don't want your good deed to be by coercion, by compulsion.
I want it to be voluntary. Isn't that how Jesus approaches us? Not forcing himself upon us. He
stands, he says, I stand at the door, knock. He might just be knocking on your heart. This is the
day that he wants you to get right with him. This is the day that he wants you to get right with him.
This is the day that he wants you to take the steps of repentance
to get right with others.
And he's knocking on the door.
He's saying, I'm waiting for you to open.
I'm waiting for you to listen to the radical words
that I have to say to you about forgiveness.
He's waiting for you to open your heart to him.
Now, it's my personal opinion that Philemon was not the only one who had to do some
forgiving. I believe that Onesimus had to forgive Philemon long before he went and delivered the
letter to him, because Philemon had owned him as a slave. And while that was legal within Rome, it was not right. So long before Onesimus confesses to Philemon, he forgives Philemon.
Why? Why do I think that?
Well, because a person is very unlikely to confess their wrong if they haven't forgiven.
Sometimes people don't confess their wrong in a situation because they haven't forgiven the other person for the wrong in the situation as well.
So you may need, in order to make something right with someone, you may need to forgive them first of what they did to you before you have a heart that's willing to own what you did to them. The story is told of Leonardo da Vinci
while he was painting his famous painting, The Last Supper.
He got crossed with a friend,
so while he was painting the faces of the disciples,
he painted Judas' face as the face of his friend.
But when he got ready to paint the face of Jesus,
he just couldn't quite get it right until he realized the bitterness that he had in his heart towards his friend.
And so he repainted Judas's face, and then he was able to get the face of Jesus just right.
Paul continues in verse number 17.
He says, if you count me as a partner, that's the word koinonia, if I'm a brother in Christ,
receive him as you would me. But if he's wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account.
Here's our last principle. Every offense requires payment by someone. Every offense. That's part of
the justice of God. There is no offense that
does not get paid for. And Paul says, I want you to receive Onesimus just like you'd receive me.
And if Onesimus owes you anything, just put that on my tab. Put that on my account. Now, let me ask
you, does that remind you of anything? Does that remind you of anyone? I'll tell you, it reminds me of Jesus. Jesus said
to us who believe in him, he tells the father, he says, put what they owe on my account. Father,
receive them as you receive me. You see Philemon, the whole book is a picture of the gospel. And
the apostle Paul right here is a picture of Jesus who reconciles, reconciling two people who are at odds with one another.
Philemon and Onesimus, he's bringing them together. He's bridging the gap, and that's what Jesus does
in our life. You see, without Jesus, we are at odds with God because of our sin that separates us from
him. We cannot possibly be reconciled and restored. In Job chapter 9, Job is praying to the Lord, and he says in verse 33,
nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on both of us. Job says, God,
who could possibly bring us back together? And the answer is Jesus Christ. He's the only one
who can reconcile us to God. Abraham Lincoln, towards the end of the Civil War,
he was chided by someone for not completely destroying and wiping out the South.
And Lincoln said, I destroy my enemies by making them my friends.
And that's what God does to us.
We were, in our sin, we're at enmity between us and God.
We were enemies of God, but through his son, Jesus,
we are made friends.
And not just friends, we are made family.
Now, whenever we are wrong, we demand justice, don't we?
Someone's got to pay for that.
That's why we can't let go.
That's why we write that person off.
You are right.
Someone's got to pay.
And here's the gospel.
Jesus offers to pay all that is owed.
He offers to pay it all.
And it is time that as Christians we recognize that fact
and put every offense against us
and every offense we've committed on his account.
Robert Smith, whose son I mentioned earlier that was murdered,
he said,
Forgiveness is not difficult. It isn't. It's just impossible without God.
March 21st, or 24th rather, 1989, Exxon Valdez went aground and dumped nearly 11 million gallons of oil into the pristine waters off the coast of Alaska.
It's one of the biggest environmental disasters within U.S. history.
After evaluating what had happened, a government official was quoted as saying,
restoration will probably be done by God in the coming years.
I don't think it will be done by Exxon.
It's just too big of a mess.
You know, sometimes there are messes in our lives that are too big for us to restore and to fix.
They can only be fixed by God. Maybe you're in a mess of a relationship that is of value to you or it was of value to you,
but it's been broken and it's a mess.
You can't see how to put all the pieces back together.
It's too big of a mess for you to clean up.
Why don't you just let God clean it up?
And he does that by grace.
He does that by confession.
He does that by forgiveness. He does that by confession. He does that by forgiveness.
And he's really, really good at it.
You remember Humpty Dumpty, the animated egg?
The old nursery rhyme that says, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.
Maybe you feel like Humpty Dumpty today.
Something's happened.
Maybe it was your own doing.
Maybe it was someone else's doing.
Maybe it was a combination of both.
But you feel like your life is broken into pieces because of sin. Or maybe it's a
cherished relationship that has been broken into pieces. Please know today that Jesus is fully
capable, he is fully able, and he is fully willing to pick up the pieces of your life
and put them back together again.
He will restore you
if you just ask him.
Now let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will,
both here and at Olive Drive.
In just a moment, we're going to have a
time where we're inviting you to respond to God's word today.
Both here and at Olive Drive.
As soon as I pray, there's going to be pastors and other leaders here at the front of both campuses, prayer partners.
And we're going to stand and we're going to sing.
And then as the song plays, we're just going to invite you, wherever you're at,
as God is leading and tugging on your heart,
if you need to make a decision and make things right,
if you need prayer, if you need to bring some broken relationship to the Lord,
we're going to invite you to do that right now.
Not to wait until tomorrow, not to wait until later today,
but to do business with him right now.
Now's the time when his voice is loudest to you. Respond. The Bible says today is the day of
salvation. Now is the time to respond. Whenever the Holy Spirit is at work, now's the time.
So we're going to invite you as we stand to step out from wherever you're at,
walk down one of these aisles, or walk down one of these staircases.
Grab one of these prayer partners by the hand and say, I want to give my life to Jesus.
They're going to know exactly how to help you.
They're not going to ask you questions you can't answer.
They're not going to embarrass you in any way.
They're here to help you.
Maybe God's tugging on your heart where you've never had a personal relationship with God.
It's always felt like there's distance.
Well, there is distance until you come to full surrender in Jesus, to Jesus.
And that's when the mediator, Jesus, the God-man, grabs a hold both of God and man,
and he pulls you together to him. And the only way that
happens is by grace through faith. When God forgives and when you trust, God wants to forgive
you. Oh, how he doesn't delight in anyone who perishes. He desires that all men come to repentance.
And so if God's pursuing you today, I want to invite you.
Allow this day to be the day that you say yes to him.
That you surrender it all.
And I'm telling you right now, there's nothing like it in all the world to be clean with God.
There's nothing like it in all the world to be right with God.
Not to be wrong, but to be right.
Not by what you've done and your ability to clean up your life, but by what Jesus did.
To just be fully known by God, fully seen by Him, but still fully loved.
I want to invite you to do business with Him.
Maybe you want to come as a couple.
As a family.
Maybe you're not sitting next to your spouse because you're split.
Or you're at odds.
Maybe you're next to each other, but you know there's a great big old divide between each other that no one else can see but you and God.
Why don't you make the hard but yet deep commitment to make things right?
You can't control what the other person does, but you can control what you do.
And you are responsible to God for what you do.
I want to invite you to make things right.
Now, I recognize there are some broken relationships where someone is now, they've passed away.
And there isn't that opportunity to to reconcile in the same way
here's what you do you just give that person in that whole situation to the Lord and you know
what God does he forgives in full he casts our sin as far as the east is from the west
it's into the depths of the ocean and he sticks up a no fishing sign he says you are forgiven
don't go fishing for that past sin.
So you just give it over to the Lord
and let him give you peace about it.
I also recognize there are some broken relationships
that the nature of them is such that
reconciliation and forgiveness
doesn't necessarily look the same.
Maybe there's a sense of danger
and protection that needs to be
included in the scenario.
Maybe you were sexually abused or raped.
So many other scenarios.
And it doesn't, restoration and reconciliation doesn't
look like a close relationship with that person. But here's the deal. You still need to let it go.
And I'm not saying you let it go that the person doesn't pay. God says, vengeance is mine. I will
repay, says the Lord. You just can't hold on to it yourself
because it's going to eat you up inside
so you just got to allow yourself
to release it to the Lord
and just say God I'm giving it to you
help me release this pain
God promises to be near
to the broken hearted
he will bring restoration to your soul.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your love and your goodness to us.
Oh, how we don't deserve it, Lord.
I was so encouraged by the story of Robert Smith.
It's a story to us, but it was reality to him who was able to forgive and love,
genuinely love the man who killed his son.
Lord, help us recognize the depths of our own sin and that we played a part
in our sin, nailing your son to the cross. How much more forgiving should we be when
we recognize the depths of our own depravity and all the depths of your grace, that your grace is
deeper still. Help us, Lord. I know that there are many, many, many people, have people on their mind right now that your spirit is putting them there.
And in their flesh, they're thinking, I couldn't possibly make things right.
Oh, Lord, help them know that you are the God of the impossible.
Help them know, Lord, that you are able, that yes, it is impossible with them, but with you, all things are possible.
Help them have that kind of faith, Lord, and help them give it all to you and then take the steps,
the radical steps it may take to make amends. We need you, Lord. We desperately need you. I pray
that you open the eyes and the hearts of those who've been close to you, that have been distant,
that have been enemies of you and been in rebellion to you. Soften their heart, Lord. May they say yes to you
and cling to you in faith today. And may you forgive them. We ask them, ask you in the name
of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening today. We hope you enjoyed this message. And if you did,
we would be so grateful if you left us a review. Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast
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If you feel the Lord calling you
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journey, know that we love you, we're praying for you, and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.