today today I'm hoping and I'm praying that if you can't if you don't get something out of today's service that I've done a very terrible job and I've done terrible jobs before but this is something I've talked about quite a bit and if you'll just please if you will prepare all of our hearts to receive today's word Those here and those listening, Lord, please help us, Lord, to receive your word. Not my word, but your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Then we'll talk about rightly dividing forgiveness. You'll understand. 2 Corinthians 2.10. 2 Corinthians 2.10. What's the big deal? Y'all know of all the things I talk about, I talk about forgiveness over and over and over and over again. If you've been here with any kind of regularity, I teach on that because I think this is one of the hardest things for Christians to understand. You may say, oh, no, I know I'm right. I know I'm right. Just hang with me. 2 Corinthians 2, 10. To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Key verse. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Unforgiveness opens the door for Satan to walk right into your life. You don't realize it. None of us want to entertain the devil, do we? Of course not. But unforgiveness will open a door. That's what the Bible says. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. We're going to give him an advantage if we walk in unforgiveness. You remember, I'll do the story real quick. You've heard it before. Remember a long time, my mom was really sick and her brother came in at Roanoke and we're trying to figure out what's wrong with my mom. She's in a hospital. And her brother came in and said some really bad things to my dad. It was vicious things. And I told you before, if I'd had the gun, I'd have shot him. I really, I'd have shot him right in the head. I thank goodness I didn't have one. It was, it was, it was not just, it was beyond. And my dad broke down and cried, and I've never seen him cry before. Okay, it was bad. And so it took me probably a year, and when they had events, we could come in. And I'm sharing this so you might can relate to this. When he had events, if he was going to be there, they wouldn't tell me, like family events. They didn't want us to get together because they knew how much I hated him. I mean, I hated him. And so they went on for a long time. And I remember, you've heard this story before, I was driving by the bowl down in Rocky Mount, and something inside of me came up. You got to forgive him. It's bad for you, no testimony, no ministry. I'm exaggerating, but you got to get this done. You got to forgive him. It'd been a year. And I said, by the time I got back to Goodwill, if you know where that is, I said, Lord, I can't do that. I cannot, after what he said, I cannot do that. And then nothing happened. I mean, I'm just sitting there. And then I said, Lord, please help me. Lord, please, God, help me. Please. And I meant it. The effectual, fervent prayer of a heartfelt man availeth much. I meant it, because I knew I had to do it. I mean, I'm a Christian. I'm a minister, for crying out loud. And so I don't know how long it happened. I can't remember all that because it's been like 30 years ago, maybe. And so anyway, it all worked out and I said, I'm good. I'm good. And so we finally had an event at the Reynolds Homestead down at Crites. That's not, you know, what they're doing it. they had a table out here and they had like you know wine and cheese and grapes and you know you know cut up carrots all that kind of stuff out there and so he's out there and everybody's sort of sitting around the edge you know and so I walked up and he walked up he said hey how you doing I'm doing good how are you and so then he said can I pour you a glass of wine he was being ugly I'm sorry, you can't drink wine. I said, no, I can if I want one. I don't want one right now. Sometimes you got to use discretion, right? Where you are, you got to be wise what you're doing. There's some things that you do that aren't wrong, they're not sin, but if it causes somebody else to sin, then you don't do them. That's just being smart, right? And then I felt nothing but love for him, and I could look him right in the eye, and I had a peace about it. You understand? And so God helped me do it. And so you may be thinking, well, you don't know what's happened to me, but I had something happen to me about a year ago. And so it was really devastating. And now, after a year, when I think of this person or whoever it is, now I think good thoughts about him. That's how I know I've forgiven him. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? In other words, now when I think of this person, whatever then, I think of that laughing and smiling and joking. I don't think about what the bad part. So that inside of me, you can't go by your feelings, but that proved to me I'm good. I can see them right now and I'm good. Does that make sense? Okay. Make sure we understand that. Sometimes, you know, forgiveness has nothing to do with you wronging somebody. You could have done everything right, but if I offended you, then I need to ask for forgiveness. Amen. All right. Romans 14, 13. Romans 14, 13. Rightly dividing forgiveness. I'm going to show you where our mistakes are. Please help us see the truth, Lord. Romans 14, 13. The Bible says, let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it be unclean. But if thy brother is grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." A real simple example here, I think we can all can relate to it to a certain degree, is if I know that I'm eating with somebody or whatever, and I know that a beer or wine or what it would really upset them, then I shouldn't do it. That's what it's saying. Don't offend somebody. Don't deliberately. I know it's a problem. I don't care. There's nothing wrong with this. Well, if you're going to hurt somebody, we're Christians. I don't need to do that right now. Surely we're that wise, are we not? The Bible says to do it that way. Go down to 20-21. This is Romans 14, 20, 21. If y'all know that I was an alcoholic, I'm not, but let's say you knew. Would it be appropriate if we went out to a pizza joint and y'all all drink beer around me? No. No. Why would you do that? Is there anything wrong with you doing that? Not in my opinion. But I mean, you know, some things you just don't do. Right? That's what he's talking about. Be aware. Don't cause offenses to someone. Please don't do that. And today I'm going to tell you at some point who the hardest person is that you'll ever have to forgive. I know who it is, and I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Amen? I could preach forgiveness every month and I'd be helping the church. I mean, share the gospel and forgiveness. Share the gospel and forgiveness. If we got those two things going, it would help the body of Christ immensely if we could just walk forgiveness. I'm convinced that probably the two most difficult things to teach Christians are first that your sins have been forgiven eternally. All of your sins have been forgiven eternally. The second thing is that you Because of that, you should be forgiving those around you. You need to pass on that forgiveness that God gave for all your stuff. As you've been forgiven, you ought to be able to forgive those around you. The hardest thing, one of the hardest things, and y'all know, there are probably some of you right now, I mean, this was given to me three weeks ago, and so he knew exactly who was going to be here today, and so I want you to He might be talking to you, I don't know, he may be, but just please listen. If we could only believe those two things, that Jesus Christ's blood paid for all my sins, for all eternity, and that I as a Christian and believer in Jesus Christ and trust in him, I need to do the same thing for the people around me. If we could do those two things, oh my, what would the body of Christ be like if we all walked in forgiveness? Most of our issues today, where most of us have problems as failing as Christians, is we don't really rightly divide the Word of Truth. How can that be, Pastor? Well, I'm going to tell you how it can be. Hang with me. I can tell you how it's going to happen. We get our how to forgive, forgiveness, we get inconsistent with it, we get confused about what to do. The other day, I had a clarification, I want to share this with you, a rabbit trail. It's okay for you to confess your sin to God. Absolutely. Even right now, God, I'm sorry. I should not have said that. I should not have done that. I should not have thought that. But you don't have to ask Him for forgiveness again. You've already been forgiven. So what I'm doing when I sin, which is on a regular basis, it seems like, when I sin, I say, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. And I thank Him for forgiving me. See the difference? I made a bad mistake right there, Lord. I mean, I'm very sorry. I know it was a sin. Thank you for forgiving me. That's a proper way. You don't have to keep asking. You can, but He's already forgiven you. When He died on the cross, you were forgiven. All your sins were forgiven when you believed in what He did. Amen? Okay, all right. We get all messed up and confused. We read verses in the Old Testament, we read verses in the Gospels, and lots of those verses and sayings don't apply to us as members of the body of Christ. Our doctrine is found from Romans to Philemon. You can go all through the Bible and find applications, but our doctrine is found in Paul's epistles. That's our doctrine as the body of Christ. we need to go. Ephesians 1, 6 and 7. Ephesians 1, rightly dividing forgiveness. What's he talking about? What's he talking about, huh? It's coming. Galatians, I mean Ephesians 1, 6 and 7. Ephesians 1, 6 and 7, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved and in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace colossians 1 13 god eats popcorn colossians 1 13 the bible says who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin." That's the whole point of Jesus Christ coming to the earth, was to die to pay for your sin. The perfect Lamb of God, as the Jews would refer to Him, He died and paid the price for our sin. That's why it came. In his blood you'll find this redemption. We've been taught, and most of you, well, most of us, God, sometimes I still mess up. We've been taught forgiveness is conditional, right? Well, if he would just come to me and tell me he's sorry, I'd forgive him. she would just if you know if they just inside you if they I'm not gonna once he admits once she admits I forgive him that's conditional forgiveness that's wrong that's wrong forgiveness is one way Street forgiveness is one way Reconciliation is two ways, but forgiveness is you decide to forgive. You don't have to have a yes back. You don't have to have a thank you back. You go in and forgive, and you forgive somebody, and you're done. And what you want is reconciliation, but that can't come, may not come. We might get there. Well, if they just... But you don't know. You don't know what they said. You weren't there. I mean, use my example. You weren't there when that guy said these nasty things to my dad. And if you'd heard him, you'd probably shot him too. I mean, terrible. We're suffering, you know what I'm saying? That has nothing to do with forgiving somebody. Matthew 6 14 Matthew 6 14 see if this applies to us. This is in the Gospels, right? Matthew 6 14 I think you'll Come to a conclusion here The Bible says, Jesus speaking actually, "'For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.'" Does that apply to you? Does that apply to us? No. If you forgive men their trespasses, God will forgive you. But if you don't, if you don't forgive people, now I've preached that before to try to make y'all forgive, but that's got nothing to do. This is in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is still alive. The testator hasn't died yet. This is not to us. That's then. It does not apply to you. You know you don't have to forgive somebody for God to forgive you, right? You know that, right? You don't have to forgive for God to forgive you. You've already been forgiven. Jesus Christ forgave you when He died on the cross. You ain't got to forgive anybody in order to be forgiven. That's conditional. That's Old Testament. That's conditional. I'm talking about rightly dividing forgiveness. The Bible says, what does 2 Timothy 2.15 say? to show yourself approved unto God, or working with me, to not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If people could just see right division and what it is, it's not saying the Bible's wrong, there's no lies in the Bible at all. It's all truth, you just have to know how to rightly divide the truth. See right here, you read that, and over here, Jesus forgave all my sin. Wait a minute, the Bible, Jesus just said, well you ain't gonna get forgiven unless you forgive the people to other people. Well, see, that's not to you! We have to understand that. The New Testament began at the death of Jesus Christ. I mean, just do this. Some people might not know this, might forget it. Go to Matthew 10, 5. Matthew 10, 5. These 12 disciples Jesus sent forth and commanded them. He commanded them, go not into the way of the Gentiles or into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He told his 12 apostles, don't go to the Gentiles, don't go to the Samaritans, only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So their message would not be to us, right? Don't go to them. He said he commanded them not to do it. Well, let's just go one more, go to Matthew 15, 22. Matthew 15, 22. The Bible says, and behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried out to him, saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is previously vexed with a devil. But he answered her, not a word. And the disciples came to him and besought him, saying, Send her away. She's crying after us now. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus Christ, in his earthly ministry, only came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's what he said. So what he says is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not us. He is earthly ministry. We got to get these things right, but point it out to people. You talk about right dividing, say, what does that mean? What does that mean? They'll have a hard time answering that. It messes their mind up. I can mess a lot of people's up if they don't know how to write the divine. So now we're talking about forgiveness under grace. I'm going to talk about forgiveness under grace. That's where we are. We live in the dispensation of grace. It started Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. That's when the body of Christ started at that point, and that's where the dispensation of grace started. He goes and blinds Paul for three days, and Paul recognizes he's Lord, and then he starts a ministry. He carries Paul out into the Arabian Desert, sends him out there for three years to teach Paul. The same amount of time he taught the apostles on earth, he was with them for three years, right? Okay, so now Paul comes up. The resurrected Jesus is teaching Paul for three years in the desert. Three years. Y'all, you listen to me. The resurrected Jesus taught Paul for three years in the desert. I think what Paul says is pretty important. Paul is our apostle. It's in the Bible. He is the apostle of the Gentiles. We're Gentiles. The resurrected Jesus back to life spent three years, January, February, March, April, May, June, go times three, talking and teaching, not six months, not a couple six-week Bible studies, three years revealing to Paul the truth. Get that in your head, get that in your heart. It wasn't just something that's happened, three years he taught him, three years. Our forgiveness today is not under the law, but it's under grace. Our forgiveness came from where first? Where did our forgiveness originate from? Jesus Christ. Now where are we supposed to do with it? We're supposed to pass it on. Your forgiveness, if you are a Christian, is still available if you're not. You may be here today and not be a Christian. Your forgiveness is still available if you trust in what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He died, buried, and rose again three days later. Then you have eternal life. You have forgiveness of all your sin, past, present, and future. Think about that. The sin I do, if I do want it today, it's possible. Then it's power I paid for. He knew. Gary goofed up again. paid for. We, in turn, because of what he did for us, then we, oh, you just think about how sorry I am or you are. Just think about all the stuff you've done, and you, God forgave you, and somebody irritates you, and you get all mad at them and say, I'll never forgive them. What's wrong with you? You look at what you've been forgiven for and how you can hold to anything that somebody's done to you, anything at all, and not forgive them. You'll stand before God one day and explain that. As a Christian, you'll explain to him. You're gonna go to heaven as a believer, but you're still gonna, I just imagine if you were to die today with unforgiveness for somebody in your heart, I don't know how it's all gonna work out. I've never been to heaven, but I got a feeling somehow it's gonna be reconciled. Somehow I think it's gonna be reconciled Ephesians 1 7 We've been we've been forgiven. We have been forgiven. Let's go to this go to Colossians 2. Let's go to Colossians. Let's do that Colossians 2 13 Colossians 2 13 This will make sense And you, me and you, being dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Beat that in your head. You have been forgiven all trespasses. You have been forgiven. I have been forgiven all trespasses. I don't have to keep going and say, would you forgive me? Would you forgive me? Would you forgive me? Don't waste your time there. Thank him for forgiving him. Tell him you made a mistake. Say, Lord, that's what I do. I'm not saying that you work it out for you. And then say, Lord, I thank you. Thank you for forgiving me, Gloria. How dumb was I to do that? Now go to 313, Colossians 313. The Bible says, forgiving one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." You've been forgiven, now you take that same forgiveness and you turn to your neighbor, you turn to your believers, you turn to the people who hurt you, you forgive them. It couldn't be any plainer. If you don't understand that, I pray for you. Now, where's our problem? Our problem is forgiveness under the law. Forgiveness under the law go to 2nd Chronicles 714 This is this is a verse a lot of people tend to drum up It's talking about the temples not talking about the United States our country 2nd Corinthians 714 The Bible says if what's that first word? What's the first word? I said, 2 Chronicles, what did I say? 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 7.14. I'm sorry. 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 7.14. One of you had the quizzical look on your face. 2 Chronicles 7.14. What's the first word? If. Conditional. If. If. If. If my people which are called by my name, that ain't me and you. That's the Jews. If my people are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. That's conditional forgiveness. That's not for us today. There's no, we don't have, there's no condition. If, go to Matthew 6, 14, Matthew 6, 14. And by the way, I've taught on that before, that 2 Chronicles, they seem to pray that over the country every year about different things. But if you read 2 Chronicles, it's only talking about Solomon's temple. All right, Matthew 6, 14. Matthew 6, 14. One more. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." That's Old Testament forgiveness. That's forgiveness under the law, not under grace. If you do it, then I'll forgive you. But if you don't, that's not our darkness, not where we are. Mark 11.25. Mark 11.25. The Bible says, and when you stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. There it is again. Does that apply to you today? No. No. Absolutely not. Luke 17, 3. Luke 17, 3. It really messes people up when you explain to them most of the Gospels is really Old Testament because the testator, Jesus, hasn't died. Luke 17, 3, "'Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespasses against thee, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.'" That's where we are today. That's what most of us believe. If he repents, once he says he's sorry, once she says I'm sorry, then I'll forgive then. And if he trespass against thee seven times a day and seven times a day turn again to thee, saying I repent, then forgive him. Every time he repents, you forgive him. That's what the Bible says. That's the Old Testament pattern of forgiveness. And that's where most of us are today, right? Be honest. Well, man, if they just, all they gotta do is say they're sorry, I'll forgive them. Your wife, well, I know that was a mess to be. If she'll say she saw, I'll forgive her. Same way for me. Conditional forgiveness. The first thing that happens is you have to have an offense. Somebody had to offend you. And y'all do know that just taking offense is normally a sin. You take offense, normally you got a problem. I have to recognize that myself. Don't get offended by that. You ever try to tell a joke or try to be funny and you realize you offended somebody? You go, man, I just try to make, I just try to be, but then you try to tell them, I just try to make a joke, that don't make any better, does it? You think this is a joke? No, no, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. So offense gets taken, and then what's to be expected next is rebuke. I can't believe you said that. You're mad or you throw something. You throw a coffee, whatever it is. And then you expect repentance. That the person who offended you, you expect them to say, I'm really sorry. You expect that. You know what, most of my problems come in my life. I figured this out. Did I say this last week? I can't remember. I might have just thought it. I might have told you, I don't remember. Do you ever have an expectation of how something's supposed to turn out? Did I say it last week? You have an expectation, in other words, I'm quiet, I'm at the house having a Christmas party, whatever it is, I don't know, but I expect something. I ain't told anybody what I expect. But then it doesn't happen. And then who gets irritated? What's wrong with you? Nothing. Ain't it sound familiar? You act like something's wrong. Because you don't want to tell them what you expected, because that makes you look too small. I get too much pride to say that. What's wrong with you? Oh, nothing, nothing, I'm okay. Well, you don't act okay. Well, yeah, it's fine. Because I expected it to go a certain way, and it didn't go that way, and then when it didn't go that way, I take offense. But I'm ashamed to tell them how I wished it had went. Y'all follow me? We're all in the same, we're hunting the same rabbit, we're all in the same Then once they repent, then you know, okay, I forgive you. Then God forgives. That's how many of us believe. Old Testament forgiveness under the law. If you compare it to grace, it's nothing like that. I think I read it, Ephesians 4, 32. Ephesians 4, 32. Be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Those are our instructions. Even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And we think, I can't forgive somebody for this. If I just take a few minutes, a few seconds to think, Man, look how God forgave me. Actually, Jesus died for my sin, and I can't even forgive that person for that. Well, if they told me they were sorry, I would. Come on, man. That's not how we're supposed to walk. Please see that. Grace is unconditional. Law is conditional. Too many of us live in the Old Testament. We live there with our forgiveness. was still there. There is no condition in our forgiveness today. God's forgiven all our sin. And you know, did God know somebody was going to hurt you? Did God know you were going to hurt somebody? He forgave it. It's available. Make you sick. You'll get sick. I'm just telling you, man, I've lived this. I'm trying to help you guys and girls. Please, you can't do it. One guy, this same man, has called me two different times in the last years because he said some really bad things to me. He said some things to me that I'm not going to repeat. And he don't go to church here, but anyway. And then a little while after about a year, he called me up and he said, I got to talk to you. I said, all right. I said, you want to meet? He said, let me let me do it right here. I got to do it right now. And he said, I'm so sorry for the things I said to you. Will you forgive me? And I said, I've already forgiven you. No. I said, yeah. Yeah. He said, how do you do that? And I said, well, I just, I have. And I could see him right now. And so we got to be buddies again, chatting back and forth on different things. And he went off again on me. And so I said, I told him, I said, I got to block you. I said, we're this, this ain't, this is not good. And we just need, and so, Blocked him and we didn't talk for pretty good while guess who called me back again He did and he once again. He said I got to ask you this at least at least by God. He's got to He can call you up and say he messed up Right, you know, I mean elite. I mean he messed up but he at least some people wouldn't do that. I He called back up. We talked a little bit. He said I gotta ask you to forgive me. We I said, yes, sir We're done. I mean I could see him, right? I could kiss him like whatever whatever. I mean, I got no animosity I have learned you can't you can't stay there. You can't live there. It'll eat you alive And all I do say god help me. He don't he don't really know what you know He didn't really know what he was saying. He might have believed certain things and he misconstrued things, but he's not a bad person But sometimes you know you say bad things Y'all all been hurt, right? Have you been hurt by somebody? Golly, yeah. I think it is a gift from God, but He's been very kind to me. I couldn't keep this job if I couldn't walk that way. I couldn't keep this job if I couldn't forgive. Think about that just a second. I couldn't do it. But I can. Now I'm going to help you. Here's what I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you today. We're going to start 2025 with a clean slate. How do you do it? How do you do this? First of all, if you have unforgiveness, first you got to acknowledge it. If you're having bad thoughts about somebody or a situation, you try to avoid them, different things, you're probably walking around in unforgiveness. The first thing you need to do, very simple, is ask God to help you. God, would you please help me? Please help me. This person hurt me, she hurt me, he hurt me, boss hurt me, whatever. or elder at the church, whatever, whatever it is, pastor hurt me, you ask God, God please help me. You think God's gonna go, nah, I'm gonna let you suffer. When he told you to forgive, if you ask his help, don't you think he's gonna help you? Sure, he's gonna help you. Okay, he knows if you mean it too, so don't be trying to pull his leg. You gotta mean it, say please help me. You got to recognize unforgiveness is in your flesh. It's your flesh. You cannot yield to your flesh because you'll have bad... If you yielded to your flesh, how many of y'all would still be married today? If you yielded to your flesh, none of you, right? You'd have done stupid stuff, right? If you yielded to it, nothing... We all have different issues, but you don't yield to it. You don't do certain things. Don't yield to it. Remind yourself, number four, remind yourself of how much you've been forgiven. Just go back, you know, God, you forgave me for all my sin. Just remind yourself of that. Unforgiveness is in my flesh. And remind yourself what God's done. If you could get this part, you have to recognize that unforgiveness will manifest itself in you. It'll manifest itself in your body. It could be anger. It could be bitterness. It could be high blood pressure. It could be heart disease. It could be mental issues. Your unforgiveness, because he's told you over and over and over, you got to forgive. You gotta forgive. You gotta forgive. And if you don't, inside of you, you're going contrary to God's Word. And I would venture to say there are many people today that are sick because they have not forgiven. The next thing, number six, you can't forgive based on your feelings. You can't wait till you feel good. Ah, I feel good about it now. The feeling of good will come, but you gotta make a willful choice to go to that person and say, I forgive you. They may say, well, you don't need to. No, I need to. You done anything wrong, but I need to. Would you please forgive me? I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Man, you do that, all kinds of doors open up and certain doors get shut, but you can't do it on your feelings. You can't do it. Well, I don't feel it yet. No, there's no feeling involved. Then you got to realize Well, they never okay. I did that but then they never came to me and said they were sorry What's gonna happen next is probably you can get some resentment I Went and opened up to them and I told him I was sorry and They didn't say anything. They didn't say nothing. They've never admitted. What they did, they stole from me. I don't know, whatever. They did this and that, and they never admitted to me what they did. And if you're not careful, then that resentment will come back up again, because you're going to go back to thinking, man, I did everything I could. It meant nothing to them. They never said it. So be aware. That could happen. That sure could. It sure could. The devil's gonna come back again, probably try one more time to get you in a bad spot, to take advantage of you. The Bible talks about praying for others, pray for them. Go to Philippians 4, Philippians 4, 6. Philippians 4, 6 and 7, great verses. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Don't worry about it. In everything by prayer, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. He promises a peace right there. That's your request. God, you gotta help me with this. You gotta help. I can't do this by myself. My emotions are all jacked up. I'm angry. Please help me if that's what you do. And then the ninth thing, it's got two more things. There's a tremendous difference, tremendous difference in personal forgiveness and personal reconciliation. They're not the same. Personal forgiveness that told you that's a one-way street you forgive. That's all you forgive One-way street one-way street no backup you forgive you expose yourself. You say I forgive you for whatever it is It could be your mom and dad It could be aunts and uncles could be grandma grant could be your children You know, I forgive you for this Only takes one party to do forgiveness The personal reconciliation takes two parties. That's when you get back together. So you could forgive somebody and they still not like you. They think you lost your mind. You give me all you want to. I hate your guts. I ain't on you. I ain't on you. That's the two part reconciliation, which may take a while. may not ever come, but you got to do your part. I forgive you. Oh, yeah, crazy, man. What do you have? Whatever, you know, I forgive you. Will you forgive me? Please forgive me. Please forgive me for what I said. Oh, you know, would you please? It's a one-way street. Forgiveness is one way. Reconciliation is two ways. You remember I told you I made a reference at the beginning, I think it's appropriate now. I said there's one person that all of us probably have the hardest time to forgive. One person. Wonder who that would be. It's you. It's you. Tell me, it's you. You can step out. You and God can reconcile that. You've got a good, in that situation, your reconciliation, reconciliations between you and God, He'll do it. You ain't got to wait on Him. Many, many times, this ain't no pity party about me, but there are times I've been in a car, and the kids, they criticize me. I say, man, I wish I'd have done this, you know. I wish I'd have done this when y'all were little. And they finally said, Dad, will you shut up? I mean, not really that way, but let it go, man. It's past. You did the best you could. You go on. Well, see, I hadn't forgiven myself. But we got to start there. You gotta forgive yourself. You gotta make that right. The things you've done, Lord, I made some mistakes here. I made some mistakes. I'm so sorry. It's not stay back there walking around in your unforgiveness, not God. You've been, God forgave you. You're hanging in your unforgiveness. Your unforgiveness. Can't forgive yourself. Got nothing to do with God. Oh, he's forgiven all your sins. You're having trouble forgiving you of yours. Ask God to help you. That has to take place first, I believe. 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, 7. 1 Peter 5, 7, it's interesting. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. And you know when you've done that because you ain't caring anymore. You'll know. If the kid's coming up, you haven't cast it all on him. And it's pretty interesting. Go to Psalm 55. Yeah, 55-22. Psalm 55-22. This is where it comes from. Psalm 55, 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Cast your burden, give it to the Lord Jesus. Give it to the Lord Jesus. So I've told you today, please, I hope before January 1st, which is Wednesday, right? of this year. Please work out any relationships you have and make sure that you've asked for forgiveness, to forgive you or you've forgiven them. Will you please? Don't carry this on with you. It may be something that happened way years ago. It may be something you've You know what happens? You know how you can go through and you get a callus or something, you know, and it just gets tougher and tougher, you know, over your skin. Well, see, some of the things that we've done, we just bury them. And even you may not even you may think, well, I don't even I'm I'm beyond all that unforgiveness. Well, no, you're not. You just got covered up like a cat litter box. You just got it covered up. Nobody can smell it. Nobody can see it. But you know, it's there. Is that graphic enough for you? Your unforgiveness of sin is like a cat litter box with stuff in there. Father, we thank you, Lord Jesus, for your word. Lord, would you please help all of us, me, all of us, anybody listening, please help us this year, right now, to walk through this and get any issues we have resolved We forgive those who have caused us offense, and we go to those who we know we've offended. We ask for forgiveness, Lord. That's on us. We can't control what happens on the other end. We pray and hope for reconciliation, but we only can do what we can do. So please help us, Lord. Please. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Glory to God.