Jesus forgave before they apologized. Jesus did not wait for them to apologize before He forgave
them. Those who hurt Him did not repent. They didn't even think that what they were doing was
wrong. Jesus didn't postpone His forgiveness until they will come to their senses and apologize.
If you wait for too long to forgive those that are causing you pain, your hurt will
turn your heart into bitterness and offense and unforgiveness will do more damage to you
than all the bad people have done to you. You will do more damage to you.
Why? Because betrayal is what people do to us. Bitterness is what we do to ourselves.
If you are hurting, quickly forgive people for your own sake. Do not let the sun go down on
your wrath. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26. Because afterwards it talks about, don't give place to the
devil. When you hold on to unforgiveness, when you hold on to pain, your wound gets infected.
One of the first things that you learn when you get hurt is you have to disinfect your wound.
If you're seeing this right now, a few weeks ago, I was riding a bike way too fast, a bicycle
and I hit the curb pretty much almost like I kind of flew from it. I had a helmet the whole nine
yards but I took it with my hand and pretty much slid on the sidewalk. So this part of my shoulder,
my hand and also my knee got all scratched up. I mean blood everywhere and you know, I came home
and my first thing was not to go you know and destroy the bike or take a hammer and break the
sidewalk. I knew that those were not responsible for my suffering. I made a mistake.
And I was riding too fast but for my wound not to become something worse than that,
I had to disinfect it which is painful, had to clean the wound and then it started to
heal within about two days, it started to cover then the first layer of skin ripped off and now
it's pretty much like it doesn't hurt anymore. First time, it was hurting like I would touch it,
ouch it would hurt. Now, I touch it like as you can see it on the screen, it does not hurt
at all. See that's what happens when you have a scar. A scar is a memory of where the wound was.
A scar is a testimony. It's a sign. A wound hurts. I can't talk about it because it hurts.
We can't talk about it because I'm gonna start hurting that means it's not healed yet.
In order for the wound to heal, it needs to be cleansed and what cleanses the wound
is forgiveness. It's when you choose to forgive. Now, does it pinch a little bit when you forgive?
Oh yes! Because forgiveness sends this thing into your brain, Oh my goodness, I'm letting them get
away with it. Oh my goodness if I don't stay mad at them, that means that they just pretty much
ruined my life and they're happy. Because if I stay mad at them, it's somehow punishing them.
But it's a lie. When you cleanse your wound, you will get healed and very soon,
you will have a scar. Scars don't hurt. Scars actually help others because Jesus came with His
scars and He helped Thomas to overcome His doubts. Your scars will be your testimony.
Your scars will be your story, you will tell other people to help them overcome their challenges.
But you cannot get scars until your wounds get healed. Time doesn't heal wounds.
If a wound got infected, time will only make it worse. There's a cleansing that
has to happen and if you got wounded, if you got betrayed, if you got hurt, if you got lied to,
if you got deceived and you feel like, Oh my goodness I can't trust people anymore. I
will not go to church anymore. That's it. I don't trust pastors anymore. I don't trust,
I will never get married again. Why? Because I had such a bad experience. Yes,
you had a bad experience. I also had a bad experience with my bike.
But in fact, I actually went riding the bike again next week, after I fell. Why and I rode
in exactly same place where I fell before because I wanted my brain to be reprogrammed
that if I do it the right way, I'm not gonna fall by God's grace. But of course you know sometimes
you can get hit by another car so that's but in my case, that's not the case and I don't want
to be afraid of riding a bicycle and I'm gonna get healed better and so today by God's grace,
you know my scars are still there. They are lessons for me and they are testimony for somebody
else. So when I go through hurtful situations, I learn from them because I get healed and then I
help other people because of those situations. God works all things for our good for those who love
Him and for those who are called according to His purpose, according to Romans chapter 8 verse 28.
Amen. Is that if this is helping somebody, could you drop number one in the chat. If
you are re-watching this, could you also drop in the chat, I am re-watching this.
Let me know if you are still with me and I'm going to share four more things with you.
Number six, Jesus responded to the Father. He did not react to people when He was being hurt.
While hurting, while being not treated good by the people that should have worshiped Him,
the kings, the pharisees, including His disciples as well as that knucklehead Judas,
all these people should have worshiped Jesus. He was worthy of it.
He was the son of God. He was God in flesh. They didn't treat him like He deserved to be treated.
Sometimes people like, oh you know I deserve to be treated better. I'm not as honored as
I should be honored. I'm not as recognized as I should be recognized. I'm not being
applauded for my good contribution or my good gifts or you know like I'm not being honored.
And this is hard not to react to people but to respond
to God. Jesus is on the cross, He cries out with a loud voice, He said, "Father,
into Your hands I commit My spirit." Having said this, He breathed His last.
Luke chapter 23 verse 46. Reacting is easy, Responding correctly is harder.
Jesus's words and actions were in response to His Father's will and wishes. They were
not a reaction to what people were doing to Him. In fact, His own critics said, Come down
from the cross and save Yourself. Mark chapter 15 verse 30, NIV. So what they were challenging Him
is to come down from the cross. If He would have reacted to them, He would have come down from
the cross and proved to them that He is God. He didn't do that. He did not yield to their mocking,
to their demands. Because He was focused on making sure His actions, His words
were in obedience to His Father's will. Respond to the Father, don't react to people. Come on!
Somebody drop that in the chat. 'Respond to the Father, don't react to people.'
May your reaction to people be your response meaning, may you respond to the Father
in the face of those people. What would God have you do in this situation?
What would God have you say in this situation?
Would you pause and ponder, before you try to prove and defend? Come on somebody! Drop that
in chat. Would you pause and ponder before you try to prove and defend.
See, to do that, you have to have your eyes on Jesus. Because in order to react,
all you have to do is have your eyes on your hurt, on your pain and have your eyes
on people. When people and what they're doing
is your obsession, you don't see God at that moment. It's so easy to slip up. It's so easy
to act out of character, embarrass the name of Jesus.
But when we see Jesus as we're hurting, as we're suffering, as we're saying, Lord,
it's not about my comfort. It's not about me. It's about how can You be glorified even in this.
How would I respond to You in this situation. Would You have me apologize? Would You have me
humble myself? Take the form of a bond servant,
not grasp for my glory, not grasp for my honor. Would You help me honor somebody else?
Would You help me to still honor this person even though they're not honorable. They have
not been honoring to me, Lord. Maybe you're a wife and you're in a situation where you're like,
no way I'm gonna honor my husband. He has not been loving to me. So what you're doing is you're
reacting to his lack of love instead of responding to God's word or maybe you're a husband, you're
like man my wife, she just ignores my needs. I really need this particular thing from her,
she just does not care so you know what, yeah I'm just gonna go and I'm just gonna react to that by,
I'm not gonna give her what she needs. So guess what we're doing is creating a cycle.
You dishonor me, I destroy you. You destroy me, well, I'll show you what I can do.
And God is looking from heaven and you're like what an idiot. God is looking from heaven,
He's like, what about Me? My Son didn't do that. My Son didn't give Pharisees a middle finger.
My Son didn't tell Pharisees and didn't describe to them, the temperature of hell.
My Son didn't curse their children. My Son didn't describe how emperor Titus is going to dash their
children in rocks. He forgave them and honestly, He even ignored them and He said, "Father,
into Your hands I give you My spirit."
They're asking me to come down and they say, they'll believe.
Satan says, if I turn you know and I get on my knees, he will give me the keys of
the kingdom. They're saying, if I come down but You're saying for Me to die.
Guess what I'm going to do, I'm going to die and therefore, into Your hands
I give My spirit. I'm not going to live my life in reaction. I'm gonna live my life in response.
It sets you free from the need to perform. It sets you free from the need to please people
but to serve people and to love God. Amen. Are you ready for number seven? This one is
hard. Therefore, I do believe that without the help of the Holy Spirit, we can't do it.
So number seven is Jesus ministered while suffering. Jesus did not give up on people
because people caused Him pain. He ministered to the soldier in the garden by healing his ear. He
ministered to His mother by arranging her future and well-being. He ministered to the criminal who
actually got saved on the cross. So while going through betrayal by people, He served people. He
didn't close His heart and say, well I'm done with humanity. I'm done with people. Honestly, I can't
wait to get away from here and I can't wait to be surrounded by angels again and be worshiped in
the glory. He ministered to people. Drop this in the chat, Don't let your pain stop your purpose.
Don't let your misery block your ministry. Come on somebody! Let somebody know that in the chat
right now. 'Don't let your current pain, stop your purpose.' 'Don't let your misery,
block your ministry.' Paul was in prison. He didn't wait to get out of prison. His writing
career, a lot of it was in prison. The Epistles we read today and we're like, it blesses me. You know
when Paul wrote that, a lot of that was written in prison. Philippians was written in prison.
He didn't let the restrictions, the hurt that people caused him
to stop serving them. There's always going to be somebody who is going to go
through way deeper situations than what you are experiencing. Find that person and help them.