Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Good morning.
[00:00:10] Suddenly stopped.
[00:00:12] It's lovely to be here.
[00:00:14] Let's just pray.
[00:00:16] Holy Spirit, teach us this morning.
[00:00:23] Lead us into truth, lead us into freedom.
[00:00:29] Lead us into your truth and grace and your mercy in Jesus precious name.
[00:00:36] Amen.
[00:00:39] I was really struck in the praise and worship of the Passion and the compassion of Jesus for each one of us.
[00:00:51] You may not know it, may not believe it, but you are incredibly valuable to Jesus.
[00:01:01] So much so he gave his life for you that you might live.
[00:01:07] And so when I'm preaching this morning and going through these kind of challenging verses, understand this, that Jesus loves you with an everlasting love, and he wants you to understand his grace and his mercy that he has for you in Jesus precious name.
[00:01:28] If we turn to Luke chapter six.
[00:01:32] Okay, Luke chapter six.
[00:01:35] Judging fruit and builders is quite a challenge.
[00:01:38] Shall we put it up on the screen? But I got really excited about studying this because as I read it, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me, revealing really fresh stuff about this passage of Scripture. And I thought, oh, this is amazing.
[00:01:58] So I'm going to pick it up. In verse 36, just before this, it says, therefore be merciful, just as your Father, Heavenly Father is merciful to you. Think about that. Have that in the back of your mind. Then Jesus goes on to say, judge not, you should not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you'll be forgiven.
[00:02:24] I'm just going to roll through those verses, a little bit of explanation on these verses, and I'm going to go to something that the Holy Spirit showed me how to finish this time of ministry.
[00:02:38] When Jesus says judge not, what he's really saying is, how are you going to react to somebody else's failure?
[00:02:50] How are you going to react when somebody sins, when somebody messes up?
[00:02:58] It's not saying this verse about judging and condemning. It's not saying that the Old Testament commandments don't matter anymore.
[00:03:08] It's not saying that the New Testament's instructions on what grieves the Holy Spirit and what pleases the Holy Spirit doesn't matter. The Bible clearly shows us how we should treat one another, how we should live in society, how we should conduct ourselves sexually, socially, financially. The Holy Spirit says all these things.
[00:03:30] But when we see people miss it, how do we react?
[00:03:35] Because the commandments and the instructions of the Holy Spirit, they're like guardians.
[00:03:40] They protect us.
[00:03:42] The Ten Commandments was there to protect your joy.
[00:03:46] They were given to protect your peace.
[00:03:50] The new instructions on how to live in the New Testament were to Preserve your joy to keep you out of trouble.
[00:04:00] But all how the Lord loves us.
[00:04:03] You know, one of my children are here this morning. Hannah. There she is.
[00:04:11] And you know, as a dad, I really love her with all my heart.
[00:04:19] But when your kids grow up, they do things you know it's going to hurt them.
[00:04:27] And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does. He tries to lead you in the right path to avoid the pain, to avoid those difficult situations.
[00:04:39] But we find ourselves, when we think about the Old Testament and the New Testament, of all the instruction of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves that we're not. We can't keep it. We can't keep it up. We fail.
[00:04:53] So hands up this morning who's failed in thought, word or deed this week?
[00:04:59] Some of you are really slow.
[00:05:02] Shall I ask again, hands up those who have failed in thought, word or deed this week? Yes, because we do.
[00:05:13] Verse 37.
[00:05:16] It says this.
[00:05:18] Go on to verse 38. Give.
[00:05:21] Jesus said give. What does he mean, give?
[00:05:25] He means give forgiveness, give compassion, give mercy.
[00:05:33] Because when you give compassion and mercy to somebody who's faithful, failing you, give a cup of forgiveness and God gives you an ocean of forgiveness and kindness.
[00:05:46] It just flows from the throne. And God flows his inner blessings to you as you treat people with the compassion.
[00:05:55] You know, I'm old enough now. I'm 62. I know I may not look it, but I'm 62.
[00:06:02] And I have seen so many people fail.
[00:06:07] I've seen myself fail.
[00:06:12] And I've seen people who live out the words of Jesus to say, I'm going to not condemn you.
[00:06:20] I'm going to forgive you.
[00:06:23] I'm not going to judge you because you feel bad enough as it is already.
[00:06:28] But I'm going to restore you.
[00:06:31] You know, a dear friend of mine, years and years ago, so sad.
[00:06:37] I won't give you too much detail because I don't want to locate him anywhere.
[00:06:42] He had a wonderful wife and two children, and he decided to commit adultery.
[00:06:47] And it was so sad.
[00:06:51] But, you know, the mature Christian leaders didn't get round and saying, you horrible man, you evil man. He felt bad enough as it was.
[00:07:02] But they prayed for him.
[00:07:05] They didn't condemn him.
[00:07:07] They forgave him.
[00:07:10] And, you know, he was wonderfully restored today. He's still with his wife, two children, all their grandchildren are together. It's wonderful.
[00:07:19] But, you know, we all blow it.
[00:07:23] Some of us blow it on a big scale so everybody can see. Some of us blow it on a little scale that we know we've Blown it. But let's treat each other with compassion and kindness.
[00:07:39] In verse go to 39, Jesus said, the blind, the blind lead the blind, and they will both fall into a ditch.
[00:07:51] Blindness is religious, is religion, Blindness is rules and regulations.
[00:07:59] See, if you live your life like that, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. If I do this, I'll be perfect. If I do that, I'll be great. If you live like that, you will fail and you'll end up in a ditch.
[00:08:15] You cannot live beyond what you're taught.
[00:08:19] So if you're taught religiosity, that's what you'll experience and its rules and regulations and rituals, and they will fail you.
[00:08:29] You know, when I was worshipping this morning, all I felt was the compassion and grace of Jesus.
[00:08:36] But I am forgiven.
[00:08:39] I am forgiven. And as that video of the Elim Pentecostal Church came up on the screen, the Holy Spirit said to me, and I wrote it down.
[00:08:49] He said, the blood, forgiveness is the blood that travels to every organ in the body.
[00:08:58] Forgiveness flows to every organ, blood flows to every organ. And if you've not got that forgiveness, nothing flows.
[00:09:07] And we want this church to be built on a solid foundation.
[00:09:12] That solid foundation is that we are forgiven.
[00:09:16] We are made whole by Jesus.
[00:09:20] You can't live beyond what you're taught.
[00:09:25] In verse 41, Jesus describes people who criticize others. Criticism is so destructive, so destructive.
[00:09:37] You know, we often. Phil often takes the mickey out of himself. You know, I'm off to Colombo, see Colombo this afternoon, or do this or do that. And he's off and on about football and things like that, you know, that could rub people up the wrong way.
[00:09:52] Phil's on about football again.
[00:09:57] But let the forgiveness, let compassion, let understanding flow. Let it flow in your life.
[00:10:05] In verse 42, we could go on, and why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and do not perceive the plank in your own eye?
[00:10:15] Wow.
[00:10:18] That is.
[00:10:19] Why do you see it?
[00:10:22] That means you're looking out for it.
[00:10:25] What's wrong with them? What's wrong with them?
[00:10:27] And then Jesus goes on further in verse 42, and how can you say to your brother, so you've just looked at it now. It's not a thought. You're going to verbalize it and you're going to say, how can you say to your brother, brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye, that when you see yourself, you do not see the plank that is in your own eye? And Jesus Said hypocrite.
[00:10:59] What a thing for Jesus to say. Hypocrite means pretending to be something that you're not pretending to be something you're not.
[00:11:10] He said verse 43. He said, you'll know a true Christian by the fruit they have in their life.
[00:11:17] You'll know it.
[00:11:21] Jesus said, people will reveal themselves.
[00:11:25] Can I be honest? I'll say a fatherly thing.
[00:11:28] You know, the Bible says there's many teachers, but few fathers. Fathers in the body of Christ say, no, stop.
[00:11:34] Fathers give wisdom. So I hope I can be kind of like a father.
[00:11:41] I have encountered in my decades of Christian living many evil people in church.
[00:11:50] And Jesus said, they'll show themselves for who they are.
[00:11:55] I've encountered so much.
[00:11:59] They will reveal themselves.
[00:12:03] And if you really want to know what somebody's like, just look at the fruit of their life. It'll eventually show up.
[00:12:11] Eventually. And I will dare say this, not every person who comes to church is a Christian.
[00:12:20] Not everyone.
[00:12:22] They may go, they may pretend. Jesus said, they're hypocrites. They've got this appearance of being religious, but inside it's evil.
[00:12:32] And it's funny. It's strange. These are the words of Jesus. He's actually saying this.
[00:12:42] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:12:45] If you really want to know what somebody is like, just listen to the language that they use.
[00:12:51] Sooner or later it'll come out.
[00:12:55] What's annoying them, what's bothering them, what they truly believe. It's bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. And it goes.
[00:13:02] Comes out of them.
[00:13:04] I remember I was reminiscing about our good friend Trevor.
[00:13:08] He's since passed away and he was born in South Wales. He joined the railways. And on the railways, the men use very, very colorful language.
[00:13:21] In fact, there's more swear words than there's normal English.
[00:13:25] And he became a Christian in his late 30s.
[00:13:30] And he knew he had a real foul mouth.
[00:13:35] Everything was. I shouldn't say that, really, should I? Everything was this and that. It was really bad.
[00:13:42] And he was going to be baptized. And he said, lord, remove this filthy language from my heart.
[00:13:53] Remove it.
[00:13:54] And he said. He went into the baptism. I think it was age 37, wasn't it? 37, 38.
[00:14:00] He said, I believe as I get baptized, when I come up, I will be set free from this foul mouth that I have. He was a Christian.
[00:14:09] He was a believer. He had a foul mouth.
[00:14:13] As he came up. He believed that he was totally set free. And he told us he never swore from that day.
[00:14:21] Isn't that amazing?
[00:14:25] See, that's the power of The Holy Spirit transforming somebody. That's the Holy Spirit renewing your mind.
[00:14:32] See, as you love to follow Jesus, you're not following rules or regulations or rituals. You're following Jesus.
[00:14:42] It's not that I don't want. It's not that I have to stop sin. S.
[00:14:46] It means I don't want to sin.
[00:14:50] I love what Esther says about church, and it really stuck with me. She said the local church shouldn't be. You must come to church.
[00:14:59] She said, you must want to come to church. It's the want.
[00:15:03] Whatever you want is where your heart is going to take you.
[00:15:08] Your desires will take you to the place you want to go. It's the want.
[00:15:16] And Jesus said, in verse 47, when we love Jesus, we want to follow him.
[00:15:26] I'm giving you my interpretation of this up here. Okay?
[00:15:31] Verse 48, Jesus begins to talk about a foundation.
[00:15:38] A foundation.
[00:15:43] The apostle Paul talks about foundations and building your life upon the rock.
[00:15:52] What is the rock?
[00:15:53] It's a who. Jesus is the rock. What does that mean? You build your life on grace and mercy. You build your life on being forgiven.
[00:16:05] You build your life on. It is by grace I am saved. I can do nothing.
[00:16:11] It is a gift of God that I am saved.
[00:16:14] It's God's grace on my life that I'm saved. This is the rock that I'm putting my life on.
[00:16:21] But when you get religious and say, well, if I'm really good, if I really don't swear, if I don't cuss, if I don't rob a bank, if I don't do this, I'm going to be wonderful, fine.
[00:16:35] The Apostle Paul says you have fallen from grace.
[00:16:40] He said, those who believe you can be justified by thinking you can do good works will mean you're justified. He said, you are estranged from Christ.
[00:16:53] That means you are separated from Christ.
[00:16:56] What a powerful thing to say.
[00:17:00] He said, but when you dig in and you know you're on the grace of Jesus, on the mercy of Jesus, you're held and you've not fallen from grace.
[00:17:16] You know, when I grew up, there were so many religious rules and regulations. It was awful.
[00:17:21] You weren't allowed to watch telly on Sunday. You had to wear a tie. You had to do this if you didn't go to church twice on Sunday, there was condemnation.
[00:17:32] It was awful.
[00:17:34] It was really awful. And it put so many people off church. I can say today with almost tears in my eyes, tears in my eyes that people who I knew were on fire for Jesus have completely turned their back on The Lord, because all they did was encounter religiosity.
[00:17:57] They didn't encounter the heart of Jesus, they didn't encounter the passion of Jesus and who Jesus is. Because when you know who he is, you'll want to follow.
[00:18:07] And you know, grace and mercy follow you. Why does it follow you? Because we mess up.
[00:18:13] Grace and mercy will always follow you all the days of your life.
[00:18:19] You know, I've seen so many people hurt and I just want to end on with this.
[00:18:29] Forgiveness is so important to this body of Christ here.
[00:18:36] Forgiveness is really important in my family.
[00:18:41] You know, when I mess up, I say to my wife, Leslie, forgive me.
[00:18:48] Because forgiveness is like blood. It has to flow to every organ in your body. If you're not forgiving, the blood stops. What happens if the blood stops? You die.
[00:18:59] You simply will die. You become unfruitful.
[00:19:03] I just want to talk on the last five minutes about forgiveness.
[00:19:08] Forgiving others is a command of God.
[00:19:16] Jesus said, if you don't forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you.
[00:19:22] Wow, that's pretty blunt.
[00:19:29] Jesus said, don't be like the wicked servant when the master forgave him that £1 million debt and the wicked servant wouldn't let off somebody else who owed them 100 quid.
[00:19:43] So don't be like that wicked servant.
[00:19:48] Let me tell you something else about forgiveness.
[00:19:50] Forgiving somebody does not excuse their behaviour.
[00:19:56] Very important that.
[00:20:01] You know, I've had some terrible things happen to me that I've had to forgive people of.
[00:20:11] I won't go into any detail. It's not appropriate this time.
[00:20:15] But forgiving somebody doesn't always mean reconciliation with that person.
[00:20:24] Sometimes you forgive them and you say, lord, I hand that over to you.
[00:20:28] You cannot force anybody to repent.
[00:20:33] And the Holy Spirit will show you what relationships are helpful and what relationships are not good for you.
[00:20:42] Forgiveness is not an emotional response.
[00:20:48] Forgiveness is. Is an act of your will.
[00:20:54] Forgiveness brings freedom, peace and releases you from any torment.
[00:21:03] Unforgiveness brings anger, bitterness, resentment into your life.
[00:21:10] See, the devil goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
[00:21:18] I have seen Christians been devoured.
[00:21:23] Devoured.
[00:21:25] And I had a little.
[00:21:27] I don't know whether it's a dream. Often dream, first thing in the morning when I'm coming round and I saw an airplane zooming and the pilot was the devil and he was looking for a Runway to land on somebody's life.
[00:21:47] And I could see all these mountains. And then this person got really bitter. And when the bitterness came, the mountains parted and a Runway Appeared.
[00:21:57] And the devil said, now I can land with my cargo of misery, resentment and torment. I'm going to land here.
[00:22:07] This is where I'm going to land.
[00:22:09] And that's what unforgiveness does to you.
[00:22:13] It torments you.
[00:22:15] It condemns you, keeps you in bondage. It robs you of your peace.
[00:22:21] So as we close now, I want to say, Jesus said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[00:22:37] Jesus said, as far as the east is from the west, so far will he remove your transgressions from you.
[00:22:45] He loves you with an everlasting love and he wants you to enjoy the forgiveness of the Father as you forgive others.
[00:22:54] You know, when we see the picture of the cross, we see the vertical forgiveness and we see the horizontal forgiveness operating at the same time.
[00:23:06] Now as we close, I want you to be real with yourself this morning.
[00:23:12] And this is what the Holy Spirit wants me to say about forgiving people.
[00:23:18] I want you to be real.
[00:23:21] Do you this morning need to forgive your husband, your wife, your son, your grandparents, a friend, a pastor?
[00:23:34] What do you. Your sisters, your ex husband, your ex wife?
[00:23:40] You know, I had to forgive somebody who was already dead.
[00:23:45] I know it sounds strange.
[00:23:47] I forgave somebody who was dead from what they did to me.
[00:23:52] Forgiveness is powerful.
[00:23:55] So be honest with yourself this morning.
[00:23:59] Who do I need to forgive?
[00:24:02] Who do I need to forgive?
[00:24:04] And sometimes it helps. Just don't think about that person in your head.
[00:24:09] Sometimes you say their name out loud and say, I forgive so and so.
[00:24:15] Remember, forgiveness is an act of your will.
[00:24:19] Your emotions to forgiving somebody might not catch up.
[00:24:23] And then next week you'll say, I feel like I still haven't forgiven that person. No, don't go that. Don't do that. Next week, say, thank you, God. I have forgiven them by faith. I have forgiven them by faith. Let's close our eyes. Let's pray.
[00:24:46] Thank you, Holy Spirit.
[00:24:49] Lord, you want to set us free from. You want a firm foundation in this church of forgiveness, of compassion.
[00:25:00] So right where you're with your eyes closed, I'm not going to ask anybody to come up.
[00:25:09] Just say that name of that person you need to forgive right now.
[00:25:13] Be honest with the Holy Spirit. The Lord knows.
[00:25:17] Remember what Jesus said. You don't forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you.
[00:25:23] Name them.
[00:25:26] Name that person.
[00:25:28] Whisper it. Say it out loud. Whatever you need to do.
[00:25:33] Whatever you need to do.
[00:25:38] Thank you, Holy Spirit.
[00:25:41] Thank you, Holy Spirit.
[00:25:43] Lord, let us never forget that. Lord, we were dead in sin, but you saved us.
[00:25:57] Lord, we thank you that you have forgiven us.
[00:26:00] And Lord, in Jesus name I release forgiveness to that person who's hurt me.
[00:26:06] I release forgiveness to that person who said those things about me. I release forgiveness in Jesus precious name.
[00:26:16] Lord, I thank you that unforgiveness shall have no dominion in people's lives in this church. In Jesus name.
[00:26:26] In Jesus precious name, Unforgiveness will not stand in this church.
[00:26:34] I'm going to finish off today by reading from Ephesians 4. 29.
[00:26:47] And this letter Paul wrote was not to the local occupants of the pub at Teignmouth.
[00:26:53] It was to a church. It was to saints in Ephesus.
[00:26:58] And this is what he said to the saints.
[00:27:01] To a church.
[00:27:04] He said, verse 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth.
[00:27:10] But what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.
[00:27:16] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[00:27:26] Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
[00:27:36] Here we go. Church. This is what the Holy Spirit wants us to do.
[00:27:40] Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
[00:27:55] Forgave you.
[00:27:58] So I can't finish this time without asking this morning if anybody has not experienced the forgiveness of Jesus.
[00:28:12] Jesus died for your sins. According to scriptures, Jesus rose again on the third day.
[00:28:20] According to scriptures, Jesus is your saviour.
[00:28:28] And if you've not experienced the forgiveness of the Lord and you want to follow Jesus, if that's you this morning, just raise your hand and say, please, I want to receive Jesus as my Saviour. Is there anyone here this morning who wants to do that?
[00:28:44] I assume that you're all saved, but I really always need to say it. So thank you, Holy Spirit, this morning.
[00:28:51] Give us tender hearts towards one another.
[00:28:55] Give us forgiving hearts towards one another.
[00:28:59] Lord, take away any bitter conversation from us.
[00:29:03] Let our conversations bring healing and grace to one another, Lord, as this church begins to grow.
[00:29:10] Father. Lord, I thank you for that foundation of grace and mercy, love and kindness towards each other.
[00:29:19] In Jesus precious name, Amen.
[00:29:24] Thank you for your patience and listening.
[00:29:27] Thank you, Matt. Do you want to.
[00:29:44] I hope that was helpful to some of you this morning.
[00:29:47] I hope it was. I've never spoken on that this morning. So when Esther messaged me, said, would you preach and gave me those scriptures I thought, wow, that's challenging.
[00:29:58] But I hope the Holy Spirit will help you navigate and understand people's behavior, why they do what they do, and how you respond to that behavior.
[00:30:10] All right.
[00:30:11] Okay. Bless you.
