Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] I start a new series. So when I get up to speak Esther's on the Holy Spirit. I was like, lord, what can I speak on in this next series? What do you want me to say? And it was just so simple. I thought if I got stuck on a desert island, right, with no Bible, how much would I know person? This is me, of what Jesus said. You know, you get that I've got actually a new Bible. I ordered a new one because I can't see properly. So I've got a large priest that's along with the corduroy shirt. It's the next stage.
[00:00:31] So I got a large print bible and it has all Jesus words in red. And it's brilliant. I know that's been around for years, but it's my first one with Jesus words in red. And I thought, Phil, how many of these words would I know and I could recite or could have in here if I was stuck on that desert island? So this new series is simply called what Jesus said. Okay, what Jesus said, are you ready?
[00:00:56] Let me tell you, church, Jesus said some pretty strong stuff.
[00:01:01] You might be thinking, great new series fills what Jesus said great. Well, I would highly recommend you fasten your seat belts, put your crash helmets on and get ready because Jesus said some great stuff. It's going to be a good series, but it's not always easy. So we're ready.
[00:01:18] We'll try these for size. Okay, just before I start, Matthew seven one. This is just to ease you in gently with a few bits of what Jesus said. Do not judge or you too will be judged. Okay. John 15 five. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Don't you like the first half of all these passages? They sound great. Here it comes again. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Wow. We all sort of like the first half, but we've got to hear what Jesus said. Yeah. Matthew 621 again.
[00:01:59] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:02:05] How about this one? Matthew 20 312.
[00:02:10] For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.
[00:02:19] Mark 834.
[00:02:21] Get this. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.
[00:02:31] And then getting nearer to what I want to talk about this morning. Mark 1124 and 25. It says, therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[00:02:48] And when you stand praying, listen to this church. If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them.
[00:02:57] Forgive them. Guess what? So that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins. I'll say that again. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive your sins also. Are you getting the picture?
[00:03:18] Some pretty big stuff there, didn't they, that Jesus said. And it's this last passage, it's that last scripture that I've read that I want to look at today. So I want to look today at betrayal and forgiveness. Betrayal and forgiveness, that's my title for this morning. Betrayal. Well, we all face it, don't we? At some point in life? I think we do. I think all of us face at some point maybe another way of wording that is, has somebody ever let you down?
[00:03:45] Have you ever let anyone down?
[00:03:48] Has somebody ever promised you something that they didn't deliver on?
[00:03:52] Well, I want to share a little story of mine first, just to set the scene.
[00:03:56] And somebody did promise me something, they didn't deliver on it. And you know what, church? It hurts. Life hurts sometimes, doesn't it? Some of life's bumps in the road can hurt. So I know I shared part of this six months ago, but it was in a different context to why I want to look at it this morning. And I owned a large steel company that I started when I was age 28.
[00:04:17] So I'd worked for somebody else for nine years selling steel plates. And then I went on my own at the age of 28 with me and a printer. I remember actually when I got the first order, it was only me and a printer. So I had to tell the printer I got the order. It was great. And I started in this little office and that company grew by the grace of God from just me in that little office to 150 people. 150 people. And we were actually the largest steel plate independent outside of tartar, which is british steel. The largest independent steel plates. You know your columns and beams. I don't sell that, I sell the plates. They're going to like skips and tanks and dougie buckets. But we were the largest independent steel plate stockholder in the UK. I got invited out to Richard Branson. I'm not telling you this to show off, I'm just giving you some context of what I want to talk about. This is just my story. I got invited to Richard Branson's house because I got an email from the Daily Mail which was a bit like, why are you emailing me? But he said, no, no, Mister Daniels, he said you were the 26th fastest growing company between 2005 and 2010, I was like, really? And the event was held at Richard Branson's back garden. So the company was doing well. It was great. But around about 2010, 2011, I started another business, which in the end eventually brought down the first business. Now this second business was building caravans. And I used to go caravanning as a kid with my dad. I used to remember hooking it up to the tow bar, checking the indicators and working at the back. Used to love going away caravaning with my dad. It was great fun. Esther, not quite as she's in kids work today, so I can say this, Esther's not quite as enthusiastic as I was. Let's just put it that way.
[00:05:55] Esther is not a snob, any of you know. Far from it. But she did make a comment. She said, how come I've married a managing director and you never take me to a hotel? We've got to go away in this little tiny box on wheels and somehow call it a holiday, where I've got to do all the cooking and cleaning in a smaller space than I do at home.
[00:06:12] She's got a point. She has a point. Being the loving husband that I was and what I thought then was the young entrepreneur was I thought, darling, leave it with me. So do you know, in America they build caravans, what they call travel trailers and the motor homes they call rvs, they have a slide out wall. So when you get to site, literally, you press a button and an eight foot caravan that goes down the road becomes eleven foot on site and you have all this extra space. So I started a company building slide out caravans.
[00:06:40] I went to the NEC show, did my usual cheekiness, nicked a few staff that worked for a few other caravan companies and off we went. We built 200 caravans. We were on Anton deck Saturday night takeaway as the star prize. I got to go on this tv show as a guest speaker in the caravan industry. So it was called the Apprentice, you're fired. And it was on BBC Two and they used to interview the guy that had lost the week before and it was the caravan selling show at the NEC. So they brought me in as an industry speaker. So everything was going great. We were getting a lot of fame. These caravans were sliding out. Everybody was talking about us, but the first 50 out of 200 caravans we built were probably not really that good. And actually one of the salesman rang with the third one that left the wheel fell off about a mile down the road. And that was kind of the start of things to come where they weren't built as well as we could have built them, we kind of got the message too late. I was not very practical running the production line because I'm more of an office boy than a yard guy. I didn't keep my eye on it enough and sadly, we got into a lot of debt. So the money that was borrowed from the original big steel company got so huge, the bank. And this is what I want to talk about, the bank gave me three months notice and they were going to remove my overdraft, which was a lot of money, and that's the bank's polite way of knowing, saying, which I found out later is, we're going to take. We're going to shut you down, because if you haven't got cash, you can't trade. So I literally was on a timer of three months that once the overdraft left, that was me done. And they knew at that point the assets were enough that the bank could cover themselves and your history. So I got dragged into a car to go down to a. Actually by one of the caravan customers who I was telling the story to was a bit of a boy about town. He took me down to a friend of his in Manchester who was a liquidator, and he said, you have the power as a director to go bus tomorrow. How much do you own your house? And I said, well, about 200 grand. He said, what's it worth? I said, about 500 grand. He said, right, we'll take your house, but you'll keep your steel business, start again tomorrow in your wife's name. And I was like, wow, it's as cavalier as that, is it as easy as that? And I said, what about all my suppliers? I owe 9 million quid to suppliers. And he said, well, they won't get paid. He said, but you'll start again with all that stock and, you know, you have that moment church, and we all have them in life. I thought, I ain't doing this. I don't care if I lose everything. I won't lose my family and I won't lose my walk with God. I am not doing this. So I stood up and I said, I'm sorry, that's corrupt. I'm not doing that. I know directors do, but I'm not doing that. He said, well, you'll lose everything. I said, I won't. I won't lose my walk with God and I won't lose my family. Sorry, it was a tough time. And they said, well, you're a fool. I said, well, I might be. And he'd driven me and he wouldn't give me a lift on the rotter. So I was in Manchester and I had to get a taxi, a train back, sorry, and walk home from the train station.
[00:09:23] God gave me a passage straight away in Zephaniah and it said, I will restore your fortunes before your eyes and I will show you honour among the peoples. I thought, well, I don't want any honour, Lord, but it'd be nice to somehow get out of this mess because when you're the man and you're providing for your family, we literally, kids came out of this christian private school room. We lost everything. And I mean everything. I didn't have any savings, anything to my name. And we moved in Esther's mum and dad's house for a year, which at four years old, was character building with the in laws.
[00:09:52] But God, by his grace and kindness, helped me rebuilding business and I learned some hard lessons.
[00:09:58] That isn't the end of the story, though, and that's what I want to talk about this morning. I didn't sell out. I didn't do what he said, but I didn't let the bank come and take the company. I knew a guy who was a very wealthy, large steel company. I'm going to call him John in case this is recorded. And he was bigger than me. And I went to see him and he said, phil, I'll buy you out for a pound and I'll pay all your debts off, right? And he came to see me at the caravan business. We walked around the production line and he said, a lot of people are laughing at you in the steel industry because they think this is stupid, what you did. He said, but I'm looking around here today and he said, it's amazing. He said, the technology you've done to set up from scratch in two years, what you've done here is outstanding. I want to support you. So he said, I'll take on your steel business for a pound. I'll pay all your debts off. I'll pay off the inland Revenue, which meant everything to me, because I could go away with my integrity. And he said, we'll go 50 50 on this new business, the caravan business, with no debt then. So the caravan business is debt free. It's got an order book. You be the director, but we own it 50 50 and I'll support it financially. Okay? I thought, brilliant. Well, I've made a mess, but I can get to do this caravan business. We paid all the debts off. Off we go again.
[00:11:05] A month afterwards, when it came to pay the staff, I rang John. Oh, John, we're doing payroll and can you just sort of lend 100 grand to the business just while I've got some orders coming in? And he went, uh, no, Phil, I can't. No. So what do you mean? He said, well, um, no, I don't feel I'm going to support your caravan business. He said, no, I don't. I don't think it's for me, actually. I've had second thoughts. I said, john, we had a deal. We shook hands on a deal. Well, no, sorry. We had nothing in writing. We just had a verbal word from him and he left. And he left me publicly to take the shame. So the steel business had 10 million quid of debt. All got paid off. Brilliant. But there was about 200 quid of debt on the caravan business for people that had paid for caravans that never got them. I felt horrendous. People were calling me names online. It was the worst feeling ever. About four of out of the five people were actually christians that I'd met. I met three of them at spring Harvest. And they said, phil, we didn't lose anything. We got paid back by our credit card. We're okay. And I thought, jesus, you're so kind. So in the end, more or less everything got paid for. But me and Esther, as a family, lost everything. And it was a tough time. But I tell you that, man, John, I have never been so betrayed in my life, church, I've never been so let down. I've never felt, how could you do that to another person? How can you put your head on the pillow and think, to shaft somebody the way he did? Is that acceptable? But he did. But how many of you, church, have ever had that happen to you? How many of you have ever had somebody let you down? How many is ever somebody is going to say, I'm going to do something and then not do it? How many people's words have you trusted and they've let you down? So have you ever been betrayed? Have you ever been let down? Are you getting the picture this morning? It's hard to forgive, isn't it? We're going to move on to forgiveness in a minute, but I'm just trying to give you some background. Sometimes in our flesh, remember, Jesus was fully God and fully man. Well, sometimes for us, it's hard to forgive, isn't it? It's hard to get over those bumps in the road and it was a big bump for me. Right. Sometimes it's hard to get on. Well, I want to look this morning at the ultimate betrayal story, so you'll all know what that is. But the ultimate betrayal story was Judas.
[00:13:13] So, Judas, let's give some context. In the last supper, in fact, I'll read the passage. It says, when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table and with the twelve disciples, while they were eating, he said, truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.
[00:13:30] They were very sad and began to say to one another, surely you don't mean me, Lord? Jesus replied, the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. It's a horrible word, betray, isn't it? The son of man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to the man who betrays the son of man. Listen to this. It would have been better for him if he had had not been born. Wow. Jesus said that it would have been better for Judas not to have been born. Verse 26. Then Judas, the one who will betray him, said, surely you don't mean me, Rabbi? And Jesus answered, you have said so. So many of you know this famous story in the Bible.
[00:14:12] What happened next? Judas felt so guilty for what he'd done, because he'd walked with Jesus only for three years in his ministry. He felt so guilty for what he'd done. Remember, he'd accepted 30 pieces of silver. Those of you who know the Bible, to betray Jesus, he gave the money back and he went and hung himself. He went and hung himself because he felt so bad. He actually said in scripture, he said, I had betrayed an innocent man.
[00:14:36] Wow.
[00:14:38] I guess that's what Jesus meant when he said, it's better if you hadn't been born. Because he went and hung himself for what he did. Okay. I'm sure we've all been betrayed by someone. I'm sure we've all been let down by someone. I'm sure we've all been hurt by somebody. I'm sure some of us would probably even think, Judas, you rotter, you let Jesus down like the way he did. Are we any different? Is our sin any different? Jesus doesn't catechrise sin, does he? We're all sinners. Well, come on, let's start getting some meat on it. Let's look at the best bit. Let's look at forgiveness. Let's look at forgiveness. This morning, church. Forgiveness, forgiveness. I've got two main points. Firstly is we're going to look at what Jesus said about it. Secondly, how do we respond? These are all going to be sort of intertwining as we go along. So what Jesus said and how do we respond, well, what did he say? What did he say? Matthew 614 15.
[00:15:31] Get this, church, because it's a tough one.
[00:15:34] For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Nice one. You can cope with that, all right.
[00:15:46] But if you do not forgive them their sins. Listen, it is Jesus words. Your father will not forgive your sins.
[00:15:58] That starts to get a bit crunchy, doesn't it?
[00:16:01] Let me read that again. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will not forgive you your sins. Any of us think that's a bit huge. And he thinks that's kind of out of Jesus words with some pretty big ones in our life. Come on, church, think of the things you've done. Not just people that you said have let you down. What have you done to others? You all know the stillness of your own mind, your heart, things you've done that maybe others wouldn't have seen, that you wouldn't want anybody to know about. Jesus knows about all of them, right? That's what he says. If you do not forgive others, Christ will not forgive you. Wow. Wow, church. Here it is again. Mark 1125, which we read at the start. Do you remember? It said, and when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your heavenly Father may forgive you your sins. There it is again. Different scripture. So this is our main passage this morning, church. It's our main passage. I want to just embed and work out what it's actually going to mean to our lives. Come on, let's look at this. It's a huge passage, isn't it? So our response has got to be church, that we forgive others. As a Christian, our response has got to be that we forgive others. Can I give you, first of all, my simple take on this passage? Because I've been battling with it for two weeks. Can I give you my Yorkshireman's simple take on it? Okay, can I have two volunteers just come out just for a second? Just two people. One to stand there and one to stand there. Thanks, Ollie.
[00:17:39] Thank you, Paul.
[00:17:42] Okay, so there's two people, Ollie, because you made us laugh this morning. You can be God. So you're Jesus. If you stand there looking at me, Paul, you're my past life. You stand there looking at me. Right? So how many of us church know this? We used to be in this direction, didn't we? We used to be full of unforgiveness we used to be full of sin. We used to be full of a life that was of the pit, really, that let Jesus down. We used to be going this way and we know where that way ends, right? That was our life. And then for those of us that got born again, for those of us know Jesus as our lord and saviour, guess what happened? We do a full 180 degree turn and we're pointing this way. We're now pointing towards God. Guess what happens? We receive this most amazing, amazing forgiveness for our life. We receive the kindness of heaven, the grace of God. We receive all that heaven did in all its glory by letting their precious son. You know, when Jesus was separated from the father for those three days, the anguish of that is huge, right? He took on the sins of the world for me and for you. Right? It's a huge point in our life where we literally go like this. Yeah. We find the grace and forgiveness of God and what, he forgives us all our sins and then he says this, doesn't he?
[00:19:04] But if you won't forgive others, right, I will forgive you your sins. Do you know what that's actually doing, church? So if you won't forgive others, that sin against you, right? You're actually doing this again. You're spinning back. You're actually contradicting what Jesus has done for you because he tells us to forgive. You're actually trampling on again. You're spinning back away from Jesus. You're saying I'm contradicting what Jesus has done for me because you told me to forgive. You're almost going back into the flesh, aren't you? You're going this way. Sit down, chaps. Thank you. Right.
[00:19:40] We're almost, almost denying the cross in our unforgiveness. Just let that sink in. We're almost denying the cross. Yeah. In our life in our unforgiveness.
[00:19:54] And then we meet Jesus and all our sins are forgiven. And it's amazing, right? But after salvation church, which I'm hoping is the majority of us this morning, and if you don't know Jesus this morning, come see me or one of the team afterwards. Knowing Jesus is the best thing that could ever happen to you. Yeah. It costs you a prayer, a sincere prayer from the heart, saying, Jesus, come live in my heart. And he will, and he will turn your life around from your past life of sin and all that you did. And one day you will spend eternity with Jesus. But it's an absolute heartfelt prayer from the bottom of your heart to say Jesus, well, you can be my lord and saviour. And I guess for most of us this morning, we are christians. We've prayed that prayer and we're the other side of salvation, aren't we?
[00:20:39] Still gets tough, though, doesn't it? Church? So you I'm talking to mainly as christians this morning. Yeah, still gets tough. I'll give you one more personal example.
[00:20:47] Esther and I went to France about four weeks ago for a two week holiday. And when we went to France, we have two dogs. Any of you know us? We have a dog that's like a Shetland pony, and we have a little crazy little golden doodle who's lovely, but absolutely mad as a box of frogs. So looking after them, too, is not the easiest thing. And we needed somebody to look after the dog. So a friend of mine, an older chap, a friend of mine, came down from up north. They get a free house in Devon and a nice week in Bobby Tracy in Devon, but they have to look after the dogs and walk them. I thought that was a fair transaction. So we all agreed. He came down for a holiday in Devon. We went to France and we had a dog sitter, but the chap's a bit older, and I said, why don't you get the train down? I'll pick you up from Newton Abbott station. I said, well, actually, I have a spare car. It's on the company fleet insurance. You can have my car for notes. You drive it around. You don't need a car. You're all insured on it. You drive the car around. He said, oh, we'll do that. Thank you, Phil. So I picked him up from Newton Abbott. When I got back, they'd done all they'd done, left the house nice and clean, went back up north. That was all fine. I went to get in this car the day after, right? And the tyre pressure thing came up, right? Tyre pressure, it was, like, really low. So I was like. And it shows you the wheel on my car. Which one it is, which was this one over here. So I got out, walked around the bonnet, went round the back. Yeah, that wheel's flat. But not only that, there's a flipping big clunk out of my alloy wheel and a big bit of mud sort of above where the clunk was without. You know, you didn't really need to be Sherlock Holmes to realize it hit something bad. And it damaged me tyre to the point, but there was a big bit missing out the alloy. Now, the fleshly part of me church went, you rotter. I lent you my flipping car for free. And you've clunked it like that and you haven't even bothered to tell me, right?
[00:22:40] What a stinky attitude, Phil Daniels. What a stinky attitude. Now, I'd half written a text out, church, this is three weeks before I'm going to preach to you about forgiveness.
[00:22:51] I'd half written a text out saying, dear so and so.
[00:22:57] I mean, I wasn't going to poke him in the eye too much, but I just, you know, we want vengeance sometimes as humans.
[00:23:03] Did you have everything all right with the car? Did you have a nice time? Go down any country lanes with any rocks in, by any chance?
[00:23:11] And I was halfway through this text and I thought, you can't send that, church, dismiss what I'm saying. Sometimes there's inconsequences in life. And you would kindly approach somebody. I was able to pay for the tire to be repaired. I haven't told him because I just thought, no, no, I'm going to sort it out myself. I'm not going to tell him. I'm going to forgive him. Because he was eating me up, never mind him, right? He was eating me up. He was winding me up. And I thought, forgive him, move on and get it sorted. So I did.
[00:23:39] I know there's sometimes situations where in that case, it's not wrong to go to approach the person, but approach them with kindness, right? If you need them to pay for the title or whatever it is in our life, approach them always knowing Jesus is living in us. Yeah, but I forgave him. But isn't it hard sometimes, you know, when those things come along, that stink? It is pretty hard to forgive sometimes, isn't it? But Jesus said, you've got to forgive. Your life's gone like that. It's not an option, church. We've got to forgive. Okay, I just wanted to acknowledge that.
[00:24:09] So Jesus says we have to forgive, don't we? We're now pointing in this direction.
[00:24:13] What would have been the ultimate forgiveness?
[00:24:18] Well, I believe that would have been Judas at this side of the cross. If Judas was able to go like that, if Judas would have met resurrection Sunday, he would have had the ultimate forgiveness if he'd have given his heart to Jesus. Jesus never said, you know, I can forgive anybody apart from Judas. You know what I mean? Judas could have been forgiven if he'd have come here. Now, I looked at this and I studied it, and do you know what some theologians reckon? And it absolutely blew my mind, you know, when Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane. So when they did the last supper when he said, somebody's going to betray me. Let's get a timeline here. We've got the last supper. He's with the disciples, somebody's going to betray me. Judas says. And he said, yeah, it's you, right? Judas goes off in his way, scurrying a plan in the background. Judas goes, Jesus goes with some other disciples to the garden of Gethsemane and he prays, but he prays so fervently, right? Talks about blood, sweat.
[00:25:16] Let me read it to you. It's amazing, right?
[00:25:20] Jesus said in Matthew 26 37 38, he said, and he began to be grieved and distressed. Well, I bet he did, because he's just about the next step on the timeline. He's going to the cross, isn't it? The next step is going to the cross for you and for me. Right? And he said to them, so this is Jesus. My soul is deeply grieved. Gets better in the new living translation, it said. And he became anguished and distressed, anguished Jesus. I bet he did. And he told them, my soul is crushed with grief, right?
[00:25:59] Do you know what church, do you know what some theologians reckon? That part of that great anguish, right? Part of that great anguish and crushing distress was that Judas wouldn't see resurrection Sunday, because Jesus knew everything. He was fully God but fully man. He knew. Jesus knew that Judas was not going to get here. Judas was not going to be able to do a 180 and spin round and meet his saviour like that and find the grace of heaven. Judas would never find that. So as well as you and me and the whole of eternity and mankind, when he went to the garden of Gethsemane, he took on the whole sin of the world in that prayer. He knew what was coming, didn't he? And he was under such crushing distress, the Bible tells us, and great anguish. But also in his heart, he knew that his friend and his disciple that had betrayed him. Now, how easy is it as christians to look back at Judas, think, well, you betrayed the son of goddess. Yeah. No, he could have had the same grace that you and me could have had, right? And Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, must have been upset with his friend, but his forgiving heart was that you're going to miss out my best for you. I think that's pretty huge that, don't you?
[00:27:12] He would miss out on his savior. Judas would miss out on Jesus being the savior. He missed that out church. This is a powerful scripture. It's a powerful, powerful scripture. Right? When Jesus says to us. Forgive others or you won't be forgiven.
[00:27:26] But we must forgive. But this part about he won't forgive us if we don't forgive. I've kind of been battling with for about ten days. Right, Yorkshire Phil, I gave you my little analogy on it. I thought, come on, I just need somebody to really explain this to me. And I thought, I'm not going to google it, I know what I'll do. Esther's dad's been in ministry for 50 years. I lost my father two years ago. You know, I've got quite close to Brian now, Esther's dad and I can talk to him quite a bit. And he's a real good study of the word. He's a good godly man. So I take he's actually in Australia on holiday, but he loves me when I text him and ask him Bible questions, right? But he always comes out with a cracking answer. So I'm going to read what he said to me, if that's okay, because I could not word it as well as him. And I think it'd be a bit remiss of me if I kind of claimed it for myself. I could read out what he said as if it was me. You'd all think, wow, Phil, that's pretty good. Well, it wouldn't have been. It would have been cheating because it was Brian that told me. So can I give you a bit of context, though, before I read it out?
[00:28:24] Because it's brilliant. Actually, there's a bit at the end that I'll have to tell you first something, then it'll make sense at the end. We've got Mark and Nita with us this morning. I needed to tell you that for the context of what I'm going to read out, because I actually texted Brian, said, Brian. I actually left him a voicemail message on his WhatsApp. I love doing them. You can't be bothered writing out a 15 minutes text. You can just waffle down this little microphone and they get a six minute message. Well, Mark, you've had a few of them from me, haven't you? So anyway, I basically said something like, Brian, Mark's coming on Sunday. He's got a rare Sunday off, so Mark's coming on Sunday and I'm preaching, I've got this. Will you help me?
[00:29:00] I just want to explain this, right? Will you help me? So that's the context of why I asked him. And this is what he said. This is what he said, church, I want you to listen now. You could even shut your eyes if you want, but just listen to what he said. It's brilliant.
[00:29:16] He said this, sorry, he said, interested verse, Phil. So this is the verse. If you don't forgive others, Matthew 614, I won't forgive you your sins. Yeah, that's what I was asking him on that whole clarity on that point about, well, what about if we won't forgive others? Is that going to affect our salvation? It's a huge thing he said, right. Brian's response was this. He said, interesting verse, Phil. I think the main issues are, firstly that we must not allow one verse to negate the clear message of scripture.
[00:29:49] So that I don't think it is referring to us losing our salvation if we do not forgive others.
[00:29:56] That would, as you say, cut across the whole of the New Testament teaching that our forgiveness is found by faith alone in the blood of Christ. Get this. Secondly, though it starts getting good, we must be careful not to minimize the power and importance of Matthew 614, or any other verse for that matter, in order to let ourselves off the hook. We can't minimize that. It means what it says. Failing to forgive others will have serious consequences for ourselves.
[00:30:31] It is simply not an option for the believer. Having been so wonderfully forgiven by Jesus at the cross, how can we possibly now withhold our forgiveness from someone else?
[00:30:44] Remember that even as Christians, we will be judged by God after death, not regarding our salvation like the non believer will, but regarding our works as believers. That's our walk with God.
[00:30:59] Unforgiveness will not cost us eternity with Christ, but it will cost us the rewards he has prepared for us.
[00:31:09] I hope that helps. I trust your preach goes well and say hi to mark for me.
[00:31:16] Hi Mark.
[00:31:18] That's why I have to give you the context.
[00:31:22] So I said, what do you say to that? It was such a great response. I said, amazing, Brian, thank you so, so much. And a day later he does this. He thinks about things. Then he comes out with something else a day later. And he replied, Phil, there's one more issue.
[00:31:37] That forgiveness releases us from bitterness, but unforgiveness locks us into it.
[00:31:46] Unforgiveness attacks us. Listen. Far more than the person who might have wronged us. In fact, the person that has wronged us has probably already forgotten about it.
[00:32:00] Do you know what church it's so powerful. I just want to read that to you again. Interesting verse, Phil.
[00:32:05] I think the main issue is that we are firstly not to negate the clear message of scripture. So I don't think this verse is referring to us losing our salvation if we do not forgive others, I think that's important, church. So I've been really battling with that these last couple of weeks, thinking, crikey, Jesus said this, right? He actually said this, but he words it wonderfully here, doesn't it? He said that be, as you would say, cut across the whole of the New Testament teaching that our forgiveness is found by what? Faith alone in the blood of Christ. Come on, aren't you glad about that?
[00:32:41] So we don't have to be perfect. But then he says this, and I think he really puts meat on it for us, church. Come on. He says this. He said, secondly, we must be careful, however, not to minimize the importance and power of Matthew 614, or any other verse for that matter. In order to what? Let ourselves off the hook? It's easy to do that with grace, isn't it? It's all right. I'll just say sorry tomorrow. That's not the life Jesus calls us to. You know, we've turned this way for a reason. We're living for him now. Yeah. Not just forgiveness, but the whole of our life. We are living this way, right? Let's not minimize the importance of what he's saying. Failing to forgive others will have serious consequences for ourselves. It is simply not an option. You can't not forgive others, church. Having been so wonderfully forgiven by Jesus at the cross, how can we possibly withhold our forgiveness from others? You've got to remember that when you don't want to forgive somebody who has burst your tire or something that's happened in your life this week. Just remember what Jesus did for you. Right? Remember what Jesus did for you. Remember that even as christians, we'll be judged by God after death, not regarding our salvation like the unbeliever, but regarding our works as believers. Unforgiveness will not cost us eternity with Christ, but it will cost us the rewards he has prepared for us. Do you think that's cool?
[00:33:57] If any of you sent me a nice little thing saying what Brian said was good, I'll send it on to him. He'll like that. I thought that was stunning. Back to Phil, though. I thought, what do we learn from that? What do we learn from that, church? Well, I believe we learned this, that first of all, forgiveness as a Christian is not a negotiable option. Forgiveness for all of us as a Christian is not negotiable. But don't be jealous of the world. Don't be jealous out there thinking it's all right for them. You know that passage that said, how many times do you forgive? Seven times seven and then 70 times seven. I once heard a great pastor said, at 491 times, can you go up and sort of kick him in the head? No, it's not about that. Don't be jealous of the non believer, right? He doesn't have to forgive like we do. But they do have to meet Jesus one day, don't they? That non believer has to meet Jesus one day, just like you and me. Second, every time we forgive someone else. It's beautiful, this church. We are remembering the cross. Every time we forgive somebody, we're remembering what Jesus did for us. Every time we forgive somebody, we're going this way. We're remembering what God did for us. Listen to this. Isn't it beautiful? In Ephesians one seven, it says in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Never forget that church. Never forget what God did for you.
[00:35:22] If we in our hearts become cold to Jesus as a Christian, so as a believer, if we become cold to him, Jesus words and how he calls us to live, right? If we become cold to God, if we become cold, how he calls us to live, if we have that Bible with all those little words in red telling us how to live and they become nothing to us, we almost become a bit numb to them as a christian, right, do you know what we might accept? 30 pieces of silver, just like Judas did, because our hearts gone numb. Our hearts have gone far away from him. Don't do that, church, as a believer, don't do that, right? When you consider the truth of Jesus to be worthless, right? Or in effect, if you consider Jesus words, we're looking at this series, what Jesus said. If you consider Jesus words to be worthless, do you know what you do? You live a life full of self and probably unforgiveness. You live a life for you, and we all have to stand him before one day. How does Paul instruct us to live? This is amazing. Dead easy. Write it down. Ephesians 431 32. Even a non yorkshireman can get this one. It says this. It says, get rid of all bitterness. Don't say do, get away with some of it. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander and as well as all types of evil behaviour. This is as a christian now, this is after meeting Jesus, this is what we have to do, church instead.
[00:36:47] Be kind. Kindness is wonderful. Be kind, be kind to each other. Tender hearted, forgiving one another. That's our passage this morning, innit? Be kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another. Guess what? Just as Christ has forgiven you, Paul got the memo, didn't he? From what Jesus said, as Christ has forgiven you, I want to ask you this morning, church, are you going to walk in the freedom that Christ paid his life for you or not? Do you want to walk in the freedom that he paid his life for you or not? That's the crux of it all. What I'm saying this morning, we have to change. We have to become like Jesus. We have to forgive. Finally. Sometimes you need to do this, church, as well as forgive. You need to recognise when the enemy is out there. Right, quick, brief story on Friday, right, on Friday, I've got a lorry driver coming to work for us and he hasn't come yet. So we've got this seven and a half tonne lorry, because I'm an old so and so. If you pass your test before 1995, you get what they call grandad rights on your licence. So now I have a corduroy shirt and grandad rights. It's not good. No hair.
[00:37:58] But if you passed your test before 1995, you can drive a 7.5 tonne lorry with no experience. You can just go out and drive one. So I have been doing, because we bought one. It's absolutely great fun. I've been loving it. Not liking the 05:00 starts in the morning too much. But I was tootling along on Friday, delivered some steel to a guy in Ashburton and he was about a mile down. You know these Devon roads. We have some tight roads in Yorkshire, but I think Devon, you definitely win the prize on that. You've got hedges ten foot high and you're like, if anyone comes the other way, I'm in this big lorry, they are going to have to reverse. Anyway, I deliver my steel. I'm nothing after a medley, but I had ucb two on. I was singing worship, tootling along, having the time of my life, just about to drive back to the yard. Steel delivered cyclist, right? There's a cyclist literally about 100 yards ahead of me.
[00:38:46] And I went past him slowly. Now, I was probably about the distance from meter there, away from him. I was looking in my left mirror all the time. I did not touch him, I did not put a scratch on him. I missed him. I went past him. Anyway, this little seven one two tunnel we have, because it's got a low headboard, has a window at the back, and in my mirror I could see him flapping around like I've never seen, like a fish out of water, he's flapping around, going mental. I thought, what's up with him? I'm chilled out listening to UCB. I thought, guys, obviously a bit upset, so I just waited.
[00:39:16] Bear in mind, I'm up here in a lorry looking down on him. I waited and he came alongside and he went, you're supposed to be. He actually had quite a talent, this fella. He swore more in a sentence than he actually used english words.
[00:39:29] But you're supposed to be bleep bleep bleep, one and a half meters away from me. Did you know that? Did you know the highway code said you're supposed to be. I thought, wow, this guy's upset. I didn't know that, mate. I am sorry. I said, I've just pulled over to say sorry, you're obviously upset. I said, but I didn't touch you, right? Honestly, he just went like that, bang with his left hand. I could have put your picture and show you completely smashed to bits. The wing mirror. He was quite a big lad.
[00:39:56] Smashed a bit to wingmar on the ivaco, get out of that bleep bLeep lorry, right? That could have been my bleep leg. I thought, well, I said, I didn't touch you, but why have you just done that? And I looked at my wingma and I looked at him and it was probably about 5 seconds, no more, but it felt like an eternity. I thought, wow. It had suddenly escalated from a conversation, me saying, sorry, why are you upset? To smash him a wing mirror and want him to have a fight. So there was really only two options. I either drive on and he smashed my wing mirror and I'm going to have to pay for it, right? Or we get out and have a fight. Now, I'm a Leeds fan and I did quite like a few tussers when I was younger, but he was quite a big lad and I thought I might come worse off, but I don't know. But I wasn't full of adrenaline. Fortunately, by the grace of God. And do you know what, instantly I thought it was about 5 seconds, I just paused and he looked at me and I looked at him, it was like, are we fighting? Then I thought, devil, I am preaching on Sunday about forgiveness. Get lost. And I drove off, I drove off. I thought, you are not having the victory, right? And that's what we need to do sometimes in church life. Sorry to point here, the enemy is out to take us down, right? He hates it when this church is growing. It hurts all that God's doing, right? He hates everything about you loving Jesus, right? And he sends situations along to crush you.
[00:41:15] Now, that's what I had to do. I had to drive away. And the world gets out and has a fight Phil Daniels would have done 20 years ago, maybe even ten years ago.
[00:41:26] But come on, right? We need to be different. Can we stand? Thank you, Matt, for coming out. Can the rest of the band come out, please?
[00:41:35] Next week we're going to start church a week, as Esther said, of prayer and fasting, mainly because we usually do our prayer and fasting, don't we? In January, February, at the start of the year, to commit the year to God, which the church is good, right? But like me, you could have gone on a summer holiday and like me, you might not have read your bible as much as you should have done. Sat on your sun bed, right? And we've come back now, right? We've got Christmas coming round the corner when the saviour was born. We want to take a week of consecrating ourselves, like Joshua said, didn't he? Let's consecrate ourselves. Let's put Jesus first again, right? Because when you do, unforgiveness is easy, right? When you put him the head of your life, it becomes easy. So maybe just close your eyes just for 1 minute. Just for 1 minute. Just before we're going to sing a song to close, I want to ask you something this morning, church. In response to this, is there anyone you need to forgive? Church.
[00:42:27] You don't have to put your hand up, you don't have to respond. But just in the quietness of your own moment now before God, is there anyone that something might go back 20 years? I don't know. But is there anyone you need to forgive this morning, church? And I want to say to you, put it right. Put it right. Go home and sort it out. Is there anyone you need to apologise to church this morning for something that you shouldn't have said? Words can have a tough effect on lives. Can't remember we spoke about. Manage your mouth. Right. Put it right, church. That's the perfect ending, right? Let me read one last scripture before we sing.
[00:43:02] It says this in Philippians two five. And it makes this a lot easier, right? A big thing Jesus has told us to do this morning is to forgive one another, right? Philippians two five, to help you facilitate that, simply says this, in your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ. The new living translation said this, you must have the same attitude as what Jesus Christ had. Wouldn't our church go up a notch if we're all like that? Wouldn't every church go up a notch if we're all like that?
[00:43:36] Wouldn't the christians of this world, wow, what a difference we can be church if we were all like that. We're going to sing at the end what we sung earlier on. I've asked Matt to sing Christ be magnified because I love what it says here. It says, we won't bow down to idols. We won't get out and smack people in the nails that have just hit our wing mirror. It says, I'll stand strong and worship you. I won't be formed by feelings. I still want to get out and smack that guy in the nose because he's hit my wing mirror. I'll hold fast to what is true. If the cross brings transformation church. If Jesus has changed you, let him jolly change you. Then I'll be crucified with you. What an absolute privilege. I won't hold fast. And are we going to hold fast for what is true and not be formed by feelings that allows us to think like Jesus Church and to forgive others? Come on, let's sing this song.
