Encontrando la Libertad | Luchando por el Perdón | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

Hola, hoy estamos empezando una serie nueva que se llama Encontrando la Libertad o Ser Liberados y vamos a hablar específicamente de encontrar la libertad personal. Había un pueblo en Perú, tienen una tradición donde los residentes de Santo Tomás tienen esta tradición. Cada día de Navidad they get together as a people and on the 25th of December they gather together and they resolve their issues by fighting to solve their problems. Men, women, even children, they start fighting over and over again about the disagreements of that year, fights, problems, and even if they are arguing over some land, or some land disputes. And well, imagine, here at Christmas, we turn on the lights, we don't start hitting other people, right? Let's see, well, you can't bite, you can't pull your hair, and if someone falls to the ground, you can't hit them. After you punch each other in the face, after you punch each other in the face, here are the rules that they put, you have to either hug each other or shake each other's hand. And this is symbolizing that the offense has been resolved. It's done. So after the fight, everybody in the town has already resolved their disagreements, they come back and everybody has a drink. And I thought, you know, maybe this might be a good idea. Maybe we can do this at our Christmas service here. Some of you have never been invited to a Christmas service. So I was thinking about, who do I invite to this Christmas if we do it to my mother-in-law, to my friend. Imagine what would happen if every Christmas you fight with the person you don't like. And you say, I imagine it every day. I imagine hitting him every day. You have fantasies of hitting that person. Imagine. Well, I want to talk about forgiveness today. And sometimes you have to fight to be able to forgive. Not that kind of fight, but you have to fight a life, an eternal fight to forgive. I talk about this almost every year. And you say, well, why do you talk about this so much? Because life gives us a wide opportunity to try to do this. And for many of us, we're carrying a lot of pain in our hearts because someone did something they shouldn't have done. And we want to experience the freedom that God gave us and not have resentment. And so today, I want to talk to you about how to fight

so that you can actually be free and have the freedom that God wants for you. Forgiveness is always a fight. It's not easy. It's rarely easy. It's the opposite of what you want to do. But it's necessary. Forgiveness is necessary if you want to live in freedom. And our talk today, I want you to understand this. Maybe you're going to feel a little, maybe a little dumb compared to the experience you had, right? And I want to talk because it sounds a little cringy, right? And I might have an offense at this point. We're not doing math. I want to explain it to you well. Many of you came here and there are very deep pains, but I challenge you to see the biblical truths that I'm going to give you today and how you investigate, how you can apply them in your life. Because I know, I've been in this place as a pastor almost 35 years. And I'm the lead pastor for 19 years. And many people have had to argue that they're not going to give somebody else the remorse. And there are people that have told me that after they've forgiven and they've fought for their forgiveness, they're happy. the work that they did on the bad side of the battle with forgiveness, because they found their freedom. And even though they were severely offended,

they found the freedom that God wants. So let's take a moment to pray and give this theme to the one who teaches us to forgive. Let's pray, Father Almighty. I pray for all people, men, women, and children, whether high or low, or middle or somewhere, that I pray for you, Lord, that you would just walk this place in City First, in the living rooms that are watching you, in the living rooms that are watching you, wherever you are, God, as this message is being brought to you, I pray that you, Lord, would be there, and that the Holy Spirit would be there, and we give you this in the name of God, amen, amen. Well, imagine there's a word, a very strong word, that perhaps we've all experienced or gone through, a deception, a betrayal, that happens in life. No one gets out of this life without having been betrayed. And there are opportunities in this life, we have opportunities where life offends us. There are people that look normal on the outside, but on the inside, internally, they have conversations, offenses, and problems from many, many, many, many years ago. And often, the strangers are not the ones that give us these problems, but this pain, this wound, is given to us by the people that are closest to us. So forgiveness is not always something that we have to take for granted.

Forgiveness is spiritual, and not forgiving is not just about pain, right? It's when the pain begins to compete with the plan of God. That's the problem, when the pain competes with the purpose that God has for you. That's what we're talking about today. The scripture says that bitterness is never presented in the Bible as if it doesn't hurt you. In fact, it can be a spiritual danger. Why? Because offenses that are not resolved can become an altar where you continually sacrifice your peace, your trust, your joy, and your intimacy with God and the innocent out there. The Hebrew book of Hebrews talks about the root of bitterness. You see this, right? And the roots grow in dark places until finally the fruit comes up eventually, right? But here's the thing. Once a root of bitterness has taken root in our hearts, the fruit of bitterness, that kind of life that we don't want to live that way. You know what I really admire about John? I admire his bitterness. Or you know what I really love about Julia is how angry she is. I don't think I've ever heard this before. And you have any idea?

We have to fight for forgiveness so that that root of bitterness doesn't grow and doesn't flower, right? Bishop Desmond Tutu, it's kind of a powerful quote. He was the Archbishop of Africa and they were fighting to institutionalize segregation. And so this says that without forgiveness, there is no future. And this is true. Today, you know the rule is that this whole time they've been talking about forgiveness. Desmond Tutu says, without forgiveness, there is no future because forgiving is releasing the prisoner and the prisoner is you. And the prisoner is you. And the prisoner is you. And the offender is you. And he says, if you sit down and you say, well, it's not about the other person. No, it's about you. Because the enemy would love to catch you in a prison of bitterness and he says, forgiveness unlocks the door to the prison so that you can get out of here, you know? It's not about releasing the offender, it's more about releasing the offended. So, because the bitterness traps us,

and it's a metaphor, I've said it before, it's kind of also another metaphor. You know, the bitterness is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies. Ephesians chapter four, verse 31 says, release, release all the bitterness, rage, anger, fury, anger, vulgar words, rudeness, slander, and bad conduct. On the contrary, be kind to one another, be of good heart, and forgive one another, just as God has forgiven you through Christ. That's in Ephesians four. And maybe this is supposed to refer to this is supposed to refer to this. Because, you know, this loving man forgives because the pain is small. He doesn't say, forgive me because the pain is small. No, because the bitterness grows, and when it grows, it becomes bigger and bigger inside of you. The forgiveness doesn't say, it doesn't matter. No, no, no, the forgiveness isn't saying that. The forgiveness isn't saying, I refuse to allow it to master me. And you know what? I refuse for this bitterness to be my leader. God is not asking you for this. God is not asking you for something that he himself has not already practiced. Because God puts as a model how to fight for forgiveness,

and he did it through Jesus on the cross. And he did forgive the one who shouldn't have been ordained and what he shouldn't have forgiven in us. He forgave you. He forgave me. And we didn't deserve it. You know what we deserved? Hell. And we didn't deserve it for our actions. And you say, oh, they're not that bad. They're not that bad. No one, no one that is offended, no one thinks they're going to go to hell, right? And you know what? We deserve, if we base our behavior we deserve to be judged. And Jesus says, no, I'm going to put it on my feet. And you know what? God forgave the one who shouldn't have been forgiven and he did it. He did it. He forgave us. And that's something you also have to practice. And it's not easy. And I don't think it was easy for Jesus either. That's why in the garden he said, it could be another way. If he could take this away from me. It wasn't easy for him. You know, he forgave you.

He forgave me. You see, when we didn't deserve it and when we didn't deserve it we begin to collect debts. We become debt collectors. We begin to collect what people owe us. Our ex owes us. Our parents owe us. Our parents owe us. Our friends owe us. And maybe it's true. Maybe it's true. They owe you an apology. They owe you the love they didn't give you. They owe you the dignity they didn't teach you. They owe you respect. Respect they didn't show you. They owe you respect. But here's the problem. They owe you respect. They're your property. When you believe they owe us, they own us. When you believe they owe us, they own us. When you believe they owe us, they own us. They live, you could say, free in our mind, in our heart, in our soul. And the offense of the past and in our soul continues from the past. I still remember someone told me this a long time ago. I remember one time someone told me,

she went through and hurt this lady. She said, yeah, that person stole a season from me. A season of my life. This lady went through. But I'm not going to allow that person to steal my future. You see, you're going to get sick. You're going to get tired. Like a cold, you see. You're going to get tired. Because if that person was responsible and because if that person was smart enough to be able to do that, to pay off the debt that they owed you, you're going to be sick. You're going to be sick. they would have already done it. And to wait for a person to pay off an emotional debt that they can't pay off, they are going to keep you spiritually empty or empty. If your peace depends on when they regret their behavior, your freedom is in their hands. Let's see, I think I'm speaking very well and you're not responding as well as I'm speaking today. I'm going to tell you that right now. I am telling you the truth, truth bombs. I was doing this message together and I said, oh my God, Holy Spirit, this is very good. And I know, and I know some are quiet, it's because it's personal, and it's very deeply personal and I understand it,

it's personal, but there's something divinely beautiful that happened at our original conference. But something divinely beautiful happened at our original conference. And it was really interesting. For me, it was a moment in the Holy Spirit. It was almost like I was in the Holy Spirit moment. This happened so early. I was standing on this beach. I wasn't in the Holy Spirit, but I saw it. I saw it like a wave. Those of you who are there know what I said. There was a friend of Jen and I, Lisa Harper, who was a good friend of Jen and the people who spoke at this conference, the original, the women. She's an incredible woman, a good friend of us. And we were coming out the door next door and we were going to come to the session where I'm going to speak and she turns around and says, Pastor Jeremy, I'm actually coming out today and I'm going to speak to those who have been abused, those who have been abused emotionally, sexually. She said, at the end of my message, what I'm going to do, Pastor Jeremy, I would like you and Jen to come up and pray for those women who have been abused. And I was like, wow, okay, okay. This is not a simple prayer. This is kind of just a simple prayer. And well, Lisa evangelized, made a beautiful message. And when it was over, she spoke to me, she did that,

and she said, Pastor Jeremy, Jen, come up, please. She's done, she did exactly that. She's up, and I'm going to have Pastor Jeremy and Jen come up here and I got up and prayed for those who have been abused, Jen, and I prayed for those that have experienced abuse. And I prayed for those that want to give their life to God. And when she was praying, Jen was praying. I was standing up in the middle of the way, so I could see God clearly and my mind was like, I heard, like in my head, it was not planned, it was improvised. And the Holy Spirit told me to be on the stage and when Jen had finished praying, to stand up here on the stage. And after Jen got up, I'm going to be praying to take the mic and to have an apology to all the people who abused, in other words, to stand up here. Although I have not done anything personally, Jeremy Dewar has not done this, but I'm going to stand up here in front of you and say, I'm sorry, in the name of those people who hurt you and you went through what you had to go through. And I'm not going to try to recreate the moment because, honestly, it was a spiritual moment from the Holy Spirit, very powerful. But when I said here, especially as a man, that sometimes the people who are the ones who abuse generally tend to be men,

there was a whole room here, a whole auditorium of women, and I apologized in the name of all the men who have abused them. It was such a powerful moment. I'm sorry, I went through that. It was, I saw it, and I told Jen, I'm not always with the Holy Spirit, I'm here with the Holy Spirit, but I saw how the Holy Spirit moved in this auditorium. And there were people crying and there were uncontrollably like weeping. Thanking God, there, it was almost like it was like the room released. Yeah. could release a debt that was never going to be paid for that person who was never going to get paid for that. I don't know if it's a man or a woman, or a child, or an old man, some debts, whether you are a man or a woman, you are a child or a woman, some debts will never be paid for that person. And I know you're waiting for an apology, but I don't want to tell you that I want to free you from that expectation. Not because that person shouldn't have to release a debt, or because they shouldn't ask for forgiveness. Yes, they should. But the problem is, in this hopeless world, many times, the person who is in this hopelessly broken world

is the one who offends, he's not going to do it. So forgiveness, I'm not saying there's no debt. Forgiveness is saying, I release my demand that you pay the only thing that God can ultimately redeem. That's what you're saying. That's what you're saying. And look, the power of the cross. The power of the cross is, Jesus paid debts that he shouldn't have. And because we owe debts that we can't pay, he paid for us. And sometimes following Jesus, I'm telling you, this is for all people. If you have a pulse, if you're alive, this message is for you. Sometimes following Jesus means, here, this is for you. Accepting this painful reality. This is where we have to fight. Accepting this painful reality. This is where it's a fight. There are wounds, where the one who offends you is never going to pay, but God is going to heal them. Even though the person who offended you is not going to heal them, God will do it. He won't. Even though the offender will pay. This is the fight. This is the fight to forgive.

And the forgiveness, ladies and gentlemen, this is not for the one who can't. Forgiveness is one of the things that a man or a woman can do. Forgiveness is one of those things that requires manly, deep, types of things that you make. It requires a decision. And you're not saying that what happened to you is okay. This is the lie that a lot of people think. You say, oh, you let the person take responsibility for what they did to you. No, no, no, no. It's not about that. Of course it is. But it's letting go. Even if there may be a reconciliation or a forgiveness of that person. And you know that when there is reconciliation, if you have that opportunity, do it. But you know what? You can forgive, but not everything comes back to being the same. You can accept it. Forgiveness is not forgiveness. It's letting go or forgetting. Forgiveness is not necessarily that you forget it or that it's correct what you did. No, it's saying, God, I want to be set free. I want freedom.

And I'm not going to allow the offense that happened in my life to be what anchors me. So I need freedom, God. I'm going to forgive, even if the person doesn't deserve it, or if they deserve it. I'm going to forgive. In David Stup, he spoke in this book called Forgiving the Unforgivable. He says, forgiving other people doesn't mean that it benefits them or that we let them go from the responsibility. But it helps us to cancel the debt that they owe us, which they can never probably pay. We are the ones who are free. We are the ones who are free from the expectation of restitution brought on us by us. No one understands forgiveness for what was done to us. No one understands forgiveness like Jesus. No one understands forgiveness like Jesus. Now we are in the Holy Week, if you remember, Jesus is betrayed by a close friend, Judah. He is denied by another close friend, Peter, three times. He is mocked by soldiers. He is physically abused. He is physically crucified.

He is physically abused. Yet, on the cross, he came to save. Father, forgive them. Jesus did not just preach about forgiveness. He did not just evangelize or love. He proved it when some of us today are bleeding. Some of us today are bleeding. We're bleeding. We're not on a cross, but we're bleeding. The person we work with betrayed us and we're angry. Our best friend, our best friend got hurt and stabbed us and it deeply hurt us. Even the person who is our family member got hurt. Maybe even this church got hurt. Maybe this church got hurt. We all have a choice in these moments. We could either A, allow bitterness and anger to create walls and give us a diminished life, or fight for forgiveness and release what we never meant to carry. So in closing, when I say two things, practical, but powerful. So in my experience, from what I read in the Bible and from talking to God's folks, most of the time forgiveness is a choice and not a feeling. When you go to forgive, you don't feel a thing. In fact, if you were to live by your feelings, you're going to push the lights out.

You're going to have to fight to find the light. That's why it's a fight, it's not a feeling. It's a choice, it's a decision. But here's my question, if it's not the forgiveness, then what's the alternative to the forgiveness? Hate? Revenge? Carrying that burden indefinitely? It's an alternative to these things. It's up to us. It is not a feeling. Most of the time, it's not a feeling. It's a decision. It is something that should bring some assurance to us. God sees clearly. I hope this brings this to your perspective. God sees clearly and judges perfectly. He's not blind. He's not handcuffed. He's not disinterested. He knows what's going on. This world is broken. I have all kinds of questions. Why can't I do certain things? Why do you stop? I have all those questions. Why couldn't you stop this? Why did this happen? I know, I don't have all those answers. Someday, he's not going to give them.

But the long-term question is, broken people hurt other people. And you know what, it's not God's design. But he can't stop all the bad things. If he could, if he could, of course, he has the power to do it. But there's this thing that it's about, right? We can take, and you know what? But this is why it's not like we put a bow on it, right? Because God sees. If God sees, it's a beautiful grace, right? We talk about grace in this song, right? It's called grace, grace, the God of grace. The grace doesn't exist if there's no justice. There is no such thing as justice. If there's no grace, there's no justice. So God is a God of grace, but the Bible clearly also is a God of justice. And contrary to what people thought, forgiveness shows that you're strong. Jesus was the example of this. First Peter, the Bible says, when it comes to offense, this is my verse that I read when it comes to offense. Take out your phone and you can take a picture, he says. Meaning when they were insulting him, he didn't answer. Jesus, these people did not insult Jesus. Jesus did not threaten to take revenge when he suffered. Instead, this is incredible. He entrusted himself to himself in the hands of the judge.

Now let me read that in a sentence, but in the name of Jesus, I'm going to put names. Jesus entrusted himself to God, the Father, and he judges himself in the hands of the judge. In other words, Jesus was like, I'm not going to take revenge. I'm not going to become a collector of emotional debts. I'm not going to go and punch this person. I have this pain, this wound, this offense. I'm going to give this offense to God, to our God who judges with justice. I want you to hear this, God is a much better debt collector than you will ever be. You can trust, you can give this offense to God who sees everything and judges justly. He's going to restore you, He's going to heal you, and honestly, He's going to take justice for you. The Bible talks about this, that allow God to do the avenging. Don't take it in your own hands. Don't try to take justice in your own hands to someone who offended you. It doesn't mean that you just roll over and die and do nothing. No, no, no. But when you start collecting debts like this, you start creating a pressure. You enter a prison of bitterness, of frustration, when you think that person owes you for what they did. God took all of that, and I'm in a prison of bitterness. And when you say, Lord, I give you this offense, and I give you this burden, and I give it to you, you are God who judges with justice. It's a fight, but it's worth it to make this effort to release the debt, release the debt, and trust God with justice for you. A lot of you need this. In the last two minutes that I have left, you're going to make a decision to do it, and you say, I don't want to do it. It's not about feelings. I literally, not because I'm a saint, but because I care about my soul. I've forgiven people on the spot for something that really hurt me. Why? Because I don't want any root of bitterness to grow, because I know myself.

I'm Dutch. Dutch people can be mean. Trust me. And I can think of creative ways to get revenge. That's my culture. I refuse to allow that. There are moments where I see people and I'm like, I'm going to strangle you. But I forgive you. Why? I'm not going to allow that root to grow. I'm going to release the debt, and I'm going to trust God with justice. Let's pray. With every head bowed, eyes closed, let's do this. And we're going to do this right now. We're going to postpone it for Tuesday. If there is somebody that you need to release the debt, they've done a lot. And right now you know you need to release the debt. By the way, before we continue this, let's close our eyes before we continue. Maybe you have to do this multiple times. Maybe more than one time, but I want you to know, I'm going to give you a moment today to do this. If there is someone that you need to forgive, release that debt, and trust that God will do justice, and you're saying, I no longer want this hurt to continue to punish me for a good future. I no longer want that person to own me, and to continue to live in my mind and heart. I no longer want the enemy to create this damage and to have me prisoner of freedom.

I want you right now, if you have that person in your mind, that person that hurt you, I want you to forgive them. They don't deserve it. They didn't earn it. But you're going to do it because you're bigger. Because you're going to do the things that God, that Jesus wants you to do. So I want you to forgive them right now. And say, I forgive, and say the name of that person. It may not be the only time you're going to forgive, but you're going to have to do it every day. But until you forgive them, and until that person forgives you, you're going to have to forgive them. against the lift, you are going to choose forgiveness. You're going to choose freedom. Because with no forgiveness, you're saying, God, I have a future. So I choose forgiveness. Heavenly Father, Almighty Father, the names of the people we just spoke about, Lord, this is a heavy moment. A lot of people did this, and it wasn't easy. God, I pray that right now, that after they spoke that, that God, you open the prison door. I pray that you would open the prison door and give freedom to their hearts.

I pray healing over their souls. I pray that all of the thoughts that are wrong of that person that keep them up at night, keep them up at night, keep them up at night, I pray that those thoughts no longer exist in the name of Jesus. I pray that, God, you would come very close to those or you would bring a secret antidote that my words cannot bring, but only the Holy Spirit can bring. Lord, I pray most of all that God, you would give them faith and optimism in you, a faith knowing that there are better days, a faith knowing that they don't have to walk around with a broken leg, but instead that they are going to have health and they're going to have freedom and they're going to move on. Lord, I ask you to do something quite supernatural in their hearts, in their mind, in their soul, and in their life. We love you, in the name of Jesus. And everybody says, amen, amen. Can we give God of healing our praise?