S7E39 Dealing With Your Debt - Matthew 6:12

Today, we're gonna talk about the one thing that may be holding you back from an intimate relationship with God. Maybe you're not seeing God work in your life. Maybe you feel disconnected from God. Jesus gives us the reason for that. And it's probably not what you think, and it has to do with forgiveness. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus podcast. I'm your host, Adam French. I'm here with Pastor Robby Gowdy and Kandi Gowdy. We're back again with the Amen shirt on today, if you're watching. Amen, amen, amen. Forrest Frank. I know. And I've heard people say. Hey, he's been, this guy's blowing up, right? He is blowing up. He is blowing up. I like that shirt. Wish he would've done that halftime show, but I'm not bitter, I'm just saying, poor Forrest Frank. Today, we have something exciting. Our son, Rigg, is running for student body president of his school right now. As we record this, we don't know if he won or not. Running against his buddy, too, which is kind of bittersweet. And his buddy goes a long haul, which we love, too.

But we'll see. So he can't lose. He can't lose. One of them's gonna win, yeah. Yeah, and he dressed up in his blue suit today. He put his blue jacket on. I've seen the blue suit. Looking sharp. He wore the jacket to church. Yeah, last night. Well, no, last Wednesday. I wasn't there last Wednesday. Oh, okay. But the Wednesday before, he was in the front row. Oh, yeah, he was wearing a jacket. Yeah, he was in the front row. Well, he wrote a speech. And you would think that, you know, my dad is a speaker for a living. I would ask my dad for help. And let's see what. You didn't see the speech. Didn't want dad help at all. I said, why don't we practice it? Give us a run-through. This was last week. No, I got it, dad. Asked him on Tuesday, what about another run-through? Said, no, I got it. So.

No, Robbie drafted his own speech for Rigg. I wrote a speech for him. He didn't want my speech. I said, hon. I wrote a speech for him. Like, just some high points. Yeah, I'm like, just let this go. I'm like, Rigg's got this. Don't worry. Is it being recorded? Do you know how long it is? Yeah. I got a recording of it this morning that someone sent me, but it's about four and a half minutes, but then it cuts off. So I don't know how much longer he talked after that. He's pretty sharp with speaking. You know, his gift is speaking. And so he came up with his own motto, his own slogan. Hate to interrupt the podcast, but I want to tell you about two YouTube channels. I just started a YouTube channel. You can search it on YouTube, at Pastor Adam French. I'm talking about biblical recovery. If you know someone or you have a friend, maybe it's a loved one who struggled with sobriety, or maybe they're in sobriety now,

but they want to blend biblical truth with neuroscience and secular recovery, it's definitely the channel for you. And also I want to tell you about Robbie's channel. It's at Pastor Robbie Gowdy, if you want to find it. He's going in little segments, right, but he's still going deep into the Hebraic culture of the word of God. And he's got an exciting series on revelations coming up. Let's get back to the podcast. He came up with himself and his name is Rig, R-I-G, Robert Isaac Gowdy. Call him Rig. And his slogan is, you can't spell right without Rig. Come on. That's good. Oh, caught that. Caught that, caught that. That is a good one. Can't spell right without Rig. Now I wanted to add, you can't spell right without Rig, but don't vote wrong. And he said, I'm not doing that to my friend. I'm saying he's the wrong vote. I was like, son, it is a contest to win for an office. We're not talking about friendships here. We're talking about winning. Competition. But Rig said, a good candidate doesn't have to bring up his opponent.

Or bring down his opponent, yeah. Or like bring it up. Like just speak on your behalf of yourself. Rig, thank you for that correction. I don't know. I don't know, like if you, if you. Tell it to the politicians today. I think it's important, yeah, because like if some guy could be out here. I mean, if it was. Not at his, what he's doing. Yeah, I was going to say, if it's something like that's negative that that person is. Well, thankfully he knows that his buddy's not going to bash him. So I get it. Yeah, it's a very healthy competition. Now, if he was a congressional race to represent, maybe it'd be different. Either one of them is going to be phenomenal as student body president. Speaking of that, we're into forgiving the deaths of those who we're indebted to. Are we really? Yes. If we forgive others their offenses. Yeah, so let's read that. Our father in heaven, who is in heaven. Our father. Father in heaven.

No, don't do it that way. Okay. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. That's not, that's not what this says. This says. What? I don't know it that way. Oh. Well, honey, you quote it. Let, let. No, no, no. Go ahead. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread as we forgive. I mean, the bread as we forgive. And. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation. But deliver us. From evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory. That's actually not in the original manuscript, so I'd never say it. But then we're going to pick up verse 14. For if you forgive us, forgive others their offenses, your heavenly father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive others, your heavenly father will not forgive your offenses.

That's a pretty. Look at you. You only had a couple mess-ups. It's all right. Don't you worry, honey. Well, we're beyond this, so it's kind of hard today. There's grace here. Just forgive us here. Yeah, our group's up to 625, I think. We're almost done. 624, we're almost done. What does that mean? We're in Matthew 624, so our group is memorized up to this point. Okay. Anyone know what the universal symbol meaning is of the olive branch? You've heard an olive branch. What does that mean? It's the universal symbol across languages and cultures of what? Peace. Peace. Could be. Like a truce. Like a truce. Yeah. You're waving the white flag. You're saying, hey, let's put our arms down. Let's put our guns down. Let's not fight. Okay. So it basically means the war's over. It means the debt is settled. We're going to try to work it out. Today, we're going to examine what happens when you and I realize we not only have something against God, but we're actually in debt to another person. And the way we navigate forgiveness and unforgiveness in our own life, according to God here, determines our relationship with the Lord and how God responds to us, which is pretty sobering if you think about it. Okay. So the question I want to start with is this. Jesus says, forgive us our debts. He doesn't say, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. The word there is debt or debtor. Okay. Why is that the word? Why is sin called debt? That's the question. Why do you think? Because it has to be paid for. Okay. Yes. That's good. Yeah. I mean, another way to put it is there's consequences to sin. Yeah. Exactly. I've said this before is you never get away with sin. You're never going to get away with it. There's always going to... Now you don't have to sin, but you're never going to get away with sin when you do. Yeah. I like to say you can choose your sin. You have the free will to choose sin. You cannot choose the consequences of your sin. God determines those. Okay. So let me just clarify

before we go further. What Jesus is not talking about is a prayer for lost people to be saved. That is not what he's talking about. This is something we pray after being a believer. It's not initiation like we're praying for God to forgive us and we forgive others so we can secure salvation. So just clarify that. Because I was reading some of the commentaries and they were saying, oh yeah, this is actually salvation. But no, this is after salvation because we after salvation will accrue a sin debt. We will accrue a sin account that has to be dealt with and paid for. Okay. How does a person accrue debt generally? Not sin, but just debt generally. How do you accrue debt? You spend something that you don't have. Yeah. Ooh, that's good. You spend something you don't have. Nathan, you want to, we got Nathan in the house today. Nathan, how does a person accrue debt? Do you know? You should have your mic over there too. I would say the same thing as candy. I don't know. Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah. You're paying for something. You're charging something you ain't got money for. Oh, okay. That's another way to say it. Living above your means. Living above your means. Yep. Spending with no money in the bank, spending beyond what you have. Okay. I want you to remember, okay, let's, that's what happens in the physical realm. Let's talk about it spiritually. How does you, how do you accrue debt? Let's say with alcoholism, let's say with pornography, let's say with addiction, you see what I'm saying? Because that's a very similar, and that makes sense to Adam, obviously myself, because we've been there, basically the same way. When you start sinning, let's say getting drunk, there's a price to pay for that. There's a price to pay for taking drugs. There's a price to pay for looking at porn. The price is mental and physical in relation. You see what I'm saying? So that's the idea of debt. He's talking about this sin debt here. When you and I sin in a very real sense, we owe something for it. Okay. This is what's interesting. I don't normally think of sin this way. Because I think, oh, sin, God will forgive me. But that's just some early on. And I used to think, oh, sin, God will forgive me and I'll move on. He is a God of forgiveness. So I'll just ask for forgiveness. Now Paul says, don't sin so that grace abounds, obviously. But it works very similar as the judicial system. If a man injures another person, let's say, let's say you get in a fight and you punch a guy and he goes to the hospital, or let's say I steal something from you. I take your car. Okay. The two men are then summoned to court. Okay. Let's say Adam and I get in an altercation. I steal his car. We're summoned to court and the judge says, okay, who committed the crime? I did,

Your Honor, me. I stole Adam's car. The judge or jury then decides what are the damages owed for the debt accrued. So I did, I did the crime. I do the time. That's how it works. Or I responded to do. Okay. The person who committed the crime is now in debt or indebted to the person they hurt. That's the way you got to think of it. So they have to pay with money or time or both. God's judicial system works exactly the same way. Heaven's court is. going to try us for sin, okay? Every human being's gonna get tried for sin. Now, there's a difference between believers and unbelievers, we'll get to that. Meaning there are consequences for our actions and you have to pay up. Somebody's gonna have to pay up if you're listening, believer or unbeliever. Now, our sin debt works in two ways. So let me just define how sin works. There are the sins of commission, which we know of, but there are also things called what? Omission. Sins of omission. Adam, what is omission, sins of omission? What is a sin of omission? Sin of omission, off the top of my head, I've heard you say that before, so I don't know if I know. I guess it would be the things that are of God that we choose not to do. Yes, yes. Like God prompts us and says, hey, go buy their meal, don't let anybody know. Or God says, you hear about a need and you can pray for it secretly and not tell anyone,

but you don't, you don't pay the meal. That's good, yeah. It's being disobedient, another way to say you're being disobedient. You know what's right to do and don't do it. Sin is, the sin of commission is I know what's wrong and I do it anyway. The sin of omission is I know the right thing to do and I don't do it. That's an easy way to think of it. So the sins of commission, idolatry, worshiping other gods, taking the Lord's name in vain, murder, I mean the big 10, adultery, bitterness, pride, jealousy, anger, stealing, coveting, all those things. That's the sins of commission. You'll have to pay for those, but you also have to pay for it like Adam said. God tells you to give, you say either I'll wait or no. You have to remember this, disobedience is not just not doing what God says. You gotta remember, partial obedience is disobedience, meaning God says, I want you to go on a mission, I want you to go to Africa and you say, no, I won't go to Africa, but I'll go down the street to the neighborhood. Well, you're still being obedient, it's partial obedience. I want you to give to the homeless man $100, I'll give him a dollar.

That's partial obedience, which is disobedience. If God leads you to do something, or I need to give at all. Now, the second thing is partial obedience is disobedience, but delayed obedience is disobedience. I'll go, but not now. I want you to go on a mission trip to India, not now. I want you to sell all you have and give to the poor, not now, the rich young ruler says. I'm not gonna be able to do that, no. So partial obedience and delayed obedience is disobedience. When we sin in commission or omission regardless, and omission being not doing what God's called you to do. Forgive someone who's wronged you, not gonna do that, omission. When you sin in omission or commission, there is a debt that is accrued and it's a burden we bear. Can you turn to Psalm 38, three, and I'll show you how even sins externally toward another person affect us internally in our own bodies. This is pretty fascinating that David says Psalm 38, three. He's talking about the effects of sin in his life and watch what he says, 38, three. Okay, Psalm 38, three. There is no soundness in my body because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have flooded over my head. They are a burden too heavy for me to bear.

Okay, so what is he saying there? What is David saying about sin? It's affecting him physically. Yes, he has physical illness, a physical illness. It is a heaviness, a weightiness. Those who are watching, you're incarcerated in prison, you got in trouble in the past, you had to pay a price. You know exactly what this is like. You know exactly what it's like. You can feel just the way, sin has a weight to it. Sin has a heaviness, right? Yes. That's good, I was just thinking like, that's the spirit, that's your soul. We can commit the acts of sin out of the flesh, but we can't omit how the soul and the spirit respond to it. Yeah, that's good. Right, it's almost like it's the shaking of, you know, because I've been there too, like you're worried about if you're gonna get caught, what's gonna happen. The worst thing in play, the worst thing, and I've kind of done this in parenting too, is like, the worst place to be is when you know you've done something wrong, and then your parents haven't told you what the punishment is. Ooh. And you have to wait. Like, you get caught, you know it,

and you're just waiting, your dad's like, hey, how you doing, and like, there's no, because I had a situation with my son recently. No, you said, you remind me, you said this line the other day, gave me the chills, I wasn't even your son. You said, son, this is the punishment now, but there could be, I don't wanna ruin your television story. No, go ahead and say it. This is so good, it's like an effect. I don't know which part you're talking about. Well, you said something like, one of your boys did something, you're like, son, here's the punishment now, but mom and I are still determining if there are other consequences in the future for your actions. I'm like, golly, that brought me back to when I was a child. So you wanna stay on that straight and narrow because you're like, it's bad right now, I don't have my phone, I ain't got this, but it could get worse. Way worse, son, yeah. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, and so I mean we don't want to paint God like this gets you God, but the reality is is There's a lot of people who have committed the same crimes or we've done the same things and the consequences have been much heavier than others Yes, sometimes we don't we don't really know. Yeah, what's gonna happen. So yeah, that's why it's better off not to do it Yeah, and one thing I think about like as a parent, you know, we're modeling and teaching our kids like What it's gonna look like when they sin later outside of the home and there's a consequence given, you know, because As a child you don't get to choose the consequence, right?

Your parent chooses the consequence and then as an adult like we're sent we sin God There's a consequence some of those things. I feel like You know, God is gonna give us a consequence But then some of those things are just a natural consequence, right? And it's a natural thing that affects us because of the choice or the action, you know And then but then even as adults when you're dealing with other people who like sin and how it affects or whatever sometimes we feel like we have to Create a consequence for someone else and in some situations that may be the case But a lot of times we try to create a consequence for someone else That we don't have to because there's going to be a natural consequence for that. Does that make sense? Yeah, like it's a natural consequence of people's actions and choices Well porn is something that we have to make someone else experience or feel they're gonna feel it regardless because it's going to be a Natural consequence of a choice. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, we're talking about this in my D group just now The devil is the source of all evil and sin, you know, he leads us to sin in the world But the devil is not omnipotent. I mean, he's not omnipresent He's not always there in his in the demonic world the minions and the powers and principalities. It's a finite amount of demons He doesn't have he doesn't have an infinite amount of demons So if you think of it like a military if you're going to battle against a country like America and you know The war in Iran you can't we only have so many troops to send that's it And once you so you got to be strategic where you station the troops is my point So Satan is the core of all sin and evil from there you have the world system that he influences and then from there Concentric circles the outer circle is the flesh the flesh that we so the thing is Satan. Yes is by proxy Affecting you, you know, he's affecting you from a distance through porn For example, he doesn't have to do anything with the pornography industry right now He's got that thing going and it's a system Satan's really good at systematizing things So that it affects you meaning that the built-in Consequence of porn is it's gonna affect the mind. It's gonna affect your your heart. It's gonna affect your relationship It's gonna make you callous. It's gonna help you It's gonna force you not to love the person who you've called So that's a good Satan really active probably not he just got the system going you see what I'm saying?

Yeah, and so that's exactly what you're saying God's economy similar to the American economy The only difference is we print bills to get us and bail us out of trouble God doesn't do that with sin Meaning you can't there's no freebies in forgiveness. God doesn't just bail you out and say oh man, you know in a sense now Granted Jesus is the ultimate bailout. Let me back up for a Christian when Jesus died on the cross He paid the price that don't miss what I'm saying here He paid the price for every sin you committed past present and future sins every sin You would commit every sin you have commit every sin you're presently committing. He paid took the price He nailed it through the cross God forgave all of our sin. So the penalty of sin is not held against you However, there is a power of sin over our lives today And that's what the consequences are meaning when you stand before God. He's not gonna judge your Inheritance in heaven and the power and in the presence of his you know spirit in your life today over your sin But it's gonna affect your intimacy. Here's how you have think of it affects your intimacy with him It affects your relationship your fellowship with him Nothing can separate you from the presence of God or the Holy Spirit living within you, but he can feel distant because of the after There are no yeah, there are no bargain pardon right in heaven today forgiveness cost something and that's why you're like Candy said when she got saved for the first time in her life She realized it was her sin very person that put Jesus on the cross That's what you have to understand you sin we sin flippantly today and we don't care but somebody has to pay for that That's right. Yeah, and it's almost like every time you're saying you're putting Christ back on the ground a sense back on the cross Jesus I know you paid for it, but I'm gonna do it again And I think too it's important to know like there there's obviously a lot of grace. I mean Jesus is all about grace So there's grace in that forgiveness and in the consequences that we deal with but there are still Consequences right and so like sometimes and I don't I don't know if this is the best example, but this is what's coming into my mind. But let's just say like a divorce situation. I've counseled people before and I'm like, okay, in your mind and in your heart right now, you think this might be the best option because this is gonna bring peace

and this is gonna bring whatever because it's a messy situation, let's say. But I'm like, if you're able to sit there and look at your kids and say to them, in your mind or even out loud, I am still willing to make this choice regardless of what you're gonna go through one day in your life. The consequences, the pain, the dysfunction, the shifting around to all these different people's houses or whatever. And I'm not saying that every situation is clear cut, but what I am saying is, if you are willing to sit there and look at your children and say, I don't care about the consequences that you're gonna go through, this is what I wanna do. Then you go ahead with that divorce. But one day, because that is a natural, it's a natural, it's not, it's just natural consequences that happen because of our actions, which is why obviously, the Lord would never want us to be divorced, right? In a normal situation. I mean, I know there are extreme circumstances, but I'm just saying, I just remember thinking like, how would you look at your kids and say, I don't care what you're gonna go through one day because this is what I wanna do and this is what I feel is right right now. Do you see what I'm saying?

And then still follow through with that. If you're willing to do that, then do it. But you need to know there is going to be a lifetime of consequence in some form or fashion, whether it's through family stuff, financial stuff, whatever, it's a trickle down effect. And you can take that, but with any sin, not just like a divorce. Yeah, and divorce is not the unpardonable sin, as you said, however, and it doesn't send you to hell or causes death to hell, but it make you feel like it at times. It makes you feel like, I mean, I've yet to find someone divorced, immorality, adultery, whatever, leave it and then saying, oh man, everything's been great. Life is, no, it's always, I've got trust issues now. I've got financial problems. My kid, and I would say equal to divorce on the effects of a child is an absentee father. An absentee father is the number one indicator or number one indicator of whether a child's gonna go to prison or not, whether a child's gonna be successful or not, if the dad's absent. But I would say divorce for a child and those who are listening would say, man, my parents got divorced and it rocked me. And maybe you were a child or an adult. I don't care how old you are, it still affects you.

Do me a favor, I know we're in the middle of the episode, but if you've benefited from the podcast or any podcast up to this point, would you hit the subscribe button? Believe it or not, many of you who watch and listen aren't subscribed to the channel or the podcast. And if it's benefited you, would you share it with a friend and leave a comment if you're so inclined to do so? I was thinking that, I know I'm not gonna speak for God, but I just feel like we grieve the heart of God by all these prayers for relief from the consequences instead of seeking God before the consequences come. I know this in my own life. When I remember going to, you were talking about going to trial. I remember going to trial. Let me tell you something, my prayer life went up, baby. I'm praying, God, please, I used to pray this, the heart of the King's in the hand of the Lord, please turn whichever way he pleases. God, please let the judge's heart turn. I prayed that prayer, I mean, 14 times a day. And I think even with my wife, I'm always saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She'll be like, oh, you've had enough sorries? I need you to repent. Right? He's like, yes, ma'am, but I'm like, you know,

think about- Ben, you ever heard that before? He hears that, I'm not very, but you know- If you were sorry, you wouldn't do it again, is what people say. Right, that's what she's saying. If you're sorry, why you keep doing it? That's good, that's good. But thinking about what you were saying, you both were talking about this, like we pray, God, please give us relief from the consequences. We're praying all about the consequences when God's saying, I showed you to seek me first. Remain in me, continue in me, John 15, stand fast with me, and these consequences wouldn't come. Like we're supposed to, we take this all, I mean, it's a repeat of our children, but we're like, hey, don't do this, and you won't get this, and then I do the same thing with God. Yeah, for sure. I get to this place, I'm like, God, I'm here again, save me, please, don't let me feel the wrath of what I'm supposed to get. Yeah, I don't know why I keep getting drunk. I was like, you keep going to the bar every night, I mean, God, what do you change? You hang around the same guys, nothing changes, nothing changes.

Yeah, unless something changes, Leslie Kaiser, unless something changes, nothing changes. Unless something changes. I would say this too, and this helps me a lot, because when I was a new Christian, I didn't know who God was, I was learning the character of God, and I looked at God as kind of this overbearing, domineering father out to chastise me when I messed up. Don't do all these things. But then I came to realize, man, I'm. I'm not scared, here's what I want to tell people. I don't want to sin today, and I don't seek to sin. I'm not saying I'm perfect, obviously, but I don't sin today, not because of what God would do to me in the form of punishment, but what God won't do through me in the form of usefulness. I love when you say that. Say that again, yeah. It's so good. It's a helpful line for me, I created it because it helped me. I don't sin today, or I don't want to sin today. So when I have a choice and attempt, now I'm not saying I don't always do it right because sometimes you sin and you think back, why did I do that? But if I have a choice, all right, am I going to lash out, or am I going to go at Candy, or I'm going to tell her, you shouldn't talk, whatever,

or I'm going to call this guy who messed with me. I think, okay, do I want to do this? And it's not that, oh, I'm scared, God's going to punish me. It's no, God's not going to use me. I want to be used by God. Second Timothy 2.20. And that's a healthy fear. That's a healthy fear of God. It is a healthy fear. You want to break that fellowship with him, that communion. That's what you're describing. Second Timothy 2.20. It's a great way to put it. In a great house there, not only, he talks about the house being the church, in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, wood and clay. So there are useful, unuseful vessels in the house of God, the church. Some for honorable use, others for dishonorable use. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself or herself from what is dishonorable, he or she will be a vessel of honorable use, set apart as holy, watch this, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. I don't know about you, Nathan, that's what I want. I want to be equipped, ready, useful to the Lord. Okay, so now we know what debt and sin is.

The second thing is, why should we forgive others then? If we're seeking God for forgiveness of our own debt, which Jesus says to pray, and I didn't say this, but when should you repent and confess sin in your life? Immediately. Immediately, when God makes you aware of it. Don't ever minimize, rationalize, or justify sin. Don't play with sin. John Owen, remember what he said? Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you. Okay, so why should we forgive others? Well, Jesus ties it to our own forgiveness, and what he says is, not only do you have a debt with God and sin, but there are debts you're accruing with other people, or they're accruing with the way you're treating them. So go with me to Matthew 18, 21. Adam, you go to Genesis 4, 23. I want to show you these two parallel passages. Matthew 18, 21. Mm-hmm, you want me to read it? Pete's got some deep questions. Pete's that guy who's gonna ask the one question nobody else wants to ask. Like, I ain't asking it, you have it. Everybody's thinking it, but you have it. Pete's like, all right, I'll ask a question. Yeah, I'll ask it. And so Pete's the self-appointed spokesperson for the apostles.

But this is a great question, and it's a question I think we all need to wrestle with. Matthew 18, 21, read it, Candy. It says, then Peter approached him and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus replied. Now, seven, just to know, yes, it's seven. There's always a twofold, whenever you see numbers, they always have dual, most of the time, if not all the time, they have dual meanings. Seven, he's saying like seven times, like a lot of times. But seven is the number of completion, okay? So he's just saying, hey, should I just keep, continue to forgive him seven times? And Jesus takes it a step further, but he's not giving him a mathematical formula. He's giving him a remez or a kesher to the Old Testament. Watch what he says here. Jesus replied, but 70 times seven. Ooh, 70 times seven. I do not say to you seven times, but what? 70 times seven. Now, he could be saying 77 times. That's one, if you look at the footnote in your thing, Adam, does your footnote, what does it say? 77 times. 77 times, okay. Go with me to Genesis four,

because I want you to put your Old Testament caps on. Where do we first find in the Torah this idea of the number 77? That's why you gotta always look at the different numbers. 77 times. And let me just say that for you. I think I know. Okay, hold on. I think. Adam and Eve just ate the fruit. They brought sin into the world. God commits the first killing. You gotta remember, the first thing that dies in humanity creation, God is the one who kills that thing. He's a murderer, but he kills the animal to provide skins or coverings for their sin. So you see God, even early on, taking matters of their sin into his own hand, okay. So then after the first sin enters the world and the first death, then sin starts to grow. The devolution of sin is everywhere. So you see Cain now and Abel. Cain kills his brother and Abel out of jealousy. And then you get to the grandson of Cain, which is who? Lamech or Lamech. Lamech. Lamech, could be Lamech, Lamech. That's just how I say it.

How do you say it, Nathan? Do you know? Lamech, Lamech. Lamech. I think it's Lamech or Lamech. Whatever. Yeah, you say it like you mean it in people, but yeah, Lamech, Lamech. You say it really fast. Okay, you say it real fast. Okay, read verses 23 and 24, and watch where we see this first, because remember, 77 is a callback to the ancient ear. They know these instances. So let's look at the callback. Genesis 4, 23, Lamech said to his wives, Ada and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words, for I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is to be avenged 70 times over, then for Lamech, it will be 77 times. No, no, he says if Cain, read that again, you wrote it wrong. If Cain is avenged seven times. Yeah, if Kevin is. You said 70 times, Kevin. Kevin and 70, okay. Okay, here we go. Kevin for South Park. Did I say Kevin the first time?

Yeah. Well, my favorite movie is Home Alone. Anyways, if Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech, it will be 77 times. Okay, literally, literally. That's wild. Okay, is that not wild? See, we read that in Jesus's life, and this is my big issue with Revelation. By the way, the YouTube channel, I decided, Adam, after going back and forth, guys, I know this is gonna be opening myself for a lot of criticism, but I'm okay with it, because I just feel like people need to learn the Bible. They need to understand what the Bible says about the book of Revelation. And so, yes, I'm going for it. I went back and forth. The first video dropped, if you're listening now, two weeks ago, but I need to help people understand how to read Revelation, because any time you go to war, any time there's a battle in the Middle East, everybody has their flip charts and their calendars out, and they have their end times prophecy. I was showing- The countdown for when the war is. Well, I was showing, I've been, in my spare time, I've been collecting all of the rapture-ready periodicals from the years.

I've been, you can buy them. I went and bought them, so you can go buy, but you can go on eBay. People still have some of these documents that went out. For example, Edgar Wisnett put out in 1997 or 90, end of 97, 88 reasons why Jesus is returning in 1988. Remember that one? Anybody remember that one? Wait, wait, he put it out in 1997? Okay. I think it was 87, the year before. Okay, yeah. But he came out with, now the reason they got this was, he came up with this theory, because Israel became a nation state, a state, in 1948, and he did the math of 40 years later, and then he said, okay, but then he missed it. So I bought the second one, which is why Jesus rapture-ready in 1989. Now watch this. It's the same guy? Same guy, watch this. And I got the actual- This guy's racking in the dough. Oh, bro, if you go look at my video, I'm gonna record something with it. But you're gonna love this. The second periodical that he puts out, now the first one, you're gonna love this. Guess how many copies he sold to the world,

of this little paper, I got it in my office, if you wanna see it, of this periodical, it was a couple, maybe 50 pages. Guess how many copies he sold to the world. Is this crazy? Over five million. Oh my gosh. Million, okay? Wow. So we're releasing a pamphlet, is that what you're saying? Now here's the thing about, yeah. What's wrong about being a false prophet is, according to the Old Testament, Nathan, what happens to a false prophet? Stoned to death, okay? But he wasn't stoned, he actually went back to the press. I'm not saying he should be killed, don't email me. But I'm saying, jokingly, but really. So what he did, he comes back and makes another, but this time he does the second book called Rapture Ready, I'll show it to you. He's like, it's only one year old. But you're gonna love this. On the cover it says 1989, 1990, 91, 92, 93. He hid them all just in case, he wanted to hedge his bets, okay? But here's my point. People read Revelation, it's not that they misunderstand the book

because they've read it and studied it too much. That's not the problem. They misunderstand the book because they're using the wrong decoder to understand the signs and the symbols and the numbers. So if you start wrong, it's like a plane. If I take off the ground and I try to go to true north in America, let's say I'm gonna go to the North Pole, there's a difference between true north and magnetic north. I don't know if you know this. I did a sermon series years ago on this. Magnetic north is if you take the magnetism, the poles of the magnetism of the earth. True north is if you take a stake through the North and South Pole and you jam it right in the middle, that's true north. Now watch this. That little difference between magnetic and true north is off by miles and miles. But if you start from Nashville and you just go off course one degree from here, eventually you're gonna be way off when you get to the end. Well, that's what happens with Revelation. Same thing happens here. If you're not reading the Bible and interpreting it with a Hebraic eye, it's not that you don't get all these things. Don't hear what I'm not saying. You're not saying, well, man, I don't know this.

You're gonna still see what Jesus. Sedge, you're gonna still see 77, that's a big number, you should forget, of course that. But there's another layer of insight here, you'll miss, and here's the insight. Jesus is calling Peter back to the situation with Lamech, or Lamech, what do we, what do we decide? Lamech. Lamech, I can't even get it right. See, I've got it, so, it's like Gamaliel, I messed his name up for years, I call him Gamaliel. But I could be totally wrong on that, that's just how I say it. I think it sounds cool. Well, this is the same girl who says, sauna, how do you say S-A-U-N-A, Ben? Sauna, okay, Nathan? Sauna, Adam? Sauna. Candy? Sauna. No, that's, you're lying. No! She is not saying it right. That's not how you say it at home, you say sauna. I say, I'm gonna go get in the sauna. Sauna. Sauna. Okay, she also says syrup. Do you say syrup or syrup?

Please. I say syrup. Oh my gosh, Ben? Syrup, thank you, Nathan? Syrup. Syrup, thank you, Nathan. Okay, or? It's not seer. What do you say, syrup? I say syrup. Me and Ben say syrup. Yeah, no, no, no. What about praline? It's syrup. It's actually praline. Yeah, but people are very divided. Louisiana, it's called pralines. This is the whole point of this. What's that? Pull these off. The whole point is, it's lameck. Okay, back to lameck. Again, lameck. I'm playing, I'm messing with Candy. No, no, he likes to mess with me, but he says I say sauna like a British person, but I don't, it's just how I say it. It's not like I'm thinking of it. I'm thinking of it and I say sauna, and I'm like, I can't say it that way

because I have to like really enunciate it. I have to really stop and say, okay, sauna. It's sauna, not sawn, sawn. Okay, anyway, it's lameck, lameck. I'm playing, lameck. Okay, lameck, back on track. Lameck is boasting, let's get back on track, of killing a man. Now, that word in Hebrew of man is actually the word for lad, young boy, and he basically kills him, he's boasting for killing this young man because he hit him, and rather than being ashamed of the sin he committed by killing an individual, he's boasting at it, okay? Instead of reconciliation, in a sense, there's justification here, and basically what he's saying is, I want to avenge it 77 times. Basically, what he's saying is, it's gonna go from seven to 77, so there is an avalanche of revenge or unlimited vengeance that comes when you don't forgive. This is what the principle of this passage is. This is the way the world works, right? The world says, you hurt me, I'm gonna hurt you more. You come against me, I'm gonna retaliate, and we don't have to look far to see the byproduct of this and the sin of the world, and what Jesus says is, no, no, no, no,

that's not how it works, Peter, and Jesus takes this concept they know of a downward cycle or spiral of sin, and Jesus reverses it and says, just like sin and unforgiveness bring unlimited vengeance, forgiveness brings unlimited acceptance and peace and joy from God, and so he's saying, that's the posture you need to take, not the posture of the world, which is unforgiveness. You need to forgive those who have wronged you. You need to restore fellowship with those who have wronged you. Why? Because that's what God has done to you, and here's the way I would say it is, thank God, God doesn't hold grudges against me like we hold against other people. So true. Think about you right now. Thank God, God forgives us when we don't forgive other people at times. At our house, it's very rare, Adam, but every now and then, I'll say something that upsets Kandi, every now and then, very rarely. What's that blue moon? Yeah, you never do, you know what this, yeah, but when I do mess up, that's a joke, but when I do mess up and say something snappy or whatever, the tension in our home is pretty thick.

I mean, you'd cut that with a knife, you know, because Kandi, you know, when I say something, she just won't say anything to me, and then everybody's walking around on eggshells, walking around tiptoeing, and I've learned through the years that my defense to this is when I know I've gotta say I'm sorry, I'll kind of teak Kandi, I'll kind of set her up by saying something like a joke. I'll walk around and say, you're upset, are you upset? You look upset. How does that go? Does that go over well? I'll say, you don't have to be upset. It hasn't went well for me. Yeah, yeah, so she'll just look at me, and so then my second thing, you could do this with Cookie, your dog, the second thing I do is when that joke doesn't land well, are you upset, and she'll, I'd say, so then I look at Tubby, our dog, my favorite dog, Tubby, and I'll start talking to Tubby in place of her, so I'll say, Tubby, Tubby, she's mad at me. She's mad at me. I don't know why, Tubby, she's mad at me, and then Tubby says, you do know why. You're an idiot.

You said so, okay? And the point is, you can joke all you want, but that doesn't solve the problem. The only reason, the only way that the tension relaxes and the anger dissipates or the animosity is when I have to physically go to her. look her in the eye and say, I did something to hurt you, I'm sorry. And then at that point, she'll say, yes, you did. Now here's what's cool, every now and then I get a little bone, and she'll say, I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have said that. Every now and then, every now and then I get one there. I just texted you the other day and said I was sorry for being mean, but I don't remember now what I was mean about. I screenshotted it. Did you really? No. No, but here's the point, here's the point with this, the longer I stay in a perpetual state of unforgiveness, the greater the tension, and the longer I walk in broken fellowship with my wife. Let me bring it close to home. The same thing goes with God and others. Here's what God's saying, when you have sin in your life that you're justifying, rationalizing, minimizing, hiding, you're out of broken fellowship with me. There's intimacy broken. However, when you have broken fellowship

with a human being made in the image of me, it's as if we're broken in our fellowship. So here's the point I wanna say, who in your life right now you need to offer forgiveness to? And it starts with you taking the high road. Now, forgiveness doesn't mean forgetfulness, because you're thinking, well, man, that person, you don't know what they did. Well, we've had a lot of people do things to us that's hard to forget, you too. It doesn't mean you forget, but forgiveness is taking, in a sense, the weight and pressure and pain and shame and anger from you, and you're almost putting it on the person, and you're saying, hey, I'm gonna trust God, and I'm giving this to you. Remember the 12-step, the step study, step eight. Make a list of all the persons we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all. You know about this, huh? Yeah, I was just thinking that if you go back to the other side of forgiveness, it's unforgiveness. And they both obviously have consequences. And in my experience, unforgiveness hardens the heart. Sin hardens our heart. And the longer it goes, the thicker the wall gets. And then the enemy adds on to it. That's why I like, you know, you. It's like heart disease, literally. Well, the lie is, oh, time heals all things. No, it doesn't.

Yeah. That's never happened. Actually, times make things worse. Makes me worse sometimes, yeah. Because the more you get apart, the stronger it goes. And the more you get the story in your head, and it's worse, and it's worse, and it's worse. And you add people in. You forget all the other part. You just tell your part. Then you have a whole group of people that are saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you just got this hardness of heart. That's why it takes a miracle. You've had so many people. You'll be preaching, and you'll be preaching on forgiveness. And somebody will come up and say, and just weeping and bawling and say, I gotta forgive my sister. I haven't talked to her in 20 years. And they call them that week. How did that happen? Because it takes, really, an act of God, a spiritual power to break it. That's right. So you don't want to get there. You want to, as soon as, the longer it lingers, the harder it gets. And we have to go into those not expecting some sort of result.

We can't be on the result committee. Forgiveness, offering forgiveness is not, you cannot be expecting some sort of result because then it's about your ego and your response. Then it becomes about, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna tell Kenny I'm sorry because I want to make myself feel better. It actually feels, I don't feel good when you don't like me. That's pride and ego. You're going, okay, God, I sinned against you and I sinned against Josie or whatever and I need to make this right. I always come with a gift. Last night, me and Stella, let me tell you something. Listen, Bath and Body Beyond, they always have the two for 20 candles. Back in the corner, you'll find the set. Give one, keep one. Just in case you need an extra. In case you want it later. You start with a gift. But I think we have to do that. I think that, and the only way it changes, though, is if it's a genuine repentance of the heart. Josie tells me that, too. She's like, I'm sorry is I just want this to end. I want us to be in right fellowship. Repentance means, hey, I'm turning away from this. I want to give you the gun and say, shoot me, I'm done.

By God's help, I won't do it again. Well, and I would say, too, true forgiveness, like when the Lord really allows you to be able to do that, you do experience freedom. I think true forgiveness brings with it a freedom for yourself. Because it's like you're not holding on to the animosity, the anger, the bitterness, the hurt, the whatever it might be. And you really get to just be free of it when you actually truly forgive. The line I wrote down was, the hurt that you're wanting, because the person that hurt you, you want them to be hurt. You're like, man, I want them to pay. But here's the reality of how this works. You can sum the whole thing up and say, the hurt you want for other people is actually hurting you. It is. That's true. So forgiveness is part of soul care. I said this Easter Sunday, if you remember, if you were at Long Hollow or heard Dr. McMillan did this. But he was a doctor, he worked in psych wards, and he walked the halls for many years, did a lot of research, and he found out that there was a direct connection between physical illness and spiritual and emotional distress. And remember, this is the line that blew me away.

He said he believed seven out of 10 patients in hospitals right now, 70% of them, could leave the hospital tomorrow if they understood and experienced true forgiveness. See, a lot of people know God's forgiven them, but they haven't received it. A lot of people know they should forgive, but they don't extend it. And so when Jesus is saying, you need to forgive 77 times, you can actually say there's two laws in life, Lamech's law and Jesus's law. Lamech's law is, if you hit me, I kill you. If you hurt me, I hurt your family. Jesus's law is, if you sin against me 77 times, I'm gonna forgive you 77 times. The world says you need to get even. Jesus would say, you need to get empty. Empty your heart, empty your right to be right, and let God work. And that's why we're gonna end where we started. That's why the olive branch is such a great picture of reconciliation. The olive branch is basically the picture in the Bible, I'll save this for the end, the olive branch is a picture in the Bible of a new thing, a new relationship, a new, you walk into a new season, you walk into a new era of life. Now, where do we first see, pop quiz,

where do we first see an olive branch in the Bible? The flood? The flood? Is that right? No, the flood. The flood. Let's go. You're gonna love this. Genesis 8, 11. The first olive branch in the Bible, which is a sign, remember the first dove, the first, the dove goes out, comes back, finds nothing. Right. Or raven goes out first. Then a dove goes, finds nothing. But the second time, the dove comes back with an olive branch. Why an olive branch? It could have been a palm tree, it could have been a sycamore tree branch, it could have been anything. It could have been pine straw, whatever. It's an olive branch, why? Because remember, you gotta read the Bible the way they do. They read it on two levels. Yes, it's a physical sign that there's vegetation on earth and the water recedes, but the Jewish people would look at that and say, this is a bird bringing back a picture of all things being renewed and starting over. Clean, literal, clean slate start over.

Genesis 8, 11, when the dove came back to him in the evening there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak so no one knew that the water of the earth's surface had gone down and basically all things are new. That's what it means to extend the olive branch. So I just wanna close by saying, who in your life right now that needs you to extend the olive branch? Not because they deserve it. Golly, if they deserved it, you wouldn't have to give it. That's not the point. The point is, they maybe don't deserve it, but you need to extend it. Who do you need to forgive today? Who do you need to call today? Who do you think about right now when you see on social media that makes your blood boil? Who is the person that you think about when you fall asleep? The first name on your mind when you wake up. And I would say that today is eviction day for them. They've been living rent-free in your head for far too long, listen to me. And they are a terrible tenant, terrible tenant. And today is move-out day, eviction day. Forgive them, walk in freedom. That's what Jesus said. So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there you realize your brother or sister has something against you,

first leave your gift at the altar, go be reconciled with your brother and sister, and then come back and offer your gift. Before you raise a hand in worship, before you sing another psalm, before you recite a prayer, Jesus says, go get right with the person you've wronged. So good, so good. I think that's a great place. Listen, that's a lot to think about, pray about. I hope you'll take that step this week to make things right if you have any situations similar to that. If you don't mind, if you're consuming this content, if you're enjoying it, if you're listening now, please subscribe, comment, like, share this with someone. You may be thinking about someone right now that had told you a story weeks ago or months ago, you know, where they have a issue in their family or they had a struggle with a relative or a friend. Share this with them so they can learn some insights and what God says about it. Thank you again for tuning in and learning more about the forgotten Jesus. God loves you. God loves you.