You Can Either Hold Onto It or You Can Be Free, Not Both | Mornings with Mico

Yo, yo, yo, my name is Miko and welcome to my one-on-one time with God today. We're wrapping up today, our devotional from this week on forgiveness, which has been kind of slow walking, this idea of forgiveness throughout the scripture. And today we are day five. We started with the standard of forgiveness. You know, we forgive as we're forgiven, and then we shifted to the weight of forgiveness and what unforgiveness does to the heart. You touched on the model of forgiveness, you know, how God forgives. Um, yesterday we did the process of forgiveness, what forgiveness actually looks like in real life. And today we are, um, we're diving into the freedom, the freedom of forgiveness. What happens when you let go? And, um, we will be teaching from, I'll be talking from what passage are we in today? We're in Matthew 18, 21 through 25. So kind of lengthy. Um, but yeah, so this is the parable. This is one of Jesus' parables. And, um, excuse me, it says, then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times, Jesus answered, I'll tell you not seven times, but 77 times, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this, the servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. Servants master looked, took pity on him, canceled the debt completely and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him.

Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, be patient with me and I will pay it back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in, you wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged to me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly father will treat each one of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Um, so yeah, man, not too lengthy, but, um, but yeah, I love just in this parable here, right? This is like perfect imagery, right? Of, of, of, um, unforgiveness in this parable, you have one man who is forgiven and unpayable debt, and then he turns around and refuses to forgive someone who owes him far less. And then he ends up in prison, not because of the first debt that he couldn't pay, but because they, because he refused to, um, forgive the other guy, you know, the servant that owed him. And this, this, I, this is just, I don't know. I mean, Jesus just has a way with these parables that really just paints this clear picture of this unforgiveness, right? That, um, of unforgiveness in this particular situation and how it doesn't even imprison the person who you are, who you have the unforgiveness towards, but it actually imprisons you. Scripture gives language for this and the word is often used for, um, offense and specifically in the new Testament, it's scandal on, um, it literally means the trigger of a trap. So when offense comes, it's not just something that happens to you, but it's something trying

to trap you. Like that's the whole purpose of it, right? That's its intent. So when the enemy is throwing, um, attacks your way or throwing offenses your way, oftentimes it's not necessarily even about the offense in and of itself. It's more so about, um, the, the intent of the offense. The intent of the offense is to ensnare you. It's to trap you. It's to keep you, right? Because that's where he wants you. He wants you stuck. He wants you stuck. We're playing the offense in your mind. He wants you carrying it, um, everywhere you go and he wants you being shaped by the person that hurt you. That person, they may have walked away, but you're still caught in it. Like you're still the one stuck in the offense. I'm reminded of when I was locked up, right? one of my I was in there one of my old heads and he um He had a daughter his daughter's boyfriend him and his daughter's boyfriend like they were you know doing some business You know daughter boyfriend. He was on the streets. I'm locked up with my old head and The the daughter's boyfriend he would come to the visits I would see him in visits and everything man You know eventually the daughter's boyfriend whatever they were doing together in the end of crumbling and the daughter's boyfriend ended up in jail with us right and one time we in the gym and I'm sitting there with my old head and The boy playing basketball and he just kicking it You know, you know with his guys and I'm sitting here with my old head and he is hot Y'all I'm talking about hot like you could melt butter on it and I'm looking at him and I'm like No, gee man, what's up? What's wrong with you?

You know and he stabbed like he's staring a hole through the side of this boy head and he like he's like I hate him I hate on me. He's like he's if I had a bomb I will blow me up to blow him up like he is hot, right? Can you break down the situation what happened and I'm like, well, you know what? Oh gee, I'm like, um Both of y'all was in a situation together Both of y'all, you know, cuz the young boy blew the bag and oh gee He was planning on coming home and having something to come home to but now that was gone I'm like, you know, but both of y'all in the same boat, you know as far as that and both of y'all wouldn't hear together I'm like, but y'all in two different worlds right now cuz bro over there, you know each other He hoping he you know, and I'm like you over here in a whole different space in a completely different world right and the thing is right now that they're both like Like in this situation, they're both literally in prison, right but My oh gee, he's like it's like he's locked up twice once behind bars But then to imprisoned by this unforgiveness, man It's like this is why forgiveness matters This is this is this is so important. This is why forgiveness matters because forgiveness is freedom It doesn't change what happened, but it breaks you free like from the trap from this from this, um ensnared heart posture from this this this this this This is this grip this angst, you know what I mean? Sometimes that unforgiveness can have on you and it opens that door Right, like I spoke about the other day and it actually relieves some of that pressure It it it like releases the grip from your heart What started off as a moment right in in in with the offense what started off as just a situation or a mishap Now that thing has become a root and that root has began shaping your heart That root has it's shaping. It's it's it's made forgiveness feel like impossible But what now feels impossible? It's exactly what God is inviting you into Not to take something from you, but to set you free

Forgiveness isn't saying it didn't matter or forgiveness is saying is it no longer has power over me and that's when that's that's that's the That's I guess that's where the land with this right like a there are many different, you know reasons there are many different like we've kind of touched on a few different things like around this idea of of Forgiveness but Also at its core is the freedom that it brings You can either hold on to it Or you can be free But you can't have both I'm gonna go with that Love y'all. Hope this blesses y'all Shout-out Nate McGavin, bro. Appreciate the love Appreciate your words. I appreciate you Hope everything goes well for you next month. And yeah, I do believe they have Tando and tablets in federal prisons as well But yeah, I hope this blesses y'all and I hope that um, I Don't know I hope this kind of gives you something to build on as far as The idea and the purpose behind forgiveness because it's it's it's an intricate process and Forgiveness because it's it's it's an intricate part of our faith This isn't again. This doesn't like it doesn't encapsulate all that goes into this like this is something to just build from right as I Would suggest like continuing, you know seeking out the Bible and learning more about forgiveness any more thoughts comments just Shoot us a shoot us an email prison at crossroad.net And put in there morning would we go? And you can even put a dash forgiveness if there's anything specific about this, but I'll pray us out and I'll see you out of more Lord we thank you we thank you father just for the way that

Your condition in our hearts and what it is specifically that you want to do in our hearts around forgiveness We know Lord that we're called to release we know Lord that we're called to follow the model that you've set before us and forgiving Lord and Sometimes we need you to step in and help us to close that gap from what we know to do and what I Don't know what we're actually doing These moments where it feels impossible these moments where we feel trapped and Ensnared by our offense or we ask that your grace come into our hearts soften our hearts and nudge us to step into forgiveness and Ultimately that we can experience freedom no matter where we are We can be free from the trap of offense and unforgiveness Pray this all in your son Jesus name