A Who-ville Christmas || Part 2

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Well, listen, we have been in a teaching series around here called A Whoville Christmas, and we’ve been looking at the gospel, according to Dr. Seuss. And one of the stories that we have, his most famous stories of all that we’ve been studying, is The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. And if you were here last week, I talked about the fact that you know, all of us have a Grinch in our life somewhere. And we talked about how to deal with difficult people. And if you missed the message last Sunday, you can go online, and you can watch it back on demand.

And today, you know, I want to remind you what Dr. Seuss said about the Grinch, that his heart was wet. Two sizes too small. So for the Grinch, the heart of the problem was the problem of his heart. It was two sizes too small. We don’t know exactly, you know, why that happened. Dr. Seuss never really told us why his heart was two sizes too small.

When Ron Howard told the Story with the great actor Jim Carrey, he kind of took a little bit of a literary license and maybe painted a picture of the Grinch when he was young. And he was really bullied, you know, by the kids in school, by people in the neighborhood, people even in his own family. And, you know, all of that bullying, all of that teasing, all of that mocking, man, it just shriveled up the Grinch his heart. And he began to hate Christmas, began to hate people. And he decided to because of that hold on to that hurt and that anger. And it turned into bitterness, and it led him to a solitary, isolated life up on Mt. Crumpet with his only friend in the world, Max, his dog.

And we really see that for the Grinch, the heart of the problem was a problem of his heart. And the series is really all about our hearts. And it’s really important that we have some self-awareness about what’s going on in our hearts. And here’s why.The Bible says this in Proverbs 27:19, water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

19 “As a face is reflected in water,

    so the heart reflects the real person.”

Proverbs 27:19

So what’s going on? The Bible says on the inside of us, in our hearts. It eventually shows up on the outside of us, our countenance, our, you know, our attitude, our presence. Like when you walk into a room, does it light up or empty out?

Well, that all depends on what’s going on inside your heart. It shows up eventually on the outside of you, how you talk to others, how you look at others, how you perceive yourself, look at your situations, how you, you know, interact with others, how you carry yourself. It’s all a reflection of what’s going on in your heart. So this Christmas, we’re talking about, you know, our hearts and how we can grow healthy, strong, grace-filled, forgiving, loving, generous hearts. And my prayer for you this Christmas is that the Holy Spirit will perform some spiritual heart surgery on all of us so that we can have healthy, loving hearts. You know, last week, as I said, we talked about growing more grace-filled hearts. It’s how you deal with difficult people. You extend grace to them.

Today, I want to talk about how we can grow more forgiving hearts. Let me just say upfront, when you talk about the issue of forgiveness; I know it’s personal because we’ve all been hurt at some time or another. And it’s important that we learn this, this idea of forgiveness, and we put it into practice in our lives, you know, especially if you’re a follower of Jesus. If you’re a believer, if you’re a Christian, forgiveness is not an option for you. It’s like part of the program with Jesus. It wasn’t even, according to Jesus, a suggestion that you forgive others when they hurt you. It was a clear command. It is an essential part of everything we are and everything we believe as followers of Jesus.

In fact, it says this in the book of Ephesians 4:32, which was quoted by my grandfather at my wedding with Becca. He spoke this word of forgiveness over our life as we were standing at the altar. Be kind to one another, Tenderhearted, and forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

32 “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Ephesians 4:32

Like, this is the kind of people that we need to be. Suppose we bear the image of Christ. But let me tell you, it’s really easy to read, but it’s hard to do. Can I get an amen from somebody? You need to help your preacher on a snowy Sunday here today. Come on out. It’s easy. It’s hard to do. I mean, that forgiveness thing, that’s tough. It’s tough for a four-year-old. When somebody hurts them, it’s tough for a 44-year-old when someone hurts them because you have to go against the gravitational pull of this culture that says, Oh, you hurt me, I’m gonna hurt you back. You hurt me. I’m going to hold on to that hurt. And I might forgive you if you ask me. If you ask me in a way that I judge and deem to be the correct way to ask me. Right, isn’t that true? This is tough stuff, what we’re talking about today. And one of the things that I think makes it, so the tough gang is this; there are just a lot of misconceptions out there about what forgiveness really is.

In fact, there’s been a lot over the years, a lot of shoddy preaching and teaching from scripture over what forgiveness really is. And I think it’s left a lot of people just confused about forgiveness. Some people believe, incorrectly, that forgiveness is. It’s just pretending nothing happened. Like, Have you ever had somebody hurt you and then, like, never come to apologize, never, ever bring it up, never try to seek reconciliation? And they just, like, moved on. Like, they pretend. They pretend nothing happened. If you have a teenager, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Right? They just like, you know, I kid just like you. I’ve had people hurt me, say things behind my back that are true, betray me, just heinous acts of just unkindness to me and never come to, like, try to work it out or sit down and talk, have a conversation and reconcile.

But then. They send me a Christmas card, and I’m like, What? are you? Or they’ll text me. Hey, just thinking about your pastor. Merry Christmas. I’m like, seriously? After what you said and what you did, am I the only one who ever feels like this? Like you just want to move on. Do you want to just, like, have a little Disney moment? A whole new world. Let’s forget I ever heard you, right? I’m kidding me. And some people think like, Oh, let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. Therefore, it never happened. So I don’t have to. That’s not forgiveness. That’s not moving on. That’s not a deal.

Here’s another misconception. Some people think forgiveness is a never-ending series of second chances. Like, you know, let’s just not only pretend or refuse to acknowledge it but then let’s just, you know, act like there are no consequences. For. Your actions. You know, we just have to forgive because we’re Christians, right? I mean, after all, didn’t Jesus say to turn the other cheek? I guess I just got to take another one on the chin for Jesus. Like, we have to be somebody’s punching bag or doormat and just let them keep walking over us and chalk it up to turning the other cheek and just, you know, you know, give them another here’s another chance, the 13th millionth chance, you know, giving somebody another chance. That’s not forgiveness. Never sitting down trying to reconcile and talk about what happened, just giving them another second chance, or just trying to move on. That’s not really forgiveness.

Here’s another misconception. Some people think that forgiveness is immediate and full restoration of the relationship. Well, I guess, you know. I have to forgive you. So I forgive you. And we can just pick up where we left off. Meanwhile, your husband goes out and drinks way too much. He comes home, he’s violent, and he’s abusive. The police show up. And then he gets bailed out. And you’re just supposed to let him back into the house. And pick back up where you left off and resume. The relationship the next day. Oh, because that’s what forgiveness and forgiveness and the restoration of the relationship; they’re two totally separate things, gang. They’re not the same thing.

You know, there’s a story in the Bible about Jacob and Esau. You guys remember this Story from the Old Testament, Genesis 37. Joseph’s Story actually starts there, but I think it’s 33. But their dad was Isaac, and he had two boys, Jacob and Esau, and Esau was the youngest brother. I’m sorry if I was the oldest brother. Jacob was the youngest. And so Esau, being the oldest brother, was supposed to inherit the Birthright from the father, always went to the oldest son. I’m sorry. But Jacob deceived his father. He lied. He deceived his brother. And Jacob stole his brother’s Birthright.

Do you remember that Story? And when he stole his brother’s Birthright, it means he got all of the power of the family, that he was the final authority for the family moving forward. Every major decision that was made had to be made now by Jacob. It also meant he got the lion’s share of the money. He got a double portion of the inheritance. And his father was very wealthy. And it also meant that forever his name would be recorded for all time because we serve the God of Abraham. Isaac. It was supposed to be Esau. But it turned out to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do you know what the word Jacob really means? Deceiver. Manipulator. He stole that. From his brother Esau, and Esau hated him. He wanted to kill him. Like he was furious. Just imagine. Just like you would be furious in that situation. But, you know, eventually, Esau, even though he initially hated him for it, he eventually forgave him. But you know how long it took. Twenty years, two decades. Think about that. You see, sometimes forgiveness, oftentimes forgiveness. It’s a process that can take months. Sometimes years. And sometimes. Decades.

Because of forgiveness and then the restoration of the relationship. Two totally separate issues. For some people, they think that forgiveness is like a get-out-of-jail-free card, like, okay, you hurt me, you lied or betrayed or said something or did something that hurt me. And then all of a sudden, I guess because I forgive you now, we just want to remove all the consequences. The table. It’s just like a get-out-of-jail-free card now that I forgive you. Now there’s what? No consequences for your actions? There are no ramifications. We’re just going to wipe the slate clean and move on. You see, that’s not what real forgiveness is.

You think about King David. Remember him? Remember his infamous, you know, midnight tryst with Bathsheba that resulted in the birth of a child? Do you remember that? Finally, he was confronted by the Prophet Nathan, and after trying to skirt the issue, he finally fesses up, and he confesses to God. Yeah, this is what I did. He threw himself at God’s mercy. He cried out to God. And you know what God did God forgave? Yeah. But he didn’t remove all the consequences. In fact, he piled a few extra on if you read the Story. God said, You know, David, I forgive you. But as a result of this. The sword. Will never depart from your house. You will always be at war with your enemies, in addition to that. Do you know that house you wanted to build for me? The temple you’ve been preparing all your life? Yeah. You’re not going to build it. Because you’re not a builder. You’re a warrior. So you won’t build the house. But your son, Solomon, will build the house. Speaking of sites. David, while I will spare your life. I will not spare his. And that, boy, that was a result of David’s night of passion with Bathsheba. A few days later. He would die. And for the rest of his life. David. He was riddled with the consequences of his sin. Even though God forgave him, it didn’t mean that he removed all of the consequences.

The biggest and goofiest idea of forgiveness is this one. Well, forgiveness just means forgetting what happened, you know? Forgive and forget. How goofy is that? To forgive and to forget that so many people, even well-meaning Christians, believe this, that real forgiveness means I forget that it even happened. And I don’t know where this idea comes from. Maybe it comes from their idea or even misconception about God and how he forgives. I think many of us have been taught through the years. I might even be guilty of teaching this early on in my ministry before I came to this revelation and understood what forgiveness really is, that we serve a God who forgives and forgets, don’t we? I mean, isn’t that what the Bible says? I mean, I mean, after all, what does it say?

Jeremiah 31:34, says, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.

34 “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

Jeremiah 31:34

Right. There it is. See, God forgives and forgets, does he? Well, some of you say, well, that’s just Old Testament about this.

Okay, well, it says this in the book of Hebrews 8:12, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, their sins, and I will remember their sins no more.

12  “And I will forgive their wickedness,

    and I will never again remember their sins.”

Hebrews 8:12

There it is again. More proof, more evidence that God forgives and forgets. So I guess, you know, if God gets somehow some form of spiritual amnesia, maybe I’m supposed to have the same form of spiritual amnesia, too, when people, you know, hurt me, and I forgive them. I’m just supposed to forget.

And the coup de gras of all verses like this is in Psalm 103 for God.

He forgives our sins. He separates us from them as far as the East is from the West. Then he hurls them into the sea, and as the old preacher said, and then he puts out a no fishing sign for the devil. Right. You remember here, that one. So, I mean, if God forgives and forgets, I mean, if God has that capability, then shouldn’t we? But that just doesn’t make sense. How can an all-knowing, omniscient God forget anything?

You see, this remembers their sins no more. It doesn’t mean forget it. Rather, it means that God chooses to renew His work in us when we repent of our sins. What this remember their sins. No more means that God chooses to renew his work. He chooses. He chooses not to hold. Our past sins and mistakes and failures against us. And he chooses to give us new life and new strength to move forward in faith into the future. That once we repent, once we seek forgiveness, he doesn’t hold our sins against us anymore. So forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetfulness.

And by the way, did you know that there’s even something better than that? Forgiving and forgetting. It’s remembering without the pain. That is when you truly forgive somebody. And as a process that could take years or decades. As you forgive them. And many times over and over, over and over again, eventually, you come to a point in God’s grace and His love that you can look back over the span of your life. And remember what happened. But yet no longer feel that he. That you could see how, even despite how despicable of an act that might have been, how God worked and moved in your life despite it, how God built His character inside of you, how God helped you become even more like Christ Himself that when He hung on the cross. What is the first thing he said, Father, for? Give them what they know, not what they are doing.

Dang. There’s something better. There’s something better than forgiving and forgetting. There’s remembering without the pain and seeing how God used it in your life. To develop you into the woman or to the man of God that he’s called. Hey, remember that Story I was talking about? He and Jacob saw earlier how Jacob stole Isa’s Birthright. He got into cahoots with his own mother. They trick the dad. They lied. They manipulated. They stole his Birthright. Jacob gets, you know, really nervous because Esau is hot, man. He is mad. He wants to kill his younger brother. I mean, he emptied the family trust. He took what belonged to Esau, and so he saw I wanted to kill him. Well, Jacob gets wind of this through his mother, of course. And what does he do? He. High tails it out of Dodge. The very first train he could catch. He was out of there. Where did he go? He went to his uncle’s house. His name was Laban.

Remember this? He goes to his uncle’s house. His name was Laban. He told Laban what was going on. He said, Can I find, you know, some safety and security kind of work for you here? Laban gives him a job. And then, you know, he gets married, and he has children of his own. And now 20 years have gone by. And God says to Jacob. It’s time to go home. It’s time to go back to your homeland. Jacob really likes wrestling with this because he knows his brother is still going to kill him the first chance that he gets.

Here’s the Story. Genesis 33:1.

33 Then Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with his 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and his two servant wives.

Genesis 33:1

Jacob, as he’s coming back to his homeland, lifted up his eyes, and I think about that. He’s with us in. Jacob has now become a very wealthy man on his own. Not only that, to get the family’s trust, but he’s also built acquired wealth over the last two decades. And so he’s got, you know, a huge family, a huge entourage that’s with him. All the sheep, all his goats, all his cattle. He’s coming back into his home. He lifted up his eyes, and he looked. And behold, Esau was coming. This was a movie. Dun, dun dun. And 400 men were with him. Uh-Oh is right. Yeah. He looks up, and he sees his brother. His brother heard he was coming. So his brother assembled 400 men, warriors to go meet his brother as he came back into the family homeland. Jacob looks up, and he sees this. So he makes this decision. He divided the children among Leah and Rachel, the two female servants, so he took his family and put them into two groups. One group goes with Leah; one group grows Rachel. And, you know, and he decides, like, well, if they kill one of the groups, at least maybe one of the other groups is going to survive. And my legacy, you know, can go on. And then it goes on and says, and he put the servants with their children in front of in front, then Leah with her children and Rachel and Joseph, the last of all.

Now, this is this is critical. We need to understand this. So if you remember, the Story goes, don’t believe his house. He falls in love with a girl named Rachel. And she was the younger the of daughter of also her older sister, Leah. And he wanted to marry Rachel. And so he makes a deal with Rachel’s dad, uncle Labor.

And Leighton says, If you work for me for seven years, you can marry Rachel. And Rachel was beautiful. Yeah. Drop dead gorgeous on the inside and outside. And so, you know, Jacob does the math, and he’s like, Yep, I’m in. For seven years, he has worked. And then it comes to the wedding night. They go into the wedding chamber, and she removes her veil, and guess who’s there? It’s not Rachel. It’s her sister, Leah, who the Bible describes as being one that was weak in the eyes. That’s a really nice biblical Christian way to say that this girl was ugly. She ain’t got no alibi. Yeah. Yeah. Jacob. He goes to Uncle Dave, and he’s like, Oh, what’s up? He said we had a deal. I have worked for you for seven years. I get to marry Rachel now. Today. What is going on? He’s like, Yeah, I know. Give me another seven years; then you can marry, right? That you see. And this is what happened, you see. And he did. He worked another seven years and was able to marry Rachel. But you know. Jacob. LYDEN manipulated his father. And then Laban lied and manipulated Jacob. A man reads. What?

So what happened today? And so now he’s got two sets of families. He had over he had 13 children, 12 sons, and one daughter. Actually, between four women because he also had a couple on the side. And he thought this was not God’s plan. This is how messed up it was straight. Right. It’s something you think God can’t love you. He’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You’re not too messed up for God to love you and work in your life if you do what the messed-up guy did. We’re going to see in a minute. And so he’s got these two groups, and he puts all of, you know, you know, Leah and all of the kids, his second favorite wife and concubines and all the children, servants, that part of that household in one line. And he puts hides them over here, and then he makes sure that Rachel is there. With who? Who does it say with who chose? His favorite son. His favorite son with his favorite wife. And then he makes a really. Wise decision. Look what he. He himself went on before them. Bowling himself to the ground seven times. How many times? Seven. Don’t forget that until he came near to his brother. And he thought You know what? It’s over. I might as well just face the music. It’s 400 players and an angry brother. Who wants to separate me from my head from the rest of its body. So I might as well just take what’s coming to me. And in the act of humility and forgiveness. A seeking an apology to seek forgiveness. He throws himself at his brothers, vows to them seven times. In other words. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.

And then something unexpected happened. Again, if this was a movie, the music would begin to move towards a crescendo. And it says, this is the next verse. But Esau ran to meet him. And embraced him and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And they went. And in that moment, Ethan forgives his brother, Jacob. You know what he does? He said he relinquished his right to get even. It gives it up. He refuses to take revenge. He lets his brother off the hook. In other words, he acknowledges, Buddy, what you did was wrong, brother. It hurt me. It hurt my family. It set me back. It handcuffed me in life. But you know what? I forgive you. Anyway, what a beautiful scene of grace and forgiveness on display.

But here’s what we often miss when we read the Story. You see in the family of Abraham. There were generational sins that were passed on from one generation to the next. Between Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There were three specific sense that were passed because of the father and grandfather and grip never dealt with it. They were passed on to the next generation. The first was a sin of lying.

There was a deceiving spirit in all three of these men Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not only was there a spirit of lying, there was. A sin of favoritism where they would favor one son over the other. And that led to the third sin of sibling rivalry. It plagued this family for three generations. You think about it. Abraham, he lied to the Egyptian king about his wife. Not really being his wife. Her name was Sarah. She was beautiful. She’s an Egyptian princess. And when they meet the Egyptian king and the king says, Is this your wife? He lies and says, No. Why? Because if he would have told the truth, the king would have had him killed so he could take his wife as his own wife. So he lies and says, she’s my sister.

Not only was there that spirit of lying Abraham, he created a horrible rivalry between two of his sons, Isaac and Ishmael. You remember that? I mean, and that still today is the root of all of the conflict in the Middle East between the Arabs and the Jews.

That sin of favoritism, which led to then sibling rivalry. Then Isaac, he also lied to the King of the Philistines about his wife not being his wife in it. Oh, no, she’s my sister. For the same reason his father lied to the Egyptian king. And then he also showed favoritism to his boy, Jacob. And there was a rivalry then between these two brothers, Jacob and Aesop. And then there was Jacob. He had 12 sons. His name was later changed to Israel, which means one who struggles with God. He wrestled with God for a blessing that night, and God changed his name from manipulator and deceiver to one who struggles with God. He had 12 boys and each of the tribes of Israel then were named after his 12 sons and their descendants.

But you also recall Jacob, he showed favoritism to one of his sons over all the rest. Who was that? Joseph. Why? Because the Bible says that Joseph was born to Jacob in the later years of his life. And he demonstrated that favoritism by giving his son Joseph a what? A coat of many colors. And every time his brother saw him wear it, it just made them hate him even more. They got so sick and tired of this young dreamer. They wanted to kill him. They made a pact. We’re going to kill him. Rubin, the oldest brother, too, said, no, not kill him, because the consequence would always fall to the oldest son. He said, Let’s do this. Do you think Rubin was, like, compassionate? No. He was just covering his own. You know, what’s behind you. And so he said, Let’s do this instead. Let’s throw them into a pit. They said, Let’s pretend that a lion killed him. Let’s take the daddy’s little coat, you know, and, you know, covered in blood. Let’s say a lion killed him and then they sold him for profit. As a slave into Egypt. Talk about sibling rivalry.

This these curses that were passed on this are for generation to generation to generation. And here’s this little guy, Joseph. He goes to a foreign country, a culture he doesn’t understand, a language. He doesn’t speak. He has nothing. He has no rights. He has no money. He has no family. He has no friends.

But yet the Bible says God was with him. God was with him when he was in the pit. God was with him. When he was in the palace. God was with him when he was in the prison. And God gave him the power. Divine power to interpret dreams. And through that power, he interpreted the dream of the pharaoh. The most powerful man on the planet. And that led him to a position of Prime Minister second most powerful man on the planet. Because in the dream, he understood that the coming seven years of famine. And he knew how to fix the problem because God gave him revelation and insight and knowledge.

And the Pharaoh said, okay, Joe, you’re the guy to do it. You fix it. Boom. He’s second in command. And he puts this plan together and they grow all this grain and they save it and they store it up. And when the years of famine came, word got out that Egypt was the only nation that still had grain. So other nations came from all over that part of the world to buy grain. It produced an economic boom for all of Egypt, and it also saved a lot of people’s lives, including the guys that lived to the north known as Israel.

And his 11 brothers come to Egypt because they heard there was green in Egypt all along thinking, well, he must Joseph oh, Joey must be dead by now. Let’s go down to Egypt and see if we can buy some green. They go down there and they’re standing right in front of Joseph and he recognizes them immediately, but they don’t recognize him. He doesn’t dress like them. He doesn’t talk like them. Just look like them. He doesn’t cut his beard like them. He’s completely unrecognizable.

And instantly all of that anger, all of that hurt and all of that pain welled up in Joseph’s heart, and he wanted to kill his brothers for what they had done to him. I mean, it’s one thing to get hurt from somebody else. It’s another thing to get hurt and betrayed by somebody, your own family. But you know what I’m talking about.

But yet, instead of just having them killed and slaughtered, he messes with them. And they eventually come back and they realize it’s their younger brother, Joe, and they throw themselves at his feet. They beg for mercy. And then this happens. Joseph says you intended to harm me. But God intended it for good. To accomplish what is now being done saving many lives. He said what you guys did was wrong. It was evil. And it hurt. He doesn’t whitewash it. He doesn’t pretend it didn’t happen. He. He fully and finally deals with it and yet chooses to forgive them. He’s able to step back in from a 30,000-foot perspective from the vantage point of happened. He’s able to see, yeah, what you guys did was evil. You tried to hurt me and you thought you took me out. But when I look back now, over the span of the last 20 years of my life, I can see what you tried to do to hurt me. God still used it for good. It produced the saving of many lives. Millions of people were saved because there was grain. In Egypt and there was only grain in Egypt because Joseph was in Egypt.

You see? Something tells me there’s a gnawing suspicion deep down inside of my heart. That something happened. And that Middle Eastern hot sand one day when Joey. Watched. His uncle. Forgive. His father. For what he did to her. Something happened in Joe’s heart that day that stuck with him. And that led him. To be a man of forgiveness, that he understood there’s something better than bitterness and it’s forgiveness. And from that moment forward, it broke the curse, that lying spirit. It broke that sign of favoritism. It broke that curse of sibling rivalry that had plagued that family for generations. And what I’m trying to say to you today was that if somebody hurt you, this is God will never waste that hurt. The Bible says that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. Amen. God works all things. Everything is not good. Divorce isn’t good. Infidelity is not good. Lying and cheating is not good. Violence and abuse is not good. But God can work all things for the good. And not for everyone, but for only those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Do you love him today? Come on. Do you love him? Do you want to fulfill his call and purpose on your life? If that’s true in your heart, if you can develop a forgiving heart and a forgiving spirit, God has the power to break generational curses off of you and your life. I’m telling you, your decision to forgive is not just about you. It’s about your kids. And your grandkids and future generations. You can be the one with an act of forgiveness to break that chain off of your family. Oh, I pray. I pray. I pray you’ll find freedom today. I fear that we would become people of forgiveness, say, men. You know, there’s something. Better than forgiving and forgetting. It’s remembering without the pain. You met at the Army. But God used it for good. So forgive. Let’s be people’s forgiveness. I mean, after all, didn’t Jesus forgive you? I mean, after all, didn’t Jesus himself say in the Lord’s Prayer? Don’t you forgive others? I can’t forgive you. I mean, after all, should we forgive somebody because we’re going to need more forgiveness? The last time I checked, nobody was perfect. Nobody’s batting a thousand around here. And if you’re going to need God’s forgiveness in the future, you better forgive those who’ve hurt you in the past. You know, one day, Peter. The older. Shoot off your mouth before you load your brain. Disciple. He was wrestling with this whole thing we’re talking about, and he says this to Jesus, What am I supposed to do, Jesus? Do you know how often? When my brother sinned against me, I forgave him. How many times do I have to forgive somebody? Jesus. I was supposed to be the doormat. Mine was supposed to be this whole idea that according to Jewish law, you only had to forgive a person three times. Then you could just hate them. It’s true. It’s really weird and messed up. But that’s the way it was. So here’s what Joe or Peter does. How many times, Jesus? As many as seven times. Like he doubles the required minimum, and then he throws one on top. Like, look at me. Look how big my heart is. I know the rule. The minimum is three. I’m going to double it and then throw another cherry on top. Look how spiritual I am. And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times. But 79. In other words, what Jesus says to you. You just keep forgiving them. Over and over and over again until you can remember, I’ll. And see how God worked all things for good.