Rick Warren - The Amazing Power of Forgiveness Part 2

Hello, and thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope. Well today we continue in our series called

God's Prescription for a Healthy Life. In it, Pastor Rick

will show you how to improve your health physically, spiritually,

relationally and emotionally by applying the five essentials needed for.

A more vibrant life.

If you want to have what it takes to live

out your calling in life, stay with us for this

amazing series. Now, in just a few moments, we're going

to tell you about the Daniel Plan DVD study Kit,

a sixth session video based study by Rick Warren, doctor

Daniel Aman, and doctor Mark Hyman. This out of the

box approach to a healthy lifestyle is based on five

essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends. You can find

out more right now by going to Pastorick dot com

while you listen to today's Manage, or you can just

text the word daily to eight hundred six hundred five

thousand and four. That's Pastorick dot com, or the word

daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of a

message called the Amazing Power of Forgiveness.

And we know that today a surgeon can cut back

your scalp and stimulate part of your brain, and you

will have memories that you knew, never knew you even had.

They are there and they will come back and they'll

be vivid because it's all stored in this marvelous machine

that God has given us called the brain. It's all there,

so you really can't forget it. But God says, I

didn't say you had to forget it. What I said

is forgive it, and then look and see how I

can bring good out of it. Number five, forgiveness isn't conditional.

It isn't minimizing the seriousness. It isn't resuming a relationship

with change. It isn't forgetting what happened. And number five,

it isn't my right when I wasn't the one hurt.

Forgiveness isn't my right. It's not my right to forgive

you if I wasn't the one hurt by you. The

point here is the Bible says only the victim has

the right to forgive. You can't forgive people who didn't

hurt you. Now again, I want to belabor this point

because most people in our society don't get it. Today

we've got leaders walking around offering blanket forgiveness and asking

blanket forgiveness when they don't know the person, they don't

even know what happened. They're just it's just words. It

means nothing because they didn't they weren't involved in the

in the in the hurt. A few years ago in Paducah, Kentucky,

a fourteen year old boy walked into a high school

and pulled out a gun and shot free high school girls,

and they died the next morning. The bodies hadn't even

gotten cold yet. In the next morning, teenagers in that

high school had put up a big sign that said

we forgive you, Mike, and they had this banner out

in front of the school. Now, you know, I know

they meant well, and I know they thought they were

doing the spiritual thing or the loving thing. But the

fact is it wasn't their right to forgive because they

aren't the ones who had lost a daughter or a sister,

or a granddaughter or a niece. And I mean, those

girls weren't even buried in the ground yet, and they're

saying it's okay, Mike, we forgive you, as if it

was no big deal. He had just murdered three people,

And how do you think the mother and the father

of those girls felt. Wait a minute, it's not your

right to forgive. I haven't forgiven yet.

They haven't.

Maybe I'll get there, but there are stages of grief,

and I've got to go through that grief stages after stage,

which includes anger. It's a legitimate part of grief, and

then I may eventually get to the forgiveness over there.

But you don't have a right to just blanket forgive

them because they didn't hurt you. Only the main victims

have the right to forgive. Right after nine to eleven,

I remember a national leader stood up and said we

all must forgive Osama bin Laden for nine to eleven.

And he said, I.

Have forgiven him, and everybody else must too. Well, there's

only one problem with that. It wasn't his right to forgive.

He didn't have a wife or husband who died in

Gwin towers. He didn't have a daughter or a grandfather

or a nephew or a fiance, and he was short

circuiting the process by offering forgiveness when he didn't have

the right to do it. If I came over to

your house today and you were standing there in shock

because everybody in your family had just been murdered. And

I walked up to the murder and he said, and

I said, it's okay, I forgive you. You'd be going, hey,

wait a minute, Rick, that's not your place to do that.

It's my place to do that.

So don't go around offer and forgiveness to people that

you didn't hurt or didn't hurt you. It's only the

responsibility of the person hurt the most.

Does that make sense? All right?

You see, if anybody could proclaim forgiveness, we'd have no

need for jails. I just got well, I forgive you,

and you can say, well, I forgive you, and I

forgive you. And by the way, forgiveness never eliminates the

consequence of the sin.

It just it offers forgiveness.

In other words, a prisoner can be repentant and be forgiven,

but he's still got a service time and pay his

debt to society. And a drug addict can be forgiven

for their addiction, but they're still going to carry the

scars of addiction the rest of their life. And if

a drug addict mother you on crack, has a baby,

yes she can be forgiven, but that baby may have

problems the rest of its life, and it wasn't the

baby's fault. There are always consequences to sin. It always

hurts somebody. I mean, you know, you can go out

and be promiscuous and go to bed with anybody you

want to go to bed with, and yes, God will

forgive you, but you might get still get an SDD

or AIDS, or you still may break up a home,

ruin a reputation, or hurt little kids. It always hurts

people whenever I blow it. Whenever I sin, I not

only hurt my life, I hurt other people's lives too.

And forgiveness doesn't get rid of the consequences. I mean,

I've talked to so many people who say, you know, Rick,

I know that what I'm about to do is wrong,

but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway

because i know God will forgive me. And I want

to say to do you think God is stupid? Yes,

of course you can go out and do something, and

yes you can be forgiven if you genuinely repent of

it and say I'm sorry I was wrong, but you're

still going to have consequences. Why do you think these

rules are in the Bible there for your benefit. God

doesn't want you to have a broken heart or anybody

else for that matter. God doesn't want you to live

with guilt and shame. God doesn't want little kids growing

up with all kinds of insecurities and all kinds of things.

And just because I get forgiveness doesn't mean I'm still

not going to hurt an awful lot of people by

my dumb decision. So what am I saying? There is

always a cost to disobeying God when he tells to

do some it's for our own happiness. There's always a cost,

and there's always a cost to forgiveness. Now this one's

the hard one. How do I forgive? And why must

I forgive those who hurt me? Well, the Bible says,

there are three reasons that I have to let go

of my past.

I have to let go of the people who've hurt me, And.

They have nothing to do with the fact on whether

that person deserves it or not. They don't and you

don't either, in the forgiveness you've been given. But there

are three reasons, and here they are. Number One, I

am to forgive those who've hurt me because Number one,

God has forgiven me. Jesus Christ has forgiven me. That's

what he came to Earth to do, and that's good news.

The Bible says this. Looking there on your outline, Remember

the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Now, let me make this really clear.

The reason why some of you have such a hard

time letting go you go, man.

I just can't let go of that. It hurt too much.

I can't let The reason why you have a hard

time forgiving is because you don't feel forgiven.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

If you've missed any part of today's teaching, you can

listen online anytime at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

The truth is most of us don't pay much attention

to our health until something goes wrong. We put on

a couple of pounds every year and think no big deal, right,

But a few pounds over five or ten years really

adds up, and it can even lead to major illnesses

like diabetes and heart dease. That's why Pastor Rick work

together with medical and fitness experts to create the Daniel

Plan Study. The sixth Session DVD and workbook studykit from

Rick Warren, doctor Daniel Amen and doctor Mark Hyman is

an out of the box approach to a healthy lifestyle

based on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus and friends.

The Daniel Plan Study gives individuals in small groups the

encouragement and accountability needed to succeed. If you've been watching

the scale go up lately, or your health is in

trouble because of your weight, it's not too late. Join

the thousands of people who've lost weight, improve their health

and improved their relationships through the Daniel Plan. We'll send

you a copy of the Daniel Plan DVD's study kit

to say thanks when you give a gift to Daily

Hope to help share the Hope of Jesus with people

around the world. Just go to Pastor Rick dot com

to get your copy, or you can call eight hundred

six hundred five zero z four. That's Pastorick dot com.

Or call eight hundred six hundred at five zero zero

four and thank you so much for your support.

Hi, it's Pastor Rick with some big news. My Daily

devotional is now available in French. If you know somebody

who would enjoy reading the Devotionals in French. Would you

please email me and I'll send you a link to

sign up. My email is Rick at pastorick dot com.

That's Rick at pastorick dot com.

Once again, here's Rick.

You're never going to be very forgiving to other people

if you don't feel forgiven yourself, if you don't feel

totally forgiven by God, you know what, you're not feeling

like doling it out to anybody else. And the reason

why is you want to keep the scales balanced in

your mind. You know that you've done certain wrong things,

consciously or unconsciously, and so one of the ways we

balance the guilt is with resentment. And and somebody says,

well you did this, well, we say, yeah, but you

did that, well, you did this, Yeah, but you did

that well, you did this, Yeah, but you did that,

And we keep it the balance of the scales that

way in our mind. Well, if all of a sudden

you let them off the hook and you say, you know,

I'm not going to hold it to you anymore, boom,

all of a sudden, when he left it just a

bunch of your own guilt, you see, you're never going

to be able to let this one go. Until you

let this one go first, you have to be forgiven first,

feel forgiven first. You need if you're ever going to

be a forgiving person where the power comes from, you

need to first accept the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.

The Bible said God came to earth in human form

in Jesus in order to forgive the sins of every

human being, everything that's ever been done wrong, so he

would pay for it and we wouldn't. Well, that's good news.

Look at the next verse. In fact, let's read this

one aloud together. Colossians, Chapter two. God forgave all our sins.

He canceled the record that contained the charges against us.

He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to

Christ's cross. And I like that phrase, he canceled the

record contained in the charges against us. I my guess

is most of you have a charge card, a credit card,

and some of you you've probably racked up an awful

lot of charges on that card. And some of you

you got a big, big debt on your monthly record

and you're just paying the minimum. You got the revolving

account and you're just paying the minimum on that. How

about if somebody comes to you tonight and says, you

know what, let me see your Visa card, let me

see your MasterCard, credit report, let me see your American

Express And he looks and he sees all those charges,

and he says, I'll tell you what. I will pay

all these charges myself. Let's just rip this thing up.

You go, okay, all right, I like that good deal.

You're gonna pay for all my debts, all my charges,

and we'll just start over. Yeah, just let you start over.

It's like a fresh start financially, it's like being born over,

being born again. It's like just getting a fresh new

lease on life. We'll wipe the late clean and you'll

have nothing against your name.

Go right ahead, go right ahead.

That is exactly what Jesus Christ did for you and

for me when he came to earth, and when he.

Died on the Cross.

He paid the penalty for every sin that I have

ever committed or you have ever committed.

In fact, on the.

Cross, he's already paid for the ones that I haven't

thought up, but I'm going to do next week. Did

you know that the sins you haven't even thought of yet?

That you're going to do next month and next year.

Jesus Christ has already paid for him. That's why Christmas

and Easter are such a big deal, because he came

to rip up the charges against us and to give

us a free credit, clean slate, start over, born again,

brand new new lease on life.

Now, what does that mean?

It means that when I finally feel that what I

just explained to you, have you ever received that? Have

you ever accepted God's gift of forgiveness? And do you

feel fully forgiven by God? Because if you don't, you're

gonna go out there. You're gonna hold it over other

people's heads too, because inside you going I don't feel forgiven,

So I don't want you feeling forgiven. But if all

of a sudden you realize how much God has let

you off the hook, believe me, you get a whole

lot more giving. When you experience grace, something cool happens,

You become gracious. When you really experience God's forgiveness, something

really cool happens, you become forgiving. If you haven't ever

accepted that forgiveness. Later on, I'm going to pray a

prayer in this service, and I would encourage you to

accept God's forgiveness so you can get on with the

rest of your life.

Number one, I must.

Forgive because God has forgiven me. And the fact is

I will never be asked to forgive anybody else more

than God has already forgiven me, because He's forgiven me

for every wrong thing I've done. Not just one thing,

but every wrong thing. Number two, The second reason why

I have to forgive the people who hurt me is

because resentment controls me. It controls me. It doesn't work,

It just makes you miserable. In fact, resentment and bitterness

and carry to drug grudge just keeps you stuck in

the past. And when you're stuck in the past, you

are controlled by the past. I don't know if you've

ever realized this or not, but every time you hate something,

it controls you. Every Time you resent something and you

become bitter and angry at it, it controls you.

Have you ever said this? You make me so mad?

Now think about this, you're saying, I admit that you're

controlling me. Right now, you make me mad. I don't

want to be mad, but I am so weak and

inferior that I realize that you can control my emotions

and you can control me.

You make me mad.

I am admitting that I am the weaker in the

relationship and that i'm heel control to you. And even

though I don't want to be mad, you are making

me mad. It's an admission of emotional dependency.

You make me mad.

You don't have to be mad no matter what people

do to you, You don't have to be mad about it.

But when you allow people to make you mad, they

are controlling you. Now, you certainly don't want people who

hurt you to also control you. That's not very smart,

and so you have to learn that this doesn't work.

In the Bible, there was a guy named Job. There's

a whole book written after him. It's called the Book

of Job. Joe was the wealthiest man in the world

during his day. He was kind of the Bill Gates

of his day. And he had enormous wealth, and he

had a very large family, and he was just very

well respected. And one day, in a single twenty four

hour period, he lost everything. First, he lost his home,

all of his homes, He lost all of his crops,

all of his flocks, all of his assets to a disaster,

completely wiped out.

He went from the top to the bottom in one day.

Second, some terrorists came in and killed all of his family.

All of his children, daughters, and sons were all killed

on the same day. And Third, he got an incurable,

painful disease.

On his body all at once.

The only thing he had left was a nagging, complaining wife.

Why God? Why? Why God.

In fact, his wife was such a support to him

that one day she said, Hey, Joe, why don't you

just curse.

God and die? Oh?

Thank you, honey, that's a great idea. You've always been

such an emotional support to me. He said, why didn't

you just curse God and die?

You know what I mean? She was no support at all.

Now, if anybody had a right to be a little resentful,

a little bitter in life, it would be that guy Job.

But he refuse to give in to resentment. He kept

on trust in God and forgiving others and always why.

In that book Job, it gives us the three reasons.

The first one's at the bottom of your first side there,

Job eighteen four. It says you are only hurting who yourself.

You're only hurting yourself with your anger. Here's the first

reason why you don't want to be unforgiving. Resentment is unhelpful,

he said, you only hurt yourself. It always hurts you

more than anybody else. It makes you miserable. It's self destructive.

It doesn't hurt anybody else. I mean, let's just say here,

after this service, I'm going out to leave from the service,

and there's a little bit of traffic out there, and

let's say somebody just cuts me off and I can't

get out, and then I start stealing and spewing, and

you know, you know, what's really what's happened in my life.

I want to just go out there and bump him,

you know.

And yet you know, I'm all upset. He's totally oblivious

to the fact that he cut me off. Okay, And

I go home and I tell my wife, Kay, honey,

you wouldn't believe what happened at church tonight.

This guy just cut me off.

Now he's over it at you know, claim Jumper have

an apple pie. He's not worried about it. Who is

the resentment hurting me? He's not worried about it at all.

Resentment always hurts you more than the other person. Resentment

cannot change your past, no matter how much you resent it.

It isn't going to change the past at all, And

resentment will never correct the problem. Holding onto the hurt

will never correct the problem. And it's not even going

to make you feel any better. In fact, it just

makes you feel worse. The most miserable people in life

are bitter people. They're bitter. They're unhelpful. It's unhelpful because

it doesn't help you.

Now.

Listen, your past is past. It's in your past. It

can't hurt you anymore. It's over that. Yeah, they hurt you,

and it really did hurt but they can't continue to

hurt you unless you choose to allow them come on

in and hurt me some more. And how does that happen?

When you hold on to the hurt, and when you

rehearse it and rehearse it and rehearse it in your mind,

you are allowing people from your past to continue to

hurt you in the present.

And that's dumb.

Some of you are allowing people who hurt you five years,

ten years, twenty thirty years ago.

Shoot there.

Some of them are even dead now and you've you,

and yet there's continuing to hurt you.

Now.

That's stupid. Don't let it happen. They can't hurt you anymore.

Your past is passed. You just gotta let it go.

As long as you will not forgive, you're going to

keep on hurting and hurting and hurting it. So you

don't let them go for their sake. They don't deserve it.

You let them go for your sake because it's unhelpful.

You got to let it go. Those people long ago

start thinking about something else, and you're the one who's

all in an emotional mess over it.

Now.

On the back of your outline, there's another verse job

five to two, and it says this, to worry yourself

to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless, or

unreasonable thing to do.

And it says here that.

Resentment is not only unhelpful, it's unreasonable. It's not really

logical to hold onto your hurt, hold onto your grudges.

It's not very rational.

In fact, if you noticed, when people get angry, they

act in really silly ways. Have you ever seen somebody

get really mad in public and then they just make

a fool of themselves and everybody's going to look.

At that person.

This is Pastor Rick's daily hope. We're so thankful that

you've chosen to spend time with us. If you've missed

any part of this broadcast, including portions we didn't have

time for today, just go to Pastorick dot com and

listen online anytime. Rick will be back to close out

our time today. But first, the truth is that most

of us don't pay much attention to our health until

something goes wrong. We put on a couple of pounds

every year and think no big deal, right, But a

few pounds over five or ten years can really add up.

That's why Pastor Rick Warren has put together the Daniel

Plan DVD study Kit. This six session video based study

by Rick Warren, doctor Daniel Ahman and doctor Mark Hyman

is an out of the box approach to a healthy

lifestyle based on five essentials faith, food, fitness, focus, and friends.

The Daniel Planned Study Kit gives individuals the encouragement and

accountability needed to succeed. If you've been watching the scale

go up lately, or your health is in trouble because

of your weight, it's not too late to join join

the more than fifteen thousand people who've lost weight, improve

their health and improve their relationships by ordering the Daniel

Plan DVD Study Kit. Let us send you a copy

of the DAN and you'll plan DVD Study Kit as

our way of saying thanks for your financial support of

this ministry. Just go to Pastorrick dot com right now

to get your copy, or you can call eight hundred

six hundred five thousand and four. That's Pastorrick dot com.

Or call eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four

and thank you so much for your support. Here's Pastor

Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

You know, I want to just thank every one of

you for your generous support. People all over the world

are now listening to Daily Hope because of your financial support.

Let me read your letter from Roda, who lives in

Papua New Guinea. You even know where that is, it's

down toward Australia, Rhoda wrote, I want to let you

know that the Daily Hope has helped change my views

toward life because you share from the Word of God.

She said, I've recommended Daily Hope to all my workmates

and since then the life of one of my colleagues

has changed and she's always thankful for your sharing. We

listen to Daily Hope every day so I'm praying for

your Pastor Rick well, thank you. Thank you for your note, Rhoda,

and thank you for writing all the way from Papua

New Guinea. And thank those of you who are supporting

this ministry so that we can reach people like Rhoda.

I'm glad you're living out God's principles in your daily life, Rooda,

and I want to say thanks to all of you

for your support and join me next time as we

continue to look into God's word for our daily hope.

If you'd like to let Rick know how this broadcast

has blessed you, please feel free to send him an

email at Rick at pastorick dot com. That's Rick at

pastorick dot com. Be sure to join us again next

time as we look into God's word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and

your generous financial support