Famous Last Words: Week 1

I want to start out today with a quick question. How many of you

would agree that sometimes men are prone to do dumb things? Anyway, men,

would you agree as well? Come on, let's be honest here.

I was rolling around on the internet this week and I saw a guy in

Florida, which I could just stop there, but I saw a guy in

Florida and he jumped out of his vehicle because there was an alligator on the

bridge. And then his buddy jumped out with a camera, and they decided

what they would do is that they were going to tame this alligator. And

so the guy is out there and he's going up and down and he's teaching,

and all these people are watching, and he's like all right, all

right, and he acts like he's the master of this allegator. And then

guess what happened next? Whoom, alligator got ahold of his leg and boom

videos off. And here's what surprised me most was my inner dialogue, because

the first thing I thought was good for you, alligator. He deserved that,

and I was part It's like, oh my gosh, I was cheering

for the alligator during this time. I was really surprised. But that's okay,

because men do dumb things. And you know one video I'm sure about

all of you have seen as a video from Australia. And I've been to

Australia, and as true as you travel around Australia, you will from time

to time see wild kangaroo. And there was a kangaroo that had a hold

of a guy's dog in a headlock. Okay, And now here's what's interesting.

If you were to go to Australia's government website, it actually has five

steps for you to do if you see a kangaroo. If you and so,

actually on the government's website, if you encounter a kangaroo, do these

five things. And it's very simple, just simply. It says, just

walk away slowly, put your head down, don't make eye contact, and

this is the most important part, a low, deep cough, and then

you continue to walk away. So when you see an alligator, you're supposed

to do this very specific instructions. This guy did not do this. After

the kangaroo let go of his dog, the guy squares up. Have you

seen this, and he punches the kangaroo as hard as a cane in the

nose and the kangaroo's like whoa, you know, like what's going on here?

And you know the dog was already safe. He just decided to punch

the kangaroo. Why because sometimes men do dumb things. Okay, now I

can't you know, throw stones or you know, I too can am sometimes

known for doing dumb things. I'm thinking back to when I was twenty one

on a mission trip and I saw a horse tie up to an upside down

vehicle, and I thought it'd be a great idea for me to ride this

horse into the camp with all the other work campers, and so I jumped

on the horse. I fell over. Then I decided to jump back up

on the horse. I jumped back on the horse. I rode this horse

all the way down to the campsite, and then I yelled out to all

the volunteers in the students. I yelled, hey, everyone, check this

out. And of course they all gather around, took pictures and were laughing.

Well, it spooked the horse. I got bucked off. I had

amnesia, severe concussion, broken back, and the doctor told my wife pray

for him. He's probably gonna die. And so on, this big transitional

moment in my life here's what I've noticed, or here's what I thought of

over the years. My last words in my life were almost, hey,

guys, check this out, which, by the way, is the ultimate

cliche for doing something dumb, right, So I almost had like these famous

last words of hey, y'all check this out. You know, we remember

last words. If you have a family member that you love deeply, you

remember those last conversations. You remember them for a long time. And some

people throughout history, they're known for their famous last words. And in this

upcoming series, what we're gonna be doing in the next few weeks is we're

gonna look at some famous last words from our dying savior, Jesus Christ that

he uttered on the cross. Now he uttered seven phrases, okay, and

these should be the most famous phrases in all of history. So today here's

what we're gonna do. We're gonna look the very first one, and let's

just jump into Luke twenty three, starting with verse thirty two. Here we

go. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him

to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they

crucified him there along with and pay attention criminals. One was on the right

and one was on the left. All right, let's go ahead and pause,

and let's review up to this moment in Jesus' life. Okay, remember

the scripture that says, for God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal

life. So God sent his son to this earth. And then when Jesus

was on this earth, he lived a perfect life, and he perfectly fulfilled

all of God's will. And he went around and he did some amazing things.

He taught in ways that we had never heard anyone teach before. He

showed us the way of God. He even came up to the religious leaders

of that day. He said, you know what, guys, you're a

hypocrites. You got it wrong. You're the ones with the plank in your

eye. He goes, you guys talk about God all day, but you

don't even know God. I mean, Jesus flipped the religious system upside down

in his day. Then, you know, to prove that he had the

right to do this, Jesus went around and loved everyone, even those who

were outcast. And then we see Jesus walking up to people who couldn't see,

and then he would touch them and then they could see, or people

who couldn't hear and he would touched him, and all of a sudden they

could hear. And he would even call out to those who were dead,

and he would call them out by their name, and then they would rise

up and they would be alive again. This Jesus did things that no one

that we've never seen anyone do, and he lived this perfect life. But

then one of his own betrayed him. And when he betrayed him, Jesus

was all of a sudden ushered to what we would call a mock trial.

Matter of fact, the Roman official during his time named Conscious Pilot, he

says, you know what, I don't even find any fault in this guy.

But they didn't pay attention to that. They had him, they tried

him, they brought him be for just this mockery of a trial, and

then they sentenced him to death. And when they did this, they brought

him out to the place of torture and they took off his robe, and

they had these whips that had iron balls in it and had pieces of metal,

and it had glass and they would hit his back, and they would

rip the flesh off his back so that his organs were exposed, and then

they would just you know, beat him senselessly. They took this crown of

thorns, they pressed it on his head, and they pressed it down,

and then they beat him over the head with this. Matter of fact,

he became so bloody. He became so unrecognizable that Jesus actually fulfilled a prophecy,

okay, a prophecy about him that had been spoken seven hundred years before.

It says this that in Isaiah fifty two, it says, just as

there were many who were appalled at him, his appearance became so disfigured beyond

that of any human being in his form, marred beyond human likeness. There

was a prophecy from Isaiah said that when the Savior, the Messiah would be

killed, that he would be beaten so badly that when you looked at him,

he wouldn't even look like a human. And so they beat him so

bad that he hardly even looked like a human. Then they took this skeptic,

which is like a king stick, and they beat him over it the

head with it, and then the Roman soldiers with their big rings, blindfolded

him and punched him in the face over and over again, and they would

yell out, you know, Prophesy, if you really are the King,

Prophesy, if you really are God's son, Prophesy, who just hit you?

And then they spin on him. They mocked him, They said hell

to the king of Jews. And at this moment, where Jesus was barely

able to keep in a state of consciousness, they had him carry his cross

to the place of crucifixion. And this is where we find him today in

our story. They lay him down, they put some nails through his wrists

and nails through his feet, and then they lift him up. And here

we enter into the scene of these famous last words and our savior, he

is suspended between heaven and this earth. And here we enter into this moment

where we see Jesus begin to say his famous last words. Now, here's

what I want you to notice when it comes to Jesus's famous last words,

Number one, they weren't words of retaliation. He didn't rebuke these soldiers,

he did not rebuke the system. He did not yell at people. He

didn't even actually speak up until this very point. Here he is, he's

hanging on a cross, he's suffering for our sins. And then we see

jesus lipsmove. Now, if I was there, I would lean in.

I would want to know, all right, are you gonna trash the Romans?

Are you gonna trash the Jews? What is Jesus going to say at

this moment? And here's what you've got to understand. Crucifixion is death by

asphyxiation in other words, of suffocation, in other words, in order to

speak, you got to push yourself up in order to say something. Here's

what you need to understand about the last famous words of Jesus. They cost

him severely to utter these words. It was extremely painful for him. So

here's what we have to understand. These famous last words of Jesus. They're

not cheap words. They cost him severely. So let us look at these

last famous words of Jesus and we look at verse thirty four. Here's what

Jesus said. He said, Father, forgive them, for they do not

know what they're doing. Father, forgive them, for they do not know

what they are doing. Now here's what's absolutely amazing. Here he is,

he's in the middle of his pain he's suffering. And what does he say?

Says, Father, forgive it, for they do not know what they

are doing. Now these famous last words of Jesus uttered on the cross.

There's three things I want you to know about them today. Number one,

okay, this last prayer of Jesus one and fulfilled a prophecy. Okay,

seven hundred years seven hundred years before this moment, there was a prophecy from

the prophet Isaiah. And let's look at this prophecy seven hundred years before.

It says this in Isaiah fifty three to twelve, because he poured out his

life into death. Now, pay attention. He was numbered with the transgressors

sinners, okay, and then he bore the sin for many, and then

he made inner session for the transgressors. Now, this prophecy fulfilled two things.

Number One, it says Jesus would be numbered along with the transgressors.

So what do we see here, who's on his left and who's on his

right, the criminals. He's actually numbered along with the transgressors. And then

two, he being in between these transgressors, in between these criminals, what

does he do? He prays for them? Seven hundred years before this moment,

it was prophesied that he would be killed between criminals and then he would

intercede on their behalf. So that's the first thing he did. He fulfilled

prophecy Number two. Jesus modeled the importance of prayer. Jesus was a man

of prayer. Did you realize that before he entered into his ministry, Jesus

went away for forty days? And what did he do? He prayed,

prayed for forty days, and then Jesus started off his ministry. At the

beginning of his public ministry was this great sermon on the mountain. What did

he do in that sermon? He prayed? And then here's Jesus coming to

the very close, the very end of his public ministry. And what does

he do? He prays. We see all the way throughout Jesus' ministry that

he was a man of prayer. Now here's what I want you to understand.

He prays for those who sinned against him, those who've done evil.

Who does he pray for his enemies? Now think about this. Just about

fifty days later or around that time, we had this moment called the Pentecost,

this famous moment, and then Peter won the apostles. He gets up

and he preaches about Jesus Christ and how he was crucified. And he guess

what happened? Three thousand people came to Christ that day. He guess who

was You could guarantee who was in that crowd. Those who were mocking him,

those who were watching him, those who were against them, those who

did not believe in him, those who were prayed for on this cross came

into a relationship with God within a couple months. See Jesus, you know,

he couldn't go out and lay hands on people anymore because his hands were

tied to the cross. He couldn't go on errands anymore for God because his

feet were nailed down. He couldn't preach the big crowds anymore, why because

the crowds were gone. But one thing he could do is the same thing

to you and I could do every single day for those who are far away

from God. We can pray. The third thing you need to know about

Jesus in these last words, is it in this prayer Jesus revealed man's greatest

need. He revealed man's greatest need, the forgiveness of sin. And that's

why he came to you and I can have life that you and I could

be reconciled to God. If you remember at the Last Supper and Jesus is

hanging out with all of his friends and he pours a glass of wine and

he says, all right, you see this wine. This represents my blood

that's gonna be spilled when I'm crucified. And he explains why he's gonna bleed,

why he's gonna shed blood. He says this, He goes, this

is my blood of the Covenant, which has poured out for many for what

for the forgiveness of sins? His death was so that we can have forgiveness.

And then he says, Father, forgive. Then they don't even know

what they're doing. Now, now that's an interesting phrase, there, Father

forgiven, for they don't know what they're doing. All right, My best

guess, and looking at a lot of commentaries, I think that this is

what this phrase means. I think it actually means that ignorance does not equal

innocence. Ignorance is not equal innocence. These people didn't know they needed forgiveness,

didn't They weren't aware that they needed forgiveness. But guess what they still

needed forgiveness. See he was in the death of Christ and these last words

that Jesus revealed man's greatest need, which is forgiveness from God. But now,

if you wouldn't mind, I want to pivot now, and I want

to shift into pastoral mode for a moment. As an observer of the church

body here and around, I noticed that the church world tends to take the

forgiveness of Christ seriously because we all want forgiveness from Christ. We all want

forgiveness from God. But what we don't take seriously often is forgiving others or

asking others to forgive us. And here's what I observe. If I look

around, and I see marriages that are just utterly devastated because somebody broke a

vow and the life of shattered, and now we're just living this life in

bitterness. I see children who've grown up in our church, who are now

adults, who have experienced the pain of a neglectful father or a neglectful,

hurtful mother. I see horrible, ungodly things happen to the innocent. And

I've heard some of you share statements like my mom and dad when I was

young, and listen, I've heard people in their eighties still weeping and still

torn up because when they were young, one of their parents said to them,

I wish I never had you. And some seventy years later they're still

broken up about things like that. Some people that you're you haven't spoken to

your siblings or to some of your old friends and years. Some people are

mad at the church, or they're mad at other Christians. They'll say stuff

like, you know, I love this God thing, but I just I

hate Christians. There's broken relationships, there's grudgees. Some marriages were more like

roommates. We're gonna say together for the kids. Okay, So here's a

question today. What do you do when you've been hurt like that? What

do you do when you've been wrong? And here's what I want us to

look at today. I believe the prayer of Jesus answers that question. Jesus

teaches us to do two things through his last prayer. All right, let's

look at it again. Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're

doing. So number one, what do you do when you've been wronged and

you've been hurt by somebody? You pray for them. When you've been wronged,

and you've been hurt by somebody, you pray for them. And by

the way, uh, we're to pray good things, not bad things.

I just want to be very clear here today. Just make sure you guys

are paying attention. Pray good things. Okay. Remember that Jesus actually had

to break this down. He said, all right, and Luke, he

said, bless there are those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat

you, and think about who is mistreating Jesus the Roman soldiers, and then

he pray for them right after they mistreated him. Now, if someone's mistreating

me, I sometimes have a hard time. I'll start praying for them and

I'm like God, I want justice. I have this little prayer all the

time, like God, straighten them out. God, give them shingles sciatica,

stub their toe tonight. Let them know you're not happy with them.

See, when people mistreat us, we have thoughts of bitterness, don't we.

And we might do the spiritual thing like, hey, you know what,

I'm gonna forgive you, but I'm not gonna forget you, know,

So we'll write them off, we'll push them out, we'll put them out

of our circle. Why because they ticked you off, and you want them

to know it. One guy, an old man, got bit by a

rabid dog and the dog had rabies, and so he was like, well,

I think I'm fine, But then he started to get to some symptoms

and he went to the doctor. But the doctor's like, man, you

should have come to me immediately. I could have helped you out, but

you've waited too long, and now you have these symptoms and I hate to

tell you this, but you're gonna die. And the old man became overwhelmed

and he just cried and cried, and the doctor and sold him. They

talked through it for a while what it meant to die, and then got

to the point he says, all right, doctor, can have a piece

of paper and pen, and so he started to write down all these names.

And the doctor said, oh, are these names of people you want

me to contact? Or are these people that you're gonna give your possessions away?

And he says, oh, no, I got rabies. I'm gonna

die. This is the list of people I'm gonna go bite. I'm so

sorry, but you know, I've been a dad for eighteen years. I'm

allowed some dad jokes. I'm allowed. But here's the point I think that

you know, that's the way a lot of people live today, wounded,

angry, bitter, and then we let unforgiveness grow in our heart. Now

I want you to understand about Jesus's life. Jesus grew up in a system.

First of all, he grew up in a system that was a pretty

fair system. It was called eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.

In other words, you poke my eye out, I get to poke your

eye out. You break one of my teeth, I get to break one

of your teeth. Now listen. And so he grew up in a system

that was a fair system, I for eye, tooth for tooth. But

even beyond that, he grew up in a system that was the Greco Roman

world. Did you know that the Greco Romans even had a god, a

false god, the God of revenge? Ooh, do you the God of

revenge. A matter of fact, around the time that Jesus was going to

come to this serve and begin his ministry, Augustus the Caesar in second b

C. He actually had an altar built with a golden statue to the god

of vengeance Oudio. So Jesus group in this system where his own people said

eye for an eye, two for two, and then the greater population said,

hey, we get revenge. A matter of fact, you did not

want to mess with the Romans because the Romans were famous for revenge, and

the Romans would often bring the revenge back upon you ten times. And then

here's what we notice. Jesus, who was born in this environment, never

spoke a word of retaliation, never wanted to. He act in a way

to get back of them, and said, what did he do the same

thing that God wants us to do. To pray for them, Father,

forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Now, let me tell

you something. This is an easy passage to preach, This is an e

stremely hard passage to live out. Recently, I've had to live this out.

I was talking to someone recently, another ministry partner, and they invited

me to join them in this ministry opportunity. And we left the meeting.

We're all excited and it's all good. And then one of the other ministry

partners who needed to be a part of it, they relate to them that,

hey, James is in. We're all good. Well, this other

person said you know what. I think. It sounds like a great plan.

But before I can move forward with James, I need to clear some

things up. Here's some things that I heard about him that well, I

just don't know if I can partner with him if these things are true.

So I heard what those things were. Let me tell you that it was

all blowney, it was misplaced anger. None of it was true or even

close to being true. But this person had heard this. Actually a few

years ago, some people who haves to misplaced anger at me slandered me behind

my back. So I was like, all right, okay, let's have

a meeting. So we had a meeting set up for three weeks later.

I did not lose an ounce of sleep over that because I knew it was

maloney. I knew it was not a big deal. But let me tell

you what was hard. It wasn't hard to you know, come you know,

clear my name. That was easy. Being innocent was easy because I

didn't do it. Here's what the hard thing was. I wanted retaliation all

moth So as I kept praying, I kept saying God, I prayed that

this meeting goes well. But God, please help me not say I had

two or three things that I desperately wanted to say bad about this person who

has slandered me, so that those other people would know how much that person

stunk in my opinion, and then they would be like, yeah, this

person stinks you're awesome, James, way to go. I mean, that's

the internal battle we have. And I kept praying and praying and praying God.

And when I went to the meeting and I said, God, even

during the meeting, don't let me slip and say bad things about them.

And I didn't. And by the end of the meeting, the person said,

Hey, it's clear that this person has some misconstrued wrong place anger.

It's weird. Hey, let's partner together. But the hard part was not

forgiving people. The hard part was, Man, I wanted retaliation. You

see right here they got a quote for you. The desire for retaliation is

often what keeps us from restoration. The desire for retaliation is often what keeps

us from restoration. Now, there are those of you who you've had relationships

for years that important to you, they're important to God. Sure someone does

something wrong to you, Sure they deserve punishment. But what does God call

us to do pray for them. Now here's a thought that might help you.

Okay, my prayer for others marry. It might not change them,

but it always changes me. You See, I can't pray God's blessings on

someone unless God first us significant work in my life. You know. So

wherever there's a broken relationship, what do we call to do? Pray like

Jesus. The second thing that this text teaches us to do that we should

pray for restoration. You know, here's what Jesus was actually praying. He

says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. But

what Jesus was actually praying was Father, forgive them. I want them to

come into a relate relationship with you God. I want them to be forgiven.

I want them to know You. But here's the thing about broken relationships.

It takes two people to fix it. Okay, So what I want

to encourage you to do is just do your part. Paul was writing to

the Romans, the Romans who had a false God of vengeance. And what

does he say. He says, do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what's right in the eyes of everyone. If it is

possible, as far as it depends on you, catch at as far as

it depends on you, live at peace of everyone. This is powerful because

here's the thing. I can control my heart maybe, but I can't control

someone else's actions. So as far as it depends on you, forgive,

pray for them. You know, if there's a relationship broken today, restore

it. But don't wait till tomorrow. But do everything on your in.

But remember, at the end of the day, you can't be responsible for

their reaction. They might tell you no, there is no forgiveness, and

that's okay. You do your in. Now. Let me kind of close

and land the plane with this here in the next few minutes. Let me

tell you some question, a question that I've been asked over and over and

over throughout the years, and I've answered it differently throughout the years, and

really just the last few years, I feel like I've landed on I think

the best answer, and it's simply this question. People will ask me,

pastor, how do I forgive someone who has hurt me so much? I'm

still hurting? How do I forgive someone who's hurt me so much? And

I think it's a one word answer, one word and this word can change

your life. How can I forgive someone who's hurt me one word? Perspective?

Perspective. See, Jesus tells a story, and he tells a story

about perspective, and how perspective unleashous love and how unlecious forgiveness. Jesus tells

a story about a woman. And there's this woman who lived in his town,

and you know what, to be honest, she had a horrible reputation.

She was a prostitute by all accounts, and you know, people who

only whisper her name. And she was not someone that anybody would say,

hey, you need to be at the right hand of Jesus. But then

Jesus went to this guy's house. His name is Simon. Simon, on

the other hand, was a religious figure. He was well respected out of

town. He had money, he had religious respect, he had everything.

So if you think about these two people in our story, the lady who

was ill repute and then you got Simon, you couldn't have two more opposite

people. So Jesus is hanging out with Simon. They're eating or having a

good time. But then this woman here's at this Jesus, this Savior,

this this guy who can heal people and has come to town. She got

so excited she actually bust into the party, which was a big no no.

She fell down on her feet and she began weeping at Jesus' feet.

She cried, and she cleaned his feet and then with her tears, and

then finally she poured out the perfume jar. Now Jesus could tell. The

text says what other people were thinking. And Simon was thinking, Jesus,

if you knew who this woman was, if you knew what this woman had

done, there is no way you would ever let her do what she's doing.

So Jesus, knowing what they were thinking, Jesus actually said, can

I just share a little story with you? And Jesus told a story,

and he asked him a question. He goes, all right, I got

two two guys, two guys, and they owe a money lender a certain

amount of money. One owes five hundred and the other one owes fifty.

Neither one of them could pay their bill back. So the money lender decides

to do what forgive them both? And he says, which one of these

two guys do you think loved the money lender more? And Simon said,

the guy who was forgiven five hundred and Jesus said, yeah, those who've

been forgiven much love much. Those who've been forgiven little love little. And

then Jesus said, you know what, Simon, I came into your house

and you didn't give me any water to wash my feet, which is custom.

But she hasn't stopped washing my feet for tears. Simon. When I

came in, you didn't kiss me on a cheek, which is a sign

of customer respect that we're friends. But she hasn't stopp kissing my feet since

she came in. Simon, you didn't anoint my head with oil, which

was another custom at that time, but she poured this whole jar of perfume

on my feet. And so Jesus tried to help the group understand if this

woman had perspective. She knew that her sins were great, and because she

understood that her sins were great, what she knew that she needed forgiveness like

crazy. Simon, on the other hand, thought he was good and thought

he had it all down, so therefore he didn't think that he needed forgiveness.

He didn't need a close relationship, and he didn't need an offer forgiveness.

And here's what I want to help you understand today. Here's what I've

noticed in ministry. There are those people. There are those people who when

they come to the altar, there are those who know their sins is so

great that they respond like someone who desperately needs forgiveness. And guess what,

Then they go out, those who have received this great forgiveness, and they

go out and they offer forgiveness to others quite easy. And then there's another

group of people that live within the church world, and it's those who don't

really think that they've sinned so much. They feel like they've lived a pretty

good life. And so when people sin against them, they have a hard

time forgiving them. Why because they don't see the need for the great forgiveness

in their own life. They don't have perspective. See perspective Unleasha's love and

forgiveness. So today, if you're having a hard time for giving someone,

what you do is you get perspective. You think about all that Christ has

forgiven you. Now, I'm going to close with this story today and let

me tell you what. It's a pretty tough story and it's a true story.

It's shared by one of my favorite pastors. And he said that when

he was coming up in ministry, he was given two mentors, and one

of his mentors became like a close to close brother to him, and they

became so close. And then over the years though, he was quite shocked

because his close close mentor, who was a pastor of a church, blew

it, blew up his family, blew up the church, and now he's

just off in the world. But he was surprised because by the time my

favorite pastor was pastor in a church, his old mentor walked in and he

became a church member, and then they became great friends again. But then

wasn't too long down the road that his mentor sinned against him, did something

bad to him behind his back, and they got into a huge fight.

They had a lot of words, they yelled at each other, and that

was it. Friendship over and this pastor that I love, he said.

He was actually preaching a sermon titled loving those that you don't like. That

sounds like a good sermon title, doesn't it? Loving those you don't like?

He said, while he was up there preaching. As he was preaching,

he felt this intense thing from God saying, as soon as his sermon's

over, call him, call him, call him, reconcile, and he

preaches sermon. But then after the service, he hung out in the lobby

forever. He and his wife hung out forever, and he just kind of

lollygagged that afternoon, and finally a few hours later he got home. And

when he got home, he turned on the answer machine, and the wife

of his mentor had called like fifteen minutes before that because her husband had just

taken his life. And this pastor told this story, and I've heard him

tell the story live, and I've read this story, but he says,

this story has always been something that he said, Hey, I worked through

years of council and understand what that guy did. That was not my fault.

That was his own decision. But what I have to live with is

just thinking that there was more time and I did not reconcile. Some of

you think that you have more time than you actually do to reconcile. Some

of you you have issues with your parents that need to be reconciled. Some

of you have issues with your spouse that need to be reconciled. Some of

you have issues with your children that need to be reconciled. Our coworkers are

friends. What I'm going to tell you is today, don't wait, don't

wait. As we close today, there's three categories probably represented in this room.

There are those who need forgiveness, those who need to offer forgiveness,

and those who need forgiveness from the Father that need to come into a right

relationship with God. So here's what I'm gonna do at this moment. I'm

just gonna lead us through those three prayers and let's just take some time to

go before the Lord. So let's just bow our heads, close our eyes,

and here's what I want you to do right now. Let's just search

your heart and let's do this first part here. Is there someone that you

need to forgive today? Let's begin that work because I'm going to tell you

right now you might forgive them today, but you'll probably wake up tomorrow need

a forgive them again, and the next day you need to forgive them again,

because that's just how it works. But is there someone you need to

forgive? Can you let go of that right now? Offer that to God?

Is there someone that you need forgiven from? You know, there's someone

that you need to for have them forgive you. Bring that up before God

and ask God to begin to work in that scenario. In other words,

do everything you can on your rand to live at peace with Him. And

there are some of you today who maybe need to come into a right relationship

with God. Either you've been separated from God for a while, you've walked

away, or you've never been in a relationship with God. And Jesus his

last famous words on the cross, where Father forgive him. Jesus lived his

life so that you could be in a right relationship with God. And so

if you want to pray this prayer to come into relationship with God or rededicate

your life to God, pray this prayer with me silently where you're at.

Father, I ask you for forgiveness. Father, I ask you to become

the lord of my life, to lead my life, to guide my life,

to walk with me. Jesus, I believe that your son Jesus died

on the cross and resurrected three days later. Holy Spirit, come fill my

life. Jesus be my savior, God be my Lord. Pray that prayer

right now, just will for everybody's eyes close. Can you just raise your

hand? Wow, I see those hands for its see those hands. What

we're gonna do right now is we're gonna pivot pretty big, and so you

can look at me now. We're gonna pivot and we're gonna actually just have

a time and ministry or we're just gonna take some time just to minister to

you and love on you. And so we're gonna have some prayer partners come

forward to anoint you with oil. And so what we're gonna do is we're

gonna ask you when we stand up, to make your way around and then

come to the censor aisle here and line up, and then we'll hook you

up with a prayer partner and listen. It could be you're praying for someone

who is ill, you're praying for yourself, you're praying for those who are

lost. It doesn't matter. Whatever is on your heart today, whatever is

going on that you would like to come and be minister to or be ministered

to on behalf of someone else. We would love for you to come forward.

So let us stand God, We offer this ministry time to you.

That God, you know what heavy burdens we've come into today. You know

what's going on in our heart and what wasthes heavy on us, and so

God we turned this ministry time over to you now in the mighty name of

Jesus. Amen, let's go ahead and come forward.