Total Forgiveness

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Well, I'm thrilled to be here, and I want to speak to you on a subject that changed my own life, and I trust it will do that for you.

In a moment, I will be reading from Genesis chapter 45.

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

But before I get into that, because there may be some here that don't know the background of the story of Joseph.

Joseph was the favorite son of Jacob.

Jacob was not a good parent.

It's never wise to show favoritism.

But Jacob did that.

And Joseph, though spoiled, he was given a coat of many colors by his dad.

The only thing worse than giving it was wearing it, which he did.

Didn't seem to bother him.

And on top of that, he had, strange as it may seem, a prophetic gift in dreams.

And those dreams indicated that one day his eleven brothers would bow down to him.

Now Joseph's mistake was telling the dreams to his brothers.

Not a smart thing to do, that one day you're going to bow down to me.

The funny thing is, the dreams were of God.

And what I'm getting ready to read now is the fulfillment of that moment.

No one thought it would happen, but the brothers were so jealous that they decided to kill him.

And instead of kill him, they sold him to the Ishmaelites, never expecting to see him again.

But then the Ishmaelites sold him to an officer of the Pharaoh whose name was Potiphar.

And Joseph now had a job in a strange land, Egypt, and he had never worked a day in his life, but God exalted him and he was made the head of the household there.

But to fast forward, the day came when overnight Joseph was chosen to be the governor, you could say prime minister of Egypt.

And he was now given a job with the Pharaoh.

It was only a matter of time now that the dream that the brothers would bow down to him would be fulfilled.

And so what I'm going to read to you from Genesis chapter 45 is the fulfillment of that prophecy.

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

Now I am sure that Joseph thought that God gave him those dreams so that one day he could look at those brothers and say, Gotcha.

But by the time the fulfillment came, Joseph was a new man.

He was a broken man.

Instead of saying, Gotcha, we find him now before these men who comes, and we read in Genesis chapter 45, verse 1.

Genesis 45:1

Joseph could no longer keep his composure in front of all the attendants, and he called out, Send everyone away from me.

No one was with him when he revealed his identity to his brothers.

But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh's household heard it.

Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still living?

But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, Please come near me.

And they came near.

I am Joseph, your brother.

He said, The one you sold into Egypt, and now don't be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.

For the famine has been in the land these two years and will be another five more years without plowing or harvesting.

God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.

Therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God.

May God be pleased to bless the reading and the preaching of this his most holy and infallible word.

Brief word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, I pray now for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus by your Spirit to rest upon every mind in this place in order that their perception of what I say will be heard as you intend.

Cleanse my tongue, that I will be your transparent instrument to say everything that needs to be said, nothing that doesn't need to be said.

Help me to be very clear and very simple.

And I ask that this will be a life-changing word.

And in fact, I dare ask that no one in this place will ever be the same again.

And may this word bring great honor and glory to your name.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The word that I believe I am to share with you was born in what was at the time the darkest hour that Louise and I ever went through.

It was in those 25 years in London.

Those 25 years to quote the English poet that were the best of times, the worst of times.

And something happened while we were there that was the hardest thing that I'd ever had to go through.

Our darkest hour.

When what happened was unfair, it was unjust.

And as a result, I was angry and bitter.

How could God allow this to happen?

Here we are, Americans living in London.

And now what happened was horrible.

The future was bleak.

It was as though I was finished, and I thought that I was.

And I didn't know what to do.

But in the providence of God, an old friend from Romania happened to be in London.

His name is Joseph Sun.

And because I knew Joseph wouldn't tell anybody, I decided to tell Joseph exactly what happened.

Now, if I'm honest with you, I thought that Joseph would put his arm around me and say, R.

T., you ought to be angry.

Get it out of your system.

That's what I expected.

But if I can narrow 25 years in London down to 15 minutes, it would turn out to be my finest hour.

It's when Joseph's son looked at me and said, R.T., you must totally forgive them.

For until you totally forgive them, you will be in chains.

Release them, and you will be released.

Nobody'd ever talked to me like that in my life.

Faithful of the wounds of a friend.

And I said, Joseph, I can't, and I can hear him now in his remaining accent, RT.

You must totally forgive them.

For until you totally forgive them, you will be in chains.

Release them.

And you will be released.

I said, Joseph, I can't.

He said, you can, and you must.

It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life.

It's the hardest thing almost certainly you will ever have to do.

And that is when you let that person off the hook who has hurt you, betrayed you, let you down, who wanted to destroy you.

And you not only let them off the hook, sure.

That's way better.

Yeah.

Is this going to increase my anointing?

Okay.

Because you can stay right here if you will.

It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do, so with you, you let them off the hook.

And not only that, you actually pray for them.

And now when you pray for them, you don't just say, Heavenly Father, I just commit them to you, because you're hoping God will kill them.

That's not what Jesus had in mind.

He said, Bless your enemy, pray for them, bless them.

And this is what we are required to do.

You'll say, I could never do that.

And I understand, because this goes right against nature.

The most natural thing in the world when you've been hurt, betrayed, let down, when there's an enemy out there that wants to destroy you and ruin your reputation, and then you ask God to bless them, it doesn't make sense.

But if I can get this over to you, I promise you it will change your life.

And in my case, I can tell you, you could put me under a lie detector.

What I thought was the worst thing that ever happened to me, I would now say is the best thing that ever happened to me.

And so with you.

Now, if I were to tell you my story, I could win you over, but I would predict that if I heard your story, because we've all got a story to tell, I would blush to think that I had suffered it all.

Because I'm sure there are people here you've suffered far more than I have.

Maybe you were brought up in such a way you were betrayed.

You were abused as a child.

I didn't have anything like that.

Maybe your spouse was unfaithful to you.

Maybe you were promised a job and betrayed, and someone else got it.

Maybe an authority figure let you down.

I was preaching in South Africa, and the thing that I remember so much is how the people in South Africa, the blacks, how they were so hurt.

You've no idea what suffering could be.

And maybe you have been betrayed because of this color of your skin.

But I can tell you now, it's the hardest thing in the world.

But I can tell you another thing.

Let's say that you, if we could figure out who has suffered the most of anybody in this auditorium, and we had a chance to interview everybody, and when then we decide who here has suffered the most?

It's not going to be easy, but we we come down to the top ten.

And then we think, well, top three.

And then though it's hard, we say what you have been through is worse than anybody else.

We all agree nobody suffered like you have.

What would you say?

Would you say, well, now you know what I've been through, huh?

Yeah.

Or would you not know that the angels have a word for you?

Yes.

You know what the angel would say to you?

Congratulations.

What?

Oh yes.

Because when you've suffered like that, you have a promise of blessing that the person sitting next to you doesn't have.

You have a promise of blessing that the person in front of you doesn't have because you haven't suffered like they have.

I can tell you now, the greater the suffering, the greater the anointing.

And if what you have gone through can be met with the teaching of Jesus that I'm going to try to get over in the next 15 or 20 minutes, I promise you you will never be the same again.

Well, now the question is, how do you know you have totally forgiven?

There's partial forgiveness, but there is total forgiveness.

How do you know you've totally forgiven?

I'm sure if I asked how many of you have done it, your hands would go up.

I believe you.

But I want to put to you from this passage what Joseph had to do to his brothers who were going to kill him and hated him.

He's our example.

And by the way, if you're willing to do what Joseph did at the end of the service before we go home, you've got an opportunity to show whether you will totally forgive.

You say, well, why should I?

Well, I think I've got one hope.

One hope.

If there's anybody here you would like a greater anointing, you've come to the right place.

But if a greater anointing means nothing to you, then you're going to be bored for the next 15 minutes.

I can tell you now, what I have to share will enable you to get that load off your back never to be the same again.

How do you know you've totally forgiven?

Proof number one.

You don't tell anybody what they did to you.

This comes from the text.

When Joseph could no longer compose himself in front of his attendants, he said, Send everybody out of the room, everybody out.

Well, here's the picture.

Here's the prime minister.

He's learned a new language.

He's been speaking Egyptian through an interpreter, but suddenly he changes to Hebrew or whatever language it was and says, Everybody out.

Members of the cabinet, maybe, members of the staff.

Maybe the interpreter says, I guess you want me to say, out.

And now behind closed doors, Joseph looks at those men and says, I'm Joseph.

I'm Joseph, your brother.

The men were scared to death.

Why did he make everybody leave the room?

Well, it's because he's going to persuade them to come and live in Egypt.

They live back in Canaan where there's a famine, and the famine's going to last a little while longer.

Joseph wants to spare them.

And he's going to persuade them to come and live in Egypt.

But he wants to make sure that nobody in Egypt would know what those brothers had done to him.

The proof we've totally forgiven.

You won't tell anybody what they did.

You see, Joseph knew that if the word leaked out what those men had done to him, every Egyptian to a man would hate those men.

And by the way, that's the way Joseph used to feel.

He wanted everybody to hate them.

But instead, he makes everybody leave the room.

Behind closed doors, no one will ever know what those brothers had done to him.

The first thing we want to do when we get hurt is to get on the phone and say, Well, here's what they did to me, here's what happened.

You see, you cannot bear the thought that anybody would admire those who hurt you.

You want to spill the goods, you want them to know, you want everybody to know what they're like.

This is what they did.

Joseph made sure nobody would ever know.

And by the way, that's the way it is with God.

You see, how many of you would be happy that if on the screen was flashed your name and what all God knows about you?

You happy about that?

I'm so glad that you will never know what God has on me.

You will never know because as far as the East is from the West, so far are our transgressions removed from us.

The blood, the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ washes away all sin, and you will never know.

But when I tell what you did to me, I break a covenant and God says, Whoa! The first proof of total forgiveness, you tell nobody.

I'm sure you've heard of the old spiritual.

Nobody knows the troubles I've seen.

Nobody knows but Jesus.

That's the way he likes it.

He wants to be the only one that knows.

But when you tell this person, that person, then you've broken it.

And Jesus, well, you're telling everybody else now, you tell me.

Pour out your complaint to the Lord.

Let him be the only one who knows.

Proof number one, you tell nobody what they did.

Proof number two, you make sure that they are at ease in your presence.

You're comfortable.

And what does Joseph say?

He says, Come close to me.

Come close to me.

They're scared to death.

But he just wants to love on them.

They can't believe it.

That the very man that they betrayed and were ready to kill is now say, Come close to me.

You see, when you're totally forgiven, instead of saying, Gotcha, or you want them exposed, or they get nervous around you, but you put them at ease.

This is a way, by the way, any marriage could be healed by sundown today, if both of you will stop pointing the finger.

Love keeps no record of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13, verse 5.

1 Corinthians 13:5

Why do we keep records?

Well, to prove we've paid.

Why do we keep a record of wrong?

Well, so that we can throw it up and say, I'm I will remember that.

I would urge you, husband, wife, tear up the record, burn it.

Stop pointing the finger.

Proof number three.

You don't even let them feel guilty.

Have you ever said to somebody, Well, I forgive you what you've done, but I hope you feel guilty about it.

No, Joseph says, Don't even be angry with yourselves.

You put them at ease.

Put them at ease.

They can't believe it.

You could be that nice, be that gracious.

But that's the way Jesus was.

On Easter Sunday, he goes through closed doors.

The disciples are scared to death and feeling guilty.

And Jesus just says, peace.

As my Father sent me, so I send I you.

He forgave them as though nothing happened.

By the way, don't be surprised if the people you have to forgive are those who are godly, church people.

Have you ever heard the poem, Living with the Saints Above?

Oh, that will be glory.

Living with the Saints below?

Well, that's another story.

Proof number four, you let them save faith.

What does that mean?

Well, instead of rubbing their nose in it, you put them at ease and make them feel that you don't even have a problem.

In fact, it's as though you don't even know what they did.

And so Joseph could say to them, it wasn't you who did it, it was God.

God sent me ahead of you.

It wasn't you, it was God.

These brothers, they're looking at each other.

Nathan says to Gad, did I hear right?

It wasn't us.

So Judah says to Asher, Asher, did I hear right?

We didn't do it.

God did it.

Joseph said, That's exactly right.

It was predestined.

Our grandfather Joseph told uh Abraham told us that his seed would be coming up out of Egypt.

It meant somebody had to get here first.

And God just said, Hmm, Joseph, you go first.

He said, That's all.

I just got here first.

It was God.

You didn't send me here, God did it.

You see, these brothers can't believe their luck that the man they were going to kill is now setting them free.

And you have a chance to be Joseph.

You've got a chance to set them free.

By the way, the way you do it is very important.

You don't go up to them and say, Well, look, I forgive you for what you've done.

See, what hurts us most is that the people that have hurt us, they don't know how hurt we are.

And so we can't bear the thought that they don't know.

So let me just say this to you.

After this sermon, don't go up and find somebody and say, Well, now look, in the light of R.T.'s sermon, I forgive you.

They'll say, For what?

Well, you know.

Well, actually, I don't.

Oh, you do?

Well, I don't.

Well, you should.

Now you've got to fight.

That's what you wanted.

You can't bear the thought.

You see, part of the anointing is they never know how hurt you were.

When you pray for them, they don't know it.

You don't go up and say, I've been praying for you.

No, that's not the way you do it.

Because the anointing kicks in.

When only God knows, you don't tell the world.

It's something that between you and God has been negotiated.

I'm telling you now, this is the way forward for a greater anointing and knowledge of God than anything I can think of.

Well, these brothers are saying to themselves, well, now, you know what, we're gonna have to go back to Canaan.

He's gonna make us tell our dad what we did.

And they would rather die than have to tell old Jacob the truth because they yanked that coat of many colors off Joseph's back, dipped in blood, and made old Jacob think that a wild beast destroyed him.

You see, Joseph tells them what to say when they go back to Canaan.

He writes the script word for word.

He won't let them tell.

And that's another thing.

Total forgiveness is when you protect them from their darkest secret.

That's the way God is with us.

He lets us all save face.

He's not wanting to yank out that skeleton in the closet and make you be embarrassed before everybody.

No, God lets us save face, he protects us from our darkest secret.

And by the way, total forgiveness is something that you keep on doing.

I mean, it's it's not something you do today and forget about tomorrow.

Because 17 years later, old Jacob died.

The brothers come running to Joseph, they make up a story, and they said, Before Dad died, he told us to tell you, please forgive us for what we did.

And Joseph starts to cry.

He says, What's the matter with you, man?

I told you 17 years ago.

I forgave you.

I forgave you then, I forgive you now.

You see, total forgiveness is something that will be permanent.

It's like your doctor gives you a pill and says you're gonna have to take this the rest of your life.

It's a life sentence.

Total forgiveness is a life sentence.

You've got to keep praying for them.

Someone who says, Well, I did it yesterday, that's enough.

No, you do it tomorrow, a week from tomorrow, a year from now.

Would you believe that the people that hurt me are still alive?

They have no idea.

And you pray for them.

When you pray for them, it means you mean exactly what you're saying.

You want God to bless them.

I remember one day in Westminster Chapel, in those days, the pastor led the worship, and we were singing the hymn, the old English hymn, Praise my soul, the King of Heaven.

And I looked and in the door comes a woman who has done irreparable emotional damage to one of our children.

And when I saw her, I lost it.

I couldn't, I just mouthed the words.

I thought, what is she doing here?

What on earth?

Then when we finished the hymn, I had to read the scripture.

Then we had to sing another hymn, and then came the pastoral prayer.

In those days, it wasn't just two or three minutes.

You prayed eight or nine, ten minutes.

I do not know how I got through it all the time.

I was thinking of that woman.

What saved me was offering time.

The deacon comes up and welcomes the visitors, gives the announcements, and says the morning offering will be received.

And I'm sitting down next to the pulpit to collect my thoughts.

The Holy Spirit entered into a conversation with me.

I'd never had it before, I haven't had it since.

The Lord said to me, So, you want to see revival in Westminster Chapel?

Yes, Lord.

Good.

How much do you want to see revival?

Oh, a lot.

Good.

Which would you rather have?

Revival or for me to send judgment on that woman out there?

Revival.

Good.

Pray for that woman.

I said, Heavenly Father, I pray for that woman.

He said, Say it again.

I pray for that woman.

Ask me to bless her.

Bless her.

Say it again.

Bless her.

Say it again.

Bless her.

And what if I take you seriously and I bless her?

You wouldn't do that, would you, Lord?

But that's the point.

And I had to ask God to bless her, bless her, bless her, bless her.

It was killing me.

Because I knew God was going to bless her.

And guess what?

He did.

That woman thrives today in London.

I don't know whether in heaven I'll be able to resist going up to her and say, I know why God blessed you.

But the thing is, something happened to me.

In a matter of days, a fresh anointing.

I began to get insight into the Bible that I never had.

People know that I've written several books.

I was going to mention them today, but I didn't think it would be time.

People think I've written all those books, it's because of my education.

Things like that.

Not at all.

It's not that at all.

It's what I'm preaching about.

The anointing.

Publishers would come up to me and beg for books.

It's still happening.

I'm 88 years old and I'm writing more books than ever.

The anointing.

It makes all the difference.

He'll do it for you.

He will do it for you.

He will do it for you.

It doesn't mean that you will be an author, but you've got a gift nobody else has.

And God will use that gift.

I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them.

And the key is when you forgive them totally, including praying for them.

You know, funny thing happened.

I began to see how much blessing I would get by praying for my enemy that I began to, I thought, what I need is an enemy's prayer list.

And I've got five on it at the moment.

Nobody here yet.

But it's made all the difference.

Well, look, my time is up.

I said we come to the end where you make a decision.

And it's decision time.

Are you prepared to forgive that person or those people totally in the next 40 seconds?

I'm going to ask you to show that you've forgiven them.

In 30 seconds, I'm going to ask you to stand up.

You say, in front of all these people, yes.

Oh, they'll know I've had a problem.

Well, they will.

Is that more important to you than what God thinks?

In the next 20 seconds, I'm going to ask you to stand.

Don't stand unless you're prepared to say, I won't tell what they did.

I will pray for them.

I will bless them.

Five, four, three, two, one.

If you're prepared to forgive, stand to your feet at this moment.

I'll wait ten seconds.

Don't miss this moment.

It may never come around, just like this.

This is why Isaiah says, seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he's near.

He's near.

All right.

Normally I would have people come forward that are standing.

That won't work because it's too many of you.

But I want you to stand where you are.

I'm going to lead you in a prayer.

You see, we haven't prayed yet.

And you can still get out of it.

Because we're going to enter into a covenant.

When you enter in a covenant, that makes it very serious.

Did you know that every covenant in the Bible was characterized by the shedding of blood?

Yes.

It's very important when you made a covenant.

We're going to make a covenant with God.

And the blood was shed 2,000 years ago.

We're under the blood.

And you've prepared now to pray this prayer.

Say it if you mean it.

Out loud, everybody.

Lord Jesus, I need you.

I want you.

I'm sorry for my sins.

I'm sorry for my bitterness.

I'm sorry for my unforgiveness.

I forgive them.

You forgive them.

I set them free.

I set them free.

I set them free.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Thank you for your patience with me.

In Jesus' name.

One more word before you sit down.

When you mess up, because you will, you'll forget.

The devil will say, Well, you've broken the covenant.

No.

That's what the devil wants.

When you realize it, you pointed the finger, said something about somebody that wasn't very nice.

Remember good old 1 John 1 9.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Just thank God for the blood of Jesus and said, Lord, I'm sorry.

The covenant should go on and on and on.

And it is only a matter of time you will notice that God is giving you an anointing to exceed anything you thought.

He's no respecter of persons.

He did it for me, he'll do it for you.

And may it be from this moment, you will never be the same again.

Heavenly Father, apply this word by your Holy Spirit.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.