The Way of Forgiveness | The One Another Way - Ephesians 4:30-32 | Travis Jones

Alright, church, man.

It's good to see all of you.

Worship with you.

I'm glad you're here.

This time, man, if you have your Bible, I want to invite you to get it out, a Bible app.

You could get that out as well.

And where I want you to go, where we're going to go today, is in the book of Ephesians.

That's in the New Testament.

I want you to go to chapter 4, towards the end of chapter 4.

There's three verses we're looking at, verses 30, 31, and 32.

And we're just picking back up in our series, The One Another Way.

And what we're doing, let's kind of tell you where we're at.

We're studying the one another commands found in the Bible.

These are, there's over 50 of them.

We're studying eight of them.

These one another commands, they are commands given to believers on how we are to relate to one another, how we're to walk together with one another as the family of God.

And so we've looked at some tremendous ones up to this point, and today we're going to continue.

We're going to look to today we're going to look at something we all desperately need, but sometimes we find it difficult to give.

Today, we're going to be talking about forgiveness.

All right.

We're going to look at forgiveness.

Now, forgiveness, I think, can be a prod, broad topic, and it's one of those things that everyone loves.

Everyone loves forgiveness.

We love forgiveness.

I love forgiveness until someone gives me the opportunity to practice forgiveness, right?

Like we we like to receive it.

Man, it looks really good.

I don't know, printed on a coffee mug.

It looks really good, maybe on a picture frame or something like that.

But then somebody hurts me, somebody ignores me, someone criticizes me, somebody takes me out of the group chat without my uh let's let not even asking me about it.

You just find yourself removed.

Suddenly, when those things happen to me, forgiveness does not feel like a coffee mug.

They don't feel like a picture on the wall, man.

When that happens, when those things happen towards me, forgiveness is often the last thing on my mind.

Look, look, guys, I know some people who have screenshots on their phone with arguments that they've had with other individuals years ago.

I mean, screenshots of things that should have been put in a museum, you know what I'm saying?

And then you'll be sitting there talking and they'll say something like this.

They'll go, hey, do you remember when you said this?

And I'll say, or you'll say, Oh no, I don't remember that.

And they'll say, Well, let me remind you.

You know, we do that.

We know how to keep receipts.

We know how to keep screenshots.

And that's why this passage is so important.

Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

In it, Paul is writing to Christians and he's showing them what the new life in Christ looks like.

So earlier in the book, the chapter, he tells us, the believer, he says, put off your old self.

That is your unredeemed, unreborn self, put that off and put on the new regenerated self.

In other words, Jesus, when he saves you, he doesn't just, I don't know, save you, save you, save you and forgive you of the past.

He also, he gives you a new pattern of life to walk in on this side of heaven.

It's not just a new destination, it's a new way that we are to be walking.

And so forgiveness is what we're supposed to be walking in.

And Ephesians chapter 4 kind of brings the gospel down to one of the most practical, imaginable ways, and that is how do we how do we treat one another when we've been hurt?

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

How do we forgive one another?

How do we walk through that?

And so as we look through these three verses, we're going to see, I believe, there's four kind of truths in here that will shape the way that we are to be forgiving one another.

So we're just going to walk through it, all right?

Ephesians chapter 4, picking up in verse 30, the first truth I see is this forgiveness honors the Spirit.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Here's how he says it.

I'm just going to read verse 30, then we're going to kind of unpack it, kind of walk through it, alright?

Talking to the church, talking to us.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

That's God the Spirit, by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.

Redemption.

All right.

So we get to this, right?

In just a minute, in the following verses, we're going to get to this.

He's going to talk about bitterness and anger and malice and slander and forgiveness.

But before he talks about these things, before we get to them, he says, you know what we need to do?

We need to bring the Holy Spirit into the conversation.

We need to talk about, we need to talk about the indwelling power of God and the Spirit before we start talking about these other things.

And he says right off the bat, do not, church, Christian, don't grieve the Holy Spirit.

That's what he's saying, that's the command to you and I, all right?

You go, okay, all right, all right, all right.

Well, what exactly might that mean?

We can break the words down.

You can talk about that word grieve.

Like we all know what it is to grieve because we have all been grieved by somebody.

You've all been grieved by somebody.

And being grieved is greater than being annoyed, right?

Grief.

Grief is what I would call the pain of love.

You can only be grieved by someone who cares about you.

So this word grieve is personal.

And you see here in the text that you, Christian, can grieve God the Spirit.

We have the ability to grieve God the Spirit.

Now, in that it tells us a lot of things about who the God the Spirit is.

And God the Spirit is not some impersonal, abstract force.

How do I know that?

Because you cannot grieve an impersonal, I don't know, abstract force.

You can't do it.

You can't do that.

Like I've never grieved electricity, never done it.

I've never walked into a room and said, I think I hurt the Wi-Fi's feelings, right?

I can't do it.

Now Wi-Fi has grieved me, but I guarantee you, I've never grieved the Wi-Fi because Wi-Fi is not a person.

And Wi-Fi sure does not care about me.

But God the Spirit is altogether different.

God the Spirit is a person.

God the Spirit is God.

God the Spirit loves me.

He indwells me.

He indwells the believer.

And Paul says that we can grieve him.

Other implications in here.

There's a lot of implications.

But the implication I want us to understand as it relates to forgiving is this the way that you and I treat one another matters to God.

God can be grieved by the way that we treat one another.

The words we speak, the resentment we nurse, this bitterness that we can hide, this anger that we can justify.

It all matters to God.

It all matters to God.

And I think about that.

I think about the relationships we have, right?

And you can get in conflict with one another.

And oftentimes when there's conflict, or I'm in conflict, or you're have a disagreement, one of the questions that we ask ourselves, maybe others, is something like this.

Was I right?

In the conflict, was I right?

Maybe that's a fair question.

Maybe it's a fair question.

I don't know.

But Paul is pressing for something deeper.

A better question might be this.

In that interaction, did I grieve God the Spirit?

Because we get all passionate, man.

I mean everybody's everybody's everybody's.

I'm everybody too.

When I say everybody, I mean me too, okay?

Everybody's passionate about being right.

I want to know if I was right.

And I and and if I get in a disagreement with you, I often want you to know that I am right.

Here's the question.

What gain is there in being right while in the process of being right you grieved God the Spirit?

Because you can be right on an issue, but wrong in the spirit.

I know this because I've done it, man.

You can you can you can win that argument.

You can win that argument, but you can grieve God the Spirit, right?

I think sometimes being right is highly overrated, right?

You guys don't want to be right, man.

Once again, I've seen this.

Guys, listen, we live in a unique everybody lives in a unique area, and you have these cultural things that go on.

We got some cultural things here in the south, and I've learned them.

I grew up here, you know, and and I've learned them.

But we can, and do we, we do some, we do some, we do some stuff, man.

We do some stuff.

I'm gonna give you an example.

You when I give you this example, you all gonna know what I'm talking about.

But you can be in a group conversation, y'all talking and all of that.

Maybe there's some disagreement, I don't know.

But then someone will say, I'm just I'm just gonna be honest.

No, sir, when you're in a conversation and someone says, I'm just gonna be awesome, put on your seatbelt.

You know, because what it often means is I'm gonna say that in advance because I'm about to say something unkind.

I'm about to say something, you know, if, because in the South, we think if we say, I'm just gonna be honest, we then have permission to vomit on people, because I've seen it.

And you get upset, and you get upset.

I can't believe you said that.

I'm just being honest.

No, you're just being rude.

You're just being rude, man.

It's you're right, like that word does not give you immunity to say anything you want to say.

You can grieve the spirit, man.

That's just that's not spiritual maturity, man.

That's just that's just meanness, man.

It's like using a we do this.

We will use like a sharp knife, and then we put a church bumper sticker on it, and we say, There you go, I got my butt.

But no, man, we can do that.

You can tell the truth, you can be honest, and you can still grieve the spirit.

And we do that, we do that.

We need to talk in love, right?

So don't grieve the spirit.

It matters to God, how we relate.

But that's not the whole verse.

Then he's gonna add to it.

Here's what he says look at that second half.

By whom you Christian were sealed for the day of redemption.

That's God the Spirit.

What he's saying here, and what he's saying here, what he wants us to know when we're talking to each other, if the Spirit of God has been so gracious to you, and he has, given you eternal salvation, he has sealed you forever, he holds you in the palm of his hands until the day of redemption.

How could you willingly grieve him?

How could you willingly grieve such a gracious spirit just because you won't be right, just because you won't be ugly, just because you want to win some argument?

How can you do that?

How can I do that?

Paul's point is powerful.

Don't grieve God the Spirit who sealed you.

And God the Spirit Spirit cares.

God the Spirit cares about the way you and I talk to each other.

God the Spirit cares about the words we say to one another.

Don't grieve him.

So, I don't know.

Before this is this is to me.

Hopefully it's helpful to you.

Before you send the text, before you post a comment, before you share the story, I ask, will this honor the Spirit of God who sealed me for the day of redemption?

So I say that.

That's the first truth we see when we're relating to each other.

When it comes to forgiveness, okay?

But he's going to build on this, alright?

Don't grieve, don't grieve God the Spirit who sealed you, alright?

Next truth we see how we relate to each other in regards to forgiveness.

Forgiveness removes the poison.

Verse 31.

This is good.

This is this powerful, man.

This stuff, this stuff, this stuff, this stuff speaks to me.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, Christian, along with all malice.

So don't grieve God the Spirit with your words, with your actions, with your deeds, but put these things away.

Put them all away.

All these six things.

Not some of them, all of it, right?

There's six things here.

These six things are kind of like, I don't know, a spiritual hazmat list.

You know what a hazmat is, right?

It's it's it's it's it's it's it's a short word, it's a short word for hazardous material, all right?

That's what it is, man.

It's material that's hazardous.

It's hazardous, it's toxic, it's dangerous, it's contaminated.

And Paul says, these six things, these six things that we just listed right here, they're toxic.

They're dangerous, they're contamination for the body of Christ and the way we relate to each other, and we are to put them away.

Six of them.

Six of them.

Bitterness, wrath, anger, put it away, clamor, slander, malice.

You Christian, put those away.

They are dangerous, they are hazardous to the body of Christ.

Let's look at them real quick.

I went through these and I was thinking about them.

I mean, how are you gonna put away something you don't know what it is?

All right?

So what do we got?

We got a list here.

First, it begins, he says, with bitterness.

All right.

That's the root.

Well, what's what's bitterness?

I think bitterness is this kind of settled resentment, right?

It's when someone's hurts you and it gets planted in the heart and you let it begin to grow.

You you you you you you nurse it kind of, right?

Bitterness is not always loud, right?

Sometimes, sometimes bitterness is quiet.

Sometimes bitterness kind of hangs out in the corner, but bitterness, bitterness is always keeping score, right?

Bitterness will say, I'm fine, while it's building a spreadsheet of everything that you have done against them.

And I know some of us, some, some of us, once again, when I say some of us, I mean me, all right?

We got like this emotional spreadsheet with tabs on it, right?

You got a tab that's like one tab is here's what they said, another tab is here's what they did, another tab is what I should have done.

Here's my favorite tab.

My favorite tab is this one.

I've had it.

Here's what I'm going to say next time they try to try me, you know, because you build it up in your head.

If they say, dude, I got some zingers, I got some zingers, and it's just sitting right here.

How you doing, Travis?

Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine.

You just you just wait, man, because I got some good ones that I'm about to, you know, that's bitterness.

That's toxic here.

That's toxic in our relationships.

But he goes from bitterness to wrath.

What's wrath?

Wrath, wrath, wrath is an ex it's an explosion.

It's that sudden outburst.

You ever been around somebody, ma'am, and they're all nice and kind and something, and you think they're doing okay?

Because you ask them, you find, yeah, I'm fine.

And then all of a sudden one day you say, How's the weather outside?

And they're just like, boom! And you're like, Where'd that come from?

Well, it's because I had this bitterness right here, and now you just made me mad because you said something about outside, and I'm boom, and it happens.

It's just, it's just, it's like, it's like when the pressure cooker pops.

From there he says, Anger.

You know anger.

It's got no business here, man.

It's this settled heat.

Anger is not always exploding, but I'll tell you what, anger's always kind of simmering, it's just simmering.

And from there he moves to this word clamor.

It doesn't get about clamor.

You know what clamor is?

Here's clamor is the noise that comes when you give a microphone to anger.

You know what I'm saying?

It is, it's true, dude.

You get someone got someone's angry, you give them a microphone, they're going to clamor.

Because what they want, they, me, us, every.

You when you got that anger, when you got that anger, you want everybody to know you upset.

You do the passive, we got that backdoor passive aggressive stuff.

Like, I'm not gonna tell, I told you I'm I done told you I'm fine.

You give me a microphone, I'm gonna make all you feel uncomfortable because I'm really not fine.

Then you get to slander.

Slander is when the tongue becomes a weapon.

It's easy to do, right?

We try to, we try to damage somebody.

We try to, once again, we're so slick.

We're so slick, we're so slick.

Like, I ain't, I'm not gonna, I'm not, I'm not gonna talk bad about you to your face.

You know what I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna do it passive aggressively.

I'm gonna do it maybe to one of your friends or something like that, so it'll get back to you, but you use the tongue as a weapon, and it all ends in malice.

That's that desire underneath it all.

I want to hurt them.

I want them to pay, I want them to lose.

You do these six things.

And Paul says, Hey, don't grieve God the Spirit.

You want to put all of that away.

Why should we put all that away?

Because it's poison.

It's poison, man.

It's poison, and it's no business.

And the people of God, once again, I'm just I'm just telling these things I've experienced, okay?

Like, you know, you know how we can do it, you know, the people of God.

We got our way, we got our ways, don't we?

We do.

Like church people.

Church people, church people, okay.

I'm just gonna tell you, man, I got saved and I started going to church and I discovered this.

Church people, they gossip and slander, but they call it something else.

You know what they call it?

They call it a very detailed prayer request.

That's what they call it.

You know it's true, man.

Because I get I get saved.

We're gonna have a prayer meeting.

I'm gonna go to prayer meeting.

Maybe you guys have been to old school prayer meetings, they're fantastic.

We should have some.

Bless you if you begin one.

But we sit in there, and you all get around that circle, and you're gonna share your prayer request.

I get my notebook out, and okay, we're gonna pray, we're gonna pray.

And someone says, We need to pray for Bobby.

I'm gonna pray for Bobby, and then they start listing a list of all these detailed things that Bobby has done.

And I'm sitting there and I'm like, wait a minute.

Before I was saved, we called this gossip, you know.

But I guess when it gets baptized in the church, we call it a long prayer request.

But that's how we do it.

We can do that, and he said, Don't do that.

It don't matter, it don't matter what you call it.

You can call it prayer request.

I don't know.

You can put a bumper sticker on it?

I don't know.

Well, don't do it, don't do it.

I've seen this, man.

I've seen, dude, I've seen a lot of the I mean, I've seen so many things.

You have too.

Yeah, like bitterness.

I had a dude, it was he he called he called bitterness discernment.

That's what he called it.

He's like, I he goes, he goes, he goes, I got the gift.

He goes, I got the gift of discernment, and I have discerned that that is not a very good guy over there.

And I'm like, I'm like, all right, well, what what's what's that guy's problem?

He goes, his problem is I don't like him.

I'm like, dude, I'm like, that's not discernment.

That is not discernment.

Once again, before I got saved, that was called bitterness.

All right?

In the church, you call it discernment.

Either way, God calls it sin, and we ain't supposed to have it up in this place.

That's what he's saying.

Guys, put it away.

Put it away.

I do want to be careful here, and this was one of the fears I had in all of this.

I want you to understand forgiveness does not mean that the hurt isn't real.

I'm not asking anyone to pretend.

It does not mean sin does not matter.

Forgiveness doesn't mean we pretend it did not happen.

It's not denial, it's not calling evil good.

It doesn't mean there won't be consequences, you know?

Someone sins against you, you forgive them, and then they think there's no consequences.

Well, there may very well be consequences.

Okay, I want you to understand that.

Someone sins against you, you forgive them.

That doesn't necessarily mean the the the relationship's completely restored.

Sometimes trust has to be rebuilt.

Sometimes you have to set boundaries.

Safety always matters.

Wisdom always matters.

Justice matters.

But what Paul is saying that the Christian, us, we cannot make a home in our lives for bitterness.

You can't make a home for wrath or anger or clamor or slander or malice.

Paul says, put them away.

So that's the second truth I see here.

Forgiveness removes the poison.

We're going to keep moving.

Verse 32, I've broken up into two sections, alright?

The third truth is this forgiveness shows tender-hearted kindness.

All right.

So he just said, put these things away.

Now he's going to tell us what to put on.

Look at the first part of verse 32.

Once again, this is an imperative.

Imperative meaning a command.

Be kind to whom?

Say it, guys.

That's right.

So be kind.

Be kind.

Tenderhearted.

And then here's our our one another today.

Forgive one another.

That's the new way.

That's the redeemed way, right?

Put away bitterness.

Put on kindness.

Put away wrath.

Put on tender-heartedness.

Put away malice.

Put on forgiveness, right?

He doesn't, God doesn't simply say stop being angry.

He says be kind.

I love that.

Be kind.

Just be kind, man.

It's just so practical.

Look, I've I've I've I've I've I've never been in any situation where it's not appropriate to be kind.

Just be kind, man.

I mean, is it I just it's so easy.

Like, like, like people, I'm around people sometimes and they're just mean, and you're just like, why?

Why?

It's so easy.

Just be kind.

Kindness is kindness is kind of like love with work gloves on, you know?

It's not just a feeling.

Kindness, let me see if I can say this well.

Kindness is not just a personality type.

And I'll make sure we understand that.

Because I know some people, I know some people, and I've told them, you just be kind, man.

And don't say something like this.

You gotta know I'm just not a naturally kind person.

Join the club.

We're not naturally kind, man.

It's not in our nature.

That's that's why he begins with the Holy Spirit.

You need God the Spirit.

You're gonna be kind.

You need God the Spirit.

It's a fruit of the Spirit.

Kindness, it's not, it's not the fruit of your personality assessment.

Personality assessment, but yeah, by the way, let's talk about that.

Personality assessments.

People love them.

And if I ask you to raise your hand, have you had a personality assessment?

Many of us would raise our hand.

You got the, I don't know, you got the what?

The Energram number?

You got the Meyer Bridge, Brig Meyer Briggs, you got letters?

You got all these quizzes.

Dude, listen, I had a guy, look, I'm not making this up.

I had a guy, he took a test, he came back, he told me, he told me, he told me, he goes, he goes, I'm a golden retriever.

You know what I'm saying?

I threw a stick.

He didn't do anything.

Well, you're not a golden retriever.

But anyway, when you take these tests, people can take these tests.

I'm gonna say something.

Like, I took a test, I took a test, I took a test, I got a number or whatever, and it told me I'm just, I don't know, I'm just spicy and direct.

That's who I am.

That's my letter, right?

That's who I am, man.

Well, guess what?

God the Spirit can make sharp people gentle.

God the Spirit can make cold people warm.

God the Spirit can make self-focused people attentive.

Christian, you are more than a letter or a number on a test on your personality.

You born again.

You've been made new.

You're indwelled by God the Spirit.

You can be kind.

You can be kind.

I no longer bow to the flesh.

You no longer bow to the flesh.

We bow to the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and He has told us to be kind.

You're not gonna go up in front of, you're not gonna stand in front of Jesus and say, Jesus, I I took a test, and the test says I can be unkind.

No, no, no.

We are to be kind people.

Put it on, right?

Look, I understand some of us got more work to do than others.

I get that, but none of us are exempt.

And then he says, be tenderhearted.

You know, that's just gonna be soft towards the needs and the wounds of others.

And then we get to our command.

Forgive one another.

That's a command.

It's a command.

It's not like some optional decoration in the Christian life.

It's part of the way the body stays healthy.

We gotta have forgiveness.

We gotta have forgiveness.

Because a church family, in the church family, people gonna hurt you.

We do hurt one another.

Not intentionally, sometimes intentionally, and we deal with that.

But but sometimes unintentionally.

Man, I'm saved.

Thank you, Jesus.

But I'm not where I need to be.

You know?

I'm still growing.

And in that, I can hurt people accidentally.

We're gonna have to forgive each other.

You know, I'm redeemed, but I'm not yet glorified.

It means if you stay in church long enough, somebody will disappoint you.

Um it was about three weeks ago.

Someone was visiting our church, and and they uh well they filled out one of the visitors cards, and I was texting them, and and and they said, Man, you know, can we talk?

You know, I want to know about I want to know about your church, Silverdale.

And I call them wonderful people, wonderful people.

And they're asking all these questions about our church, and I'm making up answers.

No, it's okay, I'm not.

Um but I told them the one thing that I can guarantee them is that I will disappoint them.

I will.

And you will disappoint.

We're gonna disappoint each other.

And oh, by the way, don't worry, they've been at church the last month, they didn't go anywhere.

They're gonna go to new members' class, praise God.

I don't want you to think that was it, I will disappoint you.

But it's true, and how do you get over these disappointments?

Well, we're gonna have to forgive one another.

Once again, I'm gonna circle back to what I already said because I really want to be clear here.

Forgiving one another does not mean sin is not a big deal, it doesn't mean we pretend things didn't happen, it doesn't mean that we don't pretend we've been hurt, but I don't I don't make repayment of my hurt, my God.

I don't let bitterness become home here.

This forgiveness, man, I want to I want to assume the best of everybody.

I want to have kindness in my words.

I want to be kind in the way I relate to you and you relate to me.

I want to have this tender hardness, tenderheartedness.

And that's what we're to have.

And that leads us to the last few words of verse 32.

How are we gonna do that?

Well, forgiveness flows from Christ.

That's the only place you're gonna get it.

It is the only place, right?

This is the foundation to everything.

The last few words of verse 32.

As God in Christ forgave you.

I gotta resay that.

As God in Christ forgave you, Travis.

Because that's to me.

That's the whole gospel engine in this whole passage, right?

Some might say, and I've heard this.

I might have said this, I don't know.

Someone has hurt me, and I'm not going to forgive them.

I've got a right to be bitter.

I've got a right to be angry, right?

And then they'll say something, or I've said something in my heart, they deserve it.

But look at that.

Look at that.

As God in Christ forgave you, Travis.

You don't know something interesting.

God was and God is kind to me.

God was and God is tenderhearted to me.

God was and God is forgiving to me.

And you want to know something else interesting?

I don't deserve it.

I don't.

I don't deserve it.

And he says here, Paul, Christ said the same thing.

The grace and forgiveness given to me, I am to give to others.

I've thought about this.

I've thought about this.

When I speak ill of somebody, it's never been because they deserved it.

It's always been because I'm a sinner.

That's the reason.

When I've had wrath towards someone, when I was angry and someone gave me a microphone and I clamored, it was never because they deserved it.

It was always because I'm a sinner.

I sin.

I sin.

And I know that because the character of God says, the character, you go back to that verse.

The character, the character of God, character of God.

God forgave me in Christ Jesus, right?

God said, God said, you don't deserve it, Travis.

You never deserve it.

On my best day, I never deserve it.

And I ain't had any many good days, and my good days are bad days, you know what I'm saying?

But God still is good to me.

He's still kind to me.

He's still tenderhearted towards me.

Because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, he says, Travis, I forgive you.

That means Christian forgiveness is not rooted in the size of the offense against me.

It's rooted in the size of the grace that was given to me, right?

So I am not naturally a generous person in forgiveness.

I forgive baseline because I have been forgiven.

So forgiveness, if I understand this correctly, and I believe I do, forgiveness does not begin by looking at the size of hurt that someone's perpetrated against you.

It begins by looking at Christ who forgives you, and that forgiveness is to overflow from you.

That's forgiveness.

All right, okay, all right, all right, okay.

So we see here.

When it comes to us relating to each other, forgiveness, we saw one honors the Spirit.

We saw that it removes the poison.

We saw that we put on this tender-hearted kindness, and we saw the root of it comes all from Christ.

Now, I don't want to, I don't, I don't, I don't want to pretend that it's always easy to be a forgiving person.

I'll tell you right now, nobody needs the Holy Spirit to forgive someone who doesn't hurt them.

He began by saying the Holy Spirit.

He brought him into the conversation.

That lets us know that this is real stuff, man.

No one needs gospel power to be kind to people who always agree with you, right?

I don't need gospel power, I don't know, to be kind to people who are always good to me.

I need God the Spirit because relationships are messy and they're hard.

Sin is real, the pain is real.

We need Jesus because our hearts, our hearts are naturally better at keeping screenshots and keeping receipts than offering grace and mercy.

So let me just, this is what I thought about.

I just, you know, we'll wrap up this way.

Look, if you're here today and you're carrying bitterness, my advice is to do what I do.

Bring it to Jesus.

Where are you gonna bring it?

Where else are you gonna bring it?

You know what I'm saying?

Bring it to Jesus.

If you're in here and you got anger, your flesh wants to feed it.

Don't feed it, don't feed it.

Bring it to Jesus.

Put away the poison.

Put it away, put it away, put on kindness, put on tender-heartedness, right?

Because the church should be the place where forgiven people practice forgiveness.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, we gotta practice it.

So let the world, let the world keep the screenshots, let the world keep the receipts.

The people of Jesus have a better way, and that way is forgiving one another.

And I believe this.

When the world sees a church that practices forgiveness, they get a glimpse of the Savior who still saves today, and that's what we want them to see.

Church, forgive one another.

Put away the malice.

And if you're carrying it tonight before you leave, take it to Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you for this time that we can gather as born-again believers, saved by faith, by grace through faith.

Father, I know that we all have hurts and pains, and I know there's things going through our minds right now.

I believe that you've probably even bring up in the minds of the men and women here today specific relationships.

I want to pray that we would be people who freely offer forgiveness, that we walk in it.

I pray that if anyone's holding on, including myself, bitterness or anger, that we would release it and give it to our Savior Jesus.

I pray that we'd be marked as a people who are easily giving away generous forgiveness, and that we would not be easily offended.

Father, we continue to pray that you would move here on Silverdale Saturday nights as you're saving, as you're redeeming.

And we ask these things in Christ's name, our Savior.

Amen.