The Chain-Breaking Power of Forgiveness - Louie Giglio

0:18 This collection is called Astonishing, and it's all rooted in this idea in Acts chapter 4 of Peter and John being filled by the Holy Spirit and going up to the temple and in the name of Jesus, speaking healing over this lame man. The man walks after years and years and years of not being able to walk, and people are astonished, A, that he got healed, and then they start preaching about the power of Jesus who healed him. And then the next chapter, they're dragged in before the authorities. They speak boldly to the authorities. They're preaching the gospel. And Luke records in Acts chapter four that all these religious leaders of the day, hearing them preach, were astonished. They said they were astonished at them because they were ordinary and unschooled men. And they took note that they had been with Jesus. In other words, they knew they hadn't been to seminary. They knew they didn't have theological training. They knew that, no, no, knock on that, by the way. I have been to seminary and I do have theological training and you want a pastor who has theological training. But these guys were fishermen who had been with Jesus, followed Jesus, seen him dead, buried, and raised from the dead, now filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and moving in the power of the Spirit of God and preaching boldly in the power of the Spirit of God. And when they did, these well-educated religious leaders were astonished at them. And they said, these are ordinary guys. These are unschooled guys. And they took note that these men had been with Jesus. The whole idea of this collection of talks is to live a life that leads to why.

2:10 In other words, to live a life in the power of the Spirit that at some point that begs the question from somebody in your world, what is your deal? And I think that should be ordinary and normal for every Christian who is filled with the life of Jesus and filled with the Spirit of God, that we should live a life that is above normal and that says to the world, you wanna see different, you can see different in me because Christ lives in me. Amen? A few weeks ago when we kicked off this collection, there was a couple at the end of the gathering here at 515 at 1145 in this very gathering. And they came up to one of our pastors and they said, hey, is there any way we can talk to Pastor Louie? And that pastor was like, I'm not sure where Pastor Louie is right this second, but you can talk to me. And so they told him their story. And I don't know if you remember, but the week that we kicked off this collection on the Saturday night before, the bombing happened in Iran. There was a lot of turmoil and tension in the Middle East.

3:09 And so at the end of this gathering, this couple comes up, and the guy is from around here. And the young lady who's with him and with his family lives in the Middle East. She's visiting Atlanta from, I can't say the name of her country, but a place, if I said it, you'd be like, man, crazy that someone from there was sitting on your row in this gathering. The story was that all through the talk, she's elbowing him and he's elbowing her because of their story. She came to Atlanta, Georgia from the Middle East from a Muslim background to study at one of the schools here in Atlanta, undergrad. She gets in a study group with some people and this guy is in the study group. And as the study group goes on, she starts noticing about this guy. He's not like anybody she's ever met before. And so finally, after time, she builds up to the question, and she says to the guy who she meets in the study group, I've never met anybody like you before.

4:09 She said when she was sharing with one of our pastors at the end of the gathering, she said this guy was astonishing. Everything about him was astonishing. I just kept looking at him and going, this guy is astonishing. And so she finally asked him, what is your deal? And he says to her, when the door is open, Jesus is my deal. Jesus is living in me. Jesus has changed my life, and I've given my life totally to follow him. And if you want to know what's going on with me, it's Jesus. And so the relationship blossoms, of course. More conversation happens. God's working in her life in a powerful way through all of this. Footnote, don't write anybody off on planet Earth. It doesn't matter what country they're from, what background they're from, whether you can or can't have a Bible where they live, God's not giving up on anybody. He's giving people dreams. He's working in people's lives in the night. He's giving people visions of Jesus.

5:03 And he's working in her life. She stumbled in this period onto the song Oceans. And so she asked him, what is this song about? And he explained the whole song to her. And he took time over the next few weeks to explain to her the gospel and every question she had about the searching and the seeking in her heart. A few weeks later, a month or so later, she's alone in her apartment. She has a panic attack. Goes in the bathroom, closes the door in the middle of a panic attack, and calls on the name of Jesus and asks him to save her life. And she goes from death to life in the bathroom by herself because of the witness of this astonishing young man. Well, the good news of this story is they're dating. she graduated, had to go home. She goes home and tells her family, I met Jesus.

6:04 praise God she said my dad's a kind man so she didn't get thrown out in the street and she didn't get handed in to the authorities oh they're not happy with her decision at all but she'd come to Atlanta to visit her boyfriend and his family and was sitting in this gathering and she said, this guy, he's astonishing. we try to take a higher road that day. It's not that we don't care about issues in the world. Please understand that. We're very pro-Jesus at this church, like 1,000%. And we're very astute to the fact that things are happening in the world, but we also understand that we are operating at a different altitude.

6:59 We are operating on a kingdom altitude. and we talked that day about how God's moving in Iran just separate that for a moment from the bombing and the stuff and all that. God's moving in Iran. House churches everywhere in Iran. People coming to know Jesus everywhere in Iran. Is it against the law? Yes. Do you get put in jail if you're a pastor? Yes. Do you get put in jail if you're translating scripture? Yes. But God's moving. And just saying that spoke to her. because she said that's what it's like in my country. I can't go anywhere with the Bible in my country. I can't talk about my faith publicly in my country. There is no church nearby in my country. You will get persecuted and put in jail for sharing your faith in my country.

7:54 And at least these people in this church understand that and they understand that God's working in spite of it. I wish I could tell you all the more of the details of her story. Just incredible how God's moving. But don't you want to be that guy? an ordinary, well, he's schooled. He's in undergrad study group. That's how they met. But an ordinary, not on church staff, not a trained pastor, an ordinary undergrad student in Atlanta, Georgia, living an extraordinary life has resulted in a girl in the Middle East today waking up and following Jesus and worshiping him on the Lord's day today because of an ordinary person living an extraordinary, astonishing life. We followed up with them, had a conversation with them via Zoom, and she said, I got baptized in a bathtub with two other Christians. So come on, amen. Can we just not get over the fact that we're in church again today, that we're in here singing these songs of worship today, that we're all coming in here and lifting up the word of God boldly today? Can we not get over that today? Praise God for her. And don't you want to be somebody whose life ultimately leads to why?

9:23 Why did you do that? Why did you say that? Why do you act like that? How did you have peace like that? Why do you do what you do? What's your deal? And that's the whole heart of this collection. We talked a few weeks ago about astonishing courage. And last week, across all of our locations, pastors preached about astonishing prayer out of the end of Acts 4. And today, I want to just lead us around what I think might be the most astonishing act of all. Could very well be the most astonishing thing that any of us do. And it is astonishing forgiveness.

10:03 Now, I didn't get one amen at 930 when I said that. And I didn't get one at 1145 either. but I'm preached by faith and not by sight or sound. So I know when you say the word forgiveness, immediately attention begins to build. Because I'm going to say most everybody in this gathering, Cumberland, Trillet, 515, people online, most everybody in this gathering needs to ask somebody to forgive them for something. And I'm going to bet that most everybody in this gathering has had something done to you. and ultimately you need to find freedom today in forgiving.

10:45 When we talk about astonishing forgiveness, we're talking ultimately about the heart of God and we looked in this text and all these talks are coming out of this text in Acts 3 and Acts 4, but as Peter and John are preaching, they started talking about the crucifixion of Jesus and just to catch us all up again, when we're in Acts 3 and 4, Jesus was crucified like 60 days ago. So this isn't like, oh yeah, remember way back when, and the crucifixion is like, no, that happened. The death, burial, resurrection of Jesus happened like 60, 70 days ago, tops. And Jesus going back into heaven could have been last week or two weeks ago. So all this is very fresh. The Holy Spirit's just come to fill believers and it's all very new. And they're preaching about the crucifixion. And then they come down knowing that they're preaching to a Jewish audience in this moment in the temple, and this is what they preach in verse 19, repent then and turn to God. Now, that's the same phrase both ways, because repentance means turn to God. Repentance means I'm going my way, but now I'm going to turn around and go God's way.

11:51 Repentance means I'm doing it my way, but now I'm going to turn around and admit that my way is not the way and I'm going to do it God's way. And so they preach that repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. This is the gospel. This is what we're preaching today. Stop going your way. Admit that your way is not the right way. Turn to God and God through Christ will forgive you, not on an incremental basis, not on a little chintzy basis, but he will wipe out your sin. this is the gospel not repent and turn to god and if you do good for a day god will be kind for a day and if you take a real strong step toward him he'll take a strong step toward you no if you turn from your way and come through christ to god in repentance he'll wipe your sins out wipe them out blot them out is what the text implies it's kind of like this idea and you're like well i don't really know. You know, one sin, by the way, just to remind us, will cause you to fall short of the glory of God. One sin will cause you to fall short of the perfection of God. That's what scripture teaches. But none of us are in that boat anyway, right? Nobody's in the one sin boat. No, no, no, we've all got so many that, and I was going to take time and do this ahead of time, but I didn't I didn't honestly have time.

13:25 how many pages would you be up to? Every thought, every attitude, every word, everything you've done, every time you've done it your way, every time you've said no to God, and that one season where it was more like this, and then there was that season, and then there was, I was a little bit better in that season. how many pages would there be? And the gospel today is repent and turn to God and your sins. we'll be wiped out. when they drove the nails through Jesus' feet and through his hands, they mocked him, spit on him, were cussing at him,

14:33 jeering him, they ripped his beard out. He's dying. Holy Son of God dying for the sins of the world. Even one of the crucifiers realized it and said at the end, this was a righteous man. Nobody been in our line of crucifixion like that guy. and nobody had ever said what Jesus said when he was dying on the cross. Luke recorded it. He looked down at them as they were jeering at him and cussing at him, the ones who'd driven the nails in his flesh and he said from the cross, you know those words, Father, what? Forgive them. astonishing forgiveness a holy god through a perfect son to everyone who turns to him wiping out their sins. That's the way the psalmist wrote it.

15:28 Psalm 103, the Lord is compassionate and gracious. He's slow to anger and abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. For amen, he does not treat us as our sins deserve. I'll just add them in for us. Or repay us according to our iniquities. for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. He wiped them out. You know, it's interesting, when Luke was recounting Jesus saying, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do, Jesus said a couple of other things in Luke's account. And one of the things he said was, I thirst. And so they took this pole and they put a sponge with sour wine on it and they held it up to Jesus' mouth.

16:28 The pole, it says specifically in Luke, was a hyssop branch. You're like, who cares about the hyssop branch? What does it matter? It was a branch. It was a piece of wood. It came from a tree. The hyssop branch was first introduced to us in the Passover when the Jews were instructed by God to put the blood of an innocent lamb over the doorpost of their house so the angel of death would pass over. And God said, take the branch of a hyssop tree. Why? Because this branch had big clumpy flowers on the end of it and they made for an incredible paintbrush. And so dip the big clumpy flowers of the hyssop down and then use that as the paintbrush over the door so that Luke records specifically so that we know when Jesus was on the cross, they lifted up the hyssop branch to him. Why? Because he was the ultimate eternal paintbrush of God, blotting out the sins and the transgressions of the whole wide world.

17:25 He was wiping our sins away as far as the East is from the West. And God's not bringing them up to you. So when you came to God today as a believer in Christ. He didn't say, oh, good morning. Hey, before we get into your quiet time and devotion today, could we go back to 1998, that summer? no he's not doing that he said well why was i thinking about it this morning then while i was in my devotion because the enemy was trying to bring it back up to you he's always moving trying to see who understands the gospel and who understands that to those who turn to god their sins are wiped out wiped out as far as the east is from the west so our our first stop today is simply to ask the question, have you received the forgiveness of God? or are you still carrying stuff around guilt and shame and condemnation you still carrying the backpack of all your failure because the enemy convinced you that you got to pay for it and you didn't really fully embrace the idea that jesus already had and that when you repented and turned to God, he wiped your sin out.

18:50 Take the backpack off. The guilt's been put on Jesus. You can take the backpack off. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You can take the backpack off. The shame was put on him. He was, Isaiah said, made to be a guilt offering for you so that you could wake up today and go to a God who's removed your sins as far as the east is from the west and say thank you today that my sins have been blotted out, that the ultimate hyssop branch of all hyssop branches. Jesus himself has blotted out and wiped out my sin. I am forgiven today. Astonishing forgiveness is my story today. I wake up today again in astonishing forgiveness. God doing what I could never do in my life. I want to ask you today, have you received that? And if not, why not? God is offering you. to wipe out your sin today.

19:48 And I pray that somebody will receive that today. Somebody who's a believer, somebody who came to church today for the 150th time in your life, but you still brought the shame in here with you today. And that today you'll go, oh, wow, what am I doing? And you'll receive it. But I pray that for all of us today because the rest of this talk is a moot point. If we really haven't embraced that our sins have been wiped away. If we have, we can take the next step. And I believe the next step is to understand that probably the greatest demonstration, amen, of our comprehension of the gospel is our willingness to forgive. the greatest demonstration of our comprehension of the gospel is our willingness to forgive because the gospel is about forgiveness this is the way paul wrote it in ephesians chapter 4 he said be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other just as now this is the key moment in this verse i think this is the fulcrum of this verse this is what it all hinges on. Just as in Christ, God forgave you. So the fulcrum, if you will, that moves us to forgiveness is not what we want to do or don't want to do, it's what God has already done. And he's saying in the same way that God in Christ forgave you, I want you to forgive one another. So let's talk about forgiveness just for a moment. And I want to clarify a few things and give some thoughts around it. Number one is this, that forgiveness does not mean we sweep things under the rug. Some of you are already there. The enemy's already working. Some of you are holding on to forgiveness because the enemy's got all these straw men in your story.

21:41 They don't deserve to be forgiven. They need to be held accountable. They should pay for what they've done. If I forgave them, they wouldn't even accept it. They don't even want to talk to me. They're dead. They're not even in the story anymore. So how could I forgive them? And how could there be some resolution in that case? Listen, God is wanting to say to you today, forgiving someone for what they've done to you doesn't sweep under the rug what they've done to you. And I want to be clear today that if something egregious has happened to you or is happening to you, you don't stay in that situation and say, well, I'm supposed to forgive them. So I'm just going to stay here and forgive them. No, if there needs to be accountability in the story to somebody or authorities in the story to somebody, then by all means, bring the authorities into the story. If the law has been broken, bring the authorities in. But understand that forgiveness and accountability are not the same thing. You can forgive somebody and still hold them accountable for what they've done. But it starts with an attitude of the heart. And when we say that we're going to forgive someone, we're not saying, oh, we're just going to sweep all that under the rug and act like that never happened. God didn't do that with you. God did not sweep your sin under the rug. He didn't sweep my sin under the rug and say, oh, you know what, Louis, we're just going to do all that and I'm going to forgive you. No, he swept all of my sin onto his son because he's both just Romans 3 and the justifier of those who put their faith in him. The second thing I want us to see is that forgiveness is an attitude that understands we're transferring final and complete judication to God.

23:23 we understand because here's the enemy. Hey, they shouldn't get off. And what's your response to that? That's right, they shouldn't get off. That's why I'm not forgiving them. No, your response to that is nobody gets off. Nobody gets off. Everybody gives an account of their life to God. and he will hold every single person responsible for what they have done to you.

24:01 And you can count on it. So for you to forgive is you understanding, I'm transferring today final and complete adjudication of this case to God Almighty. That's what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 12. He said, do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, we're gonna end with this, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends. Man, can we just let the Holy Spirit let that word live in our heart today? Do not take revenge. You're like, why not? I need to take revenge. Somebody needs to take revenge. They need to pay. Do not take revenge, dear friends. Why? leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge and I will repay, says the Lord.

25:01 Now again, true forgiveness isn't going, okay, I'm gonna forgive you. I'm gonna write you a letter today and I'm gonna tell you that blah, blah, blah and you hurt me and you took advantage of me and this happened and you lied to me. But I'm gonna forgive you because I know the wrath of God's gonna get you. No.

25:21 No, see, the gospel says the wrath of God was coming for me until Christ stepped in the way. thank you God that's the fulcrum if you will the engine if you will that allows me to do something that no normal human would do normal people don't do that but spirit filled people can do that because of the engine of the gospel on the contrary he said if your enemy is hungry feed him if he's thirsty give him something to drink. And in doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. So again, you know, you let God and the spirit do that. You don't end the letter with, and I hope this letter, because I'm sending you also a gift card for a $250 dinner on me. And I hope every bite of it is burning coals on your head. I hope you choke on every bite of it because the wrath of God is coming.

26:26 The spirit of this is the spirit of the gospel. The spirit of the gospel is a different spirit. The third thing about forgiveness I want us to see is that you don't get free when forgiveness is received. You get free when forgiveness is offered.

26:47 God is a forgiver, not because you've received his forgiveness, but because he offered it. He is just and the justifier, not because you came to him and said, thank you for giving your son for me. I receive him and accept him and I need him and I want to be forgiven. That's not what makes God a forgiver. What makes God a forgiver is that he paid the price to forgive you. Whether you accept it or not, he's a forgiver. Whether you receive it or not, he's a forgiver. Whether you want to embrace it or not, God is still a forgiver. And that's the same principle with you and me. We don't get free from unforgiveness when the person says, you know what? You're right. And I was wrong. And I did wrong. And I am so sorry. And I want to make it up to you and anything I can do. That's not when you get free. That is an incredible gift. But that's not when you get free. You get free when you say, I forgive you. And the enemy's told a lot of us, because some terrible things have happened to people in this room, some two weeks ago, some 27 years ago. And what the enemy has told a lot of us is, You don't need them anyway.

27:54 I'll never speak to them again. I'll never think about them again. I couldn't care less about them. but that's not true. You do think about them, and you do care about what happened to you, and the enemy's plan of just burying it, it's not a great plan. He's like, just put it as far down as you can. I mean, get down as deep as you can go. Some of you buried this thing so far down, I'm going to take a sonogram for you to go down to where it is. Too late. Done. Done with that. but the reality is that thing's either going to rot or worse, it's going to sprout.

28:56 and the truth of the matter is when we bury it, we don't forget it, and we don't leave it. What ends up happening is that we end up tethering ourselves to it, and we think, I'm moving on. I don't need them. I don't care. I'm doing fine, and what we don't realize is is that we're taking that with us everywhere we go. You're taking it into your adulthood. You're taking it into your marriage. You're taking it into your relationship with your kids. Some of your kids are carrying your unforgiveness toward the person who hurt you. you're carrying it into future generations you're writing a story of unforgiveness for all the people who come through you and you think the enemy is so crafty he says i'm not forgiving him because that's i didn't have power then but i got it now and i'm going to exercise my power by not forgiving you i'm in control now i decide if i talk to you i decide if i forgive you i decide if we have a relationship.

30:08 I'm in control now, and I'm not giving up control. Look how in control I am. you are in control to some degree by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the main control you have is to say, God, help me. Because I want to... Disconnect. and by the power of the gospel I want to walk free. and I'm free not when it's received I'm free the moment at the cross I say I forgive and I walk free.

31:15 It's today taking a step that most of us do not want to take and asking God to help us and it's digging down again and going, I hate the thought of this, but I've got to go back there. And I want to bring this to the foot of the cross of Christ and I want to put it down at the foot of the cross of Jesus today and I want to say, God, because of your mercy and grace in me, I want to extend mercy and grace there. And I want to forgive today. I want to completely and totally and utterly release and forgive. you're like Louis they don't deserve it No one does. none of us deserved it. Yeah, but I've never done what they did.

32:14 Very true. And please understand it. I understand it baked into every one of these sentences is a tremendous amount of pain and emotion. And God understands that. But no one deserves forgiveness. but thank God, he has extended astonishing forgiveness to me and to you. I think the last thing to say, and then we're kind of coming down to the wire about forgiveness is that it's a doorway for true intimacy in worship with God. Matthew wrote it this way, therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar and go and be reconciled to them and then come and offer your gift.

33:10 In other words, it's backwards, isn't it, for us to come in today. Do you know what we sang today? You know what our worship was rooted in today? It was rooted in the forgiveness of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, and the goodness of a holy God forgiving those of us who didn't deserve it. That's what all of our worship was rooted in today. And so what God is saying is, how can you come and say, thank you, God, for your mercy. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for being a holy God and still having compassion on me and taking my sins away as far as the east as the west. And at the same time, I've got a grievance with somebody possibly in the room.

33:44 He says, you need to leave your gift at the altar. You need to leave your song of worship right here for a minute, and you need to go to them. You need to make that right. And then you need to come back because you will find a whole new open door of intimacy with God and worship when you are living in the spirit of forgiveness. so two questions as we close today is there anyone that you need to forgive Now, I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a psychiatrist. I'm not your counselor. I'm not a licensed counselor. And maybe you have a counselor that's helping you in your life, and you might want to navigate through this with some people or them or spiritual people around you. But just a few observations today so we can close on super practical, okay? the format in which you forgive is going to be unique to your situation.

34:42 In other words, you may not need to confront the person to forgive the person. In fact, confronting the person might be the worst of all outcomes today. And that's what the enemy is saying to you. Again, man, if you went to them to tell them you're going to forgive them, they'd deny it. They'd blame it on you. Things would escalate. Things would blow up worse than they had in the past. It would turn into a free-for-all. So don't do that. And you're like, okay, that's a good point. No, you can still forgive them, hello, without going and confronting them. Some of you do not need to confront them.

35:19 But you can still forgive them. Because forgiving is releasing. It's not them receiving. And you could sit down today and you could write a letter to them, even if there's no way to contact them. You're like, I don't have an email. I don't have a phone. If I texted them, they would never text back. Or if they did, it wouldn't be something that you could read in church. you sit down under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and take a piece of paper and a pen and you write them and you say, dear so-and-so, God's spirit is really moving in me. The cross is really moving in me.

36:00 And somehow by the grace of God alone, I want to forgive you for... and all the ways you hurt me, lied to me. Abandon me. today in the power of Jesus I fully release all that I've held against you and from this day forth by the grace of God forevermore I entrust you to God Almighty and pray that he would have mercy on me.

36:45 I forgive you. What do I do with the letter? throw it in the Chattahoochee River that's littering don't do that Put it on the gas grill. keep it somewhere as a reminder of the miracle power of God you don't have to confront them to forgive them. Forgiveness is you and your heart releasing them to God.

37:34 And God will give you the grace in doing that. Second question, is there anyone you need to ask to forgive you? that text that we read in Romans 12, as far or as much as possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Not as far as it depends on them, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. You know, a few months ago, I was driving past this place that's kind of on my daily normal drive. And every time I would go by this place, the Holy Spirit would say to me, make it right.

38:20 Something had happened in the past, some things had gotten sideways. And I don't necessarily think that I was totally in the wrong, but I wasn't 100% in the right. And every time I would drive by that, the Holy Spirit would say, make it right. And I'd be like, nah, that was a long time ago. Been there? Make it right. Ah, that would be awkward. make it right they probably don't want me to make it right make it right make it right make it right make it right you're like louie how many times did you go by there we need to know whether or not you can still be our pastor or not a lot for a while and one day i went by there in the spirit of god once again said make it right and that day i said to the holy spirit i said you will never have to say that to me again i'm sorry that you've said it so many times but you won't ever have to say that again. And I sat down at my desk and I took out a piece of paper and I wrote and I said, you know what? Things didn't go the way they didn't. Either of us wanted them to go.

39:20 Da-da-da, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I want to take complete ownership for my thing. I want to ask you to forgive me. I want to try to make peace. I'm extending an olive branch. I want to own and I want to ask you to forgive me. I want to tell you that I love you. you're like Louie if I wrote that note right now they'd be like thank you for your letter that was fantastic you can keep your letter didn't matter that letter thank you Lord was received by a miracle story It doesn't always work that way.

40:09 Who do you need to ask to forgive you? I love this talk because it doesn't end with, man, I got so many good notes. It ends with, Holy Spirit, what are you asking me to do?