======================================================================== (YES GOD IS REAL) GIVING FORGIVENESS by Edgar Reich ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in the journey of a Christian, highlighting personal experiences of hurt, mistrust, and the transformative power of forgiveness. It discusses the impact of holding onto past hurts, the freedom found in forgiveness, and the need to release bitterness and anger. The speaker shares how forgiveness led to spiritual liberation and a new life in Christ, urging viewers to seek forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ for a fresh start. Topics: "Forgiveness", "Spiritual Liberation" Scripture References: Matthew 6:14, Matthew 18:34, Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:31, Luke 6:37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of forgiveness in the journey of a Christian, highlighting personal experiences of hurt, mistrust, and the transformative power of forgiveness. It discusses the impact of holding onto past hurts, the freedom found in forgiveness, and the need to release bitterness and anger. The speaker shares how forgiveness led to spiritual liberation and a new life in Christ, urging viewers to seek forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ for a fresh start. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi friends and grandkids, thank you for joining me again. I want to give another part of what God is able to do. Yes, God is real. And so after he saved me from death and hell, where I can go to heaven, the next steps for me as a Christian were confession of every known sin that was still oppressing me, forgiving those that have hurt me, seeking forgiveness from those I hurt, and making amends and repaying where I had taken things from others, and then surrendering fully to God, obeying what he would tell me to do, and then going public with my witness that God is real. And so I'm going to share today about forgiving those that have hurt me. I was hurt as a 10 year old, I was sexually misused. And that terribly hurt me for over 52 years. Because as a child, I decided it must never happen again. And I decided that I could not trust any other human being. And so I grew up without trusting. And for 50 years, I protected myself against intimacy, against friendship, relations with others, and became very much alone, watching my back, walking around with the wall on my back, and protecting myself. I thought it was a white castle in me where I would be protected. But in fact, it was a prison from Satan. And Satan had access to me in that loneliness, where I would not trust other people anymore. And when I became a Christian at the age of 62, a pastor helped me to realize the decision that I had made at a 10 year old. This decision gave me great business success, because I made it up in the world. By worldly standards, I was successful. But by human standards, I was a failure. Money didn't make any difference. Riches didn't make any difference. Private airplanes didn't make any difference. Stretch limousines didn't make any difference. Living in castles didn't make any difference. And so I was bankrupt as a human being, when God saved me. And after he saved me, he told me in this word, that we also had to forgive those that had hurt us. And so in the in John chapter six, verses 14 and 15, it says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. And then there's another passage in Matthew chapter 18, where God says that if I don't forgive, I will be given over to the torturers. And the torturers of bitterness, their anger, they are lashing out at others because we feel we have been hurt. And so forgiveness helps us most ourselves, not so much the other person, because the other person is before God. God says, I'm the judge, I will repay where I need to, don't interfere with that. And so I forgave. And when I forgave, it was the first part of being set free from things that were oppressing me. And so beloved, if you are watching this short video, please forgive and reach out to God for him to forgive you through Jesus Christ, that you can start a new life through Christ Jesus. Thank you for watching. Bye- bye for now. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/bt5Ywudsm6A.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/edgar-reich/yes-god-is-real-giving-forgiveness/ ========================================================================