Overcoming Hurt and Forgiving Others

If someone hurts you and they of course now they can't face you because they are too ashamed to face you, they've really damaged you big times. So now they try every way possible to avoid seeing you and then you go and confront them and say you come here. Oh no, he or she are gonna give me the third degree burns now in front of the whole world.

I'm walking to Jesus, I'm Simon, in my heart I'm saying I'm dead meat man, he's gonna make me like those prawns on the barbie, he's gonna barbecue me here. But then when that someone that has hurt you and you call them, you go to them, not them coming to you, they are at fault but you go to them and then you call them and say give me a hug, I love you. Wow, now that is stamp sealed, finished.

You've won this person over to you forever. Because they were expecting punishment and they received the contrary. You see, if I sin, not if I sin, when I sin against the Lord, because we're all sinners, when I sin against the Lord and I go to the Lord and I say Lord forgive me I've sinned and then the Lord says okay I forgive you and that's it.

Prior to sinning, what am I in relation to Jesus Christ? I'm his son, without sin I'm a son, that's how he created me. Adam prior to him falling, he was the son, when he fell he became a slave to sin and to Satan. So now when I, prior to sinning I'm the son, when I sinned I became a slave, I went to Jesus I said please Lord forgive me and you know when we make mistakes, you know how we tend to speak to Jesus, we call him Lord.

Prior to sinning we call him dad. Have you noticed that? Dad I love you, after I sin Lord please have mercy on me. I don't say dad have mercy, I say Lord because sin makes me a stranger to him.

Lord is a stranger, dad is my family, he's no stranger. So when I go to the Lord and I say Lord forgive me and the Lord says I forgive you, okay go. So what happened here? My sin is forgiven but my heart is still broken.

I was a son but I'm still, I don't know, am I your son? Can I hug you please? Can I touch you? Can I tickle you? But when Jesus comes says I forgive you and you're still my son. Now I forgive you is the wine, you're still my son is the oil. Now this Samaritan says the priest came down, the deacon came down.

Why? Because the priest, the deacon and that man on the side of the road are all sinners. They all came down. So a sinner cannot save a sinner.

A blind man leads a blind, both of them fall into the ditch. We're all sinners. Imagine like an alcoholic going to receive a good advice from another alcoholic.

Excuse me mate? Yes. What do you think? Shall I give up on drinking? No mate. What do you mean give up? Of course you don't get your advice from an alcoholic.

What do you think you're gonna get? I need to see a doctor. I need to see a psychologist. I need to go to rehab.

I need someone that is sober to make me sober. So a young girl goes to another young girl like her exactly. Same mentality.

What do you think? Shall I listen to my mom and dad or shall I just stand my ground and say this is Australian, it's a free country and I'll do whatever I want? Shut up mom. What do you think? What do you think she's gonna say? No, no you better listen to mom and dad because she doesn't listen. What kind of advice is she gonna give you? Don't listen to mom and dad, this is old-fashioned.

This is free country, do whatever you want. How old are you? 16? Yeah. Go out.

When you're 18 you can go into the club or I can sneak you in, don't worry. I'll put some makeup, I'll make you old. Don't seek an advice from someone who is in the same place as you are.

You want to seek an advice? Come to the church. Go to someone who's older than you, more mature, more experienced in life. The priest is like that wounded man, same, all went down.

The Levites, same, they're all sinners. But the Samaritan is no sinner bro. The Samaritan is Jesus Christ himself.

He called himself the Good Samaritan. The word Samaritan means stranger. Good means God.

He is the God who is stranger in this world. God came to this world, yet he created this world and when he came to this world he said, I'm a stranger to this world. Then how much more are we to say to ourselves that we are strangers? If he is the creator of this world, he said, I do not have a place to lay my head on because I am the God who is stranger in the midst of this world and everyone who follows me must be a stranger.

And since you are strangers like me, I'm not gonna take you back to Jerusalem. You know what? I'm the owner of Jerusalem. I am the king of peace.

I am the Christ, the Messiah, the king of Jerusalem. But I'm not gonna take you to Jerusalem. Since you're strangers, guess what? I'm gonna take you to the hotel.

And what is the hotel here? The church that you're sitting in right now. Jesus referred to his church as the hotel. Why? Because every time you go to a country where you have nobody there, neither from a close or afar, you have no relatives, no family members, no friends, no one.

When you are a total stranger in that country, where is your place in that country? Hotel. So who goes into the hotel? It's the one that says, I'm a stranger in this country. Jesus says, if you are truly following me, then you have to say, I'm a stranger to this country called the world.

I do not belong to it. I was once upon a time part of this world, but Jesus came and chose me. He said, I chose you from the world.

You are no longer of the world. You are mine. So therefore, the only place in this world, this strange country, is hotel, my church.

I'm gonna bring you into my church, and I'm gonna say to the leader of the church, oops, what I mean? There's plenty of me. No? We are leaders put by Jesus Christ in the church. I'm gonna bring you into my church, and I'm gonna say to the leader of this church, Bishop Murray, here is two denarii for you.

I want you to spend the entire two denarii on this wounded man that I healed, and I bandaged, and I put on the mule. Mule is the cross. When he put me on that mule, he carried me on the cross.

He carried my sins on the cross. You know, the mule or the donkey, the spine of the donkey is in a shape of a cross, and when Jesus sat on the donkey, on the mule, and entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, also the donkey represents humility. What is the cross? Humility.

He was degraded. He was brought down. He was counted as a thief in the midst of thieves and robbers.

The holy of holies was called a sinner. That's humility. That's degradation.

He put me on the cross, on the mule, and he brought me to the church, and he said to Bishop Murray, here is the two denarii. What is the two denarii? One denarii is the Old Testament, and the other denarii is the New Testament. A denarii is the wage, is a daily wage that you get paid.

At that denarii, where in another parable, the Lord Jesus said, there was this guy who had a vineyard. He went out early in the morning. He saw some people standing doing nothing, unemployed, not even settling payments.

He said, guys, why are you guys standing here doing, you know, being idle, doing nothing? They said, well, nobody wants to employ us. He said, okay, go, and I'll give you a denarii. A denarii is a daily wage at the time of the Lord, and that denarii represents Jesus Christ Himself.

He is the wage that you receive to enter the vineyard. The vineyard is His kingdom. He is the only wage that through Him you are allowed to enter God's kingdom.

Without this wage, you cannot. He gave me two denarii. One denarii is the Old Testament, the other one is the New Testament.

The Holy Bible is the two denarii. He said, Bishop Murray, I'm gonna give you my Bible. I want you to spend it on this wounded man.

Every soul that I bring to the church, I bring to you, I want you to explain the Bible to them. I want you to show me to them, not you. I want you to spend my two denarii.

I want you to reveal my Word, and my Word is me. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That is the Bible, God in the making.

So when I show you Jesus Christ, I have fed you the perfect food for the kingdom. And He said, whatever you spend more. Can I spend more than the Bible? Yeah.

Fathers of the church throughout the past 20, 20 centuries and God, they wrote books after books, after books, after books. They spend endless hours writing books for my own benefits, spiritual nourishment. They spend more and more.

Not only I explained the Bible, but I started writing commentaries, after commentaries, after commentaries. He said in the second coming, when I come again, while Jesus has got two comings, one has been fulfilled, the other is yet to happen. When He comes in the second coming, wherever I have spent more than the two denarii, He will reward me for every single penny that came out of my pocket.

He'll reward me. But He said, you know what? The two denarii, you must spend them. And if you don't spend them on this wounded man, I will rebuke you.

When you go into the hotel, you have to check in first. Any one of us, when you go to do your checking in into that hotel, you know for sure, beyond any doubts, you know for sure, the hotel is not yours. Neither the bed you sleep on is yours.

Nor the towel that you use for your face. Nothing in the hotel is yours. Nothing.

And you also know very well, just like there was a time you checked in, a time will come whether you like it or not, you will check out. 100%. You will never stay in the hotel forever.

You will never own the hotel. It was never yours. It's never yours.

Don't ever try to take it by force and by your ways. Because the moment you checked in, the time will come you will check out. Jesus says, when I brought you into my church, the hotel, and I gave you my glory, I gave you my name, I called you Christians, I gave you my rank, I gave you my position, I gave you my throne, I gave you my cross, I gave you my authority, I gave you everything that is me, I gave it to you.

Don't ever lose track and think you are the owner. You are a useless and absolute empty servant. Everything is of Christ's.

Nothing is yours. The church is mine, Jesus says. The crown is mine.

The cross is mine. The ring, the sign of authority is mine. The priesthood rank is mine.

The body and the blood is mine. The altar is mine. You are mine.

Everything is mine. And this world, a time came you checked in into it. But a time will come and there is no escape.

You'll check out. When you check out, make sure you were a loyal servant. What have you done for your Jesus? When you worked in his church, did you work for your own benefits or for his benefits? When you worked in his church, did you work to so you can be seen as the show-off or did you reflect Jesus in every deed you've done? Jesus says, when you do something, do it in hiding, in secret and let your Heavenly Father that sees in secret, pays you in the open.

Don't come to church to show yourself. Come to church to show Jesus. Because everything is of him.

Nothing is of mine. Amen? Go you to my friend and show mercy. Anyone hurt you in your life, forgive them.

Show mercy. How often have we hurt Jesus? How often have we broken his heart? How often have we gone against his will and his wish? How many times he called us and we ignored him? How many times he said don't do and we did? How many times he said don't say and we said? How many times he said don't lie and we lied? How many times we broke? How many times we stole? How many times we went against him? Yet every time we came back seeking his mercy and forgiveness, he never failed us. Never.

Yet when someone comes and hurts me, all hell breaks loose. I will never forgive them till the day I die. Well good luck to you.

What are you gonna gain? You've lost yourself. If you don't show mercy, God will not have mercy on you in the end. Blessed are the merciful for they shall have mercy.

Matthew 5. Blessed are the merciful and the sign of mercy is forgiveness. How do you know you have the mercy of God in your heart when you're able to forgive someone who hurt you? When you're able to forgive someone who has stabbed you in the back? Forgive. But forgiveness doesn't mean I have to live with them.

I must forgive but I don't have to live with them. But I must forgive. And that was the Lord's Prayer.

Our Father who art in heaven. It is seven, seven statements, seven requests. Jesus left six and he elaborated on only one.

He said, if you forgive people's wrongdoings, so as your heavenly Father will forgive yours. But if you don't, neither your heavenly Father will forgive yours. Do you want God to forgive you? You better forgive others.

That's how it goes. Show mercy my dear friend. It's not what you do, it's what I've done for you.

You're a sinner like everyone else. Don't ever show yourself as if you're something special. Don't.

If you're beautiful, thank God for it. If you're ugly, thank God. If you've got a big nose, thank God for it.

If you have like big Assyrian ears, thank God for it. Don't go and say, oh that girl has so nice nose. I'm gonna go and have, I've had the doctor chiseling it away from me.

I want to make it smaller just like the other girl's nose. That nose is not your nose. It is not your nose to stick your nose in someone else's nose.

It's none of your business. Your nose is a little bit white, gorgeous, blends in with the facial countenance. You make it smaller, you look ugly.

God knows how to create. He knows what to put. He's the perfect builder and the master of all trades.

Don't be someone that is not you. Be you and come to Jesus as you. Say, Lord, I'm a sinner.

Lord, I have broken your heart. Lord, I confess that I've gone against you. Have mercy on me.

And Lord, through your grace and the love of your heavenly daddy that sent you to me as my savior and my redeemer and by the power of the Holy Spirit that you gave me in the holy baptism, I am able to forgive those who have broken my heart just like I have broken your heart. When you forgive, you can sleep so peacefully. You know, when you let go, my goodness, you become lighter than the feather.

The moment you hold all these grudges, you weigh a million tons. There is no rest. There is no peace.

There is chaos. There is confusion. The moment you let go, the weight is off.

I feel good. Guys, let's stand for the finale prayer. In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgave our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forevermore. Amen.