Tapping into the Supernatural

Dear Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we thank you for this privilege of worshiping you, of serving you, the privilege of reading, like we did in Luke earlier, about the coming of John the Baptist, the prediction of of him coming, of Jesus coming. Thank you, Lord, that Jesus has come, and he has given us teachings, and he has lived his life, and then he's called us to follow in his footsteps. And so we're here to do that.

We're here to glorify you, to give you glory. And so, Lord, I pray that you would just come and anoint this next period of time that we have together, that you would change us, make us more and more into your image. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

All right, you can be seated. I have a question I'd like to ask you all this morning. I'd like to see a raise of hands.

How many of you recognize the name Magnus Carlson? Raise your hand if you know who that person is. Magnus Carlson. Okay, a few hands have gone up.

Well, let me ask you another question. How many of you have ever played the game of chess at least one time in your life? You've played the game of chess. Okay, all right, put your hands back down.

Well, Magnus Carlson is widely known as the best chess player in the world right now. Not only that, he's probably regarded by most people as the best chess player that has ever lived. He's somewhere in his mid-30s.

I think he's over from a Scandinavian country, maybe Sweden or Norway, one of those countries over there. But he became world champion at a very young age, beat the existing world champion at the time. And he just kept getting better and better at this game of chess.

And, you know, I remember when I was young, I liked to play chess and I thought I was pretty good. I could beat at least some of my friends. But then after I got big and had children of my own, they started studying chess and they got so much better than me, them and their friends, that I can't even beat them one game.

You know, we'd get ten games going and I think they'd probably beat me. Some of these guys would probably win every single game against me. But you see, there's another group of people in this world called grandmasters, GMs, they call them.

These are people that have gotten so good at chess that they've achieved a certain level and I think there's something, I don't know, several thousand of these guys, these guys and girls in the world, who have achieved the level of grandmaster. Now, anybody that I've ever played chess with, even the ones that are way better than me, can beat me every single time if they would go up against one of these grandmasters. Not the best, just an average grandmaster.

That grandmaster could beat my children, our young people, they could beat him every single game. It wouldn't even be a context. That's how much better a grandmaster is than the best person you've ever played chess against.

But if you take one of those grandmasters, those average grandmasters, and put them up against Magnus Carlsen, it probably wouldn't be much of a contest at all. He'd probably beat that grandmaster 10 games out of 10. That's how much better he is than the average grandmaster in the world.

So now here's little old me. Suppose I would go against Magnus Carlsen, say I'm gonna play him a game of chess. What odds do you think there would be of me winning a game against him? You'd say that's hopeless.

You can't even beat your own children, much less a grandmaster, much less... I mean, no, you don't have a chance against Magnus Carlsen. But here's the thing I want you to know. There would be one slight hope that I could beat Magnus Carlsen if he would just agree to a certain set of rules before the game.

I'd say, Magnus Carlsen, sit down here, get the chessboard out, and he knows more about chess than anybody else in the world. I'd say, Mr. Carlsen, if you would just allow me one thing. If you just let me keep my phone with me while we're playing chess.

And if he would say, okay, yeah, you can have your phone. You keep your phone. You can do whatever you need to on your phone while we're playing chess.

If he would agree to that, I could beat him. Not only could I beat him one game, I could beat him probably 10 games out of 10 if I would just do one thing. I would pull up in my phone a computer program called Stockfish.

Stockfish is a computer program that has really gotten good at this game called chess. And as good as Magnus Carlsen is, the best person who has ever played the game of chess, if he were gonna go up against Stockfish just one-on-one, it's been estimated that he could not even win one. He couldn't even draw a game, probably.

Maybe he could draw. That's a tie. You know, basically, you just battle it out to a finish.

But they said probably he wouldn't even do that. He would probably lose 10 games out of 10 against this computer program called Stockfish. It can see so far into the future.

It's so many moves ahead. It's got everything calculated out that even as good as Magnus Carlsen is, he couldn't win against that. And so people know this.

They know how good Stockfish is and people have started cheating at this game of chess. They have started trying to sneak their phones into the games to win. Or if they're playing on the computer, it's a lot easier because you just have your phone sitting there or another browser tab opened up and you can find out what the best move is against these other chess masters.

And cheating, that's what it's called when you're consulting your computer program to tell you where to move. That's called cheating in chess. And it's become very prevalent.

People all over the world are cheating at chess and then they got a whole organization trying to keep them from cheating at chess. It's become, you know, thousands of people, I guess, every year are kicked off of these chess websites because they keep cheating. They keep checking Stockfish to figure out what move to play against their buddies or against grandmasters or against somebody else.

So the question is I have for you this morning. Why do people cheat at chess? What's the reason? Why is it so addictive to pull out their phone, Stockfish, tell me what to move. Why do they keep doing that if they know it's wrong? All right, just hold that question for a moment.

I had a series of messages that I went back to Pennsylvania in January for, Men's Leadership, Men's Discipleship Week in Pennsylvania. And the series of messages that I preached there were, it's called this, Scripture Warnings, Kingdom Opportunities. Scripture Warnings, Kingdom Opportunities.

This book that we have called the Bible is full of warnings. And I was talking to a group of people that were conservative Anabaptists, you know, committed to Jesus at some level for sure. And my burden was not just to pull out all the warnings from Scripture, but especially the warnings that would apply to us as Anabaptists.

Are there some warnings that we could miss? Because on Judgment Day, Jesus said there's going to be many people who think they're going to be invited into heaven and they're going to be disappointed. Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, we've done all these things and he's going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. So what warnings should we be looking at to be prepared for that day to avoid the danger that's coming? And, you know, we could talk about a lot of things.

We could talk about divorce and remarriage. We could talk about, you know, going to war, killing our enemies. We could say, well, that doesn't apply to us as Anabaptists.

We already know those. You know, we could preach against once saved, always saved, the idea of unconditional eternal security, but that doesn't apply to us either. We've already got the, you know, that question answered.

We know that's not true. So what warnings would apply to us? Secondly, what is the counterpart of those warnings? Every warning in Scripture, or at least most of them that I've been able to find, has a counterpart called an opportunity. If we avoid the warning, if we watch out for what the warning is, then we also have an opportunity.

So I preached, I had four messages back there. One of the messages I already shared here. So some of you, probably most of you were here when I preached this back on January 5. It was actually before I went to Pennsylvania, but we talked about some of these warnings.

Some of the warnings we talked about were the warning of that Jesus gave in John chapter 3, except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The danger of thinking I'm born again, and I'm really not. But then there's the opportunity.

The opportunity to surrender to Christ and the glorious power that comes with that. So not born again, born again. That was warning opportunity number one.

What was the second warning opportunity? This one was found in Luke chapter 12 we talked about. Hypocrisy, beware of hypocrisy. So many people have somehow fallen into secret sin, and then they didn't have the courage to confess it, and they live their life, a double life, living in sin, living in hypocrisy.

But there's also a counterpart to that. The beautiful life of humility, honesty, holiness, is what Jesus invites us to. So take the warning, against hypocrisy, and then seize the opportunity of humility, honesty, holiness, and everything that goes with it.

And then we started on a third warning, that I think applies to us as Anabaptist people. We started on the subject of witchcraft, and how the danger that that is, the danger it is all over the world. But it does apply to us, because sadly it's been something that many Anabaptist people, conservative Anabaptists even, have not had their guards up against, this thing of witchcraft.

So let's ask the question, just like we asked the question, why do people cheat at the game of chess? Why do people get involved in witchcraft? What's the draw there? What's the purpose behind it? Well, in the same way that it's a thrill for someone to sit across the table and beat someone, you should never be beating at chess. I would never have a chance to win a game of chess against Magnus Carlsen. Not even, you know, not even my own son.

But if I had Stockfish helping me, now I can do it. And it's the same reason people get into this thing of witchcraft. They're tapping in to a power that's beyond themselves.

Not only is that power beyond themselves, it's beyond whatever they're up against. Maybe there's some hidden knowledge that they can't find any other way other than tapping into something supernatural. And so they do, over and over again, in spite of the warnings that we have in scripture, people keep doing this over and over again.

Divination. There's issues in health care where people are getting into. And bringing themselves into huge bondages.

But let me read the warnings from scripture. Galatians 5. And I'm sticking to the ones in the New Testament. If I go back to the Old Testament, I'd have, you know, triple or quadruple the number that I'm going to read.

But here's some, here's just a few from the New Testament. Galatians 5 says, now the works of the flesh are...witchcraft. They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Revelation 21.8 says, but the sorcerers or the witches shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fired brimstone, which is the second death.

Acts 19. It talks about the Ephesians. Many of them came, believed, and they confessed and showed their deeds.

And they also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

And, you know, the sad thing is many people who are living otherwise godly lives are getting in, are allowing this thing to come into their lives. There was a story, I remember a local man here, a friend of mine, David. Some of you know him.

He was back there years ago, a driving truck back in Pennsylvania. He was visiting his friend who I think was maybe a beachy man. And this beachy man, my friend David, they were talking, they decided let's go visit our neighbor, an Amish man.

They went and visited this Amish man. And here at this Amish man's house was a salesman who was there with this little device called the black box. And he was gonna, for a fee, for a price, take this black box and go put it out in the Amish man's field.

And his claim was this will drive away the weeds, you know, through some radio frequencies, through some kind of power that this thing has. It's going to make your crops do way better than all the neighbors. It's going to drive away the weeds.

And this guy was doing it, and sure enough, it was actually doing it. Over and over, amazing results for people. But as soon as my friend David and his beachy friends saw this, they said, hey, we're not comfortable with this.

We think this is witchcraft. We're not sticking around for this. And no, no, it's not witchcraft.

No, you know, it's not. It's fine. It's fine.

And furthermore, the Amish was a little offended that they would be inhospitable to his guests. This man was a guest in his home. He said, don't, don't, don't offend him.

They said, sorry, we're leaving. They got in their car. They drove just down across the road, and they parked.

And they said, let's pray. So they stopped, and they prayed. They took turns praying for a number of minutes there.

All of a sudden, there across the road, they saw this salesman come tearing out of this Amish man's house, jump in his car, and tear off down the road. They said, let's go back. Let's see what happens.

So they went back to the Amish man's house. They said, what happened? He said, I don't know what happened. He was here.

He was telling me. He was demonstrating this black box. All of a sudden, he got really, really agitated, and he had to go right now.

So he jumped in his car, and he left. And he says, I don't know why he left. They said, we know why he left.

We prayed him away. You know, and these kind of things, whether it's the black box, whether it's health care, homeopathy, and things like that, whether it's water witching, dowsing, these are things that people have allowed into their lives in some way. Now, there's various responses about this.

Here's some possible responses when you start bringing these things up and give a warning about them. First of all, you have a group of people called skeptics. And the skeptics respond to a warning like this by saying this.

They say, I don't really think it works. Therefore, it's not witchcraft. But then you have a group of people called the practitioners.

And the practitioners say, it does work. Therefore, it's not witchcraft. And if you put those two ideas together, you finally come out between the two of them.

They're saying witchcraft doesn't exist. It's not a thing at all. Remember, let's go back again and think about this a little bit.

The group of people called the skeptics. It doesn't work. It's just an illusion.

It's just mind games. It's trickery. It's something.

Therefore, it's not witchcraft. Practitioners say, oh, it definitely works. I've done it.

It's worked. And it works over and over again. Therefore, it's not witchcraft.

But a biblicist says something else. A person who's biblical in his thinking, who looks into the Bible and says what it is, he says Satan is real. Witchcraft is real.

There's a reason it's prohibited in the Bible. Because it definitely does work and it is real and there is a power there. And so the next five minutes of this message is really the most important five minutes of this whole discussion.

A lot of times when this discussion comes up about witchcraft, here's how it goes. Someone will mention, hey, I'm concerned about it. And he'll say he's maybe he's concerned about homeopathy, water witching, whatever.

Somebody else will respond and say, well, he's not in favor of witchcraft, but he just doesn't think that these things that are mentioned are really witchcraft. Okay. And so as I listen to this conversation, my first response is, oh, well, here's the problem.

The problem is we don't know. We don't know what witchcraft is and what is witchcraft and what isn't. But that's not the biggest problem.

The biggest problem is that we don't care. Not caring cannot be fixed. Not knowing can be fixed.

It's called investigation. I can take the time to go through the evidence and find the answer. But the fact that people don't take the time, go through the evidence, find the answer indicates problem number two, a lack of caring.

I don't care enough to know. I don't care enough to investigate. That's the biggest problem in this whole subject, is that, you know, we do things and, well, we say, there's just differences of opinions.

We just don't understand. Just because you don't understand how something works, that doesn't mean it's witchcraft. Or maybe it's going to cause too much conflict if we try to address it.

It's kind of like somebody saying, well, hey, somebody said this is poison here. I'm about ready to drink it. I don't know if it's poison or not.

Well, if they go ahead and drink it, what does that tell you? It doesn't tell you that it's true they don't know, but a bigger problem is they don't care. Or if somebody says the bridge is out ahead and you're driving 60 miles an hour down the road, there's a bridge out. Well, maybe it's true.

Maybe it's not. How do I know? I don't know if it's out or not. Well, it's true you don't know, but the bigger problem is you don't care if you don't stop and investigate.

So what we want to do is get in our minds. What does God think about witchcraft? How much does God hate it? And then we'll care enough to actually do the investigation. So that's the most important thing of all this entire subject.

The most important thing is learning to care enough to actually find out. Let's talk about health care a little bit. There's an idea out there that when it comes to health care, there's two categories.

There's the medical category, which includes drugs and doctors and high bills and all that. And then there's the natural category. And everybody has to choose.

You get sick, well, you gotta choose. You're gonna go the natural route or you're gonna go the medical route? The medical or natural? Which one? But that's not right. There's three categories.

There is the medical that we're all familiar with. There is the natural, but there's also a third category that a lot of people don't even talk about. It's the supernatural.

And the supernatural is using things that are forbidden by God often. So, you know, the question is not does it work? The question is not is it medical or natural? The question is not is it conventional medicine or alternative medicine? The question is, is it medical, natural, or finally, is it supernatural? How do we discern then? If you say, well, I want you to investigate. Well, how do I investigate? What tools do we even have to know whether something is witchcraft or not? Let me give you some tools.

Let me just give you a little questionnaire. You can take it. You can go through it to find out whether or not something truly is witchcraft or not.

All right. And first question number one is, is there power at all? The thing that we have to realize is, well, let me just tell you about a conversation I had back in Pennsylvania. I mentioned this thing of being a skeptic.

And I said, you know, that's one one response that people will give. Well, during one of the breaks, a man I highly respect, he came up to me and says, you know what? I have to admit I have been a skeptic and still is as far, you know, he said if you can, you know, he was open to being convinced, but he says he is a skeptic and he was especially talking about this thing of dowsing or water witching. He says, there's been oodles of studies that have been done by university professors, scientists trying to check this thing out and it just doesn't work.

There is no power there at all. So I've just believed it's a mind game. It's trickery.

It's something, but it certainly is. He says, I don't believe it's witchcraft because there's no power. There's been proven that it doesn't have a power.

And, you know, we had an interesting conversation. He was, he was a skeptic and I respected him for, you know, coming and talking about it because you know, there, there, there is a very clear answer that actually is one of the characteristics of witchcraft. It will not work when there's not belief.

It won't work unless your mind is attuned to it. And so we'll talk about that. I'd hope to have some time at the end for questions.

If anybody has questions you could bring up, maybe that's one you want to bring up, but we had a talk about that. But here's the questionnaire. Let me just go through what questions you asked.

Number one, does it work at all? It could be just quackery. I mean that quackery does exist. It's, there's no power there at all or placebo effect.

It's just, it's just something that in their mind it happened. So question number one, does it work at all? Number two, is there an, if there is no explanation about its effectiveness that makes sense scientifically or naturally. Number three, the healing power is not dependent on Christ or his word.

And number four, those who promote the therapy usually connect its effectiveness to some power. When you analyze that power, it proves to be non-physical. Or therefore spiritual.

Okay, so when those four things are, number one, there really is a power. I mean whether it's testimony power or whatever it is, you can, definitely something is going on here. And then these other three things, there's nothing that makes sense scientifically.

It's not dependent on Christ. And those who promote the therapy, they tie into one of these non-physical attributes. Let me give you a list of what some of these are.

Vital energy, vital force, universal energy, innate intelligence, healing force, life force, electromagnetic energy, electricity, meridians, chi. These all indicate a connection to the new age. These are new age words.

Even though some of them are also scientific words, the electricity they're talking about is nothing connected at all to the electricity that makes these lights work. You can't measure it in amps or volts or, you know, with a meter. Nothing works.

It's something completely different. All right. So using this then as a test, taking those four tests, what are some things that are witchcraft, that appear to be witchcraft, based on the best evidence we have? All right.

Here's some of them. Reflexology, applied kinesiology, acupuncture, acupressure. Again, this is according to the best evidence we have right now.

Homeopathy, and we're talking about the homeopathy where they use this thing called potentization. If you want to know what that is, ask me later or during the Q&A time. Radiasthesia, that includes things like pendulums and water witching, dowsing, things like that.

Yoga, meditation, hypnotherapy. Pow-wowing, I could tell you that's something that I don't know as much about, but I, you know, I've heard about. Pain pulling, urology, aromatherapy, ouija boards.

And then we've heard one of one recently, structured water. Again, that's, these are just a few of the things that meet these tests. As you go through these four steps, check, check, check, and I say, wow, we need to be careful.

Here's some questions that people will bring up, or objections people will bring up. They'll say, yes, but if it really works, doesn't that prove it's scientific? Or if it's witchcraft, it won't work for Christians. Or just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it's witchcraft, does it? Or, but isn't it true that we all have electricity in our bodies? Or, here's another one, if we try to address this problem in our church, it's going to cause unnecessary conflict, so let's just skip it.

Here's another one, but I was given this remedy by a Christian, doesn't that make it okay? Or, I know of preachers who practice this, doesn't that make it all right? Or maybe this one, I don't do these things myself, I just hire other people to do them for me. Kind of like King Saul hiring a witch to tell him who's going to win the battle. Or here's another one, even if these remedies are supernatural, maybe it's God's power rather than Satan that makes them work.

Well, but my grandpa, he used to do this all the time. Are you saying he wasn't right with God? Yeah, but what if we just didn't know that it was wrong? And so forth. Look, many objections that people will bring up.

And, you know, if there's one thing I want to bring up, the warning on one side. Remember, these warnings always have another counterpart called an opportunity. The warning is, stay away from the devil's forms of tapping into the supernatural.

Does that mean that we cannot tap into the supernatural? No, the good news is we can. See, the warning is, stay away from witchcraft. But what's the invitation? Come and tap into the supernatural in God's way.

Prayer, fasting, anointing with oil. Or there's one I mentioned, I think, in the last sermon, a singing about that man in the book called Bruchka, how he was, you know, in this area of witchcraft and the demons were coming to kill somebody. And he stayed up all night singing the new Christian, the new believer.

And no one died that night. Wonderful, wonderful testament, how God uses some of these things. We can tap into the supernatural, but let's do it in God's way.

Let's not use the devil's methods. Let's not use the world's method. Let me just say this, too, as the week went on and I brought this in the first second message, actually.

Questions came up, I mentioned the one about the skeptic. Another objection that came up was the and this this was by people who practice it. They say, well, we think it's just something physical.

There's something physical going on there. It's not supernatural at all. That's one objection by people who practice it.

Another objection that people will use is we think maybe it is supernatural, but it's a gift that God has given me. So it's a gift from God. Later in the week, I addressed that I found in my notes something I wanted to share and I didn't have.

I couldn't find it. Well, I found that I shared it. There was a man named Ben Hester who wrote a book on the subject of dowsing, very complete book.

And he he addresses these two questions. So he says, OK, look, if you're here and you practice divination or practice water, witching or dowsing, if you if you're a dowser. And if you have one of these two objections, number one, if you think it's physical, I have some questions for you.

And if you're in another group, you think it's a gift from God. I've got some questions for you to listen to these questions. He says, if you're in the group of people that think it's physical, how do you explain that it's not uncommon for water, which is to be visited with unexpected and spontaneous occult abilities such as clairvoyance or clairaudience? How can you explain the dowser's ability to heal with the rod or the pendulum? By the way, this is big business over in Germany.

Number three, how do you explain the fact that the one and most important requirement to learn how to dows or get the device to work after learning is a belief in it? We call it faith. Remember, if anything shakes the dowser's belief in the act, it will not work. Number four, explain the phenomenon of map dowsing, laying a map out on the counter and finding something using a map.

What causes the pendulum to react to your questions? If your answer is mental programming, would you explain that, please? And number five, what is the scientific explanation for remote dowsing, locating objects not close by or lost or hidden by asking the device questions? How would you explain that? Those are questions if you think it's physical. Number two, if you think, well, it's just a gift from God, then here's some questions for you. If you believe it's a gift from God, have you ever obeyed the biblical command to test the spirits before deciding that this is a gift from God? Number two, have you ever prayed sincerely in the name of Jesus that the rod's action be stopped if it's not from God? Number three, how do you explain the use of the dowsing rod to heal? And it has been proving to when there's no when it's never done in the name of Jesus Christ.

Number four, would you explain why dowsing teachers warn their students not to make the wrong use of the rod and that it's up to their conscience how they use it? Could a gift from God allow you to use his power to do evil? Number five, how is it the dowsing device is used to harm the same as voodoo at the will of the dowser? Number six, how is it that even an evil man can use the dowsing rod successfully? Number seven, how is it that there's no repentance or right living or dedication of life to God that's required to douse successfully as would be true in getting answers to prayer? How can you explain that the fact that the intelligent force behind dowsing is all moral? Would you explain how this intelligent force can and does lie to you if it's a gift from God? One of the oldest things, you know, people, dowsing has been going on for many, many generations, many, many centuries. But one of the things people, even from history, will always warn about is that thing will lie to you. It'll give you an intelligent answer.

But once every once in a while, we'll throw in a lie just to keep you guessing. And the last one, some of the most expert dowser in the world claim that an entity is involved in every witching act. If you have not been able to answer the above question satisfactorily to yourself or you're still certain it's an angel of light and that or are you still certain it's an angel and that dowsing truly is a gift from God.

So there's some questions I think deserve an answer if you're among the people who, you know, use some of those excuses why it might be OK. So once again, I want to urge us. Let's heed the warning and seize the opportunity, the warning against witchcraft, but the opportunity to tap into the supernatural in God's way.

And by the way, if anybody wants more information on that, Christian Light does sell a book by Ken Miller on the subject of dowsing and how does it work and why it's why it's wrong and so forth. We're going to go on to a second warning here this morning. So we've talked about the new birth or the lack of the new birth or the new birth.

We've talked about the opportunity, the warning about hypocrisy versus honesty, humility, righteousness. Now we've talked about witchcraft versus prayer, fasting, anointing with oil. Now we've got a fourth one.

This warning is found in Matthew chapter six, and we already heard this this morning in the children's lesson, but I'll read it. Matthew chapter six. If you forgive not men, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you forgive, sorry, if you forgive men, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Also, Matthew 18.

So likewise, shall my heavenly father do to you if you from your heart forgive not men, everyone, his brother, their trespasses. And again, this is a warning that I think we need to take seriously because I fear many people will on judgment day be disappointed when they discover I will not be allowed to enter heaven because of unforgiveness in my life. I think I know I've told this some of what I'm sharing here on this subject are things that you've heard here in this church building before.

But I think it's these are things that I think are first of all, maybe somebody here hasn't heard them. But secondly, it's things that we we need to hear over and over again. I just remember a story from up in Canada when I was a young boy about a man coming to judgment day, having a heart attack and facing God and saying, no, you can't come in to heaven.

But he was he somehow was resuscitated. He came back at six more weeks to live before his second heart attack. During those six weeks, he confessed he made things right with his family members, his church members and so forth and got right with God.

And then six weeks later, he had a second heart attack and died. Just this past week, I got this email from that was written by Pete Lewis. It was called Dad and Walt.

He writes these devotionals and he just says about forgiveness. He says, we while we generally think forgiveness should be extended to individual people, it's equally important. Listen to this.

To forgive nations, races, cultures, congregations and even whole denominations. Two notable examples that strongly impressed me in my youth in August of 1942, the destroyer on which my father was serving was sunk by Japanese bombers and 56 crew members went to the bottom of the sound. In the remaining 65 years of his life, my father never once expressed animosity or bitterness toward the Japanese.

We understood forgiveness to be a biblical principle. Years ago, I worked in a hardware store where a man named Walt was a regular customer. Although he considered himself a Christian, Walt refused to buy any products made in Japan.

He had seen many of his marine friends killed by the Japanese while serving in the South Pacific in World War II. The war had ended more than 40 years earlier, but Walt had neither forgotten nor forgiven. I have often been saddened by the bitterness and lack of forgiveness in professing Christians who continue to nurse ill feelings toward congregations or denominations where they were former members.

Quick to fault the ministers or the people, they seem blind to the self-destruction their unforgiveness is causing. One day, as I visited with Walt, he came to see the sinfulness of his attitude and repented of it. The next week, he came into our store and with a big grin, he bought a whole handful of tools with the label, Made in Japan.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Written by Pete Lewis. So this thing of forgiveness, how important is it? You know, it's so important for our own freedom.

If you want to be free, you need to be a person who forgives, has forgiven, and knows what it means to accept the pain and repent of the forgiveness and go forward. But you know, it's not only our own freedom I'm concerned about. There's another thing I'm concerned about.

It's the testimony of those around us. Forgiveness is a powerful testimony to others in this world. Back on June 25, 2023, I got a call from Delbert Shetler.

He was an Amish man from Ohio. Delbert had known about CAM for a long time. He had got our news reports.

But 11 weeks prior to this date, he had hired a driver, went on a drive, and he took his 18-year-old daughter, 16-year-old son along. They were on a two-lane road and an oncoming truck blew a tire, crossed the center line and killed everybody in the car except Delbert. Delbert had been in the hospital for 11 weeks before that.

He just got out of the hospital and he called our number. I thought, well, he's calling our number to have prayer. He's calling our number to get maybe some comfort.

But no, he was calling the number to say, I'm concerned about the truck driver that killed us. I want to witness to him. How can I witness to this truck driver? He's 55 years old.

He doesn't know the Bible. And he doesn't know how to be saved. So how can I tell him? I was very touched by Delbert's heart to witness to this truck driver who had killed his family and almost killed him.

I shared this with the other phone team. And another man called and he emailed and he says, I was touched by your response. Have you ever heard the story called the freedom of forgiveness received? I said, no, I don't think so.

What is it? I'll send it to you. So he did. And this is the story about Joel Kime.

And I'd like to share this story with you. It's a little bit lengthy. I'd like to read it in the time that we have left.

But Joel Kime currently is a pastor in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But at the time that this happened back in the fall of 1991, he was 17 years old. And this was found in three different parts.

So I'd like to share with you the story of Joel Kime and what forgiveness. Just think about that. What does forgiveness do to other people? What does it do to us? It sets us free.

Yes. But what does it do to other people? So Joel Kime, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, fall of 1991, just 11 months after passing my driver's license test, I've been driving with no accidents, no tickets. Basically, I thought I was the best driver in the nation.

I remember how much fun it was to trying to push the limits. My parents drive to church, for example, took about 15 minutes. I did it once in eight.

It was a video game to me rather than the responsibility it should have been. As I said, I hadn't gotten into any trouble, no tickets, no accidents, although I had a few close calls. On Sunday, November 3, 1991, I went to church with my family and couldn't wait for it to be done so I could rush home, shovel down dinner and leave to play football with the guys from church.

After lunch, my brother, Jeff, and I hopped into my parents' station wagon. We picked up his friend, Chad, my friend, Dave, and sped over to Lancaster Christian School for the game. I knew the way back to LCS very well because my brother's sister and I attended there through eighth grade.

Part of the way back way took a south and Kissill Hill Road just to the east of Lancaster airport. It was a beautiful fall day, cool, crisp, and clear. I remember driving on this section of Kissill Hill Road between Millport Road and Oregon Road.

As I came over the crest of one small hill, I hit the gas and we felt the car lurch into high gear. Sounding like I knew what I was talking about, I made some inane comment about the car doing well today because it hit third gear at 70. Dave, who hadn't yet put on his seatbelt, responded that he better do so.

Little did he suspect that his caution might have saved his life. As he fumbled with the belt, I saw an Amish buggy about 100 yards in front of us in our lane heading in the same direction we were. I said to everyone in the car something like, I'm going to blow by these guys.

I thought I was so incredibly cool. I stomped on the gas again, now doing about 70 to 75, steered the car into the left lane to pass the buggy. As we raced closer to the buggy, I will never, ever forget seeing the nose of the horse turn out in front of me.

Instantly, I knew they were trying to turn left in front of me. I hadn't looked for, nor had I seen, their turn signal or the small country road they were attempting to turn onto. Instinct took over, and I pounded the brake pedal with my foot.

The brakes locked. This car skidded forward, tires screaming. We smashed into the buggy, and I heard the pop of my windshield shattering into tiny pieces of glass.

The buggy flew over the top of my car, and we rumbled to a stop in the field on the left. My hands gripped tight to the wheel, were streaming with blood, but only from shards of glass from the windshield that grazed my knuckles. Dave never quite got his seatbelt buckled.

When I hit the brakes, he grabbed the shoulder belt and held on with both hands. The belt locked and swung him around his left shoulder, hit the windshield. Other than soreness, though, neither he, Jeff, Chad, or Chad were hurt.

Dave's father, who visited the scene after it was cleared, later told us that the skid marks from the car quite visibly ran off the road, missing a telephone pole by about 12 inches. It all happened so fast, I don't even remember seeing a telephone pole. After making sure everyone in the car was okay, I tried to open my door, but the collision had jammed it shut.

Just then, an Amish man came running up to our car, yelling frantically, Does anyone know CPR? Does anyone know CPR? At 17, I was the oldest in the car. I think Dave had a bit of training, but we weren't prepared for what we saw after we got out. We walked to the crash site and saw the Amish man holding the crumpled pile of what looked like his mother.

She was severely injured, convulsing, and definitely missing teeth. I told Jeff and Chad to run to the nearest home, which in that area were all farms, to find a phone and call 911. They sprinted across the field, so riveted on getting to a phone that my brother never even saw, the Amish lady.

He remembers the fields were plowed, making his trek as though he were running sluggishly on a sandy beach. My brother's race to the phone was the first instance of many in which I realized the extreme pain that my sin had brought, not only to the Amish family, but also to my family. Imagine being a 13-year-old, running with all your might to get a phone to call 911 because your older brother had caused an awful accident.

Dave and I stayed and flagged down cars, hoping someone might have a mobile phone, which at that time was still a rarity. I tugged at his shirt in desperation, saying something, what do we do? The immediate aftermath, my dad and I sat in the backseat of the police cruiser. Eventually, cars stopped, a policeman and ambulance crew came to the scene.

That was a huge relief for me. A family friend who was driving, I picked up Jeff from the scene and dropped him off at our home. He was the first to inform my parents, and together with my dad, returned to pick me up.

On their way back to the accident, from a distance, they could see the car in the field and the unrecognizable buggy. Imagine the dreadful feeling of driving to the scene of devastation that your son has caused. How that must have felt for my dad.

I don't remember much except fear and an overwhelming desire to tell the truth and get to what I knew was a weighty burden off my back. As my dad and I sat in the back of the police cruiser, the officer gave my dad and me a few moments alone after I had blurted out some initial details. We assumed he left us to ourselves so that we could go over the details of the story together, possibly come up with a spin that didn't make me so culpable for the accident.

Although I knew it was horrible, I told him exactly what had happened, even the fact that I was going at least 70. They were able to confirm that later anyway by the length of the skid marks. I came to find out in the coming weeks that the officer was really impressed with my honesty.

At the time, I was simply scared to death of any further trouble. Lying was not an option. I didn't know if I was going to jail, the local juvenile detention center, or some other awful place.

But the cop let me go home with my dad, clearly stating that there would be a follow-up. I'll never forget what my dad said in response to my rather tepid apologies as we drove away. You've been through enough.

We're not going to make it worse for you. He was right, and I'm very glad for it. It was already bad, but it was about ready to get worse.

When we arrived home, my mom met me at the door. I must have spent the next half hour just crying on my mom's shoulder. As the news got out, many family and friends showed their love and support by coming over to do nothing and everything at the same time.

Be there. The friends from church stopped their football game and came over. Gradually, I heard from my school and church friends and migrated to our house to show support.

I think they even prayed together. As I was huddled with my friends in the basement, my parents called me upstairs to the bedroom to tell me that a police officer just called with a report about the Amish lady who had been taken to the hospital. Due to permanent brain damage, she needed life support to stay alive since the Amish don't believe in life support.

She died that night in the hospital. The horrible news began to pile on me. The Amish lady, the officer told us, was not the mother of the man.

It was his wife. More than that, it was his newlywed bride, and they'd been on their honeymoon. They'd only been married for five days.

She was 21. He was 19. Traditionally, November is the Amish wedding season.

They were on their customary Amish honeymoon travels, visiting a few days in one relative's home, then moving on to another, another, and so on. Amid that bliss, she was dead, and I had killed her. It was, and still is, by far the worst day of my life.

My mother recalls that she held me crying in her arms while my dad and brother sat next to me on the bed, and my nine-year-old sister, Laura, was convinced I was going to jail. Eventually, everyone left our house, but God and I talked long into the night. The next day, my parents allowed me to stay home from school, and one of my friend's parents let him stay with me.

He picked me up, and we watched videos to get our mind off the disaster. In the middle of one of the videos, my parents called. They had found out from my uncle, who had connections in the Amish community, that the viewing was going to be that day, and they told me I was going.

It was extremely frightening news, yet it signals the depths of my parents' character. I know my dad later told people it was the hardest thing that they ever had to do. In the process, step by step, through the process of dealing with my sin, my parents did everything right.

In a world where so many want to shift blame, especially where their children mess up, my parents stood by me and guided me through the handling of the situation in a God-honoring, responsible, and truthful manner. That evening, my parents and my youth pastor and I went to where we thought the viewing was going to be. I felt so nervous that there was actual pain ripping through my guts.

I didn't know what these people were like or what was going to happen. Would they come pouring out on the porch of the house with shotguns? That was literally the image in my mind. We arrived at the house, but it didn't seem like anybody was at home.

We had mistakenly been given the location not of the viewing, but of the husband's family's home. Some of his relatives were inside, and my mom remembers his grandmother coming out to meet me, hugging me, and expressing her forgiveness. Amazingly, the husband's father was there and needed a ride to the viewing.

We took him with us as he directed our way. The father, while very reserved, wasn't mean to us and even expressed his forgiveness. But can you imagine driving to the viewing of your son's new wife with the family of the guy who was responsible for her death? When we finally made it to the viewing, we saw Amish buggies parked all over the farm property, heightening my fear.

This was a tragedy in the life of Lancaster's Amish community, drawing many to support the family and attend the viewing. A loss in what was supposed to be a joyful season made the front page of the local newspaper. Then the moment came.

We got out of the car and walked into the dimly lit house. I had never been in an Amish home and was surprised how similar it looked to my own. The family knew we were coming and met us at the front room.

The parents of the Amish lady who died, Melvin and Barbara Stoltz, walked up to me and put their arms around me. Through tears, I muttered how sorry I was, and they spoke some of the most incredible words I think that are possible to utter. We forgive you.

We know it was God's time for her to die. Unbelievable. It was totally, absolutely amazing.

But the family went even further than that. They proceeded to invite my family to come over for dinner, and they wanted us to come soon, within a few weeks. I can't express the relief that flooded over me.

Then someone took me to the back room where the husband, Aaron, stood beside the casket of his wife, Sarah. To my surprise, as I nervously glanced at her, I was looking at a beautiful young woman. Aaron, like her parents, came to me with open arms.

I asked, how can I ever repay you? He simply forgave me. We hugged as the freedom of forgiveness swept over and through me. As I read and reread the previous few paragraphs, I feel extremely limited in my command of the English language.

To evoke the feelings of what took place. When I tell the story live, it seems to carry a greater impact. Maybe the audience reads my face.

Maybe the emotions can't help but flow through me. All I know is that the Stolzfus' concise words of forgiveness rush through me with power. Some people have said that Amish can forgive like that because their theology leans toward fatalism, meaning they believe everything's determined and bound to happen.

There's no reason to get all bent out of shape about something bad. God's in control. I don't know how true that is for every single Amishman, but I do know that this particular family is very emotional in a positive way.

They're incredibly warm and upbeat people. And I know the accident, Sarah's death, was very hard for them. My mom, recalling the events, said, I will never forget what Pastor Jim told us that day.

He watched Joel, that's the writer, drain this entire night. He said he started out as a young teen with an incredible burden of guilt on his shoulder, but walked out of that house with a tremendous weight taken from him through forgiveness. The Stolzfus' did have us over for dinner sometime that next month, an event I recall with wonder.

There we were, sitting in the same Amish home with Sarah's family, Aaron, and some of his family, too. The table was loaded with delicious food, and never once did they show any kind of resentment. Never once did they attempt to make us feel bad.

On the contrary, it was kind of a get-to-know-you session, an intentional beginning to a meaningful relationship. We exchanged stories comparing Amish subculture with mainstream American culture. They were so kind by opening their homes and hearts to us.

The broader Amish community in Lancaster was also very impressive to me. I still have the pile of at least 50 cards that I received from various Amish people across the country. They were constantly encouraging me and pointing me to God.

It was also at this time I clearly recall a striking visit from my soccer coach. I remember meeting him at the door one evening, probably just a few days after the accident. I will never forget what he said.

Joel, you will be compassionate from now on. How true. Since that time, I have never had trouble forgiving people.

Not that I have worked on it and become talented at it. On the contrary, I think God must have changed my heart because I don't have to try to forgive anymore. It flows out as naturally as my heart beats without my having a say in the matter.

Handing my keys over to my parents, I did not drive again in the ensuing months. My trial was set for February 5, 1992. Because of the severity of the accident, I was charged with vehicular homicide, a charge that indicates accidental but irresponsibly reckless use of a vehicle that caused the loss of life.

I'm not sure where it falls in the murder-manslaughter scale. But I do know that if I would have been one year older, I could have been facing jail time, which is another facet of the whole story that points me to the grace of God. I was 17, a minor, and therefore dealt with under the juvenile system and saved a much harsher penalty in the adult courts.

Soon after the accident, I was assigned probation officer to walk my family and me through the penal process prior to the court date. The standard punishment for juvenile vehicular homicide at the time was suspension of the driver's license for three years, 200 hours of community service, payment of all court costs, and probation until the community service was completed. To me, was Sarah's life gone because of my actions? It was an extremely generous sentence.

My trial and punishment served as another moment for the Amish family to demonstrate freedom of forgiveness. They wrote letters to the judge begging for my pardon, asking that I be acquitted on all counts. Imagine the character it would take to write that letter.

Because of the severity of the crime, however, a pardon was impossible based on the law. At the trial, my dad asked the judge if it might be possible for me to get my license back sooner because I was going to go to college and would need to drive. But the judge held firm to the standard, a wise decision that was completely rational and acceptable to my thinking.

As we walked out of the courtroom, my probation officer met us in the hallway. I will never forget pulling out my wallet and handing over my precious driver's license to her that day after the court appearance. Our relationship with the Stoltzfus family has continued ever since.

Over the years, they have come to our house, we've gone to theirs about once each year near the anniversary of the accident. I came to realize our relationship with Aaron and the rest of the Stoltzfus family, although it began under the most horrible circumstances, had grown into a legitimate normal relationship. They had forgiven me and never ever went back on that decision, and they backed it up with a real relationship.

Consider this. Five years after the accident, Michelle and I invited them to our wedding, and they came for the ceremony and the reception bearing gifts. Some may read this and think, how insensitive.

You invited them to your wedding? Isn't that a slap in the face? On the surface, it certainly looks like it. It does seem odd to me that we would invite the Stoltzfus to share our celebration when only five years earlier, I had totally shattered theirs. But that viewpoint fails to realize the depth of the relationship.

The past had been forgiven, and we were friends. People invite friends to their wedding. I particularly like the idea of trumpeting to the world their brand of forgiveness.

To me, having the Stoltzfus at my wedding was not to show off the fact I had friends in the Amish community. It was to display to everyone who knew us the glory of God that results when people obey his commands. To accent this further, when we moved to Jamaica to be missionaries three years later, the Stoltzfus family supported us financially.

Forgiveness, they taught me, is not a one-time event. Perhaps this was the angle of what Jesus intended when he replied to Peter, we ought to forgive someone not just seven, but 70 times seven. In other words, Jesus said that's to follow its purpose of freedom.

To follow its purpose of freedom, it requires follow-up, the rebuilding of a relationship, or as in my case, the creation of a new one. God blessed the situation even more, as even further, as Sarah, as Erin, eventually married Sarah's younger sister, Lavina. To me, it was as though God allowed the family to be whole again.

They now have a beautiful family of children. This past year, when we visited Melvin and Barbara, the parents, on their farm, bakery in Lidditz, it was the first we had seen them in a couple of years. For the first time in 11 years, we talked about the accident frankly but kindly.

Again, they were never condemning, just admitting how hard it was because they missed Sarah. I had the chance to express my gratitude and share with them how the freedom of forgiveness they gave me impacts so many people whenever I share my story. I cried then, as I do now, as I type this.

In this land of liberty, that kind of freedom I receive often eludes us. We have so few pictures of what it looks like. God glorified himself in my life, however, by blessing me with a wonderful picture how people can handle terrible crimes against themselves.

My Uncle Jim, when commenting on an early manuscript of my story, added, what I've seen in you is that the forgiveness of the Amish gave you the confidence to live life to the full. Jesus said, I've come that they might have life and they might have it to the full. That full life is only possible through the freedom of forgiveness received.

The end of the story. Do we realize, do we underestimate, or do we know what power there is when we forgive people? When we've set people free, even people that have caused us pain, do we have the real, do we not know the power? Can we get just a glimpse, or let's put it this way, if I get just a glimpse of what I have been forgiven, could I be like the author of this story who said once he knew what he had been forgiven, it was easy for him to forgive other people. It was automatic.

Would the same be true for us if we really realized how great our forgiveness is from God? Let's bow for prayer and if there's anybody, if you have a question or anything you'd like to ask or say after that, we'll open it up just briefly. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus and we bless you.

We bless you for forgiveness. We bless you for redemption through Jesus when he died on the cross and paid for our redemption, that we can have eternal life when we repent. I pray, Lord, that you would work in our lives, that you would bring salvation.

You would help us, those that have been forgiven, to in turn forgive others and help us, Lord, if we don't really realize how much we've been forgiven, then show us and I pray that you would continue to let your kingdom go forward in a mighty way as people extend this same forgiveness to others. I just commit this group to you now. I commit this time that we've had to you, commit this day to you and pray that you would have your will and way in it.

We just commit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.