Frankie Mazzapica - Unlocking Prison Doors
Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is "Unlocking Prison Doors". Unlocking Prison Doors. I am 100% certain that the number one need in the church today is deliverance. We need to be delivered of the things that are entangling us. That is keeping us from moving forward with the Lord. And what I find fascinating is the things that are keeping us from running at the pace, pursuing at the pace is like having a rock in your shoe. When you have a rock in your shoe and you don't have the time to get it out, to take your shoe off and shake it upside down. As you're walking, you kind of kick it to the front of your shoe. Have you ever done that?
You kick it to the front because you know, there's space between your toes in the front of your shoe. And you kind of kick it in the front and now you're a little bit more comfortable when you walk and you can walk at the normal pace. But sure enough, that little pebble, that little rock, will just creep its way back down into the shoe. And it makes your pace so uncomfortable again. What we need to do is when that happens and just take a moment, take our shoes, dump it upside down, put it, get rid of that rock and we can start walking again at the normal pace with a comfortable pace without being consumed with the rock in the shoe. There's so many things in our life that it's like that rock and we just need to get it out. We need to just free it. And what I want to talk to you today about is unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness is the number one way where we begin to lock ourselves behind a prison door. Where we cannot seem to love the Lord, be intimate with the Lord, begin to love other people the way we really want to. We're behind prison doors. If you've ever been through a divorce, it is hard to trust anyone again. If anyone that you've ever loved has hurt you, it is so hard to ever trust them again. It is forgiving is not a mental decision. Forgiving is not an emotional decision. Forgiving is a supernatural process where the presence of God, the Holy Spirit touches your heart to give you the ability to forgive. Are you with me? Forgiveness is a hard thing. It's a hard thing. But when the Holy Spirit touches your heart it becomes a natural thing. And so for all of us that have such a hard time forgiving, what we need to do is ask God to help us. I find it so difficult to forgive a person that has sinned against me over and over again. It's kind of like a pattern. It's very, very difficult.
Let me refer back to peter because he had a big problem forgiving people in Matthew chapter 18, verse 21 and 22. He comes to the Lord and he says this as he comes to him. He says, Lord, how many times should I forgive someone for sinning against me? And he decides that he is really going to impress the Lord when he says, seven? And Jesus answered back, No, not 7, 70 times 7. Now, 7 times is a lot, 70 times 7 is inconceivable. But when you study the Greek on that verse, the request of the Lord, the demand of the Lord becomes overwhelming to the point that we have to have the Holy Spirit to reach it. Because when you study the Greek, it's 70 times 7. This isn't Greek. This is just simple mathematics. I said simple mathematics, 70 times 7. That's 490. He's saying forgive 490 times.
Now, here comes the Greek. Forgive that same person for the same thing on the same day, 490 times. The same person for the same thing on the same day, 490 times. And if we ever get tired of forgiving a person over and over, we can stop when we get tired of the Lord forgiving us over and over again. You can stop forgiving that person over and over again when you're okay with being forgiven over and over again. You say, I don't see the parallel. You cannot ask for something that you are not willing to give. That is a prideful position to come before the Lord and say I'm sorry for my sins. Again and again, I keep asking you to forgive me and I'm sorry for that. Most of us in this room, don't stumble over a dozen different areas in our life. We have an Achilles heel, but we seem to stumble over the same thing over and over again and we come to the Lord over and over again and we say, I did it again.
When the person does it again and again. We've got to find the Grace of God because it's not natural. You will not receive the grace of God unless you ask for the grace of God. I needed grace. When I first put this message together, I was gonna string together a funny story of how people frustrate me whenever they keep asking for me to forgive them. I was coming up with funny stories where how a person would ask me, they'll apologize to me and I'm like having to apologize to them, but I want to flip the script because a story like that, an illustration like that, is me offering someone forgiveness. But I want to flip it when I needed forgiveness. I was in the car the other day with my son Luke and he said, I want to show you a reel you know, kids these days are so into social media and these reels that last like, I don't know anywhere from like four seconds to like two minutes.
And at a safe moment in the truck, I know it's like, what were you doing in the truck looking at a reel. It was a safe moment. And he takes the phone and he hands it to me, he's holding it in the middle just above the console, And he's showing me a reel that is that he thought was hysterical. That he thought was so funny. And he held it in front of me and I was looking at the phone. I held the phone and I got about 20 seconds into it and I said, okay, I'm bored. And I handed it back and he took the phone and I saw him just kind of slip into his seat because he wanted to share a moment with me and I got bored. And I told him I got bored.
In that moment was just crushed. And I looked at him and I said, Luke, what I just said was so incredibly rude and I'm very, very sorry. And he looked back at me and he goes, it's okay. And I said thank you. And then I said it again. I said, man, I'm really, really sorry. He said it's all right. But the moment between us felt sticky. It was awkward and I wanted it to hurry up and get out of that awkward moment because I wasn't forgiving myself. And I wasn't convinced that he had truly forgiven me. And so it was awkward and I said to myself, Frankie, just wait. Just hold on. He's got a kind heart. Just hold on and let's get through this Thankfully the moment lasted about ten minutes and we started laughing about something else.
But I can't tell you how hard or how deep that pain would have been if he did not forgive me. I can't even express it. When you don't forgive someone, you really gotta go on the other side of the table. And if you needed the forgiveness and you were desperate for the forgiveness, how would you feel? And to withhold something from someone that you and I need so often is very self righteous. Where we begin to look at other people and say, I would give you forgiveness but I'm so tired of forgiving you. Or we'll look back at someone and say, I will forgive you. Just don't ever do it again. Forgiveness? With stipulations is not forgiveness at all. It's probation. I'm putting you on probation. I'm forgiving you. But if you do it again, I'm locking you back up. But in truth, you're not locking them back up. You're locking yourself back up because it's our heart that begins to harden when we begin to put our dukes up and say, I'm so tired of it.
I've got three major points for you today. The first major point are the tormentors that get released upon us when we don't forgive. The second point is the darkness that comes upon us when we don't forgive. And the third point is our responsibility. I was reading a book and uh, well, let me get, I'll get to that when I get to the point about darkness, the torment that comes to us is actually introduced or allowed by Jesus Christ himself. When we don't forgive and we hold a grudge, Jesus Christ himself says you have asked for this. Let me share a Scripture with you. It's in Matthew chapter 18, verse 34. Where Jesus is telling a parable of someone who desperately needed their debt forgiven, the debt was forgiven. But then somebody owed them money and they didn't forgive them.
And so Jesus tells a story and it talks about the person who did not offer forgiveness. And it says this in verse 34, it says, and his Lord, his master, the person who was carrying the debt that was owed the money, his master, his Lord was wrought with him. W-O-R-T he was angry. He was beyond angry. He was wrought with him and he delivered him to the tormentors till he begin to pay back the debt. And then Jesus says this and my father in heaven will do the same thing to you if you refuse from your heart to forgive those who have sinned against you. These tormentors primarily fall into two categories. Number one is an emotional state where the tormentors come and you cannot stop thinking about it, you can't stop thinking about it because you're rehearsing all the things that that person did to you.
I'll tell you from personal experience that when I have reached a peak of anger, when I lay down at night, I know that I'm being tormented because I can't stop thinking about it and as I begin to think about it, the offense that I have received begins to get energy and I begin to think for myself, I know why they did that, I know why they said that, I know what their intentions were, I know what is motivating them and I begin to add to the narrative and the tormentors are laughing and continue to provoke me with these thoughts. The second thing is not emotional, it's not thoughts, it's actually physical. Where the tormentors begin to physically begin to inflict you. When you get sick, you get physically sick. This is not a mental thing, this is physical, you're sick. You want to throw up. Your body doesn't feel good. Your body is stressed.
I read a book recently called "Shadowboxing". It's written by Henry Malone and he tells a story about his wife Tina who had scoliosis of the spine was causing her back a lot of pain. And so she went to, this was several years ago, while John Wimber was alive, who started a revival or he was, he didn't start it, he was part of the revival in Toronto. And so she came to John Wimber and she says, I need you to pray for me. I'm in a tremendous amount of pain. So John Wimber, who had a great anointing on his life for healing, he prayed for her and nothing happened. He prayed for her again and nothing happened. And so we had this thought, although not all sickness has anything to do with being tormented, but a lot of times it does. This is what I've learned about devils. This is what I've learned about evil. That not everything bad that happens to you has to do with the devil, but far more things have to do with the devil than what we realize.
And so John Wimber asks Tina, he says, is there anyone in your life who you need to forgive? And Dr. Malone says, in my own vernacular, my wife is as pure as the driven snow. And so she said back to John Wimber, There's no one I can think of in whom I have not given forgiveness from. I can't think of one person. And Dr. Malone says on a sidebar from his story, he says, I don't know anyone who doesn't have some type of unforgiveness in their life. This is his perspective. And so back to the story, John Wimber says, well if you can't think of anyone, I'm not saying this is going to unlock your healing, but it could. And he says, let's ask the Holy Spirit if there's anyone in your life and have them bring that person to mind. And so he prays. And he says Holy Spirit bring this person to mind if there's any unforgiveness that that person has, that Tina has. She started thinking and all of a sudden she remembered that her father skipped her high school graduation and she burst into tears. She forgave him and she was instantly healed.
Second thing I want to talk about is darkness. The Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31, it says this, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words. Get rid of these things. Get rid of slander," and watch what it says, "and do not participate in any other kinds of evil". These things are evil. Bitterness, rage, harsh words, anger, these things are evil. He says this, "Instead be kind to one another, be tenderhearted, forgiving one another". You may say what I thought when I read it, this is impossible. I'm half Brazilian, I'm half Italian. That's a cocktail mix to go on fire when I feel offended. I get asked all the time, why do you have to go 0 to 10 in one second?
Well, I throttle at nine. Getting to 10 is just 1 inch away. And so what do I do? I have to ask the Holy Spirit to help me just like you. I'm anointed to preach this, but I gotta walk it through, just like everyone else. The last point I want to share is what is our response. Now, Scripture should be the foundation of our theology. If the Bible is not our theology, that means we are coming up with our own theology. You know, if you're coming up with your own theology, when your sentences just say, well, I believe. Well, I believe. Well, I think, that's your own theology, but when you say this is what the Bible says, that's biblical theology. You may not like it, but it won't change. It's kind of like the grandpa that was holding a cat that was petting it the wrong way. You're supposed to pet a cat from head to tail. And he was petting the cat from tail to head.
A little boy came up to him and said grandpa, his grandson, Grandpa, you're petting the cat the wrong way. And he said, Well, the cat better turn around then. You see the grandfather was refusing to change and I just want to let you know the Lord refuses to change. Here's what the Bible says our response should be. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 15, it says this, if you refuse to forgive others, our father in heaven will refuse to forgive us. In Luke chapter 8, verse 28, it says this, that we should, what does it say? Bless those who have cursed you, bless them. Lord bless them and Jesus saying bless them and pray for those who have hurt you. If you're in this room and you say Frankie, I need the Holy Spirit in ways that I never had before. And I received this word this morning by faith. I want you to put your hands together right now. Come on, let me hear you.