Jentezen Franklin - Put On The Overcoat of Love
I want you to open your Bibles to the New Testament to the book of Colossians 3:12. "Therefore, as the elect of God and His beloved". That's you and me. We don't see ourselves like that. That's you and me. "Therefore, as the elect of God and His beloved put on tender mercy, and kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering". Listen to verse 13, "Bear with one another, forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called to one body, and be thankful". I love that verse "And above all these things," here it is, "put on love".
I'm preaching today on, "Put on the Overcoat of Love and then Get Over It". I love that verse, "Put on love". "Clothe yourself in love," one translation says. Another translation says, "Forgive one another". Another translation says, "Make allowances for one another". Isn't that good? "Make allowances". They're human. We're human. We're gonna mess up. We're all gonna fail. "Make allowances". Don't be that person that nags. You say, "But they've done me wrong". Put the overcoat of love over everything that has happened, and you'll find your way out. Because trouble is inevitable, but misery is optional. And you have to decide because trouble's gon' come to every relationship and trouble is gon' come to every family.
And I'm preaching on that much of the trouble because that's really in the big picture of things. The joy that family gives, the blessing that marriage is, all of that is so much bigger and so much greater. And what you have to decide is trouble is inevitable, but misery is optional. And hurt is a reality, but bitterness is a reaction. Jesus, when He hung on the cross said, "Father, forgive them". And He got over it. He put on the overcoat of love, and He said, "I'm going to forgive them". Judas the betrayer came in the garden of Gethsemane to turn Him over to the torturers and a torturous death. And Jesus said something strange when He came to Him and Judas betrayed Him with a kiss, and it was a secret code to the Roman soldiers pointing out, "He's the one. The one that I kiss is the one that you need to arrest and crucify".
And Jesus knew it. He knew it when He washed his feet in the upper room the night before that he would betray Him. He knew it when He was in the garden praying and He heard him and saw him coming. And Jesus stood and when he came and kissed Him on the cheek. Jesus, the Bible said, kissed him and said, "Friend". Jesus called him friend. Sometimes when things happen that hurt you, you just have to kiss it and call it friend. Because you have to understand if it gets you closer to the ultimate fulfillment of the purpose of God for your life, Judas was the key to Jesus ending up on the cross, and He kissed it and called it friend. Sometimes painful, hurtful, ugly things come into our life.
Just like Joseph, he said to his brothers who had hurt him, his own family so much he said, "I'mma put on the coat of love. You strip my coat off, that coat of many colors. But I choose to put the coat, overcoat of love on. And you meant it for my evil, but I'mma kiss you and call you friend". And he kissed them and wept over 'em. Ephesians 4 put it this way, "Be angry and sin not". It's okay to get angry but He said, "Don't let that anger get in your spirit. Don't let that anger turn you into somebody that destroys every relationship because you couldn't get over what somebody did to you, and it bleeds over into every other relationship". He said, "Be angry and sin not," and then He tells you how to do it. He says, "Here's how you do that. Let not the sun go down on your wrath lest you give place to the devil".
That word place there is foothold in the Greek. That literally, when you get angry and you don't deal with it quickly, but you let it just get into your spirit and anger becomes part of how you feel all the time, it's part of... oh you can't stand that person. What happens is the Bible said it's dangerous because it gives place to the devil. And the word place is foothold that literally, you have just opened the door by not allowing that to come out of you and the devil puts his foot in the door. And he says to every demon, "Go in and tear this house all to pieces because they will not forgive one another we have our foot in the door, come on in and do your work".
I never will forget Brother Tenny telling me one time when we were talking about a missionary and his movement, and his denomination, and he said this man is a legend. He's a Godly old man of God and he had established hundreds, and hundreds of churches on the mission field. And he had faced almost everything you can imagine. And he was somewhere in Central America in the jungle, deep jungle and they did not know English, of course, nor did they even know Spanish. They had their own dialect and everything in this particular area. And so, he comes into this area, this veteran missionary, mighty man of God, and as he's preaching and building a church the first church in that area and reaching that new people with the gospel. They brought to him a girl who was completely demon possessed. A woman, who was completely demon possessed. It took three or four men to just control her. They said they literally put her in chains because she was so violent and so self-destructing to herself.
And so, when they brought her, he said, this man told Pastor Tenny or Bishop Tenny and told me this story and this is what he said. He said, "The demons cried out in perfect English through that native woman. 'Don't teach the people to forgive. Don't teach the people to forgive.'" Isn't it something that out of all of the things demons fear, the one thing that they dreaded the most is if that preacher would stand up and tell the people, "You must forgive your enemies. And if you will do it, you will break Satan's control and Satan's power off of your family, off of your marriage, off of your future". That's important. "Off of your future when you release that forgiveness and that bitterness".
When Jesus hung on the cross and said, "Father, forgive them," in that moment Satan, the prince, the power of the air, he controlled creation. He controlled the atmosphere. He controlled all kinds of things. He's the prince, the power of the air. That's a Bible verse in the book of Ephesians. But in that moment, he lost all control I can prove it 'cause when Jesus said, "Forgive them," instantly the Bible said for three hours the sun refused to shine. He wasn't over the sun anymore. And suddenly, the ground began to shake. And suddenly death had to give up some dead folks and the Bible said that they walked around Jerusalem. Dead people were raised from the dead when Jesus said, "It is finished". And when He said, "Father, forgive them," it released such power that even hell knew they were not in control. The devil knew, "I have lost control and I have lost my power".
I need somebody to shout right there. Satan couldn't control the air, he couldn't control the sun, he couldn't control the earth, he couldn't control hell, he couldn't control death in the presence of forgiveness. Do you want Satan to lose control of your home, of your family, of your marriage? All you have to do is release forgiveness and Satan's foot gets removed and suddenly, the door shuts on his face and his demons have to leave. And I don't know, you can't worry about whether they forgive you or not, all you can do is say, "I forgive you, and I'm gonna walk in love, and I'm putting the overcoat of love on, and it covers a multitude of sins. And I'm not gonna talk about it anymore. It's done in Jesus' name". Somebody give God praise.
Do you want Satan to lose control? Forgive. In Joshua 10, they're five kings who Joshua has defeated, and they run to a cave, and they hide in the cave. And that's what happens when we get offended, and we get hurt, and we get a little bitter, and we get angry. We isolate ourselves. We cave in. We isolate ourselves. "I'm hurt. I'm cutting them off. I don't wanna be around ever again. Leave me alone". And I'm not saying, there's some people, Peter said, "Lord, how times do I have to forgive these people"? I like it. He wanted a mathematical equation. He said, "Give me a number". He said, "I say seven. What do you say? Seven times and then can I let them have it"? And Jesus said, "Okay, you want it mathematical? Seventy times seven". He said, "a day". "Seventy times seven is 490 times a day. That's how many times you have to forgive."
Jesus was saying, "Forgiveness, forgiveness is losing count. Forgiveness is when it doesn't matter anymore. I choose to love you and nothing you can do or say can make me not love you. I'm gonna keep on loving you. I may not like your stuff and I may not be a part of it, and I probably won't do the, you know, help you with your little stuff. But I tell you what. You'll never do anything that can make me", if you've gotta son or a daughter that is gay, don't you dare tell them that they can never speak to you again, never come around you again. Don't do that. That's not right. That's not right. Love never fails. You love 'em. You love, "But, Pastor"! God never called you to judge anybody. You are called to love them. You let God be the judge. You love people.
If people have messed up. If your father was not there, and he was an awful father, and he left your mother, and you, and your siblings. I'm simply telling you put the overcoat of love on and do the best you can with it. I know it's complicated. I know it's hard, but keep your heart open. Don't keep 'em in a prison in your heart but open up, because here is why, because once they got in the cave when they didn't get over it quick, they had time to get in the cave, relax, get over it. Pull yourself together, guys, and get out of here. But their enemy heard that they were in the cave and had been there a long time. And then he rode up and he told the soldiers roll the stone in front of the cave.
And suddenly, it went from an isolation to a prison. Suddenly, now you can't get out because you've given so much room to bitterness Satan's had the foot in the door so long that now it's become a prison and he can't get out, because we can't get out. And then finally, he came back, and he killed them and threw their bodies in there and it became a grave. It went from a cave of isolation 'cause that's what we do. "I'm never gonna speak to you again". And it goes from isolation to prison. 'Cause when you forgive somebody, they may laugh at you, they may spit at you, they may cuss you. But you are releasing yourself. You're opening the prison door for yourself. It went from isolation to prison and from a cave to a grave.
I'm so glad that Christianity has a leader, that they, "wounded Him for our transgressions and bruised Him for our iniquities". He was prosecuted. He was persecuted. He was tormented. He was beaten. He was slaughtered on a cross for something He did not do, and they threw Him in the cave. They threw His body in the cave. But on the third day He said, "I am not staying in this cave of offense. This cave of anger. This cave of wrath. I'm coming out and I'm saying, 'By my wounds you are healed.' I have the power to put on the overcoat of love and get over it". Get over it. Move forward. That's the will of God for every person listening to me today. Now, I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet. Gonna ask you to be still and quiet for just one moment. And I wanna give two altar calls this morning.
Number one, if you don't know your sins are forgiven, that Christ has forgiven you, that you have been washed in the blood. That you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I have incredible news for you, good news. He is not angry with you. He is not mad at you. He knows everything you've done. And He has put the overcoat of love on, and He doesn't ask you to do something He doesn't do. And He says, "There's nothing you can do that can make me not love you. There's nothing that you can do that can make me stop loving you. I love you. I'll forgive you. I'll cleanse you". You can lose the anger. You can lose the hatred. You can lose the vengeance. You can lose it today. You can walk out a free man, a free woman. You can know peace with God and with people. People will notice there's something different about you. You don't have that edge. You have a peace in your life. Jehovah Shalom is with you.
And I feel this this morning. Those of you at every campus please listen to me because my precious family, several of 'em are sitting down here today, and my wonderful wife Cherise. We've been married for 36 years, 36 years. And we have walked through the same stuff you guys walk through. And I'm telling you God's mercy is there. It's available. And there have been times when I, the preacher, had to get down on my knees and say, "Forgive me". It's powerful though, boy, when you do it, it's so cleansing. It's so cleansing. So, freeing. It's like a heaviness comes off of you and you talk to that loved one that you've been not talking to, and walls have been up and isolation, and it's turning into a grave. But you just, it all starts with just open your heart. Just open your heart. God can do miracles in families this morning. "Pastor, pray for me. I'm not right with God and I need to get right with God. Pray for me". Let me see your hand. Just trust me. Let me see your hand. Yes, Yes. Yes, Yes, Yes. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Just trust me a minute. Just trust me at every campus.
Every one of you that raised your hand, wherever you're watching this, if you can get out of your seat and come stand right down here in the front of this building Come right now. Come from the top balcony. Come from the overflow. Wherever you are. This is so important. This is so important. Here they come. This is beautiful. This is powerful. Come on. You wanna know that you've been born again. Come on. Come on. There's room at the cross for you, right here, right now. Come on. If you can't fix it, God can fix it and I wanna give a second altar call as still others are continuing to come, and that's beautiful. "But, Pastor, I wanna see the miracle of forgiveness". Take Satan's power and control, remember what I preached, demons cried out, "Don't teach the people forgiveness 'cause they knew the moment people were willing to release forgiveness. Their power and their control over that person's life was forever broken".
Now raise your hands and I'mma ask you if you're standing by your husband, your wife, or your friend, your significant, somebody in your life, brother, sister, I want you to put your arm around them right now and I want to pray and say, "Lord", here's how the Lord said it to me early this morning. He said, "Tell 'em", listen to this. This is a different little deal. He said, "Let all wrath, all bitterness, all evil speaking, all malice, all evil speaking, all malice, let it all out of you". "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice".
Now can you do the next verse? "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you". Ain't that beautiful? And here's what the Lord said to me. He brought that verse to me. It's not in my notes. And He said, "Tell 'em to drain the swamp," He said, "'cause this is what happens when you have a real family. Sooner or later, you gon' get some of this. All that mess right there can get in". But the Lord says, "Just drain the swamp this morning by my blood, and my name, and my mercy, and my grace. And then I'll fill you up, and I'll run all the alligators and the polliwogs I'll run them all out of your house. The snakes, and I'll give you victory right there". So, raise your hands all over this building and pray. Say:
Lord Jesus, I wanna drain the swamp. I want all bitterness, I want all evil speaking, I want all malice, I want all vengeance, I want all ill wishes to get out of me. I want the devil to get his foot out of my door. I give no place to the devil. Through forgiveness. Drain the swamp. I stand here depending on you Holy Spirit to drain the swamp and let me put on the overcoat of love. Nothing is gonna simmer in me for years. Nothing's gonna chew on me day and night. I belong to Jesus and He gives me the power to put on the overcoat of love and get over it.
Say, "I will... get over it... by the grace of God". Now lift your hands and receive His forgiveness because the moment you prayed that His forgiveness came running to you, covering you with His love.