John Hagee - Let Go and Live Again
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Listen as we begin. One forgiveness without justice is abuse. I want to say that again: forgiveness without justice is abuse. How do you forgive when you can’t forget? Years ago, a beautiful 16-year-old girl, a brown-eyed darling, sat in my office, tears streaming down her cheeks, shaking with convulsive sobs, describing in graphic detail how her mother’s third husband savagely raped her. She said, «Pastor, how do you forgive when you can’t forget?» That’s a question many of you in this audience and thousands of people are asking.
The millions watching by television and listening by radio around the world are asking as well. In the theater of your mind, there’s a special day of horror or hurt, a moment in time when your heart was broken, your dreams were shattered, your life was stained-when the one you loved betrayed you, when your mother or father forsook you, rejected you, abused you, or abandoned you. Perhaps you suffered through a bitter divorce, or you were pushed out of a job opportunity by a greedy friend. Perhaps you were promised things by your employer that never came true.
Hear me. If you’re ever going to live a normal life, a life of happiness, you must hear this message. It is not my message; it is God’s message to you. The road to peace of mind begins with forgiveness. Forgiveness is the first act of your will, not emotion. If you wait until you feel like it, forget it. You will go to your grave bitter as gall. I asked this beautiful 16-year-old girl in my office, «Would you be willing to forgive your mother’s third husband if he was brought to justice?» She said, «Pastor, I would do anything to escape this pain and agony that’s in my heart and mind.» I picked up the phone on my desk. Step one was justice; I called the police to send her mother’s third husband to jail. By an act of her will, not emotion, she repeated after me a simple prayer of forgiveness. You could feel the amazing waves of God’s grace begin to heal her hurting heart. Only God can do that. A counselor cannot do that; only God’s Spirit can do that. That’s the power of forgiveness.
So I ask those of you who are here, who are hurting in an agony known only to God, whose pillow is stained with tears in the darkness of the night — are you willing to forgive? Not when you feel like it, because you will never feel like it. But are you willing to forgive? Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment. It’s the power that breaks the chains of bitterness. Forgiveness brings restoration from rejection. I repeat: forgiveness is not optional. It is not optional.
Matthew 6 states that if you forgive men their trespasses, your Father will forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, God your Father will not forgive you your trespasses. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:32: «And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.» Colossians 3:13 states: «Forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.» Luke 6:37 says: «Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.» That’s as plain as you can make it. If you won’t forgive others, God will not forgive you. There are 62 words for forgiveness in the New Testament, and 22 times it means the forgiveness of others, and without that, there is no forgiveness for yourself.
Secondly, forgiveness is the secret of absolute freedom. Forgiveness brings freedom from those that hurt you. The sweetest revenge is to forgive and forget. The instant you forgive, you are free from that scum bucket that hurt you. Years ago, I sat beside Corrie ten Boom in one of the most delightful hours of my life. There were several hundred of us at that banquet, and she sat right next to me. She had just released her best-selling book, «The Hiding Place,» and the heart of America was being warmed by the grace and glory of her life. She was a victim of the Holocaust. The hiding place was a location in her house where they had created a hole behind a chest of drawers where they could hide Jewish people running from or hiding from Hitler’s Nazis. They were betrayed by one of those people, and all of them were sent to a concentration camp. In that camp, her father died within two weeks. Her sister starved to death, and her nephew was killed by Nazi brutality. If there was ever a reason to harbor hatred, she had one-the beatings, the starvation, the sadistic brutality of Hitler’s monsters. She was released from that concentration camp by clerical error. Only God could have made that happen.
For years, she kept records of those Nazis-who they were, what they had done-hoping that, at some time in the future, there would be a court with the power to punish them. She said that after years of thinking about how good that revenge would feel, in an act of forgiving love, she threw all of the records into a fireplace. She said, «As that fire consumed those records, the tears began to flow down her cheeks, and she was flooded with the presence of God, which healed her soul of all the agony of the Holocaust.» That, my friend, is the power of forgiveness. Are you willing to forgive, or do you get high on hatred? There are people who do. Do you relish planning your revenge? If you will not forgive another, there is no forgiveness for you-never.
We are like beasts when we kill each other; we are like men when we judge each other; we are like God when we forgive each other. Forgiveness is a full pardon. It’s a fresh start, a new chance, a new beginning. It’s the cancelling of a debt. It’s walking out of an emotional hell into the gates of heaven. It can happen for you if you’ll let it. Thirdly, forgiveness is freedom from the past. It’s freedom from the past. When you refuse to forgive another person for any reason, it corrupts your whole life. Resentment doesn’t just destroy one relationship; it will destroy every relationship you have. Resentment is the root of bitterness. The spirit of rejection spills over into every relationship and totally corrupts you.
Listen to St. Paul: Galatians 6:7 and 8 states, «Be not deceived; God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.» Look at that verse: «Shall reap corruption.» But he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Here’s the history of that Biblical word «corruption.» Listen: in Roman times, when a man murdered another man, sometimes he was forced by the court to tie the corpse of the person he killed on his back and carry that corpse with him everywhere he went, night and day. When he ate, when he slept, there was no getting rid of it. The corpse rotted, bred maggots, and invaded the body that was carrying them. The result was that you were killed by the corruption. That’s the corruption Paul is talking about. Paul says the works of the flesh breed corruption. That’s why the Bible says it is a stench in the nostrils of God that will destroy you. Your unforgiving spirit has tied the corpse of the person you resent to your back. The gut-wrenching stench is destroying your relationship with God and with every person you know.
Every day, the sun comes up, and the day is already fouled up because that thing is destroying you. Everything in your life is poisoned by that corruption. That’s not my opinion; that’s God’s opinion. Run to the place of forgiveness and forgive totally. Get rid of that rotten, stinking corpse on your back — do it today, in Jesus' name. Refusing to forgive births resentment. Resentment is the soil that grows the root of bitterness. Get that subject in your mind: resentment is the soil that grows the root of bitterness, and it destroys the soul. Remember that statement: the root affects the fruit. Resentment is the cancer of all emotions. It rots the soul like cancer rots the flesh.
Is there someone in your life that has hurt you or is hurting you? Think about it for just a moment. An alcoholic father who tormented you as a child, or who came home drunk and abused your mother. Or perhaps it was your mother who left your father for a string of lovers. She abandoned you. She forgot you. Seldom, if ever, did she call you on the phone or for any reason. Or perhaps it was a business partner who cheated you in a business deal, or a former spouse who betrayed you and left you for someone else. Listen to me: you will never be happy until you let go of the bitter root of resentment and forgive every one of those people. Forgiveness is essential to your happiness. Forgiveness is essential to your emotional well-being. We all have that unforgiving Adamic nature. You’re born with it. Your carnal nature does not really want to forgive anyone-never. It wants revenge, even if it means holding on to the poison of resentment for a lifetime.
The Lord’s Prayer-what a prayer that is! «Forgive us as we forgive those.» Forgive us as we forgive those. Compare the Old Testament with the New Testament concept of forgiveness. Under the Old Testament, which is the law dealing with hurt, was simple: it was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Someone did you wrong; you killed them that day-instant revenge. That’s the law. Then came Jesus, who introduced the new covenant of the New Testament. Romans 12:17 writes, «We are commanded never to pay back evil for evil.» «Vengeance is mine,» saith the Lord, «I will repay.» «Forgive us as we forgive those.» Why did God allow people in the Old Testament to live under the «eye for an eye» revenge method but command us in the New Testament to forgive? What about our pain? That’s the whole issue of the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, he took the sting of resentment for you. He bore the pain of your rejection. He bore the burden of your betrayal at the cross.
Forgiveness demands a change in your conduct. Forgiveness is not soft-hearted, mush-mouthed foolishness. God is in the cleansing business. Forgiveness is full of compassion, but it demands a change in conduct. What I’m going to tell you right now is a message every church in America needs to hear because of the message that’s going out that you can perpetually sin and God will just look over it. That is a lie. To forgive another person without demanding a change in conduct is to make the grace of God an accomplice to evil; that is a torpedo to those of you who are floating the idea that you can just sin and sin and sin and sin and Jesus will forgive you. God will forgive you; he expects you to change. Where is that in the Bible?
When the Pharisees brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus, he forgave her instantly. He crushed the law of Moses and he said, «Go and sin no more.» He expected a change in her conduct. He expected a new attitude. He expected a new direction, and he expected it. Now many religious people try to earn forgiveness by works. «Oh, I’ll give money to the church!» God doesn’t need your money; he already has it. It’s his. He could knock you out and get it all right now. Your goodness will never bring God’s forgiveness. All of your righteousness, the Bible says, is as filthy rags. You’re not forgiven because God loves you. You’re not forgiven because you are emotional about your sin. You are not forgiven because you do good works. You’re forgiven because you confess your sin, and the blood of Jesus Christ has removed the stench of your sin from your soul at the cross.
When I was preaching behind the Iron Curtain years ago during the Cold War, when Germany was divided and the communists had complete control of East Germany, I was in East Berlin as an art critic because they wouldn’t allow preachers in. Of course, I know about art-nothing. I was in Berlin, and a man walked up to me and said, «You’re from the West.» I said, «How do you know?» He said, «Because you walk without looking behind you.» East Germany was covered with KGB agents, and people were forever conscious of who was following them. He said, «You’re walking without looking behind you.»
We went to this church, which was packed with young people, and I told them communism is going to fail here. All of these young people were there; they were sitting in the aisle, they were on the platform. The only place I could stand was right behind the desk with my interpreter. I preached the sermon on peace. I walked out. The service was over, and an 80 -year-old East German lady came to me speaking German. I had to get my translator there. I said, «What does she want?» He said, «She wants your notes, and she wants to know if you have any gum.» I said, «What does she want with her notes?» «She’ll take them and duplicate them and pass them out to her prayer group because Bibles are not allowed over here.» And I said, «What’s with the gum?» She said, «Anyone who has gum knows someone in the West. There’s no gum over here. When you have gum in East Germany, it torments the KGB agents. They want to know who you know in the West that could get you that gum.»
I said, «Tell her I don’t have any, but tomorrow night I’m going to be down the road preaching at this particular place, and I said I’ll have gum for everybody.» The next day we went up and down the street buying gum from every store that had it. When we got to that place, we had a sack of gum this big around and this deep. And brother, the Germans were there waiting for it, and we handed it out. When I got in the pulpit, hundreds of jaws dropped. I said, «Brother, we have given the KGB a royal migraine headache!» Love, joy, and peace is what God gives to the believer.
So how to forgive? Jesus Christ taught us the exact pattern. Forgive immediately. Matthew 5:23 states: «If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go away. First be reconciled with your brother, and then come and present your offering.» Here’s one place in the Bible where it says, «Stop praying. Go and forgive your brother,» because God is not listening to your prayer. He will not receive the gift of a king’s fortune over the stench of an unforgiving spirit.
Forgive totally. Jesus, our beloved Jewish Rabbi, told the story of the unmerciful slave. The king, who wished to settle his accounts with his slaves, called in his slave that owed him, let’s say, $10 million. It was more than the national debt of that nation. When the slave announced that he didn’t have the resources to pay, the king ordered him sold, with his wife and his children, into debtor’s prison. The slave fell on his face and begged for mercy, pledging to pay all that he owed, which was impossible. It was an impossible debt. The 10,000 talents were more than 10 times the total taxes of that country. Nevertheless, the king showed mercy on that man and forgave him all that debt.
Then that man immediately got up, went into the street, and found a man that owed him $20, and had him thrown into debtor’s prison when he couldn’t pay it. The fellow slaves watched this, and they went and told the king what happened. The king called that man back in whom he had forgiven all that money and said, «You wicked slave! I forgave you of all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not have also had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?» And the king, moved with anger, handed him over to the tormentors until he should repay all that he owed. God turned that man over to the tormentors when he refused to show mercy, when he refused to forgive. The message again: if you don’t forgive, God won’t forgive you. God will send the tormentors coming for you.
How many people have you locked in an emotional prison over a small, petty $20 offense simply because you refuse to forgive? Don’t talk about your rights; you hold them hostage. But God will turn you over to the tormentors, and your life will become hell on earth. That’s not my promise; that’s God’s promise. Why forgive? Because forgiveness is essential to your healing. Jesus Christ is called the Great Physician. He often said, «Thy sins be forgiven. Then be healed.» Be healed. Two thousand years later, the finest medical minds in America assure us that medical diseases may very well begin with raging, uncontrolled emotions: anger, hatred, bitterness, rejection, jealousy, or tormentors that cause high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, stomach disorders, and cancer.
Why forgive? Not for the benefit of the other person; for your benefit. Run -don’t walk! Run to a place of forgiveness and be cleansed from that corruption! But I assure you, you will never live a day of peace when you refuse to forgive. Are you looking for forgiveness? Come home. Your heavenly Father is waiting. He put his Son on the cross so that you could be reunited, that his forgiveness would be total and miraculous. If you’re suffering after today, it’s because you want to. This is your opportunity to take the corruption and throw it into the bottomless abyss and for you to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
Can you stand to your feet? I want to ask you this question: how many of you in this room have someone that you need to forgive? Someone in your family, someone in your business, someone in your past life-someone that has hurt you in the past, and the agony of that is still in your mind and in your heart? You need to forgive that person or persons. If that describes you, slip your hand up right where you are. I want everyone in this audience to pray this prayer:
Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' name, I approach your holy throne. And today, by an act of my will, I forgive those that have hurt me, those that have tormented me, those who are tormenting me. I am giving it to you to carry. And now, I receive the peace of God that surpasses understanding. Like Corrie ten Boom, I’m burning the books, and I’m going to receive God’s joy. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.