Michael Todd - Forgiven Ultimately (Struggling to Forgive?)
I hope you feel good at home. Well, today we’re in week three of a series that we’re calling «Help Me F.U.,» and that stands for «Forgiveness University.» If you’re just joining us, if somebody invited you to this university of higher learning, I’m telling you, you’re about to receive a master’s degree—a master’s degree that will change your destiny. Today, I want to let you know that God has something so special planned for you. We’ve prayed for you; we’ve asked God to assemble people who are desperate, broken, hurting, successful—from all walks of life—to come and hear about the good news of Jesus Christ. I want you to know, no matter what you did yesterday, who you were with last night, or what you were planning to do tomorrow, we believe this is a divine moment in your life. If you would just open your heart for the next 45 minutes, God will do something extravagant in your heart. I love you, I believe in you, and I think that God’s best is still ahead of you. If you believe God’s best is in front of you, somebody say amen! Come on, put some praise hands and praying hands in the comments right now.
Well, let’s do it! Get your notepads, your smartphones, your «dumb phones"—get everything out because we are starting week three of a series that we’re calling, one more time, F.U. We’re talking about forgiveness. In today’s culture right now, we know that offense is the currency of today’s culture, but forgiveness is the currency of the kingdom. I think that until we learn how to actually forgive, we are trapped in a prison that doesn’t affect them. Y’all know we think it affects them. «I’m not going to talk to them anymore. They ain’t never going to cross me again. I ain’t going to do this and that.» And we’re stuck. I’ve been seeing too many people who believe in Jesus, who can worship, shout, and speak in tongues, but they’re stuck. When God wants them to move forward, they can’t because they have been trapped in this thing of unforgiveness. But you have enrolled in the best university known to man—the university that helps you actually learn how to—everybody say forgive!
Yeah, and I know there are some people right now that if you think about forgiving them, you break out in hives and get frustrated, and it takes you back to a moment. That’s why I’m not asking anybody to forgive at this moment. I told everybody at the start of this class that I’m praying you would forgive one person by the end of this. So you’ve got to get the principles deep within you, and you’ve got to allow God and the Holy Spirit to begin to work in you so it can actually play out in your life. Today, I believe the message I’m about to share—listen to me, and I do not say this lightly—is the most important message in this entire series. Because if you don’t get the principles I’m about to share today, you will never be able to truly forgive. To be really honest, if you’re a believer, forgiveness is a primary spiritual discipline for every Christ follower. It is basic—God has forgiven you, so you’ve got to forgive somebody else. That’s easier said than done because the church tells you that you should forgive, but they don’t teach you how. That’s why your boy is here. Let’s get into the word today.
Now, I need to take a poll. I need to take the temperature of who’s watching because I know people are tuning in from all over the world, all over the U.S. But I need to gauge the forgiveness Fahrenheit in the room right now. Okay, raise your hand if there is somebody that you know at this moment that you need to forgive. Come on, raise your hand all over the building, all at your house. Okay, let’s take it another level deeper—raise your hand in your house. I want you to raise your hand. I know you’re like, «Nobody’s here.» God’s there, okay?
So raise your hand. Okay, raise your hand if there’s somebody that you know you need to forgive who offended you in 2020. Come on, hands up! Okay, let’s take it another step—how many people have somebody they know they need to forgive for something that happened this month? Come on, the last 30 days. Okay, some of y’all have your hands just stuck up in the air; you’re just there the whole time. Raise your hand if there’s somebody that you need to forgive—if you know them or not, because some of y’all, on the way to get Starbucks, almost cussed somebody out by accident. Raise your hand if there’s somebody you need to forgive from this last week. Raise your hand if there’s somebody you need to forgive from today! Some of y’all are sitting right next to them, and you’re like, «Don’t look at me, Charlie.»
But all I’m saying to you right now is everybody needs to forgive. But if you’re going to experience what God wants you to have in the area of forgiveness, I’ve figured out this one thing: you can’t give what you ain’t got. Okay, I know that’s not right English. I know somebody’s like, «Sally, does he always talk in Ebonics?» No, but this really proves my point—you can’t give what you ain’t got. If you haven’t experienced love, it’s hard to give love. If you haven’t experienced kindness, it’s hard to give kindness. Today, I want to journey down this track because I want you to know about something that you already have within your reach but maybe you have not fully received. Write down this point: you cannot give true forgiveness until you know—everybody say «know"—you have received true forgiveness.
You cannot give true forgiveness. Oh yeah, you can act like you forgave them because you forgot about it, because you moved on, and you got another career, and you got another girlfriend, and you got another boyfriend. That’s what we do—we think forgiveness is forgetting. That’s why so many of us, when we get hurt, we try to fill our space up with people and things to make us forget what they did. But if you look at the fabric of your heart, you can still see the imprint of that person or that thing on you. Uh-huh!
And so I need you to understand that you cannot give true forgiveness until you know you have received true forgiveness. Every time I need to forgive somebody, I go into Google, and I say—hey, let me be real—let me be hot at Transformation Church—the pastor goes to Google, humble, open, and transparent. What does the scripture say about forgiveness? Because I need to be reminded sometimes, and it’s these leave-it-to-beaver scriptures that come up—these one-sentence scriptures. Have y’all ever had those scriptures that are easy to read but hard to live? It’s easy to say, but it’s harder to display.
Yeah, yeah! Look at Ephesians 4:32. This is one that God hit me with because I had this situation where, oh boy, he played me, and he did me wrong, and I was like, «I’ll kill your kids!» And then I was like, «Oh, excuse me!» There are certain things in my heart that made me feel that way, and God took me to Ephesians 4:32. Look what it says: «Be kind to everyone, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as Christ forgave you.» What? «You don’t know what they did to me! You don’t know how bad that hurt! You don’t know that they knew what happened before, and then I told them what happened before and they did the same thing to me that I told them would break me!» And then what do the scriptures say? «Oh, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as Christ forgave you.»
That’s many times where I shut the scripture and I’d be like, «Well, guess I ain’t gonna make that one.» Come on, let’s be honest—a lot of us, we have people do us wrong, and then we start making exceptions for ourselves. «I’ll forgive him, but if you cross this line with me…» Oh, come on somebody! Everybody has their invisible line, but like if you do this, I black out. Y’all know those blackout moments—like, I woke up, I didn’t even know what happened. There’s just stuff everywhere. And that’s how we feel. But our feelings have to consult with the truth, even if it’s not how we feel. That’s what this whole Christian walk is about.
I hate when people in culture today pay so much attention to living your truth. The problem with your truth is you made it up, so it can’t be true. If you did it, it can’t be true. Truth has to be something that was there before you! Truth has to be something that was there before you; it’s there while you’re there and will be there after you. This is why I say I can’t just live my truth; I have to live the truth. And we find the truth in the word of God. So if the word is saying, no matter how I feel, «Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you!» God, you’re going to have to give me a revelation because I feel this—your word says that, and I’m conflicted. This is why you have to have a devotional life where you go to God.
Let me tell you what I found as I’ve been walking this journey. Your pastor claims not to be perfect, but I am progressing. The deepest transformation comes from the simple revelation. The deepest transformations I’ve experienced in my life came from taking a small scripture like this and asking God for revelation or revealed truth. All revealed truth means is that something is there; it’s covered up, and then at one moment, it gets uncovered and I see what’s there. What I’m praying for you and your family and your life is that the truth of God’s word—when you watch Transformation Church, when you get in your daily devotions, when you get with your small group and your B group—will be uncovered for you and you will say, «Oh my, I’ve never seen that!» That is revelation!
I want to take you on a journey of the revelation that God gave me in Ephesians 4:32 and I call it the Ephesians 4:32 checklist. Okay, it says, what’s the first one? «Be kind to one another.» That’s hard when you do not believe how I believe. That’s hard when you make racist comments. That’s hard when you—and okay, I’m trying to stay PG—that’s hard when you slept with my man. That’s hard when you were the family member that was supposed to protect me and instead you abused me or abnormally used me. «Be kind to one another.» What’s the next one? What does it say? It says, «Be tenderhearted.» My heart is cold to these. If we’re honest, there are certain things that happen to us that turn our heart very cold. There are certain things about certain people right now. You can be so sweet and loving to this group of people, and then this person comes along—cold heart!
This is what we’ve been trying to do in the church: have an open heart for those who are struggling with abortion, but a closed heart for homosexuals. Uh-oh! I know you don’t want to hear it today, but when God says to be tenderhearted, I don’t have to agree to have a tender heart toward you. I don’t have to believe the same thing you believe to allow there to be compassion that flows out of me for you. But in the church, acceptance has to equal agreement, and Jesus never taught that! So, Pastor Mike, how am I kind to one another? Be tenderhearted to one another. Look at the next one—it says, «Forgive one another.»
Now I can fake you out and be kind. Y’all know those people—oh, it’s so nice and tenderhearted! We can fake that, but forgiving one another—that’s the one we’re going to get to see after this election. Oh yeah, we’re about to see how we look as the church—not the organization, but the organisms. Will you be able to forgive one another after this? After the posts they make? After the mistakes they made? Forgive one another. And then He wants to remind us of what Jesus did for us. Look at Him—God forgave you! Come on! This is easy—God forgave you! And isn’t it funny that we never think about our trespasses when it’s time for us to forgive somebody else’s trespasses? We only think about what they did to us. We never think about what we did to God.
I’m going to say it again—we only think about what they did to us; we never think about what we are seeing: our filth, our wrong thoughts, our mistakes that we’re still trying to hide 15 years after it happened. We never think about what we did to God, and what it does is it affects our perception. Write this point down: your perception of forgiveness hinders your acceptance of forgiveness. How you see forgiveness hinders how you accept it for yourself.
Let me show you an example. These are the new Prada purples that are coming out in 2021. I am officially sporting them—you will be able to get these nowhere but the reason these glasses are on right now, besides the fact that they match the sermon series, is that these glasses are giving me a tint. Right now, everything that I see has a purple hue. So when I bring out the truth—come here, just I bring out the truth—I say, «Show the camera the piece of paper that you have,» and everybody sees the truth of what that color is, but then I tell you that that paper is light purple. No, no, no, that paper is like purple! What color do you see, Justice? Yellow? Bro, what’s wrong with this fool? What’s wrong with just… I mean, your shirt is swaggy, but you can’t see because the truth is, bro, that is a light purple piece of paper. Now, have I convinced you? What color is that, Justice? It’s to me my truth because of the lens that I’m seeing it through.
And the reason why we have to understand that we have to get the right view of God and the right view of forgiveness is because if you have the wrong view, everything, even if it is truth, I see through the wrong lens. Let me give you a point: perception is your ultimate reality, even if it’s not an ultimate truth, and your reality dictates your actions. Bring that paper back out, Justice! I’ve told this fool a couple of times, man, it’s light purple! What color is it, Justice? I’m going to give you one more opportunity, bro, because, you know, this white and black thing, I don’t really want to take it to the next level. You know what I’m saying? I just want to keep it real behind us, but I need agreement for this right now. I need us to be in agreement. We’re both believers, so what color is the paper? You still see yellow? Do you see yellow now?
Now, watch, because my perception was wrong; it made me react in a way that was negative because I didn’t see it properly. And if I could ever take off my lens, bro, I apologize. Will you please forgive me? I was seeing through the abandonment of my family. I was seeing through that last church that used me up. I was seeing through the mistakes that I made and did to other people, so I thought they were going to do it to me. My perception was skewed, and so when my perception is skewed, I see the truth wrong, and I act on what my truth is. But when I can lay down and get the perspective of God, it makes me more apt to be able to say, «Could you forgive me?» And I don’t know who you are right now, but your perception is so broken by the things that have happened and that you have done to others that God is saying through His word what He wants to do is give you a brand-new vision because you’re going to have to be able to extend forgiveness.
You’ve got to get the right perspective on how God has already forgiven you. If you’re walking around with guilt and shame and condemnation, saying you serve a loving God but waiting for Him to strike you down because you’re going to mess up, you have the wrong perception. Forgiveness brings me to my next point: if you experience God’s forgiveness, you can extend God’s forgiveness. I’m preaching line upon line today. I want you to get this—this is a class, and this one is going to help you get extra credit in life! If you can experience truly what it means to have every wrong thing that you’ve done and thought nailed to the cross and walk in the confidence of what Christ has already done for you, it’s so much easier to extend forgiveness to someone else.
The truth of the matter is we don’t know how much God has already done to forgive us. Most of us are still trying to work and earn after salvation what God already paid for. And today I need you to understand that you are forgiven, ultimately. When you receive Jesus Christ and you repent of the life that you’ve lived, you are forgiven, ultimately. If you, you are forgiven, ultimately. Say it with me: «I am forgiven, ultimately.» Somebody just say, «I am forgiven, ultimately.» Yes, I did it, but when I put my faith in Jesus Christ, when I believed in Him, He took everything that was bad about me and clothed it in His son, and I have been forgiven ultimately. I just told you, but you still don’t believe it.
How do you know I don’t believe it? Because of the way you treat other people. Because of the way you think that doing your Bible reading plan makes you better to God. Because the only reason you give is to make sure that God sees what you do. He already saw everything that you did, that you would do, and that you’re going to do. And He said, «I forgive you.» I’m not just going to forgive you for what you did in this moment; I’m going to forgive you ultimately. The whole problem with your life is, will you receive what has already been purchased and paid for just for you? And I know this is going to take a minute because some of y’all are Christian workaholics—like everything that you do is trying to earn another badge and another merit for what God has done for you. And He called it a finished work when He went to the cross. And that’s why I’ve got to help us understand because we will never be able to forgive somebody else if we don’t realize that we have been forgiven ultimately.
Somebody shout at me, «I am forgiven.» Write this point down: God’s forgiveness is God’s grace. God’s forgiveness is God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8-9. I’ve got to teach us the Bible today. It says God saved you by His grace when you did what? Served a lot? When you joined the choir? You were saved by His grace when… ah, I know! When you wrote in your journal 260 days consecutively? I think the Bible says something very differently than we act out. God saved you by His… what? Grace, when you did what? Believed! Whoa, like that’s it! And you can’t! The reason He did it is because He didn’t want anybody to think that He wasn’t a good, good Father. So He said, «And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.»
I love the Bible! Salvation is not a reward. Look at this: for the good things we have done. That just busted some of y’all’s religious bubbles. «I’ve never smoked, I’ve never drank, I’ve never had sex outside of marriage, I’ve never done that.» I think I… never. All of that stuff is good, but it doesn’t make you better than anybody else who believed. And we’ve been going all of our lives trying to get our self-identity from what we did better than other people. And God said, «The only qualification to get into this party? Belief.»
Like what’s wrong with them? What’s wrong with them? And they’re like this and that. They call you in the Bible a Pharisee and a Sadducee because you’re trying to point out what everybody else has done, but you still haven’t really believed. What I’m trying to come and tell you right now is that because God’s forgiveness is God’s grace, you just have to believe that He did it. Because many of us are working for God’s forgiveness, so that makes us make others work for our forgiveness. I’m going to say it again, because we are on the treadmill of life just trying to make it into heaven.
«Lord, I trust you. Lord, I see you, God. I’m going to do some right things. This is going to be my year, God. I’m going to stop doing this and stop having sex outside of marriage, and I’m going to stop…» Because we’re so tired trying to keep up with something that’s not even in God’s word. We’re trying to earn and run our way into the forgiveness of God when somebody needs our forgiveness! Start running, start working… You know how hard I’ve got to keep up to please our Almighty God. Now, I’m gonna hold you accountable like I feel like God’s holding me accountable.
So, yeah, apologize 20 times; you better make sure you got my birthday gift. I’m gonna act like I didn’t see your text message just to play with you a little bit to let you know that you’re really not back in. Oh, come on! Y’all know what we do to manipulate and make people earn what was given freely to us. But we, because we don’t understand it, our perception is wrong; we want to make other people earn what God gave us for free. I’m preaching; I know it’s taking a second for it to sink in.
What is God’s grace, Pastor Mike? I’m going to give you a definition: the Baker’s Encyclopedia definition of grace. This one messes me up every time! Grace is the dimension of divine activity it cannot be described on the earth that enables God to confront human indifference and rebellion with an inexhaustible capacity to forgive and bless. What? The grace of God is God’s ability to look at humans who are indifferent and say, «I’m going to send My only Son to die on the cross for you,» and that was on a maybe, like you might receive Me; you might go to Easter once a year; you might come to a Christmas presentation. He said, «I know they’re going to be indifferent, so I got to build in something for them.» They’re going to be indifferent, and they’re going to be rebellious. They’re going to know the right thing to do and not do it because their flesh is craving something. And it says it’s His ability to be able to confront that with an inexhaustible… do you all know what that word means?
Never running out, never-ending. It would literally be like me going to my favorite restaurant and they just keep bringing me my favorite Chinese food! Like when I’m done, they bring me another plate. And when I’m done, I say, «No more, no, no, no, no, no, no.» That’s the only Asian word I know from Rush Hour. But this is… listen, «No more!» And as I continue to do it, it’s overflowing—more than enough! At the moment I get hungry again, there’s something already in front of me! I can share with others; I can invite people to, because it’s inexhaustible. It never… this is what the grace of God looks like over your life. And I know it’s hard for you to understand it, but when you messed up? Grace! When you… when you lied? Grace!
When you hurt them? Grace! He said it’s the inexhaustible capacity to do two things: forgive you and bless you. And I know for some people it’s just been words up to this point, so I want to paint a picture that I pray never leaves your mind, because it’s never left my mind. I need the accounts of a good person, a bad person, and a perfect person. Yeah, good person, bad person, and a perfect person.
So I want you to look at these three accounts right now. Now there’s only one perfect person that we know; what’s his name? Jesus! Okay, so Jesus is going to be our perfect person. But then I need a bad person, somebody who was bad before they came to Christ. And I don’t know; I know this guy; his name is… um, Michael—that’s what his name is; your boy! And now I need the account of a good person, somebody who did good and was good, and, you know, before they came to Christ, they were just a good person. Y’all know some good people, like people that were like, «Ah, they’re just good people,» um, and not because I’m trying to get any brownie points or, you know what I’m saying, some dinner tonight, but let’s put up Natalie—my wife—right there.
So this is the account of a bad person, a good person, and a perfect person. So before I came to Christ, this is what my account looked like: sin, sin, having sinned, making sin, talking to sin, trying to eat sin, being in sin… sin, sin, sin, sin— that was me! Okay, but I did try to do some righteous things or some right things, and so there are a couple of little bitty «R’s» in here that, you know, stand for righteous, but my account mostly… now y’all gonna play me like I’m the only one out here, but some of y’all are just sitting in it right now; don’t even play me! Okay, Natalie, she was a perfect child; she like rescued dogs and fed cats. And when her mom just literally said, «I’m disappointed in you,» she was like… and like write an essay on her own about why she’s sorry—like she was a different type of child! She was good!
And so most of her account looked like righteousness, righteousness, righteousness! I’m nasty, unrighteous, because the Bible tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory. She had some sin in her account, but there were little bitty sins—look at the little «s’s,» some of y’all can’t even see them! And then Christ, the perfect person, guess what His account looked like? Righteous! I’m righteous! Behold, the Lamb of the world! Righteous! But I need everybody to see this because this is what we think of, but look what Isaiah 64:6 says: «We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.» So when God sees Michael, He sees sin and rags. When He sees Natalie, He sees rags and sin. He is the only one that is truly righteous.
And this is where the church and the world get mixed up because we talk about, «Oh, you’re a big sinner! Oh, you keep doing this on the weekend! I saw your Instagram; you’re a sinner!» But when God sees us, all He sees, is His little «s’s.» All He sees is big sin, because it’s just a little bit! But the little bit destroys the holiness that God wants us to live in!
Okay, so the «R» stands for rags now. And now we all have a jacked-up account except Jesus. But let me show you something; I want to show you what happens when you get into a relationship with God. Give me some new boxes. Let’s look at this because what Jesus did is He was the one at the end of this whole thing, the whole plan is from the end to the beginning, and what he said is that, you know what, I need to take the sin out of everybody’s account. Like, go ahead and put Jesus’s account in there; he’s righteous. But all of us, big ass. Put Michael back up there. Yeah, yeah, put me in there. Sin, Natalie. Sin. How about we talk about the father of our faith, Abraham? He should be a good guy to know how to live this Christian walk out. Look at what God sees when he sees Abraham’s sin. Guess what he sees when he sees your sin.
So God said, «I’ve got to make a way for them to know that they are forgiven without a shadow of a doubt, and I’ve got to do it even before they get here.» So what I’m going to do is take sin out of everybody’s account and put it in Jesus’s account. I’m going to take all the sin of the world and put it in Jesus’s account. Okay, you don’t believe me? You think I’m making something up? Look at, um, second Corinthians, I believe it is. Let’s go to second Corinthians 5:21. I love the Word of God. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to become our offering for sin, so that we could be made right or righteous with God through Christ. I need you to understand this: he took all of our sin and put it on Jesus at the cross.
Now, none of us have sin in our account, but we don’t have righteousness either. How do we get righteousness into our account? How did Abraham, the father of our faith, get righteousness into his account? Romans 4:2-4 says all it takes is this: come close, believe. When you repent from everything you’ve done and believe what Jesus did, you now get sin wiped out of your account, and righteousness gets put in your account. Now, I’ve got to say something that’s going to offend religious people: the blood of Jesus, I need you to prepare yourself, did not just erase the sins of Transformation Church. It did not just erase the sins of Christians. It did not even just erase the sins of believers; it erased the sins of the whole world. Sit with that, because the person you hate? Jesus erased the sin from their account. The person you can’t stand, who has done wrong? Jesus erased the sin from their account.
That’s why, as believers, our whole job is to get them to do what I just said: believe. Because if they ever believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins and rose again with all power so that we could walk out this Christian life in a way that is not empowered by our good works but by accepting the free gift of God and walking in forgiveness, if anybody could ever believe that, then they would be saved. Can I make an even more shocking statement? No, I’ve got to give them Scripture for this, Charles, because they’re not going to believe it. They think I just made that up. Go to second Corinthians 5:19, that God was reconciling the whole world, everybody that is messing up and doing the wrong thing, that God is reconciling the whole world to himself through Christ, not counting or imputing or accounting people’s sins against them.
This is the Bible, y’all! He’s not counting their sins against them, and he has committed to us this message of reconciliation. Get ready; buckle your seatbelt. Let me say something that’s really strong: people do not go to hell for sin. Jesus already paid for that. People go to hell for unbelief. I am preaching; this is the Word of God. People don’t go to hell for sin. He knew we were going to sin. He knew he put us in a fallen world. He knew all the way back from the Garden that we wouldn’t be able to get this thing right. So he put a plan of forgiveness in place that would allow people to receive the free gift of God with his grace and his forgiveness. So people don’t go to hell for sinning, and that’s why the church is so backwards trying to put people in hell for something God didn’t put them in hell for, trying to say, «Oh, you’re smoking,» or «You’re doing this,» or «You didn’t do this.»
People don’t go to hell for sin. Jesus paid for that. They go to hell for unbelief. That’s why I try so hard to get you to understand this gospel. That’s why I try, no matter who you slept with or what’s going on, to say, «Me too.» This is what God is doing in my life, and it’s not about perfection but about progression. All I’m doing is believing every day that I can overcome the depression, that every day God did something for me, that I can overcome the anxiety, and that every day God can help me not fall to pornography. This is what God did for us, and it’s good news. Until you accept what Christ has done, you can never extend what other people need. This is why I said this is the most important message of this entire series, because we can spend seven more weeks talking about forgiveness, but if you have not truly received forgiveness for yourself, you’ll never extend it to anybody else.
So when did I get righteousness? Well, I got righteousness when I was a young adult and I believed and received the forgiveness of God. And what ended up happening? I was a young adult pastor, and it was before I became the pastor of the young adults, but I had been doing all kinds of crazy stuff. I truly believed what God did for me at salvation; it wasn’t just a nursery rhyme story. I really experienced the love and forgiveness of God, and when I believed, that’s when righteousness came into my account.
Natalie was a young girl, and she’ll tell the story, but when she accepted Jesus Christ into her heart and really believed. See, this is not about an age thing; this is about an authenticity thing. There’s no age. We don’t know. Jesus was telling them to let the little kids come to him. There are some kids that can understand on a heart level. That’s why I want you to realize about our faith that Jesus tells us to return to faith like children, because children are more gullible. They believe things! You can tell them that a car weighs 50,000 pounds, and because they have not been inundated with all the lies of life and all the pain, they can believe something. God’s saying, «I need you to come believe me like a child.»
When I say you’re going to make it no matter what’s happening, I need you to believe me like a child. I need you to believe that I sent Jesus to erase all the things your family would do to you and for you, and God’s saying, «Believe.» Natalie was a young girl, and she believed. Abraham, the Bible tells us that he believed. My question is, have you believed? When will you believe? And it’s very hard to believe when you don’t understand that you’ve been forgiven. This is what God says to you every time you repent and turn to him: «You’re forgiven, ultimately.» Michael, «You’re forgiven, ultimately.» Natalie, «You’re forgiven, ultimately.»
Abraham, when you believed, you were forgiven ultimately. And today, I’m believing that there are thousands of people who will make a decision to believe what God is saying. I feel this so strongly; they are going to make a decision to believe what Christ has done for you. He took your sin so that you could receive the forgiveness that he’s provided ultimately. I know it’s hard for you to believe, and there are tears flowing down somebody’s face right now. There are people trying to say, «Not me; there’s no way he could know.»
With everything that he was crafting, he was making a plan to get you here today so that you could see that God is not concerned about all your pieces. He’s the only one who can take all the pieces and turn them into a masterpiece. He’s the only one who can take all your brokenness and turn it into something that will change you. There are people who are on platforms and stages and ministering to others right now, and still have not received this message. You can give out and act like you get it, but you will live out if you really get it! How can we forgive someone else if we have not received that we have been forgiven ultimately? So then, after I received this truth, I just want to let you all know how a professor is thinking right now.
I went back to Ephesians 4:32 and the checklist. Remember what it said to us? It said to be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another because God forgave you. The revelation is in reverse. It’s, «Oh, I like that!» When you receive, uh, I like this, that God forgave you, then you can forgive one another. Then you’re tender-hearted, and you can be kind to one another. I came to tell somebody; the greatest thing you can do is receive God’s forgiveness for everything you’ve done, for everything you are doing, and for everything you will do. Because the only way I can give it out is if I get it for myself. I need you to hear the Word of God: «You have been forgiven ultimately.»
And when you internalize that, when you get that into your core, then scriptures like «There is nothing that can separate me from the love of God» start to take on new meaning. Not death, not life, not the principalities of the age we are in or the ones to come—there’s nothing that can cause. I have been forgiven, Charles. They’re going to have to watch this back three times because this is the one. They’re going to have to keep going back and playing it again, because you will never extend forgiveness to the person who hurts you if you don’t realize that you’ve been forgiven ultimately. You will never give anything to anybody when you think you’re still trying to earn it from God. God says, «I gave it as a free gift so none of you could boast, so give it away. Give away what I gave you for free!»
Would you stop being so selfish? Would you stop hindering yourself right now? I gave it to you for free. There is nothing worse than being somebody… okay, let me tell the real story. So one of the things as a father, I love being a father, and I mean that. It is my highest calling. But one of the things that being a father has afforded me is the interaction with kids that aren’t mine. Okay? So when we throw birthday parties and do different things like that, my kids have friends who are not my kids. So, um, I love my kids, but I kind of like other people’s kids. Okay?
So we threw this birthday party one time, and my wife is the best at throwing birthday parties. Like, our one-year-old’s birthday party is a whole little situation. It’s her thing; she loves it, and I love that she loves it. So she wants to be super generous and give these big bags of candy and all this other stuff to the kids. There was this one particular child— I won’t call anyone’s name because their parents go to church—who we gave this big bag of candy to. Then a kid came in late, who we didn’t know was coming, and they are friends. But the kid said, «Could I have one of the candies?» Now this bag is huge, full of candy, okay? And the little boy said, «No, it’s mine.» I’m watching from afar, and I’m like, «Hmm.»
His attitude is like he paid for the candy. His attitude about this is like just three minutes ago we didn’t give it to him! I watched for about three to five minutes as he taunted the kid, waving the candy in front of him, basically saying, «You can’t have what I got for free.» And something rose up inside of me. I said, «Come here, little boy. Come here, little boy!» I know he didn’t understand it, but my conviction was real strong. I told him, «That candy was a gift to you, so you need to give some of it away as a gift to somebody else.» You’re still better off right now giving half of it away than you were four minutes ago. I made him pour all that candy out on the table, and I said, «Show me where the halfway mark is.» He showed me, and I said, «Now, give that to him.»
Then I pushed through and put it back in his bag. I found him five minutes later and said, «Do you still have candy?» He said, «Yes, sir.» I said, «Are you still having a good time?» He said, «Yes, sir.» I said, «Well, what are you doing with the rest of your candy?» He said, «After you made me give it away, it felt good, so I’ve been giving it away to other people who already had candy.» If that doesn’t remind me of what God wants the grace and forgiveness to look like in our life—that he’s so good that he gave it to us—why don’t we give it away? For God so loved the world that he did what? I know it’s hard to believe that God would be that good to us, but it means you probably don’t understand the basic meaning of what forgiveness means. Write these two words down: canceled debt. That’s all forgiveness means is a canceled debt. You need to see this so clearly. Justice, come here real quick and bring me that real quick, okay?
So, what I need you to do real quick is, um, just this: he serves as a production manager here at the church; he’s the man in this church. I love Justice with all my heart. Justice, could you open that real quick? Because all forgiveness is, is what? Two things: a canceled debt. Yeah, just rip into it like it’s something that’s a referendum. Rip into it, right? Yeah, yeah, okay. So with that said, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, just right there, right there. Take that off. Take it off. Hold that up. Show the people, what does that say? Debt canceled. I heard this week that you have a vehicle that you still have a note on. As of this moment, right now, your debt is canceled on that vehicle. Oh, that’s all forgiveness means. No, you don’t hear me. I’m trying to make it really practical. He got into an agreement that he did not have enough to pay for initially, and he thought he would pay for it over time. But then somebody with more resources came in and they said that the debt is canceled.
I dare somebody to hear this: the sin that you have created, the lies that you have believed, what God is saying today is, through Jesus, you have been forgiven. Ultimately, the debt is canceled. Justice, where are you going? Come back. See, the crazy thing about this debt being canceled is on the back of there. It says it has something—just turn around and show everybody what that is. Take that out. It says, «For Jeremy R., do not open MD underscore J-M-E-R.» Yeah, your debt’s canceled, so we can just set this down. You ain’t gotta even worry about it no more. Open that and read it. We’re gonna have to get close right here. Alright, go ahead. He says, «My name is Jamie. I’m a part of TC Nation, and I live in Michigan. I just completed a time of prayer and fasting. I was praying for my school debt to be paid off. I owe my school about four thousand dollars, and I have to pay that off by October 15th so I can apply to medical school. This is my last hope. Please pray for me. I know God has a way; it’s just been hard for me to not doubt. Please keep me in your prayers.»
So, the crazy thing about your debt being canceled, Justice, is that there was an extra four thousand dollars added to the price that it takes for your debt to be canceled. So, I have a question for you. Would you be willing to cancel his debt now that your debt has been canceled? Do you see how fast he said, «Absolutely»? After he just experienced debt being canceled, he was able to cancel debt for somebody else. When you’re able to receive the forgiveness of God, then you’re able to extend the forgiveness of God. And today, I don’t want you to extend forgiveness; today, I’m asking you: would you just receive it? Like, this won’t be about anybody else right now. This won’t be about— we had to make that so practical for you to see, and that really happened.
Like, that’s not a joke; like, his car—he’s going to drive a paid-off car away today, and, um, what’s his name? Jeremy? Jamie? There’s four thousand dollars in the mail from Justice that’s coming to you for your school debt to be paid off. Oh, y’all don’t hear me. Y’all can rejoice with him, like, something like—his debt was at sea. You gotta rejoice because the debt he was forgiven. And today, I don’t—don’t extend it, just receive it. I feel this so strongly all over the world: receive His forgiveness. I want you to say, «I am forgiven ultimately.»
Come on, some of you all week are going to be saying that: «I am forgiven ultimately.» Yeah, yeah, yeah. I messed up and I missed the deadline, and I didn’t make as much as I wanted to, but I am forgiven ultimately. It doesn’t matter what happens; it doesn’t matter what goes on because of what Christ did on the cross for me. I am—what? Forgiven—what? Ultimately. Today, I need you to receive God’s forgiveness. Today we’re going to make an altar wherever you are. Yep, in your living room, in your bathroom—if you’re watching this on rebroadcast, this is a moment of transformation for you. This is a moment where God is going to do something. I’m gonna ask Doe to come and I want us to sing just a piece of this song that talks about us running to the Father.
See, the thing about God is when we start moving towards Him, when we start going, He doesn’t stand there, pious, waiting for you. See, the whole revelation you need to understand is this: this word «forgiveness,» literally, if you break it down and go to the original translation, «for» means «before"—like, like it was done before—and «givenness» is the grace being extended. So before you need it, God says, «I’ve provided it.» So He’s not standing there waiting for you to come to Him; He’s running to you as you run to Him, and He wants to extend grace and forgiveness. Lift your hands all over this place. Receive the grace of God. Fall into His grace. I feel like it’s getting into somebody right now. Just one more time—sing that again: «Forgiveness ultimately.» No matter what you’ve done, come on, He’s not mad at you; He’s madly in love with you. No matter how bad it hurts, no matter how much you disappointed them, He said, «I will give you rest.»
I feel the virtue of God coming to Him. God’s healing you right now in this moment. It doesn’t matter who’s in the room. He wants your attention; He wants to heal you. Will today be the day that you repent? All that means is to return. Turn from whatever you’ve been turning to and turn to God. Believe. Receive the forgiveness of God. If you’re in this place and you have a fresh revelation of what it means to receive and experience God’s forgiveness, before we give it away, before we forgive our dad, before we forgive that co-worker, before we—let’s just fully stand in this moment and receive the forgiveness of God. If that’s you and you’ve never received the forgiveness of God, the Bible tells us we don’t have to jump through all these hoops and do what the religious people say and all that. He said, «I just want a relationship with you.»
All you need to do is repent. Turn—that wasn’t the way it was supposed to be going. Those aren’t the things that I should be running to. Those aren’t the gods, the little g-gods that are gonna provide for me. It’s You! I’m turning away from that, and I’m turning to You. And all you have to do, according to Romans, is believe that He lived and He died just for you. Receive it, and the debt is paid. It’s the one decision that I made that changed everything for me. It took me from being a liar, addicted to pornography, a manipulator—all kinds of evil thoughts in my mind and my heart that played out in my actions because my vision was um, obscured.
And it’s the thing that didn’t make me perfect, but now I’m progressing every day with God. I’m devoted to Him. I’m taking away my vote. I know I want to act like that, but today, God, I’m going to act according to Your truth. And today that is available for you. It doesn’t matter what you did. If you want to be added to this prayer we’re about to do all over the world—whether you’re watching this on rebroadcast or you’re leading people in worship or preaching at a church—it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are. God wants your heart, and for you to know that you have been forgiven ultimately.
You’re saying, «Pastor, I want you to include me in that prayer.» On the count of three, I want you to just lift your hand up wherever you are. I don’t care who’s next to you; I don’t care if they believe or they don’t believe. I don’t care if y’all just had a deep conversation and you’re trying to be prideful and keep up your religious guard. They cannot put you in heaven or hell. This is the moment right now that you need to put your pride aside and believe.
One, you’re making the greatest decision of your life. Two, God is so proud of you, and so are we. Three, if that’s you and you want to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, and this be the day that you believe, lift your hand up! Oh, I’m so proud of you. I feel the presence of God. You can put your hands down, and what we’re going to do right now is we’re going to pray. You identified, and we’re going to pray. In that Transformation Church, we don’t pray alone; this is a family here. Transformation Nation, what up? We are about to pray, and people are beginning to become a part of our family. And so, we’re going to say this prayer all together, out loud, for the benefit of those who are coming to Christ. Everybody say:
God, thank You for sending Jesus just for me. Today, I realize I’ve sinned and I need forgiveness. Thank You that Jesus lived and He died and He rose again with all power just for me. Today, I give You my life. Today, I give You my heart. Change me, renew me, transform me. I’m Yours. In Jesus' name, Amen.