Taffi Dollar - Making Room By Letting Go - Part 2
- Watch
- Donate
Look over at Luke chapter 7. I love this parable here, talks about this woman who had a sketchy reputation. She made a lot of mistakes, and she, as the Bible, was described as a notorious woman, one who had a past of doing things that were not right, probably some immoral things. But it’s interesting in how Jesus dealt with her and how Jesus dealt with people who had a past or in some instances who maybe the world would say are shady or people in the church would say shady, but you know what?
Look at what the Scripture says here in Luke 7:47. This woman who came to Jesus and who he allowed to minister to him. Verse 47, we’ll back up a little bit. Look over at verse 44. «And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, 'Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, which are many, are forgiven.'» Many sins which are forgiven. «For she loved much, for she loved much».
And you know why she loved much? Because of all the things that Jesus forgave her of, all the opportunities that he could have excluded her and kept her out. Because when we look back here in verse 36… skip up for a second to verse 36. «One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. He went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box…»
The Scripture says in the Amplified that she was an especially wicked sinner; but you know what? She loved Jesus. She loved much. You know why? Because she had been forgiven of much. She realized all the things that she had done, all the mistakes that she had past made, all the things that she had come short in and the shortcomings and the failures of her past, but you know what? Jesus allowed her to minister by bringing that alabaster box, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
And look at verse 39. «Now when the Pharisee which had heightened him saw it or had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, 'This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that touches him, for she is a sinner.'» But you know what? Jesus wasn’t thinking about that. He wasn’t thinking about the fact that she had committed sins and she was a sinner. He says, «I have come for the sinners. I have come for those who need to be delivered. I have come for those who are in bondage. I have come for those who are especially wicked. That is why I am here, to bring the release, to bring the deliverance, to drop the charges, to release the claims, to recognize that I forgive you. And because I forgive you, woman, you forgive yourself and go and be free and be whole because this is your day, the day when the free favors of God will abound, the day when God’s goodness will overtake your life, the day when you can begin to walk and experience the goodness that God has for your life».
And I’m telling you today, when we understand that we have been forgiven of much, we can love much. And so we as the church we must ask ourselves, «Why is it hard to love? Why are we being mean? Why are we being just in a place where God’s love isn’t shown»? Because we don’t understand that we have been forgiven. That we understand that we are the body of Christ. We have been loved by God. We are the object of his affection. We are the focus of his delight. We are the redeemed, the peculiar, the chosen, the loved, the cherished, the nourished. We are who God says we are. And you know what? We can begin to walk in freedom and we can go before Jesus, and go before his Word, and go before his presence and pour out our hearts and minister to him like she did. And, you know, there were those who were trying to figure out what was going on.
And then he says in verse 40, «And Jesus answered and said unto Simon, 'I have somewhat to say unto thee.' And he says, 'Say on.' 'There was a creditor which had two debtors; the one owed 500, the other 50. When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.'» Jesus asked, «'Tell me therefore which of them will love him the most? ' Simon answered and said, 'I suppose that he, to whom he forgave the most.' And he says unto him, 'Thou has rightly judged.'»
I don’t know about you. I don’t stand here today as if I have been perfect or I haven’t experienced shortcomings in my past, made mistakes, but you know what? I focus on the fact that I have been forgiven and I have been given the opportunity to have a intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. But you know what? If we don’t have a revelation of his love and we don’t understand what he’s done on the inside of us, then it’s easy to hold on and to keep that same tenant in our head, keeping that same stronghold in our minds, maintaining the harbored resentment and the unforgiveness and the grudge, but there’s something about meditating on the love of God, meditating on what he has done for us. Even when you think about Joseph, Joseph was one who went through a lot.
I won’t turn there for the sake of time, but his brothers were envious of him, his brothers were jealous of him, but you know what? It caused Joseph to really experience breakthrough in his life because he realized who he was and he realized what God had done and how God had favored him. Look at Genesis 50, verse 19. I think this will be a good time for us to just kind of focus on how Joseph even dealt with his family, how he dealt with his siblings, because sometimes is the people who were the most closest to that can hurt us the most. And so you know that, the fact that Joseph was sold into slavery by his own siblings that he had to work through some things. And I love his life and the example that he sets for us because unforgiveness is not what we want to maintain in our lives.
Before we read Joseph’s story, let’s look at a couple things here. Four ways to detect unforgiveness in our heart. Number one, unforgiveness always keeps the score. Keeping score, the tally, the record of what was done, that’s number two. Unforgiveness always boasts of its own record, records of what happened and records of what transpired, transgression. Unforgiveness always complains. Number four, unforgiveness is always envious and unforgiveness opens the door to jealousy. But look at what Joseph did here. Let’s see how he dealt with it. And I encourage you to just kind of study his life and the times where he was tested.
He says here, this was after his brothers had come and, verse 15, «And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, and they said, 'Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly require us all the evil which we did unto him.' They sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, 'Thy father did command before he died, saying, „So shall you say unto Joseph, 'Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father.'"' And Joseph wept when they spake unto him».
I’m sure he was hurt. I’m sure he had a lot of emotional things that were going on when it says that Joseph wept. The half is not told the degree of the things that this man had gone through to the point that it brought him to tears and him saying what was transpiring at that moment. «And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, 'Behold, we be thy servants.'» And look at what Joseph says unto them. «Fear not: for am I in the place of God»? He says in the Amplified, «Vengeance is His, not mine». He says, «I’m not in the place of God to determine and dictate what’s going to happen to you». He says, «Vengeance belongs to the Lord, not to me. Am I in the place of God? Do I dictate your future? Do I determine what’s going to happen with you? Am I standing in the place of God»?
He didn’t give room to unforgiveness. He recognized that it was God who would have the final say-so. He says, «Am I standing in the place of God»? But you know what? When we hold on to unforgiveness, we’re standing in that place where we want to determine what happens. And God says, «Let it go. It’s not worth it. Let go of the scorecard. Put it down».
Stop and begin to recognize that it is God who has a final decision and God will do what needs to be done in the lives of others. It is our responsibility to receive the forgiveness and to recognize that the love that God has for us, it makes us give. It’s not for sale. Forgive. That we are to give as a result of what we have received. And because we understand that, we don’t try to dictate and hold back and hold people for what they did to us, but we’re not standing in that place of God because what God wants to do in my future is far better than what you could ever do to me in my past. My future is bright. My future is promising. My future is just a wonderful thing. So I choose not to dwell there, not in the place of God, to say, «Because of what you did, I can never get to what God has for me».
Absolutely not. I open my heart. I open my mind. I open myself up to God possibilities, to God happenings, God encounters, whatever he wants to do, however he wants to do it, but I refuse to live in the past. I refuse to allow unforgiveness to dwell and rent space in my head, resentment to live and dwell in my head. Absolutely not. I set my will to forgive. Sometimes you got to pre-forgive. When you wake up in the morning, «Lord, I just set my will. I don’t know what the enemy has devised or tried to come for me with, but you know what? I set my will to forgive. I set my will to forgive».
And so we have to get in this place where we forgive ourselves, to forgive ourselves. This is so important. And I am running out of time. I’m just going to kind of bring this to a point where we can just pray and we can meditate on what has been shared because we’re never going to develop greatness inside of us as long as we develop excuses and alibis of why we are confined to what somebody did to us. Never going to get to greatness as long as we hold on, hang on, make room. We then carved out. The room is just furnished, I mean, from top to bottom. «That’s what they did, and this is their room. And I’m telling you, come here to my room and sit with me and hear all the details of what happened;» instead of clearing out that room. Let it go. Move on.
«Get out of my life. Get out of here, unforgiveness. Get out of here, resentment. Get out of here, bitterness. Get out of here». And letting God move in that room, and letting him heal us, letting him make us whole, letting us experience all the things that he wants to speak to us because we’ve eliminated and we’ve let go of the past and we’ve made up in our mind that we are the loved of God and there is no fear in love, and as a result of God’s love for us, we know who we are and we believe his plan for us. Forgiveness frees us from the choices of other people, the choices that other people make.
Who are we to hold something against someone that God doesn’t even hold against them? There’s no need to hold a grudge against someone who has hurt us because in essence what we are saying is what they did is more powerful than what God can do in my life. We are mad because we think this person has control over us, we think that they will hinder us, they will keep us back, they will prevent God’s best in our life. We fail to think that God is greater than what they did.
And you know what? I’m going to say this and we got to close. Sometimes God lets people disappoint us. You know why? Because it forces us to look to him. There’s good teaching in here. Because we are so concerned and in consumption with what they are, and what they did, and who we think they are, and the source of who and have and what we are, and makes us feel like this is what we need, but you know what? God says, «I’m going to let you experience this because maybe that’s the only way you’ll take your eyes off them and you’ll look to me». 'Cause we’re going to disappoint. We’re human.
I ate Creflo’s lunch yesterday. I’m human. He’s like, «Wait, babe. Babe, why are you eating my lunch»? I’m like, «I don’t know. I just ate it. It looked good». Humans, we’re going to disappoint. We’re going to disappoint each other. You know, we’re going to do things that’s going to disappoint ourselves. We’re going to do things that will disappoint God, but you know what? He never does things that disappoint us. He is that committed to his Word being manifested in our life.
And so if nothing else, this causes us to look to God, the healer, the helper, our shield, the finisher of our faith, to keep our attention on him and stop trying to make other people show up in our lives like we want to show up in their lives. Look to God. Look to him and understand that it is his goodness, it is his grace that we receive. When we receive that grace on the inside of us, you know, it enables us to extend that same grace to ourselves and that grace that we can in turn eventually pour out to other people.